Chop Wood, Carry Water 12/2

Remember your power.

Don’t forget, there’s a google doc containing all of the orgs working to help undocumented immigrants, listed by state. Find it here.

Hi, all, and happy Monday!

I’ll start by stating the obvious: it’s no fun returning from a holiday weekend to read about the new and unthinkable depredations being exacted on our government by team MAGA. The feelings of dread, anger, and grief are real and valid. We will have to learn to live with them, as many have before us. We can do it; we have to.

But this doesn’t mean we have to succumb to misery. Quite the contrary! We must feel the anger, channel it into productive action, then take breaks to refill our tanks. Then repeat. And repeat, and repeat. Joy. Is. Mandatory. So is action, if we want to get out of this mess.

Never, then, feel badly about stepping away for self-care pauses. Get in as much quality-of-life stuff as you can—as much walk-taking, dog-cuddling, cake-eating, snowman-making, game-playing, and loved-one-hugging as possible. Then come back for bouts of action—I promise I’ll be here to give them to you! In this way we can stay engaged while also staying sane.

I also like the idea, voiced beautifully here by Antonia Scatton, of finding an activism lane and sticking with it. We can’t all do everything; in fact, none of us should try to. So let’s all pick one or two ways we think we can best help and do those, trusting that that’ll be enough, if enough of us are doing the same. And judging by the new subscriptions I’m seeing to this newsletter—over 10,000 in just the last three weeks!—lots of us will be!

Now onto the nuts and bolts. Trump continues to nominate staggeringly bad actors to key positions. It would be farcical if it weren’t so dangerous. Can we stop all of them? Definitely not. Should we try to? Again, not if we want to stay sane. So we’ll focus on the worst of them and do what we can. There is much over which we will be powerless. Let’s not let this deject us. We still have great power and agency—especially when we stick together—and we’re going to use it. Collective action has force. It gets results. It will make a difference.

Remember, this will be easiest to bear if we take it a day at a time. Trump’s term hasn’t started yet. Let’s not wear ourselves out before the real work even begins. We’ll do what we can TODAY, then we’ll let it go. Tomorrow we’ll try again.

Finally, don’t forget how self destructive Trump and MAGA have always been. They always will be. Remember the typical tenure of a Trump appointee last time. Remember that history is unpredictable and that the past is not the future. Remember that you are stronger than you think, and that there are many, many more of us than there are of them. Remember to laugh. Remember our tenure here is brief, and that you are using yours to fight for justice.

Remember your power.

Then lift your head, take a breath, and let’s get to work one more time.

Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲

Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.

I’m deeply concerned at Trump’s decision to fire Christopher Wray and replace him with Kash Patel as the director of the FBI. It’s profoundly dangerous—not just because Patel is unqualified and has suggested he’d like to dismantle large parts of the agency, but because firing a Senate-confirmed FBI director so that the president can replace him with a loyalist will create a constitutional crisis. The FBI director is supposed to be insulated from politics. Presidents from both parties have consistently respected this precedent. Trump’s intention to reinvent the FBI as an instrument of personal presidential power is outrageous and unacceptable. The Senator needs to speak out against it loudly and refuse to cooperate. Thanks.

Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲

[If you have a DEM rep:]

Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.

I understand that Jamie Raskin is challenging Jerry Nadler for Democrats’ top slot on the House Judiciary Committee. He says the party needs to vigorously battle President-elect Donald Trump there and feels he’s the man for the job. I agree, and want the Representative to do all s/he can to support his bid. Let’s get Raskin in and Nadler out, please! Thanks.

Extra Credit ✅

Vote Equality US, the organization pushing President Biden to publish the ERA before his term ends, is organizing a postcard drive on December 10. The instructions are simple:

• Use a postcard of your choice -- purchased, homemade or printed (there's a pre-addressed, pre-written option at this link)

• Write a message along the lines of:

  Dear President Biden,

  Please instruct the Archivist to publish the fully ratified 28th Amendment - the Equal Rights Amendment - and protect the rights of women and LGBTQ Americans! Thank you,

  Full name, city, state

  (message is flexible as long as you mention publishing the ERA.)

