The observation about restaurants as early warning systems is sharp. Food supply chains expose systemic vulnerablities fast, and when kitchens start losing staff or customers stop showing up, it reveals social breakdown way before official metrics catch it. I've watched similar dynamics in other crisis contexts where fear disrupts the mundane stuff people depend on every day. The part about making fear fail through practical organizing instead of just outrage felt important, especially the focus on mobility and food access as concrete points of intervention. Those things sound simple until they're suddenly inacessible.
Amen! Man, you were my hero before because of the cooking. Now I discovered this side of you, fuck yeah. I am an advocate. Ever since this this regime first peered over the horizon, I saw the shit wave approaching and have done what I can to side with the marginalized population in my city. Everything is going underground, you gotta help quietly these days. Keep preaching Sean. People know you, and you have a platform. Me? I'll tutor English, offer rides and deliveries, shop at certain markets, and do what it takes to make sure fear fails.
We need to back arrest by local police of ICE agents who do not have a
judicial warrant. It has been ruled a valid reason for arrest. Each state should have laws (no 287G) to prevent local police from assisting ICE in their process.
PRO BONO attorneys in each state should be listed and disseminated, along with red cards and ACLU info on your rights.
Thank you for this post. 100% correct & solid advice. I saw you on The Daily Show, I must buy your cook book! Also I'm currently reading - An Indigenous Peoples History Of The United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. Much (most) of what is written saddens & angers me. I understand better now why Andrew Jackson is trumps favorite president.
That line matters because it refuses the comfort of denial. Racism is too often framed as something episodic or accidental rather than something structurally embedded and continually rebranded. This post names that reality plainly and then shows how it operates in the present, not as history, but as daily life.
What resonates most is the way fear becomes a governing tool. When people alter their movements, their routines, their visibility, the system has already done its work. That fear is not accidental and it is not evenly distributed. It is racialized, normalized, and justified as order or safety.
I also appreciated the attention to the restaurant community. Restaurants are not just businesses. They are gathering places, cultural anchors, and livelihoods. When fear keeps people from showing up, it erodes more than an economy. It erodes connection, culture, and belonging.
What makes this piece especially powerful is that it does not stop at diagnosis. By centering community, mutual care, and everyday acts of solidarity, it reminds us that resistance is often quiet and relational. Sometimes it looks like presence, protection, and refusing to let people be isolated into silence.
I write often about how systems show up in real lives and how community becomes both refuge and resistance. This post reinforces why that lens matters and why these conversations cannot stay abstract.
Totally agree. I live in a liberal rural area in northern CA, on Pomo land, and we have weekly protests in the nearest small city that I go to when I don't have to work. I have a number of Hispanic friends that I worry about. ICE hasn't raided my area yet. I also worry about my Pomo friends, as I've heard that ICE has picked up Native Americans, thinking they were from south of the border. Actually, Hispanics are Native American, also; though they may be of mixed races they are mostly of North American heritage, as the Spanish mostly didn't bring their wives. And there are a lot of Mayans in my area, also.
I am white and I don't feel safe in white spaces. I don't think anyone who has any sense would. There are too many things going on right now to feel safe any where. Way too many dangerous people roaming free.
F*ck Canada’s ICE too (there is a specialized voluntary department of RCMP that serve as corporate mercenaries and are trained to use especially abusive violence against indigenous land defenders).
They get paid over a hundred dollars an hour and they ensure that oil pipelines can be imposed onto indigenous peoples territory and clearcutting of ancient forests can go forward unimpeded.
They were just weaponized against indigenous elder Bill Jones on Vancouver island , where they burned his spiritual retreat cabin and dragged him off his traditional territory so that clearcutting of the ancient forest could go forward.
Now that the tax payer funded militarized RCMP acting as corporate mercenaries (”C-IRG” now re-branded as CRU-BC, otherwise known as Canada’s version of I.C.E.) have dragged the indigenous forest defenders off be arrested, the clearcutting of one of the last ancient (primary) rainforest watersheds on Vancouver Island (in the Walbran valley) is going forward. As you can see from the video clip above, they are cutting ancient trees right down into riparian zones (burying salmon habitat in fallen trees, destroying those habitats for generations to come).
For more info on the situation and how you can help support the forest defenders , please read / watch :
Those that care about our Mother Earth are resisting though, and they need our solidarity and support.
There are people doing what this brave girl described on the note linked below did on Vancouver Island right now (they are up hundred feet plus in the canopy of ancient cedars forcing the police and loggers to choose between profits and human life)
Great essay today - and I will follow some of your ideas.
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: Trumps paranoia and bullying isn’t helping our relationship on the global stage. Sachs gives an example of (from WIPO) on how innovative other countries are - in Judge Nap’s interview on YouTube:
The observation about restaurants as early warning systems is sharp. Food supply chains expose systemic vulnerablities fast, and when kitchens start losing staff or customers stop showing up, it reveals social breakdown way before official metrics catch it. I've watched similar dynamics in other crisis contexts where fear disrupts the mundane stuff people depend on every day. The part about making fear fail through practical organizing instead of just outrage felt important, especially the focus on mobility and food access as concrete points of intervention. Those things sound simple until they're suddenly inacessible.
Thank you for providing leadership and solutions Sean.
Amen! Man, you were my hero before because of the cooking. Now I discovered this side of you, fuck yeah. I am an advocate. Ever since this this regime first peered over the horizon, I saw the shit wave approaching and have done what I can to side with the marginalized population in my city. Everything is going underground, you gotta help quietly these days. Keep preaching Sean. People know you, and you have a platform. Me? I'll tutor English, offer rides and deliveries, shop at certain markets, and do what it takes to make sure fear fails.
We need to back arrest by local police of ICE agents who do not have a
judicial warrant. It has been ruled a valid reason for arrest. Each state should have laws (no 287G) to prevent local police from assisting ICE in their process.
PRO BONO attorneys in each state should be listed and disseminated, along with red cards and ACLU info on your rights.
Thank you for this, Sioux Chef
Totally agree with all that you have written. mutual aid IS resistance!
Thank you for this post. 100% correct & solid advice. I saw you on The Daily Show, I must buy your cook book! Also I'm currently reading - An Indigenous Peoples History Of The United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. Much (most) of what is written saddens & angers me. I understand better now why Andrew Jackson is trumps favorite president.
Ok I’m ordering that book right now
https://substack.com/@kalikarma1/note/c-199608208?r=6oi3ss
https://substack.com/@kalikarma1/note/c-199608208?r=6oi3ss
“America Has Always Been Racist.”
That line matters because it refuses the comfort of denial. Racism is too often framed as something episodic or accidental rather than something structurally embedded and continually rebranded. This post names that reality plainly and then shows how it operates in the present, not as history, but as daily life.
What resonates most is the way fear becomes a governing tool. When people alter their movements, their routines, their visibility, the system has already done its work. That fear is not accidental and it is not evenly distributed. It is racialized, normalized, and justified as order or safety.
I also appreciated the attention to the restaurant community. Restaurants are not just businesses. They are gathering places, cultural anchors, and livelihoods. When fear keeps people from showing up, it erodes more than an economy. It erodes connection, culture, and belonging.
What makes this piece especially powerful is that it does not stop at diagnosis. By centering community, mutual care, and everyday acts of solidarity, it reminds us that resistance is often quiet and relational. Sometimes it looks like presence, protection, and refusing to let people be isolated into silence.
I write often about how systems show up in real lives and how community becomes both refuge and resistance. This post reinforces why that lens matters and why these conversations cannot stay abstract.
Most excellent actionable items…
Totally agree. I live in a liberal rural area in northern CA, on Pomo land, and we have weekly protests in the nearest small city that I go to when I don't have to work. I have a number of Hispanic friends that I worry about. ICE hasn't raided my area yet. I also worry about my Pomo friends, as I've heard that ICE has picked up Native Americans, thinking they were from south of the border. Actually, Hispanics are Native American, also; though they may be of mixed races they are mostly of North American heritage, as the Spanish mostly didn't bring their wives. And there are a lot of Mayans in my area, also.
And “Hispanics” owned the West loooonnnnggg before the Alamo fiasco!!
Thank you for spelling out all the ways to help. Will share.
Can’t afford to subscribe to anything rn due to unemployment but am grateful to see you here. Thank you!
Brilliant and spot-on, Chef! ☮️
I am white and I don't feel safe in white spaces. I don't think anyone who has any sense would. There are too many things going on right now to feel safe any where. Way too many dangerous people roaming free.
Very few of those “dangerous people” are recent immigrants. Most are other white gangs.
F*ck Canada’s ICE too (there is a specialized voluntary department of RCMP that serve as corporate mercenaries and are trained to use especially abusive violence against indigenous land defenders).
They get paid over a hundred dollars an hour and they ensure that oil pipelines can be imposed onto indigenous peoples territory and clearcutting of ancient forests can go forward unimpeded.
They were just weaponized against indigenous elder Bill Jones on Vancouver island , where they burned his spiritual retreat cabin and dragged him off his traditional territory so that clearcutting of the ancient forest could go forward.
Now that the tax payer funded militarized RCMP acting as corporate mercenaries (”C-IRG” now re-branded as CRU-BC, otherwise known as Canada’s version of I.C.E.) have dragged the indigenous forest defenders off be arrested, the clearcutting of one of the last ancient (primary) rainforest watersheds on Vancouver Island (in the Walbran valley) is going forward. As you can see from the video clip above, they are cutting ancient trees right down into riparian zones (burying salmon habitat in fallen trees, destroying those habitats for generations to come).
For more info on the situation and how you can help support the forest defenders , please read / watch :
https://open.substack.com/pub/gavinmounsey/p/one-of-the-last-ancient-temperate
They are attacking the landbase as they do, as they have done, all over North America.
It is hard to see how this is not a self-loathing civilizational death cult.
Those that care about our Mother Earth are resisting though, and they need our solidarity and support.
There are people doing what this brave girl described on the note linked below did on Vancouver Island right now (they are up hundred feet plus in the canopy of ancient cedars forcing the police and loggers to choose between profits and human life)
https://substack.com/@gavinmounsey/note/c-187560776?r=q2yay&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Great essay today - and I will follow some of your ideas.
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: Trumps paranoia and bullying isn’t helping our relationship on the global stage. Sachs gives an example of (from WIPO) on how innovative other countries are - in Judge Nap’s interview on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/live/WPcgkd-sC3s?si=6NHhrR5-QIqnwCiU
The WIPO website has terrific ideas from around the world. Trump promised more jobs, but the ugly truth is he’s not leadership material.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRPrk5AAWwB/?igsh=Z2xxc3E0cXlrdmUw
Excellent as always. Realities of 2025, strategy to defeat and the power of unity. Thank you!