Chop Wood, Carry Water 12/8 🏳️🌈
Hi, all, and happy Thursday!
And it is happy indeed—the Respect For Marriage Act passed in the House this morning and will soon become law! Also, Brittney Grimer is coming home! And the Manchin dirty deal has been blocked AGAIN! (For now.) You guys had a lot to do with two of those things, and really all three—having Joe Biden in the White House gave Grimer a much better chance of attaining freedom. You helped elect him, so you own that victory, too!
So thank you a million times. Such a lot of good news to start our day.
On a more sober note, yesterday I received an email from a reader who was quite upset with me for using the phrase “war machine” in one of yesterday’s scripts. It was a phrase I’d borrowed from a longer text written by Win Without War. Among this reader’s other criticisms was that use of this phrase may have been offensive to any of my readers who’ve served in the Armed Forces.
If you are such a reader and took umbrage at my use of this phrase I do apologize. I hope you know the respect and even reverence with which I view your service to our country.
Having cleared that up, I’d like to reprise a theme that I’ve repeated in this newsletter over the years: I am human and I do err. I am also a single person putting out a five-day-a-week newsletter. I have no staff, no editor, and no assistant. I do my best to curate actions and words that will work for most of my readers most of the time. I am an unapologetic progressive, but I try not to assume that all of my readers are the same.
All of this is to say that if you have a problem with an action or script I provide you have several options: you can skip it, edit it—in this case simply copying and pasting the message without the offending phrase into your own Resistbot letter—or create your own from scratch. Everything I place in this newsletter is carefully and thoughtfully composed, but I can’t avoid the occasional mis-step.
Remember, I am here to help, but ultimately it is your voice that must shine through in your phone calls and emails to your reps, not mine. So use my scripts as a gentle suggestion, and, when you don’t like them, throw them away!
With that out of the way, let’s get to our work one more time.
Call Your Senators (find yours here)
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
I’m glad that Joe Manchin’s Dirty Deal did not have the votes to be attached to the annual defense spending bill.
But I’m urging my senator to vote no on any amendment that would advance Manchin’s dirty permitting deal. I'm deeply concerned about any legislation that would fast-track fossil fuel projects and undermine our ability to give input on new energy projects.
Also, we need the Senate to stay in session for the rest of the year so we can pass popular bills that have bipartisan support now. They are: S. 4787 the Afghan Adjustment Act, S. 445 the MAT Act, S. 4573 the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 and S. 1486 the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Please, please, make sure the Senate stays at work until they’re passed. Thanks.
Call Your House Rep (find yours here)
[yes this is repetitive. Please do it anyway!]
If you have a DEM House rep please call and say:
My name is ___ and I’m a constituent from —--. I want Democrats in the House to raise the debt ceiling by reconciliation during the lame duck period so the Republicans can’t hold it hostage next year. This is so important. Please stay in session until you get it done! Thanks!
Extra Credit ✅
In very bad news for the climate, Vanguard has just dropped out of the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative, proving what we suspected to be true all along: that Vanguard isn’t serious about its climate ‘commitments’ and more work needs to be done to make their leadership listen to the experts on climate risk. Let’s help!
Click here to use Vanguard SOS’s one-click tool to call them. You can also go to their Instagram or Facebook feed and drop a comment like this on any of their recent posts.
I am very disappointed in Vanguard’s decision to exit the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative. Vanguard is bowing to right-wing political pressure instead of serving its customers’ best interests. This is a losing strategy of pandering to extremists that is concerning to customers. We will not forget.
Here’s mine:
Get Smart! 📚
Join the Center For Common Ground tonight, December 8th, at 5PM PT / 8PM ET for a debrief on the Georgia runoffs and a celebration of all the work we did together to educate, mobilize and empower Black voters in 2022.
Volunteers for CFCG came together despite the tight time frame between November 8th and the Georgia runoffs and reached over 1.2 million Black Georgia voters through texts, calls, and post cards. Join them tonight for a break down of these numbers and what they meant for Black voter turnout.
Win BIGGER in Georgia! 🍑
(This was posted by Laurie Mendek.)
We really would like help curing in Georgia. I'm leading a phonebank right now. Please come on. Everyone has the right to have their vote count. And the Democratic Party values every vote. And the bigger the win, the better. AND the many newly registered voters in GA Absolutely need to know that we value their votes!!!
There are several shifts for these cure calls. EVERY VOTE MATTERS! Please help!
Resistbot Text (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.)
[to all 3 reps] [H/T] [Quick send: text SIGN PENPPS to 50409]
I’m writing as a constituent to urge you to support renewing the expanded Child Tax Credit before the end of the year. This policy was a lifeline to tens of millions of families last year and cut child poverty by over 40%.
91% of low-income families used their monthly expanded Child Tax Credit checks to cover the cost of basic necessities like housing, food, utilities, and clothing to ensure their children have healthier, more stable environments.
The Child Tax Credit expansion cut Black child poverty by 54%!
If Congress does not act, 19 million children in the lowest-income families will not receive some or all of the current CTC.
It’s estimated that the Child Tax Credit expansion boosted consumer spending by $27 billion, generated $1.9 billion in revenues from state and local sales taxes, and supported the equivalent of over 500,000 full time jobs.
Please pass the expanded, monthly Child Tax Credit for children and their families this year. Thank you.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk tomorrow.
Jess
Dear, Jessica. Please accept my Thanks, and support for your continued daily posts. The recommendations you share for ways to participate in the legislative process are very helpful to me. As you say, if and when I have a differing idea, I have the agency to create my own actions.
I value each and every offering you post.
Signed: the wife of a deceased Vietnam Vet who also provided psychotherapy to vets and family members of veterans w PTSD and TBI’s from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf & Iraqi conflicts.
Jessica, You are amazing! The time, effort, considered thought, and extremely useful information you include in to each newsletter is so helpful! I so appreciate you and the work you’re doing. Thank you!