Prepping for Summer

I know I raised a big stink about us moving beyond preparedness, but we are in a moment that begs for some traditional (for us) moves. As I said a couple weeks back, the summer is a time for two of our biggest threats: climate disasters and state violence, and that means we have the remainder of spring to gear up for that. The fires already burning aside, it's a good idea to prep while we can for what's to come.

It's especially important that we stay sharp on the basics because we have to be in a good position to move past these steps at a moment's notice. You may have seen that nothing about anything is getting any better–about the only good thing happening in the world is that no one seems quite happy with Trump, including his voters. But that's not enough–relying on a change of scenery in four years won't save us.

Protesting

I say protesting, but I also mean other kinds of resistance. Regardless, we can no longer trust that our actions are not being monitored, no matter how small a fry we may think we are. Your participation in a protest, or organizing work, no matter how supposedly insignificant, can put a target on your back. We can no longer rely on the state's indifference to us, as it is actively starting to attack our numbers. This means we have to do our best to be untraceable, unindictable, and just too fucking slippery to be caught.

This starts with never, and I mean never, bringing your cell phone within a hundred yards of a protest or action you're not accidentally driving by. Phones are loaded with passive, never-off software that will trace back to you. Turning your phone off is not enough. A faraday bag is just a bag a cop finds your phone in later. Leave it at home–not in your car–and rely on other means of communication. Useful alternatives include: walkie-talkies (though you should assume your frequency is being monitored); and a designated comms operator, who will remain disengaged from the action–and ideally appear as nothing more than a spectator or even just a civilian in a nearby location. A comms person, depending on the action and where it takes place, can be almost entirely safe from the law–making this a low-risk way to back up your friends if you can't swing more physically or legally risky positions. Imagine being posted up in a cafe or bar, with a decent line of sight on the action itself, but all you appear to be doing is getting your matcha on.

And while anti-masking bills are proliferating across campuses and cities around the country, the fact of masking remains the same: no face, no case. Mask up–for your health, for everyone's health, and for your safety. Masking only becomes a definite issue when you intend on getting arrested, and we have already agreed not to do that anymore, right? (We have.)

Moreover, do something extra to hide your identity. Use CV Dazzle, wear glasses, a low cap, anything to reduce visibility and particularly to obscure your brow, which is a key part of facial recognition. If stationary, laser pointers can prevent cameras from recording usable footage (and agitate other witnesses). Whatever you do, don't cow to this pushback against masking. Continue to mask even when not throwing cheese on a Tesla–it remains a good move for your health and the health of your community. Do it whenever you're in public, to keep the pressure on others, to remind them this is a post-COVID world–just not in the way they may think.

Other tips for protesting, as always, are in the archives.

Climate

It's not likely that 2025 will be the hottest year on record, but it is likely that 2025 will be the third hottest year on record. Considering the number one and two spots for that record are last year and the year before, this isn't good and won't feel like any kind of a break. I got lucky last year and didn't get too much wildfire smoke, but there's no guarantee that streak will continue. Our personal health situations have deteriorated, so being able to keep our air clean and the house cool is only getting more important. And massive wildfires or no, there's always potential for a heatwave, blackout, or heatwave/blackout combo.

In order to do so–and with The Tariff Wars picking up grabbing anything and everything now is just a good idea–stock filters if you have existing air filters, or clean up the aisle at Lowes and make a homemade boxfan air filter. It's a good idea to have something scrubbing your air regardless of the season, as deregulation makes it A-OK to have more and more literal and figurative shit in everything we put in our bodies. It's not thematically tied to summer, but you should be filtering your water, too. Anything is better than nothing, but try and do better than a Britta filter to keep from acquiring more than one plastic spoon in your brain.

With Trump and Elon cutting everything under the sun, you can bet cities are going to be less inclined, and less able, to fund live-saving functions such as cooling centers, and you can probably also bet that somehow it's now easier for energy companies to decide to blackout portions of your city that just happen to include you when it's convenient for them. Plan accordingly by stocking a ton of water, and ideally ice. Put water in your empty mason jars, like the old timers did. If you have a way to keep something cold long-term, especially without power, make use of it. And, of course, think about utilizing your prepared position to assist others. Pass out cold packs and bottled water during a heat wave. Think about how you can assist houseless folks in a way that goes beyond the temporary, something that can help break the cycle altogether.

Next Up

There's, of course, a lot more going on in the world, and just in this mudpie of a country. You may have seen by now the Medium piece about Trump invoking the Insurrection Act on the 20th. We'll talk about that, and we'll talk about why we should, I'm almost sorry to say, reach out to our lib friends to get them on our side in light of the recent cross-country protest.