The nice thing about Donald Trump bluntly stating that he wants to rig the midterms is that this makes it impossible to ignore him.
Rigging a democracy isn’t easy… at least not if you want to be subtle about it. Just ask Republicans, who have been playing the voter suppression long game for decades. Like a grandmaster slowly moving chess pieces into position, they put in place one policy after another to disenfranchise people unlikely to vote for them.
We could go on and on and on with examples from a variety of GOP-led states. Once Republicans get into power anywhere, you can be virtually assured that some kind of anti-democracy bill is going to get passed to make sure they stay that way.
But, like we said, it takes a long time if you don’t want to make it too obvious what you are up to.
First, you have to win an election in a census year; then you gerrymander the state legislature to secure a veto-proof majority, get anti-democracy judges onto state supreme courts, pass legislation to secure your interests, go through litigation, block ballot initiatives that expand voting rights, etc.
Donald Trump, however, isn’t subtle, and he is too old and in too much legal jeopardy to play the long game.
That is why he isn’t shy about making it very clear that he wants to rig the midterms to maintain the GOP majorities in Congress.
And that’s a good thing (not his plan to steal an election, of course, but rather, that he is saying it out loud) because it gives people time to prepare.
Just as importantly, nobody can pretend that it isn’t happening.
Take Trump’s appearance on the podcast of his former deputy FBI director Dan Bongino on Monday, where the president made it quite clear that the states he lost should not be allowed to run their own elections.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least 15 places,’” Trump stated. “The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”
The president’s justification for this unconstitutional power grab are the false claims that noncitizens are voting illegally and that he won the 2020 election.
Both claims have been thoroughly debunked – both by independent experts and Republicans.
Of course, that won’t stop Trump from continuing to spread his Big Lie, especially not in light of the epic shellacking the GOP is heading toward this fall.
For the president, it’s all on the line. If Democrats control the House, he will get impeached (again), and his lawless administration will be subject to aggressive oversight.
And it is quite clear that Trump is prepared to do just about anything to prevent that from happening.
This week, his FBI (with the involvement of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard) raided an election center in Georgia to secure documents and materials related to the 2020 election.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Trump is looking to create some kind of pretext to allow the federal government to be more involved in the administration of the midterms.
Fortunately, since he does so with a complete lack of subtlety, people are taking note.
“Republicans should not, in fact, ‘nationalize the voting.’ If you were worried about election integrity before, this would make things infinitely worse,” said former Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI). “Decentralized elections are one of the greatest protections against large-scale fraud and abuse.”
He pointed out that, in order to achieve Trump’s goal of nationalizing elections, Republicans are pushing the passage of the “SAVE Act,” a voter suppression bill GOP lawmakers want to attach to must-pass legislation this year.
However, Schumer made it very clear that the measure would be “dead on arrival” in the Senate, and that no Democrat would support any legislation that contains it.
While we have criticized the Democratic leader in the past, it’s nice to see that he is paying attention in this case.
Of course, Trump’s overt declarations of wanting to subvert US democracy make it impossible to ignore the threat he poses to free and fair elections.
Klaus Marre Klaus Marre is a former congressional reporter and current senior editor for US politics for WhoWhatWhy. He writes regularly here, and you can also follow him on Bluesky and Substack.
Berliners stand atop the Berlin Wall as it opens on November 9, 1989, marking the collapse of an authoritarian barrier that once defined a divided Europe and signaling the rapid unraveling of a system that could no longer sustain institutional control. Photo credit: AP Photo
We Have 10 Years. Here’s What Happens If We Fail.
Substack preview hooks Most dictatorships fall quickly. A small number survive long enough to bind state systems to power preservation. The difference comes down to the moment resistance ends and preservation begins.
America is crossing the critical threshold separating dictatorships that fall quickly from dictatorships that last generations. The November election will determine whether your children grow up in a democracy or inherit a system that takes decades to dismantle.
Most authoritarian systems fail within their first decade. Elite fracture breaks these systems, military loyalty erodes their foundations, succession crises destabilize their grip on power. But a small number survive that critical window. When they do, they persist for generations.
The difference between failure and persistence comes down to whether the system crosses a specific threshold before resistance can prevent consolidation. Nazi Germany lasted twelve years, Fascist Italy persisted for twenty-one, but Cuba has endured since 1959. North Korea has maintained control since 1948, Russia has operated under consolidated authoritarian rule for more than two decades with no vulnerability.
We are watching that fatal threshold gets tested right now.
Donald Trump raises a clenched fist before a crowd framed by American flags, projecting dominance and grievance as political loyalty is transformed into mass choreography rather than unity. Photo credit: AP Photo
Four Actions That Pushed America Over the Critical Threshold
In February 2026, four separate actions moved the United States from democratic stress testing to authoritarian consolidation. These are documented government actions matching the exact pattern authoritarian systems follow when converting temporary power into permanent control.
Don Lemon was arrested. A prominent journalist critical of the administration was taken into custody. Regardless of stated justification, arresting a high-profile media figure for speech-related activity crosses the boundary from press criticism to press prosecution. Every journalist covering this administration now calculates legal risk before publishing. The calculation happens in the pause before hitting send, in the choice between accurate reporting and personal safety.
