I think she's gonna want to take a good long nap, and a vacation somewhere incognito. It's exhausting to keep up with everything, and even more so to be the one helping organize us to resist, as Jess has been doing these past long years.
As you leave your home with a little protest sign, remember you are not alone.
With the anticipated thousands [million+?] of heroic protestors on April 5th (actually any and all days, including Women's March) here's an updated partial list of those fighting back every day [as of 3-30-25). I'm also adding courageous law firms who haven't caved. Besides upstanding lawyers, and law-abiding honorable (present and former) judges (including James Boasberg, chief judge, D.C. District Ct.), here's a growing list of Profiles in Courage men, women, and advocacy groups who refuse to be cowed or kneel to the force of Trump/Musk/MAGA/Fox "News" intimidation:
I'll begin (again) with Missouri's own indomitable Jess[ica] (à la John Lewis's "get in good trouble") Piper/"The View from Rural Missouri," then, in no particular order, Francie Garber Pepper (1940-2025), Heather Cox Richardson/"Letters from an American," Joyce Vance/"Civil Discourse," Bernie Sanders, AOC, Gov. Tim walz, Sarah Inama, Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Jasmine Crockett, Ruth Ben-Ghait, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Hayes, Ali Velshi, Stephanie Miller, Gov. Janet Mills, Gov. Beshear, Gov. JB.Pritzker, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Michelle Wu, Jim Acosta, Jen Rubin And the Contrarians, Dan Rather, Robert Reich, Jay Kou, Steve Brodner, Rachel Cohen, Brian TylerCohen, Jessica Craven, Scott Dworkin, Brett Meiselas, Joy Reid, D. Earl Stevens, Melvin Gurai, Dan Pfeiffer, Anand Giridharadas Anne Applebaum, Lucian Truscott IV, Chris Murphy, Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Sheldon Whitehouse, Adam Schiff, Jon Ossoff, Elyssa Slotkin, Tristan Snell, Delia Ramirez,Tim Snyder, Robert B. Hubbell, Ben Meiseilas, Rich wilson, Ron Filpkowski, Jeremy Seahill, Thom Hartmann, Jonathan Bernstein, Simon Rosenberg, Marianne Williamson, Mark Fiore, Jamie Raskin, Rebecca Solnit, Steve Schmidt, Josh Marshall, Paul Krugman, Andy Borowitz, Jeff Danziger, Ann Telnaes,͏ ͏Will Bunch, Jim Hightower, Dan Pfeifer, Dean Obeidallah, Michel Zeitgeist, Liz Cheney, Adam Kimzinger, Cassidy Hutchinson--
American Bar Association, 23 blue state Attorney Generals, Indivisible. FiftyFifty one, MoveOn, DemCast, Blue Missouri, Third Act, Democracy Forward, Public Citizen, Democracy Index, Protect Democracy, DemocracyLabs, Fred Wellman/On Democracy, Hands Off, Marc Elias/Democracy Docket, Public Citizen, League of Women Voters, Lambda Legal, CREW, CODEPINK, ACLU, The 19th/Errin Haines, Working Families Party, American Oversight, Every State Blue, Run for Something, Jessica Valenti/Abortion Everyday, The American Manifesto, The Dr. Martin Luther King Center, Bulwark Media
And, as Joyce Vance says, "We're in this together"--or via Jess Piper, from rural Missouri: "Solidarity." FIGHT BACK! WE ARE NOT ALONE! (Latest addition h/t , Robert B. Hubbell: Law firms, see below). All suggestions are welcome.
* Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling have resisted Trump, fighting back with the help of other courageous firms like Williams & Connolly. Per The ABA Journal, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, representing fired inspectors general. (Law.com)
Hogan Lovells, seeking to block executive orders to end federal funding for gender-affirming medical care. (Law.com)
Jenner & Block, also seeking to block the orders on cuts to medical research funding. (Law.com, Reuters)
Ropes & Gray, also seeking to block cuts to medical research funding. (Law.com)
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, representing the Amica Center for Immigrants Rights and others seeking to block funding cuts for immigrant legal services. (Law.com)
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer.
