Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

This blog will pay for itself.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

I was promised a recession.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

No one could have predicted…

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

We still have time to mess this up!

The willow is too close to the house.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Second rate reporter says what?

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Mourn, Organize / Pictures from today’s march in Raleigh

Pictures from today’s march in Raleigh

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I’m not normally a marching purpose. I’ll cut turf, I’ll optimize a data set, I’ll make phone calls but I don’t march. Well today, I marched. And I had a blast. I ended up walking with the ACLU contingent as they seemed to be a great group and met up with some people I’ve recent met in the Triangle for a burger and a beer afterwards as well as a plan to help build infrastructure so I can get back to cutting turf and optimizing data sets. One of the things I liked is that there were organizers and voter registration folks going throughout the crowd getting information. I switched my registration from Pennsylvania to North Carolina this morning and got hit for contact information at least five times.

Here are some pictures from me and other Balloon Juicers.

If you have any more, please send them to me at via the Contact an Author widget in the top right hand corner.

 

And here are a few from AMinNC:

More below the fold

And here are a few lessons learned for the next time I march. I am getting old, so I should have my pre-game Advil just like I’m going to run four lines in a day. I also need to bring a hat and sunscreen. Most importantly, finding a fun group to celebrate, laugh and chant is key. This was fun and the organizers know how to organize so I should be getting hooked into the Moral coalition.

Reader Interactions

109Comments

  5. 5.

    gene108

    @Svensker:

    Yeah, what’s Soros offering these days?

    I’ve been trying to line up some extra work as a professional protestor, but George hasn’t returned my inquiries.

  10. 10.

    Mary G

    Oh, those are balm to my heart. I am listening to the speeches on livestream from the last speech and I feel so much better. The oppression and uncertainty caused by the ICE raids are so unfair. People I know who work harder than I ever have for little money are afraid that everything they have will be taken away.

    Also, I am late to Balloon Juice today and they are ten hours old, this may be a repeat, but catching up on J.K. Rowling demolishing Piers Morgan on Twitter is wonderful.

    Because you had a premonition that one day the author would roar with laughter at seeing you called out for your bullshit on live TV? https://t.co/8rkKSqJTnG— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 11, 2017

    ETA: She said that after he said he was glad he had never read a word of Harry Potter.

  11. 11.

    zhena gogolia

    @gene108:

    I have to admit, I have received grant money from Soros in the past. But not for protesting. For bringing Russian artists/writers to speak to American students about art/literature. So nefarious.

  12. 12.

    FarmerG

    Hated I couldn’t make it to the march but life got in the way.

    So stoked to see such a big crowd.

  13. 13.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Thanks for marching David. I’m going to assume you’re a white guy. I’ve marched twice in Boston, and am active in resistance groups, which are mostly women and/or minorities, and many of the women I know both personally and through social media – young and old – have become fierce about marching, joining, organizing. My cohort of white liberal men – early 60s – have gone dark. They never had to serve in the military, or had to do anything, really, to defend their country, and boy, apparently they’re not starting now. To say I’m disgusted with them and their complacency about their privilege is a HUGE understatement. Cowardly duds, basically, while the women and minorities, once again, do most of the heavy lifting.

  14. 14.

    dm

    I like the “We took this ‘Anyone can be President’ thing too far” sign behind “We gave you hummus, be grateful”.

    On my way into work today I saw a small (~30 people) crowd of anti-DAPL demonstrators in front of a bank.

  15. 15.

    TheMightyTrowel

    OT for Mnem who asked a sunscreen question on an earlier thread (but i guess is good for people matching in protests to know this too):

    OT saw Mnem’s request for high spf sensitive skin sunscreen. I exclusively use alcohol based sun creams because a dermatologist suggested it when i was 18 and getting horrifying rashes. This sunscreen had been life changing for me – as a super pale freckled person there’s no way i could be an archaeologist without it – and definitely no way i could live comfortably in Australia. I highly recommend bullfrog brand. That do a 50 spf which is outstanding.

