3/22/18
Contact Federal Government Officials
Find senator’s contact info here: https://goo.gl/RLiotu
Find representative’s contact info here: https://goo.gl/5i7SXC
********************************
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.
It
appears that the omnibus bill may be voted on yet this week and a government
shutdown avoided. However, once again
protection for the DREAMers is no where in sight, but there are dollars set to
go for other immigration issues: https://www.npr.org/2018/03/21/595512197/congress-unveils-1-3-trillion-spending-bill Let’s let all our MoCs know that the DREAMers
have been left out of their plans too many times. It is time to save these young people who add
so much to our society. They are worth a
government shutdown.
2.
S.J. Res. 54,
the motion to end U.S. involvement in the Saudi war against Yemen, where 10,000
civilians have been killed and countless more are injured, hungry and homeless,
failed 55-44. http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/379392-senate-sides-with-trump-on-providing-saudi-military-support
Let's
check to see how our senators voted, then either thank them for voting
"no" on the motion to table the resolution, or admonish them for
their "yea" vote https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/115-2018/s58 Then, even if they are not our senators, let’s
thank Republicans Mike Lee (UT) Susan Collins (ME), Steve Daines (MT), Jerry
Moran (KS) and Rand Paul (KY.) for their favorable vote, and denounce Democrats
Christopher Coons (DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), Joe Donnelly (IN), Heidi
Heitkamp (ND), Doug Jones (AL), Joe Manchin (WV), Bob Menendez (NJ), Bill
Nelson (FL), Jack Reed(RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) for voting against it.
3.
From one
of our own: The Dickey prohibition
against gun violence research is being debated right now in the spending bill
and our reps need to hear from us by 3/23. http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/379563-republicans-agree-to-clarify-that-cdc-can-research-gun-violence Did you know.... A) the CDC has not been able
to study Gun Violence for the past 22 years? B) Gun Violence is the 3rd leading
cause of death in children? C) The Dickey amendment prohibits the CDC from
"advocating or promoting gun control." Restoring
Gun Research is about saving lives. It's about gun safety not
control. (Analogy is safe sleep and MV safety) Rep Dickey regretted the
results of the Amendment in his name. The
Dickey amendment prohibits gun violence research and prohibits the CDC from
advocating for gun control? Rep Dickey
regretted the results of the Amendment in his name. Let’s let our MOCs know we want gun violence
to be treated like the public health crisis it is. We want the CDC to get the
funds to research gun violence.
4.
"Government
efforts to protect state and local elections from cyberattacks in 2016 didn’t
go far enough, leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee
said Tuesday."
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/03/20/all-levels-of-us-government-agencies-must-share-info-to-deter-election-meddling-senators.html. Let's
tell the House, which is looking to pass the omnibus spending bill this
week http://bit.ly/2FLNySj,
that we want them to allocate money for helping "states convert
to paper ballot voting systems that can be audited, and harden cyber security
defenses." Now's the time. Details, and a simple call script for our House
reps, here: https://www.theloyalopposition.net/daily-ctas/demand-house-reps-fund-paper-ballots-states-via-appropriations-bill/
5.
After 4
young American soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger in October, leaders like John McCain called
for a new debate on Trump’s war powers. But their deaths faded from the
headlines and the issue fell off the agenda, and now we’ve been reminded again
of why it’s important with news reports confirming that U.S. forces are still
engaging in firefights in Niger (http://www.post-gazette.com/news/world/2018/03/15/America-s-military-kept-silent-about-its-role-in-another-firefight-in-Niger/stories/201803140233).
It’s well beyond time for Congress to rein in the broad war powers they gave
the president after 9/11. Let’s call our MoCs and tell them to make a new war
powers debate a priority.
6.
Michael
Brennan is headed for a full Senate vote on whether to confirm him to a
lifetime appointment on the federal bench. This comes despite the fact he has heavy backing from the Koch brothers and
that in his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, he refused to acknowledge
racial bias in the justice system, a particularly disturbing comment in light
of his expressed skepticism about the glass ceiling (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/michael-brennan-trump-judicial-nominee_us_5a85dc8ae4b00bc49f4212ad).
Let’s call our senators and tell them someone with Brennan’s regressive views
shouldn’t get their vote for a federal judgeship. We can make the call
with this 5Calls script.
7.
