The 82nd ABN DIVN ASSN, South Jersey Chapter, is named for my Father, the "CPL Edward A. Slavin Chapter." My Dad would have been disgusted at DJT's attack on our First Amendment. Dad taught me, as JFK's father taught him, that "you have to stand up to people with power, or else they walk all over you." Come join the No Kings! rally Saturday, June 14, 2025 at 9:30 AM at our Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (the Fort). From The Washington Post:
Trump at Fort Bragg vows to use force against ‘anarchy’
The day after dispatching Marines to Los Angeles and few days before a huge military parade in DC, President Trump vows to use force against protests.
“This anarchy will not stand,” Trump said, referring to the Los Angeles protests.
“We will not allow federal agents to be attacked, and we will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy,” he said. “Very simply, we will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again. It’s happening very quickly.”
Earlier Tuesday, Trump made a similar threat regarding any efforts to protest at Saturday’s scheduled military parade along the Mall.
“If there’s any protesters that want to come out, they’re will be met with very big force,” he said. “For those people that want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force. And I haven’t even heard about a protest. But, you know, this is, people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force.”
People who try to burn the American flag should go to jail for one year, Trump added. The Supreme Court in 1989 upheld the rights of protesters to burn the flag, saying such protests were protected by the First Amendment.
“Generations of army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores, only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and Third World lawlessness here at home, like is happening in California,” Trump said. “What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace and public order, and our national sovereignty, carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country. We’re not going to let that happen.”
Trump also said his administration would restore the names of Confederate commanders to several military installations, including Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee.
“We won a lot of battles out of those forts, it's no time to change,” Trump said. “And I'm superstitious, you know? I like to keep it going.”
Trump said he could not wait until Saturday to announce the news.
Some in Trump’s audience booed as he mentioned the Biden administration’s 2023 decision to rename Fort Bragg as Fort Liberty, part of an effort to disassociate it from the Confederate general after whom it had been named. The Pentagon restored the previous name this year, but said it now referred to Roland Bragg, a U.S. Army paratrooper in World War II, rather than the previous honoree, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg.
The scene here was in some ways a preview of this weekend, when Trump is scheduled to host the kind of military parade he has long desired, with troops and tanks parading down Constitution Avenue and helicopters and paratroopers overhead.
On a warm day alternating between spitting rain and bright sun, there were musical performances, WWE stars, and a celebration of past and present members of the military. Families had picnics, and food trucks were set up in what had the feel of a festival of patriotism and the military.
Screens broadcast a live feed of Trump getting off Marine One, with traffic control broadcast over the brass band playing. C-17s and C-130s flew overhead and military drills were shown on the screens. As the president watched, troops crawled in a marsh holding their guns, 600 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division parachuted from the sky, and howitzers and HIMARS fired ammunition that thundered for miles.
Trump arrived to a crowd of several thousand — with Marine One doing a loop around it as “Macho Man” blared from the speakers — and spoke before a crowd of soldiers in camouflage and red berets, with a smattering of others not in uniform in Trump shirts and Make America Great Again hats.
He praised the soldiers, paratroopers and pilots for an “awesome display of pure, unrivaled American military might” that he said was almost scary for its power.
“What a show it was, and what a show it continues to be,” Trump said. “Saturday is going to be a big day in Washington, D.C. You know a lot of people say we don’t want to do that. I say, ‘Yeah, we do.’”
Trump was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, who have been involved in helping plan the celebrations this week that will lead to Saturday evening’s parade.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to celebrate our Army’s anniversary,” Driscoll said ahead of Trump’s arrival, saying he hoped troops here would also come to Washington.
Before leaving, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he was eager for Saturday, a day that also falls on his 79th birthday.
“It’s going to be an amazing day. We have tanks, we have planes, we have all sorts of things,” he said. “We’re going to [celebrate] our country for a change.”
Protests are being planned around the country during the weekend as part of an event called “No Kings Day,” which activists are holding in opposition to Trump’s attempts to test his executive power and, protesters say, defy the courts.
The backdrop of the events here, however, is Trump’s decision to deploy about 700 Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has adamantly opposed the decision, which White House officials say was intended to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during their operations, amid clashes between protesters and law enforcement in the city.
Trump said on Tuesday that he would invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 if necessary.
“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it,” Trump said. “We’ll see. But I can tell you … last night was terrible. The night before that was terrible.”
He also rebuffed suggestions that his moves were escalatory.
“You would have had a horrible situation had I not sent them,” he said. “You’d be reporting on a lot of death and a lot of destruction. That’s not going to take place. I think if you look every night, it got less and less. They were met with very strong force, the bad people, the bad sick people that do what they do.”
1 comment:
Trump is causing anarchy so he would be anarchist number one. He thinks we forgot about January the 6th... which of course he doesn't consider anarchy. Doesn't consider it crime or terrorism with because he got away with it.
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