Rogan's List

11/5/18 

Contact Federal Government Officials

Find elected officials: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Fax legislators for free: 

Reps:  https://faxzero.com/fax_congress.php

Senate:  https://faxzero.com/fax_senate.php 

Or use Resistbot:  https://resist.bot/

Or use StampsLicked to have messages hand-delivered to our own legislators:  https://stampslicked.org/

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.       This week in Congress:  The House and Senate are now on recess till after the Midterm Elections returning to Washington DC on November 13.  

2.      The cost of sending troops to the border to deal with the migrant caravan has been estimated at $200 million. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trumps-border-deployments-could-cost-200-million-by-year-end/2018/11/02/9798d7b6-deeb-11e8-aa33-53bad9a881e8_story.html?utm_term=.e2f163d10fff. That’s a lot of money to deal with approximately 1400 migrants, the 20% of the migrants projected to make it to the U.S. line. Let’s tell our MoCs as well as Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, (Department of Defense: Secretary James Mattis, 1000 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC 20301-1000, https://www.defense.gov/Ask-Us/, 703-571-3343; Twitter: @DeptofDefense) that in this time of rising deficits, we oppose this money being wasted as a political stunt, simply to rev up the president’s base, who seems to feed on the continued rhetoric of hate and fear. When we contact the Department of Defense, let’s also make sure to thank them for rejecting the president’s request to let these troops have law enforcement responsibilities. https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/02/politics/white-house-pentagon-troops-border/index.html

3.      Anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise even before the recent shooting in Pittsburgh. Tree of Life Rabbi, Jeffrey Meyers, had it right when he confronted Trump for his role in perpetuating hate speech.  https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/03/us/pittsburgh-shooting-first-shabbat/index.html. Yet the president has refused to heed repeated calls to denounce white nationalism, and as a result, his visit to Pittsburgh sparked protests. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/10/30/pittsburgh-donald-trump-visit-sadness-controversy-funerals-begin/1817183002/. Since the Pittsburgh shooting, anti-Semitic graffiti has been found in  synagogues in Brooklyn and California. Yet, the president does nothing, other than continue to incite fear of diversity and difference by ranting about the migrant caravan. Let’s ask our MoCs and the White House to loudly and unequivocally denounce white nationalism and demand that they take positive steps to shut down all rhetoric that demeans and infringes on the civil rights of others. And then, let’s join the effort ourselves by donating to or volunteering with the Southern Poverty Law Center, that monitors and raises awareness about hate crimes.

4.      From one of our own:  Please write postcards to your US Representatives to support H.R. 5244/S. 2628, the Mashpee Wampanoag Reservation Reaffirmation Act. The Dept of Interior is trying to take away their land sovereignty. The Wampanoag was the tribe that greeted the Pilgrims. Please help so this doesn't happen ...they need support across the country to prevent this from happening!!! Please.   More information here:  https://mashpeewampanoagtribe-nsn.gov/standwithmashpee and here:  https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/10/06/mashpee-wampanoag-protest-trump-administration-land-ruling/nCbjv89IXcUS0t2uHnKbUM/story.html

Election 2018

1.       It is Monday. One day to go before midterms. Have we left any stones unturned? Do we have elderly neighbors who would appreciate a ride to the polls? A friend with very young children who could use a hand to make getting to the polls feasible? A neighbor with heavy caregiving responsibilities who could use a bit of respite to make voting a reality? Have we been in touch with everyone we know to remind them to vote? Any last honk and wave events we can attend for local candidates? Any final phone-banking? Have we made our OWN voting plans? All our collective work leads us here. It is go time!

2.      From our friends at DemWrite:  "Do you plan to tweet about your local/state elections? We could really use more #WaveCast volunteers from all states." KANSAS is one of the States they specifically need.  #WaveCast is an experiment in election coverage, driven by us: activists who have spent the last two years fighting the Trump administration and building a Blue Wave.  They need National Anchors / Analysts, State Captains & Field Reporters.  We can sign up here:  https://demwritepress.com/wavecast/

3.      From Postcards for America:  A link to Google folder with graphics for all the Democratic Candidates divided by State. (If the Candidate is running against a GOP incumbent, it shows their NRA rating and voting record. The graphics also show the (gerrymandered) Districts. Also, graphics for Voter ID, Absentee Voting, Early Voting. ) The documents in the State folders have the Tweets that go with the graphics - so people within States can just copy & paste the Website Links or Twitter addresses if that's helpful. In case people want to madly tweet or FB about Candidates in the next few days.... https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10hTa3QzRMAi7dE4b5eHGst8gi3dSaVQT?usp=sharing

4.      If we live in MA, or if we have friends and family there, and don’t mind salty language, let’s share this very well-done video about #YesOn3 there regarding rights for transgendered people. This is a great two minutes of persuasion:   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLcDQMQ3Urg

5.      It isn't just Uber anymore. Now we can thank Lyft (who actually did it first), along with scooter rental companies Lime and Skip, for offering free/discounted rides to the polls on Tuesday. With over 1/3 of some groups of young voters reporting a lack of transportation as a cause for not voting, these offers could be an important boost for any burgeoning blue wave. We might not be able to give a ride to all the young voters in our lives, but we can at least point them to one! https://www.cnet.com/news/uber-to-offer-free-rides-to-voters-during-the-midterm-elections/