Heavily armed law enforcement advances alongside riot police with ballistic shields as citizens exercise their First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceful assembly, reflecting a crowd control posture in which constitutional expression is met with militarized force rather than civic engagement. Photo credit: Reuters
Trump shut down the Kennedy Center for two years. A major cultural institution operating since 1971 as a living memorial with independent management was closed by executive decision. Your access to independent cultural spaces now depends on whether they criticize the administration. When the curtain falls at the Kennedy Center, the principle that public institutions serve the public rather than the president falls with it.
Trump is suing the federal government for $10 million over IRS actions. The sitting president uses personal litigation to target the federal agency that disclosed his tax returns, an agency he now controls. The distinction between your personal legal disputes with federal enforcement collapses when the president erases that boundary. He sues the government he runs, the government he runs will decide his lawsuit.
Trump threatened to have Republicans take over state election administration. The president publicly stated his intent to federalize or control state-run elections through party mechanisms. Whether your vote gets counted now depends on federal approval of the outcome. Elections become auditions where results must satisfy the audience in power.
All four occurred within weeks of each other in early 2026, thirteen months into the administration. This pattern defines authoritarian threshold crossing.
Russia Wrote the Modern Playbook, America Just Followed It
Russia shows the contemporary route to authoritarian persistence. This model matters most right now because the approach requires neither revolution, military coup, nor constitutional crisis but only systematic pressure applied to the right institutional boundaries at the right moment.
After a fragile democratic opening in the 1990s, consolidation proceeded through capture rather than outright abolition. Courts were subordinated without being eliminated; they continued to function while judicial independence eroded until verdicts aligned with executive preference. Independent media was not banned but marginalized, purchased, or subjected to selective prosecution until coverage became predictably compliant. Regional autonomy was not abolished but administratively neutered until local governance served central power. Elections continued but stopped functioning as accountability mechanisms, began operating as performance legitimacy. Russians still vote, the votes still get counted, but the counts stopped mattering.
The decisive variable is whether governance serves power preservation rather than public function.
This approach does not announce itself or produce a dramatic moment of visible takeover. The system shifts in increments, each one defensible in isolation, justified by crisis, efficiency, or national interest. Small adjustments compound; the ratchet only turns in one direction.
Russia has operated under consolidated authoritarian rule for more than two decades, placing it well beyond the historical norm for authoritarian persistence, firmly in the territory of generational entrenchment.
Russia executed these exact mechanisms between 2000 to 2004. The United States just executed all four in less than a month.
You are watching the final threshold test.
Why Saying We Are Not a Dictatorship Yet No Longer Applies
The most common response to threshold analysis has been that we are not yet in a dictatorship, making these concerns alarmist. That response died in February 2026.
The United States in February 2026 has not fully consolidated, but the decisive threshold has been crossed. The mechanisms that prevent authoritarian control are being systematically dismantled rather than stressed. Stress testing finds weak points; dismantling removes the structure entirely.
History shows that once this boundary is crossed, reversal depends on whether institutional resistance breaks or holds in the immediate window that follows. That window closes at the 2026 midterm elections, now nine months away.
What Is Happening Right Now: The Markers Beyond the Big Four
The four threshold-crossing actions form part of a documented pattern of boundary elimination.
Inspectors general across multiple federal agencies were removed, replaced starting in January 2025 at rates exceeding any previous administration (seventeen watchdogs fired in a single night). Federal judges face public attacks for rulings against executive actions. Journalists covering immigration enforcement, federal operations, executive misconduct receive subpoenas, investigation threats. Business leaders who initially expressed concern about executive overreach have gone quiet. Corporate criticism has become rare. The silence spreads like a stain.
The 2026 midterm elections are the last checkpoint where electoral correction through normal democratic processes remains possible.
Dictatorships Either Fail in the First Decade or Last Generations
Across modern history, dictatorships follow two distinct paths. Many emerge during crisis, dissolve within a short period, while others bind state systems to power preservation, persist for decades.
Short-lived dictatorships rely on coercion without durable alignment. They fail when elite cohesion breaks, armed forces withdraw support, or succession becomes unstable. These systems commonly persist for fewer than ten years before internal contradictions destroy coherence. The center cannot hold; things fall apart.
Enduring authoritarian systems follow a different route. Personal authority converts into administrative obedience, courts lose independence, media becomes compliant or marginalized, elections continue but corrective power disappears. Once governance itself serves power continuity, removal becomes rare, often requires external force. The system no longer needs the strongman because the strongman becomes the system.
Dictatorships do not unwind gradually; they either fail in the first decade or they last generations.
Why Nazi Germany Lasted Only 12 Years
Nazi Germany consolidated power rapidly after 1933 but lasted only twelve years. During that time, the regime murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust, killed millions more through war, genocide, systematic atrocities. The ruling order tied its survival to expansionary war, its defeat followed military defeat rather than internal reform. The brevity of Nazi rule does not diminish its catastrophic human cost but shows that even short-lived dictatorships can inflict generational trauma. Twelve years sufficed to destroy a continent, murder millions, proving that duration does not determine devastation.
The Two That Did Not Fall: What Cuba and North Korea Did Differently
Cuba has remained under authoritarian rule since 1959. Its persistence rests on early elimination of political pluralism, centralized economic control, party penetration of state institutions. North Korea embodies near-total entrenchment. Since the late 1940s, authority has passed within a single family, reinforced by comprehensive information control, pervasive surveillance, total isolation from external influence. No competing institutions exist, no alternative legitimate sources survive.
