The days of ‘protest’s’ are back in America….
(Fourth Night in a row tonight)
This time it isn’t about war or race….
It’s a President….
Footage captured from the Friday protest shows protesters standing along the White House fence holding signs that read “Treason” as the hip hop band performs.
For the first night of protests, hundreds of people came to “welcome” Trump back from Helsinki, Finland, on Monday night and have been returning to the park every night since, ostensibly to keep Trump from getting a good night’s sleep.
The president is not at the White House this weekend. He left for his New Jersey golf club earlier on Friday.
Parkhomenko’s protest is expected to advance into its sixth day on Saturday night.
On Thursday night, Parkhomenko brought out opera singers to perform the national anthem. And the night before that, he organized an 18-person Mariachi band to play on Pennsylvania Avenue.
A few high profile names, including Alyssa Milano and Stormy Daniels’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, as well as Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), joined the protest earlier this week.
Parkhomenko said on Twitter he’s still on the lookout for bagpipers, tap dancers, puppeteers and a professional auctioneer “that can verbally reenact outside the White House everything important Trump is giving away to the highest bidder” for the protests….
The former Clinton campaign staffer who helped organize five days of consecutive protests in front of the White House this week says he has raised more than $30,000 overnight to continue the protests.
Adam Parkhomenko, a policy adviser to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said Saturday that more than 1,300 donations totaling $31,144 came in overnight to support the protests, which have hired local bands to perform in front of the White House for nearly a week….
More…
This is just misplaced anger. It is not an effective strategy and is more likely counter-productive.
I couldn’t agree with you more, Zreebs. Those were exactly my thoughts.
Think of the likely effect if ardent Republicans were to try and make continuous collective noise outside Nancy Pelosi’s home and offices. (The fact that they would have no difficulty at all in raising money and volunteers wouldn’t make it any more useful to their own causes.)
Question guys?
Where the demo’s and protests of the 1960’s counter productive?
Second question?
In réponse the fear and anger of maybe 60% of America?
What should be done?
Beside’s WAITING for the midterm elections, Mueller or even 2020 Elections…
WHAT SHOULD PEOPLE DO?
How is it misplaced? And, how is it counter productive?
First of all, a Trump without sleep is not more likely to make more rationale decisions than a Trump with sleep.
But more importantly it plays into the narrative in which many conservatives genuinely believe that libersls are not tolerant. And that masked them more resistant to Democratic ideas.
Third, I strongly believe in Freedom of Speech, but that right can be abused. Using loud music is an abuse of Freedom of Speech. In fact, it is arguably a form of torture. And any right that is abused puts that entire right in danger.
Finally, Republicans will either copy the idsea or blame Democrats for a more devious response.
And It is misplaced because that $30k could have been spent more effectively on other things – like training Democratic leaders on the science of how to influence people.
I have perhaps less faith than Zreebs in the flexibility of the minds and sympathies of Trump supporters (who form a frighteningly high proportion of a once-grand old party). It’s regrettable to make them feel even more justified than they do already, but that’s not what worries me so much.
What does concern me is the effect on the (apparently quite small number of) people who are not already committed supporters or foes of the President. It doesn’t help the anti-Trump side for it to look like vindictive sore losers driven to such acts by a sense of their own impotence and fear that otherwise their message won’t be heard. (They’re certainly not hoping to change the minds of Trump or his staff.)
My feeling that I have repeated here is that EVERY demonstration of protest against Trump’s actions counts….
That the combined weight of ALL of anti-Trump noise and actions will contribute to his down fall…..
I feel it IS very important to shown a resistance to him and his Republican agenda…..
One thing?
Trump WILL CONTINUE to help his undoing….
Glad to see you concede finally that Trumps agenda is a”Republican “ agenda.
At the risk of appearing trite,Trumps undoing ,if it happens, will be because Democrats and other non Republicans muster enough votes to do him in.The idea that Republicans are going to ,or even offer any assistance ,is to me farfetched.
Sure there is some occasional criticism of him by various Republicans ( mostly by those preparing to depart the political scene) but has any of this shaken his support?No.Indeed, Trumps support ,among Republicans ,has remained remarkably consistent through all his various travails.
Further ,I have little faith in the idea that many of his supporters are likely to desert him anytime soon, due to intervening events( see Muellers investigation ) .
I don’t think your posts are helpful to defeating Trump. You exaturate when it is not needed and it is not helpful. You rarely say anything that would make me believe that your vision of the Democratic Party represents people like me. You continually berate the things that are important to me. So in what way are you not helping Trump?
What have I “ berated” that is important to you?
The protests at the White House are in the sixth day….
Protests against President Trump carried into day six with a crowd gathering outside of the White House Saturday despite heavy rain.
Former Hillary Clinton campaign adviser Adam Parkhomenko has been organizing protests on Pennsylvania Avenue since Trump returned on Monday from his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Crowds still turned up to “Occupy Lafayette Park” on Saturday night despite pouring rain and the fact that Trump is not actually at the White House this weekend….
