Inflatable Penis 1, Regime 0
No Kings was a narrative win, but be prepared for the regime to strike back this week.
We wanted to start this week with some quick thoughts about the weekend’s No Kings protests and what to expect in response. It’s clear that this weekend was a win for the resistance in the ongoing narrative battle for democracy and against authoritarian rule. But that win ensures a regime response this week. We need to be prepared. We also need to be cautious in counting our wins. Keep reading for more.
No Kings A Narrative Win
By all accounts, the No Kings protests this past weekend were large, diverse, and peaceful. Amazingly, the NYPD reported that they made no protest related arrests. So much for the “antifa terrorism” the regime crowed about for weeks leading up to the event.
The protests also prompted some notable dilemma action moments. Perhaps the most widely shared incident involved police in Fairhope, Alabama arresting a 53 year old woman in an inflatable penis costume and holding a sign saying, “No dick-tator.” Of course, the police looked ridiculous and weak as they overreacted to this lose-lose situation. Bravo to the No Dick-tator woman. This is how it’s done!
Cops arresting an inflatable penis was a emblematic of the regime’s response over all, which mostly backfired…literally.
Perhaps the signature regime response was an attempt at distraction with a military “show of force” at Camp Pendleton in southern California. But the main headline to come out of that desperate display of insecurity and need for attention was the premature detonation of an artillery shell, the effects of which were felt by the Vice President’s own security detail. Axios reported:
Part of the law enforcement squad protecting Vice President JD Vance was accidentally hit by an artillery shell during a military display marking the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, California, police said Sunday.
As if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, President Trump ended the night releasing an AI slop video of himself in a “King Trump” fighter jet shitting on protestors. Nothing says you’re definitely winning the narrative battle like resorting to this:
Expect The Empire To Strike Back
We should find hope in this weekend’s events. We saw, once again, historic turnout to reject the consolidation of authoritarian rule in the United States. We are not alone. There are enough of us, when properly organized and motivated, to stand up and push back. The regime’s attempts to depress turnout with threats of violence and labeling protestors as “terrorists” failed. Their counter-messaging strategy blew up in their faces. They resorted to ending the night with a temper tantrum that involved throwing poop.
But, precisely because they know they suffered a major narrative defeat this weekend, they will take action this week to regain our attention and reestablish the fear they believe is necessary to rule us. Be ready.
The most likely avenue will be through a SCOTUS rubber stamp of military dictatorship by allowing Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Chicago. But there are plenty of other options for the regime to strike back with audacious action to shift the narrative focus and dampen our morale. Don’t let them succeed.
When that happens, it’s easy to get sucked in and to get down. We know, we’ve fallen victim to it many times ourselves. Don’t beat yourself up if it happens to you too from time to time. But also, tell yourself in advance that an outrageous, dangerous, and dispiriting regime response is coming and know that it is a desperate response on their part. The bigger their response, the bigger the evidence of our effectiveness.
Truth Is A Weapon
In the end, we have truth on our side and truth is a powerful weapon. That is why, in our attempts to find the silver linings in the dark clouds of consolidating authoritarian rule, to find examples of regime weakness or resistance wins, we must not fall prey to misinformation.
As an example, we have noticed some big accounts spreading misinformation about Dutch intelligence services supposedly suspending an intelligence sharing agreement with the United States because the White House is sharing intelligence with the Russians.
The problem is that this is inaccurate at best. The article makes no mention of the Netherlands suspending an intelligence sharing agreement with the United States. Nor does it say that any reduced sharing is related to the White House sharing said intelligence with Russia. Rather, the article says that the Netherlands is limiting its sharing with the United States on a case-by-case basis and increasing its sharing with other European allies. Any decrease in sharing with the United States is a result of concerns over the political direction and human rights abuses inside the United States, not White House sharing with the Kremlin. In fact, the article states that the Dutch intelligence services still have an “excellent” relationship with their U.S. counterparts.
It’s easy to fall for misinformation in this case. First, it comes from a large account run by the editor of a major news magazine and law professor who should know better. But, we all fall for and spread misinformation sometimes.
Second, the implications of the story, if true, provide strong support for our hopes and beliefs. We believe that the Trump regime are working for Putin (and for good reason) and we hope that others more powerful than us, someone with the power to impose costs on the regime, will see that too and do something. Reports that a Western European ally’s intelligence services agree with us and have taken action scratches that itch.
Finally, third, the linked story is in a foreign language few if any of us can read and understand, all while being behind a paywall. So, we assume that the big account with strong credentials who posted it must be telling the truth.
Remember, in cases like this one it is especially important to fact check as best we can. This is a story with emotional appeal that, if true, would be huge support to our narrative and beliefs.
Here are some steps you can take:
Try to find the full, unpaywalled story. This Remove Paywall tool is an excellent resource for doing that and is how we were able to find the whole story ourselves.
When the story is in a foreign language, use Google Translate to get it in English.
Read the story in English and use Ctrl+F to find keywords and phrases to help fact check key claims—e.g. “suspend,” “Kremlin,” “Russia,” etc. in this case.
Use AI to double check your own reading. AI has its problems. But summarizing text is a thing for which it is actually useful. In our case, in addition to reading the story ourselves and using Ctrl+F to check keywords and phrases, we asked two local LLMs (gpt-oss:20B and LFM2:1.2B) and two cloud providers (ChatGPT-5 and Perplexity) to check the claims that an intelligence sharing agreement was suspended and that it was because of White House sharing with the Kremlin. All four models concurred with our assessment that these claims are not supported by the article.
The Week Ahead
We start off this week on the heals of a clear and much needed narrative victory. No Kings delivered on the promise of peaceful, widespread, large, and diverse protests against Trump authoritarian rule. The regime narrative that the participants would be “antifa terrorists” was shredded and their military “show of force” backfired, culminating with an AI slop “shitter jet” instead. But that all but guarantees that the regime will strike back this week. Be prepared. Don’t be cowed when the response comes. And in your efforts to help maintain our initiative in the narrative battle for democracy and against autocracy, maintain your commitment to the power of truth.
Generative AI use disclosure: We used local and cloud models to help us find relevant news stories and to double check our assessment of the story about Dutch intelligence sharing.
Please like, share, and subscribe to help us get the word out about resistance wins, losses, and threats!
Thank you for the heads-up about the misinformation--a reminder to be more careful.
Was, regretfully, spreading that, and have deleted the post.