The 84-year-old is making his rounds across California this week
By Anabel Sosa,Senior California Politics Reporter Feb 19, 2026 (SFGate.com)
Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks with reporters in Washington on Jan. 29, 2026. Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the progressive from Vermont, is creating urgency around the need to pass a proposed billionaire wealth tax in California. The 84-year-old kicked off a weeklong California tour to campaign for the proposed tax in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
“The billionaire class no longer sees itself as part of American society. … They see themselves as something separate and apart … like the oligarchs of the 18th and 19th centuries,” Sanders said to a crowd of 2,000 at the iconic Wiltern theater. “… These guys literally believe they have the divine right to rule and are no longer subject to democratic governance.”
The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, a health care workers union, is behind the tax proposal, which would apply a one-time 5% tax on residents of California whose net worth exceeds $1 billion. The tax, supporters argue, would fill in a $100 billion gap in federal health care funding, with the rest going toward food assistance and education.
“For them, in many ways, that is pocket change,” Sanders said of the state’s wealthiest residents during his 30-minute speech. He later called the “grotesque level” of wealth inequality the “most important economic and moral issue of our time.” He was the only elected official to speak during the SEIU-hosted rally.
More than 200 billionaires reside in California. Among the highest earners of that group are Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, with a net worth estimated around $220 billion, and Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, with a net worth of about $201 billion. Both men got specific shoutouts from Sanders.
“Mr. Zuckerberg, you can afford to pay your fair share of taxes so that people have health care,” the senator said.
Sanders has been in Congress since 1991 and has built a political legacy around probing income inequality. His populist ideology garnered massive popularity on the national stage while he campaigned for president in 2016. After President Donald Trump was elected for his second term in 2024, Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez traveled around the U.S. together on a “Fight the Oligarchy” tour. Their stop in Sacramento County attracted a 3-mile line in one of the state’s most conservative pockets.
Opponents of the tax argue the wealthiest Californians would be incentivized to move out of the state and that tax revenue and job creation could be lost as a result. Gov. Gavin Newsom has repeatedly made that argument in his recent public appearances opposing the proposal. But Sanders says he begs to differ.
“I doubt that they will flee the great state of California,” Sanders said Wednesday. At another point in the speech, he said of billionaires: “They lie a lot.”
A few billionaires have already changed their residences or moved their businesses, presumably to get ahead of any wealth tax. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the Google co-founders, relocated their business entities to Nevada. David Sacks opened up an office for his venture capital firm in Austin, Texas. Peter Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and Palantir and is worth $25 billion, opened an office for his investment firm in Miami.
The Los Angeles Times also reported Thursday that director Steven Spielberg recently moved to New York, and the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla are considering buying property in Florida, though it’s unclear whether that could impact their ability to be taxed. If the measure makes it to the ballot, and it passes, the tax would retroactively apply to billionaires living in California as of Jan. 1, 2026.
Sanders, in his effort to convince the crowd a tax is direly needed, emphasized the degree to which the wealthiest own “what the American people see, hear and read.”
Elon Musk, the wealthiest person in the world, worth upward of $844 billion, owns public speech platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Sanders recounted. Then he listed other rich men who own American media companies, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns Twitch and the Washington Post; Zuckerberg, who owns Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp; and Ellison, who owns CBS and Paramount Skydance in addition to a major stake in TikTok.
“So if you wonder why issues like income and wealth inequality, issues like corporate greed are not talked about too much in the media, it has a lot to do with who owns that media,” Sanders said.
Sanders also pointed out the large sums of money that the wealthiest are legally able to give to super PACs to sway elections. Zuckerberg, via various Meta super PACs, has just poured in $65 million across California and other states to support AI- and tech-friendly Democrats and Republicans.
“At a time when the very rich are becoming phenomenally richer, when the very rich have been given a massive tax break by Donald Trump, when millions of people in this state are struggling to be able to afford health care, maybe billionaires should start paying their fair share of taxes,” Sanders said.
The tax proposal is in the signature-gathering stage. It needs 874,641 signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Sanders said he is headed to Palo Alto next to interrogate those executives, as SFGATE previously reported. According to a statement from his team, he plans to question how working-class people will be impacted by artificial intelligence and who will benefit most. He is scheduled to be in the Bay Area on Friday at Stanford University in discussion with Rep. Ro Khanna.
Anabel Sosa is the senior California politics reporter at SFGATE. She previously covered the statehouse and elections for the Los Angeles Times. She has a master’s degree in investigative journalism from UC Berkeley. You can reach her at anabel.sosa@sfgate.com.
The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel Feb 19, 2026 With little hope of the genocide in Gaza subsiding, dock workers in major Italian port cities have organized strikes and large demonstrations to halt arms shipments to Israel. These actions are a direct response to the refusal of international institutions and governments around the world to confront the carnage. Though the genocide continues, the dockworkers’ industrial disruption offer us a model of resistance. Will the Italian way spread to the imperial core — and can it end the genocide? Support my independent journalism at Substack: https://chrishedges.substack.com/ Follow The Chris Hedges Report on social media: https://linktr.ee/chrishedges
Penn State students man a voter registration table on the Penn State campus in University Park, Pennsylvania, October 18, 2024. Credit: Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo
Wesleyan University President Michael Roth, who has been a leader in organizing college presidents to resist Donald Trump’s demands, has come up with a terrific idea to help safeguard the midterm elections. He proposes something called Democracy Summer 2026, evoking the heroic Freedom Summer of 1964 that aimed to advance voting rights in Mississippi.
“Wesleyan University is reaching out to colleges across the country to build a network of institutions to protect our democracy,” Roth explains. “We hope that by the fall thousands of students will be working side by side with election administrators and civic organizations to support poll worker recruitment, election protection efforts, and lawful observation.”
He added, “During Democracy Summer 2026, many schools will offer internships for young people eager to join campaigns. In recent years Wesleyan students have been engaging with potential voters in places like Michigan and North Carolina, in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. By the fall our network will launch thousands of students into meaningful work side-by-side with election administrators and civic organizations. The elections of 2026 are crucial, but we are building democratic muscles that should endure.”
Roth’s initiative is a nonpartisan cousin to Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin’s Democracy Summer program, which trains students to be organizers and campaign workers for progressive candidates.
If we take stock of all the ways that Trump is threatening free and fair elections next fall, student election workers can’t do everything, but they can do a lot. Trump has tried to “nationalize” elections, meaning have the federal government take control of election administration, which the Constitution clearly delegates to the states. He issued an executive order to that effect back in March.
Trump’s Justice Department has demanded voter rolls from at least 44 states, and most have refused to provide them. The idea is to have the Justice Department take over voter lists and then conduct bogus purges. The courts have sided with the states, and if the case ever reaches the Supreme Court, even this high court is likely to disallow Trump’s demand.
In the case of the flagrantly illegal raid on Fulton County, Georgia, voting records from 2020, Trump is trying to relitigate his bogus claims that he lost Georgia in 2020 because of illegal voting. This has been disproven over and over again. Here again, even a Trump-friendly Supreme Court is likely to hold that such incursions are illegal.
Trump and the Republican House have also tried to narrow the franchise by passing legislation requiring proof of citizenship and photo ID for people to register and vote. The so-called SAVE America Act passed the House last week, but it won’t get the required 60 votes to pass the Senate.
At bottom, Trump is relying on two strategies to undermine free and fair elections: First, depress who is able to register and vote; second, create maximum chaos and intimidation on Election Day.
On the former, it is up to the courts and election integrity organizations to block Trump’s maneuvers. On the latter, the more that citizen activists work to prevent Election Day intimidation, the fairer and freer elections will be. A number of groups, such as Indivisible and Run for Something, have mobilized people to work to elect Democrats. That also becomes a force to insist on free and fair elections.
Taken together, these and other groups have done a superb job of challenging all of Trump’s attempted incursions. Despite the conservative cast of the courts, Trump’s ploys have been so outlandish that the democracy groups have been winning key cases more than they have been losing.
One other risk, which may seem a little far-fetched (but with Trump, nothing is too far-fetched): If Democrats do take back the House, Trump may even try a variant of January 6, 2021, and try to prevent new House members from being seated, claiming massive (if totally invented) fraud.
Thus far, in special elections, Speaker Mike Johnson has not quite stooped to this, but he came close. Democrat Adelita Grijalva was sworn in as the representative for Arizona’s Seventh Congressional District last November 12, after a record-setting 50-day delay following her special-election victory on September 23. Johnson’s excuse for refusing to seat her was the government shutdown and House recess.
The old Speaker is no longer Speaker when the new Congress reconvenes on January 3, 2027. If the House changes hands, under the House rules the clerk of the House, who is a nonmember staffer, swears in the new House, which then elects the Speaker.
This adds one more obstacle to a coup. To overturn the election, Trump and Johnson would have to revise the House rules, and some anti-Trump Republicans might refuse to go along.
But if Trump and Johnson did find a way to refuse to recognize election results to avoid turning over control of the House, that would be a move to outright dictatorship. It would be more serious even than the constitutional crisis of 1876, when conservative Republicans in Congress lined up with Southern Democrats to fraudulently overturn the presidential election results in a deal that ended Reconstruction.
A citizen uprising, as in the case of Minneapolis and ICE, can’t guarantee that a desperate Trump won’t attempt another coup. But we can make it a lot harder for him to try.
The private equity behemoth’s bid to acquire New Mexico’s largest electricity provider could be null and void. Will regulators be bold enough to apply the law?
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Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School. His latest book is Going Big: FDR’s Legacy, Biden’s New Deal, and the Struggle to Save Democracy. Follow Bob at his site, robertkuttner.com, and on Twitter. More by Robert Kuttner
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks to press Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Caitlin O’Hara)
Kristi Noem’s Arizona Remarks Signal Trump Team’s Election Control Strategy
Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem’s portfolio has nothing to do with elections, but in Arizona last week she spoke words revealing the Trump administration’s bold intent to rig the 2026 and 2028 elections, which if successful means ending our liberties. Noem said:
“When it gets to Election Day, we’ve been proactive to make sure that we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country.”
Lots of luck trying to find her words on the front page of newspapers or the network news shows, however. The excuses for not reporting this are simple: It’s unclear what she meant. It’s not news because it’s not new, just new phrasing. And since elections are not part of Noem’s portfolio her words aren’t significant.
On Friday Trump delivered further evidence of his foul intentions in an outrageously inappropriate speech to troops at Fort Bragg where he appeared beside a GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate.
“You have to vote for us,” he declared.
Fortunately, most of the soldiers remained silent, as they are supposed to. The light applause came from civilians who support Trump and his efforts to politicize our military. News coverage of this was greater than of Noem’s remarks, but still far from robust.
But bad news judgment aside, you should be alarmed at what Noem said. Let me explain the reasons.
Noem’s minions and defenders argue that by “right people” she means citizens and nothing more. That defense is beyond weak because non-citizen voting is extremely rare no matter how often Trump and his acolytes spread his lies.
The Heritage Foundation, source of Trump’s Project 2025 wrecking ball playbook, found only 24 instances from 2003 to 2023. That’s 24 votes out of billions for president, Senate and House over two decades. Bupkis.
The Cato Institute, a libertarian promoting organization with a solid reputation for being principled, denounced this lie just this month in clear terms: Trump’s Claims About Noncitizens Voting Are False. We Can Prove It.
Noem’s second point, about electing “the right leaders,” is harder to defend.
In normal times her remark would be treated as just urging votes for her party or her party segment. But that doesn’t work because the Trump administration considers any vote not for him and his chosen candidates to be illegitimate.
Dictator Donald reigns as the president of Red states and the punisher of Blue. He withholds Congressionally appropriated federal funds from Blue states and cities. He sends armed troops and masked ICE agents to occupy Blue zones. Trump and his cabinet constantly refer to “real Americans,” hoping to stigmatize those who stand up for freedom, integrity, and the rule of law as well as the educated and competent.
There’s no whitewashing Noem’s second part. Trump continues to lie that the 2020 election was stolen. His longtime adviser Steve Bannon said ICE agents will “surround” polling places this year. And as this MS Now report shows, Bannon is not alone in wanting ICE to intimidate voters who aren’t part of the MAGA cult.
Muddying Clear Waters
The most generous interpretation of Noem’s comments would note that she was speaking in Arizona about the proposed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act (H.R. 22/H.R. 8281). The so-called Save America Act is Trump’s effort to restrict voting to people who support him and limit voting by anyone who favors other candidates for office. But since her position has zip to do with elections why is she speaking on this? And why is she speaking in what defenders have to say are less than clear terms?
The answer: muddying clear waters is a Trumpian conman game, a way to convey messages without being—he thinks—accountable.
Even if you accept that lame excuse, and I don’t, you should be alarmed at Noem’s efforts to divide Americans and pit us against one another. That’s how early-stage dictatorships work, before they get to the inevitable stage of mass purging of loyalists (like Noem) to ensure struct obedience to Dear Leader.
Following the first of many loyalist purges expect mass arrests of critics and opponents, holding people incommunicado without access to the courts (already being done to those swept up by ICE). Eventually despots turn to firing squads or their murderous equivalents, to maintain their illegitimate power. Think about Putin’s agents using African frog poison to kill opposition leader Victor Navalny and the ayatollahs executing and massacring many thousands of dissident Iranians.
So long as Trump remains in power his regime intends to rig future elections. Bannon, Noem, and Trump himself make that obvious. Not acting today to protect your and everyone else’s ballots will mean paying a much greater price tomorrow, assuming that, like me, you want to restore our democracy and live in an actual land of the free and the home of the brave.
Frequently Asked Questions About This Story
What did Kristi Noem say about elections in Arizona?
She said officials were being proactive to ensure “the right people” are voting and “electing the right leaders,” a remark that critics argue signals partisan control of elections.
Does Homeland Security oversee elections?
The Department of Homeland Security does not directly administer elections, which are managed by state and local governments.
Is noncitizen voting common in U.S. elections?
Studies from organizations including the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute show documented cases are extremely rare compared to total votes cast.
What is the SAVE Act (H.R. 22 / H.R. 8281)?
The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act proposes stricter proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration.
Why are critics concerned about voter intimidation?
Statements from political figures about surrounding polling places or deploying enforcement resources have raised concerns about potential voter suppression or intimidation.
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David Cay Johnston David Cay Johnston co-founded DCReport. He is a best-selling author and investigative journalist who for 13 years reported for The New York Times. Johnston is a specialist in economics and tax issues. He won a 2001 Pulitzer Prize. He is a professor of practice teaching law, public policy, and journalism at Rochester Institute of Technology.
2-Month-Old infant Juan Nicolás has been detained at an immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas since January and was hospitalized on February 16, 2026.
(Photo: @lidiaterrazasnews/Instagram)
The hospitalization came two days after the baby had a previous medical episode in which he was reportedly “choking on his own vomit.”
As advocates including US Rep. Joaquin Castro demanded the immediate release of a 2-month-old baby, Juan Nicolás, who has been detained with his mother at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas for close to half of his young life, the infant was rushed to a hospital early in the morning on Tuesday after suffering from respiratory issues and vomiting in recent days.
Lidia Terrezas, a reporter for Univision, spoke to officials at the Dilley detention center and reported in an Instagram video that Juan Nicolás had been transported via ambulance at about 7:00 pm Central time. KABB Fox News 29 in San Antonio reported Tuesday morning that the baby had been “treated and released.”
“It’s unclear what happened for them to take him to the hospital,” said Terrezas. “It is my understanding that he was taken by ambulance. So at some point the decision was made that he should be taken to a hospital immediately.”
The reported hospitalization came two days after the baby had “a medical episode at approximately 3:00 am Saturday,” according to the San Antonio Current, and hours after Castro (D-Texas) provided an update about the infant’s condition after being detained at Dilley nearly a month ago.
“He’s been sick consistently,” said Castro in a video posted on X. “He was vomiting, he’s been having respiratory issues. They came to check on him when he was having these issues, but they couldn’t take him to see a doctor because there was no doctor in the early morning hours at Dilley.”
During an earlier visit to Dilley, Castro saw the facility’s medical wing, complete with beds for children and families who need medical attention at the center built to hold up to 2,400 people—but witnessed no actual medical providers working there.
“These kids should be released, and these folks who have committed no crime should not be in this trailer prison,” said Castro.
In his earlier medical episode, Juan Nicolás was described as “choking on his own vomit.”
“This baby in particular is very vulnerable,” said Castro Monday. “For those of you that are parents… you know how vulnerable kids are at the age of 2 months. And so I have been pressing [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] hard to let Juan Nicolás go free… They are on notice that he has been sick, that they don’t have the medical capacity to treat him properly, and that his life, if this continues, could be in danger.”
CoreCivic, the private prison company that runs Dilley, claims the medical wing is fully staffed and offers 24/7 care, according toNBC News Channel 4 in San Antonio.
But Castro’s report of the facility’s failure to provide medical care is not incongruous with numerous reports of medical neglect at other detention centers where ICE is detaining tens of thousands of people, including about 170 children on any given day, on average.
Detainees have reported being unable to access medical care at facilities including Krome North Service Processing Center in Florida; North Lake Processing Center in Michigan, where an immigrant named Nenko Stanev Gantchev was found dead in his cell in December; and Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, where at least three people have died in 44 days recently.
El Paísreported on Monday on medical neglect of children at Dilley. A 5-year-old boy suffered acute appendicitis “with severe pain,” according to the newspaper.
“The staff member responsible for attending to him told his mother to come back in three days if the pain continued,” reported El País. “He lay on the floor in agony for hours until, after they saw him vomiting, he was finally taken to a doctor and eventually underwent surgery. After he was discharged from the hospital, it was difficult to obtain the medication he had been prescribed.”
The 1997 Flores Agreement set a 20-day maximum for children to be held in immigration detention, but with Juan Nicolás detained for about three and a half weeks, according to Castro, the baby is one of hundreds of children who have been held at Dilley for at least a month.
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio leave the podium after a joint press conference in Budapest, Hungary on February 16, 2026.
(Photo by Alex Brandon/Pool AP/AFP via Getty Images)
“It’s time to take the gloves off and fight for our future,” the democratic socialist congresswoman asserted.
As US Secretary of State Marco Rubio heaped praise upon Viktor Orbán as he seeks a sixth term as Hungary’s increasingly autocratic prime minister, progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday implored democracy defenders to “take the gloves off and fight for our future.”
Visiting Budapest, the Hungarian capital, on the last leg of a three-country tour of Europe, Rubio pressed the Trump administration’s thumb on the proverbial scale of Hungary’s April election with a ringing endorsement of Orbán, telling him that President Donald Trump “is deeply committed to your success.”
That’s a glaring departure from a 2019 warning from lawmakers including then-Sen. Rubio (R-Fla.) to Trump that democracy had “significantly eroded” in Hungary as Orbán consolidated control over the electoral process, judiciary, and press. Now, Rubio says Orbán’s success is “essential and vital” to US national interests.
“From Orbán to Trump, the rise of far-right movements is tightly coordinated and transcends borders,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Facebook in response to Rubio’s visit. “So too should be our international defense of democracy and the fight for working people. From policy to tactics, it’s time to take the gloves off and fight for our future.”
Although Hungary openly flouted a US ban on importing oil, natural gas, or coal from Russia amid President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing invasion and occupation of Ukraine, Trump recently granted Budapest a one-year exemption from sanctions.
And while Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s pursuit of an independent foreign policy—which included close relations with Russia and China—was cited as a reason for the US invasion of Venezuela and abduction of Maduro, Rubio said that Orbán’s increasingly close ties with Moscow and Beijing are a matter of Hungarian sovereignty.
“We’re not asking any country in the world to isolate themselves from anybody,” Rubio said, although that’s exactly what the Trump administrationreportedly ordered Venezuela’s interim government to do to China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba.
“There’s no reason to sugarcoat it. I’m going to be very blunt with you,” Rubio told reporters Monday, adding that Trump and Orbán “have a very, very close personal relationship and working relationship, and I think it has been incredibly beneficial to the relationship between our two countries.”
Speaking Friday at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Ocasio-Cortez accused Trump of trying to usher in an “age of authoritarianism.”
“We have to have a working-class-centered politics if we are going to succeed,” she said, “and also if we are going to stave off the scourges of authoritarianism, which provides political siren calls to allure people into finding scapegoats to blame for rising economic inequality, both domestically and globally.”
