John Brayton


Photos From Today’s Protest at the Massachusetts State House

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I participated in a protest today at the state house. These are some photos.

Big crowd with protest signs in front of the state house.Lots of people. One has a sign that says ”I’m sick of doom scrolling”.A big crowd, a few with signs.A good view of the state house. Some protesters right in front of it. Others were (with me) on the other side of the street. One sign says ”stop the coup.” Another says ”say no to fascism”.A lot of people standing and protesting.Lots of folks with sign. One says ”stop project 2025”. One says ”save trans kids”. One says “resist”.Lots of people with signs. One says ”stop project 2025”. Anther says ”it’s a coup”.This is a view from further back on the Boston Common.One sign says ”stop the felon”. Another says ”GOP owned by billionnaires”.One sign says “Trump & Musk - are they leaders or looters?”. One says “Trump & Musk power grab”. One says “stand with immigrants” One says “make America great again - deport Trump”. One says “tyranny, thy name is Trump”.

Coup

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Heather Cox Richardson:

I’m going to start tonight by stating the obvious: the Republicans control both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. They also control the White House and the Supreme Court. If they wanted to get rid of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), for example, they could introduce a bill, debate it, pass it, and send it on to President Trump for his signature. And there would be very little the Democrats could do to stop that change.

But they are not doing that.

Instead, they are permitting unelected billionaire Elon Musk, whose investment of $290 million in Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election apparently has bought him freedom to run the government, to override Congress and enact whatever his own policies are by rooting around in government agencies and cancelling those programs that he, personally, dislikes.

The replacement of our constitutional system of government with the whims of an unelected private citizen is a coup. The U.S. president has no authority to cut programs created and funded by Congress, and a private citizen tapped by a president has even less standing to try anything so radical.

Calling this anything less than a coup at this point is sane-washing. This has to be stopped immediately.

Calling Representatives

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I called the office of my congresswoman, my senators, my state governor, and my state attorney general. I talked to staffers where I could, and left voice messages elsewhere.

This is roughly the script I used:

The reason I am calling is that I am deeply concerned about Trump’s moves over the past few weeks. What is most alarming to me is that Elon Musk is literally tearing apart the federal government. Reports are that government employees are getting locked out of their computer systems, and Elon Musk is getting access. He is taking entire government websites offline. He seems to have access to a boatload of information about government employees and about Americans who are getting social security or some kind of government assistance. I don’t know specifically what he’s doing with that, but it can’t be good.

This needs to stop right away, and I am pleading with you to do everything in your power to stop this.

Thank you.

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Whenever I hear Tim Cook state that privacy is a fundamental human right, I am going to remember that he attended and donated a million dollars to the Presidential inauguration of someone who cares nothing about human rights.

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I released Unread 4.4. This update makes it easier to subscribe to feeds offered by Bluesky, Mastodon, Reddit, and YouTube.

www.goldenhillsoftware.com/2025/01/u…

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Scoop: Apple CEO Tim Cook donates $1 million to Trump inauguration www.axios.com/2025/01/0…

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