Friday Talking Points -- A Shameful Display

[ChrisWeigant]

It has been a week of dangerous precedents being set -- and it's not over yet.

One precedent that didn't get much media attention (but which is truly disturbing) was Donald Trump giving a nakedly political speech to American soldiers in uniform, where he pre-screened the crowd for both looks and ideology. One memo sent out before Trump arrived specified: "No fat soldiers." Another stated: "if soldiers have political views that are in opposition to the current administration and they don't want to be in the audience, then they need to speak with their leadership and get swapped out."

This is dangerous stuff, folks. The United States military has always been seen as completely apolitical, for a damn good reason -- because it sets us apart from countries where the military is used for political purposes. Which is a good thing. Or it used to be, at any rate.

Trump, however, does not understand that the military swears an oath to the Constitution, not to him. He delivered a political speech and the soldiers booed Trump's political enemies (including their former commander-in-chief Joe Biden) and cheered and laughed when Trump wanted them to as well. Military.com called it "a shocking and rare public display of troops taking part in naked political partisanship." One commander at Fort Bragg (where the speech was delivered) anonymously reacted in disgust: "This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution. This was shameful."

The entire week was about Trump politicizing the military. It was the one theme running through several bigger stories all week long, but Trump speech was the most blatant example of it. Trump even had a vendor with him on base with him to sell Make America Great Again merchandise which (disgracefully) included a fake credit card with the label: "White Privilege Card." That is indeed pretty shameful -- or it would be, if Trump and his sycophants in the Republican Party were still capable of feeling shame. Imagine their outrage if Barack Obama had done exactly the same thing, complete with a vendor selling Black nationalist merchandise....

Tomorrow, of course, Trump is going to stage the type of military parade normally associated with authoritarian regimes on the streets of Washington D.C., to celebrate his own birthday. Ironically, the parade might have to be cancelled because of thunderstorms (it would indeed be amusing if God literally rained all over Trump's parade, wouldn't it?). The parade is scheduled to feature 7,000 troops, 50 aircraft, and 28 tanks, and will cost the taxpayers $45 or $50 million. A recent poll showed that fully 60 percent of the public thinks that this is "not money well spent," including 80 percent of Democrats and 72 percent of independents.

Senator Rand Paul -- a Republican -- had the most pithy pushback to all this military pomp:

I've never been a big fan of goose-stepping soldiers in big tanks and missiles rolling down the street. We were always different than the images you saw of the Soviet Union and North Korea. We were proud not to be that.... I'm not proposing that that's the image people want to project, but I'm worried about the image that it isn't necessarily the best image to show.

Tomorrow may also see the biggest protest marches of Trump's second term in office, in dozens of cities across the country. The "No Kings" marches were scheduled to coincide with Trump's parade, so they will offer an interesting split-screen on cable news channels.

Of course, the protest marches will be huge because of the main story of the week -- Trump nationalizing the California National Guard without consulting the state's governor and deploying them -- and a contingent of U.S. Marines, for good measure -- to the streets of Los Angeles. This was a vast and unnecessary overreaction to protests which erupted in response to ICE performing immigration sweeps at places such as the parking lot of a Home Depot. This was in reaction to Stephen Miller demanding a quota of 3,000 arrests per day from ICE, which cannot be fulfilled by merely going after violent criminal immigrants. To reach numbers that high (during Trump's first 100 days in office, the average daily arrest rate was only 660, for contrast), mass sweeps are necessary.

People in L.A. reacted. The media (as usual) highlighted the incidents of violence during the protests, portraying the entire city as being under siege. This was far from the reality on the ground, where the protests have centered around a complex of federal buildings downtown. A few blocks surrounding the complex have seen protests, but this is roughly only half of a square mile, in city that spreads for hundreds of square miles. By the time the National Guard soldiers had shown up, the protests had already mostly been brought under control by local and state police forces and a nighttime curfew instituted by the mayor. The Marines still haven't arrived, at least as of this writing. Neither was necessary at all, but Trump saw the opportunity to play his strongman games and took it.

