Shall We Have the Bodies?
Trying to eliminate Habeas Corpus; nominating Judge BoxWine, the triumph of all our engagement… We may have more to do, but we are not concerned. That’s because we are just getting started.
This week
By Sabra Briere
My reverence for museums hasn’t faded with familiarity. The year I spent living in Washington DC was like living in a postcard. I spent my weekends in the museums, along the Potomac, digging into antique stores in Georgetown and Bethesda. Every time I visited a new city, or revisited a familiar one, I stopped in the museums.
What President 2.0 is doing to our heritage, shrinking it instead of expanding it, should make us all mourn. And get angry.
Ava DuVernay was commissioned by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture to create a film about African-American history. Her August 28: A Day in the Life of a People explores six historical events that happened on the same date, August 28, in different years. It debuted at the museum's opening on September 24, 2016. The 22-minute film stars Lupita Nyong'o, Don Cheadle, Regina King, David Oyelowo, Angela Bassett, Michael Ealy, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, André Holland and Glynn Turman. Events depicted include William IV's royal assent to the UK Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, the 1955 lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi, the release of Motown's first number-one song, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvellettes, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 I Have a Dream speech, the landfall of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the night Senator Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
The Smithsonian presented its 10th Great Americans Medal to Ms DuVernay Thursday, May 8, for her extraordinary contributions to the nation as a director, writer, producer and film distributor. What makes this worth sharing is her acceptance speech.
In the news
As a news junkie, I try to balance my mental health against my desire to know what’s going on. Some weeks are better than others. Some weeks seem to last months.
People talk to me about what to do after President 2.0 is no longer with us, whenever that happens. I think of Stephen Miller, who is busy doming up with ways to make life untenable for so many of us. I want him gone, arrested, tried, convicted, incarcerated for crimes against humanity. Stephen Miller this week indicated that this administration, frustrated because judges have nerve enough to actually apply the law and the constitution, is considering setting aside the rule of habeas corpus. Which is the law’s way of telling the government to produce a prisoner, so the court can determine whether the prisoner ought to be locked up in the first place.
Without that determination — in all cases — anyone could be locked up. Yes, even citizens. Who could prove they were citizens if they never came before a judge?
I won’t even get into the fact that the people stealing others off the streets and out of their homes are wearing masks. How do we even trust they are who they claim to be if they are ashamed to show their faces? How can we hold them accountable when they break the law — if they break the law — if we cannot identify them?
One of the oddest things about tariffs, and something we are only starting to feel, is how much of our economy already runs on international trade. Oh, sure, people have been complaining about it for decades, but also they’ve been happy to shop for the cheapest clothing, toys, electronics, what have you. Well, most of those things come either fully assembled or in pieces from other countries, mostly China. And now they aren’t coming.
It’s not just that we will all be paying more. It’s also that we won’t be able to get the things that we think we want. Why else is President 2.0 suddenly talking about how many dolls and pencils our daughters and sons really need?
On the bright side, courts continue to work. In North Carolina, the Republican failed candidate for Supreme Court finally conceded. Yes, it took months. Yes, it took multiple court cases. But he finally accepted that he could not win by throwing out the legal votes of those who maybe didn’t vote for him. A final congratulations to Justice Alison Riggs.
A court also determined that Rumeysa Ozturk, who had spoken out against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, had to be released on Friday. She was arrested March 25 after the State Department revoked her student visa. I’d like to read more stories like this.
A Federal court determined that President 2.0 cannot use the Alien Enemy Act as an excuse for the blanket removal of anyone he wants to force out of the country. You can read more about it here, in an opinion piece by Stephen Rohde.
This is our Resistance Summer. We won’t forget Election 2026, but for now, the resistance is with us.
Mothers
Yesterday was Mothers Day. And yes, it was originally intended to be a day of pacifism and protest, and became a Hallmark Holiday. At a time in our history when death during pregnancy and childbirth is on the rise, when medical care during pregnancy is expensive even with insurance, and inadequate or barely available in many communities, and childcare, food, housing, safe child products, and a guaranteed education are all being budgeted OUT by those in power, I want to offer a moment of kind thoughts for those who are still optimistic enough to have children.
This isn’t the welcoming country it once aspired to be, not to new babies, not to immigrants, not to anyone. It’s hard for us to even recognize that dream, now, much less find ways to build upon it.
Indivisible members went to protest on Mothers Day. Not just any old protest, but to protest the flights Avelo has contracted, that carry people (chained and handcuffed) to other countries. In too many cases, masked men claiming to be ICE pick up people, hustle them into unmarked black vehicles, and send them to places where they are assembled into groups and then loaded into planes. Many don’t have the opportunity to talk with a lawyer, much less see a judge.
President 2.0 is happy about this. He thinks the law shouldn’t apply to people he wants to force out of the country. The masked men claiming to be ICE and the police who work with them are OK with it, too.
The families torn apart, the people wrongly picked up, the communities disrupted, the children abandoned — all collateral damage. They don’t care.
Indivisible members care.
You can join the protest every Sunday at 11 am. Here’s the link.
What’s the Plan?
By Tom Benthin
We’re no longer fighting to save our democracy. We’re fighting to get it back and remake it so that it can’t be broken again. How do we do that?
The short answer is, we don’t exactly know everything that will be required. But we can see where we are and what we need to do now.
