2-27-23 Newsletter

 

ONE WORD "One person can only do so much."  "One person can do so much." YES OR NO? There are 26 new bills pending COIN endorsement after the February 20th COIN Legislative Watch Team meeting. Topics include housing, forestry, climate change, and other concerns.  After you've read more about these bills on the COIN website, please send your feedback to incoregon@gmail.com. We'll forward your comments to COIN. Legislators won't know what you want unless you tell them. Please take a moment to comment on at least one of these bills. TRUST - MISTRUST “In a 1994 study designed to determine which Americans were more concerned with matters of security, those tending towards misanthropy were less inclined to favor tighter measures. Typically it was the respondent who felt ‘most people are trustworthy and helpful’ who favored stronger protection.  ... the results make sense if you postulate that the subjects were thinking more about the persons who would be providing the security than about those who would be breaching it.  Depending on the direction of his mistrust, a misanthrope makes the best kind of civil libertarian or the worst kind of fascist.”  - - -Garret Keizer, “How the Devil Falls in Love,” Harper’s, August, 2002 DEMOCRACY KEEPS MOVING "The great virtue (or perhaps curse) of democracy is that it doesn’t settle — it keeps moving. There are no final victories, but there are no final defeats either. There is only the struggle for a more humane world or, for some among us, a more hierarchical one." --Jamelle Bouie, New York Times, February 24, 2023  SPECIAL DISTRICT ELECTIONS  You can make a meaningful impact by serving as a board member of a Special District in Clatsop County. Special Districts are a form of local government created by a local community to meet a specific need. Special districts in Clatsop County include schools, Clatsop Care and Union health districts, rural fire protection, and others. Countywide special districts are the Port of Astoria, Sunset Empire Transportation, and Clatsop Community College. You can volunteer to serve by running for office in the Special District elections on May 16.Information about local positions and filing is on the Clatsop County website. The County Clerk's office at 503-325-8605 has details. Filing deadline for the May election is March 16. HAPPENINGS Thursday, March 9 - INCO Community Meeting, via Zoom. Social time at 6 pm; meeting is 6:30-7:30 pm. All INCO members are invited to attend. We meet the 2nd Thursday of each month. Link to join Zoom meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87835618044  Meeting ID: 878 3561 8044 One tap mobile +12532050468,,87835618044# US +12532158782,,87835618044# US (Tacoma) INSIGHTS Power may justly be compared to a great river; while kept within its bounds it is both beautiful and useful, but when it overflows its banks, it is then too impetuous to be stemmed; it bears down on all before it, and it brings destruction and desolation wherever it comes. --Andrew Hamilton Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com.  Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org. Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter at our website or here. Look for the INCO column in Hipfish Monthly. We're on Facebook, too. INCO Weekly Newsletter       February 27, 2023 Copyright © 2023 INDIVISIBLE North Coast Oregon, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website or signed up at a community group meeting. Indivisible North Coast Oregon (INCO) defends democracy by opposing authoritarianism, bigotry, and corruption. Our mailing address is: 766 Lexington Avenue, Astoria, OR 97103 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

2-20-2023 Newsletter

A SINGLE BLUE DOT "Even if you see yourself as a single blue dot in a sea of red, please know that pretty much a third of those around you share your beliefs and are just waiting for someone to say something about how wrong this all is. Your voice matters so much. It really does.”   — Bill Penzey

YES OR NO? COIN volunteers continue to track pending legislation, including the measures below. Learn more about these bills here. After you've read more about these bills on the COIN website, please send your feedback to incoregon@gmail.com. We'll forward your comments to COIN. SB 542   Right to Repair  COIN is watching this bill. This bill would require electronic equipment manufacturers to make available to consumers and independent repair providers documentation, tools, parts or other devices that the manufacturer makes available to authorized repair providers. Here is the COIN Worksheet for this bill.   HB 2571    E-Bike Rebates   COIN is watching this bill. This bill would direct the DEQ to establish a program to provide rebates for qualifying individuals who purchase electric assisted bicycles or cargo electric bicycles and qualifying equipment.  Here is the COIN Worksheet for this bill.  HB 3016  Green Infrastructure    COIN is watching this bill. This bill would establish a grant program to assist communities with improving their urban tree canopy. Here is the COIN Worksheet for this bill.  There are currently no hearings scheduled for this bill, but if you think this is a good idea, let your legislators know!   Sign up to be part of this key COIN team here. Subscribe to the COIN newsletter.

WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND? Check out INCO's updated list of city, county, state, and federal elected officials and their contact information.  You can sign up for newsletters from our state senator, Suzanne Weber, and our state representative, Cyrus Javadi. We especially like the weekly legislative newsletter from State Representative David Gomberg, who's been representing Oregon's central coast since January, 2013. How will they know what you want if you don't tell them?

HOORAY FOR GOOD NEWS Celebrate good news from last week in this list from Jessica Craven. She inspires activists across the country with her Chop Wood, Carry Water newsletter.

INDIVISIBLE TRUTH BRIGADE

People believe people they trust. Sign up to join Indivisible's Truth Brigade.

INDIVISIBLE CLACKAMAS INVITATION "We, at Indivisible Clackamas, would like to offer your group an opportunity to receive our weekly “asks” and events by email.  Currently, each week we produce three “asks” that are about Oregon and Federal topics.  We research, simplify an issue, give sources, and help direct a busy person to how they can quickly and easily contribute to progressive change by calling their representative. "Our writing team has been producing these “asks” for several years. It occurred to us that other Indivisible groups may be producing similar work.  We are happy to contribute this to other groups in the state to streamline everyone’s efforts and ease our collective Indivisible workload. (see the samples below) "To sign up for these two weekly emails you would complete the form at this link:  https://forms.gle/XjCoKR1UZf2NcKG47 .  If you have questions about this process you can contact cmack@q.com.

SPECIAL DISTRICT ELECTIONS  You can make a meaningful impact by serving as a board member of a Special District in Clatsop County. Special Districts are a form of local government created by a local community to meet a specific need. Special districts in Clatsop County include schools, Clatsop Care and Union health districts, rural fire protection, and others. Countywide special districts are the Port of Astoria, Sunset Empire Transportation, and Clatsop Community College. You can volunteer to serve by running for office in the Special District elections on May 16. Information about local positions and filing is on the Clatsop County website. The County Clerk's office at 503-325-8605 has details. Filing deadline for the May election is March 16.

HAPPENINGS Thursday, March 9 - INCO Community Meeting, via Zoom. Social time at 6 pm; meeting is 6:30-7:30 pm. All INCO members are invited to attend. We meet the 2nd Thursday of each month. Link to join Zoom meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87835618044  Meeting ID: 878 3561 8044 One tap mobile +12532050468,,87835618044# US +12532158782,,87835618044# US (Tacoma)

INSIGHTS "I always felt I was holding back, waiting for the right moment. Then I realized the right moment was every day."                                     -- Bill Bradley, PEOPLE, January 31, 2000

Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com.  Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org. Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter at our website or here. Look for the INCO column in Hipfish Monthly. We're on Facebook, too. INCO Weekly Newsletter       February 20, 2023

2-13-2023 Newsletter

 

RESPECT AND DIGNITY "Democracy, remember, is not just a set of rules and institutions, but a way of life. In the democratic ideal, we meet one another in the public sphere as political and social equals, imbued with dignity and entitled to the same rights and privileges. ".... To deny equal respect and dignity to any part of the citizenry is to place the entire country on the road to tiered citizenship and limited rights, to liberty for some and hierarchy for the rest." -- Jamelle Bouie, New York Times, February 10, 2023

