Thunderstorms are on the menu for the president’s Pyongyang Comes to Washington event on Saturday, when tanks and plenty of other military trappings will traverse part of DC to celebrate the big boy’s/army’s birthday. In questionable celebration of the Constitution the military is there to protect, Trump promised to crack down on anyone daring to protest his parade — and so everyone is gonna go hang out without him.
The No Kings protests planned for Saturday by a combination of groups including Indivisible, the ACLU, and 50501 are remarkably widespread — the map of events basically looks like a map of where people live in the US. There is one notable gap, though: there is no event planned for Washington DC itself, an intention omission designed, per the organizers, to “contrast” with Il Duce up there watching his big guns roll by in the rain.
DC residents have plenty of nearby options if they do want to join, though — there are No Kings events planned for Alexandria, Prince George’s County, Silver Spring, Chevy Chase, and other spots in tank range. Around the country, the flagship protests will take place in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Phoenix, and a few other major cities; but that’s far from the whole game. Berea, Kentucky — sure. Harrison, Arkansas — why not. Pinedale Wyoming, Norfolk Nebraska, Storm Lake Iowa, and so on — very few people in the US will be more than a couple hours’ drive, at very most, to people protesting on Saturday. Most will be much closer than that.
Other countries are joining in too. There are half a dozen events planned in Mexico, along with a few dozen in various countries in Europe (though, hilariously, the presence of an actual monarchy has spurred a name change in some places). The legacy press will surely feature those rolling symbols of Trump’s ham-fisted overreach prominently; hopefully they’ll spare some space for the stuff everyone else is getting up to.
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