danger of authoritarian policies

[John Raymaker]

Hello everyone. May I draw your attention to two developments in the exercise of presidential power by Trump and his followers, to which I will comment?

 1. A Wikipedia comment on the No Kings protests of June 2025, also known internationally as the No Dictators or No Tyrants protest, a series of political demonstrations, primarily in the United States, against what organizers describe as the authoritarian policies of President Donald Trump and corruption within his administration. 

 2. The insightful commentary in today's New York Times, which argues that the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roberts allowed Trump to abuse its authority to the detriment of a well-functioning democracy... Trump allowed subordinates like Vougt to act arbitrarily, in a quasi-dictatorial manner. Lonergan was very much aware of these dangers in his comments to the community. He implicitly warned us about potential abuses of power in his numerous comments on the necessary conversions to exercise responsible political and administrative power. John