First Action - Pruitt Cain’t Duitt The Senate has closed debate on Steve Pruitt’s confirmation as director of the EPA, and the final vote is supposed to take place on Friday (today). Pruitt was today ordered by a judge to hand over hundreds of emails requested by the Center for Media and Democracy. These emails are part of a correspondence between Pruitt and Koch Industries, as well as other large industries represented by him. These emails may or may not prove to be incriminating, but we should ask our senators to either vote to oppose Pruitt’s nomination or else to postpone the vote until the emails are forthcoming. Sen. Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Angus King (I-ME) have both said they will vote against Pruitt’s confirmation, citing his history of outspoken opposition to the mission of the agency, but the likely final vote tally isn’t known at this time. Action: Call and/or fax your senators to ask them:
Second Action - the Russians are Coming Call or fax your congressman and/or senators and demand:
Links to House and Senate contact information and free fax site are on the “Speak Out” page of this website.
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Action 1: Let’s get the Flynngate party started by calling the Senate Intelligence Committee at (202) 224-1700 -- leave a message with your name and zip code, asking for a full investigation into the relationship between Russia and Trump and his cabinet. Action 2: And on a positive note, it would be nice to send a message to mayors of Sanctuary Cities thanking them for their stand. A number of cities in the U.S. maintain sanctuary policies of one kind or another. Here are a selection of sanctuary mayors in states with Republican governors (or no governor in the case of D.C.), as they might need a little extra affirmation. Write a letter, card, or postcard to as many as you can in the rest of your ten minutes .... If you are interested in a more complete list of sanctuary cities, there’s one in this Politico article, “Sanctuary Cities Stand Firm Against Trump.” Urgent
1. Call your senator and ask him/her to VOTE NO on SJ Resolution 14. 2. And while you’re at it, remind them that you are still opposed to the nomination of Steve Pruitt for Secretary of the EPA. If your senator is a Democrat, ask them to stall this nomination by using all available procedural delaying tactics. * This rule has mistakenly been called “The Social Security Gun Ban.” More info at Snopes. Hold Trump’s feet to the fire over his conflicts of interest ... Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D- MA) and Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA5) have introduced S. 65/HR 371: Presidential Conflicts of Interest Act of 2017 which would “require the president and vice president to both reveal and divest themselves from any potential financial conflicts of interest. The bill would also apply for presidential and vice presidential spouses, children, and appointees.” (See this page for more details.) The bill is currently in limbo with the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Action:
First Action: Call your congressperson:
Send a message to Tarrant County, TX to complain about the 8-year sentence (followed by deportation) meted out to Rosa Ortega, a legal resident and mother of five young American children, who voted in two elections. This is a draconian and unprecedented sentence following a jury trial insisted upon by the Criminal District Attorney Sharen Wilson as a muscle-flexing exercise. This despite the fact that the prosecutor’s office wanted to drop charges in exchange for Ortega testifying about voting procedures before the Texas legislature. More details here: “Illegal Voting Gets Texas Woman Eight Years in Jail and Certain Deportation.” OPTIONAL Extra Actions: The whole point of this group is to make it SUSTAINABLE to be an activist for the LONG TERM. Little and often is the way to go. However, if some of you are just bustin’ to go out in person and stomp and shout, here are a couple of suggestions:
If you’ve only recently joined the group, there are a few past actions which are helpful in performing future actions. If you get tired of Bubble Bash today and seek an alternate pastime, you could catch up: 1. Click on the “Speak Out” tab. On this page are links to help you identify your House and Senate representatives. Go to their pages, find their contact info (usually under “office locations”) and store their phone numbers and address in your phone. At least store their DC number and one local number. I’ve put all my senators’ numbers in my phone. Now you’ll be able to call or write them no matter where you are! 2. Bookmark Vote Smart - here’s where you can keep track of your reps’ voting record, their positions, their funding, etc. 3. Go to Google Alerts and set up alerts to let you know when your reps show up in the news - good way to keep an eye on what they’re up to. 4. You can also go to your reps’ own pages and ask to be updated via email about their activities - good way to find out if they’re opening a supermarket near you, so that you can be there waving signs. 5. If you missed yesterday’s action, lay in a supply of 34 cent stamps and blank postcards for mailing handwritten notes to your representatives and to the White House. 6. If you shop at Amazon, consider logging in via www.smile.Amazon.com. Then you can select a Good Cause (e.g. NPR or the ACLU), and Amazon will make a wee donation to them every time you buy something. Ever since the anthrax scare, letters in envelopes to the House or Senate have to go through a lengthy screening process, delaying arrival to the recipient by a matter of weeks rather than days. For this reason, it’s recommended to use postcards when sending handwritten missives. So... action stations: 1. If you’ve already laid in a supply of 49 cent or forever stamps, you can use them for postcards, but if not, then buy some 34 cent postcard stamps, in person at the P.O. or online at the USPS store. 