Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 30, 2020 at 12:51 AM

what if you got a peek behind the curtain?

Support Public Citizen You’re probably getting a lot of emails right now from organizations like Public Citizen. Let me explain what’s going on. If — after reading through this note — you still think it’s too much, at least we’ll both know where things stand. This is a “peek behind the curtain…

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  Robert · [email protected]

December 29, 2020 at 10:20 PM

I thought you'd want to know

Support Public Citizen Since you are part of this shared project called Public Citizen, I thought you’d want to know that donations are picking up. Let’s keep this going! If you haven’t had a moment to make a year-end donation already, please do it now. Remember, anything you chip in today w…

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  Robert Weissman, Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 29, 2020 at 7:07 PM

this is how we make Biden be more progressive

Support Public Citizen There is relief, to be sure, in knowing that Donald Trump will soon be out of the White House. But the disposal of the most corrupt, callous, and incompetent administration in generations — and arguably in all of American history — will not by itself repair the damage of t…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 29, 2020 at 4:26 PM

this is our duty to you

Support Public Citizen We hear something a lot: “Public Citizen punches above its weight.” We do. Proudly. And not by accident. That means we get more done than we should be able to given our size. And it means that Public Citizen is more effective than other organizations with similar…

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  Robert Weissman, Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 28, 2020 at 11:30 PM

XL

Support Public Citizen Despite the subject line, this email is not about what size T-shirt I wear. Rather, XL is 40 in Roman numerals. That’s how many more donations we need today just to keep pace with how we did on this day, December 28, one year ago. I know 40 may sound like a piece of ca…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 28, 2020 at 7:28 PM

a perfect storm

Support Public Citizen I know you get a lot of emails at this time of year from organizations like Public Citizen. Give me just a minute to explain what’s going on. If — after reading through this note — you still think it’s too much, at least we’ll both know where things stand. This is a “p…

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  Robert · [email protected]

December 28, 2020 at 2:51 PM

what are we going to do?

Support Public Citizen As president of Public Citizen, there’s one question I get asked more than any other: “What are we going to do now that Joe Biden will be in the White House?” That’s why I’m sharing the memo below about Public Citizen’s Campaign for a Progressive Presidency. It’s nearl…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 24, 2020 at 8:26 PM

who will Trump pardon next?

Yesterday, Donald Trump issued more pardons to people who do not deserve absolution, including: Roger Stone — Trump whisperer and man with Richard Nixon’s face tattooed on his back — who was convicted of witness tampering and lying to federal agents during the Mueller investigation into how Rus…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 23, 2020 at 2:06 PM

Trump pardons men who massacred Iraqi civilians

Support Public Citizen Sorry, I had intended to give your inbox a break for a few days. But then Donald Trump pardoned four of the men convicted for their roles in the massacre of 14 Iraqi civilians, and I wanted to say something about that. In 2007, employees of the private military contracto…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 22, 2020 at 8:15 PM

our plan for a progressive presidency

Support Public Citizen Such a tremendous response to my message yesterday about Public Citizen’s Campaign for a Progressive Presidency. I’ve copied it below in case you missed it. I know it’s not exactly brief — the challenges before us demand something bold and comprehensive — but please at lea…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 21, 2020 at 9:03 PM

I wasn't kidding

Support Public Citizen A quick “Thank you!” to everyone who responded to my earlier message (copied below) featuring a detailed outline of Public Citizen’s Campaign for a Progressive Presidency. Please do me a favor and at least skim through it so I know you’re up to date on our plans for the co…

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  Robert Weissman, Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 21, 2020 at 3:36 PM

the most ambitious email I've ever sent you

Support Public Citizen There is relief, to be sure, in knowing that Donald Trump will soon be out of the White House. But the disposal of the most corrupt, callous, and incompetent administration in generations — and arguably in all of American history — will not by itself repair the damage of t…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 19, 2020 at 2:51 PM

a writhing mass of poisonous serpents

Good grief. Yesterday, the news website Business Insider broke a story reporting that nearly half of the $1.26 billion raised throughout Donald Trump’s failed reelection bid was paid out to a shell company the site says was concocted by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The shell company (of…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 18, 2020 at 8:24 PM

Trump already bungling vaccine distribution

The Trump administration is once again doing something that is incomprehensibly incompetent and utterly unsurprising at the same time. Let’s go through this step by step: Last week, following emergency FDA approval, a coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Pfizer started being administered natio…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 17, 2020 at 8:07 PM

three things

Support Public Citizen Three things I wanted to share real quick. 1. I know your inbox may already be filling up with emails asking you to support organizations you care about. The simple reality is that nonprofit groups like Public Citizen can’t afford not to be part of this flurry — because …

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 16, 2020 at 9:40 PM

letting you in on a secret

Support Public Citizen So grateful for the response to my message this morning. Please give it a look — it’s copied below — if you haven’t already. Thanks! - Robert ****** This could be my final email to you for some time. Here’s the situation: We’ve reached the time of year when you…

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  Robert Weissman, Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 16, 2020 at 3:11 PM

my final email to you

Support Public Citizen This could be my final email to you for some time. Here’s the situation: We’ve reached the time of year when your inbox will soon be overflowing with emails asking you to support organizations you care about. Nonprofit groups like Public Citizen simply can’t afford not…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 11, 2020 at 8:21 PM

remember that time in high school?

