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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.
Trump and the Republicans are in such a rush to take health care away
from millions of Americans that they are once again trying to pass a bill
before it can be fully assessed by the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO
will not be able to provide estimates on the effects of the new Trumpcare on
the deficit, health insurance coverage or premiums for at least several weeks,
and the Republicans want a vote before September 30th (http://www.businessinsider.com/cbo-score-graham-cassidy-bill-coverage-losses-2017-9).
Let’s call our senators and tell them it would be irresponsible to vote on this
bill before they receive this information. And let’s contact our House members
and tell them to support H. Res. 441, which would change the rules of the House to
prohibit the consideration of any bill until a CBO cost estimate has been made
available.
2.
President Obama spoke at the Gates Foundation on
Wednesday and spoke about health care: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/obamas-speech-at-the-gates-foundation-in-three-minutes/2017/09/20/07ccc002-9e2d-11e7-b2a7-bc70b6f98089_video.html?utm_term=.252919c2c912
Let's remind all Republican senators that if they vote for the Graham-Cassidy
bill, they can no longer refer to themselves as pro-life.
3.
Only one hearing will be held on the Graham-Cassidy
health care bill. It is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 25 at 2pm in 215 Dirksen
Senate Office Building. http://wjla.com/news/nation-world/health-care-industry-groups-line-up-against-graham-cassidy-bill Any individual or organization wanting to
present their views for inclusion in the hearing record should submit a
typewritten, single-spaced statement, not exceeding 10 pages in length. Title
and date of the hearing, and the full name and address of the individual or
organization must appear on the first page of the statement. We can email
the committee here: GCHcomments@finance.senate.gov
or mail our comments (must be received by Oct. 9) here: Senate Committee on Finance, Attn. Editorial
and Document Section, Rm. SD-219, Dirksen Senate Office Bldg., Washington, DC
20510-6200.
4.
Ajit Pai, chairman of the FCC, needs to be reconfirmed
by the Senate by the end of the year in order to maintain his current
position http://bit.ly/2yqtjSR Pai
has spearheaded efforts to do away with net neutrality http://bit.ly/2umR8eN Let's
call our senators to make sure that they vote to oppose his re-confirmation. We
can also send a letter through the Free Press Action Fund, an organization
dedicated to preserving free and open internet: http://act.freepress.net/sign/internet_fire_pai
5.
The Senate will be voting on Trump's nominee for the
EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, Bill Wehrum.
Wehrum has a history of defending coal and gas industries as an attorney, and
led efforts to weaken clean air efforts in his previous role with the EPA http://bit.ly/2wVzSwj Currently,
Wehrum is defending industry groups in court, against Occupational Safety and
Health Administration’s (OSHA) silica dust rule http://bit.ly/2yfZm6Y Let's
call our senators and ask them to oppose Bill Wehrum as Assistant Administrator
for the Office of Air and Radiation. We can also edit and send the National
Resource Defense Council's (NRDC) letter to our senators https://act.nrdc.org/letter/af-wehrum-nom-170919
6.
"As Senate Republicans continue their campaign to
garner enough votes to pass a last minute repeal of Obamacare, one of the key
holdouts, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), just made a telling move. The Maine
Senator has teamed up with a Florida Democrat, Senator Bill Nelson, to
introduce legislation to stabilize existing ACA insurance markets. On CNN,
Collins said that the Graham-Cassidy bill contains “many of the same flaws of
the bill we rejected previously and in fact, it has some additional flaws.” As
such, political experts are placing her in the “no” column for the upcoming
vote." http://newyorkjournals.com/trumpcare-holdout-senator-collins-just-left-republicans-stunned-bold-move/ Let's send her a thank you tweet for her
bipartisanship and her efforts to save healthcare for Americans.
@SenatorCollins or https://www.collins.senate.gov/contact
7.
After an inane and untruthful reply from Sen. Bill
Cassidy, Jimmy Kimmel went at it again in his Wednesday night monologue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB5Hek7Z2b8Let’s
let this fuel us to keep reaching our MoC and to contact friends and family in
key states like Arizona and Alaska to ask them to make themselves heard. We can
also take a moment to thank Kimmel: Mr. Jimmy Kimmel, El Capitan Entertainment
Center,6840
Hollywood Blvd, LA, CA 90028
8.
First Lady Melania Trump spoke at the UN on
Wednesday: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/20/melania-trump-un-lunch-bullying-242920With
no apparent sense of irony, she said, “No child should ever feel hungry,
stalked, frightened, terrorized, bullied, isolated or afraid, with nowhere to
turn… We need to step up, come together, and ensure that our children's future
is bright." Let’s remind First Lady Trump that POTUS’s actions against
DACA recipients, Muslims, LGTBQ+ people and many other groups do not meet this
standard: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20500
9.
In case we needed more evidence of the political
motivations driving the Graham-Cassidy effort to repeal the ACA, we now know
who will gain and who will lose under a health care block grant system.
The biggest losses are to those, mostly blue, states that expanded Medicaid,
some of them to the tune of $2000+ per person. And guess who gains? https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/19/us/blue-states-lose-republican-health-plan.html We
must call our senators and stop this bill in its tracks: 202-224-3121. There are reports that our
phone calls are down!
10. "A
new analysis shared exclusively with the Guardian has found that 80% of
nominations for top jobs in the Trump
administration have gone to men – putting Donald Trump on track to
assemble the most male-dominated federal government in nearly a
quarter-century. Without a significant shift, men will outnumber women
four-to-one in top positions of the Trump administration. “If you’re not
intentional about it [diversity], it won’t happen,” said Don Gips, who served
as the White House personnel director for the first six months of Obama’s
presidency." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/21/trump-is-assembling-the-most-male-dominated-government-in-decades
Let's ask the White House for diversity:
more women, and people of color: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
11. Trump's
pick for a federal judgeship in Texas has said gay marriage will lead to
bestiality, has advocated for gay conversion therapy and has suggested
transgender children are evidence “of Satan’s plan.” Let's check out this Newsweek article about Jeff Mateer then contact our
Senators to tell them to oppose this inappropriate nominee.
12. Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base chaplain Captain Sonny Hernandez is asserting that
Christians in the U.S. Armed Forces “serve Satan” and are “grossly in error” if
they support service members' right to practice other faiths per this Newsweek article. The Military Religious
Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has filed multiple requests that Hernandez be
investigated by the Department of Defense's (DoD) inspector general. Let's join
them by writing to the DoD inspector general asking for an investigation of
this obviously-compromised chaplain. Write to: Glenn A. Fine, Acting Inspector
General, Office of the Inspector General, 4800 Mark Center Dr, Alexandria
VA 22350-1500.
13. The
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is set to expire on Sept. 30. A bipartisan bill to
continue it has come out of the Senate Finance Committee. It starts out with federal matching rate of
23% as now directed by the ACA, but with a dwindling rate over the five-year
span of the bill. http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/senate-finance-committee-extends-chip-funding-5-years If the CHIP program is not continued,
millions of lives will be at risk: https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/09/18/failure-to-finalize-childrens-health-insurance-bill-could-leave-millions-at-risk/ Let’s let our senators know that we want this
successful program to continue for the sake of our children. The US Climate Alliance, an alliance of 14 state governors
committed to upholding the Paris climate accords by instituting state policies
to fight global warming, unveiled a study produced by the Rhodium research
group saying they were on track to meet their share of the Obama
administration’s promise under the accord: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-20/despite-trump-states-still-on-pace-to-reach-paris-climate-goals
We still badly need federal action on climate change, but while the deniers are
in power, we should urge our states to join the alliance. The current
members are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts,
Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia
and Washington; plus Puerto Rico. If our state is not yet among these,
let’s let our governors know we want them to join.
