Donald Trump and stupid climate denial maga Republicans are creating Canada as a scapegoat for wildfires? Stupid Is As Stupid Does!

Re: Out of control Canadian wildfires are caused by climate change:

Heather Delany Reese: While Canada was battling devastating wildfires and smoke spread deep into both Canada and the United States, Donald Trump in his typically cruel style decided to weigh in. 

Not to offer support or express sympathy for the families forced from their homes. He wasn't thinking about the countless times Canadians have been there for Americans during some of our darkest moments. Instead, he blamed a natural disaster on Canada, accused the country of negligence, threatened additional tariffs while the fires were still burning, and declared that "the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!"

Shared from HD Reese by Dr. Peter Shaw on social media:  “Scientists warned in May that these cuts could hinder efforts to protect people from wildfires as soon as this summer.
It is this summer. And the smoke is here. The same administration that dismantled our wildfire smoke research is now blaming Canada for wildfire smoke. The same president who pulled the United States out of climate agreements is attacking Canada for the consequences of climate change. The same government that gutted the agencies designed to protect Americans from exactly this kind of crisis is now standing on a propaganda platform calling our closest ally negligent. Climate scientist Jennifer Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center noted: “If anything, Canada should be blaming the U.S. for their increased fires.” The United States remains the world’s largest historical contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving the hotter, drier conditions making these fires worse every single year. And instead of acknowledging that, this administration destroyed the research, withdrew from the agreements, and blamed the neighbor.”

I must be stupid, expecting more of our federal government. I fail to understand the lack of human empathy & the unbridled cruelty, the ignorance & selfishness that the monster Trump exhibits. He will be gone eventually. 

In November, vote MAGA out. The IMPEACH, CONVICT, AND IMPRISONMENT. WITH NO POSSIBILITY OF PARDON.

A very brave U.S. Air Force officer Major Jason Watson stood where cowardly Republicans like Senator Susan Collins are too afraid to show courage

Major Jason Watson is an active-duty U.S. Air Force officer and 17-year logistics veteran who made national headlines in July 2026. He was arrested on the U.S. Capitol steps while in military uniform after publicly calling for the impeachment and removal of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. 

Air Force Major Jason Watson has never been in combat. He’s an American hero all the same. Echo editorial published in the Sun Sentinel, a South Florida newspaper.

Major Watson spoke his mind and will pay a steep price

Watson is the Air Force Academy graduate who stood in uniform on the U.S. Capitol steps in Washington last week holding a sign saying “Impeach convict remove.”

It took three minutes for the Capitol police to arrest him. That was the least of his concerns.

He’s in Air Force custody now, likely to be court-martialed. Military prison is definitely a possibility. His career is almost certainly over.

Major Watson knew what the price could be for proclaiming in public what so many others in Washington are afraid to say even in private.

Some are the members of Congress, Republicans mostly, who have been abetting Donald Trump’s subversion of the Constitution by doing nothing about it. (Like Republican Senator Susan Collins, for example❗)

Others are military officers disgusted and alarmed by Trump’s military incompetence and how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (the wino) has been cashiering generals and admirals for being Black, female or simply for their sense of duty and honor.

And yet, precious few of those congressional Republicans have been willing to speak up for the nation’s sake.

For some mysterious reason, they are paralyzed by Trump’s tyrannical passions for power and punishment, as demonstrated by the recent party primary defeats of two respected Republican senators who he opposed.

Unlike officers in uniform, however, politicians have nothing to lose but their paychecks and perks. The “sacred honor” that 56 people pledged to each other on July 4, 1776 — along with their actual lives and fortunes — is long out of fashion in Washington.

The military has rules against campaign activity in uniform. Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice also prohibits commissioned officers from using “contemptuous words” against the president, vice president, members of Congress, the secretary of defense and certain others.

To call for Trump’s well-deserved impeachment may be contemptuous to a court-martial, but it will be seen as courageous elsewhere.

“It’s really a question of how severe those consequences will be,” said retired Air Force Col. Morris Davis, who was chief prosecutor of the alleged al Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo until he resigned rather than obey orders to use evidence obtained by waterboarding.

“I knew it would end my military career, but I chose to do it anyway, because I thought it was worth it,” Davis said in an email to the Sun Sentinel. “I suspect Major Watson went through the same or similar thought process as me. Unfortunately for him, Trump is far more petty and vindictive than George Bush.”

Davis subsequently won a settlement and damages over being fired from the Congressional Research Service for newspaper op-eds criticizing President Obama’s failure to reform the process.

In 2020, he was the Democratic nominee for Congress in a deep-red western North Carolina congressional district.

According to the Washington Post, Major Watson’s protest wasn’t his first. He was an anonymous, masked participant holding an “Impeach convict remove” sign during a 22-day hunger strike last year. That got no attention. It occurred to him what would.

“In the grand scheme of things, I’m just a nobody,” he told the media before climbing the Capitol steps. “What matters far more than who I am is what I have to say and the price I’m willing to pay to say it.”

By coincidence, another well-publicized demonstration occurred in Washington on the Fourth of July. Hundreds of members of the Patriot Front, a white supremacist group, paraded through the capital. Some carried Confederate flags.

Nearly all of them wore masks, lacking the individual courage of a solitary Air Force major with a career and his freedom at stake.

Jason Watson showed them — and all of America — what true patriotism is.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant.

Donald Trump is a terrible person, a selfish leader, a cheat, a convicted criminal and the Republicans must impeach him!

Republicans must impeach Donald Trump.

Echo opinion Letter: Trump demonstrates hypocrisy published in The Columbian "Sp. I am confused. Donald Trump called the peaceful protests against the military occupation of cities like Portland Oregon unlawful, disgraceful and un-American and said the protesters should be jailed and treated harshly, yet he is willing to involve the U.S. in action against the Iran government for their treatment of Iranians’ protest against the mismanagement of finances in Iran."

Law and Order: Critics point out that while Trump often presents himself as the candidate of "law and order," he has pardoned individuals involved in the January 6th Capitol attack and refers to them as "patriots," which is a contradiction to his emphasis on respecting law enforcement and the judicial system.

Personal Lifestyle vs. Populist Image Despite cultivating a populist image of representing everyday Americans, critics note his lavish lifestyle and use of his own properties for official business.

Commentators argue that the sheer volume of accusations and convictions against Donald Trump has led to a desensitization to the issue about political hypocrisy itself, which some view as a potential threat to democratic accountability.

Donald Trump is a bully and Republicans must impeach him for death threats to elected lawmakers

Trump’s violent rhetoric endangers democracy

An echo opinion published in The Daily Record in Maryland

Incredibly, Donald Trump, 🤢who is the President of the United States, accused six Democratic members of Congress of “seditious behavior punishable by death.” Their so-called crime in his eyes was to advise United States service members to refuse to obey illegal orders. Yes, the president called for the execution of members of Congress because they told servicemen and women to obey the law.

Melania Trump's failed anti-bully campaign

Donald Trump called their experienced advice, set out on a videotape, “seditious behavior at the highest level,” and he demanded they be arrested and tried for their crimes. He shared another post saying, “Hang them [sic] George Washington would.” 🤥

All who serve in the military swear a solemn oath to uphold and protect the Constitution. To be clear, the US military’s Uniform Code of Justice allows a military member to refuse to obey a “patently illegal order.” That would include an order that directs the commission of a crime or the violation of constitutional rights. In his first term, Trump suggested that the military shoot peaceful protesters in the legs, an illegal and unconstitutional action should it have occurred.

We don’t know for sure yet whether Donald Trump actually believes he has the right to execute these members of Congress, or any service member who refuses to obey an illegal order, or whether he is playing to his maga cult supporters. 

But, what we do know is that political violence in this country is on the rise, and his statements calling for execution serve as a dog whistle to those who might do the president’s bidding.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congresswoman from Georgia, announced recently she has received threats of violence after Trump attacked her, because she refused to remove her name from the Epstein Files discharge petition. 

In a short time, we witnessed the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the fire bombing of the residence of Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor, and the murder of an elected Minnesota Democrat, on June 14, 2025, state representative Melissa Hortman was assassinated in a shooting at her home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, and her husband Mark was also murdered. 

Our politics have become far too violent, and we must find a way to tone down the rhetoric. All six who Trump threatened are under 24-hour protection and one senator received a bomb threat.

Donald Trump, when he issues threats like the one he has directed at the six members of Congress, acts more like a 250-pound, 10-year-old schoolyard bully than the leader of a free nation. His actions are wrong, they are evil, dangerous and frankly, they are revolting. 

We are aware that nothing will distract him from doing this in the future, that there is no one to rein him in partly because he believes he’s above the law, but we wanted to go on record to express our views.

#ImpeachTrumpNow

Democrats going public calling for Donald Trump impeachment because of egregious actions- public sign on letter

Echo opinion letter published in the Los Alamos County, New Mexico, Daily Post

By WILLIAM MEAD and TYLER TAYLOR Co-signed by:

Wendy Alexander, Susan Jo Eash, Barbara Mann, Dean Carstens, June Fabryka-Martin, Craig Martin, Cathy D’anna, Galen Gisler, Carol Mead, Tina Deyoe, John Kennison, Joyce Nickols, Skip Dunn, Robert Little, And Kim Taylor.

Instead of celebrating America’s independence from the king of England leading up to this 250th year of our nation's Revolutionary War,  we are, instead, outraged by Trump’s corruption, abuses of power, and attacks on American democracy.

Here is a brief list of some of Trump’s egregious actions.

• More than 100 Executive Orders, some illegally attempting to dismantle whole departments created by Congress and others attacking fundamental freedoms of Americans.
• Unilateral creation of DOGE with appointment of Elon Musk, who has enormous conflicts of interest, (was the largest contributor to the Trump election), resulting in disruption of government operations and numerous invasions of Americans’ privacy.
• Circumvention of Congressional and court checks and balances.
• Inappropriate pardons for “friends” and vengeful actions towards “enemies”.
• Numerous actions to enrich himself and his wealthy collaborators.
• Illegal deportations of many immigrants without due process, with inadequate evidence, assaults by ICE, and in violation of court orders.

Given these high crimes and misdemeanors, we believe Congress should impeach and remove Donald Trump immediately. 

A more extensive and explanatory account of charges for Trump’s impeachment is presented at ImpeachTrumpAgain.org.

Recently, strong opposition by the Republican majority and the failure of some 130 Democrats to support Rep. Al Green’s measure have stalled impeachment proceedings, for now. All the Democrats and a few Republicans must say, “Enough is enough❗”

We believe that only enormous and sustained pressure from the American people can cause Congress to take necessary actions to end Donald Trump’s corrupt and dangerous behavior. The “No Kings” protests across the nation are a strong step forward: millions of people have demonstrated their opposition to Trump’s actions in office.

In honor of our 249- going on a quarter of a millennium years as a growing, thriving, and striving democracy, and in the hope of even better years ahead, let us keep our momentum. We urge every reader to face our current ominous reality and push hard for Trump’s impeachment and removal from office. Please, say “No❗” to corruption and tyranny.

"Lock him up!": Opposition to Donald Trump must be strategic - an apologist's point of view is ineffective

Let's face it.  The spoof on Trump was staged to be a "made for TV moment".  But, it backfired!  At the end of the third inning, Trump stood and waved to the crowd, and the ballpark video screens carried a salute to U.S. service members that drew cheers throughout the stadium. But, when the video on the Jumbotron cut to Trump and his entourage — which included a number of GOP lawmakers — and the loudspeakers announced the Trumps, cheers abruptly turned into a torrent of boos and heckling from what sounded like a majority of the crowd. Chants of "Lock him up!" broke out in some sections, including one below where the president was sitting.

Baseball fans booed Trump at the World Series game!

This apologist's essay by John Krull* is not strategic or effective.  

His argument just won't work!

Americans can't ignore Donald Trump's disregard for American values and the wrecking ball he has been to our national pride.  Sure, it's nice to know that John Krull agrees about the Trump impeachment proceedings. Moreover, Americans agree with Krull abut wanting to respect the office of the President of the United States. Nevertheless, the current person who claims the position must go and Krull's apologist argument is ineffective in reaching that goal. 

Donald Trump must face an impeachment trial. 

Echo opinion published in the The Goshen News- an Indiana newspaper.

KRULL-  When the announcer at the World Series game between the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals introduced the president of the United States, the crowd booed. The people gathered for the peak event of the nation’s pastime booed for a long time.

They chanted, “Lock him up!”https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/455874-lock-her-up-chant-breaks-out-at-trump-rally
They chanted, “Impeach him!”

There are those out there, I suppose, who will argue that this is just a case of rough-and-tumble justice, of turnabout being fair play.

(Maine Writer- I am so pleased for Hillary Clinton to hear the crowds and to see how the evil Donald Trump responded!)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-booed-world-series-lock-him-up-chant-break-out-during-game-5-washington-nationals-stadium-pa/
Donald Trump, after all, is the man who gloried in inciting crowds to chant “Lock her up!” at his rallies, even after he’d defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, and he had taken up residence in the Oval Office. He also is the man who takes glee in degrading or demeaning anyone who has the audacity to disagree with or question him by foisting dismissive and insulting nicknames on them.

The thinking goes that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

I can see the appeal of this “he-did-it-so-I-can-too” kind of thinking. Anyone who has ever been 3 years old has thought that way. Most of us grow out of it.

Or maybe just some of us.

Don’t count me as part of the crew that thinks it’s OK to boo the president.  (Maine Writer - AlthoughI appreciate this point of view, it is also a weak apologist's argument....IMO!)

It’s not that I have any great affection or sympathy for Donald Trump.

I support his impeachment because it’s a step in the process of determining whether he has broken our nation’s laws and violated his oath of office. The trial in the U.S. Senate, where his party has a comfortable majority, can settle the questions of “due process” the president and his followers raise with regularity and with little basis in fact, law or history.

Because his party does have the majority in the Senate, Trump will have all the advocates and defenders he needs to see that his rights and prerogatives are preserved.

So, if I support impeachment, why does the booing of the president at the World Series bother me?

Because it’s crass. (HELLO? Donald Trump himself is crass!)

"Hollywood Access transcipt excerpt:  Trump- "I moved on her actually. You know she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’ I took her out furniture– I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything.  I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. I just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything."

Moreover, Krull goes on to docment the obvious.  Booing Trump shows disrespect to the office. (Yet, Donald Trump violates his oath of office!)

Worse, it’s disrespectful to the nation itself. (To the contrary, the opportunity to excercise free speech is a tribute to the nation itself.)

And it’s one more sign that Donald Trump is “winning.”

He’s dragging more and more of the country — more and more of our fellow citizens — down to his level.

This is wrong for at least two reasons.

The most practical of those reasons is also the least important. Donald Trump wants to degrade our national dialogue because he operates better in the muck than anyone else does. In a contest of moral and ethical limbo, no one will beat him because the few people who are willing to go as low as he is are nowhere near as skilled at invective as he is.

In a race through the sewer, he always will win.

But there’s another, larger reason.

This just shouldn’t be who we are.

Years ago, when I was executive director of what is now the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, people — members, volunteers — sometimes would argue with me that we should fight fire with fire. The fact that folks on the other side deliberately would mischaracterize or even lie about what our positions were or question our love of country and family would enrage many in our camp. They said we should be just as nasty in return. (Maine Writer- An apologist point of view rarely makes progress.)

The other side’s tactics angered me, too.

But I counseled then — and I still believe today — that we shouldn’t let the lowest common denominator set the standard for conduct. The principles we were defending were designed to liberate the human spirit. If we stood for anything, it was that people should be free to discover the best in themselves.

Not the worst.

It wasn’t a victory, I said, for us to become the mirror image of that which we oppose.

But that’s what we’re letting Donald Trump do to our country.

To us.

The presidency is more than the person who occupies the office.

We need to remember that. (Maine Writer- In all due respect, Donald Trump did not become POS with a majority vote. He is even violating the very Constitutional system that got him into the Oval Office, in the first place.)

Maine Writer - Although it's laudatory to want to rise up to the challenge of going high when Trump goes low, the reality show failed celeb who is polluting the Oval Office goes so low, that it's really not too difficult to go higher than his low. But, we cannot let Trump get away with gutter politics. Apoligist arguments are useless.

*John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

Donald Trump has failed his ability to govern

Echo opinion letter published in Trib.live 

The United States Congress has finally received a “smoking gun” as the result of the failed leadership demonstrated on a daily basis by Donald Trump.
Trump’s request to the Ukrainian president to find damaging information about former Vice President Joe Biden. The Ukrainian president did not provide this information, and Trump held up a United States’ military appropriation of $400 million for the Ukrainian military for over three months. Besides being illegal, this request seriously damaged Ukraine’s military efforts because the Russians had hacked the Ukraine military communication system until the point where it was inoperative.

Over $300 million of the U.S. appropriation was to provide a new system which would override the Russian efforts. Russia, who has already taken over Crimea, is intent in conquering the rest of the Ukraine and making it a part of Russia.

Trump has allowed his quest to damage the prestige of his leading opponent for the 2020, presidency to seriously erode our relationships with our NATO ally, which we have sworn to defend. For the future of our democracy, Donald Trump must be impeached by the House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate and removed from office.
Richard P. Davis, Saltlick, Pennsylvania

Detestable Donald Trump- a New York echo opinion

An echo opinion letter published in The Buffalo News, a New York state newspaper.

An echo opinion published in The Buffalo News:

As the (#fake) “leader” of the free world and (presumably) the most powerful man in the western hemisphere, (the stupid!) Donald Trump has an obligation and responsibility to set an elevated example of morality and principle, while representing and defending the broad diversity of these United States.

Instead, he plays to the most detestable and base aspects of our societal flaws.

He fortifies and encourages the worst characteristics of our human nature to divide, separate and isolate while he promotes xenophobia and intolerance.

Regardless of how well the economy may be doing for some, or how low the unemployment rate may be (thank you President Barack Obama), overtly telling over ten thousand lies within the past two years is unconscionable, and economic well-being in no way justifies his excessive indiscretions.

I am far from alone in my concern that if the heat and pressure continue to back him into a corner and the prospects for impeachment or removal from office loom heavier and more plausible, there is little doubt that he will resort to creating a military conflict (Iran looking most probable right now) to divert the attention away from him.

If Obama had been alleged of doing any one of the things Trump has been queried of doing Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and the Republican leadership would have to be tied down and tranquilized for fear of them injuring themselves in spasms of uncontrolled indignation.

The (the 21st century version of the right wing GOP KuKluxKlan...) Rush Limbaughs, Sean Hannitys, and Marc Theissens of the world can only hope to reduce the severity of his reckless image and his influence on the office of the presidency and our Democracy using their hollow propaganda and jargon to reach the simplest of minds in the voting public; fortunately, most of us recognize skewed partisan fabrications when we hear them.

Just as the outcome of the 2018 election was pivotal, the 2020 election results will be crucial!

I don’t want to think that the America I grew up believing in and honoring was just a transitory illusion vulnerable to the destructive capabilities of a misguided, prejudiced and greedy megalomaniac. (In other words, Vote Blue no matter who!)

James Galbo from Buffalo, New York

In MaineWriter opinion, Donald Trump is a #fake_potus!

Scientists revolt- use real data to count people

When it comes to counting the number of people in a crowd, it's always a good idea to start with the number of persons at "1" and continue with additional digits, until all are included in the final tally. In reality, it makes no sense to claim a crowd size, without the verification of having somebody who does a "count". Obviously, some crowds are too large to count; but other attendance indicators can be counted, like checking to see if all parking lots are full to capacity or by issuing numbered tickets to events.  

Empty seats at inauguration of Donald Trump January 20, 2017- evidence of low crowd size.

Unfortunately, Donald Trump made up the numbers about his inaugural crowd size. Among his first executive orders as POTUS was to randomly declare that his inauguration crowds were huge. Nevertheless, even people who can't count have the ability to see when the event photographs showed empty seats. Rather than admit to the pictures of empty seats, Donald Trump ordered the Park Service to remove the evidence from social media. 

In other words, the first executive order Donald Trump gave after his inauguration was to tamper with evidence.  There's no way he serendipitously made up that kind of judgement. In fact, it's probably so routine for Trump to change facts in his favor, that he didn't even consider how he might be wrong. Moreover, in his selfish corporate world, nobody dared to tell Trump otherwise, until the media forced the issue. (Classic, "Emperor has no clothes".)

Thankfully, scientists are rightly obsessed about speaking "facts to power", in spite of protracted efforts by revisionist Donald Trump and right wing extremists.

Scientists, reported in "Mother Jones" evaluated the
Anti-Trump "Science Protesters". They finally released their thoroughly fact-checked crowd estimates. (By Rebecca Leber)

When protesters descended on Washington, DC, last month for the March for Science, they carried signs that were straight-to-the point: "What do we want? Evidence-based science. When do we want it? After Peer Review." And unlike the Donald Trump administration they were protesting, organizers were careful to apply scientific rigor to how they calculated the number of people who participated in the march.

As a result, it took organizers an unusually long time—three weeks—to come up with their estimate for how many people took part in the April 22 marches in Washington and 600 other cities worldwide. In a blog post published Monday, organizers approximated that nearly 1.1 million people had protested around the world, with the largest marches taking place in DC (100,000), San Francisco (50,000), Los Angeles (50,000), Chicago (60,000), and Boston (70,000).

Their patience was a marked contrast to how President Donald Trump handled his inauguration crowd size. Trump spent his first weekend as president insisting that far more people attended his swearing-in than were actually there and attacking anyone who disagreed. Trump told the CIA on that Saturday that he drew "a million-and-a-half people." In his first address to reporters as White House press secretary, Sean Spicer angrily claimed, "That was the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period." Photographs proved these assertions to be untrue, but the White House didn't budge. Trump aide Kellyanne Conway even coined the term "alternative facts"—a phrase widely derided by the pro-science marchers—when she was defending the White House's claim that Trump drew a larger crowd than President Barack Obama had in 2009.

March for Science organizers decided to take their time tabulating their crowds after volunteer Kate Gage suggested that they should "science the shit out of the numbers"—which Gage said was meant neither as a reference to Trump's crowds debate nor to Matt Damon's character in the movie The Martian. 

"We really wanted to emphasize that it was a march about science and data and evidence," explained Gage, a former policy adviser in the White House's International Science and Technology office during the Obama administration. Scientific rigor was critical, she said, because the march "was organized by scientists, in a way and a scale we haven't seen before."

Crowd counting is an inexact science, and the volunteers who organized the marches acknowledge the shortcomings of their methodological choices. The DC march was particularly challenging, said Kishore Hari, the DC march coordinator (and a co-host of our Inquiring Minds podcast), because the National Park Service doesn't release crowd estimates and the rainy weather that day prevented the use of satellite imagery. In the end, comparing crowd density to the area's known capacity, they estimated 100,000 attendees.

While the DC march count had its limitations, the other marches used a variety of methods. Most marches used hand counts, but for larger, moving groups, hand counts can be prone to error, so organizers had to rely on other methods. Rufus Cochran, an engineer and co-chair of the Indianapolis march, spent a few nights reading about different methodologies. Here's the approach they settled on in Indianapolis, as described in a blog post on the March for Science's website:

At the beginning of their event, pictures of the square were taken with reference landmarks visible. Using this and other pictures, the organizers estimated a fairly consistent density across the square. The organizers then drew an outline of the area using MapChecking.com and combined that with state crowd density still data from Professor Keith Still, a crowd estimation scientist. They settled on a likely density of 2 and 3 people per m2 resulting in an attendance calculation of just under 10,000. Given that more people arrived after this picture was taken and there were people at the periphery beyond the borders of area, this estimate is likely conservative.

"Researching and building on existing technologies is very important," Cochran told me. "A lot of the methodology is people making best-educated guesses." He said his aim was to use "a methodology that is transparent and repeatable."

Keith Still, a crowd size scientist who provided estimates for the Inauguration and Women's March, says that the methods used by the March for Science organizers were acceptable. "Crowd counting has been around for a long time, we don't use a static process as it is fraught with inaccuracies," he said in an email, noting that some methods for determining density are crude and highly variable. "Without images, it would be difficult to assess the accuracy of the crowd count in the March for Science, but the information on the blog is reasonable. By that I mean, the figures are typical of this sort of event (and not over inflated)."

(MaineWriter:  I can predict this. When Donald Trump is impeached, the crowd size and the television ratings for the vote will exceed all the numbers thrown around about the inauguration.)