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Tamie Swain's avatar

He is correct. We need to grow the movement to an overwhelming proportion of the population/electorate.

Or the joy we had on No Kings day won’t be allowed in the future.

So get your signs built and get your butts out on the streets! 🚫⚠️🛑🔜☮️⛔️👑

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SJA's avatar

Who were the organizers of the No Kings marches?

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James Stoner's avatar

Indivisible, for the most part.

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Ian Alterman's avatar

As I am wont to do, let me parse Garry's generally accurate comments.

With regard to "this can't be a one-off," there has been talk (and some initial action) on making these protests bi-weekly. Garry's suggestion of weekly is obviously hopelessly aspirational, if well-intended. But bi-weekly COULD work. As Garry also points out, what is equally important is that, at some point, they must GROW. Certain "anniversary" dates could be used for this purpose; i.e, with larger, more "vigorous" and targeted protests on those dates.

With regard to "sharpen the ask," I would replace that with "force our elected reps to do their jobs." Inundate - and I mean REALLY inundate - every elected lawmaker's (both federal and State, and maybe even municipal) email, mailboxes, answering machines, etc. with written demands for accountability and transparency by this administration. As one example, it is way past time that Congress shut down DOGE - since it was never legally created (only Congress can create a governmental or quasi-governmental agency - which they did not do here), and is essentially a rogue agency that has no business existing AT ALL, much less doing the things it is doing. And that is just one of many specific "asks" (demands) that need to be made.

One thing NOT brought up is ending the phony collegiality that exists in legislatures. Stop using the term "honorable" if the elected official is not. And stop with the phrase: "The Great State of...." If a Democratic lawmaker is addressing a lawmaker from a "failing" State, they should say, "To my dishonorable colleague from the failed State of Mississippi, which has the lowest education rate in the country...," or similar. Can you imagine the effect this would have? It would be more than just an empty gesture, particularly if done consistently. Phony collegiality is no collegiality at all.

Lawmakers must also stop refraining from calling out elected officials who brazenly lie. And while I don't think it needs to rise to the level of the type of actual fistfights we have occasionally seen in legislatures in other countries, maybe we even need a little bit of that - or something close. A mass walk-out. Or the opposite; having every Democratic rep get out of their seats and stand together facing their colleagues, blocking the cameras. We need DRAMATIC moves, not "business as usual" (since there is NOTHING usual about what is happening).

Another thing not mentioned is the role of the media here. The left and mainstream media MUST take the gloves off, particularly vis-a-vis Drumpf, but also re his inner circle of sycophants (Noem, Patel, Bondi, Leavitt, RFK Jr. et al). Questions - and especially responses - must be sharpened. If Mr. Drumpf lies, the media needs to say, openly and at that moment, "Mr. President, you are a liar," and tell him why. This needs to be done consistently. Lies need to be called lies. No more kid gloves. This is especially true of Karoline Leavitt. Even if a given news source loses its seat in the press pool for calling her a brazen liar, it needs to be done. In fact, if every left and MSM news source did this, and every one of them lost their seats in the press pool, this would speak volumes to the body politic. And it is likely to radically increase the number of people going to the (hopefully by now) bi-weekly protests.

Another thing that Garry does not account for - which works in our favor - is the ongoing and increasing reports that "rifts" and "splits" are occurring among and between MAGA and GOP conservatives; i.e., both intra and inter. Consider that quite a number of MAGA members were protesting along with the "libtards." And it was a goodly number, one that could be helped to grow. MAGA is already being disproportionately adversely affected by the tariffs - and they know and feel it (in their pockets, their businesses and their livelihoods). And don't forget that GOP lawmakers were so afraid of their constituents that they refused to show up for town halls - allowing Democrats (who were warmly welcomed, by the way) to fill in.

Finally (and please forgive the morbid phrasing here), who is most likely to "benefit" from the recent murders in Minnesota? While there will always be a small fraction of MAGA extremists who may be openly gleeful about it, the vast majority are NOT prone to violence. They may have different "politics" than those of us on the left, but I doubt that THEY are happy that political assassination is now being identified with their movement. This leaves an opening for a "gentle nudge" by the left (and it must be gentle; anything too hard, and they will simply dig in deeper).

With regard to the Minnesota murders, the GOP already thinks the left is a bunch of crazies, so they cannot be unworried about the possibility that THEY (and/or their families) could be targeted as well. Many of them may not say so, or continue to put on a brave face, but you can bet that most GOP lawmakers are just as unnerved as Democrats over this incident. I only wish they had enough collective spine to come out - strongly, as a group - and say so.

There is plenty of work to do. But we are on the right track. Yes, protests need to continue - and hopefully grow. "Asks" must be sharpened. Lawmakers must be held to account, even if that means doing away with bogus collegiality. The media must do their part - MUCH more actively and FAR more courageously and brazenly. The rifts within MAGA and the right must be used to our advantage.

We can do this.

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Jerry Krantman's avatar

Misspelling in 2nd to last paragraph. “includng” (sic).

Just thought you might like to know.

