The flags I saw today were 90% American, 9% Pride, 1% Mexico.
Great & spirited crowd at the RI State House, being overseen from on high by our Independent Man. I thanked a state policeman for helping keep us safe at a busy crossing, and we simultaneously choked up and said ‘this is how it’s supposed to be’ …
I went to the protest in my town in Dupage County Illinois. They were expecting 500, got (at last count) 1400. Organizers met with local police last week (very smart IMO) and they were there to block traffic at the intersections for marchers.
One of my favorites was a guy in a gorilla suit with a sign that said “No Kings But Kong.” Also another guy whose sign read “There’s only one king in America” with a picture of Elvis.
Just got back from the protest in San Francisco. Absolutely massive crowd. From Dolores Park all the way to Market St. was just a solid mass of people. That’s about seven city blocks, and the protest route turned when it hit Market, so I don’t know how big the crowd was ahead of that.
I guess this will be an annual event for at least the next three June 14ths
But before that intervening step, there has to be an additional step : the Repubs have to somehow find out that the protests took place.
I’m not in the US, so to see what’s happening, I checked the best and most reliable source of information of 'em all–foxnews. And the world sure looks different to those people.
Right now, the fox site is full of exciting news! Banners above videos, saying “Watch now!”…all kinds of videos about the army’s great and exciting parade.
And, yeah, there is one small text link to a 17 second video clip of a protest in Washington. And half of that clip focuses on somebody holding a Mexican flag.
The clip shows mostly close up views, showing only a few dozen people in total. Not 3.5 %.
Most of the big rigs that passed us gave us a lot of honking.
I have hopes.
The protest in Hilo, Hawaii was delightful. A really big turnout, and HUGE support from the cars driving by. Lots of waving, friendly honking, and shakas. Just one car during the nearly two hours I was there who gave everyone the finger as he drove. Unfortunately I didn’t see him until he was nearly past us, or I would have blown him a kiss just to piss him off.
Some great signs, too. For those who don’t know, “shave ice” is a Hawaii favorite treat; it’s basically just a snow cone, but people take the flavors (lots of good tropical fruit) and quality very seriously.
So when I saw a clever “Shave ICE” sign it took me a moment to realize what it meant.
I was fly fishing in Montana today, in a town with 35 people. A boat came down the river flying a pride flag and a sign that I could not read, but I assume was anti-fascist. That was a nice break.
Well, now I will have to support Walmart after years of a soft boycott I had. (That was: usually going to other stores but going when some items were needed in a hurry)
She isn’t on the board or involved in the company, just an heir on the right side of history, so you can still boycott Walmart if you want.
I briefly marched with the Portland, OR, contingent. As far as I know it was schedule from noon to four and I got out of work at two, so I just traipsed right down to the waterfront when I got out. I scootered down but I had to ditch it when I hit the crowd. My weed store was right in the middle of the fray, so I joined in and just basically observed as I marched down a few blocks to the place.
Everything was very festive. There a few spots along the way with little grandstands set up and speeches being made. The march was down Naito Parkway and then it turned left across the Hawthorn bridge or right up Jefferson Street (I think). The weird thing was I didn’t want to follow either crowd at that point so I just doubled back through the park and by the time I got to the other end the march had pretty much dissipated. I was now watching cars bringing up the rear where tens of thousands of people were 30 minutes previously.
So, pretty well organized if you ask me.
Some pics:
My Aunt was in Rockford, IL where 1,000 people turned out. That surprised me because it’s the land o’ mega-churches.
Same in my upstate NY city. Thousands of us lining both sides of a major road. Thousands of drivers and passengers cheering and honking as they went by. Felt good.
I made a point of thanking traffic cops as we crossed paths, and picking up litter (of which there was surprisingly little) after the crowds cleared. No violence, no hostility that I could see, except of course the many unflattering remarks about Trump and MAGA tyranny.
Favorite sign observed, gratifying both my democratic principles and my amateur lepidopterist inclinations:
THE ONLY MONARCHS WE WANT [next to, you guessed it, a drawing of Danaus plexippus]
NO KINGS IN USA
Well, nobody ever went broke underestimating MAGA types’ willingness to fight ignorance. But something you’re not seeing from overseas is just the general real-life awareness level of these things going on in thousands of local neighborhoods, family members’ neighborhoods, etc. Trumpists may be getting all their news reporting (and fauxiste imitations thereof) from right-wing sources, but even die-hard Trumpists have a hard time limiting their news awareness solely to right-wing media.
MAGA have been blindly loyal to right-wing media because they fell for the fauxiste lie that mainstream media were telling them “fake news”. I’m not sure that that trust will remain totally proof against the awareness that right-wing media are deliberately hiding from them news of major events.
Yeah, but one has to clarify, Monarch buterflies are OK, Trump though, is close to the Venture Brothers’ Monarch villain.
Good for evil plans, but incompetent as him on the landing…
We went to the No Kings rally in Bellingham. It was cooler than expected, and breezy; so my aloha shirt might not have been the best choice. Alicia Rule and Joe Timmons spoke. We set up our camp chairs, and Mrs. L.A. and Scotticher had signs that Mrs. L.A. bought/made/ I had a large American flag on a pole. Unfortunately, about two dozen Gaza protesters (complete with cardboard signs and a lot of flags, plus printed signs for their Skagit County group) set up camp in front of us. Mrs. L.A. and I were there for the No Kings, anti-ICE thing. We didn’t appreciate the Gaza protesters.
Someone just estimated there were 5,500 people there.
On air I saw pretty much nothing but coverage of the assassinations in Minn. and now I’m seeing coverage of the L.A. scene. Good thing most of magats can’t read.
As I said, a hoard of out-of-county Gaza protesters set up camp in front of us. After Alicia Rule spoke, she had to make her way through them. Mrs. L.A. saw her coming and, with her ‘Resistance becomes 
Duty’ sign, put out her hand. Alicia Rule hugged her. Mrs. L.A. thought that was very special. Rule knocked on our door when she was campaigning a couple/few years ago. We thought it was nice that a candidate was actually going door to door to introduce herself and say why people should vote for her. Mrs. L.A. told her that we were already voting for her. In retrospect, we should have offered her a drink of water, as she’d probably just climbed the hill to our house. Anyway, we voted for her then, and we voted for her last time. It was nice that she hugged Mrs. L.A. at the No Kings rally.
(Mrs. L.A. said she must be a ‘huggy’ person. I said, ‘It Depends.’)
Same at my Missouri County. We voted 40 for Kamala, 60 for Trump. Ok, that makes us a red county, but there are far worse stats out there. Plus, we are a big suburb of St Louis, and the closer one gets to the city, the more it is blue, and we are border St Louis County, so lots of blending. But even in Springfield MO and other very red areas protests occurred, and were well attended. I was proud of my area, we had many folks, and no violence, and even those Trumpies that tried anything were quickly weakened. Cops had to be summoned just once, no arrest, just discussion. Many cops though, and everyone thought it overkill. We still need to vote the idiots out, just protesting won’t change much, and this is difficult in MO, which is gerrymandered up the ass. Our State House is heavily Republican, too, and they are determined to override the will of the people over the abortion issue. We have plenty to protest in MO, that is for certain. But we have many who care, and don’t like our govt and that is a start.