Chinese Curses in the 21st Century
April 28, 2025
Note: It took no time at all for us to move from the most stable economic system in the world to the least; to move from a respected government with strong alliances to a government with no alliances at all, not really. The fall has only begun, and the landing will be painful.
We are almost 100 days into this administration. And boy, is it interesting. Look both ways, because we aren’t safe.
This week
By Sabra Briere
This week we are partnering with many other Sonoma County organizations to highlight events and issues that are focused on human rights and human liberties in the first week of May.
Gaza/Palestine is an issue that divides many of us still, because religion, politics, and decades of betrayals by players big and small have created a tinder box in this area.
To win, we must unite. United, we are Indivisible. Show grace.
From the East: 10:30 AM – gather at Creekside Medical Plaza, 95 Montgomery Drive. March to focus on healthcare in the U.S. and the killing of healthcare workers in Gaza. Sign up for this march here.
From the south: 10:30 AM – Gather at the corner of Petaluma Hill Road and Milton Street. March to focus on the need for DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). Sign for this march here.
From the West: 11:00 AM – Gather in front of Lola’s Market and Restaurant, 440 Dutton Avenue. March to focus on the rights of immigrants and Palestinians. Sign up for this march here.
From the north: 11:00 AM – Gather at Santa Rosa Junior College, 1501 Mendocino Ave. (front lawn). March to focus on education, justice and democracy. Sign up or this march here.
After the marches the main event will take place in Julliard Park, 227 Santa Rosa Avenue, from 12:30 to 2:30 PM: a rally with music, speakers, tabling and more. NOON: Critical Mass Convergence for the Rally in Juilliard Park, Bring water and a picnic! Food drive; donations welcome.
12:00 - 12:30 arrive and gather from the 4 marches 12:30-2:30 PM program at the Park 2:30 PM – Gather volunteers for clean up
Food drive: donations welcome.
Making Waves
By Sabra Briere
It is really tempting to try to cover what has happened in the last 100 days. I just cannot do that.
It’s really tempting to show you all how cleverly the Heritage Foundation has managed to implement Project 2025 — you know, that project that President 2.0 denied so clearly back in the summer of 2024. And that we’re going to live with, that will be our future.
I can’t do justice to the injustice we are all seeing.
In 1849, when Californians first recognized that there was gold washing down in the streams, the gold nuggets were thick and large and easy to find. That’s where we are right now with the news. There’s just a lot of good news. Resistance is showing up all over. It’s making the news — our Resistance is making the news — and the more we are doing, the more it’s working.
On Saturday, one golden nugget of news was our protest against Avelo Air. Some Indivisible members had been stewing for weeks about Avelo’s decision to put dollars over morality, and engage in these so-called ‘deportation flights.’ When there is no due process, there is no justice. And these are extra-judicial (outside the law).
When Indivisible Burbank suggested a joint protest, that was a perfect opportunity. Our action made local news. And regional news. And national news.
Protests don’t have to have millions of people. They just have to be effective and meaningful.
Photos by Patti Brunelle
Of all the ways this administration — the Pam Bondis and Stephen Millers and other true believers and grifters — have changed our government, the way they disregard all the rules and laws.
We citizens are used to seeing the laws change. We complain about it; we cheer it; we demand it; we go to court about it. Some of us think there are too many laws; some of us think the laws ought to be better, or stronger, or different. But law is what our country runs on.
Until now.
Now the people in power — the ones who are charged with enforcing the law, with administering the law — are doing two terrible things. They are using their power to break the law. They are using their power to ignore the law and the judges who try to stop them.
This leaves us cheering for lawyers and judges who are willing to stand up against the current government. And fearing for our future.
The golden nugget, of course, is the judges and lawyers who persevere.
Still on the issue of Immigration
The thing about bravery in the face of this administration’s unlawful acts is that we are dealing with core values, right and wrong. Things that we thought were managed by the rule of law and that we have learned President 2.0’s sycophants and toady’s use as a weapon, but don’t follow.
Charlie Sykes today wrote the question that each of us must ask ourselves (this is another golden nugget) ‘What would you do?’
What would you do?
You are a doctor or nurse at a hospital. ICE agents show up with a warrant to arrest one of your patients or a family member of a patient. They ask you if you know where the migrant is. They warn you that if you obstruct them, they will arrest you and charge you with a felony. Do you:
Comply and turn them over, because it’s the law.
Refuse to give them any information.
Tell your patient to leave through the back entrance.
Other.
You are a principal/teacher at an elementary school. ICE agents ask to talk to one of the children in your classrooms. You know that they are threatening to arrest judges, governors, local officials, and other public employees who obstruct them. Do you:
Comply and let them interview your students.
Refuse, because you have heard/read about the family separations and lack of due process.
