Protesters hold up signs reading “Keep families together” at an interfaith prayer vigil at 630 Sansome on Aug. 26, 2025. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
ICE arrested seven individuals at San Francisco’s immigration court on Thursday at 630 Sansome St. At least two arrestees — a Colombian man and Mexican woman — were not able to meet with an attorney in the courtroom before they were detained.
Although this man and woman did not know each other, Judge Patrick O’Brien called them to the stand together. Before their hearings began, O’Brien asked the Department of Homeland Security attorney, “Are there going to be motions?”
The attorney replied, “Uhhh, both,” referring to the only two asylum-seekers in the courtroom. The department, as it usually does, moved to dismiss both asylum cases.
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No observers were present, nor were the pro-bono “attorneys of the day” who typically advise asylum-seekers. They were overwhelmed with assisting five other people that were arrested earlier that morning.
The man and woman sat before O’Brien, who could offer little succor. “I would normally give you some information about how immigration court works,” he said. But because DHS was moving to dismiss their cases, O’Brien knew, as all regular observers of immigration court know, that ICE was likely to detain both immediately after the hearing.
“The rules tell me that I should give you at least 10 days to respond,” he said, offering them until early October to respond to the motion.
A “motion to dismiss” signals that an asylum-seeker will likely be arrested by ICE upon exiting the courtroom, even though their case is technically in progress. In practice, asylum seekers are arrested and taken to far-flung detention centers across California or in states like Arizona, Texas, and Hawaii. It is difficult for them to continue pleading their cases while in detention.
Both had friends or family waiting to take them home after court.
The Colombian man had been dropped off by a friend who was just outside. Upon exiting the courtroom, he was handcuffed and detained by four ICE agents.
The Mexican woman, 32, explained that she also had a cousin waiting for her. She suffers from high blood pressure, she said, and had medication with her inside a backpack. Two ICE agents took her by the arms and walked her to the sixth floor for processing.
The woman’s cousin, a 32-year-old U.S. citizen, entered the building lobby and waited for hours to visit her in detention. The two women had driven three hours from their home in Merced to San Francisco for the hearing that morning.
The cousin said that the arrestee worked at a bakery in Merced as a panadera, a baker. She had been in the U.S. for nearly two years, and her goal was to be able to save enough money to build her mom a house in Mexico, where she currently lives.
Inside the waiting room of the ICE processing center, the cousin anxiously made calls. With tears in her eyes, she called her sister, recounting the situation. “She was so anxious that she turned pale” said the woman in Spanish, recalling how her cousin felt on the drive to court. “It was a whole show.”
She was ultimately able to meet with her cousin before making the three-hour drive back to Merced.
Together, four attorneys of the day divided the asylum-seekers amongst themselves, hurriedly meeting with five who were arrested earlier that day.
Attorneys from the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and La Raza Centro Legal were also able to meet with the Colombian man and Mexican woman who did not have legal help or observers present during their hearings.
Later, a representative of the Mexican consulate arrived to speak with the Mexican woman in an effort to provide resources for her, in case she does end up being deported.
Help us cover ICE in San Francisco
Mission Local has been covering immigration enforcement in San Francisco day in and day out — on the streets and in the courts.
As the Trump administration invests $170 billion in ICE, we want to make an investment of our own: $300,000 — $100,000 a year for Trump’s remaining three years — to hire a full-time immigration reporter.
Mariana Garcia is a reporting intern covering immigration and graduate of UC Berkeley. Previously, she interned at The Sacramento Bee as a visual journalist, and before that, as a video producer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. When she’s not writing or holding a camera, she enjoys long runs around San Francisco.More by Mariana Garcia
From bestselling progressive talk show host Thom Hartmann comes an urgent autopsy of American democracy, showing how plutocrats, political cowardice, and systemic rot built the perfect runway for Trump’s authoritarian ascent.
The Last American President rips open America’s wounded democracy to expose a terrifying truth: Donald Trump isn’t an anomaly—he’s the inevitable product of a system engineered to fail. This searing investigation reveals how a man forged by childhood trauma, pathological narcissism, and calculated cruelty didn’t hijack democracy—he was handed the keys by those who should have been its guardians.
Hartmann uncovers the unholy alliance between Trump’s damaged psyche and America’s rotted institutions. From Fred Trump’s brutal parenting to Roy Cohn’s lessons in shamelessness, from a Republican Party that traded principles for power to billionaire donors who treated democracy as a profit center, this book exposes the assembly line that manufactured an authoritarian.
But this is about more than Trump’s past—it’s about America’s future. As climate catastrophe accelerates and fascism spreads globally, Hartmann reveals the nightmare scenario: a second Trump term that doesn’t just end American democracy but also triggers irreversible planetary damage. Through meticulous research and unflinching analysis, he shows how political cowardice and corporate greed created the perfect storm that could extinguish humanity’s last chance at survival.
This isn’t just political commentary—it’s a last-minute alarm sounding before the point of no return.
“Now is the time of monsters” is a phrase from the Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, meaning the period of upheaval and uncertainty when old orders are failing and new ones haven’t yet emerged, creating space for chaos and extreme ideologies. The phrase has become popular in discussions of political and societal transitions, and it is also the title of a 2024 psychological thriller novel by A.G. Mock.
From Antonio Gramsci
Context: The phrase comes from Gramsci’s writings while he was imprisoned by Mussolini’s fascist regime in the 1920s.
Meaning: It refers to an “interregnum,” a transitional period where the established structures of power (hegemony) have collapsed, and a new, stable system has not yet formed.
