Photo by Thor Tryggvason on Unsplash
Numbers matter. If they didn’t matter, wanna-be authoritarians wouldn’t be censoring labor statistics that don’t show them in favorable terms. The “flood the zone” strategy the Trump administration has been implementing is causing harm on a scale that is truly difficult to enumerate but all those numbers matter too.
14 million lives could be lost as a result of Trump and Elon Musk shutting down USAID and other international aid programs.
51,244 federal workers have lost their jobs so far under Trump’s second term and an as of July 2025, an estimated 148,000 total workers have left the federal government (including under various buy-outs).
14,000 people will lose access to healthcare as a result of Trump’s ban of gender-affirming care for federal workers.
59,000 people are being held by ICE as of August 10, 2025, majority with no criminal records and more than 8,100 people have been deported to countries not their own.
$8 billion in grant funds withheld by NIH and Trump is targeting much larger cuts to science funding across the board.
10 million people will lose their health insurance as a result of the Big Ugly Bill, which also cuts $120 million from SNAP and assistance for low income people and adds $3.4 trillion to the national debt
2.7C warming is likely under the current policy scenarios, with dangerous and compounding impacts, especially for the most vulnerable populations.
1,900 troops are being deployed to Washington DC under the pretense of addressing crime, as DC residents protest to free DC from military occupation.
All while Israel has killed more than 80,000 people, including 19,000 children in Gaza.
The damage in the US is connected to the damage elsewhere in the world, from food insecurity and famine in Haiti, Sudan, and Gaza, to trade wars and political instability across the world.
We are living in a post-accountability world, at least for the rich and powerful and their enablers. Tracking their actions and impacts is critical to have the kinds of accountability we need if we want to build a society that does not capitulate to authoritarian regimes. Accountability needs numbers.
We scientists are numbers people. Numbers don’t lie. Trump does.
Lets get to more numbers then.
take action
Scientists have a role to play in defending democracy - find what speaks to you and do it, ideally with others.
Join Stand Up for Science’s 31 Days of Action to remind Congress that zero cuts to science funding is the only solution
The Trump administration is forcing the EPA to repeal the greenhouse gas endangerment finding. Submit your written comments (evidence-based comments have a greater impact) by Sept 15th here
Share your science journey, maybe win a cash prize!
Keep track of these actions and add to our growing Action Lab database
weekly wins
Federal judge orders Trump administration to restore UCLA research grants
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu: “Silence in the face of oppression is not an option”
Texas democrats continue to protest unlawful redistricting
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Governor Newsom’s social media team’s trolling of Trump
weekly wonder
Making stuff out of seaweed
check it out
We must bring attention to and push back against the following actions:
Trump bans federal health insurance from covering gender-affirming care.
RFK Jr’s actions against vaccine development and access
Do not bend the knee
UCLA should push back against Trump’s grant freezes and false claims of antisemitism.
A Yosemite National Park ranger was fired for hanging a trans pride flag from El Capitan
Texas State Representative Nicole Collier and other democratic representatives are standing in the way of Texas redistricting to favor republicans.
Free DC tactics are working against the military takeover of Washington DC - lessons for the rest of us.
Check out the resist list for stories of non-cooperation against authoritarianism
Grab a sandwich and throw it at a fascist near you
Apply for the Council on Strategic Risks climate and ecologist security fellowship
perennial reads
It feels like hell on Earth, but another world is possible (Hammer and Hope No. 7, Summer 2025) - the end of the article includes suggestions for grassroots mutual-aid projects on the front lines in Sudan, Gaza, Haiti, and the US.
Book nook
August Lane by Regina Black is a scorcher of a romance, just the thing we need to finish out the summer and take a much needed short break from the doom of authoritarianism.
all ears
Do you know where the term mullet comes from? We didn’t either. Check out an older episode of the Decoder Ring podcast, Mystery of the Mullet.
…by the way
Lookie here, MIT backtracks on claim that scientists make more discoveries with AI.
🙃 Free DC Insta post “Remember what works”:
Do not obey in advance.
Prioritize joy.
Take up space.
Be in solidarity.
Organize.