December 20, 2024
Avoiding a shutdown, solidarity with strikers, keeping Virginia blue and more things on our Christmas list!
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IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE SHUTDOWN
After blowing up a bipartisan deal yesterday, Elon Musk and Donald Trump got Mike Johnson to rush a new continuing resolution to the floor – one that included disaster aid and the farm bill extension, but cut funding for key programs like childhood cancer research and added giving Donald Trump a full Congress to cut taxes for billionaires without having to worry about the debt ceiling. The bill needed 290 yes votes to pass under suspension – instead it flat lost, 235-174-1, with 38 Republicans voting no and only two Democrats voting yes. It’s not clear what they’ll try next, and the likelihood of a shutdown (in which the troops won’t be paid over the holidays) is high. But we should note Democrats stood firm instead of voting for a bad bill to bail out the Republicans. Let’s check out how our reps voted, and if they said no thank them for doing the right thing – and encourage them to hang tough and insist we go back to the original deal without giveaways to Trump and Musk and with funding to stop pediatric cancer. If they voted yes, let’s let them know they’re letting us down, and we will hold the party that blew up the bipartisan deal responsible for the shutdown. Let’s also ask them why funding to help kids with cancer isn’t a priority for them.
MERRY STRIKEMAS
It’s a busy time of year for a few key industries, and working people are putting their leverage to good use. 10,000 workers at Amazon launched a strike at seven major delivery hubs yesterday, demanding the company recognize their union. And this morning, Starbucks Workers United launched a strike at five unionized stores over the corporation’s failure to bargain in good faith or resolve hundreds of outstanding charges for unfair labor practices. Let’s show our support for these folks getting a fair deal from billionaires and big corporations! We can act in solidarity with SBWU by signing up to hand out flyers at non-union stores here, joining strikers on the picket lines if we’re near Chicago, Los Angeles or Seattle, and signing this petition to Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol to let him know we support the workers. And we can consider a donation to Amazon Labor Union’s strike fund here.
THE FIRST SPECIAL ELECTIONS OF 2025 ARE COMING TO TOWN
Virginia will be at the center of the electoral universe in 2025, with a competitive gubernatorial election and Democrats defending a 51-49 seat majority in the House of Delegates in November. And the voting there starts right now – there are special elections for two vacant state senate seats and one delegate’s district coming on January 7th. Democrats have picked Delegate Kannan Srinivasan to defend SD-32, where he will face Republican Tumay Harding; Professor Jack Trammell to try to flip SD-10, where he is running against Republican Luther Cifers; and Loudon County School Board vice chair JJ Singh to try to hold Srinivasan’s seat in HD-10 against Republican Ram Venkatachalam. Democrats need to at least hold their ground to maintain their narrow legislative majorities and preserve their pathway to a constitutional amendment codifying abortion access and marriage equality, and this vote could serve as an early referendum on Trump’s attacks on the federal government – both SD-32 and HD-10 are in Northern Virginia where cuts to the federal government will mean lost jobs. Let’s take some time over the next few weeks to help out! We can sign up to make calls for Srinivasan and Singh here and write postcards for them here. If we’re able to get to Loudoun County, let’s connect directly with Loudoun Dems Precinct Opps Chair Laura Reynolds (laurareynolds@gmail.com) for canvassing opportunities. We can also split a donation to their campaigns via Sister District Project here.
BABY THERE’S FLU OUTSIDE
We all remember too well how Donald Trump badly botched the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic. He deliberately undermined our response, overruled experts and silenced warnings to promote himself politically, and it cost us lives. Now he is returning to office, staffing his administration with appointees who have fomented distrust in our public health systems, and we are facing the spread of a new virus: H5N1. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reassured us that bird flu currently represents a low risk to the general public and its threat should not be over-hyped – there has yet to be a recorded instance of human-to-human transmission or a human death from bird flu in this country. Those who work in the dairy industry are in some danger, however, and Louisiana has reported the first severe human case of the disease in the United States. Moreover, Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s proposal to remove safety restrictions on raw milk could increase the likelihood of exposure. California has declared an emergency over bird flu, and we need to see more aggressive responses to health care challenges from more state governments. Let’s reach out to our governors and state legislators and ask them what they are doing to better protect our dairy workers from H5N1. Further, let’s encourage them to invest in a strong state-level public health infrastructure and to be proactive in addressing health risks, since we cannot trust the federal government to do so. Lastly, let’s reach out to our members of Congress and tell them to block efforts to bring more unsafe raw milk onto the market while the bird flu threat continues.
KEEP IMMIGRANTS HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
According to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, one thing we can do to help immigrants before Trump takes office is to urge the Biden Administration to grant an extension of Temporary Protected Status, which Trump has vowed to end, for all residents whose TPS is set to expire in 2025. Senator Catherine Cortez Maestro (D-Nevada) is already putting pressure on the White House to protect those with TPS, and to expedite processing DACA applications for young people who came to the U.S. with their parents through no choice of their own and know no other home. Let’s reach out to our MOCs, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House and ask them to take action on this now.
CLIMATE ACTION MEANS YOU DON’T HAVE TO DREAM OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS
A recent Senate investigation found that climate change is driving a growing crisis in home insurance affordability, reinforcing that climate action is a necessity for addressing so many of our national challenges. We need to keep up the pressure to make it happen. The Sunrise Movement, which organizes young people for the Green New Deal, is holding welcome calls for new people joining TOMORROW, December 21st at 1:00PM and Thursday, January 9th at 8:30 PM Eastern (sign up for both here) and has an email list with action updates for supporters over 35 years old we can join here.
Solid information. We have good trouble we have to make. Our platform needs to be built with Potential. It has to create a groundswell with both Democrats and sell to Republicans.
I remain extremely worried of our 2026/2028 Democratic platform. I’m working on bits of it, but need help. I know that one brain is not enough.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/next-we-do-good-work?r=3m1bs
Campaign Finance Reform should be at the top of the "Good Trouble" list. We seem to be a country being run and threatened by Musk and his other billionaire friends!