All posts by tedglick

Two Flags Flying

Future Hope, , , ,

For the last month or so there have been two small flags flying prominently outside the front door my and my wife’s house. One is an American flag, the other the Palestinian flag.

In the 46 years that Jane and I have been married we’ve never done anything like this. We’ve had issue-oriented signs in our front yard, and we’ve had Bernie, renewable energy, peace and other bumper stickers on the back of our car, but we’ve never flown flags where we’ve lived.

We’re flying the Palestinian flag because for over two years, since the terrible October 7th Hamas attack on Israel and, afterwards, the hugely more terrible, genocidal attack on all of Gaza by the Netanyahu government, we have demonstrated almost every week in a nearby town calling for a ceasefire, an end to US military support of Israel and justice for the Palestinian people.

For those who know us, it isn’t a surprise that we’re doing this.

But flying the American flag? For a very long time we’ve not done so largely because, going back to the Vietnam War days, we have seen that it has been right-wingers and conservatives who primarily use that flag to advance often-racist and imperialist agendas. And it’s definitely the case that, historically, when the US has engaged in military campaigns against Indigenous nations or in overseas, imperialist military campaigns going back to 1898, the US flag has been there.

The US flag now flying outside our door was likely given to us by someone at the October 18 No Kings action which we helped to organize in our town, after we came back from our trip this summer to Montana to visit our grandson, son and daughter-in-law. We left home in mid-July and came back eight weeks later, in September.

We got to Montana by driving our all-electric, 2018 Chevrolet Bolt out and back, close to a 5,000 mile round trip. Here is how I described our reasons for doing so and what we learned from it in a past Future Hope column:

“One of the reasons we decided to travel this way was to experience very directly areas of the country we had never been to or not been to for a long time. We hoped all would go well mechanically, as well as our interactions with people along the way as we stopped to charge the car, camp or stay overnight in motels, eat in restaurants, get food and drink during rest stops and then, in southwest Montana, interact with others for the five weeks we were there.

“I returned with a lot more hope about this country than I had before this trip. In the 12 states we went through or spent time in, most of them “red” or “purple,” we saw and heard very few signs of much support for Trump and his authoritarian government. I would estimate that, in all those eight weeks and thousands of miles, we saw no more than a dozen Trump signs and even fewer Trump hats or t-shirts being worn. People overwhelmingly were polite to us, as we were to them. There was virtually no evidence from these very many brief encounters that the USA at the grassroots has become a nasty, brutish, mean place.

“I am sure that if we had gotten into ideological/political discussions with the people we interacted with, most of them of European descent, there would have been some disagreements and tensions, but my sense is that, even when that were true, there would have been some points of agreement to be found.”

It was a hopeful trip. And the election results over the past month in many parts of the country, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, California and elsewhere, all of which showed a definite and significant shift away from the Trumpists, confirmed what we experienced.

Indiana was one of the states we went through, one of the most conservative of the northern US states. 80% of the members of the Indiana state senate are Republicans. But just a few days ago half of those Republicans, 20 out of 50 Senators in total, voted down a Trump-pushed plan to gerrymander US Congressional districts so that all nine of them would end up having Republican US House members after the November elections. Politically, this was huge, the latest sign that more and more Trump supporters are alienated by this would-be dictator and are willing to stand up to him publicly.

There are lots of reasons to believe that, if we all keep working and organizing day after day, increasingly united, 2026 will be a huge year, a clear and powerful repudiation of the Trumpists and their billionaire enablers.

 Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

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Conditions are Ripe for a Resistance Counter- Offensive

Future Hope, , , ,

It’s been over ten long months that the forces of democracy have been on the defensive, doing our best to withstand the many and various assaults on us on issue after issue, but the tide is turning:

-Trump’s polling numbers keep going down, at 36% positive and 60% negative in the latest Gallup Poll;

-Four weeks after Democratic Party electoral victories all over the country on November 4, it’s possible as I write that, today, a Democrat running for Congress in a special election in Tennessee could win despite, in the 2024 election, the Republican candidate winning by a 22% margin of victory;

-Long-time MAGA leader Margaret Taylor Green is resigning from Congress and publicly criticizing Trump on health care, the Epstein issue and more, with the likelihood that other Republican House members will follow her lead;

-The Epstein sex trafficking crisis is not going away!

