An Unforgiven Year

Posted on January 23, 2026 by Paul Deaton
Sunrise on a new day.

This week was the one-year anniversary of the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump. In my view, he and his sycophants can not be forgiven for the pain and suffering caused in 12 months.

Long before he was president I knew of an association between him and Jeffrey Epstein, convicted human trafficker, child sex offender, and serial rapist. I didn’t know the extent of Trump’s involvement, just that the two of them associated freely. Apparently more specific evidence of his transgressions and potential crimes are available within the Department of Justice which refuses to release the Epstein files even though the Congress passed a law requiring them to do so more than 30 days ago. Trump is unforgiven for his stonewalling.

In dismantling USAID, the U.S. government is directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths among people who relied on the largess of the world’s richest country. According to Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, hundreds of thousands of people have died for want of USAID. Trump is unforgiven for his inhumanity.

On July 4, 2025, Trump signed H.R. 1, a budget reconciliation bill that did untold harm to families across the country. Among other things, it cut $793 billion from Medicaid and $268 billion from the Affordable Care Act, resulting in over 10 million people becoming uninsured; and $200 billion from SNAP putting 5 million people at risk of losing their food assistance. Trump is unforgiven for his cruelty.

Also in H.R. 1, Trump increased the budget for immigration enforcement by $170 billion and unleashed an undisciplined and violent DHS on several states. The violence, including against U.S. citizens, is difficult to fathom. At least one death caused by DHS has been ruled a homicide. Wednesday, his immigration thugs invaded the State of Maine. Trump is unforgiven for his violence.

In the U.S. Army we called poor operations a goat screw, and certainly the attempted implementation of DOGE by Elon Musk was that. He cut funding in places like our local public library only to have the courts rule his actions were illegal. This back and forth left librarians in a quandary about how to maintain service during the tumult. The same holds true for other institutions cut by DOGE. Trump is unforgiven for his chaos.

One of the blessings I feel in my life is the heroism of the Greatest Generation in World War II. More than 50 million civilians died during the war, along with more than 20 million military personnel. Out of that conflict the world came together, forming the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Since then, Trump has been tearing those institutions apart, despite the many benefits. Trump is unforgiven for being a war monger.

Is there any positive side to this? The only one I can see is I know who I am, and this isn’t it. It is motivation to make change in our government which could then take action to change society for the better for everyone. It’s past time to get to work.

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Can They Do That?

Posted on January 22, 2026 by Trish Nelson


It seems to me the corporate media is doing a lousy job of explaining immigration law to the masses. Actually, they’re not doing a lousy job of it because they don’t seem to be making any attempt whatsoever. They seem to think their job stops at telling us what Trump’s new ICE hires are doing and leaving the legality or illegality of it all for the courts and the protesters to sort out. Trump, who sees the rule of law as an impediment to his personal wealth acquisition, could care less, or so it seems.

The public is going to have to educate ourselves on immigration law. I started looking for information at the Brennan Center for Justice and found the following.

The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law is a independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization that works to reform, revitalize, and defend our country’s systems of democracy and justice.

Check out this excerpt from the immigration law explainer at the Brennan Center for Justice website.

###

The Immigration Court System, Explained

Most immigrants facing deportation are entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge, but their legal rights differ from those in criminal cases.

Margy O’Herron

“Immigrants also have due process rights. Under the Fifth Amendment, “No person shall.. be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” More than a century ago, the Supreme Court concluded in the 1896 case of Wong Wing v. United States that “person” in the Fifth Amendment includes “all persons within the territorial jurisdiction, without regard to any differences of race, of color, or of nationality” and that “even aliens shall not be . . . deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” The foundational principle that immigrants have Fifth Amendment due process rights has been reaffirmed many times, including in 1993, when Justice Antonin Scalia reiterated in Flores v. Reno that the Fifth Amendment entitles immigrants to due process of law in deportation proceedings.”

“A unanimous Supreme Court recently affirmed once more that immigrants in the country have a right to due process under the Fifth Amendment. The Court split on other issues in the case, but all nine justices agreed that even under the overbroad and controversial authority of the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority that the president has invoked to detain and remove certain Venezuelan nationals, detainees have the right to judicial review of questions of interpretation and constitutionality, as well as whether or not they fit within the category of people designated as alien enemies. All nine justices also agreed that, before the government removes them, immigrants detained under the Alien Enemies Act are entitled to notice within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek relief in a federal court with jurisdiction over the location in which they are detained. The Court did not, however, define what constitutes a “reasonable time,” and lower courts continue to grapple with that question.”

