What some saw at the peaceful protests!

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2020

At the Times, Nellie Bowles gets it right:
If you read only one news report today, we'll suggest that you read the front-page report by the New York Times' Nellie Bowles.

Bowles reports on the recent peaceful protests, mainly those in Seattle. Her report also touches on the nature of the peaceful protests in Portland and Minneapolis.

To her credit, and to the credit of the Times, her report starts to suggest the possibility that these protests, which were in fact largely peaceful, may not have been as thoroughly peaceful as we've maybe been led to believe.

Have we received an accurate picture of the extent of the peacefulness? In the past few weeks, we've started asking that question. This morning, with a Seattle dateline, Bowles' report starts like this:
BOWLES (8/8/20): Faizel Khan was being told by the news media and his own mayor that the protests in his hometown were peaceful, with “a block party atmosphere.”

But that was not what he saw through the windows of his Seattle coffee shop. He saw encampments overtaking the sidewalks. He saw roving bands of masked protesters smashing windows and looting.

Young white men wielding guns would harangue customers as well as Mr. Khan, a gay man of Middle Eastern descent who moved here from Texas so he could more comfortably be out. To get into his coffee shop, he sometimes had to seek the permission of self-appointed armed guards to cross a border they had erected.

“They barricaded us all in here,” Mr. Khan said. “And they were sitting in lawn chairs with guns.”
Is that anything like the picture you received from your favorite news orgs?

We're going to guess that it possibly isn't. Therein a problem may lie.

We aren't suggesting that the peaceful protests weren't, on the whole, mainly peaceful. We aren't even asking whether they should have been peaceful.

We're asking a different question. We're asking if CNN and MSNBC gave you an accurate picture of what was occurring in those locales.

While we're at it, we'll ask the same question about news reporting in the Washington Post. And in Bowles' own New York Times.

In today's report, Bowles offers a startling portrait of violent conduct inside and around the largely peaceful protests. At one point, she describes some of what allegedly happened in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, the part of Seattle which was abandoned by police at one point:
BOWLES: Matthew Ploszaj, a Capitol Hill resident, is one of the complainants. He said his apartment building, blocks from Mr. Khan’s shop, was broken into four times during the occupation. The Seattle Police were called each time and never came to his apartment, according to Mr. Ploszaj...

The employees of Bergman’s Lock and Key say they were followed by demonstrators with baseball bats. Cure Cocktail, a local bar and charcuterie, said its workers were asked by protesters to pledge loyalty to the movement: “Are you for the CHOP or are you for the police?” they were asked, according to the lawsuit.

The business owners also found that trying to get help from the Seattle Police, who declined to comment for this article, made them targets of activists.

Across from Cafe Argento is a funky old auto repair shop called Car Tender run by John McDermott, a big soft-spoken man. On June 14, Mr. McDermott was driving his wife home from their anniversary dinner when he received a call from a neighbor who saw someone trying to break into his shop.

Mr. McDermott and his 27-year-old son, Mason, raced over. A man who was inside the shop, Mr. McDermott said, had emptied the cash drawer and was in the midst of setting the building on fire. Mr. McDermott said he and his son wrestled the man down and planned to hold him until the police arrived. But officers never showed up. A group of several hundred protesters did, according to Mr. McDermott, breaking down the chain-link fence around his shop and claiming that Mr. McDermott had kidnapped the man.

“They started coming across the fence—you see all these beautiful kids, a mob but kids—and they have guns and are pointing them at you and telling you they’re going to kill you,” Mr. McDermott said. “Telling me I’m the K.K.K. I’m not the K.K.K.”

[...]

Later, Mr. McDermott’s photo and shop address appeared on a website called Cop Blaster
, whose stated aim is to track police brutality but also has galleries of what it calls “Snitches” and “Cop Callers.” The McDermotts were categorized as both of those things on the website, which warned they should “keep their mouths shut.”
Remember—we aren't asking if the alleged conduct would be necessary, justifiable or even possibly good. We should also restate the fact that this alleged conduct occurred with the part of Seattle which the police had abandoned.

That said, the kind of conduct being described is well worth describing and pondering. We're asking if you think you've been given a reasonably accurate picture of this sort of behavior over the past several months.

What actually happened in Seattle, Portland and Minneapolis? At one point, Bowles speaks with an armed man named Rick Hearns, who now patrols that Seattle neighborhood as "a Black Lives Matter community guard."

What did Hearns think he saw during the peaceful protests? Hearns, and others, say this:
BOWLES: [Hearns] blamed the destruction and looting on “opportunists,” but also said that much of the damage on Capitol Hill came from a distinct contingent of violent, armed white activists. “It’s antifa,” he said. “They don’t want to see the progress we’ve made. They want chaos.”

Many of the business owners on Capitol Hill agreed: Much of the violence they saw and the intimidation of their patrons came from a group these business owners identified as antifa
, which they distinguished from the Black Lives Matter movement.

“The idea of taking up the Black movement and turning it into a white occupation, it’s white privilege in its finest definition,” Mr. Khan said. “And that’s what they did.”
Hearns and others are saying it was antifa who engaged in that non-peaceful conduct. As McDermott put it, you would see "all these beautiful kids, a mob but kids—and they have guns and are pointing them at you and telling you they’re going to kill you.”

We can't vouch for the accuracy of these accounts. We'll note again that much of Bowles' report in centered in Seattle, though she also cites "interviews with shop owners in cities like Portland and Minneapolis."

How accurate are these reports? We can't tell you that, but we can tell you this:

As we've noted in recent weeks, we've seen harbingers of this report on Tucker Carlson's routinely crazy Fox News Channel program.

Warning! Carlson stages gruesome personal meltdowns on a nightly basis. He tosses off insults with lots of name-calling, along with crazily sweeping ascriptions of motive.

Carlson routinely behaves in these ways. Most of the time, it seems like he actually means it.

That said, we've also seen reporting on Carlson's program from people who don't seem to be crazy. Often augmented with video footage, some of this reporting has led us to wonder if the news was perhaps being sanitized in other regions of the modern upper-end "press."

This morning, Bowles' front-page report describes various types of conduct we've seen described in recent weeks on Carlson's program. On several occasions, these reports have come from local people who didn't seem to be crazy, insane, disordered, deranged or even basically nuts.

We'll now mention someone else who is echoed in today's report. We refer to William Barr, who was ridiculed in our own tribal regions for suggesting that antifa was somehow playing a role in destructive, non-peaceful protest conduct.

This morning, Bowles describes a range of players in Seattle making a related claim. That includes Hearns, the armed security guard who is, or then again possibly isn't, connected to BLM.

Where does the truth lie here? We can't tell you that. All along, our view has been this:

It's hard to see a good way out of this ongoing mess.

That said, we'll link you to two other reports you might want to ponder. We'll start with Roger Cohen's op-ed column in today's New York Times.

Cohen compares our own disintegrating society to Lebanon's fully failed state. Hezbollah flags are widely seen there. Along the way, he also describes a recent ride through the American South:
COHEN (8/8/20): In June, after months confined in New York, I drove south toward Dixieland. I was reminded of American vastness. I crisscrossed rural Georgia and saw a different flag, the Confederate flag, here and there; and I drove on a stretch of highway named for Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America; and I saw Confederate monuments that spoke of states’ rights, but never of slavery, and claimed the lost cause was somehow not lost; and I listened to Americans whose language and values suggested a culture war so intense as to shred any shared national lexicon.
"Lebanese fracture is not American fracture," Cohen instantly says. But as he drove across the South, he saw, if only "here and there," the flag of a different polity.