-Trump’s “Justice” Department’s indictments against James Comey and Letitia James have been thrown out by a US District Court judge;

-Congressional Republicans are on the defensive over what to do about the health care crisis, overall, with the specific problem of huge increases in premiums, doubling, tripling or more, for millions of people by the end of the year; this was one of the main reasons for Green’s resignation;

-And now comes the Caribbean motorboat revelations about Pete Hegseth giving the illegal order to “kill everybody” on those boats even if a boat has been destroyed and there are survivors. True to form, exposed as they have been, rats like Hegseth are deserting a sinking ship by trying to shift the blame to a career military admiral.

Remember that it was Joe McCarthy in the 1950’s attacking the US military that was the beginning of the end for his McCarthyite repressive campaign.

There are probably some on the political Left who would counsel that we allow all of this to keep unfolding and not “rock the sinking boat,” just let it take its course, but I don’t agree at all.

We should do just the opposite, consciously up our game, keep broadening out our resistance movement and make plans for 2026 to be the year that Trump and the MAGA’s are decisively defeated and the House and the Senate come under Democratic and progressive independent (Bernie, others) control. Like it or not, that has to be our north star for the next 11 months, as we keep up the resistance to ICE and Border Control raids and take action on all of the many other issues our peoples are dealing with.

That issue-oriented activity will strengthen the electoral campaigns of genuine progressives in the Democratic primaries running against corporatists or anti-Left centrists, as well as serious, tactically smart, progressive independent campaigns

It will be essential that we do what we did so effectively over this past year as far as taking it to the streets. We need national days of coordinated local actions, which began in 2025 on February 5 with the 50501 actions in just about every state capitol. Those actions kept building throughout the year up to the seven million of us coming out in 2,600 local actions in every state on the second No Kings day October 18.

January 19, 2026, one year after Trump took office and the federal Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, would be a very good day to initiate this continuing campaign of nationally coordinated street action.

2026 will be the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which offers us lots of possibilities.

We do need to be up front about the mixed reality of that historic revolution against British colonialism, the reality of European-American enslavement of Africans and violent theft of land lived on by indigenous nations for thousands of years. But it is a fact that the American Revolution helped to inspire anti-colonial and anti-monarchy revolutions in France, Haiti, South America and elsewhere. Indeed, when the Vietnamese revolutionaries in 1946 put forward their call for independence from French colonialism, they quoted the US Declaration of Independence.

We should have no illusions that the MAGA’s as a whole are going to see the light and stop with their repressive and regressive efforts, though there’s no question that some of them already are moving away from Trump and there are major internal rifts. This is another important fact about the crisis the Republicans and fascists are in.

As bad as 2025 has been, 2026 can be very different, if we all stay strong and keep consciously building the resistance movement in all its many different aspects. 2026 can  end up being a happy, a joyous, successful new year of popular, nonviolent uprising for justice, democracy, peace and defense of our threatened ecosystems.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Energy Affordability+, Not Energy Dominance

Future Hope, , , ,

Two of the most significant dates in my life as a progressive activist and organizer are April 4, 1968 and August of 2003. The 1968 date is the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. His killing pushed me to finally do something about racial injustice and the Vietnam War rather than just reading and thinking about them.

August of 2003 was when there was a brutal heat wave in western Europe which led to 70,000 deaths, primarily of elders. This was my wakeup call as far as the climate crisis, leading to several months of book-reading to understand how bad things were, which led to a decision later that year to begin working on this issue. Ever since it has been at the top of my list as far as where I put my energies and time as an organizer: locally, statewide, regionally and nationally.

My primary focus on all those levels, since 2013, has been working and taking action to obstruct the buildout of fracked gas pipelines, gas compressor stations and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) export terminals. That work quickly led me to learn about FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the most important federal agency that most US Americans have never heard of.

FERC is primarily the regulator of the US electrical grid. In 1977 when it was created by Congress, replacing the Federal Power Commission, it was also given the responsibility of regulating the methane gas industry, which in the 21st century has become primarily a fracked gas industry.

