We (Mr. and Dr. Muttrox) took to the streets yesterday for the No Kings Rally/March in Atlanta. What did we think?
We arrived right at the opening bell (10:00 am). People were pumped; the attendance and atmosphere were excellent. They had just gotten permits approved, so we were going to march to the State Capitol at 1:00 pm.
The organizers and staff did a great job making sure everyone had water, access to bathrooms, first aid, and so on. They were careful to instruct everyone on how to respond to any provocateurs, and lawyers from several groups were also present, just in case. This preparation was smart. There was an obvious helicopter from Homeland Security, and an unidentified drone hovering over the crowds. I assume footage of us is now living somewhere in Palantir (I waved to every camera I could see), and ICE probably took pictures of everyones license plate.
The speeches for the first hour were… well, frankly, terrible. For every speaker who focused on the core theme of the rally (lawlessness, executive overreach), there were two who went on about trans rights, Palestine, billionaires, or something that had nothing to do with anything. I don’t know why the leader of the NEA was speaking; if I were a conservative teacher, I’d be angry at the obvious politicization.
After about an hour, we decided we were tired and hungry. We grabbed a quick bite, then headed to meet the marchers. Our timing wasn’t great though. We missed Abrams, Warnock, all the interesting speakers. And by the time we made it to the Capitol , most people had already left and they were just about to open the roads up again. Ah well.
This post is mostly just an excuse to share pictures of the interesting, “Yes, exactly!”, or funny signs. Mostly funny signs. Let’s get on with it!
Some of the signs I thought were so clever turned out to be less original than I thought. The first “Faux-king” pun is great. The sixth is not. Many of these signs were duplicated in marches across the country.
Frogs were a theme. Why frogs? I gather that it’s a response to the Administration painting the Portland protests as terrorists. It’s hard to pretend that someone wearing a big inflatable costume is a terrorist.
Not shown are several signs about Epstein. I also spotted three separate signs referencing The Lord of the Rings. Two were about Saurman and Wormtongue, one was a Palantir reference.
This was my favorite sign of the whole march. It’s so beside the point, so ridiculous, and all the funnier because of it. Classic. I laugh every time I look at it.
I am reading that attendance was well over five million people. That’s amazing. It was a great day. Despite the light tone of this post, this is important work. As this administration accelerates it’s anti-democratic goals and tactics with control of almost all government functions, one of the only ways to push back is popular support.