The Times Find Us
We didn’t spend our lives looking forward to an autocracy. Or to protesting one. Let’s not leave one as our legacy.
This week
By Sabra Briere, editor
I learned as I was finishing this newsletter that Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer that has spread from his prostate to his bones. This is not good news.
All this week, I’ve been skipping over the ‘revelations’ that Joe Biden is old. This is not news. The book — which I’m not going to read — doesn’t seem to have many revelations in it, except that Biden didn’t recognize George Clooney at a party. I wouldn’t recognize George Clooney, so I don’t hold that against him. Heck, I forget the names of so many people, and once failed to recognize a guy I used to date … The rest of the revelations seem to just be justifications for why the media and pundits didn’t support Kamala Harris and embrace to this day what President 2.0 is doing.
I don’t need to read that. It’s a sour grapes excuse for what they have done to this country. And yes, they are partially to blame, and should accept responsibility.
Biden, when he was good, was very good. We didn’t find him obsessing over an enemies list, subverting the rule of law, destroying the economy, cavorting with tyrants, or fantasizing about being King.
I’m fully focused on the guy who thinks we had airplanes when we fought the Revolution, thinks there are fine people who are also racists, spends time with the KKK leadership, and denies everything. I’m aghast that we (as a country) elected anyone who doubt that obeying the Constitution is mandatory. But there we are. And there we remain — until we change things.
This is our Resistance Summer. We’re out on the street, making the powers that be either grow a spine or get out of the way. I hope you’ll join me there.
“Your argument seems to turn our justice system, in my view at least, into a catch me if you can kind of regime…where everybody has to have a lawyer and file a lawsuit in order for the government to stop violating people’s rights.”
-Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to Trump’s legal team
It has been a while since I last praised the Supreme Court. As a whole, that is. This week, I will do so (ignoring recent weeks, of course, with their apparent embrace of tax-paid public religious education).
Two questions were before the court this week that are in play with us as Indivisible: 1. Can any president, by executive order, decide that the ‘birthright citizenship clause of the 14th amendment doesn’t apply to everyone, and can a single Federal judge issue a national injunction telling him he’s wrong?’
And 2. ‘Can any president use the Alien Enemy Act to remove people from the US without due process?’
The Supreme Court was only supposed to consider whether a single judge had the right to stop a president, any president, from doing what he wants to do. Or, for that matter, from stopping Congress. Because that’s what happened when Judge Kacsmaryk decided that mifepristone couldn’t be dispensed, isn’t it? And what happened when he decided that abortions were illegal, right? But that isn’t what made the Supremes consider eliminating the national injunction precedent. Instead, it was when a judge (Deborah Boardman) issued an injunction stopping the implementation of President 2.0’s decree executive order that you have to be born to or adopted by white citizen parents in order to be a citizen. The order, of course, is unconstitutional, but who cares?
Turns out the Supremes care. Well, sometimes.
And then there’s that pesky Alien Enemy Act. (Note: I’m aware that ‘everyone’ refers to ‘enemies.’ But I’m a stickler, and the act refers to ‘enemy’ in the singular. So that’s what I’m doing. Editor’s prerogative.)
No, the Supremes didn’t say he couldn’t use it ever, at all. But they did say he couldn’t use it as a reason to kidnap and expel people loosely identified as Nicaraguan without due process. (Alito and Thomas dissented.) The Supreme Court sent the case back to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to consider appropriate procedures on how to properly alert potential deportees of their impending removal.
In other words, due process is still part of the legal world.
Not that this administration is committed to respecting that.
In the news
In the past few days, we have learned that the gift of a plane from Qatar is not a gift at all. It’s just an unnecessary expense. (2+ years and more than $1billion later before it can be used as Air Force One — and the resulting plane goes to Trump when he leaves office in 3+ years. Such a bargain!)
Late on Sunday the House Budget Committee finally mustered enough Republicans willing to vote either ‘yes’ or ‘present’ to pass the proposed 2026 budget out of committee. This is a big deal. Barely a week ago, they didn’t even have the language that will cut Medicaid. Now they are gung-ho to get this bill moving and make President 2.0 a happy man. (The far-right got extra cuts to green energy subsidies and more work requirements for Medicaid for their votes, to be clear.)
Some important, if premature, details. As currently written, extending the 2017 tax breaks for the ultra rich adds to the deficit. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that those extensions would cost at least $4.6 trillion over the next ten years. And then there are the additional tax breaks, temporary for right now. These additional tax breaks (5% more for the ultra rich, 0.6% for those of modest means) expire in 2028. This gives the Republicans a great piece of leverage for the next election, don’t you think? Re-elect us & JD Vance (or whoever is the Republican presidential candidate) by any means necessary, or your tax breaks go bye-bye. Also, the painful cuts to services (Medicaid, SNAP, Section 8, etc.) don’t all happen immediately. Medicaid cuts into effect in 2029 — skipping 2026 and 2028 election years altogether. And by then, they can be blamed on the Democrats.
Think about that.
The US’s credit rating has been downgraded, for the first time ever. Thank you, President 2.0.
On the dark side, if all this wasn’t dark enough, this administration has decided that there are still too many people of the wrong sort — whatever that might be. So they are permitting the sale of devices that allow standard firearms to fire as if they were machine guns.
Leave no child behind, I guess.
This is our Resistance Summer.
Stand up. Step up. Speak out.
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No Clowning Around:
Volunteers Needed to Make June 14 a Swell Time for All — Except those clowns in DC
Calling all Indivisible members, newsletter subscribers and those who may be interested. Indivisible Sonoma County is badly in need of additional members to assume Peace Keeping roles for safety and success of our large-scale protests. If you consider yourself even-tempered, good in an emergency and are interested, please review this (not so short) training video:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuNvU4m2LXbzg4AElkz6Ny6vG-5pAn_Kd&si=mLss4hn7lNA5-Kgg
After you review the training, please contact Mark Jacqua at markjaqua@comcast.net. We will invite you to an in-person training and orientation, and add you to a list of people we will call on to make sure our protests are safe and successful. AND you get to wear a colorful vest!
Save the Date! June 14
This is a national day of action. Multiple organizations are declaring that this day must not honor the clowns in DC. Join us as we loudly say there are no kings in our country — and we don’t want their clowns, either!
In Santa Rosa, let’s put all our clowning around on the streets, instead. Bring your brightest signs. Wear your clown wig and red nose! Our task is to remind all the people driving by that our government is a farce — and we should take that seriously.
In Santa Rosa - 11a to 1p along Farmer’s Lane
In Cloverdale - 11a to 12p at the Cloverdale Plaza entrance
In Petaluma - 2p - 6p at Walnut Park
In Napa - 12p - 2p at Oxbow Commons
In Sonoma - 11a to 1p, **3 LOCATIONS!! SONOMA VALLEY IS STANDING STRONG IN PROTEST!
Broadway - Line the sidewalk on both sides of Broadway (PLAZA not available) Stay on sidewalks - no blocking access
Springs Plaza - Demonstration lines on the sidewalk along Hwy 12 North and South - no blocking access
Maxwell Park - demonstration lines on the sidewalk along Hwy 12 North and South directions, no blocking access
San Francisco - 11:30a to 2p, Delores Park to Civic Center Plaza
Guest Editorial
Saturday Night Live on The Right to Bear Arms
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.