April 21, 2025 - Hegseth Caught Sharing Classified Info With Wife, Brother
Plus a whole new economic threat from Trump, multiple opportunities to phonebank, campaign kickoff to divest from Tesla, and more
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HEGSETH HAS BEEN SHARING CLASSIFIED INFO WITH HIS WIFE, BROTHER, LAWYER
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is already well-established as being reckless with information that could endanger the lives of our military personnel. It now turns out it’s even worse than we knew. Hegseth has been sending sensitive details about strikes in Yemen to a Signal chat on his personal phone that included his wife, his brother, his personal lawyer and others in his personal inner circle. He was also warned not to discuss sensitive operational details by his aides via Signal, and ignored them. We learned this on the same day a former top spokesman for Hegseth described the Pentagon as in “total chaos,” “disarray” and “full-blown meltdown” under his leadership.
Hegseth is an accused rapist, misogynist, substance abuser and right-wing extremist with no qualifications for this job and should never have been confirmed in the first place. It is well beyond time for him to go before he gets our troops killed.
Let’s let our members of Congress know we are demanding the removal of Hegseth, and his impeachment if he will not quit or be fired. And let’s reiterate our demand for an independent prosecutor to investigate all those involved in these chats for potential criminal violations, including destruction of records and lying under oath to Congress in the aftermath. We can use this script from 5Calls as base language or email working off of this language on Resistbot from our friend .
TRUMP THREATENS TO FIRE FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR
Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that Trump’s disastrous tariffs were putting our country on a path to stagflation – where prices keep rising even as economic growth slows and more people lose their jobs. Trump responded by calling for Powell’s firing for refusing to lower interest rates, and one of his top economic advisers has said the White House is seriously considering terminating him. Powell was Trump’s nominee to serve as chair.
This would be a massive and illegal power grab from a president who will accept no limits on his authority, and one that could crater our economy. While Trump’s handpicked Supreme Court is in the midst of considering a case that could allow him to crush independent agencies like the Federal Reserve, right now they are supposed be protected from political interference, and board members are only removable for cause. And as a conservative economist put it, an attempt to fire Powell would “make the financial market of ‘Liberation Day’ look like child’s play.” We saw a significant dip just from Trump hinting at the possibility. Actually doing so risks a devastating financial crisis.
Let’s contact our members of Congress and tell them to communicate to the White House both publicly and privately that firing Powell would cross a line and they will fight back. We also need to plot out now what steps they will take if he does so, to ensure they’re fully prepared for the moment. We can find scripts and language here or send this message via Resistbot by texting SIGN PBLBKC to 50409.
PHONEBANKS AND ORGANIZING CALLS TO FIGHT TYRANNY
Fresh off another weekend of protests (once again please send pictures to roganslisttips@gmail.com!) we have a big week ahead of us with opportunities to take part in mass actions from home – including a very exciting new anti-Musk effort from the #TeslaTakedown team:
TODAY we can join the Working Families Party in phonebanking voters in key Republican districts to ask them to reach out to their members of Congress against the Medicaid killer budget. We can sign up to make calls from 2PM-4PM Eastern here – and do the same with People’s Action in future weeks here.
TODAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY we can join Grassroots Democrats HQ and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s campaign in phonebanking voters for her fight to take back the governor’s office in Virginia. We can take shifts from 6PM-8PM Eastern here Monday and Wednesday and here 5PM-6PM Friday.
TOMORROW we can join MoveOn in phonebanking fellow MoveOn members to encourage them to reach out to their members of Congress and demand they act to free Kilmar Abrego Garcia. We can make calls from 6PM-8PM Eastern here.
TOMORROW we can join democracy advocates for a briefing and discussion of next steps on stopping the “SAVE Act” and other voter suppression measures. We can take in the meeting at 7PM Eastern here.
WEDNESDAY the coalition organizing mass actions for May Day will be holding another briefing session for everyone who missed last week’s. We can sign up to join in at 8PM Eastern here.
THURSDAY #TeslaTakedown is kicking off a new campaign, encouraging cities and states opposed to Elon Musk’s illegal takeover of the federal government to divest pension funds from and end contracts and subsidies with his companies. We can sign up to learn more and get involved in a meeting at 8:30PM Eastern here.
THURSDAY DEADLINE FOR SCHOOLS ON TRUMP’S LATEST RESEGREGATION PUSH
Trump intends to rule over our children’s schools like a king, too. This Thursday marks the deadline for his demands that states and individual school districts certify they are not putting diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility practices to work. He has threatened to cut funding for low-income students to those who refuse to censor ideas he doesn’t like.
16 states along with Puerto Rico are surrendering to Trump, but another 16 have announced they will not be cooperating, and these attacks on our kids are already facing legal challenges from the ACLU and the teachers’ unions. Let’s encourage this resistance – both in the states that have not yet weighed in and for our individual school districts, who can choose to stand tough or not regardless of what state leaders do. We can use scripts and language here to reach out to our state education departments and local school leaders, along with our state and local politicians, and tell them they need to fight the Trump Administration instead of giving in to their threats. (We can also send this Resistbot message!).
HELPING PRESERVE AMERICAN HISTORY
At a time when the Trump Administration is quickly altering public interpretations of history and removing references to the past on websites and public spaces, it is vital that historians keep track of what is changing. The Early Republic Tracker is dedicated to documenting instances where the federal government is removing facts and stories essential to the public’s understanding of American history from public historical sites, museums, websites, and executive agencies. They’re asking for submissions from anyone who cares about the past. We can learn more and find out how to submit here.
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
With a tip-of-the-hat to David Brooks, we need unified focus. We have courts, protests, universities, NGOs, individuals, Substack publications, valiant federal employees, etc. etc. Bless all their hearts but a unified focus would be even more effective. We need a Shadow Government. A national organization dedicated to saving democracy and our Constitution by working to unify and focus all these efforts into a common voice. Simply put, this crisis warrants an organized, unified opposition. I would suggest each independent person, organization, and institution to unify behind a leader. No one need give up any ideology or beliefs, they just need to encourage and accept a coalescence. See my posting Kester Watters Shadow Government on my Substack. Reach out to your peers. Identify a leader. I have the temerity to nominate Liz Cheny as chair and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as co-chair. They are complete opposites politically, but give promise of working together toward a common goal. I beg, please if you agree, this movement must start from the bottom up and it must start now.