Rogan's List

6/20/17

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If your senators and reps aren't saved in your phone yet,

text your US postal address to (520) 200-2223 and get a text back with your

STATE & FEDERAL legislative rep phone numbers.

1. This could be a very big week for our health care system, as Mitch McConnell is reportedly going to try to force a health care vote by July 4th. https://www.axios.com/mcconnell-schedule-health-care-vote-2444017826.html Once we've contacted our senators, we can continue to try to protect 23 million people's health care by joining the ACA Defenders to call voters in key states and get them to contact their elected officials. We can sign up here:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfMiCjyVEprsCak0eifPbNorKx-C86ygqSasdbbLaA4gX874g/viewform. And let's also join the Working Families Party's Text4Resistance team to organize resisters against Trumpcare by texting: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/join-the-text4resistance-team.

2. Let's also make sure to keep calling the Trumpcare Ten; the senators, chief of staffs, and healthcare teams in ten key states https://www.trumpcareten.org/daily/ There are updated call scripts available daily to help make our phone calls as effective as possible.

3. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) thinks the senate committee working on healthcare should slow down.  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/gop-senator-warns-rushed-vote-health-care-bill/   Let's ask our own Republican senators to join Rubio in urging caution.

4. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) has introduced a non-binding resolution, HRes390, condemning the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.  170 House Democrats have already signed on. http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/338164-171-house-dems-slam-trumps-paris-agreement-withdrawal  We can check this list of co-sponsors of HRes390 for our own representatives.  https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hres390/details  Let's thank them if they are already co-sponsors and ask them to join if they are not. 

5. Americans deserve to know what the White House is up to and the press conferences that we have relied on for years need to be put back in place daily in front of the cameras and recorded. "The White House press corps vented frustration Monday with press secretary Sean Spicer for conducting off-camera briefings in place of the usual publicly broadcast briefings. Spicer conducted an off-camera briefing with reporters on Monday in which the press was told it could not film or broadcast audio of the proceedings. Spicer conducted the last on-camera briefing last Monday." http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/338457-white-house-reporters-fume-over-off-camera-briefings What are they hiding not allowing audio either? Let's support the Free Press and make a complaint to the White House.  Message here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact and/or phone (202) 456-1111 and/or snail mail:  1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington DC, 20500

6. The Regulatory Accountability Act is a corporate assault on our air, our water, workers and kids. (http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/03/the-coming-gop-assault-on-regulations-000351) Our senators need to know we're not going to let them get away with it. Let's join our friends at the Center for American Progress for a Tweetstorm today at 5PM Eastern to hold Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) (@robportman) accountable for his sponsorship of the RAA (suggested hashtags include #GoAwayRAA  #RAA  #regulation  #deregulation  #VoteNo  #Ohio  #Senate  #children  #kids  #LethalLunchboxes  #foodsafety  #cleanwater  #safetoys). And let's join progressive groups from across the country in asking our senators to give up their attack on our healthy and safety with this petition: https://petitions.signforgood.com/CorporatePowerGrab/.

7. Last week, the Senate passed a bill that would impose new sanctions on Russia for their interference with the election, invasion of the Crimea and human rights violations and would make it harder for Trump to lift those sanctions. There was nearly unanimous consensus that this was necessary… but the House GOP leadership STILL isn’t committed to actually moving it forward. http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/338046-russian-sanctions-bill-faces-uncertain-path-in-house) Let’s call our reps and tell them we want to see this bipartisan legislation taken up as soon as possible, and we want them to force action if Paul Ryan and company won’t do the right thing.

8. After the Trump administration rescinded the guidance allowing transgender students to use bathrooms which correspond with their gender identity, the Department of Education considerably scaled back its protections for transgender youth  http://wapo.st/2telKMt http://lat.ms/2sizWnE Let's give DeVos a call and let her know that we support transgender student rights and that we want the federal guidance to be reinstated. 5Calls has a call script and phone number available for us:  https://5calls.org/issue/reciMUBuyqmtozQg4

9. While we are at it….under the leadership of Secretary Betsy DeVos, the Department of Education invited two anti-LGTBQ+ groups (evangelical groups Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council) to their Father’s Day event which led to the National Parent Teacher Association pulling out from the event: https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/mollyhensleyclancy/the-education-department-quietly-invited-anti-lgbt-groups  Let’s remind Secretary DeVos that there is no need for and no room for hate at the Department of Education: Department of Education Building, 400 Maryland Ave, SW, Washington, DC 20202

