This One Goes Out To the Ones I Love
Mothers of the Resistance
I didn’t cry until I got a text from Ruth.
I have been in training to not feel, but I when I saw a note from her with the simple words - “It begins!” - so did my tears… each drop releasing the pain of a mother on the frontlines of the hardest war.
I made a promise to my children on November 9, 2016, that we would get that criminal bastard. It is our failing that it took seven years and four decades to even begin the process of ensuring Donald Fucking Trump is a convicted felon and cannot run for office, even though as I have learned from Ruth even if he is in prison he will try. Playing victim is his money-maker and as long as he has breath in his body, he will shake it.
There was a day two weeks ago that the hate terrorism targeting me stopped for a night. It was right after I had received my first call from the FBI supervisor about my case.
My friend Jason Van Tatenhove was visiting, and he told me to take the wins where I can get them. The harassment started again the next day, but I recalled his words. We are in the hardest war, and we take the wins where we can get them.
Today feels like a win. It’s the first time in American history that a current or former president* has faced criminal charges.
And as Joyce Vance said “the Stormy Daniels incident is the origin story for Trump’s efforts to manipulate elections in unfair ways.” It is not to be minimized.
As ex-fed Martin Sheil said:
“The King of Grift will now face accountability that has been a long time in coming and this won’t be the last indictment. I am happy that this fraudster is being brought to justice first in NYC - a town where so many contractors and sub contractors have been ripped off by the Donald.”
When I was writing my investigation last week of all of Trump’s legal entanglements, it was so obvious to me that this was a mob story, and had always been a mob story. You guys might not know this, but back in my early reporting on Trump Russia, I came across a footnote from Australia in the 1980s.
The country refused to allow Trump to do business in Sydney due to his mob ties. Smh.
Another Ruth, Dr. Ruth C. May, promised me the evil people eventually devour each other. Perhaps they bit off more than they could chew. I am here for it.
As our gal Ruth Ben-Ghiat tweeted today: “The essence of authoritarianism is getting away with crime. That’s why this indictment is so important.”
So let’s take the wins where we can get them. Let’s feel the wind blowing in the direction of justice, and let us all hold our loved ones just a little tighter tonight, even those we have lost along the way - hold some space in your heart for them, as well.
Today, as I wrote about chaos and capture - how chaos and destabilization events precede fascists seizing power, I reminded you that the power lies with us to defend our democracy, that no one is coming to save us. We have to collectively do the work.
Trump has been done for awhile, there are new threats on the horizon - the Florida Fascist is sharpening his fangs. But we are sharpening our game. We can see them coming now, we know the techniques of propaganda and cognitive warfare. We know these fascists have no clothes, and they don’t have the numbers, which is why they resort to trickery.
They’ve had the dark money, the savage mob, the caved in souls, and the disease of greed.
We have so much more. We have heart, we have love, we have empathy, we have intelligence, we have compassion, we have patriotism, we have a loyalty to facts, and a belief we can take action to create a better world.
I am an American mom, a first-generation German. I have been serving in the Resistance since September 17, 2016. I will fight til I die.
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Save the date! The next Bette Dangerous ‘Speakeasy’ Zoom for paid members is Sunday, April 9, 4 pm PT, featuring ‘Laboratories of Autocracy - A Wake Up Call from Behind the Lines’ author David Pepper.
Pepper is a brilliant democracy coach, and no one will get you more excited about how you can pitch in to save ours. Please consider subscribing to join the community. Looking forward to meeting new members and seeing Bette’s core group. 🤍
(Below, refusing to accept a fascist America at first downtown Los Angeles protest after the November 8, 2016 election theft.)
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“Something Sacred never dies in almost all of us, that can hear the invitation of Truth…”-words from a Bette Dangerous community member