The “Monsters”: These are the forces—such as extremism, conflict, and chaos—that fill the void left by the weakening of old systems.
Symbolism: The “monsters” can also be seen as things that “demonstrate,” “warn,” or “make evident” the failings of the old system.
The phrase “Now is the time of monsters” reflects a period of great uncertainty when an old political or social order is dying and a new one has not yet been born. During this “interregnum,” or in-between time, “morbid symptoms” or monstrous forces can emerge. The statement is widely attributed to the Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, who wrote on the topic in his Prison Notebooks in the 1930s while imprisoned by Italy’s Fascist regime.
While the exact wording (“time of monsters”) may have been a later, more evocative rendering by philosopher Slavoj Žižek, it accurately captures the meaning of Gramsci’s original observation.
Meaning and context
Interregnum: Gramsci borrowed the term “interregnum” from ancient Roman law, where it described a period of suspended legality between the death of one ruler and the accession of the next. Gramsci extended this idea to a broader historical context, referring to any transitional phase where one system of power is crumbling and another has not yet established itself.
Morbid symptoms: In his original text, Gramsci described a “great variety of morbid symptoms” that appear in this uncertain period. These “symptoms” are the social, economic, and political crises that emerge in the vacuum of legitimate authority.
Political “monsters”: The “monsters” are the reactionary forces that flourish in this chaotic environment. Gramsci and other thinkers have used the term to describe various forms of extremism, authoritarianism, populism, and demagoguery that offer simplistic and dangerous solutions to a population disoriented by change.
Modern applications of the quote
The quote has been applied to various modern situations where society is experiencing profound change and instability. Observers use Gramsci’s framework to analyze events where established institutions and norms are breaking down, but a coherent, positive alternative has yet to materialize.
Examples include:
Political instability: The rise of populist and authoritarian movements around the world in recent decades is often described through this lens. Commentators suggest that the decline of the post-Cold War liberal international order has created a vacuum that has allowed new, more extreme political forces to emerge.
Economic disruption: Major economic shifts, such as the crises of capitalism or the decline of U.S. economic hegemony, are also viewed as creating the kind of instability where “monsters” can thrive.
Cultural fragmentation: Ideological conflicts and cultural clashes—including those related to race, gender, and nationalism—can be seen as symptoms of a transitional period, as older cultural narratives lose their power and are challenged by new ones.
I never thought I’d see fear spread so far and fast. Next year’s midterm elections are now crucial for the Democratic party – and for democrats everywhere
Tue 16 Sep 2025 (TheGuardian.com)
Illustration: Rob Dobi/Getty
I return to Europe from the US with a clear conclusion: American democrats (lowercase d) have 400 days to start saving US democracy. If next autumn’s midterm elections produce a Congress that begins to constrain Donald Trump there will then be a further 700 days to prepare the peaceful transfer of executive power that alone will secure the future of this republic. Operation Save US Democracy, stages 1 and 2.
Hysterical hyperbole? I would love to think so. But during seven weeks in the US this summer, I was shaken every day by the speed and executive brutality of President Trump’s assault on what had seemed settled norms of US democracy and by the desperate weakness of resistance to that assault. There’s a growing body of international evidence to suggest that once a liberal democracy has been eroded, it’s very difficult to restore it. Destruction is so much easier than construction.
That’s why all democrats, irrespective of party or ideology, must hope the Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives in midterm elections on 3 November 2026. Not because of the Democrats’ policies, which are a muddle, or their current leadership, which is a mess, but simply because US democracy needs Congress, the principal check on presidential power envisaged in the US constitution, to start doing its job again. That will not happen so long as the Republicans, dominated and intimidated by Trump, control both houses.
Much has been made of comparisons to other authoritarian power grabs, from Europe in the 1930s to Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, but I’m most struck by the distinctive features of the US case. To name just four: excessive executive power; chronic gerrymandering; endemic violence; and the way a would-be authoritarian can exploit the intense capitalist competition that permeates every area of US life.
The danger of executive overreach has been there from the very beginning. Revolutionary war hero Patrick Henry (“give me liberty or give me death”) voted against the constitution at the Virginia ratifying convention in 1788 precisely because he thought it would give a criminal president the chance “to make one bold push for the American throne.” Throughout the 20th century, presidents of both parties extended the “executive power” that is so ill-defined in article 2 of that constitution. More recently, a conservative-dominated supreme court has given succour to the unitary executive theory developed by rightwing legal theorists, which gives the most expansive reading of presidential power. And now the Trump administration – well prepared, unlike in 2017 – has exploited every inch and wrinkle of existing executive power, as well as simply breaking the law and defying the courts to stop it.
Tom Ginsburg, a leading US comparative constitutionalist, argues that the biggest single flaw of the unreformed US constitution is that it gives state legislatures the power to draw electoral boundaries. The word gerrymandering was coined as early as 1812. In recent times, partisan redistricting has become more extreme as US politics has become more polarised. And then, in 2019, the supreme court declared that it could not correct even the most blatant party-political gerrymandering (only that done on racial lines). So now, at Trump’s direct request, Texas sets out to change constituency boundaries explicitly to win five more seats for the Republicans in the midterms, whereupon California says it will counter-gerrymander to win five more for the Democrats. There’s no longer even a bare pretence of impartiality about the most basic procedure of democracy.
