Rogan's List

10/22/18 

Contact Federal Government Officials

Find elected officials: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Fax legislators for free: 

Reps:  https://faxzero.com/fax_congress.php

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

Or use Resistbot:  https://resist.bot/

Or use StampsLicked to have messages hand-delivered to our own legislators:  https://stampslicked.org/

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.       This week in Congress:  The Senate is now on recess till after the Midterm Elections except for the Senate Judiciary Committee which is meeting starting Wednesday to continue hearings for judicial candidates. (Source: Judiciary Committee) Senate Democrats raised specific alarms about moving ahead on "controversial" nominees to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. More on this at Politico. Let's continue to contact our Senators if they are on the Senate Judiciary Committee to let them know we object to their nominees. They need to know we are still paying attention. The House is out of town until after the midterm elections, returning to Washington DC on November 13.  

2.      From the IEB Judiciary Team:  Here is a new set of postcard scripts against Trump's judicial nominees. Many groups are postcarding for the election, so this is another sheet of suggestions to put on the tables. I realize people are too busy with elections to pay much attention to judicial nominations. I hope using postcard scripts will be more election-friendly!  Link:  https://indivisibleeb.org/judiciary/postcards/

3.      From one of our own:  Here is a listing to help us keep track of calls for public comment that are ending soon.  Here’s the newest – for the Week ending Oct. 26- ending soon time to comment on rollback of Obama clean air/clean power plans:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1govWhpB_8MFeS_hFk9-QKt3PhGnAM6de/view?usp=sharing

4.      It's been 84 days since the Trump administration missed its deadline to reunite all of the children it forcibly separated from their parents at the border. More than 100 are still in government custody.  Some children are still being separated, and some are being placed for adoption without their parents' knowledge or consent. Trump is considering new ways to separate families, while at least 1,600 unaccompanied children have been moved to an internment camp in the Texas desert. Even worse, Trump plans to scrap rules that now protect children in custody. We have a chance to help, but we must act now.  The public comment period on Trump's proposal to scrap the Flores Settlement, which protects kids in custody, closes on election day!  We can speak out against this by submitting our comments via this form from the American Immigration Lawyers Association:   https://www.aila.org/takeaction#/

5.      “The Trump administration is considering narrowly defining gender as a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth, the most drastic move yet in a governmentwide effort to roll back recognition and protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law. Now the Department of Health and Human Services is spearheading an effort to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive government financial assistance, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times. The department argued in its memo that key government agencies needed to adopt an explicit and uniform definition of gender as determined “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.” The agency’s proposed definition would define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with, according to a draft reviewed by The Times. Any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified using genetic testing.” 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/us/politics/transgender-trump-administration-sex-definition.html   or  https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/412418-trump-administration-considering-narrowing-legal-definition-of-gender  Let’s make sure to contact the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services (1-202-205-5445; https://www.facebook.com/HHS/; Twitter: @HHS.gov), and tell them we want transgender individuals to be protected for who they are. Sharing personal stories about ourselves and/or our friends and family members, may be more effective than simply expressing opposition. Let’s also press our MoCs to introduce legislation that protects the rights of transgender and genderqueer individuals to identify as who they are.

6.      A faith-based South Carolina adoption agency is using the Federal Religious Freedom Act (FRFA) as grounds for asking the administration to deny Jews, Muslims, Unitarians, or anyone who “violates a tenet of their faith” from becoming foster parents in their network. https://theintercept.com/2018/10/19/south-carolina-foster-parent-discrimination-miracle-hill-ministries/  This extension of discrimination is even more shameful considering the extreme need for foster parents due to the opioid epidemic. Let’s make sure to contact the Department of Health and Human Services (1-202-205-5445; https://www.facebook.com/HHS/; Twitter: @HHS.gov) and tell them that this is religious discrimination, not religious freedom, and a violation of the First Amendment. Let’s also ask our MoCs to introduce legislation that clearly defines the limits of the FRFA.

Election 2018 – General

1.       ND Native Vote (@NDNativeVote on Twitter) is organizing a get-out-the-Native-vote effort in North Dakota and is looking for Native attorneys or law students to work with them in ND in at least 4 locations on the ground over the next few weeks.  If you are interested, email: Prose@ndnativevote.org  

2.      With obvious efforts at voter disenfranchisement around the country, it is clear that we need to ensure transparency and fairness at the polls. One way our country does this is through the use of poll watchers/monitors. Election Protection is an organization that mobilizes volunteers throughout the U.S. in order to protect the right to vote, by "provid[ing] voter information, document[ing] problems they encounter when voting and work[ing] with partners and volunteers on the ground to identify and remove barriers to voting." We can help by volunteering to become a non-partisan poll monitor through Election Protection, then let's check out their training resources, and help protect our fellow citizens' right to vote at the midterms. We can also help by letting our friends and neighbors know that if they encounter any problems while trying to vote, they can call the Election Protection legal hotlines (available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Bengali, Hindu, Urdu, and Tagalog), with the phone numbers listed here. For the attorneys, paralegals, and law students among us, we can volunteer to assist with these hotlines by signing up here.

3.      It's getting harder to find issues or causes that are both meaningful and truly bipartisan, but here's one: election security. We've been hearing that our voting process and ballot machines are vulnerable to hacking, and to just regular mistakes too (hanging chads, anyone?), but now there's a way for us to check the specifics for our own counties at https://www.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/. The info provided by this easy-to-use tool is exactly what's needed to know if our votes are secure, and to hold our local/state election officials to account if not. The website also has information about how to get involved in better securing elections in our districts and supporting the great work done by Verified Voting.

