Brent, this is a very important article that I’ve been passing around everywhere I can…I hope you don’t mind! We absolutely can learn from those who have gone before, who’ve taken down dictators and restored democracy. Thanks so much for this!
I love this! It seems like the Vermont protest against Vance was effective and therefore a successful beta test. We need to do more of that! Should we protest at whatever golf course Trump frequents?
We just protested at Thom Tillis office in Greensboro, NC yesterday. 350 people outside at a busy intersection, yelling carrying signs, honks of agreement from drivers. Then 50 to 75 people went inside to his office and graced them with some more rowdy chants. I feel like it was successful. The peole felt better. I think people are ready to join in, regardless of what Dem leadership says. We cant wait!
We protested outside Ben Cline's office in little Roanoke, VA had almost 400 people there! There were also a lot of honks and waves of approval from passersby. IMO people are angry, really angry.
I love this! If Trump did anything good, it was infusing our collective action with WAY more meaning than before. Have you guys signed on to the General Strike? https://generalstrikeus.com/strikecard
After reading your post I found more interesting information on Otpor! and how they were able to, non-violently, rid themselves of Milosevic and embrace Democracy. There’s also a good video narrated by Martin Sheen on YouTube that documents the non-violent grassroots process they went through during that time “Bringing Down a Dictator” ICNC. Fascinating, thank you for this post.🇺🇸✊
Yes, that film is where I got the description for the washing machine commercial :) Everyone should watch it. It's only an hour long and free on YouTube. Everyone should also watch Srdja Popovic's TED talk.
So Brent, I just couldn't get your post out of my mind and just wanted you know it gave me hope, has made me more tenacious and has inspired me to put down the following thoughts I have been trying to synthesize into something coherent. So here goes . . .
I have seen the standard of living in Missouri (really red state) peak in the early 1980s, and it has been in severe decline since then, as some have so astutely observed, it is by design of the former "elites" which is now the billionaire class and owners of multi-national corporations. But a wellspring of resistance is forming, so there is HOPE. Our ancestors were resolute, worked so hard and sacrificed too much for us to let this illegal sale of our country and traitorous coup happen without relentless RESISTANCE; we owe that to them and it is how we honor their example. So, we MUST continue to stand up, speak out, organize and take action against this evil tyranny. AND, if they start killing our kids on college campuses like "Tin solders and Nixon" did at Kent State, we must be ready to lay down our lives. There are many of us praying every day this does not happen. But too many of our citizens have not learned the bitter history lessons of WWII in addition to the tragedy and turmoil of the 60s and 70s in this country. And some of the comments I've seen to reasonable posts on substack and other media are so cruel, racist, heartless, inhumane and diabolical, I can only fantasize that they were written by bots, but I'm not naive enough to rule out that some were written by my fellow Americans.
There's a cultural trend of corporatization that is pushing costs up and salaries down everywhere. But it'll hit red states harder as governors and mayors help the largest players decimate the chances of small businesses to compete. They think"meritocracy" or "to the winners go the spoils" is good for society when it's the opposite. My heart goes out. The good news is, like you said, there is are legitimate claims of harm and real energy behind a resistance against that trend. Please let me know, I'll help in any way I can.
I'd have to say that his cabinet invoking the 25th is one of the worst of all possible outcomes. That would leave the Project 2025 crew in power! We need to eject all of them, including and especially that fake Hillbilly Putz Vance.
We need to sweep both chambers in 2026. We need to ditch Johnson.
We need so much more. We'll need not only an endgame, but a post endgame. We need amendments to shore up Constitutional weaknesses to ensure such abuses never occur again.
Then the hard work of repairing the damage done by Krasnov and crew, and restoring this country as much as possible.
Thank you for this article! It's inspiring. Research shows that inspiration is the only emotion that can outshine outrage. Like you said we need to build momentum and wait for the right time to strike. The leadership has already shown a light on their cowardice. Every day they show greater weakness in the face of our legacy. We all have to continue in little ways to resist and plan and use protests as litmus tests for what is and what isn't effective. We can bring this to an end but we have to work together and bring as many people into the fold as possible. To me seems like a movement against billionaires have the most support from everyone. Bernie is already lighting the fire and sounding the alarm.
Thank you for this information. Not only do I want Trump ousted from office, I also want him ousted from America. Why should he live in comfort in Mar-a-Lago and why should he be allowed to live in a democracy that he is trying to destroy.
You hinted at it, but there's one more thing that works beautifully - mocking. Dictators hate, truly hate to be mocked. It's hard for us imagine why an all-powerful man is so obsessed with his image, but there it is - mocking grieves them to the deepest caverns of their soul.
Hippo Don (and let's be honest, he looks like a Hippo, right, especially when he's doing his Mussolini imitation?) is no exception to this rule. The one thing he hates above all else is not being taken seriously, and what is mocking other than not taking someone seriously?
