Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Not all heroes wear capes.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

You are here: Home / Politics / Information Warfare / American Idiots Open Thread: The ANTIFA Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

American Idiots Open Thread: The ANTIFA Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

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We don’t even need aliens these days, just social media. Straight out of the Twilight Zone…

About 200 protesters came to Sugarman’s Corner, the local hotspot in downtown Klamath Falls, Oregon, last Sunday night to protest the killing of George Floyd.

Like in many of the protests that have recently sprung up in cities across the United States, the group was made up of white, black and Latino people, members of the Native American Klamath Tribes, and the LGBTQ community; a diverse coalition in a county of 68,000 where 9 out of every ten residents are white, according to Census estimates. They held signs, many of which have become common during recent protests: “Black Lives Matter” and “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Just across the street, hundreds of their mostly white neighbors were there for decidedly different reasons. They leaned in front of local businesses The Daily Bagel and Rick’s Smoke Shop wearing military fatigues and bulletproof vests, with blue bands tied around their arms. Most everyone seemed to be carrying something: flags, baseball bats, hammers and axes. But mostly, they carried guns.

They said they came with shotguns, rifles and pistols to protect their downtown businesses from outsiders. They had heard that antifa, paid by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, were being bused in from neighboring cities, hellbent on razing their idyllic town…

While large rallies in major cities have been the most visible part of recent social efforts to change how police treat black people, hundreds more have popped up in small, rural towns, where residents have marched and kneeled to protest police brutality.

Those protests — and some of the violence and looting that have accompanied them — have become the source of growing skepticism and paranoia in conservative circles. The most persistent rumors center on groups of antifa members being put on buses and sent to small towns to wreak havoc.

The rumors are unfounded. But that hasn’t stopped people in some communities, like Klamath Falls, from preparing for the worst. Towns from Washington state to Indiana have seen armed groups begin patrolling the streets after receiving warnings about an antifa invasion, often spurred by social media or passed along from friends. Those actions have yet to erupt in major violence but often bring heavily armed people in close contact with protestors, as it did in Klamath Falls…

Since nationwide protests began, President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr have without evidence blamed the antifa movement — a loose network of groups made up of radicals who rely on direct action, and sometimes violence, to fight the far right and fascism — for the looting and property damage seen during some of the otherwise peaceful rallies. Last week, Trump announced that he planned to designate antifa as a terrorist organization.

That unsubstantiated finger pointing has coincided with viral rumors on social media — posts on Facebook and Nextdoor that buses filled with thousands of antifa and anarchists were on their way to loot suburban neighborhoods. Some seen by NBC News featured a screenshot of a tweet by a fake antifa Twitter account that Twitter said was created by a white nationalist group…

Police and 9-1-1 dispatchers in South Bend, Indiana, were inundated with calls warning of “busloads of people coming in from the Toll Road.” One tweet, posted by several different, brand new accounts using identical language, warned South Bend residents to “be in by 9 and lock all of your doors.”

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot decried a “concerted effort out there to misinform” after the city’s police scanner repeatedly warned of antifa buses on their way into town amidst protests Saturday night.

NBC News reviewed similar warnings and posts of panic in local apps like Nextdoor and Facebook groups from all throughout the country this week. “Friends in the NYPD” warned of antifa “being sent to the suburbs” in one post. A post in a Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Facebook group implored residents to “protect yourselves, your family and your businesses” from a “serious rumor” about a group “organizing to riot and loot.”

Similar warnings were posted in Nextdoor groups everywhere from Jacksonville, Florida, to Danville, California. Some local police departments and sheriff’s offices in Idaho and South Dakota posted to social media to assuage residents of the false antifa bus rumors that had gripped local social media…

Reader Interactions

212Comments

  2. 2.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Armed residents in small towns all across America, warned by social media and local police, have been gathering to fight off “busloads of antifa,” coming to loot their towns.

    They never show up.

    I’m sure these galaxy brains think they scared them off

  3. 3.

    encephalopath

    The general hysteria about antifa among the common folk on the right is almost sure to be at least partially driven misinformation from IP addresses in Macedonia and the like. It’s so easy to drive them into a tizzy over imaginary antifa hiding the the shrubbery. How could Russia resist?

    The constant drum beat of about antifa by Republican leadership is mostly distraction. They desperately want to tie BLM and antifa to protest related acts of violence so they just keep repeating it in front of the cameras.

    But I think there is also a Nixonian obsession with antifa among Republicans similar to the way that Nixon was certain that the antiwar left was being directed and controlled by international communism. He sent the CIA chasing after proof and even after they didn’t find any he still insisted that it was true.

    When antifa showed up at the Proud Boy rallies to show their disapproval of fascist wankery, law enforcement was right there scraping the airwaves, collecting information. And ever since, you can be damn sure they have been conducting illegal surveillance of people they have identified as being anfita related.

    So when all these protests happen and the phones belonging to antifa people are there in the protest, law enforcement, just like Nixon, is sure that antifa is responsible for something nefarious. They have to be… I’m mean they are out there, in public, assembling, saying stuff, petitioning the government for the redress of grievances.

    Part of this has to do simply with the seductive nature of secret information. Law enforcement has access to this information that no one else does, so they start thinking that it MUST mean something or why would they have it.

    You and I can look out the window and rightly assume that people who were protesting fascism are also in the protest against police violence against black people. The police with their secret information look at their covertly collected data and start seeing patterns where none exist.

    Pattern recognition helpfully stopped cave dwelling humans from getting eaten by the bear, but it also caused humans believe that witches made their crops fail. Without careful controls on data analysis, people will start seeing things in the data that aren’t there.

    The same thing will happen to you if you point a telescope at your neighbor’s house across the street. In a short time you will conclude that your neighbor is up to something. What’s he building in there?

    Probable cause as the standard for search warrants exists for a reason.

  5. 5.

    Punchy

    These chuckleheads claimed victory when Auntie Fa didn’t arrive. It’s like me with arsenic claiming victory when the rats failed to take possession of the nearby IKEA.

  7. 7.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    “deeply apologize and I retweeted without watching the full video. I deleted the tweet. I would never knowingly promote the use of that word. This is time for healing the nation and not division”

    But I guess some maniac threatening people with a chainsaw is ok

  8. 8.

