You Can’t Be Shot for Not Shopping

Let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late—Bob Dylan

From the moment that Renee Good was approached by agitated, profanity yelling ICE agents, to her last words—“I’m not angry with you”—the instant before she was executed, it became clear that American citizens of every stripe, save MAGA, are now under siege by the current administration.

Releasing hordes of provocative Border Patrol agents (one wonders how many might be Jan. 6  pardons?) to instill fear in the immigrant population and deter resistance from others, makes immigrants the mask for the appropriation of power by Trump’s true constituency---  concentrated private wealth and the C-suites.

Trump is too chaotic and disorganized to be the architect of these programs. His job is to shatter norms and institutions, allowing Russell Vought and Stephen Miller (his Goebbels and Göring) space and cover to serve the interests of the billionaires and Christian Nationalists and to divert and entertain the racist wing of his MAGA supporters.

While Trump kicks up the dust and makes the noise, all these negative actors are operating according to a blueprint devised and published decades ago entitled, Lewis Powell’s[1] Memorandum directed to the US Chamber of Commerce in 1971. Powell’s plan was to weaken the government’s ability to regulate the corporate sector and to diminish the growing voices of progressive politics growing in the Nation’s Universities and (as he perceived it) on its airwaves. The Memo was immediately submerged from public view and funded by some of the Nation’s largest fortunes—the Koch Brothers, Richard Scaife, and Joseph Coors. They established numerous think-tanks (Heritage, Manhattan, Claremont, AEI, etc.) funding scholars  to challenging ideas and legislation that impeded the economic policy favored by the moneyed class (neoliberalism) which insisted on the deregulation of all financial markets.

                  Comprehending that it is no longer safe  for citizens to  assume they are protected by the Constitution and understanding that the Supreme Court has been coopted as a wholly owned subsidiary of Executive power has important implications. Should protestors become so enraged and/or exasperated they respond violently to ICE’s deliberate provocations, violence will escalate so swiftly that, America could soon resemble Iraq at its war-torn, murderous worst. Trump’s most likely response to the violence he appears intent on provoking, would probably be imposition of martial law and ‘postponing’  or possibly canceling mid-term elections. This means that public resistance will be increasingly dangerous and should, therefore be quiet and private. What might such resistance look like?

                  Seven  million Americans showed up for No Kings events. Were that number of citizens to focus  on Trump’s corporate power-base as the targets of disciplined boycotts, some percentage of those corporate profits could be diminished. It needn’t be much. Remember all  the fuss about a ½ point interest shift at the Federal Reserve?  One or two percentage points of loss would galvanize investor attention, and seven, (probably twelve million participants by now), could accomplish that. We don’t need everyone. Shareholders will get the message and make demands of their corporate boards.

 People can’t be beaten for not shopping; can’t be jerked from cars or zip-tied for gathering knowledge, writing letters and organizing boycotts while supporting their neighbors.  Cancelling  Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts will stop 7 or 12 million nickels and dimes from flowing to the people destroying  our country. We should be careful not to make the perfect the enemy of the good.

Erica Chenoweth, of Harvard’s Kennedy School, after analyzing hundreds of violent and nonviolent movements from 1900–2006 formulated that every nonviolent campaign mobilizing at least about 3.5% of a country’s population at its peak succeeded in achieving its primary goals. Seven million people is already over 2% of the population.

 It will be difficult to boycott the Hedge Funds and oil companies, but ending patronage of, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Intuit, OpenAI leadership, Whole Foods (including Amazon) is difficult but doable. One can fulfill most consumer needs on Ebay, or Costco (which continues to support DEI). Write and let firms know why you are choosing Lowes over Home Depot and  forsaking cute kitty pix and dance steps on Instagram. You can meet friends on Bluesky instead of Facebook. Postpone your big ticket items— Ford, GM, Toyota, are million-dollar donors to the Trump Administration. Trade with friends and neighbors for new toys and clothes instead of buying new. Shopping “just enough” to get by is a lot safer than physical encounters with Trump’s ICE ‘brownshirts” and retards the flow of our money to the people currently attacking our democratic institutions and norms.

Consider dedicating some of the savings yo accumulated from diminished shopping, to aid immigrant friends and employees—gardeners, housekeepers, nurses, cooks, and care-givers. They are bearing the direct brunt of these assaults and networking and sharing what we can with them will solidify our neighborhoods and relationships and lend breadth to our economic resistance. Such systems already exist: a few examples:

National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) – Provides legal consultations and deportation defense for low‑income immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers nationwide.

Amica Center for Immigrant Rights (formerly CAIR Coalition) – Focuses on legal defense and strategic litigation for detained immigrants, including children and adults, to fight deportation.

Acacia Center for Justice – Helps build and fund deportation defense programs and community-based support networks across the country.

Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) – Large California-based organization that offers deportation defense, legal services, and organizing to protect immigrant communities. Work out contacts and plans to help them should they be snatched. Keep your money close. Keep your head down. Hang in for the long haul. As Bette Davis once said, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s gonna be a rough ride.”

[1] Lewis Powell was a board member of Phillip Morris (Marlboro) and appointed later to the US Supreme Court by Richard Nixon.