These protests quickly spread to other cities and have provided an outlet for people who are outraged at Trump's excesses. Tomorrow's No Kings protest marches will likely be the largest to date in Trump's second term as a direct result of his own escalation of the situation in Los Angeles.

Trump thinks he has the upper hand, politically. Immigration has been the one issue where his poll numbers are positive (on every other issue his numbers are underwater), and he's always seen it as his prime way to attack Democrats. But public opinion can shift, and while most people support deporting violent criminal immigrants, far fewer support deporting people who have been here for years, have followed the law, and have raised families and put down roots. Which is exactly the type of people the new ICE raids are picking up. And it's not just in Los Angeles, it's happening in a lot of places:

This month, ICE officials have detained hundreds of workers, including at a meat-processing plant in Omaha, gas stations in Phoenix, construction sites in Tallahassee and Texas's Rio Grande Valley, and a pallet manufacturer in Pennsylvania.

. . .

Chris Thomas, a partner at Holland & Hart, a law firm that represents employers across the United States, said he is "seeing audits at the usual suspects: hospitality, construction and food processing. And with the same frequency in red states as blue states."

"Employers all over are panicking," said Amy Peck, a lawyer at the firm Jackson Lewis in Omaha, following Tuesday's raid on the Nebraska meat-packer. "Workers are not showing up for work."

. . .

"Notices of inspection are increasing exponentially," Dawn Lurie, a lawyer at the firm Seyfarth Shaw, which represents major employers. Earlier this year, DHS targeted small businesses -- including mom-and-pop restaurants -- but more recently, audits have branched out "in both scope and strategy," targeting company headquarters, including in the retail, finance, real estate and tech industries, Lurie said.

Trump's border "czar" says all this is just the beginning:

[Tom] Homan is now promising "more worksite enforcement than you've ever seen in the history of this nation." Unlike the promise to pursue hardened criminals, an easy political sell, Homan's threat targets farmworkers, construction workers, janitors and home-care aides whom Americans rely on in their daily lives. Some House Republicans are already urging restraint.

There are some 8.3 million unauthorized workers across the economy -- accounting for 4.8 percent of the labor force. They make up a little under half of the agricultural labor force and are essential for the child-care industry to function. About 1.4 million unauthorized immigrants work in construction -- the only industry that can lower home prices. There were no workplace raids during the covid-19 pandemic because those workers kept America running.

Immigrant labor will become even more vital as the aging American-born workforce continues to shrink. Baby boomers are retiring, and younger Americans are having too few children. Meantime, it's unlikely they will be pleased when the price of strawberries skyrockets after farmworkers are deported, when the feds go after their babysitters or when their favorite waitress disappears.

These raids are being carried out, in many cases, by federal officers in tactical gear with masked faces and no identification, arriving in unmarked cars, and refusing to provide proof of who they are. Which is another dangerous precedent, and one that is already being exploited in horrific ways:

It's easy to buy tactical gear online. And around the country, bigots and criminals have already begun taking advantage of chaotic, masked immigration raids to further their own ends. Civilians have impersonated ICE agents while committing robbery (Pennsylvania), kidnappings (Florida, South Carolina), sexual assault (North Carolina) and other forms of public intimidation (Washington state, California).

Historically, over the past few decades or so, whenever the Republican Party gets too gung-ho on deporting immigrants, they are reined in by complaints from a powerful Republican contingent: all the farmers and hotel owners and other business owners who not only profit from hiring undocumented workers but in some instances could not continue to operate without them. This may already be happening -- much sooner than we expected, we have to admit.

This led to a bizarre walkback from Trump yesterday, where he actually was forced to admit that not every single immigrant is a murderer or a rapist. Here's the note he put out on social media:

Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!

He later expounded on this to a reporter:

Our farmers are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers, they have worked for them for 20 years. They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be, you know, great. And we're going to have to do something about that. We can't take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don't have maybe what they're supposed to have, maybe not.

That's right -- Donald J. Trump just called undocumented immigrants "great." Will wonders never cease?

