The People, the protectors of Democracy, are out and about. What "people," out where, about what--and why? First, millions said "Hand Off"to Trump/Musk et al, then on the 19th via 50501" (50 protests, 5o states, 1 Movement) millions more protested the mess in WDC. Also on the 19th we celebrated the "the shot heard around the world at Lexington and Concord, starting the Revolution and our country. On the 22nd protectors of the environment cleaned up a different kind of mess on Earth Day.
As important as the participants in environmental mess cleanup and American history are, this post is dedicated to the named and unnamed protestors fighting the Trump/Musk Washington, DC, tyrannical mess. Or as Susan Grymes calls it: Protectors [of democracy, and so shall I in this post.
Who are the Protectors of democracy on April 5, 19th, May 1st--or all the everydays in between and into the future?? We will never know the names of each individual marcher, sign holder (or just standing together in solidarity). But we do know by name some people, advocacy groups, judges and law firms, and other entities who have not been cowed, and have fought back publicly--sometimes under threat of death.. Some, such as Sen. Cory Booker, with his 25 hour righteous speech on ethics, morality, and American democracy,have become an inspiration. Here then, in no particular order of noteworthy (except the first three), are the names of many of the army of protectors of democracy--and remember Courage is Contagious:
(Of course, the list is imperfect, Additions are welcomed. Also re-posting is permitted and encouraged.
PROTECTORS OF DEMOCRACY (By pen, voice, sign, or act)
(Updated April 25, 2025 Individuals
Heather Cox Richardson/"Letters from an American"
Jess Piper/"View from Rural Missouri"
Joyce Vance/"Civil Discourse"
Rep. AOC
AGs, 23 Blue States
Aaron Parnas
Adam Kinzinger
Sen. Adam Schiff
Adam Smith
Alex Wagner
Alexander Vindman
Ali Velshi
Alison Gill
Alvin Bragg (and the unnamed Manhattan jurors)
Amb. Susan Rice
Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales/Democracy Now
Anand Giridharadas
Anat Shenker-Osario
Andrew Weissmann
Andy Borowitz
Ann Telnaes
Anne Applebaum,
Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF (Freedom from Religion Foundation)
Ari Melber
August Flentje
Ben Meiselas
Beth Benike
Brett Meiselas
Brian Tyler Cohen
Cassidy Hutchinson
Charlotte Clymer
Chris Hayes
Chris Krebs
Col. Susannah Meyers
Congressman Jim Himes
D. Earl Stevens
Dan Barker, FFRF (Freedom from Religion Foundation)
Dan Pfeiffer
Dan Rather
Daniel Berulis
Daniel Morton-Bentley
David Hogg
Dean Obeidallah
Delia Ramirez
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Sen. Elyssa Slotkin
Erez Reuveni
Rep. Eric Swalwell
Garrison Keillor
Garry Kasparov
George Conway
Glenn Kirschner
Gov. Beshear
Gov. Janet Mills
Gov. Kathy Hochul
Gov. Maura Healey (MA)
Gov. Tim Walz (MN)
Gov. Tony Evers (WI)
Greg Olear
J.B. Pritzker
Jake Auchincloss
Rep.Jamie Raskin
Rep. Jasmine Crockett
Jay Kou
Jeff Danziger
Sen. Jeff Merkley
Jeff Stein
Jeff Tiedrich
Jen Rubin And the Contrarians
Jeremy Seahill
Jessica Craven
Jessica Yellin
Jim Acosta
Jim Hightower
Jimmy Kimmel
J-L Cauvin
John Cusack
John Larson
Sen. Jon Ossoff
Jonathan Bernstein,
Jordy Meiselas
Josh Johnson (stand-up comedian)
Josh Marshall
Joy Reid
Judd Legum (popular Information)
Julie Roginsky
Katie Fang
Ken Harbaugh
Lawrence O;Donnell
Liz Cheney
Lucian Truscott IV
Marianne Williamson
Mark Fiore
Marvin Kalb
Mary L. Trump
Maxwell Frost
Mayor Michelle Wu
Mehdi Hasan
Melvin Gurai
Michael Bennett
Michel Zeitgeist
Miles Taylor
Nicolle Wallllace
Noel Casler (former and current staff of the Inter-American Foundation, a small but
mighty federal agency for Latin America)
Olga Lautman
Paul Krugman
Prof. Lawrence Tribe
Qasim Rachid
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman
Rachel Cohen
Rachel Maddow
Rebecca Solnit
Rep. Andrew Egger
Rep. Emily Randall
Rep. Jessica Denson
Rep. Jonathan V. Last
Rep. Noe Casler
Rep. Pramila Jayapal
Rep. Sarah Longwell
Rep. Al Green
Rep. Don Beyer
Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde
Rev. William J. Barber II
Rez Reuveni (acting deputy director for the Office of Immigration Litigation, and his
supervisor)
Rich Wilson
Robert B. Hubbell
Robert Reich
Roger Parloff
Ron Filipkowski
Ruth Ben-Ghait
Sarah Inama
Scott Dworkin
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (whistleblower)
Sen. Andy Kim
Sen. Chris Murphy
Sen. Chris Van Hollen
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
Sen. Lisa Murkowski
Sen. Maria Cantwell
Sen. Patty Murray
Sen. Ron Wyden
Sharon McMahon
Sheldon Whitehouse
Simon Rosenberg
Stacey Abrams
Stephanie Miller
Stephen King
Steve Brodner
Steve Schmidt
Sue Nethercott
Sen. Tammy Duckworth
Tennessee Brandon
Thom Hartmann
Tim Snyder
Timothy Snyder
Tristan Snell
Will Bunch
Zev Shalev
ADVOCACY GROUPS, MEDIA NETWORKS
ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)
AICN (North Carolina)
American Oversight
Bill Kristol/all NeverTrumpers (North Carolina)
Blue Future
Blue Missouri
Blue Wave
Bluesky
Bulwark Media
CODEPINK
CREW
DemCast
Democracy Forward
Democracy Index
DemocracyLabs
Every State Blue
Feathers of Hope
Field Team 6 (North Carolina)
FiftyFifty one (50501)
Fred Wellman/On Democracy
"Hands Off"
Indivisible
Jessica Valenti/Abortion Everyday
Lambda Legal
League of Women Voters
Marc Elias/Democracy Docket
MeidasTouch Network
MoveOn
MSNBC (an exception to corporate news, and their suppressing news0
No Kings
Olivia Troy
Protect Democracy
Public Citizen/Co-president Robert Weissman
Run for Something
Seneca Project
Substack
The 19th/Errin Haines
The American Manifesto
The Bulwark
The Civic Center
The Dean's List/ Dean Obeidallah
The Dr. Martin Luther King Center
The Lincoln Project
The Politics Girl
The States Project (North Carolina)
The Union (North Carolina)
Third Act
Thomas Zimmer/Democracy Americana
We the People Dissent
Working Families Party
LAW FIRMS/ORGANIZATIONS, LAWYERS, COURTS, ACADEMIA
American Bar Association
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer
Big Ten Universities
David Pepper
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (representing the Amica Center for Immigrants Rights and others seeking to block funding cuts for immigrant legal services
Harvard/President Alan M. Garber
Hogan Lovells (seeking to block executive orders to end federal funding for gender-
Letter signed by 500 law firms joined a court brief supporting Perkins Coie lawsuit against the Trump Administration)
To paraphrase Churchill: We shall fight them in the streets, we shall fight them on the sidewalks, we shall fight them on the internet, we shall fight them in the courts, we shall fight them in the Congress, we shall fight them in the voting booth--We shall never surrender. YOU ARE NEVER ALONE. SOLIDARITY..
My biggest issue with Substack is that there are dozens of well-written, informative newsletters and as someone on a fixed (and relatively low) income, I cannot subscribe to more than a handful. About the best could do is redirect my Washington Post subscription money, which covered 2 additional newsletters in addition to three I already subscribed to (which focus on local news and issues). To subscribe to all the others would decimate my entire annual food budget.
I depend heavily on the Meidas Touch Network, Talking Feds, and Marc Elias's "Democracy Docket" to keep me up to date on all things Trump and an occasional translation of legalese if I can't Google it. Harry Litman has given me back some of my faith in journalists (by becoming an ex-LAT journalist). Together you are all a formidable opponent to the MAGA garbage. Keep the home fires blazing, ya'll. (The "Hands Off" brigades are growing at a rate that has the Trump camp sweating bullets. "No Kings" rang a deep note on the virtual "Liberty Bell" Apr. 19th as well. Looking forward to the next opportunity to say my piece before a jury of the world.) I just hope that once this is over we can rebuild our international relationships with our understandably skeptical allies. I hope America gets that opportunity in the future. Do NOT let democracy and common decency die!