Both systems exceed historical averages because reversal became improbable within their first decade of consolidation.
Why the 2026 Midterms Matter More Than Any Election in Your Lifetime
The decisive variable is whether governance serves power preservation rather than public accountability. Once that boundary is crossed, time favors the authoritarian system. Every day that passes without reversal strengthens the new order.
The historical window for authoritarian consolidation runs roughly 18 to 24 months from the moment power becomes centralized. The 2026 midterm elections fall at month 22 of the current administration. That timing represents the last moment where electoral correction remains possible through normal democratic processes. After that window closes, reversal requires force.
If the midterms function as accountability mechanisms, removing enough members of the governing coalition to force institutional correction, then reversal remains possible through constitutional procedures. If they fail to function this way (either because election administration has been sufficiently compromised or because capture is sufficiently complete that electoral results cannot produce governance changes), then reversal will require external force of the kind that takes generations to organize, execute. The velvet revolution gives way to the long defeat.
What happens between now and November 2026 determines whether your children inherit a democracy under repair or a dictatorship that outlasts their entire lifetimes.
What to Do Right Now: Actions That Can Reverse Consolidation Before November 2026
The threshold has been crossed. The question now is whether consolidation completes or whether coordinated resistance forces reversal. Here are the specific actions that can prevent permanent authoritarian entrenchment before the November 2026 midterms:
Apply economic pressure to silent corporations. Identify companies whose leaders have retreated after initially criticizing executive overreach. Organize targeted boycotts. Flood shareholder meetings with resolutions demanding public statements on the four threshold violations. Money talks, so make it scream.
Coordinate social media campaigns around specific officials. Target secretaries of state, governors, election administrators in swing states with pressure campaigns demanding public refusal of federal election takeover. Make their inboxes burn, make their phones ring, make silence more costly than speech.
Fund legal defense for targeted journalists with institutions. Direct resources to press freedom organizations, legal defense funds for journalists facing prosecution, and institutions resisting executive closure. The Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, similar organizations need immediate funding increases. Money buys lawyers, lawyers buy time, time buys survival.
Organize coordinated work stoppages at critical moments. General strikes remain one of the few tools that force elite attention when institutional mechanisms fail. Identify key pressure points: major court rulings, election certification moments, inspector general confirmations. The economy stops when workers stop, nothing else gets attention like an empty factory floor.
Mobilize international democratic pressure. Allied democracies have leverage through trade relationships, diplomatic channels, international institutions. Coordinate campaigns demanding that European Union leadership, Commonwealth nations, other democratic allies publicly condemn the four violations, threaten economic consequences. Shame works, but sanctions work better.
Support primary challenges to complicit legislators. The 2026 midterms represent the last electoral checkpoint. Identify members of Congress who have remained silent on or actively supported these threshold crossings, then fund primary challengers. Replace the complicit with the resistant.
Create parallel information infrastructure. If press prosecution continues accelerating, independent media needs alternative distribution channels, funding models, legal protection mechanisms. Invest in decentralized platforms, encrypted communication tools, international hosting for investigative journalism. Build the underground before the crackdown forces you underground.
Pressure judges through public attention without threats. When courts rule on the Lemon arrest, Kennedy Center closure, IRS lawsuit, or election federalization threats, organize mass public observation of hearings, coordinate legal expert commentary amplifying constitutional violations. Judges rule differently when the gallery is full, the cameras are running.
Authoritarian consolidation depends on elite compliance with public passivity. Break either one, the system becomes unstable.
These actions represent documented resistance patterns that either trigger early authoritarian failure or prevent consolidation from becoming permanent. History shows that coordinated economic disruption combined with elite fracture creates the conditions for reversal. Nothing else has worked consistently.
The 2026 midterms will determine which outcome occurs, but what happens between now and November depends on whether resistance becomes sustained, economically disruptive enough to force elite fracture.
The critical threshold was crossed in February. The next nine months will determine whether consolidation becomes permanent.
This is the first in a series tracking the specific markers that indicate whether American democracy can reverse authoritarian consolidation or whether the system converts into something that requires generations to dismantle.
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We study the foundations of influence with control: how private motives shape public empires, how individual psychology scales to collective behavior, how power preserves itself once it takes root.
San Francisco boasts the Golden Gate Bridge, Telegraph Hill, Alcatraz, and Fisherman’s Wharf. But for the city’s LGBTQ+ community, few landmarks hold the emotional weight of the Castro Theatre. After two years of darkness, this beloved icon is about to blaze back to life after a gorgeous, meticulous renovation.
Community Jewel
The theatre first opened in 1922. The original owners, brothers Abraham, Albert, and Samuel Nasser, commissioned the creation of a 1,400-seat opulent picture palace in the Spanish Baroque style.
