Featuring pro-democracy columns and videos from Jen Rubin, Norm Eisen, Eric Swawell and Michèle Taylor and a cartoon by RJ Matson. Plus, we want to hear from you.
We need mass rallies, not protests, but rallies like what Kamala held, and that Trump used to vault him to office. Headlined by great speakers on all the topics we need to highlight. Like the old teach ins for the Vietnam War that enlightened so many.
We need peaceful and heavily covered, with live video, mass demonstrations on a scale never seen before. Filmed because the fascists will almost certainly turn their "militias" or oath-breaking members of federal law enforcement on the protests.
We also need SOMEONE, ANYONE with power and influence to call out the coup for what it is.
e.g.,
The Vice President of the United States, a recipient of a law degree from Yale Law School in 2013, wrote on Twitter, aka "X," on Super Bowl Sunday, 2025-02-09:
The tech fascists appear to be first targeting critical federal infrastructure -- for example, gaining write access to the codebase for the U.S.Treasury -- and are moving quickly to undermine more.
Yes!!! Live, in-person rallies have an energy and electricity that cannot be replicated via zoom or social media. Let’s bring our communities out and let’s band together!
Remember the positive energy of the Harris/Walz rallies? The joy and the enthusiasm was palpable. That joy and enthusiasm is still out there. Fascists can’t stand that. I suspect that’s what prompted Musk to buy the election. No joy for that boy. He must have been weaned on a pickle.
Under these circumstances a rally is a protest with speakers. The representatives who showed up at the protest outside the Treasury department were glad to be there and gain camera time which was good for them and good for us. Large protests should probably be sure and alert all D representatives to attend with the promise of time to speak if they show up, and a list of other strong speakers could be included and invited to every one. They may be able to make some, who knows? Politics Girl would be great at one.
We need someone like Bernie and OAC to call for a general strike and mass protests on the same general strike day. ASAP. Before this gets to the point that the army shoots us in the streets when we protest - because that IS coming!!!
Apparently, Robert Reich suggests a national march on April 19. I read this on the Diane Ravitch blog--she links and quotes him (below).
Friends, before I post my Sunday cartoon, I want to share with you some thoughts about the third hellish week of Trump II. As of Friday, Trump has signed more than 50 executive orders, covering every aspect of American life and much foreign policy. It’s not just that this number of executive orders is unprecedented in modern American politics. Many are unlawful, unconstitutional, or both. In the age of monarchs, kings issued decrees. The tsars of imperial Russia proclaimed ukases. The dictators of the 20th century made diktats. Trump issues executive orders.
Average people in the age of monarchs, tsars, and dictators were largely powerless. Resistance meant almost certain death. Many people were resigned to vulnerability. They practiced passivity. They knew no life other than repression. But their deference entrenched and ensured the power of monarchs, tsars, and dictators. Arbitrary power depends on the acquiescence of everyone subjected to it.
Right now, after three weeks of Trump’s “flooding the zone” (as Trumpers like to say) some of you may be feeling powerless. Trump wants you to feel powerless. He depends on your passivity in the face of his takeover of American democracy. He wants to be a strongman who can act unilaterally and arbitrarily — who can issue orders about anything that pops into his head. Purging, firing, prosecuting, or deporting anyone he wants removed. Obliterating, freezing, and pummeling any institution he wants destroyed. Unleashing the richest man in the world to do whatever the hell he wants with the government of the United States. If you are dumbfounded into inaction, if you don’t even want to hear the news, if you feel as though you’re living through a nightmare over which you have no control, I get it. Every other day I feel the same.
But hear me out.
You and I have no real choice but to stand up to Trump, Musk, and their lapdogs. To allow them to bully us into submission invites more bullying, more lawlessness, more gonzo executive orders. Last week I suggested a number of actions we can take. It wasn’t an exhaustive list, of course, only some possibilities. Millions of Americans — including many who have been purged from their positions of responsibility — are standing up to Trump and Musk’s tyranny. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski says the Senate phone system has been receiving around 1,600 calls each minute, compared to the 40 calls per minute it usually gets — thus disrupting the system.
We are beginning to flood Trump and Musk’s zone. Let’s flood it out.
This coming April 19 will mark the 250th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord, which began the American Revolution and our war against monarchical power.
Anti-royalist militia in Massachusetts refused to disperse when ordered to by British troops. A shot was fired, and the troops kept firing, killing eight of those American resisters. Later that day, the militiamen returned that fire, killing a number of British soldiers. The revolution had begun.
Please don’t get me wrong. I do not advocate violence. I’m simply reminding you that this nation was founded on resistance to arbitrary authority. We built American democracy in the face of what seemed to be impossible odds. And we will never, ever give up that fight.
My friend Harold Meyerson suggests that on April 19 we stage massive peaceful protests in every city and town — crowds of Americans celebrating the anti-monarchical uprising of 1775 and pledging their allegiance to that heritage by denouncing Trump’s increasingly autocratic rule: Thereby flooding Trump and Musk’s zone still further.
Thank you, I need ALL the help to make sense of ALL this corruption. I am a firm believer that if Nixon would have been punished we would not be here. This convicted felon needs to be held ACCOUNTABLE AND PUNISHED and any of his helpers. We are in this together, we need you keep up the great work.👏👏👏❤️⚖️⚖️
Here's the thing about U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon - according to the NY Times, she has all of the Republican bona fides: "A graduate of Harvard College and Yale law school, she clerked for justice, Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, and is a member of the federalist Society, the conservative legal group." She also successfully led the prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried.
Even Atty Sassoon could not abide by this obscene political act.
It is time for the ABA to follow their own words to support "the rule of law" and disbar Bove.
I am a lawyer and I endorse these ideas. I’ve been looking for some heroes and now we have found plenty, I need to find some heroes in the Republican Party. Alas…..
and Judge Aileen Cannon, a couple of the most corrupt scotus maga justices, and a whole bunch of so-called "lawyers" enabling the fascist takeover of democracy, starting with VP JD Vance (assuming he is a member of the bar)
"Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain..." - Liz Cheney. Although Trump is in office, nothing will erase Cheney's warnings to those republicans who turned their backs on their oaths. This is not over, not by a long shot.
Please, if y'all have a Contrarian styleguide, do not ever refer to "DOGE" as a "Department" without scarequotes or a disclaimer. Don't contribute to the fascist propaganda that Musk's vehicle for enriching himself and destroying democracy is a legitimate agency authorized by Congress or overseen by ANYBODY
Fran, I recommend Public Citizen Litigation Group and CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington). Both have filed lawsuits against the Trump Regime.
I just donated to the State Democracy Defenders organization noted in this post. I've also donated to the NW Immigrant Rights Organization in Seattle and Earthjustice for environmental defense. ACLU next, though it often gives me a pain in the neck. Will continue to donate to lawyers!
I also rejoined and so have many of my friends. Feels good to do that I always admired what they did but found other ways to support my important causes. But this is critical and they’re doing a good job.
They were Trump appointees. But apparently, not complete sellouts, hahaha. Good. No doubt he'll appoint more, but this sends a big loud message that he is not all powerful and they are not bootlicking cogs in the wheel, that there are lines they will not cross. It is a huge public rebuke.
except resigning enables the corrupt president & his corrupt enablers to install still more corrupt loyalists in government, further destroying the rule of law and threatening our democracy
Not necessarily. It is a valid question, and the resignations do provide openings for pathetic yes-men. But Hannah's right, it also sends a loud and clear message. It may seem small now, but these things have a large ripple effect. It slows down the president's* agenda* that much more.
See the excellent article available online: “Complicity in the Perversion of Justice: The Role of Lawyers in Eroding the Rule of Law in the Third Reich"
by Cynthia Fountaine, published in St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice and Ethics.
These lawyers who resigned Thursday are unwilling to be complicit in the perversion of justice. And we each will hopefully do our part to save our constitutional democratic republic and support one another as we do.
Yeah, I had the same thought. I doubt trump cares an hoot about any symbolic gestures. He’s probably glad to flush out even more judges who aren’t 1000% in his pocket!
This latest Thursday Night Massacre is another chilling reminder of what happens when loyalty outweighs law, and when a government is run not by expertise, but by cronies, enablers, and political operatives. We’ve seen this before—when the spoils system turned government jobs into personal rewards for the powerful. It took scandals, reformers, and even an assassination to put professional civil service protections in place.
Now, Trump and Musk are ripping it all down. The gutting of federal expertise isn’t just dangerous—it’s a blueprint for authoritarian rule. I took a deep dive into the history of the spoils system, how it shaped the Gilded Age, and how today’s purge is eerily similar to the corruption that once defined American politics. History warned us. Are we listening?
"But the cumulative effect of these stories offers at best a complicated answer to what should be an uncomplicated question: Who exactly is running the federal government?
[snip]
Revelations of this especially pernicious, widespread form of corruption have occurred in other countries — a striking example occurred in the country of Mr. Musk’s birth, South Africa — and they offer cautionary tales for democratic governments everywhere.
