Use your purchasing power to combat discrimination and other issues

 

I am disengaging with the following businesses (among those on the DemocratsAbroad.org list below) for the speed in which they dropped their equity (DEI) commitment in light of the new administration and are supporting Project 2025.  

Others I am dropping, such as my Prime/Amazon account, because Bezo doesn't need my money (his employees do), nor do any of the other would be oligarchs in Trump's gang. I am checking the equity policies of my favorite grocery stores now. If they don't have a policy. I'm asking for one. If they can't provide it. Their gone. That should be interesting. How will I ever feed my cats?!

We can best reach business and industry by withdrawing our business from them. It is one of the simple acts that sends a significant message. Visit non-partisan GoodsUniteUs.com website to see how spending impacts politics.

Call your representatives. 5calls.org makes it effortless.
Volunteer in the political, governmental arena of your choice.

I plan to volunteer with the ACLU to help keep the lawsuits flowing into the courts to protect our country from the loss of our democracy. Not on my watch, we won't.

And I'll protest.

Think about the resources and networks you have and do what you can. If we ignore the issue, we will lose the rights at risk. Please don't think it won't reach you.

So long

• Amazon/Prime - it was a waste of money anyway - I'm a local shopper
• ACE Hardware - love the root beer
• Allegiant Air - cheap flights to Florida
• Arby's - market sandwiches, waaaa!
• Bacardi and Cokeeeeeee! -Oh no!
• Chiquita
• Dole
• Hersey - That means Cadbury actually because its made by Hersey in the states, fyi
• Marshalls & Home Goods
• Proctor & Gamble has so many product brands - got to do a search
• Smucker's Strawberry Jam for my PB&J's w/carrots on the side
• Walmart and Sam's Club - moving to Costco, which recently rejected a shareholder proposal to end its DEI program.
• MacDonalds

Most of these are pretty easy for me to avoid. Some will be inconvenient. I always treat myself to a McD's unsweetened ice tea after doctors' appointments. Others, as much as I appreciated them, will be replaced by too many options in this market place.

I won't be perfect at it. How could I possibly keep track of the international marketplace and its respect for its employees? If others join me, our collective voice will make a dent. I may not win the war, but I intend to leave battle scars.

The list below was originally posted by Emily Curtis and Heather Cox Richardson
February 18, 2025

Here is a list of companies openly supporting Project 2025.
*And for those of you leary of the reliability, I have checked these companies against the donations registered on Goods Unite Us and they correspond. GoodsUniteUs.com

The list below was created by Democrats Abroad. DemocratsAbroad.org

A Free Speech Lesson: The Onion and Sandy Hook families think out of the box

God bless The Onion and the Sandy Hook families for thinking outside the box to disrupt the lies and the liars who lie them.

 

Alex Jones in Washington DC in 2018. Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

The 1st Amendment protects our speech from government control, not from harming others and for your own personal gain. Go ahead, say what you want, defamation law will demand you step up and take responsibility for the harm you cause. Lesson learned.

AP| How Alex Jones' Infowars would up in the hands of The Onion

Thank you to all voters

Thank you to everyone who voted. Over these past three elections we have sent our government a clear message. We are a country divided. It's now our responsibility to elect and challenge our legislators to work across the aisle. To find answers that serve all of us, not just some of us. 

We must be the watch dogs that protect our democracy.

For those dismayed by some outcomes, remember that "all politics is local" (Tip O'Neil). The work for change is ours to do.

Need a starting point: GoodParty.org

Childless Cat Lady...

 WHO VOTES!

 Mom and Butter

Vote - Why?

Please Vote. 

Each vote from your community is important to how elected representatives and city/county officials gauge needs and services; attention and representation. It puts you and yours on the "oh, yes we do matter," map.

Whatever your opinions, beliefs, or positions are, Vote. 

2020 taught us that we are a divided nation. That is a powerful lesson that our elected must learn and act responsibly to represent. If not, we do need to remove them. 

Every vote from every perspective has to matter to those who work on our behalf and with our tax dollars. 

We have to work together to bring them back to bi-partisan collaboration. We have to impress on them that they were elected to work for this democratic nation's citizens; not for their own deepening pockets, biases, and selfish gamesmanship among political parties. 

Make truth and democracy matter.

Protecting everyone's right to vote ensures your own vote is protected

Protect all efforts to ensure EVERYONE'S Right to Vote without limitations designed to discourage or prevent safe and reasonable access to vote. It is the only way to protect our democracy and the rest of our freedoms. The 2020 election demonstrated that access to voting made a huge difference in the number of voters. It sent us all a message about how divided we are and inspired both sides to engage in this democracy.

Driving one side or the other back into the "why bother, my vote doesn't count," cave won't ever make this an honest, real, free democracy. My parents lovingly cancelled each other out at each election. Yet, they both strongly believe in their positions and the importance of their vote. They taught me to understand that perhaps my vote will be cancelled out. Yet my vote still counted in the message about the numbers voting that every candidate, politician, or government official got as he/she considered their agenda or their next campaign.. The numbers matter. I'm out there and I expect my interests, even if in the minority, to be recognized and attended to just as the majority's are.

Maybe I won't get all I wanted. Maybe I won't win.

I'll try again next time.

There are too many important issues out there for me to give up. The environment, free speech, a woman's rights to her own health decisions, ending systemic racism...I could go on. Of course I could. Those who know me know I could. So could you...

Protect the vote for all. Vote. Voice your concerns. Work for change that betters all of America. Selflessly.

Don't Tell Me Donald's Con Hasn't Taken Lessons from Adolf

(Wikimedia Commons, Tom Pennington/Getty Images via JTA)

Early on in our experience with Donald Trump, critics suggested a comparison to Adolf Hitler and many accused them of hysterics and instigating more trouble.

Yet, we know that Hitler had the platform and that the longer and louder he repeated his lies about innocent people, the more others joined him in fear that otherwise something might happen to them. We know that such hateful propaganda attracts those who ignored. When they buy in, suddenly they are in the in group.

Yesterday, we saw four years of lies culminating in the actions of believers following the con man they trusted. That comparison rings sadly true now, especially since Trump's followers are predominantly white and fearful of their fellow citizens of color.

Trump has goaded them for his own selfish reasons; without a care in the world what might happen to these people who believe him and acted on his behalf. He has put them at risk indifferently. And he has shown us how propaganda can divide a country and its people to the harm of us all.

We should all thank our higher power and the U.S. Constitution for giving us the right to decide who leads us and who must leave the office January 20. We haven't learned all of the lessons but we are getting a very serious education if we are paying attention.