Women's March on Washington 1/21/17 c u there

[2012 Countdown]

[guruilla]

Damn! If he had lived just a little longer he would have seen his wish come true.

But I guess he'll be watching from the spirit world.

Crossposting:

Ann Diamond on FB:

I heard a eulogy yesterday on AM radio yesterday. Leonard's family stated that Leonard kept himself alive because he had to be sure Trump won the election before he could go.

https://www.facebook.com/splinterboy/po ... 22R2%22%7D

[Burnt Hill]

Lack of Doom.
Yes I have created my own safe space and I don't act out of fear.
But one has to be willing to step out of their safe space if one wants change
Actually doing something like marching and protesting is what a human being has to do.
They have to do it even if it kills them.
I love your posts, and often agree with them.
You are operating out of your safe space.

[brekin]

Lack of Doom.
Yes I have created my own safe space and I don't act out of fear.
But one has to be willing to step out of their safe space if one wants change
Actually doing something like marching and protesting is what a human being has to do.
They have to do it even if it kills them.
I love your posts, and often agree with them.
You are operating out of your safe space.

Agreed.
I think my safe space may just be a little more along the lines of Piranesi's imaginary prisons than Escher's imaginary worlds.
I fear Trump because I know I've seen that guy somewhere before.

[Luther Blissett]

Thumbs up. Should we have a little rigorous intuition meetup like Bruce and I had at Occupy?

[Heaven Swan]

While I have been very active in protest of local issues - fracking, LP gas storage, clean lake water -
I have not participated in a National protest since Earth Day 1990 (1991,1992?).
I am compelled to participate in this one. I owe it to myself, I owe it to the women in my life.
I couldn't possibly do it on my own, but I am lucky to be in the middle of a group of socially strong,
active women.
I also live very near Seneca Falls - so I imagine there will be a large contingent from my area going.
And considering who we just elected, what better issue to start with?
But the point I want to make is, hmmm, lets see...
It took the election of a potential tyrant to help me feel empowered.
Like now I can make a difference on a larger scale, like my voice will be heard.
I hope this empowerment is contagious, as I lazily expressed in the current protest thread,
and that it ultimately solidifies into actual change.
It took a fascist to give me hope.

I hear you BH. I haven't felt so energized and yes, happy, in ages. Overnight everyone around me, not just my activist friends but my workaholic, focused on themselves, no time for anything but work and leisure activities are suddenly "We have to mobilize. We're in a new era..." etc.
I love it!

I find your lack of doom troubling.

The Nazi's have rolled into Paris and everyone in "the resistance" is suddenly so merry and gay that their lives will have meaning and now they can mobilize!
Too little, too late.
"The Resistance" either didn't do enough to stop the fuehrer or actively or passively elected the fool.
The only thing progressives will learn under Trump now is how to suffer.
Only martyrs are happy right now.

Democracies can only protect themselves from tyrants by not electing them as their leaders.
The populace has made Trump our dungeon master and he is going to step us all through his game under our rules.
The nazi's passed evil and inhumane "laws".
When you protest or resist laws, you are a criminal.
The US has the largest prison system in the world.
Do you think it is going to get smaller or bigger in the next four years?

Welcome to the machine.
But see you at the rally!
Send me a selfie!

Lack of doom?

You think a one paragraph post can express what I've been through around this election?

I must have had a premonition because my crying jags started before the election and I don't think they're over since I can still feel the tears welling up from underneath. The beautiful thing though is that I haven't cried like this since I was a teenager. I was blocked and shut down. The crying seems to be integrating me. Like I'm waking up from a individualistic, neo-liberal nightmare into a new era that harkens back to the '60's and '70s. A time of real change where people come together in love and caring for each other, not the fake, con job 'change' proposed by Obama and Trump to trick the people and lead and lull them into either a consumerized sleep or a fascist nightmare.

I didn't want this to happen and I did everything I could to prevent it. I'm realistic and know how much suffering and death can come from this. But the movement of history is bigger than me, or you.