More…
I replied to James.
Oh,sorry.
The way comments are posted here can be confusing.
No – I think you and I agree 80% of the time – which is actually significantly higher than most people for me. For example, we both share a distrust of US military operations and the bloated military budget. And these are important issues for both of us.
Wait?
I agree that that the Pentagon Budget is bloated also….
There WAS a thing about auditing the Defense Dept’s ENTIRE Budget….
Never heard anything more about it….
I’d bet there are BILLIONS sitting in the Treasury credited to the military….
Having a military IS essential….
But money is thrown away on projects all the time…
Well I am glad you changed your mind, but you previously argued with Jack and me on this topic. I don’t recall Hillary calling for significant defense cuts, but I do recall her calling for an end of the military sequester.
If you go back , if it’s available you will find that my view has NOT changed on this subject…
I have a interest in Defense matters and DO see spending that IS wasteful….
I have pointed out in the past t5hat making cuts in the Defnse budget is almost impossible to sustain….
Because Obama was a Democrat?
The Republicans , you guys who want a ‘balanced’ budget? rolled out a ‘sequester’ to limit spending…..
That lasted until THEIR GUY showed up in the White House….
We NOW have record Defense spending going on from the same people….
The biggest cuts would have been in personnel and real estate….
Z?
Remember back in the Bush days how they tried to cut back on bases?
Made a commission so the lawmakers wouldn’t have to take a hit….
Problem on bases and real estate?
The money involved is politically tied to jobs and money for business around the country….
Smart cuts could transfer BILLIONS to where the money SHOULD be…
But we’re talking about Republicans, eh?
Your memory is correct Zreebs.
What we have here is “ revisionism.”
Thanks Jack.
If by “Smart cuts could transfer BILLIONS to where the money SHOULD be…”, you mean back into the pockets of taxpayers, (or at least less money borrowed from the Chinese) then we now agree. I would just add the word “many” to “billions”. If you instead mean “re-allocation” of defense spending, then we don’t agree.
And I would add that talking about reallocation of defense spending not only misses what is important, it is a losing campaign strategy.
Go back and check if you can Z
I STAND BY MY expressed view
Which hasn’t changed one bit….
Barr Pushes Prosecutors to Charge Protesters with Sedition
“Attorney General William Barr told the nation’s federal prosecutors to be aggressive when charging violent demonstrators with crimes, including potentially prosecuting protesters for plotting to overthrow the U.S. government,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Barr warned that sometimes violent demonstrations across the U.S. could worsen as the November presidential election approaches. He encouraged the prosecutors to seek a number federal charges, including under a rarely used sedition law, even when state charges could apply.”
First, there is a long tradition in DC of occupying Lafayette Park (across from the White House) as a protest mechanism. People have been there since the Vietnam War, and have protested every President for the last 50 years, just not this Orange piece of shit.
I can specifically remember, a fond memory, of standing on Pennsylvania Avenue in the first AIDS candle light march in October 1992 (with at least 20,000 other people) chanting at the White House (with George H.W. Bush in residence) “Four More Weeks” as he prepared for a debate with Clinton and Perot. Staff came to the windows to look out at thousands of people holding candles. I knew then we would win the election.
Were we united in protest, in our opposition to a Republican Administration that had done next to nothing to solve the AIDS crisis (other than wear red ribbons from time-to-time) – and we were loud. Our chants echoed off of the Hay Adams across the Park.
Second, those nightly protests don’t last all night long. The bands certainly don’t play all night, and the folks who attended (at least those that I know) all had to work the next day. But they provide a consistent reminder that the residents of Washington DC are united in their opposition to this regime. And, the Mariachi band was a nice touch.
Third, although the Republicans can become outraged at the drop of a hat (see Al Franken and the Kevlar vest incident), this particular protest has to rank well down their outrage list — and the protests in the UK looked like more fun. Dave rightly points out that our Nation is so polarized that everyone has gone to their respective political corners, and rather than further outrage the old white Republican base (a base that is always outraged thanks to FOX News), these protests also keep our side energized.
Finally, the only real way we are going to fight back against Trump is for at least one of the Houses of Congress to be controlled by the Democrats next year. Our only real tool to fight Trump is our vote. That’s why people like George Will have said that he plans to vote Democratic this November. The Republicans will never desert Trump whether we protest in front of the White House or not.
Democrats always want to play far and as a result we let the Republicans do things like hold a Supreme Court nominee hostage, or back Obama down over announcing the Russians were messing in our electoral process.
I think most Democrats (in the middle or on the left) are over playing nice with the people on the other side who put their Party and power over the Country.
Jack is right, the Republicans will never leave their President. We need to out vote them this fall.
Yes Keith and your points are why Democrats MUST come out a VOTE in November….
From the left, middle and right….
They need to show up and be counted…