245 Comments
User's avatar
Laurieanne's avatar

As an Atty and Scholar please do more. You must have connections. It’s terrifying.

Kevin Lawrence's avatar

I am an active protestor, and I receive messages and invitations from at least three organizations. I want to encourage all our groups, orgs, and concerned citizens to unite in a great peaceful protest on the steps of OUR capitol. We will carry signs not weapons. All we want is a tour and OUR VOICES and demands heard by all of congress. I will capitalize the titles when they have earned my respect.

Sharon Bouchard's avatar

Do more what? Lots of this is gonna be on us. The Civil Rights efforts in the 60s and antiwar efforts worked because people like us got out and pushed. MTN is a great modern day muckraker source of news. But they aren't the cavalry - WE ARE

Bill Lukens's avatar

Yes, YOU should do more!

Anyone who takes the time to insist OTHER people stand up for their rights will often lose theirs.

Get out and tell the message.

Daniel Solomon's avatar

I am irate that the Dem talking heads aren't highlighting protests.

They should be following the antics of the 4 Minnesota House Republicans, put microphones in front of them continually. Speak to their donors. Family.

1. I am irate that the talking heads did not promote yesterday as a day of national protest.

2. Yesterday was black friday for a number of investors. Silver down 25%. I am in financial discussion groups. Even the Republicans thnk Trump is an idiot. Only a small sector does well.

To see what the effect is, use AI to see how tariffs have affected a given company.

I live in Baghdad By the Sea, where our number 1 industry, tourism, is dead. No Venezuelans, Brasilian toursits at all. Few Canadians.

3. We should be following the antics of the 4 Minnesota House Republicans, put microphones in front of them continually. Speak to their donors. Family.

-District 1: Rep. Brad Finstad

Chief of Staff: David FitzSimmons

Deputy Chief of Staff: John Altendorf

Legislative Director: Meagan Daly

Communications Director: Jenny Luepke

Director of Operations: Aaron Farris

-District 6: Rep. Tom Emmer

Chief of Staff (Personal Office): Taylor Reaves

Chief of Staff (Majority Whip Office): Robert Boland

Communications Director: Sally Fox

Legislative Director: Elizabeth Stinebaugh

Scheduler: Christine Callaghan

-District 7: Rep. Michelle Fischbach

Chief of Staff: Sean Murphy

Legislative Director: Savannah Bolender

Communications Director: Lauren Weber Holley

Director of Operations/Scheduler: Jack Vaughn

-District 8: Rep. Pete Stauber

Chief of Staff: Desiree Koetzle

Legislative Director: Andrew Morley

Communications Director: Kelsey Emmer

Scheduler: Courtney Heitkamp

WJB Motown's avatar

AIPAC supports the regime of Israel that is commiting genocide. Many Dems are beholedn to AIPAC so they will be silent as US citizens are abused and murdered.

Susan Booth's avatar

That's an statement that needs repeating, needs to be heard!

WJB Motown's avatar

Suri Crowe's latese MTN report goes into AIPACS control. The bullshit is how Jeffries and Schumer scream and yell and then do nothing.

Since when do you try and work together with fascists and nazis?????

Sharon Bouchard's avatar

And this is why, though my Congresscritters are all Dems, I've contacted them 360 times in the past year. I encourage them to lean on the supposed leadership to grow a spine. Or flat out replace them. Among many other things. *** 5cslls app for phoning. *** Resistbot to write. *** You'll have it done before you're done with your first cup of coffee.

Susan Booth's avatar

Why are you asking me? I'm not in Congress. I have no fascist or nazi ties. I was, in fact, offering you encouragement to repeat your statement to wider audiences. You may not be ready for prime time. (o_o)

Sharon Bouchard's avatar

Believe it or not, some of us know the difference between Jews and a lobbying group, and we've got no problem with Jews.

Susan Booth's avatar

Jewish men do not frighten me. Take it elsewhere.

Sandra Greer's avatar

Fuck you and the rest of the complainers about AIPAC and Israel. Israel is not committing genocide. That is just another pro-Hamas canard. Try reading this, which is full of genocide:

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp

WJB Motown's avatar

You must be looking forward to a Trump hotel beach view of the Mediteranean built on the graves of thousands of Palestinians.

Sharon Bouchard's avatar

Try talking to my friends who have family in Gaza. Feel free to tell them their family that's been slaughtered was all Hamas. I don't complain about "Israel" because I don't have a problem with its existence. Got friends there too. I guess if we're going to resort to cursing each other out, why don't you take your head out of your ass and realize that it's not just one "side" that is "right".

Sandra Greer's avatar

I don't care what "side" anyone is on. I DO care that there is a sort of wave of comments about AIPAC and Israel, mostly from well-meaning old-leftists.

