Friday Digest

summarizing the week

Happy Friday, folks! I am super new at this but I’m thinking of trying to do little “resistance notes” every day or two that highlight major news developments (providing links for you to read more if you have the time and bandwidth), actionable items that will always include something quick and easy, celebrating wins, and hopefully some inspiration to keep resisting the onslaught of awfulness. The goal here is to provide ways for people to stay engaged without doomscrolling and compromising mental health. I’ll do the doomscrolling for you, ha! Let’s dive in.

UPDATES:

-Executive Orders: The White House is dropping executive orders at a staggering rate, but among the most damaging ones this week are as follows

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-children-from-chemical-and-surgical-mutilation/ - as far as I can make out, this essentially bans gender affirming care for minors by denying any federal funds, grants, etc to facilities that provide gender affirming care for minors. It does a whole lot of other horrible things in an attempt to ban this care as well.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/ - this is the one that has me the most panicked and upset this week. It’s a MASSIVE power grab that attempts to force schools to stop discussing equity, racism, really any accurate history, gender, etc. It also seeks to stop schools from using students’ names and pronouns that reflect their authentic selves, and it specifically goes after any teachers that “facilitate students’ social transition” and treats them as predators. It also seeks to force schools to present a whitewashed, “ennobling” view on the founding of the United States, and a “patriotic” education. This is a massive assault on LGBTQIA+ students and staff, students and staff of color, and an attack on first amendment rights… it’s basically a disaster, please read through it to learn more.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/expanding-migrant-operations-center-at-naval-station-guantanamo-bay-to-full-capacity/ - this EO seeks to turn Guantanamo Bay’s detention center as a concentration camp for migrants. There’s not a ton of information in this one, but it is nonetheless super scary for obvious reasons.

-Nominations for Government Agencies: This week saw some concerning hearings and nominations. Sadly, Pete Hegseth is now our Defense Secretary. Reminder, he has been accused of a laundry list of bad behaviors - here’s just one article that speaks to some of that: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna188342

Robert F Kennedy, Jr has been going through his confirmation hearings for secretary of Health and Human Services and has been caught making statements ranging from misleading to outright lies to bigoted nonsense; here’s just a few things that happened during his hearings: https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/4-takeaways-rfk-jr-senate-hearing/story?id=118213176 Very clearly not someone who should be entrusted with public health decisions.

Kash Patel has begun his confirmation hearings for FBI director - I don’t know a ton about him yet but it seems pretty clear he’s prepared to weaponize the FBI against anyone that 47 deems to be a political enemy, and apparently is best described as a “conspiracy theorist” - so, perhaps not a great choice for a high profile government posting: https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/30/politics/takeaways-kash-patel-fbi-confirmation-hearing/index.html

Russell Vought is the nominee to run the Office of Management and Budget, and he is SO bad, democrats on the budget committee actually boycotted the vote to advance him, calling him “clearly unfit for office.” He’ll begin his hearings soon. He is one of the architects of Project 2025 and would be poised to do unimaginable damage to our country. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/30/trump-russell-vought-budget-vote

Buyout offer to government employees: in an effort to clear out lots of government employees to be replaced with Trump loyalists, the new administration has offered federal employees a “buyout” deal to resign by Feb 6 and receive pay for about 8 months. There’s a lot of speculation about the legality of even offering this, whether the president has the authority to do it, etc. And it smacks of Elon Musk offering the same at Twitter (spoiler: he didn’t follow through with the promised severance pay). https://apnews.com/article/trump-buyouts-to-all-federal-employees-f67f5751a0fd5ad8471806a5a1067b5e#

Immigration: lots has been happening in immigration since 47 took office, such as newly imposed deportation quotas ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/01/26/ice-arrests-raids-trump-quota/ ), shutting down the process of legal entry for asylum seekers ( https://www.npr.org/2025/01/23/nx-s1-5272406/trump-suspends-asylum ), and making schools, churches, and medical facilities targets for ICE ( https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/trump-authorizes-ice-target-schools-churches/story?id=117954409 ). The results have already reportedly been pretty devastating - people detained regardless of citizenship status because they were speaking Spanish or because of the color of their skin, disruptions to kids’ education, anticipated disruptions to the food supply, the list goes on.

WINS:

-On Tuesday, the administration was forced to rescind an executive order that would have broadly suspended funding for federal grants and other programs - https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/g-s1-45313/trump-federal-funding-freeze-reversed Had this order gone into effect, it would have plunged us into a lot of chaos as there was much confusion over what sorts of spending would have been suspended and what wouldn’t (I.e. we weren’t sure if people would suddenly not have access to SNAP or WIC benefits, Social Security, etc). Opposition to this was LOUD, including from congress, who as it turns out doesn’t like their constitutional power usurped by a mad king, and a federal judge blocked the order on Tuesday before the administration was ultimately forced to rescind it. When we are loud and relentless in our opposition, we can be heard. Make your congressional delegation’s phones ring off the hook!!

ACTION ITEMS:

-Call your senators and representatives! If you are new to this: try calling one of their local offices in your state if you would like to speak to a human being. Give them the name of your town and zip code so it’s clear you’re a constituent. Tell them specifically what you’re supporting or opposed to (a bill, a nominee, a policy, etc) as succinctly as possible (this is the part I struggle with, ha!). Then, save their numbers in your phone for next time. Today, I’m calling to oppose RFK Jr for HHS, Russell Vought for OMB, and Kash Patel for FBI. I will also be telling them I oppose the use of concentration camps whether at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere to detain undocumented immigrants. Finally, I will be asking that they work to pass legislation protecting the rights of trans students.

-Donate: in view of what’s going on, a donation to an LGBTQIA+ advocacy group, a racial justice organization, or your local food bank! Every little bit helps. Also, if you live in a community where a lot of asylum seekers live, please consider donating items you no longer need to refugee resettlement efforts. It helps people start their new lives in the US feeling welcomed and comfortable!

-Email your local school board and ask what their plan is for protecting students and students’ records/paperwork from ICE

ON MY RADAR - things I am expecting to hear more about next week:

-tariffs expected to take effect tomorrow (Saturday)

-A New York doctor has apparently been indicted in Louisiana for shipping abortion meds to a patient in Louisiana.

-expecting to hear a lot of awful stories of innocent people detained and deported under the newly-passed Laken Riley act.

Social media follows:

-this week as always I’m loving Gabrielle Blair (@designmom), Elizabeth Booker Houston (@bookersquared), Mrs. Frazzled (@mrs.frazzled), and Abortion Every Day/Jessica Valenti (@abortioneveryday, @jessicavalenti)