For me accepting reality is facing what has happened and hitting the ground running. We all have to grieve, I don't want to take that from you, but my grieving is coming in supercharged bursts and I'm coming out in a place where I'm ready to be part of the solution.

Every new day brings astonishing surprises. From the energy and size of the protests here in New York to the reaction of the people in my life. It's as though the election outcome flipped a switch into a new world.

Yesterday I was on a terrace of a cafe in a public park where I've been many times before. The tables are close enough that you can't help overhearing the people at nearby tables. All I'd ever heard there were the usual conversations about work, kids, everpresent housing issues and everyday stuff.

What a surprise when a group of about 15 -18 people came in and put together two tables. They looked mostly in their '50's with a sprinkling of younger and older people. They hadn't bought food. A blonde woman began addressing the group about civil disobedience. This was a meeting! Wow.

I've lived in other countries where political activity is taken much more seriously and frankly I didn't know New Yorkers had it in them. It seemed that most NYers could only be militant about their careers....but I guess I was wrong.

[Heaven Swan]

Thumbs up. Should we have a little rigorous intuition meetup like Bruce and I had at Occupy?

Pls check your PM.

[seemslikeadream]

Published on
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
byCommon Dreams

To Counter Trump, Women Are Mobilizing for Massive March on Washington
'We call on all defenders of human rights to join us'
byNika Knight, staff writer

"We are confronted with the question of how to move forward in the face of national and international concern and fear," write the march organizers. (Photo: Women's March on Washington/Facebook)
In response to the imminent Donald Trump presidency, women's rights advocates nationwide are mobilizing.

"We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us."
—Women's March on Washington organizersMen and women from around the country will descend on Washington, D.C., on January 21, 2017 for a "Women's March on Washington" that organizers hope will see millions in the street, a day after President-elect Trump's inauguration.

The demonstrators repudiate the sexist, racist, and Islamophobic remarks that were a touchstone of Trump's presidential campaign.

Various Facebook pages about the march—organizers in each state are creating their own delegation—have all gone viral, a testament to the powerful opposition to a Trump presidency and what that will mean for women, among other marginalized groups. So far, over 83,000 people have signed up to take part.

"We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families—recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country," the organizers write.

They continue:

The rhetoric of the past election cycle has insulted, demonized, and threatened many of us—women, immigrants of all statuses, those with diverse religious faiths particularly Muslim, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Native and Indigenous people, Black and Brown people, people with disabilities, the economically impoverished and survivors of sexual assault. We are confronted with the question of how to move forward in the face of national and international concern and fear.

In the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore. The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office, and to the world that women's rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.

"The Jan. 21 protest takes its name from the 1963 March on Washington, a historic civil rights rally on the [National] Mall where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech," reports the Washington Post. "The rally will also pay tribute to the 1997 Million Woman March in Philadelphia, in which hundreds of thousands of African American women are reported to have participated."
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/1 ... washington

[seemslikeadream]

THE GATHERING STORM OF PROTEST AGAINST TRUMP
By Evan Osnos , NOVEMBER 17, 2016

Protesters plan to descend on Washington, D.C., for Donald Trump’s Inauguration, and may number in the hundreds of thousands.

PHOTOGRAPH BY JAY L. CLENDENIN / LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA GETTY
The stagecraft of Donald Trump’s Inauguration, on the west front terrace of the Capitol, on January 20th, will reflect a nation divided not only between parties but also within them. The oath of office is to be administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, a fellow-Republican whom Trump has described as a “disaster” and a “nightmare” because of the Supreme Court’s rulings to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

The ceremony is usually attended by former Presidents. The only two living Republican Presidents, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, whom Trump has called “probably the worst President in the history of the United States,” did not attend his nominating Convention. It’s not yet clear if anyone from the Bush family will attend Trump’s swearing-in.

