Micah Sifry ❌👑

Highlighting the speaker who stood in front of the Surprise mayor and told him to consider what the Mayor of Ohrdruf must’ve thought before he died by suicide: “He might have thought ‘how is this my fault I had no jurisdiction over this’ maybe he said ‘this site was not subject to local zoning.’”

And yet, it appears to be helpful in motivating lots of folks--enough that the authoritarians are actively trying to keep people from making the analogy. But sure, plenty of other historical examples from across the world. YMMV.

Since I was a child, organisations like the Anne Frank Foundation have told me that what happened to her should be taken as a warning for what could happen in the future. Analogisation isn't just allowed, it is called for.

When Memory Serves Why Holocaust analogies are appropriate, despite what the US Holocaust Memorial Museum may say. Plus, notes on Indivisible’s turnaround and the ongoing Defiance.

My thoughts here: open.substack.com/pub/theconne... -- scroll down to the second half.

Plus, what Charles Duhigg’s @cduhigg.bsky.social big piece in the New Yorker on organizing on the left vs the right gets right, and wrong. Most startling, how dated his claims about @indivisible.org are. More actual reporting, please!

The picture that illustrates my post is from a slide that the Museum initially planned to include in its 2018 exhibit on "Americans and the Holocaust" but then self-censored. It's gotten much more debased since then, alas.

When is it ok to analogize what we’re experiencing in America now to the rise of the Nazis? And who should be the judge of that? In this week’s post, I examine how the US Holocaust Memorial Museum has gone astray. (1/3)

The wait is over — our newest #ThisOldDemocracy podcast episode is live! @msifry.bsky.social and @andycraig.bsky.social go deep on democracy reform. centerforballotfreedom.org/this-old-dem...

Democrats Determined to Squander Advantage on DHS Funding - The American Prospect Democrats are succeeding in getting a showdown on new rules for immigration enforcement. But will those rules amount to anything?

“the Democrats’ list of demands appears to have shrunk after internal deliberations.” 🙃

Michael J. Fox on the show Shrinking.

Three cheers for Michael J. Fox.

YouTube video by Marsh Family "Minnesota" - Marsh Family adaptation of "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)"

and some repurposed old ones www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRHx...

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

Bruce Springsteen youtu.be/wWKSoxG1K7w

YouTube video by Billy Bragg BILLY BRAGG - CITY OF HEROES

Suddenly, we have new protest songs! Billy Bragg www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOW... and ...

YouTube video by Marsh Family "Minnesota" - Marsh Family adaptation of "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)"

Current mood: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRHx...

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., rolls out his demand for supporting a DHS appropriations bill: fire Stephen Miller

You Can't Stop ICE By Ignoring Stephen Miller Alex Pretti's murder has triggered a huge backlash against America's Gestapo, but as long as Miller remains in charge of US immigration policy, there will be no real change in what ICE is doing.

But getting the Dems to behave like an opposition party means more of the kind of organizing that has made the Minnesota Defiance so strong, and less imagining that the rise of fascism in America is because the left got too strong and “too woke.” (10/10) More here: open.substack.com/pub/theconne...

Earth Two, the place where we are, where the govt defends state agents who murder innocent civilians in broad daylight and prosecutes their family members and friends under suspicion of being “domestic terrorists,” is too hard a reality for them to face. (9/n)

The larger reality is that most Dems in Congress are still on Earth One, a place where the govt follows the rules and the smart move is to chase “the median voter” and aim to “look reasonable” and stick to “kitchen table” issues rather than engage in a fight over an issue like immigration. (8/n)

Nor will we find out if DHS is building a database of “domestic terrorists” made up of civilians who have done nothing more than hold up a camera or blow a whistle when ICE visited their neighborhood, or why the DHS social media arm keeps posting the modern equivalent of Nazi propaganda. (7/n)

Gregory Bovino will still lead Customs and Border Patrol, even if he has been reassigned away from Minnesota. There will be no transparency into what is going on inside ICE’s teeming camps, which keep refusing Members of Congress any right of entry to inspect them. (6/n)

If Senate Ds use this to justify voting for more DHS funding, there will be no clawback of the $75 billion ICE was granted through '29 in the Big Bad Bill. People like Noem and Miller, who both called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” immediately after his murder, will face no accountability. (5/n)

But here’s the problem with adopting this approach: it fundamentally misunderstands and lets stand Stephen Miller’s project of ethnic cleansing, which the entire Republican party has been backing since day one. (4/n)

“That package unites a lot of Dems,” Sen Chris Murphy told TNR's Greg Sargent today. “Of course, it requires Republicans to agree with us, but I think when people see what we’re asking for, they’ll see that it’s reasonable. It really is simply about getting ICE back to obeying the law.” (3/n)

DHS would be required to cooperate with state investigations (like the ones it’s currently obstructing in MN), CBP would be required to stay at the border, ICE would be required to get judicial warrants for arrests, show IDs and wear bodycams, and ICE would stay out of churches and schools. (2/n)

Today, as the uproar over Pretti’s murder crests, there are signs that they are instead going for a package that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called “restrain, reform and restrict ICE.” (1/n)

Depends on whether you live in a state that already has independent power-building orgs or not. Take a look at who Movement Voter Project is supporting. Also look at Swing Left's new Ground Truth program. There are green shoots in many places working around/past the DNC.

Why Dems Keep Fighting the Last War Turns out, there is a playbook. And it's filled with errors of commission and omission.

Turns out there's a playbook called the "W.A.R. Room" written by top party operatives where all of this is advised as the best way to win tough elections. More in my newsletter this week (5/5) (link below). open.substack.com/pub/theconne...

...with that city crying out for support as it prepares to stage a General Strike on Friday, are many Democrats saying little or, worse, pre-emptively advising their colleagues to reject the slogan “Abolish ICE” in favor of softer phrasing like “reform and retrain ICE”? (4/n)

Why, for example, in this moment of deepening national crisis, with a major American city under violent attack by federal agents who have been told by their masters that they have absolute immunity from prosecution... (3/n)

...and appeal to middle-of-the-road voters by distancing themselves from liberal or left-wing positions, while saying nothing about the danger of rising fascism or elections in 2026 that may be neither free nor fair? ... (2/n)