I was proud to see so many American flags at the No Kings rally in Lancaster, PA Saturday. Patriotic Americans should never cede the flag to Trump Royalists.
Exactly. My family felt the same way about fighting fascism in the 1940s. My father-in-law joined the US Army artillery in WW II after dutifully accepting (so to speak) our nation’s call to serve. He landed in North Africa with the Antifa force deployed there and then helped invade Italy to attack the Axis powers from the south. He fought and survived and returned to Minnesota after the war. PTSD accompanied him and stayed with him for the rest of his life. He was able to endure it, concealed the symptoms as best he could, and built a very successful life as a father, friend, and union employee for the local power company.
Yes, but please be careful with the sarcasm, for those who know. Trump and his minions exploit comments like this, by twisting them for those who do NOT know.
We had a lot of veterans in our local demonstration.
I came of age right after the Vietnam war and for decades had a negative view of the military. That's changed to a great extent. I was so proud of our top brass who sat with impassive faces as Hegseth and Trump tried to pervert and corrupt their centuries of tradition of non-partisanship.
From one who came of age before that - when 'of age' meant 21 - I agree with all of this. It was worth the high price of admission (watching Trump and that other guy) to watch those stony-faced officers, who had all seen actual war zones and knew too well what the real thing looked and felt and smelled like.
Thank you, Bob. The uncle I never knew fell in the Battle of Normandy 2 months after D-Day. Your uncle made it possible for his tank to come ashore. I march for Uncle Bill and all served in World War II. We owe them everything.
Absolutely agreed. The magnitude of No Kings really underscores how much of a bad job Trump is doing, and it really begs the question how this doofus managed to get elected in the first place. I wrote about it here:
There was some amount of statistical anomaly present in the vote patterns of specifically swing state voting machines that indicated interference of some sort - i.e. "cheating." I saw a lot of talk about this for a few months, but not much lately. I never did hear a reasonable explanation for the supposd anomalies though.
Syd, I think that the losing party and/or nominee must officially challenge the outcome for any recounts or investigations to occur. Several groups have analyzed voting and found anomalies, but they are ignored by Democratic Party and Press. We needed an inquiry to ensure that future elections are safe from interference.
In theory it takes only 1 vote to win a U.S.-style election. HCR in a post after the election spoke of "political technology," evidently coined by the Russians (https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-6-2024). My take is that the political operatives worked hard at getting just enough voters to not vote or to vote against Harris.
They allowed the Democrats to seem more pro-Israel than the Republicans, which had a big effect on those against the Israeli excesses against the Palestinians. Unfortunately, an excellent stategy, because those who really cared about injustices would be much more likely to vote Democrat.
yep, Trump should never have been allowed on the ballot on 2024. And thanks to the coward and hypocrite leadership of the GOP(read Mitch McConnell) he was acquited of a second impeachment as well. The GOP & the Supremely Corrupt Court created a monster they cannot control anymore and will take them down as well,
Regretfully I disagree. I concur with the Constitution which is clear that he could not be prohibited from running. Hell, Eugene V. Debs, ran from prison in 1920.
Trump is not the problem but a symptom - mind you, a terrible one - of how dysfunctional the American political system is.
The DNC, for one, abandoned its voter base for its financial one decades ago.
Have you forgotten Clinton ran as a liberal and promptly signed NAFTA which Perot accurately predicted would send working class jobs out of the country?
Skipping forward to 2016, we have Senator Schumer famously saying, "For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin."
Or take Trump's war on universities. It was last year that Nature magazine rated 9 of the top 10 research universities as being in China. This degradation of the American university system has been bipartisan; Trump doesn't get credit for it, only for doing his best to knock the only American University in the top 10, Harvard, out of the ring, quite possibly by the next time the ratings are issued.
My Grandfather served in WWI shortly after walking across Europe to a ship for America. I have a letter he wrote on his troop transport ship to join the American Expeditionary Forces on his reasons for joining so quickly. It was his gratitude to America for the freedoms it offered to him. And while he was afraid of war, he hoped no one would ever have to go to war again and wanted to donate his body to medical students if he was killed. He survived 4 German gas attacks before he returned.
His son, my Dad, flew 26 combat missions in Europe in B-24’s as a fleet navigator of hundreds of bombers at the age 0f 19. His bomber was shot up twice but managed to crash land in Belgium and France.
I have their burial flags here at home with my family. I also found out later in life that my uncle served in the Merchant Marine convoys to the UK and another served with the Navy’s Scouts and Raiders behind enemy lines. And I found some other ways to serve my country.
Few of these veterans spoke much of their experiences other than that they never wanted their descendants to ever have to repeat what they had been through. I found some other ways to honor their hopes and serve my country.
My paternal grandfather served on a subchaser in WWI. My maternal grandfather bought horses for the army in WWI. My father was a B.A.R. gunner in the first infantry division in WWII. His brother was a naval officer in the Pacific theater.
When I told my father I planned to enlist after graduating high school, he told me that he didn't think that was a good idea. Vietnam was not his idea of a just war. I paid attention to him. No Kings was not my first demonstration.
Last week, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson predicted the weekend demonstrations would be "people who don’t want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic."
Ironically, that's exactly what we did.
Thank you especially to your ancestors for standing up. We did not lose so many of them just to see these tin-pot dictators ruin everything they fought and died for.
My immigrant paternal grandfather enlisted in the US infantry in WWI. He came home after 4 German gas attacks. My Dad joined the USAA Corp and became a fleet navigator of B-24s in WWII. He came home at the end of the war after 26 combat missions and 2 crash landings.
When I went to college in 1966, I was one of only a few freshmen who did not sign up for USAF ROTC. I ended up having to "explain myself" to a military Major. When it was pointed out that my family served with distinction I was asked what was my reason. My response was "You'll have to ask my Dad. He said if I came home in a uniform he'd break my legs." I was readily dismissed.
I’m one of those flag guys, since April for about 40 protests large and small. Always appreciated by my fellow patriots with the clever signs. My dad was a WW2 vet (C47 pilot in SOuth Pacific) and became an anti-Vietnam organizer starting in 1967, took me to my first protest as a 9 year old in 1969, and was adamant about the flag especially after the Nixon crew started wearing flag pins. “Don’t let the bastards steal our flag!”
Sounds like your dad and mine would have got on, although he didn't fight for USA, he was very anti war after WW2 ( a gunner). He had a similar saying but he mainly drummed into us to always always vote, as democracy very fragile and never take it for granted.
So many memories of him come back. He organized our Philly green leafy suburb, the great middle class. He once found himself under a Viet Cong flag at some rally in DC, and simply said we can’t choose all of our allies and agree with them 100%, but need to accept their support in the greater cause.
A house that I go past several times a week recently acquired a flag pole, taller than the usual household type. From the start, it has displayed Old Glory - upside down.
BTW it also shows a smaller California flag, right-way up, of course.
I wore a flag on my back. When I go to highway overpass protests, I wave an American flag at the traffic (the protest message is in big letters along the bottom of the overpass).
I completely agree. The American flag belongs to every American. I have flown mine proudly through out these difficult times. I was appalled to see that Trump is tearing OFF part of the White House to build his ballroom. The White House belongs to the people not him. He is allowed to live there. Since when does a president feel entitled to rip the White House apart for his own pleasure as if he owns it? Where is the Historical Society? The American flag and the White House are not his.
What a foolish argument. Trump is the cause. He is the Derangement. He’s an enemy of the Constitution and a threat to the survival of the United States. There is no other answer except to fight.
Perhaps, but limiting our objectives to one item (such as deportation of the people mowing lawns in my neighborhood) cuts our number by maybe 90%. Signaling outrage is very real.
Replying to self: I sure messed this up, entering it so that it seemed to apply to Rena Stone rather that to Aaron. I hope she sees this, though I myself am barely over 81.
I was thinking about this when I saw the headlines of an article "Where is the Democrat's Project 2025"?
And then I thought, there WAS a Democrat Project 2025 - it was called The New Deal, and it included child labor laws, social security, workers' rights laws, farmers protection laws, and a lot more, much of which is getting gutted by GOP Project 2025.
