What You Need To Know About The Battle of Portland - bellingcat

Scuttlebutt
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I miss Molly Ivins.

"The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly, or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.
"Molly Ivins

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Americans in general are not known for weak submission to authority, or at least they didn’t used to be.

The Wikipedia article on this subject is not bad. It’s estimated that between 15 million and 26 million people have participated in the demonstrations. If it was nothing but or even mostly riots and displays of rage things would look far different than what we are currently seeing regardless of what news source is used.

As of July 3, polls estimated that between 15 million and 26 million people had participated at some point in the demonstrations in the United States, making the protests the largest in United States history

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It no longer matters if statistics or studies parse out to reveal racism in policing, because society is more than statistics. The nationwide agony and anger of millions of black Americans—agony that knows no class or geographic barriers—is evidence enough. The fact that millions of American citizens do not trust their law enforcement system to represent them, to respect them, to protect them, and to grant them the assumption of innocence is, in itself, a systemic problem.

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Do you see the similarities in what is happening in Portland with what happened in Hong Kong?:

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You link to an article that claims conservatives should be for police reform so again I post a recent blue/red map of the US. How is this a conservative problem & why should should conservatives reform their police departments in their areas if they don’t have that many problems with it? Conservatives are a very small minority in many of these problem areas with the race riots & protests & couldn’t pass a bill or law if they wanted to. These are liberal protesters/rioters in liberal areas that voted in liberal mayors who appointed liberal police chiefs & they all mostly follow the liberal laws & liberal policies that they all agreed upon. Until roaming mobs of Confederate flag waving rednecks start burning down trailer parks & Dollar General stores conservatives should stay out of it. Liberal Democrats own this problem & the words conservatives & Republicans shouldn’t even be mentioned in the conversation. (This includes the POTUS IMO)

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If more people would think instead of just kneejerk reacting to Pavlovian prose from posturing politicians we would all be better off.

Hitler: The Rise of Evil is an interesting movie from 2003 that shows how his sycophants and political cohorts led to the rise of another populist madman who understood the power of dehumanizing his critics.

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I really wish people would quit using the term populist for what’s going on today. The term populism started back in Kansas with the Farmers Alliance against the corrupt railroads and banks. William Jennings Bryan was a big champion of the movement but both the Republicans and Democrats went after him with a vengeance, much as they did got after Bernie Sanders who was hated by all the entrenched elite of both parties. The “populism” of Trump is more akin to fascism and a desire to maintain the status quo for those that own the USA. There is nothing populist about having more former lobbyists, corporate shills and big bank representatives in your cabinet than any president in recent memory. Trump even topped Obama in that regard and that’s saying a lot.

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I’m wide open to find another term to describe the zombification of America. I use populist just because it fits the mobs who raise their arms to the little man on the balcony. It is unpopular to hold a mirror or a magnifying glass or a history book in front of those people.

What is going on is a social virus, a malignancy created by a plague of unhappiness. The same things the world saw in the 1930s.

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" Mobs who raise their arms to the little man". One man and his wife raised arms against the mob on their front lawn and are being persecuted for that. Enjoy your shit sandwich.

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How about fascist oligarchy facilitated by a public education system that ranks 24th among developed nations in reading? Which might explain why they get so much information from TV and social media. Is civics and history even taught now? Critical thinking and a wide range of information from a variety of sources make for an informed electorate.

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I think Steamer is using the term populist as its commonly understood.

: a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people

The term is often used as in opposition to the so-called elites.

Wikipedia says some political science types prefer to avoid the term.

I’d say today the Farmers Alliance might be seen as a “grass roots” movement.

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Not eilite ?

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A bit bloated on the Kool-Aid are you?

The couple heard a group of protesters walking on the street in front of their house enroute to the mayor’s house a bit further on. They were frightened at the sight of black people and grabbed their guns to threaten the lives of innocent people who quite frankly paid no attention to them or their house until confronted by the pair of armed lunatics.

A normal person would have evaded the “threat” by leaving through the back door or simply remaining out of sight until they passed by. They chose to confront what they claim was a mob. I guess after a morning’s overdose of AM radio they were primed to take up arms or make some kind of point. It’s not like they were cornered by a mob of axe and torch wielding peasants out for blue blood.

All “law and order” supporters should be delighted to see that pair of troublemakers facing the consequences for their illegal actions. No one has the right to threaten innocent passersby with a firearm.

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The guy that wrote “What’s the Matter with Kansas” has studied populism for years. Pretty good book and he has a recent interview here about the history of populism.

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I figured you would come up with that response. Would you welcome the demonstration at your front door in a supposedly gated community? Take a second bite of your shit sandwich. It is never okay to tear up peoples property. Open your door, let them in, and steal and burn your shit… Happy now? Better yet, just put all your shit on the front lawn and make it easier for them. For sure you will be helping the cause, while others are helping themselves.

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Typically in a scholarly type book or paper any terms that are going to be used are going to be explicitly defined.

I’ve not read What’s the Matter, got a big backlog of unread books at the moment and the library is closed.

Looks like what Thomas Frank is saying might be similar to Richard Rorty.

From 1998

Members of labor unions, and unorganized unskilled workers, will sooner or later realize that their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported. Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workers — themselves desperately afraid of being downsized — are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else.

At that point, something will crack. The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking for a strongman to vote for — someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots.

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There are some good points but it all boils down to this. The average person is being screwed over by they same people. As long as they can keep everyone divided and blaming each other they are safe. They don’t see the real culprits of the nations demise. It’s a tactic from from as for back as Sun Tzu. Divide and conquer.

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Unorganized, unskilled workers? Most union workers (What’s left of them anyway) are highly skilled employees and put out a decent USA product. They don’t want protestors on their front porch, nor a virus that is not partial to it’s victims. Wear a mask people, and respect other peoples property as you would your own folks. Ain’t that effing hard.

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Strawman again.

There was no one one at that couple’s front door, no one was tearing up their property, no one was threatening to burn or tear up their property or do them harm.

They decided by themselves to threaten passersby with firearms. Why? Because they were afraid of people they have been brainwashed into thinking are going to do all those things you write about and claim gave them the right to break the law. What does that say about your “law and order” position? Does it only apply to those you see as “different” than yourself and your portion of the mob?

The shit sandwich you keep referring to is your ilk caught between the pages of history and a reality that has left you as frightened as that pathetic couple.

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Members of labor unions, and unorganized unskilled workers, refers to organized labor (union workers) AND unorganized (non-union) workers.