“The exact contours of immigrants’ due process rights in immigration proceedings have been extensively litigated over many decades in most if not all federal circuits. Issues include how much time an immigrant in removal proceedings must be given to find an attorney, the standard that attorneys must meet to provide effective representation, whether an immigration judge provided an immigrant a full and fair hearing, and the quality of language translation.”

“Beyond the Constitution, the statute requires DHS to notify immigrants of the reason it seeks to remove them and gives immigrants in removal proceedings the right to examine evidence against them, present evidence on their own behalf, and cross-examine the government’s witnesses. The immigration judge’s decision must be based only on the evidence introduced at the immigration hearing, and the government must keep a complete record of the testimony and evidence.”

more

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Permanent Tax Cuts And The Case Of The Vanishing Surpluses

Posted on January 21, 2026 by Trish Nelson

From the January 2026 edition of The Prairie Progressive, Iowa’s oldest progressive newsletter. The PP is  funded entirely by reader subscription, available in hard copy for $15/yr.  Send check to PP, Box 1945, Iowa City 52244. Click here for archived issues

by Mike Owen

There’s a lot of talk these days about affordability. It’s important for household budgets, and it’s equally important for the state budget.

Want to restore Iowa’s commitment to PK-12 education, to state universities and community colleges? Want to enforce safety in workplaces and environmental quality? Hoping for stronger initiatives in mental health and health care access? Want to make sure nutrition assistance reaches all eligible Iowans?

As things stand in Iowa, we cannot afford it.

It’s a choice our state’s leaders have made not just for today, but for years to come. Sustainability of these traditional responsibilities is simply not the focus of Governor Kim Reynolds and the Republican leadership of the Legislature.

Lots of numbers show it. For starters, keep three numbers in mind:

• $9.4 billion. That’s the current state budget.
• $1.3 billion. That’s how short we fall of making the budget with current revenues.
• $328 million. That’s how much state money we’re diverting to private school systems through Reynolds’ voucher program.

Those numbers are for this year, but they matter far beyond. They set the scene for the new legislative session, the new budget, and what is to come if our state continues on the path charted by the Republican governing trifecta now in its tenth year. This path makes traditional Iowa priorities unsustainable—or, one might say, unaffordable.

We can afford a $9.4 billion budget this year only because legislators can patch the hole in it—for now.

They deliberately created and banked surpluses by cutting or holding down investments below inflation in education and other services, at the same time revenues held strong. Federal support in pandemic recovery offered a temporary boost to the Iowa economy and revenues, and lawmakers used it as a smokescreen.

They cut taxes—big time. Their own fiscal analysts told them the tax cuts they passed in 2022 and 2024 would be a $2 billion hit to revenues by this budget year.

But they were crafty, as this year shows. Faced with a $1.3 billion gap between falling revenues and ongoing spending, they bridged it with banked surplus money. That obscures the real fiscal picture because the surpluses are one-time money while the tax cuts are permanent, and the surpluses are quickly vanishing. Projected at $2.2 billion just a year ago, the FY 2027 surplus is now projected at about a quarter of that—$546 million.

What they avoid is what’s next. What drops when the surpluses are gone? Is it the 2% per-pupil funding growth we’ve averaged for the last 15 years, when educators have sought 4% or 5% to meet needs? Will it be Medicaid services we decide we can no longer afford? Will it be SNAP benefits the federal government is forcing states to take on while at the same time cutting back their administrative support? Will we ever adequately regulate, monitor, and enforce standards for water quality? Who will pay increased prison costs as lawmakers debate tougher sentencing?

The simple truth is that with tax cuts, revenues fall, and that’s a permanent cycle unless reversed, which Iowa’s current leaders are not willing to do. In fact, some aim to assure it with constitutional amendments that may reach the ballot next fall.

Our leaders in both parties need to be upfront with their constituents now about the problem and the solutions, which—yes—involve restoring and restructuring a progressive income-tax rate structure for individuals and corporations, curtailing corporate tax loopholes, and decoupling from several Trump-era federal tax changes that target benefits to the wealthy.

If the political willingness were there, we could afford first-rate education that offers opportunity for our young people and attracts forward-thinking businesses to our state. We could afford clean water and good health care.

