Last week, US Senator Cory Booker held the Senate floor for 25 hours and 5 minutes, kicking off his marathon filibuster by saying that he has “been hearing from people from all over my state and indeed all over the nation calling upon folks in Congress to do more, to do things that recognize the urgency—the crisis—of the moment. And so we all have a responsibility, I believe to do something different to cause, as John Lewis said, good trouble, and that includes me.” The urgency of the moment cannot be overstated. Thousands of people have been laid off from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The impacts of losing entire programs and core functionality of remaining programs will be felt for years to come and the most vulnerable members of our society will pay the price.

And that was just last week… before the US put tariffs on 150 countries, including 2 islands inhabited largely by penguins.

Lets talk penguins and more in this week’s wrap up.

Take Action

Share this safety and planning information with non-US citizens
Next day of collective action is April 19th, find an event here or organize one for your area.
If you are in the US, keep calling your representatives! 5 Calls continues to be a great resource or you can find the contacts for your representatives here.

Weekly Wins

5.2 million people joined #HandsOff rallies across 1,200 locations across the US.

Susan Crawford won her election in Wisconsin, helping maintain liberal majority on the state’s Supreme Court and delivering a decisive rebuttal to Elon Musk’s attempt to buy the election
Tesla sales continue to plummet #teslatakedown

Weekly Wonder

Molecular hydrogen takes a spin

Check It Out

Act locally and interconnectedly - Rutgers University’s faculty senate passed a mutual defense resolution, endorsed by associated unions, with an aim of acting collectively with other campuses.

Some advice for folks who have lost their jobs, from the wonderful Laura Helmuth
If your grant has been terminated, this resource may provide some useful next steps

Perennial Reads

Curious about the legal ramifications of EOs and other administrative actions? Check out Joyce Vance’s blog posts, starting with this one on the legality of the use of the Insurrection Act.
Meditations on an Emergency by Rebecca Solnit - bookmark it and read weekly!
Waging Non Violence by Daniel Hunter - concrete things we all must do to keep ourselves grounded and effective
Making Sense of it All by Liz Neeley - a weekly recap of what’s going on, with an emphasis on science and scicomm.

Book Nook

When the moon hits your eye by John Scalzi

Watch This

Backsliding and the Resistance in the United States - professors Erica Chenoweth and Steven Levitsky discuss what can be learned from mobilization and opposition to autocracy in the United States based on historical examples, and offer their assessments of where the U.S. stands today.

… by the way

We had a little snafu with our email last week, so if you missed last week’s wrap up, you can still read it (it was a good one!).