Dear John,

At this time next week, we will know something about the election results - whether it’s a new Trump administration, a Harris administration, or still too close to call. Maybe you’re wishing we were there already.

But here’s a reminder that after the election, no matter the results, we’ll continue fighting for the same priorities - our own “Project 2025,” if you will.

We’ll keep striving to demilitarize our federal budget and make our world a safer, saner place for everyone. That means we’ll keep fighting for:

• People over Pentagon: Our federal budget should address the real needs of our people and communities over endless wars and the greed of Pentagon contractors.
• A fair, humane immigration system: Real security will come from seeing each others’ humanity and addressing the root causes of migration, not border militarization or mass deportation. 
• Nonviolence over violent engagement: From diplomacy to investing in our communities, nonviolent solutions make our world safer, while violent interventions from war to mass incarceration only perpetuate cycles of violence.

We aren’t alone in this. We’re joined by powerful movements working for an end to wars and genocide, humane immigration systems, solutions to climate change and a just global economic order.

This week, many of those movements are working to get out the vote. Next week, the work begins again. 

In solidarity,

Lindsay, Aspen, Hanna and Alliyah

Mass deportation made headlines this year under the conservative policy playbook of Project 2025. But we know that it would be a nightmare for American communities, separating families and destroying the strong diverse identity of our nation. Also, our economy would greatly suffer without immigrants.

A recent report from the American Immigration Council estimates the cost of mass deportation at $88 billion each year over the course of a decade. For the same price, the U.S. government could erase medical debt for more than 40 million Americans nationwide. 

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Photo courtesy of NASA, International Space Station  

This September, Hurricane Helene caused over 600 miles of destruction and left communities across the southeast U.S. reeling. Scientists quickly connected the storm's rapid progression and impacts to climate change and record-high ocean temperatures. The human and financial costs of disasters keep rising, but the government’s response remains inadequate. 

Instead, Pentagon spending continues to grow despite the U.S. military being a significant driver of the climate crisis. Over-investments in militarism have come at the price of investing in essential resiliency efforts. From October 2023 to September 2024, the U.S. provided at least $22.76 billion to aid Israeli military operations. Only $5.97 billion of that could have rehabilitated all 3,459 dams across the state of North Carolina which experienced catastrophic flooding during the storm. 

Photo courtesy of Cornelius Bartke

Advocacy organizations and the Gullah/Geechee Nation this month won a victory in protecting public transparency and safety.  

As part of a larger nuclear weapons reinvestment operation spearheaded by the Obama and Trump administrations, the government has been preparing to restart the manufacturing of plutonium pits - a component central to all nuclear weaponry. 

The coalition filed legal action against a ‘half-baked’ pit production plan, set to take place at two separate facilities in New Mexico and South Carolina. Production is not only dangerous - the Department of Energy could not provide an accurate timeline or cost estimate for the complete project. 

In a victory for nuclear weapons opponents, a court ruled that the plan was found in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The Department of Energy is now required to reevaluate alternative proposals and provide a comprehensive statement on the impacts of production and related radioactive waste disposal, complete with public hearings. The fight against plutonium pits will continue. 

“There’s this sense of: ‘How do we make this okay?’ There’s not, ‘How do we get to the real truth of what’s going on here?’”

- Mike Casey, who resigned from working on Gaza issues at the State Department’s Office of Palestinian Affairs in Jerusalem,

speaking about reports that U.S. weapons have been used in likely war crimes in Gaza

2024 Climate Week Webinars: Divest from Militarism & Invest in Climate Justice

Aspen Coriz-Romero, Hanna Homestead, and Alliyah Lusuegro, National Priorities Project Blog

Americans left vulnerable while tax money funds military aid abroad featuring NPP’s Lindsay Koshgarian for Al Jazeera

The True Costs of War featuring NPP’s Lindsay Koshgarian for It’s Kairos Time! Podcast

There is no climate justice without resisting militarism

Slow Factory, Instagram

Move The Money 

Uncle Devin, YouTube

Some 80% of Hill ‘experts’ take $$ from arms makers, foreign interests

Nick Cleveland-Stout, Responsible Statecraft

Warped Government Priorities Make Climate Disasters Worse

Basav Sen, OtherWords

6 Things to Know as Israel Invades Lebanon

Khury Petersen-Smith, Common Dreams

The Biden administration should own up to the costs of arming Israel in Gaza 

William D. Hartung and Stephanie Savell, The Hill

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