10| It was only a matter of time

3 U.S. citizens have been deported, more detained

As storm clouds gather, it’s worth remembering: the sun is still there, just behind the squall.

Civil liberties are fraying, authoritarianism is tightening its grip, and the economy teeters on the edge. But even in this darkness, new heroes are stepping forward. Harvard was among the first through the wall, and now other academic institutions are following. Law firms are standing up to the bully. States are banding together to sue the administration. And the people—always the people—are beginning to rise.

Defending freedom is never easy, and it’s rarely quick. But these may well be the defining moments of our generation. It takes courage to look clearly at what’s unfolding, to name it for what it is. It’s normal to be afraid. But it also takes courage to hold onto hope, to see the joy that still lives among us, and to insist that it’s all worth defending.

Our courage must make space for both.

—Stacey

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3 Big Things

1️⃣ 3 citizens disappeared 🚨🚨
Green Card & Visa Holders ➡️ Permanent Legal Resident ➡️ U.S. Citizen
It’s not a surprise that some of the first U.S. citizens deported by the Trump Administration are children. The steady destruction of civil rights comes in incremental steps—they normalize one action in order to make the next action feel more probable. To deport someone who quite literally does not have a voice, who can’t call a lawyer, who does not know what is happening is not an accident. But what it does is set a precedent that U.S. citizenship will not protect you from deportation to an El Salvadorian concentration camp or otherwise. Citizens are already being detained.

Here’s what we know:

• They are 2, 4, and 7 years old, from two different families

• The families were disappeared and isolated without access to legal counsel or even communication with family

• One child has cancer, and a mother with them is pregnant

• The father of the 2-year-old—referred to as VML in court documents—tried to stop the removal.

According to a lawsuit, “ICE agents repeatedly refused to give VML's father her location and denied him the opportunity to speak for more than a minute to VML's mother.” - NPR

2️⃣ It started with Obama 4️⃣ 4️⃣
Birtherism was Trump’s first platform
This administration does not believe the children of immigrants are legitimate U.S. citizens. Stripping the rights of those they refuse to see as American isn’t just their policy; it’s their ideology. This isn’t about what the law or constitution says; it’s about drawing lines around who belongs and who doesn’t. These are the same people who tried to publicly invalidate the citizenship of a sitting U.S. president, Barack Obama. Nothing is off limits to them.

Where does it go from here? All minors, all children of immigrants, and anyone who’s come in contact with the justice system—even those not charged with a crime—will be targets. Then journalists, lawyers, judges, and civil servants not in line with authoritarian priorities. Then all bets are off.

The tyrannical vision of federal agents without badges and unmarked vans isn’t coming—it’s here.

3️⃣ Judge Arrested 🚨🚨
Fear and obedience is the goal
What’s important to understand about the arrest of Judge Hannah C. Dugan of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court is that she’s also an elected official. The arrest was both an attack on the judiciary and on the will of Milwaukee voters—who elected Dugan by overwhelming numbers twice. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have openly stated they’ll seek to prosecute the judiciary and lawmakers. The move is meant to undercut the two other co-equal branches of government to place the Trump Administration above all else.

Remember, we aren’t even 100 days into this administration. Yet the pace and push towards authoritarianism has outdone anything we’ve ever seen before — including the four years of the first Trump Administration, and that term ended with an attempted coup d'etat.

Featured this week

• A must listen: We’ve been discussing the dismantling of the Post-WWII economic order to create a patronage system for the Trump Family. That includes trade wars, an evaporation of trust in the U.S. government, as well as the potential for stagnation and an economic collapse. Marketplace put together an hour-long special called “Selling America” that discusses just how the Trump Administration is selling away our country.

• From the Archive: People keep asking the question, “Is this authoritarianism? Is this a fascist regime, yet?” To us, that sort of qualifying language comes from a fear to state the obvious: Let’s talk about the F Word.

Coming Soon

DisRev Podcast: Unpacking power, politics, and the fight for a better world—one conversation at a time. We’ll sit down with some of the brightest strategists and leading voices on the frontlines of progressive change, bringing you interviews, analysis, and stories you won’t hear anywhere else!

Hollow Thrones: In this exclusive mini-series, we push our current reality to its logical extreme. Through sharp, realistic fiction, Hollow Thrones explores what happens when billionaire oligarchs rival governments—and when both conspire against the people. It’s a chilling glimpse of the techno-feudalist future already breaking into the present—and a reminder that solidarity and movement-building remain our way forward.

This will be our first feature created exclusively for premium subscribers. All chapters will be paywalled (we have to pay the bills), but we’ll offer previews so everyone can get a taste.

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Editor’s Note

Resistance can come in many forms. It can mean standing up and fighting back, community and self-care, and joy and laughter. Some days resistance will show up as rage. Some days it shows up as contemplation in the face of the unthinkable. Some days it shows up as a hug or a smile on a sunny day. Keep marching, keep moving forward, keep fighting, and—most of all—keep smiling. Yours in Revolution—Álio

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“The president is a nationalist, which is not at all the same thing as a patriot. A nationalist encourages us to be our worst and then tells us that we are the best… A patriot, by contrast, wants the nation to live up to its ideals, which means asking us to be our best selves. A patriot must be concerned with the real world, which is the only place where his country can be loved and sustained. A patriot has universal values, standards by which he judges his nation, always wishing it well—and wishing that it would do better.” —Timothy Snyder