"The No Kings rallies yesterday succeeded in motivating a powerful voting base to take back this country from a man who has only served his own interests, not the nation's. True, rallies alone will not get Trump to change course but energizing voters - especially new ones - is what Trump is most fearful of. Hence, his pushing the anti-voter SAVE Act."
It was heartening once again to see Americans turn out across the nation in their literal millions Saturday to protest the sitting traitor and felon who fancies himself a king. Raucous and joyous millions - empowered by their unified energy - pushed back on Capt. Bonespurs's' latest Hitlerite impressions. Now including threatening NATO countries and dispatching U.S. ground troops to Iran.
Amazingly, one NY Times commenter seemed to have grasped what Times' reporter Jeremy Peters was unable to in a Saturday column, writing:
"Protesting is a physical demonstration of your opposition,
essential in this social media dominated society. Trump can’t deny a massive
crowd, other than calling them “dangerous leftist lunatics”, which he probably
will. It’s cathartic to be with fellow citizens fighting for our democracy."
Such a mature and insightful take might have been assumed from Times' reporter Peters, but I didn't see it, though it should be obvious that Democracy is not self-executing. Citizens to be citizens - and not merely 'consumers' - have to become involved when a renegade, rogue government is trashing norms, laws and the Constitution. We have to vote, we have to show allegiance, and we have to protest. As Ali Velshi put it in his opening remarks on Saturday, people have to stand up for their nation's laws and principles especially if a nest of criminals has taken over the machinery of governance.
Further, there is agency and energy to being on the right side of history and being motivated to protect democracy or what was democracy before Trump commenced his path to autocracy with his cast of lackeys, bootlickers and sycophants.
Typical among this sorry lot is Trump administration spokesperson Abigail Jackson, who barked Saturday (parroting the WSJ line):
"The only people who care about these Trump Derangement Therapy
Sessions are the reporters who are paid to cover them,"
Too dense to grasp that no reporters get ‘paid’ to cover these protests any more than other events, such as Dotard babbling about a black pen left on his desk four days ago. Which showed the orange fruitcake is really in need of serious medical, neurological intervention. And he is the one that has access to the nuclear codes! Any American not worried about Trump's defecating on the Constitution - or engaged in protes- ought to examine his own priorities and political biases.
As usual the tired and predictable "Hate America" fulminations were barked from the MAGA dummies – many of whom now appear to support Trump’s illegal war on Iran. But it isn’t about hating America as much as hating what the first felon ever elected has done to America - defiling it from pillar to post. And now putting the entire world at risk of going up in flames by launching a war based a whim and an ego trip- believing he’d have as easy a time as toppling Maduro in Venezuela.
As for Jeremy Peters, he writes in his opening:
"Millions of Americans are expected to turn out on Saturday for
mass demonstrations against President Trump, the latest organized display of
anger led by the coalition of progressive groups known as No Kings."
This is his first error, one of treating the protests superficially as a "display of anger" analogous to a recent Wall Street Journal carping that it is a "psychological therapy outlet for Trump derangement". In fact, it is neither. It is rather millions of citizens summoning agency to make their voices heard, and let the tyrant king know his actions are opposed. Irrespective of whether following proto-Nazi Stephen Miller's orders to attack hard working immigrants using masked paramilitary goons, or Trump's yen to blow up boats of innocent fishermen off the coast of South America, or Hitler Jr. launching an illegal war with no consultation with congress.
Peters then goes on showing he knows less and less about what he's writing:
"Those two (earlier) protests gave the administration’s most ardent opponents an outlet for their discontent at a time when Democrats were deflated from their losses in 2024 and reassessing their missteps. But as the third “No Kings” demonstration gets started, it’s an open question whether posting another big number will be enough to influence the course of the nation’s politics. Can the protests harness that energy and turn it into victories in the November midterm elections? How can they avoid a primal scream that fades into a whimper?"
The Times dummy in the above expulsion of nonsense doesn't even seem to be aware the previ0us No Kings national protests already made a difference. As Velshi pointed out, since the last one the Dems have captured 30 - as in THIRTY - state and local elections, routing the Repukes. The latest being Emily Gregory who flipped a Florida House seat that had been controlled by Republicans and in Trump's own Mar-A-Lago district. See e.g.
Peters, evidently stoked on some brew or stew of shrooms, then babbles:
"The phrase “No Kings” is a nod to the anti-authoritarian, democratic principles the country was founded on — which the protesters say Mr. Trump has ignored."
No, genius, has ignored - not "which the protesters SAY he's ignored". Wake up and face reality. Maybe Peters never saw the January TIMES article: Trump Takes America’s ‘Imperial Presidency’ to a New Level:
Which noted:
"Mr. Trump takes it upon himself to reinterpret a constitutional amendment and to eviscerate agencies and departments created by Congress. He dictates to private institutions how to run their affairs. He sends troops into American streets and wages an unauthorized war against nonmilitary boats in the Caribbean. He openly uses law enforcement for what his own chief of staff calls “score settling” against his enemies, he dispenses pardons to favored allies and he equates criticism to sedition punishable by death."
Not to mention launching an illegal war and setting up a ruse ('SAVE Act') to interfere with federal elections which are the responsibility of the states.
Lastly, one encounters this clueless twaddle, which I'd have expected my junior high nephew to have more likely put 0ut:
"Nor has a high-profile leader or public face emerged, in the
way that Tom Hayden did during the 1960s antiwar protests. Luminaries of today’s left like Bernie
Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez act as champions of progressive causes
rather than only as foils to Mr. Trump."
