Two No Kings protests in one day, one in Cayucos

June 16, 2025

Editor’s Note: The following series, “Life in Radically Gentrifying Cayucos by the Sea,” to be posted biweekly includes the notes, thoughts, and opinions of an original American voice: author Dell Franklin. 

Franklin’s memoir, “The ballplayer’s Son” and “Life on The Mississippi, 1969” are currently on Amazon.

I was late to the little No Kings protest on the overpass above the freeway in Cayucos because earlier I attended the massive protest in San Luis Obispo where an enthusiastic but peaceful crowd of thousands under warm sunlight sported signs everywhere that warmed the hearts of democrats long subdued by the goings-on in America. This crowd was aroused and ready to fight over the cruelty and blatant corruption by an administration of brown shirts in suits and ties.

The signs were everywhere–Trump Public Enemy # One, Trump Is a Low-life Crook, Immigrants Welcome, ICE is Best Crushed, and the simply declared FUCK TRUMP.

It was a morning to rejoice. There’s a lot of people pissed off and losing sleep at night with no place to really vent except among family and friends, and many are having trouble dealing with friends and relatives who support Trump and his mean-spirited politics.

The people I went with and met are all older, as are Ethan, my tennis partner, and his wife, who have been to most rallies over the years and testified that they were pleased that more young people were attending.

“Well,” I said, “They’d better come. It’s their country. Most of the older people here will be checking out in the near future.”

Maybe these young people feel the same hopelessness many of us old folks feel, but also realize they will have to deal with the shit coming down for a good fifty years if they don’t step up ASAP. They do not recall a time when a president who came from a super wealthy Patrician family volunteered for suicide missions in WWII and lost a brother in that war and later challenged the country to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

John F. Kennedy started the Peace Corps. And backed down the Russians in Cuba over the missile crisis that had the entire country terrified of a nuclear war.

I am lucky to be of a generation when leaders inheriting big money and big power fought alongside the little guys because they would not have been able to look in the mirror without doing so.

Now we have a president who had bone spurs during the Vietnam war, feels people who allow themselves to put their asses on the line are suckers, spews lies and propaganda to airborne troops, and sends national guard and marine troops to protests in Los Angeles when there’s absolutely no need for them.

The protest in San Luis Obispo is but a small part of a protest taking place all over America, which instills in all of us a sense of reclaiming unity, a cause, something to take a huge bite out of and put our asses on the line. Goddamn right!

So later on I hurried back to Cayucos and found a friend and his wife standing at the overpass above the freeway in Cayucos. The crowd was typical of a tiny beach town, but they whooped at every car passing on the freeway and those leaving and entering town on the overpass, and my friend said, “We get about one finger out of every thirty honks and beeps.

The fingers are usually from guys in ballcaps driving big SUVs or trucks. They’re probably coming in from the Valley. So be it.”

The protest was raucous and spirited, the bridge above filled on both sides, but thinning out, as I was late and protests can be tiring. Folks were packing up their flags and signs and moving past me. One man had a sign that read—“I’m a proud Anti-Trump Veteran.”

We don’t see many of those these days. For some reason a lot of veterans seem to think a draft dodger  who regards veterans as suckers is “their guy.” Why? He hasn’t done a goddamn thing for any of us but talk shit. His “big beautiful bill” will shaft veterans, cause them jobs and health care.

I began a conversation with the man with the sign. I told him I was an anti-Trump veteran too.

“The guy’s never been in a bar fight in his life,” he said, grinning.

“He’s probably never been in a bar,” I explained. “He’s had limos and bodyguards since he was a child.”

We both agreed that Trump is a reflection of his administration: Pseudo masculine blowhards.

This man, middle aged and fit, standing beside his wife, was still furious over Trump’s denigration of John McCain, claiming he wasn’t a hero because he was captured after being shot down in the Vietnam war. John McCain, a prisoner of war and U.S. senator from a longstanding military family who was incapable of an indecent act or telling lies, would puke at the sight of Trump’s grandstanding parade on his birthday and never fit in in a senate full of Trump-fawning ass-kissers and lickspittles.

I was fired up. A King’s parade? Take me back to Ike, one of our greatest generals, or man’s man Teddy Roosevelt, who said, “Walk softly and carry a big stick.” He didn’t have to bluster. He was the real thing.

 


Loading...
47 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

I interviewed several of the protesters in person that day and asked them why they were protesting. The majority of responses were just name calling, reflecting what the signs pictured above said. No more substance than that. “Orange man bad”, to sum it up.


