DC Media Group
The Rapid Undoing of a Nation, Unchecked Power, Lies, and Hypocrisy
Reprinted with permission.
There are alarming changes taking place in our country. Every week, no – every day – there are new developments, each one often more shocking than the last. I understand why so many friends and family just don’t want to talk about any of this. It is truly horrifying to watch the nation being torn apart at the seams. I have a similar reaction when I watch a horror movie, I cover my eyes and ask when the gory part is over and it’s safe to look again.
Much as we want to, we cannot avert our eyes. If we want to salvage our democracy and save our country, we have to take a courageous stand now, before we head so far to the right that there’s nothing left to repair.
Unchecked Power
The Department of Defense is now the Department of War, and Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, is positively giddy. He has been salivating over the prospect of war for months, clearly not familiar with the gravitas needed in making the decision to strike another country or the horror war brings. The two recent strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats in international waters off the coast of Venezuela are clear examples of his unchecked bellicose nature. There is no indication, at least not that has been shared with the American public, that the boats or their occupants – all killed by American firepower – posed a direct threat to the U.S. Normal protocol would dictate that we board the boats to determine their purpose, but Hegseth and his merry band of warriors skipped that step and simply eradicated the “problem.” The potential for disaster with this stance is self-evident.
Lies
The current federal budget is set to expire on September 30, and without a new appropriations bill or a continuing resolution (CR), the government will be forced to shut down due to a lapse in funding. Today, House Speaker Mike Johnson released a CR to extend funding through November. Republicans refuse to negotiate with Democrats on the budget, and Johnson called the CR he offered “clean,” implying there is nothing in the bill that would be offensive to Democrats. What Speaker Johnson failed to say, however, is that the CR will lead to huge increases in healthcare costs, or loss of coverage altogether, for millions of Americans, an issue Democrats have vowed they won’t accept. Rest assured that if there is a government shutdown, the Republicans will point their collective finger at the Democrats, when in fact the healthcare debacle was brought on by Republicans creating tax benefits for the wealthy at the expense of healthcare for everyday Americans. Once again, Johnson reveals himself to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing, nothing less.
Hypocrisy
The assassination of controversial right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk last week has brought into clear focus the immense and dire divide in our nation. Commentary from both the left and the right in the past week underscores the totally unacceptable hypocrisy governing us. Kirk regularly made horrid racist, misogynistic and violent comments directed at liberal Americans. No matter how shocking, his comments were protected under the First Amendment. However, following his death, the tables have turned, and those on the left who are exercising their own First Amendment rights in speaking out about Kirk’s vile and cruel rhetoric are being targeted by the current regime. Many have been doxed, some have lost their jobs, and liberal non-profits are being threatened. The same rights that Charlie Kirk was able to exercise for years are now being explicitly denied to those speaking out to condemn his divisive commentary. Not only is this glaring hypocrisy, it’s a denial of a fundamental constitutional right and is unacceptable.
It won’t be easy to stop the unraveling of our country, nor will it happen quickly. The unchecked power, the lies and the hypocrisy are sure to continue for now. But if we keep averting our eyes in an attempt to spare ourselves from experiencing the gory, unsavory and illegal actions unfolding before us, we risk losing any chance of having a say in how this horror movie ends.
Susan Douglas can be found on Substack. Follow her here.
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NASA Supporters Fight Giant Leap Back Budget Cuts
Author’s note: All individuals spoke in their individual capacity and did not speak on behalf of NASA.
Washington DC—When Neil Armstong said the moon landing was one small step for man, the world assumed he meant a step forward, but to the group outside NASA headquarters on September 15, the Trump administration was taking NASA a giant leap back.
Current and former NASA employees, contractors, and supporters founded the group ‘NASA Needs Help’ to expose the planned budget cuts to the agency. Although NASA Needs Help includes many NASA employees, they stressed that it wasn’t an “employee group trying to save jobs, it’s a NASA fan group trying to save NASA.” They rallied outside of the agency’s headquarters for roughly five hours to highlight the critical work at risk. All those in attendance did so on their own personal time, and spoke in their capacity as private citizens, not on behalf of NASA.
Nearly Every NASA Project Under Attack
Trump’s budget cuts would push NASA to its lowest funding levels since 1961, threatening the future of 41 key missions. These include climate monitoring, asteroid research, and the Mars Sample Return mission, which uses the Perseverance rover to collect sealed samples of the planet’s soil.
Dr. Barbara Cohen, a planetary scientist, emphasized that the loss of these programs isn’t just a scientific loss, but an economic one as well. The money spent on researching, building, and running scientific research is reinvested in the economy and drives technological investments.
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam, who represents Virginia’s 10th district, home to many NASA contractors and employees, also spoke to the group. “NASA is one of the best investments we can make in the country,” he said. He shared that he grew up in Texas, near the Johnson Space Center. “My neighbors were astronauts, they were engineers, they helped put people into space, they helped us win the space race,” he reflected.
Before he departed for the Hill, Subramanyam promised to deliver the protesters’ message to his colleagues: fund NASA, return the 4,000 jobs lost, and continue to support science across America.
As the demonstrators rallied on Hidden Figures Way—the street outside NASA headquarters named after the women of color who made key calculations during the space race—passerby of every kind offered their support. Bikers rang their bells as they passed. Garbage trucks and a USPS van honked. Firefighters from the station across the road waved as they returned from a call.
The displays lent credence to another point the group made: NASA isn’t just a source of scientific excellence, it’s a source of inspiration as American as apple pie. How many people used images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope as a computer background? “Kids love space,” Marshall Finch, contractor, System Administrator at Goddard Space Flight Center said. “It’s space and dinosaurs…NASA delivers inspiration.”
Indeed, space exploration inspired some of the most influential pop-culture phenomena of the last century, something the group leaned into. One individual held a sign referencing Andor, a recent installment in the Star Wars franchise. Translated, the sign read, we are NASA, the galaxy is watching.
Multiple speakers focused on how cuts to NASA funding could have long-term impacts for America’s science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) efforts. “We say we want our kids to advance in STEM, but NASA’s STEM office saw its budget cut by 100 percent,” one said, “our children, our teenagers, who could have been passionately involved in science, who could be civil servants, will be denied opportunities and engagement.”
A mother carried a sign reading “don’t blow up my son’s career” with a broken rocket sketched beneath it. She shared that both she and her husband attended the event to support their son, a NASA engineer in Huntsville. “The American people support you, too,” she said to the federal workers gathered.
Another, an aerospace engineer who had worked with NASA in prior roles, lamented the loss of expertise the government would face if the cuts went through. Between reductions in force, the deferred resignation program (colloquially known as the ‘fork in the road’ after the email DOGE sent announcing the effort), and other attrition, civil servants with decades of experience had already left federal work.
Labor Union Representing Goddard Space Flight Center Also Under Attack
The funding cuts are just the latest in a string of attacks against the agency. Monica Gorman, the Area Vice President for the Goddard Engineers, Scientists, and Technicians Association (GESTA), which represents employees at three locations, including the Goddard Space Flight Center, shared that Trump was attacking NASA’s collective bargaining abilities.
Under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, if a federal agency primarily performs intelligence, counter-intelligence, investigatory, or national security work, the President can strip them of collective bargaining power if they determine it is incompatible with national security interests. On August 28, Trump did just that, issuing an Executive Order to end collective bargaining with several entities, including NASA. The Order attempted to justify it because NASA “develops and operates advanced air and space technologies, like satellite, communications, and propulsion systems, that are critical for U.S. national security.”
While NASA’s charter does direct them to share any useful defense technology with the Department of Defense, NASA is a civil space agency, Gorman emphasized, not an intelligence agency, and they’ve been collectively bargaining for decades with no impact on national security. Other offices handle national security aspects of space. For example, the National Reconnaissance Agency, an intelligence agency within DoD, was established in 1961 with the mission to “leverage space to enhance America’s national security and strategic advantage.” The claim that NASA performs primarily national security functions is especially rich considering that during his first term, Trump established an entirely new branch of the military, the Space Force, to focus on exactly that.
Gorman spoke to the crowd about the importance of bargaining power in their industry. In her case, collective bargaining agreements allow her to complete her job without fear of retaliation or punishment if she raises a concern. That can be a matter of life and death.
“The work that NASA does can be dangerous, people have given their lives for this work.” She said, referencing tragedies like the Challenger explosion. Whistleblowers had raised concerns about the Challenger’s O-ring design, but were ignored, in part due to pressure by higher NASA officials. Roughly 70 seconds after launch, the O-rings failed and Challenger exploded, killing all seven crew members.
Gorman summarized the risk of losing bargaining rights; “If people don’t feel safe at work, if they don’t have the trust that they can speak up and bring those concerns forward without retaliation, then those concerns get buried and people will die.”
A giant leap back, indeed.
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DC Activists Defended Peace Vigil Before US Park Police Took It Down
Editors note: Lex King was present on the night President Trump ordered the takedown of the William Thomas Memorial Peace Vigil. They gave this first person account of activists’ actions which kept the U.S. Park Police from removing the Peace Vigil entirely. As of Tuesday night, the Peace Vigil was continuing operations and being staffed by multiple activists but without its main tent structure.
“If this tent goes, watch yourself and your families next,” activist Rio Phillips warned a growing crowd on Friday, September 5th. Night had already fallen over the city when he’d received word that the William Thomas Memorial Peace Vigil could be taken down at any moment. Phillips and a group of supporters flocked to Lafayette Square to defend the longest running protest in American history.
The Peace Vigil began in 1981, running 24/7. Vigil keepers used a blue tent to take shelter from the elements and store materials. According to permitting laws in Washington D.C., the tent did not require a permit as long as someone was actively attending to it, meaning the tent couldn’t be left alone for any period of time. That’s why protestors were immediately alarmed when they got the call that the vigil’s attendant had been removed from the tent.
When they arrived at Lafayette Square, police tape blocked the entrance to the park with multiple Park Police officers guarding it. Protestors were stuck on the sidewalk, trying to spot the tent in the dark. Police assured the group they’d closed the square down for a congressional picnic, not to take down the tent, but it did little to quell the group’s fear.
Earlier that day, Trump found out about the Vigil on live television after a right-wing personality levied slanderous accusations that the tent was hiding weapons. Trump responded, “Take it down. Take it down today, right now.”
Needless to say, they had real reason to be concerned.
For nearly three hours, organizers gathered around the police tape, keeping their gazes trained on the tent in the distance. The group consisted of members of a nearby 24/7 veterans’ protest, FLARE, and 50501. Some protestors made snide comments about the timing of the tent’s possible removal. On the same day, Trump issued an executive order ‘renaming’ the Department of Defense to the Department of War. Was it a coincidence that he wanted the Peace Vigil in his backyard gone, too?
Phillips brought out a megaphone, chanting and providing commentary. “Show us your cankles!” He repeated throughout the night, referring to the President. “He can barely stand up! What he does stand up for is genocide and pedophilia.”
Phillips, who is campaigning for one of West Virginia’s Senate seats, has volunteered at the vigil for 20 years, since the George Bush era. His campaign identifies peace first foreign policy as one of his priorities. Reflecting on the potential end to the historic vigil, he said, “To be in town while we face this, it moves me more than I can put into words.”
At times, he led the crowd in simple chants, including, “Leave the vigil alone!” When the crowd died down, Phillips spoke on the symbolic importance of the Peace Vigil, not just to the anti-war movement, but to democracy itself. He spoke to Philipos Melaku-Bello, a long-time vigil attendant, highlighting the vigil’s importance: “Constitutional liberties don’t have a curfew. They don’t have hours of operation.”
Another protestor echoed that sentiment, taking the megaphone briefly to share what the vigil meant to them. “It’s been here 44 years…and counting,” they added pointedly. “It’s profoundly American, just like the First Amendment. If you sit idly by while they tear down the longest running protest in the world, you represent the end of America as we know it.”
An activist left a sign symbolizing a call to fight back against rising authoritarianism in the U.S. Photo: Lex King
“First amendment’s gone, now are they going to tell you you don’t have the right to say things to your children? Because once the freedom of speech is gone, they can impose things.” Melaku-Bello spoke to the gathered media outlets, reiterating the vigil’s importance to free speech. “It wouldn’t be the first time. Alexander the Great did it, the Third Reich did it, the browncoats who turned in their grandparents, their parents, their uncles, their aunts, their best friends’ parents.”
He wasn’t the first one to make the comparison to Nazi Germany that night. In fact, multiple protestors compared Trump’s actions to Hitler’s. One held a sign that depicted a figure punching a swastika.
Despite the message about freedom of speech, Melaku-Bello had one even bigger takeaway, waving his hands and shouting, “It’s deflection again, release the Epstein files!” A chorus of agreement rose from the crowd.
At one point, a man pulled out a guitar, playing a song he wrote, aptly named “Trump is a punk-ass bitch.” Protestors danced along the sidewalk and sang the chorus into their megaphones.
Shortly before 11 p.m., police took down the tape and allowed the group to re-enter the park, where they found the tent still up. The crowd cheered and took photos together, celebrating their brief win. They had stood guard for hours to protect the bastion of free speech.
Despite their brief victory, police removed the tent Sunday morning, but allowed Melaku-Bello to remain without it, leaving the future of the vigil unclear. Although the tent was removed days later, Friday reminded the people that in a regime that worked as quickly as Trump’s, their collective action had bought something money never could: time.
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Attorney General Jason Miyares Snubs Northern Virginia Constituents
On September 7, 2025, eleven grassroots organizations across Virginia partnered together to host an empty-chair town hall on the rule of law at Mason district government center in Annandale, Virginia. Organizers repeatedly invited Jason Miyares, the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, emailing his office seven times and calling four. Despite the repeated attempts, Miyares didn’t attend. In fact, he never even confirmed receipt of the invitation, organizers shared.
