We had just found a small patch of shade at the No Kings rally when Herself showed me the first reports of the assassinations in Minnesota.
Another psycho with a gun.
The first one I can remember was John F. Kennedy. I was nine. Next was Malcolm X. Then Martin Luther King. Bobby Kennedy. Fred Hampton. Harvey Milk. John Lennon. The list goes on.
Tell you what. This sort of thing does not make you feel good about being in a strange place surrounded by people you don’t know, with a DJ working one side of the park and some sort of drum circle going in the other.
Herself caught me looking around and wondered why.
“I’m trying to make sure I know how we can get the hell out of here,” I said.
She thought I meant at the end of the festivities. I was thinking about the beginning of someone’s fantasies.
A young woman came up with a tray of sliced bananas and oranges and asked if I’d like something.
“No, I’m good,” I replied. “But thanks just the same.” Head still on a swivel.
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step out of line, the men come and take you away
I tried to cling to the spirit of the moment — small-d democrats old and young and in between, with imaginative signs and fashion choices, dancing, music — Sly and the Family Stone’s “Stand,” because of course “Stand” — but it slipped away from me. It was a large park, but a cramped space, with a lot of noise and people milling around and a sound system that was not up to the task.
We about half heard Rep. Melanie Stansbury from the drum circle, then changed locations to see if we could find a better listening post. Nope.
I tapped Herself on the shoulder and gave her the old thumb over the shoulder.
“Ready to beat it? ” I asked. She was. We did.
I’m glad we went. I’d do it again tomorrow. I’ll do it as long as I can still take some hope from it.
Because it beats the mortal shit out of killing people.
Mad Blog Media 
I had my head on a swivel long before I checked my NY Times update, which I was doing since I couldn’t hear anything on the P.A. system anyway. Last summer during the Pride parade, four people were jeering us in mostly unspeakable language. I tried to talk to them and noted one was packing heat. Made me just a little concerned.
I sometimes feel a little awkward scanning building tops and surroundings, but you just never know. Situational awareness ain’t a bad thing, as I teach in Traffic Skills 101. Also applies at political rallies.
Yeah, the Kool-Aid definitely seems to be popular these days.
Mostly peaceful rally with WAY more beeps and thumbs up with only a few jerks driving by. One did repeatedly and I’m told was hauled off to jail for showing off his driving skills. Such a moron that he was driving a truck with the name of his HVAC business! Guessing? he wasn’t the owner but we all passed around the email contact and will raise hell with the business on general principles.
I always check any/all crowds for anyone suspicious and also look for any advantage that might be needed if things get bad. Been doing that before MAGA was a scab on our ass. Got to chat with a few young cops today who were loosely walking the park and noted a lot of folks said hi to them and thanked them for being there. As you know, MAGA media claims we protesters are getting paid but try as I might I couldn’t find anyone who’d whip out any cash for poor old Herb.
Someone in Santa Fe had a big sign saying “Not Being Paid To Protest”. There were some good ones.
At one point I see this large and put-together gent heading my way, with the kind of facial stubble you know has to get mowed thrice daily and what looked like a TRUMP flag over one shoulder.
“Ho boy, here we go,” sez I to myself I sez. And then the wind flips the flag around and it says “FUCK TRUMP.”
Peace in our time.
Best sign I saw at our little rally was “Parasites”, then there was a drawing of a louse, a tick, and Elon.
Haw. I saw a similar one: Deer tick, dog tick, and luna tick (guess who?).
Meanwhile, Esquire‘s Charles P. Pierce was in attendance at the Toddler Plays with His Army Men rally and wrote thusly:
The decision today was to stage this thing along one of the busiest streets in town. Four lanes and a median, with many thousands of us along the commercial sides, and lots of frustrated drivers in between who wanted to get from Point A to B toot sweet, and unable to do so because of the Beeg Sheeoh.
Many enjoyed the scene. We are a deep blue city. But many were annoyed. Words were exchanged. Small-dick drivers of diesel rigs did the rolling-coal thing without the rolling part. Demonstrators eventually took over the street with their feet, as a crowd full of demonstrators tends to do.
I decided I had other places to be. As far as I know, nothing got too far sideways. But, as they say, we live in perilous times. I’m
All for good trouble. Not so interested in stupid trouble.
Yeah, fuck stupid trouble. During the Dubya years a bunch of Black Bloc dickheads from Boulder started acting out at a demo in the B-burg, blocking traffic at Academy and Maizeland. The coppers had been real laid back until then, when tear gas suddenly seemed like a good idea.
The Boss and I were on our bicycles and rolled away at somc velocity.
It’s what dumpster wants. He craves violence, chaos, hatred, and division. He thrives on it. Everywhere, anytime, and whenever he can provoke it. That is why he ran again.
How he retains any sort of fan base remains a mystery. I mean, not even the Devil wants him.
“No, don’t bring that sonofabitch down here. What, Hell isn’t already smelly and noisy enough for you?”
