After some slight rioting in L.A., there’s been much empty talk of protests getting out of hand. A Florida sheriff threatened ‘rioters’ with death, and my own state’s dopey Democrat Governor Bob Ferguson pre-scolded protesters not to riot, tsk tsk. President Trump doesn’t bother with any distinction between protests and riots, saying “If there’s any protester that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force.”
At any rally, there are reminders from the organizers that this is “peaceful protest,” and at the dozen 2025 rallies I’ve been to, peaceful protest is all I’ve seen — which amazes me, in the face of endless outrages, illegalities, and unConstitutional acts by the Trump regime, and the routine presence of police wearing riot gear egging on the crowd.
to peaceful protest
The protesters must always be on their best behavior, but no human decency is pretended or expected from the authorities, or the cops. America’s rulers almost orgasm at dishing out cruelty, while the media makes it headline news if a protester lights a dumpster fire.
Peaceniks and milquetoast politicians say “violence is not the answer,” and it’s not — but it’s certainly part of the answer. Peaceful protest accomplishes diddlysquat without the implied or explicit threat of being not-so-peaceful. Martin Luther King urged non-violence, but it only sounded good to white leaders when they saw race riots, Black Panthers, and Malcolm X. In the labor movement of the early 1900s, the threat and reality of factories burning brought management to the bargaining table. Stonewall is not remembered for pithy protest signs.
Some of the hand-wringing this week has been about what we, the polite & peaceful protesters, should do when a protester isn’t so polite and peaceful. Should we give such folks a stern talking-to? Should we turn our backs and shun them?
There’s been some stupid suggestion that when someone tosses a brick and breaks a window, peaceful protesters should promptly sit on the ground as a physical statement of non-violence. That’s literally saying we should sit down for the people we’re standing up to. But that’s been tried, and sitting down got the protesters maced.
Personally, I’m incapable of direct action beyond singing “We Shall Overcome,” but other people, if you push and push and push at ’em, eventually they’ll push back. It’s not hard to understand, and I’m not going to call 9-1-1 or waste any of my breath telling someone not to turn a picnic table upside-down.
Let me say more plainly, so it’s not misunderstood: I am damned near incapable of violence except in self-defense — and hell, I might be too cowardly even for that. I’m a utter wimp and cursed with good manners. If someone throws a brick through a window, I’m the guy who’ll grab a broom and tidy the mess.
But I know who my enemies are, and someone who’s been pushed and pushed and finally throws a brick is not my enemy.
Here’s my enemy…
9-months pregnant American woman is hospitalized after being ‘detained’ by ICE
AND NOW THE NEWS
plus my brilliant opinions
#527
JUNE 14, 2025
a twice-weekly news & meme round-up,
usually on Tuesdays and Saturdays
ONLY THE RICH HAVE RIGHTS
Trumpcard.gov goes live — $5-million fast track to US citizenship
EPA drops case against prison company that has donated heavily to Trump
Trump reports more than $600 million in income from crypto, golf, licensing fees
Harvey Weinstein convicted of top charge in sex crimes retrial
When’s his third trial? If you’re rich, you can always buy another.
Trump will target US employers in next phase of immigration crackdown, Homan says
Excerpt: The Trump administration is planning to ramp up civil and criminal prosecutions of companies that employ workers without legal status, White House border czar Tom Homan said in an interview Wednesday.
Me again: Yeah, and monkeys might fly outta my butt. The employer class is 95% Republican and will never face meaningful civil and criminal prosecutions for employing undocumented immigrants.
Of course, goes without saying that if the employers were penalized, all of America’s undocumented immigrants would be gone in days, triggering massive inflation and an economic crash of 1929 proportions.
TO HELL WITH HEALTH AND SCIENCE
RFK Jr. selects gang of wingnuts as new members of CDC’s vaccine advisory panel
Climate.gov likely to be shut down after almost all staff fired
I’m surprised that climate.gov lasted through several months of Trump. So much science to be obliterated, please be patient, we’re ruining things as quickly as we can!
GIVE US YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE, SO WE CAN IMPRISON THEM
Worker arrested by ICE, later released, says agents beat him in cemetery
Excerpt: “Do you think you’re a big shot just because you have a green card? I’ll make sure they revoke that green card of yours,” Reyes said, recalling what agents told him. “‘I’m going to do everything I can to get this paper revoked’.”
ICE Barbie went on bungled raid storming pregnant mom’s home
No, it’s not the same pregnant woman from a few inches up on this page.
ICE agent fled from angry residents outside New York school — and got in a car crash
GOOD NEWS
A design firm’s response to seeing its public furniture on the news
Spokane Police make more than 30 arrests during two major immigration protests
The good news isn’t the protests or the arrests, it’s that there they’re protesting in Spokane. That’s a right-wing city in Washington, about fifteen miles from the border to Idaho, commonly/jokingly considered “the largest city in Idaho.”
Trump’s border czar says protests are making immigration raids more ‘difficult’ and ‘dangerous’
AND I SAY TO MYSELF, WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD
Israeli officials tell Axios ‘We had a clear US green light’ from Trump to attack Iran
American security contractor unloads on US-Israeli ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’
Excerpt: This idea that the Israeli military isn’t involved is bullshit. They’re very much involved. They have offices in our compounds. We share our radio communications with them. The higher-ups claim the Israeli military is not involved, but it feels like they’re the man behind the curtain. Sure, they’re not on-site with us, but their snipers and tanks are just hundreds of meters away. You can hear them shooting all day.
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF DYSTOPIA
National Parks are told to delete content that ‘disparages Americans’
Trump administration gives personal data of immigrant Medicaid enrollees to deportation officials
‘No fat soldiers’: Fort Bragg troops were carefully screened for Trump’ϟ stunt visit
AND ALSO
Mississippi continues holding Marcus Taylor in prison under illegal sentence
Fulbright Board resigns after accusing Trump aides of political interference
I barely know what the Fulbright Board does, but quitting is a dumbass doublecross — Trump will appoint their replacements.
ABC says Terry Moran, suspended for social media posts, will not return
To the best of my knowledge, Terry Moran never reported any news that wasn’t also being reported on every other channel. For one moment in his career, though — off camera, relaxing at home — he posted on social media that President Trump and Stephen Miller are “world-class haters.” Speaking that tiny smidgen of obvious truth got him fired.
Sick burn from California Gov Newsom…
But it’ll take more than a few clever quips to make me forget that Newsom hangs out with the likes of Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk, and spews right-wing anti-trans talking points.
Amazon Prime Video subscribers sit through up to 6 minutes of ads per hour
HORRID, HORRID PEOPLE
Senators grill Trump’s FAA nominee over past effort to alter pilot certification rule
To run the FAA, Trump could nominate someone who doesn’t believe in heavier-than-air flight and thinks the Wright Brothers pulled a hoax, and the nominee would get “grilled” in the hearings but be confirmed by the Senate.
EYE ON AI
AI outage strands millions of artificially intelligent people
Wikipedia pauses AI-generated summaries after editor backlash
Et tu, Wikipedia?
Google’s AI hallucinates that Airbus, not Boeing, involved in fatal Air India crash
ChatGPT “absolutely wrecked” at chess by Atari 2600 from 1977
FDA to use AI in drug approvals to ‘radically increase efficiency’
Some AI believers think ChatGPT might be able to channel communications with a higher plane
American police are out of control — 6/12/2025
Ignoring the climate emergency — 6/9/2025
The Lord works in mysterious ways — 6/13/2025
And that’s the way it is,
and nothing will
meaningfully improve
until billionaires fear for their lives
6/14/2025
Logo illustration by Jeff Meyer. Tip ‘o the hat to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, Bleepity-Bleep, Lorem Ipsum Dolor, Mitchipedia, Sloth Unleashed, Toad’s Lily Pad, Voenix Rising, and anywhere else I’ve stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.
Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Joey Jo Jo emeritus, Jeff Meyer, John the Basket, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn’t always shitty.
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