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executive action
A Citizen’s Executive Order for the Second Trump Era
Any and all necessary steps will be taken with the goal of bending the arc of history toward justice, no matter how slow and painful the process.
Jan 23, 2025
EXECUTIVE ACTION
January 23, 2025
ESTABLISHING BEST PRACTICES FOR MAINTAINING SANITY AND A SENSE OF INTEGRITY OVER THE COMING YEARS OF THE REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION AND BEYOND
WHEREAS, in light of the vindictive tone; short-sighted, self-serving orders; and dangerous, ill-advised decisions expressed by the incoming President, it is essential that there be maintained, to the degree to which I can control, in my own being, household, community, and society, a level of mindfulness, well-being, consideration, kindness, and integrity, enabling behavior and actions in alignment with the highest standards of civil discourse with respect for ourselves, our democracy, human rights, and equitable treatment and opportunity for all those in our country and abroad:
NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me as a Thinking Human Being and U.S. Citizen by Birthright, and by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States,
I DECLARE THE FOLLOWING:
1. ANY AND ALL NECESSARY STEPS WILL BE TAKEN with the goal of bending the arc of history toward justice, no matter how slow and painful the process, to address and reproach, immediately and clearly, all who mistreat, emotionally, verbally, or physically, others on the basis of age, racial or gender identity, or sexual preference; and protect those who may be victimized, whether as individuals or on an institutional level, by such behaviors; to speak truth to power by communicating regularly with legislators and executive branch staff and to vote in all elections for candidates who uphold my values; to avoid and discredit unverified news sources; to limit exposure to social media, with immediate and complete withdrawal from negative and innaccurate feeds and posts, while employing it to be a voice for peace, human rights, and environmental sustainability; to consciously reduce energy consumption by employing all available means including bicycling for transportation and by limiting my use of fossil fuels; to actively contribute to the betterment of the local community by volunteering and spreading kindness; and, to avoid partaking in the unnecessary consumer consumption that fuels the country’s wealth gap while directing resources toward just and appropriate uses.
2. OPPORTUNITIES SHALL BE CREATED AND PRIORITIZED for self-care, reflection, and creativity that will allow for physical and emotional health and sustainability over the course of time. These opportunities may include, but are not limited to: processing and releasing feelings appropriately rather than acting on them; taking long walks; enjoying talking with, visiting, and supporting friends and family; eating (limited amounts of) chocolate; making art; caring for and playing with children and animals; actively appreciating and nurturing the earth; and traveling.
This policy dictates that all proposed thoughts and actions be based in nonviolence and respect for all beings, with no requirement for or expectation to respect ideas and policies that are hurtful to others. These actions shall go into effect immediately, with due regard for the urgent nature of the matter, and the necessary time and energy required to maintain a sense of humor and maintain morale.
ADDENDUM: In the future, I shall refer to my high school alma mater (McKinley High School) as Denali High School and the wetland next to my trailer park as The Gulf of Justice.
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Musk and Ramaswamy Outline Plan for Mass Firings, Cuts to Antipoverty Programs
"The so-called Department of Government Efficiency is poised to make far-reaching recommendations that could have a devastating impact on Americans and enormously benefit insiders, starting with Musk himself."
Nov 21, 2024
The two right-wing billionaires President-elect Donald Trump has tasked with spearheading a new "government efficiency" commission outlined their vision Wednesday for the mass firing of federal employees, large-scale deregulation, and major spending cuts that could impact antipoverty programs, drug research and development, and more.
For the first time since Trump announced plans to create the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—which, despite its name, would be an advisory commission rather than an actual federal department—Tesla CEO Elon Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy offered a detailed look at how they plan to achieve their stated objective of taking a "chainsaw" to federal operations.
"We are assisting the Trump transition team to identify and hire a lean team of small-government crusaders, including some of the sharpest technical and legal minds in America," the pair wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. "The two of us will advise DOGE at every step to pursue three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and cost savings. We will focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws."
Decrying rules crafted by "unelected bureaucrats," Musk and Ramaswamy—unelected outside advisers—wrote that they intend to present to Trump "a list of regulations" they believe should be eliminated. The culling of regulations would, they argued, provide the justification for "mass headcount reductions"—corporate-speak for sweeping firings—across federal agencies, a plan the two wrote would not be deterred by civil service protections.
Watchdogs have noted that the regulatory cuts envisioned by the commission's co-leaders would likely benefit Musk's companies, at least three of which are currently under scrutiny from nine federal agencies.
"Based on Elon Musk's comments, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is poised to make far-reaching recommendations that could have a devastating impact on Americans and enormously benefit insiders, starting with Musk himself," Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman said Wednesday.
