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.
Paul Wtenberg:
Spent an hour at the Lakeland rally this past Saturday – I had to go check on my mom later that day – and here are a few photos from the rally.
I haven’t kept up with the news today and yesterday because I’ve been busy catching up on work for a client. Help me out and let me know what’s been happening? Good and bad, please. :-) ~WG
Open thread!
At the center of Munn Park in downtown Lakeland
I ran into some of the people from my Unitarian Church. They came as a group, and our service leader was one of the event speakers.
I didn’t have any signs to make, so I did what I could flashing the peace sign.
One of the funnier signs I saw at the rally.
I STAND WITH THE PINGUS.
Baud
Looks like y’all had good weather.
WaterGirl
Paul W, are you by any chance in the Bob Dylan anniversary video (holding a sign) at approximately the 17-second mark?
Lyrebird
Paul, with that awesome Walz t-shirt, I would say you also brought a very cool sign!
Thank you for sending in photos, and thanks WG for posting!
WaterGirl
I really like the attitude of the “where are the tariffs on Russia, bitch?” sign.
Okay, the bitch is not on the sign, but it’s understood.
Also, to repeat what I wrote up top:
I haven’t kept up with the news today and yesterday because I’ve been busy catching up on work for a client. Help me out and let me know what’s been happening? Good and bad, please. :-)
tam1MI
I have family that lives in Lakeland and go there every Christmas to visit them. Good to see it represent! 😊
WaterGirl
I’m heartened every time I see signs in blue and yellow. Good people at these rallies and they care about Ukraine, as anyone with a heart and soul should.
The Audacity of Krope
I don’t know what everyone is complaining about. Trump’s rationales and arguments are genius.
If you’re in court for robbing a bank and don’t argue “the teller never would have negotiated with me without that gun in his face,” you’re only letting yourself down.
Paul W.
My nemesis is back! “Paul W” without the period!
Great pics, I would share my own from Media PA but lazy right now, glad to see so many attendees!
Steve in the ATL
@Paul W.: when are you two meeting in the jackal octagon?
WaterGirl
@Paul W.: So these are not all the same people?
Paul Wartenberg
Paul W
Paul W.
PaulW
I am so confused, now I need a scorecard.
PaulWartenberg
@Steve in the ATL:
Two Paul Ws enter
One Paul W leaves
PaulWartenberg
@WaterGirl: There’s a Paul W posting so I post as PaulWartenberg.
Either that or I have a split personality who’s writing horror novels under the nom de plume of Richard Bachman.
Jay
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/04/07/introduction-to-series-on-curtis-yarvin/
Chetan Murthy
@Jay: Relevant to this comment, I feel I must say:
I’m a computer scientist, and while I spent most of my career cleaning up dumpster fires in enterprise deployments, that didn’t stop me from doing at least a bit of research. And I’m certainly qualified to judge Yarvin’s CS ideas.
And they’re absolute -shite-. This Urbit stuff is a gynormous pile of shit. And so, to whatever extent that people take him seriously b/c he’s a “tech entrepreneur”, they should not be. I say this as a serious computer scientist and systems jock.
Steve LaBonne
Estimate in the local rag is that there were 500 of us in Medina, OH (fairly conservative, population 26,000) last Saturday. That’s about as good as you’ll ever get here.
Trollhattan
@PaulWartenberg:
The smart move is to write as George Santos.
“We are legion.”
Steve LaBonne
@Chetan Murthy: Funny how white supremacists are always piss-poor examples of the supposed superiority of the “white race”. Trump being the most ridiculous example.
Jay
DJTdiot’s Admin is planning a $3m “docking fee” on any Chinese owned shipping or Chinese built ships.
That should be fun.
WaterGirl
@PaulWartenberg: Okay, thanks for that.
Two questions, one serious, one just fun.
Are you the Paul who just lost a parent?
Did you see my question about whether that’s you at around the 17-second mark in the video that’s in comment 2?
WaterGirl
@Steve LaBonne: Sounds like turnout was surprisingly good in lots of places. That’s good news for us.
Steve LaBonne
@Jay: Party like it’s 1929!
Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
Yes his ideas are full of shit, but roughly half of DJTdiot’s Cabinet, Billionaires Boy Club backers and “Special Advisors” want to make his ideas happen.
