Seems like after all these years I wouldn't be completely fucking outraged by NYT bullshit...yet, here I am, completely fucking outraged by NYT bullshit.
it's a spelling bee downer for my partner if she doesn't get genius, (but an opportunity for me to pour on some love). she also loves keeping up with the new york diary in-crowd comments section.
For one of the major marches against the Iraq war, about a million people in NYC, they sent a reporter to a diner in Brooklyn to ask why they weren't at the protest.
As if they couldn't judge the temperature of that section of the country by, oh, I dunno, MAYBE TUNING IN THE FAUX NEWS SHOWS THEY'RE GOING TO REPEAT TALKING POINTS FROM
there I go, just saved the NYT/WaPo all that travel money, you're fucking welcome.
Out of a Fox News studio in NYC, into the ears of viewers in Bumfuck, out of the mouths of Bumfuckians, into the ears of a visiting NT Times reporter. It's THE CIRCLE Of LIFE.
Don't be fooled, gentlemen! The Times may look like an idiot, sound like an idiot, and act like an idiot, but it is not an idiot! Jeremy W. Peters, on the other hand...
By which to say the old Ian Fleming joke about once is an abberation, twice is coincidence, 3 times is enemy action applies to the Times. Their increasingly desperate and transparant attempts to normailze the Republican party as merely engaging in the hurly-burly of retail politics is purposeful. To what end only Pinch knows.
“with the midterm elections months away, the protests are being scrutinized for whether they could translate to any political shifts.”
The protests are the RESULT of an existing political shift, they aren't being staged to cause it. This is just embarrassing reporting, or would be if the NYT reporter hadn't fallen prey to same viral death of shame as the rest of the prestige press and the GOP.
I dunno, whether there will be a shift in the favor of the Democrats remains to be seen, I'm a New York Times reporter so my whole day is made up of pretending not to see things right in front of my fucking face.
Are there really negotiations with the Iranians going on, with people we can't name and in a location we can't specify, and despite all denials from the Iranians themselves, or is the President lying? It's unclear.
Since everyone has to wait until November for the midterm results, maybe the Times could have scrutinized some other indicator. Just spitballing here, but maybe they could look at the results of the special elections which have been held since 2025 in which Democrats have won overwhelmingly all across the country? Nah, they'll just go talk to some rando Republican who will poo poo the whole operation.
FFS, there's a reason I refer to the bullshitters as establishment media instead of elite or prestige: Because they're propagandist promoting establishment propaganda over facts and, more importantly, truth.
Which is to say between that lying and a track record going back approximately fifty years of lying about or just ignoring every important issue you want to name, there's no reason to go to any establishment outlet for reporting on No Kings.
That said, the Times apparently more or less had the same questions I've had after every one of these: What do they actually accomplish other providing a couple of hours of fun hanging with our peeps? If it's to incite a blue tsunami in November (assuming &c because whenever Donny publicly fails at something, he double downs on the awful stuff so who knows if he'll allow any elections), I dare say Trump and the Republicans being the insane monsters and pieces of shit they are are would be magnitudes more effective at that than any number of No Kings.
That said, I also feel attending is essential. So, you know, seriously confused there.
just knowing the malignant narcissist knows that "many people are saying" that over 8 million people hate his guts enough to yell it in the streets, makes me proud to be an American, at least on a sunny Saturday afternoon. That's reason enough. (and every 'permitted' civil demonstration is exciting to go to, just to observe the cops hafta stand around and take it… or drop their human form and go billy club/pepper spray fascist on the public.)
Same with NYPD. Porky just loves the easy way to make overtime.
Meanwhile, some outlet noted that there were no rally-related arrests in ex-Fun City. As if: Arrests were to be expected. Doubt Madison was different, but the Manhattan crowd was, like, Group Least Likely to Misbehave at a Rally.
But it’s LA, surely a much different demographic than what we get in Manhattan.
Too, LAPD has a different culture of being assholes than NYPD who are so happy with OT for doing nothing that they need a lot of inciting to get rough, no?
One of my old fart theories is that deep down, deeper than he’s capable of acknowledging, Trump knows that, to put it nicely, he’s a complete piece of shit.