"A second Trump term will undoubtedly see a multipronged attack on any institution that seeks to constrain big business, and DOGE will lead the charge."
Musk and Ramaswamy also laid out a plan under which Trump would evade existing federal statutes such as the Impoundment Control Act to cut spending already allocated by Congress.
"DOGE will help end federal overspending by taking aim at the $500 billion-plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended, from $535 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $1.5 billion for grants to international organizations to nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood," they wrote.
As The Washington Post's Jacob Bogage recently observed, the federal programs "without separate spending authorization" that Musk and Ramaswamy are targeting "represent more than $516 billion" and encompass key areas including veterans' healthcare, education spending, housing assistance, childcare aid, student loan programs, Head Start, opioid addiction treatment, and NASA.
Musk, a megadonor to Trump's 2024 presidential bid, claimed on the campaign trail that he would be able to identify "at least $2 trillion" in possible cuts to federal spending.
Casey Wetherbee, an Argentina-based writer, warned Wednesday that "Musk and Ramaswamy's admiration of Argentine president Javier Milei offers us a glimpse into their ideal end state."
"Ramaswamy tweeted on November 18: 'A reasonable formula to fix the U.S. government: Milei-style cuts, on steroids,'" Wetherbee wrote for Jacobin. "When Milei assumed office last year, he declared that conditions would worsen before things would get better; Musk similarly warned that DOGE’s recommendations may cause 'temporary hardship.' Meanwhile, in Argentina, Milei's austerity measures have targeted the country's social safety net, causing the poverty rate to skyrocket while only lowering taxes for the country's wealthiest citizens, a troubling outlook for a second Trump administration if DOGE's advice is ever implemented."
"A second Trump term will undoubtedly see a multipronged attack on any institution that seeks to constrain big business, and DOGE will lead the charge," Wetherbee added. "After all, in DOGE's public call for collaborators, it seeks 'super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries'; that's how they see themselves. We can only hope that, by virtue of how evidently insufferable they are, DOGE's relationship with the Trump administration flames out spectacularly."
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House Progressives Offer Biden 'Bold Vision' With Executive Action Agenda for 2023
"The list that we have arrived at is not just a messaging exercise," Rep. Pramila Jayapal said. "These are actions that we believe the White House and federal agencies have the authority and the ability to take now and should do so."
Mar 30, 2023
Outlining the steps that President Joe Biden can take now to deliver justice for the working people who helped elect him in 2020, the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Thursday released its 2023 Executive Action Agenda to ensure that the president will "build on his record of progress."
The agenda includes executive actions, strong rulemaking, and enforcement moves that federal agencies can take in five key areas: holding corporations accountable, raising wages and empowering workers, lowering costs for households, continuing to promote climate and environmental justice, and advancing equity.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who chairs the CPC, said the agenda offers an opportunity for Biden to make an "even greater impact" in the lives of working people after the White House acted on proposals put forward by the caucus in 2022.
"I'm incredibly proud of what the CPC's Executive Action Agenda was able to accomplish in 2022, and I am thrilled to announce our 2023 slate," said Jayapal. "Democrats made essential progress in the 117th Congress, and the work continues to lower the cost of living, hold corporations accountable, and keep our promises to our communities. With a divided Congress, President Biden must make full use of his executive authority to continue to deliver for working families. I look forward to partnering with the president and his administration to enact this agenda and get results for everyone who calls this country home."
The agenda includes a number of proposals related to recent events in the rail, airline, and banking industries, with the CPC calling on the president to "crack down on airline misconduct and boost competition by fining airlines"—months after Southwest Airlines canceled more than 5,000 flights during the holidays—and to "take aggressive action to improve worker and community safety in the rail industry" as East Palestine, Ohio faces an ongoing environmental disaster stemming from a train derailment in February.
The caucus also called on the Biden administration to:
- Expand oversight of banks that have avoided enhanced regulatory supervision by subjecting all banks above $100 billion in assets to the Federal Reserve's strong supervision and mandating strong capital requirements;
- Strengthen overtime protections to give millions of full-time salaried workers making less than $80,000 a year time-and-a-half pay for more than 40 hours on the job per workweek;
- Examine how it can invoke the Federal Railroad Administration's authority to establish paid sick leave for rail workers;
- Reduce prescription drug prices through increased transparency, competition, and government negotiation;
- Pursue aggressive rulemaking to accelerate clean electricity transmission and achieve the president's emissions reduction goals through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission;
- Ensure fairness in the immigration court system by removing nonpriority cases from the 2.1 million case backlog and expanding government-funded legal counsel for adults and children;
- Fight consumer cost increases for working families and protect workers by developing an inter-agency task force to investigate, prosecute, and deter white-collar crime, including anti-competitive and price gouging business behaviors, as well as firms' exploitation of heightened inflation to pad profits, workplace safety violations, wage theft, anti-union retaliation, and other violations of labor law;
- Declare a national climate emergency and invoke authorities under the Defense Production Act and Trade Expansion Act, mobilizing domestic industry to manufacture affordable renewable energy technologies with good-paying union jobs for domestic use and international export; and
- Pursue an aggressive federal inter-agency effort to protect abortion rights and reproductive health by declaring a public health emergency, enabling the administration to redirect federal funds toward out-of-state travel for abortions and grant civil immunity to licensed abortion providers practicing in states where they do not hold a license.
