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Thom Hartmann Program Jan 27, 2026 Thom’s Daily Take – The Hartmann Report Will we stand with the generations who expanded freedom through resistance and sacrifice or surrender self-government to fear, force, and authoritarian power? America must decide what kind of nation it will become. The written Daily Take: https://hartmannreport.com/p/once-aga… Thom discusses a deeply unsettling pattern in American history: a crisis cycle occurring approximately every 80 years, forcing the nation to redefine itself. This concept, rooted in economic history, is explored through Neil Howe’s “The Fourth Turning,” highlighting how history patterns shape societal evolution. What kind of nation will we become?
“What Alex did that day was pure instinct, pure professional behavior,” NNU President Mary C. Turner tells us. “That’s just what you do when you’re a nurse.“
Medical workers, union members, and veterans gather for an ‘ICE OUT NOW!’ rally and memorial for Alex Pretti outside the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center on January 27, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images
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On Friday, Jan. 23, around 50,000 people in Minneapolis, MN, engaged in a historic mass strike and day of protest to demand an end to ICE terror and President Donald Trump’s federal siege of Minnesota. Then, on Saturday, Jan. 24, an ICE agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, volunteer ICE observer and a registered union nurse who worked for the Veterans Health Administration. In this episode, we speak with Mary C. Turner, a registered nurse and a member of the Council of Presidents of National Nurses United, the largest nurse’s union in the US, which is forcefully calling for the abolition of ICE.
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Alright, well welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and is brought to you in partnership within these Times Magazine and the Real News Network. This show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you. My name is Maximilian Alvarez and I am speaking to you all today with a heart that is both full and broken at the same time. After our last episode with three union organizers in the Twin Cities, we witnessed something truly incredible take place in the state of Minnesota last week, followed by something that was truly horrifying as Thomas Birmingham and Ari Blum MCAT’s report at. In these times, about 50,000 protestors took to the streets in downtown Minneapolis on Friday to demand ice and its thousands of federal agents immediately leave the state and stop brutalizing and killing residents.
And as recently as Tuesday snatching preschoolers, the next morning ice agents responded to Friday’s economic shutdown acts of civil disobedience and uprising in the seemingly only way they know how by beating, shooting, and killing. In this case, it was 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Alex Preti, an ICU nurse who was shot and killed Saturday morning, the Department of Homeland Security claims Preti was armed and Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at the same press conference with Fray that Preti had a legal permit to carry a firearm. O’Hara also told CNN that ICE agents attempted to prevent local police from accessing the scene of the killing Footage posted on social media shows Preti filming a group of federal agents with a cell phone before one agent begins shoving him backwards. Now, I assume that if you are listening to this, you’ve already seen the video of ice agents brutalizing, Preti and other volunteer observers and pepper spraying them before one agent executed Preti on the street firing 10 bullets into his body at point blank range.
I’ve watched it numerous times myself from different angles. I’ve heard the blatant lies from the Trump regime and right-wing media about what they say happened. And I’ve concluded with my eyes that they are lies as you should. I saw Preddy holding a phone that he was using to record agents in his final moments of life, not holding or brandishing a gun as the regime claims, I saw agents tackle Preti and remove his legally licensed firearm before another agent fired shot after shot into his back. I saw those same agents leave his unmoving body there in the Cold Street while people all around screamed in horror. I know what I saw and you do too. I need you to trust your eyes. Do not believe the lies in response to the murder of their nursing colleague, Alex Preti, national Nurses United, the nation’s largest union and professional association of registered nurses with more than 225,000 members issued the following statement, the nation’s nurses who make it their mission to care for and save human lives are horrified and outraged that immigration agents have once again committed cold-blooded murder of a public observer who posed no threat to them.
This time they have executed one of our fellow nurses, Alex Preti, who saved Veterans’ Lives as an intensive care unit RN for the Veterans Health Administration. He not only advocated for his patients inside the VA as a member of American Federation of Government employees A FGE, but also took his advocacy to the streets to stand up for his community as nurses do we demand justice and accountability for his murder. ICE and all related immigration enforcement agencies have repeatedly shown through their violence, terror and lawlessness that they pose a dire public health threat to the entire country. In all our communities, ICE agents have been kidnapping, hardworking people, mothers, fathers and children, and now murdered a registered nurse, one of the most trusted professions in the country. Nurses demand the immediate abolition of ice and quote Now as we speak, national Nurses United is engaged in a week long series of actions to quote honor Preti and all who have been murdered by ice, as well as demand that Congress vote to immediately abolish this violent, racist and lawless agency that poses a dire public health threat to all of our communities.
