Category Archives: Constitutional Crisis

47, Constitutional Crisis, Lawful protest, Military Matters, Patriotism, Signs of the Times

Breaking: Trump’s Coming To Fort Bragg: The Signs I’d Carry In Protest

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Monday – June 9: Just heard that Trump is coming to preen & prattle on my old stamping ground— Fort Bragg-Liberty-Bragg tomorrow, the 10th. It’s part of the hoopla buildup to his totally unnecessary and utterly narcissistic Mussolini-wannabe parade in Washington on June 14.

I helped with protests aimed at several Bragg visits by two presidents, and a couple more boosting a third.

If I was putting together a protest for tomorrow, today I’d be hosting a-poster-making party, and futzing with wide colored markers, scribbling notes for messages to scrawl on them.

I can still do that now, only online and social media.

The messages always felt important, tho they also had to be brief, readable by speeding passersby in a second or two.

This time, several motifs stand out:

— Voicing respect for the troops (you can do that while rejecting the wars they’re sent to fight)

— Restating that they ALL take an oath to defend the CONSTITUTION, not some monarchical wannabe;

— Pointing out a few of the innumerable ways that 47 soils and tramples that oath, which he took too; and how he mocks their service & sacrifice.

— That the defense they mount is on behalf of all our RIGHTS under the Constitution.

Events in Los Angeles over the weekend underscored the salience of these points. And opportunities to repeat them should come several times between now and the conclusion of the Saturday parade and all its grim gaudiness.

Here is a sampler of what some might look like. If any appeal, feel free to copy and pass them on.

We’ll begin with one aimed at the rabidly resegregating Secretary of Defense:

Next an allusion to the depthless criminality of the 34-count convicted and adjudicated sexual assaulter/memecoin bribe-sucker now auctioning off pardons on the side in the oval office . . ,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And taking a wrecking ball — ummm, or is it still a chainsaw —to veterans services?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Kings , or using military for repression of our rights . . .

In summary . . .

This billboard originally stood near Ft. Bragg-Liberty-Bragg, I wish it looked like this tomorrow

 

"New Normal"?, 47, Civil War, Constitutional Crisis, Crusade, Democracy, Jail & Incarceration, Project 2025, Pushback, Sedition Watch, Signs of the Times, Supreme & Other Courts, Terror and Terrorism, The Law — Inside & Outside it, To Save Democracy

Dread: Confronting a key tool of Authoritarian Rule

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On the porch

It was just a suitcase. Well-used, medium size, dun-colored, nondescript. Sitting upright on the porch, not far from the low railing, out of sight of the sidewalk.

Why was it so unnerving? And what’s it got to do with America 2025?

We’ll get to 2025 presently. First, consider the location: 1315 Lapsley Street on the corner of Academy St., in Selma Alabama. A Black middle class enclave, single family houses. Respectable, not lavish, some tall trees. Mostly quiet, not much traffic.

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"New Normal"?, 47, Arts -Visual, Constitutional Crisis, Current Affairs, Democracy, Journalism/Media, Limericks, Media, Minority Rule, Politics—U. S., Project 2025, Quotes, Signs of the Times, To Save Democracy, Trump, Tyranny

Washington Post: More In Sorrow, But With PLENTY of Anger

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NOTE: “Corruptio optimi pessima” = Corruption of the best is the worst of all.

I can’t remember when I started reading the Washington Post. I was following it through the Watergate years, but was a mostly broke rookie trying to find my footing as a writer to afford a subscription. By the early ‘80s, though, when I lived inside the Beltway, it was slapped down outside my front door every morning. After detours in Pennsylvania and then a move into North Carolina, I became a regular again. I was not an early adopter of the digital edition, but soon got used to it.

When Bezos killed the Harris endorsement, I didn’t like it, but mostly shrugged. After forty years as a working writer, I knew that endorsements rarely move the needle and  understood the Golden Rule of Journalism (& the rest of corporate America): Them With the Gold Make (& Break) the Rules. I was more upset by watching the once-titanic paper shrink and shrivel with the wasting disease of internet competition.

But now we’ve turned the page into the wilderness of Project 2025, and anyone can see its progress, like a rapidly-metastasizing tumor. The Post’s bending of the knee is tragically just about on schedule.

There are other news sources, mainly in the half-underground of Substack. But the loss of the Post is gall and wormwood, a bitter pill.

And not the last one.

"New Normal"?, 47, Arts: Cartoons, Congress, Constitutional Crisis, Coup, Cross-Generational Issues, Eggs, Federal workers, Future, Limericks, Medicare, Newspapers, Project 2025, Pushback, Russia, Signs of the Times, SNAP, Social Security, Ukraine, Unions/Labor, Zelenskyy

Welcome to a Showdown Week: Musk vs Fed workers + AFGE (But What About CONGRESS??)

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I’m


A free Bonus from the gang at “What Goes Around Comes Around” Media: this first cartoon is from 2017, when Trump tried to KILL Obamacare, but was stopped by nationwide constituent pushback. Can Congress WAKE UP again??

PS. To Constituents: KEEP UP the pressure!

Now some blasts from the cartoon past …

A Sunday Doonesbury strip from 2019. The record of Congress today is lagging; but Trudeau gives us a reminder of what can be possible if a party recovers its mojo and goes for it.

 

Below: Sorry, fella — the Big Guy says the giving season ended on January 20. And yeah, it may be permanent. You could try down the street at the Post Office,  I think they’re hiring — Oh, wait—

Here’s a sneak preview of another coming congressional attraction . . .

Now “breaking” news: this photo was taken Feb. 23 in a busy & otherwise very well-stocked market in North Carolina. As one can see, the limit wasn’t necessary, because the only eggs in the whole place, at any price, were a stack of gleaming eggplants.

Stopping inflation? Prices dropping? More “efficiency”???

I don’t think so.


Finally, a bow and hat-tip to the beleaguered federal workers who are the unwilling but increasingly assertive and courageous front-line troops in this struggle. Stay strong and push back! You’re not only to save your careers — you’re fighting to save your/our country!

 

From The Guardian

"New Normal"?, 47, Catholics & Catholicism, Constitutional Crisis, Current Affairs, Ecumenical & Interfaith, Immigration, Jail & Incarceration, Justice?, Minority Rule, Quakers, Signs of the Times

Guest Post: Our “Friend” Il Papa Joins The Pushback & Kicks Authoritarian Anti-Immigration Butts

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I’m not sure Pope Francis would endorse my headline. But I didn’t ask his permission. He ostensibly wrote this letter to the (all-male) U. S. Catholic bishops, not to Quakers (or Quaker adjacents, who make up the bulk of this blog’s audience).

Vatican logo

But instead he released it to via the official Vatican website, in English & Spanish, which amounts to sending it to the world. And for that matter, Quakers flatter ourselves as being open to the movings of the universal Spirit from other corners than our own; if that’s so, this letter is a fine opportunity. So I don’t think Francis will mind my turning it into a guest blog post.

Which I decided to do after reading it over, and finding it one of the best statements about the combination immigration-and-governance crisis we’re sinking into here in Orange Gringo land.

Let’s hope his missive is arriving in the nick of time.

The letter is superior in many ways: first of all, clearly written, easily understandable even by non-religious folks; yet it shows full command of some of the deepest & most broadly appealing points of Roman Catholic social witness, borne lightly, but presented cogently.

Continue reading Guest Post: Our “Friend” Il Papa Joins The Pushback & Kicks Authoritarian Anti-Immigration Butts →