Rogan's List

2/15/18

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

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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.       Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) took the Senate floor on Wednesday afternoon with the intended purpose of discussing immigration legislation. Instead, he took a moment to castigate his Senate colleagues for having failed to legislate stricter gun laws as reports emerged of a mass school shooting in Florida. Murphy, who dealt with the Newtown massacre firsthand, said.    "This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America — this epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting,” Murphy said on the Senate floor. It only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction,” he continued. “We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else.”  http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/373890-murphy-scourge-of-school-shooting-after-shooting-only-happens-in-us  Calls for “thoughts and prayers” statements are already being issued by the GOP.  Next, we will hear, “This is not the time to talk about gun control.” Same old story, while our children die at the hands of armed gunmen in school. Let’s keep the pressure on all our legislators, sensible gun laws make sense.

2.      Here it is, the “thoughts and prayers” tweets from some GOP that take NRA money. “The New York Daily News highlighted contributions that Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Rob Portman (Ohio) and other GOP senators have received from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other gun rights groups after the senators tweeted about a shooting Wednesday at a Florida high school. The tweets from the left-leaning New York tabloid highlighted the criticism GOP senators have increasingly come under from proponents of gun control for expressing sorrow over gun violence tragedies while taking money from the NRA.”  http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/373922-ny-daily-news-calls-out-gop-senators  Let’s call out these campaign donations from the NRA to our own Reps. This money does not belong in any candidates’ election coffers. NO NRA money in elections.

3.      “The Senate has opened debate on immigration, and there are at least seven proposals on the table.”  Here is a helpful chart that compares significant issues:  https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/14/17013570/senate-immigration-proposal-charts Let’s use this info to contact our senators to let them know that we want a plan that protects the Dreamers and their families as well as extended families of other immigrants. 

4.      Intelligence chiefs, Democrats, and even some Republicans all acknowledge that Russia interfered with our election in 2016, and that mounting evidence indicates that it intends to do the same in 2018. Efforts to protect our elections from foreign meddling have lagged thus far, so let's tell our senators to take concrete action by co-sponsoring and advancing both S.27, a bill to create a bipartisan commission to uncover the details of Russia's interference in 2016, and S.2261 (The Secure Elections Act). http://time.com/5155810/russian-meddling-2018-elections/

5.      From Suit Up Maine:  The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a cornerstone civil rights law enacted in 1990 following decades of work by Americans with disabilities and their advocates. House Republicans are now trying to roll back the section of the law that requires public spaces be fully accessible to people with disabilities. Under H.R. 620, businesses would not need to make their establishments accessible until someone files a written complaint, shifting the burden of enforcing the ADA to people with disabilities. Businesses would then have six months or longer to make the necessary adjustments. The American Civil Liberties Union says H.R. 620 removes any incentive for a business to proactively ensure that people with disabilities have access. Proponents of the legislation argue that the change is necessary to prevent frivolous lawsuits, but disability advocates say that is just a myth. The civil rights rollback, which is opposed by more than 200 disability rights organizations, was approved by the House Judiciary Committee last week on a party line vote. A vote could come as early as this week.  Let’s call our representatives to let them know we oppose this bill and let’s also bring this to the attention of others through social media, email, or word of mouth.

6.      The opioid crisis claims 175 lives a day. The Trump administration is relying on political staff like Kellyanne Conway as opposed to policy experts to come up with solutions (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/06/kellyanne-conway-opioid-drug-czar-325457).   This is a real national crisis that affects every single community in the country as evidenced by this video clip created by middle school students:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU2FcsFg4HI&sns=fb  The Trump administration is focusing on getting funding for the border wall instead of public education and treatment access. Let’s contact our members of Congress and tell them instead of letting the Trump administration throw our money away on his wall, we want them to fight for funding for the real solutions we need to fight opioid addiction.

7.      We could have hoped to be spared this headline but, nonetheless, Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen is now contending that he paid adult film star Stormy Daniels the $130,000 out of his own pocket: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/373753-trumps-lawyer-says-he-paid-adult-film-star-130000-out-of-his-own This raises interesting questions about how this factors in as a campaign contribution and what it does to attorney/client privilege but in the larger picture, it points to the unfitness of our president and those he surrounds himself with. As we are in touch with our MoC, let’s be sure to include concerns about Trump’s fitness and integrity.

