thisfinecrew | Entries tagged with action

If anyone wants to call RFK Jr. to complain about him not funding vaccines, the phone number is 202-690-7000. I called during office hours (8:30-5 Eastern time) and got voicemail. The message asked for a phone number, and claimed someone would call me back.

If anyone wants a script, my message was:

My name is Vicki Rosenzweig. I’m calling from Boston, to demand that the secretary restore funding for MRNA vaccines. He must make the fall covid and flu boosters available to everyone. I’m immune-compromised, and my safety depends on my family being vaccinated and not giving me a virus. My phone number is [your number here]

Edit as appropriate.

redbird

The FTC is inviting public comment about gender-affirming care for minors, and alleged deception by providers. They are blatantly looking for attacks on gender-affirming care, but every unique comment posted may slow down whatever crap they're planning here.

Personalizing these comments is good, even if it's just "I'm writing from Boston."

I'm posting at the request of

minoanmiss. If anyone has a good script or talking points, I'd be delighted to add them to this post.

gingicat

Today!

You can attend a virtual rally:
https://www.mobilize.us/john-lewis-actions/event/803723/

Good Trouble Lives On: Virtual Rally happening today at 6pm Eastern/5pm Central/4pm Mountain/3pm Pacific and you can join us here: https://www.youtube.com/@WeArePeoplePowerUnited/streams No worries if you are late or can't make it, we will share the video as well.

fabrisse

There are 17 medical professionals in the current House of Representatives. 11 are Republicans. Trying to argue on most issues with the bill is difficult with such a tight deadline, but the one item most people -- including Congressional Representatives -- are reacting to negatively is the closure of Rural and Regional hospitals. This should be a negative for all of the Republicans, but the ones who understand what lack of medical provision can do should be especially ripe to listen, perhaps even be persuaded.

I live in Georgia. Rich McCormick is Georgia District 6, and I live in District 1. But he's more likely to respond to someone from the same state, especially if he has Senate or Gubernatorial ambitions in the future.

The list I found is through The Patients Action Network. If you are in a District with one of these Republican representatives, particularly if they specialize in Emergency or Family medicine, start calling and/or emailing. If you are in the same state, email them and let them know you have a long memory if they're thinking of statewide offices.

In the meantime, send support to the few Republicans in the House who have already voted against it and continue to oppose it. At the very least, let's make them miss their deadline for vacation.

lightbird

According to an article in today's Gotham, NY Governor Hochul is pushing a last minute mask ban in state budget talks. If you live in New York, I urge you to contact her office, as well as your state reps, assembly member, and councilmember.

There's a form you can use to contact Governor Hochul here.

You can also call (518) 474-8390 during business hours.

COVID is still circulating and cases of other serious illnesses like measles are on the rise, and masks are one of the best ways to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.

When I contacted the office I emphasized that a mask ban:

* risks public health and safety
* is discriminatory
* and called out her suggestion that "some people use masks to conceal their face while committing a crime" in context of protests and that peaceful protesting is legal and that protesters have the right to protect their health

redbird

I copied most of this from

siderea's journal, there's a lot more detail in her post:

AMERICANS WITH DEMOCRAT SENATORS,

tl;dr: call them TODAY, tell them you absolutely expect them to shut down the government by voting against the continuing resolution bill if the GOP doesn't provide massive concessions, and maybe even then.

And whatever position they take, take it to social media immediately and make sure everyone you can reach knows it. Especially if they agree. [I think this assumes you talk to a staffer rather than leaving voivemail.]

There's a script about the CR at 5calls.org, but it says to tell your senator to ask for concessions in the CR, and it doesn't look like any such concessions would be worth much.

Slightly longer explanation:

The GOP has enough votes to pass the CR bill in the House, but will need at least seven Democrats to vote for it for it to pass.

The CR bill is not hugely bad, in and of itself. But if it doesn't pass, the government shuts down.

Shut it down.

The prevaling sentiment on r/fednews – a Reddit sub for federal employees – in favor of a shutdown. "This is the only leverage the Dems have. If they don’t use it we are all toast"

mxcatmoon

We Have Work to Do!

Cliff Cash is a comedian who has taken up the cause and is posting short videos about protests and other events that are going on. He was at the February 5th protest (in his state of North Carolina). I found his video in the link above helped turn my discouraged mood into a renewed energy to fight. He talks about not letting fear get the best of us, and that this presidency is not strong, it's only using fear to pretend it is. Also, in the description he added a list of actions and resources, including the following:

Boycott the companies that support fascism. Use “goodsuniteus” app.

Sign up for the general strike at generalstrikeus.com

Get prepared for a weeklong economic strike where we don’t spend any money.

