August 6 is the Voting Rights Act (VRA)’s 60^th anniversary.  Despite its popularity, the Roberts Court has whittled away its protections. The result: a torrent of voter suppression schemes, systematically disenfranchising tens of thousands of American voters. And Trump’s baseless voter fraud claims, attempts to tighten voting restrictions, and requests for GOP-controlled states to engage in mid-decade gerrymandering have made things even worse.

 On July 29, just 8 days before the VRA’s anniversary, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act was officially reintroduced in both chambers. Let’s thank our MoCs for their strong support for voting rights and our Senators for their press conference. But they cannot stop here. Instead, they must use this anniversary to get as much publicity as possible, while simultaneously exposing Trump and his MAGA allies for the authoritarians they are—working to destroy rather than strengthen our democracy.

With little resistance, Trump’s forcing America down a cruel, corrupt, and authoritarian path—assisted by SCOTUS’ MAGA majority anointing him king and MAGA Congresspeople refusing to constrain him.

Senate Democrats have only recently awoken from their apathy and started fighting back. Let’s thank our Senators for their efforts, while reminding them to remain strong, united, and committed to using all available weapons to (1) slow down Trump’s cruel and inhumane authoritarian agenda and (2) make clear to the American public how serious and destructive it really is.

Trump corrupted SCOTUS, filled his administration with sycophants, and neutered Congress. Now he’s trying to appoint judges like Emil Bove—loyal not to the Constitution and the rule of law but only to him—who should be disbarred, not elevated to a lifetime Court of Appeals appointment as early as July 29.

As your constituent, I need you to do everything possible to keep Emil Bove off the bench. After thanking your Democratic colleagues and GOP Senators Collins and Murkowski for standing firm for the rule of law, demand the proceedings be paused to hear from the whistleblowers and delay the vote until angry constituents convince at least two additional GOP Senators to honor their oath by voting “no.” 

Why is Trump refusing to release the Epstein Files he promised the MAGA base he’d do if elected? Because they contain unflattering references about him or worse which he’s desperate to keep secret.

Don’t be fooled by Trump’s desperate attempt to lay the blame elsewhere---having A-G Bondi seek confidential grand jury testimony, which, even if released, wouldn’t contain information about the powerful people enabling Epstein’s crimes. What does contain this information is the FBI’s 100,000-document file the DOJ ordered 1,000 FBI employees to comb through and flag every mention of Trump.

By signing the circulation discharge petition our MoCs would be demanding accountability for everyone who helped Epstein, covered for him, or looked the other way. The file’s release will also help Sen. Wyden better track Epstein’s vast sex-trafficking network.

The $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement in the MAGA Murder Bill funds the two major components of Trump’s fascist government—an American Gestapo filled with loyal goons, and the concentration camps spread across the country to which his enemies will be sent to be mistreated and tortured.

 Members of Congress, state officials, civic groups, and media outlets must expose and amplify what’s going on in these camps and push back against this Nazi-like behavior. Congress must also investigate and expose the “play-to-pay” corruption of private prison companies American taxpayers are financing and get these concentration camps closed.

On July 4th, catastrophic flooding caused central Texas’ Guadalupe River to rise 26+ feet in just 45 minutes, sweeping away people, including children at summer camps, homes and businesses. At least 120 died, and nearly 200 are still missing. Because of DOGE firings, there was no local meteorologist to pass on NWS flood warnings, and Kristi Noem’s micromanagement delayed FEMA’s response by three days.

Our Members of Congress must do much more than investigate how Trump’s, Musk’s, and Noem’s attacks on the NWS and FEMA hampered preparedness and response efforts. They must connect the dots repeatedly between GOP policy and its lethal consequences—the deaths and destruction across America caused by climate change—and hold Trump and Republicans accountable.

The extremely unpopular, Medicaid-slashing, billionaire-enriching version of the MAGA Murder Bill Senate Republicans hope to send back to the House is even worse than the House-passed version, willingly consigning many of their constituents to misery, hunger, and death to partially pay for the largest transfer of wealth in American history and blow up the national debt.

Both versions further transform the US into a police state. Cutting access to healthcare and food frees up $50 billion to finish Trump’s useless southern border wall, $8 billion to hire 10,000 masked ICE gestapo agents to daily round up 3000 immigrants and Americans, and $59 billion to build the concentration camps to hold and then deport them—further destroying our civil rights. 

Voting may have already started in the Senate, but there’s still time to contact your Senators, thank them for all opposing the gutting of vital programs our families and communities rely on, and urge them to keep proposing amendments that highlight Republicans’ cruelty and trying to stop its passage however they can. Then call your Representative, who may shortly be voting on the Senate version, and pass along a similar message.

I am horrified and infuriated that Donald Trump is dragging us into another Middle Eastern quagmire. The Constitution does not allow just one man to make this decision, and the Trump Administration cannot be trusted to make it.  

Congress needs to do its job and check their power. As your constituent, I demand that you vote to stop these strikes and block further escalation of attacks on Iran. Do not rubber stamp this unnecessary, unpopular, half-baked war. Please publicly announce you will back the pending War Powers resolutions and support a diplomatic solution. I will be calling you every day to express my abhorrence at Trump’s behavior and remind you of the need for swift congressional action.