8.     EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt continues to make poor choices with taxpayer dollars in his travel arrangements. He explained it this way in an interview with the Union Leader newspaper in New Hampshire during his visit there: “We live in a very toxic environment politically, particularly around issues of the environment. We’ve reached the point where there’s not much civility in the marketplace and it’s created, you know, it’s created some issues and the (security) detail, the level of protection is determined by the level of threat.”:http://www.unionleader.com/politics/epas-scott-pruitt-blames-security-concerns-for-costly-first-class-flights-20180213 Let’s remind Pruitt that the political environment is likely to lack civility for as long as he show that he has zero concern about actual toxicity in our true environment: https://www.epa.gov/home/forms/contact-epa

9.      Buried in the 2019 budget proposal is a plan to replace half of the money that would normally go to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, which recipients can use at the grocery store or farmers market, with a box of non-perishable food. Under the proposal, low-income Americans who receive at least $90 a month — just over 80 percent of all SNAP recipients — would get about half of their benefits in the form of a "USDA Foods package" which would not include fresh fruit and vegetables. Let's read more about this at NPR.  Let's contact all of our MoC's to let them know that we oppose this change and want it removed from the budget. 

10.  While the immigration debate is supposedly not yet over, the Trump administration has already announced its intention to close 20 refugee resettlement offices and sharply curtail the activities of 40 more.  This, despite Trump’s claim that he wants refugees to assimilate quickly.  Resettlement agencies provide services from assisting refugees to find housing and jobs to helping them navigate banking, medical care, school enrollment and other complexities of life in America: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-refugees-exclusive/exclusive-dozens-of-refugee-resettlement-offices-to-close-as-trump-downsizes-program-idUSKCN1FY1EJ  Let’s try to protect these crucial agencies by letting the State Dept, whose final approval is pending, that we want our taxes to support refugee services: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, 202-647-4000 or  U.S. Department of State, 2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20520.

11.   3,895 Puerto Rican families are housed in hotel rooms paid for by FEMA's Transitional Shelter Assistance program after Hurricane Maria destroyed or seriously damaged thousands of homes and left much of the island with neither power nor drinking water. Most of these people don’t have to move until March 20, but on Wednesday, 200 families learned that FEMA would cease to pay for their rooms immediately: 

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/14/us/puerto-rico-hurricane-displaced-families-hotels/index.html  They need our help. Call FEMA at 1-800-621-3362 and tell our MoCs that these people still need help.

12.  The “Trump administration has once again proposed the permanent elimination of the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, as well as the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (and with it virtually all federal library funding).”  https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/76047-trump-renews-bid-to-eliminate-library-funding-nea-and-neh.html Let’s call our MoCs to tell them we do not want these programs touched.  We can use EveryLibrary’s action form here:  http://action.everylibrary.org/call_to_support_imls We can also “like” EveryLibrary’s Facebook page here:  https://www.facebook.com/EveryLibrary/

Election 2018 – General

1.       Virginia Grassroots Coalition compiled a “lessons learned” resource from their 2017 elections in hopes it will be useful to people in other states during the 2018 election season. Check it out!  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uUWjn5n_oeymKeP7sE_dc20KLAq8pDjR/view

Election 2018 – By State

Other Actions

1.       At a time when Medicaid is under threat, we need more public officials in office who can make the case for how important it is. Phil Spagnuolo knows the expansion of Medicaid helped save him from addiction. He became a recovery coach, and now he’s running as the Democratic nominee for state rep in a February 27th special election in New Hampshire (http://www.wmur.com/article/nh-primary-source-substance-misuse-recovery-coach-spagnuolo-plans-run-for-nh-house/13095593). Let’s give him a hand! We can find instructions on how to phone bank voters for him at http://tinyurl.com/codebluenh.

2.      Looking at our devices too much? If we are among those people who wish to curb our phone and device habits, one thing we can try is changing our displays to grayscale.  It may not cure our addiction but websites and posts no longer scream for our attention. (Source: Lifehacker) The Lifehacker link includes instructions for Android devices. For Apple devices (IOS 8 and later), follow the instructions here. For Samsung Galaxy: here. We can google to find instructions for other devices we have. Let's give it a try and test it for a week. Our Rogan's list contributor reports, "Facebook notifications don't seem important now that they are dark gray instead of red. The news sources I read look more like newspapers in grayscale and are easy to read."  

