No Kings Protest

Today there will be another No Kings protest, marked by thousands of individual marches and demonstrations taking place in all 50 states, attended by what will certainly be millions of people, perhaps even tens of millions. 

Unfortunately, Nora has an all day activity that was planned months ago, and since she is driving there and we only have one car, neither of us will be attending, unlike the one that was held this past June. 

Here is a link to the post I did after that event. 

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2025/06/protests-and-civil-disobedience.html 

Since I won't be there, chanting and celebrating my First Amendment right to assemble, I thought I might delineate the many disagreements I have with the current administration, and some of the more egregious actions that have occurred, and are ongoing.

But first, a comment on Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's recent assertion that it is the GOP that is the party protecting our Constitutional freedoms.

Johnson uses as his comparison, the restrictions that occurred during the pandemic, presumably the suppression of various medical treatments that were awash on the internet, and, of course, the lock downs, the encouragement of social distancing, and the wearing of masks.

While, in retrospect, it is debatable that keeping kids out of school was a wise policy, in the long run, given the data that now shows that kids were not prone to COVID, and that perhaps emphasis on the reduction  of illness, hospitalizations, and death would have been a better message, as opposed to prevention, which seemed to suggest that a vaccine would prevent the illness, there is a point to be made that some mistakes were made by federal and state officials.

And, to be blunt, that telling Americans what they should do, in any sphere of life, rarely goes well. If nothing, we can be a rebellious population, even to the point of acting like two year olds who repeat the word often told to them as they begin to explore their world and become mobile - saying NO.

We love to say no, even when we are told something that is for our own good.

So, again, Johnson might have a point of two when saying that there were some restrictions placed upon Americans from 2020-2022. Of course, the fact that Trump was president in 2020 when the lock downs occurred, that his administration worked with the vaccine manufacturers on Project Warp Speed to develop the vaccines, and gave them immunity for side effects, by the way, seems to be facts that he forgets.

Also, the simple facts that over a million Americans died from COVID from 2020 to 2022, that during a few different stretches, 3 to 4,000 people were dying every day, just as many who were killed on 9/11, and that the scientific community was continually learning how to combat this unique virus, also seem to elude him.

Were mistakes made? Certainly, in the name of saving as many lives as possible, and in an abundance of caution, our national reaction may have been too aggressive. But that is hindsight. When bodies were piling up outside morgues and we really had no clue how to treat the people who were gasping for breath and dying in droves, the best advice was all we had.  

To me however, I believe that far more lives were saved because of the recommendations as to how to combat the spread of the disease. Hopefully, we will not have a similar pandemic in my lifetime in which no coordinated national actions are taken to reduce its spread, thereby having a comparison to know for sure, but I vehemently disagree with Johnson using those restrictions and recommendations as examples of a government suppressing free speech.

More importantly, after Johnson's impassioned statements that the No Kings rallies were a wonderful example of how American freedoms are being protected by this president, he went on to describe the protests as gatherings to express a Hate America agenda. Now, certainly, he has a right to his opinion, but when a government official, in fact, the man who is third in line to the presidency, states openly that people who disagree with his political viewpoint hate our country, that is not an example of defending our Constitutional rights. Worse, it gives tacit approval for those who agree with him to justify any type of violent counter protest or activity against those America Hating people. 

Even further, Johnson also likes to couch his rhetoric as a reflection of God's will, as if he has a direct line to the mind of the Almighty. The fact that, perhaps, some people believe that God is encouraging them to attend No Kings protests today, doesn't enter his mind. Or that their understanding of the founders very specific desires to cut ties with England and its King, may be driving them to the streets today.

Lastly, and most importantly, most of the people protesting today, not only don't hate America, they love America, or at least what their perceptions of what America was and could be again, without Donald J. Trump in the White House.

Johnson completely whiffs on his interpretation of these protests, as the reality is, Americans only engage in public displays of their opinions because they love America. Those that don't vote, or don't care, or think their actions won't matter, stay at home. 

Mr Johnson, we don't hate America but we do hate what America is becoming under the leadership of Trump. Perhaps someday you will be able to understand that attacks against Trump's cruel policies emanate from a love of America and what she can be, as the vast majority of people who will be chanting NO KINGS believe.

As promised then, and in response to an acquaintance who asked me why I don't like Trump, here is my list, in no particular order, as is my First Amendment right to express.

- Executive order declaring that trans people are not people which is resulting in them being kicked out of the military and being denied health care, among other things 

- Firing of DOJ lawyers who worked on cases with Jack Smith. This action, remaking the DOJ with people who will do his bidding reached a new low in the last few weeks when he replaced the US Attorney in eastern Virginia with one of his personal lawyers, an insurance lawyer, to boot, who promptly indicted James Comey and Tish James, after the previous DOJ attorney, a longtime Republican, failed to do so, citing a lack of credible evidence

- Targeting FBI agents who investigated and helped prosecute January 6th criminals. Also, those who were photographed kneeling during some of the George Floyd protests

- Pardoning the January 6th criminals, en masse, even those who admitted to beating up police officers, even those who were caught on tape battering those officers and vandalizing the Capitol building

- Threatening Canada, Greenland, Panama

- Selling out Ukraine, favoring Russia, although this assertion needs context. I think the real issue is Trump will never forgive Zelensky for not investigating Biden, and, of course, Trump has a serious bromance with Putin, so in some ways, this is more about supporting his buddy, and dissing an entire nation of people because he has a grudge against their leader

- Similar to above, attaching a huge tariff against Brazil because their legislative and judicial branches had more guts than ours, as they indicted and jailed their ex-president when he tried to remain in power illegally, a man who supported Trump

- Treating the two plus million Palestinians as so much garbage, due in part to his deep seated racism, but also due to his love affair with strongmen who have no qualms about killing large sums of people to remain in power

- Executive order altering birth right citizenship. Punishing children for the sins of their parents, as un-Christian an act as you will ever see a president enact, not to mention in violation of the Constitution.

