MELT ICE. Call now.

More phone banks and how to personally divest from ICE. Oh, and measles.

Some good news. MAGA colation in the House is fracturing. SIX Republicans joined Democrats today to end tariffs on Canada.

EARLY VOTING STARTS NOW!! Info here

More good news. Grassroots pressure is working.

Thoughts from Indivisible:

We have a real opportunity to secure restrictions on ICE and CBP, but just a few weeks ago the situation looked very different. Democrats in the House and Senate were signaling that they would allow a funding package to pass in order to avoid a partial government shutdown -- even if the bill included more money for ICE and CBP.

That changed after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The public outcry and the persistent grassroots pressure pushed Democrats to find their spines. The fact that Republicans agreed to carve out DHS from the rest of government funding to allow for negotiations shows that the pressure is working on both sides of the aisle.

But we cannot let up now, and we need everyone picking up the phone. Like all of our grassroots tactics, calls to Congress are really a group activity. An individual call is great, but it’s even better when phones are ringing off the hook on Capitol Hill…

Even if you live in a safe blue district or state with reliably progressive Members of Congress, they still need to hear from you. Encourage them to hold the line and keep up the pressure on Dem leadership.

Even if you live in a ruby red district or state, your Republican Members of Congress still need to hear from you. Your MoCs might not change their individual votes, but a surge of calls in deep red districts shows the GOP that the outrage at ICE and CBP’s brutality is widespread across the country.

Also, Tillis is getting downright feisty. Keep calling.

Calls:

Calling is the most effective way to ensure your voice is counted. Congressional staffers tally calls.

Call every day between now and February 13. Even after hours, just leave a message.

If you are leaving a message, leave your name and address.

Thom Tillis: D.C. (202) 224-6342

Ted Budd: D.C. 202-224-3154

This is [Your Name], and I’m a constituent from [address].

I’m calling to urge Senator [Name] to refuse to vote for any appropriations bill funding for the Department of Homeland Security until it reins in ICE.

Alex Pretti and Renee Good’s killings are unacceptable. Enough is enough.

We can’t wait while ICE harms more people. Senator [NAME] must demand restrictions on ICE and Border Patrol, including getting ICE and CBP out of our communities, ending their brutality, and to stop warrantless arrests that defy the Fourth Amendment, stop racial profiling, and end enforcement at sensitive locations like schools, hospitals, churches and polling places.

Also, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children should never be held in prison camps. I want the Senator to work to stop this.

Thank you.

Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (202) 225-1784

This is [Your Name], and I’m a constituent from [address].

I want to thank Representative Foushee for voting against any funding for DHS and ICE, and for co-sponsoring the Melt ICE ACT.

I hope she continues to stand strong against any further funding for DHS and ICE unless Democratic demands are met, and conveys that message to Democratic leadership. We can’t have them cave this time around; lives are at stake.

Also, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children should never be held in prison camps. I hope the Representative can work on this issue.

Thank you.

Another call to make, suggested by our NCDP Chair, Anderson Clayton. She suggests calling on our Senators to fire Kristi Noem. If you watch one thing today, listen to Chair Clayton. She lays out the connection from Minnesota to us all with fierce clarity, and has a call to action.

Call Thom Tillis at (202) 224-6342 and Ted Budd at (202) 224-3154 to tell them to get Kristi Noem out of office.

@ncdemocrats

North Carolina Democrats on Instagram: "On Minnesota.

Stand up…

ACTION: new phonebanks for NC primaries!

Why do these primaries matter? The MAGA extremist right wing NCGOP has had a supermajority in Raleigh, allowing them to destroy our state and our democracy, for years. Even though we’ve had a Democratic Governor, they’ve stripped the Governor’s office of most of its power; they took away leadership of the Board of Elections and gave it to the only Republican who won statewide office. This year, the NCBOE closed down voting sites at predominantly Democratic voting places like the largest HBCU in the nation.

Again, Hakeem Jeffries would be speaker if the NC Supreme Court hadn’t reversed a decision from six months prior and gerrymandered our state, going from seven House seats for each party to and 11 GOP/3 Dem map. The so called “Big Beautiful Bill” would not have passed last year, giving money and power to ICE. There is a direct line from our NC politics to the fascist takeover now happening in the federal government. We can do something; all politics is local.

We need the Governor to have veto power; breaking the supermajority would give that. That’s why we must elect Rodney Pierce and Rev. Dr. Rodney Sadler during the primaries. Let’s start calling. Training will occur on these phonebanks.

Two Phonebanks (virtual)

Phone banking is an effective way to contact voters. Remember, you are usually calling friendly voters, just to remind them of this election and why it is important. Most people don’t pay attention to primaries.

It’s a low key way to make a difference. When elections are decided by a few votes per precinct, if you talk to even a couple of folks in an evening, you are making an impact. Rodney Pierce won his last primary against Michael Wray by the narrowest margin of any legislative primary in the state, just 34 votes. As Carolina Forward writes, “This year, Michael Wray is seeking to win back his old seat. Just like they did in 2024, Republican leadership is helping to fund Wray’s campaign by directing dark money and corporate PAC support his way.”

1. Carolina Federation

More info and sign up HERE

Time

Mondays and Fridays

5:30 – 8:30pm EST

Take action ahead of the upcoming NC primary on March 3rd - join Carolina Federation for our weekly virtual phonebanks!

We will meet for phonebanking on Zoom each Friday and Monday starting Friday February 13th 5:30-8:30pm. Sign up here to receive the zoom link prior to phonebank. There will be a training at the start of every phonebank - please join right at 5:30pm and plan to stay until 8:30pm. (I have found that if you can’t stay the whole time, it’s not a problem)

Phonebankers will be calling to talk to voters about supporting NC House candidates Dr. Rodney Sadler for HD 106 and Rodney Pierce HD 27.