That is the point of the demonstrations: Go forward from the New Deal, not back to the "Great America" pre-Civil War.
Is this just about immigration? Threat to democracy exists, threat to freedom exists. Its a typical coward's rhetorical tactic to pick one issue (immigration), an issue where -details aside- the majority of the population might be closer to the Trump side, and present a solution on the extreme that few are suggesting (everyone given amnesty, citizenship, all rights).
The current DEM "leadership" superpower is to lose elections to people who are absolutely vile. They do this to avoid having to take any stand on issues where they could possibly offend any of their wealthy corporate donors or oddball single issue backers. They're not interested in governing, they're just there to get their cut of the spoils.
Medicare Advantage's mission is creeping into Medicare and hauling off with the loot. In this supposedly free country, more and more people are being looted and gouged through de-regulation while financially supporting the criminal class. The article about Epstein & Leon Black on Saturday, including comments following, shows just how corrupt our country--actually, the world--is at the highest financial and political levels.
Back in June during a protest in Muskegon Michigan at what we call the 4 corners by the mall a nice group of protesters on one of the corners about 300 hundred people carried homemade sighs.
The past Saturday nearly 800 people appeared at ALL four corners, this time with not just signs but people with costumes. More importantly the horn blowing at the intersection was constant. Only one or two Trump supporters with their usual Trump flags and US flags drive by. The numbers of motorists honking were in my mind a huge change and indicated people are waking up.
I had the same experience in Middletown, Maryland. Many more supporters than detractors driving by. The sentiment of the movement goes far beyond those marching in the streets.
This was how we were. I love the costumes, flags and homemade signs. The first protests had 80 people, then 200, then 800, 1500 and last Saturday I heard 2500.
A few MAGA showed up on the other side of the street at the MAGA headquarters, across from the courthouse. They blared their loudspeakers. Maybe 20 people.
I'm sure the MAGA were expecting to stand up to out of town Antifa, but they got mostly old people, many wearing ridiculous costumes. It's hard to paint Vietnam vets in wheelchairs as anti-American radicals.
I am so glad to hear this about Muskegon. My MAGA sister lives there and we have been virtually estranged due to Trump. I still hope that one day she will come around and we can be sisters again. But time is rinning out, she is 81.
We had what the press estimated as "over 3,200" protesters here in Red Bank, NJ. I think the estimate is accurate.
Many supporters drove by; one lady was on a Harley with one of the Trump I pink hats stretched over her helmet and a large flag reading "Transgender Rights are Human Rights."
In the two hours we were there, we had two Trumpie cars go by. One was a pickup truck with four young loudmouths in it. They went by once in both directions. I couldn't hear what they were shouting over the "Hey, hey, Ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to Go!" from my side of the street. I didn't even see the other one, but whatever they said brought forth a burst of profanity from some of "our" young women beside the road.
Someone had a very clever sign with a sketch of one of the Muskrat's "cybertrucks" and the caption "This Machine Funds Fascists" (if you have a blank look on your face, look up Woody Guthrie).
I came back with 113 photos. That's culled down to 53, but I've only processed 17 so far. The favorite with my friends is the medium-sized dog wearing a sign complaining about tariffs on his toys.
Here in tiny Milan Mi we had 270m show up in June. This past Saturday we had over 300. We, like the rest of the country, learned from our Portland peers and came out in costume, humor and joy. Today I am so proud to be from the Mitten
In my town of around 12K, there were 800 people at our Oct 18th “bridge rally” over the Wisconsin River. The honks and thumbs-up were about 90% of the reactions from the thousands of drivers who passed us on that bridge.
I am part of a weekly demonstration every Thursday from 4pm to 6pm. It is at Pratt and Ridge in Chicago. For the last 2 months, we have had more and more attendees each week. The enthusiasm and support from the passing drivers has also increased each week.
I like "NOT DEMOCRAZY" - b/c we are not only be ruled (not "governed") by autocrats, but by autocrats who are also f'ing crazy and (as my mother would have said), "as stupid as the day is long."
I attended our local rally in the town of Dunkirk in rural southern Maryland. We had several hundred join us and I was pleasantly surprised at the overwhelming support of those driving by. Honks, waves, cheers, and thumbs-up, including many in vehicles like big pickups that you might otherwise assume to be driven by Trump supporters.
Even the small number who flipped us off or gave us an obvious thumbs-down seemed to be coming to the realization that Trump may not be as popular as they thought he was, or as he's portrayed to be on Fox "news". In any event, those who were negative received only friendly waves, smiles, and joyous laughter from the No Kings crowd. I'm so sick of being angry, the response made me happy and proud to be among them.
I'll also point out the contrast between the 7 million perfectly behaved No Kings marchers and the much smaller MAGA march in DC on January 6th, 2021. That march had a president inciting violence, vicious assaults on law-enforcement resulting in many grievous injuries, human waste smeared on walls and floors, American flags used as battering rams and weapons, widespread looting and vandalism, a protester getting herself shot dead, and a capitol building left in ruins. It's quite a contrast that illustrates the difference between decent Americans marching for democracy, and a deranged cult marching to the lies of a madman and tyrant.
We shouted “I love you” to the ones who flipped us off. And the local sheriff issued tickets to the people who spewed black exhaust on us! It was exhilarating!
I heard in a comment on another Substack, and I don't know what city it was, that the local police stopped an ICE goon from driving into the marchers and threatened to arrest him. I think that local police are as offended as the rest of us at the Goon like behavior of ICE and Trump!
I don’t know if you are still a great nation, that’s the hard truth. But what we saw, and I say this as one speaking for many foreigners looking from abroad, was a glimmer of hope. Yet we are no longer naïve. We know there are about 80 million cult-like followers who, somehow, agree with much of what this administration now represents, a menace to the world we once believed you could lead. But I also believe we need more of that glimmer, and that you must be as relentless in defending what you once stood for as this administration is in destroying it.
I am not sure we were ever really great; we were just the 800 pound elephant on the global stage. Mostly we were right and used our heft for good; but there were many bad things- Vietnam, Afghanistan etc. Our support of Israel, to my mind has been problematic.
I'm Jewish and you are wrong. And when you add on Christian to Judeo there appears to be a real threat to peace everywhere. The problem you see, is not so much Islam but the so-called world religions that think it's their duty to proselytize us heathens/non believers. They are equivalent villains and Israel sadly is part of it.
It could be summarized as "I have seen the enemy and it is us"
I’ll take this opportunity to relay an eye opening experience I had while dining with a southern African-Indian Hindu family years ago. Since Hindus and Muslims in India often are at odds, sometimes violently, I thought this family would be sympathetic to Israel. But their experience of living under Apartheid made them more willing to see Palestinians, who look more like Indians than Ashkenazi Jews do, as fellow travelers. The long shadow of European colonialism worldwide has unfortunately been underestimated by Likud, which focuses exclusively on the wrongs inflicted on Jews by Europeans. This hasn’t helped Israel’s future at all.
I'm starting to get concerned about antisemitism. We had dinner with our son who's a wildland firefighter and works in crews of young red-necks. They're on social media and receiving and spreading the old anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. I think part of that is the White Supremacist factions of MAGA feeling their oats, but I also think Israel's behavior in Gaza is costing Jews everywhere big time. It's only a matter of time before the photos of starving babies get to the Evangelicals and they won't like that.
I personally would like to never send another dollar to Israel. However, Israel is not American Jews or Jews worldwide. We must push back on this prejudice.
They don’t bother. Your comment is very tempered, but it is still the same old trope to fear Muslims. All religious extremism is dangerous for exactly the reason Cycledoc stated that they believe their religion is the one religion. If you live in the US the Christian nationalists are more dangerous than any other group. Let’s honor the constitution and keep religion out of government and accept that we each have our own spiritual path. And for some, that includes a religion, for others it does not, and then let’s live together in peace. Living in fear is debilitating. Best to find a way to live in peace.
You say that as if it were proof of your position. It's not - it is simply the absence of evidence in either direction. Also, fyi, most Christian denominations have evangelical elements that seek to broaden their membership (not all, though - Christian Scientists do not proselytize). For example, I grew up Catholic (the name means "universal," which gives a clue about its membership goals) and the Church had the Society for the Propagation of the Faith (where the word "propaganda" originated). So, I think most people expect religions to try to win over new adherents.
