So. There’s a lot of spooky stuff going around. People are worried. Thousands of Americans with means “are applying to visa programs abroad” or hedging, purchasing new passports in other countries. (I know several who’ve gotten out.) Donald Trump’s deportations in defiance of federal courts has people unnerved. “We’ll Always Have Las Vegas” from Thursday is about incidents like Canadian Jasmine Mooney‘s unwelcome encounter with DHS harming the tourism industry. As things go with Americans, it’s one thing for DHS to throw brown-skinned “foreigners” in prison. It’s another when it happens to someone who might be nice, white you.
On Friday I posted this (below) on Threads (where I have no followers) to see if I could stir up some shit. Guess I did. It’s gotten 11.5K views.
View on Threads
Friends ask me how I am and my stock reply is now “Managing my stress.”
The Good News
Nineteen-sixties leftovers tend to like big, high-profile actions on the Mall that get lots of one-day press. Gather with your tribe, make a lot of noise, and go home feeling better about an issue you’ve accomplished little to change. When we don’t see those actions today, we think nothing of consequence is happening to push back against the madness of King Donald. But Digby sent along a post you need to see. Sometimes smaller and everywhere is a better 21st-century strategy.
Many underestimate resistance to the current Republican administration because they view resistance through a narrow lens. The 2017 Women’s March in particular — immediate in its response, massive in its scope and size — may inform collective imaginations about what the beginning of a resistance movement should look like during Trump 2.0.
In fact, our research shows that street protests today are far more numerous and frequent than skeptics might suggest. Although it is true that the reconfigured Peoples’ March of 2025 — held on Jan. 18 — saw lower turnout than the 2017 Women’s March, that date also saw the most protests in a single day for over a year. And since Jan. 22, we’ve seen more than twice as many street protests than took place during the same period eight years ago.
In February 2025 alone, we have already tallied over 2,085 protests, which included major protests in support of federal workers, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights, Palestinian self-determination, Ukraine, and demonstrations against Tesla and Trump’s agenda more generally. This is compared with 937 protests in the United States in February 2017, which included major protests against the so-called Muslim ban along with other pro-immigrant and pro-choice protests. Coordinated days of protest such as March Fourth for Democracy (March 4), Stand Up for Science (March 7), rallies in recognition of International Women’s Day (March 8), and protests demanding the release of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil suggest little likelihood of these actions slowing down. These are all occurring in the background of a tidal wave of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s early moves.
This resistance movement is built upon but doesn’t look like past movements. “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,” reports Waging Nonviolence:
And about those mass protests of past decades. You and I both know that King Donald is just itching to have “his generals” shoot protesters. He just needs actions large enough that he can invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, declare martial law (he’ll call it marshal law), and send out troops (if they’d comply) to create the largest mass casualty shooting in American history.
A multitude of smaller Whack-a-mole protests by the thousands may frustrate Doanld’s wet dream and probably be safer for the resistance. Keep it up.
