I keep getting trapped into not know what TO DO though. I keep reading and hearing and reading and hearing that we all need to do something and/or are not doing enough, but I’m not sure what that something should be—posting to social media definitely isn’t enough. I make monthly donations. That definitely isn’t enough, but it is something. Calling/writing to legislators. Also doesn’t seem to do anything. What is the *something* everyone should be doing?
What you can do? PROTEST IN THE STREETS...we need new people all the time to join the movement! LARGE (10,000 plus) mass demonstrations are needed to effect change! Be on the right side of history!
There are a lot of us disabled older folks (I’m 73) who cannot do this. I only wish I could. I can’t afford to donate either, due to living on (endangered) social security. I have a substack (the magic is real), and I write, write, write, and put it out there. I’ve contacted all my reps/senators - I live in NY - and though they are on the right side, they are not doing enough. But as a life-long activist, now sidelined, I am extremely frustrated that it seems the only option I have is something my body will not let me do. So I feel angry. At my body. At this regime that is destroying the US. At all of us who keep telling me the only thing I can do that will matter is something I can’t do. I am willing to shelter, offer support. I live in a small rural town in what is called “upstate” NY that is mostly red. I moved here right before covid because my two living sons are here. So I know no one, and my friends and life-long community are all 6 hours away. This is a nightmare. Eventually, I hope, I will be called upon to put my life on the line - whether someone drives me there or it comes to my home. And I am willing to do that. I have had enough.
Using Substack as your voice IS doing something! Contacting your Federal representation IS doing something! Thank you for taking those steps! I understand your frustration as this sliding down the path to where we are now has been coming along for decades (I'm only a couple of years younger). Keep doing what you're doing - the Universe is listening :)
Start by saying active prayers for both of your sons, and for the hearts of all your Red Voting Neighbors. Actively pray for them that God's light and love will enter their hearts and do not look for the results of your prayers because they may not be visible to you right away.
There is a Buddhist practice called loving kindness. It starts by directing all good things to oneself, then slowly extending those good wishes to the people most admired and loved, those most trusted, to those simply appreciated or toward whom one feels neutral, and increasingly expanding circles toward those one finds irritating and eventually toward those one finds profoundly threatening.
Loving kindness prayer and meditation is incredibly powerful. If you try it you will find that it does a lot to heal the way you feel in your community and it could lead you to some very concrete actions that will do good in the long run.
Have faith in the power of spirituality. It is at the foundation of Marianne's message to the nation, and the world.
I absolutely do this. I know Love is the only force powerful enough to stop this and our prayers, sending love, however we think of it, is important. I feel we need to come together and raise power together and direct it. Work on the level of consciousness is as important as protesting.
Same here, do not despair dear soul, God has a plan. I am a student of "A course in Miracles" I practice the exercises every day, this keeps me anchored grounded in the Truth of who I really am, Pray, joy and peace are our innate gifts.
May Peace, Love and joy infuse your God given Life!!
First of all, thank you for doing everything you do.
Second, I would like to refer you to something that Marianne printed on her 2020 campaign shirts. It says "In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it."
That t-shirt doesn't tell people what to do specifically. It tells them that they have the power to take action on their own behalf in their community and their nation. From their HEARTS.
When Marianne was offering live stream lectures On A Course in Miracles before she got involved in politics, she would often say, "Do your spiritual practice in the morning and ask what were you born, made by having to do on this Earth? Everyone has a mission. Define and act on yours."
The fact that you live in a limiting body means there are certain actions your destiny does not allow you to take. But there are others you can take because you have the time and the focus and the will to do so.
Do not underestimate the power of prayer. Thoughts are real things and all thoughts are connected. The prayers you say, especially prayers of intention, can feed all the people whose bodies will allow them to physically protest, and it will feed your intuition so you will know what to do how to do it and when to do it according to the plan of the God who made you just as you manifesting right now.
Asking the question "What *one thing can *I ACTUALLY do in support of other people about this situation?" invites me to the simple, genuinely profound answer:
Pray to know the will of the God who gives me power, and pray for the courage to take the actions I am invited to act as a result of my sincere meditation, prayer and journaling.
You can do all that with your disabled body. Don't get mad at your body. You will waste energy that you need to do the good work of the world you are destined to do at this time.
Even if all you do is pray for the resistance with every active cell of your resting body you will do great good and feed the hearts and souls of people who are doing the physical work of resistance.
No goodness on this earth goes unnoticed. Look for the ways you are empowered to share your own goodness and take those actions, for they have real value. Much 💟 to you.
I have been aware that I have a specific purpose since I was a child. I had teachers who came to me in my dreams until I was about 11. I got my purpose specifically as a young adult after I had already started my “work in the world”. I was one of the first people in the US to integrate Earth awareness and spirit into economics, and had two books published by New Society Publishers in the 1980s and 1990s. Thomas Berry, one of my mentors, wrote the forewords to both books. The first, Economics as if the Earth Really Mattered, was chosen as a featured book by QPB (which may not exist anymore) and one of my articles on corporations destroying the rainforest was chose by Project Censored in the early 1990s. So I’ve been out there for decades. Seeing everything I love and have worked for destroyed by this regime is untenable to me. A part of me wants to offer myself up as a sacrifice. To stand in front, or sit as the case may be, to face the oppressors, with my life if need be. Meanwhile, I do the best I can from my little apartment in the middle of nowhere, yet keeping in contact with friends and putting my words and work out there however I am able. It is not enough. Nothing I do will be enough.