4.      Some voters will be encountering long lines at the polls—so long, that they may have to stand in line for hours. Let’s make the wait less dreary by donating to Pizza to the Polls, a group that delivers pizza to waiting voters when it receives reports of long lines at the polls. https://polls.pizza/ We can report long lines there, too!

5.      Postcards To Voters assigned over 1.2 million addresses in the last 44 days! Eight (8) campaigns are currently open including three (3) new ones: 1) Campaign 123: Gillum and Babis for Florida Governor and State Senator; 2) Campaign 124: Julie Kushner for Connecticut State Senator; 3) Campaign 125: Ammar Campa-Najjar for Congress, California district 50. Working together we are reaching voters five cards at a time. Let's request 5 cards today for one or more of the new campaigns. If one of these campaigns is local for us, let's plan a postcard party with our friends and like-minded neighbors. If we are new volunteers, let's email: JOIN@TonyTheDemocrat.org to get started.

6.      From one of our own:  This list of GOTV postcarding campaigns in CA and other states has been updated, to remove completed campaigns and add new current ones, including the Postcards To Voters races! The url is https://tinyurl.com/CA-Dem-GOTV-Postcards and the url on where to get postcards is https://tinyurl.com/where-get-postcards

7.      SwingLeft is looking for phone bankers.   They are strategically directing the calls they make into specific districts where their remote phone banking help is most needed. And all we need is a phone and a computer or tablet with internet access. It does not matter where we live. Let’s check out more here: https://swingleft.org/p/call-voters

8.     The fight for the Senate continues. To stop McConnell and Trump’s attacks on Healthcare, Social Security and Medicare, we need a Democratic Majority and every seat counts. One of our chances to pick up a seat is in Tennessee, where Phil Breseden’s race continues to be very close. If we are interested in volunteering from out of state to make phone calls in his support we can email:  olivia.P@victorytennessee.org.

9.      With Election Day only weeks away, one thing we can do to help ensure a safe, fair election process is to become a poll worker. When we click on this link here., from the U.S. Election Commission, we can find out the requirements for our states. If we qualify, we can then see where and how we can sign up:  https://www.eac.gov/voters/become-a-poll-worker/

Election 2018 – By State

1.       ALL:  Upcoming voting dates and deadlines:  by date:  https://goo.gl/gjFv2u   by state:  https://goo.gl/7gTzvE

2.      ALL:  If we are not sure where to start looking for information about candidates, issues, etc., we can check this out:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NCYjsm3xKb79z19Gx7PWt5Zs9lkLiTqglHBHYs9mlX8/edit

Other Actions

1.       From Chop Wood Carry Water:  Another super awesome group to text for that is easy, easy, easy is Ignite Change (the national grassroots organizing force of the Center for Biological Diversity). If the environment is your big issue, this is a great place to put your energy. Their texting is super straightforward, and until the midterms they'll be focusing all on green candidates. Yay! Sign up here and they'll walk you through the simple process!

 Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to attend/organize

1.       Conditions in Rukban Refugee Camp are desperate. Syrian Refugees, mainly children and the elderly, on the brink of starvation as 65,000 of them are trapped without food, medicine or water. Even as a glimmer of hope appears, with a chance of some aid being allowed to try and reach the camp, political turf wars continue to jeopardize these refugees’ lives. We can help raise awareness to demand these vulnerable people are not forgotten and that they receive the aid and care they need in a continuing basis, when we join this TwitterStorm on Monday, October 22 at 3-4pm. EDT.  We can find out more about the event when we click on this link. Prewritten tweets will be available for us on Monday, making it simple to help out with just a few clicks.

https://www.facebook.com/events/2197111347224191

2.      January 19, 2019 is the date of the third Women’s March with the main event to be held in Washington, D.C. with sister marches all over the country.  Let’s find more information here:  https://www.womensmarch.com/2019

States

Find elected state officials: https://openstates.org/

1.       MI: Governor Snyder has made a deal with Enbridge to decommission Line 5, by constructing a tunnel in which a new pipeline will be run under the Straits of Mackinac, under the ownership and responsibility of the Mackinac Bridge Authority (http://www.michiganradio.org/post/snyder-announces-deal-enbridge-create-new-pipeline-tunnel-straits-mackinac). Meanwhile, Mackinac Bridge Authority board members have stated that they were not consulted on the plan, and are interested in hearing more from the public before they take a vote on anything (http://radio.wcmu.org/post/bridge-authority-hopes-have-more-details-role-line-5-tunnel-next-meeting#stream/0). Let's go ahead and share our thoughts with Mackinac Bridge Authority Secretary Bob Sweeney. We can find more information, talking points, and contact information at Oil & Water Don't Mix.

2.      MI: From PFLAG of Greater Lansing: “Please share with your networks: The Michigan Civil Rights Commission is holding hearings on discrimination in Michigan's K-12 schools and the next one is scheduled for November 19 in Detroit. (Watch this space for all the details soon!) Do you have a story to share but can't make it to the hearing? The Commission wants to hear from you. Send your written comments (or a video in American Sign Language) to MCRC-Comments@michigan.gov  The Commission is eager to hear about disparities related to sex, race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities and more. Your voice matters. Please distribute widely”

Reading/Watching

1.       Trump has turned words into weapons. And he's winning the linguistic war: From ‘spygate’ to ‘fake news’, Trump is using language to frame – and win – debates. And the press operate like his marketing agency   – by linguist George Lakoff - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/13/how-to-report-trump-media-manipulation-language

2.      Sidelined children's health official says EPA inaction means "kids are disposable" - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/epa-childrens-health-official-ruth-etzel-epa-kids-disposable/

3.      To effectively revive our democracy, we must fully understand the forces that are working to kill it. Let’s read Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, by Duke University historian Nancy MacLean, and let’s recommend it as required reading to our state legislators (look up: https://openstates.org/)  and MoCs.