Rumor What's going on in Portland?

I think everyone is right. How about that? Portland is an absolute shit show. Its unacceptable, its borderline lawlessness, its disgusting, its a total lack of leadership, toughness, all of it. Everyone in charge of anything downtown should be shown the door. Portland is, without question, a fucking mess. And by Portland I don't just mean the actual downtown/city square area. The outskirts, the increased gun violence, the graffiti, the tents, its complete chaos and it angers me to no end. Now...I think we here in Portland notice this clear as day, but if we spent time in SF, Seattle, LA, San Diego (yes SD, I lived there 10 years), and many other cities we would see this is quite literally a national issue. We, as a country, have no plan for homelessness and it is not a simple fix. I also think Portland has made a nice little name for itself across the nation as being somewhat of the country's epicenter of unrest. We made the nightly news for months because of the ongoing protests. As in, literally on CNN, Fox, you name it, for protesting and rioting for months straight.

 

Well, keep an eye on @Stevenson. There's your first clue.

 

The longer a nation creates underclasses (both racial and in terms of wealth), the closer it treads to revolt. The US is unlikely to have the types of open revolutions or civil wars that have torn nations like, say, China or Russia in the past, but this is what it looks like in the US. The reasons may keep changing, but the underlying cause remains the same--too much of the population is left unsatisfied with life. Does that make breaking the law okay? No, it just makes it an inevitability. Contents under too much pressure eventually explode; whether or not that's a good thing is irrelevant.

This is not a Portland-specific thing.

 

Did it ever occur to you that we (as actual Portland area residents) read this kind of stuff on a daily basis? That we actually see and experience this stuff regularly? Yeah, shit happens here, just like it has happened all over the country (including Nashville). It’s the current state of America, for any number of reasons. In this case, the Right has deliberately chosen to make Portland the poster child for civil disobedience. The former White House occupant deliberately went out of his way to inflame the situation as it was dying out of it’s own accord. Now he’s playing the false equivalency card, making it sound like Portland is far more serious than the coup attempt he himself incited. It is nothing more than a red herring to distract from actual malfeasance by the so called “leader of the free world.” You’re watching one hand entertain you while the other hand is stealing your wallet. You believe in “fake news” when it’s convenient, but ignore reality when it doesn’t fit your narrative. Lets’ get to the bottom of the violent (and murderous) attempt to overthrow the legally elected government of the United States of America before we crap our skivvies over on going (and isolated) civil disobedience 3000 miles away from the actual center of government. But I guess if you’ll believe that the election was truly stolen, you’ll believe anything.......

 

All true.

Over the summer, I could’ve told you what they’re protesting. #BLM. I encouraged my children to go protest, and they did and they got teargassed and I was proud of them.

But someone please tell me and @ABM what they’re protesting now. Or answer the question of the original post - what is going on in Portland?

What are they protesting, what do they hope to accomplish, why is vandalizing the city acceptable.? How is it anything but a bunch of anarchists coming up with a “reason” to f with our beloved city?

anyone, anyone?

 

I just knew I needed to lawyer up.

 

Is that a problem for you? Xenophobe!

 

Portland became too chaotic for me over 20 years ago so I moved to the woods. My granddaughter is living downtown now and studying film making at the Art College. The chaos is all she's ever known in Portland....she's from San Diego but she love Portland....I've never been impressed with Oregons local political leadership..(although I really like Ron Wyden) .Eugene is super left leaning and they just argue over Starbucks and gluten free snacks and push the agenda further down the road....I love the land here. People come and go from all over the planet but this land is special. Where I go in my free time there are few people....fishing takes care of all that shit. Young people need to get involved in govt and walk the walk. The police need to do their job and walk the walk. I love Oregon.....but Portland isn't my favorite place in Oregon at all. I have many friends who live in the city and will never leave. Most of them don't like the woods and grew up in much larger cities with worse conditions. Bottom line is we need to address abject poverty and crime in the public everywhere. What needs to be done needs to be done for the preservation of America, not political parties

 

This is THE issue though. They are NOT protesting. The city, police, leaders, everyone needs to come to grips the difference between protests and destruction, riots, anger, anarchy. It may sound extreme, but we all know it but let it continue. Stop the madness. Arrest this MF'ers and lock their asses up. Guess what, even these dipshits will not enjoy 7 days in a jail cell. They'll think twice. Right now there is NOOOOO incentive for them to stop.

 

I swear to God I want to be Mayor of Portland.

 

Here's a statement from Rose City Antifa from a Willamette Week article:

In its Feb. 1 statement, Rose City Antifa explained its stance on the Biden administration.

"Over the last year we've seen a lot of confusion and misinformation about antifascism in the press. In an effort to clear up some of the misconceptions about our work, we wanted to reach out to you as researchers, and fellow Portlanders, to offer our services. We've published a wealth of information about the insurgent far-right in the Pacific Northwest on our website, including detailed information about the organizing of the local Proud Boys who recently participated in the January 6th riot at the Capitol. Additionally, we have a great deal more information and context about the far-right that goes unpublished but may be of value to your reporting.

We are happy to work with the media whenever we can in order to ensure that you have the information and context you need for your reporting. Our capacity for recorded interviews can vary at times but we can almost always respond to emailed questions in a timely manner and we work very hard to make time for other formats whenever possible. Going forward please reach out if you need anything!

Regarding misconceptions, below we have some FAQs for your reference.

1. What do antifascists do? How do you do it?
** While antifascism is a broad ideology, we define it as actions taken against the insurgent right-wing. To this end, our work includes in-depth research into far-right groups and provocateurs, educating the community on the findings of our research, and taking steps to directly oppose these groups and individuals. We primarily use open-source intelligence to conduct this research and work within the Portland community to build a sustainable antifascist culture in Portland.

2. What is Rose City Antifa's role in recent political protests?
** Rose City Antifa has not been organizing recent protests, although we stand in solidarity with those who express opposition to current systems of oppression. Our focus is on combatting the insurgent right wing, so we keep our scope small and specific to opposing far-right groups and individuals that actively threaten our community. In general, when we are involved in any events as an organization, we promote it on our social media and include our group name and logo on flyers or other promotions. If an event does not have our name on the promotional materials, it is safe to assume we are not involved in it.

3. How has the "antifa movement" been involved in recent protests?
** While many of the people involved may consider themselves antifascists in ideology, we narrowly define antifascism as actions taken to oppose the insurgent right-wing. Under this definition, protests that are not involved in direct opposition to far-right violence and instead combat the state, capitalism, etc. would not be considered antifascist protests. Instead, these would be more accurately described as anarchist, anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian, or another term reflecting the specific ideology of the participants. We recommend reaching out to groups who have promoted events or, if they are unresponsive, researching their ideologies in order to determine the most accurate description of their goals and tactics.

4. How does RCA feel about the Biden administration?
** We always remind people that our group was founded shortly before the Obama presidency, an administration during which Biden served as vice-president, and one during which we saw the rise of the alt-right to the national stage and the rapid growth of fringe, anti-government militia movements. Trump did not create those conditions, he was supported by them. While we are glad he is gone, the systems that empowered him and emboldened white supremacist groups in this country are still very much in place. Changing administrations has not eradicated the threat of fascism and it's plausible that as insurgent right wing groups lose power in more mainstream political channels that they will adopt violent guerrilla tactics like we saw on January 6th.

Again, we're reaching out to you because we recognize that our work is often mysterious or misunderstood and we want to make sure that you know that we're available to you as a resource. We post information when we have it on both our website and our Twitter, both linked below. If you have any further questions about our group, the state of far-right organizing in the Pacific Northwest or anything else regarding our work please don't hesitate to reach out."

https://www.wweek.com/news/city/202...ters-who-smashed-windows-vandalized-property/

 

In reality there needs to be major protests standing up to the violence, homelessness issue, lack of leadership, etc., that I would think both sides would support, but Portland has blown its load (sorry) with protests that no one will take it seriously. Its the Little Boy Who Cried Wolf syndrome.

 

Is Ted Wheeler an "abject failure" as a Mayor in your opinion?

https://katu.com/news/local/pearl-district-businesses-clean-up-after-protest-vandalism

KATU reached out to Mayor Ted Wheeler's office to ask how his team plans to respond to this. We're still waiting to hear back at this time.

 

you are caller number 221....we appreciate your patience....please enjoy the soothing sounds of Kenny G while we wait to connect you to an available operator....

 

@calvin natt for mayor!

"What is antifa? we define it as actions taken against the insurgent right-wing."

Well, if that is so, they are in the wrong friggin city!