Why would anyone bother? Your commentary is so bigoted. And with the advent of social media, the excuse-making for Israel's long campaign of driving out Arabs has been blown away like the smoke it is.
We are a nation in the clutches of a cult that manipulates a large number of ignorant people. The people currently in charge of the government are mentally unstable.
It's a fact obvious to anyone familiar with Americans that it's practically an obligation for any of them, even the most progressive and reasonable like Paul Krugman, to constantly proclaim that the USA is Great. Indoctrination from an early age I suppose. They never define what 'great' actually means, which is convenient, but the subtext is always that it's the Greatest. But having lived in the US for several years, I can myself proclaim that there are dozens of other countries where I'd rather live.
It’s not an affirmation of meaningless self-congratulation but a claim to a word twisted by MAGA. It’s a great nation that can show up for itself—not the greatest, not the only great, but a great nation that can stand up to the kind of ruthless power grab Trump & his self-debasing sycophants are enacting.
Oh heavens. Every empire has proclaimed its greatness. And superiority. Every single one. Even the French, back in the day. It's a disease of imperialism.
Take note: 2 years after the end of WWII, American Fascism sat down to plot its comeback. Out of that meeting of billionaires came the right wing think tanks that subverted the laws of this land. . Communist Russia has always wanted to undermine the US-- and vice versa. It is Trump who opened the door and let them in--probably because of something buried in the Epstein files.
What is a "great nation"? I love John Lennon's song "Imagine" for the concept of a world without borders that create wars.
Was USA ever a great nation? It was certainly built on genocide and slavery, like so many others. But whatever it was, it was a lot better than it is now!!!
I agree with Winston. We, as a nation, were caught in the grip of the free-market Libertarian policies that were pervasive throughout western democracies. This movement created great economic inequality in many countries. The working people were hit very hard and reacted with resentment and rage against everyone. Those who prospered do not want change, but most people do want change. The people of America will need to work very hard to form a government that works for everyone. The No Kings protests show we will do the work. Many countries around the world also demonstrated with us. Together we can change.
Thanks for your comment. It’s encouraging to Americans resisting an authoritarian regime to know we have many friends around the world. We need all the support we can get.
You're very welcome. And you *know* that the good people win in the end and America will be free again. It's just a long struggle (much harder for some right now) to get to that place.
Was it me or did the NYT not give the march the prominence it deserved? It was buried deep under other less important headlines and treated like a side issue.
Totally agree. Sunday night's website had nothing on No Kings 2 but plenty on Santos. A search on the NYT website for "No Kings 2" just now shows opinion pieces by Jamelle Bouie from Oct. 18 and Gary Shteyngart earlier this morning. Where's the actual coverage reporting?
Not what I found in my on-line newspaper. It had decent prominence and the article said it was the biggest protest in history considering it was nationwide. Yesterday they had a photo montage you could look through.
All the coverage in NYT was there when i got up at 6, Hawaii time (noon in the east) 90 minutes later it was gone. No sign of it. While it was still front page news on the Washington Post and the third most important story in the Guardian.
Thanks Frau, I'm glad you and Sharon were able to access the coverage. Nothing like what you viewed was available on my website for some reason, only 2 opinion pieces. I'll dive deeper to see if I can find coverage.
That is how the NYT, WaPo and other major media outlets misled the public about the economy under Biden — bad news about the economy prominently placed above the fold on the front page, good news buried in the back pages. For example in June last year the World Bank announced it was increasing it’s prediction for global growth and cited the strength of the US economy as the driver of that growth I fully expected that to be headline news. When I searched for it I found stories like the price of eggs on the front page but the World Bank story was either buried in a back page or not reported at all. I firmly believe that kind of cherry picked coverage is the reason millions of swing voters went to the polls convinced the economy was bad, even though the majority told pollsters they were doing well financially as were their regions. Clearly they didn’t based that judgment on “vibes” as the media claimed. Media critic Dan Froomkin cut through the lies.
The two leading newspapers--one owned by a very wealthy, powerful family and the other owned by a multibillionaire who is obsessed with making more money-- want things to go along well for their class. The 1% (or a small part of it). They have more in common with the right wing Wall Street Journal than anything else.
I don’t know what their reasons really are. They have to know that Trump is a threat to journalism. However I believe the reason they did such a terrible job reporting on the economy is that they have a built-in bias for conservative economic beliefs which is deeply anti-government spending and (pretends) to be horrified by debt. That is why they jumped all over Larry Summers’ proclamation that we would have to have a severe recession to bring down inflation because he believed inflation was driven by government spending . The media ignored the many liberal economists who predicted we would likely have a “soft landing” because inflation was caused mainly by supply chain disruptions caused by the covid shutdowns.
UK economist Simon Wren Lewis has written about the same media bias in the UK which he has dubbed “media macro”. The UK media also promotes austerity over government investment in the people/ economy by giving a spotlight to conservative views and mostly ignoring more centrist or liberal ones no matter how respected the economists voicing them.
Bezos threw his lot in with Trump last autumn. The decline in the quality of the Post has been staggering. A large number of their best reporters and columnists left. And so has the readership. Their subscriptions have fallen to a level not seen in 55 years.
The NYT is not at that level, but never forget the Times was a big backer of the Iraq war (for which they years later "apologized" which the Post never did).
I don't know which paper if any could be considered a paper of record now. I can't see the NYT doing a "Pentagon Papers" now, can you?
Actually he didn’t come right out and say that they were toning down his praise for Biden’s economy, just that they were toning down his voice in general, but I assume that was a big part of it.
I think they did a better job this time. They even wrote about it the day before. Last time they didn't mention it until it happened. I think they're doing a decent job of covering it this time...given their constraints.
Also, that write-up about Epstein & Black....Trump's refiled his lawsuit against it....I'm wondering if all of these outfits now have the entire goods about Epstein and its drip, drip, drip to let Trump know they've (NYT) got his number in retaliation.
The NYT was as usual very quiet about this, as it's likely to anger Trump et al. And beyond that is the NYT's squishy and lazy "centrism." There are many hundreds of legal cases filed against Trumpism, many of which he's losing, but you would not know it from the Times. I've subscribed for years, out of desperation really, but after No Kings 2 I finally decided to cancel yesterday. Then the counter-offer popped up: "How about $1 a week for the next year?" Instead of $1 a day? Sure. The money I save there will support independent media! I want news, not some pablum the Very Comfortable Class decides is suitable.
The ONLY disappointment about the demonstration is that it got nothing like the publicity it deserved from major networks and newspapers.
Furthermore Karoline Leavitt's scripted and televised characterization of the Democratic Party base is the most disgraceful "official White House message" in American history.
The mainstream media didn’t show much about the massive demonstrations that happened before the Iraq War either. They were in full rah! rah! mode. MSNBC infamously forced Phil Donahue that for every anti-war guest he had on he had to have two pro-war guests. Donahue counted as one anti-war person. Then they fired him even though he had their highest-rated show.
I personally wonder if 7 million people coming out for the second No Kings is a lowball estimate. Every major city, every state, had massive crowds. I’ve been to all of them so far in Hartford and we never had to park so far away from the capital, and for once it thrilled me to see traffic on the highway. The crowd felt like double the turnout in June, maybe more.
Brazilian scientists from the university of Sao Paulo (USP) developped a way to count cattle using drones. They later adapted their method to count people on marches (we at the left in Brasil thought this was hilariious as we usually refer to the right supporters of Bolsonaro as cattle). It is used a lot in Brasil and usually it gives smaller numbers than what police or attendants guess.
Interesting! I looked into it after No Kings 1 in June. Drones, plus crowd-counting software are the way to go. But for 2,700 events? Some very large? Expensive, and ultimately not worth it. Because it's not how many show up for a rally of a few hours. It's how many people engage across a range of resistance activities over some considerable time.
Yes. I believe you are correct. My boyfriend and I attended, but I was the only one who signed up. I think they will adjust the numbers as they continue analysis.
