Pride 2026: Strength. Resilience. Love.

As folks from all over the globe begin their annual Pride Month celebrations, the situation in the United States is less than encouraging for the LGBTQ+ community. National polls released this month show a significant drop in overall support for the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans. Unsurprisingly, Republicans are the source of most of these negative changes.

On the legal front, the challenges are also mounting. Executive orders, Supreme Court decisions and state-level legislation have dramatically shifted the legal landscape. Even here in Illinois our Republican legislators are constantly pushing their anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.

Some important legal shifts to be aware of:

  • The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which oversees protections against workplace discrimination, is no longer prioritizing the LGBTQ+ community.

  • The US Supreme Court has ruled that state laws protecting minors from conversion therapy practices are unconstitutional and therefore void. Only Justice Ketangi Brown Jackson dissented, noting the potential harm to those, especially children, subjected to this type of treatment.

  • Beginning with plan year 2026, gender-affirming care was removed from the list of essential health benefits that most insurance plans are required to cover. Separately, the Office of Personnel Management announced it would no longer include gender-affirming care under Federal Employees Health Benefits.

In the face of these attacks we must stand strong in our support of LGBTQ+ rights. We must be visible, we must be vigilant, and we must be resilient.

Above all, we must continue to support each other in our search for love, happiness and equality.

We Stand May Day Strong!

Memorial to the Haymarket Martyrs in Chicago. Read about Haymarket and the May Day General Strike of 1886.

In most other countries, May 1 is celebrated as May Day, or International Workers Day, and its history is intimately connected with U.S. workers’ long fight for the eight-hour workday. Even so, the U.S. is an outlier in its refusal to formally recognize May Day or International Workers’ Day. This is no surprise, given the Trump administration’s assault on workers and our rights. In less than two years a century’s worth of work has been undone.

This year we reclaim May Day as a sacred holiday for workers and we demand this of OUR government:

  • Tax the rich so our families, not their fortunes, come first.

  • No ICE.

  • No war.

  • No private army serving unchecked federal power.

  • Expand democracy, not corporate power.

  • Hands off our vote.

Join us at Rotary Park on Friday, May 1st as we flex our collective muscle in a tremendous day of power and unity!

Our Vote is Our Power!

Democracy in America would not exist without the right to vote. Yet being able to cast a ballot that counts is one of the hardest-fought battles in American history – one that once again takes center stage.

Race and ethnicity have been central to the evolution of voting rights movements in the United States. Historically marginalized communities, particularly Black Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Asian Americans, have faced significant barriers to voting, requiring organized activism to combat systemic disenfranchisement.

Even after the hard-fought Civil Rights movement culminating in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the fight is far from over. This “crown jewel” of the civil rights movement was gutted by a devastating Supreme Court ruling in 2013 that sent a chilling message to African Americans, the Latino community, people with disabilities, students, and many others who continue to face politically-motivated hurdles when voting. Trump and his ilk are whipping up hysteria about mass illegal voting that simply doesn’t exist, then using that hysteria to fuel an onslaught of voter suppression laws—all to keep certain people from exercising their right to vote. Since the 2020 Presidential election, states have passed hundreds of restrictive voting laws, demonstrating an ongoing policy of voter suppression.

And now, at the federal level, we’ve got the SAVE Act – which of course, saves nothing except the future of the Republican Party. Trump has explicitly stated that the SAVE Act, if passed, will grab power and guarantee election wins for Republicans. According to the Legal Defense Fund, the SAVE Act will:

  • Require every American to provide documentary proof of citizenship (such as a passport, birth certificate, or citizenship certificate) to register or re-register to vote.

  • Functionally eliminate online and mail-in voter registration, and other voter registration efforts by requiring people to produce citizenship documents in person to an election official. Only 6% of voters currently register in person at an elections office.

  • Put election officials at unnecessary legal risk for trying to enact cumbersome requirements in their state or locality.

  • Essentially create a new poll tax for voters who would need to purchase additional documentation.

Millions of eligible voters not be able to register or re-register to vote because they lack documentation. Among those affected will be:

  • 70 million married people who have changed their last name from the name on their birth certificate

  • Nearly half of Black Americans under 30 who do not have ID with their current name and address

  • 146 million Americans who do not have a passport

  • Rural voters who may live far from election offices and would not easily be able to register in person

  • People with disabilities and older voters who may not be able to register in person.

