Chop Wood, Carry Water 8/26 š„
Hi, all, and happy Friday!
Quick question: After receiving a comment from a reader asking me to reconsider putting āExtra! Extra!ā (my weekly good news digest) behind a paywall, Iām weighing the idea of sending it to everyone on this list. Lord knows all of you deserveāand likely needāto hear the wins weāre racking up each week.
I do, however, want to make paid subscriptions appealing ā this newsletter, after all, constitutes a good portion of my income. Any thoughts on what I could offer as a perk instead? What would those of you who are paying like to see? A Q&A thread? TikToks? Pet photos? Or do you not feel the need for special perks?
Iād love your feedback either in the comments or via email.
In unrelated but quite delightful and promising news, a brilliant and extremely talented new hireāshe literally made the @NJGov twitter account go viralā has taken over the White Houseās twitter feed. If youāre not already following it I suggest you do. Judging by yesterdayās roasting of the GOP Congressmembers who took to social media to criticize Bidenās student loan cancellation announcement, things are about to get interesting, and fun as heck.
Dark Brandon is on the rise, and I, for one, am here for it.
Letās get to work, knowing that, at this moment, at least, momentumāand the twitterverseā is on our side.
Call Your Senators (find yours here)
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
[For Democratic Senators ONLY]
Iām calling because Iām alarmed by the state of our judiciary. The end of the Supreme Courtās term was filled with devastating decisions that will have terrible effects on our lives. We need to fix our courts, and one critical way to do that is to ensure our lower courts are filled with diverse judges committed to equal justice. Please ask the Senator to prioritize filling every judicial vacancy this year with nominees who will protect the rights of all of us, not just the wealthy and powerful. Thanks. [H/T and more info]
{For GOP Senators]
Iām calling to ask the Senator whether they will support S. 4612 the Right to Contraception Act and stop blocking it from being brought to a vote. In fact, will they actively work to ensure that this bill gets passed? Now that Republicans have taken away womenās bodily autonomy I want reassurance that you wonāt take away birth control as well. Can you give such reassurances to me? Iād like an answer in writing, please. Thanks.
Protect Abortion Rights!
Join Movement Voter Labsā Abortion Defenders Text Bank this Wednesday, August 31, 6-8pm ET to make a difference in the upcoming election!!
They are sending millions of texts for their Abortion Defenders Fellows (local abortion rights groups) fighting to defend abortion access!)
These texts will activate people in their local areas to rise up and vote down any and all ballot measures aimed at banning abortion.Ā
Extra Credit ā
We have a couple of days left to send a public comment against Conoco Phillipsā Willow Project in Alaskaās North Slope. This is definitely a carbon bomb if there ever was one. Please make sure to personalizeāit looks like a petition but it will be submitted through the public comment portal, so changing it up slightly is important.
Get Smart! š
The States Project, one of my all-time favorite organizations, is continuing their āSummer of Statesā series with a meeting about NEVADA on Tuesday, August 30 at 8pm ET / 5pm PT.
Theyāll be taking a real-time look into the current landscape in NevadaĀ and what to expect as we head into Election Day.
The meeting will feature:
š„ STEVE YEAGER, Nevada House Speaker
š„ PETER KOLTAK, Nevada PAC Director
š„ JUSTIN PEREZ, States ProjectĀ RegionalĀ Political Director
These meetings are always super informative and inspiring. Also winning in Nevada is critical! I really hope you can make it.
And if helping in Nevada is your jam, please consider āadopting itā by signing up for my Chop Wood, Carry NV newsletter here!
Win Races! š³
Yāall, Sister District and Run For Something have a bunch of joint phonebanks into battleground states to win critical down ballot races, and they need callers! Iāve already told you about the phonebank I run tomorrow into Arizona, but there are so many more. They all have training, and I promise these are so fun!
šØ Remember, our democracy lives or dies depending on what happens in statehouse elections this November. šØ
Sign up for any of the below here. Choose from:
Saturdays 1pm ET Michigan w/ Emilia -- Darrin Camilleri, Challenger, MI State Senate District 4 OR MI State Rep Rachel Hood District 81
Tuesdays 5pm ET North Carolina w/ Neal -- NC State Senator Sydney Batch, District 17 OR NC State Rep Deb Butler District 18
Tuesdays 8pm ET Nevada w/Ashton -- NV State Rep Brittney Miller, District 5
Wednesdays 2pm ET Arizona w/ Nicole -- Brian Fernandez, Challenger, AZ State Senate District 23 OR Mitzi Epstein, Challenger, AZ State Senate District 12 OR Eva Burch, Challenger AZ State Senate District 9 OR Lorena Austin AZ State House District 9
Wednesdays 6pm ET Wisconsin w/Jeremy -- WI State Rep Lee Snodgrass, District 57 OR WI State Rep Tip McGuire, District 64
Thursday Early Bird Special 12pm ET Pennsylvania w/ Maeve -- PA State Rep Dan Williams, District 74 OR Melissa Cerrato, Challenger, PA State House District 151 OR Arvind Venkat, Challenger, PA State House District 30 OR Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz, Challenger, PA State House District 129
Thursdays 5pm ET Pennsylvania w/ Nicole
Resistbot Text (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.)
[to all 3 reps] [H/T] [Quick send text SIGN PFTJTW to 50409]
I'm writing today, as someone who is deeply worried about our climate crisis, to urge you to incorporate regenerative agriculture practices into all new agriculture legislation.
Nature has proven solutions for reducing carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emission levels in our atmosphere and reversing global warming. Utilizing Regenerative Agriculture best practices to regenerate healthy soils can store carbon in the ground through plant photosynthesis at a rate of twenty tons of CO2 per hectare (2.5 acres) per year. Decades of field tests performed by Dr. Elaine Ingham and Dr. David Johnson have verified these results. If all farmers and ranchers worldwide practiced RA, we could literally reach carbon draw down within 10 years.
Furthermore, per a recent Regeneration International article, the deployment of a small percentage (5-10%) of RA practices over total world croplands, rangelands and forestlands will draw down 45.12 gigatons of CO2 and cancel out all the current CO2 Greenhouse Gasses (43 Gigatons) emitted in our atmosphere.
The only other solution that works as well or better than Regenerative Agriculture is Global Reforestation. A recent study by Dr. Thomas Crowther and others found that replanting the worldās forests with an additional 1.2 trillion trees would draw down 100 billion tons of excess carbon from the atmosphere per year.
There is no time to waste. We must use natureās proven solutions to re-balance CO2 greenhouse gas emissions at pre-industrial levels (less than 350 ppm) and stop global warming to save our planet from even worse extreme weather events. Please add Regenerative Agriculture practices to all agriculture bills to stop climate change. Thanks.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! Youāre amazing.
Talk tomorrow.
Jess
I am a paid subscriber. I do not need a perk to be so. It would not offend me that content may go to people who are not paid subscribers (you have to figure that out).
But I do just want to offer a comment that quality information is never "free." The internet has gotten people into the habit of thinking that information just materializes without them having to work or pay for it. Not so. And our democracy is the worse for the fact that our information ecosystem no longer financially rewards good journalism. Consider paying for a subscription, people. Please.
Hi Jess, I agree with all these good people below. I will pay for your service no matter what. I would like to think that the folks who don't "subscribe" are simply not affording it right now. And I happily support their feeling the love every weekend. This is democracy. We all pull together for the good of all. And Jan F is right; YOU are the perk. Thank you thank you. I can't imagine how exhausted you must get. But I am SO grateful for what you do! Carry on!