Even tRump's AI-generated "King-tRump-as-fighter-pilot-bombing-crowds-with-shit" showed a yuuge assemblage of people as targets, so there's that. He knows he's hated, he knows a large proportion of the citizenry hates him, and he can't disguise that, even in a contrived video.
Our local protest had 4X the turnout of the June protest (2,000 in Bainbridge--which we attended--and 4,000-5,000 in Solon OH). I think Indivisible was originally counting only the folks that had signed up. Based upon what we saw locally, this was much, much larger.
A perfect musical coda to this moment. And Joan and many of us from 1963 are still alive and kicking. Thank you, Paul, for compiling this positive review of our incredibly powerful nationwide protest.
I heard part of an interview with her a few months ago in which she said "I don't make history anymore. I AM history." Glad to hear she's changed her mind about that.
Joan sang at the No Kings rally in either Palo Alto or San Francisco. She's not just living she's thriving and still performing! and of course, still protesting
I'm hoping for new songs, chants and dances to emerge at this time. I'd like some new words set to Yankee Doodle. Let's juice up the creatives. Go for it Bruce Springsteen!!
I also think bringing out the old patriotic songs like America the Beautiful would be good. Go ahead and try to paint us as America-hating left wing radicals, we'll wave the flag and sing the national anthem in your face.
To extend your metaphor, The NY Times is in the bubble with a complementary mode of behavior: diminish and deny what is happening. Call it soft subservience.
Jamison Foser at Finding Gravity reports how the paper minimized coverage of No Kings Day, and described Trump’s video showing him in a jet labeled King Trump and bombing demonstrations as dropping “a brown liquid” - instead of him shitting on America. Foser also noted how the media gives GOP events much bigger coverage.
That Trump video is a huge self-own for Trump - it’s a great metaphor for what he’s doing to America. If Democrats had released it, the media would be throwing a giant hissy fit over how crude and divisive it was.
I wonder if anyone has locked down the rights to an action figure?
The video of Trump bombing demonstrators w/ feces -- literally, the enshittification of America. One of the new words we have learned as a consequence of the Trump Regime.
If the NYT did such a poor job reporting on the march and on that video, it will also miss the story from Southern California that Trump’s military extravaganza accidentally exploded ordinance on the California Highway Patrol on Saturday. Live fire demonstrations over a major highway should have been front page news even before that fiasco occurred. Shelling your own territory and people is something George III would have done 250 years ago.
No. NYT reported on it last night. Did a good job on it too. Be sure to read the articles if you can. Their headlines often don't reflect the actual reporting. They clearly told that the artillery fire over the freeway was "unusual" and not normally done by the Marines because of safety concerns. It wasn't hard to put it together that the military was "encouraged, compelled?" to do it by Hegseth and Vance.
Sorry to all that want to dump on the NYT, I'm not thrilled with their obedience in advance, however, Trump's suing them again, so they haven't gotten a totally free pass. They are bending in the wind.
And what do you make of the media coverage of the protests, i.e. NYTimes? Columbia Journalism School professor Bill Grueskin: "Their top headlines on the upper-right corner of Page One — traditionally, where readers’ eyes go first — start with ‘Little Urgency from Trump’ and ‘Democrats’ Ads Make Old Pitch.’ A more soporific set of headlines would be hard to write.”
Yup. They had an article about Trump posting the AI video of him dumping poop from a plane on demonstrators. The article said it was "a brown liquid" and a couple sentences later, "a brown liquid resembling feces". REALLY?! They could not come out and say Trump posted a video of him dumping poop on demonstrators. SMH.
I hope the next step in this effort is to demonstrate the economic power of this movement. When an estimated 8 million people withdraw their economic support (hello Tesla Takedown) for organizations supporting this tin pot dictatorship, then the impact will truly be felt. I live in an area where Quakerism is strong and we can all learn from Quakers’ embrace of simplicity. Plus, withdrawal of financial support of this faux-gilded regime is an appropriate and meaningful response to its excesses.
My Jewish mother grew up in Nazi Germany and had an absolute horror of flags, parades, mass gatherings. On Saturday I overcame my inherited fear of crowds and joined my local group - No Kings in Queens! - and waved my flag like mad. I think Mum would approve.
Trump’s responses to massive protests are predictable. He sees only what he wants to see. So, he saw and liked a particularly stupid video portraying him piloting a jet, wearing a crown and dropping a slurry of shit on protestors. What he didn’t see was the fact that the shit spweing video was a perfect metaphor for Trump and his adherents.
I don't think that matters very much, unless DonnyJon plans to give him a government job. I don't think he will do well on the outside, after the way he cheated his supporters.
He also had a satirical post claiming that Soros had to declare bankruptcy after paying all of us to show up. He had to liquidate most of his assets, including his share in the "space lasers owned by the Rothschild family." "They may be anarchists, but they don't work for free."
I didn't get my check, and now he's bankrupt! Phooey!
I was proud to see so many American flags at the No Kings rally in Lancaster, PA Saturday. Patriotic Americans should never cede the flag to Trump Royalists.
I carried my uncle's burial flag from Omaha Beach, folded up military respect. No small matter in my family.
The largest Antifa force in history. My dad served 30 years.
I believe the largest antifa force in history gathered on the southern English coast in early June 1944 and then took a short boat ride.
Maybe not the largest, but certainly the most effective
Trumpzies call them 'libtards' — who stole the war from Adolf Hitler.
During 1943, Hitler was already contained, and doomed to fail. It took another 2 years to defeat his Nazis.
Antifa of the time was bound to win on the west. Unfortunately, the Russian fascists were spared, and are again causing problems today.
Exactly. My family felt the same way about fighting fascism in the 1940s. My father-in-law joined the US Army artillery in WW II after dutifully accepting (so to speak) our nation’s call to serve. He landed in North Africa with the Antifa force deployed there and then helped invade Italy to attack the Axis powers from the south. He fought and survived and returned to Minnesota after the war. PTSD accompanied him and stayed with him for the rest of his life. He was able to endure it, concealed the symptoms as best he could, and built a very successful life as a father, friend, and union employee for the local power company.
Yes, but please be careful with the sarcasm, for those who know. Trump and his minions exploit comments like this, by twisting them for those who do NOT know.
We had a lot of veterans in our local demonstration.
I came of age right after the Vietnam war and for decades had a negative view of the military. That's changed to a great extent. I was so proud of our top brass who sat with impassive faces as Hegseth and Trump tried to pervert and corrupt their centuries of tradition of non-partisanship.
From one who came of age before that - when 'of age' meant 21 - I agree with all of this. It was worth the high price of admission (watching Trump and that other guy) to watch those stony-faced officers, who had all seen actual war zones and knew too well what the real thing looked and felt and smelled like.
And I carried a sign with a photo of my ancestor’s gravestone. He was a Captain in the USArmy. Revolutionary War. ❤️
One-up on me: I had an ancestor who was at Lexington on the day it all started, but I don't think he was ever an officer.
Officers are, indeed, necessary but they can't do much without the troops
That's a great idea I will do the next protest.
Thank you, Bob. The uncle I never knew fell in the Battle of Normandy 2 months after D-Day. Your uncle made it possible for his tank to come ashore. I march for Uncle Bill and all served in World War II. We owe them everything.
Absolutely agreed. The magnitude of No Kings really underscores how much of a bad job Trump is doing, and it really begs the question how this doofus managed to get elected in the first place. I wrote about it here:
https://kainesianmacro.substack.com/p/if-not-dictator-why-dictator-shaped
There was some amount of statistical anomaly present in the vote patterns of specifically swing state voting machines that indicated interference of some sort - i.e. "cheating." I saw a lot of talk about this for a few months, but not much lately. I never did hear a reasonable explanation for the supposd anomalies though.
Syd, I think that the losing party and/or nominee must officially challenge the outcome for any recounts or investigations to occur. Several groups have analyzed voting and found anomalies, but they are ignored by Democratic Party and Press. We needed an inquiry to ensure that future elections are safe from interference.
In theory it takes only 1 vote to win a U.S.-style election. HCR in a post after the election spoke of "political technology," evidently coined by the Russians (https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-6-2024). My take is that the political operatives worked hard at getting just enough voters to not vote or to vote against Harris.
That seems to me probably the best explanation.
