How I Spent My Saturday
And the Army gave TACO a Massive Foxtrot Delta Tango at His Puny and Flaccid Birthday Parade
Supreme Leader TACO's pathetic birthday celebration and military parade faced slate-colored storm clouds and a soft-rebelling Army. Chicago’s sunny day on the other hand greeted my fellow No Kings protesters and me. Here's my narrative
I placed my phone on airplane mode the closer my el reached the Loop powering it off before arriving at the Washington and Wells stop.
The rally began at noon. Nonetheless, I arrived at Daley Plaza at 10:45 in the morning. John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” booming from the speakers behind Da Picasso serenaded me as I walked down Washington.
Chicago police bike patrols bordered the parade route. None of.the officers wore masks. A protester ahead of me told them as she passed, “Thank you for being out here.” An officer responded, “Thank you for that.”
Not knowing what to expect, I packed a 1000-milliliter water bottle of distilled water into my backpack along with my wallet, driver’s license, Britta water bottle and snacks. Im addition to my glasses, I wore a fresh KN97 mask.
I had wanted to bring my camera, but since I was carrying my double-sided protest sign, setting it aside to take pictures would be difficult once the march was underway. Plus my backpack’s internal weight put pressure on my unsteady balance and gait due to multiple sclerosis.
Strapping my camera across my chest would add more weight. Without a protest buddy to help me, I was certain the camera would be damaged or broken if I lost my balance and crashed onto the pavement.
The crowd was heavy when I arrived before 11 a.m. and slow ballooned before the rally’s speakers took over the music, which included Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name,” “John Lennon’s “Power to the People” and Beyonce’s “Freedom.”
While waiting for the rally to start, I studied my fellow protesters. Many were white and Latine, but I did see some men and women from the Black community despite many Black women declaring after November 5 they were done. It was now the white community’s responsibility to fix this. They planned to only focus on self-care and self-protection. Instead they would use their rest as a form of resistance.
Several protesters around me held upside-down American flags, Mexican flags and Palestinian flags. One protester rested an El Salvador flag over his shoulder. Another had painted the Irish flag on her sign that declared beneath it, “Granddaughter of an Immigrant.”
Some people asked me to hold up either side of my sign that stated THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS and A DRAFT DODGER SERVES AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, so they could snap cell-phone pictures. The closer the clock approached noon, the crowd continued to grow.
A little after 12 p.m., an Indivisible organizer took the stage. After introducing herself, she mentionef former Minnesota state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark ‘s assassinations and the grave shootings of Minnesota state Senator John Hoffman and his wife. She then asked everyone for a moment of silence.
Following the moment of silence, the organizer continued speaking. Speeches from representatives and organizers from the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU); the Rainbow PUSH Coalition; immigrant, Mexican and Palestinian organizations; U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and U.S. Representative Jesus “Chuy” García (D-IL) followed her.
Once the speakers concluded, we headed to either Washington or Dearborn depending on where we stood in Daley Plaza. Music again accompanied us. Some songs included Public Enemy’s '“Fight the Power,” Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” and Nitzer Ebb’s “Join in the Chant.” A fellow protester extended her arm to me to hold when she saw I was having trouble stepping off the sidewalk onto the street.
Two protestors stood on the awning hovering above Washington Street along with a newspaper photographer. One held Puerto Rico’s flag and another held a sign supporting and empowering Black and brown American citizens and immigrants.
It seemed like I stood on Washington for an hour. I most likely did since I arrived home two hours later than my husband expected. We finally began moving, and I found myself behind members of CTU who wore their red union t-shirts. To my left I spotted a wheelchair user with her protest buddy in the green bike lane. Because spasticity started overtaking my thigh muscles, I moved to the bike lane to walk behind them.
The further I marched on Dearborn, I located a woman holding a box filled with bottled water. Even though I had my own water bottle, I found it easier to grab a water on the go to drink instead of fumbling with my backpack. I pulled down my mask and started drinking the water. My thirst outweighed the risk of pulling down my mask that would put me at risk for monitoring and identification.
When I reached Wacker Drive, I saw a woman holding out a plastic bag filled with mini-Chicago flags and mini-upside-down American flags. I stopped to grab one of each then continued marching toward Chicago’s TACO International Hotel and Tower.
The closer I reached TACO’s building that mutilates Chicago’s beautiful skyline, the more my thighs shook and my head grew lightheaded. The organizers told protesters to remain on the street and not march on the sidewalk, but I held my hand out to grab a light pole in front of TACOs building to the left of me im order to safely lower myself on the sidewalk to sit. A fellow protester saw me and grabbed my hand.
“Are you all right?” she asked as she helped me lower myself.
“Just need to sit down and drink some water. My legs aren’t doing too well.”
“Do you need an ambulance?”
“Thank you, but no,” I said. “I have multiple sclerosis. Just need rest and water.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
I finished the water handed to me and started on my Britta water bottle that I had last sipped from at Daley Plaza. For about 10 minutes, I sat on the sidewalk that already had protesters standing on it and sitting on the concrete barrier outside TACO’s building.
When I felt strong enough to stand, protesters before and behind me shouted “Shame” to the building’s residents outside on their balconies. I joined in.
The protest was to continue down Michigan Avenue I believe, but based on my legs and exhaustion, I turned back toward the Randolph and Wells el stop several blocks away that had an elevator. It is one of the few ADA-accessible el platforms more than 30 years after the ADA passed.
Walking toward the el, I made sure the Chicago police clearly saw my sign that shouted “A DRAFT DODGER SERVES AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF.” One of them on the corner of Wacker Drive and Wells shouted back to me, “Like your sign!”
I didn’t feel like a major quitter when I saw some other protesters heading to the same el platform. Some of them helped as well when I went into my backpack to retrive my Ventra card from my wallet.
Don’t believe the propaganda coming from the TACO Nazi Reich and the state corporate media. The No Kings protest was organized and protesters helped each other, especially the disabled.
Saturday’s No Kings protest cannot be it. This is a marathon. Not a sprint.
Still organize. Remain engaged. Always resist. It’s game time.
One of the Chicago organizers announced before we marched that the next No Kings protest will be organized next month. A Colorado organizer concurred the next protest is being organized for July. The requirement is that this one be larger than 13.14 million.
A General Strike is also being organized. You can sign a strike card committing to the strike here.
Thousands of miles east from the City of Broad Shoulders, a union city where the Haymarket Riots took place in the late 19th century, TACO had a measly birthday party that was meant to celebrate the conclusion of his eighth decade. That “party” made Bill Lumberg's from Office Space look enthusiastic and provided true competition for my MS autoimmune fatigue.
John Marcus of The Independent reports that while the TACO regime claimed a quarter of a million people attended the parade, he underscored that “[e]mpty bleachers and gaps in the audience could be seen in the crowd . . . .” His article linked to a concurring AP article by Lolita C. Baldor and Michelle L. Price.
Non-profit and independent sources pointed out the military parade was a soft U.S. Army resistance. Soldiers marched out of step. Notable when Bill Murray and his Army platoon from Stripes managed to march in step.
Decommissioned tanks squeaked. One parading soldier held an immobile drone over his head. Meidas Touch Network co-founder Ben Meiselas reported that his military sources informed him Saturday’s military parade was “a subtle form of protest within the military against the Trump regime for using them as props . . . .” Mary Trump on her Mary Trump Media YouTube channel pointed out the same. Brydie Monaghan’s article for The Independent’s Indy100 acknowledged the “viral theory” of the Army’s lackluster presentation being a soft protest.
Independent Canadian journalist Barry Gander provided screen shots of social media posts from past military members for more evidence for this viral theory. I also reached out to my father who served in the air wing of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve; starting the year following his high school graduation: 1962 until 1968.
He was in San Diego with his platoon preparing to head to Vietnam until President Lyndon Baines Johnson decided not to grant General William Westmoreland’s request to send U.S. military reserves and the National Guard. He told my mother yesterday, who passed on his message to me via text, that the Army’s parade “. . . was a big FU.”
This gives me hope. A July 2019 Aeon article written by Human Rights Watch’s Jean-Baptise Gollopin, PhD, a historical sociology scholar, asserted, “When enforcers shirk duty or rebel, the regime collapses.” With the Army’s shoddy show Saturday and the low morale in the California National Guard and Marine Reserves, tyranny seems like it will not hold.
Remember that defeating a fascist autocracy requires sacrifice, a voice, action and persistence. We can’t retreat to binge watching on YouTube or hiding in cafes. When Frida Kahlo saw people retreating into bread and circuses in Vichy France, her rage toward those doing it exploded on the page.
Remember we can still have fun and joy terminating fascism with our art and voices.
Below I leave you with the following examples. This fine brass band that drove out the Proud Boys at the Atlanta No Kings protest with “Bella Ciao” — the anti-fascist song of the resistance against Mussolini's fascist Italy.
Enjoy!
What a great piece Laura.