I still have a bunch of photos to sort through, but here are the reports and/or photos from readers / commenters who attended the protests yesterday.
Commenter TBone:
Hi MM, hubby is not the best photographer and it was so cold that his fingers went numb right away, forcing him back to the vehicle to heat them just when the biggest crowds arrived, much to my dismay. I was too excited after that to remember to cross the street to get an entire crowd shot. The organizer and other random people who spoke up on the soapbox were compelling and I was paying attention to them! I got one sentence in, shouted from said soapbox: “WE ARE DONE ARGUING WITH NAZIS!”
I saw people from my new church as well as meeting new fellow citizens (I yelled out “Greetings, Fellow Citizens!” several times and got peoples’ delighted responses). I am signed up to.participate in all future actions as well.Some photos attached but I wish I had better “crowd size” shots because the protest was very well attended! These photos do not capture the large crowd size at all. But traffic driving by was also delighted to see us all with our signs, honking and shouting frequent encouragement. There was one single naysayer, a passerby who was quickly ignored. She loves Elno and I hope she gets the wrong end of DOGE, the hard way!
I am a lurker on the site who prefers to remain anonymous and so generally does not engage except for reading the site multiple times a day. However, I wanted to share some photos from the protests on 2/17 at the City Hall in Downtown Orlando, FL which I attended with my wife and a friend.I am bad at estimating crowds but I would guess the number in few hundreds, maybe as many as a thousand. The protest started at 12 PM. It was still ongoing when we left an hour later to catch the train back.There were multiple speakers, representative of various groups and communities threatened by the unconstitutional and lawless actions of this administration. These included – multiple transgender women including a military combat veteran, another male veteran, a Native American leader, a self-described white woman who said she survived a life-threatening miscarriage in 2014 only because Roe v Wade was the law of the land and thus allowed her to get the required care.There were people from all age groups including some school age kids and many young adults. There were many really creative signs, most hand made, that covered many different aspects of the flight we are forced to fight. Unfortunately I could not take pictures of all the signs I liked but managed to get a few that were close to where I was standing. I am not able to attach all the photos to this email due to size limitations. I am sending a second email with just additional pictures attached.
The last sign is via Comrade Scott who linked me to Facebook photos of the protest at Rocky Mountain National Park. Next year’s national park season is going to be a total disaster with the layoffs that are happening now.
I really appreciate everyone who took the time and effort to write in, and I’ll be cropping out protest signs for our ongoing series over here >>>>>>>>> on the bottom right.
Take the Deal, Authoritarian Bastard!
Betty
Heartening to see the signs and hear that people are turning out in significant numbers.
Steve LaBonne
My wife and I didn’t end up going to the protest in our small city because I used up my cold tolerance and energy snowblowing and shoveling. I was heartened this morning to see pictures, and estimates that about 70 people showed up, which is a very good turnout. Next time- and there will be next times- we’ll be there.
lowtechcyclist
That last sign is true across the Federal government for two big, obvious reason: Boomers, and firing probationary employees. Demographically speaking (and that’s what’s important here), Boomers are currently of ages 60-79. We’ve been a big chunk of the work force, many of us have retired, and many of us still to go.
Not all, but a lot, of those probationary Federal workers were being hired to fill the gaps left by people like me as we left. Firing them all means instant understaffing.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@lowtechcyclist: Yep
Also feel sad that I had to crop out the person holding the sign. She was clearly so damn proud to be there.
Gin & Tonic
So Micro Rubio met with Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia today, presumably to suck Lavrov’s dick and ask how he likes it. Jokes about a “Rubiotrop” pact are already making the rounds. Also, reportedly, Mohammed bin Bone Saw wanted Ukraine to be present at these talks, but I have no idea if that’s actually true or just Bone Saw’s reputation-washing crew at work.
Meanwhile, Erdogan appears to be 100% in support of Ukraine’s full territorial integrity.
Watching the Drumpf administration throwing Ukraine under the bus in real time is appalling, of course, but completely unsurprising.
Gin & Tonic
@Gin & Tonic: Yeah, that was all off-topic. Sue me.
MomSense
@Gin & Tonic:
I heard Rubio on NPR talking about progress in Ukraine and thanking Trump for his commitment to peace and I wanted to barf. It’s so offensive and infuriating.
