“If you’re a Facebook resister, that’s good for you,” Kathy Griffin told DCist at the Capital Hilton a few minutes before her ‘protest roast’ of the president. “But these are the people that are willing to get off their butts and get out of their house, even if it’s 1,000 degrees in humidity.”
She’s not wrong. By the time I visited, some of these protesters had gathered in front of the White House—which they’ve taken to calling the “Kremlin Annex”—every single night for nearly two months, since the day Trump returned from that infamous Helsinki trip. October 9th marked the 86th straight day of protest for this small but dedicated group of people determined to get on the president’s nerves. And they have no plans to stop.
“This is a lot of days in a row, and we all have jobs. We work 8-to-5 and then we have dinner and come out here from 7:30-to-9,” says Jeff Morgan, a Washingtonian who estimates he’s come to a few more than half of the protests. “But also it’s kind of a good time, you know?”
Morgan gestured to the crowd behind him, half of which was lined up to meet Kathy Griffin, the other half of which was dancing around to the music that had started playing. They do look like they’re having fun.
“This [protest] is different. While we carry a serious message [in that] we’re standing up for American values, a free press, everything else, we do it in a way that combines music and entertainment with the serious message,” says Alexandra Chalupa, a former Democratic National Committee contractor and one of the organizers of the #KremlinAnnex protest, as it’s known on Twitter. “If we were just out here shouting and chanting every night, it would have lasted one night.”
dcist.com/...
A compendium of protest actions with emphasis on the Kremlin Annex protest in from of the White House 7:30-900 pm ET every day.
EIGHTY-SEVEN days of protest in front of the #KremlinAnnex.
In October 2017, some members of Gays Against Guns began writing Christmas carols about gun violence for an action called GAG Nog. We’d written about a dozen songs when the unthinkable happened—Trump was elected. We quickly turned our brains to music that captured our mood, and survived that very bleak December belting “Donny the Con Man” at Christmas markets around New York.
Mark Thompson heard us at one summer march, and before we knew it we were on Sirius XM’s Make It Plain. By the fall of 2017, we decided it to spin off from GAG. The Reflex became Sing Out, Louise! That may seem odd as a resistance credo, a line from a Broadway show, but to us it resonates: Get out there—make your voice heard! And that’s what we’re all about. We aren’t necessarily pretty, and we’re never polite. We don’t care if you can't sing a note—we want you to take the hymnal and sing along. We are reclaiming our time and having a blast doing it.
www.singoutlouisenyc.org
September featured Kathy Griffin
The performance was part of a series of daily demonstrations that have taken place in front of the White House since President Trump’s meeting in Helsinki, Finland, with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Monday was the 22nd night of the protests, which have been named the Kremlin Annex.
The cast members — who hailed from current and past runs of “Wicked,” “The Lion King,” “Hamilton,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and other shows — belted out songs meant to evoke a political edge or offer a tinge of hope for the hundreds of protesters who are disillusioned by Mr. Trump (who was in New Jersey during the performance). With demonstrators often singing along, the five-song set included climactic Broadway tunes such as “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from “Les Misérables” and “Everybody Rejoice/A Brand New Day” from “The Wiz.”
Ms. O’Donnell, who has been an adversary of Mr. Trump’s for more than a decade, organized the trip with James Wesley, the producer of Sirius XM’s “On Broadway,” and the show’s host, Seth Rudetsky, a fixture of the Broadway scene.
President Trump may have left his Bedminster golf course for the summer, but the first of six "Baby Trump" balloons were inflated just a few miles away in Califon in Hunterdon County.
A New Jersey Hills Media Group video posted to YouTube shows a giant orange baby, holding a cellphone in one hand and wearing nothing but a safety-pinned diaper, tethered to the ground and hovering in the air.
www.nj.com/...
The first two Baby Trump balloons have officially arrived in the New Jersey town where the president spent the first half of the month on vacation, and more are on the way.
And they could go anywhere in the country, Girvan said, as he's looking for good homes around the nation to adopt some of the babies.
"We want to make sure the balloons get put into good hands," he said Wednesday. "If we can locate an organization that's willing and able to have multiple events on a regional level, we're certainly going to consider that."
Girvan said organizations, rather than individuals, will be considered to receive the babies, as he wants them to get as much play as possible. Interested parties can apply at babytrumptour(at)gmail.com.
"With your help and participation, we can share these big cry-babies across America sending Donald Trump and his enablers a powerful message for the next two years if he remains in office," the organizers wrote on Facebook.
www.nj.com/...
This week we speak with General Michael Hayden as well as the guys behind the #KremlinAnnex protests, Adam Parkhomenko, John Aravosis, joined by Jeff Crile. If you like the show, leave us a review! Enjoy and see you next week.
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*Date:* October 9, 2018 at 6:11:30 PM CDT
*Subject:* *Travel print pool report #4 - Rally venue & color*
Motorcade arrived at Mid-America Center at 5:54 PM local time.
More onlookers than expected along motorcade route, given the rain and cold.
First, a group of several dozen anti-Trump demonstrators. Signs included:
"Sex offenders can't liven public housing" with a drawing of the White House at the bottom
"Hate leave our state" over a drawing of Iowa.
Then just down the street, a group of a few dozen Trump supporters, several of whom were wearing MAGA hats.
Pooler picked out one sign that said, "The silent majority stands with Trump."
Other WH aides making the trip and spotted on board AF1 and outside venue include Dan Scavino, Derek Lyons, and Bill Stepien.
Pool now holding inside the arena, which holds roughly 9,000. Seats mostly full, save for luxury boxes and several with obstructed views. Standing room on the floor just over half full. Will tweet a photo from @Jordanfabian.
"Memory" and "Rockin' in the Free World" blaring over the loudspeakers ahead of the rally and the crowd has begun The Wave.
Rally is open press but pool will send a handful of highlights.
I’ve been happy doing this daily exercise from the beginning, including updates and relevant associated protests, and may continue doing this, but also would like to make this protest group a collective exercise in DailyKos, perhaps for those more DC-local. Let me know if you want to join the Kremlin Annex group by kos-mail, let me know.