January 31, 2025
Trump tries to avoid blame on airline crash, supporting nonprofits and businesses sticking to their guns, volunteering on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, and more!
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TRUMP PLAYS BLAME GAME AFTER FIRING AVIATION SAFETY OFFICIALS
Late Wednesday night, tragedy unfolded as a mid-air collision between an army helicopter and an American Airlines jet landing at Washington’s Reagan National Airport killed all 67 people aboard both craft. These were the first fatalities in a US commercial airline crash in 16 years. In a shameful but typical Trump response to disaster, he within hours took to the Internet to wildly speculate about what went wrong, indicating it was the fault of the Army pilots, and then held a press conference yesterday in which he baselessly insisted that diversity programs for air traffic controllers were somehow responsible for the crash. Amidst his pointing fingers at people with disabilities, our military, and Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Pete Buttigieg he admitted that they in fact do not yet know what led to the collision. Trump may be making noise to distract from the possibility that he is the real source of the problem. Since reassuming the presidency, Trump has had the chief of the Federal Aviation Administration, who has clashed with Elon Musk, resign; frozen hiring of new air traffic controllers in spite of the FAA Authorization Act Biden signed directing the maximum number be hired; and disbanded the Aviation Safety Advisory Committee, calling it a misuse of resources. He had not yet named a new acting administrator for the FAA when the crash had hit, and it appears the air traffic control tower was understaffed. Let’s call on our members of Congress and tell them to demand an investigation into whether Trump’s undermining of our aviation safety infrastructure contributed to this accident and whether he is generally making air travel more dangerous. Let’s also push them to work to end the hiring freeze and demand increased funding so that these short staffing problems stop here.
WHERE WE STAND ON KEY TRUMP NOMINATIONS
This was a milestone week for some of Trump’s most dangerous nominees – and unfortunately a positive one. His attorney general pick Pam Bondi passed the Judiciary Committee in a straight party roll call, and Trump managed to get his selection for Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought through committee even after the funding freeze demonstrated the damage his impoundment plans will do – and in spite of Democrats boycotting the vote. Both are likely to be confirmed by the full Senate. Moreover, even with getting caught in flagrant lies about his record and extremism, Kash Patel seems to have shored up Republican support to be the next director of the FBI. But Tulsi Gabbard was pummeled in her hearing for Director of National Intelligence with multiple GOP senators asking tough questions and Intelligence Committee member Susan Collins publicly declaring herself on the fence. A second day of hearings for Health and Human Services Secretary designee Robert F. Kennedy Jr also indicated no votes from swing Republicans like Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy are very plausible. Let’s keep calls coming in to our senators.
We can use this script from People Power United to target Russ Vought. (And if our senators are Budget Committee Democrats, let’s be sure to thank them for refusing to treat Vought’s nomination like business as usual.)
We can find language to use in opposition to Pam Bondi here.
Indivisible has scripts we can use to call against Patel, Gabbard and Kennedy here.
FIGHT THE FUNDING FREEZE: SUPPORTING NONPROFITS, MASS CALL
Earlier this week, the Trump administration paused all federal grants and loans, an order which was then temporarily blocked by a federal judge. The president has said that this is a move to root out diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility initiatives, and is scapegoating trans communities. Meanwhile, local and national nonprofits immediately felt the impact of the order, and are rightfully concerned that their organizations may not have enough money to survive any funding freeze, regardless of how long it lasts. For those of us who are able, let's use this moment to support nonprofits in our community by donating our money and/or by volunteering. We can use this guide from BetterWorld to help us understand how to find local organizations, and the search tool at Great Nonprofits to help us connect with causes that we care about. (Let’s also keep up the public pressure to reverse the freeze, and join the Working Families Party, Indivisible and MoveOn in a mass call to discuss strategy moving forward Sunday night at 8PM Eastern here.)
DIRECT BUSINESS TO COMPANIES THAT REFUSE TO ABANDON DIVERSITY
Amazon, Meta, Walmart, Target, McDonalds, and Toyota are among the companies that have immediately abandoned DEI efforts after Trump’s directive, while other companies like American, Delta, and Southwest Airlines, Costco, Cisco, and Apple are currently standing firm in their DEI commitments. Let’s follow the lead of the Minnesota Pride March that recently booted Target, whose corporate headquarters is in Minnesota, from their annual Pride Parade and try to do as little business as possible with companies that are abandoning DEI, while directing our business to companies that are holding onto their values. We can also publicly thank them via email or social media.
JOIN SWING LEFT LOZ FELIZ FOR A VIRTUAL ORGANIZING MEETING TOMORROW
Over the past nine days, the administration has denied birthright citizenship, pardoned January 6 rioters, rolled back DEI initiatives, halted climate policies, and frozen key government funding and more. Now we fight back. Swing Left Los Feliz is rallying its members to take action, kicking off their year with a virtual meetup TOMORROW, February 1st from 12-1:30 PACIFIC time. They’re looking for volunteers with various skills to help in the fight for democracy, emphasizing the need for proactive, organized opposition. In 2024, this chapter wrote 11,200 letters and played a key role in canvassing efforts, helping secure victories like George Whitesides' win in CA-27. Their first major focus is the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April, a critical election for abortion rights, labor rights, and congressional control. We can sign up here to join Swing Left Los Feliz’s virtual organizing event here and then pitch in to make our democracy stronger! (We can also find more ways to help with the Wisconsin Supreme Court race here.)
STATE-SPECIFIC ACTIONS
ID – WHY ARE WE ATTACKING THE FREEDOM TO MARRY?
With all the challenges our state faces, the Idaho House of Representatives has chosen to prioritize passing a non-binding resolution asking the Supreme Court to overturn its decision legalizing same-sex marriage – and limit it to one man and one woman. They are attempting to roll back our freedom to live our lives how and with who we want. The resolution now goes to the State Senate. Let’s reach out to our legislators to tell them we are not paying them to bully same-sex couples and they need to stop this cruelty and focus on real solutions for Idaho. We can find which way our reps voted on this resolution here. We can also consider donating to and connecting with pro-LGBTQIA+ groups in our state like The Community Center or the North Idaho Pride Alliance.
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
North Carolina supreme court steal will go to trial… Oregon health care workers on strike… Costco workers contract expires tonight… GOTV for Amazon warehouse union vote continues…
https://open.substack.com/pub/paulkrugman/p/oppose-oppose-oppose-and-do-it-loudly?r=g9s4&utm_medium=ios