5 Progressive Facebook pages you should follow

In previous posts we’ve told you about some of our favorite sites for 2016 election news as well as some of our favorite progressive Twitter accounts. We thought we would also share with you some of the Facebook pages we like.

Tom Tomorrow
We hold a special place in our hearts for Tom Tomorrow, creator of the comic strip This Modern World. His bold, humorous and progressive take on current events is a must read and must share for all progressives. His comics have appeared in more than 90 publications, including the New York Times, the New Yorker, Spin, Mother Jones, Esquire, the Economist and the American Prospect. He is the comic curator at DailyKos and in 2015 was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. He even created the cover art for a Pearl Jam album.

Over the years he’s also drawn exclusive comics for CREDO and our members, most recently this one on the fight to confirm Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.

Tom Tomorrow Supreme Court vacancy comic
Read the comic.

The Story of Stuff
The Story of Stuff was created in 2007 as an online documentary by Annie Leonard. Now, years later, the group’s nine films have picked up more than 50 million views on the internet and its online community has more than 1 million members. The original Story of Stuff has become one of the most widely viewed documentaries of all time.

The group’s work is based on a core philosophy: “We have a problem with Stuff: we have too much of it, too much of it is toxic and we don’t share it very well. But that’s not the way things have to be.”


Their goal is to change “the way we make, use and throw away Stuff so that we have a happier and healthier planet.”

If you haven’t seen it, here is the original Story of Stuff documentary.

Last Week Tonight
If you aren’t watching John Oliver’s show, Last Week Tonight, you should be. He’s a former Daily Show contributor, so we expected him to be funny but he delivers far more. From taking on Donald Trump’s bigotry or companies that purchase people’s debt to discussing refugees, there is no show on television that does a better job of both entertaining and educating its audience.

While you need an HBO subscription to watch the show, most of the best segments, such as this one on Donald Trump, are posted on Oliver’s Facebook page.

Rev. Dr. William Barber
Reverend Dr. William Barber is the pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church and the president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, to which CREDO members donated more than $50,000 in 2014. His Moral Monday protests in the state capital have galvanized a movement in his home state and beyond for voting rights, racial justice, women’s rights, environmental justice and civil rights. His speech electrified the Democratic convention this summer. Here it is if you missed it.

There are few people with as clear a moral voice as Rev. Dr. Barber and that’s why it’s important for progressives to hear his message on Facebook.

The Other 98%
The Other 98% is a grassroots organization “that shines a light on economic injustice, undue corporate influence and threats to democracy.” Launched in 2010, it has become one of the most outspoken organizations on issues surrounding economic inequality and social justice. Fearless, its campaigns take on some of the largest corporations on the planet and its Facebook page is a central hub for these campaigns and the vital issues they address.

Of course, if you haven’t already, you should “Like” CREDO on Facebook using the button below to keep up with our activism and monthly donations elections:

WATCH AND SHARE: The fight to stop the Dakota Access pipeline #NoDAPL

It’s incredible. In just a few days, more than 210,000 CREDO members have signed our petition demanding that President Obama intervene and stop the Dakota Access pipeline once and for all. Hundreds of CREDO members have also started making phone calls to President Obama pressuring him to act.

This is a winnable fight, but with the pipeline company pushing to complete construction, we have to leverage this massive momentum and bring as many people as possible into this fight right now.

We’ve put together a short video to highlight the fierce, grassroots activism being led by local Native American communities and farmers – and to make clear what’s at stake in this fight. Please watch the video now and share it with your friends:

New video: Tips for managing data usage

It’s easy to exceed your monthly data plan if you’re not careful. Learn handy tips for monitoring and reducing your data usage in this all new how-to video.

And here are more tips & tricks to get the most out of your CREDO Mobile phone.

Your vote matters: a thank-you from August’s donations recipients

CREDO gives to three incredible nonprofits every month. These donations are made possible by thousands of CREDO customers and the revenue they generate. Last month, over 48,000 CREDO members voted on how to distribute our funds to 350.org, Color Of Change, and Rewire. These amazing groups want to let you know how much your vote mattered.

Vote for three great progressive groups in September

One of the things that makes a grant from CREDO so special is that it comes with no strings attached. Most foundations and donors put caveats on their funding, restricting what organizations can and can’t do with it.

CREDO, on the other hand, chooses three progressive groups each month who are already doing incredible work and then lets you decide how to divide our monthly donation among them. The groups can use those funds to keep doing what they’re doing or to expand their efforts.

For September we’ve selected OUR Walmart, Public Citizen – Stop the TPP and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Each of these groups is a critical part of the progressive infrastructure. Take a minute to learn about their exciting work and then vote for one, two or all three.

