153 Comments

I can't recommend Robert Hubbell's Substack highly enough. At a time when it seems everyone is trying to scare the pants off me for clicks and donations, Robert delivers the news like an actual adult—responsibly, completely, and intelligently, but without scare tactics or self-aggrandizement. He's a good writer, too. If you're not already subscribed, do yourself a favor and click through. You'll find it well worth your time.

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Agreed!

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Stephen, I agree with you completely. Robert Hubbell became, for me, one of the voices of sanity and clear-headedness during the pandemic. I am particularly grateful for his legal knowledge and his ability to clarify what is happening in our government through that specialized lense.

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Agree. It's one of the few ways I can process news these days. I also highly recommend Democracy Docket.

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yes, the friggin DNC sent an email asking for money from Kamala Harris? WTF???

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I responded by saying until you do something you’re not gonna get any money for me

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Call the Republican congresspeople too and rant at them, clog their phone lines. They’re the ones who need to hear from us most!

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As I said: ALL of our representative need to hear from us.

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Great idea to clog the phone lines, ranting, not so much. The staffers who answer the phone are usually decent folks, young, and not worthy of mistreatment. Some have been (or very effectively feigned to be) surprised at what they're hearing and all are taking down the info. Be polite, professional, and direct and we'll get a lot farther.

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Dave, I used to call Vicky Hartzler's office regularly. Her staffers were really polite and listened well. I once asked one with an obvious Australian accent about his job. He was doing it on some kind of internship. I asked if he got to choose which congressperson he worked for, and he said no. I will admit that I was sometimes pretty testy, but I do think my more polite calls were more effective.

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No question about that Ellen, as challenging as it sometimes is. There are days when I'd love to blast the staffer I'm talking with as a proxy for their boss, but we'll beat Ann Wagner with votes, not anger.

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They are just the messengers

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Yes, and they are likely to just dismiss you as a crank if you are, well, cranky. I say that as someone who has not always been able to stop myself.

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Of course

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I call

Senator Thune every day.

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Me too! And his staff do pick up the phone. I did have one of them yesterday try to convince me the senator had no control over what Musk is doing because "it's the executive branch", but I kept going and in the end he did stop fighting me and wrote my message down. And all the other staffers I've talked to have been very polite and helpful.

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Good for you! I think firm and insistent but polite and friendly is the right approach.

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Thank you!!

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Am really glad to hear about your meeting blistering Schiff and the reassurance that every call is listened to. I've often wondered what percentage of the calls I make and emails I send just disappear into the ether.

When I learned the other day that Maria Cantwell, one of my senators, voted to approve Bessent for Treasury, I sent her an, um, especially blunt email that included the word "complicit" along with some sharp challenging of her thinking and decision making. I know that other constituents who said they voted for her told her they were equally upset and promised to work for a primary election the next time she came up and to vote for her opponent in the primary. Did those messages get through? I have no idea -- Cantwell, in sharp contrast to Patty Murray, is especially poor at responding and acknowledging constituents' views.

Even Dems need their feet continually held to the fire. As Hamilton Nolan wrote, elected politicians are either enemies or cowards. If we have cowards for our representatives -- that is, people who don't unalterably oppose our views and values but won't necessarily always stick up for them -- it's up to us to regard them as "basically disreputable figures who are necessary to deal with but who should always be looked down upon and forced to prove, through action, that they are not pieces of shit."

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/how-to-think-about-politics-without

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would you be willing to post your email message to Cantwell? She's my senator too and although I've been calling her office, would love some more ideas of ways to challenge her to do better!

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Feb 8Edited

Here's what I wrote. Note that it came before Musk was granted whatever cockamamie "employee status" and "clearance" he now has. I suggest rewriting or tweaking the following to reflect your own voice and style and the tone you want -- don't just copy and paste this. Also, you may not want to make all the same points.

- - - - -

Sen. <name>:

I just learned that you voted to approve Scott Bessent for head of Treasury.

You voted for a billionaire oligarch who, astonishingly, thinks Trump is "very sophisticated on economic policy" and who wants to continue the huge tax cuts bestowed upon the billionaires in the first Trump maladministration at the expense of the working and middle classes.

And now we learn that scarcely a week later Bessent flung Treasury's doors open to Musk, a loose cannon, Nazi-saluting bad actor who has been elected by nobody, has taken no oath of office, holds no official office, is accountable to no one, and has no sort of high-level security clearance, allowing him control over the government's payment system and access to vast amounts of confidential information. That is an unspeakable violation of trust, confidence, security, and government procedure.

Why, pray tell, did you vote for Bessent? Why would you ever support _anything_ that the current president wants, given that he and his henchmen both official and unofficial are clearly usurping Congress's power of the purse in the course of imposing an oligarchy backed up by autocratic, centralized power? Could you not tell from your research and the committee hearing what Bessent's views are and what his intentions were? You didn't see any red flags or warnings?

