This week, Ezra addresses ICE escalation, Trump’s deployment of military force
against peaceful protestors, and what we need to know about responding. Plus,
you can get ready for No Kings Day, fight the GOP reconciliation bill, and
learn about medical misinformation in our weekly action items.

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Do you like our newsletter intros, or would you rather skip straight to action
items? [ [link removed] ]Tell us know what you prefer in our newsletter survey, and feel free
to scroll past Ezra’s opening thoughts if you’re in a hurry.

Hey Indivisibles,

Things are getting heated and alarming, so I’m going to try writing this
intro in as measured a tone as possible. We’ll talk about all this on
[ [link removed] ]Thursday’s What’s The Plan, but first I hope you’ll take us up on the
Indivisible team’s suggested action items below ahead of this Saturday’s
[ [link removed] ]No Kings Day. Before we get to the action items, let’s talk about where
things stand.

The autocratic breakthrough is now escalating. At Indivisible, we’ve used
the term “autocratic breakthrough” a lot in recent months. The
breakthrough is characterized by Trump’s firing of the internal auditors;
his empowering of Musk to ransack the government; his open defiance of
court orders; and his attacks on law firms, media institutions,
universities, businesses, and nonprofits. 

Trump and Stephen Miller have been driving a rapacious, vicious escalation
in ICE raids and detentions. ICE agents have been assigned massive quotas
for detentions, and to meet them, they’re going after the people they can
find -- workers at job sites, immigrants who are following all the rules
and reporting for check-ins at courthouses, kids at schools.

Over the weekend, this led to a predictable clash in Los Angeles. Facts
are important, so here’s a timeline of events:

Friday (6/6): Surprise ICE sweeps in LA leading to the detaining of more
than 40 workers. Nonviolent protests gather in different parts of the
city.

Saturday (6/7): At a nonviolent protest, California’s SEIU leader David
Huerta, a US citizen, is assaulted, tear-gassed, and arrested by ICE.
Trump calls up 2,000 California National Guard troops over the objection
of the governor and mayor, even as the Los Angeles Police Department
[ [link removed] ]applauds the protests for remaining peaceful.

Sunday (6/8): Military humvees arrive in LA. Protesters block the freeway.
LAPD declares unlawful assembly and fires non-lethal rounds and teargas on
protestors and journalists. Trump (through Secretary of Defense Hegseth)
escalates further by threatening to mobilize 500 Marines.

Monday (6/9): Just as we're hitting send on this email, it's reported that
700 Marines are being deployed to LA over the next 24-hours.

Trump and his cadre are escalating to cause enormous human harm against
those they view as less than human. But they’re also escalating to create
chaos they can then use to legitimize further escalation. So while
protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, when some bad actors engaged in
property destruction or violence, the Trump team used that as an excuse to
escalate further. That’s their plan -- rinse and repeat.

Where we go from here. The ICE raid escalation has not been limited to LA,
and I don’t believe the military escalation will be limited to LA either.
Legal experts have noted that Trump’s legally-questionable statement
commandeering the California National Guard did not limit him to just
California. Who knows which city is next. Or cities.

And of course, this is coming at a fraught moment. Trump is planning a
taxpayer-funded birthday military parade for himself with tanks in the
streets of DC. It’s a flamboyant and intimidating show of force -- an
attempt to present himself as a supreme leader. Somewhere, Mussolini is
looking up and smiling.

We don’t know how much of this is intended to be an escalation
specifically in advance of the parade. What we do know is that this is
scary -- intentionally so. Fear is their goal because fear is both
demobilizing and contagious.

But we know that courage is contagious, too. When the fascists crack down
on small-scale nonviolent protest, we need large-scale nonviolent protest.
That’s what works. Leaders, institutions, and people currently on the
sideline need to know that the defense of democracy is inevitable,
overwhelming, and irresistible. They need to see it with their own eyes.