They allowed the Democrats to seem more pro-Israel than the Republicans, which had a big effect on those against the Israeli excesses against the Palestinians. Unfortunately, an excellent stategy, because those who really cared about injustices would be much more likely to vote Democrat.
This substack article (and others they’ve posted) might give you some useful information: https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/172-of-voters-cast-ballots-in-palm?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=4011931&post_id=175977997&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=nw4b&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Maddening.
Maddening.
yep, Trump should never have been allowed on the ballot on 2024. And thanks to the coward and hypocrite leadership of the GOP(read Mitch McConnell) he was acquited of a second impeachment as well. The GOP & the Supremely Corrupt Court created a monster they cannot control anymore and will take them down as well,
Regretfully I disagree. I concur with the Constitution which is clear that he could not be prohibited from running. Hell, Eugene V. Debs, ran from prison in 1920.
Trump is not the problem but a symptom - mind you, a terrible one - of how dysfunctional the American political system is.
The DNC, for one, abandoned its voter base for its financial one decades ago.
Have you forgotten Clinton ran as a liberal and promptly signed NAFTA which Perot accurately predicted would send working class jobs out of the country?
Skipping forward to 2016, we have Senator Schumer famously saying, "For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin."
Or take Trump's war on universities. It was last year that Nature magazine rated 9 of the top 10 research universities as being in China. This degradation of the American university system has been bipartisan; Trump doesn't get credit for it, only for doing his best to knock the only American University in the top 10, Harvard, out of the ring, quite possibly by the next time the ratings are issued.
Thank you for your enlightening posts!
Take back "the Supreme court in a few months" ?
Again fabulating, also about how the justice system works.
The penalties for rebellion or insurrection are after conviction in a court of law. Not just because you want it.
Repeating nonsense doesn't make it realistic, any more than Trump's parallel universe.
My Grandfather served in WWI shortly after walking across Europe to a ship for America. I have a letter he wrote on his troop transport ship to join the American Expeditionary Forces on his reasons for joining so quickly. It was his gratitude to America for the freedoms it offered to him. And while he was afraid of war, he hoped no one would ever have to go to war again and wanted to donate his body to medical students if he was killed. He survived 4 German gas attacks before he returned.
His son, my Dad, flew 26 combat missions in Europe in B-24’s as a fleet navigator of hundreds of bombers at the age 0f 19. His bomber was shot up twice but managed to crash land in Belgium and France.
I have their burial flags here at home with my family. I also found out later in life that my uncle served in the Merchant Marine convoys to the UK and another served with the Navy’s Scouts and Raiders behind enemy lines. And I found some other ways to serve my country.
Few of these veterans spoke much of their experiences other than that they never wanted their descendants to ever have to repeat what they had been through. I found some other ways to honor their hopes and serve my country.
My paternal grandfather served on a subchaser in WWI. My maternal grandfather bought horses for the army in WWI. My father was a B.A.R. gunner in the first infantry division in WWII. His brother was a naval officer in the Pacific theater.
When I told my father I planned to enlist after graduating high school, he told me that he didn't think that was a good idea. Vietnam was not his idea of a just war. I paid attention to him. No Kings was not my first demonstration.
Last week, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson predicted the weekend demonstrations would be "people who don’t want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic."
Ironically, that's exactly what we did.
Thank you especially to your ancestors for standing up. We did not lose so many of them just to see these tin-pot dictators ruin everything they fought and died for.
The first Patterson immigrant in my line fought at King's Mountain.
Your father was right.
My immigrant paternal grandfather enlisted in the US infantry in WWI. He came home after 4 German gas attacks. My Dad joined the USAA Corp and became a fleet navigator of B-24s in WWII. He came home at the end of the war after 26 combat missions and 2 crash landings.
When I went to college in 1966, I was one of only a few freshmen who did not sign up for USAF ROTC. I ended up having to "explain myself" to a military Major. When it was pointed out that my family served with distinction I was asked what was my reason. My response was "You'll have to ask my Dad. He said if I came home in a uniform he'd break my legs." I was readily dismissed.
I’m one of those flag guys, since April for about 40 protests large and small. Always appreciated by my fellow patriots with the clever signs. My dad was a WW2 vet (C47 pilot in SOuth Pacific) and became an anti-Vietnam organizer starting in 1967, took me to my first protest as a 9 year old in 1969, and was adamant about the flag especially after the Nixon crew started wearing flag pins. “Don’t let the bastards steal our flag!”
That should be a DEM motto from here on out.
Don't let the bastards pretend to be Christians, should be another DEM motto as well.
Sounds like your dad and mine would have got on, although he didn't fight for USA, he was very anti war after WW2 ( a gunner). He had a similar saying but he mainly drummed into us to always always vote, as democracy very fragile and never take it for granted.
So many memories of him come back. He organized our Philly green leafy suburb, the great middle class. He once found himself under a Viet Cong flag at some rally in DC, and simply said we can’t choose all of our allies and agree with them 100%, but need to accept their support in the greater cause.
Just made a comment similar, reclaiming the flag.
I carry my flag to our stand-out every week. It's reversed--upside down--an international maritime symbol of distress
A house that I go past several times a week recently acquired a flag pole, taller than the usual household type. From the start, it has displayed Old Glory - upside down.
BTW it also shows a smaller California flag, right-way up, of course.
I have quite not reached that point of distress, but am getting there, unfortunately.
100 percent. Sick of seeing flags waved by those traitors. They wave it not for democracy but for their ideology, which is decidedly undemocratic.
I wore a flag on my back. When I go to highway overpass protests, I wave an American flag at the traffic (the protest message is in big letters along the bottom of the overpass).
I completely agree. The American flag belongs to every American. I have flown mine proudly through out these difficult times. I was appalled to see that Trump is tearing OFF part of the White House to build his ballroom. The White House belongs to the people not him. He is allowed to live there. Since when does a president feel entitled to rip the White House apart for his own pleasure as if he owns it? Where is the Historical Society? The American flag and the White House are not his.
We have a positive goal. Put DonnyJon in prison and get rid of all his toadies.
What a foolish argument. Trump is the cause. He is the Derangement. He’s an enemy of the Constitution and a threat to the survival of the United States. There is no other answer except to fight.
Perhaps, but limiting our objectives to one item (such as deportation of the people mowing lawns in my neighborhood) cuts our number by maybe 90%. Signaling outrage is very real.
I feel like saving our democracy is a pretty worthy goal. That's what my 81 yr old husband and his 87 yr old friend were protesting for yesterday.
I thought you were a conservative. But I guess not, or at least not raised to respect your elders.
You forgot to post this in Sarcasm font, which may cause some people to think you mean this piece of idiocy.
Replying to self: I sure messed this up, entering it so that it seemed to apply to Rena Stone rather that to Aaron. I hope she sees this, though I myself am barely over 81.
I was thinking about this when I saw the headlines of an article "Where is the Democrat's Project 2025"?
And then I thought, there WAS a Democrat Project 2025 - it was called The New Deal, and it included child labor laws, social security, workers' rights laws, farmers protection laws, and a lot more, much of which is getting gutted by GOP Project 2025.
That is the point of the demonstrations: Go forward from the New Deal, not back to the "Great America" pre-Civil War.
Hardly clownish, IMO.
Is this just about immigration? Threat to democracy exists, threat to freedom exists. Its a typical coward's rhetorical tactic to pick one issue (immigration), an issue where -details aside- the majority of the population might be closer to the Trump side, and present a solution on the extreme that few are suggesting (everyone given amnesty, citizenship, all rights).
The current DEM "leadership" superpower is to lose elections to people who are absolutely vile. They do this to avoid having to take any stand on issues where they could possibly offend any of their wealthy corporate donors or oddball single issue backers. They're not interested in governing, they're just there to get their cut of the spoils.
Medicare Advantage's mission is creeping into Medicare and hauling off with the loot. In this supposedly free country, more and more people are being looted and gouged through de-regulation while financially supporting the criminal class. The article about Epstein & Leon Black on Saturday, including comments following, shows just how corrupt our country--actually, the world--is at the highest financial and political levels.
Back in June during a protest in Muskegon Michigan at what we call the 4 corners by the mall a nice group of protesters on one of the corners about 300 hundred people carried homemade sighs.
