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Consumer Financial Watchdog Feds Bite Back Against Trump and Musk Shutdown
Washington DC—Hundreds of angry Federal workers from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), their union representatives of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) 335, and supporters rallied on Monday afternoon after DOGE employees associated with Billionaire Elon Musk locked them out of their offices and took control of their official government website and computer networks. The website remained dark as of Monday night.
An email sent to CFPB Federal workers ordered them not to go into work and to cease operations for the rest of the week, effective Monday, February 10.
The Federal employees and NTEU 335 first rallied on Saturday, February 8, over the Friday afternoon unauthorized takeover of their offices and shutdown of their website. The CFPB hosts a government website with a portal through which consumers may seek financial remedies against shady financial business loans, mortgages, and rip-offs. The website also processes millions of consumer financial complaints annually and since 2011 has given 29 million consumers monetary resolution to those complaints.
The CFPB was authorized by an act of Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010. It was part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. which was the Congressional response to the 2007-8 financial meltdown. It is an independent agency and falls under the purview of the Federal Reserve.
Constitutionally the Executive Branch has no authority to takeover or to deconstruct an independent agency created by Congress as that would violate the separation of powers as provided in Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution.
The Executive branch must also adhere to Court orders over its conduct with respect to the other branches of government as provided in the bedrock Supreme Court ruling in Marbury v. Madison in 1803. This landmark SCOTUS decision established the principle of Judicial review and helped define the boundary between the constitutionally separate executive and judicial branches of the Federal Government. In effect the Executive branch must obey Court rulings and adhere to Court orders.
But the Trump and Musk DOGE team has so far not obeyed US District Court rulings or it is delaying implementation of their Court orders. For example the Executive branch has so far failed to obey Senior US District Court Judge John McConnell injunction in case of 23 States’ Attorney General v. Beset, the US Treasury suit in which the US District Court of Providence, Massachusetts ruled that the US Treasury must immediately resume payments to through the Bureau of Financial Services to payees.
The takeover and shutdown the CFPB is certain to be challenged in the US District Court of the Washington DC District. This will be yet another US District Court case challenging the Executive branch power grab of Federal agencies. There are multiple ongoing cases that already have been triggered by Trump and his government reform czar, Elon Musk’s agency shutdowns. Other cases involve suits filed on behalf of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), created by Congress in 1961; the Department of Labor, created by Congress in 1913; Department of Treasury, in existence since 1789; the FBI, and Office of Personnel Management. These government agencies have been infiltrated by DOGE ‘special government employees’ who coercively removed Federal employees, locked them out of their offices with little or no warning, and then accessed their private identifiable information (PII) as well as the PII of American consumers.
Since its creation in 2011, the CFPB has refunded over $22 billion to consumers ripped off by corporate junk fees, unscrupulous lenders, mortgage company junk fees, excessive credit card interest rates and fees, which have trapped consumers in unfair “fine print” contract agreements.
Angered by the continuing and escalating work stoppages and agency shutdowns across Federal agencies, a Democratic Congressional delegation met outside the CFPB Monday night to condemn President Trump and Elon Musk for the latest agency takeover and shutdown.
The Monday night rally included key Democratic lawmakers such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, Representative Maxine Waters, and Representative Ayanna Pressley.
Senator Warren, who helped create the CFPB, questioned who was actually running the country, Trump or Musk. “Donald Trump ran his campaign on lowering costs for working families. Now he and his co-president, Elon Musk, have tried to shut down the agency that delivered $21 billion to hard working families…and Trump and Musk just want to take that agency away.”
There has been rallies each day last week outside other departments and agencies;
USAID on Monday, US Treasury on Tuesday, Department of Labor on Wednesday, Department of Education on Thursday as well as the US Capitol on behalf of USAID, and on Friday at NOAA.
On Sunday FETU 335 filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the separation of powers aspect of the constitution. “By ordering employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop work, the administration has unlawfully trampled the power of Congress to create a federal agency that it deemed necessary to protecting American consumers,” the FTEU 335 wrote in a press release.
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Trump Flouts Court Order, Continues Freeze on Inflation Reduction Act Funds
Washington DC—In an emergency request, attorneys general from 22 states petition US District Judge Jack McConnell to enforce a “clear and unambiguous” court order blocking Trump administration agencies from continuing a freeze on federal funds. The AGs accuse President Trump, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and several other federal agencies of not fully complying with a temporary restraining order issued on January 31.
The lawsuit stems from a memo issued by OMB directing all agencies to temporarily freeze all grants and loans, thus halting disbursements from the US Treasury and causing chaos nationwide. States were left in the lurch with critical services unfunded. Amid public outcry, lawsuits were filed. OMB then rescinded the memo just before a hearing to consider a temporary restraining order. The case appeared to be moot.
But when White House press secretary Katharine Leavitt caused confusion by announcing that the OMB memo hadn’t been rescinded after all, Judge McConnell wasn’t convinced that a restraining order wasn’t necessary. A court orderdirected the OMB to unfreeze funds until a preliminary injunction could be considered.
The AGs claim that “the situation hasn’t changed at all” in the week since the order was issued, even though it is in full force and effect. While some funding has resumed, the administration is not in compliance. The motion says that “overwhelming” evidence shows that the administration is selectively withholding funds appropriated in the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—two of former President Biden’s major achievements–and programs addressing climate change.
But the Department of Justice (DOJ) contends that release of the funds is only paused because of operational and administrative delays, and they don’t constitute a violation. But plaintiffs argue that if they turned off funding all at once, they should be able to turn it back on without delay. The DOJ also argues that agencies not named as defendants in the lawsuit are not subject to the temporary restraining order.
A hearing on a preliminary injunction to keep the restraining order in place during court proceedings has yet to be scheduled.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) oversees the performance of federal agencies, and administers the federal budget.
UPDATE 1600 EST, February 10, 2025:
The US District Court agreed that the Trump administration has improperly continued to freeze funds and granted the request for enforcement. If defendants fail to comply, they may be held in contempt of court.
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Consumer Finance Protection Bureau Federal Workers Join Government Protests
Washington DC—Federal workers and supporters demonstrated outside the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), an independent government agency empowered with oversight of financial business conduct in the financial sector. Several hundred turned out Saturday morning with just hours’ notice over Elon Musk’s self-described Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) takedown of their agency the day before. The CFPB official government website went dark with a 404 message on Friday.
On Friday morning three young men escorted by security were videotaped entering the CFPB building which is located across the street from the Old Executive Mansion. Whether or not the three young men recorded entering the CFPB were associated with DOGE was not yet confirmed.
The CFPB Federal employees and National Treasury Employees Union 335 (NTEU), the union representing Federal employees of the U.S. Treasury and CFPB identified three DOGE employees were added to the CFPB staff directory on February 7, although they previously had no business with CFPB. NTEU identified the three “DOGE minions” by name in a press release on its website.
DOGE special government employees have been behind the blitzkrieg takeovers of agency after agency the last week, and have been dismantling long-running government institutions with breathtaking speed and damaging results. The DOGE takeovers have come so fast that it is difficult to keep up with the scope and consequences to the agencies that pump the regulatory blood and shepherd it through the administrative veins of the Federal government.
Last night the CFPB government website went dark and with it the access to millions of consumer complaint records maintained in its database. These records are crucial for attorneys to access to assist them build evidence in litigation against dishonest business behaviors, according to Phillip Robinson, a lawyer who spoke on a bullhorn to the protesters about the need for the CFPB to remain intact. Robinson defends consumers against dishonest financial businesses.
As a result of DOGE activities inside CFPB offices, Federal employees and National Treasury Employees Union 335 (NTEU) sprung into action outside CFPB to demand the DOGE self described ‘special government employees’ get out of their computer networks and out of work spaces.
Inside the lobby, locked thick glass doors and windows separated warmth and a lone security guard from 200 protesters standing in the bone biting cold. But the protesters were spirited as passing cars honked in support, their furious voice echoed of the glass of the CFPB and onto the face of the Old Executive Mansion. The guard sat impassively inside, quietly observing the protesters assembled outside. Inside the lobby an improvised hand-written sign reading ‘Trans Rights’ was taped to a desk facing towards the street. It’s message was obviously intended for Elon Musk for his stance against the Trans community.
CFPB: Only Government Agency Providing Financial Protection and Relief for Consumers
The CFPB is the only agency that provides oversight on dishonest businesses and returns money fraudulently taken from consumers through the courts. The CFPB was created in 2011 under authority of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Consumer Protection Act in response to the 2007/8 financial meltdown. It is a bureau of the Federal Reserve.
As of 2024, the CFPB had refunded or canceled abusive debt to 29 million consumers amounting to $19 billion.
An attorney who litigates cases against dishonest businesses spoke of how Friday’s CFPB takeover will hamper litigation against unfair business practices. Phillip Robinson, an attorney who works with Maryland Consumer said that the CFPB not only protects consumers but it also protects honest businesses following the laws and statutes because it holds dishonest businesses accountable.
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau doesn’t just protect consumers it protects honest businesses. The current administration wants dishonest businesses to have a competitive advantage over those that follow the law and I believe in the rule of law.”
Robinson told of how the CFPB helped him litigate cases against dishonest financial companies which had ripped off consumers. “The CFPB has protected Americans by returning monies that were stolen from them. It also protected honest businesses who didn’t cheat and didn’t cross the line.”
Robinson said no other agency was looking out for the financial wellbeing of consumers and honest businesses like the CFPB. “We need an agency that does this because no other agency in government protects honest businesses and consumers at the same time.”
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Holocaust Survivor Warns Trump and Musk Threaten U.S. Republic
Washington DC—Scores returned to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to demand removal of self-described “special government employees” working for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The group of computer software coders accessed the personnel files and computer networks hosting the records of millions of Federal employees.
It was the seventh day that Federal workers and supporters rallied outside the OPM, the administrative headquarters arm of the Federal Government. Upstairs on the fifth floor the windows overlooking the courtyard were covered with drapes to block any view of the ongoing activity within as night fell. Outside in the courtyard a line of police stood along the locked front entrance doors of the OPM.
Protesters chanted on bullhorns for Donald Trump and Elon Musk to leave their records alone and for DOGE employees to leave.
Holocaust Survivor warns U.S. has been on a fast track to fascism—and Fascism is here now.
Marione Oestreicher Ingram, who was born in 1935 and is a German-born civil rights activist and Holocaust survivor, joined the protest outside OPM Friday evening in support of Federal Workers. Her mother was Jewish and her father was German. Their family suffered from persecution at the hands of the Nazis during Hitler’s rise to power.
She said she had survived Germany under Hitler but many in her family were killed under fascism in Germany. She went to the OPM to warn those assembled there that the U.S. was just like 1930s Germany.
“I am here because what I see in America happening is 1930s Germany. We are now officially a Nazi America. We have a Hitler clone in the White House. He is across the board destroying everything America defeated.” (Video of Marione Ingram interview below.)
Ingram said she had survived Hitler and had survived the bombing of her city, Hamburg, Germany, the greatest firestorm any city had ever seen. She further said she had seen what the Klu Klux Klan did in Mississippi as an activist involved in the 1960s Civil Rights movement.
Her husband of 67 years, Daniel Ingram stood by her side watching intently as she spoke about how heartbroken she was to see recent events in the United States.
In speaking about the current conditions in the U.S. she said, “I am very very angry and I am distressed and I am to my soul sad beyond words.”
Marione Ingram is an author of several books, including ‘The Hands of War,’ and ‘The Hands of Peace.” She was involved in helping to set up a school in Mississippi in 1964.
DOGE activities are waylaying many functions of the Federal Government
Additional takeovers of various agencies and Departments of the Federal Government by surrogates connected to billionaire Elon Musk were reported throughout the day on Friday.
As the week has dragged on and agencies were taken over or shuttered altogether, the intent of Elon Musk’s hostile takeover came into beter focus. Certain agencies including the Consumer Finance Protection Board (CFPB), the Department of Education, and the Environment Protection Agency were taken over or continued to be taken over on Friday and may soon be shuttered like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was shuttered on Monday.
Some positive developments include several injunctions have stopped or delayed DOGE activities this week.
DOGE special government employees had new restricted imposed against them by Federal Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Their access to certain financial disbursement accounts maintained by the Bureau of Fiscal Services of the U.S. Treasury was changed to “read only” and Judge Kollar-Kotelly restored account access to U.S. Treasury Federal employees.
A second injunction issued by Federal Judge George O’Toole, a senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, delayed the implementation of a reduction in force (RIF) program affecting over two million Federal workers until Monday, February 10 at the earliest..
But such injunctions may be too little or too late because many Federal Government systems are being accessed and deactivated by DOGE special government employees simultaneously.
For example The CFPB website was taken down and showing a 404 error as of Friday night, February 7.
Other Developments Across Washington DC on Friday
Meanwhile government agencies continued to be taken over and toppled like dominoes as a blitzkrieg of DOGE special government employee groups descended like corporate raiders to seize information from their computer systems.
NOAA Federal workers were locked out of their headquarters building on Friday.
The Consumer Finance Protection Board was accessed by DOGE special government employees who were escorted by special security in the morning on Friday. Several video recorded entry of three persons under security escort into the CFPB. They remained there into the night.
The CFPB website was taken down sometime on Friday.
Department of Education (DoE) was yet another arm of government reportedly under siege. A Democratic Congressional delegation including Maxine Waters and 30 other Democratic lawmakers and staff were blocked from entering the DoE. Security locked them out of the building when they tried to enter its main lobby.
The DoE website showed new initiatives underway in the DoE including eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives. Civil rights activists say that eliminating DEI language is itself coded language for racism, sexism, and bigotry.
Democrats also attempted unsuccessfully to enter the USAID building on Monday, the U.S. Treasury on Tuesday, The Department of Labor on Wednesday, and the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday. Trump has promised to close or permanently shutdown these arms of the government as outlined in Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation manifesto calling for the elimination of much of the Federal Government.
Federal Election Commission (FEC) Chair Ellen Weintraub received a letter from Trump on February 6, purportedly firing her but she refused to leave her position because the FEC is an independent agency, and her appointment falls under the purview of Congress not under the purview of the Executive Branch. She said that she would not leave until Congress appointed a new Chair to the FEC.
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Crisis in Federal Government: Judge Blocks Federal Employee RIF Actions
Washington DC—Federal Judge George O’Toole, a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, has blocked the implementation of a reduction in force (RIF) program affecting over two million Federal workers.
The dubious offer from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for a deferred resignation first offered on January 28, was set to expire on Thursday, 6 February, just hours after the Court’s injunction.
Judge O’Toole, a President Clinton era appointee, ruled for an extension until at least Monday, February 10 to give parties a chance to weigh in with their legal arguments on the merits of the case.
This injunction at least temporarily stops the OPM from taking any further employment actions with Federal employees from departments and agencies across the Federal government.
Over 40,000 Federal employees have opted so far to take the deferred resignation, according to a press release from the White House.
We will update this fast developing story as new details are learned.
6:00 pm update February 6, 2025
Federal Judge restores temporary access to U.S. Treasury Payments System while restricting DOGE access to “read only”
Federal Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has granted a temporary restraining order restricting access to payment records maintained in the Bureau of Fiscal Services (U.S. Treasury) to “read only” for two special government employees of DOGE. The order further restores full access to regular U.S. Treasury employees exercising their official duties.
The injunction severely limits DOGE control over $6 trillion in transactions at tge U.S. Treasury.
The case was brought by the Alliance for Retired Americans against Scott Bessent the New Secretary of the Treasury appointed by Trump, on behalf of millions of retirees affected by the U.S. Treasury takeover by DOGE. Over 90% of Federal Government transactions are handled by the Bureau of Fiscal Services.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was appointed by Bill Clinton in 1997.
Federal Personnel File Database Access Goes Offline For Some Agencies
The personnel files of Federal employees of some agencies were removed from access earlier today. The Standard Form-50 (SF-50) is known as the Report of Personnel Action, and the official record of Federal employees’ career history. The records are stored in the human resource files of Federal employees. Removing or restricting access to these forms is comparable to removing a person’s Social Security account or removing their doctor’s or dentist’s medical or dental records.
The SF-50s record the date and approval authority for key milestones in a Federal employee’s career. They record hire dates, promotions, pay increases, bonuses, step increases, job title changes, merit awards, retirement, or end of employment dates.
It is not known why the SF-50s were permanently removed or temporarily blocked from employee access. The Federal employees opting to take the deferred resignation and/or who have decided to retire require access to these records to track their status in the Federal system.
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Crisis In Federal Government: Department of Labor Joins Protests
Washington DC—A deadline for public servants to resign from Federal service is set to expire Thursday, Feb. 6 as the effects of a hostile takeover of government operations became even more apparent. Details of the takeover of government agencies by handfuls of Elon Musk’s surrogates has also been spreading by word of mouth among federal employees.
As of Wednesday only 20,000 federal workers had accepted Elon Musk’s email option to resign. But an attorney who works at an agency of the federal government said the “Fork in the road” email lacked the detail commonly found in employment agreements and further expressed doubt that the email could be legally enforced. The attorney spoke on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people rallied at the Department of Labor Wednesday afternoon at 3pm to preempt a meeting planned to take place at 4pm that day between sénior federal workers and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) surrogates. DOGE is actually not an official department or an agency because it has not been officially created by Congress.
The protesters outside the Department of Labor were boisterous and it was clear from the mood of the hundreds assembled there that DOGE surrogates would not be welcome and would have difficulty entering the Francis Perkins Building, headquarters of the Department of Labor.
The protesters were themselves blocked from getting close to the entrances of the Department of Labor building by a line of police. Yet it was plainly obvious that the Federal employees were angry their jobs were on the line. (Video of Department of Labor protests here)
The in-person meeting between representatives from Elon Musk’s stand-up DOGE group was preempted, according to three Labor Department staff members.
DOGE email ‘Fork In The Road’ offer expires tomorrow, February 6
The email was sent to every Federal worker on January 28 with a subject line “Fork In The Road,” but was not at first taken seriously. It was later updated several times with amended email containing questions and clarifying answers raised among supposed anonymous Federal employees.
At first it was impossible to tell whether or not the Human Resource account from which the email was sent was official because it was so unlike any communication Federal employees had received before. Previous changes to employment conditions or to job requirements were vetted along strict guidelines and delegated to departments or agencies human resources teams for clarifying questions and legal review. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issues such personnel actions in specific formats using special forms which are approved under a strict delegation process through human resource channels. The DOGE email lacked all of the typical policy guidelines of regulated personnel actions.
In this way a personnel action could be reviewed to verify it met legal thresholds of an enforceable contract. The email itself was not signed and it lacked the basic legal details of a typical government document, according to a Federal human resources attorney.
A copy of the deferred resignation email was published on the OPM website which itself has been completely removed or redesigned here.
Update Of Other Developments Wednesday, 5 Feb 2025. What We Know So Far:
—
NASA Dragged Into DEI Language Purge
— NASA workers were told to drop all their regular work projects to immediately begin removing all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) references from their websites and internal documentation.
