Rallying 'Round The Flags

Around four thousand people showed up to our Everett “No Kings” rally, including, unexpectedly, Governor Ferguson. He’s a good speaker. My favorite sign: “No Faux King way, Donald.” And thank you to the people who recognized me somehow and urged me to continue writing. I guess I will.

Seven million people, it’s estimated, participated in rallies around the country. Like Everett’s, there was peace, fellowship, American flags, and humor, along with properly serious concern demanded by the threats we all face – even MAGA, yet to recognize it – from Trump and the presidents over him, Stephen Miller and Russell Vought.

What, if anything, did this massive, much bigger than last time, nationwide turnout accomplish? Maybe it won’t immediately bend the arc of history toward justice. But it’s not nothing that those patriotic rallies showed what a profligate liar is Holy Mike Johnson, who speaks directly with God in Heaven but will, if the Ten Commandments mean anything, spend eternity elsewhere, alongside Trump. “Hate America,” he called the rallies, which were, demonstrably, the opposite. There's nothing more pro-America than "No Kings." It was, after all, the story of America's birth.

It must have infuriated every high-level Republican, including Trump and his aforementioned manipulators, that there was virtually no violence. Smarmy, condescending Mike, trusting trusters to trust trustingly, attempted to dismiss it all, but ended up embarrassing himself. One sad lady wrote online that she showed up somewhere in her MAGA hat, hoping to provoke post-worthy video of nasty reactions but was, instead, ignored. In Portland, filming the results for propaganda in Noemansland, ICE agitated the crowd until there were a few arrests. 

Trump, whose ig-Nobel Mideast ceasefire lasted less than a week, and whose lies include not damaging the White House with his self-aggrandizing, bloated blight of a ballroom, lowered to the occasion by posting an AI-generated video of himself flying a fighter jet, wearing a crown (take that, libs!), dumping excrement on protesting Americans. MAGA, no doubt, found it hilarious and affirming: the “president” of their prayers, heir to sacrifices patriotic Americans have made since our founding to preserve America’s most treasured values. A “president” they believe to be sent by God, evacuating his bowels on Constitutional rights. But that’s why they love him.

To marchers in the millions, and millions of other unFoxified Americans, though, it confirms what an infantile, mortifying, unfit leader MAGA has saddled us with. And reinforces the importance of saying so. Meanwhile, seeing their lies falsified in real time, rightwing media filled the air with actual b.s. 

An entire book could be written about the last couple of weeks. If it weren't already taken, it should be titled “The Book of Revelation.” For it was revealed that there are still good people in our country, committed to defying Trump’s burgeoning autocracy. And we were shown what a puerile, unwell man he is. Not that most of us didn’t already know.

Also revealed was how far our morally-deficient Vice President will go to defend “Young Republicans” who exchanged hundreds of vile, racist, antisemitic messages.  Rejecting the opportunity to say there’s no place for that in his party, Vance passed them off as young kids joking around, characterizing objections to their Trumpified hate as “pearl clutching.” Those “kids” were in their thirties. Some had had leadership roles in what remains of the Republican Party. Without doubt, they reflect what Trump’s party currently encompasses and excuses. Do they represent its future, too? Against accumulating evidence, all of America must hope not.

After those Vancy-pants deplorables were dragged into the light, there was revelation and irony in Trump’s crucifixated spokesblond claiming Democrats cater to Hamas terrorists, illegals, and criminals. Same with Trump commuting the sentence of fellow felon, election denier and mulitplicitous scammer, George Santos. They’re brothers in harms.

Lie and commit violence for Trump, get commutations and pardons. Tell the truth about him, get indicted, as it is foretold: “... behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison...” (Revelation 2:10)

For those who hadn’t yet borne witness, last week also saw Trump’s obeisance to Putin reconfirmed. After a phone call between the two, having previously announced his intention to send more Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, Taco Trump low-tailed it back to no missiles and Russia keeping the territory it stole. Then he treated Ukraine’s President Zelensky even worse than last time. Because of an un-arted deal, his announced meeting with Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban might not happen; but Trump’s envy of dictators’ unrestrained power and his, uh, flexibility in their presence remain undisguisable.

Having no positive agenda except for rewarding their affluent sponsors and harming everyone else by cutting needed “Democratic” projects, Trump, Vance, Johnson, and all other congressional Republicans know they have no compelling response to the spirit of the “No Kings” marchers and the millions of others who agree with them. So they lie and threaten. 

