February 28, 2025

Economic blackout today and boycott every day, next steps on town halls, some support for the AP 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

Contact White House or other federal agencies:

• usa.gov/federal-agencies

If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!

• ECONOMIC BLACKOUT TODAY AND MOVING FORWARD

  Economic action can be a powerful tool for forcing change, and keeping our dollars away from businesses cooperating with a bigoted regime is the most straightforward means we have for sending them a message. With multiple corporations and retailers responding to Trump and Musk’s resegregation campaign by abandoning their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion, we need to put this tool to work. Activists have called for an economic blackout TODAY, February 28th – asking people to avoid ANY non-essential in-store or online purchases from midnight last night until 11:59 PM tonight and getting essentials from local small businesses only. This is a very grassroots effort, and it’s been difficult to pin down how widespread participation will be in the kind of action that requires extremely large numbers to have an impact. But since it’s also a low-commitment ask, let’s do our part and see how we do! Let’s not make any purchase today if at all possible – and let’s be sure to let folks know we’re participating in person and with the #EconomicBlackout hashtag on social media. And let’s keep the momentum going! The #LatinoFreeze movement is asking for us to boycott companies that turned their back on the Latino community now and moving forward, including avoiding Amazon, Target, Walmart and McDonald’s among others. Let’s join in and be public about taking part!

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• TOWN HALL SHOWDOWNS AND WHAT WE DO NEXT

  As desperate at these times feel, it’s important to recognize that we’re not alone. Folks across the nation are furious about Musk’s destruction of federal services, Trump’s undermining of our Constitution, and the GOP’s attacks on Medicaid and SNAP, and over the recess period we made sure congressional Republicans know it. These angry town hall encounters got plenty of traction in both social and legacy media, and we know what happens next: they go into hiding to avoid more bad publicity. But that doesn’t mean this tactic is finished. Here’s some next steps we can take:

  • Indivisible has put together an action plan for steps to take with a missing member of Congress – including tips for how to hold an empty-podium town hall or crash non-public events if our reps keep running scared. Let’s check it out and put it to work.

  • Let’s contact Democratic elected officials in our state and ask them to hold town halls in neighboring districts where the Republicans who represent them won’t show, following the example of Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI).

  • We should also be sure to help collect and circulate clips from the last set of town halls – Talking Points Memo is gathering them here, if we have video to submit or are looking for some to share with our networks.

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• ALTERNATIVE MECHANISM FOR WHISTLEBLOWER COMPLAINTS
  As the administration continues its crackdown on whistleblowers and it’s unclear whether the Supreme Court will step in, Senate Democrats have launched a whistleblower complaint form. Let’s make sure people know about this and encourage people to speak out against any and all ethical abuses and attacks on our democracy.

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• THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PUSHES BACK

  As a wave of media institutions knuckle under to Trump’s pressure or self-censor, the Associated Press has refused to back down. They’ve been kicked out of presidential events and now indefinitely banned from the Oval Office and Air Force One for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by its name – a defensible decision on any level by a global news organization in a world that has not recognized Trump’s decrees. Instead of giving in, they’ve filed suit against this attack on the First Amendment. Let’s drop the AP a quick note thanking them for standing up for press freedom. We can also consider showing our appreciation with our clicks – signing up for their morning or evening newsletters or following them on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.

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• THE BIGGEST THREAT TO DATA PRIVACY
  The House Committee on Energy and Finance wants to work on data privacy and security and has provided an email for the public to send comments. We think it might be a good idea to flood their inbox with reminders that our greatest privacy risk is Elon Musk. We can email them at PrivacyWorkingGroup@mail.house.gov and find a sample message to use here.

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STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS

• DE – DOES ELON MUSK NEED MORE POWER?

  While Musk takes a wrecking ball to public services and robs us blind in DC, legislators in Dover are proposing legislation to ensure he gets a $55.8 billion pay package from Tesla and even more influence. The Delaware Court of Chancery ordered his compensation deal rescinded last year after it was challenged by shareholders, saying it was inappropriately set by a Tesla board Musk controlled and shareholders were misled into approving it. SB 21, written by Musk’s law firm, would reduce protections for minority shareholders and redefine his role as “controller” of the company – empowering oligarchs like him, allowing boards and controllers to avoid judicial scrutiny, and silencing unions, pension funds and regular individual investors. This is the absolute opposite of how our laws need to change. Let’s reach out to our legislators and Governor Meyer and Elon Musk doesn’t need more power – regular people do. We can use language from this petition from our state’s Working Families Party chapter here.

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KEEPING AN EYE ON…

Phonebank and postcard to hold our majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court… 14 days until government funding deadline… 50501 protests March 4th, AFT Day of Action March 4th, Stand Up For Science marches March 7th, next congressional recess March 16th, Tesla Takedowns this weekend and National Day of Action April 5th… keep distributing Know Your Rights cards…

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