I hope this is helpful. If not, mods are free to delete.

Sign up for the general strike at generalstrikeus.com

petra

For everyone who is trying to figure out what to do about the Department of Government Efficiency getting Treasury data access, I have two suggestions.

I was inspired by

qqueenofhades to write to my AG. I used that user's suggested template, which is available here or below:

( Qqueenofhades's template for writing to your AG )

( What I wrote to my representative & senators, which is separate )

Mods, can we get a "department of government efficiency" tag? Thank you!

rydra_wong

This is the bill that would allow the Secretary of the Treasury to unilaterally strip non-profit status from any organization they want to label as "terrorist supporting" -- with no requirement for evidence, and no recourse other than organizations getting 90 days to somehow prove their innocence (proving a negative always being a fun game), so basically any non-profit they want to kill:

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/hr-9495-bill-threatening-nonprofits-passes-house/

https://www.rightsanddissent.org/news/defending-rights-dissent-condemns-passage-of-h-r-9495-charity-killer/

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/house-bill-trump-power-target-nonprofits-1235161151/

The vague language in the bill could be used against nonprofits that support Palestinian rights, reproductive rights, and environmental protections.

“The danger is much broader than just groups that work on foreign policy,” Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council Action, told The Intercept. “It could target major liberal funders who support Palestinian solidarity and peace groups who engage in protest. But it could also theoretically be used to target pro-choice groups, and I could see it being used against environmental groups.”

https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

The ACLU have a script if you want something to borrow from:

https://action.aclu.org/send-message/dissent

hermionesviolin

For anyone who missed signups from Postcards to Swing States: A Progressive Turnout Project Initiative, I just got an email from them:

Sign-ups for postcards are back open as we make a final push for 40 million postcards to rally Democrats to vote! We will likely send you postcards for a competitive US House district or Florida, though we have some additional voter lists for swing states and Ohio. If you aren't willing to write to voters for whatever list we send you, please do not sign up.

The mailing dates for these final orders are between Oct 24 and Oct 29. We'll ship the postcards as quickly as possible.

There's also an option to opt-in to write postcards to persuadable seniors about the importance of voting for Democrats in order to protect social security from Republican proposals to cut this vital program.

Please note: You will be responsible for providing Postcard Stamps, which are currently $0.56. We'll mail you free postcards, along with voter lists and instructions with proven message options.

I suspect it is still true that you can add a note with the number of postcards you want (in increments of 25) if you don't want to do 200 (the minimum number on the drop-down menu).

azurelunatic

So the US doesn't have federal heat protections for workers; OSHA is trying to change that. Request for comment is now open, until the end of December.

This form is a streamlined version of the official one, with some suggested text, but submits to the official form: https://act.seiu.org/a/federalheatregcomments?ms=social

It has a link to the official site: https://www.regulations.gov/document/OSHA-2021-0009-4761 where you can download the whole shebang, which is Long: 3,173 kb of very light HTML, for those of us who can remember calculating fanfiction length by text file size rather than word count.

There are various Requests for Comments scattered throughout the document that you can use to focus your thoughts into something potentially more useful than just "yes this is good and necessary, and while it may not be complete it is important to get basic heat protections for as many workers as possible"; you can search the document for "Requests for Comments" and I believe find them all that way.

(via

ladybusiness)

semielliptical

Writing postcards and letters is one way to help get out the vote for US elections.

hermionesviolin posted here last month about Postcards to Swing States, which is a great campaign, but they have completed their sign-ups for this year.

So if you are looking for other opportunities to write to US voters, or if you signed up for Postcards to Swing States and want to write while waiting for those postcards to arrive, consider the organizations below. I have written for all of them over the last several years; the variety of messages and styles has helped me maintain my motivation to reach out to voters.

I listed supplies needed in case that is helpful; check out the websites for full instructions.

Center for Common Ground / Reclaim Our Vote
“Fighting for Voting Rights and Mobilizing Voters of Color.”
Uses messages that are respectful and culturally sensitive, and includes personalized, local voting information
Supplies needed:

Order and use only their postcards.
Postcard stamps.
Not absolutely necessary, but very helpful: access to a printer for printing labels with local voting information.

Postcards to Voters
“Friendly, handwritten reminders from volunteers to targeted voters giving Democrats a winning edge in close, key races coast to coast.” Write for a variety of campaigns, both large and small. You’re usually instructed to mail the postcards immediately so you can feel accomplished right away.
Supplies needed:

Postcards: provide your own, either from their Etsy store or any other source with suitable designs. You can even use pre-stamped postcards from the USPS; very cost-effective.
Postcard stamps.

Vote Forward
Add a personal, heartfelt message to get-out-the vote letters targeting voters in swing states.
Supplies needed:

Access to a printer for printing letters.
Envelopes and stamps.

