A Court security guard at the Licht Judicial Complex in Providence, Rhode Island noticed a masked man taking photographs inside the courtroom. The guard approached the man and asked asked him to identify himself. He said he was working for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The guard told him to stop taking photographs inside the courthouse.

A few minutes later, ICE agents arrested a high school-age boy outside the courthouse and placed him in handcuffs. Security recognized the teenager and reported the arrest to Superior Court Judge Joseph McBurney, who came outside and told the ICE agents they’d made a mistake and had arrested his high school intern. A heated argument ensued between the judge and men from ICE. After reviewing the boy’s identification, ICE admitted they’d arrested the wrong person and released the student.

Disturbed by the arrest, the boy asked the Judge if he could go home for the day. The judge agreed and offered to drive him. At that point, the ICE agents returned, surrounded the judge’s car, told them to get out and threatened to smash the car windows if they didn’t comply. At that point, the Head of Security Operations for the R.I. Superior Court, Dana Smith, approached the car and told the Judge and the boy to remain in the vehicle. Then Smith confronted the ICE agents, who eventually left the scene without making an arrest.

“This egregious incident underscores both the community’s and the Judiciary’s concerns about how ICE is conducting its operations in Rhode Island,” said R.I. Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul A. Suttell.

News coverage

#news #law #ICE #Gestapo #PoliceState #resist

I owe my Trump-supporting family and friends an apology. I've been critical of the Trump presidency and am still exhausted from the experience. But to be fair, President Trump wasn't that bad, other than when:

• He incited an insurrection against the government

• Mismanaged a pandemic that killed nearly half a million Americans
• Separated children from their families, and lost those children in the bureaucracy
• Tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church
• Tried to block all Muslims from entering the country
• Got impeached, got impeached again
• Had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history
• Pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden
• Fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia
• Bragged about firing the FBI director on TV
• Took Vladimir Putin's word over the US intelligence community
• Diverted military funding to build his wall
• Caused the longest government shutdown in US history
• Called Black Lives Matter a "symbol of hate"
• Lied 30,000 times
• Banned transgender people from serving in the military
• Ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions
• Vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers
• Refused to release his tax returns
• Increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion
• Had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history
• Called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers
• Coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist
• Refused to concede the 2020 election
• Hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House
• Walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl
• Called neo-Nazis "very fine people"
• Suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID
• Abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey
• Pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans
• Incited anti-lockdown protesters in several states at the height of the pandemic
• Withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords
• Withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal
• Withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China's advances
• Insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter
• Pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op
• Failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies
• Called Haiti and African nations "shithole" countries
• Called the city of Baltimore the "worst in the nation"
• Claimed that he single-handedly brought back the phrase "Merry Christmas" even though it hadn't gone anywhere
• Forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader
• Believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• Berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe
• Suggested the US should buy Greenland
• Colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges
• Repeatedly called the media "enemies of the people"
• Claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we'd have fewer cases
• Violated the emoluments clause
• Thought that Nambia was a country
• Told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public
• Called his exceedingly faithful vice president a "p---y" for following the Constitution
• Nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet
• Nominated a corrupt head of the EPA
• Nominated a corrupt head of HHS
• Nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department
• Nominated a corrupt head of the USDA
• Praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies
• Refused to allow the presidential transition to begin
• Insulted war hero John McCain -- even after his death
• Spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president
• Falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote
• Falsely claimed that he turned down being Time's Man of the Year
• Considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions
• Mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID
• Locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones
• Used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the "China virus"
• Hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser
• Pardoned several of his shady associates
• Gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressman who amplified his batshit crazy conspiracy theories
• Got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia(!)
• Had a Secretary of State who called him a moron
• Forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history
• Botched the COVID vaccine rollout
• Tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him
• Charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties
• Constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate
• Claimed that COVID would "magically" disappear
• Called a U.S. Senator "Pocahontas"
• Used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka's merchandise
• Opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling
• Got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers
• Claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US
• Ignored or didn't even take part in daily intelligence briefings
• Blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining
• Redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle
• Got played by Kim Jung Un and his "love letters"
• Threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution
• Botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
• Threw paper towels and toilet paper at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them
• Pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to "find" him votes
• Thought that the Virgin islands had a President
• Drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane
• Allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing
• Rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos
• Pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID
• Rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers
• Held blatant campaign rallies at the White House
• Tried to take away millions of Americans' health insurance because the law was named for a Black man
• Refused to attend his successors' inauguration
• Nominated the worst Education Secretary in history
• Threatened judges who didn't do what he wanted
• Attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci
• Promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn't)
• Allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues
• Struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble
• Called an African-American Congresswoman "low IQ"
• Threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders
• Went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic
• Claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were "witch hunts"
• Seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution
• Demanded "total loyalty" from the FBI director
• Praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles
• Completely gutted the Voice of America
• Placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service
• Claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower
• Suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country
• Suggested that COVID wasn't that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public
• Overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported
• Reduced the number of refugees the US accepts
• Insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames
• Gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address
• Named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who'd previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties
• Eliminated the White House office of pandemic response
• Used soldiers as campaign props
• Fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him
• Demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade
• Hired a ton of white nationalists
• Politicized the civil service
• Did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the U.S. government
• Falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts
• Claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won
• Insulted reporters of color and women reporters and women reporters of color
• Suggested he was fine with China's oppression of the Uighurs
• Attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him
• Summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election
• Spent countless hours every day watching Fox News
• Refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas
• Hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer
• Tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him
• Acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney
• Attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a women who accused him of sexual assault
• Held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present
• Didn't disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media
• Stopped holding press briefings for months at a time
• "Ordered" US companies to leave China even though he has no such power
• Led a political party that couldn't even be bothered to draft a policy platform
• Claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers
• Tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course
• Suggested that the government nuke hurricanes
• Suggested that wind turbines cause cancer
• Said that he had a special aptitude for science
• Fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure
• Blurted out classified information to Russian officials
• Tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida
• Fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban
• Hired Stephen Miller
• Openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them
• Interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel
• Abandoned Iraqi refugees who'd helped the U.S. during the war
• Tried to get Russia back into the G7
• Held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden
• Seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive
• Lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated
• Falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren't
• Shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies
• Still hasn't come up with a healthcare plan
• Still hasn't come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated "Infrastructure Weeks"
• Forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID
• Told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by"
• F***ed up the Census
• Withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic
• Did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule "President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings"
• Allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act
• Seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican
• Stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win
• Constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president which presumably includes four that were assassinated and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump
• Claimed Andrew Jackson could've stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened
• Said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake
• Claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him
• Claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President
• Created a commission to whitewash American history
• Retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain
• Claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn't have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there
• Hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent Bowling Green Massacre as a reason to ban Muslims
• Had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others
• Bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties
• Apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House
• Stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians
• Falsely claimed Biden wanted to defund the police
• Said that the head of the CDC didn't know what he was talking about
• Tried to rescind protection from DREAMers,
• Gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic
• Tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax
• Said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn't count blue states
• Deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented
• Claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln
• Touted a "super-duper" secret "hydrosonic" missile which may or may not be a new "hypersonic" missile or may not exist at all
• Retweeted a GIF calling Biden a pedophile
• Forced through security clearances for his family
• Suggested that police officers should rough up suspects
• Suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs
• Tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender
• Suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher
• Nominated a climate change skeptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy
• Retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden had played a song called "F**k tha Police" at a campaign event
• Hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags
• Accused Democrats of "treason" for not applauding his State of the Union address
• Claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were "spending too much time" on Russia
• Mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault
• Was proven to be close friends with the biggest sexual predictor of young girls
• Obsessed over low-flow toilets
• Ordered the rerelease of more COVID vaccines when there weren't any to release
• Called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek)
• Hijacked Washington's July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech
• Took advice from the MyPillow guy
• Claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists
• Said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure
• Never seemed to heed the advice of his wife's "Be Best" campaign
• Falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent
• Announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest
• Insulted the leaders of Canada, France, Britain, Germany, and Sweden!!
• Falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues
• Blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually
• Continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders
• Said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their "Sony televisions" if the US were ever attacked
• Left a NATO summit early in a huff
• Stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of 5 knows not to do that
• Called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary
• Refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise, and a whole bunch of other things I can't remember at the moment.

But other than that. . .

~ Author unknown
#satire #resist #madman #authoritarian

The New York Times: Epoch Times Reporter Resigns After Publication Signs Pentagon Rules
The reporter, Andrew Thornebrooke, also cited a recent editorial directive to refer to antifa, the far-left ideological movement, as a terrorist organization.

From Occupy Democrats

BREAKING: A reporter for the far-right Epoch Times resigns in protest over his outlet's decision to sign the MAGA Pentagon's anti-free speech pledge — and exposes how they regularly push pro-Trump lies.

This is beyond scathing...

“I can no longer reconcile my role with the direction the paper has chosen, including its increasing willingness to promote partisan materials, publish demonstrably false information, and manipulate the reporting of its ground staff to shape the worldview of our readers,” wrote national security reporter Andrew Thornebrooke in his resignation letter, which was obtained by The New York Times.

He further stated that his now-former employer has chosen to “abdicate our responsibility as journalists in favor of merely repeating state narratives.”

Thornebrooke also drew issue with an editorial directive at the Epoch Times that forces reporters to refer to "antifa" as a "terrorist organization," part of a broader conservative smear campaign to paint all of Trump's political enemies as violent insurgents. His administration is increasingly using this amorphous "antifa" bugaboo to justify brutal, fascist crackdowns.

Thornebrooke revealed to the New York Times that reporters for the Epoch Times "are not permitted to review final versions of articles before they are published" and editors would often "suddenly be taking accurate information out of my stories and putting in false info.” He said such changes were intended to "cast the Trump administration in the most positive light possible."

The Epoch Times was one of only three U.S.-based outlets to sign Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's "pledge" which limits their ability to cover information not officially authorized for release. It also limits the number of areas within the Pentagon that journalists may visit without escort and bars them from soliciting leaks of unauthorized information.

This past Wednesday, between 40 and 50 reporters for the publications with enough integrity to refuse the pledge handed in their press credentials and vacated their desks inside the Pentagon.

The attacks on our free press from Hegseth and Trump come as the administration is escalating its homicidal strikes on boats in the Caribbean and pushing the Unites States closer and closer to war with Venezuela. Now, more than ever, we need reporters who are brave and free enough to report on what's really going on at the Department of Defense.

#censorship #propaganda #resist #fascism #news #StateRunMedia #politics #UnitedStates #authoritarianism

From The Guardian, September 30, 2025 (10:37 AM EDT)

Trump suggets 'dangerous cities' should be used 'as training grounds' for the military and national guard

“I told Pete [Hegseth], we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military, national guard, but military, because we’re going into Chicago very soon, that’s a big city with an incompetent governor,” the president says.

theguardian.com/us-news/live/2…

"Chicago"
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

🎜🎜🎜
Though your brother's bound and gagged
And they've chained him to a chair
Won't you please come to Chicago
Just to sing

In a land that's known as freedom
How can such a thing be fair
Won't you please come to Chicago
For the help that we can bring

We can change the world
Re-arrange the world
It's dying ... to get better

Politicians sit yourselves down
There's nothing for you here
Won't you please come to Chicago
For a ride

Don't ask Jack to help you
'Cause he'll turn the other ear
Won't you please come to Chicago
Or else join the other side

We can change the world
Re-arrange the world
It's dying ... if you believe in justice
It's dying ... and if you believe in freedom
It's dying ... let a man live his own life
It's dying ... rules and regulations, who needs them
Open up the door

Somehow people must be free
I hope the day comes soon
Won't you please come to Chicago
Show your face

From the bottom of the ocean
To the mountains on the moon
Won't you please come to Chicago
No one else can take your place
🎝🎝🎝

#chicago #DonaldTrump #authoritarianism #occupation #invasion #CivilWar #news

Advice from Christopher Armitage of the Existential Republic on how to fight back against what they just did to Jimmy Kimmel.

First, we identify the only factor these corporations value.

 
Money.

Bud Light lost $1.4 billion and their #1 beer spot after Dylan Mulvaney. Four weeks, 29% sales drop. Why? Sustained boycott, celebrity pile-on, easy alternatives.

Tesla stock down 50% since January. Sales dropped 72% in Australia. How? 200 protests via Action Network, celebrity amplification, daily pressure.

Glenn Beck lost 300+ advertisers. Bill O'Reilly lost $100 million in ads. Method? Screenshot ads, tag companies, ask why they support censorship.

Target Pride lost $14 billion market cap in one week and pulled merchandise nationwide.

These corporations don't care about freedom, democracy, or morality. Money is the only thing they care about.

For Disney, Nexstar, Sinclair, and ABC's advertisers: Cancel Disney+, skip parks, flood FCC with complaints about Nexstar's pending $6.2 billion merger, remind Sinclair they already lost one merger to public pressure, screenshot every ABC ad, and join shareholder meetings to ask companies why they fund censorship. Show up at their offices. Comment on all their content and impact their brand.

Shareholder route: Disney's annual meeting is March. File resolutions by November. Any shareholder can. Engine No. 1 won 3 ExxonMobil board seats with 0.02% ownership.

Culture jamming: Parody Disney logos with censorship themes. It's protected speech. Create "ABC: American Censorship Company." Get creative, fighting fascism is easier when you're having fun.

SEO impacting: Link "Disney censorship" everywhere. The Santorum Google bomb lasted years.

This matters, and you can do something about it. Today it's Kimmel criticizing political violence. Colbert's already gone. Who's next?

Immediately after reading this you can do the following:

1. Cancel Disney+ and tell them why
2. Call/email/mail those companies
3. Screenshot and tag advertisers
4. Share this playbook with others

#ChrisArmitage #JimmyKimmel #Disney #resist #protest #censorship

September 19, 2025: The DC Activist Street Band (DCASB) adding a bit of music to the last few miles of the "We Are America March", a 160-mile trek from Philadelphia to DC.

​Benjamin Alverez, a correspondent for DW, captured 56 seconds:

VIDEO: DC Activist Street Band marching in the "We Are America" march, September 19, 2025

DW (dw.com/en/) describes itself as:
​

"DW is Germany’s international broadcaster. As an independent media outlet, we provide unbiased news and information around the world so that people can form their own opinions. DW’s coverage of current events is fact-based, with regionally relevant and dialog-oriented content in 32 languages on the focus topics of freedom and human rights, democracy and good governance, free trade and social justice, technology and innovation, health education, nutrition and environmental protection as well as German and European culture. DW’s TV, online and radio services generate over 337 million users every week."​

#WeAreAmerica #Philly #Philadelphia #WashingtonDC #DC #march #rally #resist #news

Tadonic the Flautulent

2025-09-19 23:51:32

DC Activist Street Band (DCASB) at We Are America March 09/19/2025

September 19, 2025: The DC Activist Street Band (DCASB) adding a bit of music to the last few miles of the "We Are America March", a 160-mile trek from Philadelphia to DC.
#WeAreAmerica #Philly #Philadelphia #WashingtonDC #DC #march #rally #resist #news

More crucial analysis from Chris Armitage.

Upgrade Your Activism: The Evidence-Based Path from Protest to Power
by Christopher Armitage, September 9, 2025

(See the original article linked above for citations, links, and other information.)

I know activists who have protested every American military action since the Korean War. They've spent decades hitting the streets to try and end needless death and destruction. Their moral determination is powerful, and they've kept resistance alive when others surrendered to apathy.

And yet, if we're honest with each other, America has still fought every war the public opposed. We marched. We chanted. And the wars continued.

This isn't about wasted time or questioning anyone's commitment. These protests mattered, they built community, preserved moral witness, and showed that not everyone consented to violence. But it is a statement of statistical fact: disorganized street protests, the default mode of American resistance, demonstrably do not topple regimes or force systemic change. The forces we're fighting, defense contractors with billion-dollar budgets, lobbyists who write the laws, and politicians who profit from perpetual war, don't lose sleep over our marches. The data is unambiguous that isolated demonstrations, regardless of size, rarely achieve their stated political goals when confronting entrenched power backed by unlimited money.

The research I'm citing focuses primarily on regime change and major policy shifts. Protests can serve other vital functions like building community, shifting discourse, and demonstrating solidarity. But if your goal is systemic change, then read on.

Thankfully, we know what does work.

Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan compiled rigorous data from 323 major resistance campaigns between 1900 and 2006. Their research revealed the specific mechanisms that transform moral outrage into political victory. They documented which tactics succeed, which fail, and most importantly, why.

The difference between movements that change history and those that become footnotes isn't passion or righteousness. It's strategic competence. And strategy can be learned.

Let's establish our premises clearly. Political power rests on pillars of support including military, economic elites, civil servants, media, and other institutions that enable governance. Governments change behavior when the cost of maintaining the status quo exceeds the cost of reform. Street protests alone rarely impose sufficient costs or remove pillars of support.

This isn't speculation. Omar Wasow's 2020 study used rainfall as a natural experiment, since bad weather randomly reduced protest attendance, allowing researchers to establish causation. His finding was that nonviolent civil rights protests were far more effective when they weren't just marches. The successful protests were part of sustained campaigns involving economic boycotts, sit-ins, and systematic civil disobedience.

Consider Occupy Wall Street. At its peak, it had encampments in 951 cities across 82 countries. It dominated media coverage for months. It shifted public discourse on inequality. Yet it achieved zero concrete policy changes. Why? Because it refused to move beyond occupation to the tactics that actually threaten power. That means sustained economic disruption, systematic non-cooperation, and parallel institution building.

Contrast this with the Montgomery Bus Boycott. For 381 days, Black residents who comprised 75% of bus riders refused to use public transportation. The city lost money daily. Bus drivers faced layoffs. Downtown businesses saw revenue collapse. Broad strategic and legally damaging tactics ultimately led to powerful system wide desegregation.

The mechanism is straightforward, that protests express dissent, but power concedes only when its fundamental interests are threatened. The fact is, corporations and organizations know when their actions will be unpopular and result in marches. They anticipate it and are entirely prepared for it. They know the strategies and are unconcerned when they know where we will be and how to manage it.

The 3.5% action number from Chenowith and Stephan’s research has been quoted often. However, that 3.5% doesn't mean getting 3.5% to show up for a single action. It means 3.5% of the population actively participates in a sustained campaign over approximately three years. Chenoweth is explicit: "The campaigns need to be able to have more than just protests; there needs to be a lot of variation in the methods they use."

The media widely misrepresented this research, in a sort of “congratulations, 3.5% of the country protested against Trump today. Research shows that you have now defeated fascism and can go home and stay there!”

Gene Sharp documented 198 methods of nonviolent action. Successful campaigns use dozens simultaneously. These include economic boycotts and strikes, tax resistance, alternative institutions, civil disobedience, social non-cooperation, and parallel governance structures.

The Serbian Otpor movement that toppled Milošević understood this. They began with low-risk tactics like graffiti, street theater, and pranks that many could join. They gradually escalated to strikes, boycotts, and parallel institutions. When they finally called for mass demonstrations, they had already eroded the regime's pillars of support.

The 3.5% threshold works because it triggers what social scientists call a "coordination cascade." When people see enough others resisting, the perceived risk drops below the perceived benefit.

But reaching 3.5% sustained participation requires infrastructure most American movements lack.

Politicians can ignore protests. They cannot ignore economic hemorrhaging. The United Farm Workers' grape boycott reduced grape sales by 20% nationally. Grocery chains dropped contracts. Growers negotiated because they had no choice.

The key insight is that economic disruption must be sustained and targeted. One-day strikes are symbolic. Indefinite strikes that halt production force negotiation. This requires strike funds to support participants, alternative food distribution networks, community mutual aid systems, and clear demands tied to specific concessions.

The South African anti-apartheid movement understood this. Black workers continued earning paychecks from white businesses but boycotted white products. After months of devastating losses, business elites forced the government to negotiate.

Isolated movements fail where connected movements succeed. The civil rights movement won because it united Black churches, labor unions, student organizations, and white liberal groups. Churches provided meeting spaces and moral authority. Unions brought economic leverage and organizing experience while students supplied energy and risk tolerance. Liberal allies offered legal expertise and media connections.

Building coalitions requires what veteran organizer Jane McAlevey, who has successfully unionized thousands of workers, calls "whole worker organizing." This means engaging people through their multiple identities and interests, not just their political beliefs. A person might not join as an activist but will join as a parent concerned about schools, a worker seeking dignity, or a congregation member following their faith.

Horizontal, leaderless movements generate initial energy but cannot sustain pressure or negotiate victories. Occupy refused to designate representatives or articulate demands. When politicians asked, "What do you want?" no one could answer authoritatively.

Successful movements require clear command structures for tactical decisions, designated negotiators with defined authority, formal processes for ratifying agreements, leadership development pipelines, and institutional memory preservation.

The Montgomery Improvement Association, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee provided this infrastructure for the civil rights movement. Without them, Birmingham and Selma would have been isolated incidents rather than catalysts for federal legislation.

Repeating the same tactic breeds habituation. Authorities adapt, the media loses interest, and participants burn out.

Successful campaigns follow an escalation ladder:

• Consciousness raising through education and small meetings
• Coalition building to connect organizations
• Demonstrations of resolve through initial protests
• Economic pressure via boycotts and strikes
• Civil disobedience by breaking unjust laws en masse

These tactics ultimately lead to security forces and elites recognizing the power dynamic shifting and joining the side that seems most likely to win. That should be us.

Each stage builds on the previous. Skipping steps usually fails. Jumping to civil disobedience without economic pressure lacks leverage. Mass protests without prior organizing become one-day events.

Several American organizations understand and implement these principles:

Momentum Community trains organizers in combining structure-based organizing with mass mobilization. They've trained leaders from Black Lives Matter, Sunrise Movement, and #MeToo.

Beautiful Trouble provides tactical resources, training, and strategy consultation. Their toolbox includes detailed guides for over 200 tactics with case studies of success and failure.

Training for Change offers intensive workshops on direct action, strategy, and campaign planning. Founded by Movement for a New Society veterans who helped topple multiple authoritarian regimes.

Midwest Academy teaches comprehensive organizing skills: power mapping, campaign strategy, coalition building, and negotiation. They've trained organizers who've won hundreds of local and state campaigns.

The Ayni Institute specializes in mass protest techniques that trigger moments when political weather changes and previously impossible reforms become inevitable.

United Vision for Idaho demonstrates state-level implementation, combining electoral organizing, legislative advocacy, and direct action to block extremist legislation in a red state.

Your immediate actions this week should be to start connecting with these organizations. Assess your tactical diversity. If you're only using 3 to 5 tactics from Sharp's list of 198, you're under-equipped.

Over the next month, attend a training. Momentum offers monthly online sessions. Beautiful Trouble has free webinars. Build your bench. You need 10 committed organizers for every 100 participants. Start recruiting and training now. Establish strike funds and mutual aid networks, because economic tactics require economic support.

The evidence is unambiguous. Spontaneous, disconnected, tactically limited protests do not topple regimes or force systemic change. What does work is strategic, sustained, multi-tactical campaigns with disciplined nonviolence, economic leverage, and organizational infrastructure. This is verified by the largest dataset of resistance campaigns ever assembled.

The oligarchs and authoritarians you're fighting understand this. They've spent 50 years building infrastructure, taking local positions, and executing long-term strategy. They didn't achieve their goals through righteous anger. They achieved them through patient, strategic, coordinated action.

Your opponents are counting on you to remain disorganized, reactive, and tactically limited. They're counting on you to exhaust yourself with symbolic protests that threaten nothing.

But we have a choice because the tools exist, the knowledge is available, and the organizations are ready to train us.

It’s time to start toppling some tyrants."

#resist #activism #RegimeChange #protest