ICE Creates a NewData Base

 

A new day, a new fascist plot by the Trump admin. This time the threat is coming via ICE. And no, it’s not the threat DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin issued earlier this week to deploy ICE agents at polling locations this November. It’s much worse. A new bombshell report dropped revealing that ICE is building a national voter database, compiling every American's name, address, and party affiliation into one giant searchable system.

It hands the federal government's most murderous agency a powerful new tool to commit heinous crimes with.  ICE has acted as Trump’s gestapo. It is a federal agency operating outside of the law, equipping racists with masks and guns, lining their pockets with $50,000 in taxpayer cash, and unleashing them in American cities to murder with impunity. And now, if Congress doesn't step in, they'll have a new tool to pair with their extensive access to surveillance technology such as Flock cameras, one that shows them every American's name, address, and party affiliation. What could go wrong? Democrats can’t afford to lose this November. We must retake both the House and the Senate and put a collar on Trump’s rabid dogs at ICE before more innocent Americans get murdered. But we're facing a full-blown coup attempt from this administration, using multiple federal agencies in concert, including ICE, to rig the upcoming elections.

1.2 Million texas Vpters place on Suspense List

Recent news has created massive confusion across Texas because 1.2 million registered Texas voters have been placed on the voter “suspense” list.

When voters see headlines like this, many people assume that their registration has been cancelled or that they can no longer cast a ballot. This confusion is extremely dangerous, and it plays in Greg Abbott’s favor.

I want to be clear about what this news means. Being on the voter suspense list does not mean your voter registration has been purged. It simply means that local officials need an updated address before October 5th – the voter registration deadline here in Texas.

Abbott and Republicans know that confusion can discourage people from the polls. And they do these deliberate tactics so that people are discouraged from showing up, because they know that the stakes of this race couldn’t be higher.

And Abbott also knows that when Texans turn out, his time in office is up. That’s why we can’t allow a single eligible voter to be sidelined by confusion or bureaucratic red tape.

This is what fascism does. 

 

 

Opposition Is Not Enough

Why our authoritarian crisis requires the vision of a movement that votes

WILLIAM J. BARBER, II AND JONATHAN WILSON-HARTGROVE

SEP 04, 2026

3.5% is a data point that has become popular among people who want to build a movement to defeat authoritarianism and reconstruct democracy in the United States. It comes from great research by Erica Chenowith at Harvard University on nonviolent movements for social change - work we cited in our 2024 book, White Poverty. 

After studying people’s movements across the globe in different cultural contexts and at different moments in history, Chenoweth has concluded that a social movement that wins the active support of around 3.5% of a society’s population wins its demands. The prospect of organizing a hundred million voters into a moral fusion movement in the United States is daunting, but it turns out that the movement itself doesn’t need to be anywhere near that size. Because movements move people far beyond their immediate reach. By accelerating the active engagement of a relatively small portion of the population, a moral fusion movement can change the political possibilities for everyone.

It’s true. We always have more power than we realize. 

But it’s also true that we all like to use numbers to reinforce what we already believe. Every number tells a story, but it never tells the whole story. 

Take, for example, the authoritarian Nazi regime that controlled Germany from 1933-1945, a story we’ve spent considerable time reflecting on here this summer. The numbers are sobering. From the very beginning of Hitler’s regime, the Nazis set up concentration camps in Germany. While the first official one was at Dachau, empty basements and warehouses were re-purposed as concentration camps from early in 1933. These were not death camps for Jews. Those emerged later, and primarily on the Eastern Front after Germany invaded Poland. Concentration camps were the “re-education” centers the Nazis used to punish their opposition and instill fear in the German people. They were populated by trade unionists and Communists, Social Democrats who had held political office and clergy who objected to Nazi extremism. Most Germans interned in concentration camps were not killed, but the Nazis held hundreds of thousands of Germans in these camps.

Eric Boem, a German-Jewish man who fled Germany and served in the US Army, added up the numbers after World War II to try to understand the resistance. “Over a period of 12 years, almost 3,000,000 Germans were in and out of concentration camps and penitentiaries for political reasons,” he noted. In 1930’s Germany, that was almost 5% of the population - and that’s just the people who were arrested and detained. While those who opposed the regime were not nearly as active or vocal as many Germans wanted to claim after war, we know from the research of the German Resistance Memorial Center that many underground networks and individual acts of resistance were never detected by the Gestapo. If there were three times as many Germans who actively opposed the regime as were arrested for doing so, that would mean more Germans resisted the Nazi Party than ever joined it. (At its peak, the party had 8.5 million members.)

