Chop Wood, Carry Water 9/13

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Hi, all, and happy Wednesday!

There’s a lot of noise out there right now.

Even by today’s standards, this is shaping up to be a hectic month. We’re coming down to the wire on budget negotiations, and make no mistake—the resulting frenzy is the fault of bad faith MAGA lawmakers, period. It’s entirely unnecessary. House Republicans had months to get their spending packages together—in fact they did so as part of the debt ceiling negotiations. Their choice to renege on their promises and return to making extreme and unpopular demands has thrown them, and therefore us, into “last minute” chaos.

In an effort to deal with that problem, of course, Kevin McCarthy has allowed Trump’s proxies in the Freedom Caucus to push him into announcing an impeachment inquiry. Doing so, of course, has not solved the budget problem. So now we now have both an entirely unwarranted, politically motivated impeachment and a looming shutdown. Oh, and did I mention Kevin’s speakership is hanging in the balance?

As usual, Republicans’ solutions are worse than their problems.

I don’t know how this will all play out, but I do know what we must do. Our marching orders are as follows:

1. Continue to support our stellar President, Joe Biden, and amplify his astonishing accomplishments

2. Continue to demand that popular, necessary programs be funded

3. Continue to fight for progress on critical issues with popular support

4. Continue to point out Republicans’ dishonesty, disarray, and inability to govern everywhere we can, always

5. Continue to work tirelessly to win elections EVERYWHERE

This is more than a list. It’s a mandate, y’all. It’s a philosophy of living that can carry us through the MAGA assault. Remember my pet slogan, “work the program, not the problem?”

The five points above are the program.

If we focus on the program, not the problem, we’ll succeed. I promise. So let’s do that.

Drown out the noise. Grab my hand. Let’s get to work.

Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲

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

I want the Senator to please vote no on SB 1409, the Kids Online Safety Act. This bill is yet another attempt to force censorship and surveillance down our throats, purportedly “for the children.” In fact it will open the door for great harm to come to our kids—especially those who are members of the LGBTQ community. I’m asking the Senator not to fall for the lie that this bill helps children. It won’t. Thank you.

Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲

[I know we called about this yesterday. Daily calls are going to be critical right now—especially if you have a GOP rep]

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

I’m furious that House Republicans have launched an impeachment inquiry into President Biden with no evidence to support it. This is political theater, pure and simple—and it’s unacceptable. We have a budget to pass—as well as the NDAA and the Farm Bill—we have skyrocketing childhood poverty, we’re experiencing gun violence and overdose epidemics, and climate catastrophes are hitting every week. Congress should be focussed on solving these and other problems, not wasting taxpayer resources on pointless investigations.

[If GOP add:] One more thing: the government must not shut down. Republicans need to stop trying to cut programs Americans love, come to the table, and get this done.

[If Dem add;] I’m asking the Congressmember to stay strong and not allow any cuts to programs we care about in the budget negotiations. No cuts to climate funding, SNAP, WIC, Head Start, or public education. We have the money to fund these programs and it’s important to me that we do.

Extra Credit ✅

SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT AGAINST DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE [H/T

Rogan's List

]

In 2020, the D.C. District Court revoked a permit for a portion of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), and ordered an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The following year, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe voiced many concerns over the EIS process, including the fact that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had contracted Environmental Resources Management, a member of a prominent fossil fuel lobby, to conduct the EIS.

Last week, the Army Corps released the EIS, and Standing Rock has again pointed out the clear conflict of interest involved with the EIS. Now that the Environmental Impact Statement has been released, it is open to public comment for forty-five days, before a final statement is published. Let's join the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and submit a comment asking for the Dakota Access Pipeline to be shut down, and for the Corps to conduct an unbiased EIS. We can use Standing Rock's form comment, or submit our public comment directly to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers following these instructions.

Get Smart! 📚

Freaked out by the growing number of book bans we’re seeing across the country? Join MomsRising and the Florida Freedom to Read Project today, Wednesday, September 13th at 8:30pm EST / 5:30pm PST for a training on how to fight censorship efforts in your community.

In this training, they will cover topics like:

• What constitutes a book ban and what are the different types of bans

• How is this happening and why

• How to track “book challenges” that lead to bans in your community

• Strategies to increase access to diverse books via schools and/or school boards

• How to disrupt politically motivated book bans

It’s gonna be great! Register here.

Spread the Word! 📣

DemCast has a great new toolkit containing loads of content to help amplify info about the elections coming up in 2023. They have pages for Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Louisiana! There’s even content for the PA Supreme Court race. Please use this toolkit to lift up these critical races daily!

Give 💰!

🚨 SOS! Resistbot is in trouble! 🚨

The director of Resistbot let me know this week they are in dire need of funding. As in the “we may not be around in 2024” kind of dire need! As a way to draw in much-needed donations they’ve rolled out a new $7/month “Premium” option to which folks can upgrade. As Jason told me, “We can survive if we can get several thousand more premium folks.”

Yikes. We need Resistbot to survive, y’all. They offer such a critical service, and many of us have been using it for years for free. I’ve been giving $5/month for a year or so now, but I’ll upgrade to Premium today. Would anyone who can afford to please do the same? You’ll get tons of cool benefits! Check them out here, and then, if you’re able, text Premium to 50409 (or wherever you reach Resistbot) to upgrade. Let’s save our favorite activism tool!

Chop Wood, Save the Planet! 🔥

Please help spread the word: not only do “bug zappers” NOT work on mosquitos, but they are contributing to species decline in our insect population—killing millions upon millions of insects we need to keep our ecosystem in balance! Not good!

Win Races! 🗳

The Ohio Democrats are hosting their first Weekend of Action to make sure abortion rights win in November, and it’s this coming weekend, with phonebanks on Saturday and Sunday! They’ll be having phonebanks from 1-3PM and 5-7PM on Saturday and 1-3PM on Sunday! Sign up here!

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

This actually isn’t my letter but I found it through Resistbot and it’s a good one! Let’s send it!

[Text PHJDYH to Resistbot at 50409 or in Apple Messages / WHATSAPP / MESSENGER]

I urge you to vote no on the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) S.1409. As reported in CNBC and Axios, this bill actively harms kids. Nearly 100 human rights and LGBTQ+ organizations, including the American Library Association, GLAAD, and GLSEN, signed an open letter opposing the prior bill in November 2022 because of how dangerous it is. On this new bill, Evan Greer (EFF) wrote, “I’ve read through it and can say unequivocally that the changes that have been made DO NOT address the concerns that we raised...”

KOSA won’t make kids safer. This bill allows any state attorney general to sue any website for “harmful” content. When you have Republicans calling anything LGBTQ+ “sexual exploitation” or anything about race “CRT” to successfully remove books, teachers, and people from the public eye, it’s clear they will use this power to dictate what content platforms can show to minors. The Missouri Attorney General used “mental health” successfully to ban gender-affirming care, which will lead to skyrocketing suicide rates for trans youth.

KOSA also hands more private data of children to social media platforms. Per the ACLU, “...the bill would legitimize platforms’ already pervasive data collection to identify which users are minors when it should be seeking to curb those data abuses. Moreover, parental guidance in minors’ online lives is critical, but KOSA would mandate surveillance tools without regard to minors’ home situations or safety. KOSA would be a step backward in making the internet a safer place for children and minors.”

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

Talk soon.

Jess