Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

All hail the time of the bunny!

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / Hands Off! – BJ Peeps Around the Country

Hands Off! – BJ Peeps Around the Country

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Lots of pics from BJ peeps around the country!

mvr - Hands Off! – Lincoln Nebraska Capitol
Nebraska State Capitol, Lincoln NebraskaApril 5, 2025

Hands Off Protest Rally – from mvr.  They blurred the lower part of the photo so as not to have readily identifiable people in the image.

munira - Hands Off - Mt. Vernon, WA
Mt. VernonApril 5, 2025
Here’s a protest photo from Mt. Vernon. There were quite a few streets filled with people and also a crowd at the courthouse – and more were joining later from other towns – that’s the biggest turnout I’ve ever seen in Mt. Vernon. I’ve been protesting there and in Belingham, which had a really big crowd as well. Pretty exciting.
Munira
Hands Off! – BJ Peeps Around the Country
DenverApril 5, 2025

From thruppence!

Hands Off! – BJ Peeps Around the Country 2
New HampshireApril 5, 2025

Did you say you were looking for signs we carried?  Here is the one I made for the protest here in New Hampshire.   It’s not particularly creative, but it does express my disgust with the greed of the wealthy.

(And it did make a compilation of pictures of signs by a local news site here in NH)

I am grateful for the community and the conversation at Balloon Juice.

Warm regards, Rusty

Reader Interactions

55Comments

  2. 2.

    lowtechcyclist

    Here’s a protest photo from Mt. Vernon.

    George Washington’s home was a lot more pastoral-looking the last time I visited!

  4. 4.

    Black_Onion

    Is it just me, or does the preview of this post on the front page not have the -show full post on front page- at the bottom? I thought it weird that it was only one photo and at first glance, did not appear to have more to the post.

    Not trying to stir up trouble, you all do so much excellent work. I just wanted to verify if I am losing my mind.

     

    Thank you.

  5. 5.

    mvr

    FWIW, I hear the Lincoln police estimate was 3K people. My own was over 1K and possibly 2K. But because people were on two sides of the street on two long blocks and more bunched in the middle (and because I have no crowd size expertise) I would defer.  It did cheer me up.

    Omaha, 50 miles away, also is reported to have had 3,000 people and there was a protest in Hastings about 100 miles west as well.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    @Black_Onion: You’re not crazy!

    This post was made using the OTR form, and the OTR form only shows the first photo, and it doesn’t have the “Show full post” link.

    With all the protest photos coming it, if there are several photos, it’s easier if they come in through the form.  In this post, I added several that had come in at a time via email from several people.

    Good noticing on your part!

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    I forgot to add Open Thread up top, but I added it just now.

    We have 3 more protest posts that I’ll put up tomorrow, and they’ll be open threads, too.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    Just a minute ago, I finished Season 1 of Reacher.  I fast forwarded thru most of the fight scenes (10 second buttons come in handy for that!) because they don’t interest me.  But I have to say that I watched every second of the final fight scene.  Those people were almost as evil as the villains who are destroying our country.

    And now I’m feeling sad because I got attached to a couple of the main characters and of course Reacher is moving on (no spoiler there because that’s clearly who he is).

    Several times this week I have thought that we could use Reacher right about now, in real life.  Probably not a good sign, just telling it like it is.

    I’m sure Reacher will make new friends as he moves on down the road, but I really liked the old ones.  I guess I’m more of a campfire person than a wanderer.

    edited

  11. 11.

    frosty

    @WaterGirl: ​I’m where you are – just finished Season 1 of Reacher and will be starting Season 2 soon. Right now I’m rereading the book it’s based on.

  12. 12.

    oldster

    Thank you all very much for adding to these protests. This is a good time to hit the Regime as hard as we can, while they are also losing support from their own oligarchs.
    This fight ain’t over. Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when Putin bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    @frosty: He’s like a gentle giant, but violent.  Yet it’s believable, and it works. I can’t imagine any other actor playing that role.

    And young Reacher was absolutely the perfect choice to play the role of young Reacher.  Years apart, but they had absolutely the same feel.

    I really did not expect to like this show this much.

  14. 14.

    dmsilev

    If you want a short and easy explainer to send to confused people for just how absofuckinglutely stupid Trump’s view of tariffs and trade is, I recommend today’s XKCD.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    My new laptop was supposed to arrive this morning, but it took 5 days for it to clear customs in Louisville, KY.  Which it finally did today.  Now they’re not even giving me a new date.

    It’s a sign of maturity, or at least self-control, that I did not click on the happy little “Ask UPS” button and write “Where the fuck is my laptop?”

  17. 17.

    Mike S

    There is a great shot of Neil Young holding a “Hands Off Canada” sign at a protest in Thousand Oaks, Ca.

  23. 23.

