These are the best political investments you can make
These are the best political investments you can make
And what’s up with Georgia
Welcome to the big Sunday edition of Progressives Everywhere!
I hope you had a relaxing (and small) Thanksgiving weekend, spent time on FaceTime and Zoom with family and friends, and dropped some money at local small businesses.
If nothing else, it was amazing to enjoy a long weekend without having to care about whatever lunatic rant Donald Trump belched out on Twitter. But our work is just getting started, so in this edition of the newsletter, we’re looking at..
Progressive activist organizations worthy of your donations;
Two national crisis barreling toward us;
New updates in the Georgia Senate runoffs;
Labor battles and new worker movements
But first, thank you to GoFundMe donors Joe, Robert, and Channing!
Key Activists and Impending Crises
Last week, I co-wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post that focused on the Democratic Party’s ground game (or lack thereof) in 2020 and how activist organizations in several states picked up the slack and helped Joe Biden vanquish Donald Trump.
It’s impossible to understate just how important a role that the work of progressive groups in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Pennsylvania played in the triumph. If Democrats want to turn around the down-ballot disappointments and overcome the gerrymanders that Republicans will enact in many states next year, we need to help these groups grow in ambition and scope.
To that end, I’ve put together an ActBlue page that features a dozen great groups, which I’ve listed right below. You can use the page to donate to one or more of them!
AAPI Victory Fund | Four Directions | Black Voters Matter PAC | Mijente | Citizen Action of Wisconsin | Pennsylvania Stands Up | Reclaim Philadelphia | Progress Michigan | Jolt Action | Texas Rising | Down Home North Carolina | Working Families Party
The Countdown is on….
The seeming success of the phase three trials of at least two COVID-19 vaccines offer a tantalizing light at the end of this dark death tunnel, but the last leg of the journey will be the most brutal. The virus is again sweeping through the United States, with every day setting a new record for new positive tests and deaths climbing to levels unseen since this spring. Job growth continues to slow down. And this time, the government isn’t just not going to step up to help the tens of millions of people out of work and going hungry, the meager help it did once offer will soon go away.
With Mitch McConnell’s Senate in recess and Democratic leaders unwilling to publicly push the issue at the moment, there are 14 million Americans on pace to lose their unemployment benefits when CARES Act programs expire right after Christmas. (Already, out-of-work Americans have been denied expanded unemployment benefits in 17 states due to a mix of gubernatorial cruelty and strapped budgets).
Here’s a look at the trendlines in Tampa:
A few days later, the national eviction moratorium will end, as will programs meant to help mortgage-holders avoid foreclosure, keep owners of student debt from drowning in accrued interest, and offer extra capital to small and medium-sized businesses.
In fact, evictions have already begun despite the moratorium in cities nationwide (see examples in New York and Houston and the rest of the country) and are growing more frequent. Unless these moratoriums are renewed, we’re going to see an unprecedented wave of evictions sweep across the country, with up to 40 million people being kicked out of their homes this winter. Like every other bad thing in this country, evictions will disproportionately impact people of color and immigrants, who are often kicked out of their homes illegally by cruel landlords.
It shouldn’t be up to us to help people stay in their homes, but with the government abdicating all responsibility, we’re going to have to step in and help our neighbors. As such, I’ve created fundraisers to raise money for eviction prevention groups in cities across the country. If you’re able, choose one and help out — no one should be losing their homes, especially due to a pandemic exacerbated by the government, and especially not during the winter.
New York City | Los Angeles | Boston | Atlanta | Milwaukee | Miami
What’s the Latest in Georgia?
A fair amount of President-elect Biden’s agenda (and certainly the parts of it we’re going to push for) will only be viable if Democrats win both Senate runoff elections in Georgia. There haven’t been many polls on the races yet, and it’s hard to put too much faith in polls anyway at the moment, but I’d say that Democrats are having a much easier time getting their campaigns rolling than Republicans are at this very moment.
The GOP Civil War continues to take shape in spite of Trump’s half-hearted effort to encourage people to support Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. Trump has been much more convincing in his vituperative complaints about Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — today, he said that he was “ashamed” that he endorsed Kemp. (Can you imagine thinking Brian Kemp, the architect of the biggest voter purges and suppression regime of the 21st century, is too pro-democracy?)
Perhaps more significantly, the unruly Newsmax-fueled mob of Trumpites has been making like right-wing Catholics during the Francis papacy and is now starting to ignore the word of their spiritual leader.
This weekend, RNC chair Ronna McDaniel incurred the wrath of the MAGA dead-enders, who have so bought into the stolen election conspiracies that they’re now turning on any Republican that doesn’t devote all their efforts to the delusional dream of returning Trump to the White House. They created this monster by enabling Trump’s infantile fantasies and now they’re at risk of being consumed by it.
It’s not just that a zombie army is fuming and spontaneously protesting, either. None other than first-ballot Sleazeball Hall of Famer Roger Stone is heading up a dark money campaign to convince conservatives to sabotage Republicans in the runoff and instead write Trump’s name in both places on the ballot. Their website isn’t exactly subtle — check out WriteInTrumpForGeorgiaSenate.com — but they’re also not dealing with people who love to read between the lines (unless instructed to by Q). Just read this filth:
With enough write-ins in the Georgia senate race, we can tilt the balance in Georgia in Trump's favor! If we can do this, we have a real chance at getting these RINO senators to act on the illegitimate and corrupt election presided over by a Democrat party that is invested in the Communist takeover of Our Great Nation. We will not stop fighting for you, the American Patriot, against the evils of Socialism and inferior Religions. This is a Christian Nation and will be as long as we fight, together, for our sovereignty.
Meanwhile, on planet Earth, both Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock have announced that they will hold door-to-door canvassing, which I obviously appreciate.
At the same time, they have yet to do any official outreach to the state’s growing Asian-American community, which helped deliver Georgia to Biden. The AAPI community turnout increased by 91% over 2016 and went for Biden 2-to-1. It was especially key in Gwinnett, Georgia’s second-largest county, which I wrote about in this newsletter from last week.
More after this…
A Quick Pause Before We Continue…
This week, Progressives Everywhere surpassed over $5.5 million dollars raised for progressive Democratic candidates and causes. Isn’t that cool?
That said, none of that money goes to producing this newsletter or all of the related projects we put out there. Not a dime! In fact, it costs me money to do this. So to make this sustainable, I need your help.
I’m offering very low-cost premium subscriptions that offer a lot of goodies. If you become a member of Progressives Everywhere, you’ll get:
Frequent election season emails with deep dives into elections and the crucial political stories not getting enough attention. You’ll read the news before anyone else you know.
Exclusive updates from candidates and interviews with other progressive leaders.
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The satisfaction of financing new projects like AbsenteeBallots.info and COVIDSuperSpreaders.com, which is ensuring that people remember who caused this national disaster.
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Worker Rights, Minimum Wage, and Gig Economy Updates
While we wait to see what happens in Georgia, there is a lot of action happening in the world of unions, labor law, and worker activism. Here’s a quick rundown:
NLRB possibilities: The excellent Labor Law Lite newsletter has an excellent list of 10 things that Biden’s still-to-be-named NLRB can do to help workers without Congress.
The newsletter also has this explainer of the Joy Silk collective bargaining law, which makes it easier for workers who want to unionize to negotiate with management and deters anti-union activity. Right now, the NLRB does not enforce it, but Biden could change that.
The Fight for $15: The overwhelming passage of the ballot initiative enacting a $15 minimum wage in Florida has activists setting their sites on other states. There are plenty of plum opportunities, as campaigns backing minimum wage initiatives in Ohio and a number of other states were abandoned off due to the pandemic. Lawmakers in Colorado and Delaware, where Democrats have trifectas, may also move to pass minimum wage increases.
Raising the minimum wage isn’t just about putting a bit more money in people’s pockets; it’s also one of the most effective ways to improve their mental health. This new study from UC Berkeley shows that a 10% increase in the minimum wage and Earned Income Tax Credit led to significant declines in “deaths of despair,” which is a crushing clinical term for suicide.
The Everything Store: Amazon warehouse workers in over a dozen countries went on strike on Black Friday, and in Germany, they’re going back to the picket lines. Here’s your reminder that over 20,000 Amazon workers had contracted COVID-19 as of October 1st (and that’s according to the company’s numbers) and no $300 bonus, which Amazon said it would give some workers last week, can protect them from the grueling conditions in those warehouses, especially as the holidays approach.
Uber but for ripoffs: The SEC released a proposal that would allow gig economy companies to include company stock in compensation packages given to contract workers. The idea is that it would give workers like Uber drivers and Instacart delivery workers equity in the companies, one of the benefits awarded to full-time employees. It makes sense in theory, but it’s hard to believe that an Uber driver who is making far below the minimum wage is going to want their earnings tied up in stock.
Republican allies? Fed chief Jerome Powell hasn’t been great on bank deregulation, but he might be an ally in efforts to reach full employment.
Wait, before you go!
Figured I’d give it one more shot: Please subscribe and join the team!
You can also make a one-time donation to Progressives Everywhere’s GoFundMe campaign — doing so will earn you a shout-out in an upcoming edition of the big newsletter!