Call THIS AM - Tell Your Rep To Vote NO on New (Even Worse) Healthcare Bill

I'm having déjà vu... The Republicans have cobbled together an even sorrier excuse for a health care bill and are pushing it to a vote that may take place TODAY (Friday).

You know the drill - call your Representative this morning and urge her or him to vote no on this monstrosity (which is so awful that the Republicans were careful to ensure that their own healthcare would be exempt from its provisions, by the way.) You can read more about the plan here and here.

1. Call your Representative as soon as the phones open today (Friday). Click here to find your Representative if you don't already have her or him in your phone.

2. You may have to try several offices before you get through to a staffperson. When someone does pick up or if you can leave a message, here's your script: "Hi, my name is ___ and I'm calling from ___ to urge Rep. ___ to protect my health and the lives of 24 million other Americans by voting NO on the latest Republican attempt to repeal the ACA." Then thank them for taking your call. Always be polite. If you have a healthcare story of your own, please feel free to share it. Other points you may want to mention:

• This plan would take health care away from 24 million Americans over the next 10 years.
• It would end protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
• It would make premiums increase and coverage decrease.
• It's being pushed through too quickly (again) to allow the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office score it.)

3. Forward this email to ten friends and ask them to join you in calling their Reps before noon.

4. Share this on Facebook and Twitter - we need an overwhelming outcry!

Join a Climate March on Saturday

Last week we hit a panic-worthy, new carbon threshold, 410 parts per million. And Trump is our "leader". Both excellent reasons to attend one of the Climate marches taking place across the country this Saturday.

You can go to the big one in DC or find a sister march near you.

For those of you here in the Hudson Valley, there are a few to choose from including one in Hudson and one in Poughkeepsie that crosses the Walkway Over the Hudson.

A show of support for climate change action could possibly be helpful right now as some in the White House (including former Exxon CEO and current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and son-in-law turned advisor, Jared Kushner) are urging Trump not to pull out of the Paris Agreements while others (including EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry) are urging Trump to ditch the Agreement because they are incredibly stupid and evil... Read more.

Find a march!

3 Pieces of Good News -- O'Reilly, Chaffetz and Ossoff

No action today, I just wanted to make sure you knew that Fox News has finally pulled Bill O'Reilly and the O'Reilly Factor (it's flagship show for nearly 20 years) off the air after losing more than 50 advertisers amid even more reports of sexual harassment and some good investigative reporting showing the lengths the network has already gone to to silence the many women who've accused O'Reilly over the years. Good work, people!

More details about Bill's demise here.

In other happy news, official jerk and Chair of the House Ethics Committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah (the one who continued his rabid investigation of Hillary Clinton's email non-scandal AFTER the election but has declined to investigate Trump and was booed for an entire town hall during the first Congressional recess...) has announced that he will not seek re-election in 2018. He's probably trying to avoid a loss to preserve his ability to run for Governor of Utah down the road but still, we will certainly not miss his smug face and hideous politics.

More details on Chaffetz here.

Also, Democrat Jon Ossoff narrowly lost winning the April 18th special election for Republican Tom Price's vacated House seat in the Atlanta, Georgia suburbs. Ossoff managed to win a truly impressive 48.1% of the vote in a district that has not elected a Democrat to Congress since the Carter administration. Now Ossoff will advance to a run-off election in June against Republican Karen Handel who received just under 20% of the vote in a crowded Republican field. Ossoff's strong showing has bolstered Democratic organizations and progressive groups and thrown the fear of God into Republicans. If you have not already donated to his campaign, you're not too late! Make a gift of any size right now.

More on Ossof's results here. 

What we're doing is making a difference. Enjoy your day!

Call to Stop Gorsuch From Getting a Supreme Court Seat

Short version: Call to urge Republicans not to support the "nuclear option" in order to ram Gorsuch through. Dial 1-855-976-1895 and they'll walk you through every step of the process.

This one is from MomsRising.org who provided the phone number and did all the work to figure out the best Republican targets. 

As a Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch would codify the worst of the Trump Administration into our nation’s laws for a lifetime - something our country simply cannot afford. And with the White House currently under investigation, now is not the time to consider appointing a new U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Whoever heard of the defendant appointing his own judge?

Senate Democrats have the 60 votes to filibuster Neil Gorsuch's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. Senate Majority Leader McConnell is expected to take steps to lower the threshold for Supreme Court nominations to a simple majority vote -- the "nuclear option" -- as early as this Friday. But he may well be bluffing. 

More than a dozen Republicans have refused to say they'll support the nuclear option of blowing up the rules of that Senate to ram Gorsuch through. If they lose even three of their own members, then the nuclear option is dead. 

Call now and you will be directed to the office of a Republican lawmaker most likely to be open to these concerns. Tell him/her to vote NO on the nuclear option and NO on confirming Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

Dial 1-855-976-1895 and they'll walk you through every step of the process.

Tell Fox News Advertisers to Pull Their Ads

It's been a banner week for Fox News - both Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly are once again embroiled in sexual harassment scandals.

The New York Times revealed that Fox News has paid $13 million to keep no less than FIVE sexual harassment suits against Bill O'Reilly hushed up.

And former Fox News chairman, Roger Ailes, who left the organization after a similar scandal in July (for which he received a $40 million "exit package"!) is once again the subject of a new sexual harassment suit from Julie Roginsky, a liberal commentator. It's as disgusting as it is easy to believe.

What makes this newsworthy is that Fox News has already lost two major advertiser as a result of these squalid revelations -- Mercedes Benz has just pulled its ads from the network, saying, “Given the importance of women in every aspect of our business, we don’t feel this is a good environment in which to advertise our products right now.” Nutrish, a pet food company, has also made the decision to pull its ads.

We're at a pivotal moment and we need to amplify the pressure on Fox News - the original home of "fake news" by using our power as consumers. Here's what you do:

1. Thank Mercedes Benz for pulling its ads.

Tweet at them, message them on Facebook, or email them. Feel free to use some version of the sample text below.

Sample tweet:@MBUSA thank you for pulling your ads from Fox News in response to the latest round of sexual harassment scandals. I hope @lexus will follow

— Eve Fox (@evefox) April 4, 2017

Sample Facebook and email message:
Thank you for your recent decision to pull your ads from Fox News in response to this latest round of sexual harassment allegations against both Bill O'Reilly and Roger Ailes who are clearly both deeply troubled people who have little to no respect for women. I appreciate  your decision and the message it sends to women and to your customers. 

2. Urge other major Fox News advertisers to pull their ads. There are way more advertisers than this but start here (and leave a comment if you know of others.) Sample comment and tweet are below.

Jenny Craig

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JennyCraig
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennycraig
• Email: http://www.jennycraig.com/site/contact/ or email: PR@jennycraig.com

Lexus

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lexus
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexus
• Email: http://lexus2.custhelp.com/app/ask

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CFPBoard
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CFPLetsMakeAPlan 
• Email: mail@cfpboard.org, media@cfpboard.org, BOD@cfpboard.org

Sample tweets:

@JennyCraig please pull all your ads on @oreillyfactor - supporting a proven, serial sexual harasser is not the image you want to project.

— Eve Fox (@evefox) April 4, 2017

@lexus please follow @MBUSA lead and pull your ads from Fox News. O'Reilly's & Ailes' serial sexual harassment will tarnish your brand, too.

— Eve Fox (@evefox) April 4, 2017

@CFPBoard Please pull your ads from Fox News ASAP. Supporting serial sexual harassers is not something your brand should be associated with.

— Eve Fox (@evefox) April 4, 2017

Sample email and Facebook message:

I'm writing to urge you to pull your ads from Fox News ASAP in light of the (most) recent sexual harassment scandals. Host Bill O'Reilly and former chairman, Roger Ailes' behavior is disgusting and completely unacceptable and not something you should allow to tarnish your brand. Thanks so much for your time.

3. Share this post with 5 people.