We could afford to do this right. The question really is, can we afford not to?

—Mike Owen of West Branch recently retired as deputy director of Common Good Iowa. He remains engaged in analysis of Iowa’s fiscal picture, and of the Chicago Cubs’ fortunes, for which he is more optimistic.

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Blake Clyde Democrat For Iowa HD 33

Posted on January 20, 2026 by Trish Nelson

Iowa House District 33

Insufferable Wenches of Iowa (IWOI) is conducting interviews with Iowa Democratic legislative candidates, available on their YouTube  channel. It’s a great way to get to know our candidates. IWOI has over a dozen candidate interviews up at the time of this posting.

We’ll be sharing one candidate interview every Monday here on BFIA to help get the word out about these fantastic Democrats.  I hope BFIA followers will also share this post or go to the Wenches’ YouTube channel and share from there. While you are there, hit the like and subscribe button. This simple action helps the algorithm reach more folks on the internet. Don’t be a lurker!

Laura Belin is also interviewing state and federal candidates. Videos are available on the Bleeding Heartland YouTube channel. Check them out. I’ve shared a couple of them here.

This week we’re highlighting Blake Clyde, who is running for HD33.  The seat is currently held by Ruth Anne Gaines who is retiring after the current session.  HD 33 covers Des Moines east of the river, East Village to Union Park and north to Highland Park.

A few  issue highlights:

  • Public education and housing are top priorities
  • Voucher program needs to end; we need to fully fund public schools
  • Willingness to advocate forcefully is important
  • All of us have to do it together; that’s the only way it’s going to get done.

Follow Blake’s campaign on social media:

facebook.com/
blakeclydeforiowa@gmail.com
instagram.com/blakeclyde4iowa
tiktok.com/@blakeclyde4iowa
blakeclydeforiowa.com
actblue.com/donate/blakeclydeforiowa

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Holding On To America In 2026

Posted on January 19, 2026 by Trish Nelson

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Blog for Iowa would like to wish everyone a day of hope and inspiration.

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Why Minnesota? Maybe Because Of Epstein?

Posted on January 18, 2026 by Dave Bradley

 6 minutes: 

Most Americans are completely flabbergasted by the Trump regime’s flat out attack on the state on Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis in particular. Both the city and the state are damn decent people who have earned the term “Minnesota nice” from their fellow humans. 

Yet for some reason the current president has decided that both must pay a heavy price for something. Most of us are scratching our heads wondering what did they do to deserve a reign of terror from their own government. Only one person knows and that is Trump himself. As Trump descends into dementia, maybe he no longer knows. 

I admit I do not know, but I am going to take a stab at it. I believe this is part of his continuing campaign to divert from the Epstein Files and his cover up of those files. Remember that politicians and criminals are most often brought down by the cover up rather than the crime itself. 

Thus, Trump is doing all he can to divert from the Epstein Files. He has many avenues he has used for diversion. Blaming immigrants for any number of crimes and then cracking down on them is an old school right wing play that seems to always work. SoTrump dips into that well once again. 

But in the current case he gets a chance to also extract retribution against one of his opponents in the last election. As another plus to Trump he gets to extract retribution from a state that has never voted for him.  

As if terrorizing Americans, killing them and then further invading the state wasn’t enough, Trump is also diverting attention by invading Venezuela and overthrowing their government. The plus here is stealing Venezuela’s oil. If invading Venezuela wasn’tenough, how about threatening war with Iran?  

Not enough, yet? How about threatening to invade the territory of a fellow NATO member? This could easily end decades long alliances and make the US a pariah in international affairs.  

How about one more – say the investigation of Fed Chair Jay Powell in an effort to bend what is supposed to be an independent agency to follow his orders. 

All this is in some way in related to his desire to keep any discussion of the Epstein Files out of the news. As the Epstein files get covered up, we have compounding cover ups about ICE and Venezuela and Greenland and other behind the scenes actions that may come to bite the US in the ass sown the road. 

As Heather Cox Richardson put it in her newsletter Friday: 

You know what Americans aren’t talking about very much today after Trump’s threat to detonate the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) this week and his threat this morning to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota? 

They aren’t talking a lot about the fact that the Department of Justice has released less than 1% of the Epstein files despite the law, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Congress passed requiring the release of those files in full no later than December 19. Trump loyalists are trying to shift public anger at Trump over the files back to former president Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whom QAnon conspiracy theorists believed were at the heart of a child sex trafficking scheme. 

{snip} 

The Epstein files are the backdrop for everything else, but also getting less attention than they would in any normal era are the fact that an agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot and killed a 37-year-old white mother a little more than a week ago and that President Donald J. Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem all defended her killing by calling Renee Good and her wife “domestic terrorists.” 

As G. Elliott Morris noted today in Strength in Numbers, more Americans disapprove of that shooting and the way ICE is behaving than approve of them by a margin of about 20 points. There is a gap of about 8 points between Americans who want ICE abolished over those who don’t. Morris writes: “Trump has turned what was nominally a bad issue for him (–6 on immigration and –10 on deportations, per my tracking) into a complete sh*t show in the court of public opinion.” Although immigration had been one of Trump’s strongest positions, now only 20–30% of Americans favor the way ICE is enforcing Trump’s immigration policies. 

Posted in #trumpresistance, 2026 election | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Why Minnesota? Maybe Because Of Epstein?

Sunday Funday: MLK Day Edition

Posted on January 18, 2026 by Dave Bradley

First let me apologize for the formatting of this quiz. I have had upgrades to my computer over the last few months. It seems like each one makes the editor programs worse. In an attempt to rectify that, I tried using WFW. That didn’t work very well so I went back to Apples product and in the process came out with a Frankenstein of a quiz. Stay tuned for next week when I try it all over again~~~~~ You can tell we are amateurs

Even as our current president {known here as the Felon In the White House or FIWH} continues to do all he can to gin up the start of a civil war in Minnesota, we will still take a few minutes to remember one of the greatest Americans ever, Martin Luther King.

It is very interesting to look back today to King’s leadership during a time when violence was used against black people almost at will. Today we have a president who is having ICE agents use violence almost at will mostly against people of color, but also against nearly anyone. MLK’s voice is a voice for the ages. This video is 27 minutes long:

We will have some questions around the battle for civil rights in the US. Sadly, the FIWH will probably dominate the questions.

  1. A) What lesser known civil rights leader from the 1950s and 1960s died this week?
  2. B) Following the murder of Renee Good, who claimed to have internal bleeding from injuries?
  3. C) What news source reported the above story when no one else would?
  4. D) Jim Crow – we have all heard that name – who was he?
  5. E) Who declared he was the acting president of Venezuela Monday?
  6. F) The Trump nominee for ambassador to Iceland made what truly insulting comment about Iceland last week?
  7. G) The four person crew came back from the International Space Station early during the past week. Why?
  8. H) The FIWH is threatening what against countries who refuse to back the US’s effort to take over Greenland?
  9. I) The SCOTUS decision in 1954’s Brown v. Board case overturned what discriminatory policy of that time?
  10. J) What is the FIWH doing with the money the US has gotten from stealing Venezuela’s oil?
  11. K) Who said that we shouldn’t even have an election in 2026 “because of all of Trump’s accomplishments there is no need for one.”?
  12. L) Grok – what’s it up to these days?
  13. M) The FIWH got a Nobel Peace Prize this week. How did he do that?
  14. N) What southern governor famously stood in the schoolhouse door when black citizens attempted to enroll at the U of Alabama in 1963?
  15. O) What well known cartoonist and extreme right political supporter died of cancer this week?
  16. P) What well known water quality researcher launched a bid for Secretary of Agriculture in Iowa last week?
  17. Q) February 1, 1960 the first ‘sit-in’ was staged in what city? {hint: North Carolina}
  18. R) 17 players were charged in a point shaving scheme in what sport Thursday?
  19. S) MLK was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. Why was he in Memphis at that time?
  20. T) In yet another manifestation of racial hatred, a synogogue was burned in what state last week?

The biggest difference between Greenland and Donald Trump is that Greenland is not for sale.

~ Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

tip of the hat to all-hat-no-cattle.com

Answers:

  1. A) Claudette Colvin. She was the first black woman who refused to give a white man he seat in Montgomery in March 1955
  1. B) Her murderer Jonathan Ross
  1. C) CBS now under the leadership of Bari Weiss
  1. D) He was a character in a very long ago racist play
  1. E) The FIWH
  1. F) That Iceland would be the 52nd state and he would be the governor
  1. G) Medical emergency. NASA has not identified who or what yet
  1. H) Higher tariffs!
  1. I) “separate but equal”
  1. J) He opened an offshore account in Qatar – bizarre
  1. K) Trump
  1. L) creating sexualized images of women and underaged girls. Also been hired by Hegseth’s Dep’t of War!
  1. M) Maria Machado gave hers to our FIWH when she visited Washington Thursday
  1. N) George C. Wallace
  1. O) Scott Adams of Dilbert fame
  1. P) Chris Jones
  1. Q) Greensboro
  1. R) college basketball
  1. S) he was there to support a sanition workers strike
  1. T) Mississippi

One week ago they killed a white woman in broad daylight.

