This is our final No Kings post from June 14, 2025. What a rousing success that day was!
Here are some photos from Durham, NC. (Take 2!)
These are the Durham images, for real, as I apparently posted the wrong images the first time around.
Apologies to AM in NC, who was quite gracious about it when she emailed me.
~ WG
Crowd estimates I saw put the number of people around 5,000!
It was a happy, joyful day full of solidarity and protesters of all ages.
If you have any final thoughts on the No Kings, June 14 events as we wrap this up, I hope you’ll consider sharing them here in the comments
Simon Rosenberg Sees Emerging Opportunity, and I Make Some Lists
WaterGirl
I love our side. Smart, clever, real. And we can spell!
Another Scott
Woot! :-)
Excellent.
35 star flag?? Hmmm… Wikipedia to the rescue:
First class. All the prizes.
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The US flag during the civil war.
Suzanne
I deeply appreciate the WHISKEY NEAT sign. LOL.
Baud
I got my dog vaccinated today in protest of RFK, Jr.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Do you have a dog again? Happy to hear it. When did that happen? Just one? Or two?
Inquiring minds want to know.
dc
It was really hot and humid in Durham, I don’t know how the Handmaiden women put up with it in those outfits.
JoyceH
Saw something about No Kings 2 being July 4?
Ruckus
As a previous employee of a department of the US government, and because of which I have what is mostly damn good medical care, I have to say that not all is perfect, but then humans are involved. Still, all in all it’s a pretty damn good country and place to live. I’ve traveled to many parts/places of the world, as stated here before and it’s not a bad place to be a living human being. Now there are potholes in the road of life, some of them natural and some of them dug by someone that seems to believe their shit doesn’t stink. And their’s doesn’t – it reeks. But then we aren’t all alike, we all have our own human issues, some more than normal, some far more, and some less. It seems to me that those with far more than normal human issues have the concept that they are better than everyone else but that often their concept of better is wildly inaccurate. Most likely we’ve all met at least one of these jackasses in our lives. Some have met far more than that one. And some have been rather lucky and really not exposed to them. Oh well it’s human life, it has good, great and amazing bits and pieces, as well as the complete opposites of each of those.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
One. It’s been a few years now.
Matt McIrvin
@JoyceH: July 17th, I heard.
Suzanne
@WaterGirl:
I saw a few misspellings of “fascist”. A few people forgot the first S!
Baud
@Suzanne:
I HATE people with faces.
MoCaAce
Good thing I wasn’t drinking when I saw the Melanoma handmaid … Of Taco!!! might have ruined a keyboard.
BlueGuitarist
@JoyceH:
The No Kings website had the next action as July 17, John Lewis’s birthday: “Good Trouble Lives On: National Day of Action”
https://www.mobilize.us/john-lewis-actions/
These seem to be referred to as John Lewis Actions.
The link for that is gone from the No Kings site, but it does have a video of the livestreamed Philadelphia event -I guess they prefer we watch on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/w5JfIaD9VBs
NotMax
Accompaniment: Thunderclap Newman.
;)
Chat Noir
So many great signs! Thank you, Water Girl, for posting from all the locations. I hope all attendees to these events helped make the SOB’s birthday that much worse.
Suzanne
@Chat Noir:
I am hoping that his presents were terrible and his cake gave him food poisoning.
BlueGuitarist
Don’t know why birthdays are being emphasized, but in addition to
6/14 follow-up on John Lewis’s birthday, 7/17,
There’s an effort to increase Tesla takedown participation Saturday June 28 – musk’s birthday
https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/muskmustfall-global-day-of-celebration
Ruckus
@NotMax:
I do like your style – and music appreciation.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
Once again – I do like your style!
BlueGuitarist
These pictures, like the earlier ones posted, are great.
Thank you so much for posting them – and for updating the protest photo as well as the serenity photo
Of taco!
6/14 saw some signs similar to the whisky neat,
“Crushed Ice is the best ICE”
Previously:
The wrong ICE is melting
f g-ICe-stapo
good chants would be an improvement.
the impact of these protests is felt in many different ways, some not yet visible.
