There was no No Kings rally here in Jupiter, Florida yesterday so I’m forced to rely on the New York Times to understand what one might have been like. Here’s one of their photos (source), I think from Minneapolis:
Principal confusion: We’re informed that Minneapolis is a fully integrated society of white people, Somalis, the Latinx, and some legacy African Americans who are being phased out in favor of migrants. But the photo appears to show only white people, consistent with Minneapolis in December (my experience in December 2025 was that environments were 100% white or 100% Somali and that there was no mixing).
Maybe the protest is actually against democracy? Folks are upset that the candidate for whom they voted was beaten by a candidate for whom other Americans voted? This is an illegitimate result because Americans who aren’t Democrats are “morons”:
In Little Rock, Ark., where more than 2,000 people marched across the Arkansas River, one woman carried her own MAGA sign: “Morons Are Governing America.”
The technical definition of “moron” used to be an IQ of 75 or less, but Democrats must mean something else because they advocate for increased immigration from countries whose average measured IQ is less than 75. Gemini in response to “average IQ in Somali”, for example (quote, but not in quote style for readability):
Based on studies conducted by researchers such as Richard Lynn and David Becker, and various international rankings, the average IQ in Somalia has been estimated to be in the range of 67 to 68.
- Contextual Data: A 2025 compilation of countries by average IQ, often citing data from the Ulster Institute, lists Somalia with a score of 67.67.
- Study Data: Another study focusing on Somali refugees in Kenya, using the Standard Progressive Matrices Plus, identified a British-scaled average IQ of 68.
- Controversy and Factors: It is widely noted that IQ scores are heavily associated with environmental factors, such as nutrition, parental socioeconomic status, morbidity, and educational quality. These low scores are frequently attributed to poor socioeconomics, conflicts, and developmental challenges rather than innate intelligence.
- Methodology Debate: Critics argue that these studies often rely on outdated data, small sample sizes, or Western-centric tests that do not account for cultural or educational differences.
These figures place the estimate among the lowest in international IQ studies, often noted in the context of the lowest-ranked nations for national intelligence estimates.
(I personally think that Somalis who collect checks from government welfare programs are smarter than white Minnesotans who write the checks and work 60 hours/week to pay taxes to fund the checks! So we can say for sure that IQ tests don’t measure practical intelligence.)
What did you all see in your neighborhoods for No Kings day? Your answer can’t be “nothing” because the NYT says “The No Kings organizers said that eight million people took part” and we know that it is Trump who lies and not those who are opposed to Trump.
Pictures from friends on Facebook who attended… note the lack of non-whites.
Boston:
Silicon Valley:
Portland, Oregon:
Black-free Atlanta:
I went for the cultural experience.
Going into the rally was bizarre because there were large crowds just leaving the same way. When asked they said it was too hot and the event would keep going on. To me it was strange because if this was a true emergency protest I would expect everyone to suck up a bit of a higher temperature and be a bit heroic in standing there in the heat for the entire duration. It wasn’t even that hot actually.
At my local rally it was roughly 97% white. I saw maybe 2 or 3 black people. 80% were above the age of 60. There were some old East Asian Americans. Zero indigenous or brown (Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi etc). For what it is worth, there were also roughly 0% of the attractive white people I see jogging up and down my city usually.
The main concert had line-for-line live Spanish translation and a Spanish-language band. I can only conclude this was for the benefit of the Hispanic hawkers wading through the crowd selling ice cream, water, and other refreshments.
I tried out your argument Philip of asking people why isn’t closing the straits of hormuz a good thing. Unlike you, I engaged in good faith and got a good response.
Everyone I talked to agreed that there is no “king” in America, they were there to protest what they perceived as authoritarian tendencies in the current administration.
Women wearing keffiyahs explained to me it was a symbol of support for oppressed people everywhere which is why they wore it. Although it originated in Palestine.
Different people said the climate emergency is a more long term issue than the affordability crisis. And that many people cannot move or change their economic activity in response to higher gas prices.
Few were able to comprehend, though, that making clean energy cheaper could be done by making oil relatively expensive.
The communist organization guy I talked to wanted armed revolution and was very pro-2A. I’ve heard if you go left far enough you get your guns back.
A big surprise was there was an Iranian-American born in Iran there with her sister protesting against the bombing of Iran. She also claimed the Iranian people chose the last Ayatollah in free and fair elections over 47 years, and the current Islamic Regime maintains widespread support from their own people.
Anon: What city were you in? The server shows your IP address as being in Austin, Texas.
I don’t think the Iranian lady was completely wrong. Iranians were super enthusiastic, as were American Democrats, about the Shah being replaced by an Islamic government. Tough to say what the popular support level is right now. I guess the middle class Iranians in big cities are complaining, but maybe everyone in smaller towns and in rural areas loves the Islamic Republic?
“many people cannot move or change their economic activity in response to higher gas prices”? Gemini disagrees: “Approximately 15% of daily U.S. car trips are for commuting, while about 72% are considered optional or personal (shopping, errands, social, and recreational). The vast majority of personal vehicle travel is for non-work purposes, with shopping and social/recreational activities dominating daily driving habits.”
(i.e., people could cut their gasoline use by at least 50% by cutting out optional trips, consolidating shopping trips, etc.)
Similarly, people in Maskachusetts and Maine who heat with oil can cut their oil use by putting on extra sweaters and lowering the thermostat. Your typical New England house in 1950 wasn’t heated to 72 throughout the winter so humans can definitely survive at lower temps.
> Your typical New England house in 1950 wasn’t heated to 72 throughout the winter so humans can definitely survive at lower temps.
Humans can certainly tolerate temperatures lower than 72, but at least here in Maskachu$etts, the law requires rental properties to maintain a minimum of 68 during the day and 64 at night. Clearly #science has convince our government that humans cannot survive below 64.
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massachusetts-law-about-winter-heating
Anon, keffiyahs did not originate in “Palestine”. They originated in Iraq, were worn by all Iraqis, including Jewish Iraqis, who used to be a significant minority group in Iraq. They were also worn by some parts of Jewish self-defense organization in the Land of Israel early on, but later were discontinued because they became associated with marauding bandit gangs that attacked stragglers and raided towns and commuters, including ambulances.
That MLK statue…. first time I’ve seen it. Shocking. I thought it was something the adherents made just for the protest, but it is apparently very real.
Any fond memories of that statue philg?
Samue: Sadly, we were exiled to the cruel environment of Palm Beach County, Florida before the statute’s January 2023 unveiling.
This elderly white woman explains that it is “not safe for black people, and we need to walk in their name.”
https://x.com/XVanFleet/status/2038357025865048488
Thanks, Steve. That is an awesome explanation. She’s certainly correct when she says that Black people are more likely to be arrested!
The irony of local No Kings protests is that protesters lined along El Camino Real – literally ‘The Royal Road’ in Spanish.
San Francisco Bay Area
The rally was a huge success, there are now no kings here!
I miss “we wuz kangs”.
https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/we-wuz-kings
If the cute girls weren’t at No Kings, where wuz they? Pickup lines don’t have to be factual. Our local outlet mall mostly has POC carrying 4 bags from The Polo Store, so they wuzn’t there.
It is funny to hear myself talking like them. No Kings is just more social justice theater, a lazy way to “do something” about how f-d the world is. It really isn’t a coincidence that Greta T.’s parents are actors; her lesson was play to the audience, collect gate revenue and accolades, and bask in self-righteousness. Why isn’t Greta throwing up a sign against kings in Sweden (or terrorism in the Middle East or even the environment). Why aren’t these people “organizing” to create real solutions, practicing what they preach, or eating their own dog food? Yawn, back to work. /ignore
“Keep on working!” — Pete Townshend
I mean, don’t get me wrong, my ancestors were protesting decrepit kings before Europeans could even apparently conceive of the idea that kings was wrong. “Down with the king!” my grubby immigrant great+ grandfather toiling away on Martha Vineyard’s rocky soil probably said, “Why am I paying that bastard taxes again, someone remind me? Some former slave with a Muslim name is going to inherit these rocks someday anyway.” I want a country without fascists and commies (both European ideas, *cough* *cough*), some semblance of a liberal democracy.
But I’m too busy working my peasant ass off, after 7 generations, to have time to cozy up to woke chicks at woke rallies to effect progressive change. It is crazy how much of the turnout is old folks, the Hippies turned money-grubbing, soul-selling Yuppies turned Irredeemable, Insufferable Boomers. Goddamn, don’t they have anything better to do, like golf? I give up.
My sign would be “Dennis was right.”
Monty Python proud.
Who are these impostors?
How to make sense out of chaos…
I saw their faces in the pictures here.
The writing is on the wall.
Caricatures caricaturing caricatures.
Who or what is behind the cartoon visages?
Surreal, tattooed Sirens skipping along — hideous yet alluring.
Oblivious to their trademark hypocrisy.
Sheep leading the shepherds.
Mass psychosis, “No Kings!” is your Benzedrine:
> I’d studied your cartoons, radio, music, TV, movies, magazines
> Richard [Linklater] said, “Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy”
> A smile like the cartoon, tooth for a tooth
> You said that irony was the shackles of youth.
> “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” is your Benzedrine,
> Butterfly decal, rear-view mirror, dogging the scene.
> — What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?, R.E.M.
Tell it like it is, prophets. We still have poets, we only need listen to them. (Don’t believe the hype, poetry is actually one of the manliest of arts.)
And the Progressive left really doesn’t even get it. Trump, as presented to us, is already the king. They are really talking about the movement into Magna Carta territory, which established that the king should play by the same rules. Greta T.’s selective mutism really is a gift. I wish more people including myself possessed it. I translate Trans Day on my calendar as “look at the condition of the transmission fluid on the dipstick”, or I’d comment on that posting. Ta.
I feel I must publish a retraction and rant here. Apparently in modern times poetry is only “manly” in Wales. Poetry only eminates from me after several drams of Penderyn single malt. I was going to recommend Bill Cowper to my nieces as a poet laureate of nature. According to Wokipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cowper
like me, his blank verse indicates he is both anti-heteronormative and anti-homonormative. (We used to call them old bachelors, too savvy to marry.) I’m married, so I think there is a slight flaw in their logic. I don’t feel comfortable recommending such a rogue to my innocent nieces, in any case. His love of nature is beside the point in an age of obsession with identity politics. Isn’t it a bit offensive to conjecture on his sexuality anyway? Isn’t that a private thing? Oh well, I’m hopelessly old fashioned and not gay, both he and him.
(By the way isn’t that current moon-shot a bit patriarchal and phallic?)