The group didn’t let his silence stop them, though. They set up an empty chair, representing their absent official, and posed questions to the furniture.
The questions ranged across topics from immigration, to DOGE, healthcare, and more. 19 states sued over DOGE’s unprecedented power, which they used to fire federal employees en masse. Despite the fact that the national capital region—including Virginia—is home to roughly 20% of the federal workforce, Miyares did not join the lawsuit. The first speaker keyed in on that fact. “You did nothing when probationary employees, our best and brightest, were fired illegally.” She told the empty chair. “My son was among them.”
The empty chair did not respond.
An empty chair greeted concerned citizens attending a town hall held for Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares at the Mason district government center in Annandale, Virginia about the rule of law.
Some speakers sharpened their questions like daggers. “Why aren’t you here?” Mike, of Fairfax, asked the chair. “I’ve been at this since the 60’s,” he said, referencing the fight for democracy. He had been tear-gassed three times at protests as a high schooler during the Nixon era. “We don’t want to go back to that. We’re going forward with democracy.”
Another speaker, Maryann, a 90-year-old former nurse who had worked in pediatrics, lambasted the Health and Human Services Secretary, RFK Jr., a long-time vaccine skeptic. He removed career public health officials and replaced them with those aligned to his views, prompting them to review vaccine mandates and recommendations. Trump’s Big Bad Bill also risked the closure of several rural Virginia hospitals, putting the community in danger. How would Virginia’s Attorney General respond to changing recommendations?
She had personal reasons to be concerned. The former nurse shared that when she was young, her cousin died of Measles. Back then, there was no vaccine for the disease, which she said they didn’t even understand at the time.
Maryann also reflected on her husband, a former Metro Police Department officer and public servant. He was humble and respectful, the way public servants should be, she thought, comparing him to the current administration officials. “If he was not already deceased, this would kill him.”
Questions came in from as far as Roanoke, who submitted a question in advance. Miyares found that Roanoke College had violated Title IX and discriminated against female athletes when it allowed a transgender woman to swim on the women’s team. The Roanoke community pointed out that Miyares’ own report explicitly stated that there was not sufficient evidence that any women were denied the opportunity to compete.
It similarly stated that the transgender swimmer never competed, couldn’t win awards or set records, and resigned after only four days. “Given that your own findings contradict the narrative of victimized female athletes,” they asked, “why did you choose to hold a press conference and launch this investigation just weeks before the election? How do you justify using taxpayer resources and your official position to investigate a case where, by your own admission, no competition opportunities were denied, and no hostile environment created?”
“They look forward to your response,” the Master of Ceremonies, who read the question on behalf of the Roanoke constituents, sarcastically told the empty seat.
ICE was another hot topic for the questioners. Trump built his campaign on the promise of deporting violent criminals, but, as one speaker reflected, ICE was targeting “20 or 30 year members of our communities.” Virginia’s National Guard announced last month that it would assist ICE with logistics and administrative support. Although the Guard maintains that it will not help make arrests or enforce laws, it’s little comfort for the northern Virginia communities who watched the National Guard occupy Washington D.C. just across the river.
Although Miyares did not attend, the groups were still treated to a VIP speaker. VA State Delegate Holly Seibold, who represents Fairfax county, joined the event. Seibold was a public school educator and non-profit worker before becoming a politician. She created BRAWS, a non-profit that provides undergarments and feminine hygiene products to members of the community in need.
Seibold provided brief remarks at the end of the event, empathizing with the attendees. She shared the story of one of her constituents who had just been deported. She had fled from El Salvador and came to the U.S. legally under a protective order. She had two young sons, one on the Autism spectrum.
Officials told Seibold that the woman volunteered to ‘self-deport,’ but Seibold kept digging and found that she had been given an ultimatum: sign the paper agreeing to voluntarily deport, or be separated from her sons. Any parent would know that was no choice at all.
Seibold tried to intervene, but it was too late. The woman had to wear an ankle monitor as part of the agreement, and she feared that if she skipped the flight to El Salvador, ICE would raid her house. Before she was deported, she had worked at a local restaurant and had been working to master the English language. Her sons were both attending public school. They were valuable community members, Seibold reflected. Now, they’re back in an extremely dangerous situation.
As the event wound down, the Master of Ceremonies summed up the silence that followed each question. “Bueller? Bueller? Miyares?”
“We are disappointed. Grassroots groups from northern Virginia, to Richmond, to Roanoke came together to invite and engage with our top lawyer and elected leader and he is a no show.” Said Stair of Network NOVA, one of the event sponsors, speaking on Miyares’ absence. “We tried everything the last three weeks, calling, emailing, offering to meet by zoom or talk to a representative of Miyares’ choice. We never got a response to any of our invitations, but decided to hold the town hall anyway to underscore the importance of rule of law at this time in our history.”
In the end, Miyares struck himself speechless in a literal sense.
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Peace Vigil Future Unclear As Trump Regime Takes Down And Removes Tent
Washington DC—On Sunday afternoon the Peace Vigil manager, Philipos Melaku-Bello reclined in the sun under a big red umbrella at the William Thomas Memorial Peace Vigil, reflecting on the whirlwind of events that occurred over the last three days.
Just hours earlier, the 44 year old Peace Vigil was raided by U.S. National Park Police which tore down and confiscated the blue tarp tent, its frame, and cinder block anchors. As word spread of the raid, scores of longtime DC activists, residents, and supporters sprang into action. They rolled in throughout the day, like an anonymous army of loyal supernumeraries, to sit with and support Philipos and the other activists who staff the Peace Vigill. Among them were attorneys, activists, friends, supporters, and former Vigil staff members.
The takedown incident was triggered on Friday during a White House press conference as a result of a question posed to President Trump from right-wing media personality Brian Glenn. In his question, which was more like a loaded screed, he implied the Peace Vigil stored weapons and posed a “national security risk” in Lafayette Park. He further alleged the Vigilers were radical leftists standing against American values, using drugs, and creating a rat-infested space. Melaku-Bello said that none of this is true.
Upon hearing Glenn’s screed, Trump response to his staff was to “Take it down. Take it down today, right now.” Later on Friday after Melaku-Bello learned of the press conference, he extended his shift at the Peace Vigil through Friday night past his scheduled quitting time. He remained there all through Saturday, Saturday night, and he did not leave until early Sunday morning. Melaku-Bello anticipated police would arrive at any minute and he wanted to be there if they did. By Sunday morning it seemed that the threat had passed as no police forces had come. Will Roosien, the relief watch, joined him and took over at about 6 am right as Melaku-Bello was leaving.
Minutes after Melaku-Bello left—after sitting for nearly 2 days straight—U.S. Park Police swept into Lafayette Square and confiscated the blue tarp tent, its frame, and cinder block anchors. Roosien called Melaku-Bello, who immediately returned to join the relief activist, and he continued seated at the Peace Vigil for the third day. He remained at the Vigil as of Sunday night at 6 pm.
National Park Service police left behind some of the cardboard signs and the two giant pallet signs. They gave no explanation as to why they took the tent and issued no citation or ticket explaining what Federal code or regulation the Vigilers had violated. Melaku-Bello maintained that the Peace Vigilers had not done anything to justify the police raid and had not gone astray of any of the court-ordered requirements they obey in order to remain on the red bricks. He said the raid was politically motivated.
As Melaku-Bello spoke, another activist, Steve-O, a much more silent activist at the Peace Vigil staff, cleaned up the area behind where the original blue tarp tent stood. Dirt runoff from Lafayette Park from recent rains had accumulated between the curb and the tent which rested against it.
Peace Vigil Sanctioned By Court Order
The Peace Vigil itself has been sanctioned by the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia since its main founding activist, William Thomas, agreed with the Judge’s order not to sleep or encamp in the park. He was permitted two large permanent signs provided they did not exceed the dimension limits of 6’ height and 4’ width. Two other requirements were that he and the Vigilers not encamp or sleep at the Park and that an activist of the Peace Vigil be continuously present for it to remain permitted.
Thomas, who died in 2009, had even purchased a house on 12th Street from a tax sale in the early 1990s which he named the Peace House. The house was to provide Vigilers a place to rest, eat, and shower between their shifts. The Peace House remained open until about 2016. A group of squatters took over the Peace Vigil after they took refuge there following the OccupyDC movement, but they failed to pay rent to its owner, and failed to keep up with the utility costs and taxes. The utilities were shut off due to non-payment. Helen Thomas, widow of William Thomas and part owner of the property, eventually came to a settlement agreement with the squatters, that they leave after an undisclosed payout was given to them. The Peace House was eventually vacated and pending final disposition at that time, but other activists had by then assumed duties of staffing the Peace Vigil and had to provide their own support and accommodations.
Thomas built the original Peace Vigil signs with reinforced wood and painted with warnings against war, nuclear war, and human rights abuses worldwide—the same messages it has carried since its original founders proscribed in 1981. “Live By The Bomb, Die By The Bomb,” read one of them, “Wanted: Honesty and Truth,” read another.
Melaku-Bello said that the signs were rebuilt several times due to weathering and decay. They were destroyed several times when opponents to the Peace Vigil attacked and destroyed them. Melaku-Bello said the signage present now was specifically rebuilt 1/4” short of the dimensions limit in order to comply with the court order. When asked if drugs were ever used there he said no but admitted that long past several activists were cited for public intoxication. They were asked not to return.
The signage message has been little changed over the Peace Vigil 44 years and since its beginning, has effectively remained anti-war, anti-nuclear, and pro-human rights.
Peace Vigil Refuses To Go Even After Raid
As Melaku-Bello sat under a large red umbrella, contemplating the future of the Peace Vigil, dozens of activists and admirers streamed in to ask what had happened. The severely fatigued sage answered each question patiently, explaining the importance of having a voice of opposition to what is wrong about America, and describing the legal injustice of the raid itself. His message: voices of opposition are necessary and must be allowed to be heard.
Melaku-Bello carries a copy of the court order in a water-proof zipper black container and pulls it out like a testimonial to the Peace Vigil’s existence whenever anyone asks him what he’s going to do about the raid. He holds it up and moment then folds it back and returns it to the container.
Philipos with his signature peace sign. Photo: J. Zangas / DCMediaGroup
An international press corps also descended on the Peace Vigil, intervening Melaku-Bello. Dozens of stories about the Peace Vigil began popping up all across the web. More supporters came. By Sunday afternoon there was a torrent of visitors and press, activists and attorneys, offering their support and bringing food and drinks to Melaku-Bello. He accepted each graciously. Some simply came and hugged him and left without saying anything. One young woman stood before him, tears in her eyes, said nothing and left. She returned later and sat silently facing the White House.
Removing the tent is likely not going to end the Peace Vigil outright or in the near future but it will make sustaining it much more difficult over the long term. Weather will worsen and Winter storms will bring ice and snow. Without a tent covering to retreat from the elements, its unlikely anyone without hearty outdoors experience will endure.
The Peace Vigil has been through difficult times before, hurricanes, assaults, and hundreds of storms, and time. It has endured the wims of changing political power, surviving beyond the lives of many of its founders, and is half way through its fifth decade. It is the longest continuously running Vigil for Peace in North America and perhaps one of the longest running Vigils for Peace globally.
If anything remains through the coming days, it will be the will of activists to sustain the Peace Vigil.
You may donate to the support the activists and their legal fund here.
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DC Citizens Demand Statehood In Rally And March Against Occupation Police Forces
Washington DC—Tens of thousands of DC citizens rallied and marched Saturday demanding the immediate end to occupation forces and an end to police harassment and illegal arrests in communities throughout the city. The We Are All DC action was in response to the regime’s deployment of 1000s of federal police and over 2000 Army National Guard Soldiers from Southern States, including Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Citizens denounced roundups of immigrants, traffic stop traps, and the arrests some U.S. citizens.
The march began at Malcom X Park and ended about a mile away at Freedom Plaza, where organizers told of the adverse affects the occupation had on their communities, police stops to check drivers, usually without probable cause, and ICE roundups of immigrants and green card holders awaiting their final approval as citizens. Businesses were being hampered or closed because customers were not coming to the city and workers were afraid to go to work.
Trump’s claim that a crime emergency justified the occupation forces has been resoundingly rejected by DC citizens. Trump’s claim of rising criminal element also was not supported by crime data published by his own Department of Justice. Such crime data accumulated by government police agencies over the past three decades actuality reflects a marked reduction in crime rates, according to a Department of Justice Report on crime in DC.
If anything, it was evident in the fervor of the speeches that the deployment of occupation forces have solidified the feeling among grassroots groups that DC must now be recognized as the 51st State. “We’re going to lead with autonomy for DC and that autonomy looks like the 51st State,” said one speaker from FreeDCProject. “We are no longer standing on the back lines of what is happening in our country. We are no longer asking but we are demanding that we have full autonomy and we are demanding that DC become the 51st State.”
FreeDCProject, CASA, Harriets Wildest Dreams, and many other grassroots groups led by local citizens, unions, immigrant groups, and clergy, joined the citizens march as it walked down 16th Street past the White House, and to Freedom Plaza. Once they arrived there, speakers denounced the President’s occupation of the city. They had harsh words for DC Muriel Bowser as well for her betrayal of the city by thanking the president for his surge of police and National Guard to patrol the city.
Mayor Bowser signed an agreement granting cooperation with occupation forces in DC beyond the 30 day emergency expiration which was scheduled to expire on September 10. While Mayor Bowser denied she was agreeing to cooperate with extending the President’s crime emergency crackdown, grassroots groups expressed a sense of betrayal that she was cooperating with authorities in the first place. Speakers told how their communities had suffered greatly under the occupation and the Mayor’s agreement was a furtherance of that suffering.