In the late 1970s, it became a repertory cinema, playing arthouse, foreign, and classic films. The theatre has served the local LGBTQ+ community through its programming and special events. In 1984, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus introduced its “Home for the Holidays” concerts at the Castro on Christmas Eve. In 1985, it hosted the world premiere of “Buddies,” the first major film about the AIDS crisis. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Castro Theatre became more than just an entertainment venue. It was a memorial chapel, a fundraising lifeline, and a defiant celebration of queer life in the face of devastating loss. In 1994, beginning with a screening of “The Poseidon Adventure” starring Carol Lynley, filmmaker and activist Marc Huestis presented legendary celebrity extravaganzas at the Castro, featuring Debbie Reynolds, Kim Novak, Tony Curtis, and Sissy Spacek, among many others. The 2008 film “Milk” used the Castro Theatre and Castro Street for filming, even restoring the theatre’s iconic marquee to its 1970s appearance for production and hosting the movie’s world premiere there.
“The epicenter of LGBTQ culture in San Francisco”
Over the past two years, the Castro Theatre’s marquee went dark. But behind closed doors, new owners, Another Planet Entertainment (APE), poured more than $40 million into a labor of love. It’s not the first time the company has given new life to a local gem. In 2009, it reopened Oakland’s Fox Theater, a grand 1928 landmark that had sat dormant for decades, and turned it into one of the Bay Area’s premier concert halls. This project is not just a restoration, but a resurrection. They’re bringing back a landmark that’s witnessed decades of queer joy, activism, grief, and triumph. “The Castro Theatre is such an important space in San Francisco,” said Another Planet’s Senior Vice President, Mary Conde, recently. “It’s really the epicenter of LGBTQ culture in San Francisco and probably the world.” Conde says that when APE first met with the previous owners, it took a year to negotiate the contract to take over the site. “We had a lot of conversations. The model of being a reparatory film business wouldn’t keep them open much longer. They couldn’t sustain this model. And we wanted to create a space where you can be a successful repertory film house and show popular music and have drag shows and have podcasts and comedy shows and all types of entertainment.” “Our goal is to activate and re-energize the building with equity, inclusion, and community at the forefront,” Another Planet CEO Gregg Perloff said in a statement.
The new look
Renovations include restoring the frescoes, the 1937 Art Deco chandelier, and other classic features. A stunning gold proscenium, which framed the original screen, had been covered for the past 40 years. It’s been uncovered and re-gilded. The before-and-after photos give a taste of what to expect. As Conde explains, “From the 20s to the 80s, you could smoke inside. So, a lot of the original plasterwork was just preserved in nicotine, which was sticky and disgusting. But they found the right solution to get the nicotine out and preserve the paint underneath.”
Before and after photos of the Castros’ ceiling renovation (Another Planet Entertainment)
Renovations of details at the Castro Theatre (Another Planet Entertainment)
David Perry, a local author and board member of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, hails the renovation as “truly glorious.” “The original 1922 design by noted architect Timothy Pflueger literally glows. The challenge has been respecting the original design while ensuring the theatre is fully ADA-compliant and providing, for the first time ever, a complete air circulation, heating, and air conditioning system. Doing this inside a delicate, 100-year-old building meant extra care had to be taken, most of it by hand versus using heavy machinery.” There’s also a revamped sound and lighting system, along with restrooms. One of the Castros’ famed features was the old-fashioned Wurlitzer organ that rose from beneath the stage. That had been on loan since the 1980s but was removed in 2015. “The nonprofit Castro Organ Devotees Association raised the money to build a new state-of-the-art digital theatrical organ, one of the largest in the world,” says Perry. “Designed to the specifications of longtime Castro Theatre organist, David Hegarty, the organ will once again rise out of the pit before every film screening.” It features seven manuals (keyboards) and over 800 stops, making it likely the largest, most versatile console of its kind.
Diverse calendar
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The Castro’s reopening is marked on February 6 with a screening of “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.” It’s the 20th Anniversary fundraiser of the Castro Community Benefit. “This is more than a movie night; it is a homecoming,” said Andrea Aiello, Executive Director of the Castro CBD. “We are inviting the community to be the very first to experience the ‘New Castro’ while supporting the preservation of the queer history and culture that makes this neighborhood a global beacon.
Sam Smith performs their ‘To Be Free’ show in New York City
Priscilla is followed by a 20-night residency from British singer Sam Smith.
Miss Peppermint
Other names lined up in the first few months include Father John Misty, Perfume Genius, Jonathan Van Ness, CMAT, Miss Peppermint, Kim Petras, John Waters, Jessica Kirson, and drag superstars Alaska and Alyssa Edwards.
Expect podcast recordings, stand-up comedy, and movie screenings, along with the return of the beloved Frameline. The longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival in the world celebrates its 50th anniversary from June 17–27. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival and the San Francisco Film Festival will also return.
“A sacred space”
Besides the something-for-everyone lineup, the theatre’s return means so much more to the city of San Francisco and to those who love this neighborhood. “The importance of the Castro Theatre to the film, music, and especially the LGBTQ communities cannot be overstated,” says David Perry. “It is, literally, a sacred space.” “During the worst of the AIDS years, it became a place of safety, calm, and refuge for many dealing with the pandemic. Its return is proof of the Castros’ resilience during those years, and a tribute to the legions of audience members and artists who have found a home here. Also, for the local business community, including the many restaurants and bars in the area, returning the Castro to business is a huge economic boost.