The past Saturday nearly 800 people appeared at ALL four corners, this time with not just signs but people with costumes. More importantly the horn blowing at the intersection was constant. Only one or two Trump supporters with their usual Trump flags and US flags drive by. The numbers of motorists honking were in my mind a huge change and indicated people are waking up.
I had the same experience in Middletown, Maryland. Many more supporters than detractors driving by. The sentiment of the movement goes far beyond those marching in the streets.
Some people are waking up, not enough yet!!
The Sleeping Giant is Awakening! Thousands were out in the streets of Ann Arbor, Michigan and not just for the Football Game either!
This was how we were. I love the costumes, flags and homemade signs. The first protests had 80 people, then 200, then 800, 1500 and last Saturday I heard 2500.
A few MAGA showed up on the other side of the street at the MAGA headquarters, across from the courthouse. They blared their loudspeakers. Maybe 20 people.
I'm sure the MAGA were expecting to stand up to out of town Antifa, but they got mostly old people, many wearing ridiculous costumes. It's hard to paint Vietnam vets in wheelchairs as anti-American radicals.
I have been to 4-5 different Indivisible Rallies in the Atlanta area this year and I *always* see Veterans -- many in uniform!
I am afraid that that the costumes are what MAGA fanatics are using to say this is really just about the lunatic fringe and not real Americans.
I am so glad to hear this about Muskegon. My MAGA sister lives there and we have been virtually estranged due to Trump. I still hope that one day she will come around and we can be sisters again. But time is rinning out, she is 81.
We had what the press estimated as "over 3,200" protesters here in Red Bank, NJ. I think the estimate is accurate.
Many supporters drove by; one lady was on a Harley with one of the Trump I pink hats stretched over her helmet and a large flag reading "Transgender Rights are Human Rights."
In the two hours we were there, we had two Trumpie cars go by. One was a pickup truck with four young loudmouths in it. They went by once in both directions. I couldn't hear what they were shouting over the "Hey, hey, Ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to Go!" from my side of the street. I didn't even see the other one, but whatever they said brought forth a burst of profanity from some of "our" young women beside the road.
Someone had a very clever sign with a sketch of one of the Muskrat's "cybertrucks" and the caption "This Machine Funds Fascists" (if you have a blank look on your face, look up Woody Guthrie).
I came back with 113 photos. That's culled down to 53, but I've only processed 17 so far. The favorite with my friends is the medium-sized dog wearing a sign complaining about tariffs on his toys.
Here in tiny Milan Mi we had 270m show up in June. This past Saturday we had over 300. We, like the rest of the country, learned from our Portland peers and came out in costume, humor and joy. Today I am so proud to be from the Mitten
Thank you Marchers all everywhere!
Hey Cool! Our protest in Queen Creek & San Tan Valley in central AZ also had 800 protesters with signs and costumes and great cheer.
I had a very similar experience in Glastonbury, CT. The support of passing motorists was 99% and enthusiastic!
In my town of around 12K, there were 800 people at our Oct 18th “bridge rally” over the Wisconsin River. The honks and thumbs-up were about 90% of the reactions from the thousands of drivers who passed us on that bridge.
I am part of a weekly demonstration every Thursday from 4pm to 6pm. It is at Pratt and Ridge in Chicago. For the last 2 months, we have had more and more attendees each week. The enthusiasm and support from the passing drivers has also increased each week.
DEMOCRACY NOT DEMOCRAZY.
I like "NOT DEMOCRAZY" - b/c we are not only be ruled (not "governed") by autocrats, but by autocrats who are also f'ing crazy and (as my mother would have said), "as stupid as the day is long."
I attended our local rally in the town of Dunkirk in rural southern Maryland. We had several hundred join us and I was pleasantly surprised at the overwhelming support of those driving by. Honks, waves, cheers, and thumbs-up, including many in vehicles like big pickups that you might otherwise assume to be driven by Trump supporters.
Even the small number who flipped us off or gave us an obvious thumbs-down seemed to be coming to the realization that Trump may not be as popular as they thought he was, or as he's portrayed to be on Fox "news". In any event, those who were negative received only friendly waves, smiles, and joyous laughter from the No Kings crowd. I'm so sick of being angry, the response made me happy and proud to be among them.
I'll also point out the contrast between the 7 million perfectly behaved No Kings marchers and the much smaller MAGA march in DC on January 6th, 2021. That march had a president inciting violence, vicious assaults on law-enforcement resulting in many grievous injuries, human waste smeared on walls and floors, American flags used as battering rams and weapons, widespread looting and vandalism, a protester getting herself shot dead, and a capitol building left in ruins. It's quite a contrast that illustrates the difference between decent Americans marching for democracy, and a deranged cult marching to the lies of a madman and tyrant.
We shouted “I love you” to the ones who flipped us off. And the local sheriff issued tickets to the people who spewed black exhaust on us! It was exhilarating!
I heard in a comment on another Substack, and I don't know what city it was, that the local police stopped an ICE goon from driving into the marchers and threatened to arrest him. I think that local police are as offended as the rest of us at the Goon like behavior of ICE and Trump!
I vaguely remember it was Portland!
I'm gonna start trying to get the plate numbers of those coal burning assholes. It's a serious affront to a crowd of people.
They're trolls. Don't feed the trolls.
Love the "Being There" reference. Peter Sellers' best performance, and Chauncey a much better president than Mango Mussolini.
I don’t know if you are still a great nation, that’s the hard truth. But what we saw, and I say this as one speaking for many foreigners looking from abroad, was a glimmer of hope. Yet we are no longer naïve. We know there are about 80 million cult-like followers who, somehow, agree with much of what this administration now represents, a menace to the world we once believed you could lead. But I also believe we need more of that glimmer, and that you must be as relentless in defending what you once stood for as this administration is in destroying it.
I am not sure we were ever really great; we were just the 800 pound elephant on the global stage. Mostly we were right and used our heft for good; but there were many bad things- Vietnam, Afghanistan etc. Our support of Israel, to my mind has been problematic.
The protests are about problems in the US. Don't drag problems about the snakepit of the Mideast into the fray.
I'm Jewish and you are wrong. And when you add on Christian to Judeo there appears to be a real threat to peace everywhere. The problem you see, is not so much Islam but the so-called world religions that think it's their duty to proselytize us heathens/non believers. They are equivalent villains and Israel sadly is part of it.
It could be summarized as "I have seen the enemy and it is us"
I’ll take this opportunity to relay an eye opening experience I had while dining with a southern African-Indian Hindu family years ago. Since Hindus and Muslims in India often are at odds, sometimes violently, I thought this family would be sympathetic to Israel. But their experience of living under Apartheid made them more willing to see Palestinians, who look more like Indians than Ashkenazi Jews do, as fellow travelers. The long shadow of European colonialism worldwide has unfortunately been underestimated by Likud, which focuses exclusively on the wrongs inflicted on Jews by Europeans. This hasn’t helped Israel’s future at all.
I'm starting to get concerned about antisemitism. We had dinner with our son who's a wildland firefighter and works in crews of young red-necks. They're on social media and receiving and spreading the old anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. I think part of that is the White Supremacist factions of MAGA feeling their oats, but I also think Israel's behavior in Gaza is costing Jews everywhere big time. It's only a matter of time before the photos of starving babies get to the Evangelicals and they won't like that.
I personally would like to never send another dollar to Israel. However, Israel is not American Jews or Jews worldwide. We must push back on this prejudice.
That's a lot of hogwash. Who the hell is Islam's religious leader? Why bring ignorant ideas about religions into this debate?
They don’t bother. Your comment is very tempered, but it is still the same old trope to fear Muslims. All religious extremism is dangerous for exactly the reason Cycledoc stated that they believe their religion is the one religion. If you live in the US the Christian nationalists are more dangerous than any other group. Let’s honor the constitution and keep religion out of government and accept that we each have our own spiritual path. And for some, that includes a religion, for others it does not, and then let’s live together in peace. Living in fear is debilitating. Best to find a way to live in peace.
