Take Action: According to Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda, tackle one issue at a time. The more trouble it takes you to contact your politicians, the more they pay attention. So when you can manage the time and effort, put your body out there. Face-to-face meeting, town hall or protest march > calling > faxing if you can’t get through on regular phone > writing letters (because they may arrive too late) > personal email > petition or group email.
But we are in this for the long haul, so pace yourselves. Do whatever level you can do. We will be here at least once a week with the latest.
To see if your legislator is having a Town Hall meeting: Congress critters theoretically travel home to meet with constituents regularly. Check out the Town Hall Project’s list of Town Hall Meetings so that you can meet them face to face if you wish. Don’t be surprised if they are too chicken to meet everyone.
If your legislators will not have a Town Hall, have one and invite them: Indivisible Guide: Missing Members of Congress Action Plan: Hold a Constituents' Town Hall
To write your letter then fax it for free: FaxZero: Create and send faxes for free to anywhere in the U.S. and Canada (up to five free faxes per day) or GotFreeFax: Send free fax online to the U.S. and Canada (a bit easier to use, but only up to two free faxes per day).
Easy resource to find your politicians’ phone, email, etc: The AARP has an action site, Advocacy - Legislative Action Center - AARP. I know AARP isn’t perfect, but it has a nifty feature for everyone: Look down to the right, where it says “find your state legislators”. Put in your zip code. It returns federal, state AND local politicians, NOT just legislators. Federal, for example, includes contact information for Trump, Pence, your two Senators, and your Congressional representative. If you need more than phone numbers and email addresses, it has clickable links to their web pages, which should have up-to-date contact information including fax numbers, street addresses, appearance schedule, how to schedule appointments, and constituent services.
Personal stories often weigh heavily: BoldProgressives: How We'll Fight Trump's Immoral Budget Cuts - Share Your Story! Links to the survey at PCCC. I checked it out, they ask but don’t require a contribution for you to tell your story, and they’ve only emailed me once. You can also tell your story here in Comments if you’d like.
Please feel free to share and/or reprint this diary in whole or in part with attribution far and wide, other websites or newspapers, I give it freely. Our aim is for millions to take action.
Each week: The week’s cartoon will post after press time at the TeePublic elenacarlena store if you’d like to pick up a shirt, mug, or other items with any cartoon in the series, to help spread the word and support these efforts. If you want it and don’t see it, just Kosmail me to ask!
Resistance can seem exhausting and you may wonder if it’s worth it: Here’s Rachel Maddow, “Public Pressure Forces Trump Admin to Reverse Course”: Particularly 0:30-14:30:
According to Rachel, actions they’ve reversed and even subsequently denied ever intending include the following (the below is a summary, not exact quotes):
- Department of Health and Human Services employees were forbidden to communicate with public officials, including members of Congress.
- The USDA was forbidden to publish any information online including scientific findings — after rescission they stated, “The ARS (Agricultural Research Service) values the free flow of information.”
- The EPA was to scrub climate change pages and data from their website.
- There was to be an across-the-board federal hiring freeze — exemptions have now been made for the VA, which is trying to fix previous problems of lack of services for veterans by hiring adequate staff — the administration tried to say that the VA’s problems would not be fixed by additional personnel, but too few personnel was precisely the problem.
- Obamacare enrollment ads, even those already paid for, were canceled so that fewer people would have health insurance — they were eventually aired.
And of course they have yet to repeal Obamacare. So we are having a noticeable effect. Hang in there!
Thank you for taking action!
Further Information and References:
From the White House: America First - A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again by Starving Your Granny (okay, I added that last part)
Trump's Budget: A Visual Guide to the Biggest Winners and Losers
Meteor Blades: It's Not the Trump Budget, It's the Republican Budget. A Cold-Blooded Assault on the Vulnerable.
Ten of Trump's Budget's Cruelest Cuts
Trump's Budget Director Mick Mulvaney Insists Cutting Meals For Poor Seniors Is Compassionate
“You’re only focusing on half of the equation, right? You’re focusing on recipients of the money. We’re trying to focus on both the recipients of the money and the folks who give us the money in the first place. And I think it’s fairly compassionate to go to them and say, ‘Look, we’re not going to ask you for your hard-earned money anymore.’"
Moosulvaney also claims that meals for students show no results. Aside from alleviating hunger, which most people would think is a good result in and of itself, here are 153,000 academic results: Google Scholar search: Free Breakfast and School Performance
Likewise heating assistance: Laura Clawson: Trump Budget Slashes Heat Assistance for Struggling Families, Saying It's a "Lower-Impact Program"
Spending More on the Military is Ridiculous and Outrageously Wasteful: According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the US spends more than the next 7 countries combined, and most of those countries are our allies. At this point, additional spending is just wasting resources:
Trump's Border Wall Gets Billions in Budget Proposal
To secure the southern border — his top campaign promise — President Trump next year is seeking to hire 100 new government lawyers, add 1,500 law enforcement officials and spend more than $1 billion on detention and deportation, according to the White House budget plan released on Thursday.
