Rogan's List

7/7/20

NATIONAL ISSUES

Contact all Federal Members of Congress (includes contact info and links to social media) https://www.contactingcongress.org/ Fax legislators for free: Reps:  https://faxzero.com/fax_congress.php Senate:  https://faxzero.com/fax_senate.php Or use Resistbot:  https://resist.bot/ Purchase stamps, postcards, and other mailing supplies:  https://store.usps.com/store/ White House contact:  https://www.usa.gov/federal-agencies/white-house

TELL GOVERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE TO ENFORCE QUARANTINE AND COVID-SAFE PROTOCOLS FOR PEOPLE ATTENDING TRUMP RALLY: Continuing to show an utter disregard for public health, Trump is continuing to hold large political rallies. The next one is scheduled for this Saturday in Portsmouth, NH. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/505939-trump-to-hold-outdoor-rally-in-new-hampshire-saturday. The campaign reports that masks will be available, and people will be encouraged (but not required) to wear them. Since it will likely not be possible to maintain 6 feet of distance in the crowd, this puts everyone at the rally and everyone they later come into contact with at risk. New Hampshire is currently asking anyone who comes into the state who isn’t from New England (where cases are decreasing)  to self-quarantine for two weeks. This should include Trump and his campaign staff. Let’s tell Governor Sununu that the health of the residents of New Hampshire need to come before political rallies and that we expect him to stick to the mandate that everyone from outside New England, including Trump staffers, needs to self-quarantine. Let’s also ask him to issue an order to require mask wearing for this large gathering. 

COVID DRUG PROFITEERING—The pharmaceutical company Gilead developed the covid-19 drug remdesivir with financial assistance from the US government—that is, taxpayers; that is, you and me. Now, Gilead is charging privately insured Americans $3,000 for the drug—even though the company could sell it for $10 and still make a profit. https://billmoyers.com/story/gilead-is-profiteering-off-a-covid-drug-we-already-paid-for/  Let’s tell our MOCs that this is not acceptable and demand that they put a stop to Gilead’s profiteering off remdesivir

MAKE SURE THAT CHILDREN IN DETENTION ORDERED TO BE RELEASED BY JUDGE ARE RELEASED WITH THEIR FAMILIES: Last week a federal judge ruled once Ragain that in light of a significant COVID infestation at two family detention centers, ruled again that the children in these detention centers must be released by July 17. However, ICE is now saying that they will resist releasing these children’s parents, giving these families an unthinkable  “binary choice:” https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/san-antonio/news/2020/07/02/us-signals-it-will-resist-freeing-detained-migrant-families. 

Let’s sign this petition asking for families to be released together, and call our members of Congress and ask them what they can do to get these children AND their families released!

PPE AVAILABILITY IN DANGER:  We know that we would all have been better off had there been a serious, national approach to COVID.  “As coronavirus infections continue to spike across the U.S, six of the nation’s largest medical equipment distribution companies are raising “troubling concerns” about the Trump administration’s coordination of critical supplies to COVID-19 hot spots, according to a memo outlining a key House committee’s discussions with the companies.”  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/medical-companies-warn-ppe-critical-equipment-situation-not-sustainable-house-n1232752  Let’s ask our MoCs what they are doing to meet this challenge.

BLACK HILLS LEGAL DEFENSE FUND: Prior to Trump’s Mt. Rushmore rally, Native American protested the misuse of the land that was originally theirs. https://www.businessinsider.com/native-americans-blocked-road-to-mount-rushmore-before-trump-speech-2020-7  “On July 3rd, 2020 Indigenous People and our allies were arrested in the process of defending our sacred lands in the Black Hills. Acts of courage and civil disobedience resulted in arrests and criminal charges. We were protesting the desecration of sacred lands that were stolen from our people.”  Let’s learn more about their demands and help, if we can:  https://bhlegalfund.org/?fbclid=IwAR2D253taOnm6hETRwXrw9nafXQjPUmTtQrLdT0VWfcjMTpz0Q4t1vaWqOk