Of course, he sandwiched his newfound appreciation for those who pick America's crops with a conspiracy theory -- that somehow when he rounds up undocumented workers in the fields and deports them, that they are replaced by the farmers hiring "Criminals" who were allowed in by Joe Biden. Which is downright bizarre, but not all that unusual for Trump's conspiracy-soaked worldview.

Trump promised "changes are coming" and that he'd put out a new "order" soon, saying: "We can't do that to our farmers and leisure, too, hotels [sic]. We're going to have to use a lot of common sense on that."

Again: will wonders never cease? Trump? Common sense? Could've knocked us over with a feather....

It's a fact, folks. If undocumented farmworkers are rounded up and deported, something like half of the workforce disappears. Which leads to crops going unharvested and rotting in the fields. It also leads to prices spiking through the roof on all farm produce that is labor-intensive (what's normally called "stoop labor" and includes things like strawberries, lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, and anything else that can't be harvested with a giant grain-reaper machine). Trump is bowing to the inevitable here (and to reality), but if he does decide to declare certain industries off-limits to ICE raids then Stephen Miller is going to have a very tough time trying to meet his 3,000-arrests-per-day quota. And the message: "Some undocumented immigrants are great people" is going to be rather jarring for Trump's MAGA followers to hear, one assumes.

But then again, maybe not. One interesting article this week was written by two people who had grown up in post-Soviet Russia, and it provided a vocabulary (of mostly Russian terms) to explain the strongman tactics now being used by Trump here in America. One stood out, but it's doubtful Americans will ever adopt the term and start using it widely (because it is indeed a mouthful):

Let's start with something fun. "Mnogohodovochka" is an ironic Russian term that translates literally as "multiple steps" and usually means "master plan."

The term emerged online to mock the Kremlin's need to explain Mr. Putin's actions, even when they make no sense. State media presents everything he does as part of a brilliant long-term plan that will -- one day -- bring great benefit to ordinary citizens. "Russia wasn't pushed back from Kyiv," propagandists would say in 2022. "It is all a part of a feint." The country's military, meanwhile, was decimated.

Now observe how many Republican leaders responded to Mr. Trump's early moves on tariffs, which would clearly disadvantage their constituencies. Policies were changing constantly, seemingly on Mr. Trump's whim -- creating complete chaos worldwide. But the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, had an explanation. "Many of you in the media clearly missed the art of the deal. You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here."

Ah, yes. The art of the deal is the American equivalent of "mnogohodovochka." Look for it being mentioned to explain away whatever blunder the administration makes next.

Which is sadly correct. It's all "three-dimensional chess," whenever Trump's followers have to radically adjust their thinking to fit in whatever new slant Trump takes -- especially when it totally contradicts his previous stance on the issue. So maybe MAGA folks will start calling some undocumented immigrants "great" now? Stranger things have happened, we suppose.

We have to add a note of apology here, because we are not even going to attempt to cover all the rest of the political news this week -- because what is going on with Trump and the military is so important to pay attention to right now. But we will close by pointing out the shameful hypocrisy Trump and all the rest of them continue to show on one facet of all this.

The bitterest irony of all this week was both Trump and his Republican apologists sanctimoniously stating their fealty to "law and order" as they denounce rioting and attacking police officers. After Trump pardoned every single person who rioted and attacked cops on January 6th, this moral high road is forever closed to them. Especially when you read what is going on right now:

Two officers present at the January 6 insurrection filed a lawsuit Thursday after Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., and congressional Republicans refused to install a memorial plaque marking the 2021 insurrection.

The lawsuit names Thomas Austin, architect of the Capitol, as the defendant. The real target, though, appears to be Johnson, who has failed to instruct the Capitol architect to install the plaque; he plaintiffs hope the lawsuit will compel him to do so.

The plaque currently sits in a basement on Capitol Hill. It reads: "On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on January 6, 2021. Their heroism will never be forgotten."

. . .

A law passed in the March 2022 government spending bill declared, "the Architect of the Capitol shall obtain an honorific plaque," and "shall place the plaque at a permanent location on the western front of the United States Capitol." It was supposed to be completed by March 2023.

