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Shared from Jennifer Hofmann, with gratitude for this wonderful checklist!

What to Do This Week of Jan 22, 2017

Action Checklist for Americans of Conscience

There are 21 months to mid-term elections. Let’s get cracking!

The intention of this weekly document is to make clear suggestions for action backed by well-considered research. If an issue doesn’t affect you, consider whether you would support this issue on behalf of other Americans and act accordingly. Although these topics have been well researched and are intended to be helpful, they are still subject to human error. Please do your own research!

If you'd like get this checklist weekly, sign up here:

http://jenniferhofmann.com/home/weekly-action-checklist-democrats-independents-republicans-conscience/

I believe I can make a difference.

Gear up for the next 652 days to the midterm elections. 

Print out this worksheet for the steps below:

* Put your representative’s name, local phone, DC phone, address, and email on the worksheet or your phone. Get them here.

* Put your two senators’ names, local phones, DC phones, addresses, and email addresses there too. Get them here.

* Get a pile of postcards (or sheets of 110lb cardstock to make your own) and 34-cent postcard stamps. Snail mail is the new response to full voice mailboxes.

* Decide on your “Top Three” most-important issues. Focusing on just a few issues will prevent overwhelm. Consider choosing at least one issue that doesn’t affect you personally. #Top3

* Have a conversation with yourself and/or beloved others about how you want to give time and/or treasure to your Top Three.

* Set aside time each week to be active. 20-60 minutes is a good range. Add this to your calendar. You might consider doing your actions with others for support and community.

I believe in a free, quality education for America’s youth.

Oppose the appointment of Betsy DeVos to Secretary of Education ASAP. 
Even if you’ve already called and/or left a message, call again. If you get voicemail, leave a message. (Hearing on 1/31. Instructions on the next page.)

Call: Senate HELP Committee Chair, Lamar Alexander (R-TN) 202-224-4944

Call: HELP Committee Ranking Member, Patty Murray (D-WA) 202-224-2621

Call: Your two senators. (lookup)

Script: Hi! I am calling to oppose Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education. (Really, that’s all you need to say.)

I believe in equal rights for all Americans.

Oppose Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions (hearing on 1/31)

Call: Senate Judiciary Committee Chair, Chuck Grassley (R-IA) 202-224-3744

Call: SJJC Ranking Member, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) 202-224-3841

Call: Your two senators local office (look up)

Script: Hi! I am calling to oppose Jeff Sessions for Attorney General.

Read the ACLU’s 7-point action plan 

https://www.aclu.org/blog/speak-freely/here-aclus-7-point-plan-action-take-trump-administration

Choose what action you will take based on what you read.

I believe in integrity and reject corruption.

Sign the first two petitions on the new White House website. (Incidentally, I’m happy to see the petition page--which Obama started--still on the site.)


* Release tax returns: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/immediately-release-donald-trumps-full-tax-returns-all-information-needed-verify-emoluments-clause-compliance


* Divest:  https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/divest-or-put-blind-trust-all-presidents-business-and-financial-assets 

I believe in creating a healthy environment for future generations.

Since the new potus* and crew don’t believe the climate crisis is real, we must ask our state governors to uphold Obama’s climate goals.

Click this link for an easy call with complete script. (Weekly Resistance rocks!)

I believe in my Constitutional right to free speech.

Call your governor if you live in Indiana, Michigan, Washington (state), Minnesota, North Dakota, or Iowa. These six states are proposing legislation that criminalizes peaceful protest and risk lives. (source) (source)

Also call your state representative if you live in the states above.

Share: If you know anyone in the states above, ask them to call. 

Script: I am a constituent calling to oppose new legislation that threatens my constitutional right to peacefully protest. 

I believe in the value of social welfare.

Protest the potus’* wide-ranging, unamerican budget cuts.
Full instructions on The 65 

I believe in affordable, accessible healthcare for all Americans.

Read this thorough, timely action plan to prevent dismantling the ACA.

https://www.risewhenwefall.org/healthcare

Choose what action you will take based on what you read.

I believe in the power of my voice.

        

Get coffee: Ask a few friends to meet up and discuss how you’ll proceed over the next four years. This website offers fantastic step-by-step instructions on how to take meaningful action. 

Send an email to friends. 

