See you in court!

The battle cry heard from Maine.

The Maine sailed into Havana harbor, and exploded three weeks later.

A song was rushed into print between the sinking of the USS Maine on February 16, 1898 and the declaration of war on April 25, 1898.

AWAKE UNITED STATES
Eagle soar on high, and sound the battle cry!

How proudly sailed the warship Maine,
a Nation's pride, without a stain!
A wreck she lies, her sailors slain.
By Trecherous butchers, paid by Spain!

Eagle soar on high,
And sound the battle cry
Wave the starry flag!
In mire it shall not drag!

Why does the breeze such sad thoughts bring,
Like murmuring seas the echoes sing?
Why do clouds thus backward roll.
Like wave on wave, on rock on shoal!

Awake! Thy Stars and Stripes unfurl,
And shot and shell and vengeance hurl!
Though clouds gather, they will go,
and sunlight follow after woe.

Awake! it is no dream;
Dost hear the sailors scream?
Comrades will you go?
Avenge the cruel blow!
.....
And crush their marble heart!

See You In Court! And now a new battle cry has come from Maine. Maine Governor Janet Trafton Mills and President Trump, the old red versus blue:

“I understand Maine, is Maine here, the governor of Maine?” Trump said addressing Republican and Democratic governors in the State Dining Room.

“Yeah, I’m here,” Mills said.

“Are you not going to comply with it?” Trump said.

“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” Mills said.

“Well, we are the federal law,” Trump said. “You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.” Trump added: “And by the way, your population, even though it’s somewhat liberal, although I did very well there, your population doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports. So … you better comply, because otherwise you’re not getting any, any federal funding.”

Mills responded: “See you in court.”

“Good, I’ll see you in court, I look forward to that,” Trump said. “That should be a real easy one, and enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”

In her 6th year as Maine’s Governor, Janet Trafton Mills is a lawyer and had served as Maine’s Attorney General for 8 years. She was a District Attorney for 15 years before that.

Current State of Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey seems to be as strong willed as is the Governor. He said that any attempt to cut federal funding for the states over the issue “would be illegal and in direct violation of federal court orders…. Fortunately,” he said in a statement, “the rule of law still applies in this country, and I will do everything in my power to defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the president to bully and threaten us.”

“[W]hat is at stake here [is] the rule of law in our country,” Mills said in a statement. “No President…can withhold Federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will. It is a violation of our Constitution and of our laws.”

“[D]o not be misled: this is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a President can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation. I believe he cannot.”

See You In Court!

That is a new battle cry from the great State of Maine: See you in court! We will use that on the streets.

So our job is to protest faster. Move out on it! Hayaku Nay! Ándale pronto! Burrow! Beeil Dich!

I know I said we should wait until Trump crossed my Rubicon. And I said the Rubicon is disobeying court orders. That appears to be happening. Our courts are stepping in with numerous temporary restraining orders (TROs). That is but one restraint. That is not enough. The streets call us. Our sound from the streets will reverberate throughout the courthouse halls and walls. We must give the courts our moral support from the streets to sustain them.

We cannot wait. Today, I learned that from noted authorities. I often research our advanced education centers (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, etc.) to get the thoughts of elite scholars. That has helped me immensely with insights on current events. Dr. Tim Synder at Yale today identified cracks in Trumps plans. That made me look deeper.

Bottom line upfront, the time to move on them is now. Noted authorities report that if we wait, we may not be able to recover the situation.

It was Dr. Tim Synder from Yale today that posted we are cracking their alliance on several fronts; however, it was Stanford-educated, scholar in the field of democracy studies Larry Diamond that said awake United States. He is a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. That is a main center for research on international issues. Larry Diamond said a lesson of history is that once an autocratic takeover begins, the forces of autocracy can grow stronger very quickly.

We know that from the speed with which Hitler moved, using the excuse of the Reichstag Fire that happened on February 27, 1933. Based on that event Hitler was able to take dictatorial control within days.

The scenario works like this. A protest event happens. The state declares martial law in writing. The soldiers of the state draw their swords. The state’s guns come out against an unarmed population. Dissent is quelled.

The Reichstag Fire Decree (German: Reichstagsbrandverordnung) is the common name of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State (German: Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutz von Volk und Staat) issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg on the advice of his new Chancellor Adolf Hitler on 28 February 1933 in immediate response to the Reichstag fire. Hitler had been Chancellor for exactly 4 weeks. The fire was the day before.

The decree nullified many of the key civil liberties of German citizens. With the Nazis in powerful positions in the German government, the decree was used as the legal basis for the imprisonment of anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazis, and to suppress publications not considered "friendly" to the Nazi cause. The decree is considered by historians as one of the key steps in the establishment of a one-party Nazi state in Germany. Hitler was able to arrest and imprison with impunity.

By March 3, 1933, alt-news publishers were forbidden to publish. The Other Germany, which advocated republican causes and pacifism issued this last notice, FORDIDDEN, 3 days after the decree.

To these ends, Trump is trying to set up control of the military, FBI, and ATF; however, he still needs THE EVENT. He needs violence of sorts to begin his predation. He may well stage an event.

Diamond believes going forward that if governance is not improved soon in democratic states, people will turn to authoritarian alternatives. This will then lead to predatory states. Witness the last election. Republicans voted for authoritarianism. We are at the crossroads right now.

Predatory states produce predatory societies: people do not gain wealth and a better quality of life through ways beneficial to the entire country, but get rich by taking advantage of power and privilege, by stealing from the state, and diminishing the power of the law. In order to ensure predatory states do not occur, institutions must be put in place to establish control and order.

According to Larry Diamond, we must reverse course now:

“The earlier the intervention, the earlier the mobilization, the earlier the forthright exercise of countervailing power, the better the prospect of saving democracy.”

It is that statement which rattles me and makes me believe that the time is right now.

Therefore I declare my previous position of waiting (on Trump’s civil court disobedience) to be wrong. We need to act now in unison.

We are growing a list of protest events. It is not nearly enough. It looks blasé. You can tell I am a novice. We must demand town halls and hold the Republican representatives to accountability for their spinelessness. We need to do that now.

This last week there were multiple instances of Republicans facing town halls in their districts. Those were packed to capacity with angry constituents who have lost their jobs or lost their healthcare. They are demanding answers. We need to be more demonstrably angry now. These representatives need to be told their jobs are on the line—from their voters not from Musk’s threats. They need to fear and answer to their constituents only.

Adam Kinzinger urged critics to ratchet up pressure in public settings because critical town hall audiences, he argued, offer the most “uncomfortable” moments of a politician’s job.

“Right now, Republican members of Congress fear one person: Donald Trump. They don’t fear you,” Kinzinger said. “When they start fearing you, that’s when they start having a different calculus.”

We cannot let Trump’s lawlessness stand or it will settle into permanence. There are other steps we can take.

Trump and Musk are taking steps to remove the barriers and the good leadership of the military and law enforcement agencies. So we need to move in all haste to resist and shut down the economy. Congress must be held to account. We need only a few in Congress to stop the wheels from turning in Trump’s direction.

We need a screeching halt. We need 4 Republican senators and 2 Republican House members to flip. Special elections are in play where we can flip the House. That is what we need to do. Work on those most at risk and the most probable to stand up to Executive Branch thuggery.

If we take the House, we have the Legislative and the Judiciary Branches in our camp. Town halls are key to this.

The town halls may make Republican representatives balk on the planned cut of $880 billion from Medicaid over 10 years. They will try this week to give tax relief to billionaires. They will cut healthcare for the poor, for children, and nursing home residents. Half of all rural hospitals will close, Jess Piper. Oppose Medicaid cuts!

Yes, Trump will cut Medicaid (healthcare for the working poor) to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and millionaires. That fact cannot be said loudly or often enough.

Yes, Trump will cut USAID (food, water, electricity for the world’s most needy) to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and millionaires. That fact cannot be said loudly or often enough.

Trump is now demanding $500 billion worth of Ukraine’s minerals - which was far beyond America's total contribution to the Ukraine war effort of $180 billion. As far as I am concerned Ukraine owes us nothing. We still owe Ukraine for stripping Russia of its war-making ability, for depleting Russia’s stores of tanks and APVs, for consuming all of Russia’s draftable citizenry. Russia can no longer mount a ground war in Europe. That threat is over. We owe Ukraine for that peace at home.

The Trump Administration yesterday opposed the UN resolution that condemned Russia for invading Ukraine. Why, I must ask would the U.S. side with North Korea in that vote? We are embarrassed on the World stage.

Momentum is on our side, but we need all hands on the streets. The courts need to know we are strongly supporting them. Spineless Republican legislators need a sign we will vote them out.

The Kent State students in 1970 sent the tear gas right back. That was the high water mark of nonviolent student protest, but the National Guard’s guns opened fire. The Ohio National Guard’s 28 troops fired 67 rounds at college protestors over 13 seconds.

It will be as dire as it must be to meet the occasion. Another Substack author of “Quiet Part Loud”, Juan April aka “Ragecognito”, had this to say in his post Rules of Engagement:

“I realize that my tone might seem simplistic, but my goal is to help you adjust your mindset so you can navigate these complex times. Throughout my experiences in combat, politics, and life, I’ve learned two fundamental principles:

• Control what you can while preparing for what you can’t.

• Meet aggression with equal or greater aggression.”

Comes a time. I go with Jackson Browne Til I Go Down (1986) Lives in the Balance. Please listen to his protest song from 40 years ago.

During the ‘80s, Jackson Browne’s political conscience played a bigger role in his songwriting. Distressed by the economic shifts he saw occurring around him and the jingoism that left true patriots behind, Browne wrote his own anthems.

We take to the streets. That is my thought. Do we burn all Teslas. Do we ransack all Musk and Trump properties? Depends on the manifest for the occasion, doesn’t it? Definitely, I see taking to the streets.

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Please become a paid subscriber if you are able, and share the posts if you will. I am always thrilled and delighted to see any new subscriber, whether paying in or not. Getting the word out far and wide is the point here. Bless you all for being here.

The next fork in the road, no one knows what will unfold. Grab a flashlight, we are in the dark now.

Know where we are. Know what fork in the road is coming. We have serious work to do to regurgitate ourselves and overcome the coup attempt. Share this please.