June 2, 2025 - Bird's The Word
Trump comes after Big Bird and Byrd rule challenges incoming, plus Pride Month is here and more
Contact all members of Congress:
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: Congress.gov
By US mail: Representatives / Senators
By Resistbot: Resist.bot
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
🚨 BIG BIRD AND MALARIA PREVENTION IN TROUBLE: PUBLIC BROADCASTING, FOREIGN AID CUTS WILL BE SENT TO CONGRESS 🚨
Elon Musk may claim he’s stepping back, but the damage he’s done is just beginning. This week, the White House is planning on sending a “rescissions” bill to Congress to rubber stamp $9.4 billion worth of his thefts from public services. While the final details are still being worked out, it will reportedly target funding for NPR and PBS and legalize the gutting of our foreign aid programs.
We are already seeing horrific costs from the Trump-Musk attack on the U.S. Agency for International Development, with as many as 300,000 lives already lost and millions of preventable deaths every year ahead of us, global instability rising and American influence fading. The public broadcasting cuts would be devastating to local PBS and NPR stations, threatening disaster response, children’s and educational programming and a crucial source of local news when there’s already less and less available – especially in rural communities.
DC media has suggested it may not be easy for Republicans to find the votes to pull back this funding. Let’s do our part to make it a little tougher and contact our members of Congress in support of public broadcasting and foreign aid and against legislation destroying them. We can find scripts and language here, or send them this message via Resistbot by texting SIGN PFIUBW to 50409.
🐦 BYRD BATHS AND A CHANCE TO KILL SOME OF THE BILLIONAIRE BAILOUT BILL 🐦
The Senate is returning to Washington this week, and the MAGA Murder Budget is at the top of the agenda. Among the issues at stake: what provisions won’t survive a Byrd bath, a challenge under the rule that everything in a budget reconciliation bill must be directly related to fiscal matters. Among key measures that we might be able to use this step to stop are the effort to strip judges of the power to hold Trump officials in contempt of court, the shoehorning in of a massive expansion of congressional power to roll back federal rules, the ban on state-level regulation of AI, attacks on gender-affirming care, defunding Planned Parenthood, speeding up fossil fuel projects and allowing the purchase of gun suppressors without registration.
Normally in these challenges any senator can raise a point of order and the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling is the final call, but there are no guarantees the GOP will choose to respect that process.
Let’s reach out to our senators this week, and if they’re Democrats urge them to use Byrd rule challenges frequently and aggressively to get as many catastrophic changes out of this bill as possible. If they’re Republicans, let’s demand they obey the law and follow the parliamentarian, and warn there will be long-term consequences if they do not.
We can find specific language against the judicial power stripping function here, against the ban on AI regulation here, against the undermining of federal rule-making here, against defunding Planned Parenthood here and against the cuts to gender-affirming care here.
We can also find more ways to push back against the MAGA murder budget here.
⚒️ PROTECT THE JOB CORPS PROGRAM FOR AT-RISK YOUTH ⚒️
The Department of Labor’s Job Corps program helps low-income and/or differently-abled youths aged 16-24 with free education and training to get them into the workplace. Some facilities even provide residential centers. There are currently about 120 centers nationwide, making it the largest residential job training for young adults in the country.
The Trump Administration is attacking it as “DEI” because it helps the underprivileged, and is targeting it for elimination in its next budget.
Over 60 years, Job Corps has proven to have increased participants average lifelong earnings and employment rates, and many of their prospects without this training and support would be far worse. The Administration isn’t proposing replacing Job Corps with a positive alternative, either – they’re just taking away another resource to help people out of poverty, along with SNAP and Medicaid, while undermining our economy with the Trump tariffs.
Let’s contact our reps in defense of this program. People who want to better themselves need more backing, not less. We can use call scripts from 5Calls here or send this Resistbot via by texting SIGN PNBYQI to 50409.
🏳️🌈 SHOW PRIDE THIS JUNE 🏳️🌈
We enter Pride Month in a hard moment, with the LGBTQIA+ community under attack by a hostile regime federally and in many states by the right and their rights being actively rolled back. And we’ve seen several Democratic politicians soften in their support of our friends and neighbors at a moment when they need us to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them, arguing that doing so will cost the party support. We need to send the message loud and clear: we will not surrender on human rights, and the freedom of our LGBTQIA+ siblings is non-negotiable. One way to start: showing up for Pride events near us this June. Let’s check in with local LGBTQIA+ organizations, on Mobilize or on this calendar to find one!
❌👑 GROWING THE MOVEMENT FOR #NOKINGS ❌👑
Trump wants all eyes on his $45 million military parade that just happens to coincide with his birthday. We’re going to make sure the story of the day is that more Americans than ever before are taking to the streets in protest to his authoritarian regime, declaring loudly and proudly: NO KINGS.
We all have a part to play in making this the biggest single-day anti-Trump protest yet. TONIGHT at 8pm, Vote Save America is hosting a virtual training on best practices for recruiting new people to protests. We can join as hosts or enthusiastic attendees, and check out their event promotion guide here.
This will be a big week for trainings for No Kings – we can also register for safety and de-escalation training on Wednesday at 8PM here and media and messaging training on Thursday at 8PM here. And let’s be sure to keep boosting the #NoKings events nearest us to our networks!
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
Tesla Takedowns this weekend and every weekend, join the divestment movement here and here
Submit public comments against against politicization of the civil service before June 7th
Find protests near us daily via
’s We The People DissentJoin the federal workers #SaveOurServices rapid response network here
- here
The Industry-backed Crypto bill (called the “Genius Act”) is not yet getting the negative attention it deserves. Call your Senators now - including your Democratic Senators who do not seem to realize how bad this bill is. 202-225-3121.
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/digital-corruption-takes-over-dc?utm_medium=ios
The resistbot sign to protect PBS & NPR does not have enough letters.