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Nina Shengold's avatar

How's everyone doing? I'm reeling, sick at heart, furious, can't bear to look or not look. Which is just how they want to keep anyone with a conscience, so I need to kick my butt into action. Calling my reps, again. Thanks for the sparks!

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Sari Botton's avatar

Same. <3

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Richard Donnelly's avatar

Nina and Sari- If you're on your phone, get off. The feed is designed to drive you wild. There's a reason they call it doomscrolling : )

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Not The Enemy's avatar

These are excellent ideas and resources. Thank you. I also follow Anand Giridharadas at The.Ink on Substack, as well as The Contrarian (Jen Rubin et al). Legacy media has failed us. It's independent journalism all the way now.

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Sari Botton's avatar

Thank you.

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Tracy Owens's avatar

Thank you so much! I've been calling before work and leaving chatty, friendly voice mails. My representative (who is an acquaintance) is mostly a jerk, but he does take a lot of pride in handling social security and medicare issues for people like my parents (who are Republicans, yes the bad kind). So that's where I focused that message, retail issues, like a private citizen having access to all their data.

My senators are hard core TrMpers, but I called both about RFK Jr. -- Marsha Blackburn has grandkids, so I focused on the "kids will die of preventable disease" angle. No one ever calls Bill Hagerty, ever, so I pressed on his being an educated person (he is) and knowing that RFKJ is not qualified for this role.

These are my third set of calls, and no one has called me back yet, so I'm emailing today to document that I called last week, yesterday, and today.

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Kerry's avatar

I’ve been calling my GOP election denier Rep every day. Yesterday his staff pretended they had no idea what I was talking about, with Musk and his goons rampaging through the Treasury system. Today they admitted they knew about it, which I guess is a minuscule step forward.

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Sari Botton's avatar

Thank you for your persistence.

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Beth Kephart's avatar

I feel this beautiful crescendo building—all of us out here writing and calling, sharing (like you do so well), motivating. It feels like we are beginning to get heard. But we cannot stop. The road ahead is long and treacherous. Thank you for this post.

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Gillian Longworth McGuire's avatar

Thank you for gathering all of these resources for us

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Doreen Frances's avatar

I'm hearing too many people say, "I'm not watching the news." I get that, but staying uninformed is a mistake. My Senators are Warren and Markey. My representative is Clark. Their mailboxes are full! I think it is also important to call your state and local reps because everything Trump et al. are doing has a trickle-down effect on state and local municipalities too.

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Allison Delman's avatar

Exactly, Doreen!

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Jen G's avatar

timely! this morning pre-dawn I emailed my state senators and my representative (all 3 have contact forms online which makes it easy, & then I copy/pasted my message). Decided that will be a good start to the day & easy to do, when I awake with anxiety. I’m also a huge fan of, & appreciate, Heather Cox Richardson, & follow Your Local Epidemiologist here on Substack, for reasonable & informed health info

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MUTHR, FCKD's avatar

Thank you thank you thank you, and will be sharing this for people as well.

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Richard Grayson's avatar

I am running as the "Kill Billionaires" candidate of the Communist Party in the upcoming special election for Congress in NY-21 (basically the North Country). I am asking Canada to admit our congressional district that borders Quebec as the 11th province.

https://x.com/AlexBGault/status/1885755871155671192

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Sari Botton's avatar

Yes, please.

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Sue Sutherland-Wood's avatar

Thank you - as a sleepless, concerned Canadian I find this deeply reassuring especially the comments. Thank you Sari xo

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Sari Botton's avatar

What insanity he is unleashing on all of you! <3

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Sue Sutherland-Wood's avatar

Honestly, the outrageous lying is so tedious - and now the oft repeated, not joking, taking-over-your-country threats. It's actually a kind of terrorism, living like this, heart in mouth, frightened to refresh the screen.

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Ellen Goldberg's avatar

Sari, thank you for this. Very helpful information.

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Linda + Larry the Dog's avatar

Thank you, Sari! My congress reps are all republicans, and I've been sending emails but looking for help on how to call and what to say. They might as well feel some pressure. I don't care if it doesn't change them; it will help ME. I just downloaded the app. xo

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kmakens's avatar

5Calls is really great! If you have earbuds or headphones on when you call you can look at the script and read directly from it as you get more comfortable with the process!

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Sari Botton's avatar

Awesome! Give ‘em hell.

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Sheila Anderson's avatar

Thank you so much! I too am a big fan of Jamelle Bouie and follow his every word, as I do your own well informed and prolific commentaries. I appreciate the resources presented and pray that our efforts have a positive effect. Our country has been hijacked by two malign narcissists and their ilk. I am stunned and ashamed to be an American.

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Helaine's avatar

Highly recommend Jeff Tiedrich's "Everyone Is Entitled to My Own Opinion" https://www.jefftiedrich.com/ on Substack. A bit unorthodox, but he is right every. single. time. about the media and the current state of political affairs.

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Sari Botton's avatar

Thank you.

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Meridee Thompson's avatar

Thank for this invaluable info. Let's go!

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