These are not comprehensive notes. I’ll try to bring order to this chaos whenever I have some spare (ha ha) time. They are only links to some information sources and advocacy groups that are recommended by me or by someone whose judgement I regard highly. Currently these are very USA-oriented. I welcome more international suggestions.
Feel free to use the Contact form in the sidebar to suggest additions.
ICE Raid Response
If USA Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are raiding locations in your area, or you need help finding someone who has been taken by ICE, or you want to report ICE activity, you can call the ICIRR hotline at 1-855-435-7693 (1-855-HELP-MY-FAMILY). The hotline has operators who speak English, Spanish, Korean and Polish.
Current Events / Politics / Advocacy
Alt National Park Service — The voice of tens of thousands of federal workers who dare not speak up about what is happening in the USA’s government any other way. Highly reliable inside information before it shows up in the media (which it eventually does after verification), provided by brave people who are doing all they can to honor their oath to the Constitution until they are discovered and purged. They post in Facebook, BlueSky and probably other social media that I don’t use any more.
Allison Gill — (Mueller She Wrote) Breaks down legal proceedings in the USA to make what’s happening in key legal cases understandable for the rest of us.
Carole Cadwalladr — Observer journalist in the UK, speaks truth to power even though the personal cost to her has been enormous.
Daily Beans podcast — Allison Gill (yes, Mueller She Wrote) and Dana Goldberg deliver a progressive news podcast “with swearing.” It isn’t actually daily. It can ramble a little, but it’s good and always includes a cheery segment.
Dan Rather — (Steady) Former major television news anchor, an old-school journalist now publishing in newsletter form.
Democracy Docket — News, analysis and opinion related to voting rights, election and election litigation.
Goods Unite Us — Performs political background checks on brands and companies (e.g. which party they support with political donations).
Heather Cox Richardson — American historian who puts current events into historical context. Usually my first read every morning.
Indivisible — If you are in the USA and want to push back at this regime but don’t know how, start here. Find (or start) a local Indivisible group so you aren’t in this alone. Use the guides this website provides, both longer-term and as-it-happens for specific items. You don’t have to dive in up to your ears. You’ll find how to do something that is within your bandwidth.
Joyce Vance — (Civil Discourse) Former United States Attorney, currently a law professor and legal analyst for MSNBC and NBC, co-host of a couple of podcasts.
Laurence Tribe — Professor of Constitutional law (Harvard).
Rachel Maddow — MSNBC, usually Monday nights but 5 nights a week during the first 100 days of the new regime. On fire these days. This link is audio only. MSNBC provides video.
Robert Reich — Where power is, and how it is used and abused.
Seth Abramson — Journalist, lawyer, Presidential historian, former CNN and BBC contributor.
Strict Scrutiny — Podcast by 3 law professors about the USA’s Supreme Court and the legal culture around it. (This is on multiple podcast platforms. Recommended by my brother.)
Tennessee Holler — Small independent news outlet in Tennessee (last place I lived before moving abroad).
Tennessee Lookout — Small independent news outlet in Tennessee (last place I lived before moving abroad).
The Bulwark — About politics and culture in the USA.
Wired — News about security, politics (surprisingly good coverage), gear.
Legal Pushback Against the Regime
Court Watch — Pays the fees necessary to get copies of court filings and lets you see them. What they are doing is expensive. If you can afford to help them cover the fees they have to pay to the courts, please do.
Health and Medicine
American Medical Association — YouTube channel with updates every day about bird flu and other outbreaks. They have stepped this up now that the USA has withdrawn from WHO and the CDC/NIH are muzzled.
Caitlin Rivers — Force of Infection on Substack, weekly updates about disease outbreaks and food recalls.
Jeremy Faust, MD — Inside Medicine on Substack by emergency physician / public health researcher.
New York Global Health Update Report — Summaries of a selection of ongoing and emerging infectious disease outbreaks around the world, provided by New York State Department of Health now that Centers for Disease Control is muzzled.
Info for Americans Thinking of Moving Abroad
Jana Lynne Sanchez – Resources Page — Up to date, diverse, very good, by someone who lived abroad for many years, returned to the USA, and moved abroad again just before the new regime began.
Elon Musk’s DOGE Team
Click here to go to a partial list of Elon Musk’s team dismantling the USA’s government. Compiled from publicly available information.
Project 2025 Scorecard
Click here to see a rough tracker of Project 2025 implementation.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Click here to see two lists of large USA companies. One is of companies that have publicly affirmed their diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The other is of companies that have scaled back or denounced DEI. The lists are currently not cross-checked against political contribution patterns.
How to File a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request
Have you ever filed a FOIA request to get information from the government? I have, to see what the government had on file about me. You can file FOIA requests for a wide variety of information, not just for yourself but about matters of public interest. It is a potent tool for pulling into view information that is hidden in the vast labyrinth of government..
- Find the Agency: Identify the federal agency likely to have the information you need.
- Submit Your Request: Write a clear FOIA request, including details about the information you’re seeking. Submit it via email, mail, or the agency’s FOIA portal.
- Wait for a Response: Agencies have 20 business days to respond, though complex requests may take longer. If it’s going to take longer, the agency is required to ask you for an extension.