How have they “regulated” it? By giving the gas industry over 99% of the permits that they apply for to build new pipelines, compressor stations to push the gas along and import (in the past) and export (now) LNG terminals along US coastlines, primarily in Texas and Louisiana.

In 2020 a study done by the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, chaired by Representative Jamie Raskin, looked at FERC’s record between 2000 and 2020 and found that of the 1,027 applications to them by industry for permits, only six were denied. This is why the movement which has been fighting FERC and calling for it to be reformed, or replaced by a Federal Renewable Energy Commission, describes it as a rubber stamp agency.

For over 11 years a national organization, Beyond Extreme Energy, has been refusing to quit in its efforts to change this outrageous situation. For a while, from 2021 to 2023, under the leadership of then-FERC chairperson Richard Glick (no relation), actions were taken to make this happen. But when dirty-coal owner and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairperson Joe Manchin ratcheted up his support for coal, oil and gas in March of 2022 and, in collaboration with Republicans and a few other Democratic Senators, attacked Glick very openly, these efforts were seriously undercut.

Now comes Trump. On his first day as President, January 20th, he issued two Executive Orders to “streamline the permitting process for [fossil fuel] infrastructure projects” and declare a “national energy emergency.” The purpose: to set back the shift to solar and wind and accelerate new coal, oil and methane gas projects. FERC is central to this destructive plan.

Last month, on October 7th, FERC issued a “final rule” to severely reduce the ability of affected landowners, communities and environmental organizations to legally challenge methane gas infrastructure projects FERC approves. The reason given for doing so was to “encourage the orderly development of plentiful supplies of natural gas. . . particularly the development of data centers to advance artificial intelligence.”

But there’s more. Three weeks ago former Republican Senator Rick Santorum called for the DC Circuit Federal Court of Appeals to be removed as the place where court challenges to FERC permits are heard and decided. The headline blared, “DC Circuit Court is blocking America’s energy dominance.”

Why this extreme call to action?

Over the last five years this court has made a number of decisions upholding the need for FERC to take seriously the rights of landowners fighting eminent domain for corporate gain, environmental justice (ej) and other communities opposing proposed new polluting gas pipelines and infrastructure projects, and those groups defending the earth’s ecosystems challenged by global heating.

Over the last 11 years climate justice activists have demonstrated at a big majority of the monthly meetings of the five FERC commissioners who are the decision-makers. 200 or more people have been physically removed from the meetings for speaking out—there is no public comment period—and permanently banned from ever going to this meeting again. For the last year and a half, led by Beyond Extreme Energy, every single meeting has been met with action outside and some kind of inside action.

The latest was this past week when a small group of us dressed up in black judges robes to underline the importance of continuing court oversight of this now-Trump-dominated agency. We will do so again at their next meeting on December 18 and keep taking action to shine as bright a spotlight as we can on this increasingly more well known but still dangerous, extremely dangerous, threat to ej communities and the world’s ecosystems. It is one important front of the battle to prevent climate catastrophe and shift rapidly off fossil fuels to the wind, solar, battery storage and energy conservation that our children and grandchildren desperately need.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Honor War and Anti-War Veterans

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Last year I attended a Veterans Day event in my town organized by the local town government. At the event I was asked by a local news reporter if I was a veteran. I responded, “I’m an anti-war veteran.”

This got me thinking: what about an anti-war veterans day, or an inclusion of them in Veterans Day events?

Who are some of the people who would be remembered? There are lots of us, but some of the most well-known would include:

-Jane Adams
-Ella Baker
-Rachel Corrie
-Dorothy Day
-Dave Dellinger
-Mohandus Gandhi
-Helen Keller
-Coretta Scott King
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
-Jeannette Rankin
-Ron Kovics
-Brian Willson
-Howard Zinn

Note that Kovics, Wilson and Zinn were both kinds of veterans. Kovics fought and lost his legs in the Vietnam War, Willson lost his as part of a peace action in the US, and Zinn fought in World War II.

There are several anti-war veterans organizations in the United States. The three which are most active are About Face: Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Today they and other groups have organized “No War on Our Cities” actions around the country.