One of the officers in the lawsuit explained why he filed it: "We haven't asked for much. We've asked for accountability, and we've asked for the plaque to be put up." Representative Jamie Ruskin went further: "their heroism has already been forgotten and submerged and suppressed by Speaker Johnson and Donald Trump and the others who refused to put the plaque up and are doing everything they can to rewrite the history of what actually happened on January 6."

Think of that the next time Trump or some smarmy Republican starts talking about how much they respect "law and order," or how much they support the police, or how harshly people who attack the police should be treated. Because it's pretty obvious that Republicans do not support even police officers who saved their own lives one tiny bit.





In a split decision, we have to hand out two Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week awards this week, both to prominent California Democrats.

Senator Alex Padilla provided some stunning video footage when he interrupted a press conference being held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Padilla was in the same federal building in Los Angeles that Noem was speaking in, and so he decided to go see what she had to say. He tried to question Noem for spewing what can only be described as propaganda, and Padilla was then forcibly manhandled out of the room, thrown to the ground in the hallway outside, and handcuffed. This was after he audibly identified himself as a United States senator to the security team (he started off with: "I am Senator Alex Padilla. I have a question for the secretary." ). They didn't care -- they hustled him out of the room anyway and clapped the cuffs on him.

Padilla later emotionally addressed the media, saying:

If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California and throughout the country.

For providing a powerful and moving visual this week, Senator Padilla is without doubt worthy of a MIDOTW award.

But our second award goes to a man who is on the front lines of the fight against Trump's authoritarianism, California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Newsom has been impressive this past week, in a number of different ways. He is not backing down to Trump and actually taking the fight to him, both in the courts and online. He started off by immediately filing a lawsuit to block Trump's deployment of the National Guard, and by week's end a federal judge had ruled in California's favor and issued an order for Trump to turn control of the Guard back over to Newsom by midday today. This order was then put on hold by the appellate court, but the legal victory was an important one nonetheless. As is becoming more and more typical in these sorts of rulings, the judge used some pretty scathing language in his ruling:

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer wrote that the president acted illegally in dispatching the troops, "both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution." Breyer ordered Trump to relinquish control to the governor.

. . .

Breyer's 36-page ruling on Thursday was a striking broadside against the administration's approach, with the judge writing that "the continued unlawful militarization" of Los Angeles "inflames tensions with protesters, threatening increased hostilities and loss of life."

. . .

Contrary to Trump's assertions, Breyer wrote that the Los Angeles demonstrations "fall far short of 'rebellion.'" He said the Trump administration identified instances of people acting violently, but not "a violent, armed, organized, open and avowed uprising against the government as a whole."

. . .

He also wrote witheringly about the administration's portrayal of state and local officials being "unable to bring rioters under control." The judge said it was not up to the federal government "to take over a state's police power whenever it is dissatisfied with how vigorously or quickly the state is enforcing its own laws."

Newsom gave a press conference immediately after the ruling was handed down (before the appeals court issued their stay on the ruling) and pointed out the obvious: "There's no invasion. There's no rebellion. It's absurd."

Earlier in the week, after Trump approved of a threat by one of his henchmen to arrest Newsom, Newsom fired back on social media: "Come and get me, tough guy. I don't give a damn." All week long, Newsom has been making good use of social media to taunt and mock Trump (and his apologists), which is exactly they all deserve. He even released a clip of one of Trump's dismissive posts about Los Angeles, as read by Emperor Palpatine (from Star Wars).

Newsom also pushed back -- hard -- on Trump's faulty memory when it came to what appears to be the only call between the two all week. First, Trump got confused as to what day he actually made the call, to which Newsom responded: "there was no call" (on the day Trump said there was) "not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn't even know who he's talking to." Trump had to back down and correct the timeline (which is rare, for him). But then Trump, being Trump, just went ahead and made up a fantasy version of the call in his head where he was Mister Tough Guy -- which also never actually happened. Newsom called this out in no uncertain terms:

They [Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom] had a Saturday morning discussion, the two men say, in which Trump purports to have brought up the National Guard. But Newsom decried that account as false. "He lied, on my mother and dad's grave," Newsom said on The New York Times podcast. "I don't mess around when I say this. He lied. Stone cold liar."