[snip]
"According to [the political scientist Elizabeth David-Barrett] Ms. David-Barrett, state capture creates broad, long-lasting systemic inequality and diminished public services. Changing the rules of the game to allow such collusion to flourish, she writes, “leaves those few holders of economic power in a strong position to influence future political elites, consolidating their dominance in a self-perpetuating dynamic.”
[snip]
"First, as in South Africa, conduct a high-profile investigation run by elements of the government not yet captured. Though the United States has no office of the public protector, several federal government watchdog agencies could flex their investigative powers. Mr. Trump already culled as many as 17 inspectors general, but other agencies, including the Congressional Research Service, Government Accountability Office or the Congressional Budget Office, could step up."
-- BUT IT'S WORSE THAN STATE CAPTURE - GOAL IS ENDING DEMOCRACY AND INSTALLING DICTATORSHIP
Journalists covering the technofascist and "new right" beats, some of them for years, are sounding the alarm that the attacks on the US are intended to terminate the Constitution and install a dictatorship.
Both the technoauthoritarians and the "new right" (think Peter Thiel, Curtis Yarvin, JD Vance) have openly discussed for years they'd like to overthrow US democracy and replace it with a national "CEO" (currently played by Elon Musk) or "dictator." Trump as imperil president, above the law.
See, e.g., VP JD Vance's tweet on 2025-02-09, Super Bowl Sunday -
Please consider an update on the SAVE ACT which will apparently require that your voter registration exactly matches your birth certificate. So - any adjustments for women/men who legally changed their last name at the time of marriage. Or LBGTQ+ citizens who changed their name as a key part their authentic identity? I haven't seen much coverage of this law being considered and it seems important
Why aren't the Dems putting holds on these nominations as the Republicans did when they were in the minority? Tommy Tuberville is a "good" example of that behavior.
I organizing neighborhood voter registration. I’m a precinct organizer for my county Democratic Party. I knock on doors and talk face to face with voters. I call and write to my senators and rep( who are all maga). Social media is not a good way to reach actual voters. Our democrats in Washington are facing unprecedented challenges. Chill with the dem bashing.
I'm glad you do those things. They are, imo, necessary but not sufficient. I'm only fairly recently semi-retired and done with closing out my parents' estate, so I haven't done all that.
FYI:
-- SOCIAL MEDIA WAS IMPORTANT IN THE 2024 ELECTION
The Democrats' main communications channels do not engage potential voters. Instead, since the Harris campaign's rapid-response social media team was apparently disbanded? the Democratic Party's communications traffic in clichés, platitudes, and flat "brochure" self-promotion.
Meanwhile, over on fascist hellscape "Twitter," Elon Musk blasts out dozens of updates a day. While the updates are largely distortions and worse, most of his target audience regurgitates and amplifies without question.
If the Democrats are not using social media to engage voters in *conversations,* then what is the point
-- ON THE DEMOCRATS' FAILURE TO LEAD
The Democrats richly deserve bashing for, among other derelictions of duty
- Constantly begging for money for "midterms" that -- based on the speed and coordination of the fascist attacks -- may never happen.
- Using donation dollars to pay for ads on Meta properties, thereby further enriching fascist collaborator Mark Zuckerberg.
- Never, ever responding to comments, pleas, or questions FROM DEMOCRATS on their social media platforms -- a failure noted by more than a few of us visiting those pages.
Failing at all levels to communicate EVERY DAY with the American people, explaining
- The damage being done,
- The number of people -- including but not limited to federal workers -- suffering, dying (US AID), losing everything (farmers whose federal contracts for crops are suddenly canceled), and more.
- The attacks on veterans (about 1/3 of the federal workforce) and the VA
- The line-by-line connections between the dismantling of our democracy and its institutions and the radical proposals of Project 2025 being realized in front of our eyes.
- The threats to national security by going after the FBI, gutting the CIA, appointing a Russian-propaganda–repeating mouthpiece to head intelligence and an avowed "christian" nationalist to lead the Department of Defense.
- The effects this chaos will have on prices, on the invisible government services people rely on without thinking -- like accurate weather reports (gutting NOAA), public health (CDC, NIH) etc. etc.
- The speed of the attacks -- and daily reminders that Hitler took only 53 days to end Germany's democracy, and he didn't have write access to the codebase for Treasury.
- The parallels between Musk's actions and the plan for fascist overthrow of the US (search Curtis Yarvin, "butterfly revolution").
- The Yarvin-recommended step -- which we're seeing the Vice President of the United States amplify -- to ignore the courts.
- And more.
A few other failures:
* Where is the Democrats' 24-hour communications war room?
* What Democratic spokespeople / "alternative press secretaries" (have heard folks saying Pete Buttigieg would be great for this) are giving daily updates to the media and we the people on what Musk and the maga gop are doing to our taxpayer-funded federal government and our democracy?