Yours was not the deciding vote, nevertheless you are complicit in the damage that has been wrought and will probably continue to be wrought for the foreseeable future. You are tarred with the brush of malfeasance that jeopardizes the well-being of millions of Americans who depend on the programs targeted by the present administration.

When will you be explaining your decision to vote for Bessent to your constituents? You owe it to us. Further, what plans do you have for reporting back to your constituents regularly, via a wide variety of media and platforms? We need and want to know specifically what you are doing to fight back against the illegalities and blatantly unconstitutional moves the president is making. You and your Senate colleagues need to use every procedure, every parliamentary maneuver, to resist and obstruct what's going on to the greatest extent possible. Ask yourself what Mitch McConnell would do, and look at what he did when his party was in the minority. And then use the same tactics.

Further, you need to speak out forcefully and frequently to every Washington state resident, using every channel and means that everyday people nowadays use. A press release to the Washington Post will not cut it. Your message content will of course vary, but the messages should always be in plain, everyday language and do three things: (1) Call out the illegal or destructive moves under way, (2) say why they're wrong or illegal, and (3) explain how everyday people are going to suffer at the hands of the present administration.

In short, show people how what's happening is going to be bad for them and force the Republicans to own the consequences.

You are a sworn defender of the Constitution. This is not a partisan or political matter -- it is a battle for our democracy. You are on the front line.

Step up. Now.

Your constituent,

<sender's name>

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Cantwell heads the list of elected officials who have taken the most corporate money.

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More folks in Northern California need to be calling Kevin Kiley's office daily. You can hear the staff snearing through the phone. But he thinks he's comfy in his maga base. Keep the pressure on to make sure he knows his support is thin at best.

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I've called 10x and can't get through at all. Switchboard is "busy" (ya think) and individual phone mailboxes are "full"

Writing letters in longhand today. Physically burying them under mail might be a good additional approach. Email too I suppose but mail evidently carries more weight?

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Postcards work to bump the tally and they get through screens faster (no need to check for dangerous substances), I am told. Please correct me if you know that not to be the case.

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Point taken, AI even says that for time-sensitive issues, forget about postcards, as they could have some kind of poison and all mail can be delayed for weeks.

SO... that leaves email.

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Speaking of indivisible, Indivisible Twin Cities just put out this action call, which I think is a good one. Call your bank, and express your concern about the giant data breach at Treasury, and ask what they are doing to protect their customers.

Here's their sample script, which I modified for my circumstances: " I am calling you to express my concern that my bank accounts may be compromised due to the irresponsible access to the U.S. Treasury systems that control expenditures to people like me who get direct deposits from the government.

I want to understand what steps this bank is taking to make sure my personal banking information is not compromised in any way by the DOGE group led by Elon Musk."

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Ellen that is excellent advice as I have been concerned about my banking info with my SS direct deposit and tax return money or payments. We need to all do this

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Thanks; I used this yesterday to my credit union.

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I completely agree and am going to do but will they be on the same page as msk and agree with him and gaslight??? Bank of America wants part of their portfolio to be crypto for example. That I do not take as the best sign. I've been calling and calling and CALLING my rep and and Senators to sound the alarm about this very thing AND about msk having access to the 3 credit bureaus because the government is the one entity that gets a pass even if there's a freeze and fraud alert on accounts.

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Yes, I'm guessing Bank of America is A-OK with it. But maybe if they hear from concerned customers ("I'm wondering if I should take my account elsewhere?") they will take it more seriously. I didn't even know about the government getting a pass on fraud alerts.

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If possible, look at moving your $ to a credit union. I froze my 3 credit unions too.

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Me either. I thought this might be the one bit of protection.

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Thanks, we need to let corporate America know how we feel in may ways. Costco over Walmart, for example. Praise Costco. Talk to your local manager of Target about their abandoning DEI practices and policy. My wife, an avid Target shopper, spoke to them praising the diversity of the local staff and how much she enjoys their help and interaction and expressed her concerns in clear terms. The response: essentially, not direct quote, "I have heard a lot from other customers and I will certainly relay this up to my regional manager." These actions matter.

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oooh, I like that idea. Thanks for sharing!

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Postcards to Voters is active for Susan Crawford too. If you're already signed up you can just ask Abby for addresses, otherwise, the signup process is pretty simple at postcardstovoters.org. You'll have to buy cards and stamps, but that's pretty standard. Don't be surprised if you have to order stamps via internet, DeJoy has trashed a lot of local P.O. management.

Thanks for the news about your junior Senator, the deep silence from the once aggressive and outspoken Impeachment Prosecutor has made the loss of Katie Porter in the House seem even worse than it is.

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Anyone else boycotting the Super Bowl?

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Yes, and sent a postcard to Roger Goodell explaining why, even though I am a KC Chiefs fan and would like to see the 3-peat, I can't watch it. I did thank him for his partial support of continued DEI efforts, minus painting "End Racism" out of the End Zone, so as not to offend Trump's eyes.

