THE CURRENT STATE OF STATE REPRESSION
December 12, 2025
Food Not Bombs has a 45 year history of defending human and animal rights. Volunteers have provided support for indigenous struggles, class conflicts and in defense of the environment. We stand for the rights of those without a roof to a safe place to sleep free of police disruption and violence. Of course we aren’t going to let governments interfere with the sharing of meals and literature. We will always defend the basic human right to share meals without government permission.
When the Pensacola Florida Police arrested Food Not Bombs volunteer Mike Kimberl for sharing meals after dark in Martin Luther King jr Park the day after Thanksgiving 2025 Food Not Bombs refused efforts by the city to issue them a permit. Mike and the other Food Not Bombs volunteers have been sharing meals every Friday at 6 pm in Pensacola for 14 years Daylight Saving Time or not.
Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves and his police department don’t seem to understand that they have no say in how people help one another. That’s a most basic of freedoms. People don’t ever need permission from the government to share the gift of a warm meal. Food Not Bombs agreed during the1992 and 1995 World Gatherings that we would never request or accept a permit to share food with the hunger after the San Francisco authorities used their process to try and stop our meals. If they believe that they can give you permission they also believe they can take that permission away.
Melbourne Food Not Bombs on the Atlantic coast of Florida successfully pushed back against a local ordinance designed to drive the group from sight. “We are not here to negotiate with you” one volunteer tells City Council. She reminds the council members that the City of Fort Lauderdale was ordered to pay $750,000 to the attorneys that represented Food Not Bombs after the federal courts ruled it was our First Amendment right to share meals without a permit.
Another threat is brewing against anti-fascists, anarchists and groups like Food Not Bombs that organize using anarchist influenced nonhierarchical principles.
A July 4th fireworks protest outside an ICE detention center inspired the July 22nd story on the Dallas Fort Worth NPR station KERA,“Shooting at Alvarado ICE facility, other attacks: The new normal?”
KERA reporter Caroline Love says, “Era Yousuf describes herself as being close friends with many of the defendants — including Benjamin Song, who she said prefers to be called Suzuka. Song, who was recently arrested, is accused of purchasing four guns found in connection with the shooting, according to court records.”
“Yousuf met them through protests and local activism, including the group Food Not Bombs, a nonprofit organization that distributes food that would otherwise be discarded to people experiencing homelessness.”
“Yousuf, who moved to another state recently, said she wasn’t involved with the demonstration at the detention center or any of the planning. She said her friends are not violent.”
“‘These aren’t dangerous people,’ Yousuf said. ‘They want to help innocent folks that are being kept prisoner.’”
The report also notes that “Court records don’t identify who fired the shots,” suggesting the shooter may well be working with law enforcement.
The Alvarado ICE facility shooting was highlighted by Trump and his cabinet at his October 8th White House Antifa roundtable.
Trump stated that, “In July approximately a dozen Antifa aligned militants stormed the ice facility in Texas, and then lured offices out of the building before firing dozens of rounds at police. They were. crazy, frankly. Shooting 1 Texas officer in the neck.”
During that same Antifa roundtable, Jonathan Choe, a reporter for Turning Point USA’s newsroom Frontlines, claimed that political extremism on the ideological left intersects with the “homeless drug crisis.” As evidence, he shared a recent report from the Discovery Institute, a Seattle based think tank best known for promoting the intelligent-design theory that God made everything in seven days to refute the theory of evolution.
“In many cases, the homeless industrial complex is running cover for antifa, and antifa is benefiting from American tax dollars, and they’re essentially being used as the muscle,” Choe reported.
“He then pointed to Stop the Sweeps, a franchise-like, community-coordinated campaign that aims to prevent state violence against homeless encampments.” writes Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling in an October 8th story in the New Republic.
The Stop the Sweeps protests in Santa Cruz have been focused against the local homeless shelter Housing Matters and their coordination with the city to clear the streets of the homeless around their shelter.
The suggestion that Food Not Bombs could be national security threat continued. On October 3, 2025, Fox New’s Jesse Watters aired “Antifa whistleblower BREAKS SILENCE, warns of violence,” interviewing an actor he calls Eric about how he got involved with Antifa. Watter’s starts by explaining Eric had to disguise himself to protect his life. He goes on asking, “How did you get roped into this whole Antifa thing?” Fake Eric responds, “It stared when I was young. I got in through working with different groups like the ARA, Cop Watch, Food Not Bombs and the punk rock movement.” The pretend former Antifa Eric also refers to the WTO protest in Seattle and claimed he had a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook.