* Who among the Democrats -- other than the folks at Indivisible.org -- are providing ANY actionable leadership for the millions of us in this country who are horrified, terrified, and furious at the irreparable damage from daily attacks on our government from an unelected foreign-born billionaire?
* Why are the most prominent leaders of the Democratic Party nowhere to be seen? Where are the former Democratic presidents and vice presidents? Nothing from the Obamas or Harris (Biden has been MIA for years, which was also a huge part of the problem.) No rallying cry, no bully pulpit, no leadership, so very little hope.
+++
We're being deluged with news, nearly all of it bad. If I've missed some clarion call to action by the Democrats' "leaders," please let me know. Sincerely -- maybe I missed something.
the Democrats are failing utterly to meet the moment. Should our democracy fail, they will be as complicit as the maga and maga adjacent fascists dismantling the country from within
I'm calling and writing my reps. I'm trying to raise awareness, especially with my maga-voting friends. I'm screaming into the void to try to get anyone with power and influence to listen.
The Democrats in elected office, with a very few exceptions, are doing nothing. Their "communications strategy" -- well, there isn't one.
All their communications channels (that I've seen; in particular their trash "brochure" websites and their one-way top-down no-conversation no-engagement social media presence) are about begging for money for elections that may never come. There's nothing about standing up to fascists.
IT'S OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS' DAMN JOB TO DO SOMETHING.
What are *you* doing, besides sanctimoniously passing judgement on folks you've never met and know nothing about?
The Muskrat's so called "son X" is actually a symbiote named MUMPriot from the Planet Klyntar. Cloned from both Trump and Muskrat he has a severely weakened mind and stunted growth, so that he needs to sit on Muskrat's medulla oblongata to control his actions. Without MUMPriot, Muskrat tends to give into twitches and uncontrollable dance moves from the 1980's.
I’m commenting from Hawaii where we are wrapping up a “vacation.” It’s lovely here, but every morning I’ve gotten up before sunrise to check in and write emails to my representatives to block the Trump-Musk crime spree. I’ve had it. Thank you for keeping us updated.this is both illegal and obscene. Bravo for the judges.
The Senate confirmation process is continuing to look like a kids' theater production, and a poor one at that. The reality is that we've had a malicious bunch of unfit people foisted upon us. How soon will Trump get tired of Musk upstaging him? How much power will his campaign donation last in keeping him on staff? What's likely is that Musk and his ilk are being kept as long as they do the dirty work, and will be thrown under the bus thereafter. It's happened before.
Let’s face it. We knew he had dementia before he got elected, so the way he looks utterly devoid of emotion as far as I can tell, and it’s just a blank face. So he’s just a tool, of course he always was.
We need mass rallies, not protests, but rallies like what Kamala held, and that Trump used to vault him to office. Headlined by great speakers on all the topics we need to highlight. Like the old teach ins for the Vietnam War that enlightened so many.
Sounds good to me. Educating people helps. Facts on the ground now.
You may lead MAGAts to education, but they don't appear to learn.
We need peaceful and heavily covered, with live video, mass demonstrations on a scale never seen before. Filmed because the fascists will almost certainly turn their "militias" or oath-breaking members of federal law enforcement on the protests.
We also need SOMEONE, ANYONE with power and influence to call out the coup for what it is.
e.g.,
The Vice President of the United States, a recipient of a law degree from Yale Law School in 2013, wrote on Twitter, aka "X," on Super Bowl Sunday, 2025-02-09:
https://x.com/jdvance/status/1888607143030391287?s=51
"If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal.
If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal.
Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power."
+++++
CLAIMING AN IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY IS A DIRECT ASSAULT ON THE CONSTITUTION AND THE RULE OF LAW
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/jd-vance-judges-trump
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gx3j5k63xo
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/legal-experts-constitutional-crisis-vance-musk-judicial-rulings-trump-rcna191387
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/09/musk-calls-to-impeach-judge-whose-order-blocks-doge-from-treasury-systems-access.html
MUSK & CREW ARE TECHNOFASCISTS
https://www.thenerdreich.com/reboot-elon-musk-ceo-dictator-doge
https://www.thenerdreich.com/the-nerd-reich-elon-musk-salute-trump
CAPTURING CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
The tech fascists appear to be first targeting critical federal infrastructure -- for example, gaining write access to the codebase for the U.S.Treasury -- and are moving quickly to undermine more.
https://www.wired.com/story/treasury-bfs-doge-insider-threat
https://www.thenerdreich.com/memo-capture-of-u-s-critical-infrastructure-by-neoreactionaries
https://america2.news/america-under-attack-week-2-what-were-monitoring
sorry for all caps -- trying to make headings because ye gods it's hard to parse the firehose without, to mix the metaphor, structured content
Yes!!! Live, in-person rallies have an energy and electricity that cannot be replicated via zoom or social media. Let’s bring our communities out and let’s band together!
