The “No Kings” movement is based as much on personal hatred of the man Donald Trump as it is against his immigration policies, unlike the migration protests Consortium News covered in Scotland last year. CN was also in L.A. on Saturday filming the “No Kings” rally too. Joe Lauria reports.
By Joe Lauria
in Los Angeles
Special to Consortium News
In contrast to what I saw at a pro versus anti-immigrant face-off in Glasgow, Scotland last September that I covered for Consortium News, on Saturday I spotted a lone protestor with a Palestinian flag in Los Angeles at a pro-migrant rally and one demonstrator who carried a poster that read: “Fuck I.C.E., Free Palestine.”
In Glasgow, a majority of the thousand or so protestors who opposed the anti-immigrant crowd wore keffiyehs and held placards denouncing Israel’s genocide.
That could very well be because there is a much larger Arab immigrant population in northern England and southern Scotland than in southern California. That could also explain the huge number of Mexican flags in Los Angeles instead.
In Los Angeles. (Joe Lauria)
But there was something else going on in L.A. that I did not see in Glasgow. And that was a personalized hatred for a political leader. The hatred in Glasgow was directed at the other camp in the war over immigration, and not at any politician. But in Los Angeles, Trump was the main target. There was no counter demonstration.
One speaker at the L.A. rally even called Trump a “Russian asset.” Besides the fact that Russiagate has been thoroughly debunked, what has that got to do with his immigration policy?
I saw at least two Donald Trumps hanged in effigy. Roars went up in the crowd when a man hanging out of an upper story of his apartment building in downtown Los Angeles held aloft an dummy of Trump hanging from his feet. He spun a noisemaker around to get the crowd’s attention.
Hanging Trump in L.A. (Joe Lauria)
No doubt Trump has made longstanding problems worse, like sending in the U.S. Marines and commandeering the California National Guard despite Posse Comitatus to arrest protestors. (It has been the LAPD that has attacked the protestors.)
[See: Trump Threatens to Grab Protestors By the Posse]
He is also scapegoating immigrants by calling them rapists and murders who have “invaded” the United States, and he’s advocating for the crime against humanity of ethnically cleansing Gaza.
But Joe Biden began the U.S. complicity with Israel’s genocide and previous presidents have not always been kind to undocumented immigrants nor found a solution.
The kind of thinking which says that if we just got rid of Trump everything would be great is naive and politically illiterate. Much broader systemic change is clearly needed rather than the removal of just one leader, as bad as Trump is.
This is, of course, supposing Trump doesn’t get us all killed by sending the U.S. directly into the war against Iran, though Biden made a pretty good go at getting us all killed by firing U.S. long-range missiles into Russia using a third country.
Lest anyone think I’m giving Trump a pass or am some kind of closet MAGA supporter, please check out my recent interview with a Turkish webcaster. After watching our video report from Los Angeles above, check out our coverage of Glasgow here:
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange. He can be reached at joelauria@consortiumnews.com and followed on X @unjoe.
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I was at a one of the protests in the LA area. Though I was pleased to see the large turnout of people in the streets. It seemed to really be a giant “I hate Trump” party. There were a few signs about immigrants, ICE, and corruption, but a lot more about the man himself, and *lot of democrat talking points.* I saw only one reference to Gaza, a man in a T-shirt that read, “Jews say stop arming Israel.” What I did not feel from this crowd in my area was real anger at what is going on and the open cruelty. When I compare the party vibe of this to the anger seen in videos of Vietnam era protests, I do not see a real rebellion. When people foam at the mouth about Trump, I like to ask, “If Trump had a stroke and died today, what would change.” There’s never really an answer, because for many their only motivation is their disgust for him. Sometimes they begin with, “then the Democrats….”, at which point I glaze over like if talking to a flat-earther.
It was good to see so many people turning out, and it might be a start. But only when this scale protest is happening on weekdays has the resistance become real. Power knows weekend protests are meaningless if everyone goes back to work the next day.