And that is what we are covering on the show. This week on Wednesday, I will be on the ground in Washington DC to cover one of N U’S Week of Action events and I will be speaking with union members for the second installment of our two-part episode this week. And in part one, today’s episode, I’m truly honored to be joined by Mary C. Turner, a registered nurse and a member of the Council of Presidents of National Nurses. United Turner is also a member and former president of the Minnesota Nurses Association serving in that role from 2015 to 2023. President Turner, thank you so much for joining us today on the show. I really appreciate it. And I want to start by asking the blunt, how are you and your fellow nurses processing the horrific ice shooting and killing of your colleague Alex Preti? Right now,
Mary C. Turner:
The first thing I’m going to say is the nursing profession is very unique in the sense that you injure one, you injure all 3 million of us, just how we feel. Okay. And so they pick the wrong profession to pick on. Okay? And I’ve had nurses calling me anger, despair, fear. We have fear in our hospitals now because we have ice agents that are coming down the halls. Our biggest fear is that they would do some kind of an action and from what we’re witnessing on in the streets, it would be no surprise to me if they would try to come in and take our patients right out from their beds. And our nurses are desperately wanting to know what do we do in these situations? We have black and brown nurses that are afraid to even come to work along with other hospital, our ancillary services.
And the thing is, is that our hospitals are packed. It is kind of like pandemic conditions and it’s made worse because you have so many people who are sheltering at home that aren’t getting what comes to my mind. Picture somebody with dialysis afraid to go to dialysis, picture that expected mom about to give birth and afraid to go to the hospital. I had one community member here say, we’re going to start to find dead bodies and if not dead bodies, we are definitely going to be finding people that are going to be coming to the hospital and they’re going to go right to our ICUs because they will have been too far gone. So that’s the biggest concern among the doctors, the doctor population, all of us, all of us healthcare workers is this delay of care that people are experiencing and how it makes everything so much worse for them.
We are a profession that does no harm. We’re the profession that comforts and cares. We are the profession that are the caretakers of society. We are not meant to have to deal with the fear of caring for people. And we all know in our world, number one, if they come storming our hallways demanding information, our number one priority is HIPAA privacy laws. That is number one. That and protecting our patients at all costs. And so we have a lot of nurses that have a lot of questions about just what do we do and how will our hospitals protect us? What resources are we going to have if we have to deal with things like this? I’m fortunate at my own hospital, they’ve got central command that we can call on at any time to deal with this so that nurses don’t have to deal with it. My only hope is that every hospital and every healthcare facility has the same things in place.
Maximillian Alvarez:
I want to drill down on that a little more for a second because as I read in the introduction, national Nurses United forcefully called this week for the abolition of ice in a statement following prey’s death. But as you mentioned, it’s not just what happened to Preti. We have been reading and seeing terrifying and surreal reports of federal agents entering hospitals and clinics trying to detain and deport immigrants. And I wanted to just ask if we could talk about that a little more for a second. Can you describe for our viewers how ICE and DHS and the policies of this administration are impacting the medical field right now? The people who work there and your patients?
Mary C. Turner:
Well, like I told you, I said the fact that we have nurses that are afraid to come to work, they’re afraid to do their sworn duty, to care for the people, to care for our patients, they’re afraid that right there, there’s something wrong with that. And I would say that with any healthcare worker that is black or brown, well obviously now it doesn’t really make any difference, does it? I mean, because to be honest, labor leaders like myself are just as much at risk because this government does not have any time for labor unions. Let’s be honest about that. And so with Renee and now Alex, the world knows now that nobody is safe. And then on top of it, I talked about how our hospitals are getting filled and the acuity is getting higher and higher, kind of like I said during the pandemic. Now you add to that every bed full workloads, nurses not showing up to work, and then add to that stress, fear, anger. So conditions that are not optimal are now made even worse because of all the emotional strain and stress that is now put on us.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And for listeners, you guys have heard the interviews that we’ve done with healthcare workers at the VA specifically earlier this year. You’ve heard from these frontline workers talking about the immense stress that they are already under in an understaffed, under-resourced healthcare agency that is facing additional massive cuts from the federal government that has been facing direct assaults on the very right for federally employed workers to be in a union. And now those same workers have seen one of their colleagues be murdered in cold blood on the street. So this is what we’re talking about here. None of this is happening in a vacuum. These are crises that are compounding on top of each other. And I want to return to that in a second and sort of close with that. But while we’re kind of on the topic, I did just want to ask if you could tell our listeners more about what the union NNU has been doing in response to the killing of Alex Preti. Could you tell folks more about the week of action, the demands that the union is making right now?
Mary C. Turner:
Right. So I was very, very happy and proud that we right away put out the statement that you read. And thank you for doing that. We were swift with our statement and our demands. And here’s the thing is that this week, and this is for the nurses and for all healthcare workers, is these vigils that here in Minnesota, they’re going on in towns that I didn’t even know they were going on. But these vigils, this is for people to take a break and try to find some comfort in each other in a very quiet, positive way. And so we are sponsoring these vigils. There’s going to be one here in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Nurses Association is doing one at seven o’clock in the evening on Wednesday at the site. And that’s just an example of vigils that are going to be going on. So I encourage anyone, and it doesn’t have to just be nurses to try to get to these vigils because this is, hopefully it gives a little bit of healing environment into a world God mad.