EXTENDING ECONOMIC STIMULUS IN A PANDEMIC:  Congress is on a 2-week recess, but at the end of July some decision has to be made quickly about whether to extend rental and food assistance, whether to institute a moratorium on evictions or increase aid for nursing homes, whether to continue to provide additional money to those receiving unemployment insurance—which Republicans believe disincentivizes  the return to work while progressives hope might incentivize employers to offer long-overdue wage increases. Unlike most Democrats, Republicans insist that any new legislation must include liability protection for businesses, schools, and health care providers who might be sued if people get sick when they reopen: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/congress-recess-weeks-heres-leave-off-covid-19/story  Let’s urge our MoCs to remember that millions of people are out-of-work, food insecure, at risk of eviction, or forced to work in unsafe workplaces; they depend on the federal government to come to their aid.

TRUMP’S RACISM: Needless to say, the holiday weekend brought no reprieve from Trump’s hideous romance with white supremacy and the Confederacy as he spouted off about NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace and decried the low ratings of fighting against the Confederate flag: https://apnews.com/77f320f49331e17ca4ddce5ee4b3bed0 Let’s contact our MoC to ask why they have not called for his resignation.

JUSTICE FOR LT. COL. ALEXANDER VINDMAN:  “Vindman was one of the first witnesses to publicly testify in the impeachment inquiry who directly listened in to Trump's July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he described as "improper."”  “Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said Thursday that she plans to block the promotion of 1,123 senior military officers through the Senate until Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirms that he will not block the promotion of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.”  https://www.axios.com/alexander-vindman-promotion-tammy-duckworth-74bd31bf-fed9-4842-a269-75da8b92c108.html  Let’s ask our Senators to align themselves with Duckworth and make the same claim.

DEFUND THE POLICE:  If we are working with Black Lives Matter to defund ou

r local police departments and replace them with a different scheme for public safety, it is worth our reading two different documents that try to go beyond the slogan; one is a 26-page "Defund Toolkit: Concrete Steps Toward Divestment from Policing & Investment in Community Safety" written by members of the Interrupting Criminalization initiative and the Movement for Black Lives--  Defund Toolkit.pdf‎; the other is a "Draft Fact-Sheet" from Women for Genuine Security, full of specific facts about police budgets in various cities-- ;  draft fact sheet June .docx‎.  We can also learn about how police unions have influenced law enforcement policy and thwarted pushes for reform: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/23/police-unions-spending-policy-reform-chicago-new-york-la  Let’s read these so that we can knowledgeably lend our support to local efforts to defund the police.

POSTCARDING OPPORTUNITY:  From one of our own:  Remember, you are one of millions working together for justice and equity. Even if writing postcards in isolation feels lonely, you are most definitely NOT alone.  Know that each card you write, each conversation you have brings us closer to the just world we are trying to build. Small steps can accomplish a journey of thousands of miles, in fact, that's pretty much the only way a journey of that size is accomplished.  Here is this week’s list; let’s write:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UZoMdZ6cRhZR26AzZAIB9ySwS-webwePqv3ishT8Ats/edit

OPPOSE CONFIRMATION OF WILLIAM PERRY PENDLEY:  William Perry Pendley,  Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and who has been serving as Acting Director, is a long-time opponent of America’s public lands and has advocated for selling them off, has a 17-page recusal list detailing ties to a number of industries that could benefit from increased access to public lands, and has a history of climate denial.  As the Executive Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) said, “Pendley has a long record of opposing the very existence of the public lands he now oversees.  He may be the perfect choice for Donald Trump, but he is a terrible choice for those who seek a higher standard of environmental ethics and integrity.”   https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/504757-trump-nominates-long-time-acting-head-of-land-management-bureau-as.  The head of the National Wildlife Federation said the nomination is “like putting an arsonist in charge of the fire department.”   https://www.cpr.org/2020/06/26/trump-says-he-will-nominate-william-perry-pendley-to-permanently-run-the-blm/.   Let’s tell our senators that we do not want this person to be approved; we need someone who care about the environment.  (h/t CFAA)

