1LolaWalser
What are you doing to fight back? Let's have some encouragement, some ideas that might help others, no matter how little. I know this is a practically dead site on a moribund site, but if I have to stand here alone lighting fire under arses and prodding threads with a stick, I'll do that.
2LolaWalser
This is US-based, searchable by state, all sorts of initiatives to begin with:
https://www.mobilize.us/electionresponsecenter/
https://www.mobilize.us/electionresponsecenter/
3krazy4katz
Thank you Lola.
I guess I am waiting to see what happens. Some of what "he who shall not be named" promises cannot be done without congressional approval and it is not clear he will get that even from his own party. I am ready to fight the expulsion of legal immigrants, but the method is not clear until it happens.
As far as abortion goes, this is now in the hands of the states. I know more women are dying since the end of Roe v. Wade but what to do except at a state level?
My biggest fear is that new Supreme Court justices may be appointed during this four-year period. This would be the most devastating result of the election. Everything else (with a lot of effort) can be blocked or eventually returned to normal.
Our best option, it seems to me, is to be very aggressive in 2 years to rebalance Congress with more Democrats but, again, I don't know how to do this. Maybe by that time, people will realize that the "President" doesn't have a way to improve people's economic situation and they will vote for Democrats. I don't know.
People who voted for "him" to end the war in Gaza probably don't realize how friendly he is with Netanyahu. So I can't imagine much will happen there. Ukraine is a different story. It doesn't look good for them considering his friendship with Putin.
Thoughts on actions anyone?
I guess I am waiting to see what happens. Some of what "he who shall not be named" promises cannot be done without congressional approval and it is not clear he will get that even from his own party. I am ready to fight the expulsion of legal immigrants, but the method is not clear until it happens.
As far as abortion goes, this is now in the hands of the states. I know more women are dying since the end of Roe v. Wade but what to do except at a state level?
My biggest fear is that new Supreme Court justices may be appointed during this four-year period. This would be the most devastating result of the election. Everything else (with a lot of effort) can be blocked or eventually returned to normal.
Our best option, it seems to me, is to be very aggressive in 2 years to rebalance Congress with more Democrats but, again, I don't know how to do this. Maybe by that time, people will realize that the "President" doesn't have a way to improve people's economic situation and they will vote for Democrats. I don't know.
People who voted for "him" to end the war in Gaza probably don't realize how friendly he is with Netanyahu. So I can't imagine much will happen there. Ukraine is a different story. It doesn't look good for them considering his friendship with Putin.
Thoughts on actions anyone?
4lilithcat
>3 krazy4katz:
My biggest fear is that new Supreme Court justices may be appointed during this four-year period.
The Supreme Court is the whole ball game. I have been saying that since Reagan ran! Nobody listened to me. I think I'll change my name to Cassandra.
My biggest fear is that new Supreme Court justices may be appointed during this four-year period.
The Supreme Court is the whole ball game. I have been saying that since Reagan ran! Nobody listened to me. I think I'll change my name to Cassandra.
7LolaWalser
>3 krazy4katz:
I think we have yet to see better data around the election, but so far, to my knowledge, Trump received fewer votes than before (2016). The liberal narrative where "the far left" supported him because of Gaza is bullshit through and through. It's Harris who lost millions of votes (I've seen estimates of ten million), not Trump who gained champions on "the far left". Basically, whoever voted for Trump before and lived, chose him again, with small shifts within non-white demographic groups--some more men for Trump, but significantly fewer women. What effect these shifts may have had is impossible to know without specific turnout data, but it's all scapegoating claptrap anyway compared to the main responsibility lying on the bulk of his voters: white men and women (the latter again significantly less Trumpist than the men, but still an uneroded LARGE plurality).
I think the Democrats are a dead party, or as good as. Weirdly, it's only Trump's shenanigans that may keep the corpse alive, if, as seems inevitable, his reign once again makes even zombies look good in comparison. But maybe this election was the final proof that being "the lesser evil" no longer helps at all.
>5 2wonderY:
It will be interesting to see the first thing Rump does in office. In 2016 it was an attack on funding for women's health.
This is everybody's fault. The Democrats could have chosen to tack left instead of right. Apparently many occasions were lost to act more forcefully and push to ratify the ERA, for instance, defend abortion etc.
I think we have yet to see better data around the election, but so far, to my knowledge, Trump received fewer votes than before (2016). The liberal narrative where "the far left" supported him because of Gaza is bullshit through and through. It's Harris who lost millions of votes (I've seen estimates of ten million), not Trump who gained champions on "the far left". Basically, whoever voted for Trump before and lived, chose him again, with small shifts within non-white demographic groups--some more men for Trump, but significantly fewer women. What effect these shifts may have had is impossible to know without specific turnout data, but it's all scapegoating claptrap anyway compared to the main responsibility lying on the bulk of his voters: white men and women (the latter again significantly less Trumpist than the men, but still an uneroded LARGE plurality).
I think the Democrats are a dead party, or as good as. Weirdly, it's only Trump's shenanigans that may keep the corpse alive, if, as seems inevitable, his reign once again makes even zombies look good in comparison. But maybe this election was the final proof that being "the lesser evil" no longer helps at all.
>5 2wonderY:
It will be interesting to see the first thing Rump does in office. In 2016 it was an attack on funding for women's health.
This is everybody's fault. The Democrats could have chosen to tack left instead of right. Apparently many occasions were lost to act more forcefully and push to ratify the ERA, for instance, defend abortion etc.
8LolaWalser
I'm not keeping a running tab, so this is haphazard... first they came for the transgender women in sports, all ten or so of them out of thousands (tens of thousands? I don't follow sports), these proudly fascist boys.
And then they came for any MENTION of women, or LGBTQ, in places like the publicly-funded institutes of research, and the obedient boys at NASA for example took up eagerly their little erasers and set to work. White male shitheads must reign supreme and alone as far as the eye can see and mind reach.
Never forget that when a group of men came to do this, other many more numerous men docilely obeyed.
And then they came for any MENTION of women, or LGBTQ, in places like the publicly-funded institutes of research, and the obedient boys at NASA for example took up eagerly their little erasers and set to work. White male shitheads must reign supreme and alone as far as the eye can see and mind reach.
Never forget that when a group of men came to do this, other many more numerous men docilely obeyed.
9LolaWalser
Rebecca Fielding-Miller, a UCSD public health scientist, told KPBS that the list of banned words circling in scientific communities was Orwellian and would hamper important research. “If I can’t say the word ‘women,’ I can’t tell you that an abortion ban is going to hurt women,” Fielding-Miller said.
Fielding-Miller also noted that it was illuminating to see which words hadn’t been flagged as problematic. “I guess a word that’s not on here is ‘men’, and I guess a word that I don’t see on here is ‘white’, so I guess we’ll see what’s going on with white men and what they need,” Fielding-Miller added.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/15/trump-banning-words-women
10clamairy
>8 LolaWalser: & >9 LolaWalser: I am so brokenhearted. I'm not giving up, but this is so much worse than I imagined.
11LolaWalser
We can't say we haven't been forewarned but I'm so mad thinking of what this is doing to young people, all the setbacks these infinitely petty yet infinitely mean things represent.
And Google! Removing the Pride and other dates from the calendar, including the Holocaust Remembrance and Women's and Black History Month!! Not that I'm a fan of corporate politics in any case, but to have given in so quickly to the bullies...!
And Google! Removing the Pride and other dates from the calendar, including the Holocaust Remembrance and Women's and Black History Month!! Not that I'm a fan of corporate politics in any case, but to have given in so quickly to the bullies...!
12clamairy
>11 LolaWalser: Yes, that angers me as well. They also caved quickly on the Gulf of Mexico thing.
13MarthaJeanne
>12 clamairy: Since I live in Europe they show me Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).
14krazy4katz
Every day the thought "Hitler was elected" rumbles around in my mind.
Resistance is essential but difficult. As a biomedical scientist at a university, I wrote to both my Senators (both Republicans) about RFK, Jr several times but that did not work. And they are not standing up for the hits on university finances even though they know how important our extensive university system is to the welfare of our state.
I don't know what to do. We must find a way! It is scary though if the Department of Justice is not on our side.
Resistance is essential but difficult. As a biomedical scientist at a university, I wrote to both my Senators (both Republicans) about RFK, Jr several times but that did not work. And they are not standing up for the hits on university finances even though they know how important our extensive university system is to the welfare of our state.
I don't know what to do. We must find a way! It is scary though if the Department of Justice is not on our side.
15lorax
>8 LolaWalser:
I know a lot of people at NASA. Most of them are picking their battles. If they don't obey lawful orders, they'll get fired, and this isn't where they draw the line in the sand. (The queer people and women and queer women I know at NASA agree with this sentiment.) It's going to get a lot worse than "take down lists of women in leadership" before it gets better, and people who resign in protest now aren't going to be around to fight when it does get worse.
I know a lot of people at NASA. Most of them are picking their battles. If they don't obey lawful orders, they'll get fired, and this isn't where they draw the line in the sand. (The queer people and women and queer women I know at NASA agree with this sentiment.) It's going to get a lot worse than "take down lists of women in leadership" before it gets better, and people who resign in protest now aren't going to be around to fight when it does get worse.
16LolaWalser
>15 lorax:
With no wish to argue and equally no power to do anything pertinent personally, I can only register my fearful opinion, which is that they are horribly, grievously wrong, and that bending this readily to what is only a beginning, will make resistance further on more difficult. The Nazis too began with a myriad "small" interdictions and proscriptions, all "lawful".
If I were in the US I'd be agitating for a total strike in all publicly-funded institutions of research, and if I were still working for such I'd absolutely refuse these measures, let them fire me before I complied, and then done everything to draw public attention to the deed. With collective action this would be powerful.
The symbolism is also important. To see these elite institutions kowtowing to two-bit fascist trash means the final victory of basest know-nothing fascism over "the experts". The entire point of decades of attacks on scientific expertise was to empty the public space of all authority except the fascists'.
Obeying meekly isn't the wise choice for survival, it's just helping them.
With no wish to argue and equally no power to do anything pertinent personally, I can only register my fearful opinion, which is that they are horribly, grievously wrong, and that bending this readily to what is only a beginning, will make resistance further on more difficult. The Nazis too began with a myriad "small" interdictions and proscriptions, all "lawful".
If I were in the US I'd be agitating for a total strike in all publicly-funded institutions of research, and if I were still working for such I'd absolutely refuse these measures, let them fire me before I complied, and then done everything to draw public attention to the deed. With collective action this would be powerful.
The symbolism is also important. To see these elite institutions kowtowing to two-bit fascist trash means the final victory of basest know-nothing fascism over "the experts". The entire point of decades of attacks on scientific expertise was to empty the public space of all authority except the fascists'.
Obeying meekly isn't the wise choice for survival, it's just helping them.
17lorax
Let's agree to disagree. I am too close to the issue to be able to discuss "your friends and relatives should all be powerless and unemployed over a symbolic opening move, rather than staying in a position to fight more serious issues later" at the moment.
18krazy4katz
>16 LolaWalser: One of the problems is that the dollars necessary for biomedical research have to come from the NIH, NSF etc. even though we are a state institution. We had a faculty meeting the other day where the "appropriate terms" were explained to us. The was from our Chair who attended a meeting with the Vice Chancellor. For example, you can't say you are going to study just men or just women unless the specific subject is clearly gender-based (like pregnancy). For something like sickle cell anemia, which is clearly most prevalent in the black population, the safest thing to say is that your study sample will mirror the population statistics. That way the potentially 1% of white people who get the disease will be included. Fortunately I only work with fish. No gender bias there. So far, grant proposals submitted before these "terms" were established have been removed from review, examined and then put back in. I think that is because no one wants to follow these "appropriate terms" so they are paying lip-service to this directive and not following it.
So far I am proud to say that although the Supreme Court had earlier found our student admissions procedure unlawful because of DEI (along with Harvard's—good company!) and we had to dismantle it, we are still standing up for inclusion in our hiring of faculty and admission of students to the best of our ability. This is done with revised applications and zoom interviews prior to decisions.
Also it seems the threat to cut indirect costs is unlawful because the amount is a contract previously negotiated between the university and the federal government. When it is up for renewal is when we have to worry. It remains to be seen how many of these promises/threats/insane ideas are actually put in place. So far nothing has actually happened. If this changes, it will definitely be time for protests.
So far I am proud to say that although the Supreme Court had earlier found our student admissions procedure unlawful because of DEI (along with Harvard's—good company!) and we had to dismantle it, we are still standing up for inclusion in our hiring of faculty and admission of students to the best of our ability. This is done with revised applications and zoom interviews prior to decisions.
Also it seems the threat to cut indirect costs is unlawful because the amount is a contract previously negotiated between the university and the federal government. When it is up for renewal is when we have to worry. It remains to be seen how many of these promises/threats/insane ideas are actually put in place. So far nothing has actually happened. If this changes, it will definitely be time for protests.
19krazy4katz
OK, never mind. I just read the news and things are worse today than they were yesterday.
20LolaWalser
I understand that each individual situation may represent various difficulties. Everyone must make their own decisions. But if there ever was a time to organise, this is it.
Things indeed look to be getting worse. Recall how quickly the relatively recent dismantling of the affirmative action resulted in a halving of Black student numbers at some colleges. These losses, and those that are yet to come (does anyone doubt that misogynist, homophobic, racist and other discriminatory policies will have effects on hiring, promotions, mentoring etc., in Trump's America?) will damage individuals and demographics, social fabric and mentality, for many years.
Things indeed look to be getting worse. Recall how quickly the relatively recent dismantling of the affirmative action resulted in a halving of Black student numbers at some colleges. These losses, and those that are yet to come (does anyone doubt that misogynist, homophobic, racist and other discriminatory policies will have effects on hiring, promotions, mentoring etc., in Trump's America?) will damage individuals and demographics, social fabric and mentality, for many years.
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