NEW, Feb. 3: INFORMATION ON THE ELON MUSK COUP OVER ALL FEDERAL SPENDING, AND WHAT TO DO

Multiple scholars confirmed on Sunday Feb. 2 that what we're seeing with the Elon Musk takeover of the U.S. federal payment system over the weekend is an administrative coup. This is an attempt to permanently end democracy in the United States. Please see the thread below for my collected information about what's happening, and the actions to take.

• "What Can I Do to Fight This Coup?", from ChooseDemocracy.us, Feb. 2025
  A list of recommendations and some resources. Incorporates and enhances material from Daniel Hunter's essay of Nov. 6, 2024.

• Mastodon thread by Bruce: "Musk Coup Information", Feb. 2-5, 2025.
  These are the collected information links that I have, dated from Feb. 2-5 on the ongoing Elon Musk administrative coup that started this weekend.

• "Democracy is Crumbling. Is Anybody Doing Anything? Yes. And You Can Too", Sherrilyn Ifill, Feb. 9, 2025
  "People ARE doing things. You will meet those people when you start doing things."

• "Stop the Tump-Musk Coup", resource page from Indivisible

• "Autogolpe", Paul Krugman, Feb. 7 2025
  ("Autogolpe" is just the political science term for "administrative coup")
  "If my use of the word “dictatorship” disturbs you, if your first reaction is to say “Isn’t that a bit shrill?”, you’re part of the problem. The constitutional crisis isn’t something that might hypothetically happen; it’s fully underway as you read this."

• "A New Kind of Coup: Trump and Musk are Updating the Autocratic Playbook", Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Feb. 2, 2025
  "Musk and his surrogates have physically occupied the Office of Personnel Management, setting up beds to have a 24/7 presence. They have also infiltrated the General Services Administration, which manages technology in government buildings...
  That means that random individuals, whose credentials seem to lie mainly in their loyalty to Musk, now have enormous power over America’s purse strings and access to a treasure trove of sensitive personal data. They locked out the federal employees to prevent any obstructions to this access.
  This is what militaries do during coups: you capture the major targets, with government buildings high on the list, and you take over communications and other systems."

KEY ARTICLES AND VIDEOS - START HERE

• 10 ways to be prepared and grounded now that Trump has won, Daniel Hunter, Nov. 6 2024.
  This is the #1 article that I (Bruce) recommend reading first. Section 5, "Find your path", is particularly useful because it makes clear that there are multiple roles needed for resistance - almost everybody can find at least one that works well for your personality! Daniel Hunter is a seasoned nonviolence trainer and the author of Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow. 

• Swept Into the Flood: What history tells us about what comes next, and what to do about it, Andrea Pitzer, Nov. 9, 2024
  Andrea Pitzer is a research journalist and the author of One Long Night, the first comprehensive history of concentration camps. Informed by history, she suggests that the incoming administration will viciously attack these three key groups: undocumented immigrants, the transgender community, and pregnant women in need of medical care. The article is filled with helpful insights and advice.

• On Tyranny, Youtube series by Yale history professor Timothy Snyder, based on his book.
  "A bracing guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism".
  Rule #1 is the most important: "Do not obey in advance".

• "Bringing Down a Dictator", 56-minute documentary film with study guide, York Zimmerman, 2001.
  "A priceless history lesson… succeeds most intriguingly as a how-to manual for revolution via civil disobedience."
  - Entertainment Weekly

Topic: how to resist and take down autocracies

• "Can nonviolent struggle defeat a dictator? This database emphatically says yes", George Lakey, Waging Nonviolence, Jan. 8 2025.
  "...in many of the cases I looked at, the movement avoided merely symbolic marches and rallies and instead focused on tactics that impose a cost on the regime. ... Another important takeaway: Occasional actions that simply protest a particular policy or egregious action aren’t enough... Over and over, the Global Nonviolent Action Database shows that positive results come from a series of escalating, connected actions called a campaign."

• "How we can meet the challenges of authoritarianism", Maria Stephan, Waging Nonviolence, Nov. 13 2024.
  "... autocrats are always weaker than they appear, and we are often stronger than we might think. While authoritarian leaders... seem to be in complete control, they rarely are. Their kryptonite is a reliance on the active and passive support of ordinary people throughout society, who provide them with the resources and other sources of power they depend on to get things done. Power can be given, and power can be taken away."

