Month: March 2026

No Kings continues to grow. We went in October and went again yesterday. Here are the estimated USA totals:

It would have been one higher but Mrs Muttrox had to work. Thanks for subbing in with me, Holly! Some Gemini insights below point to a broadening of the message away from stereotypical attendees and towards more “regular” Americans. That’s great, let’s get mainstream.

• Geographic Expansion: While the October rally was heavily concentrated in “Blue” urban hubs, the March event saw a massive surge in the suburbs and traditionally “Red” states. Over 3,300 locations held events yesterday, compared to approximately 2,700 in October.
• Demographic Shift: Data from the Brookings Institution indicated the crowd was more demographically diverse than previous iterations, with a higher percentage of male and independent-leaning participants compared to the 2025 events.

Last time we missed the actual March part of the March. It was great to do it this round, to be in the crowd. It’s so energizing!

My informal estimate is the crowd was 25% idiots. The dumb socialists with their megaphones (there’s not going to be a general strike), the ignorant Israel/Palestine signs, the Trump is a child rapist signs (He isn’t). And of course there was Princess Leia, and her sign was the Rebel Alliance symbol (had to look that up) with rainbow coloring. I thought she was a joke at first, but she was sincere. Her boyfriend played American Pie on his boombox several times at loud volume. The full version. C’mon.

But that still lives 75% fairly normal people taking a day out to protest.

Again, wonderful organizing. There were folks bringing around water and one fella brought Ben & Jerry’s for everyone. It was easy to find volunteers and helpers. I didn’t see a whiff of violence, barely even a raised voice.

I connected with an old friend there. Nancy and I hadn’t seen each other since both getting RIFd in 2017. Good times! She estimated the crowd in terms of the Fox Theatre (~5,000 people). It grew to a full Fox by the time we started marching.

Raphael Warnock is a good speaker.

I was disappointed there weren’t more coherent asks. There was talk about the SAVE act and a couple Georgia Court judges. But nothing else. Nothing about specific policy asks or how to turn all this energy into votes. It was a missed opportunity. Walking and yelling with folks you agree with gives you a nice lift but doesn’t do anything.

Random photos and videos.

See you at the next one!

2025 original predictions are here.

I made 20 predictions. I got 13 right, missed on 5, and took 2 out. Thirteen out eighteen is 72%. That’s a bit worse than last year (80%). I’m happy with that score. I didn’t get any wrong in politics and the economy. Sports was the weakest subject.

Sports

1. The NBA MVP will once again be Nikola Jokic. Nope, it was SGA.
2. The Thunder win the Western Conference. Yes. And the title.
3. The Cavaliers or Celtics win the Eastern Conference. Nope, it was the Pacers.
4. The Oklahoma City Thunder will be in the NBA finals three of the next five years. Ongoing. They got in this past year, so they need to be there two out of the next four.
5. The Atlanta Hawks will finish the 2024/2025 season at 60% or less. Yes. They were 40-42, 49%.
6. The NBA All Star game will continue to suck. No. It wasn’t what it should be, but it didn’t suck. You know why? There was only one reason. Wemby. One great player giving a shit and coming to embarrass everyone else made all the difference.
7. Payton Pritchard will win the sixth man award. Yes.
8. The New England Patriots will win 8 or more wins. Yes. Holy cow, we went to the Super Bowl somehow. Incredible.
9. Bijan Robinson will have over 1,500 yards in 2025/26. No. He barely missed, with 1,478 yards. Dang.
10. Saquon Barkley will have less than 2,000 yards in 2025/26. Yes. 1,140 yards.

The Economy

My overall prediction is the economy under Trump wouldn’t change much.

11. Inflation average for 2025 will be between 2.3% and 3.5%. Yes. Inflation averaged 2.6%.
12. The Misery Index will stay below 7 in 2025. Yes. But so close, it averaged 6.95
13. Electric car sales finish above 10% in 2025 Q4. N/A. It averaged 9.4%. I phrased the prediction badly. I meant that it would hit 10% by Q4. It did, hitting 12.5%, but then bombed in Q4. I didn’t specify the question well, so I’ll remove it.

Politics

14. The election interference case against Trump in Georgia will not be decided against him in 2025. Yes.
15. Congress passes no significant legislation about immigration. Yes.
16. There is at least one real threat of government shutdown in 2025. Yes. There was one before he even took the oath.
17. No major Democrats are indicted for crimes related to their political activities. Yes. In fact, Trump pardoned or dropped cases against Democrats up on corruption charges.
18. At least two of these four get confirmed:. The picks are Pete Hesgeth for Defense, RFK Jr for Health and Human Services, Tulsi Gabbard for Director National Intelligence, and Kash Patel at the FBI. Yes. Shamefully, they were all confirmed.

Randoms

19. One of these three people will die in 2025: Clint Eastwood, Alan Greenspan, Mel Brooks. No. 95, 100, and 99 respectively. Clint and Mel are still working.
20. Muttroxia will have a month with four or more posts after January Yes! April 2025 had four posts.

I will skip these in 2026. It’s already near the end of March, it’s not fair to start now. Besides, I don’t want to make any predictions about politics. The most obvious one is that Trump will significantly interfere with the midterm elections. It’s been a clear progression since he was elected. He already tried to overthrow the last one, he’s laying the groundwork to do it again.

There was a lot of talk for a few weeks about Tanking in the NBA. It’s horrible, every team is doing it, it must be stopped. I don’t think it’s so bad.

Why does tanking happen? It starts with parity. The system in the NBA (like most leagues) is designed to keep the rich from getting richer. They want an entertainment product where all franchises have a chance. They use several tools to do this. For instance, the salary cap and shared TV revenue and luxury taxes keep small market teams from being outspent by large market teams. And the draft is designed to send better players to bad teams to increase parity. Bad teams should get better. A more even league is a better product.

How do you decide if a team is bad? You measure wins and losses. Objective. But. A team that actually isn’t so bad can generate losses. It’s easy to fake being bad.

As long as bad teams are rewarded, some teams will try to be artificially bad to get the reward. Almost all proposals to change the drafting system ignore this basic truth. The only proposals that address this issue directly remove the reward for bad teams, in other words, draft position isn’t based on performance. Everything else is just tweaks around the edges – trying to maximize parity while allowing some tanking, but not too much.

How much is too much tanking? This season for sure. Lots of teams are tanking. But this season is unusual in two ways. Tanking won’t be nearly as bad next year.

1. Injuries. There is a tension between short term vs long term. Being a bad team for only one year might get you a great player. If the player is good enough it is may be worth being bad for that year to be good for many years. Or you might be forced into it. Due to ACL injuries to  D Lilliard, T Haliburton, and Jayson Tatum respectively, the Bucks, Pacers, and Celtics all had stars out for just that one year.  This is a perfect opportunity for tanking. Your team is abnormally bad for one year already. If it works, the next year you get your star player back and a draft stud. [Interestingly, the Bucks never tanked, the Celtics never tanked (despite pressure to), though the Pacers are going full tank.]

2. A deep and rich draft class. Most draft years do not have a franchise altering player. Not every draft produces Wemby or Flagg. The Hawks had the overall #1 pick in 2024 and only got Zaccharie Richaser who is… fine. (See how many other names you recognize from that draft.) But this upcoming year has a extraordinarily deep draft. The top three are all considered franchise studs, and the next few are also very good players. That changes the math. Most teams wouldn’t tank for a shot at one player in the draft because the odds of getting a stud aren’t good enough. But tanking now gives you a great shot at three studs and several more quality players. If you can get six lottery tickets for the same price, of course you’re likely to play.

My advice to the league is… relax. Calm down, Adam Silver. Do some of the small tweaks under discussion, just to look like you’re doing something. But give it a year, see what happens. It will probably be a much smaller issue next year. And if it is still a big problem — the only real solution is to separate the draft order from performance. Good teams get a shot at the studs, just like the bad teams.