Tomorrow could be the biggest day of mass protest America has ever experienced. The "No Kings" rallies planned for Saturday could, collectively, add up to more than the five million who turned out earlier this year for the same reason: to protest that America was founded on the idea that we do not want to be ruled by a king who holds himself above the law, but instead by laws that all people -- even the country's highest leaders -- have to follow. That's a pretty basic premise, really. And the organizers of the rallies have reportedly gotten a much larger signup than occurred at their earlier rally, so the signs are pointing to tomorrow breaking records as well. There will be over 2,500 locations of these rallies across all 50 states, so go to their site and check out where the closest one to you is!

The funniest commentary about this protest movement we have yet seen came in the form of a political cartoon. It shows the bottom of the Declaration of Independence, with John Hancock and all the rest of the signatures, and it has a small caption at the bottom which reads: "NO KINGS PROTEST (original version)" -- which sums it all up very nicely. America was founded on the concept of "no kings."

Of course, that's not what Republicans are saying about the movement. They latched onto the talking point that the protests will be a "hate-America rally." Maybe they are unaware of the country's founding history? One can only surmise....

Some Republicans are even echoing Donald Trump's paranoid thinking that any rally from the left can only be due to all the participants somehow being "paid agitators." In their paranoid minds, George Soros is somewhere signing checks for each and every one of the millions of Americans who will show up, since (as far as they are concerned) that is the only reason anyone would bother to protest Donald Trump. The ridiculousness of this is patently obvious to anyone outside the rightwing echo chamber that is Fox News (and all its even-farther-right imitators).

Since Republicans started their "hate-America rally" demonization, signups for the rallies (which are not necessary -- anyone can show up and will be welcomed, it is worth pointing out) have reportedly doubled -- meaning the entire smear effort from the GOP has already spectacularly backfired. All it did was to provide a whole bunch of free media exposure for the rallies, and spread the word that they will be happening.

In reality, of course, there are indeed millions upon millions of Americans who are disgusted and angry at seeing American democracy being dismantled before their very eyes, on a daily basis. No monetary enticement is needed for these people to exercise their First Amendment rights to use their freedom of speech to "peaceably assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

What Donald Trump is doing to this country is not only unprecedented, it is dangerous. Cleaning up this mess is going to be a Herculean task, on the order of cleaning all the horsepoop out of the Augean stables. Governmental departments and programs are going to have to be painstakingly rebuilt, person by person. The loss of esteem and prestige worldwide is going to take a long time to counter. The politics of hatred and division that Trump has wielded so successfully is going to have to be overcome. Healing and reconciliation is not going to happen overnight. We've all got a very long road ahead of us, in other words.

But the first steps on that road are to get out there and raise your voices in protest so they can be heard loud and clear. We have to show America and the rest of the world that not everyone here agrees with our continuing slide into authoritarianism. We have to loudly denounce morphing the American democratic experiment from the intent of the Founders into a personality cult slavishly devoted to one single man. Or, to put it more succinctly: No kings! Not here! No way! If millions upon millions of people show up with this simple message, it will be a profound political statement.

Tomorrow's protest isn't the only one that has been happening spontaneously around the country. Signs have appeared in Washington D.C. stating "ICE kidnapping happened here" (or similar messages). Chicago is fighting back against the militarism Trump has brought to their city. The Pentagon press corps walked out en masse this week, after refusing to sign Pete Hegseth's loyalty oath (even Fox News and other rightwing media outlets didn't sign!). Even coal miners are now protesting Trump, in fact. And Portland, Oregon has come up with perhaps the most brilliant tactic yet: dancing frogs.

No, really! The protesters in Portland have switched from the all-black outfit they used to favor into a much more powerful image: people wearing colorful and zany inflatable costumes portraying frogs. Dancing to the music. Call it the theater of the absurd, writ large. The first person who donned such a costume (and went viral when ICE officers pepper-sprayed him through a vent in the uniform) said that "he did not intend to take back the frog as a political symbol when he bought his $30 costume on Amazon several weeks into the Portland protests." He just wanted to "make the president and the feds look dumb. There was no higher point beyond that, other than I just really like frogs."

