The Protest Marches Begin...

[Lord Jim]

Thousands protest Trump as 'sister marches' begin in Australia and New Zealand

Thousands of protesters in Australia and New Zealand on Saturday joined the first of hundreds of womens' marches organized around the world in a show of disapproval of U.S. President Donald Trump as he began his first day in office.

In Sydney, Australia's biggest city, about 3,000 people - men and women gathered for a rally in Hyde Park before marching on the U.S. consulate downtown, while organizers said 5,000 people rallied in Melbourne.

"Feminism is my Trump card" and "Fight like a girl," were among the placards held aloft by the protesters in Sydney.

"We’re not marching as an anti-Trump movement per se, we’re marching to protest the hate speech, the hateful rhetoric, the misogyny, the bigotry, the xenophobia and we want to present a united voice with women around the globe," organizer Mindy Freiband told Reuters.

Many of the protesters in Sydney and Melbourne wore pink hats, that activists referred to as their "pussyhats".

The emergence of a 2005 tape in which Trump spoke of women in a demeaning way sparked widespread outrage and was one of the low points of his election campaign. In the tape he was heard saying: "Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything." [nL1N1F40DT]

In New Zealand, there were marches in four cities, involving around 2,000 people, Wellington's march organizer Bette Flagler told Reuters by phone.

lsewhere in Asia, hundreds of people joined protests

in Tokyo, including many American expatriates.

"Trump presidency gets my blood boiling ... Everything we value could be gone. It's time to speak your mind and concerns and to do our best to salvage the values we cherish in America," said Bill Scholer, an art teacher.

And in Manila on Friday about 200 demonstrators from a Philippine nationalist group rallied for about an hour against Trump outside the U.S. embassy in Manila.

Some held up signs demanding U.S. troops leave the Philippines while others set fire to a paper U.S. flag bearing a picture of Trump's face..

Worldwide some 673 "sister marches" are planned for Saturday, in addition to a protest in Washington D.C., according to the organizers' website which says more than two million marchers are expected.

In Washington D.C., at Trump's inauguration back-clad activists, who were not related to the womens’ marches, threw rocks and bottles at police in Washington as Trump was sworn in as President.

Although protests in the United States are common at inaugurations, in living memory only the inauguration of Richard Nixon in 1968 - as the United States fought an unpopular war in Vietnam - has drawn such a strong reaction worldwide.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-t ... SKBN155039


I hope they keep the vandals and bullies who were arrested yesterday in DC locked up through today, so they don't get a chance pull their crap again during today's march...

If you have a protest with 200,000 peaceful demonstrators and 300 hell-raising dickheads, guess who'll get the lion's share of the media attention...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Those are YUUUUUUUUGE MASSSSSSS DEMONSTRASHUNS!

2000 in four cities in NZ?

[Guinevere]

100-125K funny committed peaceful marchers/protesters in Boston. I had to leave before I even got to march (to be able to check out of my hotel), after standing on the Common for over three hours --- so many people. It took me 30 minutes just to wind my way out of the crowd backwards. All patient, with great signs. I'll post some pictures later.

[Lord Jim]

I just saw some reporting on CNN on the Boston march...

They also gave the 125K crowd estimate, apparently the turnout was much larger than expected...

Which has been the case at most of the marches around the country...

[RayThom]

The Boston Women's March... upward to 150,000:

Meanwhile: The Women's March on Washington more than double that of the crowd for the inauguration yesterday. And to that I say "Right On!"

Of course, Drumpf will say 5 million patriotic citizens were at his YUGE show, but maybe a couple of thousand crazy 3s - 4 tops, were at the Washington DC women's march.

[Guinevere]

The Trumpanzee has no fucking clue what he has unleashed.

We barely got to march in Boston (1/4 of the city population was jammed on the Common and surrounding streets). DC and Chicago were so crowded they couldn't march either. Women marched in Antarctica.

I'm so proud of my sisters, and our brothers who marched with us.

[BoSoxGal]

Let's just hope folks stay enthused for true resistance and organizing over the long haul. I hate feeling so pessimistic, but I remember how hopeful I felt when millions around the country - and worldwide - marched to protest the pending invasion of Iraq, which didn't stop the war and didn't stop Bush from being re-elected, either. We have a tendency in this country to become too easily resigned to whatever is the status quo.

