We think these two stories show us just two of many different ways we can demonstrate our values. Find your passion. Send us yours.

These are regular people, persisting and resisting, every other week. You'd be in great company if you decide to go. Email us at indivisible.st.johns@gmail.com for information. 

Sen. Rubio,                                                                                         August 14, 2018

Failure to acknowledge comments submitted by members of Indivisible and the lack of credible and timely responses from your DC office raises questions whether the role of your DC and Regional Staff is one of constituent advocacy or one that serves to impose barriers between you and input from the public.  Whatever the reason we are not receiving any communication from you or your DC staff except for generic press releases and impersonal, equivocal email responses that skirt our specific concerns and ignore our counter arguments and suggestions.

Your constituency deserves more than lip service and polite requests that we accept on faith that “someone” in policy making positions is taking our concerns seriously and worthy of consideration.

That being said, the issues we have been highlighting for the past eighteen months have become more critical and more threatening to the well being and quality of life of your constituents than ever before. Ignoring them or blindly following your party line and special interest platforms will only make them worse as we have pointed out time after time. Will you please address this with your staff?

We learned that your Keep Families Together and Enforce the Law Act - S. 3093 includes provisions for indefinite detention of families while awaiting hearings to grant asylum status. We respectfully request that this bill be changed so that asylum seekers may be released from custody under supervision while awaiting their hearings.

We expressed concern that permitting early withdrawals from a family’s Social Security retirement income is an unsatisfactory and short sighted solution to providing for parental leave. The Urban Institute found that taking 12 weeks at half pay would mean forgoing 25 weeks of retirement or reducing monthly checks by 3 percent. The Rubio-Wagner plan also neglects the most pressing reason people need paid leave: to recover from a serious illness or to take care of a sick or disabled family member.

We suggest there are sufficient sources of funding by deleting funding for a border wall, curbing waste and mismanagement in the Executive branch, reducing military expenditures, eliminating detention of asylum seekers and precluding extravagant military parades requested by the President.

How will you address these deficiencies in the Economic Security for New Parents Act?

On August 7, lawyers for ICE contractor GEO served a cease-and-desist letter on Dream Defenders, the Florida-based human rights organization that had called on allies to push their elected officials to cut ties with GEO, rally at GEO prisons and detention centers, and “creatively disrupt” GEO offices.  These are blatant and inexcusable attempts to scare activists with legal threats and deprive them their rights to free speech and peaceful protest as guaranteed by the Constitution.

Have you now read the Justice Department report citing cost and safety concerns at private prisons and what is your reaction?

Where do you stand on the White House plan for about $12 billion in emergency aid to farmers caught in Trump’s escalating trade war that burdens consumers and taxpayers?

A recent report by ProPublica found that three members of Trump’s Mar-A-Lago golf club, who have neither government nor military experience, are secretly influencing the governance and operations of the VA. We urge hearings and an investigation into the “Mar-A-Lago Crowd” VA corruption scandal.  Our veterans deserve better.

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If the DETER Act is passed, do you have assurances the President will sign it and impose sanctions? Are you softening your position on sanctions as reported in this WAPO article?

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Updates to previous calls for fiscal responsibility and accountability

AT&T provided $200 million in one-time bonuses to workers after getting a $2.1 billion tax break this year. For every dollar in Trump tax breaks to AT&T, employees got just 10 cents.

AT&T also promised to create 7,000 new jobs if the tax act became law―instead they’ve eliminated about 7,000 jobs this year.

Stock buybacks are expected to reach a record $1 trillion this year. After Congress reduced the top federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, businesses are flush with cash.

This is money not being spent on business expansion, job creation or wage increases as promised. (NYT Aug. 13)

In the current fiscal year, the federal government will spend $912 billion more than it collects in revenue, an increase of 39 percent from the 2017 fiscal year, according to the CBO

How will you restore fiscal responsibility and credibility of the Republican Party?

Government Appropriations and Organization

We urge you to oppose the Aderholt Amendment, which was recently attached to the Labor and Health and Human Services appropriations bill. The amendment would give child welfare providers permission to discriminate against LGBTQ people in adoption and foster care services.

We oppose the recently announced religious liberty task force within the Justice Department that was supposedly created “to protect religious organizations from discrimination”.  We fear this will further an anti LGBT agenda and promote Christianity at the expense of other religious traditions. We urge you to reverse this action and preclude funding.

SCOTUS/Kavanaugh

We fail to see how your vague email reference to ‘judicial restraint’ applies in our expressed opposition to the Kavanaugh nomination in light of his previous public statements and court decisions.

·         Kavanaugh has argued that sitting presidents should be immune from investigation, can't be criminally indicted, and should be able to fire investigators at will, placing the President above the law and exempting him from upholding his oath of office.

·         He would overturn previous Supreme Court precedents upholding a woman’s right to her reproductive freedom

·         During his time in the Bush White House, it's likely that Kavanaugh was involved in decisions about controversial policies regarding warrantless domestic spying and torture. It's also possible that he misled senators by downplaying his involvement in these matters with his answers on his Judiciary Committee questionnaire.

Please explain the apparent inconsistencies between your support for Kavanaugh in contrast with your support for the Special Council Investigation, the principle that no person is above the law and in the doctrine of precedent -  stare decisis, Latin for “to stand by things decided.”

Further, you subscribe to Congressional oversight which implies you are duty-bound to hear all of the evidence in Kavanaugh’s record.

Again, we urge you to reject the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh.

Respectfully, on behalf of Indivisible Northeast Florida

And on the ground in St Augustine, just another day of caring for our homeless. A common and inspiring story. Email us if you want to get involved. They serve everyday of the year without fail (except for hurricanes!) 

Dining with Dignity

We served 75, 70 at the church and 5 at the parking lot, toward the end of serving someone said there were two people in wheelchairs at the parking lot that couldn't make it over so we plated up a couple and I ran them over to find not 2 but 3 people, 1 in a wheelchair and 2 sitting against the fence.  So I gave the 2 girls what I had and told the guy in the wheel chair I would be back.  When I came back with his the other wheelchair person had returned plus one more, fortunately I bought extra just in case it was like loaves and fishes in reverse.  Meal basically the same as last month, chicken & rice minus the sausage, and vegetable soup instead of potato although it had quite a bit of potatoes in it, and cobbler for desert, people seemed to like the bread the most. Didn't have to sing the National Anthem anywhere but had been sick the three days leading up to dinner so started the day with very little energy but felt much better by the end of the day. Nobody was a problem and everyone very thankful.