Tonight they’ve shot a protester in the leg and put six children in the hospital.

The kids were in a car with their Dad who was trying to get them out of the neighborhood.

ICE threw a flash bang at the car.

6 children. – Kelly

Tip of the hat to EarlG at democraticunderground.com

Posted in #trumpresistance, Blog for Iowa, Humor | Comments Off on Sunday Funday: MLK Day Edition

So, Let’s Hear From Rob Sand 

Posted on January 17, 2026 by Dave Bradley

Thanks to some 15+ years of pretty much one-party rule in Iowa, we have seen our beloved state sink in all sorts of rankings. Most of all,we are seeing our best and brightest youngsters head out past the coasts of Iowa for opportunities beyond our borders. No matter how you slice it, Republican policies in this state are not what the people want.  

As I am sure you all know, Rob Sand is the only Democratic candidate in the field. As you will see in this interview with Andrew Egger of The Bulwark from November, Rob Sand is not running to be the Democratic Governor of Iowa, but the Governor for all Iowans. (19:30): 

The field on the other side of the slate are specifically running to continue to impose policies that are geared to the wealthy and well connected. Any one of them will be much more beholden to the current president than to Iowans. Thus, common sense should lead Iowa voters to vote for the guy who will prioritize them and the state, not what the party wants. 

Iowa voters are generally a thoughtful bunch. When they contemplate policies that have led to Iowa’s brain drain, low wages, high cancer rates and agricultural market instability, I think they will see Rob Sand as a beacon in a bleak future. 

Last time I looked, Kim Reynolds was the lowest rated governor in the country with a –12% negative rating in October. 

There is no reason to elect another governor anything like Reynolds, who is simply a puppet to Donald Trump. Iowa is fortunate to have one of the brightest and most honest candidates ever to run. Therefore the choice should be simple in my mind.  

Posted in #trumpresistance, 2026 election, Kim Reynolds, Rob Sand | Comments Off on So, Let’s Hear From Rob Sand 

🔥 ICE WATCH. COMMUNITY DEFENSE. DIRECT ACTION.

Posted on January 17, 2026 by Dave Bradley

 

from email

{Not sure how I got this message. Pretty sure it was an email. Sorry for the short notice. Hopefully some can make this training. I can almost assure you that the ICE menace will be spreading }

“This Saturday, we’re training our community to protect one another — and then we’re taking the streets. 

Join Escucha Mi Voz Iowa for an ICE Watch Community Defense Training at Dream City (611 Southgate Ave) from 12–2pm, followed by a March to Jorge and Rally for Renee. 

We will learn how to legally observe ICE, defend our neighbors, and organize real protection — then march together to demand Hands Off Jorge, Justice for Renee, and ICE Out of Iowa.” 

✊🏽 RSVP now: https://secure.everyaction.com/IzXCmWMlGUKvGmlcwUA6Ig2 

📞 319-321-8664 | 515-729-6482 📧 info@escuchamivozia.org 📲 @escuchamivozia 

Iowa #iowacity #calltoaction 

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Be Contrary!

Posted on January 16, 2026 by Trish Nelson

Here is an excellent action guide from The Contrarian.  Something for everyone here.

Follow The Contrarian on Substack. Support independent media.

Contrarian Calls To Action
A how-to guide for making a difference for democracy

Democracy is not a spectator sport. Whether you want to exercise your right to vote, join a protest, call your congressperson, run for office, or keep tabs on the week’s hottest issues and protests, The Contrarian has you covered.

Here are our top suggestions for getting involved in the days ahead. These are heated times; we encourage non-violent and lawful activism.