How does it effect change? Seriously asking - I know that it could maybe change some minds about what the fascist is doing, but the way he is being allowed to do what he's doing, I don't think ge hives a sh*t about protesters. He'll, he'll just get away with arresting everyone. 😔
Start writing a personal blog and link it regularly to any social media you share with ACTUTAL PEOPLE in your life - not names on an X account...*family *friends and **neighbors. Join your local Democratic Party and attend their meetings. Get involved with School Board elections - these days they *really matter. Create a non profit that tends to the needs of those who have been targeted by the Trump Administration. Start a Victory Garden and donate all the produce to your local food bank. Fund that bank regularly. Get a membership with your local PBS affiliate and donate generously. Praise their programming openly, on your socials and among your family and friends.
Keep reading good books. Subscribe to the New York Times and *read it, all of it, not just the parts that disappoint you. Subscribe to The Atlantic. It's a bulwark against this Movement of the Uninformed and the Ill Advised. But feel free to ignore the Washington Post because it's now what I call, without affection, Washington's Burnt Toast.
Don't let people get you all worked up over the "corruption" in "both parties". One may be disappointing and imperfect, the other is ... well. You know.
And PRAY. If you follow Marianne Williamson, a part of you believes that prayer feeds the Soul of America and that soul is starving for authentic spiritual food right now.
Get a copy of A Course in Miracles and *do the actual lessons.
Or find a church that resonates with you and help build it up, not let it die.
Put your hands on *any scripture that has meaning for you and study it.
Then do what the GOOD in it commands that you so, every single day.
And laugh. As they marched Alexi Navalny off to a brutal camp where they killed him in cold blood as they furiously worked to erase his legacy, he LAUGHED at them.
I've found the NYT and thenAtlantic to be wanting in terms of truth. The Consortium News and Harpers are more reliable, truthful IMO.
And I don't know about "prayer" but meditation seems to work for a more peaceful world on the third rock from the Sun, spinning in the vast space of our Universe. There's no planet B on the horizon. This is it.
I use the term “contemplate”. I spend a lot of time there. And also breathing in Love and breathing it out. Sometimes “in general” and sometimes to specific people and places. I work with those I call “my beloved dead”, my ancestors and they are here and present in my life. I can envision this horror coming to an end. At the same time I sense it needs to happen very, very soon (like before the midterms), for it to actually happen. It will take actions on the physical as well as constant and consistent and expanding awareness of and working with the energy/consciousness of Love. Not only as individuals, but deliberately in circles and communities. There is a “net” of love and light being held and strengthened by the ancestors, the grandmothers, and anyone who is aware can consciously join them. I see us as “nodes” in this net. All the energy we add strengthens it. I try to do this each night. Sometimes I’m more successful than others.
What is mind boggling to me is that people are saying ,” well , they were here illegally .”As if that warrants them being put in these horrible prisons to rot!People are under some kind of spell and we need to wake them up . How he is a accomplishing so much destruction to our democracy at such a fast speed , while playing so much golf is surreal .
Perhaps the archons are real - viruses in our minds. How to eradicate the virus of the mind? My solution is always a sound education, but we not longer have that access point. The Koch brothers in the 70's promised to dismantle public education by the year 2000. They have succeeded.
Oh yes and if you, or anyone else who reads this, [is/are] a person in the recovery community, someone who found Marianne because you were in search of a "God of your understanding", continue to attend your meetings, work your Steps and help others to do the same. Democracy will not be served if you relapse on alcohol or drug abuse, practice your eating disorder, or cultivate any of your process addictions or codependencies.
Your recovery, if you are committed to the 12 Step movement, can get you through the details of any action you take, and it will keep your intuition strong so you know when to act and when not to act, who to support or seek for support, and how to go about the business you are sent to do by that God of your own understanding.
I don't need to outline the "recovery slogans" for you if this happens to be a path for you (or for any of Marianne's blog readers} but you know what they say:
Easy Does It But Do it, One Day At A Time, putting First Things First and as you do so, Live (fully) but Let Live so you don't build up resentments and despair as you go about the business of Living in These Challenging times. And... as I said before...
Pray/Meditate in the Morning. Don't neglect that.
Then, in Marianne's words, having been fortified by prayer and good reading...
Kick ass in the afternoon, and go to bed knowing you did your best, One Day At A Time.
Congress could stop this but most don't want to lose their cushy jobs. I would think tho that if they could get the fascist out, they'd have a good chance of keeping them. (?)
After posting, I saw it pointing out that the author of this piece is not verified. But the advice itself should still be sent to any and all of our representatives.
This comment thread has been helpful for me in recognizing how many different ways there are to contribute to collective change. For me, I focus my energy on building community and on writing (and I also go to the library!). And, I make recurrent monthly donations to political action organizations. I find automatic, recurrent donations are best because then you don’t fall into the trap of deciding you don’t have “enough” to make a donation this month, instead it is just automatically contributed.
I find it is important to focus on what we can do and then DO that, instead of becoming immobilized by fear that we aren’t doing enough (and thus contributing nothing).
The only people with the power to change anything are the Trump voters who realize they have made a mistake. Waking up to his real agenda and speaking out about it to friends, family, church members. Call them out!
Thank you for continuing to speak out with such clarity and courage. Your commitment to naming the truth is indispensable, and your voice feels more critical now than ever. Grateful you refuse to stay silent.
