Less than a full day before the murder of a 37-year old Minneapolis ICU nurse at the hands of ICE, thousands of New Yorkers were out on the street rallying and marching in support of removing ICE from Minneapolis, in solidarity with the unions, workers and businesses that walked out and shut down the city on January 23rd under the banner, “ICE OUT FOR GOOD National Day of Solidarity.”
They unified in horror and outrage after the murder of 37-year old mother and activist Renee Good, but mere hours later, there was yet another, as 37-year old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, acting as a monitor and assisting a woman assaulted by ICE, was also brutally murdered even after he was thrown down by half dozen agents, in a volley of bullets at close range, in the back of his head. It looked more like an execution than a “law enforcement action.” Because that is what it was. The feds immediately blocked out medical aid and state investigators, and had to be mandated by a judge not to destroy evidence.
Organized by DSA, Hands Off NYC, the NY Immigration Coalition, 1199SEIU, Make the Road NY, UFT, New York Working Families Party, Rise and Resist, DC37, Indivisible NYC, and dozens of partners, the protesters numbering the thousands were representative of every race, ethnicity, and age group – a reflection of New York City.
They spoke out against rising fascism and to pressure corporations, including Target, Amazon, Home Depot, and Palantir, “to stop collaborating with would-be authoritarians and instead stand up for our communities.”
“Every week sees a new escalation — they are arresting children and local movement leaders in Minneapolis! It’s vital that we stand together and speak out against these attacks on our rights and our people.”
“Silence is too costly,” declared one of the faithleaders. “They are killing our neighbors, our souls…March for justice. Enough is enough.”
“No more family detentions, detentions for profit. Reject cruelty of greed. We want justice now. Abolish ICE,” another said.
Gathering in front of a statue of George Washington, they decried a wannbe king and a society where lives are cheap but property sacred.”Stand up against the most sinister enemy.”
A Hands Off Coalition leader, a teacher and climate organizer and mother of two, said, “We are heart broken at the lawless, violence ICE assaults, who murdered a mother in cold blood, raid schools and day care centers, tear gas protesters, separate children from parents, detain a five year old in the cold.” And not just in Minneapolis, but in New York City. “These innocent children will never be the same. This regime is waging war on families, cutting funding for food, education, health care, violating the environment” for the benefit of corporate greed of Amazon, Palantir, and Home Depot.
Palantir is particularly singled out as an accomplice to the violence, using its super-duper AI data collection and spying technology at hospitals, schools, transportation systems it sells to government to target immigrants and activists, so ICE can kidnap, corporations can replace workers with machines, and governments can bomb and Peter Thiel and Alex Karp can make more money in one week, propping up the dictator wannabe Trump, than the average worker earns in a lifetime of toil.
“I refuse to live in a country where the feds terrorize, families are torn apart.,” Brendan Griffith, President of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, told the crowd. “Stand together. An attack on one is an attack on all… NYC stands with Minnesota. Nearly 50 percent of NYC workers are immigrants. NYC is a union town. We want a country where workers can move through their lives with dignity.
Another speaker equated what is happening as tantamount to the Fugitive Slave Act. “No Slave Patrol 2.0, profiting off rounding up people based on the color of their skin. This isn’t about citizenship. It’s about creating a white ethno state.”
They implored every level of New York government to stand up for immigrants, defend our people.
One of the striking NYC nurses urged the state government to keep our immigrant patients safe, refuse to collaborate, and protect the immigrants who are the medical and health care providers. One fourth of New York’s healthcare workforce are immigrants. “Our staff fears ICE.”
They are advocating for the state to pass the New York for All Act (S2235/A3506), proposed state legislation restricting cooperation between local/state law enforcement and federal immigration authorities (ICE/CBP). It would prohibit local agencies from inquiring about immigration status, sharing sensitive information with federal agents, or facilitating detentions, aiming to protect immigrant communities – in other words expanding the Sanctuary City to the state.
Trump has used sanctuary cities and states to justify withholding federal funding in the billions.
The acceleration of violence and lawlessness by federal agents, hyped up by Trump aide Stephen Miller, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Greg Bovino who commands the enforcers to believe they are above all law and can disregard civil rights with impunity, has prompted Senators, Congressmen and Governors to lash out (but not until after the House, helped with seven Democratic votes, passed increasing funding for ICE, hopefully prompting Senate Democrats to take a stand).
Governor Kathy Hochul, who has sued the Trump administration for withholding billions of dollars in appropriated funds to New York to extort support for his mass deportation policies, came out forcefully against ICE, after the latest horrific killing of Alex Pretti,and called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who repeatedly lies and covers up her agency’s criminality, to resign.
“Videos don’t lie. And don’t stop believing what your eyes tell you,” Governor Hochul declared. “Their cruelty, these instances, what is going on and unfolding in streets of America today shocks the conscience of every human being with a heart.
“When federal agents use lethal force against civilians and then prevent state authorities from fully investigating, it violates the basic principles of a democracy. What it does is makes everyone feel unsafe — everyone. Nationwide over the last 13 months, ICE has detained hundreds of U.S. citizens, and dozens of people have died in their custody.
“Now, Donald Trump’s handpicked leader of the Department of Homeland Security has proven to be unable and unwilling to follow the law to stop these killings. Kristi Noem has referred to these peaceful protesters as “domestic terrorists” and lied about the shooting victims being the aggressors. She told law enforcement officers to put on masks and military fatigues to basically treat the American public as the enemy.
“[Noem] has shown a profound disregard for human life and created a culture where people feel unrestrained in how they’re handling encounters with the people in this country. Kristi Noem has forfeited her right to lead, and I’m calling on her to resign as Secretary of Homeland Security or Donald Trump to do the right thing and just fire her. And if not, she must be removed or impeached. And Gregory Bovino — who has helped lead, and defend and escalate these operations — should also be fired.
“It’s a shame I have to say this in America, but no one is above the law. No one, not an ICE agent, not a federal officer, not the President of the United States. And make no mistake, when these people who have abused the power entrusted to them by their offices are finally out of power, states, including New York, will hold them accountable.”
WASHINGTON—The Century Foundation and Nate Schenkkan, Freedom House’s former director of research, announced the development of a new democracy index, United States Democracy Meter, which finds that the U.S. government under Trump in 2025 “slid well into authoritarianism.” While other established indices have previously found the United States to be gradually declining over the past twenty years, no measure has yet tracked the historic collapse of U.S. democracy on the scale we’ve seen in the last 12 months.
Based on in-depth analyses of the health of state institutions, non-state sectors, individual rights and elections, Century’s Democracy Meter scored the U.S. at a 57 out of 100 this year, down from 79 in 2024—an astonishing 28 percent drop in just one year, a decline so large that it’s typically only seen when countries have coups, our researchers say. To put this in context, our analysis suggests U.S. democracy is at greater risk than at any time since Watergate, and it may even be approaching its pre-Civil Rights Movement lowpoint.
“It’s no secret to anyone watching the world around them that America is suffering from a surge in authoritarianism,” said Nate Schenkkan, the report’s lead author. “But seeing it all laid out—especially against the backdrop of what’s happened in 2026 so far—is staggering and should force everyone to think about how seriously we take preserving and restoring our democracy.”
“Our democracy is not self-executing. Failing to vigorously defend and improve it only sows the ground for authoritarian movements and actors,”said Thanassis Cambanis, Director of Century International and coauthor of the report. “While it’s clear that authoritarianism has taken hold in America, we are not without recourse through elections and mass mobilization.”
The report reveals that the core problem for the United States is the expansion of the executive branch’s powers, aided by a Republican-controlled Congress’s acquiescence and abetted by a highly ideologically aligned Supreme Court. More than half of America’s overall drop in score was in the evaluation of the category “state institutions,” which covers the executive branch, Congress, the judiciary, and grand corruption. This category fell from 22/30 points to 10/30.
The only category that did not have a decline was elections, with the score holding at 12/15 both years, as the lack of federal authority over election administration has so far prevented the Trump administration from changing the rules of the game. Elections can still be a means of contesting and changing power.
“American democracy is at greater risk than at any time since Watergate, and it may even be approaching its pre-Civil Rights Movement lowpoint.
“The U.S. government has become authoritarian in its intentions and its practices, even if it cannot always achieve its authoritarian goals.”
Alarming but Not Irreversible
“The swift decline of U.S. democracy this year is alarming. It is the result of choices by the right wing of American politics, which is committed to transforming the state from the inside out, and complacency, particularly from elite institutions, about the risk of authoritarianism. Importantly, however, the right wing has not yet succeeded in consolidating an authoritarian system. The United States’ size and diversity, tradition of independent civil society, its wealth, and its decentralized electoral system all make it difficult to keep power.
“The typical post-World War II democracies to which the United States is most often compared—Canada, Japan, and those in Europe—have not had these sorts of democratic declines. Other less healthy democracies have experienced similar collapses, but only after coups, attempted coups, or major shocks. The democratic decline in the United States over the last year is remarkable in modern history.