Wilmer Hale
Keker, Van Nest & Peters
Southern Poverty Law Center
Perhaps I should add our nation's motto--and on our Great Seal--the phrase "E pluribus unum" (out of many, One ). Ii's 13 letters makes its use symbolic of the original 13 Colonies which rebelled against the rule of the Kingdom of George III . . .And now we protest together against King Donald. As my rural MO. indomitable Jess Piper always says: "Solidarity"
Thanks for this list. A contemporary Profiles in Courage, as you said. I also migt consider it a modern litany of the saints: e.g. Saint Rachel Maddow, pray, speak, think and work for us.
Good point. Although, as a PhD myself, I tend to think the Saint outranks the doctorate, but why not do both and then we get into the complexities of Doctors of the Church, like Thomas Aquinas, who is the Angelic Doctor, etc The Roman Catholic Church is nothing if not complicated, and hierarchical, full of compartments and division. ;-).
But, you are right. In all seriousness, I think is always good to remind ourselves of Rachel Maddow's and Tim Snyder's etc. academic credentials. We all know people with advance degrees who are anti-intellectual nincompoops, but when in doubt give me someone who has read a lot and studied much and thought hard on a lot of matters gathering a breadth and depth of knowledge over Bob Kennedy, or, Pete Hegseth, or Donald Trump, professional know-nothings.
My NYC apartment building has a new mandate for all residents to start composting our fruit and veggie scraps-- bins are set up in the basement and this is an effort to reduce methane gas emissions in NY!!! I've been wanting this for so long, and now it's the law!
Rumeysa Ozturk, PHD student legally studying at Tufts, was essentially kidnapped by ICE agents (plain clothes, some with masks, no identifying badges, etc) on Tuesday eve. On Wednesday evening more than 2,500 people protested (forcefully and peacefully) for two hours in Somerville near the Tufts campus.
I went to the Tesla takedown in Maplewood, Minnesota. There were over 200 of us. There was another one happening at the same time in another part of the Twin Cities. That I think had 400 people.🎉👏🏼🥳
After a tough news week with more deplorable cuts to funding I was feeling down. I went to our local Tesla Takedown event where there were about 400 like minded people with signs, chanting and full of spirit. it felt like I gained so many new friends; then I ran off to my local newly formed Indivisible group, again full to the brim with people ready to work. We now have 10 subcommittees, I joined the Medicare/Medicaid group, we’ve set up our meetings, and are ready to figure out how to proceed. I feel energized after reading your good news from the week Jessica and I’m ready to face tomorrow head on. Of course by Friday I will need a big glass of wine. Resistance is not futile and in fact it feels darned good!
In other good news, an event that was to be part of a book tour by PA Senator Dave McCormick in which he was to be joined by Senator John Fetterman in Pittsburgh yesterday, had to be postponed and/or cancelled due to their worries about planned protests disrupting the paid event. The book is about mentoring but one has to wonder how well mentoring will be working in the future when Republicans and even some Democrats fail to stand up to Trump’s ridiculous cuts. It seems unlikely that children who lack food and medical care will be very receptive to mentoring.
Devon, PA! Why, I live there. I've gone to the West Chester one. It's remarkable to hear there were so many there, for it began quite small, a few weeks ago. Thank you for this news!
Thanks Jessica! I appreciate all that you are doing - your emails help me figure out what is my most impactful action.
One ask of you - please repost your comment about Not harassing Tesla owners. Yes - block new purchases, but those that already owned them were making a decision for the good of the planet
I agree Dawn. No Tesla shaming…people were trying to do the right thing for the environment. And you know that many Tesla owners already feel bad about having supported Musk now that he is so bad for our government. I’m glad you brought up that point Dawn.
Thanks, Jess, for sharing the video about your TESLA Takedown. Clearly, a great turnout.
Ours in West LA was much smaller in numbers (maybe 100 to 150 ? -- I really don't know), but the space available for people to stand immediately in front of TESLA was also somewhat limited. It was a fairly narrow sidewalk right along the street. A few people crossed to the other side of Santa Monica Blvd, but not that many.
Notwithstanding the above, the energy of our group was great! The age and ethnicity of our crowd was varied -- from young to old, black, white, latino, etc. And, unlike what we saw in your video, our street had a TON of motorists passing by (heading east or west across Santa Monica Blvd., as well as to/from the 405 Fwy.) And what was really great was the honking we received n support of our presence from vehicles passing by! -- especially when truckers drove by and blasted their horns on those big rigs and gave us "thumbs up" signs! That really stirred up our crowd! All in all, It was a lot of fun!