Ocasio-Cortez—whose increasingly high profile has sparked speculation of a possible run for higher office—also slammed the “hypocrisies” of US foreign policy, “whether it is kidnapping a foreign head of state, whether it is threatening our allies to colonize Greenland, whether it is looking the other way in a genocide, hypocrisies are vulnerabilities, and they threaten democracies globally.”
“This is a moment where we are seeing our presidential administration tear apart the transatlantic partnership,” she added. “What is happening is indeed very grave, and we are in a new era, domestically and globally.”
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Tonight, we pause and give praise and honor to God for being good enough to allow us to be at this place, at this time. When I look out at this convention, I see the face of America: Red, Yellow, Brown, Black and White. We are all precious in God’s sight – the real rainbow coalition.
(Applause)
All of us – all of us who are here think that we are seated. But we’re really standing on someone’s shoulders. Ladies and gentlemen, Mrs. Rosa Parks. (Applause) The mother of the civil rights movement. [Mrs. Rosa Parks was brought to the podium.]
I want to express my deep love and appreciation for support my family has given me over the past months. They have endured pain, anxiety, threat and fear. But they have been strengthened and made secure by our faith in God, in America, and in you. Your love has protected us and made us strong. To my wife Jackie, the foundation of our family; to our five children whom you met tonight; to my mother, Mrs. Helen Jackson, who is present tonight; and to our grandmother, Mrs. Matilda Burns; to my brother Chuck and his family; to my mother-in-law, Mrs. Gertrude Brown, who just last month at age 61 graduated from Hampton Institute – A marvelous achievement. (Applause)
I offer my appreciation to Mayor Andrew Young who has provided such gracious hospitality to all of us this week.
And a special salute to President Jimmy Carter. (Applause) President Carter restored honor to the White House after Watergate. He gave many of us a special opportunity to grow. For his kind words, for his unwavering commitment to peace in the world, and for the votes that came from his family, every member of his family, led Billy and Amy, I offer special thanks to the Carter family.
(Applause)
My right and my privilege to stand here before you has been won, won in my lifetime, by the blood and the sweat of the innocent.
Twenty-four years ago, the late Fannie Lou Hamer and Aaron Henry – who sits here tonight from Mississippi – were locked out into the streets in Atlantic City; the head of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
But tonight, a Black and White delegation from Mississippi is headed by Ed Cole, a Black man from Mississippi; 24 years later. (Applause)
Many were lost in the struggle for the right to vote: Jimmy Lee Jackson, a young student, gave his life; Viola Liuzzo, a White mother from Detroit, called nigger lover, had her brains blown out at point blank range; [Michael] Schwerner, [Andrew] Goodman and [James] Chaney – two Jews and a Black – found in a common grave, boddies riddled with bullets in Mississippi; the four darling little girls in a church in Birmingham, Alabama. They died that we might have a right to live.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lies only a few miles from us tonight. Tonight he must feel good as he looks down upon us. We sit here together, a rainbow, a coalition – the sons and daughters of slavemasters and the sons and daughters of slaves, sitting together around a common table, to decide the direction of our party and our country. His heart would be full tonight.
As a testament to the struggles of those who have gone before; as a legacy for those who will come after; as a tribute to the endurance, the patience, the courage of our forefathers and mothers; as an assurance that their prayers are being answered, their work have not been in vain, and hope is eternal; tomorrow night my name will go into nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America.
We meet tonight at the crossroads, a point of decision. Shall we expand, be inclusive, find unity and power; or suffer division and impotence?
We’ve come to Atlanta, the cradle of the old South, the crucible of the new South. Tonight, there is a sense of celebration, because we are moved, fundamentally moved from racial battlegrounds by law, to economic common ground. Tomorrow we will challenge to move to higher ground.
Common ground! Think of Jerusalem, the intersection where many trails met. A small village that became the birthplace for three religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Why was this village so blessed? Because it provided a crossroads there different people met, different cultures, different civilizations could meet and find common ground. When people come together, flowers always flourish – the air is rich with the aroma of a new spring.
Take New York, the dynamic metropolis. What makes New York so special? It’s the invitation of the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses who yearn to breathe free.” Not restricted to English only. (Applause) Many people, many cultures, many languages – with one thing in common, they yearn to breathe free. Common ground!
Tonight in Atlanta, for the first time in this century, we convene in the South; a state where Governors once stood in school house doors; where Julian Bond was denied a seal in the State Legislature because of his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War; a city that, through its five Black Universities, has graduated more black students than any city in the world. (Applause) Atlanta, now a modern intersection of the new South.
Common ground! That’s the challenge of our party tonight. Left wing. Right wing.
Progress will not come through boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival – not at boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival. It takes two wings to fly. Whether you’re a hawk or a dove, you’re just a bird living in the same environment, in the same world.
The Bible teaches that when lions and lambs lie down together, none will be afraid and there will be peace in the valley. It sounds impossible. Lions eat lambs. Lambs sensibly flee from lions. Yet when even lions and lambs will find common ground. Why? Because neither lions nor lambs can survive nuclear war. If lions and lambs can find common ground, surely we can as well – as civilized people. (Applause)
The only time that we win is when we come together. In 1960, John Kennedy, the late John Kennedy, beat Richard Nixon by only 112,000 votes – less than one vote per precinct. He won by the margin of our hope. He brought us together. He reached out. He had the courage to defy his advisors and inquire about Dr. King’s jailing in Albany, Georgia. We won by the margin of our hope, inspired by courageous leadership.
In 1964, Lyndon Johnson brought wings together – the thesis, the antithesis, and the creative synthesis – and together we won.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter unified us again, and we won. When do we not come together, we never win.
In 1968, the vision and despair in July led to our defeat in November. In 1980, rancor in the spring and the summer led to Reagan in the fall.
When we divide, we cannot win. We must find common ground as the basis for survival and development and change, and growth. (Applause)
Today when we debated, differed, deliberated, agreed to agree, agree to disagree, when we had the good judgment to argue a case and then not self-destruct, George Bush was just a little further away from the White House and a little closer to private life. (Applause)
Tonight I salute Governor Michael Dukakis. (Applause) He has run – He has run a well-managed and a dignified campaign. No matter how tired or how tried, he always resisted the temptation to stoop to demagoguery.
I’ve watched a good mind fast at work, with steel nerves, guiding his campaign out of the crowded field without appeal to the worst in us. I have watched his perspective grow as his environment has expanded. I’ve seen his toughness and tenacity close up. I know his commitment to public service. Michael Dukakis’ parents were a doctor and a teacher; my parents a maid, a beautician and a janitor. There’s a great gap between Brookline, Massachusetts and Haney Street in the Fieldcrest Village housing projects in Greenville, South Carolina. (Applause)
He studied law; I studied theology. There are differences of religion, region, and race; differences in experiences and perspectives. But the genius of America is that out of the many we become one.