When the first speaker said, multiple times, “What would you have done during the Holocaust?” I kept waiting in eager anticipation for her to follow up by discussing the modern-day holocaust happening right before our eyes in Gaza with the assistance of the United States. It never happened.
More and more similarities with Nazi Germany’s Gestapo times.
A Veteran for Peace comrade sent out a report about the No Kings protest in the San Francisco/Bay Area. I asked him if there was any anti-war sentiment expressed. His response: “It was opposition to anything Trump does and that would include getting us into more of the endless wars.”
That’s lame. Everything but steering us away from nuclear war is a distraction. Even the radical Bay Area has more animosity towards the man than his war agenda that puts our existence at risk. Where have all the anti-war protesters gone?
“Much broader systemic change is clearly needed rather than the removal of just one leader, as bad as Trump is.”
How painfully obvious.
Riva,
The No Kings protest is lame for the reason you said: not only ignoring the possibility of nuclear war, but also ignoring our war machine.
And then there are the economics which politics here can’t address because that would be “communist”. Really the No Kings protest was a joke to me, but it made a lot of people feel better. Americans seem like sheltered children to me.
Don’t know why you think that…people appear to be finally getting their big fat butts and the Palestinian genocide is seemingly on everyone’s minds around here.
It seems almost by design, I would say an empire design. Keeping the focus on Trump rather than on what the US is doing. Keep everyone chasing their tails. All for naught as the neocon led US empire barrels on to everyone’s destruction.
Wether in the form of ‘great man history’ or in personalizing political ire, liberals will focus on the individual. For instance, take this very website hosting Jeff Sachs’ latest, giving us some personal history about Netanyahu. Is he being “politically illiterate”? Yes, in this sense. There is another situation to which Mr. Lauria’s analysis applies, where the removal of that leader or his regime would only distract from the necessity of changing and healing a rotten and sick system and society.
The anti-Trump stuff is just tribalism. Dems don’t even have a problem with genocide so long as their team is committing it. As others here have suggested, the No Kings thing seems like a flex of Democrat grassroots muscles, show how furious our media can get em, turn em out for the midterms. God forbid they stay home from work or anything, might upset the bosses.
I attended one of those rallies, briefly. Anecdata here, but I think relevant. One speaker catalogued the ways he’d been victimized by the for-profit medical system, but only to defend Medicaid. Not a hint of a question as to the legitimacy of being forced to pay for medical care, or to pay an insurance company for it. The Ds are conservatives, at heart, not just in that they are center-right in orientation on the issues , but in that they want to arrest change and keep the status quo intact.
You damned right it’s personal. But it has been with me since 911 and the Patriot Act. I take it a real personal and now I’m friggin livid!
I have mentioned more than once that what we need now are ball caps that say, “Lets Make America Respectable Again”and this though goes deeper than dear leader. From 41, Slick Willy to 43 our government has made one colossal after another constantly becoming increasingly authoritarian.
Then the democrats enjoy the benefit of having a very popular president in Obama and they cannot get out of their own way and find a way to benefit by gaining influence of the public
My 43 year old son passed April 24, 2024. He never should have gotten so sick living in this country while great insurance. The fact is no one should have to wait month and a half for an MRI. I’m plenty pissed off and here is why.
He had not felt well since he had Covid in late winter of 2023, from then until late Marchhe gained serious weight some 20 or thirty pounds while trying to loose instead. He had been going to the Dr. feeling tired and generally unwell. Then he blew out his left knee and was going to the Dr. for that. He got put on a waiting lest, to get an MRI the Doc had to. have to get insurance approval for knee surgery. No meds for pain, still waiting after another Doctor’s visit on the evening of April 20th he developed a seriously high, spiking temp, up and down and an increased heart beat. Went to the emergency room at 8:30 pm and was sent home with the diagnosis. of having the flu. At 10:30 he went back because now he was having trouble breathing. At 10:30 his wife called and said she was taking him back the ER.
Before I could get ready to go meet with her she called again and said they has transferred him to a near by larger facility with a specialist.
By the time I got there he was on life support. Now it was less than 12 hours after his initial hospital visit on the 20th and he was in big trouble and very seriously ill. High steady temp of 103 -104 while being cooled down, His heart rate almost double of normal and low blood pressure.
The autopsy revealed he had a small tumor on his. thyroid.
My belief is that he never really recovered from Covid, likely because of his malfunctioning thyroid, the doc never checked it. In addition he had waited long enough for treatment on his knee he developed complications including sepsis. He lost his left above the knee and passed a day later, April 24.
So yes I have a big beef with our witless congress and both goddamned political parties.
And now we have this total insult to everyone but the MAGATS whose intelligence seems very limited who does not know shit from Shinola! And.the rest of what was once a government that at least functioned to one which now cannot. Supporting a genocide, WTF!
Y’all have a nice evening, ya hear?
Robert E. Williamson, Jr., when words fail, music speaks,“If, I do too young; for something i ain’t done, carry my name, everyday.” Kevin Mobry, “Beautiful Strangers.”
As well, Poetry is music to our ears, “IF I MUST DIE” by REFAAT ALAREER
…… “If I must die, you must live, to tell my story. To sell my things. To buy a piece of cloth and some strings, (make it white with a long tail) so that a child, somewhere in Gaza, while looking heaven in the eye, awaiting his dad who left in a blaze— and bid no one farewell. Not even to his flesh. Not even to himself— Sees the Kite. My kite. You made, flying up above and thinks for a moment an angel is there, bringing back love. If I must die, let it bring hope. Let it be a tale.”
OMG, Robert E. Williamson Jr., it so unf/fair. I am sooo sorry. It gets worse, you’re not alone. In the past three years, 5 families, i know, lost their 40+ yr old SON/a friend, a husband, a father, of young children. Making a living to make his family’s living worthwhile; and, his life’s over. Everybody, knows, “the world makes a promise to no one;” but, young men dying, reminds everyone, “losing love is like a window in your heart. Everybody sees you’re blown apart. Everybody sees the wind blow.” Paul Simon, “Graceland.”
Concluding, “there is no more noble cause than,” to tell his/her story, i.e., “If I die too young, let all that I’ve done be remembered. And, I’ll sleep easy like baby Jesus, in his manger; And, I’ll sleep easy like little Jesus, safe from danger. Carry onward, like some songbird, beautiful stranger.” Kevin Mobry
Joe, you’re right. Wishful thinking from nice progressives and remaining D party loyalists desperate to believe Trump gone will mean good government and world peace will bloom again. So despite all the evidence, not hard to convince them Russia must be all bad and Ukraine all good if Trump is connected to Russia somehow.
It’s difficult enough to get them to see the party is neolib; focussed on making country and world safe for corporate econopathy. Far too many refuse to acknowledge Cheney trained neocons ran Biden’s Dept. of State. Who among the current oh-so-wonderful D “leadership” isn’t neolib and/or neocon? Who among the wishful thinkers will protest that?
The neolib Dem blue is saturated with the bilious green of corporate money. And even worse, with blood red because neocons’ lust for unipolar empire requires endless war. Anything blooming in that blue soil will still be rooted in deadly toxins. Removing a few orange weeds changes little but surface appearances.
Getting rid of Trump might not solve our politics, but it would help to have this scofflaw off the streets. We could go on to the next
problem ( like Citizens United, the MIC, feckless Democrats, Gaza, etc) But Trump is a start, and a start is necessary.
The No Kings “movement” is a sheepdog operation designed to herd the “folks” back into the clutches of the Democrat Party. Beware.
Organized by Walmart. I swear liberals can be sheep herded into any protest that doesn’t require them to do anything substantial to change our trajectory towards oblivion. Once again, the sign showed up that if the Democrat was president, they’d all be at brunch. They can’t seem to comprehend that is the whole problem.
It could also be used to rally people around a much needed, IMO, movement to impeach Trump – which is a start – failure to do so is an indictment of both “major” Parties …