Action: If your rep voted YES on AHCA call them to tell them you are furious

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As seen on twitter from Ben Wikler (@benwikler) of MoveOn

https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/859838674258755584

If House GOP succeeds in passing #TrumpCare tonight (or any day), the public's IMMEDIATE response will massively shape what happens next. 1/

The biggest risk: the vote gets hailed as a breakthrough victory for Trump and the GOP, praised by conservative groups... boom, momentum. 2/

It will be tempting for activists to immediately swing their focus over to pressuring the Senate. Don't do it. Job one is BLOWBACK. 3/

Most of all, swing Senators will be watching to see what kind of political price GOP reps pay for voting to uninsure their constituents. 4/

Citizens' jobs will be to make clear that voting for AHCA is politically toxic. Career suicide. A highly visible, public firestorm. Rage. 5/

If the House passes TrumpCare, every Republican member of Congress has to feel like they're walking into a political buzz saw. 6/

Their phones should ring off the hook. Their district offices should be jammed. Town halls? Furious overflow crowds, chanting "SHAME." 7/

The intensity and visibility of response to the House vote will define the news cycle and the Senate's willingness to touch this thing. 8/

So—if we lose the vote, don't mourn. Fight. Crucify the House. Only after pulverizing the House GOP, turn, eyes ablaze, to the Senate. 9/9

ETA

from sashayed on tumblr

The most effective protest, and the one with the best optics, is the one you make physically: showing up at your shitbag Representative’s district office, camera in hand. Be there when he gets to work in the morning. Be there when she leaves. Ask her if she is embarrassed. Ask him if he is ashamed. Tell her interns and assistants about yourself, about your loved ones. Explain to your local newspaper, to neighborhood blogs, to your facebook friends and Twitter followers why you are furious and disappointed and why you will not forget. 

If you would rather call, here’s a potential script. It is maybe not the best? I’m pretty angry.

Hi. I’m calling to register my anger and disappointment at Rep. ____’s Yes vote on the AHCA. [I/my loved ones] am now at risk of losing my insurance, and I am appalled that social programs that personally affect me and my loved ones will be stripped in order to provide tax breaks to the wealthy. Rep. ____ should be ashamed of himself. I and my community will not forget this vote. Will you please take down my information and send me confirmation that the Congressman is listening to constituents? Thanks.

If your rep voted YES and you don’t want to call them, there are PLENTY of people on tumblr who will call on your behalf.

It's not over yet, and the small margin matters.

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One last AHCA reaction twitter thread, this one from Sydette (@Blackamazon)
Hat tip to owlmoose who has a post on other goings on here.

Even though this was gutting and these folks are Satan's minions in Jesus' clothes...

The Vote was 213 to 217. That was 4 folks. FOUR out of 430. Your advocating matters you're calling matters

These assholes came on in January and swore that they were gonna cakewalk through the year after a 100 day stroll

Even when some of these legislators have been slippery and indecisive ? You have knocked them back EVERY single time

It's only 105 days and Paul Ryan had to BEG on bended knee , and Cheeto already wants to go home

They went from power strutting to banking on four folks . That's facts

Yes this just harm reduction but harm reduction MATTERS . Live matters and fighting for it is LONG TERM

and people on the RIGHT and the LEFT thought folks would burn out by now. Be complacent

and now ? They gotta sell the store to get four.

We don't gotta compromise or strategize SHIT at this point. IT's a BRAWL . There are less of them than there are of us

Love is patient love is kind and in the words of @MoneyLynch ? "Sometimes you just gotta run through a motherfuckers face"

if they wanna sing to our deaths with beer ? They better be prepared for the tune-up EVERY TIME WE BLITZ? ALL NIGHT

Defeat is not the failure . Acceptance is

We don't do this "for the Dems" because i want to drop kick some of them into the Potomac. It's for US.

