Wednesday, November 11, 6-7pm potluck?, 7- 8:30pm meeting
Location: Zoom and in-person at 70 Cheyenne Pt, PV
Presentation: Protect Voter Voices: Get Corporate Money Out of Our Elections
How to outflank Citizens United in CA with legislation modeled after MT and HI.
IPV will co-sponsor the presentation with Indivisible Mid-Peninsula. Logistics TBD
Elections are decided by people who just started paying attention.
By: Antonia Scatton
Source Link: https://reframingamerica.substack.com/p/persuade
Recommended by: Bruce R.
Elections are decided by people who are only just starting to pay attention. What we say now is critical. We have to set the agenda, lead with data centers, frame corruption as the cause of economic distress, convince voters we will stand up to monopoly power, avoid getting lured into “safety net” debates, and hold Republicans accountable for the Epstein files, Iran, tariffs, and the high price of gas, diesel, fertilizer and food.
We must, of course, get out the vote. But, like Republicans do,we should fight for every last voter until the polls close.Many swing voters simply have not been paying attention until now. In 2024, we lost “people who do not closely follow the news” by 19 points. We are doing brilliantly in the polls. I do not want to see a five-point reversion to the norm when the votes get counted. What we say now is critical.
The American voter is evolving faster than we can keep up. Candidates must be nimble. They can’t just fall back on “tried and true” speeches and messages that tested well in January. We need to adapt to spiking opposition to data centers and a huge shift from “affordability” to “corruption.” Here is exactly what we need to say and do to win these undecided voters and bring this election home in the final stretch.
Do NOT let Republicans set the terms of the debate. There is an astounding numberof issues to choose from, but these are the ones that voters care about the most and where we have the greatest strategic advantage:
1)Data Center / A.I. / Flock Cameras
2) Corruption / Broken Economic System
3) Gas and Food Prices
4) The War in Iran
5) The Epstein Files
All of these issues can be tied back to corruption. Corruption covers a lot of ground. You can get as local or as specific as you want, as long as you talk about it in terms of corruption.
Thank you for reading Reframing America! My work is completely financed by subscribers like you! All content is free, but many people choose to become paying subscribers to help support this mission of improving how we communicate! Use this link to subscribe or upgrade! Thank you!
Opposition to data centers and flock cameras has spiked in just the last few months, and continues to climb. People in the field and terrific rural candidates like Allie Wolf (MN house district 26B), tell me that they are regularly flipping hard-core Republican voters on opposition to data centers alone, even if there are no data centers planned in their area. Apparently, Big Tech (outside elites) colluding in secret with local government officials to green-light massive projects that dump the costs on local communities and also install surveillance cameras to watch their every move, really, really pisses people off.
Why does A.I. in general hit such a nerve in rural America? It re-opens old wounds about NAFTA, in which politicians made major decisions over the objections of working people, citing “experts” who claimed that everyone would benefit. Those decisions closed tens of thousands of factories, threw millions out of work, and destroyed small towns. Pushing recklessly ahead on a technology the purpose of which is to replace workers is bad enough in itself, but it also feels like NAFTA all over again.
Do this: In rural areas and when talking to Republican voters, start the conversation with data centers. In small towns, try dropping the NAFTA reference and watch the reaction. Use data centers and flock cameras to lead into a bigger conversation about corruption.
According to new research from Indivisible and Lake and Associates, 73% of battleground voters are more likely to support a candidate who fights to lower costs and takes on corruption and special interests, compared with just 5% who prefer a candidate focused solely on lowering costs.
Here is where voters have made the most radical change. Voters used to believe in the American Dream and blamed themselves when they could not make ends meet. Then they realized that, while they were holding up their end of the deal by working hard, our economic system was failing to deliver on the wages and economic security that they were promised. This betrayal made them absolutely f-ing furious. But – they did not stop there! They concluded that the whole system is broken because big money is influencing those in our government to rig the entire economic system on their behalf. Note that voters believe that both parties are culpable for this. Do not try to defend past behavior by Democrats, just don’t bring it up. Instead, show that we got there in the end!
How to know you are getting it right: Are you only talking about helping people pay for things? Or are you talking about the system being fundamentally broken and using government to make the economy work the way people were promised it would work? People do not just want handouts. They want fairness. Make EVERYTHING about corruption and economic fairness.
If money buys political power, who is doing the buying? The “Bigs” as in Big Donors and Big Money: Big Tech, Big Ag, Big Oil, Big Pharma and Big Banks, as well as health insurance companies and private equity firms. Researchers have recently found that talking about “monopolies” tests better than terms like oligarchy or billionaires, and does not cause backlash. Everybody hates monopoly power.
Fighting monopoly power is directly related to reducing the cost of living. Companies used to have to compete for consumers by reducing prices, and compete for workers by raising wages. Now they can suppress wages and use A.I. to find our “pain points.” One example: Farmers and ranchers are being squeezed to death between supplier monopolies and buyer monopolies, who then gouge us at the grocery store.
What makes the term “monopoly” so effective is that most people in America have played the game of Monopoly at some point in their life. We know the point when one person pulls ahead, and all that’s left is for the winner to slowly bleed everyone else dry. That is how our economy feels right now. And voters are mad enough to flip over the game board.
In my focus groups this year, voters were very clear. They are sick and tired of listening to us fight with Republicans. They want to hear us fight for them. Josh Turek is not leading in Iowa because he has effectively attacked his opponent. It’s because he is taking “Big Ag” head on. Voters need to hear that we will stand up to monopoly power on their behalf.
Never debate anything Republicans actually want to talk about. It just allows them to expose more people to their attacks – creating neurological associations that are negative for us – and make the election about the issues where they are the strongest.
When Trump makes gratuitous cuts to safety-net programs, we are tempted to jump all over it to point out their cruelty. Do not engage in any debate that involves a “safety-net” program. People perceive Democrats as being worse on the type of corruption they define as “wasting taxpayer money,” which is why our opponents are desperate to make this election about so-called wasteful spending, fraud and the “undeserving poor.” That whole debate lives in the past, where the economy does what it does, and we just argue over whether government should or should not clean up the damage after the fact.
Voters now overwhelmingly want government to intervene strongly to make markets work on our behalf, so that we don’t all end up needing safety nets. If you are only talking about helping people pay for things, voters think you either 1) don’t know that the entire economy is broken or 2) you do know, but lack the courage to stand up to Big Money. So don’t just talk about cuts to food stamps. Talk about forcing Amazon and Walmart to pay well enough that their employees don’t need food stamps. Don’t just talk about Obamacare subsidies. Make it clear that it’s time to kick greedy private health insurers out of the system altogether. Better yet, skip the “handout” part and go directly to “kicking private sector a**.”
Republicans would love for people to believe that all their economic woes are the result of high taxes caused by fraud in public aid programs. We need to make this election about: “Who will end the corruption? Who is more willing to stand up to monopoly power and make our economic system serve the needs of the American people.”
We need to make Republicans own Trump’s behavior. They are the ones on the ballot. Whatever Trump does, whether it is the Epstein files, Iran, tariffs, or the price of gas, diesel, fertilizer and food, we need to hold Republicans accountable for failing to use the power of Congress to stop him.
The War in Iran? It’s about corruption: Trump promised Big Oil favors in exchange for campaign donations, and now Big Oil is raking it in by screwing us at the pump. The Pentagon that can’t pass an audit yet wants another half trillion dollars to spend on fat military contracts for Big Tech firms and companies owned by Trump’s kids.
Trump’s $2.7 billion: It’s not just that Trump has increased his personal wealth. What governmental decisions did he sell to get that money and what price we are paying for those decisions? Which labor laws did he stop enforcing? Which child abusers and human traffickers is he protecting? Which anti-trust cases did he drop? Which fraud convictions did he pardon? Which food safety protections did he gut? Which national security secrets did he sell? Who paid Trump to kill the program to investigate and collect hundreds of billions of dollars in tax evasion by the rich, leaving the rest of us to pick up the tab? Who benefitted from Trump’s decisions to eliminate the programs that fight criminal money laundering and defend us against international cyber-attacks? And just who, in addition to himself, is he protecting in the Epstein files?
The key question for this election is: “Why did Republicans let Trump sell our government to the highest bidder for personal gain, costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, putting us in danger and enabling child abuse and rampant white-collar crime? Perhaps because they are lining their pockets too and because they are afraid to stand up to Trump.
In Progress – more will be added to this page (probably before Oct 17)
Download your copy from https://cavotes.org/easy-voter-guide/
Slides for presentation on Oct 7 meeting.
[TBD – Video of their presentation on 10/07]
There are a number of resources on this site; see: talk-to-others
This article offers good starting points for conversation and how to talk about them.
Video of the event:
Time: Tue, Sep 22, 7-8:30pm
Location: Ladera Community Church, 3300 Alpine Rd, Portola Valley
Talk with Judge Stephen S. Trott
Thanks to IPV members Karen Turner and Linda Clever for their work putting this program together.
Sponsored by Ladera Community Church Social Justice Committee
As part of LCC’s ongoing Democracy & Disagreement Series, this will be the first presentation in their series focusing on Christian Nationalism.
Judge Stephen S. Trott was appointed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and is now inactive. He will describe the history of the First Amendment, the roots of which lie in attempts to eliminate centuries of religious persecution and violence. Judge Trott will also analyze the coupling of the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause as a balanced bargain that assures dignity, freedom and equity for all citizens.
He will outline the consequences of Christian Nationalism as espoused by enthusiasts.
How Rule by the Court Replaced Government by the People
by Nikolas Bowie (Author, Harvard Law School), Daphna Renan (Author, Harvard Law School)
Recommended by Bruce R.
From two acclaimed legal scholars, a new history of the Supreme Court that overturns our most basic assumptions about its role in our democracy, showing how it seized the power it now wields.
Does the U.S. Constitution force us to live under the rule of nine robed lawyers? Many Americans assume that it does. It is commonly said that the Supreme Court has always had the power to decide what the Constitution means and to strike down any act of Congress that violates the justices’ dictates. Even as the Court has used this power to upend democracy—erasing federal laws that once prevented presidential autocracy and protected the right to vote—we are told there is nothing everyday Americans can do, as if our ability to govern ourselves requires the Court to answer our most fundamental questions for us.
But what if that isn’t accurate? What if the Court was not given the power it now wields, but rather seized it?
That is the revelation of Nikolas Bowie and Daphna Renan’s masterful new account of the Supreme Court. In a sweeping narrative of over 200 years of American history, they demonstrate that “judicial supremacy” was not written into the Constitution and has always been challenged as fundamentally at odds with it. Far from being an eternal principle, the power the Court claims to override Congress’s interpretation of the Constitution took hold in reaction to abolition and Reconstruction—not to protect democracy, but to weaken it.
Supremacy charts how the Court has repeatedly sabotaged the efforts of Congress to broaden democracy by enabling presidents, corporations, and the wealthy to ignore enacted law. It also challenges how even liberals understand the Court’s most celebrated rulings—including Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade—showing how the left has unwittingly subscribed to the very ideology that now threatens it.
At every step, Bowie and Renan recover a lost constitutional tradition, one forged by abolitionists, labor leaders, suffragists, and civil rights pioneers. These individuals presented another way forward, in which power is returned to where the Constitution put it—Congress—and everyday Americans have more of a say in the law that shapes our lives.
A Decision Guide for Supporting Democracy Organizations and Candidates
Prepared for Indivisible Portola Valley Members and Friends
A practical worksheet for comparing values, effectiveness, transparency and need before contributing time or money.
Created by Steve G. with Microsoft Copilot (GPT 5).
[Click on the titles to show the PDF pages.]
Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America
by David Corn
Recommended by Steve G.
Publisher: Harper
The definitive and riveting investigation into how Vladimir Putin successfully mounted a decade-long covert war against the United States and how Donald Trump aided and abetted the operation and upended America and the world
How Russia Won tells the little-understood yet crucial story of how Vladimir Putin has waged a secret campaign to subvert and weaken the United States—and how Trump, his MAGA movement, the Republican Party, and right-wing media have served as useful idiots for the tyrannical Russian leader in his assault on America and the West.
In this gripping tale of international intrigue and political skullduggery, David Corn, bestselling author and veteran investigative journalist:
This is the harrowing story of modern information warfare aimed at the U.S. by a nefarious foreign adversary and profound political betrayal at home. It is full of revelations and dramatic accounts of Russian intelligence operations targeting the United States; the Kremlin’s secret schemes to spread disinformation in 2020 and 2024 to boost Trump’s presidential campaigns; ties between Trump’s inner circle—including his personal attorney and his campaign manager—and Putin’s spies; Republican attempts to use Russian disinformation to protect Trump and smear Democrats; the bipartisan congressional investigation that blew apart Trump’s claim the Russia investigation was a hoax and raised troubling questions about his own interactions with Russia; and the never-ending propaganda campaign Trump and MAGA Republicans have pursued to cover up Putin’s clandestine intervention in U.S. politics.
How to make sure you’re registered — correctly — to vote in the Nov. 3 state primary election.
By Carly Severn
It’s National Voter Registration Day, and the 2026 midterm election in California is less than two months away.
Your county will begin mailing out ballots in early October, so now’s a great time to make sure you’re registered to vote.
The good news: The last day to register online to vote is Oct. 19. And if you miss that deadline for some reason, you have several options for registering or re-registering in person all the way through Election Day itself on Nov. 3.
And the Fight for the Living World
by Naomi Klein, Astra Taylor
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
A scathing investigation into the apocalyptic thinking of the Christian nationalists, tech-bro reactionaries, and populist survivalists who increasingly define the contemporary right—and a recipe for how to fight them.
As the planet burns and shared reality melts, a new iteration of the far right is on the march. How can we understand this dangerous new development, and what resources can we draw on to resist it? In their scathing assessment of the contemporary scene, the celebrated activists and authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor explore how the religious fundamentalists, Silicon Valley technologists, and ethno-nationalists who make up this apocalyptic alliance share more than one might think: they are united in their belief that some kind of cleansing cataclysm is coming, whether through the manifestation of messianic prophecy, the rampages of a resource- and job-consuming artificial intelligence, or the purported existential threat of immigration and cultural replacement. Rather than avoiding this conflagration, they welcome it, convinced they will be among the saved on the other side.
“End Times Fascism” is the ideology of the actors who strive to make the world unlivable and then seek to protect themselves from the fallout—whether by repairing to luxurious private islands, rocketing off to Mars, or bunkering the nation to keep their enemies at bay. The new survivalists have accumulated power, but they are far from impregnable. As Klein and Taylor show via original reporting and analysis, their many internal conflicts and contradictions and their nihilistic inability to envision a shared future, even for their ostensible allies, leave them vulnerable to a new kind of “pro-life” politics—rooted in reverence for our shared existence and regard for the earth we inhabit and must protect.
Saturday, October 17, 2026. See Events below
For over a year, millions of people have come together to send a clear message: in America, we have no kings. Power does not belong to billionaires, strongmen, or politicians who believe they are above accountability.
Power belongs to the people, but only if we use it.
A $10/sign donation is suggested. Currently in stock at Reach & Teach Book Store in San Carlos. If not available, they can be requested Here.
