At least as much as Trump has cared about any of his wives.
Feds are reportedly abducting people in portland
- Thread starter Worgen
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There is perhaps a method to the madness.
Protestors on the streets don't necessarily win more support for their position, but they do make the president look bad in the eyes of many voters by increasing the sense that the nation is in disorder and astray. A saner president would have made an appeal to the protestors with conclilatory promises to look into their complaints quickly - but that's not Trump. I think, as ever helpless to his narcissistic disorder, he responded to opposition with wrath, hatred, and a desire to destroy. Having burned those bridges, suppression or waiting them out is all he has. As long as the protests go, he'll look better.
It won't hurt him much with his base, because a load of them are law and order types who wouldbe happy smashing the hippies in any way, and the "evil gubmint" types seem to think he's the anti-establishment hero rescuing them from excessive state power, even as he uses state power for heavy-handed enforcement. After that, there's a few months left for the problem to stop being so immediate in people's minds and he'll recover some of the damage.
Two other things I note. Firstly, it looks very much like he's going to sign some truly outrageous executive orders in the next few weeks: potentially Constitution-busting stuff that SCOTUS will annihilate... eventually when it gets to it. But stuff that will allow him to make a major play for votes with transformational policy declarations, even if long-term they are squashed. Secondly, I notice coronavirus briefings are coming back. These might be an attempt at getting some public attention given his recent rallies were car crashes, but they could also be an attempt - if he maintains discipline and that's a tough ask - to repair the appalling covid-19 reputation that must be dragging his numbers down. If the latter, he'll be best advised to stick to a short informational script, answer a few questions, then walk off and let the adults do the rest.
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The alternative is maybe that he's sunk, deep down feels he's sunk, and is just making every ego-pleasing, authoritarian play he feels like before he gets shown the door.
Hey, it was a loaded, fully-automatic, assault AK-69.
Well, it's clear at this point: not having gotten what they wanted out of Portland, DHS seems to be targeting the cities most likely to open fire on unidentified agents in unmarked cars driving around and abducting people.
This oughtn't be an issue to escalate to the point of requiring Presidential attention in the first place, mayors and governors should have been on the spot to address protests halfway sensibly, instead of fucking around with SWAT teams and chemical weapons in the first place.
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Given how the protests have gone in New York, there may be no gunfire but somebody will torch one of the vans they’re driving. Several probably. Haven’t been closely following any of the other cities he mentioned.
Somehow this poem by Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller that he had placed on his tomb stone about the cowardly complicity of the German people during the Holocaust. The reason he put this on his tombstone was he felt guilt for being part of this nightmare. Here is the long version.
First they came for the Native Americans, and no one spoke. Then the came for the Mormons, and no one spoke. Then they came for the freed slaves, and no one spoke. THen they came for the gays, and no one spoke. Then they came for the protestors, and no one spoke. Now they come for me, and no one is left to speak.
I wonder if the other side has their own version of this. Not sure how theirs would go, but perhaps something like this:
First they came for the cops, and those who spoke out got cancelled. Then they came for the gun owners, and those who spoke out got cancelled. Then they came for the christians, and those who spoke out got cancelled. Then they came for the whites, and those who spoke out got cancelled. And next they'll come for you ...
So, I think Portlanders have made it clear they are not quelled. Honestly, the footage I saw from tonight was the most extreme I’ve seen in Portland thus far. The feds and local cops made it clear they were working together to escalate the violence against the people of Portland, and the people of Portland escalated just as they did. I don’t see this ending well, and every time I hear people try to argue Kate Brown should bring in the NG to stop the feds I get a little scared honestly.
I used to be part of that crowd(a LONG time ago). They'll gleefully quote the part about the Jews but somehow forget about the Socialists, Communists, Trade Unionists,etc because those people are awful and don't deserve consideration.
It's pretty much why I'm no longer part of that crowd. Having a conversation with a person who you considered a friend tell you with a straight face that communists should go to jail because their beliefs are unamerican is quite the eye opener. Also, Socialists are the same as Communists so same to them.
So apparently the people being abducted are often just being questioned then dropped off at random places more often than not. Meaning a couple things. Either the intention is just to scare people and escalate the situation, or they genuinely think this is all a conspiracy and they’re trying to figure out who is in charge to kill or arrest them.
I'm going with the former. The Trump administration always goes with the decision that makes them look the most cartoonishly evil.
I think your overlooking one thing. General police incompetence. Why would you bother investigating a crime when you can just pull randoms off the street and blame them? They’re not investigating, they’re just guessing.
And O swear this is half the problem that BLM is pointing out has to do with this. Why investigate a crime when any black person will do? Why bother treating criminals nicely? That takes effort. Why not treat all suspects as if they already committed the crime? Investigating takes effort and nobody has time for that
It's this one. If this was an actual attempt to fight crime, they wouldn't be using CBP officers, they wouldn't be claiming to make "targeted arrests towards people committing violence" then letting people go without charges, and they wouldn't be blanket sending them to every large city north of the mason-dixon line.
Clearly trying to find the leader of Antifa. Last I heard they've got it narrowed down to a 98 year old grandma in Northwest or a Dachshund who lives at the Voodoo Doughnuts on the east side of the river. They were contemplating a garden gnome for a bit but realize prosecution would be difficult because no jury outside of Texas is going to convict a Garden Gnome.
I'm gonna need some proof. Like a business card or particularly impressive hat.
Steampunk hats don't count because Steampunk hats cannot be impressive.