Rogan's List

4/27/18

Contact Federal Government Officials

Find senator’s contact info here: https://goo.gl/RLiotu

Find representative’s contact info here: https://goo.gl/5i7SXC

Fax legislators for free:  Reps:  https://faxzero.com/fax_congress.php

and Senate: https://faxzero.com/fax_senate.php

White House contact:  https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/white-house

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Many newspapers, including New York Times and Washington Post require subscriptions, but without one we can see a few articles each month.  We can also check with our local libraries to find out how to get online access through them.

1.       Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee took a step toward protecting Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, by passing the Special Counsel Protection Act on a vote of 14-7. http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/384990-senate-panel-approves-bill-to-protect-special-counsel?rnd=1524755385/?userid=200565. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will not bring this bill to the floor for a vote, because he doesn’t believe that Mueller will be fired.  Let’s remind Senator McConnell that 62% of Americans want a law to protect Mueller, and that the president has already threatened to fire Mueller many times. To refuse to bring the bill to the floor shows that he is prioritizing the interests of the Republican party over the interests of the country. We can call him at 202-224-2541 or use this form. We should also ask our own Senators to pressure Senator McConnell to change his mind using this 5calls script.

2.      On Thursday, the Senate voted to confirm Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State (http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/mike-pompeo-confirmed-secretary-of-state-senate-vote-1.4636716). Let’s be sure to check to see how our senators voted, then give them a call to either thank them for voting against Pompeo, or to hold them accountable for their “yea” vote:  https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/115-2018/s84

3.      French president Emmanuel Macron’s speech to Congress this week warned of the dangers of succumbing to the politics of fear and anger, and asked the U.S. to maintain the Iran nuclear arms agreement and return to the Paris climate agreement. http://thehill.com/policy/international/384809-macron-rips-fear-and-anger-in-speech-to-congress. Let’s tell our MoCs that we agree with President Macron on all of these points, and ask them to work to turn this moment of goodwill between our two countries into concentrated action.

4.      "Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is proposing legislation aimed at putting an end to current payday lending practices by giving some banking services a new home: the U.S. Post Office. " (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/25/senator-gillibrand-wants-the-u-s-postal-service-to-offer-retail-banking.html)  Let's ask our senators to sign on as co-sponsors and get the Postal Banking Act (unnumbered as of yet) moving.  

5.      "The ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee [Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)] on Wednesday said that White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney should resign over comments suggesting he gave preferential treatment to lobbyists who had donated to his campaigns."  As Brown went on to say, "his comments reflect “the kind of ‘pay to play’ that understandably makes Americans furious with Washington, DC.”  (http://thehill.com/policy/finance/384853-top-banking-panel-democrat-calls-on-mulvaney-to-resign-after-lobbyist-remarks)  Let's chime in and also ask Mulvaney to resign: https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/Office-of-Management-and-Budget or tweet him at @MickMulvaneyOMB 

6.      Uber whistleblower Susan Fowler has highlighted one major change we can make to help increase accountability for sexual harassment: ending forced arbitration agreements, which allow companies to keep illegal treatment of their employees quiet (https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2018/04/10/uber-whistleblower-susan-fowler-on-what-every-company-should-do-to-stop-harassment/#6f5c8036384a). Members of Congress have introduced legislation to ban forced arbitration on sexual harassment claims. Let’s check out the Senate and House versions of the bill to see if our reps are on board, and then call them and ask them to support this effort.

7.      The Department of Defense commissioned a study of sea level rise in low-lying coral atoll islands, which shows that “on the basis of current greenhouse gas emission rates, the...interactions between sea-level rise and wave dynamics over reefs will lead to the annual wave-driven overwash of most atoll islands by the mid-21st century,” 2030 by some reckonings: http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/4/eaap9741.full  Despite the concerns expressed by its lead author—a scientist from the US Geological Survey—the DoD’s primary interest was not on the devastating effects of sea level rise on island infrastructure or the contamination of clean water except as it affects places like Roi-Namur Island in the Marshall Islands, part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Test Site: https://bit.ly/2GvG0Pk Trump’s DoD responded to this study by insisting that that blaming infrastructure damage from weather on climate change was "speculative at best and misleading.": https://bit.ly/2HugOhf Let’s make sure our MoCs demand that the Pentagon produce—and make public—the report Congress required this year assessing vulnerabilities to climate change over the next 20 years, including a list of the 10 most at-risk facilities in each service

Election 2018 – General

1.       On Wednesday, Postcards To Voters launched Campaign 79: Clark Mitchell for PA State House. The 48th State House District is in Washington County is where Conor Lamb won with 52.5% of the vote last month. If we are already volunteers, let's write 5 cards for Clark. If we are new to the effort, we can sign up as a Postcards to Voters' volunteer here. 

2.      If we are a Democrat running for office, or if we know someone who is, we can use ActiveResist to connect with our voters. With the Active Resist site, our campaign can designate a few on-line stories per day, and make a specific ask of our supporters -- primarily, follow the link and then click `like' or make a comment. Actual human activity on the stories translates to user engagement, causing Facebook, Twitter, etc., to promote those stories. We get better visibility for the news that a campaign wants people to hear, and also block out some of the chatter from the Russian bots. This service is free and we can find out more about it here: https://activeresist.com/about.html Then, we can sign up when we email them here: admin@activeresist.com

Election 2018 – By State

1.       MO: The Missouri House has given initial approval to a bill, MO HB1554, which would legalize medical marijuana for many patients. Let's read more at WTHR. Let's contact our MO state legislators to let them know we support this bill. 