Saw more thumbs-up than middle fingers, about 50 to 1 if i had to guess. Lots of horn-tooting. The police station is ’round the corner & the squadcars made regular drive-bys. One yahoo in a pick-m-up tried to push some folks who were in the crosswalk, which the cops missed, but i think some people clocked his plates on their phones. Hope he’ll get a door knock soon! That was as close as it came to going south, otherwise it was noisy but peaceful. We dispersed at noon, per the permit. Some folks then headed down the road to the next town’s which started later.
It was not obvious to me that there was any traffic control in Fanta Se (someone I know said there were course marshals, but having worked many bike races and century rides, I would have thought I would notice them), but the drivers were pretty cool about it, even when they had to wait through several light cycles with people crossing against the light en masse.
Given my various jobs, I always worry about what could go wrong, so I tend to piss people off asking obnoxious questions. As O’G said, Yeah, fuck stupid trouble. Concentrate on good trouble. When you work in a nuclear facility, there is a lot that can go wrong so one is always asking whether shit is sufficiently under control.
We did two hours at our rally, then decided we’d split before the heat caused a mass departure. No problems atall atall. Props to the cops for keeping the traffic moving smoothly.
And the surprising thing? As we joined the long line of people streaming out of the park, another was streaming in. Some like it hot, they say.
The rally in Fanta Se started out at the Roundhouse, marched to the Plaza, and then back to the Roundhouse. So we tied up a fair number of roads and intersections with what is estimated at 4-5k people. For a change, it was motorists who had to wait forever while the human traffic went by. Kinda funny, actually, given usually Car is King. But no incidents, and most of the drivers were cheering us on.
Here in York Pee-ay, the rally had about 1,000 people. For perspective, the “Hands Off” one a month back had about 400, and this is in a metro area population of about 145,000 in a deep red district. I had heard about the assassinations in Minnesota and practiced what we are all so good at; denial. So I had a good time and caught up with people I hadn’t seen in a while. The crowd was well behaved and generally the traffic was as well. There were the usual drunks and idiots around, but didn’t mess up the vibe.
I was disappointed but not surprised at the lack of coverage by WaPo and NYT. At one point they were counting “hundreds” at some rallies when the photos accompanying the coverage clearly showed thousands. This morning Alt National Park Service put the total count country-wide at 12.1 million. I hope to god the Dems can harness this.
Good-oh, Jon. I think our No Kings crowd topped the Hands Off! turnout too. About 8K vs. 6K, or so I hear, anyway. But ours is a blue city, county, and state.
The New Mexican gave the Albuquerque rally better coverage than the Journal did. Matt Reisen’s usually sharper than that. The local TV stations’ coverage was predictably bad (web coverage, anyway; we don’t watch that local-TV shit).
The news biz sure ain’t what it used to be. Neither is the country. These two developments may be related.
More bad news.
Marcher wounded in Salt Lake City ‘No Kings’ protest shooting dies
Police chief says the victim was not shot by the suspect, who is in jail.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2025/06/15/marcher-wounded-no-kings-protest/
Does make you wonder. Were tRump supporters born stupid, or do they have to practice and take lessons? Every day the evidence mounts that the Almighty Grifter is far beyond “unhinged” yet his followers hang on like a cheese-binge turd in your mornings’ water closet visit. Just won’t flush and no amount of Clorox will remove their smell. The pardons of the Jan 6th mob really emboldened them. Killer in MN is likely figuring he’ll get a pardon too since tRump attacked Waltz on ABC yesterday. Instead of, ya know, being presidential.
That was my first joke of Monday morning when The Boss told me they’d arrested the suspect:
“What are the Vegas odds on Trump pardoning this dude before he gets his first appearance in court?”
The odds are very slim unless the guy has some serious money.
Those murder (second degree???) charges should be state charges. tRump can’t touch those. Just Federal. I don’t know what Federal charges could be filed against our Freedumb Fighter.
I think I read in the Grey Lady that he was charged with two counts of Murder 2. Seemed awfully premeditated to me, and that should be Murder 1 under Minnesota law. I guess they can amend.
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/609.185
The old “violation of civil rights” is a fave when nothing else will stick.
I’m delighted they caught this dude alive. I want to hear the backstory.
Star-Tribune sez the feds are commandeering the case. Ho boy.
Interesting. I doubt Donald of Orange would intervene on someone killing politicians (for what should be obvious reasons), but the state charges would still hold even if he did.
I want to hear his alibi.
P’raps he was a member of an anarcho-syndicalist commune just grubbin’ around in the lovely filth bereft of oversight from the lord he doesn’t have in that empty castle over there.
Or he just a very religious and conservative fool in a dead end job who needed somebody to blame, hate, and, with a wink and nod from DC, kill.
I’ll go with Door No. 2.
Dude seemed to have access to plenty of money and toys, though. Herself postulates a bunch of maxed-out credit cards and loans, which would be nothing to worry about if you never planned to pay them off.
I’d hate to be a cop knocking on any doors for the foreseeable future. This guy’s cop costume even fooled at least one actual police officer. You will recall that in one scene in “The Dark Knight” the Joker was incognito among the cops.