Washington Indivisible Podcast

What if there were a way to channel the creation and sharing of content and memes on social media that actually moves the needle and helps elect Democrats? That’s the brainchild of my guest, Nick Knudsen, a Portland-based blogger who recently launched DemCast, a new model in online activism for the left.

Then, in the face of the opioid crisis, Tacoma has recently become the first city in Washington to participate in the Safe Space program, which offers an array of treatment services in a Tacoma Fire Department station to those suffering from addiction. We're joined by Tacoma Deputy Mayor Conor McCarthy to learn more.

Links:

https://demcastusa.com/

This week, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. Perhaps best known for his fight against Trump’s travel ban, he’s recently announced his reelection campaign for 2020.

Ferguson joins us for a wide-ranging discussion about the breadth of his work in office, about his vision for a third term, about his life-long love affair with the game of chess, and of course, about fighting back against the Trump administration.

Links:

Bob Ferguson Campaign Website: https://www.electbobferguson.com/

Info on the Global Climate Strike in WA: https://www.washingtonclimateweek.org

This week, the fight for refugees and our immigrant communities with a week of action to #DefundHate. Indivisible, along with several partner organizations, is pushing members of Congress to draw down funding for ICE and Customs and Border Protection in next year’s budget.

All this week, groups from across the country are staging rallies, events, and office visits. And here on the west coast, a #DefundHate banner is making its way from the Canadian border down to the Mexico border, gathering signatures all along the way. We check in with two Indivisible leaders, Anita Dietrich and Kat Martin, who are currently on the road with the banner in California.

Then, the Trump administration is pushing forward with regulations that will get rid of the so-called Flores settlement, a legal ruling establishing standards for the treatment of migrant children in detention in the US. Immigration attorney Hope Frye works as a Flores monitor, and she joins us to talk about what these changes in the law may mean, and about why the Trump administration is looking to end the monitoring of these children in detention.

Links:

All about #DefundHate: https://indivisible.org/resource/tell-your-representative-defund-hate

The Border to Border with Love to #DefundHate Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Border-to-Border-with-Love-to-Defund-Hate-104403810942908/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARAoQIH5pJ2sqYd3MsVQCySbBGv5duTf2hB9n3SmKe6LRra9TkrZuty1w27Dzw6ZtrtEk8Tx2H0xzMz6

Record and post your video here: https://indivisible.soapboxx.us/prompt-single/DefundHate

Call/Video Script:

My name is [NAME] and I’m asking [member of Congress/Senator] to commit to cut funding for DHS, ICE, and CBP, and to get rid of the slush fund for ICE that Trump can and will use to terrorize our immigrant communities.

The immigration crisis at our southern border is not due to a lack of resources; it’s due to Congress allowing those resources to be used to maximize cruelty instead of meeting the real humanitarian needs that exist.

When next year’s budget comes up for a vote, I’m asking [member of Congress/Senator] to vote to Defund Hate.

Project Lifeline: https://projectlifeline.us/

Project Amplify: https://amplifythechildren.org/

Sen. Jeff Merkley’s Stop Cruelty to Migrant Children Act: https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/merkley-senate-democrats-introduce-legislation-to-stop-cruel-and-neglectful-treatment-of-children-at-border

This week, Indivisible’s plans for 2020 and beyond. We talk with Indivisible’s Director of Democracy Policy, Meaghan Hatcher Mays about the many ways progressives can fight to restore our democracy once Trump and the GOP are out of power, and it all starts with filibuster reform. Every legislative item on the progressive agenda likely won’t be possible without getting rid of the filibuster.

Then, continuing our series of discussions from Indivisible’s National Campaign Network, we have our conversation with Indivisible co-executive director Ezra Levin about the very real possibility of flipping his native state of Texas blue.

Come join us for Border to Border with Love to #DefundHate!

Next week is Indivisible’s week of action to #DefundHate. Groups all over the country will be taking part in actions to push our members of Congress to vote to draw down the budgets for ICE and CBP in the upcoming budget vote for fiscal year 2020. And as part of this, here on the west coast, we’re going to be taking part in a caravan that will going from the Canadian border all the way down to the Mexican border to draw attention to the issue.

Starting Saturday, September 7th, a banner will begin traveling south from the Peace Arch in Blaine, gathering signatures from Indivisible members and other affiliated groups along the way.

We’ll be making a number of stops here in Washington state, where people can sign the banner and also make videos for their member of Congress, urging them to DefundHate.

Stephan will personally be bringing the banner to stops in Kirkland, Bellevue, Lakewood, Olympia, and Chehalis, and will be also recording segments with people who come out for the podcast about why this issue is important to them.

For more information, email us at [email protected]. Hope to see you out there!

Links:

Senator Jeannie Darneille’s testimony to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency as to why they should deny PSE an operating permit for a fracked natural gas plant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyiTTPCffFw

Add your voice to deny Puget Sound Energy’s Tacoma LNG permit: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/deny-the-lng-permit/

The University of Washington recently received a $5 million grant to launch the Center for an Informed Public, a multi-disciplinary endeavor at the University of Washington aimed at strengthening our democracy by addressing the many threats posed by the propagation of disinformation, not just online, but also by governments foreign and domestic.

We talk with the center’s inaugural director, Jevin West, who's best known for his course entitled “Calling Bullshit,” which teaches students how to discern and dispatch with disinformation.

