Fascism

Late to the No Kings Day 3.0 protest in Portland as war rages in the Middle East

(Click on each photo to see a larger image.)

Today, March 28, 2026, marked the likely largest day of protest ever in the United States. No Kings Day, 3.0, took place in over 3,000 locations and all 50 states, U.S. territories, and globally. The day of protests, all over, was a defiant rejection of authoritarianism represented by President Donald Trump and a call a restoration of American democracy.

I arrived late to the protest in downtown Portland, Oregon, my current home. I spent about an hour and left, a bit deflated. I appeared to have missed the main events at midday.

I mostly focus on weekly protest events against the illegal acts by this administration, like the four-week-old illegal war on Iran, the illegal blockade of Cuba, efforts to end voting rights with dangerous voter suppression bill called the SAVE America Act now in the Senate, and dozens of other destructive, corrupt, authoritarian, and fascist acts of this administration and its senior officials like the use of modern-day concentration camps housing unlawfully arrested persons.

It’s a dangerous time too. The Strait of Hormuz remains mostly closed to marine traffic, as we entered in the fourth week of the horrific war on Iran, launched without lawful justification and without constitutional authority by this dangerous administration, with Israel. This is creating global economic disruption, spikes in global energy prices, and disruption to the flow of raw materials like fertilizer that help feeds the world. There is no end in sight.

The war is also far more dangerous than Americans are being told by this administration and the corporate and legacy media in the United States.

There was almost no coverage of a shocking drone “attack” on the Barksdale U.S. Airbase, in Louisiana, the week of March 9, 2025, that U.S. media mostly ignored. The incident was alarming for its implications to a strategic U.S. military base and the possible level of sophistication that points to a national actor, possibly China. News broke March 22, 2026. There were multiple waves of drone infiltration over several days, reports the Asia Times.

“The attack disrupted B-52H aircraft launches in support of Operation Epic Fury against Iran. It is the first time a US airbase was temporarily put out of operation in wartime, something that never happened even in World War II,” reported the Asia Times. “Each wave forced the Air Force to halt operations and send its personnel to shelters. Barksdale is the command hub of the US Air Force Global Strike Command.”

Also in March, reports have emerged of two separate missile strikes on the Saudi Prince Sultan Airbase, in mid-March and again on March 27, 2026. In the first attack reported on March 14, 2026, five large aviation refueling aircraft, KC-135s, were hit or damaged, and possibly three more KC-135 refueling aircraft were destroyed in the second strike at the same base, which injured 12 U.S. service personnel. Again, U.S. media coverage was apparently suppressed by corporate media.

However, NBC News reported on March 28, 2026, possible involvement of Russia in the latest Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Airbase a day earlier: “Russia took satellite images of a U.S. air base in Saudi Arabia three times in the days before Iran attacked the site and wounded American troops, according to a summary of Ukrainian intelligence shared with NBC News by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

All of these developments happened as the United States, per the direction of the Trump administration, is reportedly planning to stage up to 10,000 more troops in the Middle East, for possible use for a direct land-based attack on Iran. There is no clarity how the belligerents will bring hostilities to an end.

No Kings Day in Portland, a history making moment in U.S. democracy

In the United States, we just witnessed the single largest collective and nonviolent and peaceful protests ever in the history of our country.

That’s right: October 18, 2025, “No Kings Day,” will go down in American history as a defining day for our troubled, imperiled democracy.

The protests were mobilized around one theme: that in the United States we have no kings. And they took place to challenge the authority of a sitting president and his administration that have falsely called peaceful American cities, like my hometown of Portland, Oregon, “war zones.”

Current estimates peg the number of protesters at 7 million, at least, in more than 2,600 locations, spread throughout every state.

VISIT MY POST ON MY WEBSITE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS AND READ MORE.

Portland, Oregon rally against the Trump administration, April 19, 2025

Protesters against the administration of President Donald Trump numbered at least 3,000 and shared a diverse range of creative protest signs, defending American democracy.

On the weekend marking the 250th anniversary of the first shots fired in the American Revolution against a tyrannical monarch and the British Empire, at least 3,000 people gathered in downtown Portland, Oregon to protest the administration of President Donald Trump.

The April 19, 2025 events kicked off at Pioneer Square, a gathering place for many public events in the city, and then the march took over the streets for over an hour. Protesters represented all ages and carried a wide array of colorful, creative, and biting signs criticizing Trump, Elon Musk, and the administration for its many actions. I saw about a dozen Portland police officers following on bikes, but mostly there was no visible law enforcement presence based on my observations.

There was no need for any police given the entirely peaceful nature of the civil action by thousands of people exercising their protected speech, as allowed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The day was a fitting one too.

Nationally some have dubbed collective national protests on April 19, 2025, as “No Kings Day, Part II.” The reasons for unrest today have a striking similarity to what happened two and a half centuries ago, as British forces gathered in Massachusetts to confront increasingly rebellious colonial residents.

The issues that led to the first conflict of the American Revolution—the right to self-determination, liberty, democracy, the rule of law, a life free from the power of kings—helped to forge a nation 13 years later, in 1788.

That year, the newly christened United States of America was created through the adoption of a founding charter, the Constitution. While revolutionary, it was also terribly marred and flawed by enshrining slavery, our country’s greatest sin. It would still take over two centuries to guarantee the document’s original promise for all persons.

This framework for a nation, set forth in the Constitution, called for a system of checks and balances by three branches of government: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. On April 19, 2025, in Portland, people gathered with deep and profound concern that this sacred charter had been irrevocably broken by a man who has proclaimed himself to be a king.

At these protests in Portland, the residents who gathered to assemble recalled our original bold vision for a country with their calls for accountability, the rule of law, and the safeguarding of our democratic freedoms. Their demands reminded us all of our daring experiment to forge a more perfect union, stretching from 1775 to 1788, and grounded in our Constitution: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Lastly, I observed few persons from a group being targeted for enforcement and deportation action by this administration: Latinos. There was a lot of chatter online by some of the organizers (I can’t confirm who the organizers are based on published posts), who said it would be safe for all people. However, many Latinos are fearful in Oregon, given the cancellations this month of upcoming Latino cultural events statewide. I believe they do not want to be seen, photographed, or filmed at these events. There were very few African Americans too. The lack of diversity at this event is telling and needs to be discussed.