Anybody go to a No Kings rally today?
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We live pretty close to the area in downtown Chicago where many of the rallys take place. We didn't go this year. Traffic was slow getting out of the neighborhood to attend a family birthday gathering. Thinking about the event I was reminded about something I read by John Pavlovitz recently on how they are most important for those protesting, not so much about making any change to the minds on the other side.
"We’ve already had two massively successful No Kings Day events, and as cathartic and encouraging as they were, things here are far worse than they were then.
The Constitutional crises are piling up.
We’re immersed in unnecessary and unwinnable wars halfway across the world.
This Administration’s disregard for legality and morality is escalating.
The complete Epstein files are still concealed, the monsters within them still evading their reckoning.
ICE is still ravaging our communities with impunity and with taxpayer funding.
And our traitorous, cognitively-decimated, sociopathic Predator-In-Chief has become more unstable, more violent, and more unhinged than before.
We’re a hair’s breadth from full-on fascism.The last No Kings Day protests didn’t stave off the chaos that is now here, and it won’t prevent what this regime has planned, unless we all do more than show up on Saturday.
Rallies and protests are powerful, important things.
They are a necessary visual reminder that we’re not alone.
They help provide a sense of agency in dark days, to help our minds right-size the threats that seem so towering and so beyond our reach.
They give us a chance to stand with a chosen community and be a tangible response to the things that burden us.
They connect us with people we live, work, and study alongside and give us the chance to forge partnerships and build coalitions."snip
"We need to remember that transformative activism is found in sustained movements, not in soothing moments, and we need to find our place in the messy and local battles throughout this nation until we actually strike fear into the oppressors and oligarchs, and upend the new order they are constructing where we are truly powerless."
https://johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/no-kings-day-is-coming-but-does-it
I could be wrong but it seems to me that the most effective action would be a general strike. That's a hard sell when a) Americans gave that up after WWII and b) people need to pay their bills and the economy is hanging on by a thread.
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Seems a little silly since SCOTUS shut his emergency powers tariffs down and he hasn't been able to get around that. Every president in our lifetimes has tried to expand executive powers, but the guardrails are intact. If you want to protest it should be against Congress. Trump is just a symptom of that dysfunctional body.
He’s trying to find ways around the tariffs being blocked.
He has alienated us from our allies around the world, initiated regime change in multiple countries, staffed his cabinet with yes men and incompetents, set ICE loose to terrorize the country, eliminated jobs in government without thoughtful analysis, and is enriching himself and his friends at a scale never seen before.
This is no way to run a country and the President and Congress are equally responsible. He, and they (by not stopping him), have created chaos and raised the risk of disaster happening at every turn. The judiciary is hanging on by the skin of its teeth.
He is driven by self-interest, self-enrichment, and narcissism rather than a real desire to help the country. He reacts impulsively rather than thoughtfully, and he is unwilling to acknowledge that he doesn’t know everything.
Not a fan of his “weave” style of governing. I think it is reckless and dangerous. We need an intelligent, thoughtful leader, not Don Corleone
Seems a little silly since SCOTUS shut his emergency powers tariffs down and he hasn't been able to get around that. Every president in our lifetimes has tried to expand executive powers, but the guardrails are intact. If you want to protest it should be against Congress. Trump is just a symptom of that dysfunctional body.
He’s trying to find ways around the tariffs being blocked.
He has alienated us from our allies around the world, initiated regime change in multiple countries, staffed his cabinet with yes men and incompetents, set ICE loose to terrorize the country, eliminated jobs in government without thoughtful analysis, and is enriching himself and his friends at a scale never seen before.
This is no way to run a country and the President and Congress are equally responsible. He, and they (by not stopping him), have created chaos and raised the risk of disaster happening at every turn. The judiciary is hanging on by the skin of its teeth.
He is driven by self-interest, self-enrichment, and narcissism rather than a real desire to help the country. He reacts impulsively rather than thoughtfully, and he is unwilling to acknowledge that he doesn’t know everything.
Not a fan of his “weave” style of governing. I think it is reckless and dangerous. We need an intelligent, thoughtful leader, not Don Corleone
I'd much prefer he was not the president, but he is for a couple more years. So be it. In his favor, he has aggressively taken on problems that past presidents of both parties have just kicked down the road. While I approve of most of his policies, I don't approve of the way the administration has gone about it. I do disagree with your mischaracterization of the man. He has a lot of flaws but lack of love of country is not one of them.
So the question becomes do you want a president who kicks the can down the road to the next guy or one who tries to solve the issues? But this no kings thing is just dumb. It's a tantrum just like the Dems refusal to fund legitimate government agencies. It's an emotional appeal and sadly it works on a lot of people. He's not a king and he knows it.
“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer”
― Douglas Adams -
Seems a little silly since SCOTUS shut his emergency powers tariffs down and he hasn't been able to get around that. Every president in our lifetimes has tried to expand executive powers, but the guardrails are intact. If you want to protest it should be against Congress. Trump is just a symptom of that dysfunctional body.
He’s trying to find ways around the tariffs being blocked.
He has alienated us from our allies around the world, initiated regime change in multiple countries, staffed his cabinet with yes men and incompetents, set ICE loose to terrorize the country, eliminated jobs in government without thoughtful analysis, and is enriching himself and his friends at a scale never seen before.
