CARTOON: Grim Business On The Frontline Of Picketing Pro-Genocide Democrats

Her smile froze as she silently gazed across the street, then wandered back to the herd, leaving me alone once again with my sign. Gosh, was it something I said?

“Since October 7th we've undergone the ultimate mask-off moment and honestly I mean Palestine is kind of easy it's something to unite around for people who might have disagreed on the Syria Dirty War, Ukraine and so many other issues — covid. But this one's just so obvious that you know if you're not standing with Palestinians as they're facing genocide you're evil, there's no other way to say it.”

— Max Blumenthal, Sabby Sabs podcast, 10/30/24

Sign Art & Photos by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink

As the unraveling 2024 bipartisan election catastrophe has proven, dependence upon the cynically simplistic lesser-of-two evils argument, is not only evil, it paves the way to even greater evil where nice people promote depraved behavior.

By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (11/1/24)

Throughout the summer the local Democratic Party in my small Midwestern town has held rush hour curbside rallies every Wednesday afternoon for the Harris/Walz campaign. The local party is well funded with a nice glassed-in office located — appropriately — in a former bank building.

I haven’t been able to make it to every rally, but I have done solo picketing of the party four or five times. The local Democrats have bundles of pricey, uniform white-on-blue printed signs touting Harris and various slogans calling for protecting Social Security, rejecting hate and one we may get to see if they truly believe: “Accept Election Results”.

There have usually been 15 to 30 people, though a couple weeks ago there must have been close to 100. With the exception of a few in their 40s, everyone has been well beyond retirement age. There were no young people.

None.

Zero.

Zilch.

Whenever I picketed I brought homemade signs focused on the issues of war and genocide. I would stand on the curbside, 20 yards or so past rally participants to minimize chance of any confrontations.

The first couple times I showed up people looked confused and a tad flustered: “What the heck? Who’s that guy?”

The second time one fellow came to ask why I was there. I said I detest genocide and any politician or leader, like Kamala Harris, who supports it. I asked what he thought of the United States under the leadership of Biden and Harris and the Democrats in Congress actively assisting in the unrelenting slaughter of thousands of innocent children, toddlers and infants in Gaza with American bombs.

He didn’t really have an answer. Looking down at his feet he wandered back to the rally holding his Harris sign down by his side.

On Wednesday — appropriately, Halloween Eve and the last rally before Tuesday’s election — I located myself at the corner, downstream of the Democrats so I could give a bipartisan condemnation of war.

A woman with a “Roe, Roe, Roe Your Boat” sign sporting two American flags moved down from the group to within a dozen feet of me and began manically waving her sign in front of mine as traffic approached.

After a few minutes I said: “You’re being a good Democrat, trying to block my right to free speech.”

“No I’m not,” she replied, a bit flustered.

“Please, that is obviously what you are doing,” I replied. “But I want to thank you for doing so.”

She looked confused.

“I appreciate it,” I explained. “Because when you try to block my message by waving your sign in front of mine, you actually draw attention to mine. People are curious, ‘what truth is that guy saying that woman is trying to keep me from seeing’.”

I observed that when I was once the co-chair of my county Democratic Party years ago, Democrats (more or less) believed in free speech, but of course they are now the party of speech suppression.

“It’s great you are following party policy on the frontline,” I observed.

She looked flummoxed.

But the most significant part of our conversation had to do with Biden/Harris policy. At one point she noted that Harris would be better than Trump on the climate crisis.

“Oh, so you support Harris’s reversal on fracking, the single dirtiest method of oil extraction, which she now supports?” I asked. “And what about Biden blowing up the Nord Stream gas lines, the largest single act of industrial sabotage and eco-terrorism in the history of the world?”

She looked at me blankly. Clearly, she had no idea what Nord Stream was.

Running contrary to recent history, she argued Trump would be worse on war and peace.

“You mean worse than Biden killing off a million in Ukraine and the genocide slaughtering tens of thousands of kids in Gaza, even now as we speak?” I replied. “And, you know, Biden sent Boris Johnson to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy to tell him to back out of the peace agreement he and Putin had just initialed.

“That’s what triggered the war that neocons in both parties had been pushing for since Jimmy Carter, in order to fragment Russia and grab their valuable resources.”

“The ‘who’?” she asked.

A ‘deer in the headlights’ moment. She didn’t know who the neocons were. Or maybe Jimmy Carter?

She stopped waving her sign, looked up and down the street for a minute or two and wandered back to the herd up the street. She handed off her sign to another woman and crossed the street.

Earlier this summer I had almost exactly the same conversation with the guy manning the Democratic Party table at the county fair.

Was it something I said?

