Chop Wood, Carry Water 5/31

Accountable, at last! 🔥🔥🔥

Find this GIF, free to download, here.

Hi, all, and happy Friday!

And good grief, it is happy! Exuberant isn’t too strong a word for how I’m feeling after yesterday’s events. I doubt I’m alone.

I was on a Zoom call with a fellow content creator when the verdict came down. We were in the middle of a tutorial on You Tube Shorts when suddenly my husband walked into my office and held out his phone. I peered at the screen. There was the breaking news alert: the jury had finished deliberating.

The instant I saw that headline my stomach did a flip—I hadn’t realized how much physical tension I’d been carrying around as we awaited an outcome.

“Holy s—-,” I said to the person I was meeting with. “A verdict. It’s come in.”

There was a moment of silence as we stared at each other wide-eyed.

“Oh my God.”

We tried to continue our call, figuring we might have a bit of time before more info came through. A few minutes later, though, Mike roared from the kitchen:

“Guilty!”

The call, needless to say, ended immediately. And then all hell broke loose.

“Guilty on all counts! Thirty-four of them! GUILTY!!!!”

What a moment.

As I said on TikTok a few minutes later—in an extremely unpolished but exultant post—in one sense this changes nothing: Trump will still be on the ticket in November; his defenders will continue to lionize him. He will still be brutally hard to beat.

But in another sense it changes everything. Trump has never, EVER been held truly accountable. Not for one thing. Of course, he’s been held liable, for sexual assault, for example. And for defamation. He’s lost an election. He’s been fined jawdropping amounts of money. All of those are something.

But this? A felony conviction? It’s of a whole different order. It’s a permanent mark—a virtual “scarlet letter.” As far as I can tell there is nothing even Trump, with all of his wiles, influence, and access, can do to wipe it away. This being a state level charge, he won’t be able to pardon himself, even should he win the presidency in November. His appeal is almost certain to fail. He will likely not serve prison time—although anything is possible—but he will never, ever, ever be able to unlink the words “convicted felon” from his name.

And we should never, ever, let him.

Score one for the rule of law, my friends. It matters, deeply. Our democracy is wounded, but it’s not down yet, and our criminal justice system can apparently still hold its own. Thank God! Justice delayed is still justice. Let’s embrace it.

And let’s send some good vibes and mental thanks to those twelve anonymous New Yorkers, at least one of whom gets their news from Truth Social, who stepped up and served with diligence and fairness despite the real peril to themselves.

Let’s hope their verdict helps awaken Americans to the threat that Trump poses. I think it might. I think some will, in fact, decide they can’t vote for a convicted felon. Others will simply start to pay attention to an election they’ve heretofore ignored. Others will resolve to work harder to get Biden re-elected. Good!

Best of all, we have been delivered proof that our system of laws still holds. For now, at least. No one is above it, and that’s as it must be in a democracy.

But, to paraphrase the convicted felon himself, the final decision—the one that really matters—will be handed down in November.

That’s a challenge we can and will meet.

So let’s get to work one more time.

Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲

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

I understand that Senate Democrats have introduced a bill that would require Supreme Court justices to provide written explanations and a vote breakdown for decisions on their emergency docket, also known as the shadow docket. The bill, which doesn’t yet have a number, is called the Shadow Docket Sunlight Act. I’d like the Senator to support it. We desperately need increased transparency within the nation’s highest court. This is a good place to start. Thanks. [H/T and more info]

Extra Credit ✅

Let’s send Alvin Bragg a thank-you note for bringing this case! He’s taken a ton of abuse and he’s going to continue to receive threats and condemnation for a long time to come. He deserves and likely needs our thanks.

Please send a note or card to:

District Attorney Alvin Bragg

New York County District Attorney’s Office

One Hogan Place, New York, NY 10013

Get Smart! 📚

Please join Alliance for Justice next Tuesday, June 4 at 3 PM ET for a conversation with Madiba K. Dennie, attorney, columnist, professor, and author of the new book, The Originalism Trap: How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take it Back.

In her book, Dennie offers a rallying cry for a more just approach to the law that bolsters social justice movements by throwing out originalism—the theory that judges should interpret the Constitution exactly as conservatives say the Founders meant it. Instead, Dennie argues that the law must serve to make that promise of democracy real and argues in favor of a new approach that serves everyone: inclusive constitutionalism.

Alliance for Justice President Rakim H.D. Brooks will join Dennie for this conversation on the Constitution, who it belongs to, and how we can use it to fight for our rights. 