Ohio Mom
Today I am convinced (might be convinced of something else tomorrow, I’m flexible) privatization is the goal.
So the national parks will eventually be staffed again, by untrained temps. Entrance and other fees will go up to ensure a profit by whatever entity gets the staffing contract.
The temps won’t have the best interests of the park, they won’t even have a clue that conservation of a park is a thing. It will just be crowd control to them, no understanding of what goes into protecting nature from people or people from nature.
narya
@Ohio Mom: I’ve thought this all along. It’s part of the Reagan “government sucks, profit-seeking entities do it better” mythology. And it’s being led by a person with a zillion dollars in government contracts.
Jay
@Gin & Tonic:
EU’s announcing an 8 Billion Euro aid package today, with a goal of boosting it to 10 Billion by Thursday, Cash and weapons
And the EU actually delivers, unlike the US.
Spanky
@Ohio Mom: Extraction is the goal. Minerals, wood – lots of wood in redwoods and sequoia, remember.
Once all the value is extracted, then maybe they’ll be privatized as parks, but most likely be sold off as brownfields or grazing sites.
But again, only if they think they can get away with it. I guess we’ll know in 4 years!
NeenerNeener
So Elon is closing any Post Office or Social Security Office in rental space.
https://thehill.com/opinion/5148448-elon-musk-targeting-social-security/
This will not make the real estate gods happy.
TBone
I know I said that was my favorite pic but you can’t see my sign, I was busy schmoozing my fellow patriot! Dang.
rusty
I missed this earlier (the article I saw was from end of January), but one of the Republican ideas being floated is to raise taxes on single heads of households raising kids. That is overwhelmingly single women raising children (predominantly women of color). It would penalize them for not being married, and raise revenue that can then be directed to the tax cuts for the wealthy. Conservatives really are awful people.
artem1s
they want to sell off the parks to developers and for mining and foresting rights, and/or contract out to private businesses to run and fill up with road signs and advertisements and sell off naming rights. It will forever ruin our national treasures.
rusty
@Ohio Mom: During Bush I there was a push to privatize National Park campgrounds by long term leasing them to private companies that would then run them. I’ll assume this same crappy idea will be reanimated. Nothing can exist that doesn’t generate a revenue stream for some connected private enterprise. There is no public good that can be allowed to exist.
dmsilev
Today I Learned that (a) MapQuest still exists and (b) they put together a Name Your Own Gulf website.
Baud
@dmsilev:
Haha. Who ever thought we’d need to figure out what mapping software was on the side of the antifascists?
Jay
https://www.wonkette.com/p/the-department-of-defenses-new-1
Apparently the US’s Military, which is unable to face the ruZZian Navy by some accounts, (even though Ukraine sank most of ruZzia’s Black Sea fleet and doesn’t even have a Navy), their #1 Global Enemy due jour is a book character named Freckleface Strawberry.
SpaceUnit
Nice to see representation from the Blurry Community in that top photo.
No one asks to be born Blurry. Stop the Blurry Hate.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@lowtechcyclist:
Another reason for the firings is that most of them were hired as a result of both of Biden’s massive spending bills. I saw it at my DOT mode the last year.
Took about a year to literally staff up HR and then we were off to the races. After decades of understaffing, we were suddenly getting people and able to do much more.
I’ve viewed the “probation” hires being fired thru that lens: they’re wanting to screw with that aspect of Biden’s legacy.
sab
I am a contract worker for an accounting firm. Some Magas, more Republicans. Tomorrow is my month’s birthday party.
If my SS deposit isn’t there on time I will announce it. A big betrayal. Even if it come a day late I will have had my chance to voice my concerns. And if my deposit is late my concerns will be real. The Muskrats ate our retirement, or can when they want to.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
Where the fuck are the so-called anti-cancel culture warriors? Anybody remember them?
raven
@SpaceUnit: If you don’t like woody don’t click on it.
Out of Focus (“Deconstructing Harry” – Woody Allen)
Trollhattan
@rusty:
Shit, the NP concessionaires are still all private sector so I guess it stuck.
The assholes who won the Yosemite NP contract then proceeded to copyright a bunch of park features. I shit you not. How it began, Jan 2016.
How it ended, Sept 2019.
Delaware North controls a shitton of things. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_North
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@sab:
“But Elon is already rich, why would he want to steal our Social Security?”
Is a real thing Marjorie Greene said recently
zhena gogolia
@raven: I love that scene!