And then the second thing and more important is at the end of the week, I’m not quite sure when that vote is coming up, but I hear at the end of the week the appropriation bill for Homeland Security, we have got to, everyone across this country needs to call their senators Republican democrat, it doesn’t matter and we need to make sure that we are telling them to vote. No, not one more dollar goes to ice. They have proven that again, they were what founded in 2003 or something like that after nine 11, and maybe they had a purpose back then, but they have proven time and again here in Minnesota that they are lawless. They have no place As a federal institution, I am confident that with our state and federal that have been established for decades, institutions that we can get along without ice. And so we are demanding that gets pulled out of that appropriation bill because I think at this point they’re lumping it all together kind of thing. Pull it out and vote, note to the appropriation bill and then pull that out and just abolish it. That is what we’re calling on, but we need everyone. It already passed the house so we can’t do anything about that. But boy, we can sure be calling our senators.
Maximillian Alvarez:
This is of course funding that’s coming on top of the tens of billions that ice received after the passage of the big bill last year. And ISIS now become the most heavily funded law enforcement agency in the entire country. It has more resources than most armies around the world. And we’re seeing what that looks like in our streets right now. And of course, president Turner, as we said, none of this is happening in a vacuum and I want to bring it back down to the shop floor level because as we speak, over 30,000 nurses are on strike in California and Hawaii. 15,000 nurses have been on strike in New York City for the last two weeks. Like healthcare workers, as you mentioned, continued to be squeezed and exploited and overburdened while working. People in general are struggling amidst a cost of living crisis in this country. And I wanted to just ask, since this is a show where we speak with working people about their lives and their jobs and everything in between, what is it like to live and work as a professional nurse in these times? What issues are you and your fellow nurses facing at work and frankly, how do you continue to do your jobs when it feels like the entire world is falling apart?
Mary C. Turner:
The first thing I’d like to point out is that you talked about all the funding that came to ice. We do need to acknowledge that 1 trillion was cut from healthcare either from Medicaid, Medicare, the A, CA, they’re not being at people’s premiums. And so the cost of healthcare for our patients has gone up where they can’t afford it. That kind of leads into before they started rowing and terrorizing our people in the streets, we were already having a situation where people were not coming to the hospital because they couldn’t afford it. And thus what was happening, like I’ve said at another event, I said, they are brought in when they’re found down. That’s how the stories are starting to more and more starting to go when you take report as an ICU nurse, patient found down and that meant that they were not able to come for preventive care and they were found in some kind of crisis and they were hauled into the emergency room and right to the ICUs, the most expensive care that you can receive.
Okay, so let’s establish that. That’s where a lot of that money came from is right out of the health and welfare of all of our people and our patients. Once again, when they do come in, the acuity is so much higher, but we don’t take any less patients. In fact, we’ll be called on to take more because if we have nurses that are afraid to come to work and can I blame them and now that they’re entering our hospitals, that used to be a sacred place where you could feel safe and that’s not the case anymore. It’s one thing when you’re in the environment and you’re working in your ICU and you’re doing all the jobs that you’re used to. Yeah, it’s high stress and all that, but it’s part of the job, but god darn it, to sit and add the stress of, oh boy on my shift, will someone come down the hall and try to take me away?
Will somebody try to come and take my patient? What will I do? Will I stand in front of them? Will I try to protect them? And now like Alex, if I do that, do I run the risk of being shot? I mean seriously. These are all things that could run through people’s mind. Now that we have seen a fellow nurse doing exactly that on the street corner and on the street helping somebody, and may I say that that is an instinctive reaction, especially in an ICU nurse because we are used to leaping to the moment in a crisis. And so it is very natural. I do it all the time. When I was visiting the site the other day, I saw somebody fall, my first instinct was to go to that person. See, we just do. And so what Alex did that day was pure instinct, pure professional behavior. That was just what you do when you’re a nurse. But now we run the risk. Now we’re going to second guess it. So we’ve got instinct taking over, but here we are second guessing in our mind, but what will happen if we do this that’s intolerable to be denied, the ability to be denied the right to care for our patients intolerable? Well,
Maximillian Alvarez:
I think that was beautifully and powerfully put and I know I have to let you go in a minute and I just wanted to with the final minute I have you ask if you had any final words on that to our listeners because as dark as this past week has been, it has also been filled with light including Alex Preti putting himself in harm’s way and ultimately losing his life to stand up to evil and to fight for good and to do what he could to take care of others. We saw that with our own eyes. We saw medical workers joined the tens of thousands of Minnesotans who marched through the freezing cold in a general strike that shook the country. I wanted to ask if you had any final thoughts you wanted to share with fellow nurses, fellow workers and neighbors in our country about what we can take away from the light that we saw from our fellow workers this past week and not just the darkness that we are all feeling in our hearts right now.