    Raoul Paste

    My neighbour across the street blames George Soros for outside agitators at the protests

    Of course he has no evidence for that .   George Soros is the go-to bogeyman

  9. 9.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Benw: Boy, are you in the wrong place. A certain FPer here churned out the anti-antifa propaganda.

    Antifa is willing to put their asses on the line. Here, not so much.

  10. 10.

    JMG

    I was covering the 2004 NLCS playoffs between the Cardinals and the Astros. At the old Busch Stadium you could not see behind you in the press box. In the middle of a game, loud explosions rang out. One reporter asked, “is this terrorism?”. Another, a home towner, responded, “in St. Louis?” It was a fireworks display from a riverboat casino. Amazing that not one of these morons thought “Why us?”

  12. 12.

    joel hanes

    @encephalopath:

    Pattern recognition helpfully stopped cave dwelling humans from getting eaten by the bear, but it also caused humans believe that witches made their crops fail.

    QFT.

  15. 15.

    Ksmiami

    @Benw: those hillbilly fucks look exactly like what I expected- fat, ugly incels- what a good example of “white supremacy”…

  16. 16.

    Martin

    Just a reminder that given that antifa isn’t an organization but a statement of values, being anti-antifa makes you objectively pro-fascist. That you are willing to occupy a peaceful street with an AR-15 identifies you as a fascist LARPer.

  17. 17.

    WestTexan

    As someone who was raised in rural Texas, I have come across this kind of lunacy for most of my six decades on the planet. The first thing I ask them is why they think any of the Commies, antifa, liberals, etc. would come out here in the first place. I‘ve never gotten a logical answer.
    Not ever expecting one either. But they truly are narcissistic enough to believe that these boogie men are intent on destroying them. Hell, I grew up with them and I hardly ever give them a second thought.

  18. 18.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Poor Mercedes Karen, she had no idea the freak threatening civil rights marchers with an actual chainsaw was racist.

    I mean, hoooooooocooooooooonode ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  20. 20.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Martin:
    True, but these people are somehow able to support an authoritarian leader yet claim they’re the true freedom fighters. Critical thinking isn’t their strong suit and they desperately want to believe they’re tyranny-opposing, freedom-lover

    Also, I wish the article quoted in the post had pointed out that Trump doesn’t have any formal power to designate “Antifa” a domestic terrorist organization (I believe), not that it’s organized to begin with

  22. 22.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    the picture above: Why do Rednecks were such terrible trucker hats?

    Seriously.  In this day and age, you can get really nice hats/caps at decent prices.

  24. 24.

    Mike in NC

    I read an article about how right-wing talk radio hosts like Limbaugh and Hannity are treating the protests: why yes, killing an unarmed man is bad, but it’s the work of rogue cops and the mobs are stirred up by liberal elitists trying to start a civil war. That’s just the same bullshit they’ve been spewing to their idiot listeners for 20+ years.

  25. 25.

    Zelma

    You can’t cure stupidity!

    A friend of mine was out walking in our increasingly crowded shore community.  (Masks optional apparently) and met a friendly acquaintance.. Asked if she had company, my friend replied no.  Acquaintances response?  “Oh now that the epidemic is over, we have a houseful.”  Polite friend replied, “I hope your right” rather than “Are you an idiot?”

  26. 26.

    Sally

    IMHO, these people are stupid and ignorant, but not quite stupid and ignorant enough to believe that antifa are really coming for their town. There is no way they’d be out there, even with a surfeit of semi automatic weapons, if they really thought they’d have to fight a violent, armed invasion. Most of them look like they couldn’t run out of sight on a dark night.

  35. 35.

    LaenCleardale

    It’s a self supporting delusion though. They’ll never believe Antifa weren’t actually coming. They’ll just believe because they “stood up” to defend their town the Antifa were scared off. It isn’t that Antifa aren’t a threat, it’s just that the only way to defeat them is for people to go out with guns and stop them. Therefore they should do it more.

  38. 38.

    Burnspbesq

    @Baud:

    How would you know if you were successful?

    He doesn’t care. Soros pays up front, in cash, with no 1099.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    I love that the BLM’s organizers made Trump’s White House fence a really handy bulletin board for memorials to those killed by police. His ugly spite fence is covered with messages.

  40. 40.

    Martin

    @Percysowner: So, he’s either going to make things worse or lie, and make things worse. That’s a hell of a strategy.

    Some of this weeks polls:

    Texas: Trump +1

    Georgia: Biden +1

    Utah: Trump +3.

    And yet, Trumps approval rating isn’t at its all time low.

  42. 42.

    James E Powell

    With respect to Clinton & deplorable Trump supporters. Has anyone of the press/media who headed for the fainting couch or took great umbrage back in 2016 ever acknowledged that she was correct or maybe a bit low in her estimate of half?

  43. 43.

    Robert Sneddon

    Why buses? Don’t antifa people have their own transport?

     

    “Six thousand antifa people are coming to our town!” — that’s over a hundred buses packed full of people, no space for banners, food, water etc. and nowhere to put any loot they might take when they leave. Who’s providing that many buses at short notice? Co-ordination, routing, timing, it’s not going to happen.

    My own suggestion is that the folks circulating these rumours should say that the antifa are coming to [insert name of small white flight suburb here] in oversized rusty pickups flying big Confederate flags in the back as a disguise.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    The fence outside the White House has been converted to a crowd-sourced memorial wall — almost like an art gallery — to black men and women who lost their lives at the hands of police.
    Hundreds are strolling, looking, adding names and paintings and posters.

    When he’s gone we can take that whole fence section and preserve it.

  46. 46.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):  Here it is on Ebay for $32 (link)  YOLO.

     

    I’m getting the retro maroon Phillies (aka Mike Schmidt) hat and a classic Expos (AKA Rusty Staub) rig for my collection.  Also, the Cleveland white hat is tempting.

  48. 48.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Martin:

    And yet, Trumps approval rating isn’t at its all time low.

    I’m not sure why his approval ratings don’t reflect these state poll results. Trump being +1 in Texas sounds catastrophic. They’re measuring different things, I guess?

  50. 50.

    Kelly

    Some responding to the posts were incredulous, but few could argue when a screenshot of a direct message from Col. Jeff Edwards, the commander of the Oregon Air National Guard’s 173rd Fighter Wing, was posted in one of the groups.
    “Team Kingsley, for your safety I ask you to please avoid the downtown area this evening. We received an alert that there may be 2 busloads of ANTIFA protesters en route to Klamath Falls and arriving in downtown around 2030 tonight,” the post stated.
    Maj. Nikki Jackson, a spokeswoman for the 173rd Fighter Wing, confirmed in an email that the message had come from Edwards.

