About 500 people gathered Saturday afternoon at the Big Bike in downtown Perry in order to show their opposition to the autocratic policies of President Donald Trump as part of the second nationwide No Kings protest.
The rally was 1,000% larger than the June 14 rally that began the series of weekly protests. Among the ongoing illegal and un-American actions of Trump, the protestors noted his:
- Deployment of the U.S. military in order to terrorize the populations of Democrat-run cities and states in an frontal assault on “the enemy within” — in other words, people who disagree with him.
- Weaponizing of the criminal justice system to punish his critics, such as James Comey, Letitia James, Adam Schiff, John Bolton, and they are just the thin end of the hate wedge.
- Calling the Democratic party a “domestic extremist organization” even before the murder of Charlie Kirk.
- Sending masked goons to disappear U.S. citizens as well as visa holders.
- Using the government shutdown to go after “Democrat agencies,” meaning those pockets of the independent civil service that might act as a restraint on his autocratic actions.
- Cutting funding to institutions, from the universities to public broadcasting, in an effort to bully them into silence.
Trump’s compliant Republican Congress has called Saturday’s gatherings “hate America rallies” by “Hamas-loving terrorists.” U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said the protesters are “antifa types” and “Marxists in full display.”
On Friday Trump commuted the prison term of former New York Republican Congressman George Santos, who was less than three months into a seven year sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. As one protester said, Trump’s style of junk justice sorts well with the junk science he has has recently been spouting about vaccines and Tylenol.
“MAGA is a mental illness,” she said.