Remember the positive energy of the Harris/Walz rallies? The joy and the enthusiasm was palpable. That joy and enthusiasm is still out there. Fascists can’t stand that. I suspect that’s what prompted Musk to buy the election. No joy for that boy. He must have been weaned on a pickle.
He was more likely weaned on apartheid thinking, knowing where he came from.
Under these circumstances a rally is a protest with speakers. The representatives who showed up at the protest outside the Treasury department were glad to be there and gain camera time which was good for them and good for us. Large protests should probably be sure and alert all D representatives to attend with the promise of time to speak if they show up, and a list of other strong speakers could be included and invited to every one. They may be able to make some, who knows? Politics Girl would be great at one.
We need someone like Bernie and OAC to call for a general strike and mass protests on the same general strike day. ASAP. Before this gets to the point that the army shoots us in the streets when we protest - because that IS coming!!!
Apparently, Robert Reich suggests a national march on April 19. I read this on the Diane Ravitch blog--she links and quotes him (below).
Friends, before I post my Sunday cartoon, I want to share with you some thoughts about the third hellish week of Trump II. As of Friday, Trump has signed more than 50 executive orders, covering every aspect of American life and much foreign policy. It’s not just that this number of executive orders is unprecedented in modern American politics. Many are unlawful, unconstitutional, or both. In the age of monarchs, kings issued decrees. The tsars of imperial Russia proclaimed ukases. The dictators of the 20th century made diktats. Trump issues executive orders.
Average people in the age of monarchs, tsars, and dictators were largely powerless. Resistance meant almost certain death. Many people were resigned to vulnerability. They practiced passivity. They knew no life other than repression. But their deference entrenched and ensured the power of monarchs, tsars, and dictators. Arbitrary power depends on the acquiescence of everyone subjected to it.
Right now, after three weeks of Trump’s “flooding the zone” (as Trumpers like to say) some of you may be feeling powerless. Trump wants you to feel powerless. He depends on your passivity in the face of his takeover of American democracy. He wants to be a strongman who can act unilaterally and arbitrarily — who can issue orders about anything that pops into his head. Purging, firing, prosecuting, or deporting anyone he wants removed. Obliterating, freezing, and pummeling any institution he wants destroyed. Unleashing the richest man in the world to do whatever the hell he wants with the government of the United States. If you are dumbfounded into inaction, if you don’t even want to hear the news, if you feel as though you’re living through a nightmare over which you have no control, I get it. Every other day I feel the same.
But hear me out.
You and I have no real choice but to stand up to Trump, Musk, and their lapdogs. To allow them to bully us into submission invites more bullying, more lawlessness, more gonzo executive orders. Last week I suggested a number of actions we can take. It wasn’t an exhaustive list, of course, only some possibilities. Millions of Americans — including many who have been purged from their positions of responsibility — are standing up to Trump and Musk’s tyranny. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski says the Senate phone system has been receiving around 1,600 calls each minute, compared to the 40 calls per minute it usually gets — thus disrupting the system.
We are beginning to flood Trump and Musk’s zone. Let’s flood it out.
This coming April 19 will mark the 250th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord, which began the American Revolution and our war against monarchical power.
Anti-royalist militia in Massachusetts refused to disperse when ordered to by British troops. A shot was fired, and the troops kept firing, killing eight of those American resisters. Later that day, the militiamen returned that fire, killing a number of British soldiers. The revolution had begun.
Please don’t get me wrong. I do not advocate violence. I’m simply reminding you that this nation was founded on resistance to arbitrary authority. We built American democracy in the face of what seemed to be impossible odds. And we will never, ever give up that fight.
My friend Harold Meyerson suggests that on April 19 we stage massive peaceful protests in every city and town — crowds of Americans celebrating the anti-monarchical uprising of 1775 and pledging their allegiance to that heritage by denouncing Trump’s increasingly autocratic rule: Thereby flooding Trump and Musk’s zone still further.
Sounds like a good idea to me. You?
Thank you, I need ALL the help to make sense of ALL this corruption. I am a firm believer that if Nixon would have been punished we would not be here. This convicted felon needs to be held ACCOUNTABLE AND PUNISHED and any of his helpers. We are in this together, we need you keep up the great work.👏👏👏❤️⚖️⚖️
Here's the thing about U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon - according to the NY Times, she has all of the Republican bona fides: "A graduate of Harvard College and Yale law school, she clerked for justice, Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, and is a member of the federalist Society, the conservative legal group." She also successfully led the prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried.