14. "Moran,
a Plainville Republican, helped sink two unpopular repeal-and-replace
bills earlier this summer, though he later voted for repeal-only versions. His office
said Wednesday he still was undecided on Senate Republicans’ latest
efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare." http://cjonline.com/news/state-government/2017-09-20/sen-jerry-moran-undecided-latest-push-obamacare-repeal
Let's add one more phone call to our list to KILL THE BILL. We have
another one on the fence, let's bring him over to our side. Contact
info: https://www.moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-info
15. Whatever
other world leaders might have thought, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu loved
Trump’s speech before the UN on Tuesday--and especially loved his threats
to the Iran agreement. Not surprisingly, given this cozy relationship,
the Israeli-owned defense manufacturer, Elta North America, was just granted
somewhere between $3 and $500,000 to produce a prototype for Donald’s border
wall: http://www.newsweek.com/trump-wall-israeli-company-make-prototype-200000-mile-long-mexico-border-wall-664968
We need to tell the White House that we don’t want this wall—and that we
certainly don’t want Israeli wall-builders to profit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
16. Even
with the costs of climate change becoming more and more apparent, Trump and the
Republicans are focusing on even more giveaways to the oil and gas industry at
the expense of our planet. Their 2018 budget plan relies on revenue from
opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to new oil and gas drilling (http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/342566-house-budget-could-lead-to-alaska-refuge-drilling).
Let’s join the Sierra Club in contacting Congress and demanding they protect
ANWR and reject this budget at this link:
https://sierra.secure.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0089071
17. We
may be days away from Trump and the Republicans winning a critical victory on
the way to taking away our health care (http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/19/politics/graham-cassidy-whip-list-health-care-bill/index.html).
But we’ve beaten them before, and we can beat them again. There are a few
critical swing votes we absolutely need to win. Let’s use this call tool to
reach out to voters represented by those key senators, urge them to voice their
opposition to Obamacare repeal, and connect them with senate offices: https://www.trumpcareten.org/calls-to-kill-trumpcare.
18. From
Postcards for
America: Senators and Reps have sent a letter to the Federal Election
Commission (FEC) urging the agency to consider new rules that would prevent
foreign nationals from using online advertising platforms, like Facebook and
Twitter, to influence U.S. elections. Following the revelation that Russia
purchased Facebook advertisements during the 2016 election to attempt to
influence American voters, there has been increasing concern about the lack of
transparency in political ads in online advertising platforms. In the
letter they expressed their concern that no guidelines exist for advertising
platforms to better prevent foreign nationals from illicitly spending in future
U.S. elections. Apparently, the
Republican FEC commissioners will only agree to hold a hearing if they “receive
enough substantive written comments.”
Let’s use the guidelines in this doc and provide those necessary written
comments: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fCeTUabXYcc6nEZuRkNnlpOhmnDu1jQwGbLGQoVDt9Q/edit
State Actions
1.
OH: "The Hazel Ginsburg well, an injection well
built in the hillside decades ago, was meant to deposit saline and sand
underground into porous rock. For the last few years, however, the well has
held waste from out-of-state fracking operations done in Pennsylvania, West
Virginia and other states. It can feel remote here to outsiders. A long hour
and a half drive to the airport. Across state lines to West Virginia for a
Target. I believe that’s also what drew fracking companies here – fewer people
to make a fuss, and the kind of people that others sometimes don’t care about:
the poor." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/21/appalachia-ohio-fracking-wells-toxic Let your friends and family in Ohio know
about this fracking pollution so they can address the issue with state
government. This small town wants to stay clean and continue to produce healthy
organic foods.
2.
VA: Join
FLIPPABLE for a Day of Action in Virginia! "We're weeks away from a
pivotal election in Virginia, and we need your volunteer spirit more than ever.
Please join flippable on October 7th or 8th for a Day of Action to
support our inspiring progressive candidates in Virginia. Volunteers will knock
on doors, make calls, and support campaigns in five key flippable districts.
