Even though the Women’s March on Washington drew about three times the crowd as Trump’s ultimate ego gratification event the day before, it was incredibly peaceful. In fact, multiple news outlets say there were zero arrests, which is pretty amazing.
I think the fact that it was a woman-led event with more females than males participating had something to do with that. I saw many friendly interactions between protesters and cops, including women asking for and being given permission to pat police horses.
One of Trump’s rally sycophants, Sheriff Clarke, painted a different picture:
What I personally witnessed Sat Jan21 in DC was a total collapse of the social order. It occurred one day after our side peacefully gathered…
Several taunted me at Women’s riot. I dared those creeps to do something. They knew better & kept it to verbal insults. No cops to be found.
Possibly Clarke actually believes this, as he is a raving crackpot. But I saw a few small groups of Trumpsters try and fail to provoke marchers. Here’s one such incident:
The imbecile in the Trump cape stood on that platform bellowing the name of his new baboon king at the passing marchers for a few minutes. But aside from a bird selfie taken by a nasty woman who badly needs a manicure, he was ignored.
Not sure why Clarke and other Trumpsters I’ve seen making evidence-free accusations of aggression on the part of the marchers have such a need to paint themselves as victims. It’s almost like they need blankies, warm milk and a safe space or something.
Anyway, I’m home now, having driven nearly 2,000 miles over three days and walked 15 or so around Washington, DC with about half a million others in that city and millions more worldwide.
We drove the last 400 or so miles home in the teeth of a howling storm, crossing one tornado watch area after another. My sister-in-law, who held the fort while my sister and I went with the girls, asked me if it was worth it.
You’re damned right it was, I told her. Not only did we make Trump’s ego gratification ceremony the day before look as small and pathetic as the man himself, not only did we make him the holder of the record for man rejected by the most women ever, we reaffirmed something important: It’s our country too.
Yarrow
Awesome! Thanks for going, thanks for your updates and great post! Glad you got home safely.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Irony is dead, isn’t it. Yes, we live in a post apocalyptic hell scape were a woman will dare insult a white man.
khead
White women with kids. Fox news (and therefore my FB feed) could not figure out how to demonize them aside from saying “But Madonna said blah, blah, blah”.
Mnemosyne
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Well, to be fair, from Clarke’s point of view, women uniting and standing up for themselves IS the collapse of the social order he prefers of male dominance. His poor little weenie probably retracted all the way inside his body at the sight of all of those nasty women.
Tenar had a link in the other thread of a Twitter rant from a (white) woman pointing out that the protests were probably so peaceful because the police have a different attitude when it’s nice, middle-class white women protesting than when it’s people of color. I also pointed out that the cops also probably didn’t overreact because, frankly, they were so hugely outnumbered. Here in Los Angeles, there were about 80 protesters for every 1 sworn officer (~750,000 protesters to 9,000 officers in all of LAPD).
To me, if a large presence of middle-class white women means that the cops are less likely to start breaking heads and arresting people, that means that it is our responsibility and duty as citizens to keep showing up at these protests in large numbers to help protect the people around us who aren’t as privileged. If there is safety in numbers, we need to keep providing the numbers so everyone stays safe.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Uh, he’s a black man. But he is an authoritarian buffoon, so there’s that.
EBT
I would like to thank everyone who was able to go to one of these protests. As anyone who pays attention here or at Wonkette knows I absolutely should not be around large groups of people or the police so these sorts of things are off limits to me.
Anne Laurie
Glad you’re home safe, BettyC!
And even gladder you went!
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Except Sheriff Clarke’s… not white. No more than is Justice Clarence Thomas. (But at least Justice Thomas isn’t a Minnesota resident in a cowboy hat.)
amk
Great job, bc and other ‘taunting’ women.
amk
@Mnemosyne:
This.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, as a proud maker and West Coast provider of #pussyhats, I am very pleased to see at least one person wearing one in every picture I’ve seen of every march. Every knitter, crocheter, and sewer who made and/or gave away at least one hat should be very proud of themselves.
CarolDuhart2
Also, the dominance of women in the crowd means that the usual want to burn down stuff people stick out more and have no allies. Yes, men were there too, but there was no space for that sort of thing.
Moebym
My dad shared a video on FB of Ashley Judd’s incredible speech, and he seemed to be thoroughly impressed by it. This is a man who told me a great many years ago that he’s a feminist, and he has lived up to this label pretty well. Given that he grew up in a deeply patriarchal society (China), I was a little shocked that he’d admit to this, but definitely pleased.
