[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]
There will be coast-to-coast protest rallies today; the theme is No Kings.
If you are participating, please be safe while exercising your First Amendment right to non-violent protest. wear sunblock, comfortable shoes and clothing, know your rights and help others know theirs, be careful with your electronic devices. Respect others’ needs for safety and security.
But by all means, do protest against a proto-monarchical authoritarian state which doesn’t align with the intents of the nation’s founders — a nation founded and based on laws, not a man.
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I’m not able to attend a rally today, but I’m already watching media coverage. It began better than I expected:
This was the top of my Google News feed, which is better coverage already than the last two No Kings rallies. In my home state Michigan, USA Today affiliate the Detroit Free Press reported there were 100 rallies planned across the state, even offering a map.
Expanding the coverage in Google News, though, I see a new trend. Particular outlets are insisting No Kings doesn’t have an effective point (MS Now), is bad group therapy (WSJ), may not be effective (WaPo), may not build an effective political movement (NYT).
Oh, we get it — the corporate-owned media doesn’t want the simple theme, No Kings, to break through to any more of the public. Their overlords are just fine with a demented orange pseudo-monarch; they’ve become comfortable with their kneepads.
But this country was build on that simple theme, No Kings. Those same media outlets began and thrived under the premise that their speech was a right a king couldn’t threaten.
It’s right fucking there in their ability to print their toxic trash undermining the point of this and the previous No King rallies. What a bloody shame these outlets can’t see their efforts are a reflection on their own effectiveness, their own value to the news-consuming American public.
The myriad signs carried in previous rallies and again today are bullet points under the theme. This nation will have no king. It wants to remain a democracy and it’s willing to take action to do so.
The number of participants will underline that point. Pooh-poohing this as bad group therapy is a poor attempt to deny that it is a group, it is big and growing bigger, and it is telling the world and the pseudo-king they can articulate their grievances just as 56 signers did in 1776.
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This is NOT an open thread. It’s dedicated to the No Kings rally. If you attended or observed, please feel free to share below. Links to photos with attribution are appreciated.
My wife and I will go to one of a dozen or so neighborhood protests instead of the big one downtown. I figure that two people make a more noticeable difference in a crowd of 500 than one of 50,000. Plus, it’s an awful lot easier to get there.
My sign is Woody Guthrie themed: one side is “All you fascists are bound to lose” and the other is “This land is our land.”
Rayne said this but it bears repeating. Respect your fellow protesters’ privacy. Take pictures only after asking and receiving permission. Don’t post other people’s faces to social media.
I am not good at estimating turnout, but this one looked like it was even bigger than the last. And, it was cold. We deplored our fascist overlords and offered up the biggest cheer for removing Susan Collins, regardless of which of the candidates we nominate. Local businesses were prominently handing out snacks and otherwise being supportive – a sign they see little contrary pressure. This Blue Wave is coming.
[Welcome to emptywheel. Please choose and use a unique username with a minimum of 8 letters. We adopted this minimum standard to support community security. Because your username is too short and common, your username will be temporarily changed to match the date/time of your first known comment until you have a new compliant username. /~Rayne]
Just got home from one of the dozen or so suburban protests around KC, all of which were scheduled to end that would allow folks to then go to the major KC protest in the middle of the metro area this afternoon. It is a bright sunny day, but temps were around 35 this morning when the protest began.
The vibe at my event was very much a lively block party with about 3000 or so of my neighbors, but with less food and more snark. The event was located along a four lane road that bisects a local park, and the crowd lined both sides of the street and along a cross street, filling the air with signs, songs, and flags. Passing cars honked, and whenever an 18 wheeler went by and blasted their big horns, the crowd went nuts. The biggest cheer like that happened when a red fire department support vehicle from a neighboring suburb drove through and tapped their lights and siren — not to get through the road on the way to a call, but in a big sign of support for the protests. (I’m guessing they were out on a grocery run or something like that.) The firefighter on the passenger side of the vehicle leaned way out of his window, cheering and shouting and raising his hand in a fist to thank the protesters, and the protesters returned the favor themselves.
As for “the point” of the event, it was clearly “No Kings” but also noting that the King has plenty of minions doing plenty of mischief in Congress, the Missouri state capital and in local offices.
There are both school board and city government elections in ten days, and there were candidates and volunteers for these folks making the rounds and giving folks a very practical way to express themselves — VOTE!
The city has two Democratic state legislators, and I saw both of them gladhanding the crowd, and the same with a couple of progressive school board members. No sign of the Republican State Senator or the conservative school board members, though.
There were signature gatherers for various statewide election propositions, including a clever one who came dressed as the Easter Bunny. Petition gatherers generally have to approach the people they want to sign their sheets, but the Easter Bunny had folks coming to her on their own! She didn’t have to work the crowd, but simply planted herself in a prominent area and folks streamed to her all morning.
But the signs . . . oh, the signs and t-shirts.
“Only SHE can wear the CROWN” as the caption beside a hand-drawn image of the statue of Liberty being held by what looked like a high school young woman.
“No FAUX-KING Way!! above an image of Trump wearing a crown with an X through it, and “NO KINGS” at the bottom, held by what appeared to be a grandma in her 80s.
Another handmade sign had four hats — a German Wehrmacht hat from WWII, a truckers cap with a Confederal flag on it, the classic red MAGA hat, and a white Klan hood — with words above reading “Same Shit” and below “Different Hat.
“Super Callous Fragile Racist Sexist Nazi FOTUS” with a footnote explaining that FOTUS is “FELON of the United States”
“Even the Suburban Moms are here” held by — naturally — a suburban mom, who proved her street cred as she left, saying she was heading to take her kids to their soccer matches this afternoon.
“I’m a better Christian than MAGA, and I’m an atheist!”
“Could some please explain which crimes get you deported and which ones get you elected President? It’s so confusing”
“If only children were as protected as the Epstein Files”
Anagram signs can be tough, but this one worked well: a big MAGA went down the left side of the sign, with Morons Are Governing America going off each letter across the sign. There were also smaller messages on it as well, like “The wrong ICE is melting” and “If you elect a rapist, expect to get fucked.” Yes, it was all spelled out at a family friendly rally, and I didn’t see anyone have a problem with it.
“I’ve seen better cabinets at IKEA”
“I prefer crushed ICE”
T-shirt: An ICE logo was in the middle, with “Keep Immigrants” above it and “Deport Racists” below it.
Gotta love pissed off suburbanites, and the amount of “you gotta vote next month!” conversations happening all around me made me very happy indeed.
It’s a beautiful spring day for a Royal Flush. We’re going to one of several events here in Berkeley. I dusted off my TRUCK FUMP sign from the 2017 Pink Hat March.