Yes ... Exactly! Dehumanizing human beings is where it begins .... It makes it much easier to Kill or imprison anyone ... even your own relatives ... If left unchecked, American Citizens will be deported to these same prisons for something as simple as speaking out against a Trump policy or the Administration ... WAKE UP ... AND STOP THIS ... BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!!
Thank you for calling it as you see it, Marianne. They are absolutely testing us to see how far they can push their supporters (and the rest of us).
Anyone who has said in the past that they support legal immigration - which is most people who voted for Trump - should be speaking up right now and saying, "Stop this!"
All I know is that our voices need to be heard. We have to fight for our country and as individuals, we have to participate in demonstrations and listen intently to what is really going on here. We don’t have until 2026 to sit around and wait for the next election. Things are moving too quickly so we have to be heard NOW and LOUDLY. The first time I saw the inside of that prison in El Salvador, I cried. No human being deserves that kind of treatment. We must be heard!
The 'prison' in El Salvador is a concrete coffin - to enter is to be dead to the world. Activists correctly note 5A: 'No person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. This is so critical as to be echoed in 13A Section 1: '... nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ...'
Then there's 6A: 'In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed ...; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.' Does seem that moving a suspect from Tufts to Texas skips over a few 6A steps - OK, all the steps. Finally, conclusively 8A: '... nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.' The Terrorist Prison in El Salvador is the epitome of 'cruel and unusual punishment'.
Every public employee and every public official from ICE following orders up the chain of command to the President defining policy has sworn to uphold the Constitution and must be held criminally liable for their violations thereof. But there is a snag.
The locals interred there by Pres. Bukele of course do not enjoy the protections of 5A, 13A, 6A, 8A. The brutal fact is that we do not either. The 7/1/24 'Precedent' in Trump v U.S, legalizes ANY Official Act of the President. As Sotomayor remarked in dissent, the President could order Seal Team 6 to assassinate opponents. Or ICE could catch & bury folks in a concrete tomb.
Recall that Trump practiced catch and release in his first term, e.g. in Portland. And the development of Project 2025 began soon after the J6 coup attempt. It's almost as if Trump, the Heritage Foundation, et.al. knew that the dim Dem J6 hearings would fail, and that the Federalist Society majority on the Supreme Court would invert the Constitution giving Trump royal powers beyond anything King George III ever dreamed; powers comparable to the Reichstag voting Hitler the power to enact laws (1933 Enabling Act) - which led very quickly to concentration camps. And 1st they came for the transgender...
We cannot win the battle for our country without restoring the Constitution. That requires removing Justices who supported foul precedents and rejecting said foul precedents. Note Article 3 Section 1: "The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour" Defiling the Constitution that you have sworn to uphold, is grounds for termination. The vote of 51 Senators suffices to hire a Judge; it should require no more to fire one found in violation of their oath. And likewise for any Appointee confirmed by the Senate.
Is such a thing possible. To believe otherwise is to accept defeat.
The Constitution says whatever the Supreme Court says it says. There is no appeal from that............paperwork will not save us from evil people, only good people being good can do that.
The Constitution most definitely does not give the Supreme Court the right or power to Amend the Constitution. In the 1803 Marbury ruling the Court assumed the right of Judicial Review; they declared the act in question un-Constitutional & hence insupportable. I absolutely concur with this as a necessary check on the legislative process; a law repugnant to the constitution cannot stand. Maybury was a simple Act ruled wholly un-Constitutional. In cases that present more complex quesions the Court is of course free to note the explicit portions of the law repugnant to the Constitution - using only the literal words of the Amended Constitution. And the Law logically then would be remanded to Congress to be corrected in the defined Constitutional legislative process.
Your hubris in stating that the Constitution says whatever the Supreme Court says it says is exactly the eloquent obscenity that the Federalist Society has long and too successfully worked to normalize. The Rule of Law does work through 'paper' and trials.
Thank you, Tom. I certainly do not want to support the Federalist Society by echoing them. But, my understanding is that the only check on the Supreme Court is to impeach the justices. If Congress refuses to do that, then how can the extra-Constitutional custom of Judicial Review be appealed? Give me some hope, please?
It seems hopeless because this is how democracies fail. Enough of those in power simply say that the Constitution and laws say something else, or ignore them.
Thank you for your articulate post. I wholeheartedly agree.
Yes, there was a long-term and well-organized plan to create the current SCOTUS which granted Trump sweeping immunity. (And I said at the time, it does so at its own peril.)
We’re also simultaneously witnessing the rapid implementation of Project 2025 (a project djt claimed on multiple occasions that he knew nothing about). Obviously trump is now emboldened, unhinged by the SCOTUS immunity ruling and he’s either pushing, testing, or ignoring ALL lines that hinder his agenda.
At the same time, Trump’s intentional and persistent use of the presidential emergency act (IEEPA), which essentially bypasses congressional oversight, is dramatically compounding his bold and sweeping despotic decisions. He’s also employing his typical shock-n-awe MO by creating enormous chaos, confusion, uncertainty and fear. He’s manipulating the stock market for personal profit. And he’s directly threatening all world leaders, institutions, media outlets as well as individuals who dare question his absolute authority. (Or happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.)
“…according to recent reports, President Trump has declared multiple national emergencies and invoked emergency powers multiple times since taking office.
