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Bill n DC's avatar

Excellent! Thanks, Ed. Love your wife 😁💚. Everyone everywhere ✊. Great crowd here in DC! Good crowd in Des Moines. Probably so in Iowa City but haven’t got reports yet. Ralph, I agree with you on reporters low balling numbers, but Ames friend did say he thought it was less than DC. 😉😁. Signs were great. I wore my RayGun shirt Dismantle the Oligarchy ✊

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Ed Tibbetts's avatar

I think she’s great, too, Bill.

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Warren K Weber's avatar

Thank you for the article. Living on the west edge of Iowa we attended the rally in Omaha. Several thousand people attended and what was obvious was there were all ages who attended and displayed in various ways a long list of issues that have emerged in the last two and half months. Hoping that all of these concerns come together in everyone’s communications with their state and national legislators and the next election.

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Rabbi Henry Jay Karp's avatar

Great article, Ed! I restacked it!

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Brock Earnhardt's avatar

Ed, you're still a great reporter! Let's hope there will be more and more like this.

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Ed Tibbetts's avatar

Thanks, Brock. So good to hear from you. I hope you and your family are well.

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Ralph Rosenberg's avatar

Ames Trib reporter underestimated our crowd. It was closer to a thousand. The attendees were not your usual bunch of activists. The attendees were not 'regular' Democratic Party types from Ames. People drove from all over north central Iowa.

https://www.amestrib.com/story/news/2025/04/05/ames-residents-protest-trump-musk-in-hands-off-rally-at-bandshell/82950041007/

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Ed Tibbetts's avatar

I got the same impression here, Ralph. Not the ‘usual suspects’ you see at these kind of rallies. Lots more. By the way, crowd estimates are tough to do.

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dave fuller's avatar

Ed, I was glad to see you at the rally, but, no GOP politicians. The folks at the rally are pissed off that government no longer cares about the daily problems they are facing everyday. Musk and Trump are taking the country into dangerous terrain and nobody in the GOP care. I pray and hope that you and the media will start to listen to the American folks, and what they are fighting for, rather than what kind of policy they are writing to kill the AMERICAN DREAM. JOURNALISM MUST STOP KISSING TRUMP'S BACKSIDE AND LISTEN TO THE OTHER 99%. Keep going to more rallies and you will learn much more than listening to FOX NEWS. Keep up the good work.

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Matt Trimble (he/him/his)'s avatar

Thanks for covering this Ed. It was encouraging to see lots of new people who were never politically active until now. Your work is greatly appreciated.

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Marlin "Hap" Volz Jr's avatar

There was a noisy demonstration near my place in Surprise Arizona this morning.

Hap

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Scott Tunnicliff's avatar

Great article. Important to remember that very few in our country are "pro-fraud, pro-waste or pro-abuse." It really isn't a left v right thing--- it is a pro- constitution thing.

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Ralph Rosenberg's avatar

There was some discussion on what to do next, to keep up the momentum. There was some post-rally discussion on the need for sign-ups, like through QR codes, to thank attendees and to stay connected. Lots of newbies in our event.

Media at our event loved the posters. I wondered if not having a singular message would hurt. I think having all these creative signs was great.

Yes, I am bad at crowd estimates.

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John R. Martin's avatar

Sorry I missed you. My pictures aren't as good as yours! Thanks for the report.

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Ed Tibbetts's avatar

I didn’t know you were there. That’s great. We’ll have to catch up

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