There is power in a peace movement which links non-veterans and veterans. I first experienced this in the early 70’s after spending 11 months in prison for nonviolent acts of draft resistance as part of the Catholic Left. In early 1972, in connection with a trial in Harrisburg, Pa. of myself and other Catholic Left activists, the Harrisburg 8, I distinctly remember connecting with Vietnam vets in their combat fatigues taking part in demonstrations held in support of those of us on trial. They were small in number, but their open and visible participation had a very positive effect on me and many others.

It’s important for progressive organizers and activists to be open to connecting up and working with people who, on the surface, seem to be on the other side. Some of us don’t get this. For them, anyone in the military or the police is an enemy. But history, including recent history, shows that this isn’t true, that those carrying weapons on behalf of those in power, especially when it is unjust and abusive power, can be affected when spoken to or even nonviolently confronted about why what they are doing is wrong.

This is a critical point for us right now as we build upon the October 18th No Kings victory of 7 million people in the streets in every state, followed by the “tsunami” election defeats November 4th all over the country of the MAGA Trumpists.

As much as these huge victories have changed the country, its political dynamics and the resistance movement’s morale for the better, they almost certainly will lead to more illegal and repressive actions by a Trump regime hemorrhaging support. In the battle for the future of the USA, it will be important that those once Trump supporters, including police and military people, be encouraged to speak out and change sides and be supported by us when they do.

I am certain that the Vietnam War would not have ended when and the way it did if not for soldiers’ resistance within the US military to the war while in Vietnam, as well as the open resistance in the streets by veterans returning home. I think it’s similar today. As the Trumpists ratchet up their efforts to create 21st century fascism in the USA, defections by individuals who are being ordered to carry out those repressive activities will be an important component of our ultimate victory.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.


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Elections Reflections

Future Hope, , , ,

Yesterday’s election results are tremendously positive and hopeful for democratic socialists, progressives, liberals and just plain democracy lovers. The Trump regime was soundly defeated in important elections all across the country. The people made history!

I woke up this morning wanting to reflect on the issue of elections, not so much from the standpoint of winners and losers but as a cultural/political phenomenon, how important they are on both personal and societal levels.

As I’ve grown older I have been doing a lot of grassroots, person-to-person electoral work, door-knocking and talking to people for months leading up to and on election day. This year I did it exclusively in my town of Bloomfield, NJ, a small town of about 50,000 people, historically a white working-class suburb of Newark but now a very multi-racial, multi-cultural, mainly commuter town.

I saw many thousands of these sister/brother/sibling townspeople over the last five days at early voting and election day voting sites. I was outside on the street for about 30 hours observing and interacting with this beautiful mix of people of different colors, languages and ages, all taking part in the USA voting process, standing in line together, talking with one another, sometimes exchanging hugs and handshakes with those they knew. Some were MAGA supporters and others were very much on the opposite end of the political spectrum, but I didn’t see or hear of any major conflicts or fights as we all stood in line to vote or interacted on our way to and from the polls.

Then there were the parents bringing children, wonderful, energetic young children learning very experientally about democracy and election day, knowledge that will develop and deepen as long as this way, this special way of choosing government leaders, continues to be the USA norm.

There were the old and disabled making their way, some very slowly and carefully, to get into the voting site. I am always inspired as I see these folk putting themselves out because they clearly believe it is important for them to do so, important to take part in this ritual of democracy. Several people yesterday couldn’t walk, were in wheelchairs that had to be pushed by others. They were determined to get into that polling site and do their part on this one day to keep democracy alive and well.

As we know, the Trumpists want to destroy democracy, make the process of voting harder and harder especially for Black, Latino/a and Indigenous people, students and low-income people—the working-class majority. They want to take us back to the days before Black people had the right to vote in the South, before the Voting Rights Act. They want Brown and Black people to feel so afraid and intimidated by ICE and the Border Patrol and other agents of repression that they stay in their homes on election day.

I think they’re going to fail at that, overall. There are literally millions of us prepared to take risks to defend these sisters and brothers and to defend democracy. Over time, many of us understand that this democracy is in need of serious reform to become much more democratic through public financing of elections, ranked-choice voting, proportional representation and more.

