Know Your Rights to Mental Health Coverage
The 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) was passed with broad bipartisan support. This federal law generally prevents group health plans and health insurance issuers that provide mental health and substance use disorder benefits from imposing less favorable benefit limitations on those benefits than on medical/surgical coverage.
Unfortunately, insurance companies find ways to circumvent this law by providing inaccurate, out-of-date lists of therapists and denying a high number of claims based on "medical necessity." See the Department of Labor's report on these issues.
Learn more about mental health policy here.
Submitted by Denise Falbo, Indivisible Canton
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Bostonians Fghting Voter Suppression
Last Sunday, more than 75 people came to Workbar in Cambridge on a rainy afternoon to learn about voter suppression in Georgia and how it changed the elections in 2018. Much of the film was shot in Gwinnett County, a suburb of Atlanta, where GSU professor Carolyn Bourdeaux ran against Republican Rob Woodall in what became the closest race in the country.
After the film, Bourdeaux's sister Margaret described the many challenges faced by naturalized citizens, LGBTQ voters, young people, and people of color faced as they tried to exercise their right to vote. After thousands were thwarted from voting, Bourdeaux lost the election by 433 votes.
The second guest speaker, Quentin Palfrey, emphasized the need to take action now in order to mitigate voter suppression in November 2020. Palfrey's organization, the Voter Protection Corps, is fighting back by creating a state-by-state anti-voter suppression playbook and assembling a nationwide roster of poll watchers for next November.
Carolyn Bourdeaux is running again in 2020, and her supporters in the Phoenix Club would love to keep you posted on when she will be in Boston for house parties and on what’s happening in her 2020 campaign.
Swing Left Greater Boston is offering postcard writers opportunity to write to voters in Texas who have been de-registered from the rolls. The next postcard writing event is the evening of December 6 at Joe Sent Me in Cambridge. Email SwingLeftGreaterBoston@gmail.com for details.
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Environmental Voter Project Spring Internship
The Environmental Voter Project is now accepting applications for its Spring Internship Program.
Can you help us spread the word by forwarding this email to anybody who might be interested in joining us this winter/spring?
Located in the Environmental Voter Project’s Boston office, the Spring Internship Program is great for anybody who's interested in learning more about environmental politics, cutting-edge voter turnout techniques, and data analytics.
All interested parties are encouraged to apply.
Click here for more information and details on how to apply.
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Indivisible MA lists the following events that may be of interest to members. Indivisible MA has not endorsed any of the mentioned candidates.
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Learn About Election Day Registration in MA
Join us to get an in-depth explanation of the impact of Massachusetts’ 20-day registration deadline, how Election Day Registration will ameliorate those harms and move the Bay State towards a more fully participatory democracy, and how you can help in the months ahead.
This will be a great opportunity to get plugged into the Election Modernization Coalition and Common Cause Massachusetts' campaign and walk away with a clear sense of how to help reduce barriers to political participation in your own community and in the State. The webinar will be led by Common Cause Massachusetts' Assistant Director Kristina Mensik, Mass Voter Table Director Beth Huang, and the League of Women Voters MA's Legislative Chair Nancy Brumback.
We think that EDR has a real shot in the coming year. But we need the support of Bay Staters like you. Register and join us online!
Day Tuesday, December 3
Time 7:00 PM
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Support Voter Mobilization in Battleground States
You can support the Voter Mobilization Project (MVP) in Brookline on Tuesday, December 3. Join MVP Advisors Tony Mack and Tom Mendelsohn as they explain their goal to win in 2020 and build long-term infrastructure that lasts beyond the next election.
MVP funds organizations and local leaders that are organizing in their own communities year-round, not one-off campaigns that come and go each cycle. The Movement Engagement Fund supports 501(c)(3) organizations working in the key presidential battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arizona. Contributions are tax deductible and will be matched by a generous donor (up to $10,000)!
The groups in this fund have a track record of voter registration and mobilization that feeds on, and, in turn, feeds, the local community-building, advocacy, and issue organizing they do day-in and day-out, year-round. Find a full listing and descriptions of the current groups in this fund here.
RSVP here.
Day Tuesday, December 3
Time 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Place Home of David Klafter and Suzette Abbott, 63 Winthrop Road, Brookline
Submitted by Tom Hallock, Force Multiplier
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Warren Fundraiser in Cambridge
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Join Bees Deluxe, Boston's only acid blues band, for an after-work, let-your-hair down gathering in Inman Square. Free admission. Full bar, craft brews, food, and great music, all to benefit Elizabeth Warren's campaign.
