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The Encouragement You Need to Keep Going [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-14
First of all, if you are reading this before a No Kings rally in your area, and you are on the fence about going, I suggest you go! There is nothing that is more amazing than joining with like-minded people in community to raise our voices in non-violent protest.
You can find an event near you here: www.nokings.org
Look at what this map of where events are. We. Are. Everywhere!!!
last I checked, there were over 2000 events planned!
If you already went to an event, will you share pictures in the comments? Thanks!
Second, this was a really hard week, with trump and his idiots really pushing the boundaries of authoritarianism. It was really hard to see.
But never forget that they are doing those things because they are weak not because they are strong. They have no way to exert control other than through terrible means because they are weak. They are trying to distract us from their many failures because they are weak. They are fading in popularity as a sign of their weakness. Do not confuse this awful behavior for strength. It is the opposite.
Third, remember that panic sells. The articles about how awful things are and how panicked we need to be and how we are already toast, get the clicks. They get the attention. So there are more of them. And, I’ll be honest, there are people I really admire and follow who I see lean into this. Even with the people you like — even with the people who are on our side — make sure to take what they say with some grain of salt and think about whether we really are doomed. Remember, there is a wide, wide road between “things are very bad and serious” to “we are doomed.” Anyone telling you that things are not bad and serious is misleading you. Anyone telling you that we are doomed is also misleading you. Be a smart consumer of information and opinion. Some very smart and prominent people are causing panic in their drive to wake people up to the dangers. It is not helping.
Today, I’ll go over things that I hope will give you the encouragement to keep fighting. First, they are weak (despite what you might have heard otherwise). Second, we are strong (despite what you might have heard otherwise)! Third, the courts are holding up (despite what you might have heard otherwise). Finally, the Democrats are amazing (despite what you might have heard otherwise).
Let’s get to it.
They are weak
First of all, their approval is in the toilet. New Quinnipiac Poll:
Trump Approval-38%, Disapprove-54%
Approve of Budget Bill-27%, Disapprove-53%
Handling of immigration: Approve-43%, Disapprove-54%
Handling of economy: Approve-40%, Disapprove-56%
Handling of trade policy: Approve-38%, Disapprove-57%
Handling of universities: Approve-37%, Disapprove-54%
Handling of Russia-Ukraine war: Approve-34%, Disapprove-57%
and its not alone — New AP Poll: AP Poll
Trump Approval-39%, Disapprove - 60%.
and this! CNN Data Guru: ICE Raids Have Put Trump’s Approval Rating ‘Underwater’
President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, once his strongest issue with voters, may now be pummeling his approval ratings. On Friday’s broadcast of CNN News Central, CNN Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten said the president’s immigration policies and handling of subsequent protests have been “awful, awful, awful” for his ratings. In fact, Trump is now sitting at the lowest approval rating of his second term. “I said at the beginning of this week that Donald Trump wanted this fight,” said Enten during Friday’s broadcast. “Maybe he shouldn’t have.”
They don’t even like one another (who can blame them — they all suck!)
per punchbowl
Things are not going well inside the Senate GOP meeting with Stephen Miller, per sources. Sen. Ron Johnson and Miller got in a ‘shouting match’ over the border security funding number. Johnson said Miller’s numbers don’t add up. Lots of GOP senators leaving the room frustrated. Text from a GOP senator: “We’re fighting over an issue that unifies us. Can’t wrap my head around it.’”
Musk Lashes Out at ‘Dumb as F***’ Bannon as Their Public Feud Explodes
Elon Musk has escalated his war of words with Steve Bannon, branding the MAGA strategist “dumb as f---” over his remarks about Musk’s government contracts. Responding to a clip of Bannon’s comments early Tuesday, Musk fired back with his favorite slur. “Bannon is such a r------d liar. Dumber than a doorstop,” Musk wrote. “SpaceX revenue this year will be $15.5B and NASA is only worth $1.1B. “If Bannon’s dumb as f--- reasoning made any sense, then anyone who bought products from any company would automatically own that company,” Musk added. “Bannon is truly peak r-----d.” The exchange is the latest escalation in a bitter feud between the MAGA heavyweights, which has also seen Bannon call for Musk’s deportation.
MAGA War on Trump Over Israel’s ‘Excellent’ Iran Strike
President Donald Trump is facing a MAGA firestorm over Israel’s deadly strike against Iran, with some of his staunchest supporters warning that U.S. involvement could split the base that got him elected. But the escalation in the Middle East has ignited a war within MAGA ranks and put the president under growing pressure to keep America out of the conflict. As the prospect of an Israeli attack began to escalate on Thursday, MAGA activist Jack Posobiec took to social media to warn that “a direct strike on Iran right now would disastrously split the Trump coalition. “Trump smartly ran against starting new wars, this is what the swing states voted for - the midterms are not far and Congress’ majority is already razor-thin. America First!” Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk raised concerns that the issue could cause “a massive schism in MAGA and potentially disrupt our momentum and our insanely successful Presidency.” GOP war hawks such as Fox News host Mark Levin, who has been pushing for the U.S. to abandon nuclear talks and give the green light to strike, took a different view.
