Trump Determined to Remind Us Why We Say 'No Kings'

After sleeping through some of the biggest protests in US history, Republicans have decided to let you know they're scared that this Saturday's No Kings events could be too massive for them to ignore.

They want you to stay home, the way House Republicans are staying away from Washington, DC, hoping no one notices how Mike Johnson has surrendered his constitutional power, Adam's apple, and dignity to Donald Trump.

But we won't do that. If you aren't a specific target of this regime (that you know of), please be in the streets Saturday to stand up for everyone who can't.

A few other reminders.

1. Maintaining our right to public protest is essential for defeating dictatorship.
   As Andrea Pitzer, who has studied authoritarianism around the globe, has repeatedly explained and as she reiterates in her summary of the first year of her newsletter above, two things are essential for maintaining our freedom: Crowds and courts. We can help keep the former alive. If we surrender that, we surrender it all. And the risks of protesting for non-targeted groups will never be lower than they are now; not showing up won't make us safer, it will keep us trapped in our homes.
2. There are more of us than there are of them.
   This is true in two ways. Trump is nearly as unpopular as he has ever been, and people hate the idea that he's invading America. There aren't enough ICE thugs or co-opted law enforcement or military members in the street yet to keep us down. The situation is fluid. Trump has thrown an impossible, almost infinite amount of money at ICE and DHS. He is actively trying to personalize the military, but we aren't there yet. And our massive, peaceful numbers are our best way to shrink those risks and show anyone who might support the monarchy who they face.
3. You don't have to RSVP.
   This is a very online debate that we can't let distract us from the enormity of our purpose. If you have any fear about sharing your email address, location, or identity with anyone, DON'T. There are reasons the orgs want to be able to contact those who feel safe offering their emails, but screw that if you're worried at all. Mellisa Ryan has a good piece about the theoretical concerns. I'll add, from my background writing about cybersecurity, that offering security and privacy advice to everyone beyond "use strong passwords and two-factor authentication ALWAYS" is complicated. Too complicated. We all have different "threat models," so if you worry at all, err on the side of privacy.
4. Do more after Saturday.
   This is primarily a note to myself and anyone who feels the weight of what's at stake in the next few months.
   
   "Outside of the groups directly targeted with violence right now (and they are many), public apathy is a greater danger to the country in this moment than actual oppression," Andrea writes. "Too many people feel they can just go about their lives and wait out the dangers that Trump represents."
   
   Let's use this event as an opportunity to inspire us to do more. Become more active in opposing Trump or caring for the groups he's targeting, or just supporting the people doing the work. My sense is that things are about to get bleak as Trump feels everything, including his life force, slip away. He wants to make us entirely dependent on him and his regime's favors. Still, he's moving too fast, faster than the Nazis did in 1933, Andrea notes, to consolidate power while also starting a trade war that could easily break the global economy. There's no way out of this but through it, with anger and hope. He can take away a lot. But only we can surrender our values.
5. Maybe wear a costume. 
   It's fun, mocking of the insulting notion that this country would ever have a king, and it baffles the cops. Plus, in America, frogs rule, not kings.

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