FRIDAY LIST 7

It is time to return to the Friday Lists.  I have been so involved with preparing my apartment to sell that I have done very little besides callING my senators, Burr and Tillis, to try to get them to oppose the repeal or gutting of the Affordable Care Act.  The assault now under weigh [as in, weigh anchor] on the poor, the old, the sick, the infirm, and those seeking a decent education is of course not vintage Trump.  It is vintage Republican.  I am hopeful that with continuing ground level protests across the country, enough representatives and Senators can be peeled away to block the full-scale bill from passing, but great harm is already being done to tens of millions of Americans, and a great deal more harm will almost certainly be done.

It was the prospect of precisely these actions that led me to support Clinton, despite my dismay at her political orientation.  Whether we can climb out of the political hole we are in remains to be seen.

Now, SEND IN YOUR FRIDAY LIST REPORTS.

Here is the first, offered last week despite my failure to post a list:

I. M. Flaud said...

There has been no Friday Post, but in the spirit of indefatigable solidarity with the cause, I contributed $5 to Social Security Works, added my name to a few petitions, and--I don't know if this counts--purchased an expensive piece of Japanese electronics whose price will likely skyrocket once the trade wars commence. Perhaps this counts: I began re-reading Epictetus, who taught during a period of political oppression not wholly unlike our own. My uncle used to read Epictetus to me as a boy. The works of Epictetus aren't mentioned in Professor Wolff's "THE 25 MUST READ PHILOSOPHY BOOKS FOR GRAD STUDENTS," but the Enchiridion and the Discourses would find their application beyond the often pointlessly competitive, backbiting, judgmental, rank- and pedigree-conscious world of contemporary academic philosophy. And they might be must read books for those who tried and, for whatever reason, failed to join that world.

Lawrence Milford said...

After a hiatus, I have resumed contributing to Our Revolution.

I sent some emails and made a few calls to my "representatives". Also called a Florida representative's office (I can't remember her name) to thank/support her for promising to vote against the Trump and Ryan Don't Care Plan.

Read "On Tyranny" by Timothy Snyder as well as some of Emma Goldman's essays and other Anarchism books. Also read The Shipwrecked Mind (Mark Lilla) which was a good series of essays about reactionaries.

Got the paperwork to get my children passports,, just in case...

howie b said...

I donated money to the muslim center in Tampa Bay that was attacked and I, as an IDF veteran, sent Senator Gillibrand a strongly worded email against Trump's pick for ambassador to Israel, plus there was a survey for the democratic party I completed

Chris said...

Gave money to the ACLU.

David Palmeter said...

Donation to Ossoff campaign

David said...

1. Continued drumming up support for three educators in their grievance against the district. This includes encouraging building staff to sign a group letter addressed to the head of labor relations in our district.

2. Donated again to Jon Ossoff.

3. Discussed with our union President and building staff the prospects of a May-Day strike.

4. Called Rep. Jayapal to thank her for her vocal opposition to the decimation of the ACA.

DML said...

I honestly have not done anything this week or last. Life intervenes, and a little fatigue has set in. But breaks are good too. Tomorrow I am attending an organizing meeting for our county's Our Revolution, where we will presumably set some plans in motion for protesting ACA repeal.

I. M. Flaud said...

This week I sent money to the Jon Ossoff campaign. A warning: I did this through Daily Kos, which splits the money evenly with itself and Ossoff. The desktop site makes this clear just before you contribute, but the mobile site, which I used on my phone does not make this sneaky default obvious at any stage of the transaction, at least as far as I remember. I tried checking on the mobile donation site for Ossoff through Daily Kos and seemed to be unable to find the link to change the allocation. Perhaps I need a new prescription. Perhaps in my zeal I overlooked the obvious. In any case, be warned. I was not pleased.

C Rossi said...

I signed a bunch of petitions. I demonstrated outside of congressman's Pat Meehan's office demanding that he hold a live town hall meeting (he has phone meetings on which any contrarian rarely gets to speak--I've tried--he is a rather ineffectual republican deep back-bencher, a kind of go-along guy who is a reliable party-line vote). I wrote to Senator Casey agreeing with and celebrating his votes against all (or almost all) DT's nominees and cheering him on (he has been a rather weak democratic force against the right wing tide but seems to have grown a spine of late). I worked with other members of our chapter of Veterans for Peace to support the New Sanctuary Movement to defend undocumented immigrants from the predations of ICE. I increased my monthly donation to the UN High Commission for Refugees. I sent a shipment of books to a Facebook friend in Gaza who is trying to establish an English language library for students in Gaza. Alas, the Israeli customs refused to accept the shipment and returned the books to me (minus $250).