"Type the word 'Resign'...Hit 'Send'"

I couldn’t sleep last night.

First, there was the heartbreaking tragedy of that airplane crash into the Potomac. Just awful. I kept waking up, checking my phone in the hopes of reading about heroes and survivors.

And I also couldn’t sleep because the email about the mass purge of the federal government just kept echoing through my mind. And amid so much “shock and awe,”what it meant became more and more clear as I tossed, turned and checked for updates.

First, it was a thuggish email, basically threatening millions of workers that life for them is about to get very difficult (“furloughs,” “reclassification[s]”, “address in a fair and open way those who do not meet the high standards”). A not so subtle signal that the recipients may not survive the change coming their way, at least professionally.

Then the offer to escape it all came via a “deferred resignation.” (And be very clear, what was offered was not a lump-sum buyout, as has been widely misreported. As Judd Legum explains, what is being offered here is far less certain).

Recipients were instructed to respond to this email with one word:

“Type the word ‘Resign’ into the “Subject” line of the email. Hit “Send”.

“Resign.”

Think about that.

These are professionals and public servants and highly skilled and trained experts providing critical front line services to Americans.

To veterans. To patients. To children. To those in need.

For public safety (like aviation or emergency relief). For scientific progress. For national parks and clean air. For public health—say, preventing a bird flu pandemic.

Told to just go away with a single word.

“Resign.”

And this was a blanket email, only a week into the new Administration (meaning, there’s been no time to assess anybody).

Which also sent a different signal: It doesn’t matter how skilled you are. How qualified. How experienced. How expert. How hard you work. How passionate you are. How strong the team you are part of is.

None of it matters. None of what you’ve done matters. None of you matter.

You are garbage.

We’re better off without you—this email tells them—even though we don’t even know you or your story or your work or your team.

“Resign.”

Needless to say, the first target of these emails are the workers themselves.

But think about it: they are just the first wave of targets.

The blanket nature of the email makes it clear those now on top don’t care what the services themselves are (except a few they exempted).

And because they clearly don’t care who serves in these positions or who resigns, it means they don’t care about any of these services being done well, or done at all.

And that means the much bigger target of this email are all those Americans who those in government serve.

Such as:

Are you a veteran? Because this email just announced that those on top don’t care who serves, or supports or treats you or your needs. Whether they’re good or bad, skilled or passionate…they just don’t care. They want them gone.

Do you travel? Do you rely on air safety and the Department of Transportation or the FAA to keep you safe? Well, they don’t care. However skilled people may be, however experienced, they want them gone. They could care less who might be the best at critical safety roles such as these.

Are you sick? Fighting cancer, or at risk of it, hoping for research to keep you alive? They don’t care who leaves—even if they are the people on the brink of breakthroughs, or funding breakthroughs.

Are you reading about the growing risk of avian flu? At risk, or just paying attention? Or a farmer? Too bad. Because they don’t care who leaves—even if they are the scientists and veterinarians and Department of Agriculture employees tracking and triaging avian flu as we speeak.

“Resign.”

This email is a flashing red light to millions upon millions of Americans—whatever the service being provided to you, we just don’t care who does it. Which means, in the end, we don’t care about YOU.

And if it wasn’t already painfully clear to you—this is not about “DEI.” That’s how they’ve politically framed much of their assault on America, as they play the tired American game of divide and conquer. It’s the same thing they do throughout Project 2025. And as they always do, this is to make some feel unthreatened by what is a much broader assault.

But this email makes clear: it doesn’t matter who you are, be threatened. Because this is about America, the federal government and therefore ALL Americans. All of us.

If you still think you’re somehow safe because it's about DEI, you’re the mark!

The agenda is simply to destroy it all. (Some of the top thinkers they admire have written this all down, in even darker terms than Project 2025). And this is what Musk had in mind when he said Americans would have to go through some “hardship.”

And in the wreckage of their hoped-for purge and the “freeze,” they will harness whatever remains for their power. As with the grotesque cabinet appointments, they will fill these positions with loyalists, not caring if they are qualified for any of them. And if red states are any indicator, they will use much of that power for corruption and self-enrichment of favored private interests.

These emails, sent in the thuggish way that are, make this all very clear.

The Reponse: Do NOT Resign

Federal employee unions and some political leaders have responded to this email by urging the recipients of these emails NOT to respond, and NOT to resign.

Senator Tim Kaine instructed: "The president has tried to terrorize you for about a week, and then gives you a little sweetheart offer if you resign in the next week…Don’t be fooled! …If you accept that offer and resign, he’ll stiff you.… That promise is worth nothing."

Good!

Timothy’s Snyder’s first tule applies perfectly here: “Do not obey advance.”

In this case, this means: DO NOT RESIGN.

DO NOT RESPOND.

And that goes for the rest of us.

The best thing we have going for us is US.

Seeing clearly just how radical and extreme their plans are.

And collectively standing up and speaking out on all of this.

Do NOT RESIGN. As citizens. Any of us!

By the way, the fact that much of the email was about first inducing fear is also the giveaway. That’s their tactic. Similar to setting free insurrectionists before doing anything else.

They are desperate for us all to resign, workers and citizens alike.

They need us to submit.

And since they know most of us won’t be persuaded on the merits, their tactic is to first bully us. Make us fear. First, federal workers. And all of us.

Then set us up to comply.

Do not be bullied.

Instead, see that that means THEY know that WE are their biggest obstacle.

So stand strong as that obstacle.

And whatever you do, do not be bullied.

Do not resign.

Go On Offense

Last thing: they can only do any of this because so many in power ARE being bullied. And are going along.

Senators. House members. Others.

Complicit in all of this — the freeze, this purge letter, appointments of wholly unqualified nominees like RFK and Gabbard and Hegseth (who are all part of the same top-down destruction).

Part of your standing up is to put them all on notice, through calls and emails.

That you are watching as they comply in making us all less safe. Less secure. As our government is being taken apart from the top down.

That you consider their continued complicity and cowardice to be unforgivable. Unpatriotic. And at the next opportunity (as soon as 2026), you will vote out any of those going along with this.

Contact Senators by using this link.

Contact House members by using this link..

Demand that they oppose the purge, the freeze and the continued appointment of wholly unqualified nominees to some of the most important positions in the nation.

Then write down their answers. And spread them far and wide.

Workers and citizens alike.

Your country needs you.

Do NOT Resign!

Stand strong.

Day 60—January 29, 2025

Chaos continued for a second straight day around the Trump “freeze” of federal assistance. After accusing the press and Democrats of stoking confusion from the memo THEY had written that had caused the confusion (including internal confusion), the administration rescinded that memo in the middle of the day.

As many celebrated that this signaled that the freeze was no longer in effect, the White House press secretary tweeted that this was NOT the case. Instead, she declared that rescinding the memo was not rescinding the freeze itself—and that the point of doing so was to clear up “confusion” from a court order that had put a stop to the freeze the day before.

With this open and blatant admission (ie. evidence) that the goal was to circumvent an active court order, another court swept it and issued a second stay on the freeze.

More evidence that this is is both a lawless and incompetent crew.