Usher the children out of the school.
Call the parents to warn them.
Other.
You are an academic administrator at a university that receives millions of dollars in federal money. ICE agents arrive with a warrant for a foreign student who has participated in protests. You know that the Trump Administration is prepared to cut off federal dollars if you fail to cooperate. Do you:
Obey and help them locate the student.
Warn the student to leave campus.
Other.
You are the employer of a housekeeper who has small children, one of whom has cancer. ICE agents ring your doorbell. You know your employee is here illegally, but the children are US citizens. Do you:
Ask the agents to come in for a cup of coffee and tell them where they can find your housekeeper, because it’s the law.
Because you had heard/read this story: “Three U.S. citizens, ages 2, 4 and 7, swiftly deported from Louisiana” you refuse.
Tell your housekeeper to hide in the basement or leave through the back door.
Other.
You are a pastor. ICE agents show up at your church and demand access to migrants who have sought sanctuary there. The agents threaten you with arrest if you do not comply. Do you.
Honor the warrant for their arrest because Romans 13 tells us that we should be obedient to those in authority.
Bar the door because there is a higher law.
Help the migrants escape.
Other.
You are a police officer who is interviewing a witness to a crime. ICE agents demand that you turn the witness over to them because a confidential informant has told them that he is a gang member. They do not have a warrant. Do you:
Comply because the job of law enforcement is to enforce the law.
Refuse the agents access to the witness until they get a warrant.
Other.
How to Stay Informed in a Chaotic Time
We have some choice about the news we absorb. Perhaps more choice than ever before. Unfortunately, exercising that choice takes more time and effort than seems worth it. Some of the time we reduce our awareness of events to what we get from an hour of our preferred television channel news. Perhaps our phones alert us to headlines.
I read newsletters. I know they are really opinions on the news, but I need the deep dive into the details. I need the different perspectives. It keeps my brain from becoming numb to the dread I feel.
If you are like me, you also want to know and understand.
Current events and their impact on democracy — Heather Cox Richardson, Robert Hubbell, Thom Hartmann, Rebekah Jones, Greg Olear
Legal issues and voting rights — Joyce Vance, Marc Elias
How Strongmen steal power — Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Attacks on abortion rights and how to fight back — Jessica Valenti
Gun violence and school shootings — David Riedman
I love that this AI generated image shows only-white, long-haired women. I can just see them planning their biblically-based, home-schooling lessons. Please don’t look too closely, because there’s nothing real about this image. I am really happy that they are all going to have sons. The sooner these people die out because they cannot reproduce, the better …
Snarkiness aside, President 2.0 and his brain trust are toying with the idea that women (read that: white women) just need some minor incentives in order to have more babies. Like an extra $5,000 tax credit per live birth. A medal for having 6 live births (cue the Third Reich!). Maybe something in-between, but they aren’t certain what.
Nothing about safer childbirth, safer pregnancy, safer miscarriage treatment, food/clothing/shelter after the children are born, protection from domestic violence, and certainly nothing about mothers getting an education, having a career, being able to support themselves.
That’s not in the plan.
Guest Editorials
Letters from an American: April 26, 2025
Heather Cox Richardson
Early yesterday morning, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent three U.S. citizens aged 2, 4, and 7 from Louisiana, including one with Stage 4 cancer, to Honduras when they deported their mothers. The three are children of two different mothers who were arrested while checking in with the government as part of their routine process for immigration proceedings. The women and their children were not permitted to speak to family or lawyers before being flown to Honduras. The cancer patient was sent out of the country without medication or consultation with doctors although, according to Charisma Madarang and Lorena O'Neil of Rolling Stone, ICE agents were told of the child’s medical needs.
The government says the mothers opted to take their U.S. citizen children to Honduras with them. But as Emmanuel Felton and Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post noted, because ICE refused to let the women talk to their lawyers, there is only the agents’ word for how events transpired.
ICE also deported Heidy Sánchez, a Cuban-born mother of a one-year-old who is still breastfeeding, leaving the child in the U.S. with her father, who is a U.S. citizen. Like the women flown to Honduras, Sánchez was detained when she showed up at a scheduled check-in with ICE.
In March, ICE agents sent four U.S. citizens, including a 10-year-old with brain cancer, to Mexico when they deported their undocumented parents.
Don’t Have Children
More to Hate
Kate Manne
Pregnancy is far more dangerous than it ought to be: the US has the worst maternal mortality of any developed nation, with an estimated 80% of maternal deaths being preventable. The situation is particularly bad for pregnant patients who are Black and indigenous—Black women, for example, face three to four times the risk of dying during or shortly after childbirth compared to their white counterparts, regardless of their income level. And, in red states, maternal mortality has worsened sharply across the board in the wake of the 2022 Dobbs decis
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