    Rusty

    @WaterGirl: Neil Young and Pearl Jam playing Rockin’ In the Free World in Toronto is absolutely fantastic.  I can’t figure out how to link but it’s on YouTube

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    Never mind. I forgot that the site won’t let me edit when I have something embedded.

    see next comment.

  31. 31.

    Lyrebird

    @lowtechcyclist: Since they mentioned Bellingham, I would guess it’s Mt. Vernon WA.

    @WaterGirl: Thanks so much for posting all of these, including the ones you have set for tomorrow.  Really encouraging!

    @Matt McIrvin: What an awesome article!  With additional great signs.  I wince but also really like the “remember polio? I don’t!” one.

  37. 37.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @WaterGirl:

    Me too! WFMJ is locally owned and an NBC affiliate. I find their coverage pretty good for local news. What a difference not being owned by Sinclair makes

  40. 40.

    cain

    @WaterGirl: I’ve been reading the first book in the Reacher series. It’s a fun read. I really like his style.

    It’s interesting to read the book after watching the season that covered it.

  42. 42.

    Steve Crickmore

    @WaterGirl: Hi, I wish Trump would play ‘Ohio’ at his rallies, instead of the Neil Young hit he normally plays, ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’, but I think that is pretty unlikely.

  43. 43.

    cain

    The protest in my home town ran into some trouble with some maga dude showing up to cause trouble. He got into an altercation and then went back to get his rifle. He got arrested but they let him go.

    I didn’t see anything for my adopted town Portland,OR.

  44. 44.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    I supported our office in Lincoln for a loooong time.  I know that specific area really well as our office is all of about 4 blocks from there.

    Nice to see people showed up.

  50. 50.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @cain:

    That guy and his fiancée absolutely went there to cause trouble, he FAFO by getting headbutted, and then grabbed a gun from his truck to try to kill Marks, the guy who allegedly headbutted him. Nobody made them go there and he didn’t have to openly brandish a gun. It’s bullshit that the LPD just let him go and declared it “self-defense”

    ETA: The MAGt, Jordan, looked like a slob too. No sense of fashion or style imo. They all wear the same dumb looking shit too. It’s like a uniform

  52. 52.

    Jackie

    O/T: WSJ editors rip Trump for fighting to keep ‘man falsely expelled’ in a hellhole:

    The Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board laid into the Trump administration again Monday night as it activity fights against efforts to return a wrongfully detained man from a notoriously brutal Salvadoran prison to the United States.

    Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland was mistakenly sent to a mega-prison last month, and the Trump administration acknowledged his deportation was due to an “administrative error.”

    Garcia was deported on March 15, even though an immigration judge in 2019 barred his removal due to risks of persecution and torture by gangs. But the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 to mass deport alleged gang members, including Garcia, even though no evidence has emerged tying him to criminal activities.

    The administration has said Garcia is no longer under the United States’ jurisdiction since he is detained by Salvadoran authorities.

    And the Journal editors weren’t having it, writing that the Trump Administration is fighting to “keep a man falsely expelled in a Salvadoran hellhole.”

    “The Trump Administration’s never-back-down style is becoming a governance problem with overtones of cruelty,” the editorial said.

    The administration said in its filing that the Constitution “charges the President, not federal district courts, with the conduct of foreign diplomacy and protecting the Nation against foreign terrorists.” Solicitor General John Sauer, meanwhile, said the judge’s ruling dictated to the U.S. “that it must not only negotiate with a foreign country to return an enemy alien on foreign soil, but also succeed by 11:59 p.m. tonight. “That could, said Sauer, set a terrible precedent of “district court diplomacy.”

    “Not quite,” the Journal retorted, pointing to another judge’s rationale for denying the Trump administration’s demand for a pause, which noted the facts of the case “present the potential for a disturbing loophole: namely that the government could whisk individuals to foreign prisons in violation of court orders and then contend, invoking its Article II powers, that it is no longer their custodian, and there is nothing that can be done.”

    That, the judge said, is a path to “perfect lawlessness.”

    “The Trump Administration hates to admit an error, but its obstinance here serves no purpose. Mistakes happen. Why not ask the Salvadoran government to send Mr. Abrego Garcia back to unite with his family?” the Journal concluded.

     

  53. 53.

    Nancy

    Good Morning all.

    I volunteered as a Peacekeeper for Hands Off in Niagara Square in Buffalo, NY. No photos bcause I followed advice–“no faces” for security.

    The local police estimated crowd size at seven to 10 thousand. Large part of my job was to ask people to stay out of the street. Hands Off people were pleasant with great signs. A few maga trucks drove around honking and waving their trump flags. One young man in the crowd may have been trying to meet women by arguing with maga slogans, and sorta Socratic questioning.  This did not appear to be an effective strategy. Our Peacekeeper trained response was to surround at a respectful distance and try to engage. He didn’t seem to want to spar with gray heads wearing yellow vests. Hard to imagine, isn’t it?

    Overall, lots of enthusiasm.

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