Bigger and better? Yes and no.
Albuquerque’s third No Kings rally topped its predecessors in terms of turnout; organizers say we had 50,000 attendees here, with more than 8 million nationwide.
And the crowd, while still heavy on gray hair (and no hair), seemed to have more young people than did the previous editions.
A couple of smiling young folks from the Party for Socialism and Liberation buttonholed us, passing along a flyer for a May Day rally and general strike. The Democratic Socialists of America said they’d be around, but once again, no confirmed sightings.
But emcee Robert Luke seemed to have some trouble generating a solid call-and-response from the throng, which really didn’t get fired up until special guest speaker Stacey Abrams brung the heat. (Respect to the band ShyGuy, which tore up a stout cover of Green Day’s “American Idiot.”)
It was the march that put a smile on my face. The 3-mile route from the park wound north on San Mateo, east on Montgomery, south on Louisiana, and back to the park via Comanche, and we flat filled our half of the road, singing, chanting, and waving at passersby.
One group of youngsters could really sing, at one point tackling Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” with enthusiasm if not 100 percent accuracy. Lots of horn honking, most of the single-digit salutes involving an upraised thumb, and only one small, semiorganized group of dissenters at the far side of Comanche and Louisiana, with a sign that said something like “No Commies or Socialists In Our Neighborhood.”
I sang, “I am a commie, and so is your mommy” at them. Not as melodious as the kids, but what the hell, I ain’t Bruce Springsteen. Anyway, you know the rule: While smashing the State, kids, keep a smile on your lips and a song in your heart.
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“Abort Unwanted Presidency”. Wish I had thought of that. Someone here had a sign saying “It’s so bad even the introverts are here”. I laughed my ass off at that one, as it pretty much applied to me.
We had an estimated 7,000 up here according to the morning paper.
I didn’t see any sign of the Party for Social Libations up this way, but the DSA was there. I dropped a twenty into the Dem Party hat for a RESIST sign for the house. I think it is goofy (you can’t just resist–you gotta turn the ocean liner around), but the more we see, at least it means people are paying attention.
Since I am retired, I will not strike against my lack of a job. Maybe a good old fashioned Critical Mess ride would be cool on May Day.
Yeah, some good stuff out there. One of my faves is “I’m not paid to be here, Trump. I hate you for free.”
Definitely need more of the younguns in the streets too. We’re gonna need some help turning the leaky old rust-bucket to port.
People driving by were mostly supportive this time. Just a handful of middle finger salutes. One guy walking by called us communists. I had the ability to say nothing, and that’s what I did. But, it’s a good thing he didn’t make a return trip. My mouth may have over loaded my ass. Lots of folks with cell phones, one with a selfie stick and microphone, taking pictures and videos. Those that come close I asked to not include. The rest only took pictures of my sign. Same for the unknown drone flying around that most folks were oblivious to. I assumed it was from the PD.
We should have come to Albuquerque!
The phone thing can be irksome, for sure. I try to keep my use minimal, taking basic snaps to show the size of the crowd/march, that sort of thing. There’s a performative aspect to some of this our-man-on-the-scene stuff that I’ve never been comfortable with. Plus I want to be mindful of other people, who may not care to be characters in my little comic opera.
Here and elsewhere the organizers were using drones to help them estimate crowd sizes, from what I’ve read today. They may have been shooting stills/video for streaming, too (our little demo was streamed live). And for sure some of those drones belonged to the John Laws. We had drones and copters overhead all the doo-dah day.
Speaking of supportive, we had one burly ol’ boy in a pick-’em-up truck doing laps around the march. First time I saw him coming I thought maybe he was a Trumper, but nope: He was dangling a big “FUCK ICE” sign out his window. I saw him at least three times.
I didn’t see any signs of trouble up here. One lady with a Trump sign walking around the Roundhouse, outnumbered about 5 thousand to one. A couple pickup trucks rolling coal. But otherwise, overwhelming good responses from all the motorists et al.
There was a drone overhead of me. Who knows? I know SFPD uses them for crowd observations. I figure if the Dark Side wants to know who we are, they probably have the means to do so. So far, after several No Kings protests, no one has asked me to turn in my Dark Side badge.
O, yeh. We make surveillance easy for the State. We pay top dollar for tech toys that fink on us 24/7.
“Yep, there’s that O’Grady character, pretending to be a Communist again. Think he’s gonna share all those bikes with The People? Dream on.”
BTW, clever title! Took a minute to sink in. Chapeau!
Gracias, señor. I nearly went with “Serfs up,” then remembered I’d already used that one.
To leave the darkest stain on human history, Hitler had Goebbels, Himmler and Goring. And now leaving a deep stain on America, tRump has Miller, Hegseth and Patel. While the No Kings protests focus on tRump, his henchmen press on backed by a useless Congress and Supreme Court. How do we squeeze the juice from these boils festering on the skin of America? I mean we’ve got two years plus of this acne bloom left. We are not looking so good to the rest of the world.
Honestly? I don’t know. We’re up against a gang of goons that doesn’t give a shit about the rules, with a compromised Supreme Court that, even when it rules sensibly, doesn’t have any enforcement mechanism.
So, come the midterms the Donks could take the Senate and the House, but would it make any difference? Impeach, convict, and remove? Fire, disbar, and imprison? Many a well-fed, bright-yellow belly in Congress. Who bells the cat?
In our bananas republic we could be asking ourselves the same question the resistance asks in a banana republic: “Is the Army with us?”