Here are a few examples of his use of emergency powers:
National Emergency at the Southern Border: He declared a national emergency at the southern border in January 2025, seeking to address what he describes as a crisis of illegal immigration and to gain operational control of the border, combat cartels, and secure the nation. He previously declared an emergency at the border in 2019 and continued it in 2020.
Trade Deficit and Tariffs: President Trump has declared a national emergency regarding foreign trade and economic practices, specifically invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs in response to the trade deficit and what he considers nonreciprocal trade relationships.
Imposing Tariffs on Imports: He has used emergency declarations to impose tariffs on imports, specifically naming Canada, Mexico, and China. He has also used emergency powers to address issues like logging and lumber production.
It's worth noting that these declarations and actions have faced legal challenges and criticism. Some critics argue that the use of emergency powers can circumvent Congress and potentially lead to abuse.” But he’s now merely ignoring court orders.
So, who’s going to stop him?
Will he use the IEEPA to take control of Greenland and Canada, Mexico?
Declare martial law?
Privatize the military, the media?
Force US citizens into internment camps?
Stop elections?
It certainly feels bleak, but neither silence nor or acquiescence are options. We must continue to get organized and do what we can to protect our country, our children, the future of our democracy from Trump’s evil, his tyranny.
There are many grassroots organizations that are now focused stopping the trump agenda. Search for those that are near you and reflect your personal goals and values
AND DO NOT ACQUIESCE! HOLD YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES ACCOUNTABLE!
Thank you for giving coherent assessments of recent trumpian events. Only "wishful thinkers" and intentionally deceptive officials would downplay, minimize the events occurring since January ' 25.
The Chris Hedges Report - American Concentration Camps
Once a regime starts to send people to concentration camps — including those in El Salvador — it creates a system of detention that eschews due process and disappears citizens into black holes.
Elon Musk, on X called the majority of Americans who benefit from some government programs and services, PARASITES.Yeah, make the majority of us inhuman so you can exterminate us. This POTUS and administration must be stopped NOW.
I am 69 and my only income is Social Security. I moved to Ecuador, where my meager income will go farther. If they stop my checks, there is nothing that I can do? How much sympathy can a poor American expect in this world? I hope that the tax cuts will make you happy.
Yes you are, I see all this as playing to peoples fears. This line of thought creates more fear, it solves nothing. Moving these monsters from our midst is not easy or tasteful but is necessary if we are to stop their rampage.
yes it is but you choose not to see it. First they came for the Jews.....today there are the other undesirables or subhumans or what are considered enemies of the state. Making it harder for women to vote, taking away women's right to chose what to do with their bodies. Cutting services for the people with disabilities, or people struggling with a rising food costs and depending on food banks which are experiencing shortages. Masked agents arresting people without due process, and sending them to some prison in another country where that dictator is getting paid for it. Firing federal workers for lies about job performance. That is fascism
Don't forget: The Guantanamo Bay detention center has been open for 22 years as of 11 January 2024. First opened in 2002, Guantanamo continues to uphold a legacy of torture, indefinite detention, Islamophobia, and injustice.
¨On January 29, 2025, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum ordering the expansion of the Migrant Operations Center (MOC) at Guantánamo Bay to house “high-priority criminal aliens” unlawfully present in the U.S. The first flight transferring migrants from the U.S. to Guantánamo took place on February 4, 2025.¨
Do your own research. It is Hitler Germany in 1933.
Germany 1933: From democracy to dictatorship
¨In 1933, Hitler came to power and turned Germany into a dictatorship. How did the Nazi party come to power and how did Hitler manage to eliminate his opponents?¨
Yes, to get out and march. Get out and be seen by any media possible. Be your own media! Post all and any video you can of protest!! Post in all platforms you still can! Also, be your own media, catch any activity you can where ICE is seen discriminating or if you have surveillance cameras in your home or business, please post those videos! I’m a US citizen in Cameroon, and people don’t know what’s happening, but many said ‘yes, I saw that video’ of the PHD student in Somerville. (I believe it was Somerville, MA).
I keep getting trapped into not know what TO DO though. I keep reading and hearing and reading and hearing that we all need to do something and/or are not doing enough, but I’m not sure what that something should be—posting to social media definitely isn’t enough. I make monthly donations. That definitely isn’t enough, but it is something. Calling/writing to legislators. Also doesn’t seem to do anything. What is the *something* everyone should be doing?
Be at the protest on April 19th and try to bring people with you
What you can do? PROTEST IN THE STREETS...we need new people all the time to join the movement! LARGE (10,000 plus) mass demonstrations are needed to effect change! Be on the right side of history!
There are a lot of us disabled older folks (I’m 73) who cannot do this. I only wish I could. I can’t afford to donate either, due to living on (endangered) social security. I have a substack (the magic is real), and I write, write, write, and put it out there. I’ve contacted all my reps/senators - I live in NY - and though they are on the right side, they are not doing enough. But as a life-long activist, now sidelined, I am extremely frustrated that it seems the only option I have is something my body will not let me do. So I feel angry. At my body. At this regime that is destroying the US. At all of us who keep telling me the only thing I can do that will matter is something I can’t do. I am willing to shelter, offer support. I live in a small rural town in what is called “upstate” NY that is mostly red. I moved here right before covid because my two living sons are here. So I know no one, and my friends and life-long community are all 6 hours away. This is a nightmare. Eventually, I hope, I will be called upon to put my life on the line - whether someone drives me there or it comes to my home. And I am willing to do that. I have had enough.