Providence has enabled our paths to intersect. His foreparents came to America on immigrant ships; my foreparents came to America on slave ships. But whatever the original ships, we’re in the same boat tonight. (Applause) Our ships could pass in the night– if we have a false sense of independence– or they could collide and crash. We could lose our passengers. But we can seek a high reality and a greater good.
Apart, we can drift on the broken pieces of Reagonomics, satisfy our baser instincts, and exploit the fears of our people. At our highest we can call upon noble instincts and navigate this vessel to safety. The greater good is the common good.
As Jesus said, “Not My will, but Thine be done.” It was his way of saying there’s a higher good beyond personal comfort or position.
The good of our Nation is at stake. It’s commitment to working men and women, to the poor and the vulnerable, to the many in the world.
With so many guided missiles, and so much misguided leadership, the stakes are exceedingly high. Our choice? Full participation in a democratic government, or more abandonment and neglect. And so this night, we choose not a false sense of independence, and our capacity to survive and endure. Tonight we choose interdependency, and our capacity to act and unite for the greater good.
Common good is finding commitment to new priorities to expansion and inclusion. A commitment to expanded participation in the Democratic Party at every level. A commitment to a shared national campaign strategy and involvement at every level.
A commitment to new priorities that insure that hope will be kept alive. A common ground commitment to a legislative agenda for empowerment, for the John Conyers bill– universal, on-site, same-day registration everywhere. (Applause) A commitment to D.C. statehood and empowerment– D.C. deserves statehood. (Applause) A commitment to economic set-asides, commitment to the Dellums bill for comprehensive sanctions against South Africa. (Applause) A shared commitment to a common direction.
Common ground! Easier said than done. Where do you find common ground? At the point of challenge. This campaign has shown that politics need not be marketed by politicians, packaged by pollsters and pundits. Politics can be a moral arena where people come together to find common ground.
We find common ground at the plant gate that closes on workers without notice. We find common ground at the farm auction, where a good farmer loses his or her land to bad loans or diminishing markets. Common ground at the school yard where teachers cannot get adequate pay, and students cannot get a scholarship, and can’t make a loan. Common ground at the hospital admitting room, where somebody tonight is dying because they cannot afford to go upstairs to a bed that’s empty waiting for someone with insurance to get sick. We are a better nation than that. We must do better. (Applause)
Common ground. What is leadership if not present help in a time of crisis? So I met you at the point of challenge. In Jay, Maine, where paper workers were striking for fair wages; in Greenville, Iowa, where family farmers struggle for a fair price; in Cleveland, Ohio, where working women seek comparable worth; in McFarland, California, where the children of Hispanic farm workers may be dying from poisoned land, dying in clusters with cancer; in an AIDS hospice in Houston, Texas, where the sick support one another, too often rejected by their own parents and friends.
Common ground. America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth. When I was a child growing up in Greenville, South Carolina my grandmama could not afford a blanket, she didn’t complain and we did not freeze. Instead she took pieces of old cloth – patches, wool, silk, gabardine, crockersack – only patches, barely good enough to wipe off your shoes with. But they didn’t stay that way very long. With sturdy hands and a strong cord, she sewed them together into a quilt, a thing of beauty and power and culture. Now, Democrats, we must build such a quilt.
Farmers, you seek fair prices and you are right – but you cannot stand alone. Your patch is not big enough. Workers, you fight for fair wages, you are right – but your patch of labor is not big enough. Women, you seek comparable worth and pay equity, you are right – but your patch is not big enough. (Applause)
Women, mothers, who seek Head Start, and day care and prenatal care on the front side of life, relevant jail care and welfare on the back side of life – you are right – but your patch is not big enough. Students, you seek scholarships, you are right – but your patch is not big enough. Blacks and Hispanics, when we fight for civil rights, we are right – but our patch is not big enough.
Gays and lesbians, when you fight against discrimination and a cure for AIDS, you are right – but your patch is not big enough. Conservatives and progressives, when you fight for what you believe, right wing, left wing, hawk, dove, you are right from your point of view, but your point of view is not enough.
But don’t despair. Be as wise as my grandmama. Pull the patches and the pieces together, bound by a common thread. When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground, we’ll have the power to bring about health care and housing and jobs and education and hope to our Nation. (Standing ovation)
We, the people, can win!
We stand at the end of along dark night of reaction. We stand tonight united in the commitment to a new direction. For almost eight years we’ve been led by those who view social good coming from private interest, who view public life as a means to increase private wealth. They have been prepared to sacrifice the common good of the many to satisfy the private interests and the wealth of a few.
We believe in a government that’s a tool of our democracy in service to the public, not an instrument of the aristocracy in search of private wealth. We believe in government with the consent of the government with the consent of the governed, “of, for and by the people.” We must now emerge into a new day with a new direction.
Reaganomics. Based on the belief that the rich had too little money and the poor had too much. That’s classic Reaganomics. They believe that the poor had too much money and the rich had too little money so they engaged in reverse Robin Hood – took from the poor and gave to the rich, paid for by the middle class. We cannot stand four more years of Reaganomics in any version, in any disguise.(Applause)
How do I document that case? Seven years later, the richest 1 percent of our society pays 20 percent less in taxes. The poorest 10 percent pay 20 percent more. Reaganomics.
Reagan gave the rich and the powerful a multibillion-dollar party. Now the party’s over, he expects the people to pay for the damage. I take this principal position, convention, let us not raise taxes on the poor and the middle-class, but those who had the party, the rich and the powerful must pay for the party. (Applause)
I just want to take common sense to high places. We’re spending $150 billion a year defending Europe and Japan 43 years after the war is over. We have more troops in Europe tonight than we had seven years ago. Yet the threat of war is ever more remote.
Germany and Japan are now creditor nations; that means they’ve got a surplus. We are a debtor nation. It means we are in debt. Let them share more of the burden of their own defense. Use some of that money to build decent housing. Use some of that money to educate our children. Use some of that money for long-term health care. Use some of that money to wipe out these slums and put America back to work! (Applause)
I just want to take common sense to high places. If we can bail out Europe and Japan; if we can bail out Continental Bank and Chrysler– and Mr. Iaccoca, makes $8,000 an hour, we can bail out the family farmer. (Applause)
I just want to make common sense. It does not make sense to close down 650,000 family farms in this country while importing food from abroad subsidized by the U.S. Government. Let’s make sense.(Applause)
It does not make sense to be escorting all our tankers up and down the Persian Gulf paying $2.50 for every $1 worth of oil we bring out, while oil wells are capped in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. I just want to make sense.(Applause)
Leadership must meet the moral challenge of its day. What’s the moral challenge of our day? We have public accommodations. We have the right to vote.
We have open housing. What’s the fundamental challenge of our day? It is to end economic violence. Plant closings without notice– economic violence. Even the greedy do not profit long from greed– economic violence.
Most poor people are not lazy. They are not black. They are not brown. They are mostly White and female and young. But whether White, Black or Brown, a hungry baby’s belly turned inside out is the same color– color it pain, color it hurt, color it agony.