While
people are busy calling out Ben Carson for his $31,000 dining set, we may be
missing a more important story: his attempts to quietly remove a clause
assuring nondiscrimination from the HUD mission statement: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/377716-hundreds-of-civil-rights-groups-demand-anti-discrimination-language Let’s tell Secretary Carson that this move,
criticized by conservative as
well as liberal media, is unwelcome and unprecedented, and ask HUD to restore
and highlight language in their mission statement that assures their commitment
to nondiscrimination. We can call them at (202) 708-1112;
and/or go to their Facebook page and
comment on their post (scroll down a bit) where they’ve posted their rationale
for the change. Let’s also tell our MoCs to pressure HUD on this issue.
8.
“The
Environmental Protection Agency turned over documents to Congress
late Tuesday detailing nearly $68,000 in newly disclosed travel costs
for Administrator Scott Pruitt during the past seven months. The records, which
came at the request of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman
Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and were obtained by The Washington Post, show dozens of
first-class domestic and overseas flights for Pruitt and other trip
expenses between August and last month. Pruitt has been under fire for
months because of his expenses, not just for travel in this country and abroad
but for changes he has made at EPA headquarters, including the installation of
a soundproof phone booth in his office for private communications. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/03/20/new-documents-show-nearly-68000-in-recent-premium-flights-hotel-stays-for-epas-pruitt/?utm_term=.ecff910c6b64.
Pruitt needs to Pay Back the difference of his First Class flights and
Coach which is what the taxpayers should be charged for his travel. You can
tell him to Pay Us Back here. Phone: (202) 564-4700 or tweet
@EPAScottPruitt
9.
Because
of arcane Senate rules, Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who is expecting a
child, will not be allowed to breastfeed anywhere on the Senate floor, which
may cause her to unnecessarily miss votes. http://www.newsweek.com/tammy-duckworth-may-have-breastfeed-bathroom-senate-floor-says-former-senate-807393.
Let’s contact our Senators now and ask them to end this discriminatory practice
against women and work with their colleagues to change Senate Rules 12 and 23.
10. Even though the US and Mexico have the
highest obesity rates in the world, the Trump administration is trying to limit
the warning labels on junk food in the U.S., Mexico and Canada as part of the
NAFTA negotiations. No doubt to the delight of major U.S. food and beverage
companies, the Office of the United States Trade Representative wants to make
sure all the countries in the agreement are limited in how they place labels on
sugary or fatty food and drinks:
http://thehill.com/policy/international/americas/379393-us-works-to-prevent-warning-labels-on-junk-food-during-nafta.
Let’s let US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer hear from us: 202-395-3330 or
fax 202-395-5639 or
Office of USTR, 600 17th St NW, Washington, DC 20508.
11.
"A
new U.S. advisory board created to help rewrite federal rules for importing the
heads and hides of African elephants, lions and rhinos is stacked with trophy
hunters, including some members with direct ties to President Donald Trump and
his family."
https://www.apnews.com/07c11b7884174e68b75d6fdd52e9da91 This
is not quite what we think of when we think of a wildlife protection board. Let's
tell our MoCs to make sure that these rules stay protective.
Election 2018 –
General
Election 2018 –
By State
Other Actions
1.
CORRECTION
(address): Mississippi’s governor
signed the most restrictive abortion ban in the country into law on Monday
(http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/379235-mississippis-only-abortion-clinic-sues-over-nations-most-restrictive) The
law is almost certain to be struck down as unconstitutional, and the Jackson
Women’s Health Organization has already succeeded in getting it blocked
for the immediate future. Let’s show Mississippi’s women we have
their backs. We can donate to the JWHO, the state’s only abortion clinic, here. We
can also support the Mississippi
Reproductive Freedom Fund and ARC
Southeast, which help women cover the costs of getting
an abortion. Let’s tell Governor Bryant that we will not
travel or do business in Mississippi while this outrageous law remains in
effect and that we will urge any organization of which we are a part to follow
suit: 601-359-3150 or
fax 601-359-3741 or
write PO Box 139, Jackson, MS 39205 or
2.
Participating
in the March For Our Lives marches taking place all over America and the world
this coming Saturday, March 24? There's an app for that! Info about the
march itself, the March For Our Lives movement to end school
shootings, and more. Download it here: https://marchforourlives.com/app/
3.