  16. 16.

    DAVID ANDERSON

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: I am very pasty. I know that I am generically privileged on all counts in the US except the religious portion as I left the Catholic Church as a teenager and never looked back.

    Because of that I am shutting up and listening/following people whose prime public facing identies are non-privileged as they know what may work and what is doomed to fail

  17. 17.

    Another Scott

    Thanks for turning out and the post and pictures. Excellent all around. Keep it up! :-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  19. 19.

    TaMara (HFG)

    I love, “Y’all means All”

    thanks for this uplifting thread. Love seeing all the marchers and hearing about the continued enthusiasm. yay for your new hometown.

  20. 20.

    Feebog

    Love the pics, looks like you had a decent day weatherwise as well. The “Mailbox Full?’ sign was the nuts.

  22. 22.

    TS

    @lollipopguild: I love seeing those hats too – I imagine that trump will see them every time he sees a crowd of people or watches his beloved cable. May it ever remind him of what he did to women that he has not yet paid for.

  23. 23.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Mary G: I’ve never read a word of Harry Potter either but I love J.K. Rowling. She seems like a cool person. Piers Morgan, on the other hand, can take a flying leap (off a bridge).

    Good on you, David, for taking part in the Resistance. Surely Trump is getting the message. We’re just not that into him.

  25. 25.

    Maoserati

    i’ve been to every HKonJ except one and this was by far the largest, the one with the most *new* marchers and the best signs ever. makes me happy that people can be so smart, so creative and lovely while furiously resisting the horrible trouble we’re in, named and unnamed.

    thanks to the hard work behind the scenes including people like 1) my boarder who is 81, was in SNCC and who volunteered for weeks at the state NAACP office to get out the crowd 2) the best field secretary ever, Laurel who knows how to make all things happen 3) the moral monday arrestees and HBCU fraternity and sorority members who worked as march marshals in the orange vests 4) music making Freddie Green and the soul sister of the Moral Movement, Yara Allen 5) to Tyler and Will and countless others who were sick with the crud and showed up and did it anyway, 6) The Clergy and Dr. Barber

    a march like this never happens on its own.

    please donate

    http://www.naacpnc.org

  26. 26.

    Larkspur

    @Patricia Kayden: I love J.K. Rowling too, and I’ve never read a word of Harry Potter either, but I do enjoy her mysteries (written post-Potter) under the name Robert Galbraith. Recommended!

    Great signs. Loved the hummus one. It reminded me of a t-shirt a young man was wearing after the announcement that bin Laden got zapped, and there were cheering crowds. A big grin and the t-shirt said: “I’M MUSLIM. DON’T PANIC.” (I think I saw it posted on the fake news/failing website Buzzfeed.)

  27. 27.

    zhena gogolia

    Oh, but Timothy Egan of the NYT tells me this is just a “sugar high”: “Reliance on identity politics and media-cushioned affirmation, and a blind spot to the genuine pain of the white working class, is precisely what produced a President Trump. For the next year, Democrats should filter their policy initiatives through the eyes of the person Trump claims to speak for — the forgotten American.”

  29. 29.

    zhena gogolia

    @Larkspur:

    Comments are closed, but since some of the comment writers write much better than the paid columnists, we get this: “Enough with all the blather about the pain of the white working class that white male liberals love to cite as a mea culpa for why Democrats lost the election. We lost the electoral college by 80,000 votes. Hillary Clinton won by nearly 3 million. If you’re doing self-examination, maybe you should examine the misogyny you bought into play against our supremely qualified candidate, the fact that you as a member of the press focused on the emails rather than on the travesty of Comey’s announcement or Russian interference with the election. Or that Bernie, with his cries of “rigged elections” and “corruption” gave ammunition to Trump. Women and people of color are the future. You’re not going to cop to that; I get it. But spare us the white working class bull. A lot of us are not buying it any more.”

