March for Science - Earth Day - April 22 - Let's Promote This!

[Silver Gaia]

https://www.marchforscience.com/

We need to support this!

(Remember: climate change is SCIENCE, caring for the environment is SCIENCE, healthcare is SCIENCE, technology is SCIENCE, space exploration is SCIENCE, anthropology is SCIENCE, sociology and psychology are SCIENCE, agriculture is SCIENCE--there are MANY diverse reasons to march in support of science.)

There are many marches being organized in many areas (40 in California alone) worldwide, and it's growing faster now, as more people are finally becoming aware of it. I can't believe the number of people lamenting that we have no protests going on, but who don't know about this. It has been in the works since the Women's March in January.

PLEASE go to the website linked above, find the march nearest you and get registered! Then pass the word! Post it on your Facebook page! Tweet it! We need to ensure that enough of us DO THIS to get media attention, and to make sure they know we have NOT grown complacent already.

I've registered my hubby and myself for the Sacramento march. Over 5,000 people have said they are definitely going to that one, and another 14,000 say they are interested.

We need to be promoting this! Please help.

Please K & R for visibility. Thanks!

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. K & R! I'm marching in DC!

[beam me up scottie]

2. Recommended!

I'm part of the Facebook group - looks like it's going to be huge!

[Canoe52]

3. We are going to Seattle!

[crazycatlady]

4. I'll be marching in NYC

But first the tax one on Saturday.

I have green and blue pussyhats available for this march (and the one on 4/29).

[Lisa0825]

5. I am a volunteer with the Houston March!

We have had almost 3000 FB RSVPs, but the FB group has almost 8000 members, so no telling what we'll get!

[cate94]

6. K & R

Thanks for the link.

[byronius]

7. I'll be at the Sacramento one.

Thanks for the link. I'll register and be there.

[mountain grammy]

8. I'll be in DC

[Akamai]

9. My son and I are marching in Washington DC on April 22. We are looking forward to it.

[SunSeeker]

10. K & R

[NBachers]

11. I'll be marching in San Francisco. Here's my sign:

[certainot]

12. good places to protest - 88 universities helping trump deny global warming -

feel free to pass this on to people and orgs looking for a different place to protest

The 88 universities listed below broadcast sports on 257 of 600 Rush Limbaugh radio stations.

The stations use the school logos, mascots, and community standing to attract advertisers to pay for partisan messaging on public airwaves. Any university supporting Republican talk radio is helping to defund itself and is undermining the interests of its students, faculty, employees, and surrounding communities.

The universities are legitimate places to protest any major issue until they begin looking for apolitical alternatives that are more consistent with principles and goals stated in their mission statements, which usually stress fairness, diversity, respect, honesty, justice, responsibility, and truth.

The schools receive very little licensing revenue from radio compared with TV broadcasts but the associations are vital for the stations and the GOP. Most stations average 75 hours/week of partisan Republican talk (15 hrs/day x 5 days). If the GOP paid $1000/hour for that radio infomercial/advertising time each station would be worth $75,000/week. 1200 Republican radio stations across the country are worth $18MIL/day or $5BIL/year FREE. 257 stations would be worth $19MIL/week, or more than $1BIL/year to broadcast Republican messaging.

For the last 30 years those stations have played an essential role in creating the alternate reality that allowed Donald Trump to enter the White House. Except for occasional innocuous programming they operate exclusively for the benefit of the Republican Party. They are coordinated nationally and locally with the GOP and their allied think tanks and are now being used to excuse Trump’s actions, attack his critics, and divert attention from Trump/GOP problems.

Protests at state capitols and other locations can be ignored by media and politicians because Republican radio stations can yell over them for weeks after protestors have gone home. Talk show hosts attack and mischaracterize protestors, their tactics, and their objectives. They also encourage local officials and police to break protests up and excuse violence directed at protestors. They will repeat fabricated stories of protestor violence, looting, etc.

Limbaugh stations that broadcast sports are among the loudest in the country. They are licensed to operate in the public interest but they all:

- deny global warming
- fight to defund and privatize public education, attack teachers and work to lower their salaries, attack their unions, push voucher solutions and standardized testing, and obstruct efforts to lower student debt
- use public airwaves to sell voter suppression legislation with lies and exaggeration about voter fraud, millions of “illegal aliens” and dead people voting for Democrats, etc.
- fight environmental regulation and always support fossil fuel solutions over renewables
- fight health care reform and have lied about single payer systems for 3 decades
- attack free speech: they have sold “money is speech” and “corporations are people” memes for decades, arguing for media deregulation, defunding of public programming like PBS and NPR, and an end to net neutrality
- fight campaign finance reform
- use and excuse racism, misogyny, homophobia, and hate to divide communities and push voter suppression and other anti-democratic Republican legislation
- work to deny reproductive rights for women and access to contraception, defund Planned Parenthood and other services, and excuse misogyny
- fight efforts to increase minimum wage, and advocate eliminating it
- undermine the economic and environmental interests of their communities
- use public airways to repeat propaganda that is demonstrably false and continue to lie after being corrected, use call screeners to exclude dissenting opinions
- coordinate with and provide free publicity for Republican politicians and think tanks when needed for elections, passing legislation, and attacking critics and opponents
- use monopoly power to avoid direct competition while pretending to represent an expression of free speech
- while railing against “political correctness”, they loudly demand regressive conformity

The universities don’t owe the stations anything. Most of those university-radio relationships began when the stations broadcast music and general non-partisan programming. Their programming became partisan after 1987 when Ronald Reagan ‘killed’ the Fairness Doctrine and Republicans began buying up radio stations to create and protect a talk radio monopoly. Today there are more options for viewing and listening to sports.