The proposal, which includes a $2 billion down payment on Mr. Trump’s signature border wall, is one of the single largest investments in the president’s budget plan. Yet experts say it appears only to scratch the surface.
- snip -
The largest single chunk of money is reserved for the border wall itself, one of Mr. Trump’s signature campaign promises that has deeply polarized American voters. The proposal calls for $2.6 billion to be spent on “tactical infrastructure” and other security technology at the border, including money to plan, design and begin building the wall.
Another $314 million would go toward hiring and training 500 new Border Patrol agents and 1,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel next year. An additional $1.5 billion would pay to build new detention facilities for illegal immigrants and to fund their removal from the country.
- snip -
Though Mr. Trump has proposed an overall increase of $2.8 billion, or 6.8 percent, to the Homeland Security budget, agencies within the department would face cuts — including $667 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s state and local grant programs, and $80 million from the T.S.A.
Mr. Trump also is seeking to cut $1 billion from the Justice Department, even as he bolsters its immigration courts by $80 million. That would pay for the hiring of 75 new teams of judges to speed removal proceedings for people in the country illegally.
- snip -
Beyond the funds for detentions in the proposed Homeland Security budget, Mr. Trump is calling for the Justice Department to spend $171 million for short-term holding facilities for federal detainees, including those who are here illegally.
- snip -
Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has said he expects the wall to cost between $12 billion and $15 billion. Other estimates put it significantly higher.
Shaun King: Trump's Budget is Destructive - And Just What Bannon Wants
“I’m a Leninist. Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal, too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”
Some of the Most Outrageous Trump Budget Cuts:
Note that all the above programs amount to 1/500 of the total federal budget. For a gain of a 500th, he’s willing to cut all these vital programs.
My Summary of Trump Expenses from All Sources:
Note that four years of Mar-a-Lago weekends could pay for almost the entire amount of cuts to student aid; four years of Melania in New York could pay for almost all the student aid or all the school programs for kids that include feeding meals; four years of family travel and Secret Service expenses could pay for two years of affordable housing projects. This is assuming that we captured all of Trump’s expenses — unlikely, given that one document shows Secret Service rental vehicle expenses (over $40,000 in the Dominican Republic) while others make no comment regarding such expenses.
Walter Einenkel: Two-thirds of American Voters Don't Want to Have to Pay for Trump's Weekly Vacations
Trump's Travel and Security Estimated to Cost Half a Billion Dollars for One Term
Trump Family's Elaborate Lifestyle is a "Logistical Nightmare" - At Taxpayer Expense
Mark Sumner: We Can't Waste Money on Jobs, Food, and Education - Trump Needs Golf
Trump Family Trips Cost Taxpayers $11.3 Million in One Month - Almost as Much as Obama's Cost in One Year
Trump's Private Jets are an Unprecedented Problem
Secret Service Racks Up Bills for Trump Kids' Trips. Next Stop Aspen.
Trump Budget Cuts Put Struggling Americans on Edge
Robert Rector and the Rock Hyrax, a closer look:
Republican Experts Say Trump Budget Dropped Populism: Robert Rector, “senior research fellow” at the Heritage Foundation:
Excluding Medicaid, 85% of the nation's welfare system is federally funded, said Rector. "Collecting all this money at the federal level and then handing it down to the states is a recipe for corruption and inefficiency," he said.
Wikipedia:
Robert E. Rector is a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. He focuses on poverty issues. He is considered one of the architects of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act…. Rector has written frequently on the subjects of welfare and poverty, including the 1992 The Wall Street Journal article “America's Poverty Myth”, which asserted that the US Census inaccurately measures poverty…. In 1995, The Wall Street Journal called Rector the "leading guru" behind the Republicans' position on welfare.
Like we said, poverty pusher.
Wikipedia on the Rock Hyrax:
The rock hyrax is found... in habitats with rock crevices into which it escapes from predators…. in some areas [the rock hyrax] is considered a minor pest…. Rock hyraxes produce large quantities of... a sticky mass of dung and urine.
Any resemblance is purely (not) coincidental!
Purr request, the entire Breaking Pawlitics list. If you haven’t seen them, they're still nooz!:
Breaking Pawlitics: Protect Your Rights To Privacy Edition 03/12/2017
Breaking Pawlitics: Midweek Special: Comment NOW on Obamacare Rules Changes 03/07/2017
Breaking Pawlitics: Reject Neil Gorsuchnea Pig for SCOTUS Edition 03/05/2017
Breaking Pawlitics: Protest Private Prison Predation 02/28/2017
Breaking Pawlitics: Keep Fighting For The Environment Edition 02/19/2017
Breaking Pawlitics: Tell Your Senators to Reject Scott Pruitt For The EPA 02/12/2017
Breaking Pawlitics: "Impeach President" Bannboon to Silence the Drums of War 02/04/2017
Breaking Pawlitics: Save Social Security and Medicare. Then Open Medicare For All! 01/28/2017
Breaking Pawlitics Inaugural Edition: Lee Goes to Washington DC: Contact Congress For Obamacare! 01/21/2017
Please consider this an Open Thread for discussion of this and other issues.