Volunteer of the Month: Robin Thompson

by Janet Bass

This month’s Coffee Party Volunteer of the Month is Robin Thompson.  As an American living in Calgary, Canada, Robin has a unique perspective on American politics  Watching both the news from the U.S. and Canada makes it easier for her to compare and contrast what is happening in the United States with what is happening in Canada.

Robin first learned of the Coffee Party when friends posted articles and links from the Coffee Party on her Facebook feed.  She liked what she saw and started sharing the posts with her friends.  About six  months ago, Robin started looking into the Coffee Party, liked what she saw and quickly found out that they needed volunteers.  Raised with the belief that one should always volunteer where needed, she got in touch with Leah Spitzer, our Volunteer Coordinator.   Robin has been volunteering whenever and wherever anyone needs her in the Newsroom Group ever since.  Usually a local community volunteer, volunteering in the Coffee Party is an opportunity for her to make a difference nationally.

Most of Robin’s work with the Newsroom Group of Coffee Party involves finding news for posting on the Coffee Party Facebook page.  Robin actively looks for news that speaks to the Coffee Party End State Goals.  She also writes blogs for the Coffee Party regarding issues which she feels need attention.  Robin will soon begin training as a moderator for the Coffee Party Facebook Page.

Robin gives three answers when talking about her favorite aspects of the Coffee Party. First, she loves actively analyzing what is going on in the United States with an eye toward civility and discourse.  Second, she is excited about being able to take part in the Coffee Party Movement which she feels is making a difference in the U.S.  Lastly, Robin has met some very interesting people and fostered friendships through the Coffee Party and through the Facebook pages.

In her own words, “This is such an important year to promote civil discourse in politics.  It could not be a more important time, with the rise of the Trump and the Cruz followers, and the active propagation of hate as a tool to attract voters.”

When she is not volunteering for the Coffee Party Newsroom Group, Robin has her own company as a writer, editor and graphic design.  She is also active in her own community in Calgary and in Democrats Abroad, which has a small local presence.  Right now her main outlet for volunteering is the with the Coffee Party, and impacting Living Room Conversations.

Robin especially enjoys gardening, and thanks to global warming (note the sarcasm), her growing zone has changed to a warmer climate so she is able to plant many types of flowers this year that she would not have been able to grow previously and hopes to spend as much time outside in the garden as possible this year.

President's Column

Debilyn Molineaux, Coffee Party USA President

55,000 People Have a Conversation

To be precise, there were over 3500 conversations, involving 55,000 people.  All on one day, in and around Chicago.  Wow. I was an invited guest...along with another 60 or so people from around the country.  Our mission?  To witness the event and learn how it was done. It got me thinking...what if the entire country could be invited to have a conversation about what matters most to them?    [more]

A Message To Our Members

Tim Danahey, Coffee Party USA Director of Public and Member Relations

One Monday, the Associated Press counted unelected super delegates, added them to the delegates generated by the primary process, and declared Hillary Clinton the “presumptive” nominee for the Democratic Party to run for President.  It was blatantly inappropriate because the regular delegate count (those elected by the people) was relatively close with seven states and the District of Columbia about to hold their primaries.  During the entire primary season, the media showed Hillary's delegate count vastly exceeding Bernie's because the media included legally-unbound super delegates in Hillary's count.  Despite Bernie's surging appeal, he was always fighting from a 700 delegate hole. [more]

 Volunteer of the month

 Volunteer of the Month: Robin Thompson

This month’s Coffee Party Volunteer of the Month is Robin Thompson.  As an American living in Calgary, Canada, Robin has a unique perspective on American politics  Watching both the news from the U.S. and Canada makes it easier for her to compare and contrast what is happening in the United States with what is happening in Canada. [more]

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Remember to vote

Jeanene Louden, Coffee Party USA Director & Treasurer

Voting Members! The annual election for members of the Board of Directors is later this month (June 21- 25). Watch for email with the subject: "Coffee Party VOTE". New Directors will be seated in July. CoffeePartyON! [more]

Wear Your Civility! Coffee Party Lapel Pins!

Mark Gilbert, Coffee Party Director of Campaigns and Actions

Here's a great way to show your support for the Coffee Party and spark some conversation at the same time ---the new Coffee Party USA lapel pins are now available! And although we call them "lapel pins", you can wear them on most clothing items and constantly bring attention to our cause of "inciting civility and reason".