Mary C. Turner:
What I want the people to take away is that nurses will be behind you to defend you. We will be alongside of you to advocate for you. And if need be, we will be in front of you to protect you. Nurses will never give up what we do best. We will never give up the right to care for our community. We are the caretakers of the community. We’re the caretakers of the people. We hold that right and that honor with great pride and that was so evident in the actions of Alex on Saturday. He epitomized what every nurse, what we are all about. And that’s why I say, I started this off with saying they messed with the wrong profession. You do this to one and you harm all 3 million of us across this country and we do not forget, but just be assured people, we don’t forget you. We will continue. Everything that comes their way is not going to stop us. Nothing will stop us from doing what we do best. And that is give care and love to our patients. That’s what we do. That’s what we’ll always do.
Maximillian Alvarez:
President Turner, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. All right, gang, that’s going to wrap things up for us today. I want to thank our guest, Mary C. Turner, a registered nurse and a member of the Council of Presidents of National Nurses United. And of course, I want to thank you all for listening and I want to thank you for caring. Stay tuned for our next episode where I’ll be speaking with more union members from nnn, U’S Week of Action Rally in Washington DC this week. And in the meantime, please go explore all the great work that we’re doing at the Real News Network where we do grassroots journalism that lifts up the voices and stories from the front lines of struggle. Sign up for the real new newsletter so you never miss a story. Follow our social media accounts and YouTube channel and help us do more work like this by going to the real news.com/donate and becoming a supporter today. I promise you guys, it really makes a difference. I’m Maximillian Alvarez, take care of yourselves and please take care of each other. Solidarity forever.
Editor-in-Chief Ten years ago, I was working 12-hour days as a warehouse temp in Southern California while my family, like millions of others, struggled to stay afloat in the wake of the Great Recession. Eventually, we lost everything, including the house I grew up in. It was in the years that followed, when hope seemed irrevocably lost and help from above seemed impossibly absent, that I realized the life-saving importance of everyday workers coming together, sharing our stories, showing our scars, and reminding one another that we are not alone. Since then, from starting the podcast Working People—where I interview workers about their lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles—to working as Associate Editor at the Chronicle Review and now as Editor-in-Chief at The Real News Network, I have dedicated my life to lifting up the voices and honoring the humanity of our fellow workers.
It’s a commonly repeated statistic that the US military is the world’s largest institutional polluter, but what exactly does that mean?
The quest to find a real answer to that question led journalist and documentary filmmaker Abby Martin and her husband and co-director Mike Prysner on a five-year journey from defense contractor conferences and international climate gatherings to the Rim of the Pacific military training exercises and the fight against the construction of a military base in Okinawa that would fill in its iconic Oura Bay.
The result is Earth’s Greatest Enemy, released this year independently through Martin and Prysner’s own Empire Files, with editing by Taylor Gill and an original score by Anahedron. The film uses personal narrative, research, investigative reporting, interviews, and live footage to detail all the ways in which the Pentagon poisons the planet, including greenhouse gas emissions, the ecocide of war, and the toxins left behind long after the fighting has stopped.”When you combine all of this, it is completely undeniable that this force that is upheld by extreme violence is the greatest threat to all living things on Earth,” Martin told Common Dreams.
World’s Largest Polluter?
RIMPAC training exercises are shown in a still from Earth’s Greatest Enemy. (Image via Empire Files)
Toward the beginning of the film, Martin sets out to explain how the Pentagon can count as the world’s largest institutional polluter, and why the numbers behind that fact actually undersell its impact.
It turns out, Martin told Common Dreams, that this statement is only based on the amount of oil the US military purchases on paper, which comes to 270,000 barrels per day. This puts its emissions at 55 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, more than 150 countries.
This itself is a staggering amount of carbon pollution.
As Martin explains in the film: “It would take the average American driver over 40 years to burn as much fuel as a single flight of a Boeing Pegasus. The US flies more than 600 of these tankers.”
“You have to look at the military as actually the institution that’s actually keeping the fossil fuel infrastructure in place through brutality and violence.”
But it’s also only the tip of the melting iceberg. Through an interview with scientist Stuart Parkinson, Martin reveals how that 55 million keeps ballooning when considering life cycle emissions from military equipment and from the equipment purchased by NATO allies, projected to reach 295 million metric tons by 2028, or more than half of all countries. And that figure excludes the use of military equipment in war, or the emissions from reconstructing cities leveled by US-made bombs.
In one particularly candid interview, a major general tells Martin that it’s great to develop alternative energy sources, “but let’s not walk away from what fuels today’s national security, which is oil. You have to have it.”
And until something is developed that can completely replace oil, “I think you need to keep the alternatives in check,” he says.
Statements like these give the lie to the idea that the US can have a “green military empire,” Martin said.
They also show how difficult it is to separate the US military’s carbon footprint from that of the fossil fuel industry itself.