This is where the good news comes in. When we here at Indivisible heard
Trump was planning a birthday military parade, we got to work on No Kings
Day counterprogramming. We wanted to avoid counter-protests in DC that
would give Trump an excuse to crack down on protestors. Instead, we aimed
to organize everywhere else.

I [ [link removed] ]announced the plan last month in a conversation with Rachel Maddow.
At the time, we had a handful of partners and about 100 events registered.
Today, there are more than 150 national organizational partners, thousands
of local leaders, and nearly 1,800 nonviolent protests globally.

Despite how unsettling these escalations are, I’m excited for Saturday.
I’m trying to ground myself in some basic beliefs. I believe in our
people. I believe in our cause. And I believe that we will win. We just
have to do the work to make that more than a belief.

In solidarity,
Ezra Levin
Co-Executive Director
Indivisible

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Your weekly to-dos

 1. [ [link removed] ]Join a No Kings protest this Saturday, June 14, to show the Trump
regime we won’t cower under its authoritarian attacks. Trump can roll
tanks through DC and deploy the military against peaceful protestors
in LA, but we can mobilize millions in large cities and small towns
from sea to shining sea. We need to show up by the millions to
demonstrate that Trump’s tyrannic crackdown is only deepening our
resolve.
 2. [ [link removed] ]Attend the “Know Your Rights” training tomorrow, June 10, at 7pm ET
/ 4pm PT to help keep No Kings protests safe and non-violent.  Trump
deployed forces against American citizens to chill dissent, spark
confrontation, and create an excuse to seize even more power. We won’t
back down, but we need to be prepared to handle encounters with law
enforcement and de-escalate tense situations. También disponible [ [link removed] ]en
Español a las 5:15pm PT.
 3. [ [link removed] ]Sign up for the No Kings mass call this Thursday, June 12, at 8pm
ET / 5pm PT to prepare for the huge day ahead! All No Kings attendees
are highly encouraged to join our pre-mobilization call this Thursday,
when we’ll discuss recent developments, share tactics to de-escalate
conflict, give tips for successful demonstrations, and come together
in community to get fired up for Saturday.
 4. [ [link removed] ]Join this week’s “What’s the Plan” call (Thursdays, 3pm ET / 12pm
PT) to ask Leah and Ezra your questions about Los Angeles, ICE, No
Kings, and more. Each Thursday, our co-founders jump online to break
down the news, draw inspiration from our work, and answer your
questions directly. Come be part of a free-flowing, interactive chat
about what’s next in our fight for democracy.

P.S. This is it. We’re just five days out from our nationwide day of
defiance on June 14, when millions will peacefully assemble to say NO
KINGS IN THE USA! We’re running promotional campaigns, hosting trainings,
and lining up security, portapotties, and everything else a massive
demonstration needs. That takes a TON of resources. [ [link removed] ]PLEASE -- If you
can spare anything at all, chip in now to organize nationwide and make No
Kings as massive and powerful as possible.

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This week's update on the Republican Tax Scam

The Republican reconciliation bill hasn’t moved much since we wrote to you
about it last week. It’s still being significantly rewritten in the
Senate, and we still have a chance to stop it through pressure tactics
that maximize the chaos and infighting driven by [ [link removed] ]budget hawks,
[ [link removed] ]Senate rules, [ [link removed] ]blue-state Republicans, [ [link removed] ]Elon Musk, and [ [link removed] ]just
about everyone else.

So this week -- given escalating ICE violence and the horrifying situation
in Los Angeles -- let’s talk about how this bill funds Trump’s unlawful
mass deportations and fascist crackdown on dissent.