So yes, worth marching to send that message that we really, really hate him.
"How can they avoid a primal scream that fades into a whimper?"
Dunno, but we'll think of something (a function Peters & other Times reporters are seemingly incapable of).
Was at the Mall Saturday, after our Thursday Evening Ladies Who Can Be Bothered To Show Up Saturday Auxiliary (which was slightly better attended thanks to addition of employed folks who are otherwise unable on Thursdays). Put a couple signs on the bike and rode downtown. Lotsa folks walking down there as I got closer. Looked to be a massive turnout.
And it was – for the cherry blossoms and the kite festival. Perfect weather for both. I rode around the Mall and the Basin and I bet there were close to a hundred thousand people all told, of which maybe 500 showed at the Nope rally (your first photo – I was near the back of that cohort probly around the same time you were).
Goes to show flowers and kites beat saving democracy even in the most political of metropolises...
Sure, my femmey wife and daughter went to No Kings in Philly. But I was pleased to see on FB that a rally 20+ miles away in Bucks County was enough to piss off my MAGA cousin and her asshat pals.
200 people show up to a MAGA rally in NYC, and it is a clear signal that the entire country has not just shifted to the Right, but that Donald Trump is the most popular president ever.
8,000,000 people take to the streets nationwide, and it's clear that it's a passing fad that is utterly meaningless against the backdrop of how popular Donald Trump is.
Ah, but "it's clear that it's a passing fad" is for Fox News, for the New York Times it must be "Is it clear that it's a passing fad? Questions are being raised!"
Maybe 200 folks: yes older, and weighted female, here in deservedly obscure Hayesville NC: a few jeers, but this is incredibly positive in a profoundly Red county...
I'd expect nothing less of the NY Times as it is today. "Primal scream," because it's Left Coastish and we're all being babies about Trump's wise leadership.
"Therapy session" is stolen straight from the White House response (without attribution it seems.) Because "therapy" is the worst insult you can throw at someone. Seeking help is weak and even womanly. You'd never see a real man seek out therapy, that's what the guns are for.
My theory, which is mine but feel free to adopt, is Trump's derangement springs directly from his knowledge that, in his 3 presidential runs, the two that he won were against females. He's never beaten a male in an election. Must gall the living fuck outta him.
And will drop here I am a little surprised that I've never seen this factoid reported in the flee press (please correct me if wrong on that).
Good factoid. I say his derangement stems from narcissism that's too all-encompassing to bother with a theory, though. When thwarted in any way he's full of rage, yet able to keep improvising bullshit until something works out.
Demeaning women opponents came naturally, and the electorate was susceptible to his doing it (also, susceptible to countless other sources of misogyny/misogynoir). Any loss had to be denied, so losing to a man meant Biden was not a real man. Instead, he was "hiding in his basement," was "Sleepy Joe," etc.
Is it a coincidence that Forrest Gump keeps showing up on cable? Is that ridiculous film the counter argument to One Battle After Another?
Moving on from my musing madness, I am sure others reading this fine column have heard the figure for critical collective mass as a certain percentage showing up in the streets. The figure according to MSNOW Maddow I heard was 12 million. The magic number.
I heard that at that point the protesters just win. As a more reliable gauge for these things, Timothy Snyder, has put it, you don't know you've won or even are winning, until it just happens. Right up to the last day, the last minute, the propaganda and the apparent power of the oppressors, including the trimmers who are supposedly on your side, seems immutable and strong.
Anyway, there's my two cents. I have yet to get out there. I am convalescing from more than just political woes and have been for some time. The time is coming. I will arise again and take on the mantle others have carried thus fur!
They didn't have much precedent for being able to win, though. In our case, we live in a society where we expect to have wins, and have had them before. Limited as they may have been, the viciousness of the backlash only shows how great the wins really were. With a lot of us who've lived through these cycles not yet being out of the picture, it's no wonder that No Kings events have so much geezer attendance. Who better to remember things like the civil rights era, and to be outraged by government being used to drag us backwards.
