Must-Reads, the Tariff Mess, and What to Do
We must amass a movement that can unite people under a banner that centers autonomy, collective survival, and a future where no one is disposable.
Must-Reads
From community safety struggles on the Pine Ridge Reservation to massive cuts at US health agencies, here are some of the most important articles I’ve read this week.
- Drugs, Death, and Struggle in Indian Country by C. Frances. “For Richards, the story of Emily Blue Bird was one among many in a patchwork of trauma, courage, and struggle in a place where the dead are many.”
- The ‘Judicial Black Hole’ of El Salvador’s Prisons Is a Warning for Americans by Nikki McCann Ramirez. “As the Trump administration looks to crack down on undocumented immigration — using the specter of crime, gang violence, and “terrorism” as the justification for their dismissal of established law — their playbook is looking increasingly similar to Bukele.”
- ‘It’s a Bloodbath’: Massive Wave of Job Cuts Underway at US Health Agencies by Nick Valencia, Brenda Goodman, Meg Tirrell, Tami Luhby and Sean Lyngaas. “A massive wave of job cuts got underway at US health agencies Tuesday, with some employees receiving early-morning emails saying their jobs were eliminated and some unable to access the building when they arrived at work.”
- Democratic Party Leaders and “Free Speech” Warriors Shrug as Trump Deports Dissidents by Adam Johnson and Sarah Lazare. “There is opposition to this anti-democratic behavior, but it is coming from the bottom up—not from elites.”
- A Deadly Mosquito-Borne Illness Rises as the US Cuts All Climate-Health Funding by Zoya Teirstein. “‘Dengue is already found in many places in the U.S. that have never seen this disease before,’ said Renzo Guinto, a physician and head of the Planetary Health Initiative at the Duke-NUS medical school in Singapore.”
- Bread Lines, Empty Shelves, Bombed Farms — This Is How Starvation Feels in Gaza by Shahad Ali. “Urgent action is needed to stop the cruel use of hunger as a means of oppression and to ensure that we have the basic right to survive, and live with dignity.”
- USDA Cuts Hit Food Banks Across the Country: ‘This Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg’ by Marcus Baram. “The impact is being felt across the country, challenging food banks already struggling to meet higher demand, with hunger rates increasing in recent years amid inflation and the end of pandemic-era assistance programs.”
- With Detention of Beloved Farmworker Organizer, ICE Comes for the Labor Movement by Derek Seidman. “Juarez is currently being imprisoned at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma. His detention comes as the Trump administration escalates its assault against immigrants and workers.”
- 'I Want to Make You Immortal:' How One Woman Confronted Her Deepfakes Harasser by Samantha Cole. “He begged her to see him as her biggest fan, and to consider letting him start an OnlyFans on her behalf. He said he made money off of making deepfakes of her.”
- Unmarked Vans. Secret Lists. Public Denunciations. Our Police State Has Arrived by M. Gessen. “Those of us who have lived in countries terrorized by a secret police force can’t shake a feeling of dreadful familiarity.”
- FAU Police Seeks Immigration Enforcement Authority to Question, Detain People by Jackie Llanos. “Florida Atlantic University’s police department has a pending agreement with the federal government that would allow campus officers to question and detain people they suspect are in the country without authorization. The public university in Boca Raton could be the first to enter such an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which lists the campus police department as one of 75 entities that have submitted paperwork for consideration.”
ICYMI
This week, I published an interview with Daniel Hunter about the need to experiment and how we should engage with this political moment.
I also published a new episode of Movement Memos featuring my friend Dean Spade. Dean and I had a great conversation about relationships, processing our emotions, and the lessons of Dean’s new book, Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together. This turned out to be one of my favorite episodes of Movement Memos, and I hope you’ll appreciate it, too. You can subscribe to Movement Memos wherever you get your podcasts.
Final Thoughts
What a tough week. Egged on by Peter Thiel and techno-feudal enthusiast Curtis Yarvin, the administration has enacted catastrophic cuts at US health agencies. As I’ve previously discussed, Yarvin is a blogger who believes we must eliminate democracy and break nation-states up into a “patchwork” of fiefdoms governed by monarchical tech CEOs. Yarvin’s extremist views are popular in Silicon Valley, where various ideological cults hold sway. Peter Thiel and J.D. Vance have been known to parrot Yarvin’s ideas, and Thiel has previously bankrolled both Yarvin and Vance.
Yavin has reportedly told Milo Yiannopoulos that he viewed the 2024 election results at Thiel’s home.
Thiel’s financial support, of course, established Vance’s political career.
Yarvin recently wrote, “Every existing institution of science, outside the scientists and the labs themselves, must be fully cremated in a nuclear autoclave.” Yarvin argues that this destruction is necessary because, “To capture an elite, you have to demolish its institutions.” Only then, Yarvin claims, is a true “regime change” possible.
The current devastation of federal institutions is beyond anything most old-guard Republicans would have pursued, for all of their cost-cutting fervor. But the Republican establishment has surrendered itself to Trump and the power of the MAGA movement, while Trump has allowed Musk to take the wheel. Between the influence of Vance and Musk, the techno-fascist agenda has been the reigning influence in the White House in the early months of Trump’s second term.
