Cry Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war
Tim Walz “I think we have to assume the very worst in everything this administration does, and we need to prepare for it.”
Editor’s Note: This issue, for the first time (to my personal joy) contains words and perspectives from other members of Indivisible Sonoma County. Editorial pages ought to be full of the community’s reactions to current events, in order to approach being relevant.
If you have an opinion to share, please send it to indivisiblesoco@gmail.com.
Biting my tongue
By Sabra Briere
These are my personal views. I find echoes in them as I speak with other members of Indivisible, but I assure you, these are mine.
I find it difficult to separate my extreme anger at this — let’s call it a regime — as an everyday thing, from what that man in the White House did in the past week to further fray our security and safety internationally.
I’m a fan of treaties and alliances. NATO. The G7. ASEAN. ANZUS. All of them.
I believe alliances are ways to prevent millions of unwilling bystanders and tens of thousands of soldiers from being permanently damaged in wars. Every war has these intended and unacknowledged casualties and deaths: women, children, the old, civilians and, yes, even dogs & cats.
I believe that the leaders of nations often behave like the worst of ill-mannered adolescents who cannot govern themselves, much less the countries they represent.
I see them, like a group of boys out on the town, jostling each other, turning over trash bins, throwing firecrackers at each other, dropping water balloons on cars from overpasses, tipping over sheds and cows, and altogether behaving badly. With maybe one or two here and there showing any sign of responsibility.
Treaties and alliances give tools to the ones who are responsible. They build in controls around the ones who are bullies and, well, lack impulse control.
The current president is one of the bullies. He has no ability to control his impulses. And he has destroyed all our alliances. And boy, is he proud of that.
Some will rightly point to the bombing of Iranian nuclear research facilities as something done in support of the military government in Israel. They will fail to mention that we had a treaty with Iran about managing nuclear research, but this treaty was thrown out the window during the first iteration of this president’s regime.
Some will point — as is totally reasonable — to the ways in which the decision to bomb Iran is clearly intended to aid and assist Netanyahu, who is seeking to remain in power so he will never be answerable for the decisions he and his military have made to commit atrocities in Gaza and Palestine. As they should. But.
We must not forget that this president doesn’t do things for anyone without a benefit for himself. And he thinks we will rally to him. Will support him in time of war. Will think he is a strong leader who is preventing nuclear war in the Middle East. Oh, and of course, he’s distracting us from his disastrous poll numbers, the effects of his ICE kidnappings, the proposals in his budget bill that will further weaken our communities and our country …
My rage is tightly held in check. Let’s not lose sight of how significant each loss of our rights and freedoms is, even as he puts at risk our continued survival.
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This week
By Sabra Briere, editor
Well, here we are. Not where we want to be on these long days of summer.
Some of us are talking about how to fill balloons with glitter to throw at the cars and bodies of so-called ICE agents, so they can later be identified. Because they hide their faces and obscure their license plates.
Some of us are demanding a full recount of swing state votes in the 2024 election after significant voting anomalies were found in New York.
538 of us — our Congress — failed to effectively exercise their role to check the excesses of the executive branch. They also failed (they will claim ignorance) to stop the president from usurping their authority to, well,
One of us decided it was a good idea to bomb, bomb, bomb Iran. And here we go. More endless war. More threats of retaliation.
In the News
Having alienated and abandoned all our allies and alliances, the current president supported the military government of Israel on the eve of the NATO summit (and just after the G7 meeting that that same president abandoned early.)
The current president still plans to attend the NATO summit. His welcome, which was never going to be warm, will be most interesting to watch. The current president will claim victory for everything that NATO decides except their support for Ukraine.
All the news is (not yet) about the president’s decision to bomb Iran without even bothering to discuss with, much less seek approval from, anyone in Congressional leadership. But then again, he still thinks he is our KING.
As hard as it was to focus on the damage Elon Musk did dismantling our government’s infrastructure and removing the people who made government work for us, Musk was not alone. He was just easy to single out.
