Congress needs to fight for its job—don’t let Trump seize the power of the purse
Our nation is founded on having three separate, co-equal branches of government, holding each other in check to limit their ability to reach beyond their Constitutionally-delimited powers. Congress and the president check each other, and the courts check both of the other branches while being subject to laws passed by Congress and signed by the president. This separation of powers helps preserve our rights and keep the government working for us more than if it were driven by unilateral rule.
On Monday, wannabe-king Trump issued an unconstitutional decree through his Office of Management and Budget (OMB) halting a wide swath of federal non-defense funding for an indefinite period. This is an assertion of illegal powers to seize money that Congress has already legally directed to be spent for health, safety, education, research, housing, disaster relief, small business loans, and a wide range of other public needs.
Late yesterday, a judge temporarily halted implementation of Trump's administrative coup. But with a highly-partisan Supreme Court majority committed to the MAGA agenda, we cannot rely on the judiciary alone to defend our freedom and our Constitution. Only we can preserve democracy. It's up to us to fight back and resist.
Read more in our blog post.
Our Governor Newsom and AG Bonta were among the first to sue the Trump administration over this coup. This is the kind of quick, decisive action we expect to see from our officials in this environment.
Contact Governor Newsom and AG Bonta and tell them: thank you for suing the Trump administration over the OMB crisis.
Protect transgender Americans from Trump’s brutal executive orders
Last night, a new Executive Order was dropped that severely curtails transgender care for persons under 19 years old, and effectively sets the stage for banning transgender care altogether. As of our writing this, it’s very new, but from what we can tell here is what this EO does.
- Ends funding for any federal coverage of transgender care of minors (via Medicaid, Medicare and the VA).
- Directs the Department of Health and Human Services to codify anti-trans bigotry.
- Implicitly prevents hospitals and insurance companies from offering care to transgender people regardless of age.
Independent journalist Erin Reed had a good preliminary explanation of the order on her Bluesky.
We are calling on our elected officials to stand up for transgender kids and adults–and our new Mayor is setting the right example. Just today he pledged to maintain San Francisco’s sanctuary status and to set aside $250k to aid LBGTQ+ immigrants. The mayor’s office has also set up a resource page for immigrants in San Francisco. We hope he will continue to extend protection to trans people in our community. This is the kind of resistance we hope for and expect from our elected officials.
Call Mayor Lurie and tell him: thank you for protecting LGBTQ+ immigrants, and commit to protecting trans people from Trump’s persecution.
Join the State & Local Team!
We’re relaunching our new state and local working group, and we’d love for you to join. Our goal is to talk to our local representatives, including the offices of the mayor, governor, and board of supervisors, to urge them to protect democracy as well as the people and causes being targeted by the current administration.
Given that California has a Democratic-controlled governor, state senate, and state assembly, we have the opportunity to protect our rights and freedoms if our local representatives are willing to push back against MAGA extremism. We welcome anyone interested, regardless of experience or skill–we need people to fulfill a wide range of roles, and will be providing training.
If you’re interested and on our Slack, please join the “#local_and_state_action” channel in Slack, and add your information to the Google sheet pinned to that channel.
If you’re not on our Slack workspace and would like to join, come to our next meeting (date TBA) and we’ll get you plugged in.
Join the Media Accountability Team!
In our digital age, information is constant. Our eyes zigzag across our screens as they take in breaking stories from all across the country.
The problem? Our news sources feed us too many stories related to culture wars and cynicism and not enough reporting of substance that can inspire action. That’s why following the news can feel so exhausting and demotivating.
The top media organizations are big corporations, consuming both our money and our attention. We end up with less news and more division while the CEOs of these corporations rake in millions.
The newly minted Media Accountability team is researching the media’s current state and asking “how did we get here and what can we do?” If this is of interest to you, please join us on our Slack workspace in the #media-accountability channel to learn more. If you’re not on our Slack workspace, come to our next meeting (date TBA) and we’ll get you plugged in.
Which Supervisor district are you in? Let us know!
We want to know which districts our members are in. Fill out this Google form so we can find out which Supervisors we need to focus on for our local work!
Register to vote for ADEM—Deadline extended! Now coming up in 2 days
Every two years, Democrats across California vote to elect the delegates who will represent them in the California Democratic Party. That time is upon us once again.
The process is called the Assembly Delegate Election Meeting, or ADEM. We wrote in late 2020 about what the ADEM is for and how it helps build power.
Each Assembly district will get to elect 14 delegates. As of today, you can now register to vote in the ADEM election, either online or in-person. You have until noon on Friday, January 31 to register to vote online, or until 6 PM on Sunday, February 23 to register for in-person voting. In-person voting will happen Saturday and Sunday, February 22–23 at locations up and down the state.
Want to help us do this work?
We can help plug you in where your skills will do the most good to help resist this administration.
If you would like to join and do important work with us, we welcome you! Currently we are especially in need of volunteers to help with the following:
- Managing our social media, creating posts and graphics.
- Making short-form videos to help educate people on our topics in an accessible way.
- Tracking state and local legislation and working with our state and local legislatures and mayor-elect Lurie.
No experience is needed, and we will train you and provide everything you need. If you would like to help us, please contact us at [email protected].
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Pledge to Protect and Resist rallies with SURJ: Saturday, February 1:
- 11 AM: Castro & 18th St
- 12 PM: 350 Rhode Island (DA's office)
- 1 PM: 630 Valencia (Mission Police Station)
Across the country on February 1, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) members are taking action to move community leaders, elected officials, faith communities, local groups, institutions and organizations to sign a Pledge to Protect & Resist. The pledge signals mass commitment to show up for targeted communities and refuse MAGA’s authoritarian agenda.
Please join one of these rallies taking place in San Francisco on February 1.
State Senator Scott Wiener Virtual Town Hall: Wednesday, February 5, 6:30 PM: Join Senator Wiener to discuss the California Legislature’s special session and other work to defend California values. RSVP here.
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If you’ve seen our newsletter posts on social media, you might have noticed that we include a photo or graphic with each issue.
Today’s graphic is an original graphic calling for our Congresspeople to resist Trump’s administrative coup.
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Keep Fighting,
The Indivisible SF Team
If you'd like to support our all-volunteer team:
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