Using Substack as your voice IS doing something! Contacting your Federal representation IS doing something! Thank you for taking those steps! I understand your frustration as this sliding down the path to where we are now has been coming along for decades (I'm only a couple of years younger). Keep doing what you're doing - the Universe is listening :)
Ps on what I just said:
Start by saying active prayers for both of your sons, and for the hearts of all your Red Voting Neighbors. Actively pray for them that God's light and love will enter their hearts and do not look for the results of your prayers because they may not be visible to you right away.
There is a Buddhist practice called loving kindness. It starts by directing all good things to oneself, then slowly extending those good wishes to the people most admired and loved, those most trusted, to those simply appreciated or toward whom one feels neutral, and increasingly expanding circles toward those one finds irritating and eventually toward those one finds profoundly threatening.
Loving kindness prayer and meditation is incredibly powerful. If you try it you will find that it does a lot to heal the way you feel in your community and it could lead you to some very concrete actions that will do good in the long run.
Have faith in the power of spirituality. It is at the foundation of Marianne's message to the nation, and the world.
I absolutely do this. I know Love is the only force powerful enough to stop this and our prayers, sending love, however we think of it, is important. I feel we need to come together and raise power together and direct it. Work on the level of consciousness is as important as protesting.
Same here, do not despair dear soul, God has a plan. I am a student of "A course in Miracles" I practice the exercises every day, this keeps me anchored grounded in the Truth of who I really am, Pray, joy and peace are our innate gifts.
May Peace, Love and joy infuse your God given Life!!
Hello Susan
First of all, thank you for doing everything you do.
Second, I would like to refer you to something that Marianne printed on her 2020 campaign shirts. It says "In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it."
That t-shirt doesn't tell people what to do specifically. It tells them that they have the power to take action on their own behalf in their community and their nation. From their HEARTS.
When Marianne was offering live stream lectures On A Course in Miracles before she got involved in politics, she would often say, "Do your spiritual practice in the morning and ask what were you born, made by having to do on this Earth? Everyone has a mission. Define and act on yours."
The fact that you live in a limiting body means there are certain actions your destiny does not allow you to take. But there are others you can take because you have the time and the focus and the will to do so.
Do not underestimate the power of prayer. Thoughts are real things and all thoughts are connected. The prayers you say, especially prayers of intention, can feed all the people whose bodies will allow them to physically protest, and it will feed your intuition so you will know what to do how to do it and when to do it according to the plan of the God who made you just as you manifesting right now.
Asking the question "What *one thing can *I ACTUALLY do in support of other people about this situation?" invites me to the simple, genuinely profound answer:
Pray to know the will of the God who gives me power, and pray for the courage to take the actions I am invited to act as a result of my sincere meditation, prayer and journaling.
You can do all that with your disabled body. Don't get mad at your body. You will waste energy that you need to do the good work of the world you are destined to do at this time.
Even if all you do is pray for the resistance with every active cell of your resting body you will do great good and feed the hearts and souls of people who are doing the physical work of resistance.
No goodness on this earth goes unnoticed. Look for the ways you are empowered to share your own goodness and take those actions, for they have real value. Much 💟 to you.
I have been aware that I have a specific purpose since I was a child. I had teachers who came to me in my dreams until I was about 11. I got my purpose specifically as a young adult after I had already started my “work in the world”. I was one of the first people in the US to integrate Earth awareness and spirit into economics, and had two books published by New Society Publishers in the 1980s and 1990s. Thomas Berry, one of my mentors, wrote the forewords to both books. The first, Economics as if the Earth Really Mattered, was chosen as a featured book by QPB (which may not exist anymore) and one of my articles on corporations destroying the rainforest was chose by Project Censored in the early 1990s. So I’ve been out there for decades. Seeing everything I love and have worked for destroyed by this regime is untenable to me. A part of me wants to offer myself up as a sacrifice. To stand in front, or sit as the case may be, to face the oppressors, with my life if need be. Meanwhile, I do the best I can from my little apartment in the middle of nowhere, yet keeping in contact with friends and putting my words and work out there however I am able. It is not enough. Nothing I do will be enough.
It IS enough!
Please don't hate your body Susan, love it for all it has done beautifully all these years. Love it, and love yourself to the core- just as you are!
How does it effect change? Seriously asking - I know that it could maybe change some minds about what the fascist is doing, but the way he is being allowed to do what he's doing, I don't think ge hives a sh*t about protesters. He'll, he'll just get away with arresting everyone. 😔
Start writing a personal blog and link it regularly to any social media you share with ACTUTAL PEOPLE in your life - not names on an X account...*family *friends and **neighbors. Join your local Democratic Party and attend their meetings. Get involved with School Board elections - these days they *really matter. Create a non profit that tends to the needs of those who have been targeted by the Trump Administration. Start a Victory Garden and donate all the produce to your local food bank. Fund that bank regularly. Get a membership with your local PBS affiliate and donate generously. Praise their programming openly, on your socials and among your family and friends.
Keep reading good books. Subscribe to the New York Times and *read it, all of it, not just the parts that disappoint you. Subscribe to The Atlantic. It's a bulwark against this Movement of the Uninformed and the Ill Advised. But feel free to ignore the Washington Post because it's now what I call, without affection, Washington's Burnt Toast.
Don't let people get you all worked up over the "corruption" in "both parties". One may be disappointing and imperfect, the other is ... well. You know.
And PRAY. If you follow Marianne Williamson, a part of you believes that prayer feeds the Soul of America and that soul is starving for authentic spiritual food right now.
Get a copy of A Course in Miracles and *do the actual lessons.
Or find a church that resonates with you and help build it up, not let it die.
Put your hands on *any scripture that has meaning for you and study it.
Then do what the GOOD in it commands that you so, every single day.
And laugh. As they marched Alexi Navalny off to a brutal camp where they killed him in cold blood as they furiously worked to erase his legacy, he LAUGHED at them.
Don't give up. Look up. Then get to work.
My best to you, dear one. <3 (heart emoji).
I've found the NYT and thenAtlantic to be wanting in terms of truth. The Consortium News and Harpers are more reliable, truthful IMO.
And I don't know about "prayer" but meditation seems to work for a more peaceful world on the third rock from the Sun, spinning in the vast space of our Universe. There's no planet B on the horizon. This is it.
I use the term “contemplate”. I spend a lot of time there. And also breathing in Love and breathing it out. Sometimes “in general” and sometimes to specific people and places. I work with those I call “my beloved dead”, my ancestors and they are here and present in my life. I can envision this horror coming to an end. At the same time I sense it needs to happen very, very soon (like before the midterms), for it to actually happen. It will take actions on the physical as well as constant and consistent and expanding awareness of and working with the energy/consciousness of Love. Not only as individuals, but deliberately in circles and communities. There is a “net” of love and light being held and strengthened by the ancestors, the grandmothers, and anyone who is aware can consciously join them. I see us as “nodes” in this net. All the energy we add strengthens it. I try to do this each night. Sometimes I’m more successful than others.
What is mind boggling to me is that people are saying ,” well , they were here illegally .”As if that warrants them being put in these horrible prisons to rot!People are under some kind of spell and we need to wake them up . How he is a accomplishing so much destruction to our democracy at such a fast speed , while playing so much golf is surreal .
Exactly. The ignorance is appalling.
Perhaps the archons are real - viruses in our minds. How to eradicate the virus of the mind? My solution is always a sound education, but we not longer have that access point. The Koch brothers in the 70's promised to dismantle public education by the year 2000. They have succeeded.
Oh yes and if you, or anyone else who reads this, [is/are] a person in the recovery community, someone who found Marianne because you were in search of a "God of your understanding", continue to attend your meetings, work your Steps and help others to do the same. Democracy will not be served if you relapse on alcohol or drug abuse, practice your eating disorder, or cultivate any of your process addictions or codependencies.
Your recovery, if you are committed to the 12 Step movement, can get you through the details of any action you take, and it will keep your intuition strong so you know when to act and when not to act, who to support or seek for support, and how to go about the business you are sent to do by that God of your own understanding.
I don't need to outline the "recovery slogans" for you if this happens to be a path for you (or for any of Marianne's blog readers} but you know what they say:
Easy Does It But Do it, One Day At A Time, putting First Things First and as you do so, Live (fully) but Let Live so you don't build up resentments and despair as you go about the business of Living in These Challenging times. And... as I said before...
Pray/Meditate in the Morning. Don't neglect that.
Then, in Marianne's words, having been fortified by prayer and good reading...
Kick ass in the afternoon, and go to bed knowing you did your best, One Day At A Time.
Congress could stop this but most don't want to lose their cushy jobs. I would think tho that if they could get the fascist out, they'd have a good chance of keeping them. (?)
Right on, Molly!!! What are we supposed to be doing? I’ve been doing all those things too, but it’s like “farting into the wind”
Send Liz Cheney's plan to your reps and ask them what actions like these they are taking.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/199v8mMsBu/
After posting, I saw it pointing out that the author of this piece is not verified. But the advice itself should still be sent to any and all of our representatives.
I also find this social change ecosystem map helpful: Super helpful Social Change ecosystem graphic: https://buildingmovement.org/our-work/movement-building/social-change-ecosystem-map/
This comment thread has been helpful for me in recognizing how many different ways there are to contribute to collective change. For me, I focus my energy on building community and on writing (and I also go to the library!). And, I make recurrent monthly donations to political action organizations. I find automatic, recurrent donations are best because then you don’t fall into the trap of deciding you don’t have “enough” to make a donation this month, instead it is just automatically contributed.
I find it is important to focus on what we can do and then DO that, instead of becoming immobilized by fear that we aren’t doing enough (and thus contributing nothing).
The only people with the power to change anything are the Trump voters who realize they have made a mistake. Waking up to his real agenda and speaking out about it to friends, family, church members. Call them out!
Thank you for continuing to speak out with such clarity and courage. Your commitment to naming the truth is indispensable, and your voice feels more critical now than ever. Grateful you refuse to stay silent.
Yes ... Exactly! Dehumanizing human beings is where it begins .... It makes it much easier to Kill or imprison anyone ... even your own relatives ... If left unchecked, American Citizens will be deported to these same prisons for something as simple as speaking out against a Trump policy or the Administration ... WAKE UP ... AND STOP THIS ... BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!!
Thank you for calling it as you see it, Marianne. They are absolutely testing us to see how far they can push their supporters (and the rest of us).
Anyone who has said in the past that they support legal immigration - which is most people who voted for Trump - should be speaking up right now and saying, "Stop this!"
All I know is that our voices need to be heard. We have to fight for our country and as individuals, we have to participate in demonstrations and listen intently to what is really going on here. We don’t have until 2026 to sit around and wait for the next election. Things are moving too quickly so we have to be heard NOW and LOUDLY. The first time I saw the inside of that prison in El Salvador, I cried. No human being deserves that kind of treatment. We must be heard!
The 'prison' in El Salvador is a concrete coffin - to enter is to be dead to the world. Activists correctly note 5A: 'No person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. This is so critical as to be echoed in 13A Section 1: '... nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ...'
Then there's 6A: 'In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed ...; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.' Does seem that moving a suspect from Tufts to Texas skips over a few 6A steps - OK, all the steps. Finally, conclusively 8A: '... nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.' The Terrorist Prison in El Salvador is the epitome of 'cruel and unusual punishment'.
Every public employee and every public official from ICE following orders up the chain of command to the President defining policy has sworn to uphold the Constitution and must be held criminally liable for their violations thereof. But there is a snag.
The locals interred there by Pres. Bukele of course do not enjoy the protections of 5A, 13A, 6A, 8A. The brutal fact is that we do not either. The 7/1/24 'Precedent' in Trump v U.S, legalizes ANY Official Act of the President. As Sotomayor remarked in dissent, the President could order Seal Team 6 to assassinate opponents. Or ICE could catch & bury folks in a concrete tomb.
Recall that Trump practiced catch and release in his first term, e.g. in Portland. And the development of Project 2025 began soon after the J6 coup attempt. It's almost as if Trump, the Heritage Foundation, et.al. knew that the dim Dem J6 hearings would fail, and that the Federalist Society majority on the Supreme Court would invert the Constitution giving Trump royal powers beyond anything King George III ever dreamed; powers comparable to the Reichstag voting Hitler the power to enact laws (1933 Enabling Act) - which led very quickly to concentration camps. And 1st they came for the transgender...
We cannot win the battle for our country without restoring the Constitution. That requires removing Justices who supported foul precedents and rejecting said foul precedents. Note Article 3 Section 1: "The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour" Defiling the Constitution that you have sworn to uphold, is grounds for termination. The vote of 51 Senators suffices to hire a Judge; it should require no more to fire one found in violation of their oath. And likewise for any Appointee confirmed by the Senate.
Is such a thing possible. To believe otherwise is to accept defeat.
The Constitution says whatever the Supreme Court says it says. There is no appeal from that............paperwork will not save us from evil people, only good people being good can do that.
The Constitution most definitely does not give the Supreme Court the right or power to Amend the Constitution. In the 1803 Marbury ruling the Court assumed the right of Judicial Review; they declared the act in question un-Constitutional & hence insupportable. I absolutely concur with this as a necessary check on the legislative process; a law repugnant to the constitution cannot stand. Maybury was a simple Act ruled wholly un-Constitutional. In cases that present more complex quesions the Court is of course free to note the explicit portions of the law repugnant to the Constitution - using only the literal words of the Amended Constitution. And the Law logically then would be remanded to Congress to be corrected in the defined Constitutional legislative process.
Your hubris in stating that the Constitution says whatever the Supreme Court says it says is exactly the eloquent obscenity that the Federalist Society has long and too successfully worked to normalize. The Rule of Law does work through 'paper' and trials.
Thank you, Tom. I certainly do not want to support the Federalist Society by echoing them. But, my understanding is that the only check on the Supreme Court is to impeach the justices. If Congress refuses to do that, then how can the extra-Constitutional custom of Judicial Review be appealed? Give me some hope, please?
It seems hopeless because this is how democracies fail. Enough of those in power simply say that the Constitution and laws say something else, or ignore them.
Thank you for your articulate post. I wholeheartedly agree.
Yes, there was a long-term and well-organized plan to create the current SCOTUS which granted Trump sweeping immunity. (And I said at the time, it does so at its own peril.)
We’re also simultaneously witnessing the rapid implementation of Project 2025 (a project djt claimed on multiple occasions that he knew nothing about). Obviously trump is now emboldened, unhinged by the SCOTUS immunity ruling and he’s either pushing, testing, or ignoring ALL lines that hinder his agenda.
At the same time, Trump’s intentional and persistent use of the presidential emergency act (IEEPA), which essentially bypasses congressional oversight, is dramatically compounding his bold and sweeping despotic decisions. He’s also employing his typical shock-n-awe MO by creating enormous chaos, confusion, uncertainty and fear. He’s manipulating the stock market for personal profit. And he’s directly threatening all world leaders, institutions, media outlets as well as individuals who dare question his absolute authority. (Or happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.)
“…according to recent reports, President Trump has declared multiple national emergencies and invoked emergency powers multiple times since taking office.
Here are a few examples of his use of emergency powers:
National Emergency at the Southern Border: He declared a national emergency at the southern border in January 2025, seeking to address what he describes as a crisis of illegal immigration and to gain operational control of the border, combat cartels, and secure the nation. He previously declared an emergency at the border in 2019 and continued it in 2020.
Trade Deficit and Tariffs: President Trump has declared a national emergency regarding foreign trade and economic practices, specifically invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs in response to the trade deficit and what he considers nonreciprocal trade relationships.
Imposing Tariffs on Imports: He has used emergency declarations to impose tariffs on imports, specifically naming Canada, Mexico, and China. He has also used emergency powers to address issues like logging and lumber production.
It's worth noting that these declarations and actions have faced legal challenges and criticism. Some critics argue that the use of emergency powers can circumvent Congress and potentially lead to abuse.” But he’s now merely ignoring court orders.
So, who’s going to stop him?
Will he use the IEEPA to take control of Greenland and Canada, Mexico?
Declare martial law?
Privatize the military, the media?
Force US citizens into internment camps?
Stop elections?
It certainly feels bleak, but neither silence nor or acquiescence are options. We must continue to get organized and do what we can to protect our country, our children, the future of our democracy from Trump’s evil, his tyranny.
There are many grassroots organizations that are now focused stopping the trump agenda. Search for those that are near you and reflect your personal goals and values
AND DO NOT ACQUIESCE! HOLD YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES ACCOUNTABLE!
March this Saturday! Look up where to join in your state:
https://events.pol-rev.com/search?contentType=EVENTS&lat=40.7127281&lon=-74.0060152&locationName=New+York,+New+York,+United+States+of+America&eventPage=1
Thank you for giving coherent assessments of recent trumpian events. Only "wishful thinkers" and intentionally deceptive officials would downplay, minimize the events occurring since January ' 25.
GOD IS WATCHING US, GOD IS WATCHING US
🙏🫣😭🤬💔👎🙈🙉🙊🤥🐾
The Chris Hedges Report - American Concentration Camps
Once a regime starts to send people to concentration camps — including those in El Salvador — it creates a system of detention that eschews due process and disappears citizens into black holes.
Chris Hedges Apr 16, 2025
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/american-concentration-camps
Marianne, this is your best post yet. Thank you for your courage and your bravery.
Yes, almost too powerful. My head and heart are reeling.
Thank you Marianne for your humanitarian leadership during this critical moment in history. I continue to look to you for wisdom and guidance.
Elon Musk, on X called the majority of Americans who benefit from some government programs and services, PARASITES.Yeah, make the majority of us inhuman so you can exterminate us. This POTUS and administration must be stopped NOW.
I am 69 and my only income is Social Security. I moved to Ecuador, where my meager income will go farther. If they stop my checks, there is nothing that I can do? How much sympathy can a poor American expect in this world? I hope that the tax cuts will make you happy.
Sick Marianne, you of all people should know better than to make your opening statement. This is not Hitlers Germany-Shame on you...
Shame on me??? No, I’m a Jew. I think I’m very aware when and when not to use that analogy
Yes you are, I see all this as playing to peoples fears. This line of thought creates more fear, it solves nothing. Moving these monsters from our midst is not easy or tasteful but is necessary if we are to stop their rampage.
Shame is not a spiritual principle.
I will pray for Wilbur, and all who think as he does.
Me too.
Thank you for the prayers-just pray that God's will be done-"GODS"
yes it is but you choose not to see it. First they came for the Jews.....today there are the other undesirables or subhumans or what are considered enemies of the state. Making it harder for women to vote, taking away women's right to chose what to do with their bodies. Cutting services for the people with disabilities, or people struggling with a rising food costs and depending on food banks which are experiencing shortages. Masked agents arresting people without due process, and sending them to some prison in another country where that dictator is getting paid for it. Firing federal workers for lies about job performance. That is fascism
Citing Marianne "The ICE deportation raids are a test of Americans’ tolerance for having government “disappear” their fellow citizens."
Don't forget: The Guantanamo Bay detention center has been open for 22 years as of 11 January 2024. First opened in 2002, Guantanamo continues to uphold a legacy of torture, indefinite detention, Islamophobia, and injustice.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/03/22-years-of-justice-denied/
And now: More than 170 migrants now detained at Guantanamo Bay
https://www.cvt.org/what-we-do/advocating-for-change/legacy-of-us-torture/detention-operations-at-guantanamo/
Fact Sheet: Detention Operations at Guantánamo
¨On January 29, 2025, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum ordering the expansion of the Migrant Operations Center (MOC) at Guantánamo Bay to house “high-priority criminal aliens” unlawfully present in the U.S. The first flight transferring migrants from the U.S. to Guantánamo took place on February 4, 2025.¨
https://www.cvt.org/what-we-do/advocating-for-change/legacy-of-us-torture/detention-operations-at-guantanamo/
The WHITE HOUSE
Presidential Actions
Expanding Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Full Capacity
The White House - January 29, 2025
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/expanding-migrant-operations-center-at-naval-station-guantanamo-bay-to-full-capacity/
Wake up!
Do your own research. It is Hitler Germany in 1933.
Germany 1933: From democracy to dictatorship
¨In 1933, Hitler came to power and turned Germany into a dictatorship. How did the Nazi party come to power and how did Hitler manage to eliminate his opponents?¨
https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/go-in-depth/germany-1933-democracy-dictatorship/
First they come for those who no one will stand up for........then they have the power.
This idea keeps running through my head “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for enough good men to do nothing.”
Marianne, you are so spot on. I will be out marching on Holy Saturday ❤️✝️🕊️
Yes, to get out and march. Get out and be seen by any media possible. Be your own media! Post all and any video you can of protest!! Post in all platforms you still can! Also, be your own media, catch any activity you can where ICE is seen discriminating or if you have surveillance cameras in your home or business, please post those videos! I’m a US citizen in Cameroon, and people don’t know what’s happening, but many said ‘yes, I saw that video’ of the PHD student in Somerville. (I believe it was Somerville, MA).