Issues You May Know, 21 February 2025.
A list of things you might want to know about - or write your reps about.
Nurses strike in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
WVIA - ‘Invest in us': Geisinger nurses begin 5-day strike in bitter cold By Lydia McFarlane | WVIA News Published February 17, 2025 at 3:50 PM EST The walkout follows failed negotiations to reach a new contract after the previous labor deal expired on Jan. 31. Affected are 800 nurses at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre and Geisinger Healthplex CenterPoint who are represented by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare PA.
Geisinger is now owned by the Kaiser Permanente subsidiary called Risant Health.
Disclosure: I’m a retired member of SEIU.
Pennsylvania out on a limb.
My letter to reps included here: Pennsylvania out on a limb. Feb 19th, 2025 - Chloe
audio on this topic: Don’t accept a disorderly poo circus.Don’t Wait For Everybody - Episode 018 Chloe Humbert Feb 14, 2025
Republican & "red state" politicians are trying to get exceptions from the massive federal funding freezes.
The New Republic Edith Olmsted / February 19, 2025 Republican Senators Forced to Beg Trump and Elon Musk for Their Money Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s spending freeze has sent Republicans scrambling.
'Biggest mistake of my life': Regret sets in for Trump voters as Republican politicians panic MSNBC Feb 19, 2025
United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. February 6, 2025 MURKOWSKI CALLS ON OMB TO ENSURE TRIBES ARE NOT IMPACTED BY EXECUTIVE ORDERS
The Hill - Grassley pleads for potash exemption from Trump Canada tariffs by Lauren Irwin - 02/03/25 3:39 PM ET
The Hill Florida Republican urges Trump to spare some migrants under deportation plan Filip Timotija Sat, January 25, 2025 at 3:37 PM EST Yahoo News
Alabama Daily News - Britt stresses the need for research, wise spending in call with RFK Jr. on NIH funding cuts February 12, 2025
Newsweek - Susan Collins Slams 'Poorly Conceived' Trump NIH Directive Published Feb 10, 2025 at 3:26 PM EST
This shows how the pressure works. These people are scrambling because their constituents are angry because what's going on is unpopular and harming people. Whatever it is people don't like, people are right to name it to reps, name it to everyone. And be specific because just saying you don't like the tyrannical things going on emanating from the White House isn't what gets through to politicians because they're probably more concerned about tyranny from below. Specific concise asks are something elected politicians know how to deal with. Talking about specific things gets people out of info cocoons where nobody knows what anyone else is really talking about.
Trump administration FTC dropped rulemaking against predatory surveillance pricing.
'Unthinkable': Trump FTC Chair Shuts Down Public Comments on Corporate Pricing Tactics "Chairman Ferguson could have done any number of things to actually lower the cost of living and create opportunities for American businesses and workers," said one Democratic FTC commissioner. "He did none of them." Jake Johnson Jan 24, 2025 Common Dreams Shortly after taking over as FTC chair earlier this week, Andrew Ferguson declared that "DEI is over" at the agency and demanded a swift vote on a motion giving him sweeping authority to "comply with President Trump's orders ending DEI across the federal government." Meanwhile, with no such fanfare, Ferguson shuttered FTC requests for information and public comments on corporate mergers and acquisitions, "protecting workers from illegal business practices," "predatory pricing," and "surveillance pricing practices," which refer to companies' use of personal data to set individualized prices.
My letter to reps:
What happened with the FTC's excellent plans to stop predatory surveillance pricing practices? If the FTC is not going to help consumers on this, because Elon Musk decided he didn’t want them investigating him, well that means we need legislation. STOP PREDATORY SURVEILLANCE PRICING!
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
Strike the giveaway to polluting tycoons in the Republican budget.
Sen. Whitehouse Bashes Republican Budget as Giveaway to Billionaires and Big Polluters Senator Sheldon Whitehouse Feb 18, 2025 HERE IS THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE WARNING OF A WHEN TRILLION DOLLARS HIT TO THE GLOBAL REAL ESTATE MARKET AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY, JOINED BY THE FINANCIAL STABILITY BOARD WHICH WARNS OF SYSTEMIC RISKS TO BANKS AS PROPERTY VALUES FALL FROM INSURANCE UNAVAILABILITY, JOINED BY THE COMMODITIES FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION THAT UNDER THE FIRST TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WARNED THAT CLIMATE CHANGE POSES A MAJOR RISK TO THE ABILITY OF THE U.S. FINANCIAL SYSTEM AND ITS ABILITY TO SUSTAIN THE AMERICAN ECONOMY. THAT IS THE BACKDROP TO THE AMENDMENTS I WILL BE OFFERING TO STRIKE THE EPW INSTRUCTION THAT IS A GIVEAWAY TO BIG POLLUTERS WHO WILL NOT EVEN MAINTAIN THEIR PIPES AND WELLS AND WILL ONLY MAKE THE CLIMATE CRISIS AND THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF IT WORSE. I WILL HAVE MORE TO SAY AS I DISCUSS EACH AMENDMENT (emphasis added)
My letter to my state's US Senators:
I am against the EPW instructions in the Senate budget bill that are a giveaway to polluters who won't maintain pipes and wells, and you should support Senator Whitehouse’s amendments to the budget.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
By "fix our forests" they mean they want to clear cut down our forests without our input.
The “Fix Our Forests Act” won’t actually fix our forests The Fix Our Forests Act could have devastating consequences for the environment and endangered species. January 22, 2025 - Environment America This bill proposes to exempt a sweeping range of “vegetation management activities” (aka logging) from environmental review on millions of acres of federal land, leaving forests at risk from reckless logging projects. Not only can inappropriate logging destroy habitats and ecosystems, but it can also increase the risk of wildfires by increasing direct sunlight to the forest floor, accelerating wind speeds and leaving behind combustible dead surface vegetation that fuels flames. The Fix Our Forests Act seeks to prevent citizens from holding federal agencies accountable by limiting their ability to file lawsuits that would undergo review by a judge. (emphasis added)
Tell your U.S. Senators: Vote “no” on the “Fix Our Forests” Act
My letter to reps:
Vote no on that dishonest "fix our forests act". Agencies always need to be accountable to citizens with access to reviews by a judge, it's unAmerican to introduce tricky laws to circumvent lawful oversight. I am against exemptions to "vegetation management activities" because we all know that will mean reckless logging. Here in Pennsylvania Gifford Pinchot is revered for undoing the egregious harms of his logging tycoon grandpa. We like our trees on the public lands, the parks, the forests, the game lands, and the national forests. They belong to us.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
Tom Homan's repeated threats to AOC are disturbing and downright unbecoming.
My letter to reps:
Tom Homan keeps going on the news and such and threatening to “investigate” a member of Congress unlawfully, apparently in order to get clicks and notoriety for himself. It’s really distasteful and boorish unbecoming behaviour of a government official toward a member of Congress. Ed Martin also threatened a member of the House and Elon Musk is calling a sitting senator “criminal” in public. Seems like there’s a lack of worker solidarity in Congress — except apparently when it comes to getting out early for a long weekend. Just sayin.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
Threatening elected representatives in congress appears to be a bad habit of the Musk Trump administration — Ed Martin has threatened Rep. Robert Garcia, and Elon Musk is threatening Senator Adam Schiff.
Anti-vax ICE official's white supremacist extremist alt account revealed.
Astonishing reporting:
For over a decade and very recently, this ICE attorney who went to Penn State for undergrad, has been saying stuff on this alt account on social media like: “All blacks are foreign to my people, dumb (f-word)” and "I’m not a commie, I’m a fascist. Fascists solve communist problems. Get your insults right, (r-word).” The article also notes that one of the details that revealed his identity was referring to his wife as a dressage horse trainer.
This right-wing sock puppet influencer was apparently part of a lawsuit seemingly against Dr. Fauci over the government mandate that federal employees were being asked to get vaccinated for covid or get a religious or health exemption. As "GlomarResponder" he expressed a phobia of getting needles, and as an excuse of not needing the shot, he falsely claimed that getting covid was good and immunity from that was superior – even though there has never been evidence of that.