There are other people who remain within the current president’s staff who are as destructive, and they are his closest advisors. I’m thinking about Stephen Miller, the closet fascist from Santa Monica who is the master mind behind so much of the current president’s anti-brown-and-black-and-immigrant agenda. And Russell Vought, the author of so much of Project 2025 and now the current president’s Director of the Office of Budget and Management. Oh, and yes, Vought is the person who designed the efforts to dismantle the government from the inside, to allow the self-crowned king to rise.
We should do something to daylight their excesses, if we are ever able to look away from the chaos of the presidency for more than a moment.
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Bob Burnett was born in Hollywood and attended Stanford. He became a denizen of Silicon Valley and helped found Cisco Systems. After retiring he has dabbled in political activism, founding an Indivisible group in Berkeley, and now volunteering here in Sonoma County. He will be writing a regular column. Lucky us.
Trump’s Deterioration
by Bob Burnett
Before the November 2024 election, many of us regarded Donald Trump as unfit for office because of his mental deterioration. Nonetheless, Trump won the election. Five months into his second term, Trump’s senility is a threat to the nation.
On June 16th, Trump abruptly left the G7 meetings in Canada. The official reason was to return to Washington to discuss the Israel-Iran conflict. Many observers believe that Trump’s staff convinced him to leave the gathering because they saw his erratic behavior was garnering unfavorable attention.
On June 12th, California governor Gavin Newsom bluntly assessed Trump: “He’s lost it,” Newsom said of Trump during a TV interview. “He is not the same person that I dealt with just four years ago, and he's incapable of even a train of thought … Trump doesn’t even know what day it is.”
Newsom is not a physician or psychologist, but many of us have observed that in unscripted public utterances, Trump rambles, sometimes to the point of incoherence. Of course, most Republicans are loathe to publicly criticize Trump but the rest of us are free to consider: How far gone is Trump? What are the consequences for his presidency?
Let’s consider Trump’s primary agenda:
Israel-Iran Conflict: At this writing, Trump is considering whether the US will join Israel’s attack on Iran. There are three primary considerations:
On June 13, Israel attacked Iran without explicit support from the US. Trump initially expressed surprise, then claimed he had been briefed by Netanyahu, and then – when Israel claimed air superiority – began referring to this as a joint Israel/US operation.
It’s unlikely that Israel can accomplish its military objective without destroying the Iranian underground nuclear sites (e.g., Fordo). Israel needs the participation of the US to do this: they require our “bunker-buster” bomb.
Judging from Israel’s record in Gaza, they have an inadequate plan for Iran after major hostilities cease.
On June 19th, Trump’s press secretary reported that he would decide within “two weeks.” Trump uses the phrase “two weeks” when stuck in a difficult situation. (You and I might instead say “I’m working on it.”) Trump has postponed the decision indefinitely.
While Donald dithers, we should push Congress to take this decision out of Trump’s hands.
Budget-Reconciliation Bill: Trump’s budget-reconciliation bill has stalled in the Senate. Trump was pushing to get this bill signed by July 4, but that won’t happen.
The latest Quinnipiac Poll ( https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3924 ) shows that only 27 percent of respondents support Trump’s budget bill.
When the bill was being formulated, Trump promised there would be no cuts to Medicaid. Nonetheless, the House version of the bill made changes that would kick 8.6 million Americans off Medicaid; the Senate has proposed deeper cuts. Senator Hawley told CNN that Trump was unaware of the Senate action: “ I walked through the changes with him and he said, oh, wow, that's very surprising. He said, I'm surprised that they made all these changes to the degree they did. I said, I am too. He was real clear to Senate Republicans just two weeks ago: Don't touch anything else on Medicaid.”
Trump has lost control of his budget bill.
