No Kings Day v. 2; AKA Antifa Loves America

Bill Bramhall

The nation protested again yesterday! We reject fascism and wannabe kings!

Nationwide participation estimates are still coming in, but it's estimated that 7 million people showed up in nearly 3000 events. AltNPS's estimates are for 8.1 million! Find images and videos from the New York Times.

Here in my town, early estimates were 13,000 participants, beating June's No Kings protest, estimated at 12,000! Not bad for an area with about 117,000 population!

Personally, I started the day with tea from a mug honoring my dad, proud Antifa of 80 years ago. 

Anitifa. It's a family tradition!

Even though I am still waiting for my Soros Bucks for previous protests, I made my way downtown to the park, where I stood among the lively, friendly, upbeat crowd and listened to a few speakers, from a materials science doctoral student to our U.S. Representative Salud Carbajal. 

I chatted with a few friends I found in the crowd. I know there were many others there in the sea of people. 

After the speeches, we took to the streets. It took a while to actually get out of the area and start "marching" because there were so many thousands trying to leave the park and take to the streets. It reminded me of the Women's March 2017 in Los Angeles, when the march turned into a "stay" because there were so many pink-pussyhatted people there that we couldn't move! 

Some of my favorite signs of the day, and some of my favorite sister resisters!

We had a frog among us!

and an axolotl!

There was a sign that showed up a few times and spoke to me, but I didn't get a snap. It read, "I'm here so my grandchildren will know I did not stay silent."

Word.

A huge thank you to the SBPD for blocking the streets and keeping us safe while we exercised our rights!

Local press accounts: 

The Santa Barbara Independent

Edhat

KEYT 

Noozhawk looked at nearby towns

From our local Indivisible on Facebook:

Zoom in! There's Little Sister Resister with her Sister and Brother resisters!

LSR is the green-shirted resister on the right. We serendipitously wore the same shirt!

Indivisible also shared a timelapse video of the crowd.

"Hate America Rally" ????? I don't think so!!

It was gratifying to see the pictures and videos from friends around the country.

Here are some from different places (thanks SRKarenone!):

What a great event, one that boosts the spirits. We the People have solidarity and power!

Lastly, a little video to commemorate the day.

We got this, resisters! Keep the hop and keep the hope!!