Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Let there be snark.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Mourn, Organize / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Best Wishes to All Marchers!

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Best Wishes to All Marchers!

by | 201 Comments

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Anybody takes pics they want to share, email jpgs to me or TaMara and we’ll front-page them. I’m guessing BettyC will have some shots of her own to share, too!

Rebecca Traister, in NYMag, on “The Complicated, Controversial, Historic, Inspiring Women’s March“:

…[T]he media’s treatment of the march has been so fretful that you’d be forgiven for thinking that this grass-roots demonstration of hundreds of thousands on behalf of women’s rights is an example of feminism in crisis and disarray.

“From the beginning the only question the media wanted to ask us was whether we had a permit,” said Linda Sarsour, the Palestinian-American Muslim activist who is one of the four national co-chairs. It was almost funny, the fetishization of the question of whether thousands of angry women literally had permission to show up and protest. Sarsour felt it was indicative of a basic distrust of women as serious activists and organizers. “Logistics became the main focus,” she said. “As if women were not sophisticated enough to know how to obtain permits. I was like, ‘Can someone ask me about my principles and values?’”

The idea that this march is disorganized in some unique or particularly problematic way, Sarsour said, is particularly rich, given that there are about 30 women on the national steering committee, talking to around 400 organizers of marches around the country. “Many of us had never met before this march planning,” she said. “The idea that we were supposed to immediately and seamlessly bring strangers together in a kumbaya march team, when we’re from different backgrounds, have different experiences, religious backgrounds, are from inner cities and suburbs, is crazy. We’re organizing what is going to be the largest mass mobilization any administration has seen on its first day.”…

After the permits were obtained, Sarsour noted, the coverage turned to how contentious the dialogue among organizers and participants was. “As if this contentious dialogue in the women’s movement is by accident,” she laughed. “Contentious dialogue is by design.” To the organizers, the point is pushing hundreds of thousands of marchers to think harder about the connectedness of gender to race, to immigration, to criminal-justice reform and climate policy, to create dialogue among people who could and should be allies on many of these issues, to try to push feminism toward a transformational step…

The way the women’s movement is different from other social movements is in its size and the unwieldy scope of its mission: to represent not an oppressed minority, but a subjugated majority. To campaign on behalf of just over half the population is by definition to build an enterprise on conflicting interests and perspectives and experiences, to try to bind together people who come from divergent backgrounds, who sometimes resent and disagree with each other. And its immensity and diversity is used against it by those who fear its potential power. As Gloria Steinem, who has signed on as an honorary co-chair of the march, told me, “Because it’s a majority movement, it’s subject to the same divide-and-conquer tactics that colonial powers used on countries — turning races, classes, and generations against each other, the myth that women can’t get along and are our own worst enemies.”…

The women’s movement has survived not in spite of its cacophony, but because of it: Because those who have pushed the movement from inside to change and grow and be better — even when they don’t always agree on what better means — have helped us meet the shifting forms of inequity from era to era. The women’s movement has won women’s rights to self-determination, to economic and educational opportunity, to sexual freedom, to reproductive autonomy, to professional opportunity, to legal protection from violence, rape, assault, discrimination, and harassment. And on Saturday, today’s iteration of the women’s movement will give body and voice and form to those who resist this incoming president and his attempts to roll back the rights of women, people of color, and immigrants…

***********

What’s on the agenda for the day — March-related or otherwise?

Reader Interactions

201Comments

  2. 2.

    Zinsky

    My wife and daughter will be marching in the Minneapolis Women’s march. My job is to safely shuttle them there and back, through what I understand will be massive crowds. I don’t think one day after inauguration is too early to begin this chant – IMPEACH TRUMP!

  3. 3.

    waspuppet

    We’re organizing what is going to be the largest mass mobilization any administration has seen on its first day.

    What’s the over-under on how many news reports of this march will mention that?

  4. 4.

    Sam

    Headed in to D.C. in a couple of hours. I see some security issues, and if it turns into a mess the new president benefits. I wish the march sponsors wouldn’t spend so much time on the it’s-not-about-Trump line. Of course it’s about Trump.