6.      “More than 50 organizations representing thousands of black people from across the country have formed a grassroots organization to communicate with voters about the 2018 election. Now, we’re taking our message to more than 22 states.”  Let’s check out the Movement for Black Lives’ #Black November and learn more about candidates and initiatives in our states here: https://blacknovember.org/

7.      Wonder how to motivate Millennial Voters? An in-depth study by NextGen America has some surprising answers. Key takeaways from NextGen America’s just released research on increasing Millennial Voter Turnout:  A) Don’t call them millennials, B) Remind them of their power as a group and as individual voters, C) Negative messaging works with certain groups of hard to reach voters, “the younger end of the cohort (aged 18 to 27), women, and Hispanic voters”, and D) Link Congressional members directly to Trump.  More info here:   https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1027549597340708864.html

8.     A federal district judge denied Trump’s request for a stay on Friday, allowing a lawsuit accusing President Trump of violating the constitution's emoluments clause to proceed to the discovery process;  in September, a DC district court judge ruled that 200 Democratic congresspeople had standing to sue Trump over violations of the emoluments clause: https://www.npr.org/2018/11/03/663933067/emoluments-lawsuit-against-trump-can-go-forward-judge-says
DC Attorney General Karl Racine, one of the plaintiffs in the federal suit, is up for reelection on Tuesday; let’s urge DC voters to support him.

9.      The racist, misogynistic, anti-immigrant violence continues—in the shooting of two women in Tallahassee on Friday night-- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hot-yoga-shooting-tallahassee-florida-gunman-scott-paul-beierle-had-prior-arrests-for-touching-women/ --and the circulation of an appalling video of elementary school teachers in Idaho dressed as stereotypical Mexicans with a cardboard “wall” reading “Make America Great Again, ” all as a Halloween treat for their students in a school that is 12.9% Latinx--https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/education/article221015995.html .  If we can, let’s try to ensure that no effort is made to use these shootings to undermine the gubernatorial run of  Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum. And we should consider sharing our resources with two of the groups that responded to the Idaho incident--Immigrant Justice Idaho (http://www.immigrantjusticeidaho.org/) and PODER of Idaho (https://www.idahogives.org/organizations/poder-of-idaho).

10.  Postcards To Voters has launched Campaign 137: Mike Espy for U.S. Senate from Mississippi.  This Special Election Runoff election will be Nov. 27. Mike is the first African American from Mississippi elected to the U.S. House since the 1800s. (More about Mike at Mississippi Today.) Let's channel our excitement about Tuesday's Midterms by writing 5 postcards to Mississippi voters for this important special election. New volunteers can find getting-started information here.  Please note that Campaign 137 has not yet "officially" launched but is available when we request addresses.

11.   SeeSay lets voters report issues straight from their phones - without installing an app. Reports are manually validated, geo-tagged and submitted to a national press room.  This crowdsourcing enables citizens to better share their voting experiences with the media - and for the press to expand its coverage. Create a link on your phone for Tuesday's election especially if you are a voter protection volunteer. By using this tool, we can help create a full story of voting issues for this mid-term election cycle that will create a foundation for voter protection across the country going forward.  https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/9e5f2dd9584a494d88992e2bbe4d5736

Other Actions

1.       In the Middleton School District in Idaho, fourteen staff members have been placed on administrative leave after dressing as the border wall with “Make America Great Again” written on the wall: https://apnews.com/c0fee28b1e0c461c8964432ea388d11e Let’s take a moment to let the Superintendent Josh Middleton (not a typo, last name matches district name) know that they need to be fired: jmiddleton@msd134.org    

2.      Facebook’s anemically enforced rules about transparency in advertising allowed it benefit to the tune of $800,000 in political ads (as identified by ProPublica):  https://www.propublica.org/article/how-big-oil-dodges-facebooks-new-ad-transparency-rules Let’s tell Facebook to donate these ill-gotten gains to the voting-rights group Spread the Vote, https://www.spreadthevote.org/ or another voting rights group of our choice. Write the FB Board of Directors: Corporate Secretary, Facebook, 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, and/or Tweet @sherylsandberg

3.      On Friday, over the dissent of Justices Gorsuch and Thomas and despite strenuous efforts by government and industry to block it since 2015, a lawsuit brought by Our Children’s Trust on behalf of 21 young people, many minors, was allowed to proceed by the Supreme Court;  the suit claims the federal government encouraged the production of oil, gas and other fossil fuels, causing the planet to warm and infringing on the plaintiffs' fundamental rights.  A trial could begin as early as mid-November:  https://www.npr.org/2018/11/03/663887560/young-activists-can-sue-government-over-climate-change-supreme-court-says  We can learn the history of Juliana v. US and lend our support to this landmark federal climate justice lawsuit at: https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org. 

 Marches/events/webinars/Tweetstorms to attend/organize

1.       January 19, 2019 is the date of the third Women’s March with the main event to be held in Washington, D.C. with sister marches all over the country.  Let’s find more information here:  https://www.womensmarch.com/2019

Reading/Watching

1.       How a lie about George Soros and the migrant caravan multiplied online - https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2018/10/31/george-soros-and-migrant-caravan-how-lie-multiplied-online/1824633002/

2.      4 myths about how immigrants affect the U.S. economy - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/4-myths-about-how-immigrants-affect-the-u-s-economy

3.      Why Every Vote Matters — The Elections Decided By A Single Vote (Or A Little More) - https://www.npr.org/2018/11/03/663709392/why-every-vote-matters-the-elections-decided-by-a-single-vote-or-a-little-more