My wife and I attended the No Kings protest in O'fallon Illinois

[The Polack MSgt]

Small city (population 32k) in the south western corner of the state.

This area is kinda purple, it's part of the St Louis metro area, but borders deep red Trumpistan.

Protesters were 2 or 3 deep on both sides of the street for 4 blocks by City Hall.

An older gentleman passed me with a counter/clicker thing tallying the folks on the street. When I asked, he told me that he had half a block left to count on the side of the street we were on - and had counted 390 people.

There were about as many folks on the other side, so 800ish people in that little rural city was pretty impressive.

The county seat of Belleville IL had a larger protest, and even freaking Waterloo IL a Trump strong hold deep in the corn and soy fields of Monroe County had a hundred plus voicing our displeasure at the fucking criminal regime in power today.

I was decked out in veteran swag and holding a sign comparing the Trumpists to Nazis, because I'm not very creative but I am mad AF

[The Polack MSgt]

1. My wife was scrolling her phone and told me that the Waterloo No Kings protest had over 300 in attendance

So, even better

[Martin Eden]

2. I attended SIU-Carbondale in the late 70's - early 80's

Outside the college town, Southern Illinois is The South.

[The Polack MSgt]

3. More like Kentucky than Chicago for sure.

[Martin Eden]

5. So. Illinois does have a wonderful redeeming quality: Shawnee National Forest

I still go down there from my home in Chicagoland for hiking and camping.

Kentucky, too. Red River Gorge is a hiking mecca.

[10 Turtle Day]

7. I was in the Shawnee National Forest earlier in the week

Hiking “snake road” / USFS Road 345. Saw lots of various snakes, salamanders, turtles, birds, etc. Beautiful area!

[Stacey Grove]

9. Illinois has many redeeming qualities

[ShazzieB]

11. Illitucky!

[Emile]

4. Very familiar to that area. I used to drive there

every Saturday night for Auto Zone. I would deliver to Belleville, and then Collinsville.

[FoxNewsSucks]

6. We work in some of those little towns a few times a year,

Used to stay at the Drury on Green Mt Rd before I started just getting a big AirBnB in St Louis for the week.

Mascoutah, Red Bud, Pinckneyville and Milstadt are where we go most often. It's also the same going west from St Louis out by Pacific & St Clair. The people we are there to work with are all some of the nicest people anywhere, and I'm pretty sure most aren't MAGAts.

But in the diners, bars, shops etc outside the city it is as bad as being in Western KS. I still see tRump stickers and people wearing those fucking hats on every trip.

So I was glad to read this, and wish the tRumphumping fascists would wake the fuck up.

[LilElf70]

8. Displeasure at the fucking criminal regime in power today?

Nailed it

[LAS14]

10. Could you post your count...

... here?

[Paper Roses]

12. Small town just north of Boston. Huge rally for us.

By the count of 2 fairly local news reporters, we had approx. 800 people. I believe this number. I went early and waited for people to arrive. Many came early since there is little parking in the area but just before the advertised start, the crowd started to show up. Great group of people, the size surprised me.
Our local FB pages are dominated by MAGA idiots. I bet they are livid about the showing since they dominate the pages.
Proud of my town participation, I hope it makes a difference.

[Alice Kramden]

13. Good to hear

Gives me hope- Thanks for posting

[Cha]

14. Wonderful Encouraging News from

your neck of the Woods, TPM!

People are Pissed All Over the Country.. Not Only Us Dems

[barbtries]

15. regarding your sign:

it's an extremely apt comparison. the dehumanization of human beings across the board, the incessant propaganda, the brutal antics of ICE: straight out of the nazi playbook.

those of us who love and will fight for democracy are in a perilous place. My hope is we put that equation on the other side, and defeat them while I'm still alive.

[murielm99]

16. We were in front of the old courthouse

in Oregon, IL. We protest there a lot. Our numbers are growing in this red area.

There were lots of signs, lots of inflatable suits. There were people of all ages. There were people with walkers and wheelchairs. There were people sitting in lawn chairs. There was cheerful noise. We had around 650 people, I think. I will revise that number if I hear anything else.

[jonstl08]

17. Downtown St Louis

I live in Southwest St Louis county. There were a bunch of protests near my house. Even in deep red St Charles county (St Peters to be exact) there was an estimated 4K people out there in the rain. I myself went to the march in Downtown St Louis. No idea what the estimate number of people were but it was a lot. Great turnout in the rain.

[The Polack MSgt]

18. It just started to rain about 20 minutes before the protest was scheduled to end

But nobody left early and most stuck around until later.

Super calm on all fronts as well.

No big police presence, just a couple patrolmen by the city hall, smokin' & jokin' with the crowd, not many MAGAts driving by, and no counter protesters mucking things up.

5 stars - will protest again