Economic boycott and sit-in protests at Home Depots are working

ALSO INSIDE: The failsafe to ensure the Epstein Files are released is in the works.

Nov 26, 2025

Cam here 👋 bringing you your daily dose of what people are doing – good, bad, and otherwise – in the world of politics. We’re diving into the stories you won’t see anywhere else. And remember, you can also keep up with me over on TikTok and Bluesky.

If you’re in the DC area next month, I’ll be at a fundraiser for COURIER, and it would be great to see you there! We’re excited to announce speakers Rashad Robinson, Nourbese Flint, and Melissa Morales for the Movement Building for This Moment panel at COURIER’s Courage > Cowardice live event!

Join us Thursday, Dec. 11, in DC from 6–9 PM, as we gather creators, leaders, organizers, and advocates to celebrate the courage to continue showing up. We’ll have food, drinks, and an open bar reception.

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Since day one of Trump’s political career, people have desperately attempted to normalize his absurd abuses of power and blatant corruption – and 10 years later, much of corporate media remains a victim of their own attempts to return to a sense of normalcy.

It’s time to stop sane-washing the insanity.

Consumer protests push Trump-aligned Home Depot on the defensive over ICE raids in parking lots

A nationwide economic boycott, coupled with modern civil disobedience tactics, has caused cracks to form between the Trump administration and one of its primary targets for immigration raids: Home Depot parking lots.

Border Patrol and ICE agents have targeted the national retailer consistently throughout the year— not to arrest the drug lords and career criminals as professed, but to abduct immigrant street vendors and day laborers looking for an honest day’s work. In response, Home Depot has done nothing to stop hundreds of warrantless raids from taking place on its property.

Consumers for months have demanded that Home Depot prevent federal agents from conducting raids without a warrant, with little effect. The tides turned, however, when plans for a mass economic boycott were announced shortly before Black Friday, one of retailers’ most profitable weekends of the year.

“Home Depot’s lots have become hunting grounds for immigrant workers and their customers, and Home Depot has remained silent, said Nancy, a protest coordinator with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. “We demand dignity, safety, and accountability.”

@couriernewsroom The move comes ahead of the We Ain't Buying It boycott, which calls for a pause on shopping at Target, Home Depot, and Amazon from Nov. 27th to Dec. 1st. Learn more at weaintbuyingit.com.

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The aptly-titled “We Ain’t Buying It” protest encourages consumers to put their money where their mouths are and boycott organizations that support and enable the Trump administration’s harmful policies. In addition to Home Depot, protest organizers have identified Target and Amazon as companies that also need an economic wake-up call.

Target has felt the economic impact of its alignment with the Trump administration since it removed its investments in diversity, equity, and inclusion policies earlier this year. Its (former) customers responded in kind, and the retailer has seen a 20% drop in profits over the summer, and its stock price fell by over 40% since January.

Despite American oligarch and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ close relationship with Trump and his $1 million donation to the president’s inaugural fund, Amazon hasn’t seen any financial consequences, but if We Ain’t Buying It proves successful, the company could see a sharp decline in profit during Black Friday weekend, when Amazon retailers typically get 60% of their sales for the year.

Recently, protestors have developed a new tactic to drive home their displeasure with Home Depot, akin to the sit-in demonstrations during the Civil Rights Movement — and it’s a form of civil disobedience anyone in the country can easily participate in. It works like this: participants are encouraged to go to Home Depot and purchase a 17¢ ice scraper, then go directly to the returns register and return the scraper. Protestors have shown up by the hundreds to buy and return scrapers, clogging up store aisles and running up costs for the store as it processes a spike in returns.

Individually, the small act of civil disobedience may not seem like much. But collectively, it has grown into a problem large enough for the stores to take notice. After months of ignoring raids, followed by protests, the economic boycott and ice scraper returns has forced executives to take notice.

“We aren’t notified that immigration enforcement activities are going to happen, and we aren’t involved in the operations. We aren’t coordinating with ICE or Border Patrol,” a spokesperson for Home Depot said in a written statement. We’re required to follow all federal and local rules and regulations in every market where we operate.”

The acknowledgement is a sign to immigrant rights groups that the economic pressure is working, and organizers say they plan to continue to apply that pressure until the retailer commits to barring warrantless ICE raids on its property entirely.

