"No Kings" Protest in SF Turned Out & Tuned In

Over the weekend, San Francisco, along with thousands of other cities and small towns across the US of A, saw over an estimated 5 million reported protestors take back the streets and the flag with the help of Indivisible SF and 50501SF for the "NoKings" protest. The day was both a symbolic, coordinated middle finger to the current administration and probably one of the first times I witnessed first hand that kind of unity towards a given cause. If you made it out, I'm sure you felt the same thing. If you didn't, well, unfortunately there are likely bound to be plenty more.

Politico called the No Kings protest "Resistance 2.0," writing, "While Trump’s parade aimed to show America’s military prowess in its new era — remade under the administration’s anti-diversity, equity and inclusion policies — over 2,000 protests planned for major cities and small towns nationwide were expected to outdo the president’s parade in scale."

And it did just that.

The energetic unity, momentum, and communal rage clearly outdid the president's lackluster and forced event: a sparsely attended 250-year celebration of the army along with Trump's 79th birthday. The sad, desperate display of our narcissist-in-chief, surrounded by mock-up imperialism which, ironically, he has a history of not actually contributing to, along with his parade of power-thirsty and barely qualifiable sycophants, revealed the president hunched over, dejected, (sleeping?), seeming to realize he can't physically force his subjects to show up or love him as much as he once did. That dreary scene made the dissonance social media and major media manipulate us to believe all the more clear: the objective reality faced when engaged in a country-wide front with your fellow countrymen, side by side, on streets and sidewalks, all under one sun and sky, is what is real.

Not that it was supposed to be any kind of competition but, living in capitalism as we are, it was always going to end up that way. In this case, as far I saw with my own ears and eyes, the protestors and resistors of the long string of events since January 20th, 2025, were the clear "winners," at least for the day. The president, along with his supporters and whoever else was celebrating the military parade (and Trump's muted birthday bonanza) were not. The spoils of such a victory are unclear but, what was clear, was how important and wholly necessary our First Amendment right is when faced with someone who thinks himself, prides himself, and acts like demagogue/autocrat/dictator.

And despite a few instances and one tragic murder, San Francisco and everything I read was peaceful. Given how brutal the police in some cities have been, it proves that however much Trump, etc., tries to spin that it's not, protesting continues to be the people's first line of defense until, well, the Second Amendment, which I hope we never see. "Hope," nowadays at least, only goes so far, especially when you have far-right flags flying above buildings like those of the Small Business Administration (SBA), an independent agency of the federal government that falls under the executive branch. Fortunately for the country, for now, the numbers are hard to deny, no matter how hard some news media sites seemed to portray them.

I went to the protest by myself. My wife, Greta, was working at the library, as she does most Saturday's. This left me to make a decision: participate or not. Nowadays, especially with my back and forth temperament swinging from hopeless to hopeful, I wasn't sure. What's the point of all this? I asked myself alone in my apartment, the sound of people outside on the street already cheering and making their way to the meeting point. Does this make a difference? Is this one march going to change anything? As I fretted and cowered, my "burdensome" privilege hanging over me from the fact I even had an opportunity to have a choice while so many others in this world today did not, what shook my spine straight and reminded me why I needed to go, was ironically when I asked myself - what I am I going to do with my phone?

If I take it...I thought. I'll be tracked. They'll be able to get me. They'll know I was there. Then I thought, I'll take it but I won't post anything. But then, what if I take a picture? It will go to the Cloud...the...Apple Cloud...then they'll surely know.

I stopped myself. This is what we were protesting against. That feeling of fear, that sense of intimidation; the slow killing of individual rights and political and social segmentation that was unleashed during the times of Nazi Germany to fascist Italy with Mussolini to Stalin's dictatorship during the Soviet Union. We aren't there yet, thankfully, but that fear and paranoia of being seen and saying something against the powers that be instills a hesitation that leads to silence, something Audre Lorde, American writer, professor, philosopher, intersectional feminist, poet, and civil rights activist, knew was "...one of the biggest things that separates and alienates us."

That alienation is like gasoline to their flame of authority. And we're seeing it everyday now...in big and small moments across every form of media they can throw at us. Take the lastest from Homeland Security below or videos like this. There's no way to fully know if that video is real or not but Time and PBS and others have reported similar sentiment with veterans nonetheless. There is a discontentedness in the air.

