indivisibleebadmin Actions, Call and Email MoCs, Contact, Events, Get Involved, Our Impact, Rallies & Protests, Uncategorized

IEB Celebrates UnPresident’s Day Weekend

By Katherine Cameron

On February 17, 2018, IEB members joined with Alameda4Impeachment (A4I) to celebrate UnPresident’s Day Weekend by advocating for impeachment at a town hall held by Representative Eric Swalwell (CA-15) in Hayward. As a considerable crowd gathered to hear from their member of Congress IEB and A4I held a large impeachment banner nearby, and collected signatures on a letter to Rep. Swalwell. The crowd’s response to the impeachment message was entirely positive, with some people expressing desperation over the current administration.

IEB member John Ota handed out a flyer asking why Rep. Swalwell has not yet co-sponsored H.Res. 621, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN)’s resolution to impeach Trump, and why Swalwell voted TWICE against earlier impeachment resolutions by Rep. Al Green (D-TX). The lime green flyer was eagerly received by almost everyone and was very visible in their hands. The crowd was enthusiastic about the “Make America Great Again – Impeach Donald Trump” banner, and thirty-five people signed letters, which we delivered immediately to Swalwell’s staff.

Rep. Swalwell said, as he has before, that he does not support the impeachment resolutions at this time because he wants a fair investigation into impeachable offenses. However, such an investigation won’t happen until there’s a Democratic Congress. Swalwell appears to be worried that an impeachment investigation in Congress could expose information that would impede Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, but he did not provide any specifics to support this position, and many constitutional scholars disagree that Mueller’s and the Congressional inquiries are inextricably linked. An impeachment investigation in Congress would have a far broader scope with different evidentiary standards than the Special Counsel’s investigation. Moreover, impeachment is the only Constitutional way to permanently remove a President from office aside from the 25th Amendment. This White Paper from Free Speech For People provides more information about the legal case for Congress to initiate an impeachment investigation and why a House impeachment investigation doesn’t need to wait for the conclusion of the Mueller investigation.

Despite this, Rep. Swalwell made a point in his remarks to acknowledge our pro-impeachment banner and action table, and he encouraged our groups to keep showing up at his events. We’ll keep you informed of Swalwell’s future events on IEB’s CA-15 Slack channel and in the newsletter, so stay tuned!

What you can do:

Contact your East Bay Member of Congress or attend a town hall. Check out this page for a sample message and contact info, along with more background info. Representative Barbara Lee (CA-13) recently co-sponsored H.Res. 621, after a long period of deliberation: if she is your MoC, please thank her. Representative Mark DeSaulnier has not yet sponsored H.Res. 621 but is a good prospect, because he supported Rep. Green’s Resolutions in the past.

Good news! Rep. Jared Huffman (CA-2, Marin County) just co-sponsored H.Res. 621 – an unexpected and positive development.

Katherine Cameron is a member of Alameda4Impeachment who spent most of her adult years working for Washington State government in human services. She is currently retired, and lives with her husband on Alameda Island, where she writes, gardens, and works to impeach Donald Trump, not necessarily in that order.

Photograph by Katherine Cameron

 

indivisibleebadmin Actions, Call and Email MoCs, Call Scripts, Contact, Get Involved, Uncategorized

Barbara Lee Speaks For Me – On Impeachment!

By Rosemary Jordan

The Indivisible Guide reminds us that even deep in the bluest areas of the country with sympathetic Members of Congress, there’s work to do. Today we’re excited to announce that we’ve achieved a major milestone after a year of work by Indivisible groups in the East Bay. On February 2, 2018, Representative Barbara Lee (CA-13) became a cosponsor of House Resolution 621, Articles of Impeachment. John Ota, of Alameda4Impeachment, a grassroots group based in Alameda, welcomed Lee’s action as a “significant and concrete step in the long but necessary process of removing a President who is constantly attacking the very foundations of our democracy and endangering our national security.”

