I know there's lots of focus and energy on calling Toomey and other Rs about their support for Trump and his minions, but it's also a good idea to call Dems who are oppossing Trump/his nominees/his policies. I just called Sen Casey's local office and told the staffer who answered to thank Sen Casey, that we were proud of him and that he could count on my vote next Nov. The sound in staffer's voice went from professional to noticeably happy.

Thought it might be good to start a list of all the federal/state/local office holders who have showed up at airport and other rallies and supported the protestors. Feel free to list the cowardly lions, too.

In my Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that I have see:
Gov Tom Wolf
Sen Bob Casey, jr
Rep Bob Brady
Rep Dwight Evans
Mayor Bill Peduto (Pgh)
Mayor John Fetterman (Braddock)
Mayor Jim Kenney (Phila)
Rep Brendan Boyle
Rep Mike Doyle (sorta, has an interesting chart on his twitter, though)
Rep Charlie Dent (sorta)

Crickets:
Sen Pat Toomey

Backtracking:
Rep Lou Barletta

Jan 25: Tweet https://twitter.com/RepLouBarletta/status/824347294610952192
Jan 27: https://twitter.com/RepLouBarletta/status/825169805212786690 (the comments are pretty good, too)

Good stuff: http://www.post-gazette.com/early-returns/ernational/2017/01/25/Pittsburgh-election-protesters-against-Donald-Trump-say-work-just-beginning-sister-march/stories/201701250123

Pennsylvanians are gathering at Toomey's state offices to let him know how they feel. Toomey won't meet with them though.

The Post-Gazette has a series of dispatches from western PA "Trump Country" voters. Read it and weep.

http://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/dispatches/

Here's the thing specifically in Beaver county, Shell is pouring billions (with a B) into a new ethane cracker plant. The plant won't be operational for a few years yet and just yesterday was approved for a conditional use permit. The site prep is unlike anything I have ever seen in my lifetime although I'm sure when the mills were being built it was similar. There are jobs for all the skilled trades, plus civil engineers and engineers of all types that are going to outsiders because there aren't enough local qualified individuals to fill them. Even if Trump would magically create some jobs, I'm skeptical that any of the interviewees would even be qualified to get them.

For any of you in or near Beaver County, there is a rally called “Stand Up for Peace, Jobs and Justice,” in front of the Beaver County courthouse on Sat, Jan 21st at 1PM.

Details:


http://www.timesonline.com/community/news/briefs/rally-to-be-held-saturday-to-support-social-service-programs/article_3755f78c-dd9c-11e6-838e-77d60e47f52c.html

Not really a surprise, but our Democratic senator, Bob Casey, focused his first 2 bills in the new senate year on jobs and the economy and our GOP senator, Pat Toomey, introduced his first bill on punishing sanctuary cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

http://www.timesonline.com/news/governmentandpolitics/casey-toomey-unveil-legislative-initiatives-in-new-session/article_dde070c8-d919-11e6-b41f-03636a98f0c3.html (reverts to paywall in 24 hrs).

This is a terrific website set up about a year ago to combat the creeping rightwingism of PA Republicans.

http://www.paspotlight.org/

The site doesn't pull any punches and lays out the truth in plain language. Lots of good stuff exposing what our state Rs and their supporters are up to.

Jake Corman, the senate majority leader, lays out his plans for the budget.

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2017/01/03/Sen-Jake-Corman-Stark-choices-for-the-state-budget/stories/201701030025

There are some ideas here, like prison reform, that I agree with and I'm sure Gov Wolf does, too, but the big enchilada is "pension reform". I actually do think that a pension system that allows beneficiaries to withdraw their entire contributions and still receive a pension does need some tweaking because there is no defined benefit system of which I am aware that allows you to be both in and out. I was amazed when I read that Ridge and Rendell among others were able to take a lump sum pension withdrawal and still get around 1,000/mo state pension.

Jack Kelly, the local rightwing columnist at the Pgh Post-Gazette announced a day or so ago that he was retiring due to a recurrance of cancer. Ironically Mr anti-union, anti-ACA and anti-all things safety net was very grateful to the writer's guild/union, presumably for protecting him from being fired when he had to take off for chemo the first time.

The commentors wished him well, but I'll be happy if it's an aggressive cancer that puts another rw crank out of their misery shortly.