Free the woman who was arrested for lashing out at her health insurer!

Saturday Dose of Democracy:

Ex-FBI informant championed by impeachment-crazed conservatives pleads guilty to lying about Bidens
Looking forward to Fox News airing all the genuine, full-throated retractions from House Republicans in three, two, one...

Take Action: Support The Michael J. Fox Foundation's mission to find a cure for Parkinson's!

Trump downplays trans bathroom debate after spending tens of millions on anti-trans ads
“It's a very small number of people we're talking about,” the MAGA cult leader admitted in an interview with TIME, now that his incessant demonization of a small, marginalized community served its purpose during the election.

Take Action: Block RFK Jr. from leading Health and Human Services!

Michael J. Fox leads the charge against Parkinson's disease
Michael J. Fox Foundation: With nearly 90,000 new diagnoses in the United States each year, Parkinson’s disease is the fastest growing and second-most-common neurodegenerative disease in America. Tackling this silent menace is going to require a united effort from the public and from our representatives in Congress, so Michael J. Fox is mobilizing a national movement to help policymakers understand what matters to people with Parkinson’s and share our stories to expand our understanding of this vicious disease.Will you add your nameto stand with Michael J. Fox and the one million Americans living with Parkinson’s disease and be ready when it’s time to reach out to your elected officials?

Republicans take aim at subsidies that help tens of millions of women
Right-wing radicals are frothing at the mouth as they eye heartless cutbacks to federal programs that help tens of millions of women pay for healthcare, food, housing, and transportation. Slashing or overhauling social support programs, long a goal of Republican lawmakers, could well be catastrophic for women experiencing poverty — which sorta feels like half the point.

Take Action: Stop Dr. Oz from dismantling Medicare!

Xi Jinping snubs Trump's inauguration invite
Yeah, we're with Xi on this one.

Fury grows as US politicians demand answers about mysterious drones
New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has demanded that President Biden take control of an investigation into mysterious and more frequent appearances of multiple large drones flying over his state amid mounting frustration that federal officials are downplaying the incidents. Murphy released on Friday a letter he wrote to the White House to express his “growing concern” after representatives from the Pentagon and FBI ruled out involvement by the US military, or hostile foreign actors, in numerous sightings of unexplained flying objects above about a dozen counties since the middle of November. The White House, Pentagon, and FBI have all said they cannot fully explain the drones’ origin, but have indicated a belief they are nothing sinister.

UnitedHealth is strategically limiting access to critical treatment for kids with autism
Annie Waldman, ProPublica: ProPublica has obtained what is effectively the company’s strategic playbook, developed by Optum, the division that manages mental health benefits for United. In internal reports, the company acknowledges that the therapy, called applied behavior analysis, is the “evidence-based gold standard treatment for those with medically necessary needs.” But the company’s costs have climbed as the number of children diagnosed with autism has ballooned; experts say greater awareness and improved screening have contributed to a fourfold increase in the past two decades — from 1 in 150 to 1 in 36. So Optum is “pursuing market-specific action plans” to limit children’s access to the treatment, the reports said. “Key opportunities” are outlined in bullets in the documents. While acknowledging some areas have “very long waitlists” for the therapy, the company said it aims to “prevent new providers from joining the network” and “terminate” existing ones, including “cost outliers.” If an insurer drops a provider from its network, patients may have to find a new clinician that accepts their insurance or pay up to tens of thousands of dollars a year out of pocket for the therapy. The company has calculated that, in some states, this reduction could impact more than two-fifths of its ABA therapy provider groups in network and up to 19% of its patients in therapy.

BTC leads collective of progressive creators with plan to take back the internet from Joe Rogan and the right-wing machine
Chorus: This election has made it painfully clear that Democrats' messages are just not getting through the tsunami of right-wing propaganda and lies flooding through social media, and we have no real answer to a Joe Rogan or a Ben Shapiro...until now! Chorus Collective is a new collaborative founded by creators like Brian Tyler Cohen, Leigh McGowan (Politics Girl), Roland Martin, David Pakman, Elizabeth Booker Houston, and Adam Mockler, who are bringing their audience of 40 million people together to create a new infrastructure to scale their voices and build support for more creators like them. Chorus aims to not only amplify progressive voices but also uplift new creators and build a left-wing social media ecosystem that supports its voices ALL the time, not just in the months leading up to an election. Will you chip in to help Chorus get off the ground and help break the right-wing stranglehold on social media?