USAID Rally Grows, Continues For A Second Day
—The U.S. Agency for International Development Federal workers and supporters rallied again but this time outside the US Capitol where there was more room to assemble. The protest grew significantly by thousands after the USAID website was taken down and went dark. Additionally all USAID personnel abroad were abruptly suspended from working further on any project and ordered to leave their host countries this week. Contractors were fired by the thousands.
Protests continued outside the U.S. Treasury building again today. The rally was spurred by a handful of DOGE surrogates accessing disbursement accounts which control the flow of over $6 Trillion annually.
The protests are seeming to gain more support as additional Federal workers begin to join the swelling ranks of angry public servants in the streets of the Nation’s Capital.
CIA Agents names transmitted over unclassified email server.
— CIA agents were offered a deferred resignation letter today. The intent of the offer was to reduce the CIA workforce.
A list of the partial names of the CIA agents hired in the last two years was transmitted over an unclassified network to the White House, potentially exposing who the agents are to the public or worse, to adversaries abroad. CIA agent name lists are some of the most closely guarded national intelligence, at least up until today.
NOAA—DOGE surrogates accessed agency IT systems Tuesday
— A published report in Axios confirmed DOGE surrogates gained access to the IT systems at National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) supposedly to determine what employees were responsible for DEI initiatives.
NOAA is the agency responsible for tracking weather, conducts climate and global heating measurements and studies, and hosts global warming statistical reports and stories on its website. The agency has published reports from studies its scientists have undertaken for decades.
Trump has challenged NOAA reports of climate and global heat and downplayed, or has dismissed them altogether as fake reporting.
Climate change and global warming are serious issues confronting the environment, and affect every region country, and continent. According to scientists the global temperature average will exceed an increase of 2.0 degrees centigrade before the end of 2050.
Accessing the databases of NOAA and removing reports on climate, increased global heat, and its effect on the planet would be a devastating loss of vital information on this subject.
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Crisis In Federal Government: What We Know So Far
Washington DC— If you’re following the breakdown of internal government operations in the Nation’s Capital, and you’re having a hard time keeping up with the breathtaking pace of events, you’re not alone.
Confusion and chaos continued to swirl through the functioning apparatus of the U.S. Government Tuesday morning as additional reports surfaced of department closures and personnel lockouts. These reports were coming from many sources and involve virtually all departments and agencies.
There is still much that is not clear and much more partially known that is difficult to clarify. What is clear is Elon Musk and small teams of his surrogates, which have no constitutional authority, or at the very least, lack the normal legal permissions to enter or access secured government buildings and classified computer systems, are hard-hammering and rendering inoperable vital functions of the Federal government.
Their actions come usually without warning and without an official announcement and cause immediate chaos.
But within the chaos and disorderly takeover and takedown of multiple operations a sort of logic is beginning to emerge: anything or anyone posing a threat to the Trump-Musk-DOGE triumvirate is being disabled or cut out of the government machinery altogether.
Objectives contained in the Heritage Foundation Project 2025 manifesto outlines the RIFs of most of Federal employee workforce and elimination of certain agencies altogether, which Elon Musk is steadily implementing.
What we know so far:
FBI: (Removal of Special Agents)
Special Agents having connection with the investigations of Trump’s removal of dozens of boxes of classified documents to Mar-a-Lago in 2021, and the subsequent Special Prosecutor’s investigation report; as well as Special Agent involvement into the investigation of the January 6 insurrection, are being removed from the FBI workforce.
Tuesday afternoon the Agents filed a class action suit against the U.S. Department of Justice with the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. The introduction portion of the class action suit reads,
“Plaintiffs are currently employed agents and/or employees of the FBI, who, during the course of their duties worked on, or participated in the investigation of persons suspected of criminal activity related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol building (“the Jan. 6 attack” or “Jan. 6 cases”) at the behest of Donald Trump, and/or the unlawful removal,
retention and storage of classified documents by Mr. Trump (hereinafter “Mar-a-Lago case”). ”
A link to the full brief is here.
Social Security Administration:
The Social Security Website was down temporarily, and Social Security checks were not being processed on Tuesday.
Office of Personnel Management (OPM):
Retirement Processing group has been let go. Retirement applications are not being processed for the Federal workforce.
USAID: Entire USAID workforce has been locked out of their offices as of Monday morning. The Agency is to be subsumed by the Department of Justice. On Monday morning also, disbursement of funding for foreign programs abroad was shutdown.
Department of Education:
A team representing DOGE, the self-appointed fake government department created by Musk, has entered the Department of Education and accessed the records of millions of students receiving special assistance.
Federal Workers Continue to Receive Changes to Reduction in Force warnings
Federal workers received more clarity in email updates with subject line “Fork in the Road”. The deadline to accept the offer by typing “Resign” in a response email remains at February 6, Thursday of this week. However the guidelines keep changing in updates to the “Fork In The Road” email. The original period of payment of wages and benefits was set to expire on September 30, the end of the fiscal year. In the last few days it was shortened to March 14. This is because the Continuing Resolution (CR) agreement between political parties of the House-to keep government operations running will expire on March 15 and since the House of Representatives is locked in a dispute over whether the President is acting within his constitutional authority regarding the actions of Elon musk, it is likely the CR will expire before an agreement is completed. An agreement must be in place to further fund government operations, including Federal employee pay.
Minority Speaker Hakim Jeffries has signaled he will not cooperate with Republican lawmakers on a budget agreement or a new CR if they do not respect or restore previously approved Congressional funding on all programs. The present CR is slated to expire on 14 March 2025. The CR is a procedural agreement between political parties that ensures government funding will remain in place even though the House of Representatives does not complete a Federal budget agreement by the deadline.
USAID: There was a cash crunch at USAID as $50 million in overdue invoices from November and December 2024 have not been paid. This has caused layoffs and work stoppages for contractors which have already paid for work performed and have not been themselves paid outstanding invoices from USAID. This has in turn resulted in layoffs, furloughs, and stop work orders at USAID. Government invoices are paid within 60 to 90 days after work is certified and completed.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) website went dark as of today. Portions of The National Institutes of Health (NIH) website have been removed.
Rally of Federal Workers at U.S. Treasury Draws Thousands
Federal workers rallied at the Department of Treasury at 5 pm on February 4 over Elon Musk’s unauthorized seizure of disbursement accounts and illegal lockout of Federal employees there and across the Federal bureaucracy.
Senators and Representatives decried the unauthorized access and the seizure of systems and data and encouraged the American people to mobilize against the actions taking place in the halls of government.
See video of rally below.
Update 9:00 pm, February 2025
Axios is reporting 20,000 Federal workers have accepted the resignation letter and opted to quit. This is a mere 1% of the Federal workforce and far below the number of public servants Elon Musk had hoped would resign.
Thee Project 2025 plan calls for a reduction of 75% of the Federal workforce in the first year.
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Federal Workers Fight For Continuity Of Government Operations
Washington DC—Dozens of Federal workers took to the sidewalks and streets outside administrative offices and departments for a third day as a five-alarm fire continued raging through government operations. That fire was lit by billionaire Elon Musk as he deployed surrogates inside multiple agencies throughout the U.S. Government to seal off offices and upend normal operations. His actions over the last week were with the consent of President Trump and were effectively dismantling normal government operations from within its own walls.
Key employees in certain departments were locked out of central computer systems at U.S. Treasury, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FBI, and USAID. Lockouts were also reported occurring at the Department of Education and Department of Justice. Other agency Federal employees were reporting similar actions taken and passed their personal experiences to DCMediaGroup on the condition of anonymity. Many were reluctant to speak out for fear of retribution but urged the public to call their Congressional representatives and Senators for support.
International Agency for International Development (USAID) Offices Illegally Closed by Musk
Outside the U.S. International Agency for International Development (USAID), several hundred Federal workers rallied outside their office which is located at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Building on Monday at Noon. Over the weekend or before then, Elon Musk surrogates illegally entered and locked down their offices, took over the servers, and began taking down the website pages. This was reported by USAID officials from within its offices. Senator Tom Holland (D-MD) and Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-MD) along with Don Beyer (D-VA) said the actions taken by Musk were illegal and unconstitutional. They spoke outside USAID offices during a press conference Monday at noon.
Federal workers were shocked and saddened when they suddenly learned this morning by email they should not report to work because their offices were locked and their building access credentials were disabled. Many stood outside during the press conference barely able to comprehend their role in the unfolding U.S. Government crisis. Some of the workers hugged each other while some cried in each other’s arms.
Many USAID workers have been working on projects with the Congressionally created agency for their entire career.
The USAID Federal workers did not know if they would still have employment in the following days. It was reported that USAID would now fall under the control of the U.S. Department of State, however no such Congressional approval had taken place.
USAID is a government agency established by Congress in 1961, and later that year was approved by President John Kennedy. For 6 decades it has been responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance to promote global well-being, assist the economic growth, and improve living conditions in developing countries. Some of its many programs include developing strategies to fight pandemics and disease, providing family assistance, and infrastructure projects such as bridge construction, water treatment plants, and schools.
A Congressional delegation was barred from USAID even though Congress approved the Agency in 1961. Screenshot from Congressman Don Beyer account.
Kristina Drye, a speech writer, who was locked out of her office and up until Monday morning, worked at USAID, said that democratic principles promoted around the world were under attack and called on Congressional leadership to intervene. She further said that loss of such democratic principles would directly harm millions in developing countries worldwide who depend upon the assistance provided from USAID to help their nations. “People would die,” she said as a result of having funds shut off.
USAID has provided aid for decades to developing nations dealing with world issues, including conflicts, refugees, infrastructure development, disease and pandemic intervention programs, family development and assistance, food assault and many other programs. Drye said that USAID was responsible for using less than 1% of the part of the budget allocated for discretionary spending. In comparison, the Department of Defense is allocated nearly 57% of the budget for discretionary spending.
Update: 7 pm February 3. U.S. Department of State Marco Rubio said that USAID would fall under the supervision of the Department of State. However there was no approval from Congress to transfer control of the agency to the Department of State.
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Federal Workers Block Doors of Admin Building Over Elon Musk Data Breach
Nearly 100 Federal employees took part in a protest now into its second day of a takeover by Elon Musk surrogates of the high administration arm of the Federal government. Photo: DCMediaGroup
Washington DC—Federal employees and supporters returned to the main Federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) building today in much greater numbers to continue protesting an incursion into its sprawling computer network by a team of Elon Musk’s computer surrogates.
About 100 Federal employees and supporters occupied the courtyard of the OPM building for most of Sunday afternoon and into the evening. For a brief period they blocked the doors to the building when a handful of self-identified ‘data miners’ waited to be admitted to the building. The small group of young men eventually left without entering after the protesters would not let them near the front doors. A team of DC Metropolitan Police stood nearby watching but did not intervene in the spontaneous doorway block. There was no attempt by the self-identified group to get past the doors and the doors remained locked from the inside.
Federal employees and supporters privately expressed deep anger and concern after learning that Elon Musk’s surrogates had gained access to the OPM building, revoked regular Federal employees’ authorized access credentials, and denied them login privileges into the personnel computer systems. As of late Sunday night the surrogates continued to lock Federal employees out of the systems while they accessed the systems.
There is no way to determine what they are doing with the systems or its vast trove of databases and information which records the personnel actions across the entire Federal government.
These personnel systems and databases house the business accounts and personal information of over 2 million former and presently active Federal employees, their personnel data, work history, job information, payroll records, and retirement benefits and information.
A massive intrusion of this scale taken against a system of secure government computer networks is unprecedented.
Similar activities by Elon Musk’s surrogates were reported at the U.S. Treasury and at USAID. Federal employees were denied login privileges into their systems while unauthorized persons connected to Elon Musk accessed key software, accounts, and databases.
The entire management and administrative arm of the Federal government files and accounts have been effectively captured and taken over by Musk’s surrogates and could conceivably be further accessed further by unknown unauthorized third parties or entities.
While a half dozen protesters blocked the doors the remaining group chanted slogans and heckled Musk’s surrogates inside who periodically looked down on the protesters from the windows of the fifth floor.
They chanted, “There’s a robbery in progress! Stop the steal!” and “No Oligarchs No king!.”
But the protesters laughed and relaxed the tension at least for at a few moments when one of them coined the phrase, “No Elon, no coup, no fascist shiba inu!” (Video below)
The shiba inu is a meme reference to a Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a fake government department which was not authorized by an act of Congress. Musk is recognized as the creator of this department to oversee the reduction in force (RIF) initiative of up to what may be removal of as much as 80% of the regular Federal employee workforce.
Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation manifesto written to outline a complete overhaul of the Federal government lists RIF of public servants and near complete elimination and replacement of its role in civil society.
The shiba inu dog is also the visual image on the DOGE meme coin, an intrinsically worthless cryptocurrency which Elon Musk began backing and supporting by recommending it as a worthy token sometime after developers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created the cryptocurrency as a joke in 2013.
Towards the end of the night a security guard from the OPM came outside to lower the American and DC flags. One of the protesters questioned him about his role as a secretary guard if he was allowing un-credentialed third parties into the building to access commuter systems. He said he was just doing his job.
The OPM protests are planned to continue all next week as public interest has rapidly grown to do something about the unprecedented seizure and physical takeover and control of the administrative functions of the various departments of the Federal government.
We will continue to cover this story as developments occur.
Update: February 3, 0400 EST (4 am)
Several protesters who stayed late into the night keeping an eye on the OPM building doors watched as two people entered a service portal at the west side of the building after hours at approximately 2100 EST (9 pm).
There would typically be no official Federal employees entering the building at such late hours on a Sunday evening/Monday morning; certainly not using a portal to enter the OPM building. A witness said they left OPM to pick up food from a delivery request.
The witness, who is reporting their observations at OPM from an Bluesky account @MissMouse (missmouse.bsky.social) has been releasing video clips of the OPM activities and Federal employee protests since Sunday afternoon.
A group calling itself Shutdown DC is organizing daily protests around the OPM building starting Monday afternoon and plans a continuing presence outside the OPM building.
We will continue to update major developments of Elon Musk’s administrative takeover of the Federal government departments and agencies as these developments occur.
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Federal Workers Protest Elon Musk Takeover Of Top Government Office
Washington DC—A handful of Federal employees demonstrated against billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of the top Federal government administrative building on Saturday afternoon. They said their protest was spurred by the unauthorized breach of their data and financial information by surrogates working for Elon Musk. The operatives locked authorized Federal workers out of access to their computer systems and forced access to the government computer systems. The surrogates are associated with the billionaire’s corporations and are in his closest corporate circle.
Federal employees chanted, “ Hands off our data, hands off our money!”, “Six Trillion, you can’t have it!” and “No body voted for Elon Musk!” Meanwhile, five floors above them lights remained lit on the Saturday afternoon while several unidentified persons watched the protesters from the windows above.
The few employees said it was self-evident that the billionaire was the master planner orchestrating the actions inside the Theodore Rosevelt administration Office of Personnel Management (OPM). His actions were not close to resembling anything like the orderly and traditional transfer of government power from one elected executive to the next. The activities inside the OPM resembled an administrative coup of government operations they said.
Their signs read, “Democracy not Oligarchy, “ Save OPM,” “Hostile Takeover,” and “Democracy Died in Complacency.” The signs are references to Musk’s actions at OPM.
The Federal employees, who wished not to be identified, expressed anger and frustration that the stunning breach of security of computer information was authorized by Trump. The employees were themselves required to undergo extensive background investigations and be thoroughly credentialed before gaining access to even the most basic information systems. Such investigations and credentialing requirements take months to complete before access is approved with requirements for periodic additional credentialing.
The OPM building is located in a sleepy Federal office building zone in Northwest Washington DC at 1900 E. Street NW, and has rarely, if ever seen protests, at least by its own public servants.
According to published report by Reuters and widely reported elsewhere in major news websites, as well as reports circulating generally among Federal members’ offices, Musk’s associates were not granted official government credentials and had not been issued the typical government identification badges and security access permissions connecting them to access of OPM. They bypassed all layers of security at the OPM office spaces and connected external computer drives to the entire trove of government employee information. They set up couches and worked around the clock to access data without oversight. This data includes but is not limited to email accounts, personal identification information (PII), financial records, evaluations, work history, retirement data, and assessment reports.
A published report established that the same type of activity was unfolding elsewhere in Federal government departments, including at the U.S. Treasury, where yet other surrogates of Elon Musk had also gained access to the central money disbursement accounts. Such accounts are managed at the highest levels of government security and control the payment of $6 trillion annually in Social Security, Medicare, Federal worker pay, IRS tax refunds, and government contracts. The accounts are the working spigot of Congressionally authorized disbursements.
David Lebryk, the top Treasury career manager responsible for access to the accounts, reportedly clashed with Elon Musk’s operatives as he tried to stop their breach of U.S. Treasury accounts but he was escorted out of his office and his access was revoked.
There remains a question as to whether or not the president has the constitutional authority to take any role in the U.S. Treasury account operation or seize access to the account, lock out the designated manager, and delegate authority to an unelected external third party.
The OPM building itself stands as the central hub of Federal Government administrative operations and houses a vast computer array and links to the most sensitive PII data of millions of Federal employees, both past and present.
Up to this moment, the OPM has been the most continuously stable pilar of government operations; not subject to the periodic transition of personnel as occurs in the changeover of elected branches of governance—the Executive, Legislature, and High Court. All the practical operations of government and the authority at OPM is delegated by Congress and put into operation at the OPM. But the stability of this pilar is being shaken at its foundation as PII access and control points are breached by the billionaire’s surrogates.
It is questionable as to the constitutionality of said actions and as to whether or not the Executive branch has been vested the authority to wrestle control of and take over the administrative arm of the government and then delegate control to an unelected third party, Elon Musk.
The Federal employees told of how earlier in the week they were confused and later angry after they received a suspicious series of email from an account identified as the official OPM. The email was sent to every Federal employee with the subject line, “Fork in the Road,” and spurred a government human resource crisis. It offered to cancel their return to regular work offices with 8 months pay and benefits under the condition they reply with one word “Resign,” to end their employment. It was part of certain reductions in force (RIF) slated to come later on under a plan to reduce the Federal service workforce by 80%. The email did not tell when the RIFs would occur, but vaguely implied they could be given 8 months of pay and vacation but they must respond to the message with a one word “resign” not later than February 6. Legal analysts said the agreement was not legally binding and employees would be tricked and trapped if they took the deal.
The suspicious nature of the email created instant chaos in the minutes after it was sent as managers in agencies across the government scrambled to determine if it was legitimate. OPM had not previously issued such a vague and sweeping notice directly to its public servants.
An email titled “Fork in the road,” was a mimic of a previously sent email from Elon Musk to Twitter employees in November 2022 after he purchased the media platform and then terminated most of the twitter workforce. They were also asked to take a severance offer; were not paid as promised after they took the offer; and were then later forced to seek payment in court.
In a speech before Congress, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) said Federal employees should ignore the email offer from Musk and called it bogus and urged non-compliance.
Federal workers vowed to return to protest again on Sunday.
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Indigenous Activist Leonard Peltier Sentence Commuted
Washington DC—Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Indigenous Activist Leonard Peltier on January 20, just minutes before his term was set to expire. It was one of his last official acts as President.