The Mayor’s cooperation with the occupation forces was regarded by organizers as tacit approval of the extension of authoritarian measures undermining the DC territory, its communities, and its people, which were before then already at a disadvantage, without voices of redress in their legislature. It was certainly the tone of speaker after speaker who expressed condemnation of the Mayor and her acquiescence to Trump’s occupation.
At one point during the march as the banner bearers passed Foundry United Methodist Church, all the tower bells rang out in support of them, welcoming them as they passed. In that moment it was as if they suddenly became as one; an esteemed charismatic world leader taking their place of prominence atop a stage to receive accolades of praise. The marchers delighted as the bells tolled and paused momentarily and spontaneously erupted in thunderous cheering. (See video at foot of story)
Citizens Denounce The Federal Occupation
Many citizens voiced extreme concern with the abuse of authority and heavy-handed police street tactics as they have played out across the 7 wards of DC over the four weeks since forces were first deployed on August 10.
“Its incredulous, surreal, a nightmare that keeps going on and on,” said Ken Greene, a long time resident of DC. Ken moved to DC in 1977 and though he was not completely resigned to the occupation succeeding in the long run, he felt the social justice gains of many decades were being swept away since Home Rule was first granted by President Nixon in December 1973.
“All the progress we made since the mid 1960s; we marched for social justice and it’s all going away,” he said. Greene believes part of the solution is going to come through the direct experiences of Trump’s supporters experiencing the adverse consequences of his policies. As they begin to suffer the consequences they will come to realize he is not doing well for the country.
Reverend Goss, a clergywoman from Virginia joined the march in support of her friends who live in DC. “I want DC to be represented in Congress and I want the National Guard to be sent home,” she said. Goss said also she was angered by the treatment of DC residents at the hands of the president. “This is an evil act to do what [they’ve] doing and God is not on [their] side and we are here to speak for a moral end to this regime.”
Kelly Daley, a member of Defend Democracy Indivisible, said that what was happening with citizens was the start of something big. “DC deserves to be ruled by itself and it deserves full Home Rule and Statehood. Having the National Guard here is starting to of many steps we can see coming down the road.”
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Veterans Stand Ground At Union Station; Tell President Take National Guard Out Of DC
Washington, DC—”Not on Our Watch” is the message Veterans’ are sending the President.
The two beige Humvees parked on the bricks looked like they belonged at a military base instead of outside Union Station as part of a wave of police forces occupying DC. No one knew that better than the group of Veterans gathered in their shadow.
Last month, Trump ordered National Guard members from at least six states into the Nation’s Capital to lower high crime rates, even though Trump’s own Department of Justice stated that violent crime in D.C. reached a 30-year low. Trump also sent federal agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other federal police agencies. Trump has also federalized the DC Metropolitan Police Department as part of his so-called “crime emergency,” further ramping up paramilitary control of the city.
Chilled by the idea of military assets rolling through American streets, Veterans were quick to respond.
Russell Ellis, also known as Jolly_Good_Ginger on TikTok, organized a 24/7 veterans’ sit-in at Union Station to protest the massive police deployment. In the week since it started, the protest has drawn veterans from around the country to DC. They promised they won’t leave until the Guard does.
The message to the National Guard Soldiers is not to obey illegal orders. But would they refuse such orders? Photo: Lex King / DCMediaGroup
Ellis shared that “using troops on American soil undermines the public’s trust in the military.” America’s active-duty forces are governed by the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits the military from acting as law enforcement. Although the Act doesn’t always apply to the National Guard, the separation between military forces and police is a sign of a healthy democracy. Citizens get anxious when that line starts to blur, and this is for two good reasons: Kent State.
On May 4, 1970, then Ohio Governor James Rhodes sent the Ohio State National Guard to control an anti-Vietnam War-Cambodia Campaign protest at Kent State University, a working class college. The guardsmen were not trained to interact with civilians exercising First Amendment rights during street protests nor were they skilled at handling civil matters. As a result, they shot and killed four unarmed students, and wounded nine others. It was a seminal moment in US history and it triggered a national referendum on the Vietnam war and turned the tide of opinion against the military and its role in our Republic. It was also exactly what the Posse Comitatus Act was meant to prevent. And a repeat of Kent State is something that could happen in DC, given the right circumstances of anger, fear, and suspicion which currently exists in DC.
Ellis also explained that the National Guard’s presence in D.C. threatened national security. He feared it would lower the military’s enlistment rates and hurt retention, meaning that fewer prospective recruits would join and current service members would increasingly leave, taking their knowledge and talent with them.
Ellis provided a site which Veterans can access for more information on what they can do to get involved. The site reads, “Now, as we see the National Guard activated and deployed to our streets – this is NOT in keeping with that OATH nor that DUTY. This is a blatant MILITARY OCCUPATION of American cities.“
The sit-in website, rememberyouroath.org, outlined three main goals:
- Inform our National Guard siblings of their rights to refuse unlawful orders. Educate and encourage.
- Hold National Guard officers to account for accepting the orders to INTIMIDATE the American people.
- Respond to ICE and MPD checkpoints and stops throughout the city to protest, shame them, and assist their victims.
To support the first goal, they hung a sign about the GI rights hotline mere yards from the National Guard’s Humvees. The hotline provides free, confidential information about military regulations, and can direct callers to legal resources if needed. With Trump escalating military involvement, the hotline is a crucial tool for service members who fear they were given illegal orders.
Federal police and active military deployed on the streets to combat crime are a recipe for disaster as the history of the Kent State University massacre reminds the nation. Photo: Lex King / DCMediaGroup
The veterans also displayed the federal employee’s oath of office, reminding the federal law enforcement officers flocking to D.C. that they, too, swore to defend the Constitution from “enemies both foreign and domestic.”
At a brief address, Ellis instructed the gathering to remain peaceful, but vigilant. The previous night, a member was arrested for using washable sidewalk chalk, which he sarcastically noted was apparently, “more dangerous than pedophiles, apparently.” Earlier in the week, another veteran with the group was arrested by the Secret Service after burning the American flag across from the White House in protest of Trump’s instruction to prosecute flag burning. The Supreme Court ruled that flag burning was protected First Amendment speech in 1989.
The founder of American Opposition—one of the organizers behind June’s No Kings Day protests—Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos, joined those gathered at Union Station. He planed to host a rally there on September 2nd to “welcome” Congress back to session. Álvarez-Aranyos previously worked with Veterans’ groups at the June 6th ‘Unite for Veterans’ event in D.C.
The 24/7 sit-in was the beginning of what Álvarez-Aranyos viewed as “phase two.” The first phase of his work was focused on activating people through a series of protests, such as No Kings Day and Unite for Veterans. Phase two will direct that energy into pressuring vulnerable republicans and ineffective democrats. “Where it’s legal, we’ll show up at their homes, we’ll show up at their offices, at restaurants where they eat,” he explained.
Álvarez-Aranyos was confident that the American people were ready. In fact, he launched the second phase earlier than he expected. “13 million people are willing to get out and fight these battles. Now, we get to the work of aiming our efforts at people who need it.”
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Vietnam Veteran Condemns National Guard Deployment To DC
Washington DC—Sixty seven years ago Veteran Michael Marceau was a combat infantryman in Vietnam when the unthinkable happened. He was wounded by enemy fire. Then, after what seemed like hours but was actually only minutes, a helicopter ‘dust-off’ took him to safety and so began the next chapter of his life: his long recovery from his combat wounds. He doesn’t speak much about the details of it. The Vietnam War took a heavy toll on him. And many of his comrades did not return. So he has committed himself to peace and is a member of the DC Chapter of Veterans for Peace.
At this late stage in his life most of his years are behind him but that doesn’t mean he can’t use the time he has to make life better for others by speaking of the costs of war. And now DC is in a strange new war much different from the battles he saw in the jungles of Southeast Asia. This is a battle an authoritarian machine chose to wage on its own citizens, rolling through the streets, chewing up rights and disappearing hundreds in its wake. This is what any war does, it chews up everything and everything around it and moves on.
The declaration of a “crime emergency” and the federal activation of the DC Army National Guard to DC streets was not anything Marceau imagined he’d have to resist in his lifetime. At least not here in DC. Wars are always fought ‘over there.’ But for someone who experienced war, he understands military conflict, and knows its truths and consequences, and the abuse of military power has devastating consequences, mostly on the innocents affected. And though the war on DC has hit him hard personally, he has decided to be in the middle it anyway on a hot day. Although he’s nearly into his 80s, he’s taking his stand the only way he can.
He walked around the khaki covered Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) military vehicles at Union Station on Saturday with a sign over hung his shoulders. It read “ICE, National Guard, DEA Get Out of Our House,” reflecting the collective feeling DC citizens have towards the police state DC has become.
The three MRAPs parked outside are quite imposing when one stands next to them. They don’t appear to be outfitted with machine guns or live ammunition and the sergeants nearby are friendly and engaged the public professionally when approached, but they were not tasked to reach out to the public like public affairs officers. They are here to show power. They are here to tell the public they have been to war and aren’t afraid to fight another one. They are here to impose fear.
On the second sign hung over Marceau’s back reads “ICE, NG, DEA, Find the Epstein Files,”in effect meaning its what police should be doing: fighting real crime, not harassing citizens trying to go to work and earn a living.
He pointed out his belief that the actions taken by Trump came on the heels of Epsteingate and were a distraction from it. The files held at the Department of Justice reportedly have Trump’s name repeated throughout their pages. The full extent of his involvement with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is not yet publicly known. But some of the documents released on the New York Times website indicated a more close friendship between Trump and Jeffrey Epstein in earlier years than Trump previously admitted. And this was evidenced by a racy personal letter Trump wrote to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, long after Trump claimed to have had completed dealings with him.
Marceau believes, as do others, that the timing of the deployment of police agencies and the mobilization of the National Guard to DC was designed to shift news coverage from the embarrassing spectacle that swirled around Trump and threatened to completely turn the MAGA base against him. Indeed many MAGA had become enraged when Trump demurred on releasing the Epsteingate files because releasing the files and exposing the names therein was a major campaign promise he repeated over and over again.
Then there’s the issue of the Posse Comitaus Act, and the real wrong Marceau said is being waged against 700,000 DC residents. DC residents already have no voice in their legislature. They also pay some of the highest local taxes than any city in the U.S. And it’s these issues Marceau really takes to heart.
The 147 year-old Posse Comitatus Act was passed into law to prevent the government from using the power of the military to enforce domestic laws and civil statutes unless there was an extreme emergency. Marceau said flat out there was no emergency and DC streets were as safe as they had been in many years. Statistics published on the DC Attorney’s website bear out that crime was at its lowest point in 30 years.
This also belies a hidden question. If police agencies and the National Guard are being diverted to fight crime where it is at its lowest point in three decades, what effect will it have on the areas where was diverted from?
The deployment of DC National Guard troops to DC streets up to this point has been largely symbolic and the handful of troops guarding the heavily armored vehicles were unarmed but they did wear black camera recorders and they were videotaping everyone who spoke to them. This is as close to law enforcement as any military policeman can get without carrying an M-16 or a LAW. Incidentally the Soldiers staffing the MWRAP vehicles are military policemen of the DC Army National Guard.
Marceau was matter of fact when speaking about the takeover and deployment of federal police agencies and feels it’s an abuse of power against citizens who have done nothing wrong. “The biggest criminal in Washington DC lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and that is the White House,” he said dryly. The history of this president’s conduct bears this truth out as well.
Marceau is obviously proud of his military service but not proud of the way his country is being led. He wears the medals and decorations he earned in Vietnam on his cap. It is his testament to courage he carries with him although he will never say it out loud.
Now, just being inside the nation’s capital is tense. Fewer tourists are visiting and that will take a significant hit on the local economy since tourism is one of Washington DCs biggest revenue drivers. The restaurants are also nearly vacant at night because few want to be out among the hundreds of police deployed. That means hotel bookings are also being hurt. Given the publicity of mass police deployments and ICE roundups, who would want to visit or dine out here?
But everywhere citizens are seeing the wrongfulness of the police agency and National Guard deployments. DC citizens are standing up and challenging authorities wherever they show up to grab people off the streets.
Marceau was by himself on Saturday afternoon at Union Station. But he is one of many citizens showing up to verbally challenge the authorities wherever they go. And the citizens are going to need all the courage they can carry because the battle for DC is going to be a tough one.
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DC Grassroots Groups Prepare For Authoritarian Takeover Of City
Washington DC—Grassroots groups held an urgent press conference Monday in response to the regime’s declaration of a crime emergency and its federal takeover of the DC Metropolitan Police Department. Speakers from FreeDCProject, Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, and 50501 organized the press conference along with other groups. Collectively they said the takeover was unwarranted, without a justification, and it actually endangered DC residents by placing them in a virtual police state and making them less safe.
Nee Nee Taylor, a longtime DC Civil Rights advocate and activist, and co-founder of FreeDCProject said, “The only violence that’s happening against our communities is the violence this president is directing.” Taylor, who has been involved in the Movement for Black Lives, also drew on the experiences she has witnessed with ICE, lambasted Trump’s provocative policies.
“For 4 months straight, the president has been trying to provoke violence in the Black and the Brown communities by having ICE kidnap our neighbors,” she said. ICE actions have ramped up in the region as the Federal police agency, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, has begun rounding up immigrants and green card holders as part of a misguided plan to curb immigration.
Another speaker also intoned the same sentiment, casting the takeover of DC as destabilizing to city safety and well-being of peaceful communities while wasting taxpayer money on a scheme that was ill prepared and haphazardly implemented. “Nothing Trump is doing is about our safety. If Trump cared about safety, he would stop kidnapping immigrant neighbors. Terrorizing people is not about safety. If he cared about safety he would fund Medicaid, schools, and SNAP because people being sick, hungry, and out of school is not about safety.”
