Remove the marker
A parable for resisting Trump 2.0
One of the best lessons I’ve ever learned about organizing was at Netroots Nation in 2018. In the coffee line.
The convention center had a Starbucks kiosk near the main hall. It was the easiest place to get coffee between panels, and since I drink a lot of coffee, I was a frequent customer. The kiosk was staffed by 2-3 people most of the time, and every time I stood in the line, I marveled at how quickly they managed to move us through and get us our orders. The line was always full of people but always moving. Until the last day.
On Saturday morning, I got in line and immediately realized it was longer than usual and not moving at all. I watched the employees behind the counter, frazzled, stressed, and clearly searching for something. Eventually, the line started moving again, at a crawl, and when I finally got up front, I asked if the espresso machine had broken.
“Nope. We lost the marker.” the employee told me. She explained that you needed the marker to write orders and names on the cup. (This was pre-Covid when they were still using them.) The marker they were using had gone missing, and they couldn’t find the backup markers either. So the employees had no easy way to communicate orders to one another, which slowed the process down, almost stopping it.
I love this story because it’s a reminder that shutting things down or creating friction isn’t as hard as we think it is. You don’t need to shut down the espresso machine or even go through the trouble of hiding the coffee beans. Just hide the marker. It won’t work forever and you probably can’t repeat the tactic more than once, but if your goal is to oppose, disrupt, or grind things to a halt sometimes it’s that simple.
Author’s note: Right now, union Starbucks workers are striking and asking customers not to patronize Starbucks through December 24th. Ctrl Alt-Right Delete stands in Solidarity with Starbucks Workers United.
Right now, we’re readying ourselves for January 20 and what another Trump Administration looks like. It’s a frightening reality. Voters willingly chose a man who four years ago led a coup, and sent a mob after his Vice President as a punishment for refusing to participate. They legitimized a man whose crimes and corruption were so blatant that he rarely bothered to hide them, confident that he was more powerful than any system or institution that attempted to hold him accountable. Donald Trump is wholly unfit to be president, and also about to take an oath of office that he will immediately disregard next month.
Trump will be more powerful and emboldened than his last presidency. He’s made it clear that he’s out for vengeance against everyone and every institution that opposed him. Trump and MAGA will come for anyone who gets in their way, using the same strategies they’ve deployed against disinformation researchers and Democratic consultants. And based on the capitulation we’re seeing from the media, politicians, and corporate America, it’s clear that powerful institutions and people take Trump’s threats seriously. I don’t say this to defend anyone submitting to MAGA’s authority preemptively, but to acknowledge where it comes from and why we’re seeing so many people and institutions fold so rapidly.
Most of us who oppose Trump and plan to keep actively doing so are deep in preparation mode. As are people and communities who will be under increased threat of harm, targeted by the next Administration. The 19th has a story about what that looks like for women and the LGBTQ+ community, and it tracks with what I’m hearing from friends and colleagues anecdotally as well. We know what’s coming, and there’s no time for denial or wishful thinking. All we can do is be ready. To have our ducks in a row as best we can.
Here’s what I’m not seeing: plans for massive opposition and mobilization. Given where we’re at and how MAGA will almost certainly wield its power I’m not surprised. We’ve suffered a massive loss, after a decade of constant fighting, and we’re falling back. Because we’re vulnerable, exhausted, and clearly need to reevaluate some things because we can’t simply use the same playbook this time around.
In our absence, Trump and his cronies have been hard at work and reminding us that they’re not actually that smart or competent. Certainly not the geniuses they all believe themselves to be. Watching Elon Musk, who holds no elected or government office, send the GOP into a shutdown tailspin with a single tweet this week, was a reminder of just how fragile the MAGA alliance is. And how little they’ve thought some of their plans through.
That’s why I’ve been thinking about the marker story all week, and why it seemed like the right way to end the last newsletter of 2024. Opposing MAGA 2.0 will require us to be creative, nimble, and work with fewer resources than we’ve had before. But there are always ways to muck things up, and slow them down. You don’t always need a grand strategy and large mobilization to shut things down. Sometimes, it’s as easy as finding the markers and removing them.
