I was on the womenforward.us“Know Your Assignment” call with Reps Jamie Raskin and Melanie Stansbury and they are two of our best fighters, so I really trust what they’re saying

Here is some of what I got out of the call:

1. Melanie talked at length about what is going on behind closed doors. She said that all 215 Dem are communicating on a scale they never have before and the senators are doing the same. She said they are using their voting power and using actions to put sand in the gears and be unruly even if we’re not seeing or understanding at all.

   She is on the DOGE subcommittee and she is using her oversight authority on that committee

   Also, every Dem House member is on some sort of task force. Only the Rapid Response one is public, but there are a lot of others as well.

1. She also said that Republicans who publicly say positive things are not doing the same privately. And when we have letters that work, she referenced the fact that they quietly ended mass layoffs for tribal programs, it is because Republicans were speaking to the secretaries and to the administration and expressing their disdain.

   So one way the letters are working, is that they get Republican electeds to act behind-the-scenes. That is probably the same thing that happened with Sen Jon Ossoff and how he got the admin to resume funding for the HBCU agriculture scholarship program.

   So we need to stop making fun of the letters and saying they’re not doing anything, they are.

   She said “don’t be fooled by the mirage they put on TV”

1. She also said that the Democratic AG are meeting daily to decide how to push forward, which are the best lawsuits, what organizations to work with for those lawsuits.

2. Raskin spoke next and he answered a bunch of questions in the clearest terms I have heard so far. First, what do we do if DT refuses to comply with the court orders?

   The judges can issue a contempt motion, which criminally we don’t have any standing for because that involves the DOJ, which is not on our side, but civilly it does not involve the DOJ.

   The courts can do things like seize property and impose fines, even on a daily basis. So for EM that would mean a fine of 100K a day until he does what the court ordered

   And if that doesn’t work, then we are at bigger actions that will be facilitated by the Democrats themselves, BUT WE ARE NOT THERE YET

   We are winning in court, and he is complying with some cases

3. Next he talked about our data.

   We are winning in the treasury case, but that doesn’t imply our data is safe.

   There is a class action lawsuit that we can use. Thanks to a Reagan law from 1986, that Raskin will provide more detail for in the very near future. For us to have standing, we have to have proof that our data has been tampered with and right now we have speculation, not proof. But the idea is that the entire US will be able to be a plaintiff.

1. He was asked what they are doing to bring Republicans over.

   He said that they’re focusing on Republicans who are retiring or who are freshmen and didn’t know what they signed up for, yes, there are some.

   He also said that he had Boebert and her family over for dinner. So if you’re asking how they’re talking to their Republican colleagues to try and talk some sense into them it’s really colleague to colleague conversations. They are trying every single tactic in the book.

   And he reiterated that the administration is offending and threatening a number of Republicans in moderate districts

2. He was asked directly about the shadow cabinet idea.

   It’s going to require negotiations between the House and Senate and the DNC who will take the lead.

   But the biggest concern right now, and the reason that it hasn’t started, is because some electeds are worried that once someone is assigned to be a shadow to a certain agency no one else will do their job. Kind of like how when you have a group project and one person takes charge, the rest of the people don’t do anything. So the people in favor of a shadow cabinet are having to convince the people not in favor of it that will run smoothly and be successful

3. He was also asked about what is going to happen with the agencies.

   This is a case where Congress has standing and no one else does. That’s why the unions got ruled against, they just didn’t have the standing.

   He said we will have more info about this in the coming weeks, but given that they are trying to reverse a century of American history, Democrats and Congress will probably be asserting their right to go to court themselves on behalf of the agencies

4. And lastly for Raskin, he talked about corruption.

   Whenever you see the idea that they are getting rid of waste fraud and abuse you need to shut it down. 

   He suggested that everyone takes some time and read this document

   democrats-judiciary.hou…

   As well as other documents on the same subject in different committees, like appropriations and oversight.

   If the administration cared about corruption at all, they would not have fired the Inspectors General. Corruption is needed for authoritarianism to thrive.

   We have to find the language to explain this to people who either don’t get it or don’t think they care

5. Finally, Melissa came back to talk about our calls to action.

   She reiterated the importance of town halls, calling and showing up.

   Raskin also mentioned that if you want to have a Democrat in your Republican district, you have to contact them. They aren’t gonna come unless they’re invited. They do not wanna overstep.

   So please invite Democrats from nearby districts !

6. If you are a donor, especially if you’re a Republican donor, use that power. Contact all of the electeds that you donated to and pressure them. That includes if you know members of your local government, they can put pressure on their national counterparts, kind of like what the Alaskan state legislature did yesterday

   s3.documentcloud.org/do…

   And if you know anyone involved in the administration, use that power, I know most people reading this probably don’t, but I also don’t know who follows me.

   The secretaries, even the worst of the worst were not OK with EM asking their staff what they did that week. We can use that.

7. And finally, get involved on the ground in any way you possibly can, that means mutual aid that means helping candidates get elected at every level of government and that means maybe even running for office.

So, we have our marching orders from our favorite Democrats in Congress themselves and, we know what they are doing and yes, things are happening behind closed doors. I hope this helps.

I got a lot out of the meeting and I hope you get a lot out of this summary.

Our voices are our superpower, but only when we use them!