Oh, solidarity!

So Wednesday morning, news spread like wildfire (well, like text and other social media) that ICE (or associated masked men) at the San Francisco downtown immigration offices had disappeared a protester on Wednesday who was impeding their removal of their latest immigrant captive. 

The first call on Thursday was to join the crowd outside the immigation offices, but then the San Francisco Labor Council moved the call to the old federal building on Golden Gate with a half hour to rally time. 

Who was going to get there amid changes like that?

Within an hour about 50 people gathered, just in time to learn that ICE's catch (a citizen!) had been released on bond.

Solidarity means showing up and having each others' backs.

• • •

Mission Local has the story: 

A protester arrested by federal agents outside the San Francisco immigration court on Wednesday has been charged with two federal misdemeanors: destruction of property and assaulting, resisting, or impeding a federal officer. 

Bay Area attorneys say this is the first time they can remember such charges filed against a citizen arrested by Department of Homeland Security authorities in San Francisco. While protesters have been charged by federal agents in Los Angeles, moving the practice north is a sign of “escalation,” said Angela Chan, the city’s assistant chief public defender. 

The protester, a U.S. citizen who asked to be identified by her first name, Angélica, was arrested around 10 a.m. yesterday during a chaotic street scene: Video showed ICE agents tackling several protesters to the ground after a crowd tried to stop ICE from transporting an asylum-seeker whom agents had arrested that morning. 

Angélica, a trans woman from an immigrant family, was one of those filmed being zip-tied and led away, her head wrapped in a keffiyeh and held down by officers. Angélica was brought into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters at 630 Sansome St. without a cellphone, her partner Renee said. A day passed before her family heard from Angélica again. 

Holding a citizen at an ICE building is “unheard of,” Chan said. Earlier this month, ICE agents detained two protesters in downtown San Francisco for the first time in recent memory. ...

Thursday morning whichever feds were responsible for Angélica's abduction produced her for arraignment. The crowd a mile away at the federal building cheered the news of her release.

Angélica comes from a union family: her mother is in SEIU Local 1021, her father belongs to UFCW Local 8, a brother is a Teamster. On this occasion, unions and workers proved they knew what to do.

Not an endorsement. Just an observation.

 

Rather than getting all prissy about Gavin Newsom trolling Donald Trump. Dan Pfeiffer, Obams's former flack, points out we can simply enjoy the show:

Humor Is Good 

Yes, these are deadly serious times, but politics doesn’t have to be drudgery. It can be fun. Humor is allowed—and should be encouraged. Too many people are missing the joke here. ...

Maybe that shouldn’t be surprising. The online Trump flunkies and White House staff are completely humorless, which helps explain why Greg Gutfeld is their patron saint of comedy. Newsom isn’t imitating Trump—he’s satirizing him. The whole point of the posts [on X] is to show how absurd Trump’s social media really is. The fact that the Right is freaking out about Newsom while applauding Trump says it all.

Trump is a shit show -- and a crumbling joke. We should remember that.

Gerrymandering for resistance?

All Californians are being offered a chance to participate in resistance to Trump's effort to eradicate even feeble opposition. Lucky us to have a role, I guess. All Americans don't get such a relatively frictionless opportunity. But we do: on November 4 we'll get to vote on a state redistricting plan that should yield 4 or 5 new Democratic Congresscritters.

It's kind of nauseating to overthrow our own anti-gerrymandering initiative -- but we have to fight and at least this is, not yet, a violent measure unless you are a GOP Congress-member losing your safe seat. 

And it's being led by our very flawed Governor who hopes to ride it to the White House. Sigh. 

Pretty boy puff piece from the Nob Hill Gazette, 2020

I'm a longtime San Franciscan. I know Newsom is a very mixed blessing. Sure, he advanced the cause of gay marriage back in the day. But in the same mayoral season he kicked homeless people for applause lines. Kind of like what he did last spring with trans people. As with all our recent mayors, beginning with Willie Brown, the overriding thrust of his term was to tame this formerly flamboyant city into a sterile corporate headquarters and real estate magnates' paradise.

On the other hand, having Newsom out trying to lead the charge against Trump is a net win. This is how our system is supposed to work: let our pols compete to show they can be the best at enacting their constituents' gut desires.  

Grumpy columnist George Skelton of the LATimes gets it:

“It is really a calculated power grab that dismantles the very safeguards voters put in place,” California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin said in a statement last week, echoing other party members. “This is Gavin the Gaslighter overturning the will of the voters and telling you it’s for your own good.”

Power grab? Sure. Overturning the voters’ will? Hardly.

Newsom is asking voters to express a new will–seeking permission to fight back against Trump’s underhanded attempt to redraw congressional districts in Texas and other red states so Republicans can retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives after next year’s midterm elections.

First of all, that anti-gerrymandering vote creating the citizens’ commission was 15 years ago. It was a wise decision and badly needed, and still a wonderful concept in the abstract. But that was then, this is now....

... Second, that 2010 electorate no longer exists. Today’s electorate is substantially different. And it shouldn’t necessarily be tied to the past. ...

So we have to vote for this thing ... maybe even work for it. Now that's a tiresome reality. Newsom is not my leader, but resisting fascism is my cause and this is one bit of what we can do.

Good neighbors in Redwood City

 

A loud and cheerful little posse of anti-ICE protesters offered "a swig of community action" on the streets of downtown Redwood City Tuesday evening. There can be joy while speaking truth.

ICE is a masked, undemocratic secret police force that gives due process the finger and answers only to Donald Trump.

We will not stand by and do nothing while they disappear our community members, leaving nothing but trauma and despair behind. Let's show everyone in Redwood City and San Mateo County that we stand with our immigrant brothers and sisters in their time of need and we will resist ICE with everything we have.

They'll be back next Tuesday.

The questions come back, over and over again

Erudite Partner is up with a new essay, syndicated by TomDispatch, and appearing among other places at the LA Progressive. 

This one is an exercise in reflection on a long life of struggle for more peace, more justice, and basic sanity. It meets our strange, terrifying moment.