SgrAstar
Glad you got home safely! Also too, thanks for sharing the pic of those magnificent horses. Clydesdales? They are *huge*! I’d love to ride one.
Leaving Texas
Seriously? Who cares what her nails look like?!?!
NR
Largest protest in the country’s history and not one single arrest. Major kudos to all the protesters for showing everyone what America is all about.
JordanRules
Yasss Betty! So glad you all got home safely. I can’t even imagine how incredible the DC march felt less than 24 hours after that Friday fallout bullshit.
Really looking forward to your future posts as you start to process everything with this incredible, historic event in your rear view.
I’m still super pumped from our much smaller march in Phoenix!
SoupCatcher
@CarolDuhart2: There was a definite family vibe at the San Jose march. Lots of kids. Reminded me quite a bit of the 2006 immigrant rights march. Except the umbrella strollers have been replaced with baby wearers.
Westyny
Glad you made it home ok, and I hope the food poisoning has worn off. I came out a couple of days from lurking on BJ for years and part of the motivation was to have you as an e-neighbor since I will likely never settle in Florida, Just a general question: how does Clarke get elected in Milwaukee? And when does he have to run again?
Chet Murthy
@Mnemosyne: As a cis-male a different thought has been percolating in my mind, but related to this. As you write, if middle-class (and frankly, middle-aged) white women showing up in numbers, defuses the authoritarian reaction, then that’s an excellent thing. I wonder to myself if the same is true of middle-aged women of color, too (and sure hope it is).
Two thoughts occur: (1) As [email protected] notes, the presence of so many women meant that the violent subset of males simply had no constituency. This is a good thing. But (2) going further, I feel that this is a sign that males and esp. cismales need to take a step back and follow instead of leading, on this.
I don’t know how to express this right, and I sure hope that some woman or women will do so. But I feel somehow that somebody needs to formulate this idea and spread it. “A man’s place is in the reinforcements”. Or something.
I do feel that this is a special moment for feminism, and feminists might think about how to capture it, how to use it, how to own it, to create the proper conditions for women to lead and own and control where this movement goes. Because if they don’t, I sure fear what happens at the next rally. But more importantly, because after 100 millennia (at least) of men leading these things, it’s about time.
JordanRules
@Westyny: Clarke was initially appointed by the Gov, won re-election many times as a Dem and is up again in 2018. Some locals will have to give more info, but I’d suspect they didn’t know he was batshit and voted straight D ballot. I’d bet he’ll be gone next round and is looking for his sweet sociopathic grift now.
trollhattan
Welcome home and well done!
Our event in Sacramento was minuscule by contrast to D.C. but still estimated at 20k, so a huge success measured against the expected crowd. Unaware of the slightest problems with the crowd and the organization itself seemed good, both the march and rally.
The cops (combination of city and state) had traffic control duty, and that was about it. Crowd crossed many demographics by my observation on average seemed pretty young, but with plenty of families. Proud to be a tiny part of what hopefully will be a big wave that crests right over the giant yam’s head.
Westyny
@Leaving Texas: I think Betty was being slyly self-deprecating.
Joyce H
Hey, I had a notion about follow-on action. How about ‘sidewalk counselors’ at Trump properties? Not a blockade because people would be arrested and the optics just aren’t that great. But ‘sidewalk counselors’ like at abortion clinics. Approach people as they park and head for the entrance, ask them politely if they represent a foreign government or work for a corporation with business that hopes for administration action on their issues. Explain that you’re just concerned that they might be (accidentally, you’re sure!) committing a felony and you want to help them avoid that. It could make people reconsider giving their business to TrumpCo.
JordanRules
@Leaving Texas:
Betty the chicken whisperer doesn’t care either. It’s her snarky writing style and it might be her digits too! LOL
@Chet Murthy:
Chet, they are on it. We all are and I am so proud! I love your thoughtfulness about it and willingness to identify and affirm a role that men don’t traditionally take.
amk
lol.
Msb
Also glad you’re back safe, Betty (all I had to do to get home was take a 20-minute walk).
Good idea for more white women to go to protests, if it helps police be non-violent.
I’ve watched Ashley Judd’s speech 3 times or so. Brilliant and inspiring.
Villago Delenda Est
@Steeplejack (phone): He’s a vile piece of fascist shit. He’s also an Uncle Tom.
Nixon asslicker Roger Stone was claiming some woman he was with was hit by a bottle, and he took her to the hospital. This reeks of Spicer’s headcount of 1.5 million. Also, too, the Drumpfenproles were claiming that a photo obviously taken yesterday was, in fact, of crowds on Friday. Small detail…the photo had a lot of people wearing pink hats :P
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
Glad you’re back safely, and I hope you’re feeling better.
