20250314

Resistance to Trump is everywhere — inside the first 50 days of mass protest

From mass refusals to boycotts to walkouts, regular Americans are bravely pushing back against the administration. Their actions are diverse and multiplying — and already having an impact.

It’s been a long six weeks since Donald Trump was sworn into office amid a Nazi salute and a machine-gun barrage of 89 executive orders. We’ve been struggling for our lives, our country and our world ever since.

From boycotts to mass noncompliance to street demonstrations, the response to the Trump administration’s policies has consisted of an impressive range of nonviolent tactics.

More than just outraged protests, people are thwarting raids, refusing to obey unjust orders, standing up to bully politics and taking risks to do the right thing. The resistance is diverse, multi-stranded and feisty — and some of it is working.

Protesters demand Hill hold town hall

Heartened by honking and other displays of support from passersby, hundreds of people gathered near U.S. Rep. French Hill’s Little Rock office to request he hold a town hall and to protest the Trump administration on Thursday.

Seven Slivers of Optimism

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But for this day, let’s not be swept up by all that besets us and clouds our vision of a more positive future. Let’s not be overwhelmed or riven with doubt and negativity. Let’s take a look at seven slivers of optimism.

1. The stock market has turned on Trump.
2. Trump’s hypocrisy was right out in the open this week when he turned the grounds of our White House into a Tesla showroom.
3. Americans are getting angrier and they’re not hiding it.
4. The Oval Office ambush of Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky and the betrayal of our democratic ally may be the most disgraceful and demeaning public behavior of any American president and vice president in our history. … While this devolving turn of events is a tragedy, it has also illuminated the continuing and deep commitment of Europeans to the democratic project and its defining values and principles of justice, freedom and independence.
5. Trump promised immediate and mass deportations once he took office. So far, at least, he has failed to fulfill that pledge, even though he has succeeded in striking fear …
6. The threat of Trump and his enablers refusing to accept court rulings is a real thing and a clear expression of a constitutional crisis. But we can be encouraged by well over a hundred lawsuits seeking to stop the regime’s illegal actions.
7. And then there’s Canada, Oh, Canada, our good and decent neighbor to the north.

Even more reasons for very modest optimism

Ex-GOP Rep: Furious Anti-Musk Town Halls Are ‘Scaring’ Republicans

RISING RAGE
A congressman from North Carolina was the latest to face voters’ wrath over the billionaire’s DOGE cuts.

JD Vance Suffers Embarrassing Flood of Boos at Kennedy Center Show

The Democracy Index

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1. on Thursday, Judge William Alsup in the Northern District of California slapped down the White House’s effort to fire scores of federal workers, and ordered a number of agencies — including Treasury and Defense — to reinstate terminated employees.
2. on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Judge Beryl Howell stopped the Trump Administration from enforcing key portions of an Executive Order targeting the law firm Perkins Coie, ruling that the Order likely violated the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.
3. the Trump Administration’s Alice in Wonderland approach to the rule of law — “sentence first, verdict afterwards” — is also playing out in the detention and attempted deportation of the activist Mahmoud Khalil. … Judge Jesse Furman’s swift actions allowed Khalil to speak privately with his attorneys for the first time since he was apprehended.
4. back in D.C., Judge Tanya Chutkan allowed the states challenging the constitutionality of DOGE and Elon Musk’s role in the government to obtain expedited discovery in their litigation.

Undaunted: Judge Beryl Howell holds the line

She not only reaches the indisputably right results but also educates other lawyers and the public at large about Trump’s authoritarian actions.
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Judge Beryl A. Howell, who recently took senior status on the D.C. district court after seven years as chief judge, has been among the most impressive. In her opinion granting Perkins Coie’s request for a temporary restraining order halting implementation of a vindictive executive order barring the firm’s lawyers from government buildings and prohibiting the federal government from hiring the firm or from using contractors who work with it. “To the extent that this executive order appears to be an instance of President Trump using taxpayer dollars in government resources to pursue what is a wholly personal vendetta, advancing such political payback is not something which the government has a cognizable interest,” she wrote.

[however] Trump suspends security clearance of people at Paul Weiss law firm

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• Is This the End of Social Security & Hegseth Renames Military Base to Honor Racist Traitor

  [still wishing Kareem would keep more content in front of paywall]
  

  • Kareem’s Daily Quote: Once again, I misread something and came up with a meaningful quote. Apparently, my blurred vision gives me more insight.
    
    …
    “I quit, therefore I am” doesn’t say quitter to me, but someone who judiciously assesses life situations that seem to overwhelm them until it feels oppressive to the point of changing who they are or who they want to be. The act of quitting defines who they want to be. The 21 DOGE workers who quit out of protest. The Washington Post columnist who quit yesterday after her editorial criticizing Jeff Bezos was rejected. (FYI: I quit my subscription to the Post yesterday in support of the columnist: “A top ‘Washington Post’ columnist resigns, accusing publisher of killing piece.”)

    Quitting is a way to maintain the integrity of who you are, whether it’s quitting a heinous job, quitting a combative relationship, or quitting an unsupportive family. Sometimes jobs, relationships, and even families suck and they don’t deserve you. It takes guts and strength to abandon the comfort of the known for the uncertainty of the unknown. But, as Kenny Rogers sang, “You gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.” I know when to fold ‘em, therefore I am.

  • The End of Social Security?: A disruptive effect’: How slashing staff at the Social Security Administration is sparking fears the system could collapse: Trump promised Social Security was safe. Surprise: he lied.
  • Doctors Outraged Republican Congress To Allow Medicare Pay Cut: A lot of rural areas in red states will be devastated when their doctors move away and their clinics close. But it’s worth it if they can eliminate DEI.
  • Navy Vet Senator Fires Back at Musk’s ‘Traitor’ Insult: Musk calls a combat hero a traitor for supporting democracy.
  • Anger at Elon Musk turns violent with molotov cocktails and gunfire at Tesla lots: Reap the whirlwind, Elon.
  • Hegseth renames North Carolina military base Fort Roland L. Bragg and signals more change coming: In an effort to high-five racists, Hegseth renames a military base after a slaveholding traitor to the country—American exceptionalism at work.
  • Trump’s pick for US attorney for D.C. has history of inflammatory, racist comments: Looks like requirements for employment at the Trump administration include having accusations of sexual assault and/or posting racist comments.
  • ‘More than brick and mortar:’ DC begins removing ‘Black Lives Matter’ plaza near the White House: Republicans found another way to insult Black people and rewrite history.
  • No Comment Needed: A simple chart showing how Trump is tanking the economy.
  • Kareem’s Kvetching Korner: How Fox News Deliberately Misleads Its Audience: This is how you make fools of your audience. Will they even know or care?

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• Heather Cox Richardson – Letters from an American – March 13, 2025

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  In the wake of the dropping markets, Trump announced on his social media platform today that if the European Union did not drop its 50% tariff on whiskey, imposed as retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on aluminum and steel, he would impose a 200% tariff on all “WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES.” He added: “This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”

  In fact, journalist Dave Infante, who covers drinking in America at Fingers, noted that while it seems counterintuitive, such a tariff would “crush the US wine industry. Booze gets to market on distributors’ trucks,” he posted. “These fleets need volume to run efficiently. Subtract EU wine from the equation & it no longer pencils out. Any gains from less competition would likely be paid back out in margin loss.”

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• They’re coming for the right to protest

  Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest is an attack on the Constitution.
  
  …
  The administration has tried to dress up Khalil’s arrest as motivated by national security concerns, but their statements about his alleged transgressions show it’s far more about suppressing speech.

  Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the arrest by saying that Khalil had organized “group protests that not only disrupted college campus classes and harassed Jewish-American students and made them feel unsafe on their own college campus, but also distributed pro-Hamas propaganda, flyers with the logo of Hamas.” White House Counselor Alina Habba’s rationale was even more transparently bogus. She claimed on Fox that foreign students are not allowed to “hand out pamphlets in our country and try to infiltrate those terroristic thoughts … and if you bring that into our country, you can get the hell out.”