In addition to ripping food and healthcare away from millions, the
reconciliation bill provides BILLIONS in funding to supercharge ICE, which
is essentially serving as Donald Trump’s private police force. The bill
would:

* Increase ICE’s detention budget by 13x
* Fund 10,000 new ICE agents
* Provide bonuses for ICE agents
* Make ICE the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the federal
government

We want to be really hard-nosed about our strategy here. We must oppose
more money to supercharge Trump terrorizing immigrant communities and
cracking down on protest. And the best way to stop this bill is to
relentlessly hammer on the politically toxic Medicaid cuts and billionaire
tax giveaways.

That’s what is making Republicans in Congress sweat the most, and that’s
what might slow or even stop this bill in its tracks. Here’s how you can
help:

[ [link removed] ]Join a phonebank to connect voters in key states directly to their
Republican senators. Our phonebankers help ensure Senate Republicans are
completely overwhelmed with messages opposing their Medicaid-slashing tax
scam.

Phonebanks like these can only be held on weekdays during business hours, when
senators' phonelines are staffed, but we understand that many volunteers can’t
join us at those times!

If you can’t join a phonebank, you can still take action anytime: [ [link removed] ]Send
your Republican senator an email or [ [link removed] ]write to your Republican
representative. Then, share those links with friends and neighbors to multiply
your impact.

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Get ready for No Kings with online trainings

Trump’s overreach in Los Angeles makes it clear: He fears peaceful protest
and will purposely seek conflict as an excuse to demonize and crack down
on dissent. We aren’t backing down, but we are preparing with training
calls to help make every No Kings event safe, lawful, and non-violent.

These are the same virtual events you saw above in our weekly to-dos, but
they’re just too important not to mention again:

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KNOW YOUR RIGHTS w/ ACLU
Tuesday, June 10, 7pm ET / 4pm PT
Virtual (join online from anywhere)

[ [link removed] ]Register now

También disponible en español. Mira más abajo.

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CONOZCA SUS DERECHOS
Martes, 10 de junio, 8:15pm ET / 5:15pm PT
Virtual (únete desde cualquier lugar)

[ [link removed] ]Regístrese ahora

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MASS CALL FOR ALL ATTENDEES
Thursday, June 12, 8pm ET / 5pm PT
Virtual (join online from anywhere)

[ [link removed] ]Register now

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No Kings training calls are not mandatory for attendees but are highly
encouraged. Additional training opportunities and support can be found at
[ [link removed] ]NoKings.org/trainings.

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IndivisiWIN of the week

[ [link removed] ]A Times of San Diego headline says Protesters rally outside Camp Pendleton
over threat to deploy Marines to LA

It’s not just the massive scale of protests like Hands Off! and No Kings
that make Indivisibles’ work so powerful. It’s often the speed with which
local Indivisible groups respond to authoritarianism at work across the
country!

This weekend -- just hours after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
threatened to deploy Marines in Los Angeles -- demonstrators led by
Indivisible North County San Diego and Indivisible49 [ [link removed] ]gathered at a
nearby Marine base, Camp Pendleton. Activists held signs condemning
Trump's use of military force to quell dissent, while waving flags and
showing support for servicemembers caught in the middle of his
authoritarian gambit.

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Fight medical misinformation with the Truth Brigade

[ [link removed] ]Join Indivisible’s Truth Brigade Wednesday to explore how
disinformation -- from false claims about vaccines and wellness to harmful
fictions about gender-affirming care -- props up harmful healthcare
policies and creates a culture of mistrust around science.

[ [link removed] ]Flier for Indivisible's Truth Brigade webinar on June 11 -- Click to
register and join the call

Speakers Caitlin Dow, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest,
and Jake Engle from Upswing Research, will join us to help break the chain
of sickening health lies.

[ [link removed] ]Click here to sign up for the Big Truths Webinar: Medical
Misinformation Madness on June 11 at 6:30pm ET / 3:30pm PT, and join a
team of activists leading the fight against dangerous disinformation!

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latest information, and text “INDIVISIBLE” to 59798 to opt-in to our text
messaging program, where we send rapid response actions a few times a
month.

[ [link removed] ]Indivisible Facebook

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