A quick skip through your potential misdemeanors
(Are you ready?)
From the Substack, Closer to the Edge (and thanks, Mike, for sending it to me), we may still be living in a time for protest every weekend from noon to 3, but then, we may have crossed over into a time for escalation — peaceful, non-violent escalation, but escalation nevertheless.
The Trump administration certainly has escalated. From Closer, changing our tactics:
It means misdemeanors and courtrooms.
Not violence. Not vandalism for vanity.
But deliberate, moral trespass in full view of history.
I’ve thought about this (and do click on the link in the first paragraph for more information), that what I’m doing is simply not enough. That’s not in a (spoken in a whiny voice) “But nothing’s chaaaaanged” kind of way, but from a personal need to push against this horror with something more than a banner in my yard and words shouted out into the void.
I don’t have a plan yet, and I don’t need motivating, but should I ever need it? I will look at the photo below. It’s the president of the United States this weekend, showing his deep concern for the people who died in the Texas flood after his cuts to FEMA and the National Weather Service.
Or I’ll remind myself of quotes like the one below, from CNN:
“If you look at that, what a situation that all is, and that was really the Biden setup. That was not our setup, but I wouldn’t blame Biden for it either,” Trump said today as he departed New Jersey after a weekend at his golf club there.
“I would just say this is a 100-year catastrophe and it’s just so horrible to watch,” Trump went on.
JFC. This administration literally is killing us.
I was hearing something about non-cooperation training this morning on The Daily Beans. When I find a proper reference I'll come back and add it.
Robert Reich says:
What you can do:
1. Protect the vulnerable. If anyone in your community is confronted by ICE agents demanding proof of citizenship, make sure they know they have a right to remain silent and to refuse consent to searches of their cars, homes, or persons.
Red cards with this and other pertinent information are available in various languages. You can download and print them for free here.
2. Make sure you know your own rights. If stopped, you are not required to answer questions. You can refuse a search of your person, car, or belongings. If the agents proceed with a search despite your refusal, make it clear you do not consent. If you’re not under arrest, you can ask if you are free to go. If the answer is yes, leave.
If you or someone in your community believes rights have been violated, document everything you can of the encounter with ICE agents.
3. Finally, know that the purpose of Trump’s police state is to silence not just immigrants but the rest of us. Do not be intimidated or discouraged from speaking out, writing, demonstrating, boycotting, or undertaking any other nonviolent action in opposition to what the regime is doing.
To the contrary, become even more active. Share any abuses you witness (and, ideally, have recorded on your phone) as widely as possible, so that more people are apprised of what’s happening and are ready to join the resistance.
Be safe. Be careful. Have courage. Hug your loved ones.
ETA by MA:
Well, bother. I can't find it. It's not in The Daily Beans, and not in Heather Cox Richardson. And what I find is for now-past half-day events in DC, not the extended hearing I recall hearing talked of. Here's a link on those, anyway: NO! Here it is! http://www.couleeprogressives.org/2025/07/strategic-non-cooperation-training.html
The set-up? The set-up? WTF is the moron talking about? He just can’t help himself, blaming things on Biden. But to call the devastation and death of so many in TX a set-up is disgusting and immoral, but what can we expect from the normal word salad that falls from his mouth. He thought of a new phrase to use, which is more heinous than usual. Sickening! ⚔️