10. The State Department has just pulled the rug out from many budding young Foreign Service professionals who completed the Rangel and Pickering fellowship programs: https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/opinions/global-opinions/the-state-department-just-broke-a-promise-to-minority-and-female-recruits/2017/06/18/cd1f9d44-52b9-11e7-b064-828ba60fbb98_story.html  Let’s take a moment to remind the Secretary of State that this is not the time to be back-pedaling on the development of skilled Foreign Service professionals in our increasingly complex and interconnected world: Secretary Rex Tillerson, U.S. Department of State, 2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20520

11. Although Trump has named nominees for only 84 of the 558 positions that require Senate confirmation, some are doozies.  Here are three judicial nominees who had their confirmation hearings on June 14, and now go to the Senate floor. John Bush claims that the US Supreme Court was wrong to hold that the First Amendment protects the press from most libel suits.  Kevin Newsom represents large corporate interests in civil litigation and has defended Alabama’s policy of not providing legal counsel to death row prisoners, expressed regret at the USSC’s ruling that it’s unconstitutional to execute juveniles, and has equated Roe vs. Wade to the Dred Scott decision upholding slavery.  Damien Michael Schiff is a senior attorney for a right-wing litigation firm that opposes environmental and health activism and government regulation.  http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/14/trump-judicial-nominees-civil-rights-newsom-bush-schiff-215253 Let’s call our senators to oppose:  John Bush (for the 6^th Circuit Court of Appeals), Kevin Newsom (for the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals) and Damien Michael Schiff (for the US Court of Federal Claims). 

12. Port trucking companies in southern California have been exploiting their drivers to such an extent that their plight has been compared to Southern black sharecroppers after the Civil War, according to a year-long USA Today investigative report. https://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/news/rigged-forced-into-debt-worked-past-exhaustion-left-with-nothing/ If we live in California, let’s contact our state reps and also Attorney General Xavier Becerra (contact info on both here: http://hq-salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5950/getLocal.jsp) and tell them that these damaging and unconscionable violations or workers’ right must stop. Let’s all of us tell our MoCs that we want Congress to investigate and act on this matter, and let’s tell the Department Of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to act as well. Call  800-321-6742, or write 200 Constitution Ave, NW, Room N3626, Washington, DC 20210.

Other Actions

1. CORRECTION:  Fox 5 in Atlanta tells us that they did not air the baseball shooting/anti-Ossoff ad.  Let’s thank them on their Facebook page for not doing so:  https://www.facebook.com/fox5atlanta/

2. The number of hate groups in the United States is rising http://bit.ly/2lPK1Vw At the same time, they are finding financial support through crowdfunding http://bit.ly/2rxPkMw One way of fighting back against these hate groups is by making sure that financial corporations are not enabling them. Let's ask companies like Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, and Paypal, to adopt strict policies against hate groups. We can tweet them @Visa, @ Mastercard, @Discover, @AmericanExpress, @Paypal, and sign Sum Of Us' petition http://bit.ly/2rvOA9J

3. 19 children are killed or injured by guns every day in the U.S.  This is now the third leading cause of death among children. If any other preventable public issues was claiming that many children’s lives, we would all marshal behind a eradication effort.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2017/06/19/american-denial-about-facts-on-guns-continues-to-kill-children/#55ca11da4a9a No one really wants children to die this way. Let’s contact the NRA, in their role as the largest gun lobby, and ask how they can help more children live:  https://contact.nra.org/contact-us.aspx

4. If we are looking for a quiet #resist activity, we can do like Katie Hinde and whenever we see the opportunity, move some of the NASA and other traditionally “boy” clothes into the girls section of clothing stores.  Unfortunately, the backlash against this move on Hinde’s part unleashed some very negative comments.  http://www.today.com/parents/woman-creates-buzz-moving-nasa-shirts-girls-section-t112770   Let’s reach out to Hinde to thank her for this great idea!  Our girls need these clothes, too!  https://biodesign.asu.edu/katie-hinde

5. Many of us like to print our own postcards and like to find sites that feature ready-to-download #resistance designs.  Thanks to Postcards for America, we can find several  here:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BySOYq_aiqT1c1c4TDQ0YXRkUjA?usp=sharing and here:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BySOYq_aiqT1UEp3amd4WmduNTQ/view?usp=sharing  Keep checking back as there will be more!  If you have any to add, send a message to Postcards for America on their Facebook page. 

Learning

1. It doesn’t matter what anyone calls it, but studies by Tulane University indicate that the Louisiana coast is sinking faster than previously thought. http://www.newsweek.com/climate-change-louisiana-coast-sinking-626095   

2. Teen Vogue taught us last December about gaslighting and Trump, but it seems it is a good time for us to read it again:  http://www.teenvogue.com/story/donald-trump-is-gaslighting-america  Then, let’s read this article on how to survive it:  http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-is-gaslighting-america-heres-how-to-survive-2017-3

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