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Nick H's avatar

Let’s do it so we can keep this nice-guy version of Garry around a little longer, haha

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drbilldean@gmail.com's avatar

So Tired of a False Assumption

MSM keeps repeating the same assumption: that Orange Cheeto won the 2024 election fair and square albeit by only 3.5m votes

Not into conspiracy theories but there is lots of evidence that Cheeto and his Nazi party launched a multiprong subversive effort to corrupt the election And this has unconsciously pissed off the American electorate to feel that they got ripped off Hence the growing intensity of the protests across the country Here’s a list of what we know so far

Rockland County Board of Elections vs SMART Legislation to be heard Sept 2025

https://bit.ly/43Hm61y Dissent in Bloom Substack June 2025

https://bit.ly/4n3TeIr SMART Elections Substack 2.25

http://bit.ly/4kZqXAH Morningstar coverage 5.25

https://bit.ly/43BfwJJ Economic Times 6.25

https://bit.ly/4l5EAP6 Reddit article 4.25 Review of voting in Pa and NV

Greg Palast Vigilante Challenge https://bit.ly/3XUt1kr or bit.ly/43K4Gl2 have to pay to get the documentary/audio of interview bit.ly/41UelTx this is free

Election Truth Alliance(ETA) ongoing statistical analysis of precincts in swing states

website electiontruthalliance.org videos are very convincing

Russian interference https://bit.ly/4l6AlCU\

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Ian Alterman's avatar

I have wondered about this, too, though it is obviously too late to do anything about it if true.

Even without Musk's $250 million (and the possible ability of his minions to hack into voting systems), something smelled truly fishy about the 2024 election. Sure, there were issues with Harris and her campaign. But, in my opinion, not enough for it to have led to such a complete loss.

The three main reasons usually given for her loss are (i) the late start of her campaign (and while I love JB, I blame him entirely for this), (ii) that she was a woman (and a woman of color, at that), and (iii) that 19 million Democrats who voted for Biden in 2020 did NOT vote for Harris (though it would have been the demographic "spread" of those votes that might or might not have made a difference electorally).

On the surface, it seems entirely possible that those two factors COULD have been enough to lead to her loss. But I remain unconvinced (just as I was in 2016) that the gender factor would have made THAT much of a difference (though with the degree of endemic racism in this country, the "color" factor may have played a larger role).

However, the new book, "Fight," gives a details look into what was happening inside the Democratic Party at the time, and makes a very good case that the reason Harris lost is that, from Day 1 of her campaign, the Democratic establishment - including the DNC, Obama, the Clintons, et al) - deliberately undermined her and the campaign for at least the first few weeks. This left even less time for her to "make her case" (without the undermining) and win.

For the life of me, I still don't understand why the Democrats would deliberately undermine their own candidate and essentially hand the election to Drumpf. But that is apparently what happened.

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drbilldean@gmail.com's avatar

Great points.....Harris' silence post campaign is deafening and underscores what is pointed out in the book I think there are some bad feelings and at this point I don't have much confidence in the DNC and its leadership particularly around major key issues such as the economy

As you point out water under the bridge BUT my concern is focused on what the Nazis are currently doing to "free and fair elections" and what we can learn about their efforts to undermine all future elections

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Ian Alterman's avatar

Re future elections, everything hinges on whether Drumpf chooses to invoke martial law (on whatever slim or outrageous pretext) and postpone or cancel the 2026 elections. A few months ago, I had given this a 50/50 chance of occurring. However, with recent events (federalization of national guard, Marines arresting U.S. citizens in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, ICE "disappearing" people and deporting without due process, violence in L.A., Drumpf ignoring court orders, political assassination, etc.), I am upping that to 60/40, possibly even 65/35.

We are NOT in a good place right now. :-(

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Kumara Republic's avatar

I've read comparisons to Italy's Years of Lead (Anni di Piombo).

https://www.thedissident.news/americas-years-of-lead-are-here/

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Mr. Ala's avatar

Didn’t I also see you protesting against the Biden Administration’s crimes against democracy, or could I be mistaken?

Because someone who is only in favor of democracy as against one criminal party but not the other criminal party is not really in favor of democracy.

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Kris Weinschenker's avatar

I’ve accepted it for 8 years now, but I’m just an old slob that those in power don’t bother listening to.

Here’s my ‘mandate’ BTW, ICYMI…

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ajotsoowi's avatar

i'll just say: ignore the bots and trolls in these comments. the fact that you're such a target says volumes. who's to say you aren't being actively sabotaged on this platform by bad actors. keep on fighting.

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Carole Maslin's avatar

You are right Marc Elias, Jaime Raskin and Heather Cox Richardson are not enough. We need all of our elected representatives

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V Baldwin's avatar

Your numbers are off.

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James Stoner's avatar

Right on track. I think Mr. Kasparov would agree that, beyond defense of democracy, we need to go on offense--advocating critical reforms to our democratic systems. It starts with ending unlimited campaign spending.

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Gary's avatar

Wow, this is unhinged. The comparison of protests by mostly boomer whites trying to revive their youth and the Army’s 250th birthday parade, which by the way was approved in the Biden administration, was stark and the best ad for a good result for Trump in the midterms.

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Conor Gallogly's avatar

What about the contrast between 5 million Americans out opposing Trump and Trump’s birthday parade do you think will be a good ad for the midterms?

Also, a parade was added to the 250th anniversary celebrations by the Trump administration. Trump has also been wanting to do a military since 2017 when he attended the Bastille Day parade in France.

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Jun 17
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James Stoner's avatar

Who are you--a KGB bot? Reads like AI.

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ajotsoowi's avatar

i was about to say the same thing. "trolling brought to you now by chatgpt" LOL

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