This is part of the right's push to discredit government services and replace them with "public/private partnerships," a euphemism for channeling taxpayer money into corporate coffers. This is happening in our prisons (e.g., private prisons), in our public schools (e.g., testing and assessments), and on our public roads (e.g., toll roads, red-light cameras) as well as in our libraries, according to the fiction that business knows better than government how to run things. Unfortunately, unlike government officials, the controlling businesses can cut services and payroll and set prices pretty much at will; they are not accountable (they can't be voted out of office) and they are not transparent about their practices (they can't be required to respond to FOIA requests).
Thanks again for a wonderful, uplifting, practical newsletter!
Wow! What a great newsletter and call to action. May I make some additional suggestions to those already mentioned? Since we shouldn't be letting the 50 Republicans off the hook and only focusing on Manchin and Sinema, I think a letter/postcard/phone call to specific Republicans might help. First: the more "moderate" Republicans like Murkowski and Romney. They may not read the entire letter but buzzwords like protecting all their constituents including the elderly, disabled and ill should be included. Second: the retiring Republicans like Burr and Toomey using language like the opportunity to be remembered as a statesman..."history has its eyes on you" sort of thing. Third, former Republicans out of office, like George Bush using Dick Chaney as an example of someone with courage and putting pressure on them to speak out. Fourth and finally, media influences. Reaching out to others who have the ability to put pressure on the Republicans would also help.
Sounding a bell of urgency, let us re-engage for 2022 sooner than later, like make a big push this week ahead of the Senate vote by January 17 (MLK Day) on voting rights: John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 and/or Manchin's Freedom to Vote Act.
For the most effective ways for us to take an action through an organization, click any of these:
I am so appreciative of Cathy's spreadsheet with the names and addresses of the corporations that have decided to once again financially support the house and senate members who continue to vote against democracy. I will begin sending my letters to these corporations and I will share the list with other friends of mine with the hope they will do the same. Robert, you have created a wonderful community of engaged readers.
Thank you for all the good resources this morning. I was looking for ways to contact corporations, and this and the example letters are really appreciated.
I absolutely hate making phone calls to representatives. I don’t know why, I just do. But after reading the following article, that’s what I do. It won’t do much good at changing minds as I live in Missouri, but I figure I’m at least an irritant.
Thank you, Robert, for Cathy Murphree's list of corporations who pledged to no longer donate to the Sedition Caucus, but most resumed. For users of Cathy's great list, note that all of the corporations resumed donating, except for Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, and Citigroup is “evaluating candidates…on a case by case basis.”
Jan 10, 2022·edited Jan 10, 2022Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
It seems I’m the first to comment. Since I like being first at something, I’ll do so. During a symposium at my state capital years ago on the Kelo verses New London, about eminent domain, in which the Court ruled in 2005 that local government could take private land and transfer it to private developers for the public good. I offered an opinion that this was abuse of the intent of eminent domain. But maybe it wasn’t abuse after all. Maybe it was badly written law in the first place. My family had been victimized by this statute in Hartford when Underwood Typewriter Company seized our neighborhood and our land ( and because of an obstinate father who refused to move, we were forced out of our homes in the dead of winter by a sheriff with two weeks to vacate) after my father had fought then appealed in state courts and lost. The funny thing I could never understand is that my liberal compatriots were in favor of this statute. Further, I was approached afterwards by a rep from The Federalist Society asking me if I wanted to join as a member.
Ain’t that somting? I scratched my head as I left the capital that day realizing that my purported liberal allies in the Courts were nowhere to be found. So I extrapolated maybe a little unfairly that the individual was less important in the liberal sense of the meaning. And I’m a liberal — I think. I never did join them but I did realize that not all issues by groups should be defined as good or bad. That’s what partisanship does to a person; it subtracts from their ability to think independently. I know this because I just finished conversing with a friend- type last evening who is neo conservative politic on steroids and I had to terminate the call when the conversation veered off unwittingly into a non political topic that she immediately turned political.
In the Kelo case, the private developer did not or could not develop the land that they seized using eminent domain — exactly what happened to my family’s land. To this day, part of that land remains fallow — over 50 years later. Now I consider that overreach and abuse of the Courts and their liberal bias interpretation of eminent domain. Underwood moved out of Hartford as my father had predicted. Is there a learning curve here? Do we sacrifice lives for the rights of the individual? My answer is no. If a person refuses vaccination, fine as long as they are not in an employment that can transmit the virus. A little common sense should trump ideology in a nanosecond.
-Following the 2010 census, the Republicans, led by Karl Rove, moved aggressively ahead with REDMAP, a plan to take over control of state houses and gerrymander Congressional districts in their favor. They were astonishingly successful. The Democrats had no such plan and no answer to Republican moves. We are doing better now, but we haven't yet matched the GOP's messianic zeal at the local and state levels.
-If there is any single person who subverted democracy more than Donald Trump, it is Mitch McConnell. His unconscionable tilting of the Supreme Court and his refusal to offer anything but obstruction to Democrats while enabling the most destructive Republican policies put him in the same league as others who infamously subverted the will of the people.
Ooooops. I sent you, Robert, the Ezra Klein piece before I read today's letter from you where you encourage all to read it. It is the missing piece We need to encourage the under fifty's to run for all local offices, to get on boards, to be active participants in local government. THAT is how we keep the voting fair, encourage voter registration, count the votes fairly. That is whre the takeover is happening before our eyes. Get local!
Regarding corporate contributions to members if the Sedition Caucus: the evil is corporate contributions, not corporate hypocrisy. These corporations were presumably contributing to further the interests of their stockholders and as long as the seditionists remain in office they will have a vote that can impact the donors. Don't expect much to change.
Robert Hubbel on Ezra Klein today: "Klein . . . says that being involved in politics is not doom-scrolling on Twitter and then complaining to family and friends about all the things you just read. Real political work is." I couldn't agree more. Now, if we can only get the liberal news media to stop doing the same damn thing! I keep yelling at the screen: "Why don't you give us ideas for what we can do instead of just dooming and glooming ???" You know, much as Robert and Jessica Craven and Judd and other folks are doing. Would this be against their principles as journalists? And these "Breaking News" chirons: how about "Breaking Opinions"?? There, I've vented. Now to write some postcards to register voters!
Thank you Robert, especially for posting the clip of the last two minutes of your interview with Jason Borlin. Besides being urged to take action,l I was deeply inspired by his simple declaration: These are dark times. In dark times the Deep Ugly is being answered by a Deeper Beauty, and that is all of us! Reminds me of Godspell's version of St Matthew's message: "If you hide your light under a bushel, you're gonna miss something kind of crucial." That may be my most favorite rhyme of all musicals!
Thank you for this wonderful newsletter and the great resources and suggestions for action.
Don't know if there's a better place to post this: A librarian friend sent me the following transcript of an interview about the emerging privatization of public libraries: https://fair.org/home/a-for-profit-company-is-trying-to-privatize-as-many-public-libraries-as-they-can/. They are quietly being taken over by a company called Library Systems & Services, owned by a hedge fund, which already owns 80 public libraries and apparently also some of the vendors from which those libraries buy their books. Another article by the interviewee is here: https://truthout.org/articles/public-private-partnerships-are-quietly-hollowing-out-our-public-libraries/
This is part of the right's push to discredit government services and replace them with "public/private partnerships," a euphemism for channeling taxpayer money into corporate coffers. This is happening in our prisons (e.g., private prisons), in our public schools (e.g., testing and assessments), and on our public roads (e.g., toll roads, red-light cameras) as well as in our libraries, according to the fiction that business knows better than government how to run things. Unfortunately, unlike government officials, the controlling businesses can cut services and payroll and set prices pretty much at will; they are not accountable (they can't be voted out of office) and they are not transparent about their practices (they can't be required to respond to FOIA requests).
Thanks again for a wonderful, uplifting, practical newsletter!
Wow! What a great newsletter and call to action. May I make some additional suggestions to those already mentioned? Since we shouldn't be letting the 50 Republicans off the hook and only focusing on Manchin and Sinema, I think a letter/postcard/phone call to specific Republicans might help. First: the more "moderate" Republicans like Murkowski and Romney. They may not read the entire letter but buzzwords like protecting all their constituents including the elderly, disabled and ill should be included. Second: the retiring Republicans like Burr and Toomey using language like the opportunity to be remembered as a statesman..."history has its eyes on you" sort of thing. Third, former Republicans out of office, like George Bush using Dick Chaney as an example of someone with courage and putting pressure on them to speak out. Fourth and finally, media influences. Reaching out to others who have the ability to put pressure on the Republicans would also help.
Sounding a bell of urgency, let us re-engage for 2022 sooner than later, like make a big push this week ahead of the Senate vote by January 17 (MLK Day) on voting rights: John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 and/or Manchin's Freedom to Vote Act.
For the most effective ways for us to take an action through an organization, click any of these:
https://www.vote.org/action/?emci=f259ff4b-78b9-eb11-a7ad-501ac57ba3ed&emdi=95f35617-2cba-eb11-a7ad-501ac57b8fa7&ceid=13982010
https://represent.us/
https://www.mobilize.us/
https://demcast.com/
https://dfadcoalition.org/
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/
I am so appreciative of Cathy's spreadsheet with the names and addresses of the corporations that have decided to once again financially support the house and senate members who continue to vote against democracy. I will begin sending my letters to these corporations and I will share the list with other friends of mine with the hope they will do the same. Robert, you have created a wonderful community of engaged readers.
Thank you for all the good resources this morning. I was looking for ways to contact corporations, and this and the example letters are really appreciated.
I absolutely hate making phone calls to representatives. I don’t know why, I just do. But after reading the following article, that’s what I do. It won’t do much good at changing minds as I live in Missouri, but I figure I’m at least an irritant.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/15/13641920/trump-resist-congress
Yes! Thank you, Cathy! Why am I shocked to see Pfizer on the list?
Thank you Cathy Murphree for your excellent list of corporate addresses and templates. I’m on it thanks to you!
Thank you, Robert, for Cathy Murphree's list of corporations who pledged to no longer donate to the Sedition Caucus, but most resumed. For users of Cathy's great list, note that all of the corporations resumed donating, except for Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, and Citigroup is “evaluating candidates…on a case by case basis.”
It seems I’m the first to comment. Since I like being first at something, I’ll do so. During a symposium at my state capital years ago on the Kelo verses New London, about eminent domain, in which the Court ruled in 2005 that local government could take private land and transfer it to private developers for the public good. I offered an opinion that this was abuse of the intent of eminent domain. But maybe it wasn’t abuse after all. Maybe it was badly written law in the first place. My family had been victimized by this statute in Hartford when Underwood Typewriter Company seized our neighborhood and our land ( and because of an obstinate father who refused to move, we were forced out of our homes in the dead of winter by a sheriff with two weeks to vacate) after my father had fought then appealed in state courts and lost. The funny thing I could never understand is that my liberal compatriots were in favor of this statute. Further, I was approached afterwards by a rep from The Federalist Society asking me if I wanted to join as a member.
Ain’t that somting? I scratched my head as I left the capital that day realizing that my purported liberal allies in the Courts were nowhere to be found. So I extrapolated maybe a little unfairly that the individual was less important in the liberal sense of the meaning. And I’m a liberal — I think. I never did join them but I did realize that not all issues by groups should be defined as good or bad. That’s what partisanship does to a person; it subtracts from their ability to think independently. I know this because I just finished conversing with a friend- type last evening who is neo conservative politic on steroids and I had to terminate the call when the conversation veered off unwittingly into a non political topic that she immediately turned political.
In the Kelo case, the private developer did not or could not develop the land that they seized using eminent domain — exactly what happened to my family’s land. To this day, part of that land remains fallow — over 50 years later. Now I consider that overreach and abuse of the Courts and their liberal bias interpretation of eminent domain. Underwood moved out of Hartford as my father had predicted. Is there a learning curve here? Do we sacrifice lives for the rights of the individual? My answer is no. If a person refuses vaccination, fine as long as they are not in an employment that can transmit the virus. A little common sense should trump ideology in a nanosecond.
Such is life.
Two comments on today's newsletter:
-Following the 2010 census, the Republicans, led by Karl Rove, moved aggressively ahead with REDMAP, a plan to take over control of state houses and gerrymander Congressional districts in their favor. They were astonishingly successful. The Democrats had no such plan and no answer to Republican moves. We are doing better now, but we haven't yet matched the GOP's messianic zeal at the local and state levels.
-If there is any single person who subverted democracy more than Donald Trump, it is Mitch McConnell. His unconscionable tilting of the Supreme Court and his refusal to offer anything but obstruction to Democrats while enabling the most destructive Republican policies put him in the same league as others who infamously subverted the will of the people.
Ooooops. I sent you, Robert, the Ezra Klein piece before I read today's letter from you where you encourage all to read it. It is the missing piece We need to encourage the under fifty's to run for all local offices, to get on boards, to be active participants in local government. THAT is how we keep the voting fair, encourage voter registration, count the votes fairly. That is whre the takeover is happening before our eyes. Get local!
Every day my spirits are lifted by the brilliant efforts of Robert Hubbell and his wife.
Regarding corporate contributions to members if the Sedition Caucus: the evil is corporate contributions, not corporate hypocrisy. These corporations were presumably contributing to further the interests of their stockholders and as long as the seditionists remain in office they will have a vote that can impact the donors. Don't expect much to change.
Robert Hubbel on Ezra Klein today: "Klein . . . says that being involved in politics is not doom-scrolling on Twitter and then complaining to family and friends about all the things you just read. Real political work is." I couldn't agree more. Now, if we can only get the liberal news media to stop doing the same damn thing! I keep yelling at the screen: "Why don't you give us ideas for what we can do instead of just dooming and glooming ???" You know, much as Robert and Jessica Craven and Judd and other folks are doing. Would this be against their principles as journalists? And these "Breaking News" chirons: how about "Breaking Opinions"?? There, I've vented. Now to write some postcards to register voters!
Inspired and inspiring! Just what I needed. Practical objective things to DO. Thanks so much!
Thank you Robert, especially for posting the clip of the last two minutes of your interview with Jason Borlin. Besides being urged to take action,l I was deeply inspired by his simple declaration: These are dark times. In dark times the Deep Ugly is being answered by a Deeper Beauty, and that is all of us! Reminds me of Godspell's version of St Matthew's message: "If you hide your light under a bushel, you're gonna miss something kind of crucial." That may be my most favorite rhyme of all musicals!