Hi, all!
I’m running late, so I’ll make this quick.
We are working so hard here in CA to stop this recall that I literally feel like I’m back in October of 2020. Ugh.
One thing I did on this front yesterday was post a video on Instagram and TikTok breaking down the controversial “second section question.” If you know anyone in CA with questions about this please feel free to forward the 45-second video to them, along with this link: (tinyurl.com/howtostoptherecall.) The point is that we should take all the energy we’re channeling into arguing about section two and put it into winning in section one…please! The urgency is huge, and I worry the debate is sidetracking us.
P.S. I did terribly on the news quiz this week. 7 out of 11. I swear I read obsessively! Wanna try?
Call Your Senators (find yours here)
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
In the recovery package I’d like the Senator to fight to include allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices.
I’d then like the Senator to fight for the savings from Medicare negotiations to be reinvested back into the program. Those funds can be used to expand Medicare to include coverage of hearing, dental, and vision services, lower the eligibility age to 50, and cap out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries.
Additionally, making historic investments in affordable housing, green jobs, the care economy, and combating climate change are critical priorities for recovery.
Will the Senator support these policy priorities? [H/T]
Call Your House Rep (find yours here)
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.
First, I want the Congressmember to support stripping the $25 billion giveaway to the fossil fuel industry included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill and reinstate the $10 billion in public transit solutions we need instead.
Second, I’d like the Representative to co-sponsor HR3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Prices Now Act—and fight for improvements like allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices.
I’d also like them to co-sponsor The Medicare Dental, Vision, and Hearing Benefit Act and fight to lower the Medicare age of eligibility age to 50. Thanks. [H/T]
Extra Credit
Shut Down Berks, a coalition dedicated to shutting down Berks Family Detention Center in PA, is asking us to make 3 calls now that the Berks County Board of Supervisors have voted to allow this awful facility to re-open. (Under community pressure, ICE released all families from Berks in February of this year. But now ICE is working with Berks County to reopen the prison to detain immigrant women instead of families. In recent years, immigrant women at Berks have faced abuse, including rape and medical neglect.)
Let’s call Angela Kelley, Senior Immigration Counselor (202) 941-1232, Rep Nadler (202) 225-5635, and Rep Lofgren (202) 225-3072 and say:
I am calling to ask you to urge the Biden administration to close the Berks immigrant prison in Pennsylvania for good. ICE is pushing to detain immigrant women at the Berks prison despite the prison’s documented history of abuses against women. This is not the immigration policy Joe Biden promised the American people. I am strongly urging the administration to cancel the contract and shut down the Berks immigrant prison once and for all. Thanks.
Get Educated About 🗺s!
With the recent release of census data and states gearing up to begin drawing new district lines that will last a decade, the super smart folks at ISRC (Independent Strategic Research Collaborative) have announced their next briefing on Wednesday, August 25th 3pm ET / 12pm PT WITH SPECIAL GUEST ERIC HOLDER! It’s called Freedom Rising: Gearing up for Fair Districting. And I, for one, will be there.
They’ll go over the latest developments on the process of drawing districts, updates on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and For the People Act, and election review scams in states. As always, they’ll have the latest updated messaging guidance based on recent research.
RSVP here.
Help in Pennsylvania!
Turn PA Blue is sending postcard kits and stamps to rural County Democratic Committees across Pennsylvania so that Dems can keep winning in this critical swing state. They need donations—$36 buys 100 stamps—and also volunteers to write additional postcards. I know there’s a lot of postcarding already happening, but if you feel a connection to the Keystone State please consider signing up to write cards. And if you have some money to spare this grassroots organization is doing truly amazing work and deserves our support. You can give here.
Resistbot Text (new to Resistbot? Go here!)
[to all 3 reps] [H/T]
I’m writing to urge you to push President Biden to take action to protect 4,000+ people from being sent back to federal prison—simply because the Office of Legal Services issued a memo mandating it — when the pandemic is declared over.
Unless the Administration intervenes, 4,000+ people - many of whom are elders and immunocompromised - will be ripped from their homes and sent back to prison. These are people who have been safely and successfully reconnecting with their families and reestablishing community ties, as evidenced by the 99% success rate of home confinement.
Any circumstance where people are sent back to prisons is in direct contradiction to the Biden Administration's public promise to invest in ending mass incarceration. And if measures aren't taken to keep 4,000+ people at home and out of prison, this administration will be presiding over the fastest expansion of the federal prison population in history.
Biden wants to push Congress to come up with a fix, but we can’t let him pass the buck. He has the power to grant clemency now, and I want him to use it. Thanks.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk tomorrow.
Jess