RSVP here

Spread the Word! 📣

If you haven’t yet read Dan Pfeiffer’s posts about effective messaging around Trump’s verdict I highly recommend that you do. I worry they may be paywalled, which would be unfortunate, but assuming they aren’t his latest two posts are here and here.

Either way you can and should share this video, which not only he but other messaging experts recommended as worth amplifying. It shows an approach we should all be taking when talking about Trump’s conviction. Let’s get it out there!

Give 💰!

Join supporters of George Whitesides, the Democratic candidate running for Congress in Santa Clarita (CA-27), for an in-person fundraiser on Sunday, June 9 at 4:00 in Pasadena, CA. OR JUST MAKE A DONATION HERE!

Flipping CA-27 is one of our best opportunities to take back control of the House in November. The majority of voters in the district are registered Democrats, and President Biden won it by over 12 points in 2020.  The current representative is GOP Rep. Mike Garcia, a MAGA Republican who co-sponsored the national abortion ban and voted to overturn 2020’s election results. In 2020, he won the district by only 333 votes. We have to win this race, and supporting George Whitesides is a good way we can affect that change.

Ticket/donation link is here.

Win Races! 🗳

Working America Kickoff Meeting on June 3, 7 pm EDT, Zoom

Swing Blue Alliance has partnered with Working America to send out 500,000 letters to voters in the key swing state of Pennsylvania. Join them on Monday, June 3rd, for a kickoff call to learn about what co-founder Susan Labandibar has deemed "Swing Blue's most important letter-writing program of the year."

Working America mobilizes Americans without a workplace union to fight for working American values (e.g., good jobs, a fair economy, and a representative democracy). The letters will cover messaging that connects issues to member votes.  

RSVP here  

Chop Wood, Save the Planet 🔥

FOR NEW YORK RESIDENTS!! (From subscriber Adelia M.)

Please call Your NY State Legislators today and tell them to make sure a critical bill that requires a 50% reduction in plastic packaging gets voted on during this legislative session. Your voice is needed now ⏰! 

Big Plastic and its armies of lobbyists in Albany are working overtime to weaken or kill this excellent bill. Do this and then tell all of your friends to do the same. 

Here’s what you do:

1. Dial the NY State Senate switchboard at 518-455-2800 and ask to be connected to your Senator’s office. If you’re not sure who your Senator is, click here to look them up. 

 Use this short script: 

Hi, my name is NAME and I’m a constituent calling from YOUR TOWN/CITY to urge the Senator to vote YES on The Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act (S4246-b). Please ask them to insist that it includes a 50% reduction in plastic packaging over 12 years - anything less would be ineffective.

2. Then hang up and dial the Assembly Switchboard at 518-455-4100 and ask to be connected to your Assemblymember’s office. If you’re not sure who your Assemblymember is, click here to look them up. Use the same short script. 

3. Click here to let the organizers of this campaign know if you were able to get through and how your calls went. This information is critical to their efforts! 

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

[To: our Senators] [H/T] [Text SIGN PBCCNW to Resistbot at 50409 or via Apple Messages / WHATSAPP / MESSENGER]

Senator Cory Booker has introduced the Forest Biomass Emissions Act of 2024 (S.4153) to address the dangerous practice of cutting down forests and burning the wood pellets to create so called “green energy.” I’d like you to support it.

This is an important legislative effort to stop the practice and the greenwashing associated with it.

Power plants that burn forest biomass have some of the highest climate-wrecking carbon emissions compared to most other power plants. It’s impossible for forests to regrow fast enough to take the place of the trees burned, and we can’t afford to have 44+ years of carbon pollution further harming the climate.

For years, the forest biomass industry has razed American forests and sent the pellets to Europe, where biomass is tragically written into law as “clean energy.” And now the industry is trying to expand even further into the U.S. market.

I encourage you to cosponsor this bill, which would:

-Require the EPA to account for the full life cycle of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of electricity from forest biomass when enacting relevant rules and regulations.

-Task the EPA with conducting an evaluation of the impacts on communities living in the direct proximity of facilities involved in the production of electricity from forest biomass, including forest biomass harvesting areas, pellet mills, and power facilities.

-Mandate the EPA to collect data on air and noise pollution considering the race and socioeconomic status of impacted individuals, and to submit a report to Congress.

This bill is very important to me, as is the climate crisis in general. Please prioritize both. Thanks.

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

Talk soon.

Jess