Rogan's List

5/14/18

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

White House contact:  https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/white-house

 

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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.    Link correction:  Despite his highly controversial record, and despite home-state Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) not returning a “blue-slip,” Michael Brennan has just been confirmed to the judiciary on a 49-46 vote. http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/387129-senate-confirms-trump-judicial-pick-over-objections-of-home-state-senator. Senator Chuck Grassley, (R-IA) Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, used the blue-slip process to reject several nominees from President Obama. However, now that the Republicans are in the White House, this is the second time he is ignoring Senate protocol and proceeding with a nomination despite home-state objections. Let’s tell Senator Grassley (202-224 - 3744 or whistleblower@judiciary-rep.senate.gov) that we want to see a bipartisan process for all judicial nominations that continues to honor the blue-slip tradition. We can also leave a comment on his Facebook page or tweet @chuckgrassley.

2.   This week in Congress:  The House has 12 bills and resolutions on the calendar for this week. We can review them on the Majority Leader's Schedule. Let's know what's coming.  At govtrack.com we can see that an additional four bills from last week's schedule will also be considered, and that next week, the House plans to vote on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), HR5515.  We can read about the House Armed Services Committee's latest NDAA markup at Defense Systems.  The Senate begins their Monday session by resuming consideration of the nomination of Michael Y. Scudder, of Illinois, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit. (source: Senate Calendar). We can read more about Scudder at Alliance for Justice. The Senate will likely proceed to a vote. The Senate has been aggressive in confirming the Administration's judicial nominees as we can read about in The Hill. 

3.   “There are thousands of programs across over 430 departments, agencies, and sub-agencies in the federal government, but when the Trump administration proposed a rescission package of $15 billion to Congress, $7 billion or nearly half of the entire package came from just the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).”  http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/387260-rescission-package-threatening-the-health-of-children  After the victory of restoring CHIP to millions of children, this move again puts the health of so many of our vulnerable and youngest citizens in danger.   Once the White House sends the request to Congress, lawmakers have 45 days to vote on the plan or a scaled-back version of it through a simple majority vote.  The proposal would cut $5 billion authorized to reimburse states for children’s healthcare costs, and another $2 billion from the Child Enrollment Contingency Fund, meant to ensure states have access to funds if there is a higher-than-expected enrollment.  Let’s tell our MOCs that we do not want any of our children’s health care to be cut back.

4.   2018 farm bill, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act (H.R. 2), will most likely be voted upon this week.  The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that the bill will “increase food insecurity and hardship.”  Children will be most affected through the lowering or eliminating of their families’ SNAP benefits and the quality and availability of school lunches. https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/house-agriculture-committees-farm-bill-would-increase-food-insecurity-and If that weren’t bad enough, here are some other examples of the harm this bill would do:  1)  encouraging profligate pesticide use by preempting state pesticide laws, weakening federal protections for wildlife and endangered species from pesticides, exempting pesticides from the Clean Water Act, expediting EPA approval of pesticides without agreed-to protections, and delaying EPA pesticide protections; 2)  eliminating the Conservation Stewardship Program, leaving farmers with fewer resources and options to implement conservation on their farms; 3)  allowing mining and oil and gas drilling on agricultural conservation lands; and 4)  weakening protection of endangered species from logging. The National Resource Defense Council gives more specifics on the bill athttps://www.nrdc.org/experts/mae-wu/hyper-partisan-house-farm-bill-should-be-plowed-under. The Sierra Club’s perspective is athttps://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/draft-2018-farm-bill-good-for-big-ag-bad-for-food-systems, which includes ways to protest specific parts of the bill.

5.      With John Bolton at the head of the National Security Council, there are concerns reminiscent of when Steve Bannon was on the council. In addition to his dangerous and extreme foreign policy views, Bolton is also leaving the U.S. more vulnerable to global health crises with his "streamlining" of the council by eliminating the position of Senior Director for Global Health Security and biothreats, along with the entire global health security team (https://bit.ly/2rH7CLV,  https://wapo.st/2G9TbVz). He is also considering weakening our cybersecurity (https://politi.co/2wBOvbR). Let's call our MoC and ask them to act with the same fervor they did when they called for Bannon's resignation, by calling out Bolton's actions and drawing attention to the vulnerable position he is putting the U.S. in.