I then remembered what came after protesting. What does the country look like if protesting, one day, was suddenly taken away or made illegal for whatever deranged reason. I don't like to get hyperbolic about these type of things or alarmist but, after what's been happening in LA and other cities, as well as what Trump announced literally a day after the protests, it feels like escalation and pushing civil unrest to likely invoke the insurrection act is becoming more of a matter of time than mere nightmare fuel.

It's pretty clear at this point what Trump wants, maybe even needs: to show some semblance of power or control. He knows he has no other lever at this point given his polls. This is likely why he is 100% doubling down on these ICE raids, despite every single indicator telling him he should not. Moreover, he seems to be pulling back on one of his key (if not only) issues, immigration, because it's hurting key businesses, some of whom probably donated to his campaign. Then, of course, there is now the USA possibly getting into a war with Iran to back up Israel, another thing he's underwater on.

From the meeting point of the protest in Dolores Park, I eventually veered left and meandered up to Castro, feeling, as I said before as if I was at the start of something. It felt like...autonomy and pride. If you've been paying attention to the news, social media, and other platforms, in the eyes of many, Democrats haven't necessarily been pulling their weight. I can't tell you how many times I've read or seen a video on TikTok with a stark reminder, "No one is coming to save us." This felt true as we crested up and over Castro and onto Market Street, heading towards City Hall, with cars and buses beeping as people on the sidewalk cheered us on. Some even joined us, relinquishing their plans for that hour or that day, letting go of their individuality to become part of the whole.

And when I got to City Hall, everything didn't implode in on itself. No one started burning anything or calling Waymo's to blow them up. The cops and security guarding the doors of Bill Graham and City Hall even looked bored. I saw some of them on their phones. There were drum circles with people dancing and hot dog carts and live speeches going on as some artists through up a quick and dirty paper mache art installation of Trump in a diaper. Yes, people did hit the paper mache Trump in a diaper like it was a piñata. And yes, there was candy inside of it. I saw huge swaths of people just laying on the grass, looking up at the sky, while others sat around in a circle, knee to knee, discussing politics, people - the world. There was no violence. There was no need for it. There was a community that I think we all needed to be reminded was there which, really, is the whole point of this fucking thing.

What was strange about the days thereafter was the diminished coverage and how other news sources, such as The New York Times, seemed to barely cover it. Joseph Menn, Washington Post reporter (I know, I know), wrote on BlueSky Sunday, "I count 49 news headlines on the NYT mobile app home page right now (Sunday), not including opinion, sports or cooking. None of them are about the massive protests yesterday."

It's a strange yet not unexpected phenomenon to observe when many major news media platforms are bending and buckling under the likely financial pressure from President Trump, who has targeted ABC News, CBS News, Meta, CNN, The Washington Post, and, of course, The New York Times. This is what wannabe, fascist-leaning leaders like Trump and his cohorts of lemmings do when trying to control the conversation: they strike their wallets. Once again, this proves the importance of incorruptible forms of resistance in times of danger, as they cannot be bought or sold; they can only be engaged with or suppressed.

The moment is here or, at least near.

Don't take my word for it. Listen to former President Obama.

That said, as the old chestnut goes, No one is coming to save us. And if there was ever a time to be aware, every day, every hour, however exhausting, it's now.

Last Saturday, already memory-holed by now, State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were fatally shot at their home in the dead of night. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were wounded at their home in Champlin. Remember Governor Josh Shapiro's house getting burned down? That was just back in April 2025. Don't forget the literal president glibly said Governor Newsom should be jailed, then walked it back, and then everyone connected to the story said that's now what they meant.

The term "doublespeak," coined by writer George Orwell and defined by William Lutz, a scholar, and author of a book titled Doublespeak, describes it as "...language that pretends to communicate but really doesn't. It is a language that makes the bad seem good, the negative appear positive, the unpleasant appear attractive or at least tolerable" (Lutz, 1989).

There are many signs in front of us but protesting, along with a few spotted remedies for preserving oneself and one's community, is what we have right now. We must utilize it to the fullest extent possible as long as we can. Because what comes after, if it's taken away for whatever reason, has never, ever been good.