Take care of you . Breathe . Cry . Fuck. Sleep . Meditate . Blaze . Pray Dance it out . Step in and step out

But don't you dare feel like you didn't do anything or what you're doing doesn't matter. It does

Analisys of Executive Order on Religious Freedom to Promote Candidates

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Reposted with permission from elf
You can read the original post here.


The newest executive order (pdf) has been signed, and the good (?) news is, it's mostly useless blather. This is absolutely NOT Pence's "make it legal to discriminate against LGBTQ people and everyone with a uterus" thing that bounced around a couple of months ago. (I'm sure that one's still in the works; they just have to figure out how to rephrase it so even their most conservative lawyers aren't telling them, "um... no; every single court that sees this - and plenty will - is going to throw this out immediately.")

The key part of the new order: No more blocks on political speech/candidate endorsement by churches.

Secondary part: Treasury, Labor & Health dept's are ordered to "consider issuing amended regulations" to allow discrimination against women. (I say women instead of people-with-uteruses because that's how it's described in section 300gg-13(a)(4) of title 42, United States Code.)

Basic breakdown with disclaimer: IANAL. TINLA. Layman's interp of legal-ish document. Consult an attorney (or your pineal gland) before taking action inspired by the most recent executive order.

Section 1: Total meaningless blather. "Robust protections for religious freedom" already exist in law; saying he's going to enforce them means nothing.

Section 2: More intense blather, plus, no tax penalties for churches that get political. Seems to also include all 501(c)3 orgs, but the phrasing is unclear. (Not clear if any 501(c)3 would be allowed to do political things if they claimed a religious basis, or if only contributions-to-501(c)3s are exempt from tax problems.)

Section 3: Secretaries of 3 departments are ordered to "consider" amending the health code law to allow religious discrimination against women's health care.

Section 4: More blather, this time about how the Atty General is going to "issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections."

Section 5: Legal boilerplate - Severability: if one part is found unconstitutional, the rest still apply.

Section 6: Legal boilerplate/blather - disclaimer that none of this shall be construed to interfere with law or gov't authority or budgeting, and there's no right to sue any gov't-related person as a result of this.

So... this is about money, not religious rights. P45 doesn't care about gays, pro or con; he doesn't care about marriages; he doesn't care about who has sex with whom. He cares about (1) megachurches being allowed to give lip service and money to political causes and (2) insurance corporations not having to spend money on women.

As far as I can tell, the fascist right has forgotten that "religion" is not synonymous with "Christianity." The full text of Section 2 (bolding added):

Respecting Religious and Political Speech.All executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall, to the greatest extent practicable and to the extent permitted by law, respect and protect the freedom of persons and organizations to engage in religious and political speech. In particular, the Secretary of the Treasury shall ensure, to the extent permitted by law, that the Department of the Treasury does not take any adverse action against any individual, house of worship, or other religious organization on the basis that such individual or organization speaks or has spoken about moral or political issues from a religious perspective, where speech of similar character has, consistent with law, not ordinarily been treated as participation or intervention in a political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate for public office by the Department of the Treasury. As used in this section, the term "adverse action" means the imposition of any tax or tax penalty; the delay or denial of tax-exempt status; the disallowance of tax deductions for contributions made to entities exempted from taxation under section 501(c)(3) of title 26, United States Code; or any other action that makes unavailable or denies any tax deduction, exemption, credit, or benefit.

I strongly recommend that witches have a copy of this order, and the ruling of Dettmer v. Landon, on your person when meeting at gov't offices to cast hexes at legislators.

I do know that we're going to see some fucked-up results from this, but I will take what bits of silver lining I can find.

I bet they're going to use it to argue that preaching in schools is okay, too. Anyone want to arrange a Discordian Proselytution Tour to spread the Strange News to children who need it?

*

Also to note: the ACLU declines to file litigation, saying that all the order does is "merely provide a faux sop to religious conservatives and kick the can down the road on religious exemptions on reproductive health care services."