  10. 10.

    Mike J

    Has Meredith McIver taken up baking?

    Duff Goldman Verified account @Duff_Goldman

    The cake on the left is the one I made for President Obama’s inauguration 4 years ago. The one on the right is Trumps. I didn’t make it. ?

  12. 12.

    Baud

    @Zinsky:

    I don’t think one day after inauguration is too early to begin this chant – IMPEACH TRUMP!

    I think Trump needs to be start being depicted in cartoons as a giant peach {with small hands).

  21. 21.

    Spanky

    Best wishes to all marchers! Happy Birthday to B, B, and those others what got ’em!

    What, no 3 AM tweets?

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    Waiting at a Dunkin Donuts for my order, then it’s back to the hotel to roust my crew for the march. When my daughter and I checked in last night, the clerk asked if we were in DC for the march, and when we responded in the affirmative, she said, “YES!”

    Half a dozen women came into the DD right after me with Obama and Nasty Woman t-shirts. Saw folks loading signs into cars. My sister and I found out on Facebook that our mom’s cousin is here. I think this is going to be huge. So glad to be part of it!

  27. 27.

    Spanky

    DC forecast:

    Today
    Areas of drizzle before 10am. Areas of fog before noon. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 52. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the morning.
    Tonight
    Areas of drizzle before 10pm, then areas of drizzle with a slight chance of rain after 10pm. Cloudy, with a low around 47. East wind 3 to 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

    Bundle up!

  29. 29.

    JPL

    The weather forecast isn’t great, but the heavier showers should occur before and after the event. At least I hope so.

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Montrealer Sasha Dyck was part of a group of eight who had arranged online to travel together to Washington. Divided into two cars, the group – six Canadians and two French nationals – arrived at the border crossing that connects St Bernard de Lacolle in Quebec with Champlain, New York, on Thursday.
    Women’s March organizers prepare for hundreds of thousands of protesters
    Read more

    The group was upfront about their plans with border agents, Dyck said. “We said we were going to the women’s march on Saturday and they said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to pull over’.”

    What followed was a two-hour ordeal. Their cars were searched and their mobile phones examined. Each member of the group was fingerprinted and had their photo taken.

    Border agents first told the two French citizens that they had been denied entry to the US and informed them that any future visit to the US would now require a visa.

    “Then for the rest of us, they said, ‘You’re headed home today’,” Dyck said. The group was also warned that if they tried to cross the border again during the weekend, they would be arrested. “And that was it, they didn’t give a lot of justification.”

    Dyck described it as a sharp contrast to 2009, when the research nurse made the same journey to attend Barack Obama’s inauguration. “I couldn’t even get in for this one, whereas at the other one, the guy at the border literally gave me a high five when I came in and everybody was just like, ‘welcome’. The whole city was partying; nobody was there to protest Obama the first time.”

    After an attempted crossing late Thursday, Montreal resident Joseph Decunha said he was also turned away. He and the two Americans he was with told the border agent that they were planning to attend the inauguration and the women’s march.

    The group was brought in for secondary processing, where the border agent asked about their political views, Decunha told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “The first thing he asked us point blank is, ‘Are you anti- or pro-Trump?’”

    After being fingerprinted and photographed he was told that his two friends could enter the US, but that he could not. “They told me I was being denied entry for administrative reasons. According to the agent, my travelling to the United States for the purpose of protesting didn’t constitute a valid reason to cross,” Decunha said.

    And so it begins.

  34. 34.

    satby

    Best wishes to all my marching sisters and brothers, and those with us in spirit. I’m pretty gratified that lots of people I consider not very politically involved are going to the Chicago march. I think these are going to be huge too! Hope so!

  36. 36.

    Taylor

    @Betty Cracker: My wife’s family and friends are headed down from Philadelphia in a rented bus. If the crowds are big, she expects to be watching the march from I95. My suspicion is that the cops will prevent them from getting down to the march.