Use this guide: https://www.indivisibleguide.com/group-toolkit 

Recommended Reading

Prepare mentally: The next four years will be rough if you don’t understand how psychological manipulation works. Using precise examples, this article shows you how to avoid falling prey to fear-based mind games. Moyers is a little intense for my taste, but his information stellar.

Read: http://billmoyers.com/story/the-trump-resistance-plan-step-one/

ACA Executive Order: This article explains what the potus’* executive order means for the Affordable Care Act, signed the day of the inauguration.

Read: http://www.vox.com/2017/1/20/14343332/trump-obamacare-executive-order 

This is #NotNormal

It is not normal for a inaugural address to include words like carnage, trapped, robbed, decay, and ravage. (source) A normal president doesn’t use language of fear and escalation, but hope and vision. 

It is not normal for a democratic president to have military parades in major cities. (source) A normal president respects the military by supporting veterans and pursuing peace.

It is not normal for a president to threaten citizens for using their First Amendment right. (source) A normal president seeks to understand complex issues and takes a just and nuanced approach to solving them.

It is not normal for a president to promise to eliminate business conflicts of interest, fail to do so, and then lie about it. (source) A normal president enters his or her term free of conflicts of interest and even the impression of corruption.

Good news

Fair voting: Gerrymandering took another huge hit in Alabama where a judge found twelve congressional districts to be racially discriminatory and subject to redistricting. (happy dance for justice!) (source)

Republican leadership: Once again, Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is calling for deeper investigation into Russia’s influence in the American election process. His willingness to speak out is courageous and commendable. (source)

NoDAPL progress: Water Protectors in North Dakota have two pieces of good news. First, out-of-state lawyers may now assist with the glut of arrest cases, and, second, the full environmental DAPL study will proceed. (source)

Stronger together: The Women’s March in DC to protest the new potus* was a rousing success. Women and allies marched in more than 500 US cities (source) and more than 70 countries in sister marches (source). The DC march alone surpassed inauguration attendance!

Commence Impeachment: The ACLU is taking the first step to analyze potus’* business conflicts of interest as an impeachable offense. Expect calls to action on this in the future. (source)

Housekeeping

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Final action

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Beekeeping news: getting ready for the bees!

I'm in week two of beekeeping school and enjoying the challenge of learning new material and readying for the chance to actually set up a hive on November Hill.  I'm hoping that this year I can start with one hive, so I have something to apply the knowledge to, and get my feet wet with this venture.

We're using this book as our introduction to beekeeping:

I read through this chapter earlier today:

Working on locating the best spot for a first hive and colony and also very happy to learn last week that our local feed store has made new space for beekeeping supplies! They hired an actual beekeeper to set it up and he'll be working there part-time. When I peeked in last week he was busy putting frames together and they already had everything I need to set things up. 

I need to do a little more research but I learned that it's likely I can use my tung oil and milk paint for the outside of the hive. 

I also attended my first meeting of our county-wide Beekeepers' association. Very nice meeting with two grad students from NCSU presenting their current research on honey bees. I loved that the association donated a check to their research lab - $2000.! It's nice to be joining a group who values science and learning and puts money toward that end.

As a side note, we are having the mildest weather - highs in the 60s for days and days now, and lots of rain which seems to be clearing out this morning. Good news for projects I have nearing completion and for those I had hoped to already be working on!

This is so important I am saying it again - on horse herd behavior and dominance

• It's a direct quote from Wendy Williams' Scientific American article highlighted in my previous blog post, and I am putting it in all caps and bolding it because it is that important.

OBSERVATIONS FROM LONG-TERM STUDIES OF WILD HORSES SHOW THAT THE CONVENTIONAL, MALE-CENTRIC VIEW OF THEIR POWER DYNAMICS IS WRONG.

IN FACT, FEMALES OFTEN CALL THE SHOTS, EMPLOYING TACTICS SUCH AS COOPERATION AND PERSISTENCE TO GET THEIR WAY.

Clinton Anderson, his followers, and what they know (or don't, as the case might be)

This morning I received the following comment to an old blog post  about Clinton Anderson and his website response to an outcry in 2013 about his way of handling the death of a horse in training on his ranch. The post has generated a huge amount of traffic and currently has 158 comments.

