You are terrific and so smart, Jessica. I know you’re right about all the ways we need to protect ourselves. I totally get that the regime is going to come after all of us lefties. I don’t know how to do the tech things you describe. My partner does, but she doesn’t want to face the full truth about where we are in this. I 100% agree with you that we are all the way in an authoritarian regime.
Don't expect electoral revulsion to trigger a national gag reflex sufficient to restore the rights of non-plutocrats. The duopoly parties are different wings of the same great big club that you ain't in.
Jessica, you’re naming what most people are still too polite to say out loud. Authoritarianism doesn’t always march in with jackboots. Sometimes it slips in wearing a flag pin, promising safety, and humming a hymn. The first defense is seeing it clearly. The second is refusing to bow, even when they call it patriotism.
I've been working on that for the last few weeks. I have moved off of Google Chrome, I rarely use Edge and I'm securing my email system. I'm also looking into other platforms besides YouTube to send my weekly podcasts to. Substack is okay until it isn't anymore. I read someone's article in Medium this morning saying that Substack is going through some growing pains and everything will be fine.
I think the U.S. is headed for a soft civil war that is starting to center on voting rights but might widen out to much more if the economy continues to go over the cliff. How will Trump handle that? Just like he is handling the homeless and crime rate in D.C., only nationwide.
I have no problem signing up for the resistance, should it come to that. I have plenty of combat experience. I may be a senior citizen but I can still do what needs doing. Probably a lot better than some of those youngsters wearing the uniform right now. There are a lot of other experienced veterans that may line up on either side across the country. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Exactly. The sins of this country have never been addressed.
As an older Black woman, what is happening now, is no different than it has been and is for Black Americans. A traffic stop for not signaling a lane change can end our lives in a small jail cell in any city in America. Simply for being Black. I was pulled over for this same thing, 1 mile from my house. Why? People change lanes all the time without signaling and never have a police encounter.
I don’t plan any resistance, this time. It does nothing. Global protests for the murder of George Floyd with a literal knee on his neck changed nothing in Minnesota or anywhere else in this country for Black Americans.
Black Americans have lived in an authoritarian fascist country for 400 years, since we were kidnapped and forcibly brought to America to build this country with no remuneration.
What difference is trump’s america to Nixon’s or Roosevelt’s or Coolidge’s or Kennedy’s or Jefferson’s or Hoover’s or Monroe’s or Jackson’s or Reagan’s or Obama’s for Black Americans?
I agree. The U.S. is gearing up for a racial reckoning soon. This obvious power grab in the republican controlled states is the first salvo and there will be more as they get more and more emboldened by Trump. Once the country gets knee deep in this recession that's coming, the gloves may come off in a few places. Washington D.C. is looking to be the first experiment at a quasi-military takeover of a major city. If that is a success, that tactic will get deployed to other republican cities across the country. Then it becomes a matter of how much the American people are willing to put up with.
Voice of dissent. The reason DC has its problems is because it is DC. The people doing the car hijacking, gun play, are minors, under the age of 18. The normal legal venues are different for minors when they commit these kind of crimes. However, it is more like a catch and release going on and there is no way to house, and correct behavior. They are much like an unincorporated town. Basic services, but law, police have budget problems. Current judges know they will see these offenders over and over again. The system is broken and can’t be fixed. I lived in Baltimore, and what happens in DC spreads like wildfire. It is happening in EVERY major city. We don’t hear about it and it’s not because of the current president, but because the media has its agenda. The media as we know it is dying. You can’t trust them any longer. Furthermore the information you get is tainted, bogus. The surveys are targeted to certain groups for certain outcomes, to be provided as talking point for the media. GDP, JOB CREATION, UNEMPLOYMENT are using bogus data. To top it off TPTB are f*cking with the data to make is say whatever they want. The economy is shedding jobs at an alarming rate. Not discussed. Not updated, no corrections.
You think that a soft civil war will happen because of voter rights? How about no jobs, inflation, ghost jobs, housing costs, food recalls, big time debt, and poverty ticking up. To me the middle and lower classes are a paycheck away from homelessness. They know it, police, medical professionals, teachers,so does the government, state, local and federal. Lots of people in power have sold us out, and we are paying their way.
It didn’t matter if Trump, Harris, or Biden won because things were always going to get bad. What you need to do to prepare for long term self sufficiency. Make friends, develop resources everyone can take part in and use. Unfortunately it is going to get worse for all of us and there isn’t anything that will stop this reckoning. We as a country have traded away self sufficiency, protected industries, land, food, quality products for convenience, consumption, and debt. We have learned stupidity, incompetence, inaptness.
The odds were always against us, we just never realized how stacked the deck was. Interesting times, interesting times.