Backlash is a familiar theme to anyone who's lived long enough, has paid attention, and also read any history. The recent forms are on so many fronts and at such speed, the overreach has become obvious to more of the public.
"Things are so bad even the introverts are here" and "Prevent truth decay" were my two favorite signs.
Turnout in Madison was OK, 10-20k. Big but not Scott-Walker-big. That asshole provoked numbers that are hard to beat.
I used to worry more about turnout and media coverage. Now I'm more sanguine (and confident.) There are tens of millions of people who'd climb over shit-smeared broken glass to vote against the Republicans in November, and No Kings is just one visible indicator of that, there are others (How you like your new State Representative, Tubby?)
I always get a boost from being with ten thousand people who share my hopes and grievances, who wouldn't? It's unwise, IMHO, to expect much more from protests than that.
I attended one is suburban NJ - 12, 000 people. Personally I would have welcomed evidence of "socialist and communist organizations" members - even a nod to the DSA. It was hardcore Dem central. If Dems are ever hardcore.
The local Communist Party was (attempting to appear as if) recruiting on the Mall. I still do not get why an economic theory is supposed to win an election.
I have a meme in my library of Jeremy Corbin pointing out that, to sum it up, all socialism is is being decent to each other. That counts a hell of a lot more than all the arguing about what Marx meant does.
A lesson they must teach in J-school: Take your opinion "This is just a primal scream that will fade into a whimper!" and replace the ! with a ? like this: "Is this just a primal scream that fades into a whimper?"
My favorite take was on MS(Whatever) when some retooled Bush toady disparaged No Kings for not having "a plan." To which I say: "Oh, we have a plan. The plan is to take over the government and burn the Trump/MAGA legacy to the ground. Then we plan to piss on the embers and dance on the remains. Also for the record, group therapy can be a very healing process. Now, I'm off to deposit my check from Soros, you fucking dipshit."
Speaking of dulldulldull, of course we had to trot out the ol' "Hey hey ho ho fill in the blank has got to go." That one must be at least 65 by now, can it retire now, PLEASE?
Seems like after all these years I wouldn't be completely fucking outraged by NYT bullshit...yet, here I am, completely fucking outraged by NYT bullshit.
Forget it, W – it's the Times.
a word games provider and a relatively accurate (on several levels of description) national shame instrument.
The Times is much more enjoyable if you go straight to Wordle and Spelling Bee and ignore the rest. Cheaper too.
it's a spelling bee downer for my partner if she doesn't get genius, (but an opportunity for me to pour on some love). she also loves keeping up with the new york diary in-crowd comments section.
Hearted for the diary comments.
For one of the major marches against the Iraq war, about a million people in NYC, they sent a reporter to a diner in Brooklyn to ask why they weren't at the protest.
Man. do they hate lefty protesters. "Resent having to cover No Kings" applies to any protest to the left of the Tea Party.
OTOH send 'em to a diner in Bumfuck, Arkansas and they couldn't be happier.
Getting paid to visit far flung locales and study exotic cultures, why not?
Coming of Age in Bumfuck
It’s all supercilious fodder for their next haughty brownstone dinner party.
Haughty, Brownstone LLP is my danger-money esquiry.
As if they couldn't judge the temperature of that section of the country by, oh, I dunno, MAYBE TUNING IN THE FAUX NEWS SHOWS THEY'RE GOING TO REPEAT TALKING POINTS FROM
there I go, just saved the NYT/WaPo all that travel money, you're fucking welcome.
Out of a Fox News studio in NYC, into the ears of viewers in Bumfuck, out of the mouths of Bumfuckians, into the ears of a visiting NT Times reporter. It's THE CIRCLE Of LIFE.
Don't be fooled, gentlemen! The Times may look like an idiot, sound like an idiot, and act like an idiot, but it is not an idiot! Jeremy W. Peters, on the other hand...
By which to say the old Ian Fleming joke about once is an abberation, twice is coincidence, 3 times is enemy action applies to the Times. Their increasingly desperate and transparant attempts to normailze the Republican party as merely engaging in the hurly-burly of retail politics is purposeful. To what end only Pinch knows.
“with the midterm elections months away, the protests are being scrutinized for whether they could translate to any political shifts.”
