They’re really gunning for Portland.
In characteristic Portland style, the protesters at the ICE facility are dancing, playing live music, prancing around in inflatable frog (and other animal) costumes, handing out flowers, and riding bicycles naked.
Last Tuesday, Mike Johnson, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and one of our nation’s most prominent sycophantic slugs*, actually said: “What I’ve seen is the abuse of law enforcement by radical leftist activists. You know, most recently, the most threatening thing I’ve seen yet was the naked bicyclers in Portland who were protesting ICE down there. I mean, it’s getting really ugly.”
There is some dispute, and some ambiguity, as to whether he meant that tongue-in-cheek. But I’m not laughing.
“Doom scrolling” is a relatively new expression in my life, maybe several years old. But wow. Lately it’s the first thing I do each day. I look at the news before I eat and then I digest thoughts of our impending doom.
How is it possible that this evil man (you know the guy) has so many enablers (I’m looking at you, Supreme Court, and pretty much every elected GOP governor, senator, and House rep in the country) and millions upon millions of slobbering devotees amidst the populace? Don’t they see what’s happening??!
We Still Have Free Speech
The administration is clamping down on disobedient media and journalism, but the First Amendment still lives.
And what a blessing that is! (Can you believe they don’t even have free speech laws in Britain?)
Anyway, I’m telling you, honestly, I don’t want to get out there tomorrow. Just between you and me, I get exhausted at huge demonstrations, I hate getting up in the morning for anything, and, um, frankly, I’m concerned about finding out-of-the-way spots to pee during the event. No Kings Day, for me, will be a job, not an adventure.
Nor do I think anyone would specifically miss me if I skipped it.
Nonetheless, if I’ve ever felt a call of duty to my country, I’m feeling it now.
I will be there and I hope you will be too.
Regardless of whether or not you or I would be missed, our presence is essential.
The historical record tells us it takes 3.5% of a given population to show up – nonviolently and in a sustained fashion – to prevent or reverse an authoritarian dictatorship. So, across the nation, we need approximately 12 million folks to feel the call.
Sign me up.
Conveniently enough, public displays of resistance are still legal.
It’s a privilege to be American. Let’s keep it that way.
* I got the phrase “sycophantic slug” from the song “On Her Silver Jubilee” by Leon Rosselson in which he poetically excoriates the institution of royalty in his native England, with a focus on the extravagance and hoopla attendant to Queen Elizabeth’s coronation and its 25th anniversary. The song begins with these lyrics:
I remember, I remember when my world was hardly grown
And the daughter of a dead dull king ascended to the throne
And though I was just a lad at school I saw it all with scorn
The solemn, sacred emptiness, the monumental yawn
And the slime exuding daily from the sycophantic slugs
And the coronation ashtrays and the coronation mugs
And the rows of ermine mummies with their maggot-eaten brains
All the swarms of bloated blowflies the majestic turd sustains
Droves of decorated duchesses like newly-painted slums
Kneeling flunkeys, praying monkeys, loyal holes for royal crumbs
And the well-heeled sharks discreetly selling tickets for the show
Park lane balconies with champagne at a thousand quid a throw
“Come and cheer the golden fairy queen, forget your daily cares
For she radiates a glory that a grateful nation shares”
And so on. Worth a listen. Nice guitar too.
Seems quaint right now though, doesn’t it? Like … what was he carping about?
Too bad you-know-who isn’t just a benign figurehead like the British queen was.
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