I did the bus to DC – march – straight back to the bus thing. Next time I do flights and hotel. Exhausting.
Chet Murthy
@Msb: Dayyyum. that was some speech. My throat kinda tightened up when she name-checked Hillary. Don’t know how many speakers did that, but I sure hope they all did.
Origuy
Apparently a van with a Trump sticker on the back and a Trump hat on the front, driven by two men, jump the curb at a protest in Yucca Valley, CA, near Joshua Tree NP. They hit a protester, no major injuries. There’s a picture on Facebook that shows the front of the van, so hopefully the police will catch them.
JordanRules
@Villago Delenda Est: Roger Stone also should have died by now from his bullshit ass polonium poisoning. But his “doctor caught it early”. LMAO
Science!!!!! How does it work!?!?!
opiejeanne
God, Betty, I love you!
sigaba
“Our side”
opiejeanne
@Mnemosyne: Did you see that Trump’s attorney Cohen asked where the p*ussyhats were made as an attempt at deflection about the manufactory of the MAGA hats?
CarolDuhart2
@Villago Delenda Est: That’s why cameraphones and the much derided Twitter are so important. The police are also on Twitter-they use it as a way to quickly informing citizens about what’s going on. Nothing from Twitter-nothing happened worth noting. Also someone would have captured the bottle-throwing-even the perpetrator, which is happening more and more these days. Do action and actually take pics/video. Not smart, but smartphone doesn’t mean the owner is.
EBT
@opiejeanne: He has gotta earn that bounced check somehow.
opiejeanne
@EBT: Problem is that he is being laughed at and mocked. Can he really be so out of touch that he doesn’t know that the hats didn’t come from a factory?
EBT
@opiejeanne: The brazenness of the lie is the point. Once the new normal is bald faced lies and 0 questions allowed then they can yank the strings of the press corps even harder.
Honus
@opiejeanne: all of the p*ssy hats I know of, including my own, were made locally by individuals. 100% American. Unlike trump’s ties.
Joyce H
@Villago Delenda Est:
Funny, I was just thinking today, looking at pictures of Saturday crowds, that the great thing about the pink hats was that it would make it more difficult for people in the future to post those pictures claiming it’s some different crowd, a Trump rally or some such.
BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne:
Yes.
seaboogie
@Chet Murthy:
I believe that you are hearing the voice of strong, activist women, Chet.
For millenia women have been nourishing and sustaining our civilization – the only way your progeny get to survive and thrive. Women feed and nourish, wipe up the shit and vomit of the wee ones and the elders, because that is what must be done. Make one or two squares a day, and pack the lunches before and after heading out to work ourselves. We get shit done.
So pay attention to these strong women. Above all, support them and follow their lead. Your life will be better, and the world will be better.
Darkrose
@trollhattan: Yay! I have other online friends who went. Telesilla and I didn’t, because 1) crowd anxiety and 2) fighting a cold on my part, but I’m so glad it was successful!
ThresherK
Is “fighting words” a legal term? I don’t know, but I’m not an LEO or a lawyer.
EBT
@ThresherK: Clarke has committed what would be called a “Cool Story, Bro”, or CSB for short. Used when someone has told an obviously untrue thing.
OzarkHillbilly
Glad you and yours made it home safe and sound, Betty.
CarolDuhart2
@opiejeanne: Guys like him don’t deal with women who would crack their pretty nails sewing or knitting or doing handcrafts. The traditional manufacturing (could they have even ramped up in time anyway?) would have been horribly inefficient. Even with Amazon’s resources (and who else has the distribution capacity) it would have taken too much to have all those people with a pussyhat in time for the march.
CarolDuhart2
@opiejeanne: Guys like him don’t deal with women who would crack their pretty nails sewing or knitting or doing handcrafts. The traditional manufacturing (could they have even ramped up in time anyway?) would have been horribly inefficient. Even with Amazon’s resources (and who else has the distribution capacity) it would have taken too much to have all those people with a p-hat in time for the march.
CarolDuhart2
Instead people bought yarn, cloth, whatever (that was already around for other purposes) and made things themselves. Except for people who shipped and mailed hats to other people, things stayed local. Little time was wasted that way.
NotMax
Sure it isn’t the modern equivalent of the dunce cap? The cape says RUMP.
How’d your mix tape work out?
