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Katharine Kenny's avatar

Thank you so much for your consistently thoughtful and understanding newsletters. I needed to remember to breathe today - given all the misery (as you reference) that Trump and his team are inflicting on this country, it’s hard to sleep at night. Thanks for your guidance and excellent advice.

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Cynthia Christiansen's avatar

Hope folks are waking up to the injustices this regime is inflicting in the open!

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Daniel D Smith's avatar

None of these efforts will matter if Musk and Thiel can control voting machine tabulations. The 2024 election may have been stolen through the flipping of Harris to Trump votes in key battleground counties in seven swing states and in Texas, all without leaving a trace thanks to Starlink and Palantir.

These articles at first glance smack of conspiracy theory, but the links among Dark Enlightment figures, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Leonard Leo are interesting. If the articles are correct, the associations are interesting, but the manipulation of election data in the seven battleground states can't be proven, because erasing the "digital footprint" was the goal.

It does make one wonder why our federal election cybersecurity and integrity organizations have been dismantled.

Maybe it is time to go back to paper ballots and hand counting.

They are long-ish, but worth a read, IMO.

Link 1:

https://open.substack.com/pub/thiswillhold/p/she-won-they-didnt-just-change-the?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1985r

Link 2:

https://open.substack.com/pub/thiswillhold/p/she-won-part-ii-seven-judges-direct?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1985r

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Eileen's avatar

Although I don't understand some of the technicalities, this all makes complete sense.

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Susan Troy's avatar

I’m in this for as long as it takes. Adding to the chaos, my daughter, son-in-law, a two year old, a three-month- old, and a charming, but unhousebroken, five-month-old beagle are at our house for an extended stay. A daily dose of perspective…

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Angie's avatar

I hope we see 20 million in the streets at some point.

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George McRae's avatar

Made the calls. Did the bots. Trying to find joy.

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Steve Adams's avatar

He's flailing because he's failing. He really took it on the chin this weekend and so he's throwing wild punches. It's dangerous and awful, but a stage of the game, and one which could bring him down. It's not just horrible strategy on his part, it's almost no strategy.

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Christopher O'Bleness's avatar

Just wanted to give everyone an update about being a Peacekeeper for my first time on Saturday. It went great!

Thanks to everyone here who offered words of encouragement to me!

I wrote a bit about my experience in my newsletter for anyone interested: https://substack.com/inbox/post/166190603

Definitely kept us on our toes, but happy that we didn't have any violence. The peacekeepers were integral for keeping protesters safe when marching in the street happened, and we were prepared and able to direct traffic.

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Heather  Kostka's avatar

Thank you for your emphasis on the positives of what is taking place in this country. Not sure how you have the time to digest and report daily and still remind us to breathe. Thank you.

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Patti's avatar

Sen Murphy’s got his IG live running up. I watched for a little while. Haven’t checked Sen Kaine. I don’t even know if he’s got IG. Thanks Jess! Also watching the pop up action in NYC. What a day.

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Jennifer Armerding's avatar

I did something stupid and let those stress hormones get the better of me. I decided now was the time to rationally and factually discuss with my octogenarian Fox News parents why Trump is a despicable human being. They raised me. How can the same people who raised me with ethical standards keep insisting he’s a wonderful person? Anyway, now my dear mother is crying and my father is trying to rationalize. And I’m trying to self regulate while also kinda kicking myself.

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Steve Winkler's avatar

You’re not alone, Jennifer. Many are going through the same introspective turmoil. Buy you have to be true to yourself, hard that it might seem.

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Jennifer Armerding's avatar

I needed this kind reassurance! Thank you so much. I feel heard.

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Dianne Chrestopoulos's avatar

Called Cruz Cornyn and Morgan Luttrell - but the house is not in WA right now, so will write to him. It really does no good as they are lock step with drumpf, but it makes me feel better and it's so easy to do. I hope they record every single call of protest to this idiotic bill. Thank you for your guidance. I really appreciate reading your posts every day!

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KellyAnn Shaughnessy's avatar

Jessica your letter really gives me hope. Thank you

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Diane Hennessey's avatar

In addition to Medicare the Senate Bill is much worse for federal workers.

The bill is a direct and dangerous attack on federal employees and the unions that represent them. While it drops the elimination of the FERS supplement, that is the only positive. Here’s what we’re facing:

It retains and worsens the House language making future federal employees at-will, charging them 9.4 percent toward retirement. Anyone who opts for civil service protections would be charged an outrageous 14.4 percent of their salary.

It gives the president sweeping authority for ten years to reorganize or eliminate federal agencies, with $100 million to OMB and no clear Congressional oversight.

It imposes a 10 percent tax on all union dues collected through payroll, and even targets CFC donations and other nonprofit contributions.

It requires unions to pay the entire cost of official time, including salary and benefits, plus all office space and resources. These costs are to be set by agencies and cannot be appealed. Unions that cannot pay would be debarred.

There is no carveout for law enforcement employees under any of these provisions.

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Robin Labeur-niemis's avatar

It's 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday and just got off the phone with a real person at Senator Booker's Newark office. Thank you Jessica for having that letter scripted so I hopefully sounded like I knew what I was talking about. The girl I spoke with (when I asked) said that the bill will be voted on Friday (the deadline) at the latest.

My own 2 little EXTRA! EXTRA!'s are that (1) I was able to get my niece to take her head out of the sand and find out what's going on. She texted me the next day, saying she can't understand how anyone can support Tr. The 2nd EXTRA! was that, after talking to a co-worker on Thursday a little bit about the rally I was going to on Saturday, she went and told she loved the energy there and had a great time. Sometimes it's the little things....

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Jody's avatar

Every Monday a small group of us gather in Owego, NY and protest. I have a video clip I’d like to share, but how do I do this? This past Monday we had our first MAGAt annoying us. As soon as I called the police and they said they were in their way he ran off.

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