On September 25, 2025, Trump issued NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM / NSPM-7: Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence Presidential National Security Memorandum. It includes,“As described in the Order of September 22, 2025 (Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization), the groups and entities that perpetuate this extremism have created a movement that embraces and elevates violence to achieve policy outcomes, including justifying additional assassinations. For example, Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin engraved the bullets used in the murder with so-called “anti-fascist” rhetoric.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the FBI on December 4, 2025 to “compile a list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism,” according to the Justice Department memo.
Under number 7 “Disseminating intelligence on extremist groups”
“Within 60 days of the issuance of this guidance, the FBI, in coordination with its partners on the JTTFs, shall disseminate an intelligence bulletin on Antifa and Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremist groups. The bulletin should describe the relevant organizations’ structures, funding sources, and tactics so that law enforcement partners can effectively investigate and policy makers can effectively understand the nature and gravity of the threat posed by these extremist groups.”
It might be helpful to learn that when the FBI – Joint Terrorism Task Force observed the August 22, 1988 arrests of 24 Food Not Bombs volunteers at Golden Gate Park they sent a memo to the San Francisco FBI Field Office claiming we were “a credible national security threat”. That November during the Thanksgiving holiday National Guard units across the country held domestic terrorism workshops featuring Food Not Bombs as “one of America’s most hardcore terrorist groups”. In April 2009 the US State Department gave a lecture asking who is more dangerous, “Al-Qaeda or the people sharing vegan meals in the parks?” In conclusion they believed that the people sharing vegan meals were more dangerous because they were influencing the American pubic “to support diverting military spending to education, healthcare and other social services” reducing according to them the country’s ability to fight groups like Al-Qaeda.
While several Food Not Bombs volunteers have been arrested, framed or entrapped by FBI terrorism changes in plots invented by the agency it has not slowed the growth of our movement. Each of these cases was painful for the families and friends of those targeted but if anything it has encouraged more people to participate.
We maybe entering a time of transition where those of us who have no attachment to the current political and economic system can thrive.
In crisis like this people tend to step up and help one another. The collapse frees us to appreciated the value of community and compassion over the cold techno feudal digital dystopia during the dying days of this cruel US Empire.
THE CURRENT STATE OF STATE REPRESSION
https://keithmchenry.substack.com/p/the-current-state-of-state-repression
THE JOYS OF ANTIFASCISM
October 10, 2025
Community is the cure
The authorities might be trying to link Food Not Bombs to their threats to stamp out anarchists and Antifa.
This July, NPR’s KERN News published the story, “Shooting at Alvarado ICE facility, other attacks: The new normal?” The report included this passage, “Era Yousuf describes herself as being close friends with many of the defendants — including Benjamin Song, who she said prefers to be called Suzuka. Song, who was recently arrested, is accused of purchasing four guns found in connection with the shooting, according to court records.”
“Yousuf met them through protests and local activism, including the group Food Not Bombs, a nonprofit organization that distributes food that would otherwise be discarded to people experiencing homelessness.” The government claims that there were two shooters but only identifies Song. One defendant claims the group intended to launch fireworks outside the detention center on the 4th of July to provide solidarity with the prisoners on Independence Day. KERN reporter Caroline Love wrote, “At least one of the defendants told authorities he didn’t know there would be any violence according to court records. So far, eleven people are charged with three counts of attempted murder of a federal officer and three counts of discharging a firearm in relation to and in furtherance of a crime of violence for the shooting. Court records don’t identify who fired the shots.” This suggests that it was an unidentified government informant that fired at the police when they came out to see what the noise was about.
The Alvarado ICE facility shooting was highlighted by Trump and his cabinet at his October 8th ANTIFA round table.
Trump claimed that “In July approximately a dozen Antifa aligned militants stormed the ICE facility in Texas, and then lured offices out of the building before firing dozens of rounds at police. They were crazy, frankly, shooting one Texas officer in the neck.”
The “Soros Network” among others were listed at Trump’s ANTIFA round table as supporters of violence.
“Patel said his department is working with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, “who is allowing us to map out these networks through their financial criminal activities, which has been going on for decades.”