A good summer for voting rights, but there’s more work to do

2016_09_cust_credovoice_voting_600x313
Fighting for voting rights is a fundamental progressive value and central to CREDO’s advocacy. That’s why we’ve included organizations such as Project Vote, the Voter Participation Center, and the Brennan Center for Justice in our monthly donations elections this year, with CREDO activists voting to contribute a total of $244,000 so far.

Voting rights news this summer has been mostly positive. Thanks to aggressive action in courtrooms around the country, a variety of voting restrictions have been struck down. But we still have a lot of work to do, because in far too many states restrictions on people’s right to vote still exist.

We can start by ending the Republican Senate’s unprecedented obstruction of Merrick Garland’s nomination. This new wave of voting restrictions began when the Supreme Court rolled back the protections of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, in the disastrous Shelby County v. Holder decision. Following that decision, conservatives sought a variety of ways to undermine our democracy. In North Carolina the state legislature went right to work, quickly passing one of the most draconian disenfranchisement bills in the country.

Celebrating Women’s Equality Day and the right to vote

Women fought for the right to vote. Let's keep it.
August 26 is the 96th anniversary of women being granted the right to vote. The ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920 is now celebrated as Women’s Equality Day in the United States, after groundbreaking Congresswoman Bella Abzug passed legislation to mark the day in 1971.

While women’s right to vote is now protected by the Constitution, for some women it’s still very much at risk. Right-wing legislators in states across the country have followed up the Supreme Court’s gutting of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act by passing discriminatory photo ID laws, cutting back early voting, and eliminating polling locations — all voter suppression tactics designed to keep people of color, students and low-income people from voting. These laws endanger women of color’s ability to exercise their constitutional right and impact white women as well. For example, Salon.com reported:

It’s well-documented that [voter ID] laws disproportionately disenfranchise low-income voters, people of color, students and the elderly, but married women and transgender people (some of whom are married women) are also among those likely to be impacted by [the laws].

According to recent data, 34 percent of voting-age women do not have a document that reflects their current legal name. Among transgender women and men, the number is 41 percent. Voter ID laws make it hard, if not impossible, for people without matching identification to meet documentation requirements and cast their ballots.

Five Republican Senators Won’t Vote For Trump, But They’ll Let Him Select The Next Supreme Court Justice

If Donald Trump is too dangerous to be president, he is too dangerous to put a judge on the Supreme Court.

This week Maine Sen. Susan Collins became the latest Republican to publicly state she will not vote for Donald Trump. Collins now joins Illinois’ Mark Kirk, Nebraska’s Ben Sasse, South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, and Nevada’s Dean Heller, who have all previously stated they would not support Trump’s candidacy.

If Trump is too dangerous to be president, he's too dangerous to put a justice on the Supreme Court.

While Sen. Collins talks about Trump’s “unsuitability for office,” she and her four Republican colleagues continue to enable extreme right-wing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s unprecedented obstruction of Merrick Garland’s nomination. Sen. Collins and her Republican colleagues cannot have it both ways. They cannot disavow Trump on the one hand while continuing to help ensure that if a racist, fascist like Trump does win the presidency, he will get to fill Antonin Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court.

CREDO activists standing for transgender equality

Transgender Equality

Nearly 150,000 CREDO members so far this year have stood up for transgender equality by taking action to fight back against hateful, bigoted anti-transgender laws in states across the country. Fighting back against discriminatory laws at the local, state and national level is essential to ensuring full equality, but we also have to proactively work to make American culture more inclusive of transgender people.

We believe a crucial way for our communities to be more inclusive is to acknowledge and affirm that every person has the right to define their own gender and to be referred to using their correct gender pronouns. Referring to someone using incorrect gender pronouns — misgendering them — contributes to the violence and oppression that people in the transgender community face every day

Our friend Evan Greer, a queer musician who is also the Campaign Director at Fight for the Future, is misgendered in the media on a regular basis. When she launched a campaign calling on traditional corporate media to confirm gender pronouns with every source, we asked her how we could help.

New video: A message to CREDO members from Amnesty International USA

Margaret Huang, Amnesty International USA’s executive director, and Bruce Temkin, the organization’s national director of major gifts, visited the CREDO office in San Francisco on July 26th, 2016. They came to thank CREDO members for their support in May’s donations voting, which resulted in a contribution of $61,854 to Amnesty International USA.

While in the office, Huang discussed Amnesty’s plans for the next four years and took questions from CREDO staff. We created a brief and inspiring video sharing some highlights of the visit.