We must mock Hippo Don any chance we get, and then sooner rather than later the curtains are drawn back, and we get to see what a vindictive little (and small handed) imitation of man he really is...
He wasnt taken seriously when everyone knew Pvtin pulled his strings. His standing is even worse now sice he added Mvsk to the mix. Now he's got 2 puppeteers. He's third in line and an insecure schmuck. He has a lot of fodder fo mocking.
An Orange Hippo. Actually, that's an insult to hippos.
Aside from that, I think you nailed it with this. Trumpkopf is known to have a rice paper thin skin, as do all narcissists.
So, yeah, we should mock the shit out of him. Come to think of it, haven't we been doing that already? I and many others have referred to him as "His Orange MAGA Majesty", "King MAGA", "Trumpkopf", "Trumpsky" - and the related "President Krasnov", "Fellon47", "The Orange Turd", and so much more.
Excellent article. The US is a big country which some may argue will be difficult to unite in driving Conold out of office. But some research suggests it only take a small percentage of the population to rise up to catalyse wider unrest: if the order of 3%. The number doesn’t matter much: the size and frequency do. As protests expand and happen more frequently, more people will join them. Place matters as well; in large public spaces and small - like schools, universities and against media facilities themselves. Force FOX and
Sinclair outlets into the open by protesting at their offices and propaganda sites. Well done. 👍
Brent great article. I have saved it to a subdirectory in my laptop called "RESISTANCE". I will send the link to the article and send as many people to your substack as I can! Thanks for the facts, insight and great analysis.
Hi Lisa, I know, I totally share your haziness on how this all shakes out. What I gleaned from researching this piece is that mass demonstrations are almost always the impetus that pushes each of these mechanisms - impeachment, resignation, military removal, etc. - to become more possible. Large shows of force create a zeitgeist, a cultural upswing behind an idea that forms a new community. And humans are starving to join communities with which they vibe on a cellular level. So many people are on the couch, exhausted. It's these dynamic mass actions that dangle a sense of meaning in front of those people to take their own actions. But they'll never learn about them, or think they're "worth it," unless demonstrations are provocative enough to break through to the mainstream.
For the past 47 days we the people (well some of us) have been venting about the assinine behavior of Orange SHitler, giving an unelected migrant carte balance access to everything, pardoned his fellow treasonous felons and convicts, licking Putin’s ass and destroying our democracy… Then on March 4 he had the effrontery to spew his lies and treachery on a national scale while the opposition sat submissively (Thank You Rep. Al Green for standing up for truth) and courteously.
It’s time for action. Let’s keep in mind that the longer this is allowed to continue, the harder it will be to stop it.. it’s called behavioral inertia. It’s akin to the apathy we feel toward gun violence - a 3 year old fatally shoots a 5 year old and it’s another day in America!
We have read the history books, seen the movies, heard the accounts… there will come a time where ‘following orders’ will lead to the death of innocents. We clearly cannot wait for the representatives in the legislature nor the judiciary to act, they’ve proven they don’t care to. We must take to the streets. We cannot go on boycotting corporate businesses one day and the next continue as if nothing is awry. Here’s hoping a leader rises up !! I’ve run out of expletives to describe this shitshow..
Excellent. Sharing with my peeps. Btw I understand that Nixon chose to resign because of Watergate (he knew there was a good chance he’d be impeached). And LBJ chose not to run because of the Vietnam War protests.
Also another interesting, related case is the fall of Assad. A very modest military operation and his own security apparently collapsed and he fled. Shows how things can change on a dime. Apparently his supporters within the regime no longer believed he could protect them or that they would continue to benefit from him: either fear of him or a belief he would enrich them dissolved. I just wonder how to get GOP electeds to change.
One other example I might look at are how mafias, org crime or gangs fall apart. Don’t know if that would be instructive. But apparently many if not all GOP electeds are being intimidated. Thanks for reading.
Brent, this is a very important article that I’ve been passing around everywhere I can…I hope you don’t mind! We absolutely can learn from those who have gone before, who’ve taken down dictators and restored democracy. Thanks so much for this!
Omgosh I’m flattered and so happy you find it useful. Thank you 😊
Are you kidding? You pulled all of this history together for us!
Oh wow, thanks for the reminder. I just restacked it.
I love this! It seems like the Vermont protest against Vance was effective and therefore a successful beta test. We need to do more of that! Should we protest at whatever golf course Trump frequents?
We just protested at Thom Tillis office in Greensboro, NC yesterday. 350 people outside at a busy intersection, yelling carrying signs, honks of agreement from drivers. Then 50 to 75 people went inside to his office and graced them with some more rowdy chants. I feel like it was successful. The peole felt better. I think people are ready to join in, regardless of what Dem leadership says. We cant wait!
We protested outside Ben Cline's office in little Roanoke, VA had almost 400 people there! There were also a lot of honks and waves of approval from passersby. IMO people are angry, really angry.
I love this! If Trump did anything good, it was infusing our collective action with WAY more meaning than before. Have you guys signed on to the General Strike? https://generalstrikeus.com/strikecard
I just signed on and bookmarked the site to my "Democracy" bookmarks folder.
When we protested in front of Faux Newspeak headquarters in NYC this past Tuesday, we also had drivers honking in solidarity. It was pretty awesome.
That's a great idea! Sign me up!
When the vice president was here many weeks ago, skiing, black hawk helicopters provided security.
After reading your post I found more interesting information on Otpor! and how they were able to, non-violently, rid themselves of Milosevic and embrace Democracy. There’s also a good video narrated by Martin Sheen on YouTube that documents the non-violent grassroots process they went through during that time “Bringing Down a Dictator” ICNC. Fascinating, thank you for this post.🇺🇸✊
Yes, that film is where I got the description for the washing machine commercial :) Everyone should watch it. It's only an hour long and free on YouTube. Everyone should also watch Srdja Popovic's TED talk.
So Brent, I just couldn't get your post out of my mind and just wanted you know it gave me hope, has made me more tenacious and has inspired me to put down the following thoughts I have been trying to synthesize into something coherent. So here goes . . .
I have seen the standard of living in Missouri (really red state) peak in the early 1980s, and it has been in severe decline since then, as some have so astutely observed, it is by design of the former "elites" which is now the billionaire class and owners of multi-national corporations. But a wellspring of resistance is forming, so there is HOPE. Our ancestors were resolute, worked so hard and sacrificed too much for us to let this illegal sale of our country and traitorous coup happen without relentless RESISTANCE; we owe that to them and it is how we honor their example. So, we MUST continue to stand up, speak out, organize and take action against this evil tyranny. AND, if they start killing our kids on college campuses like "Tin solders and Nixon" did at Kent State, we must be ready to lay down our lives. There are many of us praying every day this does not happen. But too many of our citizens have not learned the bitter history lessons of WWII in addition to the tragedy and turmoil of the 60s and 70s in this country. And some of the comments I've seen to reasonable posts on substack and other media are so cruel, racist, heartless, inhumane and diabolical, I can only fantasize that they were written by bots, but I'm not naive enough to rule out that some were written by my fellow Americans.
There's a cultural trend of corporatization that is pushing costs up and salaries down everywhere. But it'll hit red states harder as governors and mayors help the largest players decimate the chances of small businesses to compete. They think"meritocracy" or "to the winners go the spoils" is good for society when it's the opposite. My heart goes out. The good news is, like you said, there is are legitimate claims of harm and real energy behind a resistance against that trend. Please let me know, I'll help in any way I can.
Whoa, "Tin solders and Nixon". Neil Young.
Great handle BTW. I'm thinking of usurping "Nathan Hale": "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country". I just love that quote.
Thanks Winston. Keep telling people, we are NOT the crazy ones!
Anyone who thinks we're crazy didn't study grade school history!
Excellent Paul.
This is exactly the information I've been looking for. Thank you!
A lot of great ideas presented here. Thank you.
I'd have to say that his cabinet invoking the 25th is one of the worst of all possible outcomes. That would leave the Project 2025 crew in power! We need to eject all of them, including and especially that fake Hillbilly Putz Vance.
We need to sweep both chambers in 2026. We need to ditch Johnson.
We need so much more. We'll need not only an endgame, but a post endgame. We need amendments to shore up Constitutional weaknesses to ensure such abuses never occur again.
Then the hard work of repairing the damage done by Krasnov and crew, and restoring this country as much as possible.
Thank you for this article! It's inspiring. Research shows that inspiration is the only emotion that can outshine outrage. Like you said we need to build momentum and wait for the right time to strike. The leadership has already shown a light on their cowardice. Every day they show greater weakness in the face of our legacy. We all have to continue in little ways to resist and plan and use protests as litmus tests for what is and what isn't effective. We can bring this to an end but we have to work together and bring as many people into the fold as possible. To me seems like a movement against billionaires have the most support from everyone. Bernie is already lighting the fire and sounding the alarm.
Absolutely, could not agree more!
Thank you for this information. Not only do I want Trump ousted from office, I also want him ousted from America. Why should he live in comfort in Mar-a-Lago and why should he be allowed to live in a democracy that he is trying to destroy.
You hinted at it, but there's one more thing that works beautifully - mocking. Dictators hate, truly hate to be mocked. It's hard for us imagine why an all-powerful man is so obsessed with his image, but there it is - mocking grieves them to the deepest caverns of their soul.
Hippo Don (and let's be honest, he looks like a Hippo, right, especially when he's doing his Mussolini imitation?) is no exception to this rule. The one thing he hates above all else is not being taken seriously, and what is mocking other than not taking someone seriously?
We must mock Hippo Don any chance we get, and then sooner rather than later the curtains are drawn back, and we get to see what a vindictive little (and small handed) imitation of man he really is...
He wasnt taken seriously when everyone knew Pvtin pulled his strings. His standing is even worse now sice he added Mvsk to the mix. Now he's got 2 puppeteers. He's third in line and an insecure schmuck. He has a lot of fodder fo mocking.
“his Mussolini imitation” or how he looks in his golf clothes - definitely dumpy Don!
Trumpty-Dumpty!
An Orange Hippo. Actually, that's an insult to hippos.
Aside from that, I think you nailed it with this. Trumpkopf is known to have a rice paper thin skin, as do all narcissists.
So, yeah, we should mock the shit out of him. Come to think of it, haven't we been doing that already? I and many others have referred to him as "His Orange MAGA Majesty", "King MAGA", "Trumpkopf", "Trumpsky" - and the related "President Krasnov", "Fellon47", "The Orange Turd", and so much more.
There's just so much to mock in him.
He makes it so easy!
Excellent article. The US is a big country which some may argue will be difficult to unite in driving Conold out of office. But some research suggests it only take a small percentage of the population to rise up to catalyse wider unrest: if the order of 3%. The number doesn’t matter much: the size and frequency do. As protests expand and happen more frequently, more people will join them. Place matters as well; in large public spaces and small - like schools, universities and against media facilities themselves. Force FOX and
Sinclair outlets into the open by protesting at their offices and propaganda sites. Well done. 👍
Thank you so much!
Such a good article- thank you!!
Brent great article. I have saved it to a subdirectory in my laptop called "RESISTANCE". I will send the link to the article and send as many people to your substack as I can! Thanks for the facts, insight and great analysis.
Oh, amazing, thank you!!
Brent, this is most certainly impacting account of history, thank you for that.
However, I don't know what will oust the gang at the helm of our nation who continue to grift, steal, pander dictator(s). Impeach?
Hi Lisa, I know, I totally share your haziness on how this all shakes out. What I gleaned from researching this piece is that mass demonstrations are almost always the impetus that pushes each of these mechanisms - impeachment, resignation, military removal, etc. - to become more possible. Large shows of force create a zeitgeist, a cultural upswing behind an idea that forms a new community. And humans are starving to join communities with which they vibe on a cellular level. So many people are on the couch, exhausted. It's these dynamic mass actions that dangle a sense of meaning in front of those people to take their own actions. But they'll never learn about them, or think they're "worth it," unless demonstrations are provocative enough to break through to the mainstream.
Well noted Brent. Thank you for this take to participate enough to (hopefully) break through and make changes, or better yet, to defend our democracy.
For the past 47 days we the people (well some of us) have been venting about the assinine behavior of Orange SHitler, giving an unelected migrant carte balance access to everything, pardoned his fellow treasonous felons and convicts, licking Putin’s ass and destroying our democracy… Then on March 4 he had the effrontery to spew his lies and treachery on a national scale while the opposition sat submissively (Thank You Rep. Al Green for standing up for truth) and courteously.
It’s time for action. Let’s keep in mind that the longer this is allowed to continue, the harder it will be to stop it.. it’s called behavioral inertia. It’s akin to the apathy we feel toward gun violence - a 3 year old fatally shoots a 5 year old and it’s another day in America!
We have read the history books, seen the movies, heard the accounts… there will come a time where ‘following orders’ will lead to the death of innocents. We clearly cannot wait for the representatives in the legislature nor the judiciary to act, they’ve proven they don’t care to. We must take to the streets. We cannot go on boycotting corporate businesses one day and the next continue as if nothing is awry. Here’s hoping a leader rises up !! I’ve run out of expletives to describe this shitshow..
I agree. It’s time.
Excellent. Sharing with my peeps. Btw I understand that Nixon chose to resign because of Watergate (he knew there was a good chance he’d be impeached). And LBJ chose not to run because of the Vietnam War protests.
Also another interesting, related case is the fall of Assad. A very modest military operation and his own security apparently collapsed and he fled. Shows how things can change on a dime. Apparently his supporters within the regime no longer believed he could protect them or that they would continue to benefit from him: either fear of him or a belief he would enrich them dissolved. I just wonder how to get GOP electeds to change.
One other example I might look at are how mafias, org crime or gangs fall apart. Don’t know if that would be instructive. But apparently many if not all GOP electeds are being intimidated. Thanks for reading.
Thank you for pulling the is all together.
https://l.smartnews.com/p-jrGrSqZ/eCx7jS
A NATO ally figured out the trick to getting weapons to Ukraine cheaper and faster. It could be critical