Musk’s wealth delivered Trump the presidency, which Trump viewed as his only legal salvation. Fortunately, Musk’s wealth has recently been threatened by the #TeslaTakedown movement and by his own long-standing incompetence.
Musk also failed miserably this week in his efforts to buy another election. The richest man in the world and his affiliated groups sunk $21 million into a Wisconsin Supreme Court race, in an effort that rallied more opposition than support. In the end, Musk’s chosen candidate lost by ten percentage points. Musk had previously claimed that "the entire destiny of humanity” was at stake in the race. Now, the self-obsessed billionaire claims that he expected to lose the effort, and that the success of Wisconsin’s voter ID ballot measure was “the most important thing.”
It’s important to remember that while these men are highly resourced, and causing tremendous damage, they aren’t as smart as they think they are, and they can lose.
Of course, that’s no consolation to scientists or anyone who understands the scope of what is being lost as the nation’s health agencies are gutted. This is a devastating time. Many people whose suffering could have been alleviated or whose illnesses might have been prevented or cured will suffer horribly due to these cuts. It’s unconscionable. The parts of this government that are most worthy of preservation and expansion (medical research, disease prevention, the provision of public services) have been targeted for demolition, and the results will be calamitous.
For his part, Elon Musk may be stepping out of his leading role at the White House soon, which is a huge win for the #TeslaTakedown movement and humanity in general. Musk has previously predicted that he would lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency for another year, but this week, Trump signaled that Musk could be out within a few months. Between Musk’s lagging popularity, Tesla’s financial woes, and the failure of his dubious cash giveaway schemes in Wisconsin, things simply aren’t going well for the billionaire. However, as Sasha Abramsky has written, forcing Musk out of the White House will not be enough. His influence will not fade, and the momentum of DOGE is likely to continue in his absence, as the influence of figures like Yarvin and Thiel looms large in the White House.
Among the cooperative (and sometimes competing) forces that comprise this regime, there is, of course, the president himself, whose bizarre obsessions and destructive whims also shape the course of our lives. Trump, whose public musings range from nonsensical and confused to preposterous, wants to annex Canada and Greenland (by force if necessary), and his words and aspirations are routinely normalized by the Republican Party and the corporate press, all of whom fear him. Humoring Trump and assuming that his most outlandish policy ideas won’t come to pass came at a heavy cost this week as Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on all US trade partners. Stock markets around the world are falling in the wake of Trump’s actions, and fears of a major economic depression are widespread.
Russia was notably exempt from the tariffs—an exception the White House chalked up to a lack of trade between the US and Russia due to the war with Ukraine. This explanation falls short, however, given that uninhabited volcanic islands near Antarctica made the tariff lists. (The penguins of Heard Island and the McDonald Islands could not be reached for comment.)
Trump claims the bizarrely calculated tariffs will make the US stronger and empower American workers, but there is no conceivable scenario in which people in the US will benefit from these moves. These tariffs are the thought work of a blundering bigot who does not understand the world economy any more than he understands the lives of everyday people. The tariffs could cost the average American household as much as $5000 per year.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t know many people with an extra $5,000 per year to spare.
MAGA is the controlling political force that both techno-fascists and the GOP have bound themselves to, which has made this moment inescapable for parasitic oligarchs and establishment Republicans alike. Congressional Republicans will catch blowback as Trump’s actions cause the public pain, and they may experience electoral losses as a result (if future elections are allowed to proceed without massive interference). For the techno-fascists, there will likely be some lost wealth as the economy suffers, but the ultra rich will also be ready to reap the benefits of any disaster. When economic systems fall apart, people who are too rich to fail buy up the rubble and create new systems that center their own interests. The fallout of any economic crisis we face now could be leveraged by techno-fascists who are keen on building Yarvin’s “patchwork” of feudal, corporate fiefdoms.
So, what do we do about all of this? I see two urgent paths. One is mutual aid and community care. Food banks and public services were already being hit hard by the DOGE cuts. Mutual aid efforts that support people’s basic needs will be more important than ever. Consider joining or starting an effort in your area. Supporting food banks is also deeply important right now, as many will not be prepared for the surging need we could soon be faced with. Strengthen your solidarity networks. Figure out what you can do to help the people around you stay afloat. Foster a mentality of getting through this together.
Given that this move will have dire consequences for the public, we must also provide people who are negatively impacted pathways into movements. If someone affected by the DOGE cuts, by the abandonment of scientific research (such as efforts to cure Alzheimer's), or by rising prices came to you and said they wanted to protest or take action, where would you send or invite them? To an organizational meeting? To a #TeslaTakedown protest? To a public assembly? It’s important to have answers ready when these conversations arise. Do not leave people to languish in despair. Direct them toward meaningful action. If the right option doesn’t exist in your area, consider organizing something new. If these sanctions continue and the public begins to turn against this administration, the oligarchs will have every incentive to ramp up their anti-democratic efforts. They will try to rig the system and prevent us from ever dislodging them. We must amass a movement that challenges those actions—one that can unite people under a banner that centers autonomy, collective survival, and a future where no one is disposable.
Much love,
Kelly
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