“The first priority for action is to defend the areas that are still robust, and will be needed for democracy to make a comeback. Media, civil society, and the protection of individual rights are essential to halting and then reversing democratic decline. For the opposition to have a chance of winning power, the electoral system needs to be sustained. These institutions need to be protected through legal campaigns, but also through protests, donations, and individual choices.
“The second priority—possible to pursue if there is a change in political power—must be to remedy the gaping structural weaknesses in the U.S. system. The executive’s ability to enact such rapid and extralegal changes in such a short time has been conditional, first and foremost, on the Supreme Court’s highly partisan tilt and the Republican Congress’s abdication of its role. Neither branch has acted to check the executive, and have mostly supported it running roughshod over the law and the constitutional order. When even federal judges are no longer extending to the government the “presumption of regularity,” and are expressing frustration that the Supreme Court operates without clear reasoning, the system is broken.
“Democracy is not self-implementing. Without decisive action to address these issues, it will remain vulnerable to concerted efforts to undermine it. The first responsibility is to defend democracy, and the second one is to rebuild it.”
See the report: https://tcf.org/content/report/centurys-new-democracy-meter-shows-america-took-an-authoritarian-turn-in-2025/
In what can only be considered a kangaroo court intended to trap former President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton in further prosecution (echoing the perjury charge that led to Clinton’s impeachment because, as Senator Lindsey Graham said, “character counts”), the Clinton have refused to testify before the House Oversight Committee. MAGA GOP Chairman James Comer promised to bring charges of contempt of Congress. In a letter to Comer, they lay out why they are resisting this latest act of weaponizing government for retribution and political gain—Karen Rubin, editor@news-photos-features.com
Chairman Comer,
We want to take a moment, given everything, to address you directly.
This past year has seen our Government engage in unprecedented acts, including against our own citizens. People have been seized by masked federal agents from their homes, their workplaces, and the streets of their communities. Students and scientists with visas permitting them to study and work here have been deported without due process. The people who laid siege to the U.S. Capitol have been pardoned and called heroes. Agencies vital to the country’s national security have been dismantled. Universities, media companies, and law firms have been subjected to threats to their funding, access, and licensing unless they made concessions and surrendered their right to constitutionally protected free speech. American troops have been deployed on the streets of our towns and cities. The Justice Department has been used as a weapon, at the direction of the President, to pursue political opponents. And most recently and searingly, an ICE agent killed an unarmed mother only days ago.
Every person has to decide when they have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, its principles and its people, no matter the consequences.
For us, now is that time.
We are lucky by virtue of the positions we held, and the protections afforded by them. But we are not blind. Every day we see the country we have dedicated our lives to improving take step after step after step backwards.
As chairman of this powerful congressional committee, you have immense power to target anyone and subject them to closed door interrogation and more. The decisions you have made, and the priorities you have set as chairman regarding the Epstein investigation, have prevented progress in discovering the facts about the government’s role.
The facts speak for themselves: You subpoenaed eight people in addition to us. You dismissed seven of those eight without any of them saying a single word to you. You made no attempt to force them to appear. In fact, since you started your investigation last year, you have interviewed a total of two people. Two.
A legal analysis prepared by two law firms and provided to you yesterday makes clear your subpoenas are legally invalid. You claim your subpoenas are inviolate when they are used against us yet were silent when the sitting President took the same position, as a former president, barely more than three years ago. We call on you to release that analysis to the public to allow them to see how this is yet another example of the casual disregard of the law of the land. All the while, you have done nothing with your oversight capacity to force the Department of Justice to follow the law and release all its Epstein files, including any material regarding us as we have publicly called for.
Over the last year in the House, extending health care for Americans in any state succeeded only because enough Republicans joined with Democrats. The fact that the public and we are seeing any of the Department of Justice’s Epstein files is only because four Republicans, out of 220, joined every Democrat to reach the minimum number of Members to force a vote. You were not one of those four. Even now, despite the Department of Justice’s failure to follow the law the Congress passed, you have chosen not to consider subpoenaing the sitting Attorney General to follow the law.
Despite everything that needs to be done to help our country, you are on the cusp of bringing Congress to a halt to pursue a rarely used process literally designed to result in our imprisonment. This is not the way out of America’s ills, and we will forcefully defend ourselves.
Indeed, bringing the Republicans’ cruel agenda to a standstill while you work harder to pass a contempt charge against us than you have done on your investigation this past year would be our contribution to fighting the madness.
We have tried to give you the little information we have. We’ve done so because Mr. Epstein’s crimes were horrific. If the Government didn’t do all it could to investigate and prosecute these crimes, for whatever reason, that should be the focus of your work – to learn why and to prevent that from happening ever again. There is no evidence that you are doing so. Instead, you have forced the victims to relive their painful experiences, while doing little to give them and everybody else what’s deserved: truth and justice. There is no plausible explanation for what you are doing other than partisan politics.
You accepted the least from those who know the most but demand the most from those who know the least. To say you can’t complete your work without speaking to us is simply bizarre.
You have asked what we know. To answer your inquiry, we are providing you with the same or more than seven of the other eight individuals you subpoenaed regarding the handling of the Epstein investigations and prosecutions, which may be why you have not publicly released their written statements.
We expect you will say it is not enough. We expect you’ll reject it. You may even set out an empty chair or stand in front of the cameras and outright dismiss what we have provided. We expect you will direct your committee to seek to hold us in contempt. You may even release irrelevant, decades-old photos that you hope will embarrass us. You will say your caucus, and the Speaker and the President are behind you 100%. We hope, perhaps in vain, that they will not allow you to singlehandedly hijack the Congress by unilaterally making this decision for your colleagues, your party, and our country.
You will say it is not our decision to make. But we have made it. Now you have to make yours.
We are prepared to make our case to your 45 committee members, and if need be, more. Importantly, we also will defend ourselves in the public arena and ensure this country knows exactly what you are doing and why you are doing so, instead of helping the American people who need this Congress’s work and protection.
For most people, maybe even the bulk of the Congress, today will be the first they learn of this dispute. We are confident that any reasonable person in or out of Congress will see, based on everything we release, that what you are doing is trying to punish those who you see as your enemies and to protect those you think are your friends.
Continue to mislead Americans about what is truly at stake, and you will learn that Americans are better at finding the truth than you are at burying it.
Continue to pursue autopens instead of penning laws Americans need, and you will learn that you are signing away any remaining chance of being on the right side of history.
Continue to abet the dismantling of America, and you will learn that it takes more than a wrecking ball to demolish what Americans have built over 250 years.
Sincerely,
Bill Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Later, a spokesperson for the Clintons added:
You probably don’t know this because James Comer doesn’t want you to. President and Secretary Clinton swore to the truth under penalty of perjury. James Comer hasn’t told you that and has instead resorted to lying in every appearance he’s made this week.
We are fighting back with facts and accountability.
He is lying with impunity.
FACT: Bill & Hillary Clinton took the extraordinary step of – without being asked – each submitting comprehensive statements to Jim Comer directly in two documents. Each was a sworn legal document listing everything they have to offer. Read what the Clintons said. It’s a lot. And when Comer says it’s not enough, he won’t admit he was given the opportunity to tell us what else he wanted.
TRUTH: Below is what the Democrats on the Committee said today. It’s all worth reading – but the most important part is in bold. The Clintons have provided sworn legal statements (attached), going above and beyond what others Comer excused have done. You can see for yourselves how comprehensive they are, how little the Clintons know, and why there is absolutely no reason for them to appear. We have, from the beginning, over and over, approached this process in a good faith and truthful manner and will continue to do so, no matter the transparent game he is playing.
If you’d like to see any of the letters we’ve sent to Comer, or the sworn declarations provided by the other individuals he’s excused, we’re happy to share those as well. As a comparison, you can see how much more we provided.
Statement read into the record today by Oversight Committee Democrats.
Committee Democrats support cooperation with the Committee and believe that anyone with firsthand knowledge of the crimes of Epstein and Maxwell, or the actions of their co-conspirators, should come forward and provide that information to the Committee. That commitment flows directly from Oversight Democrats’ determination to pursue the truth about the horrific crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell—no matter where the facts lead.
With today’s proceeding, the Majority has relentlessly pursued Secretary Clinton, yet the Majority has taken no steps to enforce the duly issued, bipartisan subpoena for the release of the full Epstein files in the possession of the Department of Justice. Nor has the Majority moved to compel numerous other witnesses with firsthand knowledge of Epstein’s criminal enterprise—including Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell—to appear before this Committee.
Adding to these concerns is President Trump’s direction to his Attorney General, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation—via a Truth Social post—to initiate a criminal investigation into prominent Democrats, including President Clinton, to distract from his own close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. And President Trump likewise has, for years, famously and repeatedly demanded that DOJ investigate and prosecute Secretary Clinton.
President Trump’s targeting of the Clintons is part of a continuing pattern in which President Trump has weaponized the Department of Justice against his perceived political enemies, including, among others, former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and most recently, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
Against that backdrop, Oversight Democrats have grave concerns about the President’s publicly stated expectation that DOJ and the FBI will incriminate leaders of the opposition party, as well as the President’s demonstrated willingness to use the nation’s law enforcement agencies to distract from his own lengthy relationship and interaction with Epstein.
