But I have concerns about today, because Republicans have been talking about No Kings a lot. I've been going to demonstrations since the late 1970s, when Jimmy Carter reinstated draft registration, and in all that time the administrations we were protesting never acknowledged the existence of the protests -- certainly not to the extent we've seen Republicans talk about No Kings in the past week or two.
I don't think they're doing this because they're afraid. They're doing this because, rightly or wrongly, they see today's rallies as something they can leverage in their war against democracy and pluralism.
If you want to know what the Republican Party is thinking at any given time, go to the Fox News website. Right now, here's what you'll see:
I bet you can guess (((who the billionaire is))).
The story tells us:
New York City organizers embedded in the global intifada to destroy the state of Israel moved Friday to join the controversial "No Kings" protests planned for today, despite the peace deal reached between Israel and Hamas.This is a scaremongering appeal to American Jews and Christian Zionists, but it also harks back to the post-9/11 era. Palestinian = swarthy Muslim = evil terrorist. This is "the global intifada" aimed at killing you in your bed in Bugtussle, Arkansas, Mr. Fox Viewer.
"UAW Labor for Palestine" and "NYC Labor for Palestine" quietly posted a call-to-action for the "Palestine Labor Solidarity Contingent" to meet Saturday at 11 a.m. at Duarte Square at the corner of Grand Street and Canal Street in midtown Manhattan and then flow into the #NoKings protests planned to protest President Donald Trump.
They’re not alone. Around the country, anti-Israel blocs are slotting themselves into the "No Kings" protests as a "Palestine Contingent" and "Socialist Contingent," positioning their messages "front and center," as Seattle activists put it, "from Providence to Palestine."
The alignment underscores a strategic pivot in the global intifada’s next phase, experts say, carrying the anti-Israel message into any high-energy civic protest, even after Hamas agreed to a ceasefire by linking "Free Palestine" to domestic fights like ICE, police and "fascism."
Yet the big villain here is the right's favorite Jewish Antichrist.
Billionaire donor George Soros is reportedly funding many of the organizations leading the "No Kings" protests, like Indivisible, whose co-founders, Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin, received a $3 million two-year grant last year from Soros’s Open Society Foundations for "social welfare activities." Details about the "Palestine Contingent" weaving into the "No Kings" protests raises new questions about the way big Democratic donors like Soros are funneling nonprofit dollars into a professional protest industry that is fractious, divisive and partisan, potentially in violation of tax and nonprofit laws.This, as you know, is a major part of the White House plan for establishing a permanent one-party state: a legal assault on liberal-leaning groups that neutralizes them prior to the 2026 midterms, and wipes them out by 2028.
... According to a public database of the protest’s organizers, compiled by the Pearl Project, a journalism initiative, the protest’s "partners" include 265 mostly nonprofit organizations, including some anti-Israel groups, like Jewish Voice for Peace, exploiting their nonprofit benefits to wage a political war against the sitting president.
In the near future, we're going to hear a lot about tax-exempt organizations that are seen as fronts for "the Democrat Party," so let's remember that many tax-exempt organizations lean pro-GOP. The Heritage Foundation is tax-exempt. So is the Federalist Society. So is Turning Point USA. Even extremist right-wing organizations such as Identity Evropa and the Oath Keepers Educational Foundation have received tax-exempt status. If their main purpose is "education" and they avoid direct involvement in electoral politics, they can be granted this status.
This is a well-established principle:
Big Mama Rag, a radical feminist nonprofit magazine, lost its tax exemption in the late 1970s. The IRS revoked its charitable status upon seeing that the magazine refused to publish views contrary to its own. When the magazine fought back, an appeals court determined that the criteria the IRS and a district court had used to deny exemption were unconstitutional because they were based on the organization’s constitutionally protected views.But the Trump regime intends to attack the tax-exempt status of these groups, and to shame them publicly along the way.
This case set an important precedent: The government considers charities advancing unpopular views to be educational enough to keep their tax-exempt status.
The IRS now evaluates educational methods, not content.
Will it work? I don't know. I know that Republicans are hoping there'll be violence or smashed windows at today's demonstrations, which they can blame on Soros, thus bolstering their case against groups he helps finance. Will there be right-wing efforts to provoke violence today? It's possible. It's also possible that the White House doesn't feel the need to devote resources to that sort of thing, which could backfire.
Or Fox might simply assume that one of its usual montages -- the most inflammatory signs, the most pink-haired and pierced protesters, plus a few signs from organizations like the Revolutionary Communist Party -- will be enough to scare Grandma and Grampa in Bugtussle ... and Grampa in the White House.
I think the overwhelming majority of demonstrations today will fit Ed Burmila's description:
But She Guevara's more paranoid vision might be accurate in one or two places. Be a little bit wary, but be righteous and peaceful out there today. And loud.
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