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Rev. Barber. No Kings Day. Philadelphia

 

No Kings. No Redcoats. No Occupying Armies.

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EXCLUSIVE: Governor Newsom ADDRESSES State and Nation LIVE

The Logic of Protests on June 14- No Kings

 Why another protest? What is it going to accomplish? Shouldn’t we be [insert alternate tactic] instead?

These are good-faith questions, and they stem from very reasonable concerns. The speed, scope, and scale of the MAGA assault -- on our rights, our neighbors, our democracy -- is staggering. The stakes are enormous. There are days when nothing we’re doing feels sufficient to the magnitude of the horrors we face.

Protest is a tactic. And with any tactic, there’s a danger of tactical freeze, of it getting stale, of deploying it without a real strategy in mind. And it’s easy to look at any single protest and ask, “what did that even accomplish? What was the point?”

So I want to take a step back and talk about the role of a peaceful mass mobilization like No Kings in the context of our strategic analysis.

If you’ve been listening to us over the last few months, you’ve heard us talk about the idea of autocratic breakthrough -- a period when a would-be dictator basically sprints to consolidate their power, crush the institutions and people who could push back, and create a chilling climate for everyone else. 

For the would-be dictator, success depends on projecting power and creating an aura of inevitability. They need you to believe that Trump is the new normal, that the MAGA movement will be in power for the long haul, that the only rational move is to go along, keep your head down, and protect your own interests. 

We’ve seen over the last six months what happens when this aura of inevitability goes unchallenged. Institutions -- from state governments to businesses to civil society to higher education to media -- start to fall in line, do what Trump tells them, and/or go silent.

Here’s the thing: The aura of inevitability is a lie. It’s all a lie. Power in American society doesn’t derive from the top down. Trump’s grasp is brittle, and he’s overreaching dramatically. He will only succeed if everyone agrees to believe the lie.

Or, as our friend Reverend Barber says: A king is only a king if we bow down.

Countering the aura of inevitability requires a hundred different tactics and strategies. It looks like making an example of Target for obeying in advance and getting rid of its DEI policies. It looks like protesting and toxifying Elon Musk until he bows out of government. It looks like students at Georgetown making a list of Big Law collaborators and organizing their peers to steer clear. It looks like federal workers refusing to obey illegal or unethical orders. It looks like building the muscles and the relationships for collective action.

In short, it requires a countless number of people in a countless number of places to do something that the Trump regime doesn’t want them to do, or to NOT do something the Trump regime wants them to do. That’s how we shake off the aura of inevitability and halt the autocratic breakthrough.

For that to happen, people need to feel like we’re part of something bigger. We need to understand that we’re part of a movement. We need to feel like we will win.

That’s where No Kings comes in. With 1,800 events nationwide, in every state, this will be the single largest protest of this Trump administration.

A single mobilization won’t turn this ship around. But it can do a few very important things:

Change the narrative. A massive show of popular opposition everywhere in the country can disrupt Trump’s effort to project strength. It shows that resistance is big, powerful, growing, and everywhere.

Bring in new people. A mobilization of this scale and scope reaches people who aren’t yet engaged, and -- if done right -- helps to draw them into a cycle of action and relationships on the ground.

Foster community. When you show up, you realize that not only are you not alone -- you’re actually part of something enormous. And that helps to build the shared sense of identity we’ll need for the path ahead.

Spread courage. After Hands Off!, we heard from people in positions of power within institutions -- law firms, universities (one big university, in fact), and elsewhere -- who told us they were emboldened by the protests to push back on pressure from the Trump regime. As we often say, courage is contagious. 

And No Kings comes at an absolutely crucial moment. 

Trump and Stephen Miller’s vicious anti-immigrant crackdown has been escalating over the last few months. The scale of the cruelty and terror they’ve created is almost impossible to put into words. And they have been cynically, intentionally sending their masked, unaccountable ICE forces into blue cities and states, communities where no one wants them. They’ve been working overtime to manufacture chaos, so that they have a pretext to deploy military forces to crack down on dissent for all of us.