In the meantime, as we work with the democracy we have, let’s draw strength from what happened yesterday, not just on the big, national macro level—Trump Must Go!—but on the very local levels where the US American people once again showed that we, the people, not the billionaires, not the fascists, not the would-be kings, ultimately are the ultimate deciders.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

The Supreme Court Is Not Above the Law Either

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“I think we can do a lot, if a critical mass of organizations steps forward and develops a plan to go public and visible calling out the undemocratic and dangerous reality of what the Supreme Court majority is doing, particularly these shadowy, opaque, undemocratic ‘emergency’ decisions. Just like we have had and will be having, on October 18, successful mass actions of millions in the streets around the country calling for No Kings, worker justice, women’s rights, climate justice, racial justice and more, it is time for such a nationally coordinated action sometime this fall focused on this issue.”

This is what I wrote in a column about a month ago about the Supreme Court. Now that the mass mobilization for October 18 is over, as will be the fall elections as of November 5, I think, at that time, there’s a need for a much closer look at what an activist strategy could be to call out the conservative/MAGA majority on the Supreme Court.

I am fully aware that it is very rare for progressives to do something like this. There is understandable concern that doing so could be seen as “inappropriate,” or “too risky,” or “bad strategy.” After all, in the US system of government, judges have a lot of power. To some extent they are seen as, and often are, above the fray of politics, something seen as often corrupt and dishonest by a lot of people, on the right, left and center.

Of course, “above the fray of politics” sure doesn’t apply to this usually-Trump-supporting Supreme Court.

Just in the last few months I have considered with others active in the climate movement whether we should publicly demonstrate calling for a key judicial body, not the Supreme Court, to do the right thing when it comes to a long-term campaign we are leading. We collectively decided it wasn’t the right thing to do.

But it’s different with this Supreme Court. First, there’s the fact that it was very much “politics” that is responsible for the 6-3 conservative majority. Two of the conservatives, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Conan Barrett, obtained their seats because of Republican Party political hypocrisy and raw power politics. Following Antonin Scalia’s death on February 13, 2016 and President Obama’s subsequent nomination of Merrick Garland to replace him, Senate Republicans refused to hold a hearing and vote on that nomination, saying it was too close to the upcoming Presidential election eight months later! This led to the seat being vacant for 14 months until Trump, in 2017, nominated Neil Gorsuch.

Conan Barrett was nominated only 40 days, not eight months, before the 2020 election to replace the deceased Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The Republicans didn’t care then about it being “too close” to a Presidential election, and she was confirmed.

So what would be the objective of some kind of activist campaign, or even just a national day of action, focused on the Supreme Court?

One would be, for sure, to remind the country of how Gorsuch and Conan Barrett were nominated, the hypocrisy involved which has led to a court now “out of balance” when it comes to representing the differing views of US law as well as the reality of US public opinion.

Another would be to draw attention to proposals that have been made to address the fundamental unfairness of the present Supreme Court reality. The most broadly-supported proposal, the TRUST Act (Transparency and Responsibility in Upholding Standards in the Judiciary) was put forward this spring by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Congressman Hank Johnson. It is co-sponsored by 26 Senators and 10 House members.

When might a national day, or national week, of action happen? It’d be good if it happened soon, but there are plenty of current fights that need a lot of support, and then there are the holidays, so sometime in the new year seems more realistic.

How about this? March 8 and March 15 are the birthdays of two deceased but still important Supreme Court justices: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. on the 8th, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg on March 15. March 8 is also International Women’s Day.

Ginsburg was the second woman in US history to serve on the Supreme Court, so there’s a definite connection there.

Here’s what the Wikipedia entry for Holmes summarizes as his main contributions legally: “Holmes is one of the most widely cited and influential Supreme Court justices in American history, noted for his long tenure on the Court and for his pithy opinions – particularly those on civil liberties and American constitutional democracy – and deference to the decisions of elected legislatures.” Wow, very timely for sure!

Just like Trump, the Supreme Court is not above the law!

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

October 18, November 4: World Changing?

