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Sharing to @tellcongress

“KELLY (AZ)
WARNOCK (GA)
PETERS (MI)
SHAHEEN (NH)
HASSAN (NH)
CORTEZ MASTO (NV)
ROSEN (NV)

It’s important for these Democratic senators to hear from their constituents right now. Email your senators and tell them to protect our elections by rejecting the GOP’s voter suppression bill.”

👉 act.indivisible.org/sign/tell-

👉 mastodon.social/@indivisiblete

h/t @indivisibleteam

Indivisible GuideTell Your Senator(s) to Vote NO on the Silencing Americans ActRepublicans are once again pushing what we’re calling the “Silencing Americans Act,” a dangerous bill that would create unnecessary obstacles for millions of eligible Americans trying to register to vote. The House passed it last session, but it never made it to the Senate—now they’re bringing it back in an attempt to restrict access to the ballot. The Silencing Americans Act (H.R. 22 and S. 128) would require every voter to show proof of citizenship, like a passport or original birth certificate, when registering to vote in federal elections. That might sound simple, but the reality is that millions of eligible voters don’t have these documents readily available. Because the bill would require showing this proof in person, it would eliminate online and mail-in voter registration. This bill wouldn’t improve election security—it would just make it significantly harder for everyday Americans to vote. It has already passed the House and if it passes the Senate, the Silencing Americans Act would disproportionately impact: Married women who have changed their last names, many of whom don’t have birth certificates matching their legal name Trans and nonbinary people who’ve changed their names to reflect their gender identity Naturalized citizens who could face additional barriers and intimidation Military members, tribal citizens, and working-class Americans, who may not have easy access to these documents And others! We’ve seen the damage of similar laws in states like Kansas and Arizona, where thousands of eligible voters were blocked from registering. Americans without citizenship status are already barred from voting in federal elections, and states have secure systems in place to verify voter eligibility—this bill is unnecessary. Fill out the form with your information (feel free to add an optional additional comment, if you like), and we'll make sure your email is delivered to your senator(s). The email to your senators:
Continued thread

The alchemy of big law was always the way in which you seamlessly revolve in and out of government - the allure of making a lot of money and governing.

That is what is shattering.

Relatedly, for the first time in my lifetime, Democratic voters are turning against their own leaders.

40% of Democratic voters approve of Congressional Democrats, and 49% disapprove.

Last year, 75% approved and just 21% disapproved.

At town halls, Democratic members of Congress are encountering not support, but rage.

As Axios reported, a “senior House Democrat told Axios that a colleague called them after a town hall crying and said: "They hate us. They hate us.”’

Democratic voters haven’t fingered biglaw as the culprit, so the question right now is whether corporate America and big law will remain homeless,
or whether firms like Paul Weiss can recapture what they had.

But there is deep rage in the Democratic base, and on the right, at oligarchy.

And there’s another group ascending against the anti-populists who run Democratic politics.

On Friday, there were 34,000 people in Denver, Colorado at a Bernie Sanders rally.

For context, that’s 5% of the population of Denver, and 1% of the population of the Denver metro area.

One of the speakers was FTC Commissioner #Alvaro #Bedoya, who Trump had tried to remove last week.

Bedoya and his colleague, #Rebecca #Kelly #Slaughter, had been in the shadow of former Chair Lina Khan, but were important officials in moving populist policy.

In contrast to Paul Weiss, instead of lying down, they chose to fight.

Both are doing media tours to discuss the work they are doing against oligarchy.

Bedoya went to Colorado and spoke before that giant crowd. When was the last time a commissioner of a small Federal antitrust agency did that?

Sanders, who is attracting a lot of people who did not support him in 2016 and 2020 to his rallies, is building a different kind of politics.

He has refined his argument to focus on oligarchy, the group of superrich who are running the United States.

And a newer generation of politicians are recognizing in that argument something that makes sense.

There are conflicting messages, notably the New York Times’ Ezra Klein and The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson launching a campaign around the concept of Abundance, which I’ll touch on soon.
But the possibility of sharpening policy tools to bring our oligarchs back into our democracy and match them with a political coalition is there.

And in that sense, I am thankful to Paul Weiss and Brad Karp.
-- In this dangerous moment, the Democratic corporate establishment, by capitulating so obviously to Trump in return for corporate money, has just ripped out the heart that ran the Clinton, Obama, and much of the toxic parts of the Biden administrations.