On Seeing the Future Too Clearly

... [On living through the Vietnam war...] We may not have foreseen it all — the assassinations, carpet bombings, tiger cages, and the Phoenix Program (the CIA’s first mass torture scheme) — but we were hardly surprised when it all finally came out. Today, there’s a consensus in this country that the Vietnam War was more than a mistake; it was a decade-long exercise in overreach and overkill.

... I sometimes think it’s the fate of many progressives for once in our lives to be right — over and over. This isn’t because we’re particularly good people, although some of my heroes are indeed good people. It’s at least in part because we are people with good luck. 

It’s been our good luck that, at some time in our lives, somebody offered us a place to stand, a viewpoint, an ethical way of grasping the world. ...

The advent of Trump/MAGA fascism demands of us, again, that we ask ourselves, where do we stand and why? 

The Supremes gone rogue

Leah Litman, University of Michigan law prof and former Supreme Court clerk, doesn't mess around. In Lawless, she argues, persuasively and with piercing humor that "the Supreme Court runs on conservative grievance, fringe theories, and bad vibes." Any pretense of deep legal reasoning from the Roberts court's major decisions is just insubstantial smoke covering BS. 

It's a pleasure to get the straight story, even if it is appropriately terrifying.

... the Supreme Court is extremely powerful. It is also poorly understood. The combination makes the Court pretty dangerous. It's easier for the Court to get away with, say, letting aspiring insurrectionists off the hook if people aren't paying attention, or if people think they must have misunderstood what is happening because it couldn't possibly be that ridiculous. 

Except ... it is that ridiculous. ...

It's been a (bad) process getting here. News consumers will recognize some landmarks along the way. 

The country has changed over the last several decades, with more diverse demographics and more inclusive median political views. The changes trend against the Republican Party's view on feminism (or as some Republicans like to call it, the "childless cat ladies") race ("Oh my God, Karen, you can't just ask [African] people why they are white?"), democracy (which some Republicans think is overrated, and maybe unconstitutional), corporate power (which some Republicans think should be virtually unlimited), government itself (which some Republicans think shouldn't exist), and more. Republicans have come to believe the dwindling support for their increasingly fringe views wrongs them. ... 

Since the early 2000s (with roots older than that), the Supreme Court has translated conservative grievance and other bad vibes into bad law. ... It is a little too coincidental that at the very moment Republicans gained a supermajority on the Supreme Court in 2020, the Court suddenly realized that the Constitution required the country to adopt the Republican Party's platform on abortion, voting rights, industry regulation, campaign finance, and a bunch of other stuff, too.

Litman urges us not to confused by mystification around the high court. 

The justices are not pulling Jedi mind tricks that people simply do and cannot understand. It's not like these guys (and Amy) are among the Nine Greatest Legal Minds in the Country. Heck, some of them are just nepo babies [she means Neil Gorsuch, remember him?] . ... These are exactly the kind of people you might expect to be appointed under a rigged system that is controlled by some out-of-touch weirdos. The minority-ruling party that gave the justices their jobs is currently gripped by some kind of antidemocratic fever dream, unconcerned with such things as law, facts, and will of the American people. 

Okay -- this book is not just denunciation of the limited qualifications of the Republicans on the current court. Litman carefully dissects the Court's rulings in five vital spheres in which they are working on enshrining reactionary legal theories. These are the chapters: on women's freedom -- The Ken-Surrection of the Courts; on LGBT rights -- "You Can't Sit with Us!"; on voting rights -- Winter Is Coming; on enabling oligarchs -- There's Always Money in America; toward dismantling the state as we know it -- The American Psychos of the Supreme Court.

Litman is not optimistic, but she remains hopeful that if the people are able to understand that the Court has gone bonkers, we'll figure out how to fix it. We really don't want to be ruled by cranks in black robes.

Okay, that got bleak. In my defense, this is a nonfiction book about the Supreme Court, and the Court is broken and is going to take an awful lot to fix. ... The world is not going to get better because we want it to and big changes will obviously take time ... So let's get started.

Imagine yourself at the beginning of the end of one of the great legal dramas of our time, when the law professor says to Elle, "If you are going to let one stupid prick ruin your life, you're not the girl I thought you were." 

Only now she's saying, "If you're going to let one stupid Court ruin your democracy, you're not the girl (or boy, or nonbinary reader) I thought you were." 

... They've stolen a Court and they are practically daring anyone to challenge them. It's time to call their bluff. 

I found this book a surprisingly enjoyable romp through the wilds of Republican legal malfeasance. The details were not new to me; I follow this stuff. But I love Litman's attitude; we could all use more of it.

• • •

You can follow a wealth of writing and writers who unpack legal developments for untutored citizens. Some of my current favorites include Jay Kuo, Chris Geidner at Law Dork, and Joyce Vance at Civil Discourse. We don't have to be mystified by law; we've got a right to demand that whatever law we live under should be "of the people, by the people, and for the people" in President Lincoln's words.

Fight the Trump Takeover: Sausalito, Marin County, California

Marin County locals turned out on Bridgeway in Sausalito on Saturday to give the Orange Man a piece of their minds. Many signs were quite militant.

Indivisible Marin called for the demonstration as part the local manifestation of what they call national "Fight the Trump Takeover" protests: 

"The state of Texas is attempting to redistrict to steal five Democrat-held congressional districts to rig the 2026 midterms. It’s all being done at the behest of Trump. He knows he can't win any other way. And Trump isn’t stopping in Texas. He’s targeting Missouri, Ohio, Florida, and every state he can twist to help him steal Congress next year. This is about the future of our democracy and the time to fight this power grab is NOW."

These Marinites get it. Their signs speak less to particular Trumpian issues, injustices and crimes, but more to a general feeling of disgust.

 

Trump can, and does, try to "flood the zone with shit" and distract us through the sheer volume of his outrages against our country and historic democracy. But instead of overwhelming us, these little protests -- again and again -- seem to bring out new people activated by new depravity. These folks aren't giving up.

A practical guide to clearing the Trump-induced fog

At The Status Kuo, rights activist Jay Kuo offers a useful framework for rejecting the onslaught of BS that defines the Trump era.

Preparing mental defenses for a world of alternative realities

Trump’s lies are so legion, and his attacks upon our institutions and norms so widespread, that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. The media, when it is doing its job, at best fact-checks the fake stories and reports. 

