First, we want to thank everyone of you who made daily phone calls trying to convince Republicans to vote no on the bill.  But they did it anyway. They bent to the will of Donald Trump and have passed the most cruel legislation at least in our lifetimes.

Let’s not fool ourselves, this situation is different. If you had any hope that any Republicans (aside from Thom Tillis) would be willing to lose their jobs over the Big Ugly Bill we have heard them loud and clear. They are up for anything Trump wants.  All four Minnesota Republicans in the House voted for:

Denying medical care to millions of low income children, disabled people and nursing home residents which will decimate healthcare systems in mostly rural communities that are already losing access to hospitals and doctors.

Stopping nutritional assistance to low income children and their families.

Spending billions of dollars to fund the third largest military operation in the world in order to scoop up landscapers, roofers, day laborers, farm workers, political opponents, journalists, protesters, and college students. 

All of that so OUR tax dollars can fund tax breaks to the most wealthy among us because, obviously, you can’t be too rich. But you can be too poor. Too hungry. Too sick. Too dispensable.

Let's  give the Republicans their due - their evil is so well thought out. A bill written in such a way that most of the cuts to the poor, hungry, sick and dispensable won’t go into effect right away. They know that most Americans have non-existent attention spans. They know that this bill is so unpopular that there is a good chance many of them will be out of a job in 2026. They have a fix for that! Make all of this effective after the mid-term elections.

Once the really awful things are happening and grandma’s nursing home just closed, they can blame it on Democrats. It’s been the playbook for decades and it always seems to work.

But we aren't going to let them forget what they did.  We have work to do and we need each one of you to stay the course and make them regret this vote.

We keep fighting. We keep up the pressure. We tell the truth to everyone. We have difficult conversations with people who just don’t seem to get it.

We rally, we march, we get in the media with crowds that cannot be ignored or lied about. 

Show up. At every single corner sign event, bridge brigade, and mass mobilization.

Do not cower. Do not pretend any of this is normal. Do not let them push us down and do not let them silence us.

One day mass mobilizations like No Kings Day are incredible shows of movement energy, but they are, by definition, confined to a single day. To defeat MAGA, we’re going to have to mobilize more people, and we’re going to have to do it on a sustained basis. That’s where One Million Rising comes in.

The success of an authoritarian takeover is dependent upon a population choosing to comply. It only takes a (relatively) small number of people practicing non-cooperation to make implementation of their fascist ideals impossible -- so let’s train one million. If we can motivate, train, and equip this movement in the practice of strategic non-cooperation, we can disrupt, delay, and even, at times, make it impossible for this administration to enact corrupt policy.

Read what happened behind the scenes by ITC Co-Leader Lisa Erbes on Strange Lands. Excerpt below:
The days and weeks leading up to the June 14th No Kings March and Rally in St. Paul were insanely busy. I’m thinking my next book should basically just be a long, rambling story of what grassroots organizing looks like from the inside.

This was not our first rodeo and our coalition has an amazing level of expertise in putting on protests, large and small. We have the expert team from Women’s March Minnesota, who still hold the record for putting on the largest protest in Minnesota history in January of 2017. Our labor/union partners at AFL-CIO and SEIU are stunningly efficient both on the security side and with set up. They have connections everywhere and whenever we would say “We need XYZ” they would say “We got it covered.” The group from MN 50501 only started organizing in January of this year and what they have been able to create in that short time is nothing short of amazing. Their enthusiasm in infectious and their dedication to the resistance brings us hope for the future of our country.

And then there is our team from Indivisible Twin Cities. As we like to say, we just get shit done…

We want to talk about yesterday. For weeks we have been working to organize a “No Kings” event at the state capitol in St. Paul, along with our partners from Women’s March Minnesota, the AFL-CIO of Minnesota and MN50501. We were ready. We were hoping for crowds bigger than Hands-Off on April 5th, which we estimate had 43K in attendance. But it’s not just about numbers - it’s about creating space for people to express their rage and defiance, yes, but also to find comfort and joy in solidarity with community…