I prefer to reply to you here on Substack rather than on YouTube. YT regularly deletes my posts, which contain no profanity or threat, for unknown reasons. I can post the same comment here and it not only remains to be read but also sometimes "hearted" and even restacked. Today, Michael Cohen wrote this: "America is being governed by delusion." I am restacking that wherever I find the opportunity. It will go on my sign I'll take to the next local protest rally. The other side will state: "WE ARE THE BATTLEGROUND." Thank you, Harry, and I look forward to later.
As a number have already commented: the model of a separate fee for each of the many substack submissions, is simply not sustainable. Please figure out a way to make this wonderful mode of communication financially viable; both for all the content providers and for us consumers.
I don’t know how to use comments in Substack, so I hope this goes to Harry Litman or Jennifer Rubin. Did you see the March 14, 2025 memo from the Attorney General of the United States that told law enforcement they could enter a person’s home without notice or a warrant if they had a reasonable belief the person might be a Venezuelan citizen over 14 and
The strong, intelligent voices, quality reporting, and TRUTH on Substack give me hope. My support for the independent media is an investment in democracy. Thank you and keep growing.
Bless you and all the incredible people on SubStack. This platform is Trump’s unintended legacy and we should celebrate it more.
We the People at Work
The People, the protectors of Democracy, are out and about. What "people," out where, about what--and why? First, millions said "Hand Off"to Trump/Musk et al, then on the 19th via 50501" (50 protests, 5o states, 1 Movement) millions more protested the mess in WDC. Also on the 19th we celebrated the "the shot heard around the world at Lexington and Concord, starting the Revolution and our country. On the 22nd protectors of the environment cleaned up a different kind of mess on Earth Day.
As important as the participants in environmental mess cleanup and American history are, this post is dedicated to the named and unnamed protestors fighting the Trump/Musk Washington, DC, tyrannical mess. Or as Susan Grymes calls it: Protectors [of democracy, and so shall I in this post.
Who are the Protectors of democracy on April 5, 19th, May 1st--or all the everydays in between and into the future?? We will never know the names of each individual marcher, sign holder (or just standing together in solidarity). But we do know by name some people, advocacy groups, judges and law firms, and other entities who have not been cowed, and have fought back publicly--sometimes under threat of death.. Some, such as Sen. Cory Booker, with his 25 hour righteous speech on ethics, morality, and American democracy,have become an inspiration. Here then, in no particular order of noteworthy (except the first three), are the names of many of the army of protectors of democracy--and remember Courage is Contagious:
(Of course, the list is imperfect, Additions are welcomed. Also re-posting is permitted and encouraged.
PROTECTORS OF DEMOCRACY (By pen, voice, sign, or act)
(Updated April 25, 2025 Individuals
Heather Cox Richardson/"Letters from an American"
Jess Piper/"View from Rural Missouri"
Joyce Vance/"Civil Discourse"
Rep. AOC
AGs, 23 Blue States
Aaron Parnas
Adam Kinzinger
Sen. Adam Schiff
Adam Smith
Alex Wagner
Alexander Vindman
Ali Velshi
Alison Gill
Alvin Bragg (and the unnamed Manhattan jurors)
Amb. Susan Rice
Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales/Democracy Now
Anand Giridharadas
Anat Shenker-Osario
Andrew Weissmann
Andy Borowitz
Ann Telnaes
Anne Applebaum,
Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF (Freedom from Religion Foundation)
Ari Melber
August Flentje
Ben Meiselas
Beth Benike
Brett Meiselas
Brian Tyler Cohen
Cassidy Hutchinson
Charlotte Clymer
Chris Hayes
Chris Krebs
Col. Susannah Meyers
Congressman Jim Himes
D. Earl Stevens
Dan Barker, FFRF (Freedom from Religion Foundation)
Dan Pfeiffer
Dan Rather
Daniel Berulis
Daniel Morton-Bentley
David Hogg
Dean Obeidallah
Delia Ramirez
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Sen. Elyssa Slotkin