Trump can count on the support of friends and donors. His inaugural committee includes the billionaire casino moguls Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson. A fuller list, published in USA Today, includes “gambling titan Phil Ruffin, Wisconsin roofing magnate Diane Hendricks, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, Florida real-estate developer Mel Sembler and Gail Icahn, wife of billionaire investor Carl Icahn.” In a call with reporters on Thursday, a Trump campaign spokesman described recent visitors and potential Cabinet appointees as “top-shelf” people.

Those details may get lost in a more public feature of the event. Anna Galland, the executive director of MoveOn.org, told me this week, “I expect mass peaceful protests with hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, around the Inauguration and in other moments.” She said, “I cut my teeth as an organizer in the movement opposing the Iraq war. I feel that that was a smaller trial run for what we’re going to be seeing right now.”

Already, protests from Portland, Oregon, to Washington, D.C., have gathered more momentum than progressive organizations had expected. “MoveOn and our allies are sprinting to catch up to the mass movement that’s emerging,” Galland said. “We did three hundred and fifty peaceful gatherings less than twenty-four hours after the election results were announced. Then over the weekend you saw tens of thousands of people marching in the streets.”

Marisa Franco, who helped organize demonstrations against Trump’s campaign, expects that much of the participation in protests around January 20th will be motivated by questions of immigration and deportation. “Inauguration Day marks the beginning of the nightmare for millions of people across the country,” she said. “For many of us, we simply cannot afford to hold onto a hollow hope that Trump will change course on the disasters he pledged in his campaign. We understand that we have to use everything in our power to resist and force a detour from taking us all backwards.”

Jim Bendat, author of “Democracy’s Big Day,” a history of Inaugurations, told me, “In other elections, the protesters would largely wait until Inauguration Day. To me, this is unprecedented in terms of what’s happening already.” The closest precedents, he said, were protests against Richard Nixon and George W. Bush. “At Nixon’s Inauguration, in 1973, there were protests not only in Washington, not only along the parade route and at the Lincoln Memorial and around the Washington Monument but also in Paris and in Los Angeles, there were big protests.” In 2001, protesters expressed their frustration at the Supreme Court’s decision to award the Presidency to Bush. “I was in Washington for that Inauguration,” Bendat said. “I was at Freedom Plaza that day. There were signs that said ‘Hail to the thief’ and ‘Selected, not elected,’ ‘Gore by 500,000, Bush by 1.’ ”

Estimates of the size of protests against Nixon’s reëlection are about sixty thousand; for Bush, organizers estimated their numbers at twenty thousand. On Facebook, more than eighty thousand people have listed themselves as “attending” an initiative called the Women’s March on Washington, on January 21st. Al Sharpton has announced plans to lead a protest on the grounds of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial on January 14th, six days before the Inauguration.

The shape and scale of the protests may depend on how President-elect Trump reacts to the prospect. In his first tweet after the election, last Thursday, he condemned the people who had rallied against him, claiming that “professional protesters” were “incited by the media.” (The Washington Post examined Internet rumors about paid protesters and found “no credible evidence.”) The next morning, Trump adopted a more Presidential tone: “Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country. We will all come together and be proud!”

Despite those words of welcome, Galland and other progressive activists are concerned that, during a Trump Presidency, they could be subject to surveillance or state scrutiny. “There are discussions happening among grass-roots organizers about the channels by which we communicate. Do we use e-mail? Do we use Slack?” she said. “The National Security Agency and the whole security apparatus of the United States is soon to be under the direction of Donald Trump. People who have been organizing peaceful resistance to right-wing policies in this country are not going to stop, but we’re also not going to be complacent about protecting ourselves.”

If anti-Trump protests continue to gain steam, it’s likely that pro-Trump groups will begin to demonstrate as well, raising the prospect of duelling public actions. Trump’s surrogates have likened his elevation not to that of Bush or Nixon but to that of another precedent: “This is like Andrew Jackson’s victory,” Rudy Giuliani said on MSNBC after Election Day. “This is the people beating the establishment. And that’s how he [Donald Trump] posited right from the beginning, the people are rising up against a government they find to be dysfunctional.”

In some ways, Trump may welcome the comparison to America’s seventh President, elected in 1828. Like Trump, Jackson was a man of great wealth who cast himself as the voice of “the little man” against “the aristocracy of the few.” He was denounced as a thief, a liar, and an adulterer, which did not injure his status as the most popular man in America. But Trump may prefer not to repeat the experience of Jackson’s Inauguration. After taking his oath, Jackson attracted a boisterous crowd, which followed him into the White House. “They crowded into every room and nearly wrecked the place,” the White House historian William Seale later recalled. “They had to be lured outside with tubs of whiskey punch set out on the lawn. The Jacksonians hated what happened.”
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk ... inst-trump

[Iamwhomiam]

I think it's a mistake to have such a large demonstration at the inauguration, and I'll explain why, though I would support a demonstration at the inauguration, but one attended by people within a few hours drive. The reason is it's January and it's DC. And it's financial.

I would support a much larger demonstration if it was to take place in April or May, but no later. This would then be Spring in DC, and it would be much more suitable weather. Cherry Blossoms.

Cold turns too many people off, no matter how warm their hearts are from Trump's victory.

Besides, these days they'll corral everyone a mile away from the capitol.

Having helped organize several large national demonstrations in DC and a few in NYC, that's my 2 cents.

Far better to go home happy and talking about having kicked some ass, than to go home chilled, broken & broke, talking about getting your ass kicked by the cold.

Same ol' Trump. Cherry blossoms or snowflakes, which would you choose?

Attending a demonstration in January will prohibit many from attending another 2017 DC demonstration, and there will surely be more call to demonstrate once Trump begins wielding his power.

[JackRiddler]

I disagree. There should have been a million or two demonstrating the day after the Obama inauguration, demanding a reversal of the Bush agenda and a prosecution of the war perpetrators. And I bet half the people at the inauguration (2-4 million estimate) would have stayed to go. But hey, "I got this," go home and "move on."

[Iamwhomiam]

But there wasn't. I agree, there should have been.

I think a fairly large protest could be held by those so inclined who live within a few hours drive and support such, as I wrote. I don't know what you mean, "...would have stayed to go" or what follows.

I've had my say on the matter and that's not going to change the course of history. Just my opinion as an organizer.

[JackRiddler]

Weather is important, so is timing. If it goes well, you might have a much bigger one in... August.

[Heaven Swan]

I think it's a mistake to have such a large demonstration at the inauguration, and I'll explain why, though I would support a demonstration at the inauguration, but one attended by people within a few hours drive. The reason is it's January and it's DC. And it's financial.

I would support a much larger demonstration if it was to take place in April or May, but no later. This would then be Spring in DC, and it would be much more suitable weather. Cherry Blossoms.

Cold turns too many people off, no matter how warm their hearts are from Trump's victory.

Besides, these days they'll corral everyone a mile away from the capitol.

Having helped organize several large national demonstrations in DC and a few in NYC, that's my 2 cents.

Far better to go home happy and talking about having kicked some ass, than to go home chilled, broken & broke, talking about getting your ass kicked by the cold.

Same ol' Trump. Cherry blossoms or snowflakes, which would you choose?

Attending a demonstration in January will prohibit many from attending another 2017 DC demonstration, and there will surely be more call to demonstrate once Trump begins wielding his power.

Thanks for your input and concern but I think many of us see this as an emergency, not a stroll under cherry blossoms that can wait till the spring. Also, because of climate change, so far in the East we are having extremely mild fall weather. It's impossible to say, but the weather on Jan 21st might not be so cold.

Not sure where you are located but I'm sure that there will be more people coming from the East, South and Mid-west as opposed to the West due to the distance involved.

On the Facebook page for the March on Washington, 108,000 have already pledged to be there. And I'm sure there will be many, many, many more. We're only in Nov. and most don't bother pledging on Facebook...

[seemslikeadream]

I am not going to pretend


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hxnbC_11Cg