In this Issue:

Events

• Young Dems Martini Gansl
  
• DAATalks speaker series with Laura Rockwood
  
• DAA Thanksgiving Dinner
  
• Solidarity Sundays #10
  

Upcoming Events

• Young Dems Holiday Punsch on December 6^th
  

Issues & Actions

• Meet DAA Youth Caucus Coordinator
  
• 2018 Women First Calendar
  
• Update on Get Out The Vote Activities
  
• Taxation Task Force – Washington DC Visit
  
• DA DNC Officer on the Unity Reform Commission
  

Reviews

• DA Webinar Series
  
• Solidarity Sunday #9
  

Members’ Corner

• More Podcast Love
  
• IWM: Science Speed Talks

EVENTS

YOUNG DEMS ANNUAL MARTINIGANSL FEAST

Join us for our annual Martinigansl feast in the heart of Grinzing, where you can find Vienna's vineyards and heurigen restaurants.

The restaurant will need the exact count of people attending and ordering goose, so if you are vegetarian, please make sure you write it in the Facebook discussion, so I can inform them in advance. Hope you can join us!

Our reservation is for 10, so we'll need to update it if more people would like to come, so please RSVP via Facebook

DAATALKS: LAURA ROCKWOOD

U.S. Nuclear Policy under the Trump Administration: Strengthening or Hindering International Security?

Former legal counsel at the International Atomic Energy Agency and current Executive Director of the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Nonproliferation Laura Rockwood.

With the dramatic policy shift in the White House, many decades-long U.S. nuclear policies are being modified or even reversed. At this DAATalk, Laura Rockwood will discuss how the new U.S. policies on issues such as the Iran Nuclear Deal, North Korea nuclear tests, and the nuclear weapons ban can impact global security.

Additionally, Nadja Schmidt, chairwoman of the Austrian branch of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), will present on the recently signed Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty. ICAN, a global alliance of more than 460 organisations in over 100 countries, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 "for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons."

Join us beforehand for a glass of wine at 18:30. The talk will begin at 19:00.

WHEN: November 16, 2017 at 7pm - 9pm

RSVP: http://www.democratsabroad.org/at_events 

THANKSGIVING – A FEAST WITH ALL THE FIXINGS

On Thanksgiving day, Thursday, Nov. 23rd at 7PM, we invite our democratic friends and families to our annual Thanksgiving Dinner.

SOLSUN #10: UNFAKING THE NEWS ON BLACK LIVES MATTER

Black Lives Matter! But what do you *really* know about the movement? What you read is probably ... well ... not very *real*.
Join us as our *real-live* fellow Democrats Abroad members show us how to hunt down honest journalism, balanced news, and no less than the truth. Plus a glass of wine ;-) (or a cup of tea!)

Get all the voting and action info you need here:
http://www.democratsabroad.org/get_involved    https://www.votefromabroad.org/

WHEN: November 26, 2017 at 4pm - 6pm

ISSUES & ACTIONS

MEET DAA YOUTH CAUCUS COORDINATOR

My name is David Heckenberg and since May 2017 I have been responsible for the Youth Caucus of the Democrats Abroad Austria. Currently my goal is to extend the outreach of our organization and keep members of the Youth Caucus - members under 35 years old - connected by organizing monthly meetings and group activities. I feel honored and motivated to fill this position and hope to bring positive change for the future together with your help! Feel free to contact me at [email protected] for any questions or ideas you would like to share.

2018 Women First CALENDARS 

Democrats Abroad Women’s Caucus has produced a calendar as a fund raising project for Democrats Abroad. Profits will go to the Get Out The Vote campaign for the 2018 midterms.

The calendar has a good theme — WOMEN FIRST— and highlights 86 American women who were the FIRST to do various historic, wonderful things. Other features include: US calendar format, profiles of 12 featured women, all major US holidays, a unique holiday for each committee country, 2018 state election dates, and 2 pages of interesting “on this date” events. The calendar is printed on folded A3 paper with a photo on top and calendar on the bottom half.

Expect to learn a lot—and hey, with holidays coming up this would make a great Christmas/holiday gift for American daughters, nieces, sisters, friends and family.

DA Austria is taking orders to buy a box of 25 calendars that we will offer to our members at cost for an inexpensive Correction: pre-orders are €6,20 per calendar– a €9,28 savings on the first calendar not  €10 per calendar – a savings of €5.47 for the first calendar. Calendars will be available for pick-up, by arrangement, at Thanksgiving Dinner on Nov. 23. Solidarity Sunday on Nov 26, the Young Dems meet-up on Dec 6th, or can be mailed to you within Austria for an extra shipping cost.

Please complete this form to order your calendar(s). To make this offer, we need to have 25 calendars pre-ordered by Nov. 13th!

UPDATE ON GET OUT THE VOTE ACTIVITIES

The GOTV Team has been working to get out the vote for the Special Elections happening in Fall 2017 as well as preparing for the 2018 Elections. Here is an update and ways you can get involved. Go to the new GOTV page on the DA website for easily accessible voting information.