Finally, yesterday the Committee received factual declarations from former President Clinton and Secretary Clinton regarding their interactions with Jeffrey Epstein. I am entering those declarations, both dated January 13, 2026, together as Exhibit A.
Committee Democrats reaffirm that this investigation is not political and not partisan. Its purpose is truth and justice for the victims and survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes.
Berlin – Freedom is in retreat worldwide. Have pluralism, freedom and democracy had their day? What role do economics, technology and the media play? How do we defend freedom? Berlin, a city that stands for freedom and the overcoming of dictatorship like no other, is hosting the Berlin Freedom Conference, 10 November 2025, Gasometer (EUREF Campus) to address these difficult issues.
The event is open to the public. Tickets are available from 19 euros.
The more than 60 international speakers include Masih Alinejad (Iranian women’s rights activist and president of the World Liberty Congress), Garry Kasparov (world chess champion, Chairperson of the Renew Democracy Foundation and outspoken critic of Putin), Leopoldo López (Venezuelan opposition leader and co-founder of the World Liberty Congress), Oleksandra Matviichuk and María Corina Machado (both Nobel Peace Prize laureates, with Machado joining virtually), the legitimate President of Venezuela, Edmundo González Urrutia and Audrey Tang (Taiwan’s digital ambassador), winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize.
German politicians participating include Bundestag President Julia Klöckner and Education Minister Karin Prien. The patron is the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner. Evelyn Zupke (former civil rights activist and SED victims’ commissioner at the German Bundestag) will open the conference by drawing parallels between today’s struggle for freedom and democracy and Berlin’s historical legacy, the peaceful revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall. For 1989 showed that democratic change is possible and walls can come down – even those of today.
Important voices for freedom and democracy
Other international guests at the Berlin Freedom Conference include Prof. Dr. Michael Hüther (Director of the German Economic Institute), Larry Diamond (Professor at Stanford University) and Annie Boyajian (President of Freedom House). Lithuanian politician Mantas Adomėnas represents the Community of Democracies as its Secretary General.
International human rights lawyers Brandon Silver and Irwin Cotler (former Minister of Justice of Canada) will speak about supporting political prisoners.
The role of business and global cooperation will be discussed by Mariana Oleskiv (European Affairs Advisor to the World Travel and Tourism Council), Franziska Giffey (Berlin Senator for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises) and Ulrich Reuter (President of the German Savings Banks and Giro Association), among others.
Speaking in defence are Ben Hodges (former Commanding General of the US Army in Europe), Damon Wilson (President of the National Endowment for Democracy) and Major Philipp Wolf (German-French Corps).
Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s cyber ambassador, first minister for digital affairs and winner of the alternative Nobel Prize, the Right Livelihood Award, and Lieutenant Yulia Mykytenko of the Ukrainian Army will speak about the connection between freedom and technology, media and artificial intelligence. Other guests include Ahmad Ahmadian (President of Holistic Resilience) and Hannah Neumann (Member of the European Parliament).
The significance of art for freedom is discussed by Chinese exile artist Badiucao and American journalist and author Melissa Chan.
A stage for 5-minute ideas: courage meets practice
Another special feature of the Berlin Freedom Conference programme is the “Ignite Talks” format: on stage, personalities from various fields present their “Freedom Ideas” – new perspectives, initiatives and practical solutions – in five-minute, concise short presentations. The format underlines the conference’s claim to not only discuss freedom, but to actively shape it.
Berlin as a stage for freedom
The Berlin Freedom Conference is part of Berlin Freedom Week, which begins on 8 November and features more than 130 events at over 80 locations throughout the city, bringing freedom to life in both the past and the present. The initiative stems from the World Liberty Congress, whose two-day general assembly will take place on 8 and 9 November in Berlin’s House of Representatives. Around 200 dissidents and democracy activists from over 50 autocratically ruled countries will gather there. In doing so, the city is sending a strong signal to the world: those who are oppressed and persecuted elsewhere will find a parliament in Berlin.
Initiators, media partners and sponsors
The patron of the Berlin Freedom Conference is Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner. The Berlin Freedom Conference is a joint initiative of visitBerlin, the Axel Springer Freedom Foundation and the World Liberty Congress, the largest global democracy alliance with more than 200 dissidents from over 50 autocratically ruled countries around the world.
The Berlin Freedom Conference is sponsored by the LOTTO Foundation Berlin, with Airbnb and Berliner Sparkasse as sponsoring partners. The media partners are Die Zeit, Politico, radio3, Tagesspiegel, Wall GmbH and Welt. Details and the programme can be found at berlin-freedom-conference.com and berlin-freedom-week.com; Instagram: @berlinfreedomconference and @berlinfreedomweek.
Berlin Freedom Conference The Berlin Freedom Conference will take place for the first time on 10 November 2025 at the Gasometer Schöneberg. It will bring together leading voices from politics, business, civil society, culture, and the media to launch new democratic alliances and powerfully advance the global commitment to freedom and democracy. More information and tickets at berlin-freedom-conference.com.
Berlin Freedom Week
Berlin Freedom Week (8–15 November 2025) is a new event week that focuses on the idea of freedom. With a diverse programme of conferences, art, culture and public dialogue, it aims to inspire Berliners and international guests and promote exchange on the importance of democratic values in today’s world. berlin-freedom-week.com and visitBerlin.de/de/berlin-freedom-week
World Liberty Congress
The World Liberty Congress is the largest global democracy alliance, with more than 200 dissidents from more than 50 autocratically ruled countries around the world. It will take place on 8 and 9 November in the Berlin House of Representatives. Its goal is to support the fight for freedom in autocratic regimes, promote international solidarity and develop a common strategy for the advancement of democracy. worldlibertycongress.org
Axel Springer Freedom Foundation
The Axel Springer Freedom Foundation is a non-profit organisation that supports human rights defenders from countries where freedom is restricted. Defending freedom and democracy and showing solidarity with those who live and suffer under authoritarian rule were always guiding principles for our company founder Axel Springer, and the Axel Springer Freedom Foundation is continuing his legacy with renewed determination. Supported by a strong advisory board of experienced human rights defenders, the Axel Springer Freedom Foundation organises events, installations and publications. It also collects donations to directly support the work of dissidents and their organisations. freedom.axelspringer.com
visitBerlin “Inspiring the world for Berlin.” With this mission, Berlin Tourismus & Kongress GmbH promotes Berlin’s destination management as well as the city’s tourism and congress marketing. Under the visitBerlin brand, the company is a partner, actor, source of creative ideas, and networker. Its remit is focused on sustainable product development and marketing city-compatible tourism services in all twelve Berlin boroughs with the aim of maintaining the life quality of local residents and harmoniously increasing experience value for visitors. As a tour operator, visitBerlin also issues the Berlin WelcomeCard, the city’s official tourist ticket. The company also operates the Berlin Tourist Info Centres and the Berlin Service Center advice line on +49-30-25 00 25. On visitBerlin.de, Berlin’s official tourism website, visitors can find all the information they need on every aspect of their trip to the city. Find out more about visitBerlin on about.visitBerlin.de
New York City, one of several anchor protests among some 2700 “No Kings” protests and rallies nationwide, drew an estimated 350,000, stretching three miles down 7th Avenue. In all, some 7 million participated in what is considered the largest peacetime protest against a sitting president in history.
They represented the diversity of everyday New Yorkers and carried signs declaring they are taking back the inalienable rights of Americans. Signs mocked Trump, the Trump Administration and MAGA Republicans who tried to brand the protesters as “un-American,”, “unpatriotic” and “antifa” (“Aunt Tifa says No Kings”) with a broad coalition standing perhaps for different interests (science, public education, women’s rights, immigrant rights, due process and law and order, climate and the environment) but all with the same message: they are proudly anti-Fascist, just like 1776 and 1941 and want to reclaim democracy, inalienable rights, the rule of law, “We the People” and “Justice for All.”
They were reacting to armed military in the streets and descending from Blackhawk helicopters in the night; individuals snatched up by masked men wielding assault weapons without warrants but based on what they looked like, wore or where they lived or worked; children as young as six handcuffed and taken or left alone on the street; protesters gassed and violently assaulted for exercising their freedoms. They were reacting to billions of dollars and tens of thousands of federal workers slashed from healthcare, public education, research, environment and infrastructure to give billionaires tax credits and fund the emerging police/military state. They were reacting to malicious prosecutions of political opponents, charges against fund-raising groups of financing terrorism, labeling Democrats, liberals and progressives as “terrorists.” They were standing up to protect their “inalienable rights” of free speech, free press, to protest and assemble, and most significantly, the right to vote. They were standing up for “We the People” and “justice for all” just as the founding documents promised.
What was striking is that these were ordinary, everyday people. Families with their young children, young, middle-aged and old, every race and ethnicity.
There was good cheer, good humor, clever signs and costumes! Many reflected the desire for America to return to a place of kindness, compassion, empathy (“Make America America Again”) and the marchers manifested that with their own kindness, civility, compassion for each other.