Still, the Nazis held power and terrorized the world, murdering more than 11 million people and waging a war that killed tens of millions more.

More.

https://ourmoralmoment.substack.com/p/opposition-is-not-enough?

Indivisible Campaign s

 It’s go time. We are going to crush this regime electorally in November, and the wave we build together is going to overtake battleground House districts and Senate states across the country. Sure, I’m just manifesting this at the moment, but it’s not a fantasy. We’ve got a grassroots army that has quadrupled in size since 2024. Quadrupled. 

We are going to need it. We need thousands upon thousands of volunteers across the country to fuel a grassroots landslide and an election protection force to beat back Trump’s inevitable attempt at sabotage.

And we are going to need grassroots dollars. A lot of grassroots dollars.

In a sentence, my pitch boils down to this: If you are going to invest any amount of money between now and November in an effort to prevent the fascists from consolidating power, I’d humbly suggest that Indivisible is among the biggest bang-for-buck investments you can make. 

And we’ve proved that time and time again over the past 22 months.

After the 2024 election, the Democratic ecosystem was collapsing. The establishment was falling over itself to capitulate as fast as possible. You know who wasn’t doing that? We weren’t. Days after the election we launched the new Indivisible guide to 50,000 people -- an organizing guide to fight back against this regime.

Then we started doing it.

When Elon Musk looked unstoppable, who organized hundreds of Musk or Us town halls? We did.

When Trump’s goons continued to ransack the government, who helped launch the first mass Hands Off protests? We did.

When Chuck Schumer caved to Republican demands, who was the first national organization to call for him to step down from leadership? We did.

When we needed to up the ante against an increasingly blatant authoritarian regime, who brought together a coalition for the first No Kings? We did.

When Republicans drove us into shutdown, who helped build an even bigger national coalition for the second No Kings ahead of the off-year elections? We did.

When Trump sent his ICE goon squads to overwhelm the Twin Cities, who worked together with our friends to mobilize 1,300 rapid response ICE Out for Good protests nationally? We did. 

Who tripled down again with the No Kings III earlier this year? We did.

Who won competitive primaries all over the country to transform the Democratic Party into a pro-democracy fighting force? We did. 

You might not always agree with Indivisible, but it’s hard to argue we lack the courage of our convictions. We take big swings. We lead with integrity. We put grassroots investments to work. And we make history. 

This November, we’re going to make history together again. 

Making history takes a lot of grassroots energy and grassroots money. Indivisible doesn’t take donations from corporations or special interest PACs. We’re grassroots led and grassroots funded -- that’s how we can remain so damn strategically focused on impact. We don’t answer to some power player in some smoky backroom -- we organize and fundraise in the open.

An investment in Indivisible now is an investment in winning 9 Senate races across Michigan, Ohio, Alaska, Texas, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia, Maine, and Florida. It’s an investment in winning 31 House races all over the country. It’s an investment in phone banks, text banks, neighbor-by-neighbor organizing -- voters talking to voters. It’s the most impactful way to actually move votes.

But it’s more than an investment in just winning those races -- it’s an investment in defending against the election sabotage coming our way. We will not take a nap on November 3. We will run through the tape. We’ve already launched a national election defense campaign for our high-risk states through our battlegrounds program and trained thousands of volunteers on election defense across red, blue, and purple states through Hands Off Our Vote. Indivisible will be the grassroots backbone of election defense this year, and lord knows we’re going to need some backbone.

From Extreme to Establishment

Excellent source from the Southern Poverty Law Center

SPLCenter.org

When the Hard Right Comes to Campus.

The Media Issue

The midterm elections are just over two months away, and Donald Trump appears to be on his way to a stinging defeat.

But there’s one big problem that’s keeping me up at night: Republicans are STILL running circles around Democrats on the big social media platforms where Americans increasingly get their news.

Let me explain.

Four in 10 young people regularly get their news from YouTube, and a recent study found that Republicans outnumber Democrats by a nearly 2 to 1 margin among the top 100 biggest political YouTube channels.

It’s a similar story on TikTok, where Fox News’ account has exploded from 500,000 followers to nearly 11 million in less than two years. The situation is even worse on Facebook and Twitter/X.

You might be wondering, why is this such a big problem? Especially if Democrats are already leading in the polls? 

I’ll tell you why. Because while people like you and me might follow the news closely on a regular basis, most voters haven’t even begun to tune in to the midterms — and if all they see on social media between now and Election Day are MAGA talking points, the encouraging polls we’re seeing now won’t matter at all.

The good news is that the team here at Inequality Media Civic Action has spent years building our audience on these platforms, and since the start of 2026, our YouTube views have more than doubled to over 10 million a month.