Tips: Please join the zoom link using your computer and have your phone with you and charged.

2. Swing Blue Phone Bank for Rev. Dr. Rodney Sadler sign up HERE

When: Sundays, 6–8 PM ET | January 18 – March 1.

Let’s give Governor Stein veto power.

Rev. Dr. Rodney Sadler is running for NC House District 106--(endorsed by Gov. Stein). His Dem primary opponent is incumbent Carla Cunningham—who voted 84% of the time with Republicans and on many of the overrides of Gov. Stein’s vetoes. She made a vile anti-immigrant speech on the floor when she cast the deciding vote requiring North Carolina sheriffs to proactively cooperate with ICE.

Swing Blue, a national organization, is running these phone banks for Rev. Dr. Sadler. Rev. Dr. Rodney Sadler is a longtime civil rights leader running for North Carolina House District 106 (North Charlotte). Sign up! It’s mostly folks from outside NC; let’s show them that we stand up, too!

Reminder:

Durham Democrats Winter Food Drive February 14- 27

Reach out to your Precinct Chair to find out where collections are happening in your neighborhood. Or run your own collection by contacting your friends and neighbors to let them know about this easy way to give back to our community.

We will be sharing our bounty with: Iglesia Emanuel Food Pantry, Parktown Food Hub, USSW Food Pantry (United Southern Service Workers) and the Walltown Food Pantry

Non-perishable CANNED and BOXED food (NO GLASS CONTAINERS, PLEASE), feminine and personal products. Grocery store gift cards are also a great way to participate. This allows the food pantries to fill in their shelves where needed.

For information, contact: secretary@durhamdemocrats.org

ICE, U.S. CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND YOU? Take action.

Conditions At Dilley, owned by Core Civic, are unfathomable. Others may be worse.

Robert Reich recently published a piece, “What you can do to stop big corporations from helping ICE”

Read it for full details. Some excerpts:

1.Follow the money. Are you investing in private prisons?

One suggestion is to check your investment and/or retirement account, if you are fortunate enough to have one. Duke University is one Durham’s largest employers. Their retirement accounts are managed by Fidelity. Fidelity, Vanguard, BlackRock and many other investment firms own stock in CoreCivic (which runs Dilley Detention Center in Texas, where Liam Ramos was taken) and the GeoGroup, which also runs some of these “private prisons.” Conditions are worse than you could possibly imagine.

You may own CoreCivic indirectly. You can withdraw your savings from institutional investors that are financing it.

CoreCivic is a public-held corporation, meaning that it’s listed on the stock exchange. We may not own its shares directly, but many of us entrust our savings to institutional investors such as Black Rock and Vanguard, which own significant shares in CoreCivic.

Black Rock accounts for 16 percent of CoreCivic’s total shares. Vanguard Group Inc. holds 12 percent. They are CoreCivic’s largest shareholders. As such, they have the most influence (other than the federal government’s Department of Homeland Security, if DHS were acting responsibly) over how CoreCivic runs its detention facilities.

Find out if your savings are held by one or both of these two giant institutional investors. (Check with your broker or look at the reports they send you.) If they are, you might instruct your broker to withdraw your savings from them and put them in another institution that doesn’t hold shares of CoreCivic.

Contact info for Duke related accounts is here

Fidelity number is (800) 343-0860

2. Democratic Governor’s Association and Core Civic

You may support the Democratic Party, specifically the Democratic Governors Association — which has been accepting donations from CoreCivic. You can contact the DGA and tell it to stop accepting such donations…. the Democratic Governors Association has taken in hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from CoreCivic. These are not charitable contributions by CoreCivic, but attempts by CoreCivic to influence state legislation.

From 2017 through at least 2025, the DGA took in $1,246,050 over 46 donations from CoreCivic.

Action: contact the Democratic Governors Association and tell them to stop taking donations from CoreCivic. Call them at (202) 772-5600.

3. …you’re.. powerful as a consumer. Although you don’t purchase CoreCivic’s detention services directly, you buy from corporations that every day enable CoreCivic, ICE, and Border Patrol to do their nefarious work.

AT&T, Home Depot, Amazon, and Microsoft are providing ICE and Border Patrol with cloud computing, surveillance software, and logistical support that’s central to how they function. This corporate collaboration makes large-scale enforcement possible.

And Verizon — through a 10-year, $176 million contract with the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE — supplies the communications infrastructure that facilitates raids, detention centers, and deportations.

Action: Consider cancelling Amazon Prime and stop shopping at Whole Foods. Boycott Home Depot. These corporations are woven through every aspect of our lives; do what you can. Thankfully, here in Durham, we have many options to replace these. Consider leaving Verizon for Credo

Our lives are so threaded through with all these companies; do what you can, however small.

Happy Galentines and Valentines Days to all who celebrate…As Bad Bunny told us, “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

P.S.

Measles in Durham. Welcome to the MAGA/MAHA dark ages. Consider your risk.

durhamhealthnc

An individual with measles visited 3 Durham locations on February 6. If you were in one of these locations during the affected time frames, get vaccinated if you are unvaccinated, monitor your symptoms for 21 days, & call your doctor if symptoms develop. More info here

If you are not vaccinated, consider getting vaccinated now, even if you don’t think you were exposed. If you were vaccinated prior to 1968, call your doctor about possiblygetting re-vaccinated. Due to lower efficacy and waning immunity from the inactivated version (given from 1963-1967), the CDC recommends re-vaccination for anyone vaccinated before 1968. You may have been protected previously by herd immunity; that no longer exists. Stay safe out there!

Finally…again…