"Saturday’s national “No Kings” protests seem likely to be huge, and the Trump administration appears especially concerned and worried about the public backlash it’s facing this weekend. House Speaker Mike Johnson is railing against as them as a “hate America rally,” while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent bloviated this week, “No kings equals no paychecks,” a message so dumb, out-of-touch, and wrong that it almost sounds like a tweet from Chuck Schumer’s social media team. Even Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy got into the complaining-in-advance act, which for me only underscored that the inner circle of would-be King Donald’s administration is legitimately concerned about a real on-the-ground resistance movement. “The GOP’s desperation meter is at DEFCON 1,” Jill Lawrence wrote."
Text from a virally-circulating newletter written by Garrett M. Graff. I'll be wearing yellow tomorrow.
Just try not to shoot anyone again.
ReplyDeleteTell that to Kyle Rittenhouse.
DeleteYou mean like Vance Boelter did?
DeleteGood luck ... the rest of the world is depending on you.
ReplyDelete"“The GOP’s desperation meter is at DEFCON 1,” Lol. Yeah. Sure seems like it. <---that's sarcasm.
ReplyDeleteDo you really not realize the desperation of the MAGAGOP as they see their incontinent figurehead rapidly descending into senility and ill health (two "annual physicals" in one year isn't even a good lie!) Miller's increasingly insane rants should be a tip-off for you that they're aware that the whole house of cards won't stand up to a strong breeze, must less global disdain and domestic fury.
DeleteRepublicans won the Presidential election. They won the popular vote. They control the Senate and the House. Doesn't seem like a house of cards. Seems like the Democrats have lost touch from even left of center all the way right.
DeleteThe big question is if Trumplethinskin will use the protests as an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act. He's been itching for an excuse, and it won't take many planted agitators in the crowds - just like there were in the George Floyd protests - to give him one.
ReplyDeleteI have my inflatable frog costume, ready to protest fascism.
ReplyDeleteya and that will impress everyone
DeleteYou know, smart people realize that the whole costume/joyful street party vibe is precisely the smartest, most effective way to combat the dour jackbooted hatefulness of fascism--especially in pointing out the lies the regime is telling about anti-fascists being dangerous. Personally, I think it's pretty damn impressive that some 7 million people peacefully protested--something a few thousand MAGA were unable to do on Jan 6.
DeleteI'm going downtown today ... any degenerate tries to F- (mess ) with me today ... I SHOOT BACK
ReplyDeleteAs a loyal subject to HM Willem-Alexander I would never participate in such an unjust protest, but I can report that I noticed on my way to the farmer's market that the local No Kings protest was significantly bigger than the last one.
ReplyDeleteFun fact: The last line of the Dutch National Anthem is "I have always honored the King of Spain"......
That looks like the "Basquiat Crown".
ReplyDeleteI think this sort of protest is a waste of time as long as the left remains clueless as to its role in creating Trump. We're a long way from any such awareness.
ReplyDeleteThat’s a convenient excuse for never criticizing Trump.
DeleteThe only thing the left did to "create Trump" is be bad at politics. The laundry list of "things the left did" (such as DEI, trans rights, etc) were almost entirely blown ludicrously out of proportion to fire up the trump voters, so they would be distracted from the actual problems facing our country and vote in fascism.
DeleteI guess it could be, but these are not mutually exclusive. Personally, I've been criticizing Trump for 40 years.
DeleteTo the second Anonymous comment: I think you illustrate the problem when you deny there's a problem. What appears "ludicrously out of proportion" to you strikes me as a set of common sense objections to ludicrous identity ideology (the territory so effectively exploited by Charlie Kirk). If I'm a Bernie Sanders-type Democrat and I can see the damage to working class solidarity, why can't you? I think the answer is that you might have a vested interest in a self-serving grievance narrative of one sort or another. A narrative that's just plain gonna alienate a large swath of the working class. Instead of addressing this problem squarely, it's easier to write-off people as misogynists and racists (who must exist in ludicrously out of proportion proportions in order for grievance culture to exist)--as "deplorables." These deplorables do not feel at home in a Democratic Party that stigmatizes them relentlessly, as it plays one tribe off against another. I don't doubt this is an invisible phenomenon to those invested in grievance culture. I see more Trumps ahead.
DeleteLargest demonstration in US history, but Debby Crowner does not think it matters. Marvin the Paranoid Android had a more positive outlook on life.
DeleteI definitely don't have a "positive outlook." I think the US is imploding--culturally and economically. And the reason the No Kings numbers--possibly 7 million, out of a voting-eligible population of 250 million, or 2.8%--don't give me cause for much hope is that I don't live in an MSNBC bubble. I have a feel for who was marching and why; that is, direct knowledge of this subset of the population, from direct experiences in my local area. Specifically, for example, I became a lot more cynical about the left, as it exists today, as I lived their lack of interest in the Bill of Rights as it should apply to the homeless population of my area. This may seem like a small litmus test, but it helped me to see more clearly what really does matter to the sort of person who marched on Saturday. I also became more aware of the sort of person who didn't march--the other 97%. Way too many of the marcher-types strongly identify with the "middle class" and not much with the poor and working class. (Kamala Harris mentioned the middle class time and again as if this is really where the Democratic Party finds its center of gravity.) Picture the well fed, boomer, retired school administrator living on a fat pension. She flies a rainbow flag on the front porch of her upscale home. She has nothing to lose and everything to gain from identifying with identity politics; it's ennobling if nothing else. This person is far more passionate about gender neutral restrooms for privileged college students than 24 hour toilet access for the homeless. (In fact, there are plenty of gentrification liberals who quietly OPPOSE 24 hour toilet access for the homeless.) This person cares far more about promoting her identity dogma than whether the poor or working class family can afford groceries. You know who is talking about this phenomenon? Right wingers. But to hear how they're capturing the working class, people like my marcher would have to listen to those voices on the right. Many of those 97% who did not march are now convinced that Democrats no longer speak for them. Don't have any sense of what their lives are like. They would rather vote for a Trumpian, even if it's detrimental to their own economic interests, simply because they think he sort of hears them. Democrats are perceived as elitists for a bunch of reasons, even as those reasons appear to be beyond their comprehension. If I have any hope, it's hope that all this will change. Economic collapse followed by exponentially more authoritarianism strikes me as more likely.
DeleteI had a great time at the protest today, with my wife and kids and thousands of like-minded citizens (I heard about 7 million across the country). Here's what the president of our great country posted in response to today's protests:
ReplyDeletehttps://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m3jbffj3q22w