That also may be true, here and there, across the Pacific Northwest. In this case, the flag would be that of antifa as our less than perfect union dissolves into a Balkanized array of furious small warring tribes.

For the record, that has long been the dream of a certain group on the fringe which we associate with Ron Paul. The dream is of a continental nation separating up into three thousand tiny small localized states.

We regard that as a crackpot dream, but now we may have one of our own. In our own tribe's crackpot dream, there will be no more police. Things will be peaceful all the way down, with social workers and adjunct professors at long last fully in charge.

Cooper and Cuomo and quite a few others may be helping us dream that dumb dream. As they kept insisting that the protests were peaceful, were they possibly hiding that antifa flag?

It seems to us that we've reached a point where the propaganda is general. As anthropologists keep telling us, it's easy to spot the propaganda when it comes from the other tribe. It's harder to spot the propaganda when it comes from corporate-paid multimillionaires who are constantly assuring us that they're totally on our side.

For our money, Cooper and Cuomo have become unwatchable; Carlson is or pretends to be nuts. To review the work of the man of the left Carlson interviewed last Tuesday night, we'll recommend the transcript of this interview from the National Review.

Michael Tracy recently drove across the country reviewing the scope of the damage from all the peaceful behavior. We can see no good way out of this mess, but we'd say that Tracy's findings are well worth considering.

We can see no good way out of this mess. It's propaganda all the way down, along with threats that, if people like the McDermotts talk, those peaceful kids with all their guns are going to burn their world down.

We aren't asking if you think that such conduct is necessary. We're asking you if you think that such conduct is being described in the upper-end, anti-Trump press.

We'd say that Bowles got it right today by challenging a simplified story. Sadly, the most significant part of her report may be this highlighted sentence:
BOWLES: Many are nervous about speaking out lest they lend ammunition to a conservative critique of the Black Lives Matter movement. In Portland, Elizabeth Snow McDougall, the owner of Stevens-Ness legal printers, emphasized her support for the cause before describing the damage done to her business.
People don't want to tell the truth because of the tribal imperative. If they say that Barr might be right about something, idiots kids with their verbal guns will say that they're on Barr's side.

That's the way it always ends, despondent anthropologists kept saying. We ants split up into red and black ants and at some point there's no turning back.

135 comments:

  1. Regarding "mostly peaceful" demonstrations; If you mix a gallon of ice cream with a cup of shit, your mixture will be mostly ice cream.

    My point is, the existence of many peaceful, sincere protesters doesn't excuse or reduce the seriousness of the actions of the terrorists.

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    Replies
    1. There are those who use the cover of a demonstration to commit crimes. Some of them are police.

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    2. There are no peaceful demonstrations, dear David.

      Demonstrators should have political demands, but these crows have had none so far. These are all riots, pure and simple.

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    3. Your point is true David.

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    4. Of course they have had political demands. Here I see an echo of Glaucon's repeated demand to tell him what we should do in response to BLM protests, so I suspect this is a right wing talking point.

      One demand was the arrest of the officers involved in Floyd's death. Another is the reform of policing and the banning of chokeholds. Beyond that is the defunding of police, which refers to either disbanding the current organization and starting over with police with fewer citizen complaints of abuse of authority and excess violence, or to shifting of funds to support services so that police are not asked to deal with homeless and mentally ill people with problems that aren't crimes. Beyond that, BLM is calling for elimination of systemic racism by addressing the inequities of income and opportunity that remain in our society. If anything, the current pandemic has sharpened these inequities since many more minorities are becoming infected and dying, because they cannot afford to stay home but must support their families by continuing to work at jobs that don't permit work-at-home and in unsafe working conditions, and because they do not have good health insurance or live in areas without good hospitals, or with overcrowding and lack of resources (PPE's, staffing, medication). Addressing these concerns results in specific demands that are different in different parts of the country, but are part of social justice more broadly. The biggest political demand is to get rid of Trump at the polls in Nov.

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    5. The specific demand of those three women in Franklin County included adding more black faculty to schools. Somerby however thinks there are enough, because the teacher of the year was black, and because there is a black person on the school board.

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    6. What are the demands, again? Without having to read any long word-salads, please.

      Incidentally, 'to arrest' someone is not a political demand. To investigate -- yes. For example, to investigate Rapist Joe's family racket in Ukraine and China. But 'to arrest', no. People don't get arrested by popular demand. Hopefully.

      Defunding/disbanding the police isn't a political demand either. It's rioter's dream, that's all it is.

      And "elimination of systemic racism" is meaningless bullshit, word-salad. Discrimination based on 'race' is against the law. If you feel you're being discriminated, make a complaint. That's it, end of story.

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    7. Now you're writing BLM's demands for them? I don't think so.

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    8. "Investigating rapist Joe's family racket in Ukraine and China" - nice Goebbelsian slime job.

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    9. As far as what BLM/Atifa demands are. Here they are making their demands known:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdWG87mXoqM

      Delete
    10. Abolish the cops and put these guys in charge! Let convince the public they need to defund the police by trying to burn down police stations. What a great plan! Yes, let's have a referendum since you just made the best ad imaginable for the "No" side--and for Trump's reelection. You guys really are geniuses, aren't you?

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    11. Yeah, Gloucon, “we” liberals had a meeting and decided to burn down those police stations. Soros suggested it. We control everyone who even remotely claims to be a leftist. I mean, of course we do.

      Just like you conservative geniuses let your foot soldiers march in Charlottesville, chanting anti-Semitic slogans.

      Do you see how stupid you are?

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    12. mh, you're always rationalizing the irrational. we liberals' have embraced this defund the police craziness. If trump wins, this will be a big part of it.

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    13. mh, liberals and BLM refused to take a bold stand against the violence in Portland where three public buildings have been attacked for over 70 days. Any chance for defunding cops died when the "peaceful" protesters watched while others started burning stuff and now they're on film attacking old ladies who don't want the neighborhood police precinct burned down.

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    14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14n9G679ias

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    15. I've been a harsh critic of Professor Corby's commentary, but here's a lucid and cogent offering. I trust that it feels good to have written something that inspired the laughable trolling of our Village Troll, Mao.

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    16. "Soros suggested it."

      Indeed, infamous mega-speculator George LORD Thy God Soros (or one of His Archangels) may have suggested it.

      It's no different from anti-government riots instigated by Him in the course of "color revolutions" elsewhere.

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    17. Mao, you sound like an idiotic zealot.

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    18. Thank you for reading and taking time from your busy dembot schedule to respond, dear dembot.

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    19. Deadrat says: "I trust that it feels good to have written something that inspired the laughable trolling of our Village Troll, Mao."

      Somerby does this every day except Sunday. It must feel good, or he wouldn't do it.

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    20. @AC, Whatever you might think or have been told, either here or at other sites, here is the truth:

      "I don't want to defund police," Biden said. "I want to get police more money in order to deal with the things they badly need, from making sure they have access to community policing, that they have also in the departments social workers, psychologists, people who in fact can handle those god-awful problems that a cop has to have four degrees to handle."

      And:

      “Most Democrats do not support defunding the police but rather have advocated for reassessing police spending and steering law enforcement funds toward rebuilding minority communities.”

      https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/510763-biden-says-he-supports-additional-funding-for-the-police

      It’s irksome when Somerby or others say “we liberals...” and then ascribes a belief held in some sense by some “on the left” to all “liberals”. And when you say “liberal”, do you mean “Democrat” or perhaps “progressive?”

      Somerby routinely tells you not to generalize about the “others”, but constantly does it about “liberals”, whatever he means by that term.

      Delete
    21. Doublethink much, dear mh?

      Are you a fan of BLM, Antifa and all the rest of 'em "protesters" demanding to defund the police, or are you an opponent? Pick a side.

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    22. They already have a name for the opposite of BLM. Those who don't want black people to have equality are called "Republicans".

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    23. Pick a side? Somerby clearly has.

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    24. By the way, dear mh, are you keeping schools closed? To save lives, y'know?

      ...don't answer just yet, check the latest zombie talking points first...

      Delete
    25. Gloucon and AC/MA are effectively Republicans, as such their views are irrelevant to Dems. God bless their lost souls.

      Police budgets are already being cut, we do not need militarized, overly aggressive morons living out their cosplay fantasies. People like Gloucon and AC/MA have been groomed to bend over AND spread wide for the authoritarian class.

      Portland has been flooded with Proud Boys, Patriot Players, and the Boogaloo movement who have killed and injured protestors throughout the country.

      The linked youtube video is of one anti-protestor woman getting a little paint on her and another anti-protestor woman trying to bully past someone to put out a fire in a trash can, the fire was not vandalism. The outrage is a joke. There are tons of youtube videos showing violence and brutality done by cops and violent Republican groups.

      Crime is at a level that does not warrant the police state we currently live with. Cops often act like everyone (especially if you're black) is guilty, like everyone is a serial killer terrorist - it is ridiculous.

      Trump's approval hovers around 40%, same as always, and Biden's lead nationally and in swing states is holding. Pro-Biden and anti-Trump voters are nothing to get excited about, but they are sophisticated enough to not be impacted by the faux outrage over protestors.







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    26. @ 6:58 PM I hope you're right that I'm just a worry wort and when our side burns stuff we gain votes. But do you really think the Republican are not going to show that video in every swing state? I really hope you're right that the Dems have plenty of counter videos of MAGA heads throwing paint at 75-year-old ladies, but I haven't see it.

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    27. I think your worry is a rational one, but it's important to keep facts and optics separate. And we certainly have video of armed anti-maskholes screaming in the faces of police in places like the Michigan capitol building.

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    28. 10:13 you are nuts, there are tons of videos of pro Trump violent groups doing violence against protestors. I am guessing willful ignorance here, you are not working in good faith.

      Dems will win on a strategy of motivating voter turn out, the nonsense days of trying to persuade some imaginary cohort are over.

      Delete

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  2. "Everyone is crying out for peace. None are crying out for justice."
    Peter Tosh

    ReplyDelete
  3. "He tosses off ... crazily sweeping ascriptions of motive."

    Sounds like a commenter we know. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. See, when you browse right-wing media you get tales of abused small businessmen and antifa (only the right uses that name for the opportunistic thugs who use the cover of a protest to commit crimes).

    And today Somerby reveals himself for what he is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tossing off another crazily sweeping ascription of motive. ;)

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    2. No, today he is obvious, no ascription necessary.

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    3. anon 12:47, he's quoting from the times article, what some victims said.

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    4. AC/MA, here are the things he said for himself, that were not quoting anyone else:

      "In our own tribe's crackpot dream, there will be no more police. Things will be peaceful all the way down, with social workers and adjunct professors at long last fully in charge."

      "...We can see no good way out of this mess. It's propaganda all the way down, along with threats that, if people like the McDermotts talk, those peaceful kids with all their guns are going to burn their world down."

      Here he buys into the idea that it is the peaceful protesters who are committing these violent acts (assuming they happened as reported, which is a huge assumption).

      "People don't want to tell the truth because of the tribal imperative. If they say that Barr might be right about something, idiots kids with their verbal guns will say that they're on Barr's side."

      Somerby clearly believes everything he read in that article, which aligns with his own prejudices about what has been happening at protests. When the article doesn't align, he urges extreme skepticism. In this case, he urges none but takes this all a step farther, telling us that it is "our" movement that is committing these alleged crimes, with no thought to any of the violence committed by the right and intended to discredit the left. And he believes in antifa and accepts Barr's characterizations whole hog. No liberal does that.

      He reveals himself as that scared old man telling the hippies to get off his lawn. Believing the boogie men of Fox News and accepting the need for police to protect us all from the kids, who will surely burn it all down (including his sacred pear tree).

      None of these are quotes from victims. They are all Somerby's words and his conclusions. And now we know who he is and why he is glued to Fox News like Trump.

      Delete
    5. Here we see where Gloucon is coming from:

      "
      Gloucon XAugust 8, 2020 at 9:29 PM
      As far as what BLM/Atifa demands are. Here they are making their demands known:"

      No one on the left believes that antifa exists as an organization with a defined membership. It is a label applied by the right wing to anyone committing violence during a protest.

      Today, Gloucon not only adopts that term (not used on the left), as Somerby has done, and equates it with BLM by lumping the two together.

      This is how the right smears the leftist peaceful protesters with the actions committed by violent people who are using the protests: (1) to enact violence committed for their own purposes, and (2) to blame the peaceful protesters for that violence, and (3) to thereby discredit the peaceful protest and advance the goals of those who oppose social justice and wish to support the status quo and systemic racism.

      Somerby also equates these people (he labels them antifa too) with BLM when he complains because the press isn't covering the violence associated with the protests (as if the protests were responsible for that ancillary violence).

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    6. @ Anon 9:39 AM

      The left could easily avoid the problem of being smeared by moving their protests away from law enforcement infrastructure to the safety of public parks and other non-disruptive venues. This would deprive radicals or provocateurs of targets to attack. All citizens could attend without fear and without blocking streets or businesses. BLM speakers could present their plans for police reform while at the same time demonstrating civil behavior, just like MLK did. Is this not a more reasonable strategy for building broad public support, than night after night of wearing gas masks, lighting fires, and throwing paint at old ladies?

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    7. The left could easily avoid the problem of being smeared by moving their protests away from law enforcement infrastructure to the safety of public parks and other non-disruptive venues.

      Hmm. Maybe Lafayette Park is available.

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    8. Hats off to Gloucon X who suggests a novel way of protesting, that itself suggests he rather likes the status quo.

      Delete
    9. Look what I found in the Constitution to the United States, under Amendment 1 of the Bill of Rights:
      "Before protesting, please get the approval of those who want to ignore your plight, so as not to inconvenience them."

      Delete
  5. "If they say that Barr might be right about something, idiots kids with their verbal guns will say that they're on Barr's side."

    You can call the left "idiot kids" but that doesn't make Barr right about anything.

    "Verbal guns" -- well, Somerby ought to know about that. He dishes it out as well as anyone, mostly targeting female journalists from elite colleges, social workers and asst professors, as if there were something wrong with being any of those things.

    If I met Somerby at a party, I would quickly find an excuse to walk away and go talk to someone nicer.

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    Replies
    1. With your luck, you'd probably run into me.

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    2. With your luck, you'd probably run from me.

      FTFY

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    3. Somerby only has credibility with a few commenters like Mao, David, Cecelia, and deadrat. How did it come to this and will history show Somerby was on the right side of anything?

      Presumably Hitler was right about some things, yet still a solid contender for justifiably being cancelled.

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    4. Run from you? Is that because you're so rough and tough, Sparky? Or because I try to absent myself from fools?

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    5. As I've said before, I read TDH for his contrarian views, some of which I find cogent, some of which I find absurd, and some of which falls in between.

      The offerings of Mao, our Village Troll, should be disregarded like all trolling. I don't read much Mao, but isn't he on a feed to be the first commenter to disagree with TDH? Hardly a supporter.

      David in Cal is our Village Idiot. Are you paying attention to his sound and fury? You know what that signifies, right?

      Presumably Hitler was right....

      Oh, I'm sorry, but that sound you heard was the Godwin Buzzer signifying that reasonable people may now disregard whatever point you thought you were trying to make. You may now fuck off.

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    6. You idiot, I fixed your statement, not vice versa. And who can't read?

      No one will stand and talk to someone who behaves the way you do.

      Godwin was suspended when Trump was elected.

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    7. I'm sorry that your "fix" doesn't make sense in context. Don't blame the receiver before you check the transmitter.

      Only ignoramuses would encounter my "behavior." You know, people like you. But point taken.

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    8. "But point taken."

      Was that so hard?

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    9. Hard? You think it's difficult for me to admit just how unpleasant and antagonistic I am in this comment section? You must not read much of what I write. While it's perfectly fine to decide it's a waste of time to read my brilliant and cogent prose, perhaps you should refrain from jumping to conclusions based on this decision.

      The time for politesse is over. You may reasonably disagree. But don't pretend I don't own my position.

      And there's never a right time to adopt logical fallacies like Godwin's eponymous rule.

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    10. Somerby only has credibility with a few commenters like Mao, David, Cecelia, and deadrat. How did it come to this and will history show Somerby was on the right side of anything?

      Presumably deadrat is right about some things, yet still a solid contender for justifiably being cancelled.

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    11. Somerby is not a contrarian, his views are quite popular on the right.

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    12. He's already long ago been proven right and on the right side of history. That game is long over. It's just anthropology now!

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    13. “Somerby only has credibility with a few commenters like Mao, David, Cecelia, and deadrat. How did it come to this and will history show Somerby was on the right side of anything?”

      Somerby has considerable credibility in your obvious estimation too, Anonymouse 5:44 PM.

      I can say the same for all TDH critics who spend a significant number of pixels disparaging him under the aegis that they wouldn’t bother with such an insignificant blog if Somerby admitted that he isn’t a liberal.

      An incongruous demand to make of someone you accuse of being unpersuasive, unimportant, and unread.



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    14. Only one commenter has made such a claim and it was not me. For most of us, it would be completely unremarkable if Somerby admits he isn't a liberal. Were you shocked when you found out Liberace was gay?

      Somerby's posts are uninteresting, all the action is in the comments.

      Godwin does not apply, think real hard on why and eventually it will come to you.

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    15. Anonymous Ignoramus @7:03 sez that he presumes that I'm right sometimes but that I should be "cancelled" anyway.

      Notice that he isn't going to bother to check whether I'm right "about some things." It's not necessary since I'm a candidate for cancellation no matter what.

      Comrade @7:03, your efforts to conform to group think have been reported with favor in dispatches to the Central Committee. A medal For Impeccable Service, second class is not out of the question. Fingers crossed.

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    16. “Godwin does not apply, think real hard on why and eventually it will come to you”

      You’re here for the spells.

      Delete
  6. "We're asking if CNN and MSNBC gave you an accurate picture of what was occurring in those locales."

    Bob, dear, are you nuts? CNN and MSNBC are liberal-hilerian cancer media.

    Why don't you forget CNN and MSNBC, and instead look for, find, and watch/read some other source, not controlled by your liberal-zombie cult.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Иди на хуй, тролль

      Delete
  7. During the BLM protest in my town, last weekend (Aug 1), there were angry men on the sidewalks with lawn chairs and rifles or shotguns. They shouted obscenities at the marchers while drinking beer, as if at a tailgate party. They clearly felt that they owned the sidewalks, much like those men described in Somerby's excerpt. Except in Somerby's piece, it is unclear whether those guys were part of the protest or part of the resistance to the protest, or white men trying to subvert the protest and provoke violence by attacking others. The article never says and Somerby doesn't consider any possibilities. He seems to think that his only responsibility is to show that violence occurred that was not described as well in other media. But it does matter who was doing what.

    Back in the 60s, attempts to provoke violence were seen as the way to discredit the protesters. If police could turn a march into a riot, then sympathy for the marchers' cause would dissipate and the protesters could be portrayed as troublemakers, outside agitators, up to no good. It is no different today, except that Somerby thinks descriptions of the violence belong up front in media accounts, just as the right makes such violence a focus of their concern (lacking any concern for the cause itself).

    Somerby yells that we are being propagandized. I believe the left simply sees through such efforts and is refusing to shift focus from the cause itself. (Keep your eyes on the prize.) Meanwhile, Somerby makes no attempt to discern how much protesting is nonviolent, how much is committed by the alt-right, and to what degree those supposed attacks on small businesses characterize the Portland and Seattle protest zones (abandoned by cops). The right is itching for armed confrontation, which is evident from the focus of these descriptions.

    In college, I wrote a thesis on the zoot suit riot in Los Angeles. The press contributed by publishing the location of riot activities in the newspaper each day, showing images of beaten Hispanic men, and describing the way in which violence was part of Aztec heritage, in the blood of Hispanic men. Police followed the rioters around and arrested the victims after the mob had left them battered on the street. This is all in the newspapers of the day.

    Similarly, Somerby has dug up a few of the atrocity stories used by the right to fuel outrage among anti-BLM conservatives. He accepts it all as gospel without examining the uses of such stories, meanwhile accusing the left of narrative because the left dismisses the attempts to distort its own actions.

    BLM is not responsible for alt-right Proud boys seeking boogaloo, pretending to be antifa in order to stir up hate. The mainstream media gets it right when it ignores the sob stories invented by the right media to undercut BLM. Many of these anecdotes turn out to be untrue when you investigate. There are websites that debunk them. You find out that the poor immigrant shopkeeper is actually a member of Trump's reelection campaign who made up this story for political purposes. But Somerby laps it all up and asks why the NY Times didn't pick up on it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. boogaloo boogaloo

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdWG87mXoqM

      Delete
    2. Gloucon, they are chanting "put your mask on". These are not antifa, they are people asking those two "brave" white women to wear their masks at the protest.

      Where is the evidence that anyone there was "antifa"?

      Delete
    3. White ladies who go to a BLM protest without masks and then scold the kids who object, kind of are a part of boogaloo in the sense that they are protesting the protest. When Gloucon uses this as evidence of violence by antifa, he makes the same mistake as Somerby (calling all violence antifa), but he also seems to support the attendance at protests without masks, which is a hostile act. People who have been deliberately coughing and spitting on others in public are being arrested for assault.

      Delete
    4. Sorry but a woman that purposefully puts herself in the middle of a protest and then gets a little paint on her is not going to change any minds. It was a dumb thing to do, and there was no consequence other than extra scrubbing in the shower. It certainly does not compare to the violence the protestors have suffered, nor the constant daily harassment of black people by out of control cops.

      Get the fuck out of here with your fake outrage.

      Delete
    5. 11:52 AM "they are people asking those two "brave" white women to wear their masks"

      "asking" by draping police tape on them throwing paint on them and screaming at them an inch from their faces! OK, let's just say we have a different view of what constitutes civil behavior.

      Delete
    6. @7:09 PM NO,YOU ...get the fuck out of here ...

      Delete
    7. Gloucon, dude, you lost it bro. Both the argument and your mind.

      Next time you get paint and tape on you, let's be sure to rush you to the hospital, like countless protestors have after sustaining serious injuries (and some deaths too).

      Delete
  8. “we'll ask the same question about news reporting in the Washington Post. And in Bowles' own New York Times.”

    Somerby continues to make this odd critique. The Times runs a front page story where the type of conduct is being described that he claims isn’t being described.

    Secondly, he says:

    “People don't want to tell the truth because of the tribal imperative. If they say that Barr might be right about something, idiots kids with their verbal guns will say that they're on Barr's side.”

    This is loaded with assumptions. First of all, the story quotes numerous people who give their names and who are speaking out. They don’t seem particularly cowed by scary “tribal imperative.”

    Secondly, the phrase “tell the truth” is a loaded phrase. Many of the people in the story name “antifa” as the perpetrators of the violence. Is this a “true” claim? Does the reporter attempt to verify it? Even if true, what does antifa have to do with BLM?

    And when the reporter says “Many are nervous about speaking out lest they lend ammunition to a conservative critique of the Black Lives Matter movement.”

    Is this what the people in the story claim, (who, again, are actually speaking out), or is this the reporter’s assumption? Some expressed sympathy with BLM, while also opposing the idea of defunding the police, which the writer casually equates with “abolishing” the police.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Times finally ran a story describing this conduct, after it had been going on for seven weeks. The top-rated comment to the Times says it well. Here it is in full, for those who don't subscribe:

      This is pretty amazing because I certainly don't recall the NYT reporting on the chaos while it was occurring. The NYT reports made it sound like Seattle was having a block party when in fact the opposite was true. I saw some reports of the chaos on Facebook, but figured it was just right wing propaganda. I guess I'll have to get serious about getting the truth from many news sources going forward. It's naive to think that news reporting is not influenced by political agendas of those reporting it. I'm liberal, but I still like to know the truth even if it flies in the face of my beliefs and forces me to rethink them rationally.

      Delete
    2. Anyone can say they are liberal. Look at Somerby.

      This guy gets his facts from Facebook and he seemed to understand that it was propaganda. He seems to know that news reports are influenced by agendas, but then he accepts this kind of reporting uncritically from the NYT, just like Somerby did (when it suited his personal agenda).

      Seattle and Portland are liberal enclaves in the heart of white supremacist, Bundy territory. You'd never know that from anything Somerby has written. Or from that NY Times article.

      To be fair, there should not only be a word like antifa (used exclusively by the right) but also one for the Proud boys and boogaloo artists who are anti-leftist, attempting to provoke violence in order to discredit BLM. What is the word for an anti-BLMer? There isn't one. That's because it is assumed that everyone is against them -- you are either BLM or not, so no special term is needed. Why then is there a special word like antifa? If BLM were committing the violence, you wouldn't need to have a special word to describe the violent actors among them.

      Delete
    3. This is the same situation where the anti-war protesters were labeled as communists and agitators, violent extremists, so that the FBI could investigate them and the movement be discredited despite its broad support. At the 1968 convention in Chicago, Mayor Daley bragged that he knew how to deal with protesters and he sicced the police on them, resulting in rioting. Then the establishment could say "See, we told you they were violent." The anti-war protesters were called hoodlums and thugs too.

      There is violence in America, but it is coming from the right, is rarely covered by media, and is on the rise under Trump, who encourages it. That violence is aimed against minorities and it is responsible for the increase in hate crimes under this president. The BLM protests are arising because people of color and their majority support nationwide, are not going to tolerate such violence, whether it comes from the cops or from anti-antifa vigilantes.

      Somerby is on the wrong side of history. He should be ashamed of himself.

      Delete
  9. "What some saw at the peaceful protests!"

    Somerby wasn't there and he didn't see anything. He makes it seem like the descriptions excerpted are true because his title implies that he "saw" them happen. He didn't.

    You have to ask why he believes this right wing stuff without question while treating with suspicion the details recounted by Natanson about those three women in Franklin County, discounting even their personal experiences with swim clubs and schoolrooms.

    It makes it seem like Somerby will trust white men and immigrants (who own shops, not the ones in camps) before he'll trust black women and female reporters. That strikes me as bias and the names for such bias are sexism and racism. It is little different than when a black man says he is locked out of his house and the cop won't believe him, or Floyd says "I can't breathe" and the cop thinks he is faking it. Or a woman says "he raped me" and the cop thinks she was drunk and probably forgot she had given consent. This is systemic distrust, when Somerby goes over the details of a female reporter's article with a fine tooth comb but absorbs this right wing bullshit without question.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. boogaloo boogaloo
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdWG87mXoqM

      Delete
    2. Somerby wasn't there and he didn't see anything.

      I presume TDH wasn't there, and he never claimed to see anything. He's talking about reports from people who did claim to see things.

      He makes it seem like the descriptions excerpted are true because his title implies that he "saw" them happen. He didn't.

      No, he repeats the reports of people who claim to have seen things that he says went unremarked in the mainstream press. Just because you can't read for comprehension doesn't mean that TDH "implies" that he's an eyewitness.

      You have to ask why he believes this right wing stuff without question....

      Here's a blog entry that makes no judgment on the truth of some claims but asks "Is that anything like the picture you received from your favorite news orgs?" What you should be asking is why you believe otherwise.

      You have to ask why he believes this right wing stuff without question while treating with suspicion the details recounted by Natanson about those three women in Franklin County, discounting even their personal experiences with swim clubs and schoolrooms.

      You have to ask why you don't understand that reporters should treat all claims of fact with suspicion.

      It is little different than when a black man says he is locked out of his house and the cop won't believe him, or Floyd says "I can't breathe" and the cop thinks he is faking it.

      Except, of course, that we have video of Floyd's death. For you evidence doesn't seem to matter, so you can't detect these "little" differences.

      Delete
    3. And yet Somerby is not treating this report with the same skepticism as those three women in Franklin County. Even you cannot explain why that is.

      This isn't about me, deadrat, it is about Somerby and his highly selective skepticism.

      Delete
    4. Are you suggesting that the report on anarchist violence in Seattle isn't widely attested to? Because that's not true. If you follow the link to the report, you'll find that the people harassing business owners live-streamed themselves in the act.

      Delete
    5. There is no evidence that the violence is attributable to "antifa". I am not contesting the fact of the violence, although the right does post some questionable anecdotes. I am questioning the fairness of creating a fictional entity called antifa and then attributing all violence to that supposed group, and then conflating that with BLM and the peaceful protests. So, I am questioning the political uses being made of these incidents, which Somerby joins in.

      I consider anarchist violence to be a localized phenomenon limited to an extremist fringe in Portland and Seattle (we don't have them in Los Angeles, for example), just as there are Boogaloo Bois in CO but not in Los Angeles.

      I don't know why those "kids" were harassing business owners, but I suspect that it went two ways. In my town in So CA, Trump supporters brought their guns to "defend" small businesses and were seen yelling obscenities at peaceful protesters. It may be that the interaction between those small businesses and the protesters had become similarly polarized to the point that the businesses were seen as siding with police who were engaging in violence against protesters. Note the exchange where the supposed antifa member was asking the business owner which side he was on. There may be provocation involved that was not reported as vividly as the reaction of the supposed antifa members. Somerby shows no skepticism about that.

      Why would someone live-stream themselves if they thought they were doing anything wrong? They are perhaps doing it to protect themselves in the event of conflict. Or, if they are intent of provoking violence then live-streaming would feed into it by issuing an invitation to those wishing to come in and defend the business owners.

      I believe these situations are more complex than the reduction into sides would suggest. In that, I would agree with Somerby, if he were only as suspicious and questioning of this report of supposed antifa violence as he is of those three BLM ladies in Franklin County, where his suspicions were ludicrous to the point that he appeared to be defending the county against its own past history of Klan activity.

      Delete
    6. You're overthinking this. TDH says that "our" coverage failed to convey the violence "inside and around the largely peaceful protests." In the report that TDH quotes with admiration, it's a man who identifies himself as a BLM member who calls the instigators antifa, and the report says that the business-owner victims agree, "distinguish[ing antifa] from the Black Lives Matter movement."

      I think you're right that these situations are more complex than the media suggests, but that's exactly THD's point. We're not going to get a nuanced description of events if we read reports that disappear the violence that happened.

      You seem to ask TDH to question the report of attribution of violence to antifa. But that's not his focus. He's asking why we don't hear a balanced account of the violence, no matter who's responsible. You seem concerned that TDH conflates antifa (or whoever is fomenting violence) with BLM, but nowhere does he do this. In fact, he quotes a report that those affected by the violence don't do this either.

      If a writer wants to turn Franklin County into Hecate County or if she wants to write about how BLM ladies feel about their lives in the actual Franklin County, that's fine. But the creed of a reporter starts with the stance that if your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.

      Is there a town pool that's segregated?

      If we hear about a white school superintendent who thinks Rebel flags shouldn't bother anyone, shouldn't we hear that the school board banned the flags as part of the official dress code?

      If we get to read about an unsourced rumor that the Klan is prepared to ride again, shouldn't we get some idea of how credible this rumor is?

      Nowhere can you quote TDH "defending the county against its own past history of Klan activity." He even states that even currently the county has its share of "angry, unpleasant people."

      If any of this "appears" otherwise to you, you need to read more carefully.

      Delete
    7. Just one example, the teenager that stole from the auto shop was not a protestor, he actually was caught and beat on by what appeared to be a protestor before running off (to the loud disapproval of the other protestors).

      Business owners being harassed by protestors does not equivocate with what they are protesting against, it is only concerning to phony law and order Republicans.

      Delete

    8. @ deadratAugust 9, 2020 at 6:45 PM -- Another typically reasonable and perceptive comment by you. Thanks.

      Delete
    9. @ Anon 1:09 PM "I am questioning the fairness of creating a fictional entity called Antifa."

      NOT fictional: https://rosecityantifa.org/

      If you're going to a protest, and on nearly every occasion arson and property destruction are perpetrated by members of the group you are a part of people will quite reasonably associate you and your protest movement with that violence. People are going to think that you believe that burning law enforcement infrastructure is the way to win hearts and minds. Especially since you could easily switch protests to a place where you could protest to your heart's content and where there is nothing to attack and no streets to block, such as a public park. But since you choose instead to protest only at law enforcement infrastructure, people will logically assume it is because you want to attack it and that you prefer asshole-ish behavior to civil behavior.

      Delete
    10. Antifa is not a group, it is a stance of being anti fascist.

      Delete
    11. Says their a group right on their website: "We ally ourselves with other groups"

      Repeatedly exposed by me and others as someone who does nothing but drop endless no-information turds on this comments page...and he still keeps coming.

      Delete
  10. Hoe ik mijn huwelijk heb kunnen redden.
    Ben getrouwd en 35 jaar oud, kom uit Monaco. Ik ben 7 jaar getrouwd met mijn man Kennedy, we hebben 2 kinderen. Mijn huwelijk met mijn man is altijd geweldig geweest totdat er vanuit het niets een derde partij binnenkwam. Het begon allemaal toen ik de nauwe band tussen Jonathan en zijn zogenaamde secretaris begon te observeren. Ik had hem zelfs benaderd over de secretaris en hij zegt dat ze gewoon vrienden zijn. Ik wist dat dit allemaal leugens waren op de dag dat ik een paar liefdesberichten op zijn telefoon zag van zijn secretaresse, ik hem ermee confronteerde, onmiddellijk laaide hij op en vroeg me welk recht ik had om te temperen met zijn telefoon, ik vertelde hem dat ik het ging rapporteren hij en de secretaris van zijn bedrijfsleider, onmiddellijk stuiterde hij op me toen hij dat hoorde en begon me te slaan, onze kinderen begonnen zelfs te huilen. Ondanks zijn houding was ik nog steeds bij hem, hij stopte soms met slapen thuis, in de mate dat hij zelfs het huis uit pakte en met zijn secretaresse begon te vertrekken, hij verliet me met onze kinderen. Ik was in tranen, ik had niemand om naar toe te rennen omdat ik alleen maar wilde dat mijn man naar huis terugkeerde, totdat ik Dr. Ajayi tegenkwam hij vertelde me dat de oorzaak van mijn problemen was dat mijn man een slechte betovering had gehad dat het waren niet zijn heldere ogen. Hij vertelde me dat hij een paar spreuken ging uitspreken en mijn man zal bij me terugkomen en hij vertelde me wat ik zou doen. Ik ben er trots op te kunnen zeggen dat het nog geen zeven dagen duurde voordat mijn man bedelend naar huis terugkeerde en zo nuchter dat mijn familie weer bij elkaar is. Allemaal dankzij Dr Ajayi, u kunt contact met hem opnemen via zijn Viber- of WhatsApp-nummer: +2347084887094 of e-mail: drajayi1990@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. Any chance for defunding cops died when they started burning stuff.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you really think it was the BLM protesters who were burning stuff? Who benefits when they burn stuff?

      Delete
    2. https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/08/portland-protests-continue-for-73rd-day-throughout-city-saturday.html
      Who are these people then? When you watch the live feed of this they chant "BLM" and wear it or shirts and signs. BLM has websites and spokespeople, why don't they tell these people to stop burning stuff in their name then?

      Delete
    3. They do, you can see it on the live feed and videos - protestors getting upset with those that are doing violence and damage.

      Delete
    4. AnonymousAugust 9, 2020 at 7:32 PM
      They do, you can see it on the live feed and videos - protestors getting upset with those that are doing violence and damage.

      Show us! link please?

      Delete
    5. They only people I've seen who have been upset with the violence and damage at these most recent protests were those two 75-yo ladies. They were attacked BY the protestester and you agreed that they deserved to be.

      Delete
    6. Spent two seconds on google, plenty more, but you are as set in with your nonsense as any typical Trumper:

      protesters TURN on the looters

      Delete
    7. "at these most recent protests" I said, not two months ago! Go away until you learn to read.

      Delete
    8. Glaucon X,
      Are you freaking out over the end of white supremacy, like Mao, David and AC/ MA?
      I gotta admit, it's delicious to watch those fools thrashing around in pain as their way of life is threatened.

      Delete
    9. Cool.
      You get power after black supremacists get their 200 year run.

      Delete
    10. Who are you to say who gets power?

      Delete
    11. I'm a white person, of course I have the say. Are you new here?

      Delete
  12. "Trump cut off questions at a Saturday press briefing after CBS's Paula Reid called out his lie about passing Veteran's Choice."

    But Somerby thinks it is possible for reporters to pin Trump down by asking the right questions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't call him Donald J Chickenshit for nothing.

      Delete
    2. It's rare that a reporter is smart enough to ask a precise question that he cannot dodge. Let's hope this becomes trend.

      Delete
  13. From Political Wire:

    "“Since the first days after she was elected governor of South Dakota in 2018, Kristi Noem had been working to ensure that President Trump would come to Mount Rushmore for a fireworks-filled July 4 extravaganza,” the New York Times reports.

    “After all, the president had told her in the Oval Office that he aspired to have his image etched on the monument. And last year, a White House aide reached out to the governor’s office with a question, according to a Republican official familiar with the conversation: What’s the process to add additional presidents to Mount Rushmore?”

    We're lucky Trump cannot pronounce Yosemite, or he'd want to put his face on Half Dome or El Capitan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Herman Cain got the virus and died because he wanted to show support for Trump at the Tulsa rally by not wearing a mask. That's kind of loyalty should get some kind of response from Trump. Maybe a statue at Mar A Lago?

      Delete
  14. “People don't want to tell the truth because of the tribal imperative. If they say that Barr might be right about something, idiots kids with their verbal guns will say that they're on Barr's side.”

    I defy anyone to defend this as media criticism.

    ReplyDelete
  15. At least some of the violence is coming from the frustrations of people who are fearful of covid, unemployed, angry that the government has done so little to help, and generally worried about the future. Young people who are exerting control over a city block or intersection are expressing their frustration over the lack of control they have over other aspects of their lives. These are like bread riots. It might be more appropriate to recognize what is happening and call these covid riots, directly attributable to Trump's shitty job as president.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's probably some truth in what you say, but then why are all the protests in Portland and elsewhere focused on attacking the police. What can they do about the virus or unemployment?

      Delete
  16. One of the predictors that Allan Lichtman uses to predict who will win a presidential election is the presence or absence of widespread public protests.

    If these BLM protests were only about racial tensions, they wouldn't affect Trump's base (they don't care about racism). Trump is losing support because of his handling of the covid pandemic. That many people in the streets, including the ones destroying property under the slightest pretext and the ones with the guns and pickup trucks with Trump slogans, are considered a bad omen by Lichtman.

    Somerby shouldn't want the press to report on ALL of the violence, because it makes things look even worse for Dear Leader. The more out of control the country appears to be, the worse for Trump at the polls. These descriptions aren't going to turn anyone away from Biden, who presents himself as a gentle, peaceful man (not bombastic and hateful like Trump). They aren't going to turn anyone against black people (who didn't already feel that way). They are going to increase the frustrations and anxieties people are feeling because of covid and precarious finances and make people yearn to have an adult back at the helm.

    I am very surprised that Somerby cannot see the parallels between the "burn it all down and take no prisoners" approach of the Republicans appointed to Trump's administration and in congress, and the young people running around the streets spraying graffiti and looting stores and trying to burn down public buildings. In both cases the urge is toward destruction and deregulation, the same kind of chaos that Trump has encouraged in every agency of the government that is supposed to run smoothly and help people. It seems odd that the people who like it when Trump pulls down accomplishments that took years to build, hate it when it is their own small businesses being similarly attacked.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Forgot to include the link:

      https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/opinion/2020-election-prediction-allan-lichtman.html

      Delete
    2. "The more out of control the country appears to be, the worse for Trump at the polls."

      If you're right about that then why has Trump been moving up in the polls the last few weeks when the ACAB violence has dominated the news?

      "the ones destroying property under the slightest pretext and the ones with the guns and pickup trucks with Trump slogans"

      I wish I could find some evidence of that.

      Delete
    3. He hasn't, his approval is where it always has been. You should probably sit this one out until you calm down enough to not spread misinformation.

      Somerby's claim is that violence has not dominated the news.

      Delete
    4. You're a no-information imbecile. Trump has gained in the last few weeks.
      https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_biden-6247.html

      Delete
    5. Glaucon X,
      Impossible. I've been told by the very reliable corporate-owned media that Trump got 60+ million voters in 2016, because he was going to drain the swamp of the Establishment, and not at all because the Republican base loved his bigotry.

      Those voters have now seen almost 4 years of Trump handing the reins of the economy to Wall Street, and his cabinet of establishment thugs.

      Due to his embrace of the establishment, Trump can say goodbye to all those economically anxious, and not at all bigoted, voters he got in 2016. Where will Trump get 60 million voters to replace them?

      Delete
  17. From Digby's blog:

    "He also instituted a payroll tax holiday which he said would have to be paid back at the end of the year unless [he] wins re-election after which he will get rid of the payroll tax altogether, meaning he will also be getting rid of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid which are funded through that tax.

    No word yet on what the potted plants otherwise known as Republican Senators and Governors have to say about this."

    This should be enough to bring all the elderly into the streets, complete with walkers and wheelchairs (paid for by Medicare). Lest you think this is strictly a boomer issue, remember that YOU will be paying to support your grandma and grandpa if social security and Medicare go away. It is far better when everyone shares that burden, instead of it falling on the sons and daughters of the elderly. Imagine the increase in the homeless population, the hit our economy will take if the elderly cannot pay for traditional activities such as visiting grandkids and volunteering at the polls.

    This boondoggle is serious. Camouflaging this as a tax holiday shows that Trump is playing the populace for fools. First he encourages the young to kill off granny by exposure to covid, now Trump doesn't care if granny starves (since her housewife status won't have allowed her to save from a nonexistent salary). And note the coercion -- you'll only get permanent relief from contributing to your own retirement funds if you reelect Trump.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wait 'till AARP informs its members about this. I hope this just doomed Trump's reelection.

      Delete
  18. From Rawstory:

    "Members of a “Back the Blue” rally were seen fighting with Black Lives Matter counter-protesters in Fort Collins, Colorado over the weekend.

    Video posted on social media shows members of the “Back the Blue” group advancing on Black Lives Matter activists. The confrontation eventually becomes a fighting match in a neighborhood ditch.

    “Everybody keep their hands off their weapons!” one man can be heard shouting. “Keep punching each other in the face. Don’t shoot anybody.”"

    Nice to see them using restraint and not shooting anybody. Is this antifa? Not so much (especially if you see the photos).

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/back-the-blue-members-beat-blm-protesters-in-colorado-ditch-keep-punching-each-other-in-the-face/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. That's terrible! The only thing that will stop it is you going down to the nearest federal courthouse and burning it down. Have fun!

      Delete
    3. Fake issue, but your anti-protest stance fits in nicely with Somerby's racism denial.

      Delete
  19. Does this sound like a legitimate arrest or a trumped up excuse to target the protest organizer?

    "A protest organizer and frequent leader of marches in support of Black Lives Matter turned himself into the New York City Police Department Saturday morning after an hours-long standoff with officers one day earlier, multiple reports confirm.

    His actions come after the NYPD spent an estimated five hours outside of the protester's Hell's Kitchen apartment on Friday in an attempt to arrest the man accused of assaulting an officer at a June protest.

    Derrick Ingram marched with a hundred protesters to the Midtown North Precinct on West 56th Street Saturday morning where he turned himself into police, The New York Times reported. A police spokesperson told the Times that Ingram was arrested for second-degree assault from a June 14 incident where he allegedly used a megaphone to yell into the ear of an officer. The spokesperson said he caused the officer "pain and protracted impairment of hearing."

    Friday's arrest attempt flooded social media by late morning after Ingram started live streaming the incident on Instagram. Ingram, a leader of Warriors in the Garden, a group of organizers advocating for systemic change and police accountability, began documenting the situation online after officers approached his apartment door to make the arrest."

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    Replies
    1. No, it doesn't sound like a legit arrest and it will probably be thrown out by a judge. But in the meantime you should go burn down the nearest police precinct, right?

      Delete
    2. Do you think the Police officers are ramping up the violence because they realize if they are as non-violent as MLK and Gandhi, they may suffer the same fate?

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  20. UNBELIEVABLE QUICK HERPES CURE BY HERBALIST RAZORHello!!! I’m indeed very happy for the great help that Dr Razor rendered to me,I was diagnosed with HSV 2 on  July 7, 2017 and I have tried all possible means to get cure but all to no avail, until i saw a post in a health forum concerning herbal doctor Dr Razor, who prepares herbal medicine to cure all kind of diseases/Infection including Herpes Simplex virus Type 2, at first i doubted if it was real but decided to give it a try, when i contact this herbal doctor via his email, He assured me of a cure, he prepared a herbal medicine and sent it to me via courier service, when i received this herbal medicine, he gave me instructions on how to use it, when i applied it as instructed, i was cured of this deadly virus within 18 days of usage,he told me to go for a medical check up and i went for test, I couldn't believe i was negative and the HERPES VIRUS in my body got cured, I and my family are so happy and grateful to God for using Dr Razor to Liberate me. Reach Out to this great herbal doctor via his email :  drrazorherbalhome@gmail.com and his website: https://drrazorherbalhome.wixsite.com/drrazorherbalhome . You can reach his also Through Whatsapp +2349065420442

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  21. I remember glouconX from our time on the titanic. As the mighty vessel sank to the briny deep Gloucon bravely stayed aboard to berate the assistant maitre'd for switching the position of the salad and desert forks at his lunch place setting that afternoon.
    Good to see you haven't changed, you slimey pustule.

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    Replies
    1. Trump: Cora Navirus, thank you for your service!

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  22. If you actually read the Cop Blaster post you will see that it is about not ruining the life of someone that was already leaving the property https://copblaster.com/blast/25792/car-tenders-john-and-mason-mcdermott-snitch-on-protester-in-seattle

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  23. I want to let every one know that HPV is a serious and deadly disease which can't be cured through drugs or injections by the American doctors but the best way to deal with HPV is by taking natural herbs medicine for it to flushes out the virus and is only few American doctors that know about this herbal medicine from doctor Afrid a great herbalist doctor. I have read about Dr Afrid the great herbalist doctor from African who can cure HPV with his powerful herbal medicine. for the people suffering from the following diseases Epilepsy, Hiv, Herpes, Cancer, Als, Hepatitis, Diabetes, Hpv,Infections ETC should contact him for his herbal medicine because his herbal medicine cured all kinds of diseases or virus, i am telling you all this because i am a living testimony and i was cured of Hpv. and my child was cured of epilepsy. Although, i sent him what he requested and he sent me his medicine which i took for two weeks and today when i went for test i was tested Hpv negative. you can reach him through his EMAIL;[drafridherbalhome@gmail.com] And you can also whatsapp/call him through his number +2349057260738 or visit his website at https://dr-afrid-herbal-home.webnode.com/ 

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  24. Am Laura Mildred by name, i was diagnosed with Herpes 4 years ago i lived in pain with the knowledge that i wasn't going to ever be well again i contacted so many herbal doctors on this issue and wasted a large sum of money but my condition never got better i was determined to get my life back so one day i saw Mr. Morrison Hansen post on how Dr. Emu saved him from Herpes with herbal medicine i contacted Dr. Emu on his Email: Emutemple@gmail.com we spoke on the issue i told him all that i went through and he told me not to worry that everything will be fine again so he prepared the medicine and send it to me and told me how to use it, after 14 days of usage I went to see the doctor for test,then the result was negative, am the happiest woman on earth now thanks to Dr. Emu God bless you. Email him at: Emutemple@gmail.com Call or Whats-app him: +2347012841542 

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  25. I'm very happy to share this little awesome testimony about Dr AZIBA a great Herbal Doctor who help me Enlarge my penis size.3.2 cm to 8.3 cm longer with his herbal cream mixture, my wife is now so amazed with the autonomous size of my penis , if you are in need of the Enlargement product help to Enlarge your penis to become bigger and stronger and also to help in LOW SPERM COUNT I advice you to contact Dr Aziba on his email ( PRIESTAZIBASOLUTIONCENTER@GMAIL COM ) or contact Him on Whatsapp/Chat with Number +2348100368288. His one of the best Herbal Doctors in AFRICA if your penis is 4.2 cm and want to get it reach 9.2 cm within three weeks Dr AZIBA is also specialized there and on LOW SPERM COUNT i advise you to contact him for help DR AZIBA whatsapp number +2348100368288...

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  26. Am Laura Mildred by name, i was diagnosed with Herpes 4 years ago i lived in pain with the knowledge that i wasn't going to ever be well again i contacted so many herbal doctors on this issue and wasted a large sum of money but my condition never got better i was determined to get my life back so one day i saw Mr. Morrison Hansen post on how Dr. Emu saved him from Herpes with herbal medicine i contacted Dr. Emu on his Email: Emutemple@gmail.com we spoke on the issue i told him all that i went through and he told me not to worry that everything will be fine again so he prepared the medicine and send it to me and told me how to use it, after 14 days of usage I went to see the doctor for test,then the result was negative, am the happiest woman on earth now thanks to Dr. Emu God bless you. Email him at: Emutemple@gmail.com Whats-app or Call him: +2347012841542 

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  27. Please share as you read okay you may save a soul today, natural herbs
    are really great, I was cured from HSV by a doctor called DR Okiti from West Africa, now I believe that natural herbs and roots has their own way of working, based on medical report I was told that HSV has no cure even when I saw a post about Dr Okiti how he cured many people with his herbal medicine I doubted it at first but just decided to give it a try because I was so desperately trying to get rid of my problems not knowing it was going to be the end of this deadly virus in my body, please if you have anyone with this same virus or diseases like this contact Dr Okiti via email drokitiherbalhome100gmail.com or whatsapp +234 705 067 0365. I'm a living testimony of his herbal medicine and don't forget to share as you read okay, please save a soul today.

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  28. LOTTO, lottery,jackpot.
    Hello all my viewers, I am very happy for sharing this great testimonies,The best thing that has ever happened in my life is how I win the lottery euro million mega jackpot. I am a Woman who believe that one day I will win the lottery. finally my dreams came through when I email believelovespelltemple@gmail.com and tell him I need the lottery numbers. I have spend so much money on ticket just to make sure I win. But I never know that winning was so easy until the day I meant the spell caster online which so many people has talked about that he is very great in casting lottery spell, . so I decide to give it a try.I contacted this great Dr Believe and he did a spell and he gave me the winning lottery numbers. But believe me when the draws were out I was among winners. I win 30,000 million Dollar. Dr Believe truly you are the best, all thanks to you forever

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