6/2/17
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Contact the White
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text your US postal address
to (520) 200-2223 and get a text back with your
STATE & FEDERAL legislative rep phone numbers.
- Going against recommendation of science, industry, and the rest of the developed world, Trump announced that he is pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement making only Nicaragua, Syria, and us against it. (194 countries are for the Agreement). Taking a nationalistic, “America First” approach, Trump has put the earth and world in peril. Fortunately, this will not happen immediately and there are ways to offset his shortsightedness and ignorance. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jun/01/fact-checking-donald-trumps-statement-withdrawing-/ While we can’t make Trump reverse his decision, we can force his Republican allies in the Senate to share ownership of their leader’s decision. Given the momentous and far-reaching nature of Trump’s decision—its effects not only on the environment but also trade and diplomacy—let’s flood the Senate with calls demanding a Senate vote on U.S. withdrawal from the Paris accords.
- Yesterday, in response to Trump’s Paris Agreement decision, the governors of New York, California, and Washington created the United States Climate Alliance, a coalition aimed at meeting U.S. climate goals. “It's not just states getting involved. Mayors of more than 85 cities around the US signed a letter on Thursday announcing a commitment to reduce emissions and push clean energy. As Business Insider's Dana Varinsky previously reported, experts believe that it's possible that cities alone can ensure the US meets climate goals.” http://www.businessinsider.com/united-states-climate-alliance-could-short-circuit-trumps-vow-to-leave-the-paris-agreement-2017-6 Let’s all contact our governors, state reps, and local governments to make sure they all sign on to this Alliance.
- While
remaining silent on the matter of human rights in Saudi Arabia and Israel,
Trump is now using Cuba’s “human rights record” as an excuse to roll back
Obama’s efforts to normalize relations with Cuba: http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/335714-trump-weighs-shift-on-cuba Sometime in the “next few weeks,” Trump
plans to announce his Cuba policy; in the meantime, he is being
lobbied by industry, Cuban-Americans, conservative Republicans, Democrats.
Let’s join them and tell our MoCs that we oppose a return to the isolation
of Cuba.
- Michigan Congressman Tim Walberg
said at a town hall that he is not concerned about climate change because
he knows God will take care of it: http://time.com/4800000/tim-walberg-god-climate-change/?iid=sr-link1 Let’s share our thoughts with him
about the role of politicians in our society: 2436 Rayburn HOB,
Washington, DC 20515 or https://walberg.house.gov/contact
- It is
being reported that Trump is drafting a rule that would discontinue
mandated contraception coverage in company healthcare plans, instead allowing
employers to claim that the coverage would violate their religion or
personal beliefs http://bit.ly/2reYnDm Let's send our MoCs a message that we want this rule
withdrawn. WeTweet has tweets ready to go: http://www.wetweet.org/?issue=814220166
- In an NPR interview, Nebraska
Congressman Adrian Smith was not ready to commit to the idea that
Americans are entitled to eat: http://www.npr.org/2017/05/27/530337255/rep-adrian-smith-on-farm-subsidies-and-food-stamps We can let Congressman Smith know
what we think about this issue: 320 Cannon HOB, Washington, DC 20515 or https://adriansmith.house.gov/contact-me
- Grassroots activists
across the country are pushing back against the white nationalist message
championed by Donald Trump by fighting to remove monuments that honor the
Confederacy. (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/we-cant-walk-away-from-this-truth/527721/) Let's join My Civic Workout and take
up this cause. We can find if there are Confederate monuments near us
(even for those of us outside the South) here and here. If there are, let's follow the
example of our friends in New Orleans by contacting our state and local
officials and urging them to get rid of them once and for all.
- The House has just
added HR2213 to the agenda for next week. That means it will be up
for a vote. The aim of the bill is to make hiring border patrol
agents faster and easier by eliminating some of the vetting requirements.
The proponents emphasize the need to hire quickly. http://www.govexec.com/management/2017/05/senate-panel-clears-reform-onboard-some-border-agents-more-quickly/137930/ Opponents of the bill are
concerned that looser vetting will lead to some bad hiring
decisions. http://immigrationimpact.com/2017/05/17/eliminating-polygraph-test-corruption-border-agencies/ Let's tell our reps to vote
"Nay" on HR2213.
- Illinois is adopting Automatic Voter Registration. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/illinois-automatic-voter-registration_us_592dd842e4b0c0608e8c320f In
Congress, two bills were introduced for nationwide automatic voter
registration: Senate bill S.1231, cosponsors: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/s1231/details and
House bill HR2669 cosponsors: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr2669/details.
Let's check to see if our Democratic and Independent representatives are
among the cosponsors and ask them to add their names if they are not.
- The Trump administration chose to forgo the usual ethics training for its incoming staff following the inauguration. We’ve been concerned about this administration’s respect for ethics all along. Now, it seems that Trump has issued over a dozen, an unusually high number, of ethics waivers to White House staff and he may have violated ethics rules in doing so. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/us/politics/stephen-bannon-white-house-ethics-waivers.html Let’s let the White House know that we expect our government officials and staff to adhere to ALL ethics rules and to get some of that training they passed up earlier this year. They seem to need it.