Scott Bessent was the chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, a $30 billion family office. After graduation, Bessent went to work at the CIA law firm Brown Brothers Harriman, then did stints at the Soros Fund, Protégé Partners, and others before George Soros recruited him as CIO in 2011. In August 2015 Bessent announced that he will leave at the end of the year—with a $2 billion allocation from Soros to start his own hedge fund.
Soros Open Society Foundation provided funding for the NGO’s that participated in the Orange Revolution and 2014 coup of Ukraine as well as providing millions to Indivisible including $9 million in 2024.
On October 3, 2025, Fox New’s Jesse Waters aired “Antifa whistleblower BREAKS SILENCE, warns of violence” interviewing an actor he calls Eric about how he got involved with Antifa. Water’s starts by explaining Eric has to disguise himself to protect his life. He goes on asking, “How did you get roped into this whole Antifa thing?” Fake Eric responds, “It stared when I was young. I got in through working with different groups like the ARA, Cop Watch, Food Not Bombs and the punk rock movement.” The pretend former Antifa Eric also refers to the WTO protest in Seattle and claimed he had a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook.
I rewrote the Anarchist Cookbook after the FBI entrapped five young Occupy Cleveland cooks including two Food Not Bombs volunteers in an FBI invented May Day bombing plot of a bridge and noticed that the federal complaint repeatedly noted that they possessed William Powell’s book which they admitted they had provided to the defendants.
All the hype about anarchists and Antifa suggests that the federal authorities might start attempting to increase their disruption of peace groups like CodePink and Food Not Bombs. Trump signed an executive order Designating Antifa a Domestic Terrorist Organization on September 22, 2025 even though there is no Antifa Organization so that can mean anyone could be a target.
After that he issued NSPM-7: Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence Presidential National Security Memorandum.
On October 4, 2025 Trump’s aid Stephen Miller told NewsMax “Every time we make an arrest, we are initiating an investigation into the entire domestic terrorist network.”
He adds, “The president issued a national security presidential memorandum, an NSPM, making clear that it is the national security priority of the United States law enforcement to dismantle, disrupt, defeat, and destroy these domestic terror networks.”
The Trump administration isn’t only targeting organizations or groups but even individuals and “entities” whom NSPM-7 says can be identified by any of the following “indicia” (indicators) of violence:
• anti-Americanism,
• anti-capitalism,
• anti-Christianity,
• support for the overthrow of the United States Government,
• extremism on migration,
• extremism on race,
• extremism on gender
• hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family,
• hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on religion, and
• hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on morality.
So really anyone with a thinking brain and a compassionate heart.
Food Not Bombs meals are a port in the storm of these times of authoritarian threats. Building community, celebrating our independence and cultivating a society of compassion outside the drumbeat of fascism.
We can avoid being framed in one of the FBI’s plots by speaking up when conversations or jokes about getting guns, suggesting arson or other acts of violence by speaking up and reminding them that Food Not Bombs is dedication to nonviolent direct action. We aren’t passive but also we don’t support the organizing of physical attacks against people. As our name makes clear, we are food and not bombs.
The FBI has used informants to suggest bombings and other acts of terrorism in the Food Not Bombs community such as happened with Cleveland Food Not Bombs or our volunteer Eric McDavid who was framed and sentenced to 19 years for an FBI invented plot that he was not aware of believing that “Sarah” the informant was just joking.
The feds can try to cause infighting by hinting someone is an informant so it’s wise to never make such an accusation. Those making suggestions to use violence may have been encouraged by someone they keep “randomly” running into and otherwise are great and dedicated activists.
But the main thing I would suggest is have fun and enjoy all the beautiful connections we make when volunteering with Food Not Bombs.
Keith McHenry
Co-founder of the Food Not Bombs movement
Shooting at Alvarado ICE facility, other attacks: The new normal?
Antifa whistleblower BREAKS SILENCE, warns of violence
War is a powerful way to justify the implementation of an authoritarian police state so why was Indivisible silent?
Consider this. Israel attacks Iran and Iran returns fire starting a world changing war. A war that could become a world war. A war that is likely to increase oil prices and increase economic suffering of the American people. A war where nuclear power stations are being bombed. A war started on Trump’s watch.
According to Indivisible, “Millions of Americans marched in over 2,000 events across all 50 states—protesting Donald Trump and his fascist administration,” as Tel Aviv and Tehran burned and dozens of children were being slaughtered in Gaza.
The NO KINGS DAY rallies could have mobilized all those “millions” they bragged had attended to take action against the most important event of that day which was the war against Iran. Every sign could have said NO WAR WITH IRAN – END THE GENOCIDE but there is a reason those signs were few and far between if at all.
This should clue you into the main goal of Indivisible and its billionaire funders who dumped millions into this project and that is to control the opposition to Trump and silence the threat of an anti-war movement in the United States. It’s no accident that there are always Ukrainian flags at Indivisible events since some of the main funders of Indivisible like the Open Society Foundation also donated hundreds of millions to western NGOs to build support for the 2014 coup.
Their secondary goal is to build support for the Democratic Party. Democratic political leaders are crowing about how successful the NO KINGS DAY campaign rallies were. “The Democrats sure came out today” one of the faithful Tweeted in her celebration of NO KINGS DAY.
As hypersonic missiles rained down on Israel and F-35s were bombing oil refineries in Iran Senator Chuck Schumer posted “I was so proud to be in New York City today supporting Americans making their voice heard at No Kings protests and pushing back on Donald Trump’s authoritarian push to rig the economy for his billionaire buddies.” We should push back on the slide into fascism. But it’s obvious that war is a powerful way to justify an authoritarian police state. Not a word about the horrific war between Israel and Iran.
During the first years of Indivisible their solution to the “fascism” of Trump was to ask everyone to vote for Hillary Clinton. She promised during the campaign that, “I want the Iranians to know that if I am the president, we will attack Iran.” Their solution to the “fascism” of Trump is to ask their supporters to vote for Biden and before long they will be asking us to vote for what ever genocidal warmongers the Democrats place before us.In April, Indivisible held campaign rallies called HANDS OFF which included the poster Hands Off NATO, a reference to the fear that Trump might keep his promise to end the regime change war against Russia. This should have been a red flag to anyone who opposes war.
Trump supporters posted warnings of nationwide riots using Indivisible’s NO KINGS DAY map of boomer campaign rallies as proof. While MAGA claims that the tens of thousands who attended the NO KINGS DAY campaign rallies were paid by George Soros to riot this is clearly not the case.
The people who went did so willingly, horrified by Trump. I too am horrified by the Trump administration. It angers me that the Democrats would use my participation and the participation of other anti-war activists to claim they have mass support for their pro-war, pro-genocide candidates. I can’t let my good name be used to endorse their agenda of slaughter.
While George Soros didn’t pay people to participate in the rallies, his foundation did provide millions to help promote the campaign. A financial statement for just one of Indivisible’s three organizations states that they had raised nine million dollars in 2024. The website opensocietyfoundations.org/grants lists the grants to one branch of Indivisible by the Open Society Foundation. Other billionaires also pitched in to support the NO KINGS DAY events. Other oligarchs like Walmart heiress Christy Walton promoted a planned nationwide protest against President Trump. She paid for a full-page advertisement promoting the Democratic campaign rallies in the New York Times on Sunday.
The roots of this astroturf organization start with two former Democratic Congressional aides Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin who founded the Indivisible Project and its affiliated organizations in 2016. They still run the organization. Greenberg held various advisory, fellowship and public affairs positions in the Obama administration at the Departments of State and Defense. After that she worked in the House of Representatives for Democratic Congressman Tom Porriello. Porriello was the officiant at Greenberg and Levin’s wedding and after leaving the Congress Porriello became the “top man” at Soros’ Open Society Foundation. Leah’s father, Mark Greenberg, is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress founded by John Podesta and is currently lead by Neera Tanden. A pro-war think tank connected to the Democratic Party.
The other co-founder and leader of Indivisible, Ezra Levin worked in Congress as Deputy Policy Director for Rep. Lloyd Doggett, and as field director for Doggett’s 2010 re-election campaign. He then jumped to the Obama White House in 2012, working “directly with the Deputy Assistant to the President and with other senior White House staff” as part of the White House Domestic Policy Council. After Levin’s time in the Obama White House he became Associate Director of Federal Policy for Prosperity Now, a non-profit advocacy group with close ties to the financial industry, federal agencies and NGOs. Its many donors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Bank of America, Citi, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, PayPal, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Wells Fargo. You can’t help but get the impression that Indivisible is not really an organic grassroots movement considering their funding and connections.