On May 9th, Treasury Secretary Bessent told Congress the US debt ceiling must be increased by mid-July. Trump’s budget-reconciliation bill includes a debt ceiling increase. If this mammoth bill is not signed by mid-July, then there will have to be a separate bill to increase the debt ceiling. To pass, Republicans will need the support of Democratic legislators.
We need to do everything we can to slow down the budget-reconciliation bill.
Immigration: Disappointed by the latest deportation numbers. Trump’s assistant Stephen Miller recently increased the daily deportation quota to 3000. ( https://www.reuters.com/world/us/ices-tactics-draw-criticism-it-triples-daily-arrest-targets-2025-06-10/ )
The latest Quinnipiac Poll reports that only 43 percent of respondents support Trump’s stance on immigration (and only 40 percent support mass deportation).
On June 12th Trump decided to “soften” his mass deportation program: “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long-time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.” Trump paused raids on farm, hotel, and hospitality workers. But within days this pause was lifted and ICE continued business as usual.
Trump has ceded control of immigration to Stephen Miller. We were able to turn Elon Musk into a pariah. Now we should focus on Stephen Miller.
Tariffs: On April 2nd, Trump unveiled double-digit tariff rates on US trading partners. The Trump tariff rate placed on each country was calculated by taking the U.S. trade deficit with each country and dividing it by that country’s exports to the U.S., then halving that figure. (An extremely unconventional approach.)
The latest Quinnipiac Poll indicates that only 38 percent of respondents support Trump’s approach to trade and tariffs.
Trump predicted that his reciprocal tariffs would result in dozens of new trade deals, “90 deals in 90 days.” We’re eighty days in and the results have been unimpressive: a partial trade agreement with Great Britain.
Trump has lost control of his tariff initiative. As a result, the US economy has stalled.
Summary: Gavin Newsom is right: Trump has lost his marbles.
As a result, Trump has lost control of his major agenda items: Iran, budget, immigration, and tariffs. In some cases, staff members have stepped in – Stephen Miller has assumed control of Trump’s “mass deportation” effort. But in other cases, Trump’s agenda is adrift. Trump lost control of the Israel-Iran conflict and ceded leadership to Netanyahu. Trump lost control of the budget-reconciliation bill and was replaced by competing Republican factions. Trump lost control of tariffs and the economy.
Five months in, it’s clear that Trump does not have the wherewithal to lead the United States. Instead of leadership he offers chaos and corruption.
The “No King’s Day” protests indicated the power of the resistance. We have seized the momentum and have a shot at blocking Trump’s fascist agenda.
Guest Editorials
This week’s guest editorials are written by readers of this newsletter — our neighbors and members who share our strong feelings about what has been happening in our country. This newsletter’s editorial vision isn’t one person’s. Today it’s our vision.
A Podcast for Our Constitutional Crisis: 'Speaking Freely' Provides Echoes of History—and Warnings for Today - Ms. Magazine
By Stephen Rohde
Some movements deserve poetry.
Disappearing Act
Jeffrey L. Breithaupt
I still sweat red, white and blue every day. I still study every page of the newspaper while sippin’ mud every morning and complete the crossword and Sudoku in pen. I still enjoy cruising through the Valley of the Moon absorbing the grape-laden vines. I still play Pickle Ball down at Howarth Park on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am thankful I can FaceTime with my grandchildren every weekend. I saw my grandpa once on a cross-country family road trip and again in his coffin. I still meet up with my retired softball compatriots on the last Wednesday of every month to complain about life, eat some grub we can’t make at home, and drink as much as we want before our 9:00 bed time. (during our playing days we would close the pub at 2:00 am and stagger to the parking lot). They took away my handyman Jorge yesterday and no one knows his whereabouts. This ain’t my America anymore.
The Trojan Horse
By Adam Coleman, as shared by Mary Ann Granieri
I just finished reading “Trump: The Trojan Horse for Authoritarian Technocracy”, and it left me thinking hard. The main idea? Trump isn’t the endgame—he’s the distraction. He’s the populist front man used to hijack public attention, while the real power players—folks like Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller—quietly advance a much darker agenda.