    ETA Not driving down to the Mall obviously, taking Metro from an outlying station.

  39. 39.

    Mary G

    Happy Birthday to Billin and Bella Q. I finally got the Obama 2008 yard sign out of the garage. It’s the one that looks like a flag with the logo in place of the stars and “HOPE” in big letters. I clipped it to the bigger piece of red paper and put 2008: above it. Below it I put 2017: NOPE. In the bottom corner I wrote Section H, Bella Q and names of other sisters of the pixels and IRL friends who can’t be there that I hope to represent. I have Mnem’s hat, my hot pink hoodie with my Hillary buttons on it and the cell phone and scooter charged up. Now I’m going to get some more sleep and hope the rain holds off.

  40. 40.

    Spanky

    @OzarkHillbilly: Well that didn’t take long.

    In a statement released by the presidential transition team, Kelly said he was humbled by the (DHS) nomination.

    “The American people voted in this election to stop terrorism, take back sovereignty at our borders, and put a stop to political correctness that for too long has dictated our approach to national security,” he said.

    “I will tackle those issues with a seriousness of purpose and a deep respect for our laws and Constitution.”

    Be interesting to see what happens when people start migrating the other way.

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    @Taylor: I hope they make it to the action. Can’t describe how hopeful and determined the vibe is here today, even this early, even with that disgraceful shithead in the White House. If I had to sum it up in three words, it would be: It’s ON, motherfucker!

  42. 42.

    HeleninEire

    Headed out now. We’ll start at the Garden of Remembrance and work our way down O’Connell Street for a rally at the Spire. I’ll try to get some good pics.

    CHARGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  43. 43.

    JPL

    @Spanky: I thought that Kelly was suppose to be one of the better selections. I guess everything is relative though. Compared to Steve Bannon, John Kelly is viewed as a moderate.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @Spanky:

    put a stop to political correctness that for too long has dictated our approach to national security

    So we’ll finally be dealing with right wing terrorists head on?

  48. 48.

    Betty Cracker

    I’ll post when I can, but for a nasty woman in the crowd POV, follow me on Twitter: @bettycrackerFL.

  61. 61.

    cosima

    My aunt has just posted a selfie of her & my mum on the train to the march. They’re staying at my cousin’s (this particular aunt’s daughter) house in DC — flew out from AK.

    For myself, I’m not marching. I’ve got a visa that specifies no political involvement whilst in the UK, so I’m staying off the radar for now. We are so close to leave to remain, so close, yet so far. I’ve done plenty of marching, rallying and volunteering while back in the US, and raised a warrior daughter who is marching in VT, and am with everyone in spirit.

  65. 65.

    ThresherK

    @amk: Heh. Good job, Auntie Beeb. Wonder if CNN Int’l is gonna continue to be head and shoulders above CNN in Trump’s,reign.

    Looking at all that empty space in the linked Trump pic, seems yesterday might have been a fine day to go to the Smithsonian. Obama’s foto looks like NYE in Times Square.

  67. 67.

    Aimai

    Im going to the bostin march with my husband, two daughters, and daughters friend frim college who came and stayed overnight to be here. Lots of friends going–hope we meet up in crowd! trying to bring my kids old babysitter and my house cleaner who are both brazilians, new democrats, hillary voters and who are passionate political actors but not jacked in politically.

  70. 70.

    Summer

    Meanwhile, on the road to D.C. At a rest stop and one lone man is keeping us from using the empty men’s restroom. The line for the women’s stretches forever. Sigh but so many pink hats!

  72. 72.

    JPL

    I’m searching for a picture of Lady Justice that I can print. Then I can add this is why we march on a poster board and put the picture underneath.

  77. 77.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Turns out NYT knew FBI was investigating Trump and declined to report it. (link)

    The Times knew several critical facts: the F.B.I. had a sophisticated investigation underway on Trump’s organization, possibly including FISA warrants.

    The most damning claim was that Trump was aware of Russia’s efforts to hack Democratic computers, an allegation with implications of treason.