Meanwhile (as MSNBC reported), it was “business as usual” for Trump – going to his Mar-a-Lago estate (where he illegally stored stolen classified documents), fundraising and playing golf, as he reveled in the hardship, suffering of others by keeping the government shut down and uses it as an opportunity to attack Democrats and kill “Democrat programs” – you know, things like healthcare, public education, clean energy, violence prevention, counter-terrorism, cancer research, climate change mitigation and disaster aid.
Trump is also cutting billions of dollars in previously allocated funding for infrastructure projects in Blue states and cities (including the $18 billion Hudson Gateway Tunnel) and on Friday, cancelled $11 billion more projects in New York City, Baltimore, San Francisco and Boston, prompting many in the Blue “donor” states (which send more tax dollars to Washington than they get back in federal funding) to start talking about withholding federal tax money, since Trump is weaponizing Democrats’ tax money against them. (His attempt to withhold funding for counter-terrorism in NYC was stalled by a court but Trump feels he has an ace in the hole with his Imperial Supremes.)
There was also a sense of urgency to take back rule of law, due process, and democracy before they are lost altogether. People worry that Trump is already rigging the midterms and will only build on what he tried to do on January 6, 2021 to keep power (why else is he building a $250 million ballroom at the White House, paving over the Rose Garden, building arches in Washington DC, and spending $1 billion to retrofit the Qatari Air Force 1?). But there is also the urgency of now because so much of the damage has already been done – to our world standing, to our economic power, to peoples’ livelihoods and lives, to our leadership in technology and innovation as the US faces the kind of brain drain that Germany experienced with the rise of Nazism.
As if to prove the point, Trump put an exclamation mark on it by his latest demonstration of pardoning criminals who support him and prosecuting and persecuting anyone who opposes him, criticizes him, or dares to prosecute his criminality and abuse of power. He had just freed the fraudster George Santos (forgiving the $350,000 in restitution Santos owed his victims) and bombed yet another vessel in Caribbean waters, continuing to extra-judicially assassinate people he claims are “narco-terrorists” without evidence, yet sent back two survivors to their home countries (so not really drug traffickers?), and gleefully declares that fishermen are now too afraid to put their boats in the water. And as his tariffs bankrupt American soybean farmers and his Big Beautiful cuts to healthcare cause health insurance premiums to double and triple, causing millions to lose their healthcare altogether, he is doling out $40 billion to Argentina to prop up its corrupt president, spending $172 million on private luxury jets for Kristi Noem, and millions to gild the White House and hold a vanity military parade.
Americans are worried that Trump’s militarization of the streets is aimed at provoking violent response to give him the excuse he craves to invoke the Insurrection Act and unleash martial law to intimidate people from going to the polls in the midterms so that Republicans keep control of the House and Senate. Actor and activist Robert DeNiro, a major supporter of the No Kings protest, said on MSNBC these massive No Kings protests, showing solidarity and community, are meant to make people feel comfortable, empowered and determined to exercise their right to vote.
The question remains what Trump’s enablers, the Congressional Republicans, see. Do they even care about voters or do they have confidence the elections are sufficiently rigged? They clearly don’t care about their constituents who are suffering because of their complicity in Trump’s unconstitutional abuse of power, from his illegal tariffs that are tanking the economy and inflating prices, to sending military to fire upon Americans in their communities, to firing federal workers, to cancelling billions of dollars of their own Congressionally appropriated funding to Democratic states, cities and universities, to his rampant, corrupt pay-to-play deal making, to the malicious, vindictive prosecution of his enemies, obstruction of justice and evisceration of due process and the rule of law.
We know what the dictator wannabe Trump sees. He proudly posted images of himself and Vance wearing crowns and Jeffries and Schumer wearing sombreros (which should show Latinos who elected him in 2024 how he disrespects them), and when the New York Times asked for his comment, White House spokesman Abigail Jackson responded in an email, “Who cares.”
That’s the statement of someone who doesn’t care about votes, or elections, or courts because he believes he is all-powerful. It’s the “Whadya gonna do ‘bout it” principle of governance. As he told Christians in the 2024 campaign just vote for him once more and “you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote” and warmly embraced Chief Justice Roberts at the State of the Union, telling him “I won’t forget.”
Trump’s authoritarianism should come as no surprise, though. In the 2024 campaign, Trump said he wanted to tear up the Constitution and be a dictator on Day 1.
Trump and the MAGA Republicans have demonstrated that their interest is ruling, not governing and they seem quite comfortable in believing they will be able to suppress the vote and control elections (and the vote count) enough to maintain control (gerrymandering to eliminate Democratic districts, instituting stringent ID requirements, tampering with mail-in voting, making polling places less accessible, and now, the major electronic voting machine company, Dominion, has been taken over by a Republican operative, so like all their accusations, “They are rigging the election” is a confession.)
Nationwide, organizers (some 200 groups led by Indivisible, Moveon, 50501) estimated a 7 million (topping the 5 million of the June event) in 2700 cities, towns and villages across all 50 states, making it the largest peacetime protest in history. Rallies were also held in other countries.
“Today, millions of Americans stood together to reject authoritarianism and remind the world that our democracy belongs to the people, not to one man’s ambition,” Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, co-founders of Indivisible, which helped organize the event, said in a statement.
Notably, the New York Police Department reported zero arrests.
On Labor Day, Trump boasted of having fired 84,000 “bureaucrats” – you know, those dedicated public servants and experts who actually deliver government services to We the People. He didn’t mention the tens of thousands fired from the Veterans Administration or the Social Security Administration, or the 318,000 black women who were purged from their jobs because of Trump’s Executive Order declaring DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) illegal. He didn’t mention signing a new Executive Order firing people from Patent Office, NASA and the National Weather Service, or the tens of thousands already fired with the lie “for cause” by Musk’s DOGE bros, or the $2.1 billion he spent paying people not to work.
In effect, besides effectively shutting government down, Trump has violated existing labor law, Civil Service Act – but he doesn’t care.
But what hundreds of thousands of Democrats and anti-Trumper “No Kings”/”Hands-Off” activists who gathered at hundreds of “Workers Against Billionaires” rallies across the country on Labor Day, including hundreds at Nassau County’s Executive Building, wondered was how in hell Trump and the MAGA Republicans con workers to believe Trump or MAGA are “populists” who give a crap about them.
“A vote for a Republican is a vote against labor,” declared Claudia Borecky, President Bellmore-Merrick Democratic Club, principal organizer of the rally. “Trump fired 149,000 government workers, which wound up costing us $2.1 billion because he wound up paying people not to come into work. Are Republicans fighting to save jobs?
“A vote for a Republican is a vote against small business. The illegal tariffs impact small businesses most of all. The Walmarts can absorb some of Trump’s import tax. Small businesses cannot. Nearly one quarter of small businesses say the tariffs will put them out of business. Millions of people will lose their jobs. Are Republicans fighting to help small businesses?
“A vote for a Republican is a vote for billionaires. The Republican Big Bad Bill should be called the ‘Billionaire Benefit Bill’. It takes healthcare away from 10 million Americans. It literally takes food out of the mouths of millions of children so that it could give billionaires an even bigger tax cut. Are Republicans helping working families put food on their tables?
“A vote for a Republican is a vote to raise our taxes. To give a tax break to billionaires, Trump is taxing us for everything we buy. The tariffs are the largest tax hike in U.S. history. Who’s paying for these tariffs?
“A vote for a Republican is a vote to raise our taxes right here at home. Does anyone think Governor Hochul is going to let New Yorkers die in the street? Does anyone think Governor Hochul is going to let New York children go hungry? Of course, not. The loss of federal funds for Medicaid will cause state taxes to go up. The loss of federal funds for Medicaid will cause our county taxes to go up. The loss of federal funds for Medicaid will cause Nassau’s only public hospital to close its doors.
“Crickets from Blakeman. Does anyone see Republicans fighting for us?
“A vote for a Republican is a vote for corruption. And where better to find the most corrupt Republicans, but right here on Long Island,” she said, reminding the gathered that Congressman Anthony D’Esposito lost his reelection to Democrat Laura Gillen after he was accused of labor violations for hiring his lover and his fiancée’s daughter and had been sued for civil rights violations when he was a cop. But what does Trump – ever on the lookout for the most incompetent, corrupt people he can find to install in government – made D’Esposito Inspector General of the Department of Labor. No surprise that D’Esposito says nothing about Trump firing people he’s not allowed to fire and ignores all civil rights violations that come against this administration.
“Trump – the man who made his reputation from saying ‘You’re Fired’, now has a dictator-like banner with his face on it hanging in the front of the Dept. of Labor building. Trump’s expression basically says, ‘If you don’t do as I say, you’re fired.’ Well, it’s time we tell Trump, ‘You’re Fired!’”
She pointed to another Long Island Republican, Lee Zeldin, who Trump appointed to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. “He kisses the ring and cancels all wind and solar incentives. They just cancelled a wind project off Rhode Island that was 80% complete. Now thousands of people will lose their jobs. And how many solar panel businesses on Long Island will go under? How many Long Islanders in that industry will lose their jobs?”