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As a former football fan I sincerely appreciate your sacrifice 💙

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Yup! Won't give views to Fox or FOTUS. Getting dinner out at a local restaurant and then seeing a movie. Will steam MeidasTouch on Youtube before I leave just for an extra level of petty.

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Lovely sunday

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It really was.

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Yes!

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Excellent!!

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Except I understand that Jon Batiste will be playing and he is wonderful. However, I will just have to see a clip later.

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Blow up their email servers too!

I think there is much more than 3.5% of the population unhappy with the current state of thing.

Many are sad and looking the other way or scared of reprisal of friends, family and this regime.

We need to lead and assist the folks to add their voices in a way that's safe.

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Per Ezra and his wife they just care about phones.

Emails are ignored.

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Not necessarily. One of my senators and my congresscritter reply to most of the ones I send, with a paragraph or two of non-boilerplate text.

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There's basically a formula for this amongst Congressional staffers and Ezra is right that the phone calls are by far the most effective but they do also tally the emails. Back in the day (early 2000s), we used to also send faxes (which did really piss staff off as it would clog up the machine and require them to use a ton of paper). I wonder if that might still work...

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I choose the fax option when it’s available on ResistBot 😊

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Not necessarily, I would use all forms of communication call email show up at offices, etc.

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They do answer them though.

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Well I have nothing but MAGA a**holes to call but I did it.

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👍👍

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Diaz-Balart's office must think I'm a nut because I think my incredulity at reading today's script made it sound like I was laughing. Which in a way, I was, at the utter complete insanity of it all. I will be on disability for the rest of my life-I wake up every morning nauseous.

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I’m so glad to see that you are calling his office, too! Yesterday, I asked what the Rep was doing to stop Musk and she said something meaningless so I told her that Musk had HER banking and all private healthcare information, SS number, as well as mine. . I asked her to urge Diaz-Balart to stop this illegal and unconstitutional action.

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I wake up nauseous, too. I’m sorry you have to rely on disability. We will keep at them!

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I am so angry and disheartened today😡. MOC could not get into the Department of Education!! What is going on ???? I will keep fighting - just really feeling it today😵‍💫

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I don’t understand how these buildings can lock out Congressmen and as one Rep said, the everyday person on the street is usually allowed into the building of the Dept. of Education. How can they lock these buildings?

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Virginia Senators Kaine and Warner are having a virtual Town Hall this Monday, February 10.

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And both of them have voted YES to confirm some of trump's appointees.

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This is good to know, thank you!

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Indivisible has been ON IT! Such great mobilization. Their nixthenoms website is gold!

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I'm from Oregon with its two excellent Democratic Senators, Wyden and Merkley, who I leave messages with every day encouraging them to continue on the path they're already pursuing - and to do more. Thanks to the script you provided, and altering it slightly to make it more personal for me, I just left a message with an actual human being in my Representative's DC office - Cliff Bentz, who is a Republican. My town (Ashland) is a blue pocket in a scarlet red garment, and it's unlikely we will ever elect a Blue Congressperson (which never stops us from trying). But it's worth it to call, and interesting that I was able to get through immediately. Wasn't put on hold; didn't leave a recorded message; spoke with a staff person. This was three minutes of my life I won't get back, but I can't help but feel has made a difference, however small. Thanks!

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It definitely makes a difference.

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Called my credit union, talked to someone who of course can't do anything about the threat Musk poses. Asked for contact info for CEO and the president of the board. Request is being passed on to the operator's supervisor. We'll see...

It's been a week since he moved his hackers in. They won't be taking the weekend off. Our elected representatives better not be.

Thank you, Jess, and the same to the others on the call with Schiff's staffer. You all went right to the point, and made sure you were heard.

And clearly we'll need to keep making those points.

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Good for you for asking that this message go to the top. I want to know how our banks and credit unions are safe. And what about if/when they eliminate FDIC?

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All my congressmen in DC are republicans and have been for a long. long. time. I have emailed them once to twice a day for a week, even my republican AG has heard from me. But today I was able to get thru on the phone to both senators. I tried to stay polite, but my anger came thru because they are both MAGA.......

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Yay you! Keep calling!

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I emailed Ohio’s senators and Representative. I’m not a big phone caller but I hope my emails get through. I intend to resend them seven days a week. I don’t share with you to be lauded, I only encourage Ohioans to do the same. It’s very easy and takes but a moment to use their web form then copy and paste the script suggested. Be sure to replace the word ‘calling’ with ‘writing.’ It appears twice.

We MUST stop orange oompa loompa and his lackeys!

Happy Weekend!

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If you don’t want to speak to anyone, call on off hours. Calls are supposedly more effective.

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I called mine, just got voicemail.

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Thanks, Jessica, for your pragmatic coaching on strategic communications! Will adopt "crime spree" instead of "coup" in messaging. Bless you!

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