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2026 FL Legislature: Another Clown Show For the second consecutive year, the GOP-controlled FL Legislature ended its regular session last week without passing a state budget --- its sole required task for the 60-day assembly. Members will return to Tallahassee for two, maybe three, additional special sessions next month --- at a cost of $50,000+ a day --- to figure out the budget, further gerrymander the state's Congressional districts, and, if the Governor has his way, knee

Tell Congress: No Funding for War 272 members of Congress --- 53 senators and 219 representatives, including Rep. Rutherford and Sens. Scott and Moody --- chose complicity and more violence last week by rejecting a bipartisan war powers resolution to stop Trump’s illegal war on Iran — an unjustified war of choice that has killed over a thousand people, including six U.S. servicemembers. This vote defies the anti-war majority of their constituents and is a failure of Congress

Stop the War: It's Illegal, Unconstitutional & Criminal Congress will vote this week on a War Powers Resolution ( H Cong Res 38 / SJ Res 59 ) directing the President to remove the U.S. Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities against Iran. The vote is in response to r eckless, illegal, and unconstitutional action taken this weekend by the Trump administration, aided by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, based on false and unproven claims. To date, retaliatory attacks have

State of the Union: What Would Nancy Do? Trump will give the first State of the Union address of his second term on Tuesday, February 24th at 9 p.m. It will be carried live by all of the major broadcast outlets. While we would normally consider it our civic duty to watch, we're feeling a little Pelosi. You will recall that during his first term, then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stood on the dias behind Trump and, following his speech in 2020, ripped up her copy in a bur

Push Back on Partisan Redistricting Tuesday Join us tomorrow (Tuesday, February 17) as we participate in a day of action with the No Partisan Maps Coalition opposing plans to redraw the state's congressional districts to further advantage the GOP. The peaceful protest will be held from 4 - 6 p.m. at 6006 Beach Boulevard (in front of Walgreens) in Jacksonville. Organized by Indivisible Mandarin, Beaches Activists Movement, other NEF Indivisible groups, and community partners

In Our Backyard: Eyes on ICE  As Congress grapples this week with guardrails for ICE in the face of another looming government shutdown, BAM is turning its attention to immigration enforcement activities in our own backyard. Join us on Thursday night (February 12th) as we hear from Andrea Reyes, Esq, local immigration attorney and co-founder of the NEF Immigration Resource Alliance. Since opening her legal practice in 2014, Reyes has dedicated her career to family-based imm

"The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.          . . .Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned. . ." Federal District Court Judge Fred Biery in his opinion orderin

What More Will It Take? Stop ICE Now In the wake of the approval of additional ICE funding by the U.S. House --- aided by the votes of the seven cowardly Democrats who joined nearly all of the GOP reps--- we witnessed yet another senseless killing of a U.S. citizen by federal agents in Minneapolis. We saw photos of a five-year-old boy being carted off with his father to a detention facility across the country. We viewed an occupied American city. We heard the President and

The Dream Lives Now In observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we are sharing an excerpt from a powerful commentary  by our sister organization, Unified Nassau: . . . (Today), we honor one of the greatest moral leaders in American history; a man whose name is synonymous with courage, community, and the unshakeable belief that justice is possible. Dr. King did not merely deliver words; he led actions that called a nation to account for its promises and its failures. He stoo

ICE Out for Good Despite thousands of protests across the country  --- including here at the Beach --- following the killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis, the Trump administration is doubling down, offering a false narrative , blocking investigations, and continuing its aggressive enforcement efforts aimed at immigrants and their supporters. Since the beginning of the year, there have been at least 16 shooting incidents by federal immigration officials re

Not In Our Name! As The Contrarian's   Jennifer Rubin put it, "The U.S. President this weekend attacked a sovereign nation, killed its citizens, and kidnapped its leader." While the New York Times editorial board took more time and words to examine events, they flatly state that "Without congressional approval, his [Trump's] actions violate U.S. law." With detail still emerging, this image from Robert Hubble's  Substack shows it is not too soon for public protest. As we've

2026: From Resistance to Action As 2025 limps toward its end, NYT columnist Michelle Goldberg reminds us , there are reasons to be hopeful. "That's because millions of people throughout the country have refused to surrender to this administration's bullying."  Despite the extraordinary damage to the democratic norms of the country, Trump's consolidation of power, notes Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg, has been staved off not because of the actions of "pretty much anyone

Finding Joy in Resistance As we gather with family and friends for the holidays, let's take a moment to celebrate our success in building a resistance movement against efforts to dismantle democracy. Across the country, in states and communities, we organized, collaborated, and inspired one another. We held elected officials accountable and demanded action. Even in the darkest days of this challenging year, we called, emailed, signed petitions, and attended meetings. We were

Loss of ACA Subsidies Looms With the Senate's  failure to pass bills to extend --- or provide an alternative to --- Obamacare subsidies, the House is poised to vote on its own plan this week. An effort by GOP moderates and Democrats to add an amendment extending the subsidies is expected to fail, making it likely that the tax credits that make insurance affordable for 22 million Americans will lapse by the end of the year.  As a result, premiums could more than double, forc

Mingle & Jingle With Us Thursday! It's been a rough year. Trump 2.0 has been everything we expected --- only worse. We've rallied. We've marched. We've pushed back. Now it's time for an evening of joyful resistance!  Join us on Thursday, December 11th, 7 pm at Adele Grage Community Center for the annual BAM Holiday Party. We'll gather with friends and fellow activists, share festive treats and libations, enjoy live music, and join in a lively rendition of our much-anticipat

Join Us at Capitol Rally Thursday! Stop the Partisan Power Grab BAM will join area Indivisible groups and a coalition of voting rights organizations from across the state to rally against GOP proposals to redraw Florida's congressional districts to further their advantage on Thursday, December 4th, at the state Capitol. Sign up here to join us --- a bus will depart from Jacksonville (Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, 2026 Silver Street) at 9 am for a noon rally preceding

Giving Thanks Our pro-democracy efforts against Trump's authoritarian actions in his second term gained incredible momentum this year as tens of thousands of ordinary citizens turned out in northeast Florida for No Kings marches, rallies, caravans, and protests.  These mass actions were made possible by a coalition of diverse local activist groups that came together to organize peaceful, nonviolent demonstrations opposing MAGA's cruel and harmful agenda. What started as a fe

Next Up: Vote on ACA Subsidies & Poison Pills Betrayal or inevitable? Cave-in or smart strategy? Naive or cunning? Regardless of how you feel about last week's decision by a handful of Democratic U.S. Senators to support a GOP plan reopening the government, another battle over a promised vote on extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies is looming.  The subsidy vote, expected in mid-December, is one of a modicum of concessions extracted by the lawmakers in exchange for th

"...While we cast our ballots alone, we chose hope together. Hope over tyranny. Hope over big money and small ideas. Hope over despair. And we won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now, it is something that we do." New York Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani It Was a Good Week! But We're Not Done Yet (And Neither Are They) Election lawyer Marc Elias said it best: Last week was a very good one --- for both Democrats and democracy. Demo

How Low Will They Go??? GOP Shutdown Enters 2nd Month The federal government remains shut down as the GOP continues to refuse bipartisan negotiations aimed at extending health care subsidies and funding for other needed programs. Adding to the potential human costs, last week food banks across the nation were bracing for the administration's plans to put SNAP and WIC --- two anti-hunger programs that millions of Americans rely on --- in the cross-hairs in the budget fight. T