6.   UPDATE: Open comment period began on April 30th and will close on May 30th. Let's be sure to leave a comment opposing this rule here. While it was first reported back in March that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt would be proposing a new regulation that would only allow studies with public data to influence writing regulations, in the name of “transparency,” it has now been officially proposed (http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-epa-transparency-20180424-story.html). This new regulation would drastically reduce the pool of scientific research on which the EPA could base its rules, eliminating many environmental health studies that involve confidential patient information or proprietary details about companies (https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/3/23/17147330/epa-science-regulations-pruitt). Pruitt is considering a short open comment period of 30 days, but until that begins, let’s still let him know that we oppose this rule and make it clear that we recognize censorship even when it’s called “transparency”: @EPAScottPruitt or 202-564-4700 or Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code 1101A, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20460

7.   To the great relief of big pharma, Trump’s feeble new plan to lower drug prices forbids Medicare—which represents 60 million people and, in 2015, 30% of all prescription drug spending—from negotiating lower drug prices: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-pleases-insurers-angers-democrats-drug-pricing-plan-n873501  Instead, Trump singled out foreign governments that “extort unreasonably low prices from U.S. drugmakers” by using price controls--somehow blaming them for the fact that the US has the world’s highest drug prices: http://time.com/5275168/trump-plan-lower-drug-prices/  Both the White House and Health & Human Services Secretary Alex Azar need to hear that the only route to reining in our exorbitant drug costs is to allow Medicare to use its enormous negotiating power: HHS, 200 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, D.C. 20201 or 877-696-6775.

8.  Dallas activist Rakem Balogun, finally released from prison after 5 months during which he was denied bail, is believed to be the first person targeted and prosecuted under a secretive US surveillance effort to track so-called “black identity extremists” (BIE), an effort based on an FBI counter-terrorism assessment that ignores government crime data showing an overall decline in police deaths since 2001 and  the fact that most of those who shoot officers are white men. Balogun was monitored continuously after attending an Austin TX rally against police violence in 2015, a rally the FBI admitted it discovered on Infowars; the FBI had no evidence of Balogun making any specific threats about harming police:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/11/rakem-balogun-interview-black-identity-extremists-fbi-surveillance  We must stop this targeting of “BIE”s now, while it is (we hope) in its early days: FBI Director Christopher Wray, (202) 324-3000 or 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, D.C. 20535-0001 and Attorney General Jess Sessions, DOJ, 202-514-2000 or 950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20530.

9.   While many may feel that Gina Haspel is more than qualified to run the CIA, her involvement in torture and the subsequent destruction of interrogation video tapes is very troubling.  It makes one question if Haspel is capable of doing the right thing for the right reason.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/05/11/cia-director-nominee-haspel-and-destruction-of-interrogation-tapes-contradictions-and-questions/?utm_term=.0b089a7c82bc  Let’s tell our Senators that we need someone we know we can trust to do the right thing.

10. While not yet numbered, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) “introduced a bill Thursday to place more scrutiny on Border Patrol agents when they stop and question passengers on buses and trains.”  https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/5/11/17340502/kirsten-gillibrand-immigration-border-stop-bill  Given the excess of force and brutality we’ve seen by these agents; this legislation is very timely.  Let’s let our senators know that we want this supported and that we’d like them to co-sponsor this bill.

Election 2018 – General

An election guide from Postcards for America:  In this Google doc (in process), each State shows ALL Democratic Candidates running for Congress, Governor, Lt Gov, Attorney General, Secretary of State (if applicable) with links to their websites and Twitter. Each has a link to a Twitter Thread, a Shareable Facebook Post and a Document. For most States, there are also Info & Links for Voter Registrations, Absentee Ballots, Early Voting & Voter ID, Age Requirements and being a Poll Worker.  Let’s check this out and use and share it:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NCYjsm3xKb79z19Gx7PWt5Zs9lkLiTqglHBHYs9mlX8/edit

1.    Worried about election security? One thing we can do to get involved is become a poll worker. What do poll workers do? Here's a description according to one local district: "Among their duties are ensuring voters are at the correct precinct, issuing ballots, giving voting procedure instructions, verifying voter registration, operating voting equipment, and maintaining orderly flow at the polling site." Even better news: most of us are qualified to be one, and usually even get paid a small stipend to help! Rules and requirements vary a bit from place to place, but we can start here to find out more about getting involved:   https://www.eac.gov/voters/become-a-poll-worker/

2.   This weekend, Postcards To Voters launched two campaigns for candidates in California. 1) Campaign 85: Jesse Salinas for Yolo County Clerk/Recorder/Assessor.  Salinas is the current incumbent. 2) Campaign 86: Genevieve Jones-Wright for San Diego County District Attorney.  Jones-Wright is the only Democrat running for DA. Both of these elections will be decided in the June 5th Primary elections. (i.e. these races are NOT primaries) If we are already volunteers, let's write 5 cards today. If we are new to the effort, we can sign up as a Postcards to Voters' volunteer here.  Let's make sure our California friends and family know about this activism opportunity. We can write cards from any state.