Selling
our data was always a Facebook feature not a bug. We can read this article to
find out more about how this data mining was, and probably will continue to be,
an intrinsic part of Facebook’s design. As the author states, “The problematic
collection of Facebook users’ personal info — and the ability to obtain
unusually rich info about users’ friends — is due to the design and
functionality of Facebook’s Graph API. Importantly, the vast majority of
problems that have arisen as a result of this integration were meant to be
“features, not bugs,” as many have rightly pointed out.” https://medium.com/tow-center/the-graph-api-key-points-in-the-facebook-and-cambridge-analytica-debacle-b69fe692d747 If we haven’t already changed our privacy
settings, we can use this very thorough, well detailed “privacy scrub” to make
sure our Facebook privacy settings are strong.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/20/17140422/facebook-personal-data-deletion-how-to-cambridge-analytica-privacy-scandal-trump-campaign We can then look at how other apps gather our
data and limit that too. This Wall Street Journal article shows us how. https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-really-is-spying-on-you-just-not-through-your-phones-mic-1520448644
(If
we cannot access the Wall Street Journal Article, this piece from Jacobin gives
us much of the same information: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/03/cambridge-analytica-facebook-advertising-surveillance)
4.
Principal
T. Elijah Hawkes did not give his high school students permission to walk out last
week in support of the 17 victims of the Parkland, FL shooting and in
solidarity for safe schools, but he supported them in doing so, proud of their
willingness to engage in peaceful civil disobedience. https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/permission-to-walk-out-they-didnt-ask-i-didnt-give-it
Let’s thank this principal for his approach to this important day: T. Elijah Hawkes, Randolph Union High School,
15 Forest St., Randolph, VT 05060
5.
Last
fall, the Trump administration slashed funding to
the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, which will now end in June of this year.
Now, emails obtained by NBC News show that three Trump appointees to HHS
with strict pro-abstinence beliefs guided the process to end the program, which
many medical professionals credit with helping to bring the nation’s teen
pregnancy rate to an all-time low. On top of this, the administration's 2019
budget allocates $75 million towards abstinence-only programs, which have
been proven
time and again not to work. Nine organizations are suing the Trump administration. We
can learn more and support them by sending funds their way: A) Planned Parenthood (three
affiliates B) Public Health — Seattle & King County, C)
South
Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, D)
Sexual Health Initiatives for Teens North
Carolina, E) Project
Vida Health Center in Texas, F) Policy
& Research Group in New Orleans
6.
Great
one from Postcards
for Kate: ‘Yesterday, Jeff Sessions told a room of
law enforcement officers that he wanted fuller jails. Nashville Sheriff Daron
Hall, who has made it his mission to decrease the prison population in favor of
finding better ways to deal with crimes offered a response. Read Hall's
response below, read more about Hall here: http://bit.ly/2G11vI9, and
in the Tennessean article linked here,
and then send Hall a thank you note for thoughtfully leading the way in law
enforcement. “It’s unfortunate that the attorney general, or anybody for that
matter, believes that jail space should be filled," Hall said in an
interview. “We should all want our communities to be safer," he said,
"but filling jail beds or prison beds has never proven to do that."’
Sheriff Daron Hall, 506 2nd Avenue North, Nashville, TN 37201
7.
Yesterday,
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg finally spoke out about FB’s entanglement with
Mercer-run Cambridge Analytica:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/03/19/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-cambridge-analytica-facebook-debacle/ and
https://www.wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-statement-cambridge-analytica/ Dismay
at FB has, however, been expressed for a while by a number of ex-FBers,
including the former head of growth Chamath Palihapitiya, who said “we have
created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works,”
as well as former executives Sean Parker, Justin Rosenstein, and investor Roger
McNamee. Now, Brian Acton, who sold WhatsApp to FB in 2014, is calling on us to
quit Facebook entirely in view of this latest news. No easy feat, but
here are some instructions: https://www.consumerreports.org/social-media/how-to-quit-facebook/
8.
OpenSecrets
is tracking how much money congressional candidates receive from the NRA in the
2018 election cycle http://bit.ly/2FQ8Aza Let's
check and see how our MoC stack up, then check out this chart on how our MoC
have voted on gun legislation http://n.pr/2FfS9J6 We
can use this information as we decide which candidates' campaigns we contribute
to, and ultimately, which candidate we vote for in the 2018 midterms.
9.
AdAge
has collaborated with the Gun Safety Alliance, calling for artists to submit
artwork that March for Our Lives participants can use for their
posters this Saturday. So far, there are nearly seventy posters to choose
from. We can check out the options and download for free on AdAge: http://adage.com/article/news/march-life-posters/312747/
Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to
attend/organize
1.
Saturday, March 24, is the March for Our
Lives in Washington, D.C. with over 840 sibling marches through the world. Let’s learn more and see where we can go to
participate: https://marchforourlives.com/
2.
For those of us unable to march on March 24,
for whatever reason, we can still be part of the day by joining in on the #VirtualMarchForOurLives on Twitter.
States
1.
