January 22, 2025

New accusations against Hegseth, polluter pays for climate damage, managing the flood of news during Trump 2.0, and more!

• NEW ALLEGATIONS AGAINST HEGSETH

  After accused rapist, misogynist, substance abuser and right-wing extremist Pete Hegseth’s hearing before the Armed Services Committee and the announcements that Republican senators Joni Ernst and John Curtis would vote for him for Secretary of Defense, his odds of confirmation seemed extremely high. But nothing is decided yet, and yesterday we learned of additional allegations against Hegseth. His former sister-in-law sent an affidavit to the committee attesting that his behavior caused his second wife to fear for her safety to the point of hiding in a closet from him, and he regularly abused alcohol so much he passed out at family gatherings. Hegseth’s ex-wife denies he committed domestic violence, but it was during his divorce from her that his own mother decried him as “an abuser of women.” Our senators should have to answer for their support in light of this new development. Let’s contact them, especially if they have already indicated they will vote yes, and urge them to reject Hegseth as the evidence against him grows – and to sit down with the woman who filed a police report against Hegseth for rape before the final vote. We can use call scripts and sample emails provided by Indivisible.

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• PROTECT VOTING RIGHTS, OPPOSE THE “SAVE” ACT

  The Brennan Center for Justice is warning us about a GOP voter-suppression bill introduced into Congress. The so-called SAVE Act would require every American to produce citizenship papers whenever registering or re-registering to vote. This could disenfranchise the more than 21 million US citizens who don’t have citizenship papers, while performatively “addressing” the non-existent “problem” of non-citizen voting. (For example, in 2016, improper noncitizen votes accounted for 0.0001% of the votes cast across 42 jurisdictions studied.) Let’s read the Brennan Center’s report on the SAVE Act, and let’s tell our Members of Congress not to sponsor H.R. 22 (the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act) or the companion bill filed by Sen. Mike Lee, and to vote against it should it come to the floor. We can use this language from

  Jessica Craven
  to make our voices heard.

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• REAL FINANCIAL COMMITMENT TO LEGAL AID FOR IMMIGRANTS

  California’s state government is making more than symbolic commitments to protecting immigrants. In the wake of Trump’s election, they’ve agreed to fund $25 million in grants for legal aid services to defend immigrants against deportation and detention, along with adjudicating wage theft, evictions and workplace protections. They were the first out of the gate with this initiative, but every state can follow their lead and allocate increased funding to represent those in immigration proceedings. Let’s reach out to our state legislators and governors and ask them to build a deportation defense fund of our own.

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• POLLUTERS SHOULD PAY FOR CLIMATE CATASTROPHES

  With Trump launching his presidency by exiting the Paris Agreement, pushing more oil drilling and threatening emissions rules, wind power projects and electric vehicle tax credits, it is clear that much of the climate action in the United States over the next four years will have to end run the federal government – and as the Los Angeles fires continue to amply demonstrate, we have no time to waste. This catastrophe is now estimated to have done more than $250 billion in damages. Environmental activists at the state level are starting to make progress at making sure the fossil fuel industry foots the bill to help us recover from climate damage and prepare our infrastructure for more in the future. In 2024, both Vermont and New York passed climate superfund laws that require their state’s largest carbon polluters to pay into an account that would be used for disaster prevention and cleanup – taking the burden off of regular folks and putting it on the corporations who profited from the crisis. Similar laws have been proposed in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey (currently S3545/A4696), and Oregon (currently SB682), and the time is ripe to push them forward. Let’s reach out to our state legislators and governors and urge them to pass a “polluter pays” climate superfund law in our state. We can use language from this Resistbot petition or text PQDLOO to 50409 to send it directly. Let’s also take this moment to identify local organizations tracking climate change legislation in our state and make sure we’re getting updates from them.

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• STAYING INFORMED AND STAYING OFF YOUR PHONE

  The firehose of breaking news and tweeted outrages during the first Trump Administration was frustrating and exhausting, and there’s no reason to think this time around will be any different. For those of us who’d like to keep informed without having to constantly doomscroll, journalist Matt Kiser has us covered. His daily “What The F*ck Just Happened Today?” newsletter delivers curated but comprehensive summaries of the national politics stories that really matter, allowing readers to stay checked in while being able to check out when we need to. We can sign up for this free email service here.

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STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS

• NY – LOWER BILLS AND CLEAN ENERGY

  With the climate superfund safely in the books, New Yorkers are free to focus on getting the NY HEAT (Home Energy Affordable Transition) Act done. This legislation would cap energy bills for low-income New Yorkers and end a policy that requires ratepayers to subsidize the cost for gas companies to expand their pipelines – saving working people $136 a month and encouraging the transition away from methane gas. The HEAT Act passed the State Senate last year and has received support from Governor Hochul. Now it’s time to get it across the finish line. Let’s reach out to the governor and our legislators and ask them to make passing this measure into law a top priority.

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KEEPING AN EYE ON…

Minnesota special election delayed, oral arguments on GOP power grab before state high court next week… the Wisconsin state supreme court election April 1st… the potential steal in North Carolina… Oregon health care workers on strike… Costco workers contract expires January 31st… aid for Los Angeles…

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