  31. 31.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud:

    Now that I also subscribe to WaPo and the Guardian, I get less exercised about how horrible the NYT is. I still like the crosswords, the obits, and Krugman.

  32. 32.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Gallup Poll – Trump Ratings – February 11, 2017

    Approve………………..41%
    Disapprove……………53%

    ————————————————————————————-
    Gallup Poll – Obama Ratings – February 8, 2009

    Approve………………..66%
    Disapprove……………21%

  34. 34.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @zhena gogolia:

    The second that white male supremacy is under attack by non-white non-male candidates and marches, all of these white male concern trolls sniping from the sidelines show their true colors. They’re such delicate flowers, motivated by their unconscious understanding how much they rely on the racist operating system white America is running. We see them.

  35. 35.

    Larkspur

    @zhena gogolia: And Charles M. Blow. And I admit I do go to the comments to Douthat columns because you’re right, most of the comments are way better than anything he writes.

  37. 37.

    Yoda Dog

    Im really bummed, I had to miss it. Wee-Man is only 11 weeks old and he has a terrible diaper rash right now. Him and my 20 month old daughter are really cramping my protest style so far.

    Beautiful pictures and a wonderful turnout though. Very proud of Raleigh today.

  38. 38.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Alex Seitz-Wald ‏@aseitzwald 9h9 hours ago

    [Wilmer] and Chuck Schumer jointly call for rallies to defend Obamacare.

    Oh, nooooooooow he wants to defend it. After spending the past 2 years trashing it and poisoning the drinking water of his gullible cult, nooooooooooooow he realizes he’s wrong (video).

  40. 40.

    Lapassionara

    Thanks for posting this. Loved the pix, and the signs give me hope. There was a Y’all means All sign at the women’s march in Columbia, SC. Among others.

  41. 41.

    jl

    Very possible Trump is such a clueless ignorant bigot, or so sadly duped by Bannon’s fantasies, that he really thinks he really lost the popular vote because of illegal votes by non-citizen immigrants. I read that Trump keeps obsessively mentioning that pure triple distilled BS in meetings and phone calls. That will go very hard on immigrants, both documented and undocumented. But the GOP voter suppression efforts may be substantially slowed and obstructed by obsessing over that pure nonsense. If so, a small silver lining to this mess.

  43. 43.

    jl

    I’m also read and hear mindless babble in news about the Congressional town hall meeting protests being modeled after the teabaggers. That’s pure BS from what I know of. Most, in fact the vast majority of the teabagger demonstrations were astroturfed fakes. I haven’t read about, or seen pics of any fleets of chartered buses, distribution of prepackaged box luncheons or mass produced protest signs for the protests going on now.

    The average GOP Congresscritter is such a delicate hot house flower, manured and watered and shaded by their big corporate and billionaire donors, looks like they have no clue what is going on or how to respond. Seems like their donors should be organizing some astroturf counterprotests soon. But maybe so few are interested, taking longer than expected to get any geared up.

  48. 48.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Matthew Yglesias ‏@mattyglesias

    Rounding up undocumented workers in Southern California is a strange way to create blue collar jobs in the rural Midwest.

    95 replies 3,406 retweets 6,509 likes

  56. 56.

    Mary G

    I wish this was fake, but apparently even Chuck Grassley can’t get a call returned and has resorted to Twitter:

    Whoever monitors twitter at WH for President Trump read my previous 2tweets and hv this businessman understand TRANSPARENCY=ACCOUNTABILITY— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) February 11, 2017

  59. 59.

    jl

    @Adam L Silverman: The 2016 Dem primary fight will never die! Never forget!!!!
    You should drop by one the historical re-enactments. They are fun. We wear historically accurate clothes and eat historically accurate meals bought from vintage fast food outlets, and yell insults at each other in the historically accurate vernacular.

  60. 60.

    Farthestnorth

    Had a nice Stand With PP rally in Denver. Oddly the Defund PP rally with 200 anti-choicers outside a clinic got lots of local news coverage. The 1,000 + who showed up downtown (PP did not want counterprotest at clinic)not so much…

  61. 61.

    efgoldman

    @zhena gogolia:

    Timothy Egan of the NYT tells me this is just a “sugar high”

    How do you say “Fuck Timothy Egan and the fucking New York Times, sideways, with a rusty, flaming chainsaw!” in Russian?

  64. 64.

    David Spikes

    Yesterday I joked about whether Trump would charge the Abes for their dinner at Marilago.
    Today Spicey very solemnly announced that Trump would not be charging them for their room-it’s his personal gift to them.
    I want to see the pictures when Trump tells Abe what a great deal he’s getting-the best.

  66. 66.

    efgoldman

    @zhena gogolia:

    kick-ass lady, Grace Hopper!

    I think my mom once told me Admiral Hopper (who the CBS doofette tonite called “Hooper”) is a very, very distant cousin on my maternal grandmother’s side. Even if it’s not true, I want it to be.

  67. 67.

    sukabi

    @dm: I think it’s highly likely that the “defund p.p.” protesters are paid protesters, which would explain the GOP’s insistence that the folks that show up to their townhalls and protest their gutting of the ACA and immigration bans are paid… They ARE the party of projection.

  70. 70.

    efgoldman

    @zhena gogolia:

    I think it’s smart of Schumer.

    Only thing is, Wilmer’s presidential run and higher profile has turned him into a publicity whore first class with oakleaf(*) clusters.

    (*)I typed “oatmeal” at first, caught it just in time.

  73. 73.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Robert Gifford @giff18

    @CBSNews has learned that the 35-page dossier compiled by a former British spy is gaining credibility among law enforcement.

    5:59 PM – 10 Feb 2017
    128 replies 3,370 retweets 4,770 likes

    Not surprising. The only people I’ve ever known who were golden showers enthusiasts were from NYC. Their version of cracker barrels and waffle houses.

  75. 75.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @efgoldman:

    He’s such a grifting fraud. He’s selling dolls of himself and sweatshirts that say “Hindsight”, but, organize a march of his half-baked “progressive” white cult followers in support of women and immigrants, whom they ostensibly support until they criticize Wilmer? Where’s the grift in that?

  78. 78.

    Van Buren

    @efgoldman: My father,who was in a position to know, once said that she was one of the two smartest people in the Navy. The other being John Poindexter, who he despised.

  79. 79.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Goku:

    Well, I’d like to think I’m not random and that I do have influence over millions, but I don’t, which means I’m not a delusional Wilmer cultist.

  82. 82.

    FlyingToaster

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: HerrDoktor and I (both white, well, in my case if Sephardic Jews are white) take turns, so that someone is on WarriorGirl duty while the other is afoot. I went January 21. He’s going April 22.

    Boston has marches every damn weekend, but we old folks have other shit to do, like shovel out from tomorrow/Monday’s bombogenesis…

  84. 84.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @FlyingToaster:

    I’m really glad to hear this, and THANK YOU. I commute back and forth into Boston to work a full time responsible job, as do my daughters who both work hard and long in the social justice realm, and we’re all very engaged in the Resistance to the extent we can, and still manage life/work. My white male comfortable liberal friends, as I mentioned above, have gone dark. And they live in blue states, and all I see from them, if they say anything at all, is bullshit snark about Trump. It seems like they’ve adopted an attitude like it’s all just kind of ancillary to their privileged lives, which it is, I guess. It’s infuriating. I’m free to march anytime on most weekends and I’m committed, although I’m older and can find other more comfortable things to do, and have developed a deep contempt for their casualness.

  86. 86.

    FlyingToaster

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: I get your frustration; right now I’m lucky in that I dropped the drone class from my social circle a long time ago, so I no longer hear from the Swellesley and Stow stuffed shirts. Us not-so-rich folk with kids in Somerville and Watertown are showing up to protests; usually one of us at a time because busy and therefore all the stuff we support gets attended.

    In between shoveling, right?

  90. 90.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @FlyingToaster:

    Yes! In between shoveling and errands and family obligations. My grown daughters – in Medford and Cambridge – have given me renewed strength – we’ve all winnowed out the people who are drags on the work that needs to be done now, which somehow we’ve just naturally onboarded as our duty, because that’s how I was brought up and what they’ve adopted as their mission too. We hate Trump, but he’s been useful as a clarifying event – you’re against him or not, and if you’re not, we don’t want you or need you and will make it clear we’re against you. I’ve sorted through a lot of people since the election, and many of my previous friends aren’t anymore. They’re fucking useless privileged drones with nothing to add to the Commonwealth we’re in an existential fight for, and if they’re useless, they’re collaborators. It’s 1776 all over again.

  91. 91.

    Libby's Person

    I highly recommend going to Rev. Barber’s Facebook page and listening to the great speech he gave. (It starts at ~1:32 on the video, I think.). He is brilliant. Inspirational and informative, the speech places the current situation in a useful historical context. Rev. Barber does a masterful job of inspiring hope and determination while preparing us for a long, hard fight. Standing down is NOT an option!

  92. 92.

    Ruckus

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:
    I tried to attend the Women’s march on the 21st in LA and could not get there. Too many people and yes, a lot of old white men waiting for the train. Now this is LA and all but we still have our lunkheads and morons hereabouts. But I was heartened by the diversity of the crowd, in every conceivable way.

  95. 95.

    Ruckus

    @TheMightyTrowel:
    I found some good stuff when I was in NZ 14 yrs ago, but nothing like it is sold in the states that I could find. We get pretty much the the big name stuff here and while some of it is OK, none of it is as good as what I purchased there.

  99. 99.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:
    “Fuck Тимоти Эган и на прошлой неделе Нью-Йорк таймс”, вбок, ржавчины, флеймом резня бензопилой!”

  100. 100.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Ruckus:

    I think it’s harsh on zombies who are in search of brains, not for a group to join who are also without brains.

  105. 105.

    J R in WV

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    @Amaranthine RBG:

    Why don’t you go join Scientology? They’re always looking for brain dead zombies.

    But they require new adherents to pay large fees for “clearing” work with more experienced members of the faith. A fellow I worked with years ago had a brother caught up in this “faith” up in Ohio years ago, and that young man bankrupted his family making payments for clearing and advancement.

    Do you really expect Amaranthine RBG to be able to make those payments? Really?

  106. 106.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:
    Are you saying that there is grift in religion? How can you possibly believe that?

    I was going to leave this out but thought maybe some wouldn’t quite catch it. /snark

  107. 107.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:
    I’ve been acquainted with, against my will, people from this organization for decades. I have stood at the ropes across the door of the office of LRon on a couple of occasions. It was all I could do to keep from hauling it out and pissing on the carpet. But it was like the feeling you get of not wanting to piss on some people if they were on fire. BTW I have a list going of those people. I figure that if we compare lists maybe no one will make a mistake and piss on the wrong burning body.

  108. 108.

    sheila in nc

    @Libby’s Person:
    Agree, he is awesome. Tremendous spirit and leadership during the recent fight/court cases about the NC voter ID law.
    I was unable to march yesterday — I can’t believe I didn’t know about it and made other plans. But I’ll be there next time! Does anybody have a link to “next steps” for people here in the Tar Heel state to help with the work and/or the date of the next march?

  109. 109.

    SFAW

    @J R in WV:

    You seem troubled. Would you like a free personality test? I may have a spare E-Meter kicking around here somewhere.

    ETA: And that goes double for you, Ruckus.

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