Even Atty Sassoon could not abide by this obscene political act.
It is time for the ABA to follow their own words to support "the rule of law" and disbar Bove.
I am a lawyer and I endorse these ideas. I’ve been looking for some heroes and now we have found plenty, I need to find some heroes in the Republican Party. Alas…..
and Judge Aileen Cannon, a couple of the most corrupt scotus maga justices, and a whole bunch of so-called "lawyers" enabling the fascist takeover of democracy, starting with VP JD Vance (assuming he is a member of the bar)
"Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain..." - Liz Cheney. Although Trump is in office, nothing will erase Cheney's warnings to those republicans who turned their backs on their oaths. This is not over, not by a long shot.
Please, if y'all have a Contrarian styleguide, do not ever refer to "DOGE" as a "Department" without scarequotes or a disclaimer. Don't contribute to the fascist propaganda that Musk's vehicle for enriching himself and destroying democracy is a legitimate agency authorized by Congress or overseen by ANYBODY
I've joined the ACLU again because I think the courts will save us. Are there other similar legal action groups that need funding?
Indivisible.org isn't a law group, but they are sending daily or weekly strategies on getting through to Congress.
Supporting great reporting and reporter protection funds also a good investment.
Fran, I recommend Public Citizen Litigation Group and CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington). Both have filed lawsuits against the Trump Regime.
https://www.citizen.org/about/staff/about-public-citizen-litigation-group/
https://www.citizensforethics.org/
I just donated to the State Democracy Defenders organization noted in this post. I've also donated to the NW Immigrant Rights Organization in Seattle and Earthjustice for environmental defense. ACLU next, though it often gives me a pain in the neck. Will continue to donate to lawyers!
Just found this anti-Trump/Musk litigation tracker: https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/
I also rejoined and so have many of my friends. Feels good to do that I always admired what they did but found other ways to support my important causes. But this is critical and they’re doing a good job.
I so worry how resigning, even in protest, can be a good thing. Isn’t it just opening these DOJ positions to Trumpsters?
They were Trump appointees. But apparently, not complete sellouts, hahaha. Good. No doubt he'll appoint more, but this sends a big loud message that he is not all powerful and they are not bootlicking cogs in the wheel, that there are lines they will not cross. It is a huge public rebuke.
except resigning enables the corrupt president & his corrupt enablers to install still more corrupt loyalists in government, further destroying the rule of law and threatening our democracy
Thanks, I misunderstood.
Not necessarily. It is a valid question, and the resignations do provide openings for pathetic yes-men. But Hannah's right, it also sends a loud and clear message. It may seem small now, but these things have a large ripple effect. It slows down the president's* agenda* that much more.
See the excellent article available online: “Complicity in the Perversion of Justice: The Role of Lawyers in Eroding the Rule of Law in the Third Reich"
by Cynthia Fountaine, published in St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice and Ethics.
These lawyers who resigned Thursday are unwilling to be complicit in the perversion of justice. And we each will hopefully do our part to save our constitutional democratic republic and support one another as we do.
Yeah, I had the same thought. I doubt trump cares an hoot about any symbolic gestures. He’s probably glad to flush out even more judges who aren’t 1000% in his pocket!
This latest Thursday Night Massacre is another chilling reminder of what happens when loyalty outweighs law, and when a government is run not by expertise, but by cronies, enablers, and political operatives. We’ve seen this before—when the spoils system turned government jobs into personal rewards for the powerful. It took scandals, reformers, and even an assassination to put professional civil service protections in place.
Now, Trump and Musk are ripping it all down. The gutting of federal expertise isn’t just dangerous—it’s a blueprint for authoritarian rule. I took a deep dive into the history of the spoils system, how it shaped the Gilded Age, and how today’s purge is eerily similar to the corruption that once defined American politics. History warned us. Are we listening?
Read: "Government for Sale: https://forgottenfiles.substack.com/p/government-for-sale
Agreed, and adding on: it's an attack on the the rule of law, the Constitution, and democracy.
-- IT'S STATE CAPTURE
NYT- we're seeing state capture like that in (hmmm) South Africa after the end of apartheid
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/opinion/elon-musk-donald-trump-government.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vk4.pdfT.-cvcsq6e9uQc&smid=url-share
"But the cumulative effect of these stories offers at best a complicated answer to what should be an uncomplicated question: Who exactly is running the federal government?
