The Long, Downward Dissent

I think one of the most notable things about the No Kings rallies across the country yesterday was how the MAGOPs clearly had no idea how to address it.  And the problem with not knowing how to address their problem means they have no idea how to fix it.  And so, their main talking points -- that they kept relentlessly repeating -- were all meaningless.  Worse, they were all things that they not only knew were completely untrue, but also knew that there would be massive news video coverage showing their repeated claims were completely untrue.

They kept saying it would be a "Hate America" rally -- but they knew from the first No Kings rally over the Summer that the message from the rally and all the homemade signs would be exactly what the actual name of the rallies were:  against having a despotic, autocratic, dictatorial king in America.  As video showed clearly that it did.

They kept insisting it would be a violent rally -- but they knew from the first No Kings rally over the Summer that it was not only unlikely to have any violence, but also that it would have an almost party-carnival atmosphere.  As video showed clearly that it did.

They kept downplaying the size of the crowd, insisting it would be small -- but they knew that the first No Kings rally over the Summer got five million Americans protesting, and that this event would most likely be much more.  As video show that it was, with an estimated crowd size of seven million.

It's not just they they were so overwhelmingly wrong in their proclamations, with video to back up how wrong they were -- it's that being so wrong causes them to look foolish and lose credibility.  And they knew this would be the case.  But they did it anyway -- and kept doing it.  Because they had no idea how to address it.

There also were a lot of supposedly "gotcha" tweets about how there was proof that George Soros was actually funding the No Kings rallies.  On every level, this was a ludicrous tactic, since it was dripping with anti-Semitism to outrage the anti-Semitic MAGA base, who would be the only people to even remotely care (and be outraged).  Never mind that it transcended loony to think one person was funding an event organized by many disparate groups and sponsored by over 60.  Never mind that even if someone did, it would be perfectly fine.  And never mind that it allowed it being mentioned that if one was really concerned about political funding, then Trump and his family were being openly funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which is actually a threat to national security.

The one good thing from this charge, though, was that it brought about one of my favorite signs I saw online --

​Eventually, they tried a different tactic at the last minute, as MAGOPs and the MAGAsphere (who read the memo) tried to ridicule the massive rallies as having no meaning, since, after all... America doesn't have a king!!  Man, talk about missing the point.  This was like standing five feet from a barn, throwing a ball at it -- and missing the barn.  My favorite attempt came from Sen. Mike Lee (MAGOP-UT) who tried to ridicule the event by tweeting that if America actually had a king, he would never let the rallies occur, which therefore is proof that there is no king in America.  (I replied, in part, by noting that, as it happens, England actually has a real king, and they have government protests all the time.  And further, history is full of examples of the citizenry rising up against despotic kings -- which tended not to work out well for the kings.

And when none of this dissuaded seven million Americans to rally and protest against kings in the U.S -- all Trump and MAGOPs had left was for him to post an AI video of him wearing a crown, piloting a fighter jet and dumping a mass of sh*t over American citizens protesting him and his enabling party.  NOTE: This is not normal.

(And a Side Note to the New York Times, which described the dump as nothing more than "a stream of brown liquid."  No, it was far, far, far worse than that.  It was a mountain of sh*t.  If their sensibility was too genteel, like mine, they could have written "excrement" or "feces" or even just "poop."  But instead, calling it merely "brown liquid" misses the entire point of how disgusting and reprehensible the video was, which weakens the public's response to the story, most especially for those who haven't seen it.)

In the end, not having a clue on how to address the rallies didn't just lose credibility for MAGOPs, but it showed desperation.  Which, for a political party, might be the biggest sin of all. 

Indeed, as Salon's Sophia Tesfaye wrote far more pithily than all this above, "The right’s response to No Kings wasn’t just politically telling. It was conceptually damning.  If a protest warns that someone is behaving like a king, and the accused responds by laughing, wearing a crown and declaring 'You’re just mad I’m winning' — you have your answer."

I ended up going to the rally in Santa Monica, held at the Pacific Palisades.  I thought about going to Downtown L.A. where the crowd would be huge and there'd be TV coverage -- but I  went there last time, and also Santa Monica was a whole lot closer and more convenient.  But also, in fairness, if you're going to protest, sometimes a nice location is a bonus.

​And yes, I know this looks a little like the finale sequence in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  But it's not, that is further south towards San Diego.  No "Big W" here.

The crowd was much smaller than Downtown, of course, but it was still a good turnout for a small location.  I'd guess that it was around 1,000 people, give or take.  (I couldn't tell because I couldn't see how far down the Palisades it went on.  But there were little kids, the elderly in wheelchairs, a lot of dogs, and every generation in between.

​I thought I might run into people I knew, though a lot who I did know probably went Downtown where the Writers Guild was meeting up.  The only person I did know was my former doctor, who retired two years ago.  He checked up on my health, and all's well.  And I checked up on his poker playing, which is fine, too.

There were a lot of good signs, but my favorite was this one about a local guy --

​Still, it was a nice location to wander around, which I know wasn't the point, but it did help make for a festive atmosphere which -- which while it wasn't the point either -- was, sort of, one of the underlying points.  A good camaraderie uniting for a good cause.

But...but...well, it's really hard not to note the location.  If you're going to protest, it's hard to top this by much.

It was a good crowd, it was peaceful, there was no violence, there were no kings, there were (happily) giant animal costumes made so popular in Portland and...in the end, there were actual animals, too.  Making sure it was all safe.

​And the one major thing there wasn't -- was a check from George Soros.