No Kings Day Paris

Last Saturday, at Place Bastille, a location symbolic for the overthrow of despotism during the French revolution, a couple thousand folks gathered to protest the Trump administration. The crowd was primarily American ex-pats living in France, but there were a decent amount of Parisiens there as well. Yes, some 6000 miles from my former home in California, on a different continent, the disgust for this incompetent, racist and misogynistic regime was palpable.

It was June 14th and Mr. Trump had decided to use the men and women of the armed forces to throw himself a vanity birthday party. A garish affair so distasteful to most Americans that there were protests in over 2,000 cities. The protests proved far more impressive than the parade itself, which in true Trump fashion, underdelivered. In his narcissistic mind, little Donny wanted an impressive theatrical presentation that would rival the Bastille Day celebrations he witnessed in Paris in 2018. However Trump and his entire administration lack 2 things that would make that possible. First off, the administration does not value expertise in any field. Secondly, the entire administration is lazy as fuck. With no expertise and no work ethic; the parade was a half-assed, c level, embarrassment.

Sitting like Jabba the Hut, next to a wife who visibly detests him, and surrounded by a bunch of weak, nut-swinging sycophants, the president fell asleep during his own fireworks show. For the rest of us, we had an amazing day meeting people, raising our voices and exercising our freedoms in a country where those freedoms are still held sacred. The ex-pats in Paris spoke with the same refrain: “I am so happy I am not still in the U.S., but I am frightened for my friends and family that remain there”.

FUCK ICE, TRUMP, VANCE, RUBIO and the rest. Their aspirations, as French history would prove, will not meet a pleasant conclusion.