January 27, 2025
A key week for some of Trump's worst nominees, ensuring schools are prepared for ICE, GOTV for union elections, and more!
Contact all members of Congress:
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: Congress.gov
By US mail: Representatives / Senators
By fax: Representatives / Senators
By Resistbot: Resist.bot
Contact White House or other federal agencies:
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
PROTECT OUR KIDS FROM RFK
As we saw again with this weekend’s confirmations of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense and Kristi Noem to run the Department of Homeland Security, even the worst of Trump’s appointees are quite likely to make it to his Cabinet in the end. One of the few remaining who may find serious resistance is Health and Human Services Secretary designee Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In addition to our objections to his antiscientific positions on vaccines that have already gotten children killed and that he is actively planning to force on the nation, Kennedy is also facing pressure from the right for being insufficiently pro-forced birth in the past. This week will be a major pivot point in our fight to block him, as Kennedy appears before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Thursday, although only the Finance Senators will vote on whether to send his nomination to the floor. Let’s take action!
We can reach out to our senators to register our continued insistence that Kennedy will endanger public health, especially if they’re on either of these committees. We can use this stellar call-to-action guide for our calls and messages (we may need to make a Patreon account to access, but it is not paywalled) or this script from Indivisible.
If we’re in a state where senators’ votes are up for grabs (especially Alaska, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, or Utah) we can consider writing a letter to the editor to our local paper. We can work off of these talking points and templates from Protect Our Care’s Stop RFK War Room.
If we’re in the DC area, we can sign up to join Protect Our Care at the hearings in person here.
NOMINATIONS ARE A CHANCE TO STOP THE RETRIBUTION
Donald Trump is already laying the groundwork for using the full power of the federal government against those he deems his enemies, through pulling security clearances and security details from critics, firing those now within his reach, freeing right-wing terrorists, and ordering the Department of Justice to investigate the prosecutors and other civil servants who investigated him. This is a moment that demands those who care about our country’s future draw the line. In the Senate, this week will provide numerous opportunities to do so, as the Judiciary Committee considers Pam Bondi’s nomination for attorney general Wednesday and holds hearings for Kash Patel’s as FBI director Thursday. Let’s make sure to call our senators, especially if they’re on the Judiciary Committee, and tell them these nominations will threaten people with arrest for speaking their minds and doing their jobs and we want them to stand up and say no. We can work off of this Patel-focused call tool from 5Calls, this email template from Indivisible, and this shortcut to write a letter to the editor to our local papers.
SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS AND HOUSES OF WORSHIP SHOULD BE SAFE FOR ALL
The Trump Administration intends to spread fear and put families in danger everywhere they can. Among their many decisions to crack down on our friends and neighbors: they have ended protections from ICE and Customs and Border Protection raids on sensitive areas including schools, hospitals and houses of worship. Even where the deportation machine isn’t knocking on the door, this change is already keeping kids out of class, people out of their spiritual homes and sick people away from medical care. We need to make sure our local institutions are prepared to push back and serve everyone as best they can – and that our whole communities know they can count on them:
Let’s reach out to our district superintendents and school boards, hospital administrations and any houses of worship we attend or are connected to. We can ask them if they have a preparedness plan for what to do if ICE shows up at the door, if they are training staff to know what our rights are in dealing with immigration enforcement, and if they are reaching out to their students, patients, and members to let them know what they are doing to keep these special places safe for everyone. Many of them are actively looking for answers, so let’s share with them these resources:
SCHOOLS: this guide to best practices on immigration and education from the National Education Association and this advice on protecting students and their information from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office.
HOUSES OF WORSHIP: this information on how individual places of worship can take steps to provide safe and secure access for all from the New Mexico Department of Justice.
SENSITIVE LOCATIONS IN GENERAL: this factsheet from the National Immigration Law Center on the new sensitive locations policy, with recommendations for school administrators and staff, hospitals and health centers, social services organizations, places of worship and courthouses and this guidance from the Legal Aid Justice Center for faith communities, schools and hospitals.
Let’s push our schools to adopt official policies that protect all students regardless of immigration status. We can use the Safe Schools for Every Student guide to action from Indivisible, a comprehensive plan including model policies and outreach materials.
If we have Democratic state attorneys general, we can urge them to offer official guidance to schools, hospitals and houses of worship in our state on how they can protect against the deportation machine, as some already have.
Let’s contact the American Hospital Association to urge them to issue recommendations to hospitals on how best they can protect their patients.
RECRUITING CANDIDATES TO WIN A TRIFECTA IN VA - WEDNESDAY
While we have some special elections and the Wisconsin Supreme Court race to win over the next few months, the spotlight elections this year will be in Virginia in November. We will have a chance to earn back a Democratic trifecta, but it won’t be easy – we will need to take back the Governor’s mansion and defend a 51-49 majority in the House of Delegates. Securing the House of Delegates alone means we will be able to put constitutional amendments enshrining reproductive rights and marriage equality and allowing voting rights restoration on the ballot in 2026. The work starts with making sure we’ve got great candidates everywhere possible. Red2Blue and Rural GroundGame are engaging in candidate recruitment now – doing online research to identify prospects and initial outreach to see if they’re interested. If we want to learn more about this effort or get involved, let’s sign up to attend their virtual meeting WEDNESDAY at 6:30pm here.
PHONEBANK TO HELP UNIONIZE AN AMAZON WAREHOUSE
We may have left the most pro-labor administration in history behind, but labor organizers will not stop their work. An independent group of workers at an Amazon warehouse in Garner, North Carolina has been approved for a union election this February 10th-15th. If Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity and Empowerment (CAUSE) win, they would become the second Amazon warehouse in the United States to ever unionize. And they’re looking for our support! CAUSE will be holding phonebanks to reach Amazon workers and encourage them to vote yes for the union starting today and running through next week. We can sign up to get out the vote for the union here. We can also consider donating to their solidarity fund, and if we’re local to the Research Triangle signing up to volunteer on the ground.
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
IA – TRANS CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK
Last year, state lawmakers killed legislation that would have removed gender identity from being a protected class under the Iowa Civil Rights Act. The activists at One Iowa Action are receiving reports that Governor Reynolds intends to try again. This move would remove protections for trans people in housing, credit, employment, education and public accommodations – landlords would be able to deny them an apartment, banks would be able to deny them a loan, and hotels would be able to turn them away just because of who they are. One Iowa Action is hosting a phonebank and textbank TONIGHT at 6:00PM to rally folks for trans rights. We can sign up here. If we can’t make it, we can also contact our legislators and Governor Reynolds directly to tell them we do not support legalizing discrimination, and use One Iowa Action’s legislative tracker to stay informed of other attempts to bully the LGBTQ+ community.
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
The Wisconsin state supreme court election April 1st… North Carolina supreme court steal will go to trial… Oregon health care workers on strike… Costco workers contract expires January 31st…
Please add Call the DNC.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/i-will-call-the-dnc-today?r=3m1bs
Here in western CO, I am going to a lunch of the Ranch History Museum "Meet a Rancher" to learn more about my non-transplant neighbors and to carefully ask what issues matter to them when Im in touch with my new Rep. Jeff Hurd. He is not MAGA but he is Republican. He won by three points over our Dem. Adam Frisch, who was very active in the rural areas, and apparently Frisch is what the execrable Boebert carpetbagged to another district rather than lose. The only real difference between Frisch and Hurd was apparently anti-abortion.