No European society can compare to the US for the ubiquity of violence. Hardly a day passed this summer without the evening news reporting at least one violent crime, including yet another horrific school shooting. The US has more guns than people. France loves its pseudo-revolutionary political theatre, but the US had the 6 January 2021 mob assault on the Capitol. Now the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk has been shot. Before the identity of the killer was known, Elon Musk said “the left is the party of murder” and Trump blamed the hate speech of the “radical left”. It will be a miracle if the US avoids a downward spiral of political violence, as last seen in the 1960s. That in turn could be the pretext for Trump to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, bring more military on to US streets and further exploit an alleged state of emergency.
Meanwhile, universities, business leaders, law firms, media platforms and tech supremos have utterly failed to engage in collective action in response. They have either kept their heads down, settled humiliatingly like Columbia University and the law firm Paul, Weiss, or fawned on the president, like Mark Zuckerberg. Why? Because they all follow the logic of fierce free-market competition and fear targeted reprisals. I never imagined I would see fear spread so far and fast in the US.
Add in attempts to disqualify or intimidate voters, plus Trump’s threat to ban mail-in ballots, and there’s a real doubt how far next November’s midterm elections will be fully free and fair. The task for democrats of all parties is to ensure they are, so far as possible. The task for the Democrats (capital D) is to win them in spite of any such obstacles.
The key to that will probably still be bread-and-butter issues. Here, in the economy, lies paradoxical hope. We’re already beginning to see Trump’s tariffs feed through into higher prices. The job numbers are weakening. Trump’s “big beautiful bill” will further increase an already gobsmacking national debt of $37tn (£27tn). Already in the 2024 fiscal year, servicing that debt cost more than the entire $850bn defence budget. But until a debt crisis actually hits, such macro-risks remain remote and abstract to most voters, rather as predictions of diminished GDP growth made little impact in the Brexit referendum debate.
So the big question is whether the negative economic consequences of Trump will be palpable to ordinary voters before the midterms. One astute political observer suggested to me that Trump, flush with revenue from the new tariffs, could do a pre-election cash handout to voters, perhaps presented as compensation for the “temporary difficulties” of the transition to a Maga economy. That would be a classic populist move.
With most New York Democrats endorsing their party’s candidate for mayor, the two minority leaders in Congress remain holdouts.
SEP 17, 2025 The Nation Magazine
by Chris Lehmann
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks to reporters in July 2025 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
The homestretch phase of most elections marks the moment when party leaders come together in a show of unity to rally behind a major party’s nominee—a feat that even the Trump-fractured GOP of 2016 managed to pull off. So it was striking that, as The New York Times reported on Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen’s endorsement of the city’s Democratic mayoral nominee, Zohran Mamdani, the paper of record had canvassed the one prominent Mamdani holdout, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, in response. In announcing his own support for Mamdani, Van Hollen called out New York’s “spineless” delegation in Congress that continued withholding its support for Mamdani.
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So Jeffries spokesperson Justin Chermol, who no doubt carefully vetted his comments for placement in the Times, chimed in with this: “Leader Hakeem Jeffries will have more to say about the general election well in advance of Nov. 4. Meanwhile, confused New Yorkers are asking themselves the question: Chris Van Who?”
That failed zinger was likely intended to call out Van Hollen’s comments as the handiwork of a mid-Atlantic interloper, but it underscored Jeffries’s ineffectual and aloof leadership style—a major liability for the Democrats as the party prepares for its next battle over a prospective government shutdown at the end of the month. New York Democrats, who are strongly backing Mamdani’s candidacy, aren’t likely to need an introduction to Van Hollen, who’s shown stronger moral leadership than many national Democrats have, by traveling to El Salvador to visit the unjustly detained immigrant Kilmar Armando Ábrego García as he was renditioned in that country’s brutal maximum-security CECOT prison.
At the time of Van Hollen’s visit, Jeffries publicly praised the senator, though The Bulwark reported that he also told members of his caucus to “slow down” on the “El Salvador stuff,” as one Democratic House member put it—a charge that another of the leader’s spokespeople denied, albeit by denouncing the report as “thinly sourced” rather than inaccurate. In short, Jeffries was then, as on so many other occasions, seeing how the political winds might break prior to committing himself either way. This was an all-too-typical case study after Van Hollen stood before Iowa Democratic activists at the Polk County Steak Fry urging a more decisive and forthright agenda on a party that’s “too cautious, too rudderless, too attached to poll-washed, pundit-rinsed, and donor-dried messages.”
Indeed, Jeffries’s own reaction to the El Salvador visits of Van Hollen and other Democratic lawmakers was the off-topic observation that “Donald Trump has the lowest approval rating of any president in modern American history”—another labored and anemic effort, apparently, to suggest that whole controversy over Ábrego García’s detention fell under the broad category of GOP-engineered “distractions” devised to direct attention away from the second Trump administration’s political failures. That growing litany of phoned-in messaging from Democratic leaders also bears out Van Hollen’s criticisms of the party, since actions like Ábrego García’s detention—and the pending government bid to deport him to Ghana—are very much the main event for a White House seeking to consolidate its grip on power via Mob-like intimidation and authoritarian spectacle.
Yet this has been the fallback position of Jeffries and his Hill lieutenants throughout the crucial early months of the second Trump term: dismiss or downplay the urgent demands of the party’s base to force open confrontations with the White House’s unpopular strongman agenda, in the talismanic faith that polling and Trump’s own unforced political miscalculations will more or less organically reverse the Democrats’ flailing prospects in time for the 2026 midterms. That’s why, for instance, Jeffries and leading House Democrats opted for a diffident strategy when Trump debuted his federal takeover of law enforcement in Washington, DC, denouncing the emergency justification for the administration’s actions and touting what the leader called a “strongly worded letter” from the DC attorney general to the White House.