If you have other organizations or campaigns to recommend, please comment!

hermionesviolin

I recently signed up for the email list for Postcards to Swing States: A Progressive Turnout Project Initiative, and got an email from them just now: "We have resumed sign-ups for our postcard program to rally Democrats to vote in 56 competitive US House districts!"

Sign up below to write postcards to rally Democrats in competitive House districts to vote on Nov 5. We'll mail you free postcards, voter lists and instructions with three message options (expect to receive them within 2-4 weeks).

You'll provide the postcard stamps and mail the postcards on October 24.

Competitive House districts in Presidential and Senate battleground states are already covered by our statewide postcard program. Sign-ups for that program will resume no later than August 5.

It looks like the smallest number of postcards you can order is 200, so you may want to recruit some friends to help -- though even if it takes 4 weeks for you to get your postcards, that's still about 2 months to write them (you mail them soon before the election so they're fresh to encourage voting).

Their email notes:

Finally, please pick from one of the proven messages on the instructions that we send with your postcards. They will be far more effective at helping Kamala Harris and other Democrats than a message that mentions her or threats to democracy. For this program with cards that will arrive close to the election in November, we're following the most effective strategy to rally Democrats to vote. More than 15 years of research from leading progressive data-driven organizations proves that messages focused on voting are far more effective at increasing Democratic turnout than those that are partisan. See our research and more on this and other topics at our FAQ page or watch our webinar from June that explains our data-driven approach.

Thanks for all your activism!
— Postcards to Swing States Team

Progressive Turnout Project is the largest voter contact organization in the country. Our mission: Rally Democrats to vote. We design, test, and execute specialized voter turnout programs targeting inconsistent Democratic voters in the most competitive elections up and down the ballot.

Edit: I posted in a local Discord to see if other people wanted some of the postcards I'm ordering and someone said:

i would also like to do some postcards. also though someone i follow on mastodon shared a link to this postcard campaign with the note:
If you want to write postcards to voters but find the minimum of 200 to be undoable, you can request a smaller number! Just select 200 when you submit your order and then let them know the actual amount you want (in multiples of 25 such as 100) in the "drop us a note" field.

Edit2: And someone else said, "I think i was doing ~50 a week in 2020? It'd take somewhere between 30-60 mins. I did them on lunch breaks. If that's a useful metric."

tanaqui

If you use non-Dreamwidth social media and are looking for memes to share to explain what's in Project 2025 (and just how bad it is), this site has a good selection:

https://project2025truth.com/

(Credit to whoever posted this over at FFA's dedicated US Politics post!)

sathari

I thought this might be relevant to some of our interests in the wake of today's news: link to donate to VP Harris' presidential campaign.

ETA thanks to folks in comments:

minoanmiss also recommends contacting the DNC to encourage them to make her the official nominee, and

philomytha let us know that US citizens who are overseas can contribute through the linked site if they give their passport number. Thanks so much!

Further ETA from comments: quoting our wonderful mod

tanaqui: "If you have time rather than money to donate, take a look at https://events.democrats.org/

If you click on the filter button near the top of the page, you can search for events that are local, GOTV, canvassing/phonebanking or ADA accessible."

And

minoanmiss would like to credit

petra for the idea of contacting the DNC. (This is probably my last update to this post, so that newer ideas can go in new posts and more people can see them.)

snickfic

The CDC is accepting public comment for their next vaccine committee meeting through February 22. Let them know that all of us need access to COVID vaccines at least twice a year.

More info here, including sample script for you to personalize if you want.

(Hi, guys! Long time no see!)

petra

S. 2767: SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act doesn't actually eliminate the savings penalty for people on Supplemental Security Income, but it would raise the limit from the $2000 per single individual implemented in 1972 [sic] to $10,000, and remove the penalty for couples.

( My letter )

tanaqui

Pharmaceutical company Vertex has developed a drug that provides effective treatment for many people with cystic fibrosis, reducing their symptoms, reducing the likelihood of other infections and in general improving their quality of life and life expectancy.

But in many countries (including a "rich" country like the UK, where it probably won't be available through the National Health Service because it really is that expensive), this drug is unaffordable. Just Medicine is urging people to write to Vertex's CEO to ask the company to lower the cost of the drug. There's more information and a template letter here that you can customise:

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/vertex-ceo-stop-denying-access-to-lifesaving-cystic-fibrosis-treatment

redbird

There's a proposal to limit the new covid vaccine booster to people over age 75 and immune-compromised people. This is on very short notice and not getting a lot of attention, but the proposal is open for comments until tomorrow.

