Rogan's List

6/12/17

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1. Seventeen (17) bills are coming up for a vote this week in the House.  Let's check them out so we know what is coming up: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/

2. We know that the Senate is fast-tracking a secretly-devised healthcare plan that will not be subject to a hearing or a debate, and the public may only have a day or two to read it before it is voted on.  Let’s use this Trumpcare Toolkit to get phone numbers to call, links send some instant tweets, links for FB posts, and to sign a letter to the Republican senators asking them to #LetUsTestify:  https://www.trumpcaretoolkit.org/

3. From Postcards for America:  PCA for ALL STATES to write your OWN REPS about HR669 & S200 Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017.  This bill prohibits the President from using the Armed Forces to conduct a first-use nuclear strike without a congressional declaration of war expressly authorizing such strike. "First-use nuclear strike" means a nuclear weapons attack against an enemy that is conducted without the President determining that the enemy has first launched a nuclear strike against the United States or a U.S. ally. The decision to launch a nuclear strike is currently a two-man system with The President and the Secretary of Defense. We can find more details here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_q11DH-FCDWKyCPXbH9GU09IxA0lTZ_uQqaCV1oAWyk/edit?usp=sharing.

4. The EPA House budget hearing is Thursday, June 15 at 1:00 EDT.  Let’s call our representatives and tell them to fully fund the EPA and to keep up the good work at EPA’s National Vehicle and Emissions Laboratory and keep the Vehicle Greenhouse Standards in place.  Our friends at the lab have given us more information:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0k1qCMVpKZpYVdWQS10a2JJWE0/view

5. “The Trump administration's policy of ignoring the oversight requests of Democrats and rank-and-file members has earned it a powerful enemy: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley.”  http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/09/chuck-grassley-trump-oversight-requests-239354  Let’s thank Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) for taking this obstructionism to task:  https://www.grassley.senate.gov/contact

6. Vice President Mike Pence tweeted out that with the leadership of our dear president, “we will rescue the American people from the disaster of Obamacare”: https://twitter.com/VP/status/873610371818565635  Now would be a good time to let the VP know what you think of this: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC, 20500

7. Dan Rather has spoken up passionately about the state of our union in this important post on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/theDanRather/posts/10158809633135716 Let’s use it as inspiration to be in touch with our MoC to say that we will not accept any of this as “normal”.

8. While Secretary of State Rex Tillerson tried to calm the waters in the Qatar situation, Trump doubled down in the opposite direction. This is the state of our current international diplomacy presence on the world stage: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-gulf-qatar-sanctions-idUSKBN18Z2ZU  Since Trump shows no sign of slowing down his swift undercuts to the Secretary, we can ask Tillerson why he continues to try to prop Trump up: Secretary Rex Tillerson, U.S. Department of State, 2201 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20520

9. Following the Forbes article on the topic, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is examining the Eric Trump Foundation for possible malfeasance: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/09/eric-trump-foundation-new-york-attorney-general-eric-schneiderman-239358  Let’s thank AG Schneiderman for taking the situation seriously enough to look into it:https://ag.ny.gov/contact-attorney-general

10. It is a good motivation for us to keep up the resistance when Karl Rove says that Trump, a Republican President, "lacks the focus or self-discipline to do the basic work required of a president." http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/337077-karl-rove-trump-lacks-the-focus-or-self-discipline-to-do-the?amp  Trump’s birthday is June 14^th. Please take a moment to let him know what we would like for his birthday: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20500

11. Let's continue urging our MoC to call for an independent commission to investigate the Russian interference in our 2016 election, as well as ties to the Trump campaign. MomsRising also has a form letter that we can send to Congress:  http://action.momsrising.org/sign/Comey_IndCommission/

12. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been summoned to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday to be questioned about a) the extent of his contact with Russian officials during the presidential campaign, and b) the extent of his involvement in the firing of former FBI Director James Comey. There is some talk about the hearing being private rather than public. We don't see why it would be private, and neither does the ACLU. " There is absolutely no reason why the hearing room doors should be shut, cameras turned off, and all American citizens left in the dark when Sessions testifies. Democracy shouldn’t take place behind closed doors." http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/sessions-senate-intelligence-committee/  Let's call Chairman Burr (R-NC) (202) 224-3154 and Vice Chairman Warner (D-VA) 202-224-2023, to let him know that we the people demand a public hearing: (202) 224-1700.

13. The Sportmen's Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act is scheduled to be discussed on June 14 at 10am by Subcommittee on Federal Lands of House Natural Resource Committee. Despite the friendly name of the bill, it includes allowing the killing of wolves in dens and does not reflect the needs of sportsmen. http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2017/sportsmens-bill-06-07-2017.php  Let's contact our representatives if they are on the Subcommittee on Federal Lands before June 14 to let them know we are aware of and oppose this bill. https://naturalresources.house.gov/federallands/

14. One Congressional Republican insisted that the real problem with Trumpcare wasn't that it was taking away health insurance from 23 million Americans, it was that it wasn't doing enough to stop undocumented immigrants from GETTING health care. (http://timesleader.com/news/645200/barletta-trump-reach-compromise-on-health-care-bill) Lou Barletta has proposed a bill that would address this by creating serious roadblocks to many citizens and immigrants being able to purchase affordable, quality health insurance. Let's join the National Immigration Law Center in telling our members of Congress to say no to this dangerous legislation: http://action.nilc.org/page/s/tell-congress-we-oppose-hr-2581?refcode=em170609.

