October 14, 2025 Newsletter
News from INDIVISIBLE SAN MATEO
Oct. 14, 2025
Harry (Rick) Moody, Newsletter Editor
Mary Beavins, Founder of Indivisible San Mateo
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“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born:
now is the time of monsters.”
-Antonio Gramsci
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COMING EVENTS
No Kings Day 2: Sign Making Party (Oct. 17, 2025, 5- 6:30 pm). Join us in Central Park for a sign making party in preparation for the No Kings 2 March & Rally. We'll bring the supplies - you bring the creativity!
https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblesanmateo-1/event/852620/
Canvassing for Prop 50
Oct. 19, 2025: 9:30am-1pm San Mateo
Oct.19, 2025: 2:00pm- 5:30pm San Carlos
Oct. 25, 2025: 9:30am-1pm Redwood City
Oct. 26, 2025: 2pm- 5:30pm San Mateo
For details on how to sign up and participate, see:
https://www.mobilize.us/cadems
Democracy: Elders for Sound Democracy (Oct. 29, 2025, 10 to 11:30 am, PT)
Democracy Forum Speaker Series: A Manual for Keeping Democracy Alive, featuring Joyce Vance, reflecting her new book, Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy. For several years, Vance has captivated readers through her hugely popular Civil Discourse Substack, where she unpacks pressing political issues through a clear legal and historical lens—what she calls “part civics and part law school.” She ends every post with an encouraging reminder: “We’re in this together.”
https://secure.everyaction.com/e6XXyOGfM0yp6DDmqgGSiA2
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NO KINGS DAY-2
(Oct. 18, 2025)
National Indivisible reminds us: “The regime is weak and unpopular, and the opposition is growing.” It’s expected to be the largest peaceful protest in modern American history.
The full event is from 1 to 3 pm on Oct. 18. We will be assembling at 12:30 pm in front of Ana’s Furniture store on El Camino. The March will go down El Camine and then assemble at Fitzgerald stadium in Central Park. 2,000 people came to the first No Kings Day event on June 14 and we hope for mere this time.
Sign up here: https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/840273
For more about No Kings Day see: https://www.nokings.org/
For a brief (less than half a minute) video about plans for Oct. 18, watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUmpzkH6u_o
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DO PROTESTS WORK?
Yes, they do, at times. But only certain kinds of protests work:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” (Margaret Mead)
When 3.5% of the population engages in nonviolent protests, political change can happen. An example is 1986 when Filipinos protested in the People Power Movement and after four days, then President Ferdinand Marcos stepped down.
“The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world”
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
“People Power at 25: Long road to Philippine democracy:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-12567320
Progressive Politics. “Can Progressive Mayors Redeem the Democratic Party?”
Zohran Mamdani isn’t the only candidate challenging the status quo—and having
fun doing it, by Bill McKibben at:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/can-progressive-mayors-redeem-the-democratic-party
See also: “Zohran Mamdani’s Electoral Machine:
The unsung hero of Mamdani’s campaign is its field operation. It may make him mayor of New York City, at:
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/zohran-mamdani-dsa-field-operations/
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Cartoon from Robert Reich
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A WARNING ABOUT PROTESTING
Buddhists sometimes urge people to use “skillful means” in acting in an illusory world (samsara). Today’s fast-paced media environment is such an illusory world, It’s a world with opportunities for autocrats like Trump.
Trump has now acknowledged publicly that, yes, he did know about Project 2025, after having spent a year denying he knew anything about it at all. A lot of details about what’s going on now were publicly announced in Project 2025 long go.
Robert Reich has warned that Trump has announced what he wants to do next:
“Trump's Plan: To invoke the Insurrection Act”
“He told hundreds of United States military leaders that they must prioritize “defending the homeland” against the ’invasion from within’ in American cities run by ‘radical-left Democrats.’ He stated his intention is to use certain cities ‘as training grounds for our military.’
The first step has been for the Department of Homeland Security to deploy ICE agents to use aggressive tactics in targeted cities.
The second step is for such aggressive tactics to provoke demonstrations, and for Trump to exaggerate the scale and severity of them.
(R. Reich, “Trump’s Plan, Oct. 6, 2025)
There are implications here for what Indivisible should do on No Kings Day-2 (Oct. 18). We must avoid doing anything that creates a “scene” that could look like a demonstration where Trump could exaggerate the scale and charact of the protest.
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THE ICE MAN COMETH
(Title of play by Eugene O’Neil, Nobel-Prize winning American playwright.)
Why the masks? “ICE goes masked for a single reason — to terrorize Americans into quiescence,” a federal judge, William Young, wrote in a blistering 161-page First Amendment ruling handed down last week. “In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police,” he continued. The judge, a Reagan appointee, compared immigration agents to “cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan” and declared that federal efforts to deport outspoken protesters amounted to a “full-throated assault” on freedom of speech. (From When the masks went on, the mask came off, by David Wallace-Wells, NY Times)
Creating a Problem in order to ‘Solve’ It. “MAGA agitators are going into Portland and Chicago to try and instigate violence with peaceful protesters to create conditions to provide a justification for Trump to send in troops. Another part of that is documented false police reports from ICE against protesters.” (MeidasNetwork)
Violence Before Proof. “You can see it in a courtroom hallway in New York, where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, caught on video, shoved a woman — already crying, already broken by the system — into a wall and down to the ground. That officer didn’t act in a vacuum. He was parroting the culture he’s been steeped in: Trump’s America…
The scariest part? We are nowhere near the bottom. As Trump continues to lash out — at immigrants, at the courts, at the media — the permission structure grows stronger. Agents, officers, bureaucrats, even judges: they all take their cues from the top.” ” From Michael Cohen, “Rage Descends From The Top” MeidasTouch Network.
After W.W. II, the Fascists had a common defense: “We were just carrying out orders.” See Adolf Eichmann (d. 1992) and others.
Accountability? Well, somebody needs to be blamed when a disaster is captured on video: “ICE officer disciplined after shoving woman to ground in courthouse” at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4w23yjzj1o
Action Question. For immigrants, should San Mateo be a Sanctuary Community? “How a ‘Sanctuary Community’ REALLY operates” at:
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/how-a-sanctuary-community-really
Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago, Portland:
Are we next in the San Francisco Bay Area?
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PROP 50: Vote Before November 4!
“It’s Time for Soft Secession” How blue states can use their economic clout to stand up to Trump’s agenda—starting with California.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/its-time-for-soft-secession/
“The Fight for Prop 50: Robert Hubbell & Rep. Mike Levin” (YouTube)
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/the-fight-for-prop-50-robert-hubbell
California YES ON 50L VOTE RIGHT NOW!
Send in your ballot right away-- helps to get folks to vote--the publicity, people want to be part of--please vote NOW!
Donation Options:
Gavin Newsom's Rigging Response
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/erra-ads
California Donor Table Progressive Era Issues:
They support grassroots groups around the state to educate their communities:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/progressive-era-issues-committee-supporting-yes-on-50-1
Third Act and Bill McKibben. I’m a long-time member and they’re working for
Prop 50. For phone banking for Prop 50 on Oct. 14, 2025, more information at:
https://www.mobilize.us/thirdact/event/854395/
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WEB SITES TO SEE
Defending against ICE. “2025 resources to defend immigrants and other neighbors – national & local” at:
(This is a resource list, not just a fund-raising pitch)
Timothy Snyder: “Doing things that are ‘both unlawful and unpopular isn’t going to work out’ for Trump” at:
And don’t miss this book that changed my life: On Tyranny by T. Snyder
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TRUMP TALK
Project 2025 It’s spelled out, in hundreds of pages, how a second Trump administration would use the myriads of laws granting the president’s emergency power, and use the Insurrection Act to deploy the military domestically and other zombie laws like the Comstock Act, purge the civil service under “Schedule F.”
“I love the smell of deportations in the morning…” said Donald J. Trump
“Former White House Lawyer Says Electing Trump Is America’s ‘Biggest Mistake’ “
Enabler of Autocracy. Stephen Miller went on a fascist rampage…after a Trump-appointed judge ruled that they failed to satisfy the legal requirements to send troops into Portland: “The Democrat Party has filled our legal and judicial system with radicals who protect leftwing terrorists. This is a very real and dire crisis for our Republican form of govt.” (From MeidasTouch Network)
A Class in Bribery 101. “Trump asks 9 colleges to commit to his political agenda and get favorable access to federal money.” Once they accept the money, the next move demanding them to drop climate-related classes end women’s studies, etc.:
Trump works through extortion and bribery. Both can lead to disaster even when an institution tries to protect itself. I went to two elite institutions (Yale and Columbia) that are in the crosshairs of what Trump’s Fascism wants to offer as “protection.”
“US universities must reject Trump’s ‘compact’. It is full of traps”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/07/universities-trump-compact
One-man Rule. “David Frum reflects on the malicious prosecution of James Comey and what it reveals about Donald Trump’s growing power over the justice system. He explains how the United States, unlike other advanced democracies, has allowed prosecutions to become instruments of presidential will, why Watergate-era norms of independence have eroded, and how the Supreme Court’s recent rulings have accelerated the drift toward one-man rule.” (“The Rise of Technofascists” in The Atlantic)
Overcoming the Constitution. “To capture a democratic nation, authoritarians must control three sources of power: the intelligence agencies, the justice system, and the military. President Donald Trump and his circle of would-be autocrats have made rapid progress toward seizing these institutions and detaching them from the Constitution and rule of law. “ (From The Atlantic)
Nonprofit Organizations as “Terrorists?” This plan from Trump raises serious concerns for groups engaged in political action:
Is Indivisible a Target? “You may have seen reporting from Reuters or heard new rumors circulating in the press that Trump’s administration is preparing to target Indivisible alongside other organizations… It appears they’re gearing up to smear us with ludicrous accusations that we’re somehow tied to violence at protests -- a claim that’s as false as it is predictable.”
(From National Indivisible)
For nonviolence see: https://indivisible.org/commitment-nonviolence?akid=121293.433935.pDTs-4&rd=1&t=9
See also: “Trump’s war on the left: Inside the plan to investigate liberal groups”
Trump’s Polling: Disapproval Up, Approval Down.
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BOOKS OF INTEREST
People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal.
by Marshall Ganz (Oxford Univ. Press, 2024).
John Lewis: A Life, by David Greenberg (Simon & Schuster, 2024).
They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent,
by Sarah Kendzior (Flatiron Books, 2024).
Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World,
by Anne Applebaum (Vintage, 2025).
America, América: A New History of the New World, by Greg Grandin
(Penguin, 2025).
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DIGITAL RESISTANCE
Texting. Text your elected officials—all at once! https://resist.bot/
Climate Action. Advocacy Emails to Business and Political Leaders:
Climate Action Now (CAN) at: https://www.climateactionnow.com/
Full Disclosure: I have had CAN on my cell phone for two years now. In less than a half hour, I can send 40 messages each day. The app urges you to send only 5, which takes only 5 minutes.
No Kings Day. “What we learned from the first No Kings Day”
https://grassrootsconnector.substack.com/p/expanding-the-coalition-more-protests
KneeDeep Times is a digital magazine featuring stories from the frontlines of climate resilience: https://www.kneedeeptimes.org/
Democrats. “How Democrats Finally Won the Internet” at:
https://puck.news/how-democrats-are-winning-the-shutdown-blame-wars/
Meidas Is Winning. “‘We’re fighting for you!’ Podcaster Ben Meiselas on taking on the Maga media – and winning the ratings battle”
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A LITTLE LAUGHTER
Signs at a Protest Rally
“Congressional Republicans save yourselves with stem-cell research.
It may be your last chance to grow a spine.”
“President Trump, how are you going to deal with Hurricane Maria?
Pay her what you paid Stormy Daniels.”
Carried by a child: “Trump has a mug shot. My parents don’t.”
“Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un are in a boat in the
Middle of the ocean. The boat capsizes. Who survives? Mankind.”
From: “Why We Protest” by Richard Stockton, “Good Times” in the
Santa Cruz Weekly, at: https://www.goodtimes.sc/why-we-protest/
“ If you’re asking yourself why Trump is doing this, it’s simple. He wants unrest. He wants chaos that he can point to and say ‘The country’s too unstable for elections.’ His goal isn’t to lead a democracy. It’s to stop it. He and his allies want to use disorder as the excuse to hold on to power.” (Democratic Message)
Don’t give Trump what he wants.
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JANE GOODALL: Last Words
(1934 – 2025)
“I see humanity at the mouth of a very, very long dark tunnel. And right at the end of that tunnel is a star. And that’s hope. But it's no good sitting at the end of the tunnel and hoping that star will come. No, we’ve got to roll up our sleeves, climb over, roll under and work around all the obstacles that lie between us and the star.”
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