National Economic Blackout, Friday, February 28, 2025

Absolutely NO SPENDING for 24 hours beginning at midnight on February 27^th.

The assaults just kept on coming this week from the Trump/Musk administration. Musk and his unqualified DOGE minions continued their wrongful terminations of thousands of federal employees, many of whom are veterans who have devoted their lives to serving our country. Musk took his intimidation tactics a step further with a bizarre, Saturday night post on his social media platform, X:

“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week…Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

This was followed by an official email to federal employees from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with the subject line:

"What did you do last week"?

And speaking of bizarre, let’s not forget the chainsaw!

In addition to the relentless attacks on the livelihoods of over two million federal employees, and jeopardizing invaluable government services all Americans depend upon, it has been a very busy week for Trump/Musk and their followers in Congress. The House passed a budget extending and expanding tax cuts to the very wealthy, while gutting many essential programs, most notably, an $880 billion cut to Medicaid funding. It would be naïve to think that it is pure coincidence that at the very moment they are taking a chainsaw to our federal government from top to bottom, Trump and his newly-appointed cabinet members, who make a mockery of our constitution every time they speak, are publicly touting Russian propaganda and sending a clear message to our NATO allies that we no longer wish to be a member of team democracy. We are losing all credibility with our allies and their actions are making the entire world more dangerous.

The message from Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and the Congressional Republicans who support and enable their agenda, is loud and clear. They truly do not believe the federal government should play a role in supporting the American way of life. They have no real interest in governing. They do not believe in the “public good.” They are robbing us to make themselves richer.

When good government works, it is invisible. That is the real risk here. The public is slowly waking up to the fact our federal government has been responsible for making sure our children don’t die of childhood diseases before their 5th birthday, that our beloved veterans are cared for in their old age, that vaccines and food safety and beautiful parks are the result of a government that seeks to ensure that every person has the right to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It would be much too long of a post if we listed the good things that good government provides. We don’t have to list them. We are watching them being taken from us on a daily basis. It’s time we take our country back!

The sad truth, however, is that all Americans bear some responsibility for where we find ourselves. We have to come to terms with the fact that we have allowed ourselves to be lied to, manipulated, and pitted against each other by all kinds of bad actors. We have to ask ourselves, how have we contributed to this moment? In what ways have we been either complicit or completely missed the warning signs? What is our work now? What can we do to let them know that we are taking our country back?

What We Must Do

Our representatives need to be reminded (again and again) that they work for us, and we, the American people, are fed up!

• Again, please join H4D on February 28, 2025 for the national Economic Blackout. This event originated with The People’s Union USA and is being promoted by organizations across the country. Absolutely NO SPENDING for 24 hours on February 28th. If you must spend on essentials, please try to shop small, local stores and avoid using bank cards and credit cards.

• We also ask that you maximize your impact by recruiting 3 friends or family members to participate and to ask them to recruit 3 people to participate, in the hopes of creating a snowball effect.

• Please share information, including any of these images, on the 2.28 Economic Blackout to your social media networks, and ask your followers to recruit friends and family to participate.

  

This Economic Blackout is only the first step to let elected officials, corporations, and the media know that we are united, we are fired up, and they need to take our demands for change seriously. In the coming weeks, we will be sharing information on future boycotts planned to provide quick, easy, tangible ways to empower the people and keep this movement going. Remember, 70% of the U.S. economy is consumer driven. When money talks, they listen.

For more information on the Economic Blackout and other upcoming events, visit The People's Union Economic Blackout.

Yours in people powered resistance,

The H4D Team