April 17, 2025 - A Major Day of Action
Plus: Trump leaves families to die of heat and cold, Van Hollen's visit to El Salvador, new recommendations for House Dems, and more
Contact all members of Congress:
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: Congress.gov
By US mail: Representatives / Senators
By fax: Representatives / Senators
By Resistbot: Resist.bot
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
GETTING OUT ON THE STREETS - TODAY AND ON MAY DAY
GETTING OUT ON THE STREETS – TODAY AND ON MAY DAY
Today will be a great opportunity to join up with our allies in person and virtually and collectively speak up against the rise of authoritarianism – whether it’s directed at our colleges and universities, our immigrant friends and neighbors, or workers everywhere. Here’s what’s on the schedule we can join:
The Coalition for Action in Higher Ed is holding a day of events on campuses across the nation. They’re fighting for the right to organize on campus, the right to teach and learn without being censored and the right to affordable higher education that doesn’t put us in debt. We can find virtual events here or join one in our area marked on the map here. (And if we can’t make it, let’s still be sure to reach out to universities we’re connected with and urge them to stand firm against Trump’s attacks.)
Multiple immigrant advocacy groups are holding a Communities Not Cages Day of Action. We can see if there’s an event near us here, join a virtual action hour at noon for Massachusetts here or send a letter to our members of Congress opposing ICE’s attacks on immigrants here.
We are sorry to report we ran a broken link to the local event list yesterday. The correct link is here and yesterday’s issue has been updated. We apologize for this error, and thank our readers for keeping us honest!
At 8 PM Eastern, organizations including Action Lab, United We Dream, Make the Road, MoveOn, Indivisible, Sunrise, and multiple unions are coming together for a national virtual organizing call for events on International Workers Day/May Day, standing for labor rights, workers rights and people’s needs over private profits. We can sign up to join the call here, find May Day events already on the schedule near us here, check out a toolkit for setting up our own here, or for organizers with events already on the books we can email join@maydaystrong.org to get ours on the map.
FAMILIES WILL DIE WITHOUT LIHEAP – TRUMP BROKE IT ANYWAYS
Head Start isn’t the only program built to help low-income families that Trump is trying to sabotage to pay for billionaire tax cuts. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has fired the entire staff administering the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and the White House is reportedly considering eliminating it altogether. (Both this program and Head Start were zeroed out in the draft Health and Human Services budget obtained by the Washington Post yesterday.) LIHEAP provides financial support 6.2 million American households count on to help pay their heating and cooling bills, and in 2023 it helped 2.7 million families restore power or prevent disconnections (find state-by-state details here). Right now, almost $400 million in funding is frozen because there’s no one to distribute it.
It's a win for Elon Musk and Trump’s oligarch buddies, but it’s dangerous for working families. LIHEAP was already underfunded, with only 1 in 5 families that meet the eligibility requirements receiving funds, and the need for it is growing. Our winters are getting colder and our summers are getting hotter due to climate change. One in four Americans were already unable to keep up with their energy bills last year, and we are set to see utilities raise energy prices because of Trump’s tariffs. More people will die because they can’t afford to heat and cool their homes after these cuts – and soon.
Let’s demand our members of Congress take action to protect LIHEAP – opposing all cuts and demand the federal workers needed to run it are immediately reinstated. We can find scripts and language here, or text SIGN PTQTAQ to 50409.
EL SALVADOR IS HOLDING KILMAR FOR OUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS
As promised, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) flew to El Salvador to attempt to meet with his constituent Kilmar Abrego Garcia and check on his condition in Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), the prison where he is being illegally held without trial. The Salvadoran government did not allow him to visit, nor was he allowed to speak with Abrego Garcia by phone. Kilmar, husband and father of American citizens, duly employed union sheet metal apprentice and 14-year resident of the United States without a criminal record, remains locked away.
His visit did provoke a stark admission from the Vice-President of El Salvador Felix Ulloa. When asked why Abrego Garcia is being held despite there being no evidence he is a gang member, Ulloa confirmed to Senator Van Hollen that the Trump Administration is paying El Salvador. This directly contradicts the sworn declaration of the general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security to a federal judge, and of course reiterates that Trump’s excuses for why he does not have the power to bring Kilmar home are lies. Let’s reach out to our members of Congress again to demand they act – and to insist that they cut off ANY taxpayer dollars from being transferred to El Salvador and the Bukele regime to hold Trump’s abductees. We can use the script here, or send this message via Resistbot by texting SIGN PLCGXS to 50409.
The Salvadoran government also maintained they needed more time to arrange a visit for Van Hollen to CECOT. This weak line was contradicted by their immediate refusal to guarantee he could see Kilmar if he returned last week – and photos of at least two Republican members of Congress touring the prison on Tuesday. Multiple other Democrats, including Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Reps. Robert Garcia (D-CA) and Maxwell Frost (D-FL), are attempting to arrange trips to El Salvador. Let’s encourage all our members of Congress to make the journey and keep attempting to gain access to Kilmar until someone is able to speak with him face-to-face. We can find an adjusted script here.
NO MORE “BUSINESS AS USUAL” IN THE HOUSE
Constitutional crises are spreading like viruses through our system. Yesterday alone, we saw Trump threatening to prosecute one perceived political enemy and use tax enforcement to punish another, while one federal judge found his administration in contempt of court for ignoring their orders and a second judge put a temporary halt to his abuse of power for retribution against a law firm that sued Fox. In short, our country is facing a grave threat, and it is crucial for our leaders to act like it – if only to better communicate the stakes of the emergency to those Americans not following it closely.
In Congress, this means pulling out all the procedural stops to stall Trump’s agenda. While we have seen some encouraging signs lately, there is so much more they can be doing. Democratic staffers have written a memo (first published by
at ) outlining a series of ways even the relatively limited House minority can better meet the moment, or as they put it: stop “cooperating as though this is business as usual.” These include numerous measures that will be especially useful during the upcoming reconciliation process – offering unlimited amendments in committee, calling for recorded votes, motions to adjourn, objecting to unanimous consent, various privileged resolutions. (We can read all their suggestions here.) They noted to be most effective, this will require 15-20 members of Congress prepared to do the extra labor of disrupting regular order and dedicated staff time. Let’s contact our members of the House and let them know we want to see them take part in this effort and follow the staff memo’s recommendations to end “Business As Usual.” We can use scripts and language from here.30 LONELY BUT BEAUTIFUL ACTIONS – STEALTHY ACTIVISM (H/T The White Pages)
We’re continuing to highlight a series of actions from Barnraisers Project founder
on small ways to stay grounded and serve others – helping everyone find something to fit our comfort level. Next on the list, some methods to spread the message we can do quickly and quietly:Learn to wheatpaste. Print out signs. Make the messages big. “Trump and Musk hate children” or “Trump and Musk are screwing over working people” or “Trump and Musk want sick people to die.” Add a QR code and link to articles that reinforce the sentiment. Add a second code that will help passersby take action, or perhaps even offer a date and time for a community meeting that we’re hosting. Hang up the signs across our region— rural areas, cities and suburbs. Go to our town’s Main Street and put signs on every corner: “Trump and Musk are killing small businesses.” It’s true, by the way, and small businesses should know about it.
Print out little stickers. Write a message on them. Put them up on poles, in restrooms, at gas stations. Make them pithy, but focus on the person we might imagine reading it. Don’t lead with “Trump and Musk are fascists” however true that might be. The people for whom that message is appealing are already with us. Instead, say “Trump and Musk don’t care about you.”
Buy some chalk. Put it in our bags. Find a good spot and write in big bold letters “Trump and Musk look out for billionaires. Who is looking out for you?”
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
50501 Movement’s next day of action Saturday to mark 250th anniversary of start of Revolutionary War
Resistance Rangers rallies at national parks for Earth Day April 22nd
Sign up for updates on ballot curing to stop the steal in North Carolina - and check out new developments that may finally confirm Judge Riggs’ win!
Thanks, Susan!
Sorry to see my undergrad Binghamton is not on the list (I have called the U President Harvey Stenger several times, but not heard back). But my grad is in Duke. In also reviewing the 186 campuses, U of MIchigan is included. I thought they had bent the knee earlier this year.