At first, I thought you were responding to my post. Sounds like we agree. Trump is using crime and homelessness as an excuse to consolidate power. You're right, this is just the beginning and it's going to get a lot worse for many of the reasons you describe. I hate dousing people's hopes, but like I said last time, fortitude is worth much more than hope, especially at this point.
As sobering as it is to be aware and conscious that we are “here”, and that it seems at times that everything seems to be coming together…albeit a mite too quickly IMHO… I'm also struck by the thought that our reality(?) has to be this going through this period in order for us to *hopefully* get anywhere as an actual functioning country and functioning society. Some eggs have to be broken for us to get our omelette
It’s surreal and unspeakably disheartening to watch this unfold from afar, especially considering I didn’t leave the U.S. for political reasons but a combination of wanting to be available for my aging father, health issues, and, last and most certainly least, the culture outside of politics.
I’m less of an outsider in other countries than in my own country and even if I wasn’t, no other country is as confrontational about those differences.
It’s so tiring when everything you do that makes perfect sense becomes a reason for an argument and when everything is structured to be against you.
Before I got sick, it wasn’t a problem but now that I’ve got chronic health issues, I don’t have the strength required to deal with it all the time.
Even worse, before my health took a turn for the markedly worse after another round of COVID-19, I resolved to stay and fight this fascism. I’m not afraid of them.
But I also have to survive and that requires access to medical care. Safe to say, my feelings of guilt, anger, and sadness are unfathomable.
Thankfully, I've already been doing a lot of these things (and advising friends to do the same) for a while now, so at least I wasn't caught completely unprepared. And I've been calling this what it is, too, at least offline. Authoritarianism. I have people in my life who really need to hear that.
Jess, You’ve captured exactly how disorienting and urgent this moment feels. It’s sobering, but also a call to stay sharp, connected, and ready. Complacency is a luxury we just can’t afford anymore.
Be careful, my American friends. It’s going to get worse before it can get any better again.
Please arm yourself and those you care about with knowledge that can help protect your freedoms:
https://open.substack.com/pub/digitalcanary/p/the-art-of-simple-sabotage
It was good enough to fight Nazis, it’ll help with fighting these fascists.
Stay safe, but don’t be cowed: you *are* America, not the land, and you can still save it.
🙏🙏🇨🇦🗽
You are terrific and so smart, Jessica. I know you’re right about all the ways we need to protect ourselves. I totally get that the regime is going to come after all of us lefties. I don’t know how to do the tech things you describe. My partner does, but she doesn’t want to face the full truth about where we are in this. I 100% agree with you that we are all the way in an authoritarian regime.
I would start picking her brain asap. You don't have to tell her it's because of the fascists!
Good thinking!
Thanks!
Don't expect electoral revulsion to trigger a national gag reflex sufficient to restore the rights of non-plutocrats. The duopoly parties are different wings of the same great big club that you ain't in.
Jessica, you’re naming what most people are still too polite to say out loud. Authoritarianism doesn’t always march in with jackboots. Sometimes it slips in wearing a flag pin, promising safety, and humming a hymn. The first defense is seeing it clearly. The second is refusing to bow, even when they call it patriotism.
I've been working on that for the last few weeks. I have moved off of Google Chrome, I rarely use Edge and I'm securing my email system. I'm also looking into other platforms besides YouTube to send my weekly podcasts to. Substack is okay until it isn't anymore. I read someone's article in Medium this morning saying that Substack is going through some growing pains and everything will be fine.
I think the U.S. is headed for a soft civil war that is starting to center on voting rights but might widen out to much more if the economy continues to go over the cliff. How will Trump handle that? Just like he is handling the homeless and crime rate in D.C., only nationwide.
I have no problem signing up for the resistance, should it come to that. I have plenty of combat experience. I may be a senior citizen but I can still do what needs doing. Probably a lot better than some of those youngsters wearing the uniform right now. There are a lot of other experienced veterans that may line up on either side across the country. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
It's going to be REALLY UGLY because at its heart it is about RACE.
I say this a lot but that doesn't make it less true.
2 out of 3 White voters, voted for Trump.
The MAGAt party is 90% White, the rest of us are a multiracial coalition.
Civil wars polarized like that usually end with 30%+ depopulation.
Exactly. The sins of this country have never been addressed.
As an older Black woman, what is happening now, is no different than it has been and is for Black Americans. A traffic stop for not signaling a lane change can end our lives in a small jail cell in any city in America. Simply for being Black. I was pulled over for this same thing, 1 mile from my house. Why? People change lanes all the time without signaling and never have a police encounter.
I don’t plan any resistance, this time. It does nothing. Global protests for the murder of George Floyd with a literal knee on his neck changed nothing in Minnesota or anywhere else in this country for Black Americans.
Black Americans have lived in an authoritarian fascist country for 400 years, since we were kidnapped and forcibly brought to America to build this country with no remuneration.
