Weekly Member Update - September 29, 2025

It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains. - Assata Shakur

This week’s topic is bravery; that principled and unflinching courage in the face of perilous adversity. We’re talking about the ability to push past fear that comes from collective action and solidarity with others who share your values and commitment to our democracy.  It’s that steadfast confidence that enables you to say NO to injustice because you and those beside you have history and truth on your side. And it’s the bravery that it takes to accept being uncomfortable, because sometimes inconveniencing yourself and others is what’s necessary to stand against tyranny.  We’re talking about the courage to march in the streets in jubilant and nonviolent collective celebration and defense of our American way of life, even if others don’t want you to.

The past week demonstrated, once again, what even a little bravery can accomplish.  In last week’s edition, we talked about the assault on our First Amendment rights, as most prominently exemplified in the Orange King’s attempt to silence Jimmy Kimmel. Well, this week, the King lost the Kimmel fight in inglorious fashion. In the wake of Kimmel’s late night show being sidelined by Disney, millions of Americans engaged in a mass boycott, enduring the inconvenience of depriving themselves of Disney/ABC/ESPN/Marvel/Andor in order to defend the First Amendment. Disney promptly lost $4 billion and reinstated Kimmel in short order. Soon thereafter, even the Trump-friendly, local-station conglomerates Nexstar and Sinclair collapsed faster than a card table at a Bills’ tailgate. The surrender by Nexstar — the corporate overlord of our local News10-WTEN — is particularly noteworthy, beholden as it is to Trump’s FCC for approval of its plan to become the country’s largest local-media enterprise. But, in the end, the story that will be told is that the Trump Administration and some oligarchs tried to suppress free expression and silence someone that had hurt Trump’s fragile feelings.  In response, the American people said a hard NO, and the oligarchs decided (for now) that it was better to side with their consumers and defy the King. Welcome to the resistance, corporate media conglomerates, but we still don’t trust you.

If only every other fight were so easy.

While Trump took an L in his battle with Jimmy Kimmel, he spent the rest of the week taking his unhinged tyranny to new and ever-more-terrifying levels. As Kamala Harris had predicted near the end of last year’s presidential run, Trump began checking names off of his enemies list in earnest this week. Only days after declaring in a social media screed that former FBI Director Jamey Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, among others, were “guilty as hell” and demanding that Pam Bondi  not “delay any longer” and move forward with the prosecution of his enemies, Comey was indicted late Thursday and charged with making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The charges against Comey are laughably weak, were previously rejected by career DOJ lawyers and barely passed muster when presented to a grand jury by Trump’s former personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan. Comey responded bravely, stating that he and his family “will not live on their knees,” professing his innocence and calling for a speedy trial to prove it. Comey seems likely to be vindicated in the end, but we suppose that’s hardly the point when Comey and his family have to expend time, financial resources and inordinate stress in order to find that ultimate vindication. Unfortunately, with the Department of Justice now dominated by Trump’s acolytes and sycophants, it seems likely that Tish James, Adam Schiff and others will soon have their own opportunity to demonstrate courage in the face of injustice.

Meanwhile, the King and his minions have once again leveraged tragedy to their advantage, using this week’s shooting of detainees at a Dallas ICE facility to ramp up their crusade against the “radical left” (otherwise known as anyone who is remotely critical of Trump). No sooner had the Dallas incident hit the news that the Orange King bellowed on social media that, “[t]his violence is the result of the Radical Left Democrats constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to ‘Nazis,’” America’s heartthrob, Stephen Miller, quickly followed suit, declaring that Gavin Newsom had “incite[d] violence and terrorism” by merely criticizing the actions of ICE as “authoritarian.” Vice President JD Vance immediately blamed the shooting on the left’s “obsessive attack on law enforcement, particularly ICE,” and no less an authority than MAGA Svengali Steve Bannon reported that the Trump Administration would now investigate “groups that are using anti-ICE rhetoric” and that “you will [now] see the power of the state crush this escalating political violence.” On Saturday, the White House even issued an official statement bemoaning “Democrats’ unhinged crusade against our border enforcement” and specifying the “battle cr[ies] of violence” that had been uttered by 29 specific Democratic elected officials, from Tim Walz and JB Pritzker to Jasmine Crocket and AOC. In other words, the fascists are looking to criminalize the act of calling them fascists, which is definitely something that only fascists would do.

If the persecution of political enemies and the criminalization of protected speech were not enough, while the Orange King plots new ways to use the machinery of our government against us, his gestapo force remains on the streets of American cities, terrorizing our communities with masked ICE agents, including throughout New York State. Although Trump seems to have retreated from his plan to deploy the US military to the streets of Chicago — Portland seems to be the new unwarranted target for that totalitarian tactic — yesterday saw a new surge of federal agents into that city’s streets, with masked and armed agents snatching folks indiscriminately based on the color of their skin. This came amid the backdrop of ICE’s “Operation Midway Blitz” enforcement action upon the residents of Chicagoland. In response, the people of Chicago have exhibited considerable bravery and courage in the face of increasingly indiscriminate violence. In the bedroom community of Broadview — essentially Chicago’s version of Latham or East Greenbush — protesters have staged sustained and repeated demonstrations outside of an ICE detention facility. ICE has responded with more violence, tossing Congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh to the ground in one well-publicized incident and unleashing a torrent of pepper balls and other “nonlethal” munitions against nonviolent protestors Saturday night. The demonstrations held outside and around the Broadview detention facility are diverse and autonomous in nature, allowing a variety of tactics, messages and imagery to emerge at each demonstration. As one protestor remarked, “I was scared to go. But it's not as scary as getting sent to CECOT, so I let solidarity be my guide.” That’s the kind of bravery we’re talking about, friends.

We would imagine that, when we gathered for No Kings I back in June, you, like us, were of the view that the Country was in a terrible place and that Orange King’s penchant for for authoritarianism felt like a looming threat. Less than four months later, with No Kings II on the near horizon, that looming authoritarianism has blossomed into full-blown fascism. So, while the actions of Trump have escalated into what now feels like a palpable threat — not just to the Republic, but to our own individual freedom and safety — we need to rely on each other and our solidarity more than other. We also need to prepare to be uncomfortable, to be ready to do things differently than the honking and waving we all know so well. That means that it is time to educate yourself; for starters, take the ACLU’s Protest Safety, Know Your Rights and De-Escalation Training on October 6 and MoveOn’s No Kings Safety and Security Training on October 9. Remember too that our solidarity is our strength, and help us drive turnout to No Kings II by encouraging everyone you know to join us as we march near the old King’s Highway on October 18. Together we will be courageous, and together we can say NO to the fascist Orange King.