Resources on resistance to autocracy and fascism - older content
This page contains older content that used to be on the main resources page but which is less immediately relevant due to the passage of time.
Resources on resistance to autocracy and fascism - older content
This page contains older content that used to be on the main resources page but which is less immediately relevant due to the passage of time.
INFORMATION ON THE ELON MUSK COUP OVER ALL FEDERAL SPENDING
Multiple scholars confirmed on Sunday Feb. 2, 2025 that what we're seeing with the Elon Musk takeover of the U.S. federal payment system over the weekend is an administrative coup. Please see the thread below for my collected information about what's happening, and the actions to take.
You can fight the coup by supporting TeslaTakedown.com. See also our Tesla Takedown San Francisco Bay Area resource page.
"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.
"How to Organize Our Way Out of the Trump-Musk Putsch", Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, The Nation, Nov. 19, 2025
"Our enemy is not one or two men. Our enemy is apathy, cynicism, and fatalism; the pernicious, authoritarian-friendly belief that we are merely victims of world events rather than active participants in a global struggle for freedom and justice. "
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.
"Is it a Coup? It is Bad, it is Illegal, and it is a Self-coup", Alex Norris, Liberal Currents, Feb. 13, 2025.
"In the meantime, popular pressure — visibility in the streets, calling legislators, talking to media... tells the actors involved what side the people are on. We are the ultimate source of legitimacy."
"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."
Slides: "The Musk/Trump Coup and how to fight back" Zoom session recording with Q&A, unedited
A presentation by Bruce to DFA San Mateo County, March 5, 2025.
Topic: how to prepare prior to January 20, 2025
"How LGBTQ+ Southerners Can Prepare for the Trump Administration", Emma Chinn, Campaign for Southern Equality, Nov. 22, 2024
"The Truth", Sherrilyn Ifill, Nov. 15, 2024
Sherrilyn Ifill is the former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
"I have faced the fact that we will not be able to move much forward in the next few years. In fact, I expect things to become so dire over the next two years, that we will scarcely recognize the country we live in. I expect that fear and cruelty will become part of our daily diet."
"What to Do Before the Trump Administration Takes Office in January", Brittney McNamara, Teen Vogue, Nov. 14, 2024
Topic: what will happen under the second Trump administration
"What Happens Next: The administrative state under a second Trump term", Don Moynihan, Nov. 7, 2024
"... coercive power will be deployed on the streets of America. This includes the DHS targeting immigrants, with massive round-ups and camps, supplemented with support from National Guard and local police (at least in red states). If people protest, Trump will be ready to deploy the military to subdue dissent."
Concentration camps on the way: "Incoming Trump admin is eyeing new immigrant detention centers near major U.S. cities", Julia Ainsley, Laura Strickler and Didi Martinez, NBC News, Nov. 12, 2024.
Weaponization of the Department of Justice to attack Trump's political enemies: "DOJ and FBI officials reach out to lawyers as potential Trump revenge prosecutions loom", David Rohde and Ken Dilanian, Nov. 17, 2024.
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A brief selection of "Why Harris Lost" articles
Economic suffering plus giving the finger to the anti-war movement: "How the Most Unpopular US President Got Reelected", Stephen Semler, Jan. 24, 2025
"In 2020, Joe Biden ran and won on the promise of building an economy that works for everyone. That didn’t happen. Instead, the country experienced astonishing economic growth at the national level and greater economic despair at the household level... Harris ultimately chose not to campaign on a social welfare agenda that could’ve delivered another historic reduction in poverty. ... Harris ran for president while effectively issuing one middle finger to the left and the other to the anti-war movement. While this decision may have appealed to certain pundits, it’s extremely difficult to win the majority of working-class votes this way, or really any group outside the upper middle class and above."
Framing and media analysis: "Some Lessons of the 2024 Election", George Lakoff and Gil Duran, Nov. 15, 2024
"In 2024, Kamala Harris tried to move to the right to find the mythical “center.” It didn’t work. Moving to the right doesn't get you to the center – because there is no center. When a Democratic politician moves to "the right" during an election, it erodes their authenticity."
Economic suffering analysis part 1: "A Couple Charts to Explain a Harris Loss", Stephen Semler, Nov. 6.
"[Harris'] economic platform was breathtakingly unambitious. And she refused to differentiate herself in any meaningful way from Biden, who people resented for his real or imagined role in causing the cost of living crisis, and his near-total refusal to even acknowledge it. "
Economic suffering part 2: "The Economy is Fine" (by which he means it's not fine), Stephen Semler, Nov. 7, 2024
"...the expiration of the [American Rescue Plan's] suite of welfare provisions left a sizable chunk of the US population with little to no recourse during a historic bout of inflation. Key social programs and worker protections were taken away as the cost of nearly everything spiraled upwards, resulting in widespread suffering. No wonder so many voters were livid."
Economic suffering part 3: "Wall Street Celebrates a Coming Trump Merger Boom", Matt Stoller, Nov. 7, 2024
"Basically, voters said they distrust Democrats. And they are correct. Wages dropped in 2022-2023, food prices increased at historically large rates, borrowing costs jumped, large swaths of the safety net were cut, and none of these were reflected in the inflation statistics that economists use to judge how the economy is."
COVID followed by economic suffering: "How COVID Helped Trump Win", Julia Doubleday and Walter Bragman, Nov. 15, 2024
"The Biden Administration’s approach to COVID was a vaccine-first, vaccine-only pursuit of herd immunity. When herd immunity was not achieved via vaccine, Biden’s administration proceeded, full steam ahead, with their plans to dismantle every pandemic era protection that existed to assist people during the crisis. As people lost healthcare, they also got sicker... As unemployment and student loan programs ran dry, millions of people began experiencing new long-term health problems... As disability numbers continued to climb, so did homelessness, which hit a record high in 2023."
Social media disinformation at scale: "The Phantom Campaign", Tim Snyder, Nov. 17, 2024
"This time the oligarch was Elon Musk, and this time the demotivational messages were deceptive to an even higher degree: they were presented as Harris campaign ads... To some audiences, Harris was presented as too pro-Israel, to others as too pro-Palestinian. The degree of precision was extraordinary: white men in the Midwest were told that Harris was going to take away their Zyn nicotine pouches, whereas Black people in North Carolina were told that she was coming for their menthol cigarettes. This was achieved by the familiar phantom combination: oligarchical money + psychographic information about individuals + social media delivery system + demotivational message."
This page: last update Sept. 25, 2025