Resistance Brief — 8 April 2026

The One Big Thing: A Ceasefire in Name Only

Less than two hours before his own deadline to destroy Iran’s power grid and bridges — a threat that prompted the EU to invoke the Geneva Conventions and world leaders to use the word “genocide” — Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire. He declared it a victory. It is anything but.

The deal, brokered through Pakistani mediation, calls for a pause in U.S. strikes and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. But the terms are already in dispute. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. could strike again if Iran does not hand over enriched uranium — a condition that Iran says is not part of the agreement. Meanwhile, Israel launched its heaviest airstrikes on Lebanon since the war began, killing 112 and wounding 837 across the country, even as Hezbollah paused its own attacks to honor the ceasefire. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard struck energy complexes and oil transfer lines overnight, including facilities in Saudi Arabia’s port city of Yanbu. Then, after airstrikes hit Iran’s Lavan Island oil refinery on Wednesday morning, Iran launched missile and drone attacks on Kuwait and the UAE in retaliation. Kuwait’s military reported 28 drones targeting the country, causing significant damage to oil facilities, power plants, and water desalination plants. The UAE reported engaging Iranian missiles and drones simultaneously. The ceasefire did not extend to America’s Gulf allies. The war is metastasizing.

The strategic reality is devastating for Trump’s narrative. As Reuters’ analysis documents, Iran emerges bruised but powerful, with de facto control over the Strait of Hormuz and plans to charge tolls for safe passage that rattle global energy markets. Middle East scholar Fawaz Gerges called it plainly: “This war will be remembered as Trump’s grave strategic miscalculation.” Nearly six weeks of war produced no regime change, no nuclear concessions, and no Strait reopening — only a fragile pause that could collapse at any moment.

The Senate is not waiting to find out. Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer announced that lawmakers will vote next week on a resolution to curb Trump’s Iran war powers, calling Trump’s threats “unhinged” and the war a failure to weaken Iran or rein in its nuclear program. Congressional Democrats have been demanding GOP leaders cut short the spring recess to vote on ending the war, describing Trump as “completely unhinged” and warning he will start World War III.

This ceasefire is not peace. It is a pause that locks in every strategic failure of the last six weeks while giving Trump a talking point. The resistance must frame it that way before the victory narrative hardens.

Daily Inspiration: Wisconsin Delivers a Landslide for Democracy

On Tuesday night, while the world watched Iran, Wisconsin delivered one of the most decisive pro-democracy election results in the country.

Chris Taylor won the state Supreme Court race by more than 20 points, expanding the liberal majority to 5–2 — a margin that puts the court out of conservative reach until at least 2030. The result represents a 10-point swing toward the Democratic-backed side compared to the 2025 race, and a 21-point swing from the 2024 presidential margin in the state.

Taylor put abortion rights and voting rights at the center of her campaign. She leaned into anti-Trump messaging that has turned out Democratic voters consistently in Wisconsin and nationally. Liberal candidates have now won four straight state Supreme Court races in Wisconsin, and five of the last six. Dating to 2017, Democratic and Democratic-aligned candidates have won 19 of the last 24 statewide races in a state that Trump won by less than a point in 2024.

This is what the math looks like when people show up. Wisconsin proved it in 2023, proved it again in 2025, and proved it again last night. The resistance wins when it runs on rights and shows up at every election — not just the presidential ones. Organize accordingly.

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The Resistance Round-Up

🗳️ Defending the Vote

• At least 11 Democratic-led states are passing legislation to Trump-proof their elections. From defending against federal agents at polling places to shoring up voting rights, these states are building structural defenses before the midterms. Trump ally Steve Bannon called ICE airport deployments a “test run” for election day.

• House Democrats held a “shadow hearing” in Los Angeles on election security, convening election experts to push back on Trump’s fraud allegations and threats to interfere in state elections. The hearing is part of a broader Democratic strategy to build the public record before the midterms.

• Utah pro-democracy activists defeated a Republican gerrymandering repeal. After an eight-year legal battle, Better Boundaries protected the voter-backed Proposition 4 by urging voters who had been misled by signature gatherers to remove their names from GOP petitions. “Don’t underestimate the power of grassroots work,” said executive director Elizabeth Rasmussen.

• A California sheriff who seized over half a million ballots was ordered to halt his investigation. The state Supreme Court ordered Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco to pause his unauthorized election fraud probe. AG Bonta called the ruling “reining in the destabilizing actions of a rogue sheriff.”

🏛️ Legal Resistance and Congressional Action

• The Senate will vote next week on a resolution to curb Trump’s Iran war powers. Schumer said Congress must “reassert its authority, especially at this dangerous moment.” The vote comes hours after the ceasefire announcement and is a direct challenge to Trump’s unilateral warmaking.

• Historians and a watchdog group sued Trump to preserve White House records. The American Historical Association and American Oversight filed suit after the Justice Department declared the 50-year-old Presidential Records Act unconstitutional. They are asking the court to bar agencies from relying on DOJ’s memo.

• A federal judge paused Louisiana’s challenge to the FDA abortion drug rule. The case seeking to limit nationwide access to mifepristone is on hold while the Trump administration reviews the drug’s safety — a review pushed back until after November’s elections. The delay itself is the play.

• Law firms fighting Trump executive orders are getting backing from fellow firms. The legal profession is consolidating against the administration’s attacks on firms that challenge its orders. Professional solidarity is becoming a form of resistance.

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💥 Cracks in the Pillars

This was the most devastating cycle of right-wing dissent on the Iran war yet. The ceasefire announcement didn’t stop it — it accelerated it.

• Megyn Kelly on Trump: “I am sick of this shit. Can’t he just behave like a normal human?” Kelly called Trump’s threat to wipe out an Iranian civilization “completely irresponsible and disgusting.” She added: “You don’t threaten to wipe out an entire civilization — men, women, and children — casually in a social media post.” This is not a Democratic operative. This is one of the most prominent conservative media voices in America.

• Megyn Kelly on the ceasefire: “I’m not willing to pretend that this is some huge victory for us.” Kelly refused to join the administration’s victory narrative. Two separate breaks from Trump on the same war in the same week.

• Alex Jones on Trump’s Iran threats: “That’s genocide.” When Alex Jones — of all people — uses the word genocide to describe a Trump policy, the floor has fallen out of right-wing consensus on this war.

• Piers Morgan on Trump’s Iran threats: “That is genocide. That is a war crime.” Morgan joined the chorus explicitly invoking international law. The word “genocide” is now circulating freely in right-leaning media about the president’s own stated policy.

• Laura Loomer criticized the ceasefire: “Iran practically got everything that they wanted.” Even Trump’s most loyal media ally is calling the deal a loss. There is no spin that holds when Laura Loomer is saying Iran won.

• Newsmax guest said the ceasefire was like “getting the football to the 5-yard line and calling the game.” Newsmax’s own on-air voices are rejecting the victory frame in real time.

• Fox analyst Jack Keane: “I wouldn’t have done what we’re doing.” Keane, a retired four-star general and Fox fixture, said he would have taken control of the Strait of Hormuz unilaterally — a tacit admission that the administration’s strategy failed.

• Right-wing media figures are castigating Fox News for “blatant propaganda” on the war. Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly are both attacking their former employer. Kelly accused Fox of “cheerleading” the conflict; Carlson claims the network is pushing for a ground invasion. The right-wing media ecosystem is fracturing on air.

🌍 The World Responds

• Spain’s PM Sánchez: “We will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.” The most quotable international rebuke of the ceasefire. Sánchez welcomed the truce but refused to grant Trump credit for ending a crisis he created.

• UK PM Starmer blocked Trump from using British bases for strikes on Iran’s civilian infrastructure. Starmer drew the line at power plants and bridges, calling them outside the remit of defending British interests. No formal request was made — the refusal was preemptive.

• Germany accused JD Vance of hypocrisy over election meddling claims. After Vance accused the EU of interfering in Hungary’s election, Berlin pointed out that Vance himself was in Budapest days before the vote boosting Orbán’s government. “This fact alone speaks for itself as to who is interfering.”

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💰 Economic Fallout

• The bond market won’t bounce back to pre-war levels. Even with a truce, energy prices and inflation will run hotter for longer. Pre-war rate-cut expectations are dead. The economic damage of Trump’s war is structural, not temporary.

• The IMF chief warned that the Middle East war means “all roads lead to higher prices, slower growth.” This is the global economic authority stating plainly that this war has permanently degraded the outlook. There is no victory lap that changes the grocery bill.

🔒 Immigration and Civil Liberties

• A U.S. soldier’s wife was detained by ICE and released only after public outcry. Annie Yaritza Ramos Alvarado, 22, was arrested on April 2 while her husband serves in the military. She was released but deportation proceedings continue. ICE is targeting military families.

• ICE arrested more than 800 people after tips from TSA at airports. TSA shared over 31,000 traveler records with ICE for immigration enforcement. Immigration attorneys report arrests of parents traveling with children. The airport security apparatus is now a deportation pipeline.

• Nonetheless, Trump proposed cutting 9,400 TSA workers and $1.5 billion from the agency’s budget. While airports are the primary location where ICE has arrested over 800 people using TSA tips, the administration wants to gut the same agency. The logic is cruelty, not efficiency.

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🚨 Threats to the Resistance

• DeSantis signed a Florida law giving officials power to label groups as terrorists and expel student supporters. The law will be used to suppress dissent under the terrorism frame. Expect this model to spread to other Republican-led states.

• The FBI warned of Iran’s “persistent threat” to the U.S. homeland — while the White House downplayed the risk. An intelligence report flagged threats to U.S. military and government personnel, Jewish institutions, and Iranian dissidents. Trump publicly minimized the possibility of Iranian attacks on American soil. The disconnect between what the intelligence says and what the president tells the public is itself a threat, and maybe intentionally so. Domestic crises like terrorist attacks are a key tool in the would-be dictator’s power consolidation tool box.

Tactical Analysis

• The “ceasefire” frame is the most important narrative battle of the week. Trump will claim victory. The facts say otherwise: Iran retained Hormuz leverage, Israel escalated in Lebanon, Gulf states were attacked, the terms are in dispute, and the bond market isn’t recovering. Every time someone says “ceasefire,” the response must be: “ceasefire for whom?” Israel is still bombing. Iran is still striking. Only American strikes paused — and even that is contingent.

• The right-wing dissent is the resistance’s most powerful messaging asset right now. Megyn Kelly, Alex Jones, Piers Morgan, Laura Loomer, Newsmax, and Tucker Carlson are all on record against this war or the ceasefire deal. Quote them to audiences that dismiss Democratic criticism. Their words carry in communities the resistance cannot reach directly.

• Wisconsin is proof of concept for the midterms. A 20-point win in a state Trump carried by less than one point. The formula: run on rights, show up at every election, ignore the presidential-year-only trap. The 5–2 liberal majority locks in abortion and voting protections through at least 2030. Every state with a Supreme Court or judicial race in 2026 should be studying this campaign.

• The war powers vote is a forcing function — use it. Even if Republicans block it, every senator’s vote will be on record. Demand your senators state their position publicly before the vote. Make the vote a midterm issue in every competitive state.

• DeSantis’s terrorist labeling law is a template. It will be used to suppress pro-Palestinian speech first, then any organized dissent that can be labeled “extremist.” Track which states introduce copycat legislation. Legal challenges should begin immediately.

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Conclusion

The ceasefire lasted less than twelve hours before Israel launched its heaviest strikes of the war on Lebanon. Iran attacked three Gulf states. Hegseth set conditions that Iran says don’t exist. Trump posted that he won.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin handed a 20-point victory to the candidate who ran on rights. Even right-wing influencers are saying what millions are thinking–Trump is an unhinged, genocidal loser. The Senate is preparing a war powers vote. And eleven states are building legal walls around their elections before the midterms.

The ceasefire is not peace. The victory is not real. The war is not over, certainly not at home, where the regime’s hybrid civil war on democracy continues.

Stay organized. Stay strong. Stay in the fight.

— Resistance Sentinel

Resistance Sentinel — April 6, 2026

The One Big Thing: After the Deadline, Escalation

Trump spent Easter weekend posting insane ultimatums for Iran to “open the fuckin’ Strait” and also praising Allah. Iran didn’t comply. The Strait is still closed as we await a White House press conference with Trump and his generals.

Instead, Iran today fired six separate barrages of ballistic missiles at Israel in a single day — the sixth alert still rolling in when this was written. Iran also confirmed communication with mediators, which appears to be a confirmation that they told the mediators to pound sand.

And Israel — apparently determined to ensure no ceasefire is possible — struck the massive South Pars petrochemical plant as Trump’s deadline ticked down. South Pars sits atop the world’s largest natural gas reserve. Striking it is not a message about compliance. It is a message about foreclosing off-ramps.

The European Union’s response came within hours. European Council President António Costa stated plainly: “Any targeting of civilian infrastructure, namely energy facilities, is illegal and unacceptable.” He invoked the Geneva Conventions, cited Russia’s attacks on Ukraine as the same category of crime, and warned that the Iranian civilian population would bear the brunt of any escalation. America’s closest allies are now on record calling the president’s planned next move a war crime.

Then there is the story that most clearly explains what this administration is afraid of: Planet Labs, the world’s largest commercial satellite imaging firm, announced it will indefinitely withhold images of Iran and the Middle East conflict zone at the U.S. government’s request. The decision followed the publication of satellite photos that directly contradicted the Pentagon’s official damage assessments of strikes on Prince Sultan Airbase. The government didn’t dispute the photos. Instead, it tried to make such photos disappear.

When a government suppresses independent imagery of its own war, it is not winning.

Daily Inspiration: The Commission Subpoenas the Machine

In Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, the sidewalks are still quieter than they used to be. Vendors report slower business. Residents — citizens and documented immigrants alike — are still afraid to go outside, weeks after the Department of Homeland Security’s mass immigration operation, code-named “Midway Blitz.”

On Friday, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s special Accountability Commission — created specifically to provide oversight of Midway Blitz — did something bold: it demanded testimony from Trump administration officials.

The commission sent letters to former Border Patrol Commander-at-large Greg Bovino and other current and former DHS and ICE officials, summoning them to testify at hearings scheduled for later this month. Local officials and community organizers are explicit about what they hope to accomplish: put a spotlight on the operation so intense that federal authorities think twice before doing it again.

This is what accountability looks like at the state level. No federal subpoena power. No majority needed in Congress. Just a governor, a commission, and the political will to make the machine uncomfortable.

Will the bad actors comply? Probably not. Should we attempt to hold them accountable and call attention to their crimes anyway? Absolutely!

Find the Accountability Commission in your state. If it doesn’t exist, build it!

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The Resistance Round-Up

🗳️ Voting Rights

• California AG Rob Bonta sued Trump over the mail voting executive order alongside more than 20 other states — California’s 66th lawsuit against this White House. “This order is just as illegal as the first one,” Bonta said. Three federal courts previously blocked Trump’s nearly identical earlier anti-voting order. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who blocked that first order, has been assigned this case as well.

• Republican election officials publicly predicted Trump’s voting order will be “enjoined very quickly.” Pennsylvania’s Republican Secretary of State Al Schmidt and former Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer — a Cato Institute legal scholar — both told ABC News the order is almost certainly unconstitutional. Schmidt added that Trump’s election disinformation is “not good for democracy.” When Republican secretaries of state say that about a Republican president’s order, it matters.

• Voting rights groups filed a fifth lawsuit against Trump’s mail voting executive order, led by the NAACP alongside Common Cause, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Black Voters Matter. The suit joins four others challenging the order as unconstitutional. The judge assigned to hear the case is U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly — the same judge who blocked Trump’s nearly identical previous anti-voting order.

• The voting order may be backfiring on Trump in a way he didn’t expect. Legal experts are now warning that the executive order could actually undermine the DOJ’s 30 ongoing voter roll lawsuits. The DOJ’s legal theory in those cases rested on a specific set of federal statutes — the voting order may contradict that theory in court. “The only real legal effect of this executive order might be to kill the remaining DOJ lawsuits seeking to seize voter data,” said David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation and Research.

• House Democrats are holding “shadow hearings” in California on midterm election security. Led by Rep. Joseph Morelle (ranking member of the House Administration Committee) and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the hearings — scheduled for Los Angeles and San Francisco next week — will feature voting and elections experts and are a direct response to Trump’s fraud allegations and threats to interfere in state elections. “Democracy’s defenses are under attack,” Morelle said.