(Photo: Another Planet Entertainment)
“For the city at large, as we continue to recover from the long COVID hangover, the renovation and restoration of the Castro Theatre is a symbol of The City’s ‘can do’ spirit.” “The neon blade that spells out ‘CASTRO’ is our community’s welcome sign to the world. ” adds Perry. The author has endless, treasured memories of his own visits to the theatre. “I first came to San Francisco in October 1986, and I know that within days, I was sitting in that audience watching David Hegarty play, San Francisco, as the organ rose out of the pit. That was something I’ve repeated dozens, if not hundreds, of times over the years. He says that attending his first Sound of Music sing-along at the Castro and seeing the premiere of the new Tales of the City film, with Armistead Maupin taking the stage afterwards for a Q&A, are just two of his most memorable evenings. With such a diverse new program of events in a luxurious, restored setting, Perry looks forward to many more. San Francisco is the perfect escape, whatever the season. The Castro Theatre is an iconic part of its history. Its restoration preserves its splendor, while updating it for the modern world and protecting it for the future.
Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at a veterans hospital in Minneapolis, was killed by officers of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol last month. He is being memorialized nationwide, but chaplains at Veterans Affairs facilities in Massachusetts have been barred from mentioning his name.
Chaplains of all faiths were told “not to mention VA nurses at all, let alone the name Alex Pretti, at worship or gatherings,” according to The Republican newspaper of Springfield, Massachusetts. Emails containing this directive were sent to chaplains at the end of January by the state office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The emails also instructed clergy not to offer counseling or support to VA nurses.
“It is inhuman, unconscionable, and unconstitutional to silence VA chaplains,” Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation(MRFF), said in an interview. “This is propelling the Constitution into a woodchipper.”
Since its founding in 2005, the MRFF has represented more than 100,000 service members and veterans opposing religious intimidation and coercion within the military and the VA. The organization is currently suing the VA over alleged Christian nationalist contracting favoritism, as well as Freedom of Information Act violations.
Weinstein says that “95% of our clients are Christians being attacked by fundamentalist Christian superiors for not being Christian enough.” Several have been chaplains, and some of those who have not gone along with religious bullying have had “senior chaplains essentially make them go sit and color in the corner.”
VA Response
Pete Kasperowicz, press secretary for the VA, said the silencing was not national policy. “All VA employees, including chaplains,” he wrote, “are welcome to memorialize Alex Pretti in their own way as long as they are respectful and it does not interfere with their work duties.”
However, the Massachusetts VA policy appears to have been implemented at the Edward P. Boland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northampton. Several chaplains at the facility spoke anonymously with veteran reporter Jim Kinney out of fear of reprisals.
One “feared losing the ability to minister at all at the VA.” Another said they were “ordered to cease and desist in offering Pretti-related support and counsel to VA nurses. The chaplain was told he can only offer Mass.”
A clergyperson said a supervisor claimed that Pretti’s death was political, and so chaplains were given copies of the Hatch Act, which outlaws partisan activity by government employees. VA chaplains are government employees.
Weinstein served for seven years as a military lawyer in the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps and later as a lawyer in the Reagan White House. He said this invocation of the Hatch Act was an egregious abuse and a willful misinterpretation of the law.
“When you intentionally intimidate chaplains as to what they can and cannot counsel and pray about for fear of violation of the Hatch Act, it’s just bullshit,” Weinstein said. “Restricting the First Amendment rights of VA chaplains is what you would expect from a full-throttle fascist regime,” he said.
The anonymous chaplains told The Republican they believed the directive was coming from “on high” in Washington. Weinstein agreed that it was probably so.
The Washington Post reported that VA officials in Washington initially blocked Minneapolis VA employees from holding a memorial for Pretti, a decision later reversed. Staff members were also initially told not to leave messages of support for Pretti in some of the center’s public spaces.
The VA has barely acknowledged Pretti’s death, except in a social media post in which Doug Collins, the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, sought to blame the death on state and local officials who were not involved in the killing. In contrast, Pretti, who was Catholic, is being honored by the Church for his “kindness and gentleness to patients.”
Union Response
Pretti’s union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), has been outspoken in expressing its grief, outrage and support for his family. AFGE issued a statement and has participated in vigils honoring Pretti’s memory as a dedicated nurse.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association organized candlelight vigils in his memory in Leeds and Worcester, two of the facilities in the state where staff members have been silenced.
According to the VA, chaplains are there to “serve people of all faiths and denominations as well as patients and families looking for non-denominational support. They are here to listen and offer spiritual and emotional support as you struggle with tough questions and ethical decisions.” Unless, of course, they have anything to do with Alex Pretti or, under the current policy, anything at all.
Source of Abuse
The censoring of VA staff and chaplains may seem surprising, given that Secretary Collins is a chaplain and a colonel in the Air Force Reserve. But Weinstein was not surprised.
“The primary animating jet fuel of the rise in religious abuses in the armed forces and the VA,” Weinstein said, “is Christian nationalism.”
“Service members and VA personnel call me up every day, desperate for help,” he said, and they wonder what they can do. “Action is the antidote to despair,” he tells them, quoting folk singer Joan Baez.
“I hope that people will take action,” Weinstein concluded, “because silence is collaboration. We must prioritize chronicling and exposing this tyranny as a powerful way to resist this unconstitutional darkness.”
Frederick Clarkson is a Senior Research Analyst at Political Research Associates, a progressive, social justice think tank in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Federal immigration enforcement officers detain legal observers at gunpoint in Minneapolis, Minnesota on February 3, 2026.
(Photo: Screengrab/Footage by Ford Fischer)
“We must not allow ICE to kidnap children and bring them to prisons where they profit off their pain, misery, and suffering,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro.
A group of Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday demanded the termination of US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, as new footage emerged in Minneapolis of federal immigration officers drawing guns on unarmed observers.
More than a dozen Democrats serving in the US House of Representatives stood outside the Washington, DC headquarters of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday and demanded that President Donald Trump fire Noem, who has taken heat for making false claims in recent weeks about Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both of whom were gunned down by federal agents last month.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) delivered a brief speech at the event where she described her home city of Minneapolis as being under “occupation” by federal agents sent by Trump and Noem.
“We do not exaggerate when we say we have schools where two-thirds of the students are afraid to go to school,” she said. “We do not exaggerate when we say we have people who are afraid to go to the hospital because our hospitals have occupying paramilitary forces. We do not exaggerate when we say our restaurants are shutting down because there are not enough people to drive the employees to work and from work.”
Omar went on to reiterate her past calls to abolish ICE, which she described as “not just rogue, but unlawful.” She also said that “Democrats are ready and willing to impeach” Noem if Trump doesn’t fire her.
Later in the event, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) spoke of his meeting last week with Liam Ramos, a 5-year-old boy from Minneapolis who had been detained at a Texas ICE facility before a judge last weekend ordered his release.
“While detained, he became lethargic and sick,” Castro said, speaking of Ramos. “His father said that he’d become depressed. He was asking about his mother and his classmates, and most of all, he wanted to go home. But he also said that he was scared of the guards… he had clearly been traumatized.”
Castro emphasized that, even though Ramos and his father have been freed from detention, there are still too many children being held at the facility, including at least one as young as two years old
“This is a machinery of cruelty and viciousness that Secretary Noem has overseen, the Trump administration has built, and people like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have been complicit in upholding,” he said. “We must not allow ICE to kidnap children and bring them to prisons where they profit off their pain, misery, and suffering.”
As Democrats were making their case for Noem’s removal, new footage emerged of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis pulling legal observers out of their cars at gun point.
In a video posted on social media by independent journalist Ford Fischer, agents can be seen swarming a vehicle with their guns drawn and demanding and its passengers exit the car.
Just now: ICE agents pull handguns and arrest observers who had been following them this morning in Minneapolis. pic.twitter.com/s3uIwWS3AA
After the observers were pulled from the vehicle and detained by officers on the scene, one officer in the video claims that the people in question had been threatening them with “hand guns.”
An observer then asks the officer if he means that the people being taken into custody were waving firearms at them, and he replies that they were making fake guns with their fingers, not brandishing actual weapons.
As the officers left the scene, they were heckled by protesters.
“Put away your weapons you douchebag, nobody is threatening you!” yelled one.
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A group claiming that “Vilifying billionaires is popular. Losing them is expensive” is holding a March for Billionaires in SF on Saturday, seemingly hoping to tap some silent majority that actually loves the billionaire class.
So at group of people who are apparently sympathetic to the “long-suffering” billionaire class is organizing a March for Billionaires this coming Saturday, as Mission Local reported over the weekend. From all appearances, this is not satire, but a real, organized march by those who would genuinely hate to see the billionaire class taxed at a higher rate.
“Most made their fortunes building companies that employ thousands and solve real problems. Their wealth is largely stock in those companies, not vaults of cash,” the March for Billionaires website declares. “The Billionaire Tax Act has already pushed the founders of Google to leave the state, taking their economic contributions with them. By taxing unrealized gains and voting shares, the act would make it difficult for founders to retain control of their startups.”
Mission Local managed to get a statement out of these (anonymous) March for Billionaires organizers, and they appear to be dead serious, and not ironic or sarcastic.
“We sincerely believe what we’re saying,” organizers told Mission Local. “We think most American billionaires have had greatly positive societal impacts, directly and indirectly. We support wealth creation and oppose rent-seeking/extraction, anticompetitive practices, and regulatory capture.”
They also claimed they were remaining anonymous because of “some threats” online, and insist they are not funded by billionaires or “outside groups.”
For what it’s worth, the March for Billionaires is scheduled for this Saturday, February 7 (the day before the Super Bowl) starting in Pac Heights’ Alta Plaza Park at 11 am, then proceeding down Fillmore Street, and supposedly ending with a 12:30 pm rally at Civic Center Plaza. We would think this is certain to attract more counterprotesters than actual marchers, but who knows, and we do imagine they’ll get a fair amount of media attention.
Image: WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 13: Advocates pose as Monopoly men and wealthy DOGE supporters while protesting tax breaks for billionaires and the Republican tax plan, inside and outside the Ways & Means Full Committee Markup to advance the legislation in the Longworth House Office Building on May 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Stop Billionaires Tax Cuts Campaign)
A man in a Batman costume addresses a joint meeting of the City Council, city authorities and the Santa Clara Stadium Authority in Santa Clara, Calif., on Jan. 27, 2026. YouTube/City of Santa Clara
If the title of this piece seems impolite, I’m in good company. When Bette Davis learned that her arch-nemesis Joan Crawford had died, she famously said, “You should never say bad things about the dead, only good. Joan Crawford is dead. Good.” At least Joan Crawford never killed anyone, so far as I know. That’s better than you can say for Peter Duesberg.
Beyond question, Peter Duesberg left a trail of death—not with bullets or knives, but with lies about AIDS, HIV and the treatments that still keep many of my friends alive. As outlined in his 1995 book, “Inventing the AIDS Virus,” he insisted that HIV was harmless and AIDS was caused by use of drugs—both recreational drugs and the pharmaceuticals used to treat HIV, like the early anti-HIV drug AZT.
Duesberg often lied about safer sex and AIDS treatment efficacy.
I first began paying serious attention to Duesberg when Spin, the music magazine that for years was enthralled by AIDS denialism, published a bizarre interview with him in its September 1993 issue. In it—which I wrote about in a column for the gay press—he claimed that gay men couldn’t possibly have as much sex as they do without heavy drug use. In denouncing AZT, which he called “AIDS by design,” he got both the dose and the then-current recommendations for its use wrong. He offered no data to prove that the drug caused illness or death, just a couple of anecdotes about people who took it and eventually died. As a real scientist once told me, “The plural of anecdote is not data.”
Duesberg also claimed that the much higher number of US AIDS cases among gay and bisexual men than among women proved it couldn’t be sexually transmitted, and when confronted with the fact that cases were indeed rising among women, he simply lied and said they weren’t. He seemed unable to grasp, or maybe acknowledge, that a sexually transmitted disease that first took root in the gay male community would likely spread primarily among gay men. He lied again when asked about data showing that safer sex campaigns were reducing AIDS incidence among gay and bi men. He lied yet again when asked about research indicating that certain HIV mutations led to more virulent and damaging strains of the virus.
And so it went. He dismissed Kaposi’s sarcoma, a once-rare type of skin cancer that became vastly more common with AIDS, as an indicator for an AIDS diagnosis, claiming, “Cancer has nothing to do with immune deficiency.” That’s nonsense, as research even then was beginning to show. The role of the immune system in fighting cancer has become even clearer in recent years, and a whole class of immunotherapy treatments for cancer has emerged, as scientists have learned how to enhance helpful immune responses.
A recurring them in Duesberg’s book boils down to, “We’ve never seen a virus that does what they say HIV does, therefore HIV can’t possibly be doing it.” That’s about as baldly unscientific as you can get. Science discovers new, previously unknown stuff every day. In 1600, no one had ever seen a microbe, much less knew that they caused disease, and yet they existed and caused disease. In 1900, no one had ever seen a drug that could quickly cure an infectious disease, but a few decades later penicillin was doing just that. Can you imagine the reaction if you showed a smartphone to someone in 1940? To treat “we’ve never seen this before” as meaning “this can’t exist” is plain dumb, but that’s where Duesberg dropped his rhetorical anchor.
Actions have consequences, and Duesberg’s hypothesis proved fatally attractive to many, including gay men who at times had good reason to be wary of what the government told them. After all, this avuncular, German-accented scientist was telling them they didn’t have to worry about safer sex, even if they were HIV-positive, and certainly didn’t have to take expensive and sometimes unpleasant anti-HIV drugs, which in fact might kill you. He and other “AIDS dissidents” who echoed his views grew a considerable following in San Francisco and elsewhere.
Many of those who were HIV-positive did not survive, choosing to shun the new and effective combination therapies that began to be available in the mid-1990s.
As I’ve written before, the movement developed a decidedly cult-like quality. I spent a lot of time observing and talking to denialists, and their ability to dismiss any facts that challenged their belief system was astonishing. I vividly remember hearing a member of the denialist clique that took over and eventually destroyed ACT UP San Francisco responding to a question about the “Lazarus syndrome”–people who had been desperately ill with AIDS starting the new drugs, recovering their health and returning to work–by saying that the new drugs must be magically undoing the toxicity of AZT. He had no data supporting that theory nor an explanation for why such people’s rebounding health corresponded directly with the drop in the level of HIV circulating within them.
It continues today. When I wrote in these pages a while back that half a dozen people I knew who had fallen into the denialist trap had subsequently died of AIDS, a reader wrote in to claim that one of them had actually been killed by having been given a brief course of AZT while hospitalized and too ill to refuse treatment. Even Duesberg didn’t claim that a few days of AZT would kill you, but accepting the reality of HIV—and the reality that they’d been duped—was and is too much for some.
Did Duesberg know what he was doing? Did he intentionally mislead people, knowing he was leading them to a likely death? I can’t prove it, of course, not being privy to his private thoughts. But I watched him speak in person and interviewed him once at length. He was many things, but he was not stupid and did have real scientific training. To not have understood that he’d gotten it wrong, especially by the late 1990s and beyond, would require a staggering level of delusion.
So goodbye, Peter Duesberg, and good riddance. Rot in hell.
We have seen countless federal district judges–including ones appointed by Republican Presidents–stand up to Donald Trump’s unconstitutional and lawless actions. While it’s true the corrupt GOP Supreme Court has ruled in the favor of Trump in about 90% of the 25 cases they considered, these trial judges have been a bulwark in effectively delaying Trump’s actions and proposed executive orders in more than 150 cases.
Many of these great decisions have been laid out by judges in long, very detailed opinions. But the most compelling and moving judicial opinion in the second term of Trump might just be the less than three page one rendered Saturday night in the case of 5 year-old Liam Ramos and his father Conejo Arias.
