Two nights before New Year’s Eve, Critical Mass Orlando took to the streets with hundreds of riders and bikes. Central Florida Queers for Palestine rode as a special contingent in the ride.

2023 was a tough year in the trenches for many in the US. This was a year of fireand smoke not only globally but domestically as well. The long-discussed “cold civil war”in the US seems not to be quite as cold as it’s used to be. Much of the menace of 2020 has returned.

Notable events include:

Before the year could even begin, the last week of 2022 features four threatened drag shows and the defense of them

The J6 2nd anniversary in DC.

The murder of tort-and the resulting fire and fury of the Cop City campaignwhich continued all year but most intensely with the March 5 raid by forest defenderson the Cop City staging area and its complete destruction by fire.

Police and prosecutors acting like Nazi Gestapo (all year)

All out attempts by DeSantis to wipe out or drive away FL’s LGBTQ community backfire,he ends the year all but out of contention for the White House.

*A very nasty 2023 session in Tallahasse-including warrants for protest after the fact

*Very, very tense Pride festivals as the DeSantis drag ban posed a menace before being tossed in Federal court days before St Petersburg FL’s major Pride event

Protests in FL around July 1 as some of DeSantis’s fascistic new laws went into effect.A ferocious drag defense in Lakeland against Christian nationalists, one of many in the US

Oct 7: The Gaza war breaks out and Israel responds with all-out bombardment and overt genocide. Most of the rest of the year focussed on resisting “Genocide Joe” Biden’s support with armsof genocide in Gaza, with notable exceptions including:

The Nov 13 protests taking the offensive against Cop City and the fires the following night

Climate Defiance breaking up and closing down an awards ceremony featuring the CEO of Exxon-Mobil

Both “ThingsTaking” and Christmas events were the focus of pro-Palestine protests. Shopping wasdirectly targetted with many protests striking shopping areas and the “While you’re shopping,bombs are dropping” chant some remember from GW Bush’s Iraq War

One of the year’s late events was the Dec 11 blockade of the Kennedy Street Bridge in Tampa, FLon a nationwide day of action for Gaza. Bridges and highways have been subject to blockadethroughout the country.

Getting the vehicles that defended that protest out was difficult, and cops picked off several forticketing and threats on the way out. This was but a taste of the menacing police, university,employer, and related efforts to forciby shut up anyone who dares to speak out against the genocidein Gaza.

As the year closed the shadows of 2016 and 2020 loomed. DeSantis is no longer a contender but withGenocide Joe having all but thrown away his chance of a second term, it appears we are going to haveto fight Trump again, this time with him speaking openly of dictatorship and learning from last timearound.

Yet hope rises: On Dec 20 the Colorado Supreme Court tossed Trump off the ballot in that state on14th Amendment/insurrection grounds. In addition, the recent threats and police harassment havecompletely failed to silence the Palestine protests.

Be ready for a very rough ride in 2024-see you in the streets!

On Christmas Day, the 25th of December 2023, anti-genocide activists showed up at the HOME of US Secretary of “Defense” Loyd Austin in Fairfax County, VA. Palestine’s Christian minority population is reported to facing outright extermination. This being the case, Bethehem churches have cancelled this year’s Christmas celebrations due to the war.

Given these conditions, activists deemed it inappropriate for Mr Loyd Austin to be able to celebrate Christmas in peace himself, since he is part of the reason others cannot.

On the 24th of December, activists gathered in Lafayette Square, outside Genocide Joe’s White House for another vigil. With churches in Bethleham cancelling Christmas celebrations due to the war, it makes sense that Genocide Joe should not be able to celebrate this holiday either in peace.

This video was originally published on ANSWER’s Birdchan/X/Twitter page

On Dec 24, protesters in Baltimore deployed for a protest on the last day of holiday “shopping while bombs are dropping.”

The 23ed of December was the next to last day of “Christmas shopping while bombs are dropping. On that day in Tampa, another march for Gaza set forth from Lykes Gaslight Park. As the march built up, one of the speakers reminded everyone that the Houthis in Yemen are setting an example of solidarity done right for the whole world. The Houthis have powerful antiship ballistic missiles-and have vowed to stop any ship going to Israel via the Red Sea unless aid reaches Gaza FIRST. The crowd roared with approval, and it was time to set out.

After marching to the Christmas celebrations at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, the march made what was essentially a feint towards taking over the Kennedy Street Bridge again. Without the larger numbers and the defensive line of vehicles from Dec 11, this march was not powerful enough to take over the bridge and block it, so marchers went onto the bridge sidewalk and rallied a bit before reversing back out.

As marchers proceeded back to Lykes Gaslight Park, passing motorists cheered the marchers.

Returning to the bridge sent a message to Tampa’s Israeli trained cops that the police harassment and threats from Dec 11 would not deter anything. After all, marchers are not being shot or blown up, then denied medical care like in Gaza, and if people in Gaza can fight under those conditions we can fight here under much lesser threats.

Trump getting kicked off the Colorado GOP primary ballot is interesting. It shows that many inside the system fear a Trump dictatorship will destabilize the US and make the current not quite cold civil war look like a friendly debate.

This of course may well be overturned and is all but guaranteed to go to SCOTUS, where three of the so-called “Justices” are Trump’s handpicked MAGA meatheads. At some point in the near-future, we can expect a major mess in DC centered on SCOTUS, differing from Dobbs in that the Proud Boys, Moms4Liberty, and hard Nazis are much stronger than than those PAAU forced-birthers who turned out for Dobbs.

By now they’ve had time to recruit plenty of new operatives who were not at J20. Quite likely new outfits replace the Proud Boys though, just as they replaced the thugs behind Charlottesville.

It is quite possible that SCOTUS declines to take the case-or that all six non-Trump justices decide J6 was just too much for them. That does not finish off Trump though, as Colorado is not considered a competitive state for him anyway. The main effect to him in both the primary and general elections of being a 49 state candidate is twofold: morale, and the possiblity that one or more states where he could win also boot him.

If Trump is kept out of the whitehouse by state level J6/insurrection/14th Amendment disqualifications, this will be the work of career government people (the ones he calls “deep state” saving their own jobs and “their country” from the dictatorship and/or civil war Trump is so likely to create.

This also could start the fighting now, but such a conflict would be a two sided fight between the open Fascists and the Federal government, with ourselves being able to “lay back and watch the tigers fight” as we did on J6. We made sure BLM Plaza and several unhoused camps were protected as best as we could, but stayed well away from that mess of 20,000 Fascists at the Capitol.

We will still have to deal with the victors but won’t have to fight both of them at once in this scenario.

The 11th of December was a global day of strike, boycott, and action for Gaza. Tampa, FL threw down alongside DC, Philly, and so many other cities. Marching from pro-Israeli Mayor Jane Castor’s City Hall, protesters occupied and shut down the Kennedy Street Bridge. This is one of the bridges over the river that divided Tampa.

In addition to the marchers on foot, vehicles were used to protect marchers holding the bridge from any attempt to ram through by violent motorists. DeSantis has made it legal to do so, but cannot repeal the laws of physics: a commuter car or even an SUV cannot ram through a “flag truck” with a Palestinian flag and protesters on it. Earlier, these and other vehicles had circulated in small groups in city streets, spreading the message with the flags and honking horns.

Getting everyone back off the bridge proved the most dangerous part of the mission. The cops were furious. To avoid leaving the car and truck drivers who had protected the marchers behind, marchers moved to the sidewalk to open the door for them to escape instead of being left behind. It was not to be: as soon as the reformed motorcade turned right leaving the bridge, cops pounced and ordered those vehicles they could find and catch to pull over after that turn.. It appears the majority of the motorcade vehicles escaped, but not all.

Most of the march continued back to City Hall, but a security element stayed with the cars. Cameras were trained on the cops in the classic one forward, one back model that makes forcibly halting the video without being filmed doing so almost impossible. The Israeli-trained cops no doubt realized the march could be summoned back in minutes. They may have written tickets (this is unconfirmed) but made no attempt at arrests or towing.

Cops learned the hard way that trying to pick people off afterwards is futile. Everyone they mess with has backup, and preventing it from being summoned is almost impossible.

There has been a lot of ugly harassment of and cheap shots at pro-Palestine activists by governors (such as DeSantis), cops, mayors, university presidents and employers, the works. None of it changes the fact that we have each other’s backs!

On the 11th of December, protesters opposing Israel’s bloody genocide in Gaza staged a die-in inside the atrium of DC’s Hard Senate Office Building. At least some blockaders were arrested. One interviewed on video said the reason US support for a cease-fire is being ignored is that Senators are more interested handouts from arms makers. This is a very distinctive space, high and echoey so protesters can be heard throughout the building.

As this protest wrapped up, protesters showed up at the White House for a second die-in

(video by Climate Defiance)

Three days ago the 8th of December, Climate Defiance took over a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) awards ceremony for students featuring the CEO of Exxon-Mobil. As Climate Defiance opened up on them with chants and banners, the entire room turned and fled. At the end of the video the lights in the room are turned off.

Unknown if this event was restaged later that night or cancelled, but this is an example of speaking power to oppression. A huge corporation that relies on eminent domain and the right to pollute is forced to abandon a public event in front of everyone. We win, they lose.