Trollhattan
@MomSense: It’s somehow even worse hearing his yap on BBC. Only they never pretend he’s somebody other than Li’l Marco.
SpaceUnit
@raven:
The struggle is real!
Glory b
@Ohio Mom: I read that they fired a significant numbers of parks EMTs too. So, if you fall on the trail & break a leg, help may be delayed.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It was never about “Cancel Culture”. It was always about racism, rape and misogyny being called to account.
But you know that.
Ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
I’m at the upper end of that age bracket – Close but NOT ALL THE WAY UP.
And have seen massive changes in all levels of government in my time. One of the things that has led to that is far, far better communications since I was born. And that far, far better includes what we are doing here, 2 way basically instant communications. The world ain’t the same as when I was born, in the first half of the last century. Thankfully! Of course it still has some that think they are the top of the heap, but we won’t discuss what that heap is made of….
Some humans think that all of us have to be fully controlled because otherwise we’d do what it is that they want to do, screw over everyone else, because that is the only way they get to be the top of the pile. (And yes that pile is made of exactly what you think it is and they think it’s not, that brown smelly stuff) Which is the way it’s been for every day of the existence of this country.
Question for the blog. Has anyone NOT GOTTEN their SS payment this month? Mine is due tomorrow and I’m reasonably expecting to see it. However I’m not holding my breath…..
And I have to say that people in my age group – old farts, mostly are getting SS because we paid into it for decades, me for over 6 of them, and if money we all paid in is not being paid back as it is lawfully supposed to be, there may be problems. Many, many problems. And that – may – is doing a hell of a lot of work.
Jay
@Glory b:
“Nature, red in tooth and claw”.
Don’t worry, wolves, bears, cougars, vultures and coyotes will bat clean up.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
I agree, that was the true aim all along, with “free speech” and “anti-censorship” being a smokescreen for gullible idiots to believe.
Why did you add this last bit? My comment was obviously rhetorical
Old School
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Old School:
The rwnj’s in Jeff are looking at every way to get around the voter mandated right to abortion.
(R)s hate democracy even when it’s an occasion where a crapton of their own voting base is telling them what they want…and it’s not this.
22+ years in Misery and not missing it one iota.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Game always recognizes game.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
Meaning what?
Trollhattan
@Old School:
Holy crap there is no ceiling. Or subbasement, not sure which applies here.
Scout211
Postmaster DeJoy is stepping down after five years. I wonder who President Musk will appoint. Sigh.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It’s a phrase that started as a sports thing, where players, instead of trash talking, praised the abilities of their opponents.
TBone
@SpaceUnit: lol! It was so cold & windy that, when a gust of wind blew hubby’s hat right off and blew it all the way across the street, his frozen fingers also dropped the cell phone which now has a new, pretty big crack across the back. It’s now on its last legs, I fear, but I will use it until it dies. His fingers were fumbly the whole time and he kept hitting the selfie button by accident. But he persevered and is now no longer a protest virgin (it was his first time, and he was pretty excited too)! He heated his hands back up and kept at it.
Jay
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jgpg8g146o
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
I’m aware of what it means, I’m just unsure of what it means in relation to me
TBone
@raven: smiling!
SpaceUnit
@TBone:
Sorry about your phone. Collateral damage.
ewrunning
Thanks for posting my photo from Seattle. Sorry that I didn’t capture more of the crowd and the signs. The speakers included a number of federal workers. I was disgusted to see our local paper, the Seattle Times, failed to cover the event in today’s edition. I’ve kept my subscription mainly for state and local coverage, so this makes we question whether it’s even worth it. I’ve stopped supporting both the local NPR affiliates after concluding their political coverage is both useless and enrages me on a daily basis. One station’s latest fundraising bleat boasted about their “nuanced” coverage, so I wrote back that nuanced coverage is the last thing I’m looking for when the country is sliding into authoritarianism. I’m attending a community forum held by our Congressional Rep Pramila Jayapal this evening. Hoping to hear something that gives me some reason for hope
TBone
P.S. our Lewisburg protest made ‘The Daily Item’ newspaper but I don’t subscribe so I can’t see all of their photos. The photo posted with the headline is excellent. We got a nice writeup – hubby found it on Fascistbook. Which I also don’t subscribe to.
We also got honorable mention on the local TV news today.
I could use my library membership online to see the newspaper if I had time, maybe tomorrow.
TBone
@SpaceUnit: worth it! It took a licking and is still ticking! It’s too heavy anyway, I want a lighter one when it finally dies.
At least my Chucks are visible hahahaha
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@TBone:
Nice!
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It means that I know that you knew that “The Cancel Culture Warriors” were full of shit from Day 1 and now that we are in Year Zero,………………………………………..
They have all r-u-n-n-o-f-t-d.
Raven
@Ruckus: I got mine on time last week.
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: I saw that. Pissing away all the accumulated goodwill since World War II. This is awful. We are Russia’s vassal state now.
Trollhattan
@Scout211:
Oh god. Is the FedEx CEO available? It will be somebody horrible.
TBone
@Jay: love this turn of phrase
Eunicecycle
@rusty: my daughter was able to use the HOH status that really helped her when she became a single parent. It’s sickening that a guy who pays no income taxes (well his car company doesn’t) wants to take money from single moms instead of helping them.
Eunicecycle
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): aapparently John Roberts (Fox host not CJ) wondered the same. Idiots. It’s the data breaches most people are worried about although cutting benefits is worrying, too. Remember when people thought the COLA wasn’t enough? Good luck actually cutting benefits!
Marc
At our local protest (Grand Lake area in Oakland) I guess there were between 500 to 1000 people who gathered, marched a few blocks, then came back to the original spot for the speakers. Very nice, typically diverse Oakland crowd, only one puppet, and little ability to keep up with the chants, but everyone was enthusiastic. Walked down with my own family and a friend of the offspring (now 20 something). We ran into many of our neighbors when we got there. We lost track of my wife at some point, in the process of searching, we snagged a group picture with W. Kamau Bell (who spoke later) then a few moments later an interview by KQED radio (I guess we looked interesting). We all had other things to do, so we didn’t stay for the speakers. Previous protests drew 50 to 100 people, so the number increased dramatically.
Eunicecycle
@Ruckus: ours (hubby and me) both came last week.
TONYG
@MomSense: I’m trying to think of a single Republican politician who is not totally corrupt. It’s hard to come up with one. Long ago, when I was a kid in the sixties and a youth in the seventies, there was such a thing as liberal Republicans. They have been extinct for decades though.
oldgold
Today, Trump’s presser was beyond awful. From Aaron Rupar:
FOX: How would you guard against Russia installing a puppet government in Ukraine? TRUMP: You have leadership now that’s allowed a war to go on that should’ve never ever happened, even without the United States.
TRUMP: We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law…the leader in Ukraine, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval.
Marc
@Ruckus: I received mine on time, too. As of now, the only people who appear to be having their payments “paused” are some subset of retired ex-pats.
JML
I worked for the federal government when there was a big push for outsourcing, moving what had been government functions into private companies who would supposedly do it cheaper/faster/better. we saw a very simply pattern. The initial bid was always cheaper, and then costs when up when the contractor couldn’t meet the bid. They were always low-balling their costs in order to get the contract. It was never faster, because part of low-balling costs was not having enough people to do the job. And while a lot of the time it was reasonably described as just as good, it was never “better”.
It’s always a scam that put more money in the hands of the already wealthy.
the invasion of the pink badges into the Pentagon was a bad idea. and it’s never improved
Phylllis
@Ruckus: Mine falls on the 2nd Wednesday & has been showing up routinely on the Monday before, which it did this month.
Old School
@oldgold:
In the White House?
Jay
@oldgold:
Zelenskyy is at a 52% approval rate in Ukraine.
Hair Shitler’s is at 46.6% with ReThug polls flooding the zone
Funny thing is, how is Ukraine going to manage to rewrite their Constitution to allow an election during a war?
Matt McIrvin
@oldgold: It seems like the art of lying is really deteriorating. You’re supposed to say things that are at least vaguely plausible.
Matt McIrvin
@Marc: I heard around a thousand people showed up in Boston on Monday, which is really impressive considering the reason I didn’t go was that my street was a solid block of ice.
Ruckus
@Raven:
@Eunicecycle:
We all get the regular payments on a Wednesday, which one depends on your birthday.
NeenerNeener
Yeah, I miss the Republicans that wore pocket protectors and were science nerds.
Quinerly
@dmsilev:
I have always used MapQuest. Guess I’m old school. Tool I used years ago when I first started planning 4-7 week trips out West.
Stumbled on the Name Your Gulf feature last week. Makes me glad I stuck with MapQuest all these years.
Peale
@oldgold: you know in 6 months this is going to be a presser about Canada.
lowtechcyclist
@dmsilev:
It’s got a “Surprise Me” button that will pop up one of a number of choices for you. My favorite is “Gulf of Gumbo.”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@ewrunning:
Thumbs up emoji.
News should be to inform, not enrage. Totebagger Radio missed that boat a loooooong time ago.
Ruckus
@Phylllis:
Mine is third Wednesday – direct deposit. Mailed goes out earlier so that it’s there by the Wednesday it’s due. Direct deposit is always the same day. We’ll see if it happens. Given the shit that the world’s richest man is flinging it’s difficult to say what is going to happen. He must be one uber sick fuck to be as wealthy as he is and still have to attempt to prove how big a jackass he really is. At least his car company seems to be losing sales, not that it will affect him all that much. Think about how much he’d have to spend every day to be destitute in one year.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@schrodingers_cat:
I experienced this first hand immediately after 9/11. We flew to Italy and the reception we got as Americans was downright incredible.
Flash forward a couple of years after the invasion and clusterfuck that was Dubya’s Great Mesopotamian Adventure and we were coming back thru London. The Brits treated every American with absolute contempt. In a way, we loved it because we understood.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Eunicecycle:
My go to talking point (from Congressman Greg Casar):
Elon Musk gets $8m a day from the US government.
An average senior on Social Security gets $65 a day from the US government.
Guess which budget Edolph and Hair Furor want to cut?
Okay, he said “Musk and Trump” but you get the idea.
Quinerly
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
40 years in St. Louis. I miss the music scene and my old, inner city, walkable neighborhood….the smell of hops in the AM from AB 3 blocks from my old home. As I think back more and more, I miss the music scene and my neighborhood pre Covid Times. It changed and I guess I changed after 2020.
I am so very happy that I bought my dream home in Dec, 2021 and made my move to New Mexico in April, 2022. Doubtful that I will ever make a trip back to Missouri/St. Louis. I keep thinking I might make a trip back to coastal NC where I am originally from. Really no reason, though. Nothing there for me anymore.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Quinerly:
Heh heh, you had me until the “smell of hops from AB”. In the early 70s, we lived downwind from the AB brewery in Williamsburg VA. I lived an entire year smelling nothing but burnt pop corn.
We still have dear friends in STL who live off of Grand and I-44 and next week will be going back to Columbia for the True/False film festival. Thus, since we have contacts, it’s nice to visit…and then leave. ;)
Eunicecycle
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: yes I do. That’s so infuriating.
Eunicecycle
@Ruckus: right, I was just replying to your comment about whether payments had been arriving on time.
Matt McIrvin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I went to college in Williamsburg in the 1980s. I think the worst smells came from the James River paper mill but the brewery contributed too.
Quinerly
From Alt National Park Service
“If you’re wondering who the Elon Musk staffers are, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has several Musk staffers, including Amanda Scales, Brian Bjelde, Stephen Duarte, Christina Hanna, and Bryanne-Michelle Mlodzianowski. At the General Services Administration (GSA), Stephen Ehikian, Thomas Shedd, and Nate Cavanaugh have taken key roles. The Treasury Department now includes Tom Krause and Marko Elez. Other federal advisers include Justin Fulcher and Scott Langmack. The U.S. DOGE Service is led by Steve Davis, Brad Smith, and Katie Miller, while DOGE engineers include Alexandra “Aly” Beynon, Riccardo Biasini, Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier “Cole” Killian, Gavin Kliger, Nikhil Rajpal, Ethan Shaotran, Christopher Stanley, and Jordan Wick. Lawyers James Burnham, Keenan Kmiec, and Noah Peters have been identified, as well as other DOGE-affiliated staff like Anthony Armstrong, Jennifer Balajadia, Stephanie Holmes, and Adam Ramada.”
Quinerly
@Matt McIrvin:
Ah…I remember the smells of the pulp mills….Eastern NC. Weyhaeuser.
Nothing like the smell of hops in the AM.
Quinerly
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Have a great trip!
Ruckus
@Eunicecycle:
Thank You.
I’ll know tomorrow if mine does.