28 Comments

Just want you to know that I've committed to taking a minimum of one action a week in response to your newsletter, which I so appreciate being able to rely on. Today I made phone calls on behalf of Rudy Salas in CA and also called my senators and congressional reps about the reduction in funding for the Antitrust Division. You're right; doing what we can do is the antidote for feeling helpless and afraid.

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You made my day with this comment. Thank you!

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This is becoming my evening ritual where I leave voicemails for my elected officials. Doing something makes me feel like I’m supporting everyone else’s efforts. Thank you Jessica for these informative posts.

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Love that!

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Thank you, Jessica. Taking these actions keeps me feeling connected to a caring, determined community.

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Thank YOU, Trina!

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Thanks. I think it's important to take a little time to be with friends and do what you love doing to remind ourselves of why we are defending democracy from a lying cheat.

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Absolutely.

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I have been looking forward to President Biden's SOTU address, however I am anticipating outrageous antics/rudeness/disruptions by the MAGAttes and Freedom Caucus clowns. It will interesting to see how far they are willing to go. I put nothing past them and believe they have few, if any, limits to the levels they will sink to, but even more concerned as to the reactions by the media. Biden shut them down last year by outsmarting them with his play on Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. I look forward to how he parries with their nonsense this time.

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I think he handled them well, no?

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He most certainly did. :-)

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Thank you for this. I've been working in my long-neglected studio and walking the dog. I deposited my ballot in a drop box Sunday afternoon in the rain. Tomorrow I'm participating in two zooms about going forward amidst the chaos and having lunch with my first boss at UC Berkeley who was interned as a child at one of our camps for Japanese here in California. She just turned 91. Let's not get distracted or waste energy on hate-filled and weird people who love being lied to. Let's just keep forging ahead. I so appreciate what you are doing. Thank you.

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Wonderful, Susan!!

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To amplify Jessica's point about the "news", please ignore any and all reporting based on last week's NYTimed/Sienna poll.

This is a poll worthy of FOX, which we know, is a political advocacy group and not a news org. The participant group for the Times/Sienna poll is made up only 980 people about 52-55% leaning GOP and 45-48% Dems. (Assuming most Independents voters are partisan like the two parties).

Unbiased polls should reflect the broad population which would lean slightly Democratic with the GOP at about 45% and the balance non-prefential independents...................................................

The purpose of biased polls is to create counter factual results that can be quoted as truth in startling headlines and news stories.

So, tune these stories out and move forward.

The truth is that Joe Biden got 81 million votes in 2020. He's done a fantastic job in his 1st term. With our hard work, he'll win again in 2024.

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Yup. All the best Substackers are on it, just like you. We gotta whack them moles! I sent Lucien Truscott's one of this morning to the NYT to just give them a bit of, you know what. The lead in letter is here :

to <editorial@nytimes.com>

Dear Experts,

As a long time paying subscriber, I demand a truthful and unbiased publication of issues that impact our nation, from "The Newspaper of Record".

Your current publication of "news" is a disgrace. The evidence of such is well presented by our esteemed Lucien Trusctt IV in the attached excerpt below. It must be required reading by ALL on your editorial staff. With so many of your subscribers bailing on you, you might reconsider your overt bias.

Yours,

Ransom W. Rideout Jr.

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👍👍👍call them out every time.

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Way to go, RR! We love our Lucian!

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National treasure Jessica—I warned I was going to say it a lot. 😽 I use Resist Bot based on your info almost every day. That’s what works for me best right now and I feel like I’m doing something.

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I'm not sure why some news outlets insist on saying Trump is doing well. He is not, and we should be happy about it

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Just wanted to thank you again for the actions around Nex Benedict. I work for a non-profit in MA that serves a lot of people from the LGBTQIA+ community. Today I led our all staff meeting with a moment of silence for Nex and gathered your actions from the newsletters and shared them with our team. We always have a good news section so I shared the Victories Trans People Won in 2023 article that you had posted from Erin's substack. We then gave a reminder to vote in the MA primaries today and I was able to connect the importance of voting with electing leaders who will protect trans rights and secure more victories. It was really full circle, all because of your amazing newsletter! I hope some people took the actions.

I also have a question - I was making calls for Rudy last night and spoke to a young woman who supported him and his issues and said she hopes he wins, but doesn't vote because her family just doesn't vote. I'm pretty new to this and haven't encountered this before. I tried to explain why I vote as a fellow young woman and how every vote matters especially in primaries where turnout is low. She said she would consider it and talk to her family but I'm not convinced I convinced her. Curious how you would have handled this conversation?

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Wow, that's wild. She MAY have been a Jehovah's Witness--they aren't allowed to vote. But if it was just a choice thing then yeah, I try to remind people that they could lose their rights if they don't use them. Also that some really important elections have come down to a single vote.

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That’s a new one! Sounds like almost a religious cult gone haywire. Unfortunately, you can’t convince some people to exercise their rights. It’s a shame, but you tried and that’s the most important thing.

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Suggest starting with reminding her that she surely has a right NOT to vote and the millions who have died protecting that right along with the precious right to vote. Her one vote is tiny, but it is all she has, unless she also encourages others, like her family. Love, Doc

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otherwise the ones who do vote make the laws that shape her life, maybe telling her she can't vote.

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Gabe Amo, RI, identifies you as a third party vendor and states “ recently, the office has seen many messages from third-party vendors, where these vendors did not ask permission for their letters to be sent on behalf of my constituents.” Just wanted to make sure that you knew that and I don’t know how it affects the communication. (I email him often through Resist bot)

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Just signed up for the EVP postcard orientation on Friday.

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Yay! You'll love it!

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I signed up for the second training. I'll be registering new citizens to vote on Friday with LWV.

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