    I stopped reading the Times in August after their cheerleading of Drumpf’s Mexico trip and their continued fact-less attacks on Clinton. But I had no idea the extent of their bias was this deep. Mindboggling.

  79. 79.

    Phoebes

    @Manyakitty: I’m on one of 14 buses coming down from So Orange, NJ. We’re the oldest ladies on the bus at 66 and 67. We’re the red baseball caps that say “make America great again” in Russian. I think they were from, Manyakitty.

  82. 82.

    Summer

    I almost got a photo of the long line! (Story of my history in photography) One woman tried to talk to him and three others went behind him to go in and he bellowed and charged at them. He seemed a wee bit unstable, one unhappy and pissed off dude.

  84. 84.

    bemused

    Did the Rump tweet last night?

    Who could ever have imagined any president on his/her inauguration day talking about his “enemies” more than once?

  88. 88.

    Kay

    Betsy DeVos, Trump’s choice for education secretary, struggled to demonstrate a basic comprehension of department policy and basic education terms during her hearing this week.

    The team did take steps to prepare nominees for their appearances on Capitol Hill. The nominees were subjected to “murder boards,” three-hour mock hearings where they were grilled by volunteers standing in for senators.
    The nominees collectively took thousands of questions from almost 200 participants, according to the transition team. A person who worked on DeVos’ panel said she was extensively questioned on education issues, and the team was privately disconcerted that she seemed to flub answers.

    She failed even with test prep and after GOP Senators protected her with questioning limited to 5 minutes per panel member.

    Based on her performance this is someone who has not had to compete for anything, ever, yet she will be strutting around crowing about the magic of markets for the next 4 years.

    They’re saying it won’t matter because she’ll have qualified under-secretaries or whatever, but that’s never true- bad people hire other bad people.

  89. 89.

    Elizabelle

    @amk: Obama looks happy to have talked to them. Joe Biden steps in to greet, right behind. “Hi Bob, it’s Joe.”

    Bet Trump had no idea who they are.

  91. 91.

    Baud

    @Kay: Can you imagine the reaction if employees said they could do a bad job because the people above them were qualified?

  97. 97.

    bemused

    @Kay:

    A repetitive Republican mantra is government should be run like a business. Hah. I can’t imagine any business interviewing a prospective employee limiting their questions to 5 minutes, unless it was the owner’s kid/relative, nepotism.

  99. 99.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Her smug smirk throughout seemed to suggest she felt the hearings were a mere formality and that it was her social position, not her experience or vision, that entitled her to the job.

  105. 105.

    debbie

    I hope the DC march overflows massively. The one bright spot yesterday was the vast emptiness of the Mall.

  106. 106.

    HeleninEire

    Dublin march is bigger than I expected. Many rosy cheeked little girls who are not having it! I think I got some good pics. Will send them to Anne later when I get home.

    Also, Mike Pence, because of his anti-abortion views, is getting even louder boos than Trump. Interesting.

    Back to the march!

  108. 108.

    KlareCole

    Heading to Lexington, KY to march with a friend. Husband ill w stomach virus. Most likely ill over Rump’s inauguration. Our daughter is marching in DC. All my liberal book club is marching in Lexington. ‘^PG^ will not lead anywhere I would follow.’ Thank you BJ’ers for your inspiration. Looking for green balloons.

  110. 110.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    that it was her social position, not her experience or vision, that entitled her to the job.

    What entitled her to the job was her lobbying work. She knocks out any GOP or Democratic state legislator who opposes her. Throws a giant wad of campaign money into the ring and just replaces them.

    It was sort of heartening to watch the female Democratic Senators go after her because they’re not Michigan state legislators. They win whole states and they do it without Betsy DeVos. It’s a whole different game.

  113. 113.

    debit

    I’m sure everyone has seen the comments, but here’s another PSA: Check your twitter account. I’ve unfollowed the POTUS, Whitehouse and Press Sec twitters multiple times now and Twitter keeps sneaking them back in. I’m at the point where I’m ready to just delete my account entirely.

  114. 114.

    Immanentize

    Off to the Boston March on the commuter train at 11. Weather is fine. Cloudy but no rain.

    ETA. Sign is: Nation of Laws / Not of MEN

  118. 118.

    amk

    @debit: just do what the O team did. create a new account by adding 44 to your current name and delete the old account. you may lose your tweets in that process.

  119. 119.

    something fabulous

    getting on with my now-habitual up at 3 or 4 am insomnia thing since the election. grrr. marching in LA this am with my neighbors– if I see green balloons, will wave! (will be wearing my consistently wrong hoodie.) no hat or signs; for me it’s about being part of the numbers. thanks for all the marching advice– so helpful. safe marching, everyone!

  121. 121.

    Michael Bersin

    Covered a small Funeral for Democracy at 11:00 a.m. yesterday in our small ‘burg, then drove to Kansas City for the well-attended afternoon anti-Trump march from the Liberty Memorial to City hall (second set of photos here).

    We’ll be hitting the road to Kansas City again in a few hours to attend and cover the Women’s March at Washington Square Park (next to Union Station). It should be huge.

  123. 123.

    greennotGreen

    My health has been too iffy of late (just medication-resistant nausea, not something more serious) for me to participate in a march, but my sister is going to one in either Olympia or Seattle, the third protest she’s attended. Her main cause is health care because of my nephew’s cystic fibrosis. I wish the forced-birth crowd would remember the fetus after it’s born and needs help. Somehow, actual live human beings often seem off their radar.

  124. 124.

    Kay

    If the Trump Russia connections pan out, media will have blown the biggest story of the 2016 campaign, by far.

    This is Iraq-level failure. They better hope the GOP Congress successfully obstructs a real investigation. It was right under their godammned noses and they chose Clinton’s emails as the story to follow. The NYTimes is the worst of the bunch, because they printed that absolute garbage DENYING a connection. They almost interceded on behalf of Trump because supposedly the rest of media followed. The NYTimes printed the piece denying a connection on October 31st and the rest of media backed off. They LED this disaster.

  125. 125.

    EZSmirkzz

    Breaking News!

    In an amazing breakthrough of bi-partisanship, Democrats and Republicans, including President Trump have announce the Great Leap Backward and pledge to bring the full weight of Americas political institutions to bear on preparing the American people for the 1650’s.

    “It is no longer considered to be the wisest policy of the United States to prepare ourselves for 1950’s or even the ‘Gilded Age’ of the 1880’s, nor the yeoman farmer democratic republic, but instead, as we did on the moon missions, prepare our people for the feudalism of ancient Europe and China, which American domestic policy is directing them by pounding current challenges facing the American nation into the ideologies of the twentieth century.” stated one anonymous Senator of indeterminate intelligence.

    “We understand that sheer numbers and world population demographics will make Americans serfs and peasants in the future, and unable to overcome the last century’s ideological straight jackets have concluded that the wisest course is to submit to the coming indentured servitude of our peoples to others, due to the lack of our own foresight,” according to the Speaker of the House.

  126. 126.

    Ejoiner

    My wife and daughter and a friend drove to DC for the march – as of 6:30 this morning they were looking for a way to get into the city since all of the trains were overloaded and the hundreds of women still waiting were grabbing every Uber in miles. They report lots of very energized, positive women racing into Washington :)

  129. 129.

    Kay

    @bemused:

    38 states have cut education funding since 2009. They never restored the 2009 levels after the financial crash.

    DeVos subscribes to this idiot theory put forth by Right wing economists that K-12 education “should” cost 5k per student. It could, too. You’d just have to vastly increase class size, pay teachers 12 dollars an hour and exclude disabled students. The “averages” of per student cost these people use are bullshit. That isn’t how schools work. They have the population of students they have and they have to provide services for the students who show up. Some are more expensive than others. Saying “this school has 100 students and spend this and this other school has 100 students and spends THIS” is so dumb it must be designed to be deceptive. They’re not standard units. We’re not turning out a steering column.

  130. 130.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Kay: How true. I have been intimately involved with my district’s budget process for years. A severely disabled child can cost the system well over $100k/yr, and you can’t do anything about that. It’s a) the right thing to do and b) Federal law. The district has zero control over whether and when these children come and go.

  133. 133.

    Kay

    @bemused:

    It’s really very difficult to tease out what “results” in education “cost”. Our school has about 50% low income. It’s economically diverse. Wildly. It can go from parents with half a million a year to parents with 15k a year in income.

    What the higher income parents do is supplement the public cost (7,200) with private funds- private lessons, tutors, prep courses. They get better results but they’re not getting them on 7200- they’re getting them on 9000. If we were serious about “equity” in education we would look at public + private subsidy per household OR at least stop comparing apples and oranges and tell the truth.

  135. 135.

    Davis X. Machina

    Godspeed, peeps.

    Women hold up half the sky – even if it’s dreary and overcast.

    And they don’t demand a cookie for doing it.

  137. 137.

    raven

    @Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA: Ah, a bunch of friends left here late last night but it looks like they are there. It is absolutely pouring right now and my wife catches the bus for Atlanta in 30 minutes. The MSNBC peeps said there are three hours of speeches scheduled for DC so hopefully you’ll get there for a good chunk.

  138. 138.

    Kay

    @Gin & Tonic:

    They never funded the law. Ever. They were supposed to cover 40% of the cost at the federal level (compared to about 9% for children without special needs) and they never did. If you look back that’s when the Right wing propaganda campaign started- that we were pouring money into schools without “results”. It’s almost exactly 1978. That’s the year schools were mandated to provide services to ALL kids. They never mention it.

    Collins (to her credit) did raise it at the hearing. She said it’s the single biggest complaint she gets from public school superintendents- that disability services aren’t federally funded at 40%.

    What drives me crazy is it’s so obvious if you ever enter a public school. Those people you see with disabled students? We pay them for that work. For profoundly disabled students it’s 1:1, child/adult. That’s expensive but it’s essential. It simply wasn’t a cost in most public schools prior to civil rights laws for disabled people, so prior to about 1970.

  139. 139.

    HeleninEire

    @Taylor: Oh no. I am sure it was because of the anti-abortion views. That’s all the speakers referenced. Most people here in Ireland are for legal abortion. It’s the effing male politicians who don’t want the law changed.

    One or two of the pics I’ll be sending have signs that say “Repeal the 8th amendment.” That’s the life begins at conception amendment to the constitution.

    The people here want abortion to be legal and safe.

  140. 140.

    Kay

    Thanks to everyone who is marching. I know it;s a sacrifice for most people, although there is that subset who just wholly enjoy protesting :)

  141. 141.

    EZSmirkzz

    @Kay: If China educates just one third of its’ citizens at a BA level, or if India and China both do so, I have serious doubts about America’s ability to compete. The Great Leap Backwards seems the only logical thing to do, for a poorly educated serf is a happy serf. A feudalistic edumacation system like DeVoss’ should do the trick.

  142. 142.

    Gregory

    I haven’t commented here in forever, but I want y’all to know that my lovely wife and I are marching in solidarity with everyone here in Indianapolis. With our pink hats on.

  143. 143.

    Belafon

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    And so it begins.

    Talk to a lot of people, especially minorities in this country, and they’d probably look at you funny and go “It begins? It began a long time ago.”

  144. 144.

    Bostondreams

    From Slate:

    “After failing to get on the MARC train at BWI, my group decided to drive to the Greenbelt Metro station, the terminus of the green line in Maryland. No dice! Two state trooper vehicles obstructed the exit from I-495 into the station parking lot, the troopers shouting, “Metro’s shut down.” They were blocking the roadway with flares for good measure.”

    Hmm…

  149. 149.

    Ohio Mom

    Just finished sewing up my fleece pussy hat. Off soon to the Cincinnati March.

    Will certainly sing a few songs and chant a few chants on behalf of my neighbor, Bella Q. Will look for other Juicers (Kathleen from Bond Hill?) but how will I recognize you? Don’t think I’ll have time to get a green balloon.