But missing from all of this is a solid way to bucket the lies and build resilience to them.Today I want to talk about four strategies to diminish the effect of Trump’s manipulations and lies. These aren’t exhaustive, but they can be helpful to keep us all from being washed away in the flood.

First, recognize gaslighting. A steady stream of lies can make anyone begin to question reality. As an abusive bully, Trump gaslights instinctively as a way to dominate. He wants us all to feel like we’re the crazy ones, not him. A way to defeat this, quite simply, is to reassert the truth publicly.

For example, Trump regularly claims that Ukraine is responsible for the war. He has repeated that lie so many times that his followers have bought into it. The indisputable truth, which we all experienced in real time in February of 2022, is that Russia invaded Ukraine. We shouldn’t have to keep repeating this, but it is necessary in the face of Trump’s stream of lies, and it helps the people of Ukraine feel a little less crazy from hearing the upside down version all the time.

Second, understand his true targets. Punishing people who tell the truth doesn’t just impact those people negatively; it spreads a chill making others less willing to step forward. Trump knows that he only has to strike out against a handful of universities (or banks, law firms, media companies, you name it) and the ones he didn’t hit will think twice about crossing him. 

At least that is Trump’s hope. This is why Prof. Timothy’s Snyder’s first rule for resisting fascism is to not capitulate in advance. It’s one thing to fold your hand if Trump actually targets you. Few can withstand the full force of the government. But it’s entirely another to give up without a fight. Within our communities, professional associations, schools and social networks, we need to be on the lookout for capitulation and to call it out.

Third, watch for “alternative facts.” Kellyanne Conway was roundly mocked during Trump’s first term for coining the term, but this is a real and dangerous threat today. Examples range from what we saw this week from Trump’s Heritage Foundation economist presenting bogus and improbable “household income” gains to RFK Jr.’s ideologically motivated quest to link vaccines to autism.

The first sign that alternative facts are coming is that they will get rid of official science or fact-based reporting, just as they have done with the BLS Commissioner and her findings. This opens the door to subjective reports that are more favorable to the Trump regime. When you see them purging scientists, data analysts and statisticians, understand that they are paving the way for alternative facts. We must identify these publicly and call for all to reject them.

Fourth, listen for dogwhistles. We have witnessed Trump’s nonstop attacks on academic and scientific institutions, DEI and any critiques of our history. Most understand that this is red meat for his MAGA base. But the reason these attacks are effective often goes unsaid.

Trump has riled up uneducated voters and pumped them full of grievances, identifying “elites,” “illegal immigrants” and “DEI” as the cause of their economic problems, rather than the corporations and uber wealthy who are robbing them blind and actively destroying their remaining social safety nets. He has even managed to convince some liberals that the reason universities must be punished is because they allowed antisemitism to spread unchecked.

The fact is, Trump doesn’t give a damn about antisemitism, or the plight of the working poor, or women athletes. He’s using these wedges to advance his own attacks upon the parts of civil society most likely to oppose him effectively.

It sure looks as if we're all going to get better and better at this as the Trump show ages and decays. 

Friday cat blogging

You may be asking: "don't you feed that cat?" Of course we do. But regular supplies of cat food and cat treats don't discourage her from chasing her favorite flavor: plastic! My watch band is often at risk of those teeth also. Here, the EP is trying to gently recapture the remote. 

On the birthday of Social Security

 

Historian Heather Cox Richardson explains what the people of these United States won 90 years ago.

On August 14, 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. ... The Social Security Act established a federal system of old-age benefits; unemployment insurance; aid to homeless, dependent, and neglected children; funds to promote maternal and child welfare; and public health services. It was a sweeping reworking of the relationship between the government and its citizens, using the power of taxation to pool funds to provide a basic social safety net. 

The current Trump regime is out to destroy the system, of course. More for their billionaire buddies, less for the people. They are also striving to reduce the workforce that keeps our safety net, such as it is, functioning.

So some of the people turned out at the Federal Building in San Francisco to say "no"!

Solidarity mattered in 1935 and it matters today.

Resistance rises

Experts agree: millions of Americans are showing up in the streets, non-violently, in response to the second Trump regime.

The best known scholar of contemporary popular protest in the United States is probably Erica Chenoweth from the Harvard Kennedy School. Along with co-authors Soha Hammam, Jeremy Pressman, and Christopher Wiley Shay, they report:

New data shows No Kings was one of the largest days of protest in US history 

The historic number of [June 14] No Kings Day protesters and their expansive geographic spread are signs of a growing and durable pro-democracy movement. 

... While media attention is often focused on actors acquiescing to Trump’s demands, in the streets the popular protest movement continues to push back against the administration with notable persistence over time. Consistent with our past reporting, 2025 so far has seen far more protests than were recorded at this time in 2017 — a trend that continues through at least the end of July.

... In addition to the number of protests taking place, there are, of course, other indicators of the growing commitment of protesters to participate in a durable pro-democracy movement. One indicator is the willingness to participate in peaceful protests despite the threat of political violence. Tens of thousands turned out in Saint Paul despite the killing and attempted killing of several Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses the morning of the No Kings protests on June 14, followed by a warning of potential targeting of protesters by the at-large gunman. One peaceful marcher was killed in Salt Lake City by an armed volunteer who fired shots at a nearby armed man, who was also wounded. Counter-protesters in several locations around the country brandished weapons at No Kings protesters. However, those incidents of violence were exceptions — over 99.5 percent of reported protests had no injuries or property damage, with the latter reported in only 10 locations (just under 0.5 percent). 

... Popular mobilization through protest is neither the entirety of the opposition to the Trump administration nor sufficient in and of itself to compel change. But historically, the mass public — in tandem with other societal actors like opposition politicians, lawyers, labor unions and courts — is likely to continue to play a crucial role in the U.S. and elsewhere in standing for the rule of law and democratic norms. 

And we don't quit.

* In three national mass trainings since mid-July under the banner One Million Rising, hundreds of thousands of people have been introduced via zoom to the basics of organizing opposition to the Trump regime. Participation has been huge:

• 250,000+ people have been skilled up and are ready to take action.
• 1300+ subsequent in person gatherings have taken place.
• 400+ more gatherings are scheduled.