In time, lies are revealed and threats are withstood. Last Saturday, seven million Americans showed they aren’t among the deceived. It’s a hopeful start.

No Kings, Here Or There

 

Question: If you facilitate a peace plan in the Middle East, but foment brutal reprisals against your political opponents at home and murder people in boats in international waters, do you deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? Because pacifying the Middle East has eluded prior presidents, it’s worth asking, despite those mitigating factors.

If the Trump-involved peace plan proves durable, and if displaced Palestinians find permanent, acceptable homes where they can thrive, hand him the prize.

Trump being Trump, he flew to Egypt and Israel to bask in praise, much of which he lavished on himself. Also being Trump, he glorified the area’s dictators, admired their unrestricted power, and disgorged his usual grievances about people he dislikes back home. Nevertheless, the exchange of 20 Israeli prisoners held by Hamas and about 2000 Palestinians held by Israel is an achievement for which Trump deserves credit, whatever his role within the team that pulled it off.

But, knowing Trump to be the grifter he’s been since his simulacrum of adulthood, there are justifiable concerns. In particular, the board of overseers created to supervise the redevelopment and management of Gaza, to be headed by Trump. It’s unknown whether or what he offered to the surrounding states that have signed onto the deal, but we know Trump et fils have been proposing Trump hotels and golf courses there for years, turning the area into a remunerative paradise. Grift я him. As proof, amidst it all, the “president” of the United States is hustling overpriced, low-quality watches like a carnival barker. It’s embarrassing.

It’s reasonable to assume Qatar, for one, will get a piece of the action for its $400 million high-flying gift, and after the Trump-approved military “facility” is completed in Idaho. We refer to the project about which Pentagon Pete exulted, “I’m also proud that today we’re announcing we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emeri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho. The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots...”

After the appropriately shocked response, even from MAGA, America’s highly qualified SecWar clarified: “... [T]o be clear, Qatar will not have their own base in the United States—nor anything like a base...” So, okay. Nothing like a base. A facility. Within an American military base. With planes and pilots. And buildings. Definitely not base-like, though. Welcome in, Hamas-funders but not Hispanic.

If, a year from now, peace prevails, Hamas is defanged, the rebuilding is something other than a cash cow for Trump, sheiks, princes, and emirs, and Palestinians and Israelis are happy and secure, I’ll nominate him if no one else will.

Now that he solved the world’s most enduring geopolitical problem, as opposed to its most existentially grave one, climate change, which he’s intentionally making worse, it’d be great if he’d devote the rest of his term(s?) to brokering peace within the United States, by ending his verbal and military attacks on Democrats and lies about liberals. A nice start would be to acknowledge that this weekend’s nationwide “No Kings” marches are Constitutionally protected, essentially American forms of protest. Even better, he could take its message to heart.

But that would require cerebral processing power; something it increasingly appears he’s lacking. Like when he posted that “the Biden FBI” placed 274 agents within the January 6 crowd at a time when it was he, not Biden, in office. A lie, or dementia? Does it matter?

Instead, we have Holy Mike Johnson, who takes directions directly from God, which means one of them is a liar and I’m guessing it’s Mike, characterizing the marches as “a hate America rally” run by “the pro-Hamas wing and Antifa people.” Right. To advocate for free speech, fair elections, equal rights, unsuppressed education, and Constitutionally contained leadership is to hate America. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, a comical downgrade from Pete Buttigieg, said they’re paid protestors. I’ll be there. Where do I get my paycheck? Or cash? Will George Soros be there, handing it out?

Declaring Antifa a terrorist organization, Trump, who is demonstrably working to overthrow the United States government, law enforcement, and our system of law, issued a proclamation stating, “Antifa ... explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.” Explicitly? Where? Is there a manifesto? Read us, Dear Leader, those explicit words. Where are the terrorists’ headquarters? Why haven’t they been raided?

Yes, there have been people dressed in black, mixed in with and far outnumbered by peaceful protestors, calling themselves Antifa. Some have done bad things. Some, according to the FBI when it was credible, were rightwing provocateurs. So some people call themselves Antifa. That doesn’t make it an organization by any definition, terrorist or otherwise.

America’s “president” is desperate to create violence to justify a permanent, military-backed, authoritarian takeover. Resistance, then, like “No Kings” marches, becomes a zero-sum game. It will end, one way or another.

