Choosing Democracy: How Mandami and Democratic Socialists Win -

Choosing Democracy: How Mandami and Democratic Socialists Win -: Article, published today, explaining recent victories of democratic socialists and progressives (in NY, Seattle, Buffalo, and elsewhere) and...

Support Students: Eat Tamales

 

Choosing Democracy: Protect Public Education - Stop Trump et al

Choosing Democracy: Protect Public Education - Stop Trump et al: Congress created the Department of Education to ensure all students, no matter who they are or where they live, get equal access to an educa...

Building Resistance

Building networks to create and sustain resistance. 

Views from the South,

https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/america-has-seen-authoritarianism?

Excellent advice.   A conference at Vanderbilt, , and the Poor Peoples Campaign.  

Duane Campbell

The End of the Shutdown was Not a Republican Victory

 Today’s Democratic Party is divided along two separate axes: an ideological one and, for lack of a better term, a strategic one. The former is what separates, say, democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from centrist Rep. Jared Golden; the latter, what separates, say, Rep. Ro Khanna from Sen. Chuck Schumer (whose ousting as party leader Khanna has called for).

It’s important not to conflate or confuse the two, or even to exaggerate each of them. On ideology, there’s clearly a divide between Zohran Mamdani and Abigail Spanberger, yet the two ran successful campaigns focused almost entirely on the same issue: affordability. Republican economic policy incapable of addressing (or actually exacerbating) acute hard times is a great unifier, as the hugely successful New Deal Democrats of the 1930s demonstrated, overcoming the immense cultural, religious, and ethnic divisions that had kept the party as far from power as a party can be during the 1920s.

More from Harold Meyerson

The strategic divide, of course, is all about how Democrats should grapple with Donald Trump. Nothing about it correlates with ideology, as centrist Democrats’ anger and exasperation (see, e.g., Jon Chait) at the Democrats who voted to end the shutdown makes very clear. It’s worth noting that the Democrat who has most effectively countered Trump—California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who successfully led the campaign to create five new Democratic House seats—has seized the pole position in the party’s 2028 presidential contest. For now, at least, his strategic success is such that it’s rendered him seemingly immune from any ideological profiling by his fellow Democrats. For what it’s worth, he’s clearly more on the Spanberger side than Mamdani’s, though his success at having California’s government fund the production and distribution (starting January 1) of affordable insulin is more socialistic than anything Mamdani ran on. On cultural issues, he’s literally and figuratively a San Francisco Democrat, which means he’d schlep some heavy political baggage into an election requiring 270 electoral votes.

Strategy and ideology don’t rhyme. On most issues, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine is a little to the left of his fellow Virginia senator, Mark Warner, certainly on labor issues, as Warner is the one Democratic senator who’s by no means a sure vote for labor law reform. But it was Kaine who voted to end the shutdown even as Warner voted no. (Virginia, of course, was home to more laid-off federal workers than any other state.)

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How AI Is Taking Over Politics

Trump Admin Hands out Massive Tax Breaks to the Very Wealthy

 

Trump Admin Hands Out Tax Breaks to the Wealthy.

NYT. Nov. 8, 2025

With little public scrutiny, the Trump administration is handing out hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to some of the country’s most profitable companies and wealthiest investors.

The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service, through a series of new notices and proposed regulations, are giving breaks to giant private equity firms, crypto companies, foreign real estate investors, insurance providers and a variety of multinational corporations.

The primary target: The administration is rapidly gutting a 2022 law intended to ensure that a sliver of the country’s most profitable corporations pay at least some federal income tax. The provision, the corporate alternative minimum tax, was passed by Democrats and signed into law by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. It sought to stop corporations like Microsoft, Amazon and Johnson & Johnson from being able to report big profits to shareholders yet low tax liabilities to the federal government. It was projected to raise $222 billion over a decade.

But the succession of notices the Treasury and I.R.S. have issued beginning this summer means the tax could bring in a fraction of that.