Leonard Peltier was convicted 47 1/2 years ago for the killing two FBI agents in June 1975 during a raid on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. But many questions remain unanswered about the legality of the evidence submitted against him during his trial. Indigenous groups and supporters have maintained and championed his innocence since his trial conviction in 1977.
The commuted sentence is an act of clemency but not a full pardon. It forgives a sentence or a portion of a sentence and it does not restore one’s civil rights. A pardon both forgives a sentence and cleans the criminal record while restoring full civil rights of citizenship. Peltier will have to stay in home detention to serve what remains of his sentence. A full pardon would have afforded Leonard Peltier full civil rights and freedoms of any citizen.
The Presidential Certificate of Commutation was issued, in part, by the urging of the U.S. Attorney who oversaw his prosecution during his trial and appeal. It was also supported by many advocacy groups, the Dalai Lama, and indigenous tribes both here and abroad. It reads:
The President is commuting the life sentence imposed on Leonard Peltier so that he serves the remainder of his sentence in home confinement. He is now 80 years old, suffers from severe health ailments, and has spent the majority of his life (nearly half a century) in prison. This commutation will enable Mr. Peltier to spend his remaining days in home confinement but will not pardon him for his underlying crimes.
Mr. Peltier is a Native American activist who is currently serving life in prison for killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and escaping from federal prison. Tribal Nations, Nobel Peace laureates, former law enforcement officials (including the former U.S. Attorney whose office oversaw Mr. Peltier’s prosecution and appeal), dozens of lawmakers, and human rights organizations strongly support granting Mr. Peltier clemency, citing his advanced age, illnesses, his close ties to and leadership in the Native American community, and the substantial length of time he has already spent in prison.”
Leonard Peltier Advocated For Indigenous Justice and Restoration of Lands Illegally Taken
Leonard Peltier is an enrolled citizen of the is Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. He is an indigenous activist and was involved in the American Indian Movement (AIM) which fought for restoration of land rights and indigenous peoples freedoms as provided in the Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868. It was the deliberate abrogation of this and subsequent treaties and other agreements signed between the U.S. Government and Indigenous leaders which led to the eventual formation of AIM.
He advocated for the social justice of his people and cared for the impoverished members of his community. He was co-owner of an automobile repair shop in Seattle where customers who were unable to afford costly repairs could get discounted rates or free services for repairs. The shop also provided a halfway house for those recovering from substance abuse.
He joined AIM in 1972 to help the indigenous movement fight for civil rights. In June 1975 he was at the Pine Ridge Reservation as a part of AIM to help in efforts to restore peace between political factions on the reservation.
Evidence In Trial of Shootout At Piney Ridge Reservation Woefully Inadequate
On June 25, 1975, two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams went to the Pine Ridge Reservation in unmarked cars wearing civilian clothes to serve a warrant to another person, Jimmy Eagle, who was at Jumping Bull’s ranch. Jimmy Eagle was a suspect in another crime which took place previously. A shootout resulted in the two FBI agents being wounded and another member of AIM being killed. About the time of the shootout, another car pulled up to the scene and a passenger got out, according to a statement from Peltier to Peter Kroft for a 60 Minutes interview in 1992. During the interview Peltier said he was not the person who killed the FBI agents. Kroft pressured him to tell who was but he said he “was not a rat” and would not name the person who actually shot and killed the FBI agents. Peltier has always maintained he did not kill the FBI agents. He also admitted to being involved in the shootout.
One of the glaring facts of Peltier’s trial is not so much the evidence presented against him but the evidence necessary for a conviction that was not presented. The shell casings of Peltier’s rifle did not match those found near the slain FBI agents. The shell casings left in the trunk of the car where the agents were killed at point blank range were not from Peltier’s rifle.
A published report in Navajo Nation outlined inconsistencies with trial evidence and irregularities with jury selection which under today’s trial standards whould have been sufficient grounds to grant Leonard Peltier a new trial. Even under later trial standards there was adequate opportunity for subsequent administrations to order a new review of his case.
“Kevin Sharp [Peltier’s attorney] points out that judicial review of cases was different in 1977 than it is today. Ruled inadmissible at the time, the jury in Peltier’s trial never heard about the relevant underlying tensions between factions at Pine Ridge Reservation leading up to AIM followers being invited there. There was hidden exculpatory evidence, which normally would have been cause for a new trial. One member of the jury admitted a prejudice against Native Americans and was, nonetheless, permitted to serve as a juror in Peltier’s case. The jury didn’t know Myrtle Poor Bear had falsified her witness affidavit. They also didn’t know that ballistic experts could not match shell casings in the trunk of the shot-at FBI agent’s car to Peltier’s rifle. Further, misconduct on the part of the FBI never prompted another trial. Rebuking former FBI Director Louis Freeh for opposing executive clemency, former Attorney General Janet Reno under President Bill Clinton never called to question the prosecutorial misconduct in Peltier’s case.”
Commutation Came Far Too Late
The trial and conviction of Leonard Peltier will forever be counted among the injustices waged against Indigenous peoples of this country. The commutation of Leonard Peltier’s sentence came when it was most convenient for the outgoing administration to sign it. Joe Biden could have signed it years ago but political pressure made it an unpopular act and he delayed it until the very last minute. The FBI has always been opposed to clemency for Leonard Peltier.
The breaking news report that Peltier’s sentence had been commuted, diverted for at least a moment, the rapt media attention on the ugly line dance of oligarch sycophants kissing the ring of the one who would be king for the nation’s 60th presidential inauguration.
Leonard Peltier is in ill health the result of nearly 50 years held in maximum confinement facilities and denial of adequate healthcare. He can barely walk and he uses a wheelchair. He has diabetes and he has suffered a stroke. He can barely speak. He may never get full rights and freedoms restored to him but he will be surrounded and supported by close family members caring for him during his last years. And that is at least some measure of security and closure for he and his family and those who fought for decades for his release.
In his journal written while imprisoned and published in 1999, “My Life Is A Sundance,” he wrote: “Innocence has a single voice that can only say over and over again, ‘I didn’t do it.’ Guilt has a thousand voices, all of them lies.”
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Tens of Thousands Rally Against Trumpism At the People’s March 2025
Washington DC—Tens of thousands from a coalition of hundreds of groups rallied and marched through downtown Washington DC in opposition to the incoming president and his agenda on the eve of his second inauguration, Saturday. It was the same president and agenda they rallied and marched against on the eve of his first inauguration in 2017.
Their issues and rallying cries were plainly written on their signs and were as evident in their voices as they echoed off the granite walls of the office buildings they passed. They paused frequently and when they passed the windows at the seat of power in the White House and Old Executive Mansion their voices rose there as well. But with inauguration weekend at hand and many government officials having already cleared out their offices there were few to hear them. (video of People’s March 2025)
The throngs of protesters were swarmed by scores of reporters and independent media influencers often tripping up their pace and stopping their progress. As many as 100,000 marched proving that their will to resist is strong and they remained determined to resist against the incoming president’s agenda to strip more individual rights and diminish any more norms of democratic government.
The People’s March 2025 looked and felt just like the women’s march of 2017 only this time it was comparatively much smaller and those gathered were therefore able to form columns and navigate through the streets. In 2017 nearly a million, by some estimates, were crowded in such a concentrated mass of humanity onto the National Mall that it was impossible for them to effectively form any column or organize a march anywhere through the city.
The People’s March 2025 was certainly not as big as the historic Women’s March of 2017 but it didn’t need to be to prove its point. What it lacked in numbers was offset by a resolve to resist. And they demonstrated that there was plenty for them to resist.
This inauguration year there were many carrying homemade signs and banners with the similar words and messages, and voices echoing the same chants as in 2017. “I can’t believe I have to do this again,” read one, “Resist,” read another, “No King,” read yet another.
The People’s March 2025 will not go down in history as epic march compared with the historic marches of the past. But it does signify the beginning of what is likely to be a contentious period of resistence in Washington DC.
Many wore embroidered pink pussy hats and carried signs about access to reproductive healthcare as they did in 2017. Other sign texts ruminated the climate emergency, buoyed the Black Lives Matter Movement, demanded passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) (it already has gained enough States’ legislative approvals to be enacted), demanded protections for the rights of the LGBTQ community and immigrants not fully made citizens, and many other groups.
The People’s March 2025 demonstrates that there are still many concerned about the direction this country is going. There is deep-rooted dissatisfaction with rulings from the Supreme Court, excessive expenditures of defense spending while education and social programs suffer, and the signage of the People’s March 2025 reflect those issues and more. The incoming administration has centered the interests of the billionaire class as many of the new president’s political nominees are ultra wealthy and billionaires. The billionaire class has bought into and infused itself throughout government and that does not bid well for anyone—left leaning or right, according to Senator Bernie Sanders.
The resistence has tasted Trumpism before and spat it out then. It watched the MAGA party meltdown and its assault of the U.S. Capitol during an insurrection in 2021 yet it kept its cool and held itself together. The incoming president squirmed and slid out of three trials and certain findings of guilt and the resistance again remained calm. On January 6, 2025 the resistence did not break into and raid the U.S. Capitol when the president won a hotly contested campaign, unlike his followers did. The resistance is therefore ready and able to spat out Trumpism and oligarchy yet again this time around.
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Jimmy Carter Built Legacy of Public Service Was Oldest Surviving President
Washington DC—Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States and oldest surviving former Chief Executive, died today at age 100. He served as President from from January 1977 to January 1981. He was Governor of Georgia from 1971-1975 and served as Georgia State Senator from 1963-1967. He married his lifetime partner, Rosalynn Smith in 1946, a union lasting 76 years. Rosalynn Carter preceded him on November 19, 2023.
Jimmy Carter was a Naval Academy Midshipman studying Nuclear Engineering from 1943 to 1946 and a graduate in the class of 1947. He accepted an accelerated commission due to WWII. He went on to serve aboard the USS Submarine Sandwolf. He served in the Navy until 1953 and he was awarded the WWII Victory Medal and Dolphin insignia. He resigned his commission and returned to Georgia to help his father run his peanut busness.
His Administration replaced the Gerald Ford Administration, which overlapped and followed the tumultuous Nixon and Watergate period. His Presidency was seen as a revitalization of trust in government and a break from a troubled time of steep erosion in public trust of the Executive Branch which preceded his administration.
Once in office, his vision was to enact secure ethics standards throughout government and in the Executive Branch to reestablish trust in Oval Office decisions. His policies laid the ethics bedrock in governmental affairs across its agencies for decades to come.
On his second day in office he kept a campaign promise by granting an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of Vietnam “draft dodgers,” many of which had fled to Canada to avoid certain combat service in Vietnam. His Executive Order granted them amnesty and honorable discharges under what became known as the ‘Carter Program’ but such Veterans were permanently locked out of Veterans benefits for being absent without leave and in desertion during wartime. Many Veterans groups opposed the move because it forgave thousands who abandoned their responsibilities during the Vietnam War. But had it not been for his Executive Order, thousands of Veterans would not have been able to reassimilate into their communities after the unpopular war ended.
Up to that point pardons were available to Vietnam Veterans who fled service under the Ford program. Pardons under Ford were contingent upon voluntary civil service of some amount of months based upon the length of absence from military service but under the Carter Program pardoned Veterans received clemency without requiring voluntary civil service.
While in office he brokered the Camp David Peace Accords in 1978, a 12-day marathon of secret meetings between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. A pair of agreements laid the groundwork for a lasting peace agreement between Israel and Egypt and ended a 3 decades’ long military standoff that elluded five Presidents before him. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat shared the Nobel Peace Prize later that year for their peace agreement.
The Camp David agreements generated controversy however, because Palestinian leaders were not consulted or included in the negotiations during the 12-day accords. The occupied Palestinian territories were not guaranteed sovereignty in the Camp David agreement.
Jimmy Carter was environmentally minded, perhaps the most “green“ minded president who has served. He convinced Congress to pass the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act to protect 104 million acres of Alaska wilderness. He signed it into law on December 2, 1980. The remote refuge would protect wildlife for future generations. In recent years the refuge was thrown into controversy as attempts were made to build a road through it. In May 2022, he filed an amicus brief in the dispute and in opposition to developing the land.
Economic Challenges Trouble Carter Administration
His presidency was not without controversy. Inflation and unemployment undermined the economy during his administration. OPEC raised oil prices and growing U.S. demand caused gasoline shortages. At that time the U.S. was importing 40% of its energy needs. Economic difficulties resulted in what he called a “crisis in confidence.” On July 14, 1979, he laid out plans for energy independence in a speech to the nation about energy and inflation. His plan to reduce reliance on imported oil would soon be preempted by another crisis in Iran: the overthrow of the Shah and the U.S. Embassy takeover.
Bridge of Turquoise—Desert of Despair
On November 4, 1979, Iranian students raided the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 66 hostages, beginning a 444 day standoff lasting until the very last minutes of his Presidency. Up to 1979 the U.S. and Iran shared mutual interests in global influence. Shah Reza Pahlavi, the king of Iran, sought to become a regional military power. The U.S. traded military equipment for oil in an agreement which elevated the Shah to the 5th most influential country with billions in military projects. In return Iran provided discounted oil to the U.S. and gave the U.S. a close ally in the Middle East.
The Shah was overthrown in early 1979 as popular discontent rose against him among the middle class, On February 2, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had been living in exile in France, returned to Iran, and soon unseated over 25 years of American influence in the region. This undermined the security of thousands of U.S. and other foreign workers in Iran.
The hostage crisis was triggered days after the Shah, Reza Pahlavi was granted access to healthcare in New York City for cancer treatment. This incident led to the students taking over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, an event that would eventually lead to President Carter’s political downfall.
The U.S. embassy takeover in Tehran enraged the American public. President Carter sought a negotiated settlement with the release of U.S. Embassy petitions, but the students agreed to the release only Women and Black Americans in the early months of the standoff because of their minority status. As Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran and subsequently to power in 1979, relations between the U.S. and Iran deteriorated and tensions over the hostage crisis made it seemingly unsolvable.
Throughout this crisis Carter worked patiently with his National Security Advisor Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński to broker a release of the hostages through diplomatic channels, appealing to the UN and even the World Court for help. But the hostages were not released. The anger from voters would rise until the election in 1980.
Carter authorized a secret military rescue plan called Eagle Claw, which conceived a special operations group from all the branches of the military that eventually became known as the Delta Force. The mission ended tragically in the desert on April 24, 1980, when a helicopter collided with a C-130 refueling aircraft on a makeshift runway, killing eight service members. The burned service members bodies were dragged and displayed on Iranian TV, enraging the entire U.S. It was a spiritual low for the country and a calamitous outcome of a mission that would have restored national confidence in the Executive Office had it succeeded—an outcome his Administration had worked so hard to achieve.
This incident placed the White House in an unenviable position of appearing weak on international relations. The hostages were not released until minutes after Ronald Reagan took the Oath of Office on January 20, 1981. In recent years evidence came to light that operatives in the Reagan Administration negotiated with the Khomeini regime to hold the hostages until after Reagan was sworn into office.
A recent published report in the New York Times, illuminated evidence of a trip by John Connelly, a Texan stalwart in Republican political circles at the time, was a lobbying effort to delay the hostage release until after Ronald Reagan was sworn in. Had knowledge of Irangate been exposed before the election it is likely those responsible in the Reagan Administration would have faced a flood of political backlash.
The remaining U.S. Embassy hostages were released within the hour of President Ronald Reagan’s oath of office.
Incidentally the failed hostage rescue exposed serious lapses in coordination of military branches and resulted in the creation of Special Operations Command. The crisis launched the career of TV reporter Ted Koppel and popularized his nightly news program “The Iran Crisis” because his even-tempered coverage of the story captivated viewers. It was eventually renamed Nightline after the Iran hostage crisis was resolved. Koppel would go on to host Nightline for another 25 years.
An Environmentalist Futurist
Jimmy Carter was the first President to envision a green future of renewable energy as a path away from fossil energy sources, decades before it became an economic and social imperative. In August 1979 he was first to commission solar panel installation on the West Wing of the White House, having 32 panels installed. The panels generated enough energy to meet the hot water needs at the White House. His vision to produce 20% of the country’s national energy needs by the year 2000, most certainly would have relieved the country’s energy dependence on fossil energy sources and its vulnerability to fossil energy price fluctuations.
His vision for energy dependence continued after he left office. He leased 10 acres and installed a solar farm in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, which continues to generate 1.3 MW annually, and supplies 50% of the town energy needs. It demonstrated a renewable energy project could be scaled nationwide and would have benefited the nation’s energy policies.
Carter Achieved Many Successes After He Left Office
After leaving office in January 1981, he envisioned a new direction and dedicated his life to public service. He and Rosalynn Carter established the Carter Institute, in partnership with Emory University. The Carter Institute was committed to fundamental human rights, the alleviation of human suffering, preventing and resolving conflicts, enhancing freedom and democracy, and improving health. The Carters have overseen transparent election standards in dozens of countries.
He joined with Habitat for Humanity in 1984 and assisted in home construction with Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter for 35 years and into his 90s, proving that age is not a barrier to productivity. In 1993 he helped Habitat for Humanity build 10 homes in 1 week on Benning Road, Southeast, Washington DC.
He was the recipient of many awards and accolades, for his humanitarian work and public service.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter the Presidential Medal of Freedom for the Camp David Accords and their work in the fields of international peace, health issues, and the environment.
Nobel Peace Prize Recipient 2002
In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize ”for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development,“ according to the Nobel website.
He won three Grammy Awards in the category of Best Spoken Word or Non-musical Album in 2006, 2015, and 2016, and was nominated nine times for the award.
Carter Slammed Supreme Court Rulings on Corporate Personhood and Citizens United
He said of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Corporate Personhood, “I think the most stupid decision that the Supreme Court ever made and one of the most damaging was to rule that corporations are people and that major corporations now can give unlimited supplies of money to candidates.”
In 2015 he learned he had cancer and it had spread to his brain and revealed it publicly in 2019 during a church service. He was completely at ease about his death, saying, “I obviously prayed about it. I didn’t ask God to let me live, but I asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death,” Carter said in 2019, according to CNN.
The engineering building at the Naval Academy, a place he spent many nights studying, was renamed Carter Hall in his honor in 2023.
On October 1, this year he reached age 100, the oldest surviving president.
On November 6, he voted in this year’s presidential election, one of his last acts of civic duty.
The Carter Institute has set up a message board on which admirers may leave personal notes to Jimmy Carter’s legacy.
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Starbucks Barista Strike Spreads To 300 Stores Across U.S.
Washington DC—Over 5000 baristas walked off their jobs on Christmas eve in the largest action ever taken against Starbucks corporation. It was the fifth day of an escalating strike stretching from coast to coast across the country. The action involved over 300 stores that had previously voted to join Starbucks Workers United Union (SBWU) according to a press release from the union.