What difference is trump’s america to Nixon’s or Roosevelt’s or Coolidge’s or Kennedy’s or Jefferson’s or Hoover’s or Monroe’s or Jackson’s or Reagan’s or Obama’s for Black Americans?
I agree. The U.S. is gearing up for a racial reckoning soon. This obvious power grab in the republican controlled states is the first salvo and there will be more as they get more and more emboldened by Trump. Once the country gets knee deep in this recession that's coming, the gloves may come off in a few places. Washington D.C. is looking to be the first experiment at a quasi-military takeover of a major city. If that is a success, that tactic will get deployed to other republican cities across the country. Then it becomes a matter of how much the American people are willing to put up with.
I agree, Jessica.
I keep remembering that Hitler said to give him four years and the Germans wouldn't recognize their country. He got that right...
You have become radicalized. It suits you.
Excellent piece. Excellent advice.
The Resistance starts NOW!
and this will be the last time we openly speak of it.
as you say, it's not to soon to be thinking about "information security".
Voice of dissent. The reason DC has its problems is because it is DC. The people doing the car hijacking, gun play, are minors, under the age of 18. The normal legal venues are different for minors when they commit these kind of crimes. However, it is more like a catch and release going on and there is no way to house, and correct behavior. They are much like an unincorporated town. Basic services, but law, police have budget problems. Current judges know they will see these offenders over and over again. The system is broken and can’t be fixed. I lived in Baltimore, and what happens in DC spreads like wildfire. It is happening in EVERY major city. We don’t hear about it and it’s not because of the current president, but because the media has its agenda. The media as we know it is dying. You can’t trust them any longer. Furthermore the information you get is tainted, bogus. The surveys are targeted to certain groups for certain outcomes, to be provided as talking point for the media. GDP, JOB CREATION, UNEMPLOYMENT are using bogus data. To top it off TPTB are f*cking with the data to make is say whatever they want. The economy is shedding jobs at an alarming rate. Not discussed. Not updated, no corrections.
You think that a soft civil war will happen because of voter rights? How about no jobs, inflation, ghost jobs, housing costs, food recalls, big time debt, and poverty ticking up. To me the middle and lower classes are a paycheck away from homelessness. They know it, police, medical professionals, teachers,so does the government, state, local and federal. Lots of people in power have sold us out, and we are paying their way.
It didn’t matter if Trump, Harris, or Biden won because things were always going to get bad. What you need to do to prepare for long term self sufficiency. Make friends, develop resources everyone can take part in and use. Unfortunately it is going to get worse for all of us and there isn’t anything that will stop this reckoning. We as a country have traded away self sufficiency, protected industries, land, food, quality products for convenience, consumption, and debt. We have learned stupidity, incompetence, inaptness.
The odds were always against us, we just never realized how stacked the deck was. Interesting times, interesting times.
At first, I thought you were responding to my post. Sounds like we agree. Trump is using crime and homelessness as an excuse to consolidate power. You're right, this is just the beginning and it's going to get a lot worse for many of the reasons you describe. I hate dousing people's hopes, but like I said last time, fortitude is worth much more than hope, especially at this point.
As sobering as it is to be aware and conscious that we are “here”, and that it seems at times that everything seems to be coming together…albeit a mite too quickly IMHO… I'm also struck by the thought that our reality(?) has to be this going through this period in order for us to *hopefully* get anywhere as an actual functioning country and functioning society. Some eggs have to be broken for us to get our omelette
True
It’s surreal and unspeakably disheartening to watch this unfold from afar, especially considering I didn’t leave the U.S. for political reasons but a combination of wanting to be available for my aging father, health issues, and, last and most certainly least, the culture outside of politics.
I’m less of an outsider in other countries than in my own country and even if I wasn’t, no other country is as confrontational about those differences.
It’s so tiring when everything you do that makes perfect sense becomes a reason for an argument and when everything is structured to be against you.
Before I got sick, it wasn’t a problem but now that I’ve got chronic health issues, I don’t have the strength required to deal with it all the time.
Even worse, before my health took a turn for the markedly worse after another round of COVID-19, I resolved to stay and fight this fascism. I’m not afraid of them.
But I also have to survive and that requires access to medical care. Safe to say, my feelings of guilt, anger, and sadness are unfathomable.
Thankfully, I've already been doing a lot of these things (and advising friends to do the same) for a while now, so at least I wasn't caught completely unprepared. And I've been calling this what it is, too, at least offline. Authoritarianism. I have people in my life who really need to hear that.
Well written. Depressing; but well written.
Jess, You’ve captured exactly how disorienting and urgent this moment feels. It’s sobering, but also a call to stay sharp, connected, and ready. Complacency is a luxury we just can’t afford anymore.