SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
immigration and customs enforcement
Critics Blast 'Clueless' New York Times for Dismissive Coverage of Historic No Kings Protests
"The NY Times saves its harshest skepticism for progressives," said one critic.
Mar 29, 2026
The New York Times is drawing criticism for publishing articles that downplayed the significance of Saturday's No Kings protests, which initial estimates suggest was the largest protest event in US history.
In a Times article that drew particular ire, reporter Jeremy Peters questioned whether nationwide events that drew an estimated 8 million people to the streets "would be enough to influence the course of the nation’s politics."
"Can the protests harness that energy and turn it into victories in the November midterm elections?" Peters asked rhetorically. "How can they avoid a primal scream that fades into a whimper?"
Journalist and author Mark Harris called Peters' take on the protests "predictable" and said it was framed so that the protests would appear insignificant no matter how many people turned out.
"There's a long, bad journalistic tradition," noted Harris. "All conservative grass-roots political movements are fascinating heartland phenomena, all progressive grass-roots political movements are ineffectual bleating. This one is written off as powered by white female college grads—the wine-moms slur, basically."
Media critic Dan Froomkin was event blunter in his criticism of the Peters piece.
"Putting anti-woke hack Jeremy Peters on this story is an act of war by the NYT against No Kings," he wrote.
Mark Jacob, former metro editor at the Chicago Tribune, also took a hatchet to Peters' analysis.
"The NY Times saves its harshest skepticism for progressives," he wrote. "Instead of being impressed by 3,000-plus coordinated protests, NYT dismisses the value of 'hitting a number' and asks if No Kings will be 'a primal scream that fades into a whimper.' F off, NY Times. We'll defeat fascism without you."
The Media and Democracy Project slammed the Times for putting Peters' analysis of the protests on its front page while burying straight news coverage of the events on page A18.
"NYT editors CHOSE that Jeremy Peters's opinions would frame the No Kings demonstrations and pro-democracy movement to millions of NYT readers," the group commented.
Joe Adalian, west coast editor for New York Mag's Vulture, criticized a Times report on the No Kings demonstrations that quoted a "skeptic" of the protests without noting that said skeptic was the chairman of the Ole Miss College Republicans.
"Of course, the Times doesn’t ID him as such," remarked Adalian. "He's just a Concerned Youth."
Jeff Jarvis, professor emeritus at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, took issue with a Times piece that offered five "takeaways" from the No Kings events that somehow managed to miss their broader significance.
"I despise the five-takeaways journalistic trope the Broken Times loves so," Jarvis wrote. "It is reductionist, hubristic in its claim to summarize any complex event. This one leaves out much, like the defense of democracy against fascism."
Journalist Miranda Spencer took stock of the Times' entire coverage of the No Kings demonstrations and declared it "clueless," while noting that USA Today did a far better job of communicating their significance to readers.
Harper's Magazine contributing editor Scott Horton similarly argued that international news organizations were giving the No Kings events more substantive coverage than the Times.
"In Le Monde and dozens of serious newspapers around the world, prominent coverage of No Kings 3, which brought millions of Americans on to the streets to protest Trump," Horton observed. "In NYT, an illiterate rant from Jeremy W Peters and no meaningful coverage of the protests. Something very strange going on here."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Bernie Sanders: No Kings. No Oligarchy. In America, We the People Will Rule
We are living in an unprecedented and dangerous moment in American history. In many ways, the future of our country and the entire world is hanging in the balance—and the actions that we take now will determine what that future looks like. This is not the end of our struggle. This is the beginning.
Mar 29, 2026
The following remarks were delivered by Sen. Bernie Sanders at the No Kings rally in St. Paul, Minnesota, where an estimated 200,000 marched in protest against President Donald Trump and his right-wing allies, on Saturday, March 28, 2026.
Thank you, Minnesota.
And let me thank Indivisible, MoveOn, 50501 and all of the organizations who have made this event possible.
And thank you to the millions of Americans, from our smallest towns to our largest cities, in every state in our country, who are gathering today at thousands of rallies.
It is absolutely appropriate that we hold a major “No Kings Rally” right here in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area.
When historians write about this dangerous moment in American history, when they write about courage and sacrifice, the people of Minnesota will deserve a special chapter for themselves.
- YouTube
In the face of the unprecedented occupation of this city by ICE, Trump’s domestic army, this community stood up and, with extraordinary solidarity, fought back. Minnesota showed the American people and the world what democracy is about, what grassroots activism is about, and what standing up for the American ideals of freedom and justice is about.
And I want to thank my colleagues, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, for their leadership in the Senate on this issue.
And today, we remember and honor the two brave Americans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti – who lost their lives in the struggle — and we promise their family and friends that these two heroes will not have died in vain. Their sacrifice has inspired, and will continue to inspire, the American people in the never-ending fight for justice.
In the face of the unprecedented occupation of this city by ICE, Trump’s domestic army, this community stood up and, with extraordinary solidarity, fought back.
As all of you know, we are living in an unprecedented and dangerous moment in American history. In many ways the future of our country and the entire world is hanging in the balance – and the actions that we take now will determine what that future looks like.
The choices that we face are clear. In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and at a time of massive breakthroughs in technology, we now have the opportunity to create a nation in which ALL people can enjoy a dignified standard of living, where we wipe out bigotry and hatred, and where all of us can live in peace and participate in a vibrant democracy. Where the foundation of our nation is built on love, compassion, human solidarity and an understanding, as former Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone said, that we all do better when we all do better. That is one vision for the future — a vision that the vast majority of Americans share.
But there is another vision out there as well – a darker vision. It is a vision which says that we must give up on democracy, that we are too stupid and inept to govern ourselves, and that we must put more and more power into the hands of one man. It is a vision that says we should accept an economy in which a handful of Oligarchs have unbelievable wealth, while the vast majority struggle to put food on the table. It is a vision that says that the only thing that matters in life is the accumulation of money and power – and that it is okay if we lie, cheat and steal to achieve those goals. It is a vision which says that we must hate each other because of where we were born, the language we speak, the color of our skin, our religion or our sexual orientation. It is a vision that foments hatred and hatred. Division, division and division.
We will never accept authoritarianism, we will never accept oligarchy, and we will never accept a president who is a pathological liar, a kleptocrat, and a narcissist who is undermining the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law every day.
It is an Orwellian vision which says that we must live in a constant state of fear, that we must always have an enemy and that we must always be at war. It is a vision which says that we have unlimited amounts of money for bombs and guns and for killing, but never enough money to feed our children, provide affordable housing or enable our parents to retire with dignity.
Today, here in Minnesota, in Vermont and in every state in the country we say loudly and proudly that as Americans we will never forsake our heritage. We will never accept authoritarianism, we will never accept oligarchy, and we will never accept a president who is a pathological liar, a kleptocrat, and a narcissist who is undermining the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law every day.
We will never accept government policy that gives massive tax breaks to the billionaires, throws 15 million Americans off the healthcare they have, breaks unions, denies women the right to control their own bodies, and is pushing the planet closer and closer to a climate crisis.
In the last year, I must confess, I have been thinking a lot about American history: about the men and women in 1776 who, with unbelievable courage, announced to the world that they would no longer be ruled by the king of England, who had absolute power over their lives. These patriots demanded freedom, and they fought a bloody revolutionary war against the most powerful military in the world to achieve that freedom. And they won.
And after their military victory, they established the first democratic form of government in modern history. In 1789, they said loudly and boldly to the entire world: here in America we don’t want kings.
This moment is not just about one man’s greed, one man’s corruption or one man’s contempt for our Constitution. This is about a handful of the wealthiest people on Earth, who, in their insatiable greed, have taken over...
And let’s never forget the extraordinary words they left us: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
And today, in 2026, our message is exactly the same: No more kings. We will not allow this country to descend into authoritarianism or oligarchy. In America, We the People will rule.
But let’s be clear: This moment is not just about one man’s greed, one man’s corruption or one man’s contempt for our Constitution. This is about a handful of the wealthiest people on Earth, who, in their insatiable greed, have taken over our economy, have taken over our political system, have taken over our media in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the working families of our country.
Never before in American history have so few had so much wealth and power.
Never before in American history has there been such extreme levels of income and wealth inequality, with the top 1% now owning more wealth than the bottom 93%.
Never before in American history have we seen the super-rich expand their wealth so rapidly. Last year alone, after receiving the largest tax break in history, 938 billionaires in America became $1.5 trillion richer. Trump, himself, became over a billion dollars richer.
Never before in American history have we seen a ruling class, within a corrupt campaign finance system, spend so much money to buy politicians. In the coming mid-term elections, the billionaires will spend many, many hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that government continues to work for them, and not working families.
Today, we not only say NO to Trump’s authoritarianism, we say NO to Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Ellison and all the other multibillionaires.
Meanwhile, while the richest people become much richer, 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to put food on the table, struggling to pay their rent and mortgage, struggling to pay for child care and education, and struggling to put a few bucks aside for a decent retirement. Tens of thousands of Americans die unnecessarily every year because they can’t afford to go to a doctor.