She attacked County Executive Bruce Blakeman for forming his own private militia, noting that Trump followed suit. Then Trump created his own militia, spending $170 billion to hire an army of ICE officers. To appease Trump, Blakeman federalized Nassau County detectives and made them ICE officers.
“The only difference is that no one knows how much Blakeman’s militia is costing us. No one knows whether taking trained detectives off our streets is keeping us safe. Trump and Blakeman are following the Republican playbook. A book written by Long Island Republicans. Both are spending working families’ dollars on policies that make us less safe. And of course, both Trump and Blakeman are trying to normalize pay-to-play governments that line the pockets of family and friends,” Borecky stated.
Trump appointed Lee Zeldin, former long Island Congressman, to head the Environmental Protection Agency, who is repealing the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, removing greenhouse gases from requiring regulation, and cancelling wind and solar projects funded under Biden’s Inflation Reduction and Infrastructure acts – he cancelled Rhode Island’s offshore wind farm though it was 80% complete, causing thousands to lose jobs, and is cancelling Long Island’s wind projects, which will cost tens of thousands of jobs.
On that point, Governor Kathy Hochul, with Governors Maura Healey, Ned Lamont, Dan McKee and Phil Murphy issued a joint statement:
“We are looking for the Trump Administration to uphold all offshore wind permits already granted and allow these projects to be constructed. Efforts to walk back these commitments jeopardize hardworking families, wasting years of progress and ceding leadership to foreign competitors. Workers, businesses, and communities need certainty, not reversals that would cost tens of thousands of American jobs and critical investment. Sudden reversals would also impact countless other workers and taxpayers on scores of non-energy public projects. The U.S. markets operate on certainty. Canceling projects that have already been fully permitted–including some near completion—sends the worrisome message to investors that the work can be stopped on a whim, which could lead them to decide to either not finance different projects or impose higher interest rates that would ultimately place a bigger burden on taxpayers.”
The $1 trillion cut from Medicaid that Trump and the Republicans made are not only disastrous for the health care system, causing hospitals and clinics to close and tens of thousands of jobs lost, but “tens of thousands will die of preventable deaths,” declared Michael Hellman of SEIU 1199. “It is cruelty over compassion to pay for more tax breaks for the billionaires…We must hold responsible the morally irresponsible leaders who are promoting this corruption.”
Nadia Marin-Molina of the National Organization of Daily Laborers attacked Trump’s mass deportation crusade, snatching people off the street based on racial profiling. “[Nassau County Executive Bruce] Blakeman said he was going after criminals, but most who are deported never get a trial, no evidence is presented. Every person has a constitutional right to due process. These people are being deported with no due process. The real criminals are in the White House. The real criminals are those getting rich by stealing workers’ wages.
“Immigrant rights and rights of all working people regardless of status are linked. If employers think they can have workers deported, and can exploit workers without consequence, will lower standards for all. Immigrant workers are afraid of standing up for wages if fear employers will call ICE and have them deported.”
She pointed to some communities who are creating day laborer “corners” to protect workers. “The Long Island community needs to stand up…Stop local governments like Nassau County from facilitating ICE and campaign of terrorism. Fight for the right of all workers to come home without fear of being kidnapped off the street.”
Dave Denenberg said Trump “believes that if tell a lie often enough, people will believe. But we must combat the lie that Trump is ‘on top of inflation’ – we are paying more for clothing, groceries, everything, while local taxes are up 12%. Mailers attack Hochul, but she’s fighting for us.
Denenberg pointed to Blakeman’s faux attack on New York City’s congestion pricing, long advocated by city environmentalists to reduce pollution while raising funds for public transportation improvements. Blakeman is fighting to take away congestion pricing (as is the Trump administration which threatens to cut back funds), while fighting to protect the illegal surcharges on red light tickets.
Joe Scianablo, candidate for Hempstead Town Supervisor, moaned, “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.” He described himself as a “career public servant” – a marine vet, former police officer, former Queens prosecutor – who is standing with labor, the backbone of our town, our county, our country.
He accused Hempstead government of corruption in doing the bait-and-switch to name a new, unelected supervisor.
“Corruption has no end. It happens in back room where we’re locked out. Political insiders take care of themselves before anyone else. They broke the law and shouldn’t even be in their positions.” The former supervisor resigned (so the party could appoint a replacement wyho would run as an incumbent), and got a no-show job. “They use us as an ATM machine.
“Vote in November for change. This is not Right and Left, this is about right and wrong. This campaign is about people, labor, standing with residents not insiders who raised taxes 12 percent and gave themselves raises. When [ ‘Fibbin Freddie’] says he is a tax cutter, he is lying.”
New York State Assemblyman Chuck Lavine said, “We’re here for labor rights, human rights, women’s rights.” He attacked Trump for “what they have done to American labor – unilaterally stripped collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands. From the Veterans Administration alone, 400,000 workers lost their rights to collective bargaining because of an Executive Order that could affect 1 million federal workers.
Trump “has attacked workers, gutted the Department of Labor with DOGE cuts. He rolled back Labor Department rules issued under Obama and Biden allowing workers to campaign for working conditions; hampered the National Labor Relations Board, firing the head and nominating two corporate-friendlies to steer NLRB away from its mission to support workers.
“Make good trouble,” Lavine said.
Wayne Wink, former town clerk, legislator, councilman and now running for Nassau Comptroller, attacked Blakeman and Comptroller Elaine Phillips who met with the Heritage Foundation (authors of Project 2025), giving their implicit support to the blueprint to cut millions off of health care, women of their reproductive rights, and bust unions from federal workers on down.
“It’s not just Blakeman but the entire ticket. They have all drunk the MAGA Kool-aid.”
He noted that Phillips has not conducted one audit of her Republican-led agencies – not the scandal-ridden and bankrupt Nassau University Medical Center, not the spending for Blakeman’s private militia. “They are spending county money fighting Hochul and fighting ‘We the People’.”
“Complacency has gotten us to where we are today,”Claudia Borecky later commented. “ But a growing number of people are saying ‘No Bleeping Way’. And it will be up to us to literally save democracy.”
Reminder: Election day for county and town officials is in 64 days.
It is depressing to hear the call for economic and social justice mimicking the speeches of the March on Washington 62 years ago during this year’s March on Wall Street, led by Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III – as if the last four years with Joe Biden’s Justice Agenda, indeed, the last 60 years, had never happened.
Some 318,000 Black women lost their jobs in just the last eight months, coinciding with Trump’s ascendancy to a second term in office and his executive orders effectively making Diversity, Inclusion & Equity illegal – or put another way, making discrimination legal and the official government policy. It is Jim Crow not just from the offices of redneck governors and their sheriff’s offices, but from the White House, which as several noted, was built by slaves, as was most of Wall Street.
The March on Wall Street was a response to Donald Trump’s unrelenting attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and brought together a major coalition of civil rights, clergy, and labor leaders. The importance of this demonstration has only grown as the federal government threatens more takeovers of Black-led cities after the unprecedented National Guard deployment in Washington, D.C.
“We march from the African Burial Ground to the heart of the Financial District to remind Donald Trump the power of Black Americans and their dollars,” Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network and organizer of the March on Wall Street stated.
“Donald Trump’s attacks on DEI were only the prelude, as he is now dangling threats to take over American cities led by Black mayors,” said Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President of NAN. “If we leave him unchecked on DEI, if we do not get out and march, if we do not speak up, he will completely erase the freedoms our parents and our grandparents fought, bled, and died for.
Hundreds were expected, but thousands showed up, many driving through the night from far away places like Tennessee, Michigan and Alabama – to register their opposition with their bodies, voices and signs.
The march began at Foley Square which was across from the African burial ground, the largest known resting place of enslaved and freed Africans. Foley Square also stands next to 26 Federal Plaza, where ICE agents have rampantly arrested migrants during appearances before immigration courts. It then proceeded the mile down to the bronze bull – or more accurately, the golden calf, a symbol of the corporate greed and obsession to amass economic power, now equivalent to political power, that has CEOs kowtowing to a convicted fraudster, whose policies, from the Big Bad Bill taking away healthcare and food from those who need it most in order to accomplish the biggest transfer of wealth in history from the middle class to the wealthiest, exacerbating the biggest wealth gap since the Gilded Age, to the tariff policy which is not only pushing up prices and making goods scarce, harming once again, working families the most, it is devolving alliances around the globe, weakening the dollar, to the evisceration of due process and Rule of Law with his cruel and unconstitutional mass deportation to his sending armed military into cities which happen to be majority Black and headed by Black mayors.
“We march from the African Burial Ground to the heart of the Financial District to remind Donald Trump the power of Black Americans and their dollars,” Sharpton stated.