There's always room for more people to get involved; visit One Million Rising, view the trainings. (If you are an old time agitator like me, and already embedded in a community of resistance, you might able to skip to Session 3 which offers three specific action options. )

* Now Trump has directly sent his personal secret police (ICE, SS, FBI, etc.) and troops into DC. But the people of the capital are not giving up. Check out Free DC for the latest. Note especially the call to allies across the country.

* And let's not forget that the brave people of Los Angeles have gotten themselves together to resist Trump's first experiment with occupying a blue city. Our media have been neglecting this story, but we can all learn from Michelle Goldberg's tale of resistance: They Saw Their Neighbors Taken Away by ICE. Then They Made a Plan. 

We can do this; in fact, we are doing it!

She knows what to do with bars ...

  

When the Orange Man militarized DC on Monday, Erica Berg took her protest straight to the White House.

 

Seems like this is a moment to find a local protest this weekend - and apparently every weekend for the foreseeable future. 

Release the files!

From where I sit -- both lesbian and old -- Jeffrey Epstein seems such an obvious predatory creep (as does the Donald) that it is hard to imagine that he was able to pull off his sex capers with "voluntary" cooperation of even the most young, confused, and materially desperate girls. Their survival instincts should have said "run, don't walk, out of here." But Epstein did his business. He was slime -- as was and is his buddy-in-crime who has gone on to broader scale infamies.

(If you want to understand how Epstein, Maxwell, and Co. ever pulled off their schemes,  I'd recommend Peggy Orenstein's Girls and Sex which describes well how the culture makes girls vulnerable to predators.)

So now we are living in the backwash of Epstein and the sprawling conspiracy theories his crimes have become a part of. 

Irish observer Fintan O'Toole takes a swing at the meaning of the Epstein moment and the difficulties it makes for the Donald: 

For Trump, the great problem of the Jeffrey Epstein story is that it is the point at which paranoid fantasy melds into grotesque reality. ...

... As [James] Ball, [investigator of the QAnon conspiracy] puts it, Trump serves in the QAnon worldview as “the genius mastermind orchestrating an equally complicated counter-movement” against the satanic cabal. The Epstein files are not just records of a criminal investigation, they are an updating of the Book of Revelation. To reveal them is to open the Seventh Seal and release God’s judgment onto the earth. How can the savior simply shrug and murmur that there is no seventh seal? 

It says a great deal about contemporary America that Trump’s breach of faith with this apocalyptic narrative is, for much of his political base, a far bigger betrayal than taking away its health care or failing to bring down food prices.

On August 5 the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas for several witnesses to appear at planning hearings into Epstein’s crimes, including Bill and Hillary Clinton. But he also served the Justice Department a subpoena demanding that it produce its Epstein-related files by August 19. 

If Trump orders the department not to comply, he becomes part of the great conspiracy. This would become a satisfyingly shocking twist in this paranoid story: the good guy was actually the archvillain all along. 

If he allows it to comply, he feeds the beast he is trying to kill. We know that the release of documents never stops the search for the ultimate exposure of the plot. It gives the searchers a vast new terrain of clues and anomalies to explore, a giant new web of connections to map. 

And if Trump tries a middle course, releasing the documents with references to himself redacted, he merely proves that he has something to hide.

Will this bring him down? Almost certainly not. But it may deprive him of his greatest asset: his immunity from scandal. It is a force field that, once breached, ceases to function. 

If he loses his power to decree that all evidence of his misdeeds is a hoax, the rest of his term will be soundtracked not by the sweet melancholy of “Memory” but by the more agonized strains of “Suspicious Minds.”

Release the files now! 

Trump calls out the Guard; will WE answer the call?

Lawyer Jay Kuo draws what I think is the right lesson from President Bone Spurs' latest outrage: sending the National Guard to DC to combat a non-existent crime wave.

... deploying the military to conduct basic police matters could backfire badly. It fundamentally misunderstands how military officers and soldiers see their mission and purpose, which is to defend the national security of the country against foreign enemies, not to be local cops. The move will likely not put Trump and Secretary Hegseth in better standing with the troops or broader military leadership.

The move mirrors what the Justice Department has done with the FBI and what DHS has done even within ICE itself. Those agencies have reassigned officers primarily to civilian immigration enforcement, moving them from crime interdiction and causing a huge drop in morale and confusion over their mission. The misuse of federal troops as a stand-in for civilian law enforcement will also likely cause grumblings and pushback within the military and a fall in morale.

The military isn’t some black box that Trump can wind up and deploy. His record with getting the military to do what he wants is already quite spotty, as his recent sad military parade, complete with trudging soldiers showing lackluster enthusiasm, demonstrated to the world. The problem will only grow more acute as untrained and unprofessional new ICE agents multiply in number, recruited in large measure from political right-wing fringe and local law enforcement looking to earn big sign-on bonuses. The military will be asked to provide back up for these unseasoned federal agents even as they terrorize innocent people over the color of their skin. It’s not clear that is a sustainable program.

California is the first of many challenges for Trump’s police state, with D.C. and “sanctuary cities” such as New York City likely next up. 

The more the public stands up to and rejects the presence of permanent troops on the streets, the more likely the military command will recall their oaths to the Constitution and hesitate to pass along the President’s orders unconditionally.

This means that in the coming weeks and months, as federal troops begin to be deployed to our cities, our voices of dissent and protest will be more crucial than ever. 

They must grow loud enough for the military to understand, with no uncertainty, that the people do not assent to their presence as a posse comitatus, or to their use to intimidate and squelch democratic opposition to the Trump regime.

Emphasis added.

• • •

Meanwhile, a trial began today in San Francisco in which federal district Judge Charles Breyer will decide whether Trump's deployment of the California Guard in Los Angeles was lawful. Governor Newsom and California State Attorney General Rob Bonta say NO. According the CalMatters:

What is California’s latest allegation? 

That Los Angeles residents were “subjected to a form of military occupation” as federal troops worked alongside federal immigration agents, “often indistinguishable from each other.”

The lawyers say that “never before, in the history of the Nation, has the federal government utilized the military for domestic law enforcement in this manner.”