The SAVE Act may be up for a vote today! This is serious, people. It’s time to raise our voices while we still have them. Join us tomorrow, 11 am - 1 pm at Rotary Park in Princeton!

Lies, Lies and Wars

At first glance Trump’s “not a war” in Iran seems simple. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution is clear: “The Congress shall have Power...To declare War.” Not the President. Not the Pentagon. Not the CIA. Congress. Our US Congress has not declared war against Iran. Therefore this “not a war” is illegal.

All true.

Reality, however, is far more complicated. The United States’ bombing of Iran is the culmination of decades of lies and manipulation perpetrated on the American people and on the US Congress.

A quick refresher of a few important events:

Vietnam

In 1964 Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which gave Lyndon Johnson the power to take military action in Vietnam without a formal declaration of war. Later the public learned the alleged incident inspiring the resolution never happened. Although Congress repealed the resolution in 1971, the war in Vietnam continued until 1975. Government lies and Presidential disregard for the law erode the power of Congress.

Gulf War

In the wake of the September 11 attacks on the US, Congress passed the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which once again gave the President power to wage war without Congress’ formal declaration – this time, to pursue the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. The AUMF had no specific end date and has been used to justify a slew of US military actions since. In 2002 Congress passed a second resolution allowing the US to continue the undeclared war against Iraq based on the premise that Iraq was building and holding “weapons of mass destruction.” This claim, as we now know, was a lie. Again, lies were used to manipulate Congress into compliance, further eroding Congressional power.

Venezuela

Based on flimsy reports of Venezuelan fentanyl trafficking, the US began bombing Venezuelan fishing boats and then arrested Venezuelan President Maduro. A tortured legal argument (narcotics are a form of terrorism) justified the bombings under the AUMF. Real data shows little, if any, connection between Venezuela and fentanyl. So the big lie triumphs again while this time, Congress remains silently complicit. Side note: while there may not be a lot of fentanyl in Venezuela, there IS a heck of a lot of oil.

And now, into the present – Trump’s undeclared war in Iran – the latest in a series of “not wars” beginning with the Korean War that’s continued unchecked ever since. Inarguably illegal? Yes. Unchallenged by a weak and complicit Congress? Absolutely!

So our message of NO KINGS isn’t only for the shambling old man who’s gotten us into this shameful, wasteful and stupid war. Our message is also for the shamefully weak and incompetent Congress that has over decades ceded its power to the executive branch. Our US Congress, along with the Supreme Court, has crowned this king. We must protest – and reject – ALL the actors in this continued power grab on all fronts.

Join us as we raise our voices on Saturday, 11 am – 1 pm at Rotary Park!

Hostile Sexism and Trump’s War on Women

Okay. We’ve survived the first year of the second Trump administration – but just barely. For women and people of color, the year has been exhausting and filled with both heartbreak and rage. This administration has been using (abusing) its power to turn back the clock on our rights and protections in a practice the Nonprofit Quarterly calls hostile sexism. (A highly recommended piece! Read it HERE.) Courtesy of the National Partnership for Women and Families, here are just a few ways Trump’s war on women has taken its toll on us in the past year.

ATTEMPTING TO WITHDRAW GUIDANCE ON WORKPLACE HARASSMENT
On December 29, 2025, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission took steps to rescind necessary guidance on workplace harassment and abandon protections for women and LGBTQ+ employees in favor of a politicized focus on religious discrimination and perceived discrimination against white men.

ENDING FUNDING FOR CRUCIAL RESEARCH ON WOMEN’S HEALTH
Trump has led a continued attack on vital research funding – important research institutions such as the National Institutes of Health have had their funding and staff cut. And in a serious loss for women’s health research, the Department of Health and Human Services attempted to cancel funding for the Women’s Health Initiative, its first and largest study focused on the health needs of women.

WORKING TO STRIP MILLIONS OF DOMESTIC WORKERS OF MINIMUM WAGE AND OVERTIME PROTECTIONS
After years of fighting for their rights, domestic workers won important minimum wage and overtime pay protections through Department of Labor rulemaking, which went into effect in 2015. Now, the Trump Administration is working to strip millions of domestic workers of those rights through another rulemaking process which, if successful, would further lower wages, increase turnover, and undo a decade of progress.