Usually a licensing company like Learfield Sports pays the university for the broadcasting rights and either resells them to the radio station or pays the radio station to broadcast the games, such as with the University of New Mexico. In some cases there is no bidding process.

If a talk radio station wants to keep broadcasting university sports there is no reason they can’t convert to music or sports talk. In most areas a loud station can be replaced with multiple smaller stations. There are many sports talk stations around the country that want to broadcast those sports events and would be more appropriate. They talk sports all day and sell sports and sports merchandise, not politics.

If loss of licensing revenue is an objection, can donors be found to make up the difference? If there is a loss, how does it compare with the harm it is doing to its own students and community? Not to mention the damage from defunding public education. Is there an opportunity for an alternative licensing company that can find apolitical alternatives to reach similar or larger audiences?

Since those stations sometimes weigh in directly on elections for university regents and selection of administration, including presidents and chancellors - is there a conflict of interest?

Is a university that supports Republican radio violating its 501c3 tax exempt status?

Here is the list of universities with the number of Limbaugh stations for each school and the total for each state. The list is incomplete. It does not include stations that do not headline Limbaugh. For instance, the University of Wisconsin broadcasts on 5 Limbaugh stations but also on 2 stations that headline Sean Hannity. Some universities may have made changes recently.

From www.republicanradio.org:

ALABAMA 8  Auburn 3, Alabama 2, Southern Alabama 2, Troy 1
ARIZONA 2 Arizona St. 1, Arizona 1
ARKANSAS 3 Arkansas 3
CALIFORNIA 5 San Jose State 2, USC 2, Fresno St. 1
COLORADO 4 Air Force 2, Colorado 1, Colorado State 1
CONNECTICUT 1 Connecticut 1
FLORIDA 20 Florida 10, Florida St. 4 Miami 2, South Florida 2, Central Florida 2
GEORGIA 14 Georgia 7, Georgia Tech 5, Georgia Southern 2
IDAHO 7  Boise St. 4, Idaho 3
ILLINOIS 7 Illinois 7
INDIANA 11 Notre Dame 6, Purdue 4, Indiana 1
IOWA 5 Iowa 4, Iowa St. 1
KANSAS 4 Kansas St. 2, Kansas 1, Wichita St. 1
KENTUCKY 3 Louisville 2, Kentucky 1
LOUSIANA 3 LSU 2, La.-Monroe 1
MARYLAND 2 Maryland 2
MASSACHUSETTS 1 Boston College 1
MICHIGAN 19 Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1
MINNESOTA 4 Minnesota 4
MISSISSIPPI 6 Mississippi St. 3, Mississippi 2, Southern Miss 1
MISSOURI 6 Missouri 6
NEBRASKA 6 Nebraska 6
NEVADA 1 Nevada 1
NEW JERSEY 2 Rutgers 1, Seton Hall 1
NEW MEXICO 3 New Mexico 2, New Mexico St. 1
NEW YORK 7 Syracuse 6, Army 1
NORTH CAROLINA 16 North Carolina 8, North Carolina State 3, Duke 3, East Carolina 2
OHIO 10 Ohio St. 6, Toledo 1, Dayton 1, Bowling Green 1, Xavier 1
OKLAHOMA 5 Oklahoma St. 3, Oklahoma 1, Oral Roberts 1
OREGON 12 Oregon St. 7, Oregon 5
PENNSYLVANIA 14 Penn St. 11, Pittsburgh 2, Temple 1
SOUTH CAROLINA 4 South Carolina 2, Clemson 2
TENNESSEE 7 Tennessee 4, Memphis 3
TEXAS 16 Texas A&M 9, Texas Tech 4, Texas 1, Texas Christian 1, Baylor 1
UTAH 1 Utah St. 1
VIRGINIA 6 Virginia Tech 5, Virginia 1
WASHINGTON 6 Washington 5, Washington St. 1
WEST VIRGINIA 2 West Virginia 1, Marshall 1
WISCONSIN 5 Wisconsin 5

[DesertRat]

13. Here's a free download from Mary Englebreit

https://www.maryengelbreit.com/collections/free-downloads

[Duppers]

14. K & R

Support the movement!

[Silver Gaia]

15. Thanks for the recs and replies!

Let's keep building the energy for this march!

[hwmnbn]

16. K&R

[Silver Gaia]

17. Bump for visibility.

Please K & R to help raise awareness of and promote this march! Thanks.