Keep Talking About the Files
Transparency without retraumatizing survivors: Epstein files, Haitian TPS, election power grabs, and a shutdown.
📌 NOTE FOR NEW READERS:
The 50501 Movement organizes peaceful action across all 50 states to defend democracy. This publication is nearly 100k subscribers strong and growing. If this resonates with you, hit subscribe!
TL;DR
Many things can be true at once: the public deserves transparency, survivors deserve protection, and powerful people are counting on the public to give up. The Epstein files release has already triggered an outcry after victims’ private information was exposed, serious enough that thousands of materials were taken down and the DOJ’s Epstein site went offline, prompting renewed demands from victims and advocates for stronger safeguards. A federal judge temporarily blocked the termination of Haitian TPS protections as they were set to expire late Feb. 3. And President Donald Trump went on Dan Bongino’s podcast to argue Republicans should “nationalize” voting in “at least 15 places.” Meanwhile, a partial government shutdown is already spilling into workforce disruption as Congress fights over funding and immigration enforcement restrictions.
Keep talking about Epstein Files
The Department of Justice framed its release as compliance and volume publishing millions of pages under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. (DOJ statement) But volume is not accountability, especially when the release process exposes survivors.
That happened here. Reporting confirms the DOJ pulled down thousands of files after redaction failures exposed victim-identifying information, triggering outrage and fear among survivors and their advocates.
(AP reporting) Separately, survivors and advocates have demanded stronger safeguards and takedowns to prevent further harm. (CNN reporting)
So “keep talking about the files” means to
Demand transparency with professional redaction.
Refuse to spread unredacted materials that put survivors at risk.
Push for accountability that produces facts and consequences, not a spectacle that retraumatizes victims and gives institutions an excuse to shut everything down.
The probe is widening and the public attention helps
This is expanding: Reporting indicates Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify in the Epstein investigation. (Al Jazeera reporting)
When the public stays locked in, oversight expands and the story becomes harder to bury.
What does “accountability” look like here to you, specifically? (Redaction standards, independent review, consequences for failures, etc.)
Haitian TPS: a federal judge hit pause, for now
A federal judge in Washington, D.C. temporarily halted the planned termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitian nationals that had been set to take effect Feb. 3. If those protections were lifted, people covered under TPS could face increased risk of removal to Haiti.
Courts are one of the only “pause buttons” available when mass harm is moving fast but a pause is not a win. It’s time, and time has to be used.
“Nationalize the voting”: A power claim
Trump said Republicans should “take over the voting” from states and “nationalize the voting” in “at least many, 15 places” during an appearance on Dan Bongino’s podcast earlier this week.
Shutdown pressure.
Workers can’t be the collateral damage
A partial government shutdown has begun and federal employees are starting to feel impacts as lawmakers weigh how to end it.
Shutdowns hit working people first… paychecks, services, stability, long before they hit the politicians who created the brinkmanship.
The public pressure should be aimed where it belongs: funding choices, oversight conditions, and measurable policy outcomes, not vague promises and another quiet cave.
Keep calling your representatives.
Demand no blank checks, demand real oversight, and demand enforceable guardrails.
Ask what conditions are being attached to funding and what protections are being preserved.
Protest song recommendations! 🎶
Resistance music is a form of protest all by itself. It turns fear into rhythm, grief into resolve, and isolation into something shared. Songs give people a way to keep moving when news is heavy and unpredictable. Music reminds communities that we belong to something greater than the moment: a long line of people who won’t be quiet, look away, or give up.
Some staples worth adding to a playlist:
“A Change Is Gonna Come” Sam Cooke
“The Times They Are a-Changin’” Bob Dylan
“Fight the Power” Public Enemy
“Alright” Kendrick Lamar
“Won’t Back Down” Tom Petty
“Fortunate Son” Creedence Clearwater Revival
“For What It’s Worth” Buffalo Springfield
“Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” Tracy Chapman
“This Land Is Your Land” Woody Guthrie
“Get Up, Stand Up” Bob Marley
Let us know your favorite resistance song(s) in the comments:
Sources
DOJ statement on the Epstein files release: Department of Justice
Redaction failures and takedown: Associated Press
Victims calling for takedown/safeguards: CNN
Clintons expected to testify: Al Jazeera
From No mercy/No malice
By Professor Scott Galloway
We frame economic power as a contest between capital and labor, but the real star of the American economy is consumer spending, which accounts for 68% of GDP. The Great Recession saw a 3.4% drop in consumer spending — at the time, the most severe year-over-year decline since World War II. The U.S. economy registered a 9.8% drop in consumer spending during the second quarter of 2020, when Covid shut down the world as we knew it. In both instances the U.S. government responded aggressively, spending hundreds of billions, primarily on bailouts, to pull us out of the Great Recession, and trillions, primarily in direct aid, to get us through the pandemic. The lesson? When consumers stop spending, American leaders start listening. As Geo Hussar explained to his YouTube followers at the end of September, “this is not seizing the means of production, but seizing the means of consumption,” adding that if every American dropped their consumption, on average, by 2%, “that would be the most loud and potent form of protest.”
Springsteen’s new Streets of Minneapolis!!