2. Buy some blank postcards. There are various options for buying these. For example, I plan to order 50 blank cards for $8.95 from Amazon. That's all, folks! Good news - the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to reinstate the travel ban. On Tuesday, the House Administration Committee voted 6-3 along party lines to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission, the Federal agency whose job it is to make sure that voting machines can’t be hacked. Without the EAC, it would be much easier for a foreign power or a domestic terrorist to influence the outcome of future American elections. As Russia is already suspected of having attempted to hack into voter registration systems in 2016, this is very troubling. If you’re interested in reading more, here is an article in USA Today. Our ACTION today is: EITHER: 1. Call your congressperson to ask that they support the continuation of the Election Assistance Commission. If you reach a staffer, please try to engage them in conversation - ask what your rep’s position is and why. In addition to calling, you can send a fax. OR: 2. If your Senator was one of those who censured Elizabeth Warren for reading the letter from Coretta Scott King criticizing Sessions during his confirmation hearings, please contact that senator via phone or fax to complain. More info in this article. Here are the culprits: Links to contact info and to Fax Zero are on the Speak Out page of this site. Continue to Oppose Nominations:
If you have Republican Senators: continue reaching out to your senators to oppose these nominations and the appointment of Bannon. And state your disappointment in the nominations of DeVos and Sessions. Call or fax. (Links on site.) If you have Democratic Senators, ask them to commit to withhold consent on Senate business. This triggers considerable time-consuming procedural delay. Indivisible Guide just posted something which is worth sharing: This is the long game. We are going to lose a lot. We are going to get good at losing. We are going to lose cabinet votes for terrible nominees. We are going to lose bills that are offensive and appalling. But while we are losing, something else is going to happen. We are going to keep raising our voices and slowly our representatives are going to start listening to us. We've seen it happen. It won't happen because of next week's call to action. It'll happen over months, where you keep showing up, regularly. Then, we are going to start winning. It'll sneak up on us. We won't understand why we are winning. But it starts with losing in a particular way- where we raise our voices and call it out when we aren't listened to, where we get close but not quite there. The first 100 days of a President's term are the honeymoon period, the moment when he's most likely to get his agenda enacted. Trump is spending his first 100 days mired in controversy, scandal, and backbiting - and that's because you haven't for a moment let anyone in Washington forget just how unpopular he is. Every time we change the narrative, every time we delay, every time there's a newspaper story about a member of Congress avoiding his or her constituents, that's a win. And it matters. You have already made history. You've delayed the confirmation of Trump's cabinet picks longer than any time in recent history. You stopped the gutting on the congressional ethics office. You've made Republicans so nervous about the repeal of the Affordable Care Act that it's been pushed further and further down the road. You caused an uproar of historic proportions over Trump's Muslim ban and saved lives and reunited families in the process. You've inspired people who have never before taken action to make their voices heard and learn how to do things like check how their members of Congress voted and call them out for it. We'll never even know about some of the victories - because those will be the fights that this Administration considered starting and then realized it couldn't win. We're in this together. Every visit. Every call. Every loss. Every win. That's just what friends do. It’s not Sunday, but we’re going to have a little breather to take stock of where we’ve come from and where we’re going. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 51-50, with Pence breaking the tie, to confirm Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary. While this is discouraging, we should not be downhearted. Trump’s disapproval ratings are at the lowest ever for a president after only two weeks in office, and his agenda continues to be stymied and delayed. If the American public (that’s us) continues to protest, call, lobby, campaign, write, shout, murmur, and stay involved, it will be impossible for the trump administration to prevail. Here are today’s actions: 1. Watch and read this encouraging video and article from Vox. 2. If you have friends who would be interested in joining The Ten-Minute Activist, please go ahead and invite them on Facebook. New members have to be approved by an administrator, but that shouldn’t cause more than a short delay. You can also share the link to the website - www.thetenminuteactivist.com - with people who aren’t on Facebook. (Are there any of those left?). Please be discerning in whom you invite so as to keep the group focused on action rather than argument or discussion. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO! |
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November 2019
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