🏛️ The Courts Strike Back

• A federal judge halted Trump’s executive order requiring colleges to certify they aren’t considering race in admissions. The order, which threatened to yank federal funding from non-compliant institutions, was paused pending litigation. Courts are now consistently blocking Trump’s incursions into higher education.

• A Nevada federal judge ruled that ICE cannot lock up everyone facing deportation proceedings. The ruling blocks the administration’s policy of mass civil detention — the judge found that the due process rights of immigration detainees require individualized hearings, not blanket detention orders.

• A federal judge ruled that Border Patrol’s continued sweeps in California violated a standing court order. Despite a prior injunction limiting interior enforcement operations, agents continued conducting sweeps. The judge’s ruling puts the administration on notice: contempt proceedings could follow.

• A judge upheld the block on Trump’s subpoenas to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The attempt to use congressional subpoena power to pressure the Fed chair — a transparent effort to assert political control over monetary policy — has now been blocked twice.

• A judge questioned Trump’s plan to build an “Independence Arch” near the National Mall, citing concerns about executive overreach in altering federal parkland without congressional authorization. Even the aesthetics of authoritarianism require legal approval.

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💥 Cracks in the Pillars

• Trump is weighing a broad cabinet shake-up, with Gabbard and Lutnick both potentially on the chopping block. Sources inside the White House told Reuters that multiple cabinet members could be removed before the midterms. Pam Bondi was already removed as Attorney General this week. Trump is “deeply frustrated” with media coverage of the Iran war, and aides are looking for a “reset.” One White House official said it bluntly: “A shake-up to show action is not a bad thing, is it?”

• Republicans are adrift ahead of the midterms. The Iran war — with its rising gas prices, downed aircraft, and missing crew members — has scrambled the GOP’s political calculus. Candidates in swing districts are increasingly unwilling to tie themselves to the war, and Trump’s approval ratings have cratered among the independents who decide competitive races.

• Fox News analyst Jack Keane broke with the administration over Hegseth’s firing of Army Chief of Staff Gen. George. Keane, a retired four-star general and longtime Fox fixture, called George “a generational chief of staff” and said flatly: “I don’t agree with his dismissal.” When the generals that Fox News has championed for years start publicly criticizing Hegseth’s military purge, the coalition is cracking.

• Newsmax host Carl Higbie said Trump’s primetime Iran speech “did him more harm than good.” In a remarkable on-air moment, Higbie — who professed his love for Trump before and after — told viewers that Trump’s Wednesday address had rattled markets: oil jumped 12% after the speech. “You know what America needs to hear? We need a human moment from a president.” When Newsmax is editorializing against your crisis communication, your messaging is genuinely in trouble.

• Right-wing podcaster Tim Pool publicly broke with Trump over the Iran war. “I did not vote for this. I am not happy with it. It does not seem to be going well, and gas near me, and we’re in the middle of nowhere, is 4 bucks. Diesel’s at 6. This is bad, bad, bad.” Pool — one of the largest right-wing media voices and a self-described Trump voter “on policy grounds” — is drawing a direct line between the war and kitchen-table economic pain. When the MAGA podcast ecosystem starts saying it out loud, it spreads.

🪖 The Escalation Trap

• The U.S. government suppressed commercial satellite imagery of the Iran war after getting caught lying. Planet Labs announced it will indefinitely withhold images of Iran and the Middle East at the U.S. government’s request — following the publication of photos that directly contradicted official U.S. damage assessments at Prince Sultan Airbase. This is state-directed censorship of independent war documentation. Other satellite providers like Vantor are applying their own controls but were not contacted by the government — making Planet Labs’ compliance a choice.

• The rescue mission to recover the downed F–15 crew member nearly went catastrophically wrong. A mechanical failure mid-mission forced U.S. commandos to destroy an aircraft on Iranian soil to prevent capture. The CIA ran a deception campaign. The military jammed Iranian electronics and bombed roads to protect the extraction. The rescued airman had to authenticate his identity to avoid an Iranian trap. The administration declared it a clean success. Reuters’ reporting reveals it was barely not a catastrophe.

• Israel struck Iran’s South Pars petrochemical plant as Trump’s deadline approached. South Pars is the world’s largest natural gas field. Striking it as diplomatic pressure was supposedly being applied is consistent with Israel’s pattern throughout this conflict: escalate aggressively whenever ceasefire talks show any sign of traction.

• Iran fired six separate barrages of ballistic missiles at Israel on Monday — the sixth alert of the day still arriving as of this writing. Trump declared the war “essentially over” in his primetime address less than a week ago.

• Iran confirmed communication with mediators while simultaneously launching those six missile barrages. Resistance Sentinel’s read: Iran told the mediators to pound sand.

• U.S. intelligence is warning privately that Iran is unlikely to ease its chokehold on the Strait soon. The 48-hour ultimatum Trump issued last week was made without any credible intelligence to suggest Iran would comply.

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🌍 International Resistance

• The EU warned Trump that bombing power plants and bridges in Iran would be a war crime. European Council President António Costa cited international humanitarian law by name and drew an explicit parallel with Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. The statement came directly in response to Trump’s Sunday post threatening to make Tuesday “Power Plant Day.” America’s closest allies are not standing with this administration on this.

• The UK is accelerating its pivot toward the EU. A Guardian analysis captures what is increasingly undeniable: Trump’s disdain for Britain and his reckless Iran war are pushing Starmer’s government toward the closer European ties that Brexit severed. The piece notes that even Brexit’s architects are no longer talking about Brexit.

• Ukraine is hammering Russian oil terminals for the second straight week. Russian terminals under attack cannot accept shipments. Ukraine is defending U.S. service members that Trump puts at risk by funding the Russians whose weapons help Iran target American personnel. That is not a line you can unspin.

• India confirmed it is purchasing Iranian oil. The U.S.-led economic pressure campaign against Iran is unraveling as major economies prioritize energy security over American foreign policy objectives. A Japanese-affiliated tanker also passed through the Strait of Hormuz — one of the few Western-affiliated vessels to do so since the war began.

💰 The Economy

• Suppressing Planet Labs’ satellite data has direct economic consequences. Financial analysts, commodity traders, and logistics firms use commercial satellite imagery to track shipping disruption, infrastructure damage, and port activity. Removing that data from the market distorts pricing and obscures the real economic scale of the Hormuz closure. That’s a feature, not a bug, from the administration’s perspective.

• World commodity prices rose for the second consecutive month, with the Strait of Hormuz closure adding significant upside risk. Gas prices are expected to hit $4.25–$4.45 per gallon.

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😩 The MIA Opposition Party

• A Democratic governor is publicly touting her role in the Iran war and praising Arizona defense contractors for their Tomahawk missile production — hoping Trump will intervene in the state’s Colorado River water dispute in exchange. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is triangulating on a war that is killing U.S. service members and driving up gas prices nationwide. While California and Pennsylvania governors are calling out the human and economic costs, Hobbs is treating the war as a bargaining chip. Resistance Sentinel called it infuriating. It is.

⚠️ Regime Threats

• Trump is seeking $152 million to reopen Alcatraz as an active prison. At a moment when gas prices are breaking working families, the administration’s symbolic spending priorities say everything about who they think their audience is.

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Tactical Analysis

• “Power Plant Day” demands advance preparation. Trump’s post is on record. The EU’s legal warning is on record. If the administration bombs Iranian civilian power infrastructure on Tuesday, the frame must already be in place: this is what the U.S.’s own allies called a war crime, hours before it happened. Do not wait for the event to make the argument. Make it now.

• The satellite suppression story needs amplification. A government that censors independent commercial imagery of its own war after getting caught misrepresenting battlefield damage has crossed a line that matters for press freedom, public accountability, and democracy. This story connects directly to every other accountability gap in this administration. When MAGA posts about regime “transparency,” drop a link to this story about regime censorship and another about its lies about damage at Prince Sultan. Don’t argue. Just drop some truth bombs and move along.

• Use Republican dissent on voting rights strategically. Schmidt and Richer are not allies. They are conservatives on the record saying something useful. That’s all the more reason to quote them to MAGA audiences that discount Democratic voices on election law. Their credibility in those communities is real — leverage it.

• Hold Democratic governors to account. Hobbs is not alone in trying to find individual deals with this administration. Any Democrat who legitimizes the war in exchange for local benefits is betraying the resistance. Such politicians must be named and shamed.

Conclusion

The deadline passed. Iran didn’t comply. Trump threatened to bomb power plants. The EU called it a war crime. Israel is pushing for such escalation anyway. They may be getting their wish as Iran fired six missile barrages today.

The U.S. is losing the narrative battle at home and abroad. That’s why they tried to make the satellite cameras go dark after getting caught lying.

And despite all of this, a Democratic governor praised the missiles that are killing Iranian school girls because she wants water rights.

This week marks a pivotal moment. Be ready to get loud, potentially even to get in the streets.

— Resistance Sentinel

The One Big Thing: CENTCOM Lies Shot Down In Real Time

On April 3, a U.S. F–15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iran. Both crew members ejected. The Pentagon’s first response? They lied. They published a “fact check” on social media claiming the reports were Iranian propaganda.

Source: @CENTCOM on X.com

Then U.S. officials confirmed it to the New York Times. One crew member has since been rescued by American forces. The search for the second continues.

This is how we know the regime is losing the narrative battle. When CENTCOM’s first instinct is to lie — not to the enemy, but to the American public — it reveals something important: they know the public isn’t with them. They know two-thirds of Americans want this war to end even if the stated goals aren’t achieved. But it also reveals they are more concerned with political loyalty to the mad king than to the truth and the American people. That should frighten us all.

Trump himself admitted as much. More than a month into the war, he gave a nationally televised address attempting to explain what he’s doing and why. There’s a rule in politics: if you’re explaining, you’re losing. The mere fact of the speech is an admission, regardless of what was said (which was the usual list of lies and canned talking points we’ve all heard already).

Daily Inspiration: The Golden Throne of Pennsylvania Avenue

This week, activists installed a golden toilet on the National Mall — a direct satire of Trump’s gold-plated White House renovations. The image spread immediately.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c20qx3xlr7zo

This is a textbook example of a dilemma action and laughtivism. If authorities remove it, they look defensive and thin-skinned. If they leave it, the image keeps spreading. The visual language requires no caption, no explanation, no argument.

Use this as a template. Find the image that tells the whole story on its own. Satire that makes people laugh is harder for power to suppress than satire that makes them angry.

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The Resistance Round-Up

🌍 Global Solidarity: The Hardening of European Resistance

• Italy denied U.S. military aircraft landing rights at the Sigonella base in Sicily, joining Spain in refusing to serve as a logistics hub for American operations in the Middle East. Rome cited a lack of parliamentary approval under bilateral agreements — and domestic anti-war pressure that even Meloni, despite her ties to Trump, cannot ignore.

• France blocked Israel from using its airspace to transport U.S. weapons for the Iran war — the first such refusal since the war began. Trump complained France was “very unhelpful.” France’s response: a shrug.

• Austria cited its post-WWII neutrality law to reject “several” U.S. requests to use its airspace for Iran-related military operations, joining Switzerland, France, Spain, and Italy in a growing bloc of non-compliant NATO allies.

• UK Prime Minister Starmer refused to join the war, announced a 35-nation diplomatic summit to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without military force, and used the crisis to accelerate a pivot toward closer EU ties — calling Brexit’s damage to Britain “deep.” Trump responded by mocking him as “weak.” Starmer didn’t blink.

• Macron flatly rejected Trump’s demand for military intervention in the Strait of Hormuz, calling it “unrealistic and risky.” Reopening the strait, he said, requires diplomacy with Iran — not force. Italy’s Meloni flew to the Gulf separately to secure her own energy deals, making clear Europe is charting its own course.

🏛️ The Courts Strike Back

• The Supreme Court appears poised to strike down Trump’s birthright citizenship order, with even conservative justices skeptical during April 1 oral arguments. The case — Trump v. Barbara — challenges Trump’s attempt to deny citizenship to U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. A ruling is expected by late June.

• A federal judge ruled Trump is not immune from civil claims that his January 6 rally speech incited the Capitol riot. The case — brought by Democratic lawmakers and Capitol Police officers — can proceed toward trial. Trump’s pardons of J6 defendants don’t affect civil suits.

• Democrats sued to block Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting — and the judge assigned to hear the case is the same judge who blocked Trump’s last anti-voting order. The EO would require DHS to verify voters before mail ballots are sent and threatened to withhold federal funds from non-compliant states.

• The ABA’s lawsuit against Trump’s law firm intimidation campaign can proceed, after a judge found the administration’s crackdown created a documented “chilling effect” on the entire legal profession, with firms declining cases challenging administration policies.

• Trump’s DOJ sued Idaho — a state he won by a massive margin — for refusing to hand over unredacted voter data. Courts have already dismissed similar suits in California, Michigan, and Oregon. Even red states are drawing the line.

⚠️ The Threats

• The Trump administration is planning an international “Antifa Summit” — a global counterterrorism coalition against left-wing protest movements. The State Department has already designated four European left-wing groups as foreign terrorist organizations. This is how dissent gets criminalized: first internationally, then domestically. Know your rights and document your organizing.

• ICE agents have been stationed outside Marine Corps graduation ceremonies in South Carolina. The militarization of domestic enforcement is now reaching into the families of active-duty service members at official military events.

💥 Cracks in the Regime Base

• Even Newsmax is breaking ranks. Host Greg Kelly accused Pete Hegseth of politicizing the troops and said his inflammatory rhetoric toward Iran was putting U.S. pilots in danger. “You know who pulled that stuff? George W. Bush.” When Newsmax is invoking Bush as a cautionary tale, the coalition is splintering.

• Trump-endorsed candidates are struggling badly in Alabama. His Senate pick Barry Moore is trailing non-endorsed opponents. His Lt. Governor pick John Wahl sits at 7% in polls. The Trump brand is losing its coercive power even in states he won by landslides.

• Europe’s far-right is breaking with Trump over the Iran war. Marine Le Pen called the strikes “catastrophic” and “carried out blindly.” Germany’s AfD demanded U.S. troop withdrawal. The international populist coalition Trump spent years building is fracturing over $116/barrel oil and energy costs voters feel directly.

🌱 Economic & Grassroots Resistance

• Transparency groups launched a coordinated FOIA offensive against DHS and ICE, with the American Immigration Council filing a class-action suit challenging systemic delays in immigrant record access. Documents obtained through FOIA are powering deportation defense and public accountability reporting nationwide.

• Twenty-two states are accusing the Trump administration of violating a court order by sharing far more Medicaid data with ICE than was legally permitted — including data on citizens and lawful permanent residents. A court hearing is set for April 30.

• Mexico is formally pressuring the U.S. over the deaths of Mexican citizens in ICE custody, escalating diplomatic friction at a moment when the administration can least afford more international isolation.

Tactical Analysis

• Exploit the war fatigue. Two-thirds of Americans want this war to end — including 40% of Trump’s own Republican base. That’s your entry point in red and purple districts. Don’t argue about foreign policy. Ask: “Do you think we should be in another Middle East war?” Or, drop a video of Trump himself promising to avoid a war with Iran and just walk away. The polling is on our side; use it.

• The courts are holding — flood them with standing. From birthright citizenship to mail ballots to voter data to law firm intimidation, the judiciary remains a functioning line of resistance. Support Democracy Docket, the ACLU, and the ABA’s legal defense work. These organizations are on the front line and delivering results. They need resources and visibility.

• Document everything. FOIA everything. If you are at an airport, film those maskless ICE agents. If you see ICE in your community, film and report their actions. Overwhelming citizen documentation was crucial in Minnesota. Additionally, documents obtained through public records requests are powering both legal defense and journalism. If you’re near a university law clinic or immigration advocacy organization, find out if they’re using FOIA tools and support that work. Sunlight is still the best disinfectant, as they say.

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Iran shot down a U.S. fighter jet in a war Trump just said we’d won, in skies that Hegseth said we own. And then the regime lied about it. Like the lies told in Minneapolis, these too were shot down almost immediately.

Europe is increasingly standing in the way and going its own way.

The courts continue to put up road blocks.

Regime supporters are breaking ranks over gas prices and broken promises.

Even Newsmax is asking questions!

This Good Friday does not mark the end of a good week for the regime. For that, we can be thankful.

— Resistance Sentinel

The One Big Thing: Growing European Resistance

If you ever doubted the fragility of the Trump Regime’s unilateral power projection, look to Europe today. Over the past 48 hours, three European allies have taken significant action against the illegal U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. France, Italy, and Spain have all explicitly refused one or the other counties’ use of their airspace and/or military bases to transfer weapons or conduct operations for the Middle East conflict.