Jeffries rallied to the introduction of the White House’s signature spending-and-immigration-crackdown bill with a marathon speech denouncing the package from the House floor—the longest such speech in the history of the House. Yet the disastrous measure passed on strict party lines, thanks in no small part to the deaths of three Democratic lawmakers sworn into the 119th Congress in January. The split-screen image of the party’s House leader commanding media coverage during the measure’s floor debate yet lacking the basic numbers to thwart its passage because of the caucus’s blind commitment to gerontocratic rule just about sums up the plight of a risk-averse Democratic caucus dogmatically resistant to new ideas and fresh governing approaches.
The same malady afflicts Democratic leadership’s woeful support for the Gaza genocide—a central factor in the party’s declining popular fortunes, in which Jeffries has played an outsize and indefensible role. Despite his recent pronouncement that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza had reached a “breaking point” under the Trump administration’s watch, Jeffries had voted in favor of legislation to suspend funding for the UN Relief Works for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), on the basis of unproven charges from Israel that agency employees had taken part in the October 7 massacre led by Hamas. As caucus leader, he’s done nothing to advance a bill by Democratic Representative Andre Carson of Indiana to restore funding to UNRWA–let alone the measure cosponsored by Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Pamila Jayapal of Washington to embargo American arms shipments to Israel. As Spencer Ackerman writes, “These are material and not rhetorical steps to stop the genocide and save Palestinian lives. The choice is his. The judgment is history’s.”
Indeed, while a caucus leader isn’t primarily charged with managing day-to-day legislative business, Jeffries’s efforts on this front are notably lackluster, particularly in comparison to the track record of his predecessor, California Representative Nancy Pelosi, who navigated the difficulties of directing the caucus during its periods of minority exile (indeed, the House held majorities for just four of her 16 years as leader). Jeffries is in the unfortunate position of sidestepping direct and galvanizing fights with the White House on key issues such as Gaza, crime, and immigration, while failing to supply desperately needed leadership and direction for a party that is operating without an effective political compass at a key moment of crisis in America’s unraveling democratic experiment. It was no wonder that a plainly exasperated Pelosi implored him, in the heat of last spring’s government spending showdown to “use your power.”
That plea is gaining renewed urgency as Congress gears up for another showdown over spending—and a possible government shutdown—at the end of the month. So far, Jeffries and Schumer are building a strategy that seeks to restore some of the brutal cuts to the Affordable Care Act enacted in Trump’s spending legislation. While that’s an undeniably worthy goal in and of itself, it’s scarcely commensurate to the scale of the authoritarian putsch now well under way at the behest of the Trump White House and its GOP allies in Congress.
For a party that’s long, and properly, denounced the threat of MAGA Caesarism and the antidemocratic governing agenda of 2025 to count on insurance subsidies to make the affirmative case before the 2026 electorate is roughly akin to assembling a bucket brigade to fend off a tsunami. That’s why Charles Gaba, the leading advocate for the rescue of ACA tax credits, has denounced this as a myopic, weak-sauce strategy. It’s also why an ideologically diverse set of critics from center-left wonk Josh Marshall to recovering neocon Jennifer Rubin are loudly calling for the Democratic leadership on the Hill to seize this moment of leverage to fight back and get meaningful and material concessions from the Republican opposition. So instead of having his staff taking potshots at his critics in the Senate, Jeffries would be far better served by ensuring that the pending spending fight produces a legacy that his caucus members can confidently run on in 2026. If he doesn’t, voters across the country may soon be asking, “Hakeem who?”
The extremist majority on the U.S. Supreme Court has overruled a lower court order barring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from racial profiling.
3. Urge Your Mayor: Issue an Order to Limit Federal Troop Deployment
Mumia Abu-Jamal can now see from his left eye (successful cataract surgery), but his sight is still in danger! Treatment and followup care with a retinal specialist is crucial.
KEEP CALLING!
Sample script:
“Hi, I’m calling from ______________ because Mumia Abu-Jamal (also known as Wesley Cook, #AM 8335) needs to IMMEDIATELY see a retinal specialist and be treated for his diabetic retinal condition. This condition can cause permanent blindness. No more delay!”
1. Thursday, 10:00am, OAKLAND PRESS CONFERENCE: THE PEOPLE DEMAND AN ARMS EMBARGO!
Oakland International Airport
Oakland
*The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Arab Resource and Organizing Center Action (AROC Action), and the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) have partnered together to call for an end to all shipments of military cargo from ports of Oakland to Israel and to demand an Oakland Arms Embargo on Israel.
Breaking research has uncovered Oakland’s hidden and central role in transporting military cargo to the Israeli military. Shipments have been sent from Oakland to Israel multiple times per week, almost every single week this year. The fact that shipments of F-35 fighter jet components are flowing through the Oakland airport to the Israeli military has been concealed from the people of Oakland, our workers, our city officials, our families, and our educators. Together, we are launching a broad based coalition to demand an end to Oakland’s participation in genocide.
Since January 2025 at least 280 military cargo shipments have left the Oakland airport destined for Israel. At the same airport where our community members pick up and send off loved ones, bomb release units and surveillance systems for the lethal F-35 jet are being loaded and transported to the Nevatim airbase. This is the airbase where the Israeli F-35 fleet is maintained and repaired to continuously drop bombs on the people of Gaza.
