March 6, 2025 - 26 Days to Wisconsin
Preparing for Trump to defy the courts, finding where the freeze is killing projects near us, preparing to be an active bystander, 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:
If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!
TRUMP LOSES AT THE SUPREME COURT… WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Trump took a defeat at the Supreme Court yesterday, with the justices ruling 5-4 that lower courts could order the administration to pay $2 billion owed to U.S. Agency for International Development contractors. The case now heads back to the district court, where Judge Amir Ali has already asked how the federal government will comply. The real question, of course, is whether they will – and what the rest of us will do if they don’t. Let’s take this moment to again reach out to our members of Congress and elected leaders on all levels of government and ask if they have a plan for how they will respond if the White House explicitly rejects the checks of the judiciary – and demand they publicly commit to using all tools available to them to preserve the rule of law and our Constitution. We can use scripts and language here. Let’s also make our own plans for how we’ll respond, starting with making sure we are plugged into the local networks where we can hear about immediate calls to protest.
COME OUT AND FACE US THIS RECESS, CONGRESS
We showed up and made ourselves heard during the House’s last recess – about the attacks on Medicaid, about the destruction of services we count on, about the threats to our democracy. Republicans noticed. The chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) instructed House Republicans to stop doing in-person town halls to avoid having to face us. They’re not getting off that easy. Indivisible is asking folks to call their members of Congress to demand a town hall during the March recess scheduled to start March 15th – and to organize empty chair town halls if they refuse, using this toolkit. And some of our Democrats are stepping up to help – folks like Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) are doing town halls in neighboring districts represented by missing Republican members. Let’s follow Indivisible’s advice and ask our MoCs to show up and face us in the recess and use their tools to hold events with or without them. And let’s encourage Democrats who are already fully engaged in the fight to take it across district lines – Friends of the First Branch has built a guide with advice on which reps we can reach out to and scripts for the ask!
FEDERALLY FUNDED PROJECTS AT RISK NEAR US – HOW TO FIND THEM
Trump’s “freeze” of federal funding has screwed up infrastructure and climate projects across the country, and whatever happens with the current batch of court cases we can be confident he will continue to try to block them from moving forward. We will need to keep up the pressure to advocate for the work to get done. To help us do so, Grist’s data team has developed a tool identifying where more than $300 billion of the funds announced under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are supposed to be headed and helping us find those near us. Let’s check out this tool, find specific projects near us at risk and use the information to turn up the heat on our members of Congress.
PHONEBANKING TO PROTECT SOCIAL WELFARE - TONIGHT
Trump and the Republicans are coming for Medicaid, SNAP, and even Social Security. We can stop them and keep millions of people from losing their health care or going hungry, but it’s going to take all hands on deck. MoveOn is rallying support, holding a phonebank TONIGHT from 6PM to 8PM Eastern to reach folks in key districts and get them to contact their members of Congress against these devastating cuts. We can sign up to help out here.
BE READY TO BE AN ACTIVE BYSTANDER
Following video of the assault on Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl at a town hall in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, there has been public outcry on social media over the lack of response from many of her fellow attendees. While some people near Dr. Borrenpohl recorded video and echoed her demand that the men assaulting her identify themselves, most remained silent and took no action at all. For some people, this can likely be attributed to the bystander effect, in which we know we're witnessing a situation that doesn't feel quite right, but we assume that someone else will step in to help, so we do nothing. As we continue to take direct action, attend protests and town halls, and speak out to protect our rights, it is possible that at some point we will find ourselves in a situation similar to those who attended the Coeur D'Alene town hall. Let's make sure that we are prepared to be active bystanders. First, we can share this PDF from Berkeley University on bystander intervention and the CARE model (Confront the situation, Alert others, Redirect attention, Engage peers). Then, let's check out Right to Be's 5Ds of Bystander Intervention (Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, Direct). Right to Be also offers free virtual training on bystander intervention that is designed for specific situations, whether it's to protect LGBTQ+ and disability rights or to intervene in gender-based street or workplace harassment, xenophobia, antisemitism, and more. Let's sign up to attend at least one of their trainings so that we do not become passive bystanders.
TRACKING THE THREATS AGAINST DEMOCRACY
Our friends at
have created The Democracy Index to help us deal with the firehose of deliberate chaos and dizzying attacks from the Trump Administration and focus on the actions that most threaten democracy: "We want to help people avoid feeling overwhelmed by the onslaught of rhetoric and actions that characterized our experience during Trump 1.0. We’ll identify the trends that can help us understand what’s happening to our democracy during Trump 2.0. Most importantly, we will figure out what we, as citizens, can do about it." Let’s check it out here.
KEEPING AN EYE ON…
Trump order aimed at abolishing Department of Education could come as soon as today
8 days until the government funding deadline 3/14, let our members know where we stand
26 days until the April elections, here’s all the ways we can help win the Wisconsin Supreme Court and compete for House seats in Florida
Women’s March actions on SATURDAY for International Women’s Day
Tesla Takedowns this weekend and every weekend, national day of action April 5th
Target Fast boycott in effect through April 17th, Latino Freeze boycotts on resegregation supporters continuing
There is a fraud on the American people being played. Distracting us with hundreds of line item veto “ex post facto” savings, all of which are illegal. I call for Musk’s certifying the cost and pricing data. That must be required. I call for Musk’s testimony under oath before Congress. I call for him to divulge the truth of what he found. Spare me the BS braggadocio crap. I don’t buy crap when we are talking about a $4.5 trillion tax cut. I say Musk’s ploy is all a fraud founded on a bag of smoke and mirrors and a “bury you in paper” con job. Let us see it. Empty the DOGE bag.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/empty-doges-bag?r=3m1bs
Musk’s demotion is to have the Federal cabinet leader liable for future Federal employee firings. Musk has thousands of civil lawsuits coming his way for fired-employee damages. There is a fraud by Trump and Musk. Americans are being played. Illegal actions are not savings, they’re crap. We are being distracted by hundreds of line item veto “ex post facto” savings, all of which are illegal. We are being distracted by Federal employee firings, all of which are illegal. We are being distracted by thousands of cancellations of grants and contracts, all of which are illegal. The courts are intervening now.
The Fraud on America: Trump, Musk, and Speaker Johnson are trying to ram through the tax cuts, before:
• the courts cite them with civil contempt and levy huge financial penalties
• the impact of their illegal actions are reversed, and their “savings” flip back to $0.00.
I call for immediate full disclosures of what currently is in douchebag Musk’s DOGE bag of findings. He is hiding that at the moment since the courts have stifled his efforts. Let us make him certify his cost and pricing data, so that it comes under the Truth in Negotiations Act, now the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data Act (Title 41 U.S.C., Chapter 35). That must be required. I also call for Musk’s testimony under oath before Congress.
I call for Musk to divulge the truth of what he found, after he deletes what the courts say he cannot do. He cannot fire. He cannot cancel a single contract or grant. He cannot impound funds. Johnson intends to use Musk’s currently bogus data in his CR bid. Crook.
Spare me the BS braggadocio about saving billions and billions. Illegal actions are not savings, they’re crap. I don’t buy crap when we are talking about a $4.5 trillion tax cut. I say Trump and Musk’s ploy is all a fraud founded on a bag of smoke and mirrors, now a hidden accounting not corrected by current court edicts, and a “bury you in paper” con job.
Let us see it. Empty the douchebag’s DOGE bag. Transparency now! Don’t let the douchebag hide it another day. We cannot shoot any line item down until the residual data is displayed.
https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/empty-doges-bag?r=3m1bs