We actually did have quite a lot of cars driving by but I chose a quiet moment to film so I could stand in the middle of the street. And yes the horns were the best! So glad your event was a success!
I am so sorry I missed you yesterday! I looked for you but couldn't find you. What an inspiring and energetic crowd! And even better were the constant blare of horns in support of us. DO we have any idea as to how many people showed up in Old Town? Worldwide? Thanks for all you do, Jess!
Hey Jess, thanks for the push earlier this week. I went to a Tesla Takedown in Cincinnati (we had two with roughly 300 people total in both) We got LOTS of honks. Maybe 20 % of the drivers flipped us off (we were joking that they were always white men, occasionally white women) and we had some MAGA goons troll us, the cops also showed up in force right before a goon pushed a protestor into the street (they didn't arrest him tho). One MAGA guy blew black exhaust in our faces. All I could think was Bring it on assholes, we're fighting for our country and you're going to have to do a lot more than that to stop us (also we've been at this for 8 years)/
Jessica thank you for all you do! When we are passed the madness, you need to run for office!
I think she's gonna want to take a good long nap, and a vacation somewhere incognito. It's exhausting to keep up with everything, and even more so to be the one helping organize us to resist, as Jess has been doing these past long years.
Only if you really want to!!!
As you leave your home with a little protest sign, remember you are not alone.
With the anticipated thousands [million+?] of heroic protestors on April 5th (actually any and all days, including Women's March) here's an updated partial list of those fighting back every day [as of 3-30-25). I'm also adding courageous law firms who haven't caved. Besides upstanding lawyers, and law-abiding honorable (present and former) judges (including James Boasberg, chief judge, D.C. District Ct.), here's a growing list of Profiles in Courage men, women, and advocacy groups who refuse to be cowed or kneel to the force of Trump/Musk/MAGA/Fox "News" intimidation:
I'll begin (again) with Missouri's own indomitable Jess[ica] (à la John Lewis's "get in good trouble") Piper/"The View from Rural Missouri," then, in no particular order, Francie Garber Pepper (1940-2025), Heather Cox Richardson/"Letters from an American," Joyce Vance/"Civil Discourse," Bernie Sanders, AOC, Gov. Tim walz, Sarah Inama, Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Jasmine Crockett, Ruth Ben-Ghait, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Hayes, Ali Velshi, Stephanie Miller, Gov. Janet Mills, Gov. Beshear, Gov. JB.Pritzker, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Mayor Michelle Wu, Jim Acosta, Jen Rubin And the Contrarians, Dan Rather, Robert Reich, Jay Kou, Steve Brodner, Rachel Cohen, Brian TylerCohen, Jessica Craven, Scott Dworkin, Brett Meiselas, Joy Reid, D. Earl Stevens, Melvin Gurai, Dan Pfeiffer, Anand Giridharadas Anne Applebaum, Lucian Truscott IV, Chris Murphy, Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Sheldon Whitehouse, Adam Schiff, Jon Ossoff, Elyssa Slotkin, Tristan Snell, Delia Ramirez,Tim Snyder, Robert B. Hubbell, Ben Meiseilas, Rich wilson, Ron Filpkowski, Jeremy Seahill, Thom Hartmann, Jonathan Bernstein, Simon Rosenberg, Marianne Williamson, Mark Fiore, Jamie Raskin, Rebecca Solnit, Steve Schmidt, Josh Marshall, Paul Krugman, Andy Borowitz, Jeff Danziger, Ann Telnaes,͏ ͏Will Bunch, Jim Hightower, Dan Pfeifer, Dean Obeidallah, Michel Zeitgeist, Liz Cheney, Adam Kimzinger, Cassidy Hutchinson--
American Bar Association, 23 blue state Attorney Generals, Indivisible. FiftyFifty one, MoveOn, DemCast, Blue Missouri, Third Act, Democracy Forward, Public Citizen, Democracy Index, Protect Democracy, DemocracyLabs, Fred Wellman/On Democracy, Hands Off, Marc Elias/Democracy Docket, Public Citizen, League of Women Voters, Lambda Legal, CREW, CODEPINK, ACLU, The 19th/Errin Haines, Working Families Party, American Oversight, Every State Blue, Run for Something, Jessica Valenti/Abortion Everyday, The American Manifesto, The Dr. Martin Luther King Center, Bulwark Media
And, as Joyce Vance says, "We're in this together"--or via Jess Piper, from rural Missouri: "Solidarity." FIGHT BACK! WE ARE NOT ALONE! (Latest addition h/t , Robert B. Hubbell: Law firms, see below). All suggestions are welcome.
* Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling have resisted Trump, fighting back with the help of other courageous firms like Williams & Connolly. Per The ABA Journal, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, representing fired inspectors general. (Law.com)
Hogan Lovells, seeking to block executive orders to end federal funding for gender-affirming medical care. (Law.com)
Jenner & Block, also seeking to block the orders on cuts to medical research funding. (Law.com, Reuters)
Ropes & Gray, also seeking to block cuts to medical research funding. (Law.com)
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, representing the Amica Center for Immigrants Rights and others seeking to block funding cuts for immigrant legal services. (Law.com)
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer.
Wilmer Hale
Keker, Van Nest & Peters
Southern Poverty Law Center
Perhaps I should add our nation's motto--and on our Great Seal--the phrase "E pluribus unum" (out of many, One ). Ii's 13 letters makes its use symbolic of the original 13 Colonies which rebelled against the rule of the Kingdom of George III . . .And now we protest together against King Donald. As my rural MO. indomitable Jess Piper always says: "Solidarity"
Nat'l Day of Action - April 5 - https://handsoff2025.com/
Thanks for address. HandsOff was on the list already.
What a list!!!!
Thanks. More on never-ending additions.
Thanks for this list. A contemporary Profiles in Courage, as you said. I also migt consider it a modern litany of the saints: e.g. Saint Rachel Maddow, pray, speak, think and work for us.
It should say "Saint Dr. ____", as our Rachel has a PhD in PoliSci from Oxford U. :-)
Good point. Although, as a PhD myself, I tend to think the Saint outranks the doctorate, but why not do both and then we get into the complexities of Doctors of the Church, like Thomas Aquinas, who is the Angelic Doctor, etc The Roman Catholic Church is nothing if not complicated, and hierarchical, full of compartments and division. ;-).
But, you are right. In all seriousness, I think is always good to remind ourselves of Rachel Maddow's and Tim Snyder's etc. academic credentials. We all know people with advance degrees who are anti-intellectual nincompoops, but when in doubt give me someone who has read a lot and studied much and thought hard on a lot of matters gathering a breadth and depth of knowledge over Bob Kennedy, or, Pete Hegseth, or Donald Trump, professional know-nothings.
Inspirational!! Great folks to follow and emulate!
My NYC apartment building has a new mandate for all residents to start composting our fruit and veggie scraps-- bins are set up in the basement and this is an effort to reduce methane gas emissions in NY!!! I've been wanting this for so long, and now it's the law!
I heard about that! Goes into effect April 1 yes?
Yes April 1!! Thank you for reminding us all to celebrate the wins and keep up morale. You're the best.
Rumeysa Ozturk, PHD student legally studying at Tufts, was essentially kidnapped by ICE agents (plain clothes, some with masks, no identifying badges, etc) on Tuesday eve. On Wednesday evening more than 2,500 people protested (forcefully and peacefully) for two hours in Somerville near the Tufts campus.
I went to the Tesla takedown in Maplewood, Minnesota. There were over 200 of us. There was another one happening at the same time in another part of the Twin Cities. That I think had 400 people.🎉👏🏼🥳
Amazing!
I was there too! What great energy...waay different than the 1st protest with about a dozen of us.
See you Saturday at the capitol
200 in Prov RI as well!
After a tough news week with more deplorable cuts to funding I was feeling down. I went to our local Tesla Takedown event where there were about 400 like minded people with signs, chanting and full of spirit. it felt like I gained so many new friends; then I ran off to my local newly formed Indivisible group, again full to the brim with people ready to work. We now have 10 subcommittees, I joined the Medicare/Medicaid group, we’ve set up our meetings, and are ready to figure out how to proceed. I feel energized after reading your good news from the week Jessica and I’m ready to face tomorrow head on. Of course by Friday I will need a big glass of wine. Resistance is not futile and in fact it feels darned good!
Doesn’t it though? So proud of you!
And thank you for all you are doing to keep us informed and uplifted. Not an easy job!