These breaks come in addition to the roughly $4 trillion package of tax cuts that President Trump signed into law in July. The legislation, passed entirely by Republicans, heavily benefits businesses and the ultrawealthy. It is projected to add trillions of dollars to the federal deficit and came with steep cuts to health care for the elderly and food stamps for the poorest Americans.

With its various tax relief provisions, the administration is now effectively adding hundreds of billions of dollars in new breaks for big businesses and investors. The Treasury is empowered to write rules to help the I.R.S. carry out tax laws passed by Congress. But the aggressive actions of the Trump administration raise questions about whether it is exceeding its legal authority.

Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans have attacked federal workers as instruments of the “deep state,” exercising power beyond anything authorized by the law. Now the administration is doing the same thing, several tax experts said, undermining laws that hit the ultrawealthy and big companies.

“Treasury has clearly been enacting unlegislated tax cuts,” said Kyle Pomerleau, a tax economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank. “Congress determines tax law. Treasury undermines this constitutional principle when it asserts more authority over the structure of the tax code than Congress provides it.”

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/business/trump-administration-tax-breaks-wealthy.html?

 

 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/business/trump-administration-tax-breaks-wealthy.html?

While taking food stamps and health care away from children. 

Trump Autocracy Report - NYT

Choosing Democracy: Trump Autocracy Report - NYT:     Donald Trump has wielded power as no previous president has, often in open defiance of the law.   Read the report from the NY Times Edit...

Choosing Democracy: How Politics is Changing / Corrupting the Way Hist...

Choosing Democracy: How Politics is Changing / Corrupting the Way Hist...:   California, the nation’s largest Democratic-led state, has passed a law restricting what teachers can say in the classroom, and has walked...

We Must Prepare Our Community Self Defense - Now

Choosing Democracy: We Must Prepare Our Community Self Defense - Now:   We must prepare our political self defense against Authoritarians and     Fascists. Authoritarian Strategy: Criminalizing Dissent and Prot...

Fight Fascism. Vote Yes on 50

 

Choosing Democracy: ICE Budget Will Be Larger than Marine Corp Budget ...

Choosing Democracy: ICE Budget Will Be Larger than Marine Corp Budget ...: The Budget for ICE deportations next year will be larger than the budget for the U.S. Marines. This is how a private, unregulated private ar...

Rev Barber: No Kings and Moral Action

  

Rev Barber.  No Kings

https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/now-is-the-time-for-moral-courage?

 

Rev Barber.  No Kings

https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/now-is-the-time-for-moral-courage?

 

 

Rev Barber.  No Kings

https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/now-is-the-time-for-moral-courage?

 

 

 

Still No Kings: Millions to Protest Trump On Saturday

Still No Kings: Millions to Protest Trump On Saturday: A coalition of civil rights groups expects the turnout on Oct. 18 will be even bigger than the first nationwide protest held in June, which by some counts was the largest in U.S. history.

Including Sacramento planning 

Dangerous Times - Bernie Sanders

Crazy times. Dangerous times.

Under Trump, things are moving very fast.

We have an unstable megalomaniac who wants more and more power into his own hands. We can’t let that happen.

His attacks against the media, universities, law firms, Congress and the courts are creating fear throughout the country and moving us, step-by-step, toward authoritarianism. In an unprecedented way he is now using ICE agents to break down doors and the U.S. military to patrol cities. 

But it’s not just the dangerous movement toward authoritarianism. On behalf of his oligarchic friends, Trump is waging a vicious assault on the working families of this country.

While the billionaires become much richer his attack on the American healthcare system, which is already deeply broken, could lead to its total collapse. If Trump gets his way, 15 million low income and working class Americans will lose their healthcare and premiums will double for over 20 million people on the Affordable Care Act exchange. As a result, tens of thousands will die unnecessarily each year. And all this happens so that the top 1% can get $1 trillion in tax breaks. 

