The Defiance Prayer

Please grant me audacity to choose values and goals worth fighting for;
Persistence in the face of failed attempts;
And the wisdom to know the difference between acceptance and giving up.

open.substack.com/pub/paultsha…

5 Tools for Staying Steady in Trump's Engineered Chaos

Trump wants you isolated, exhausted, and convinced resistance is futile. These practices help you stay operationally steady, strategically grounded, and connected to what matters most.

^{Paul T Shattuck, MSW, PhD (Stay Human - Shape Tomorrow)}

substack.com/home/post/p-16119…

This came out in mid-April. With everything going on, no one shared it, although we have similar posts from Paul Shattuck and others. As we move forward, understanding the "Authoritarian Harm Complex" is going to become even more important.

Stay Human: 80 Tiny Moves for Everyday Resistance in the Authoritarian Harm Complex

What if staying human is one of the most powerful and most unappreciated forms of resistance? Shaping tomorrow and defeating tyranny takes more than big protest events and macro strategies.

^{Paul T Shattuck, MSW, PhD (Progressive Strategy Now)}

substack.com/inbox/post/180456…

How Good People Get Lost Policing Each Other Instead of Power.

The Movement Inward-Turn

^{Lady Libertie (The American Pamphleteer)}

Ready to revisit your favorites? While not our local performers, I posted a Substack set of links to YouTube videos of all the songs (except Mechelle's and Alma's) performed at the benefit concert.

substack.com/home/post/p-17528…

Sing Out: The Power of the Protest Song Setlists

We had a great time last night; thanks again to everyone who performed, came to sing, and helped put this special event together.

^substack.com

10stepscampaign.org/

Democracy campaign from Stacy Abrams.

<B>10 Steps to Autocracy</B>
1. Win the Last Fair Election
2. Expand Executive Power
3. Capture the Other Branches
4. Gut the Civil Service
5. Install Loyalists
6. Attack the Media
7. Scapegoat Vulnerable Communities
8. Destroy Support Systems
9. Normalize Violence
10. End Democracy Itself.

<B>10 Steps to Freedom and Power</B>
1. COMMIT to understand what's happening
2. SHARE the facts with others
3. ORGANIZE
4. MOBILIZE
5. LITIGATE
6. DISRUPT...don't be part of their system of disinformation and compliance
7. DENY....refuse to be complicit
8. ENGAGE with public officials
9. ELECT
10. DEMAND better government.

10 Steps to Freedom & Power

Democracy is Under Attack. Learn the Playbook. Join the Fight. Defend Our Freedom.

^{10 Steps to Freedom & Powe}

@dr_demetre
My resignation letter from CDC.

Dear Dr. Houry,

I am writing to formally resign from my position as Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective August 28, 2025, close of business. I am happy to stay on for two weeks to provide transition, if requested.

This decision has not come easily, as I deeply value the work that the CDC does in safeguarding public health and am proud of my contributions to that critical mission. However, after much contemplation and reflection on recent developments and perspectives brought to light by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I find that the views he and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people. Enough is enough.

While I hold immense respect for the institution and my colleagues, I believe that it is imperative to align my professional responsibilities to my system of ethics and my understanding of the science of infectious disease, immunology, and my promise to serve the American people. This step is necessary to ensure that I can contribute effectively in a capacity that allows me to remain true to my principles.

I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health. The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people. The data analyses that supported this decision have never been shared with CDC despite my respectful requests to HHS and other leadership. This lack of meaningful engagement was further compounded by a “frequently asked questions” document written to support the Secretary’s directive that was circulated by HHS without input from CDC subject matter experts and that cited studies that did not support the conclusions that were attributed to these authors. Having worked in local and national public health for years, I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people.

It is untenable to serve in an organization that is not afforded the opportunity to discuss decisions of scientific and public health importance released under the moniker of CDC. The lack of communication by HHS and other CDC political leadership that culminates in social media posts announcing major policy changes without prior notice demonstrate a disregard of normal communication channels and common sense. Having to retrofit analyses and policy actions to match inadequately thought-out announcements in poorly scripted videos or page long X posts should not be how organizations responsible for the health of people should function. Some examples include the announcement of the change in the COVID-19 recommendations for children and pregnant people, the firing of scientists from ACIP by X post and an op-ed rather than direct communication with these valuable experts, the announcement of new ACIP members by X before onboarding and vetting have completed, and the release of term of reference for an ACIP workgroup that ignored all feedback from career staff at CDC.

The recent term of reference for the COVID vaccine work group created by this ACIP puts people of dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor in charge of recommending vaccine policy to a director hamstrung and sidelined by an authoritarian leader. Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults. Their base should be the people they serve not a political voting bloc.

I have always been first to challenge scientific and public health dogma in my career and was excited by the opportunity to do so again. I was optimistic that there would be an opportunity to brief the Secretary about key topics such as measles, avian influenza, and the highly coordinated approach to the respiratory virus season. Such briefings would allow exchange of ideas and a shared path to support the vision of “Making America Healthy Again.” We are seven months into the new administration, and no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the Secretary. I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us. Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS use over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources. At a hearing, Secretary Kennedy said that Americans should not take medical advice from him. To the contrary, an appropriately briefed and inquisitive Secretary should be a source of health information for the people he serves. As it stands now, I must agree with him, that he should not be considered a source of accurate information.

The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines favoring natural infection and unproven remedies will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer. I believe in nutrition and exercise. I believe in making our food supply healthier, and I also believe in using vaccines to prevent death and disability. Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated and is derivative of a legacy that good medicine and science should continue to shun.

The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud. I am resigning because of the cowardice of a leader that cannot admit that HIS and his minions’ words over decades created an environment where violence like this can occur. I reject his and his colleagues’ thoughts and prayers, and advise they direct those to people that they have not actively harmed.

For decades, I have been a trusted voice for the LGBTQ community when it comes to critical health topics. I must also cite the recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision.

Public health is not merely about the health of the individual, but it is about the health of the community, the nation, the world. The nation’s health security is at risk and is in the hands of people focusing on ideological self-interest.

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for the opportunities for growth, learning, and collaboration that I have been afforded during my time at the CDC. It has been a privilege to work alongside such dedicated professionals who are committed to improving the health and well-being of communities across the nation even when under attack from within both physically and psychologically.

Thank you once again for the support and guidance I have received from you and previous CDC leadership throughout my tenure. I wish the CDC continued success in its vital mission and that HHS reverse its dangerous course to dismantle public health as a practice and as an institution. If they continue the current path, they risk our personal well-being and the security of the United States.

Sincerely,

Demetre C. Daskalakis MD MPH (he/his/him)

open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug…

But it turns out that it was all in Hannah Arendt. In her classic book “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” she explained why totalitarians — I know, Trump isn’t a full-on dictator, yet, but he’s clearly a wannabe — promote the incompetent:

“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”

Arendt also explained, in advance, the Trump administration’s extraordinary hostility to research, the extraordinary speed with which it is destroying America’s scientific base:

“ The consistent persecution of every higher form of intellectual activity by the new mass leaders springs from more than their natural resentment against everything they cannot understand. Total domination does not allow for free initiative in any field of life.”

The Political Economy of Incompetence

How Hannah Arendt predicted Stephen Moore

^{Paul Krugman}

I hate the headline, making this a zero sum game of political winners and losers, but the ideas make sense.

wsj.com/opinion/how-democrats-…

open.substack.com/pub/ladylibe…

1. Show Up Where It Matters.

2. Name the Crimes.

3. Protect the Vote — But Don’t Stop There.

4. Call Your Representatives.

5. Use Your Platform.

6. Join the Resistance Beyond Tomorrow.

7. Teach the Truth.

Make Good Trouble: How We Redeem the Soul of America

John Lewis Showed Us How to Save America — Now It’s Our Turn.

^{Lady Libertie (The American Pamphleteer)}

Food Links

Ben’s Book Recommendations

Julie’s Food Sustainability Resources

Food Resources

Local Food Links

The Huss Project

The Portage District Library Seed Library