Elections and the courts cannot save us. Fascists have seized control of our government - a “hostile takeover of our government by the bullies for the billionaires”. Though both elections and the courts are important, they alone cannot re-establish a stable democracy. We must demand a true overhaul of the courts and the electoral system.
We have two key tasks. We must put the harms the fascists are causing front and center - and keep them there. When we do, we must describe them as they impact individuals directly, not the impact on institutions or norms. And we must increase the power of the leaders who oppose the fascists. These are not the current leaders of the Democratic Party. They are people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“AOC”), Bernie Sanders, Jasmine Crockett, and Chris Murphy. They are leading by example. We must increase their power.
We need more people to believe this is an existential crisis. If you’re reading this, you likely already do. We need more people to understand. They need to know that the MAGA harms them both directly and indirectly when it harms others. They need to know that the MAGA shame and blame story is bullshit, a smokescreen for their crimes. And they need to know that people like them oppose the fascist regime.
We must grow our numbers. We need an ever-increasing body of activists to take individual actions, join mass mobilizations, and refuse to comply with the regime. The more we can do this, the more we undermine support for the regime and erode its legitimacy. We create what’s called “social proof” (“people like me are doing this”) of resistance to and rejection of the fascist regime. It develops democratic attitudes and fosters new leadership, incentivizes “softeners” within the regime to limit or withdraw their support, and can weaken other key pillars of support, like the business community.
Keep using the “F” word. “Fascism”, that is. It creates a clearer connection to personal harm. It lets people know that this is not normal, not just a different party in power. We can’t overcome what we can’t name. And our goal now isn’t to win elections. It’s to ignite and sustain mass resistance, refusal, and ridicule of the regime. Do, however, use the F word to describe the villains (“fascist wannabe dictator”), not to describe conditions (“living under fascism”). And definitely learn the Woody Guthrie song, “All You Fascists Bound to Lose”. ;)
We aren’t clowning around anymore
If you’re a puppeteer, stilt-walker, papier mache sculptor, or clown, we want to talk. We’re planning a great NO KINGS, Or Their Clowns event for June 14, and we’d love your help building the best event possible.
Yes, there will be the usual opportunity for protest signs and regular people. But don’t you want a little more? We’re going to fill the sidewalk from 4th Street to Patio — and maybe further — on Farmers Lane. Our self-conducted traffic study indicates this is one of the busiest stretches of streets in Santa Rosa, with lots of cars going by at a slow enough speed that they will notice what we have to say. There’s room for a big impact protest, and wide sidewalks to keep us all safe.
We’re talking with a variety of local churches and schools about securing parking, but we know there’s plenty of parking nearby. And, of course, you can stop in to your favorite shops in Montgomery Village after the protest.
Let’s be clear about protesting. These are serious times. And this administration is doing serious damage — damage that will last for generations. We’re angry at what’s been done. And we hold those clowns in this administration completely responsible.
And since they brought the circus — we’re out to make them the full force of our laughter. Nothing is more biting than ridicule.
Both Indivisible and the Womens’ March are planning a national day of protest everywhere but DC on June 14. You can sign up for ours here.
Other communities in Sonoma County will also be hosting events on June 14. Right now, we are working to put together a full list. If you are outside Santa Rosa, and want to host your own June 14 event, let us know the particulars and we’ll share with everyone we know.
It’s Resistance Summer. Our Weekly Resistance protests continue. But there will always be time for making a Big Trouble. Necessary and Good Trouble.
Guest Editorial
Letters from an American
Heather Cox Richardson
The president appears to like monkeying with tariffs because, unless Republicans take back Congress’s power to manage tariffs, he can just make a decree and watch the world jump. But the economic effects have shocked Americans. That shock is encapsulated in the news beginning to sink in that toys are highly dependent on trade with China: 80% of the toys sold in the U.S. come from there. Ninety-six percent of U.S. toy manufacturers are small businesses, highly dependent on supply chains from other countries.
Civil Discourse
Joyce White Vance
…if you’ve been questioning whether what you’re doing matters, it does. The signs you make, the protests you go to, the letters and calls you make to elected officials, your efforts to share information (like this newsletter) with people—all of these efforts matter. It all adds up, small victories and large ones.
*****
Whether it’s lawsuits or your letters, engaged citizens get results. We have a long way to go, but take heart; we are making progress. We can get there. Every little step forward adds to the tally in favor of democracy.
We’re in this together,
For more actions, click here:
Check our website for more information and to learn more about Indivisible. Don’t forget to bookmark our calendar (yes, it’s on the website!) Every protest, rally, action, postcard party, phonebank, and letter writing campaign we hear about we share with you. Rely on our calendar to get you started. Rely on us to keep you engaged.
Mother's Day: Recalling this to my adult children, who were knowledgeable about this time in our history, but unaware of some of the things in daily life that occurred during that time. I was a very young child at the end of WWII.It was a time when we knew about rationing, black outs in the evening, and people writing and singing songs about tolerance. Songs that a child learned, along with their parents. My father was an immigrant and was too old to be drafted, but he volunteered to become an air raid warden and went out every night making sure that after dark, blackout shades were drawn to block out any light from all homes in the neighborhood. The songs were about trust, and I remember the words to a few, but the most unforgettable was in the short film made by Frank Sinatra that is now in the Library of Congress, called The House I Live In. You can hear it on You Tube. The opening words say it all:"What Is America To Me?" It should be blasted into Congress as a reminder of this is who we are as a nation, with all it's faults and mistakes these really are the values that we fought for and hoped to achieve. Take the time to listen.