Hope for America and the world: the No Kings movement is just getting stronger

 

You gave the man your eyes
so you could sleep at night
but you still hear their cries
you can't outrun this shame.
this land was yours and mine
until they bled it dry
history won't be kind
to those who turned the other way
~ Earth to Eve, "Have you heard the news" (addressing MAGA cult members)

Millions of Americans -- and people the world over -- have not turned the other way. Indeed, as the Trump regime doubles and triples down on its horrendous overreach, fascist policies and actions, and shameless attempts to destroy civil rights and shred the Constitution, the resistance seems to be hitting its stride at last -- that is, if the massive turnout for the October 18, 2025 No Kings protests is any indication.

Here is a link on the Talking Points Memo site to a few photos and videos from just some of the demonstrations. You can find much, much more online with even a casual search.

And, just like the previous No Kings events on June 14, 2025, the October 18 demonstrations stretched far beyond the borders of the US. Our wonderful but worried neighbors (or neighbours) to the North showed up by the thousands, from Vancouver to Toronto to Montreal. The tone across Canada has been one of firm support and shared purpose. Canadians are clearly watching developments in the U.S. closely — and they’re not staying silent. They're really, really worried about us. (And I am too.)

Several major cities in Europe and the UK also participated in demonstrations.

Reportedly even Australia rallied to the cause as well, from Sidney to Melbourne to Brisbane. While turnout was reported to be modest in comparison to No Kings events elsewhere, it's good to know the Aussies have our backs. I'll add a good link as soon as I can find one; the link I'd intended to use has been 404'd. But I know from communicating with my friends in Oz, and from reading posts by Australian participants on social media, that they do indeed have our backs.

I have also seen unverified reports of a small demonstration in Seoul, South Korea, and there's a video circulating on BlueSky of what looks like a pretty significant march that the person sharing the video, with the hashtag NoKings, claimed took place in South Korea and was in support of US democracy. I watched the video but couldn't understand what was being shouted, and I couldn't read the marchers' signs, so I can't verify. There's a lot going on there, and South Koreans have held other political demonstrations recently. I'll update if I find out any more specifics about a protest or demonstration in South Korea in support of the No Kings events in America.

But clearly, South Korea is paying attention to what's going on within the borders of their increasingly unreliable (thanks to Trump) ally. Other parts of Asia, as well as Latin America, have apparently been paying attention as well, and I have seen scattered reports that they're showing early signs of engagement in the larger movement against authoritarianism. I think we can expect more as the movement grows. For now, the verified and well-sourced reports of participation by other countries is immensely gratifying.

The pearl clutchers were ludicrously wrong
Contrary to the alarmist rants and warnings and outrageous lies from the Trump regime, the protests showed that the millions of participants in the No Kings demonstrations have an abiding love for America. Here's just one dispatch from a northwest suburb of my beloved former hometown of Houston. I'm friends in real life with the person in the frog costume, who explained to the reporter that the demonstrators were out in the wilting Texas heat because they love their country.

Moreover the No Kings events on October 18 were overwhelmingly peaceful, with no major disturbances reported. There was significant law enforcement and in several areas National Guard presence at demonstrations across the US, but while visible, they were by and large non-confrontational. In fact police departments in some areas coordinated with the organizers of the No Kings events to help ensure peaceful demonstrations.

A few incidents and arrests occurred in some locations, mostly involving counter-protesters, presumably Trump supporters. Other reported incidents either involved ICE and were separate from the main No Kings events, or happened late at night with stragglers hours after the main events had concluded.