The entire 2023 Executive Action Agenda is available here.
"The list that we have arrived at is not just a messaging exercise," Jayapal told reporters Thursday. "These are actions that we believe the White House and federal agencies have the authority and the ability to take now and should do so."
If the White House adheres to the agenda put forward by progressives in Congress, said Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, "everyone will win except the billionaires" and powerful corporations.
"Today, the American people are being ripped off. Medicare is paying drug corporations the highest prices in the world for drugs developed with our tax dollars," said Lawson. "Corporate insurers are stealthily taking over Medicare, then using algorithms to delay and deny care to beneficiaries. Private equity companies are buying up nursing homes and slashing standards of care. The end result is the same: People are hurt, bankrupted, and killed while the billionaires pretend that nothing can be done. President Biden should continue to take swift executive action to rein in these corporate abuses."
The CPC noted that its 2022 Executive Action Agenda resulted in a number of victories for working people across the U.S., including pending student debt cancellation for 43 million people, extension or designation of Temporary Protected Status for people from 13 countries, protections for immigrant workers from retaliation for reporting workplace misconduct, revisions to policies that allow for transfer of military weapons to local law enforcement, and invocation of the Defense Production Act to catalyze renewable energy technology.
"For the last two years, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has led in defining a legislative and executive agenda for working families," said Natalia Salgado, director of federal affairs for the Working Families Party. "Their advocacy and proposals laid the groundwork for the Inflation Reduction Act and executive action on canceling student debt."
"The CPC's 2023 executive action slate again shows the caucus putting forward a bold vision for how Democrats can use all of the power they have to deliver for working people," Salgado added.
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The GOP Will Be Zero Help When It Comes to Helping Working Families
To live up to any of his lofty rhetoric, Biden will have no choice but to take executive action.
Feb 08, 2023
President Joe Biden took full advantage of his State of the Union address to celebrate his administration’s victories for hard-working U.S. families and set the tone for progress and possibility for the next two years.
While the country is still suffering from high but easing inflation and the effects of a brutal pandemic, Biden has still presided over historic investments in children and families, climate, health care, and infrastructure.
He’s created 12 million new jobs, including nearly one million in manufacturing, in just two years — and achieved the lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years. Those numbers will only increase as more spending from Biden’s bills to manufacture computer chips, fund infrastructure projects, and invest in green energy kicks in.
Given the disconnect between his significant accomplishments and weak public approval numbers, Biden wisely used his platform to boast about these achievements — and to offer a clear vision for the future.
"In a divided Congress, Biden can’t simply throw up his hands and let lawmakers block progress. He must be prepared to use executive action wherever appropriate."
Two of his aspirational goals would be particularly effective in moving us toward economic equality: restoring the enhanced Child Tax Credit and instituting a billionaire income tax.
Biden’s expanded Child Tax Credit quickly cut child poverty in half. But in late 2021, conservatives refused to continue this highly effective anti-poverty measure — and child poverty immediately spiked. To renew the expansion would once again drastically reduce child poverty, a primary goal of any decent society.
It’s not like it would be hard to pay for.
Currently, billionaires pay an average of just 8 percent in federal income taxes, compared to nearly 14 percent for the rest of us. Biden’s proposed “Billionaire Minimum Income Tax” would right that wrong and also raise $360 billion over 10 years.
That’s enough to fund many years of the enhanced Child Tax Credit and is really, really popular with voters, including a majority of Republicans. Similarly, Biden’s call to increase taxes on manipulative corporate stock buybacks would also reduce inequality.
Biden also called for Congress to pass immigration reform, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to address police violence, the PRO Act to protect workers’ rights to unionize, and the Equality Act to stop discrimination against LGBTQ people. And he asked Congress to codify Americans’ right to seek safe abortion care after the Supreme Court stole it away.
Along the way, Biden pointedly rejected conservative demands for painful cuts to social programs — including Social Security, Medicare, and much more — for fulfilling their obligation to pay America’s debts, which skyrocketed during the last administration. We must hold Biden to that promise.
