Yes, No Kings

Leading up to the No Kings rallies on Sunday, there was something I had noticed on social media, which wasn’t mentioned much on TV.  But before the two previous No Kings rallies, social media was inundated by MAGOPs in Congress and the White House pounding away at how violent the rallies were going to be with communist and fascist coordinators who hate America putting it together, and all these anti-American groups paying for everything to get people there.  This time around, however – after the last rallies were totally peaceful and almost joyfully carnival-like – there was zero online commentary by MAGOPs about the No Kings day. 

Clearly, they learned their lesson, and the memo went out to not say anything.  Which means they’ve accepted that there is nothing “un-American” about the rallies at all.  Nothing radical.  Nothing commie or fascist.  Just American citizens peacefully protesting and having fun while doing it.

There was a huge rally in downtown Los Angeles, though I chose to go to one being held in Santa Monica, along the Palisades.  Not only was it only about a 15-minute drive from my home, but this was the environment you’d be picketing at.

​And yes, I know that shouldn't base where you picket on the view -- and I didn't, the nearby location was the reason -- but c'mon, seriously, this didn't hurt.

Though crowds were massive across the country – and even around the world – larger than the previous No Kings event last June, it wasn’t as large in Santa Monica.  Though it’s possible it may have been, but they organized it differently on Sunday.  Last year, there was a gathering place where everyone went to, and so the size of the crowd was easy to determine.  This past weekend, though, they didn’t have that, and instead people picketed up and down the Palisades (the park that overlooks the Pacific Ocean), so everyone was spread out over perhaps a half-mile.

In fairness, there was one group of picketers who did have the good sense to make their presence felt by getting together as a group.   They didn't carry signs, but then neither did I.  But as you can see, especially from the fellow in the lower left, they were ready to march.​

​(And this is only a tiny sample of the contingent.  I am not exaggerating when I say that Squirrels Against Trump had 100-150 proud members there.  If my friend Rob Hedden knew that this is where they were meeting, I am sure he would have driven up to join them in solidarity.)

The official report on numbers from all the No Kings rallies hasn't been determined yet, but the preliminary estimate is that it set a record for the largest, peaceful protest ever in the country, with over 8 million Americans. 

As much as MAGOP officials did their best to ignore the No Kings event beforehand, once all the news hit TV throughout the day, with video of the massive crowds -- and massive peaceful, generally festive crowds -- they seemed to get a bit freaked out  and realized they had to say something after the fact (especially when compared to competing video over the same weekend of all the empty seats at the least-attended, conservative CPAC convention in many years, so poorly-attended that even Trump decided not to go, the first he's missed since running for office, no doubt not wanting to be tarred by association, knowing his obsessive love for big crowds).

And so there were attempts afterwards by a few MAGOP officials to try and find something, anything they could to criticize about the No Kings rallies.  But it was very half-hearted.  Sen. Mike Lee (MAGOP-Utah) tried to point out that Independence Day was the real "No Kings Day" -- missing the point that he just drew a direct connection between American Independence and the whole reason why the rallies were being held.  The worst that most MAGOPs could come up with was to show the same photo of someone who spray-painted a reprehensible message about ICE -- and it wasn't even pointed to as being indicative of the rallies, but just something bad that took place there, painted by one single person out of over eight million.

In fact, even the always-empty Scott Jennings seemed lethargic on CNN even by his rock-bottom standards when the best he could offer was a parody of himself, tweeting that "The flags flown at the No Kings Rallies were pretty representative of the Democratic coalition: communist hammer & sickle, trans, Hezbollah, Hamas, & all being waved by weirdo boomers. If you want to know where the energy on the left is - they showed you."

Man, talk about showing the lethargic energy on the right.  That's like almost not even trying, but knowing you have to type something and you're on deadline, so you quickly scroll through your file of past slurs.

But yes, they sure did show you (and "they" wasn't just "the left," but masses of Americans outraged by Trump).  Over 8 million Americans...of all beliefs -- up from first, 5 million, and then 7 million people-- uniting to defend democracy from efforts to strip it away for fascist, authoritarian rule.

And in the end, this might have been my favorite sign of all --