I am an old radical gratified to welcome a new generation of radicals. By Hal M. Brown -- HandsOff! proved that if it comes to it we won't hang alone.

 

This is my Michgan State University student ID from my days when I was active in the anti-war movment.

The anti-war movement at MSU, along with several other state universities, was described in the book Campus Wars: The Peace Movement At American State Universities in the Vietnam Era by Kenneth J. Heineman (read description). I personally knew some of the members of SDS and other Michigan State students mentioned in the book. I was in graduate school and was active in what the Social Work department did as part of the protests, especially after the Kent State massacre when most of Michigan State went on strike.

This was a movement that helped end an actual war. The anti-war protests contributed to the seminal historic moment when Walter Chronkite told America and LBJ it was over. "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." is attributed Lyndon Johnson. The thousands of students, their parents who they no doubt influenced, and the families of those fighting in Vietnam, were all Middle Americans.

President Lyndon Johnson, watching live in the White House, reportedly then turned to aides and said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.” He would soon explain to the nation–accurately–that the Tet Offensive had been successfully repelled and was in fact a huge military failure for the Vietnamese communists. But it was too late. As Cronkite noted in his editorial, the public optimism of U.S. government and military officials about the progress of the Vietnam War was not in concert with the nagging realities of a quagmire. It was largely this credibility gap that destroyed Johnson’s presidency. Reference.

• Back to the HandsOff! protests against the war on democracy Trump has started:

My friend in Massachusetts took this photo at a HandsOff! rally yesterday.

The signs read left to right: “Hands of my pussy you fucking mango,” “HANDS OFF my court district & Constitution,” and BILLIONAIRES ARE RECESSIONPROOF, WE’RE NOT, HANDS OFF OUR DEMORCACY (unclear word).”

Very symbolically these protesters are standing here:

That’s Plymouth Rock. Look closely and you can see the date 1620 engraved on it. Of course, one should not need to be reminded that the Pilgims were immigrants who came to America primarily to escape religious persecution in England. They were welcomed here by Native Americans.

Here’s a middle aged American who does not look like he’d be anti-Trump. He was radicalized when his son, a Trump supporting soldier, was killed in Afghanistan.

This is the flag (from Amazon).

I talked to him at the HandsOff! demonstration in a Portland, OR suburb which we went to yesterday. I was gratified to see someone with a big black pick-up truck with both an American and an anti-Trump flag. He told me he’d be damned if he would let the flag get owned by MAGA.

The demonstration we went to had a mix of protestors of every age from people in their 80’s like my partner and me, and the friends we went with and met there, to members of Gen-whatever.

Our protest was next to the large Clackamas Center shopping center. We had protesters lining both side of two heavily trafficked roads for over a mile.

Here’s are some of the photos I took:

If you are one of my regular readers you know what a pessimist I am when it comes to dismissing our legal victories as mere bumps in the road for the Trump blitzkrieg to establish his dictatorship, and to his “gate” scandals being just distractions for him which he can shrug off mentally by winning a golf tournament.

However, we know how Trump loves bragging about his crowds and just on the face of it he was outdone yesterday. The only estimate of the number of participants so far is 500,000, but this comes from those who registered online to attend. Anyone could come to these events and my hunch is that lots of them were like us and didn’t bother to register. I think the total number is much, much higher.

I am waiting to see if Trump decides to call for pro-Trump demonstrations to prove he can outdo what happened yesterday.

Even though I live in a retirement community where 99% of the residents are anti-Trump, being part of the protest with people who felt strongly enough to get out there with their signs and stand for two hours or more made me feel less alone. I knew intellectually that my friends and I were not alone, but yesterday gave me a feeling. I experienced it viscerally, inside. It was like being part of an army carrying signs armed with passion and camaraderie. We were charging a well fortified enemy beachhead which, while not literally there shooting at us, very much wanted us to destroy us.

HandsOff! proved that if and when it comes to the final battle to save democracy we won’t hang alone. Let Trump try to hang us together. This will will ultimately be his downfall because of our passionate commitment to democracy. There are just too many of us. 

Addendum:

More protest signs here.

Below: On MSNBC

Read my previous Substacks.

Democracy's fate will be decided by what happens with all the Trump gates. By Hal M. Brown

 

Yesterday I wrote “Crashgate, Donald Trump drives the economy into Herbert Hoover Hell” I began my “gate” series the day before with “What's next, Tarriffgate? Will Trump's presidency be known for its gates?”

These are the articles from RawStory shown in my illustration: 'Obama better get off the golf course!' CNN tees off with supercut as Trump works on swing and Trump buried by Dem vet for skipping event for fallen soldiers so he can play golf.

Loomer was the breaking story yesterday (White House fires multiple administration officials after president meets with far-right activist Laura Loomer) but RFK Jr. was also in the news with clips of his anti-vaccine statements when a vaccine expert working for the FDA resigned rather than be fired. He had a team working on vaccines that in addition to known diseases would be used for new diseases including those that had been weaponized. Futhermore, he had a team working on treatments and vaccines for cancer. (See Top vaccine official resigns from FDA, criticizes RFK Jr. for promoting 'misinformation and lies')

We’ve all heard RFK Jr. speak in his not-ready-for-radio (let alone TV) voice. I’d never heard Laura Loomer so I found this YouTube profile of her with her speaking:

You may recall she sued Bill Maher for suggesting she’d had sex with Donald Trump (reference).

Trump takes advice from two kinds of people with two, not mutually exclusive, psychiatric disorders. He has his group of sadistic psychopaths who wouldn’t know an empathetic feeling if it slapped them in the face. Stephen “Goebbels” Millerand Kash “Casket” Patel are the worst of these. Then he has Laura Loomer and RFJ Jr. who are conspiracy believers and may come close to being clinically delusional.