What’s more, in a divided Congress, Biden can’t simply throw up his hands and let lawmakers block progress. He must be prepared to use executive action wherever appropriate.
Already, Biden’s executive actions canceled student loans up to $20,000 (although GOP lawsuits have stalled that in the courts), clarified protections for transgender Americans, lowered prescription drug costs, and secured greater access to reproductive health services, to name a few.
For example, he could get his proposals to slash junk fees and end non-compete agreements done through his regulatory power.
Biden should also call public health emergencies regarding reproductive health, the epidemics of gun violence and police brutality, and a climate emergency. That will open up more power for the executive branch to protect the American people when Congress won’t.
In a divided Congress, Biden will need more than fiery populist talk or calls for elusive unity. He will need to ensure equality and justice for all through his power as president.
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Pentagon Deliberately Thwarting Efforts to Close Guantanamo
Reuters exposes 'pattern' of obstructionism that has prevented or delayed the transfer of cleared detainees
Dec 28, 2015
President Obama's repeated pledges to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center have been routinely and deliberately undermined by his own Department of Defense, according to a damning new investigation published on Monday.
Citing numerous administration officials, Reuters exposed a "pattern" of bureaucratic obstacles imposed by the U.S. Pentagon which have successfully thwarted efforts to transfer cleared detainees from the notorious offshore prison.
"Pentagon officials have refused to provide photographs, complete medical records and other basic documentation to foreign governments willing to take detainees, administration officials said," according to the Reuters excluive. "They have made it increasingly difficult for foreign delegations to visit Guantanamo, limited the time foreign officials can interview detainees, and barred delegations from spending the night at Guantanamo."
Such delays, Reuters notes, "resulted in four Afghan detainees spending an additional four years in Guantanamo after being approved for transfer."
"In other cases," the reporting continues, "the transfers of six prisoners to Uruguay, five to Kazakhstan, one to Mauritania, and one to Britain were delayed for months or years by Pentagon resistance or inaction, officials said."
In the case of longtime hunger-striking prisoner Tariq Ba Odah, Pentagon officials refused to hand over the cleared Yemeni's medical files to a foreign delegation, which had requested the files as part of their consideration to take in Ba Odah to their undisclosed country.
Now, 14 years after he was first detained in the prison and five years after being cleared for release, Ba Odah remains at Guantanamo.
Ba Odah's attorney, Omar Farah, issued a statement saying that if these maneuvers persist, "Guantanamo will surely outlast Mr. Ba Odah," who has been on a hunger strike for seven years, dropping to 74 pounds from 148.
"Today's revelations prove there is no line the Pentagon will not cross to frustrate the president's efforts to close Guantanamo, even potentially blowing up resettlement negotiations at their most sensitive juncture," Farah continued. "The only question is whether the White House is blind to or passively allowing the insubordination to continue."
Spokespeople for the White House and Pentagon denied any "discord" over efforts to close the prison. However, Reuters notes that the "Bush administration faced no political opposition on transfers and was able to move 532 detainees out of Guantanamo over six years." During Obama's seven years in office, 131 detainees were transferred, while 107 remain.
Earlier this month, Obama said he'd give Congress one last chance to approve legislation to help close the facility before taking executive action.
"We will wait until Congress has said definitively 'no' to a well thought out plan with numbers attached to it before we say anything definitive about my executive authority here," Obama said during a press conference.
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Obama to Announce Executive Action on Immigration
Thursday at 8 pm, the White House announced Wednesday.
President Barack Obama will unveil much-anticipated executive actions on immigration in a televised address on Thursday at 8 pm, the White House announced Wednesday.
In his Facebook video announcement, Obama said he will reveal "steps that I can take to start fixing our broken immigration system."
Nov 19, 2014
President Barack Obama will unveil much-anticipated executive actions on immigration in a televised address on Thursday at 8 pm, the White House announced Wednesday.
In his Facebook video announcement, Obama said he will reveal "steps that I can take to start fixing our broken immigration system."
President Obama Addresses the Nation on Immigration Reform from the White HouseOur immigration system has been broken for decades -- and every minute we fail to act, millions of people who live in the shadows ...
"Unfortunately Washington has allowed the problem to fester for too long," he said. Preemptively refuting Republican claims that exerting his executive power on this issue is illegal, Obama stressed that his plan lays out "the things I can do with my lawful authority as president to make the system work better, even as I work with Congress and encourage them to get a bipartisan comprehensive bill that can solve the entire problem."
The announcement comes nearly two years after Obama laid out his vision for reform at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he will return on Friday to present more details of the executive action before an audience of immigrants and their advocates.
You can watch the President's live address Wednesday at 8 PM EST here.
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