The strike comes amidst growing tensions between SBWU Union representatives and Starbucks corporate lawyers after 98% of union members voted to reject a wage increase of less than 2%. The Starbucks wage offer amounts to about 35 to 50 cents per worker and would not go into effect until the next fiscal year. The corporation offered no increases or relief for its barista healthcare package. (See video at foot of this story or here.)
The cost of living for the average U.S. worker was 2.7% ending on November 2024, according to a calculated cost average provided by the U.S. Department of Labor. For the same period In 2023, the cost of living increase was 2.6%. That means that the wage increase offer from Starbucks corporation was effectively at least 0.7% lower than the increase in the cost of living for last year and another 0.6% lower for the year before, placing Starbucks baristas at an increased economic disadvantage in terms of inflation.
Meanwhile Starbucks corporation has enjoyed increasing profits year over year during the same two periods. Starbucks corporation is the second highest profitable fast food company in the nation.
Union Stores Provide Barista A Voice
In December 2021 baristas in the first U.S. Starbucks store voted to form a union in Buffalo, NY. In the three years since then about 517 stores have voted to join SBWU Union with a steady increase of baristas voting to unionize at several stores each week. Each store is considered a separate work site, so baristas in each location are required to independently vote to join the union, and each store requires a majority of baristas to vote for union protection.
Starbucks representatives would not negotiate with the baristas when the union first organized but showed up to negotiations anyway without responding in substance to union negotiators. Starbucks corporate lawyers would only listen to union offers and then abruptly walk out. As the number of locations began to increase and public pressure began to build on Starbucks representatives to bargain with the union, they began to respond during the negotiations. Growing awareness that baristas were unionizing brought pressure on Starbucks corporation to take the union seriously and it first began to respond to the SBWU Union negotiation team in February 2024, over 2 years after the first Starbucks stores unionized.
The corporate representatives promised to complete a negotiated package by the end of 2024 but their wage and benefits offer to SBWU Union fell far short of union expectations. The backtrack began after the incoming anti-union administration was elected. It cannot be absolutely determined whether or not the election was the reason Starbucks representatives backtracked on their promises to offer reasonable wage increases but it is apparent, at least coincidentally, that many of the incoming administration’s cabinet and key position appointees are noted billionaires with corporate interests and none are union supporters.
“Starbucks has yet to present workers with a serious economic proposal. This month, less than two weeks before their end-of-year deadline, Starbucks proposed an economic package with no new wage increases for union baristas this year and a guarantee of only 1.5% in future years, which amounts to less than 50 cents an hour for most baristas,” wrote Molly Nunez, a press spokesperson for SBWU.
Starbucks Profits While Baristas Struggle
Starbucks is one of the most profitable companies in the United States with over 16,480 locations in the U.S. and over 40,200 locations worldwide, according to Cafely, a statistical research blog.
According to a Starbucks financial release in September, 2024, consolidated net revenues declined 3%, including on a constant currency basis, but Starbucks still had $9.1 billion in net revenues.
In 2023, net revenues were $6.9 billion.
There is sharp contrast between the median Starbucks barista wage of $17.50 per hour compared to the $50,000 per hour compensation package for CEO Brian Niccol. The Starbucks CEO makes over 2800 times the median wage of Starbucks baristas.
Court House Starbucks in Northern Virginia Joins Strike
The Starbucks store at Court-House in Northern Virginia joined the strike for 1 day. It was a cold and icy Christmas eve but several dozen took place in the strike which included affiliated union representatives and union allies as well as baristas from the store itself. Several former baristas also joined the strike to show their support of the baristas now employed.
All but one of its baristas from the Court House location took part in the strike. Managers from other Starbucks locations opened and staffed the store but the striking baristas outside dissuaded dozens of customers from crossing the picket line into the store by their presence. Baristas were careful not to block the doors of the store and allowed customers to freely go into the store but many customers chose not go inside in sympathy with strikers. Other customers chose to patronize a open deli across from the Court House Starbucks. Striking baristas handed out flyers to customers outlining their concerns about Starbucks low wage offer, worker treatment, lack of hours and reduced staffing, while they explained why they were striking. Some customers joined baristas for free coffee and doughnuts which baristas provided on a table outside the store.
Baristas and supporters picketed into the afternoon, chanting demands for a fair and equitable contract. They waited and watched as the managers staffing the store closed it at 12 noon, 6 hours before it was scheduled to close.
Sam Ducore, a barista for 13 years and a union leader at the Court House Starbucks said that wages have not kept up with inflation and told of the economic struggle many baristas face. He also spoke of the many hundreds of unresolved labor practice complaints still pending with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an independent Federal agency that mediates issues in the workplaces of private employers.
“The company still has 100s of unresolved unfair labor practice [complaints],” said Ducore. “They have backtracked on the negotiations and not given us a fair wage.” Ducore explained that baristas are currently paid starting wages of $16.75 per hour but must work 5 years to qualify for a wage increase and then must work another 5 years to qualify for a second increase. He also noted the lack of hours given to baristas often fell under the 20 hour threshold for healthcare benefits. This along with late posting of schedules made it difficult for baristas to plan their work and life balance, he explained.
“They’re out here playing with people’s lives,” he said. He related his personal experience of being forced to hold off travel plans to visit family out of State during the holidays because the store manager posted the work schedule too late for him to plan travel.
The NLRB is vested with the power to safeguard employees’ rights to organize and to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining representative. The agency also acts to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices committed by private sector employers and unions, according to its website. Starbucks has hundreds of pending cases related to barista petitions.
Many Customers Supported The Starbucks Barista Strike
Many customers supported the strike once they understood why baristas were striking and decided not to enter the Court House location, at least for the period while the strike was in progress. Most customers who did not go into the store did not want to comment about their decision not to go inside but one customer did. Mya Mason who had previous experiences working in retail, said she did not go inside because she understood what was at stake with the workers struggling to make ends meet.
“I think it’s commendable that the working class is uniting,” said Mason. “If they don’t get what they’re asking for I’d choose not to go into Starbucks again,” she said.
Mason also was disappointed that Starbucks corporation stood against the Palestinian rights, an issue important to her. She previously boycotted Starbucks for a period over this issue.
Multiple union leaders joined the Starbucks baristas on the picket line, including Joseph McClure, President of DC-Baltimore Pride at Work, a union which advocates for the LGBTQIA+ community. DC-Baltimore Pride at Work is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
“Pride at Work and CEA supports SBWU Union because so many Students baristas are LGBTQIA+,” said McClure. “One big issue for us is that most workers can’t afford to live in the neighborhoods they work because housing is too expensive and they have to commute a half hour or more just to get to work. Workers rights are human rights so we support the workers trying to unionize.”
After the store had closed early, customers continued to stop only to find locked doors. Ducore waited and watched the disappointed customers stand at the door for a few moments before he spoke, “You see, this is what happens when Starbucks doesn’t treat their baristas right—they go on strike.” It was probably the most effective message helping customers to understand what Starbucks baristas were going through and that there were consequences for Starbucks labor practices.
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Baristas Vote To Serve Starbucks CEO A Hot Strike Following His 35 Cent Raise Offer
Washington DC—Just in time for the holidays, over 10,000 Starbucks Baristas voted to strike at up to 537 stores across the country. The vote comes after top management made a final offer of a paltry 2% raise on a contract negotiated over the last 8 months. Baristas in three States will stop brewing lattes and blending frappuccinos starting Friday morning at the start of the busiest shopping weekend before Christmas. The escalating strike will begin in Seattle, LA, and Chicago, and will spread to other locations across the country.
The announcement came on Thursday, 19 December night during a webinar attended in person by over 500 barista union representatives of Starbucks Workers United Union from Los Angeles stores of the coffee giant. It was viewed by 1000s of baristas online. The strike is scheduled to last for 5 days until Christmas eve, and will hit Starbucks corporate offices deep in its pockets during its most busy and profitable time of the year.
Sylvia Baldwin, the lead contract negotiator on behalf of the union asked the assembly of baristas, “How do we handle disrespect?” And to answer her own question she described how the last 8 months since April 2024, their contract negotiation team had bargained in earnest with the company lawyers but was slapped down with the offer that “was [valued] less than the cost of a stick of gum.”
Baldwin also noted that Starbucks representatives did not offer any improvements to the healthcare options it offers its baristas. Starbucks is the second largest fast food corporation in the country. McDonalds Corporation is number one.
Another spokeswoman at the webinar, Jazmine Riley noted that corporate managers are given 18 weeks of maternity leave while baristas are given only 6 weeks of maternity leave. Brian Niccol the new Starbucks CEO was offered a $113 million pay package, more than 10,000 times the average pay of baristas.
The Starbucks strike announcement came as another corporate behemoth, Amazon, watched as its drivers walked away from their delivery routes in response to a negotiation stalemate in Amazon worker pay, worker’s conditions, environmental, and anti-democratic policies at Amazon warehouses. In that strike 1000s of Union represented workers began picketing on the same day and plan to continue striking until next week. The issues raised by Amazon workers parallel the narratives of Starbucks baristas and resonate a common theme in their workplaces: workers are paid less than it economically possible for them to live in the economy.
Workers in the service industry are increasingly standing up for their own interests and forming or joining unions. Workers are no longer willing to be a silent partner in creating the vast amounts and record wealth that corporate owners and managers enjoy while worker compensation remains below a living wage, healthcare remains unaffordable, and corporate CEOs and management receive compensation thousands of times greater than the average worker.
“The corporate big wigs have no idea what’s coming,” said J. J. Dezion, a spokeswoman at the webinar. She further added that Starbucks Workers United Union had reached a tipping point with barristas, having reached 537 locations which had voted to unionize and representing over 10,000 baristas, a record which was growing. Seven additional locations voted to unionize last week.
The meteoric rise of union representation at Starbucks locations would have been unthinkable just four years ago. There are more than double the number of unionized locations compared to two years ago when only 200 stores had voted to unionize. The first Starbucks locations voting to unionize were in Buffalo NY in December 2021, just 3 years ago.
A press release issued by Starbucks Workers United Union urged allies to become involved in worker’s issues and to support their efforts to improve their benefits. The press release exposed a corporate culture of callousness towards baristas while living high off their labor.
“Starbucks has lost its way. We know that because we see it every day in our stores. We also know that because this year Starbucks gave Brian Niccols a compensation package of $113 million, while also giving its baristas paltry raises – which for most baristas are the equivalent of 30 and 50 cents an hour. It’s insulting and shows their failing to value the people who earn their profits and run their stores.”
The press release also pointed out the elitist culture of its headquarters staff, in effect, comparing them to feudal lords, “Our workplaces are Starbucks stores, where we interact with customers every day. Brian Niccol’s office is a private jet, and executives work out of cushy executive headquarters. We need allies and customers to join us and show them who really runs Starbucks.”
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Law and Order for Me, but Not for Thee. Morality Was Never the Issue.
Trangender people, Abortion, Critical Race Theory, Books, Wokeness, Immigrants, Crime
Many would think that the religious right would have issues with Donald Trump, convicted felon, serial cheater, the subject of numerous accusations of alleged sexual assault. As it turns out, his election has never been about moral issues.
Trump promises to protect women and at the same time paints immigrants as criminals when immigrants statistically commit fewer crimes than U.S. born citizens. One can only conclude that the far right cares more about assaults and rapes committed by immigrants than they do about those committed by U.S. citizens.
RFK Jr is a serial cheater who molested his babysitter and whose behavior appears to have led his first wife to suicide. Matt Gaetz, no longer a nominee for AG is alleged to have had sex with a minor and engaged in sex trafficking. There are details relating to an assault allegation against Pete Hegseth, a man who, like Trump, is known to have cheated on two of his three wives. Linda McMahon, inexplicably nominated as education secretary, is the subject of a lawsuit alleging that she overlooked the abuse of ring boys by a WWE anouncer. Prior to the election, hints about Trump’s relationship with the notorious Ephebophile /Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein began to emerge. Pam Bondi, his new nominee for AG was responsible for allowing Epstein to avoid consequences in Florida while she was AG there. It didn’t matter. While QAnon looks under rocks for pedophiles, they display selective blindness to Trump and his minions. To my knowledge, Elon Musk has not been accused of sexual assault but has been accused of running a hostile work environment and sexual harrassment. I am also reminded that Elon Musk has fathered 12 children, many of whom were born out of wedlock. Something that you would think would offend the ostensibly moral far right fundamentalists.
We could easily be led to believe that the other major reason that the religious right supported Trump was over the subject of abortion. If Hitler had been running for president on the promise of banning abortion, something that Hitler actually did, at least for the Aryans (at least one exception was made for a Jewish couple), much of the religious right would have voted for him. Nobody thinks that Hitler actually valued life and nobody can accuse the far right of caring about the well being of children that are not them and/or under their control. Similarly, the Republicans in congress are very concerned about a trans woman who has no history of committing sexual assault using the women’s bathroom. Why isn’t the right concerned about Pete Hegseth raping an unconscious woman, RFK Jr molesting his childrens babysitter, Linda McMahon overlooking a pedophile molesting children, Pam Bondi slapping the hand of Epstein and more importantly Trump, who has been found liable by a civil court jury of sexual assault, not to mention the many other victims of the kind of assaults that he has openly bragged about?
What most voters know about Elon Musk and Donald Trump is that they are successful businessmen, not the details about how they acquired their wealth. They don’t know about Trump’s many business failures or that while Musk’s genius lies in investing in innovative technologies, he is not necessarily the brain behind those technologies. Pete Hegseth, nominee for defense secretary, has allegedly stated that having sex with an unconscious woman should be legal and is accused of doing this exact thing, but none of these things matter.
While not all evangelical leaders are on the far right and many spoke out against Trump, those religious leaders who fueled his rise in the far right evangelical world belong to an elite group of pastors who advocate for dominionism.
Dominionism is fueled by the belief that man (and only man) has dominion over the earth. This is directly in conflict to the belief by more mainstream clergy that we are stewards of the earth. Religious movements like Quiverfull encourage large families, no birth control, traditional stay at home Mothers and homeschooling. The children of these Dominionist movements are considered to be part of an army, raised in insular communities to take over the Seven Mountains, seven areas of government and society, to reform them. These seven are Education, Religion, Family, Business, Government/Military, Arts/Entertainment and Media.
It would take too much time to go into the individuals who appear to have entered these arenas over the past few decades or the successes that they have had. The successes are many. We can expect more success over the next 4 years. There are a couple of notable dominionist individuals now in positions of power. Senator Ted Cruz is the son of evangelical leader Rafael Cruz who once dreamed that his son would become president. Supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett was groomed by the Federalist Society, a powerful right wing organization that is responsible for the nomination of six of the current conservative justices on the court. Although a Catholic, Coney Barret was raised as a member of “People of Praise”, an extremely conservative charismatic Christian movement that some consider to be a cult.
Earth, the Dominionists believe, is there to be exploited and this is done in exchange for wealth. Wealth, they believe, is God’s reward for those who deserve it. It is Donald Trump’s wealth, not his morality, that is a signifier of his worthiness and God’s favor. RFK Jr has even been said by some to have “Christ consciousness”, “a type of spiritual awareness that is supposedly on the same level of spirituality as Jesus”. It is Elon Musk’s wealth that makes him worthy. Some believe that Trump is the savior. The fact that these men are singularly self absorbed and lack empathy (according to family members) is entirely unimportant. Women, unless they are being groomed for positions in the Seven Mountains, are meant for child rearing and expected to be subservient to their husbands.
There are many interpretations of the book of Revelations. In the Puritan era, individuals behaved as though they were upright, moral people likely to be among the chosen when Jesus returns. Some believe that the initial 144,000 will be Jewish people who have finally converted to Christianity which leads to a different but related discussion about Christian Zionists and Israel. Let’s say that if you believe one interpretation, that only 144,000 individuals are going to initially be raised to heaven when Jesus returns, it will not be trans people, the “woke mob” or their allies and supporters that go to heaven. It may be men like Trump, Musk and RFK Jr who lead them there and their morality does not matter.
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Peace Vigil Activists Eye Future As White House Readies For Change Of Hands
Washington DC—It is a sunny hot Saturday afternoon in mid-November at Lafayette Park as a steady line of tourists filter past the little white tent of the Peace Vigil outside the White House. The signs covering the tent reflect views contrary to everything the incoming administration stands for. The activists go about their daily rituals of preparing for a shift change. It’s 4 o’clock. Time seems to stand still.
Nearby the sounds of carpenter’s tools, hammers, drills, and saws, echo from the scaffolding while truck warning beepers sound across Pennsylvania Avenue as the temporary inauguration stands are slowly going up. The Peace Vigil tent has been moved back about 150 feet from its regular spot on the sidewalk. It temporarily resides just to the side of Andrew Jackson Statue, squeezed to a narrow part of the sidewalk where barely two can pass. Right on top of the tent’s regular resting place, a giant three-storied scaffolding is partially completed as carpenters and construction crews scamper like ants over its detail.
The temporary building will supposedly welcome a new president on January 20, 2025. But every activist at the Peace Vigil knows well—they won’t be welcoming him there on the sidewalk at the tent or during protests on the streets in the coming 4 years. As inauguration day approaches the entire park will be closed and the Peace Vigil will be forced to move further back to the edge of the park outside a 15-foot metal fence along Black Lives Matter Plaza.
No one at the Peace Vigil expected the reemergence of Trumpism in Washington. None of them saw this coming.
Phillipos, the Peace Vigil manager sits quietly pondering the future and silently wonders what is to come of the little tent. It’s symbolism in simplicity and minimalism is just as its creator, William Thomas envisioned. The 6-foot signs he created are long-gone, victims to weather, seasons and sun, but they have been replaced with exact replicas reading “Wanted: Wisdom and Honesty” and another sign exhibiting photographs of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki World War II nuclear bomb aftermaths. The signs are among the central themes to its message. They also challenge the willful lack of intent since President Reagan was elected, to end some of the most dire threats to humanity since the Peace Vigil’s inception in 1978 and approval of its first permit on June 4, 1981. Failure by the last seven presidents to tackle those issues has propelled it forward and made it the longest running continuous vigil for peace in the Americas—now 43 and a half years long.
Since then other issues have come to bear weight and are now intertwined with its main message and there are so many pressing issues that the activists have added signs that were handed to them after major protests over the years. The signs hang like rotting fruit from a tree and bear witness and truth against the combined procrastinations of all the presidencies since Reagan.
During the first Trump administration from 2017-2021, the Peace Vigil was a corner stone and both a beginning and ending point for many resistance protests. Washington DC swirled in chaos as a result of that administration, its indifference towards human rights and worker’s struggles spurred hundreds of protests, and created contentious social upheaval after trump unexpectedly stumbled into power in 2016. Under the Biden administration, some of the protesters left and the great volumes of surging humanity dwindled to a trickle, yet the Peace Vigil remained stoically toming the same drumbeat of issues the Biden administration discounted: Gaza, climate, greed, nuclear weapons, war, and many others.