“Everything has really been wrapped up into securing the fossil fuel, building the infrastructure for fossil fuel, and maintaining that infrastructure empire in order to maintain a fossil fuel economy,” she told Common Dreams. “So you have to look at the military as actually the institution that’s actually keeping the fossil fuel infrastructure in place through brutality and violence.”
‘Human Detritus’
A helmet and dog tag are seen in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in a still from the film Earth’s Greatest Enemy. (Image via Empire Files)
The film also makes clear that carbon pollution isn’t the only kind of pollution the military generates.
“Once you get into the research, you realize every stone unturned is an entire other documentary because it’s not just emissions, it’s the totality of pollution that the military is emitting on a daily basis, the dumping of toxic waste, the legacy contamination, that alone is still killing people every day,” Martin said.
The film spends much of its run time digging into the landfill of military waste, from melted down pucks of plastic dumped off Navy boats and unused munitions exploded in the desert to decades of water contamination at Camp Lejeune, the 26 million marine mammals the US Navy is permitted to harm or kill over five years of training, and the more than 250,000 bullets left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan for every person killed.
Martin said that almost every fact or anecdote she unearthed surprised her.
“We’re fighting for service members and every living person on Earth, because we are all victims of this.”
“No matter what you think you know, it’s worse. It’s actually worse because of how big it is and how every face is a story, every victim is a story,” she said.
One of the most devastating stories comes at the film’s beginning, as viewers spend time with Lavon Johnson, an Iraq War veteran who once starred in a US Army commercial and is now living on Veterans Row, a stretch of tents bearing American flags lined up outside the Veterans Affairs hospital in Brentwood, Los Angeles. “My life is so fucked!” he declares as he lifts his hands from the piano he furiously plays despite the nerve damage caused by exposure to hydraulic fluid while in the Army.
In the next scene, viewers see the camp being demolished by police, juxtaposed with images of war, pollution, and environmental destruction, such as soldiers breaking down doors or dumping trash off of boats, oil pump jacks working, and beachside homes collapsing into a rising tide.
Martin said she was inspired to open the film with Johnson because of a letter that late Iraq War veteran Tomas Young wrote to former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney before he died, referring to himself and other victims of the invasion as “human detritus your war has left behind.”
“That always stuck with me, that line, ‘the human detritus,’” Martin told Common Dreams. “And that is exactly what they do to veterans. That is exactly what they do to veterans… they’re churned up and spit out. They’re the cannon fodder of the system. And for what?”
Prysner is an Iraq veteran who spoke out against the war, and Martin is very clear that veterans are not the target of the pairs’ critique.
“This isn’t about service members,” she said. “This isn’t about hating the military. This is about accountability and justice for them. We’re fighting for service members and every living person on Earth, because we are all victims of this.”
The demolition of Johnson’s camp cut through with clips of war and weather disaster illustrates this point, and could serve as a sort of thesis for the film, showing that the US military ultimately turns everything it touches into detritus, including, if it’s not stopped, the planet itself.
“Everything on Earth is in Lavon’s tent,” Martin said.
People march against US militarism at COP26 in Glasgow, in a still from Earth’s Greatest Enemy. (Image via Empire Files)
This sense of connection is ultimately why Martin decided to keep Earth’s Greatest Enemy as a two-hour feature documentary rather than pivoting to a documentary series, despite the fact that, the more she dug, the more she realized “it could be 10 documentaries.”
She also ran into roadblocks when seeking Hollywood distribution. While environmentalist distributors would praise the film and compare it to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, they also said frankly, “You’re never going to be able to get anyone to buy this stuff.”
But, Martin said, “I was so committed to making a movie because movies were what radicalized me,” citing inspiration from films like The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, War Made Easy, and Michael Moore’s filmography.
Ultimately, her stubbornness paid off.
“After we educate everyone, I hope to decommission the military empire.”
“It shows that everything from ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to Gaza to the climate, that everything is connected,” she said. “Veterans, soldiers, the Indigenous people on the receiving end of this. If you care about cold water and good air, you can’t walk away from this not being impacted. And that was the goal. The goal is to lock people in and explain the totality and to bring you down to the depths of hell.”
She added: “We have to understand those depths, and you can’t get that with a 20-minute segment. You just can’t. You have to go through the pain of all the victims in this community and come out the other side empowered with the truth and the resolve that we have to change this.”
Change is a large part of Martin’s motivation for making the film, by educating people about the scope of the military’s destructive force and connecting them into a broader coalition.
Martin speaks in the film about coming to political consciousness and beginning her career as a journalist during the Iraq War, meeting Prysner through their shared opposition to war and empire, and developing “profound climate anxiety” following the birth of the pairs’ first child. She lamented that the climate and anti-imperialist movements have been largely siloed over the past two decades, though that is beginning to change.
Through local screenings, she said she wanted to “try to build the environmental movement with the anti-war movement together because… even though the consciousness is expanding, it’s not happening fast enough. And we are simply out of the luxury of time.”
The sense of urgency has only increased with President Donald Trump’s second term. While the film does not cover this period, it points to many developments that have shaped the past 12 months, including Trump’s claim that he attackedVenezuela for oil, his imperialist push to controlGreenland, and his deployment of ICE to terrorize US cities.
Toward the end of the movie, Martin includes a segment on the militarization of US policing and warns that “this is our system’s big plan for the climate crisis.” She also films a panel on “Domain Awareness and Air Superiority in the Arctic” in which the generals speaking tell US companies they have an “open invitation” to experiment in Alaska.
“We know what they want the Arctic for, and it’s to pillage every last drop,” Martin said. “So if environmental organizations are not thinking this together, we have to do it for them. We have to do it for them quickly.”
So far, she has seen encouraging signs, with several Sierra Club chapters stepping up to host screenings and enthusiasm from the mainstream environmental groups, parks departments, and other city officials she has invited to attend.
But education is not her only goal.
“After we educate everyone, I hope to decommission the military empire,” Martin said.
For Martin, that doesn’t mean not having a military for self-defense, but rather decommissioning the 800 or so bases the US military maintains around the world and transforming the infrastructure into something that could help local communities in a climate-friendly way. It also means accountability for harm caused and redirecting military spending toward basic needs like housing and healthcare, and certainly not giving the Pentagon another $600 billion as Trump desires.
While that may seem like an impossible task given the current political climate, Martin maintains a sense of revolutionary optimism, encouraged by the global mobilization against the genocide in Gaza and the way that people are increasingly seeing the links between the multiple crises and struggles around the globe.
“There’s so many of us,” Martin told Common Dreams. “We care about the planet. We have a vested stake in life. And that’s our vision.”
“It’s like they have a vision of death and destruction for profit,” she continued. “Our vision is life, and we have to fight for it with every fiber of our being. And let this movie assist you however you can do that.”
To attend a screening of Earth’s Greatest Enemy, see the schedule here. To host a screening of your
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A third No Kings nationwide protest has been scheduled, US organizers announced on Wednesday.
The official No Kings Coalition website revealed that the next day of protest will take place on Saturday, March 28, with a flagship rally set to take place in Minnesota’s Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The coalition said that the third edition of the No Kings protest is being planned in response to the Trump administration’s “escalation in Minnesota,” where federal immigration enforcement agents have so far killed two local residents: Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three children, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse.
“The Trump regime is doubling down on fear and force to intimidate communities and silence dissent,” said Ezra Levin, co-executive director of Indivisible, a key organizer of No Kings events. “What we are seeing in Minnesota is a tragic example of that, with immigrant families and Black and brown communities being terrorized. From Alex Pretti to Renee Good to the tens of thousands showing up in subzero weather, we are also seeing a massive movement of brave people standing up for their neighbors and against this regime.”
But while the main event for No Kings 3 will be held in Minnesota, organizers emphasized that the effects of the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrant communities are being felt across the country.
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, said that teachers all over the US are seeing their classrooms dwindle in size as students are increasingly fearful of being picked up by federal agents if they leave their homes.
“What we are seeing instead is a stunning lack of humanity,” Pringle said. “Absences are rising, mental health needs are spiking, and trauma is being injected into classrooms nationwide—harming students of every background and immigration status.”
Robert Weissman and Lisa Gilbert, co-presidents of Public Citizen, said that President Donald Trump’s actions on immigration were just one part of a broader authoritarian agenda that must be resisted.
“Trump’s authoritarianism, grift, and pro-oligarchy agenda is making our country less healthy, free, and just,” they said. “As [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents invade cities and towns, targeting and harassing Brown, Black, and Asian people because of the color of their skin, brutalizing immigrants, arresting small children, pepper spraying protesters, killing people in detention and on the street, Americans everywhere must peacefully pour into the streets and loudly and say we refuse to live in a kingdom ruled by a wannabe dictator.”
Bishop William J. Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach, said that demonstrators at the event shouldn’t just be thinking about how to resist the Trump administration, but how to build a better nation after he inevitably leaves office.
“Americans from every walk of life have come together and built a movement that says, ‘We will not bow,’” said Barber. “At this moment, we must say resistance is essential, but it’s not enough. We’re going to build power loving forward together to reconstruct an America where all of us can thrive.”
The No Kings 2 demonstrations, which took place on October 18 and drew an estimated 5 million protesters, were among the largest one-day demonstrations in US history.
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“ICE-free zones” have been approved and considered in a variety of other Bay Area cities, including Berkeley.Lucy Blanchard | Staff
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to ban U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, from entering county-owned buildings at their meeting Tuesday.
“ICE-free zones” have been approved and considered in a variety of other Bay Area cities, including Berkeley, which prompted the city manager to identify city-owned buildings in October.
