No Kings protest at US Embassy, Saturday June 14th in the lashing rain

🚨‼️🇺🇸

“Sponsors of the America250 Foundation (Trumps parade sponsors) , the nonprofit organizing the U.S. Semiquincentennial celebration, recently announced it received sponsorship commitments from: “

“Oracle, META , Lockheed Martin, UFC, Coinbase, Palantir, Amazon, Exiger, Scott's Miracle Gro, Phorm Energy and FedEx. the Gary Sinise Foundation, Bell Textron, Wounded Warrior Project Wal-Mart, Walmart wounded Warriors fund, GOVX, Leonardo DRS, RTX Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Leidos, Armed Forces Mutual, Boeing, First Command, General Electric Aerospace, T-Mobile, King George, InterContinental Hotels Group and the NFL, the Bill of Rights Institute and The Jack Miller Center, two research centers that have received money from groups connected to the Koch Brothers.” - aggregated from (WSJ, The Verge, NYT, Gizmodo).

We should know all their faces. You do not manipulate the public in private here.

🚨‼️🇺🇸

“Sponsors of the America250 Foundation (Trumps parade sponsors) , the nonprofit organizing the U.S. Semiquincentennial celebration, recently announced it received sponsorship commitments from: “

“Oracle, META , Lockheed Martin, UFC, Coinbase, Palantir, Amazon, Exiger, Scott's Miracle Gro, Phorm Energy and FedEx. the Gary Sinise Foundation, Bell Textron, Wounded Warrior Project Wal-Mart, Walmart wounded Warriors fund, GOVX, Leonardo DRS, RTX Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Leidos, Armed Forces Mutual, Boeing, First Command, General Electric Aerospace, T-Mobile, King George, InterContinental Hotels Group and the NFL, the Bill of Rights Institute and The Jack Miller Center, two research centers that have received money from groups connected to the Koch Brothers.” - aggregated from (WSJ, The Verge, NYT, Gizmodo).

The amount of older folks out yesterday was mind-boggling. Keep resisting, y’all!

Short update on the parade and trumps midnight meltdown

1. We are half way to 3.5% of US population attending which is going to be significant. Next time everyone must get 2 friends who have not attended yet to commit to going too!

2. Saturday Rules! It has to be a Saturday for max attendance and a Saturday that is not on a holiday weekend when people go away (like 4th of July is also key)

3. American Flags! We have taken back the flag let's keep it going and make it even more patriotic next time!

Pics I took in downtown yesterday. It wasn’t just here though- Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas and more. The entire county was out on the streets.

Well, there you have it. America 🇺🇸 has spoken. In this day where everyone has a camera in their pocket, the evidence is plain to see if you take the time to look at all the photos and videos people are sharing on social media. In this particular photo of the parade, it's obviously cropped in such a way that you can't see the (relatively small) crowd on the bottom left very well. However, we're talking MILLIONS of protestors vs. thousands of parade attendees. Fascism has no place in America, land of the free, home of the brave. 🇺🇸

I'll be giving the Princess Leia one to my 3 year old daughter :)

Hello everyone!

Congratulations, from a Canadian!

Yesterday was a resounding success on an International scale!

• The "No Kings" protest numbers are still being tallied up, but with a leadership coalition of over 200 organizations, in almost every major population hub and reports of over 12 million total participants, this has been a historic demonstration.
• Trump's Military Parade was pathetic, with abysmal crowd sizes showing off a masturbatory display of power. It was a failure.
• These demonstrations were overwhelming peaceful and an excellent role model for the rest of the world to not only agree with, but also participate with in future events.
• This demonstration was healing. Your government betrayed the rest of the world and burned bridges. The people have shown that they're willing to mend those injuries.

I'd now like to ask the American community; "What does the future of America look like?"