Donald Dud

Like Trump, I bailed from his birthday parade early. I, however, could turn it off and watch clips later. He had to stay for the whole thing and didn’t look happy about it. Having gone from standing and saluting, grim-faced and look-at-me leading, he ended up slumped, dejected, fighting sleep while those around him looked equally sad. Little Marco failed to suppress a yawn. Hegseth seemed to want to disappear.

Will whoever selected the music lose their job? Was playing Creedence’s “Fortunate Son” a deliberate snark against the draft-dodger in chief, or, like playing a gay anthem at every Trump rally, unintentionally clueless? 

We can be sure Trump fantasized a North Korea-style show of military might and fawning fealty, thousands of troops marching in lockstep precision, turning as one to salute him, amongst wave after wave of mighty weapons of war. Instead, he got impassive soldiers, many looking bored, walking unsynchronized as corporate sponsors were announced. Some saluted, some didn’t. Some turned their faces to him, some didn’t. Smiling to the thin crowds, mechanized troops waved and made heart signs with their hands. That was nice. Hoping instead for menace, Trump thought otherwise.

In the bleachers, empty seats outnumbered the filled. If the event was intended to intimidate our adversaries and portray Trump as a powerful leader, it was a Donald Dud. The flyovers were impressive, though, like Seafair. And the robot dogs were cool. Perhaps the research behind them will survive Trump’s anti-science agenda.

Hewing to their disinformation-spreading business model, counting on audience credulity, Fox “news” spoke of the “energy” and enthusiasm of the parade. Black, they assured us, was white. Down, they insisted, was up. It appears they even added fake cheering to drown out the silence. Trump’s Joseph Goebbels, Steven Cheung, said 250,000 people attended and the country-wide protests were “miniscule.” Such is Trumpworld’s view of their voters’ intelligence.

Did Trump see images of the millions of citizens who turned out in hundreds of cities, including in red states, to protest his “king”dom? Evidently. That night, he took to “Truthless Antisocial” to demand law enforcement redouble their intimidation in blue-state cities, using rhetoric that made undeniable his dictatorial politicization of the DOJ. Or, as he calls it, “running the country.”  That those millions marched peacefully, providing no excuse for violent reprisals, must have been disappointing. There was, however, a favored MAGA tactic, blessed by Ron DeSantis, of attempted vehicular homicide.

The weekend held other horrors: As awful as the murders in Minnesota were, more portentous for our future was the MAGA response, including from sitting US senators, Elon Musk, and, predictably, Foxians. Despite the murderer’s manifesto and hitlist attacking Democrats, despite his roommate’s confirmation that he’s a staunch Trump supporter, right-wingers insisted the man was a liberal, a Marxist, blaming the murder on “the extreme left.” There were even suggestions on Trumpic media that Governor Tim Walz hired the man to off a political enemy. 

We may argue over which party has most lost its mind (though the answer is as obvious as the aforementioned and Mr. Cheung’s lies), but when the divide between them is this unbridgeable, the adherence to truth so unequal, prospects for joining together in commitment to democracy are dim.

Changing subjects again, to the missiles flying between Israel and Iran: In concert with the wishes of the Western world, Israel’s intent is to keep Iran from building nuclear weapons. As the Middle East threatens another conflagration, let’s remember that, if not for Trump, this wouldn’t have happened. Calling it “the worst deal in the world,” reflexively undoing President Barack Obama’s most beneficial initiatives in his first “presidency,” he pulled out of the tough nuclear agreement with Iran that Obama’s team had forged. The deal included regular, expert inspections, with which Iran was complying.

Iranically, the currently disrupted negotiations between the US and Iran would return to the status established by President Obama’s “worst deal.” Bringing things back to how they were before Trump ruined them is also a fair description of the ephemeral trade agreement, supposedly in the works, with China.

Speaking of bad things that happened because Trump was president, he’d have us believe that some world events happened because he wasn’t. Like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which, because of his unmatched leadership skills and plenary power over Putin, he’d be ending the day after he was elected. It follows that if Putin had been afraid to invade while Trump was president, he’d certainly be acceding to Trump’s demands to end hostilities, of which there’ve been many, after every one of which, Putin, playing Trump like a balalaika, escalated his attacks.

Were I to claim my columns prevent Trump from imprisoning everyone who opposes him, no one could prove it false; but I’d put that assertion alongside Trump’s about Russia and Ukraine. And it’d be fair to call me megalomaniacal and nuts.