Yesterday, people around the world rose as one to say that the fascist leanings of Pr*sident Donald Trump will never be allowed to spread without a powerful, unified resistance standing in its way. Anne and I were in Washington, D.C. to observe and participate in the Women’s March while similar Marches were happening across the nation and across the globe.
1,000,000 marchers in Washington, D.C.
750,000 marchers in Los Angeles.
250,000 marchers in Chicago.
400,000 marchers in New York City.
175,000 marchers in Boston.
100,000 marchers in Denver.
100,000 in London and tens of thousands more in Paris and Mexico City and Prague and the Bahamas and even in Antarctica!
Meanwhile, President Trump and his press secretary set about chastising “the media” for misrepresenting how many people showed up at his inauguration. While most believe this is about his ego, and maybe that’s part of it, it’s my belief that it another puff of chaff thrown into the air to distract us from what he’s actually doing. If we’re arguing about how many people showed up at his inauguration, we run the dead serious risk of missing something else he said yesterday at a speech at the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, VA:
The old expression, to the victor belong the spoils, you remember they always used to say: Keep the oil. I wasn’t a fan of Iraq. I didn’t want to go into Iraq. But I will tell you: When we’re in? We got out wrong. I always said, in addition to that: Keep the oil. Now I said it for economic reasons. But if you think about it, [CIA Director nominee] Mike [Pompeo], if we kept the oil you probably wouldn’t have ISIS, because that’s where they made their money in the first place. So we should have kept the oil. But, okay. Maybe you’ll have another chance.
“Maybe you’ll have another chance” to go in and steal Iraq’s oil, Trump told the CIA. It is, perhaps, the most terrifying thing Donald Trump has uttered since he began running for president.
But, it’s clear that Pr*sident Trump is NOT going to be allowed to enact his agenda without a fight from those of us who oppose him. Remember: fewer Americans voted for him for president than voted for his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Here are some of Anne’s remarkable photos from the march in Washington, D.C. yesterday. What you see is diversity manifest. All ages, all ethnicities, all gender expressions, people from all across the country (we even heard of folks there from Alaska!) All speaking with a common voice to say, “this is not normal, this is not acceptable, and we will FIGHT Donald Trump’s fascist moves every step of the way.”
NOTE: Because Donald Trump lost the national popular vote by an historic margin of nearly 3,000,000 votes, I will be writing “Pr*sident” rather than “President” to include the asterisk that should appear under any mention of his presidency.
Enjoy.
Senator Gary Peters meets with Michigan marchers in Hancock Park before the rally
Senator Debbie Stabenow meets with Michigan marchers in Hancock Park before the rally
And, finally, one photo not taken by Anne:
*Donald Trump is the largest loser of the popular vote in history to become the President of the United States of America.