By the time you read this the war Indivisible ignored may have already killed and injured tens of thousands more people and crashed the global economy.
Those who innocently participated may wake up and realize they got played. This will be very painful for those whose family members and friends might be sent off to die in the war they could have been protesting against had Indivisible made Trump’s war against Iran a priority.
It will also be very painful for the millions of Americans who will be forced to survive what could be an economic depression more dire than that of the 1930s. That is if these psychos in Tel Aviv and Washington DC don’t kill all of us in a nuclear conflict.
It seems that Indivisible’s billionaire funded NO KINGS DAY might have been successful so far at its primary goal of killing opposition to the war with Iran, Russia and the genocide. But we shouldn’t let them.
It’s time to stop letting those in power organize and fund our protest movement and initiate our own resistance to fascism outside the Democratic Party.
Food Not Bombs – PO Box 422, Santa Cruz CA 95061 USA – menu@foodnotbombs.net
NO KINGS DAY – The tragic missed opportunity to protest against the war with Iran.
War is a powerful way to justify the implementation of an authoritarian police state so why was Indivisible silent?
https://keithmchenry.substack.com/p/no-kings-day-the-tragic-missed-opportunity
CONTROLLED OPPOSITION
April 18, 2025
Let’s build a movement against fascism outside the control of the genocidal pro-war Democratic Party
While progressive Senator Cory Booker was giving his 25 hour Democratic Party infomercial on the Senate floor a Palestinian father could be seen on social media emerging from clouds of concrete dust in Gaza holding his headless child to the heavens. Two days later in another theatrical stunt designed to secure progressive loyalty to the Democratic Party Bernie introduces a bill to block $8.8 billion in arms sales to Israel which Booker voted against. Where was Bernie when he was voting to silence anti genocide protesters and backing Biden’s arms sales?
Capitalizing on the understandable anxiety of a Trump victory the Democrats are once again deploying their astroturf movement Indivisible. Since the mythology of the Democrats is that they are the party of the left they need to attract support from those who desire a progressive agenda. The party was trounced out of power for refusing to end the genocide or provide for the needs of the American people. The Republicans employed a similar strategy and used the fear of an Obama administration to launch the Tea Party to counter the perception that their party had moved away from their conservative roots. This is one method the billionaire class uses to tamp down any threat to their power.
After spending 18 brutal days in the Orange County Jail for the crime of sharing meals with the hungry I was released into the arms of Food Not Bombs volunteer Eric Montanez and handed a Tupperware of the best vegan Mac and Cheese I have ever tasted. News helicopters whirled above but they were not there for me. Socialite Casey Anthony, whose daughter was found dead as she partied was also being released from the Orlando jail at the same time as myself.
I was one of nearly 30 food servers arrested in the summer of 2011 after an appellate court ruled Florida’s most liberal city had the constitutional right to ban the sharing of meals with the homeless when Food Not Bombs appealed the Orlando groups first arrest.
On April 4, 2007, at the conclusion of an Orlando police undercover investigation that, according to the Orlando Weekly, cost taxpayers $65,000, Food Not Bombs volunteer Eric Montanez was arrested. When Food Not Bombs lost its appeal of the city ordinance volunteers defied the order and continued to provide the meals at Lake Eola Park picnic grounds.
When I finally was able to access my email one message included a call from Ad Busters to “Occupy Wall Street” on October 17th in a campaign to protest Obama’s bailout of the banks instead of coming to the aid of the 5.5 million families who lost their homes to foreclosure.
I supported the strategy of occupation and delivered hundreds of pounds of rice to New York and Washington DC and cooking equipment ready to help feed the protests. By Thanksgiving I had participated in over two dozen camps when the Obama administration aggressively started to crush the Occupy Wall Street movement.
A year after Occupy Wall Street was smashed Naomi Wolf wrote in the Guardian that, “FBI documents just obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF)… reveal that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat … The PCJF has obtained heavily redacted documents showing that FBI offices and agents around the country were in high gear conducting surveillance against the movement even as early as August 2011, a month prior to the establishment of the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park and other Occupy actions around the country.”