Designed by Bruce R.
Designed by Cindi S.
This weekly newsletter is sent to IPV members and other subscribers. It lists many upcoming events that may not be featured on this website.
The newsletter that is sent to your email looks much better than this sample.
Time: Sat Aug 22, 5pm to 7pm
Location: Mountain View (address provided upon RSVP)
Meet exciting candidate Randy Villegas in person and help him flip U.S. House District CA-22 in the Central Valley, one of the few true toss-up races in the country! This district will be won or lost by just a few hundred or a few thousand votes. Every dollar you donate and every action you take could help get one of those few votes we need!
We have the best chance in years to flip CA-22. Prop 50 moved the race from “Lean Republican” to “Toss-Up”. And Randy’s Republican opponent Rep. David Valadao has voted twice to endanger health care for millions, including most recently for the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” That vote ripped health care away from over 65,000 people in his district alone (⅔ of his constituents) and gutted food assistance for more than 60,000 households. Valadao has already lost this seat once before, in the 2018 midterms of Trump’s first term, when he voted to take health care away from the people in this district the first time. But the bad news is that Valadao has millions on hand, while Randy came out of the June primary with very little in the bank.
Randy will join us in person to talk about the race, how he fights for working families, and what he’ll do to protect our democracy and bring accountable, people-first leadership to Washington. He wants to answer to his constituents, not special interests. So he refuses to accept money from Corporate PACs. Randy is relying on our support!
Suggested minimum donation: $100 (more very welcome!) (We won’t turn anyone away. Please give what you can, even below the suggested amount.) All donations go directly to Randy’s campaign. Sponsor the event at $500+.
Whether or not you’re attending, please send the donation as soon as possible (i.e., don’t wait til the event), because Randy needs the funds immediately to counter Valadao’s giant war chest. And voters will receive their ballots in just 2 months!
See also:
Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy
By Gil Durán
Publisher: Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster
Recommended by: Steve G. and Stuart W.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “This transfixing debut from journalist Durán investigates the antidemocratic ideologies espoused by tech billionaires linked to the second Trump administration…It’s an ominous look at an insular elite arrayed against American democracy.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A fearless and urgent chronicle of the tech-authoritarian movement from its early days in San Francisco politics to its current moment on the international stage, exploring the wild and dystopian ambition of the technocrats at its center, and offering a road map to resistance.
When Silicon Valley says it is ‘‘moving fast and breaking things,’’ the world interprets the chaos as a necessary cost of innovation. Gil Durán reveals something far more sinister: a decades-long campaign to replace elected governments with corporate rule.
Drawing on insider political experience and new investigations, Durán traces this ideology from its philosophical roots in The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg. He introduces its modern apostles—Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Balaji Srinivasan, and Elon Musk—and shows how the promise of technological liberation has transformed into a global movement for digital feudalism, powered by cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, and the algorithmic propaganda of social media.
The Nerd Reich explains the origins, strategies, and ambitions of Silicon Valley’s war on democracy for the first time. From San Francisco’s weaponized elections and secret billionaire projects to the White House, Durán exposes how the world’s richest men are building a new political order.
The Nerd Reich is more than a hidden history, it’s an urgent warning: democracy is being dismantled not by coups or tanks, but by code, capital, and the illusion of innovation. Durán insists there is still time to fight back—if we act now.
Add your comment by July 29
Support our local ABC affiliate. Tell the FCC to keep KGO-TV on the air!
We have until Wednesday, July 29 (three weeks from today!) to submit a public comment to the FCC to support ABC and our local affiliate, KGO. We must stand up to Trump’s efforts to control media and quell free speech!
You can include these kinds of statements — plus anything that makes this meaningful and hyper-local for you.
We are located in the Bay Area of California. We believe that local news and community coverage provided by ABC affiliate KGO is incredibly important to our well being. It has been and continues to be of great value to Bay Area residents. KGO coverage of all things local — like weather, fire danger, wildfire updates — are literally lifelines.
We support renewing the broadcast licenses for ABC and its local affiliates including KGO. Please renew these licenses without any interruption.
(Bruce R. will video this with ProBonoPhoto – the video(s) are posted on the book’s post.)
On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear is a new, best-selling book that’s made for this moment—and a book written for all of us who are trying to defend democracy in these perilous, promising times. Join us for a special gathering with Julia Angwin, a Pulitzer Prize winner and a native Palo Altan, and Ami Fields-Meyer, a former policy advisor to Kamala Harris. Angwin and Fields-Meyer will be in conversation with IPA+ leader and former human rights activist David Waksberg..
A Q&A session and a book signing will follow the conversation. Copies of the book will be available for purchase. Snacks and beverages will be provided. Feel free to bring a brown bag lunch.
Saturday, July 25, 12pm to 2pm
Location: Northern Mountain View (DVC Headquarters)
Join us in-person to learn how you can help ensure victory in the midterms.
Our special guest, Robert Hubbell, is the author of Today’s Edition on Substack. Like he does for his over 80,000 daily readers, Robert will give us a reflection on current events through the lens of hope and purpose (followed by Q&A)!
The Swing Left Peninsula team will also provide the latest on the growing list of swingable House and Senate seats … and nearby actions you can take to ensure victory. You’ll find out about our continuing focus on conversations with voters, the importance of letters targeting down-ballot races, and how to make high-impact donations. Best of all, you’ll meet like-minded people and our all-volunteer leadership.
Lightworkers Screening & Conversation with Robert Hubbell
Saturday, July 25, 3 – 6pm PDT
Redwood City, CA 94062
Join us for a screening of Lightworkers, a powerful new documentary that brings together 35 diverse citizens to tackle the most urgent question of our time: How do we protect our democracy from fascism? Filmmaker Bobby Roth delivers a deeply moving, socio-historic exploration of activism, courage, empathy, and collective responsibility.
We are absolutely thrilled that political commentator Robert Hubbell—the trusted independent voice behind the Today’s Edition Substack and one of the citizens featured in the film—is traveling from Los Angeles to join us for a live Q&A session immediately following the screening.
This film is a profound source of inspiration and deeply relevant to the work we are all doing. Join us to learn, connect, and get energized for the vital efforts and community actions we have ahead of us!
Lightworkers Trailer: https://www.lightworkersdoc.com/
How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy
by: Ben Wikler
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Recommended by: Steve G.
A New York Times bestseller • A USA Today Bestseller • An Independent Press Bestseller
“Ben Wikler is one of the most strategic and respected leaders of his generation. If we do what this book says, we will win.”—Nancy Pelosi
From the most successful Democratic operative of the last decade, a revelatory account of what you—yes, you—can do to defeat Trumpism.
If you are looking at the spiraling crisis of American politics in the Trump era and wondering how the hell we get out of this mess, This Is the Plan is the book you’ve been waiting for.
Ben Wikler led the Democratic Party of Wisconsin to a string of improbable victories in a state with a political system so rigged that it was dubbed a “democracy desert”—which is, coincidentally, Trump’s goal for the whole country.
Now, in This Is the Plan, Wikler distills lessons from the front lines in America’s most closely divided state to map out a comprehensive plan to dictator-proof American government, defeat MAGA at every level of the ballot, and build a future of democracy, opportunity, and freedom for all.
It will be a blast. The plan is to, as he writes, “have fun storming the castle—in a civil, metaphorical, and non-January-6th-y way.”
Drawing on decades of organizing, from local races (including a race for county coroner that hinged on the issue of zombification) to presidential showdowns, Wikler brings us behind the scenes to explore the hidden structures of power that shape our politics and our lives, and takes us into the art and science of winning elections. As he details a people-powered path out of the political wilderness, Wikler reveals what you personally can do to move the needle.