• In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 59-year-old woman who was wearing a Trump T-shirt was arrested for brandishing a firearm from her vehicle near the No Kings protest at Chapin Memorial Park. She expressed regret and claimed that the gun was unloaded, but she was charged with two counts of pointing and presenting a firearm. According to the article I linked to, public records indicate that she isn't even legally allowed to possess a firearm or deadly weapons. On Sunday a judge set her bond at $100,000, which she posted later that day, after which she was released.
• In Detroit, Michigan, a counter-protester supporting President Trump was arrested for scuffling with demonstrators who were peacefully marching on Michigan Avenue.
• In Portland, Oregon, three arrests were made following late-night clashes between protesters and federal agents outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. Law enforcement used tear gas and crowd control measures. But this was separate from the No Kings protests in the area. It was just ICE doing more of what ICE has been doing in Portland and other cities for months now.
• In Broadview, Illinois, several people were arrested near a local ICE facility, with some charges related to disorderly conduct and disobeying police orders. These incidents were reportedly separate from the main "No Kings" march in Chicago, which was peaceful.
• In LA, while the main protest was peaceful in Los Angeles that day, late-night dispersal orders led to arrests after some smaller groups refused to leave the downtown area.
• And in a few cities, such as Ocala, Florida, there were verbal confrontations between MAGA counter-protesters and No Kings participants, but no arrests or violence were confirmed.

Additional isolated incidents will no doubt surface in the days and weeks to come, so the above list is of course not comprehensive. But in most of the large blue cities that Trump and his goons and supporters love to hate there were no major incidents. And across the country, there wasn't a single riot or terrorist attack or attempt to overthrow the government. Sorry, pearl clutchers.

Mango Mussolini is in deep denial (and deep doo-doo)
And what did Trump, the man-baby who would be king, think about the overwhelming displays of resistance against His Mango Majesty? Well, there's the now-infamous Donald Dump video, which as far as I'm concerned should be declared the official video of the Turd Reich: an AI-generated vid of MAGA's big hero wearing a crown while flying a fighter jet over the Big Apple (the city that rejected him), and dumping poop over a huge crowd of protesters. It was posted to his Truth Social account -- here's a direct link -- and the Internet can't stop buzzing about it.

There have been contradictory reports about just when this video was originally posted. Some accounts say it was posted on Friday by his communications team, ahead of the demonstrations, and was amplified by his campaign team. (That's what I originally reported here.) But most sources are saying that Trump posted the vid on Saturday after the events had begun, in reaction to all of the buzz about the protests.

On the Truth Social site there's no date/time indicator on the post that I can see, but maybe that's just because I'm not a member of Truth Social. I'm not going to join just to see if I can find out when the video was originally posted. I suppose it doesn't really matter; what seems clear is that Trump hasn't disavowed it, and the MAGAs are absolutely giddy about what they see as clever trolling. Talk about owning the libs/Democrats/"radical left"/Trump critics! King Donald sure showed them, didn't he?

By and large the criticism of the poop vid focuses on how unprecedented and unpresidential and just generally unhinged it is. On the other hand, some critics have also pointed out that this video is actually far more accurate than most of what spews from the Trump propaganda machine. It's an apt metaphor not only for how he sees himself but also for what he's doing to the nation. Notwithstanding his repeated claims that "I am not a king!", he acts like a king wannabe, and he is in so many ways dumping on the American people.

And he's not just dumping on the libs. The problem for the MAGAs who are so busy cheering the ca-ca king is that most of them simply don't realize yet that they're getting shat on as well.

One of my favorite responses so far to the poop-shooting video is from political commentator, comedian, and social media influencer Maggie Reed, aka Mermaidmamamaggie, whom I adore. I just love that woman's smirk. She smirks better than just about anyone I have ever seen. In a short reel posted on October 18, Reed manages to communicate, with her facial expressions and a few pertinent visuals, that there's a yuuuuge difference between childish trolling for the base and acknowledging the harsh reality that most Americans despise Trump and what his regime is doing to our beloved country.

Meanwhile Trump continues to protest-too-much that he's "not a king," and he dismisses the October 18 protests as NBD. During a brief press interaction aboard his plane on Sunday, October 19, he had this to say when a reporter asked him for his response to the No Kings protests (thanks to Bryan Tyler Cohen for the reel):

I think it's a joke. I looked at the people, they're not representative of this country. And I looked at all the brand new signs paid for -- I guess it was paid for by Soros and other radical left lunatics. It looks like it was, we're checking it out. The demonstrations were very small, very ineffective, and the people were whacked-out. When you look at those people, those are not representative of the people of our country.

Then he added, "By the way I'm not a king. I'm not a king. I work my ass off to make our country great. That's all it is. I'm not a king at all."

I'm no expert on abnormal psychology, but offhand I'd say that Trump's dismissal of the mass protest is the declaration of a man who is in deep denial and who, despite his arrogance, is scared... well, sh-tless.

* * * * *

Due to a combination of personal circumstances, I was unable to attend a No Kings event in my area. But I was with all of them in spirit. And seeing some of the photos and videos of the massive crowds actually brought tears to my eyes as I realized that there still seems to be hope in the fight against tyranny.

I'll leave you with a couple of videos that do not involve poop-dumping, and a link to a post by one of my favorite foul-mouthed commentators.

First, if you haven't done so already, check out the song linked to at the head of this post, by an amazing young talent going by the name Earth to Eve. She actually composed a song specifically for No Kings 2, but I don't yet have a link to a full version. For now, "Have you heard the news" (here's a direct link) sums up the state of affairs under Trump very powerfully and eloquently.

And then there's Jasmyne A. Cannick, who, unlike our esteemed leaders, said what needed to be said in response to Trump press puppet Karolyin' Leavitt's declaration that the Democratic Party's main constituency is "Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals." Forget "when they go low, we go high." I am a big fan of Michelle Obama, but unfortunately that strategy, which she famously suggested in her speech in support of Hillary Clinton at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, never worked. Cannick shows that she is willing to meet Leavitt in the basement. "You wanna find America's terrorists? Check your own damn Christmas card list!"

And finally, one of my favorite potty-mouthed pundits, Jeff Tiedrich, weighed in on Sunday with a celebratory post and plenty of photos and links. Here he is.

Stay strong, stay peaceful, stay safe, my friends, and do stay in touch with the No Kings movement, which has more events planned for the future.

This post has been updated and amended since its original publication, most notably, to correct and update information about isolated incidents during the protests, as well as to correct and clarify information about the responses (from Trump and others) to the No Kings events on October 18.
~ CC

Before you leave...
While money cannot make some nightmares go away, be they political or personal, it can make them far easier to bear. With my husband Ron's passing in February 2025, I have experienced significant income loss and am scrambling to find more work, but in an industry increasingly being taken over by AI, it has been a challenge. And now that I am making a major move, which is never cheap, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here are some ways to do it:

• New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
• New: PayPal -- Here is a direct link to my PayPal page.
• Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts, as well as the link in this sentence, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is for "friends and family," which will waive PayPal's substantial transaction fee.

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled.

No Kings, but we do have a naked emperor

So Mango Mussolini had his Big Beautiful Birthday Parade, and the crowd was apparently quite underwhelming -- not anywhere near the 200,000 expected to show. The man who would be king/dicktator/Lord of All, but is really little more than a naked emperor, will no doubt spin this boondoggle as an immense success, although he himself was caught on camera glowering at times during the parade, and looking like he was about to fall asleep, and Queen Melanoma looked like she was asleep at one point.

By contrast, millions reportedly showed up for the No Kings demonstrations all across the USA -- including all over Trump's home state of Florida; Wikipedia is trying to keep up with the numbers, state by state, which are still being updated. And demonstrations supporting the No Kings movement happened across the globe as well, sometimes framed as "No Dictators" in countries that do in fact still have (largely ceremonial) kings.

There's reason for hope, even now.

There is also reason for great sadness, due to the apparently targeted shootings of Democratic legislators and their spouses in Minnesota, which people on both sides of the great American political divide seem to agree was politically motivated. Of course the two sides have sharply differing views of the suspect's actual political affiliation and motives. I'll have more about that in my next post. For now, my heart hurts for the families, friends, and colleagues of the victims.

And despite my statement above about there still being reason for hope, my heart also still fears for the future of American democracy. Even naked emperors can do a hell of a lot of damage.

We can't give up the fight.

Before you leave...
While money cannot make some nightmares go away, be they political or personal, it can make them far easier to bear. With my husband Ron's passing, I have experienced significant income loss and am scrambling to find more work, but in an industry increasingly being taken over by AI, it has been a challenge. Now more than ever, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here are some ways to do it:

• New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
• New: PayPal -- Here is a direct link to my PayPal page.
• Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts, as well as the link in this sentence, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is for "friends and family," which will waive PayPal's substantial transaction fee.

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled.

Celebrate Pride Month: No Kings, but bring on the queens!

It's June, and it's Pride Month in the United States, and there will also be Pride celebrations and observations across the globe on various days of the month.

And, as usual, large swaths of folks are deeply and chronically offended by all of that. To give but one example, the notorious Heritage Foundation, perpetrator of Project 2025, published a screed in 2022 by a Dr. Jay Richards, Director of the DeVos (familiar name, yes?) Center for Life, Religion, and the Family. Dr. Richards foamed at the mouth about drag queens reading books to kids, to which he pointed as clear evidence that the LGBTQ+ movement had officially dedicated itself to sexualizing our precious children, meaning that Pride Month had, in his opinion, truly jumped the shark. (The very premise of jumping the shark was flawed, because Pride Month had never been anything to celebrate in the eyes of the religious and political right.)

Of course Richards and the Heritage Foundation were and are far from the only members of the American Reichosphere to be so profoundly aggrieved by men in wigs and makeup sharing literature with the littles. They're all still bitching about it to this very day.

It's not just the bogus fears about victimization of the kiddos; the Reich is offended by Pride Month on general principle. Just a couple of days ago the New England Patriots got blowback for posting a simple Pride celebration message online. And due to pressure from the Trump "administration" and the Turd Reich at large, numerous big brands in America have seriously pulled back from their own Pride celebrations. That's how intimidation (and fascism) work. I could go on and on, but examples of Reich-ous indignation over Pride are all over the Interwebs.

Not that any of this comes as any surprise, for the Pride party poopers are the very same ones who also righteously rail against Black History Month, Women's History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and any month or week or day or other period of time set aside to acknowledge any marginalized population. Anything that even remotely hints of diversity/equity/inclusion, or DEI, sets them off.

DUI is A-okay, though! And DonOld Trump's most notorious DUI hire, Offense Secretary Plastered Pete Kegsbreath, has chosen to kick off Pride Month by demanding that a Navy ship named after the slain gay rights icon and Navy veteran Harvey Milk be renamed. From Military.com:

A defense official confirmed that the Navy was making preparations to strip the ship of its name but noted that Navy Secretary John Phelan was ordered to do so by Hegseth. The official also said that the timing of the announcement -- occurring during Pride month -- was intentional.

But it's all in the service of a very noble cause, according to the official Navy narrative.

...the memo reviewed by Military.com noted that the renaming was being done so that there is "alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture," apparently referencing President Donald Trump, Hegseth and Phelan.

Besides, in the interests of being an equal opportunity hatriot, the Kegster is also apparently nudging SECNAV to rename several other ships that currently honor various people of color, women, and civil rights heroes. So it's all perfectly all right; they're not just picking on the dead queer guy.

"Why isn't there a Straight Pride Month? It's not fair!"
Whenever the official celebration of any marginalized or minority group rolls around, the Righteously Offended step up and proclaim that in the interests of fairness and equality there should also be an official celebration of the parallel non-marginalized or majority population. Pride Month, which of course honors the LGBTQ+ population, is no different, and from various parts of the Reichosphere we are hearing, once again, the customary loud whines that there is no Straight Pride Month. Somebody call the waaaaaahmbulance!

For those who really are too dense to get it, USA Today on June 2, 2025 offers a simple explanation, one of numerous analyses that can be found all over the Internet.

For the second year in a row, a bar in Ohio is offering deals for "Heterosexual Awesomeness Month," and lawmakers from the state have proposed a "natural family month" that explicitly excludes LGBTQ+ families and celebrates only families led by straight men with children. Utah passed a bill to become the first state to ban Pride flags from flying on any government property, though Nazi flags were allowed, and Idaho passed a similar one.

More than 500 bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community have been proposed in 2025 alone, about 2 in 5 corporations are decreasing recognition of Pride Month out of fear of retaliation from the Trump administration and hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender people, are on the rise...

The article quotes a journalist and non-profit organization founder who patiently explains that marginalized groups such as LGBTQ+ have been systematically written out of history, excluded, and made invisible. The vast majority of people in the U.S. identify as heterosexual, and their norms are widely reflected in mainstream media. The majority don't need a special day or month; every month is already by default "their" month anyway.

Pride Month is becoming more important than ever as the LGBTQ+ population faces increasing threats to their health and safety and their very lives under Trump 2.0. It's worse in some states than in others, but pretty bad all across this great land of ours.

Globally it's getting worse as well due to the rise of reich-wing authoritarianism.

What's truly offensive is the Tangerine Toddler's birthday parade
By now nearly everyone has heard of a planned fascist military parade through the streets of the Capital on June 14, ostensibly to celebrate the US Army's 250th birthday and possibly Flag Day, but also coincidentally falling on Mango Mussolini's 79th b.d. From MSN, June 4, 2025:

Of course, plenty of people aren't buying the notion that this isn't actually meant to be a birthday bash to match Trump's blockbuster ego. While appearing on "Steve Bannon's War Room" podcast, former Fox News host and current U.S. Ambassador and Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley explained, "June 14 is a special day. Of course, it's the president's birthday, so I'm sure the crowd will break out into a 'Happy Birthday.' Providential. And it's also Flag Day, Steve. So, meant to be. Hand of God, Hand of God, for sure." She added that tickets are free on the America250.org website.

A major military parade on the president's birthday, during which the crowd sings "Happy Birthday" as tanks roll by, destroying the streets of the Capitol, has some sinister optics. Still, according to Crowley, "it means a lot to the president." 

"Sinister optics" doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. Heck, even the Baptists know it's a very, very bad idea. An April 14, 2025 opinion piece on Baptist News Global site counted the ways. Among the 20 reasons listed:

4. Authoritarian optics. This would mirror regimes like North Korea, Russia and China, not democracies.
6. Veterans want support, not spectacle. Many vets say they’d rather see improved VA services than pageantry.
7. Politicizing the armed forces. Such an event risks eroding the military’s apolitical stance.
15. Trump’s record of disrespecting the military. Trump infamously referred to fallen U.S. soldiers as “suckers” and “losers” — raising moral concerns about parading troops in his honor. Additionally, he did not serve.
20. No modern president ever has done this for himself. Even Ronald Reagan, a fervent military supporter, never organized such a display. The last major military parade (1991) honored the Gulf War victory, not a birthday.

But the show, and the snow, will no doubt go on.

Fortunately the Resistance is really doubling and tripling down on this one, planning many dozens of "No Kings" demonstrations in cites and towns across the USA on June 14 (follow the link in this sentence to find a demonstration near you). There are even several events planned for my neck of the backward woods, East Texas. That's how pissed off people are getting.

And here's a little song to celebrate their pissed-off-ness. There ain't no kings in the USA!

But there are plenty of gays, like the adorable Randy Rainbow. And there are plenty of other non-heterosexual, non-binary, non CIS-gender folks whose rights matter every bit as much as those of the majority.

So this month, let's celebrate love and laughter -- nonviolently, of course! -- in hopes that those celebrations overshadow the hate and the fascism and even the Big Birthday parade.

Related on this Whirled:
June 2015 -- Love wins, but hate is still throwing tantrums over there in the corner: A celebration of the June 26, 2015 decision by SCOTUS to legalize same-sex marriage across the country. Clearly it's a right that couldn't be taken for granted back then, and is in serious danger now.

Before you leave...
While money cannot make some personal nightmares go away, it can make them far easier to bear. With my husband Ron's passing, I have experienced significant income loss and am scrambling to find more work, but in an industry increasingly being taken over by AI, it has been a challenge. Now more than ever, donations are urgently needed and profoundly appreciated. Here are some ways to do it:

• New: Venmo -- username @Connie-Schmidt-42. Here is a direct link to the Venmo page.
• New: PayPal -- Here is a direct link to my PayPal page.
• Old but still good: You can click on the "Donate" icon that currently appears on the right-hand side of every page of this blog on the Web version. There's also a donation link at the end of many of my older blog posts. In the case of both the icon and the links on the older posts, as well as the link in this sentence, this is also a PayPal link, but it references the email account RevRon -- which is cool, because it all ultimately goes to the same place.

NOTE: If you are donating by PayPal, please specify that your contribution is for "friends and family," which will waive PayPal's substantial transaction fee.

Whether you can donate or not, thank you for visiting this Whirled.