June 30, 2025

wtf?! edition

Hi friends,

Last Wednesday, the papers I read were covering Zohran Mamdani’s historic defeat of Andrew Cuomo in the NYC Democratic mayoral primary. It was a great way to begin a long weekend.

Immediately, the attacks on Mamdani began. This was predictable enough, but I was particularly galled by Democrats who went beyond ignoring Mamdani’s groundbreaking expansion of the electorate.

On WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show,” NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand made unsubstantiated claims about Mamdani’s beliefs and claimed — without any evidence — that New York’s Jewish community is facing threats as a result of his electoral victory.

The Democratic Party is losing support because it does not offer an alternative to the hateful and destructive rhetoric and policies of the MAGA Republicans.

In this moment of terrifying political violence, Gillibrand and others who parrot MAGA talking points in an effort to discredit Mamdani endanger Mamdani himself and our communities.

When you hear it, make sure they hear from you!

Tell Senator Gillibrand: NYC is no place for hate, racism, or Islamophobia! This action is adapted from Indivisible.

It is usually jarring to read the news after taking a little break, but when I started catching up late yesterday, the shocking amount of heinous violence rattled me.

Israel began another major offensive of Gaza after tens of thousands of Palestinians fled eastern parts of Gaza City in response to a warning from the IDF.

This comes on the heels of a month in which the Israeli military has killed over 400 people who were seeking humanitarian aid in what seems like a series of war crimes.

Yesterday, Russia launched its largest aerial bombing attack on Kyiv since the war began.

Then I saw the story about an active shooter in Idaho who had already killed two firefighters.

This morning, it appears that the suspect himself set a brush fire set purpose of entrapping first responders. The police have found the suspect’s body.

Two teenagers were shot at NYC Pride yesterday, near the Stonewall Inn.

This is not a comprehensive list. I stopped reading news.

If this were a classroom, we might turn off the lights and invite everyone to take some slow, deep breaths. Actually, I invite you to do that right now.

And then there is the slow violence, which is picking up speed.

The Senate is debating the Republican budget reconciliation bill, which includes cuts that the Congressional Budget Office reports will cut $1 trillion from Medicaid and cost nearly 12 million people their health care coverage.

Seriously, what the fuck? I didn’t even get to the more than $1 trillion cut to SNAP benefits. Only two Republicans voted against it.

Petition the Senate to fund Medicaid and save lives. This quick action is from Demand Progress.

Fossil Free Media sent this pair of actions this morning, and I am including them without any tinkering.

Call your senators and tell them to oppose this bill. We teamed up with 5 calls to put together a tool and call script that makes it easy.

Join a phone bank to drive constituent calls to key Republican members. Our friends at MoveOn, Indivisible and Working Families are hosting phone banks all day.

Don’t skip the actions above. They are our best way to scuttle this bill.

It seems important to get this post out early.

with love,