Wednesday, August 16th

(Adapted from Rogan's List)

There is No Place for White Supremacists in the White House

In case you missed it, yesterday Trump doubled-down on his initial comment that there is blame on both sides. (Read more...)

The right-wing publication National Review said, “Donald Trump loves people who love him, and the vile and vicious alt-right has loved him from the beginning. Today, he loved them right back” (More here...)

To show the impact of Trump’s words, David Duke, former KKK grand wizard thanked him for “condemning the leftist terrorists” in Charlottesville. (More here...)    

“When David Duke and white supremacists cheer your remarks, you’re doing it very, very wrong,” NY Senator Chuck Schumer said in a statement. “Great and good American presidents seek to unite, not divide. Donald Trump’s remarks clearly show he is not one of them.”

We need to be extra vigilant about what is coming. White supremacy does not run our country and it will never make America great at all.

Please call the White House and call our legislators and tell them that Trump's position is un-Presidential and un-American. Tell them all white supremacists (Steve Bannon, Sabastian Gorka, and Stephen Miller) must be removed from the White House. 

Tuesday, August 8. 2017

[Adapted from Daily Action]

Trump has stated that he wants to stop funding for the cost sharing reduction (CSR) payments to insurance companies - these payments are required under the ACA and serve to keep insurance cost down on the marketplace exchanges and provide stability needed to encourage insurance companies to participate in the exchanges. Without subsidies the premium charged for insurance would increase 19% and many insurers would (and already have started doing so in anticipation of Trumps policy) leave the marketplaces. Trump wants to make his claim that the ACA is imploding a self fulfilling prophecy. We need to stop him. Call Congressman Maloney and ask if you can count on him to author or support legislation that guarantees the funding of CSR. Call him at 202-225-5441 or 845-561-1259.

August 6, 2017

(Adapted from Rogan's List)

Republicans recklessly pushed Wealthcare through the House without even getting a nonpartisan sense of what it would do from the Congressional Budget Office. (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/cbo-interview-ahca-effects/525420/) We managed to stop the damage, but we should not allow them to act so irresponsibly again. Call Congressman Maloney at (202) 225-5441 or (845) 561-1259 and urge him to co-sponsor legislation which two Democratic representatives have proposed as a change to House rules that would prohibit a vote on budget-impacting legislation until CBO cost estimates are made publicly available. Tell Congressman Maloney that this should be something both parties can agree on, and we want him to support H. Res. 441, the Require a Score Before the Floor Bill.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

(Adapted from Rogan's List}

Trump and his cabinet are continuing their assault on our environment, this time by starting the process of rolling back Obama’s efforts to limit offshore drilling. (http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/340505-interior-begins-public-review-of-offshore-drilling-plan) But the Interior Department is required to take public comments before they can move forward with this plan to put our coastlines at risk. Let’s make sure they know we want these areas to remain off limits to drilling. We can find instructions on how to submit comments here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/07/03/2017-13998/request-for-information-and-comments-on-the-preparation-of-the-2019-2024-national-outer-continental.

July 30, 2017

(adapted from Rogan's List)

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke picked up the phone to call Alaska Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski to threaten financial retribution to their state because of Murkowski’s health care votes: https://www.adn.com/politics/2017/07/26/trump-administration-signals-that-murkowskis-health-care-vote-could-have-energy-repercussions-for-alaska/?outputType=amp-type Let’s let Zinke know that this is not a Banana Republic and that his actions are out of bounds: https://www.doi.gov/contact-us and https://twitter.com/SecretaryZinke

Wednesday, July 19th

(Adapted from Rogan's List)

Yesterday, Trump tweeted that the military would no longer “accept or allow” those who identify as transgender to serve in the military, claiming the burden of the cost and disruption (remember where we heard that before? African Americans, women, gays....) . http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/343847-trump-calls-for-ban-on-transgender-individuals-in-military This announcement serves as a huge set back for transgender rights, and does not detail what will happen to those service members who have already come out as transgender. This discriminatory policy is cruel and stigmatizing, and even Republicans have condemned it. But words aren’t enough.  Let’s contact our reps and tell them to add language to the “security-bus” spending bill to overturn the ban, then let's make sure the White House, Secretary of Defense, and our members of Congress understand that banning openly transgender individuals is unacceptable and ask how they plan to handle other expensive or disruptive situations among our service members.  White House:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/ Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis: Secretary of Defense 1000 Defense Pentagon Washington, DC 20301-1000 703-571-3343 

Monday, July 24, 2017

Philipstown's own Rick Gell on how to most effectively argue for meaningful health care reform.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/how-trump-opponents-should-be-framing-health-care-debate

Monday, July 17th

(Adapted from Rogan's List)

In the midst of people's concerns about the safety of our personal data being given to the Pence/Kobach Election Integrity Commission (which is, in theory, investigating "alleged election fraud"), the White House has released 112 pages of unredacted emails of public comment, raising further privacy concerns.”