The Trump administration’s “insistence that perimeters, blockades, and other security functions are permissible makes clear they will continue to engage in these activities,” California lawyers with the state attorney general’s office wrote to Breyer.

The lawyers argued that if military forces can accompany U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in their raids and arrests, as had been unfolding in Los Angeles, “there would be no logical basis to preclude members of the Armed Forces from accompanying other law enforcement agents when performing their duties,” the California lawyers wrote. Military personnel could accompany federal food safety inspectors, medical fraud investigators or accompany federal voting rights officials to “monitor” election polling places, they wrote.

I'll be surprised if Trump's lawyers prevail before Judge Breyer -- if this gets to the Supremes, I have much less confidence. The Republican-appointed Justices are clearly in the tank for Trump.

In the streets, the feds have already lost. Michelle Goldberg -- "They Saw Their Neighbors Taken Away by ICE. Then They Made a Plan." [gift article] -- reports on the rising resistance from Angelenos. I bet she's seen enough to concur with Kuo's prescription: showing up angry and loudly, peacefully, is the right and effective response to Trump's over reach.

From the dangerous front lines of public health

Last Friday, a man shot up the Centers for Disease Control buildings [gift] near Atlanta. The shooter is dead and so is a policeman who apparently got in his way. Investigators have not yet reported what they think went down. According to the shooter's family, he was suicidal and fixated on vaccines. Law enforcement officers found several long guns near his body. 

This violent attack was neither random -- nor, fortunately, effectually targeted. 

The attack also raised understandable questions about Donald Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services, the COVID vaccine denier Robert F Kennedy Jr. Mr Kennedy said appropriate words about the shooting at one of the institutions he "leads," but who can believe him? 

Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD, writes the substack Your Local Epidemiologist sharing information and reflections on the state of the practice of public health. She explains from the perspective of the workers:

The hardest-hit area was the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) and the Immunization Safety Office (ISO). These are people who have carried a lot of the weight of the pandemic, endured relentless hostility, and have faced six months of attacks on vaccine policy. Many have almost no reserves left. And now, on top of everything, they were literally under fire.

Those bullet holes are a haunting, terrible metaphor for what public health has endured over the past six months—and the past six years.

We’ve endured doxxing, hacking, strangers at our homes, death threats in our inboxes, croissants thrown at us in coffee shops. Installing a new security system just because we volunteer for something or show up on TV. Wearing heart monitors because our cortisol levels have started impacting our organs. Deciding not to put our kids in daycare at the CDC campus because it may be targeted. Then firings. Defunding. Politically charged and targeted rhetoric.

And now a shooting happened. It could have been much worse if it weren’t for a police officer—who left behind three kids of his own—making the ultimate sacrifice. This doesn’t make it any less scary.

 Jetelina continues, trying to make sense of the atrocious and inexplicable.

One question keeps coming up from colleagues in my text messages: Why do we keep doing this [keep working in public health]?

I know why. Because people in public health care too much about our country to stop. Because we care about our kids’ futures. Because we believe in a better life. Better community. Better health. We will serve our neighbors even if they don’t understand what we’re doing or why it matters. It’s in the blood of public health workers, woven into every late night, every hard decision, every moment we choose service over family or safety, whether it’s running into an Ebola outbreak or writing a policy brief.

In the next week, the glass will be patched, the windows replaced, the bullets swept from the floor. And this story (which has barely made the news) will vanish. But the trauma, the fear, the exhaustion will remain.

We’ll go back to our desks, our meetings, our spreadsheets. We’ll keep working to stop the spread of disease. We’ll keep working to prevent the next shooting. We’ll keep working for communities that may never know our names.

And we’ll do it knowing we were targeted simply for doing our jobs, jobs that protect even the people who hate us.

But make no mistake: this cannot be the cost of caring. We need more than patched glass. We need a country that values the people who protect it, recognizes the importance of words and their real-world consequences, and values community and neighbors, not just self. Now. Before the next shot is fired. 

• • •

The Atlanta CDC campus appears to be an expanse of fine modern glass and steel buildings, now complete with bullet holes. But somehow this story brought to mind this neighborhood vaccination station set up in the Bayview district of San Francisco in May 2021. A picture of Public Health, indeed!

Stuck between Trump and Putin

I too stand with Ukraine, rule of law, and freedom. Just saying.

• • • 

In response to Donald Trump's announced suck up session with Vladimir Putin on Monday in Alaska we should remember that when the Russian dictator steps on US soil, our international obligation is arrest him and convey him to answer the indictment of the International Criminal Court. 

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

Charges

Allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute). The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, (i) for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute), and (ii) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility (article 28(b) of the Rome Statute).

Not likely, but this is who Donald fawns over. I guess Donald is about to make himself an accessory to Putin's crimes ... That would be on top of the many Trump crimes against the US Constitution and us here in this country.

Do these people know how crazy they seem outside their bubble?

I guess we can be assured they don't care.

The Violent Take it by Force: the Christian Movement that is Threatening our Democracy by Matthew D. Taylor.

Once upon a time, in order to do work I hoped to do -- to build a movement of North American citizens in support to the progressive movements in Central American countries in the 1980s -- I needed to navigate an environment that included many little U.S. leftist sects and sect-lets. This sector among us was important to building a broad coalition of resistance to U.S. meddling with the aspirations of Central American peoples. In that movement, you had to be able to tell five varieties of Trotskyists and a few kinds of other Marxists apart. Why did we have to know and work with these often difficult people and forces? Because they were where friends of Central America could start -- though they could not be allowed to prevent the growth of a movement with a wider base of churches, labor unions, community groups and even politicians.

Matthew D. Taylor's description of the New Apostolic Reformation reminds me viscerally of those days. So many obscure but magnetic leaders peddling crackpot beliefs to branching veins of besotted followers! The NAR certainly has an inside track on defining Christian belief and practice for the benefit of our completely unChristian president. (Not so much so for the majority of those Americans who claim to be Christians.) Will they have staying power? Will it matter that, for all their emotionally attractive fantasies and significant institutional base, that they are completely out of touch with realities of planet earth? Will they turn on each other as mad movements usually do? We'll see. 

