New Year, Same Fight

Now, first of all: Happy New Year!

Secondly: as we start out 2026, we will be introducing some regular, rotating sections to our newsletter to make them a little easier to navigate. We hope you enjoy them as we continue to evolve to meet the moment.

In This Issue:

1. Member Musings: “From Backyards to City Hall,” by contributor Torene Svitil
2. The List to Resist: A dive into recent fronts of the fight to save democracy, from contributor S.W.
3. Out of the Box: A look at forms of non-violent resistance which live off the beaten path.
4. Yays and Nays: Who we’re celebrating and who we’re calling out. (We know, we know. It’s a pun.)

Democracy in Action: From Backyards to City Hall

by Torene Svitil, contributor

One evening in September, cool in the way evenings in Los Angeles are even on the hottest days, I joined a group of Angelenos from all over the city in a Silver Lake backyard.

Forty or so of us, representing the broad demographic makeup of the city, gathered to discuss the reforms we would most like to see incorporated into a revised City Charter. This type of meeting was new to me. I knew no one there and had no idea what to expect, but I was hoping for an informed and purposeful look at the ways we could come together as a community to effect positive change.

WHAT EXACTLY IS LOS ANGELES CHARTER REFORM?

In 2024, Mayor Karen Bass created the Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission in response to multiple Los Angeles City government scandals, including the leak of a racist tape featuring City Council President Nury Martinez, Council members Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon, and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President, Ron Herrera. Its task is to update and revise LA’s Charter - basically the city’s constitution - which defines the “roles, powers, and responsibilities of City officials and departments.” This is the first significant update to the City Charter since 1998 and the best chance Angelenos have to make City government more responsive to their needs.

BACKYARD BIG IDEAS

To that end, the LA Forward Institute has organized Backyard Big Ideas. LA Forward and its non-profit arm, the LA Forward Institute, work to build community, engage regular citizens in the political process and give residents the knowledge, skills and power to “ensure our political system prioritizes our common needs above special interests.”

At the September event, a facilitated discussion followed a short primer on the City Charter from the LA Forward Institute team. During the discussion, each participant, including me, had five uninterrupted minutes to focus attention on their reform priorities. Comments ranged from the need for better and faster street and sidewalk repair; to the importance of unarmed critical response teams and better ways to address police abuses of power; to instituting ranked choice voting and expanding the City Council. The tone was respectful, passionate and generally progressive.

Two Commissioners, Chair Raymond Meza and Commissioner Andrea Mac, had been invited to attend as observers. Afterward, they were asked to summarize what they had taken away from the discussion. Then, building on the success of the first Backyard Big Ideas, LA Forward held another, similar event in DTLA on December 18, with two other Commissioners attending - this time, Martin Schlageter and Carla Fuentes.

Although the public can attend Commission meetings in person or on Zoom and can comment on agenda items, each speaker is limited to two or three minutes.

With only three months remaining until April, when the Commission must present its recommendations to the City Council, informal meetings like these help expose the Commission to the broader concerns of city residents.

Check the LA Forward Institute website for upcoming events as the deadline for reform recommendations approaches.

For more information on the Charter Reform Commission, visit: reformlacharter.lacity.gov

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The List to Resist

by S.W., contributor

Eight days after the inauguration the press reported on the administration’s “flooding the zone tactics.” It was hardly news, we saw it unfold in real time. Protests started early on my side of town, and it didn’t take long for someone to create what is still my favorite sign to date, “Stop: too many things to list here.”

The strategy hasn’t worked however, this year has seen an estimated 60,000 mass protests, the creation of many new efforts such as DAN, the growth of independent news outlets, loud town halls, and the increased use of tools like 5 Calls and Resistbot.

With so much egregious and unlawful behavior taking place, it’s hard to focus on any one thing. Which is, of course, the intention. The grifts, the gold in the Oval, the Kennedy Center shenanigans, and the horror of demolishing a wing of the People’s House will have to wait.

