Chris Castelot Russia Occupies<p>I was at the <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/Albuquerque" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Albuquerque</span></a> <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/NM" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NM</span></a> <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/handsoff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>handsoff</span></a> rally on Saturday. The local news coverage was totally absent. I am not a crowd counting specialist but the civic center was overflowing in spite of bad weather. Turnout was in the thousands. Lots of good energy and a wide range of age groups and issues were present.</p><p>I have no confidence in what the legacy media covers, or in this case, actively chooses not to cover. At this point I think they are a huge distraction and part of the fantasy of America going back to some previous time of “normalcy”. It’s not going to happen. Those of us who are committed to standing up to the trump authoritarians need to realize this. We are on our own and must find new ways to speak truth to power!</p>