Trump and his ICE Gestapo are trampling on our Constitution and building a fascist police state in America. ICE also intimidates by detaining and charging “interfering” public figures, and it illegally continues denying Congresspeople access to ICE facilities to check on detained migrants, part of their oversight function.

Our MoCs must stop fascism in its tracks by exposing ICE’s atrocities and cutting off ICE funding. The billions for militarized enforcement in the MAGA Murder Budget Bill now before the Senate, and later returning to the House, must be removed and the administration notified that accountability’s coming when Democrats retake the House.

Trump always wanted to use the military to attack his opponents and quash peaceful protests. In Los Angeles this past weekend he made it happen—manufacturing a supposed “crisis” by sending heavily armed, masked ICE agents using armored trucks, rifles, and stun grenades to raid workplaces and day labor hangouts where immigrants congregated and using the resulting peaceful protests as an excuse to illegally send in both the National Guard and the Marines to further brutalize Los Angelenos. .This is a test run for Trump’s broader agenda, relying on fear, force, and fascistic tactics to silence dissent and dehumanize vulnerable communities.

Like Governor Newsom, our MoCs must hold the Trump administration accountable for intentionally creating chaos and breaking the law to stoke violence—dismantling his lies in real time; highlighting that ICE is rounding up and summarily deporting not criminals but average, law-abiding immigrants; and drawing attention to Trump’s illegal use of the National Guard and Marines to squash peaceful protests against his unpopular ICE raids. 

Additionally, they must (1) claw back the reconciliation bill’s funding for ICE and the Pentagon being used to terrorize immigrants and citizens alike; (2) demand hearings on Trump’s illegal militarization; (3) force votes on legislation preventing the President from using the military and National Guard to curtail our First Amendment freedoms;  and, most  importantly, (4) regularly inspect local ICE facilities to draw attention to their unconstitutional treatment of immigrants and citizens.

On June 3, Trump formally asked Congress to take back the entire $1.1 billion already awarded to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting through September 2027—an essential source of funding for more than 1,500 local public television and radio stations around the country.  Eliminating CPB funding isn’t about budget cuts. It’s about silencing the free press, obscuring the truth, and clearing the path for unchecked propaganda—a classic authoritarian move. 

Beginning today, my Members of Congress must speak out forcefully against this rescission, paint proponents as First Amendment deniers, educating colleagues and voters how American democracy requires a free and independent press, and promise to hold proponents responsible in 2026 for shutting  down the CPB and creating news deserts in their communities. 

On June 3, Trump formally asked Congress to take back the entire $1.1 billion already awarded to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting through September 2027.  

Eliminating CPB funding isn’t about budget cuts. It’s about silencing the free press, obscuring the truth, and clearing the path for unchecked propaganda—a classic authoritarian move. 

Beginning today, my Members of Congress must speak out forcefully against this rescission, paint proponents as First Amendment deniers, educating colleagues and voters how American democracy requires a free and independent press, and promise to hold proponents responsible in 2026 for shutting  down the CPB and creating news deserts in their communities. 

The Senate may begin voting on the controversial GENIUS ACT (S.394), crafted by tech oligarchs seeking to tie cryptocurrency to the dollar and create a regulatory framework, as early as tomorrow morning (May 9). It would require that stablecoins hold reserves of liquid, safe assets like Treasury bills, issuers follow anti-money-laundering and terrorism finance rules and coin holders get priority to recoup their money in a bankruptcy.

Thank you for cosponsoring the End Crypto Corruption Act, which, if included in S.394, would stop Trump’s corrupt behavior somewhat. Nevertheless, because S.394 does not provide the necessary real guardrails against market manipulation, untraceable bribes, money laundering, and endless cryptocurrency scams, I urge you to vote against cloture and convince your colleagues to do likewise.

Trump is following Hitler’s playbook, using the Gestapo-like ICE as his personal secret police to round up, detain, and exterminate through rendition brown and black communities—just as their Nazi equivalents did to Jews and gypsies. Daily we witness ICE’s cruel, violent, illegal acts—not just terrorizing communities, tearing families apart, and disappearing innocent people, but also targeting political dissidents and public officials rather than the hardened criminals Trump promised to deport. 

Our MoCs, if serious about stopping fascism, must do everything they can to prevent ICE’s further expansion and empowerment, while warning about accountability when they retake the House in 2026.

The Trump-Musk “DOGE” mass firings and SSA office closures have created jammed phone lines, long wait times, and a website on the verge of collapse, but confirmation tomorrow of Frank Bisignano, a self-proclaimed “DOGE person” and ultra-rich former Wall Street executive, as Social Security Administrator will make everything worse.

Senators Wyden and Merkley, I implore you to impress on your Democratic colleagues the need for a united front–on this and all subsequent nominations–to demonstrate the Democratic Party is truly working for the American people. Right now that message is muddled. If Trump is destroying our institutions and democracy, how could all Democrats have voted to confirm Marco Rubio? Or 16 Democrats to confirm election-denier David Perdue–including Cory Booker who spoke eloquently against the administration for 25 hours just days earlier? 

To express outrage at the Trump administration’s cruel, unconstitutional behavior, you and your colleagues must also use all available Senate procedures to stall every nominee and regularly find creative ways to keep its excesses front and center, like today’s Hands Off Social Security Rally.