[wesw]

what a sill, inefficient waste of time and money.

tell them to quit crying and to try voting.

and take those silly pussy hats off.

you are more than that.

you define yourselves.

we all define ourselves.

we identify ourselves, no matter what others might say or think.

perhaps a purple codpiece for the fellas?

whatever..., this is still America. have yourselves a ball....

[Lord Jim]

The Trumpanzee has no fucking clue what he has unleashed.

Well, we'll see...

I think BSG makes a very good point...

The track record for the kind of one day energy one sees at these types of events turning into something that has any kind of substantive political impact is a pretty poor one...

(I wonder how many of the hundreds of thousands marching and rallying today couldn't be bothered to show up to vote last November...)

Let's not forget how the whole "occupy" thing flopped in terms of effecting policy, electing candidates or shaping legislation...

Accomplishing those sorts of substantive things requires a lot more patience, commitment and drive then it takes to spend one day walking around holding a sign...

I saw Barney Frank in an interview about a year ago sum up the problem quite succinctly:

"When we Liberals are angry, we march. When Conservatives are angry, they vote"...

[ex-khobar Andy]

I was at the rally in Columbia MO. Originally expected to be around 200; re-estimated to 800 so they moved the venue. I am guessing that there were 3000 to 5000 or so actually turned up (wonderful weather for a January demo) but I could not see the entire crowd. Best sign - I've seen smarter cabinets at IKEA. I'd say the crowd was 50% twenty-somethings and 30% fifty-plus.

ETA - best chant: We don't want your tiny hands . . . . .any where near our underpants.

[Long Run]

(I wonder how many of the hundreds of thousands marching and rallying today couldn't be bothered to show up to vote last November...)

The energy across the country is amazing, and that made me think, similarly, where was that energy when it would have been useful?

I agree that only time will tell whether this energy becomes something equivalent to the Tea Party on the right, or dwindles away.

[BoSoxGal]

This is disturbing; I must say that I'm concerned about the level of support for Trump among military, police, etc. and what that could mean should things really get ugly in future in terms of his violations of the Constitution.

Would-be protesters heading to the Women’s March on Washington have said they were denied entry to the United States after telling border agents at a land crossing in Quebec their plans to attend the march.

Montrealer Sasha Dyck was part of a group of eight who had arranged online to travel together to Washington. Divided into two cars, the group – six Canadians and two French nationals – arrived at the border crossing that connects St Bernard de Lacolle in Quebec with Champlain, New York, on Thursday.

The group was upfront about their plans with border agents, Dyck said. “We said we were going to the women’s march on Saturday and they said, ‘Well, you’re going to have to pull over’.”

What followed was a two-hour ordeal. Their cars were searched and their mobile phones examined. Each member of the group was fingerprinted and had their photo taken.

Border agents first told the two French citizens that they had been denied entry to the US and informed them that any future visit to the US would now require a visa.

“Then for the rest of us, they said, ‘You’re headed home today’,” Dyck said. The group was also warned that if they tried to cross the border again during the weekend, they would be arrested. “And that was it, they didn’t give a lot of justification.”

Dyck described it as a sharp contrast to 2009, when the research nurse made the same journey to attend Barack Obama’s inauguration. “I couldn’t even get in for this one, whereas at the other one, the guy at the border literally gave me a high five when I came in and everybody was just like, ‘welcome’. The whole city was partying; nobody was there to protest Obama the first time.”

UK national Joe Kroese said he, a Canadian and two Americans were held at the same border crossing for three hours on Thursday.

The group had travelled from Montreal, where 23-year-old Kroese is studying, and had explained to border agents that they were considering attending the Women’s March but had yet to finalise their plans.

After being questioned, fingerprinted and photographed, Kroese and his Canadian companion were refused entry because they were planning to attend what the border agent called a “potentially violent rally”, he said. The pair was advised not to travel to the United States for a few months, and Kroese was told he would now need a visa to enter the US.

After an attempted crossing late Thursday, Montreal resident Joseph Decunha said he was also turned away. He and the two Americans he was with told the border agent that they were planning to attend the inauguration and the women’s march.