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Many millions on the streets this Saturday all over the country loudly proclaiming: No Kings! Yes to Democracy!–followed on November 4th by victories for Mamdani in NYC, Sherrill in NJ, Spanberger in Virginia, redistricting in California, and more–could this be truly “world changing?”

On one level, no. This is not a Presidential election year or a Congressional election year. It’s an off-year electorally.

But it’s not an off-year politically. The battle is fully joined between the forces of democracy and the forces of authoritarianism, between the resistance and blind Trumpism. And because of this, what happens over the next three weeks could be a decisive turning point, victories for the significant majority of US Americans who are saddened and outraged by the lying, divisive, destructive and dangerous Trump federal government and its billionaire co-conspirators.. .

Think about it: potentially the biggest mass demonstration  ever in the USA, in every single state and literally thousands of localities, organized by a broadly-based progressive/liberal/independent coalition of hundreds of organizations that is not going away. That alone is a huge thing at this challenging time for the US and the world.

A Zohran Mamdani victory in itself will be a huge deal, a non-sectarian, democratic socialist becoming the Mayor of the country’s largest city, the financial capitol, a melting pot of diverse peoples and nationalities and which often leads the country as far as political shifts.

Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger winning the Governor races in their states will not be the same thing. Neither are consistently progressive, definitely not socialists, but there’s no question that many people to their left support them over the Trump-supporting Republican opponents. Combined with October 18 and a Mamdani victory and continued progressive organizing at the grassroots, that will make a difference in how they govern.

If California comes through and neutralizes Texas’ brazen, Trump-pushed, Congressional redistricting plan to try to gain 5 more Republican House seats from Texas next November, that will be important both practically and politically.

There’s something else, less visible and obvious but critical, that must be said about why we are at this point, why the popular resistance movement for democracy, justice and our threatened ecosystems is at this historic moment: we have learned how to unite.

It’s not unity based on following one great individual, usually a man. It’s not unity concerned very little with the internal culture, the health, of the organizations that make it up–just the opposite, in general. A critical mass of us of all ages, nationalities, genders and classes have internalized positive values and ways of working together which are making a huge difference in how we have responded, and will keep responding, to the efforts to impose a form of 21st century fascism in the USA.

The Trumpists are in trouble, and they know it. That’s why, one week before No Kings! Day, House leader Mike Johnson and others began publicly attacking it, lying about who we are and what we are about, trying to scare people away from coming out that day.

It’s not going to happen! There ain’t no power like the power of the people, united and organized, and when we are, nothing and no one can defeat us. Si, se puede!

Jane Goodall: “Fight to the Very End”

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“I have no doubt that we have the tools to make the change, but do we have the will to make the change? It seems with some of the top politicians and corrupt corporations there’s no such will. We need to reach people’s hearts. If millions, billions of people do little things it makes big change. That’s the main message of Roots and Shoots.

“Above all, I want you to think about the fact that we are part—when we’re on Planet Earth—we are part of Mother Nature. We depend on Mother Nature for clean air, for water, for food, for clothing, for everything. And as we destroy one ecosystem after another, as we create worse climate change, worse loss of diversity, we have to do everything in our power to make the world a better place for the children alive today, and for those that will follow.

“You have it in your power to make a difference. Don’t give up. There is a future for you. Do your best while you’re still on this beautiful Planet Earth.”

-Netflix interview: Famous Last Words: Dr. Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall’s death last week affected me emotionally in ways that surprised me. I’ve known of her, of course, for a very long time. I heard her speak many years ago at  Rutgers University and remember generally liking what I heard. But she hasn’t been someone I’ve worked with or even seen in places where I’ve been over my 22 years of activism on the deepening climate crisis.

However, watching the Netflix interview with her conducted six months ago a couple of days after she died was deeply affecting. Her decades-long dedication to the cause of preserving life on earth and fighting those—“top politicians and corrupt corporations [who are] destroying one ecosystem after another”—was unmistakable. She understood the importance of young people becoming active in large numbers, helping them do so through the Roots and Shoots program. Her deep wisdom and love for all life forms, informed by a similarly deep spirituality, shone clearly throughout. And she understood that the way social change comes about is through large numbers of people—“millions, billions”—taking action on a daily basis.