    Really Col. Edwards? I don’t know how the guard is organized but if Gov Brown can relieve him I think she should. He’s too dumb.

  54. 54.

    Kelly

    By the way K Falls is really, really far from any Oregon population center. The racism there is directed at Native Americans and Hispanics. The white farmers stole all the water generations ago and are upset the stolen goods are being reclaimed.

  55. 55.

    BBA

    I’m going to stick my neck out and say that I for one am against the paramilitary wing of the prewar German Communist Party.

  57. 57.

    Llelldorin

    I have a rock that protects me from tigers. I know it works, because no tiger has ever attacked me in my suburban California home.

    It’s the same logic, except that my rock is vanishingly unlikely to kill anyone if I’m careless or stupid with it.

  58. 58.

    Subsole

    @WestTexan:

    This person speaks wisdom.

    God, the number of people who were certain alQaeda were coming to invade Moody, Texas post 9/11…

    For that matter, remember Jade Helm? I knew folks in the State Guard (not the national guard. TOTALLY differen). That was an entire scene, lemme tell you.

  59. 59.

    Calouste

    Eisenhower was antifa, really high up in the organization as well. George H. W. Bush was also antifa.

  60. 60.

    Anne Laurie

    @Robert Sneddon: Why buses? Don’t antifa people have their own transport?

    Bah Gawd, their forefathers circulated rumors about buses full of colored agitators & other comminists starting in approximately 1947, and they are NOT gonna stop using that trope now.  Have you no respect for tradition, suh?!?

  63. 63.

    Kelly

    @Robert Sneddon:Why buses? Don’t antifa people have their own transport?

    Antifa are protecting the environment by using the minimum carbon transport. It’s 300 miles from Portland to K Falls. It’d take a several days to bike.

  66. 66.

    phdesmond

    @LaenCleardale: there’s a classic of sociology that speaks to this situation.

    from wikipedia:

     

    When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World is a classic work of social psychology by Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter published in 1956, which studied a small UFO religion in Chicago called the Seekers that believed in an imminent apocalypse and its coping mechanisms after the event did not occur. Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance can account for the psychological consequences of disconfirmed expectations. One of the first published cases of dissonance was reported in this book.

  67. 67.

    Subsole

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    These aren’t conspiracy theories. They are excuses.

    So if you are expecting them to explode in a puff of logic when it turns out they are wrong? Nah.

    The theory is not there to explain. It is there to excuse. Always remember that.

  68. 68.

    Martin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There’s a phenomenon in statistics called Simpsons Paradox where the trend of data subsets can run the opposite of the trend in the aggregate. My point being, statistics is tricky.

    It’s entirely possible that the more racist Trump gets, the more support he garners out of his base, raising his approval, but those supporters are not evenly distributed. And when he backs off of that, his supporters turn on him and put themselves in the  undecided camp.

    But I will say this, Biden polling at 50% means all of the uncertainty is on Trumps side. The opposite was true in 2016, the uncertainty was on Clinton’s side, and neither candidate was close to 50%.

    FWIW, Kamala is now overwhelming favorite for VP pick on betting sites.

  70. 70.

    Anne Laurie

    @Kay: When he’s gone we can take that whole fence section and preserve it.

    Remember the fuss over the design for the Vietnam Memorial, which was “deeply disrespectful” of Our Sainted Dead?  And then, as soon as The Wall went up, people started leaving mementos at it, and the Very Serious Conservatives couldn’t decide whether or not such mementos were also “disrespectful”?

    At the height of that pearl-clutching display, I saw a commercial cross-stitch pattern of  a rose scotch-taped to The Wall.  That’s when I knew for sure the ‘but REVERENCE’ party had lost the battle (as well as the plot).

    Handmade signs, candles & stuffed toys are how “we” memorialize events, now.  Sections from BunkerBaby’s Chickensh*t Coop, complete with artwork, will be carefully preserved for future generations in the National Museum.

  75. 75.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Percysowner: I wonder if they realize that the ONLY reason anyone took Obama seriously when he did this is because he showed he cared about it.

    And not, you know, has decades of documented racists statements and had already threatened to sic the military on demonstrating citizens, supported the police wholeheartedly, etc.

    ETA: I just realized that these are the people that shat on the Palestinians for years, didn’t invite them to even review their ‘new’ peace plans and then were incredibly surprised when no one took them seriously and the thing was rejected wholesale.

    They think they deserve respect for some reason, but they haven’t earned it. In fact, they’re pissing away what they inherited.

  76. 76.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Anne Laurie:

    And then, as soon as The Wall went up, people started leaving mementos at it, and the Very Serious Conservatives couldn’t decide whether or not such mementos were also “disrespectful”?

    Christ, imagine being such an out of touch asshole that one could think the flowers/mementos being left by loved ones at a veterans memorial are “disrespectful” just because you don’t like the memorial’s design

  77. 77.

    Subsole

     

    @Baud: When the cancer party first proposed WALL, I remembered the words of a departed acquaintance concerning a big pile of railroad ties:

    “This is good wood. We need to come back tonight before someone steals it.”

  79. 79.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Martin:

    But I will say this, Biden polling at 50% means all of the uncertainty is on Trumps side. The opposite was true in 2016, the uncertainty was on Clinton’s side, and neither candidate was close to 50%.

    FWIW, Kamala is now overwhelming favorite for VP pick on betting sites.

    Thanks for the explanation! Hopefully, Biden maintains those margins through November. If he does, not only does it increase the odds of him winning the presidency, but will help down ballot candidates

  80. 80.

    dmsilev

    @Martin:

    FWIW, Kamala is now overwhelming favorite for VP pick on betting sites.

    Not much of a surprise there. Of course, the ‘She’s a KOP’ loons will flip out, but fuckem.

  82. 82.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @MisterForkbeard:

    They think they deserve respect for some reason, but they haven’t earned it. In fact, they’re pissing away what they inherited.

    Conservatives and right-wingers in a nutshell, basically

  83. 83.

