No Kings Day
Only 1,316 days to go...
“One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.” ~ Michael J. Fox
Several events in Asheville area
“No Kings Day” Canvass & After Party in Riceville Swannanoa
And in Chicago … Chicago Celebrates Pope Leo XIV at Rate Field!
“We have no kings here, we have no queens here, we have no emperors, we have no dictators, we have no despots, and we have no serfs and no slaves and no subjects, and none of us is a subject to Donald Trump. None of us is a subject to Mike Johnson. We are all citizens, those of us who aspire and attain to public office are nothing but the servants of the people. And the minute that somebody in public office thinks that they're a king, they're a queen, they're an emperor, they're a dictator, that is time for the people to evict, eject, reject, impeach, try, convict, and start all over again, because the most important words of our Constitution are the three first words of the Constitution: ‘We the people.’” ~Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
…. the president and his allies have issued executive orders of dubious constitutionality, violated the civil protections of federal workers, impinged on Congress’s powers over the budget, sidestepped and defied court rulings, used the Justice Department to punish opponents and protect loyalists, threatened to impeach judges who rule against the administration, weaponized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and immigration law to imprison and deport documented immigrants without due process, and allowed unappointed individuals an unprecedented (and potentially illegal) level of access and power over key agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Treasury Department, and the Education Department…
For democracy to survive, it must be protected. In the past few decades, in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Poland, opposition groups pushed back successfully against leaders with authoritarian tendencies early in the process of democratic backsliding, when they still had institutional levers to pull….If American democracy is to prevail, pro-democracy forces must follow the handbook that has enabled oppositions to stop would-be autocrats in other countries. They should coordinate to defend and expand their institutional powers while they have them, wield them to obstruct Trump’s authoritarian agenda, strengthen grassroots resistance efforts, and protect the activists, officeholders, and other individuals exposed to retribution from the administration. The alternative may be that democracy slips away while they wait.
I do have one thing in common with our president. Les Misérables is my favorite musical as well…
“Around 6:30pm this Saturday there will be tanks rolling down Constitution Avenue in our nation’s capital. The official reason is to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States Army. But we all know what’s really happening. Trump’s taking that anniversary and using it as an excuse to put on the big birthday parade he never got in his first term. So he can show everyone how tough he is. So he can play the strong man while he erodes the democracy the Army has fought to defend. It’s a waste of time. It’s a waste of resources. It’s an insult to the men and women who wear the uniform and the generations who came before them. With everything Trump’s doing right now, I can’t think of anybody who deserves a parade less than him. But, like it or not, this parade is going to happen. That’s just the truth.
It’s what comes next that truly matters.”
~ Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ)
Thought for the day in honor of her birthday….
"Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."
~Harriet Beecher Stowe
What I’m reading…
DC Prepares for Trump's Military Parade with 18 Miles of Fencing and 175 Magnetometers
The Army birthday celebration had already been planned for months. But earlier this spring, Trump announced his intention to transform the event — which coincides with his 79th birthday — into a massive military parade complete with 60-ton M1 Abrams battle tanks and Paladin self-propelled howitzers rolling through the city streets.
We’re minimizing the horror of Trump’s military birthday parade
“America is the most powerful country in all of human history ... and we don’t need to show it off. We’re not North Korea. We’re not Russia, we’re not China.”
This time, as Washington prepares for a huge military shindig on 14 June, Trump’s 79th – and, oh yes, the US army’s 250th – birthday, the generals are silent. The Republicans have sworn allegiance to the king. And the media are focused on the price tag, the potholes and the impending pomp; on tensions between the blue city of Washington and the red capital; and on the decimation of veterans’ healthcare, housing, and pensions while the administration throws $25m to $45m at a circus of war.
All are important parts of the story. Yet commentary is muted and the debate mischaracterized as normal political discourse.
The horrific point is missed: the spectacle of a massive show of military might, before a president who behaves like a dictator and views the armed forces as his personal foot soldiers, evinces memories of the worst totalitarian regimes…
At the parade, the crowd of 200,000 parade spectators will be dominated by Maga idol worshippers. Trump will watch the extravaganza from a reviewing stand, just like Xi Jinping and Putin did recently at Red Square. The army’s Golden Knights parachute team will land on the Eclipse and hand the president a flag. Officials say there are “no plans” to sing Happy Birthday, but there are rumors the army will also give Trump a birthday gift.
Let’s call 14 June what it promises to be: the ceremonial birth of the United States’s 21st-century fascist regime.
“America has been respected throughout the world not because of its power but because of its purpose. Respect and appreciation for the men and women who serve in the military is not because of their weapons but because of their selflessness.”
~ Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
What I’m listening to…
Enlisting the national guard in deportation is a 'dangerous path' from NPR
Once again David Frum hits it out of the park….
Did you realize that it is the 250th anniversary of the Navy and Marines as well? Why aren’t we celebrating their birthdays, too? “No parade for them because their birthdays don’t fall on Trump’s birthday.”
David comments on it at the end of this podcast, so if you want to skip to the end, start at 57:45 minutes.
Two hundred fifty years ago, on June 14, 1775, Americans created an army to defend ourselves from an alien force intent on suppressing our right to home rule and threatening personal security in our homes and workplaces.
"This We'll Defend"
https://substack.com/@poetpastor/note/p-163590838?r=5gejob&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action