On Saturday almost no-one was stopping to talk to the activists and the donation bucket was empty except for a few cents left by someone. Passersby seemed troubled and glum and in no mood to stop and talk about societal issues so soon after the election results just weeks before. Gone also were the multitudes of tourists, crack-pots, and odd-ball protesters who usually spring up on weekends and turn Pennsylvania into a strange cacophony of star seekers and personal grievances. A man with a cardboard box over his head, a woman reading scripture over a bullhorn begging people to repent, a man painted silver dancing to old tunes for donations, dancers and performers; protesters for Gaza, Indonesia, Ukraine and Iran freedoms, all were gone.
On Saturdays hundreds of visitors typically stop and talk to the weekend mainstay at the tent, Phillipos who is usually sitting straight across from the North Poritico of the White House. But today he was subdued and spoke queitly about the results of the 2024 election and it shows on his face and in his voice. He spoke with steady resolution about what he and the other vigilers are likely to face the possibility that the 43 years old vigil may be forced to permanently shutdown and leave the park.
Although no one knows for certain if the Peace Vigil will be forced to go, there are many indicators of the chaos and tumult that is to come, and it the possibility of the tent being removed or raided looms as the liberal administration subsumes to what many are saying is an extremist in charge of an ideological agenda walking the country backwards and towards the last century.
For one, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, the nominee for Secretary of the Department of the Interior, the portion of government which oversees all the National Parks, including Lafayette Square Park, is a climate change denier and therefore an obstacle to renewable energy progress. A billionaire, he wants to lease much more public land for fossil fuels drilling and mineral extraction. Such environmental parasitism would practicably push the global climate emergency past the point of no return. And so it would not be much of a reach to sweep aside a small tent and a few activists.
He will also oversee the Park Police and this would certainly would mean some amount of pressure will be applied to remove the Peace Vigil tent even though it was authorized by a Court order to remain in the park. And even if it comes to outright removal Phillipos intends to keep coming back anyway. He pointed out that William Thomas and other activists stood on the sidewalk for years from 1978 to 1981 and fought countless court battles just for the right to be there; before the court finally agreed to issue a permanent permit so the Peace Vigil could remain.
The activists of the Peace Vigil get ready for a shift change. Photo: J. Zangas/DCMG
Phillipos tells that during the early months of the first Trump administration an unidentified person came to him with an official offer on White House stationary promising a modest payment package to the Peace Vigil if the activists would agree to permanently take leave. Phillipos refused the offer but countered in writing on the back of the letter with a demand for several million—the value of which he calculated from all the labor activists put into the Peace Vigil over the (then) previous 35 years. The person left with their offer and Phillipos’ counter-offer but never returned.
Phillipos knows Trump doesn’t want the Peace Vigil to remain there. And it is likely he’ll do whatever it takes to remove the little tent and its signs for good from the red bricked sidewalk. And even though the Peace Vigil permit is enshrined in law, so long as the activists maintain it continuously without sleeping, when has the law ever been an impediment to Trump’s willfulness to disobey it? It is conceivable that every time he or any other President looks out the West Wing windows of the top floor of the White House it is the tent that he sees along with the two 6-foot signs, one on either side of the tent. And it is conceivable that he wants it gone no matter what the law says.
If there is a will to resist the coming policies of the incoming administration then this is and has been an example of what that will look like. Examples of ordinary people with little means standing up for rights of others are found here on the red bricks, not in the offices of bankers and CEOs who have paid millions for access and certainly not from the desks of news pundits who fly down to Mar-e-lago to smooth away ruffled feathers so they can continue their their coverage like the news staff of Morning Joe did last week.
It’s 4 o’clock and without discussion the activists prepare for a shift change. Craig arrives on time like an atomic clock and slips into the tent where he changes into warmer clothes he’ll need as night falls in the Autumn chill. Steve-O helps Phillipos gather his belongings and pushes his wheeled chair out from the front of the tent and towards his car. Craig quietly takes his seat and resumes the Peace Vigil evening watch. There are no thanks or goodbyes exchanged, no instructions or notes to pass on, just a resolve to continue doing their duties as they have done for years and will continue doing for as long as they can.
If there’s any chance that what remains of human rights here will remain, then many more like Phillipos and the activists of the Peace Vigil are going to have to put away their fear for the future and their doubt about what is to come and their reservations of what needs to be done about it and refuse to accept that it has to be this way. They’re going to have to resolve to fight for what they believe in and not pack up and go home.
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How To Legally Fight Fascism In Your Community
Washington DC — Anne Frank wrote in her diary, “A single candle can define and defy darkness.” Her diary chronicled the last year of her family’s attempt to remain hidden in an attic from the Nazi persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. She wrote daily entries as the brutality of fascism was marching across the European continent. Her Diary was found on the floor in the attic after she and her family were betrayed, arrested, and taken to a concentration camp where they perished. Her diary stands as both an historic register of the chilling effect of fascism in Holland and a documentation of her family’s personal struggle like millions of other Jewish families under Nazi occupation.
As a teenage girl coming of age, she documented what her daily family life was like living under fascism. It barely mentions the oppression of Nazism and to the contrary it chronicles her daily existence and yearning to be free and flourish. But unwritten between her prose is outlined the unfortunate results communities could face by ignoring a growing influence of authoritarian oppression of minorities in their communities. It also serves as a warning to future generations that standing by and allowing a cult of personality to take over the democracy of a republic, as what happened in Germany, can have terrible consequences for generations to come. For Germany the rise of fascism under Hitler resulted in the near total destruction of cities across Germany during World War II.
Nazis unjustly imprisoned Frank simply because of her race—she was Jewish. Her journal was found and published later and became a story of resistance demonstrating how even one person could impose themself against oppression and authoritarianism. The end of World War II saw the defeat of the Nazi regime and the toppling of major authoritarian states. Yet others rose in their wake.
This is the Part III of III in a series about the state of democracy in the U.S. Link to Part I is here and Part II is here.
Fascism in the United States
Fascism in the United States seems improbable, almost impossible, for we have two political parties and everyone gets an opportunity to vote, right? How can U.S. democracy possibly become what it helped defeat during WWII? We must think again about this because fascism is right on the doorstep of this country.
The United States is moving in the direction of 1935 Berlin and there are signs of it everywhere and what is worse, many are watching it happen and expecting someone else to do something about it. There has been a sharp trend in oppressive groups since the rise of Trumpism in 2015. In recent years the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers along with the Alt-right have joined with supremacy groups in manner mirroring the rise of fascism of pre-war Germany, Italy, and Japan. Like 1935 Berlin, they recite the same types of rhetoric the Nazis did. They have changed the language slightly but their methods are the same.
The Nazi party was not in a majority in Parliamentary Germany during the depression that hobbled the world economy after World War I, but through coercive means the Nazi party gained domination by undermining democratic institutions and seizing power from all the other political groups.
The nazis scapegoated Jews, the LGBTQIA2S community, disabled persons, and other minorities to grow a following, and by falsely casting minority groups as the culprits of Germany’s foundering economy, and post WWI difficulties, the Nazi party created fake enemies by which to gain trust of others and leverage eventual control of the German government.
But what if the German citizens who had objected to their methods had collectively joined together in a communal stand against Hitler and his minority of nationalists before they built enough power to bully and overwhelm Berlin’s democratic republic? What if they had not engaged “anticipatory obedience” towards the rising wave of fascism?
How Not to Obey Fascism
A political scientist who studies nationalist groups has written a pamphlet outlining street-legal strategies to help communities organize to stop fascism. “40 Ways To Fight Fascism,” by Spencer Sunshine, is a useful guide activists and community groups can reference at a time when oppressive groups are rooting in communities across the country. Sunshine is distributing the pamphlet free to activists and to anyone who requests a copy.
The booklet is the product of many years’ of Sunshine’s field work studying the methods and habits of nationalists and how their ideology toxifies communities. Sunshine’s work has brought him toe to toe with the extremism of the far-right in both body and in pen. And his advice on useful methods to stop fascism before it roots deeply is the harvest of that experience.
The pamphlet was originally published in 2017 as a “zine,“ a free how-to-do-it booklet. Zines are often made by hand and written under pseudonyms, distributed for free, and educate with alternative and practical useful methods ordinary citizens can take on a wide range of topics. Zines also serve to get communities to mobilize for practical solutions based on specific needs within the community, independent of regulatory governance, corporate influence, and political parties, which typically extract resources from communities instead of building them from within.
For example, what if local communities planned their own free markets and held free markets periodically using their self-help and resources. This concept of collective independence binds a community to itself and gives it the autonomy to determine its own successful outcomes. The same positive outcomes can come from within communities politically and make them less dependent upon established political parties which always extract the natural synergetic energy from communities. They’re always requesting donations during elections but one scarcely hears back following election day.
What Is Fascism?
Its easy to throw this word around without understanding what it is, and how it subjugates citizens, and how its mechanics undermines communities by targeting certain minority groups in communities. In essence it is a process by which fringe-conservative ideologies are spread and then coerce power and control as an extremist group attempts to exert its influence over the entire community. Through oppressive behaviors, such as misogyny, racism, bigotry, and sexism, nationalists and far right-wing groups focus attention on latent fear which others in the mainstream harbor of minorities and outsider groups. Nationalists drum up suspicion and fear towards minorities while promoting their ideas as solutions. The Nazis scapegoated Jews and other minorities like the LGBTQIA2S community to gain more and more control over prewar Germany. Fascist parties have a cult of personality at their center around which the party binds itself to its leader. He alone can save the nation from peril. He alone can protect them. He is a god-sent savior.
The U.S. has seen how the Trump administration dog-whistled minorities by attacking immigrants, the Transgender community, Muslims, Mexicans, the Puerto Rican community, women, political opponents, and progressives by reducing their rights and accessibility or by threatening them openly. Trump often attacked the press as well to mute dissent against his narratives. One example of this was to blame immigrants for crime, economic difficulties, and reduced job opportunities. For example, he touted building a wall to keep immigrants and Mexicans out of the country and he banned Muslim immigration from several African nations during his administration.
Consequences of Fascism in the U.S.
The roots of U.S. fascism trace back to the settlers’ occupation of this land. Settlers attacked the indigenous tribes, forced them to walk onto reservations by means of lopsided treaties, destroyed their tribes and culture, and took their land outright. This oppression wasn’t described as fascism at the time but it had the same effect on indigenous people who had lived in the US for millennia before white settlers “discovered” it.
Oppression grew for a period in the 1950s during the “Red Scare” when Senator McCarthy convened hearings to out communists in the government, Hollywood, and in corporations.
But it sprouted in a full floral display in 2016 and 2017 in the wake of Trumpism as populism took root and nationalists found support for racist ideology from Trump’s speeches and immigration policies. Trump spoke the language of white nationalists in his policies by targeting muslims from “shithole countries,” as he said when he banned immigration from five predominantly Muslim countries. He targeted latinos by saying Mexico would pay for a “beautiful wall” on its border to keep immigrants out of the U.S. He termed the Corona Virus the “China Flu,” a racist dogwhistle taking attention away from his administration’s failure to effectively prepare for and fight the spread of the deadly Corona Virus during the pandemic. He said of the Charlottesville extremists there were “fine people.” Meanwhile supremacy groups such as the Proud Boys, white nationalists, and the Alt-Right began to organize in the space he created for them.
In late 2016, Richard Spencer held a conference for his group The National Policy Institute at the Ronald Regan International Trade Building, Opponents in Washington DC took to the streets of outside because the Reagan Trade Center permitted Spencer’s conference to be held there. Warnings across the country should have been loud enough by then of what was to come. Spencer’s group met later that night in Washington DC for a celebration at a restaurant but their group was challenged by local citizens who saw his hatred and rejected it. There were clashes in the streets and mainstream media largely avoided reporting about it.
On December 2016 a large contingent of nationalists held a “Deplora-Ball” to celebrate Trump’s election. The night saw violent conflict in the DC streets near the National Press Building not far from the White House, the type of conflict not seen since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
On August 10 and 11, 2017 Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler co-organized their ‘Unite The Right’ rally over the impending removal of a statue of Civil War General, Robert E. Lee at Lee Park in Charlottesville Virginia. Spencer led an antisemetic torch rally on the University of Virginia campus on the hot night of August 11. They chanted, “ Jews will not replace us.”
The next day Spencer and Kessler joined former KKK leader David Duke in the rally which led to the Charlottesville riots. The rally included neo-nazi groups, supremacy groups, Proud Boy chapters from multiple states, white nationalists, and other far-right fringe groups from States across the East Coast. The groups confronted and turned on counter-protesters. An African-American youth was beaten by a group of extremists from the Robert E. Lee Statue rally just because he was in a parking garage car lot when they arrived. James Fields, one of the nationalists participating at the rally, later drove his car directly into a counter protest as it was just getting underway, stiking and killing Heather Heyer and striking and injuring 20 others. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam activated the Virginia National Guard as Charlottesville police declared an unlawful assembly.
After the 2020 Presidential election and near the end of Trump’s term, there was a massive mobilization of Proud Boys in Washington DC after the MAGA rallies of November and December 2020. These actiions resulted in several venerable and historic churches being vandalized, four stabbings, and many injuries.
The January 6 2020 insurrection was the culmination of 4 years’ of Trumpism and a rise of nationalism and fascism come to full bloom in Washington DC. As thousands descended on the Capital, Trump, along with his White House lawyer, John Eastman, his Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, along with many others working in the background, organized and instigated thousands to riot at the U.S. Capitol over false claims the election was “rigged” or “stolen.” The ‘stolen election’ became known as the “Big Lie.” The insurrectionists delayed the democratic process of counting the States’ electoral votes to confirm the presidential election as provided by the 12th Amendment of the Constitution. The thousands assembled at the Capitol came very close of ending the peaceful transfer of power that day.
Now comes the 2024 presidential election and the supporters of Trumpism have circled around their single leader. They support him no matter what he says or does. He has promised “retribution“ against anyone who has previously opposed him. He has threatened to use the military against his political opponents. He has promised to be a “dictator,” if only for a day (there has never been a dictatorship that lasted a day—authoritarian leaders get into power and remain there until they die or are forcefully removed).
The U.S. is as close in its history to fascism as it has ever been and it is moving more closely towards it because Trump has created a space for it from his visible platform. If it successfully roots it could well lead to a generation or longer without a Republic.Authoritarians openly telescope their beliefs, ideas, and intentions because they need to appeal and motivate their base.
Whether or not Trump wins or loses the 2024 election is an issue entirely different from the issue of whether or not fascism is gaining traction in the United States. Trump’s base is dedicated to him no matter what he says or does. Trump’s base will continue supporting him whether or not he wins the 2024 election.
How to Fight Fascism
Spencer’s pamphlet outlines how community organizers can put power back in the hands of the community because fascism can rise often with the consent of the State. But if it is recognized and challenged early in its growth stage, it can be stopped. But it is the will of the people to determine fascism’s fate. They must be educated about it, aware that it is there, and engaging it in their community. Voting by itself is an inadequate level of engagement to keep fascism at bay—we learned this very well in 2020. The solution offered by the Democratic Party to “just vote” is not only disempowerment but it is a risk not worth taking. Yes, voting is essentially important but it the minimum amount of engagement communities should be taking.
Communities have the ultimate say in whether they will allow nationalism to lead to fascism and flourish in their midst. But they must be proactive and get out in front of it and deal with it directly, according to Sunshine.
The pamphlet is a practical organizer’s tool for ordinary citizens on how to organize, mobilize, and pool their talent and resources to stop fascist agendas from taking over and strangling democratic institutions in their communities. The common threads are to be aware, be educated, get involved, and to take action in the areas where their skills are best suited.
Skills extend from fulfilling support roles to joining community groups that track and monitor nationalist groups and members in their cities and regions
DCMediaGroup interview with Spencer Sunshine Taken on November 20, 2020
DCMG: What drew you to this line of activism?
Sunshine: It was actually how I first got into political work. I grew up in a small town in Georgia that was a locus of Far Right politics; there were regular Klan rallies and our Congressional Rep was the John Birch Society’s president. I was in the punk scene when the Nazi skinhead movement exploded in the late 1980s, and even though I was not particularly political, being of Jewish descent and having a black girlfriend immediately put me at odds with them. I ended up hooking up with an anti-Far Right counter-organizing group in Atlanta, and through that I and some other teenage punks formed what we’d now call an antifascist group to counter the domination by the Nazi skins in the local punk scene.
Around 2005, some different things brought me back to this work. One was finding out that crypto-fascists (called “National Anarchists”) had created new political groups which were trying to cross-recruit anarchists and others. (In retrospect this ended up being only part of a moment where fascist politics were being reconfigured; Alt Right became the most popular example of this, but initially it was only one of many).
So between that, and my past experience, I started learning more about—and counter-organizing against—the contemporary Far Right. I found that it was a growing movement and that there was plenty of work to do. Eventually this work took over my life!
DCMG: Why is this fighting Fascism an important issue in these times?
Sunshine: Far Right groups—which include everyone from Trump to neo-Nazis—have been in a period of intense activity since 2015. If you look historically, this movement goes in boom-and-bust cycles in the United States, and—buoyed by the president—it’s had a bull market for years.
DCMG: Why is it important for ordinary (not just activists) to get involved in pushing back against fascist ideologies in their communities?
Sunshine: Over the last four years, it’s been very clear that the national progressive non-profits and others are not going to do any substantive grassroots work to contain this movement (even though some groups do important lawsuits and research). So it’s really up to grassroots activists to contain local Far Right organizing.
DCMG: There are 40 ways…why did you pick the number 40?
Sunshine: Well, originally it was 50 but after I worked through them, 40 was how many solid, different ones I came up with. Basically I just wrote down all the different strategies that I had done, witnessed, or heard about from all kinds of groups. These ranged from German antifascists, community-based groups and non-profits, anti-racist skinheads, and of course the U.S. antifascist movement of the last few decades, from Anti-Racist Action on. PopMob, the group I did the revised version with, also added in the things that had been successful for them.
DCMG: What other projects are you focused on at the present?
Sunshine: I regularly write about where the US Far Right is at and heading to for a variety of platforms, especially Truthout. I’m working on a number of books, including co-editing an anthology of essays dedicated to longtime Far Right monitor Chip Berlet, who has just retired after 40 years. I am also writing a book about the origins of James Mason’s book Siege, which has become the bible of the terrorist wing of today’s young neo-Nazis.
What can people do to push back against the rising trend towards authoritarianism and/or fascism who don’t want to be directly involved?
(I knew the guide addresses this question but I wanted to ask Sunshine anyway.)
40 Ways to Fight Fascists offers a number of options which you can do from the comfort of your own home and which pose no risk. These include helping people injured by fascists and those who are imprisoned fighting them, as well as aiding the families of those who have been murdered.
What are several of the most important of the 40 ways to fight fascism?
They are all pieces of a bigger puzzle, because you don’t want to have just one or two in play—that can be dangerous. That said, doxxing them and spreading that information is the best, most effective legal and non-violent tactic available to grassroots organizers.
Anything else you would like to add about writing the guide?
Even if Trump slinks off the national stage relatively peacefully, the Far Right isn’t going to just go “poof!” and disappear. I hope that this guide can help inspire people to take action against this toxic political movement.
DCMG: What can you tell me about yourself?