Trump's first 24 hours bring global protests, a dark speech and uncertainty

The group was brought in for secondary processing, where the border agent asked about their political views, Decunha told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “The first thing he asked us point blank is, ‘Are you anti- or pro-Trump?’”

After being fingerprinted and photographed he was told that his two friends could enter the US, but that he could not. “They told me I was being denied entry for administrative reasons. According to the agent, my travelling to the United States for the purpose of protesting didn’t constitute a valid reason to cross,” Decunha said.

He described the experience – particularly the questions he fielded about his political beliefs – as concerning. “It felt like, if we had been pro-Trump, we would have absolutely been allowed entry.”

US Customs and Border Protection said it could not discuss individual cases, citing privacy reasons. “We recognize that there is an important balance to strike between securing our borders while facilitating the high volume of legitimate trade and travel that crosses our borders every day, and we strive to achieve that balance and show the world that the United States is a welcoming nation,” it said in an email to the Guardian.

On a daily basis, more than 1 million individuals are admitted into the United States at its air, land and sea ports, the agency noted. An average of 600 people a day – less than a tenth of 1% of those admitted – are denied entry for a varied list of reasons that include prohibited activities or intent as well as national security concerns.

[Long Run]

Why would we, or any other country, let non-citizens into our country for the primary purpose of protesting our government? This seems like a non-story on a day there are plenty of real stories.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Why not? I know that there were at least two non-citizens at the Columbia MO rally - should I turn them in?

[rubato]

To prove that we mean what we say when we say we have freedom of speech.


yrs,
rubato

[Bicycle Bill]

The Trumpanzee has no fucking clue what he has unleashed.

We barely got to march in Boston (1/4 of the city population was jammed on the Common and surrounding streets). DC and Chicago were so crowded they couldn't march either. Women marched in Antarctica.

I'm so proud of my sisters, and our brothers who marched with us.

My car radio is tuned to an oldies station that has Fox News updates on the hour, and they reported that the Chicago march had been cancelled because the attendance had grown so large that the attendees completely filled and spilled out of the Grant Park rally site, and the organizers realized that there would be no safe way to march that many people in an orderly manner through downtown Chicago (this was later confirmed by real news sources like the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and even USA Today).  Organizers originally planned for 20,000 — 25,000 people but the mild weather combined with the loathing for Trump caused those numbers to skyrocket; estimates by the ChiTrib put the actual attendance at closer to a quarter-million, almost ten times the original estimates.  The CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) put extra cars on the El system in the downtown area to handle the crowds but the trains were still pretty much packed to the gills.

What was it Bob Dylan wrote?  "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows"?
Trump had better install a weathervane on the White House, and maybe a good storm cellar while he's at it.

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

Beyond which, Trump is NOT the government. WE are the government!

[Econoline]

~250,000 peaceful protesters in Chicago--more than 3X the number predicted and planned for. So many that the march scheduled to follow the rally in Grant Park had to be cancelled...because at the time we were supposed to start marching, the streets we were supposed to march on were still clogged with people trying to get to Grant Park.


ETA - oops, Guin posted while I was writing this.

[Scooter]

There are pieces of this story that do not hang together.

First, I think border security absolutely should be looking very closely at foreign nationals who are entering the country when large crowds are expected everywhere, to assess whether they really do plan to participate or if they plan to set off a few bombs. It is we travellers who must demonstrate our eligibility to enter, not they who must show we are not.

Telling someone from a visa waiver country that they will need a visa to enter in future makes no sense. Were they told that they would normally require an ESTA, perhaps? It isn't required at a land crossing but many VWP ciitizens get them anyway, because it saves having to fill out the I-94W. If they get a whiff that you are intending to stay, or forgot to disclose some long forgotten incident in your past, you won't get in and neither will your entire group because they will fall under the same suspicion.

Political beliefs are absolutely fair game. Steer clear of saying anything that sounds like you support the violent overthrow of the government or that you sympathize with terrorists and you should be fine.

[RayThom]

This vid is like watching paint dry but it is historic, and the excitement is palpable.

Women... they're just everywhere.
https://www.facebook.com/denverpost/vid ... 283019440/