This is no way to run a country and the President and Congress are equally responsible. He, and they (by not stopping him), have created chaos and raised the risk of disaster happening at every turn. The judiciary is hanging on by the skin of its teeth.
He is driven by self-interest, self-enrichment, and narcissism rather than a real desire to help the country. He reacts impulsively rather than thoughtfully, and he is unwilling to acknowledge that he doesn’t know everything.
Not a fan of his “weave” style of governing. I think it is reckless and dangerous. We need an intelligent, thoughtful leader, not Don Corleone
I'd much prefer he was not the president, but he is for a couple more years. So be it. In his favor, he has aggressively taken on problems that past presidents of both parties have just kicked down the road. While I approve of most of his policies, I don't approve of the way the administration has gone about it. I do disagree with your mischaracterization of the man. He has a lot of flaws but lack of love of country is not one of them.
So the question becomes do you want a president who kicks the can down the road to the next guy or one who tries to solve the issues? But this no kings thing is just dumb. It's a tantrum just like the Dems refusal to fund legitimate government agencies. It's an emotional appeal and sadly it works on a lot of people. He's not a king and he knows it.
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Seems a little silly since SCOTUS shut his emergency powers tariffs down and he hasn't been able to get around that. Every president in our lifetimes has tried to expand executive powers, but the guardrails are intact. If you want to protest it should be against Congress. Trump is just a symptom of that dysfunctional body.
He’s trying to find ways around the tariffs being blocked.
He has alienated us from our allies around the world, initiated regime change in multiple countries, staffed his cabinet with yes men and incompetents, set ICE loose to terrorize the country, eliminated jobs in government without thoughtful analysis, and is enriching himself and his friends at a scale never seen before.
This is no way to run a country and the President and Congress are equally responsible. He, and they (by not stopping him), have created chaos and raised the risk of disaster happening at every turn. The judiciary is hanging on by the skin of its teeth.
He is driven by self-interest, self-enrichment, and narcissism rather than a real desire to help the country. He reacts impulsively rather than thoughtfully, and he is unwilling to acknowledge that he doesn’t know everything.
Not a fan of his “weave” style of governing. I think it is reckless and dangerous. We need an intelligent, thoughtful leader, not Don Corleone
I'd much prefer he was not the president, but he is for a couple more years. So be it. In his favor, he has aggressively taken on problems that past presidents of both parties have just kicked down the road. While I approve of most of his policies, I don't approve of the way the administration has gone about it. I do disagree with your mischaracterization of the man. He has a lot of flaws but lack of love of country is not one of them.
So the question becomes do you want a president who kicks the can down the road to the next guy or one who tries to solve the issues? But this no kings thing is just dumb. It's a tantrum just like the Dems refusal to fund legitimate government agencies. It's an emotional appeal and sadly it works on a lot of people. He's not a king and he knows it.
He has a lot of flaws but lack of love of country is not one of them.
Trump's love of Trump trumps his love of country. He only cares about this country if it can serve him; his actions are ignoble. It's hard to understand how--for over a decade in public life--his vile, demeaning statements and actions, lawlessness, self aggrandizement, and self enrichment, not to mention trampling the US Constitution, are somehow trumped by his love of country. Hitler loved Germany.
Trump is kicking decades of hell down the road. He is doing nothing to help American citizens. His national debt increase, gutting of essential services, alienation of allies, ignoring the climate crisis, stomping out medical research, installing a clown car cabinet, etc. etc. It's going to be a long, hard road to recovery when that asswipe is finally gone.
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Seems a little silly since SCOTUS shut his emergency powers tariffs down and he hasn't been able to get around that. Every president in our lifetimes has tried to expand executive powers, but the guardrails are intact. If you want to protest it should be against Congress. Trump is just a symptom of that dysfunctional body.
He’s trying to find ways around the tariffs being blocked.
He has alienated us from our allies around the world, initiated regime change in multiple countries, staffed his cabinet with yes men and incompetents, set ICE loose to terrorize the country, eliminated jobs in government without thoughtful analysis, and is enriching himself and his friends at a scale never seen before.
This is no way to run a country and the President and Congress are equally responsible. He, and they (by not stopping him), have created chaos and raised the risk of disaster happening at every turn. The judiciary is hanging on by the skin of its teeth.
He is driven by self-interest, self-enrichment, and narcissism rather than a real desire to help the country. He reacts impulsively rather than thoughtfully, and he is unwilling to acknowledge that he doesn’t know everything.
Not a fan of his “weave” style of governing. I think it is reckless and dangerous. We need an intelligent, thoughtful leader, not Don Corleone
I'd much prefer he was not the president, but he is for a couple more years. So be it. In his favor, he has aggressively taken on problems that past presidents of both parties have just kicked down the road. While I approve of most of his policies, I don't approve of the way the administration has gone about it. I do disagree with your mischaracterization of the man. He has a lot of flaws but lack of love of country is not one of them.
So the question becomes do you want a president who kicks the can down the road to the next guy or one who tries to solve the issues? But this no kings thing is just dumb. It's a tantrum just like the Dems refusal to fund legitimate government agencies. It's an emotional appeal and sadly it works on a lot of people. He's not a king and he knows it.
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So does yours. That's why I said we are each forming an opinion based on what we are observing. Our interpretations are at opposite ends of the spectrum. I wouldn't tell you that you are wrong, but I will tell you I couldn't disagree with you more. There is a difference.
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