Failing totally to grasp the protests themselves are not from the 'Left'- but energized by Americans across the political spectrum. This was emphasized by former Tea Party activist Joe Walsh who appeared on Velshi Saturday. Walsh, at the Arlington, VA No Kings, made it clear the people assembled "are not Ds or Rs" but concerned citizens fighting to preserve their democracy
Obviously, then, given the wide spectrum for the No Kings rallies it would be stupid to have or support one leader from one particular part of the spectrum. Indeed, protests erupted in more than a dozen other countries, from Europe to Latin America to Australia, Ezra Levin, a co-executive director of Indivisible, a group spearheading the events, said in an interview. In countries with constitutional monarchies, people call the protests "No Tyrants," he said.
In Rome, thousands marched with defiant chants aimed at Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose conservative government saw its referendum for streamlining Italy's judiciary fail badly this week amid criticism that it was a threat to the courts' independence. Protesters also waved banners protesting Israeli and US attacks on Iran, calling for "A world free from wars."
In London, people protesting the war held banners with slogans such as "Stop the far right" and "Stand up to Racism."
Maybe by the time of the next No Kings protests, or the coming huge Dem win in the midterms, Jeremy Peters will have absorbed these points.
Millions of Americans are currently hard at work doing whatever we can to resist the fascism that has quickly taken hold in the United States. For as long as I can remember, many Americans were discontented with many aspects of the government—both people like me, who have always worked for environmental, social, and economic justice, and the people who would devolve into Donald Trump’s supporters—the same racist, nativist misogynists who have always populated this settler colonial state.
For those of us who value kindness, learning, fairness, diversity, working for a future for the environment, and all the other values hated by the MAGA cult, this is a time that feels like a daily nightmare. Every value we hold is being smashed into the ground by this cult that often feels almost supernatural in its pure evil.
— from Robert Reich's Substack
Friends,
Yesterday, millions of us once again affirmed the foundation of the common good.
Across America, people showed their solidarity — in opposition to Trump’s ill-considered war in Iran, with immigrants being targeted by ICE and Border Patrol agents, with current and former public officials whom Trump is prosecuting, with the students and universities whose freedom to learn and speak continues to be threatened by Trump, in favor of the earth and stopping climate change, and with every American who’s determined to reject dictatorship.
But how do we turn yesterday’s solidarity into political power?
Three suggestions. All depend on our working with activists we already know, added to those we met yesterday, and the activism of our local Indivisible chapter and other groups we participate in.
The June 14 “No Kings Day” outpouring was truly historic. An estimated 5 million people (some estimates from organizers run closer to 10 million) flooded the streets in more than 2,100 cities and towns across the nation, peacefully expressing their outrage at President Donald Trump’s unrelenting assaults on immigrants, democracy, the Constitution, science, diversity, government services, and more.
To paraphrase the target of this uprising, we’ve rarely seen anything like this. “No Kings Day” protests, taking place in all 50 states, including massive crowds in Red states, may well be America’s biggest single day of protest against a U.S. president and his policies. (By some accounts, “No Kings Day” ranks third among all U.S. protests for a single-day turnout.)
Throughout the next day, the internet was wallpapered with photographs of huge red-state crowds, everywhere: Sugarland, Texas. Blount County, Tennessee. Omaha, Nebraska. Hot Springs, Arkansas. Jackson, Mississippi. Indianapolis, Indiana. Birmingham, Alabama. Everywhere.
And:
Stating the obvious: Mass protests are not going to help Trump
Excerpt:
It’s understandable that media coverage of Saturday’s events would focus on an obvious political contrast: While President Donald Trump summoned Americans to Washington to celebrate the Army’s (and his own) birthday, protesters against Trump’s authoritarian approach to his position took to the streets around the country and around the world.
This comparison does a disservice to the difference in scale between the two. Though estimating crowd size is tricky and subject to bias, it seems clear that the anti-Trump “No Kings” protests drew millions of attendees in the U.S. while the Army/Trump parade enticed thousands. It was a demonstration of opposition that will be impossible for the president to spin. But, then, he might not have to.
And:
A would-be king wants a coronation today—Saturday, June 14—a date already laden with meaning: Flag Day, the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army, and, yes, Donald J. Trump’s 79th birthday. But this year, Americans are refusing to let the day be coopted. Across all 50 states, from big cities to small towns, more than 1,800 events are planned to mark what organizers are calling the “No Kings Day of Defiance.”
Driven by grassroots outrage and organized by Indivisible, Public Citizen, Social Security Works, Third Act, Commit to Democracy, and others, these decentralized protests share one audacious goal: to reclaim the flag from authoritarianism and reject the corrosive spectacle of a would-be despot. The theme? “Take back the flag on Flag Day.”
Trump’s military pageant—planned for the heart of Washington—is a grotesque parody of patriotism. The New York Times reported that theproposed display features 28 M1 Abrams tanks, 28 Stryker armored vehicles, a vintage WWII-era B-25 bomber, 6,700 troops, 50 helicopters, and more than 100 military vehicles, horses, even a dog. The projected cost will likely end up at nearly $50 million, footed by we the people. All in the service of one man’s fragile ego.
This week President Donald Trump sent the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to control what he preposterously called a “violent occupation.”
Sending U.S. troops to act against citizens exercising their right to free speech is a chilling betrayal of American democracy. The rebellion Trump claims to be fighting is simply nonexistent.
In fact, reporters and on-site observers have documented that the protests in Los Angeles—and those spreading now to other cities—are, for the most part, nonviolent. The violence that has occurred was likely intensified by the arrival of the military.
Late Thursday, a federal court ruled that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in California was illegal and unconstitutional and ordered Trump to relinquish control of the California National Guard back to Governor Gavin Newsom. That ruling has been temporarily blocked by an Appeals Court and the deployment will be allowed to continue at least into next week.
And:
'NO KINGS' Protests = Diminishing Returns? WSJ's Kim Strassel Needs To Watch Those News Clips Again