Trump has compared himself to a department store manager and the USA as where the world comes to shop, when the opposite is true – it is Americans who buy the products that come from around the world, Americans who pay the tariffs which are an added, regressive tax, hurting the people most who can least afford it. Trump, the most ignorant as well as corrupt person to ever hold the office of president, also does not understand that consumers drive the US economy, accounting for 70% of GDP. What is more, it is the Black and Brown people who account for $6 trillion dollars – equivalent to the eighth largest country in the world, and if you add in the other groups targeted for non-personhood and “erasure” by Trump, LGBTQ and Asians, that $8 trillion domestic product would make it third largest after the USA and China. That purchasing power could be a weapon to win back the rights stripped away by an administration determined to put power in the hands of an elite (some might say “oligarchy”).
But erasure is what Trump wants – with his revisionist history, his forcing out of people, objects and ideas from museums, universities and schools – so-called “woke” culture – to be replaced with White Christo Fascist Nationalist cultural indoctrination. Even how he has fired the CDC Director for refusing to follow RFK Jr’s insane anti-vax instructions: the Trump White House said every person in government must follow Trump’s “vision” and “policy,” rather than follow facts or their oath to follow the law and protect the Constitution.
Law enforcement has not just been politicized and weaponized – everything from disbanding the civil rights office – but so has health care, education, indeed everything that people rely on to survive, let alone thrive.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion – “DEI” (which Trump shorthands as “woke”) is intended to make up for the centuries of slavery, then discrimination and injustice from access to public education, health care, housing and voting, to equal justice before the law – instead of paying outright reparations. What is the value today of 150 years of “40 acres and a mule” promised to freed slaves after the Civil War? It was CRT (critical race theory), taught in law schools (not public schools) that showed the pattern and the result of systemic discrimination.
But the campaign against DEI – as an excuse to remove Blacks, women, Black women, cut off funding for schools, universities, research, shut down the Civil Rights office within the DoJ and end consent decrees against police brutality and voter suppression, end lawsuits protecting women’s right to emergency health care – are of a piece to transfer wealth and power to a class, instead of working for an equal opportunity to succeed. Add to this Trump’s executive order rescinding cashless bail – under threat of losing millions of federal funding.
It’s of a piece to effectively cancel everything “public” or for the “common good” – from public health and access to health care, public schools, public parks, Pell grants, school lunch, wind farms, environmental protection, clean air and water, consumer protection and product safety.
Within hours after Trump was sworn into his second term, he signed an executive order demanding an end to DEI policies within the federal government. Those have since been followed by:
Revoking Executive Order 11246. Signed by President Johnson nearly 60 years ago, this action required federal contractors to take affirmative action to prevent discrimination and ensure equal employment opportunity for protected groups such as race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
Federal DEI Staff Actions. In tandem with revoking EO 11246, Trump put all federal employees working in DEI on paid leave almost immediately. To comply with Trump’s executive orders, several agencies including the Departments of Defense, Education, Justice, Health and Human Services, as well as NASA, eliminated their DEI and civil rights initiatives and guidance.
Launching the DOJ Against DEI. Trump has used the Department of Justice to wither away at DEI, especially with the Civil Rights Division. Within just the first four months of Trump’s second term, an estimated 70% of the Division’s attorneys had either left or submitted their resignation. That came amid a flurry of memos in February from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who signaled the DOJ would bring civil rights cases against companies that implemented DEI policies.
Banning DEI in AI. In July, Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to not procure large language models with DEI embedded into their programming.
Removing Diversity in Foreign Service. In March, Trump demanded the State Department to scrub the “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility” Core Precept on tenures and promotion, as well as similar actions on Foreign Service recruitment.
Canceling $783 Million in NIH Grants. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court narrowly approved the Trump administration’s canceling of hundreds of millions in National Institutes of Health grants linked to DEI (and yet, RFK Jr. has asserted there are racial differences in “antigens” and has basically advocated a form of eugenics).
Withholding Education Funding. This spring, the Trump administration threatened to cut off federal funding to schools and colleges with DEI programs. A federal judge earlier this month halted that effort, writing that “regulation of speech cannot be done casually.”
Pressuring the Private Sector to Drop DEI. Trump has lost a pressure campaign against Corporate America to follow suit and walk away from its billions of dollars in DEI commitments. That includes a highly scrutinized agreement with the law firm Paul Weiss to water down its DEI policies, while the FCC recently approved an $8 billion between Paramount and Skydance after the entities agreed to not implement any such programs.
Pushing GOP-friendly Redistrictings. Trump has backed the highly criticized redistricting efforts to skew Congressional seats in states like Texas to favor the GOP. Megadonors including Charles Munger Jr., who have supported conservative causes, has supported the fight against a converse effort in California that would see the GOP lose its foothold in the state.
In fact, policies which “lift all boats” are what made the United States the strongest economy in the world – 25% despite being only 5% of the population – the most innovative, the superpower. Think of all the talent and brainpower lost during centuries when women and Blacks were denied entry to education, professional licenses, fair housing, health care. The work of 150 years all undone in a matter of months by a wannabe dictator whose vision is not of a country where each has an equal opportunity to fulfill their full potential, but where the rich and well connected elite to exert power over the rest.
“It’s not illegal to invest in people, and never more necessary. Diversity , equity, inclusion are not illegal,” said Deputy Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is Shaylyn Cochran.
Janet Murguía, President and CEO of UnidosUS, said, “We are marching for economic justice. Civil rights is economic justice… We can’t give in to naysayers who falsely claim changing demographics are bad – Black/Latinos are nearly 50 percent and more than half of population of those under 18. We are the future workers, customers. Spending power is the 3rd largest GDP in the world. Imagine how much more we could contribute to the US economy if we had equal opportunity. By 2030, 40% of all new mortgages will be by Blacks, Latinos and Asians. We can make choices with our spending power. Call out the tariffs, cuts to health care, education, the costly mass deportation that has hurt business and the economy.”
“We will not be erased,” declared Melanie Campbell , president/CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. “We will not go back. We built this country. We are America.”
Ben Crump, prominent attorney who has sought justice for victims of police brutality, declared, “Economic justice is civil rights… Financial freedom helps make all the other freedoms more than just a dream; economic justice makes all the other justices more than a dream; equal opportunity access to capital gives us a better chance at generational wealth.”
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights, countering the lie that DEI is responsible for hiring unqualified people into jobs, declared, “We are the qualified ones, the future of country. We know how to lead, how to create businesses. When people think they can get ahead by putting us down, when they say they are coming for DEI and accessibility, they are coming for us because we are the qualified ones, we lead, we built this country and won’t let anyone take it away.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, declared,, “We are saying to the billionaire class, to Wall Street, you need to be fairer, fight for all of us, not just yourselves – worker tax cut, health care, better jobs with better pay. We need to strengthen, not abandon public education, affordable college, affordable health care, social security. These are not radical ideas, this is what labor fought for in the 1960s.”
Newark NJ Mayor Ras J. Baraka pointed out that DEI policies aimed at leveling a playing field that had been tilted for centuries against people of color and women, was a better, more reasonable solution than demanding reparations for centuries “of slavery, decades for burning down communities and stealing housing. Every mayor should be standing up against the biggest transfer of wealth his history.” People working full time can’t afford child care, health care, decent housing.”
“Economic justice is a civil right,” stated Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League. “In 2025, say no to tariffs that make food, household goods more expensive, for the Big Bad Bill that shifts money to billionaires from cuts to Medicaid and food stamps so we are less healthy and more hungry. Say no to smear campaigns on black women, DEI… DEI is a bridge – it’s about growth, jobs, justice. Stand up against White Nationalism. Stand for DEI.”
Everett Kelley, National President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) who represents 820,000 employees, demanded Trump keep his “hands off our government” – the [illegal] mass firings and retaliation against employees who speak out. (My question: why aren’t people suing for defamation when they claim to fire thousands of people at a time for “poor performance” without evidence?)
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, with 1.4 million members, declared “government workers perform essential services and unions made workplaces safe, the economy fairer, democracy stronger.”
The lawsuit asserts that President Donald Trump illegally exceeded his authority in trying to unilaterally roll back a regulation that protects the rights of civil servants. Trump is trying to make it easier to fire career civil servants in order to appoint loyalists to do his bidding.
AFSCME President Lee Saunders called the Trump administration’s attacks against federal employees “a shameless attempt to politicize the federal workforce by replacing thousands of dedicated, qualified civil servants with political cronies..Our union was born in the fight for a professional, non-partisan civil service, and our communities will pay the price if these anti-union extremists are allowed to undo decades of progress by stripping these workers of their freedoms. Together, we are fighting back.”
He told the demonstrators, “62 years since March on Washington the promise of America is unfulfilled for too many. We are still fighting. If anyone can make good on that check it’s the billionaires on Wall Street,” he said, but Wall Street is compliant in the Trump administration’s ruthless in attack on workers. “Don’t separate civil rights from economic rights.”
More than compliant or even complicit, in actions that evoke China’s brand of “capitalism,” Trump has used extortion – threats of tariffs, bans on trade – to force companies like and Intel to actually give up a percentage of ownership control (10% of Intel) or revenue (15% of Nvidia chip sales to China), and ordering companies to fire their CEOs.
Pointing to the $2 trillion in black purchasing power, the millions of jobs they fill and goods and services they produce, Jennifer Jones Austin, Vice Chair of the Board of the National Action Network (NAN), sent a message to Wall Street in terms they would understand: “Roll over with Trump and risk your profit and returns. Only when all thrive, will business and the nation thrive.”