Many of us started organizing to ReOccupy the camps on May Day. As we were building our campaign a group calling itself 99% Spring asked San Francisco Bay activists to join them at a meeting in the Mission District. Nearly a hundred people sat around a conference room listening to the facilitators and watched their 20 minute inspirational film.
After the video people started to ask questions about why was there no mention of Obama’s bail out of the banks or his wars. The organizers dodged our questions and moved on to their plan. When it was suggested that many of us had already been planning to start the occupation on International Workers’ Day they claimed they had already picked their day in April. The presenters were clearly uncomfortable and deflected our questions. Nearly half of those attending walked out at lunch and never returned realizing that 99% Spring was just another Democratic Party front group designed to co-opt our movement.
The resulting confusion from their heavily promoted 99% Spring made organizing an independent return to the streets difficult. Masked people trashed areas of Seattle on May Day posing as a Black Block and news broke of a May first plot to bomb a bridge. The FBI had entrapped five of the 2011 Occupy Cleveland cooks including three young Food Not Bombs activists in a plot to use plastic explosives to topple the Route 82 bridge spanning Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park on 30 April 2012. Media reports of these events made sure that we didn’t continue the occupations.
The controlled opposition of the 99% Spring was only one of such subversions used to suppress threats against the Democratic Party from the left. MoveOn.org and Common Cause are among the well financed “grassroots” groups like Bernie Sanders’ Our Revolution designed to “sheepdog” people they fear might dedicate their energy to organize against corporate power and war redirecting them back into the dominate political system.
I signed up with Our Revolution in 2016 when Sanders was running against Hillary Clinton. Since he supported military contracts like the F-35 I was skeptical that he would bring the change he was campaigning on but I gave him a chance. It seems that contact list is still being used for the purpose of corralling those who might be a threat to their agenda from the left into their orbit. Bernie asked us to vote for the cackling about Libyan Open Air Slave Markets Hillary Clinton. He would go on to ask us to back genocide Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. That list was an important factor in drawing so many people to the Hands Off and Anti-Oligarchy Democratic Party rallies.
Those lists were also used to send out a Cory Booker fundraising text shortly after the Senator voted to stop Bernie’s theatrical attempt to cut arms shipments to Israel. Messaging intended to mobilize people still gullible enough to believe that the Democrats could be a progressive challenge to the madness of the Trump administration. The Pussy Hat distraction of the first Trump administration has become the Hands Off of Trump’s second term.
In their all out effort to protect their system of exploitation and empire they also launched the AOC/Bernie Anti Oligarch tour, started another group, 5051 to attract those who had become wise to the Indivisible scam, and made much of the Cory Booker 25 hour content free yapathon. We are sure to see even more seemingly progressive groups emerge but none will be opposed to the genocide, war or corporate power.
In 2016 when it became clear that Trump would win the election two Congressional staff members, Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, initiated Indivisible “publishing a twenty-three-page document drafted by a handful of former Democratic Congressional staffers in the days after Trump was elected. The subtitle: “A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda” with the intention of harnessing the fear many rightly had of what might happen during his first administration. It is no surprise that when the Democrats returned to power they made no effort to reverse some of the most damaging of Trump’s policies like the tax cuts for the wealthy, the mass deportations of migrants or even move the US Embassy from Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv.
The August 18, 2017, issue of the Progressive Magazine writes, “Indivisible has, in a very short time, emerged as the public face of citizen resistance to Trump. Like the Democratic Socialists of America and Our Revolution, the official outgrowth of Bernie Sanders’ primary campaign, Indivisible has received a surge of interest post election. Unlike those groups, it didn’t exist beforehand.” The Tides Foundation provided $350,000 to help them start.
The article goes on to say, “The former staffers, including Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg, now the group’s executive director and chief strategy officer respectively, had seen the Tea Party kneecap their bosses” attempts to pass progressive policies during Obama’s first term.”
One core member, Peter Dreier, claimed, “the goal of Indivisible was to “save American democracy&” and “resume the project of creating a humane America that is more like social democracy than corporate plutocracy.”
Anyone following the Democratic Party knows the last thing they support is democracy, otherwise for example, Bernie Sanders would have been their nominee, they wouldn’t have sued to keep the Green Party off the ballot in state after state and they would have held a primary in 2024. To claim the political party that refused to increase the minimum wage, presided over an economy that caused a 30% increase in the number of Americans who became homeless during their four years in power and armed the genocide of Gaza as “humane” seems a stretch.
Indivisible’s website states, “We’re a grassroots movement of thousands of local Indivisible groups with a mission to elect progressive leaders, rebuild our democracy, and defeat the Trump agenda.”
It is rare to see a grassroots movement receive millions in donations from wealthy foundations like Open Society Foundation that gave $3 million to one arm of Indivisible in 2023; $1,135,000 in 2022; $500,000 to one account in 2021 and $375,000 to another account also in 2021; $1,750,000 in 2019; $500,000 in 2018 and $350,000 in 2017. The Open Society Foundation has not posted how much it donated in 2024 and it is not clear how many millions more was provided by other foundations to the other Indivisible units like Indivisible Project, Indivisible Civics, and Indivisible Action. Open Secrets reported that one of the sections of Indivisible raised $9,922,930 in 2024. Hardly grassroots.
Indivisible isn’t the only Democratic Party project that was funded by Soros. In the second quarter of 2020, his organizations gave at least $500,000 to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, becoming one of the campaign’s largest donors. Soros was the country’s largest donor to political campaigns in 2022 donating $128.5 million to support the Democratic Party in that election cycle. While Soros’ Open Society Foundation was financing the Hands Off rallies Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury happens to be Soros Fund Management partner Scott Bessent.
The Democrats are employing the same Color Revolution strategy they used to topple the elected governments of Ukraine and Georgia. Build a system of controlled opposition in defense of US centric corporate power. The Soros funding of regime change programs in Georgia was considered by Georgian nationalists to be crucial to the success of the Rose Revolution coup. Alexander Lomaia, secretary of the Georgian Security Council, is a former executive director of the Open Society Georgia Foundation (Soros Foundation), overseeing a staff of 50 and a budget of $2.5 million. The Biden administration was still seeking to subvert the democratically elected government of Georgia with a second color revolution as he left office. Like most of Biden’s policies Trump is continuing the effort to replace that government with a US compliant puppet.
I echo CodePink’s Medea Benjamin in strongly agreeing with most of the demands listed on publicity for the Hands Off rallies, Hands Off Medicare, Hands off Social Security, Hands Off Education, Hands Off Public Lands, Hands Off Immigrants and Hands Off LGBTQIA+.
But what suggested to me that these Hands Off rallies have another goal other than to stand against the terror of the CIA linked vultures hovering around the Trump administration was what was absent in their messaging. Their publicity didn’t include Hands Off Gaza or Hands Off Yemen even while US bombs were tearing children to shreds as people gathered for the rallies. Horrors that were beyond anything we have ever witnessed raging at the exact time these rallies were taking place.
Even more telling was that one of the institutions they want to protect is the organization directing the regime change war against Russia. The “Hands Off!” rally’s website even offers a pdf of a “Hands Off NATO” sign for activists to print and bring to their rallies. The website also quotes MoveOn Executive Director Rahna Epting saying, “This peaceful movement is powered by everyday people.” Does that include the dozens of “everyday people” who have been calling me nearly everyday for the past two years desperate for food often remarking that it makes them angry that we can fund a war in Ukraine but we can’t provide for our own people here in the US.
While most of those who join these rallies have the best intentions, some even came holding handmade signs against the genocide in Gaza or waved a Palestinian flag, it is unlikely that Indivisible intends to unite with the massive protests against the murder of Palestinian families. Their message of peace was drowned out by all the Ukrainian flags supporting the deadly war against Russia and their support of the political party that just spent 15 months slaughtering Palestinian babies.
It is understandable that people would join the Hands Off rallies. The stunning cascade dismantling our rights and social supports is frightening. Legal residents being snatched off the streets and deported, the privatizing of social services and threats to donate our National Parks to Trump’s billionaire friends for mining and oil extraction couldn’t be more terrifying. Americans are leading busy lives, struggling to pay their bills and base their political perspectives from limited information served by the same corporate media that supports the agenda of the war state and naturally joined the rallies in desperation. Had I not been following Indivisible since their founding and realized their organization was designed to kill any opposition to the system I would have also participated. I just can’t join rallies where it’s ok with the organizers for people to wave the Ukrainian flag. I don’t want to be seen as supporting war let alone one led by supporters of Stepan Bandera.
When rallies get such positive national news you know they have the support of those in power. You won’t see dozens of Democratic Party officials participating in protests that threaten the economic and political system. Insider trading success Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi spoke to her fawning supporters in the swing state Pennsylvania. Former vice presidential running mate Tim Waltz screamed to his supporters that the Democrats were back. The ghoulish anti-homeless YIMBY California State Senator Scott Wiener gloated over a video of himself he shared on Facebook that opened with a fluttering Ukrainian flag outside San Francisco City Hall. Wiener came to Santa Cruz on April 5, 2019 helping launch the luxury high rise condominium craze that is turning our community into a 15 Minute Smart City hell-scape.
Santa Cruz Indivisible is dominated by our city’s worst West-siders and pro development politicians. Their Facebook site includes supporters like anti-homeless Take Back Santa Cruz activist and former city councilperson Richelle Noroyan. One of the first members is the founder of the Predictive Policing Software Ryan Coonerty now used by CIA contractor Palantir to target Palestinians. Bookshop Santa Cruz owner Casey Coonerty-Protti’s husband Michel Protti helped finance this program when he was Vice President of Yahoo.
Those who waved their Ukrainian flags most likely believed that Russia’s military actions were unprovoked and feared Trump’s claims of making peace with Putin were real. Nothing says provoked like the torrent of western leaders spending the last 20 years threatening to topple the Russian government. On March 26, 2022, Biden continued those regime change threats during a speech in Warsaw saying of President Putin that,”For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
The Hands Off events share the same Zionist sponsors as the current regime so it’s no wonder there was silence about the bombings of Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and Trumps threats to attack Iran. In a January 2024, article, “I don’t belong”: A Jewish student leaves Occidental College over wartime protests” the Forward writes, “Dreier, who identified himself as a “committed Jew” and has taught at the school for 30 years, acknowledged that “there are Jewish and Arab students feeling traumatized by what is happening in the Middle East.”
The Bernie AOC billionaire funded Anti-Oligarch tour is a second major front after Indivisible in the campaign to absorb those who might otherwise participate in an authentic movement against fascism into their dead end project. Police arrested Pro-Palestine protestors that had unfurled a banner saying “Free Palestine” at the Nampa, Idaho, rally as Sanders repeated his “Israel has a right to defend themselves against terrorism&” Zionist mantra followed by “I am doing my best to demand not another nickel for Netanyahu’s war.” Bernie is careful to accuse Netanyahu and avoids placing blame on Israel or his own record of voting for the genocide. Many in the crowd chanted Free Palestine as they removed the protesters. Non-Binary Artist in Recovery Blakeley posted a video of the tour saying “Bernie continues to claim “Israel has a right to defend themselves against terrorism” 18 months into a fucking genocide is actually fucking grotesque and you can’t call yourself pro-Palestine if you think this is okay or excusable.” Even though the Idaho crowned chanted Free Palestine Bernie ignored them and continued with his speech.
Of course he turned his back on his supporters.In 2023, as the genocide was reaching its most murderous levels, Bernie Sanders voted for a Senate Resolution condemning anti-genocide student protesters and organizations as “antisemitic, repugnant, and morally contemptible”. AOC and Bernie are not likely to travel to the Louisiana Detention Center where Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil is now being held.
This could spell disaster for our future as the US threatens to start a global war while the economy collapses. Two aircraft carrier armadas, six to ten B 2 stealth bombers capable of dropping nuclear weapons, and dozens of heavy transport planes, air defense systems are set to attack Iran if they fail to bend to Trump’s demands. At the same time Ukraine is increasing its attacks on Russia while it is reported that Moscow strikes a meeting with NATO officers in Kyiv and the global economic system crashes, threatening to force millions of Americans into financial ruin. Yet none of this was even a blip on the agenda of the Hands Off or Anti-Oligarch rallies.
Indivisible helped smother any possibility of using the terror of Trump’s first term to build a massive movement. Their solution was more war, austerity and a genocide.
If we have any hope of the change required to defend ourselves from the onslaught of the End Times Techno-fascists implementing their Stargate AI digital future we had better stop falling for the two party illusion. We urgently need to build a movement independent of the Democratic Party. A movement that threatens power.
Food Not Bombs – PO Box 422, Santa Cruz CA 95061 USA – https://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/
https://open.substack.com/pub/keithmchenry/p/controlled-opposition
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