ALL: Whatever your political
affiliation... anyone who has been following the special election races knows
the feeling of losing by a handful of votes. For example, the vote in PA-18
this last week was conducted almost exclusively via electronic touchscreens,
and as Nate Silver reports, this leaves no recourse for those demanding a
recount. (https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/pennsylvania-18-district-lamb-results/)
It's important now more than ever for ALL of us to lobby for voter-verified
paper ballots and rigorous post-election audits, so that we can continue to
have faith in the results of our electoral process. This week Rogan's List will
be providing several interconnected steps we can take to hold our local
election officials accountable. Step
4: We can lobby the leadership of
the two major political parties in our jurisdiction. They have close
relationships with the election offices and a lot of influence over
election-related decisions. Sample message: "I’m a constituent living in
the district. As a registered voter, I'd like to know what you're doing to make
sure we don’t get cheated out of a victory by a paperless computer voting
system that can’t do a recount. We should be pushing for paper ballots and
routine post-election audits. What steps are you taking to make this
happen?" #VerifytheVote
2.
AL: Alabama
lawmakers need to protect "our ladies" and to do that, they should
not arm teachers because most are women, argued State Rep. Harry Shiver
(R-Stockton). Let's read more at AL.com.
Let's contact Rep. Shiver to
let him know we don't appreciate his misogynistic and discriminatory comments.
3.
FL:
As a nonnative species, flamingos have no protections. However, a
recent study reported the most thorough assessment of flamingo
sightings in Florida to date and determined that there is more than enough
evidence to classify the birds as bona fide locals. If that were to
happen, the state would then need to drum up a recovery plan for the species.
Let's read more at NRDC. Our first step is to
petition the state for a designation. Let's contact the Florida
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to
let them know we want flamingos to be recognized as protected birds in Florida.
4.
MI: The Sierra Club Michigan Chapter will be having its Citizen Lobby Day
on April 11th this year. Constituents will team up in groups of 2-4
people, then join a Lead Lobbyist, as we push our MoC to better protect our
environment. We can read more about which bills we will be explicitly opposing
or supporting, and sign up for the event: https://www.sierraclub.org/michigan/sierra-club-citizen-lobby-day
5.
NH: New Hampshire Republicans are pushing legislation that would create a de
facto poll tax on college students in an effort to keep students in the state
from voting. Versions have passed both the House and the Senate, and it seems
to have a clear path to the Governor’s desk (http://www.concordmonitor.com/New-Hampshire-voting-bill-to-tighten-residency-passes-House-16031281).
Republican Governor Chris Sununu has been recorded telling a young activist
that he “hate(d)” this effort, but has made no public comment. Let’s
contact him and let him know we hate it too and we
want him to veto the bill. And let's sign up to continue to advocate against
GOP attacks on voting rights here.
6.
PA:
The state Supreme Court threw out the GOP-gerrymandered congressional district
maps of Pennsylvania. Now, GOP lawmakers are filing impeachment
resolutions against the “offending” justices—and they control enough of both
legislative houses to follow through: http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/379359-pennsylvania-gop-moves-to-oust-judges-over-gerrymandering-decision Let’s
protect the rule of law and our judicial institutions by expressing our outrage
and pressuring our state legislators to reject impeachment. https://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/
7.
UT:
Utah state senate bill SB184 will give all Utah women over 18 an easier
path to obtaining birth-control pills and similar self-administered
contraceptives. Under the measure, the state will issue a standing order that
gives pharmacists authority to dispense the contraceptives directly. SB184
passed both chambers on Utah’s Capitol Hill without a single opposing vote and
was signed this week by Gov. Gary Herbert. Let's read more at the Salt Lake Tribune. Let's
use this opportunity to thank our Utah
state legislators and Gov.
Herbert.
8.
WA: Gov. Jay Inslee signed five (5) bills from the recent session that
make Washington one of the most progressive states for voter access. Let's read
about these important bills at The Spokesman-Review.
If we are from states other than Washington, let's use these bills as models to
drive change in our own states. If we are Washington residents, let's
thank Gov. Inslee.
Reading/Watching
1.
“More Children Have Been Killed by Guns Since
Sandy Hook Than U.S. Soldiers in Combat since 9/11” - http://www.newsweek.com/gun-violence-children-killed-sandy-hook-military-soldiers-war-terror-911-848602
2.
“DeVos’ School Safety Commission is a Sham: No
Students or Educators Included” - https://dianeravitch.net/2018/03/21/devos-school-safety-commission-is-a-sham-no-students-or-educators-included/
3.
Looking
ahead to this Saturday’s March for Our Lives, let’s listen to two of the
student leaders from Parkland, FL: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/david-hogg-emma-gonzalez-parkland-florida-shooting-survivors-nra-threats/
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