Our money is our power: Need help determining next boycott

Good morning Engaged Durhamites for Democracy!

Diane held a great protest yesterday at a new time and location in downtown Durham. Here is her report:

“We had 9 at the protest today with 2 new people, Marcel and Pam. Mark was there for the first time when I was there but he may have come last week with you when I was gone. I think everyone got the message about the time change but a couple of people were unaware of the place change. John checked at the Bull a little after 10:00 and I checked a little after 11:00 and nobody was there. Judy was doing her thing getting people signed up for the Bridges to Freedom protest. The sidewalk in front of the YMCA has a lot of shade, which was nice, but the cars parked there adversely impacted visibility so we stood on the edges of the cars. There is also shade in front of the Marriot/Carolina Theater, so we will move some people over there when we have more people. Lots of supportive honks, thumbs up, and fists today!”

Way to go Mark Mc for getting a letter published in The News and Observer about the big bad bill!

For those of you who don’t have a subscription, here is the article:

“I am aghast that the House of Representatives passed a budget reconciliation bill which contains a provision that would prevent state or local entities from enforcing any law or regulation that would limit or otherwise restrict artificial intelligence for 10 years! This dangerous provision may violate budget parliamentary rules, so the Senate has cooked up a different recipe that would impose a moratorium on state and local regulation of artificial intelligence as a prerequisite to receive funds from the federal broadband expansion program. More than thirty states have already passed laws that regulate dangerous aspects of AI, such as the creation of deepfakes, deceptive robocalls, and nonconsensual/child pornography. These protections would be unenforceable if this bill passes. That’s their intent. Congress is hell bent on giving unprecedented power to big tech companies to profile and deceive us rather than protect us. This is one more reason to defeat this big bad bill.”

https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor

I almost cannot believe I am writing this. Even though the Senate got through the first step in passing the big bad bill with a vote for 51-49, Senator Tillis voted no because of the cuts to Medicaid!! I cannot attribute this to things other than our calls. We have been relentless. Thank you all so much for being diligent with calling! Hats off to Down Home NC who has worked tirelessly to have people from ALL OVER NC call him asking him not to cut Medicaid. Kate, Sohnie, and Nell, you have had a GREAT impact!! Tillis heard from people he has NEVER heard from before. I also give some credit to our noble Bruce who walked all of the way from Durham to DC and met with Tillis’ Chief of Staff and brought him all of our letters. All of these efforts gave Tillis the courage to vote against the tyrant. Almost all of the other Senators who originally were a “no” vote caved. Tillis did not cave!! Of course, TACO is furious as he does not like people defying him. His first move was to threaten Tillis. I AM CALLING TODAY TO THANK TILLIS FOR HIS VOTE AND HOPE ALL OF YOU WILL PLEASE CALL!!! We the People have power!! He is trying to do his job by representing us and not just having us have one branch of government.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/trump-threatens-backing-primary-challenge-gop-sen-thom-tillis-big-bea-rcna215769

Great news! Even before the vote, Senator Minority Leader Schumer made the Senate read the entire reconciliation bill. Remember how many US Representatives, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, admitted they had not read the bill as the Republicans rammed it through in the middle of the night. We need this kind of resistance and also diligence.

More great news! Hungary fights back with its biggest pride parade even though dictator Victor Orban banned it!!! Yes Hungary!! Love the resistance! My daughter, my BFF, Kelly, and I plan to attend the Pride Parade in New York City today. I am guessing it will be a little different than the Pride Parade in Durham. I am sure it will be amazing. I am loving being in NY City for Pride weekend. On my way to practice yesterday, I passed a river of people for the Pride run. So many pink and rainbow shirts!! Yes!!

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/world/europe/hungary-orban-gay-pride.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Sad news (not really). Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon and The Washington Post was trying to get married in Venice and spending millions on this wedding. Well boo hoo, Bezos had to move wedding reception as protestors were wedding crashers. Activists put a Jeff Bezos dummy (ain’t that the truth??) into the Venice Canal. In one hand, was an Amazon box while the other had cash. Yes!!! Sorry to rain on your wedding parade. You crap on so many though. Happy we have solidarity even in other countries!

We are not a fan of Bezos given how much he has kissed the ring of TACO. Kissing the ring only makes TACO stronger and makes others feel they need to bend the knee. Working for Amazon can be hard. Instead of spending millions on his wedding, he could raise wages for his employees. And on top of that, Amazon aggressively stops unions from forming. The Amazon in Raleigh tried hard to unionize. In response, Amazon played propaganda videos on monitors throughout the warehouse telling them unions hurt workers. They pitted workers against each other as a way to discourage union membership. The bid to unionize failed miserably. Unions are one of the only ways we can combat the corruption that corporations have in this country.

I feel justified in trying to financially impact Jeff Bezos as I feel he hurts many. Many have already canceled their Amazon Prime accounts and have stopped purchasing from Amazon. Thank you those who have done this! If folks subscribe to The Washington Post, you also can cancel your subscription as a way of boycotting.

Our next step in this group has been to boycott Whole Foods that Amazon owns. I realize there are mixed emotions on this tack.

I had a great conversation with Mark on the bridge about why he cannot join the Whole Foods protest. He is part of a charity organization that provides food to those who are lacking in Whole Foods donates a lot of their produce. So, he cannot justify be boycotting them, and it makes a lot of sense. And Onja sent an article about the good things that Whole Foods does for its employees. I agree with that too.

I do wish that Amazon had not bought Whole Foods. I just also feel the need to up our game to put some pressure on people and make them know that we’re watching what they’re doing and that we are not OK with them treating workers unfairly and supporting a dictator. We are not living in a democracy right now, and we need to fight harder than we have before as it is slipping away from us. This become even more threatened by the US Supreme Court ruling limiting the power of federal judges. The Executive Branch is very powerful right now, and unfortunately, a dictator and his puppet master Stephen Miller control that branch.

And if you are unsure of whether our democracy is slipping away, please see this interview with Martina Navratilova, one of my favorite tennis stars, who left her home country to the “land of the free” and how she sees things under this regime.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9xzgg91lpo

A few weeks ago, we talked about boycotting companies who have given to TACO after I attended the Resistance Lab training. We put out a long and overwhelming list. Well, we learned that the whole giving game is much more complex as companies tend to give to both sides (thanks Joel for pointing that out). We then thought about going after those companies who gave just to TACO or gave $1M or more. Another option is going after NC Senators and Representatives who are themselves business owners and are supporting oppressive, discriminatory laws. See this clip sent by Gene. Thanks, Gene.

@themath_aintmathinIt’s time to hit back in ways they will actually hear us. Are in you NC and have a state senator or rep that wont respond to your concerns? Try the insurance company, auto dealership, restaurant or store that they own. While they are walking around acting like they don’t work for us they are making money from us in our communities without us evening knowing it. We have to get more creative than calls and letters to their legislative offices if we want to be heard. As always this information is for constructive and legal purposes only- absolutely nothing else. Let’s go. #NC #politics #fightback

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Another option is boycotting Palantir, a software company who, like Avelo, has been linked to anti-immigration policies and support of oligarchs. Their software helps ICE identify, locate, and detain our neighbors. The president, Peter Thiel, has become a new target. They also have big contracts with the federal government, supporting the military.

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/ice-protesters-palantir-bay-area-20396486.php

Another option is going after Meta. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, their philanthropy arm, dropped their DEI and equity in education initiatives, likely as they bent the knee to TACO. So they are another potential target, not to mention their loosening restrictions on censorship that has allowed more disinformation to be spread. So Meta can be a target of our boycott.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/technology/mark-zuckerberg-priscilla-chan-czi.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

There are many ways we can go, and the path is not super clear. To help with this effort, I am looking for a Boycott Planning Committee who wants to figure out how to up our resistance game. Our money is our power. Already Louise and Bailey are on the committee. If anyone else wants to join, please let me know. The Tesla protests were great. We are also working hard against Avelo. There might be a national movement to go beyond Amazon, Walmart, Target, and McDonald’s who all dropped their DEI initiatives when TACO went after DEI. Our boycotts have been having an effect.

Target has had a 17 percent drop in the value of its stock. Walmart’s stock has dropped 18 percent in the past month alone.

I am quoting Robert Reich here,

“Corporations are little more than the power of their brands to attract consumers, and their ability to attract talented people to manage and innovate. If they surrender to Trump, their brands are likely to suffer since most Americans don’t approve of Trump’s bullying. And some of their most talented people are likely to leave, since many can’t abide Trump’s attempts to undermine our democracy.“

I think we need to up our game to the next level and support businesses whose values match ours and not support those whose values go against ours.

Please email me if you want to join this boycott committee at Romeoboots@proton.me

Have a great Sunday. I hope you do something that fills your tank. Please revel in the fact that Tillis finally stood up for us!!

One of the pieces I am singing tonight at Carnegie Hall is about climate change. The last song talks about being just one soul, then that one soul becomes thousands, then it becomes millions. It talks about how we are in the right, and we are ready to fight. I will try hard not to cry when singing this powerful piece composed by NC composer Sherry Blevins (and she is conducting us too!). Each of us is small. When we are together with thousands and millions, We the People are Powerful!!! And I am grateful my daughter and BFF, Kelly, are here to support me. We can do this all!

Warmly,

Kathryn