Taylor summarizes his subject: 

The NAR is organized around a highly networked but loosely affiliated pantheon of charismatic preachers, pastors, celebrities, nonprofit leaders, and international entrepreneurs who understand themselves to be recreating the energy and vitality of the early Christian church. They believe that the church has languished for centuries in feebleness and aimlessness, led by timid pastors and functionary priests -- until now. Now, they believe, in these momentous latter days, God has reinvigorated the church through the Holy Spirit-backed renewed leadership of apostles and prophets. They believe that Christians need to conquer the high places of influence in society and govern from the top down. Engaged in a cosmic spiritual war against the forces of darkness, they believe God has mandated them to use spiritual violence to defeat Satan and then build the Kingdom of God on earth.

It's important to Taylor that this is not just a white movement. Indeed, it's not even just an American movement.

All well and good, but I have a hard time with his assertion:

The NAR, and the broader Independent Charismatic arena in which it operates, offers a very plausible, popular, and even evangelical interpretation of Christianity.

Sure, many nice folks who mean well can read and cite bits of the Bible, but that certainly doesn't, by itself, make them either sane participants in contemporary civilization or exemplars of Christian piety. People claiming to be Christians have been running about for 2000 years; that's long enough to generate plenty of foolishness as well as occasional beauty and transcendence. Taylor provides a schema for understanding contemporary American Christianity which is interesting, but he loses me when he asks me to take his subject matter seriously as an enduring faith. 

Perhaps it is a weird symptom of a democratic society decaying into oligarchy that so many of us are ignorant enough to find solace in following pseudo-religious leaders who lead to Donald Trump. 

If you have need to decode the intricacies of the crackpot strain in contemporary Christianity, this book provides a map. It's ugly terrain, with a heavy dose of grift from the innocent and ignorant thrown in for good measure.

A premature footnote on 2024/2028

Since we're all going to be living with the promo for Kamala Harris's new book for the next couple of weeks, it feels worthwhile to pass on this reaction from the Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles to her decision to forgo running for governor in California next year. I found it interesting.

What does Bishop John H. Taylor know about politics? Well, in a previous life, he was Richard Nixon's post-Presidency Chief of Staff and then director of the Nixon library.

Taylor's thoughts about Kamala's moves: 

Kamala Harris is officially not the new Nixon. After he lost a squeaker to John F. Kennedy in 1960, party elders such as former President Eisenhower played on his sense of duty and persuaded him to run for governor of California in 1962 against a popular Democratic incumbent. The factors contributing to his loss included his palpable lack of desire and aptitude for the job. 

No one really thought Harris wanted to be governor, either. For that reason alone, she was wise to step back. 

If Nixon had won, he would've been the frontrunner for the GOP nomination to run against Lyndon Johnson in 1964. That's assuming that in this particular “what if?”, President Kennedy still would've been assassinated. Running against Johnson, Nixon would've been buried forever in a landslide. 

If Kennedy had survived, and Nixon had been tempted to run against him in 1964, Californians would've been understandably grumpy about him angling for a grudge match after just half a term in Sacramento. 

Running for president as governor would've entailed similar complications for Harris. By standing down, she becomes the leading contender in 2028. Just read her statement. She wants to help her party find "new methods and fresh thinking” without abandoning core values. 

That actually shouldn't be hard, if one assumes a core value, both democratic and Democratic, is not being sadistically cruel to immigrant workers, trans and non-binary people, the people of African descent Trump is attempting to erase from history, Haitians he accused of the blood libel of eating pets, and others he attacks for political advantage. 

Imagine a middle way that honors the principles of political and economic liberalism while respecting the dignity of every human being. What a concept, huh? It's an opportunity Democrats have but Republicans won’t unless they're willing to abandon Trumpism — which, in or out of office, he won't permit them to do. 

With Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the mix, Harris would have to tack to the center. Trumpy critics who claim she [Harris] has changed her view on one issue or another will have to explain their unstinting support for the formerly pro-choice, pro–gun control Manhattan libertine. 

Democrats will only be able to use #butTrump as a defense against hypocrisy, towering misconduct and dishonesty, and outright criminality for the next century or two. 

Harris also says she'll be "helping elect Democrats across the nation," which means collecting favors for the next three years, as Nixon did after his unsuccessful gubernatorial run in 1962 as he prepared to run for president in 1968. 

Harris’s is the ideal situation for a popular candidate with high name recognition who doesn't need political office to pay the rent. Republicans would've preferred her in Sacramento, arguing with mayors and trying to balance the budget and hold Trump at bay. Instead, she can do what she wants, when she wants, where she wants, and with whom she wants. 

Running for president next time will be almost as fun as the job itself and twice as good as being veep. 

I am not nearly so happy or sanguine about Ms. Harris angling for another run in 2028. I loyally did everything in my power to try to elect her in 2024. If she were the Democratic nominee in 2028, I'd have to do it again. Sure, what Taylor suggests is plausible but ...

Because Harris has repeatedly achieved high office, people miss that she has NEVER demonstrated that she is any good at politicianing. The blocking and tackling of campaigning weren't part of her instincts or acquired expertise. Before last fall, the only truly competitive race she had ever run was against Steve Cooley to become California's Attorney General. In that one, she barely squeaked through in a state that simply doesn't elect Republicans not named Arnold to statewide office. For US Senate and Vice President, the runway was clear from the get-go and she didn't have to make the way. That weakness, along with so many other factors, contributed to her squeaker loss last fall.

My bet is she'll figure this out between now and 2028. She's a smart person. And I think one who actually wants to serve her country. I suspect it is time for an even younger generation to take center stage.

There is no sane use for the Bomb

Today, August 6, 2025, is the 80th anniversary of the detonation of a United States nuclear bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Thousands of people died immediately from its blast. Arguments continue among military thinkers and historians about whether the 1945 atomic bombings were strategically and morally justified in order to end the war against Japan.

Many Japanese remember there is no future in a world where nuclear weapons proliferate.

Joe Cirincione seems to be the last of the United States' serious national security experts who is haunted by the reality that there is NO use of our current nuclear arsenal that leads anywhere good or perhaps even toward civilization and even human survival. There is no sane use of the Bomb.