Election 2018 – By State

1.    Let’s check to see if we have important voting dates coming up this week:

May 14	Maine	In person absentee voting begins	Primary
May 14	Nebraska	Early voting ends	Primary
May 14	South Carolina	In person absentee voting begins	Primary
May 14	Texas	Early Voting begins	Runoffs
May 15	Nevada	Voter Registration Deadline	Primary
May 15	New Jersey	Voter Registration Deadline	Primary
May 15	Alabama	Election date	Special-State house 04
May 15	Alabama	Election date	Special-State Senate 26
May 15	Idaho	Election date	Primary
May 15	Nebraska	Election date	Primary
May 15	Oregon	Election date	Primary
May 15	Pennsylvania	Election date	Primary
May 15	Pennsylvania	Election date	Special- house 178,68,48
May 18	Texas	Early voting ends	Runoffs
May 18	Washington	Filing Deadline
May 19	Washington D.C.	Voter Registration Deadline	Primary (postmark)

(source:  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WJiqNAZNlWPSCAvuRpQ5e5dFiC5IY3O3epicrCuHINs/edit#gid=514224366)

2.   MOST:  Connecticut is set to be the 12th jurisdiction to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact – a group of states that have agreed to give their Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate that wins the popular vote (http://electionlawblog.org/?p=98984). This would be a game-changer for presidential elections and would take effect when enough states have joined to swing the election on their own. Let’s check on the status of NPVIC membership in our state here, and if we aren’t already members contact our state legislators and let them know we want to be #13!

3.   The 2018 Election season is gearing up. Time to roll up our sleeves and get actively involved. If we want join or create local opportunities to register voters, support candidates, and get out the vote where we live, we can join VoteLocal.  Here are the links to Equal’s 9 VoteLocal groups. We can join and bring our friends along:

A.     Southeast Central (Kentucky, Tennessee Mississippi, and Alabama): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1693165557659202

B.     Southwest Central (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana): https://www.facebook.com/groups/146538415900696/

C.     Mountain (Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada): https://www.facebook.com/groups/455392028165443/

D.    Pacific (California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Alaska):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1691400461155891/

E.     Southeast (Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/811288802363783/

F.     New England (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1531319183586004

G.    MidAtlantic (D.C., Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1383179565052352/

H.    Great Lakes (Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1914341472121374/

I.       Midwest (Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1794407224205434/

4.   Voter registration opportunities in AL, FL, GA, KS, KY, NC, OH, PA, TX, VA! Let’s register voters and help them get voter IDs through this inspired partnership between the group Spread the Vote and the NFL Players Association Camp Program this summer. We can sign up here: https://www.spreadthevote.org/nflpa

5.   CA:  Californians have a big election coming up soon, on June 5. To help us prepare our decisions, we can take a look at Voter’s Edge California, a joint project of MapLight and the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund (LWVCEF) which aims to provide voters with unbiased, in-depth information on candidates and ballot measures down to the local level. To use the tool, we simply type in our home address, and a personalized page is returned with the contests that will appear on the user's ballot, supplemented with endorsements, top contributors, news articles, videos, biographies and more. We can mark our choices and email or print our selections to bring to the polls. A translated version of the online guide is also available in Spanish, with valuable information on upcoming elections and detailed translations of state and federal data.  If we are part of an community organization interested in expanding local and state election information in our communities, as well as free embeddable ballot lookup tools that can be added to any website, we can get more information on partnering with Voter's Edge California, by contacting Elizabeth Leslie at eleslie@lwvc.org or 916-442-7215.  We can read more about Voter’s Edge here:

https://lwvc.org/news/voters-edge-california-renews-key-partnerships-2018-election-guide  We can access Voter’s Edge here:  https://votersedge.org/ca

6.   PA:  There’s a BIG special election on Tuesday in Pennsylvania. Flippable pick Helen Tai is running for a seat in the state House of Representatives and she has a solid opportunity to pick up a long-GOP held district and send a message to state Republicans that their attacks on the judicial branch won’t be tolerated (http://www.theintell.com/news/20180115/solebury-supervisor-endorsed-for-178th-district-special-election). We can help her win by making phone calls at this virtual phone bank link, and we can text to get out the vote here. (We can direct questions to volunteers@helentai.com)

Other Actions

1.    Last week, Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee released 3,500 Facebook and Instagram ads that were bought by the Russian group Internet Research Agency (IRA) (https://www.wired.com/story/house-democrats-release-3500-russia-linked-facebook-ads/). Now, we can check to see if liked or followed any Facebook page or Instagram accounts created by the IRA (https://www.facebook.com/help/817246628445509). Then, whether we've liked any of the IRA pages/accounts or not, let's be mindful of the information and memes we share on social media.

