収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

Pretty good turnout in Bothell, counter had over 600 which is a good number given the rain in the morning and the unavoidable timing against Easter. It’s not what we had two weeks ago, but again, conflicts and worse conditions. Still a bit larger than the 2018-era protests, so I’d call that another win.

There were still people on the far downtown bridge, too. There were just gaps in the crowd between us and them.

I’d post pics but I totally forgot my phone, oops. And I actually did, not “lol no phone oops” did.

There was one (1) counter-protestor/heckler on the ground; he didn’t like my “NO KINGS” signs at all and started ranting about how Biden was the real “king” they got rid of. He didn’t have a sign himself and stayed pretty far back; I came across him accidentally while walking around testing our FRS radio range.

(As an aside: FRS handheld radios are f’real, team. Consider getting some and getting practice with them. No license needed, they’re channelised so can’t be used against you as “police scanners,” the range is shockingly good, and even with prices going up they’re super affordable. Ignore the only review on that Best Buy link; those are the exact model we bought. If you want to spend a little more you can get the T30 version, which has a headset and I think is rechargeable, but is otherwise pretty much the same radio and only comes in black. We specifically wanted replaceable batteries for extended-blackout reasons. Just remember: they are NOT private. Just relatively obscure.)

As with every other protest here, we had overwhelming support from the vehicle crowd. Hundreds to one in favour, easily, just like in person. I even got support from a presumably embarrassed Tesla driver.

I don’t know if there were more Bothell PD out this time, or if it just felt like there were. Might’ve been a difference in crowd to cop ratio, might’ve just been the escalating situation, might’ve just been where they were standing. But I wasn’t the only one who noticed.

Keep on your toes. Even here, the cops are Trump’s friends.

Anyway, that’s it for this week’s report, I hope your protests went well. Remember to save the date for May 1st, and to turn out at your local Tesla Takedown or similar before then, too. Momentum is everything, and we need to keep it.

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Okay! So! Tesla Takedown Day, March 29th, as it happened in Lynnwood.

It went pretty well. I’m not good at estimating crowd sizes; I thought it was around 300, but it turns out they did a more formal count and it was more like 425. That’s funny, given the location and area code, but also pretty dang good for south Snohomish county.

Drivers going by honked a LOT of support. The counter-crowd was functionally nonexistent – we had a couple of drive-by finger-throwers and swearers, but I only saw one (1) MAGAt hat. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I do think I expected a little more than that.

There was also one fash hanger-on littleman doing a livestream while walking down the sidewalk through the crowd. I think he only did one run-through – I can’t be sure, but I didn’t spot him a second time, and I was looking. He had a couple of his buds trailing behind him, maybe as bodyguards? They weren’t talking, though.

Littleman himself was going off to his audience of maybe tens about how “pathetic” all these people were with “nothing better to do” on a Saturday afternoon. I really wish I’d turned around and gone into my “aren’t you so pathetic! what a good li’l booklicker! <3” doggie voice before delivering commentary about how if protesting is pathetic showing up to cover a protest must be a whole ‘nother world of pathetic but alas, I didn’t.

There’s always next time.

But yeah, even in Snohomish County, the people going by were overwhelmingly on our side. Overwhelmingly, and enthusiastically. Which isn’t that surprising but is good to have confirmed.

Cascadia Strong, team.

Hm, what else? I’ve got a few other notes:

The GMC dealership next door to the Fashhaus had to set up traffic monitors, because the crowd on sidewalks meant they couldn’t see the road on the way out. We weren’t blocking the driveway at all, we just blocked the view by being there. They weren’t mad – after all, we weren’t protesting them.

Lots of people wanted photos of my sign – both sides, specifically. I think I want to change “DO NOT” on the “DO NOT BUY CARS FROM NAZI ASSHOLES” to “DON’T” though, because:

DON’T buy
CARS from
NA-zi
ASS-holes

…is a good chant rhythm. Repeat the set three times, then “Don’t! Buy! their CARS!” over the same beat count, and you’ve got a nice little bit going, I think.

One of the few pro-Tesla cretins who did show up drove by the crowd a couple of times in their Incel Camino with a big I <3 ELON sign, but I couldn’t help but notice that they’d debadged the skip truck. No Tesla logo to be seen.

Hilarious.

We had a couple of T-Rex brigade people show up, that’s always fun. I also managed to completely miss that other people I know where there. From talking with them on Monsterdon afterwards, I literally walked by them multiple times and didn’t notice. But, well, I suppose that wasn’t the point.

Anyway, all in all, two hours, overwhelming enough support to help a bit with the ol’ morale, plus the weather held and we biked there so got in some good exercise. Not a bad day.

Next major event up are the Hands Off!/All Out protests on the 5th. I’ll have a post up about it on Monday; find your local and show up. It won’t be specifically Elon Musk this time, it’ll be about the whole Trump administration, and these have to keep happening and keep getting bigger.

See you on Saturday, I hope.

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