Jim Parish
Sheriff Clarke should take a cue from Lowell Weicker:
opiejeanne
@Honus: I don’t think I’ve seen any ready-made for sale, and based on what I’ve seen and read, they were all handmade.
opiejeanne
@CarolDuhart2: I’m sure, but he must not use social media or know a single woman Democrat.
opiejeanne
@CarolDuhart2: Yes, I know. There is not a scrap of pink yarn left in the greater Seattle area.
cynthia ackerman
@trollhattan:
Careful.
Waves cresting over his head is already a thing.
ThresherK
@EBT: Hee hee.
Fighting words are not protected.
Annnnnd I’m already more qualified than Sheriff Clarke, thanks to 10.seconds on Yahoogle.
rikyrah
Welcome back, BC.
Hope that you are feeling better.???
Gvg
Sheriff Clark’s jail needs inspecting by experienced neutral parties. He’s an authoritarian nut, and my suspicions have been triggered.
Sam
Should retweet Sheriff Clarke all the time, everywhere. As crazy as his patron. Best retweeted with some pics. Reality, meet crazy.
Betty Cracker
@Leaving Texas: Those are MY nails. Thought that was obvious from the POV, but sarcasm fail on my part, I guess.
Lurking Canadian
@Joyce H: I, for one, think that is awesome, although it might prove dangerous for the people doing the interventions.
PIGL
Has anyone been taking notes about the counter-propaganda?
I see three or four main threads.
1) there was violence and mean behaviour so there!
2) George Soros funded it all, including the hats (yes, they are that bugfuck, even worse)
3) Somebody involved was Muslim with links to Hamas
4) I don’t understand why the women are marching. The poor dears have everything they want…don’t they understand?
These memes spread so quickly and with such uniformity that they must a common source, but I don’t want to go looking for such a poisonous well.
Peale
@Jim Parish: perhaps he should take some time to reflect on his life. A few years of silent mediatation would do him good. Might even save his soul.
SFAW
@Steeplejack (phone):
@Anne Laurie:
I’m guessing the “white man” EVT was referring to is the Deadbeat Shitgibbon, not Sheriff Nutcase.
Ben Cisco
@Gvg: He also needs to worry more about his one (current) job, and maybe address why people keep dropping dead in his jail, succumbing to (among other things), THIRST.
SFAW
@Peale:
Perhaps in Tibet or even Siberia (where he will probably have an “in.”)
SFAW
@Ben Cisco:
He sounds nice.
I can see why the Deadbeat Shitgibbon wants him. (ETA: Because it would improve Shitgibbon’s standing with The Coloreds.)
Mothra
I saw someone on Face the Nation carry on about “8 and 9 year olds” carrying signs that were “horrific”. He did not say one “horrific” slogan, he said that these were “CHILDREN BEING TAUGHT TO HATE THE OTHER SIDE!!!!!!” So that leaves it to the imagination/elaboration of the right wing imagination, courtesy of CBS. [No one asked him any follow up questions.]
Based on the comments I’ve seen online, what they find incredibly offensive is all the references to pussies. As if the protesters had introduced pussy into the presidential campaign. As if it was terrible for the general public to see women carrying signs saying that a rich old man IS NOT entitled to grab where he likes, simply because he’s famous.
randy khan
@PIGL:
I’ve seen some of it, and have taken every opportunity to mock it.
randy khan
@ThresherK:
I think, actually, that the term you’re looking for is “incitement to riot.”
The irony of a sworn peace officer basically telling people to take a swing at him is remarkable.
randy khan
Thanks for making the trip and for the photos.
Iowa Old Lady
Betty, you totally rock. You were there. You made history. And you were funny about it.
Steeplejack (phone)
@SFAW:
Well, EVT quoted Clarke directly in the comment:
No allusion to Trump at all.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
I think the same thing. Pink hat wearing escorts at BLM marches. Absolutely we have to step up and make sure we are supporting all of our sisters and brothers in this struggle.
El Caganer
@Ben Cisco: My thoughts, too. WTF was Jailhouse Clarke doing there? Doesn’t he have any prisoners to dehydrate?
SFAW
@Steeplejack (phone):
Yeah, OK. I think of Clarke as being a Shitgibbon Shill first and foremost, and was mapping that onto the comment(s).
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Steeplejack (phone):
He’s also a law enforcement officer trying to provoke violence. He sure does talk like an old white guy, doesn’t he?