As night time set around the District, there was a report that the newly federalized police force had set up a checkpoint at the large intersection of New York Avenue and Bladensberg Road. Every car that passed that intersection was being stopped and its driver queried.
Police were seen in force at many metro train stop platforms throughout the day and were visible in high numbers particularly in the downtown area. Squads of police were recorded roving near the African American Museum and the Washington Monument. Groups of federalized police were also roving in downtown shopping areas.
Earlier in the day Trump cited an August 3 assault by juveniles on an individual working for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency as an indication that crime was out of control in the District.
However, a report published on the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Columbia, dated January 3, 2025, just weeks before Trump was sworn in, reflected crime in DC had fallen to 30-year lows. The report read, “Total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35% from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years, according to data collected by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and announced by United States Attorney Matthew M. Graves. A breakdown of the data is available here.”
We saved the report on an archive server so it could be accessed in case it is removed from the U.S. Attorney’s Office website.
FreeDCProject has published a series of bulletins on its website outlining what the residents of DC can do to ensure safe DC communities even though the Federal government is not acting in the city’s best interests. They urged residents not to obey in advance, to put up banners and signs resisting the takeover, to speak to their neighbors about what was happening, to organize resistance campaigns while expressing joy and camaraderie, to resist the takeover.
FreeDCProject is offering free training on cop watch, community building, and safety b st practices in the worsening climate of authoritarian oppression.
Visit their website here and consider donating to their grassroots efforts.
Media Also Faces Authoritarian Threat
We are already bearing witness to a trend of established institutions bending to authoritarian pressure. The capitulation of mainstream media to lawsuits by ‘obey in advance’ payout settlements is a sign of that.
Independent media provides a buffer between the truth and the authoritarian machine rolling through our communities. We are on the ground going to events and reporting the voices mainstream often avoids.
How does one support independent media? By check and following the continuing coverage of the crisis in our government and supporting independent media by sharing these story links across social media. You may also donate your resources to support independent media.
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Tesla Takedowns Will Not Go Quietly
Arlington, VA—Many would have given up by now at standing up to this regime and its chaos clout chasers parroting its narratives and supporting its take down of our democracy and our institutions. This regime is building an oligarchy beholden to the wealthy class—indeed many institutions already have quit or caved to pressure to obey it in advance. But these are inordinate times and rising to meet these times are extraordinary people, and new faces are joining them every day. Many of them are in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. They didn’t choose the times and challenges before them, but they didn’t shy away, either.
They are a tenacious lot with diverse experiences and most of them had nothing in common and would not have met except for the reelection and reemergence of a chaotic despot and his accompaniment of D-listers. Otherwise, they have nothing in common except for their commitment to rebuild their communities and a just society that serves everyone.
Improbably, they have outlasted even the most generous estimates of how long their grassroots campaign at Tesla showrooms could last. They keep returning to the street to draw joy and share a commitment to keep challenging this regime’s grip as long as it takes to see it fall.
They are joined by a swarm of much younger activists half their age who bring with them their zeal and energy but perhaps less awareness of the pain and disappointment life can toss in one’s way.
For one, many of the youth on the line handle the heat much better than the older members. They’ve also not experienced hip and knee replacements like the older crowd. The younger ones have not experienced going to the funerals of many friends gone before them. But comparisons between age and generation gaps is lost energy, as the divisions confronting this country are much more relevant. Divisions are not an issue on the Tesla boycott line.
What matters is that they’re all still here, they’re fighting together in the same battle. Because an authoritarian cannot take absolute control if the people continue to resist it. It’s going to be a long fight because we are not going quietly.
For many months since February, they’ve gone with their signs, bells, and enthusiasm on weekends to the busy road outside the Tesla showroom in Arlington. Suddenly, its week 25.
At first, they rose together in defiance against Elon Musk and his DOGE minion invasion of the U.S. government agencies, because DOGE was taking down the very government operations that maintained the order and functioning civil society built over 80 years. Then protestors championed the cause of federal workers themselves being forced out of their jobs.
They continued to rail against the trampling of rights and freedoms of civil servants as sensible rulings in the lower courts protected those rights. The Supreme Court textualists saw otherwise and often ruled against the mass firings anyway. What is the use of textualism when the rulings don’t come with context or even a written explanation? The “shadow docket” leaves out the necessary legal explanation of why they made the decision they published.
The boycott line continued rallying as the regime shuttered or radically diminished a handful of agencies like USAID, Department of Education, and Health and Human Services. They returned as more and more agencies were decimated, often with feeble justifications like saving money, while throwing billions of dollars on building a border wall already proven not to be effective.
The Tesla Takedown started in winter. Then came spring as the freezing weather turned warmer, and then came summer and blazing heat.
An activist pokes his head out from a sea of signs about fascism. Photo: John Zangas/ DCMediaGroupMeanwhile, the regime sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to seize handfuls of brown-skinned immigrants and naturalized persons who had followed the laws to gain their citizenship. In its depravity, they even seized U.S. citizens. The Tesla boycott line became more of a resistance line because to them, it was a moral duty to stand for what was right.
The Tesla Takedown protestors have plenty of reasons to keep going back. Daily, this regime stoops to new lows in taking rights or liberties away, or striking out against institutions and perceived threats to its power.
Activists are keeping the Tesla Takedowns alive outside the electric vehicle car company showrooms and their zeal and energy cannot be stopped. For the 25th consecutive week, they displayed signs about authoritarianism, fascism and one activist made a large banner listing a batch of wrongs the regime has done to the citizens. It read:
“In the last 6 months Trump and Musk have: cut medicaid and snap, removed DEI, fired 30,000, disappeared innocent people, defied laws, normalized cruelty, militarized ICE, pardoned January 6th offenders, bullied universities media and lawyers, weakened science, raised prices, and alienated allies.”
Below is a video from the 25th consecutive week of the longest running grassroots campaign against a specific brand in modern history.
An Injured Beast Lashes Out
Tesla Takedowns are continuing across the country in resistance to the U.S. regime as it continues to dismantle democratic institutions and tries to create an absolute authoritarian state. The regime is not making the country great—in fact the opposite is true, as evidence mounts of the damage it is doing to government, the economy, U.S. world standing and influence, and global order. Tourism is down sharply in major tourist centers like NYC, Las Vegas, and Washington, DC. Many in the MAGA party are beginning to see the regime as dishonest, untrustworthy, and not keeping its campaign promises, so they are turning against it. But this turn is mostly based on Epstein case files dripping into the public sphere and not because of the regime’s decimation of the government and institutions.
The current U.S. government is beginning to act like a wounded beast. It is lashing out at whatever and whoever is nearby because it is failing. In this case, the Beast is Trump because he is the charismatic chosen one with the MAGA party, just like Hitler was one with the National Socialists—the NAZI party. As his party policies fail to get the traction he wants, he, as the leader, is behaving less and less rationally and more like a wounded Beast in its last throes. A weakened beast is dangerous and can inflict damage.
Some of what happened the last few weeks:
The Beast spoke from the Oval Office accusing President Barack Obama of “treason” for linking Russian influence to the 2016 presidential election. Obama responded that this was not something he would normally respond to, but it was an “outrageous claim.” This accusation was apparently designed to distract from Epsteingate, in which new evidence points to a more friendly connection between Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted child trafficker.
The Beast initiated an investigation of Jack Smith, the special prosecutor appointed by Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the January 6, 2021 coup attempt. This is another example of a politically motivated distraction designed to take attention away from Epsteingate.
Next, the Beast said he would deploy nuclear submarines closer to Russia in response to Putin’s delay of a peace deal with Ukraine. This was triggered by a social media post by Dmitri Medvedev, a former leader with little influence in Moscow. This is an abuse of formidable power, which in ordinary times, had there not been so much unpredictability and chaos in the U.S. political sphere, would be a major international political event.
The Beast fired Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after BLS released an economic key indicator jobs report. It reflected only 73,000 jobs were added in July, far below expectations. The Beast falsely claimed the data was “rigged” and politically motivated. The Beast ran on a campaign promise to create jobs and U.S. manufacturing, but his repeated tariff snafus have actually caused job loses, reduced trade, and brought on inflation due to destabilization of global markets. The BLS is an important agency in that it publishes trustworthy information in reporting economic trends which heavily influence world markets. Losing trust in this agency may increase volatility as economic data it publishes is doubted.
ICE efforts to remove legal immigrants are being exposed for what they are, and echo Auschwitz-type human rights abuses brought back to life from 80 years ago. Kidnapped witnesses from Venezuela have come forward to tell of the abuse ICE caused them by disappearing them to CECOT in El Salvador. Word of a hunger strike at the Florida Everglades tent camp, which is actually a concentration camp, has further soiled the image of the Beast’s regime. Over 65% of Americans disagree with ICE kidnappings and disappearances of legal immigrants arrested when they show up for their immigration hearings.
It is becoming clearer that the Beast is not able to follow through successfully on its objectives and when it does, it concocts grand schemes to distract or shift blame. It is left appearing wounded like a bleeding beast, striking out at whatever it perceives as a threat.
Eventually, the people themselves will decide when they’ve had enough of the chaos of this regime. And when that time comes, the Beast will be forced to retreat into hiding for good. Meanwhile, the Tesla Takedown protests will continue to shed light on the atrocities of the current regime.
See DCMediaGroup.us for more reporting on Federal government and Tesla Takedowns under keywords Federal, Agency, and Tesla.
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Find Your Courage In This Chaos
It’s easier than you think and more necessary than ever.
If you find yourself alarmed, furious and deeply anxious about the unraveling of our democracy, you are not alone.
Most everyone I know is horrified about this regime’s rampant abuse of power and the thoroughly incompetent leadership purporting to run the country.
Trump is defying the courts, Kristi Noem has no idea what the Constitution is about, Pam Bondi is thoroughly confused about the Epstein List, among other things, and JD Vance has proclaimed the Big Beautiful Bill as marking a new era of stability and prosperity for working families. The cruelty of this regime is unlike anything we have seen in our country’s history.
In reality, the ridiculous funding bill signed into law on July 4 will leave many Americans with no health coverage and no food security, all in the name of giving billionaires more money through tax cuts.
ICE is boldly kidnapping immigrants who have no criminal record and depriving them of their right to due process. Horrid concentration camps are housing illegally kidnapped people.
U.S. Government agencies continue to reel after the chainsaw massacre imposed by Musk’s DOGE. Universities are being targeted and losing billions in research funding due to what Trump believes is ideological indoctrination, and Trump is suing mainstream media whenever he gets his nose out of joint. Most recently he sued the Wall Street Journal for its report on the Epstein case.
You don’t need to look far to see the damage being done, so my question to you, to quote Bob Marley, is “Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?” And make no mistake, they are coming for all of us. No one is safe.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with all that is happening and the speed at which it is unfolding, but simply observing and commenting on it is not the answer, it’s not what’s going to save us. I am increasingly distraught by how many people who could do something are finding endless excuses not to.
It’s easy to make excuses: I’m too busy, it’s too hot, I have a job, I don’t like public speaking, I can’t draw well enough to make a sign, I’m not sure what to do, I’m afraid. WE ARE ALL AFRAID! Fear is not a remedy. It’s action we need. It’s time for us all to step outside our comfort zone and do something, anything, to keep democracy alive.
I have recently done so much that is way out of my comfort zone. For starters, I’m an introvert. Meeting people at protests, joining group calls, attending meetings – so not my style. But it helps that those I am meeting are good and just people wanting to make our country whole again. We are forging bonds and finding so much common ground as we join in protest, make signs together, brainstorm non-compliance ideas and share strategies. The core group at my local Tesla Takedown protests, people I had never seen before March, are the people who inspire me every day to do more, to be strong, and to step up. We are a community and we keep each other strong and hopeful.
I’m hanging ribbons around my neighborhood that say “Release the Disappeared” in Spanish and English. I bought a bucket of chalk and leave messages on public property (like sidewalks) letting neighbors know about our local Tesla Takedown and inviting them to join the resistance. I’ve visited the offices of House Representatives to pass out flyers and to discuss concerns. It’s amazing how easy it is to find your voice – and we all have one – when you care deeply about what’s happening around you.
I recently spoke at a county Board Meeting to encourage the Board to do more to protect our immigrant neighbors from ICE. I have signed up for training to be a court monitor at local immigration hearings, and I’m learning how to safely protect my neighbors from ICE. I join countless zoom calls, organized by grassroots organizations, where I learn about upcoming actions and how to make a difference.
One of the best calls I’ve been on this year was the first of three One Million Rising calls organized by Indivisible, held on July 16. Over 100,000 people joined that call to learn about next steps in saving our democracy. The organizers asked participants to sign a Gathering Pledge – they hoped to get 1,000 participants to host local meetings to bring others on board. Over 5,000 of us signed up on the spot – and I was one of them. Out of my comfort zone? Hell yes, but I am all in.
If ever there was a time to take action and to do things you aren’t used to doing, that time is now. I am guessing you will find, as I have, that it’s actually liberating to step outside your comfort zone and help resist tyranny. Taking action goes a long way to easing the anxiety of what we see happening around us, and by joining with others, you will find the hope you need to get through these troubling times. With hope, we can do anything.
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NASA Workers Say Defunding Agency Will Erase Future U.S. Science and Technology Gains
Washington, DC—Scientists, engineers, and contractors working at NASA rallied near the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum recently, warning that budget cuts will end U.S. leadership in space exploration, scientific discovery, and technology development. They said that the fiscal year 2025 budget previously approved by Congress last year was being systematically and illegally cut by pressure from inside and outside the Agency, specifically from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by its newly appointed interim leader Sean Duffy. These cuts take the form of canceled contracts that support programs, and extraordinary pressure is being placed on existing employees to take an early employment exit from the Agency.
