8/8/17
The Rogan’s List Team is
on vacation through August 13, but because of the extension of the Senate
calendar we have decided to run a smaller list during this time. We look
forward to being back to the full list on August 14.
Contact Federal
Government Officials
Find your legislators here: https://www.theloyalopposition.net/rep-finder/
OR
Search all members of Congress here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/current
OR
Fax your legislators for free: Reps:
https://faxzero.com/fax_congress.php
and Senate: https://faxzero.com/fax_senate.php
OR
Find senators’ Twitter and Facebook Accounts here:
Find representatives on Twitter here:
********************************
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 their contact information.
1. Trump went on a Twitter rant
yesterday, attacking Senator Richard Blumenthal (http://wnpr.org/post/blumenthal-trump-battle-over-russian-investigation).
We’re going to show Senator Blumenthal we have his back in the most important
way possible. Let’s tell our MoCs we support the bill Trump is angry with him
about, the bipartisan Special Counsel Independence Protection Act blocking
Trump from firing the special counsel without cause, and we want them to demand
action on it as soon as possible. Let’s also take a moment to let Senator
Blumenthal know we appreciate his forthright leadership about the Russia issue
at his office: https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/.
Those of us on Twitter should tweet @senblumenthal to let him know we made the call…
and add #RogansHeroes to our tweets!
2. The Republicans are
having trouble getting the Wrong Choice Act through the Senate, so they're
trying to force it through by including key provisions in the Financial
Services appropriations bill (https://www.bna.com/spending-
3. Senator Tammy Duckworth
(D-IL) has introduced bills to bar the deportation of veterans convicted of
non-violent offenses and to create a path to citizenship through military
service (http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/345242-dem-senator-introduces-legislation-aimed-at-halting-veteran-deportations).
Let’s tell our two senators to support Senate bills S1704 and S1725. We can
thank Senator Duckworth for introducing these bills at: Tammy Duckworth, 524
Hart SOB, Washington, DC 20510.
4. We’re headed towards another
unnecessary debt ceiling crisis, and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) is taking
action. He announced yesterday that he will introduce legislation that would
abolish the debt ceiling for good, so that it is no longer a question whether
or not the United States will pay its bills (http://thehill.com/policy/finance/345667-top-dem-seeks-to-abolish-debt-ceiling).
Let’s call our members of Congress and tell them we want them to support
efforts to abandon the debt ceiling – and that in the meantime we want them to
vote for a clean debt ceiling hike and not risk a global economic meltdown.
5. Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson has continued to deny visas to the visa lottery program
winners from six countries since the Supreme Court ruled on the limited
travel ban in June (http://bit.ly/2veyhRB). If the winners do
not have their visas by September 30th,
six days after the ban ends, then the visas will expire and they will lose any
realistic chance of acquiring a visa to the U.S. Last week, the ACLU sued
Tillerson for his refusal to issue the visas. Let's send the ACLU a big
"thank you" for their continued efforts in defending immigrants'
rights: 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York NY 10004, 212-549-2500. For those of us with the means,
we can also send a donation: https://action.aclu.
State Actions
1.
WA: Let’s help
Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson achieve his legislative priorities,
which include banning the sale of assault weapons and large capacity magazines,
requiring background checks for people seeking to purchase such weapons,
expanding access to justice for military service members and veterans,
establishing consumer protections around student loans, addressing human
trafficking, and more. If we’re in Washington, let’s check out this list for
our AG’s legislative agenda, http://www.atg.wa.gov/2017-legislative-agenda,
and ask our state reps to support it: http://app.leg.wa.gov/MemberEmail/.
We can find our districts here: http://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder.
2.
MA: Teen activits from one of Boston's poorest neighborhoods estimate that TD Garden, Boston's giant sports and entertainment arena, owes $13.8 million for the benefit of the city's public recreation centers. The teens want the money to help
pay for a $30 million construction project that will bring a new rec center/ice
skating rink to a neighborhood of about 26,000 black and Latino youth. (https://www.bostonglobe.com/
Other Actions
1. On
Saturday there was a bombing at the Dar Al
Farooq Islamic Center outside of Minneapolis: http://mobile.reuters.com/
2. With the August recess for Congress
here, we have arrived at a critical time for us to engage with our elected
officials. Rise Stronger has prepared a document to provide us with the
information we need to ask challenging, hard-hitting questions of our
representatives at town halls, meetings, or other events. We can check out
their Recess Guide, complete with issue background info and sample questions to
ask, here: https://risestronger.org/newsroom/peoplesaugustrecessguide.
3. The Indivisible Guide is shifting
tactics during the August recess by getting local organizers to canvass in our
communities. By canvassing, we can hold direct conversations with our fellow
constituents, discussing our MoC’s votes on the CA repeal and asking that they
contact their MoC and hold them accountable for their vote. We can leran more
about canvassing and find local recess events here: http://recess.indivisibleguide.com/.
We can also download Indivisible Guide’s canvassing packet: http://bit.ly/2hCmQQq.
4. 2016 was the first presidential election
in more than 50 years held without the full protections of the Voting Rights
Act. Predictably, the result was widespread voter suppression (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/12/the-real-voting-scandal-of-2016).
Lawyers for Good Government is fighting back with their Election Watch program
to make sure there’s a trained monitor keeping tabs on voting changes at the
local level year-round. This can be a lawyer, a paralegal, a law student or
ANYONE with knowledge of the election system and voting in their district! Let’s
sign up to represent our counties, and pass this on to people who we think
might be interested. We can get on board and get more info here: http://www.lawyersforgoodgovernment.org/blog/electionwatch.
Correction: Congress is on recess
and members should be back in their home communities. It's our chance to be
heard, preferably in person. Let's check townhallproject.com to see if our
MoCs are holding town halls in our communities. If they are, great! Let's check
the best practices for attending a town hall here: https://www.indivisibleguide.com/guide/advocacy-tactics/town-halls/. Keep in mind that some MoCs will hold town halls at
inconvenient times, or else tele-town halls, if they're seeking to avoid
constituents. Robert Reich has a couple of quick videos about why we shouldn't
let them get away with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay_VltA0Zfg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBJIoc4ixi8. If our MoCs are not holding town halls AT ALL, let's call
or write to make sure their staff know that we want them to schedule some!
Reading/Watching
1. Amy Siskind is keeping
a list of all the not-normal things that happen every week. Let's check out the
list from last week, week 38: https://medium.com/@Amy_
2. This is an excellent
op-ed in the New York Times about the interconnections of Trump’s policies and
“the politics of white resentment”: https://mobile.nytimes.com/
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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