RSVP here.
Day Friday, December 6
Time 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Place Wit's End Pub, 1248 Cambridge Street, Inman Square, Cambridge
Submitted by Carol Band, Team Warren
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NEWS FROM the BERKSHIRES to BOSTON
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Links to Local News From Around MA
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Get this free audio version of the whistleblower complaint.
This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West
By Christopher Ketcham
A hard-hitting look at the battle now raging over the fate of the public lands in the American West and a plea for the protection of these last wild places
The Mueller Report
Looking for some light summer reading or listening? Here are ways to read the Mueller Report so that you know exactly what is at stake.
Here are a couple of ways to get a quick overview:
- Read or listen to Mueller's Executive Summaries: the 10-page summary of Volume I, which deals with Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and its interactions with the Trump Campaign, and the 6-page summary of Volume II which focuses on the obstruction of justice portion of the Investigation.
- Watch Mueller's televised statement (<10 minutes) or read it here.
H/T Indivisible Acton Area newsletter
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
by Jane Mayer
One of the New York Times best books of the year.
Who are the immensely wealthy right-wing ideologues shaping the fate of America today? From the bestselling author of The Dark Side, an electrifying work of investigative journalism that uncovers the agenda of this powerful group.
In her new preface, Jane Mayer discusses the results of the most recent election and Donald Trump's victory, and how, despite much discussion to the contrary, this was a huge victory for the billionaires who have been pouring money in the American political system.
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America
by Nancy MacLean
“[A] vibrant intellectual history of the radical right . . . [MacLean] has dug deep into her material—not just Buchanan’s voluminous, unsorted papers, but other archives, too—and she has made powerful and disturbing use of it all. . . . The behind-the-scenes days and works of Buchanan show how much deliberation and persistence—in the face of formidable opposition—underlie the anti-governing politics ascendant today. What we think of as dysfunction is the result of years of strategic effort.” —The Atlantic
The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage
by Jared Yates Sexton
A first-hand account of the events that shaped the 2016 presidential election and the cultural forces that powered Donald Trump into the White House.
“Sexton grapples with the Trump campaign from the perspective of the crowds reveling in the candidate’s presence and message. It is a useful vantage point given the increasingly blatant bigotry in the months since the election.” —The Washington Post
Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life
by Eric Klinenberg
Eric Klinenberg is a professor of sociology and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. In this book, he focuses on how social infrastructure can help fight inequality, polarization, and the decline of civic life. "In Palaces for the People, Eric Klinenberg offers a new perspective on what people and places have to do with each other, by looking at the social side of our physical spaces." —New York Times
Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
by Kurt Andersen
“The single most important explanation, and the fullest explanation, of how Donald Trump became president of the United States . . . nothing less than the most important book that I have read this year.”—Lawrence O’Donnell
How Democracies Die
by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
Both authors are Professors of Government at Harvard University. Based on years of research into the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, the authors present a deep understanding of how and why democracies die; an alarming analysis of how democracy is being subverted today in the US and beyond; and a guide for maintaining and repairing a threatened democracy, for governments, political parties and individuals.
Fascism: A Warning
by Madeleine Albright
A personal and urgent examination of fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes today’s world, written by one of America’s most admired public servants, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state. #1 New York Times Bestseller.
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Running for Office? Let Us Know!
While Indivisible-MA may not do any candidate endorsements this year, we can let other Indivisibles across the state know about your race. Use this form to tell us about your candidacy. Thank you for stepping up!
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Submit Items to the Mass Action Newsletter
Submit any events you would like to place in our online calendar and this newsletter using the this form.
Or use this form to tell us about your recent activities or current issues.
Please include a picture of your fellow activists if you have one.
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Keep in Touch - Join Us on Slack
MA Indivisibles have a place to chat and share events and ideas on Slack. If you're not familiar with Slack, don't worry, it's easy to use. Ask your group leader to send you an invitation.
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Give a Little to Keep Indivisible Growing
Both the national organization and local groups are building tools and infrastructure so that we can coordinate to have a stronger voice here in Massachusetts as well as nationally as we carry this work forward to the 2020 elections. This all takes a bit of cash. Please donate to the national organization or to your local group to help us continue this work.
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Our Mission
The Indivisible mission is to fuel a progressive grassroots network of local groups to resist the Trump Agenda.
Indivisible Massachusetts is a consortium of leaders from more than 250 local Massachusetts Indivisible groups, working together to bring our groups together for events and to leverage our numbers to make our efforts more effective.
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