Chop Wood, Carry Water 6/14

These are the stakes

Hi, all, and happy Friday.

Of course it’s not really the happiest, is it? The Supreme Court released a terrible and deadly decision on bump stocks this morning; we knew it was likely, but even so it’s painful to watch such a senseless and dangerous ruling come down. I felt it like a gut punch—I’m sure most of you did, too.

And yet curling up in a fetal position and crying “I give up!” is not an option. All we can do is keep working. Things are broken. Very. But they’re fixable, too. Completely. The fixes will take time; they’ll require patience, hard work, and determination. But they’re absolutely possible—we must never forget it.

When friends and family members express despair over this and other almost-certain disastrous rulings to come, remind them that a compromised and corrupt Supreme Court isn’t a foregone conclusion. A Democratic Senate, House, and president can and will do much to repair it. Remind them, most importantly, that the next president will almost certainly get to appoint anywhere between 1 and 3 new justices.

Should Trump be elected we could see rulings like these for the next fifty years.

Should Biden be re-elected we have a not-insubstantial chance at flipping the balance of the court. Imagine that!

Those are the stakes. Is this our harrowing reality for now? Or (basically) forever?

It’s up to us. Remind everyone you know. Every chance you get.

Now let’s get to work.

Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲

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

I’m absolutely horrified at the Supreme Court’s ruling on bump stocks this morning. It’s hard not to feel despair. Our highest court refuses to protect us from gun violence. Americans want common sense gun laws. Congress needs to act, please.

Also, we learned yesterday that Harlan Crow provided at least three more previously undisclosed private jet trips to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in recent years. What will it take for him to be impeached? I want the Senator to call for it. And I’d like the Senate to take up again—and this time pass—the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act. The fact that it failed on unanimous consent on Wednesday is shameful.

Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲

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

I’m absolutely horrified at the Supreme Court’s ruling on bump stocks this morning. It’s hard not to feel despair. Our highest court refuses to protect us from gun violence. Americans want common sense gun laws. Congress needs to act, please.

Also, we learned yesterday that Harlan Crow provided at least three more previously undisclosed private jet trips to Clarence Thomas in recent years. What will it take for him to be impeached? I want the Congressmember to call for it. And I’d like the House to take up the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act. It is insane that we don’t have the same binding code of ethics for the Supreme Court that we have for the rest of the federal judiciary. Please pass this bill! Thanks.

Extra Credit ✅

A great one from subscriber Mary Ellen Raphael:

After the ERA was ratified by the required 38 states, H.J.Res.25, which removes the seven-year deadline for ratification, was referred to committee. A discharge petition which will move the resolution to the floor has been signed by 212 Democratic members of congress. The petition requires 218 signatures. There are two Democratic holdouts, Bobby Scott of Virginia and Richard Neal of Massachusetts. In addition to these two, we need 4 Republicans.  If your readers are in Scott's or Neal's district or if they have a Republican representative in Congress, please ask them to call and write their representatives encouraging them to sign Discharge Petition #6.

For extra credit, sign4era.org is circulating a grassroots petition which already has 100,000+ signatures.  Click on the link and sign the petition.  Join the fight for equality!

Get Smart! 📚

Women form the backbone of the pro-democracy movement. But winning in this tough environment may require more. Wouldn’t it be great to mobilize more men to work with us? The Grassroots Collaboration Project is launching the “Man Up Initiative,” designed to inspire more men to join our work. 

Find out more at their Zoom launch on June 18, 8-9pm EST.  

Spread the Word! 📣

The below is from subscriber Paul S., Founder and Director of the Friday Action group. What a fantastic idea!

He writes:

It's time for us to be visible! 

The focus of Friday Action Group's June project is to counteract the negativity and fear of the MAGA mob by making a statement to our community and to each other that we, and tens of millions of other Americans, proudly support the Biden/Harris administration! Trump's campaign strategy, like authoritarians and fascists everywhere, is to create the illusion of invincibility! The MAGA crowd flaunts their allegiance to Trump with their hats, t-shirts, flags, and other paraphernalia to scare us into silence, to make us think they are strong and we are weak, that they are powerful and unstoppable!!! It's a lie!!! Don't let them demoralize or frighten you into submission. 