This case made headlines when on Jan. 20, Trump’s ICE thugs arrested Mr. Arias and Liam in their suburban Minneapolis neighborhood. Just to be clear, Arias and his family entered the nation legally from Ecuador in accordance with the legal guidelines for asylum. As the family lawyer stated to the media, the family has been “following all the established protocols pursuing their claim for asylum, showing up for their court hearings and pose no safety, no flight risk, and never should have been detained.” But the Trump regime doesn’t care if people are following the asylum procedures, they will still abduct and deport you.
That is what happened. Mr. Arias and Liam were returning home from Liam’s school when ICE grabbed the father. Trump regime officials claim the mother who was in the house would not take Liam—a claim refuted by School board member Mary Granlund who was at the scene. In fact, Granlund personally offered to take custody of Liam but ICE agents rejected that offer and instead arrested the little boy.
ICE has detained countless children but in the case, the photo of Liam wearing a Spider-Man backpack and an oversize fluffy blue winter hat standing out in the cold went viral causing a massive backlash.
The family’s lawyers quickly filed a lawsuit that brings to the must read court decision written by Judge Fred Biery. The judge’s anger and contempt for the Trump regime’s conduct in this case was on display for all to see. The decision began by noting the father and son have a pending asylum application. The judge then noted, “The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.”
From there, the judge slammed the Trump regime for not grasping what makes America, America. Judge Biery wrote, “Apparent also is the government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence.”
He then added these powerful lines:
“Thirty-three-year-old Thomas Jefferson enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nascent nation. Among others were:
1. “He has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People.”
2. “He has excited domestic Insurrection among us.”
3. “For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us.”
4. “He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our Legislatures.”
The judge then added this haunting line, “We the people” are hearing echoes of that history.”
Yes, there is no doubt we are a similar place as the founders of this nation who were then faced with a cruel, tyrant in King George. Indeed, the judge—after slamming the unconstitutionality of the Trump regime using administrative warrants to arrest people signed by Trump officials and not judges—he delivered a line that sounded like something Alexander Hamilton may have written.
“Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned.”
A federal judge is warning the nation that the Trump regime has a corrupt lust for “unbridled power” and enjoys “the imposition of cruelty,” as they act with zero regard for “human decency” and in total disregard of our laws. In other words, Trump is a vicious, cruel tyrant. And the judge is 100% correct.
The judge was not done, though. He added this famous quote from 1787 when Benjamin Franklin was asked about what type of government had the drafters of the new Constitution had voted for. “Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?” “A republic, if you can keep it.”
What a great lesson for us today. Our Republic is under attack by a rogue, cruel, corrupt President in ways we’ve never seen. The question is up to us if we can keep this Republic.
The judge then concluded his short opinion with two very memorable comments. The first was this thought-provoking remark above his signature line ordering the release of the child and father, “With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike.” Again, the judge is raising alarm bells about how precarious of a place we find ourselves.
Then the judge did something I’ve never seen in any of the countless number of opinions I read since my days in law schools decades ago until today. Below you will see image from opinion of his signature line that then included the famous photo of Liam with his Spiderman backpack standing in the cold with a citation to two passages from the Bible, “Matthew 19:14” and “John 11:35.” The judge didn’t include what the verses stated—leaving that investigation up to each of us to do on our own.
The first, Matthew 19:14, tell us these moving words, “Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
While the second, John 11:35, provides us these two simple, yet powerful words, “Jesus wept.”
All of this from laying out the law to citing Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin’s words to the Bible were all contained in an opinion less than three pages—double spaced I should add. But this opinion offers us so much—from warnings to a sense of history to much needed hope!
This Sunday’s Town Hall: Announcing This Week’s Progressive Town Hall: Every Sunday at 4pm ET/1pm PT RSVP HERE Join PDA activists online from across the country to discuss the importance of progressives reclaiming the American story from the MAGA right, an issue of heightened importance as we’re now within one... Continue reading →
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 →
Join the San Francisco Public Press and KALW for a panel discussion about San Francisco’s propositions C and D, the competing business tax measures described in the articles linked above in this newsletter. Where: KALW, 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco When: Tuesday, May 19, at 6 p.m. RSVP via Eventbrite. What questions... Continue reading →
Milk Club May General Membership Meeting Date: Tuesday, May 19 Time: 7-9 PM Location: SF LGBT Center, 1800 Market Street, San Francisco Zoom Link: Click here
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 →
Unstoppable: Milk Club 50th Anniversary Gayla Date: Friday, May 22 Reception: 6PM Dinner and Awards: 7:30PM Concert: 9PM Location: San Francisco Design Center Galleria Tickets: Click here to buy tickets
When you volunteer for Saikat, it’s on us to give you a great experience and a genuine chance to make a difference. We don’t want to waste a second of your time. That’s why we’re always optimizing. And I’m excited to report that this Saturday we talked with 300% more... Continue reading →
Trump Regime Takedown: Every Saturday Saturday, March 7, 2026 12:00 PM 2:00 PM Tesla San Francisco999 Van Ness AvenueSan Francisco, CA, 94109United States (map) Google Calendar ICS Keep democracy alive every Saturday by showing up, taking a stand, and sticking together for the long haul. Standing together is better than standing alone. Let’s get together... Continue reading →