Other Actions
- A noose was
found inside the National Museum of African American History and Culture:http://www.cbsnews.com/news/noose-found-african-american-history-museum-washington-dc/ Please
take a moment to write to the staff at the NMAAHC to let them know we
stand with them: NMAAHC, PO
Box 37012 MRC 509, Washington, DC 20013-7012
- Berkeley,
California, and New York City have both just taken steps to divest from
Wells Fargo http://bit.ly/2qKp53q http://reut.rs/2rIyTzP While New York City tied
their decision to performance ratings, Berkeley City Council specifically
cited Wells Fargo's funding of DAPL as part of the reason for their
decision. Let's send New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Berkeley City
Council our thanks, and continue our own efforts to defund DAPL http://www.defunddapl.org/
Addresses: 1) Mayor Bill de
Blasio: Mayor Bill de Blasio, City Hall, New York, NY 10007 and 2)
Berkeley City Council: City Council, 2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley, CA
94704
- One of the
reasons Jon Ossoff is in strong position to #FlipTheSixth on June 20th is that the district is
increasingly diverse - and his campaign is recognizing that by reaching
out to Asian-American and Pacific Islander voters in their respective
language, to ensure that no language barriers prevent anyone from
exercising their fundamental rights to vote and that all communities in
the district have their voices heard. (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/georgia-special-election-ossoff-congress-sixth-district-demographics-215031)
They're recruiting multilingual supporters for phone banking from now
until Election Day. Let's check out this link to see what language skills
are needed, and sign up or share with folks we know who might be able to
help: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJwCQSDwgPl2gzPnfd5kWes7y3aCYm4zMLdKWkun38N4ChQQ/viewform?c=0&w=1. (Hindi
and Gujarati speakers can be particularly helpful!)
- Fear of Trump's
deportation forces is keeping undocumented immigrants away from small businesses and discouraging them from
reporting crimes. Let's make sure they feel safe getting their
health care needs met. For those of us in the health care industry (or
those who know people who are), let's share the National Immigration Law
Center's guide to how health care centers and health care providers can
make sure their patients' legal rights are being respected: https://www.nilc.org/news/the-torch/5-25-17/.
- We can make small changes at home that are better for the environment. One easy thing we can do is change the types of light bulbs we use. More energy-efficient bulbs will even save us money on electricity. http://homeguides.sfgate.com/changing-light-bulbs-environment-70834.html Here is a more in-depth comparison of compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) and LED light bulbs. https://www.earthled.com/blogs/light-2-0-the-earthled-blog-led-lighting-news-tips-reviews/35906628-led-light-bulbs-vs-cfl-light-bulbs-which-is-best-for-me
- "A proposal that will be voted on at Facebook’s
annual shareholder meeting asks the company to issue a report detailing
how false new stories are a threat to democracy and Facebook’s own
reputation. They also want a more complete explanation of what the company
is doing to combat the spread of fake news on its platform." https://qz.com/960360/facebook-shareholder-proxy-proposal-about-fake-news/ We can help FB clean up fake news by
following the steps in the FB Help Page. Let's all report any fake news we
see in our feeds. Here’s how: 1)
Click the "v" next to the post you'd like to mark as
false (top right-hand corner of article), 2) Click Report post, 3) Click It's a false news story, and 4) Click Mark this post as false news
- If we are regular
viewers, let’s counter the protest against Rachel Maddow’s advertisers and
call them
and say we support the show and
that ads should remain--using the link to her advertisers provided
so kindly by the Media Equalizer. https://mediaequalizer.com/brian-maloney/2017/05/rachel-maddow-show-advertisers-and-contact-information
Petitions to Sign
- To help fight back against Trump's proposed withdrawal of mandated contraception coverage, we can also contact large corporations, asking them to maintain this coverage even if it is not required by federal law. Ultraviolet has a petition we can sign: https://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/trump_birth_control/
- A bit of good news:
shareholders, in an “historic” vote, have forced ExxonMobil to disclose
the impact of global warming and how it effects them: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/31/exxonmobil-climate-change-cost-shareholders Let’s keep up the
pressure on fossil fuel giants like Exxon. Sign the #AllofUs petition,
calling on Democratic mayors and governors to uphold the Paris climate
accord in their cities and states: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/democratic-mayors-and-governors-adopt-the-paris-climate-accord ; support 350.org, EarthJustice, the Union of Concerned Scientists;
and if you are a shareholder in any fossil fuel corporation, vote!
Learning
- It will do our
hearts good to read about the courageous and determined women’s movement
that’s emerging in Buckhannon, West Virginia—possibly the Trumpiest place
in America. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/trump-west-virginia/ .
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren is taking on Betsy DeVos because she believes that to “ensure that the Education Department acts in the public interest, Congress and the public must demand accountability.: https://www.warren.senate.gov/devoswatch/
- The Henry Kaiser J. Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to filling the
need for trusted information on national health issues, gives us “10
Things to Know About Medicaid:
Setting the Facts Straight”: http://kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/10-things-to-know-about-medicaid-setting-the-facts-straight/
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.
******
Rogan’s List is also part of RISE Stronger’s United States of
Resistance
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