• "Be Disruptive! What queer history tells us about confronting Trump", Michael Bronski, The Guardian, Nov. 29 2024
  "Direct action and confrontation works. Queer citizens have to be out and vocal. We can’t afford to worry about being “respectable” or “playing nice”. Educating other Americans about who we really are is vital."

• "I Watched Orbán Destroy Hungary’s Democracy. Here’s My Advice for the Trump Era", Gabor Scheiring, Politico, Nov. 23 2024
  Specifically to fix the Democratic Party, Scheiring recommends the following:
    1. Create new and strengthen existing local organizational structures, especially labor unions.
    2. "[Democratic] party financing should shift from the corporate elite to small and micro-donations".
    3. Embrace progressive ("left-populist") economic policies.
    4. Learn how to communicate using symbolic class politics.

• "The Fall of Bolsonaro: How Brazil's Civil Society Mobilized to Protect Democracy", Anti-Authoritarian Playbook, Scot Nakagawa, Nov. 14, 2024

• "Authoritarianism is making a comeback. Here's the time-tested way to defeat it", Maria Stephan and Timothy Snyder, The Guardian, June 20 2017.
  "Tyrants’ tactics require the consent of large numbers of people. The first lesson, then, is not to obey in advance."

• (Video series) "A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict", six-part case study documentary (total 180 minutes), York Zimmerman, 2000.
  "A Force More Powerful is a documentary series on one of the 20th century’s most important and least-known stories: how nonviolent power overcame oppression and authoritarian rule."

• (Book) On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Timothy Snyder, Crown Books, 2017
  "On Tyranny is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come."

• (Book) From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, 4th edition, Gene Sharp, The New Press, 2012.
  Free online PDF version available - see the link.
  "From Dictatorship to Democracy” is a serious introduction to the use of nonviolent action to topple dictatorships. Based on over forty years of study by Dr. Gene Sharp."

• (Book) Blueprint for Revolution: How to use rice pudding, lego men, and other nonviolent techniques to galvanize communities, overthrow dictators, or simply change the world, Srdja Popovic, Spiegel & Grau paperback, 2015
  The author, Srdja Popovic, is one of the key architects and leaders of  the Otpor! movement which removed Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic from power. 

• "On the need for movements to avoid secrecy and fear", summary extracts from Gene Sharp, assembled Nov. 2024
  -- "Fear interferes with or destroys the operation of most of the processes of change upon which nonviolent action depends..."
  -- Sharp quoting nonviolence expert George Lakey: "[Secrecy] results in inefficiency because you have to cover up much that you do from your own members, authoritarianism because you cannot tell your members what is going on, and mistrust... You should try to plan tactics... which do not depend on secrecy for their value.”"
  
  

Topic: "Things you can do to resist" lists

• "10 Ways to Resist Trump II", Robert Reich, Jan. 23, 2025
  "The forces of Trumpian repression and neofascism would like nothing better than for us to give up. Then they’d win it all. We cannot allow them to."

• "How Trans Kids can Protect Themselves Now that Trump is in Office", Brittney McNamera, Teen Vogue, Jan. 21 2025
  "Despite what can seem like a deluge of anti-trans bills, policies, and language, there are a lot of people on your side, fighting for trans rights."

Topic: local, regional, and national resistance actions

• "It’s official: Worcester is a ‘sanctuary city’ for transgender community", Madeleine Aitken, Boston.com, Feb. 12, 2025
  "The Worcester City Council passed a resolution Tuesday night that gave the city, Massachusetts’ second largest, the label of “sanctuary” for members of the trans, nonbinary, and LGBTQIA+ community."

• "Scientists, researchers work to archive federal health data purged by Trump administration", Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech, The Hill, Feb. 8 2025
  "Many have taken that data and moved it to personal websites or Substack accounts..."

• "California approves $50 million to protect immigrants and defend state against Trump administration", Associated Press (via CNN), Feb. 8 2025

• "Protests Erupt Across US at Hospitals Complying with Trump's Unlawful Under-19 Trans Ban Executive Order", Erin Reed, Feb. 5 2025

• "School Systems Across US Declare They Will Not Comply With Trump's Anti-Trans Executive Order", Erin Reed, Jan. 31 2025.
  "... multiple school systems and representatives issued statements rejecting T

• "‘Making it very difficult to arrest’: Trump’s Border Czar supposedly hates that migrants know their rights", Sarah Fimm, The Mary Sue, Jan. 30 2025.
  "Tom Homan whined that undocumented migrants living in sanctuary cities are too “educated” about their rights, and that makes them “very difficult” to arrest..."