Steve in the ATL
@PaulWartenberg: let’s be honest—they’re aren’t any non-insane people who post here!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
@Steve LaBonne:
I read somewhere that what the PRC would do is send the ships to a third country and then have that third nation’s ships deliver to the US to get around that
Steve LaBonne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): They will get around the tariffs the same way. And where are the legions of customs inspectors who would be needed to keep up?
Glidwrith
@WaterGirl: Supreme Court (5-4) says shitforbrains can use the Alien Enemies Act and deport people but someone detained must be given notification and ability to petition for habeus corpus. Judge Jackson was not amused and invoked Korematsu (Japanese-American internment camps) as the example of how little power an individual has against the US government.
Basically, our civil rights, citizen or migrant, just shrunk to a thin whisper, if shitforbrains doesn’t like you.
tobie
@Chetan Murthy: Thank you for leafing through his writings, at least those that pertain to CS, and reviewing them, so we don’t have to. I don’t have the heart to read through his musing on political philosophy, which is the one area where I have some expertise. I feel bad about this. Yarvin deserves serious and snarky take downs on Medium and other platforms. It’s a public service. You’ve done your part.
Chetan Murthy
@Jay: Indeed, his ideas about society are full of shit also. I was only writing about his CS ideas, b/c to some extent (for reasons we should all look at with horror) sometimes people think that experts in field A should have expertise in field B. Or (haha) about society. But in fact, he is not an expert in CS at all: more like a blithering idiot.
Steve LaBonne
@Glidwrith: Did anyone expect this Supreme Court to save us?
Jay
@Steve LaBonne:
DJTdiot’s blanket rejection of the EU counterproposal,(matching 1% tariff’s) and Vietnam’s counterproposal, (matching 0% tariff’s) show,
None of this is about trade, tariff’s, tax’s, any kind of economic plan, any kind of get rich quick scheme, any kind of onshoring plan,
It’s just DJTdiot’s need to have the world cower down and praise and pet the feral rabid squirrels running loose in his brain.
Glidwrith
@Steve LaBonne: Pathetic loser white people got nothing but their skin color to pretend they’re superior, hence the claim of supremacy.
tobie
@Glidwrith: Wasn’t this Walker’s opinion too? Let all apprehended persons fight extradition in Texas in a Trump appointee’s courtroom, where they will lose. If they appeal to the 5th Circuit, they’ll also lose.
I thought the plaintiffs already answered this hare-brained scheme. It doesn’t work for a class action, where not everyone is from or initially detained in Texas.
I hate John Roberts. I really do.
Glidwrith
@Steve LaBonne: Nope, nada, zilch. Just the possibility that by handing shitforbrains so much power, they’ll figure out he doesn’t need them anymore.
Steve LaBonne
@Jay: He’s stuck in the late 70s when there was a big wave of fear-mongering about the trade deficit with Japan. That seems to be about the time when he permanently lost any residual capacity to learn anything new at all.
Melancholy Jaques
Apparently that asshole thinks Apple can build iPhones in the USA.
HinTN
@WaterGirl: Did you receive the Proof of Life email from the meet-up?
Chetan Murthy
@tobie: To be clear, I did more than just leaf thru his writings *grin*. I have a friend, who ….. actually set up an Urbit instance, and was somewhat extolling it. This was at a time when I didn’t know that Yarvin had political/social ideas, and only knew about his tech ideas. So I went and dug into it, b/c I wanted to see if I should take it seriously technically. Needless to say, I concluded it was garbage. Technical garbage. *grin* But I assessed it for myself from the POV of -participation-, not merely to see what I thought about it.
HinTN
@WaterGirl: I wasn’t there but Nashville turned out, as did a reasonable contingent in our county seat in middle TN.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Chinese owned shipping amount’s to 12.2% of all global shipping.
50% of all ships are Chinese made.
So that “work around” is not going to work.
What will work is basically reversing how Canada and Mexico get most of their Chinese products. Most of our trade with China, heads to US Ports via truck and rail, to be loaded onto China bound shipping, because we don’t do enough trade to fill an entire container ship each and every day.
So China will ship a lot of US bound cargo’s to Canadian and Mexican ports, for transhipment via rail and truck.
Canadian and Mexican Ports however, can’t handle the normal volume of US trade, so, volumes to the US will go down, costs will skyrocket, lead times will skyrocket.