And, unless we change how our economy works, our younger generation, for the first time in modern history, will have a lower standard of living than their parents.
So today, we not only say NO to Trump’s authoritarianism, we say NO to Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Ellison and all the other multibillionaires. You cannot have it all. We WILL create an economy that works for ALL Americans, not just the 1%.
My friends. It’s not just the authoritarianism of the Trump administration that we must combat.
It’s not just the Oligarchs and their insatiable greed that we must combat.
Now, as the news of today reminds us, we have got to stop the out-of-control militarism of the Trump administration – here at home, in cities like Minneapolis-St. Paul – and abroad.
Let’s be honest. The American people were lied to about the war in Vietnam. We were lied to about the war in Iraq. And we are being lied to today about the war in Iran. This war must end immediately.
In the last election Donald Trump pointed out, correctly, the huge amounts of money that had been wasted in wars that should have been spent rebuilding America. He campaigned as a “peace candidate,” and he promised no more “forever wars.” Well, he lied.
One month ago Trump and his partner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, started a war with Iran. This war is unconstitutional. Trump did not seek or receive authorization from Congress. This war is in violation of international law. One sovereign nation cannot simply go about attacking another sovereign nation for any reason it chooses.
Since this war began 13 American soldiers have been killed and hundreds have been wounded — including another 12 yesterday. In Iran, nearly 2,000 civilians have been killed and many more wounded, and 498 schools have been attacked by American and Israeli missiles.
In Lebanon, more than 1,000 people are dead and more than one million Lebanese people — 15% of their population — have been displaced from their homes. In Israel, 20 people have been killed and over 5,000 have been wounded.
In the West Bank, Israeli vigilantes are burning down homes and killing Palestinians.
At a time when gas prices are soaring, when many Americans cannot afford the basic necessities of life, it is estimated that this war has already cost us a trillion dollars.
When we stand together, and don’t let demagogues divide us up, we can continue to inspire the world to believe in a brighter future.
At a time when the American people are politically divided, there is one issue that is bringing us together. Conservatives, moderates and progressives are speaking out in unison: NO MORE WAR.
And as a U.S. Senator, I want to say a few words to you about what I intend to do about that.
First, we’ve got to make sure that Congress does not send another $200 billion to fight this war. That supplemental appropriation for the war in Iran must be defeated.
Secondly, I will be forcing a vote on legislation to block the sale of nearly a billion dollars in weapons to the Israeli military for bombs and bulldozers.
A nation that has committed genocide in Gaza does not need more military support from American taxpayers.
We must block the bombs and block the bulldozers.
My fellow Americans: We are all proud to live in a country which, throughout our history, has inspired people around the world to struggle for freedom, democracy and justice. And we understand that when we stand together, and don’t let demagogues divide us up, we can continue to inspire the world to believe in a brighter future.
Yes, we can create a vibrant democracy by ending Citizens United and not allowing billionaires to buy elections.
Yes, we can create an economy that works for every man, woman and child in our country and not just a handful of billionaires.
Yes, we can make certain that the revolutionary technologies of artificial intelligence and robotics are used to improve life for all of us, not just the wealthy owners of that technology.
The establishment, including the corporate media and many of my colleagues in Congress, want you to believe that you are powerless. They want you to believe that you cannot change the status quo. But that’s a lie.
Yes, we join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people as a human right.
Yes, instead of spending a trillion dollars a year on the military, we can wipe out homelessness and build millions of units of low-income and affordable housing.
Yes, in the richest country on Earth, we can have the best public educational system in the world, with tuition-free schooling, from child care through higher education.
Yes, we can expand Social Security and radically improve our pension system so that every senior in this country can retire with dignity.
Yes, we can raise the minimum wage to a living wage and guarantee every worker the right to join a union.
Yes, we can guarantee that every woman in this country has the right to control her own body.
Yes, at a time when billionaires are paying an effective tax rate lower than a truck driver or nurse, we can make certain that the top 1% and large profitable corporations start paying their fair share in taxes.
Time and time again, in difficult moments in American history, our people stood up, fought back and won. They did it then. We can do it now.
My fellow Americans: The establishment, including the corporate media and many of my colleagues in Congress, want you to believe that you are powerless. They want you to believe that you cannot change the status quo. But that’s a lie.
Throughout the history of our country, when Americans have stood up and fought for justice, they have prevailed.
The founders did it when they stood up to King George.
The abolitionists did it when they ended slavery.
The working class did it when they stood up to their bosses and formed unions.