Arndrea Waters King, who is the wife of Martin Luther King III, said, “This is not a drill – democracy is on fire…. Truth is twisted, lies lifted up, power not to the people but to pursestring; we see erosion of voting rights.” Then she added, “Democracy may be on fire but we the people are the water, rise like a mighty flood and put out the flames of injustice for good.”
Martin Luther King IIII said, “62 years ago, my father on the steps of Lincoln Memorial shared a vision. But in 1963, the check from Treasury for health care, education, came back as ‘insufficient funds.’ Keep moving forward and some day, will realize the dream of Martin Luther King Jr.”
Rev. Al Sharpton, said, “Wall Street, you benefit from Trump, but your benefit days are over…Trump, get ready for the fight of your life. We won’t let you end our democracy for your autocracy.”
Twenty years after the launch of the Clinton Global Initiative, President Clinton has issued a stark Call to Action: “Given the scope of the challenges we face, this year’s CGI meeting will be different – by necessity. We need to redefine how we show up, how we work, and how we find ways to honor our common humanity.” Read President Clinton’s Call to Action here.
President Clinton, Secretary Hillary Clinton, and Dr. Chelsea Clinton will convene global leaders for the 2025 CGI Meeting September 24-25 in New York City to chart out “What’s Next.”
Learn more about this year’s meeting, including working group topics and early participants, at https://clintonglobal.org/2025
If you want to be reminded that there is good in the world, that progress to solve the most intransient problems and existential crises of our time is possible, to hear and learn from the smartest, most successful, most accomplished people on the planet, the place to be is the Clinton Global Initiative. Since its founding in 2005, each session has been like an alternate universe to the dystopia contrived by evil forces digging deeper into society and eroding civilization. –Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
NEW YORK, NY — President Bill Clinton issued a Call to Action to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) community to come together at a re-imagined Annual Meeting this September 24-25 designed to promote collaboration and take action to confront new and worsening challenges on climate, health, the economy, and more.
President Clinton outlined that this year’s meeting will look different than previous years to most effectively confront the challenges of 2025 and lay the groundwork for what’s next:
“The global development community is at an unprecedented crossroads, with growing humanitarian needs, fewer resources, and the landscape changing every day. Given the scope of the challenges we face, this year’s CGI meeting will be different – by necessity. We need to redefine how we show up, how we work, and how we find ways to honor our common humanity. This September, our goal will be to connect dots across issues, expose the consequences, and confront the complicated issues in front of us.”
To tackle these challenges, President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, and Dr. Chelsea Clinton have called together leaders of major charitable foundations, nonprofits, businesses, governments, unions, and more to chart solutions in 2025. More speakers will be announced in the coming weeks; today, CGI announced initial featured participants at the CGI 2025 Annual Meeting:
Heads of State and government leaders including Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda; Prime Minister Philip Davis of The Bahamas; Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, President Vjosa Osmani of Kosovo, and Amy Pope, Director General, International Organization for Migration (IOM);
Business leaders including Priscilla Sims Brown, President and CEO, Amalgamated Bank, Rolando Gonzalez Bunster, Chairman and CEO, InterEnergy Group; Tim Cadogan, CEO, GoFundMe; James Mwangi, Group CEO, Equity Group Holdings; Daniel O’Day, Chairman and CEO, Gilead Sciences; and Bill Ready, CEO, Pinterest;
Philanthropic leaders including Nancy Lindborg, President and CEO, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation; Patricia McIlreavy, President and CEO, Center for Disaster Philanthropy; Binaifer Nowrojee, President, Open Society Foundations; Maribel Pérez Wadsworth, President and CEO, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Karlee Silver, CEO, Grand Challenges Canada; and Darren Walker, President, Ford Foundation;
Nobel Laureates including Denis Mukwege, President and Founder, Panzi Hospital; Maria Ressa, Co-Founder and CEO, Rappler; and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Founder and Chair Emeritus, The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development;
Civil society and multi-lateral organization leaders including Nazanin Ash, CEO, Welcome.US; Ann Lee, Co-Founder and CEO, Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE); Lisha McCormick, CEO, Last Mile Health; Michelle Nunn, President and CEO, CARE USA; and Kennedy Odede, Co-Founder and CEO, Shining Hope for Communities;
Global Activists and Advocates including Suyen Barahona Cuan, Executive Director, Colmena Fund; Ai-jen Poo, President and Executive Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and Caring Across Generations; Liz Shuler, President, AFL–CIO; Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers; and more.
CGI 2025 will have a sharper focus on CGI Working Groups – facilitated, action-focused sessions where leaders will collaborate with mission-aligned organizations to drive real solutions in the areas that matter most and are under the greatest threat. CGI Working Groups at this year’s meeting include:
Climate: scaling investment in transformative climate solutions; group leaders and select participants include Sarah Chandler, Vice President, Environment and Supply Chain Innovation, Apple; Reema Nanavaty, Director, Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA); and Sophia Kianni, Founder, Climate Cardinals;
Democracy and Human Rights: protecting democratic principles and upholding equality and justice; group leaders and select participants include Suyen Barahona Cuan, Executive Director, Colmena Fund; Gary Barker, Founder and CEO, Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice; Mona Sinha, Global Executive Director, Equality Now; and Melanne Verveer, Executive Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace & Security;
Economy: building resilient and inclusive global economic development amid widening inequalities; group leaders and select participants include Chetna Sinha, Founder, Mann Deshi Bank; Priscilla Sims Brown, President and CEO, Amalgamated Bank; John Hope Bryant, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Operation HOPE, Inc.; and Ai-jen Poo, President and Executive Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and Caring Across Generations;
Education: advancing equitable and quality education for all; group leaders and select participants include Marci Alboher, Chief Engagement Officer, CoGenerate; John MacFee, CEO, JED Foundation; and Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers;
Health: safeguarding public health gains and increasing global health equity; group leaders and select participants include Brendan Carr, CEO, Mount Sinai Health System; Tabinda Sarosh, CEO, Pathfinder International; Jeff Sturchio, Chair, Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Lisha McCormick, CEO, Last Mile Health;
Humanitarian Response: building response models to be more resilient, collaborative, and adequately resourced; group leaders and select participants include Rez Gardi, Co-Managing Director, R-SEAT; Patricia McIlreavy, President and CEO, Center for Disaster Philanthropy; Ann Lee, Co-Founder and CEO, Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE); Denis Mukwege, President and Founder, Panzi Hospital; and Charlotte Slente, Secretary General, Danish Refugee Council;
Innovative Finance: building investment opportunities for more flexible, impact-driven funding; group leaders and select participants include Vishal Ghotge, CEO, Kiva; Joan M. Larrea, CEO, Convergence; and Karlee Silver, CEO, Grand Challenges Canada;
Truth and Information: revitalizing information ecosystems to uphold trust, truth, and transparency; group leaders and select participants include Dan Foy, Principal, Gallup; Wame Jallow, Executive Director, MTV Staying Alive Foundation; and Maria Ressa, Co-Founder and CEO, Rappler.
The sessions are designed for strategic collaboration, problem-solving, and the development of new CGI Commitments to Action.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of CGI. At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2005, President Clinton announced that he would be convening the first CGI meeting that September, timed to the U.N. General Assembly, with the requirement that attendees make a commitment to act on a pressing global challenge. Since then, more than 500 million people in more than 180 countries have had their lives improved by more than 4,000 Commitments to Action launched through CGI.
In his letter to the CGI Community, President Clinton wrote:
“The CGI community is built for moments like this. This year marks two decades of our community convening and responding directly to global crises — from the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti; to the U.S. economic downturn in 2009 with the launch of CGI America; to the Ebola outbreaks in 2014, 2015, and 2016; to the Caribbean hurricanes in 2017; to the COVID-19 pandemic; and more. We’ve launched more than 4,100 Commitments that have improved the lives of over 500 million people worldwide.
“We’re drawing on 20 years of lessons, momentum, and partnerships to meet this moment and build what’s next.
“Our programming and our physical space will be designed for action. Our time together will be focused on new working group convenings — sessions where project plans are drafted, commitments are accelerated, and coalitions begin to take root. Every participant will be urged to ask the hard questions, contribute their expertise, and identify paths forward.
“Now is the time to stand up and roll up our sleeves — and do our part to reverse the trend lines and begin charting a brighter future.”
Learn more about this year’s meeting, including working group topics and early participants, at https://clintonglobal.org/2025
Today, the Houston Chronicle published an op-ed by Governor Kathy Hochul outlining her commitment to protecting New Yorkers amidst the redistricting battle happening out in the state of Texas. The Governor discussed how Democrats across the nation must stand up to these brazen attacks to undermine democracy and the sacred practice of voting in the United States. Here is the text:
Up until now, Democrats have treated our political system like it’s still governed by norms, guarded by limits and rooted in fairness. Rules were meant to be followed. It hurts to say it, but that era has come to an end. Since Donald Trump’s rise, Republicans have declared war on the American people. They slashed health care, gutted nutrition programs and stacked the Supreme Court to rip away freedoms we once took for granted. And now, they’re trying to rig the rules of democracy itself.
At President Trump’s direction, Texas state House Republicans are attempting to redraw their congressional maps mid-decade, an aggressive power grab designed to flip as many as five current Democratic seats. They’ve carved up diverse communities in Houston, Dallas and along the border to silence the voters who live there.
What Texas is doing isn’t a clever strategy, it’s political arson — torching our democracy to cling to power. The only viable recourse is to fight fire with fire. This isn’t just a Texas issue. When Republicans rig congressional maps in one state, it weakens representation in every state. Every unfair seat they create tilts Congress further out of balance. If they get away with it now, 2026 will be the first of many stolen elections.
I may be governor of New York, but I will not sit on the sidelines with timid souls and merely watch while Republicans dismantle democracy. That’s not who we are. And that is certainly not the leadership that this moment calls for.
That’s why I was proud to host Texas House Democrats this week. These public servants left the state to follow a legitimate and legal tactic to deny Republicans a quorum and stop this scheme in its tracks. As John Lewis said, sometimes you have to get into good trouble. That’s what they’re doing — and they’re not alone.
Before our meeting in the New York State Capitol, I invited the delegation members to the governor’s residence, a home once occupied by former Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I wanted them to draw strength from his example. He led this nation through some of its darkest days. Like FDR, we know who we’re fighting for and who we’re fighting against.
Because this fight isn’t about maps. It’s about values. Fairness. Freedom. Representation. The very essence of our republic.
In New York, we’ve shown what’s possible when you expand access to the ballot instead of suppressing it. I signed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act in 2022, the strongest law of its kind in the nation. I expanded voter registration and implemented early voting by mail. When Democrats lead, democracy gets stronger.
But we can’t do it alone. That’s why I’m in close touch with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and others working on how states can coordinate legal, legislative and constitutional strategies to fight back. We are also reviewing every legal and legislative option to redraw our own maps in New York. If Republicans are changing the rules, we’ll meet them on the same field, with strategy, with resolve and without apology.
Some will say this is too aggressive. I say it’s necessary.
What Texas Republicans are doing under Trump’s direction is nothing short of a legal insurrection on our Capitol. But using a legal system doesn’t make it legitimate. It’s a hijacking of democracy. And it must be stopped. A newsflash for Texas Republicans: this is not the Wild West. We will not be bystanders as our democracy is stolen in a modern-day stagecoach heist.
I fundamentally believe that while Texans and New Yorkers have our share of differences, we agree on basic fairness. You shouldn’t cheat to get ahead. And you must be willing to stand up for the democratic institutions that make this nation so exceptional. Americans are done with the cruelty, chaos and cowardice they have witnessed since 2025 began. They’re ready to vote Republicans out — and Republicans know it. That’s why they’re rigging the game before the next whistle blows.
But we can’t let them get away with it without a fight. Not on my watch.
If you refuse to fight for democracy, you’re doomed to lose it. I didn’t get into public service to lose. I got in to fight and to win on behalf of the people I serve. To every Texan standing up to Trump and Abbott’s scheme, you’re on the right side of history. We’re proud to stand with you.
To the rest of America, don’t be afraid to join this fight. If they rewrite the rules, then so will we.
All’s fair in love and war. Bring it on.
Kathy Hochul is the 57th and first female governor of New York State.
The 6,000 May Day protesters gathered at Foley Square in front of the Federal Courthouse and surrounded by federal buildings, were fired up by the surprise appearance of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who had raced from an airport to give her energy to the labor movement amidst the unprecedented crackdown of civil and workers rights by the Trump Administration.
AOC called on them to keep the pressure on the MAGA Republican lawmakers, who have ceded their co-equal power to the dictator wannabe rather than face his ire or a primary challenge. The protests – collectively the largest in history -through the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency, have not been futile exercises. Just that day, Republicans pulled a vote to slash Medicaid by an unprecedented $888 billion. “They have stopped and suspended next week’s Medicaid cuts because they’re getting too scared,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “They see you, New York, they see the gathering.”
She urged continued vigilance, warning that they will vote again in the dead of night when they think no one is watching.
She energized the crowd, declaring that the Trump administration is much more prepared and planned this time around in terms of the kinds of chaos that they’re trying to unleash. More than legal programs, more than policy, they are trying to invokefear.
“That is how authoritarianism works. These are the tools to get us to sacrifice and surrender our civil liberties, more than they take them.” Indeed, Trump pardoned virtually all the January 6th insurrectionists, including those who had threatened her life. “I’m not going to give them my fear,” she has told supporters. “They’re relying on us giving up. Hell no.”
We’re going to keep standing with trans people. We’re going to keep standing with the LGBT community. We’re going to keep standing for the working class. We’re going to keep fighting for a better minimum wage. We’re going to keep fighting to guarantee healthcare.
The issues that have dominated the anti-Trump protests that have been virtually constant were present here too – Hands Off public education with huge contingents of protesters from colleges and teachers unions and immigrant rights.
And typical of May Day protests were the demands by workers, but the Tax the Rich and Down with Billionaires themes more vitriolic and urgent. You get the feeling that if Trump is not stopped in his march toward authoritarianism, there will be an equally strong backlash. One cannot but think that Trump is hoping for these protests to get even more animated and violent, so he can declare martial law under the Insurrection Act and snuff out the last vestige of opposition, after decimating the judicial system, the Congress, a free press (he just signed an order canceling federal spending for NPR and PBS).
The May Day protest, an annual rite in New York City, featured the city’s labor unions, students and educators, a huge contingent of pro-Palestinian protesters, and were joined by those standing against encroachment of power, rise of autocracy and Fascism, and standing up for due process, democracy, public education, healthcare, immigrant rights, social security and Medicaid and healthcare.
Many protesters exclaimed support for immigrants, for students whose visas were cancelled and arrested for exercising free speech, and for Khalil Abrego Garcia specifically, wrongly deported to an El Salvador gulag without due process, as the face of a victim of a tyranny.
Veronica Salama, the New York Civil Liberties Union staff attorney who is part of the legal team representing Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, condemned Trump for separating Khalil from his family and said Khalil’s arrest violated the first amendment.
The protesters marched down Broadway, ending at the Charging Bull, the iconic image of Wall Street, to emphasize the message on many of the signs: Send Billionaires to Mars, Tax the Rich, Fight Fascism.
New York City’s May Day protest was one of more than 1000 in more than 800 cities and towns across the country, and the second that day at Foley Square (some 3,000 lawyers came out in front of the federal court during Law Day, an annual affirmation of the Rule of Law), plus several others around the city, organized and promoted by multiple organizations. They have realized that only through solidarity can they fulfill their individual goals. The overarching message: “Together we win.”
Hallie Brenner Perles, co-leader of Show Up Long Island and an organizer of the Long Island protest, stated, “Authoritarians like Trump and Musk want to divide us and to appeal to the smallest, cruelest, and most selfish impulses of humanity. That’s the only way they can win. But we still live in a democracy. And right now we can choose to care, to stand up for each other, to seek truth and facts over lies, to know that an attack on any groups’ human rights is an attack on all. We can choose empathy and the courage to acknowledge these are not normal times so we won’t pretend that they are. We will continue to nonviolently protest all that is wrong with this administration as heroes have done before us. Then some day books will be written that tell our story: that when our country, our children and the world needed us, so many Americans in all 50 states stood together on the right side of history. “
“This was by far the largest, most widespread May Day action in the history of our country,” MayDayStrong.org reported. “The billionaires are waging a war on working people—and on May Day, international workers’ day, hundreds of thousands of us stood together and stood strong, fighting for public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, shared prosperity over free market politics. Working people built this nation and we know how to take care of each other. We won’t back down—we will never stop fighting for our families and the rights and freedoms that ensure access to opportunity and a better life for all Americans. Their time is up.”
Numerous protests are upcoming with another national day of protest slated for June 14th organized by 50501.org: They are looking to “amass in spectacular numbers for the “Anti-Regime Day of Protest” and counter the massive (6600 soldiers! 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters! 2,000 civilians!) and massively expensive ($92 million!) military parade Trump, in true dictator fashion, is organizing for his 79th birthday, even as he orders cuts to Medicaid resulting in hospitals laying off healthcare workers.
At its protest in suburban Long Island, Hallie Brenner Perles, co-leader Show Up Long Island, declared, “Authoritarians like Trump and Musk want to divide us and to appeal to the smallest, cruelest, and most selfish impulses of humanity. That’s the only way they can win. But we still live in a democracy. And right now we can choose to care, to stand up for each other, to seek truth and facts over lies, to know that an attack on any groups’ human rights is an attack on all. We can choose empathy and the courage to acknowledge these are not normal times so we won’t pretend that they are. We will continue to nonviolently protest all that is wrong with this administration as heroes have done before us. Then some day books will be written that tell our story: that when our country, our children and the world needed us , so many Americans in all 50 states stood together on the right side of history.”
Let the protesters speak for themselves. Here are highlights from the New York City May Day protest:
