McKibben urges attendance to show support for LA immigration protest
By Guy Page
The national advocacy organization that protested Vice-President J.D. Vance’s Vermont ski vacation in February is staging 30 “No Kings” protests in Vermont this Saturday, June 14 – coinciding with the Army Day parade in Washington D.C..
The 30 ‘No Kings’ demonstrations in low-population Vermont are the most per-capita in the nation, according to anti-Trump Substack blogger and protest chronicler K. Starling.
Urging support for the Saturday event are influential legislators (for example, Hartford Democrat Rep. Esme Cole), advocacy organizations such as VPIRG and the ACLU-VT, and Vermont climate activist Bill McKibben. A social media post shared by VPIRG announces a workshop ahead of the rallies featuring Cole and representatives of the advocacy groups.
“President Trump and his odious henchman Stephen Miller are trying to bait the people of Los Angeles into some kind of violent reaction, so they can swing public opinion back to their side on the issue of immigration,” McKibben, a Ripton resident, said in a June 8 Substack post. “It’s sick, it’s calculated, and I’m not sure what do do about it except—and this could not be more important—remind you all to make sure everyone you know is signed up for No Kings Day next Saturday.”
Starling predicts the nationwide event coordinated by Indivisible “promises to be the largest protest in decades.”
“On April 5, there were 1300 protest sites with an estimated 3,500,000 to 4,500,000 participants,” Starling reported June 5 on Substack. “On June 14, there are 1800+ sites with new locations being added daily. If the attendance averages meet or exceed April 5, there will likely be 4,900,000 to 6,282,000 in the streets that day.”
Indivisible has drawn more than $7 million in funding from the Open Society Foundation, a philanthropic organization funded by leftist billionaire George Soros. It also claims broad support from large numbers of small donors, but does not provide financial details on its website.
The ‘No Kings’ protests coincide with a Washington D.C. parade, requested by President Donald Trump, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army.
The U.S. Army website states that “On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress passed the following resolution: Resolved,That six companies of expert riflemen [sic], be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia; … [and] that each company, as soon as completed [sic], shall march and join the army near Boston, to be there employed as light infantry, under the command of the chief Officer in that army. With this resolution, the Continental Congress adopted the New England Army of Observation, making it a “continental” army — a united colonial fighting force — that could represent all 13 colonies with the addition of the troops from the three middle colonies. The Continental Army thus became America’s first national institution.”
June 14 is Flag Day, commemorating the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.
And – a fact noted by ‘No Kings’ organizers – it is President Trump’s birthday. Because some monarchies celebrate their monarch’s birthday as an official holiday, Trump critics say the president planned the taxpayer-funded parade as a birthday party for himself – a claim both he and the U.S. Army deny.
Indivisible was founded by former Congressional staffers Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin in 2017. According to Wikipedia, “Leah Francis Greenberg is an American political activist and co-founder of the progressive non-profit organization Indivisible. She is co-author of We Are Indivisible: A Blueprint for Democracy After Trump, published in 2019. Greenberg, along with Indivisible co-founder, Ezra Levin, was named by Time in 2019 as one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world. She and Levin were selected by Politico in 2017 and GQ in 2018 for their annual lists of most powerful and influential people in Washington DC. She is currently the co-Executive Director of Indivisible.”
The organization claims to be funded by a large group of small, like-minded donors. However, it does not list donor financials on its website. Also, the Open Society Foundation operated by lefting philanthropist George Soros reports it has donated over $7 million between 2017 and 2023.
The Vermont rallies appear to be planned as peaceful street demonstrations with a flag theme. For example, Brattleboro will host the Let Freedom Fly! march and rally in celebration of Flag Day and in solidarity with nationwide calls for justice and unity. The event will begin outside Centre Congregational Church and proceeds through downtown with music from The Peoples Resistance Marching Band and Becky Graber’s Street Choir. The march will end at the Town Common for a community rally featuring local organizations, food vendors, speakers, and entertainment.
According to a spreadsheet on Starling’s Substack page, the 30 protests include one each in 27 Vermont towns and cities, and three in Burlington.