ELECTION/VOTING

2020 ELECTION CALENDAR: This resource is searchable by date and state -  https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/2020-state-primary-election-dates.aspx

REMINDER- CHECK VOTER REGISTRATION STATUS:   Let’s make sure to regularly check our voter registration status. States are purging voters routinely--we don't want to get caught off guard. Take 1 minute and check right now: I Will Vote  Then, let’s check how to vote by mail in our state. Many rules have changed due to the pandemic and we may be able to vote with a mailed ballot. We can find our state's latest voting rules here: How to Vote By Mail in Every State

FIND AND SUPPORT DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES IN OUR STATES: Postcards for America has a new website https://www.postcardsforamerica.com/ and it is chock full of information to help us win big in November. In today’s highlights, we can click here find our who to support in our states: https://www.postcardsforamerica.com/all-democratic-candidates-by-state.html. Then, if we like, use this link to amplify and share tweets and posts, and postcards from the candidates we support:

https://www.postcardsforamerica.com/all-dem-candidates-postcards-tweets--posts.html

VOTERIDERS-PHOTOCOPY MY ID:  With most everyone either under orders - or still feeling they must stay at home - and are otherwise minimizing external visits…how can people create a copy of an ID to accompany an absentee ballot since most of them do not have a printer at home? With VoteRiders’ new Photocopy My ID program, the voter will email to us a photo of their ID, and our volunteer team will print two photocopies (along with a copy of the absentee ballot application and a postage-paid envelope that is addressed to the office that processes absentee ballot requests) to mail back to the voter!  VoteRiders “services are 100% free, including obtaining documents (such as birth certificates, change of name records), arranging rides to and from ID-issuing offices, and providing copies of ID for voting by mail.”  Here’s the link to request the ID photocopy help: https://www.voteriders.org/photocopy-my-id/

MORE POSTCARDS TO WRITE:  Postcards to Swing States needs our help to “save democracy by hand writing postcards to voters in ten critical states to increase turnout in November. We send you the postcards for free. You provide the stamps and mail the cards in October.”  Let’s sign up here:  https://postcardstoswingstates.com/message

HIGH SCHOOL PHONEBANKING:  Flip the West’s High School Program is empowering interested high school students to work on their own campaigns one day by giving them the tools to lead phone banks, recruit their friends as volunteers, and provide political resources. By participating in Flip the West’s High School Program, students can participate in weekly phone banks (Wednesdays 3-5 pm PDT) and become pod leaders to run their own phone banks. The leadership skills they develop this summer will be supplemented by our educational and mentoring resources to encourage high school students to pursue politics and activism through their high school careers and beyond.  Sign up is here: https://www.mobilize.us/flipthewest/event/282528/

ENGAGE ENVIRONMENTAL VOTERS: The Environmental Voter Project needs volunteers to sign up for Days of Action, July 21 & July 23. Volunteers will be calling environmentalists in Florida and encouraging them to sign up to vote by mail. Let’s sign up: https://www.environmentalvoter.org/blog/sign-days-action-july-21-23#.Xv9uFdQcm9o.facebook

STATE/LOCAL

CO: LET'S FLIP COLORADO DISTRICT 3: 5-term incumbent Representative Scott Tipton was just primaried by a right-wing conspiracy theorist and "gun activist," Lauren Boebert. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/01/885991730/gop-candidates-open-to-qanon-conspiracy-theory-advance-in-congressional-races Scary though this is - which is why this neglected, rural district of Colorado made national news -- Democratic contender Diane Mitsch Bush now has a chance to flip this House seat. Those of us who would like to donate to and volunteer for Diane can sign up here: https://dianeforcolorado.com

