Y’all I get it. This super sucks. These people are the worst and they are doing terrible things.
But guess what? WE ARE STRONG AND MOTIVATED!!
Non-violent movements have beaten authoritarian governments before. A lot actually.
And we can do it again.
We are doing it!
Despite early estimates that 7 million people attended No Kings, it turns out that 21 million did. Three times the estimate! And we had been excited about that 7 million estimate!
21 million!
8% of the population.
21 million!
More people than live in New York State.
21 million!
More people than live in Sweden and Greece combined.
21 million is a lot of damn people willing to give up their Saturday to march and carry signs and sing and chant and fight for our freedom!
And that doesn’t count the millions of people who wanted to go but couldn’t for many, many reasons. I know plenty of those.
Look, I don’t have a crystal ball. But neither do the doomers.
For some people, being a doomer makes them feel smart. For some people, being a doomer gives them an excuse to not do anything. For some people, doomerism is a mask designed to destroy your hope.
To all the doomers I say: STFU. Seriously. Stop. Do you really look around and think “you know what this moment needs? More people saying that everything is awful and we will never win.” Girl, we have plenty of those people already. Way more than we need. Those positions are FULL.
What we need are people who act.
What we need are people who plan.
What we need are people who work together.
What we need are people who hope.
The rest of you just look dumb. And annoying. And suspect. Take a seat. Or better yet, join us. You’ll be glad you did and you are welcome any time!
Now onto the good news.
Democrats are great
Why don’t people realize this? I think this is because (a) people don’t follow the nitty gritty of what Dems have been doing (b) people define the party as being their least favorite members and forget that it also includes their most favorite members, and (c) people forget what a party that doesn’t control the House, Senate, or WH can do (and can’t do).
Here are some AMAZING stories of Democrats from just this week! Make sure to use your voice to amplify them when you can.
Democrats continue to stand strong.
As the government shutdown enters its 27th day, Democrats remain unified in exercising the sole leverage they have in Congress: the filibuster. The filibuster allows Democrats to stop proposed legislation in the Senate—like the GOP proposed continuing resolution—that does nothing to curtail Trump’s ongoing violations of the Constitution and perpetuates the cruel cuts of the Big Ugly Bill.
Before discussing the shutdown standoff, it is helpful to remind ourselves why we are here: Congress must pass 12 appropriations bills to enact the 2026 budget. To date, the Republican-controlled Congress has passed zero bills—not a single one.
Republicans can end the shutdown—in whole or in part—by proposing and passing one or more of the 12 appropriations bills. Because Republicans can’t even do that, they are asking Democrats to give Trump a blank check and a hall pass to continue running the government without any oversight from Congress.
In short, Democrats aren’t “causing” the shutdown. Republicans are. And the public is rightly holding the GOP and Trump responsible for the shutdown.
Democrats plot messaging blitz ahead of Obamacare hikes
In Wisconsin, Democrats are launching nearly 400 canvassing events this weekend focused on health care. A major liberal advocacy group, Protect Our Care, will push a six-figure digital campaign. Top Democratic governors, including Kentucky’s Andy Beshear and Laura Kelly of Kansas, are holding press calls to “to slam D.C. Republicans for causing Americans’ health care premiums to skyrocket.”
It adds up to a campaign of doomsday messaging aimed at voters’ concerns about health care as premium spikes are due to arrive.
“November 1st is a health care cliff for the American people, and I think it’s also a political cliff for Republicans,” said Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care, a liberal nonprofit that has hosted a dozen town halls with House Democrats throughout the country on the impending premium increases. “More and more people are paying attention to it.”
In the coming days, Democrats will launch ad buys, hold town halls and convene media appearances to highlight the Nov. 1 date when Americans must choose to purchase insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace with higher premiums or forgo it altogether, an attempt to ensure Republicans shoulder the blame for rising health care costs.