I wasn’t born here, but I go back to the days when gas was $0.36/gallon and a dozen eggs cost $0.56. Mr. Franklin is a relative newcomer, though he’d dispute that. But there used to be an ethos that one put in one’s time, didn’t denigrate the locals, and made an effort to fit in. I remember a friend’s Mom (since passed) who asked me after nine years of me hanging around with her kids how long my family had been in SLO, and when I mentioned that it had been nine years her response was, “Oh, you’re almost getting to be a local now.” My challenge to Mr. Franklin, which I’m certain will go unanswered, is please explain to all of us, in detail, and based on verifiable references from the 2024 Kamala Harris campaign, how all of our lives would be markedly better had she won. Not feelings, not hunches, not suppositions, but cold hard facts based on campaign statements, public declarations, policy positions, proposed Cabinet appointments, etc. Please do that. I don’t actually like Donald Trump in many ways, but he was authentic. Love him or hate him, what you saw was what we got. Now do Harris. Thanks so much. Peace.


P.S. I’m also a veteran with Afghanistan Campaign Ribbon and two other deployments on my record, so while I commend you for your service, drinking beer in Germany was not the same as going to Vietnam. Peace again.


The problem with your question is that she never had the real opportunity or time to fully put out what she stood for. The Democrats suffered for that failure. However as an Independent voter i am fairly sure her cabinet choices were going to be better then the midwits and sycophants seen appointed by trump. The fact the most powerful person in the world is a dolt should scare the living crap out of people. The fact the Commander in Chief would be rejected from the military branches he leads because he is a convicted felon is a blight on history. And when you say “you saw what you got “you are correct”. A pathological liar a narcissistic fascist who gives two shits about the people who voted for him.


They are eating the dogs and the cats…


Thanks for responding, but I respectfully disagree with you. She had enough time to articulate at least a few policy positions. Honestly, she had the four years as VP to start crafting an individual identity for herself, and yet she signally failed to do so. I stated above that I don’t like Donald Trump in many ways, and I don’t. But Kamala Harris has always been an empty vessel. She flamed out in 2020 before a single primary vote. Her political career in California shows the unreal nature of our single-party state. She got her start due to her relationship with Willie Brown, and ever after seemed simply to expect that she was entitled to the next higher position. She refused to read briefing materials prepared by her staff, then blamed them when she looked foolish in the media. She had the highest staff turnover rate of any VP, as far as I’ve been able to determine.


https://cbsaustin.com/news/nation-world/vp-harris-office-sees-high-rate-of-turnover-since-beginning-of-term


Note that I pulled a source from Austin, hardly a bastion of MAGA. She had time to prepare for a softball interview on The View, and when Sunny Hostin lobbed a slow pitch right over the plate, she whiffed it. She’s intelligent, but she’s incurious and diffident intellectually.


So I return to my original question. How, exactly, would things be better had she won? One thing that I know would not be better would be illegal immigration. Whether one loves or hates Donald Trump, there is no question that he shut the pipeline of illegal aliens down, without new legislation. We just needed to enforce the laws already on the books. I think what many people who don’t like Donald Trump fail to realize is that the American people took a look and chose Trump. And that just drives our local Lefties batshit crazy. I grew up here but have had the opportunity to travel around and work with people from other regions of the US. The Central Coast is like The Shire, kind of insulated and unknowingly protected by the sort of people who wouldn’t be accepted at Linnea’s or Coalesce. Mr. Franklin and many like him are in my view Hobbits, polishing pumpkins at the Green Dragon while other, less savory types, do the hard work of keeping America safe. One man’s opinion, take it for what it’s worth. Peace.


P.S.:

Regarding the allegations against Donald Trump in the E. Jean Carroll case, I enter into evidence the following:


https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/politics-government/article242527331.html


https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/31/tara_reade_joe_biden_sexual_assault


Again, see that I have selected sources which are well left-of-center. At this point the Trib is left of the Rodong Sinmun. Joe Biden was always a mean, petty, money-grubbing, abusive asshole and his administration was a complete disaster.


Dell writes a nice piece and 99% of comments are bickering back and forth like congress. Maybe our next president will not be red or blue , but an American. Yeah , I know , orange peel and sleepy are American’s.


Our political system requires huge sums of donations to be elected. The Democratic candidates will always be beholden to their mega donors, and will be obligated to follow their agenda preferences. Somewhat, also the Republicans, but in my opinion not so much.


Our current president is neither red nor blue at heart. He had to pick the red side however in order to play the game, and since completely dismantled and remade it. Ever notice the purple ties that he wears every so often?