If we could just go after the Males Behaving Badly on all sides, the world would be a better place.

Paula S Marple's avatar

I 100% agree!

If anyone has any connection to any Dem Congressperson, your info should be shared w/them.

• Using 5calls.org to call is easy & quick, & connects you to their offices. A staffer typically answers. Your calls are counted (numbers matter!) & are recorded.

• Check their websites to find their “home offices” too. Some have several offices in their state.

• Show up at one of their home offices, if possible.

• Calling is best. E-mails & texts are easily deleted.

HRH Mary EastWest's avatar

No one is posting your bailout!

No one is coming to your rescue!

It’s up to every one

of us

to do our part!

Janice's avatar

Thank you Meidas Network for always being there with the latest updates. It is up to us, the people and the independent media, to fight this evil regime and return our country back to the Constitutional Republic it was meant to be.

Chris Sausser's avatar

Thank them for what they do!!!

Rita Parker's avatar

Thank you, Ben. Proud to be a subscriber.

Michele2's avatar

Independent media is invaluable in our fight for Democracy. Timothy Snyder: "To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights." (On Tyranny). Meidas Touch is doing a great job in revealing truths about this regime. That one Epstein page that they saved totally incriminated Trump as pedophile. We must support independent media!

Paul Schwartz's avatar

Ben, Brett and Jordy - keeping Epstein in the news is paramount as it pisses Trump off. A proud member!

Francesca Cee's avatar

It's paramount because those women deserve justice.

Skitealwedrop's avatar

Pedophilia can never become the norm as the orange conman would like.

Nancy Prager Kamel's avatar

As the head of the largest foreign journalist organization in the USA dating back to the mid 1800s, I applaud your significant and brave broadcasting. A true voice in the wilderness.!

Johan's avatar
15hEdited

The regime controls DOJ, FBI, ICE, courts, and platforms. Your plan is report harder, fundraise more, stay united. Their plan is make reporting illegal, seize funds, arrest you. You’re bringing fact-checks to a paramilitary fight.

Minneapolis didn’t win with better journalism. They won by making ICE operations operationally impossible through resistance (nonviolence) and sanctuary infrastructure that imposed costs the regime couldn’t absorb.

You published Epstein files. Regime response: buried 3 million more docs, arrested Don Lemon, threatened you with arrest, continued operations.

The question you won’t ask: what happens when they arrest you?

Answer: your subscribers write angry Substacks while the regime continues.

Courage without strategy isn’t resistance, it’s martyrdom. And martyrs don’t win, they just die first.

You want to win?

Stop asking for subscriptions.

Start building encrypted comms, offshore infrastructure, international partnerships, safe houses, exile plans.

Because “we’re not scared” isn’t a strategy. It’s what people say right before they get disappeared.

—Johan

Barry Cusitar's avatar

Couldn't DISAGREE more. So, your answer is to be physical? Minnesota did not win by having a "physical resistance" - they are winning with peaceful protests - that is not physical resistance - Violence is their answer, it can't be ours. People, standing together, as one, peacefully and in huge numbers IS the answer and will always be. Ben is saying "we're not scared" because many people are, millions are, and that we have to get out and show these authoritarian murderers with the demented Orange Pig at the helm that we are in fact, not scared, and have numbers they can't overcome.

Johan's avatar

You misunderstood.

Physical resistance isn’t violence. It’s making operations physically impossible to execute through nonviolent means.

Nowhere did I say violence, you’re too emotional with your response and not reading my words correctly.

Minneapolis: Residents formed human chains around targets, blocked ICE vans with parked cars, occupied facilities, created sanctuary networks where people physically couldn’t be accessed. Zero punches thrown. But ICE couldn’t operate because the environment became unworkable.

That’s different from protests. Protests express opposition. Nonviolent physical (people blocking nonviolently) resistance makes enforcement impossible.

When I said Ben needs infrastructure, I meant what Argentina’s Madres built under the junta:

networks that physically protect people, communication the regime can’t intercept, ways to move targeted people to safety. Not violence. Survival systems.

Courage matters for morale. But courage alone never stopped a dictatorship. Organization did. Infrastructure did. Making regime operations cost more than they’re worth did.

Standing together peacefully works when regimes respect numbers. When they don’t, when they arrest leaders anyway, when they kill protesters like Minneapolis, you need infrastructure to continue without the leaders. Otherwise it’s symbolic gestures the regime ignores while rounding people up.

I’m not arguing against nonviolence. I’m arguing nonviolent resistance needs tactical support or it becomes performance the regime watches before making arrests.​​​​​​​​

r adams's avatar

♥️💙💜💚💛🤎🩷🤍🩵🩶🧡🖤

Kevin Lawrence's avatar

Excellent strategy, Johan. We also need moles and spies to provide early warning and actionable intel. We must identify the criminals abusing our civil rights and insist our local and State authorities arrest, try, and convict these nazi animals.

Also, our businesses, hotels, restaurants, filling stations, clothing stores need to refuse service. Stores need to lock doors, turn off the lights, and warn all customers before the goons arrive

Johan's avatar

Yes!

Look at what Russians did when they fled to Finland and Estonia.

They built newspapers and networks to document and speak truth to power.

Kevin Lawrence's avatar

I subscribe to The Moscow Times, and YouTube has excellent reporting on operations against a cruel invading regime.

KAREN8WORC's avatar

Coordinated efforts like the Underground Railroad was. Or getting battered women to safety. That kind of united resistance.

Bluefin's avatar

They are building international partnerships. -- Canada and there are others that I can't remember right now.

What do you mean by offshore infrastructure? safe houses? exile plans? Be specific and . . . realistic.

Johan's avatar

Yep, need to think about it. Like exiled Russian media.

Offshore infrastructure means exactly what every authoritarian regime’s opposition has always needed: secure communications that can’t be monitored by US channels, financial channels that can’t be frozen by Treasury, physical locations where servers and documentation exist outside DOJ jurisdiction, and yes, networks that can move people and resources when domestic operations become untenable.

This isn’t fantasy, it’s what Russian dissidents, Chinese activists, and Middle Eastern opposition groups have built for decades.

Americans just never thought they’d need it…until now.

The realistic part is that none of this exists at scale yet, which is the problem. Building it requires accepting that the institutional guardrails have already failed, that the judiciary won’t save you, that elections might not matter, and that the opposition needs to operate like an opposition movement in an authoritarian state rather than a loyal opposition in a functioning democracy.

Most American progressives aren’t there psychologically, which is why they’ll keep getting rolled by people who understand power better than they do.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

But it can be done.

KAREN8WORC's avatar

I'm concerned with all the data DOGE stole, that if the regime wanted to, they could empty our bank accounts.

Alexandrea green's avatar

Everyone go watch the Michelle Obama documentary on Netflix. Let’s get it to number one this week.

Lane's avatar

Watching it right now 🥰

Anne Hurley's avatar

I’m proud to support you. I was a news editor for decades at big newspapers and magazines. The energy I felt in those newsrooms is what I feel when I watch and support your news efforts. Your tireless reporting and integrity are beacons.

Deiettra Malone's avatar

We stand with ALL independent journalists! ✊🏽✊🏽💪🏽💪🏽❤️🤍💙 🇺🇸

Jeannine S's avatar

I love you guys, and I tell everyone I know about you. I feel less alone when I read your posts and watch your videos. Keep up the good fight.

Joanne Gatsis's avatar

I do too and have convinced a lot of people to STOP watching corporate media! They are faithful to the MTN now.

Deiettra Malone's avatar

I knew they would try to come after y’all next! This is utterly insane! He has control of mainstream media, now he’s trying it with independent journalists! Holy Father protect these journalists as we would not know the half if they were not on the ground reporting on the foolery of ICE and this sick ass administration!

prehbine's avatar

The Meiselas brothers and Meidas are truly an inspiration to all the sane people in the US and Canada!!!🙂

AnneOhio's avatar

Stay Meidas strong!

Wanda Enman's avatar

Stay safe Ben, your family and brothers. Of course you would be a target. The fascist regime cannot tolerate the truth. Keep up the fabulous work. ElbowsUP from MeidasCanada.

Marjory Unger's avatar

I fully support your work, but I’m a disabled person trying to keep the heat and lights on. I have to think about where I go to conserve gas in my 2001 car. I go to the food bank for food I can’t afford. I feel inept and useless about it all. I wish I had $$

Lane's avatar

I'm in the same boat, I watch and share but I don't have extra funds. We can only do what we can do! You are far from useless! Stay strong! 😘

Jean Conley's avatar

Don't ever put yourself down for that reason or feel guilty! Your support counts, no matter what your situation is!

Tenyce B's avatar

We are in this for one another. You being here strengthens my conviction and I need exactly the heart you have to share. Together

Joanne Gatsis's avatar

You being here and in the fight is worth more than money! 💙

Peter badder's avatar

Obviously you have the ability to communicate so you are not “inept and useless” use your imagination. You can contribute to the cause.

Monica Mac's avatar

Oh sweetie, I understand what you mean, I am in the exact same boat.

We do what we can, where we are.

Sending hugs xxx

Denise J's avatar

Marjory, you care and that energy will help the cause. When you visit the food back, perhaps tell them about independent journalism being threatened and to spread the word. I am sure that Food Bank volunteers care about the people first.

Linda's avatar

Thank you!!!

Sonya Anderson's avatar

We will

stand in our Peace and our Power, always!