Hi, all, and happy Thursday. One of my subscribers, after reading yesterday’s newsletter, commented that my introduction had reminded him of two paragraphs by the inimitable Rebecca Solnit, which he then posted. I see the resemblance, but her lines are infinitely more magnificent than anything I could write. I’m sharing them with you here—please assimilate every word:
Thank you Jess- I ALWAYS feel good getting some of this list done! And finally got Durbin! Have been getting the “call back we are busy” I may add it daily till they subpoena Robert’s! And I agree- stay off cable/news in general - if you read it then you can decide what it important.
Please send Chris Licht back to school for remedial education. On a call to CNN employees after the town hall debacle, he said, “Kaitlan pressed him again and again and made news … Made a lot of news, [and] that is our job.” No, your job is to REPORT the news.
Hey, Jessica! Thank you for this great intro today! Hope, that thing with feathers, for sure.
I'm in a bit of a quandary with one of my Dem Senators. Right before contacting him about the debt ceiling, I get this email: "We all remember when President Obama tried to negotiate with House Speaker John Boehner over whether or not to default on our debt. The GOP’s refusal to put country over party badly damaged the U.S. economy and our standing in the world.
"We cannot allow that to happen again. Add your name to our petition now calling on Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans to vote on a clean bill to prevent a disastrous debt default—without these harmful cuts." ~Tim Kaine-VA, U.S. Senate
What's a constituent to do? Oh, I know. Vote him back into the Senate in 2024!
Thank you for the quote from Rebecca Solnit. I LOVE Rebecca. Anything she writes, lectures on, everything. A brilliant mind you all must learn about. Her most useful book is "Hope In The Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities." I read it every year or two to be reminded of the necessity of hope in all I do. Her latest book, published just last month, "Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility," is another must read.
If you would like to know more about how she thinks, watch her give her 20 minute plenary talk at this year's Bioneers Conference in Berkeley, CA, the weekend of April 7-9. She spoke on the nature of hope, change, power and abundance.
Thank you, I came up with that idea myself after writing to you! So I think by asking to preview then it would be in my text, and then I would just have it in the text stream in case anybody ever asks again. Thanks, as always, for all that you do, and I don’t know how you do it!
For some seniors, we can leverage our charitable contributions by making Qualified Charitable Contributions (QCDs) as part of our "Required Minimum Distributions" (RMDs) from our IRA accounts. Could you help make a list of 501(c)(3) non-profits that are working to support democracy (through voter registration, etc.)? One that I know of is Turnout Activism/TurnUp.
I would add the Civics Center, which I believe is a non profit, and also the Center For Common Ground. There are loads of others--I fear I don't have time to compile such a list, but if someone else does I will amplify it.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to see and perhaps keep copies of the letters that go out for us via Resitbot? I’m asking because I had a call from the office of one of my Florids representatives asking me if I wanted to add anything to my recent letter and did I have the text of my letterin front of me to refer to. Of course, I did not I assume they were trying to figure out if it was an automatic send.
There is! When they ask if you want to preview it before sending you say yes and they will show you a copy. And I will start including a link to the online version so you can access it easily if you need to.
Penelope, From a fellow Floridian, and Resitbot user, I would comment: 1) I don’t have the text in front of me2) I don’t have anything to add 3) I am not a robot, so please don’t ask me how many palm trees are in those pics.
Lol-the cnn captcha link doesn’t work! Too many hitting it—way to go everyone!!
Edit—just got it to work! :-)
GOOD!
Thank you Jess- I ALWAYS feel good getting some of this list done! And finally got Durbin! Have been getting the “call back we are busy” I may add it daily till they subpoena Robert’s! And I agree- stay off cable/news in general - if you read it then you can decide what it important.
Yes exactly! And glad you got Durbin's office!
Thanks for the CNN link
Sure!
I sent the following message to CNN:
Please send Chris Licht back to school for remedial education. On a call to CNN employees after the town hall debacle, he said, “Kaitlan pressed him again and again and made news … Made a lot of news, [and] that is our job.” No, your job is to REPORT the news.
A+!
Hey, Jessica! Thank you for this great intro today! Hope, that thing with feathers, for sure.
I'm in a bit of a quandary with one of my Dem Senators. Right before contacting him about the debt ceiling, I get this email: "We all remember when President Obama tried to negotiate with House Speaker John Boehner over whether or not to default on our debt. The GOP’s refusal to put country over party badly damaged the U.S. economy and our standing in the world.
"We cannot allow that to happen again. Add your name to our petition now calling on Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans to vote on a clean bill to prevent a disastrous debt default—without these harmful cuts." ~Tim Kaine-VA, U.S. Senate
What's a constituent to do? Oh, I know. Vote him back into the Senate in 2024!
Yup, that pretty perfectly encapsulates why negotiating with the GOP is a no-go.
I finally got a chance to listen to your remarks at "What the Gerrymander?" podcast, and wanted to say how much I enjoyed it.
Hope you feel better soon. Thank you!
Thank you very much!
I really can’t say it enough - thank you for the inspiration and resolve. 💙
Thank you for the quote from Rebecca Solnit. I LOVE Rebecca. Anything she writes, lectures on, everything. A brilliant mind you all must learn about. Her most useful book is "Hope In The Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities." I read it every year or two to be reminded of the necessity of hope in all I do. Her latest book, published just last month, "Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility," is another must read.
If you would like to know more about how she thinks, watch her give her 20 minute plenary talk at this year's Bioneers Conference in Berkeley, CA, the weekend of April 7-9. She spoke on the nature of hope, change, power and abundance.
https://bioneers.org/rebecca-solnit-not-too-late-changing-climate-story-despair-possibility-zstf2305/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_button_link&utm_content=original_article&mc_cid=7492957d69&mc_eid=d86f185d90
P.S. this link will allow you to watch several other speaker's presentations from that conference, always a highlight of the year.
Ooh I will watch later today! Thank you! And yes, Hope in the Dark is an essential read.
Thank you, I came up with that idea myself after writing to you! So I think by asking to preview then it would be in my text, and then I would just have it in the text stream in case anybody ever asks again. Thanks, as always, for all that you do, and I don’t know how you do it!
For some seniors, we can leverage our charitable contributions by making Qualified Charitable Contributions (QCDs) as part of our "Required Minimum Distributions" (RMDs) from our IRA accounts. Could you help make a list of 501(c)(3) non-profits that are working to support democracy (through voter registration, etc.)? One that I know of is Turnout Activism/TurnUp.
I would add the Civics Center, which I believe is a non profit, and also the Center For Common Ground. There are loads of others--I fear I don't have time to compile such a list, but if someone else does I will amplify it.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to see and perhaps keep copies of the letters that go out for us via Resitbot? I’m asking because I had a call from the office of one of my Florids representatives asking me if I wanted to add anything to my recent letter and did I have the text of my letterin front of me to refer to. Of course, I did not I assume they were trying to figure out if it was an automatic send.
There is! When they ask if you want to preview it before sending you say yes and they will show you a copy. And I will start including a link to the online version so you can access it easily if you need to.
Penelope, From a fellow Floridian, and Resitbot user, I would comment: 1) I don’t have the text in front of me2) I don’t have anything to add 3) I am not a robot, so please don’t ask me how many palm trees are in those pics.