Attempts to Sanewash

Far-Right Spin

It’s been a rough year, democracy-wise.

But there are things worth celebrating — economic boycotts and modernized civil disobedience like mass returns at Home Depot are reminding corporations whose really in charge, the Trump administration’s illegal actions are being stopped by the courts, and we haven’t invaded Greenland or Canada. Or Panama. Or Venezuela.

There’s no telling what the second year of the Trump administration holds, but I plan to continue doing what I can to provide transparency into an increasingly secretive government and to report on ways the public can hold the president accountable.

But I can’t do it without your support. As we head into one of the most expensive seasons of the year, please consider donating to COURIER to help support not just my work, but the work of journalists in our 11 local newsrooms across the country.

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How the unredacted Epstein Files could actually come to light

Ever since the Epstein Transparency Act was passed, the main question on people’s minds has been: How is the Department of Justice going to hide what’s in the Epstein Files?

Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee (D-Swissvale) has a backup plan.

“This saga didn’t start with today. We’ve been actually fighting to get the Epstein files released for months, starting way back in July when I forced a motion to subpoena those files in my subcommittee,” said Lee. “And ever since then, we have been trying to hold the DOJ, accountable to the release.”

Lee’s a ranking member of the Oversight subcommittee on law enforcement, meaning she’s in a position to make sure the public has access to everything in the Epstein Files, not just what the Trump administration allows. Her subpoena works independently from the new law that was passed, and it requires the DOJ to give her committee everything it has on everyone involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.

“What our subpoena calls for are the full, complete, unredacted files. That means every single document that is associated with the Epstein cases that the DOJ has in its possession,” Lee explained. “They will be legally compelled to turn those over to our committee… if they’ve been tampered with in any way, we would — hopefully — be able to find out.”

The Epstein Transparency Act has some potential loopholes the Trump administration could take advantage of to protect people who are implicated, like it could claim anything that could damage the President of the United States is a national security risk. Lee’s subpoena leaves no wiggle room. Her committee is given everything, and it’s committed to only redacting information that could harm Epstein’s victims.

@couriernewsroom This is how the unredacted Epstein files could ACTUALLY come to light.

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“The only thing that you would see redacted from us would only be the names, the identities, or any identifying information about survivors. And that’s because survivors have, quite frankly, already already been through so, so much,” said Lee. “We know that, in our society, there have been people who been victimized by people with far less power, far less money, far less access. And those folks have, you know, they’ve been demonized. Some of them have never seen justice.”

Lee’s subpoena could be a crucial failsafe to ensure that whatever the DOJ releases to the public within the next month is what the public has a right to know — but only if it complies with that subpoena.

“The DOJ — his DOJ — has been standing in the way of the American people getting these files, of the survivors getting any sort of justice, of there being any sort of accountability,” said Lee. “Whether or not [Trump’s] in them, the question has to become, ‘what is he trying to hide? Who is he trying to hide it for?’ Because there’s been nothing standing his way.”

The DOJ has been in violation of Lee’s subpoena for four months, and it is required to release the full Epstein Files to the public by Dec. 19.

Working Families Party launches effort to primary Fetterman

Story by Sean Kitchen, political correspondent for The Keystone / COURIER

The Pennsylvania Working Families Party is calling for an open challenge to US Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-Pennsylvania) for his seat in Pennsylvania’s 2028 US Senate Democratic primary.

“At a time when Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are doing everything they can to make life harder for working people, we need real leaders in the Senate who are willing to fight for the working class,” Shoshanna Israel, Mid-Atlantic Political Director for the Working Families Party, said in a statement.

The Pennsylvania Working Families Party, which is a third party that helps elect progressive Democrats to office in Pennsylvania, recently launched a portal for recruiting candidates and volunteers for the 2028 US Senate primary.

Axios reported last month that US Reps. Brendan Boyle (D-Philadelphia) and Chris Deluzio (D-Allegheny) and former US Rep. Conor Lamb were named by political insiders as potential challengers to Fetterman.

Fetterman was the only Democrat to visit President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago following the 2024 election and tied with US Sen. Jean Shaeen (D-N.H.) for most voters for Trump’s cabinet nominees.

Earlier this year, Fetterman supported US Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead the US Justice Department even though Bondi tried overturning Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results.

Read Sean’s full story here.

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