America, what went wrong?
News from INDIVISIBLE SAN MATEO
July 31, 2025
Harry (Rick) Moody, Newsletter Editor
Mary Beavins, Founder of Indivisible San Mateo
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“If you're not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take the long hard look and just believe that if you're consistent, you will succeed.”
–Congressman John Lewis (d. July17, 2020)
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A MESSAGE FROM MARY
We made Good Trouble on July 17 when we marched from Hillsdale Mall to Central Park, with our signs, music makers (including a wonderful trumpet player!), and our determined selves. We got a lot of horn honks from the cars driving past on El Camino. Even a car full of nuns honked and waved and showed their signs as they drove past.
Our rally was a great success. I gave a speech about Congressman John Lewis and the Good Trouble he made during his life helping to get the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965 and helping to desegregate the South, all non-violently even while he was getting his skull fractured and his ribs kicked in. San Mateo's former three-term mayor, Claire Mack, gave us a rousing speech telling about her time making Good Trouble as she worked to stop illegal drug sales in her neighborhood when no one else would. Ms. Mack encouraged and inspired us to continue to make Good Trouble as we work together to defeat Trump.
Our street protests are an important part of defeating Trump; we're inspiring others to join us when they see us on the street with our signs. As importantly, we're practicing mobilizing--stopping what we're doing and joining others in nationwide civil resistance.
-From Mary Beavins
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COMING EVENTS
Rage Against the Regime, Hillsdale Mall, Sat., August 2nd, 1 - 2:30 pm
Tesla Supercharger station - Tanforan Mall, San Bruno - Sunday, August 3rd, 2 - 3:30 pm
Indivisible San Mateo Summer Social: Fun, food, music & games - Tues., Aug. 5th, 5:30 - 7:30 pm
Bannering: Burlingame - Tuesday, August 5th, 3-5 pm
Bannering - Belmont, Tuesday, August 5th, 3-5 pm (see IndivisibleSanMateo.com for more info)
Letter writing to help get-out-the-vote: Pick up free letters in San Mateo
Phone banking: Sign up to help win Virginia in 2025
Canvassing: Knock on doors to help protect Adam Gray's seat in the Central Valley
Fast and easy way to call your congress people to influence policy: Link to Make 5 Calls
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RALLY FOR GOOD TROUBLE
If you were able to come to the Rally on July 17, you remember it was a great event. Whether or not you were able to come, look at the wonderful pictures:
https://www.probonophoto.org/2025/17JulGTLO/17Jul25GTLO-SanMateo
Coverage by the Daily Journal
Nationwide Protests against Trump’s immigration crackdown and health care cuts:
“Protests and events against President Donald Trump's controversial policies that include mass deportations and cuts to Medicaid and other safety nets for poor people have started at more than 1,600 locations around the country. The “Good Trouble Lives On” national day of action is held in honor of the late Congressman John Lewis. The protests are taking place along streets, at court houses and other public spaces. Organizers are calling for them to be peaceful. The phrase “Good Trouble” was coined by the late congressman who helped lead civil rights protest marches in the 1960s.” (The Daily Journal (July 18, 2025)
Coverage by The Guardian: “Tens of thousands in US join ‘Good Trouble’ anti-Trump protests honoring John Lewis” at:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/17/trump-john-lewis-good-trouble-protests
Coverage by Today’s Edition: “There were more than 1,600 Make Good Trouble pro-democracy rallies across the United States on July 17. Collectively, they were a smashing success! Everyone who participated in person or in spirit should pat themselves on the back for a job well done!”
“On a workday, at 5 PM local time, Americans attended more than 1,600 protests across the nation. Whatever the final figure, it will exceed the number of people who attended Trump's first inauguration in 2017. Assuming a final attendance figure of about 1 million, the Make Good Trouble rallies are close to being in the top 10 protests in the history of the United States.”
See Wikipedia, List of protests and demonstrations in the United States by size:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protests_and_demonstrations_in_the_United_States_by_size
(Robert Hubbell, Today’s Edition, July 18, 2025)
Marching for Good Trouble in San Mateo
Former Mayor Claire Mack Speaks
The guest speaker of honor at the rally was Claire Mack, a former three-term San Mateo mayor. Mack recounted her own story of creating good trouble early on in her political career, standing alongside other women in the community and risking their own safety to stop drugs from being sold at a particular corner in North Central San Mateo.
‘We did good trouble. We women stood on a corner and stopped drug dealing,’ Mack said to applause. ‘Or [at least] they weren’t so blatant.’
She applauded those who were in attendance at the rally, who were creating good trouble of their own, Mack said. She emphasized what she termed a dire political situation in the White House.
‘Trump is ruining this country. He ruined it. We are under dictatorship right now,” she said. ‘Don’t be fooled. We are under a dictatorship by a fool.’
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ALTERNATIVE MEDIA IS GROWING
(July 14, 2025). MeidasTouch has officially crossed 7 billion views on YouTube, a historic milestone that cements its position as the most-watched independent news and commentary network in the United States. MeidasTouch Network is getting more views than Joe Rogan, Fox News, and Newsmax combined.
Launched in 2020 with no outside funding or corporate backing, MeidasTouch has grown into a dominant force in online media — breaking major stories, shaping the national conversation, and holding the powerful accountable with a pro-democracy voice that resonates across generations.
Who says that little efforts can’t have big results? MediasTouch in a few years has grown to have more views at a number almost as big as the entire population of the Earth. Wait: listen to this-- Indivisible San Mateo started in January, 2025 with 3 members. There are now more than 300 people engaged in our work, and that number grows each day.
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READY FOR THE NEXT 100 DAYS?
“Six months into the second Trump administration, two things are becoming clear: First, the president remains a nearly entirely non-strategic actor, motivated only by an abiding desire to accumulate ever greater power, adulation, and wealth. And second, he’s fundamentally changing the nature of the United States in ways that threaten to bring an end to the nation’s 249 year old status as the world’s leading democracy.”
From: “The Emerging Coup” Lawless authoritarian regimes don't give up power willingly” (Public Notice)
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-coup-attempt-2028-ice
The Clowns in Washington are marching. But we’re not laughing.
We’re marching, too, Indivisible: in California and across the country.
“Fear Comes to America” Trump has created a climate of menace and trepidation to stifle dissent. (NY Times, July 21, 2025). In our Indivisible group, we pay attention to security issues. But we do not let fear stifle our dissent. We’re in the streets and people are honking their horns.
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TRUMP’S TARIFFS
”Trump’s tariffs are starting to drive up prices” said Paul Krugman. We’ll see if he’s right. It could be an important political issue, as it was when Joe Biden tried to respond to inflation. When my own family members come back from Safeway or Trader Joe’s (NOT just Whole Foods) they say the same thing: I didn’t realize how fast prices are rising.
See also: “The Economics of Immigration and Deportation”
Immigration has been good for America. Mass deportation will be a disaster.
by Paul Krugman (https://paulkrugman.substack.com/, July20, 2025)
The president and the Republicans want to use the tariff money to help pay for the $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthy. That is literally taking money out of the pockets of the poor and middle class to enrich the wealthy, "welfare" for the wealthy, the “billionaire tax.” They expect to collect $300 billion by the end of the year and up to $6 trillion by the end of ten year.
“Trump push to use tariffs to pay for tax cuts faces opposition in Congress” (Reuters)
“Peter Navarro: Trump tariffs will help pay for the biggest tax cut in American history” (Video)
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MORE AMERICANS DON’T LIKE WHAT THEY SEE
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ICE MEANS SECRET POLICE
Masks, no names, no uniforms, and concentration camps (miscalled “detention facilities”). What more evidence do we need?
“Alligator Alcatraz” is only the latest in a series of cruel spectacles that mark Trump’s deportation and detention efforts. Collectively, they are contributing to a turn in public opinion:
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/alligator-alcatraz-and-why-mass-deportation-is-doomed-polling
The Real Problem Here. “They call it Alligator Alcatraz—a secretive, isolated immigration detention facility hidden deep in the Everglades, surrounded by swampland and gators. The Miami Herald just exposed the conditions inside. And what they found is horrifying.
No regular oversight. No visits from lawyers. No cell service. No press. Toilets that don't work. Feces all over the place. People inside trapped in disgusting conditions and in legal limbo, cut off from the outside world; many held without criminal charges.
This is not how we carry out justice in the United States. This does not address immigration problems, or crime problems. This doesn't make anyone safer. It's a human rights violation and it's happening in our own backyard.”
From the No Surrender Fund (July 21, 2025)
Paul Krugman asked what more evidence we would need to be sure of whether this regime (Trump 2.0) is “American Fascism:” “Do we have to wait until a Republican administration creates a masked secret police force that snatches people off the streets and starts building concentration camps? Wait, that has already happened.”
“Under the direction of Kristi “Canine Killer” Noem, the Department (of Homeland Security) has launched a cringe recruitment campaign to bring in more thugs willing to hide behind masks and brutalize citizens for their skin color — something Border Czar Tom Homan actually talked about. Now that Congress authorized spending more on America’s immigration enforcement than most militaries, they’ve got to find people willing to take on these unpleasant jobs. And migrant workers are a non-starter.”
From: https://www.newsweek.com/immigration-ice-bill-trump-2093456
See also: https://www.newsweek.com/immigration-ice-bill-trump-2093456
We need to resist ICE in every way possible. Masked anonymous and nameless agents who grab people off the street are thugs. But as one of my classmates (Yale, 1967) said “How, exactly, do we ‘fight, fight, fight’ against a private army with $170B to pay countless thugs with automatic weapons and armored personnel carriers? I don’t have an answer.” Whatever the answer, we at the local level (San Mateo) will have to be prepared for the threat that is already evident.
“ICE Is Making an Example of California” (New Republic, July 17 2025)
https://newrepublic.com/article/198001/ice-raids-making-example-california
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THE FALSE PATRIOTS AT ICE
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LIFE IN 3-D? NO.
When it comes to climate change and preserving democracy, the powers-that-be
want us to live in 3-D:
Distraction
Despair
Disengagement
Don’t go through these 3-D’s: reduce legacy and social media with its distractions; reject pessimism and despair; and don’t fall into disengagement or complacency. “Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up” (David Orr)
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While we’re pushing back against Project 2025, let’s also
start thinking bigger:
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