Let’s call it what it is: a global push to replace liberal democracies with fascist oligarchies.
Peter Thiel is the actual Trojan Horse here. A billionaire technocrat, he’s been backing Trump while building the surveillance state through tools like Palantir, pushing anti-democratic ideologies in the background. He’s not hiding his contempt for democracy—he’s said openly that he thinks freedom and democracy are incompatible. Think about that. One of the richest, most influential men in tech doesn’t believe in democracy—and he has the tools to undermine it.
The man actively driving Trump’s political agenda is Stephen Miller—the same guy behind the Muslim ban, family separation, and the normalization of cruelty as policy. Miller’s back in the spotlight, not just shaping Trump’s rhetoric but coordinating how authoritarian policy gets implemented state-by-state, often through legal loopholes and manipulated executive powers. He’s the architect—Trump’s just the billboard.
Together, Thiel and Miller are shaping a dangerous future. While people argue over whether Trump misspoke or gestured too aggressively, these two are quietly hardwiring fascism into the legal, digital, and bureaucratic systems of multiple countries—not just the U.S. They’ve influenced hard-right movements in Europe, backed nationalist parties, and laid the groundwork for a kind of global oligarchic control that strips power from the public and hands it to unaccountable elites.
To put it simply: the flashy show is Trump. The real operation is Thiel and Miller—two unelected men with massive influence, working to turn democracies into machines of control, surveillance, and exclusion. And it’s working, because the public’s been too distracted to see the strings.
Bottom line: Trump’s not the threat—he’s the theatre. Thiel is the Trojan Horse. Miller is the operator. And their goal? To quietly dismantle democracy from the inside out, and rebuild it as a fortress for the few. If we don’t start paying attention to them, we’re going to lose far more than an election—we’ll lose the right to choose anything at all
I can't say I didn't expect djt to use this war in the middle east. I have been around long enough
to know there are people here in the oil industry to push for another excuse to get into Iran.
In general, the US population is undereducated about the oil industry. They are tightly tied to the plastic manufacturers, who have succeeded in getting these harmful products into every aspect of our lives. Many people are unaware of how the clothing/textile industries pollutes us by using oil to make polyester, coatings that prevent staining, & the overabundance of clothing consumed here in the US. The fast clothing that doesn't last, & is sold and shipped to countries in Africa, many buried in the ground where it seeps into water.
There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and instead of continuing negotiations, and using the military as a last resort he has bypassed Congress and following what the Bush/Cheney administration did. He will now say, we are being threatened by terrorists from within, & use this as a excuse to put us under martial law.
It's no surprise that Iran retaliated today and since nobody in this evil administration cares about American citiziens, they are not being protected in countries that are under threat.
Nobody in the GOP has the brains to figure out that India, China, Russia & who knows who else supports Iran &would gladly see the US attacked. We still don't know the whole story about 9/11.This is djt's big power play. To start a 3rd world war? Any bunker that he could have would not protect him or anyone else with the powerful weapons that are available now, Since Elon deflated his ego,& defied him he has been looking for a chance to show the world that he is still the person who is most powerful in the world. And, this lunatic has nuclear codes??? He hates being called TACO, but he has started something that will be hard for him to get out of. And there probably is no end plan. I hope the Supreme Court is happy for giving a mentally deranged person immunity.
What can we do to prevent a nuclear war?
Thanks for all you do.
The opinion of Sarah Briere is right on point.For those of us who demonstrated during Vietnam, Iraq, the October 7th horror, and the genocide in Gaza, this is like a nightmare you can’t wake up from. However, that being said, there are those of us who will not stop sounding the alarm to ALL the people. Remember what Benny Franklin said: “We must all hang together, or we will hang separately.” Stay safe out there peeps.
- Marc “with a C”