His continued absurd claim, on behalf of the fossil fuel industry, that climate change is a “hoax“ will dangerously slow down our ability to transform our economy into sustainable energy and address this existential threat to our planet.

His financial support for his multi-billionaire friends in Big Tech who are aggressively pushing AI and robotics will mean the loss of millions of good paying jobs and extraordinary threats to our privacy.

Trump may be crazy and a pathological liar, but he is not stupid. He is a very good tactician and knows exactly what he’s doing. His goal, by “flooding the zone” and moving forward simultaneously in a hundred different areas is to convince the American people that he is invincible and can’t be stopped. He has the power. You don’t. He has unlimited amounts of money. You don’t. His friends control the media. You don’t. Give up. There’s nothing you can do to stop him and his fellow oligarchs.

It’s actually a pretty good plan. Fortunately, however, it’s not working. 

More and more Americans are seeing through Trump and are turning away from him. While he still has a strong core of right-wing support, polling shows that he is less popular today than any time in his second administration. 

Please don’t forget. It’s not just that over 320,000 Americans in 21 states came out to our Fighting Oligarchy rallies. It’s not just that next Saturday we expect to see huge No Kings demonstrations all across this country in opposition to Trumpism.

It’s not just that Democrats in Congress are finally getting a backbone and opposing these horrific health care cuts.

What we are also seeing is progressive Democrats and independents taking on the Democratic establishment as they run for the US Senate and U.S. House in Michigan, Maine, Nebraska, Texas congressional districts throughout the country and Zohran Mamdani in New York City.

What we are seeing is Republican share of vote is slipping in special election after special election in races up-and-down the ballot this year. Republicans see it too, that is what they are trying to re-draw House maps in the middle of the decade in several states.

What we are seeing, increasingly, is Republicans from Josh Hawley to Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking out against Donald Trump and the Republican Party abandoning the promises they made to the working people of this country during the last election.

What we are seeing, according to a recent YouGov poll is a majority of Americans disapprove of the way Republicans are handling the current government shutdown and a plurality place most of the blame on Donald Trump and the Republican Party for the current state of affairs.

What we are seeing from a recent Pew Research poll is that strong majorities of Americans believe he is abusing and improperly using the office of the president and moving our country in the wrong direction.

So is Donald Trump unbeatable?

No. No, he is not.

He is deeply unpopular.

The bad news is, so is the Democratic Party.

So where do we go from here -- and what can you do yourself? Because in these difficult times, despair is not an option. We've got to fight back in every way we can.

We have to get involved in the political process — run for office, connect with our local, state and federal legislators, donate to candidates who will fight for the working class of this country.

We have to create new channels for communication and information sharing. We have to volunteer not just politically, but to build community locally.

We have to support progressive candidates running for office and push establishment Democrats to find the courage to take on the billionaire class of this country.

Whatever we can do is what we must do.

Needless to say, I intend to do my part — both inside the beltway and traveling throughout the country — to stand up for the working class of this country. In the days, weeks, and months ahead I hope you will join me in that struggle.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

---

👋 Before you go... 👋

Thank you to everyone who has donated to make Bernie's work over the last few months possible. But we're not done yet.

Bernie is going to be working hard to elect progressive candidates all over this country who have the guts not only to stand up to Trumpism, but to take on the monied interests of both parties and fight for a working class that has been ignored for far too long.

If that work sounds important to you, help Bernie keep it going with a contribution of $27 or whatever you can afford today. Thank you.

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Choosing Democracy: The Big Reveal.

Choosing Democracy: The Big Reveal.: Something dramatic has happened. Many people who consider themselves non-political or independent, or moderate Republican, or who even voted...

Showing Up for Democracy

 No Kings ;  October 18 

https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/no-kings-freedom-video?

No Kings

Why we build an opposition, 

Choosing Democracy: The Trump/ MAGA assault on Higher Education

Choosing Democracy: The Trump/ MAGA assault on Higher Education:  Timothy Snyder explains the crisis all. https://snyder.substack.com/p/save-american-higher-education-video?

https://snyder.substack.com/p/save-american-higher-education-video?