The frequency of these shipments positions Oakland airport as one of few US airports consistently supplying Israel’s Nevatim airbase with killer cargo.
While Oakland was one of the first cities to call for a ceasefire in 2023, its airport has been exploited as a central channel for shipments to the Israeli military.
The supply chain for genocide depends on Oakland. AND The people of Palestine depend on Oakland to end Israeli war-making and genocide.
2. Friday, 6:00am, Break the Blockade or We Break the Economy!
West Oakland Huey P. Newton Sculpture @ Mandela & Dr. Huey P. Newton Way
BART – West Oakland BART is close
Oakland
March route (eight blocks) is wheelchair accessible. Gathering spot is three blocks from West Oakland BART, and that route along 7th St and Mandela Pkwy is also wheelchair accessible (just watch out for one small deep hole in the sidewalk on the east side of Mandela between 7th and 8th Streets). Stay tuned for additional access info.
there is a major update in the call for global solidarity actions from the Sumud Flotilla.
The Flotilla is calling for a Global Wave of Actions as they set sail, in collaboration with unions, organizations, students, and militants around the world.
The reality is that we expect the Zionist enemy to strike our sailing comrades, who are carrying necessary aid and also provoking the world to uphold international law, and Palestine’s sovereignty. We pray that some of our comrades will be able to successfully break the Israeli blockade, and we know that international solidarity increases the pressure to do so. This autonomous action is being organized, to bring our communities together for DIRECT ACTION.
Because this global initiative to BREAK THE SIEGE has always been about the power of the people to affirm the people of Gaza and the struggle for Palestinian liberation, we join the call from the Global Sumud Flotilla to “BESIEGE THE PROFITEERS” on Friday, September 19th.
Oakland is a major site of international shipping and arms trade. We intend to freeze that, alongside people worldwide, to show our collective power. BREAK THE BLOCKADE, BREAK THE ARMS TRADE— OR WE WILL BREAK THE ECONOMY!
LOUD NOISE ACTION at Israel Consulate to protest that rogue nation’s horrible war crimes – their sadistic starvation of Palestinians, their genocidal killing of women & children, the repulsive lying of Netanyahu and his psychopathic allies, and the wicked, vile, cravenly murder of humanitarian aid workers, hospital workers, academics, babies and children, plus the destruction of Palestinian homes, hospital businesses, mosques, churches, museums, universities.
Stop the Madness!
We will create a furious ruckus. We have megaphones, drums, trumpets, whistles, and air horns to share, plus bring your own pots and pans to beat on the barricades they set up to separate us from the Zionists inside.
Join organizations and activists from across the US in forging enduring support for the Filipino people’s struggle for their democratic rights and an end to foreign domination.
Join ICHRP-US, Malaya Movement, & Bayan USA, in fighting for migrant rights and an end to US backed war crimes in the Philippines!
This is day 1 of 3 days that organizations will be forging unity to strengthen and broaden solidarity for the Filipino people resisting fascist attacks by the US-Backed Marcos Regime! Find out more here: tinyurl.com/ichrp-sept-conference
ICE OUT OF OUR COMMUNITIES! DEFEND MIGRANTS! FIGHT BACK AGAINST FASCIST ATTACKS BY THE US & THE MARCOS REGIME!
SF Tesla Dealership (outside Van Ness & O’Farrell St. SF
Hosts: SF Indivisible & 50501SF
We do not consent to Trump and his billionaire allies taking a chainsaw to our government and our economy for their benefit! San Francisco is a sanctuary city and We the People need to defend the values that make it so. Let’s stand united and oppose the endless assaults on our communities, our civil rights, the rule of law, and our democracy.
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 and call out the Trump/MAGA regime as a community. Plus, it’s fun! Think of it as our democracy corner—a place for you to voice your opinion, hang out with like-minded fellow protesters, and experience a cathartic moment together.
What you can do: • If you’ve got signs, flags, cardboard cutouts, or any protest visuals you want to make, bring ’em! We also have spare signs to lend. • If you have whistles, drums, cowbells, or other noisemakers, bring ’em! • Musicians are welcome and encouraged. Sing the song of democracy! • Many of our regular protesters are part of local activist groups who are happy to chat with anyone who wants to pair their indignation with direct action beyond street protest.
Doors at 6:45 for the 7:15 Walled Off, tho additional arrivals are welcome during the 8:45-9PM break. $10 for either or both.
Not one, but two long-form arguments for Palestinian autonomy, because our righteous anger and the urgent need for action against genocide in our time–in real time!–demands extraordinary measures. The first piece affords an entrance into legendary prankster Banksy’s art hotel near the West Bank barrier, housing a semi-secret museum that displays artifacts from creative resistance struggles against 70+ years of Zionist occupation. Vin Arfuso’s feature, in its NorCal premiere, comes from a collaboration between Palestinian-American musician Anwar Hadid, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, and the grandson of South African founding father Nelson Mandela.
A slightly extended intermission accommodates easy entry for patrons choosing only the second on the bill
second on the bill, the Oscar-winning (though effectively suppressed) No Other Land, hardly seen in SF despite wide-spread protests against the egregious political censorship. This powerful doc from a Palestinian-Israeli directorial collective shows the destruction of the West Bank village of Masafer Yatta, and the alliance which develops between an activist and a journalist from the respective nationalities
Part One of our Zionism series discussed the history and definitions of the term. Part Two examined the consequences of Zionism on Palestinian lives. Part Three will examine Zionist assaults on free speech and protest rights of Americans and Canadians and how to confront them.