- Pay Fees (If Necessary): Basic requests are often free, but larger ones may have costs for searching, copying, or processing.
- Appeal if Needed: If your request is denied, you can appeal or take further action.
Hat tip to Alt National Park Service for reminding us of this when it is becoming more pertinent than ever.
Preparing If You May Need to Flee
Posted in Facebook by Danish author Joan Høj Jacobsen. Lightly edited and formatted. Used here with permission. My additions are inside square brackets.
I hope no one will need this. I really hope so, but I am aware that some might.
I’ve promised to only write positive things on Facebook for a year, and this one isn’t meant to be negative, despite what you may think.
It’s meant to save lives.
If I help just one person with this, then it’s worth it.
I’m not going to add any negativity to it, I’m not going to put my opinions on this. That’s not the point of it.
What you will see below are simple things to do, in case you need to flee. I am not myself a refugee. I never have been. But I am, in my 49th year of life, someone who has known and befriended refugees from every coneceivable corner of the globe, for over forty years.
What I am writing here is based on what I remember of what they have told me. It’s not a comprehensive list. There will be things that I don’t know, or have forgotten, but these are simple things to do if you are preparing to get to safety.
Here goes:
- Get yourself a large backpack. I do mean a large one. Not a tiny little fancy thing with a designer mark somewhere on it. Make it big enough to hold the things I tell you to put in it, down below.
- Gather up all your personal papers in hardcopy and, since we live in a digital age, if possible on a USB-stick as well. But first and foremost in hardcopy. Have everything, from birth certificate, marriage license, school papers, everything gathered up in one folder, and put that in your backpack. This is you. Your life, your identity, all the things you need to prove who you are. If you are a part of a persecuted group, make sure you try to get a hold of documentation of that persecution as well, but only insofar as it does not endanger yourself directly. IF YOU CAN GET A PASSPORT, get one, and if you have one already, this is particularly important to bring.
- Get clothes together that are comfortable. Again, I don’t give a single, solitary shit if it says Versacce on it, or D&G or Boss or whatever else. Make sure it’s durable. I realize that may cost a little money, but get it, nonetheless. Comfortable and durable. Make sure they are light-weight, above all other things. [Jeans are durable and comfortable, but bulky to pack and take ages to air-dry when you wash them or get wet in them. Consider something like durable twill instead.] One jacket, two pairs of trousers, three pairs of socks, some extra underwear and a couple of t-shirts. [Add a pocket-sized emergency “space blanket” for each person. It can save your life. Add a sweater and a set of thermal underwear too if you may need more warmth. Wool retains most of its heat-holding properties when wet. It’s bulky but if you have space for a wool sweater, you may want that instead of synthetic fleece.] A little note here is … make sure that the clothes are made from a material that doesn’t make you sweat excessively … some of us can’t wear specific materials without breaking out in a stink in minutes. Avoid those materials. The more you smell, the further away you’ll be trackable. Put one set of these clothes next to your backpack, ready to put on at a moment’s notice and the rest IN your backpack.
- Get some cash ready. No coins. They jingle. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount, but you may need a little bit of spending money along the way. Have it ready and put it in your backpack and never, ever touch it. Do not. Not even if you have to go three days without eating because of it. Find a solution, but do not touch that money.
- Get some sort of trail rations ready. Energy bars, bottled water, that sort of thing. Put that in your backpack too. Have enough to sustain you for at least two days. Do not eat or drink it for any reason, and swap it out whenever you think it’s about to outlast it’s good-by date. Water is going to be particularly necessary, and if possible, get a good canteen that can be attached to your backpack. [Consider whether you can add a camper’s water filter and water purification tablets.] The more of the necessary weight you carry on your back, the better. Furthermore, make sure you have a torch with some additional batteries. Make sure it’s EASY to flick on and off, as you may have to do that several times.
- Get good footwear. Not the fanciest, but good footwear that you can not only walk in, but run in. [In the USA, the most durable brand I’ve worn are Cabela’s. Their GoreTex lined waterproof boots stay waterproof for years.] Make sure it’s broken in, so that it’s comfortable to wear. New shoes are the absolute pit when you need to wear them for long periods of time … new hiking boots are typically even worse. Wear them in, then leave them by your backpack, along with a light windbreaker to wear. Don’t put them on again. You’re going to need them if the worst happens, so don’t wear them until that time arrives.
- Get a hat with some shade [a “crushable” brimmed hat will be easier to pack when you aren’t wearing it] and some decent sunglasses. Not only will they help you if the sun is coming down hard, but it’ll make it a little less easy to recognise your facial features, especially for people who are not used to seeing you every day, at a glance. [A few good N95+ face masks would be a good idea too. They are mostly for protecting you from airborne diseases. They won’t defeat facial recognition of camera feeds but can keep people you encounter from recognizing you from photos they have been shown.] Keep these in your backpack too.
- If you own a car, make sure you buy a Jerry-can and fill it with petrol or diesel, depending on what your car runs on. If you own an electric car, consider swapping it if it has insufficient range for what is to come, on fully loaded batteries. Have the extra fuel in your car at all times and if, for any reason, you ever need to use it, make sure you IMMEDIATELY refill it. Not the next day. RIGHT NOW!
