This is a time for bravery

Hey folks. It’s Thursday, January 23. It’s been three days since the inauguration of Donald Trump. Three days. Feels more like three weeks, doesn’t it? Or three months. Earlier this week, I released a video in which I talked about the importance of being brave in these crazy times (if you didn’t see it, please upgrade your subscription to access the archive). If you watched any news or read any headlines from these past three days, you can understand why.

Trump is governing almost entirely by executive order, flouting the intentions of the Founders. He’s not the first president to do it, but year over year, he’s the worst offender of this century. His supporters don’t mind; in fact they relish it, because Trump’s greatest accomplishment is getting Americans not to care about things we should care about. Just off the top of my head, why don’t half of us care about open-air corruption by an incoming president? Why don’t we care that violent felons who attacked our Capitol have been released en masse and invited back to the Hill? Why don’t we care that even critical health information that should be based on medical science alone is being politicized?

Why don’t half of us care that the president’s “First Buddy” flashed a very public Nazi salute on Inauguration Day? Elon Musk knew exactly what he was doing. You don’t get to call him a genius in one breath and then say he didn’t understand how that would play in the next. Besides, Musk could clear it all up by saying, “I would NEVER do the Nazi salute. Because Nazis are evil. Fuck Nazis.” He has not. That would piss off his new nativist 4chan bros.

I see this publication as a place for us to document all these facts in real-time, which will be absolutely essential as Trump tries to whitewash his despicable actions with plenty of help from a complicit corporate media. Just as importantly, this will be a place for us to honor and support the brave. We saw some powerful examples this week of bravery. Before we’re inundated with another week of crazy, let’s memorialize these acts of courage by those who believe, as we do, in the American social contract.

BISHOP MARIANN BUDDE. At the top of the list is Mariann Budde, the Anglican Bishop of Washington. In the most gentle, Christ-like way, she implored Trump “to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” including immigrants and the LGBTQ community, at a prayer service on Tuesday. Budde has since been criticized by Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and others for preaching Jesus’ teachings in a house of worship. I guess Christians really are under attack in America…by MAGA Republicans. The irony is thick.

MICHAEL FANONE, THE JAN. 6 JUDGES & PAM HEMPHILL. Mike Johnson’s disgusting announcement of a new Jan. 6 committee designed to rewrite the history of the insurrection and his refusal to criticize Trump’s pardons set yet another new low for the Speaker. By contrast, former officer Michael Fanone, one of the injured defenders of the Capitol on Jan. 6, fearlessly denounced the betrayal. And the judges who presided over the Jan. 6 cases said the dismissal of charges cannot undo the “rampage that left multiple people dead, injured more than 140 people, and inflicted millions of dollars in damage.” Pam Hemphill knows. She was there on Jan. 6. She has since seen the light and refused Trump’s pardon.

THOM TILLIS & LISA MURKOWSKI: Just like in Trump’s last term, we have to support Republicans when they refuse to bend the knee. In this case, kudos to Sen. Thom Tillis for pushing back against Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons and to Sen. Lisa Murkowski for saying she will not support the wildly unfit Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. Let’s hope other Republicans follow their lead.

SAM KUFFEL: Don’t know who she is? She’s a weather reporter in Milwaukee. Or she was. Kuffel had the temerity to criticize Elon Musk’s Nazi salute on Instagram. She was quickly dismissed from her job at CBS 58. I’m sure she didn’t expect to lose employment for merely speaking the truth, but alas, here we are. Hopefully Kuffel is picked up at another network soon…one that’s a little more pro-free speech.

ANDERS VISTISEN. You don’t have to be American to be brave. Vistisen, a Danish member of the European Parliament, has made his opinion of Trump’s plans to take Greenland clear. During a meeting of the European Parliament in France on Tuesday, he said, "Dear President Trump, listen very carefully. Greenland has been part of the Danish kingdom for 800 years. It is an integrated part of our country. It is not for sale. Let me put it in words you might understand: Mr. Trump, fuck off." He gets it. Now, if only our allies will follow suit.

WAKE UP, DEMOCRATS! The Democrats have some serious work to do too, not just on policy, but on how to be a proper opposition party to an authoritarian one. Cheers to Michelle Obama and Doug Emhoff for protesting the right way on Inauguration Day. And thank you to Kamala Harris for making her first post-vice presidential stop to the Altadena fire victims. Class acts all.

So what can you do?

Okay, so you’re not a bishop, a congressperson, a judge, a TV reporter, a Danish MP, a former VP, or First Partner. It doesn’t matter. There are plenty of ways to be brave.

1. Write a letter to the editor at your local paper. Express your beliefs. If you get published, send us a link, and we’ll include it here.

2. Join the growing #NOKINGS community. Let’s build a community right now of Americans who rally around and identify with that basic truth: we don’t have kings in America. We’ll figure out where to go beyond that down the road. I’ve changed all my profile pictures to #NOKINGS, and you can too. Go to www.oneflaginitiative.org to grab the #NOKINGS graphic and instructions on how to change your profile pics.

3. Read on to learn more about the Social Contract in the Spotlight piece below.

A Two-Way Breakdown: What Is the Social Contract and How Can We Fix It?

By Joe Walsh

What is the social contract? The idea is pretty simple: it's the sum total of the moral and political rules we establish for ourselves as a free society. The social contract is what allows us all to live, more or less, in freedom and harmony with one another.

Part of our social contract is codified into the laws by which we are governed. In exchange for following the rules and paying taxes, we expect the government to protect our rights, help keep us safe, and ensure we can live our lives with some sense of fairness and opportunity.

But the social contract isn’t just something the government holds up…...