Dealing with dumb government
This is a hopeful post about technology. The internet is an amazing tool to get and share information about government and policy issues — hats off to the state of Washington for its online presence. And the internet is a great way to find and build community. And our AI tools are excellent at parsing and explaining piles of legal documents and data. As citizens, we can use these tools to be better informed, find like-minded people, and exercise our political rights. A more informed, engaged citizenry is a very good thing!
This week, the Trump administration announced its Anti-Weaponization Fund. And I could rant about how gross, corrupt, and unjust this fund is, but many people already are. Even Republicans hate this fund — “stupid on stilts”, “slush fund to pay people who assault cops”, “…a galactic blunder”. Maybe enough politicians will find a spine to shut this thing down.
But even if they don’t, we as citizens can exercise our rights. We can get informed, communicate, and react in a way to diminish the effect of this fund.
I am inspired by the action of the Mueller She Wrote podcast creator, who has immediately filed a claim. It seems entirely justified. It is probably not what the Trump Administration intended, but it seems well-founded and will tie up the fund administrators' time.
We should each find a reason to file a claim with this fund. Washington State does a great job of tracking all the DOJ actions with which the state is involved. Almost all of us are impacted by partisan-fueled DOJ actions:
- Are you a registered voter in Washington? The DOJ is suing the state to get your private information. We know that the current administration has freely shared personal data with unauthorized DOGE staff, who have shared it further, who knows where. This exposes us all to identity theft and other misuse. I’ve had my identity stolen, and it has cost me hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars in tax prep fees, legal fees, and travel expenses (including a trip to Federal Court in Louisiana). This has real economic risks for all of us. Trump’s entire case against the government was about the illegal disclosure of his personal data; this is very parallel.
- Are you a voter in Washington, part II? The DOJ wants to disenfranchise you by potentially discounting your votes, and this is very politically motivated to reduce the level of non-MAGA voters. The Washington mail-in voting system is an excellent design that encourages participation while maintaining almost non-existent levels of fraud. There is no basis for this case.
- Are you a SNAP recipient? Many of these cases are aimed at you. And again, the DOJ wants all your private and personal data.
- Are you an Apple Health enrollee (nothing to do with Apple devices)? Again, the DOJ wants all your private and personal data.
- Are you a college student now or recently? Again, the DOJ wants all your private and personal data.
- Are you a birthright citizen or are your children? The DOJ wants to strip you of your citizenship and all rights.
- Do you have a student loan and are you working in public service? The DOJ wants to take away your right to loan forgiveness based on their own political calculation.
- Were you working on a research grant funded by the NIH or DOD that was canceled? Many of these were canceled for political reasons
- If you depended on FEMA emergency funding, wind/EV energy funding, SNAP benefits, family planning funding — all these have been cut, the DOJ is engaged with legal action against the state about these cuts, and it is clear that this is a political/lyideologically-based set of legal actions, and so you are being harmed by a weaponized DOJ.
I am filing a claim myself as a voter in Washington. Do I expect to win? The cards are stacked against me, but it is clear that the current DOJ is taking ideologically-driven action against every Washington citizen in various ways.
And whether I win or not, flooding this commission with applications seems like a valuable thing.