Once Trump began fabricating parts of their conversation later that day, Newsom alleged, it started "to disturb me on a different level that maybe he actually believed he said those things," he said.

"He's not all there," the governor added.

The new line of attack from Newsom, who is widely considered a top contender for president in 2028, comes after he told Fox LA earlier this week that Trump "is not the same person that I dealt with just four years ago, and he's incapable now of even a train of thought. He's making things up."

That is the proper way to deal with a bully that likes to live in his own fantasyland.

Newsom would have won the MIDOTW award this week even without all his online snark and calling Trump's lies for what they are, but we'll get to that in the Talking Points part of the program. But Newsom also deserves his Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award for winning the social media war hands down -- something that not many Democrats are even capable of doing (sadly enough).

[Congratulate Senator Alex Padilla on his Senate contact page, and California Governor Gavin Newsom on his official contact page, to let them know you appreciate their efforts.]





In a show of party unity, we're not going to award a Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award this week. There were a few Democrats who were mildly disappointing this week, but none of them rose to the level of an actual award, so we're putting it back on the shelf for another week.




Volume 800 (6/13/25)

We've got to begin with our own birthday celebration here. Because (see above) this is actually the 800th of these articles we have published. That's a lot! So happy birthday to us...



This week, we're going to forgo our usual talking points. We could easily have written some, in a week where Trump got resoundingly booed at the Kennedy Center and (irony alert!) said of Joe Biden: "I've known the guy for a long time. He was never the sharpest bulb." That one almost writes itself, since the only possible rejoinder is: "Trump is not the brightest knife in the drawer" (or "tool in the shed," if you prefer).

But this is too serious a week for such silliness.

Which brings us to the other reason Gavin Newsom deserves his MIDOTW award this week. He gave a televised address that some are calling "the start to his 2028 presidential campaign," which we feel is somewhat inaccurate (since Newsom actually started running a few years ago, really).

Kidding aside, though, this is the most blistering takedown of Trump we have heard since he regained office. So we thought the transcript of what Newsom had to say was important enough to present in full. You can watch him deliver these remarks (the video is less than nine minutes long), or you can just read it, but either way it is definitely worth your time. Newsom does not mince words and he does not hold back from presenting how serious what is now happening truly is. So without further ado, here is the speech that Newsom gave on national television this week:



Democracy At A Crossroads

I want to say a few words about the events of the last few days.

This past weekend, federal agents conducted large-scale workplace raids in and around Los Angeles. Those raids continue as I speak.

California is no stranger to immigration enforcement. But instead of focusing on undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records and people with final deportation orders, a strategy both parties have long supported, this administration is pushing mass deportations, indiscriminately targeting hardworking immigrant families, regardless of their roots or risk.

What's happening right now is very different than anything we've seen before. On Saturday morning, when federal agents jumped out of an unmarked van near a Home Depot parking lot, they began grabbing people. A deliberate targeting of a heavily Latino suburb. A similar scene also played out when a clothing company was raided downtown.

In other actions, a U.S. citizen, nine months pregnant, was arrested; a 4-year-old girl, taken; families separated; friends, quite literally, disappearing.

In response, everyday Angelinos came out to exercise their Constitutional right to free speech and assembly, to protest their government's actions. In turn, the State of California and the City and County of Los Angeles sent our police officers to help keep the peace and, with some exceptions, they were successful.

Like many states, California is no stranger to this sort of unrest. We manage it regularly, and with our own law enforcement. But this, again, was different.

What then ensued was the use of tear gas, flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets, federal agents detaining people and undermining their due process rights.

Donald Trump, without consulting California law enforcement leaders, commandeered 2,000 of our state's National Guard members to deploy on our streets, illegally and for no reason.

This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers and even our National Guard at risk.

