Sunday, June 15, 2025

Mad King Watch (Take VI): No More Kings (Right?)

 

"Let's see how long you Colonials last without our tea..."
King George III responds to his critics
("Schoolhouse Rock!", "No More Kings":
YouTube capture)

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Alas, Palantir had to make do without me yesterday. No facial recognition, no license plate captures, no surreptitious surveillance to worry about, as I simply couldn't get off the hamster long enough to go. Or at least work up the energy to round up the signs, stake out a parking spot, and all that sort of nonsense. I know it sounds lame, but these things happen in real life, especially with all the inefficiency routinely inflicted on the customer.

Let's put it this way. The other day, I had to walk twice inside the local Walgreens,  to snag a complete supply of medication for The Squawker. However, I couldn't just hit the drive-through, because -- guess what? "Due to a staffing shortage, the drive-thru is closed. However, the pharmacy is still open."  Altogether now, one, two, three:

”Yaaarrrggghhh!”


So that means schlepping across the tiled tundra to the rear, where the pharmacy is actually located. No simple matter, when you've got problems standing for long periods of time, like I do. I resolved the issue, but made my displeasure clear. 

The pharmacy techs voiced empathy, but told me the problem wasn't getting any better, any time soon. "They won't give everybody enough hours to fully staff this place," one long-haired guy told me, his face pasted into a heavy frown. "And I'm not sure when they will."

"Sure, there's a staffing shortage," I responded. "It's because you guys aren't f#cking hiring anybody! But still, they tell us, 'Nobody wants to work!'"

Nobody argued with me.

On my way out, I encountered a hulking guy built like a truck driver, who asked, "What's the excuse this time?"

"You know the drill," I sighed, working my fingers into air quotation marks. "'Staffing shortage.'"

"That's horseshit!" he barked.

"You're telling me!" I responded. "It isn't even stylish horseshit."

That was my Friday, going into Saturday, as part of a three-hour odyssey to grab something for lunch, shop for groceries (we're out of everything!), pick up a couple 'zines from the printer (gotta mail 'em out Monday!), and oh yeah, pick up those drugs (before our cash runs dry!). 

I also had an interview to do on Friday, too. So needless to say, I was totally spent. But guess what? I'm not sure it mattered, for more than the usual garden variety reasons, as we'll see momentarily.


Did he not read his reviews? 
King George III gets the royal heave-ho...
("No More Kings," YouTube capture)

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Personal constraints aside, No Kings Day didn't amount to a complete wipeout for me. Once Squawker and I had opted to stay home, I settled on a different idea -- making a performance clip of some '80s radical-Britpunk-song-or other. And then, just to drive the point home, I added a link for "No More Kings" (see links below), via the famed "Schoolhouse Rock!" series.

Who doesn't remember those clips, and still find them thrilling? The original series -- which ran from 1973 to 1985, and briefly revived, from 1993, through 1996* -- aimed to educate kids about the basics of American democracy ("I'm Just A Bill"), economics ("Dollars And Sense"), history ("Electricity, Electricity"), language ("A Noun Is A Person, Place Or Thing"; "Conjunction Junction"), numbers ("My Hero Zero," later covered by the Lemonheads!), and physical fitness ("The Body Machine"). You name it, they covered it, or so it seemed.

For my money, these snappy little ditties rank among the most entertaining and educational of their kind. Way more so, certainly, than the 20-odd-years of teaching to standardized tests that No Child Left Behind has imposed on us. I have yet to meet anyone from my generation who doesn't know them, in some way, shape, or form.

But I swear, I felt serious chills, once I dialed up "No More Kings," especially in light of current events. The lyrics deftly summarize the tipping points that led to the American Revolution, which seesaw from relatively benign ("Anything you say, King, it's okay, King/You know it's kinda scary on your own"), to seriously dour ("Don't you get to feelin' independent/'Cause I'm gonna force you to obey!"), and then, gloriously rebellious ("It's very clear you're being unfair, King/No matter what you say, we won't obey").

And that's when it hits me. This isn't some dusty little historical artifact, though it originally aired in 1975, to prime kids for America's 200th birthday party, the Bicentennial. The song could be describing today's situation, driven by a President who claims he's not a monarch, and has no regal ambitions, though his every move screams otherwise, loudly, clearly, and insistently.

No royal aspirations? This, from a man who spent his 79th birthday, indulging the  North Korean-style military parade that less sycophantic subordinates denied him, the first time around. This, from a man who cancels grants to nonprofits, states, and universities -- anyone who won't bow and scrape to him. This, from a man who strives to squash any expression of dissent, no matter how mild, because his fragile ego simply can't handle it.

Pushing back against these tendencies are what Saturday's events (No Kings Day) were all about. As one of my Facebook friends noted, focusing on the obvious -- "It won't change his base's minds"; "It won't convince him that he's wrong"; "It won't topple him from power" -- is the wrong way to go. 

Because no matter what comes of it, one of the biggest values of protest is the psychological aspect It reminds us that we're not alone, because others feel the same way that we do, and we're not crazy for thinking that way. And whenever that opportunity presents itself, we should make the most of it.

After all, you never know what might happen, right? How else to explain the weekend's other big story, in which the Trump regime announced that workplace raids of farms and hospitals are going on hold -- for now, at least. Why? Because they're constituencies he can't afford to lose. 

Businesses can't run without them. And when workers don't show up, because they're scared of getting deported, prices shoot up. And then, everybody loses out. We all know what happens at the ballot box, when people start paying through the nose for the basics, or teeter on the brink of losing everything. Just ask Jimmy Carter, or Herbert Hoover. No politico wants to join that particular club.

How long will that holding pattern last? Who knows? Obviously, with Trump, nothing is simple, nor certain. But every time that his imperial power grabs hit a speed bump, the center holds just a little bit longer. Every inch of breathing room that we snatch back gets us closer to the finish line -- when this madness is finally over, and start living up to our ideals, like those spelled out in all those cute little videos.  

And how does that effort start? On a weekend like this one, when people gather to remind America's wannabe autocrat that, no matter how hard he tries to get us to submit, no matter what sorts of threats he throws our way, no matter what kind of dire retaliation he promises to rain down on us, then it's time to say -- "To put it kindly, King, we don't agree," and take it from there: "They wanted no more Mother England/They knew the time had come to take command." Just like in the song. -- The Reckoner


Links To Go: Hurry, Hurry, Before George III
Returns (To Haunt Us From The Grave):

Politico.com: The Resistance 2.0 Arrives
With Nationwide "No Kings" Protests:

Schoolhouse Rock!: "No More Kings": Lyric Video:

The Guardian: ICE Reportedly Shifting Away
From Immigration Raids On Farms And Hotels:

YouTube: Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks! (1996 Tribute Album):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLr1fYOvQFfPf18clm6BN8fN-VrAz8vop8


(*Reckoner's Note: And revived once more, for a 2009 direct-to-video series, "Schoolhouse Rock: Earth," inspired by climate change themes, that never aired on TV at all -- which is why the series' duration is given as 1973-2009.)

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