Betty Cracker
@El Caganer: Probably interviewing for a job with the Trump regime. But if that prick retains his current job as sheriff of Milwaukee County, he’s up for reelection (as a Democrat!) in 2018. He needs to be booted from office at the first opportunity. I’d donate to a primary opponent and even to a Republican in the general, though I’m no where near Wisconsin. Clarke is a truly evil, deranged man.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
The suffragette movement was very violent, including some bombings. The treatment of suffragettes by the authorities was also violent.
Some white people who participated in the civil rights movement ended up just as beaten, or just as dead, as black people.
That this first protest was peaceful is wonderful. I hope that this continues, but also hope that people have the courage to deal with a harder struggle.
O. Felix Culpa
@Brachiator:
I’m also glad that Saturday’s protest was peaceful all around the world. If we get to the stage of struggle on the order of the sufragette and civil rights movements, each individual will need to decide what they are willing and/or able to risk. I’m highly pain-averse and have no desire for martyrdom, but I’ve done my own assessment and know I’ve lived a good life rich with experience. My kids are grown. I’ll try to do what’s needed.
Seth Owen
@Chet Murthy: Excellent point. My bus was rented, and filled, by a woman I know who had never been politically active before.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Anne Laurie had an interesting point in the same thread: the white people who volunteered to be Freedom Riders and other volunteers during the Civil Rights Movement did it in part because they knew that if they were beaten or killed, it would be national news, unlike if an African-American volunteer were beaten or killed.
If the cops come racing in to beat and tear-gas nice, middle-aged white ladies who are wearing pink hats, that’s going to be news, even in today’s news environment.
mere mortal
Hey, Sheriff Clarke, do you ever have that moment when you realize that you just unintentionally defined “peaceful protest” and that the only person inciting violence was you?
maurinsky
I was in Washington DC on Saturday. I got there too late to get anywhere near the stage, but my favorite part of the day was walking from RFK to the Mall – seeing all the MLK quotes on signs outside of homes, seeing one home with a rainbow flag and hundreds of hearts in the windows, talking to the people in DC who thanked us for being there and marching for them, and talking to people from all over the country. I hugged a lot of strangers on Saturday!
I am sad about one thing. I accidentally left my sign (a sandwich board) somewhere in Union Station. I was hoping to bring it home and save it – I had all the people and things I was marching for on it on the front side, and the Princess Leia “A Woman’s Place Is In The Resistance” and some information about a local group that is planning continuing action on the back.
gvg
One thing I don’t see remembered in historical references to Jim Crow south and the time of the KKK, is that white people who were seen as too nice to black people could end up dead, or lose jobs etc too. Business men who treated black customers just like anyone else could get boycotted, killed or have threats of rape of their wives etc. My dad tells stories of just before the Civil Rights time which imply a whole lot but aren’t real clear if you don’t know that. Someone overhearing him might even think he approved but I know he gloats that the bigots lost. Well they did, but now we have to redo some of it.
Integrating the athletic teams was in many ways a foot in the door. Seems so…trivial in the face of something so serious, in a lot of ways it was an excuse.
My parents knew white friends who died or were raped over standing up for black civil rights. Many times the whiteness protected them, but not always. I hope this time doesn’t get that serious.
Stan
@Chet Murthy:
As one of many, many guys at the march, for fuck’s sake, don’t assume we were there wanting to be violent and were only somehow held back by the lack of critical mass. I didn’t see any guys seeking out violence or even vandalism. Not one.
Mel
@Brachiator:
So true. Both of you are putting front and center some things that have been on my mind as well since this weekend’s March.
My grandmother, grt. grandma, and grt. grt. grt. grandma all lived well into their 90s. They saw the suffragette movement from all points on the age spectrum, from a very, very elderly lady to a middle aged mother to a very young girl.
My grt g and grandma knew women who were shamed, shunned, disowned, and even brutalized for nothing more than nonviolent protest / marching, etc.
Google “suffragette imprisonment” to get an idea of just how bad things got for some of the women involved in the movement.
Granted, not all suffragettes and not all branches of the suffragette movement were peaceful and nonviolent, but even many of the most “benignly behaving” women in the movement found themselves at risk of social and familial rejection and censure, loss of employment, and socially- sanctioned domestic and legal violence.
So, when I heard a few people grumbling this weekend about some women choosing to cover their lower faces with bandanas while they marched, I thought: nobody else knows that woman’s backstory. Nobody else knows what she might be risking in order to march for what she knows is right. It really does come down to the fact that we all have to take care of one another, truly support one another, and be aware that what is celebrated and supported by one woman’s family and community might be an enormous risk for another woman. Courage comes in so many forms.
Leaving Texas
@Betty Cracker: Oh! Ya, I totally missed that, hahahaha!