• "Quaker groups file suit over the end of policy restricting ICE arrests in houses of worship", Laura Strickland, NBC News, Jan. 27 2025.
  "A group of Quaker congregations is suing the Department of Homeland Security for changing a policy that prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from carrying out operations in so-called “sensitive locations” such as houses of worship..."

• "Trump’s DEI Snitch Email Is Being Targeted by Spammers", Sam Stein, The Bulwark, Jan. 25, 2025.
  "The email account set up by the Trump White House to encourage government employees to snitch on their DEI-promoting colleagues appears to be the target of a mass spamming campaign designed to overwhelm those administering it."

• "California Attorney General Bonta Issues Statement on Trump Administration’s Anti-Abortion Actions", official press release, Jan. 24 2025
  "With the news that the Trump Administration will also be limiting enforcement of the federal FACE Act and that the President has signed Executive Orders targeting abortion rights, we will not hesitate to take up the mantle of safety and access that they are abandoning. State law — specifically, the California FACE Act — requires that people have access to abortion care safely, confidentially, and in a timely manner. If any person infringes on that right, they can and will be held accountable by my office or local prosecutors."

• "State and Local Law Enforcement Cannot Be Commandeered for Federal Immigration Enforcement", joint statement by thirteen state attorney generals, Jan. 23, 2025.

• News site TheSkimm restores censored U.S. federal site "reproductiverights.gov" on its own web site, Jan. 22, 2025.
  The content is available at reproductiverightsdotgov.com

• "'Incredibly Brave' Bishop Asks Trump to Halt Attacks on Immigrants, Trans People", Julia Conley, Common Dreams, Jan. 21 2025.
  The point of Rev. Budde's remarks is not to for the message to change Trump's behavior, which it won't, but rather to model one form of resistance and inspire us to do likewise.

• "Chelsea Manning and Raquel Willis among 15 arrested at U.S. Capitol during bathroom sit-in", Ryan Adamczeski, The Advocate, Dec. 5 2024.
  "The group was made up of people of all gender identities, including transgender and cisgender women alike, who displayed a pink banner in front of the women's bathroom reading 'Flush bathroom bigotry,'"

• "California attorney general vows to protect immigrants from Trump", Nadia Lopez, Axios, Dec. 4 2024.

• "Boston City Council reaffirms support for measure that bars city departments from helping mass-deportation efforts", Dec. 4, 2024
  "The City Council today voted unanimously to keep Boston's sanctuary-city status and remind city departments not to help any federal "civil immigration enforcement" efforts, including the incoming federal administration's announced plans to set up concentration camps for immigrants"

• "Somerville upholds sanctuary city status", Abby Patkin, Nov. 27 2024

• "LAUSD poised to declare immigrant sanctuary, affirm LGBTQ+ rights as it braces for Trump", Howard Blume, Nov. 18 2024
  "...the Los Angeles school board is moving quickly to reaffirm the nation’s second-largest school system as a sanctuary for immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community"

Training decks

• "Skill-based training modules for Trump era", Daniel Hunter and HOPE-PV. A series of six slide decks, each of which guides a 2-hour training class on a particular topic. See the bottom of the page for the training decks.
  The topics are:
  - "Strategic escalation in the Trump era"
  - "Sense-making and vision: How did we get here?"
  - "Action security and de-escalation"
  - "How to talk with people you might disagree with"
  - "Mutual aid 101"
  - "Harnassing our power to end political violence" (by HOPE-PV, not by Daniel Hunter)

Guidebooks

• Freedom over Fascism Toolkit, ASO Communications.
  This how-to-message guide is regularly updated based on current topics. ASO Communications is the consulting firm of nationally-known progressive framing expert Anat Sheker-Osorio.

• Guidance to Nonprofits Regarding Immigration Enforcement, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Dec. 2024

• Welcoming, Protecting, and Preparing: A Congregational Guide, Rev. Minna Bothwell, ELCA, Jan. 2025
  Legal guidance for churches and other houses of worship regarding ICE, DHS, and protecting immigrants.