• Address to: President Biden, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW Washington, DC 20500

• Set a reminder to mail on December 10

Get Smart! 📚

Just like many of you, Navigator Polling is working to understand the results of the election and are analyzing the results of surveys they conducted as Americans were voting. They conducted a national survey interviewing 5,000 registered voters who had already voted or planned to vote in the November election, with interviews conducted October 31st to November 9th, 2024. They have begun releasing the reports from this survey which can be found on their website here. The reports aim to provide a tool for Americans to understand what happened in the 2024 election, why it happened, and what’s next.

Join them for a partner briefing about their national post election survey on Wednesday, December 4th at 12:00 pm ET. I always find these briefings fascinating, and this one sounds like it’ll be especially so. Hope to see some of you there!

RSVP For the Briefing Here

Spread the Word! 📣

[H/T

Rogan's List

]

JOIN THE DIGITAL FIELD TEAM – CALL TODAY AT 4PM

This election made it painfully obvious that we need to fix our broken information environment if we are going to defeat the authoritarians. This task is easier said than done, and we are going to have to get creative as we seek to mitigate the damage of the current system while building new institutions in its place. The crew at DemCast USA is looking to put the grassroots to work on this mission, continuing their efforts to build a digital field team that can amplify anti-MAGA messages enough to shift social media conversation and attract legacy media attention – letting us speak with one voice.

They’ll be hosting an organizing call for this effort TODAY at 4:00 PM Eastern/1:00 PM Pacific, and we can sign up to join them here.

Win Races! 🗳

Postcards 4 VA needs your postcard writing help again.

In just 5 weeks Virginia has their first Special Election of the year, in which two strong candidates will fight to maintain the Democratic majority in the Virginia General Assembly.

The first race is Senate Seat 32, vacated when Suhas Subramanyam won the election for Congressional District 10. Kannan Srinivasan, currently Delegate for HD26, is running for this seat. Srinivasan was the first Indian American immigrant elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. He is the former chair of the Virginia State Medicaid Board and has strong local support.

The second race is for the newly vacated HD26. JJ Singh is the candidate for this seat. Singh was born and raised in Northern Virginia and has served in the Peace Corps in Bolivia, within the Obama Administration’s Budget Office, and as a senior policy advisor to U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE).

To get addresses, you need to be signed up with Postcards4va. If you need to sign up, click here. If you already write with them, start downloading addresses now.

MAIL DATE - This postcard campaign has a short turnaround time campaign because this election immediately follows the holidays. You will need to write and start mailing by Dec. 11 (for early voting) with the absolute last day to mail Dec. 26.

With your help we can win these two special elections and bring hope to the nation for the new year.

Chop Wood, Save the Planet 🔥

Food and Water Watch is having their 3rd annual volunteer convergence, Organizing to Win, on Saturday, December 7th! RSVP to join them here.
This year’s event will run from 2pm-4:30pm ET / 11am-1:30pm PT.

During the Convergence, you’ll hear from Food & Water Action leaders including Executive Director, Wenonah Hauter, and Deputy Director, Mitch Jones, on their plan to to fight back against the incoming Trump administration’s push to tear down the regulations and destroy the institutions that protect our health and communities from corporate polluters. There will also be a strategic organizing training focused on building political power to impact policy at every level of government.

Check out the full agenda for this year’s Convergence at this link then RSVP here.

Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻

[To: your Senators] [H/T] [Text SIGN PBZUJV to Resistbot at 50409 or via Apple Messages or MESSENGER]

I’m writing as your constituent to urge you to confirm NLRB nominee Lauren McFerran today!

The NLRB’s mission is to protect our rights as workers to organize, form unions, and bargain collectively. At a time when workers’ rights are already under threat, we need to do everything we can to safeguard these functions–and that includes not surrendering control of the Board to the same ideologies that are attacking its right to exist.

The Board has long played a crucial role in protecting workers’ rights and helping us hold our employers accountable. We need to do everything we can, right now, to preserve that.

Workers’ rights as we’ve known them for nearly 100 years are under attack. Corporations including Amazon, SpaceX, and Trader Joe’s are challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act itself in court. Even OSHA’s proposed heat standard, which would provide rest and water to workers in extreme heat conditions, is under threat.

The bottom line: Working people need a pro-worker majority on the NLRB. Please ensure the swift confirmation of NLRB nominee Lauren McFerran!

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OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.

Talk soon.

Jess