RALLIES/GATHERINGS/TRAININGS/GROUP ACTIONS/TWEETSTORMS

LEARN TO TEXT WITH TEXT TROOP: If we are looking for more ways to get active from home, Text Troop  can teach us how to text in one of their upcoming Text Troop Webinars. The training covers: the programs we’ll be texting for, the tools we’ll use - Slack and TextOut, and how to text. To make sure we are comfortable with the process and ready to go, there will also be time at the end for personal walkthroughs. We can find a time and date that works for us and then sign up for a texting workshop  here:
https://calendly.com/text-troop/how-to-text  Once we are trained and ready to go, we can find lots of texting opportunities here: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=openprogress.com_07hrf3847on7rfoi859584ag60@group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York

GET OUT THE VOTE BY MAIL: Vote From Home 2020 is hosting a Get Out the Vote By Mail training on Monday, July 13, 2020 6:00 PM -  7:00 PM ET.  We learn about helping swing state voters through the process of completing an application to vote by mail in the general election.  They are targeting three states, MI, PA, and NC, which in 2016 had an average rate of 10.7% of absentee voting. We need to massively increase that number to ensure the general election is safe and accessible!  We can sign up for the training here:  https://www.votefromhome2020.org/join/july-13-training-get-out-the-vote-by-mail

LEARN HOW WALL STREET PROFITS FROM POLICE BRUTALITY WHILE CITIES PAY: Police violence is a problem for our communities but a profit maker for Wall Street, banks and corporations, who insure our cities with Police Brutality Bonds, issued to pay for police brutality settlements.  These bonds can drastically increase the cost of police violence, are often not listed in official police budgets, and leave less for other urgent civic needs like schools and housing. To learn more about this warped system, we can attend the Action Center for Race and the Economy (ACRE)  https://acrecampaigns.org/  webinar, Police Brutality Bonds: How Wall Street Profits From Police Misconduct. use of Police Brutality Bonds.  We’ll learn how the bonds work, have an opportunity to explore some of the data sources ACRE has uncovered, and gain an understanding of what other policing costs might be hiding in our city budgets.  We can sign up here for ACRE’s Police Brutality Bonds: How Wall Street Profits From Police Misconduct webinar, to be held TODAY at 10 A.M. PST:  https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0-g1nEixTByKpCkDMSTQzQ?

GET A FREE ACTIVIST 101 WEBINAR FOR OUR GROUPS: If we are terrified about where our country is, desperate to get it someplace better, but unsure how to start, Jessica Craven, of Chop  Wood, Carry Water  https://www.facebook.com/ChopCarry/ has a Zoom webinar just for us! In over 60 minutes, we will get an overview of several easy ways we can help flip the presidency, the Senate, and a bunch more seats, and leave the GOP a pile of smoking rubble in November. We will also learn how the tiny bit that we do matters so much. All we need to do is put together a group, give her a time, and she’ll be there with slide deck and a handy google doc to give us at the end.  To set up a free, one hour Activism 101 Webinar for our group, we can contact Jessica Craven here: cwcwdailyactions@gmail.com



READING/WATCHING/LISTENING

Judge Orders Dakota Access Pipeline to Shut Down - https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2020/judge-orders-dakota-access-pipeline-to-shut-down

Trump-connected lobbyists reap windfall in COVID-19 boom - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-connected-lobbyists-secure-coronavirus-financial-aid/

How Nursing Homes Got Away with Hiding Bodies During the COVID-19 Outbreak - https://bit.ly/2ZBpLeS

How Mount Rushmore became Mount Rushmore - https://www.sun-sentinel.com/featured/sns-nyt-how-mt-rushmore-became-mt-rushmore-20200704-q7jtjuqqufa5le6mns3hdscima-story.html

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We can stay up to date on Congress by checking out their schedules. a) The House publishes a weekly schedule at The Weekly Leader (published and dated Friday) as well as daily schedules at The Daily Leader. b) The Senate updates their schedule daily at the Senate Floor Schedule