[snip]
Revelations of this especially pernicious, widespread form of corruption have occurred in other countries — a striking example occurred in the country of Mr. Musk’s birth, South Africa — and they offer cautionary tales for democratic governments everywhere.
[snip]
"According to [the political scientist Elizabeth David-Barrett] Ms. David-Barrett, state capture creates broad, long-lasting systemic inequality and diminished public services. Changing the rules of the game to allow such collusion to flourish, she writes, “leaves those few holders of economic power in a strong position to influence future political elites, consolidating their dominance in a self-perpetuating dynamic.”
[snip]
"First, as in South Africa, conduct a high-profile investigation run by elements of the government not yet captured. Though the United States has no office of the public protector, several federal government watchdog agencies could flex their investigative powers. Mr. Trump already culled as many as 17 inspectors general, but other agencies, including the Congressional Research Service, Government Accountability Office or the Congressional Budget Office, could step up."
-- BUT IT'S WORSE THAN STATE CAPTURE - GOAL IS ENDING DEMOCRACY AND INSTALLING DICTATORSHIP
Journalists covering the technofascist and "new right" beats, some of them for years, are sounding the alarm that the attacks on the US are intended to terminate the Constitution and install a dictatorship.
Both the technoauthoritarians and the "new right" (think Peter Thiel, Curtis Yarvin, JD Vance) have openly discussed for years they'd like to overthrow US democracy and replace it with a national "CEO" (currently played by Elon Musk) or "dictator." Trump as imperil president, above the law.
See, e.g., VP JD Vance's tweet on 2025-02-09, Super Bowl Sunday -
https://x.com/jdvance/status/1888607143030391287?s=51
"If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal.
If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal.
Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power."
Step 3 of Yarvin's plan, "the butterfly revolution": Ignore the Courts.
https://newrepublic.com/article/183971/jd-vance-weird-terrifying-techno-authoritarian-ideas
https://www.thenerdreich.com/reboot-elon-musk-ceo-dictator-doge
https://www.wired.com/story/treasury-bfs-doge-insider-threat
https://www.thenerdreich.com/memo-capture-of-u-s-critical-infrastructure-by-neoreactionaries
https://america2.news/america-under-attack-week-2-what-were-monitoring
Thank you for all the important work you and every contributor to this Substack are doing, you help me to feel empowered.
This email and the coverage within are great.
Please consider an update on the SAVE ACT which will apparently require that your voter registration exactly matches your birth certificate. So - any adjustments for women/men who legally changed their last name at the time of marriage. Or LBGTQ+ citizens who changed their name as a key part their authentic identity? I haven't seen much coverage of this law being considered and it seems important
yes, could make it impossible for women and some others to vote....
Why aren't the Dems putting holds on these nominations as the Republicans did when they were in the minority? Tommy Tuberville is a "good" example of that behavior.
I organizing neighborhood voter registration. I’m a precinct organizer for my county Democratic Party. I knock on doors and talk face to face with voters. I call and write to my senators and rep( who are all maga). Social media is not a good way to reach actual voters. Our democrats in Washington are facing unprecedented challenges. Chill with the dem bashing.
I'm glad you do those things. They are, imo, necessary but not sufficient. I'm only fairly recently semi-retired and done with closing out my parents' estate, so I haven't done all that.
FYI:
-- SOCIAL MEDIA WAS IMPORTANT IN THE 2024 ELECTION
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/02/06/how-news-influencers-talked-about-trump-and-harris-during-the-2024-election/
https://www.npr.org/2024/12/04/nx-s1-5183053/did-election-influencers-shift-power-away-from-traditional-experts-and-media
https://navigatorresearch.org/2024-post-election-survey-a-majority-of-new-trump-voters-used-social-media-as-main-news-source
https://saisreview.sais.jhu.edu/social-media-disinformation-and-ai-transforming-the-landscape-of-the-2024-u-s-presidential-political-campaigns/
The Democrats' main communications channels do not engage potential voters. Instead, since the Harris campaign's rapid-response social media team was apparently disbanded? the Democratic Party's communications traffic in clichés, platitudes, and flat "brochure" self-promotion.
Meanwhile, over on fascist hellscape "Twitter," Elon Musk blasts out dozens of updates a day. While the updates are largely distortions and worse, most of his target audience regurgitates and amplifies without question.
If the Democrats are not using social media to engage voters in *conversations,* then what is the point
-- ON THE DEMOCRATS' FAILURE TO LEAD
The Democrats richly deserve bashing for, among other derelictions of duty
- Constantly begging for money for "midterms" that -- based on the speed and coordination of the fascist attacks -- may never happen.
- Using donation dollars to pay for ads on Meta properties, thereby further enriching fascist collaborator Mark Zuckerberg.