Other Actions

1.       ​"A new ‘extreme vetting’ proposal from the Trump Administration would force over 14 million people per year to provide their social media histories for tourist or immigrant visas to the U.S."  (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-visa/u-s-visa-applicants-to-be-asked-for-social-media-history-state-department-idUSKBN1H611P)  Let's use this form and talking points from Open Media to voice our concerns:  https://act.openmedia.org/nosocialmedia 

2.      The Department of Education 2015-2016 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) has just been released. The CRDC is an important tool used to ensure the protection of civil rights in public schools. Activist and policy analyst Samuel Sinyangwe has posted step-by-step directions on how we can use the CRDC’s data to see whether our local schools are discriminating against marginalized groups. Let’s check out his instructions, then use the information we find to start a conversation with the schools and administrators in our communities.

3.      The NRA has broken a fifteen-year fundraising record following the Parkland shooting (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43884698). Meanwhile, legislation to help regulate firearms at the federal level seems to have recently stalled (https://www.vox.com/2018/2/27/17053968/gun-control-debate-congress-parkland). While we should make sure our MoC are supporting legislation to regulate guns and ammunition, let’s also help by providing financial support to groups like Everytown for Gun Safety, and Moms Demand Action, who show up to lobby MoC.

4.      New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof penned a devastating column on ICE’s brutal policy of separating asylum-seekers from their young children. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/opinion/family-separation-border-immigration.html The ACLU has filed suit against ICE. Let’s donate if we can, and at the very least, let’s spread the word. https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-challenges-trump-administration-practice-forcibly-separating-asylum-seeking-parents-and

5.      According to the Economic Policy Institute, teacher pay (accounting for inflation) fell by $30 per week from 1996 to 2015, while pay for other college graduates increased by $124.  Not surprisingly, striking teachers live in states with some of the largest pay gaps: 63 cents on the dollar in Arizona; 65 cents in Colorado; 67 cents in Oklahoma; 75 cents in West Virginia; and 79 cents in Kentucky. The EPI has posted a graph, showing the ratio of public school teacher wages to those of other college graduates and asked that we share this information via Facebook or Twitter:
https://www.facebook.com/EconomicPolicy/photos/a.10151281228111668.483825.100882346667/10156239247766668/  or pic.twitter.com/M5cjBWNDcL https://epi.org/145272.  Let’s support striking teachers all over the U.S., and distribute this graph as far and wide as possible.

6.      The March For Our Lives organization, which organized the huge rally in Washington DC on March 24, is continuing to encourage students to speak up against gun violence and other political issues affecting us all. They'd like to help anyone 13 years old or above learn how to set up an activism club at their school. Here's a basic description of the initiative, and a form where we can sign up to get more tips on setting up our own activism clubs: https://marchforourlives.com/local-action/ 

Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to attend/organize

1.       This fall, voting rights will be on the ballot in Florida, where people will consider a constitutional amendment to restore the vote to 1.4 million people who lost it due to a Jim Crow-era felony disenfranchisement law. These folks are disproportionately people of color (http://floridapolitics.com/archives/262116-desmond-meade-voting-rights). Tomorrow, there will be a day of action held nationwide to phonebank and build support for this ballot initiative. Let's see if there's an event near us here, and if not let's sign up to all from home here.

States

1.       ID: The deadline to get enough signatures to get Medicaid expansion on the ballot in deep-red Idaho is just days away, and the organizers are closing in fast on where they need to be (https://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/the-home-stretch-effort-to-put-medicaid-expansion-on-ballot-approaches-finish-line/Content?oid=10846352). With Medicaid under attack from Trump and the GOP, we have a chance to send a powerful message to the White House *and* help 62,000 Idahoans get health care. We can help them from anywhere in the country this weekend by making calls to recruit volunteers. We can join a virtual phonebank here, and contact reclaimidaho@gmail.com with any questions.

2.      MI: On Monday, Oil & Water Don’t Mix hosted Line 5 retirement parties across the state in recognition of the sixty-five years since the Enbridge pipeline was first commissioned (http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2018/04/activists_host_retirement_part.html). Continuing with the momentum created from the event, Oil & Water Don’t Mix is asking for volunteers to help with four action items this summer: tabling at various events, local candidate outreach, accountability for Snyder and Schuette, and the Mackinac Policy Conference Rally. Let’s sign up to help, and make sure that Line 5 is finally decommissioned.

Reading/Watching

1.       “Will America allow the suffering of black women to go unchecked, when we are leading the fight for so many others? Want to thank black women for defeating Roy Moore? For voting against Donald Trump? Protect us. Support us. Demand justice for Chikesia.” https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/chikesia-clemons-assault-waffle-house-video.html

2.      Democrats need to flip 23 seats in the fall to take back the lower chamber. Let's read this article in The Hill: Election experts see warning signs for GOP after Arizona election.  Let's keep doing what we are doing Rogan's Listers! It's working.