Thoughts on 100 days of chaos

 4/22/25

Robert Reich wrote today: “We’re on the cusp of a national wave of outrage that transcends the old political labels. …What is occurring these days transcends left or right. It is now a matter of democracy or tyranny. More and more of those on the so-called right are condemning the Trump regime with almost as much vehemence as you and I condemn it.”

He gives many examples of conservative journalists and columnists who are finally transcending party affiliation and coming to understand what’s at stake. Here are two:

The National Review’s Andrew McCarthy writes, “’Constitutional crisis’ is a phrase often invoked and rarely accurate. But now, we actually have one: the evisceration of due process, the justice for all without which we can’t have the liberty in the republic to which we pledge allegiance. But as ever, it is erupting within our own clown show.”

The American Enterprise Institute’s Matthew Continetti declares, “There is no policy. No plan. No logic. There is only Donald Trump.”

Remember how uneventful most news days were under the Biden administration? For the comparison with now, all you need to do is read the headlines. Open yesterday’s New York Times, and here is the front page:  “Trump Promised Big Beautiful Deals. Delivering Has Been Tougher.” (This is actually the top story for today, 4/22.)  “Hegseth Said to Have Shared Attack Details in Second Signal Chat”  “Trump Administrations Draft Order Calls for Drastic Overhaul of State Department”  “Inside the Urgent Fight Over the Trump Administration’s New Deportation Effort”  “Inside the ‘Tropical Gulag’ in El Salvador Where U.S. Detainees Are Being Held”  “On New Website, Trump Declares Lab Leak as ‘True Origins’ of Covid”…And so forth. What do they tell us about the Administration’s chaos, lies, and cruelty? 

Today the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” Bill Owens, resigned from CBS News, where he has worked for nearly four decades. In a statement, he called out encroachments on his journalistic independence, both from Trump’s verbal attacks and lawsuit against CBS, and from the official at Paramount which owns CBS. Owens’ departure heralds yet another blow to the free press, since “60 Minutes” has consistently served as a rare instance of real investigative journalism in network news programming.

In recent weeks “60 Minutes” has given us some frank and excellent stories:    -- an interview with Ukraine’s president Zelensky after Trump and Vance’s abusive White House “conversation” with him;   --the potential impact of bird flu in the US, and the absence of any coordination, research, or vaccine development on a potential pandemic that would be worse than Covid-19;   -- interviews with Greenlanders about Trump’s intention to take over Greenland;   -- American doctors working in the remaining hospitals in Gaza, their lack of supplies, and who their patients are;   -- and who are the men Trump sent to the maximum-security prison in El Salvador?

What a loss to our access to information under fascism.

Finally, let us address the “inconvenience” of protests in Poulsbo. A number of people on the North Kitsap Community Facebook page have charged that the marches over the last several weeks disrupt traffic, that they scare away customers from shops and are negatively affecting business. Why, they even prevented kids this past Saturday from enjoying the Easter Bunny, who was circulating around Front Street!   

First of all, there are photos that clearly document all kinds of kids hanging with the Easter Bunny, not prevented by protesters in any way. We also saw the Easter Bunny kind of dancing with the marchers as they chanted and walked along Front Street.   

Second, you may have noticed that on Saturday the protest had two dozen volunteer marshals & peacekeepers keeping traffic and people flowing at crosswalks and intersections. There appeared to be no more blocking than on any busy Saturday or Sunday full of tourists—and perhaps less because of the efficiency of those people in the bright vests.   

We visited the Waterfront Park parking lot on a weekday before the rally, and there was not a parking spot to be had--so we can only conclude that the rallies don’t make the parking any worse than it is on weekdays. The point is that downtown Poulsbo simply doesn’t have enough parking, and on weekends you just have to park elsewhere. Furthermore, we always advise protesters to carpool and park a distance away, so the lack of available parking shouldn’t be blamed on them. 

Ruined business? The protest marched on Front Street for 45 minutes on 4/19; the sidewalks were clear by 1:00—and by the way, the extra thousand-plus people the rally brought to Front Street no doubt added to business, not hindered it.

Finally, and most importantly, think about the perceived inconvenience caused by these rallies. (BTW, some of the complaints came from people who weren’t even on Front Street that day!) What is the inconvenience caused by TrumpMusk’s disruptions to Social Security? What will be the inconvenience to these shopkeepers when their merchandise starts costing them twice as much because of Trump’s disastrous tariffs? While Kitsap residents’ foreign-born gardeners, carpenters, restaurant workers, grocery workers, and caregivers live in fear of being abducted from the street by hooded men and sent to a gulag in a foreign country with no due process, how convenient is it to witness our nation’s descent into fascism?

How convenient is it that there is no longer a National Weather Service, or a federal watchdog for consumer scams, or a competent and securely-run military, or people to protect our forests and operate our national parks, or a federal agency overseeing public health and research on disease prevention? The scale of the current Administration’s inconvenience is overwhelming, and what these protests are doing is calling that out, on behalf of everyone who’s not a billionaire.

So don’t talk to us about inconvenience!  It is time to recognize where the inconvenience is and to embrace discomfort. No one should be feeling comfortable in these times. Help educate those around you. Encourage them to take a stand for democracy.