Zionists are promulgating anti-discrimination laws at the national, state/province and local levels, defining “antisemitism” based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition which equates criticism of Israel with discrimination against Jews. We will discuss the campaigns to adopt the IHRA definition, resulting in free-speech restrictions, where efforts have succeeded and how we can confront adoption of this definition.
The panelists are:
– Liz Jackson: Former senior attorney for Palestine Legal
– Emmaia Gelman: director, Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism
– Paul Noursi: member of the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace and of the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights
Our moderator will be Seth Morrison, board member of JVP Action and leader of the Bay Area Jewish Voice for Peace
9. Sunday, 4:00pm – 5:30pm, No Genocide in Our Name! Stop the Famine! An update on Gaza by Nora Barrows-Friedman
Judge Henry Ramsey Jr. Center 2939 Ellis Street, Berkeley, CA 94703
$5 donation requested – no one turned away
An update on the situation in Gaza by Nora Barrows-Friedman, an activist and associate editor for The Electronic Intifada (electronicintifada.net) and co-host with Ali Abunimah, of the radio show, The Electronic Intifada, Tuesdays on KPFA 94.1FM (kpfa.org). She has been a reporter and broadcaster focusing on Palestine for more than 20 years.
The systematic starvation of the people of Gaza and the escalating massacre of the Palestinian people by the Israeli military must be stopped. Many of us have protested and called for an end to the genocide. We must find the way to do even more. We need to do whatever we can to stop this violence being carried out in our name.
10. Sunday, 6:00pm – 7:00pm, Monthly Gathering at Alex Nieto’s Altar
Bernal Hill Site near where Alex was murdered SF
MUNI # 67
All are welcomed to join Alex’s parents Refugio and Elvira Nieto on the 21st of each month as they remember Alex. It’s been over 11 years since Alex was killed.
On March 21, 2014, Alex was murdered by SFPD officers Jason Sawyer, Richard Schiff, Nathan Chew, and Roger Morse, with 59 bullets.DA Gacon (at the time) declined to file criminal charges against the officers. DA Jenkins let the attorney go who was working pm the case under Chesa Boudin.
There is still no justice for SFPD’s execution of Alex nor of any other victims of SFPD’s executions.
11. Sunday, 7:00pm, NORCAL VIGIL ACTION for the ANNIVERSARY OF MARTIAL LAW IN THE PHILIPPINES
SF Philippine Consulate 447 Sutter St. (nr. Powell) SF
BAHAIN NG PROTESTA ANG KURAP AT PASISTANG SISTEMA! (Flood the streets with protest! Rise up against the corrupt and fascist system!)
Bayan NorCal, Kabataan Alliance NorCal, NCPASA, Malaya Movement SF, and FFPS SF invite all organizations and community members to our vigil action to commemorate the anniversary of Martial Law in the Philippines!
On September 21, 1972, Ferdinand Marcos signed Proclamation No. 1081, marking the beginning of Martial Law in the Philippines and solidifying the power of Marcos’ corrupt administration. During this period, Marcos Sr. inflicted numerous human rights violations against the people, which we see continuing under Marcos Jr. today. We will gather on this anniversary to honor the victims of Martial Law and to hold the Philippine government accountable over the corruption in the political system.
SF Tesla Dealership 999 Van Ness (at O’Farrell) SF
No Monarchs Monday (the butterflies are ok). Join us to stand up for democracy, civil liberties, and the planet, and against the fascist/authoritarian Trump Regime. Bring a sign if you have one. This is a peaceful protest.
Last Monday, Sept. there was a protest of Peter Thiel’s event at the Commonwealth Club.
“No Platform for Peter Thiel: Protest and Picket at the Commonwealth Club”
He’s due there again this Monday and for the next 2 Monday’s
From Indybay posting of Monday Sept. 15
:” The Commonwealth Club is hosting a 4-part event series this month with billionaire tech-oligarch Peter Thiel. Thiel is the founder of Palantir, the company that is literally providing the data for mass public surveillance of our communities, the violent ICE kidnapping of immigrants, the genocide in Gaza, union-busting efforts and more. His lecture series is on the topic of the Anti Christ – which is a little on-the-nose given his life’s work, yet he suggests (seriously!) that selfless activist Greta Thunberg might actually be the anti-christ we should fear.”
Not seeing anything posted yet for Sept. 22. On Indybay.
Throughout the last six months, the Trump administration has also opened a number of investigations into the UC system and its campuses.Hayes Gaboury | Senior Staff
Labor unions and faculty associations representing tens of thousands of UC faculty, students and employees sued President Donald Trump’s administration today in federal court for alleged violations of free speech and academic freedom rights.
The lawsuit brings 13 counts against the federal government, claiming violations of the First, Fifth and Tenth Amendments, Title VI and Title IX, along with a number of violations of the Administrative Procedure Act.
Much of the lawsuit centers around demands levied by the Trump administration in exchange for federal funding, including its most recent settlement proposal to UCLA demanding a $1.2 billion fine. The proposal also asked that UCLA limit where and how students can protest, reject international students who are “anti-Western” and end gender-affirming care, among other demands.
“This represents one of the gravest threats to the University of California in our 157-year history,” UC President James B. Milliken wrote in a statement yesterday. “Losses of significant research and other federal funding would devastate UC and inflict real, long-term harm on our students, our faculty and staff, our patients, and all Californians.”
Throughout the last six months, the Trump administration has also opened a number of investigations into the UC system and its campuses, including UC Berkeley.
