January 21, 2025
Dealing with the firehose of executive orders, not one cent for mass deportation, on to Wisconsin, and more!
RESIST EXECUTIVE ORDER “SHOCK AND AWE” AND STAY GROUNDED
We saw the beginnings yesterday of Trump’s promised wave of executive orders and actions – including rolling back Biden’s executive order to lower drug costs for people on Medicare and Medicaid, attempting to erase the official existence of trans people and banning them from serving in the military, laying the groundwork for the civil service purge, pausing refugee resettlements, halting multiple legal paths to the United States for migrants, attempting to increase deportations and detentions, declaring drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations, withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization and the Paris Agreement, possibly illegally rescinding funds for green projects under the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure law, blocking new and renewed permits for wind energy projects, and pardoning and ordering the Department of Justice to halt cases against all the January 6th insurrectionists – including those convicted of violently attacking police. (We can find a more comprehensive list on whitehouse.gov, with bullet points from the BBC here.) Some of these actions will be more intended to send a message than to accomplish much, others are headed towards long and probably losing court fights before they make an impact, and still others will be exactly as devastating as they sound. If we’re feeling overwhelmed by it all, that’s exactly the intention – to make those of us who oppose Trump feel buried, like it’s impossible to resist. It’s important to recognize how central to the strategy that is and not give into it. Let’s take a small amount of comfort in this recent AP poll that shows that the majority of Americans do NOT support many aspects of his agenda around climate change, mass deportations, tariffs, and eliminating federal support for transgender students. Then let’s use this information to forge common ground with others to build our resistance. It will take some time to wade through all of this and identify what there is to be done, so in the meantime let’s resist falling into despair by taking specific steps to take care of ourselves and finding someone already doing the work on one or two of these issues to connect with.
CONFIRMATION HEARINGS ROLL ON
The Republican-controlled Senate has confirmed Marco Rubio as Secretary of State and will continue to hear from Trump’s nominees this week, with former Georgia Rep. Doug Collins finally getting his turn before the Veterans Affairs Committee to discuss leading the VA today, Rep. Elise Stefanik speaking to the Foreign Relations Committee today about her nomination as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Trump crony Brooke Rollins getting a hearing on her selection to be Secretary of Agriculture before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee Thursday. In the aftermath of last week’s hearings, it seems increasingly likely that most of Trump’s picks will win confirmation easily, in spite of serious public doubts about Trump’s ability to appoint well-qualified people to this Cabinet and the clear evidence that many of these nominations are transactional in nature, repaying favors or rewarding loyalists. So let’s focus our efforts on stopping the most endangered, like Tulsi Gabbard’s appointment as Director of National Intelligence. More than 100 national security experts sent a letter to the Senate questioning her ability to do the job, and even Mitch McConnell might not be on board. Many fear that with an untrustworthy DNI, U.S. allies will limit the intelligence they share, putting our security at risk – and there is plenty of reason not to trust Tulsi Gabbard. Let's contact our senators, especially if they’re on the Homeland Security Committee, and urge them to vote no on Gabbard. We can borrow from this script from Indivisible. Let’s also use this tracker by AP News to keep track of each nomination and contact our senators to let them know our thoughts on each of them.
A TRILLION DOLLARS FOR MASS DEPORTATION? OR NOT ONE CENT?
The costs of Trump’s plans for mass deportation will be enormous for our friends and families, our communities, and our economy. They will also carry a hefty price tag just to execute. As the Trump team is quietly starting to acknowledge, our deportation infrastructure simply does not have the resources to undertake the sort of operation Trump wants – ICE currently has 6,000 deportation officers and 41,000 beds available for detainees, most of which are already full. Trump border czar and family separation program architect Tom Homan has suggested he’ll need at least $86 billion to just to start growing capacity for what Trump’s proposed, and it could be far more; the American Immigration Council has estimated taxpayers will need to spend almost a trillion dollars over the next ten years to deport a million immigrants a year, with most of that going to detention camps. And all this will come while Republicans insist we need to cut Medicaid, food stamps and green energy funding so we can afford tax cuts for billionaires – and perhaps all be included in the same bill. The price tag is obviously not our main objection here, but it is an opportunity to try to put up a roadblock. Let’s reach out to our members of Congress and tell them we want them to oppose every single penny requested in appropriations for mass deportation and a detention camp archipelago. We can use language from this Resistbot petition or send it directly by texting PJIXGI to 50409.