FREEZING FUNDING FOR TITLE X FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMS AND DEFUNDING PLANNED PARENTHOOD
The Trump Administration’s efforts to withhold Title X funds and defund reproductive health providers have driven reproductive health clinic closures and increased barriers to women’s health care access. Furthermore, the budget bill defunded Planned Parenthood clinics by prohibiting Medicaid reimbursements. While the prohibition on federal funding is only written into law for one year, it’s already having longstanding effects. Following the loss of Title X funds and Medicaid reimbursements, nearly 50 Planned Parenthood health centers were forced to close last year.

WORKING TO UNDO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION REQUIREMENTS THAT GIVE WOMEN ACCESS TO APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMS
Women are grossly underrepresented in these programs, making up only 14.4 percent of apprentices. Rather than investing in apprenticeship programs as President Trump promised, his Department of Labor has pushed to make apprenticeships less accessible by targeting programs aimed at recruiting more women and workers of color.

PUSHING PRONATALIST POLICIES THAT THREATEN WOMEN’S HEALTH AND AUTONOMY
Pronatalism is a policy of encouraging people to bear children predicated on racist, misogynistic, and ableist ideas about what kinds of families are desirable and worthy of being protected. It limits our societal value to only our capacity as mothers. What’s lacking from the pronatalist agenda are the supports families need to raise healthy families, including expanded health care access.

THREATENING TO ELIMINATE THE WOMEN’S BUREAU AT THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
The Women’s Bureau was established by Congress in 1920 and is the only federal agency mandated to work on advancing economic opportunity for working women. Instead of investing in programs and initiatives that address the barriers women face in the economy, the Trump Administration is committed to dismantling the very agency dedicated to that work.

PASSING HISTORIC CUTS TO MEDICAID THAT DISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECT WOMEN AND CHILDREN’S ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE
Trump’s 2025 budget cuts more than $1 trillion from the Medicaid and the ACA – representing the largest rollback of federal funding in U.S. history. An estimated 7.8 million people will become uninsured due to Medicaid cuts by 2034. These cuts will also put over 130 labor and delivery units in rural areas at risk of closure, making maternal healthcare even more inaccessible in rural communities.

SOWING MISTRUST IN ABORTION PILL SAFETY
Medication abortion is critical to abortion access nationwide, accounting for more than 60% of all clinician-provided abortion care. The FDA announced it would formally review mifepristone, one of two pills commonly used for medication abortions, despite its longstanding record of safety and efficacy. Administration officials justified the politically-motivated re-evaluation of abortion pill safety with junk science and disinformation about risks. This manufactured crisis is an attempt to curb access to medication abortion, laying the groundwork for further restrictions on abortion pills in the future.

ABUSING PRESIDENTIAL POWER TO TARGET WOMEN IN GOVERNMENT – ESPECIALLY WOMEN OF COLOR
Over and over, the Trump administration has demonstrated its fear and disdain for powerful women in government. They have targeted New York Attorney General Letitia James and Federal Reserve member Dr. Lisa Cook and fired Dr. Erika McEntarfer, former Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Board Member Gwynne Wilcox and General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo.

Keep in mind this is just a small sample of actions taken against women and our rights in the past year. You can read the National Partnership for Women’s full report HERE and Nonprofit Quarterly’s piece on hostile sexism HERE. We recommend both as a warm-up for our protest against Trump’s war on women, Saturday, March 7 at Rotary Park in Princeton, 11 am to 1 pm. See you there!

Choose Your Poison – and Stand Up!

If you’re looking for a reason to protest the dangerous actions of our current administration, you certainly don’t have to look far. Consider the following, all from just the last three days:

Scary? You betcha. So choose your poison – protest one or protest all of it. But please, STAND UP! Join us at Rotary Park this Saturday, February 21 from 11 am to 1 pm.

Government by the billionaires, for the billionaires

While most Americans face a worsening affordability crisis, a new analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies finds combined wealth of 935 U.S. billionaires surged to $8.1 trillion at the end of 2025, up from $6.7 trillion a year ago.

