How to Kick Against the Pricks
A rundown of ways to fight theocratic fascism this week ("Kick against the pricks" is King James Version Bible language from the book of Acts. And from Johnny Cash.)
For anyone wondering how the End Times, the rapture, the anti-christ, and more Mike Huckabee/Ted Cruz/Mike Johnson Middle East apocalyptic dogma seeps into the culture unawares, here’s one of the last songs Johnny Cash recorded. Because THAT is what this song is about. And he got many of YOU to sing it. Music is a powerful indoctrinator, even to those who think themselves immune:
Today’s newsletter feels somewhat scattershot, but I have several critical points:
Over the weekend, I read too many breakdowns of the attack on Iran.
I’m not saying it doesn’t matter, because everyone involved matters. Every life matters. The Middle East and its inhabitants matter.
PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT THIS IS DESIGNED TO DEFLECT ATTENTION FROM.
For example…
Tell every American to oppose the MAGA Murder Budget.
Lincoln Square has a brilliant rundown of the dictator-king-democracy-shredding-Project-2025 provisions buried within this bill. If Congress passes the MAGA Murder Budget, American democracy is OVER.
This bill gives the President’s executive orders the weight of law. It removes the judicial branch’s ability to challenge potentially illegal Presidential acts. Essentially, it shreds our very hobbled remaining democratic guardrails and makes the President a dictator, a king.
Do you really want to live in a country where a 2am rant on social media becomes an executive order that shreds the US dollar in favor of crypto?
Or the following 2:30am rant becomes an executive order that decrees that all forms of contraception are hereby declared illegal substances because they contaminate groundwater?
Or yet another 2:45am social media rant that becomes an executive order making it illegal for any American to vaccinate their children against preventable diseases like polio and the measles?
And all those executive orders are NATIONAL LAW?
Because that’s what the MAGA Murder Budget codifies. The President is a dictator. Whatever he decrees is law. Congress doesn’t matter. The judicial branch doesn’t matter.
That is NOT hyperbole. NOT exaggeration. NOT me being a hysterical harpie.
Please share this
newsletter with every American you know TODAY.
Call your senators. Use 5calls.org. Tell them to VOTE NO on the MAGA Murder Budget, should it get past the Senate Parliamentarian. Because on 14 June, Americans were clear: Our President IS NOT A KING.
Predatory, militarized law enforcement is coming to YOUR community.
The regime has name-checked other blue cities like Chicago and New York as the next Los Angeles. But militarized police state tactics could expand to blue cities like Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; Minneapolis/St Paul, MN; and even red state blue dots like New Orleans, LA.
Los Angelinos are learning how to take care of each other in a trial by militarized police fire. DO NOT LET THIS BE YOUR COMMUNITY.
If you live in a community that could be targeted by the regime in the coming days or weeks, NOW is the time to prepare.
How will you protect vulnerable populations from being kidnapped and disappeared?
How will you help these vulnerable people pay their bills and feed themselves and their families, all while they may be hiding at home a la The Diary of Anne Frank? (Because that is literally what our government is now: A gestapo that kidnaps people without due process and disappears them, based on their skin color and ethnicity.)
How will you peacefully disrupt this Gestapo? From following them and honking horns to organizing priests to accompany them and more, developing a game plan BEFORE they descend on your community will be more effective than learning on the fly.
If you have opposition elected officials in your community, how can you support them?
Vance Boelter wasn’t a one-off. Radicalized Christian Nationalist extremists and white supremacists threaten our elected officials and judges every day. Our federal government WILL NOT protect anyone from these threats. See the hideous Alex Padilla video. He had a federal security detail who was complicit in this attack.
Don’t let opposition politicians in your communities suffer a similar fate. Surround and protect them and their families. Make sure they have the support they need. Ask what you can do to help.
If you missed my newsletter last Friday, please read it now.
Revolution is Built with Resolve, Not With a Recipe
Yesterday, I introduced the concept of building a country on the ruins of the post-constitutional order. Here’s a link for readers who missed it:
I can’t give Americans a 5-minute recipe to fix everything. The other side worked for 50 years to get where they are. We are going to have to use the same patient, strategic tactics to get our country back.
AND WE CAN. I BELIEVE IN US.
I just finished watching the video with you and David Graham. It is very encouraging to me that a high profile journalist like Graham really gets it. So many Dems in congress just either don't get it or don't think that Project 2025 is as serious a threat as it is. I bring up Christian Nationalists and the fact that it is a cult running this country on social media often and I think I am not being taken very seriously. Thank you, Andra.
Senate Republicans are scheduled to vote this week ! I will be calling Sen Medicare Fraudster Rick Scott and Sen BadMoody(how they’re in my 📲 😜) every day.
“Democrats scored a victory Sunday when Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled against a provision tucked into the bill by House Republicans that would severely limit the ability of courts to find Trump administration officials in contempt for failing to comply with injunctions or other court orders.”
“Fiscal hawks including Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) want to slash the federal share of Medicaid spending in states that expanded the program under the Affordable Care Act and to speed up the phaseout of renewable energy tax breaks.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/5363606-senate-republicans-trump-bill-challenges/
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