15. Trumpcare backer and white nationalist bankroller Greg Gianforte won his special election in spite of physically assaulting a reporter asking him about Trump's health care bill. Today, he will plead guilty to those charges. (http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/337190-gianforte-to-plead-guilty-to-assaulting-reporter)  We cannot allow someone who has confessed to using violence in response to being asked a simple question by a journalist to sit in the House of Representatives. Let's call our representatives and demand they immediately begin the procedure to expel him from Congress.

16. Tennessee has become the first state to offer free community college to almost all adults.  http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/06/11/532003646/free-community-college-for-all  Let’s use this information and contact our own state governor and representatives to see if we can’t help make this happen everywhere in the country. 

Other Actions

1. UPDATE:  The deadline has been extended to September 5^th.  One of the pussyhat co-founders has a new project for the knitters among us!  “The goal is to knit blankets from 2,000 miles of yarn — the projected length of the border wall — over the next three months. “  http://mashable.com/2017/06/05/welcome-blanket-refugees-pussyhat-project/ For more info on how we can participate:  https://www.welcomeblanket.org/

2. We are invited to join RISE Stronger for an all hands call next Thursday, June 15 at 8pm. Andy Kim, founder of RISE, will walk us through where RISE is today, what is to come in the future, an assessment of the current United States of Resistance landscape, and some exciting new opportunities for him and the team at RISE Stronger. They hope we will take an hour to join them next Thursday. Please use call in number (515) 739-1205 and Access Code: 364329.

3. The St. Louis Cardinals baseball team is hosting “Christian Day” at their home game on July 30: http://m.mlb.com/cardinals/tickets/info/christian-day  Once that idea has sunk in, please turn your attention to their invitation to former player Lance Berkman to be their featured post-game speaker: http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2015/11/10/exclusive-lance-berkman-talks-about-persecution-tolerance-and-transgender-people/  Berkman has expressed anti-LGTBQ+ views and is perhaps best known for saying, “To me tolerance is the virtue that’s killing this country…” Please take a moment to let the Cardinals know what you think of tolerance: St. Louis Cardinals, 700 Clark St, St. Louis, MO 63102

4. In celebration of World Refugee Day on June 20th, the Stand With Refugees campaign will focus on placing calls to our MoC from June 12th-16thto tell them that we want policies that support our refugee population. We can join in by visiting http://www.standwithrefugees.us/ or by texting "stand" to 313131 to set up a reminder to call our MoC.

5. The resistance organization Daily Action, made popular through its daily action text alerts, has launched a Daily Action Book Club to help educate and inspire us to keep going. Each month, participants can discuss readings with the author and learn how each selection relates to our current political climate. We can learn more about the book club and check out previous months' reading selections at their website  https://dailyaction.org/book-club/

6. From Postcards for America:  Today is the 1-year Anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting tragedy. We can send postcards (paper and electronic) of support to the survivors using this information:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VJj5ZrqWp_Pv3Zz9wEFyEuljYI62ZJ5ZL9Ob-_kzxoI/edit

7. Ringling Brothers circuses have ended. Now they want to send their tigers and big cats to a circus in Germany.    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ringling-bros-just-applied-to-ship-its-tigers-to-a-german-circus-and-animal-activists-are-outraged/  Care2 has a petition that we can sign as well as instructions for submitting public comments to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) before June 25. http://www.care2.com/causes/ringling-bros-wants-to-send-15-big-cats-to-a-german-circus.html  

8.    In the Wisconsin partisan gerrymandering case, "The Supreme Court could announce as soon as Monday that it is either affirming or reversing the lower court’s decision, or, more likely, accepting the case for full briefing and arguments in the term that begins in the fall."  Let's keep watch: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/midwest/ct-wisconsin-gerrymandering-supreme-court-20170611-story.html  

Learning

1. Comey’s testimony continues to be attacked.  We need to remember that his relationship to Trump was one of subordinate to power.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mr-comey-what-were-you-wearing-that-night/2017/06/09/9b635934-4d47-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html?utm_term=.54f565f4b1bb

2. Here is a very telling interview with Mikhail Fishman, the editor-in-chief of the Moscow Times, an English-language weekly newspaper published in Moscow. A Russian citizen and an outspoken critic of Putin, Fishman has covered Russian politics for more than 15 years. For the past year, he has monitored the increasingly bizarre relationship between Putin and Trump, with a particular focus on Putin’s strategic aims.  https://www.vox.com/conversations/2017/2/22/14697718/donald-trump-putin-russia-kremlin-hillary-clinton

3. Remember the recent story of the middle school soccer team in Nebraska who were allegedly cut from a tournament because one of their female players wears her hair short and was “accused” of being a boy? Guess what the team did next? Cut their own hair: http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/girls-on-omaha-youth-soccer-team-cut-their-hair-in/article_40cb3df0-4cb8-11e7-b6f1-eb2ca3498b93.html

Rogan’s List is a participant in and strategic partner of the Action Alliance,

         a loosely-federated group of organizations that, in the wake of the

2016 election, are sharing daily or weekly calls to action.

Other member sites are listed here: https://www.actionalliance.co/  --scroll down and click through and you'll find many more opportunities to make a difference.

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Rogan’s List is also part of RISE Stronger’s United States of Resistance

https://risestronger.org/resist