Patricia, two days after her arrest outside ICE headquarters in Portland: “Like many criminals, I felt compelled to return to the scene of the crime.”
One of the great joys of publishing TBR is the time I spend each day in the comments section reading what you have to say.
Last week, this comment from a subscriber named Patricia got my attention:
“Exciting day for old ladies, I was arrested in front of the ICE building in Portland Oregon. The charge was obstructing access to a federal facility. Great optics a 75 year old white woman, 5’2”, 120 lbs., being dragged off by armed DHS officers. I was handcuffed and held for almost an hour. Being a nasty woman, instead of cringing and crying, I made fun of them and bragged about my history as a serial murderer and how being arrested and handcuffed ticked off another bucket list item for me. We have it all on video, can’t wait to show it to the judge.”
If this is the first you’re hearing of this incident, there’s a good reason: the corporate media refused to cover it.
This Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday – let’s make our dollars count. We’re asking Americans to hit pause on shopping from major corporations.
JOIN US ON NOV. 27TH – DEC. 1ST, 2025
Target
Target has rolled back their DEI initiatives, which included ending programs that help Black employees advance, cutting financial support for Black-Owned businesses, and removing LGBTQ+ products from their stores.
Amazon
Amazon holds a monopolistic position in the market, contributes to dangerous working conditions for its employees and drivers, and CEO Jeff Bezos has donated over $1 million to this administration.
Home Depot
Home Depot is allowing ICE agents to illegally detain and kidnap laborers from their stores. The laborers in our communities are not able to look for work safely.
How to Participate
Full Black Out: Don’t buy anything from Target, Amazon or Home Depot stores during this week. Use the time and money to connect with those you love, and rediscover what matters.
Redirect Spending: Skip the companies undermining democracy. Shop small, local, or with businesses affirming our humanity.
Join the Movement: Pledge to be a conscious consumer.
Amplify: Spread the word. Share the message in conversation and online.
I know I’ve been a bit AWOL what with finishing up school, planning my move, and all that, but I had this idea. The MAGA goons/the Trump Administration is spewing out all this nonsense about Antifa, so what if we (the collective resisters) take the hashtag #AntifaWasHere and attach it to posts ranging from volunteer activities to random acts of kindness for friends, neighbors, elderly, etc. etc.?
Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and other Republicans in Congress are calling today’s protests a “Hate America” rally sponsored by extreme leftists, pro-Hamas activists, hardened criminals, and terrorist organizations like ANTIFA.[2] Apparently, they’ve never read the first amendment to the Constitution.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I think that We the People proved to the leaders of this regime that we will not lie down and let them kick us, will not give in and will fight to the death against their lawless attempts to replace our democratic republic with a dictatorship run by a cruel and evil tyrant. Remember these images next time you hear Felon Trump say that “everybody” loves him or “everybody” believes what he is doing is right.
No act of resistance is wasted, and no act of resistance is unsuccessful. Because in resisting, we redeem ourselves, we consecrate ourselves, we reclaim our dignity, and we assert our agency as American citizens who control the destiny of our nation.
Yesterday’s No Kings Rally wasn’t just a protest — it was a reckoning. A mosaic of causes, signs, and voices, all bound together by one unifying thread: We the People have been stirred to action. Not by policy differences. Not by party loyalty. But by the cruelty, the malignant narcissism, and the corrosive influence of Donald Trump.
Fascism began as a Roman metaphor: a bundle of sticks (fasces) symbolizing strength through unity. One stick breaks easily. A bundle resists. Mussolini twisted that into authoritarianism. Hitler weaponized it. And Trump? He tried to make the bundle serve only him — demanding loyalty, punishing dissent, and mocking the vulnerable.
But yesterday, we reclaimed the bundle. Not as a tool of domination, but as a symbol of democratic resistance. Many years ago, Chief Tecumseh taught the same lesson with arrows. The Founders echoed it with E Pluribus Unum. And yesterday, the signs told the story.
It was so amazing to see older folks and younger people alike coming together, and I saw a friend there who gave me a sign, so I was thankful for that. It was such a great feeling to look around and see everyone coming together for the same cause, to speak up against the tyranny and tell the world (or at least Miami County) “this is not okay.”
Thousands of people turned out to participate in the #NoKings March, which started at Grand Army Plaza and ended at the southern end of Prospect Park. We were surrounded by people carrying signs and chanting “Hey hey hi ho/Donald Trump has got to go.” Many signs were very clever. I couldn’t photograph them all.