In the interview she also shared very wise words about how to interact with those who disagree with you. She spoke about the importance of not being either aggressive or overly intellectual, “from the brain,” but instead being empathetic to reach people’s hearts. She referenced how she had observed within chimpanzee societies in Africa that group leaders, always male it seemed, who became leaders because they were aggressive didn’t live as long as less aggressive, more sensitive and group-centered leaders.

It is sad to realize that Goodall will not be with us physically as we fight Trump and all the others who mis-lead through bombast, threats and environmentally and humanly destructive policies and actions. But she was very firm in the belief that after her physical death she would still be around, that her spirit, her consciousness, would not die.

My view of “life after death” is that each of us lives on—or not—in the hearts and minds of other people, based upon what we have done with our lives while on earth, what we have said and done, how we have given of our time and energies for others, how much we have lived by adherence to the principles of higher love. There is no question that Jane Goodall will live on in that way within people all over the world for a very long time, strengthening and prodding us.

Goodall didn’t pull any punches about our dire situation, but she was a fighter. Here’s how she put it in the interview:

“Even if this is the end of humanity as we know it, let’s fight to the very end. Let the children know that there is hope if they get together. It’s better to go on fighting to the end than to just give up. . . I have no doubt that we have the tools to make the change, but do we have the will to make the change?”

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Repression and Militarism: Great Distractions for a Weakening Regime

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The speeches by Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump today to 800 or so top US military leaders around the world, combined with the farcical indictment of former FBI Director James Comey and the promise of more of them, have accomplished one thing so far: pushing the Trump/Epstein relationship far down in the news. Is there any doubt that this is one of the prime motivations behind this repression and militarism initiative?

It’s similar with the deployment and threatened deployment of National Guard and US troops to cities run by Democratic mayors.

And though the racist campaign to criminalize and deport people of color without proper legal documents, a big majority with no criminal record, has been underway for many months, it also helps to deter Epstein/inflation/poor polling news coverage, as well as to provide “red meat” to the hardcore MAGA’s.

I just looked at a video of Hegseth and Trumps’ speeches, not every word but enough to get the basic gist of what they said and how they said it. My main takeaways:

-Hegseth was every bit the macho male; into projecting power and domination both personally and what he demanded the “War Department” get back to being, as distinct from the “woke,” “fat,” pro-DEI, concerned-about-climate-disruption organization he saw it as having become. He wants a war-fighting machine ready to go into action immediately on behalf of the Trump vision of a world dominated by him.

-Trump didn’t look so good. He looked tired. He rambled. As distinct from Hegseth’s toxic energy, he was distinctly low energy. He was no inspiring President, that’s for sure. Maybe in the back of his mind, somewhere in that twisted brain, he was haunted by how he had used his upper-class position and so-terrible bone spurs to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war, or the time he called those who died in war “suckers and losers.” He did not seem at ease.

Remember that one of Trump’s major issues during his Presidential campaign was that he would get the US out of the Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Palestine wars, or end them, “on day one.” Make no mistake: some of those who voted for him are noticing that over his first eight months in office he is doing the exact opposite while now going full-militarist with a $70 billion or more increase from this year to next in the already-way-too-large US military budget.

As far as the Comey indictment, many analysts think it’s likely the weak and problematic case will be another defeat for Trump. We will see. But that won’t stop Dictator Don; it’s clear that the Trump/Vance/Miller/MAGA forces have every intention of trying to convict and imprison those considered the most responsible for his two impeachments and indictments/trials/convictions in the courts.

Meanwhile, as far as the latest polling, here is how Nate Silver put it today in the Silver Bulletin:

“This has been a bad week for Trump when it comes to the polls. He began the week with a net approval rating of -7.5 in the Silver Bulletin average. He’s sitting at -9.4 as of today, but his net approval fell all the way to -10.0 (essentially tied for his second term low) earlier in the week. Is this the beginning of a downward trend? . . .

“Whatever the reason, the share of Americans who strongly disapprove of the job Trump is doing is also back up to its second term high of 43.4 percent. For comparison, only 26.1 percent of Americans strongly approve of Trump.”