- Freezing monies already approved by the previous Congress. Again, unconstitutional as Congress has the power of the purse, allegedly.

- Tariffs against virtually every country in the world, many for no reason other than a personal like or dislike of their leaders (see above for Brazil), some in direct violation of his own treaties (like for Canada and Mexico), some with vague references to trade imbalances that are justified with a calculation that is unrealistic at best, nonsensical at worse, but all, bordering on unconstitutional considering that they all represent a tax on American businesses and consumers, which, again is supposed to be within the purview of Congress

- Attacks on the federal work force. Although his attack dog, Elon Musk has retreated from Washington DC with his tail between his legs, OMB head Russel Vought has famously said that he wants all federal workers to be afraid of losing their jobs. As this attack of public service continues, it may very well take a generation before Americans regain the belief that serving their country is a noble cause, and worth the sacrifice in monetary compensation

- Deporting people without due process. Again, perhaps unconstitutional, but certainly not in keeping with America's lofty sense of justice and fairness

- Allowing DOGE to access sensitive data. We really don't know how this may transpire, but should there be a massive breach of taxpayer and citizen data, there should be no surprise if the source was allowing people loyal to Musk, not America, gain access to government data bases

- Ending USAID programs. Many Americans most likely don't care about this atrocity since so many have bought into the selfishness mantra of America First, but it will result in the death of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands or people across the globe, especially children. So much for a kinder, gentler hand

- Revoked legal status for migrants who used the CBP One App to apply for asylum. Again, probably flying under the radar, but this extremely mean policy basically said, too bad if you followed the law before, the law has changed. Talk about pulling the rug out from under someone. I would imagine no American would stand for being told they were being arrested for committing an act, in the past, that used to be legal, but isn't now, but when "those" people are described as invaders and criminals, we fail to be outraged

- Scrubbing federal data bases of references of "woke" subjects and references, such as war heroes that were black, or the name of the airplane that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan (Enola Gay), and, of course, any reference to climate change

- Revoking student visas, and rejecting apps for students applying to American colleges if they have expressed any opinions that the administration doesn't like. So much for freedom of expression

- Executive order boosting coal. So ridiculous, it's hard to fathom such a backwards action

- Extortion of law firms and universities. At first, this one was working. But now it seems that there is some unity, at least among the academic world, to resist trading federal dollars for how they develop their curriculum, who they hire, who the admit into their schools, etc, although the business community is still all in on capitulating to Trump's demands, this being most recently displayed at the White House when a bunch of rich corporate types wrote checks to Trump to pay for his ballroom.

- Firing and take over of the Kennedy center board as well as attacking the independence of the Smithsonian

- Firing of a slew of inspector generals whose very job is to find fraud, waste and abuse. This act in particular demonstrated how much of a fraud was that whole exercise played out by Musk and Trump. Musk wanted to neuter many of the federal departments that oversaw his business interests, and Trump just wanted to eliminate any oversight into his criminal activity

- Hiring of a bunch of Fox personalities. When asked by a Trump supporter why that bothered me, I asked them how they would feel if Biden had recruited from CNN and MSNBC to fill some important posts in his administration. It seemed like that individual hadn't considered that could happen, didn't seem to think about such a possibility when defending Trump's Fox obsession. Not to mention his naming people like Linda McMahon and Kristi Noem for important cabinet posts. Perhaps all those attacks on DEI are correct, there must have been a white male somewhere with more experience to run such important departments

- Blowing up boats and killing people in contradiction of international law, and providing no evidence or proof to support the action. The fact that the admiral in charge of that area recently resigned, may indicate that there is no real proof, just Trump and Hegseth flexing their manliness, while Congress completely abdicates their constitutional obligation of oversight, and consent

Amazingly, that is not even close to a full list of things that have made me conclude that America is in decline, as I have stated so many times, or that Americans have lost their way. 

Shock and Awe to such an extant that it is too hard, too sad, to keep track of all the horrendous actions being taken, becoming normal, due to the lack of any accountability for Trump.

As I said in the post referred to above, I don't know if protests, even massive ones, are enough. I still envision that some type of violence, real or provoked, will enable Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, or some other form of martial law and that an America citizen will be killed by a national guardsmen or soldier during one of Trump's deployments. The fact that it will almost certainly happen in a blue state, will be no surprise.

And, with all the active gerrymandering going on in red and blue state legislatures, even the 2026 and 2028 elections may not matter, may not reflect the will of the people, or the fact that at least 60, perhaps as much as 65% of Americans are not happy with this administration.

If it all results in some type of performative election, as they have in Hungary and Russia, places whose leaders Trump admires most, then maybe we will have the ultimate example of a breach from our Constitution, the election of someone who is not only not allowed to run, but is unqualified and unpopular, but who holds all the cards, as he likes to reference.

I guess time will tell, but in the meantime

The decline continues.