H.Res. 621, sponsored by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), calls for the impeachment of President Trump on grounds of obstruction of justice, violation of the Constitutional prohibitions on a U.S. official receiving money or gifts from foreign governments and/or from state governments, abuse of power by actions undermining the rule of law, and actions undermining the freedom of the press.

Rep. Lee became the tenth cosponsor of H.Res. 621 and the first from California. Lee voted twice before in favor of impeachment resolutions by Rep. Al Green (D-TX); both times, Republicans, joined by many Democrats including several Bay Area members of Congress, succeeded in stopping the resolutions through procedural motions.

Members of Alameda4Impeachment, along with Indivisible East Bay allies, attended Rep. Lee’s town halls and other events, met with Rep. Lee and her staff twice a month, and gathered over 500 letters at the 2018 Oakland Women’s March, all urging her to cosponsor H.Res. 621. Ota said that this grassroots lobbying success shows that “people power works if people are persistent, organized and determined” in their efforts. Alameda4Impeachment intends to keep working with Indivisible East Bay to persuade other members of Congress, especially those in the Bay Area, to support H.Res. 621 and impeachment.

What you can do:

Send Rep. Lee some Valentine’s love for speaking for us! Emails, tweets, or postcards are all great. Or call in your love! Use your own words or the script below.

My name is ___________ and my zip code is ___________. I want to thank Representative Lee for co-sponsoring House Resolution 621. Rep. Lee stands on the right side of history and I want her to know I stand with her.

Rep. Barbara Lee (email); (510) 763-0370 DC: (202) 225-2661; 1301 Clay Street #1000N, Oakland CA 94612; @RepBarbaraLee

Are you a constituent of Eric Swalwell (CA-15) or Mark DeSaulnier (CA-11)? Please let them know you want them to speak for you too! Ask them to join Rep. Lee in supporting H.Res. 621.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (email); (510) 370-3322 DC: (202) 225-5065; 3615 Castro Valley Blvd., Castro Valley CA 94546; @EricSwalwell

Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (email); (510) 620-1000 DC: (202) 225-2095; 3100 Oak Rd., Walnut Creek CA 94597; @RepDeSaulnier

Rosemary Jordan is Co-Founder of Alameda4Impeachment, a registered Indivisible group and a partner in the Citizens Impeachment Coalition, which includes representatives of cities, towns and counties nationwide (including four in the East Bay) that have passed local Impeachment resolutions. Rosemary also serves on the Steering Committee of All Rise Alameda and is co-leader of the End The Tampon Tax In California campaign. She has over 20 years of professional experience in healthcare and aging.

indivisibleebadmin Meetings, Uncategorized

Barbara Lee Speaks With IEB (about impeachment and other things)

Ultimate Womens Power Luncheon Barbara Lee
Representative Barbara Lee speaking in October 2017. Photo by Kristen Law

Katie Hooper is a member of IEB’s Governance Committee and is a co-lead of the MoC Team Lee (CA-13).

IEB members and activists from Alameda4Impeachment and others participated in a November 15 phone call with Representative Barbara Lee about impeachment and a few other matters. Although she had to take a couple of breaks to vote on the House floor, Rep. Lee was very forthcoming and couldn’t have been more grateful for our collective passion and activism.

Lee did not agree to sign the current impeachment articles by Representatives Cohen and Gutierrez, but only because she said she’s working with her colleagues (even across the aisle) on a more robust set of articles, and this takes time. She seemed to understand that we want her publicly stating her support for the effort, but she really wants it to be with a larger consensus.

The most intense part of the call came at the end, when Lee said how grounding and moving it is to take a break from the constant politics of House votes to actually talk to her constituents, and told us that she felt reinvigorated for the upcoming vote on the tax (scam) bill. She told us that her aides Josh and Lisa, with whom IEB’s MoC Team Lee meet and correspond on a regular basis, update her constantly with our questions and concerns, and that we should keep bringing things up that we care about. We are hoping to meet with her staff after the holiday to talk about policy vs. grassroots efforts.

I had the chance to thank Rep. Lee, on behalf of our team and everyone at IEB, for all her hard work in the resistance.

By Katie Hooper