You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.
Two blocks down from our little residential hideout, crowds are gathering at the Augusta County Courthouse.
We're here for the 'Hands Off' demonstration against . . . well, against a lot of things, the whole Musk/Trump dismantling of the US government, entirely illegally be it said but with no resistance from the Republican wankydoodles in the Congress. 'Executive Orders' indeed:, closing down whole essential agencies with single demagogic signatures . . . each one held up for applause!
Staunton's own Circuit Courthouse is on Beverley St, but this complex of Augusta County District Courts was built in the early 1950s, was allegedly never properly maintained, and is falling apart, and it's taken major legal judgments to convince Augusta County to man up and build a new, functioning one in their own capital, Verona, just up the road. (There is an Augusta County Juvenile and Domestic Relations courthouse just round the corner that is still active.)
The main Augusta County Courthouse, this one here, is very different -- it was created by the brilliant Staunton architect T J Collins to a 'Beaux Arts' style, completed in 1901.
At a rough count, the homemade signs are focused on something like 10 or 12 different issues, from cutting back Social Security (to remove all the 'fraud and waste'!); removal of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion from all government agencies and websites; defunding important US agencies like USAID and VOA, NOAA and FEMA, Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare, the IRS, NATO, the EU and other allies; proposing Greenland/Panama/Canada annexations; trashing due process in general and especially for immigrants being kidnapped and deported; the 'tariff' taxes on US consumers, changing regularly and chaotically destroying peoples' retirement IRAs; putting truly sick nobodies in command of the nation's health protections, and of the environment as well, of course, not to forget the Climate Crisis (all mention of which has been removed from government websites).
And some of us take particular umbrage at the uneducated DOGE and Trump freaks threatening attacks on our universities for not focusing on extreme right-wing ideologies to be provided to them by the commissars.
And of course, just general fascist authoritarianism at the bidding of an obvious looney-tunes, a parade of vastly incompetent lickspittles, and squads of so-called 'DOGE' grifters and highschool dropouts pretending to be representing the US government.
So as here, some protestors just generalize the many criminal issues with 'Save Our Country'!
There are inspiring elocutions coming from the speaking platform on the porch, and to the extent that we can hear them clearly, they are . . . inspiring.
A bit of 'preaching to the choir' there, but it does help to summon up a sense of solidarity, and momentum perhaps.
[To be honest, I can't really hear much of what he's saying. It's bound to be good though.]
The intersection here is a through-route (VA 250, on the ancient Shenandoah Trail), so there's a lot of traffic passing by, and three-quarters or more of them are honking their horns, waving out the windows, and being cheered on by our sidewalk crowd.
There was one really sour note to our passing automotive audiences, which we'll describe a little later.
The local press estimated the turnout today as about 500 people, which looks about right.
There is a bit of an age imbalance amongst our politifying colleagues, but with issues like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and retirement savings, that's not a surprise.
That sign seems to sum it all up!
The region of western Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, is largely rural and agricultural, and out in the countryside, mostly peopled by worthy citizens probably culturally very different from ourselves. In Staunton and some of the other semi-urban communities, the population seems to be generally more tuned in.
But when we throw in Social Security, Medicaid, and stockmarkets crashing the IRAs, we've probably got quite a mixed irate citizenry here today. Like in Paris in 1789, maybe.
'This machine kills fascists', referring to a guitar apparently, is stirring and heartfelt presumably, but not entirely clear how that would be done.
Well said, and nicely presented.
We've seen a number of mentions of ICE, usually joined to words like 'Cruelty'. That's always seemed a rather unstudied part of the news in general -- what kind of people would be comfortable committing this kind of senseless violence on vulnerable poor people? For that matter, what kind of people would have signed up for the Customs and Border Patrol in the first place? Bored librarians? High school teachers? Unemployed former football players?
[Perhaps retiring Special Forces vets who couldn't decide between the CBP or local SWAT teams. Hopeful either way to be permitted to express themselves and use their special skills.]
Here are two protestors who've forgotten to bring handmade signs about what they're protesting.
Hold it . . . that's us. Thanks for the photo, Margaret.
One may be mistaken, but that appears to be a Dennis Kucinich tee shirt there.
And we forgot to mention those who were protesting the Trump betrayal of Ukraine.
And we also forgot to mention the assault on women's rights, especially abortion and (soon) birth control.
And we also forgot to mention the attacks on same-sex marriages and transgender folks. Oh, and the attacks on brave judges and honest law enforcement people!
That part of the district complex with the lower roof, we've been told, holds the 1950s county jail, which was seldom maintained, has long been unused, and is collapsing into the Lewis Creek running underneath it, in good times and bad.
A few additional photos here . . .
'I've seen smarter Cabinets at Ikea!'
We've moved along a bit, having noticed that there are no Staunton police in evidence so far, and we thought we'd pace out the perimeter and see if they've secreted themselves somewhere, ready to spring into action in case of need.
So we've been up a few blocks near the police station and back round from another direction, and we've only seen one police officer, a female officer who parked nearby and answered a call to assist an elderly lady who needed help getting into a truck, and then left.
The vast majority of passing cars and trucks were honking their horns and waving out the windows, but there were a few unhappy folks who wished to make themselves known. A later complaint to the police cited an irate man who brandished a gun at the crowd nearby, possibly in some sort on unwarranted panic, and this fellow in the red truck was exercising his constitutional right to wave his middle finger around and shout out some very unsavory vituperations.
At a certain point, we were sitting with Kristin and Margaret on the steps of a doorway on this side of the street . . .
. . . looking for a better vantage for some more inclusive photos.
As we were sitting there, a local towing truck sped by with three awful looking men shouting out more unsavory vituperations, and pumping out from a large exhaust pipe raised above the cab a bilious black cloud of smoke that passed over everyone nearby, including us.
What they were doing is apparently a known Maga approach to public politics called a 'Rolling Coal' attack.
Here's a good view of the event, and where better to stage it than in front of this classic old Collins courthouse (which is on the National Register of Historical Places).
Somewhere along that front row of the sidewalk, we later learned, was a very active and skilled journalist named Chris Graham, founder of the Augusta Free Press (we'd never seen him before and can't pick him out here).
It was from his follow-up articles in the AFP that we learned more about the creepy black smoke chaps, and it's not a pleasant tale. When they first came by, smoking out the sidewalk participants, they bee-lined several streets over and were stopped by a policeman not far from the police station. We were told that they looked chastened at that time.
It turned out, however, that the policeman gave them a warning and turned them loose, and subsequently they made two more passes, the third of which got us as well. They were not charged with anything, until later Chris Graham brought complaints to a magistrate who did issue a reckless driving warrant. The driver was a tow-truck operator with a very checkered past, who had been kicked off the police's rotation list of eligible, licensed tow truck companies a year ago.
Journalist Graham has followed up with at least three well-written articles in the Augusta Free Press, describing the event and investigating further background into the people involved. They're cited here in chronological order: on 16 April, 17 April, and 23 April (there may have been more) (and they're free).
Downtown Staunton in weekend mode, with the bollards out all along Beverley Street for on-street walking about and dining.
Back to Montgomery Hall Park
Spring is springing out, and we're off to see the efflorescing vegetation in our favorite mini-jungle, once again . . .
. . . bound for the Fern Gulley (9 April 2025).
Starting out on the Scout Trail up to the summit of 'Black Dog Mountain' (soi-disant).
Out to the western perimeter of the park and . . .
. . . turning north into the maze of well-planned convolutions and corkscrews of the trails that provide us with a good hour's or hour-and-a-half's walk within an 800- by 600-meter semi-untamed woodland.
Sparse vegetation at the moment, but it's coming along.
We're passing 'the tepee', with its newest accretion from a year ago, a faux-split rail fence.
The tepee (somebody's hobby evidently), always being improved
Down to the bottom of Fern Gulley along the blue-marked Scout Trail, plodding up . . .
. . . towards its connection to the Expressway Trail (that one's yellow-marked).
That's the junction with the Expressway Trail, which we are crossing over to continue up the so far unimproved gulley leading farther up the hill.
We've noted some signs that there have been preliminary efforts to clean up this part of the gulley as well,
but at the moment . . .
. . . it can be a little rough going in some places. Like here, for example, with a lot of broken glass half-buried underfoot.
But here's another sign that someone's begun taking remedial steps.
Topping out onto the Expressway again, which has come all the way round in a couple of big loops, and . . .
. . . is now headed back in the other direction again.
This marks a crossover point where we can continue on the Expressway or shift to the much shorter Yulee (red) Trail back towards the carpark.
Today we're continuing on the longer route.
-- What's the hold up? -- Coming, coming!!
The spring greenery is much more advanced over on this side.
And some other colors as well
Pink dogwood, perhaps
We're sharing the edge of our space here with an extensive 18-'hole' Disc Golf course. ('Mind your head!')
Back to the southern parking lot, a hour and a half well spent.
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All rights reserved, all wrongs avenged. Posted 26 April 2025.