Trump’s birthday parade and his attack on LA are all part of the same agenda of fascist theatrics, divide and conquer politics, and the consolidation of power.

Trump wants to look strong. What he doesn’t understand is that true power comes from the people. And on June 14th, we’re going to prove it.

If you haven’t found your closest No Kings protest, please check out our map, register, and then help us get out the word by sharing with friends and family.

In solidarity,
Leah Greenberg

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Trump's Soldiers

Nazi Soldiers. Germany, 1938

 

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Injunction Stalls Trump / MAGA Assault on Education Department

 

Preliminary Injunction Issued in Democracy Forward’s Legal Challenge 

Massachusetts – The coalition of educators, school districts, and unions that challenged Secretary of Education McMahon’s massive reduction-in-force has won a preliminary injunction that will halt the administration’s unlawful effort to dismantle the Department of Education. The Secretary’s Mass Termination Order would have gutted the Department of Education and decimated crucial services the Department provides to every American. The group, which includes the Somerville Public School Committee, Easthampton School District, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) – Massachusetts, AFT, AFSCME Council 93, American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is represented by Democracy Forward inSomerville Public Schools v. Trump.

As the district court wrote, “A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all. This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the Department’s employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the Department becomes a shell of itself.”

“Today’s order means that the Trump administration’s disastrous mass firings of career civil servants are blocked while this wildly disruptive and unlawful agency action is litigated,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “No one’s lives are being made better by this administration’s attempted dismantling of the Department of Education. Instead of taking a wrecking ball to our nation’s best values and our chance at a better future, this administration should be focused on how to improve education and opportunities for all.”

The dismantling of the Department has begun via mass layoffs of half of the entire Department. Prior to January 20, 2025, the Department employed 4,133 employees. If the Trump administration’s actions were allowed to proceed, just 2,183 would remain. From distributing funds to help schools work with students with disabilities, to providing support and assistance to parents and families, protecting students’ civil rights, and making sure higher education is affordable for students, civil servants at the Department of Education are essential to the success of students. Mass firings of these hardworking people will harm students and schools.  

“We are deeply encouraged by the court’s decision today to grant the preliminary injunction,   which will temporarily prevent the Trump administration from proceeding with its harmful efforts to dismantle the Department of Education,” said Ilana Krepchin, Chair of the Somerville School Committee. “This victory is a win for our students, teachers, families here in Somerville and across the nation, and it affirms that our public education system is too important to be undermined by actions that threaten our students’ rights and opportunities. We thank our coalition partners for coming together to defend public education, and we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that our students’ futures remain bright.”

“While today’s decision will provide some relief, the damage is already being felt in our schools – by our students, especially the most vulnerable, and our educators,” said American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts President Jessica Tang. “We have the utmost confidence in the virtue and facts of our case. The White House is not above the law and we will never stop fighting on behalf of our students and our public schools and the protections, services, and resources they need to thrive.”

“Today, the court rightly rejected one of the administration’s very first illegal, and consequential, acts: abolishing the federal role in education,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “This decision is a first step to reverse this war on knowledge and the undermining of broad-based opportunity.  For America to build a brighter future, we must all take more responsibility, not less, for the success of our children. The vast majority of Americans and states like Massachusetts, with the highest NAEP scores, want to keep the education department because it ensures all kids, not just some, can get a shot at a better life.”

“This decision gives public schools important relief from losing critical support, which the Department of Education provides,” said AFSCME Council 93 Executive Director Mark Bernard. “Thousands of families across Massachusetts depend on the vital services and protections under the IDEA Act, which ensures educational support for our most vulnerable children. Massachusetts, the home of the first free public school in America, has long been a beacon of leadership in public education, championing accessible, quality education for all students. Thousands of dedicated AFSCME Council 93 members across the state work tirelessly to create safe, welcoming, and caring school communities where every child can thrive. This win is a strong affirmation of our commitment to protecting public education for all.”

In addition to the layoffs, a presidential Executive Order and other administration statements have described the intent to close the Department and move Department programs and offices, such as the Office for Special Education Programs and Federal Student Aid, to different federal agencies with no relevant expertise or necessary resources. 