How do you wait all week for that glass of wine?!
In other good news, an event that was to be part of a book tour by PA Senator Dave McCormick in which he was to be joined by Senator John Fetterman in Pittsburgh yesterday, had to be postponed and/or cancelled due to their worries about planned protests disrupting the paid event. The book is about mentoring but one has to wonder how well mentoring will be working in the future when Republicans and even some Democrats fail to stand up to Trump’s ridiculous cuts. It seems unlikely that children who lack food and medical care will be very receptive to mentoring.
Wow how low Fetterman has fallen.
God, Fetterman, ofc he would do this
It is so good to hear this. I wrote letters to them both, protesting. Left voice messages. Said, to Fetterman: How can you?
We had over 400 people at the Tesla protest in Devon, Pa! It was fabulous
Amazing!
Devon, PA! Why, I live there. I've gone to the West Chester one. It's remarkable to hear there were so many there, for it began quite small, a few weeks ago. Thank you for this news!
These good news round-ups are oxygen for me. Thank you! (And to everyone who shares their own additions.)
Thanks Jessica! I appreciate all that you are doing - your emails help me figure out what is my most impactful action.
One ask of you - please repost your comment about Not harassing Tesla owners. Yes - block new purchases, but those that already owned them were making a decision for the good of the planet
I’ll remeber to post it every so often. Very important.
I agree Dawn. No Tesla shaming…people were trying to do the right thing for the environment. And you know that many Tesla owners already feel bad about having supported Musk now that he is so bad for our government. I’m glad you brought up that point Dawn.
The thing is, there are other EV brands ppl can buy, now.
The only way to shame buyers that is civil is peaceful protest.
Thanks, Jess, for sharing the video about your TESLA Takedown. Clearly, a great turnout.
Ours in West LA was much smaller in numbers (maybe 100 to 150 ? -- I really don't know), but the space available for people to stand immediately in front of TESLA was also somewhat limited. It was a fairly narrow sidewalk right along the street. A few people crossed to the other side of Santa Monica Blvd, but not that many.
Notwithstanding the above, the energy of our group was great! The age and ethnicity of our crowd was varied -- from young to old, black, white, latino, etc. And, unlike what we saw in your video, our street had a TON of motorists passing by (heading east or west across Santa Monica Blvd., as well as to/from the 405 Fwy.) And what was really great was the honking we received n support of our presence from vehicles passing by! -- especially when truckers drove by and blasted their horns on those big rigs and gave us "thumbs up" signs! That really stirred up our crowd! All in all, It was a lot of fun!
Looking forward to a time when I can do it again!
We actually did have quite a lot of cars driving by but I chose a quiet moment to film so I could stand in the middle of the street. And yes the horns were the best! So glad your event was a success!
I am so sorry I missed you yesterday! I looked for you but couldn't find you. What an inspiring and energetic crowd! And even better were the constant blare of horns in support of us. DO we have any idea as to how many people showed up in Old Town? Worldwide? Thanks for all you do, Jess!
I know it was bare minimum 500 and I think probably more like 600.
Hey Jess, thanks for the push earlier this week. I went to a Tesla Takedown in Cincinnati (we had two with roughly 300 people total in both) We got LOTS of honks. Maybe 20 % of the drivers flipped us off (we were joking that they were always white men, occasionally white women) and we had some MAGA goons troll us, the cops also showed up in force right before a goon pushed a protestor into the street (they didn't arrest him tho). One MAGA guy blew black exhaust in our faces. All I could think was Bring it on assholes, we're fighting for our country and you're going to have to do a lot more than that to stop us (also we've been at this for 8 years)/
Wow Nancy thank you for that! Great spirit!
Amazing stories that give us all hope that resistance & love of our country will prevail and preserve our Democracy. Wonderful job!
Jessica, you are such a gem. I’m so grateful for YOU, Your ACTIVISM, and your heart.
Some good news I saw on the internet today.
https://substack.com/@politicsusa46/note/c-104363018?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2qwk7v
Omg I wish I’d seen that before publishing! That would have gone in for sure! Beautiful!! 😍 thanks for posting
I'm with you, Alexa, in all that you beautifully say about Jessica!
And the video of courageous Charlotte and Senator Chris Murphy's response, just stunning!
Thank you!!!
Thank you Jessica! You are a warrior! ❤️