These pins feature our distinctive coffee cup logo on an epoxy dome on stainless steel base. The pin attaches to your clothes with a butterfly clutch. These pins are available for a $20 donation and the cost includes all shipping charges. Get yours now at https://coffeepartyusa.nationbuilder.com/lapelpin

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Coffee Party USA joins with Stamp Stampede to stamp money out of politics

Vince Lamb, Coffee Party Director of Partnerships

Campaign finance reform and corporate reform are serious issues, but that doesn't mean that members and supporters of the Coffee Party can't have fun while working to "pass campaign finance laws that limit the impact of special interest groups such as corporations, major political parties, and lobbyists" and affirm that "Corporations are not people, but consist of people" as the Coffee Party's own goals declare. To that end, Coffee Party USA is partnering with Stamp Stampede to "stamp money out of politics." [more]

 Volunteering for the Coffee Party

Leah Spitzer, Volunteer Coordinator

Coffee Party USA is a volunteer-driven organization and our leaders come out of the volunteer workforce.  If you would like to be a part of our work, consider volunteering!   Please join us at www.coffeepartyusa.com/volunteer.

Join Now

Vince Lamb, Coffee Party Director of Partnerships

Campaign finance reform and corporate reform are serious issues, but that doesn't mean that members and supporters of the Coffee Party can't have fun while working to "pass campaign finance laws that limit the impact of special interest groups such as corporations, major political parties, and lobbyists" and affirm that "Corporations are not people, but consist of people" as the Coffee Party's own goals declare. To that end, Coffee Party USA is partnering with Stamp Stampede to "stamp money out of politics."

Simply order the Coffee Party USA custom stamp from our partners at Stamp Stampede by clicking on the link. When your stamp arrives, start stamping your dollar bills. As Stamp Stampede says on its website, "Every dollar you stamp will reach 875 people, if you stamp 5 dollars a day for a year, that's over a million. Together, we can create a stampede that Congress can't ignore."

This is all perfectly legal. As our partners at Stamp Stampede have written, "it's illegal to destroy paper currency or deface it so much that it's no longer recognizable and has to be taken out of circulation. But that's definitely not what we're up to... Because we all want these bills to stay in circulation and we're stamping to send a message about an issue that's important to us, it's legal!"

What do our partners at Stamp Stampede expect once the people get the attention of Congress? They want "a constitutional amendment declaring that: 1) Money is not speech; [and] 2) Corporations are not people." Coffee Party USA supports these goals and asks that you, our members and supporters, get the message out through stamping your money. The results will be a lot more concrete and enduring than sharing one of our posts on Facebook, which we still want you to do, too.

Once we limit the power of special interest groups to influence our elections, we can work on making the rest of our vision true, that of "building, nurturing and connecting communities to reclaim our government for the people" and making America "a nation of diverse communities sharing a culture of informed public engagement where our sacred right to vote is the only currency of our representative democracy." So get your stamp and start stamping!

Debilyn Molineaux, Coffee Party USA President

To be precise, there were over 3500 conversations, involving 55,000 people.  All on one day, in and around Chicago.  Wow.

I was an invited guest...along with another 60 or so people from around the country.  Our mission?  To witness the event and learn how it was done. It got me thinking...what if the entire country could be invited to have a conversation about what matters most to them?  

Pop Quiz!  

What is a conversation?

1. Two people speaking at the same time

2. People talking while another person is present, but not really listening

3. Preparing to respond before the other person finishes speaking

4. Arguing, even if no one is shouting

5. All of the above

6. None of the above

I prefer to think of conversations as mini-dialogs. One person speaks at a time.  Other people listen (and I mean really hear them), and the conversation adds to each person’s understanding of each other, a situation, a belief, etc.  From Wikipedia: Conversation is a form of interactive, spontaneous communication between two or more people. Typically, it occurs in spoken communication.

With our busy lives today, we are less likely to have spontaneous conversations with people. So where have all the conversations gone?  (I suspect we now spend time online, but that’s not really a conversation.)  What was great about On the Table is the creation of a shared experience. 55,000 people took time to have a conversation with each other, about topics they care about in and around Chicago.  It’s time we did this as a country.

Here’s my dream* (and nascent plan):

• Coordinate with organizations and people around the country who will HOST one or more conversations.

• Invite the media to host their own conversations, with their readers/audiences and report on them.

• Offer online and phone support for hosts to customize each event.  An online toolkit is a given.

• Partner with one or more research universities and firms to gather what was talked about, who talked and look for patterns.