This Is the Plan reveals, year by year and step by step, a vision not only to end America’s collapse into authoritarianism but also to reconnect us to our neighbors—and, fighting side by side for democracy, to build meaning, community, and joy.
In 1838, a 28-year-old lawyer from Illinois saw it coming.
Not an invasion. Not a foreign army. The threat he warned about was… Americans. Americans who would choose a man over a law, a leader over a constitution, passion over principle.
Nearly 200 years later, we’re living inside the warning.
Lincoln didn’t need to see January 6th. He didn’t need to watch Dear Leader demand loyalty oaths, purge anyone who wouldn’t kneel, and torch every institution that stood in his way.
He just needed to know human nature.
The question Lincoln posed nearly two centuries ago wasn’t rhetorical. It was a warning. And right now, not enough people have heard it.
Lincoln’s warning is only useful if people hear it. Help us spread the message >>
Take action by July 13.
The Office of Management and Budget has proposed rules that could profoundly affect the future of scientific research in the United States. Public comments are being accepted only through July 13. We’ll explain what’s at stake, provide tips for submitting comments, and make it easy for you to add your voice.
More than 341,000 comments were submitted on the OMB’s proposed rule that could, quite literally, break science in the U.S. This is an enormous public response by any standard; public comment on federal rules almost never gets anywhere close to that volume. Way to show up for science discovery in the U.S.! Comments are now closed, and it’s time to see how the federal government responds.SURJ RWC has been protesting at El Camino Rl. and Jefferson Ave., Redwood City, every Friday from 5pm to 6:30pm
To confirm, get details, and sign up, use the button below to search Mobilize. Then select the SURJ event.
This is a PDF of the slide set for the Presentation at the July 08, 2026 IPV General Meeting. See the videos below that were played at the specified page numbers.
Page 14 Video: The pastor (Doug Wilson) who wants to repeal voting rights for women is becoming more mainstream
Page 24 video: WATCH: Hegseth prays for ‘overwhelming violence’ against enemies. (stop at 4 min if you wish)
Page 33 Video: (Let me know the URL if you find it.)
Page 35 Video: This 60-second clip explains MAGA
Page 37 Video: James Talarico talks about what it *actually* means to be a man.
After the presentation, a question was asked about who is organizing to address this issue? This organization was offered:
Save the date: Saturday, July 4, 2026, 9AM
Show up at 9:00 am wearing red, white and blue. We’ll be singing, dancing (or come in your wheelchair — we’ll gladly push you), playing instruments, waving our flags & make a showing for democracy in celebrating our country’s 250th anniversary! RSVP to get directions and songs we will be singing: joannloulan@gmail.com
The annual Fourth of July Parade in downtown Redwood City, the largest Independence Day parade in Northern California, attracts thousands of spectators. It brings entries from across the state. Most of the budget for the Parade is used for cash awards to participants, of which many winners are from Redwood City.
The parade starts promptly at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 4, 2026. You will know it’s time when you hear the cannon!
How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear – A Pulitzer Winner’s Guide to Personal Courage in an Age of Authoritarianism
By: Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Recommended by: Steve G.
The United States is only the latest country to face a leader who wields fear as a weapon, punishes political enemies, disappears people off the street, and undermines free and fair elections. Today nearly three out of four people on earth live under authoritarianism, the highest rate since the late 1970s.
But even under repressive conditions, each of us holds the power to help defeat autocrats. Based on their acclaimed The New Yorker essay “So You Want to Be a Dissident?,” veteran reporter Julia Angwin and political strategist Ami Fields-Meyer give us a captivating – and profoundly hopeful – guide to courage in an age of fear.
Meet a student from Hong Kong who risked everything for democracy. A mom in a working-class neighborhood of Caracas who broke with the political movement that raised her. Cairo twentysomethings who staged a gutsy stunt to help bring down a dictator. A mild-mannered immigrant fighting to save a landmark U.S. civil rights law. People throughout the United States and across five continents who faced serious risks for dissenting in their workplace, their community, or their country. On Courage is the story of how they did it anyway – and how you can do it, too.
Blending rich, previously untold narratives with history, spirituality, and movement research, Angwin and Fields-Meyer deliver a highly accessible book full of practical lessons – an inspiring resource for anyone, anywhere, who feel the walls of history closing in on them. On Courage is a roadmap to political courage and a powerful case for how taking personal risks can help save the free world.
The event was on July 29, in Palo Alto, at First Presbyterian Church.
Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump
By: Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Recommended by: Steve G.
From the two reporters who have covered him more closely than perhaps anyone else over the past decade comes this definitive portrait of Donald Trump in the White House. Regime Change covers the first year of Trump’s second presidency—a term liberated from every constraint that defined his first. The generals who once told him “no” are gone, and the lawyers who remain have learned to pick their battles. His administration has flouted court orders, and he has claimed powers that Congress once checked. What remains is a President willing to take enormous risks that have upended global markets and toppled heads of state; an imperial President operating almost entirely on instinct alone.
Based on hundreds of interviews and unprecedented reporting from deep within the administration’s most closely guarded rooms, Regime Change takes the reader inside the Situation Room and into the secret Oval Office deliberations that have launched a new war in the Middle East and seen Trump seal the border, surge National Guard troops into cities, and send immigration agents into deadly clashes with protestors. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan bring us behind the scenes of a presidency that has transformed the culture, turned the Justice Department into an agent of retribution against the President’s enemies and the office itself into a brazen vehicle for profit. They reveal a second term propelled by a historical irony that Trump himself has come to understand: that the indictments, the convictions, the assassination attempts, and four years of exile made him not weaker but far more powerful, more vengeful, and more willing to gamble than any President in modern history.
This is the story of how Trump has used that power, who has tried to stop him, and why nearly all of them have failed. It is also the story of something American journalists are more accustomed to chronicling in distant capitals than in their own: a President who has fundamentally altered the nature of the office he holds—and, with it, how the rest of the world understands American power. It is an account of Regime Change right here in America—a landmark real-time history of a modern presidency like no other.
Sunday, June 14, 2026, 10:30 -12 noon
Location: Gateway Plaza, El Camino & Castro, 790 W El Camino Real, Mountain View, CA 94040
This Flag Day, we reclaim our flag by standing for the values it is meant to represent: freedom, diversity, justice, dignity, equality, civil rights, social progress, and solidarity.
(NOT Orange man’s B’day)
Sunday, June 14, 11am – 12:30pm PDT
Location: 1250 Jefferson Ave, Redwood City, CA
El Camino Real & Jefferson Avenue
Redwood City, CA 94062
JOIN US ON JUNE 14TH, Corner of El Camino and Jefferson Ave, Redwood City, our regular time 11-12:30. We will dance, sing, protest, and so our celebration of Flag Day (it is OURS, not the insurrectionists!) bring yours, and we’ll have some there! THIS IS A PEACEFUL EVENT. No tolerance of violence. And if someone comes to disturb our peace, please turn your back and do not engage under any circumstances. Find someone in a blue or yellow vest to support you. This is what they want, especially during these fragile times. We are a community that is angry and scared, but leading with love and belief that we shall overcome. PLEASE JOIN! JoAnn Loulan, Judi and Charlie Kennedy.
Sunday, June 14, 2026, 4:30 – 7:30pm PDT
On June 14, join us for Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment — an uplifting evening of music, community, and action. Hosted by the Committee for the First Amendment (CFA), this special livestream event will feature an all-star lineup including Jane Fonda, Patti Smith, Bette Midler, Rufus Wainwright, Joy Reid, Wilson Cruz, Broadway Inspirational Voices, and more.