There are so many potential gates looming (sorry, that’s the appropriate word) down the road.

One comes to mind because my partner and I and some friends are attending one the many Hands Off! rallies this afternoon. (See website)

Threre are lots of suggestions offered for protesters who want to make signs. We thought we’d make “HandsOff! our Constitution” and “HandsOff! our Democracy.”

Because we are in a Portland suburb we worry that this may attract counter-protesters from the Proud Boys. Portland, because it is so progressive, has seen protests where the Proud Boys and Antifa squared off against each other. (See: “Who Are Antifa and the Proud Boys? Portland Protests Explained.”)

We have new friends we met yesterday (shoutout - they know who they are) who are going to a rally in Vancouver, Washington. An old friend is going to one on the waterfront near Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, MA. with her 14 year old daughter. Of course this is where a group of immigrants were met by the only real native Americans.

I don’t know what “gate” we could call it if one or more of this or another protest ends up in violence.

On MSNBC this morning Michael Steele said that there here are bad actors out there who want to cause trouble. He cautioned us to be smart and not “mess up” because Trump wants nothing more than an excuse to use the Insurrection Act to declare martial law. 

InsurrectionGate? Martial Lawgate? Police Stategate? On the later, I wish we had a federal police state where the police were really there to protect and serve rather than act as enforcers for a ruthless dictator.

I expect to see a large law enforcement presence at the Hands Off! protest and the more of our police I see the more reassured I will be. Oregon law enforcement does not cooperate with ICE, but I will be keeping an eye out for ICE thugs roaming the crowd demanding brown-skinned people prove they are citizens. (See: Portland police chief says bureau ‘does not engage’ in immigration enforcement amid federal crackdow.)

On the subject of ICE, another fascist police state travesty of the Trump administration is his deportations to the Salvadorian prison of both real gang members here illegally (who don’t deserve to be treated the way they are in that prison hellhole) and people, some here legally, who had never commited a crime beyond getting a traffic ticket. How Gestapo-like does something ICE does have to be for us to have an ICEgate? Already we have Joe Rogan and Ann Coulter breaking with Trump over ‘horrific’ deportation enforcement. (Article)

Trump, on his chaotic and rage fueled revenge juggernaut, seems intent on burning our democracy down as if he relishes creating one gate after another.

Read my previous Substacks here.

Crashgate, Donald Trump drives the economy into Herbert Hoover Hell, By Hal M. Brown

 

This a sequel to what I wrote about all the “gates” Trump has survived and the ones that may be coming in the future. 

What's next, Tarriffgate? Will Trump's presidency be known for its gates?

How many "gates" can a president survive?

Given the drop in the stock market yesterday we might add aother couple of gates to Trump’s dubious accomplishments: Crashgate. Herbert Hoovergate.

Here’s a short profile of Pres. Hoover:

The 31st President, in office from 1929 to 1933, Hoover was inaugurated at the end of the Roaring Twenties. He was President for the start of the Great Depression, which resulted from the easy credit of the 1920s and the stock market crashing, a few months after his inauguration. During his single term, he initiated policies that plummeted the economy. During the Great Depression, he became an awful leader by causing trade conflicts. He also refused unconditional aid to those suffering, despite cutting taxes and launching initiatives to boost employment, he failed to address human suffering. Reference:

No matter the name, if Trump’s tarriff war leads to a severe recession he will have to do some fancy-dancing Trumpstyle footwork to come off smelling like roses.

Happy Spring?

I find nothing remotely amusing about Turmp’s blunders but sometimes it is healthy to take a break from despairing over the fate of the country. In that spirit I offer for your enjoyment this video from the classic movie the Producers and the video below.

Click above to view.

Here’s wishing Trump a decidely unhappy Springtime.

Read my previous substacks here.

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What's next, Tarriffgate? Will Trump's presidency be known for its gates? By Hal M. Brown

 

Tarriffgate hasn’t happened yet. At least nobody is calling it this. However we could say Trade-Wargate has been engaged.

Related to Trump’s tarrifs, another “gate” could be Stupidgate:

Another “gate” that shows indications it may be around the corner is Muskgate. 

With the market cratering 1000+ points this morning (article) we now can consider a pending Recessiongate. 

My life partner and intrepid proofreader added Stagnationgate.

Some horrors may not lend themselves to a short “gate” term but still have a grim ring to them. A good example is Starving-Childrengate. 

How about Bird-flugate? For that matter, if we have more than one disease reach epidemic or pandemic levels we could have Diseasegate we can blame on Trump and RJF Jr.

With enough excesses in Trump’s manic sadistic quest to punish his enemies we could have Police-Stategate.

A lot of these don’t have the simple one word “gate” name which we can thank a Washington, DC building complete for:

When the Signalgate story broke, I wrote Trump survived Pussygate unscathed. Will he survive Signalgate unscathed?

The term Signalgate was used in only three articles that night. By the next morning it was everywhere. 

One has to be careful about labeling something a “gate” too early. You can run a “gate” up the flagpole and see if anybody salutes and hope that if it doesn’t turn into a damaging scandal people forget you predicted that it would. 

Wikipedia has a list of some 800 gate scandals (here) most of which never went anywhere.

Aside from Watergate, which brought Nixon down and sent people to jail, there are two other famous ones. Emailgate might have contributed to Hillary Clinton losing the election. Pussygate proved that not enough people cared that Turmp was a gross disgusting sexual assaulting misogynist to keep him out of the White House.

So far Trump is the only politician to have had two gates: Pussygate and Signalgate. He survived the first and is so far well along the way to surviving the second.

I predict that the gate that may yet hurt him is Tarriffgate. Trump may have put way too many of his eggs in one basket with his tariff war.

Read my previous Substacks here.

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