That's when the downward spiral began. He doubled down on his dangerous National Guard deployment by fanning the flames even harder. And the president, he did it on purpose. As the news spread throughout L.A., anxiety for family and friends ramped up. Protests started again.

By night, several dozen lawbreakers became violent and destructive. They vandalized property. They tried to assault police officers. Many of you have seen video clips of cars burning on cable news.

If you incite violence -- I want to be clear about this -- if you incite violence or destroy our communities, you are going to be held to account. That kind of criminal behavior will not be tolerated. Full stop.

Already, more than 220 people have been arrested. And we're reviewing tapes to build additional cases and people will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Again, thanks to our law enforcement officers and the majority of Angelenos who protested peacefully, this situation was winding down and was concentrated in just a few square blocks downtown.

But that, that's not what Donald Trump wanted. He again chose escalation, he chose more force. He chose theatrics over public safety. He federalized another 2,000 Guard members.

He deployed more than 700 active U.S. Marines. These are men and women trained in foreign combat, not domestic law enforcement. We honor their service. We honor their bravery. But we do not want our streets militarized by our own armed forces. Not in L.A. Not in California. Not anywhere.

We're seeing unmarked cars, unmarked cars in school parking lots. Kids afraid of attending their own graduation. Trump is pulling a military dragnet all across Los Angeles, well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals. His agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses.

That's just weakness, weakness masquerading as strength. Donald Trump's government isn't protecting our communities. They are traumatizing our communities. And that seems to be the entire point.

California will keep fighting. We'll keep fighting on behalf of our people, all of our people, including in the courts.

Yesterday, we filed a legal challenge to President Trump's reckless deployment of American troops to a major American city. Today, we sought an emergency court order to stop the use of the American military to engage in law enforcement activities across Los Angeles.

If some of us can be snatched off the streets without a warrant, based only on suspicion or skin color, then none of us are safe. Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there.

Trump and his loyalists, they thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.

And by the way, Trump, he's not opposed to lawlessness and violence as long as it serves him. What more evidence do we need than January 6th.

I ask everyone: Take time, reflect on this perilous moment. A president who wants to be bound by no law or constitution, perpetuating a unified assault on American traditions.

This is a president who, in just over 140 days, has fired government watchdogs that could hold him accountable, accountable for corruption and fraud. He's declared a war, a war on culture, on history, on science, on knowledge itself. Databases quite literally are vanishing.

He's delegitimizing news organizations and he's assaulting the First Amendment. And the threat of defunding them. At threat, he's dictating what universities themselves can teach. He's targeting law firms and the judicial branch that are the foundations of an orderly and civil society. He's calling for a sitting governor to be arrested for no other reason than to, in his own words, "for getting elected."

And we all know, this Saturday, he's ordering our American heroes, the United States military, and forcing them to put on a vulgar display to celebrate his birthday, just as other failed dictators have done in the past.

Look, this isn't just about protests here in Los Angeles. When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard. he made that order apply to every state in this nation.

This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next.

Democracy is next.

Democracy is under assault right before our eyes, this moment we have feared has arrived. He's taking a wrecking ball, a wrecking ball to our founding fathers' historic project: three coequal branches of independent government.

There are no longer any checks and balances. Congress is nowhere to be found. Speaker Johnson has completely abdicated that responsibility.

The rule of law has increasingly been given way to the rule of Don.

The founding fathers didn't live and die to see this kind of moment. It's time for all of us to stand up. Justice Brandeis, he said it best. In a democracy, the most important office -- with all due respect, Mr. President -- is not the presidency, and it's certainly not governor. The most important office is office of citizen.

At this moment, at this moment, we all need to stand up and be held to account, a higher level of accountability. If you exercise your First Amendment rights, please, please do it peacefully.

I know many of you are feeling deep anxiety, stress, and fear. But I want you to know that you are the antidote to that fear and that anxiety. What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence, to be complicit in this moment.

Do not give into him.




Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Follow Chris on Twitter: ChrisWeigant
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com

[rzemanfl]

1. You have an important milestone post coming up.