Glidwrith
Perhaps the hive mind can help: El Salvador hellhole has been paid/is being paid $6 million to take 300 migrants for the year. The math doesn’t add up for where thousands of migrant/detainees are to be housed.
We’ve got the for-profit prisons shuffling people around, but gods, how do we know they aren’t throwing people out of planes?
ArchTeryx
@Glidwrith: We don’t. And we may never know.
Steve LaBonne
@Melancholy Jaques: Things that can’t be sustained won’t be, so at some point the collapsing economy will create enough pressure to force Congressional Republicans to put an end to this shitshow. But not before a deep and long recession is underway.
HinTN
@Jay:
Just in time for Christmas.
Jay
@Glidwrith:
DHS is asking for $45 billion, this year, to fund Concentration camps and fund the building of new For Profit Prisons.
ICE has claimed to have kidnapped 32,000+ by the middle of March and deported 5,500.
The El Salvador Slave Labour Camp, is only supposed to be only for Venezuelan and Salvadoran male “gang members”.
Because most of the “dearly deported” are not criminals, most countries will take them back, (eg. Brazil).
Gitmo was supposed to be expanded by March to handle 3,000 detainees, then further expanded to 30,000, but as of last week it was falling apart with only 300 detainees there.
So, it’s basically the usual Trumpian shit show with yuuuge claims and announcements and little accomplished.
WaterGirl
@Glidwrith: For real? Well, fuck. Maybe FFOTUS will decide to deport one of them and see how they feel about their ruling then.
What was Judge Jackson’s response?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
WaterGirl
@HinTN: I did, thanks for the reminder. With the flurry of protest photos and reports, I haven’t gotten to that yet!
Melancholy Jaques
@Steve LaBonne:
So the good news is that we finally have the answer to how do we stop Trump from destroying American democracy. The bad news is that it’s a deep and long recession.
I’m still of a mind that no matter what he does, a majority of white people will support him because they hate the rest of us.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
As a US Citizen, you can request asylum in Canada. You will have a hard time winning a case, (for now).
What you can’t do, is cross the Darien Gap on foot into Mexico, cross Mexico on foot or jumping the rails, cross into the US, cross the US to the Canadian Border and ask for asylum.
It is because of the International First Safe Place agreements. As a refugee, political or otherwise, the first “safe” place you come to, is where you are supposed to stay, apply to a host country for refugee status and wait until your claim is heard and decided.
Mexico is considered a “safe place”, because Mexico will provide you with food, water, shelter and as best as they can, protection. Ditto in in the US, but you must go direct to the US with out passing through any “safe” countries.
This only applies to Political refugees, War refugees and Protected Persons refugees, not economic refugees.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Steve LaBonne:
Y’know something I don’t get? Why all of these countries are groveling to Trump to try to “negotiate” on tariffs. Like Italy’s PM. Didn’t they see how Canada and Mexico were treated by Trump? Hell, Bibi went home yesterday empy handed. I think it just plays into his hands and it rewards bad behavior that should be punished
@Jay:
Lovely.
Jay
@WaterGirl:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/04/08/supreme-court-starts-cleaning-up-kristi-noems-sloppy-messes/
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Steve LaBonne: No
especially since a majority of this Illustrious Court is waiting with baited breath for their “tips” to become tax free. This Court does not believe in honest services or human rights, unfortunately for all of us humans running around out here.
RevRick
After an initial rise of 1200 points on the Dow Jones on reports that there may be negotiations on tariffs, the day ended with a loss of over 300, as reality sank in when Trump refused counteroffers from the EU and Vietnam.
Eolirin
Tired.
Things progressing though.
But it’s a weird kind of dissociation to be trying to work toward any kind of future as the fundamental underpinnings of society are coming apart. It’s very hard to square being aware of a slow rolling crisis that is likely to consume everything you’re working towards with needing to live day to day.
Jay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
While DJTdiot and his fellow Minions claim that over 50 countries are “desperate” to negotiate on the tariff’s, what have we seen so far.
Starmer reoffered the long dead US/UK FTA, period.
The EU, offered a 1% Tariff for a countervailing 1% Tariff through the media.
Vietnam offered a 0% Tariff for a 0% Tariff through the media.
