Photo: A highway overpass stretches across the middle of the frame. A pedestrian walkway on the near side of the overpass is guarded by chain link fencing. Behind the fencing several banners are spread, reading as follows (except in all caps) (l to r): "Rise Up. Resist." "Democracy" "Big Beautiful Bill Hurts You [Betrayal]" "Resist" "Rise Up. Save Our Constitution * Not Cons" "Stop Masked Gestapo" There are several people tending the banners on the walkway that you can't see, and a couple of protesters waving at the cars passing beneath them. There are cars moving across the bottom of the frame, beneath the overpass, in both directions. Pro Tip for Photographers hiking through hip high grass across highway shoulders and medians to photograph people protesting on overpasses: wear long pants and insect repellant. There are a lot of ticks in Missouri. They pile on quick. [ *files this under: Next Time I'll…* ]

The #PopUpDemonstration on the Overpass
NW Blue Parkway Bridge Over I-470
1 July 2025
#LeesSummit, #Missouri

Photo: This is Dave. Dave's sign says, "FUCK ICE," in bold black letters against a white background. Dave's khaki ballcap says, "Resist Fascism." Dave drove quite a ways to be here.

Photo: This is Cat. Cat's sign, printed in black and red ink on white, reads, "Hands Off! Science / handsoffnow.org " Cat is a scientist.

This is Paisley. Paisley holds a hand-wrought sign in turquoise and red that reads "Honk [with sound line blaring from the "k"] For our Republic." Paisley, an organizer for Indivisible Kansas City, wants you know that the group will be staffing a table at the First Friday celebration in Kansas City's Crossroads District where they'll be soliciting and recording first-person accounts of the negative impacts Americans are experiencing as a result of the current administration's disastrous corruption, ill-advised "policies," or fascist proclivities.

Photo: This is Ashley. Ashley's hand-lettered sign reads, in purple and red letters, "Schmidt & Hawley Voted For Medicaid Cuts." (This is true and well worth remembering, especially since Hawley spent a LOT of money on television ads across the state over the past month to announce he was *defending* medical services to Missourians *and* told reporters this past week: "This has been an unhappy episode here in Congress, this effort to cut Medicaid. And I think, frankly, my party needs to do some soul-searching. If you want to be a working-class party, you’ve got to deliver for working-class people. You cannot take away health care from working people. And unless this is changed going forward, that is what will happen in coming years. So I’m going to do everything I can to stop that." Exactly one day later, he voted to take health care away from the people of his state. One day. So if that was "everything he could do to stop it," that speaks poorly of his, um stamina, and you should not vote him ever again. Nor should buy or read any book by him that purports to describe /Manhood/ or promote "The Masculine Virtues America Needs."

Signs and Wonders No. 4
#PopUpDemonstration
1 July 2025
#LeesSummit, #Missouri
Atten: ‪@paisleyplanet.bsky.social‬
All: See alt text for "Honk for our Republic" for an important message from Paisley.

Photo: This is Mike. At every demonstration, it seems that there is at least one protester who proudly raises the American flag to affirm that the demonstrators are motivated by patriotism as well as strong personal antipathy to (depending on the protester) fascism, bigotry, racism, misogyny, monopoly capitalism, or unbridled greed; and attesting to their faith that America is not inextricably bound to those monstrosities. At this demonstration, that is Mike, shown here holding a large flag by its staff in one hand and waving to passing motorists and their passengers with the other. A large blue pick up is passing very close to him. Three red lights are suspended on a yardarm across the intersection (the left turn signal (probably also red) is blocked by the flag's staff). Behind the flag: blue sky.

Signs and Wonders No. 3
#PopUpDemonstration
1 July 2025
#LeesSummit, #Missouri
A star-spangled banner yet waving, above …?

Photo: This is Jana. Jana's carefully lettered navy blue sign reads, "Big Betrayal Bill / Billionaires Win / We Lose." (The Senate had approved the "big" bill, returning it to the House earlier in the day, on a 51-50 vote.)

Photo: This is Pam. Pam's hand-lettered sign reads, "Love [with a heart for the "o"] Not Hate Makes America Great" The flip side carries a different message. "But this," Pam says, "is my favorite."

Photo: This is Carole. Carole's sign contains just four letters: "T.A.C.O." The periods verifying that this does not refer to the delicious Mexican staple, but rather the acronym coined by Wall Street investors to describe the administration's tariff "strategy:" Trump Always Chickens Out.

Photo: This is Lenny. Lenny's two-panel hi-viz yellow/green sign reads, "Due Process [on the left panel, and] Breakfast of Champion Democracies [on the right]." Well in, Lenny.

Signs and Wonders No. 2
#PopUpDemonstration
1 July 2025
#LeesSummit, #Missouri

Photo: A person in a curly haired white wig and long white fake beard wears a stars & stripes top hat with matching shirt. He carries a poster on a yard stick featuring the iconic Uncle Sam pointing and saying, "I Want You!" Another sign, hanging from a string around his neck, reads simply, "FUCK TRUMP." He wears blue jeans. A cell phone is attached to the top of the Fuck-Trump sign, with the camera pointing outward. There is a bandage wrapped around his left arm, an artifact of an assault by a MAGA reactionary at another demonstration this previous month. This is Uncle Sam Andy. I've seen him at a lot of demonstrations this year, but we haven't talked before. As I approached him at this one, he asked me, through his bull horn, "Are you friend or foe?" Or something similar. As I started to get close enough to respond, however, he said, "Oh I've seen you before." Uncle Sam Andy's signage is pretty blunt, but his demeanor is friendly, even jolly, as he engages drivers in the passing cars and trucks. It's just when you walk straight up to him, as I did, that he gets a little defensive, he says. Then he describes the encounter in which his arm was injured. "It's just a deep bruise, you know. So I try not to overuse it."

Signs and Wonders No. 1
#PopUpDemonstration
1 July 2025
#LeesSummit, #Missouri
Uncle Sam Andy (speaking through a bull horn): "You don't have to say, 'Fuck Trump,' out loud. You can say it to yourself quietly."
Uncle Sam Andy is a regular at Kansas City Area anti-fascist events.

Photo: Looking northward along NW Blue Parkway. In the foreground, Mark grins widely, holding a sign reading, "DOGE stole All Your Tax & Private Data," over the head Beth, who laughs while holding a sign reading, "Republicans are Cowards Liars & Thieves." Next to them, Melinda holds a sign on black poster board with the words "We Are Not OK" above a chalk drawing of an upside-down American flag (signaling distress) while holding a similarly oriented smaller U.S. flag. Behind them, a couple dozen more demonstrators line the curb and sidewalk also holding signs, waving at drivers and passengers in cars and trucks who are waiting for the light to change. With each batch of vehicles passing through the intersection, one or two horns honk, thumbs are raised, or hands are waved in approval in at least a few of those vehicles. Some passengers lower their windows to shout their approval.

Photo: Looking southward along NW Blue Parkway. In the foreground, Rick raises a sign on hi-viz green posterboard reading, "Hands off! Our Democracy," while chatting with Jana, whose sign reads, "Honk if you [heart] Democracy." Nearby, Lori holds up a sign reading, "When Injustice Becomes Law, Resistance Becomes Duty." Behind them, a couple dozen more demonstrators line the curb and sidewalk also holding signs, waving at drivers and passengers in cars and trucks who are waiting for the light to change.

Indivisible Kansas City continues its #LocalResistance, organizing a well-attended, well-received
#PopUpDemonstration
1 July 2025
#LeesSummit, #Missouri.
Protesters along the west side of NW Blue Parkway from both ends. Additional demonstrators lined the south side of NW Chipman Road to the east.

Tuesday Night Mood.
Sitting down after a birthday dinner with my niece and my family to edit pictures from today's #PopUpDemonstration in #LeesSummit, #Missouri, where the turn out was good and the people wonderful and I am grateful for all of that, but I'm also thinking that ...

I heard this am one of the news said #popupdemonstration !
They are very well organized. Getting bigger at every demonstration!