Author: Lee

AI generated image of an ice sculpture with the words "Abortion access"

Support access to abortion

Ever since Roe was reversed by the Trump-appointed majority Supreme Court, access to abortion has become harder and harder in the USA.

The good news is that many states have been passing measures to make abortion more accessible. In 2024, voters passed seven out of ten ballot measures supporting access to abortion (and even in Florida, where it didn’t pass because the constitutional amendment needed 60% to pass, the measure received 57% of the votes).

Planned Parenthood has been one of the stallwarts in providing access to abortions (and all family planning services!). You can donate money or your time.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund is an advocacy organization that, while independent of Planned Parenthood, acts as the political wing of the organization.

Center for Reproductive Rights is a global human rights organization of attorneys and advocates working to ensure reproductive rights are protected in law as fundamental human rights for the dignity, equality, health, and well-being of every person.

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AI image showing protestors, one embedded in an ice sculpture

Join networks for protests

If you want to join protests, join a network/email/text list so you’ll get announcements.

Remember, if you don’t feel like attending a protest you don’t need to. These resources are for those who are looking to join protests.

Here are a few that include protests around the country:

  • 50501 (started for April 5th, 2025, but will likely post other protests in the future).
  • Women’s March

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AI image of ice sculpture with the word Health in it and a warm light below the word

Take care of your health

You don’t need to join a gym or become a vegetarian, but make sure you’re being healthy. When the world looks bad, it’s easy to fall into bad habits, so try to avoid this trap.

If you’ve been thinking about making a change in your lifestyle, now may be a good time to do it. For example, eating less meat is not only health for you, it helps the environment. If you’ve thought about becoming a vegetarian, give it a try. You might want to start by not buying meat for the home, but still eat it when you go out.

Bottom line: Set goals you can achieve.

Tips for staying healthy:

  • Build a calendar to track your successes. It’s easy to forget to do things you want, so having a visible reminder may help you keep close to your goals.
  • Set reasonable goals. Either maintaining your current habits, or making small changes in the direction you want to improve. Setting too high goals may set yourself up for failure.

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map showing national parks in the USA

Support your federal parks

With the slashing of the Federal Parks budget, our parks will need all the help we can give. Donate time or money to help them out. Hopefully, in four years, we’ll be able to rebuild the National Parks Service.

At this point, we’d advise donating to organizations that support the parks, not directly to the parks (who knows the ways the Trump administration may find to divert that money).

Donate money

Volunteer your time

  • Contact your local park to see if they have volunteer opportunities.

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AI image of an ice sculpture with the words 'tax cuts'

Local and state taxes

It’s tax time now for 2024 tax year. When you file your taxes, calculate your overall federal tax rate.

President Trump certainly has plans to lower billionaires’ taxes, but he’ll likely lower taxes on all of us…if just to keep ‘the common person’ thinking he’s working for them.

Next year, when you calculate your federal taxes, if they’ve dropped significantly, pledge your ‘savings’ to your local or state government/schools. Our local governments will likely have a decrease in support from the federal government, so sending your ‘savings’ to them won’t cost you anything, but will support your local government institutions.

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image of a person looking at a phone with a worried look

Don’t build doom-scrolling

We don’t want to bury our heads in the sand, but it’s also unhealthy to focus too much on all the horrible things that come out of Mr. Trump’s mouth (or his minions’ mouths).

Here’s a suggestion: For every post you make about something horrible in the news, add one post about something positive. Maybe it’s about something personal in your life, maybe it’s about success in politics at the local/state level, maybe it’s an announcement of an upcoming protest…but make it positive.

Our mental health depends on it, and our survival depends on our mental health.

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graph showing fuel economy dropping from 55 to 75 MPG for three types of vehicles

Slow down when you drive

The Trump administration is slashing environmental protections across the board. One way you can fight back is by slowing down when you drive. Research shows1 2 that driving 55 instead of 65 (or even faster) saves significant gasoline. Yes, we’re not going to get the current administration (nor, maybe, any administration) to lower the speed limit, but that doesn’t mean you can’t slow down on your own.

I tend to drive 55 MPH on highways. I put on cruise control and get in the ‘slow’ lane. On many highways (in California, at least), the speed vehicles with three or more axles is 55 MPH, so technically all these vehicles shouldn’t be passing me (although many do). It takes a bit of time to get used to it, but I’ve never been rear ended, rarely have anyone tailgating me, and only occasionally does anyone flash their highbeams at me.

If I’m driving on a 70 MPH freeway, I’ll usually speed up to 60, keeping my speed ten MPH below the posted speed limit.

If you’re wondering, the only “minimum speed” signs I’ve ever seen on highways seem to be 40 or 45 MPH, so I’m way above those.

“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change,” wrote Gandhi. “As a [person] changes [their] own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards [them].” [source]

Driving electric cars

Gasoline vehicles have gears, and as such a car can running with the engine at the same RPMs (revolutions per minute) is less efficient at lower speeds when wind resistance isn’t that strong. In gas cars, therefore, it’s when your engine is in it’s highest gear that it maximizes it’s engine efficiency…but when you get to speeds around 50+ the wind resistance kicks in and starts decreasing the efficiency.

Electric cars, on the other hand, tend to be ‘direct drive’ with no gears (you can go from ‘0 to 60’ without feeling any gear shifts). The electric motors are still going to have a most efficient rotational speed (RPMs), but while they may be ‘tuned’ to be most efficient at speeds similar to highway speeds[I haven’t been able to find stats on the most efficient speed for the motor to run at], once they get up to highway speed the rules of physics apply just like to gasoline cars: Higher speeds have significantly higher wind resistance and thus decrease ‘fuel’ efficiency.

Bottom line: 55 MPH will save energy and increase your cars range.

Driving around town: Never break the speed limit

I think a common statement is ‘the cops will never give you a speeding ticket unless you are driving 5-10 MPH over the speed limit.’ This may be true, but it doesn’t mean you need to speed up. Lower speeds around town also allow you to notice problems in the road and react with more time to turn or slow down.

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Ditch corporate internet access

Whether it’s Xfinity, AT&T, Verizon or some other mega corp you are using for internet access (your ISP), there are options in many parts of the country that will get you connected to the internet without sending money to conservative campaigns.

In the greater San Francisco Bay Area, I love Sonic (referral disclosure3). They are a great company with all employees actually stationed in the US, and you get to talk to a real person without having to first navigate a nonsense phone response system.

Another option in the SF Bay Area is MonkeyBrains. I think you need to have ‘line of site’ to one of their antennas (they are wireless), but I have a friend who thinks they are great.

If you have a favorite local ISP, link to it in the comments and I’ll add it here.

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