• Offer awards for good ideas that need a little money to get off the ground. (Not every idea costs money, but sometimes it helps.)

Are you in?  What topics do you care most about?  Safe Communities? Taxes?  Healthcare?  Personal and/or National Debt?  Education?  

Whatever you care most about, wouldn’t it be great to dedicate at least one day each year (more is better),  to gather with friends, neighbors and family...or even complete strangers, to take a deep dive into that topic?  And if we did, how would our country improve?  This is where I get excited.

So much of our disconnect, our “living in different narratives” is a direct result of neglected or absent relationships. We the People can do something.

When we wake up on November 9, 2016, at least half of our country will feel like they “lost” the Presidential election. Some will breathe a sigh of relief that they didn’t lose more, but are less than satisfied.  And a few will feel like they “won.”  

Instead of crying, being depressed or gloating the day after the election, what if we started planning to all host our friends for National Conversation Day?  Say on February 2nd?  Yes, this is Groundhog Day.  And like the Bill Murray movie of the same name, we can change what we do, every day, until we get it right.** We can restore our communities and our country through our own relationships.  

*The Chicago Community Trust shared their plans for On the Table, and it looks a lot like this. OK, I stole it. With permission. ;)

**Idea adopted from John Oliver’s rant on May 22, 2016

Tim Danahey, Coffee Party USA Director of Public and Member Relations

One Monday, the Associated Press counted unelected super delegates, added them to the delegates generated by the primary process, and declared Hillary Clinton the “presumptive” nominee for the Democratic Party to run for President.  It was blatantly inappropriate because the regular delegate count (those elected by the people) was relatively close with seven states and the District of Columbia about to hold their primaries.  During the entire primary season, the media showed Hillary's delegate count vastly exceeding Bernie's because the media included legally-unbound super delegates in Hillary's count.  Despite Bernie's surging appeal, he was always fighting from a 700 delegate hole.

Glen Greenwald wrote a spectacular comment about how the corporate media declared a winner based upon unelected delegates before people got to vote.  His comment is brilliant.

But what are the other ways the media is framing this election and issues?  Let's give some examples.

This morning a national poll showed Hillary Clinton with a 43% to 39% over Donald Trump and used this as an example of her increasing popularity as Trump had a one-point lead in recent weeks.  However, we have to look at the math.  43 plus 39 is only 82.  What about the other 18 percentage points?  The truth is that Hillary's numbers are relatively unchanged and Trump's popularity is falling.  The other truth is that the Libertarian and Green Parties are showing increasing strength.  The Libertarian Party's strength is such that, if they can can raise their current 10% to 15%, they must be included in the controlled two-party Presidential debates.  The two parties do not want Gary Johnson or Jill Stein to be at the debate table and, by suppressing their numbers and not allowing the public to see other viable candidates are running, the election is framed.

The health care issue was also reported incompletely.  For the past six years, polls are constantly asking “Do you support Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act)?  The poll results constantly show numbers showing support in the 30% range or so.  The media uses that number as evidence Obamacare is unpopular and failing.  The truth is the a vast majority of the 70% who disapprove of Obamacare want a single-payer national health care system.  If you take the 30% who support Obamacare and 60% of the 70% who disapprove, you get 72% of Americans who want a single-payer national health care system.

The fact the pharmaceutical industry is only allowed to advertise prescription drugs on television in only two countries on earth (the USA and New Zealand) suggests there exists a media dependency on pharmaceutical revenue.  The issue is therefore framed.  Technically accurate but, nonetheless, incomplete.

Wants some more? Most uncomfortable government stories are released Friday afternoon.  Really distasteful stories are released the evening before a holiday.

The government's conclusion that China is manipulating its currency was released Christmas Eve a few years ago.  The fact China was violating the global embargo on Iranian oil was released on the Fourth of July three years ago.  A follow-up rationale that the Chinese “were improving” was offered.

J. Pierpont Morgan once said, in effect, “Let the people fight and distract themselves over social issues while we move our agenda steadily forward.”  Think about what is being discussed in the mainstream media:  floods, celebrities, transgender bathrooms, Donald Trump unsubstantial tweets, murders, accidents, Zika virus (not Congress' unwillingness to financially support containment of the virus), and similar matters.  What about the issues?

That is why you must fight back.  Do the math?. Join organizations shining attention on issues and discussions.  Ask your Congressman that financial questions.  Read between the lines.  Don't be distracted.  Get involved with others.  Make them accountable.