At a time when Trump is desperately calling for allies to rescue him from his own blunder, these European countries have not only decided not to help but make things even harder for the United States and Israel.

It’s a humiliating geopolitical defeat for the regime. Authoritarian consolidation requires an aura of omnipotence, both at home and abroad. By closing their airspace and/or denying access to bases, some of our European allies are doing on the international stage what we are doing in the streets: engaging in structural noncooperation.

Just as the Apartheid regime in South Africa was ultimately strangled by international isolation and domestic resistance working in tandem, the Trump Regime is now facing increased global rejection of its aggression. Crumbling pillars of international support can help to undermine the regime’s domestic authority too, providing a morale boost to the pro-democracy resistance movement. This is a moment to escalate our pressure, not retreat.

Daily Inspiration: The Power of the Dilemma Action

Lady Liberty Arrested, A Masterclass in Laughtivism

The regime’s enforcers rely on projecting terrifying strength, but they are uniquely vulnerable to looking absurd. In a brilliant “dilemma action,” an activist dressed as the Statue of Liberty forced LAPD officers to publicly arrest “Lady Liberty” herself.

This forces a lose-lose scenario on the authorities: either they allow the disruptive protest to continue, ceding public space, or they arrest the literal symbol of American freedom on camera, generating a backfire effect that exposes their inherent tyranny. It is this brand of creative, strategic civil disobedience that breaks the spell of fear.

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The Resistance Round-Up

Here is what you missed while the regime was reeling:

🌍 Global Solidarity

• The European Blockade: Italy, France, and Spain have formally refused to allow the regime to use their airspace and military bases for its war of aggression in Iran.

• Millions Take the Streets: The “No Kings” movement mobilized a historic 8 million people worldwide, demonstrating that the global public utterly rejects the regime’s legitimacy.

🏛️ The Courts Strike Back

• Calling Out the Cover-Up: Fulton County officials and a federal judge are pushing back against the DOJ, exposing how the regime weaponized an FBI raid to seize 2020 election ballots and circumvent civil litigation.

• Voter Rights Win: A federal appeals court officially blocked Arkansas’s restrictive, baseless “wet signature” registration rule.

• Judge Saves Public Broadcasting: A federal permanently blocked President Trump’s executive order that would have halted federal funding for NPR and PBS, ruling the order violated the First Amendment.

⚠️ The Threats

• The Imperial Boomerang: The regime is continuing to bring the War on Terror home. U.S. counterterror officials are organizing an “antifa” summit, yet one more clear indicator that they intend to weaponize the state’s national security apparatus to criminalize domestic, nonviolent dissent.

💥 Cracks in the Pillar

• The Base Fractures: The MAGA coalition is increasingly splitting over foreign policy. CPAC highlighted a severe generational divide over support for Israel, while far-right propagandists like Alex Jones and Fox News anchors are increasingly questioning the regime’s erratic military operations in Iran.

🌱 Economic & Grassroots Resistance

• Community Sovereignty: The Choctaw Nation’s acquisition of a former Big Lots serves as a blueprint for economic resistance. Rather than let ICE acquire the space to be used as one of its growing network of concentration camps, the Choctaw Nation purchased it.

• From Protest to General Strike: On Saturday, in Minneapolis, the organizers of No Kings said that their next event will not be “just another protest,” but instead a general strike. This will serve as “an economic show of force.” This announcement comes in the wake of growing criticism that the No Kings’ strategy of symbolic weekend protests needs to evolve into something more disruptive and, hopefully, effective.

Tactical Analysis: Exploit the Isolation

The regime is losing control of its narrative and its international leverage. Now is the time to pivot to the offensive and exploit these structural weaknesses.

• Amplify the Fractures: Do not interrupt the adversary when they are making a mistake. Weaponize the right-wing infighting over the Iran war to pull anti-interventionist conservatives away from the regime’s base.

• Secure Your Communications: With counter-terrorism assets explicitly targeting activists, you must prioritize OPSEC immediately. Move organizing to encrypted platforms and clean your digital footprint.

• Design Dilemma Actions: Study the “Lady Liberty Arrested” incident in Los Angeles. Plan local actions that force regime paramilitaries and local compliant police to either stand down or look ridiculous on camera.

The regime wants you overwhelmed and isolated, but we are increasingly organized, historically grounded, and fighting a battle we can win.

Stay vigilant,

The Resistance Sentinel

Over the last three posts, we established that the Trump regime is building a mass surveillance infrastructure to map and disrupt the resistance. In the worst case scenario, that infrastructure will allow the regime to execute the physical targeting phase of individualized warfare. This would involve the kinds of kill/capture missions carried out with drone strikes and special operations raids against so-called “high-value individuals” and “key nodes” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you have not done so already, please do read the previous posts so that you understand that the tools to allow such a future are very real and are migrating to domestic operations against pro-democracy activists right now.

1. The Terrifying Truth About the New Mass Surveillance Machine (And What It Means For You)

2. The Military Strategy You’ve Never Heard Of Being Used To Crush Dissent

3. The Regime’s Military Playbook For The Next Phase Of Its War on Dissent

But before the regime escalates to this kind of physical force, they will attempt to neutralize the most high-value “human nodes” in the resistance network on the digital battlefield. As Glenn Voelz notes in his book on individualized warfare [PDF], cyberspace has become the premier battleground for “phase zero” operations, which are “designed to shape perceptions and influence behavior as a precursor to kinetic action.” By leveraging the data they have collected on us, the regime is very likely to wage a personalized informational and psychological war on us in an effort to prepare the “battlefield” for what comes next.

Hyper-Personalized Information Warfare

To understand how this informational targeting works, we must look at how the U.S. military has historically used psychological operations (PSYOP) against adversaries. Psychological operations are nothing new, of course. The idea of deceiving or otherwise shaping an adversary’s perceptions and beliefs as a way of undermining their will to resist is as old as warfare itself. Like other forms of warfare, though, developments in information and communication technologies, especially the rise of the internet and social media, have enabled more precision targeting of messages and information.

Voelz points to the CIA’s Phoenix Program in Vietnam as an early precursor to the hyper-personalization of information warfare. More recently, the 2003 invasion of Iraq saw U.S. forces sending “thousands of personal e-mails” directly to Iraqi military officers urging them to abandon their posts.

The Middle East is not the only region where the United States has honed these capabilities in recent decades. The U.S. military successfully dismantled Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) through “precision PSYOP targeting.” By utilizing intelligence from family members and mapping social networks, Special Forces were able to “identify key leaders within the LRA that were prone to defection” and target them with tailored messages via radio, leaflets, and aerial loudspeakers. Message by message, the military systematically dissolved the group from within.

Of course, the United States is not the only nation to use such tactics. Russia has demonstrated how these targeted informational tactics can be weaponized against a modern, digitally connected population in Ukraine. Rather than relying solely on broad propaganda, Russian forces and their proxies launched “targeted information operations” directly at Ukrainian soldiers and their families. Utilizing social media intelligence (SOCMINT), Russia sent highly personalized, threatening text messages to Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines, such as, “You are encircled. Surrender. This is your last chance.” The direct impact of these tailored operations was the “demoralization and significant consternation” of the Ukrainian forces, deliberately stressing the trust between soldiers and their command structures [PDF].

The Ukrainians have countered with individualized information warfare operations of their own. In one case, early in the war, Ukraine made captured Russian soldiers call their mothers. The calls were video recorded and then broadcast for the world to see. Videos of the calls went viral on social media. Ukraine also weaponized mass doxxing when a newspaper leaked the personal information of some 120,000 Russian soldiers.

In other cases, international supporters of Ukraine also got in on the action. A Norwegian computer expert and a team of global volunteers targeted ordinary Russian civilians with mass email campaigns, sending over 22 million messages urging them to seek out independent information about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and reject the war. Polish hacktivists undertook a similar campaign. In that case, they weaponized a collection of 20 million Russian phone numbers and 140 million email addresses by creating a website that would let anyone send text messages or emails to the owners of those numbers and addresses.

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The Future of Individualized Psychological Warfare

The most immediate danger to the American resistance is that our increasingly connected lives provide the regime with the exact ammunition needed to execute these kinds of hyper-personalized information operations against American pro-democracy activists. We are currently undergoing what Voelz calls an “identity merger,” where our physical documents, behavioral patterns, and social media habits create a persistent, multidimensional composite of who we are. Voelz says that this “composite” identity is

“defined by deeply embedded relationships derived from analytical correlations rather than explicit information. These implicit identities will not be defined by format and will blur the existing distinctions between biographic, biometric, behavioral, and digital information. These composite identities will be persistent, cumulative, and associative--meaning that they will be based on information that endures forever in digital archives, is constantly accumulating as new data points, and contextually enriched through deep correlation to other people, places, and activities. These new identities will not exist as discrete nodes of data, but rather will be defined in the context of their relationship to other things. Thus, this future identity concept will be one that is inherently networked, temporally deep, and multidimensional in ways that current identities are not.

[...]

“One implication of this identity merger will be the potential for more powerful means of passive monitoring and surveillance. [...] Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Mike Vickers recently observed how the tracking of individuals around the globe has become easier in recent years due to ‘the digital dust that we all leave around [as] we lead our lives.’”

Voelz was writing over a decade ago now. This was the era of Cambridge Analytica, when ill-begotten Facebook data was used to psychologically profile users and then micro-target them with manipulative political advertising. Since then, the tools and techniques of data analytics and targeting have only improved while we have all contributed an extra decade’s worth of personal information to the digital dustbin of big data. One can look to China’s GoLaxy campaign for how generative AI is already being incorporated into targeted information warfare campaigns and where the future might take us.

As with the physical domain, the future that theorists see for the cognitive domain is equally dystopian and includes some of the same technologies, including the terrifying intersection of biological disruption and targeted digital disinformation. Defense planners are actively theorizing the use of those neuroweapons we saw in the last post, but this time as weapons of mass disruption, where the use of neurotropic agents could be paired with the intentional “Internet messaging of narratives” designed to amplify panic, overwhelm public health systems, and foster the rapid “dissolution of public trust” [PDF].

So-called “neuro-cognitive intelligence” or “NEURINT” has also been discussed as a way to alter individual and group thought as a means of optimizing future psychological operations [PDF].

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Conclusion

In summary, the application of identity operations in the informational and psychological domains would represent a systematic effort to weaponize our personal data against us. From the tailored emails sent to Iraqi officers to the precision psychological operations that dismantled the Lord’s Resistance Army, the strategy has always been to identify and neutralize key “human nodes.”

Today, our interconnected lives provide the regime with the exact “digital dust” needed to execute these operations domestically, allowing them to map our networks and target us with personalized disinformation. As defense experts have warned, the ultimate evolution of this warfare combines physical disruption with targeted online narratives designed to completely dissolve public trust and the ability to dissent.

This hyper-personalized approach to crushing dissent is intended to make you feel isolated, terrified, and powerless. But understanding the playbook is the first step to defeating it. As students of resistance, we must recognize that this reliance on psychological manipulation and digital trickery is a symptom of authoritarian fragility. A regime that has the true consent of the governed does not need to wage individualized physical or psychological warfare against its own citizens.

So how do we begin to prepare?

1. Recognize What is Happening: By reading this series, you now know the capabilities and playbook for individualized warfare. You know they are being deployed. But you also know that the worst case scenarios are not here yet. We still have time.

2. Expect Digital Deception: We must assume that the regime will use our digital footprints against us to divide our coalition and break our morale.

3. Secure Your Networks: We must practice strict OPSEC to deny the regime the social network maps they need to target us. I have already written some about this HERE and HERE. I have future posts planned, as well as short video courses, that will provide more detailed steps that we can take.

4. Maintain Solidarity: The goal of informational warfare is to divide and conquer. We counter it by maintaining trust in one another and refusing to let targeted fear break us. Give others grace. Lift each other up. But always be on the lookout for those within the resistance who would turn us against one another over petty grievances or disagreements. When you see others engaging in that way, encourage them to reconsider their tactics. If they persist, ignore and isolate them, and then move on.

Over the last few weeks, we have watched the Trump regime deploy a staggering array of military-grade mass surveillance tools against American citizens, specifically targeting those engaged in First Amendment-protected activities in Minnesota and across the country. As I detailed in the first part of this series, regime enforcers (e.g. ICE, CBP, etc.) are not just passively monitoring the streets. They are utilizing cell phone forensics, biometric scanning, and the advanced data fusion capabilities of Palantir to build comprehensive, actionable dossiers on individual pro-democracy activists.

This is not standard domestic policing; it is not legitimate “law enforcement.” As we established in part two of this series, this is the literal, domestic application of military-style “identity operations.” The regime is ripping pages directly from the U.S. military’s counterinsurgency playbook used in Iraq and Afghanistan. By treating American citizens as “insurgents” and “terrorists,” they are actively working to strip away your anonymity and positively identify every individual within the resistance.

But mass surveillance and identification are never the end goals of this military doctrine; they are merely the prerequisites for what comes next: individualized, even personalized targeting. To survive the escalation, we must understand exactly how this military playbook executes targeting—both in the informational and physical domains—so we can strategically prepare our defenses. In this post, we will start with the physical domain.

A note on sourcing: As with the last post, I will rely mostly on Glenn Voelz’s 2015 book [PDF] on individualized warfare as it is the most comprehensive treatment. All information comes from that source unless otherwise noted.

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Find. Fix. Finish.

I’m going to cut right to the chase here. While identity operations and individualized warfare may have been inspired at least in part by the confluence of big data analytics and algorithmic targeting in the private sector, the primary military use of these methods during the “war on terror” was physical rather than informational.

Identity operations were the enablers of the kill/capture missions against individual “high-value targets” in Iraq and Afghanistan. These were usually key leaders, bomb makers, propagandists, or anyone else deemed to be a “key node” in the adversary “network.” When you heard on the news about a high-ranking leader being killed in a drone strike or special forces raid, that was individualized warfare in action and it was enabled by identity operations.

The central idea was to map the enemy network and then capture or eliminate its key human “nodes.” To execute these operations against high-value targets, the military relied heavily on Social Network Analysis (SNA). At the tactical level, SNA was used to conduct exhaustive “pattern of life” analyses. This involved documenting the associations and activities of individuals and groups, culminating in detailed “target information folders” for specific individuals. These dossiers aimed to track every facet of an individual’s existence, including physical descriptions, association, habits, movements, financial transactions, cell phone numbers, and biometric data (sometimes even including DNA samples).

This targeted approach was formalized into military doctrine through frameworks like “Attack the Network” (AtN) [PDF] and the “F3EAD” targeting cycle. F3EAD—which stands for Find, Fix, Finish, Exploit, Analyze, and Disseminate—was explicitly developed as a systematic approach to personality-based targeting. The method’s creation is often credited to disgraced former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign as National Security Advisor during Trump’s first term after he misled the White House about his conversations with Russian officials. Flynn later played an important role in promoting the January 6 insurrection.

Operating within the broader AtN framework, F3EAD functions by sub-categorizing individuals into categories by priority. So-called “tier-one targets” include top-level leadership figures. “Tier-two targets” are intermediaries and facilitators who link leaders to the rest of the organization and to the general population. Finally, “tier-three targets” are low-skilled foot soldiers and general threats among the public.

Source: Flynn, Michael T., Rich Juergens, and Thomas L. Cantrell. “Employing ISR SOF Best Practices.” Joint Force Quarterly, no. 50 (3rd Quarter 2008): 57–63. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/tr/pdf/ADA516799.pdf. [Accessed 19 March 2026].

The strategic goal of applying this intense network analysis to a population is to systematically neutralize the larger organizational structure by removing highly connected tier-one and tier-two targets. The idea is that if the most highly connected “nodes” in the network are eliminated, the network will suffer catastrophic, cascading failures. It’s the same idea behind the expanding series of leadership “decapitation strikes” in Iran right now.

Source: “Attack The Network Part 1: ‘ Oil Spot Methodology,” Asymmetric Warfare Group (March 2009), https://nllp.jallc.nato.int/cmnt/ciedcoi/Library/Attack%20the%20Network%20Methodology%20Part%20I.pdf [Accessed 19 March 2026].

During the 2007 military “surge” in Iraq, military “fusion cells” utilized identity operations techniques to locate, target, and then kill or capture key individuals within insurgent cells and militias. John Nagl, one of the primary architects of this counterinsurgency doctrine, observed that the adoption of Social Network Analysis forced a fundamental shift in how the military operated, moving

“the Army’s intelligence system away from a focus on analysis of conventional enemy units toward a personality-based understanding of the networks of super-empowered individuals.” [Quoted in Voelz 2015]

To process the enormous amounts of data required to map these human networks on the battlefield, the Department of Defense deployed advanced analytical tools like Palantir. As we have already established, the regime is now actively weaponizing these exact same platforms domestically. They are very likely mapping our associations and classifying organizers as tier-one and tier-two targets.

While individual activists are not yet being targeted for physical capture or elimination, the identity operations necessary to enable such actions are well underway.

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Drones, DNA & Neuroweapons

If all of this sounds terrifying, that’s because it is. But the future that some military theorists see for identity operations-fueled warfare is even more frightening. In this future, targeting is not merely individualized--i.e. focused on single individuals to eliminate, capture, or influence--but also personalized. Not only will individuals be targeted, but they will be targeted in ways tailored to their unique biology or psychology. Worse yet, the capabilities needed to engage in this kind of warfare are no longer limited to the government.

The integration of facial recognition software with autonomous drone swarms will soon allow authoritarians to automate targeted physical violence on a mass scale. Defense experts predict that in the near future, militaries will be able to launch swarms of drones programmed to roam battlefields and hunt for very specific individuals [PDF]. When we consider that the Trump regime is already utilizing commercial data brokers and advanced analytics to build biometric dossiers on pro-democracy activists, the leap from digital tracking to autonomous physical targeting is perilously small.

Advances in bioscience are paving the way for hyper-personalized biological and neurological weapons designed to disable or kill specific individuals. Military theorists have outlined the potential for DNA-linked bioweapons—viruses engineered to attack a single person based on their unique genetic code. Others have theorized about the potential uses for so-called “neuroweapons.” (See chapters 11, 12 & 14 in PDF.) Neuroweapons are targeted drugs, toxins, or microbes that could be deployed to alter brain function, triggering neuro-psychiatric disorders or selectively manipulating the cognition and behavior of key resistance leaders. The regime’s goal in utilizing such tools would not simply be death, but the psychophysical disruption and neutralization of the resistance’s most vital human “nodes.”

While individualized warfare was once the exclusive domain of wealthy, technologically advanced states, off-the-shelf drone and facial recognition technologies are already accessible to the general public. As the regime continues to radicalize its base and unleash domestic paramilitaries, we must prepare for the reality that extremists and regime-aligned vigilantes could also soon possess the tools to conduct their own localized, identity-based targeting operations.

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Conclusion

Over the course of the last three posts, we have seen how the mass surveillance regime is spreading and being used against the pro-democracy resistance across the country. We’ve also seen that the tools and techniques used by the regime have their roots in “war on terror” concepts of “identity operations” and “individualized warfare.” In this post, we looked at exactly what the application of those concepts meant on overseas battlefields and what military theorists think they will look like in the future.

We have not yet seen the worst of what individualized warfare can deliver. More likely, before they turn to physical attack as described above, the regime will attempt to neutralize our human “nodes” through highly targeted psychological and information operations. In the next installment of this series, we will examine the informational domain of individualized warfare, detailing how the military playbook uses tailored deception and manipulation to divide and conquer from within.

The material covered thus far in this series is frightening. My goal is not to frighten or offer more doom and gloom. The goal is to inform and educate. To do so, we must face the horrible reality of our situation.

Understanding these tactics is our primary line of defense, and in a subsequent post, we will dive more deeply into the specific operational security (OPSEC) and strategic resistance measures required to survive and defeat these threats. Do not give in to despair; history proves that armed with knowledge and unyielding solidarity, we possess the ability to outlast their chaos and win.

The regime’s adoption of military counterinsurgency tactics against American citizens is fundamentally a sign of profound weakness. As students of resistance, we know that a regime relying on such tools is not a legitimate government. It is a desperate occupation force terrified of its own people. They want you paralyzed by the science-fiction horror of these weapons. But a regime that must hunt its citizens individually is a regime that has completely lost the consent of the governed. Dictatorships always project an illusion of omnipotence right up until the moment they collapse under the weight of organized, strategic noncooperation.

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In Minnesota and elsewhere, we have seen the rapid expansion of regime mass surveillance directed at American citizens engaged in First Amendment-protected activities. In my last post, the first in this series, I detailed the tools and techniques being deployed. These include the collection of personal data from social media platforms and third party data brokers, but also cell phone forensics and collection of biometric data. If you haven’t already, do go and read that post to understand what we are up against. This is only the beginning of the capabilities that will be deployed against us. It will get worse.

This deployment of mass surveillance capabilities is not without a strategy. That strategy is the focus of today’s post. I have studied the U.S. military’s adoption of computing and information technologies all the way back to World War II and up to the present. When I started reading reports about the uses of surveillance technologies in Minnesota and around the country, I immediately recognized the playbook: “identity operations” in support of “individualized warfare.” In this post, we’ll dig into what that entails.

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Defining Identity Operations

A 2015 research report [PDF] by Glenn J. Voelz for the Strategic Studies Institute at the Army War College provides the most comprehensive account of the central role of “identity operations” in the emergence of “individualized warfare” during U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Identity operations use identity information and personal attributes to positively identify individuals within a population. The goal is to resolve who is who so that military forces can screen and attribute actions to specific individuals. The intended effect is to distinguish specific persons from the broader populace, thereby denying anonymity to adversaries and, ultimately, enabling identity-based targeting.

This approach was developed in response to a central challenge faced by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. That challenge was to distinguish who is the enemy when the enemy does not wear a uniform and looks like every other member of the population. The military got the inspiration it needed to solve the problem by taking note of the increasing use of big data and personal profiling in the private sector for recommendation engines and microtargeted advertising.

In his 2015 report, Voelz identified three pillars to this new approach to warfare against nonstate enemies: individualization, identity, and information.

Individualization involves “the systematic disaggregation of threats down to the lowest possible level, often the individual combatant. In this mode of warfare, the targeting of ‘high-value individuals’ became a paramount national security concern.”

Identity operations were required “to identify and discriminate among” individuals.

“As the targeting process became personalized, new kinds of information and methods were required which included biographic, biometric, and forensics data, and the use of network analysis for linking these identities to places, activities, and other actors. Identity attributes became the new technical signature of battlefield targeting and the first line of defense in the ‘watch listing’ approach to homeland security.”

Information gathered during identity operations “required new tools and methods for collecting, processing, and communicating identity information across the entire national security apparatus. The need to identify, screen, and target these threats at home and abroad made information management and data analysis the most important weapons.”

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The Conduct of Identity Operations

Identity operations are conducted using precisely the tools and techniques being deployed in Minnesota and across the United States against immigrants and activists alike. Those core elements include:

• Biometrics: Uses physical and behavioral characteristics (e.g., fingerprints, iris scans, DNA) to fix identity—often described as effectively “putting a uniform on the enemy.”

• Forensics (including so-called “expeditionary forensics”): Material and digital forensics used in the field by soldiers to link individuals to events, devices, or actions.

• Social Network Analysis (SNA): Maps relationships to help connect individuals to networks and support targeting against high-value individuals. Analysis is fueled by biometrics, forensics, and collection of online data.

• Data fusion: Integrates biometric/forensic data with other intelligence sources to resolve identities and strengthen confidence in matches. Analysis and fusion are where tools like Palantir come into play.

The methods of collecting identity information should sound familiar considering what we have seen in Minnesota and elsewhere. The typical workflow goes something like this:

1. Collection in the field: During patrols, checkpoints, and detainee handling, collect biographic, biometric, and contextual “who/where/with whom” indicators for screening and verification.

2. Correlation & identity resolution: Link attributes to a unique individual, reconcile duplicates and aliases, and connect identity to activities and networks.

3. Fusion into Identity Intelligence: Produce usable identity intelligence products from the fused set of identity attributes.

4. Dissemination & operational use: Share identity data across organizations/systems to support screening and targeting.

Exactly these methods have been used against protestors, who have had their personally identifiable information like license plates scanned and stored by ICE, their biometric information taken, and who have been individually targeted as a result.

Individual targeting of so-called “high-value targets” is the ultimate goal of identity operations. This targeting can be informational (e.g. deception, influence) or kinetic (e.g. capture, kill). In my next post, I will discuss the various methods of individualized, sometimes even “personalized” targeting that have already been used and that have been contemplated in the literature on individualized warfare.

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War is Not a Metaphor

Before we dive into the details of individualized, personalized targeting, it is vital that we understand that the strategy emerging in Minnesota is not just like that employed during the “war on terror.” It is exactly that same strategy. The regime sees Americans who resist as terrorists and insurgents and intends to use the same strategy against them that the U.S. military used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The regime and its supporters increasingly frame resistance to their tyranny as “terrorism” or “insurgency.” Several weeks ago, a special forces-style “assessment” was circulating to great fanfare among the MAGA base online. It framed the peaceful protests in Minnesota as an insurgency to justify the use of military force.

But this self-proclaimed former Green Beret was merely echoing the President and his advisors’ own rhetoric. Trump has called the protestors in Minnesota “traitors” and “insurrectionists.” Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called activists murdered by ICE “domestic terrorists.” Advisor/shadow president Stephen Miller has insisted on multiple occasions that protests in Minnesota constitute an “insurgency.”

Tellingly, in an interview with right-wing propaganda outlet, Real America’s Voice, Miller stated that, “More arrests of insurrectionists are being made every day. And each of those arrests provides an opportunity to learn more about the network from a law enforcement and national security standpoint.”

This is a clear, concise description of identity operations. He is describing collection in the field for the purposes of identity resolution and correlation, fusing the data to map the networks of activists. He also hints, at the end of the quote, at why this is now possible inside the United States and against American citizens.

These capabilities exist because of the blurring of the line between law enforcement and military during the “war on terror,” which resulted in the increasing militarization of policing. But that militarization does not just take the form of surplus military vehicles and other equipment making its way into the hands of small town police forces. As Voelz explained,

“On the domestic front, the rise of iWar [individualized warfare] has been most evident in the emergence of the ‘watch listing’ phenomena and identity-based screening programs that have become the central feature of post-9/11 homeland security strategy. Over the last decade, the identities of millions of individuals have been added to such watch lists, augmented with detailed biographic information, biometric profiles, operational histories, and extended networks of associations and contacts. These databases have become the informational basis of an identity-based screening program designed to spotlight individual threats and screen against likely risks to transportation networks, critical infrastructure, and domestic security.”

This is exactly what an ICE agent in Maine meant when, after taking pictures of a legal observer and her vehicle, he told her, “we have a nice little database, and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”

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Conclusion

The rapidly expanding mass surveillance and data collection deployed against American citizens, particularly activists and immigrants, is driven by a recognized military strategy termed “identity operations” in support of “individualized warfare.” This approach, developed during U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, aims to positively identify individuals, deny anonymity and enable targeting of individuals on a massive scale.

The core of this strategy relies on the systematic collection and fusion of biographic, biometric, and forensics data, often described through the pillars of individualization, identity, and information. Saying that this is a form of warfare is not a metaphor but the direct application of “war on terror” tactics domestically, made possible by the increasing militarization of policing and the rise of the “watch listing” phenomenon as a central feature of post-9/11 homeland security. The Trump regime not only calls American resistors “insurgents” and “terrorists,” but it is utilizing the very tools and tactics developed to target insurgents and terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan against Americans.

In the next post, we will look more deeply at what individualized and personalized targeting has entailed in practice in recent conflicts, as well as possibilities for future use in both the informational and physical domains.

In the meantime, please take a moment to fill out the following survey to help me decide which short course to create first to help you all better prepare for where we are headed.

Resistance School Short Courses

I am planning to offer a series of short courses focused on digital security and open source intelligence topics that will be of benefit to those of us engaged in resistance activities. Here are the three I ideas I have to start:

• Encrypted Organizing: Secure Communications & Data in an Age of Mass Surveillance

• Dox Defense 101: Clean Up Your Online Footprint to Defend Against Doxxing & Online Harassment

• Person Of Interest Research: Investigate the Online Footprint of Digital Bad Actors

For years, privacy advocates and civil libertarians warned that the tools of war developed and deployed overseas would eventually be turned inward. It’s a phenomenon that scholars call “the imperial boomerang.” That day is no longer a theoretical future; it is our current reality. In Minneapolis and elsewhere, we are seeing reports that regime enforcers are using a combination of data from social media, surveillance cameras, commercial data brokers, and even biometrics, together with advanced analytics tools from Palantir, to target Americans.

This is not standard policing. This represents the homecoming—or domestication—of tools and techniques perfected in the U.S. counterinsurgency (COIN) and counterterrorism (CT) campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

To understand the regime’s strategy, we must understand its tools, techniques, and origins. We are witnessing the use of what the military calls “identity operations,” a key driver of a strategy known as “individualized warfare.”

In this post, the first of a multi-part series, we will focus on the kinds of tools and techniques being deployed by the regime against American citizens. In subsequent posts, we will examine the strategy behind their use, its origins in the “war on terror,” and the potential implications for effective resistance.

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The Weaponization of Data & Analytics

While scenes of violent regime actions in the streets of American cities have caught the attention of observers around the world, a battle of data and analytics is being waged largely out of public view. So far, the resistance is losing that battle. But the outcome will shape the degree to which meaningful resistance is possible in the months and years ahead. Let’s review some of the regime’s moves so far.

Social Media & Ad Tech as SIGINT

The regime’s first move in the data and analytics battle is to acquire as much data as possible about each and every one of us. That effort was aided early by the theft and consolidation of vast amounts of Americans’ personal data at the hands of Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). But the great DOGE data heist of 2025 was only the beginning.

Regime enforcers increasingly rely on data collected from social media platforms and third party data brokers, all of which provide a form of commercial “signals intelligence” (SIGINT) on us all. For example, DHS has issued administrative subpoenas to Meta (Instagram) to unmask anonymous “community watch” accounts (e.g., @montcowatch) that post the locations of ICE agents. And ICE doesn’t just mask up in the streets. They do so on social media too. A leaked 2026 policy shift allows DHS agents to use alias accounts and “fake identities” to engage with and monitor public online activity and private groups.

Third-party data brokers also help gather data from social media and beyond. ICE has sought contracts with companies like Zignal Labs, which ingests 8 billion social media posts daily, for capabilities like “sentiment analysis” of criticism directed at DHS. In other cases, DHS has sought the integration of utility records, DMV data, and advertising technology data to build comprehensive dossiers.

In December 2025, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) awarded a $636,500 contract to a firm named AI Solutions 87 for “skip tracing services nationwide.” The contractor provides “AI agents” intended to accelerate the identification of persons of interest by mapping their entire networks, including service usage, locations, friends, family, and associates.

Then, in January, ICE issued a Request for Information (RFI) to data and ad tech brokers to assess the availability of extensive personal datasets for enforcement purposes. Noting that enforcement actions undertaken without social media information and open-source intelligence often fail, the agency is seeking market research on the acquisition of personal, financial, health, and location data.

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Phones, Faces & Fingerprints

Regime enforcers also collect data on Americans through physical encounters with them. This includes the collection of device data at protests or during arrests. For example, ICE employs several phone‑tracking tools, including L3Harris “Stingray” cell‑site simulators that mimic cell towers to locate nearby devices. They also use commercial location‑data subscriptions, such as Penlink’s Webloc, which let agents geofence areas and monitor all phones within them. For digital forensics, ICE contracts with firms like Paragon Solutions for remote spyware, Cellebrite for extracting data from seized but locked phones, and Finaldata’s FINALMobile for recovering deleted files, all of which require physical possession of the device.

Paragon Solutions is an Israeli firm that produces remote spyware capable of hacking phones. While its purchase by ICE was briefly halted by the Biden administration in 2024 over concerns that foreign‑linked spyware could threaten U.S. security, the freeze was lifted by the Trump regime in 2025. Cellebrite has been the subject of controversy in the past for having sold its products to repressive regimes that used it to target journalists and activists, though the company later rescinded those contracts.

But a physical encounter with regime enforcers opens activists to more than just the collection of cell phone data. Being arrested or merely detained can subject one to the collection of various kinds of biometric data, including fingerprints, photos of one’s face, and even collection of one’s DNA. Recently, DHS has transitioned from static, centralized biometric records to a dynamic, field-level surveillance stack designed for real-time identification of domestic targets.

Central to this evolution is Mobile Fortify, a field-deployable application, enabling agents to perform instantaneous facial recognition and fingerprint matching—a capability that has already been documented scanning the faces of legal observers and protesters in Minneapolis and Chicago without consent.

This tactical edge is further sharpened by a $9.2 million contract with Clearview AI, which grants ICE access to a database of 50 billion images scraped from the public internet, explicitly to identify individuals associated with “assaults against law enforcement“—a label civil rights groups warn is being weaponized against non-violent protesters.

To close remaining identification gaps, the agency has invested $4.6 million in BI2 Technologies’ iris-scanning smartphones and proposed a sweeping rule to mandate the collection of palm prints, voice recognition, and DNA from a broader range of individuals, including U.S. citizens and children.

This integrated biometric regime effectively transforms the American public square into a persistent screening environment where records from an increasingly integrated collection of government and private databases are cross-referenced in seconds to catalog and track domestic dissent.

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The All-Seeing Eye of Fusion & Analytics

Data from DOGE, data brokers, social media, cell phones, and biometrics--it all adds up fast. Without the ability to sort through it all quickly and effectively, it’s just digital noise. That’s where the regime’s core analytical infrastructure comes in.

Palantir serves as the backbone of the regime’s ability to “fuse,” analyze, and weaponize all of this data. The software, used by military and intelligence agencies during the “war on terror,” ingests massive amounts of data, allowing analysts to sort it into various visual forms, including interactive geospatial maps, social network graphs, timelines, histograms, and more.

Journalists have only begun to document the various ways that this tool is being used. For example, investigators have documented the creation of what was called “ImmigrationOS.” This was a $30 million contract for a platform designed for “near real-time visibility” and “granular tracking” of individuals throughout the immigration and enforcement lifecycle.

Other Palantir tools include ELITE (Enhanced Lead Identification & Targeting for Enforcement) and AFI (Analytical Framework for Intelligence). The first provides a map-based interface described by agents as “Google Maps for raids.” It uses generative AI to extract data from warrants and provides “address confidence scores” to guide enforcement. The second is used for link analysis and geospatial mapping, integrating government records with commercially sourced data to identify “security risks.”

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Conclusion

In this first part of the series, we have reviewed the advanced data aggregation tools—from social media monitoring to mobile forensics and biometrics—that are now actively deployed against Americans by the Trump regime. This represents a significant shift from traditional policing toward an aggressive, data-driven approach to repressing all forms of dissent. The scale of data collection, fusion, and analysis, largely powered by platforms like Palantir, is rapidly eroding the possibility of anonymous resistance to the ever-growing tyranny in America.

While I have detailed how the regime is gathering data and building dossiers, the next installment in this series will expose the underlying strategy of “individualized warfare” that these technologies are designed to implement. I will trace its origins directly back to U.S. counterinsurgency (COIN) and counterterrorism (CT) operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The very intelligence and analysis infrastructure created to “find, fix, and finish” so-called “high-value targets” in far-off warzones is being rapidly deployed against American citizens.

Second Post in the Series 👇

Resistance School Short Courses

I am planning to offer a series of short courses focused on digital security and open source intelligence topics that will be of benefit to those of us engaged in resistance activities. Here are the three I ideas I have to start:

• Encrypted Organizing: Secure Communications & Data in an Age of Mass Surveillance

• Dox Defense 101: Clean Up Your Online Footprint to Defend Against Doxxing & Online Harassment

• Person Of Interest Research: Investigate the Online Footprint of Digital Bad Actors

Do you have other suggestions? Please drop them in the comments. I’m looking to create a regular series of 60-90 minute courses on actionable topics.

This last week marks a turning point in our struggle against the Trump regime. What started with an appalling “Great Rupture” in Davos evolved by the weekend into a second, even more appalling murder of a protester by regime paramilitaries in Minneapolis. But amidst the tragedy and the noise, a critical signal has emerged: Donald Trump backed down. Twice.

Faced with a dual crisis of his own making, the President has seemingly backed off his aggressive stance in Minneapolis, at least for now. It’s a decision influenced by significant conservative pushback. This shift has not only altered the political landscape but also exposed growing rifts within the MAGA base.

Key regime “Pillars of Support“—a concept central to nonviolent resistance theory—are beginning to crack. This past week can be seen as a structural stress test that the regime failed. That failure offers a hopeful sign: the Trump regime is far from invincible.

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The Minneapolis Pivot: A Tactical Retreat, Not a Change of Heart

The murder of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and protestor, by regime paramilitaries in Minneapolis was intended to be a show of force—a brutal reminder of the price of dissent. Instead, it became a catalyst for an explosion in opposition, including from some in the President’s own party.

Authoritarian regimes rely on the illusion of total control. When that illusion is shattered by the reality of incompetence and brutality, even loyalists can begin to defect.

In a surprising turn of events, Trump has at least signalled a willingness to de-escalate in Minneapolis. This decision was not driven by moral compunction but by cold political calculus. The backlash was not limited to the usual suspects on the left, either. It came from the very heart of the MAGA movement.

• The Internal fracture: Prominent figures in the GOP, including senators, representatives, and at least one governor, have openly criticized Trumps tactics in Minneapolis.

• The Media Split: The Pretti murder has split the right wing mediasphere. Some Fox News commentators and hardcore influencers like Tim Pool have begun to argue that the tactics in Minneapolis have backfired, proving ineffective and making the President look “weak” and “pathetic.” Others in the movement continue to support ICE and lament Trump’s change in tactics.

• The Political Cost: The withdrawal of Chris Madel, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota, citing regime actions as a catalyst, underscores the electoral toxicity of Trump’s paramilitary strategy.

In a strategic move, Trump has replaced Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino with Tom Homan, his so-called “border czar.” Of course, it’s a change that may be merely symbolic or a calculated bluff. Nonetheless, it suggests that external pressures have compelled a shift in strategy, marking a significant moment in the ongoing political saga.

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The Davos “Rupture” and the Greenland Walkback

While resistance grew in Minneapolis, the regime was simultaneously fighting—and losing—a battle for legitimacy on the world stage. The “Great Rupture” at Davos, highlighted by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s blistering critique of Trump’s destruction of the rules-based international order, isolated the Trump administration globally.

But the most telling moment came from the Arctic. Following reports of at least one House Republican threatening impeachment over his erratic foreign policy, Trump abruptly backed off his threats to annex Greenland.

Trump demonstrated this week that, as with all bullies, when the cost of aggression becomes too high, the bully backs down.

This retreat has not gone unnoticed by the “true believers.” Hardcore figures like Mike Flynn and Steve Bannon have lambasted the regime for perceived weakness, further widening the rift between the ideological zealots and the political pragmatists within MAGA.

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Tactical Analysis: Cracking the Pillars of Support

Why does this matter? Because dictatorships do not fall due to a single blow; they crumble when their pillars of support—party elites, clergy, security sevices, civil servants, and business—withdraw their cooperation.

The events of this week demonstrate that these pillars are not monolithic.

1. The Security Pillar: The replacement of Bovino suggests that even the enforcement arm of the regime is susceptible to public pressure and operational failure.

2. The Political Pillar: The criticism from GOP electeds and the withdrawal of a GOP gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota show that the Republican party is not wholly subservient when their own political survival is threatened.

3. The Information Pillar: The dissent from right-wing media figures indicates that the regime is losing control of the narrative even within its own echo chamber.

While the cracks we’ve seen thus far are not sufficient for victory, they are a necessary and welcome sign that the Trump regime is not invincible.

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Resistance Steps: How to Widen the Cracks

We must not mistake this retreat for victory. The regime will likely regroup and attempt to reassert dominance through other means. However, we have been given a playbook on how to force further retreats.

• Do Not Normalize: Refuse to accept the replacement of one enforcer (Bovino) with another (Homan) as a solution. The problem is not the personnel; it is Trump’s strategy of hybrid civil warfare.

• Amplify the Defections: When a Republican like Chris Madel or Senator John Curtis (Utah) speaks out, amplify it. Not because we agree with their politics, but because their dissent signals to others that it is safe to break ranks.

• Maintain the Pressure: The pressure that we are applying--protests, boycotts, filming ICE, and more--are working. The regime reacts to pressure. We must keep applying it. We must apply even more pressure.

The last week saw an escalation of bellicose rhetoric and domestic violence on the part of the Trump regime. But it did not go without response. The world pushed back. The citizens pushed back. And for the first time in a long time, the regime blinked.

Stay vigilant. Keep pushing.

For the last year, world leaders have engaged in a delicate dance of appeasement, hoping that the post-WWII “rules-based international order” could survive the erratic authoritarianism of the Trump regime. That hope died this week at Davos.

Following Trump’s threats of “excessive strength and force” against our NATO allies over Greenland, the tone in Europe has shifted from concern to resolve. As Carole Cadwalladr brilliantly articulates in The Rupture, the Europeans have finally woken up. They are no longer waiting for America to return to sanity; they are preparing to balance against us.

This is a fundamental turning point in the history of the West.

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The statements coming out of Davos, combined with Canada’s stunning announcement of what Charlotte Clymer calls its “divorce” from America, make one thing clear: The world is prepared to move on without the United States.

In his stunning address, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney didn’t just mourn the old world order—he buried it. The United States’ once “shining city on a hill” has gone dark, and our allies are building their own lighthouses.

If you haven’t already, Carney’s full address is well worth your time to watch. I believe it, along with the entire Davos meeting, will be marked for many years to come as a key turning point in the history of the Atlantic alliance.

We Are On Our Own

And so now we find ourselves on our own in the world, but increasingly at home too. For those of us inside the United States, this international rupture brings a chilling realization: there is no cavalry coming to save us. The preservation of our republic will not come from external pressure or a sudden return to norms. It will also not come from our own institutions unless we force them to act.

As Barbara F. Walter—one of the world’s leading experts on civil wars—writes this week, It Will All Come Down to Us. The guardrails are gone. The courts are packed. The Senate is paralyzed. Democratic Congressional leadership cannot even be coaxed to agree to eliminate funding for the President’s paramilitary force that has occupied Minneapolis for weeks. If we are to avoid national ruin, it will be because ordinary citizens engaged in massive, unrelenting nonviolent resistance.

But what does that resistance look like in practice? It requires two things: personal courage and structural offense.

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The Personal Front: Facing Our Fears

The regime relies on fear to enforce compliance. They want you to believe that resistance is futile and dangerous. In a vital piece this week, Rachel Cohen addresses this psychological warfare head-on. Her guide on How to Face Your Fears and Fight ICE is essential reading for anyone wondering how to move from paralysis to action.

Fear is a biological reaction; courage is a political decision. We must choose the latter.

The Structural Front: Oppositional Federalism

While personal courage is essential, the use of structural power will be required to prevail in the hybrid civil war that the Trump regime has unleashed on Americans.

Our side has traditionally viewed “Federalism” and “States’ Rights” as tools of the conservative right—weapons used to preserve segregation or block progress. And that was a correct assessment. But the right has created legal weapons that can now be used for the defense of democracy. It is time to pick them up and use them.

In an important new booklet, Oppositional Federalism and You: The Three-Tier Framework, Christopher Armitage outlines exactly how to do this using a strategy he calls Oppositional Federalism.

This is not merely “soft secession“ or passive non-cooperation. Oppositional federalism is the use of state power to actively disrupt and dismantle the machinery of the Trump regime. Armitage argues that Blue States must stop acting like subordinates to a rogue federal government and start acting like the sovereign entities they are.

What does Oppositional Federalism look like?

• Financial Sovereignty: It looks like states working to increase their own financial sovereignty as a means of resilience against Federal threats and retaliation. For example, this could look like establishing public banks—modeled on the Bank of North Dakota—to shield state funds from federal seizure and protect businesses from politically motivated financial blacklisting.

• Data Shields: It looks like refusing to share driver’s license databases with ICE, effectively blinding the regime’s deportation force.

• Weaponized Licensing: It looks like using state licensing boards to revoke the credentials of medical professionals, lawyers, or contractors who participate in the regime’s human rights abuses. If you torture detainees or separate families in a Blue State, you should lose your license to practice.

• State Prosecution of Federal Agents: It looks like local prosecutors charging federal agents who violate state criminal codes—such as assault, trespassing, or kidnapping—while executing unconstitutional orders. There is deep historical precedent for this dating back to the 1850s, when Northern states prosecuted federal marshals and slave catchers for enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act.

• Fiscal Civil Disobedience: It looks like states passing legislation—similar to New York’s proposed RECOURSE Act—to place federal tax withholdings from state employees into escrow rather than remitting them to the IRS, specifically if federal officials interfere with state election administration or refuse to certify valid results.

As Armitage writes, quoting Thomas Paine, “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” But we must be willing to use that power.

The Path Forward

The international community has made its choice: they are balancing against the American threat. Now we must make ours.

We cannot wait for the next election.

We cannot wait for the courts.

We must build a fortress of democracy within our own states and communities, using every lever of power available to us.

📚 Essential Reading:

• January 20, 2026 - Heather Cox Richardson

• Canada Announces Divorce from America - Charlotte Clymer

• Mark Carney Didn’t Mourn the Old World Order. He Buried It. - Being Liberal

• Flood Their Zone: A New Model for Oppositional Response - Chris Armitage

• It Will All Come Down to Us - Barbara F. Walter

• The Rupture - Carole Cadwalladr

• BREAKING: Trump threatens “excessive strength and force” - Defiance News

• Trump Gets Worse, But the Blowback Intensifies - The Contrarian

• Rachel Cohen: How to Face Your Fears and Fight ICE - On Offense

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The conventional wisdom among the resistance has long been that the Trump regime’s escalation in places like Minnesota is designed to incite enough chaos and violence to justify invoking the Insurrection Act and declaring martial law. I have shared that assessment in the past. It is a logical conclusion based on 20th-century authoritarian playbooks. Indeed, Trump and his most vocal supporters are warning of precisely that just today.

There is another, more disturbing possibility that we must consider, however: The regime has already begun the next civil war, but in such a way that most have not noticed.

What we are witnessing is the regime’s use of Russian-style hybrid warfare tactics against an American state. This is hybrid civil warfare. And because it doesn’t look like Gettysburg or Antietam, many are failing to recognize the existential threat it poses until it is too late.

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Key Characteristics of Hybrid (Civil) Warfare

To understand what is happening in Minnesota and other blue states, we must review the key characteristics of the traditional hybrid warfare playbook—a strategy perfected by Putin’s Russia—and map them onto the Trump regime’s assault on the rule of law. These include information operations, economic warfare, lawfare, the use of “little green men,” and actions just below the threshold that would justify a response by one’s adversary. All are being deployed by the Trump regime against blue cities and states right now.

Information Operations

Information operations are a core characteristic of hybrid warfare strategy. This involves the use of coordinated disinformation and psychological warfare campaigns, relying upon online influencers, social media, and a captured mainstream media. The goal is to pit people against one another, foment chaos, and generally “prepare the battlefield” for the punitive measures to follow.

We see this clearly in Minnesota. The Trump regime is engaged in a campaign of information warfare aided by its allies in the right-wing news media. This includes accusing the state of engaging in massive financial fraud related to public assistance programs and the targeted scapegoating of the Somali immigrant community to generate hysteria. The regime is even smearing and investigating the widow of the women it murdered, which sparked the current protests in the first place. This full range of dubious claims is being used to justify the federal paramilitary invasion of Minneapolis, but also as the basis for legal threats against elected officials in the state.

Economic Warfare

Hybrid warfare relies heavily on economic pressure and manipulation tactics, including boycotts, sanctions, and even coordination with organized crime.

In the case of the Trump regime’s assault on blue states, we are seeing the federal government weaponize funding and economic levers to punish dissent. Trump has followed this same playbook in California, Illinois, and now Minnesota. In each case, this involves suspension of federal assistance dollars to states as a punitive measure. The mere presence of ICE is also taking an economic toll on farmers in these states.

The regime is also deploying ICE forces to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, which will no doubt have an impact on the state’s economy. I anticipate that international travel to the state, and perhaps even domestic air travel too, will be disrupted as travelers make other arrangements or avoid the state entirely. It is also possible that ICE operations will cause chaos and delays at the airport. This deployment of ICE forces to the airport could be seen as a sort of critical infrastructure attack by the federal government on a state’s key transportation infrastructure.

Lawfare

Lawfare is the malicious and coordinated use of the legal system against one’s opponents to apply pressure and force behavioral change.

In Minnesota and elsewhere, Trump and his lackeys have threatened to arrest or investigate public officials for supposedly obstructing ICE activities or even reminding soldiers of their duty to disobey illegal orders. Trump’s DOJ tried and failed (so far) to stop California’s redistricting. This is not justice; it is the regime using the DOJ as a bludgeon.

The Veil of Deniability (“Little Green Men”)

A hallmark of the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 was the use of soldiers or paramilitary forces deployed without clear insignia. These are the so-called “Little Green Men.” The lack of insignia provided just enough ambiguity to confuse the situation and slow an effective response by the West.

We are seeing this exact tactic inside the United States. The initial deployment of federal forces looked identical to Russia’s strategy in Crimea. Discussion raged: Who are these men in jeans and tactical vests? Are they law enforcement? Bounty hunters? Mercenaries? In Minnesota, we see paramilitary forces, ostensibly “law enforcement” kitted out like soldiers heading into war. This ambiguity is a feature, not a bug. It quells potential responses because local officials and citizens are unsure who, exactly, they are resisting.

Action Just Below the Threshold of Response

All these tactics—information, economic, legal, and paramilitary—are meant to create maximum pressure without rising to a level that triggers a massive, unified response. Hybrid warfare creates a situation where the adversary might not even fully recognize they are under coordinated attack.

Despite the multi-pronged assault the Trump regime has unleashed on blue states, the response has largely been contained to the courts. It is only now that we are seeing local officials in Minnesota and Pennsylvania publicly contemplate using their own state law enforcement against the federal paramilitary. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has indicated he could potentially call up his own National Guard to defend Minnesotans against ICE. This hesitation is part of the hybrid civil war plan: keep the violence just low enough that the frog doesn’t realize it’s boiling until it’s dead.

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Minneapolis as a “Special Military Operation”

In Ukraine, Russian hybrid warfare eventually failed to deliver the desired results, leading to a full-blown invasion. Similarly, Trump’s initial attempts at hybrid civil war against California and Illinois did not deliver total submission. Thus, we now see an escalation in Minnesota with what can only be called a full-scale paramilitary invasion of Minneapolis.

What’s more, Trump and his MAGA supporters are increasingly threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow Trump to deploy not just his paramilitary ICE force, but the United States military against American citizens.

However, we must remember that even after Russia carried out a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they refused to call it war, referring to it as a “special military operation” instead. We will see the same rhetoric here. Instead of calling it what it really is—an invasion and civil war—the regime will call it a “law enforcement operation” to quell an insurrection.

All the while, the information warfare, economic warfare, and lawfare will continue unabated.

What Now?

1. Stop Waiting for the “Declaration”

Defenders of democracy must call this what it is. Stop waiting for a “declaration” or “invocation.” Martial law is, in effect, already here in Minneapolis. This focus on semantics recalls the early days when legal analysts fixated on the exact criteria for a “constitutional crisis.” That seems quaint (and dumb) now. We do not need to wait for a declaration of martial law to see that the Trump regime is engaged in hybrid warfare attacks against American states. The regime’s refusal to make a formal declaration is part of its strategy, which is paying major dividends. We cannot tie our response to the regime giving up that advantage.

2. Call ICE What It Is: A Regime Paramilitary

Democracy defenders must stop referring to ICE or CBP as “law enforcement.” They are a regime paramilitary force. ICE and the regime it serves are lawless. To continue using their preferred terminology only aids the regime’s hybrid strategy of obfuscation. What the regime calls “law enforcement” is in no way enforcing the law; they are breaking the law openly, daily, and hourly.

3. Fight Back Now

Pro-democracy citizens must fight back now before ICE becomes stronger. The public backlash to ICE has been such that actually calling out the military would likely spiral out of hand. But even if the Insurrection Act is invoked, military mobilization will not be enough to control a country of 350 million people. The U.S. military could not pacify Iraq or Afghanistan (average populations of ~45 million). They cannot pacify America if we refuse to be pacified.

Demographics, geography, and common sense are on our side. Pro-democracy forces must commence peaceful but disruptive protests immediately. Unlike the previous “No Kings” and “Hands Off” protests, there must be a focus on D.C. Get in the streets and stay there. Prepare for a long, non-violent occupation.

Outside of D.C., protests must focus on shutting down strategic regime assets: blocking ICE, Border Patrol, FBI, or military locations. We must engage in general strikes and block critical infrastructure. We must move beyond symbolic one-day protests and into long-term, disruptive occupations of key locations.

The war has already begun. It is time we started using every nonviolent tactic at our disposal to fight back. If we do not, we will face far worse.

A collage for MENA protests. Clockwise from top left: 2011 Egyptian revolution, Tunisian revolution, 2011 Yemeni uprising, 2011 Syrian uprising. Source: Wikipedia.

This Week Marks A Turning Point

On the last day of the first week of 2026, the United States reached a turning point. The brazen murder of Renee Nicole Good should make clear the stark choices facing the nation. Without immediate, massive, and unrelenting nonviolent protest, Americans face two equally horrible futures: brutal dictatorship or a spiral into civil war.

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Brutal Dictatorship Is Fast Approaching

As 2025 drew to a close and many logged off for a much needed holiday break after a year of insanity, experts lauded the growing resistance to Trump and consequent slowing of his consolidation of power. They warned, however, that we would likely see a regime escalation of violence in response. We wrote about it exactly a month before Ms. Good’s murder:

And so, 2026 has started with a blitzkrieg of chaos, both foreign and domestic, by the regime. The week started with the abduction of a world leader, seizure of a Russian oil tanker, and threats of war against NATO allies. It comes to a close with the nation reeling from a regime paramilitary murder of an American citizen in broad daylight.

Welcome to one possible future. This is a small taste of what full-blown dictatorship will look like. Make no mistake, that is our future if we do not act boldly and soon. Dictatorship is approaching rapidly. It’s later than you think.

Asked today what can stop him, Trump said only his own morality and mind. That would be the morality of a pedophile rapist and the mind of a malignant, demented narcissist. He has at his sole command a growing paramilitary force creating a system of concentration camps with a projected capacity of 116,000 beds by spring. For comparison, the entire federal prison system currently holds 155,000. This is to say nothing of his possession of an arsenal of nuclear weapons capable of killing everyone on the planet.

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An Escalating Spiral of Violence Can Lead to Civil War

However, a certain percentage of the United States’ 340 million people are likely to reject such a future. In a nation awash in firearms, it’s only a matter of time, therefore, before the guns “enter the chat,” as Jim Stewartson has warned.

We should not downplay the potential consequences. The nation’s first Civil War arguably started before the South’s attack on Ft. Sumter, with an escalating spiral of political violence all across the nation, from the Kansas-Missouri border to the halls of Congress even.

One incident, in particular, still lives in our memory and has had a lasting impact on American culture. That is the raid by abolitionist John Brown on Harper’s Ferry, for which he was later convicted and hanged for “treason” by the state of Virginia.

But what started with the martyring of John Brown, ended with General Sherman’s scorched earth campaigns in Georgia and North Carolina, presaging the dawn of modern industrial warfare and the strategic bombing campaigns of WWII.

As I watch Minnesotans come out in the snow and freezing cold to confront federal paramilitary thugs, I cannot help but recall the words of Texas Governor Sam Houston. In opposing the state’s vote to secede from the Union, he warned,

“They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South.”

Don’t forget that the 28th Virginia Infantry Regimental Battle Flag, captured by the First Minnesota Volunteer, remains in the possession of the Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) and has not been returned to Virginia despite multiple requests over the past century.

In the end, one might say those cold climate Yankees trampled them, brought the grapes of wrath, loosed some fateful lightening and a terrible swift sword. Before that was the Battle Hymn of the Republic and one of our most beloved patriotic songs, it was called John Brown’s Body.

Such a spiral of violence is not to be courted lightly. The last time the demon of political unrest overtook our nation, we slaughtered one another in 10,000 places across the entire continent. While we focus on the big battles and great generals on horseback, guerrilla warfare within states, between counties, towns, and neighbors, was common, leading to flows of refugees, death, and misery. We can expect such a savage conflict again if we do not change course.

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An Alternative To Destruction

There is a third option, however, one that has succeeded in overturning such regimes. That is massive, sustained, nonviolent protest. We have seen it work in countries from Eastern Europe and the Balkans to the Middle East. We may be seeing it again right now in Iran.

We must not be cowed by regime violence. Remember what this escalation represents: desperation. The regime is losing control of the narrative. People are feeling the pinch of a worsening economy. Even the miniscule percentage of Epstein files that have made it past the regime censors make it clear that the President is a pedophile.

We cannot allow the current situation to continue. Further consolidation of power makes it more difficult by the day to restore democratic governance. We cannot wait for November elections, which are in no way guaranteed to be free or fair, if they are even held at all.

We must act now. But in doing so, we cannot give the regime the violence it wants. There is no doubt that any violence from the pro-democracy side will be used as a pretext for martial law and perhaps to cancel the November elections.

Massive, sustained, nonviolent action is no guarantee of victory. But the other options are worse. The decent, non-fiery people who are now awakening to our dire situation must once again act as a relentless force to overwhelm the evil forces that have taken our nation hostage.

The situation will get darker. But it’s always darkest before the dawn. Regime actions in Minnesota are the best indicator yet that they are losing, that they know it, and that we can defeat them. Keep the faith! Keep fighting!

The One Big Thing: The Panic Behind the Curtain

The Trump Regime is terrified, and their clumsiness proves it. Last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ failed to meet the legal deadline to release the full Jeffrey Epstein files, violating the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Instead of compliance, we got a heavily redacted “incomplete release” that serves one purpose: protecting Donald Trump.

This isn’t just bureaucratic incompetence; it is an active cover-up. The DOJ deliberately pulled at least 16 images from the release, including a photo of Trump found in a desk drawer. While the regime scrambles to scrub the record, Democrats and the Epstein estate are bypassing the DOJ entirely, continuing to release photos and documents that expose the truth.

Why this matters: The regime played its only hand—a weak, obvious cover-up that puts them in a lose-lose situation. By defying the law, they have handed us a powerful weapon. Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie are already considering impeachment charges against Pam Bondi for this obstruction. This is authoritarian consolidation hitting a wall of reality. They cannot hide everything, as evidenced by the fact that Trump’s name and image still appeared even after their attempt to redact the release. Their desperation to protect Trump shows just how fragile the regime truly is.

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Daily Inspiration: No F@#ks Given, Edition

Governor Wes Moore. Maryland Governor Wes Moore is punching back. Moore is aggressively moving forward with redistricting to counter the GOP’s national gerrymandering efforts, stating, “I don’t live in the theoretical... I live in the reality right now that Donald Trump is trying to rig the system.” Earlier, when the Washington Post criticized his tactics, Moore didn’t apologize. His response was five letters: “IDGAF“. This is the energy we need in leaders who understand that you cannot bring a knife to a gunfight against autocracy. Have a listen to Gov. Moore on Brian Tyler Cohen’s show last month:

The Resistance Round-Up

Here is the signal amidst the noise:

✅ The Wins

• MAGA Civil War: The far-right is eating itself. At the Turning Point USA conference, Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson, and Candace Owens openly attacked one another, fracturing the coalition that supports the regime.

• Poetic Justice: In a win for karma, two toxic icons of the “manosphere”—Andrew Tate and Jake Paul—suffered brutal, humiliating defeats in the boxing ring this weekend. While we remain fully committed to nonviolence, we cannot deny the satisfaction of seeing Nazis get punched in the face.

• Elbows up! Anticipating U.S. instability, Canada and the UK are forging an “ambitious” new strategic partnership to guard against Trump chaos and secure their critical supply chains.

⚠️ The Threats

• The Radicalization Trap: While the MAGA infighting is a tactical win for us, there is a strategic danger. An even more extreme faction is rising from the ashes, led by white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who is capitalizing on the chaos to recruit “elite human capital” for what can only be described as an openly neo-Nazi post-Trump order.

• Extremist Signaling: JD Vance is feeding this extremism, ranting at TPUSA that the U.S. will “always be a Christian nation,” attacking Somali immigrants, and telling fellow MAGA members that “you don’t have to apologize for being white anymore.” This is unadulterated white Christian nationalism on full display from TPUSA’s pick for president in 2028.

Tactical Analysis: The Path to Accountability

We must stop hoping for norms to save us and start planning for structural reform. Here is how we pivot from defense to offense:

• Admit that SCOTUS is illegitimate: We must accept the hard truth articulated by Harvard and Yale law professors this week: The Supreme Court is illegitimate. We must push for structural reform—not just “norms”—to reverse our slide into authoritarianism and prevent it from happening again.

• Support independent media: Bari Weiss’ decision to scrap a 60 Minutes story on Trump deportations to the CECOT prison in El Salvador reinforces once more that we need clear-eyed, expert reporting and analysis, not corporate media “both-sidesism” and censorship. At Resistance Sentinel, we particularly value the analysis from historians like Dr. Thomas Zimmer (Democracy Americana) to understand the mechanics of this right-wing coup. We subscribed last week. You should too.

• Brand the corruption: Comedian Dean Obeidallah has the right idea: If Trump wants his name on buildings, let’s accommodate him. We should rename prisons, dumps, and wastewater plants after the man convicted of 34 felonies. What would you put Trump’s name on? Let us know in the comments!

• Demand Accountability: We cannot repeat the mistakes of the post-Nixon era. There can be no “moving on” like there was during the Obama era with respect to the crimes of the second Bush administration. We must plan now to hold every enabler of this regime legally accountable when power returns to the people.

The regime wants you overwhelmed, but the resistance is spreading, is increasingly organized, and is effectively fighting back. Holding bad actors accountable requires precise knowledge of the system we are fighting. Please share and subscribe to help keep yourself and others informed.

Stay vigilant,The Resistance Sentinel

I cannot get some combination of the quote attributed to William Gibson—“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed”—and the idea that World War III has already begun out of my head these days. World War III, it turns out, is the same fight for democracy over fascist imperialism as the last world war. But it’s not evenly distributed yet, and so too many remain blissfully unaware.

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By my reading of Victor Klemperer’s diary, and if one were to make a rough comparison to the timeline of Nazi Germany and the coming of World War II, we’re still somewhere in the 1936-1938 timeframe. Technically, the war had not yet arrived, but with the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear that Hitler’s plans were already well underway. Open warfare was meant to be the culminating point of a battle that had been waged sub rosa, but only barely, for years.

All of that to say, the war for democracy has, once again, just begun. This point was driven home last week in an essential article from The Guardian, in which pro-democracy activists from Hungary, Turkey and El Salvador shared their advice for those of us in the United States who are now joining the fight. They see in our story a case study of both how quickly democracies can slide into authoritarianism and the kinds of mistakes pro-democracy resistance movements make early on that enable that slide.

Perhaps most importantly, they caution us that there is no quick fix or return to “normal.” Fighting back takes long-term stamina, listening to citizens’ concerns, and defending democratic institutions at every turn.

Over at Democracy Americana, historian Thomas Zimmer makes the point even more bluntly. Even though he, like other astute analysts of our current moment, sees emerging cracks in the regime power base, he warns, “Whatever form MAGA takes in the coming post-Trump era, the idea that American politics will soon experience a return to ‘normalcy’ is dangerously fanciful.”

Guilty as charged. I will admit that I still operate too often in the delusional world where this is all going to come to an end soon(ish). But it’s just not. I know that. But still, it’s hard to admit.

The system, our system if we could keep it—and we didn’t—has already been destroyed. Even if we get Trump out, it will be a long time before things are repaired…if they ever are. There’s no “going back” to “normal.” We shouldn’t go back even if we could. After all, normal got us into this mess. The normal system, as it turns out, had massive flaws that every future Trump now knows how to exploit. We will need to build something more robust next time.

But we’re not to next time yet. We’re only at the start of our journey to next time. And that, many days, is a daunting, depressing, and sometimes debilitating realization. So what can we do?

We can do what we can, when we can. We can live our lives as best we can. We can live normally without normalizing our political situation. This may sound trite or like a contradiction. It is neither.

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As we have emphasized in recent posts, there are essential, invaluable lessons for us when we read history. Halik Kochanski’s monumental 2022 book, Resistance: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945, contains many such lessons.

One of those lessons struck me hard recently as I sat, listening to the audiobook on a flight back to the United States and worrying about my return to a country rapidly deteriorating into fascist tyranny. That lesson is this:

But don’t take my word for it. Listen to Dr. Kochanski:

Those who took part in the resistance were not supermen and superwomen but were drawn from all walks of life. Some of the most heroic acts of resistance were performed by people who would not have been expected - even by themselves - to be heroes of any kind at all. Relatively few lived a continuous underground existence and the majority participated in normal life while taking part in resistance activities on occasion as and when needed.

