Chop Wood, Carry Water 4/21

What we're doing is working!

In Lexington, MA on April 16 from subscriber Susan B.

Hi, all, and happy Monday.

I hope you had a great weekend. Thanks to all of you who sent pictures and videos from your local No Kings events—they looked awesome! Congrats to all of us for another successful weekend of protests.

It was a delight to meet so many of you at the Beverly Hills gathering I attended. Although it wasn’t huge—probably about 100 people—it was robust and quite fun. It also, as one participant pointed out, carried some nice symbolism, as it took place on a boulevard that was part of the original Route 66, once known as the Main Street of America.

And these protests have sprouted up on so many Main Streets. I love it! At first I felt strongly that we should be gathering in fewer places and making our marches larger, but I’ve come to feel that the more plentiful pop-up gatherings in small towns and localities are actually better. Beverly Hills, for example, has become a pretty Trumpy place. Our presence there was not a foregone conclusion. It mattered. It said “we’re here and we’re not afraid.” And even there we got far more supportive honks than we did middle fingers—although there were a few of those as well.

One more thing: I’d like to point out what didn’t happen yesterday: the Insurrection Act wasn’t invoked! Martial Law wasn’t declared. Borders weren’t closed, and Liz Cheney wasn’t arrested. All of that and more was guaranteed by the author of the Medium post that probably fifty of you sent me over the last few weeks. I mention this not to say “I told you so,” but to ask you to file this lesson away for next time: Those trying to instill panic are not aways reliable, nor are they always our friends. Even if they’re well intentioned, the fearmongering they do is at best unhelpful.

This isn’t to say that many awful things haven’t happened, nor that many more won’t. But we must be careful to deal with events we know are occurring. To lose sleep over vague promises of future calamity—especially from little-known sources—is a waste of good slumbering time. Don’t do it!

Anyway. I am having a medical procedure today—totally routine—so will be out of pocket until tomorrow. Forgive me if I don’t respond to emails or comments. But please do let us all know below how your protests went, so we can celebrate our weekend’s successes together. I promise I’ll read everything on Tuesday when I’m back up and running.

In the meantime, we’ve got calls to make, Resistbots to send, and webinars to sign up for. Because hope is more than a feeling—it’s an action. And the more actions we take the more hopeful we’ll feel.

So let’s get to work!

Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲 and Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲

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

I’m calling for a couple of reasons. First, I understand that the FDA is planning on ending routine food inspections. Seriously? Are we supposed to just take our chances that what we eat won’t sicken or even kill us? This is outrageous. The Senator/Congressmember must oppose these changes and work to keep our food inspection system fully intact.

Second, Pete Hegseth must resign. Now. The news about another Signal leak—this one involving his wife—should be the final straw. We are not safe with him in charge of our national defense. The Senator/Congressmember needs to call for him to go now.

Finally, due process matters. Kilmar Abrego Garcia and others like him must be brought home at once. The constitution applies to everyone or it applies to no one. Thanks.

Extra Credit ✅

For a general strike to be effective, it needs to have millions of people ready to act.

There are very few leaders who could rally tens of millions of people with a single communication, and we need those leaders to step up and do it.

Please sign this petition, started by super activists Brian Colker and Susan Sheu, to urge the Obamas, Clintons, Biden, Harris and Walz to collectively call for a general strike as a protest to the autocratic actions of the Trump administration.

We need these leaders' collective platforms, email lists, and gravitas to spark a mass action. Grassroots organizations simply don't have the reach of these leaders. Sign now!

Give Thanks! 🙏🏼

[H/T subscriber Janet Z.]

Let’s call the law firm Susman Godfrey to thank them for standing up to Trump. In L.A. they’re at 310-789-3100; in Houston 713- 651-9366.

We can say something like:

My name is _____ and I’m calling from [city, state.] I want to thank the leadership of Susman Godfrey for standing with the rule of law at this very treacherous time. By refusing to cave to Trump they are demonstrating courage and fealty to the Constitution where so many firms are not. I know it can’t be easy and I will remember it. Thanks.