Duffy has no science background and no experience in space exploration. He previously appeared as a cohost on Fox and Friends ‘The Bottom Line,’ and played a role on ‘The Real World’ reality TV show. He was tapped from the Department of Transportation to temporarily lead NASA after Trump dropped the planned appointment of Jared Isaacman. Isaacman is an associate of Elon Musk from SpaceX, but lost out on the position after a public squabble between Trump and Musk blew up on social media. Duffy led the FAA’s reduction in force of air traffic controllers during a period when the FAA recorded a sharp increase in air accidents, including the first airline accident in 16 years.
About 150 participated in the Save NASA rally at Eisenhower Park to both save and promote what NASA does to benefit the public. It was held on a symbolic date in U.S. space history, the 56th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon. It was on this date in 1969 that the U.S. safely landed the first humans on the moon in the Apollo 11 space vehicle named “The Eagle.” The landing site became widely known as “Tranquility Base” when the ship’s Captain, Neil Armstrong announced, “Tranquility base here…the Eagle has landed.” The astronauts landed The Eagle with less than 30 seconds of fuel left in its descent tanks.
The scientists and engineers at Eisenhower Park were not focusing on NASA’s glory and past achievement on that historic day 56 years ago. Perhaps in any other given year they should have been focused on it because such a momentous day of achievement deserves celebration of some kind. Instead, they were focused on what was to come of their embattled science Agency with the plans to cut 47% of its budget, which they say will devastate NASA.
NASA employees were there to tell the public that U.S. science discoveries would be lost due to many canceled projects and scientists and engineers being forced to leave the Agency. They urged the public to contact their representatives in Congress and ask them not to approve project defunding or the mass exodus of talent from NASA.
Many held hand-made signs and were observant of the constraints of their permit to remain within the boundaries of the small Eisenhower Park. A few assembled a large ‘Save NASA’ banner behind which they rallied. Some passed out stickers of the planets and provided cold water and energy bars in the searing heat. They beat drums and used noise makers to get the interest of tourists going in and out of the Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian’s most popular museum in terms of annual visitors, though few tourists could hear them from across the street. The passing tourists remained oblivious to the coming fate of budget cuts awaiting one of the most successful agencies in terms of economic payback, in U.S. history.
A question remained unanswered by everyone at the rally: would NASA suffer the same fate as other shuttered agencies such as USAID, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Department of Education, and National Institutes of Health? Would NASA be shut down too, or rendered insignificant as other vital agencies have been, in the political interest of handing over public services to a few hand-picked corporations enviously eyeing their data and contracts?
NASA—Storied Accomplishments In Space
With the beginning of the Apollo missions in the early 1960s, the U.S. opened a new frontier in the quest for knowledge and understanding of the heavens. With it came the possibility that questions eluding star gazers for centuries might be uncovered. A new age dawned in which the answers could be found to the age-old questions of what is the purpose of human existence and what is mankind’s place in the heavens.
After U.S. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the first walk on the moon during their Apollo 11 mission, many of the country’s youth dreamed of doing the same thing one day. Ten other astronauts followed them onto the moon on successive missions. The missions carried three astronauts; two descended to the moon while one remained aloft in the command module 47 kilometers above them. Apollos 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 each landed two men on the moon and successfully returned them to Earth.
Apollo 13 was the only planned moon landing mission that did not reach the lunar surface because of an oxygen tank explosion in space which almost caused the unimaginable deaths of its three astronauts in space. However, they returned successfully three days later because of the extraordinary skills of engineers and scientists who understood the ship’s capabilities and worked together to learn what had happened to the stricken Apollo and to find a workable solution and safely return the astronauts home. That itself may have been the most important mission of the Apollo series because it taught some hard-learned lessons about space travel: never take any system for granted, design independent backup systems, and know the ship’s capabilities inside and out.
The Apollo missions required the development of advanced technologies using primitive machinery compared to today’s standards. There were no super computers or calculators. Slide rules were still being used for complex calculations. A complete guidance computer had to be envisioned, designed, built, and tested, and this took humans to the boundary of knowledge and beyond, as applied physics had to be merged with existing materials knowledge to create its components. Software had to be written for it and there were no such things as microprocessors or integrated circuits. Scientists and engineers had to learn to convert the computer software code into instructions the physical computer could understand using an archaic process known as rope memory. It was a technique using thin wires to generate permanent bits of data. But NASA scientists and engineers figured out how to do it.
Scientists and engineers from across the country collaborated on individual components and then teams of design engineers made sure all the components worked together. A woman-led team wrote a daisy chain code to guide the Apollo mission to the moon and back. Margaret Hamilton was the first to coin the term “software engineer.”
Margaret Hamilton wrote the software that guided Apollo missions to the moon and back. The engineers and scientists at NASA embody her spirit in what they do. Photo: courtesy of NASA.
As the project gained publicity, many young people dreamed of becoming astronauts or becoming engineers and scientists. There would be many new missions as science and engineering progressed beyond Apollo. Skylab followed Apollo and the concept of a working laboratory in space came to fruition and paved the way for the International Space Station. Next came the Viking missions to Mars which beamed some of the first real-time images to Earth from Mars on July 20, 1976. These breakthroughs led to others and attracted a new generation of young minds with new ideas leading to space rovers on Mars in the last decades.
Then came the Voyager missions in 1977 sent to rendezvous with, photograph and explore the planets which appeared as specks in the most powerful earth-bound telescopes. Later, scientists and engineers repurposed the Voyager I and II spacecraft to explore beyond the solar system. They are the only two functional missions returning data from outside the influence of the “solar wind” and returning information about the cosmic flux, and NASA designed and built them.
As the Space Shuttle program came online in the early 1980s, NASA also began using the shuttle to launch technologically advanced platforms directly into space and ferry the large parts needed for in-space construction of the International Space Station (ISS), Then there were many Shuttle missions to ferry astronauts to the ISS once it came online in the 1990s; deliver weather and GPS satellites; deliver and position the Hubble Space Telescope into geosynchronous orbit; and complete some top-secret military projects, possibly involving “eye-in-the-sky” telescope platforms.
The benefits the U.S. has gained by investing in NASA missions has been more than three times its budget costs. A published report in Universe Space compiled figures showing that the 2023 budget of $26.4 billion dollars returned $75.6 billion dollars in economic returns even though there were private companies concurrently pursuing space exploration. There is not another Agency that creates such an economic return to the U.S. economy from tax dollars invested in public interests.
Many Ongoing Missions Will Be Discontinued
One speaker at the rally who gave his first name only as Lewis, compared the science cuts to a home invader selfishly removing the copper wire from a home everyone else shared just to cash it in for their own benefit. The metaphor resonated with the audience, particularly the engineers and scientists working on the projects facing personnel and funding cuts. He warned that the cuts are shortsighted and bound to end future U.S. discoveries.
Other countries such as China could fill this void and become the new leader in space discoveries. However, China has not typically shared its space achievements or technology advancements with other nations or even made them public like NASA has. The authorization to create NASA in 1958 stipulated that the information and science generated by public funding would be made public.
Nasa Workers Speak About The Budget Cuts
Julie Hoover, a contractor who works jointly with National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said, “A lot of changes are being made before the budget is passed and we’re losing a lot of intelligent people from the Agency before we find out what’s going to happen to the budget.” She added that her remarks were her own and not made on behalf of NASA.
Hoover added that the project she was working on involved satellite information that tracked weather measurements. “[We] provide data to weather forecasters so they can determine what’s going to happen with the weather in time to let the public know if a disaster is imminent.”
Vi Nguyen, an employee who works on a weather satellite program said she was concerned that projects were currently being defunded illegally. She described the advanced weather satellite program as essential because the “data goes to NOAA and NOAA sees hurricanes way ahead and informs the National Weather Service to alert the public.”
Dr. Casey McGrath, an employee who works at Goddard Space Flight Center as a postdoctoral research assistant, spoke not as a representative of NASA or his company, but as an individual, saying “The senior leadership is over-complying with foundational changes to the Agency. The changes that are happening now might undermine what Congress’s intentions are if they aren’t stopped immediately. Many of us are going to lose our jobs because NASA is trying to preemptively encourage as many people as possible to leave.”
Dr. McGrath warned that NASA leadership intended to completely cut Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) recruitment. This would decimate the future of NASA and its growth as an agency.
Scientists and Astronauts Respond To NASA Cuts With Resistance Letter
Over 280 scientists, including four astronauts, signed the Voyager Declaration Letter in dissent of the ongoing NASA science cuts on Saturday.
The letter reads, in part, “We commend the NASA personnel who have courageously spoken out in defense of scientific integrity, despite clear retaliation against other scientific agencies. Their actions reflect a deep commitment to truth, accountability, and the core mission of advancing knowledge for the benefit of all. We urge NASA leadership and the current administration to work closely with NASA staff to safeguard the Agency’s mission and values. NASA must not be used as a political instrument divorced from its foundational commitment to scientific exploration, discovery, and service to humanity.”
NASA contributions to civil society have benefited everyone living in one way or another. The list of life-saving technologies is quite remarkable. NASA Spinoffs has published a diagram which illustrates some of these innovations. They have returned $14 dollars of economic benefits for every tax dollar spent.
One may recall the fable of Jack and the Golden Goose. The children’s story has a moral about how an individual’s greed can lead to his own ruin, and it applies to the taking over of NASA. The reasons why a handful of wealthy individuals are taking NASA apart may not yet be fully apparent, but if it comes to pass, it is likely to benefit a few at the expense of the nation.
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Tesla Takedown FAQs And Why We Aren’t Stopping Anytime Soon
As I’ve posted previously, grassroots groups began organizing protests at a nearby Tesla dealership on Saturdays, Sundays and Tuesdays, starting in February. I have been attending since March, three times a week when possible. The protests started out small, and the ranks swelled to 80 or 90 protestors on weekends in April and May. Since then, although our numbers have dropped off a bit, we have a core group of protestors who show up regularly and have no interest in quitting.
We show up in the rain, we show up in intense humidity and heat. The only thing to stop us yet is thunder and lightning. We all chip in for the gear we need to keep going: one of our crew sourced a free canopy which we set up to provide shade. A lightweight camping table was provided to put out snacks and cold water which are regularly supplied by group members.
Several protestors bring cooling clothes to give us relief when the temperatures soar above 100. We have buttons (so many different buttons!) and flyers to hand out. We bring portable Bluetooth speakers so that we can enjoy the fabulous resistance playlists we have created, as well as dance music to keep us joyful as we wave our flags and display our signs. Bubble makers are often on hand to keep the mood upbeat. We have an abundance of signs and banners, and anyone who shows up without a sign is encouraged to borrow one. We even have wagons to cart all this gear from our cars, parked a few blocks away. As one organizer recently quipped: looks like we are here to stay! Yes, yes we are.
In the last month we have been getting lots of questions – both from within our group and from passersby – about the impact of our Tesla Takedowns and why we continue them. There are many good answers – here are a few.
DOGE: While Musk has distanced himself from Trump since the end of May, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues to operate and has accumulated vast amounts of our personal and financial data from the IRS and Treasury Department. The chainsaw massacre of federal government offices led by Musk will have a lasting and dangerous impact on the many vital services provided by the U.S. government. USAID has been gutted, the CFPB is barely limping along, USIP has been dismantled (twice), and countless other agencies have been decimated due to extensive and unwarranted personnel cuts.
Conflicts of Interest: Musk used his role in DOGE to ensure protections for his lucrative contracts with the government: His companies Starlink, SpaceX, the Boring Company and most recently his Grok chatbot all benefitted as a result of Musk steering oversight away from the obvious conflicts of interest. Starlink has been installed in various government installations, SpaceX is not adhering to federal reporting protocols (including those which impact safety), and the Federal Railroad Administration is in talks to use Musk’s Boring Company on an Amtrak rail project. This egregious lack of oversight and rampant conflicts of interest will line Musk’s already full pockets and steer the competition away, often with ramifications for safety.
Community: We continue the protests to celebrate the strong, compassionate community we have formed over the months. It’s uplifting to know we are not alone in this fight, and, more importantly, we are learning from each other as we all bring our own history, stories, fears and concerns to the protests.
Joy: I will admit that I was confused the first time I heard one of the organizers encourage us to bring joy to the demonstrations. I asked myself how anyone could possibly find joy in this time of great upheaval and cruelty. Over the weeks and months, I have found that joy – it is the joy of knowing that we are not alone, that we will continue to fight, and that we respect and lift each other up. There is the joy of hearing hundreds of cars, buses and trucks honking at us, often for a prolonged time, and seeing countless drivers give us a thumbs up, flash us a peace sign, or raise a determined fist in the air. We are not alone, our numbers are great, the fight will continue unabated, and that alone is cause for joy. Those honks are like a dopamine hit, trust me.
Learning: We are learning from each other every single day: about the threats within our communities, where and how to speak up, how to make rain-proof signs, what wording is most effective, which Zoom calls to join, other protests to attend, where to park for the banner drops at local overpasses. We adjust our signs and flyers to meet the needs of a particular week’s news. We are all stepping out of our comfort zones in this time of need, and that is much easier to do when surrounded by compassionate people who support you and cheer you on.
I’m so grateful for my Tesla Takedown community. This group is a window into what compassion and diversity look like. We have each other’s backs, and we are fighting together to keep our communities safe, to keep each other safe, to let our neighbors know their rights, to help get out the vote and ultimately, to save our democracy. We know this is not a sprint – sadly, we are in this for the long haul. If you drive past us, be sure to give us a honk!