Together, we’ll celebrate the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment — including the freedoms of speech, religion, press, assembly, and protest — and the people power that protects them. Communities across the country will gather for local watch parties to livestream the 90-minute concert beginning at 4:30 p.m. PT / 7:30 p.m. ET.
Join us to sing along, connect with neighbors, share food and creativity, and celebrate the power we build when we come together. Whether you’re a longtime organizer or brand new to the movement, you’re invited to an evening of joy, inspiration, and collective action in support of democracy and freedom.
A core principle behind all No Kings events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values and to act lawfully at these events. Weapons of any kind, including those legally permitted, should not be brought to events.
Sponsored by Indivisible Portola Valley & Indivisible Palo Alto Plus.
Saturday, June 13th, 9am-1pm (carpools leave 7-7:30am)
Knock on doors in Los Banos with Swing Left Peninsula & Ground Truth
In 2024’s closest House race, Dem Adam Gray won by just 187 votes. Help hold this very vulnerable Central Valley seat (CA-13) as we work to flip the House and fight for democracy! Los Banos is a short 1.5 hours away in a fun Peninsula carpool! Advance and on-site training available.
Join Erica Chenoweth and Steven Levitsky for the eighth session of The Breakdown, a webinar series on the ongoing struggle for American democracy.
June 10, 2026, 1pm to 2pm PDT; Location: Zoom
Recommended by Bob B.
Click on the link below to register.
For previous webinars and the Ash Center, click below.
Getting corporate money out of politics
Report by: David S
Hawaii has enacted a law that prohibits corporations from spending money on political campaigns, effectively redefining the powers granted to corporations within the state. This legislation, signed by Governor Josh Green, is set to take effect on July 1, 2027, and positions Hawaii as the first state to limit corporate political spending in this manner, aiming to restore integrity in the electoral process.
The Transparent Election Initiative is a national organization that has sponsored two initiatives in Montana known as the Montana Plan.
“In Montana, we proposed both Constitutional & Statutory Initiatives that will sweep corporate and secret-donor money out of Montana’s local, state, and federal politics. It achieves this not by the state of Montana regulating corporate speech, but by the state of Montana simply declining to grant the corporations it creates the power to spend in politics. This is an authority every state possesses, but no state has used it in more than a century. As of March 2026, I-194, the Statutory Initiative, is certified for signature gathering and is underway across Montana through June 19, 2026. The constitutional initiative was found legally sufficient by the Montana Supreme Court. However, we await a decision on the proposed ballot statement. It is unlikely the proposed constitutional initiative will meet calendar deadlines for signature collection in 2026.”
Montana Initiative 194, Prohibit Entities from Contributing to State and Local Candidate and Ballot Measure Elections Initiative, will be on the Nov. 3, 2026, ballot.
The initiative would prohibit artificial persons, as defined in the initiative, from contributing to campaigns, ballot measure elections, or political parties. Artificial persons would include nonprofits, trusts, partnerships, corporations, trade associations, or unincorporated associations, and all entities doing business in Montana. If an entity violates the initiative, it would be prohibited from doing business in Montana until it has certified compliance with the initiative.
California Assembly Bill 1984 aims to redefine the powers of corporations by revoking their political spending power and limiting their activities to those specifically granted under state law. This bill emphasizes that all political power is inherent in the people, not in corporations.
Revocation of Political Spending Power
Legislative Intent
Introduced by Assembly Member Rogers
Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Kalra
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Addis, Connolly, Elhawary, Garcia, Harabedian, Jackson, Lee, and Schiavo)
Principal coauthor: Senator McGuire
(Coauthors: Senators McNerney and Pérez)
Status: April 20, 2026 Re-referred to Com. on Banking and Finance with amendments from original filing on 2-13-2026.
Publisher: NBC News
In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, President Trump talks about the economy, the ongoing war with Iran and the possible path to peace.
Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government
By: Barbara McQuade
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Recommended by: Steve G.
In The Fix, Barbara McQuade draws on her decades of experience as a federal prosecutor to show us the detrimental effects of a government that uses corruption, cruelty, and chaos as tools of control. As a US Attorney, McQuade became all too familiar with corruption cases, prosecuting former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, the “underwear bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and Volkswagen, among others. Here, she exposes how rampant corruption and cruelty are being weaponized to manipulate every facet of American life. Weaving together courtroom stories, lessons from history, and real-time legal analysis, McQuade shows how each corrupt offense, each act of cruelty, is a step toward total authoritarianism.
Yet The Fix is not just a critique of power gone awry. McQuade offers clear strategies that ordinary Americans can utilize, from organizing teach-ins and protests to running for local office, to reclaim the rule of law and ensure that elected officials serve the public’s interest, not their own.
Eye-opening and grounded in the author’s abiding faith in the US Constitution to help restore power to the people, The Fix is essential reading for anyone concerned about the future of America and ready to work together to take it back.
By M. Gessen, an Opinion columnist, and Mr. Bartha reported from Budapest.
Publisher: The New York Times
Recommended by: Bob B. and Bruce R.
Starting early in the morning on the second Saturday of May, first hundreds and then thousands of people gathered in the square in front of Hungary’s majestic Parliament building to celebrate the start of a new political era. This was the square where tens of thousands gathered in 1956 and 1989 to demand an end to the Soviet occupation and in 2006 to protest a discredited government. It was the square on which Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s regime imposed a major redesign more than a decade ago — with traffic rerouted away, a large reflecting pool and raised beds installed, narrow pathways laid down — apparently to ensure that no such mass gathering could take place again. Today it was the square where Peter Magyar, a former Orban loyalist, would be sworn in, promising a rebirth of democracy and liberty after 16 years of autocratic control.
Squeezing into the available spaces and gradually filling up nearby cafes and streets, the crowd absorbed people of all ages: young people who didn’t remember a time before Orban and who had voted in unprecedented numbers; aging intellectuals who didn’t think they’d ever celebrate their country again; multigenerational families who had arrived by bus after seeing Magyar in their hometowns and villages. During his campaign, Magyar had traveled to an estimated 700 locations, turning many of them into “Tisza islands” — outposts of support for his party. By the end, Magyar was holding five or more rallies a day.
It had looked like an impossible quest. Orban and his cronies dominated the media, persecuted and smeared opposition politicians and changed election laws to benefit his party, Fidesz. Orban had seemed to achieve what the Hungarian sociologist and political theorist Balint Magyar (no relation) calls “autocratic breakthrough” — the point after which it’s impossible to unseat an autocrat using elections. Illiberal politicians from other countries made pilgrimages to Hungary to learn from Orban; CPAC, the gathering for American national conservatives, started staging an annual convention there; and Vice President JD Vance visited Budapest in advance of the election, in a show of support for Orban. And yet Hungarians handed Tisza not just a victory but a constitutional majority, enough power to reverse Orban’s changes to Hungarian laws and institutions. The triumph was stunning — unique in our era of democratic backsliding — and it holds clear lessons for the United States.
In Magyar’s address:
“…rediscover how to see ourselves as a community once again,” he said. “Therefore, I ask you to turn toward those compatriots who are disappointed today, who are afraid, or who experience this period as a loss. Do not try to defeat them; do not look down on them. Listen to them and talk to them. Tell them that this country belongs to them, too; that they are needed, just as everyone is needed; and that together, we will rebuild Hungary, because there is no left, there is no right — only Hungarians.”
If you don’t have a NYT account, you can get an archived PDF:
The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches
Author: Ben Rhodes
May 26, 2026
Publisher: Random House
Recommended by: Steve G.
What does it mean to be American? Who gets to decide? This sweeping history of the United States told through fifteen speeches relives the battle over American identity, from a New York Times bestselling author and one of President Barack Obama’s former speechwriters.