2.   “Every day, members of Congress post more than 1,300 times on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. For many elected officials, social media is a megaphone for announcing policy positions, discussing issues with constituents, and, of course, sharing the occasional selfie. Here are a few key strategies for how your organization can use social media as a means for engaging legislators on the issues you care about:”  https://www.quorum.us/public-affairs-best-practices/how-to-engage-members-of-congress-on-social-media/270

3.   Shareholders of America’s biggest gun manufacturer approved a proposal submitted by an order of nuns, and now the manufacturer, Sturm Ruger, “must produce an assessment of how shootings in the United States could threaten its reputation and financial health. To create the report, the company will monitor incidents of violence involving its products and examine efforts to research and manufacture safer firearms.”  https://www.thetrace.org/rounds/sturm-ruger-shareholder-meeting-gun-violence-report/ Let’s send messages of gratitude to the Sisters of the Holy Names, www.sistersoftheholynames.org/oregon/contact.htm  or P.O. Box 411, Marylhurst, OR 97036

4.   There is a proposal from the State Department to “to ask all visa applicants—those seeking both immigrant and non-immigrant visas to the United States—for social media information for the past five years.”  This is an extension of a current program that already seeks such information from a small subset of visa applicants.  https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/04/state-dept-wants-expand-social-media-collection-all-visa-applicants  This invasion of privacy seems to be an overreach.  The comment period on this proposal ends on May 29.  As of now, less than 400 comments have been submitted.  Let’s get on this and make our voices heard:  https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=DOS-2018-0003-0001

5.   The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) uses shareholder advocacy to pressure large corporations “to address their impacts on the world’s most vulnerable communities.” www.iccr.org/about-iccr Let’s read about their investor actions on gun violence and other issues www.iccr.org/investor-action-gun-violence and check out their website to see how we can help.

6.   While Republicans nominate Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize for a denuclearization deal that hasn’t happened yet, his administration is cutting off funding for an organization that actually deserves one: The White Helmets. Syrian Civil Defense has saved thousands of lives since the beginning of the Civil War, and the U.S. had accounted for a third of their funding before it suddenly halted in recent weeks (https://www.cbsnews .com/news/u-s-freezes-funding-for-syrias-white-helmets/). Let’s do what we can to make up the difference. We can donate to them at  https://www.whitehelmets.org/en.

7.   Last Friday, John Kelly “said today’s undocumented immigrants are unable to assimilate easily into American society because they do not have skills and do not speak English, the criticism was swift, particularly given his own family history.” https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/politics/John-Kelly-Says-Immigrants-Cant-Assimilate-Because-They-Cant-Speak-English-But-What-About-His-Family-482403111.html  Almost immediately, #heyjohnkelly became a viral Twitter hashtag as people posted their own family’s immigration background with similar themes:  https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=%23heyjohnkelly  If we are on Twitter let’s join in and show how our immigrant families helped shape this country.

Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to attend/organize

1.    The group behind National School Walkout is looking toward the future.  “On May 19th, we want you and everyone who attends your walkouts to join us as our movement takes its next steps: to envision a future free from gun violence so that we can start to craft a platform and an agenda together.  We want every school to host a meeting where you’ll discuss the impact gun violence is having in your community and create a list of what you want the student-led movement to tackle. We want you to play a central role in creating the strategy with us.”  Sign up to host or attend a meeting at https://www.nationalschoolwalkout.net/whats-next-1/

2.   Everytown for Gun Safety is holding events throughout the country on “Wear Orange Weekend”, June 1-3.  See where here:  http://act.everytown.org/event/wear-orange-2018/search/  You can buy your orange t-shirt (and more!) at 

3.      https://store.everytown.org/collections/wear-orange/

States

1.    NY:  Adult guardianship has long been filled with scam and fraud and without proper oversight. http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2017/10/05/state-sanctioned-guardians      Citizens, who hold the most important office, should call and fax the New York State Attorney General's office and demand change for a failed guardianship system and investigate the fraud of the current guardianship system which is a business for lawyers and judges and a mill for victims. Judge Arthur Diamond of Nassau County said in a January 2018 round table in Albany, NY that the system needs people of wealth to pay court-appointed lawyers.  Let's get the lawyers out and demand an institution that protects our fellow citizens and ourselves. Let's have leaders that really care about the people that they are supposed serve and don't just use their office to get reelected and elected to higher office and use their office as a flattering mirror for their ego.  New York State Attorney General - Tel: 212 416-8090 and/or Fax: 212 416-8026.  We can find other ways to contact that office here:  https://ag.ny.gov/contact-attorney-general

Reading/Watching

1.    Experts in authoritarianism advise us to keep a list of things subtly changing around us, so we’ll remember.  Amy Siskind is keeping that list for us. Amy writes, "Against the advice of former senior officials, Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal, further isolating America on the world stage."  Let's review Amy Siskind's list week 78. 

2.  “White Women: It’s Time to Get Loud” - http://www.erynnbrook.com/white-women-loud/

3.   As usual, our weekly dose of Small Victories:  https://mailchi.mp/peaceisloud/small-victories-time-to-say-no-more?e=86890239c4