    Feeling a few pangs that DC was not possible for me but going downtown with a friend of 30+ years, making more memories together.

  152. 152.

    PPCLI

    @greennotGreen: I noted the “nice, polite” rancher who was upset that Obama designated some federal lands as national parks, “closing them to free enterprise”. The article author passes on uncritically the rancher’s opinion that this “cost him tens of thousands of dollars”.

    In other words, the goddamned freeloader is pissed off that he won’t be able to get way-below-market value grazing rights on some federal lands anymore, and he takes himself to be *entitled* to using the people’s land dirt cheap.

    But he is opposed to any federal money going to the poor, of course.

  158. 158.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Kay:

    To be honest, it is feasible to do more cheaply, and have it actually be effective.

    To do so, however, would require longer textbook retention in language arts, math and science, foregoing a great deal of classroom technology for chalkboards and abandonment of standardized testing as a major “success” metric. I’d also consider paring admin and guidance staffs, and reconfiguring new buildings for opening windows during warmer months.

    Tech salesmen will be unhappy, as will HVAC and textbook vendors.

  162. 162.

    cosima

    I really try not to look at comments when my daughter shares links from the NYT or similar on FB (not even HuffPo — basically anything with thousands of comments, many of them certain to be awful). However, I just saw one that really gets to the heart of my fucking disdain for T/P voters — some stupid witch talking about ‘yes, he’s your president, Obama never did much for me, but he was still my president and I just put up with it…’ blah blah in that vein (Not quoted word for word here, just paraphrasing).

    Look you awful shitty people, never underestimate what benefit you derived from the era of peace throughout the world that was restored & sustained through the efforts of President Obama! If that’s the ONLY thing a president does it’s pretty damn wonderful and directly benefits each & every person in the world. But more than that, what’s this ‘me’ b.s.? I canvassed & marched & volunteered in support of President Obama because I believed that he would support and benefit those most in need, and I believe that he did that as much as he was able given the amount of obstructionism he faced. We are educated and financially stable (as much as any working person without a massive trust fund can be, I suppose, which is to say that it’s not a given that it will continue to be the case). If I were able to march today I would be doing it for everyone who needs the support of their fellow citizens. Not for me, not for women, for *everyone.*

    I have so much loathing for T/P voters. They are irredeemable.

  167. 167.

    Glidwrith

    Hopefully SatanicPanic and HungryJoe are still on for meet-up here in San Diego. I’ll be in green with green balloons!

  169. 169.

    Elmo

    I’m stuck here in my SoMD home caring for Mrs. Elmo – surgery went well, thanks to all for the good wishes – but so, so tempted to head up to the Branch Ave metro station. Alas, can’t afford the risk of being stuck in DC. Branch Ave may not be full headed in, but the stations will be JAMMED when it’s time to head out.

    Looking everywhere I can for coverage of the crowds. Wapo says they may get half a million people.

  171. 171.

    japa21

    Won’t be marching, nor will my wife, but both will be there in spirit. They are expecting 40-60,000 in Chicago and know several who will be there.

    I, on the other hand, will be at work. I retired in April but by November I decided that both for financial and psychological reasons I needed to do some part time work, so I work 2-3 days per week. This will be my last day doing that for a while, as I am having shoulder surgery on Monday to repair 3 torn muscles and remove a bone spur. So looking forward to wearing that bulky sling for the next 6 weeks.

  173. 173.

    Kay

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    You can cut those costs and you wouldn’t touch the biggest expense. The biggest expense in schools is people. Staff. For rural schools Number Two is transportation and Number Three is disability services, although “disability services” is really just a subset of Number One.

    This is what they did with the money. Look at the percentage of high school graduates in the US from 1960 to today. There were just a huge group of people who weren’t served by public schools at all. in 1960. Of course it was cheaper. We excluded or kicked out all the students who cost more than average. That isn’t the goal. The goal is to have a steadily rising number.

  176. 176.

    HeleninEire

    Hey can someone give me Anne’s email addy? I am having a fist fight with the “contact a front pager” link. Thanks.

  177. 177.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Kay: Many Maine districts operate a ‘fourth school’, and one that effectively didn’t exist a generation ago. Roughly equal $$ for high school, middle school, elementaries — but then there’s the special services/special ed component of each school, plus central office to support them, which is roughly a fourth school.

  182. 182.

    Eric S.

    Annecdata the Red Line headed to downtown Chicago was packed. When I went to pick up breakfast the place was packed, mostly women, headed for the protest. It’s headed to 60 degrees here. It’s going to be massive.

  183. 183.

    Kay

    This literally could have been written by the Trump campaign:

    ANALYSIS
    President Tars Establishment as Faithless and Corrupt
    By MARK LANDLER
    In keeping with his insurgent campaign, President Trump dispensed with appeals to unity or attempts to build bridges to his opponents in his inaugural address.
    He is as close to an independent as has ever served in modern times, having run against the Republican establishment as much as against Democrats

    The political team at the NYTimes is horrible. Politico is tougher on Trump, by far. We can just count this paper out for the next 4 years. Trump will pretend they’re giving him tough coverage and they’ll pretend this relationship is competitive and adversarial, and they both benefit.

  185. 185.

    Gin & Tonic

    @japa21: When I broke my (thankfully, left) shoulder and was in that sling I realized you really have to plan out how to prepare or order foods that can be eaten with one hand. Good luck.

  187. 187.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    A query about permits – are protests more powerful when granted approval, or when public space is simply appropriated for temporary assembly?

    My personal inclination is to say claim it, permission be damned.

  189. 189.

    Gravenstone

    A friend at the DC march shared the following sign on Facebook ; “We will overcomb this”. I giggled.

  191. 191.

    cosima

    @rikyrah: One of the many benefits of living here in the UK is never having to see one of these deplorables in real life and having to restrain myself from kicking them in the guts/nuts. WT ever-loving F did those awful people have to ‘put up with’ indeed? Cretin racist assholes.

  192. 192.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @HeleninEire:

    Try AnneLaurie (at) Verizon (dot) net.

    Hope this is okay to share — I think it’s been public (to BJ) in the past. If I’m violating protocol, some FrontPager please delete this comment.

  193. 193.

    bemused

    @Kay:

    Yes. I read a Mother Jones article which quoted an excerpt from youtube of Dick and Betsy DeVos speaking to The Gathering in 200l. They were asked why they couldn’t just fund (their brand of education) with philanthropic dollars. Betsy replied that there aren’t “enough philanthropic dollars in America to fund what is currently the need in education…(versus) what is currently spent every year on education in this country (and not always spend wisely). Dick said every child should have access to quality education. (There’s that word “access” again, just like Republicans say every American should have “access” to healthcare.) After telling a story about visiting Israel and education history, Betsy also said “Our desire is to confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance God’s Kingdom.”
    Dick and Betsy started talking about education around 22:50 on that video.

  195. 195.

    SFBayAreaGal

    I wish I could be with all of you today. Thank you all that are marching and all that are there in spirit.

  197. 197.

    Gelfling 545

    I’m just getting ready to leave for our march here in Buffalo. My grandson (6)will be participating in his first protest march! He’s quite pumped up about it. His sister at 10 is an old hand at it now. I’ve been following the photos of the international marches on Pantsuit Nation and the turnout is impressive. Will try to get some photos here but I’m an abysmsl photographer.

  198. 198.

    J R in WV

    @japa21:

    When they let you start, work hard, as hard as you possibly can, at the rehab exercises, both at Rehab with the PT staff, AND back at home, and don’t forget that when the PT staff releases you, you need to continue to work at home going forward.

    Best of luck with the shoulder work and your rehab, from one what has been there!! ;-)

  200. 200.

    satby

    Back home after event #1, # 2 starts in 2 hours downtown. It’s a beautiful day here, nearing 60 degrees and sunny. Adding dances, cckids, hedgehog, and SFBay to my sign!

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