Online troll farm mercenaries to be hired by US government to police speech online.
National Criminal Justice Association - Crime and Justice News - ICE To Review Social Media Users For 'Negative' Activity, Threats Citing an increase in threats to ICE agents and leadership, the agency is soliciting pitches from private companies to monitor threats across the internet — with a special focus on social media. People who simply criticize ICE online could pulled into the dragnet, the Intercept reports. “In order to prevent adversaries from successfully targeting ICE Senior leaders, personnel and facilities, ICE requires real-time threat mitigation and monitoring services, vulnerability assessments, and proactive threat monitoring services,” the procurement document reads. If this scanning uncovers anything the agency deems suspicious, ICE is asking its contractors to drill down into the background of social media users. The agency says that includes: “Previous social media activity which would indicate any additional threats to ICE; 2).
There are operatives celebrating a boon in their job market.
The Intercept - After Spying on Standing Rock, TigerSwan Shopped Anti-Protest “Counterinsurgency” to Other Oil Companies. More than 50,000 pages of documents were recently made public after the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline lost a court case to keep them secret. b y Alleen Brown, Naveena Sadasivam, April 13 2023 The released documents provide startling new details about how TigerSwan used social media monitoring, aerial surveillance, radio eavesdropping, undercover personnel, and subscription-based records databases to build watchlists and dossiers on Indigenous activists and environmental organizations. At times, the pipeline security company shared this information with law enforcement officials. In other cases, WhatsApp chats and emails confirm TigerSwan used what it gathered to follow pipeline opponents in their cars and develop propaganda campaigns online. The documents contain records of TigerSwan attempting to help Energy Transfer build a legal case against pipeline opponents, known as water protectors, using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, a law that was passed to prosecute the mob.
The information gig economy – it's a thing.
Report: ICE Is Expanding Surveillance of Its Critics on Social Media It cites “an increase in threats” as the reason for seeking a contractor to monitor the public’s social media activity. By Brett Wilkins, CommonDreams Published February 12, 2025 Truthout According to Biddle: "It’s unclear how exactly any contractor might sniff out someone’s “proclivity for violence.” The ICE document states only that the contractor will use “social and behavioral sciences” and “psychological profiles” to accomplish its automated threat detection. Once flagged, the system will further scour a target’s internet history and attempt to reveal their real-world position and offline identity. In addition to compiling personal information—such as the Social Security numbers and addresses of those whose posts are flagged—the contractor will also provide ICE with a “photograph, partial legal name, partial date of birth, possible city, possible work affiliations, possible school or university affiliation, and any identified possible family members or associates.” The document also requests “facial recognition capabilities that could take a photograph of a subject and search the internet to find all relevant information associated with the subject.” The contract contains specific directions for targets found in other countries, implying the program would scan the domestic speech of American citizens." (emphasis added)
The Internet of Fakes — PR Tactics, Troll Farms, Sock Puppets, Botnets, Influencers, Operatives, & Chaos Agents. A collection of evidence of persuasion, advertising, sales, target marketing, propaganda, agent provocateurs, and cognitive warfare - the true reality of the media landscape. Chloe Humbert Sep 14, 2023
We need to know how many lawmakers are aligned with Andrew Tate.
The New Republic Edith Olmsted / February 17, 2025 Trump Pressures Romania on Andrew Tate in Stunning New Low The Trump administration is harassing Romania about easing up on the far-right misogynist accused of sex trafficking. Donald Trump is urging a foreign government to relax restrictions on a right-wing influencer charged with human trafficking and rape. Andrew Tate, the former kickboxer and self-described “misogynist” influencer, and his brother Tristan, have been the subject of a protracted legal battle in Romania after they were arrested in 2022 on charges of human trafficking, sexual misconduct, money laundering, and organized crime, all of which they have denied.
The overton window needs to be yankned back over from absolute gross garbage.
My letter to reps:
Where do you stand on Andrew Tate? This is the internet showman charged with human trafficking and rape and who has boasted about choking young women he has sex with. So where do you stand on friendliness with this guy? Do you agree with Trump pressuring Romania to "relax restrictions" for him? Would you like to see Andrew Tate come to the U.S,? Do you have connections to Andrew Tate yourself?
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
📍Donald Trump is the first felon elected to be President of the United States.
Culty politics and the mismanagement of water.
The Los Angeles Times - Acting on Trump’s order, federal officials opened up two California dams By Ian James and Jessica Garrison Jan. 31, 2025 Updated 4:40 PM PT “We traditionally have a high degree of coordination at the operational level, which really wasn’t a part of this decision,” Nemeth said. The two reservoirs are used to hold supplies for agricultural irrigation districts. Nemeth noted that winter is not the irrigation season for farms, which require more supplies to grow crops in the summer months, “so there isn’t a demand” for the water in the San Joaquin Valley at this time. The dams are also used to regulate the pace of floodwaters that could otherwise affect downstream areas, Nemeth said. During historic storms in 2023, she said, the state sought to work with local landowners to capture flood flows where possible to replenish groundwater. “I really can’t speak to the decision process at the Corps to make this release at this time,” she said. It was not clear where federal officials intended to send the water that was being released from the dams. Local water managers said they were caught off-guard by the federal government’s plans on Thursday. Dan Vink, a water consultant who previously served as general manager of the Lower Tule River Irrigation District, called the situation “extremely unprecedented.”
Lost World of the Maya | National Geographic (youtube video) Auto Transcript: Bill Ringle: perhaps a better way to think about it is a political ideology and of course it had religious overtones - cult's perhaps the wrong word because it suggests something kind of small-scale and extra-governmental this was political ideology front and center George Bey: the maya knew about droughts they were probably a civilization designed to respond not only to managing rainwater but managing a lack of rainwater too it's not a surprise they left what becomes the question for us is why they don't come back Narrator: so why didn't stairway's residents and the king of Kiuic survive these droughts as they clearly had in the past the extreme intensity of these droughts was disastrous making a carefully managed response their only hope but bey and ringle speculate the north's political establishment was falling into disarray distracted by the cult of the feathered serpent Bill Ringle: the collapse in the northern mile apparently began during the 9th century and that's also the time period during which this feathered serpent ideology was introduced and this undoubtedly led to rivalries with respect to power brokering Narrator: Ringle thinks the political situation may have become so extreme that there was no longer any governmental system capable of organizing their return. with a stable government the northern maya might have survived but it wasn't to be and within a century the major cities and towns of the north just like the south were left in ruins today the empty jungles of the yucatan serve as a reminder that even great civilizations can fail
Politico - Trump dumped these farmers’ water. They’d rather not talk about it. President Donald Trump followed through on his promise to unleash California’s water — only the water he released belonged to the very farmers he’d promised to help. By Camille von Kaenel and Annie Snider 02/06/2025 At least publicly, the farmers and their Republican allies are brushing off the president’s abrupt move last week to dump more than 2 billion gallons of their irrigation water from reservoirs in the name of aiding Los Angeles wildfires — even though the fires were already contained and the water couldn’t have made it to Los Angeles anyway. Zack Stuller, a farmer with citrus and almond orchards he irrigates from the reservoirs and president of the Tulare County Farm Bureau in the state’s arid Central Valley, said the situation “definitely was a little nerve-wracking for a while.” But, he said, “I’m a farmer. I have a conservative mindset. I encourage the trigger-pulling attitude, like, ‘Hey, let’s just get stuff done.’” The episode is one of the most visceral examples of a recurring theme for Trump and his most loyal supporters who’ve stuck with him through sweeping actions in the first weeks of his presidency that could hurt their bottom lines, be it the deportation of workers or expensive tariffs.
Elon Musk is a walking conflict of interest and nobody voted for corporate dictatorship.
The AI Coup & Trump's CEO-Dictator Playbook w/ Gil Duran | MR Live - 2/11/25 The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder Gil Duran: "Trump is a wholly captured subsidiary of these silicon valley guys, whether you want to call them the network state or something else it's all the same idea - tech authoritarianism, and so basically they acquired MAGA."
Elon Musk is in conflict across the political spectrum, not just across the government and across America.
Mother Jones - Feb 11, 2025 Everything Elon Musk Touches Is a Conflict of Interest It’s no longer clear where his business ends and the government’s begins. Tim Murphy Civil servants and elected officials are often bound by tight disclosure requirements and ethics guidelines designed to curb conflicts of interest and prevent bureaucrats from profiting from their work. Michael Punke, the author of the book that was adapted into the Oscar-winning motion picture, The Revenant, was famously prohibited from even promoting the book while serving as US ambassador to the World Trade Organization. Musk, who is operating as a “special government employee,” has not divested from his vast holdings. He has not stepped down from his companies. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Musk’s conflicts would be handled on something like an honor system: “If Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing…Elon will excuse himself from those contracts.” The sheer scope of Musk’s interests, though, means that everything that happens, anywhere in the world, is a potential conflict.
The reason that there's not enough opposition is because politicians of both parties have entangled themselves with Elon Musk and a lot of direct conflicts with the people they are supposed to be representing.
My letter to reps:
I don't think any tech tycoons should be involved in controlling a government that is supposed to be for and by the people. These conflicts of interest must end, not just with Elon Musk, but all the billionaires and tech CEOs. Politicians should not be allowed to have conflicts of interests to favour tycoons. America is a government for and by the people. It's just that simple.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
Russia is asking Elon Musk for intel on dissidents.
The New Republic - Edith Olmsted / February 13, 2025 Russia Asks Elon Musk for Help Crushing Dissent Elon Musk has access to sensitive information about dissidents and intelligence officials. Russia wants it. Volodin bragged that exiled opposition figures would be left “hungry and cold” without funding from USAID. “Those who received money from abroad, now let them publicly confess and repent on Red Square,” he said. It’s unclear whether Congress, or the U.S. government, will comply with Volodin’s request, but Donald Trump has made it more than clear that he’s not opposed to giving in to every one of Russia’s demands.
My letter to reps:
I don't think Elon Musk should have access to sensitive information, much less to be giving it to totalitarians like Putin or Modi. It's very peculiar that Republicans are on board with totalitarianism and having some tycoon with sensitive information on Russian dissidents and ready to feed it to Russia.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
The SAVE Act voter suppression bill will penalize people who've had a legal name change.
The Save Act Will STRIP Married Women Of Their Right To Vote!! TabithaSpeaksPolitics Feb 11, 2025
GOP's SAVE Act Could Stop Married Women From Voting The Logical Leftist Feb 14, 2025
It definitely seems to target married people who've taken their spouse's name or have had a legal name change for whatever reason. There would be extra hoops to go through in order to prove you could vote. It seems that anyone who has changed their name would need a passport, because no other verification of name change seems to count if your current name doesn't match your birth certificate. So it's pretty much at a minimum a type of poll tax, since getting a passport isn't exactly cheap, and isn't a default document that most Americans will have because many Americans never leave the country, so it will disproportionately affect lower income married women who change their surnames.
My letter to reps:
I oppose the SAVE Act because it will be used to disenfranchise lawful voters like me. It seems to unfairly target married women with hurdles, basically making things troublesome for people who've had a name change. It's unacceptable and unAmerican.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
This taxpayer is so tired of this bs with the IRS.
My letter to my rep:
Dude they're firing people at the IRS during tax season? And did you get my request I'm still trying to get the IRS rules for FSAs. You can't get through to anyone with IRS to get any information. And you're letting this tycoon root around in there with his hacker script kiddies, when here I am, the human, the taxpayer, who has issues. I just don't get it. I don't get how anyone can think this is the right way to run the country ffs. The IRS needs to function correctly. This is some bs. Look into it for pity's sake.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose the contents of my letter for your own letters to reps.
📍 Do Not Buy Day - FEBRUARY 28th 2025
Remember that any kind of economic action or boycotts will absolutely be shadowbanned by big platforms, and will be deliberately muted and will rarely get the right kind of media manipulation to go viral on open social media platforms. We must utilize the strength of weak ties and make contact with people more directly by word of mouth on a personal basis.
If you have questions about what this means, feel free to contact me.