The main thing, before we get to the robot, is to try to find time to listen to the “Give a Little Whistle” episode of This American Life.  One of my fellow protesters sent me the link yesterday and I was skeptical — who has an hour for a podcast?

But boy am I glad I dove in.

The first half is the story of a brave whistleblower ordered to instruct ICE recruits to ignore the Fourth Amendment. It is gripping.

The second half of the second half — Oscar’s story — would make even Carl gasp at what our country has become.  Which is why he won’t listen, but that shouldn’t stop you.

Both are stories from inside ICE, and they are (alert the pun police) chilling.

Okay, so there we were, hundreds of us protesting joyfully, peacefully on Miami Beach — one of the hundreds of new locations that had not held protests for NO KINGS rallies before — the movement is growing — when down the sidewalk came one of those little delivery robots programmed to avoid hitting anything.  In a year or two, it will likely be able to leap over impediments or even organize a protest of his own — perhaps reason with the protesters — “I come to bury Caeser (and deliver this Caesar salad and a burger), not to praise him!” — but yesterday it was completely flummoxed, as various protesters tried to figure out how to get it to carry a protest sign for the rest of the day.

It was fun, as was the entire event.  My little group of five — one of whom, aged 60, had never in his life been to a protest before and rather enjoyed it — were talking economic gloom when a health-conscious solo guy near us lowered his mask and told us that Nero was also a terrible ruler, burning half of Rome, but that the empire bounced back just fine for a few hundred years and we will too.

He declaimed about Hadrian, as well, and seemed a little crazy, but not all that much, and, as he and my friends were going back and forth, I kept looking at him: I feel like I know this guy.  Finally there was a lull and I said — Do we know each other?  You look awfully familiar.  So we looked at each other for a while, and I said my name, and he said his first name — which began to bring my memory of him back into focus — and it turns out that he had stayed with me for a week or two when he first came to Florida 40 years ago.  We hadn’t seen each other since.  He now writes for the Daily Kos.

There’s no point to that story other than to say these protests are fun!  Everyone is in the mood to talk with whoever happens to be next to them, everyone is elated as passing cars honk in support, everyone is buoyed to realize that the movement will just build and build until we win.  And you just might run into an old friend or make some new ones.

THE BILLBOARD

Yesterday, I wrote about the billboard that Leaving MAGA will be erecting near Mar-A-Lago.  Thanks to those of you who chipped in!  And to those who offered suggestions. After 24 hours, we’re 30% of the way there. If you can chip in a few dollars — it doesn’t have to be much, and it can be anonymous if you prefer — please help.

Thanks, also, to Gloria who reminded me of this perfect SNL skit (6 minutes).

It pretty much says it all.

It’s hard leaving MAGA!

So it was exciting to see people around the country spreading the word:

DOUGLASVILLE, GEORGIA

DENVER, COLORADO

BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA

JEFFERSONVILLE, INDIANA

From Facebook:

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We had a Leaving Maga speaker in Southern Indiana! It was in Jeffersonville IN, a lady speaker but she also had a booth with information about your organization, mentioned Rich by name! And then we also had a local politician who has changed his political affiliation from GOP to independent, who ALSO referenced Leaving Maga! It’s spreading like wildfire in Hoosier territory!

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KINGWOOD, TEXAS

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA

VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON

Of course, most of the signs people brought yesterday were not about Leaving MAGA.

You’ve doubtless seen a million by now, so I’ll just share this one I had not seen before being held up in 19º weather in Freeport, Maine:

CORRECTION

I want the less creative route, just buying a few, including this one:

I am only slightly embarrassed to report that Pope Leo likely never said that.

I say, “only slightly,” because I’m almost certain that, even if he never have said it, he’s thought it.

Still, I wanted to set the record straight.

Have a great Sunday — and try to find time to listen (and share?) that Give a Little Whistle episode from This American Life.