A MAJORITY ON THE LINE IN WISCONSIN
The first statewide election of the second Trump Administration is just over two months away in Wisconsin – and our majority on the state supreme court is on the line on April Fool’s Day, along with abortion laws, collective bargaining rights for public employees, and the redistricting process. Democrats have rallied around Dane County Judge Susan Crawford to replace retiring liberal justice Ann Walsh Bradley. Crawford has represented Planned Parenthood and stood up in court for voting and workers’ rights, including arguing for the teacher’s union against the notorious union-busting law Act 10. This relic of the Scott Walker era was struck down by a lower court in December, and whoever wins this race is likely to get a chance to rule on it. Crawford’s Republican opponent Brad Schimel pledged to defend Act 10 when he was state attorney general and has endorsed the state’s 175-year-old abortion ban as good law. Let’s sign up to volunteer with the Wisconsin Democrats or with Judge Crawford herself. We can also join Indivisible and Swing Left volunteers to phonebank for her THURSDAY from 5:30PM to 7:30PM Eastern, or sign up with Postcards to Swing States to help with this race here (h/t ).
CHANGING THE WAYS WE USE FACEBOOK
Given the recent announcements from Meta that they will remove third-party fact-checking and gut content moderation, many of us are choosing to change the way we use Facebook and other Meta apps. Some are boycotting, while others, like Rebecca Solnit, make the case that for many, Facebook is still one of the key ways in which we engage with our communities, and boycotting it would lead to even more disengagement and isolation. While everyone should make the choice that's right for them, here's some tips and tools for whatever path we take:
For those who choose to stay on the platform, there is a program out there that can make the Facebook experience less stressful. F.B. (Fluff Busting) Purity is a Facebook customizing browser extension. It alters your view of Facebook to show only relevant information to you. It lets you remove the annoying and irrelevant posts from your newsfeed such as game and application spam, ads and sponsored posts. It can also hide the boxes you don't want to see on each side of the newsfeed. It is available for many operating systems, but not for phones. If we are going to stay on Facebook, let’s check out this extension to see how it can work for us.
Another tool for those who choose to stay on the platform is refusing to click on any ads and changing our privacy settings to make it much harder for Meta to make money off our personal data. We can follow these steps from the Electronic Frontier Foundation on how to adjust our settings to clear past and future activity.
And if we’re prepared to say goodbye to Zuckerburg products, let’s consult this guide for how to preserve our data and delete our Facebook, Instagram and Threads presence.
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
NJ – PROTECTING OUR IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORS, MASS CALL THURSDAY
New Jersey is home for 2.2 million immigrants, about 475,000 of whom entered the country illegally – one of the largest immigrant populations in the nation. As a result, our state may emerge as a major target for Trump’s deportation program. Activists on the ground are ready to fight back, working to make safeguards against law enforcement participating in ICE operations law, planning Know Your Rights trainings so that everyone has the information they need to protect themselves against the deportation machine, and preparing to stand by our neighbors in the face of raids and mass detention. Let’s join leading immigrant rights organizations in New Jersey for a mass call on their plans for the work ahead on THURSDAY at 5:00 PM by registering here. And let’s contact our legislators and urge them to pass the Immigrant Trust Act (S3672/A4987), with language and more information available here.
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
The Minnesota special election January 28th… the potential steal in North Carolina… Oregon health care workers on strike… aid for Los Angeles…
I much appreciate daily calls to action, and state-specific information. Good work.
Personally, the only thing i think that'll save us is the band of LAWYERS who are versed in human rights and civil liberties to fight against every single thing he does despite his control of Congress and SCOTUS. it makes me sick.
We have to believe that our voice matters in reaching out to local politicians even if in RED states. I know some GOPs won't listen and it all feels so futile. I get it. But we've not been here in our lifetime.
To feel helpless and hopeless is their goal. We must not give in. I know I'm preaching to the choir here.