- Now for some of the less materialistic issues. Sit down with a map … a physical map, not a GPS, nothing electronic whatsoever. Every cellphone is trackable based on where it is turned on, every GPS has a tracer in it since that is what allows it to pinpoint where you are and give you the correct map-info. A physical map is absolutely necessary here. Now lay out a the shortest route to the nearest border. Have two alternative routes prepared as well. DO NOT use major highways. Go by smaller roads whenever possible. They are less congested and typically less patrolled. Only use major highways if you have absolutely no alternative.
- Be ready to ditch your car at any moment to proceed on foot. It is only a material thing. Do not have attachments to material things. Do not have attachments to anything. Not your home, not your neighborhood, not your physical belongings … nothing. As the saying goes, you can’t bring these things with you if you’re dead, and if you need to run, it’s because you’re in danger of being killed. Do not, even for one moment, think that your favourite wall-painting, your grandmother’s vase that you inherited and love above all other things, or your precious knick-knack on your shelf is going to benefit you or help you. In fact, leaving them behind may stall anyone coming to look for you, who knows about them, because it’ll look as if you’re going to return. If you bring something with you that people around you KNOW you are deeply attached to, it’s an immediate alarm-bell that you’re not going to return.
- Do not … under any circumstance whatsoever … tell anyone about your plans, except other adults that you are planning on fleeing with. Not your bestie. Not your close relations, your colleagues or the guy you’ve had a beer with at the local pub every Thursday for the last thirty years. Not even your children. Children talk! No matter HOW much you tell them not to, kids slip up, and it’s not through any fault of their own. They’re kids. They’re learning. Blame will not aid you in this. If you have a wife or a husband and you’re running with them, they can know. No one else. Now sit down … on your own if you are alone, or with your significant other if they’re coming with you … and have the world’s most unpleasant and horrifying conversation, with the topic “what is the line in the sand that cannot be crossed?” and then keep to it. When that line in the sand does get crossed, do not tell yourself “It may not be that bad, after all” or “let’s … just wait and see until tomorrow morning/next Monday/a little while yet?” … don’t. Just don’t. That is the moment where you go to your prepared backpack and you leave. You do not call anyone to tell them you’re leaving. You just go. You get in your car if you have one, or on the bus or train or whatever you need to, to get you to that border you planned to go to.
- Make sure, above all other things, that the line in the sand is NOT an executive order that all people of your colour/creed/sexual orientation/gender identity/political affiliation or whatever else needs to be arrested and interned. DO NOT wait that long. If you do, you’re too late. Make sure you identify the steps leading up to that point, and leave one or two steps BEFORE that order comes down the grapevine. If you somehow fail to recognize these steps, then run the second that order becomes public. They will not make an exception for you. No, not even you. Not even if your mum is secretly sleeping with the local party boss, or your granddad has connections from his time in the army. You will not be spared. No one will. So draw the necessary conclusion and get moving. Right then and there, even if it means leaving something you’re in the middle of half-done. This isn’t about convenience. It’s about saving your life. If you bring a cellphone while you run, make sure it is never turned on until you reach your destination. Again, it’s trackable. Yes, even your fancy, brand new model. They all are. [If you take your mobile phone with you, even if you turn it off, you are not safe unless you keep it inside a Faraday pouch. You can buy one cheaply on eBay. The pouch has to be closed in order to block signals to and from the phone. I keep the keyless fob for my car inside one when our car is on the driveway at home to prevent cloning of it.]
- When you reach a border crossing, make sure you deliberately approach officers wearing the uniform of the country you are trying to get into. Not the one you’re trying to leave. If that means waiting in some bushes for a day or two, then you wait in the fucking bushes for a day or two. When you do approach these people, you need to tell them this: “My name is insert your full, legal name here … no nicknames. I am a citizen of the country you are escaping and I am being personally persecuted, because of insert reason for being hunted here. I am officially requesting political asylum in your country and the protection of your government. I will comply freely and voluntarily with all requirements made by your government to assist in this process, and I will keep nothing secret to help prove the truth of this statement.” And then do as you have just said. Comply with them. Do everything you are told to do. Do not hide anything, no matter how uncomfortable or embarrassing. Tell them everything they ask you about, no matter how personal or private you may feel it is. Otherwise, they will not be able to help you. But if you do, you just might make it.
I hope none of you will need this.
But even with my wish to only share good news and positive things, this is necessary to share. It may not be a positive thing in the classic sense of the word, but if this helps even one other person … then it is.
It is, however, a very serious thing to post, I realize that.
Last night as I was falling asleep, I spent just over thirty minutes just scrolling down through Facebook.
In thirty minutes, I did not see one single positive, pleasant post. Not one.
No one shared pictures of their puppies or cats, no one was talking about how they had done something they enjoyed, or how they had had a good experience of some sort. It was anger, it was rage, it was hatred, it was fear, it was fury … and nothing else.
From people across the world, too.
And I understood that I needed to write this.
Thank you all.