they say DC is hollywood for ugly people
I went to the protest outside the Treasury Department last night. A few people have asked me about it, so here’s my brain dump.
The image above (Apple Maps screenshot) shows part of the building, as if you are facing it from 15th Street. (The White House is one block away.) I’m gonna refer back to this photo a lot.
But I gotta back up for a minute. Sunday night, I joined a Zoom call with 50,000+ other people who were furious, terrified, and overwhelmed by everything the new administration is doing. The call was organized by Indivisible, Move On, and the Working Families Party. The speakers encouraged us not just to call our elected officials, but to show up at their offices, to request appointments to meet with them or their staff. Basically let our reps know that none of this (waving at recent news) is acceptable.
As a resident of Washington, DC, I have no meaningful representation in either the House or the Senate. Before I could type into the chat, they answered my question: “If you live in DC, there is a protest happening Tuesday at 5pm outside the Treasury building.”
Sign me up.
While I was still living in California, I saw footage a DC protest where cops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protestors right before the military escorted Felon 45 to a church — where he stood for a photo, holding a bible UPSIDE DOWN.
I also remember all the tips and tricks serious activists were sharing in the aftermath of that police violence.
Heeding their advice, I dressed for the protest in full Antifa-core: Fleece-lined black leggings, a thrifted black Patagonia jacket with the hood up and cinched, black shoes, and a black face mask so cameras wouldn’t be able to identify my face. I left my phone and my ID at home. All I took with me was my subway fare card, my apartment key, and a $20 bill. In my head I imagined getting arrested and just saying the word “LAWYER” over and over. And farting in the cop car.
But this was a different kind of protest — one designed for maximum media coverage.
If you look at the photo above, imagine those steps packed with protestors holding signs, facing the street. On the sidewalk, near those anti-terrorism poles, was a wall of news cameras facing the building.
I stood just out of the frame, bottom left corner.
When I arrived shortly before 5pm, it was rush hour and 15th Street was open to traffic. That didn’t last long. Several thousand people showed up, and the cops started redirecting cars because people had filled up the entire street.
I could not see the people speaking, because they were standing on the sidewalk, not up on the steps like I wished they’d been. But lots of people around me (faces fully exposed, not doing middle-aged ninja cosplay) were holding their phones in the air to record. So I could see the speakers on those phone screens. Like a jumbotron at a stadium show, except much smaller.
In hindsight, the setup/layout was smart, because the news footage showed elected officials speaking in front of a backdrop of a government building and protestors holding signs. And the event was scheduled at a time that was convenient for protestors and local/national evening news.
A whole bunch of Senators and Representatives addressed the crowd: Maxwell Frost, Jasmine Crockett, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren, Ayanna Pressley, and more I’ve forgotten. (Many of them are members of an oversight committee and had been denied entry to the building because they didn’t have appointments.) Pressley’s speech (TikTok) was so smooth and eloquent I wrongly assumed she was reading it from notes. If “stan” is still a thing people say, I stan her hard.
When each speaker finished, they were escorted by their Secret Service agents away from the crowd, right past where I was standing. It was my first time seeing any of these people IRL. Not that this is important, but Pressley is stunningly beautiful in person.
Because the crowd took up a whole city block, one end of the crowd would start chanting and it would take a while for the rest of us to hear/pick up on it. Chants included: “LOCK HIM UP” (about Musk), “SHUT DOWN THE SENATE,” and, as she approached the mic, “WAR-REN, WAR-REN, WAR-REN.”
If I had had my phone, I would have taken a photo of this dude in Schumer’s entourage: a tall Filipino-looking man with a spectacular in-your-face mullet. No way was he Secret Service, because those dudes blend in, and Mr. Mullet wasn’t wearing an earpiece. Anyway, if men can have fuck-you haircuts on Capitol Hill now, I hope that means women are no longer required to wear pantyhose.
In general, A+++++, would protest again, maybe without so many precautions. It was heartening to see, and be surrounded by, so many diverse but like-minded people. I trust that the political organizers know what they’re doing, so the least I can do is show up when and where they tell me to.
Links
A map of places where ICE has rounded up brown people. You can add to it. (Padlet)
A site that updates each day with the price of gas, the price of eggs, and the amount of time the president has spent playing golf. (TrumpGolfTrack)
It is not a Tesla. It is a Swastikar. (Bluesky)
A useful website and app that uses reliable data to tell you which party a store or brand supports. (Goods Unite Us)
Imagine being one of the 13,000 employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and seeing this in your work email. (NSFW) (Mediaite)
If you want Google’s AI to STFU, cuss at it. (Lifehacker)
The Dance Hall Crashers are playing Warped Tour. (Punknews)
I want all these images printed and framed and hung on my wall. That owl, especially. (Colossal)
Probably also NSFW, a brilliant statue in Prague. (Atlas Obscura)
This story about a puddle in San Francisco contains the perfect sentence: “Waymo's autonomous vehicles yolo'd straight through it.” (Boing Boing)
For Black History month, here are some white movie titles, Blackened. (TikTok)
And if you’re looking for the ultimate Valentine’s Day gift, how about some jewelry inspired by the Montgomery Brawl? (GemCorps)