Repression and militarism: two sides of same coin, all about scaring and intimidating those seen as enemies. That’s how hate-filled and divisive Trump sees those of us who believe in democracy and justice and who are willing to fight against those who are trying to destroy them.

All out for No Kings! on October 18th!

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.

Supremely Courting Authoritarian Rule

Future Hope, , , ,

“Perhaps the degradation of our rule-of-law regime would happen anyway,” Jackson wrote. “But this Court’s complicity in the creation of a culture of disdain for lower courts, their rulings, and the law (as they interpret it) will surely hasten the downfall of our governing institutions, enabling our collective demise.”

-Supreme Court Justice Katanji Jackson, July 10, 2025

Eight months into Trumpist/MAGA rule, the broadly-based resistance to that rule is standing strong. There is no question that the Trumpist plan was to so overwhelm us within six or so months, “flooding the zone” with one attack and lie after the other, such that, by now, they would be well on their way to their objective of permanent, authoritarian rule of the USA with all that this would mean for the world.

Early in February I wrote a column which listed five areas of focused work which, together, could make it possible for us to successfully prevent this objective of the regime: street heat, local/state/federal government pressure, legal action/the courts, media and publicity and outreach. Overall, I think we’ve done well in all these areas. We are clearly still on the defensive and will be until at least the November, 2026 elections, but we have also clearly won a number of victories, among them the political fact that Trump’s polling numbers are way down. Much of what the MAGA’s are trying to do is very unpopular.

What about the legal challenges to Trump’s many (321) Executive Orders? Here’s what the Associated Press reports as of yesterday as far as what has happened to them: 321 have been filed. 138 have been partial or full victories for the democratic forces. 91 were losses; the EO’s were “left in effect.” And 92 are pending.

An optimist would look at these numbers and correctly say that 71.5% were either victories of some kind or still pending. A pessimist would say that 57% were either losses or still pending. But there’s a deeper issue that needs to be assessed: the shadow docket, where the Court majority makes “emergency” decisions without explaining publicly why they are doing so. 

An NBC article yesterday reported on the results of this deeply concerning—and un-American—way that this particular Supreme Court, dominated by MAGA supporters and conservatives, has been advancing the Trumpist agenda:

“So far, the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on an emergency basis 28 times, according to an NBC News tally. It has lost only two. Four cases are pending, although the court issued temporary wins to the government in one of them while it decides the next steps to take. Three others resulted in no decision.

“The limited number of emergency requests compared with the total number of cases indicates the administration has been wary of rushing to the justices on issues where even a conservative majority receptive to some of its aggressive assertions of executive power may push back.”

Emergency requests and decisions have dramatically increased under the Roberts Supreme Court, and it is certain that there will be more going forward.

Katanji Jackson, in a 15 page dissent to an “emergency” decision on the issue of birthright citizenship, said this:

“The Court has cleared a path for the Executive to choose law-free action at this perilous moment for our Constitution—right when the Judiciary should be hunkering down to do all it can to preserve the law’s constraints.” she wrote. “I have no doubt that, if judges must allow the Executive to act unlawfully in some circumstances, as the Court concludes today, executive lawlessness will flourish.”

So what can the progressive resistance movement do about this?

I think we can do a lot, if a critical mass of organizations steps forward and develops a plan to go public and visible calling out the undemocratic and dangerous reality of what the Supreme Court majority is doing, particularly these shadowy, opaque, undemocratic “emergency” decisions. Just like we have had and will be having, on October 18, successful mass actions of millions in the streets around the country calling for No Kings, worker justice, women’s rights, climate justice, racial justice and more, it is time for such a nationally coordinated action sometime this fall focused on this issue.

Resistance activists and supporters in the mass media and social media should be all over this one. It’s fundamental to all that we are fighting for. Elected officials need to be speaking up. Every way that we have to educate and activate should be used.

It’s time to bring Supreme Court allowance of “executive lawlessness” out into the open as a major issue.

Ted Glick has been a progressive activist and organizer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, both available at https://pmpress.org . More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.