In the Weekly Memo for Dec. 11-18:

Top of the ticket: Our statewide meeting Dec. 21, plus chapter meetings for Progressive Prince George’s (Thursday, Dec. 14) and Progressive Howard (Thursday, Dec. 21); Baltimore chapter Listening Session with the movie “13^th” (Wednesday, Dec. 13) and PMD Montgomery happy hour Dec. 20… details for all below.

Weekly memo for Dec. 11-18

Top of the ticket: Our statewide meeting Dec. 21, plus chapter meetings for Progressive Prince George’s (Thursday, Dec. 14) and Progressive Howard (Thursday, Dec. 21); Baltimore chapter Listening Session with the movie “13^th” (Wednesday, Dec. 13) and PMD Montgomery happy hour Dec. 20… details for all below.

Thursday, December 21, 2017 -- Annual Membership Meeting at 06:30 PM · 22 rsvps

Video Conference

OUR CHAPTERS AROUND THE STATE:

Progressive Prince George’s

SAVE the DATE - Chapter Meeting

What is a Progressive?

Date: Thursday, December 14, 2017 at 6:00pm-8:00pm

Location: Colmar Manor Town Hall, Lawrence Street in Colmar Manor, MD

We look forward to collaborating!

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Be A Part of the Movement to Connect Prince George's!

Progressive Maryland and Progressive Prince George’s have launched a 75-day campaign to start a resident-led and resident-funded collective of people harnessing their own talents and skills to create a Prince George’s truly shaped by residents. Click here to find out more information and join other Prince Georgians dedicated to making a change! For technical and member support, contact Seanniece Bamiro, [email protected]

PMD Montgomery 

• December 20^th -- December Happy Hour:, 6:00 PM, at Nando's Peri-Peri in Silver Spring. RSVP to join us!

New Blog Post: Learn how the GOP tax plan could be disastrous for wind and solar energy.

Baltimore City

WED DEC 13 Please come and join Progressive Maryland, Baltimore Chapter for its 2nd Neighborhood Listening Session" Film, Food and Conversation.". 6-8 p.m. This event we will discuss Ava Duvernay's documentary film "13th" and the racial inequality within the criminal justice system. Come allow your voice to #BeMoreHeard.  Light refreshments will be served. Please make sure to RSVP. We look forward to seeing you at the event.  

http://www.progressivemaryland.org/neighborhood_listening_session2

Anthony S. White Lead Organizer [Baltimore City] Progressive Maryland

[email protected]

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SAT DEC 16 Member Orientation & Training  10 a.m. – 4 p.m. in Baltimore -- Are you a Progressive Maryland member leader who wants to bring about universal healthcare, pass a living wage bill, or fight back against the bigotry and corruption by building power in your community? Come to our Member Orientation on Saturday, December 16th in Baltimore City to learn what political power is, and how to build it in your community!  Please note: This training is for Progressive Maryland member leaders who are expanding their roles as leaders.

This training will be in Baltimore City, but member leaders from any location are more than welcome to join us for our Baltimore Member Orientation!

This is also an "agitation"-type training. If you have any questions about what this means, please reach out to Brandy Brooks at [email protected]

Please RSVP at the link and we’ll see you there! Startup Nest, 1401 Severn St
Baltimore, MD 21230 Google map and directions  Contact Brandy Brooks · [email protected]

Progressive Howard County

We will be having a chapter meeting on Thursday December 21 at 7:00 pm.  The topic will be bringing the Fight for $15 to Howard County.  Please RSVP here so we know how many people will be attending.

 Frederick County Progressives

Frederick County Progressives will be focusing on doing more organizational planning to take stock of what we have learned over the course of this year and how to change our communication and planning going into next year. The Frederick City elections were a great testing ground for how we can build momentum around the elections and to establish good communication with our progressive leaning candidates and electeds. An end of year report letter is being finalized for the membership. – Drew Langlois

 Take Action Anne Arundel County

Talbot Rising

Health Committee meets Dec. 12 – see Newsletter for details

 Lower Shore Progressive Caucus

 EVENTS FROM OUR ALLIES

Baltimore comrades, Check in on Max Obuszewski’s highly useful calendar and tip sheet at http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

To keep up with progressive events in and around DC consult the invaluable calendar at the Washington Peace Center, http://washingtonpeacecenter.org/alerts

 It all happens for free… right? Not exactly. Organizing for change in our society and our high-maintenance politics requires both people and money. Keep change moving with a quick, secure impulse-buy contribution here.

Reading the Progressive Maryland BlogSpace: our blogs for the previous week are shown below, but if you want a handy way to keep track – and never miss a blog post – you can sign up to get this Weekly Memo by email. Remember this is your blogspace and your participation is heartily invited. See something going on that you don’t like – or that you do like and hope to see more of? Send us your thoughts; submit to the moderator at [email protected]

We recently posted these blogs:

December 07, 2017 The dumbing down of Smart Growth will fail to preserve MD landscape

"Smart Growth is the antithesis of sprawl, which is development outside areas planned and built for growth. It gobbles open space, increases air and water pollution, and costs more in new services than it ever offsets with taxes from new residents," Tom Horton recounts in this Bay Journal article.

"Sprawl, or Dumb Growth, [he continues] can work politically, though, at least for a while — you just call it Economic Growth, or GROWTH, which sounds all right to many people, especially bankers and developers and pavers and home builders, who are good at electing candidates who’ll butter their bread." But just for a while. Frederick County is now "toting up the cost of progress" and it's not pretty.

December 06, 2017 GOP tax bill severely discriminates against Maryland

There are many evils in the GOP’s tax bills, as Adam Pagnucco enumerates here: redistribution to the one percent, big tax breaks for multi-nationals who ship jobs overseas, losses of insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act and more.  But for Marylanders, the additional slap in the face is that the bills shift the federal tax burden away from states like Texas, South Dakota, Alaska and Mississippi and onto residents of the Free State.  All Marylanders, including Republicans, should oppose that.

December 05, 2017 A small donor fair elections program can get big money out of Prince George's politics

It is more important than ever to pay for a government that is solely accountable to the everyday community members they are elected to represent. Eventually, everyone expects to “get what you pay for.”

 Find out more at Prince George's County Fair Elections Town Hall Meeting 6:30-8:30 p.m. (doors open at 6) Southern Regional Technology and Recreation Complex, 7007 Bock Road in Fort Washington, MD 20744 -- Join Fair Elections Maryland and Councilmembers Obie Patterson (D-8), Mary Lehman (D-1) and Mel Franklin (D-9) and guest experts for a Prince George's County Town Hall! RSVP here.

December 04, 2017 Progressive Maryland Weekly Memo for Dec 4-11 2017

 The GOP tax plan definitely puts our health care at risk, along with much else in the lives of working families. Fat cats get fatter.

Keeping up with the blogs is easier with the index. The blogs published in the PM BlogSpace from June 2015 through December 2016 are all available with descriptions and links here. You can follow blogs for 2017 starting from here