    Geminid

    A friend who is very susceptible to narratives put out by people like Glenn Beck was really disturbed by the ominous Antifa, especially after a couple “deplatforming” events at U. Call. Berkeley were punctuated by the black bloc throwing bike racks through windows and setting off molotov cocktails. I told him about  the statement  that Nancy Pelosi released calling for California law enforcement to, basically, “lock ’em up!”. He was surprised. He was believed that the black bloc was antifa, and that liberals like Pelosi were leftists. There are plenty of gullible people out there.                   There is always the potential for bloodshed when people show up up carrying firearms at political events. Bad as it was, the unite the right rally in Charlottesville would have been a bloodbath if the one shot fired had started a firefight. But what really worries me me is a guy, or several guys, in a barn somewhere making backpack bombs or a truck bomb. That’s one reason I will have my fingers crossed election day.

  84. 84.

    dmsilev

    @Anne Laurie:

    Remember the fuss over the design for the Vietnam Memorial, which was “deeply disrespectful” of Our Sainted Dead?

    ‘Black gash of shame’ or something like that. The jury for that contest deserves a lot of credit for recognizing the power of Lin’s design and then sticking with it through all the wailing.

  89. 89.

    NotMax

    @Mister Forkbeard

    In fact, they’re pissing away what they inherited.

    Would have thought it not possible to piss from every pore but as it turns out would have been wrong.

  90. 90.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Subsole:

    These aren’t conspiracy theories. They are excuses.

    Eh, they’re both, really.

    So if you are expecting them to explode in a puff of logic when it turns out they are wrong? Nah.

    The theory is not there to explain. It is there to excuse. Always remember that.

    Oh, yeah I don’t expect that to happen for most of them. This isn’t an episode of Star Trek where the crew convince the weekly bad guy(s) how wrong they are and how superior Federation values are.

  91. 91.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Kelly: I’d also like to note that Fallout 2 made in the 90s displayed a post-apocalyptic Klamath as a real shithole full of superstitious and ignorant people.

    Guess they nailed it.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @Anne Laurie:

    I do remember the controversy over The Wall.

    It was such an ugly-ass fence before they improved it. Isn’t he supposed to be in the hotel business? How do you manage to make that nice old house into an eyesore?

  94. 94.

    Mike in NC

    When I think about deplorable scum, for some reason Matt & Mercedes Schlapp pop into my head.

  95. 95.

    MisterForkbeard

    @dmsilev: I’m actually a little worried about this. If the Left and the Right both decide to tar her as “just like the racist police and Biden must secretly hate black people” then that could damage Biden.

    God knows they already collaborated on this during the primary.

  96. 96.

    Subsole

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Is it bad that that’s the first thing I thought of when I read the article?

    Man, I need to fire that game up again sometime. A true classic.

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    @Mike in NC:

    Recall that many conservatives felt that a memorial designed by an Asian-American was somehow a problem.

    The main objection was that the Viet Nam memorial was not a traditional statue of soldiers, and that it did not have some obvious text message spelling out what it meant.

    Many veterans, politicians, critics, and the general public read its refusal to explicitly glorify the war or frame the listed soldiers’ sacrifice in recognizably heroic terms as an ideological statement, proof of Lin’s—and the memorial’s—purported anti-war position. Its detractors perceived it as “a monument to defeat, one that spoke more directly to a nation’s guilt than to the honor of the war dead and the veterans,” describing it as the “black gash of shame,” the “degrading ditch,” and a “wailing wall for draft dodgers and New Lefters of the future.” Responding to its lack of narrative content, Senator James Webb called it “nihilistic.” Interestingly (given their opposing political positions), both the National Review and the New Republic equated the list of names with a police report on a traffic accident. The National Review commented, “The mode of listing the names makes them individual deaths, not deaths in a cause; they might as well have been traffic accidents.”

    The critics wanted something glorifying the war.

  98. 98.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    How would you know if you were successful?

    Your comments would start making sense?

     

    Sorry, it was too good a setup line to ignore. I’m probably going to Hell for not resisting the temptation. Well, in fairness, for other things, too.

  101. 101.

    Capri

    Those notices were sent to my neighborhood – Folks were told that buses of antifatas were at the interstate exit and they were coming to look for “white houses” to ransack.  My next door neighbor is a policeman, and his wife sent a message saying that nobody was at any exit. Her husband was coming home because nothing was going on.

    So there’s a valid role for the local police – to assure the locals. One wonders why they didn’t call the police rather than decide to take up arms themselves. Don’t they feel like they’re on the same side?

  102. 102.

    Chyron HR

    @Geminid:

    It really hurts you inside to know that Trump has destroyed your “liberals are just as bad as republicans” narrative in 3 short years, doesn’t it?

  103. 103.

    Suzanne

    The most persistent rumors center on groups of antifa members being put on buses and sent to small towns to wreak havoc.

    Attention, small-town right-wing douchebags: NO ONE, ANTIFA OR OTHERWISE, gives even a sparrow fart, never mind a tangible shit, about your crappy town.

  105. 105.

    Ruckus

    You guys.

    They were complaining because the names were all together. They couldn’t tell who they were glad were dead (the black names) and who they wanted to honor for having died (the white names).

  106. 106.

    The Moar You Know

    Those protests — and some of the violence and looting that have accompanied them — have become the source of growing skepticism and paranoia in conservative circles.

    Not just conservative.  My sane set of parents, who were pretty psyched on Biden, are “reconsidering some things because of the protests”.

    Yesterday, they asked for their pistol back (I took it to clean it, it’s pretty old, and never got around to returning it).

    These are not stupid people and they are not conservatives.  But damn, race-baiting really works very well on a lot of white folks.  I’m fucking freaked that this may hand Trump another four years.

    Also, goddamn, anyone still want to defend being on Facebook?

  107. 107.

    SFAW

    On one of the NextDoor communities in Central MA, the local RWNJs are screaming about Black Lives Matters; the “ALL Lives Matter!” bullshit is prevalent. Bout what made one or more of the threads stand out was a RW moron telling us first that BLM either supports, or works closely with, or approves of the ANTIFA terrists. Later on, that bullshit transmogrified to “BLM advocated for police to be killed.” Curiously, that person would not — or was unable to — provide a non-RWMF cite for that “fact.” Another one talked about the “Leftist Agenda.” Another snowflake talked about NextDoor censoring RWMF views.

    Because the rules for NextDoor commenting are different from your typical Top 10,000 political blog, those morons were not dealt with in a more “direct” fashion. Plus, we didn’t want to hurt their fee-fees.

  109. 109.

    Wapiti

    @Percysowner: Speaking of the Orange Timeshare Salesman of Lies… did his Orangeness make to some church service today? It’s Sunday, right?

  111. 111.

    SFAW

    @Suzanne:

    Attention, small-town right-wing douchebags: NO ONE, ANTIFA OR OTHERWISE, gives even a sparrow fart, never mind a tangible shit, about your crappy town.

    Your meanness will cause the RWMF snowflakes to melt. I hope you’re proud of yourself, hurting their fee-fees like that.

  112. 112.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Subsole: It is not a bad thing. It really is excellent.

    I actually started a new playthrough of the original about two weeks ago.

    And if you haven’t played Wasteland 2 yet, it’s pretty much a modern Fallout without the faux 50’s cultural stylings. But then, those didn’t really come into the foreground until Bethesda took over the series in Fallout 3.

  113. 113.

    Sally

    @Ruckus: Yes, I get that. But what I’m saying is I don’t think they really believe, it’s just cosplay to impress, who knows whom? If they thought a group of armed thugs were coming for them, they’d be cowering in their babybunkers. But I guess there’s always a fraction of them who do believe. As many have noted, the last major antifa invasion was in Europe nearly eighty years ago. And none of these guys look like they could either fight against them or with them.

  115. 115.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    One of the signs says simply, “Fuck Trump”. For the sake of historical accuracy, we’ll have to preserve it.

    We have no choice.

  117. 117.

    Mike in NC

    @Kay: Shit, this is like a reverse Berlin Wall. As Trump liked to brag, “Only I” could do it.

  119. 119.

    Kelly

    @Capri:One wonders why they didn’t call the police rather than decide to take up arms themselves. Don’t they feel like they’re on the same side?

    The rumor was being spread by the commander of the local Air National Guard base. The Colonel is probably an important, credible guy in a small, isolated town

  121. 121.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @dmsilev:

    You were right about it being called the “black gash of shame”:

    The selected design was very controversial, in particular, its unconventional design, its black color and its lack of ornamentation. Some public officials voiced their displeasure, calling the wall “a black gash of shame.”

    Two prominent early supporters of the project, H. Ross Perot and James Webb, withdrew their support once they saw the design. Said Webb, “I never in my wildest dreams imagined such a nihilistic slab of stone.” James Watt, secretary of the interior under President Ronald Reagan, initially refused to issue a building permit for the memorial due to the public outcry about the design. Since its early years, criticism of the Memorial’s design faded. In the words of Scruggs, “It has become something of a shrine.”

    Speaking of Webb, I had completely forgotten that he had tried to run in the 2016 Dem primaries. He decided not to because he disagreed with many of the party’s positions (good riddance)

    From a 2015 Time Mag article:

    Jim Webb offered a rare sight Thursday. Standing on a grassy knoll overlooking a pond at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the likely 2016 Democratic presidential contender spoke in bitter detail about the the fall of Saigon 40 years earlier.

    A “very liberal, anti-war Congress” cut off funding to the South Vietnamese shortly before Saigon fell to the Vietcong, Webb argued. “If our political leaders had done a better job with their duty, we may have seen a different situation in Vietnam.”

    Sure, bud. If we had just nuked North Vietnam, I’m sure we would have won the Vietnam War ?

    I guess the Wall being a “nihilistic slab of stone” didn’t stop him from giving his little speech. And he refused to vote for Clinton and didn’t rule out voting for Trump in 2016. What a POS

  123. 123.

    Bill Arnold

    @Robert Sneddon:

    My own suggestion is that the folks circulating these rumours should say that the antifa are coming to [insert name of small white flight suburb here] in oversized rusty pickups flying big Confederate flags in the back as a disguise.

    You know that it’s not hard to start such rumors. (Just don’t get caught; that takes some opsec discipline (at least to gov-proof it). Also, remember that rumors can live for decades.)

  125. 125.

    Bill Arnold

    Excellent history thread on anti-fascist groups. 

    ? THREAD ? ? Varieties of anti-fascism in history ARDITI DEL POPOLO1st anti-fascist group formed in Italy in June 1921 by anarchist Argo SecondariThey quickly established local autonomous groups across Italy to physically resist the fascists but they faded by end 1922 pic.twitter.com/ac7Ok9oBN5— Anti-Fascism & Far Right ? (@FFRAFAction) June 7, 2020

  126. 126.

    Butter Emails

    @Bill Arnold:

    You know that it’s not hard to start such rumors. (Just don’t get caught; that takes some opsec discipline (at least to gov-proof it). Also, remember that rumors can live for decades.)

    Conservatives get caught on their BS all the time. Doesn’t seem to have an impact.

  129. 129.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @WaterGirl:

    @debbie:

    @Kay:

    I’m sort of surprised the Secret Service or the Park Police haven’t tried removing them yet. The fencing should definitely be preserved for a museum in the DC area. Like the Berlin Wall

  130. 130.

    MoCA Ace

    On Wednesday there was a protest in support of BLM on the bridge between WI and MI and my son texted me that he had never seen as much pants-wetting hysteria on the local FB Community page leading up to it… people boarding up stores and calling out the local militia to protect the towns from the ravening hoards.

    At 3:00 pm (the scheduled end of the protest) I went for a drive across the bridge and there were maybe a 100 protesters, mostly women and children, having a good time.  I honked my support then drove through town to find the heavy and armed local militia had a large presence outside may of the local local taverns… no doubt reveling in their success in their first battle for white supremacy!

  131. 131.

    The Moar You Know

     

     One wonders why they didn’t call the police rather than decide to take up arms themselves. Don’t they feel like they’re on the same side?

    @Capri: The police were probably the ones who issued the warning to the locals.  I get a lot of law enforcement bulletins as part of my job and some of them are, put nicely, without any foundation in fact.

  132. 132.

    Honus

    @Geminid: I understand you’re in Greene. Did you see the reports on the BLM protest march in Orange?  I couldn’t believe it. Led by the police chief snd toughly 50-50 black and white. In Orange. Unbelievable.

  133. 133.

    apocalipstick

    @Baud: I believe you mean Red Dawn.

    Your lack of familiarity with this foundational American document obviously marks you as an elitist libtard and Soros-worshipper. /s

  135. 135.

    MoCA Ace

    @Mike in N 

    the mobs are stirred up by liberal elitists trying to start a civil war.

    Funny how these supreme examples of whiteness actually want their civil war… until they see the other side is fed up with the shit, then its ohhhh nooooo’s we need to bar the doors and protect ourselves from the anti facists.

  136. 136.

    Amir Khalid

    Off-topic, kind of, but has Senator Tom Cotton had anything to say about his opinions being considered unfit for decent people to read?

  137. 137.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Percysowner: Trump has already given a national address on race.  It happened after a White Supremacist ran over protesters and killed Heather Heyer.  He called those White Supremacists “good people”.

    Nuff said.

  138. 138.

    Feathers

    One thing about people who believe conspiracy theories. You may be able to persuade them that some part of what they believe is not actually true. What you will never be able to convince them is that they are safe because nobody gives a shit about them.

     

    @NotMax: Thanks for the link! Very funny. And a Biden ad ran beforehand, with one in the upper left corner while it was running. Somebody’s got the right idea about where to place ads.

  140. 140.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Amir Khalid: Usual backpeddling that he didn’t mean to send the active duty military against the protesters to “dominate” them.

    Why his platoon didn’t Niedermayer him in Iraq I’ll never know.

  141. 141.

    Feathers

    @Amir Khalid: We are all weak and immoral snowflakes unwilling to face the truth that only The New York Times was brave enough to tell America.

    Basically, they are howling at having gotten one over on the Libs. But the awful editor is gone, complaining about he didn’t deserve to get fired over the piece. Completely gliding over the fact that he admitted he published it without reading it. Which is the basic fucken minimum for an editor.

  142. 142.

    Geminid

    @Honus:  I saw the post someone made about the march in Orange on this forum. Very heartening.                   I was also interested to see that Orange was Randolph Scott’s birthplace. He used to say, “I can’t  act and I’ve got 35 movies to prove it!”

  144. 144.

    L85NJGT

    For those still keeping count, Joe Biden won the USVI and Guam caucuses Saturday. Next up are the Georgia and WV primaries Tuesday.

  146. 146.

    Miss Bianca

    @Villago Delenda Est: Yeah, but this is exactly what the sheriff in our county helped prevent. I figure our march may have literally as well as figuratively dodged a bullet by his coming out and saying, “this isn’t happening, people. We’re not getting busloads of antifa. These are your neighbors and your family and your coworkers, whether you like it or not, and they deserve respect for their beliefs.”

    So, I may not agree with our sheriff about everything, but I’m damned glad he had our backs on this one.

  149. 149.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mike in NC: Recall that many conservatives felt that a memorial designed by an Asian-American was somehow a problem.

    If’n that ‘Maya Lin’ kid weren’t actually Vietcong, prolly some of her relatives were, I was told.

  152. 152.

    Kattails

    @SFAW: Yes but she made me LOL so I’m probably going to hell. My gun-loving neighbors, the ones who had Trump signs out, have taken lately to bouts of making a lot of gun noise on weekend afternoons.  Not interminably, thank God, but it’s still really jarring out of the blue on an otherwise peaceful, quiet afternoon.  I don’t like to guess why this is suddenly a thing.

    Taking notes here on how to get my Soros money when the unemployment runs out.

    An earlier comment mentioned the “6,000” coming by bus; somewhere, here or??– it was mentioned that the 6,000 is a bit of a code as the RWRNJ’s believe the earth is only 6,000 years old.

  153. 153.

    Feathers

    There was also much astonishment on twitter that there had been a peaceful BLM protest in Vidor, TX, a former sundown town, and current Klan town. Turns out they had a peaceful (mostly) turnout of 150-200. Great article in Texas Monthly about it: Black Lives Matter Comes to Vidor—Yes, Vidor, which contained the following astonishing quote:

    Maddy [the organizer] passed the mic to her friend Devon Noe. “Some of you might know me as Vidor’s resident gay black guy. Yeah, that’s me,” Noe said. “Yes, there is racism in Vidor, but there is good people. Like Ariel,” he said, pointing to a young white woman in the front row whom he said had helped him survive high school. “I love you,” Ariel replied. Noe said, “I’ve had to deal with a lot. I’ve had bottles thrown at my head while walking through town. I’ve had people jump the curb to attempt to hit me with their vehicles. Still, I know Vidor is a very damn good place. I hate the fact that the media paints a picture of us from fifty years ago, but there are good people here.”

    Just wow.

    I then went on Tumblr and found a rather hysterical post on my timeline saying that not to go to a rally in Vidor, that it was a Klan town and a trap and you would be in serious danger. Reblogged several times with pleas for people to stay away. Glad to know that this was an unfounded fear as well. (The article talks about people claiming that Maddy, the 23 year old organizer, wasn’t a real person. Read it.) This goes both ways.

  155. 155.

    Subsole

    @MisterForkbeard: Thanks for the recommend. Is this a reboot of the original 80’s wasteland?

    I loved how merciless the old Fallouts could be.

    Like, one major NPC would send you to kill people in exchange for citizenship papers, then NOT give you the papers and pretend to be horrified at your murdering presence in her office. I mean, the game straight up PLAYED my teenage ass on that one.

    Also, the sound design was just the best. Still hasn’t been equalled in the series.

  156. 156.

    Anne Laurie

    @dmsilev: Of course, the ‘She’s a KOP’ loons will flip out, but fuckem.

    ‘Set a cop to break the corrupt police unions’ is a statement I’ve seen on twitter.  And not just from people who are pro-Kamala; some of the less rabid ‘progressives’ want their imagined nut-crushing mean Black ladywoman to stomp her stiletto heels through Buffalo like Godzilla through a Tokyo movie set.

    If it makes them happy, this is a fantasy I’m willing to let them cherish.

  157. 157.

    Feathers

    @Anne Laurie: You are undoubtedly correct. However, there was enough heat that he thought that claiming he didn’t might save him.

    ETA: correct reply link.

  158. 158.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    ETA: I’m thankful to Webb for updating the GI Bill, helped get the kid though nursing school after her Air Force days.

    Webb was a complicated man, more than I gave him credit for

  159. 159.

    joel hanes

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    such terrible trucker hats

    Some of those hats will be “gimme” caps, given away free by various merchants, tire companies, seed corn dealers, etc.

    Some of them will be about average for what’s sold for $5 at the Kwikstop out on the highway.

    Some of them will have various stupid/defiant slogans or sigils or other symbolic value, and will not be worn so much for appearance as for imagined message.

    And some of them will simply be old, having started out in one of the other categories and having been worn for years while doing actual work.

  160. 160.

    Anne Laurie

    @debbie: I wish they use Solo cups jammed into the fence links to spell “Fuck Off.”

    Kinda feel like Mayor Bowser beat them to it!

  161. 161.

    Feathers

    @Anne Laurie: A standard feature of Roseland is an absolute inability to understand that people who have been a part of a corrupt institution could want to see in torn down; also that people can learn from their mistakes. Time seems to all be a constant now.

  163. 163.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Miss Bianca: Your county sheriff has a head on his shoulders.  It should stay there.  Where it can continue to do the right thing.

  165. 165.

    Subsole

     

     

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I recall reading that we considered nukes. The brass ultimately decided against because anything worth nuking was already getting flattened by conventional means or under American occupation.

    Just like dropping that MOAB on Afghanistan. What would be the point? “Behold, the dick of our tribe,” ain’t gonna make the bad guys fall over dead of fright.

  167. 167.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Amir Khalid: May he continue to croon for many years to come.  He’s been “Sir Tom” since 2005, which I did not know before.

  169. 169.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Amir Khalid: He smugly informed the media that his own standards “far exceed” those of the New York Times and that his op-ed was flawless.

    I’m not kidding.

  170. 170.

    joel hanes

    @dmsilev:

    Black gash of shame

    The Viet Nam war shame belongs to JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Kissinger, McNamara, Westmoreland, and their ilk, who wasted all those lives in service of a lie.

  171. 171.

    Anne Laurie

    @Capri: So there’s a valid role for the local police – to assure the locals. One wonders why they didn’t call the police rather than decide to take up arms themselves. Don’t they feel like they’re on the same side?

    I’ve actually got a post-in-progess about this… One of the most important reasons for having a police force is that, when it’s left to ‘the community’, all too often the answer to every problem is Kill the Witch / Jew / Immigrant / Outsider.  

    You need to have some trusted people, within the community, who can stop the lynch mob before it’s too late. For one thing, it never stops with one ‘witch’ — but being mutually responsible for a murder binds the whole mob into a gang that will afterwards be torn between repressed guilt & gleeful savagery.

    The GOP, unfortunately, have since at least Nixon’s day been encouraging lynch mobs, for exactly those unsavory reasons.

  172. 172.

    Patricia Kayden

    It seems clear that not a single:1) GOP former Presidential nominee in the 21st century or2) GOP former Secretary of State in the 21st centuryis going to vote for the GOP nominee for President in 2020.— Rufus Gifford (@rufusgifford) June 7, 2020

  173. 173.

    Geminid

    @L85NJGT: Georgia dems will be picking a candidate to run against David Perdue also. He or she will have a real shot at that Senate seat.           And on Saturday the Va. 5th Republicans will have a “drive in convention” to choose between Rep. Denver Riggleman and Liberty Baptist’s Bob Good to stand for congressman this November. Good has the home field advantage: the convention will be held in the parking lot of his megachurch. I think the dems will flip this one.

  174. 174.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Miss Bianca: Don’t you understand? They think she’s ‘performing’ and ‘pandering’.

    Performative leftists think Kamala’s time in the Senate is a smokescreen. It’s… sad. Really sad. They say the same thing about Biden and said the same thing about Hillary – that even though they might grudgingly admit they approve of the actual proposed policies, they know in their hearts that Democrats don’t actually MEAN them.

    Sigh.

  176. 176.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Subsole: It’s a direct sequel to the 1980s Wasteland, takes place about 15 years afterwards. Came out a few years ago and has been improved immensely since.

    There’s another sequel coming out later this year.

  180. 180.

    J R in WV

    Tom Cotton is a despicable piece of shit. So are the people at the FNYT who decided to ask him to write a piece, then after he submitted that vile screed, to go ahead and actually run it~!!!~

    I was and am amazed that they actually fired the idiot who ran that vile tripe without even reading it, and then was stupid enough to admit that he ran it without reading it the first time.

    Amazing stupidity…

  182. 182.

    Miss Bianca

    @MisterForkbeard: Kind of says something about them, doesn’t it, that everyone *else* is always ‘performing’, by their lights?

    Projection: It’s not just for *right*-wing assholes anymore!

  183. 183.

    joel hanes

    @Ksmiami:

    internal ugliness

    This is absolutely my reaction to Megyn Kelly, Mercedes Schlapp, Tomi Lahren, Dana Perino, Dana Loesch, and their ilk

  185. 185.

    Anathema Device

    @Robert Sneddon:

    Why buses? Don’t antifa people have their own transport?

    It’s always buses – bringing outside agitators, antifa, and illegal voters. I suspect a non-too-subtle dog whistle about ‘those’ people always needing to be ‘bused’ and too poor for cars / too ‘urban’ for ‘real’ cars.

  186. 186.

    Matt McIrvin

    @The Moar You Know: Except, you look at national and state polling–recent polling, after the unrest started, after most of the looting–and that’s just not happening. Trump is losing support, nationally and in the swing states. It’s not a huge motion, but that’s the motion.

  188. 188.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    It gets crazier:

    #ForksVigilantes recap (1 out of 3): Sequim, WA 3%er gun store owner freaks about peaceful #BLM protest, livestreams ‘intel’ about incoming #antifa invasion of looters into Olympic Peninsula. Wingnut followers in tiny Forks, WA 90 mins away start a vigilante mob to defend town…

    — Matthew Randazzo (@RandazzoTweets) June 5, 2020

  190. 190.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Subsole: Probably New Vegas or Fallout 2. NV is a lot more accessible, but FO2 nailed the atmosphere much better. They took lore seriously, had a great antagonist and I liked how they handled the aftermath of Fallout 1 – especially with the Super Mutants.

    Also, I could make a martial artist character who literally beat the last boss by critting him with a crane kick to the nuts and then just repeatedly smacking him for 2-3 points of damage for about 100 turns while he curled up in a feral position.

  192. 192.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kelly: The rumor was being spread by the commander of the local Air National Guard base. The Colonel is probably an important, credible guy in a small, isolated town

    Purity of Essence.  Just sayin’, you prevert.

  197. 197.

    Suzy

    @Percysowner: Mainstream media better not fawn over a speech written by others , a speech that Trump will read without conviction because it won’t represent his real views.

  199. 199.

    Suzy

    @The Moar You Know: I’m concerned too about the backlash. Days and days and days of seeing thousands of people on tv that demand drastic change.

    Your parents are freaking out ?  I’m not surprised at all that some people among the “soft” support for Mr. Biden are reconsidering. The spectacular movement they are witnessing on tv is so big it creates anxiety. We’ll see the polls in a few days. I’m concerned.

    Still confident that Mr. Biden can win this, but it could be close.

  200. 200.

    Bill Arnold

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Also, I could make a martial artist character who literally beat the last boss by critting him with a crane kick to the nuts and then just repeatedly smacking him for 2-3 points of damage for about 100 turns while he curled up in a feral position.

    I never even considered trying that, nice. :-)
    Was fond of the Bozar(?) that one could pickpocket from the guards at one town.

  201. 201.

    Prometheus Shrugged

    @The Moar You Know: On the flip side, here’s my anecdote from this evening. We like to walk our dogs in an extremely wealthy neighborhood in La Jolla that’s near our house. We like it, because the ocean views are spectacular; there aren’t many other dogs out (we have a beagle/daschund mix that morphs into Cujo on the street); and, most importantly my 11 yr old son likes to take census of the fancy cars in the driveways. By his reckoning we saw $10,000,000 worth of car this evening. Anyway, we got to one house that had a brand new, fully loaded McClaren parked in the driveway. Lo and behold, it had a “Black Trans Lives Matter” sign in the back of the cockpit window.  My initial thought was “hey, this guy must have been at the same car rally as we were yesterday.”  Meanwhile my African American wife became uncharacteristically emotional. I  quickly realized that not only are we pretty lucky to be living in a place where, of course the $500,000 McClaren had a “Black Trans Lives Matter” placard in it, but, also, that the tide is definitely turning.

    This is not to say that San Diego doesn’t have its full share of police problems and pockets of virulent racism. Just that I am now hopeful that they will be eradicated sooner, rather than later, by social distancing.

  202. 202.

    Subsole

    @MisterForkbeard: LOL. Agree. 2 is my fave, not ar all impressed w/the Bethesda offerings.

    I friggin’ lost it during the martial arts tourney when the guy pulled a gun mid ass-whoopin’…he killed me with it, too. I wasn’t even mad.

  203. 203.

    Subsole

    @Bill Arnold:  I loved that you could make any build and, with enough bloody-minded tenacity, it would work.

    Also, if y’all never played a low Int. game, you owe it to yourself to try it. Sulik’s intro dialogue alone critted my sides.

  204. 204.

    Jay

    They arrested him.They put rat poison in his food.

    He stopped eating their food.

    They destroyed the food he bought from vending machines.

    They beat him.

    They told him to kill himself.

    They tried to kill him.

    He is set to be released July 11th.
    https://t.co/uTDlSMfCjj— taha (@KhanStopMe) June 6, 2020

    M

  205. 205.

    Jay

    Look, there's no two ways about it. That man was intent on driving directly into that crowd of protesters, with his gun at the ready. The only reason he was stopped was by a protester physically moving a barricade by himself and throwing it on the car.— Spek (@spekulation) June 8, 2020

  206. 206.

    Sloane Ranger

    Trump’s speech could go one of to two ways.

    One – he comes out and mechanically reads some anodyne words supporting the principle of racial equality and an end to police violence, all of which he will contradict on Twitter within 24 hours.

    Two – he comes out surrounded by Police Union officials and boasts about his bigly job numbers, great for our African Americans, George would so approve, then moves to claiming that his plan to dominate the battlespace was a total success, there’s been no looting or violence since has there? Finally, he’ll raise white fears about all the liberals and anarchists who want to defund the police. Who is going to protect you in when the scary hoards come to your suburb to steal your stuff and rape your wife and daughter? There might also be a side offering that the size of the protests are fake news. Numbers of attendees are being inflated by lamestream media using CGI techniques.

  208. 208.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Benw: I should have come back sooner to read your response. That was an excellent impersonation of Mistermix.

  209. 209.

    evodevo

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):  A “very liberal, anti-war Congress” cut off funding to the South Vietnamese shortly before Saigon fell to the Vietcong, Webb argued. “If our political leaders had done a better job with their duty, we may have seen a different situation in Vietnam.”

    Yes…and the hippie antiwar protests and they spit on returning vets….I hear that crap from my career Army BIL all the time.  Still crap after all these years.

  211. 211.

    dopey-o

    What most moved me by the Viet Nam Memorial was how it invoked classic Greek tragedy. The sunken black marble states: Here the lives lost rest in the endless night of Hades.

    That their surviving friends and family walk right up to the face of the memorial, and copy the names with paper and crayons / pencils, makes me think they are straining to touch their lost ones thru the veil that separates earth and hell.

    Always makes me weep for all the innocent dead on both sides of that cowardly misbegotten war. The color of the marble states: This is not a gleaming monument to the glory of war.

  212. 212.

    J R in WV

    @Brachiator:

    The main objection was that the Viet Nam memorial was not a traditional statue of soldiers, and that it did not have some obvious text message spelling out what it meant.

    I recognized that the Vietnam Memorial was a powerfully moving monument long before I visited it, and in fact I resisted visiting it for a long time. Then I took a DBA class in Tysons Corner with a co-worker and good friend. Mostly after class we went out for great food, but one December night S dragged me downtown to see it.

    As I expected, I cried a lot, for about an hour and a half. So moving, so emotional. After a little while I found the notebooks with alphabetical lists, and looked up my family name. There was one guy, Mark, whom I did not know at all, but it is an unusual name, so we may have been related. Tore me up, found him on the wall.

    It was a cold snowy night, getting dark before we got there, but there were several other people there. No one bothered anyone else, and my friend and I did our own visit. We were both vets, we never went overseas to the war, but wow, so emotional. I recommend cold snowy nights to visit, feels so private!

    The architect was, is a genius. The reflections of DC monuments are riveting as well. Design AND construction nigh on perfect!

    Holy ground.

Comments are closed.