The proposal comes amid heightened ICE activity across the country, including in Minneapolis where an ICE officer killed intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday. The council adjourned in the memories of Pretti, Renee Good and Keith Porter, all of whom were killed by ICE officers in the past month.
“We are in a true crisis, not only in protecting our immigrant community, but also in a crisis in the rule of law and upholding our constitution,” said supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, who authored the proposals.
The resolution will be enforced by physical barriers and signage to prohibit ICE officers from entering county-owned or county-controlled buildings, parking lots and spaces.
In addition, it will create requirements that county staff report federal attempts to use county property for immigration enforcement operations to the County Administrator’s Office, County Counsel, Public Safety Offices and the Board of Supervisors.
“In the name of all the immigrants, we beg you to approve this proposal to create (ICE) free zones in the county of Alameda,” said one public commenter in Spanish.
The resolution received an outpour of support, with more than 50 public commenters backing it.
Multiple public commenters urged the board to go further with the resolution, one person stating “this is the least you could do.”
“If you were getting targeted by masked people who have been breaking the law, would signs and gates be enough to make you feel safe?” said one public commenter. “We can do better than signage. Our vulnerable communities need protection.”
In addition, multiple public commenters urged the board to oppose the reopening of the construction of an immigrant detention center in Dublin, which is federally owned.
A number of faith organizations also spoke during public comment in support of the resolution, including faith leaders who went to Minneapolis last week to protest the ICE enforcement of President Donald Trump’s administration.
“(I’m here) to stand up for the rule of law, which seems to be completely ignored, if not segregated, by our federal government right now,” said the Rev. Eric Meter at the Starr King Unitarian Universalist Church of Hayward.
Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez noted that the sheriff’s department would be unable to prevent ICE from making arrests on public county property.
“I want to make sure our community knows the expectations. I don’t want them to think you step into this area and there’s a line that (ICE) can’t enter,” Sanchez said in the meeting.
Additionally, Sanchez said she is committed to ensuring that Alameda County is safe for all and anyone who violates state law will be held accountable.
Protesters at a demonstration Friday, Jan. 23, 2025, outside the Graduate by Hilton hotel near UC Berkeley. Credit: Karen Hughes
The fatal shooting of Veterans Affairs nurse Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 by federal agents has sparked outrage from many Americans, even while Trump administration officials have attempted to claim — in defiance of the video evidence — that the deadly use of force was justified.
In Berkeley and the East Bay, the reaction from community leaders has been one of outrage and opposition to the continuing mass deportation operation, led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which set the stage for Pretti’s killing.
The Berkeley City Council adopted a resolution Tuesday night that demands “an end to ICE and CBP surges in Minneapolis and across the country,” and calls on federal lawmakers to abolish ICE as part of a wider restructuring of the Department of Homeland Security.
Two other American citizens were killed in the weeks before Pretti. Renee Good was shot by an ICE agent on Jan. 7, and Keith Porter was shot by an off-duty ICE agent on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles. The latest protests follow a wave of demonstrations that took place earlier this month after Good’s killing.
Two other people have been killed by federal immigration agents since September: Silverio Villegas González, a father originally from Mexico and working as a cook in Chicago, was shot, reportedly while trying to flee, and Isaias Sanchez Barboza, a Mexican citizen, was killed in Rio Grande City, Texas, while agents were detaining him.
Berkeley expresses support for leaders and people of Minnesota
The Berkeley resolution, which was approved unanimously, states that the City Council supports local leaders and “all the people of Minnesota who are peacefully protesting the lawless surge of ICE and CBP agents in their state, which is undermining public safety, harming and killing local residents, and taking an immense economic and psychological toll on residents.”
The resolution also calls for a long list of changes to immigration enforcement nationally, including an end to federal agents wearing masks, the firing of Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino and White House adviser Stephen Miller, and for the officers who killed Pretti and others “to be held fully responsible for their actions by the judicial system.”
“As the first sanctuary city in the country, the city Berkeley stands in solidarity with Minnesota and the Twin Cities, and will do everything it can to support them in protecting their communities against this unprecedented federal intrusion,” Mayor Adena Ishii said at Tuesday’s council meeting.
On social media, Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas called ICE and Customs and Border Patrol’s operations “lawless violence” and “sickening.”
“These agencies must be held accountable and they must leave the Twin Cities and all of our communities immediately,” she wrote. Bas also called on Alameda County residents to support county plans to create “ICE-free zones” and a response plan in case agents conduct similar operations here.
Rep. Lateefah Simon issued a statement hours after Pretti was killed, saying she supports Senate Democrats who are planning to vote against a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. She voted against the bill when it was before the House.
“ICE is killing American citizens,” Simon said. “Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem have enabled a system of abuse of government power, militarism, and unchecked state violence where communities are treated as disposable.”
Simon was in Minneapolis earlier this month for a hearing, “Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump’s Deadly Assault on Minnesota,” where she heard from residents about the impacts ICE and CBP operations have had on local communities.
