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On Illegality
I keep seeing people say that certain things Trump has done are illegal.
And while that's good to keep reminding people of, keep remembering that it's not normal, it's also important to remember that laws only mean something if someone is enforcing them.
The avenue of consequences for Elon Musk's DOGE not being a legitimate agency would need to come through Congress or the Attorney General. That is not going to happen.
So yes, remind everyone that this is illegal. But also make your plans assuming that there will be no recourse from the courts, at least in this matter. (I'm not even talking about SCOTUS here; I'm talking about who has the standing to bring a case in the first place.)
And while that's good to keep reminding people of, keep remembering that it's not normal, it's also important to remember that laws only mean something if someone is enforcing them.
The avenue of consequences for Elon Musk's DOGE not being a legitimate agency would need to come through Congress or the Attorney General. That is not going to happen.
So yes, remind everyone that this is illegal. But also make your plans assuming that there will be no recourse from the courts, at least in this matter. (I'm not even talking about SCOTUS here; I'm talking about who has the standing to bring a case in the first place.)
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This might be an unpopular opinion, but I sincerely believe that with the right public pressure campaign, Congress would act on this.
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Also, my honest assessment is that the die-hard leopards-eating-faces people are too busy having LOLs at the gore to be calling there congresspeople right now.
This is an excellent time to reach out to less unhinged people in red states to get them to lean on their representatives:
https://www.mobilize.us/workingfamilies/event/752152/
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And what I'm saying is that if you want things to improve, it's much more productive to tell people what you think *will* work than to post prognostications about how Congress won't do anything.
I just spent an hour and a half calling people in swing districts to ask them to call their Republican representatives to ask them to speak up against what Trump is doing. I feel pretty good about that, but I guess you think I wasted my time. If you really feel that way, tell me what you think I should do instead.
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And while that's going on, things that are going to help as many individuals as possible survive until we get to the midterms: union organizing, state and city level actions, food banks, organizing mutual aid networks.
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Along those lines: the first political-action organization I've actually donated to post-election is Defeat Extremists, who have been pointing out that special elections are a thing, and some are coming up relatively soon. Given the fascists' razor-thin majority in the House, we only need to flip three seats in order to start moving the needle back towards sanity, and Trump's steadily-softening poll numbers give us a fighting chance.
So there is at least a viable chance of not having to wait until the midterms (by which time it's entirely possible that too much damage will have been done).
Of course, the fascists know this, and will likely be pouring millions of dollars into those special elections. But they're one relatively near-term target to be worth paying attention to.