The attack on higher education is an important element in the Trump/MAGA assault on our democracy.  We must oppose the assault. - non violently. With Allies.

Choosing Democracy: ICE, and Trump Maga Forces have gone mad !! No Kings

Choosing Democracy: ICE, and Trump Maga Forces have gone mad !! No Kings:   The gloves have COMPLETELY come off. Last week,  Trump vowed to turn our cities into “training grounds” for the military – and now he’s ma...

Choosing Democracy: Military Go Home !!

 Military Go Home !!:  Important. Keep the demonstrations non violent.   They win if the military is consolidated by violence. Oaths of Enlistment and Oaths of Of...

Choosing Democracy: Sacramento Anti Ice Protest

 Sacramento Anti Ice Protest:   Hello all,  big thank you to Dan Bacher for his article in the SB&R featuring --Sacramento groups say ‘No’ to ICE’s reported profiling...

Choosing Democracy: Shut Down - Show Down

Choosing Democracy: Shut Down - Show Down: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/this-shutdown-is-different?

Choosing Democracy: Why Do Fascists Fear Teachers ?

Choosing Democracy: Why Do Fascists Fear Teachers ?: Why Do Fascists Fear Teachers? :  Randi Weingarten  Because We Want Kids to Think—and Read—for Themselves When he was still a student at Mor...

Choosing Democracy: Acts of Violence Targeting Teachers

Choosing Democracy: Acts of Violence Targeting Teachers: Sept.22, 2025  WASHINGTON —AFT President Randi Weingarten released the following statement in response to the targeting of educators in the ...

See also.  Choosing Democracy, a Practical Guide to Multicultural Education.  (2010) Allyn and Bacon.by Duane Campbell.  Used copies very cheap on the web. 

Jon Stewart's Post-Kimmel Primer on Free Speech in the Glorious Trump Er...

Trump Uses State Power Against Comedians

 Trump and the Project 2025 plan is to rapidly shock the system and invoke a state of paralysis so they can take permanent control of the country. Authoritarianism is a system of controlling a population — not by persuasion but by a little bit of raw power and a lot of fear.

Fear with a dose of raw power can make people fold. It can cause capitulation as companies, universities, organizations, and individuals try to make deals with a bully.

We’ve been seeing this dynamic since Trump took office. Most recently, they are using Charlie Kirk's death as a pretext, the right is attempting to silence dissent. The Guardian reports that "teachers, firefighters, journalists, nurses, politicians, a Secret Service employee, a junior strategist at Nasdaq and a worker for a prominent NFL team" have been fired or censured. The Washington Post just fired its last full-time Black opinion writer.

You likely have heard that comedian Jimmy Kimmel's show has been pulled off the air "indefinitely." The pretext is flimsy, at best. But it's consistent with Project 2025's overarching goals, which the Trump appointed FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr, helped write. This FCC commissioner put direct pressure on Disney/ABC to censor Jimmy Kimmel for his views. As the American Federation of Musicians said plainly, "This is state censorship."

Some days the feelings of powerlessness in the face of so much wrong is overwhelming. I can feel small. I am small. I can get sucked down in a vortex of overwhelm and wonderment that we cannot stop all these bad things.

But feeling powerless doesn't mean you are powerless.

The people pushback

Activists tell me that the Disney-ABC website has already gotten so many cancellations their website crashed last night. National organizers have put together a call for boycotting Disney (please join!). Unions are rallying against the censorship. A script with folks to call has been set-up to fight for free speech (it's easy).

But the overall dynamic right now: a disorganized majority is losing to a tightly controlled, organized minority.

Just look at DC, where Republicans and far too many Democrats voted to further shrink DC's right to self-rule, passing a bill where 14-years-olds in DC are tried as adults. There are a slew of additional targeted-to-DC bills proposed and Free DC is urging people to call your congresspeople (especially since Democrats haven't been unified in opposition!). 

Yet, the majority is showing signs of organizing itself. 

Our capital is under a National Guard occupation where residents are woken to neighbors being pulled from their homes and jobs by masked men. But individuals are countering in a host of ways: trolling police with Star Wars music, DC police officer openly condemning this takeover, running emergency hotlines, swapping Know-Your-Rights materials, and so much more. A great article on this is here — unsurprisingly outside of legacy media which is better at printing stories of fear than of courage.

Or look to Chicago. Despite a crusade of fear and threats, Chicago scared off Donald Trump from sending National Guard. Yes, ICE vans are still prowling neighborhoods, homelessness remains criminalized, and political infighting runs deep. But the National Guard were never sent in.

Trump had made the pronouncement — "we're going in" — complete with fear-mongering and racist overtones. The people said no — sure, with polls showing 68% opposed (but no authoritarian cares about a poll) and so the people also said no with protests in the street and pressure to align their politicians in formation. So the Governor said no, "There is no emergency that warrants the President of the United States federalizing the Illinois National Guard, deploying the National Guard from other states, or sending active duty military within our own borders." The Mayor said no, penning an NY Times article saying, "the National Guard is the wrong solution to a real problem." 

A longer dive is needed to tell this story, but it's a remarkable story of Chicagoans coalescing across historic divides and a fractured political scene uniting the Mayor, Governor, other political leaders, and community and labor groups. 

Initially many thought it couldn't be done. But the story of Chicago needs to be encouragement (to give courage) that we can face down the bully together.

Because Donald Trump backed down. He slunk away looking for a weaker target. (So Memphis is now the next target and local organizers are reporting that groups who have historically struggled to come together are meeting and planning there, too.)

Chicago showed our pushback can work. 

From these stories let us take a bit of courage. Courage isn't the absence of fear — in fact courage can only be shown when you have fear. So, yeah, I've got some fear. We all have. And let's encourage each other to step into courage, too.

Quick tips

• If you are not part of a group, find some people to act with — whatever you do.
• It's okay to keep some focus. You can't take on everything. Show solidarity with others, but also keep your focus and advance your work.
• Share encouragement over fear.
• Show some love to others.
• Connect with songs that strengthen you, dances that encourage you, or ancestors that uplift your own sense of courage with others.
• Get off social media and be with people, pets, trees, and Nature.

More helpful tips on grounding from Finding Steady Ground.

Choosing Democracy: New Poll. Americans Prefer Democratic Socialism

Choosing Democracy: New Poll. Americans Prefer Democratic Socialism:   New Poll: Democratic Socialism Is Now Mainstream The Editors of Jacobin September 15, 2025 Jacobin A national poll from Jacobin, DSA Fund,...

Resources for Resistance

 Resources 2025 

 10 Ways to Stop a Dictator. Waging Nonviolence.

https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/10-things-to-do-if-trump-wins/

 

Indivisible Resource Guide

Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Democracy on the Brink

PDF, Grayscale PDF, Google Docs, Audio version [Length: 28 pages]

https://indivisible.org/resource/guide

               What’s Up With This Document

● Who this is for: 

    Anyone who lives in America and is upset, scared, and determined.    

    You want to do your part to protect your family, your neighbors, and democracy from Trump 2.0. 

 

Will the U.S. Survive The Present Crisis  ?  Maybe.  Timothy Snyder.

https://snyder.substack.com/p/look-on-my-works-ye-mighty?

Substack. Heather Cox Richardson

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/

Ssubstack; Robert Reich.  Why Trump is Doomed.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-thought-263?

Economics of Oligarchy. Heather Cox Richardson.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-3-2025?

 

 

 

  

Will The U.S. Survive the Present Crisis? Maybe.

  

Will the U.S. Survive The Present Crisis ?  Maybe.  Timothy Snyder.

https://snyder.substack.com/p/look-on-my-works-ye-mighty?

Fascist Police Power Grows.: Invasion of Washingto...

Choosing Democracy: Fascist Police Power Grows.: Invasion of Washingto...: Washington, occupied city: Popular front emerges to fight fascist invasion — rally and mass cop watch this Saturday, August 23 at 6pm “There...

Pushing MAGA Out: The Resistance Rises

Choosing Democracy: Pushing MAGA Out: The Resistance Rises: Pushing MAGA Out: The Resistance Ramps Up https://portside.org/2025-08-22/pushing-maga-out-resistance-ramps Portside Date:  August 22, 2025 ...

Choosing Democracy: Fight Back Against the Authoritarian /Fascist Coup

 Fight Back Against the Authoritarian /Fascist Coup: What’s a distraction? I’ve often heard some version of  “Trump is just doing X to distract from Y.”  This is a  smart  political take in cer...

Choosing Democracy: We are not giving up on American Democracy

We are not giving up on American Democracy: We're Not Giving Up On This Democracy In times of moral crisis, true faith offers courage to stand for what's right         https://...

Trump Administration Returns to Family Separation ...

Choosing Democracy: Trump Administration Returns to Family Separation ...:   Federal agents at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, N.J., in June.  Victor J. Blue for The New York Times ‘Interi...

NYTimes.

How Fascism Came to the USA !

 https://robertreich.substack.com/p/this-is-what-fascist-control-looks?

Choosing Democracy: Where Do WE Go From Here ?

Choosing Democracy: Where Do WE Go From Here ?: ..... Opinion.  We have President Donald Trump on the run. He is desperately playing defense by lashing out in every direction, especially w...

CBS Participates in the Consolidation of fascism iIn U.S.

Choosing Democracy: CBS Participates in the Consolidation of fascism i...: CBS is participating in the consolidation of fascism in the U.S. https://www.npr.org/2025/07/02/nx-s1-5454790/cbs-settlement-trump-60-minute...

ICE-Secret Police Is Growing

Choosing Democracy: ICE-Secret Police Is Growing: ICE, budget LeftLinks Weekly, July 11, 2025 The main features of our political landscape regarding policing are about to change dramatically...

Soldiers Organizing to Defend Democracy

Choosing Democracy: Soldiers Organizing to Defend Democracy:   Soldiers Organize for Democracy. On the Fourth of July, members of the military are calling on Congress to protect service members who dis...

Resource site for military resistance. Soldiers refusing to obey illegal, unconstitutional orders.

Resources for military resistance

Resources for National Guard & Military

• Encrypted support form from About Face (for Guard/Active Duty resisting deployment): bit.ly/MilOptions
• Legal help: National Institute of Military Justice
• GI Rights Hotline - highly trained counselors that can confidentially talk through options and risks with military members - https://girightshotline.org/ 1-877-447-4487
• Know Your Rights (Military): bit.ly/militaryKYR

Resources for Demonstrators:

• Protestors Guide to Talking to National Guard: Instagram post

Soldiers Organize for Democracy.

Note: The same laws apply to National Guard and ICE Agents. Persons in the Guard, ICE, and Customs enforcement should consider when it is their duty to disobey and illegal order,  The next step is to resign from ICE or the National guard.

 

Defeat Fascism/Fight for Democracy 
List of  resources and opportunities: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cRIJsSJwtF72ckJ8QLQu5cDCGnoeh5OIIjwqRkDKdBg/edit?usp=sharing

 

Soldiers Organizing to Defend Democracy

Choosing Democracy: Soldiers Organizing to Defend Democracy:   Soldiers Organize for Democracy. On the Fourth of July, members of the military are calling on Congress to protect service members who dis...

Resources for military resistance

Resources for National Guard & Military

• Encrypted support form from About Face (for Guard/Active Duty resisting deployment): bit.ly/MilOptions
• Legal help: National Institute of Military Justice
• GI Rights Hotline - highly trained counselors that can confidentially talk through options and risks with military members - https://girightshotline.org/ 1-877-447-4487
• Know Your Rights (Military): bit.ly/militaryKYR

Resources for Demonstrators:

• Protestors Guide to Talking to National Guard: Instagram post

Soldiers Organize for Democracy.