On Feb. 3, the Department of Education launched an antisemitism inquiry into UC Berkeley. On March 14, the Department of Education launched another investigation into UC Berkeley’s alleged DEI practices. On March 28, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into UC Berkeley admissions practices. On April 25, the Department of Education launched an investigation into UC Berkeley’s foreign funding disclosures.
“Defendants’ threats and coercive conduct have caused a pervasive sense of fear and intimidation among UC faculty, students, academic employees, and staff employees, who have seen the UC already begin to alter its policies and practices seemingly in capitulation to the Trump administration,” the lawsuit wrote. “Defendants’ coercive threats, and the UC’s foreseeable response, have had a widespread chilling effect.”
One such response referenced in the lawsuit was UC Berkeley providing the names of 160 faculty members, students, academic employees, and staff employees whose names have appeared in reports of “alleged antisemitic incidents.”
The lawsuit also detailed numerous demands made by the federal government and alleged that said demands were unconstitutional.
For example, the lawsuit stated that demands by the Trump administration to share disciplinary records of international students with the federal government “to avoid recruitment of ‘anti-Western’ or ‘anti-American’ international students” would violate students’ expressive rights.
As for the alleged administrative violations, the lawsuit states that grant terminations have been made without any hearing, giving the UC no opportunity to contest any of the federal government’s claims.
Terminated research funding has substantially impacted employees across the UC — National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and Department of Energy grant cancellations have caused labs to cease work on research projects and delay project timelines.
The lawsuit additionally claims that faculty members fearing retaliation from the federal government have engaged in self-censorship with respect to their curriculum, research and association with faculty and student groups.
The plaintiffs seek an injunction against the federal government from using legal and financial sanctions in retaliation for university faculty, students and employees exercising free speech rights. They also seek injunctions against the government for conditioning federal research funding on actions “that would violate the constitutional rights” of the plaintiffs.
The case management conference for the lawsuit, American Association of University Professors v. Trump, is set for Dec. 17 at 11 a.m. in the California Northern District Court.
“The blunt cudgel the Trump administration has repeatedly employed in this attack on the independence of institutions of higher education has been the abrupt, unilateral, and unlawful termination of federal research funding on which those institutions and the public interest rely,” the lawsuit wrote.
Swasti Singhai is a senior staff news reporter. Contact her at ssinghai@dailycal.org.
The Rational National Sep 17, 2025 ABC has indefinitely pulled Jimmy Kimmel off the air after Trump’s FCC chair threaten ABC saying “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
The Benjamin Dixon Show Premiered Sep 16, 2025 If you’re old like me, or not in internet culture then this video will both confuse the heck of of you and clear a lot of stuff up regarding the killer of Charlie Kirk and him having a trans girlfriend.
In the US, as political tensions reach a boiling point and democratic norms continue to erode under what many now call an “authoritarian administration,” an unlikely voice is calling for a new kind of resistance. Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, renowned for her conservative views and fierce independence, has issued a blistering open letter to the Democratic Party. Her message is clear: stop fundraising and start fighting.
Cheney, once a Republican insider and now one of the most vocal critics of the MAGA movement, delivers a searing critique not just of the GOP, but of Democratic leadership’s failure to meet the moment. In a statement that reads like both a battle plan and a warning, Cheney lays out seven concrete steps she believes must be taken immediately to preserve American democracy; from empowering whistleblowers and leveraging international watchdogs, to creating state-level resistance networks and joining the International Criminal Court.
This is no longer about partisanship, Cheney argues — it’s about survival.
Read her full open letter below.
From Liz Cheney: Dear Democratic Party,
I need more from you.
You keep sending emails begging for $15, while we’re watching fascism consolidate power in real time.
This administration is not simply “a different ideology.” It is a coordinated, authoritarian machine — with the Supreme Court, the House, the Senate, and the executive pen all under its control.
And you? You’re still asking for decorum and donations. WTF. That won’t save us.
I don’t want to hear another polite floor speech. I want strategy. I want fire. I want action so bold it shifts the damn news cycle — not fits inside one.
Every time I see something from the DNC, it’s asking me for funds. Surprise. Those of us who donate don’t want to keep sending money just to watch you stand frozen as the Constitution goes up in flames — shaking your heads and saying, “Well, there’s not much we can do. He has the majority.” I call bullshit.
If you don’t know how to think outside the box… If you don’t know how to strategize… If you don’t know how to fight fire with fire… what the hell are we giving you money for? Some of us have two or three advanced degrees. Some of us have military training. Some of us know what coordinated resistance looks like — and this ain’t it.
Yes, the tours around the country? Nice. The speeches? Nice. The clever congressional clapbacks? Nice. That was great for giving hope. Now we need action.
You have to stop acting like this is a normal presidency that will just time out in four years. We’re not even at Day 90, and look at the chaos. Look at the disappearances. Look at the erosion of the judiciary, the press, and our rights.
If you do not stop this, we will not make it 1,460 days. So here’s what I need from you — right now:
1. Form an independent, civilian-powered investigative coalition. I’m talking experts. Veterans. Whistleblowers. Journalists. Watchdog orgs. Deputize the resistance. Build a real-time archive of corruption, overreach, and executive abuse. Make it public. Make it unshakable. Let the people drag the rot into the light. If you can’t hold formal hearings, hold public ones. If Congress won’t act, let the country act. This isn’t about optics — it’s about receipts. Because at some point, these people will be held accountable. And when that day comes, we’ll need every name, every signature, every illegal order, every act of silence—documented. You’re not just preserving truth — you’re preparing evidence for prosecution. The more they vanish people and weaponize data, the more we need truth in the sunlight.