Some of the tactics, like the DNC holding a call with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are routine. But others are more national in scope, including Protect Our Care is deploying a digital search advertising campaign that targets people who are researching their ACA health care plans online with ads blaming Republicans. Those ads will run in House districts held by vulnerable Republicans in Arizona, Iowa, New York and Pennsylvania, among other places.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also has
an upcoming ad scheduled to run in 35 competitive House districts starting this weekend. The four-figure digital buy shows Speaker Mike Johnson on vacation — a reference to the House being in recess for six weeks amid the looming insurance hikes.
Seattle targets law enforcement mask use, aims to increase transparency and accountability
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has introduced a new ordinance seeking to prohibit the use of face coverings by law enforcement officers, mandating that all officers display visible emblems and badges identifying their agency while performing enforcement duties.
The mayor's office announced the ordinance on Wednesday, which targets face coverings such as masks, garments, helmets, headgear, or any item that conceals an individual's facial identity, including balaclavas, tactical masks, gators, and ski masks.
We the people are amazing
Did you hear about the 21 million of us that showed up?! I know you did :)
These voters want to overturn Missouri's new gerrymandered congressional map
Lately, on any given day, you'll find Leann Villaluz knocking on doors around Kansas City to get people to sign a petition that would let voters decide the fate of the state's new congressional map.
"There's a sense of resentment, even to regular voters who aren't as involved," Villaluz says. "We have to pick up the slack for representatives who have been elected to do their simple duty and carry out the will of the voters. Instead, they think that we don't know what's best for ourselves."
Missouri is the second state in the country, alongside Texas, to gerrymander its congressional map after President Donald Trump set off a nationwide redistricting battle in July to try to maintain control of the U.S. House in the 2026 midterms.
But with Villaluz and about 3,000 other volunteers, a group called People Not Politicians Missouri is working to overturn the state's new map. If they're successful in getting more than 106,000 signatures across the state by December 11, a referendum will go on the ballot in 2026 for voters to decide whether to want to keep or reject it.
The group says it's already gathered more than 100,000 signatures and is still collecting more. If they get the signatures they need, the referendum would stall the map until voters weigh in next year.
More than 4 million California voters have sent in their Prop. 50 ballots so far
California voters are turning in their ballots for the special election on redistricting at a faster rate at this point in the election — about a week out before Election Day — than in previous elections
The Republicans are increasingly unpopular
OMG. They suck so bad.
Trump Hit With Devastating All-Time Low Approval Ratings
The latest YouGov/Economist survey shows that 57 percent disapprove of Trump’s job performance as president, compared to just 39 percent who approve.
Not only is Trump’s net approval rating of minus 18 the lowest of his second term, it is also three points lower than at any point during his first term in the White House.
Poll: Americans disapprove of Trump's White House ballroom project — and East Wing demolition — by a more than 2-to-1 margin
Over the last week, President Trump has completely demolished the old East Wing of the White House in order to make way for his new 90,000-square-foot ballroom — and only about a quarter of Americans approve, according to a new Yahoo/YouGov poll.
More than twice as many disapprove.
Elon Musk's "polarizing and partisan actions" hurt Tesla sales, Yale study finds
Elon Musk is widely recognized as an electric car pioneer. Yet the Tesla CEO has also single-handedly chilled the automaker's sales, according to a recent study by researchers at Yale University.
Public controversy over Musk's role as leader of the White House's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), as well as his acquisition of social media platform Twitter (now known as X) in 2022, reduced Tesla's sales by up to 1.2 million vehicles over a three-year period, the researchers estimated in a working paper published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research that aimed to measure the effect of Musk's politics on Tesla's business.
"This study highlights just how impactful a CEO's partisan actions can be," the researchers wrote. "We show that Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest person and CEO of the most valuable automaker by market capitalization, had a dramatic effect on Tesla sales due to his politically partisan activities unrelated to Tesla's core business."
House Republicans grow anxious about Speaker Johnson’s extended shutdown recess
House Republicans are growing anxious about how they will make up for lost time after Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) move to keep the House out of session for more than a month during the government shutdown, with leaders starting to brace members for long days when the funding impasse eventually ends.
Frustrations with the lack of action in the House spilled out into the open on a House GOP conference call on Tuesday, when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has previously publicly criticized the recess strategy, again confronted Johnson on how he was handling the shutdown.
But the concerns were also raised by members like Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), a source confirmed and Axios previously reported, who questioned how lawmakers will make up for lost time.
and they should be because….
Americans blame Trump and GOP more than Democrats for shutdown, poll finds
More Americans blame President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress than Democrats for the nearly month-long government shutdown, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.
More than 4 in 10 U.S. adults — 45 percent — say Trump and the GOP are mainly responsible for the shutdown that may lead the government to cut off anti-hunger benefits, has caused air traffic delays and has furloughed hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
But concern has grown as the shutdown has continued, with 43 percent saying they are “very concerned” today, up from 25 percent when the shutdown began.
High-level concern has grown across party lines, although Democrats are still more than twice as likely as Republicans to be very concerned about the closure. A 56 percent majority of people with household incomes under $25,000 are very concerned, the highest of any income group.
Republicans are bad at this
So pathetic...
‘We Deeply Regret These Errors’: DOJ Walks Back Key Evidence In Defense of Trump’s Portland Deployment
The Department of Justice (DOJ) Monday corrected a key piece of evidence it repeatedly cited in defense of President Donald Trump’s attempted military deployment in Portland, Oregon, last month.
In a letter to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Andrew Bernie, a DOJ attorney, said the Trump administration made several “errors” in describing how many special law enforcement officers it sent to Portland in response to protests outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the city.
3 words in Letitia James’ mortgage contract could doom the fraud case against her
The politically charged mortgage fraud indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses her of lying to lenders in order to get a favorable loan rate on a second home. She then rented the property, the indictment alleges, in violation of the terms of the loan she obtained.
But there’s a glaring issue with that accusation: The mortgage contract James signed does not prohibit renting out the house, according to POLITICO’s review of the contract and legal and real estate experts. In fact, the key language in the contract expressly allows renting under certain conditions.
US health chief says there is not enough data to show Tylenol causes autism
Donald Trump's top health official on Wednesday said evidence does not show that Kenvue's (KVUE.N), opens new tab pain medicine Tylenol definitively causes autism
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s comments also come one day after the Republican state of Texas sued the maker of the medicine, also known as acetaminophen and which has been sold widely for decades.
Starving kids is not only evil — it is a political loser
Here’s the ugly truth the House GOP can smell but won’t say out loud: they’ve already lost the shutdown, because Trump cancelled Thanksgiving.
They lost it the minute Trump turned the federal government into a hostage for his own vanity, and as a protection from the release of the Epstein files.
They lost it again when reality showed up with receipts; polls, long lines at food banks, missed paychecks, grounded flights, and, coming soon to an aisle near you, the SNAP freeze that wallops retailers from Walmart to your neighborhood Publix.
This isn’t 5D chess. It’s 1D cruelty dressed up as strategy, and it’s detonating in their faces. Even Little Mike Johnson, Trump’s latest meatbot who obviously finds self-abnegation and public embarrassment arousing, can’t hold it together too much longer.
The economic mood and wrong-track numbers are starting to point to a scenario where Mike Johnson’s 2026 looks like a 35-seat loss rather than a 20-seat loss.
Republicans have been telling themselves the usual bedtime story: “Shut it down, blame the other guy, ride out the storm.”
It’s a strategy that only works if the storm doesn’t make landfall and if your party doesn’t run every branch of government.
This time, the MAGA shutdown intersects with SNAP: real dollars, real families, and real retailers. Axios lays it out with brutal clarity: a SNAP payments halt means roughly $8 billion a month yanked out of grocery aisles.
That’s not a rounding error; that’s a category killer for Q4 revenue. Walmart and value-focused chains like Dollar General (all Trump donors, btw) are the most exposed.
Trump, 79, Grudgingly Mumbles that He Really Can’t Run Again
Donald Trump has apparently, kind of, grudgingly accepted that he will not be able to seek an unconstitutional third term in the White House.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday, the 79-year-old president conceded that the Constitution makes it “pretty clear” he is not allowed to run for office again at the end of his second and final term.
“It’s a very interesting thing. I have the best numbers for any president in many years,” Trump said, despite recording all-time low approval ratings. “And I would say that, if you read it, it’s pretty clear. I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad,” he added.
And don’t forget → Trump couldn't (legitimately) win a third term If he tried
Trump, who is now 79, is the oldest person ever elected president. His physical and mental decline is undeniable.
Indeed, there was a bizarre irony in Trump teasing an illegal third term during the same gaggle where he boasted about acing his latest dementia test and receiving a “perfect” MRI during the mysterious trip he made to Walter Reed recently for his second “annual physical” of the year.
Forgetting about the Constitution — a potential title for any book about this administration — Trump even considering serving until he’s 86 is absurd when voters have stated resoundingly that they don’t want a president that old. The media never stopped pointing this out during Biden’s presidency.
What’s astonishing about the media’s “third term” coverage is how it doesn’t clearly state the obvious: Voters are openly rejecting Trump, as seen in poll after poll.
The president’s approval rating in The Economist’s tracker has fallen to -18, which is lower than any point in his first term. (He has a dismal 39 percent approval and 57 percent disapproval.) Trump’s overall approval is a net negative, not just in states Kamala Harris won in 2024, but in all seven swing states that he carried plus Texas.
Cracks are growing
Farm-state Republicans finally reach their breaking point
For President Donald Trump, it was a brief musing to reporters on Air Force One about his plans to import beef from Argentina. For dozens of farm-state Republicans who have held their tongues as key Trump policies battered their constituents, it was the final straw.
GOP lawmakers in cattle-producing states unleashed a flurry of calls over the following days to the White House and the Agriculture Department. A small group of Republican senators, including retiring Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, cornered USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins in a private meeting less than 48 hours after the Oct. 19 comment.
it has exposed the limits of GOP lawmakers’ tolerance for policies that have especially tested states heavy on agriculture.
Even in the Trump-loyal House, key Republicans are pushing back.
Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and Reps. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), and Greg Steube (R-Fla.), along with 11 other House Republicans, warned against Trump’s beef move, according to a letter sent Tuesday to Rollins and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that was obtained exclusively by POLITICO.
Senate rejects Trump’s global tariffs, the final vote in a series of rebukes
For the third time in three days, the Senate was asked whether it approves of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. And for the third time, they said “no.”
This time, the vote was to end the national emergency Trump used to declare global “reciprocal” tariffs, the sweeping duties of between 10 and 50 percent that he imposed on nearly every country in the world this summer.
The vote passed 51-47, with the same group of four Republican senators crossing party lines as on previous votes this week disapproving of Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Brazil:
Rand Paul
of Kentucky,
Lisa Murkowski
of Alaska,
Susan Collins
of Maine and
Mitch McConnell
of Kentucky.
A similar vote in April failed due to the absence of McConnell and Sen.
Sheldon Whitehouse
(D-R.I.).
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday he expects to meet soon with a group of rank-and-file House Democrats about ending the 29-day-and-counting government shutdown.
The Courts Hold Strong
A federal judge in Rhode Island orders the Trump administration to pay SNAP benefits during the shutdown.
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to continue paying for food stamps during the government shutdown, siding with local officials and nonprofits that had sought to spare millions of poor Americans from losing benefits in a matter of days.
The decision from Judge John J. McConnell, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, required the Trump administration to tap a set of emergency reserves to pay benefits “as soon as possible” next month.
Ninth Circuit Restores Block on Trump’s Portland National Guard Deployment
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals voted to rehear President Donald Trump’s Portland National Guard case Tuesday — a step that vacates an earlier ruling that allowed Trump to federalize Oregon’s troops and deploy them against local protests.
Chief Judge Mary Murguia, appointed by former President Barack Obama, announced the decision stating that “upon the vote of a majority of nonrecused active judges, it is ordered that this case be reheard en banc.” The order explicitly dismisses the extreme panel opinion that had sided with Trump.
Judge extends order barring the Trump administration from firing federal workers during the shutdown
federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday indefinitely barred the Trump administration from firing federal employees during the government shutdown, saying that labor unions were likely to prevail on their claims that the cuts were arbitrary and politically motivated.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston granted a preliminary injunction that bars the firings while a lawsuit challenging them plays out. She had previously issued a temporary restraining order against the job cuts that was set to expire Wednesday.
Illston, who was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton, has said she believes the evidence will ultimately show the mass firings were illegal and in excess of authority.
DOJ tried to subpoena an online trans health care provider. A judge quashed it.
A federal judge has dealt a fresh blow to the Trump administration’s attempt to crack down on doctors who provide gender-affirming care to transgender people.
U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead ruled that a wide-ranging subpoena the Justice Department served in June on QueerDoc, a medical practice offering gender-affirming care online, cannot be enforced because the demand was not part of a legitimate law enforcement investigation.
Whitehead, a Biden appointee, said it was apparent that the subpoena is intended to advance President Donald Trump’s goal of wiping out such care for people with gender dysphoria.
Judge disqualifies Trump-appointed US attorney in California
A federal judge disqualified President Trump’s pick for chief federal prosecutor in Los Angeles from several cases after finding he is serving in the temporary post unlawfully.
U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright ruled Tuesday that Bill Essayli, acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, should have left the position by the end of July, when the clock on his 120-day interim term ran out.
Trump’s Getting Thumped in Court
Our courts are slow. They are methodical. And they simply weren’t designed to keep pace with a White House bent on destruction.
Over time, and with patience, our judges built their case records, closed off avenues of escape, and began meting out orders faster than new and inexperienced DOJ leaders could react. Unforced errors by the government mounted. And even the captive Supreme Court majority has done little but play kick the can—and lately has even drawn some notable lines.
The result is a stunning set of recent setbacks for the Trump regime:
-
disqualifications of several U.S. attorneys personally selected by Trump;
-
the unprecedented loss of the “presumption of regularity” in prosecutions;
-
cases thrown out over official misconduct;
-
dozens of publicly admitted misrepresentations; and
-
discovery ordered on possible vindictive and selective prosecution.
These broad buckets are best understood through specific examples, so let’s look at some within each to show how things are looking pretty rotten for the Trump White House.
Other Good News
Iranian women flout law on mandatory veiling as police curtail arrests
Defiance of hijab requirements has grown widespread across Iran. The government seems wary of cracking down, fearing unrest.
These urban scenes — seemingly mundane in much of the world but striking in Iran — illustrate how common it has become for Iranian women to flout the law, in place for over four decades, requiring they cover their hair and dress modestly in public
More than three years after mass protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish Iranian woman who had been detained by police over her dress, open defiance of compulsory hijab is widespread not just in the teeming metropolis of Tehran but also in smaller cities like Rasht and more conservative areas such as Kermanshah, Hamedan and Dezful, according to interviews, videos and local news coverage.
And finally, as we have talked about before, the flight delays and cancelations because of this mess is likely to be the thing that leads Rs to cave. They don’t care about healthcare and food for the poor, but they do care about their rich friends being able to fly. So this, from the NYT is good news:
Staffing issues at air traffic control facilities are causing another day of travel delays.
Insufficient staffing at air traffic control facilities was poised to cause a second day of widespread delays on Friday, as several large airports reported service interruptions.
What can you do to save democracy?
First, continue to find joy in your life! Don’t let that fuckface live rent free in your mind! This is your life!!!!!
Second, if you can, it is time to start donating. I set up a fundraising page!
It splits our donations among the 15 seats held by Republicans in swing districts. These are seats that were either won by a margin of 4% or less or were won by Harris in 2024. In other words, these are seats we can win in 2026. None of them are in CA or TX (and thus likely to be redistricted). Any money you donate will go directly to whomever our candidate will be in 2026. We only need to flip three of these!
Here is the link:
Some other ways to get involved
-
If you can, I strongly recommend going to an in person meeting in your area. One way to find a local group is through indivisible: indivisibleproject.formstack.com/…
- Join the truth brigade! Grassroots-powered lie-stopping. Person by person; mind by openewww.dailykos.com/...d mind
-
Election Response Center is a project hosted by Working Families Party, MoveOn Civic Action, Indivisible, and Public Citizen. They are organizing lots of events to get people fighting. Join one at this link
-
The ACLU plays a key role in filing lawsuits that often stop voter suppression. Get involved with them at this link.
-
Get involved with the Democratic party. We aren’t perfect, but they are fucking evil.
- Get involved with the States Project They are working on turning state legislatures blue
- Get involved with Swing Left. They are working on races right now!
- People For the American Way is a national progressive advocacy organization that inspires and mobilizes Americans to defend freedom, justice, and democracy from those who threaten to take them away. Get involved with them here
- Center for American Progress Action Fund is an independent, nonpartisan policy institute and advocacy organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Get involved with them here
Looking for something more specific?
Want to focus on the ENVIRONMENT:
Want to focus on CIVIL RIGHTS:
HUMAN RIGHTS - GENERALLY:
LGBTQ+:
WOMEN:
Huge thanks to DKos user dabug for help with this list.
Don’t let the options overwhelm you! Try to pick one thing and see if it calls to you. If it doesn’t find something else.
There are so many ways to get involved and help!
Some inspiration before I say goodbye
“Whatever happens, stay alive.
Don't die before you're dead.
Don't lose yourself, don't lose hope, don't lose direction.
Stay alive, with yourself, with every cell of your body, with every fiber of your skin.
Stay alive, learn, study, think, read, build, invent, create, speak, write, dream, design.
Stay alive, stay alive inside you, stay alive also outside, fill yourself with colors of the world, fill yourself with peace, fill yourself with hope.
Stay alive with joy.
There is only one thing you should not waste in life,
and that's life itself..."
by Virginia Woolf
.
At Albany Bulb with Elaine
By Alison Luterman
Side by side on a log by the bay.
Sunlight. Unleashed dogs,
prancing through surf, almost exploding
out of their skins with perfect happiness.
Dogs who don't know about fired park rangers,
or canceled health research, or tariff wars,
or the suicide hotline for veterans getting defunded,
or or or. We've listed horror upon horror
to each other for weeks now, and it does no good,
so instead I tell her how I held a two-day old baby
in my arms, inhaling him like a fresh-baked loaf of bread,
then watched as a sneeze erupted through his body
like a tiny volcano. It was the look of pure
astonishment on his face, as if he were Adam
in the garden of Eden making his debut achoo,
as if it were the first sneeze that ever blew,
that got me. She tells me how her dog
once farted so loudly he startled himself
and fell off the bed where he'd been lolling,
and then the two of us start to laugh so hard
we almost fall off our own log. And this
is our resistance for today; remembering
original innocence. And they can't
take it away from us, though they ban
our very existence, though they slash
our rights to ribbons, we will have
our mirth and our birthright gladness.
Long after every unsold Tesla
has vaporized, and earth has closed over
even the names of these temporary tyrants,
somewhere some women like us
will be sitting side by side, facing the water,
telling human stories and laughing still.
.
please, keep this in mind when you despair:
x
The Third Reich didn't last 1,000 years.Pinochet was ousted with a referendum.And the US isn't exactly dealing with the smartest, most competent fascists.Those of you insisting that 2025 is forever need to read a book, touch grass, go to therapy, anything other than trying to make others quit.
— Nicholas Grossman (@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social) 2025-09-18T15:02:19.789Z
I am so proud and so lucky to be in this with all of you. ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 💙❤️💛💚✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿
