Chop Wood, Carry Water 7/27

Hi, all, and happy Wednesday!

I write to you from beautiful Brunswick, Maine.

More specifically, I write to you from the bathroom in a Days Inn hotel room in Brunswick, Maine. Said bathroom is serving as my office, as I am working late at night while my mother and kid are sleeping in the other room. Such is life on the road!

Despite the somewhat bizarre surroundings I’m feeling more than usually upbeat. How can I not when the day has delivered so much encouraging news? We have word that Merrick Garland is investigating Trump (I never doubted this, but I’m glad those who did are feeling reassured). We have word that Democrats have the votes to pass a bill lowering drug prices (absolutely HUGE, if true). We have word that Democrats may have the votes to pass a bill codifying marriage equality (keep calling those GOP Senators!)

I feel like it’s going to be a good month.

But guess what? Even if it’s not, we’ll still take our actions. We’ll make our calls. We’ll work to help win elections. We’ll hammer out better messaging. We’ll talk to friends about voting.

We’ll do the things. Because our actions aren’t contingent on getting good news.

Our actions MAKE good news.

So let’s go make some right now.

Call Your Senators (find yours here)

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

I know that Congressmembers Maloney and Thompson just wrote a joint letter to the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency expressing “grave concerns” about DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari’s decision to wait months to alert Congress that the Secret Service’s texts from January 6th had been erased. The letter asks the Council to appoint another inspector general to handle the Secret Service probe. I second this demand. Cuffari can’t be trusted. Please ask the Senator to push the Council for an independent inspector general to get to the bottom of what happened to those texts. Thanks. [H/T]

Call Your House Rep (find yours here)

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

I know that Congressmembers Maloney and Thompson just wrote a joint letter to the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency expressing “grave concerns” about DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari’s decision to wait months to alert Congress that the Secret Service’s texts from January 6th had been erased. The letter asks the Council to appoint another inspector general to handle the Secret Service probe. I second this demand. Cuffari can’t be trusted. Please ask the Congressmember to push the Council for an independent inspector general to get to the bottom of what happened to those texts. Thanks. [H/T]

Extra Credit ✅

I found an email address for the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency! It’s the address to use for filing complaints, so let’s file this one against Cuffari (see above)! You can find a click-to-send email here, but I attach the full text below for those who want to write manually. Feel free to copy and paste it into your own e-amil, but please change it up and add your name and city at the end.

Write to: integrity-complaint@cigie.gov

I said:

To whom it may concern at the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency,

I know that Congressmembers Maloney and Thompson just wrote you a joint letter expressing “grave concerns” about DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari’s decision to wait months to alert Congress that the Secret Service’s texts from January 6th had been erased. 

The letter asks CIGIE to appoint another inspector general to handle the Secret Service probe. 

I’m writing as an American citizen and a taxpayer to say that I share the Congressmembers' grave concerns and second this demand. Something stinks at DHS. The American people—and I--want answers. 

IG Cuffari can’t be trusted. Please appoint an independent Inspector General to get to the bottom of what happened to those texts. The future of our democracy may depend on it. 

Thanks. 

Save the Planet! 🌎

Next Tuesday, August 2nd, join a national day of action to demand that President Biden declare a climate emergency and reject fossil fuel projects. Actions can be big or small; our power comes from taking action together and being visible! Learn more in People vs Fossil Fuels’ action and messaging guide here. You can host an action by yourself, with a group or organization, or join one happening nearby! 

In the meantime, don’t forget to sign the petition to Biden here, share on social media here, and get his phone lines buzzing using this quick guide! 

It’s getting hotter outside. We NEED TO ACT!

Spread the Message! 📣

In this midterm election cycle, helping to boost critical candidates while shining a light on the extremist Republicans they're running against is essential.

So DemCast has recruited an awesome volunteer team that's curating content, which they're feeding into their new Midterms Messaging Toolkit that will be constantly updated! It’s FANTASTIC!

You can bookmark this page and share fresh content every single day! In just a couple of clicks you can share posts through your social media feed. Help us amplify how great Democrats are and how awful the GOP is across all the social media channels!

Toolkit is here.

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

[to your House rep] [H/T] [Quick send: text SIGN PWKTIH to 50409]

This week, Reps. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Don Beyer (D-VA) are introducing the Billionaire Minimum Income Tax Act, which will ensure that every household worth more than $100 million is paying a tax rate of at least 20% on their full income, each year. That includes income from their paycheck and income from their investment gains, whether sold or not.

I urge you to become an original co-sponsor of this bill and ensure that America’s richest 20,000 households are paying their fair share in taxes each year, just like I do. Imagine what we could do with the money we’d raise! There’d be funding for climate action, paying down debt, helping American families, building better infrastructure, and more!

We need this bill to pass. Please vocally support it. Thanks!

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

Talk tomorrow.

Jess