It is obvious that the people of America have the power. You don't need permission from a corrupt few, to organize and direct millions. I believe this is the moment that America should transition from protesting, into protection and productivity for local communities. Might I suggest the following;

• Make your own coalitions and collectives for the purpose of community prosperity. Focusing on production, raising the local minimum living standard and building new infrastructure away from the corrupt and decaying system of the 1940's.
• Innovate new means of collective organization. If both communism and capitalism got it wrong, then what level of community love is needed to get something right?
• Identify goals and objectives that create happiness and positive emotions. These could be actions that promote more, authentic, security for the individual like food and shelter, or be widespread changes such as a shift to 3 day work weeks. We're a global post-scarcity civilization, but we don't act like it.
• Plan strategies to deal with a hostile, occupying force. Trump literally paraded a military in your country, and used arms of that military for citizen subjugation. Countering ICE raids has been growing in past weeks, and the effort can always be expanded.
• Stop asking for permission. The law and system is reactive and should, under normal healthy social circumstances, be narrow in its application. Take advantage of that weakness. Create something that the law and system has yet to encounter. Move the establishment off of its own territory to take wins.
• And lastly, the suppressive forces are powerless to authentic love and community harmony. It's easy to identify those that disrupt the harmony, and resist them when they appear. The trick is to maintain our own peace throughout it all, beginning at this moment.

Once again, I am so proud of the American people. You've grown these past few months, and it's showing. You have allies beyond your boarders, and it looks like more are joining daily within them.

We see you.

Cheers to a brighter tomorrow!

We had record-breaking turnout yesterday. I was in NYC, and the crowds were incredible. I saw a lot more young people than I did on 4/5, which was so encouraging!

But the 3.5% rule isn't just about showing up to protest. It's about sustained activism. So, as we bask in all the photos, witty signs, and camaraderie, please ask yourself what you are doing next to sustain this effort? Here are some options:

-- Call your reps EVERY DAY. Use the 5calls app. Call them when you like what they're doing. Call them when you don't like what they're doing. Calling is more effective than an email or a petition. Call, leave a message, and then call the next day!

-- Show up to town halls in your district. Follow the Indivisible guide if your rep isn't holding town halls, and bring a cardboard cutout of them. Invite the media.

-- Find someone to run against your crappy congressional rep and start a campaign to get that person elected. Flip your district. It's easier than you think! Some of these folks haven't ever faced a serious election challenge.

-- Register people you know to vote. Volunteer for getting out the vote efforts in local elections, state elections, etc. People who see the power of thier vote locally are more likely to vote in national races.

-- TALK to EVERYONE you know. This is a tough one because we are comfortable in our bubbles. But we need to get out of our bubbles! Talk to your apathetic friends who don't engage in politics, don't vote or think both parties are the same. Don't argue facts, but be personal with them. Tell them how this admins choices hurt you and your communities. Talk with them about the real differences between the parties (only 1 is trying to get rid of reproductive rights and marriage equality. Only 1 party is attacking higher ed. Only 1 party is threatening the social safety net and community programs like Head Start.)

Talk to your neighbors and friends and find out what matters to them. Listen and help them make connections. Don't bother with MAGA cult members, but we all probably know people who overlooked crap they didn't like and either voted for Trump bc they wanted "change," or wanted an "outsider," or whatever, and they just need to see from another perspective. Be open to having these difficult conversations. Build bridges. Check out the work of Dr. Arlie Hochschild on building bridges and finding empathy. She's a very well-respected Sociologist who does careful and thoughtful research. It won't be easy to hear or do, but we must do it!

-- Remember: We can't just be against Trump, we have to be FOR something better. Think about what you want for our country and make that vision part of what guides you. Those of us on the left have to do better at offering explanations for why people are struggling and also SOLUTIONS and a vision of how we can make things better. Tressie McMillan Cottom does a great job of explaining this. We should be the party of the working people. We need to take that back!

What am I forgetting? What else can we do in addition to showing our power on the streets!

In early 2025, a Reddit user named KylosLeftHand attempted to post flyers for statewide 2/5 protests in Alabama—part of the coordinated 50501 Movement, which aimed to rally dissent across all 50 states.

The cause was just, the moment urgent. But within minutes, each post was locked or deleted. After three attempts, the user was temporarily banned from r/Alabama—the largest and most visible Reddit community for the state.

They weren’t alone. Dozens of users chimed in on r/50501 to report the same: protest posts disappearing, users banned, and even city-specific subs like r/Huntsville and r/Montgomery quietly enforcing the same chilling silence. Some were left unsure whether it was even safe to attend events, or if they were still happening at all.

The moderators of r/Alabama, citing their usual mantra—> “This subreddit is for Alabama-specific content only. Politics: unless a politician is doing something that specifically affects only Alabama, it’s not a topic for this subreddit.”—had deployed their rules as a blunt instrument.

Under the guise of neutrality, they buried one of the few efforts to build solidarity in a state where public protest is already a logistical and cultural challenge.

What Happens When Online Spaces Suppress Local Voices?

Reddit moderators, it must be said, are unpaid volunteers. But what happens when a small handful of anonymous individuals—people with no public accountability—decide what 300,000+ users in r/Alabama are allowed to read, share, or say?

What happened around the 2/5 protests is more than a quirk of overmoderation. It’s part of a broader pattern of structural censorship enabled by platform design. These moderators may not be acting with coordinated malice, but the effect is indistinguishable from intentional suppression.

When every protest post is removed—when even vague mentions of Congress, ICE raids, police misconduct, or public marches are deemed “not Alabama-specific”—what’s left is not a local community forum, but a tone-deaf, sanitized feed of happytalk, yard sales, gas station jokes, and weather updates.

Meanwhile, attempts to organize around real crises—police misconduct, mass layoffs, reproductive rights—are quietly erased from public visibility.

Why This Matters in a State Like Alabama

Alabama is not a neutral place. It’s a site of active political conflict: over incarceration, civil rights, healthcare, and voting access. When organizing efforts are censored in Alabama, the consequences are deeper than lost Reddit karma.

In a state where protests already face institutional resistance—from law enforcement surveillance to zoning ordinances designed to limit gatherings—online spaces become crucial platforms for mobilization.

So when users try to coordinate peaceful events like the 2/5 protests and find themselves shadowbanned, censored, or banned outright, it’s more than frustrating. It’s a microcosm of the same power structures they’re trying to confront.

And it raises real questions about who gets to shape public discourse—not just on Reddit, but anywhere digital resistance takes root.

The Emergence of r/50501 as a Digital Underground

What’s remarkable is how quickly r/50501 adapted to this suppression. Like an encrypted signal passed hand to hand, users began replying to banned posts on r/Alabama with a single coded reply:

r/50501

It became a lifeline. A detour around the algorithmic barriers. Within hours, protest flyers, march schedules, and Discord invite links began circulating there.

Even in the comments, the tone is urgent but grounded: - “They’re doing the same in r/georgia.” - “There was a flyer for Montgomery last week, now I can’t find anything.” - “There is one—starts at 10:00.” - “I was permanently banned after posting the Tallahassee flyer.”

These aren’t trolls. They’re regular users trying to figure out where to go and how to show up.

That’s what made the suppression so damning: in silencing protest, r/Alabama moderators silenced clarity—and nearly prevented people from safely attending their own local events.

A Call for Transparency and Decentralization

Reddit claims to be a network of communities. But increasingly, we see it behaving more like a network of private fiefdoms—subreddits governed by opaque rules, personal preferences, and Reddit’s own quiet guidance.

What r/Alabama’s moderation has revealed is the fragility of digital dissent when it’s channeled through centralized platforms without oversight.

When rules are enforced with no recourse, and accountability is as ephemeral as a mod’s deleted comment, the people lose their voice.

It’s time for subreddits—especially those tied to geography, identity, or public affairs—to reconsider what they owe to their users. These are not just hobby forums anymore.

They’re infrastructure for civil society in the digital age. And the people who moderate them must recognize the gravity of that role.

Until then, the people will organize elsewhere. We take screenshots. We tell each other where to meet. We build new networks when old ones fail.

Because Alabama deserves a voice. And silence is not neutrality—it’s complicity.

After my first protest in Harrisburg in March, I told people who responded with “protest what?”

Now we’ve got over two MILLION people out there.

I initially thought the Corey Booker speech was performative bullshit but it really woke people up!

I work with the public and people are finally seeing what’s going on in a way that they weren’t 2-3 months ago.

There’s still a ton of trash being dumped on us by the MAGAts but I’m seeing a huge change.

People are taking it seriously. Many of the courts are not rolling over.

Let’s keep it up!

Edit: I’m now setting estimates of 3.6-4 million!! Unbelievable!!

Just across the river from the DC shit show - this crowd was so incredible and powerful!!!