This is wrong, and it’s not being covered by the major news outlets. Maybe some of our Portland jackals can chip in some insight.
I’ve been waiting for more confirmation, but last night the governor of Oregon made a statement.
A bit more from Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley:
Merkley: Federal forces shot an unarmed protester in the face. These shadowy forces have been escalating, not preventing, violence. If Sec. Wolf is coming here to inflame the situation so the president can look like a tough guy, he should turn around and leave our city now.
The best sources I’ve found are on Twitter, unconfirmed, but from people I consider reliable.
Update: The Washington Post is working from an Oregon Public Broadcasting story:
When several men in green military fatigues and generic “police” patches sprang out of an unmarked gray minivan in front of Mark Pettibone in the early hours of Wednesday morning, his first instinct was to run.
He did not know whether the men were police or far-right extremists, who frequently don militarylike outfits and harass left-leaning protesters in Portland, Ore. The 29-year-old resident said he made it about a half-block before he realized there would be no escape.
Then, he sank to his knees, hands in the air.
“I was terrified,” Pettibone told The Washington Post. “It seemed like it was out of a horror/sci-fi, like a Philip K. Dick novel. It was like being preyed upon.”
He was detained and searched. One man asked him if he had any weapons; he did not. They drove him to the federal courthouse and placed him in a holding cell. Two officers eventually returned to read his Miranda rights and ask if he would waive those rights to answer a few questions; he did not.
And almost as suddenly as they had grabbed him off the street, the men let him go.
Baud
WaPo has a story up on this today.
MattF
Um, well:
True, he didn’t explicitly mention black helicopters and jackbooted thugs– but projection, projection, projection.
Connor
Hard not to think this is a trial run for what happens when he loses in November. The time to push back is NOW.
Cheryl Rofer
@Baud: Your post may have been simultaneous with my update.
Keith P.
This must be the announcement that Stephen Miller said Trump was going to make today.
zhena gogolia
They didn’t answer because she wasn’t speaking Russian. They couldn’t understand her.
guachi
@Connor: When he loses? Trial run for if he wins, too.
Chief Oshkosh
@Connor: Yep. These are probing operations. Not sure what the proper city or state response should be, nor am I convinced that the mayor, governor, or senators aren’t themselves part of the kabuki theater. However, if they are not, maybe they should consider that some of those surplus military vehicles that they now own will roll right over a minivan. I mean, accidents do happen… The rental agency will be pissed, but making the ersatz Gestapo walk back to their motel rooms, sans the heavy gear left in the vans, would be good exercise.
trnc
Brown needs to deploy the National Guard to confront and detain the feds, or at least force a standoff so they can be identified.
Chief Oshkosh
@trnc: No, a direct confrontation like that is likely to be exactly what the feds want. A miniature civil war.
low-tech cyclist
The House needs to be jumping on this, hard. Subpoena Chad Wolf, demand the names, ranks, and affiliations of every Federal law enforcement officer involved, and (fully expecting zero cooperation there) take testimony from every citizen who encountered or saw these storm troopers. Hold a hearing in Portland (or do it remotely) to make it easier for them to testify.
This should not be happening in America.
Danielx
We don’t need no steenking badges!
Cheryl Rofer
@low-tech cyclist: Barr should be brought up before Congress too. I’ll bet there’s an order with his name on it somewhere.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@trnc:
Don’t worry, a federal judge will issue an injunction at the convenience of his or her calendar, briefs, response briefs, surreplies and responses to surreplies. Relief will be coming at some point in the next 9 to 14 months.
Baud
JPL
@low-tech cyclist: I agree and it has to happen now. trump is trying to create riot situations so he can become a law and order president.
MattF
Trump explains his opposition to efficiency standards.
low-tech cyclist
@trnc:
@Chief Oshkosh:
Maybe it’s what the Feds want, but (a) it doesn’t sound like they were there in huge numbers, just enough to easily grab individual unarmed citizens off the streets. It should be possible to massively outnumber them with National Guard or even local police.
And (b) if there was a confrontation between unidentifiable Feds in camo, and uniformed, identifiable National Guard or Portland police, if anyone thinks this would help Trump outside of his hard-core supporters, I’d say they’re crazy.
ETA: I should add that no confrontation should be sought by Oregon or Portland officials unless they can overwhelmingly outnumber the Feds in camo. If they can surround them, round them up, get their IDs, then let them go, that’s probably the best approach if they can pull it off.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@MattF:
“Cars ran so much better when there was lead in gas” will be the next place he goes. He’s like a retarded parrot.
low-tech cyclist
@Cheryl Rofer: Well, they should try to bring Barr before Congress. When push comes to shove, they can’t compel him, so he won’t show. But they should subpoena him anyway.
Cheryl Rofer
@Baud: Good article, the best I’ve seen so far.
I can’t read it on my desktop because The Oregonian blocks ad blockers, but I read it on my phone.
prostratedragon
@low-tech cyclist: If they never act in a mass, then we can’t counter them that way. The precedent, I insist, is experiences like in Argentina 1976–83. They’d snatch people off busses or while walking down the street, and hustle them into cars (usually Ford Falcons), or burst into their homes in the middle of the night.
“We can make our pencils here.”
I just happened to run across a trailer from a docudrama of the era. But I’m sure it’s just a wild coincidence.
StringOnAStick
So, we’ve reached the “deploy blackshirts” point in our descent into fascism. The pushback needs to happen NOW. Hit the TV circuit, Nancy!
Chief Oshkosh
@low-tech cyclist:
Well, you and I disagree on that one. I have zero faith in the wider media presenting the full, complete story on whatever ends up happening. None. If there were to be a direct fed vs state confrontation, the media would present it as a Dem governor fighting with the president. It would be a ratings bonanza.
trnc
You’re not suggesting they just be allowed to continue, and then DT be able to deny feds are behind it when the protesters respond violently? The reason they’re operating with no ID or standard processes is because they don’t want to be identified. If Natl Guard steps in with significant numbers, the only way the feds can respond will give away their game. It has to be done before the fed numbers expand or go into other cities.
Matt McIrvin
As they say, when the paramilitaries show up the end has come, and here are the paramilitaries.
Since Trump cannot win the 2020 election if it happens, his plan here has to be to prevent it from happening in a manner that confers any legitimacy on the result. So:
(1) shut down the United States Postal Service so we can’t vote by mail,
(2) send the little green men to every city in a swing state to shut down voting in person, or simply sow enough chaos that it can’t happen, by abducting or gunning down random civilians in the street,
(3) assassinate Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a semi-plausible manner (could be as simple as a spray bottle full of COVID-19; maybe he has already done this!) and replace her with a lackey, at which point he has enough personal loyalists to knock down any court challenges to his reinstallation in office and claim Constitutional legitimacy, since the Constitution says whatever they want it to say
If it happens and he loses in spite of all this, I suppose he could send gunmen into the Capitol to mess with the certification of the Electoral College results.
trnc
True about the media, but what would be the explanation from the feds about what or how they’re operating? Gov vs Prez probably doesn’t help prez if he can’t point to any reason for doing this or the way it’s being done. I don’t think he benefited from the bible photo op in DC, and that was a block away from the White House.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
If I get snatched up, my plan is to be so obnoxiously insulting that I get physically assaulted.
