The weekend began with the federal indictment of former President Donald Trump, unleashing a wave of calls by his supporters for violence and an uprising to defend him. Once again, Trump dominated every aspect of American life, including a retreat to Loyd Park. The camping crowd includes a disproportionate number of Trump supporters, who have become conditioned over several years by him and his allies to see any efforts to hold him accountable for his actions as assaults against him. They parade throughout the park on golf carts festooned with flags and banners declaring their loyalty to Trump and their hatred of the current president, whose legitimate election they refuse to acknowledge.

At the Georgia Republican state convention, Kari Lake, an ardent Trump defender who refused to concede the Arizona election for governor in 2022, said she had a message for Attorney General Merrick Garland, Special Council Jack Smith, and President Biden: “If you want to get to President Trump, you are going to have go through me, and you are going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me,” she said. “And most of us are card-carrying members of the N.R.A.” Then, as the crowd cheered, she added, “that’s not a threat, that’s a public service announcement.”

As Fiona Hill would say, “and here we are.”

Unlike most Republicans, Jon actually read the charging document. As a former foreperson of the federal grand jury in the Northern District of Texas, he signed his name to hundreds of indictments, and so he knows a solid accusation when he sees one. The indictment made clear to him, through detailed evidence, that the government tried repeatedly for more than a year and a half to get the former president to return highly confidential documents and that Trump caused boxes of documents to be moved throughout his Mar-a-Lago estate to avoid detection, culminating in a search of his property and, eventually, criminal charges.

And here we are. Trump is scheduled to appear in a Miami federal court on Tuesday, giving time to amplify extremist rhetoric across right-wing social media. We fear we’re entering into a very dark, dangerous period.

As a distraction, and in a nod to Pride Month, on Saturday we watched what we consider to be one of the best “gay” movies ever made—”The Birdcage.” We love every element of this 1996 remake of the 1978 original—the exquisite cast, the crisp direction, the compelling screenplay, the lush cinematography, the colorful costumes—everything works so well together. And although it was made nearly 30 years ago, it feels timeless. And, importantly, viewing it managed to take our minds off Trump, if only for a couple hours.

We ended the evening with a long walk under starlit skies, where we encountered a couple of young copperhead snakes slithering across the road—a reminder that we were actually camping out.