June 14, 2025

Trump has already torn holes in the Constitution, today his tanks will rip holes in Constitution Avenue. By Hal M. Brown Trump's big beautiful birthday bash on, of all places Constitution Avenues, will be covered on all networks. It should be broadcast split screen with all the No Kings demonstrations.

It’s difficult not to feel a bit of cynicism when you realize that this particular president is holding his $40 million birthday parade on Constitution Avenue. (I recommend reading this on Substack where I often include updates.)

Trump said that he hadn’t heard about any planned protests, but “warned that 'any' protesters at military parade will be 'met with heavy force’.” (Reference)

Trump got what he wanted. Every TV station will be covering his big beautiful parade.

The question I have is whether they will broadcast it with a split screen showing the protests around the nation. They should, Whats more important, a parade of prodigious proportions or thousands of protests across the nation involving hundreds of thousands of people protesting what the parade represents.

Whoever came up with the theme of the protests couldn't have thought of anything better to call them. Two simple declarative words: No Kings. The suffix “in America” goes without saying.

There are too many ironies to point out regarding this parade to cover all of them. Suffice to say that the ostensible excuse, the raison d’être, for the parade is to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US Army which during the Revolutionary War fought to free us from the rule of a king. In World War II they fought to save much of the world from Nazi domination.

If tragedy strikes at one or more demonstrations as is feared by many (see illustration I used for this Substack) what will happen to the television coverage of Trump’s parade is that this will no longer be a split screen. The news will have to break away to cover whatever act, or acts, of violence occur. The more horrific it is the less of the parade will be covered. In fact, if Trump wants to put on a show in Los Angeles this will be in competition with the self-glorifying extravaganza he wants everyone to watch.

Ultimately Trump may get what he has always wanted even though few eyes would have been on his parade. Unless it could be absolutely proved that whatever violence occurred was due to a member of a far right group who posed as a protester he’d have ample justification to declare martial law.

Even if it could be proved that there were deliberate acts to justify Trump’s calling the 99% of peaceful protests an insurrection Trump, being Trump, could simply claim that was fake news.

On a personal note, Ann and I will be going to the protest in Clackamas. This is the easiest to get to from where we live in a Portland, Oregon suburb. The way people will congregate there won’t represent a threat to anyone since it is along both sides of a busy thoroughfare,

We have friends who are going to the protest in downtown Portland. This will be where a large crowd will be packed together. You can see a photo of the most recent protest here,

This is the protest we are going to.

We fear that groups like the Proud Boys which have an affinity for Portland may turn up there to cause trouble. In 2019 they clashed with members Antifa at a "The End of Domestic Terrorism" rally. This happened again in 2021.

Addendum: Trump must be enjoying watching coverage of the tanks preparing for his parade. If he’s watching MSNBC he might not like the image on the bottom.

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Last, but not least…

June 13, 2025

Here's a backstory about dear Kristi's DHS and her spokeswoman which you may have missed. By Hal M. Brown You may not know who Tricia McLaughlin is. Read this and you will.

I saw this on Rawstory, a website my readers know often gives me an idea for a Substack.

DHS official flips out over question on meme tied to white nationalist account

Excerpt:

The Department of Homeland Security was caught using a meme created by an antisemitic white nationalist activist to promote their mass deportation efforts, journalist Zaid Jilani reported for The American Saga — and when confronted over it, a senior DHS official was completely unapologetic.
This is emerging on the same day that Trump's DHS faces a firestorm of controversy for having Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) tackled and handcuffed when he tried to ask DHS Secretary Kristi Noem about the administration's military occupation of Los Angeles during a news conference.
"On Wednesday, the DHS Twitter account posted an image of an Uncle Sam figure alongside the text 'REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS,'" wrote Jilani.
"'Mrrobertwp' aka Mr. Robert is a white nationalist Twitter account," wrote Jilani. "He accuses Members of Congress of being 'Jew owned' and he’s a big fan of anti-black racial slurs, defending their use. He believes that Trump is the 'Great White Hope,' and one of his favorite slogans is 'Wake Up White Man,' which he posted repeatedly." Mr. Robert gloated about being able to get the cabinet department overseeing immigration and border security to post his meme, writing, “It's far reaching fellas. We really hit it out of the park with this one.”

This is the Substack which the RawStory article linked to:

Why is the Department of Homeland Security Cribbing from a White Nationalist?

Conservatives have long argued that their calls for immigration restriction are race-neutral. Someone in the administration is making this hard to believe.

I know many of my readers boycott X so they miss things posted there. For example the X poster, Robert Reichlin-Melnick , who identified the origin of that meme as coming from an account known as “mrrobertwp.”posted the following:

This tweet led to 89 replies (not a lot for X), but included these:

You can see that he brought out some of the haters as well:

Who, inquiring minds may want to know, is the lovely lady who said the following:

"These assertions are fundamentally unserious and reflect the completely juvenile state of mainstream journalism. These reporters should get off social media and start focusing on the very real victims of illegal alien crime. Every American citizen should support federal law enforcement in their just effort to deport criminal illegal alien invaders from our country. During the Biden Administration our borders were opened to an invasion by the very worst from around the world. Now President Trump and Secretary Noem are reversing the destruction of our nation and sending these thugs back."

She’s just another pretty face of the Trump dictatorship:

Here' she is on YouTube:

It is painful to listen to her but I suggest that you gird your loins and resist your gag reflex and click here.

Some may think this woman is physically attractive. I think she proves that beauty is only skin deep.

Update: I just saw this on BlueSky:

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June 12, 2025

Les Mis premier: A lot of noise signfiying Trump.

One thing is for certain. Donald Trump is no Jean Valjean. When asked whether he identified with Valjean, the exconvict who became a force for good in the world or police inspector, Inspector Javert, he couldn’t answer and instead told the reporter to ask Melania. (Perhap’s this could be a new quiz show: “Ask Melania.”)

This morning, shown below, are the featured articles on HUFFPOST with the opening page of their website on top:

The HUFFPOST headlines say it all about Dear Leader and Dear First Lady attending the Kennedy Center premier of the wildly popular musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s acclaimed novel Les Misérables. Throw in a story about J.D. Vance…

Here are the separate articles:

Trump Unironically Attends 'Les Misérables' As Protests Spread

Donald Trump Ducks ‘Les Misérables’ Character Question, Internet Brutally Answers It For Him

Trump's Cheers At 'Les Mis' Got Interrupted By A Whole Lotta Boos

'So Cringe': JD Vance's Theater Joke Falls 'Incredibly' Flat On Social Media

It is a side issue about Vance, but apparently the author of Hillbilly Elegy knows nothing about pop culture:

You can see in the photo (which HUFFPOST featured) that Melania is far better at hidng how she really feels under a pasted on smile than the supposed master performer and TV celebrity she married. You can click to enlarge the image below.

Here’s another photo, this is from Reuters:

It isn’t just the liberal HUFFPOST covering this story. Here’s the Google News search.

Clicking above will enlarge image. Click here for articles.

What does all the brouhaha signify? In a way it signifies a great deal about Trump. On the other hand, to quote Shakespeare, it is merely ‘a tale told be an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’…

What this one vignette in the tale of Trump tells us is that the country is being led by an idiot bent on becoming a dictator who is well on his way to destroying democracy using the vast military might at his beck and call to thwart any opposition.

He’s even going to have a parade on Saturday.

Today’s must watch is from Canada:

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