Baud
Can we just deal with threats as threats instead of jumping off points of creative thinking about how Trump’s God like powers will destroy us all?
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
So you’re just going to be yourself then.
ETA: :-)
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m perfectly OK with the ammo box at that point.
SFAW
@Matt McIrvin:
A more likely “thought” in his/Miller’s/Barr’s head.
Denali
Apparently these Feds in camo are Border Patrol; they are now coming for us, not just the undocumented.
low-tech cyclist
@Chief Oshkosh:
How have the Trump-v.-governor confrontations played out so far this year? The governors have been looking awfully good, and Trump not so much.
But like I ETA’d above, Oregon’s better off avoiding a confrontation unless they can bring overwhelming numbers on their side so that they can easily surround the Feds.
Kay
Wolf is all over Right wing media drumming up a conflict. These are political arrests. These people are being picked up and interrogated for the crime of opposing the Trump Administration.
You could take them to court but it will take months and I’m not sure the Trump Administration will follow a court order. They’re not following the DACA ruling.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
It’s my one special skill, kinda like Liam Neeson in Taken (and every movie he’s done since). I suspect that his is more useful, though.
Sayne
Anybody else having trouble seeing embedded twitter images on Balloon Juice this morning? It’s not just this post, but the one before it.
Regular images are showing, just not ones attached to tweets.
SFAW
@Baud:
Absolutely right, since Trump has never given any indication that he wants to be a dictator/authoritarian.
Baud
@SFAW:
I’m not talking about his desires. I’m talking about his capabilities and his aptitude.
A Good Woman
@Baud: and his enablers?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@SFAW: More like Trump’s shown any capability of being dictator. I mean WTF is he getting involved in some internal dispute in Portland? This is what CNN was saying about only Cool Aid drinkers are left in the White House; Trump got upset about seeing the Portland protests on Fox News and one of his cultists are going to fix it.
SFAW
@Baud:
Eppur si muove.
Baud
@A Good Woman:
When in the last three and a half years have his enablers made Trump act competently?
Jeffro
@low-tech cyclist: Agreed x10
LET’S GO CONGRESS! We’re not going to get too many more chances to save the Republic here, ya jerkwads.
MattF
@Baud: I haven’t seen anything like the level of competence that would be needed to pull off the things @Matt McIrvin lists. They’ll threaten, sure— but assassinate people? I don’t think so.
SFAW
@low-tech cyclist:
From your keyboard to Speaker Pelosi’s ears.
Betty Cracker
I monitor what color the sky is on Planet Fox by reading the Twitter feeds of the poor souls whose job it is to watch Fox News and post clips. It’s all urban hellscape, all the time, and of course that syncs with Trump’s LAW & ORDER rhetoric.
I figure it’s all a big fat lie because it always is, but I live way out in the sticks, so I don’t have firsthand info. I guess that’s the plan — keep people in the sticks riled up about imaginary urban violence to build consensus for a federal crackdown. It looks like that’s what’s happening.
PenAndKey
Based on these reports he has his underlings reenacting the opening stages of Argentina’s Dirty War, on camera, in a major American metro area with little pushback. He may be a dementia-addled sociopath but his sycophants aren’t. And while they may be largely politically incompetent they’ve managed to push the “law enforcement” actions of the federal government so past things like norms and legality that their actions wouldn’t have even been a recognizable possibility even four years ago. Oregon needs to address this head on before it becomes a blueprint for the rest of the country, because the history books make things very clear where this leads.
Baud
@PenAndKey:
I agree with addressing it.
rikyrah
Thank you for this post
MattF
@Betty Cracker: Except that executing a national crackdown is not so easy. And the people who would be responsible for it are bananas.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
yahoo.com/news/federal-officers-gas-clear-protesters-110051854.html
This is dumb ass Donny political stunt, like gassing the protestors at the Church. POWN the Libertards and his base will think it’s awsome.
Chief Oshkosh
@trnc:
You are correct, I am not suggesting that they be allowed to continue.
Crashman06
Oh boy. My anxiety disorder is not well controlled enough to be able to handle this thread.
low-tech cyclist
@prostratedragon:
The governments of Oregon and the city of Portland have advantages that the citizens of Argentina didn’t. The National Guard and the local police have helicopters, and they hardly even need those, because drones are cheap and abundant nowadays. Monitor the streets from the air, then once they’ve been spotted, block their routes and surround them on the ground.
Cheryl Rofer
OzarkHillbilly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: No no no, in my experience being an asshole is how you get other people to just leave you the fuck alone. Liam Neeson’s “skills” never once stopped people from fucking with him. What is it up to now? 6 movies?
low-tech cyclist
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Ken Cuccinelli. Wouldn’t you know?
To think that a mere seven years ago, he was AG of Virginia. And lost a race for governor that fall to Terry McAuliffe by a mere 2.5% of the vote. Thank you, T-Mac, for effectively ending this slug’s political career, and reducing him to being a hanger-on with the likes of Velveetamort.
OzarkHillbilly
They assassinated George Floyd. Jus’ sayin’.
Kathleen
I’m so glad I’m not in his movie family. I’d probably be soylent green by now. If I was lucky.
low-tech cyclist
@Cheryl Rofer: [Responding to Chad Wolf, not you] If those people were patriots, they’d – at a minimum – be wearing honest uniforms, rather than camo borrowed from some desert war, and no more identification than the word “Police” on their backs.
They are not patriots. They are storm troopers, a willing arm of a would-be authoritarian ruler.
A Good Woman
@Baud: when have they ever really stopped him from acting on his worst instincts? This instance isn’t about competency, it’s about exercising power. Remember, this is the guy who pointed at Article II and said he could do what he wanted. Wolf is titled as Acting. I would bet he was vetted for loyalty to Cheeto, and doing what he is told. He is enabling Cheeto’s exercise of power over Portland, and doing it in person to drive home the point. The complaints from the electeds appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
I live in Chicago, and Cheeto has tweeted about our gun violence and intervening to stop it. Mayor Lightfoot told him to pound sand. If Wolf shows up and we see a replay of Portland, presidential competency is not going to be the first thing I worry about.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@low-tech cyclist: Amazing the number of Republicans with futures are throwing them away for Trump. Maybe his guy decided that he’s to conservative for the Democrats and MAGA hats will be all that’s left of the GOP after Trump so this stunt is his ticket to being elected as Rep for +10 R district in Virginia in 2022.
Otherwise this reads like Cuccinelli’s traveling Fascist show, pop into some random liberal big city, POWN libertards and then off to the next one.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Remember this Trump and Trump believes everything on TV. It’s quite likely he won’t send the goon squad to Chicago because he’s terrified the locals will shoot back. Peaceful protestors are easy to bully after all.
MattF
@OzarkHillbilly: Fair point, they’ve got murderous thugs on their side. However, I’d argue that particular murder didn’t work out so well for the perp or for the perp’s sponsors. Also, thugs will do your dirty work, but then they try to take over, and that doesn’t end well.
sherparick
@Chief Oshkosh: The Oregon Attorney General and prosecutor in Portland should consider issuing warrants for the arrests of Wolf and various John and Jane Does under the charge of Kidnapping under Oregon State Law:
A person commits the crime of kidnapping in the second degree if, with intent to interfere substantially with another’s personal liberty, and without consent or legal authority, the person:
(a) Takes the person from one place to another; or
(b) Secretly confines the person in a place where the person is not likely to be found.
(2) It is a defense to a prosecution under subsection (1) of this section if:
(a) The person taken or confined is under 16 years of age;
(b) The defendant is a relative of that person; and
(c) The sole purpose of the person is to assume control of that person.
(3) Kidnapping in the second degree is a Class B felony. [1971 c.743 §98; 2005 c.22 §111]
If they don’t have warrants or probable cause for arrests under “Federal law,” these Federal agents have no authority to arrest people on the streets of Portland, an area that is under exclusive jurisdiction of the state.
karensky
This move by DHS is state sponsored terrorism. Full stop.
Cheryl Rofer
I think that Governor Brown is right, that Trump and toadies are trying to set up a confrontation to please Trump’s base and make Trump feel like he is a big man. That second is important, since he’s obviously having a hard time without his periodic fix of crowd adulation. Beating up and maybe killing some people might provide an alternative fix.
There have been several political articles lately that point out the desperation among Trump’s toadies that his actions have been decreasing his popularity. They’re to be taken with a grain of salt, but most polls I’ve seen with questions about how Trump is handling various aspects of his job show disapproval at 60% and higher. That’s getting into landslide territory when you translate it to the election.
Having a secret police force snatch people off the streets is an attempt to terrify the population. The effect so far seems to be more like making people angry. That’s not going to be good for Trump, either.
Kay
Couldn’t Homeland Security play some useful and practical role in the pandemic instead of acting as Donald Trump’s political police?
I’m sick of paying Donald Trump’s employees. Do some godammned work other than protecting the Trump Family fortunes. Get off our payroll and onto his if you’re serving him. I’m not paying for a political campaign that includes paramilitaries.
OzarkHillbilly
@MattF: Actually, I had a larger point, not directed specifically at you. Folks assuming police will follow the orders of a mayor and line up against their fellow true believers in Federal colors… I just don’t see it.
It strikes me as political suicide for any mayor that would order such a thing. These gestapo tactics are a problem. Whatever the answer is, it is a political answer. After the election we can go about fixing our police forces.
ETA @Cheryl Rofer: This.
Chris Johnson
The question at the top of my mind is, do those (white, masked, unidentifiable) PROTESTORS speak English or Russian?
‘Cos this is all straight out of the Putin playbook and happening in the context where the treason contingent can actually do stuff. Much like the cops dressing like protestors and breaking windows so they can get to break heads on a larger scale.
NOT ALL PROTESTORS ARE REAL. This ground zero, street level stuff is exactly where foreign/wingnut interference is most effective, and it’s a known tactic for producing exactly this result: if you see a ‘protestor’ seized by apparent fascists and taken away never to be seen again, you maybe don’t protest, you maybe run away and hide believing the violence against you has escalated.
And if it’s a fake guy who’s actually a cop or actually a ‘little green man’
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_green_men_(Ukrainian_crisis)
then the guy isn’t actually at risk, he’s on the same side, it’s theater done for the purpose of being able to do it for REAL later without blowback.
I guess my gut reaction is this: squawk like hell and don’t panic. Panic is the desired result, and the desired result of putting in fake protestors who just wreck everything is to make the general populace WANT paramilitary clampdown, and it’s all standard Putin tactics. You put in people on both sides and have them ‘fight’ so you can stomp any real rebellion and be supported by the normies and those who are staying home.
I have a friend whose husband, a trucker, says he saw a protestor checkpoint where black protestors were pulling people out of their vehicles and making them ‘kiss our black feet’, which he defied by driving off before they could do it to him. If he’s making it up, that sucks pretty hardcore, sounds very Qanon, sucks also if he’s being fed that by Qanon and recounting it as if it happened to him, but if he was in a place where anybody was doing that, I find it damn hard to believe such ‘protesters’ were real. Sounds like Russians in blackface, with the full knowledge of the police who’d race off sirens blaring to ‘capture’ them: really really elaborate theater, if it wasn’t simply made up. The thing is, pulling shenanigans that aggressive is dangerous to the fake ‘protestors’ but staging a capture by the feds and going quietly while real protestors cry ‘we got you! What is your name? Identify yourselves!’ is not dangerous at all.
All this freaks me out, but it’s meant to. This is after all a kind of war.
Cheryl Rofer
Betty Cracker
@Cheryl Rofer: I read through that thread — thanks for posting it. Good God, what a self-important, fascist drama llama!
If graffiti is what he saw in Portland yesterday, maybe arm the goons with squeegies and paint?
mkj49
@Baud: Looks like Soft Touch deblabbio’s minions have made a push into the Peoples Republic of Oregon.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: That would be like work. No where near as fun as beating up protesters.
MattF
OT. Amazing– I got my state and federal refund checks yesterday, about a week after filing. Moral: e-filing works.
Matt McIrvin
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
And how do we manage that? Lone nuts with guns aren’t any more effective at overthrowing the government if they’re liberals. We’d need to be actively planning for civil war already. The only organized militias I can see that might be on our side are the neo-Black-Panther types, and there just aren’t enough of them.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: Their justification for doing these things is literally minor property damage and graffiti, which is evidence of “violent anarchists”.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Acting Secretary because none of them bother to get confirmed anymore. Which just means they’re even more in the employ of Donald Trump and not the country.
Donald Trump’s employees, but with police power.
Salty Sam
Trump is good at “security theater”, and this is a particularly potent form of it. Terrorism? Yes, it terrifies me.
But just as George Floyd’s extrajudicial execution set off a long latent wave of protest and change (it ain’t over yet), this State sponsored terrorism theater will backfire. We have finally crossed a line, and this stuff will not play any more.
Marcopolo
Speaking of landslide territory, here’s a drop from Cook Political Reports this morning:
And
waratah
I do not understand how he can do things like this and cannot be stopped. He or they started with immigrants and have built up to this. I cannot excuse this for politics . He should not be allowed to do this for politics.
The news media needs to wake up they are grabbing more power everyday.
Salty Sam
.
Besides, we’ve got to protect our phony-balony jobs here…
Aziz, light!
I am reposting here what I posted downthread about four hours ago. No, I don’t want these arrests made by unidentified police who are not exercising probable cause, but I’ll make the same objection:
Betty Cracker
There’s not going to be a civil war. A small, flailing man is in search of a balcony moment. Yes, it’s terrifying that such a person occupies an office with a lot of power — anyone who’s paying attention should be alarmed. But there’s not going to be a civil war.
zhena gogolia
@Aziz, light!:
Interesting.
Salty Sam
@Betty Cracker: Yes! Thank you!
patrick II
Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf :
Protesting is legal. Kidnapping people off of the streets is illegal and no way to defend justice; to attack them is the attack on America, although I expect Mr. Wolf is a little too dim to understand why.
Kay
The entire federal government, repurposed to re-elect Donald Trump.
They don’t follow the Covid numbers, because who gives a shit about the actual people in this country they’re supposed to be serving? They follow Donald Trump’s numbers.
Another week where no actual work was performed.
Those are very manly photo ops for Chad Wolf, though, I must say! Good job, team! Compare hours spent on Sean Hannitty versus hours spent on doing their jobs. Is it 99 to 1 at this point?
Baud
@Aziz, light!:
Which is why it’s been allowed to go on for so long.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
When a retreating army burns bridges behind them, it doesn’t mean they’re winning.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: weird, one of my guiding principles in watching the trump administration is that there are the genuinely stupid– trump, Pence, DeVos, JarVanka, Meadows– and the intelligent but ruthless and immoral– Barr, Mnuchin, Conway. Putting trump in a brighter spotlight on his weakest issue is… not smart. But I’m just a dumb guy on the internet.
O. Felix Culpa
@Aziz, light!: You have my sympathies. The situation does sound bad and requires addressing, but not by secret police kidnapping people off the streets.
Aziz, light!
I see it’s cool for people to scoff at a little spray paint. The photos going around show spray paint on plywood panels. But these panels cover windows to protect them from being broken. And the paint is all over building walls as well. What we have in Portland is a defacing of the whole downtown core. Government buildings, retail establishments, makes no difference. The people doing this are sending the message that they hate everyone and everything, and for them it’s party time, a festive block party in the middle of the night that’s been going on since May. Yes, law enforcement in this regard should be carried out legitimately, but it still needs to be carried out.
JPL
@Cheryl Rofer: Putin’s been advising him.
Keith P.
@Betty Cracker: From the looks of all that dangerous graffiti, all Acting Secretary Wolf really has to do is to capture Edgar Friendly
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The President’s problem is no one believes a word he says. It took them 3 and a half years to lose credibility. They aren’t going to regain it in 3 months.
It isn’t just him. Pence said a month ago that the crisis was over. I don’t know if they’re just morons or they lie all the time but does it matter? Not credible.
SFAW
@Salty Sam:
Harumph!
Baud
@Aziz, light!: Thanks for the local perspective. Maybe we should not reflexively and automatically support everyone who wears the “protestor” label. Right now, the greater danger may be that the protestors and Trump’s goon will help aggrandize each other.
japa21
@Aziz, light!: I want to thank you for bringing local perspective to the discussion. Particularly the point about how minority businesses are being impacted.
As you point out, there needs to be something done. The question is what to do and how to do it and by whom? Legitimate questions.
DHS’s response is definitely not the best way. And actually, used properly, the Feds assistance would be helpful, but as a coordinated approach.
ETA: Or, as Baud said.
J R in WV
@Aziz, light!:
You sound like you are good with secret police kidnapping people probably not directly involved with violence and vandalism off the street at gunpoint. Which is the bigger crime here? Vandalism or kidnapping of people with no evidence of wrongdoing nor warrants?
You have either lost your mind or need to return to the Fascist Twitter feeds and dark web posts that will feed your insanity.
The proper way to deal with vandalism and street violence is to gather actual evidence, obtain an arrest warrant, and in daylight in full uniforms with said warrant locate and arrest the suspects against which you have gathered that evidence. Professional police work, in other words, which these camo-wearing fascists are not capable of executing.
Shooting random people in the wee hours? They can do that.
I hope you aren’t proud of your stupidity!
ETA: I hope it is obvious in my comment that I do not support violence and vandalism at all — I also do NOT support anonymous camo-wearing fascist storm troopers picking random people off the street at gunpoint, shooting people in the face and in general acting like, well… like wanna be storm troopers. Anyone showing a shred of support for street fascism needs their head examined, it is not any way to enforce the law!
japa21
@J R in WV: Way to over react. You should probably reread the comment again.
Kropacetic
¿Por que no los dos?
Exactly this. The response to unlawful and destructive behavior shouldn’t be more unlawful behavior by our federal government. This just compounds the problem.
Cheryl Rofer
@Aziz, light!: Thanks for your perspective. If that’s what’s going on, probably one of Trump’s toadies figured that kidnapings by secret police would receive some local support. Another attempt to divide people and bring in authoritarianism at the same time.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: I think even now, if trump came out and made some banal statements about masks, and making safety the top priority in school reopening, and said we’re gonna have to pay what it costs to keep our kids safe, and stood there and nodded like a big dumb dope while Fauci talked, his approval would tick up a bit. But he has a maladjusted middle-school bully’s idea of what’s tough and what’s weak, and masks are weak, and even talking about safety is weak. And Fauci is old, and short.
and his fundamental cheapness– even when it isn’t his money– makes him think spending money on safety is weak. You can see the carry-over from his days as a builder: Smoke alarms and sprinklers? We could spend that money on a taller facade! and gold paint! and fake turrets! and classy stuff like that that people love
oopzwtf
Maybe the DHS secretary will start extrajudicial executions of graffiti artists, so he can be known as Hanging Chad.
SFAW
@oopzwtf:
NotMax would like to have a word with you.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cheryl Rofer: trump desperately wants violence in the streets, both because he’s a brute and it gives him vicarious feelings of machismo, and because he thinks it will help him in the election. There’s a line between what’s going on in Portland and his efforts to nationalize that couple in St Louis, and talking about how he saved the Lincoln Memorial, and and the Washington Monument and because Andrew Jackson is his spirit animal, he throws him in.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I can see how this happened.
Political Consultant “Mr President, because of the virus, the trade disputes, the chaos in your admin, the economic down turn, the corruption in your admin, the public sees your administration as out of control.”
Dumb Ass Donny “Got it, check, they think I don’t have enough control. Wolfe, get this your boys to go beat up those hippies in Portland and loyalty checks for the staff. I will show them control”
This is Trump who thinks drinking bleach will cure you of the virus after all.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
Dump never had credibility. He’s a traitorous, Soviet shitpile mobster conman who’s been sucking the Kremlin’s asshole since at least 1987.
J R in WV
@japa21:
Nope… I read all the comment I needed to. You might want to reread my comment. I’m against street violence and vandalism, but street fascism is not how to deal with violations of the law.
gbbalto
@Aziz, light!: This is the Portland PD’s job. Are they trying to do it? Looks from here like they are not doing much about it (vs teargassing actual protesters). What are your impressions?
Kropacetic
Not with us, but he had carry-over credibility with the media derived from the Republican party. No, the Republican party should not have had that credibility either.
SFAW
@Baud:
We don’t. Many of us have talked about “antifa”/Black Bloc “protesters” hijacking legitimate protests to do the property-destruction thing. I don’t recall any support here for that kind of bullshit. [This is also assuming, for the moment, that none of those destroying property is an agent provacateur, which may not be a valid assumption.]
Rand Careaga
@low-tech cyclist:
The exact details elude me, but around twenty years ago Oregon complied with an extradition request from California concerning some old—and, as I recall, now dying—duffer who’d walked away from a prison farm in the Golden State decades earlier and led a blameless life in Oregon since then until he fell afoul of interlocking databases. The California Highway Patrol drove up to retrieve him. In the meantime, someone brought the case to the governor’s attention, and official second thoughts were entertained. State troopers were dispatched to intercept the CHP van. California’s finest, pulled over, were initially unwilling to surrender their prisoner, but were prevailed upon to do so by a show of armed force. Good times!
mrmoshpotato
@oopzwtf:
@SFAW: I’d much rather airdrop Dick, Donnie, W, Condi and Colin into Iraq so they can finally find those weapons of mass destruction.
japa21
@J R in WV: So you and Aziz agree.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Aziz, light!: Hard to see how this mysterious goon squad accomplishes taking control back from the anarchist. There is a reason why police cars and uniforms are so distinctive. If anything these goon squads just deepen the feeling that law and order has collapsed in Portland. Not to mention it sounds like the goon squad will be off the next city on their tour pretty soon.
Subsole
@Baud: Oh, you’re no fun anymore. >:[
Salty Sam
I have yet to see anyone advance the idea that the vandals in downtown Portland could be working FOR the administration. False flag operation to give cause for the stormtroopers to be deployed.
Kropacetic
Exactly. For starters if they’re not showing IDs; what’s to stop any asshole from throwing on camo, renting a minivan, and rounding up “undesirables?”
James E Powell
The rotating tag of the Trump Era.
Subsole
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: No, no. Flipping off la migra is FAR more useful than making warmed-over Deathwishman movies about white-slavers.
kindness
Trump is more Pinochet than Mussolini it seems. Authoritarian fascism is here openly now. And not a peep from Republicans.
The whole Republican party needs to disappear into the voids of history. I don’t think that’ll happen though. The 27% + are still here with us.
The whole provoking thing isn’t daring anyone to knock the chip off their shoulders so much as forcing us to. I’m curious how the MSM will play it out when they decide to.
mad citizen
@Marcopolo: Oh my, the Cook people changed the outlook for my district, Republican forever, to “Toss Up” (the Fightin’ Fifth in Indiana). A retiring R woman is leaving, two women running for the seat. On the D side, a former state legislator. On the R side, the candidate is a woman who was born in the Soviet Union (Ukraine now) –who pointed that out first thing in her tv commercial. I’m not making this up. The vote margin in 2016 was R +70,000 votes.
Subsole
@MattF: This.
Even if they COULD pull it off, Trump would just get up on teevee and blurt the whole plan out.
Which he has a history of doing.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And then it spirals into the feeling in the public that they can’t even trust uniformed and properly ID law enforcement officials.
If Trump’s goal really is to “take back the streets” and not just punch random hippie because Trump has butt hurt and needs to lash out, it would make more send these agents in with proper IDs and announce it on national TV.
EDIT: Oh dear god, was that what Trump was supposed to do in that strange rambling press briefing Monday?
Subsole
@low-tech cyclist:
Good point, but the cops in Portland are not reliable from what I have heard. Heavily compromised by fash movements.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Subsole: Not just that, the FBI has considered the Portland PD the most corrupt police force in the country for decades. That’s the reason for all of the protests is the locals are really angry with the crappy police force.
LeftCoastYankee
Just my 2 cents from here in the Rose City:
I would recommend the OPB website and the Portland Mercury (may have to dig through the backlog). They have been regularly posting stories (and have had reporters present or connected with freelancers on the ground) on the protests. The local TV and the Oregonian are all owned by out of state conservative ownership.
First, the Portland Police Bureau is not going to round up the Feds. They are the root of the problem. They have been teargassing locals for 40 something days on end, because they keep coming out to protest the police, who among other things like to teargas people acting peacefully.
There is an active court order banning them from teargassing the protestors, but they can’t help themselves or something. There’s fairly ample video evidence of them breaking this injunction unprovoked.
Several weeks ago, federal LE (un-badged) showed up to protect the federal justice center which is in the area of the protests. The mayor told them to stay off the streets. This didn’t seem to hold for very long, with Orange Julius being led to focus on Portland by his nannies on Fox (he’s moved on from Seattle).
Here, IMHO our mayor has been a disaster (in his defense the initial night was a full-blown riot and he was out of town visiting his mother who has since passed on during all this). He’s completely deferred to the Police in how to handle the situation, and they only know one song. The PPB seems to believe their sole purpose is riot control (which by their apparent definition includes starting one if necessary).
The governor is annoyed with the mayor, likely after he asked for national guard troops and then pulled them from the streets when he got grief for escalating things. It is about that time that the tear gas injunction and the PPB’s flagrant disregard also happened.
Our senators have been great, but will probably stay focused on any federal aspect. Our congressman has been invisible as far as I can tell, although I don’t go looking for his comments, etc.
Not great, but never hopeless.
Kropacetic
You would think the other people in his administration would know better by now than to put him in front of the cameras to make an official policy statement.
West of the Cascades
Bullshit. Fuck you. I’m a lawyer here in Portland, and Chief Judge Marco Hernández (federal district judge) entered a temporary restraining order on June 9th against use of teargas by Portland Police within four days of the case being filed, and has extended that several times while the parties brief a more permanent preliminary injunction. The judges in the District of Oregon – including the ones appointed by Republicans – have consistently shown themselves able to act quickly to enter TROs and halt abusive behavior. I expect a suit challenging this unlawful kidnapping will be filed soon (if it hasn’t already been) and may get referred to Judge Hernández since he’s already familiar with the related issues in the case against the Portland Police.
Subsole
@waratah: The news media would set up cameras in an Auschwitz shower room if they thought it would get an extra zero on their paycheck.
They don’t care.
They need to be beaten mercilessly until they learn to care.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Just posted something on Twitter about that KAC quote. The RNC really needs to pick up her salary. She’s working for the reelection, not the country.
Subsole
@Betty Cracker: No. These people could have gone after MS13. They went after toddlers instead.
They really are the American SS. Those guys volunteered to murder civilians because soldiers will murder you back. Same mindset.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@LeftCoastYankee:@Aziz, light!: I appreciate the local perspectives
Gin & Tonic
@mad citizen: That intrigued me, so I did a little Googling. Victoria Spartz certainly seems intelligent and accomplished, but I’m left wondering – she got her MBA in Kyiv in 2000, and immediately departed for the US. Noblesville, Indiana, to be precise. I’m sure Noblesville is a nice place, but I’d bet if I asked 1,000 people on the street in Kyiv where Indiana is, some would confuse it with India, while the rest would have no idea. They know where New York is, and Washington, and San Francisco. But a) how did she get a visa as a 21- or 22-year-old newly-minted MBA, and b) why the fuck Indiana? IOW, who is Jason Spartz?
Aleta
Quotes from OPB’s article
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler
Aleta
@LeftCoastYankee: Thanks.
Aleta
@Aziz, light!: Thanks.
Subsole
@Aziz, light!: I don’t think we are scoffing at the vandalism so much as scoffing at conservatives who probably couldn’t find Portland without a team of native guides pretending they give a shit about it as an excuse to go and rough up liberals.
That fucking sucks about the food truck owners. Shit like that makes me wish we could just lock the alt left and alt right on an island, let ’em work out on each other, then napalm the survivors.
West of the Cascades
@West of the Cascades: here’s a link to the teargas TRO: documentcloud.org/documents/6940401-HERNANDEZTROTEARGAS.html
Subsole
@Keith P.: Greetings, citizen! What seems to be your boggle?
Mike in NC
This is Trump and Barr simply indulging their authoritarian/proto-fascist instincts. Check out wingnut Marc Thiessen’s latest piece in the Washington Post, where he imagines “hordes” of violent protesters wreaking havoc everywhere. It’s all part of the desperate Law and Order nonsense that Fat Bastard hopes will scare old white people into voting for him again.
It’s also just like the GOP strawman argument that taking down Confederate statues means we have to blow up Mount Rushmore and the Jefferson Memorial.
Subsole
@Aziz, light!: Also, what does the PD have to say about this? I have heard some bad things about PNW cops being pretty overtly sympathetic to this sort of shit.
lurker dean
@sherparick: interesting idea since pleading with the feds hasn’t worked. make DHS defend it’s authority to use border patrol agents to grab protestors.
Aziz, light!
@gbbalto: My impression is that Portland PD is MIA.
Aziz, light!
@Salty Sam: that’s because it isn’t true. It’s the same batch of nihilists who latch themselves to every demonstration here.
The Pale Scot
@Cheryl Rofer: Depends on what you have set up, you can avoid the ad blocker complaint by turning off Javascript. It disables the complaint functionality, should disable ads and browser enabled trackers also. I use a firewall that blocks known malware and spam distribution networks. Want me to see ads, use an approved advertising distribution system, they aren’t hard to find.
patroclus
I think that the semi-organized vandalism needs to be stopped in accordance with the rule of law. Peaceful protests are fine; but nightly vandalism isn’t.
OT – Civil rights icon C.T. Vivian died last night – for anyone who has read about that era, he was almost as active and significant as MLK.
Matt McIrvin
@patroclus: Sometimes property damage is what you need to get people to pay attention. I think the tactic of horning in on peaceful protests and smashing stuff just to goad the police to start beating on people is counterproductive, though. And some of the people doing this are probably cops themselves.
Bill Arnold
@Sayne:
I often have problems with twitter images; it’s related to using a VPN; I suspect that twitter rate-limits requests coming from any particular IP, a VPN endpoint being a shared IP, but haven’t confirmed this.
Spanky
Maybe some one (halloo Lincoln Project!) could point out to Donnie that Chad is getting all of that good press.
Kelly
I’m in rural Marion county an hour and half form Portland so I haven’t a first hand perspective. Your observation matches up to I’ve observed from a distance. I’m inclined to think a smart and disciplined Portland PD would also know this and it would inform their crowd control efforts far more than it has.
I’ve had a dim view of Portland PD since I lived and worked there in the 1980’s mainly because I had a black friend that was constantly subject to chickenshit traffic stops. As a young naive white guy that grew up in lily white rural Oregon with cop relatives it was an education.
Central Planning
@Betty Cracker:
mistermix and I live in the same ‘burb outside of Rochester. It’s a hellscape here. A small group of people are stealing BLM signs from people’s yards. That’s about it. Anarchy!
Kropacetic
A wise man once said riots are the language of the unheard.
Bill Arnold
@Matt McIrvin:
Unfortunately, the US code includes damage to property, or even threats of damage to property, in its definition of violence. This is why Chad Wolf gets to say, with a straight face, that the protesters in Portland are “violent anarchists”. It’s probably worth making it clear to all that he is talking violence against property, not people, that most of the violence against people has been by law enforcement, whenever the phrase “violent anarchists” is used. Because it’s dishonestly playing on the ignorance of the US population.
18 U.S. Code § 16. Crime of violence defined
These protests need to stay non-violent. Trump is trying very hard to provoke enough reaction that he can run on law and order in 2020, even though hundreds of Americans are dying every day (947 yesterday) due to Donald J. Trumps reckless (and perhaps deliberate) mishandling of the COVID-19 public health crisis, and the protests are essentially non-violent.
Chad Wolf is a right-wing believer (in fascist tactics). He is right up there with Bill Barr and Stephen Miller, younger, just as evil.
Chad Wolf images
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@SFAW:
That’s not Baud meant and you know it
Kelly
@Central Planning: Around here the Trump signs along the highway on the way to town have gradually vanished. Antifa is attacking the simple country folk!!!!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@West of the Cascades:
Congrats. I’m suffering in WDKY with a string of McConnell/Paul cleared judges who only move with alacrity when it is a right wing cause. Everybody else gets the middle finger while the illusion of due process at the mercy of the Almighty Federal Calendar is maintained.
Once that is done, it then goes to the 6th Circuit, for more pointless legal massages.
Aleta
Jay in last night’s thread linked to OPB article and a number of videos from Portland, starting around here and after.
Someone last night linked to video of one instance of un-ID’d troops in camo with unmarked van taking a Portland protester off the streets. Frightening. The video is here: twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1283452585945583618
Btw, that twitter feed (of Greg Doucette) posts videos of police violence from around the country.
Link to the interactive NYT article showing video clips of NYPD violence against NYC protesters.
KithKanan
Publicly representing oneself as Law Enforcement or performing any law enforcement action while wearing anything even resembling a police or military uniform absent some visible form of identification of oneself (doesn’t have to be a name but at least a unique and legible ID number) and one’s legitimate source of police authority (via a unit insignia) needs to become a felony if it isn’t already.
Actually being law enforcement and doing so should be an aggravating factor, not a defense.
I can’t think of any legitimate law enforcement purpose for this.
SiubhanDuinne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
O/T, but I think it’s your birthday? Happy birthday!
oopzwtf
@Central Planning: But what about that time antifa had a raging gunbattle with state troopers at Seneca Park Zoo when they got caught freeing the lions?
Central Planning
@Kelly: I hope the owners are taking them down and not people who disagree with the sentiment. I have a BLM sign in my yard. I should probably order a replacement now just to be safe.
Ruckus
If they are releasing people, this is 10000% a show of force, of horrible farce.
This is we have the people, we will control you, we could kill you but we haven’t so far.
This is not different than people falling out of windows that don’t open from the fifth floor.
It is a not at all subtle message that we can do whatever we want to stop you, control you, own you.
It’s overwhelming force in the face of nothing. It is the gasp of an idiotic ass who is striking out in hopes of winning something, anything.
I believe the OR governor should call out the OR National Guard and stop this, arrest the people at weapon point for armed assault, only because there is no other choice to stop this desperate, despicable shit of a human who thinks he’s everything while he’s nothing. We are no longer the laughing stock of humanity, we are the disease of humanity, being overrun by the worst of the worst of humanity. We scrapped the bottom of the barrel to get shitforbrains and his accomplices – I don’t know if we’ve hit bottom but we are damn close if not. And I’d bet the police will be of little to no help at all, and might just be in on the bullshit.
2liberal
It’s now on the front page of the Washington Post. Does that count?
Just Chuck
@Ruckus:
Calling out the National Guard to oppose Federal agents is a pretty dangerous path. But the local PD should be arresting or at least accosting and recording the identity of anyone in these uniforms.
Kelly
I agree people’s signs should be respected.
LeftCoastYankee
If you want some more history on the protests and how inflammatory the PPB has been to the protestors check out freelance reporter James Olmos’ twitter feed or any of the Portland Mercury reporters (the Mercury is a little snarky and silly in tone, but have the longest history of covering the issues between the community and the PPB).
twitter.com/MrOlmos
This isn’t anarchists being bad actors inciting police. This is bad police behavior, tactics and discipline, and the same bad culture that protects their own no matter what. FWIW, we’ve had a black woman (moved on to Philadelphia), a white woman (who resigned at the start of the protests), and now a black man as police chief in the last year.
And fuck the “graffiti is bad” takes. Get real. (almost made it to the end before popping off….)
Kelly
@LeftCoastYankee: and here is Mr Olmos in the New York Times
nytimes.com/2020/07/17/us/portland-protests.html
Ruckus
@Chief Oshkosh:
This is how it starts. Every fricking time. It starts small, people act pel mell because they don’t know what’s going on, they get arrested, which is what is happening, and they either sit locked up somewhere or they get let loose, because the force is not enough to control every thing. Right now they are letting people go, this is the first stage of every authoritarian takeover ever. What is their next move? Obviously this will piss off people to no end, they either have to ramp up or shut down. Ramping up by the feds is always bad, but there is no way to tell shitforbrains to stop, because in his sick, deluded mind he is always right. You can’t reason with him, you have no political power over him because he is incapable of hearing you, he is, in his mind, no different that all the other dictators of history, other than he’s not as intelligent as most of them. (is anyone even convinced of the legitimacy of his election at this point?) His lack of intelligence is one of the problems, all he knows how to do is to yell and figuratively stomp his little feet, and get worse as his tantrum builds. He has a lot of power at his hands and he’s abusing every bit of it. He’s getting desperate as his losing becomes more and more obvious, so he does desperate things. Normally that would get a wrap around jacket and a padded living room but that’s not seemingly an option here. We are rapidly approaching a breaking point here and the response, the timeline, the outcome is not really going to be good either way. But which way is worse, letting the madman go or finding a way to stop the escalation that is sure to follow if not?
Ruckus
@Just Chuck:
I absolutely agree. Will the police department do this? Are police departments under enough control and strong enough to do this? Many are not. From an outsider it appears that the Portland Police are not under control and would not stop this, they would welcome it, as a show of force that doesn’t involve their reputations. Read Left Coast Yankee above at #170
Richard Guhl
Tut-tuting here is all well and good, but what you really need to do is call your GOP Senators or Representative or elected official and scream your outrage at them. I called Pat Toomey’s office. I expect crickets, but they need to be put on notice.
gbbalto
@Aziz, light!: Thanks, that is what I was afraid of!
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker:
And yet the property values are higher because people want to live there, and THAT pisses them off, too.
The right just can’t decide what cities are, urban hellscapes of crime or elitist enclaves of frivolity.
gbbalto
@Aziz, light!: Thanks, that is what I was afraid of!
Dadadadadadada
I haven’t seen all the takes about this, but one thing that is conspicuously missing in everything I’ve seen is any proof of who these goons actually are. They’re frequently IDed as “agents” or “federal LEOs” or something, but who’s to say what they really are?
All they’ve got is camo uniforms and “POLICE” patches (which anyone can buy), and military-grade guns and ammo (which, ditto), and apparently rented cars. They could be almost anyone, pursuing any agenda.
Captain C
@low-tech cyclist:
I should add that no confrontation should be sought by Oregon or Portland officials unless they can overwhelmingly outnumber the Feds in camo. If they can surround them, round them up, get their IDs, then let them go, that’s probably the best approach if they can pull it off.
Although, if they refused to ID themselves, it might be…informative…to bust them, hold them, and see which Federal Agency starts to howl. Then reply with real innocence:
“Oh, these are your people? They refused to tell us anything, or even ID themselves. We’ll be happy to release them as soon as you ID them for us and send us a copy of their orders. Otherwise, we’ll have no choice but to charge them with kidnapping, violation of civil rights under color of law, and/or impersonating a law enforcement officer. Have a nice day!”
joel hanes
@Cheryl Rofer:
And by “cleaning house”, I mean disbanding and starting over.
ballerat
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: He’s getting involved for the same reason he’s getting involved with those two gunnutter assholes in Florida who pulled guns on protestors walking by.
His base loves it. They don’t give a damn about the legalities.
We are seeing a dry run of right-wing death squads. They are practicising disappearing their political enemies.
joel hanes
@waratah:
I do not understand how he can do things like this and cannot be stopped
The short answer is Mitch McConnell
joel hanes
@Dadadadadadada:
one thing that is conspicuously missing in everything I’ve seen is any proof of who these goons actually are.
Chad Wolf has claimed them as DHS employees.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@SiubhanDuinne:
It is! Thank you!
ksmiami
Nancy needs to immediately cut off all DHS funding and lock up their offices until a thorough investigation can be done. Fuck these people.
opiejeanne
@Crashman06:
You and me both. I think I’ll call my doctor about something to help manage it.
worn
@Kelly: This comports with my observations from having attended a number of demonstrations over the years here in “Little Beruit”: the message of peaceful citizens, chanting pithy slogans, is ultimately drowned out when masked folks dressed in all black & covered in anarchist symbols show up late in the proceedings with the simple intention (near as I can tell) of breaking stuff and provoking the police into overreaction. When things went sideways in Seattle during the WTO protests, it was because of these assholes. I was there and witnessed it all from fifty feet away.
But fuckety fuck, parafucking militaries? I’m with Matt McIrvin above; it is hard not to believe that this is a bad omen.
The weird thing about it is I live a couple of miles from downtown and there’s very little spillover from what’s going on into the inner neighborhoods. I have been forced to catch up on local events due to relatives (most all of whom watch Fox, I imagine) calling me with their concerns about my safety. To which I have to respond that other than respecting the lockdown, life goes on as normal.
Dmbeaster
@trnc: Any feds doing this on the street should be arrested and charged with the crimes they are committing. That should be Oregon’s response.
worn
@J R in WV: I am not sure what is going on in Portland makes any sense vis-a-vis the binary formulation you present. It is in fact possible to be horrified at the random & rampant nighttime vandalization occurring within the city’s downtown core and also to object in the strongest terms to unidentified paramilitaries skulking around apprehending people as they see fit. And we can certainly agree that the local police should be doing their jobs, but at present they are not. It’s kind of a sticky wicket, really.
As has been noted by others wiser than myself: it is really easy calling people stupid on the Internet.
prostratedragon
Here’s Mike Pompeo laying the foundation: [My emphasis]
prostratedragon
Earlier this
decadeweek: [Apologies for the long quote, but the full context seems important here.]ICE Offering ‘Citizens Academy’ Course with Training on Arresting Immigrants
Faithful Lurker
This is getting in late, but I’m surprised no one has mentioned Eric Prince. Or if he has been discussed, I missed it. He wanted to start a private paramilitary force to operate under the authority of shit gibbon several years ago. This might be it, along with Barr’ s goons. Abusers always start off small to see where the limits are and what they can get away with. It’ll be safer to start in Oregon than Chicago or New York.
cain
@Aziz, light!:
While agree with what was quoted. A lot of this falls on Ted Wheeler our mayor. He’s proven to be completely week and ineffectual. The protests continue because he has done nothing actionable and these protesters are not giving up.
Meet with BLM, repudiate the PPB and start putting in rules that take power away from the police.
Anybody protesting after that – are likely not protesters.
cain
Yes, wheeler has been incompetent for just about every challenge Portland has. Whether it is homelessness, protesters, and police violence – he’s ineptness has lead us into this.
He seems to be in two minds at all times. I can’t wait to see this man’s backside when he leaves office this year. We want a good mayor this time someoen who can stand up to the PPB.
So far no one has been as good as Vera Katz. I miss her.
mad citizen
@Gin & Tonic: I’m reading up through the thread–I appreciate the interest. It seems a little shady–I was thinking some sort of mail order bride arrangement, but have no idea. There is a dearth of media around me, and the local republicans don’t seem to see any problems with her–they gave her some leadership stuff in the state house. She talks the talk about how bad socialism is, etc.; and is squarely a trumper.
I’m sure keeping an eye on it. I couldn’t think of his name earlier, but this district had the execrable Dan Burton for two plus decades. Last three terms a quiet country club republican who was a former U.S. attorney, I believe.
mad citizen
@mad citizen: To answer the question of how the IN-5th district candidate Ukraine native–U.S. citizen since 2006 Victoria Spartz met her Indiana husband, I found this: “She met her husband Jason on a train in Europe. He was there visiting relatives and she had an internship in Poland. “After I graduated, we decided to get married. I was young and adventurous and decided to move to another country.””
Source: farmworldonline.com/news/NewsArticle.asp?newsid=24874
The Raife
@Cheryl Rofer: I think part of the problem is that Mayor Wheeler doesn’t quite know what side of this confrontation he wants to be on – or he’s not willing to face the political consequences of being open with which side he tends to support. Admittedly, this thread is from a local activist and the campaign manager of Wheeler’s run-off opponent, Sarah Iannorone (who I support), but I think it gets to the tacit cooperation between the PPB and the Feds and is made possible by most charitably Wheeler’s fecklessness, more likely his approval: twitter.com/GregoryMcKelvey/status/1284007847173386240?s=20
A Ghost to Most
@Betty Cracker:
“What’s so funny about peace, love, and understanding?’
Nothing, but if you’re wrong, you’re fucked. Just because you insist it won’t happen proves nothing. Bringing a candle to a gunfight is not a strategy I favor.
Aleta
@Aleta: In case it’s useful to anyone, since information on Twitter can appear outside the context of when an event happened, here’s a partial time line for the events Cheryl mentions at the top and the protest videos Jay linked last night:
July 11 (Saturday night): “protester hit in the head ” by federal agent with “what appeared to be an impact munition; he is in serious condition at a local hospital”
(The story by KGW8 and the video of incident taken by @TomasMorales_iv
appeared July 12. )
July 12 (Tuesday): Mayor Wheeler says No to Chad Wolf’s request to speak. (And U.S. Senators Wyden + Merkley and U.S. Reps Blumenauer + Bonamici send letters to Wolf and to Barr asking for answers.)
July 15 (Wed. around 2 am): Mark Pettibone was taken into unmarked van while walking home.
July 16 (Thursday): Chad Wolf put up statement on the DHS website (“siege” of Portland, “lawless anarchists,” etc.) .
He arrived in Portland around 5 PM Jul 16. Went on Faux (Han ty) that night to talk back to Mayor Wheeler. On Faux again today.
July 17: Description in AP of the protest videos and news from Portland that Jay was posting as it was happening, in last night’s thread:
KGW dot com reported today the names of 20 people who were arrested last night, police statements during last night, and Wolf’s claims. I don’t know if their reporting is straight or politically slanted.
Aleta
@Aleta: oops the 1st two dates don’t compute … checking them …
s.b. July 14 (Tuesday): Mayor Wheeler says No to Chad Wolf’s request to speak.
worn
@cain: Amen, brother. Wheeler has shown himself to be completely inadequate to the task(s) at hand.
It’s a perfect storm of shit, in a way.