Sunshine: The less you know the better! Fash always want to find this more about me. Let me just say: no matter who you are, what your identity is, or what skills you have—you can make a concrete contribution to fighting fascism.
Link to 40 Ways to Fight Fascism here.
Tools For Fighting Racism
Popular Resistance offers a free online course which connects the dots in the relationship of racism and healthcare denial to minorities. You may access it here.
Salon article and references to what Fascism is and how it can strangle a democratic republic can be found here.
Video explaining fascism by Robert Reich, Inequality Media Civic Action here.
Grassroots organizations you may explore to educate yourself about or plug into to organize against nationalism and fascism:
Idavox.com (One People’s Project)
It’s Going Down: https://itsgoingdown.org
Centre for analysis of the Radical Right:
www.radicalrightanalysis.com
Western States Center: www.westernstatescenter.org
Montana Human Rights Network: https://mhrn.org
Rose City Antifa: www.rosecityantifa.org
Political Research Associates: www.politicalresearch.org
Institute for Research on Male Supremacism: www.malesupremacism.org
Examples of Successful Community Organizing
In 2022 to the present the Drag community became known among extremist groups for their story hour book readings for children. The extremist channels began targeting Drag Story Hour readings and by harassing and terrorizing the families who took their children to these events. The purpose of these events were to engage families and interest children in education by reading and theatrically performing children’s stories.
In response to the various community groups organized direct action umbrella lines outside the venues in advance to shield children and families attending the readings from the harassment by extremists. They actually held colorful umbrellas and danced to music outside the venues to thwart extremists’ attempts to disrupt them. Extremists including Proud Boy groups and evangelicals would show up at the reading venues to try to disrupt or stop them altogether. The community participants held the line while others activists provided lookout support nearby by walkie-talkies to keep the venues safe. Police would often show up but were completely ineffective at protecting the families.
Stories on these citizen-led actions are here and here.
Whenever extremists have tried to rally or march in Washington DC the community has organized to let them know their rhetoric and racism is not welcome here.
The post How To Legally Fight Fascism In Your Community appeared first on DCMediaGroup.
January 6 Coup Plot Was Much Closer To Undoing The 2020 Election Than Many Think
Washington DC—The January 6, 2021 coup attempt was the culmination of a carefully laid plan to seize power from Joe Biden, the clear winner of the 2020 Presidential election. Its coup-plotter in chief, Donald Trump, nearly succeeded. If not for several unforeseen circumstances his plans would have made him the 46th President. But how close to overturning the election did he and his coconspirators come? And what would have happened had they prevailed? We take a detailed look at what happened on that fateful January 6, what the consequences could have been, and whether or not such a chain of events can be prevented from ever happening again.
This is part II of a III part series of reports of the state of democracy in the United States. It outlines significant events leading up to the January 6 2021 U.S. Capitol Insurrection which were not widely reported, and discusses flaws in the election system contributing to it, and the continued effects of the insurrection on the 2024 presidential election. It further discusses what can be expected in the days after general public voting has finished on November 6, 2024.
Introduction
Donald Trump’s deadly attempt to forcibly halt certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election came closer to success than many realize. His influence on his base is still widely under appreciated. What is worse is this influence has largely remained unchanged nearly 4 years on and that he continues to call the election “rigged” and claim it was “stolen.” He still holds stunning sway over tens of millions of his ardent supporters despite an enormous number of incidents that would have ended the political careers of most others. Among the worst of those is having been indicted on multiple counts in multiple court cases in separate States:
1. He faces indictment and trial in the U.S. District Court in Washington DC on four charges in connection with his alleged attempts to overthrow the presidential election.
2. In a Georgia State court case he has been indicted along with 18 others in league with him or working inside his administration, for their combined alleged roles in Georgia State election fraud.
3. In Florida State he faces ongoing felony charges over his alleged illegal removal of dozens of boxes of classified defense national intelligence documents. This court case is presently in limbo and waiting an appeal by Jack Smith at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals following dismissal of the case by Trump appointed judge Aileen Cannon.
4. In NY State he has been convicted on all 34 felony counts brought against him for fraudulent payments from his business, the Trump Organization, to his attorney, Michael Cohen, to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels in the months leading up the 2016 Presidential election. He awaits sentencing in this case.
Concurrent with these legal entwines, over 1240 have been charged with 100s of sentences handed down to many of those who took place in the January 6 rioting and insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to the Department of Justice website. It was unprecedented in American legislative history. One of the insurrectionists was shot outside the House Speaker’s Office in the U.S. Capitol, five died in total, including a police officer, and over a hundred and forty police were injured, two taking their own lives later.
Extensive reporting of the appeals and rulings in these trials have failed to significantly affect Trump’s base of support and most poling results showed nearly undiminished support just days out from the election in which Trump and Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris remained in a statistical dead heat. The 2024 election is likely to come down to a thin spread of votes in the Electoral College.
Moreover, Trump continues to push a false narrative about the 2020 presidential election outcome, raising doubts about the legality of it, raising doubt among his supporters as to States’ vote accuracy and refusal to accept the final results reflecting his loss. He continues this false narrative without offering any evidence to support his claims despite over 60 court decisions handed down rejecting all suits his campaign filed to challenge the results. He was afforded every opportunity under the law to challenge States’ election results but would not accept any of the court rulings.
More recently, multiple court cases against dozens of fake electors his party slated in seven battleground States during 2020 are still playing out: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. These fake electors—people who were not vetted or approved to cast electoral ballots—allegedly attempted to deliver their own fake election certification results in support of Trump to State legislators.
In Nevada a State judge threw out the fake elector suit in June 2024 based on the venue issue that it was filed in Las Vegas County instead of the County in which the Electors worked. The Nevada State Attorney General disagreed with the Judge’s ruling based on the threat the fake electors posed to the entire State, and promised to appeal the suit to the Nevada State Supreme Court. The Nevada fake elector scheme involved the State GOP Chairman and four other members of the State GOP.
Historically, any one of these events would singularly end the political aspirations of any other candidate running for President. But these are no longer normal political times in the U.S. The traditional conservative GOP leadership has ceded its principles and power to Trump’s cult of personality which has lapped up its entire energy and rejected anyone within the traditional GOP that has not conceded to it. Several GOP State parties voted to censure Senators who voted to convict Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors during his Senate Trial after his second impeachment resulting from his J6 coup attempt. Other notable GOP leaders who stood opposed to Trump for his actions leading to J6 were Liz Cheney and Republican Party Senators who voted against him during his Senate Trial. The GOP no longer exists in its traditionally conservative sense and has morphed into wraparound subservience to one man.
January 6: Not Just A Skirmish But Part of a Grand Conspiracy
Donald Trump’s mob of insurrectionists came unexpectedly close to delaying the election certification in the Senate long enough to cast doubt as to whether or not the election result would be or could be certified, as provided in the Constitution. Delaying the House certification even one day past the J6 requirement would have opened the door to process chaos and allowed one or more States the time needed to refuse to recognize Joe Biden as the rightful winner. The aim of the conspiracy was to delay the constitutional process of tallying and certifying States’ electoral votes, or by introducing fake electors certificates during the ensuing chaos in the House of Representatives. This would delay affirmation of Biden’s win and by default allow Donald Trump to remain in the Presidency past the January 20, 2021 inauguration date as set forth by the 19th Amendment of the Constitution. We discuss the details of how the Electoral College operates in the section below.
Such a split would have caused an unprecedented Constitutional crisis with a delayed or contested result requiring a Contingency Election in the House of Representatives. This could have been delayed even further by uncooperative States’ electors, pushing a final adjudication to the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS). The SCOTUS was itself compromised along a partisan divide at the time. Although no one knew this at the time or understood just how compromised SCOTUS was until a New York Times report published in May 2024 revealed that Justice Alito flew an upside down U.S. flag at his residence in Northern Virginia for 11 days after the insurrection. He later flew an “Appeal To Heaven” flag at his New Jersey vacation home. A compromised SCOTUS could have easily ruled on any appeal in favor of Trump. At that point a deeply divided and angry electorate bathed in waves of conflicting information, would have been pitted against itself and easily parlayed towards further violence and perhaps into massive civil unrest.
Looking at how his teams of attorneys have continually delayed pre-trial rulings by appeals of the four major cases pending against him, his main strategy has been to stifle legal proceedings until after the 2024 election. And 4-years on, he is still delaying these trials. In the only case he was tried, the NY State Election Fraud trial, during which he was convicted on all 34 felony counts for hush money payments from campaign funds through his then attorney Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels, he has successfully delayed his sentencing by successive appeals until after the 2024 election.
There is little doubt he would have been able to delay the States’ J6 vote certification of the Electoral College in the House of Representatives. It would have been easy for him to delay the election process in the House by legally stressing the loopholes in the constitutional process in the 2 weeks before the January 20 inauguration. This would have delayed the final decision to a partisan Supreme Court.
Confirming the Presidential Winner: A Convoluted Process
The Founding Fathers never intended for the people themselves to decide outright who the President would be by a majority public vote and this is the first of two keys in understanding the underlying reasons leading to the 2020 presidential election chaos. The second key is that never before had one political party collectively conspired to subvert the election process at nearly every critical decision point in that process. There were many Trump players in this effort but they all had the same goal: Get Trump 4 more years. And yes, there was the Nixon secret scheme and cover-up of 1972-3 to break into the Watergate hotel and bug the phones of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters, but that involved a limited number of operatives and it came nowhere to the level of January 6.
One of the many agreements made by the Founding Fathers during the Constitutional Convention was how a President would be selected. It was one of the major points of contention between the Delegates which threatened to derail the 1787 ratification of the Constitution. Without an agreement the collaboration of the Constitutional Convention would have ended in chaos. Delegates were divided into two schools as to how the Articles of the Constitution would guide this process. This was because there were States that had much larger populations and wealth than other States. Some States’ Delegates believed States with larger populations should have more influence in Congress and thereby more voice in government, such as selecting a president; other smaller States sough a voice equal to the larger States. As part of the Great Compromise, also known as the Connecticut Compromise, Delegates finally agreed on a system of selecting the president by an Electoral College.
Electoral College—Semantics and Role
Many Americans do not fully appreciate the detail of how a president is actually selected. It is a strange archaic system compared to other democratic processes in existence today but in 1787, there weren’t many democratic systems in existence to model and designing the government of the new U.S. Republic was necessarily by consensus. And there were strong feelings and much fear among the Delegates about how to prevent a king-like personality from rising to power. They feared the fragile fledgling government could easily devolve back into a leader state, like the Crown of England from which they had divested. Their interest was to create a balance of power between three branches and creating an agreeable process of selecting an Executive was a major concern.
The Electoral College was first outlined in Section 1 of Article Two of the Constitution. It was amended in 1804 because the process originally laid out was unviable with a major flaw. It permitted the possibility of a President and Vice President to be selected from opposing parties. This result caused great difficulty in governance in 1800 because it took 36 Electoral College votes to decide the President and Vice President and they were both from different parties and had differing opinions on legislative matters. They realized a change was needed. So in 1804 they reconfigured the Electoral College process just before the election and agreed to amend the Constitution with the 12th Amendment. It affords the creation of the ‘ticket’ concept where both President and Vice President come from the same party.
It was eventually agreed that the Electoral College would be a group of presidential and vice presidential electors appointed every four years during the presidential election for the sole purpose of voting for the president and vice president. The 12th Amendment of the Constitution provided that the number of electoral votes each State would have is the number of Senators (set at 2 per State) plus its number of Representatives in each State (based on population with 250,000 residents equal to one Representative). The number of Representatives was based on the size of the population of each State. Each state would apply their own legal procedures determined by its legislature, to determine who would be the Electors to cast votes. The State Electors could not be the actual Senators or Representatives of each State in order to prevent lame duck electors from being influenced or coerced to vote a certain way. So the congressional delegation would total 535 electors in the 50 states. The Twenty-third Amendment ratified in 1961, granted the federal District of Columbiathree electors, bringing the total number of electors to 538. Reaching a majority of these at 270 votes would determine the winner of the presidential election. Territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have no votes in the Electoral College.
The Multi-Stage Process—The Electoral College is a Process Not a Location
Stage one: In October, the Archivist of the U.S. (located at the National Archives and Records Administration) (NARA) sends instructions to and notifies each State Governor to appoint electors. The electors form the Electoral College and are the actual electors of the President.
On the first Tuesday of November, the people vote in a national election. This event gets all the national news attention. This election the first Tuesday is November 6, 2024. But it is not the criteria for selecting the president and this is where many misunderstand the function and purpose of the Electoral College.
Stage two: After election day and all the popular votes have been tallied, the Governor of each State prepares the Certificate of Ascertainment. This is the list of electors at the State level which will vote for the candidate. After the Governor of each State submits the names to the National Archives, each Electoral College member meets in the State Legislature to cast their votes. This meeting takes place on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. In this year’s election the respective States Electors will meet to vote on December 16, 2024. In 2020 this was the pressure point at which Trump’s co-conspirators tried to insert false Electors in seven States.
Stage three: The electors formally meet in Washington DC on January 6 to formally cast their votes. It is actually possible for a candidate to win an ‘inverted’ election by winning the vote of the electors but by losing the popular vote of the people as happened most recently in 2016 (Clinton v. Trump) where Clinton won by 2.8 million popular votes overall but lost the in the Electoral vote tally 227-304). This happened in 2000 (Gore v. Bush where Gore won by 500,000 popular votes overall but lost in the Electoral vote tally 266-271). Other inverted elections occurred in the 1824, 1876, and in the 1888 elections. In these elections the Electoral College results opposed the collective will of the population and show that an inverted result is not unique to this century. In 2020 this is the infamous day Trump exhorted his followers to raid the U.S. Capitol.
Contingency Election
The 12th Amendment provides that a Contingency Election be held for selection of a president and vice president in the unlikely event that the Electoral College fails to fulfill its role: either to reach a 270 majority for any candidate or that the Electoral College vote is tied. In such a scenario the States would then consolidate their Electors into a single voice and cast that vote, each State having one vote; the majority of such a vote would determine the winner of the election.
This happened in the 1824 presidential election during which John Quincy Adams was selected by a Contingency Election vote on the first attempt and defeated Andrew Jackson. The general population went through great pains over this outcome because it had voted in majority for Andrew Jackson, and as a result in 1828, Andrew Jackson won in a landslide based on the popular vote.
This election, such a scenario would in effect, totally throw out the voices of every citizen who voted because it would toll the popular vote just like it did in 1824. In the present day, the country finds itself in an extremely contentious political environment with two parties pitted against each other in a manner not seen since the Civil War. It does not help matters that Trump and others in his party have stated, in effect, that they will not unconditionally accept the results of the election they are fair, leaving open the question as to whether or not they would accept the election results; saying unless they are fair. Democrats have openly stated they would unconditionally accept the results of the election.
There are numerous scenarios in which conditions leading to a Contingency Election could play out. At Madison Square Garden on Sunday, October 27, Trump said during his speech that he and House Speaker Mike Johnson had a “Little Secret” and that “we will tell you what it is when the race is over.” That statement could be interpreted to mean they had an agreement to win the election no matter what the popular vote results were. In the case of a disputed Electoral vote the could force a Contingency Election if one of the States in which there was a dispute delayed the certification of Electoral votes past the December 16 deadline. There are presently 26 States which have Republican Legislatures and 27 States which have Republican Governors. Any of these States having an Electoral vote result contested could be the basis for a Contingency Election under the 12th Amendment.
The key for a democratic system to work is this: party participation must be intentional as much it is obligated. Participants must act in good faith. With Trump openly discussing a secret agreement and not acknowledging that he will unconditionally accept the results of the election in the case of a close race, which all indicators show it is, there is certain to be a difficult and contentious period following November 6 in the Legislature and in the Courts, in which the president is eventually selected.
Setting The Stage of Democratic Discontent—Misinformation and Fear
The 2 months between election day and January 6 saw Washington DC boarded up like a Gulf Coast Beach community before a category-five hurricane. Part of this was due to residual business closures after the Corona Virus Pandemic of 2019. And we covered this story previously. However, many offices and stores which had opened up in the year that followed the Coronavirus Pandemic boarded up again in the 2 months before January 6 because far right extremist group protests were planning violent actions targeting Black Lives Matter Plaza and the DC community.
There were two major extremist “Stop the Steal” protests targeting Washington DC: One was held on November 14 and another on December 12.
Trump flamed the “Stolen Election” narrative whenever he could and he affirmed among his base of support that the election was unfair and “rigged.” This undermined public trust in the election system among his base. He called for several ’Stop the Steal’ actions in Washington DC; one on November 14, 2020 and another on December 12. The J6 Stop the Steal rally was the last of these but also involved pulling in as many of the general public as could be bused into Washington DC.
These rallies were not for political sake, but were organized with intent to later march through the streets after dark and search for “Antifa” and violently confront them. They led to civil conflict in Washington DC unlike anything seen since the Vietnam War as large groups of extremists roamed through Washington DC and harassed residents, marched through neighborhoods with their Proud Boy fags, their confederate flags and issued threats to attack counter-protesters—and they did. On December 12, 2020, Enrique Tarrio and Joe Bigg, leaders of the Proud Boys, led a mob of hundreds who attacked and damaged venerable church property and attacked DC citizens. Proud Boy Groups and Oath Keepers had descended on DC in response to Trump’s urging. During a debate with Joe Biden on September 29, 2020, Tramp said of Proud Boys, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” signaling them to get ready for action—and they did. In that statement he also blamed “Antifa”, saying “But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem.”
We published this video of the night of December 12, 2020 during which Proud Boy groups rallied at Freedom Square and then marched in military files through Washington DC, after their “Stop the Steal” rally, chanting “F— Antifa.” Later that night they mobilized in full force and their actions resulted in many injuries and property damage at venerable historic churches.
Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and other extremist groups from surrounding states from as far North as New York and as far South as Florida took part in these actions and they were warm-ups for what was to come on January 6.
The mainstream media largely ignored these protests and with the exception of some limited coverage by independent media, protests flew underneath coverage of mainstream newscasts. But the local DC activist communities were aware of them and mounted large counter protests, resulting in clashes when groups of Proud Boys came and marched in the streets after their rally at Freedom Plaza. As night fell they broke into groups and roamed through neighborhoods in search of victims. Some of the groups actually marched in files like military units searching for a perceived enemy in a jungle, carrying extremist flags, and chanting “F— Antifa.”
Again maintain media ignored this threat. The DC Metropolitan Police mobilized but stood on streets in pseudo-bureaucratic lines allowing Proud Boys free access to maneuver through back alleys where they strategized. That was until reports in mainstream media finally circulated that hundreds of Proud Boy extremists mobbed and vandalized the property at the venerable Asbury United Methodist Church, and burned its Black Lives Matter sign in the street at 11th and K. Incidentally this lack of significant deterrence by police was the same posture that led to the breach at the U.S. Capitol—video of that day reflected police standing idly as extremists and insurrectionists walked right into the U.S. Capitol like a tour group on a Sunday visit.
