February 14, 2025 - Resistance is Love This Valentine's Day
Protests and boycotts, Valentine's Eve massacre at the DoJ, hell no to Medicaid cuts, and more
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A PRESIDENT, NOT A KING – PRESIDENTS’ DAY PROTESTS MONDAY
As promised, Trump and Musk are trying to expand executive power to authoritarian levels – breaking any law that binds them, taking spending power away from Congress, ignoring judicial restraints on them and suggesting judges don’t have the right to stop them. This is the exact sort of scenario the Founding Fathers feared – they intended our head of government to be a president and not a king. This Monday is Presidents’ Day, and we should honor it by pushing to end the crisis and reclaim the role the president is supposed to serve. The 50501 movement has called for another set of nationwide protests on Monday. We can find one near us to attend here. (And let’s be sure to check out the #TeslaTakedown pickets at Tesla locations TOMORROW, or try to organize our own.)
ECONOMIC ACTION AGAINST DEI ROLLBACKS
As Jamelle Bouie wrote, for MAGA “DEI is… the mere presence of a woman or nonwhite person or disabled or transgender person in any high-skilled, high-status position. And their alternative isn’t some heretofore unknown standard of merit; it is the reintroduction of something like segregation.” Their effort to “eliminate DEI” is an attack on marginalized people, one of many in this administration’s agenda of ensuring only certain Americans are full members of our society. We need to push back with every tool we have – including wielding our buying power for good. Latino activists including Dr. Michael Galvez and Dolores Huerta have called for a “Latino Freeze” to boycott companies turning their backs on the community in the face of mass deportations and Trump’s attacks on DEI – including Amazon, Target, Walmart, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. Grassroots activists are also building momentum behind a call for an economic blackout on February 28th in response to the anti-DEI push – asking people to avoid any non-essential in-store or online purchases for 24 hours and getting essentials from local small businesses only. Let’s check out their campaigns here and here and show solidarity by joining these economic actions.
VALENTINE’S EVE MASSACRE OF FEDERAL PROSECUTORS OVER CORRUPT DEAL IN ADAMS CASE
Eric Adams was the first sitting mayor in modern New York City history to earn a federal indictment. He was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, and bribery in September, and multiple members of his inner circle are also facing corruption charges. On Monday, Trump’s Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered federal prosecutors in New York to dismiss the charges on the grounds they have “unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime.” Bove further indicated they should be dropped without prejudice - giving the DoJ the option to reopen prosecution if Adams crosses Trump, an incredible amount of leverage. As blatant as this quid pro quo already seemed, we now know it was even more explicit – Adams’ attorneys directly indicated to Bove that Adams would “be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed” in a meeting where Bove seized notes taken by a member of the federal prosecutor’s office. Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a Republican who clerked for Justice Scalia, refused to let Adams off the hook – appealing to Attorney General Pam Bondi and ultimately resigning rather than “agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations.” Five other federal prosecutors, including the acting heads of the Justice Department Criminal Division and the Public Integrity Division, have since joined Sassoon in resigning rather than dropping the case, and two more members of Sassoon’s office have been placed on administrative leave. These are outrageous acts of corruption and misuse of power and it cannot go unanswered. Let’s contact our members of Congress and ask them to demand Bondi and Bove resign or be fired, and to put a hold on all Justice nominees until they go. Let’s also request they push for an inspector general investigation and hearings on this corrupt deal – and that if Trump’s allies block one, stage their own to give Sassoon and her fellow prosecutors a chance to tell the country directly what happened. Finally, if we’re New Yorkers, let’s contact Governor Hochul and tell her that Adams is clearly compromised and she must use her power to remove him from his position.
WE LOSE HEALTH CARE, ELON GETS A TAX BREAK
Republicans remain split on their budget proposals, but have now released their initial proposals in both houses. The House version adds $110 billion in new funding for the deportation machine and will give us a trillion-dollar defense budget. (The Senate’s version gives immigration enforcement $175 billion extra.) House Republicans are also demanding $880 billion in cuts over the next decade that will almost certainly end up coming entirely from Medicaid, and $230 billion likely to be slashed from food stamps. This will help them pay for yet another massive giveaway to billionaires and big corporations. More than 1 in 3 Americans rely on Medicaid for health coverage – many of them seniors who need long-term care and people with disabilities, along with nearly half of all children. Let’s reach out to our members of Congress and let them know we demand they oppose kicking people off Medicaid for tax cuts for oligarchs. (We can also text SIGN PJIXGI to 50409 to send them this message via Resistbot against funding mass deportation and mass detention.)
ANTIVAXXER IN CHARGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose antivaccine advocacy killed so many children in Samoa they ran out of child-sized coffins, was confirmed to be Secretary of Health and Human Services yesterday on a 52-48 vote. Every Democrat and Mitch McConnell voted against him, while all other Republicans voted yes. The dangers we are inviting with RFK Jr are enormous. We are already getting a preview of what this could mean for America in outbreaks of tuberculosis worsened by inadequate public health resources in Kansas and measles among unvaccinated people in Texas. The federal government cannot be counted on in the face of these threats, bird flu and crises to come. Let’s reach out to our governors and state legislators and encourage them to invest in a strong state-level public health infrastructure and to be proactive in addressing health risks. If our senators voted for RFK Jr, let’s also be sure to contact them and let them know we will hold them responsible for the damage he does to our health.
CRUCIAL LAW PROTECTING DISABLED PEOPLE FROM DISCRIMINATION UNDER THREAT
17 states are suing the federal government in Texas v Becerra, threatening crucial protections for people with disabilities. The coalition, led by Texas AG Ken Paxton, is arguing that Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act is unconstitutional. This law prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities by institutions that receive federal funding, including schools and hospitals, and mandates that they provide equal access and accommodations to disabled individuals. Under Biden, the Department of Health and Human Services updated rules under Section 504 to strengthen them based on input from disability advocates. Now, Republican attorneys general are attempting to take down not only Biden-era improvements but these safeguards in their entirety. We should speak up for disability justice. The states and the federal government are due to submit briefs outlining their positions by February 25th. The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund is urging folks from the 17 states to contact their attorneys general and ask them to drop out of the suit. We can find a list of those involved, contact info for our AGs, and talking points we can use here. For the rest of us, we can urge our attorneys general to file briefs in defense of Section 504, and consider a donation to DREDF here. (H/t List subscriber Lisa Fortescue)
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
Phonebank and postcard to hold our majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court… Last Amazon union organizing phonebank today… Don’t cross the picket line at Colorado supermarkets… Patel passes committee, full floor vote next week… Los Angeles wildfires contained, need for relief remains… keep distributing Know Your Rights cards…
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