2. Join the International Criminal Court. Yes, I said it. Call their bluff. You cannot control what the other side does. But you can control your own integrity. So prove it. Prove that your party is still grounded in law, human rights, and ethical leadership. Join. If you’ve got nothing to hide — join. Show the world who’s hiding bodies, bribes, and buried bank accounts. Force the GOP to explain why they’d rather protect a war criminal than sign a treaty. And while you’re at it, publicly invite ICC observers into U.S. borders. Make this administration explain — on camera — why they’re terrified of international oversight.
3. Fund state-level resistance infrastructure. Don’t just send postcards. Send resources. Channel DNC funds into rapid-response teams, legal defense coalitions, sanctuary networks, and digital security training. If the federal government is hijacked, build power underneath it. If the laws become tools of oppression, help people resist them legally, locally, and boldly. This is not campaign season — this is an authoritarian purge. Stop campaigning. Act like this is the end of democracy, because it is. We WILL REMEMBER the warriors come primaries. Fighting this regime should be your marketing strategy. And let’s be clear: The reason the other side always seems three steps ahead is because they ARE. They prepared for this. They infiltrated school boards, courts, local legislatures, and police unions. They built a machine while you wrote press releases. We’re reacting — they’ve been executing a plan for years. It’s time to shift from panic to blueprint. You should already be working with strategists and military minds on PROJECT 2029 — a coordinated, long-term plan to rebuild this country when the smoke clears. You should be publicly laying out: • The laws and amendments you’ll pass to ensure this never happens again • The systems you’ll tear down and the safeguards you’ll enshrine • The plan to hold perpetrators of human atrocities accountable • The urgent commitment to immediately bring home those sold into slavery in El Salvador You say you’re the party of the people? Then show the people the plan.
4. Use your platform to educate the public on rights and resistance tactics. If they’re going to strip us of rights and lie about it — arm the people with truth. Text campaigns. Mass trainings. Downloadable “Know Your Rights” kits. Multilingual legal guides. Encrypted phone trees. Give people tools, not soundbites. We don’t need more slogans. We need survival manuals.
5. Leverage international media and watchdogs. Stop hoping U.S. cable news will wake up. They’re too busy playing both sides of fascism. Feed the real stories to BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Reuters, Der Spiegel — hell, leak them to anonymous dropboxes if you have to. Make what’s happening in America a global scandal. And stop relying on platforms that are actively suppressing truth. Start leveraging Substack. Use Bluesky. That’s where the resistance is migrating. That’s where censorship hasn’t caught up. If the mainstream won’t carry the truth — outflank them. Get creative. Go underground. Go global. If our democracy is being dismantled in broad daylight, make sure the whole world sees it — and make sure we’re still able to say it.
6. Create a digital safe haven for whistleblowers and defectors. Not everyone inside this regime is loyal. Some are scared. Some want out. Build the channels. Encrypted. Anonymous. Protected. Make it easy for the cracks in the system to become gaping holes. And while you’re at it? Stop ostracizing MAGA defectors. Everyone makes mistakes — even glaring, critical ones. We are not the bullies. We are not the ones filled with hate. And it is not your job to shame people who finally saw the fire and chose to step out of it. They will have to deal with that internal struggle — the guilt of putting a very dangerous and callous regime in power. But they’re already outnumbered. Don’t push them back into the crowd. We don’t need purity. We need numbers. We need people willing to burn their red hats and testify against the machine they helped build.
7. Study the collapse—and the comeback. You should be learning from South Korea and how they managed their brief rule under dictatorship. They didn’t waste time chasing the one man with absolute immunity. They went after the structure. The aides. The enforcers. The loyalists. The architects. They knocked out the foundation one pillar at a time — until the “strongman” had no one left to stand on. And his power crumbled beneath him. You should be independently investigating every author of Project 2025, every aide who defies court orders, every communications director repeating lies, every policy writer enabling cruelty, every water boy who keeps this engine running. You can’t stop a regime by asking the king to sit down. You dismantle the throne he’s standing on — one coward at a time.
Stop being scared to fight dirty when the other side is fighting to erase the damn Constitution. They are threatening to disappear AMERICANS. A M E R I C A N S. And your biggest move can’t be another strongly worded email. We don’t want your urgently fundraising subject lines. We want backbone. We want action. We want to know you’ll stand up before we’re all ordered to sit down — permanently. We are watching. And I don’t just mean your base. I mean millions of us who see exactly what’s happening. I’ve only got 6,000 followers — but the groups I’m in? The networks I touch? Over a quarter million. Often when I speak, it echoes. But when we ALL speak, it ROARS with pressure that will cause change. We need to be deafening. You still have a chance to do something historic. To be remembered for courage, not caution. To go down as the party that didn’t just watch the fall — but fought the hell back with everything they had. But the clock is ticking. And the deportation buses are idling.
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 →
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 →
Milk Club Trans Caucus Meeting Date: Tuesday, July 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.
Milk Club Joint Caucus Meeting & Trivia Night! Date: Tuesday, July 28 Meeting: 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM Trivia: 7:30 PM Where: Teeth – 2323 Mission Street, San Francisco Milk Club invites you to our Joint Caucus Meeting featuring the HIV Caucus, Trans Caucus, and BIPOC Caucus. This is a space to organize, connect,... 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 →
by MARIANA GARCIA September 18, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)
Look Inside