Robert Reich.

 

What Is the Far Left ?

What is the Far Left ?

The growing visibility of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and victories by some DSA-backed candidates has triggered an upsurge of redbaiting by Republicans and fear-mongering by moderate Democrats. 

 

Sanders has said, “I don’t believe it is a terribly radical idea to say that someone who works 40 hours a week should not be living in poverty.” Most Americans agree with him. 

If anything, it is right-wing Republicans who are the extremists and whose views are out of sync with most Americans. In contrast, progressives and democratic socialists are in accord with the vast majority of Americans, regardless of how they define themselves. For example, according to recent polls: 

80% of Americans consider wealth inequality a serious national issue.

82% view the influence of money in politics as a threat to American democracy.

80% believe that the rich have too much political power. 

65% think the American economy is rigged to advantage the rich. 

77% support increasing taxes on billionaires and 63% (including 43% of Republicans) support higher taxes on large corporations. 

80% (and 70% of Republicans) support a tax on corporations whose CEOs make 50 times more than their median employees

73% think that members of Congress and their family members should be prohibited from owning or trading individual stocks. 

74% support requiring oil and gas companies to pay a share of climate-related costs. 

 69% (including 58% of Republicans) think that the government should do more to regulate grocery chains that raise prices to maximize profits. 

82% say that the profits made by pharmaceutical companies are a “major factor” in the high price of prescription drugs. Perhaps surprisingly, 89% of Republicans share this view, compared with 78% of independents and 84% of Democrats. 

88% want Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug prices 

62%  think it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure all Americans have health care coverage. 

90% think Congress should add dental, vision, and hearing benefits to Medicare coverage

59%  support a single-payer or Medicare for All system (27% oppose the idea and 14% had no opinion). 

57% want Congress to pass legislation to codify nationwide rights to abortion, contraception, and in vitro fertilization

68% support labor unions, a significant increase since the 1960s. 

67% (including 53% of Republicans) support federal legislation to make it easier for Americans to form unions and negotiate for higher pay and better benefits

77%  (including 75% of Republicans) support raising the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 to $15, while 70% think it should be increased to $17. 

75%  (including 64% of Republicans) think Congress should guarantee 12 weeks of annual paid family and medical leave to all employees. 

73% support government-funded universal childcare.

81% (and 74% of Republicans) support a guarantee of at least 10 days of paid vacation for full-time workers. 

70% (including 62% of Republicans) embrace the idea of making two years of community college tuition-free nationwide.

72% (including 63% of Republicans and 61% of gun owners) think that a person should be required to obtain a license from local law enforcement before they can purchase a gun. 

58% of Americans who have heard about the recent killings by ICE agents support abolishing the agency. Only 25% of Americans think that most or all of the people being deported are criminals.

57% believe that police treat people unequally based on their race and 58% don’t think that the courts treat everyone equally. 

A majority support reforms such as banning chokeholds, curtailing no-knock warrants, expanding the use of body cameras, conducting independent investigations of officer-involved shootings, launching a national database for police misconduct, and appointing civilian oversight boards as watchdogs over police departments. Many Americans support shifting some funding toward community crime-prevention and using mental health workers to deal with non-violent incidents, but very few Americans, across all races, want to “defund” or dismantle local police departments. 

 

Peter Dreier.

More.

 some of the challenges and opportunities facing DSA.  https://portside.org/2026-08-20/what-far-left 

Why Are Progressives Winning ?

 

Sisters and Brothers - 

The media pundits have written article after article desperately trying to understand why progressive candidates, despite being heavily outspent, keep defeating establishment Democrats in primaries around the country. Well, the answer is not complicated. Please read an op-ed I wrote for the Guardian on this subject. - Bernie

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Why are progressives winning across the United States? It’s not complicated
Poll after poll shows the same thing. The American people know that the current economic system is rigged

Bernie Sanders

The media pundits have written article after article desperately trying to understand why progressive candidates, despite being heavily outspent, keep defeating establishment Democrats in primaries around the country. Well, the answer is not complicated.

Whether it is a corrupt campaign finance system, unprecedented income and wealth inequality, a broken and wildly expensive healthcare system, the enormous threats posed by AI or an immoral and destructive foreign policy, progressives are talking about the real issues facing working families. And they are providing real solutions. Establishment Democrats are not.

Poll after poll shows the same thing. The American people know that the current economic system is rigged. The very rich get richer, while working families struggle. Today, while 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, the billionaire class has never ever had it so good.

We now have more income and wealth inequality than at any time in American history. The top 1% now own more wealth than the bottom 93% and one man, Elon Musk, owns more wealth than the bottom 50% of US households.