  ‘A Horrifying Escalation’: How Mahmoud Khalil’s Detention Could Galvanize Trump Opposition

  Pro-immigrant groups warn that the controversy can not, and should not, be just about free speech rights on college campuses.
  …
  “It’s a dangerous slippery slope they’ve started upon, claiming he’s supporting a foreign terrorist organization without bringing formal charges or demonstrating any formal connection to it,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) told The Bulwark. “What’s to stop them from claiming a legal permanent resident in Texas is somehow helping the cartels without formal charges or any evidence?”

  The circumstances of Khalil’s case, and the profound legal implications of it, have spurred a coalition of immigration, race, and legal advocacy groups to band together and demand justice.

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• The Trump administration destroyed classified USAID documents

  The investigative newsroom ProPublica uncovered a disturbing directive this week from USAID’s acting executive secretary, Erica Carr, to its remaining employees: Empty the safes with classified documents and “shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break.”

  It’s the latest example of the Trump administration directing federal agencies to engage in potentially illegal activities — and prompting swift legal action in response. Shortly after news broke, unions representing career diplomats and federal workers filed an emergency motion against the Trump administration to prevent USAID officials from violating federal law by destroying classified records.

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• The United States of Elon Musk Inc.

  The degree to which Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s interests are intertwined is unprecedented—and ultimately unsustainable.

  Union Blasts Musk Over Retweet Blaming Holocaust on Public Workers

  Early on Thursday morning, Elon Musk, who has led the efforts of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to purge tens of thousands of government workers on behalf of President Donald Trump, amplified a defense of Adolf Hitler on his social media platform, X. “Stalin, Mao and Hitler didn’t murder millions of people,” reads the post from a pseudonymous user, shared in a screenshot posted by a far-right account Musk follows. “Their public sector workers did.”

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• Senate Democrats Ritually Debase Themselves

  Schumer hands his lunch money to the fascists. Again.

  As of this writing, it appears that Senate Democrats are planning to once again remove their spines and genuflect gelatinously before the person and demands of Trump, Musk and fascism. This after House Democrats got their act together and voted virtuously unanimously against Elon Musk’s continuing resolution.

  Democrats Push AOC to Take Schumer’s Seat After Shutdown Surrender

  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has managed to do the impossible: unite almost the entire left (against him)

  It Is Not Chuck Schumer’s Job to Satisfy Your Emotional Needs

  Forcing a shutdown would be a show of ‘fighting,’ but it would not advance Democratic policy interests — in fact, it would hurt them, and the public as well. Schumer is right not to do it.

  Democrats should have shut it down

  The party’s risk aversion continues to harm it.

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• South Africa and ‘The Art of the Deal’

  It’s peculiar to see white South Africans as victims in need of refuge. They make up 7 percent of South Africa’s 2017 land audit, while black people comprise 81 percent of the population and own 4 percent of the land. The Trump administration, however, recently put out an executive order that privileges white South Africans.
  History underlies those statistics. The Natives Land Act in 1913 restricted black people from buying or renting land in “white South Africa.” Some faced forcible removal from their land. Others lost their land following passage in 1950 of the Group Areas Act, which amplified segregation by saying South Africa’s apartheid government could zone certain areas for use by a single race.” target=”_blank”>overall population but own 72 percent of the land, according to a 2017 land audit, while black people comprise 81 percent of the population and own 4 percent of the land. The Trump administration, however, recently put out an executive order that privileges white South Africans.