 
Defeat Fascism/Fight for Democracy 
List of  resources and opportunities: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cRIJsSJwtF72ckJ8QLQu5cDCGnoeh5OIIjwqRkDKdBg/edit?usp=sharing

 

GOP Budget Bill Would Make ICE "Largest Federal Law Enforcement Agency i...

Choosing Democracy: 4th of July Tribute

Choosing Democracy: 4th of July Tribute:   On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was formally adopted and the nation committed to enshrining the ideals of liberty, justic...

atholic Bishops Oppose Trump on Immigration

Choosing Democracy: Catholic Bishops Oppose Trump on Immigration:   Catholic Bishops Rally Opposition to Trump’s Immigration Agenda   https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/us/catholic-bishops-trump-immigration...

Choosing Democracy: They Will Not Kill Us Without a Fight

Choosing Democracy: They Will Not Kill Us Without a Fight: Republican Tax Bill Kills.  https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/they-will-not-kill-us-without-a-fight? Video of arrests today, 

Choosing Democracy: Rev. Barber. No Kings Day. Philadelphia

Choosing Democracy: Rev. Barber. No Kings Day. Philadelphia:  

video here. 

EXCLUSIVE: Governor Newsom ADDRESSES State and Nation LIVE

Los Angeles: The Resistance Grows

 What is our moral responsibility as citizens of the United States when the President of the United States moves to deploy thousands of American soldiers against us? 

Trump signed a memo late yesterday ordering 2,000 members of the National Guard to be deployed in Los Angeles County after federal immigration agents in riot gear squared off with hundreds of protesters for a second consecutive day.

Trump’s action is extreme although technically legal. Title 10 of the United States Code allows a president to federalize the National Guard units of states to suppress “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.” In a presidential memo, Trump said, “To the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

Why is he doing it, and why now? 

Because Trump can’t stand to be humiliated — as he has been in the last two weeks. By senate Republicans refusal to quickly enact his so-called One Big Beautiful Bill. By Xi Jinping’s refusal to back down on trade (and restrict shipments of China’s rare earths, which American industry depends on). By Putin’s refusal to end the war in Ukraine. By the federal courts pushing back against his immigration policy. And, now, by insults and smears from the richest person in the world, who has a larger social media following than does Trump. 

So what does Trump do when he’s humiliated? He deflects public attention. Like any bully, he tries to find another way to display his power — especially over people whom he doesn’t consider “his” people. 

He has despised California since the 2016 election when the state overwhelmingly voted against him. 

And what better Ground Zero for him to try out his police state than Los Angeles — a city teaming with immigrants, with Hollywood celebrities who demonize him, and wealthy moguls who despise him? 

He is calling out the National Guard to provoke violence. As California governor Gavin Newsom said, “that move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.” 

Exactly. Trump wants to escalate tensions. He wants a replay of the violence that occurred in the wake of the George Floyd murder — riots, mayhem, and destruction that allow him to escalate his police state further — imposing curfews, closing down parts of Los Angeles, perhaps seeking to subdue the entire state. And beyond. 

Please do not give him this. Don’t fall into his trap.

We cannot be silent in the face of Trump’s dictatorial move. But we must not succumb to violence. 

What is needed is peaceful civil disobedience. Americans locking arms to protect those who need protection. Americans sitting in the way of armored cars. Americans singing and chanting in the face of the Americans whom Trump is drafting into his handmade civil war. 

Americans who do not attempt to strike back, but who do what many of us did during the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements — peacefully but unambiguously reject tyranny. 

A humiliated Trump is the most dangerous Trump. But he will overreach. He already has. And this overreach will ultimately be his undoing. 

As long as we keep our heads.

May we look back on this hellish time and feel proud of what we did. 

Be strong. Be safe. Hug your loved ones. 

Robert Reich