Tesla Takedowns are happening at a Tesla showroom near you. Go to https://www.teslatakedown.com/ to connect with those in your community or organize one of your own.
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ICE Kidnappings Mirror World War II Germany; It Will Soon Be Difficult To Claw Our Way Back
Arlington, VA—If anything is true about Tesla Takedown Arlington activists, it’s that they’re not afraid to take on bullies. On Saturday, they went after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), slamming it for its illegal kidnapping policy and the state-created chaos the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is spreading across the country.
Several protestors brought signs written in Spanish “Chinga la Migra por Vida,” translating to F— ICE forever. This message connected with many dozens of Latino motorists passing the Arlington Tesla showroom on their way to and from weekend yard work, or various labor-intensive employments, judging by the tools and equipment they carried in their truck beds. Some may have been returning home to families or going shopping. And many gave a resounding thumbs up and lots of honks in approval of the new signage critical of ICE.
By the end of Saturday’s Tesla Takedown, everyone there knew how to pronounce the catchphrase and what it meant. Apparently it originated in Los Angeles, where ICE agents have been terrorizing immigrant communities and their workspaces for months.
The Tesla Takedown tapped a torrent of support from Latinos, which the boycott line had not expected and did not know existed. And yet, it was right at the curbside, passing them by these last five months outside the Arlington Tesla showroom.
By focusing on the ICE terror in their signage, the boycott line brought out some of the most damning examples of how this regime has effectively morphed more closely into a fascist regime. The Trump regime has funded ICE $75 billion for ICE operations over the next four years to supercharge ICE into a secret police force. Its roving patrols and seizures of individuals of a particular ethnicity, all while denying them due process, will give ICE powers beyond any police force in the U.S. The regime awarded ICE $45 billion for building concentration camps in which to hold them captive in deplorable conditions. In total, Trump’s bill allocated $165 billion for immigration enforcement, seizure, building encampments, border walls, and relocation to other countries.
Taken as a whole, ICE, which falls under control of DHS, is no different than the Gestapo secret police of early Nazi Germany. When the Gestapo began persecuting Jews in post-WWI Germany, it was a gradual progression of scapegoating Jews through myths and misinformation by the Nazi party. Nazis gradually stripped Jews of rights and banned them from serving in positions of power and from the armed forces. The Night of Broken Glass, or Kristallnacht, in which Jewish businesses, homes, and synagogues were looted and burned, lead to the rounding up of Jews in Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia once Nazis gained uncontested power in post-WWI Germany. The Nazis did this in part as a self-purported purification of their race but also, in part, out of economic envy. The Gestapo stripped Jews of their rights, dignity, religious practices and their citizenship. They separated Jewish families, removed them from society by crowding them into ghettos, then shipped them in boxcars to concentration camps.
ICE is orchestrating a similar scenario now by rounding up Latinos and other minorities under the fabrication that they are criminals, they are taking jobs from U.S. citizens, they are members of gangs, or they have come to the U.S. illegally. ICE roundups are so fragmented, misdirected, and disorganized, that they have even seized U.S. citizens who fit their arbitrary appearance standard for who appears to be a suspect. ICE has outpaced the Gestapo in that they have jumped right past nearly all the initial stages the Gestapo used to persecute Jews and have gone straight into roving patrol roundups. And ICE is implementing it at a much faster rate—attempting to seize 3,000 people a day. ICE bases its justifications for their arbitrary roundups on junk law and its grossly contorted interpretation of justice—just like the Nazis did.
U.S. District Judge Maame Frimpong of the Central District of California ruled as much when she issued a temporary restraining order late on Friday, July 11, against DHS Secretary Kristi Noam and the subordinates in her chain of command whom Noem tasked with implementing Trump’s orders. In her ruling, Judge Frimpong wrote that DHS and ICE:
—cannot conduct roving patrols to detain people based on race or ethnicity
—cannot deny people legal representation
—must honor the constitutional rights of all people, including immigrants, under the 4th and 5th Amendments of the Constitution
—cannot deny immigrants access to an attorney or the ability to seek representation
—must use warrants in all cases
—must provide those being held at a temporary ICE holding cell in LA access to phones to contact families and attorneys
Judge Frimpong further wrote that since Trump began his self-described “largest mass-deportation operation in history” on June 6, “federal law enforcement arrived in Los Angeles to participate [in] roving patrols to indiscriminately round up numerous individuals without reasonable suspicion and having done so, denied these individuals access to lawyers who could help them navigate the legal process they found themselves in. What the Federal Government would have this court believe—in the face of a mountain of evidence presented, is that none of this is actually happening.”
Defining ICE For What It Is: An Authoritarian’s Secret Police Force
Exposing how ICE has sharply increased roundups requires correct definitions delineating the parallels between ICE and the Nazi persecution of Jews from 1933 to 1945. Some are suggesting not to describe ICE as doing the same things the Gestapo did, because it dilutes the seriousness of the crimes against humanity for which the Nazi leaders were tried at Nuremberg. The Nazi party took time to ramp up its persecution of the Jews from the initial stripping of rights, to moving them to ghettos, to shipping them to internment camps, to the mass murder, and to the final chapter of the death marches. ICE just hasn’t reached that stage yet. But it could reach that stage and, based on the unrelenting speed with which it has coalesced and the whopping funds it is being provided, ICE may not be able to stop itself.
One reason ICE may be unable to stop itself is because this regime’s power lust and it’s demonstrated inability to hold itself accountable to both moral and legal standards. It has already revealed what it is capable of doing to elected officials and others operating within the prerogative of their government offices. The recent arrests of high profile officials opposed to their immigration policies are a warning of what is to come.
They include an FBI arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly interfering with the seizure of an immigrant undergoing proceedings in her courtroom; the arrest New Jersey Representative LaMonica McIver for allegedly interfering with ICE operations when she was exercising her legal oversight of a private detention center to her district; and the ICE arrest of NYC Comptroller Brad Lander at a federal immigration courthouse in Manhattan, though he was later released. The ICE agents arrest and accuse citizens of assault, although video has confirmed they are clearly not assaulting ICE agents. These incidents demonstrate that ICE and DHS immigration actions are taking this country into the abyss of human rights abuses and stolen liberty, and it will be very difficult for us to claw our way back out. Once this becomes entrenched in practice, it will be easier for ICE to use their power to go after opponents and silence them too.
ICE is not a traditional police force, rather they operate as secret police, and by its actions, ICE is comparable to the Gestapo of the Nazi party. The agents executing the kidnappings are masked and hidden behind black face cloths and dressed as paramilitary forces dress. This is designed to instill terror in a specific ethnicity and economic class across the entire country.
Standard police forces have an elected chief, a sheriff, or a chief of police appointed by an elected mayor. As a federal agency, ICE has no defined jurisdictional zone; they don’t display or disclose names or badges to identify themselves and they do not arrive in marked vehicles representing their jurisdictional authority. They arrive in unmarked vehicles without license plates or painted logos, and they bring no warrants or charges with them to serve on specific individuals. They have operated with no grand jury impaneled by the state or locality to determine if the state’s charges are of sufficient evidence to warrant prosecution. ICE therefore operates with no definable code in a functioning republic where individual rights and liberties are respected and honored.
Detaining a person implies that people who are suspected of a crime are being afforded due process. ICE is not detaining people. ICE is violently hard-arresting people, and when they encounter resistance, throwing individuals to the ground, jumping on them and choking them. Video recordings made by concerned citizens offer proof of this. ICE is not showing warrants or evidence of any crime having taken place. They are disappearing people based on skin color and ethnicity alone.
ICE is not affording due process. The Latinos being kidnapped and disappeared are not given the opportunity to appear before a judge. They are not having any charges read to them and are not given an opportunity to respond as to their guilt or innocence. They are denied the opportunity to depose the charges against them as afforded by the 4th and 5th Amendments of the Constitution.
ICE internment facilities are actually concentration camps, not jails or prisons. Once silenced, ICE shuttles Latinos away in unmarked vans. Their whereabouts are unknown and they are housed in crowded temporary holding cells until they can be stolen away to be locked inside cages of mass camps in other states without anyone knowing where they are or how to contact them.
Conditions inside the concentration camps are inhumane. Inmates are being caged, according to State Congressman Maxwell Frost (FL-10), who gave a first-person account of what he saw on Saturday, July 12. “These people are being caged with 32 people per cage and only 3 toilets for a group of 32 grown men. Where they drink water comes from the toilet-spigot. The food portions are horrible. It was very warm and hot in the tent. I saw people sweating. People were yelling, ‘Help me, help me.’”
Up to this point, ICE has run unchallenged in cities across the U.S., confiscating people as if they were chattel and the U.S. were operating as a slave state rounding up its escaped slaves.
Will Accountability Come To ICE Leaders
The last thing anyone in the Nazi Party envisioned was that their final judgment day would come at the Nuremberg trials. The allies and Soviet Union convened an International Military Tribunal (IMT) to hold Nazi leaders accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity, false imprisonment, and hate crimes. The trials began in 1945, almost immediately after WWII, and lasted two years. In all, 22 Nazi leadership survivors were accused of the concentration camp murders of millions of Jews. The defendants were afforded representation and translation of the words of their accusers into their native language. They were given an opportunity to respond to the charge, were presented with all the evidence used against them, and they were allowed to face their accusers. They were provided livable conditions during their trials.
None of those rounded up by ICE have been afforded any of these rights, and that in itself is an indictment against the ICE roving patrols and kidnappings and especially against those in its chain of command.
One of the arguments proposed as a defense by the accused Nazi criminals was that they were just following orders, but the argument did not bode well for them at their sentencing. Of the 22 defendants tried at Nuremberg, 12 were convicted and sentenced to hang, seven were sentenced to prison terms and three were acquitted.
ICE is not accused of the war crimes and organized mass murder that the Nazi party leaders committed. But the conditions ICE has created, false imprisonment, hate crimes, and deplorable camp conditions, could lead to the death of many innocent people. This is based on first-hand accounts of visiting officials from within the Everglades concentration camp.
The chain of command leaders at ICE will be held responsible for their treatment of the thousands they have seized and many thousands yet to be disappeared in their camps. Future generations will look harshly on what leaders did or failed to do to protect those who were held in subhuman conditions in the ICE camps. Following orders will not be a workable defense at their future trials. History will judge this American period harshly.
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Secret Police And Concentration Camps Are Here
The Coming Storm: Secret Police and Concentration Camps are Here
The Big Horrible Bill was passed by both the House and Senate, and Trump signed it into law on July 4, an ironic date considering the devastation this bill will wreak on our democracy.
Much of the conversation around the bill has been about the horrific cuts to Medicaid and SNAP that will go into effect after the midterms, resulting in millions losing healthcare and far too many children facing food insecurity. Additionally, hospitals, especially those in rural areas, will be forced to close, requiring residents in those areas to travel great distances for care, including any emergent needs. At least one hospital has already been forced to close due to the financial hardships starting to face many states.
Of more immediate concern, however, is the alarming amount of funding this bill allocates to ICE: a stunning $170 billion is dedicated to immigration enforcement over the next four years, of which $45 billion is earmarked for ICE detention space. These vast sums will enable a rapid escalation of the horrific scenes we have witnessed playing out in a number of cities across the country, in which masked, armed goons without badges or judicial warrants are grabbing innocent immigrants off the streets, often with undue force. We need to call them what they are: Secret Police. ICE is preying upon those who show up to their court appointments in addition to trolling immigrant neighborhoods and raiding businesses where immigrants are employed. Families are being pried apart, and upstanding members of our community are being illegally targeted. Many immigrants are afraid to be out in public, go to the grocery store, or visit their place of worship.
ICE agents, whose ranks will swell to an alarming number with this new infusion of funding, are shockingly brazen in their quest to detain as many immigrants as possible in response to quotas issued by Trump. Since the Inauguration in January, more than 39,000 people have been arrested, and, according to federal data, over 80% of these detainees have no criminal record. Many of the immigrants who have been arrested are in the U.S. legally, and once they are captured, their future is uncertain, as they are removed to detention centers out of the area and likely out of the country. They are not being deported – that word does not do justice to reality. They are being disappeared. Often, their families do not know their whereabouts and are unable to be in contact with them.
The detention centers being utilized by ICE are nothing more than concentration camps, and Alligator Auschwitz in Florida, where squalid conditions are reported, is a perfect example of the inhumane conditions in which harmless immigrants will find themselves. Trump’s flippant remarks about detainees who try to escape being eaten by alligators underscore the cruelty being dealt to immigrants who have committed no crime and who have been illegally seized from their families and their communities.
Anti-ICE protests are growing as communities are increasingly shocked by the cruel disappearance of non-violent immigrants. At the same time, the tactics ICE agents are employing are growing more vicious and occasionally ensnare members of Congress and even a judge seeking to defend the innocent targets. The scenes playing out daily in citizen-captured videos of these ICE arrests are shocking, difficult to watch, and in complete violation of the Constitution.
Make no mistake, the cruel tactics and disappearances that we have seen at the hands of ICE will grow exponentially in the coming months. Communities have been organizing to inform immigrants of their rights, to witness the disappearances, and to prevent ICE agents from making arrests on private property. While these actions have been bold and courageous, they alone will not be enough to stop the newly emboldened ICE or to prevent the continued dismantling of our vibrant immigrant communities.
It is up to us to respond to this dangerous escalation of ICE. We must protect the immigrants in our communities who bring such vitality and economic support to our nation. The time is now, and the need is real.
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Don’t Let the Noise Drown out Your Voice
Washington DC—Reflections on July 4, 2025.
After the very disappointing but not unexpected passage of the big, ridiculous bill on July 3, I was in little mood to celebrate the 4th of July. Our democracy is being dismantled, and what we see before us is unmistakably fascism. The suffering this bill will bring to millions of people is not what our country stands for, and funding ICE with billions of additional dollars will only rush pain and terror to innocent people.