3.      Check out this week’s Actions to Withstand:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5rLtzo_luY  and learn more about the Southern Poverty Law Center new report and Teaching Tolerance curriculum framework meant to help teachers (and all of us) do better when it comes to learning about our history of slavery.  Other ways to celebrate Black History Month? A)  Buy some Black History Flashcards, and B) read about and download the 3-D Snapchat lens from the Black Monument Project

4.      It’s been five years and the Syrian Refugee Crisis continues unabated. While the situation may seem overwhelming, Global Citizen shows us several ways we can help. We can click on this link to get started.  https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/how-to-help-syrian-refugees-5th-anniversary-crisis/

5.      It’s only February, but we’ve already had the 19^th school shooting of the year. While it is easy to feel numb and helpless at this continuing violence, we can and must put an end to it.  Although Congress has stalled on this important issue, states have not. We have seen many states enact stronger gun control laws, and we can have an effect on the state level.  We can start by using this tool to see the gun laws in our state and compare them to laws on other states:  http://every.tw/2vGTJRg  Then we can find and join a local Moms Demand Action chapter to strengthen gun laws in our states:  http://every.tw/1VsSAiC

6.      Amidst all the bad news, it’s important to keep an eye on the good, and we got some great news for voting rights this week. A new poll showed more than 70% of Florida registered voters support the voting rights restoration amendment that will be on the ballot in November (http://www.unf.edu/coas/porl/2018FLSpringPoll2.aspx). We have a real shot at scoring a huge victory for voting rights, but pollsters are warning that an influx of money opposing this measure could knock it below the 60% support it needs. So let’s help them out by donating to Second Chances Florida at this link.

Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to attend/organize

1.       The Peoples Climate Movement is calling for a “Working People’s Day of Action” on Saturday, February 24.  We can look for an action—or organize one—here:

http://www.itsaboutfreedom.org

States

1.       ALL:  Unlinked pits filled with coal ash waste are leaking toxic substances, including arsenic, into groundwater near old coal-burning plants in eight states, an Earthjustic review of 14 industry reports has found. Coal ash is dumped into pits at approximately 1,400 sites around the country and poses threats to drinking water, neighborhoods, and air quality. (Source: Earthjustice) We can review a list of coal plants that link to their compliance data at the EPA. Let's look for coal plants near us and contact the utilities directly to understand how they are tackling coal ash waste products.  Then, let's contact our Governors to ask how they plan to protect our water supplies from coal ash waste.

2.      ALL: “So far in 2018, legislators in at least 14 states are considering at least 42 bills to diminish the independence or power of courts, or simply make it harder for judges to do their job.” These include the effort by Pennsylvania Republicans to impeach the five supreme court justices who ruled that Pennsylvania’s congressional map was an illegal partisan gerrymander. Some laws would give the legislature or governor more power over judicial selection; others would give the legislature power to override court decisions; still others exert political, financial, or other pressures on the courts.  The details are here:  https://www.brennancenter.org/press-release/new-analysis-state-legislatures-assault-courts%E2%80%99-authority-independence We need to insist on an independent judiciary, especially now, as the very idea of checks-and-balances is being undermined by the GOP.  We can check the Brennan Center list to see what’s afoot in each of our states, then call our state MoCs.

3.      WA:  Email your legislators today and tell them to pass Automatic Voter Registration!  Click here:  http://wavotingjustice.org/letter-to-leg/

Reading/Watching

1.       Here’s how the security clearance system is supposed to work. Let’s educate ourselves so we can understand the timeline lies on Porter coming from Kelly, Trump and Huckabee.  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-did-rob-porter-lack-a-permanent-security-clearance-heres-how-the-process-works

2.      From the National Park Conservation Association (NPCA), "10 Ways to Be a Park Advocate." Let's look for ways we can support our national parks.  The NPCA site includes policy statements on environmental bills. Let's bookmark the NPCA for future reference.

3.      “"I've never experienced white guilt": A black teacher reflects on helping her white students explore their racial identities” -

https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/spring-2018/ive-never-experienced-white-guilt