In July at a talk at one of those strategic conferences that "experts" in destruction frequent, he took the opportunity to point out the fallacies in US nuclear thinking.

In order to solve the nuclear policy mystery, we need to consider what we don’t talk about.  Here are seven topics largely off limits, in rising order of importance:

Cost. Next fiscal year the U.S. government will spend $87 billion on nuclear weapons, up from $70 billion this year. The Congressional Budget Office predicts these numbers will skyrocket. We will spend almost one trillion dollars over the next ten years, averaging $95 billion per year. Add in $25 billion for the foolish “Golden Dome” and perhaps $20 billion for other “missile defense and defeat” programs and we will spend $130 billion on nuclear weapons and related programs next year. The costs will grow. Every one of the new nuclear systems is over-budget and behind schedule. ...

Targeting. What will we hit with all these weapons? The targets are kept secret, but why? We should want other nations to know what they risk if they attack the United States. ... Perhaps because the absurdity of targeting hundreds of military, economic and political sites with multiple warheads on multiple delivery systems would be exposed as absurd. In one example I was given at a briefing at the Strategic Air Command when I was on the staff of the House Armed Services Committee in the 1980’s, we would have hit Odessa in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) with 60 thermonuclear warheads. Obviously overkill. In the tortured logic of nuclear targeting, however, we were not targeting cities, merely the sites that happened to be located in cities.

Casualties. We gloss over the millions of innocent civilians that would be killed even by limited use of nuclear weapons. Most experts agree with the finding by the International Campaign against Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) that “Nuclear weapons are the most destructive, inhumane and indiscriminate weapons ever created. Both in the scale of the devastation they cause, and in their uniquely persistent, spreading, genetically damaging radioactive fallout, they are unlike any other weapons.” ....

Consequences of Use. The immediate death toll would be just the beginning of the damage. With new climate tools we can predict that even a limited nuclear war in South Asia or the one-sided use of nuclear weapons where the attacked country did not respond could result in massive climate change. Scientists estimate that a war involving as few as one hundred weapons would pour enough particulates and soot into the stratosphere to surround the Earth in clouds, drop global temperatures and kill 40 percent of the world’s food crops. Billions would starve; human civilization would collapse. ...

Morality. Pope Francis repeatedly asserted during his papacy, “The use of nuclear weapons, as well as their mere possession, is immoral.” He is not alone. Most major religions denounce nuclear weapons as immoral, from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Ayatollah of Iran to the Dalai Lama.... Despite the frequent invocation of religion in our national discourse, I cannot think of any recent conference where there has been a panel on the morality of our nuclear policy.

Politics. We cannot understand U.S. nuclear policy without factoring in the deep politics involved. This begins with the general antipathy of Democratic Party leaders towards fundamental change in national security policy. Afraid of looking weak, ever since Bill Clinton the party has largely sought to “triangulate” on national security, supporting massive spending and modest adjustments. ...  “People wonder why we don’t learn from failures like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. The reason is simple: People who point out alternatives to current national security policies are systematically driven out of positions of authority,” Jeffrey Lewis told The Washington Post. ...

Corruption. We cannot evaluate nuclear strategy as if our decisions are made in careful deliberations among wise, mostly white, mostly men. Nuclear weapons are a big business. People get rich making nuclear weapons. ...

Cirincione concludes: "If this assessment sounds bleak it is because our strategic situation is bleak. Nuclear dangers are rising around the world." Read it all; it's fully accessible.

Facts can be terrible things, but they matter

Every few days, among my morass of emails, begging letters, and occasionally worthy newsletters, I get a little send-out called USAFacts. This email is a visual, simplified presentation of basic data about the economy and society, derived from US government sources. Sometimes it is interesting; often it's boring.

But not yesterday. Yesterday's email began with a careful social-scientific howl of horror in response to Trump's firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the crime of reporting true unemployment numbers. 

At USAFacts, we rely heavily on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to help Americans understand what’s happening in the economy. The BLS provides crucial metrics on how many people are employed, what they’re earning, and much more.   

President Trump ordered the firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday. This decision, which came after a lower-than-expected jobs report, has created fears of future politicization of one of the nation’s most critical economic data agencies. 

The United States is the global standard for economic data because of the independence granted to statistical agencies. Politicizing that process is a serious departure from that tradition. This administration — and every administration — should protect this independence.  

Data about jobs, prices, and wages belong to the American people. Your tax dollars fund this work. You deserve accurate, timely information that’s free from political interference. Undermining trust in official statistics threatens the integrity of the data that millions of everyday Americans depend on to understand our economy. ...

When this mild-mannered little non-profit denounces you, you've crossed a line.

"Facts deserve to be heard. Democracy is only successful when it is grounded in truth." says Steve Ballmer in this strange little video.

USAFacts is the project of one of our more benign domestic billionaires. Perhaps better than most, Steve Ballmer knows that facts matter. He made a little mistake, dismissing the Apple iPhone as an over priced gadget, that ended his tenure as Microsoft's chief executive. Though he is still believed to be the 8th richest man in the world. And though USAFacts may have a bit of a pro-business built-in bias, it's always intriguing.

Meanwhile Trump has gone full banana republic. He insists the truth is whatever he says it is and the Republican Party must repeat his claims. That is -- he's bonkers mad. And vicious. And dangerous. It's his world and we just live in it.  

This moment's hot data analyst, G. Elliott Morris -- the Strength in Numbers guy -- sums up the meaning of contemporary Trumpism for those who deal in facts:

... I predict we will see a rise in third-party data providers, and an adjustment among media economic reporters in how they talk about government statistics.

... The MAGA prioritization of blind loyalty to Trump is simply not compatible with republican democracy. So the two will not coexist for long. Democracies require acceptance of pluralism, compromise, and reality. Trumpism offers intolerance, absolutism, and factlessness. The two are on a collision course, and unless more people of conscience in the GOP and beyond pull the emergency brake, we may careen past a point of no return.

It’s imperative that defenders of democracy — in both parties — wake up to this reality and reassert that no one is above facts, and country should come before party. Otherwise, as history warns us, the slide toward authoritarianism will only accelerate.

Dark times indeed. 