The comment link is https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/CDC-2023-0060-0001

My own comment, if anyone wants a model (please don't copy it exactly, distinct comments get more attention):

The up-to-date booster should be available to everyone, not just elderly and immune-compromised people.

Because I am immune-compromised, I need other people to also be boosted, for my own protection. Like most immune-compromised people, I live with other people, and they are not immune-compromised. For my health and safety, I need my housemates to also be immunized against covid and other serious diseases.

I also leave the house, including for medical appointments, other errands, and sometimes even to spend time with friends. All of those things would be more dangerous if younger people could not receive the booster. For example, my primary care doctor, my dental hygienist, and the doctor who treats me for my immune disorder are not immune-compromised. I wear a mask indoors, almost always--but the CDC acknowledges that masking alone is not sufficient to protect me from covid infection.

redbird

I saw via a Mastodon link that Republicans in Congress are trying to stop the federal government for paying for any gender-affirming health care. The person who posted about this urged people to write to our representatives, but I didn't see a link or suggested text.

So, I used my congresswoman and senators' web sites to write to them. This could probably be better written, but I think it's good enough. Slightly different phrasing for the House and the Senate. What I sent my senators is:

Republicans, led by Marjorie Taylor Greene in the House, are trying to insert sweeping anti-trans language into must-pass funding bills. They want to stop the federal government from paying for any gender-affirming care. These anti-trans provisions are already in the House versions of the Health and Human Services and military appropriations bills.

This law would have a horrible effect on transgender people. People die by suicide when they can't get the care they need.

I suspect that's not a bug for them, but a feature--they literally want my friends dead. Please work to block this in the Senate.

What I sent Rep. Pressley is:

Republicans including Marjorie Taylor Greene are trying to insert sweeping anti-trans language into must-pass funding bills. They want to stop the federal government from paying for any gender-affirming care. These anti-trans provisions are already in the House versions of the Health and Human Services and military appropriations bills.

This law would have a horrible effect on transgender people. People die by suicide when they can't get the care they need.

I suspect that's not a bug for them, but a feature--they literally want my friends dead. Please work to stop this.

Depending on whose district you're in, it might or might not be a good idea to emphasize that the cruelty is part of the point.

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Never Give Up, Never Surrender

November 2025

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Page Summary

redbird - call RFK Jr. about vaccine access
redbird - public comments sought on gender-affirming care
gingicat - Good Trouble Lives On
fabrisse - Ideas to block the current bill
lightbird - New York Action Item
redbird - action: call Democratic senators to vote against continuing resolution
mxcatmoon - Encouraging video including a list of actions to take
petra - Department of Government Efficiency Overreach - Letters
rydra_wong - HR 9495 passed the House, so contact your Senators
hermionesviolin - more postcard signups available
azurelunatic - OSHA proposed regulations for worker heat protections: comment period until Dec 30, 2024
semielliptical - Get out the vote with postcards and letters!
hermionesviolin - Postcards to Swing States: Write Postcards to House Districts!
tanaqui - Memes to spread the word about Project 2025
sathari - Kamala Harris Presidential Campaign Donation Link
snickfic - Make a public comment to the CDC re: COVID vaccines
petra - Action: Contact Senators regarding S. 2767: SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act
tanaqui - Action: Ask pharma CEO to lower the price of a life-changing drug for people cystic fibrosis
redbird - covid booster access
redbird - federal funding for transgender health care

Active Entries

1: (no subject)
2: Minnesota fraud investigation
3: Nonviolent Resistance Training
4: CA trans issues - call Gavin Newsom
5: foster parents' "personal views"
6: government shutdown
7: 5 Calls Dot Org
8: Palestine/Gaza Awareness
9: Covid vaccine access at pharmacies
10: Tell your reps to support the Don't STEAL Act.

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Never Give Up, Never Surrender

Links and Positive Action for the next Four Years

Entries tagged with action

call RFK Jr. about vaccine access

public comments sought on gender-affirming care

Good Trouble Lives On

Ideas to block the current bill

New York Action Item

action: call Democratic senators to vote against continuing resolution

Encouraging video including a list of actions to take

Department of Government Efficiency Overreach - Letters

HR 9495 passed the House, so contact your Senators

more postcard signups available

OSHA proposed regulations for worker heat protections: comment period until Dec 30, 2024

Get out the vote with postcards and letters!

Postcards to Swing States: Write Postcards to House Districts!

Memes to spread the word about Project 2025

Kamala Harris Presidential Campaign Donation Link

Make a public comment to the CDC re: COVID vaccines

Action: Contact Senators regarding S. 2767: SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act

Action: Ask pharma CEO to lower the price of a life-changing drug for people cystic fibrosis

covid booster access

federal funding for transgender health care

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November 2025

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