Tens of thousands in US set to join ‘Good Trouble' protests honoring John Lewis
The 'Good Trouble Lives On' day of action coincides with the fifth anniversary of Lewis's death. Lewis was a longtime congressman from Georgia who participated in iconic civil rights actions, including the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 when police attacked Lewis and other protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Lewis implored people to participate in 'good trouble, necessary trouble' to advance their causes, and this call serves as the underpinning for the 17 July actions. Dozens of advocacy and civil rights organizations are signed on as partners for the event.
'The civil rights leaders of the past have shown us the power of collective action,' the protest's website says. 'That's why on July 17, five years since the passing of congressman John Lewis, communities across the country will take to the streets, courthouses, and community spaces to carry forward his fight for justice, voting rights, and dignity for all.'
Organizers expect tens of thousands of people to turn out in small towns, suburbs and cities, the latest exercise of street protests distributed across the country to show opposition to Trump in all corners of the US. The last mass day of protest, No Kings, in June drew several million people in one of the biggest single days of protest in US history. Thursday's events will probably be smaller as it is a weekday.
Chicago will host the day's flagship event, with additional main sites in Atlanta, St Louis, Annapolis and Oakland. Events include rallies, marches, candlelight vigils, food drives, direct action trainings, teach-ins and voter registration drives.
The protest's demands include an end to the Trump administration's crackdown on civil rights, including the right to protest and voting rights; targeting of Black and brown Americans, immigrants and trans people; and the slashing of social programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), known colloquially as 'food stamps'.
'One of the things that John Lewis would always say is that if you see something that's wrong, you have an obligation to speak up, to say something, to do something,' Daryl Jones, co-leader of the Transformative Justice Coalition, told reporters on Thursday. 'That's what July 17 is about – seeing things across this nation, seeing things that are being impacted, that are just not right. We've got to stand up and say something.'
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Nuclear submarines are to conventional ones as machine-guns are to muskets
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Before the Aukus plan was announced, it had been thought that the Aussies might buy conventionally-powered boats from France, and the Aukus plan has never lacked for opponents in the US, the UK, Australia – and France, of course. But there are a few things that enemies of Aukus might consider. The first is the absolutely enormous difference between conventionally-powered and nuclear-powered submarines. They are both called 'submarines' but that is hugely misleading. It's a bit like saying that a musket and a machine-gun are both firearms. The standard form of conventional sub has diesel-electric propulsion. It's essentially a somewhat modernised version of the German U-boats of World War Two (and One). Diesel engines need air to run, so when the boat is submerged it has to use electric motors fed by a bank of batteries. It cannot move fast like this except very briefly, nor can it go very far even at a crawl. 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It's true, there are various so-called 'air independent' enhancements which can be added to conventional boats. These involve using tanks of oxygen to run various different kinds of auxiliary propulsion while submerged. The mainstream method is hydrogen fuel cells, but some nations prefer Stirling-cycle engines as these can be run on the boat's ordinary diesel fuel while the oxygen lasts. France, uniquely, has developed the 'Module d'Energie Sous-Marine Autonome' (MESMA) system, which is an ethanol-powered steam turbine. It's considerably more powerful than the other air-independent options, but it apparently lacks endurance and makes a lot of noise. The only nation which actually uses MESMA is Pakistan: France doesn't, of course, as it has proper nuclear boats. All the air-independent options are always installed alongside conventional diesels, which gives a good handy hint as to just how useful they are. None of them come anywhere close to the capability of a nuclear boat, and they require recharging with oxygen and usually one or another kind of exotic fuel as well: they can't do this at sea, or even in most harbours or naval bases. A nuclear boat, by contrast, runs for many years without refuelling and makes its own air and water: all it needs is supplies of food for the crew every few months. If Australia and its friends are going to tip the Pacific balance of power in their favour, it's nuclear submarines that are needed, not any kind of conventional ones. That means Aukus. The second factor in favour of Aukus is basing. When it comes to facing down China a submarine based at Perth in Western Australia has a lot more effect than one based on the US West Coast, and enormously more than one based in the Atlantic. The first element of the Aukus plan – before even the transfer of Virginia s to Australia – is the basing of a British Astute and some USN boats at Perth. This is planned for this decade, and will appreciably change the parameters of wargames modelling a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Elbridge Colby, the man in charge of Trump's Aukus review, is a known China hawk. If he's serious about that he'll realise that the Perth base is a good thing on its own. Getting that base is well worth leasing a few Virginia s to the Aussies, especially as it brings a British Astute into the Pacific in the near future, and a new friendly fleet of UK-Australian boats further off. From the American point of view, Aukus is a rare case of some Western allies actually pulling their weight on defence – something President Trump and Secretary of Defence Hegseth are vocally in favour of. As Tom Sharpe of this parish has put it: ' The free world needs a fleet of nuclear submarines based in Australia '. Aukus must succeed.