The biggest gains were among the top 15 U.S. billionaires, those with assets over $100 billion. This elite group saw their wealth surge to $3.2 trillion at the end of 2025, up from $2.4 trillion a year ago, a gain of 33 percent (more than double the S&P 500 increase of 16 percent).

Based on an Institute for Policy Studies analysis of data from the Forbes real time billionaire list from 2025, there are 935 billionaires in the United States with combined wealth totaling $8.1 trillion.

Meanwhile, millions of American families are facing the grueling costs of inflation, price gouging at the grocery store and the gas pump, higher health insurance premiums, and higher cost of living for communities across America. Nearly half of Americans said they find groceries, utility bills, health care, housing and transportation difficult to afford, according to a November 2025 POLITICO poll, and one in four Americans are skipping medical appointments and medication doses because they can’t afford the costs. The affordability crisis is set to worsen as devastating cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps are due to hit in 2026.

4 in 10 children in rural areas receive Medicaid and/or CHIP benefits. With over 700 rural hospitals at risk of closure, and over 300 more at risk due to Medicaid cuts, children in rural areas could lose access to health services.

After poverty-reducing programs enacted in 2021 expired, child poverty more than doubled from 5.2% in 2021 to 13.4% in 2024, and the overall poverty rate has increased from 8% back to nearly 13% in 2024.

“It’s not just that U.S. billionaires are entering 2026 with record-breaking increases in extreme wealth: it’s that they are also paying far less in taxes compared to the huge amount of wealth they amass. Average taxpayers like you and I pay income tax at triple the rate of the wealthiest Americans,” said Omar Ocampo, researcher at the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies. “Not only are a small number of Americans holding more wealth than the rest of America, but they’re also not paying their fair share in taxes.”

These staggering combined billionaire wealth totals come as the Trump-GOP budget bill passed in 2025 de-funded health insurance, food stamps, and other vital anti-poverty safety net programs, in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and budget increases for militarism and mass deportations. 

UNEQUAL BY THE NUMBERS from Oxfam America
Article courtesy of Institute for Policy Studies

Government by the billionaires, for the billionaires

While most Americans face a worsening affordability crisis, a new analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies finds combined wealth of 935 U.S. billionaires surged to $8.1 trillion at the end of 2025, up from $6.7 trillion a year ago.

The biggest gains were among the top 15 U.S. billionaires, those with assets over $100 billion. This elite group saw their wealth surge to $3.2 trillion at the end of 2025, up from $2.4 trillion a year ago, a gain of 33 percent (more than double the S&P 500 increase of 16 percent).

Based on an Institute for Policy Studies analysis of data from the Forbes real time billionaire list from 2025, there are 935 billionaires in the United States with combined wealth totaling $8.1 trillion.

Meanwhile, millions of American families are facing the grueling costs of inflation, price gouging at the grocery store and the gas pump, higher health insurance premiums, and higher cost of living for communities across America. Nearly half of Americans said they find groceries, utility bills, health care, housing and transportation difficult to afford, according to a November 2025 POLITICO poll, and one in four Americans are skipping medical appointments and medication doses because they can’t afford the costs. The affordability crisis is set to worsen as devastating cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps are due to hit in 2026.

4 in 10 children in rural areas receive Medicaid and/or CHIP benefits. With over 700 rural hospitals at risk of closure, and over 300 more at risk due to Medicaid cuts, children in rural areas could lose access to health services.

After poverty-reducing programs enacted in 2021 expired, child poverty more than doubled from 5.2% in 2021 to 13.4% in 2024, and the overall poverty rate has increased from 8% back to nearly 13% in 2024.

“It’s not just that U.S. billionaires are entering 2026 with record-breaking increases in extreme wealth: it’s that they are also paying far less in taxes compared to the huge amount of wealth they amass. Average taxpayers like you and I pay income tax at triple the rate of the wealthiest Americans,” said Omar Ocampo, researcher at the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies. “Not only are a small number of Americans holding more wealth than the rest of America, but they’re also not paying their fair share in taxes.”

These staggering combined billionaire wealth totals come as the Trump-GOP budget bill passed in 2025 de-funded health insurance, food stamps, and other vital anti-poverty safety net programs, in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and budget increases for militarism and mass deportations. 