And their aggression in LA is actually weakness, and it will bit them in the ass:
What History Shows About Sending in Troops to Crush Protests
Deploying active-duty service members to quell domestic unrest is a rare occurrence, and it is at odds with the nation’s founding principles, which included a healthy skepticism of large, standing armies and their use to control civilian populations. But it isn’t without precedent. The lesson for Trump and his party is clear: If the public believes the president is acting in the service of public safety, he will likely enjoy sufficient support or acquiescence. But if voters believe he is using the military as a blunt instrument to quiet his political opponents, he could face severe electoral consequences in 2026 and beyond.
as evidence...
x Brand-new polling from YouGov out this AM finds Trump's actions re: LA underwater. Double-digit disapproval on sending in Marines. This should be a reality check for those people arguing the protests inherently help Trump bc his immigration approval # is positive. today.yougov.com/topics/polit... — G Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris.com) 2025-06-10T13:49:04.220Z
and this!
and even this:
We Are Strong
Lots of whining about how no one is fighting this time around. UNTRUE
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the size and scale of anti-Trump protests this year have dwarfed those in 2017, and they have been extraordinarily peaceful.
protests against ICE raids have been intensifying around the country for months, alongside protests opposing perceived power-grabs by the Trump administration. And we know that the movement’s tactics have been extraordinarily peaceful. In fact, as we discussed in March, protests in the U.S. have been quite robust since Trump took office the second time. Our ongoing research on protests in the United States reveals that within the first two weeks of the second Trump administration, protest activity surpassed that of 2017. By the end of March 2025, there had been three times as many protests as had taken place in 2017. Protest has been surging since, with large boosts coming from major, multi-location actions in April and May. Two notable surges of protest came on the nationwide Hands Offs protests on April 5 and No Kings protests on April 19. To date, we have tallied 1,145 protests on April 5, with events occurring in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Significantly, protest activity occurred throughout the country, including in rural and GOP-leaning towns. For April 19, we tallied 928 protests also occurring in all 50 states and D.C. And on May 1 and May 3, we tallied over 1,000 anti-Trump May Day protests. These are significant showings. If we look back to the first Trump administration, in April 2017 the most prominent multi-location protest was the March for Science on April 22, which occurred in 390 locations including most major cities. In 2017, we tallied 80 May Day protests nationwide, compared to over 1,000 this year. Overall, 2017’s numbers pale in comparison to the scale and scope of mobilization in 2025 — a fact often unnoticed in the public discourse about the response to Trump’s actions.
and —
Mote than half of the country’s largest protests have happened while Trump was president or president-elect.
It turns out that when you attack Americans and American institutions from inside, Americans fight back.
We are showing up
The real problem, for the Trump regime in the making, is that Americans are turning out in large numbers to defend the vulnerable by exercising their right to free assembly and protest. Authoritarianism depends on breaking the horizontal bonds of solidarity and empathy that lead people to risk their safety to protest injustices against others. The massive and exaggerated deployment of state security personnel and the display of arms and uniforms is designed to frighten people into hiding. There is nothing stronger than solidarity shown publicly, which is why the state responds with outsized threat and violent acts. Weak authoritarians fear empathy, a sense of justice and morality, love for others, and collective action. All they have is force and lies. They may feel immensely empowered right now, but those protesting them are on the right side of history. A reckoning will come for the aggressors as more Americans open their eyes to the criminal nature of this administration.
and it matters This Is How the Protests Could Break Trump’s Deportation Machine
“What we’re seeing is a continuation of the digital witnessing tradition: using mobile devices not just to record harm, but to demand accountability in real time,” said Allissa Richardson, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Southern California who has long studied how African Americans use mobile and social media to change narratives. “Black witnessing laid the blueprint, and now other communities are building upon it, adapting it and carrying it forward.” Many of the videos that are circulating online have been filmed by Latinos, whose communities are disproportionately impacted by the raids and who are severely underrepresented in the traditional news media, where they have long been unable to correct inaccurate and dehumanizing stereotypes about immigrants. These community videos, a form of citizen journalism, may represent a tipping point. In the face of boldfaced authoritarianism, filming ICE arrests may seem futile and even absurd. After all, in a world of echo chambers, it’s easy to turn away from evidence that contradicts our beliefs. Can these videos actually change people’s minds? Such stories are what forced Mr. Trump to end his family separation policy during his first term. More recently, the story of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — the Maryland man mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador — provoked so much outrage that the administration was forced to find a pretext to bring him back. Earlier this month, the story of a 4-year-old Bakersfield, Calif., girl with a rare and life-threatening medical condition who was facing deportation mobilized people across the country and sparked a reversal by immigration authorities — possibly saving her life. These videos are particularly dangerous to Mr. Trump because they expose something his politics can’t touch: the fierce humanity of people willing to risk everything for one another. They don’t just document resistance — they ignite it. They move people not just to care, but to act, to intervene, to put their own bodies on the line.
