First, hysteron-proteron, I'll summarize a news flash I received at 5:30 pm today: Trump exhorts us to "hang tough" with the new tariffs! It's tough to even consider that when your entire life and livelihood are on the line.
And now for today's protest and march against Trump and Musk--in Philadelphia, to narrow it down. Hundreds of thousands participated in Hands-Off! events in all 50 states and DC and around the world. In Philly, some six thousand or so congregated at City Hall at noon and marched on Market Street to Independence Mall with all its associations with the last time there was resistance to absolute monarchy or however else you want to describe arbitrary and brutal tyranny. Many of us were seniors so used to this "drill." Some young parents brought some young children; some mid-lifers were evident. I don't have more exact demographics.
OEN publisher and owner Rob Kall, who also attended, estimated that the procession was 1.2 miles long, 300 people per city block, that is, the numbered streets that lined our path.
I regret that acoustics were such that we couldn't hear the speakers but they inspired many raucous audience responses replete with anger and revolutionary spirit.
Similarly, chants also punctuated our march-- familiar ones like "No justice, no peace!" and "The people united will never be defeated" and "Hey hey, ho ho, _____ [fill in the blank from this chamber of horrors we're enduring now] has/have got to go!" and "Tell me what democracy looks like ...!" along with "Hands off ____ [fill in the blank with relevant specifics: social security/medicare/science/education/cancer research/our veterans/our jobs/our country, and the list goes on].
It was such a familiar and uplifting experience. I've lost count of how many such events I've been to but, less active as the years pass by, I hadn't been to one since the Women's March in 2017 on January 21, the day after Trump swore to uphold his Constitutional duties the first time around.
It rained heavily today, briefly, before the march and let up thereafter into tolerable though overcast weather. I wonder how many more would have shown up under clearer skies but was assured that crowds were heavier in even bluer places like New York City and DC.
No MAGA types intruded to counter us, as far as I could determine-- something that occurred to me might happen but didn't scare me away. I just put some provisions into a daypack in case we were arrested. The police weren't as nice as they'd been in DC at the Women's March, where they'd chatted idly, smiling, unworried about us girls making any good trouble, though I later heard of isolated incidents on the fringes of the event. In Philly, at the top of one of the side streets a line of them on bicycles surveyed our procession tensely. I resisted photographing them. I had once attempted to photograph a similar scenario at Times Square in New York City, featuring horses instead of bicycles and was jerked away by the arm by one of the officers. "I'm press!" I objected. No reply.
The proceedings ended too soon for me. In February of 2003 when more than a million of us protested in New York City just prior to the Shock and Awe visited on Baghdad, some concessions from DC were announced, as I recall: "a resolution limiting US response, to options other than war" (quote from my coverage of the event way back then). Nothing this time around, so far, except being told to "hang tough" by der Fuhrer, as mentioned above.
The array of slogans on posters the marchers carried spanned the spectrum of creative ingenuity: "Tax the rich like it's 1935!" "Better cabinets at Ikea!" "Too much rage for one sign!" "Dear Canada, we hate him too--more!"
Here are some photos to conclude:
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