Sign up to volunteer for our VA Day of Action! Can't volunteer, but still
want to contribute? You might consider donating... https://www.flippable.org/virginia-house/
3.
VA: As reported in the Prince William Times, incumbent Delegate
Bob Marshall (R-District 13) refuses to debate Democratic challenger Danica
Roem who is transgender. Marshall says Roem's campaign has referred
to him as “Bigot Bob,” an insult he says “disqualifies” the two from
face-to-face discourse and suggests Roem is more interested in
"hurling insults" than discussing public policy. In the same
interview, Marshall doubled down on calling Roem, a transgender woman,
"he," asking a reporter: "Why do you call Danica a female? Did Danica's
DNA change?" Let's tell Delegate Marshall that we are interested in
policy, not the gender of our candidates, and that we want him to debate
Roem. Write to Delegate Bob Marshall at his district office: P.O. Box
421, Manassas VA 20108 or call:(703)
853-4213 or email: DelBMarshall@house.virginia.gov
4.
UT: The Utah School board has dropped middle school
arts and health requirements per this article in the Salt Lake Tribune. If we are Utahns
and want this to change, we need to let Utah State Board of Education (USBE)
know. Write to USBE: PO Box 144200, Salt Lake City, Utah
84114-4200 or call: (801)
538-7500 or email mark.peterson@schools.utah.gov
Other Actions
1.
"Doxing is the violent Internet-based
practice of researching and broadcasting private or identifiable information
about an individual or organization in order to harass and traumatize activists
from organizing activity." Hopefully most of us will not need this,
but if we are a target of right-wing harassment online, here's a best practices
guide to protect ourselves and our personal information: https://medium.com/@EqualityLabs/anti-doxing-guide-for-activists-facing-attacks-from-the-alt-right-ec6c290f543c
2. Last
March, ProPublica a nonprofit newsroom that produces
investigative journalism in the public interest, was “looking for civically engaged people to help us fact-check what members
of Congress are sending to their constituents” regarding the repeal/replacement
of the ACA. https://www.propublica.org/getinvolved/help-us-fact-check-members-of-congress-on-the-affordable-care-act While
we are now involved in yet another version of repeal/replace, let’s tell
ProPublica what we are hearing now. Use
the link above for a form to use.
Petitions
1.
Let’s join the DCCC,
the official campaign arm of the Democrats in the House, in telling Republicans
to “stop attacking Obamacare”: https://action.dccc.org/petition/stop-attacking-obamacare
Marches/events/teleconferences
to attend/organize
1.
Organizing For Action (OFA) will be hosting a call this
morning, September 22nd, at 11am ET to discuss how we can fight
back against the SHARE Act. The SHARE Act (H.R. 3668) would deregulate the sale
of firearm silencers, and it has already made its way out of committee https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr3668 Let's
sign up to join OFA's call and learn how we can help stop this bill from
progressing any further https://www.ofa.us/fight-back-against-the-gun-lobby/
Reading/Watching
1. "Fake news" may be a real problem,
but there are more fundamental issues at play: "many Americans lack
fundamental civics knowledge, according to the recent Constitution Day Civics Survey by the Annenberg Public Policy
Center of the University of Pennsylvania, and therefore cannot understand
current events."http://www.newsweek.com/trumps-america-americans-basic-knowledge-understand-current-events-667106 If we are to succeed long-term in
building a better society, education must come first.
2. “Why is Betsy DeVos and Bill Gates Afraid of
this Grandmother?” -- https://www.facebook.com/networkforpubliced/videos/1572760702785702/
3. With all the fear about cutting back health
care, the news out of Flint is very troubling:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/21/flints-lead-poisoned-water-had-a-horrifyingly-large-effect-on-fetal-deaths-study-finds/?utm_term=.64ecdb9b8346
Rogan’s
List is a participant in and strategic part ner 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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