But we don’t have to wait until the mid-terms or three more years to call out the most dangerous and immoral acts by this administration. Our resistance needs to hit hard at the start of 2026, particularly on issues where so many lives are being damaged and lost:

1. Pressure must be put on every lawmaker and the White House to support Ukraine and call out Trump’s obvious allegiance to Putin.
2. Despite his five visits to the U.S. this year, Netanyahu refuses any accountability for the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Gaza (putting it mildly) and Trump has failed in assisting in a true cease fire.
3. 2025 is one of the deadliest years in ICE detention ever recorded, with at least 32 deaths reported, and many others are reported missing. We will likely never know how all of those who were deported fared.
4. Attacks on boats from Venezuela - As of last week, at least 105 individuals were reported killed in 29 strikes on 30 vessels. The White House maintains this is about drugs, yet there has been no evidence of drugs seized or proven trafficking efforts. Combined with the seizure of a China-bound oil tanker and Trump’s threats of land strikes on Venezuelan soil makes the situation even more volatile and dangerous. The more likely motives are reported as political, and more about rare minerals, than the oil from the region.
5. Nigeria - Trump claimed the recent airstrikes were launched against Islamic State militants “who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.” Yet while some militants were killed it was also reported that there were strikes in areas with no known Islamic State presence. Also, the White House inflammatory claims of “innocent Christians” is the government’s spin Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar told the BBC it was a “joint operation” and had “nothing to do with a particular religion”.
6. Virgina Giuffre’s Memoir, Nobody’s Girl is a haunting account of abuse, made even more tragic by her reported suicide several months prior to the book’s release. Make public ALL the Epstein files!

Some Trump voters are beginning to realize they have been lied to. Let those in your life know just how often they were.

From an August “Berns Substack,” here’s a great scorecard of just how many lies were tracked from 2015-2025. For lies in just the past year, CNN reported: Trumps Top 24 Lies of 2025

And finally, if you’re still on the website formerly known as Twitter, it’s past time to leave.

Out of the Box

This issue, we’ve got a roundup of some of our favorite innovative or unexpected avenues of protest and education from 2025.

1. Portlanders and their absurdity tactics, including inflatable costumes at protests. Thank you for inspiring a nation to tomfoolery, Portland.
2. Chicagoans and their mighty, ICE-fighting whistles. (Somewhat apt for the Windy City, no?)
3. The states of California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii looking out for public health as medical conspiracists dismantle guidance on a national level.
4. Voters in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, gave their sheriff the boot after he collaborated with ICE.
5. Groups and businesses around the country erected Día De Los Muertos altars to honor and remember the victims of ICE this year.
6. Miami residents told DeSantis and GOP cronies to shove it and repainted a destroyed rainbow crosswalk honoring the Pulse nightclub victims. The fight for this monument is ongoing. Similar stories are happening around the nation as part of the administration’s ongoing oppression of the LGBTQIAA+ community.
7. and finally, Raffi (yes, that Raffi) now writes anti-fascist songs for kids.

Did we miss one of your favorites? Let us know!

Yays and Nays

First up, in the YAY column, beloved travel guide Rick Steves recently bought a hygiene center in his community in order to keep it open and in operation. From NPR:

Steves called the purchase the best $2.25 million he could imagine spending.

But he says private donations are also not a substitute for public investment — and shouldn’t determine whether essential services survive.

He describes his decision as a response to what he sees as a failure of public priorities, not a model to be relied upon.

"If we don't have [$2.25 million] for a whole county to give homeless people a shower and a place to get out of the rain and a place to wash their clothes, what kind of society are we?" Steves said.

Can’t argue with that.

Next up, in the NAY column, if you’re still on the website-formerly-known-as-Twitter, please, for the love of humanity, get off that hell site. The very latest breaking horror story is that Grok, Elon Musk’s favorite child (likely because he can make it think whatever he wants), is creating deepfakes and CSAM on command and posting it across the site, with no guardrails in sight. No benefit of reach or nostalgia for better days is worth continuing to support the zombie of the old bird app. And go ahead an boycott Tesla and Starlink too, while you’re at it.

In better thoughts, our YAY column includes the Buddhist monks on their “Walk for Peace.” Folks are coming out across their route to thank them and cheer them on. (However, they have recently asked that streamers not follow them everywhere, for their own safety.) Accompanied by their dog, Aloka, this group of two dozen or so monks are walking in recognition of a world out of balance and in need of a return to peaceful ideals. If you encounter them or go out to see them, you can offer food and water, and can follow their walk from behind them in line. Folks have also been handing them flowers and joining them in prayer, as when they crossed the bridge in Selma. They are traveling from Texas to D.C., in a route very similar to the 1961 Freedom Riders Route.

And, as our final NAY, I regret to inform everyone once again that Tubi, the ad-supported digital streaming service, is owned by the Fox Corporation and the Murdochs. Ads on Tubi help keep the lights on at Fox News. It’s about as simple as that. Consider taking your viewing eyeballs elsewhere.