“At a time of moral and political drift, Ben Rhodes reminds us what American greatness actually sounds like, and what it means.”—Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies
For 250 years, we have debated what it means to be American. This question shaped the compromises in our Constitution and the arguments we’ve been having ever since—spawning abolitionism, secession, and civil war; populism, mass migration, and global leadership; movements for reform and the backlashes to them. In All We Say, Ben Rhodes tells the story of fifteen speeches—some iconic, others long forgotten—which have both shaped and reflected the argument Americans have been having from our founding to the intense divisions of our time.
Through riveting and beautifully rendered accounts of the people, movements, and moments that produced these speeches, Rhodes traces the history of our battle over identity. The result is a singular and revealing portrait of America itself: a nation divided between two stories—one of inheritance, power, and exclusion, the other of equality, striving, and belonging. Drawing on a decade of writing for Barack Obama, Rhodes also shows us how words can redirect a nation, what makes a speech enduring, and why oratory is a unique form of persuasion in American democracy.
From Benjamin Franklin’s call for compromise at the Constitutional Convention, to Alexander Stephens’ case for white supremacy as the cornerstone of the Confederacy; from Martin Luther King’s dream of true equality to Donald Trump’s rallying cry against democracy itself, these speeches remind us that history is a living argument. At a time when American identity—and truth—is contested, All We Say offers a fresh and powerful look at who we really are and who we could still become.
Monday, May 25, 2026, 3-7pm
Indivisible friends —
IPV (Indivisible Portola Valley) is hosting its first-ever official social celebration, and neighbors from fellow Indivisible chapters are warmly invited too!
On Memorial Day, IPV’s Democracy Defenders’ Workshop (aka Cindi’s house) is officially becoming a party space. No work. No announcements. No agonizing. Just good old-fashioned camaraderie with the people who’ve made thousands of know-your-rights kits, mountains of No Kings zines, stacks of protest signs, and even JoAnn’s grumpy trump heads.
RSVP with an email to cindisearsipv@gmail.com for the location in Portola Valley.
Drop in for a few minutes or stay the whole time. Friends and families welcome! Bring a dish, bring a drink, or just bring yourself — all are welcome. RSVPs appreciated for planning purposes, but this is a decidedly low-pressure democracy.
Hope to see you on Memorial Day!
Community Briefing: Friday, May 22, 2026, 11 AM – 12pm
ICE is trying to move to build a facility in South County — and our community is fighting back.
Although there is no definitive information about the future use of this land, our community will be vigilant and organized to ensure ICE can not expand deportation operations in the Bay at this site.
On May 22, join us for a community briefing to get the full picture: what we know, what’s at stake, and how we stop it. This is your chance to hear directly from community leaders, ask questions, and plug into the campaign.
This facility would threaten the safety and well-being of immigrant families across the entire region. Research has consistently shown that communities located near ICE detention centers experience increased enforcement activity and higher rates of arrests—a pattern that puts immigrant families, mixed-status households, and entire neighborhoods at greater risk.
Santa Clara County is home to one of the largest immigrant populations in California. For years, county leaders and community organizations have fought to pass and defend strong sanctuary protections because they know that the safety of immigrant residents is inseparable from the safety and well-being of the whole county. A new ICE detention center in Gilroy would be a direct threat to everything those protections stand for.
Sponsored by: Bay Resistance
New research sheds light on how mediocre employees help would-be authoritarians maintain power.
By Amanda Taub
Recommended by: Bob B. and Bruce R.
This article on authoritarianism and power shows why the broad topic of “civil discourse” has many dimensions. Which is why IPV has a “Books, Ideas, and Research Committee” to be on the lookout for significant and practical ideas useful for all of us in our democracy-building work.
This is in the NYT this morning, by Amanda Taub, “Actually, Democracy Dies in H.R.” The subtitle is a quick summary of what the article covers: “New research sheds light on how mediocre employees help would-be authoritarians maintain power.”
One could add that the research sheds light, too, on how mediocre citizens can help would-be authoritarians maintain power. So while understanding civil discourse is important, it turns out also to require some understanding of power, what holds a community together, personal incentives, the moral foundations of democratic engagement, etc.
I think these are the most important parts of the article that point to solutions.
“Making a Career in Dictatorship,” a new book by two German political scientists, Adam Scharpf and Christian Glassel, reads like what you might get if you crossed Hannah Arendt’s ideas about the “banality of evil” with a business school guide on how to get the most out of low performers.
And:
Mr. Glassel and Mr. Scharpf are concerned that President Trump’s planned expansion of ICE, in particular, could make it an ideal venue for “detouring” by ambitious underperformers who could be deployed for anti-democratic purposes. The worry is especially profound given the storming of the Capitol at the end of Mr. Trump’s first term, albeit by a less organized band of loyalists.
The playbook for a leader to create a loyal security service, they said, is to set up or repurpose an institution that can become a “second ladder” for career promotions, resource it generously and ensure that the barriers to getting hired there are low, signaling that it offers career opportunities to those who cannot find them elsewhere.
I’ve read Hannah Arendt’s ideas about the “banality of evil,” but I don’t recall her giving any solutions. This article gives some clues about how to prevent this banality with accountability for individuals. Some obvious preventions:
This is an important article, so I archived a PDF copy. You can read it here:
Sundays, May 17 & May 31, 2026
11:00 a.m.–12:00 noon
Ladera Community Church, 3300 Alpine Rd., Portola Valley Sanctuary
Explore the myths that fuel division and outrage, and how we can come together.
Join a two‑part conversation on Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground, by social psychologist Kurt Gray, whose work examines how our perceptions of harm influence our reactions. Learn why we sometimes overreact to minor irritations or perceived threats, and why our country is so polarized.
Sunday, May 17, 3 – 5pm PDT; Location: Portola Valley (Sign up to get the address)
Read about what they are doing and donate online:
FUNdraising event in person in Portola Valley 3-5. Once you sign up, you will receive the address. It’s in a home and will be very informative.
We will impact 25 US House seats, 7 Senate Seats, 10 Gubernatorial seats and state legislative candidates in 11 states.
NONE of them will have your address! (You’re welcome! ; )
We have raised 2/3 of our budget and need to raise the final 1/3. Thanks for helping us do that and saving democracy!
Help flip the House
THEY’RE COMING FOR YOUR RIGHTS
WE’RE COMING FOR THEIR SEATS
DMP is running rolling billboards through 25 US House districts.
Join in person FUNdraiser
we’ll have one of our trucks there to show everyone what we are doing,
Focus for Democracy primarily raises funds for other organizations, such as Working America and Galvanize Action. Because the need to preserve our democracy is urgent, its leadership works pro bono, researching, synthesizing, and presenting recommendations on where to direct our political dollars to achieve the greatest impact.
Early voting starts May 4th, when ballots are delivered… please consider waiting until the last debate to make your decision…
Recommended by JoAnn L.
Former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race and resigned from Congress.
The site is rated least biased, high credibility by https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/on-the-issues-bias/
(Note: each candidate is named on the top blue header: tiny white font. Click the name link to load info)
FRIDAY, MAY 1ST, 5:00-6:30, Redwood City, El Camino at Jefferson.
Speakers at 5:15 on the northeast corner, elected officials and labor leaders.
Photos and Videos at ProBonoPhoto
(Some will be posted here shortly)
Tax the rich. Our families, not their fortunes, should come first.
No ICE. No war. Hands off our vote. Expand democracy, not corporate power
In 2025, billionaires paid an average federal individual tax rate of 3.4%- 8.2%. Their fortunes grew an average of 33%. Meanwhile, the poorest among us have lost SNAP (food stamps), children in schools who qualify no longer receive a free meal (often was their only meal in a day), health care premiums have been increased, Medicaid is set to throw millions off in Dec of ’26, many rural hospitals have closed, stopping childcare subsidies… and so much more.
