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A historic protest — what’s next?
On Saturday, an estimated 7 million people poured into the streets to say it loud and clear: No Kings. (No Kings snarks this is 14x larger than both of Trump’s inaugurations combined.) From Anchorage to Atlanta, from tiny towns to huge city squares, the message echoed across the nation — a call back to the founders’ defiance of tyranny and forward to a people-powered democracy. With over 2,700 cities and towns, the movement continues to break further and further into Trump’s support. As Erica Chenoweth’s and colleagues’ data shows, the protests are the most geographically widespread in US history —… Read full email…
Roots causes
Today I published an article in Waging Nonviolence chronicling “How the Disney boycott beat the FCC’s censorship push.” It’s an important story to tell — because it tells a key winning story. Few know that the boycott moved over 1.7 million unsubscribes (!) — we are not alone. Reminders that we’re part of a bigger “we” are important — another reason we hope to see you all at your local October 18th No Kings action. And for cities facing National Guard deployments, I wrote this guide “So the National Guard is (or might be) coming to your city?” Yes, we’ll… Read full email…
Censors wanted silence, they got a chorus
Disney had a decision to make. Do we accede to Trump’s pressure? Apparently, it wasn’t an easy decision. But they made the wrong one. They bowed to government pressure and censored Kimmel. And then a slew of people pushed back. After the pushback, Disney assessed its options. They could have joined the ranks of other capitulating institutions. But they looked at the strength of the people — specifically the tens of thousands closing up wallets — and said: we’ll pick the stronger side. They’re bringing Kimmel back. Disney didn’t bring Kimmel back because they suddenly grew a backbone. You were… Read full email…
Courage
Feeling powerless doesn’t mean you are powerless. 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… Read full email…
5 things Free DC is teaching us
In case you missed the news, Donald Trump has ordered the National Guard to head to our nation’s capital. Claiming emergency powers from the Home Rule charter due to crime, he’s taking control of the Capital’s police, too. DC’s Mayor Bowser struck a conciliatory and yielding position. “We have a responsibility to support the executive order and one of the roles I have is to ensure that we work very collaboratively with our federal partners.” Her only clear push back was Trump’s excuse, citing the city’s statistics showing violent crime generally is at a 30-year low (the FBI has slightly… Read full email…
It hurts because your humanity is intact
In these hard days of naked brutality, it’s easy to feel like we’re sprinting just to stay upright. The pace of authoritarianism isn’t just fast; it’s dizzying. It wants us to stumble. To lose our grounding. To get used to the smoke, the noise, the constant edge of dread. But here’s a quiet truth: it’s a sign of your humanity that it feels awful. It means the sickness hasn’t set in. That your body, your spirit, your gut knows this isn’t normal. That we’re still capable of discerning dignity from decay. That our hearts haven’t adapted to the chaos—and that’s worth holding onto.… Read full email…
Why the military? A manufactured crisis.
We’re on a knife’s edge moment — caught between promise and peril, precarity and possibility. In case you missed it: Donald Trump has deployed 700 marines alongside up to 4,100 National Guard troops to Los Angeles. This comes in direct defiance of local voices and elected leaders who made it clear they do not want this ICE-led crackdown. Protests erupted as people tried to shield their communities and loved ones. ICE escalated quickly—using tear gas and stun grenades. No one requested the National Guard. The violence began with ICE ripping families apart. Trump wants to escalate it with the military and national… Read full email…