Ruckus
@BlueGuitarist:
1 What is the one day that most of us observe as important? Our birthday.
2 What is the one day that some want everyone else to observe as one of the most important days ever? Their birthday.
Which people fall into group 2? Pompous, arrogant jackasses, usually, but not always with a lot of money.
JanieM
@BlueGuitarist: July 17 is the day John Lewis died. His birthday is February 21. Just checked Wikipedia to make sure my memory isn’t failing me (well it is, but not about this….).
FastEdD
I’m going to a townhall with Eric Swalwell tonight because our rep Young Kim won’t meet with her constituents. I have a reservation because it is only open to members of local Democratic clubs and it was SRO as soon as it was announced a week ago. Heavy security.
Baud
@Ruckus:
End of daylight saving time. That extra hour of sleep is gold.
Melancholy Jaques
@NotMax:
One of the songs on my Protest Playlist.
There was a two or three year period where the phrase “get together” was in quite a few popular songs.
jonas
“Oftaco”
ROTFLMAO
BlueGuitarist
@JanieM:
@Ruckus:
Thank you!
cmorenc
It’s not throwing shade at the Durham, NC “No Kings” turnout to observe that in the context of NC, the equally or perhaps a bit larger turnout in Raleigh on the old State Capitol grounds was more impactful. That’s because Durham (together with nearby Chapel Hill and UNC) deservedly skew far more progressive (esp in voting) than the rest of the state, and though Raleigh does also lean bluer than much of the rest of NC, it’s not considered a progressive hotbed the way Durham/Chapel Hill area, and hosts not only the R-controlled legislature but many RW activist organizations, and yet the extent of counter-protests was so vanishingly sparse as to be nonexistent. And the Raleigh protest attracted more in-state news media attention, occupying one of the most iconic public spaces in all of the state.
Belafon
@cmorenc: You could make arguments about which one was more impressive everywhere. Was Dallas impressive for its size, or was the one in Abilene more impressive because its a far more conservative city? But it wasn’t an individual protest that got Trump all annoyed, it was all of them together that outdid his perade.
Craig
Deleted cause tiktok
cmorenc
J.
Love these, especially the whiskey and faux king ones!
cmorenc
@Belafon:
You are completely missing the in-state context of why a vigorously enthusiastic turnout of 5k+ in Raleigh is more impactful on the public of NC than 5k turning out in Durham – Durham is well-known across the state as a hotbed of progressive activism out of step with the dominate electorate and culture of the state, and big turnout is not such a surprise, whereas Raleigh: not so much – that turnout was that large on the iconic old state capitol grounds with zero counter-protestors in a city hosting the hq of many RW activist organizations, had much greater impact than if 5k was only doable in Durham.
Which does not at all contradict your observation that overall nationwide, the collective impact of such large turnout across such numerous places across the US is why NK overall was such a promising success, not the turnout in any one particular place. But part of that success is precisely because of the large turnout spread far beyond just progressive hotspots.
trollhattan
Tell us something we didn’t already know.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Watson got *four* vaccinations yesterday: lepto, parvo,rabies, and bordetella. And even with his high vet anxiety he *still* whined less than a MAGAt. SUCK IT RFK JR.!
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: I thought July, but not on the 4th. ??
WaterGirl
@Baud: I’m glad to know that. Boy or a girl?
dc
@cmorenc: The posts with photos depend on readers sending them in. It doesn’t seem anyone who attended the Raleigh protests sent in photos.
cmorenc
@dc: I was there @ the Raleigh NK, and took a couple of shots, but my photography skills aren’t too great, and hence did not timely submit them. There’s only so much even an iPhone13 pro can do to fix bad photography.
trollhattan
@Miss Bianca:
Great, you poked the bear and now just see how your 5G reception is.
WaterGirl
@cmorenc: I am not a good photographer, either. I like to tell myself that sometimes photos don’t have to be great in order to tell the story.