I’m sure Diaper Donnie woke up in a foul mood knowing ten million or more Americans would be out in cities and towns all over the country reminding him what a P.O.S. he is. Still, I’d somehow forgotten about the direction of the earth’s rotation and if Donnie boy was thinking of a morning distraction like cheating his way around the golf course to brighten his mood when he turned on the news (he can’t help himself) he was confronted with images of people in Europe beating all of us here in the U.S. to the punch. Or kick in his shriveled, desiccated testicles perhaps?
The point is, as this article from The Daily Beast tells us that while we were enjoying our mornings, looking forward to an afternoon of watching or taking part in-person No Kings Day 3 in other countries there were plenty of protests going on to ensure Trump’s entire day would be humiliating for him. Take a look at the map in the title pic. I’ll bet plenty of leaders in Europe/NATO are taking a hard look at what’s going on around them. They’ve been (understandably) reluctant to pitch in and help bail Trumpty-Dumpty out of the mess he’s made in the Persian Gulf. They’ll be even less so now!
What matters is that as with prior protest No Kings is truly international in scope. And it’s growing. It’s a massive, humiliating blow to Trump’s tissue paper thin ego. Protests have been taking place everywhere in this county where people live. Now the same seems to be true in Europe, and even in other places. I think given they have their hands full fighting off the Russian invaders and Russia’s willingness (eagerness actually) to attack civilian targets we should give them a pass for not holding formal No Kings protests there. However they happened in plenty of other places across the pond:
It’s not just Americans who are turning out in droves to call out Donald Trump.
Protesters around the world poured out onto the streets on Saturday to participate in “No Kings” rallies as Americans geared up for the third installment of the popular movement against Trump, which is expected to draw millions of people.
In Italy, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Australia, protesters marched the streets carrying signs blasting the 79-year-old American president and his war with Iran.
If you’d like to see pictures of overseas protests there are quite a few in the linked article. Here I’ll simple include some of the messages people put on signs:
- In Rome, rallyists held up a massive banner that read “For a world free from war” in Italian.
- In Paris, one handmade sign declared “No Kings” in French.
- In Madrid, a woman showed up with a placard that said “Power to the people” in Spanish.
- In Berlin, a cardboard sign asserted “No leader principle in [the] USA” in German, referring to a Nazi doctrine insisting on unquestioning obedience to Adolf Hitler.
- In Amsterdam, one banner asked, “WTF America.”
- In Sydney, a man held up a sign that read “We can’t stand him either.”
That of course is a small sampling. I’m hoping that from Scotland who famously hung the descriptor ‘Shitgibbon’ on Trump who likes to claim Scottish roots (via his mother). In truth we (and the world) are stuck with him because his grandad Friedrich fled Bavaria (now part of Germany) to avoid military service. Well, that’s one Trump family tradition that’s been maintained. Trump’s father Fred (Friedrich’s son) married a gal (from Scotland) who’s family hadn’t served either. Scotland wants nothing to do with Trump and is clear in their disapproval. I look forward to signs from there that were show today, with a them of ‘No Orange Shitgibbon Kings’ theme!
We’ll have to wait until tonight to get a sense of how many people turned out today. However we know over 3300 protests were planned in the U.S. alone. There were five million who showed up at the first No Kings protests, and upwards of seven million for the second last October. Many have expressed a belief we’ll see upwards of TEN million before this day is over. In the U.S. alone.
For some reason I thought of Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant. More specifically towards the end when he encourages others to sing a short passage from the song and dreams of it becoming a movement: ‘Can you imagine fifteen people a day walking in and singing You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant and walking out?’ Translate that to now with a variation: Can you imagine five million, seven million, even TEN Million people showing up singing No Kings songs?’ Well, we don’t have to imagine it. Better yet, Trump and his GOP enablers don’t have to imagine it either.
They can try to ignore it, or downplay it but with each protest the number of both events and participants grows. By the millions. SCOTUS and the GOP blithely thought the Dobbs decision would generate some anger for two or three months then people would ‘get over it.’ Well, they didn’t (and still haven’t) and it’s cost them. Much as the GOP establishment would like to think No Kings doesn’t matter the fact each iteration is bigger and better than the previous ones is something they have to be concerned about.
The level of organization has to be scaring the hell out of them. That same organizational talent and so many people involved means better organizing for registering voters, and even more importantly making sure their votes are cast and counted. Never forget that voter suppression by conservatives began long before Trump came along. It was their ability to discourage Democrats while their own voters showed up, especially in off year, midterm and special elections that gave them power. Now they have a fair, even fight on their hands and by some measures Democrats are the ones who now hold an advantage the GOP grew to take for granted.
Today is a reminder of that. It’s also a message to the rest of the world that a majority of Americans never wanted Trump in the first place and many who did are now regretting having been fooled by him. I for one find it heartening that so many showed up in so many places in other countries for No Kings. To show they get it – that the bulk of Americans want Trump and MAGA gone. So let’s make sure we turn the energy displayed today into action and show the world we can be better than the American Trump has reduced it to being.
(For the record, and without getting into TMI despite there being a protest well less than a mile away from me in Cary, NC I was unable to get out today. I feel guilty as hell about that. However between now and November even at times when I’m immobilized there’s plenty I can do to GOTV and by god I’ll be doing it. As should we all)
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
Well good for you! I’ve said this before about your ridiculously named protest, who cares? It doesn’t matter if you had a million spinsters & fem boys carrying dumb signs in the street here or in other countries. What did you hope to accomplish?