If you can do just one thing this week…

Show up for May Day—either in person or online by sharing this or some other May Day post.

From Downtown LA to Dallas to Davenport to Detroit to DC, this Thursday’s National Day of Action promises to be the largest mobilization in the US since Hands Off on April 5. See what’s near you.

This is one of the days that acts as a show of solidarity to see how many people will get out. We’re creating those neural pathways in an effort to turn out 3.5% of the population, which has proven critical given that few governments have survived mobilizations of that size in a “peak moment.” There are a lot of caveats, but it’s the best plan I’ve heard.

Bring a friend or—if necessary—an enemy.

Soundtrack

A little May Day context

May 1 is International Workers’ Day, which America generally dropped during the Cold War. And if the GOP gets to be led by a KGB agent, we get May Day back.

MayDayStrong.org—put together by the dozens of groups behind this mobilization—focuses on the Trump regime’s massive assault on poor workers.

“Trump and his billionaire profiteers are trying to create a race to the bottom—on wages, on benefits, on dignity itself,” the site reads. “This May Day we are fighting back. We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes—public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, prosperity over free market politics.”

All the right notes if you’re singing the song against billionaire class warfare. That’s the only way I can describe an insatiable greed behind everything in the Trump Regime—from Elon Musk’s data looting to the trade wars that will abuse the poor first to the hunting of immigrant families for sport.

I think this sinful lust is most apparent in Trump’s limited legislative agenda, which centers around a trillion dollars of theft from Medicaid and SNAP beneficiaries to hide the costs of one of the biggest transfers of wealth to the richest in human history.

As the movement grows, we'll hopefully see more wins like Mohsen Mahdawi freed, at least temporarily, from this attempt by the Trump regime to police speech and thought. This shows the value of making more specific demands. Demands can include naming the people we want freed as often as possible and embracing strategic fights, even though we still need to fight everywhere all the time as much as possible.

I'd love to see everyone embrace a “Save Medicaid” messaging. Let’s reject the cuts and expose the lies behind the Medicaid Job Loss Penalty they use to torture the poor workers and caregivers among us.

That’s why I made my sign:

But I’m just one dude.

Anyway, go if you can. Share pics!

Bye for now.

We Rate Shenanigans

Inspired by Srđa Popović (activist leader who helped topple Serbian president Milošević using laughtivism and other non-violent actions), and WeRateDogs (truly one of the best things on the Internet), We Rate Shenanigans celebrates the harmless pranks happening that just might do some good.

Londoners smash a Tesla

Londoners smash a Tesla to raise money for food banks. They saved the car from the scrap heap and invited everyone to come smash it up for “free therapy.” The parts will be disassembled and auctioned off, with the proceeds going to food banks in London.

Rating: Billions of shenanigans.

A 5th-grade teacher asked

A 5th-grade teacher asked her students to interview two adults about what freedom means, why it’s important, and how to protect it. A good discussion to have right now, especially between kids and parents. (thanks @jessicacalarco.bsky.social) We may want to offer some extra credit to those who do a report on… Les Mis? Hamilton?

Rating: 5+/5 shenanigans.

The shirt

It’s possible this shirt would enrage someone, but they’re going to look pretty silly getting mad at dolls.

Rating: 5.5/5 shenanigans.

Bonus: IRL Fact Checking

Expert-level. Only to be attempted by sly interlocutors. Instead of engaging a counter protestor, someone held up an arrow sign next to her warning ‘Right wing troll.”