No Kings Day

Forgive me, but if this seems last minute and hurried, well…it is. I’m squishing this between just getting home from a three week long road trip, cleaning out my truck, eating, and trying and get to bed at a reasonable time. But Trump is taking the country – OUR country – through some truly terrible times and tomorrow – No Kings Day – is actually an important day. If you don’t know where to go in your community, here’s the map.

These are racist, White supremacist times, and that’s not even me saying that. It’s the Wall Street Journal reporting, and this may be the furthest out on a limb that I have seen the Wall Street Journal ever go’

Far-Right Groups Buzz With Violent Talk on How to Respond to ‘No Kings’ Protest

Proud Boys and other extremists capitalize on planned demonstrations against Trump policies

“Shoot a couple, the rest will go home,” said a meme circulating on Telegram channels of groups affiliated with the far-right Proud Boys. “You just have to impale a few of them…” another local chapter posted. One disseminated an online gun tutorial, illustrating optimal shooting techniques with the caption: “Riot season again!”

Organizers in more than 2,000 cities are mobilizing for “No Kings” ralliesSaturday in opposition to President Trump and his military parade in Washington. Among those watching closely: extremist organizations on social media.

A review of dozens of known far-right social-media accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers across leading platforms like X, Truth Social, and Telegram are posting about the “No Kings” rallies and encouraging their people to respond, in some cases with violence.

These accounts are also sharing detailed locations of the “No Kings” protests and sharing identifying information about the organizers, including names, images and where they work. In addition, days prior, social media videos verified by The Wall Street Journal show leaders of Chicago and Los Angeles far-right groups attended anti-ICE protests in those cities.

Some extremist groups appear to be capitalizing on escalating emotions and at times destructive protests in L.A., as a recruitment opportunity or to promote the mass deportation of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Some of their messages have been echoed by the White House.

Also this week, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio—convicted of helping to mastermind the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol and then pardoned by Trump—announced on social media he was now a “Border Czar” for a new cryptocurrency venture, ICERAID. The platform offers cryptocurrency rewards to those reporting immigrants here illegally to authorities. Neither Tarrio nor the crypto company responded to requests for comment.

“The emergent insurrections across America and assault on Federal ICE Agents that began in Los Angeles come at a critical time as the need for citizens to collaborate with federal law enforcement becomes critical,” says the company’s website.

In recent years, far-right and racial-identity groups have clashed with counter protesters repeatedly during societal and political unrest. Social-media platforms have played a key role in organizing and amplifying these efforts, which have also drawn out far-left extremists calling themselves antifa.

Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, said the posts could inspire “lone-actor violence”—or lead people reading them to “get off the couch, pick up a gun and go out to one of these cities.”

One meme on Telegram this week, from a Proud Boy-affiliated group, depicts four armed men with shiny blue eyes wielding military weapons before an American flag. The meme declared, “HANG THE TRAITORS, EXPEL THE INVADERS.”

The Proud Boys, which promotes what it considers a pro-masculine, pro-Western Civilization stance, participated in the Jan. 6 rioting at the Capitol. Tarrio and others are now suing the federal government for their prosecution. In advance of this weekend’s protests, the Northern Illinois Proud Boys Public Channel on Telegram circulated a meme claiming that L.A. police were seeking assistance from armed vigilantes.

Social media platforms have played a key role in far-right organizing efforts, including on Jan. 6, 2021, and at the 'Unite The Right' rally in Charlottesville, Va. Julio Cortez/AP; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Kathleen Blee, a University of Pittsburgh sociologist who monitors far-right activity, said white nationalists and other extremists have become more decentralized and fluid about their ideas in recent years.

What unites them now, she said, is a common enemy: nonwhite immigrants. And Blee, who has worked on the subject for four decades, has never seen far-right beliefs resonate in the mainstream more than today. “It’s by far the worst. It’s scarily the worst. It’s flashing red,” she said. “It’s a very precarious time right now.”

Borrowing from my friend Bill McKibben’s Substack, The Crucial Years

I think I’ve read five hundred articles in the last four months asking: is this moment that we became a fascist country?

A better question to ask is: is this a teachable moment? And yesterday we had one, so stark in its imagery and so perfect in its timing that it should help us for many years in the drive against authoritarianism.

This is—for reasons today’s edition should make even clearer than usual—free and available to all. If you are in a place to help support it with a modestly priced and voluntary subscription, then deep thanks, and if not then no worries

By now you’ve seen the images of California Senator Alex Padilla pinned to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents for the crime of Asking Questions at a Press Conference. Every decent American looking at those images should think: ‘that’s not how it’s supposed to work.’ (It’s hard to imagine what Hispanic Americans looking at the scene must think). But what makes the scene so exemplary is what happened right before, and what will happen shortly after.

The before: Noem, previously best known for gunning down her puppy and for posing in front of caged prisoners in El Salvador, had just finished the most unAmerican sentence imaginable. She and her various neck-gaitered federal agents in LA, she explained, “are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

The Trump administration, in other words, considers it its right to “liberate” Californians from their elected leadership. And it demonstrated that prerogative by tackling and handcuffing one of the Golden State’s two Senators—a man who had received 6.6 million votes (compared with, say, the 217,000 votes cast for Noem the last time she ran for governor of North Dakota, and second only to his California colleague Adam Schiff for the most votes any Senator has received). No federalism, no respect for other branches of government, just the raw exercise of power through the use of troops and police. I can think of no starker challenge to America’s basic freedoms in my life.

And, happily, it comes at the right moment. Because we are now just a few hours away from what may be the biggest outburst of anti-authoritarian sentiment in America since—I don’t know. Maybe the uprising against the Intolerable Acts in 1774, when King George closed Boston Harbor and began the process of uniting colonial America against his rule.

Tomorrow is No Kings Day, a loosely organized set of protests set for every corner of the nation. Scheduled to coincide with his absurd tank parade through the streets of DC, it’s now the perfect opportunity to react to the LA mess. If you don’t know where to go in your community, here’s the map. The demonstrations will be different across the country (I’m going to be in a rural corner of Elise Stefanik’s upstate New York district, a red region). But they allow people everywhere, from many different backgrounds, to join in what till now has always been the basic American message: No Kings. Not George, Not Elon, not Don.

And Senator Padilla has reminded us of how to play it: firm, dignified, and peaceful. Had he started swinging at police he would have lost the day; instead he demonstrated yet again the power of courageous nonviolent resistance. His image now hangs next to those of John Lewis and Rosa Parks in the pantheon of entirely civil and entirely powerful disobedience. It may not be easy tomorrow—one Florida sheriff threatened to “kill” protesters “graveyard dead.” But I have no doubt it will be overwhelmingly peaceful, dignified, and crucial.

If you are considering joining the protest tomorrow a, but you leery about what your rights might be, this is what the ACLU provides for guidance:

Your rights

Your rights are strongest in what are known as “traditional public forums,” such as streets, sidewalks, and parks. You also likely have the right to speak out on other public property, like plazas in front of government buildings, as long as you are not blocking access to the government building or interfering with other purposes the property was designed for.

Private property owners can set rules for speech on their property. The government may not restrict your speech if it is taking place on your own property or with the consent of the property owner.

Counterprotesters also have free speech rights. Police must treat protesters and counterprotesters equally. Police are permitted to keep antagonistic groups separated but should allow them to be within sight and sound of one another.

When you are lawfully present in any public space, you have the right to photograph anything in plain view, including federal buildings and the police. On private property, the owner may set rules related to photography or video.

You don’t need a permit to march in the streets or on sidewalks, as long as marchers don’t obstruct car or pedestrian traffic. If you don't have a permit, police officers can ask you to move to the side of a street or sidewalk to let others pass or for safety reasons.

These raids and these times are not just targeted for Black and Brown people. That’s just the accelerant being tossed on the fire. Do you remember Nevada welfare rancher Cliven Bundy? A year or so after Bundy, along with the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and others of that ilk held off federal law-enforcement that were attempting to round up his illegally grazing cows, I drove through Bundy’s appropriately named Nevada home town of Bunkerville. Prominently displayed in this dusty declining town was a banner. First they came for Cliven. Next, they’ll come for you.