February 10, 2025
Alarm bells on court orders, more cuts for medical research, final votes expected for Gabbard and Kennedy, and more
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WILL TRUMP, MUSK DEFY THE COURTS?
We have already seen concerning signs that the court orders blocking Trump from seizing taxpayer money from programs we depend on have not provided the relief they were supposed to. Multiple Head Start programs and community health centers continue to be unable to access funds, with some being forced to close and lay off staff. Now, with judicial action restraining MAGA piling up, warning bells are going off that Trump, Musk and the oligarchs may openly defy the judiciary. Over the weekend Musk called for judges who ruled against Trump to be impeached. Vice-President Vance explicitly stated that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power” and shared a claim that judges ruling against the executive could qualify as a violation of separation of powers. This would be an inflection point in American history, and how we respond to it could without exaggeration define our future. We must be prepared for it. Let’s reach out to our elected officials at all levels – members of Congress, governors, legislators, state attorneys general, and elected district attorneys – and ask them if they have a plan for how they will respond if Trump or Musk defy court rulings. We must also push them to publicly warn the White House that they will use all available tools to preserve the rule of law and the Constitution of the United States THIS MORNING if they have not done so already. Lastly, we should each take a moment to decide for ourselves how we personally will respond when the moment arrives.
WAR ON SCIENCE, HIGHER EDUCATION CONTINUES WITH NIH CUTS
On Friday night, the Trump Administration announced they will cut billions of dollars in funding for biomedical research funding – slashing National Institute of Health support for “indirect” costs related to research. This will devastate universities and medical centers and kneecap life-saving research and innovation, along with costing us jobs and economic growth. (We can see a state-by-state guide to how many jobs NIH awards support here – the NIH returns $2.50 to our economy for every $1 they invest.) The move is also likely illegal. Let’s start pushing back. We can:
Urge our members of Congress to take action to reverse the cuts. We can work off this script from Dr. Lydia Kang.
Reach out to our state legislators and governors and ask them to push our congressional delegations and the White House to stop the damage to our flagship universities and businesses.
Share local coverage of what the NIH cuts will cost people in our states like these examples from Alabama, Georgia and Wisconsin, and ask local media who have not run stories on this yet to do so.
Reach out to the presidents, governing councils and alumni groups of any colleges we are connected with and encourage them to make a public statement on what these cuts will mean to our schools.
FLOOR VOTES ON GABBARD, KENNEDY THIS WEEK
The Senate is expected to start work today by invoking cloture on Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to be Director of National Intelligence, and we can expect floor votes on both her and Robert F. Kennedy for Secretary of Health and Human Services this week. With Republican skeptics like Maine’s Susan Collins and Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy falling in line, both are likely to be confirmed. But we must not stop pushing until the final votes are in. Let’s be sure to call our senators this week to urge them to vote no on Gabbard and Kennedy, with scripts and language here – and let them know we will hold yes votes accountable for the consequences if they’re confirmed. We can also urge those committed to voting no to use procedural tools to slow this process as much as possible. Finally, let’s encourage our friends and family to rally against RFK by sending them to StopRFKJr.com, a simple link that makes it easy for them to call their senators, too.
BLACKOUT OF PUBLIC HEALTH INFORMATION
We are rapidly, abruptly losing health information because of the Trump regime. Physician Jeremy Faust posted on his blog, Inside Medicine, about studies—including on treatment for cancer, heart disease, and other conditions many of us have—being yanked from publication because of orders Trump signed. Public information about cancer screening, teen health, and bird flu and other contagious diseases, is disappearing, too. A leading virus specialist told Science (in a paywalled post), "It’s like a data apocalypse." Heroic grassroots efforts brought back some databases, but the future of our nation's valuable health information is compromised. These reports are backed by a Washington Post story and by a Rogan's List reader with personal knowledge of these events. Many of the data sources and the studies being pulled are funded by our tax dollars, either directly or indirectly, through support of nonprofit organizations, universities and schools, and businesses. Let's make noise and demand that our elected representatives stand up and fight for our right to information we paid for. Let’s also support and spread the word about those organizations working to restore public health data’s accessibility elsewhere - this article highlights sites where we can find the purged health-related information on immunizations, HIV, reproductive rights, LGBTQ, and other important issues.
SUPPORT HARD-NOSED JOURNALISM ON THE COUP
With an alarming number of media organizations folding in the face of Trump’s lawsuits or simply falling short of grasping the full weight of the coup, it is important to uplift those reporters that have risen to the moment. Wired Magazine and the independent journalist Marisa Kabas have broken story after story after story after story from inside the seizure of the federal government, casting badly-needed light on what Trump and Musk’s henchmen are doing with our data and our money. Let’s consider a digital subscription to Wired and to Kabas’ The Handbasket to help support their much-needed journalism in this dangerous time.
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
MA - SUPPORT PRO-IMMIGRANT BILLS
Three bills have currently been introduced in our state legislature to protect our undocumented friends and neighbors from the deportation machine. The Safe Communities Act and the Dignity Not Deportations Act limit the ability of local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE detention requests and prevent ICE from renting detention beds in state and local correctional facilities. The Immigrant Legal Defense Act sets up a budget to supply legal representation to immigrants at risk of deportation, which has shown to make a huge difference in immigration court, where there is no right for a public defender. Let’s contact our state legislators and ask them to cosponsor all of these bills and fight for their passage.
CORRECTIONS/UPDATES
In Friday’s List, the action for Washington State residents about the Housing Affordability Act accidentally went out through email without the link to send a message to legislators. The item as it should have run is included below. Thanks to our readers (all 47,000 of them!) for keeping us honest.
WA – ACCOUNTABILITY ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Advocates in our state are pushing measures to get local governments to increase housing production with the Housing Accountability Act. SB5148 requires cities to demonstrate to the state that they’re planning for and accommodating housing that’s affordable to all – and for those that are not, they could have state grants or loans for public facilities withheld, and be prevented from denying a building permit to anyone looking to build in a multifamily housing zone as long as 20% of units are set aside for low-income housing. This will hold localities to their commitments and help us address the high costs. This bill is scheduled for action in the Senate Housing Committee today. Let’s send a note of support for this effort to our legislators here.
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
Phonebank and postcard to hold our majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court… Amazon union organizing phonebanks Wednesday through Friday… Don’t cross the picket line at Colorado supermarkets… Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on Patel Thursday… Los Angeles wildfires contained, need for relief remains… keep distributing Know Your Rights cards…
Thank you for this excellent post--I made the calls to my Senators re: Gabbard and Kennedy, and called/emailed my state representatives, AG and governor with the "what will you do if Trump and Musk defy the court orders" question. I hope I will get answers.
I know you’d can’t always do this but when there is a paywall, can you seek to remove it so we can access the references in your excellent articles. Thanks!!