UNEQUAL BY THE NUMBERS from Oxfam America
Article courtesy of Institute for Policy Studies

We refuse to submit to MAGA cruelty!

In Republicans’ latest cruel effort to bludgeon us into submission, SNAP benefits are now ended for the duration of the MAGA-led government shutdown. We urge you and our elected Democrats not to knuckle under to this vicious MAGA extortion. Remember that Republicans can end the government shutdown at any time – they just don’t want to.

In response, Illinois has joined 24 other states’ attorneys general and governors in a suit against the USDA, which is refusing to release the contingency funds designed to shore up the SNAP program during emergencies like the current shutdown. The state of Illinois is also moving fast to help local food banks with $20 million in emergency funding. Right now and for the foreseeable future our job is to take care of our families and each other. If your family is losing SNAP benefits, don’t hesitate to get help at your local food pantry.

If you don’t usually receive these benefits and you’re in a position to help out, please do! Your donations are not only welcome, they are now desperately needed. Contact a food pantry in your area to learn how you can help. Here’s some information to get you started:

Bureau County Food Pantry
(815) 875-6064

Hall Township Food Pantry
(815) 663-2085

Western Bureau County Food Pantry
(309) 238-3229

Wyanet United Methodist Food Pantry
(815) 699-2647

Walnut Community Food Pantry
(815) 379-2494

Illinois Valley Food Pantry
(815)224-3658

Community Food Basket
info@ottawafoodbasket.org
(815) 431-0155

Servant’s Heart Fellowship
(815) 220-0914

Putnam County Food Pantry
(815) 866-6484

Trump to American farmers: Oh yeah — SCREW YOU TOO.

“U.S. farmers view cuts to USAID as a direct assault on them. USAID has a $40 billion budget and runs aid programs in over 100 countries with a staff of more than 10,000 workers. Over 40% of the food distributed by USAID comes from American farms, according to the Congressional Research Service.”
— Baltimore Sun, 2/11/25

Rural voters — especially farmers — are feeling the pain inflicted on them by the MAGA agenda they probably supported in the last election. Remember the massive cuts to USAID eight months ago? American farmers have already paid a heavy price for those cuts. Our Dear Leader promised to help farmers weather this storm. Help, however, never came. And now the Republicans’ stupid and pointless shutdown has moved any potential support into the distant (and unlikely) future.

Now comes the latest insult to the MAGA base: The $20 billion bailout of the Argentine economy. Who is this helping? Well, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, the bailout benefits the hedge fund buddies of US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. It certainly doesn’t help our farmers, who stood by and watched as Brazil, and now Argentina, have captured the huge Chinese soybean market. And it puts the screws to US ranchers as our government just quadrupled low-tariff imports of Argentinian beef,

American Soybean Association (ASA) President Caleb Ragland shared his statement on some impacts of Trump’s trade policy of tit-for-tat tariffs between the world’s two biggest economies: “The frustration is overwhelming. U.S. soybean prices are falling, harvest is underway, and farmers read headlines not about securing a trade agreement with China, but that the U.S. government is extending $20 billion in economic support to Argentina while that country drops its soybean export taxes to sell 20 shiploads of Argentine soybeans to China in just two days.” Our farmers are starting to wonder why Trump is bailing out Argentina, yet can’t scrounge up any bailout for them, or even better yet, why he can’t quit his tariff tantrums and fix the mess he made, so they can afford fertilizer and tractors and find a market for their products.

Trump administration to disabled kids: SCREW YOU.

In their continuing effort to eradicate everything true, beautiful and righteous in the United States, MAGA Republicans have landed on some of the most vulnerable of all Americans – disabled kids. Their latest sneaky move during this ridiculous and avoidable shutdown is to fire more than 400 staffers at the already decimated Department of Education. This includes most staff at the Office of Special Education Programs, where out of 80 to 90 current employees, less than five will remain on the job. These are (were) the folks who enforce the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a federal law that ensures millions of students with disabilities get support from their schools.

According to the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, the Education Department has repeatedly said it supports - and will continue to support - funding and implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and special education for children with disabilities. These firings will make it impossible for the Department to fulfill those responsibilities. There is significant risk that not only will Federal funding lapse, but children with disabilities will be deprived of a free appropriate public education.