You say that as if it were proof of your position. It's not - it is simply the absence of evidence in either direction. Also, fyi, most Christian denominations have evangelical elements that seek to broaden their membership (not all, though - Christian Scientists do not proselytize). For example, I grew up Catholic (the name means "universal," which gives a clue about its membership goals) and the Church had the Society for the Propagation of the Faith (where the word "propaganda" originated). So, I think most people expect religions to try to win over new adherents.
I am an atheist born and bread in a 100% Moslem culture. YOU ARE WRONG, if I may, bigoted wrong.
Why would anyone bother? Your commentary is so bigoted. And with the advent of social media, the excuse-making for Israel's long campaign of driving out Arabs has been blown away like the smoke it is.
We are a nation in the clutches of a cult that manipulates a large number of ignorant people. The people currently in charge of the government are mentally unstable.
It's a fact obvious to anyone familiar with Americans that it's practically an obligation for any of them, even the most progressive and reasonable like Paul Krugman, to constantly proclaim that the USA is Great. Indoctrination from an early age I suppose. They never define what 'great' actually means, which is convenient, but the subtext is always that it's the Greatest. But having lived in the US for several years, I can myself proclaim that there are dozens of other countries where I'd rather live.
I've lived here for most of 84 years [tours in Germany and Vietnam excepted], and the current mis-administration makes my teeth grate.
make amurica grate again?
It’s not an affirmation of meaningless self-congratulation but a claim to a word twisted by MAGA. It’s a great nation that can show up for itself—not the greatest, not the only great, but a great nation that can stand up to the kind of ruthless power grab Trump & his self-debasing sycophants are enacting.
Oh heavens. Every empire has proclaimed its greatness. And superiority. Every single one. Even the French, back in the day. It's a disease of imperialism.
Take note: 2 years after the end of WWII, American Fascism sat down to plot its comeback. Out of that meeting of billionaires came the right wing think tanks that subverted the laws of this land. . Communist Russia has always wanted to undermine the US-- and vice versa. It is Trump who opened the door and let them in--probably because of something buried in the Epstein files.
Thanks hadn't heard about that meeting at all.
https://www.closertotheedge.net/p/what-putin-has-on-trump
What is a "great nation"? I love John Lennon's song "Imagine" for the concept of a world without borders that create wars.
Was USA ever a great nation? It was certainly built on genocide and slavery, like so many others. But whatever it was, it was a lot better than it is now!!!
I agree with Winston. We, as a nation, were caught in the grip of the free-market Libertarian policies that were pervasive throughout western democracies. This movement created great economic inequality in many countries. The working people were hit very hard and reacted with resentment and rage against everyone. Those who prospered do not want change, but most people do want change. The people of America will need to work very hard to form a government that works for everyone. The No Kings protests show we will do the work. Many countries around the world also demonstrated with us. Together we can change.
Thanks for your comment. It’s encouraging to Americans resisting an authoritarian regime to know we have many friends around the world. We need all the support we can get.
You're very welcome. And you *know* that the good people win in the end and America will be free again. It's just a long struggle (much harder for some right now) to get to that place.
Historian here - wonderful essay Professor Krugman. Thank you as always for your leadership.
Was it me or did the NYT not give the march the prominence it deserved? It was buried deep under other less important headlines and treated like a side issue.
It's hard to be the "paper of record" when you miss the biggest story of the decade or maybe even the century.
Totally agree. Sunday night's website had nothing on No Kings 2 but plenty on Santos. A search on the NYT website for "No Kings 2" just now shows opinion pieces by Jamelle Bouie from Oct. 18 and Gary Shteyngart earlier this morning. Where's the actual coverage reporting?
Not what I found in my on-line newspaper. It had decent prominence and the article said it was the biggest protest in history considering it was nationwide. Yesterday they had a photo montage you could look through.
All the coverage in NYT was there when i got up at 6, Hawaii time (noon in the east) 90 minutes later it was gone. No sign of it. While it was still front page news on the Washington Post and the third most important story in the Guardian.
There are two articles on the protests with lots of photos and videos.
Thanks Frau, I'm glad you and Sharon were able to access the coverage. Nothing like what you viewed was available on my website for some reason, only 2 opinion pieces. I'll dive deeper to see if I can find coverage.
I searched from Google “No Kings nytimes” and that’s how I found them.
That is how the NYT, WaPo and other major media outlets misled the public about the economy under Biden — bad news about the economy prominently placed above the fold on the front page, good news buried in the back pages. For example in June last year the World Bank announced it was increasing it’s prediction for global growth and cited the strength of the US economy as the driver of that growth I fully expected that to be headline news. When I searched for it I found stories like the price of eggs on the front page but the World Bank story was either buried in a back page or not reported at all. I firmly believe that kind of cherry picked coverage is the reason millions of swing voters went to the polls convinced the economy was bad, even though the majority told pollsters they were doing well financially as were their regions. Clearly they didn’t based that judgment on “vibes” as the media claimed. Media critic Dan Froomkin cut through the lies.
“I Blame the Media”
https://criticalread.substack.com/p/i-blame-the-media
The Center for Economic Policy and Research’s Dean Baker also pulled no punches:
“Yes, the Media Lied About the Pre-Election Economy”
https://cepr.net/publications/media-lied-about-pre-election-economy/
Both deserve far more attention than they are getting.
I hate to think the two leading newspapers wanted Trump to win to increase their circulation. Can it be true?
Yes
The two leading newspapers--one owned by a very wealthy, powerful family and the other owned by a multibillionaire who is obsessed with making more money-- want things to go along well for their class. The 1% (or a small part of it). They have more in common with the right wing Wall Street Journal than anything else.
I don’t know what their reasons really are. They have to know that Trump is a threat to journalism. However I believe the reason they did such a terrible job reporting on the economy is that they have a built-in bias for conservative economic beliefs which is deeply anti-government spending and (pretends) to be horrified by debt. That is why they jumped all over Larry Summers’ proclamation that we would have to have a severe recession to bring down inflation because he believed inflation was driven by government spending . The media ignored the many liberal economists who predicted we would likely have a “soft landing” because inflation was caused mainly by supply chain disruptions caused by the covid shutdowns.
UK economist Simon Wren Lewis has written about the same media bias in the UK which he has dubbed “media macro”. The UK media also promotes austerity over government investment in the people/ economy by giving a spotlight to conservative views and mostly ignoring more centrist or liberal ones no matter how respected the economists voicing them.
“ How the broadcast media created mediamacro”
Simon Wren-Lewis / 20 Jun 2018
https://cepr.org/voxeu/blogs-and-reviews/how-broadcast-media-created-mediamacro
Bezos threw his lot in with Trump last autumn. The decline in the quality of the Post has been staggering. A large number of their best reporters and columnists left. And so has the readership. Their subscriptions have fallen to a level not seen in 55 years.
The NYT is not at that level, but never forget the Times was a big backer of the Iraq war (for which they years later "apologized" which the Post never did).
I don't know which paper if any could be considered a paper of record now. I can't see the NYT doing a "Pentagon Papers" now, can you?
Actually he didn’t come right out and say that they were toning down his praise for Biden’s economy, just that they were toning down his voice in general, but I assume that was a big part of it.
Completely agree. There was no headline on the front page online.
I think they did a better job this time. They even wrote about it the day before. Last time they didn't mention it until it happened. I think they're doing a decent job of covering it this time...given their constraints.
Also, that write-up about Epstein & Black....Trump's refiled his lawsuit against it....I'm wondering if all of these outfits now have the entire goods about Epstein and its drip, drip, drip to let Trump know they've (NYT) got his number in retaliation.
The NYT was as usual very quiet about this, as it's likely to anger Trump et al. And beyond that is the NYT's squishy and lazy "centrism." There are many hundreds of legal cases filed against Trumpism, many of which he's losing, but you would not know it from the Times. I've subscribed for years, out of desperation really, but after No Kings 2 I finally decided to cancel yesterday. Then the counter-offer popped up: "How about $1 a week for the next year?" Instead of $1 a day? Sure. The money I save there will support independent media! I want news, not some pablum the Very Comfortable Class decides is suitable.
The ONLY disappointment about the demonstration is that it got nothing like the publicity it deserved from major networks and newspapers.
Furthermore Karoline Leavitt's scripted and televised characterization of the Democratic Party base is the most disgraceful "official White House message" in American history.
What is happening to American media?
The mainstream media didn’t show much about the massive demonstrations that happened before the Iraq War either. They were in full rah! rah! mode. MSNBC infamously forced Phil Donahue that for every anti-war guest he had on he had to have two pro-war guests. Donahue counted as one anti-war person. Then they fired him even though he had their highest-rated show.
They did a couple of articles. Lots of photos and vids.
I personally wonder if 7 million people coming out for the second No Kings is a lowball estimate. Every major city, every state, had massive crowds. I’ve been to all of them so far in Hartford and we never had to park so far away from the capital, and for once it thrilled me to see traffic on the highway. The crowd felt like double the turnout in June, maybe more.
Ditto here - much, much bigger crowd in my area.
And not everyone who wanted to be there, was able to be there for a variety of reasons. We had a great turnout, too, for our small town in a red area.
Brazilian scientists from the university of Sao Paulo (USP) developped a way to count cattle using drones. They later adapted their method to count people on marches (we at the left in Brasil thought this was hilariious as we usually refer to the right supporters of Bolsonaro as cattle). It is used a lot in Brasil and usually it gives smaller numbers than what police or attendants guess.
Interesting! I looked into it after No Kings 1 in June. Drones, plus crowd-counting software are the way to go. But for 2,700 events? Some very large? Expensive, and ultimately not worth it. Because it's not how many show up for a rally of a few hours. It's how many people engage across a range of resistance activities over some considerable time.
Yes. I believe you are correct. My boyfriend and I attended, but I was the only one who signed up. I think they will adjust the numbers as they continue analysis.
Even tRump's AI-generated "King-tRump-as-fighter-pilot-bombing-crowds-with-shit" showed a yuuge assemblage of people as targets, so there's that. He knows he's hated, he knows a large proportion of the citizenry hates him, and he can't disguise that, even in a contrived video.
Yeah, but that's New York. He's been hated there for 30 years or more. All he sees elsewhere is the memories of his rallies.
Our local protest had 4X the turnout of the June protest (2,000 in Bainbridge--which we attended--and 4,000-5,000 in Solon OH). I think Indivisible was originally counting only the folks that had signed up. Based upon what we saw locally, this was much, much larger.
No Kings provided pride and hope. Feels good
A perfect musical coda to this moment. And Joan and many of us from 1963 are still alive and kicking. Thank you, Paul, for compiling this positive review of our incredibly powerful nationwide protest.
A friend of mine who attended in San Francisco Saturday said Joan Baez sang there that day!
WOW!
I heard part of an interview with her a few months ago in which she said "I don't make history anymore. I AM history." Glad to hear she's changed her mind about that.
Joan was at the protest in San Francisco, continuing to make her beautiful voice an instrument of peace and activism.
Yes! And there is a wonderful video of her speaking briefly on the stage then singing.
Joan sang at the No Kings rally in either Palo Alto or San Francisco. She's not just living she's thriving and still performing! and of course, still protesting
Absolutely, Jenn. We’ve got to get back to the garden, as the saying goes.
I'm hoping for new songs, chants and dances to emerge at this time. I'd like some new words set to Yankee Doodle. Let's juice up the creatives. Go for it Bruce Springsteen!!
I also think bringing out the old patriotic songs like America the Beautiful would be good. Go ahead and try to paint us as America-hating left wing radicals, we'll wave the flag and sing the national anthem in your face.
Yes! America the Beautiful as sung by Ray Charles! Please!
Don't leave out Richie Havens' Freedom
To extend your metaphor, The NY Times is in the bubble with a complementary mode of behavior: diminish and deny what is happening. Call it soft subservience.
Jamison Foser at Finding Gravity reports how the paper minimized coverage of No Kings Day, and described Trump’s video showing him in a jet labeled King Trump and bombing demonstrations as dropping “a brown liquid” - instead of him shitting on America. Foser also noted how the media gives GOP events much bigger coverage.
That Trump video is a huge self-own for Trump - it’s a great metaphor for what he’s doing to America. If Democrats had released it, the media would be throwing a giant hissy fit over how crude and divisive it was.
I wonder if anyone has locked down the rights to an action figure?
The video of Trump bombing demonstrators w/ feces -- literally, the enshittification of America. One of the new words we have learned as a consequence of the Trump Regime.
If the NYT did such a poor job reporting on the march and on that video, it will also miss the story from Southern California that Trump’s military extravaganza accidentally exploded ordinance on the California Highway Patrol on Saturday. Live fire demonstrations over a major highway should have been front page news even before that fiasco occurred. Shelling your own territory and people is something George III would have done 250 years ago.
No. NYT reported on it last night. Did a good job on it too. Be sure to read the articles if you can. Their headlines often don't reflect the actual reporting. They clearly told that the artillery fire over the freeway was "unusual" and not normally done by the Marines because of safety concerns. It wasn't hard to put it together that the military was "encouraged, compelled?" to do it by Hegseth and Vance.
Sorry to all that want to dump on the NYT, I'm not thrilled with their obedience in advance, however, Trump's suing them again, so they haven't gotten a totally free pass. They are bending in the wind.
Probably made by Stephen Miller or an aide. I doubt Trump could make those videos on his own. But he definitely approves!
And what do you make of the media coverage of the protests, i.e. NYTimes? Columbia Journalism School professor Bill Grueskin: "Their top headlines on the upper-right corner of Page One — traditionally, where readers’ eyes go first — start with ‘Little Urgency from Trump’ and ‘Democrats’ Ads Make Old Pitch.’ A more soporific set of headlines would be hard to write.”
Yup. They had an article about Trump posting the AI video of him dumping poop from a plane on demonstrators. The article said it was "a brown liquid" and a couple sentences later, "a brown liquid resembling feces". REALLY?! They could not come out and say Trump posted a video of him dumping poop on demonstrators. SMH.
I hope the next step in this effort is to demonstrate the economic power of this movement. When an estimated 8 million people withdraw their economic support (hello Tesla Takedown) for organizations supporting this tin pot dictatorship, then the impact will truly be felt. I live in an area where Quakerism is strong and we can all learn from Quakers’ embrace of simplicity. Plus, withdrawal of financial support of this faux-gilded regime is an appropriate and meaningful response to its excesses.
Make sure you let them know why you're boycotting their stuff. It worked with Disney.
My Jewish mother grew up in Nazi Germany and had an absolute horror of flags, parades, mass gatherings. On Saturday I overcame my inherited fear of crowds and joined my local group - No Kings in Queens! - and waved my flag like mad. I think Mum would approve.
I recommend reading the sad confession from a former GOP operative (Miles Bruner) in the Bulwark today.. He spent years building what we see now knowing very early that things had turned toxic. He went along for years and years mostly by focusing on his family and heavy-duty compartmentalizing. I suspect this story is common. I hope he can be hired by the DNC or similar to gain some intel on their strategies and techniques. https://open.substack.com/pub/thebulwark/p/my-last-day-as-an-accomplice-of-the-republican-party-miles-bruner?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
That is an interesting read!
Thank you for the link!
My next read!
Trump’s responses to massive protests are predictable. He sees only what he wants to see. So, he saw and liked a particularly stupid video portraying him piloting a jet, wearing a crown and dropping a slurry of shit on protestors. What he didn’t see was the fact that the shit spweing video was a perfect metaphor for Trump and his adherents.
Caligula - "Let them hate me, so long as they fear me."
To show how much Trump cares about rule of law, he released George Santos from Prison.
I don't think that matters very much, unless DonnyJon plans to give him a government job. I don't think he will do well on the outside, after the way he cheated his supporters.
Andy Borowitz had a post in which George Santos is a newly appointed press secretary (satire of course).
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/prince-andrew-announces-he-will-move
He also had a satirical post claiming that Soros had to declare bankruptcy after paying all of us to show up. He had to liquidate most of his assets, including his share in the "space lasers owned by the Rothschild family." "They may be anarchists, but they don't work for free."
I didn't get my check, and now he's bankrupt! Phooey!
He’s hilarious!
Those comments reveal how stupid he believes his MAGAts to be.