Instead of celebrating with fireworks or watching the parade in DC, I attended a group reading of the Declaration of Independence. It was originally slated to take place in front of the National Archives, home to the original, signed copy of the Declaration. The organizers had to move the location across the street, next to the Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, due to crowds, the parade, and a previously scheduled event at the Archives. There were about 30 or 40 of us gathered.
As I stood and listened to a number of people taking turns, with a bullhorn/microphone, to read each paragraph of the Declaration with solemnity and conviction, I had to fight hard to hear these important words, as they were being drowned out by the passing parade. Marching bands, people yelling, and all the commotion that comes with a big city parade proved to be more powerful than the readers and the message of freedom that they sought to share as a reminder of what our country fought so hard for nearly 250 years ago when we declared we would not be ruled by a tyrannical king.
Watching the scene unfold, I realized that drowning out the reading of the Declaration of Independence provided a metaphor for this very moment in time. Millions of people are voicing their dissent, their outrage, and their refusal to accept fascism in the U.S., but is it loud enough? Are our voices making a difference?
We must prevent this regime from drowning us out. We must be louder, bolder, and stronger than those we seek to defeat. We cannot, we must not, let the noise around us be louder than our message.
Grab your signs, and if you don’t have any, make one. My favorite is “Oh Hell No”, a multi-purpose outrage that applies to everything being done to dismantle our democracy. Choose the topic(s) that matter most to you: protecting immigrants, crushing ICE, SCOTUS caving to tyranny, No Kings, etc. Join a banner brigade on an overpass near you. Join any rallies in your area. Be active in helping to get out the vote. The mid-term elections are going to be absolutely critical in helping us eliminate tyranny and repair the damage done. Most importantly, stay informed through independent media channels that bring accurate and timely reporting.
Whatever you do, however you show up in this fight to save our democracy and resist tyranny, make sure your voice can be heard above the relentless din of those who seek to control us. It’s up to us now.
You may follow Susan Douglas on Substack here.
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Tesla Takedown Arlington Signage: Fascism Is Here, And It Is Happening Now
Arlington, VA— For over five months on consecutive weekends and Tuesdays, the Tesla Takedown boycott line has been taking on Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, diminishing his wealth in terms of Tesla stock value, exposing his illegal Doge takedown of federal government agencies, and the firing of tens of thousands of federal civil servants.
The Tesla Takedown of Musk is credited with creating friction between Trump and Musk and they have been successful beyond expectations.
Meanwhile, in March and April, Trump gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) permission to begin illegal kidnappings of green card holders. Then a wave of so-called ICE agents—no one could actually tell who they were or if they were legitimate because they covered their faces and car license plates—began forcefully taking people out of their communities and work spaces. During these raids, ICE also swept up American citizens—children born on U.S. soil—with these kidnappings. Like Lara C., these victims were brown-skinned or Muslim but not White, and they were being taken by the thousands to places unknown, and families, loved ones, and attorneys often could not determine where they were.
The idea to challenge the regime’s rapid goose step toward authoritarianism came to Lara C., a participant of Tesla Takedowns, as she watched the trickle of ICE agents snatching brown-skinned people grow to a rush and then explode into a torrent. In fear, she began carrying copies of her birth certificate proving where she was born and that she was a U.S. citizen. It, too, could certainly happen to her she thought, simply because she was brown.
Habeas Corpus—‘you should have the body’
A bedrock of liberty is the right to know what charges are being made against an individual and to be able to appear in a public court to have those charges read and explained. We understand it in modern terms as due process. The Founding Fathers specifically wrote this into the Constitution right up at the top in Article I, Section 9. One might say it was a very important aspect of liberty because King George III had an unfair inclination to disappear people who disagreed with him into indefinite detention in the Tower of London without any charges, explanation, or recourse.
Article I, Section 9 reads, “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”
What ICE has been doing and continues to do is deny the liberty of Habeas Corpus to thousands, Supreme Court rulings notwithstanding. It remains one of the most basic rights provided in the Constitution. On the issue of birthright citizenship, on which the Supreme Court recently ruled in Trump’s favor on the issue of whether or not District Courts could grant class standing of suits against the government for any citizens born in the U.S. to immigrants, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson published a blistering dissent against the conservative Court majority to grant Trump’s request. “I have no doubt that, if judges must allow the executive to act unlawfully in some circumstances, as the court concludes today, executive lawlessness will flourish, and from there, it is not difficult to predict how this all ends. Eventually, executive power will become completely uncontainable, and our beloved constitutional republic will be no more,” she wrote.
Lara thought about how wrong it was that a handful of people could authorize kidnappings of so many, without due process, at the whims of the President, and just like King George III did, deny them rights to appearance before a judge to hear the charges against them, be afforded a trial, and have an opportunity to challenge those charges before legal proceedings. She knew that these bedrock principles and rights were wrongfully being swept away.
Lara wondered what she could do to educate others about the injustice of growing ICE actions against innocent people. She thought of making street signs to educate others and those passing by the Tesla Takedowns about the elements of fascism. The societal conditions that she saw materializing around her certainly weren’t anything normal.
She quoted Nelson Mandela as the impetus for helping her come up with her idea to fight back against fascism: “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”
ICE—The Dream Team Fit For A Dictator
ICE went into hyperdrive and blew through its budget within months of its new authorization to round up green card holders. Congress recently allocated more than a 265% increase in its spending bill—more money for new detainment camps and for ICE agents—more than the budgets for the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, the DEA combined; and more than the U.S. Marine Corps.
With the passage of the Big Ugly Bill aka HR1, it was time for Lara to say out loud what fascism is so there could be no confusion or ambiguity about what was happening in the U.S. She and others from We of Action (WofA) and Third Act created the messaging on signs with 17 characteristics of a fascist regime. They attached H wire stakes to each sign and set them about 20 feet apart at the Tesla Takedown action. Now the drivers passing Tesla would have something to think about:
- Combining Church and State
- Human Rights Violations
- Eliminating Due Process
- Attacking Free Press
- Disinformation, Lies, and Propaganda
- Militarized Police
- Corporate Profits over Workers
- Assault on Academia and Arts
- Attacking Political Opposition
- Unqualified Political Appointments
- Blaming Immigrants for Problems
- Using Fear and Violence
- Legalized Gender Discrimination
- Racism
- Persecution of Minorities
- Centralized Power (Dictator)
- Anti-Science
The Trump culture embodies all of these indicators. There are multiple instances of how they have ticked the characteristics in every case.
Fascism Its Indicators and Characteristics
It’s difficult to actually define what fascism is and tell when a elected government becomes authoritarian and then has crossed over the line to meet the definition of fascism. Fascism is a hybrid of authoritarianism. Different social justice groups have published a varying number of character traits to define what fascism is.
Fascism Fighters lists 22 indicators of what Fascism is and assigns Trump as meeting all 22 of the characteristics on its website.
—Use of enemy as a scapegoat and distraction
—Anti-minority / chauvinistic
—Call for a national rebirth
—Extreme nationalism
—Use of violence
—Aggressive militarism
—Cult of personality
—Anti-intellectualism and cultural repression
—Advancement of propaganda through a controlled mass media
—Authoritarian tendencies and aspirations
—Imperialistic ambitions
—Mass mobilization
—Elimination of human rights to prioritize the state
—Religion and government are intertwined
—Promotion of corporate power / Suppression of labor power
—Obsession with law and order
—Youth indoctrination
—Cronyism and corruption
—Demand of unwavering loyalty
—Fraudulent elections
—Desire for economic self-sufficiency
—“Work makes you free”
The Political Science Blog characterizes Fascism with 10 major indicators:
- Opposition to Marxism
- Opposition to Political and Cultural Liberalism
- Glorification of the State
- Extreme Nationalism
- Imperialism
- Opposition to Parliamentary Democracy
- Totalitarian Ambition
- Millitary Values
- Acceptance of Racism
- Economic Policies that are conservative
- Mass Mobilisation
- Education as Character Building
In each of these definitions, within 5 months, Trump and his group of cabinet-appointed enforcers has quickly corralled the republic into a fascist regime.
Hope Is Not Lost—The People Are Mobilizing
All across the country people are mobilizing to fight this political scourge. There are many actions planned for the coming weeks and months. Today’s action outside the Arlington Tesla showroom is but one of many Tesla showroom protests.
The historian vlogger, Heather Cox Richardson said in her video series posted on July 3, Letters From An American, that the passage of the budget bill was a major setback but she also championed the diversity, resources, and capacity of people of the resistance. She urged people to get involved because “if we don’t step up, each day is going to get harder and harder.” Harriet Tubman said, “ The only way out is through.” These are not the times we chose but we must do what we must because we don’t have a choice.
One last point Richardson made was that a few days ago “we just got the support of a whole lot of people who didn’t realize they were part of the resistance.”
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NASA Scientists And Engineers Defend Science, Decry Steep Budget Cuts to Agency
Washington, DC—Something almost as strange as the discovery of dark matter itself happened outside the NASA headquarters building in Washington, DC on Monday morning. NASA scientists, engineers, technicians, and supporters protested ongoing government cutbacks outside their headquarters office in Washington, DC. They wanted to make the public aware of the impact that ongoing budget cuts and the spending bill would have on the U.S. space agency.
At 7 a.m., as civil servants were beginning their workday, dozens began arriving and stood for three hours with protest signs to tell the public they would no longer remain quiet about the budget cuts. One of the spokespersons of the group said the budget cuts are already being implemented despite Congress not having yet approved them.
The proposed budget cuts will reduce NASA staff by 25%, shut dozens of near earth, deep space, and earth research programs, both ongoing and in the planning stages at the space agency. The reductions in force would reduce staffing to 1960 levels at a time when NASA plans to begin its return to the moon with the Artemis lunar human project, while at the same time jump-starting its plans for human travel to Mars. These cuts would almost certainly lead to serious safety issues for those who embark on those missions, argued several authors who wrote a stinging analysis of the fiscal year 2026 budget cuts.
Almost all of those assembled declined to speak on the record about their disapproval and sense of betrayal over the cuts for fear of retribution. But scientists and engineers are typically some of the most unobtrusive and matter-of-fact thinking folks one is likely to meet, and to see them out on the street in front of their headquarters protesting the elected government leaders as well as the pressure coming from the White House through Doge, is striking.
There was plenty of evidence outside the NASA headquarters that there is already a struggle over what projects would be cut, as cuts are already underway as evidenced by the signs and faces of the scientists and engineers gathered on the sidewalk. NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro has bent to White House pressure before Congressional approval of the spending bill, and more cuts are likely to come for many of them, according to one of the speakers.
The NASA civil servants’ experience has been a story repeated throughout government since February, when the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s (Doge) scorched-earth policies first began at the Office of Personnel Management. Although a recent internal riff played out on social media between the Trump and Musk duo, Doge is still operating in agencies across the federal government. Doge personnel are still behind the pressure scheme to cull civil servants from the ranks of virtually every department and agency, except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a few other police agencies.
Comparatively, the budget bill has allocated an unprecedented increase of 265% to the current annual Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention budget, according to a report from the American Immigration Council. ICE will get $29.9 billion in funding for enforcement and deportation operations, increasing ICE’s annual budget three-fold. The budget will allocate $46.6 billion on border wall construction, a policy already proven to be a failure. These allocations blow past NASA’s annual budget, and produce no benefits to society, according to the teport.
NASA’s FY 2026 budget is only 0.3 % of entire U.S. discretionary spending, according to the 2026 NASA budget report.
The 70 or so NASA civil servants protesting on Monday still managed to lighten the sidewalk mood with an inflatable Pikachu dancing and waving at the passing traffic. Many drivers honked their approval as they drove past the protesters on their way to work. Some of the signs were couched in humor as well: “We don’t Even Know What Dark Matter Is Yet,” and “Stopping Climate Change Is Our Moonshot,” and “In Science We Trust.”
Marshall Finch, a contractor who spoke as an individual and stressed that he was not speaking on behalf of any government agency, said the cuts were already happening “because contractors were already being laid off while civil servants were given a deferred resignation offer.” He added that civil servants were “facing unusual pressure” to “strongly consider taking the resignation [offer] by the leadership.”
Monica Gorman, Lead Organizer, Goddard Engineers, Scientists, and Technicians Association (IFPTE Local 29) said, “In all these attacks, they’ve attacking science at NASA, NOAA, and in the Department of Health and Human Services. They’re attacking scientists and engineers and federal workers across the whole government.” She urged everyone to get involved by speaking to those they know to join and get involved in the fight against these attacks. “This is the biggest fight of our lives and we are all in it together in solidarity,” she said.
Budget for FY 2026 Will Break NASA
The proposed cuts at NASA will discard billions in taxpayer investments in deep space and near earth probes, helio (sun) projects, planetary exploration, and associated project equipment already operating in space. Terminating these programs is certain to end the U.S. standing as a leader in space exploration and technology development, which NASA has provided the nation and the world since its inception in 1958. It will mean that $12 billion already spent on existing space programs will be discarded, according to a published report.
The president’s discretionary budget request for 2026 contains a 26% reduction in funding for NASA as compared to 2025. It reduces NASA funding to $18.8 billion from $24.8 billion, the smallest NASA funding allocation since 1961, eight years before the U.S. put a human on the moon, and less than three years after NASA was created. It is the largest cut in terms of percentage of funding since NASA’s inception.
This means that many programs will be cut, including existing space programs, future space programs already under development, and outreach programs for high school and college students. Programs centered on earth studies to predict weather and advance the understanding of how the climate emergency impacts crop yields and weather will also see severe cuts. Many future programs that have received funding and are still in development are slated to be eliminated altogether, meaning that funding already allocated and spent on those projects will be wasted.
