50501 CO Update - 8/3

Bringing Coloradans the latest protests and actions

Aug 03, 2025

Hello, and welcome to the latest edition of our 50501 CO newsletter!

In this newsletter you’ll find information on upcoming activities from the 50501 calendar, actions you can take outside of protesting, and also find out about additional ways to connect with us.

See you on the streets! ✊✊✊

Actions and Activities

(The below list contains details on all actions this week which have been submitted to our 50501 CO calendar; click the link above for more details and the full calendar)

All Cities

8/4: 6:00pm - 7:00pm - WORKSHOP | Yes, you can host a house party!
8/6: 6:00pm - 7:00pm - Keeping Elections Free and Fair: Protecting CO Against the Trump Administration

Aurora

8/4: 6:00pm - 8:00pm - Weekly ICE Protest (3130 N Oakland St, Aurora, CO 80010 - South side of the building)

Berthoud

8/6: 6:00pm - 7:45pm - Berthoud Indivisible Monthly Membership Meeting (Berthoud Library, 236 Welch Avenue, Berthoud, CO 80513)

Boulder

8/4: 8:30am - 9:30am - Monday Visibility Brigade (Foothills Pedestrian Bridge - Sioux Drive & Thunderbird Drive, Boulder, CO 80303)

Denver

8/5: 2:30pm - 6:30pm - Denver Overpass Protest Rage Against the Regime! (GPS 2402 15th St I-25 Central Metro Area)
8/9: 1:00pm - Fox Takedown (100 E Speer Boulevard, Denver, CO 80203)

Fort Collins

8/9: 10:00am - 11:00am - Weekly Palestine Sign Waving on Corner of Mulberry and College (Lucky's Market, 425 S College Ave, Fort Collins, CO 80524)

Grand Junction

8/6: 10:00am - 1:00pm - Grand Junction Know Your Rights Training (Private address - sign up for details)
8/7: 10:30am - 1:30pm - Jeff Hurd Lobby Visit with ACLU (Private address - sign up for details)

Lone Tree

8/4: 4:00pm - 7:30pm - Lone Tree Votes August Meeting- Douglas County School Board Candidate Forum (Private address - sign up for details)

Loveland

8/5: 5:30pm - 9:00pm - Loveland City Council Watch Party
8/7: 6:00pm - Crafting with Comrades: Patches & Embroidery (Loveland, CO - RSVP for location)
8/9: 9:00am - 11:00am - Stand Up, Loveland (N. Lincoln from Sprouts to Tesla, Loveland, CO)

Lyons

8/9: 12:00pm - 1:00pm - Saturday Weekly Protest (Lyons Colorado Freedom Triangle 3rd and Main)

Northglenn

8/6: 4:30pm - 6:00pm - Gabe Evans Protest (Interstate-25 Pedestrian Bridge – 104 Ave I25 pedestrian overpass, 39 E 104th Ave, Northglenn, CO 80234)
8/8: 11:00am - 1:00pm - Protest at Gabe Evans' Northglenn Office (Northglenn District Office, 10701 Melody Dr, Northglenn, CO 80234)

Pueblo

8/6: 12:00pm - 3:00pm - Pueblo Meet and Greet (Solar Roast Coffee, 226 N Main St, Pueblo, CO 81003)
8/9: 10:30am - 11:30am - Losing Our Democracy (Walgreens 4th & Abriendo)
8/9: 10:30am - 11:30am - Raging Against the Regime (Corner of Abriendo & 4th St)

Steamboat Springs

8/7: 5:30pm - 6:30pm - Worth Fighting For - Routt County In-Person Meeting (RSVP for location)

Trinidad

8/7: 7:30am - 10:30am - Las Animas Meet and Greet (The Marketplace Food Court and Bar, 326 N Commercial St, Trinidad, CO 81082)

Windsor

8/9: 12:00pm - 1:00pm - Windsor Community Protest Hour (7th St and Main St, Windsor)

Non-Protest Actions Bingo

The below bingo card contains a list of actions you can take (other than protesting) to help further the cause. If you get a bingo (or heck, a blackout), tag us on social media to let us know!

1. Sidewalk chalk is allowed in almost every city and county in Colorado, but during dry seasons the messages can take a long time to wash away. Protesters in other states have recently ramped up the pressure on GOP representatives to push for release of the Epstein files by leaving sidewalk chalk messages outside of their offices.

Note: 50501 Colorado does not provide legal advice. Please review the laws in your city and county before taking any action.

2. Attending city council meetings can be a great way to make sure your voice is heard at the local level. City council members don’t like the idea that their decisions could make them unpopular with their immediate neighbors, so by attending some key meetings you can help ensure that Progressive policies at least get more consideration than they would otherwise. You don’t have to attend every meeting, of course; just the ones with agenda items that are important to you.

If you’re in Aurora (which recently stopped allowing public commentary due to contentious meetings), you should write to the city council and/or volunteer for campaigns of council members who support the right of public commentary.

3. You may have seen some viral messages of Trump ‘I did that!’ stickers pointing to increased prices at the supermarket. If you would like to protest in a similar way, you can pick up those stickers here. As a warning, this seems to be treading the line between legal and illegal — it’s possible that in certain areas (or with certain store managers), you might be fined. That being said, we have yet to hear of any charges being levied for something like this before, so the likelihood appears to be relatively low.

The Stages of Autocracy: Where Are We Now?

You don’t wake up one morning in a dictatorship. That’s the thing.

It creeps in. Slowly. Legally. Sometimes with a smile. Other times with a riot. What we’re seeing now in the U.S.—especially with Trump’s ongoing influence and the far-right infrastructure propping him up—is not brand new. It’s a pattern. It’s been used before. And it’s working again.

We’re not here to be dramatic. We’re here to be clear. There are stages that countries go through when democracy starts to die. We’re not making this up—this pattern has played out in Hungary, Turkey, Russia, even in 1930s Germany. The names and slogans change, but the steps stay mostly the same.

So where are we?

Stage 1: Discredit the System
This is the beginning. You tell people the system is rigged. That elections are fake. That courts can’t be trusted. That journalists are liars. You repeat it until people start to believe it—or just give up.

Sound familiar?

Since 2020, Trump and his allies have screamed about stolen elections, even when their own officials and judges said otherwise. They’ve convinced millions that democracy doesn’t work unless their guy wins. That’s not just sour grapes—that’s step one. You break trust in the process so you can replace it with something else.

Stage 2: Flood the Zone
Next, you overwhelm the public with chaos, lies, and legal noise. You make it impossible to tell what’s real. You get people tired. Distracted. Cynical.

Trump’s trials alone are a circus of legal gymnastics, delay tactics, and political theater. The goal isn’t just to win in court—it’s to make people throw up their hands and say, “None of this matters.” Meanwhile, right-wing media floods timelines with conspiracies, replacement theories, and outright fabrications. When the truth becomes optional, accountability dies.

Stage 3: Stack the System
Then, if you’re the strongman-in-waiting, you start replacing the rule-followers with loyalists. Courts, election boards, federal agencies—anyone who could say no to you gets removed or harassed until they quit. You don’t need to rewrite the Constitution. You just need to make sure no one enforces it.

Look at Project 2025, the far-right plan for Trump’s potential return. It lays out in black and white how they’d gut independent agencies, fire career civil servants, and install people who pledge loyalty to him, not the law. It’s not a conspiracy—it’s on their website.

Stage 4: Use the Law to Break the Law
Autocrats don’t always roll in with tanks. They use court orders, subpoenas, and legal loopholes to punish opponents and protect themselves. Think Texas-style bounty laws on abortion. Think book bans. Think governors using “emergency powers” to target immigrants.

The idea is to normalize political revenge. Jail your critics. Fire dissenters. Sue journalists. It’s happening all over the country—and we’d be naïve to think Colorado is immune.

Stage 5: Say the Quiet Part Out Loud
Eventually, they stop pretending. Trump now openly says he’ll be a “dictator on day one.” His allies talk about “unitary executive theory” to justify unchecked power. They fantasize on cable news about using the military on protesters. These aren’t gaffes. These are trial balloons.

So again—where are we?

Not in a full dictatorship. But we’re deep in the pattern. And if we don’t take that seriously, the next stages come faster than we think.

The good news? It’s not too late. But democracy doesn’t defend itself. It takes all of us. Showing up. Speaking out. Organizing. Calling it what it is.

Because when democracy dies, it doesn’t make a sound. It fades. Unless we stop it.