Not surprisingly, working families are tired of status quo politics and the same old, same old establishment policies that have failed them for years. They want change, real change – and are supporting progressive candidates who are fighting for that change.

In the richest country in the history of the world, Americans do not want to have to struggle every single day just to pay the bills. Working-class people do not want to die years younger than they should because of illnesses caused by the never-ending stress they experience just to survive. And, like past generations, they do not want their kids to have a lower standard of living than they do.

Establishment politicians and the establishment media have described the agenda that progressive candidates are winning elections on as “radical”, “far left”, “extremist” or, in the words of Donald Trump, “communist” . All that is nonsense. On major issue after major issue, the progressive agenda is reflecting exactly what a strong majority of the American people need and want.

Let me take this opportunity to share with you some of the major proposals that most progressives support. And you tell me how “extreme” they are.

Campaign finance reform
Progressives believe that our current campaign finance system is corrupt and is undermining democracy. It is absurd that one man, Mr Musk, can spend $290m to help elect Donald Trump as president and that billionaires in both parties can spend unlimited amounts of money in campaigns through their Super Pacs.

We believe that we must end the disastrous US supreme court decision on Citizens United, ban Super Pacs and move to the public funding of elections. We believe that democracy means one person one vote, not billionaires buying elections.

Healthcare
Progressives believe that our current healthcare system is broken, dysfunctional and wildly expensive. We believe that it is immoral and fiscally irresponsible for us to spend roughly twice as much per capita on healthcare as do the people of other major countries, while 85 million Americans remain uninsured or underinsured.

At the same time, we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Progressives believe that healthcare is a human right and that we should do what all other major countries on Earth do, guarantee healthcare to all people. We agree with the 64% of Americans who want a Medicare for all single payer system.

Protecting American workers
Progressives believe that all Americans are entitled to a decent standard of living. We regard it as outrageous that in the year 2026 millions of workers continue to earn starvation wages and that the federal minimum wage remains at a disgraceful $7.25 an hour. We believe that the federal minimum wage should be raised to a living wage of at least $20 per hour.

We also believe that employers should no longer be able to deny workers their constitutional right to join unions through illegal actions. Progressives support the passage of the Pro Act which will make it easier for workers to join unions and negotiate contracts that will provide them with better wages, benefits and working conditions.

Tax the rich
Progressives believe that, at a time of unprecedented income and wealth inequality, the wealthiest people in this country must start paying their fair share of taxes. At a time when we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth and when one-third of our senior citizens are struggling economically, it is absurd that billionaires have an effective tax rate lower than truck drivers or nurses.

The wealthiest people in this country and large profitable corporations must start paying their fair share of taxes so that we can adequately fund the needs of working families, the children and the elderly.

Regulation of AI
Progressives believe that AI and robotics, developed and pushed by the wealthiest people on Earth, are the most transformational technologies in the history of humanity and that they will impact every man, woman and child in our country.

At a time when AI is threatening to displace millions of workers, eviscerate our privacy, harm our environment, undermine our democracy and negatively impact the mental health of our children, we believe that the government must play a decisive role in making sure that these revolutionary technologies are used to benefit all Americans, and not just make the big tech oligarchs even richer.

Climate change
Progressives believe that Trump’s assertion that climate change is a “hoax” is not only extraordinarily ignorant, but is a real danger to the planet. The last 11 years have been the hottest 11 years on record and the last three years have been the hottest three years on record.

This past year the United States and countries throughout the world have seen major heatwaves, flash floods, increased drought and horrific forest fires – and scientists tell us the worst is yet to come.

Progressives believe that we must forcefully take on the greed of the fossil fuel industry. The truth is that we can create millions of good-paying union jobs by transforming our energy systems away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy. For the sake of our kids, future generations and the habitability of the planet that is what we must do.

Foreign policy
Progressives believe that we need to fundamentally reform our foreign and military policies. The war in Vietnam was based on a lie. The war in Iraq was based on a lie. The current war in Iran is based on a lie. We do not need to spend $1.5tn a year on the Pentagon fighting endless wars and propping up dictatorships around the world.

We certainly do not have to invest tens of billions supporting the extremist Netanyahu government in Israel, which has killed 73,000 Palestinians and wounded over 173,000 more – the vast majority of them women, children and the elderly.

Despite what the media will have you believe, progressives are winning across this country for a simple reason: the ideas they are running on are extremely popular. It’s time for the political establishment to stop telling the American people what they should believe and start listening to what they actually want.

 

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Corporate America is Killing Democracy

 https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-last-stand-of-the-corporate-democrats?

Robert Reich