Read the full complaint here and the preliminary injunction here. 

The legal team at Democracy Forward on this case includes Will Bardwell, Elena Goldstein, Rachel F. Homer, Victoria Nugent, Adnan Perwez, and Kali Schellenberg.

– # # # – 

Democracy Forward is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org. 

MUSK is Leaving after Gaining Billions in Future Contracts

  

This article is adapted from a Choose Democracy newsletter email.

I’ve been searching for a metaphor to grasp the meaning of Elon Musk’s departure from DOGE. The closest I can come is an abusive relationship, where the person being harmed makes a significant break from their partner, like moving out, but hasn’t completely ended the relationship.

As a friend, you know all is not well. The threat of violence remains. The relationship is still toxic and dangerous. Still, you applaud the move. You don’t feed your friend’s aching feeling of disempowerment and loss — you feed the courage, the agency and the strength to keep going.

So it’s in that spirit that I want us to take a moment to acknowledge, even celebrate, our collective achievement of a massive, unplanned retreat by the richest person on the planet. Yes, it’s not everything — but if we can only cheer when it’s everything, we’re going to live sad lives.

It must be said: Musk’s departure is not because of the 130-day limit on special government employees. Plans had already been made to blow past that. Sure, Trump will spin this as part of his plan — but we have to stop ourselves from thinking that everything they do is masterminded. The anti-authoritarian side can also be relentless, brilliant, courageous and strategic.

Workers ignoring Musk orders. Institutional resistance to DOGE. Tesla Takedown. Pension letters. All these efforts beat back the salesmanship of Donald Trump hawking Teslas on the White House lawn and the richest man attempting to insulate himself from the people’s will.

This is a collective achievement. And I know, it’s hard to hold any kind of victory in dire times of great loss, but trench warfare tells us that before you can fully stop a thing, you have to slow it down. This is a moment for marking a significant slowing.

A critical retreat, not a total withdrawal

Musk’s 130-day tenure at DOGE was characterized by aggressive cruelty. He eliminated somewhere between 200,000-260,000 federal positions through mass firings, buyouts and early retirements. He didn’t achieve his stated goal of $2 trillion in savings. Even his website, filled with misleading and inaccurate claims, only touts around 8 percent of that goal — and actual verifiable numbers are closer to 0.8 percent. The most casual look at his 31 percent cut of tax auditors at the IRS reveals that the goal isn’t savings — it’s enriching himself and displacing democracy. Predictably the Republican budget is set to explode deficit spending andextract more money from all but the richest people in this country.

Nevertheless, Musk did manage to traumatize people in government, as well as much of the country. He’s walking away having stolen vast amounts of our data, killed investigations into his companies and gotten billions in government contracts — including a staggering $831 billion deal to build a fanciful Golden Dome. 

President Trump is not a reliable source of information — so it’s unwise to take it too literally when he says, “Elon’s really not leaving.” To be sure, the abusive relationship likely isn’t over. But the relationship has transformed starkly. 

After months of sycophant behavior, Musk spent his final weeks repeatedly attacking Trump policy — a violation of the social norms of Trump’s mob loyalty. Musk expressed “disappointment” about Trump’s spending bill. He has apparently withheld $100 million of pledged donations to Republican campaigns. He blasted Trump’s Middle East sweetheart deals that gave preference to Musk’s AI competitor Sam Altman. These open attacks are new and part of a significant growing political distance between Trump and Musk.

While it’s reasonable to doubt how far he is stepping back, it’s notable that a lot of key players in Elon Musk’s team are leaving the White House too. Steve Davis, Musk’s long-time confidant and internal coordinator, packed his bags. Recently fired DOGE staffer Sahil Lavingia told Wired Magazine, “Steven was the only person who was across everything” — leaving a massive hole in DOGE’s coordination. Katie Miller, the wife of the anti-immigrant crusader Stephen Miller, is also following Musk out of the White House. She was another critical node, the person who others trusted with the unenviable task of giving Musk bad news.