Dear Neighbor,
It's overwhelming, trying to keep up with the hourly avalanche of news: the actions, reactions, and retractions of the Trump/Musk administration and the rising resistance. And that's the point.
In 2019, Steve Bannon proposed this "muzzle velocity" strategy, as reported in Ezra Klein's excellent piece. "The opposition party is the media. And the media can only, because they’re dumb and they’re lazy, they can only focus on one thing at a time. …
All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day we hit them with three things. They’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done. Bang, bang, bang. These guys will never — will never be able to recover. But we’ve got to start with muzzle velocity."
Klein says Trump's unilateral orders project strength but actually show weakness; he can't get all of them through legal, legislative means. "Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president." He won the popular vote by 1.5%, has a low approval rating, and has thin margins in the House and Senate.
IS THIS A COUP?
The coup-o-meter is one good place to follow developments and find resources to resist. Many believe this is a coup in progress, but not all coups succeed. (Our son Nick first launched the coup-o-meter in January 2021.)
PROTECTING EACH OTHER
Here in Massachusetts, MIRA (Mass. Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition is holding Know Your Rights trainings: streaming, recorded, on paper and cards, in person, in many languages. Find resources and trainings here.
ACLU's Immigrants' Rights webpage has information in multiple languages.
Medford is having a training on Feb. 26 at the library: information and registration here.
An immigration legal helpline is available to all Massachusetts residents here or by calling (508) 293-1871.
In Somerville, SomerViva organized and recorded Know Your Rights sessions to help Somerville residents understand their immigration rights and the rights their neighbors. You can find information and videos of these sessions in Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Nepali here.
Over 900 people signed up for Know Your Rights trainings in Cambridge last week, according to Cambridge Day.
Somerville is offering Training Active Bystanders, a 2.5-hour interactive workshop for those who live or work in Somerville. It's to provide participants with tools and confidence to interrupt harmful situations and take positive action. Questions? bbeaverson@somervillema.gov or 857 270-3887
Thursday, Feb. 13 5:00 - 7:30 pm.
Tuesday, Feb. 18 9:30 am - 12:00 pm
Wednesday, Feb. 26 1:00 - 3:30 pm.
Saturday, March 1 9:30 am -12:00 pm
The Boston Business Journal offered advice for employers; there's a paywall but let me know if you need it.
LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS
I have received hundreds of constituent emails and calls asking me to support bills that can protect our residents from the actions of the federal government. I am cosponsoring and hope for early action on:
"Dignity Not Deportation," SD1107 by Sen. Gomez, relative to immigration detention and collaboration agreements (also HD4072)(support from ACLU, JALSA)
"Location Shield Act," SD501 by Sen. Creem, to protect safety and privacy by stopping the sale of location data (support from ACLU, Planned Parenthood)
"Safe Communities Act," SD1670 by Sen. Eldridge, to protect the civil rights and safety of all Massachusetts residents (also HD3816) (support from MIRA Coalition)
"Immigrant Legal Defense Act," SD2057 by Sen. Gomez, to provide a fund for legal defense of eligible immigrants facing deportation
I filed SD1176 to establish a commission on the status of transgender people.
I also filed SD1099, An Act relative to caregiver authorization affidavits, to allow parents & legal guardians to assign certain rights regarding their minor child to a designated caregiver through a caregiver authorization affidavit. Former Rep. Denise Provost originated this bill to allow parents to plan for the care of their children if they are detained or deported.
Along with Sen. Jason Lewis, I attended a national webinar for state legislators with suggestions on how to lock in worker protections created or in progress under Pres. Biden, which we'll review.
CONSTITUENT REPORTS
We'e had constituents call for help with their passports, pensions, SNAP benefits, and other federal programs. It's often because they simply can't get information or get through. We've had to refer them to our congresspeople and federal senators, though we usually also elevate their requests. However, our most common complaints by far are about inability to reach anyone at the Mass. Department of Unemployment Insurance - not a federal agency.
My colleague, Sen. Jamie Eldridge, reported on a constituent who was detained after a traffic stop by ICE agents, who were looking for someone who "looked like him," despite his lack of a criminal record.
RESISTANCE
On Feb. 3, Jay Michaelson posted a list on Facebook of some of the actions, especially lawsuits, already underway. Many of the executive orders have been stopped, at least temporarily. And the list grows. Remember that Trump's first term actions were overturned in 75% of the cases.
The Globe says the resistance is focusing more on direct action rather than demonstrations this year than in 2017. Feel free to send me your suggestions of what we can do!
There's more and more commentary. But the fact that this is a coup in progress could show up more in news reports. Joyce Vance suggests mainstream media could cover Washington they way they cover foreign events. She quotes Garrett Graff's attempt to do that: “What started Thursday as a political purge of the internal security services accelerated Friday into a full-blown coup, as elite technical units aligned with media oligarch Elon Musk moved to seize key systems at the national treasury, block outside access to federal personnel records, and take offline governmental communication networks.” Isn't that how American reporters would cover similar events in another country?
Acting quickly, Trump/Musk sometimes makes mistakes that could be embarrassing and make them look ridiculous. Like using a 19-year-old DOGE intern who had been fired for sharing company secrets. Or a 25-year-old DOGE worker given access to sensitive taxpayer information, who had posted on social media, “Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.”
And then there's just clearly false information, as in Trump's statement about stopping condoms for Gaza. There are 2 towns named Gaza and 13 named Palestine in the US.
Unfortunately, lies and incompetence also just feed people's distrust of all government.
We can hope that Congress members and senators will begin to represent their constituents. A reddit post showed the balance of payments to and from the federal government from each state. Mass. taxpayers face the greatest per capita loss, i.e. pay more in federal taxes than they receive in federal benefits. It's interesting to see which red and blue states gain and lose.
It won't take many Republicans breaking from Trump/Musk to stop cuts to AID programs and food stamps - cuts that hurt farmers, for example.
I was encouraged when MAGA Republicans broke with Gov. Abbott in Texas to defeat his school voucher bill because it would hurt their rural schools. I heard about it on Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire's podcast. One of the men quoted was from my grandparents' town, where the county went 87% for Trump.
My freshman assigned reading at Swarthmore was Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy. This would be a good time for some profiles in courage!
THIS WEEK IN THE MASSACHUSETTS SENATE
This week, the Senate will vote on Senate rules and joint rules. We hope to make our work more transparent, and many of you have shared your ideas on how to do that and its importance.
We will also vote on funds to keep existing emergency shelters open, and many proposals to increase restrictions on who can get in, and how long who can stay.
POEM OF THE MONTH
The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
...
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
BOOK OF THE MONTH
It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis, 1935
Stay active, stay in touch,
Pat Jehlen