I recently edited that old blog post to say that I would no longer approve anonymous comments due to so many people writing rude and hateful things without being willing to sign their names. But I still get them, and this is the one I received this morning:

"You people piss me off. In the wild herds of horses are based off of what? DOMINANCE!!! Hello people are you that fucking stupid? If a stallion in the wild lost to another one he loses his rank and gets cast out. In the wild if you are not of high rank you get walked on. So to you uneducated morons Clinton Anderson's methods seem primitive, but to the ones that are educated his method is true. You see it as dominance I see it at putting my foot down with a toddler like animal that will eventually understand that I am the "stallion" and grow to be apart of my herd...Aka my companion. Remember respect isn't given its earned. Fucking twats"

Whew! I did not approve this comment - its writer adds nothing of substance to the discussion, is rude, calls names, and is unwilling to put a name to his/her words.

The reason I'm posting it here and writing an entire blog post in response is twofold. First, it's a good example of a reactionary, close-minded, "my way or the highway" comment, very much like CA's statement which he put on his website back in 2013 and then removed, probably because he was told it wasn't good public relational strategy. It reveals buckets of information about the kind of person he is, and the kind of person the commenter is. 

It doesn't say anything correct or valid about horse herd behavior in the wild.

I'm happy to share some educated, documented information:

Wendy Williams, in an article in the October 2015 issue of Scientific American, describes the newest and most accurate information we have about wild horses living in bands and how they behave. 

She writes:

IN BRIEF

• Scientists have long studied the best ways to train and treat domesticated horses, but they largely ignored the behavior of free-ranging horses. Recent research has begun to fill that gap.
• Observations from long-term studies of wild horses show that the conventional, male-centric view of their power dynamics is wrong.
• In fact, females often call the shots, employing tactics such as cooperation and persistence to get their way.

I urge you to read her entire article which you can find HERE. The article was adapted from her book, The Horse: The Epic History of Our Noble Companion, published in 2015, available HERE. There is much more information out there which validates her information.

I guess CA and his followers just haven't read it yet.

Early morning wolf moon, Temple Grandin, and LGD pups

On Tuesday I was up early and heading out in 15 degrees with ice still on the roads. I'm not an early bird by nature but sometimes when I need to be up and out at this early hour beautiful things happen. This captures a little bit of the gorgeous wolf moon from the driveway, with the cat porch illuminated by its Christmas tree lights.

The road was dark and there were areas where the ice was still heavy. Along one curving section of roadway a truck had gone off the road and was perched nose down in a deep culvert of trees. I was glad to get where I was going with no issues.

That same evening the temps had risen to 49 so everything melted! My daughter and I went to hear Temple Grandin speak at NCSU's Hunt Library. It was a high energy lecture about different kinds of minds and how they learn. She's a very animated, intense speaker and has so many good things to say. 

Every day this week the temperature has risen. Today I finished the tung oiling of the cat tunnel along with the front porch steps. I am SO happy to have completed that chore! Next up is completion of the last bit of painting I need to do on the front porch. 

Today in the balmy 70s outside I spent some time mucking and raking in the back field with the herd. The mud is drying out, much of it actually ON the horses, pony, and donkeys, and the raking helped me remember what the melting snow does when it falls, rests, and then melts on top of fallen tree leaves. It kicks off the composting process! All I had to do was rake a few swaths to see the start of dark crumbling humus material. For some reason that is a comfort to me - it might look like mud out there but there's good soil amendment cooking too!

We are continuing to research livestock guardian dogs. At the moment we have narrowed the field to Maremma Sheepdogs, Great Pyrenees, and Kangals. 

The Maremmas are said not to wander as much as Great Pyrenees do and the Kangals have shorter, non-white coats that would likely suit our summer climate and our red clay better than solid white junior polar bear coats. We've been invited to meet some Kangals who guard horses locally and also a Great Pyrenees who does the same. And even though I don't yet know anyone local to us who has Maremmas, I have to admit that this photo from Windance Farm in NY is totally singing to me about this breed:

I'm fretting the coyotes and the idea of having huge canine guardians out there 24/7 makes me happy. Though I know we would have a good year of work to do to help any breed of LSG pups get up to speed to do their jobs.

Any thoughts welcome!