Joseph Goebbels mastered the art of disinformation, convincing Germans that Hitler’s cause was true. He showed the same tools selling toothpaste can sell hate, obedience & mass murder-when wielded by wrong hands. Now, those techniques are being used on Americans. We need to break the trance.

The No Kings protest of Saturday was largest single protest in US history. What does 7 million people mean? That a growing & unstoppable force of people are pissed about the state of democracy. Like Civil Rights movement of '50s/'60s, the democracy movement will continue until democracy returns.

everyone is welcome and encouraged to resist fascism, to fight back but we can’t just go back to Clinton/Obama neoliberalism it wasn’t working then, it got us where we are now, and it won’t get us out

Something is wrong in America & we all feel it. It’s a dread that whispers: can what is happening be real? We're living through a clash of 2 opposing forces: a virus that spreads through disinformation & despair, & a dream that insists a more just, democratic future is still possible.

Democracy in U.S. is under siege, assaulted by 2 intertwined & mutually reinforcing forces: the right-wing long game & oligarchic & power.  Together, they form a double-edged movement that is dismantling democracy, & they're succeeding beyond their wildest dreams. But they are not inevitable.

Gandhi: “Democracy requires change of heart.” De Tocqueville: “Habits of heart” are foundation of healthy civil society. America needs systemic transformation to create a society that works for all & needs an inner transformation. A society that allows people to flourish is both moral & spiritual.

There’s a very steal-everything-not-nailed-down-to-the-floor-before-the-entire-building-collapses vibe coursing through America right now.

Only a direct and participatory democracy will save the U.S. from autocracy. Right now, the U.S. is ruled by a tyranny of the minority, and only by taking power away from the monied interests and giving citizens more autonomy and the capability for self-rule will democracy in the U.S. flourish.

The part of the fascism that scares me the most and terrifies me that we're too late is how successful the technofascists have been in getting people to outsource their critical thinking.

Jimmy Kimmel has been Stephen Colberted.

Charlie Kirk & right-wingers overall, claim to be champions of free speech. Kirk was free to say all kinds of cruel things, all in name of free speech. But those who state Kirk said horrible things have been fired, suspended, or doxxed. In other words, Free speech for me, but not for thee.

“The most dangerous message you could have is ‘we should all come together and find common ground.’...anytime anyone wants to bring people together, they figure out a way to tar and feather the person.” - Bill Burr podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...

wrote on charlie kirk for the newsletter this weekend

Here’s the problem: Thoughtful and well-reasoned pleas to lower the temperature and unify against political violence will be algorithmically suppressed because they do not generate enough monetizable “engagement”... 🧵

1944: a failed assassination attempt on Hitler led to a crackdown on anyone perceived as disloyal. 7,000 people were arrested & 5,000 executed. With killing of Charlie Kirk, Trump has blamed “radical left” & signaled a crackdown is coming. Kirk's death can't be used as an excuse to repeat history.

A nonviolent revolution is brewing. A right-wing counterrevolution has been in place for decades & now the preconditions for change, for a nonviolent revolution to create a just & egalitarian society is happening & U.S. is now in a pre-revolutionary time. mwayne.substack.com/p/why-revolu...

The Abundance Guys are selling fake solutions in order to protect the oligarchs funding their fancy conferences, their think tanks, their new Substack blogs, and their speaking tours. Pass it on.

Nothing says you're guilty than when you tell legislators in your own party they're engaged in a "hostile act" if they vote to release the Epstein Files. Trump is guilty and will do whatever it takes to save his ass. But sooner or later, he's going down with the ship.

As we resist the authoritarianism that is taking place in U.S., it's imperative we come to an understanding of what kind of system we want. Democracy is broken & has been for many decades. In its place we want a system that is egalitarian, regenerative, sustainable & redistributive.

Democracy in U.S. is eroding, chipped away by Trump’s authoritarian ambition, extreme wealth inequality & a political system that keeps power in hands of a few. We need a nonviolent revolution to change the system toward a just, fair, egalitarian, sustainable, and regenerative one.

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Ban guns, not books.

I've started a new series on Substack, "The Revolution Will Be Televised," that speaks to this moment, when democracy is teetering. We can turn this moment into a turning point — if we have the courage to organize, imagine boldly, and fight for a more just, humane, and sustainable future.

One of my core beliefs is that this will never be a more just society if there continues to be zero consequences for elite injustice, or worse - if elite injustice continues to be celebrated and actually *rewarded* with riches, fame, status, and power.

In Trump's latest brazen move, chip makers Nvidia and AMD will pay government 15% of revenue from selling chips to China. The $$ will ostensibly go to government but will find its way to Trump. Trump's a kleptocrat/criminal & uses mob boss techniques to strong-arm American oligarchs into compliance.

Gene Sharp was world's foremost expert on waging nonviolent revolutions. On his list "198 Methods of Nonviolent Action" is mocking a country's leader. South Park mocked Trump scathingly with their new episode, Sermon on the 'Mount. Here's Sharp's full list: nonviolence.rutgers.edu/document/IIP...

The media industry sells itself as a pillar of democracy, but worships the aesthetic of dispassion. It prides itself on having no desire for specific outcomes & looks down on those who do. Attention is not a means to a policy result - monetizable attention is the only goal.

HBO should fire Bill Maher and give his time slot to Stephen Colbert.

CBS bending the knee to Trump by firing Stephen Colbert is a page out of Putin's playbook: eliminate your critics.

On Monday in L.A., the jackboots arrived for their first demonstration of force. L.A. mayor Karen Bass said, “It’s the way a city looks before a coup." In 1935, Sinclair Lewis wrote a novel, "It Can't Happen Here." It is now happening here.

Trump and Republicans, as they showed with the budget bill that yesterday passed the Senate, are cruel to the poor and compassionate to the rich. They are reverse Robin Hood.

Now that the Senate has passed the Trump budget bill, and sent it on its way to continue the process of landing on Trump's desk to sign--which should happen within a few days or so--the big question is: will Trump's followers realize how this bill screws them royally? Hard to say.

People that call him "Mr President" make me cringe. That SOB incited a mob and championed an insurrection. He deserves zero respect.

The "big, beautiful bill" is gift to fossil fuel billionaires. Trump showed his allegiance by posting "drill, baby, drill!" Even Elon Musk thinks it's bad, saying "Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”

Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the NYC Democratic mayoralty primary is a positive harbinger of things to come. It shows that what will get democracies on the correct course— especially the U.S.—is democratic socialism. And when people understand what it means, they will enthusiastically accept it.

Iran has threatened terrorist sleeper cell attacks on U.S. soil. But the U.S. already has terrorist sleeper cell attacks on U.S. soil. It's called ICE. As was famously said in the cartoon Pogo: I have met the enemy and he is us.

While mad king Trump's poll numbers are tanking in the U.S., there is one poll he is leading by a large margin.

Tomorrow I'm presenting my feature documentary film, "How to Save Democracy," at Tufts University for their conference, Frontiers of Democracy. This is a clip from my film. It's about the 3.5% rule, which says when 3.5% of a nation's citizens join together in nonviolent, protests, change happens.

Trump got what he wanted: a military parade. He also got what he didn't want--a large scale turnout against him, 11 million strong nationwide. Fascism won't succeed in US: time for a healthy democracy--a sustainable, regenerative, egalitarian one that creates a broad-based prosperity for all.

A sitting Senator handcuffed. A sitting Congresswoman indicted. Military sent to streets of L.A. to intimidate peaceful protestors. The actions of a fascist regime. All criminal activities by the fascist regime. Someone needs to go to jail for this--I know precisely who.

The Trump Adminstration is now the second coming of The Jerry Springer Show.

Trump accounts: a crock of shit. Putting $1000 into a baby's special account that gets invested won't pay for much. Instead what's needed is Universal Minimum Inheritance-that would level the playing field. Thomas Piketty suggests $150,000 as amount to provide basic financial foundation for all.

The 10,000 Maniacs song "These Are Days," is about a world of promise and warmth, days to remember because we were blessed & lucky to be alive. This is not that world. These are days of end stage capitalism, a time not to remember, because it has made the whole world far from being warm.

It didn't take long for far right to lose their mind over election of Pope Leo. "He's a WOKE Marxist Pope," was a typical reaction. In 1952, President Harry Truman gave a speech lambasting Republicans for using socialism word on anything that helps people.

A new Pope has been selected, and he has already announced what he will be known by: Pope Asshole I

Trump is the disease. Democracy is the cure.

If we make it through this dark period with democracy intact, it may be because the administration's incompetence was greater than its depravity.