Counter ICE

  • Contact your members of Congress to demand a full, transparent investigation into the killing of Renee Good by an immigration agent in Minneapolis. Include calls for justice and accountability. (Find resources to connect you with your legislators below)
  • Demand a fight over Homeland Security funding. Democrats such as Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) are leading efforts to slash the mass-deportation budget, vowing “not one dime” for Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Department of Homeland Security funding is part of budget negotiations that must be completed before January 30. Democrats have rare leverage to slash ICE spending or at least impose meaningful reforms, including unmasking federal agents. But some in the party may be looking to duck another showdown and could use your encouragement. Watch our own how-to video here.
  • Support the impeachment of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. In the wake of ICE’s deadly shooting, Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL) has called for Noem’s removal, alleging “obstruction of Congress,” “violation of public trust,” and “self dealing.” With more than 50 House Democrats cosponsoring the impeachment, you have an opportunity to thank your lawmakers or encourage others to get on board.
  • Help targeted community members protect themselves from ICE. When federal agents are out in force, many immigrants and citizens of color alike are afraid to leave their homes. Families in Minneapolis (and before them in Chicago and elsewhere) have been demonstrating how to show solidarity:
  • Distribute know-your-rights cards to help inform neighbors of their constitutional protections regardless of immigration status.
  • Hand out whistles to blow if deportation agents are spotted in your neighborhood. (Honking your car horn works, too.)
  • Organize carpools for the children of affected parents or offer to do a grocery run or other essential errands.
  • Create volunteer teams to monitor neighborhoods near schools and bus stops to ensure it’s clear for kids to move about.
  • Record interactions between federal agents with community members and distribute evidence of abuses widely on social platforms and to the media.

Defend the Fed

  • Pressure lawmakers to stand up for the independence of the Federal Reserve. The Trump Justice Department has opened an investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, ostensibly over renovations to Fed offices. Powell released an extraordinary video calling the probe a “pretext” meant to intimidate him into taking Trump’s orders on interest rates. The issue is creating a wedge in the GOP that can be exploited. Top Republican senators, including like Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and banking chair Thom Tillis (R-NC) are expressing their disapproval of DOJ’s overreach, and even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was “unhappy” with the investigation.

Honor MLK

  • To honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr. on the January 19 federal holiday, search Mobilize.us for an event or google for an MLK Day of Service volunteer opportunity near you.

Upcoming Protests

  • Timed to the anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, the January 20 “Free America Walkout” is a demonstration against fascism. Organizers are calling for a nationwide “walk out”—of “work, school, and commerce”—at 2 p.m. local time.
  • In Minneapolis, labor leaders are calling for a city-wide general strike on January 23.

Below, find The Contrarian’s standing resources for empowering yourself in American civic life:

Contact Your Elected Officials

It can feel old-school (or even cringe), but calling your elected officials is effective in moving the political needle. This is true whether you’re calling to oppose an official’s stance or spur them into action that matches their rhetoric. Watch our how-to video here.

To reach the Washington, D.C. office of any House or Senate member, call the congressional switchboard at 202-224-3121. In the run-up to big votes, you may have better luck reaching a human by calling the politician’s state or district office.

Common Cause has built a remarkable tool that lets you plug in your home address and receive a roster with contact information for the elected officials who represent you — from city council members to U.S. senators. When you’re ready to make a call, the League of Conservation Voters offers a comprehensive guide on best practices.

E-mail from constituents can be effective too. Democracy.io has a one-stop tool to email your Senators and Representatives.

Find out more at: Common Cause; LCV; Democracy.io.

Get Active with Neighbors

No group has channelled the energies of the anti-Trump coalition more effectively than Indivisible. The group focuses on empowering local activists who come together in periodic, nationwide mobilizations that stretch from big, blue cities to sleepy red-state towns. (Watch Jen Rubin’s interview with Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin on the tactics of effective resistance).

If you’re more comfortable organizing on a Reddit forum or a Discord server than a living room potluck, try the newest player on the activist block: 50501.org. And if you’re just looking to make a difference on your own, Mobilize.us offers an array of local volunteer opportunities, petitions, and events.

Find out more at: Indivisible.org, where you can read the handbook and find an active group in your area or start one of your own. Discover 50501.org’s “Welcome Guide” here. Or click your state at Mobilize.us to find an action that works for you.

Guarantee Your Vote

Donald Trump & Co. are committed to gerrymandering and voter-suppression — including purging voter rolls of supposedly ineligible or “inactive” voters — because they’re afraid of the power of your vote. Don’t be intimidated. Vote.org offers a one-stop shop to double-check your registration status; if you’re not registered, you can sign up in minutes online. The group also offers a toolkit to begin a voter registration drive of your own. The Fair Elections Center has compiled a helpful, state-by-state resource (click the map) that will alert you to registration deadlines and help you find your polling location.