Most poor people are not on welfare. Some of them are illiterate and can’t read the want-ad sections. And when they can, they can’t find a job that matches the address. They work hard everyday. I know, I live amongst them. They catch the early bus. They work every day. They raise other people’s children. They work everyday.
They clean the streets. They work everyday. They drive dangerous cabs. They change the beds you slept in in these hotels last night and can’t get a union contract. They work everyday. (Applause)
No, no, they’re not lazy. Someone must defend them because it’s right and they cannot speak for themselves. They work in hospitals. I know they do. They wipe the bodies of those who are sick with fever and pain. They empty their bedpans. They clean out their commodes. No job is beneath them, and yet when they get sick they cannot lie in the bed they made up every day. America, that is not right (Applause) We are a better Nation than that! (Applause)
We need a real war on drugs. You can’t “just say no.” It’s deeper than that. You can’t just get a palm reader or an astrologer. It’s more profound than that.(Applause)
We are spending $150 billion on drugs a year. We’ve gone from ignoring it to focusing on the children. Children cannot buy $150 billion worth of drugs a year; a few high-profile athletes– athletes are not laundering $150 billion a year– bankers are.(Applause)
I met the children in Watts who unfortunately, in their despair, their grapes of hope have become raisins of despair, and they’re turning on each other and they’re self-destructing. But I stayed with them all night long. I wanted to hear their case.
They said, “Jesse Jackson, as you challenge us to say no to drugs, you’re right; and to not sell them, you’re right; and to not use these guns, you’re right.” And by the way, the promise of CETA; they displaced CETA– they did not replace CETA. “We have neither jobs nor houses nor services nor training; no way out.
“Some of us take drugs as anesthesia for our pain. Some take drugs as a way of pleasure, good short-term pleasure and long-term pain. Some sell drugs to make money. It’s wrong, we know, but you need to know that we know. We can go and buy the drugs by the boxes at the port. If we can buy the drugs at the port, don’t you believe the Federal government can stop it if they want to?” (Applause)
They say, “We don’t have Saturday night specials anymore. They say, We buy AK47’s and Uzi’s, the latest make of weapons. We buy them across the along these boulevards.”
You cannot fight a war on drugs unless until you’re going to challenge the bankers and the gun sellers and those who grow them. Don’t just focus on the children, let’s stop drugs at the level of supply and demand. We must end the scourge on the American Culture! (Applause)
Leadership. What difference will we make? Leadership. We cannot just go along to get along. We must do more than change Presidents. We must change direction.
Leadership must face the moral challenge of our day. The nuclear war build-up is irrational. Strong leadership cannot desire to look tough and let that stand in the way of the pursuit of peace. Leadership must reverse the arms race. At least we should pledge no first use. Why? Because first use begets first retaliation. And that’s mutual annihilation. That’s not a rational way out.
No use at all. Let’s think it out and not fight it our because it’s an unwinnable fight. Why hold a card that you can never drop? Let’s give peace a chance.
Leadership. We now have this marvelous opportunity to have a breakthrough with the Soviets. Last year 200,000 Americans visited the Soviet Union. There’s a chance for joint ventures in space– not Star Wars and war arms escalation but a space defense initiative. Let’s build in space together and demilitarize the heavens. There’s a way out.
America, let us expand. When Mr. Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev met there was a big meeting. They represented together one-eighth of the human race. Seven-eighths of the human race was locked out of that room. Most people in the world tonight– half are Asian, one-half of them are Chinese. There are 22 nations in the Middle East. There’s Europe; 40 million Latin Americans next door to us; the Caribbean; Africa– a half-billion people.
Most people in the world today are Yellow or Brown or Black, non-Christian, poor, female, young and don’t speak English in the real world.
This generation must offer leadership to the real world. We’re losing ground in Latin America, Middle East, South Africa because we’re not focusing on the real world. That’s the real world. We must use basic principles, support international law. We stand the most to gain from it. Support human rights; we believe in that. Support self-determination, we’re built on that. Support economic development, you know it’s right. Be consistent and gain our moral authority in the world. I challenge you tonight, my friends, let’s be bigger and better as a Nation and as a Party! (Applause)
We have basic challenges – freedom in South Africa. We have already agreed as Democrats to declare South Africa to be a terrorist state. But don’t just stop there. Get South Africa out of Angola; free Namibia; support the front line states. We must have a new humane human rights consistent policy in Africa.
I’m often asked, “Jesse, why do you take on these tough issues? They’re not very political. We can’t win that way.”
If an issue is morally right, it will eventually be political. It may be political and never be right. Fanny Lou Hamer didn’t have the most votes in Atlantic City, but her principles have outlasted the life of every delegate who voted to lock her out. Rosa Parks did not have the most votes, but she was morally right. Dr. King didn’t have the most votes about the Vietnam War, but he was morally right. If we are principled first, our politics will fall in place. “Jesse, why do you take these big bold initiatives?” A poem by an unknown author went something like this: “We mastered the air, we conquered the sea, annihilated distance and prolonged life, but we’re not wise enough to live on this earth without war and without hate.”
As for Jesse Jackson: “I’m tired of sailing my little boat, far inside the harbor bar. I want to go out where the big ships float, out on the deep where the great ones are. And should my frail craft prove too slight for waves that sweep those billows o’er, I’d rather go down in the stirring fight than drowse to death at the sheltered shore.”
We’ve got to go out, my friends, where the big boats are. (Applause)
And then for our children. Young America, hold your head high now. We can win. We must not lose to the drugs, and violence, premature pregnancy, suicide, cynicism, pessimism and despair. We can win. Wherever you are tonight, now I challenge you to hope and to dream. Don’t submerge your dreams. Exercise above all else, even on drugs, dream of the day you are drug free. Even in the gutter, dream of the day that you will be up on your feet again.
You must never stop dreaming. Face reality, yes, but don’t stop with the way things are. Dream of things as they ought to be. Dream. Face pain, but love, hope, faith and dreams will help you rise above the pain. Use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress, but you keep on dreaming, young America. Dream of peace. Peace is rational and reasonable. War is irrational in this age, and unwinnable.
Dream of teachers who teach for life and not for a living. Dream of doctors who are concerned more about public health than private wealth. Dream of lawyers more concerned about justice than a judgeship. Dream of preachers who are concerned more about prophecy than profiteering. Dream on the high road with sound values.
And then America, as we go forth to September, October, November and then beyond, America must never surrender to a high moral challenge.
Do not surrender to drugs. The best drug policy is a “no first use.” Don’t surrender with needles and cynicism. (Applause) Let’s have “no first use” on the one hand, or clinics on the other. Never surrender, young America. Go forward.
America must never surrender to malnutrition. We can feed the hungry and clothe the naked. We must never surrender. We must go forward.
We must never surrender to inequality. Women cannot compromise ERA or comparable worth. Women are making 60 cents on the dollar to what a man makes. Women cannot buy meat cheaper. Women cannot buy bread cheaper. Women cannot buy milk cheaper. Women deserve to get paid for the work that you do. (Applause) It’s right and it’s fair. (Applause)
Don’t surrender, my friends. Those who have AIDS tonight, you deserve our compassion. Even with AIDS you must not surrender.
In your wheelchairs. I see you sitting here tonight in those wheelchairs. I’ve stayed with you. I’ve reached out to you across our Nation. Don’t you give up. I know it’s tough sometimes. People look down on you. It took you a little more effort to get here tonight. And no one should look down on you, but sometimes mean people do. The only justification we have for looking down on someone is that we’re going to stop and pick them up.
But even in your wheelchairs, don’t you give up. We cannot forget 50 years ago when our backs were against the wall, Roosevelt was in a wheelchair. I would rather have Roosevelt in a wheelchair than Reagan and Bush on a horse. (Applause) Don’t you surrender and don’t you give up. Don’t surrender and don’t give up!
Why I cannot challenge you this way? “Jesse Jackson, you don’t understand my situation. You be on television. You don’t understand. I see you with the big people. You don’t understand my situation.”
I understand. You see me on TV, but you don’t know the me that makes me, me. They wonder, “Why does Jesse run?” because they see me running for the White House. They don’t see the house I’m running from. (Applause)
I have a story. I wasn’t always on television. Writers were not always outside my door. When I was born late one afternoon, October 8th, in Greenville, South Carolina, no writers asked my mother her name. Nobody chose to write down our address. My mama was not supposed to make it, and I was not supposed to make it. You see, I was born of a teen-age mother, who was born of a teen-age mother.
I understand. I know abandonment, and people being mean to you, and saying you’re nothing and nobody and can never be anything.
I understand. Jesse Jackson is my third name. I’m adopted. When I had no name, my grandmother gave me her name. My name was Jesse Burns until I was 12. So I wouldn’t have a blank space, she gave me a name to hold me over. I understand when nobody knows your name. I understand when you have no name.
I understand. I wasn’t born in the hospital. Mama didn’t have insurance. I was born in the bed at [the] house. I really do understand. Born in a three-room house, bathroom in the backyard, slop jar by the bed, no hot and cold running water.
I understand. Wallpaper used for decoration? No. For a windbreaker. I understand. I’m a working person’s person. That’s why I understand you whether you’re Black or White.
I understand work. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I had a shovel programmed for my hand.
My mother, a working woman. So many of the days she went to work early, with runs in her stockings. She knew better, but she wore runs in her stockings so that my brother and I could have matching socks and not be laughed at at school. I understand.
At 3 o’clock on Thanksgiving Day, we couldn’t eat turkey because momma was preparing somebody else’s turkey at 3 o’clock. We had to play football to entertain ourselves. And then around 6 o’clock she would get off the Alta Vista bus and we would bring up the leftovers and eat our turkey– leftovers, the carcass, the cranberries– around 8 o’clock at night. I really do understand.
Every one of these funny labels they put on you, those of you who are watching this broadcast tonight in the projects, on the corners, I understand. Call you outcast, low down, you can’t make it, you’re nothing, you’re from nobody, subclass, underclass; when you see Jesse Jackson, when my name goes in nomination, your name goes in nomination. (Applause)
I was born in the slum, but the slum was not born in me. (Applause) And it wasn’t born in you, and you can make it. (Applause)
Wherever you are tonight, you can make it. Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. Don’t you surrender. Suffering breeds character, character breeds faith. In the end faith will not disappoint.
You must not surrender. You may or may not get there but just know that you’re qualified. And you hold on, and hold out. We must never surrender. America will get better and better.
Keep hope alive. (Applause) Keep hope alive. (Applause) Keep hope alive. On tomorrow night and beyond, keep hope alive! (Applause)
I love you very much. (Applause) I love you very much. (Standing ovation and spontaneous demonstration)
The California Democratic Party (CADEM) is holding its
2026 State Endorsing Convention in San Francisco from Friday, February 20, through Sunday, February 22, 2026, at the Moscone Convention Center. This pivotal gathering focuses on endorsing candidates for the 2026 primary elections, establishing the party platform, and organizing for the upcoming election cycle.
CDP State Convention +2
Key Details and Events (February 20-22, 2026):
Location: Moscone Center West, 800 Howard St., San Francisco.
Theme: “Together, We Win,” highlighting collaboration following the Proposition 50 victory.
Featured Speaker: Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is scheduled to address the convention.
Friday, Feb 20 Highlights:
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM: Credentials Committee Meeting.
– Disturbing reports have revealed a deal between the Pentagon and an Israeli government-owned weapons firm for $210 million in advanced cluster munitions.
3. Tell State Lawmakers to Keep ICE Out of Public Schools
Join us for the second in a new webinar series exploring the intersection of the U.S. military, democracy, world peace, and the climate crisis. Hosted by Third Act Union, Veterans For Peace, and Veterans and Labor for Sensible Priorities, this timely conversation centers the voices of U.S. military veterans confronting unlawful and immoral uses of military power.
Across the United States, anti-war and pro-peace veterans are drawing on their lived military experience to resist rising authoritarianism, oligarchy, and fascism—at home and abroad. Veterans and active-duty personnel are essential to the broader democratic resistance to Trump-era militarism, including illegal orders to deploy troops in U.S. cities, target civilian populations, or escalate wars in the Americas and beyond. As new conflicts unfold—such as war with Venezuela and threats toward Iran, Mexico, Colombia, and Cuba, and the annexation of Greenland—veterans are helping expose the human costs of militarism and the dangers it poses to democratic institutions.
This webinar will explore:
· How veterans confront and reach out to active-duty personnel to help them navigate illegal or immoral orders, including being used to police civilian communities or to carry out extrajudicial violence.
· How militarism, climate catastrophe, and democratic backsliding are deeply intertwined—and what that “existential” relationship means for movements for peace and climate justice.
· How veteran-led organizations are challenging endless war, opposing the normalization of state violence, and redirecting public priorities toward meeting real human needs, including healthcare, housing, food security, education, climate justice, and employment that provides a living wage and economic well-being.
· How non-military allies and organizations can stand in solidarity with troops who resist illegal orders and support veterans working to defend diversity, inclusion, civil liberties, immigrant and refugee communities.
Thank you all for being part of the EJ Task Force as we continue working together to protect the health of Bayview Hunters Point residents by reducing pollution.
3. Wednesday, 6:00pm, Report – SFPD 2025 Use of Military Equipment
In person
SFPD Headquarters 1225 Third St. SF
This will be the second meeting; the first was on Feb. 9th
If anyone can go, it’s an opportunity to raise questions and concerns. Contact John Lindsay Poland at the AFSC (510) 282-8983
Here are some initial information takeaways from the SFPD report, which you can fashion into comments:
SFPD owns 96 machine guns – one of which was used in a police shooting last year -, and plans to acquire more (it doesn’t say how many, at what cost, or why). This is an extreme outlier compared to other agencies, most of which, if they have submachine guns, own a number in the single digits. Among county sheriffs in California, only Los Angeles has more machine guns (220) than SFPD – but LA Sheriff Dept, more than four times as large as SFPD, and is not exactly an agency to emulate.