- Never, ever responding to comments, pleas, or questions FROM DEMOCRATS on their social media platforms -- a failure noted by more than a few of us visiting those pages.
Failing at all levels to communicate EVERY DAY with the American people, explaining
- The damage being done,
- The number of people -- including but not limited to federal workers -- suffering, dying (US AID), losing everything (farmers whose federal contracts for crops are suddenly canceled), and more.
- The attacks on veterans (about 1/3 of the federal workforce) and the VA
- The line-by-line connections between the dismantling of our democracy and its institutions and the radical proposals of Project 2025 being realized in front of our eyes.
- The threats to national security by going after the FBI, gutting the CIA, appointing a Russian-propaganda–repeating mouthpiece to head intelligence and an avowed "christian" nationalist to lead the Department of Defense.
- The effects this chaos will have on prices, on the invisible government services people rely on without thinking -- like accurate weather reports (gutting NOAA), public health (CDC, NIH) etc. etc.
- The speed of the attacks -- and daily reminders that Hitler took only 53 days to end Germany's democracy, and he didn't have write access to the codebase for Treasury.
- The parallels between Musk's actions and the plan for fascist overthrow of the US (search Curtis Yarvin, "butterfly revolution").
- The Yarvin-recommended step -- which we're seeing the Vice President of the United States amplify -- to ignore the courts.
- And more.
A few other failures:
* Where is the Democrats' 24-hour communications war room?
* What Democratic spokespeople / "alternative press secretaries" (have heard folks saying Pete Buttigieg would be great for this) are giving daily updates to the media and we the people on what Musk and the maga gop are doing to our taxpayer-funded federal government and our democracy?
* Who among the Democrats -- other than the folks at Indivisible.org -- are providing ANY actionable leadership for the millions of us in this country who are horrified, terrified, and furious at the irreparable damage from daily attacks on our government from an unelected foreign-born billionaire?
* Why are the most prominent leaders of the Democratic Party nowhere to be seen? Where are the former Democratic presidents and vice presidents? Nothing from the Obamas or Harris (Biden has been MIA for years, which was also a huge part of the problem.) No rallying cry, no bully pulpit, no leadership, so very little hope.
+++
We're being deluged with news, nearly all of it bad. If I've missed some clarion call to action by the Democrats' "leaders," please let me know. Sincerely -- maybe I missed something.
the Democrats are failing utterly to meet the moment. Should our democracy fail, they will be as complicit as the maga and maga adjacent fascists dismantling the country from within
And you…what are you doing? Playing the blame game is so easy.
I'm calling and writing my reps. I'm trying to raise awareness, especially with my maga-voting friends. I'm screaming into the void to try to get anyone with power and influence to listen.
The Democrats in elected office, with a very few exceptions, are doing nothing. Their "communications strategy" -- well, there isn't one.
All their communications channels (that I've seen; in particular their trash "brochure" websites and their one-way top-down no-conversation no-engagement social media presence) are about begging for money for elections that may never come. There's nothing about standing up to fascists.
IT'S OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS' DAMN JOB TO DO SOMETHING.
What are *you* doing, besides sanctimoniously passing judgement on folks you've never met and know nothing about?
The Muskrat's so called "son X" is actually a symbiote named MUMPriot from the Planet Klyntar. Cloned from both Trump and Muskrat he has a severely weakened mind and stunted growth, so that he needs to sit on Muskrat's medulla oblongata to control his actions. Without MUMPriot, Muskrat tends to give into twitches and uncontrollable dance moves from the 1980's.
I’m commenting from Hawaii where we are wrapping up a “vacation.” It’s lovely here, but every morning I’ve gotten up before sunrise to check in and write emails to my representatives to block the Trump-Musk crime spree. I’ve had it. Thank you for keeping us updated.this is both illegal and obscene. Bravo for the judges.
The Senate confirmation process is continuing to look like a kids' theater production, and a poor one at that. The reality is that we've had a malicious bunch of unfit people foisted upon us. How soon will Trump get tired of Musk upstaging him? How much power will his campaign donation last in keeping him on staff? What's likely is that Musk and his ilk are being kept as long as they do the dirty work, and will be thrown under the bus thereafter. It's happened before.
Let’s face it. We knew he had dementia before he got elected, so the way he looks utterly devoid of emotion as far as I can tell, and it’s just a blank face. So he’s just a tool, of course he always was.
he does have a flat affect....
I don’t know. Trump has been bought and sold so many times to so many people…
He's definitely gone past his 'use by' date.
Thank you, Litigator-in-Chief! Been waiting for THIS one!!!