The protests are the RESULT of an existing political shift, they aren't being staged to cause it. This is just embarrassing reporting, or would be if the NYT reporter hadn't fallen prey to same viral death of shame as the rest of the prestige press and the GOP.
I dunno, whether there will be a shift in the favor of the Democrats remains to be seen, I'm a New York Times reporter so my whole day is made up of pretending not to see things right in front of my fucking face.
Say hi to Mike Johnson.
The White House Rug
Goddamn it I was just about to make that joke
The Michael Johnson School of Journalism and Current Events
Are there really negotiations with the Iranians going on, with people we can't name and in a location we can't specify, and despite all denials from the Iranians themselves, or is the President lying? It's unclear.
NYT has mastered the conclusion that concludes nothing except to point their readers away from the obvious.
"Hey, do you really need to be reading this? Why don't you go check out the Wordle instead?"
Since everyone has to wait until November for the midterm results, maybe the Times could have scrutinized some other indicator. Just spitballing here, but maybe they could look at the results of the special elections which have been held since 2025 in which Democrats have won overwhelmingly all across the country? Nah, they'll just go talk to some rando Republican who will poo poo the whole operation.
Rando Republicans have no shortage of poo
FFS, there's a reason I refer to the bullshitters as establishment media instead of elite or prestige: Because they're propagandist promoting establishment propaganda over facts and, more importantly, truth.
Which is to say between that lying and a track record going back approximately fifty years of lying about or just ignoring every important issue you want to name, there's no reason to go to any establishment outlet for reporting on No Kings.
That said, the Times apparently more or less had the same questions I've had after every one of these: What do they actually accomplish other providing a couple of hours of fun hanging with our peeps? If it's to incite a blue tsunami in November (assuming &c because whenever Donny publicly fails at something, he double downs on the awful stuff so who knows if he'll allow any elections), I dare say Trump and the Republicans being the insane monsters and pieces of shit they are are would be magnitudes more effective at that than any number of No Kings.
That said, I also feel attending is essential. So, you know, seriously confused there.
Manqueman: Containing multitudes since who knows when!
Not so much multitudes as endemic confusion and conflicts.
So, some significant subset of multitudes, then...
I don’t know, I can’t decide…
just knowing the malignant narcissist knows that "many people are saying" that over 8 million people hate his guts enough to yell it in the streets, makes me proud to be an American, at least on a sunny Saturday afternoon. That's reason enough. (and every 'permitted' civil demonstration is exciting to go to, just to observe the cops hafta stand around and take it… or drop their human form and go billy club/pepper spray fascist on the public.)
Madison cops mostly seemed happy to be there, in their high-vis vests chattin' with the protesters. Beats workin' for a living.
Same with NYPD. Porky just loves the easy way to make overtime.
Meanwhile, some outlet noted that there were no rally-related arrests in ex-Fun City. As if: Arrests were to be expected. Doubt Madison was different, but the Manhattan crowd was, like, Group Least Likely to Misbehave at a Rally.
Fucking media…
There was some cop action in LA. https://abc7.com/amp/post/no-kings-protest-los-angeles-2026-police-say-9-juveniles-arrested-officers-suffered-minor-during-saturdays-rally-downtown/18801910/
Wow.
But it’s LA, surely a much different demographic than what we get in Manhattan.
Too, LAPD has a different culture of being assholes than NYPD who are so happy with OT for doing nothing that they need a lot of inciting to get rough, no?
Read up on Chief William Parker of LAPD. He put his back into institutionalizing Jim Crow in LA.
"juveniles"? Gosh! America's most law-abiding respectful population!
The url says "officers-suffered-minor"
Same here, I don't suffer minors gladly.
One of my old fart theories is that deep down, deeper than he’s capable of acknowledging, Trump knows that, to put it nicely, he’s a complete piece of shit.
So yes, worth marching to send that message that we really, really hate him.
"How can they avoid a primal scream that fades into a whimper?"
Dunno, but we'll think of something (a function Peters & other Times reporters are seemingly incapable of).
Was at the Mall Saturday, after our Thursday Evening Ladies Who Can Be Bothered To Show Up Saturday Auxiliary (which was slightly better attended thanks to addition of employed folks who are otherwise unable on Thursdays). Put a couple signs on the bike and rode downtown. Lotsa folks walking down there as I got closer. Looked to be a massive turnout.
And it was – for the cherry blossoms and the kite festival. Perfect weather for both. I rode around the Mall and the Basin and I bet there were close to a hundred thousand people all told, of which maybe 500 showed at the Nope rally (your first photo – I was near the back of that cohort probly around the same time you were).
Goes to show flowers and kites beat saving democracy even in the most political of metropolises...
that *John Lennon-to-ts eliot* bullshit line sounds like an opium impression "which he ate and denoted to the national trust."
Sure, my femmey wife and daughter went to No Kings in Philly. But I was pleased to see on FB that a rally 20+ miles away in Bucks County was enough to piss off my MAGA cousin and her asshat pals.
"enough to piss off my MAGA cousin and her asshat pals." it's all gravy!
We must all understand how it is:
200 people show up to a MAGA rally in NYC, and it is a clear signal that the entire country has not just shifted to the Right, but that Donald Trump is the most popular president ever.
8,000,000 people take to the streets nationwide, and it's clear that it's a passing fad that is utterly meaningless against the backdrop of how popular Donald Trump is.
Ah, but "it's clear that it's a passing fad" is for Fox News, for the New York Times it must be "Is it clear that it's a passing fad? Questions are being raised!"
Maybe 200 folks: yes older, and weighted female, here in deservedly obscure Hayesville NC: a few jeers, but this is incredibly positive in a profoundly Red county...
It was a good day.
Like they say at Tesco, every little helps
my boy in greensboro, though 88, was marching Saturday.
I'd expect nothing less of the NY Times as it is today. "Primal scream," because it's Left Coastish and we're all being babies about Trump's wise leadership.
"Therapy session" is stolen straight from the White House response (without attribution it seems.) Because "therapy" is the worst insult you can throw at someone. Seeking help is weak and even womanly. You'd never see a real man seek out therapy, that's what the guns are for.
And a phrase to make it clear these aren't Real Americans we're talking about, but sufferers from Trump Derangement Syndrome.
My theory, which is mine but feel free to adopt, is Trump's derangement springs directly from his knowledge that, in his 3 presidential runs, the two that he won were against females. He's never beaten a male in an election. Must gall the living fuck outta him.
And will drop here I am a little surprised that I've never seen this factoid reported in the flee press (please correct me if wrong on that).
Good factoid. I say his derangement stems from narcissism that's too all-encompassing to bother with a theory, though. When thwarted in any way he's full of rage, yet able to keep improvising bullshit until something works out.
Demeaning women opponents came naturally, and the electorate was susceptible to his doing it (also, susceptible to countless other sources of misogyny/misogynoir). Any loss had to be denied, so losing to a man meant Biden was not a real man. Instead, he was "hiding in his basement," was "Sleepy Joe," etc.
Best to think of NYfT's people as dressed in silk, wig, powder and parfum, seated on satin, and eating little cakes.
"The peasants are revolting!"
Peasant (gazing at entire world): "what a revolting development this is."
“And you’re not too hot, yourself.”
Is it a coincidence that Forrest Gump keeps showing up on cable? Is that ridiculous film the counter argument to One Battle After Another?
Moving on from my musing madness, I am sure others reading this fine column have heard the figure for critical collective mass as a certain percentage showing up in the streets. The figure according to MSNOW Maddow I heard was 12 million. The magic number.
I heard that at that point the protesters just win. As a more reliable gauge for these things, Timothy Snyder, has put it, you don't know you've won or even are winning, until it just happens. Right up to the last day, the last minute, the propaganda and the apparent power of the oppressors, including the trimmers who are supposedly on your side, seems immutable and strong.
Anyway, there's my two cents. I have yet to get out there. I am convalescing from more than just political woes and have been for some time. The time is coming. I will arise again and take on the mantle others have carried thus fur!
What I've been seeing lately from old Soviet Union survivors is the point is not to win but to resist.
They didn't have much precedent for being able to win, though. In our case, we live in a society where we expect to have wins, and have had them before. Limited as they may have been, the viciousness of the backlash only shows how great the wins really were. With a lot of us who've lived through these cycles not yet being out of the picture, it's no wonder that No Kings events have so much geezer attendance. Who better to remember things like the civil rights era, and to be outraged by government being used to drag us backwards.
Rebecca Solnit has a new book coming out, and what I got from this interview is basically what you just said more concisely right here:
"...the viciousness of the backlash only shows how great the wins really were."
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/mar/25/rebecca-solnit-slow-revolution-far-right-cannot-tolerate
Backlash is a familiar theme to anyone who's lived long enough, has paid attention, and also read any history. The recent forms are on so many fronts and at such speed, the overreach has become obvious to more of the public.
And, thanks. It's not often that I am concise.
Why it's practically epigrammatic!
It'd be once in a lifetime!
"Things are so bad even the introverts are here" and "Prevent truth decay" were my two favorite signs.
Turnout in Madison was OK, 10-20k. Big but not Scott-Walker-big. That asshole provoked numbers that are hard to beat.
I used to worry more about turnout and media coverage. Now I'm more sanguine (and confident.) There are tens of millions of people who'd climb over shit-smeared broken glass to vote against the Republicans in November, and No Kings is just one visible indicator of that, there are others (How you like your new State Representative, Tubby?)
I always get a boost from being with ten thousand people who share my hopes and grievances, who wouldn't? It's unwise, IMHO, to expect much more from protests than that.
It is good to remember that there are tens of millions of us
And we'll find out if we have to get every Provisional Ballot opened
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Apr 17
Baltimore, MD
Fri 6:00 PM · Keystone Korner Baltimore
Apr 18
Baltimore, MD
Sat 6:00 PM · Keystone Korner Baltimore
No comment so far from Dump. What do you want to bet, they just kept him sedated all day Saturday to keep him from seeing any of it?
He had to have extra explosions in his war briefing the day after to counteract the No-Kings-caused shrinkage.
I attended one is suburban NJ - 12, 000 people. Personally I would have welcomed evidence of "socialist and communist organizations" members - even a nod to the DSA. It was hardcore Dem central. If Dems are ever hardcore.
DSA should have been recruiting!
The local Communist Party was (attempting to appear as if) recruiting on the Mall. I still do not get why an economic theory is supposed to win an election.
I have a meme in my library of Jeremy Corbin pointing out that, to sum it up, all socialism is is being decent to each other. That counts a hell of a lot more than all the arguing about what Marx meant does.
A lesson they must teach in J-school: Take your opinion "This is just a primal scream that will fade into a whimper!" and replace the ! with a ? like this: "Is this just a primal scream that fades into a whimper?"
Because you gotta be objective, doncha know.
Thus incoming Betteridge's Law of Headlines: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."
Yup?
My favorite take was on MS(Whatever) when some retooled Bush toady disparaged No Kings for not having "a plan." To which I say: "Oh, we have a plan. The plan is to take over the government and burn the Trump/MAGA legacy to the ground. Then we plan to piss on the embers and dance on the remains. Also for the record, group therapy can be a very healing process. Now, I'm off to deposit my check from Soros, you fucking dipshit."
Project 2029 includes “Pursuing Justice and Restoration,” which is a polite version of what you’re anticipating. I plan to learn how to knit.
Start with steel wool. After mastering that, cloth is easy peasy.
Those are some hard-core sheep
Granny knitted a stove once. Once was enough.
A sign I saw: That congressional seating chart graphic with the red and blue dots, two thirds of 'em were blue, up above it said "Project 2027"
Doesn't Indivisible, one the groups organizing the protest, have a literal Book of Instructions?
Dunno, but they do have a Sign Greatest Hits page which is uniformly dulldulldull...
Speaking of dulldulldull, of course we had to trot out the ol' "Hey hey ho ho fill in the blank has got to go." That one must be at least 65 by now, can it retire now, PLEASE?
And by "plan" we mean "28 point plan to sell public utilities and subsidize local auto dealerships."