People protest against ICE at a demonstration in North Berkeley on Tuesday. Credit: Matthew Raifman
Anti-ICE protesters hold demonstrations in the East Bay
Residents have held several protests against the Trump administration’s mass-deportation campaign around the East Bay over the past week.
The day before Pretti was killed, people protested outside two Berkeley schools and in the Southside neighborhood. An estimated 1,500 people rallied the same day in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood with the message “ICE out of everywhere,” according to KTVU. Unions including UNITE HERE Local 2, UAW 4811, UAW 2320, the California Nurses Association, UC American Federation of Teachers 1474, Oakland Education Association, the Committee of Interns and Residents, SEIU, and the Alameda Labor Council endorsed the rally.
The National Nurses Union called for a week of action in honor of Pretti, who worked as an ICU nurse in a Minneapolis VA hospital. “ICE messed with the wrong profession,” the union wrote in a statement. “We nurses will fight to abolish ICE and bring about a vision for a healthy society based on nurses’ values of caring, compassion, and community.” One nurse protest took place at Oakland’s Kaiser Medical Center on Monday.
People also demonstrated in North Berkeley and at Emeryville’s Huchiun Park on Tuesday. And organizers have called for a rally against ICE operations at Sproul Plaza on the UC Berkeley campus at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Before joining The Oaklandside as News Editor, Darwin BondGraham was a freelance investigative reporter covering police and prosecutorial misconduct. He has reported on gun violence for The Guardian and… More by Darwin BondGraham
Nico Savidge is Berkeleyside’s associate editor, and has covered city hall since 2021. He has reported on transportation, law enforcement, politics, education and college sports for the San Jose Mercury… More by Nico Savidge
This Friday, January 30, workers and students in the Bay will join thousands of people across the United States organizing walk outs to disrupt business as usual until ICE is out of our cities, towns and neighborhoods.
Now is the decisive moment. After 2+ years of our government committing a genocide, the imperial boomerang is upon us. What happened in Minnesota can and will happen here in the Bay Area if we do not act.
While we as a small business can’t shut down, as our immigrant team’s livelihood depends on your patronage, we will continue to hold space for refuge, gathering, strategizing, organizing, and disrupting status quo.
To all those thinking of walking out and taking to the streets, let us be your deciding factor. We’ll be serving free coffee from 1130-1 pm for anyone heading to Delores Park. Come be in community and let us nourish you.
From the Twin Cities to Falasteen, stop the fascist death machine.
Lizzy & the Triggermen Jul 24, 2017 Update #2: Wow, overwhelmed by the recent love for this video! For those who want to support our music, you can purchase it directly on our website (link below). FYI, “When That Man Is Dead and Gone” is on our recent album, Live at Joe’s Pub. Huge thanks to all of who recently purchased it! We are in the process of working on our new album, which has plenty more tunes with this vibe 😉 https://lizzyandthetriggermen.com/store Update #1: here’s the released track in case anyone would like. I like this take even better 😉 https://open.spotify.com/track/6jcm3o… In 1941, Irving Berlin wrote a powerful protest song about Hitler. It’s only been recorded a few times – most memorably by the incredible Al Bowlly (who, tragically, was killed in a Nazi airstrike only 2 weeks after recording it). Our Lizzy & the Triggermen arrangement is by the amazing Dan Barrett (with lots of loving homage to the Bowlly version). We did this in a live take. Vocal: Lizzy Shaps Trombone/Arrangement: Dan Barrett Alto Sax: Nate Ketner Clarinet: Brian Clancy* Trumpet: Corey Gemme Drums: Gareth Price Bass: Nick Ornelas Piano: Chris Dawson Guitar: Luca Pino Violin: Benedikt Brydern *subbing for Jim Jedeikin Filmed by: Rich Rosen and Stefan Silvers Recorded by: Thomas Cassetta at the Village Recorder Produced by: Zach Sinick Special thanks to our amazing Indiegogo patrons for making these videos possible, Lauren Shell, Robin, everyone at the Village Recorder esp Jeff for the cookies ;)! For more info about Lizzy & the Triggermen – visit our website www.lizzyandthetriggermen.com For info on shows like our FB page: www.facebook.com/lizzyandthetriggermen Or email: lizzyandthetriggermen@gmail.com
In 2025, millions of Americans came together in nonviolent protest to oppose the growing authoritarian actions of the Trump administration and affirm that this nation belongs to its people, not to kings. Since then, people have continued to rise up nonviolently against the Trump administration’s ongoing brutality and abuses of power, including the latest escalation in Minnesota. The No Kings Coalition is activating an immediate and ongoing nationwide digital organizing effort leading up to our next mass mobilization on March 28, including a flagship event in the Twin Cities.
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On October 18, more than 7 million of us rose up at more than 2,700 events in all 50 states, DC, and cities worldwide to say: America has no kings, and the power belongs to the people. Now, our task is to stay vigilant, stay united, and continue to push back.Play
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.
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 →