• The Visibility Brigade: A Template For Activism
  An 8-page guidebook to creating and executing giant-letter highway overpass messaging, such as "MUSK STOLE YOUR TAX DATA", with only a small team. Recommended by ChooseDemocracy.us

• "Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?", Elizabeth Haste, Dec. 11, 2024
  This is a scenario-discussion document created by a transgender couple for their own planning purposes. It doesn't make recommendations, but rather provides an extensive list of possible future events and invites couples to discuss whether that event would trigger the need to flee the U.S. The author has made the document public as a way of supporting other couples who need to work through the same set of risks.
  "... we aren’t overreacting. Several powerful people with the means and motivation to harm us have said that they are going to do so after a specific date... It's easy for you to gamble on it, but if we choose incorrectly, we die."

• The Trans Literature Preservation Project: A Practical Guide to Resisting Censorship, Bethany Karsten, The Transfeminine Review, Nov. 13, 2024
  "The goal of this article is to lay out an extensive picture of what every level of a hostile assault of trans literary production might look like in the American public sphere, and how everyone (including cis allies) will need to respond and adapt to it should we wish to preserve our culture and ideas for future generations."

• "Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Democracy on the Brink: Strategies, tactics & tips for how everyday Americans can fight back together wherever we live", Indivisible, November 2024. 27 pages.
  This is the new, completely revised resistance and local-group creation guide from Indivisible, the national organization that formed immediately after the first Trump election in 2016.
  CAVEAT: Indivisible's theory of change is not based on civil resistance / nonviolent resistance, but rather is based on a traditional, color-within-the-lines approach of petitioning existing powerholders to vote in a certain way. Indivisible's model for how to get rid of a toxic powerholder is to vote that person out of office, whereas strategic nonviolence theory teaches that you can force toxic powerholders out of office if a mass movement refuses to obey them and also undercuts their pillars of institutional support. While Indivisible's ask-your-elected-officials-nicely approach will likely need to be part of our resistance strategy for 2025 and beyond, in my (Bruce's) opinion it won't be sufficient.

• Resistance Guidebook: Ideas to Stop Authoritarianism
  An 8-page document of ideas from The Disruption Project, inspired by Daniel Hunter's widely-read essay.

Websites and newsletters

• Timothy Snyder newsletter: "Thinking about..."
  Timothy Snyder is a historian specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Holocaust.

• Ruth Ben-Ghiat newsletter: "Lucid"
  Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a historian of authoritarians, propaganda, democracy protection.

• Scot Nakagawa newsletter, "The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook"
  Scot is co-founder and Co-Director of the 22nd Century Initiative (22CI), a national strategy and action center that is building a movement to resist authoritarianism.

• Margaret Sullivan newsletter, "The American Crisis"
  Margaret Sullivan is a pro-democracy media critic and the former public editor of the New York Times

• The Guardian newsletter, "Fighting Back"
  "Big thinkers on what we can all do to protect civil liberties and fundamental freedoms in a Trump presidency."

• Waging Nonviolence, wagingnonviolence.org
  "a nonprofit media organization dedicated to providing original reporting and expert analysis of social movements around the world."

• International Center for Nonviolent Conflict, www.nonviolent-conflict.org
  "ICNC focuses on how ordinary people wage nonviolent conflict to win rights, freedom and justice."

• The Global Nonviolent Action Database at Swarthmore College: nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu
  "The Global Nonviolent Action Database provides free access to information about hundreds of cases of nonviolent action"

• Tactics 4 Change, www.tactics4change.org - a project of CANVAS and Pennsylvania State University.
  "The Tactics4Change interactive website provides free access to information about more than 400 hundred cases of nonviolent dilemma actions"

• CANVAS, Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies, canvasopedia.org
  "CANVAS advocates for the use of nonviolent resistance in the promotion of human rights and democracy."

Background and academic reading

• Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know, Erica Chenoweth, Oxford University Press, 2021
  "Full of practical lessons and inspiring examples from countries worldwide, Chenoweth’s book is the closest thing we in the US have to a how-to guide for defanging Trumpism" - Deepak Bhargava and Harry Hanbury

• Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination, Walter Wink, Fortress Press, 1992.
  One of the most important Christian theology books of the 20th century, Engaging the Powers "provides an intellectual, historical, and scriptural basis for the truth of Christian nonviolence." (Mairead Maguire)  This is a seminary-level text that assumes some familiarity with the Bible. This is a foundational principles book, not a book that will teach you how to develop nonviolent campaigns.
  
  

Older content that was previously on this page

• See the "older content" page.

This page: last update Feb. 11, 2025