JB Pritzker steps out

Can Illinois Governor JB Pritzker fill some of the leadership void among Trump's Democratic opponents? He's taking a turn ,,,

Texas Republicans are trying to steal five Congressional seats from Democrats by changing district boundaries, something that is normally only done once every ten years. The move has the added value to MAGA of getting rid of a bunch of pesky Black and brown Texas Democratic Congresscritters. 

Texas Democrats in the state legislature, a small minority in that gerrymandered body, are trying to block the steal by refusing to show up, in fact by fleeing the state, many of them to Illinois. Pritzker has welcomed them with delight: 

Per Heather Cox Richardson: 

Pritzker: “Texas Democrats were left no choice but to leave their home state, block a vote from taking place, and protect their constituents. This is a righteous act of courage.” Pritzker urged other Americans to “take a page from these leaders's playbook. When you show people that you have the will to fight, well, they can muster the will to fight, too. Courage is contagious.”

“To be in public office right now is to constantly ask yourself, how do I make sure that we’re standing on the right side of history? There's a simple answer. The wrong side of history will always tell you to be afraid. The right side of history will always expect you to be courageous. Expect courage from people around you, and it will show up. Expect fear, and fear will rule the day. Let the courage of these leaders be an example to the rest of the country. I'm proud to stand side by side with our friends from Texas today.”

Can the Texas Dems really stall the Texas Trump power grab? Maybe. Maybe not. Texas Republicans are rabid grifters and MAGAs, happy to further bury the rights of their fellow citizens who get in their way. Such fights aren't over til they are over ... and then they re-ignite, because people can't give up.

But it's good to see Pritzker contesting for leadership here. The Illinois governor comes with a lot of questions: can a hotel magnate really become the champion of the working and middle class majority? Seems unlikely. But good to see a Democrat who wants the job and advocates the fight. 

He's at least as convincing as Gavin -- probably more so to this Californian. Let 'em all compete to lead the resistance we're making without them.

Rage against the Regime, Hillsdale Mall

A Saturday gathering of the defiant, presented by Indivisible San Mateo.

A loud and long line of protesters greeted passing cars on Hillsdale Blvd. outside the huge mall.

 

Resisters' signs are getting a lot of use.

 

Others were up to the moment about the Orange Imposter's outrages.

 

A brave protester alerted oncoming traffic to the crowd ahead from the median strip of the busy highway.

 

These women are in it for the long haul, offering advice we can all use.

 

I would describe this as a very inspiriting manifestation of NorCal suburban spunk. Watch out, Donnie; we've got your number. 

The Burnt Orange Emperor was, in fact, “not wearing any clothes”

To my way of thinking, Simon Rosenberg properly understands our Mad King. Rosenberg has the Truth Social style down. Here's a sample:

The Big Blubbery Baby Man had a really bad week ... So, here we are. Paul Krugman called it “Caracas on the Potomac.” Others have described it as “enshittification.”

... The anger and “off with her head” rage exploded yesterday ... Trump has had a remarkably bad last two months and the “success” of his tariffs and economic plan had begun the process of restoring his STRENGTH and POWER. This period of struggle and decline, of weakening and losing, began with Elon’s three day long Twitter attack that introduced the Epstein files to our discourse and deeply wounded Trump.

Trump then began a series of acts that [were] designed to restore his MANHOOD that had been wounded by Elon - his immigration escalation and MARINES in LA; his sad birthday parade with THE MILITARY; his BOMBING of Iran; the signing of his big ugly bill on THE 4th OF JULY. 

None of it worked. His poll numbers kept dropping Putin and Bibi continued to defy him. No country agreed to a trade agreement, not one, in his 90 deals in 90 days fantasy. His desperate attempt to bury the dangerous Epstein files exploded, spectacularly. Dozens of young girls died in a Texas camp due in part to his undermining of FEMA and the National Weather Service.

Something needed to be done. His STRENGTH had to be restored. And so our mad leader announced that on August 1st the world would feel his STRENGTH and know his POWER through his TARIFFS. If the world and the American people would not BEND THE KNEE he would BEND it for them.

Yes, it was true that THE PEOPLE were unhappy with these TARIFFS. They did not want prices to rise, businesses to be hurt, our economy to slow and our allies angered. But they did not KNOW as he did. And they would come to KNOW and BE THANKFUL to the leader for his GREAT WISDOM. He would SHOW them.

And then the TARIFFS came. 35% for you, 41% for you, angry mean Truths for you Brazil. q2 GDP came in at 3%. Inflation while rising had not yet run wild. His economic plan, despite the critics and the naysayers and the evil Fed Chair, was working. The markets rose. His STRENGTH, at long last, had begun to be RESTORED.

His trade advisor Peter Navarro went on Fox News this celebrated the BRILLIANCE and COURAGE of our leader and said that only did President Trump deserve the Nobel Peace Prize he deserved the Nobel Prize in economics too: A new $200 million BALLROOM fit for his GREATNESS was announced. Ghislaine, his dear friend, was moved to a country club prison. Texas committed to give him 5 more Congressional seats. POWER was being RESTORED.

But then that terrible Fed Chairman did not cut interest rates as he was ORDERED, saying, with great hubris and traitorous lies that in fact the TARIFFS were increasing prices and inflation was rising. And yesterday, that BLS harpy defiantly reported that in fact Trump’s economic plan was not working; that his critics were in fact were correct; that the economy was not strong but weak; and thus the source of his renewed STRENGTH and POWER was an illusion, and was no more. The Burnt Orange Emperor was, in fact, “not wearing any clothes” exclaimed the Director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for all to hear.

 The markets, our leader’s friend, did not take the news well and fell, sharply, rudely, wiping out all of the gains since Inauguration day. Here’s The Dow:
    •    Day 1 - 43,487 
    •    Friday - 43,588

Again, something had to be done. Nuclear Submarines were moved into a more offensive position. And so, SHE was FIRED ... 

Rosenberg leads his online band of "proud, plucky patriots" in entreating and berating office holders, Dems and Republicans alike, to stand up and do their jobs, while also helping key Democratic candidates win elections. He's too Democratic Party-loyal for my taste and for a lot of my friends, but these folks are WORKING in their way to stop the Trump regime. Check 'em out at Hopium Chronicles.