Amidst one of the most tumultuous weeks in U.S. history where we witnessed a president deploy troops to a US city against the expressed demands of state and local officials, a major escalation in the conflagration in the Middle East, and a political assassination, Trump's big day finally arrived.
What transpired can only be described as a Greek comedy. His face foretells impending dread...
The parade in DC was forced to start a half hour early because of incoming weather. DC residents were saying online the air was even more humid than usual. The Swamp settled into a thick rainy haze just as the parade was scheduled to begin.
But the real problem wasn't weather— it was crowd size.
DC is an absolute ghost town. As the parade began, news outlets on the ground all reported the crowd—predicted to be 200,000 people—was a mere fraction. One New York Times reporter described the energy as 'desultory.' The tepid and unenthusiastic attendees that did show up couldn't muster as much as a cheer, exhausted and drained from standing in the hot steaming rain for hours.
The US Army's speaker system blared John Fogerty's 'Fortunate Son', a famous song about the working class people who are forced to go to war and sacrifice everything while draft-dodging, silver spoon rich kids like Trump simply pay for a phony doctor's note. The irony was likely unintentional, yet another symptom of a decaying empire unable to maintain a coherent narrative. Speaking of incoherence, the bored troops marched in the sloppiest lines that would make U.S. Army George S. Patton slap a haux.
A video of the parade widely circulating on social media depicts an ancient 80-year-old tank plodding down Constitution Ave, the crowd so eerily quiet the only thing you could hear is the rusty tank treads squeaking, no less diminished than the man it was intended to honor. The video continues for several agonizing minutes with the only audible sound the squeaking of the rusty tank and the soldiers' heads peeping out of holes gasping for air trying not to suffocate.
Trump basically used $50 million of our tax money to humiliate himself. Outside the 10 miles of tall fencing and concertina wire wrapped around DC's buildings, and the empty streets now degraded from 30 ton tanks, a nationwide rebellion was afoot.
More than 9 million people came out today for #NoKings in the largest protest against an American president in history.
The thousands of photos and videos online from #NoKings showcase how many millions hit the streets, how positive our energy was, how peaceful and organized we are, that no amount of right-wing disinformation could obscure the stark reality: that our movement has the Juice and MAGA ain't got shit.
Today we found our voice. Today we found each other. Today we reclaimed our beloved Stars and Stripes.
Today we birthed a great and mighty social movement dedicated to saving our democracy from the predator oligarchs who are robbing all of us blind, while they buy politicians and redirect our rage towards oppressed groups, like immigrants and trans people.
Today was the day we begin to turn the tables, not just on Donald Trump, but on the billionaire takers who contribute nothing to our society but an organized system of wealth extraction and widespread deprivation, bolstered by a rickety coin-operated fascist presidency.
"Rise like Lions after slumber. In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew. Which in sleep had fallen on you – Ye are many – they are few."
