General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"No Kings" worked brilliantly.
From a rhetorical perspective, the name was perfect. The events name activated the nation.
Millions protested Putins poodle and wannabe dick-tater.
Why? People understood the meaning behind it.

Walleye
(41,020 posts)Kid Berwyn
(20,711 posts)
From a social media: The crowd was so dense that officials had to close the bridge and allow only pedestrians. The weight of the crowd caused the bridges suspension deck to flatten, eliminating the slight upward arch that normally characterizes the roadway. All 419,000 tons groaned and swayed in the wind. While the bridge was structurally sound and did not suffer any damage, the change in shape was alarming to many pedestrians. Engineers described it as a once-in-a-lifetime event, but stressed that there was no real danger.
Hope my error didn't hurt your delicate sensibilities or harm your critical faculties.
pimpbot
(1,090 posts)That picture is from 1987. I'm not sure where the paragraph came from but its similar to news articles about a 1987 march on the bridge. I SO SO SO SO hate social media. Everything is fake, AI, or misleading. We have to stop reposting this crap.
Link to article about the 1987 pic:
https://www.timesheraldonline.com/2012/05/27/golden-gate-bridges-75th-anniversary-comes-with-legacy-of-dreams-hope-despair/
ETA: I'm kinda pissed about this because last night people were posting things about Boston using pictures from April. If you are going to repost from social media you really need to do your homework. Unless you are deliberately spreading false information.
I'm not sure why we don't have an "alert" category for false information.
Kid Berwyn
(20,711 posts)Shit, I had no idea. I'll take it down right awaty.
So sorry.
pimpbot
(1,090 posts)Sorry didn't mean to single you out, just been seeing a lot of fake or false stuff flying around lately.
Walleye
(41,020 posts)Kid Berwyn
(20,711 posts)Like the late, great American, Al Capone said when facing US Rep. Elise Stefanik, "I'm not an animal."
Must be interesting to feel no shame.
Walleye
(41,020 posts)Moostache
(10,589 posts)"No Kings" is simple and easy to comprehend and get behind.
Fair taxation policy and educational affordability or healthcare subtleties can get a bit confusing for anyone not affected or paying attention... Now the real trick is at hand - converting these new initiates into true believers the same way the GOP captured nominal Christians with "pro-Life" (at least until birth, then fuck those kids for having bad parents)...
America's 250th birthday next July? Its gonna be wild.
Kid Berwyn
(20,711 posts)We must harness the enthusiastic support of freedom garnered by No Kings. However, I still find it puzzling that between 2020-2024, he managed to avoid being held accountable. It wasn't just a stacked Supreme Court protecting his pimply backsides. His talking turds, like Rupert Murdoch, helped the traitor control the narrative. Here's what I suggested Plouffe and the Democratic doctors of spin use in the run-up to the election:
Donald J Trump represents the most successful spy operation of all time. And thanks to Just-us John Roberts redefining the meaning of "Insurrection" and the very words of the Constitution of the United States of America, an active Russian agent has been allowed to return to the Oval Office to again "serve" as the pee-resident.
Normally, I'd say: "Think about that!" But, destroying truth is what tyrants do. It's why they hate a free press.
It's why trumpf is doing all he can to sue anyone who ever wrote anything bad about him. Now he has the DoJ doing his dirty work and handing the legal bill to the U.S. taxpayer.
The photo of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and dip above was taken by TASS, the official Russian news agency. The US media were not informed about the 2017 visit. We learned about it because the Unstable Moron himself spread the pic proudly on social media.
How many people do you know whove seen that picture or the one below, taken on an earlier date in the Oval Office? Again, very few.
I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job," Trump said, according to The Times. "I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off.
"I'm not under investigation," he added.
Sources:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/10/527755991/trump-meets-with-russias-lavrov-at-the-white-house-today
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-nut-job-james-comey-russia-2017-5
And this is the man leading the "restructuring of American government" today winking at Putin at a diplomatic affair during his first madministration.
No wonder Putin, the Kremlin and the GRU and whatever the KGB is called these days call him "America's Gorbachev." Gorby sped up the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Now Putin returns the favor through Trump and his destruction of America's economy, hailed just before the 2024 election by The Economist as "The Envy of the World."
Someone call the Military Police: traitor salutes a general of the nation which seized in 1968 and still illegally holds the USS Pueblo, a commissioned vessel on the active roll of the United States Navy, the second longest-serving ship in active service second only to the USS Constitution.
Seriously. Lock up spies. And traitors.
bucolic_frolic
(50,866 posts)"No Kings" beat "Make America Great Again".
No Kings is a return to America's roots. Everyone gets it. Bingo.
Kid Berwyn
(20,711 posts)Mention "Child, Earned Income Tax Credit."
And yet, we bog ourselves down talking about specific policies. And that's with paying consultants millions of bucks to come up with a winning message.
Meanwhile, Putin's Puppet says: "Make America Great Again" and the KKK hears "Make America White Again."
The rich who support Trump will often say, "It's for the tax breaks I give him support," but really in their heart of hearts they are as low as the KKK and for the same reasons.
Scrivener7
(56,008 posts)blubunyip
(183 posts)I agree. "No Dictators" would have worked, but the reference back to King George was a stroke of genius-- it emphasizes our common heritage no matter the party.
I also like the way these really big Mobilize ones are named. Providing a reference and a loose theme.
NO
Kid Berwyn
(20,711 posts)
Me, I always over-sell.
Johnny2X2X
(22,935 posts)Very successful events. The left has been energized and the right seems shook by all the comments from them about this, "these people don't even know what they're protesting." "I think most of them are paid to be there." "Dems didn't even have a primary..."
Kid Berwyn
(20,711 posts)...in addition to the in-person events. Otherwise, people are just gonna hear the drone coming out of the tee vee -- a drone fashioned 24/7/366 by the dulcet tones of Rupert Murdoch and CIABCNNBCBSFakeNoiseNutworks.
Perhaps the pukes are too far gone to understand, given the media environment. Details, courtesy of Greenpeace:
The Lewis Powell Memo: A Corporate Blueprint to Dominate Democracy
The Powell Memo (also known as the Powell Manifesto)
The Powell Memo was first published August 23, 1971
Introduction
In 1971, Lewis Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of 11 corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powells nomination by President Nixon to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Powell Memo did not become available to the public until long after his confirmation to the Court. It was leaked to Jack Anderson, a liberal syndicated columnist, who stirred interest in the document when he cited it as reason to doubt Powells legal objectivity. Anderson cautioned that Powell might use his position on the Supreme Court to put his ideas into practice in behalf of business interests.
Though Powells memo was not the sole influence, the Chamber and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades. The memo influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations. Their long-term focus began paying off handsomely in the 1980s, in coordination with the Reagan Administrations hands-off business philosophy.
Most notable about these institutions was their focus on education, shifting values, and movement-building a focus we share, though often with sharply contrasting goals.* (See our endnote for more on this.)
So did Powells political views influence his judicial decisions? The evidence is mixed. Powell did embrace expansion of corporate privilege and wrote the majority opinion in First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, a 1978 decision that effectively invented a First Amendment right for corporations to influence ballot questions. On social issues, he was a moderate, whose votes often surprised his backers.
CONTINUED...
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/
Additional important history to know...
Alex Carey: Corporations and Propaganda
The Attack on Democracy
The 20th century, said Carey, is marked by three historic developments: the growth of democracy via the expansion of the franchise, the growth of corporations, and the growth of propaganda to protect corporations from democracy. Carey wrote that the people of the US have been subjected to an unparalleled, expensive, 3/4 century long propaganda effort designed to expand corporate rights by undermining democracy and destroying the unions. And, in his manuscript, unpublished during his life time, he described that history, going back to World War I and ending with the Reagan era. Carey covers the little known role of the US Chamber of Commerce in the McCarthy witch hunts of post WWII and shows how the continued campaign against "Big Government" plays an important role in bringing Reagan to power.
John Pilger called Carey "a second Orwell", Noam Chomsky dedicated his book, Manufacturing Consent, to him. And even though TUC Radio runs our documentary based on Carey's manuscript at least every two years and draws a huge response each time, Alex Carey is still unknown.
Given today's spotlight on corporations that may change. It is not only the Occupy movement that inspired me to present this program again at this time. By an amazing historic coincidence Bill Moyers and Charlie Cray of Greenpeace have just added the missing chapter to Carey's analysis. Carey's manuscript ends in 1988 when he committed suicide. Moyers and Cray begin with 1971 and bring the corporate propaganda project up to date.
This is a fairly complex production with many voices, historic sound clips, and source material. The program has been used by writers and students of history and propaganda. Alex Carey: Taking the Risk out of Democracy, Corporate Propaganda VS Freedom and Liberty with a foreword by Noam Chomsky was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1995.
Source: TUC Radio
Part 1: https://tucradio.org/podcasts/newest-podcasts/alex-carey-corporations-and-propaganda-part-one-of-two/
Part 2: https://tucradio.org/podcasts/newest-podcasts/alex-carey-corporations-and-propaganda-part-two-of-two/
Absolutely, Johnny2X2X: "No Kings" was a teaching moment that cut through.
malaise
(285,372 posts)Most excellent
Kid Berwyn
(20,711 posts)Thank you, malaise! I am spitting mad about the lack of news coverage. If I'm not mistaken, and I can be permitted to borrow a photo without accrediting the source, I believe this was taken outside where Donald the Taco King of All Putins squats.
No Kings Was Biggest Protest in U.S. History: Data Analyst
Will Neal
by Will Neal
The Daily Beast, June 15, 2025
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 dont 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, thatd mean Saturdays 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.
Snip...
Since his inauguration in January, Trumps 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.
Continues...
https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-kings-biggest-protest-u-172552711.html
It's up to us: We the People who care about Democracy.
Blue Full Moon
(2,270 posts)
Kid Berwyn
(20,711 posts)Outstanding sign, sticker and photo.
Trump ruined my Flag Day. That guy and 12 or 13 million other Americans made it the best Flag Day ever.
H2O Man
(76,937 posts)I noted that people at the rally I attended were much more positive about our ability to win this struggle.
Kid Berwyn
(20,711 posts)
A well-deserved commemoration for the first of our nation's Armed Forces.
(Note: Front row, lowest to the left; the small hands and sad clown wug on King Taco of All Putins, the Birthday Boy.)
Bluesaph
(911 posts)Kid Berwyn
(20,711 posts)Check out Blue Full Moon at 17 above.
''
marked50
(1,503 posts)Is this a "take off" of the Movie "Zardoz"? Just wondering.
Kid Berwyn
(20,711 posts)...a sci-fi monstrosity, Zardoz!
marked50
(1,503 posts)When I saw your picture it immediately triggered the "Zardoz" memory. Haven't seen it for many, many years. Agree with the Sci-Fi monstrosity. Probably Sean Connery's worst or at least weirdest movie.
The only use I've had for the Movie is when I need to come up with something in Word games that start with a "Z".
Scrivener7
(56,008 posts)