On Saturday, we had a family outing to the No Kings Day rally in Livermore, California. Located in the DiabloRange, east of the San Francisco Bay Area, Livermore is a small town with some 80.000 inhabitants. It sported an earlier motto of “Live longer with Livermore.” During the 20th century, the dry regional climate attracted many suffering from tuberculosis to the various sanatoria in the city. The only thing that did indeed live longer, however, is a world record-setting light bulb. A 120+ year old 4-watt light bulb, called the Centennial Light, housed in the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department Firehouse Six, is still burning.

It used to be a railroad town, then focused on agriculture, mainly wheat production. Eventually, the vintners arrived. Since the 1950s, the city is home to two major research institutions: the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Sandia National Laboratories. The former, co-founded by Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence, does science related to National Security, in particular nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Sandia National Laboratories are in a similar business, including research on nuclear deterrence, arms control, and nonproliferation. It hosted some of the world’s earliest and fastest supercomputers, and is currently home to the Z Machine, the largest X-ray generator in the world, which is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. (Ref.)

It felt strange to be at a place so focused on nuclear weapon research, when we are in a war where the usage of nuclear devices is considered by the administration as a distinct possibility, or openly debated by the World Health Organization as a worst case scenario to be prepared for.

Home-made drawings…

The crowd on this sunny day brought home-made signs and cheerful sentiments, despite the expressed anger and revulsion on the placards. It was large; when I heard by the end of the day that the rallies attracted 8 million people across the US, I was not surprised. Even small towns mobilized significant numbers of protesters, many attending for the first time. In fact, two thirds of No Kings Day participants live in suburban, small town or rural areas, a 40% increase of protesters over last time, from outside big cities.

You wouldn’t know this by NYT reporting, which featured little, late, under the fold, and mostly cited skeptics, who turned out to be Republican leadership for the younger set. European mass media reported more prominently and in more details about what turned out to be the largest march in US history.

All age groups were represented, and a huge variety of causes addressed. Beyond the main refusal to bow to authoritarian power and anti-war proclamations, there were issues related to ICE, the abdication of congressional power, women’s and minority rights, racism, looting and self enrichment by the presidential family, and over and over complaints about lying and bending the truth.

Here they are, in no particular order other than that I really liked the last one of this set.

All pictures are mine with the exception of this one, taken in L.A. by a Getty photographer, Etienne Laurent. I included it because it is so apropos of our current national situation. Below was a participant in the Livermore protest, in less danger….

LAPD officers arrest a protester dressed as Lady Liberty in chains near the Metropolitan Detention Center during the “No Kings” national day of protest in Los Angeles on March 28, 2026.

We have to believe that the energy observed on Saturday will carry over to the mid-term elections. Assuming the administration and Supreme Court will not manage to significantly shrink the voter pool by all tricks of the trade at their command…

Listen to Springsteen….