The suffragettes did it when they demanded that women have the right to vote.
The LGBT community did it when they demanded basic human rights.
Time and time again, in difficult moments in American history, our people stood up, fought back and won.
Today is not the end of our struggle. It is just the beginning.
They did it then. We can do it now.
Today, March 28, 2026, millions of Americans are out on the streets demanding freedom, democracy and justice. But we must make certain: Today is not the end of our struggle. It is just the beginning.
Together, when we stand united, we will create the kind of nation that you and I know we can become.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Eulogy for My Friend and Freedom Fighter, Yanar Mohammed
Yanar knew that wherever there is terrible violence, there are people behaving magnificently. She was one of them.
Mar 29, 2026
The first time someone threatened to kill Yanar was in 2003.
That was the year she returned to Baghdad, after having fled with her infant son during the first US war seven years earlier.
With Iraq now under US occupation, Yanar noticed something that the media did not: The US had unleashed and empowered Iraq’s most reactionary political forces, and like fundamentalists everywhere, their first priority was to subjugate Iraqi women and girls.
Yanar wasn’t having it.
Yanar would also want us to remember that the timing of her murder has everything to do with the war on Iran launched by the US and Israel just three days before she was killed.
She saw what was happening and launched the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) to fight against the dismantlement of women’s rights and the terrible rise in violence against women. The organization’s first office was a bombed-out bank in central Baghdad.
From that moment, Yanar became a lightning rod for anti-feminist attacks, and very soon after, the threats began.
In 2004, I published an open letter to the chief of the US administration in Baghdad, reminding him that the United States was legally obligated to protect Yanar’s life and the lives of all Iraqi civilians under occupation. I didn’t know Yanar yet, but she wrote to thank me, and we arranged to meet in New York.
We sat on a lumpy couch in MADRE’s old office and talked about building a network of safe houses, where women fleeing violence could find safety and solidarity. Then we went to Macy’s, and Yanar tried on every single lipstick at the makeup counter.
Over the next 22 years, Yanar became one of MADRE’s closest partners, and to me, she became family.
MADRE accompanied Yanar as she brought her visions for revolutionary feminism to life again and again, founding a network of shelters for women and keeping them operational through attacks by clans, militias, and the State.
She launched a feminist newspaper and radio station and staffed them with women who rebuilt their shattered lives through the care, feminist education, and job training that OWFI provided.
She created safe spaces for young people to come together across sectarian lines to defy the logic of the US-caused civil war and create art, music, and poetry.
She co-founded the first organization of Afro-Iraqis, understanding that there is no feminism without racial justice.
She built an underground railroad to free women who were enslaved by ISIS.
She fought like hell to defend women’s legal rights, understanding that the more we lost, the more critical every victory became.
She led protests, campaigns, and coalitions that brought down a corrupt government and forced its successor to answer to demands for accountability from Iraq’s most marginalized people.
Yet, as extraordinary as Yanar’s legacy is, she was so much more than the sum of her accomplishments.
Yanar loved jazz, sushi, and beer. She also worried about her son and spent years hoping to find love. She loved her husband, who made her so happy these last few years.
Yanar was also despondent at times. More focused on all that was left to do than on what she had achieved. Her moments of exhaustion and frustration always reminded me that we don’t have to be infallible heroes in this work; we just have to keep doing our part and take care of each other along the way.
Yanar would also want us to remember that the timing of her murder has everything to do with the war on Iran launched by the US and Israel just three days before she was killed. The Iranian-backed militias that had threatened Yanar for years have been galvanized like never before by this war.
In January, when Yanar and I spoke about the killing of Renee Goode in Minneapolis, we were both struck by the parallels between those militias in Iraq and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the United States.
“Now you have what the US brought to Iraq,” Yanar said, “A paramilitary force working for the worst reactionaries in government, terrorizing communities and committing extrajudicial executions.”
We talked about the beauty and the power of the organizing to protect immigrants, and the militant joy of people coming together to remake the world: in Minneapolis, in Baghdad, in Gaza, in Darfur, and in Haiti.
Yanar knew that wherever there is terrible violence, there are people behaving magnificently:
Heating soup and handing out blankets,
Offering sanctuary to those who are under attack,
Spinning the ideas that will move everything forward,
And putting their bodies on the line again and again.
Yanar did all of these things. And she did them with joy in her heart and fire in her belly. I loved her for that.
Two years ago, when I was in Jerusalem, where I lived as a child, Yanar wrote to me about her hopes for the future:
My plan for the coming decade is to have a small house with a big garden in a Baghdad suburb, where I will get a dog, and plant all the flowering trees and vegetables. And I hope the day will come when we can both visit each other in our home cities without any fear.
This is the legacy Yanar leaves us to enact—to fight for each other and spend time together in the flowering gardens we’ve planted.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Come Celebrate the Life and Work of Tony Mazzocchi
Given the mess we’re in today, now is the perfect time to celebrate his life and, perhaps, get our batteries recharged with the optimism Mazzocchi exuded from every pore.
Mar 29, 2026
The year 1926 gave birth to a slew of creative people including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Mel Brooks, and Marilyn Monroe. Tony Mazzocchi, (1926-2002) was also born in that year and he too was creative virtuoso—a master of radical imagination who transformed our country, even though few have ever heard of him.
On June 4-5, The Rutgers University Labor Education Center will hold a centennial conference in Mazzocchi’s honor to celebrate his work and to promote his radical vision for America. All are invited.
Tony Mazzocchi, born and raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, was a ninth-grade drop-out who lied about his age and enlisted in WWII at age 16. After the war he used the GI Bill of Rights to go to dental school to learn to make teeth. He soon gave that up to work as a labor activist, quickly becoming a local union president in New York and Long Island. He eventually ended up a national leader of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers and spearheaded a new occupational safety and health movement that led to the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Mazzocchi’s goal was to build a radical labor movement that would transform capitalism so that every person had a right to a job at a living wage, access to free higher education, and cradle to the grave health coverage.
Here’s a sample of the passion he brought to that fight:
I wanted the whole country to know in detail what had happened at that factory, and to understand that what had gone on there—the fruitless Bureau of Occupational Safety and Health Inspections, the lack of enforcement by the Department of Labor, the whole long, lousy history of neglect, deceit, and stupidity—was happening in dozens of other ways, in hundreds of other factories, to thousands of other men across the land. I wanted people to know that thousands upon thousands of their fellow citizens were being assaulted daily, and that the police—in this case, the federal government—had done nothing to remedy the situation. In short I wanted them to know that murder was being committed in the workplace, and that no one was bothering about it.
Mazzocchi, the drop-out, had a gift for science. That combined with his radicalness attracted hundreds of young scientific and medical professionals to work with unions to improve occupational safety and health. He also built labor alliances with environmental groups, anticipating that a safer and healthier planet would lead to a loss of fossil fuel and toxic-related jobs. That’s why he invented “just transition,” a policy designed to protect the livelihoods of those displaced workers. He was also active in opposing nuclear testing and the Vietnam War.
Mazzocchi’s goal was to build a radical labor movement that would transform capitalism so that every person had a right to a job at a living wage, access to free higher education, and cradle to the grave health coverage. He created a multitude of educational programs and cultural events, including new plays and a labor film series, so that working people would have access to the humanities and the arts.
But none of this could be sustained, he believed, unless working people had their own political party. He saw as early as the 1980s that working people were abandoning the Democrats, which they saw as just another party of their bosses. They wanted something new and Mazzocchi was determined to build it.
Mazzocchi saw a Trump coming, and he tried to warn us that something new for disaffected working people had to be built.
By the mid-1990s this turned into the Labor Party, which for a few years looked like it might catch on. But that didn’t work out for many reasons that will be discussed at the Rutgers conference.
Back then, Tony warned anyone who would listen that unless a new party was formed, and soon, working people were likely to gravitate to the first demagogue who promised them more secure livelihoods. They were sick and tired of the massive job destruction that was ripping through their communities, and they were looking for someone who was willing to challenge the system that was screwing them. In short, Mazzocchi saw a Trump coming, and he tried to warn us that something new for disaffected working people had to be built.
Mazzocchi was a live wire who didn’t just think outside the box. He lived there. With a self-deprecating sense of humor, and a gift for cooking meals for his friends and colleagues, he fought for working people until he could fight no more.
Given the mess we’re in today, now is the perfect time to celebrate his life and, perhaps, get our batteries recharged with the optimism Mazzocchi exuded from every pore. He never gave up. He never gave in. He didn’t know the meaning of pessimism and didn’t tolerate squabbling and in-fighting. He worked each day to transform our unjust and unequal world into something far more humane.
Please join us in this celebration of hope to help find a path out of the morass we are slogging through. And if you can’t make it, know that the best way to celebrate the life of Mazzocchi is to keep on fighting for a fairer and more just world.
Rutgers is also setting up the Tony Mazzocchi archive. Please consider a donation to fund the archive.
For more information on Mazzocchi see The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi. All conference registrants will get a free copy of the book.Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular