These four words say it all. This is the description of the Trump regime used last night on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show by Congressman Hakim Jeffries. I think that this should be the Democratic Party’s mantra over the remaining years of Trump’s reign. I think it should be adopted by independent anti-Trumpers. I think it should be used throughout the next campaign. The Democrats have a hard time coming up with catchy slogans, and a hard time using them over and over the way Trump does. This simple description is a keeper.

Tomorrow is the big hoo-haw on the Mall, followed by the big parade, followed by the big concert. It is costing the U.S. taxpayers at least $50 million and that assumes that the streets of Washington don’t get torn up. I have heard remarkably little about the parade and related ceremonies, considering that it is all taking place within a few miles of our house. I don’t know anyone planning to go, and I haven’t heard anything about masses of tourists coming to town to see the parade. I haven’t heard about hotels filling up, or restaurant reservations being hard to find, or statistics about economic benefits to the city’s commercial economy.

There are going to be several thousand “No Kings” protests everywhere in the country, as you undoubtedly know. But none in Washington, as the organizers decided that they shouldn’t risk a confrontation here. But nevertheless, there are demonstrations and protests planned; I know of at least three: one on Connecticut Avenue, one on Wisconsin Ave, and one at Fort Reno Park. There may be others. We have no definite plans to attend any of them (they take place at staggered times), but may change our minds. After all, the three that I mentioned are all within a mile or so of our house. So I went this morning to Strosniders Hardware and spent $7.98 to by two “made in the U.S.A.” American flags to wave if we decide to attend.

Tomorrow, of course, is the 250th anniversary of the formation of the Continental Army by the Continental Congress. It is also Flag Day, celebrating the adoption of the first American flag (13 stripes and 13 stars) by the same Continental Congress in 1777. And, sadly, tomorrow is also the day known as the American Nakba, otherwise known as the birthday of Donald Trump. So taking an American flag to a protest is appropriate.

But so much more is going on. One of the surprises was the FBI attack on Senator Padilla at the Kristi Noem news conference. I have to say that I think that Padilla made a mistake not so much at going to what was apparently an open press conference in a building where he has an office, but at trying to speak out and ask a question when questions do not appear to have been in order. That mistake, however, does not excuse the FBI accosting Padilla, dragging him out of the room, pushing him to the floor and cuffing him. That was outrageous. Full stop.

And then there was the hearing of the House Government Oversight Committee where Democratic governors Hochul (NY), Walz (MN) and Pritzker (IL) were bullied and raked over the coals by outrageously disrespectful and rude Republican members. As so often the case, this hearing was clearly not to obtain any information from the witnesses, but rather to make ridiculous political statements presumably to appeal to their own voters at the expense of the witnesses. In most instances, when a question was asked, a witness was not permitted to answer it. Their answers would be cut off at approximately the third word. One way to do this was to say that the only acceptable answers would be “yes” or “no”, and then asking a question like “What color is the sky?”, and any answer that was not “yes” or “no” would be clipped with either “Reclaiming my time”, or “So you refuse to answer the question”. The video of this hearing is undoubtedly on the C-Span website, and I suggest you watch it just to see how far down we have fallen in the operation of the highest levels of our government. You will see, for example, Nancy Mace asking Tim Walz “What is a woman?” and his responding “How do you want me to answer that?” and she said “I want you to say that I am a woman and no man can ever be a woman”. (Only a slight paraphrase)

And then there is a question of who should control the National Guard, now being bandied about by the courts; I suspect that this will become more of an issue after tomorrow’s demonstrations.

And, ah yes, there is the question of Israel’s attack on Iran. It’s interesting that we are living in a time when warfare is changing so drastically. We have witnessed the remarkable attacks through cell phones that Israel has made against Hezbollah, the drones secreted into Russia by Ukraine that destroyed much of Russia’s bomber force, and now a major attack by Israel on Iran which focused not only on nuclear sites, but military response sites, and the leadership of both Iran’s military forces and scientific programs. Each of these attacks used technology that did not exist only a few years ago, and involved moles or “assets” deep within the victim states. And of course all this goes on while the horrors of Gaza continue.

So every day, there is more, and more, and more.

Go out and protest this weekend. And remember the slogan: Chaos, Cruelty and Corruption.