  History underlies those statistics. The Natives Land Act in 1913 restricted black people from buying or renting land in “white South Africa.” Some faced forcible removal from their land. Others lost their land following passage in 1950 of the Group Areas Act, which amplified segregation by saying South Africa’s apartheid government could zone certain areas for use by a single race.
  …
  Trump’s Truth Social post may be a leading indicator that he will drop his executive order’s racial discrimination. But some dropping of foreign aid will be hard to unwind. The Art of the Deal proudly describe show young Trump didn’t have enough blocks “to build a very tall building.” He asked his brother Robert, two years younger, “if I could borrow some of his, and he said, ‘Okay, but you have to give them back when you’re done.’”

  Trump and ghostwriter Schwartz wrote, “I ended up using all of my blocks, and then all of his, and when I was done, I’d created a beautiful building. I liked it so much that I glued the whole thing together. And that was the end of Robert’s blocks.”

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• 10 FAQs on MMR and Measles Protection

  TL;DR: MMR vaccines are highly effective and provide long-lasting protection. Outbreaks occur mainly among unvaccinated individuals.
  

  1. What is “up-to-date” on the measles vaccine? Do I need a booster?
  2. Should I check my titers? Does that help?
  3. Is there a reason NOT to get a booster for measles?
  4. Why do we need just two measles vaccines when we are young but an annual flu shot, for example?
  5. Is infection-induced immunity better than vaccine-induced immunity?
  6. Is a baby protected if their mom was fully vaccinated?
  7. Why wait until 12 months to get children vaccinated?
  8. Can I get measles if I’m fully vaccinated?
  9. If I am exposed, can I transmit measles?
  10. Do we have to wait for my child to be 4 years old for a second MMR dose?

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• Trump’s Imperial Fantasy: He Wants to Be Polk, McKinley, and Putin—All at Once

  From Polk to Putin, Trump’s picking the worst role models in history…
  
  Donald Trump has never been known for originality, but his latest act is his most dangerous yet — a desperate imitation of history’s most aggressive land-grabbers and strongmen. From James Polk’s expansionist conquest to William McKinley’s imperialist scheming to Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian crackdowns, Trump isn’t just following in their footsteps — he’s trying to outdo them all.

  Nobody has, to the best of my knowledge, ever argued that Trump is a particularly creative individual or an out-of-the-box thinker. He’s spent much of his life trying to imitate his late father’s real estate success, his former attorney Roy Cohn’s toughness (see the movie The Apprentice), and his personal life role model Jeffrey Epstein.

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• The Whistleblower Meta Is Trying to Silence

  An arbitrator has barred Sarah Wynn-Williams from promoting her explosive new book. We got one of the only interviews.

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• EU’s big Starlink headache is time, not money

  Musk: And there is no substitute for Starlink.
  Eutelsat can supply Ukraine with 40,000 terminals to replace Starlink

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• Trump ‘goes full fascist’ by declaring CNN and MSNBC criticizing him is ‘illegal’

  …
  “And I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me are political arms of the Democrat Party and in my opinion they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal, what they do is illegal,” Trump said.

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• Under Trump, AI Scientists Are Told to Remove ‘Ideological Bias’ From Powerful Models

  A directive from the National Institute of Standards and Technology eliminates mention of “AI safety” and “AI fairness.”

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• Trump Attorney General Turns DOJ Into Tesla Private Army

  Musk just bought himself an Attorney General

  Donald’s AG told Maria Bartiromo that if anyone touches a Tesla, the full weight of the DOJ will be coming after you.

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• Bill Gates Gives Up on Climate Change

  New reporting by Heatmap is signaling the end of a “major chapter in climate giving,” as Breakthrough Energy — Gates’ climate change nonprofit — has locked the doors on its policy and advocacy office, laying off dozens of employees throughout Europe and the US.

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• Hegseth closes Pentagon office focused on future wars
  

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  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the shuttering of the Office of Net Assessment, a small, often secretive and sometimes opaque office that for more than 50 years has helped the Pentagon’s most senior leaders think about the future of war.

  The office costs about $10 million to $20 million a year — a fraction of the Pentagon’s $850 billion annual budget — but its work and staff of about a dozen civilians and military officers has often had an outsize impact on how the Pentagon prepares for possible conflicts.