50501 announced the next coordinated day of action against President Donald Trump’s administration will on Saturday, April 19, the day before Easter.
“50501” stands for “50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement,” a decentralized yet unified protest movement that launched in early 2025. 50501 spreads information about planned demonstrations mostly through social media sites like Reddit, Instagram and Facebook. Keep an eye on the Facebook page of Indivisible Grand Junction for information on local protests. Also keep an eye on the Facebook page of the Mesa Count Democrats.
50501 was key in organizing the successful and widespread Hands Off! mass national protests against the Trump administration in large and small cities across the U.S. on April 5. The local protest on April 5 was held at the corner of 7th and Grand in Grand Junction drew an estimated 2,500 protesters.
50501 writes,
“Consistent participation in such protests is crucial for effecting meaningful change. Historical movements demonstrate that sustained public engagement can lead to significant policy shifts. For instance, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s involved numerous marches and demonstrations over several years, culminating in landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Similarly, the Women’s Suffrage Movement required persistent advocacy and public demonstrations before achieving the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. These examples underscore the importance of continued public presence and activism in influencing governmental policies and societal change.”
I am not grasping at history, as I said, I was trying to contextualize the events of 1982. I admitted I didn’t know anything about what happened. Apparently Exxon decided to pull out because the price of oil was so low, and environmental regs had kicked in to the point where Exxon decided to cut its losses. This isn’t unusual and happens all the time and there are always downstream consequences of boom and bust.
I asked you to tell me how Trump’s current policies are analogous…pretty simple question, but as far as I see, you didn’t.
Now, for some reason, you’ve decided to label me “far right”. Ad homonyms are lazy. I am not a student of economics, but I do know that Trump’s actions are disruptive. Plenty of people on the right don’t like his methods…but some people are praising them.
I’d like to understand them better before I decide. For instance, I still don’t understand why a trade deficit is bad.
The economy is always moving and there are always winners and lovers. That’s why most people make decisions that seem safe to them.
Not sure what you’ve been expecting of me, but apparently you’re disappointed. I fail to see why.
Ad hominem ( literal, “to the person”) replies aren’t necessarily bad unless top-posted and completely off-topic (4/19 – 50501). If I claim environmental regs are in this case a straw man fallacy that’s not an attack, just a simple fact based on James Watts’ tenure and the Sagebrush Rebellion. I can offer my perspective on the oil shale debacle based on what I was taught as a geology student at Mesa State from a professor who was actually there and as a student of economics while getting a business degree.
Had a Geology prof late ‘90s MSC, honest man with a great sense of humor. He said nobody, not the mining engineers or accountants, ever expected it to work. The only people who really got hurt were the worker bees stuck in the middle of nowhere while the fat cats walked with big payouts.
Fast forward to Metro State and it’s presented as a textbook example of corporate corruption financially and a right-wing dismantling of an environmental initiative politically. President Carter put in place a framework to encourage alternative energy development which Reagan and his minions reconfigured and robbed blind before shutting it all down. Absolutely nothing to do with regulations and if you think prostitution and drugs were that unusual I have to wonder if you’ve ever spent any time in the blue-collar sector.
This is all a matter of easily-researched history. I can recommend the Wikipedia entry on the “Synthetic Fuels Corporation” and work backward. Granted, announcing the proposal during the Malaise Speech might not have been President Carter’s best moment but for “context” here’s a blurb from that entry showing why Black Sunday was inevitable.
“Hollowed out and neutered, the SFC instead became a place to repay political donors and friends with do-nothing job appointments. This was then used as a pretext to abolish the SFC. In December, Congress passed P.L. 99-190 which terminated SFC authority to award new financial assistance and set a 120-day time limit left to transfer projects to the Treasury Department and to shut down. In April 1986, Congress passed P.L. 99-272 formally abolishing the SFC.”
All I know is the little I’ve read. If you think environmental regs are a strawman (excuse) then so be it. I’ll add that to my little pile of knowledge.
I am very blue collar, and also know about the various mining towns which have boomed and busted and had red light districts and saloons and opium dens in the middle of nowhere.
Boom towns present all kinds of opportunities for all kinds of people. No surprise.
I hope you won’t be offended but I have to ask why a corporation would aim at failure.
I know big companies do crazy things but what, in the end, did they gain?
I guess you are saying that they got a bail-out?
Was it for more than they invested? Surely the mining (frakking?)was successful…or was it not? And didn’t the low price of oil contribute to the decision?
I have never heard of SFC. I’m sure there’s a lot to know about this, particularly if you were here and involved.
Another thought occurs to me…doesn’t all this point to the folly of market manipulation by the government and its cronies, no matter how earnest the intent (like Carter’s) So much of this reminds me the 2008 bailout, something which I believe started with Carter wanting everyone to own a home…(the community investment act) I’m still trying to figure that one out.
PS. I’ve been reading up on the shale oil production process and even saw a picture of the operation. Coincidentally, I took a drive up to the Piceance Plateau last week after visiting the Hogback, so I have a pretty good lay of the land.
Oil production is a risky business and the price of oil at the time is always a consideration whether to keep trying to produce.
As you probably know, getting oil out of shale is very costly. I can see that there is a lot of resentment about Exxon, primarily the thought that “they should have known”.
I can’t believe that out of the 30% of voters who actually voted in grand junction’s election yesterday voted in Robert Ballard for city council. Extremism for sure. This must be where all the rednecks come to Grand Junction to spew their crap and can get away with it because it’s a town of morons.
Orders from headquarters.
🙂
You’re that scared, aren’t you?
No more scared than I’ve ever been. This is a battle of wills.
Right now it seems like your leaders (whoever they are) are expecting a lot from the troops.
I’m curious to see what their end game is.
The Trump supporters are a determined bunch. We’ve been attending this rodeo for many years and in case you haven’t noticed, have learned a lot of tricks from the enemy.
I hope everything ends well and don’t forget your sunscreen!
Trump supporters don’t do well when faced with anyone who bothers to push back, and Trump voters are outnumbered by those who didn’t vote for him, just like Kamala Harris voters were outnumbered by those who didn’t vote for her. Plenty of people who voted for Trump are quite unhappy with him now.
As for being a determined bunch, that’s pretty laughable, seeing as how you can’t even take responsibility for your own vote.
Greetings Badhat. I will answer your question about how I see the Trump policy on tariffs affect Mesa County. Oil is below $60 now and many believe it will approach if not test a $40 floor. That will decimate the oil field employment. May 2 1982 is one of the most significant moments in Western Colorado history (the other one being setting off a nuclear bond also near parachute). That was known as black Sunday, an energy company bust. Afterwards, you could rent for free in Grand Junction. Bond yields skyrocketed a few minutes ago, and not because of concerns of a Fed Reserve interest hike. It is because of trust related bailing out of Treasury bonds. Medicaid defunding, which is accessed by 38% of citizens will cause social pain. I would guess that property values will drop. There is no money to bail people out. I suggest that you look to the Rust Belt to see the end result. Some people might have enough money to ride it out. It might even make bargain buys from distressed sellers.
Other than that, we agree on most issues… immigration remediation, and reducing fraud and waster in govenment. I also recognize that many problems, including trade deficits are results of bad Biden policies. If USA did not and does not continue to trash our reputation, we could have worked to bring back USA manufacturing capacity. My advice is call your congressman … Jeff Hurd, and tell him you don’t want to Make America Great Again, but after its nuclear winter.
Exxon closure was May 2 1982.
The nuclear bond/bomb was The Ruilison Project September 10, 1969
Economics is not my strong suit. Up until pretty recently, I would have said I am a libertarian. But one day I woke up and realized there is no f**king way libertarianism is possible. I sometimes say libertarianism is
for grownups and we just aren’t and there are so many social programs which would have to go away, it’s an impossibility. Look what’s happening when we learn federal workers will lose their jobs!
I didn’t live here in 1982 and don’t even know the cause of the crash unless it had to do with the oil embargos during the Carter years. Again, I’m clueless and need to educate myself.
But I don’t see much about the economy on the signs. I see a lot of anti facism signs and anti nazi signs, so it’s hard to equate any of this with the economy.
As well as being ignorant about the oil industry in Colorado…I am similarly ignorant about tariffs. I’ve been trying to listen to a range of opinions on the subject. However, I tend towards free trade…which hasn’t really been free trade for decades.
The Oil Shale bust of 1982 all on Exxon’s shoulders; they overestimated their available resources (like water, and housing for the thousands of people they hired), and pulled the plug with no warning, devastating tens of thousands of people (that’s not an exaggeration. Look it up, maybe).
On Wednesday, April 26, Randall Meyer, president of Exxon, made the announcement: “In our judgment, the investment economics no longer support our continuing to fund the present project.” And that was it.
Carter had nothing to do with it.
But you’ve never let rank ignorance stop you from pontificating before.
Your weirdness and desire to pick fights knows no bounds. I’m sure I’m not the first person to point this out to you.
I said I didn’t know much/anything about what happened here in 1982 and only mentioned the Carter era and the oil embargo to place it in time. I am currently reading about it.
In the meantime, maybe you should seek help.
And as far as proofs that Medicaid is going to be affected…these are rumors and speculation, but you take them as facts. I wonder if there is a name for people who do that.
They’re working on the budget right now and Johnson and Thune have said Medcaid won’t be touched. I guess they don’t read all the chats you do.
This was a strategic move by the left to get people off their couches and onto street corners.
PPS. if asking “why” is a characteristic of being on the “far right” then I guess I’m guilty.
I think accepting the approved narrative is lazy and stupid, but I realize a lot of people aren’t very curious so they want to have their opinions fed to them by experts, some of whom have an agenda.
Question
Everything
PS…No one is saying Medicaid
funding is going away. From what I deduce, that is another big fat red herring being used to get people to give up their Saturdays and carry signs.
It’s been a minute, but I seem to remember the dems saying the proposed cuts the Republicans have promised will necessarily come from Medicaid.
So I did a VERY BRIEF look at the situation in 1982.
Lots of words like oil shale (boom) and oil glut (bust).
The article even mentioned the influx of prostitution and drugs. Typical wild west.
I do want to keep reading but preliminarily…could you tell me what conditions that exist today (because of Trump policies) cause you to think this same thing is imminent.
I gave you facts and sources, as did Seamus, Whale, and others. And your response is everyone is picking a fight with you. Everyone else gets it, but you are like the child who repeats ‘why’. Does this work for you? When oil prices drop, people lose jobs, people move away, the local real estate bubble bursts, and those who stay struggle. When demand falls, the supply-demand curve shifts downward and to the left. This lowers both the current and future price of the commodity and pushes production to lower-cost regions.
Indeed, this is not a bad gamble by Exxon. This is a bad gamble by an overreaching individual President. It is also an international failure because, in this case, there is not better places for those displaced workers to move. Think of it like a more transmissive Covid crisis with no vaccine. If I recall, the disruption during Covid drove oil prices below zero. That’s right, you could take an oil delivery and be paid money. Disruption to the tanker-based supply chain caused this. Tariffs disrupt the supply chain.
In the last few hours, you may have noticed markets bounce back. I am guessing that some people got even more filthy rich on this volatility. It was also Trumps way to declare victory after pressure from mainstream supporters. Some of that wealth trickled down to you, right Badhat?
Yesterday, a small business owner who sold outdoor climbing gear manufactured in Vietnam was interviewed on BBC (you can find the reel). He was all tears about how the tarriff would ruin his small American business. Today, A small business owner who sourced day packs from Vietnam was interviewed. In context, Vietnam will do well because of its minimum tariffs. As a matter of fact, it will likely thrive because it will just resell Chinese mostly manufactured stock. This day pack president has no intention of bringing manufacturing back to the USA unless the US government gives him subsidies to make him whole.
Badhat, you are grasping at history to justify fallacies in economic and political systems. But the problem is that you do not understand economics, political theory, history, or science (physical, social, or natural). You are reading or watching enough to believe that you don’t have to understand the details, but rather be wary enough to identify an enemy.
A simple chatgpt or a Google search, or re-reading posts some of your own comments in this blog will give you sources for the threats to Medicaid.
I spoke to you because I thought that you might be someone like myself who does not lean hard left or right. I see now that you are far right and will not change and probably have not read this far. It is my mistake, and I have to own it.
Bullsh*t (I’m done being subtle with you, it’s too much effort).
You want to play the provocateur, but then pretend everyone is picking on you when they call you out on your aforementioned BS.