A day of protests & other actions, to remind ourselves that we are many & strong.
No Work (if you are able), No School (if you are able), No Shopping (we can all stop)
Ways to think about what “billion” really means in seconds are easier to understand than dollars– here’s the inequality if seconds were dollars:
100,000 = 28 hours, 1 million = 11 days, 1 billion = 32 years, 1 trillion=31,688 YEARS
See also: https://maydaystrong.org
On May 1, 2026, workers, students, and families rally, march, and take action across the country to demand a nation that puts workers over billionaires, with many refusing business as usual through No School. No Work. No Shopping.
Interview and Q&A with Judge Stephen Trott & Judge Franklin Bondonno.
Tuesday, April 28, 2026, 7pm to 8:30pm
Location: Ladera Community Church, 3300 Alpine Rd, Portola Valley
Recommended by Karen Turner
This event is part of our ongoing congregational work around activism, civic engagement and constructive conversation. Hearing the judges’ perspective will help us reflect on how we can show up with courage, compassion and clarity in a time of heightened tension.
Stephen S. Trott is an inactive Senior United States Circuit Judge.
Franklin E. Bondonno is a judge of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County.
IPV – Indivisible Portola Valley
BIR – Books, Ideas, and Research
The Books, Ideas, and Research Committee is an informal working group of Indivisible Portola Valley. Its purpose is to scan for and make accessible practical ideas (from books, websites, articles, etc.) to inform the work of IPV and make it more effective.
We do this through sharing the results of our scans and discoveries in periodic Zoom meetings and through working in small working teams focused on such topics as:
We also look for opportunities to share what we’ve learned with other Indivisible groups and others working to improve our democratic institutions.
We believe that a healthy democracy inevitably involves differences and disagreements, and we welcome a diversity of political viewpoints, so long as they are grounded in a fundamental commitment to the underlying principles of the United States, namely freedom, equality, truthfulness, and a commitment to the rule of law.
We would be happy to welcome anyone wishing to work with us.
By Gal Beckerman
Apr 21, 2026
Publisher: Crown
Recommended by: Bruce R
An invigorating guide to fighting back—part philosophy, part history, and part manual for living with integrity in an age of conformity and authoritarian drift
How do we push back in a world where political leaders wield fear and intimidation? Where digital technology dehumanizes and flattens us? We need role models, and in this engaging book, acclaimed writer Gal Beckerman goes looking for them. Drawing on the stories of dissidents from around the globe and across time, from Socrates to Ai Weiwei, and thinkers like Hannah Arendt and Iris Murdoch, Beckerman reveals the defining characteristics these extraordinary figures share, a set of attributes and practices for anyone navigating the pressures of modern tyranny.
Structured around ten qualities—among them, Be Pessimistic, Be Funny, Be Reckless, and Be Immortal—this illuminating, surprising book blends intellectual history, biography, and cultural criticism. It charts a dissident’s journey from the solitary moment of recognizing the truth, through the risks of speaking it, to the legacy that can outlast a life. What makes dissidents tick? And how might we change when we encounter them?
Urgent and inspiring, Beckerman’s book shows that dissidence is a human capacity we can all cultivate, a refusal to betray one’s inner voice, no matter the cost. In a polarized America and a world sliding toward authoritarianism, we need dissidents—not only the jailed and martyred, but also those of us who face small daily compromises of conscience. How to Be a Dissident lights the way.
How To Resist Authoritarianism Without Losing Yourself | Gal Beckerman
VALOR Media Network and Kristofer Goldsmith (May 27, 2026)
Not in theory. Not in history books. Right now.
In this episode of On Offense, Kris Goldsmith speaks with Atlantic staff writer and author Gal Beckerman about his new book, How to Be a Dissident, and the deeper psychological questions raised by life under rising authoritarianism.
This conversation explores conformity, moral courage, propaganda, normalization, and the pressures that cause ordinary people to stay silent while democratic institutions erode around them.
But more importantly, we discuss what makes dissidents different, and Beckerman’s ten rules that shape them.
Drawing from dissident movements across history — and from the lived reality of the second Trump administration — Beckerman argues that resistance begins long before politics. It begins with the refusal to normalize cruelty, corruption, fear, and obedience.
Together, Kris and Gal discuss:
This is a conversation about how human beings behave when institutions fail — and how we choose who we become in the process.
JoAnn Loulan’s additions in italics
Eric Swalwell got away with what he was doing for almost twenty years.
And was ahead in the race for Gov of California
A congressman, a prosecutor before that, a man who spent two decades in public life, with a staff, with donors, with reporters on his beat, with colleagues who saw him at every fundraiser and floor vote. For two decades, according to reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle, CNN and NBC, he was allegedly sexually harassing, assaulting, and in at least one case raping the women around him. How does a person (man) –do this for that long?
Everyone clucks because Katie Porter is “mean to her staff”–not that I think that’s ok, but seriously? Everyone talks about that, and Swalwell gets away with sexual assault for 20 years.
Not: how do they get away with it once. Not: how do they hide one bad night. How do they build a twenty-year career on top of it, rise through the ranks, chair committees, run for president, run for governor… with women in their twenties rotating through the office every cycle, each one a potential witness, each one a potential story, and none of it touching him until April of 2026? When brave women came forward and risked their careers…which are probably over in DC.
The reason women don’t come forward isn’t fear of being disbelieved, exactly. It’s the math. The system is not designed to weigh the evidence; it is designed to weigh the people, and you are not the heavier one.
I call this status-based reasoning
The high-status person is right because they are the high-status person. Arguments are window dressing. Evidence is decoration. The conclusion is fixed before anyone opens their mouth, and everything that follows is the retroactive assembly of a justification.
It’s why “believe women” became such a flashpoint. The slogan was never asking for women to be believed without evidence. It was asking for women’s evidence to be weighted the same as men’s.
The crazy-making quality of living inside this system, on the wrong side of the line, is that the argument is never actually about the argument.
In the 2024 race Donald Trump tells the crowd that Kamala Harris “would get us into a World War III guaranteed because she is too grossly incompetent to do the job.” He is the high-status figure. She was the low-status one. He is right because he is the one who gets to be right. And everything he said she would do he has done (and she probably wouldn’t have )
This is what the Swalwell staffers lived inside. This is what Harris lived inside for the entirety of the 2024 campaign. This is what women, people of color and poor people live inside. This is what every woman who ever kept furniture between herself and a powerful man has lived inside her whole working life.
This is why electing a woman president of the United States will be very difficult….(19 million people voted for Biden in 2020 and DID NOT VOTE in 2024 ….and Harris lost by 6 million votes). You can say it’s her personality, Biden didn’t step down…on and on….the major cause was because our culture continues to see women (and a black and Asian woman to boot) as lower status than men…even wealthy women….it seems impossible to get retribution for the Epstein victims (one area I agree with Bondi–no Democratic DOJ supported Epstein victims either or released the Epstein files). 13 states have made abortion illegal, 8 have restricted birth control, 10% of Fortune 500 companies are run by women…and I can go on as to how sexism is a scourge in this country. Yet we worry about the psyche of young men.
Sexism, racism, classism and white nationalism need to be confronted–and all the “people who live inside this paradigm” need to be supported in fighting STATUS-BASED REASONING.
This is the ONLY way a Supreme Court Justice (Kavanaugh) could write in 2025 an agreement giving ICE unlimited power to detain people against their will because of: their accents, color of their skin and working low-status jobs. Think about that….and 81% of people arrested by ICE where courts have intervened have been released..because someone (a Judge) of higher status ruled they be released.