ICYMI
Donald Trump and His Allies Don’t Really Care What Kind of Leftist You Are (Teen Vogue)
A helpful reminder for all of us. I’d add that they love it when we fight.
Andrew Tate To Learn $3.4 Million Lesson On Bragging About Tax Evasion (Wonkette)
You deserve this one. As a treat.
The Top Cybersecurity Agency in the US Is Bracing for Donald Trump (Wired)
CISA was created by the Trump Administration and now a target of the MAGA Right. I’m genuinely curious what the future holds for this government agency.
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Coda
That’s a wrap on 2024. I hope that whatever holiday you celebrate, you’re able to take some time to rest, recharge, and renew. I hope you can spend some time with your family or chosen family. Thanks so much for reading and supporting the newsletter. You are the reason I’m still writing it.
I’m taking the rest of the year off to spend time with my family. Publication will resume on Sunday, January 12.
I want to send a special thank you to my patrons and paid subscribers. Your contributions allowed me to spend more time on the newsletter post-election, including compiling the lists of resources that have become so popular with readers. I greatly appreciate how much y’all value my work.
I’m a former teacher with a plan that’s more like a permanent marker.
Most people will stop reading once they see “teacher” yet a Harvey Weinstein-like scandal - intellectual rather than sexual - has rotted out our schools and paved the path for Trump and you need to know this to do something about it. You’ll only hear it from me for reasons you’ll understand after you learn the truth about our schools.
I discovered fraud at my highly acclaimed school in 1995 and set out to expose it figuring “no way our democracy has a chance with what its foundation is doing.” I decided back then exposing this had to be my career.
They fired me in 1999 for speaking truth to parents. In 2002, I started organizing teachers like me to prove I wasn’t making this up. I took my case to court and no judge would listen. The media outright told me they didn’t believe me. The ACLU turned every teacher like me down but they did help terrorists. I kept up websites. I wrote books. Still no one with power would listen to me.
I take that back. Maya Angelou sent me a thank you note for my 2008 book which she must have sent to Oprah since Oprah’s researcher called me in 2010 with it in hand. He listened but did nothing.
I’ve had a podcast of five whistleblowing teachers at WhiteChalkCrime.com since 2019. Few have listened. If no one listened to doctors there would be a lot of dead people. Since no one listens to teachers democracy is dying.
Using teacher abuse to ensure that no one respects us or the unions, which they also have under their thumbs helping them keep this secret, is the number one evil act administrations have used to maintain their over-the-top power.
My 2024 book not only explains exactly how a bunch of selfish lowlifes brought America down, but it has a plan that would make education work. I set out to get it to the party that cared about democracy. Now that it’s too late for that, I need you to listen to these whistleblowers who love our country so much they went through hell to save it. Then spread the word that all democracy lovers must help take over school boards by running for them.
School boards are the rooms where this happened. Administrators have made boards their puppets. We must take school boards away from these greedy people. They’re not rich like Elon, but they’re as evil and the boards are within your reach.
If you can muster up enough respect for a teacher to listen to me, this country still has a chance. Read the Amazon reviews of my book, A Graver Danger. So many reviewers agree this needs to be known. Better yet, read my book since it takes you inside our schools.
I taught at an assumed top school that won awards before and after me as if truth never mattered. People are clueless about this the way that they were clueless about Harvey Weinstein for decades.
I made the ebook inexpensive so people could read it, and anyone can contact me and ask for a free pdf. This is not about money for me. My work since 1995 has cost me money. This is about my love of democracy.
Education is the missing link that broke America. It’s the leak in democracy’s boat. But almost everyone finds education a non starter. Once people get into it with the help of an insider, they will know exactly how Trump happened and why the plan to get on school boards will work brilliantly.
We must swarm this arena and repopulate our schools with called-to-teach teachers and end school shootings. Who will oppose ending school shootings? We must replace celebrity worship with an admiration for substance - what our schools used to teach.
We must get leaders looking into this and get young and old people on these boards - with or without children in these districts. We can permanently hide the marker.
Thank you, Melissa, for all you bring to bear.