I liked the little girl who had a sign that said, “I should be worried about tests/Not my rights.”
This No Kings Day was the one of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history—with upwards of seven million Americans estimated to have gathered across all 50 states, with thousands more protesting across the world, to stand up against tyranny; stand up against corruption; and stand up for the ideals that make this nation exceptional.
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In yet another indication of the heavy turnout for the No Kings rallies, over 400 of Elon Musk’s children attended the protests, according to estimates released on Sunday.
Donald J. Trump, furious at the size of the No Kings crowds, claimed that the estimated attendance of 7 million “is much lower when you subtract all the people who were there to show their hate for Elon.”
Sunda. October 19, 2025. Rain hissed on the roof. The house heater added a rush of air. 49 F, rain is expected all day, with a temperature that peaks at 61 F. Fog has sunk its teeth into the surrounding mountains. Leafy golds, yellows, oranges, and reds glow. Papi galloped in, threw himself down and vigorously applied his tongue to his orange fur to rid himself of that accursed wet. Then it was on to food, nom nom nom.
The No Kings II protest went well. We made it an hour late. Finding parking was a Lewis & Clark expedition. Was great being out there yesterday with other protestors, waving our signs, protesting the GOP eagerness to let Trump be king, protesting Trump’s arrogance that he should be king, protesting the general shit show Trump, Project 2025, and the GOP are putting on. Felt good to know others like us are out there, and they’re standing up. Even more satisfying and validating were the cars going by, horns blowing, giving us thumbs up, holding up peace signs, shouting, “Right on.” Only heard one “Fuck you,” and one “Sieg heil.” The latter came from a woman. Both of these disapprovers were in huge pickemups.
My greatest disappointment was that most of the protesters were old folks like us. The young were in short supply. My wife reminded me that they probably have to work and to cut them some slack. Anyway, thinking about the young provoked The Neurons to bring up a Eurythmics song, “All the Young (People of Today)”. Came out in 1981. Odd vibe to it. I thought, wow, that’s a weird one to come up with. I know it from listening to Euythmics CDs. Don’t think any radio station ever sent it to my ears.
Mom’s new habitat enclosure at sis’s house is getting developed fast. Small dorm frig has been added. A microwave. Hope Mom will be happy there, along with warm and safe. There was a whole late-night misadventure on Friday night. Mom thought she heard someone trying to get into her house and knocking on the door, calling her name. She was there alone. Hiding in her bathroom, she texted her daughters and grandchildren to call the police for her. Why she didn’t do that for herself is one aspect of the mystery. As it was after midnight, most were asleep or away from their phones. Mom’s texts went unnoticed until a grandson, Michael, saw it. Then 911 was called, etc. Police showed up, knocking on Mom’s front door. She wouldn’t answer. She was hiding in the bathroom. The police reported deer were on the small stoop outside of Mom’s room, eating off a tree by the house. 911 had to call my sister, who called Mom to tell her what was going on.
Coffee is singing to The Neurons once again. The day has grown brighter. The temperature has climbed to 50 and if you lean forward and squint at just the right angle, there’s a small blue patch struggling to break out of the cloud eggs containing it. Which reminds me. Hope peace and grace break out of their shells soon and bless us with some visiting. Here we go, on into another day, another week, another…well, you know. Cheers
In the four months since the last No Kings protests, President Trump has gone even further down the road of claiming plenary authority over the executive branch. He has continued to claim the right to fire anyone he pleases, to cancel or spend federal funds outside congressional appropriations and to launch lethal strikes against foreign civilians without explicit authorization from Congress or evidence of imminent threat to Americans.
The president has tried to leverage the power of the federal government against his political opponents and legal adversaries, sending the Justice Department after James Comey, a former director of the F.B.I.; Attorney General Letitia James of New York; and one of Trump’s former national security advisers, John Bolton. Trump also wants to use the I.R.S. and other agencies to harass liberal donors and left-leaning foundations. He has even tried to revive lèse-majesté, threatening critics of his administration and its allies with legal and political sanctions. With Trump, it’s as if you crossed the bitter paranoia of Richard Nixon with the absolutist ideology of Charles I.
Today’s protesters, in other words, are standing for nothing less than the anti-royal and republican foundations of American democracy. For the leaders of the Republican Party, however, these aren’t citizens exercising their fundamental right to dissent but subversives out to undermine the fabric of the nation.
It’s opposite day at the Trump White House.Again. If they say everything is great, you know enshittification is rising. In this case, they tell us that everything is going great at the national parks.
