There are a lot of ongoing — even worsening — nightmares right now. But, before this past remarkable weekend recedes into the annals of history, let’s at least offer one BradCast over to celebrating the joy of Saturday’s coast-to-coast protest rallies seeking to make America good again. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
Even prior to 7 million turning out for last weekend’s “No Kings” rallies in some 2,700 cities and towns, instances of individual folks standing up to make America good again abounded.
For instance, our judicial system — at least below the U.S. Supreme Court level — continues to hold, by and large, as we saw in last week’s ruling blocking Donald Trump (for now) from unlawfully firing some 4,000 federal workers during the ongoing federal government shutdown. U.S. District Judge Susan Yvonne Illston called out the Trump Administration, charging that they have “taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, the laws don’t apply to them anymore.” But, as the Judge made clear, “The activities that are being undertaken here are contrary to the laws. You can’t do this in a nation of laws.”
We also saw the grand jury and regular jury system holding firm last week, as Trump’s U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, former Fox “News” host Jeanine Pirro, was unable to attain even a misdemeanor conviction after three different federal grand juries had rejected her attempt to indict a D.C. protester which the Administration falsely claimed had assaulted federal officers. After defendant Sydney Reid‘s acquittal last week, she declared in a statement: “This verdict shows that this administration and their peons are not able to invoke fear in all citizens. Correctly describing Trump as “a crazy person who’s in charge of the most powerful nation,” Reid added: “Knowing that I can stand in front of 12 of my fellow citizens and be found not guilty for standing up for basic human rights makes me feel like, despite the scary times we live in, we have hope for the future.”
That “hope” was on display across the nation over the weekend, in cities and towns, large and small, “red” and “blue”, by joyous, peaceful protesters, young and old, black, brown, white and everything in between. Even one of our grumpiest listeners and occasional callers, Ron, rang in to today’s show to note that attending a protest rally in Venice over the weekend, here in Southern California, “really changed my head.”
“I have felt like a voice in the wind,” he told me. “I know other people feel like I do. I had no idea it would be this much of a wave.” Fighting back emotions, he notes: “It just completely knocked me out. It gives me a whole lot of hope. It’s like these bastards aren’t gonna get away with it. And I feel really good about that.”
It wasn’t “the left” which proved to be angry and dangerous on Saturday. There were virtually zero arrests despite the enormous crowds that turned out. These weren’t “Hate America” rallies as House Speaker Mike Johnson and fellow Republicans falsely characterized them with lies in advance last week. As callers attest on today’s program, they were attended by happy, patriotic warriors, banding together to fight like hell to save our country and Constitution from a tyrant and his enablers. Exactly like the nation’s first No Kings protest, on July 4, 1776.
The President of the United States, however, was busy shitting on the nation on Saturday — almost literally, albeit via AI — and its peaceful protesters exercising their First Amendment rights to speak out against being ruled by a monarch. Trump published a particularly childish (even by his standards) and disgusting artificial intelligence video showing himself as the pilot of a fighter jet, wearing a crown, and dumping tons of excrement on thousands of peaceful protesters in Times Square. The President of the United States actually posted that video to social media on Saturday night. I am told that none of the major Sunday network news shows mentioned it. Other than that, this wildly unpopular President wasn’t bothered at all by the massive protests against him, as he claims…right?
Tune in for today’s program. I think you’ll enjoy it. It is, as you’ll note from the very opening, a joyous and defiant celebration of democracy, free speech and all that is good, from a nation of people just like you and me who are standing up to declare that we’re not gonna take it anymore.
And, unlike Trump’s federal immigration goons, we’re not afraid to show our faces in public when declaring as much in thousands of cities across this still-great land…
How do you say “not above the law” in French(Former French President Sarkozy begins a 5-year prison sentence for campaign finance conspiracy)?
Here is how Dredd says it (Choose Your Trances Carefully).
JMO,
but this is how I say, “not above the law”, in French:
Guillotine.