SERIOUS STUFF IN SALEM Why bother tracking legislation in Salem? Because without citizen watchdogs, bad bills could be enacted and good bills could be ignored. Here are 3 bills COIN volunteers are tracking. Learn more about these bills here. After you've read more about these bills on the COIN website, please send your feedback to incoregon@gmail.com. We'll forward your comments to COIN.   HB 3022    Prohibits Environmental Agencies from Adopting or Enforcing Rules   COIN is watching this bill.This bill would essentially prohibit the Environmental Quality Commission and the Department of Environmental Quality from doing their jobs. HB 2601   Divesting Oregon's Treasury from Fossil Fuels  COIN is watching this bill. This bill would require the State Treasurer to exit from certain carbon-intensive investments, subject to fiduciary duties. SB 676 AND HB 2215  Allows Nuclear Power Plants without Safe Nuclear Waste Disposal   Pending COIN Opposition (decision by 2/16).  These identical bills seek to overturn the will of voters who, in 1980, rejected the idea of allowing new nuclear power plants to be built in Oregon without adequate and safe disposal for nuclear waste.   WHAT DOES COIN DO? INCO leader Cheryl Conway is a key member of COIN's Legislative Team, which is tracking bills in this legislative session. Details in future INCO newsletters. Check out the meeting notes from the February 7 COIN meeting. Lots of solid information.  Learn more about how ideas become legislation here and about COIN's Legislative Team. Sign up to be part of this key COIN team here. Subscribe to the COIN newsletter.

SEE FOR YOURSELF Looking for solid information and opinion?  These sources recommended by Robert Hubbell and his newsletter readers might be what you want. "My “go-to” sources include Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, Ian Millhiser (Vox), Dahlia Lithwick and  Mark Joseph Stern of Slate, Charlie Sykes and Jonathan Last (Bulwark), David Frum (Atlantic), Philip Rotner (various sources), Jennifer Rubin and Eugene Robinson of WaPo, Lawrence O’Donnell, Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Neal Katyal (all of MSNBC), Dennis Aftergut and Laurence Tribe (various sources), Democracy Docket, the trio of commentators Joyce Vance, Barbara McQuade, and Jill Wine-Banks of #SistersInLaw, as well as Joyce Vance’s Civil Discourse, and many others. As to independent voices, I frequently consult and promote Heather Cox Richardson, Dan Rather, Tim Snyder, Judd Legum, and Katelyn Jetelina (all of Substack). Jessica Craven of ChopWoodCarryWater is in a category of her own for her constant bias toward action. And despite my frequent criticism, I always check the NYTimes and WaPo on major stories." -- Robert Hubbell, Today's Edition, February 10, 2023 Readers suggested the following additional sources. Writers on Substack: Robert Reich | Substack Jessica Valenti | Substack (reproductive rights) Steve Schmidt | Substack Public Notice | Aaron Rupar | Substack Michael Moore | Substack Lucid | Ruth Ben-Ghiat | Substack Other blogs: Sheila Kennedy | A jaundiced look at the world we live in

THE 'REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY' Who's actually telling the truth about Social Security, Medicare, and budget cuts? Congressional Republicans must think nobody is tracking their promises to cut Social Security and Medicare. Historian Heather Cox Richardson provides the details.

SPECIAL DISTRICT ELECTIONS  You can make a meaningful impact by serving as a board member of a Special District in Clatsop County. Special Districts are a form of local government created by a local community to meet a specific need. Special districts in Clatsop County include schools, Clatsop Care and Union health districts, rural fire protection, and others. Countywide special districts are the Port of Astoria, Sunset Empire Transportation, and Clatsop Community College. You can volunteer to serve by running for office in the Special District elections on May 16. Information about local positions and filing is on the Clatsop County website. The County Clerk's office at 503-325-8605 has details. Filing deadline for the May election is March 16.

HAPPENINGS Thursday, March 9 - INCO Community Meeting, via Zoom. Social time at 6 pm; meeting is 6:30-7:30 pm. All INCO members are invited to attend. We meet the 2nd Thursday of each month. Link to join Zoom meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87835618044  Meeting ID: 878 3561 8044 One tap mobile +12532050468,,87835618044# US +12532158782,,87835618044# US (Tacoma)

INSIGHTS “Amid all the easily loved darlings of Charlie Brown’s circle, obstreperous Lucy holds a special place in my heart. She fusses and fumes and she carps and complains. That’s because Lucy cares. And it’s the caring that counts.” -- Judith Crist, American film critic, quoted in her New York Times obituary, 2012

Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com.  Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org. Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter at our website or here. Look for the INCO column in Hipfish Monthly. We're on Facebook, too. INCO Weekly Newsletter       February 13, 2023