If you are interested in becoming DA Austria’s GOTV Coordinator contact Jennifer at mailto:[email protected]. The GOTV Coordinators will get in touch to schedule a group call to work on GOTV plans for 2018, pool resources, set up trainings and discuss the best ways to provide voting information to overseas voters, both DA and non-DA members. READ MORE

TAXATION TASK FORCE– WASHINGTON DC VISIT

The Taxation Task Force was on Capitol Hill the week of October 16 to talk to members of Congress about tax reform for Americans abroad. They had meetings in 10 offices - a mix of Republicans and Democrats, representatives and senators – talking about the findings of our research on the problems faced by Americans filing from abroad and our recommended reform: a switch from citizenship based taxation to residency based taxation. To read the full email with detailed information, READ MORE here.

DA DNC OFFICER ON THE UNITY REFORM COMMISSION

On Wednesday, October 18, in Las Vegas, many Democrats Abroad DNC members attended the fourth and next-to-last meeting of the Unity Reform Commission, a dynamic effort initiated by DNC Chair Tom Perez.

The Unity Commission is made up of members appointed by Secretary Clinton, Senator Sanders, and Tom Perez. The chair of the Unity Reform Commission is Jennifer O’Malley Dillon. Larry Cohen is the vice chair. 19 highly experienced and educated members of the party, from “the big tent” all across the spectrum of opinions, sit across from one another listening, agreeing, disagreeing and coming up with solutions for making the Democratic Party more democratic, transparent and effective. READ MORE

REVIEWS

DA WEBINAR SERIES

You’ve probably been receiving emails from Democrats Abroad (global) announcing webinars and training sessions that have been bringing important information and resources to our members. The topics have been varied: taxation, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, immigration, the climate, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and most recently, Stephanie Schirock from Emily’s List.

Many of our members have participated in a webinar and Marian Pink (Immigration Rights webinar) said, “I found the webinar helpful and certainly interesting. The graphics were really good and the structure of the whole package was excellent. … I would very definitely encourage other people to take the time to work through the program, it is very good.”

Next up, watch James Carville as he speaks about Democratic candidate for Senate Doug Jones and his upcoming election in Alabama, and briefs us on this year's elections. The call begins at 9am DC time on November 8, 2017. RSVP to join!

SOLIDARITY SUNDAYS #9

Solidarity Sunday with Democrats Abroad Austria -- this time focused on social systems and framing arguments. Antje Lewis drew from her experience as a social worker in Austria to give perspective on the US versus Austrian social systems and the premises on which they are based. There are advantages and disadvantages to every system, but comparing the full costs in terms of %GDP is revealing -- spending on social welfare (including health, unemployment and old age) accounts for 29.6% of GDP in Austria versus 30.2% in the US, the key difference being that 11.4% of the US figure is private while virtually all of the Austrian spending is via the state. Most jarring is the cost of health care: 14% of GDP in the US (of this 6% is private) versus 7% of GDP in Austria -- and guess which cheaper system has the better results in terms of actual health care.

Tanya Lolonis followed with a synopsis of Jonathan Haidt's book The Righteous Mind (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Righteous_Mind), describing the deep moral foundations which all humans use to inform or frame their political beliefs, and how we can become aware of these in order to better communicate with and understand our fellow citizens.

–Andreas Beckmann, DAA Member

MEMBERS’ CORNER

MORE PODCAST LOVE

In order to attempt to pull myself out of my Facebook-algorithm-driven bubble, I decided a few weeks ago I needed to put aside my standby Crooked Media podcasts and listen to something elsewhere on the political spectrum.

Googling “best political podcasts” landed me at an article, The 10 Best Political Podcasts To Help You Become A More Informed Citizen, that claimed to be “picking the best political podcasts from both sides of the aisle.” The suggested podcasts ranged from Glenn Beck to Bernie Sanders as well as others including The Federalist and Pod Save America. Despite the author’s claim that, “Whether you believe in the rhetoric of the hosts and guests or not, there’s value and information to be gleaned from each.” I would need to work myself up to Beck –The Federalist seemed a good place to start.

The Federalist Radio Hour: The first thing that struck me was that I often had no idea who the host was talking about. I’ve clearly been living in Europe too long to know who “The Rock” is or that he is considering running for president in 2020, but I was relieved to hear that the hosts, despite or because of Trump’s presidency, were also not convinced of his presidential qualifications.

In another episode, Emily Ekins, Research Fellow and Director of Polling at the Cato Institute, discussed the findings of a survey she recently did about contemporary views of free speech rights. Her consistent use of “Liberals” and “emotional” in the same sentence had me pulling out my ear buds, but I did pause when she brought up that, according to her polling, ‘60’s era Liberals have a much more tolerant view of the kinds of speech that should be banned than those of younger generations.

Another episode had me rapt as Josh Kraushaar and Ben Domensch analyzed the different factions of both parties – highlighting the benefit of stepping out of my comfort zone and getting a clearer view on what’s on the horizon.

– Jennifer Rakow-Stepper, DAA Chair

Have a podcast you’d like to share? We’d love to include it in our next newsletter. Write us at demsabroadaustria

IWM SCIENCE SPEED TALKS

IWM Pop-Up in Wien Strebersdorf. Join IWM Fellows at the Weingut Schilling for a special evening. Instead of sitting in one chair all evening, you'll have the chance to circulate among the speakers, hear about the latest developments in their field, and challenge them with your questions.

WHEN: Monday, 20 November 2017, 6:30pm - 9:00pm

WHERE: Weingut Schilling, 1210 Wien

Music: Ernst Molden & Walther Soyka 

In German and English!

In cooperation with Stadt Wien