Be vocal! Be visible! Don't you feel tons better when you see someone sporting a Biden T-shirt or displaying a Biden yard sign or bumper sticker? Enthusiasm is uplifting. Help yourself and each other feel better in these scary times! Join thousands of others in this summer's Visibility for Victory campaign!!! 

Go to https://shop.joebiden.com/shop-all/ to buy your Biden/Harris gear, or if you don't see the thing you want there just google Biden and a description of the item (i.e. Biden bumper sticker 10 Pack). Thanks!!!

Give 💰!

OK friends, I have ANOTHER matching campaign! Another amazing subscriber has reached out and offered a 10K match, this time for our States Project Giving Circle! This couldn’t happen a moment too soon as TSP just announced (via a great NYT piece) that it will spend 70M in this November’s state legislative elections! WOW! But they have raised only 45M so far. They have a ways to go!

Our Giving Circle, “Chop Wood, Carry Statehouses,” is raising money for the States Project to help fund legislative races in Arizona and Pennsylvania, two states where we MUST win up and down the ballot. Its goal is 100K and right now we’re at just under 42K. If this campaign succeeds we’ll be at 62K! And the States Project will be 20K closer to their goal, too!

Please, folks. Help us meet this match. Give here. And share the link with folks who ask you where best to give money for this election cycle.

Win Races! 🗳

Traditional get-out-the-vote work misses at least three percent of voters.  

Why? Millions of people don’t live where they vote. They work, study or serve abroad. They can ONLY vote by sending in a special absentee ballot.

Learn who they are and how to reach them in a free online training by Building Bridges for America.  Choose one of three sessions in June here. 

You'll leave with two critical tools to expand your voter outreach.  You'll find voters you didn't know you were missing.  It's enough to turn close races our way.

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

[To: your Senators] [H/T

Healthcare Advocacy

] [Text SIGN PZAIWZ to Resistbot at 50409 or via Apple Messages / WHATSAPP / MESSENGER]

I understand that Senators Warren and Markey introduced legislation this week that would result in prison time for those who exploit the healthcare system for profit and endanger patients. Good!

The Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act would also offer state attorneys general and the U.S. Justice Department more tools to go after health care executives accused of corporate exploitation for endangering patient safety and access to health care.

Over the last decade, private equity fund assets have more than doubled, totaling $8.2 trillion in 2023. While private equity funds have purchased companies in nearly every sector of the economy, their aggressive deal-making in the health care sector poses grave risks to patient health and raises questions about potential abuse of taxpayer dollars, as private equity companies routinely load up portfolio companies with usurious debt, sell off valuable assets, and extract exorbitant dividends and fees—regardless of how their investments perform. 

Unfortunately, lax corporate accountability and transparency laws have provided cover for private equity’s parasitic practices, allowing executives to plunder hospitals, nursing homes, provider practices, and other health care entities with impunity.

The Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act will:

—Create a new criminal penalty of up to 6 years in prison for executives who loot health care entities like nursing homes and hospitals, if that looting results in a patient’s death.

—Provide state attorneys general and the DOJ with the power to claw back all compensation, including salaries, issued to private equity and portfolio company executives within a 10-year period before or after an acquired health care firm experiences serious, avoidable financial difficulties due to that looting.

—Authorize an associated civil penalty of up to 5 times the clawback amount.

—Prohibit payments from federal health programs to entities that sell assets or use assets for a loan collateral made to a REIT, with an exemption for current arrangements; repeal a rule in the Tax Code that allows taxable REIT subsidiaries to exert influence on the operations of health care entities; and remove the 20 percent pass-through deduction, passed in the 2017 Trump tax cuts, for all REIT investors.

I strongly support this legislation and would like to see it passed into law. Please sign on as a co-sponsor right away. Thanks!

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

Talk soon.

Jess