“We have seen the President’s budget request. If it is passed by Congress, then that will include cuts to satellites and probes already doing science in outer space,” said Finch.
A published story in The Space Review concluded that Trump’s NASA budget was “deeply flawed,” and summed it up with three words, “unprecedented, unstrategic, and wasteful.” The report further criticized the cuts for it’s deprivation of vital resource investment on the heels of the Artemis moon program and future plan to take humans to Mars, a time when funding should be increased, not decreased for those projects.
NASA STEM Programs Supporting Youth Intellectual Development Will Be Cut
A mother of one of the civil servants presently working at NASA spoke on behalf of her son, who always dreamed of working at NASA. “His job at NASA was like a dream come true. Like a lot of other NASA employees, his job is on the line. By defunding science and research, by defunding NASA, we are taking away our kids dreams and futures,” she said.
Another NASA employee who did not give their name said, “This administration said that NASA has no place doing engagement and outreach with learning. It’s critical for NASA to engage so we can inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and professionals so NASA can solve the big problems like climate change and getting to Mars.”
One might argue conversely that if the same policy were applied to the Department of Defense, which incidentally spends tens of millions of dollars annually on advertising and recruitment outreach, the DoD would suffer the same fate as will certainly happen as the result of RIFs of NASA civil servants and RIFs at other agencies.
NASA Inspired Generations Towards Science
There are many stories about how NASA created synergy around interest in science and technology because NASA developed a grassroots interest and sense of pride in arcane subjects. NASA scientists and engineers showed others what could be. If one could dream something, then why not strive to make it come to be? Such was the idea presented by President John Kennedy in 1962 when he said “We chose to go to the moon,” before an audience at Rice University Stadium. The dream to walk on the moon took flight at that very moment. It came to be on July 19, 1969, just seven years later.
But it was not getting to the moon and walking on it that was the payoff. It was the impact of the technology development and advancement, scientific achievements and undertakings by civil servants dedicating themselves to novel ideas that propelled the country and the world forward.
Great advancements were achieved in computer hardware, software and interface with equipment as the result of NASA funding for development and applications, using existing science and understanding of materials.
The concept of ‘software engineering’ and the ‘software engineer’ came into the lexicon of science speak as the result of a software coder, a woman named Margaret Hamilton, whose team began writing the computer code in 1965 to help Apollo missions successfully reach the moon. She also developed the concept of programming code for a real-time recovery of a computer failure so it could self-reset its system when its code failed to properly calculate its position (known as an exception). She thought of the idea when her daughter was with her watching a simulation test run by astronauts practicing for a mission. In her curiosity, her daughter’s hand flipped one of the switches controlling the guidance system. Hamilton thought to herself, what if this happened in space? There would be no recovery. Thus her daughter was the impetus for creating a recoverable software solution.
This process saved the Apollo 11 crew from having to abort its moon landing when certain unplanned conditions overloaded the lunar module Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) with a “1202 alarm.” The ability of the AGC to reset its own code in real time with no adverse consequence to the lunar module orientation it was controlling, was a revolutionary advancement in computer science. The concept of computer code reset is one example of the many accomplishments—too many to note here—made by NASA scientists and engineers.
Some Of NASA’s Extraordinary Achievements
NASA innovation has transformed life as we know it. Its progress has resulted in technology development that has and will continue to benefit the public. NASA has listed the most recent product development of its technologies since 1976, and these are presented on a NASA website named Spinoff.
The NASA website notes, “When Congress created NASA, it mandated the agency disseminate its innovations as widely possible. To that end, the Technology Transfer Program was created in 1964, and it has functioned under various names ever since, making it NASA’s longest continuously-operated mission.”
The ability of NASA to lead in space exploration and achievement was made possible by the diligence of its civil servants and contractors. Some of its noteworthy achievements include:
The Apollo program which successfully landed four teams of two astronauts on the moon and successfully returned them to Earth between 1969 and 1972. Apollo 13, a mission which almost resulted in losing three astronauts in space, demonstrated that NASA was capable of rewriting the manual of a mission from the ground and returning a stricken spacecraft to Earth. It rewrote the process for redundancy and safety on space travel. Since 1972, no human has returned to the moon.
The Voyager inter-planetary space program, consisting of spacecraft Voyager I and II which were launched in 1977, is credited with being the first interstellar probes to exit the influence of the sun’s solar flux and leave the solar system in 2012. These missions continue returning data about the cosmic flux to Earth for scientific study. Voyager I has a gold-plated record attached to it with recorded music and greetings in languages from across the Earth.
Voyager Mission design layout c. 1977. The Voyager I and II deep space missions are continuing to provide vital data 48 years from their launch and decades beyond their expected end of mission date. Image courtesy of NASA
The Perseverance Mars rover explorer landed on Mars in 2021 and included a payload of an operational laboratory, multiple cameras, sample tubes for later collection, and an autonomous, independent, unmanned autonomous vehicle helicopter, capable of flight in the thin atmosphere using its own computer guidance software program. The miniature helicopter named Ingenuity was self-charging, weighed about 4 pounds and flew 72 missions before a computer miscalculation resulted in a hard landing, it proved so successful that its mission was extended several times over. It was the first vehicle to independently fly on a planet other than Earth. On its underside was attached a small piece of cloth from the wing of the Wright brothers’ Flyer aircraft flown at Kitty Hawk in 1903.
Deep Cuts to NASA Are A Setback To Space Exploration And Technological Advances
The budget cuts to NASA would decimate not only scientific research and discoveries in space, it would have a significant impact on technological developments on Earth, according to a published report by Northeastern University. The extent of the budget cuts at NASA “[C]ould end up costing the U.S. more in the long run,” said Jacqueline McCleary, an assistant professor of physics at Northeastern University. McCleary said that decommissioning programs already underway creates additional costs. The programs cannot just be turned off.
The programs NASA has undertaken and completed have resulted in industries that have benefited everyone. GPS and cellular phones and communications are a few of the examples of how NASA has provided global benefits.
Jonathan Tuttle, a supporter of NASA, its scientists and engineers, summarized what was at stake: “Looking up to the stars and wondering what they are is something our ancestors have done ever since we gathered around campfires long before history began. NASA’s legacy is that it delivers the dream of flight to all of us. The warlords and petty tyrants don’t own the stars. We own the stars!”
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Federal Workers Fight For Continuity Of Government Operations
Washington DC—Dozens of Federal workers took to the sidewalks and streets outside administrative offices and departments for a third day as a five-alarm fire continued raging through government operations. That fire was lit by billionaire Elon Musk as he deployed surrogates inside multiple agencies throughout the U.S. Government to seal off offices and upend normal operations. His actions over the last week were with the consent of President Trump and were effectively dismantling normal government operations from within its own walls.
Key employees in certain departments were locked out of central computer systems at U.S. Treasury, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) FBI, and USAID. Lockouts were also reported occurring at the Department of Education and Department of Justice. Other agency Federal employees were reporting similar actions taken and passed their personal experiences to DCMediaGroup on the condition of anonymity. Many were reluctant to speak out for fear of retribution but urged the public to call their Congressional representatives and Senators for support.
International Agency for International Development (USAID) Offices Illegally Closed by Musk
Outside the U.S. International Agency for International Development (USAID), several hundred Federal workers rallied outside their office which is located at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Building on Monday at Noon. Over the weekend or before then, Elon Musk surrogates illegally entered and locked down their offices, took over the servers, and began taking down the website pages. This was reported by USAID officials from within its offices. Senator Tom Holland (D-MD) and Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-MD) along with Don Beyer (D-VA) said the actions taken by Musk were illegal and unconstitutional. They spoke outside USAID offices during a press conference Monday at noon.
Federal workers were shocked and saddened when they suddenly learned this morning by email they should not report to work because their offices were locked and their building access credentials were disabled. Many stood outside during the press conference barely able to comprehend their role in the unfolding U.S. Government crisis. Some of the workers hugged each other while some cried in each other’s arms.
Many USAID workers have been working on projects with the Congressionally created agency for their entire career.
The USAID Federal workers did not know if they would still have employment in the following days. It was reported that USAID would now fall under the control of the U.S. Department of State, however no such Congressional approval had taken place.
USAID is a government agency established by Congress in 1961, and later that year was approved by President John Kennedy. For 6 decades it has been responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance to promote global well-being, assist the economic growth, and improve living conditions in developing countries. Some of its many programs include developing strategies to fight pandemics and disease, providing family assistance, and infrastructure projects such as bridge construction, water treatment plants, and schools.
A Congressional delegation was barred from USAID even though Congress approved the Agency in 1961. Screenshot from Congressman Don Beyer account.
Kristina Drye, a speech writer, who was locked out of her office and up until Monday morning, worked at USAID, said that democratic principles promoted around the world were under attack and called on Congressional leadership to intervene. She further said that loss of such democratic principles would directly harm millions in developing countries worldwide who depend upon the assistance provided from USAID to help their nations. “People would die,” she said as a result of having funds shut off.
USAID has provided aid for decades to developing nations dealing with world issues, including conflicts, refugees, infrastructure development, disease and pandemic intervention programs, family development and assistance, food assault and many other programs. Drye said that USAID was responsible for using less than 1% of the part of the budget allocated for discretionary spending. In comparison, the Department of Defense is allocated nearly 57% of the budget for discretionary spending.
Update: 7 pm February 3. U.S. Department of State Marco Rubio said that USAID would fall under the supervision of the Department of State. However there was no approval from Congress to transfer control of the agency to the Department of State.
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Federal Workers Block Doors of Admin Building Over Elon Musk Data Breach
Nearly 100 Federal employees took part in a protest now into its second day of a takeover by Elon Musk surrogates of the high administration arm of the Federal government. Photo: DCMediaGroup
Washington DC—Federal employees and supporters returned to the main Federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) building today in much greater numbers to continue protesting an incursion into its sprawling computer network by a team of Elon Musk’s computer surrogates.
About 100 Federal employees and supporters occupied the courtyard of the OPM building for most of Sunday afternoon and into the evening. For a brief period they blocked the doors to the building when a handful of self-identified ‘data miners’ waited to be admitted to the building. The small group of young men eventually left without entering after the protesters would not let them near the front doors. A team of DC Metropolitan Police stood nearby watching but did not intervene in the spontaneous doorway block. There was no attempt by the self-identified group to get past the doors and the doors remained locked from the inside.
Federal employees and supporters privately expressed deep anger and concern after learning that Elon Musk’s surrogates had gained access to the OPM building, revoked regular Federal employees’ authorized access credentials, and denied them login privileges into the personnel computer systems. As of late Sunday night the surrogates continued to lock Federal employees out of the systems while they accessed the systems.
There is no way to determine what they are doing with the systems or its vast trove of databases and information which records the personnel actions across the entire Federal government.
These personnel systems and databases house the business accounts and personal information of over 2 million former and presently active Federal employees, their personnel data, work history, job information, payroll records, and retirement benefits and information.
A massive intrusion of this scale taken against a system of secure government computer networks is unprecedented.
Similar activities by Elon Musk’s surrogates were reported at the U.S. Treasury and at USAID. Federal employees were denied login privileges into their systems while unauthorized persons connected to Elon Musk accessed key software, accounts, and databases.
The entire management and administrative arm of the Federal government files and accounts have been effectively captured and taken over by Musk’s surrogates and could conceivably be further accessed further by unknown unauthorized third parties or entities.
While a half dozen protesters blocked the doors the remaining group chanted slogans and heckled Musk’s surrogates inside who periodically looked down on the protesters from the windows of the fifth floor.
They chanted, “There’s a robbery in progress! Stop the steal!” and “No Oligarchs No king!.”
But the protesters laughed and relaxed the tension at least for at a few moments when one of them coined the phrase, “No Elon, no coup, no fascist shiba inu!” (Video below)
The shiba inu is a meme reference to a Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a fake government department which was not authorized by an act of Congress. Musk is recognized as the creator of this department to oversee the reduction in force (RIF) initiative of up to what may be removal of as much as 80% of the regular Federal employee workforce.
Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation manifesto written to outline a complete overhaul of the Federal government lists RIF of public servants and near complete elimination and replacement of its role in civil society.
The shiba inu dog is also the visual image on the DOGE meme coin, an intrinsically worthless cryptocurrency which Elon Musk began backing and supporting by recommending it as a worthy token sometime after developers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created the cryptocurrency as a joke in 2013.
Towards the end of the night a security guard from the OPM came outside to lower the American and DC flags. One of the protesters questioned him about his role as a secretary guard if he was allowing un-credentialed third parties into the building to access commuter systems. He said he was just doing his job.
The OPM protests are planned to continue all next week as public interest has rapidly grown to do something about the unprecedented seizure and physical takeover and control of the administrative functions of the various departments of the Federal government.
We will continue to cover this story as developments occur.
Update: February 3, 0400 EST (4 am)
Several protesters who stayed late into the night keeping an eye on the OPM building doors watched as two people entered a service portal at the west side of the building after hours at approximately 2100 EST (9 pm).
There would typically be no official Federal employees entering the building at such late hours on a Sunday evening/Monday morning; certainly not using a portal to enter the OPM building. A witness said they left OPM to pick up food from a delivery request.
The witness, who is reporting their observations at OPM from an Bluesky account @MissMouse (missmouse.bsky.social) has been releasing video clips of the OPM activities and Federal employee protests since Sunday afternoon.
A group calling itself Shutdown DC is organizing daily protests around the OPM building starting Monday afternoon and plans a continuing presence outside the OPM building.
We will continue to update major developments of Elon Musk’s administrative takeover of the Federal government departments and agencies as these developments occur.
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