February 18, 2025
Budget resistance continues, airline safety at risk, Washington Post backs out of anti-Musk ad, and more
Another climate change-driven catastrophe has stolen American lives, with at least 12 dead after floods in Kentucky. We grieve with all those impacted. Please consider a donation to support mutual aid and relief efforts to one of these organizations.
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
Contact White House or other federal agencies:
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
SPEAK OUT AGAINST REPUBLICAN BUDGET PROPOSAL
The budget bill recently released by House Republicans reduces spending on vital safety net programs like Medicaid, SNAP and Meals on Wheels and calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, most of which are skewed to benefit the richest people in the country. And ultimately, it is projected to increase the deficit by $3.3 trillion rather than cutting it. Now is the time to speak out about this bill and the disastrous effects it would have on our communities. Let’s spread this information to our networks, write letters to the editor, and tell our MoCs that, as Congresswoman Bonnie Coleman said, we do not support taking meals away from the elderly so CEOs can get tax deductions on private jets. We can use this tool from House Democrats to see how much our district stands to lose under the House proposal. We can also try to reach them in person at Indivisible’s recess events this week.
TRUMP CONTINUES TO TEAR UP AVIATION SAFETY
Shortly after reassuming the presidency, Trump had the chief of the Federal Aviation Administration, who had clashed with Elon Musk, resign; froze hiring of new air traffic controllers; and disbanded the Aviation Safety Advisory Committee, calling it a misuse of resources. All this earned a spotlight on January 29th, when we suffered the first fatalities in a US commercial airline crash in 16 years after a plane landing at Washington’s Reagan National Airport collided with a military helicopter. Trump’s response to this was to baselessly point fingers at the Army pilots, Joe Biden, and people with disabilities. In the wake of his lies, we learned a single controller was handling both commercial airline and helicopter traffic at National during the crash, and we’ve had three more deadly air crashes. Now, Trump is firing hundreds more FAA staffers, including engineers and maintenance mechanics. Federal officials have been raising concerns for years about the dangers of an overtaxed, understaffed air traffic control system – a problem Joe Biden had sought to address with new hires. Not only has Trump stalled these efforts, he seems determined to drag us in the wrong direction. Let’s call on our members of Congress and tell them to demand an investigation into whether Trump’s undermining of aviation safety infrastructure is putting us in danger. Let’s also push them to work to end the hiring freeze and demand increased funding to fix the short staffing problem instead of making it worse. Finally, let’s be sure to make our voices heard for these and ALL federal workers by joining in the #SaveOurServices Day of Action either locally or virtually tomorrow.
WASHINGTON POST MAKES A PRO-TRUMP CALL… AGAIN
Advocacy group Common Cause had a signed agreement with the Washington Post to run a wrap ad for their “Fire Elon Musk” campaign on some editions of today’s paper. Then the Post, which ran a very similar wrap ad by the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers thanking Trump for his attacks on electric vehicles, backed out – offering to run the ad inside the paper instead. This follows Post owner Jeff Bezos’ attempts to court Donald Trump’s favor, along with the publication’s decisions to kill an endorsement of Kamala Harris and to not run a cartoon caricaturing billionaires bowing to Trump. The Post didn’t give Common Cause an explanation, and they haven’t provided one in response to media inquiries, either. We don’t have to accept that. Let’s send a message to their advertising team here asking why they wouldn’t run the ad as agreed. And let’s share FireMusk.org and its call tool for reaching our senators on social media to make sure everyone knows we won’t be silenced.
ORGANIZING FOR STUDENT DEBT RELIEF – ZOOM TOMORROW
With Trump in office, student loan forgiveness at the federal level is off the table, and his threats to dismantle the Department of Education could mean chaos for loan administration. At this moment, we need to make sure folks are getting accurate and up-to-date information on how they can get support – and getting those with debt organized for future action. Debt Collective is holding a Zoom TOMORROW at 8PM Eastern, training folks on how to educate and support everyone in their community on current available avenues to debt cancellation, and how to move them towards political action. We can sign up for this event here.
ENGAGING THE AAPI COMMUNITY IN ELECTIONS
Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) is the nation’s leading nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to engaging, educating, and empowering Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities to strengthen and sustain a culture of civic engagement. Those of us who want to get more involved can find out more here.
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
NY – KEEP UP THE PRESSURE TO REMOVE ADAMS
In the wake of New York City mayor Eric Adams’ corrupt deal with the Trump Administration to get his charges dropped in exchange for his cooperation with mass deportation, he’s been faced with multiple calls to step down by state Democratic leaders, and now four of his most senior aides are resigning. It is clear Adams is far too compromised to continue to serve. Let’s once again reach out to Governor Hochul and ask her to use her broad authority to remove the mayor from his position and end his crime spree. We can message here or call her office at 1-518-474-8390. (Non-New Yorkers can also push their members of Congress to demand accountability for this abuse of power at the Justice Department.)
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
Phonebank and postcard to hold our majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court… Organizing drive at Amazon warehouse falls short after illegal union-busting activity… Don’t cross the picket line at Colorado supermarkets… Patel floor vote expected this week… keep distributing Know Your Rights cards… 10 days until economic blackout, respect the Latino Freeze…
This is from Robert Hubbell. There were hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country! https://open.substack.com/pub/roberthubbell/p/protests-lay-the-groundwork-for-future?r=g9s4&utm_medium=ios
More from Contrarian and “No Kings Day!”
https://open.substack.com/pub/contrarian/p/morning-roundup-nationwide-protests?r=g9s4&utm_medium=ios