And they did so at the only moment in the last two decades during which normal Democrats are looking for someone to blame for their own party’s fecklessness.

And who better to blame than the would-be Kamala Harris staff, a pack of Google and private equity defense lawyers - and Chuck Schumer’s brother - who, when the chips were down, bent the knee to Trump?

-- Matt Stoller

thebignewsletter.com/p/monopol

🤣🤣🤣🤣

#Tesla Owners Are Selling Their Cars in En masse

#Tesla has recently seen a sharp decline in sales of its cars. One of the reasons is the scandals associated with #Elon_Musk, #Bild reports

Some major companies have already refused to include #Tesla in their fleets, including the #Rossmann, #Lichtblick, and #Badenova chains. And singer #Sheryl_Crow, actress #Alyssa_Milano, and #Democratic Senator #Mark #Kelly , whom #Musk called a "traitor" for visiting #Ukraine, are selling their #Teslas

On Monday, the Senate armed services committee approved Pete #Hegseth’s nomination,
But he awaits confirmation by the full chamber.
In a joint statement, Elizabeth #Warren, Tim #Kaine, Mark #Kelly, Mazie #Hirono, Richard #Blumenthal, Tammy #Duckworth, Jeanne #Shaheen and Kirsten #Gillibrand
👉 demand meetings with Pete Hegseth before the full Senate votes on his confirmation:
The senator's joint statement reads:
"In a sworn statement under the penalty of perjury, a new report shows U.S. Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth was ‘erratic and aggressive’ toward his second wife over many years, to the point that she feared for her safety.
The report also details repeated instances of his drinking alcohol in excess, including the need to be dragged out of a strip club while in uniform.
This affidavit is part of a disturbing pattern of behavior that has been documented through numerous public and private reports.
The affidavit also raises additional questions about the thoroughness of his FBI background check during a rushed confirmation process.
Despite repeated requests, Mr. Hegseth has refused to meet with the vast majority of Democratic members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
We request that Mr. Hegseth meet privately with every interested lawmaker on the committee before the Senate votes on his nomination
so that we can have frank discussions about the new information that has come to light.
It would be irresponsible and contrary to our constitutional duty for the Senate to vote to confirm this nomination before such meetings have occurred."

A key ally to former President Donald Trump detailed plans to 🆘 deploy the military in response to domestic unrest,
💥defund the Environmental Protection Agency
and ⚠️ put career civil servants “in trauma”
in a series of previously unreported speeches that provide a sweeping vision for a second Trump term.

In private speeches delivered in 2023 and 2024, #Russell #Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, described his work crafting legal justifications so that military leaders or government lawyers would not stop Trump’s executive actions.

He said the plans are a response to a “Marxist takeover” of the country; likened the moment to 1776 and 1860, when the country was at war or on the brink of it;
and said the timing of Trump’s candidacy was a “gift of God.”

Vought does not hide his agenda or shy away from using extreme rhetoric in public.

But the apocalyptic tone and hard-line policy prescriptions in the two private speeches go further than his earlier pronouncements.

As OMB director, Vought sought to use Trump’s 2020 “#ScheduleF” executive order to strip away job protections for nonpartisan government workers.

But he has never spoken in such pointed terms about demoralizing federal workers to the point that they don’t want to do their jobs.

He has spoken in broad terms about undercutting independent agencies but never spelled out sweeping plans to defund the EPA and other federal agencies.

Vought’s plans track closely with Trump’s campaign rhetoric about using the military against domestic protesters
or what Trump has called the “enemy within.”

Trump’s desire to use the military on U.S. soil recently prompted his longest-serving chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. #John #Kelly, to speak out,
saying Trump “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”

Other policies mentioned by Vought dovetail with Trump’s plans,
such as embracing a wartime footing on the southern border
and rolling back transgender rights.

Agenda 47, the campaign’s policy blueprint, calls for revoking President Joe Biden’s order expanding gender-affirming care for transgender people;

Vought uses even more extreme language, decrying the “transgender sewage that’s being pumped into our schools and institutions”
and referring to gender-affirming care as “chemical castration.”

Since leaving government, Vought has reportedly remained a close ally of the former president.

Speaking in July to undercover journalists posing as relatives of a potential donor, Vought said Trump had “blessed” the Center for Renewing America and was “very supportive of what we do,” CNN reported.

propublica.org/article/video-d

ProPublica“Put Them in Trauma”: Inside a Key MAGA Leader’s Plans for a New Trump Agenda
More from ProPublica