Then, in the first of our reports from Indivisible’s very first National Campaigns Network in DC, we talk with a leader from Indivisible Kentucky about the race to unseat Mitch McConnell, and how Indivisibles here in Washington can best get involved in the fight.

Links:

Jevin West’s TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZeMRy_PTmA

The complete 2017 Calling Bullsh*t course videos: https://callingbullshit.org/videos.html

Calling Bullsh*t syllabus: https://callingbullshit.org/syllabus.html

See if you can tell which face is real, and which is a computer amalgam: http://www.whichfaceisreal.com

Contact Indivisible Kentucky to help #DitchMitch: https://www.facebook.com/indivisibleky/

This week, with Congress soon to be returning from its August recess, Indivisible is calling for a week of action on immigration to pressure lawmakers to advocate for cuts to ICE and CBP as part of the 2020 budget. We’re joined by Indivisible’s National Policy Director, Angel Padilla, and by Indivisible’s legislative director, Mary Small, who says that the timing of pressuring members of Congress during their first week back is critical, as September is when members will set their legislative priorities for the rest of the session.

Then, how we as activists can deal with the trauma of the Trump administration. We address your questions with Jennifer Young, a counselor who specializes in trauma and PTSD therapy, and who also happens to be a leader with her local Indivisible group in Tampa Bay.

And finally, Central Washington Justice for Our Neighbors is an immigrant rights nonprofit that provides legal advice and accompaniment services to immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Central and Eastern Washington. We talk with the organization’s founder and executive director, Abigail Scholar.

Links:

How to Plan Your Group's Week of Action: https://indivisible.org/resource/defund-hate-week-action-host-toolkit

How did your member of Congress vote on the supplemental spending bill that gave Trump $4.5 billion? https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/116-2019/h429

Central Washington Justice for Our Neighbors: https://www.cwjfon.org/

Indivisible has teamed up with a number of partner organizations, including MoveOn, Need to Impeach, and Stand Up America, for a national push for impeachment. In light of that, we revisit our interview with Indivisible co-executive director, Ezra Levin, who talks about how one of the key things impeachment hearings can do is to create a high-profile platform for laying out everything Trump has done, and to establish what’s at stake.

Links:

Impeachment August toolkit, including printable rally signs and social graphics and gifs: https://www.impeachmentaugust.org/

In the wake of the two mass shootings in El Paso, TX, and Dayton, OH, we examine the roles both white nationalism and unregulated guns played in these tragedies.

We talk first with Heidi Beirich. She is the director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks hate groups in America. She joins us to talk about the ways in which we may have moved into a new phase of hate, that of white nationalist domestic terrorism. She says what Trump has legitimized and even encouraged is a part of America’s heritage that we have been trying for decades to move past.

We’re also joined by the CEO of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, Renee Hopkins, to talk about the fight for sensible gun laws in America, and to highlight some of the some of the legislation that got passed in Olympia in 2019.

Links:

Southern Poverty Law Center: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate

Jay Inslee’s 10-point plan to address the rise of white nationalism:

https://jayinslee.com/issues/combatting-white-nationalism

Alliance for Gun Responsibility: https://gunresponsibility.org/

Earlier this week, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, along with three other members of the House Judiciary Committee, submitted a court petition to unseal grand jury materials related to the Mueller investigation, a move that, in Jayapal’s view, marks the official beginning of an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump.

She joins us to talk about what may happen next, and what we in the activist community can do in support.

Also, the Seattle Arts Voter Guide is the creation of Seattle University graduate-level students and their professor, and it aims to lay out the arts-related platforms of the many candidates for Seattle city council and school board. We’re joined by two of its creators, Professor Jasmine Mahmoud and MFA candidate Erin Naomi Burrows.

Links:

Atlantic article: “Why We’re Moving Forward with Impeachment” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/why-were-moving-forward-impeachment/594931/?fbclid=IwAR1-fT6RoGUeR6clP4TMJZFXHaC731WnILuCbf2JQkihP8rr8azeFX3E0mc

House Judiciary Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/HouseJudiciary

Five Crimes in Five Days: https://twitter.com/hashtag/5CrimesIn5Days?src=hashtag_click

Seattle Voter Arts Guide: https://seattleartsvoterguide.com/about/

(Disclaimer: The Seattle Arts Voter Guide is nonpartisan and Seattle University neither endorses nor opposes any candidate.)

This week, “The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez” is a nonfictional account of an undocumented teen mother and her harrowing struggles with the US immigration system. Author Aaron Bobrow-Strain is a professor of politics at Whitman College and a founding member of the Walla Walla Immigrant Rights Coalition.

Also, with the primarily election upon us, we take a look at the Fuse Washington Progressive Voter Guide with Fuse communication director Collin Jergens.

Then, in response to recent ICE activity in the state, a group of volunteers has been distributing leaflets detailing how to stay safe to people who may be targeted. We talk with one of those volunteers, Janice Cox (who happens to be the host's mom).

Links:

Buy "The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez": https://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Aida-Hernandez-Border/dp/0374191972

Walla Walla Immigrant Rights Coalition: https://www.wwirc.org/

Immigrant Rights organizations recommended by Aaron Bobrow-Strain: https://www.aidahernandezbook.com/organizations

The Fuse Washington Progressive Voters Guide: https://progressivevotersguide.com

To volunteer handing out flyers to populations targeted by ICE, message "Janice Pierce Cox" on Facebook.