The resisters also like to emphasize that their activities in the resistance did not preclude the majority from enjoying a normal life. Jean-Pierre Lévy described their lives:

We lived in the shadows as soldiers of the night but our lives were not dark and martial. We were young and we were gay. We loved and we made love and we laughed ... There were arrests, torture, and death for so many of our friends and comrades, and tragedy awaited all of us just around the corner. But we did not live in or with tragedy. We were exhilarated by the challenge and rightness of our cause. It was in many ways the worst of times and in just as many ways the best of times, and the best is what we remember today.

It’s easy to feel like we always have to be doing something more, something more heroic or dangerous, as though true resistance looks like a scene from Army of Shadows rather than posting a newsletter or helping out our neighbors or making stickers or painting pictures or…or…or…

But the fact of the matter is that most who took part in anti-Nazi resistance during the last world war were not engaged in derring-do. They engaged in many of the same, seemingly mundane resistance activities we engage in now. And many of them paid the ultimate price for those mundane activities. Being caught in possession of a foreign newspaper, posting an anti-regime flyer, handing out pamphlets, or helping their persecuted neighbors resulted in death for tens of thousands or more. Your “not enough” resistance activities can still get you killed. We all just have to do what we can given our circumstances and tolerance for risk. No one else can make those decisions for us.

Believing otherwise limits the field of opportunity for broad participation in the resistance at a time when we need the broadest coalition we can get. Framing resistance as derring-do tends to downplay the vital role that women and other marginalized groups have historically played in resistance, as much of the “heroic” action was traditionally denied to them. Dr. Kochanski writes,

Pre-war society was still essentially very male-dominated and women often found a new sense of freedom and independence by serving with the resistance during the war. Few actually fired weapons but many proved their worth by undertaking the extremely perilous roles of couriers, carrying messages and contraband materiel from one group of resisters to another, as well as hiding those in danger, and working for the clandestine press. Campaigns for female suffrage had a long history in Europe, with many countries rewarding women for their sacrifices and work during the First World War with the right to vote. Similarly, the Second World War or shortly thereafter led to equal voting rights for women in the remaining countries such as France, Italy, Albania, Yugoslavia, and Greece.

You are enough, just by educating yourself, trying to stay informed, sharing information with others, helping your neighbors, refusing in whatever small way you can to “go along” with or normalize regime oppression.

You are one of the vast numbers whose names will never be known but who, according to none other than Winston Churchill, will be vital to this long “War of the Unknown Warriors” against the “dark curse” of fascism.

With that, I leave you with more words of education and inspiration from Dr. Kochanski and Churchill:

Indeed, the most prevalent feeling among those who resisted was the discovery of the sheer variety of people who worked together during the war yet who in peacetime would have had no reason to be in contact with each other. Winston Churchill summed up the situation well in a BBC broadcast from July 1940:

This is no war of chieftains or of princes, of dynasties or national ambition; it is a war of peoples and of causes. There are vast numbers not only in this island but in every land, who will render faithful service in this war, but whose names will never be known, whose deeds will never be recorded. This is a War of the Unknown Warriors; but let all strive without failing in faith or in duty, and the dark curse of Hitler will be lifted from our age.

(Screenshot from Evergreen Intel on Bluesky.)

The United States is likely preparing for imminent kinetic strikes against land-based targets in Venezuela. This is indicated by the forward deployment of specialized military air assets incompatible with standard counter-narcotics operations, explicit statements from President Trump, and an abrupt leadership transition at U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). These developments suggest an imminent shift toward a more aggressive operational phase of the U.S. conflict with Venezuela.

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• Electronic Warfare Deployment: A squadron of six U.S. Navy EA-18G Growlers has forward-deployed to the former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico. These aircraft possess suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) capabilities necessary for penetrating Venezuelan airspace, a capability not required for interdicting drug boats.

• Operational Security: Open-source intelligence indicates the deployed Growlers have reduced identifying numbers, with unit and crew names removed from the airframes. The removal of identifying markings from these aircraft suggests heightened operational security (OPSEC) measures typically associated with combat operations.

• Airborne Early Warning (AEW) & Command and Control (C2) Positioning: An E-2D Advanced Hawkeye (callsign TRACER01) and F/A-18F Super Hornets have been tracked moving closer to Aruba and Curacao, increasing C2 coverage near the Venezuelan coast.

• Executive Confirmation: President Trump stated on December 12, 2025, that operations are “starting by land,” noting that “by land is a lot easier. And that’s going to start happening.” While all statements by the President are suspect, other indicators support the idea that strikes inside of Venezuela are likely imminent.

• Leadership Change: Admiral Alvin Holsey relinquished command of SOUTHCOM only one year into a three-year term following tensions with the Defense Secretary over Caribbean deployments, transferring authority to U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Evan Lamar Pettus. While his early retirement was announced in October, its fulfillment opens the door to new leadership more supportive of the regime’s aggression in the region.

• Force Buildup: Total U.S. forces in the region have reached approximately 15,000 personnel, including the carrier strike group led by the USS Gerald R. Ford. This is the largest presence in decades.

• Epstein files imminent: With the Epstein files set to be released by December 19 and House Oversight Committee Democrats releasing a new trove of evidence from the Epstein estate, the President and his regime have heightened motive to distract the public from the growing scandal. A war in Venezuela during the holidays may be perceived as a viable strategy for doing so.

Escalation of the conflict beyond the current maritime “Operation Southern Spear” into direct engagement with targets inside of Venezuelan territory may be used to dismantle the regime’s power structure, consistent with the administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy and rhetoric that Maduro’s “days are numbered.” If so, this will increase the probability of a kinetic response from the Maduro regime, which will perceive the U.S. strikes as an existential threat.

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Sources

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1999616618113221005

EA-18G Growlers Deploying To Puerto Rico An Indicator Of What’s To Come (Updated) - TWZ

Commander overseeing U.S. forces in Caribbean relinquishes command early amid U.S. buildup near Venezuela - CBS News

Summary

Americans across the political spectrum are increasingly withdrawing support and actively resisting regime abuses of power. Recent analyses by trusted experts suggest that regime attempts at consolidation are struggling in the face of widespread and growing noncooperation. This will almost certainly result in desperate and violent action on the part of the regime to retain control.

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Reasons for hope are increasing

While fear of the Trump regime’s current trajectory is warranted, recent expert analyses point to a shift occurring beneath the surface of daily headlines. In Just Security, Adam Fefer and Maria J. Stephan argue that the “political winds are shifting” as Americans “disapprove of — and are refusing to accept — mounting abuses of power.” Likewise, historian Heather Cox Richardson has argued for weeks that the regime is facing increasingly strong headwinds. She has noted that “the larger picture is not of an administration that is consolidating power; it is an administration that is crashing in on itself.” Similarly, historian Timothy Snyder sees regime escalations at home and abroad as signs of underlying weakness. Together, they point to a list of developments in support of this assessment.

• Fractures in regime pillars of support Authoritarian regimes rely on specific pillars of support like security forces, business leaders, and religious organizations to maintain power. When support from these pillars begins to weaken, the regime destabilizes. Experts are seeing the emergence of such cracks in key pillars. This includes the loss of support from key fundraisers, statements of opposition from powerful religious organizations, criticism from veterans and military families, and recent bipartisan losses for the regime in Congress.

• Widespread Popular Noncooperation The scale of public resistance is overtaking regime support. We have witnessed perhaps the largest single-day protest in U.S. history. Economic noncooperation has forced the hand of large companies like Disney after they caved to regime pressure. In recent elections, voters have resoundingly rejected the regime with many MAGA voters even defecting and voting against GOP candidates who they now realize do not represent their interests. In Minneapolis, law enforcement refuses to cooperate with ICE.

• Physical Decline and Growing Vulnerabilities The perception of a well-oiled authoritarian machine is false. The regime increasingly shows signs of frailty. Trump falls asleep regularly on television, including in his own Cabinet meetings. His increasingly unhinged rants combined with reports of cognitive tests and MRIs call into question his mental fitness. Meanwhile, there are growing vulnerabilities to his policy agenda and his base of support. His tariff policy took a beating in oral arguments at the Supreme Court and it seems likely the court will declare them unconstitutional. Finally, there is broad support for the release of the Epstein files and growing disgust with the regime’s delay in their release despite almost unanimous support for doing so in Congress.

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Future Implications

While the regime is taking some serious blows, it is not time to let up or to take a victory lap. It is unlikely that we will see a quiet or graceful exit by Trump and his cronies. As Richardson warns, “the dying mule kicks hardest and a cornered rat bites.” The situation will likely get “really ugly,” she says, before it is resolved. Snyder concurs, assessing that “self-terrorism” is the regime’s most likely next step. This will involve inviting domestic terrorist attacks to justify violent internal crackdowns against political opponents.

• Recently leaked official memos indicate that the regime is already creating lists of so-called “extremists” and “domestic terrorists,” with criteria for inclusion on the list requiring nothing more than expressing disagreement with regime ideology.

• Influential regime media figures have claimed it is “borderline illegal” to criticize ICE while a powerful billionaire backer of the regime has called for violent internal crackdown, including public executions.

Pro-democracy activists must continue to apply civil resistance strategically. This should involve a dual-track strategy of “binding” and “breaking.” “Breaking” involves refusing to comply with coercive acts, such as airport officials refusing to show politicized videos on screens at security checkpoints or board members resigning from corporations that do the regime’s bidding. “Binding” involves insiders quietly organizing with their colleagues to withdraw support, collect and leak information to the outside world, and act from the inside to frustrate authoritarian orders.

Finally, as one-time regime supporters begin to defect, pro-democracy activists must be prepared to bring them into a big tent alliance. Building such alliances across traditional ideological and policy lines will be essential to mobilizing the numbers needed to restore democratic, constitutional government.

The momentum is shifting. The task now is to expand upon the pro-democracy movement’s wins and further exploit the regime’s growing weaknesses.

Sources

• When Loyalties Shift: Americans’ Growing Noncooperation with Federal Abuses of Power - Just Security

• This Week in Politics | Explainer - Heather Cox Richardson

• Heather Cox Richardson: Americans are saying “Hell No!” to Trump “fascism”…and it’s working - MS NOW

• Is There Any Hope? | Explainer - Heather Cox Richardson

• Minneapolis police chief warns officers: Stop unlawful force by ICE or lose your job - MS NOW

• FBI Making List of American “Extremists,” Leaked Memo Reveals - Ken Klippentstein

• Laura Ingraham calls it “borderline illegal” for Democratic politicians to call ICE agents “thugs” - Media Matters

• Joe Lonsdale Calls For Public Hangings - The Nerd Reich

• Land War or Self-Terrorism? Trump’s Likely Next Step - Thinking About

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There has been a resurgence of interest in recent years in reading the so-called “great books” of Western Civilization. The trend is controversial for a number of reasons. First is the ethnocentric focus of this canon, centered as it is on Europe and excluding great works from other, non-Western traditions. That gives rise to the second reason for the controversy: the right-wing Christian push for a return to “classical education,” where the great books are at the center of the curriculum, and sometimes so too is white supremacy.

But, as someone educated in the humanities, I tend to agree with Maggie Phillips that “the antidote to [our] fear may be more, not less, classical education.” This is because once you’ve been exposed to the those same “great books” that the Pete Hegseths of the world promote, it’s impossible not to notice that “the very people who are most chauvinistic about the Western tradition sometimes understand it least.”

It is in that spirit that I have been returning in recent months to reading some of those classics, especially those works most central to the American experiment. To say that I’ve discovered that MAGA “patriots” have exactly the wrong end of the stick would be to state the obvious. Nor is this a new discovery. There are excellent books that cover this very topic in great detail. One of the best is Andrew Seidel’s book, The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American. Nonetheless, it is worth revisiting (or reading for the first time) some of the great books of the American experiment for the absolute gems they sometimes contain.

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And that brings me to the title of today’s post. Of course, this is not an actual quote from John Locke. But it well could be given what he had to say about the origins and legitimacy of monarchy as a form of political rule. Locke’s writing had an enormous influence on the American founders, who of course had no love for monarchy. After taking a look at what Locke had to say, it’s no wonder why.

We joke, of course, that MAGA has “daddy issues.” But it’s no joking matter. It’s something that the movement itself embraces. After the NATO Secretary General said in response to Trump’s use of profanity, “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language,” the White House and MAGA embraced the daddy imagery. The White House posted a video of Trump arriving at the NATO summit to the tune, “Daddy’s Home,” by Usher. MAGA digital side hustlers dutifully went to work flooding Etsy with hundreds of Daddy’s Home t-shirts, digital downloads, mugs, and more.

HuffPost quoted child therapist Josh Terhune responding to the Daddy’s Home incident:

“While [Sigmund] Freud may have held some problematic views, he definitely got a few things right,” Terhune said. He “argued that people often seek powerful authority figures to fulfill an unconscious desire for protection and guidance, just like a child does with a parent.”

But Freud was late to the party by a couple hundred years. John Locke identified this same childish desire for the rule and protection from a strong father figure in his Second Treatise of Government, first published in 1689. He writes,

Sect. 75. Thus it was easy, and almost natural for children, by a tacit, and scarce avoidable consent, to make way for the father’s authority and government. They had been accustomed in their childhood to follow his direction, and to refer their little differences to him, and when they were men, who fitter to rule them? Their little properties, and less covetousness, seldom afforded greater controversies; and when any should arise, where could they have a fitter umpire than he, by whose care they had every one been sustained and brought up, and who had a tenderness for them all? It is no wonder that they made no distinction betwixt minority and full age; nor looked after one and twenty, or any other age that might make them the free disposers of themselves and fortunes, when they could have no desire to be out of their pupilage: the government they had been under, during it, continued still to be more their protection than restraint; and they could no where find a greater security to their peace, liberties, and fortunes, than in the rule of a father.

Sect. 76. Thus the natural fathers of families, by an insensible change, became the politic monarchs of them too.

But, Locke didn’t just reject monarchy because it was bad politics. He rejected it precisely because it was based on patriarchy, which he found to be illogical and even un-Biblical. The mother, he said, had just as much right to and authority over her children as the father. Paternal power within the household, then, did not confer political power outside of it, or vice versa. While Locke was certainly not a feminist by today’s standards, he nonetheless helped lay the liberal foundations for later movements for women’s rights and feminism. And he did so by drawing on his reading of the Bible to reject patriarchy as the foundation of tyrannical monarchy as a form of political rule.

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What we find, in this case, is that the “great books” from the old dead white men of the Enlightenment and the American revolution do not, in fact, support the MAGA movement despite all their bluster about the founders and great books and classical education. Just the opposite is the case. We even find some surprises, like Locke’s rejection of patriarchy, as well as some funny moments, like his foreshadowing of conservative Freudian daddy issues and pulling no punches in the process.

Do not misunderstand me, however. These works are neither perfect, nor unproblematic. They still contain racist, sexist, ableist, and many other tropes that we rightly find objectionable today. But even with their flaws, they are a damning indictment of the MAGA movement that so often takes the names of these authors and their works in vain. The American experiment to which the Enlightenment liberal ideas led has faltered. Locke and our founders who applied his ideas certainly did not have it all worked out, as we are now all too painfully aware. We must look to more contemporary political theorists if we are to overcome the flaws that MAGA has so adeptly exploited in our system.

But, in designing what comes next, we must not cede the ground of our political philosophical tradition to half-literate fascists and theocrats who would distort it to put us all under the rule of the abusive father figure for which they long. We must reclaim our place as the rightful heirs of the American democratic experiment because we are its rightful heirs! That means taking back our national symbols that MAGA has defiled. But it also means more, not less, engagement with the writings of our founders and the Enlightenment liberal philosophers who inspired them. Because that tradition is fully on our side. And besides, it’s fun when you find a barn burner of a quote from 1689 that basically says your political enemies have daddy issues!

Want more spicy 17th century takes on today’s politics? Check out our previous post:

The House Committee on Homeland Security today held a hearing entitled, “When Badges Become Targets: How Anti-Law Enforcement Rhetoric Fuels Violence Against Officers.” The Republicans who organized the hearing point to an almost 700% increase in attacks against ICE and immigration agents from 2024 to 2025 as the reason for calling the hearing. Their goal, they say, is to investigate the role of heated political rhetoric in causing the uptick in violence.