Monday, April 20, 5pm to 6pm PDT
Abusive immigration enforcement poses a threat to us all but places non-citizens at particular risk. This session will equip participants to train others on core Know Your Rights topics, including the right to remain silent, the right to refuse to consent to searches, and the right to record ICE and other law enforcement officials. We will also cover best practices for reducing risks when exercising rights.
Time: Saturday, March 28, 2 – 4pm PDT
Location: El Camino Real and Jefferson Ave, Redwood City, CA 94062
Video by Bruce Rafnel
No Kings 3 is on March 28. Thousands will be out along El Camino across the Peninsula showing outrage at the administration, the illegal ICE actions, taking health care from millions to give tax breaks to billionaires, taking away rights from women over their own bodies, protecting pedophiles–the list goes on. Courage is contagious as we take back the House and Senate AND OUR COUNTRY!
We will meet once again at El Camino and Jefferson in Redwood City as we gather in solidarity and bask in “honk therapy” with everyone driving by joining us in strength and love.
A core principle behind all our events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. Turn your back and do not exchange words….that’s what they want and will film you as they try to make us look violent.
Love is stronger than hate!
Photos and (a few) videos from the No Kings 3 protests that Pro Bono Photo has covered throughout the greater SF Bay Area. There are subfolders for locations with multiple galleries. There’s one gallery for each protest, listed alphabetically by location.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, there are thousands of dedicated defenders of democracy like you. On March 28, 2-4pm, many of us will be out in force along El Camino Real. Bring a friend and be counted!
Sunday, March 22, 2026
On Sunday, March 22, our congregation will welcome Judge Stephen Trott, a senior inactive member of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, to speak during worship and after a coffee break, will continue with discussion and questions at 11 a.m. He will explore the deepening polarization in our nation and the challenges it poses to a healthy democracy.
Judge Trott has ruled on immigration cases, criminal cases and issues affecting the court system, where the pursuit of justice depends on trust, fairness, and a shared commitment to the common good. He will explain the balance on the courts, including the Supreme Court and how rulings are reached and enforced.
This event is part of our ongoing congregational work around activism, civic engagement, and constructive conversation. As people of faith, we are called not only to understand the world around us but also to participate in its healing. Judge Trott’s perspective will help us reflect on how we can show up with courage, compassion, and clarity in a time of heightened tension.
All are welcome—invite a friend. Let’s gather with open hearts and a shared commitment to justice, dialogue, and hope.
Photos are from probonophoto.org photographers at this event were Sonny Mencher and Ed Ebert.
Protest! Saturday, February 28th, from 11am -12:30pm, RWC
Corner of Jefferson and El Camino!
It’s hard to believe we’re living in a country that is buying warehouses to actually house HUMANS! Their plan is to house 10 million people without Due Process! They are going to use warehouses that are not meant for humans. To deal with that, they are going to put in porta-potties (NOT actual bathrooms) and with NO RUNNING WATER, so they will truck in water–which is a long-term risk for disease.
We must do what we can to protest these human animal stalls where millions of humans will be held against their will without the ability to contest their incarceration.
Join a National Day of Action Against ICE Detention Centers on Saturday, February 28.
We will meet at El Camino and Jefferson in Redwood City from 11-12:30. Bring your signs: MELT ICE, STOP PUTTING HUMANS IN WAREHOUSES, EVERYONE DESERVES DUE PROCESS and whatever makes you feel empowered!
Kash Patel, Donald Trump, and the gold-winning U.S. men’s hockey team just showed us, again, exactly who they are.
By Alex Kirshner
Publisher: Slate
Recommended by: Cindi S.
The director of the FBI got a Make-a-Wish experience over the weekend. You and I paid several hundred thousand dollars (at least) to send Kash Patel to Milan, where he watched from a suite as the American men’s hockey team beat Canada in overtime for the Olympic gold medal. Whether by inviting himself or getting the call from members of the team, Patel then got to live every 45-year-old’s dream and celebrate with the team. Gathered around in the center of the locker room, drenched with beer, were the proud American players and the boss of their country’s top investigative force.
Lawrence: Nothing has separated voters from Trump more than the Epstein ‘cover-up’
Publisher: MS Now
Recommended by: Bruce R.
After The New York Daily News called the Trump administration “the most powerful crime syndicate in history,” MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell explains why a new poll shows more voters believe Donald Trump is covering up Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.
Our studies in civil resistance offer insight into the level of popular organizing needed to repel assaults on democracy.
by Mark Engler and Paul Engler
Publisher: The Guardian
Recommended by: Bob B.
In the wake of two horrifying killings of legal observers in Minnesota, on top of the abduction of countless immigrant community members, the country has reached a turning point. Backlash against ICE’s lawlessness and aggression has reverberated so loudly that even Trump has heard it. But the effects on ordinary Americans contemplating what they would do if they lived in Minneapolis or St Paul is perhaps even more profound.
The extraordinary level of grassroots solidarity and creative resistance in anti-ICE protests in Minnesota has given people a new appreciation for the power that mass non-cooperation can have in resisting the Trump administration’s drive toward authoritarianism. And it has created an awareness of why such action is clearly needed.
Indivisible Portola Valley has made about 5000 Know Your Rights Kits and aims to make 3000 more at this work party at a private residence.
These photos or videos may be downloaded and used freely for non-commercial purposes or by bona fide media services, provided that the photographer and Pro Bono Photo are credited whenever they are used. (ProBonoPhoto.org/PHOTOGRAPHER’S NAME). The photographer retains copyright to the photos or videos. This is a CC-NC-BY-4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
The photographer at this event was Sonny Mencher.
For more information about Pro Bono Photo photographers, see http://www.ProBonoPhoto.org/Who-We-Are.
A protest of the actions of ICE and the Trump administration more generally, held near Levi Stadium while the Super Bowl game was taking place there.
These photos or videos may be downloaded and used freely for non-commercial purposes or by bona fide media services, provided that the photographer and Pro Bono Photo are credited whenever they are used (ProBonoPhoto.org/PHOTOGRAPHER’S NAME). The photographer retains copyright to the photos or videos. This is a CC-NC-BY-4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
The photographers at this event were Sammy Braxton-Haney, John Weekes, and Nate Love.
https://www.probonophoto.org/2026/8Feb26SantaClara-ICESuperbowl
A protest of ICE timed for the morning of the Super Bowl. Redwood City, corner of Jefferson Ave. and El Camino Real.
These photos or videos may be downloaded and used freely for non-commercial purposes or by bona fide media services, provided that the photographer and Pro Bono Photo are credited whenever they are used (ProBonoPhoto.org/PHOTOGRAPHER’S NAME). The photographer retains copyright to the photos or videos. This is a CC-NC-BY-4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
The photographers at this event were Sonny Mencher and Don Rasmussen.
https://www.probonophoto.org/2026/8Feb26RC-ICESuperbowl
Sunday, February 8, 11am – 12:30pm PST
Location: El Camino and Jefferson Ave
This will be a protest in Redwood City at El Camino and Jefferson Ave to support all cities–especially Minneapolis–that are standing up to ICE. Honoring those who were killed: Alex Pretti & Renee Good and their families and friends. Another man shot in Arizona on the 27th and currently not named is in critical condition. And 6 who died in immigration detention just since Jan 1st! Honoring others who were arrested illegally and sent to secret jails where their families cannot find them…. There are rumors that ICE is coming to our area during Super Bowl as they want to punish us AND are losing their minds that Bad Bunny is the half time act and will sing in Spanish…so we need to be ready and show our power to stand up. If ICE is here by then we will have updates and more to do. I’ll be updating this information.