Erez Reuveni
Rep. Eric Swalwell
Garrison Keillor
Garry Kasparov
George Conway
Glenn Kirschner
Gov. Beshear
Gov. Janet Mills
Gov. Kathy Hochul
Gov. Maura Healey (MA)
Gov. Tim Walz (MN)
Gov. Tony Evers (WI)
Greg Olear
J.B. Pritzker
Jake Auchincloss
Rep.Jamie Raskin
Rep. Jasmine Crockett
Jay Kou
Jeff Danziger
Sen. Jeff Merkley
Jeff Stein
Jeff Tiedrich
Jen Rubin And the Contrarians
Jeremy Seahill
Jessica Craven
Jessica Yellin
Jim Acosta
Jim Hightower
Jimmy Kimmel
J-L Cauvin
John Cusack
John Larson
Sen. Jon Ossoff
Jonathan Bernstein,
Jordy Meiselas
Josh Johnson (stand-up comedian)
Josh Marshall
Joy Reid
Judd Legum (popular Information)
Julie Roginsky
Katie Fang
Ken Harbaugh
Lawrence O;Donnell
Liz Cheney
Lucian Truscott IV
Marianne Williamson
Mark Fiore
Marvin Kalb
Mary L. Trump
Maxwell Frost
Mayor Michelle Wu
Mehdi Hasan
Melvin Gurai
Michael Bennett
Michel Zeitgeist
Miles Taylor
Nicolle Wallllace
Noel Casler (former and current staff of the Inter-American Foundation, a small but
mighty federal agency for Latin America)
Olga Lautman
Paul Krugman
Prof. Lawrence Tribe
Qasim Rachid
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman
Rachel Cohen
Rachel Maddow
Rebecca Solnit
Rep. Andrew Egger
Rep. Emily Randall
Rep. Jessica Denson
Rep. Jonathan V. Last
Rep. Noe Casler
Rep. Pramila Jayapal
Rep. Sarah Longwell
Rep. Al Green
Rep. Don Beyer
Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde
Rev. William J. Barber II
Rez Reuveni (acting deputy director for the Office of Immigration Litigation, and his
supervisor)
Rich Wilson
Robert B. Hubbell
Robert Reich
Roger Parloff
Ron Filipkowski
Ruth Ben-Ghait
Sarah Inama
Scott Dworkin
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (whistleblower)
Sen. Andy Kim
Sen. Chris Murphy
Sen. Chris Van Hollen
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
Sen. Lisa Murkowski
Sen. Maria Cantwell
Sen. Patty Murray
Sen. Ron Wyden
Sharon McMahon
Sheldon Whitehouse
Simon Rosenberg
Stacey Abrams
Stephanie Miller
Stephen King
Steve Brodner
Steve Schmidt
Sue Nethercott
Sen. Tammy Duckworth
Tennessee Brandon
Thom Hartmann
Tim Snyder
Timothy Snyder
Tristan Snell
Will Bunch
Zev Shalev
ADVOCACY GROUPS, MEDIA NETWORKS
ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union)
AICN (North Carolina)
American Oversight
Bill Kristol/all NeverTrumpers (North Carolina)
Blue Future
Blue Missouri
Blue Wave
Bluesky
Bulwark Media
CODEPINK
CREW
DemCast
Democracy Forward
Democracy Index
DemocracyLabs
Every State Blue
Feathers of Hope
Field Team 6 (North Carolina)
FiftyFifty one (50501)
Fred Wellman/On Democracy
"Hands Off"
Indivisible
Jessica Valenti/Abortion Everyday
Lambda Legal
League of Women Voters
Marc Elias/Democracy Docket
MeidasTouch Network
MoveOn
MSNBC (an exception to corporate news, and their suppressing news0
No Kings
Olivia Troy
Protect Democracy
Public Citizen/Co-president Robert Weissman
Run for Something
Seneca Project
Substack
The 19th/Errin Haines
The American Manifesto
The Bulwark
The Civic Center
The Dean's List/ Dean Obeidallah
The Dr. Martin Luther King Center
The Lincoln Project
The Politics Girl
The States Project (North Carolina)
The Union (North Carolina)
Third Act
Thomas Zimmer/Democracy Americana
We the People Dissent
Working Families Party
LAW FIRMS/ORGANIZATIONS, LAWYERS, COURTS, ACADEMIA
American Bar Association
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer
Big Ten Universities
David Pepper
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (representing the Amica Center for Immigrants Rights and others seeking to block funding cuts for immigrant legal services
Harvard/President Alan M. Garber
Hogan Lovells (seeking to block executive orders to end federal funding for gender-
affirming medical care Law.com)
Jenner & Block (also seeking to block the orders on cuts to medical research funding)
Judge Hannah Dugan
Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III
(former) Judge J. Michael Luttig
Judge James Boasberg
Judge Paula Xinis
Judge Royce Lamberth
Justice Elena Kagan
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
Justices Sonia Sotomayer
Northwestern U
Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling (have resisted Trump, fighting back with the help of other courageous firms like Williams & Connolly)
Presidents of 328 U.S. colleges and universities have signed a letter condemning
“government overreach." (including St. Louis University)
Ropes & Gray (also seeking to block cuts to medical research funding Law.com)
Susman Godfrey law firm
UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr (per the ABA Journal, representing fired
inspectors general Law.com)
Wilmer Hale Keker, Van Nest & Peters,
Southern Poverty Law Center
Letter signed by 500 law firms joined a court brief supporting Perkins Coie lawsuit against the Trump Administration)
To paraphrase Churchill: We shall fight them in the streets, we shall fight them on the sidewalks, we shall fight them on the internet, we shall fight them in the courts, we shall fight them in the Congress, we shall fight them in the voting booth--We shall never surrender. YOU ARE NEVER ALONE. SOLIDARITY..
E pluribus unum ( "Out of many, one")
My biggest issue with Substack is that there are dozens of well-written, informative newsletters and as someone on a fixed (and relatively low) income, I cannot subscribe to more than a handful. About the best could do is redirect my Washington Post subscription money, which covered 2 additional newsletters in addition to three I already subscribed to (which focus on local news and issues). To subscribe to all the others would decimate my entire annual food budget.
Five words or less: Honorary Doctorate in International Relations😂
You beat me to it, I was going for “Give me a doctorate immediately” 🤡
Why just Honorary?
I depend heavily on the Meidas Touch Network, Talking Feds, and Marc Elias's "Democracy Docket" to keep me up to date on all things Trump and an occasional translation of legalese if I can't Google it. Harry Litman has given me back some of my faith in journalists (by becoming an ex-LAT journalist). Together you are all a formidable opponent to the MAGA garbage. Keep the home fires blazing, ya'll. (The "Hands Off" brigades are growing at a rate that has the Trump camp sweating bullets. "No Kings" rang a deep note on the virtual "Liberty Bell" Apr. 19th as well. Looking forward to the next opportunity to say my piece before a jury of the world.) I just hope that once this is over we can rebuild our international relationships with our understandably skeptical allies. I hope America gets that opportunity in the future. Do NOT let democracy and common decency die!
I prefer to reply to you here on Substack rather than on YouTube. YT regularly deletes my posts, which contain no profanity or threat, for unknown reasons. I can post the same comment here and it not only remains to be read but also sometimes "hearted" and even restacked. Today, Michael Cohen wrote this: "America is being governed by delusion." I am restacking that wherever I find the opportunity. It will go on my sign I'll take to the next local protest rally. The other side will state: "WE ARE THE BATTLEGROUND." Thank you, Harry, and I look forward to later.
This administration is the triumph if the Roy Cohn School of Law.
"Roy Cohn School of Law Flouting"
As a number have already commented: the model of a separate fee for each of the many substack submissions, is simply not sustainable. Please figure out a way to make this wonderful mode of communication financially viable; both for all the content providers and for us consumers.
Simply splendid, a worthy followup to your equally wonderful post about Judge Wilkinson's opinion. Thank you so much for all the work you do!
Thank you, Harry. You are, and have been, doing a great job! 🙏
I don’t know how to use comments in Substack, so I hope this goes to Harry Litman or Jennifer Rubin. Did you see the March 14, 2025 memo from the Attorney General of the United States that told law enforcement they could enter a person’s home without notice or a warrant if they had a reasonable belief the person might be a Venezuelan citizen over 14 and
THE FOREST BE WITH YOU
Grant Thurston Howell's posthumous doctorate
Invest in my meme coin.
“Give me an honorary Doctorate!” 😁
The strong, intelligent voices, quality reporting, and TRUTH on Substack give me hope. My support for the independent media is an investment in democracy. Thank you and keep growing.