Daniel Berrigan would make Trump’s head explode

📺 @realDonaldTrump is no longer hiding that he’s a brazen authoritarian, so desiring of control and power that he’s willing to turn our once peaceful cities into war zones.#AmericaOrTrump pic.twitter.com/8Kn5Zi14Qx

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 3, 2020

First, we have this:

They keep boosting their numbers. The episcopal diocese of Washington is holding a vigil here at 16th and I with around a hundred people. They’re sure bringing in a lot of extra boots to watch over an event led by clergy. pic.twitter.com/w0sHRmUgmp

— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) June 3, 2020

So what's THAT all about?

And then you have this:

“Most religious leaders loved it,” Trump told Fox host Brian Kilmeade. “I heard Franklin Graham this morning thought it was great. I heard many other people think it was great, and it’s only the other side that didn’t like it, the opposing — the opposition party, as the expression goes.”

“They burned down the church the day before,” he added. “I heard how nice and wonderful the protesters were over there. Really? Then why did they burned down the church the day before?”

First:  who does Franklin Graham represent?  What congregation, much less what church?  "Religious leader"?  Well, he's religious, I guess, I'll give you that.  But leader?  Of what?  "Samaritan's Purse"?

The rest of that sounds like he almost went into "Big guys, strong guys, with tears rolling down their cheeks, streaming, came up to me and said "Mr. President, I've never seen anything I approved of more!"

The "opposition party"?  Christianity, you mean?  Yeah, I'll take that label.

But finally, the church was barely damaged by a fire in the basement.  The windows and doors are boarded because it's closed for the pandemic ("Church on-line" is the tell, in the sign over his shoulder in most of the pictures).  If it "burned to the ground," what was he standing in front of waving that Bible like a...well, I still don't know what that was like.  It was sui generis, and as such completely without meaning.

Opposition party?  I'm still good with that, if by "opposition" you mean people handing out water and snacks when the teargas started, or people holding a prayer vigil surrounded by your goons.  Or maybe this is the opposition you speak of:  your former Secretary of Defense.

IN UNION THERE IS STRENGTH

I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.

When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.
From the June 2020 issue: We are living in a failed state

We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.

James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that “America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.

Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.

We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.

Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.

Now THAT is opposition.  'Bout damned time, too.

The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.

Damned skippy.

“Make people in power uncomfortable.” -@BarackObama

— Uzo Aduba (@UzoAduba) June 3, 2020

Yeah, I like that, too.