The mayhem continued that night at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, located at 15th and M Streets NW, which was also vandalized when its Black Lives Matter sign was torn down by Proud Boys and stomped upon in the street. It was the church that held the funeral of Frederick Douglas, whose home was in Anacostia, MD. This church has been in existence since the Civil War and this also struck a particular chord in the mainstream media.
Vandalism was also reported at Luther Memorial Place Memorial Church, a church on Vermont Street that has been in existence since 1873, to “heal the wounds of the Civil War.” It was not known who damaged the sign at Luther Memorial Place Memorial Church but it was replaced and in the following days, volunteers stood watch outside the church to protect the sign which was prominently displayed on its lawn.
For their role in these December 12, 2020 church attacks Proud Boy organizer Enrique Tarrio was tried and sentenced to 6 months in jail during a criminal trial. A Civil Court adjudged $1.03 million in civil damages for the church against the Proud Boy Organization LLC, as well as Joseph R. Biggs, Enrique Tarrio, and two others for their roles in the church vandalism.
The fallout from December 12 mob attacks of venerable churches in DC did little to stop Trump’s false narrative of a rigged or stolen election, however the church vandalism incidents did hit the news cycle at its heart, but by then it was too little, too late. The slings and bows were set for the stones and arrows that would fly on January 6.
Trump continued fanning the narrative of a stollen election up to the moment several thousand breached barricades and climbed the parapet at the Western Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. The scaffolding for the inauguration was already built and largely completed but it gave insurrectionists easy access to the unprotected elevated entrances near the rotunda.
January 6–Trump’s Failed Speech—The Terrible ’What Ifs” That Almost Came To Be
On December 19, 2020, just 17 days before the count of the Electors, Trump tweeted “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th, be there, will be wild!” This tweet prompted the actions that were to come on January 6. Proud Boy groups immediately began to chatter on social media and planned to mobilize.
The insurrectionists expected Trump to jointly accompany them to the U.S. Capitol, and once inside, they would siege the Legislature and stop the Legislative counting of the States Elector votes by force. They assaulted hundreds of U.S. Capitol police and broke windows and doors to gain access. Once inside they were confused about the layout of the building and were disorganized. They confronted staff and Congress retreated in fear for their lives to the safety of a bunker built in the early 2000s. The bunker was completed in 2008 as part of the underground visitor center which is 2/3 the size of the U.S. Capitol itself. This bunker was the last line defense at the physical layer of security that kept insurrectionist from achieving their goal of getting to Mike Pence.
Insurrectionists battled police for 187 minutes from the time Trump’s speech ended on the Ellipse at 1:10 pm until he sent a video message at 4:47 pm telling his mob to stand down. Only then were police able to begin gaining the upper hand. But what if Trump had accomplished the five minute drive from the White House to the Capitol. He wouldn’t have needed to enter the building. He would have needed only to be nearby to direct his mob to go in—just knowing he was there with them would have emboldened them even more to continue occupying the U.S. Capitol and further delay the Electoral vote count. The presence of Trump could have made the storming of the Capitol a considerably more volatile environment. In such an environment a Electoral College vote certification would likely not have been completed for an indefinite period.
Trump’s driver in the SUV played a role in resisting Trump’s attempt to seize the wheel to force him to drive to the Capitol after his speech. He specifically disputed this claim, however given the atmosphere of lies around Trump, this rebuttal may or may not actually be true. No other part of Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony during the January 6 Select Committee interviews has been publicly disputed by Trump’s former driver. Hutchinson was the Aide to Trumps Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows.
During the U.S. Capitol assault Police Officer Eugene Goodman singlehandedly diverted insurrectionists from the U.S. Senate chambers. Had he not been where he was and had the presence of mind it is like the mob would have reached Senator Chambers. He later escorted Senator Mitt Romney, an oppositional figure to Trump, away from the mob and as a result Senator Romney barely escaped to the bunker. This moment was another close encounter that could have changed the outcome of January 6.
Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over the Senate for the certification of the Electoral vote count. At 2:24 pm, Trump tweeted “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution….” Minutes after he tweeted this statement the insurrection mob began beating down doors and breaking windows. But what if Mike Pence had not certified the results. The entire certification process would have been in limbo for an indefinite period. As it was, the certification was not completed until 3:34 am on January 7, 2020, over 12 hours after the voting count was to begin.
It is doubtful Trump could have reversed the outcome in a way that all 50 states would fail to recognize their Electoral certificates, but he really only needed one State to fail in its duty to throw the process into chaos.
The violence was deadly, shocking, and law enforcement was unprepared and did not expect violence to rise to the level to which insurrectionists assaulted them. A published report shows that guns were seized from some of the insurgents before and after the battle, and one during the battle as well. In addition, the insurgents were armed with a wide variety of weapons short of firearms, including tasers, poles, bear spray, and knives.
Multiple people used bear mace against police during the attack and this was recorded on video and reported by many sources including members of the Capitol Police who were attacked. At least one carried dozens of plastic ties which are used by police to handcuff members of Congress. He was subsequently convicted for trespassing into the U.S. Capitol.
The fighting was also unabated for hours and brutal. Some military veterans among the police who had seen war said this was worse than any battle they had ever served in. AP News quoted Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards as calling the attack a “war scene” and saying “There were officers on the ground. They were bleeding. I was slipping in people’s blood.”
Yet only one person was shot (Ashli Babbat) and several other shots were reported to have been discharged inside the Capitol that struck no one.
According to the AP, the person who placed the bombs at both DNC and RNC headquarters has never been found.
Another published report on the January 6 committee hearings reported that D.C. police officer Daniel Hodges was crushed in a doorway, and was lucky to survive. He recounted afterwards that the reason he and other officers held their fire was that if the situation turned into a firefight they would lose, and this was a fight they could not afford to lose. He feared that there were more bombs, didn’t know how many guns the insurgents had, and even considered the risk that the sounds of shooting were the signal to detonate any such bombs.
With this level of violence and brutality it is a wonder that the insurrection did not succeed outright. However it did demonstrate the fervor to which the thousands, some estimates place at 20,000, were dedicated to Trump.
The climax of the battle and probably the decisive point was the shooting of Ashli Babbat. Tragically it was this loss of a life, a person mesmerized by the sway of MAGA Trumpism that saved many others.
Aftermath and Way Forward
On October 18, 2024, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan released Jack Smith’s 165 presentation along with nearly 1900 pages of evidence in Trump’s election interference case, with much of the evidence redacted (blacked out). It is evident in Jack Smith’s submission of evidence that the January 6 coup conspiracy was much more organized and orchestrated than previously known. The full investigation of the events of that day has not been released but the intent was clear: overturn a democratically elected president.
Had they succeeded we would not know what we know today. Jack Smith would not have been appointed as Special Prosecutor and Trump would have been reelected, and probably the last president to serve under this Republic Rep .
He has since not ceased in attempts to undermine the 2020 election and worse, many in the present version of the GOP have joined by silence in his dispiriting methods and attempts to retake the Presidency.
Trump’s presidential campaign has been waged with bigotry, threats, vulgarity, and intimidation of those who oppose him. Each day sees a new low in his campaign and in the language he uses against others who oppose him.
As a result, the U.S. political landscape has devolved into a seeming ancient Roman gladiator fight to the finish. Several of his former conservative cabinet members, including former Chief of Staff John Kelly and former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Miley have described Trump’s talking points as authoritarian and General Mark Miley labeled him “fascist to the core.”
Trump has revisited talking points of Adolf Hitler in openly describing immigrants as “poisoning the blood of our country,” ridiculing and threatening political opponents with violence, and minimizing minorities such as the Trans, Latino, Haitian, and Puerto Rican communities.
The political future of the U.S. is unrecognizable under a dark cloud no matter who may win the 2024 presidential election. In a scenario of a GOP loss this election cycle, future power will eventually shift towards the newly born Trumpian GOP as elections shift and weakened parties regain power as they inevitably do at some point in the future.
Now it will be up to the people to mobilize against the rising current of fascism.
In our next and final part III of this series we discuss how ordinary citizens can legally and successfully mobilize against fascism, extremism, and a political landscape that no one seems to understand.
Part III: How to legally fight fascism in your community here.
Other references:
Discussion of Jack Smith 185 page evidence filing in DC election fraud case:
youtube
Link to “the enemy within” by Trump
Trump dissembles democratic guardrails with fascist talk.
12th Amendment explained.
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Reflections On January 6: Planned In The Open; Yet Made Invisible; What It Means For The 2024 Election
Story By: Anonymous Mouse
Washington DC—
Looking back at the January 6 coup attempt, Anonymous Mouse reflects on why almost no one saw it coming and why local DC activists did. She argues the failure to see the obvious was largely due to pre-existing mental frameworks, about the nature of both protests and American democracy, and that one of the ways 2024 will be different from 2020 is that at least some of those mental barriers have since been breached while others remain.
This is the first in a three-part series about the state of democracy in America today. Parts II and III will be published in the coming days. (Editor’s note: activists refer to the 2021 insurrection/coup as J6-January 6)
Introduction
At the beginning of January 2021, myself and others who monitored far right social media were alarmed. Numerous Trump supporters were planning to surround the Capitol on January 6 and possibly storm it.
There was no attempt to be subtle. They posted graphics of the Capitol grounds on open forums and estimated how many ‘Stop the Steal’ attendees would be needed to surround the building. The Capitol’s tunnel system was a source of endless fascination for them.
They fantasized in detail about murdering members of Congress and those they deemed to be Antifa. Hanging was the preferred method of execution, with someone on TheDonald.win helpfully suggesting that folks arrive early to build a gallows. Around January 2, these Trump supporters, formerly staunch proponents of Back the Blue, came to accept that they’d have to murder cops to achieve their goals. They didn’t seem bothered by the thought.
Trump supporters discuss building a gallows on TheDonald.win web site on December 30, 2020.
They talked freely about how they would get their guns into DC.
Me and my fellow researchers, many of us DC-area locals who monitored right-wing extremists in our spare time, immediately alerted the larger activist community.
Anonymous Mouse correctly predicting the attempted coup three days before January 6.
There are no monoliths when it comes to leftist spaces. The community is fragmented and ever changing, with activists engaging as life and burnout permits. It’s a web of individuals and affinity groups, some of whom work together and others who don’t.
Let me state this next part very carefully: This is my account of J6, shaped by the circles I operated in. Other activists had different experiences while playing crucial roles in protecting DC. I don’t speak their stories because they’re not my stories to tell and frankly, I don’t know all the details.
Myself and other researchers shared the intel we were seeing with the larger community (as defined by the circles we operated in). The debate was brief, the consensus near unanimous, which may be a first for any collection of activists. Trump supporters were coming to DC. Some of them were bringing guns. They were out for blood and spoke freely of murdering members of Congress and any cop that got in their way.
The guns were the deciding factor. There was no way in hell we were going anywhere near that.
Here’s the first thing many people outside of the DC activist community failed to understand: There wasn’t a binary choice between direct confrontation and inaction. Sometimes together and sometimes separately, DC activists developed a multi-pronged strategy to respond to the J6 threat:
1) Warn anyone who would listen that Trump supporters were going to attempt to storm the Capitol and interfere with the electoral college certification on January 6;
2) Protect vulnerable residents in Washington, DC, from Proud Boys and other violent Trump supporters streaming into the city;
3) Make DC as inhospitable to Trump supporters as possible by pressuring hotels not to do business with them; and
4) Document the lead up to J6 and once we realized it was really happening, J6 itself.
Thus, it was that left-wing activists, some of whom identified as Antifa, fought to defend a city and a flawed democracy they had little to no faith in.
Looking Back at J6
Some of these strategies worked better than others. Most hotels, for example, starved for revenue during the first year of the pandemic, had no interest in turning away would-be insurrectionists.
What unnerved us the most, though, was that no one was interested in a plot to storm the Capitol, even when evidence was mounting every day that it was actually going to happen.
We attempted to warn the press, Mayor Bowser’s office, extremism experts…and yes, even law enforcement. We posted screenshots to social media and begged people to pay attention to the threat.
Open planning of murder and insurrection on right-wing sites was met with a collective shrug.
How did so many people fail to see the plot that was right in front of them?
Usually threat analysis involves gray areas and close calls. There was no gray area here. Having been called to action by the president of the United States, his followers proceeded to plan their insurrection out in the open, believing they had his support and protection.
Key to this was that Trump’s followers weren’t just talking about murder and insurrection, they were taking observable actions to achieve these goals, actions that were oftentimes documented online.
In terms of whether or not what Trump supporters were planning should have been considered a threat, this was the most clear cut call anyone could make.
At this point, law enforcement should have taken steps to disrupt the plot and defend the Capitol, but…they didn’t.
No doubt some individuals in law enforcement, such as MPD Lt. Shane Lamond, were actively working with the Proud Boys and other rightwing extremists and took steps to shield the J6 plotters. To quote the respected philosophers Rage Against the Machine, “Some of those that work forces, are the same that burn crosses.” That doesn’t explain most of the inaction from law enforcement though.
I have had the luxury of thinking about this, off and on, for almost four years and I still don’t have a satisfactory answer as to why authorities failed to act. And it wasn’t just law enforcement, it was the establishment as a whole.
I remember speaking to an award-winning journalist about a week before J6. I repeatedly mentioned the guns, the intent to target the Capitol, the plans to murder members of Congress and cops. On a surface level, the journalist heard what I was saying. They were even visiting these right-wing sites and saw the planning for themselves.
Yet they treated it as mere rhetoric from deluded Trump supporters, and in a way, we talked past each other.
This is my attempt, with an assist from Douglas Adams, to explain how so many failed to see what should have been obvious.
The J6 insurrection worked as a giant S.E.P. (Somebody Else’s Problem) field. In science-fiction, the S.E.P. renders objects invisible by utilizing a person’s natural tendency to ignore things they can’t easily accept.
For law enforcement, most of whom are right-wing, it was not in their interest to acknowledge the threat. Once they acknowledged the problem, they would be required to deal with it, and that would mean challenging Trump, either directly or indirectly, and confronting truths that they perhaps were not willing to accept.
It was the same with the media and the larger political establishment. Acknowledging the problem would require confronting unpleasant truths, such as that our first world democracy was on shakier ground than we realized and that a small but significant part of the population was willing to murder their fellow Americans to overthrow the government.
These are terrifying realizations, painful to acknowledge. Easier to dismiss plans for murder and insurrection as just talk and to focus on something more comfortable to consider, such as violence between protesters and counter-protesters.
The Importance of Pre-existing Frames
Another reason, I suspect, that so many people missed J6 is that they were focused on something else. After the Capitol was stormed, many DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia) locals said that they stayed away from downtown DC because they knew “something” was going to happen. When you drilled down into what that “something” was, most expected clashes between Trump supporters and Stop the Steal counter-protesters.
Washington DC’s myriad law enforcement agencies expected this as well, with their preparations being geared towards preventing this.
This is where the influence of pre-existing frames came into play.
Ahead of J6, and indeed, throughout his presidency, Trump made ludicrous claims about Antifa and other left-wing protesters. Law enforcement, an authoritarian institution comprised of mostly right-wing individuals, had no trouble buying into and amplifying those ludicrous claims.
Meanwhile, the media, with its own institutional bias towards the wealthy, the white, and the privileged, also accepted those claims, only less overtly. Anytime the police or right-wing extremists attacked unarmed protesters, it became a “clash,” with the protesters bearing the brunt of the blame, no matter the actual details of the situation. The causes of these protests (extra-judicial police killings, climate crisis, anti-genocide, etc.) were almost always obscured, the confrontation itself getting the lion’s share of the media attention without context.
With this expectation already built into both law enforcement and the media, it became easier for them to miss J6. The explicit purpose of Trump supporters gathering in DC on January 6 was ignored, because the purposes of protests almost always get short shrift. The focus on anticipated clashes became magnified, with the onus being on left-wing activists not to engage. When right-wing insurrectionists broke the pre-existing frame by attacking the police, the police didn’t know how to respond. It simply didn’t compute. They were being assaulted by their own side, by a group of people they had deemed trustworthy. If you look at video from that day, there are multiple instances of law enforcement at the Capitol appearing confused and not knowing how to react.
The combination of a pre-existing frame that law enforcement wanted to believe, paired with intelligence that law enforcement didn’t want to believe, led to a massive security failure that endangered everyone in the Capitol, including the vice-president, members of Congress, their families, their staff, and the police themselves. We only narrowly averted disaster. The country may not be so lucky next time.
N14 and D12
To understand J6, you need to understand the two Stop the Steal rallies that came before it, one on November 14 (N14) and one on December 12 (D12).
On each occasion, thousands of Trump supporters poured into DC. Amongst the crowds waving Trump 2020 flags and screaming that the election was stolen were Proud Boys and other right-wing extremists. When they weren’t at the rallies, these extremists pushed into DC neighborhoods, screaming slurs, hunting down vulnerable community members, and harassing locals for fun. Neither the police nor the mayor did anything to stop them, they just looked the other way.
The anti-fascists who countered the N14 and D12 Stop the Steal rallies did so in an attempt to defend the city, better that Trump supporters target them than the community at large, and to take a stand against the fascism that Trump represented. Fascism is a gaping maw of need. It is never satisfied. By allowing right-wing extremists to run largely unchecked throughout DC on November 14 (N14) and December 12 (D12), Mayor Bowser, the MPD, and other authorities set the stage for J6, creating the expectation that law enforcement would not stand in the insurrectionists’ way.
Once again, pre-existing frames affected the coverage of N14 and D12 and thus, the public’s understanding of these precursor rallies. Right-wing extremists terrorizing DC locals went, for the most part, unmentioned by the media. Both the reason Trump supporters traveled to DC, to lay the groundwork for the overturning of an election, and the reasons they were countered by anti-fascists, were ignored. N14 and D12 were reduced to a series of “clashes” between opposing sides, just so much noise in a news cycle.
As January 6 approached, on top of broader frames, this view of N14 and D12 as a clash between opposing sides impacted threat assessments, with J6 seen as a repeat of the previous rallies. The significance of January 6 as the day when electoral votes would be certified was obscured, as evidenced by the lack of security around the Capitol grounds.
For local DC activists, N14 and D12 had the opposite effect. We understood, on a visceral level, the violence that Trump supporters were capable of. After all, they had already committed that violence on us and our neighbors. When his supporters talked about bringing guns to DC, we took that threat seriously too. During both N14 and D12, a number of Proud Boys had walked around with handguns on their hips. They would lift up their shirts and show them off to counter-protesters while police nearby did nothing. We didn’t have to imagineTrump supporters smuggling guns into DC for J6, we knew they had done it before.
I want to focus for a moment on the guns. In the lead up to J6, a number of well-meaning Democrats and progressives urged activists not to travel to DC and engage with protesters. We tried to explain to them that we didn’t need to travel to DC, we lived here, and that oh by the way, the Trump supporters were planning to storm the Capitol and were terrorizing our neighborhoods. We explained what they could do to help us, such as pressuring hotels to turn away insurrectionists and calling out the right-wing harassment happening in the city.
No one listened to us.
