Yesterday's Massive "No Kings" Protests

 

It was massive and widespread, and a historic repudiation of the most evil, corrupt, incompetent, would-be-king in American history:

The demonstration outside the Minnesota State Capitol for the marquee "No Kings" rally, with Bruce Springsteen and Jane Fonda on the bill, wasn't the most notable development during the day of protests on March 28.

More notable was the "No Kings" march in Staunton, Virginia. And Salisbury, Maryland. Rockford, Illinois. Beaver, Pennsylvania. Eugene, Oregon. Chillicothe, Ohio. Port Huron, Michigan. Flatwoods, West Virginia. And more than 3,000 other places across the country, plus a scattering around the world. [snip]

It was among the largest protests in American history.

The organizers' crowd count, not verified by independent analysts, put the total at 8 million people, topping the 7 million estimated at the last "No Kings" day, in October 2025. This time, there were more events scheduled − 3,300 versus 2,700 − and larger crowds reported in some places, boosted in part by opposition to the war in Iran.

The only larger single-day protest ever held in the United States was the first Earth Day in 1970, when an estimated 20 million participated in environmental rallies and teach-ins.

Consider this: In a nation with a population approaching 349 million, the participation of 8 million people means that more than one of every 50 U.S. residents joined a No Kings rally.

Organizers said two-thirds of the participants who signed up lived outside big cities, a 40% increase over last time in those from suburban, small town and rural addresses.  [snip]

The profusion of locations for the third event means the marches may have commanded less national news coverage than iconic protests that centered on Washington, DC, including the civil rights March on Washington in 1963 and the antiwar Vietnam Moratorium protest in 1969.

But the fact that the rallies were in local plazas and the marchers headed down hometown streets also, presumably, makes it more difficult for critics to dismiss the protests as the province of radical liberals from the East and West coasts... (our emphasis)

"🎶 All you fascists bound to lose, all you fascists bound to lose..."

(Photo:  "No Kings" protest in St. Paul, MN / Nicole Neri, Minnesota Reformer)

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

The “No Kings” protests in every state may have been the biggest day of demonstrations in American history, a data analyst has suggested.

“Based on hundreds of crowd-sourced records of No Kings Day event turnout, and extrapolating for the cities where we don’t have data yet, it looks like roughly 4-6m people protested Trump across the U.S. yesterday,” independent data journalist G Elliott posted to X Sunday. 

For reference, that’d mean Saturday’s demonstrations featured 1-2 percent of the total population of 340 million taking to the streets in more than 2,000 cities to voice their opposition to the increasingly authoritarian, far-right policies the president has pursued since assuming office for the second time.

The “No Kings” rallies follow after a spate of demonstrations against immigration raids carried out in Los Angeles and the surrounding area last week, to which Trump deployed 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marines over the objection of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

In a full report on the figures from Saturday’s demonstrations, Morris added that mounting backlash against Trump’s second term has also witnessed “dramatically more protest activity” than during his first stint in the White House.

Since his inauguration in January, Trump’s administration has witnessed more than 15,000 protests and rallies, representing a threefold increase in the number of public demonstrations that had taken place by this point in 2017...

Regardless of the ultimate figures, the "No Kings" events were highly successful -- peaceful (on the whole) and energized.  They showed the kind of energy and focus that we need more of in our political leaders.  The contrast with the Malignant Fascist's low- energy Dear Leader parade was incredible. The times call for fighters, not huggers.

The bad:

President Donald Trump on Sunday directed federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities, a move that comes after large protests erupted in Los Angeles and other major cities against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Trump in a social media posting called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials “to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”

He added that to reach the goal officials ”must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside.”

Trump’s declaration comes after weeks of increased enforcement, and after Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said ICE officers would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first five months of Trump’s second term.  [snip]

The shift also come as Trump is grappling with the impact his mass deportation effort is having on key industries that rely on workers in the country illegally.

Trump posted on his Truth Social site Thursday that he heard from hotel, agriculture and leisure industries that his “very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them” and promised that changes would be made .

That same day Tatum King, an official with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, wrote to regional leaders telling them to halt investigations of the agriculture industry, including meatpackers, as well as of restaurants and hotels, according to the U.S. official.

This is the Malignant Fascist's vicious response to the protests in Los Angeles and the "No Kings" demonstrations nationwide on Saturday.  He's determined, apparently, to pour gasoline on the flames wherever he can, but particularly in blue states and cities, while chickening out (TACO!) when his business supporters squeal.  What a hateful, bumbling ass.

The ugly:

U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), an ally to President Donald Trump, is in hot water over a social media post.

Lee on Sunday took to X and posted a photo of a man accused of posing as a police officer and shooting two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses.

Along with the image, Lee confusingly wrote, "This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way."

The comment seemingly contradicts a statement by the alleged shooter's best friend, who suggested the suspect is a strong supporter of the president.

The statement didn't sit well with numerous notable political experts and observers.

Podcast host Brett Meiselas said, "For a U.S. senator to be posting fake information like this after Democratic lawmakers were just shot is just so beneath contempt I don’t even know where to begin."

"In a normal world this would be grounds for expulsion or censure at minimum but we live in hell so," he added on Sunday.

Conservative anti-Trump activist Rick Wilson said, "The surgery to remove your sense of shame was a success. Congrats, I guess."

Democratic pollster Matt McDermott said, "Yesterday, a Trump supporter went on an assassination spree targeting Democrats. Today, a GOP Senator mocks their murder."

"This isn’t politics — it’s depraved moral rot," the strategist added.

Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, chimed in:

"This is an honest to god U.S. senator who either has had his brain broken by the internet or is posturing as such to appeal to the most dishonest, deranged, and/or stupid people online."

Lee is one of the more despicable MAGAts in a movement of despicable bottom- feeding crackpots and fascists.  He's a very bad reflection on the State of Utah.