As reported by NPR: "In many cases, the emails, which are largely critical and often mocking of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity led by Vice President Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, contain expletives as well as the sender's email address.

"This cavalier attitude toward the public's personal information is especially concerning given the commission's request for sensitive data on every registered voter in the country," Theresa Lee, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project, said....One person whose name and email address was published by the commission wrote: "DO NOT RELEASE ANY OF MY VOTER DATA PERIOD."  (Read more.)

Tell the White House that this is the perfect example of why we do not trust them with our personal information. 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Bonus Action - No Online Surveillance Without A Warrant

Lawmakers are getting serious about renewing the U.S. government’s Internet spying powers, so we need to get serious about stopping their bad proposals. Sen. Tom Cotton has introduced legislation (S. 1297) that would not just reauthorize, but make permanent the expiring measure that the government says justifies the warrantless surveillance of innocent Americans’ online communications. (Read more.)

Having a president with little respect for the rule of law makes it even more important that we not allow this to go forward. Let’s contact our members of Congress and tell them to oppose the permanent reauthorization of “Section 702” spying.

Sunday, July 16th

Small Victories

(Adapted from the [email protected] newsletter)

We were floored by this story about 80 people who formed a human chain to rescue a drowning family, and we immediately thought of Rebecca Solnit’s essay comparing the conservative ideology of isolation to the reality of our communion with each other and the world:

“The modern right may wish that every man were an island, entire of himself, but no one is wholly independent. You can’t survive without taking air into your lungs, you didn’t give birth to or raise yourself, you won’t bury yourself, and in between you won’t produce most of the goods and services you depend on to live. Your gut is full of microorganisms, without which you could not digest all the plants and animals, likely grown by other people, on which you rely to survive. We are nodes on intricate systems, synapses snapping on a great collective brain; we are in it together, for better or worse.”

(Adapted from Jen Hofmann's Action Checklist for Americans of Conscience)

Acts of Gratitude

Get out your stamps, postcards, and sparkle markers for some gratitude mail.

• Thank Sen. Lindsey Graham for speaking out about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with the Russians.  Suggested text: "Your tenacious grilling of FBI director nominee Christopher Wray revealed that election interference should be reported to the FBI. Thanks." [Include your state and party.]
  
  Address:290 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510

• Thank Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) for her ingenious way of highlighting discrimination. Her proposal requires citizens claiming more than $150,000 in tax deductions to pass a drug test.  You could write: "I appreciate your advocacy for equality for the poorest Americans."
  
  Address: 2252 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515
  
  
• Thank Rahm Emanuel, Chicago Mayor, for getting one right by posting the EPA’s deleted climate science data and forcing the current administration to face climate facts. You can start by saying: "I appreciate your leadership."
  
  Address: City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602

• Thank Brigitte Macron. You can tell Madame Macron (in French or English): "Mme. Macron, Je suis desolé que notre président soit brut et dégoûtant. Je n'ai pas voté pour lui. Merci pour votre hospitalité et grâce." (I am sorry our president is rude and gross. I didn’t vote for him. Thank you for your hospitality and grace.)
  
  Address: 55, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris, France
  International mail requires $1.15 in stamps.

Saturday, July 15th

(Adapted from Rogan's List)

In what seemed like a throwback to an earlier era, female reporters were escorted out of a chamber in the House of Representatives earlier this week for wearing sleeveless dresses and open-toed shoes…  As reported in Vanity Fair, "

Female lawmakers began these efforts after a reporter was banned from entering the Speaker’s Lobby last week for wearing a sleeveless dress. The rules, which are enforced only on the House side of the Capitol, are not new—but after the incident last week, Speaker Paul Ryan released an announcement reiterating the dress code, per CBS:

Speier and her colleagues took to the Capitol—and to Twitter—to make their opinions heard. On Thursday, Speier released a flyer via Twitter urging other female lawmakers to wear sleeveless dresses this Friday, and to take a photo in their sleeveless finery together Friday afternoon."

So on Friday, congresswomen stood up for their "right to bare arms," by wearing sleeveless dresses and open-toed shoes. It was the whimsical idea of Congresswoman Jackie Speier of California, who was tired of seeing women being told what to wear.”  (Read more.)

Let’s take some time to thank Rep. Speier for coordinating this effort: 

• Washington Office:  2465 Rayburn HOB, Washington, DC 20515 
  
  
• San Mateo, CA Office:  55 Bovet Rd, Suite 780, San Mateo, CA 94402