But feel free to say what you wish!

Here are some numbers for others taking a stand--Perkins Coie in Seattle 206-359-8000, Keker. Van Nest & Peters in San Francisco 415-391-5400, Wilmer Hale in Boston 617-526-6000, Jenner Block in LA 213-239-6900. Call as many as you can!

Get Smart! 📚

The Cost of Cuts: Understanding the Broad Impact of SNAP Reductions on Health, Economy, and Community Resilience

Tuesday, April 22, 2:00 p.m. Eastern (1:00 p.m. Central, 12:00 p.m. Mountain, 11:00 a.m. Pacific)

Join the Food Resources and Action Center (FRAC) for a timely and urgent webinar exploring the devastating consequences of proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and how they would affect children, families, local economies, and healthcare systems nationwide.

With the House narrowly voting to advance a Senate-approved budget resolution, Congress is now poised to negotiate a sweeping reconciliation bill that would cut $230 billion from the House Agriculture Committee. This cut would dramatically increase hunger and food insecurity, placing additional strain on states, retailers, schools, and healthcare providers—especially in already underserved communities.

This conversation brings together experts from healthcare, government, and business to examine the real-world consequences of these decisions and to underscore why SNAP is not only an anti-hunger program—but a cornerstone of health equity, economic stability, and community resilience.

REGISTER

Messaging! Messaging! Messaging! 📣

Too many people are not paying attention to the crisis we are in and need to be awakened and activated. That’s the mission of The Visibility Brigade movement. They are engaging people on overpasses, train stations, farmers markets, and anywhere else where folks congregate. They have chapters in many states and encourage you to join them or create your own visibility brigade!

Their new website gives you everything you need to get started. Check it out!

Give 💰!

You're invited to attend a fundraiser with the Buddy Group on Wednesday, April 30 at 5:45 PM ET for Georgia Sen. Ossoff. You’ll hear from both him and his colleague, Sen. Raphael Warnock, about the path ahead. There's no minimum to attend, but please be as generous as you can to help get the Ossoff re-election campaign off to a good start.

A donation of any size will get you the Zoom link.

Win Races! 🗳

Join me and the Environmental Voter Project for a special Earth Week phone bank on Thursday, April 24th at at 7pm ET / 6pm CT / 4pm PT!

We're calling low propensity environmental voters (in other words, people who already care a lot about climate but who haven't voted in odd-year elections before) in San Antonio, TX, where voters have a Mayoral Election coming up on May 3rd.

San Antonio is the seventh most populous city in the US, so the mayor and city council have the potential to be major climate leaders, especially within a state with so much fossil fuel infrastructure.

In case you haven't seen EVP's 2024 Impact Report yet, they had statistically significant impacts on environmental voter turnout in both the state primary and Presidential general elections in Texas, so we know that these messages work for these voters. As a frequent phone banker myself, I can't guarantee that phone banking will always be easy, but I can promise that it will be a much more effective use of your time than sitting on the sidelines.

RSVP here.

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

[To: all 3 reps] [Text SIGN PNWZKP to 50409, or to @Resistbot on Apple Messages, Messenger, Instagram, or Telegram]

I’m incredibly upset about the Trump administration’s attempt to fire 90% of the CFPB’s staff. Although a court has pushed back, this agency will likely remain under attack because it is fighting for consumers, not lobbyists.

It's crucially important that we don't let the Trump administration defang and defund the CFPB. It represents government at its best.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created to fight to keep banks honest and protect consumers from scams and schemes to steal our data. And it has worked extremely well, forcing banks to repay or forgive at least $21 billion through enforcement, and saving us billions more through limiting banks' ability to charge them ridiculous fees.

Please do whatever you can to help sustain its funding.

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

Talk soon.

Jess