US Politics Mega-thread - Page 2604

On September 05 2020 03:55 Fleetfeet wrote:


This is not at all what your hypothetical addressed. Unless context changes the thing, what you described was domestic terrorists not part of the protest using the protest as cover for their terrorism. There's a bunch that could be clarified to end up in this conveniently inconvenient scenario, but it's so detached from what we're seeing I don't understand the point of engaging the hypothetical in the first place.

Danglars mentions catch-and-release being an ineffective way of approaching some of the 'bad apples' in Portland protests, and I would generally agree.

On September 05 2020 06:09 micronesia wrote:
Could you explain what the difference is between domestic terrorists and protesters who destroy buildings in order to try to effect change contributing towards social justice? I'm having a bit of difficulty... the main thing I can think of is that the terrorists, we disagree with what they are fighting for...

edit: another possible explanation is that the terrorists demonstrate disregard for innocent uninvolved life whereas protesters usually do not

On September 05 2020 06:25 micronesia wrote:
In that case, is it okay to criticize people for referring to certain more severe protester behaviors as "domestic terror" when simplifying doesn't gain you anything? I think you (in the general sense) can't have it both ways in this discussion.

On September 05 2020 06:45 Mohdoo wrote:


From what I understand about Portland anarchists (lived here a long time and my friend has been very active in recording as much of the protests from within as possible), they were just waiting for an opportunity to light shit on fire. Protesters have little anti-fire teams to try prevent their shit. While I am sure there are some number of people who are violent BLM protesters, the vast majority of these crazies are people who would have done this for some other cover, which in my eyes takes away the "with intention to influence policy or politics" or whatever.

The problem you are having is you are trying to make some determination about the composition of the protests/riots without any actual way to do that. The anarchists have dumb little meetings and talk about being sovereign citizens and whatnot. So when there's an anti-cop protest, it is not slightly surprising that they showed up.

When you see a bunch of people walking around at night with shaky cameras, tear gas and a bunch of other wild shit, its hard to be like: "Ok so...1...2...5...7 anarchists annnnnd.....50...70 protesters...ok let me write this down..."

As I see it, you simply don't have that capability and that is ok. You basically can't without physically being there. Think about this: When the police tear gas protesters because of the arsonists, do you think the peaceful protesters run away? Not a chance. They are there to fight for what they believe in and they will push through the pain until they can't. Those people probably get kinda salty about being tear gassed, so they yell back, and suddenly now you are seeing a bunch of yelling, angry people with some molotov cocktails mixed in. Wow, suddenly it looks like 200 arsonists raging against capitalism. In reality, 2 people threw a molotov and the other people just yelled.

There is a reason the vast majority of Portland residents side with the protesters. You should wonder why the people having their city supposedly destroyed side so strongly with protesters. That's why there was a huge presence of moms at one point to try to get the feds to fuck off:

On September 05 2020 08:09 GreenHorizons wrote:
Joe Biden is still lying about his participation in civil rights. Lies that helped lead to him dropping out of a previous presidential run.

https://twitter.com/LukewSavage/status/1301927094952300545

On September 05 2020 10:23 Erasme wrote:
No, this is the final nail in the coffin. They don't want a liar running for president. Or a racist. Or someone who violates the covid restrictions. Wait, help me Danglars, where do you draw the line ?
The hypocrisy is running rampant.

Law enforcement officials released the information they had compiled — justifying an arrest warrant for Reinoehl on a second-degree murder charge in the Aug. 29 killing — one day after Reinoehl’s killing shook a quiet suburb of Olympia, Washington.

Bystanders Thursday night ducked for cover behind automobiles from dozens of gunshots as four agents serving on a U.S. Marshals Service task force opened fire at Reinoehl.

On September 05 2020 10:30 NewSunshine wrote:

Not that this is necessarily where I want the line to be drawn, but if Trump supporters want everyone to start suddenly caring about whether the President can be caught with their pants down in lies and scandal, they should've been doing a much better job of holding up their own pants in the meantime. They don't get to complain about Biden being in the grey area. At this point, that's something that sucks for everyone else, as they hold their nose in the polls.

On September 05 2020 10:32 Starlightsun wrote:
Wow the suspect who killed the Patriot Prayer guy in Oregon was shot and killed by police.

https://apnews.com/f0418fd4a37be8d9b6953c8359109587

On September 05 2020 18:48 Zambrah wrote:
That Rittenhouse is alive while Reinoehl was killed says everything you could need to know about how the cops work in this country.

On September 05 2020 18:48 Zambrah wrote:
That Rittenhouse is alive while Reinoehl was killed says everything you could need to know about how the cops work in this country.