Content warning: this one’s heavy and may distress people who aren’t used to political strife.
Today I went out to join one of the nationwide protests for No Kings Day (link). It’s a protest focused on “No thrones, no crowns, no kings,” alluding to the belief that no government official, including the sitting U.S. President, is entitled to act like a king or royalty. There have been questionable uses of presidential power, but the current president has dialed it up to 11. It’s hard to understate his sum self; what with the greed, the focus on being famous, the widespread corruption, and general shitty behaviors. He actively chooses to be this destructive as a default mode of operation every single day. It would be fascinating if it weren’t so fucking harmful.
In case anyone’s wondering: no, he’s not the first awful president (in either party). He merely brought us from “assorted junk” to “batshit craycray.” Right now he’s getting really aggressive with his use of the National Guard. The worse it gets, the more it inclines portions of the US population to move out of the country. I personally struggle with this, because as a trans person I’m near the absolute bottom of the societal privilege ladder. We can’t even lock down womens’ rights.. and I’m supposed to feel okay here? There are folks who are systemically below me as well – I can hardly fathom the existential dread they go through on a regular basis.
I went to the event with my group. We brought signs, old and new. Our local protest location had several hundred attendees, spanning at least ~100 feet in every direction of a stop-sign intersection. All with their own signs, flags, and supplies like bottled water. Many of the drivers passing by showed support with honking or waving. A few culty Trump supporters showed up with middle fingers and giant over-compensating flags, but they were hardly a blip. I was informed by my aunt that the National Guard was going to be deployed in this state, but I only saw a couple local cop SUVs pass by. It was nice to not be dispersed for peaceful, lawful protest.
I felt good about going out. I used to protest and attend rallies regularly, but after a scary experience where cops rounded up a good hundred people including me overnight… I stopped doing it for awhile. And now the cops and corrupt leaders of this country are 10 times as bold as they were 10 years ago. What I wouldn’t give to live in a country with standard problems like aging infrastructure or something.
To round things out, a sitting US senator got shoved and forced to the ground by aggressive DHS agents the other day. They lied about the circumstances of it, so… that’s happening. Obligatory reminder that our systems of checks and balances are very much not working.
For a bit of humor, Spaceballs 2 is confirmed to be coming in 2027. Rick Moranis is returning. I know it’s not directly related, but it feels like if they don’t make the movie now, the world will explode before they can finish it. I was hoping that if they ever made a second movie they’d skip #2 and go straight to Spaceballs 3: The Search for Spaceballs 2, but I’m excited nonetheless.
That’s today’s blog. Things in the US are super shitty right now on a societal level. I’m trying not to let it totally unravel me. I was supposed to be getting on a better trajectory but I guess destabilization is somewhat unavoidable now. Here’s hoping my perseverance gene can carry me through all this and still come out of it without a whole new set of trauma. At the moment I’m channeling some music-related creativity and am excited to see where that takes me alongside my other recent pursuits.
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