Week of June 21, 2020

1) Don’t buy Bolton’s book: Let’s start out with an easy one, ok? Please do not buy John Bolton’s book. He had a chance to testify in Trump’s impeachment trial but refused. Now it turns out that he had material information that went beyond Ukraine. Instead, read the summary or find the PDF, which has leaked online, for free. For more information, you can read this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/us/bolton-trump.html

2) Portal Bridge Project: Congressman Malinowski, our two Senators, and Governor Murphy, among others, have been tireless in working to get a replacement for the Portal Bridge. Last week, there was big news: after years of federal delays, the project will move forward to the engineering phase with full federal funding. Call our three Members of Congress to thank them for their work on this project, which will enable more efficient and economical commuting into NYC from across NJ7. You can read more here: https://www.nj.com/news/2020/06/feds-make-good-on-trumps-tweet-to-move-new-portal-bridge-funding.html.

3) Coronavirus: The US number of cases is starting to creep up thanks to many states relaxing restrictions, and White House have told the NY Times that they are bracing for an upswing of cases in the fall. Meanwhile, President Trump stated during his Tulsa rally that he has deliberately slowed testing to limit the number of positive test results. This is appalling. Please continue to practice social distancing and to wear a mask when around others. It will be difficult for our economy to fully reopen if the cases do not decrease, especially if schools and childcare centers cannot operate in person in the fall. For those of you who love data, here’s a nice website: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html.

4) Economic support: Despite the fact that the stock market has mostly recovered from losses in the spring due to the initial coronavirus closures, this week The National Bureau of Economic Research stated that the economy has been in a recession since February (https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/08/economy/recession-economy-coronavirus-nber/index.html). Call all three of our MoCs to remind them that their constituents still need economic support, including robust coronavirus testing and treatment. In particular, encourage our Senators to help pass the Heroes Act that passed the House in May: https://indivisible.org/call-your-senators-and-demand-they-pass-heroes-act.

Quote of the week: “I said to my people, ‘Slow down the testing, please.’” – President Trump, admitting that he has intentionally limited coronavirus testing