Bibi offered nothing, got nothing, but a lecture about screwing up DJTdiot’s Middle East Plans. They appear not to have discussed tariff’s at all or to any substance
Meloni is apparently going to try to talk some sense into DJTdiot, later this week, possibly because she is DJTdiot’s “type” if she was 10 years younger.
In diplomacy, you jaw, jaw, jaw, and this will continue until other countries realize that this has nothing to do with economics, trade, tariff’s, onshoring, etc. It’s all an ego driven dominance display cooked up by the meth addled, feral, rabid squirrels that pass for DJTdiot’s brain cells.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Glidwrith: This regime is no longer using military planes to conduct these deportation flights which are clearly nonconsensual BDSM staged for their loyal viewers.
Instead, the job of freighting frightened human beings (treated worse than cattle) has been outsourced to Global Crossing Airlines, AKA GlobalX.
Here is a firsthand account of one flight from a flight attendant.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-ice-air-deportation-flights
So, these folks are arriving at their destinations, although they certainly can ( and likely have) died en route. There are witnesses at least.
The Republican Party has entirely forfeited the right to claim it is pro-life. This party is a sadistic death cult.
RevRick
@Glidwrith: Historically, the most adamantly white supremacist people were the wealthiest. Slave owners did not have a benevolent view on matters of race.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Jay: the why there will not be a fulsome record here is important.
The Supreme Court just shredded long standing law to allow a temporary restraining order (TRO) to be appealed. A TRO is temporary by definition. It is not a final judgment. A TRO does not contain anything like a full record of the underlying facts.
Moreover, the Supreme Trump Supplicants overturned this TRO because the government needed to change the venue. So, understand this
The Supreme Court just declared that this regime suffers more injury when it is denied venue change for forum shopping than a human being suffers when deported to a torture prison presumably for life.
All of these imprisoned human beings who live and breathe are now subject to the whims and cruel vagaries of the Fifth Circuit.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@RevRick: the stock market dumps and pumps are playing out just like a classic pump and dump.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I saw an estimate of 1200 for the small town of Media here in Delaware County outside of Philly, and I know there were other local rallies in other nearby towns. Haven’t heard any numbers for the main Philly rally.
RevRick
@HopefullyNotcassandra: Except here the dupes are deluded billionaires and hedge fund managers.
Meanwhile, the broad-based Russell 2000 index is off over 29% from its 52 week high.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jay:
@Jay:
Thanks for the explanations
rikyrah
Longtime Black Man Here (@groove_sdc) posted at 7:06 PM on Sun, Apr 06, 2025:
Democrats are only as “radical” as white voters allow them to be
If they wanted socialism, New Green Deal and Medicare For All (which I wouldn’t mind) they would do that
Time and time again they vote for the opposite of that
Particularly if they think Black folks might get it
(https://x.com/groove_sdc/status/1909034983227793463?t=K6bV5jaeIXPBEHy9ECNZwQ&s=03)
HopefullyNotcassandra
@RevRick: Yes and anybody with money in the market.
Steve in the ATL
@Jay: now we regret those giant pay raises to US longshoreman!
RevRick
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: While the major city rallies are impressive, the ones in small towns are far more important, because they help combat feelings of powerlessness. They offer hope to people who may feel isolated and overwhelmed.
Harrison Wesley
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I can see 1200 in Media since it’s the county seat.
RevRick
@rikyrah: I wonder who the they is to whom he is referring. Democrats.? Or white people?
Glidwrith
@HopefullyNotcassandra: Thank you. At least a civilian flight does have witnesses and therefore less likely to be a murder drop.
Jay
@Steve in the ATL:
Why? Those pay raises will allow them to be sitting on the dock of the bay with comfort.
Jay
@Glidwrith:
So, the dearly deported have to be on a manifest, and that manifest has to be pre-issued to the returnee’s country for preclearance, (other than El Salvador).
A 237 person deportation flight that arrives with only 230, is going to cause a shitstorm, just as with Brazil raising a shitstorm over how their returnee’s were treated, and the US stopped chaining them up and abusing them.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@RevRick: Apparently the unnamed sources in the White House are blaming Peter Navarro for the mess while they proclaiming Trump as spine of steel in public. Going by the past with these fools sounds like a walk back in inbound.
Jay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Hard to say, Edolf and Navarro are having a flame war on the Dead Bird site today. As in the Dolt45 maladministration, the calls are coming from inside the House.