{"id":44667,"date":"2025-10-22T13:28:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T20:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=44667"},"modified":"2025-10-22T13:28:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T20:28:41","slug":"hating-america-clearly-was-never-so-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/10\/22\/hating-america-clearly-was-never-so-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Hating America \u2014 Clearly \u2014 Was Never So Fun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Day in photos: The \u201cNo Kings\u201d rally in San Francisco Saturday was a raucous, celebratory and creative sign-making romp, with a righteous edge<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Avatar\"Avatar by\u00a0Jason Winshell<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Michael Stoll<\/a><\/strong> October 20, 2025 (sfpublicpress.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Credit: Jason Winshell<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tens of thousands of people marched in San Francisco Saturday for the second national \u201cNo Kings\u201d protest, making it one of the largest \u2014 and most artistic \u2014 in recent years to focus collective scorn on the Trump Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scene blended activism and spectacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marchers carried signs reading \u201cHands Off Our Democracy,\u201d \u201cNo Troops in Our Streets,\u201d \u201cVaccines Save Lives\u201d and in a South Park reference, \u201cTrump Is F\u2014ing Satan.\u201d Someone inflated a cartoonish crown labeled \u201cKing Me Not.\u201d At the Civic Center stage, folk icon Joan\u202fBaez led the crowd in singing \u201cGracias a la Vida,\u201d while Angela Davis roused the crowd to political engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Youth in tie-dye marched alongside union contingents from National\u202fNurses\u202fUnited, bearing placards: \u201cDemocracy Is Not for Sale.\u201d Several sign featured images of Donald\u202fTrump with Jeffrey\u202fEpstein and Ghislaine\u202fMaxwell to underscore the public groundswell for accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The demonstration began at the Embarcadero around 2 p.m., proceeding down Market Street and winding up at a soundstage set up outside City Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was San Francisco at its most righteous and lighthearted: Costumed (and some naked) marchers, dogs in strollers, cardboard crowns and inflatable dinosaurs. A handful of city police officers sat near side streets, looking down at their phones while scrolling newsfeeds about the rally they were supposedly monitoring. The crowd, organizers say, remained peaceful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But the protest also had a sharper edge: Earlier in the week, President Donald Trump reaffirmed his intention to deploy federal troops or the National Guard<\/a> to San Francisco, asserting he had \u201cunquestioned power\u201d to do so under the Insurrection Act. City and state officials scoffed: California Attorney General Rob\u202fBonta warned the move would be unlawful without an actual insurrection, and San Francisco Mayor Daniel\u202fLurie said guard troops would not solve the city\u2019s drug- and homelessness-related problems.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The \u201cNo Kings\u201d movement is drawing big numbers and bigger political stakes. Organizers said the rally drew between 101,000 and 144,000 people, noting that was the count they had submitted to the Crowd Counting Consortium<\/a> at Harvard. It was one of thousands of coordinated gatherings across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to data journalist G.\u202fElliott\u202fMorris<\/a> and the independent newsroom The\u202fXylom<\/a>, national turnout is estimated at about 5 million, with an upper bound near 6.5 million \u2014 making this one of the largest single-day protest events in U.S. history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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San Francisco\u2019s protest melded serious political organizing (many trying to raise the public profile of state Proposition 50, the voting district map reform to counteract Texas Republicans\u2019 mid-cycle redistricting) with local culture (clown outfits, drum circles, irreverent signs with X-rated images), echoing the city\u2019s history of spirited dissent. Despite talk of authoritarian putsches and troop deployments, the actual enforcement presence on the streets was minimal, belying the federal rhetoric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos by Jason Winshell \/ San Francisco Public Press<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Angela Davis, political activist, author and scholar, addressed the crowd at the \u201cNo Kings\u201d rally in Civic Center on Oct. 18, 2025, emphasizing civil liberties and the importance of standing up against oppression.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Below: The crowd assembles for a march down Market Street. Credit: Dan Dunn Aerial Photography  for Indivisible SF.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jason Winshell<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jason Winshell is a photojournalist and investigative reporter. The current focus of his reporting is AI and technology policy. His prior four-decade career as software engineer informs his reporting. In 2010, his photography was nominated by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art\u2019s SECA award, which recognizes the work of emerging artists in the Bay Area. His photo essay book, “Street<\/a>,” documents every day life in San Francisco through 45 color photographs shot on the city\u2019s streets.More by Jason Winshell<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Stoll<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Michael Stoll is senior editor and co-founder of the San Francisco Public Press. Formerly executive director, he has also been a reporter and freelance writer for local and national outlets, including the San Francisco Examiner and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has taught journalism at two Bay Area universities, and researched media ethics at Stanford.More by Michael Stoll<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day in photos: The \u201cNo Kings\u201d rally in San Francisco Saturday was a raucous, celebratory and creative sign-making romp, with a righteous edge by\u00a0Jason Winshell\u00a0and\u00a0Michael Stoll October 20, 2025 (sfpublicpress.org) Tens of thousands of people marched in San Francisco Saturday for the second national \u201cNo Kings\u201d protest, making it one… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44667"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44668,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44667\/revisions\/44668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}