But now the idea has grown. It's not just an army of frogs anymore (which happens to be the technical term for a group of the amphibians), but now also includes: rainbow-bedecked unicorns, dinosaurs, squirrels, bears, sharks, ostriches, chickens, cows, raccoons, South Park characters, a capybara, and an entire menagerie of other amusing costumes. Jordy (who for obvious reasons declined to provide a last name), one of the people behind the effort (dubbed "Operation Inflation") to provide these costumes for free to any protester willing to don one, summed it up as: "It's the most Portland thing I've ever seen next to the naked bike ride," referencing another amusing Portland tradition (an Emergency Naked Bike Ride was held in protest last weekend and it drew 1,000 people, despite it being 53 degrees out and raining, just for the record).

The costumes push back on Trump's depiction of Portland, which he's called "war ravaged" Jordy says, and have helped de-escalate tensions at times.

"It really quickly, in like a matter of minutes, just changed the entire vibe for everybody and de-escalated tensions and even some of these right-wing provocateurs, they couldn't help but laugh," Jordy told HuffPost.

The idea was first inspired by a protester wearing an inflatable frog costume, who was captured on video getting brutally pepper-sprayed by agents through a vent in the outfit, according to Jordy.

. . .

"If Trump tries to invoke the Insurrection Act, I would prefer a situation where the thing that they're pointing to is necessarily going to have to be people dancing in inflatable costumes and saying, this is why I'm invoking the Insurrection Act and then pointing to, like, a unicorn and a frog and a squirrel," says Jordy.

Pure silliness? Well... yes. But sometimes silliness is precisely what is called for. Because one of the best ways to stand up to a bully (or a leader with dictatorial ambitions) is to make fun of him. Ridicule can be a very powerful tool and a very poignant message, especially when the president is calling your city "war-ravaged." The best response is: "War-ravaged? All I see are dancing frogs...." As we said, the theater of the absurd.

Here is how Pam Bondi, the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in the nation, talks about Portland, by way of contrast:

In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Attorney General Pam Bondi called people protesting the deployment of the National Guard in Portland "organized crime." She pointed to "people with thousands of signs that all match" as a sign that they are organized and funded, likening them to "MS-13 or any gang out there."

"We are going to find and charge all of those people who are causing this chaos in Portland and all these other cities across our country," she said.

Bondi claimed that President Trump "absolutely" has the right to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to deploy troops on U.S. soil, but said it wasn't needed in Los Angeles after the administration "came in and cleaned up." L.A. County declared a state of emergency to deal with immigration raids there, which Bondi suggested was aiding and abetting in breaking the law as she railed against Democrats for shutting down the government.

So much for the First Amendment, as far as Bondi is concerned. If having pre-made political signs that match is some sort of crime, then every single person at every single Republican and Democratic national convention ever held would be in jail. Which is pretty ridiculous. So Bondi threatening to round up and charge "all of these people who are causing this chaos" is a very serious thing. In fact, it is a thing that any American who reveres the U.S. Constitution should get out and loudly protest.

Perhaps in a frog costume. Or maybe a unicorn?

Of course, other things have been happening this week in the world of politics, but we find we don't have the stomach to list them all item-by-item. As just one example of our lack of intestinal fortitude to catalog this stuff, some Young Republicans were exposed this week for using vile and offensive language (which can only be characterized as: racist, homophobic, antisemitic, misogynistic, and homicidally violent) in a group chat that lasted months. Here are just a few examples, to turn your stomach: "I love Hitler," and "Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don't fit the Hitler aesthetic," and "I'm ready to watch people burn now." There were over 250 of the worst slurs imaginable, as well as plenty of other free-floating bigotry. Rape was referred to as "epic." And these are supposed to be the up-and-coming new leaders of the Republican Party, folks.

But we close today with two instances of personal protest, to return to our theme of the week. The first was an essay written by a former high-ranking ICE official who is downright disgusted at what his former agency has morphed into:

Nearly nine months into President Trump's second term, immigration enforcement has become the administration's primary political weapon -- not to solve problems but to manufacture fear, provoke outrage and stage an illusion of control. This isn't a crisis response. It's crisis construction.

The president's team vowed to target gang members, murderers and rapists, but we're not just rounding up violent offenders. We're arresting working parents, students, asylum seekers and even U.S. citizens to create made-for-TV crackdowns.

I served as chief of staff at Immigration and Customs Enforcement under President Joe Biden and spent over a decade working in homeland security. I knew that national security requires focusing on threats -- not turning law enforcement into a spectacle. Despite Mr. Trump's promises to go after the "worst of the worst," in the past few months the administration has deported a preschooler who is a U.S. citizen and who has Stage 4 kidney cancer and his family. A raid on a Hyundai plant where South Korean nationals were rounded up triggered an international incident and threatened future investment in Georgia. Those scenes appear to be part of a deliberate strategy of political theater.

. . .

When law enforcement is forced into partisan roles, it stops serving the public. And when the public loses trust in law enforcement, the whole system begins to fail. The blueprint is: Create chaos. Blame the chaos. Then offer yourself as the cure.

He ends his essay with: "This plan is underway. The question now is if the rest of us will keep pretending this is law and order."

The other essay loudly ringing an alarm bell in protest was from a colonel in the United States Marine Corps who just quit his job in disgust at what his commander in chief and his Pentagon henchmen have been doing to the country's military. This was written in response to the speeches Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth gave to the highest-ranking generals and admirals in the Pentagon a few weeks ago.

He begins by recounting how he swore an oath to defend the Constitution "without mental reservation or purpose of evasion" under five different presidents, starting with Bill Clinton. He points out that each of these had their own failures, but "I continued to serve despite all that because I believed the Constitution brought the country more success than failure, and I believed our presidents took their oaths to it seriously." He then continues: "With President Trump, I no longer believe that.... I could not swear without reservation to follow a commander in chief who seemed so willing to disregard the Constitution."

It is a powerful essay by a man walking away from a career of 24 years of serving this country in uniform. So we end today with his conclusion, which is a powerful statement of protest in its own right:

The president said to military leadership on Sept. 30 of fighting domestic enemies: "And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That's a war too. It's a war from within." It wasn't clear if he was referring to actual crime or to political criticism of him. In either case, military force is not the answer.

Some of his voters likely dismiss President Trump's seeming disregard for the Constitution -- such as him saying that criticizing the president should be illegal, despite the First Amendment -- as him exaggerating. Others apparently don't care, believing that achieving their ends justifies any means. This president acts as though one election makes 236 years of constitutional order irrelevant. Instead of trying to work within the Constitution, or to amend it, President Trump is testing how far he can ignore it. If voters and legislators cannot close the gaps in our laws to clarify the limits to presidential power, those who serve our government will continue to struggle. The next president -- of either party -- may continue us down this path toward collapse.

I do not claim to speak for any other person or institution. I respect those who still serve, many of whom have service contracts and can't simply retire like I did. But if they have doubts about their orders, they are not alone. They should be confident in questioning possibly immoral or illegal orders, remembering they are responsible for their own actions, and knowing others are asking the same questions.

I voluntarily gave up my rank as the president suggested, but the future of our country is more important than any individual's career, wealth or power. I have no regrets about my decision. I have given up the service I loved for the freedom to do the right thing, the freedom to speak my mind and the freedom to speak in defense of our country.

Um... Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, for winning $1.4 million playing blackjack in Vegas? He's going to donate it all to charity, too, since he really doesn't need the money.

OK, we were just kidding about that, but we had to give at least one Honorable Mention to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who had the perfect response to the White House press secretary saying that Democrats' "main constituency are made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens and violent criminals." Walz wasn't having any of that sort of nonsense, and replied back on social media:

Most Republicans are good people. Most Democrats are good people. The White House says outrageous things to make you hate your neighbor. Your neighbor isn't the problem. The White House is.

A little wordy for a No Kings protest sign (unless you are very careful with your layout and lettering), but a nice burn nonetheless.

But we have multiple winners of the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award this week, all for making their protests meaningful and newsworthy at the same time.

The first goes to Ben Cohen (of "Ben and Jerry's" fame) and two artists, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese. Ben commissioned a bit of performance art from the two, who have created a series of similar sculptures. They created an installation on the National Mall with an ice sculpture of 5-foot-tall letters spelling out "DEMOCRACY," which spent the day melting in the sunshine. We wrote about this earlier in the week, in case you missed it. This is a brilliant piece of performance art, as visitors to the Mall and the U.S. Capitol could see democracy melting away before their very eyes.

The second goes to Seth Todd, the Portland guy who began the trend of amusing inflatable costumes with his frog outfit. After getting pepper-sprayed for his peaceful protest, he responded: "It tasted like peppermint," and: "I've definitely had spicier tamales." Todd will share the award with "Jordy" and "Brooks," who out of their own pockets rented "75 to 100" inflatable costumes which they then provided to any protester for free. By their actions, all three have completely flipped the script of a "war-ravaged" Portland to making the ICE officers look absolutely ridiculous (as one commenter joked: "I don't know; the rainbow unicorn looks pretty violent"). Well done! The art of political protest at its finest!

And finally our final MIDOTW award goes to the coalition of groups (including MoveOn, the A.C.L.U., the League of Women Voters, S.E.I.U., and the American Federation of Teachers -- and about 200 more such organizations) who are organizing this mass protest movement behind the scenes.

There is nothing more powerful that millions of people taking to the streets to protest a government gone rogue. As one of the signs at a previous No Kings rally put it: "Tyrants hate dissent."

We strongly encourage everyone to show up tomorrow, at whatever local protest you can find. As Graham Nash said, in one of the best protest songs ever written ("Chicago"): "No one else can take your place.... We can change the world."

[Once again, here is the link to the No Kings site that allows you to find the nearest protest to wherever you happen to live. "Show your face!"]

It's too important a week for petty nonsense, so we're once again retiring the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award to the shelf until next week.

Volume 817 (10/17/25)

We are going to dispense with our limit of only seven talking points this week to present a review of our favorite protest signs from the previous No Kings rallies. But before we get to that, we have one talking point in particular to highlight, from Senator Bernie Sanders, who was responding to Mike Johnson's claim that it was all a "hate-America rally." Because, as usual, Bernie put it best:

No, Speaker Johnson, the No Kings Rally on October 18th is not a "hate America" rally. In fact, it's quite the contrary: it's a love America rally. It's a rally of millions of people all over this country who believe in our Constitution, who believe in American freedom, and are not going to let you and Donald Trump turn this country into an authoritarian society.

It's a group of people who are disgusted that you and your friends want to double health care premiums in this country, and take health care away from 15 million Americans. The right to protest is what America is about. You are not going to stop us.

You tell 'em, Bernie!

Moving right along, we found a few really good sources of photographs of previous No Kings rally signs that are worth checking out if you are planning on attending and are staring at a blank piece of poster board, wondering what to write on it. Or search for "No Kings signs images" to see plenty more good ideas.

This first one wouldn't really work as well tomorrow, but it was worth noting anyway. It referenced the fact that the earlier No Kings rally happened on the same day as Trump's laughable birthday parade of the military through the streets of Washington. This wouldn't be as pertinent without the juxtaposition of the parade and the rally, obviously:

• If there's enough money for a parade, there's enough money for Medicaid

We start with a nod to the guy in Portland who started the craze of the inflatable costumes, who held a sign next to his outfit stating:

• Frogs together strong

Here is the rest of our own list of the signs that caught our eye, either because they were poignant or funny or summed up the rage perfectly, in no particular order:

• No kings
  No crowns
  No racist traitor clowns
• Clean up on aisle 47
• Stop pretending your racism is patriotism
• We've seen smarter cabinets at Ikea
• Tyrants hate dissent
• If you are looking for criminals start at the White House
• Know your parasites
  [image of tick] deer tick
  [image of tick] dog tick
  [image of Trump] luna tick
• Hate won't make us great
• Any honorable government would impeach a king
• Hey MAGA go fact yourself
• [Over a picture of monarch butterflies] The only orange monarch I want

Two which had the same basic idea:

• Super callous fascist racist sexist Nazi POTUS
• Super callous fragile bigot help us he's atrocious

Here are several that went with a different basic theme:

• This is the part of history that makes school kids ask: "Why didn't anyone do anything to stop them?"
• "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Sorry folks but ignoring it is what the Germans did
• "If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity." -- Albert Einstein
• If you have ever wondered what you'd do during slavery, the Holocaust or the Civil Rights movement: you're doing it right now

And finally, two of the ones we liked best. The first assumes you will know the historical reference:

• Yes I WOULD like to keep my republic, Mr. Franklin

And the second, just because it made us laugh:

• I knew it'd be bad but holy shit!

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground