Look: Trayvon Martin Support Rallies Rock — And Gridlock — The Nation (Photos)
Less than 24 hours after a six-woman jury in Sanford, Florida found George Zimmerman “not guilty” in last year’s murder of 17-year old Trayvon Martin, thousands across the nation took to the streets in angry, sad, and mostly entirely peaceful, non-violent rallies to show support for Trayvon Martin, his grieving family, and to send a strong message, as some signs read, that “this isn’t over yet!”
Other signs read, “We are all Trayvon Martin,” “The whole damn system is guilty,” and “Justice for Trayvon!”
New York City had by far the largest rallies, with protestors shutting down the streets, as did protests in Los Angeles.
NYC protestors spent much of the afternoon and early evening in Union Square on 14th Street, later walking up to 34th Street to rally at Herald Square, then marching up to Times Square at 42nd street, and ultimately, Harlem, sixty blocks north — all in blistering 85-90 degree weather.
“Lawmakers, members of the clergy and demonstrators who assembled in parks and squares on a hot July day described the verdict by the six-person jury as evidence of a persistent racism that afflicts the nation five years after it elected its first African-American president,” the New York Times reports:
“Trayvon Benjamin Martin is dead because he and other black boys and men like him are seen not as a person but a problem,†the Rev. Dr. Raphael G. Warnock, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, told a congregation once led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Warnock noted that the verdict came less than a month after the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to void a provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. “The last few weeks have been pivotal to the consciousness of black America,†he said in an interview after services. “Black men have been stigmatized.â€
There were a few reports of violence, mostly from Oakland, and Los Angeles, where the police decided to shoot rubber bullets into the crowd. In New York City, reports state around 20 people have been arrested related to the protests, although no reasons have been reported yet.
Here, photos from across the nation tell a story of unity and a country embattled by racism — and willing to stand for justice and equality.
Image, top, by Socialist Worker, via Twitter
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Recent visitors to Ark Encounter, a Christian theme park that has drawn controversy over the years, are facing a new challenge. Kentucky health officials are warning of possible exposure to measles, after an unvaccinated individual reportedly visited the museum and a local hotel earlier this week.
“Measles is a highly contagious disease,” Northern Kentucky Health District Director for Health Jennifer Mooney, PhD, MPH, said in a press release, according to NBC affiliate WLWT. “Being around so many people at a place such as the Ark Encounter creates the potential for wide exposure. We want to make sure everyone who visited during that time is aware they may have been exposed to the measles, and they should monitor themselves for symptoms.”
“We also want to remind people that measles is preventable through the highly effective MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) vaccine,” Dr. Mooney added. “The vaccine has been administered to millions of people over several decades and has a proven health and safety record.”
READ MORE: Trump Says No Other President Would Take Cognitive Test He ‘Aced’ Three Times Straight
WDRB reported that “Measles, a highly contagious respiratory virus, can cause serious health problems, especially in young children, according to the CDC’s website. The virus spreads through the air after someone infected coughs or sneezes. It can then linger for up to two hours after the infected person leaves.”
According to the CDC, the U.S. saw 2065 cases of measles in 2025, up from 285 in 2024 and just 59 cases in 2023.
“Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. This was thanks to a very high percentage of people receiving the safe and effective measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. In recent years, however,” CDC reported, “U.S. national MMR coverage among kindergarteners has decreased and is now below the 95% coverage target—with much lower coverage in some communities.”
Hemant Mehta of The Friendly Atheist wrote that “Ark Encounter offers free tickets for children,” and warned of “the possibility that unvaccinated kids will pay the price because of one irresponsible person’s ignorance.”
“It’s already happened in South Carolina,” he noted, “where one particular church is now the epicenter of a measles outbreak.”
Image via Shutterstock
President Donald Trump is bragging that he has taken yet another cognitive test, claiming he “aced” it, and insisting that no other president or vice president has ever been willing to take one.
“The White House Doctors have just reported that I am in ‘perfect health,’ and that I ‘aced’ (Meaning, was correct on 100% of the questions asked!), for the third straight time, my Cognitive Examination, something which no other President, or previous Vice President, was willing to take,” Trump wrote Friday morning on Truth Social.
“P.S., I strongly believe that anyone running for President, or Vice President, should be mandatorily forced to take a strong, meaningful, and proven Cognitive Examination. Our great Country cannot be run by ‘STUPID’ or INCOMPETENT PEOPLE!,” he added.
Trump’s insistence comes just one day after The Wall Street Journal published a deep look at the president’s health alleging he is “showing signs of aging in public and private.”
“Trump’s staff have also counseled him to try to keep his eyes open during public events, fearing the optics of his appearing to fall asleep, a person familiar with the matter said,” the Journal also reported.
The president is being mocked over his Truth Social post, with some commentators on social media point out that no other president has had to take one — and that a cognitive test is not an IQ test.
“Trump posts claim that he ‘aced’ his third cognitive exam.. Forgetting that he already announced this exact claim last month…” wrote professor and investor Adam Cochran.
“Whether it’s Barack Obama being the editor of Harvard Law Review or Donald Trump narrowly passing a cognitive test used to detect dementia, there’s plenty of serious intellectual accomplishments on both sides of the aisle,” remarked NYTPitchbot, a well-known political parody account with nearly a quarter-million followers.
“Poor guy,” charged Džamila Stehlíková, a Prague-based politician and a doctor, according to Google Translate. “Trump boasts that he has ‘passed’ a cognitive test for the third time, which is actually a primitive test to rule out dementia that even a 10-year-old schoolchild can handle.”
“The need to boast about his intellect stems from Trump’s well-founded fear of intellectual failure,” she alleged, according to the translation.
READ MORE: Mike Johnson Brags About House Accomplishments When It Broke Record For Fewest Bills Passed
Image via Reuters
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) took to X to brag about what he and his fellow House Republicans accomplished in 2025, despite Congress passing a record low number of bills.
“In 2025, the @HouseGOP delivered real results and one of the most consequential Republican agendas in history. We passed 441 America FIRST bills, codified 70 of @POTUS‘s Executive Orders, and rolled back dozens of disastrous Biden-era regulations — and we’re just getting started,” Johnson wrote.
In 2025, the @HouseGOP delivered
real results and one of the most consequential Republican agendas in history.We passed 441 America FIRST bills, codified 70 of @POTUS's Executive Orders, and rolled back dozens of disastrous Biden-era regulations — and we’re just getting… pic.twitter.com/maPZIiTRoW
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) December 31, 2025
The tweet included a short video laying out things House Republicans have done. In addition to the items listed in the tweet, the video gives credit to the GOP for having “secured the southern border,” “cut billions in wasteful government spending,” “protected women’s and girls’ sports,” and “passed bills to lower health care premiums for all Americans.”
READ MORE: Public Turns on GOP as Shutdown Fallout Deepens: Report
While Johnson brags about the accomplishments of the House under his leadership, the House set records for inactivity. The 119th Congress passed fewer than 40 bills this year, which the Washington Post reports as a record for the lowest legislative output in the first year of a presidency. Johnson’s House also set a record for fewest votes cast at 362.
The House was also shut down for the longest time in history this year—43 days. The shutdown was an attempt to force a vote on a temporary funding bill. In addition to the shutdown, Johnson prematurely took the House into recess this summer in an attempt to avoid a vote on compelling the Department of Justice to release all files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And this month, he again adjourned the House before a plan could be voted on to cover expiring health care tax credits, despite many Republicans pushing for a vote.
Though the 119th Congress broke records for inactivity, so too did the last Congress. The 118th Congress passed fewer than 150 bills across its two-year term, according to Axios. The Speaker of the House for the majority of the Congress was again Johnson, who replaced previous speaker Kevin McCarthy after nine months in the position.
Image via Reuters
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