and we can do this! The Heart of the Matter
In one of my early posts on this site, I wrote "I have faith in the American people – faith that we're an unruly, insubordinate bunch scattered across a vast swathe of land, from our beautifully diverse cities to our remotest rural communities, that we are not easy to subdue and control, that even those who have supported the current authoritarian cult will not like losing some of the federal government's services that make our lives livable, that we have more power than is recognized and that some of us are already organizing to use it." And in April I wondered , "When does the pressure break, the dam crack, the earthquake fault slip, the ferment explode the bottle? No one knows. But we can prepare for it, we can build toward it, we can lay the groundwork for it. And I wouldn't be surprised if the summer of 2025 exceeds the intensity and scale of the summer of 2020, the summer of the Black Lives Matter George Floyd protests. But I don't know. Neither do you. No one does. All we can do is keep showing up, keep speaking up, keep donating, keep connecting, keep our values close and our courage strong and keep an eye out. And not give up...." I think this is it. It's begun. The Trump Administration has escalated, and so has the resistance to the Administration, to its brutality, lawlessness, cruelty, and destruction. They want to institute authoritarianism, a regime in which they have unlimited power and we have no rights. I believe they can do great harm, and no one needs to just believe that: we can see they have already. But I do not believe history is on their side, and I believe we are writing history with our voices, our donations, our bodies, our solidarities, our commitment to remain informed and engaged right now. I believe we have the power to stand up for our rights and the rights of nature, the protection of the vulnerable (including nonhuman life and the planet), the rule of law, the values of equality, democracy, and justice. For the old E Pluribus Unum – out of many, one – motto of this country. To stand up in ways that matter and sometimes turn the tide. I see ICE protests from New York to Seattle (and a surprisingly intense one in Spokane, on the Idaho border) to L.A. with the No
Kings demonstrations Saturday likely to be huge and charged with fierce passion. And here's the beautiful thing I see, shining like a lighthouse across this stormy landscape. All that activity comes from love, and while a thousand things tell us in a thousand ways, and have all our American lives, that everything we want is private and personal and much of it is money and commodities, we are so much bigger than that. So much better than that. We want so much more than that, which is a testament to our idealism. By idealism I mean care for things beyond ourselves, where empathy, solidarity, generosity, commitment to the public realm and the collective good flourish.
AND We are winning elections
Air Force veteran Gina Ortiz Jones wins runoff race for San Antonio mayor
San Antonio’s next mayor will be Gina Ortiz Jones, a 44-year-old West Side native who rose from John Jay High School to the top ranks of the U.S. military on an ROTC scholarship. Jones defeated Rolando Pablos, a close ally of Texas GOP leaders, with 54% of the vote on Saturday night in a high-profile, bitterly partisan runoff. Thanks to new, longer terms that voters approved in November, this year’s mayor and City Council winners will be the first to serve four-year terms before they must seek reelection. The closely watched runoff came after Jones took a commanding 10-percentage-point lead in last month’s 27-candidate mayoral election, but weathered nearly $1 million in attacks from Pablos and his Republican allies.
x Some bright news overnight in Texas! Congratulations to USAF Veteran Gina Ortiz Jones, San Antonio’s next (& first LGBTQ+) Mayor! 🌈🪅 The GOP poured over $1M into her opponent’s campaign, but Gina prevailed with 54.3% of the vote and will be sworn in on 6/18! 👉🏽 www.texastribune.org/2025/06/07/s... — Lisa Reyna Loe (@lisaloe.bsky.social) 2025-06-08T11:02:03.879Z
And this (yes please!):
The Courts are Working
And despite what the alarmists are telling you, trump et al are usually following what the courts tell them to do. They love to pretend like they aren’t (because they try to project the most idiotic kind of strength out there) but they almost always do. And when they haven’t, it is because they work to find loopholes NOT because they just ignore it. That is a really really important distinction that not enough people are pointing out. The rule of law has NOT collapsed. Do we need to keep alert and keep protecting it? Heck, yah. But the alarmists are wrong about it not working.
the ultra-conservative Georgia Supreme Court just dealt a huge blow to Number 47 and the GOP
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