If you have a family member or friend receiving special services of any kind at a public school, their education may be at risk. Stand with us at Rotary Park on Saturday to protest this latest assault on civil rights!

“Some schools and states may simply stop following federal education laws altogether. If there are not people there to make sure the laws are followed, the laws are meaningless.”
— Josie Skinner, education lawyer

Why we stand together in protest

You’ve probably heard or read that Republicans are claiming the No Kings 2 protest scheduled for this coming Saturday is an act of Anti-American hatred planned by terrorists. Like almost everything coming from our Dear Leader’s group of cowardly sycophants, this is a lie. We stand together – and will continue to stand together – in protest of the deliberate and rapid dismantling of our democracy. Here’s what we will stand against, in a nutshell:

SHUTDOWN

Voters across the country are being notified by their insurers that their healthcare premiums are set to double or triple, and they are — quite correctly — holding the GOP responsible. Republicans’ refusal to negotiate any extension of the ACA (Obamacare) extra support fuels the shutdown.

The shutdown also provides Republicans the cover for another round of mass firings focused on federal programs “not consistent with the President’s priorities.” In other words, more destruction of programs benefiting average citizens in favor of privatizing our federal government.

Even some of Dear Leader’s most loyal supporters – the farmers – are hard hit by the shutdown, as federal farm loans won’t be processed and disaster aid to farmers is cut off.

Republicans could end this shutdown any time they want, but they clearly have no desire to do so.

GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION

Like in any modern authoritarian state, the wealthy cronies of our Dear Leader continue to pick the bones of our dying democracy while the common folk suffer. One recent case in point: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently announced a $20 billion bailout of the Argentine economy, funded by our tax dollars. You might ask why – since Argentina isn’t a particularly strong ally or trading partner of the US. The answer is simple. One of Bessent’s buddies, a hedge fund investor named Rob Citrone, will personally benefit from the bailout.

INVASION OF US CITIES BY US MILITARY

Most frightening of all, Dear Leader and his minions are now using state and federal military force against us. Active military and National Guard have been sent into Los Angeles, Portland and Chicago based on false claims of violence, chaos and terrorist actions. These invasions are not just illegal, they are antithetical to the political freedoms our country claims to hold dear. We’ll give the last word to our own Governor Pritzker.

We believe our country has turned into an authoritarian state run by a Mad King. Stand with us as we protest the power grab that has already happened and remind our friends and neighbors that there are NO KINGS in the United States of America! We’ll see you at Rotary Park in Princeton this Saturday.

Protect the First Amendment!

While the country debates headlines, the scaffolding of dissent is being dismantled—quietly, deliberately, and in plain view.

  • Journalists are being blocked from press briefings and subjected to surveillance by federal agencies.

  • Protesters are being detained under terrorism laws and having their immigration status weaponized against them.

  • Investigative outlets are being sued into silence, threatened with economic retaliation, and labeled as political adversaries.

Trump is openly threatening those who challenge his narrative—whether in the streets, in the courtroom, or the newsroom. This isn’t just political hostility—it’s structural warfare. And it’s accelerating. Every society that slipped into authoritarianism followed this same sequence:

Control the story → criminalize dissent → collapse civic trust → rewrite reality.

And if you think the First Amendment will save us, you need to understand something deeply uncomfortable: It already isn’t.

We must stand together in resistance to this attack on our First Amendment rights! Join us in protest this Saturday, 11 am — 1 pm at the intersection of Interstate 80 and Route 26, exit 56. See you at the overpass!

Many thanks to Critical Resistance for this excerpt! Read the whole article HERE.

Got questions? Get answers.

So far the state of Illinois is doing a fantastic job keeping us (mostly) safe from fascist MAGA actions. Nonetheless we have many questions — about our health care, our schools and our First Amendment rights, to name just a few. Here’s your chance to ask those questions, and many more. Join Rep. Murri Briel and Speaker Chris Welch this coming Tuesday for a community town hall in North Utica. The town hall is hosted at the International Union Operators Engineers Hall on Route 6. Doors open at 5:30. See you there!

Tomorrow we march. Then we celebrate.

Labor and community are planning more than a barbecue on Labor Day weekend this year because we have to stop the billionaire takeover. Billionaires are stealing from working families, destroying our democracy, and building private armies to attack our towns and cities.

We are working people rising up to stop the billionaire takeover–not just through the ballot box or the courts, but by showing up in support of the worker who are the backbone of our country.

This weekend we’re joining thousands of communities across the country in protest of the billionaire takeover. We look forward to seeing you at Rotary Park tomorrow, 11 am - 1 pm.

This Labor Day Weekend: Not Just for BBQ

Kings don’t work. Oligarchs don’t work. You know who DOES work? WE DO.

Honored guests at Trump inauguration 2025

The billionaire class has been fighting the labor movement ever since it began — and for obvious reasons. Better pay, better benefits and safer working conditions cost employers money, and they’re not inclined to share their wealth. So it’s really no surprise that King Donald and his MAGA minions are colluding with the wealthiest men in the world to build their already obscene fortunes and protect their assets on the backs of hard-working Americans. What IS surprising is the speed and ferocity of their attacks on our rights. Just in the last few weeks, the MAGA administration announced it plans to change over 60 regulations it deems "unnecessary" burdens to businesses and economic growth. Here’s what those changes mean for us:

  • Elimination of minimum wage and overtime protections to home healthcare workers;

  • Allowing employers to pay sub-minimum wages to disabled employees;

  • Undermining OSHA’s ability to punish businesses that put their employees in dangerous situations;

  • Rolling back restrictions meant to protect workers from heat-related stress on the job;

  • Weakening OSHA safety requirements that prevent roof falls, mine explosions, and exposure to toxic silica.

Of course this just scratches the surface — for the full list, see The Century Foundation. Adding insult to injury, MAGA Republicans in Congress are moving to strip the NEA — one of the biggest and most politically active unions in the US — of its charter.

Friends, we must unite to stop the billionaire agenda that has taken over the federal government! Instead of making life more affordable, lifting wages for workers, or repairing generations of racial injustice, the Trump administration is dismantling the government, overseeing mass firings, and gutting worker protections and social services in order to transfer even more wealth to the 1%.

So before you heat up the grill and grab your barbecue tools on Labor Day weekend, pick up a sign and join us in protest against this orchestrated attack on “government for the people.”

We’ll be at Rotary Park on Saturday, August 30. 11 am - 1 pm. See you there!

STAND UP against the regime

Is it an exaggeration to say the United States of America is falling into the control of an authoritarian regime? We don’t think so. We believe this is happening right now and right in front of our eyes. Consider the following:

  • The Trump administration has supported reviving the ENCRYPT Act and advancing the STOP CSAM Act. Though framed as protecting children, both bills would compromise end-to-end encryption by introducing backdoor access for law enforcement, jeopardizing digital privacy for everyone.

  • Former intelligence officials who publicly criticized Trump have had their security clearances revoked.

  • ICE has signed 370 new 287(g) agreements with local police, dramatically expanding federal immigration enforcement while eliminating oversight panels.

  • The IRS has reportedly conducted selective audits of nonprofit organizations that fund protest bail and civil disobedience support, suggesting politically targeted enforcement.

  • “Trump 2028” merchandise has appeared on campaign sites, prompting alarm over flirtation with violating the 22nd Amendment’s two-term limit for presidents.

  • In 22 states, 41 bills have been introduced or passed that criminalize protest actions like roadway blockades and legally shield drivers who injure demonstrators.

  • The Pentagon has ordered the removal of books on race and gender from military academies and libraries, citing them as “divisive” or aligned with critical race theory.

  • The White House has repeatedly called for the impeachment of judges who block its immigration orders. Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public rebuke in response.

  • In defiance of a Supreme Court ruling in the Kilmar Ábrego García case, the White House delayed returning a deported immigrant to the U.S., prompting a constitutional crisis over executive defiance of judicial authority.

The pace and pattern of these actions suggest not isolated excesses but a coordinated strategy to consolidate executive power, dismantle accountability mechanisms, and undermine democratic resistance. This is how authoritarianism wins: not through a single moment of crisis, but through normalization, rationalization, and delay. Each step feels like only a slight shift from the last. And when the shock finally comes, the country has already changed.

The time to stand up is NOW – while resistance is still possible. Join us at Rotary Park in Princeton this Saturday at 11.

Many thanks to Sage Lewis for his invaluable master list!