No Kings!
By It was gray and kind of cool at the Eugene, Oregon, No Kings March yesterday. It was a big crowd. 2300 people had registered, and it must have been more than that. I haven’t seen any estimates.
A mix of people – many gray hairs, but a lot of younger people too. There were walkers, wheelchairs, and canes, but also baby carriages. Predominantly white, but others as well. People have complained about the whiteness of the demonstrations, but that’s not all bad. Older white people are standing up for those who can’t attend because ICE might kidnap them. It also looks bad when police assault grandmas.
I’m not good at taking pictures at something like this. I’ve found that I can focus on taking pictures or I can focus on being in the moment, but not both. There were really good inflatables, including those that looked like a space alien kidnaping, for example, ICE thugs. A fair number of pussy hats. Mine is still packed up somewhere. I was not far from the Democratic Socialists, who were starting chants that were taken up in the vicinity.
The only cops I saw were three on bikes, there to guard the marchers. A couple of drones hovered overhead for a while, but not the whole time. Much better than helicopters, whoever was operating them.
The demonstrations generally were peaceful. A few MAGAs decided to try to hassle people – there’s a video of one of them faceplanting twice on asphalt but remaining angry enough to chase people in the demonstration while he bled. A woman MAGA was arrested for threatening with a gun. No MAGA incidents in Eugene, although my companion saw a few MAGA people quietly circulating in the crowd.
Two ICE facilities where the feds have been a problem were less violent than they’ve been.
Donald Trump and his toadies have been eager for violence to justify use of the Insurrection Act. But there seem to have been no paid provocateurs, only random MAGAs. Local cops acted as peace officers, not tools of the regime. All that is very good.
Trump responded later with three AI Truth Social posts claiming it’s good to be king. The one I found most alarming was where he piloted a plane dumping shit on the protesters. None of this seems like a good look for him. A week ago, I would not have predicted that his response to the demonstrations would be “I go poopy on you.”
Friday night, the Cabinet departments set up accounts on Bluesky, and there seems to be an appearance of other rightwing accounts/ bots. The Bluesky response to such things is mass blocking. The effect is that they see little on their timeline. Not much seems to be happening there.
If you’ve got photos you haven’t posted, this is your opportunity to do so!