SFPD also excludes assault rifles from its reporting, though we know it owns more than 200 of them.
The Department used its LRAD once a week in 2025, while it detonated flashbangs 31 times “to de-escalate” (!!) and fired impact projectiles 38 times.
It used breaching equipment – used to blow open doors – 11 times in 2025. This is more than any other department I have seen across the state; the vast majority don’t use this explosive equipment at all.
SFPD wants to buy another BearCat armored vehicle “should it be determined fiscally feasible”. It also plans to get another command & control vehicle, with grant money. It also plans to obtain more launchers for impact projectiles and chemical agents, but it does not say how many it wants to acquire, nor with what funds (as required by AB481).
SFPD has 98 drones, purchased using a private donation, and which it used 1,122 times in 2025 (you’ll see drones referenced often in SFPD’s social media feeds as having been key for detaining a suspect).
Info from John Lindsay Poland
4. Wednesday, 6:30pm – 8:00pm, Fighting Modern McCarthyism: Lessons from Yesterday
Fighting Modern McCarthyism: Lessons from Yesterday McCarthyism never died — it evolved. Today a familiar playbook comes roaring back. A new wave of suppression by the Trump regime adds terrorist-baiting and demands loyalty to every tenet of white supremacy, patriarchy, xenophobia, and transphobia. In this discussion group, we will study the history of resistance to McCarthyism to arm ourselves with strategies for today. Together we will answer: How do we go on the offense against government attacks to our rights and our lives?
Depending on how they’re written, Critical Minerals Agreements can help countries meet shared climate, job creation and sustainable development goals — or they can accelerate exploitative models of resource extraction harmful to workers, communities and the environment.
The Trump administration’s pursuit of new Critical Minerals Agreements has been all about the latter. These deals are designed to grant well-connected billionaires and corporations privileged access to mining and processing operations across the globe, while running roughshod over Indigenous rights, national sovereignty, labor interests and climate justice.
Join this month’s Trade Justice Power Hour for a deep dive on how the critical minerals grab is playing out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and what this frontline case reveals about a broader global scramble for critical minerals, from Greenland to the Asia-Pacific. We’ll explore how these dynamics are shaped by trade policy, corporate power, and geopolitics, and what it will take to build a more just and sustainable clean energy transition.
This month’s presenters include:
–Maurice Carney, co-founder and executive director of the Friends of the Congo;
–Frédéric Mousseau, Policy Director at the Oakland Institute and co-author of Shafted: The Scramble for Critical Minerals in the DRC;
–Mira Rubio, coordinator of the California Trade Justice Coalition and director of CRITICAL MINERALS: Creating a Just & Sustainable Clean Energy Transition.
Host: Trade Justice
6. Thursday, 3:00pm – 5:00pm, Panel: CWA 1104 Educational Division Panel on Working-Class Struggle against Fascism
Following Max Horkheimer’s insight “Whoever is not willing to talk about capitalism should also keep quiet about fascism,” in his latest book Late Fascism, Alberto Toscano writes “Whoever is not willing to talk about anti-capitalism should also keep quiet about anti-fascism.”
In the midst of internal repression, imperial war and anti-worker policies, and attacks on democratic institutions and popular will we witness growing everywhere, many talk about development of fascism and resistance against it. However, what really is fascism and why is working class struggle against it as a class struggle necessary and fundamental? How is what we are facing a class oppression against the working class that needs to be opposed and overcome by working class power? What kind of dangers await us in the upcoming process, including the next elections, and how should the working class develop power for these dangers in the future? How can we create broad solidarity against the roots of these crises in a profit-oriented system that has no care for human life?
(See Indybay for list of panel)
After contributions from our panel, we will have an open discussion on capitalism, fascism, and advancing working-class power. We invite all unionists, workers, and supporters from our union and beyond to this discussion and others in the future to develop class consciousness and strategy together in our current moment.
Join SFCHRP, PRISM and the Defend Migrants Alliance to learn about ICE and the history of border policing in the U.S., how movements across the world have been resisting state repression and what we can do here to protect our communities. We will also be making whistle packets to distribute at local actions, events and around the neighborhood.
Host: SF Committie for Human Rights in the Philippines (SF CHRP)
9. Friday, 7:00pm – 9:00pm, CA Dems for a Free Palestine
Oasis Grill 711 Market St. SF
fellow Democrats and those who care for a free Palestine. Please join us to hear from incredible speakers, have amazing Palestinian food, and learn about the work we can do together to help us advocate for a free Palestine
Speakers:
Anthony Aguilar, Whistleblower and retired Army Lieutenant Colonel
Samer Araabi, Co-founder Arab Resource and Organizing (AROC) Action
Prof. Sang Hea Kil, Advocate and Unjustly Terminated at San Jose State Universit
Join peaceful people from San Francisco Bay communities and all walks of life for a family-friendly, inclusive and peaceful event where we will create a new work of human art together on Ocean Beach.
The exact design for this banner is still being determined, though we do know that the message’s theme (always subject to last-minute changes) will most likely feature the story that refuses to die: EPSTEIN!
We protest Heritage Foundation EVERY MONDAY (Join us!!!!) By admin | September 2, 2025 | Uncategorized Cliff Cash Comedy Premiered Jul 26, 2025 Every Monday at The Heritage Foundation 214 Massachusetts Ave. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza Every Friday at Fox News D.C. 400 N. Capitol St. Washington D.C. 4pm protest 6pm pizza We are... Continue reading →
Milk Club Trans Caucus Meeting Date: Tuesday, April 28 Time: 5-7 PM Location and Zoom Link: Meeting info available to members of the Milk Club Trans Caucus. Please reach out to trans@milkclub.org if you would like to join the Milk Club Trans Caucus.
San Francisco Young Democrats meet with SFDems Chair Nancy Tung Wednesday, April 29th | 2pm Location: SC T-160 (third floor of Student Center) Register The San Francisco Young Democrats at SF State are teaming up with SFDems to make sure their voices are heard. Want to get more plugged into San Francisco... Continue reading →
One Million Rising: Strategic Non-Cooperation to Fight Authoritarianism Virtual Event · Hosted by No Kings Time Wednesdays 8 – 9:30pm EDT Location Virtual event Join from anywhere About this event Across the country, authoritarian forces are getting bolder and more dangerous. Trump and his allies are not hiding their agenda: mass deportations,... Continue reading →
THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2023 AT 2 AM – 4 AM PDT How to create trust in a group? Details Event by Extinction Rebellion Empathy Circles online EMPATHY CAFE Duration: 2 hr Public · Anyone on or off Facebook How to create trust in a group? This is the question that arose in our... Continue reading →
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