Posted on May 10, 2016
Victory: Gov. Deal vetoes “campus carry” in Georgia
Great news. Last week, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed Georgia’s campus carry bill, HB 859, responding to the pressure of 2,649 CREDO members who signed our petition, and 118 who made calls directly to the governor demanding that he keep Georgia college campuses safe.
Gov. Deal heard us loud and clear when we said that forcing colleges and universities to allow anyone to carry a loaded, concealed weapon without a permit would be a threat to the safety of students, teachers, and faculty.
Posted on May 5, 2016
Must-read book: Lies, Incorporated: The World of Post-Truth Politics
Fighting for progressive change, we are bombarded with a litany of lies. Think about the last decade: climate denial, death panels, the myth of voter fraud, the lie that more guns make us safer, to name a few.
Ari Rabin-Havt, a longtime ally of CREDO, has written a remarkable book. Lies, Incorporated: The World of Post-Truth Politics, exposes the conservative movement’s lie generation machine. Not simply a debunking of conservative falsehoods, Lies, Incorporated tells the hidden stories of the people who profit from the invention of lies and the ways they inject them into the public. He names their names and unveils their tactics.
In order to advance progressive ideas, we need to defeat Lies, Incorporated. Ari’s book is a critical tool for progressive activists as it teaches us how to do just that.
Lies, Incorporated: The World of Post-Truth Politics is available on Amazon.com.
Posted on May 4, 2016
WATCH: Why is Google sponsoring Trump’s hate?
Google just announced that its YouTube division will be the official livestream provider of the Donald Trump-led Republican convention, despite massive pressure from activists demanding the company stand up for its alleged values of diversity and inclusion in the face of Trump’s racism, xenophobia and misogyny.
Google’s planned sponsorship of the Republican convention will help legitimize and normalize Trump’s platform of hate. It’s appalling that access to political power is more important to Google than standing up for its stated values.
It’s not too late for Google to reverse course. That’s why we put together this short video to show Google exactly what it’s getting with its sponsorship of Trump.
Posted on May 4, 2016
CREDO’s April donations recipients want to say thank you
Thanks to our customers and the revenue they generate, CREDO donates tens of thousands of dollars to three progressive nonprofits every month. In April, we funded three groups fighting to ensure Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland: Alliance for Justice, American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and People For the American Way Foundation. Over 80,000 CREDO members voted to decide how to distribute our donations. Here are the voting results:
Alliance for Justice
Alliance for Justice is so grateful for CREDO’s support and partnership in the campaign to demand the Senate do its job to give fair consideration to Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. The vacancy comes at a critical time in the history of the court, the law and our nation. This grant will help continue AFJ’s leadership in progressive advocacy to ensure that the court and the federal judiciary advance core constitutional values, preserve human rights and unfettered access to the courts, and adhere to the even-handed administration of justice for all Americans.
For more info visit afj.org
Posted on May 3, 2016
Who we’re funding in May and why
In May, CREDO will donate tens of thousands of dollars each to three amazing progressive nonprofits. You have the opportunity to vote on how CREDO will divide this pool of money.
This month, we’ve chosen three exceptional organizations that work internationally on critical issues such as human rights, health and environmental quality, and women’s rights. Amnesty International USA, Pesticide Action Network North America and Women for Women International all have proven track records of success that make us excited to support them this month.
Amnesty International USA
Amnesty International USA is a global grassroots movement and one of the world’s foremost defenders of human rights. With millions of activists worldwide, Amnesty International works to protect people where justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
Amnesty faces crises that require both an emergency response and long-term campaigns that increase respect for human rights around the world. Funding from CREDO will help Amnesty meet these vital needs.
Posted on May 2, 2016
Transparency is a core value for CREDO
The need for technology and telecommunications companies to seriously address privacy and transparency is back in the headlines. In April, Microsoft went to court asking to be granted the right to inform customers when their email and private information is requested by the federal government.
Apple engaged in a public fight with the FBI over whether it should be forced to write new code allowing the agency to unlock San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook’s iPhone, compromising the security of its product.
While other telecommunications companies have only begun to address this issue recently, CREDO has been at the forefront of the fight for our customers’ privacy from the beginning.
In 2014, following Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s dragnet that collects information about the phone calls, emails and other communications of virtually all Americans, CREDO became the first mobile phone company to release a transparency report.
Posted on May 2, 2016
A conversation with Ray Morris, CREDO’s new CEO
Tell us about your professional background.
I’ve spent 30 years in progressively more responsible roles as a technologist and engineering guy. Therefore, I came into this role from the product side. This naturally led me to see how I could help with operations, leading to very significant transformation initiatives for optimizing businesses and processes through innovation. I have had the opportunity to work with some very smart, talented and inspiring individuals, and was also fortunate to have great mentors, who taught me a lot along the way.
Being around people who are inspired, motivated and talented makes me happy. I am very grateful for my journey and am very thankful to now be working with this great team at CREDO.
What led you to join CREDO?
I’ve been with many wireless companies since the industry was in its infancy in the late ‘80s; I grew up in that environment. I then went into different industries: marketing, marketing services, engineering, hosting. About six years ago, I was with a company called Great Call, which had a product called Jitterbug that focused primarily on seniors. We found great success there and then moved into five-star emergency-response devices.
I was there for four years. It was a great, team-focused company with common goals and was one of the best, if not the best, experiences of my career. I had moved away from wireless when this opportunity came up.
Posted on April 30, 2016
Dear Google: Don’t be evil. Dump Donald Trump.
On Thursday, the CREDO Action team joined Bay Area activists and our friends at ColorOfChange, UltraViolet, Bend the Arc, Center for Media Justice, Daily Kos, Courage Campaign, Free Press Action Fund and SumOfUs to deliver 500,000 petition signatures urging Google not to sponsor a Donald Trump-led Republican convention.
Here’s a gallery of photos from the event (and of the plane that circled Google headquarters while we were delivering the petitions):
Our message was clear: Google’s sponsorship of a Trump-led convention would not only align Google’s brand with Trump’s toxic candidacy, but would help legitimize and normalize Trump’s racism, misogyny, xenophobia and hate.
Posted on April 27, 2016
The National LGBTQ Task Force visits CREDO Headquarters
We’ve made a lot of progress for LGBTQ rights in recent years. Large majorities of the American public now favor nondiscrimination laws, hate crime laws, and relationship recognition for gay and lesbian couples. States and cities across the country have enacted laws that defend the rights and improve the day-to-day lives of LGBTQ people, and a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2015 legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
But there is still much to do. Desperate to roll back advances in equality, extremist lawmakers in states around the country are trying to overturn existing protections and pass new discriminatory laws.
On April 14 we invited Russell Roybal, deputy executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, to visit CREDO headquarters in San Francisco to bring us up to date on the Task Force’s work and tell us about how they are pushing back against the latest attacks on equality.
Posted on April 20, 2016
#PanamaPapers: How CREDO is fighting back against secretive “shell” corporations
The secret world of tax evasion by the world’s super-rich elite was recently blown wide open with an explosive media leak being called the “Panama Papers.”
More than 11 million documents from the secretive Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca were leaked to an international journalist consortium. More than 140 world leaders, public officials, and major celebrities have been implicated already, with more names expected soon. The documents, spanning almost 30 years, expose how the world’s elite use fake corporations called “shell companies” to launder money, evade sanctions, hide wealth, and dodge taxes.
With two recent campaigns, CREDO activists are fighting back against tax evasion and criminal activity by secretive anonymous “shell” corporations.