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But the hearing immediately took a turn that the Trumpist representatives likely did not see coming. Officer Daniel Hodges of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, who was assaulted defending the Capitol during the January 6, 2021 insurrection, provided opening testimony that contained a brilliant bit of rhetorical jiu-jitsu along with a lesson in basic American political principles. Take a moment to listen and/or read what Officer Hodges had to say:

I was invited today to speak in my personal capacity.

I suspect because ranking member Thompson is familiar with my history.

As I’ve been on the receiving ends of threats and violence due to the work I’ve done in the name of the law.

I experienced intense violence during the insurrection of January 6, and because I have the temerity to describe it publicly, threats against my life, bomb threats at events I attend, people trying to find out where I live, whether I have a wife or children they can use against me.

I have a feeling I will be asked about how the lionization of the insurrectionists solely enhanced their zealotry, about how the mass pardoning of every criminal who assaulted my colleagues and I encourages further lawlessness and violence. About how in the intervening years many pardoned insurrectionists have been re-rested for crimes such as reckless homicide, child sexual assault, threats to blow up government buildings and a kill list of FBI agents.

These are all salient points and I’m happy to address them.

However, the tenor of the press release announced this hearing made it sound like certain participants were going to spend a few hours scratching their heads and pretending not to understand why threats against law enforcement have risen so sharply this year and I cannot abide such a farce.

Law enforcement is predicated on the notion that we are a nation of laws, that anyone who is detained by law enforcement officials will be afforded all the rights and protections that are guaranteed to them by the Constitution.

It is this exemplary standard of civil society that compels individuals to cooperate when faced with arrest. Flawed as it is, our justice system aspires to and works toward the goal of truth and equal protection under the law.

Unfortunately this year, broad swathes of federal law enforcement have proven this is no longer the case.

Perjury and contempt of court used to be prohibitive of work in law enforcement, but now it appears to be a prerequisite of leadership. Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, had already been found not credible as a witness in the court of law prior to his appointment and Greg Bovino, the so-called commander at large at border control, was found to have lied while under oath in order to justify his use of force against Americans.

Even the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, intentionally defied a judge’s order to halt the trafficking of prisoners to foreign countries and then bragged about them on national television.

I should add here that one of the hallmarks of secret police forces throughout history is operating outside the law, using violence and intimidation to achieve their objectives.

Every day I wake up and I’m confronted with more heinous acts by some federal law enforcement, pointing their lethal weapons at protesters and journalists, needlessly assaulting citizens on their own property, threatening to shoot and arrest EMTs for doing their job, holding children hostage to coerce their parents out of their house.

One shot a woman who committed no crime several times and bragged about it, saying he fired five rounds and she had seven holes.

Many of these absolute embarrassments to the badge keep their face obscured to try and evade any possibility of accountability and their leadership condones it.

If the inhabitants of our country can no longer believe in the rule of law, then they can no longer believe in law enforcement.

If they believe they will be denied their basic rights, what motivation do they have to cooperate with investigations to support law enforcement as an institution?

The fact of the matter is that right now, in the United States of America, there is a semi-secret police force abducting people based on the color of their skin and sending many of them via state-sponsored human trafficking to extraterritorial concentration camps.

There are still plenty of good officers I work with them, federal and local.

But before we go around the room clutching our pearls, wondering how people could possibly compare law enforcement in this country to Gestapo, maybe we should take a moment and ask ourselves if there isn’t some recent behavior on the government’s part that could encourage such a juxtaposition.

Thank you.

Let’s break this down. Officer Hodges’ statement helps to defang the Trumpists’ disingenuous search for causes of anti-law enforcement rhetoric in a number of ways. First, of course, he points to the hypocrisy of the support that they and their dear leader have heaped onto the January 6 insurrectionists who attacked law enforcement, including Hodges himself. The Trumpist lawmakers are not concerned about all violence against law enforcement, but only that which is directed against federal officers carrying out Trump’s lawless agenda.

Second, Hodges is one of the very “brave men and women of law enforcement, who risk their lives daily to secure the homeland and protect the public,” who has faced, and is still “facing targeted violence,” as Committee Chairman Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) said was his main concern. The fact of Hodges’ very identity allows him to speak more candidly than others, to deliver a message that Trumpists would no doubt scream is “anti-law enforcement rhetoric” were it to come from anyone else.

Third, and finally, is Officer Hodges’ message, which boils down to this:

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This does, indeed, sound radical. And it is! But it is also a core tenet of the founding American political principles. Those principles were, and still are, radical. In the comfort and safety of modern life that so many, but certainly not all, of us enjoy, we have forgotten how radical an idea the rule of law was and how even more radical its implementation was as the foundation of the American experiment.

In Officer Hodges’ message today we hear the voice of John Locke, the 17th century political philosopher whose work had an immense influence on the American founders and their design of the U.S. Constitution. It is worth reminding ourselves what Locke had to say that so caught the imaginations of America’s founders.

In his Second Treatise of Government, he writes that freedom and liberty are not, as often believed, the ability to do whatever we want. Rather, freedom and liberty are tied to the legitimate rule of law carried out through a government based on the consent of the governed “and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, arbitrary will of another man […] This freedom from absolute, arbitrary power, is so necessary to, and closely joined with a man’s preservation, that he cannot part with it, but by what forfeits his preservation and life together” (Sections 22-23). And how should we describe Trump’s current rule by executive decree, changing from day to day as his addled mind drifts on the winds of dementia, swaying this way or that only by force of bribes or base flattery, but as inconstant, uncertain, unknown, absolute, and arbitrary?

Well, it turns out that Locke had an answer to that question too. It is, he says, “a state of war.” He writes, “he that, in the state of society, would take away the freedom belonging to those of that society or commonwealth, must be supposed to design to take away from them every thing else, and so be looked on as in a state of war” (Section 17). It is through the fair and equal application of law that humans can live together, peacefully in a society “because then there lies open the remedy of appeal for the past injury, and to prevent future harm: but where no such appeal is, as in the state of nature, for want of positive laws, and judges with authority to appeal to, the state of war once begun, continues” (Section 20).

One might say, well, in our case we still do have laws and judges to whom to appeal. This is true and we have seen many state courts and lower level federal judges pushing back against Trump regime lawlessness. But the rule of law is, nonetheless, teetering on the edge of a cliff—if it has not already fallen—as regime officials defy court orders and the Supreme Court rubber stamps clearly unconstitutional regime actions without so much as a hearing. The mere existence of state employees wearing badges or robes is not equal to law, and certainly not to justice. They are mere political technologies whose goal is to enforce and interpret law and, thereby, hope to achieve an approximation of justice, which is always beyond what mere law can deliver.

What happens, then, when the rule of law fails because those whose job it is to administer it have abdicated their responsibility or turned the law into a weapon in service to the would-be tyrant? Locke is absolutely clear that rebellion, even armed rebellion, is warranted. It is what he calls, “an appeal to heaven.”

[W]here an appeal to the law, and constituted judges, lies open, but the remedy is denied by a manifest perverting of justice, and a barefaced wresting of the laws to protect or indemnify the violence or injuries of some men, or party of men, there it is hard to imagine any thing but a state of war: for wherever violence is used, and injury done, though by hands appointed to administer justice, it is still violence and injury, however coloured with the name, pretences, or forms of law, the end whereof being to protect and redress the innocent, by an unbiassed application of it, to all who are under it; wherever that is not bona fide done, war is made upon the sufferers, who having no appeal on earth to right them, they are left to the only remedy in such cases, an appeal to heaven. (Section 20)

If that isn’t “anti-law enforcement rhetoric,” I don’t know what is! When those whose job it is to enforce the law and deliver justice instead act on behalf of a would-be tyrant and his “party of men,” who seek to put the rest of society under the whims of one man’s absolute and arbitrary control, they are in a state of war with the rest of society, leaving their countrymen no choice but to fight back. That they wear a badge or a robe makes no difference. They have abandoned their posts as civil servants and donned the uniform of political insurgents and usurpers.

It is precisely this kind of political philosophy that helped to fuel the American revolution and, subsequently, the formation of a Constitution meant to prevent the very situation we find ourselves in now. Clearly, the experiment has hit a significant setback. However, the core principles underlying it are as apt today as they were in 1776. When one man attempts to overthrow the rule of law and, instead, assert himself as absolute ruler, the rest of us are under no legitimate obligation to obey him or his “party of men,” no matter the clothes they wear.

In a webinar streamed last night, the Women’s March announced the pre-launch of a new app and website to aid the work of their social media street team. The webinar and app are part of the organization’s Digital Defenders series of trainings, which are available on their YouTube channel.

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What is the Mission of the Digital Defenders?

The social media street team is a crucial component of the Digital Defenders program, created to leverage activists’ skills to defend women’s rights and democracy against disinformation, propaganda, and authoritarianism online.

Team members serve multiple vital roles:

• Trend Spotting - Identifying false narratives and keeping an eye on disinformation.

• Signal Boosting - Amplifying feminist and pro-democracy messaging.

• Building Capacity - Creating shared meme libraries and communication strategies for countering online disinformation and promoting women’s rights and democracy.

How the New App Aids Activist Efforts

The Women’s March app serves as a valuable coordinating space for the social media street team. It features a dedicated Digital Defenders section where activists can coordinate their online campaigns.

Within this space, members can:

• Share intelligence on disinformation they are spotting.

• Workshop ideas, such as memes, and get feedback on content before sharing it publicly.

• Build a shared meme library to quickly deploy counter-arguments against bad-faith narratives.

• Access exclusive trainings and resources to sharpen their digital skills, including asynchronous courses like the Feminism 101 Course, Feminist Organizing School, volunteer trainings, and much more.

The app also encourages community building, allowing users to fill out a profile with their priority issues to help connect them with other members who share similar interests.

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How to Access the App

The app is currently in its soft pre-launch phase. But you can still sign up and get started. The organizers are looking for feedback from early adopters to help iron our bugs and make the app a truly exceptional tool for organizing.

Follow these steps to join:

1. Download the App: Search “Women’s March” in your phone’s app store (Android or Apple) or access the web browser version.

2. Create Your Profile: Set up your account and choose the “Women’s March Community” option.

3. Join the Team: Navigate to and join the Digital Defenders space within the app.

If you experience any technical issues or need assistance signing up, please email organizing [at] womensmarch [dot] com.

To learn more about the app and the mission of the Digital Defenders, watch last night’s webinar:

📆 Plan to Get Involved!

Also be sure to sign up for the next live event in the series, Reading the Revolution: Propaganda, Disinformation, and Wicked Witches, which will be streamed at 8PM EST on November 20.

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Generative AI Use Disclosure: Generative AI was used to assist in creating a first draft of this post. Any errors are the responsibility of the editors.

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We wanted to start this week with some quick thoughts about the weekend’s No Kings protests and what to expect in response. It’s clear that this weekend was a win for the resistance in the ongoing narrative battle for democracy and against authoritarian rule. But that win ensures a regime response this week. We need to be prepared. We also need to be cautious in counting our wins. Keep reading for more.

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No Kings A Narrative Win

By all accounts, the No Kings protests this past weekend were large, diverse, and peaceful. Amazingly, the NYPD reported that they made no protest related arrests. So much for the “antifa terrorism” the regime crowed about for weeks leading up to the event.

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The protests also prompted some notable dilemma action moments. Perhaps the most widely shared incident involved police in Fairhope, Alabama arresting a 53 year old woman in an inflatable penis costume and holding a sign saying, “No dick-tator.” Of course, the police looked ridiculous and weak as they overreacted to this lose-lose situation. Bravo to the No Dick-tator woman. This is how it’s done!

Cops arresting an inflatable penis was a emblematic of the regime’s response over all, which mostly backfired…literally.

Perhaps the signature regime response was an attempt at distraction with a military “show of force” at Camp Pendleton in southern California. But the main headline to come out of that desperate display of insecurity and need for attention was the premature detonation of an artillery shell, the effects of which were felt by the Vice President’s own security detail. Axios reported:

Part of the law enforcement squad protecting Vice President JD Vance was accidentally hit by an artillery shell during a military display marking the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, California, police said Sunday.

As if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, President Trump ended the night releasing an AI slop video of himself in a “King Trump” fighter jet shitting on protestors. Nothing says you’re definitely winning the narrative battle like resorting to this:

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Expect The Empire To Strike Back

We should find hope in this weekend’s events. We saw, once again, historic turnout to reject the consolidation of authoritarian rule in the United States. We are not alone. There are enough of us, when properly organized and motivated, to stand up and push back. The regime’s attempts to depress turnout with threats of violence and labeling protestors as “terrorists” failed. Their counter-messaging strategy blew up in their faces. They resorted to ending the night with a temper tantrum that involved throwing poop.

But, precisely because they know they suffered a major narrative defeat this weekend, they will take action this week to regain our attention and reestablish the fear they believe is necessary to rule us. Be ready.

The most likely avenue will be through a SCOTUS rubber stamp of military dictatorship by allowing Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Chicago. But there are plenty of other options for the regime to strike back with audacious action to shift the narrative focus and dampen our morale. Don’t let them succeed.

When that happens, it’s easy to get sucked in and to get down. We know, we’ve fallen victim to it many times ourselves. Don’t beat yourself up if it happens to you too from time to time. But also, tell yourself in advance that an outrageous, dangerous, and dispiriting regime response is coming and know that it is a desperate response on their part. The bigger their response, the bigger the evidence of our effectiveness.

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Truth Is A Weapon

In the end, we have truth on our side and truth is a powerful weapon. That is why, in our attempts to find the silver linings in the dark clouds of consolidating authoritarian rule, to find examples of regime weakness or resistance wins, we must not fall prey to misinformation.

As an example, we have noticed some big accounts spreading misinformation about Dutch intelligence services supposedly suspending an intelligence sharing agreement with the United States because the White House is sharing intelligence with the Russians.

The problem is that this is inaccurate at best. The article makes no mention of the Netherlands suspending an intelligence sharing agreement with the United States. Nor does it say that any reduced sharing is related to the White House sharing said intelligence with Russia. Rather, the article says that the Netherlands is limiting its sharing with the United States on a case-by-case basis and increasing its sharing with other European allies. Any decrease in sharing with the United States is a result of concerns over the political direction and human rights abuses inside the United States, not White House sharing with the Kremlin. In fact, the article states that the Dutch intelligence services still have an “excellent” relationship with their U.S. counterparts.

It’s easy to fall for misinformation in this case. First, it comes from a large account run by the editor of a major news magazine and law professor who should know better. But, we all fall for and spread misinformation sometimes.

Second, the implications of the story, if true, provide strong support for our hopes and beliefs. We believe that the Trump regime are working for Putin (and for good reason) and we hope that others more powerful than us, someone with the power to impose costs on the regime, will see that too and do something. Reports that a Western European ally’s intelligence services agree with us and have taken action scratches that itch.

Finally, third, the linked story is in a foreign language few if any of us can read and understand, all while being behind a paywall. So, we assume that the big account with strong credentials who posted it must be telling the truth.

Remember, in cases like this one it is especially important to fact check as best we can. This is a story with emotional appeal that, if true, would be huge support to our narrative and beliefs.

Here are some steps you can take:

1. Try to find the full, unpaywalled story. This Remove Paywall tool is an excellent resource for doing that and is how we were able to find the whole story ourselves.

2. When the story is in a foreign language, use Google Translate to get it in English.

3. Read the story in English and use Ctrl+F to find keywords and phrases to help fact check key claims—e.g. “suspend,” “Kremlin,” “Russia,” etc. in this case.

4. Use AI to double check your own reading. AI has its problems. But summarizing text is a thing for which it is actually useful. In our case, in addition to reading the story ourselves and using Ctrl+F to check keywords and phrases, we asked two local LLMs (gpt-oss:20B and LFM2:1.2B) and two cloud providers (ChatGPT-5 and Perplexity) to check the claims that an intelligence sharing agreement was suspended and that it was because of White House sharing with the Kremlin. All four models concurred with our assessment that these claims are not supported by the article.

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The Week Ahead

We start off this week on the heals of a clear and much needed narrative victory. No Kings delivered on the promise of peaceful, widespread, large, and diverse protests against Trump authoritarian rule. The regime narrative that the participants would be “antifa terrorists” was shredded and their military “show of force” backfired, culminating with an AI slop “shitter jet” instead. But that all but guarantees that the regime will strike back this week. Be prepared. Don’t be cowed when the response comes. And in your efforts to help maintain our initiative in the narrative battle for democracy and against autocracy, maintain your commitment to the power of truth.

Generative AI use disclosure: We used local and cloud models to help us find relevant news stories and to double check our assessment of the story about Dutch intelligence sharing.

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