One can see how the power of those pre-existing frames extended even to those on the left. The onus was on local DC activists not to engage, even as the Proud Boys were running wild through DC neighborhoods. No one told the Proud Boys to stop terrorizing people. The expectation just wasn’t there. And the focus was on anticipated clashes between Stop the Steal protesters and counter-protesters, instead of the plot, organized out in the open, to overturn the 2020 presidential election and install Trump as dictator.
I’m getting to the guns, I swear.
In the aftermath of J6, there was this idea, propagated by these same Democrats and progressives, that their warnings to DC activists had made the difference, that local anti-fascists hadn’t fallen into Trump’s trap because of their efforts.
I know they meant well, some of those warning me to stay away from the Capitol were (and are) my friends, but it wasn’t their advice that kept anti-fascists away, it was the guns.
Insurrectionists spoke of bringing guns to the J6 insurrection. A Trump supporter posts a photo of his body armor and gear a day before the January 6 insurrection, claiming that his guns were stored in his hotel room in Virginia, ready to be used..
When Trump supporters said they were going to come to DC on January 6 with guns, we believed them. That, more than anything else, determined our response. There was no way we were going to counter-protest a gunfight. That worst case scenario ending up not happening, due to both the police and the insurrectionists not wanting to be the first ones to open fire, a sort of MAD (mutually assured destruction) in miniature serving as deterrence, but the possibility was very much real.
If nothing else, we expected the police response to an attempted coup to involve rubber bullets and tear gas, and while we didn’t get the former, we did get some of the latter. We knew it would be a dangerous and volatile situation no matter what.
Though I don’t think it was ever stated out right, there was also the understanding that any anti-fascists who did show up at the Capitol to counter-protest would likely be targeted by the police and blamed for the very violence they were trying to prevent, because that’s usually how it went. During both N14 and D12, anti-fascists were the ones arrested after being attacked by the Proud Boys and other Trump supporters.
What I don’t remember hearing as me and my fellow activists discussed how to respond to J6 was that Trump wanted us to fight with fascists like the Proud Boys so that he could invoke the Insurrection Act. Reviewing J6 committee and other transcripts, it’s clear Trump hoped for this outcome and did what he could to encourage it, but between the guns, the attempted coup, and the insurrectionists’ plans to murder members of Congress, that aspect of the plot to end our republic got overlooked by us (at least in the circles I operated in).
We didn’t counter-protest at the Capitol on J6 because we didn’t want to die in a gunfight, we correctly understood the danger of what the insurrectionists were planning, and that it would likely lead to violence that we could be blamed for.
We weren’t trying to avoid a trap laid by Trump.
It’s a fine difference, but I believe, a significant one.
A Stochastic Coup?
In the days after January 6, I referred to the failed attempt to overturn the election as a “stochastic coup.”
Wikipedia defines stochastic terrorism as follows: “Stochastic terrorism is a form of political violence instigated by hostile public rhetoric directed at a group or an individual. Unlike incitement to terrorism, stochastic terrorism is accomplished with indirect, vague, or coded language, which grants the instigator plausible deniability for any associated violence. A key element of stochastic terrorism is the use of media for propagation, where the person carrying out the violence may not have direct connection to any other users of violent rhetoric.”
With Trump’s reliance on Twitter to communicate and his use of coded language that he knew many of his supporters would understand (“Be there, will be wild!”), I thought it an apt description.
The stochastic nature of Trump’s incitement explained the chaos that accompanied the storming of the Capitol. Thousands of his supporters responded to his call. These supporters understood the goal, disruption and alteration of the electoral college certification, but operating separately, they had different ways of achieving that aim.
Nor was every Stop the Steal attendee on J6 dialed into the plan, such as it was (more like concepts of a plan). These people really did exist. Some, to their credit, balked at the idea of storming the Capitol once they realized what Trump wanted them to do, while others were happy to join the insurrection. These joy riders were another wild card that only added to the lack of coherency that day.
The result was groups and individuals jumping the gun and stepping on each other’s plans. Amidst the chaos though, there were elements of order. The iconic video of the Oath Keepers’ stack, snaking its way up the steps of the Capitol, suggested even to those not intimately familiar with the inner workings of the insurrection that this was not a spontaneous riot.
While the storming of the Capitol was largely stochastic in nature, something I underestimated was the extent of coordination between Trump’s people and certain groups of insurrectionists. In the lead up to J6, Trump confidant Roger Stone was in contact with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, Oathkeeper founder Stewart Rhodes, and Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander, amongst others. And he wasn’t the only Trump crony communicating with the insurrectionists before J6.
Nor did I understand the scope of the plot to unlawfully overturn the presidential election. As a DC-based activist, I was understandably focused on the part of the plot that happened in DC. The Capitol might have been the most visible flashpoint, but this was a coup attempt that played out across the country, with slates of fake electors in states such as Arizona and Michigan and Trump pressuring election officials in multiple swing states.
Appreciating the true extent of Trump and his team’s involvement in the attempted coup is critical, because a similar scenario will likely play out again in the coming weeks, and this time, more of the GOP establishment will be involved.
History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, Except When It Does?
Well, here we are again. The 2024 presidential election, due to the archaic and undemocratic electoral college, will almost certainly be close. Trump is once more the Republican candidate and he is once more spewing lies and refusing to accept the results of the election unless he should win.
It is an indictment of our leaders, our justice system (this includes the ethically bankrupt Supreme Court), and the very constitutional blueprint of our government that we are in the same place we were four years ago.
What it’s not an indictment of is the American people, who rejected Trump in 2020 and voted an authoritarian out of office. Historically, this is something extraordinarily difficult to do. Once an authoritarian gains power, they will not let it go, and they have no qualms about abusing their power to gain even more.
A Failed Insurrection: People Held Firm While Institutions Faltered
What stopped J6? It’s an important question. I don’t think you can point to any law enforcement or government agency, as a whole, and say that they stopped the storming of the Capitol. Rather, the agencies themselves failed in both the lead up to J6 and when confronted by the semi-organized insurrectionist mob. Did the Capitol Police stop J6? Some of them did, such as Eugene Goodman, Daniel Hodges, and Michael Fanone, to name a few. Other officers froze and didn’t know how to react.
What about the Office of the Vice President? Mike Pence, and this is the only kind thing I’ll probably ever say about him, helped save democracy that day. But his refusal to support the fake electors and to delay the certification of the electoral college vote was done in opposition to President Trump.
According to the timeline put out by DOD, by the way, the National Guard didn’t show up to the Capitol until 5:40pm, after the attempted insurrection had already failed and Trump was forced to tell his supporters to go home.
You’ll see a similar pattern play out in the states in regards to the larger plot to overturn the presidential election. Maybe you can give credit, for example, to the Michigan State Police when they turned away the fake electors trying to enter the Michigan state capitol, but for the most part, it was individual citizens like Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the Detroit poll workers who calmly kept counting votes when Republicans tried to intimidate them, and Republican officials like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who defended our democracy, withstanding tremendous pressure from Trump and his cronies.
The point being, institutions didn’t hold, people did, and oftentimes at great personal risk to themselves and their families. Enough Americans rose to the occasion at key moments to thwart Trump’s plot to make himself a dictator.
Since then, our hallowed institutions, everything from the Justice Department to the Supreme Court to the mainstream media and others, have failed us when it comes to holding Trump accountable. It seems to be a mix of timidity, a failure to understand the rapacious nature of fascism (it doesn’t go away on its own), and a co-option of key individuals in these institutions by Trump and the authoritarian Republicans who back him.
It’s as if the coup that was first attempted on January 6 never ended. Rather, it transformed into a protection racket for Trump until he could run for president again. On November 5, 2024, he’ll either win the presidency outright and quickly begin to dismantle our democracy or he’ll narrowly lose and attempt another coup.
We, the American people, did our part to oust Trump from power in 2020. Our leaders didn’t keep their end of the bargain.
Lessons Learned: Four Main Indicators For How 2024 May Play Out
The first Trump assassination attempt, Biden dropping out from the race and being replaced by Vice-President Kamala Harris, the second Trump assassination attempt, Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Milton, the genocide in Gaza and a constant drumbeat of war in the Middle East… Given the general tenor of 2024, I make no attempt to guess the outcome of the presidential election. All I can suggest is we look to J6 for lessons learned, for if history isn’t repeating itself, it’s certainly rhyming.
1) Be mindful of the pre-existing frames
In the lead up to J6, I underestimated the importance of existing frameworks. These frameworks were so powerful, I believe they were a key reason why so many didn’t see a coup attempt being organized right out in the open.
Here are the frames, and by that, I mean the rules which govern how law enforcement, the media, and the American public, by and large, interpret protests.
• If left-wing activists are present at a protest, the onus will be on them for good behavior. This same expectation is not present for right-wing protesters
• If left-wing activists are attacked at a protest (usually by law enforcement or by right-wing agitators), the attack will be described as a “clash.” The culpability of law enforcement or right-wing agitators will be, at best, obscured and more than likely, entirely erased
• If there is an altercation at a protest, even if left-wing activists are the ones being attacked, they are the ones who will likely be arrested. Protesters who are Black, LGBTQ+, First Nations, or from other marginalized communities will be targeted by law enforcement first
• The reasons for a protest will be underplayed or ignored altogether. This applies to all protests. The focus is on the disruption and the spectacle, not what’s driving people into the streets
• Spontaneous protests are privileged over organized protests. Protests deemed ‘spontaneous’ are seen as somehow more pure (see Rosa Parks)
• Property over people. Damage to property will be seen as an offense on par with, or even worse than, physical injury
These frames are not fair. These frames are, in fact, bullshit. They result in situations where Proud Boys can come to your town ahead of J6, roam your city’s neighborhoods, terrorize residents, and you get lectured not to respond.
These frames can be changed, but I don’t think we can do it before November 5. Just be aware of them, and how they’ll work against you and maybe, how they can work for you.
One note on that subject: In Philadelphia a couple days after the 2020 election, Trump supporters tried to intimidate vote counters working in the Pennsylvania Convention Center. They were met with one of the most ridiculous, chaotic, and silly counter-protests I have ever seen. There were people dressed up as Gritty, there were dancing mailboxes and a DJ. It was Philly at its finest and it completely neutered the manufactured rage of the other side.
2) 2024 Won’t Be 2020, Don’t Fight The Last Battle (But Do Learn From It)
As much as we seem to be repeating history, 2024 won’t be the same as 2020 for at least one reason: Donald Trump is currently not the president of the United States.
Pathways for installing himself as dictator that were available to him in 2020 are not available to him right now. He cannot invoke the Insurrection Act. He cannot call out the National Guard or deploy military assets.
And there are Democratic governors in five out of seven swing states, which limits Trump’s ability to interfere with vote counting should he lose the election. The exceptions are Georgia and Nevada and at least in these states, the Republican governors aren’t outright election deniers, with Georgia governor Brian Kemp having withstood pressure to overturn the Georgia election results in 2020. (not that he couldn’t cave in 2024, I have little faith in the moral fortitude of Republicans)
Mental barriers have also been broken. What once seemed impossible, the violent overturning of an election, has now become possible. The establishment in 2020 didn’t seem able to comprehend what Trump and his supporters were capable of. This time, the Secretary of Homeland Security has already designated the certification of the electoral college vote on January 6 as a “National Special Security Event.”
According to the Washington Post, members of Congress, law enforcement, and officials across the country have been gaming out and preparing for all manner of scenarios ahead of the 2024 presidential election to ensure the peaceful transfer of power.
One other consideration: Many of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol, individuals who would not be afraid to intimidate voters at polling stations or to attempt to disrupt vote counting, are in jail.
With Trump in key ways more limited than in 2020, what you’re seeing is a focus on purging voters in states that Republicans control, promoting third-party candidates to siphon off Democratic votes, changing election rules in Georgia to make vote counting slower and more chaotic, and rampant disinformation. That last one is huge.
Thankfully, the scheme to alter Nebraska’s electoral vote allocation failed and while many Republican governors are engaged in voter suppression and underhanded tactics that can affect Congressional and state races, their impact on the presidential election is less because these states, by and large, are not competitive.
I remain on the fence about the danger played by the Republicans’ formal “poll watching” efforts, which could lead to voter intimidation in Democratic strongholds.
3) The Very Scary Immigrant Threat
Trump’s now infamous and widely derided “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats” presidential debate moment may have seemed to viewers like it came out of nowhere, but for anyone monitoring right-wing sites, it wasn’t a surprise.
The right-wing frenzy of hate and hysteria, similar to what myself and others saw in the lead up to J6 has returned, and the right’s target this time is primarily immigrants. Immigrants are the Baba Yaga of 2024, whereas in 2020, it was Antifa.
This focus on immigrants is intentional and serves a number of purposes. Trump and the right-wing apparatus built to secure his victory will use claims of immigrants voting illegally to surveil polling sites and intimidate voters. They’ll use the claim to try and interrupt the counting of votes, if it looks like a Harris victory is likely.
Fictitious claims of immigrants voting will be used in court challenges, and if you have faith every court in the land will toss those false claims out, well… I appreciate your extreme optimism. While Trump lacks the power of the presidency this time around, after four years, the Republican party and the conservative establishment are more servile to him than ever before, with dissenters having been pushed out.
Right-wing think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, Republican members of Congress, and the conservative media are already creating and amplifying disinformation in a way that wasn’t seen in 2020.
If all else fails, the Very Scary Immigrant Threat may even be used to justify, in part, another insurrection, along with claims that Harris’ candidacy was never legitimate to begin with due to Biden dropping out of the race. The right’s ginned up anti-immigrant hysteria may seem over the top, but recognize its danger.
4) The Power of Fear
Immigrant gangs rampaging through towns across the US, murdering and raping with impunity. Hundreds, if not thousands, of dead bodies piled up along riverbeds in Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, their existence being hidden by FEMA. Solar flares. Weather machines. WWIII.
This is the reality Trump supporters live in. If you’re not in these spaces, I cannot emphasize enough how hysterical and unhinged their information environment is.
The purpose is fear. Fear can motivate voters to the polls and convince them to support a thin-skinned former Reality TV star with dreams of being the next Mussolini. Fear can convince supporters to storm the Capitol, or to storm a local polling station.
We saw this in 2020, with insurrectionists insisting that they either overturn the election or that they and their families would die under Joe Biden’s communist regime. In their fevered minds, it was a matter of life or death. This sense of desperation has only grown stronger in 2024.
While immigrants will remain the north star of the Republicans’ massive disinformation campaign, these operations are opportunistic in nature. Expect conservative media to latch onto anything they feel can further fuel the hysteria.
It should be noted that in this super-charged disinformation environment that Trump and the Republicans are fueling, I’m very concerned that immigrants, FEMA, or whatever the scary villain du jour is that week, will be victims of violence.
My Predictions for the 2024 Election
I would call this election a rollercoaster but rollercoasters are fun. Between the return of Trump, the rampant disinformation, and the bloodshed in the Middle East, this is an election that I think many have found to be demoralizing. How does this all play out and what can we do to defend our democracy?
Voting’s already started. The election is here. As we get closer to November 5, we’ll see more disinformation, more hysteria from Trump and his supporters. It’s one of the few tools they have at their disposal.
Expect to see a steady drumbeat of increasingly sensational accusations against the Democrats of voting irregularities, especially as it involves immigrants, and of manufactured or entirely fictionalized altercations at polling stations and vote counting centers. The goal isn’t chaos. Rather, it’s the appearance of chaos, enough to give institutions captured by Trump and the Republicans an excuse to intervene. By this, I primarily mean the courts, but I expect the full weight of theTrump machine to be applied here in all its myriad forms.
This includes the House, with Speaker Mike Johnson playing a starring role. A new House will be sworn in on January 3, 2025, and if the new House should be Democratic, Johnson’s ability to contribute to any sabotage of the democratic process after that point will be limited. Before then though, expect he will use the full extent of his powers to attempt to overturn the election should Harris be the winner.
JD Vance telegraphed the play when he responded to a question about J6: “I would have asked the states to submit alternative slates of electors and let the country have the debate about what actually matters and what kind of election we had.”
The Republicans do not have a grand master plan when it comes to the presidential election. It’s more about improvisation, looking for opportunities to cast doubt on the validity of the election and using those manufactured doubts to turn a free and fair election into something that needs to be debated, either in the House of Representatives or in the Supreme Court.
One of the smartest moves Democrats made in 2020 was not to engage in any “debate.” The presidential election of 2020 was free and fair, no discussion needed. Assuming Harris wins in a nailbiter, and that is an assumption that may not bear out in a couple different ways, I sincerely hope the Democrats continue not to fall for the Republicans’ trap of “reasonable discussion.”
Some parting advice before I wrap up this analysis.
First, don’t let the bastards get you down. One of the purposes of this rampant disinformation campaign is to exhaust and demoralize voters, to make them want to give up on the democratic process all together. Take a break, walk outside, maybe even touch that grass and become one with nature, at least for a few minutes.
Second, once the votes are cast, the metaphorical battle will likely be one of comms. The other side is going to try and warp reality, to the point where voters start to wonder what reality even is. This then opens the door to court challenges and Republican attempts to overturn the election.
How quickly can our side debunk rumors? Can we withstand the barrage of lies and make the center hold? As has often been said, “A lie is halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on.” The goal is not to beat the Republicans at the disinformation game, it’s to not be completely subsumed by it.
To that end, don’t spread disinformation yourself. Check who is behind that viral tweet before you boost it, and for god’s sake, Trump did not stage his own assassination attempt. Don’t buy into that nonsense, it rots your brain and leaves you susceptible to other conspiracy theories.
Third, Ivan Raiklin, look him up. Maybe check in on him every once in a while and see what he’s up to. He was the chief architect of the “Pence Card” strategy in 2020, has compiled a “Deep State Target List,” and is already coming up with schemes to short circuit the 2024 vote.
Finally, do I think we’ll see a repeat of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2025? I’d usually say not a chance in hell, but Trump’s most diehard supporters remain stubbornly fixated on the Capitol. It’s the one that got away and they seem to want another shot at it.
Here we have a series of hypotheticals. IF Kamala Harris is the winner of the 2024 presidential election, and IF all of Trump’s court challenges fail, and IF his state level schemes fail, you could see right-wing interest return to the January 6 electoral college certification, even though Kamala Harris will be over-seeing it as vice-president and the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 has made it harder for the certification to be manipulated.
This scenario, by the way, becomes more likely if the Republicans hold the House and Mike Johnson remains speaker.
In this hypothetical, I think there’s a reasonable chance law enforcement would be prepared for the insurrectionists this time around, resulting in a situation where the insurrectionists stage outside the Capitol, then protest another nearby target once they realize the Capitol isn’t achievable.
If Mike Johnson is still speaker on January 6, 2025, an insurrection based on parliamentary maneuvers rather than flag poles and zip ties will probably happen inside the Capitol anyways.
But that’s all speculation. The most important steps you can take ahead of November 5 are the following:
1) As cheesy as it sounds, vote.
2) Volunteer for a candidate you believe in.
3) Don’t get overwhelmed by disinformation.
4) Don’t lose hope in our hot mess of a democracy.
Next Week:
Part II: The J6 Attempt Came Closer To Success Than Many Think: Link here.
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