Find out more at: Vote.org, Fair Elections Center. A federal mail-in voter registration form is also available in many languages here.

Help Flip the House

The best near-term hope for restoring American checks and balances is flipping the House of Representatives in November. Swing Left is a progressive organization focused on 33 key House seats for the 2026 midterm—19 GOP-held seats to target and 14 Democratic seats to defend. Around since 2016, Swing Left solicits donations for these high-impact races and organizes grassroots volunteers.

Find out more at: Swing Left.

Run for Office

If you’re ready to take a leap into politics yourself, Run For Something can help you get off the ground. The organization has built an impressive pipeline of progressive talent to reshape our politics—from local races up to members of Congress. Founded by millennial author and activist Amanda Litman (watch her interview with Jen Rubin here), Run for Something specifically recruits next-generation candidates. But the organization offers resources for first-time candidates of all ages, including logistical support to help run “efficient, strategic, grassroots, driven campaigns.”

Find out more at: RunforSomething.net

Embrace ‘Tactical Frivolity’

The serious business of defending democracy doesn’t have to be so, well, serious. As the inflatable frogs of Portland taught us, there is room—and, indeed, a need—for lightness and what academics call “tactical frivolity.” This carnival-like spirit, which may involve costumes or music or goofy protest signs, buoys fellow protesters even as it confounds would-be authoritarians who are counting on fear to reinforce the perception of their power. (Context is key, consider whether your inflatable costume will be out of place at a somber vigil.)

Learn more here.

Consider a Boycott

In capitalist America, one of the most powerful ways to vote is with your pocketbook. Withholding spending can send a powerful signal to corporations that they should think twice before collaborating with the Trump administration or complying with its culture-war marching orders.

Protests at Tesla dealerships played a role in pushing Elon Musk out of his destructive White House stint as unofficial co-president. The Rev. Jamal Bryant has led a consumer boycott of Target, which abandoned its once-robust DEI commitments after Trump’s election, leading to several quarters of reduced revenue. Home Depot, Hilton, and Amazon have all been hit by recent anti-MAGA consumer protests. These protests are effective. Boycotts of Avelo Airlines helped spur that budget carrier to end its deportation-flight contract with ICE. Spotify similarly stopped airing ICE recruitment ads after consumer backlash.

The activist group Choose Democracy has a solid boycott tracker. Also check out the list at BoycottHere.com.

Find out more at: BoycottHere; Boycott Central; TeslaTakedown; WeAintBuyingit; Groundavelo.

Combat Misinformation Online

Social media billionaires like Musk are rigging their algorithms to prioritize right-wing content—especially surrounding ICE operations. Report posts with false or misleading content, add or request “community notes,” and circulate or create factual content. RumorGuard, a project of the nonpartisan News Literacy Project, offers tools to recognize misinformation, including a catalog of hoax content that’s gone viral. Snopes.com also specializes in debunking misinformation.

Find out more: RumorGuard; Snopes

Declare Energy Independence

The planet is overheating and our foreign policy is a nightmare, significantly because of America’s addiction to fossil fuels. The Trump administration wants to keep American drivers hooked on Big Oil and keep the energy grid powered by fossil fuels—and has reduced pollution controls and phased out federal tax incentives for renewable energy and electric vehicles.

But with state-level supports, the economics of green energy still make sense for millions of Americans. Kelley Blue Book maintains a state-by-state catalog of electric vehicle incentives. Homeowners can get a rough cost estimate for powering their homes with renewable energy at Solar-estimate.org. For renters, a group called Bright Saver is lobbying to make “balcony solar”—think: small, DIY solar arrays plugged into your home outlets—legal and accessible across the country.

Find out more at: KBB; Solar-estimate.org; Bright Saver.

Support Nonprofit Media

In an age of right-wing billionaire takeovers of once-great newspapers, broadcast networks, and social media platforms, supporting independent media outlets has never been more critical. Some of our favorites include ProPublica, Mother Jones, and local outlets such as the Barbed Wire in Texas, the Minnesota Reformer, the Tennessee Holler, and the Mississippi Free Press.

The publication you’re reading is also unique: The Contrarian is not owned by anybody and all of our profits fund pro-democracy litigation.

Find out more: Subscribe to The Contrarian or give a subscription as a gift.

 

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