Remember back in high school, when that weird sophomore ran for student body president and lost, then whined to the principal that the votes of the entire junior and senior classes should be tossed out for no other reason than more of them voted for Wendy than for him? Of course you don’t remem…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 10, 2020 at 7:53 PM

willfully letting people suffer and die

Yesterday — for the first time throughout this entire pandemic — the U.S. recorded more than 3,000 deaths due to the coronavirus. That’s more than the number of Americans who died at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which will forever be known as “a date which will live in infamy” because of h…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 9, 2020 at 8:19 PM

a false, and immoral, choice

Yesterday, a 90-year-old British grandmother named Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world to be given a coronavirus vaccine outside of a clinical trial. On the same day, Donald Trump conducted a self-aggrandizing publicity stunt in the form of issuing a ludicrous executive order t…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 7, 2020 at 7:38 PM

will voter suppression determine control of the Senate?

A week from today, early voting starts in the runoff election for both of Georgia’s seats in the United States Senate. With control of the Senate on the line, the entire country is counting on a free and fair election in Georgia. Yet there are still significant impediments to voting in the Pea…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 5, 2020 at 4:32 PM

Trump plans to execute four Black men before he leaves office

Please add your name and join Public Citizen in demanding an immediate halt to executions by the Trump administration. My earlier message is copied below in case you missed it. - Robert ****** A grim but critical message today. Please read, and please take action. Before July of this …

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 4, 2020 at 3:12 PM

Trump scheduling executions before he leaves office

A grim but critical message today. Please read, and please take action. Before July of this year, the federal government had executed only three people in the past half century. But then William Barr — Donald Trump’s sycophantic Attorney General — unilaterally overturned a 17-year ban on th…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 3, 2020 at 9:16 PM

a surprise and a mistake

Joe Biden’s just-formed inaugural committee is accepting donations of up to $500,000 from individuals and $1,000,000 from corporations. This is a surprise and a mistake. The practice of giving corporations and rich people the chance to curry favor with an incoming administration by funding la…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 2, 2020 at 7:45 PM

I beg your pardon?

Yesterday we learned that Donald Trump has considered issuing preemptive pardons to his sons Don Jr. and Eric, his daughter Ivanka, and her husband Jared Kushner. What crimes, exactly, does Trump think his three eldest children and his son-in-law have committed for which they need his protectio…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

December 1, 2020 at 12:02 AM

a 'funny' thing

Support Public Citizen We still need 78 more people to donate today. I know that may not sound like a challenge, but a “funny” thing tends to happen in the closing hours of a make-or-break moment like this: So many people assume someone else will step up that hardly anybody actually does. If…

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  Robert · [email protected]

November 30, 2020 at 7:31 PM

a bit of a problem here

Support Public Citizen I’ll be brief: We need at least 153 people to donate before midnight to avoid a budget shortfall. Please see my earlier note — copied below in case you missed it — for more details. And please, if you can, donate right now so that Public Citizen is at full strength as …

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 30, 2020 at 3:07 PM

uh oh

Support Public Citizen A bit of a problem here: We usually see a dip in donations around the Thanksgiving holiday. But this year, it was more like a total collapse. And right now, we’re looking at a shortfall in online donations for November of $11,602. If $11,602 doesn’t sound like much f…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 27, 2020 at 3:32 PM

tell Biden: no corporate cabinet

We’re hearing this phrase a lot these days: “Personnel is policy.” That’s because Joe Biden has the opportunity — indeed, the responsibility — to make sure his administration puts the needs of everyday Americans before the greed of billionaires and Big Business. Donald Trump stuffed his adm…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 25, 2020 at 7:17 PM

she would have vast influence with Biden

Joe Biden is expected to nominate Janet Yellen to be his Treasury Secretary. Her nomination is historic in and of itself as she could become the first female Treasury Secretary in our nation’s history. (Yellen already made history as the first female Federal Reserve chair.) And beyond that, Y…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 24, 2020 at 2:32 PM

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos did what?!

Amazon stopped giving its workers hazard pay in June. Even though its frontline workers keep showing up for work so the rest of us can shop safely from home as the coronavirus pandemic surges on. Meanwhile, in the three months after it stopped paying hazard pay to its workforce — July, August…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 23, 2020 at 4:12 PM

grievous, perhaps irreparable, harm to America

Public Citizen is, and always has been, nonpartisan. That means we call out politicians and government officials — Democrats and Republicans alike — who put the greed of billionaires and Big Business before the needs of everyday Americans, the health of our planet, or the preservation of the de…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 21, 2020 at 3:11 PM

depraved behavior by giant corporations

I emailed pretty late yesterday, so that note is copied below in case you missed it. Please join me in urging Joe Biden to fill key positions in his administration with people who will put the needs of everyday Americans before the greed of giant corporations. Thanks, - Robert ****** We…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 21, 2020 at 12:06 AM

supervisors allegedly made bets on how many employees would get coronavirus

We live in an era when — sadly — news about the depravity of Big Business is rarely shocking anymore. But then there’s Tyson Foods, Inc. Tyson is a multinational food processing corporation with revenue of over $42 billion last year. Some of the company’s meatpacking facilities have been ho…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 18, 2020 at 8:20 PM

these could be the most dangerous days of his presidency

Support Public Citizen As Donald Trump feels his grip on power slipping, there is no telling how far he might go in lashing out. If you can, please donate now to help us fight Trump in these last — and potentially most dangerous — days of his presidency. See my earlier note, copied below in ca…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 18, 2020 at 1:31 PM

the ravings of a narcissistic imbecile

Support Public Citizen I’m guessing that most Public Citizen supporters aren’t on Donald Trump’s email list. In the spirit of “taking one for the team,” I am. And I wanted to share a little of what Trump is saying in the flurry of emails he’s been cranking out since the election. Here are a …

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 17, 2020 at 9:59 PM

vaccine apartheid

There was more potential good news on a coronavirus vaccine yesterday. A vaccine developed in part by pharmaceutical giant Moderna has shown “promising interim results.” But Moderna did not develop this vaccine by itself. At every step of the way, this vaccine has been developed in partners…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 16, 2020 at 6:53 PM

Our Chance to Transform Our Democracy

Add your name to urge President-Elect Biden to pass the For the People Act ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 14, 2020 at 4:31 PM

the lame-est duck

Real quick: If you haven’t already, add your name now to let us know you support mobilizations (even if you may not be able to participate yourself) necessitated by Trump’s desperate attempts to cling to power and undermine the incoming Biden administration. More info in my earlier message, c…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 13, 2020 at 7:53 PM

it's getting worse in your state

As of today, the coronavirus is getting worse in every single state in America. There is no number you can look at that isn’t bad. But I’m not here to give you a litany of facts about just how miserably Donald Trump has failed to protect the American people from this pandemic. You know that…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 12, 2020 at 8:39 PM

incredibly dangerous

Lame duck. That’s what we call a president who won’t be serving another term but is still in office for the two-and-a-half months between Election Day and Inauguration Day. But a lame duck is a wounded animal. And a wounded animal can be incredibly dangerous. Donald Trump has been wounded…

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  Robert · [email protected]

November 11, 2020 at 8:05 PM

did you hear about Emily?

Please take a minute to read my earlier note (copied below in case you missed it) and add your name to our petition urging Trump functionary Emily Murphy to stop stonewalling the orderly transition of power. - Robert ****** Her name is Emily Murphy. And her allegiance to Donald Trump may …

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 11, 2020 at 3:16 PM

this Trump functionary is stonewalling an orderly transfer of power

Her name is Emily Murphy. And her allegiance to Donald Trump may well result in thousands of Americans getting the coronavirus and even put our national security at risk. I’ve broken this down as simply as I can, but it’s still a lot. It’s really important, though, so please stick with me: …

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 10, 2020 at 2:31 PM

is a vaccine around the corner?

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer made headlines yesterday with an announcement about the coronavirus vaccine it is developing. Based on preliminary analysis of data from a limited clinical study that has not been independently reviewed, the company claims its vaccine prevented 9 out of 10 volunteers…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 8, 2020 at 6:45 PM

Biden's most crucial decision

Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States. The single most important factor that will influence the arc of the new administration is who President Biden names for his cabinet and top White House positions. As they say in Washington, “personnel is policy.” We need an administ…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 7, 2020 at 5:02 PM

Joe Biden, not Donald Trump

Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States of America. Donald Trump’s despicable rule will come to an unseemly end on January 20, 2021. Take a moment and savor that. Really. We’re going to be talking to you a lot over the next few days about where we go from here (and where…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 5, 2020 at 8:37 PM

block Trump from clinging to power illegitimately

Support Public Citizen It looks increasingly like Joe Biden will be declared the winner of the 2020 election. Assuming that happens, then what? 1. We will have to remain hyper-vigilant to block Trump from clinging to power illegitimately. 2. We will have to get through several months of a la…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 5, 2020 at 4:12 PM

this should make your skin crawl

Support Public Citizen Donald Trump is frantically soliciting his adherents for contributions to what he’s calling an “OFFICIAL ELECTION DEFENSE FUND!” And he’s ranting (via Twitter, of course) about the election results. Meanwhile, not one word from Trump about the fact that the daily number …

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 4, 2020 at 11:24 PM

should we just stand aside?

Support Public Citizen Here’s where things stand as of 6:20 Wednesday evening: It looks increasingly like Joe Biden will be declared the winner by tomorrow. Assuming that happens, then what? 1. We will have to remain hyper-vigilant to block Trump from clinging to power illegitimately. 2. W…

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  Public Citizen · [email protected]

November 4, 2020 at 4:50 PM

do not be distracted or discouraged

It’s been a long four years, a long election, and a long night. Now, we need to wait just a little bit longer. The election process IS working. The votes ARE being counted. We need to remain vigilant to ensure that ALL the votes are counted. Ensuring all the votes are counted must be ou…

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