There are many news stories out there to concern and anger me about the Trump Destruction Machine. One points to how the Trump Regime repeats failed ideas while expecting different outcomes. Racism and sexism comes to mind, as does reckless huge tariffs, and giving tax breaks to the wealthy. None have panned out, except for very short terms. They are not sustainable.
Another of these is the Trump Death Machine’s attack on Venezuela boats, killing people without war being declared, without due process, without evidence. Trump is following a dangerous and problematic policy that has historic precedence. Policies like his led to terrorist attacks on the United States that culminated in the disaster immortalized under another Republican POTUS, 9/11. Sooner or later, some relatives or political leaders will say, “Fuck him,” and counterattack. I don’t need to engage much imagination to conceive of multiple deadly ways in which the United States can be struck. This is simply a losing course. Trump is too ignorant, shallow, and arrogant to understand.
The same can be said for Trump’s tariffs. It’s hilarious to read his reaction to China’s moves when they mirror what Trump has done and continues to do. It’s like Trump had no idea that other nations would not just bend the knee to him and do as he says — and not as he does. Paul Krugman has more lovely details about it. As Krugman points out, ‘”Gosh. Aggressive unilateral trade action is a “moral disgrace.” Who knew?’
Courts and judges are pushing back against Trump’s one-story vision of ‘blue’ cities teetering with destruction and violence. Trump claims they’re on fire, burning down, etc. The evidence isn’t there, but that doesn’t stop him. Just as with Trump’s hugely fake ‘the 2020 election was stolen’ campaign, where courts consistently ruled against him and his surrogates because the evidence for his claims were not there, the same result is happening as people take Trump to court for sending the military into Portland, Chicago, etc. The evidence is not there, and the courts are telling him so. The danger here is that the Roberts Court will take it up, shrug, and overturn these rulings without explaining why. We know why, of course; the Roberts Court is deeply implicit in trying to establish Trump as the first Dictator of the United States.
Turns out that MAGA and I have something in common. When Pete Hegseth, Trump’s proxy in the War Department, announced that Qatar would build a military base on U.S. soil, I reacted with a furious, “WTAF?” Apparently, MAGA reacted in the same way. Didn’t know that at the time, but I saw the spin a few hours later as the Trump Regime pretended, “No, that was fake news, Qatar is not building a U.S. military base. They’ll be hosted on a U.S. base, just as we do with other allies.”
Finally, just as seen and predicted, with school back in and the Trump Regime virulently rising up against vaccinations, cases of measles are rising again.
Nan has a post in which a letter writer reflects about who they are, which is an important component of what’s happening in the United States. It’s an important reminder. We are not terrorists; we are citizens exercising our freedom of speech and our freedom to assemble.
Donald Trump is against freedom of speech. He’s against us exercising our rights. He has explicitly said this.
As more “No Kings” protests are planned in the United States for October 18, 2025, to answer back to our servant, the POTUS known as Donald Trump, he and his people are busy slandering who we are, as noted in Annie’s post.
Donald Trump’s House surrogate, Speaker Mike Johnson, said:
“The Antifa crowd and the pro-Hamas crowd and the Marxists, they’re all going to gather on the [Washington] Mall [in a] Hate America rally.”
He’s deliberately and falsely conflating threats and groups in order to stir fear in others. That is not who I am. I am not a Marxist. I am not ‘pro-Hamas’. I am a registered Democrat, a United States citizen, and a United States military veteran who served my country, the United States, for more than twenty years.
I detest the lies and slander Speaker keeps making about who I am.
As United States citizens, we know that the President of the United States is not a king or ruler. We know the freedom of speech is one of the fundamental rights established by the United States Constitution. Donald Trump, no matter what office he holds, does not have the power to take freedom of speech away.
Speaking at the same meeting, Donald Trump said members of the group “have been very threatening to people, but we’re going to be very threatening to them, far more threatening to them than they ever were with us.”
“We’re going to be very threatening to them, far more threatening to them than they ever were with us.”
Trumps displays his ignorance about our rights and his role as in our republic. He makes it clear that he has no interest in any peaceful resolutions. He’s going to use strongarm tactics and escalate the violence against anyone who opposes him.
That is why he must be opposed. This is why it’s important that we protest. And the best way to protest is to stand up together and raise our voices as part and exercise our rights and freedoms as United States citizens. Find a protest on October 18, 2025 and join us.
Michael Seidel, writer 