Glancing up at my sign, another woman came up and said, “I probably agree with what you are saying about war.”

“Great, but genocide is the worst of war,” I replied. “And there’s no such thing as a ‘lesser’ or ‘nicer’ or even a ‘joyful’ genocider.”

She nodded in cautious agreement.

“Kamala has pledged to keep shipping off our bombs to Israel to murder kids,” I continued. “Genocide is a war crime and supporting a genocider is complicity with genocide, which is a war crime.”

Her smile froze as she silently gazed across the street, then wandered back to the herd, leaving me alone once again with my sign.

Gosh, was it something I said?

Now I am sure these ladies and the rest of the Harris sign wavers on the street that day are nice people; good grandmas and grandpas. Lovely neighbors. They’re college-educated, retired professionals. The very banality of evil.

I, admit it: I’m a political nerd. I read a lot and am curious about the role of Big Money and the CIA intel state in our politics and daily lives. I study the ever widening gap between who we say we are and what we really are. But really, if you are going out to campaign for someone you should at least be somewhat familiar with the details of what is going on and who — and what — your candidate is.

These Kamala campaigners made Trumpster MAGAheads look like political science majors by comparison.

But for these active Democrats everything distills down to the liberal MSNBC corporate hive mind, where uncomfortable facts go unseen and unspoken and all is reduced to ‘what about Trump?’

As the unraveling 2024 bipartisan election catastrophe has proven, dependence upon the cynically simplistic lesser-of-two-evils argument, is not only evil, it paves the way to even greater evil where nice people promote and campaign for depraved behavior.

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GEORGE GALLOWAY: A Dose Of Straight-Up Reality For Harris/Walz Voters

“If you're going to ask me if I'll be happy if Donald Trump is in the White House after the 5th of November, my answer is the same as it was in 2016: I'm not happy that Donald Trump will be the president of the United States but I'm very happy indeed that Kamala Harris will not. Indeed I'm even happier that Kamala Harris will not than I was that Hillary Clinton was not when I first said that back in 2016. It’s not a question of what Donald Trump might do, it's a question of what Kamala Harris is doing right now! And if you reward what she is doing right now by giving her your vote, you become complicit in her crimes. Your fingers will be stained with the blood that pools all around her in a kind of ocean of blood. Of Lebanese blood. Of Palestinian blood. Of the blood of women and children.

“Anyone who votes for Kamala Harris is voting for genocide and nobody can justify voting for genocide by claiming that if they don't somebody else will get in who might be guilty of the same crimes as she. First of all he [Trump], wasn't guilty of the same crimes as she the last time he was president. That's a simple matter of fact. Secondly, although he says many wildly contradictory things, like a stopped clock he's going to be right twice a day and two of those times are sure to be the bringing to an end of the war in Ukraine, which has killed a million people. A million people and burned hundreds of billions of your taxpayer dollars Euros and pounds.”

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The Mother Of All Talk Shows (10/30/24)

A rocket through Netanyahu's bedroom window. Big Dada Amin Lammy and the execution of free speech. And for you, Kamala, the war is over.

17-minute video

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A Few Tips For Making Protest Signs

By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (11/1/24)

God it would be nice if things calmed down after Tuesday’s election. But that ain’t gonna happen. We’re just coming to the end of Phase One. No matter which side ‘wins’ the people will lose and a massive crackdown is coming. As ugly as this past year has been, it is only a preview. Given the corruption of both parties and the rot of the entire system, the only chance for democracy will be found on the street.

Handmade signs and banners are a quick and inexpensive way to make powerful statements. Here are a few things I have found helpful:

• You can find really nice, inexpensive rigid, folding display boards at WalMart for $2-5 that make for great handheld or stick-mounted signs. NOTE: There may be times and places where use of sticks could be problematic or perhaps even illegal. I use a carpenter’s stapler to attach signs and carry a Leatherman pocket tool to easily remove the staples to hand carry a sign.

• Refillable Liquitex markers are really great for writing sign messages. They come in a wide variety of colors and shades. The square tips are a little awkward at first, but do a great job with lettering and filling in spaces. Shoe polish is another good, quick and cheap alternative.

• Sharpees are not only great for Donald Trump’s manically egotistical signature, they are also great for doing messages opposed to Trump and Democratic Party fascism. Carrying one in your pocket to protests can make it possible to edit or quickly come up with new signage at a protest.

• Messages aimed at passing traffic and commuters needs to be very simple so it can be seen at a glance. More detailed messaging can work in marches where there is time to read.

I have a few other ideas for resistance messaging I am looking at. Feel free to copy or tinker with any of the signs I have posted here or in other posts.

If you are at a protest, have your phone pre-set to begin video recording immediately, when — as likely — things get hot.