While being interviewed on FOX News this past Thursday, presidential advisor Kellyanne Conway gave away Donald Trump’s strategy for winning re-election. The more that violence erupts around the United States, she said, “the better it is” for Donald Trump, who, as of right now, doesn’t seem to be making any progress against Joe Biden in the polls. [The polling appear to be pretty much unchanged in the wake of the Republican National Convention, with Trump having a favorability rating of just 31%, and 63% of Americans disapproving of his handling of the pandemic.] “The more chaos, and anarchy, and vandalism, and violence reigns,” said Conway, “the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and law and order.”
None of this should be a surprise to anyone. It’s what strongmen, and wanna-be strongmen, do. They create chaos, and then declare that only they can stop it. And apparently it works as a strategy. Today in the New York Times there’s an article about a subset of voters in the swing state of Wisconsin who appear to be gravitating back to Trump in the wake of the violence seen this past week in Kenosha, where a clash between armed pro-Trump militia members and Black Lives Matter protesters left two dead just days after an unarmed black man by the name of Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by a white officer in the city. The killer, 17 year old Kyle Rittenhouse, is a Trump supporter that some are saying has a history of misogynistic and white supremacist views.
This, of course, was inevitable. Donald Trump and his enablers on the far right have been encouraging these kinds of clashes for months now. They did the same thing in 2018, when they actively encouraged militia members to head to America’s southern border to repel non-existent caravans of diseased and violent would-be immigrants. And, right now, they’re signaling to the armed extremists among us that they’re needed in the “lawless” Democratic cities of our nation… Here, with more on that, is an excerpt from Jacobin Magazine.
On August 19, President Donald Trump gave a nod of approval to believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory, which maintains that the president is secretly fighting to save the world from an elite satanic pedophile network, calling them “people that love our country.”
One week later, on August 26, Fox News host Tucker Carlson sympathized with Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager who killed two Wisconsin Black Lives Matter protesters and maimed another. Carlson suggested Rittenhouse felt he “had to maintain order when no one else would.”
At a glance, these provocations might appear disconnected. But they are deeply intertwined. In the span of a week, Trump and Carlson both gave the green light to extremist elements on the Right, QAnon conspiracy theorists on the one hand and armed pro-police adventurists on the other. In the process they each drew on the same bedrock narrative: that the streets of America — especially Democrat-run cities, but nowhere is safe — are teeming with lawless agents of anarchy who flout authority, terrorize innocents, and threaten civilization itself. Thus besieged, right-wing extremism of one variant or another is not really extreme at all. It is rational, even heroic and patriotic…
We don’t yet know what motivated Rittenhouse to travel across state lines to Wisconsin to take part in the armed, pro-Trump counter protest where he’d eventually take two human lives. What we do know, however, is that a Facebook group calling itself the “Kenosha Guard” started calling on armed “patriots” to travel to the Wisconsin city this past Tuesday to stand up to what they referred to as the “evil thugs” terrorizing the city. [This “call to arms” was then amplified by the conspiracy site Infowars.]
And we know that this kind of activity is something that the President of the United States is actively promoting. Here, from earlier today, is Donald Trump enthusiastically re-tweeting something about the people of America finally standing up “to take matters into their own hands” in cities where Democrats have refused to allow federal forces in to put down protests.
After the murders of the two protesters noted above, the National Guard was deployed to Kenosha, and Donald Trump visited soon afterward, taking credit for restoring law and order. And, at least according to the reporting of the New York Times, some who had been on the fence are now thinking about supporting him in the election, apparently oblivious to the fact that none of this would have happened if he, and those who support him, hadn’t encouraged people like Kyle Rittenhouse to get involved and “take matters into their own hands.”
And, I should add, in these swing states like Wisconsin, it won’t take many votes to change the course of the election. In 2016, for instance, Donald Trump won Wisconsin by considerably less than 1% of the vote. And, in Kenosha County, he won by fewer than 250 votes. So a few thousand votes here or there there in Wisconsin could make an enormous difference this November, as we fight to flip the state back to blue.
It would appear, however, that the violence is just going to keep increasing between now and Election Day. Last night there was another murder. This time it was in Portland. A Trump supporter was shot dead, also in a heated exchange between Black Lives Matter Protesters and militia members. There’s still a lot that we don’t know, like whether or not the victim was shot by a protester, or one of his own people. What we do know, however, is that the deceased man, who was wearing a hat with the insignia of the far-right group “Patriot Prayer,” was participating in a caravan of approximately 600 vehicles that had rolled into Portland to confront protesters. Furthermore, we know that Donald Trump, in his RNC speech the day before, attacked Portland for being a liberal city, overrun by violent, America-hating criminals who needed to be brought to justice… Here, in case you haven’t seen it, is footage of these pro-Trump forces rolling though downtown Portland, shooting at protesters with paint guns.
The President has spent four years inciting violence that his most radical supporters are once again carrying out. Like they did before the 2018 midterms. Like they did in El Paso. Like they did in Kenosha. Like they did tonight in Portland.
That’s the story. https://t.co/m3YX9VULlu
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) August 30, 2020
A friend of mine living in Seattle who posts here under the pseudonym “Nobody” just recently left a comment about Annie Dillard’s 1992 novel “The Living” that I found interesting. In the book, he said, a settler decides clear his land of enormous, 250 year old trees, not by cutting them down, but by drilling holes in them at the base, dropping red-hot embers into the holes, and then just waiting. After a number of days, the trees would just collapse, having burned from the inside out. I didn’t read the whole chain in which this comment was left, but I suspect this was shared in an attempt to explain to other readers of this site what Donald Trump has done to our country… He’s drilled holes in the foundation of our democratic institutions, and dropped in red-hot embers. And now things are beginning to collapse.
Joe Biden, for what it’s worth, came out today condemning the violence in Portland, something which Donald Trump has yet to do… likely because, as Kellyanne Conway says, he knows it’s good for him. “The deadly violence we saw overnight in Portland is unacceptable,” Biden said. “Shooting in the streets of a great American city is unacceptable. I condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right. And I challenge Donald Trump to do the same.“
Donald Trump will, of course, not do the same. He wants desperately to win, so as to avoid paying any price for the crimes he has committed in office, and he does not care who has to suffer to see that happen. He doesn’t care how many die from COVID-19, or how much blood flows in the streets of America. All he cares about is himself, and staying in power, and above the law. In normal times, a president would appeal to our better natures and call for calm. That isn’t happening here. Donald Trump is instead fanning the red-hot embers. And more people will die as a result.
62 Comments
They think they can steal the election in Wisconsin. Of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin he only needs one to maintain his electoral college majority. If you know anyone in Wisconsin, offer your solidarity. Their votes are likely to be critical.
Derp. Your side is causing the chaos. That’s why it is bad for dems which is good for Trump. You are so fuckin’ backwards, barky. What the fuck.
He’s been a Stochastic Terrorist from day one. He will be delt with accordingly. In the meantime our strategy must be to stay peaceful, and simultaneously prepare for violence if it’s unavoidable to save America from fascism.
#TrumpTerrorism https://t.co/VBhYLbs94b
Mark,
I have not looked into Kyle’s online presence at all. Can you back up your claim that Kyle had “a history of expressing misogynistic and white supremacist views”?
Here is Kyle beating on a woman. If you look close you can see his patriotic slippers. Rationalizing the actions of a wannabe Rambo street thug is going to become more and more difficult.
https://journaltimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/watch-now-videos-reportedly-show-kyle-rittenhouse-involved-in-fight-punching-female-last-month-in/article_983dab1f-c1de-5ac2-b125-fe732befc1ff.html
If you think that is bad look at Rosenbaum’s history. I don’t advocate boys hitting girls (explosives-chucking terrorists like Moldylocks exempted) but that doesn’t change that peaceful protestors put him in fear of his life.
Wobblie! My man!
I agree. I think that Kyle is one of the people in the video. I think we should dig a bit deeper. Can you tell me what Kyle is doing as the fight begins?
HW,
Look at the video again more closely. Disregard the narration. Keep track of the people in Kyle’s group and remember these MMr Bean revolutionaries have everything backwards.
The faceless fascist will spend hours analyzing the video to determine what caused a child to attack some one in a public parking lot. FF is like a botanist who will fastidiously identify ever tree around him, but fail to know whether he is in a park, forest or swamp.
Speeding 20-24 miles over speed limit in town.
I see a pattern of behavior where others peoples lives dont seem to matter. The definition of MAGA
5 minutes dummy.
I request that you do the responsible thing. Sacrifice 5 minutes of your time so you can avoid spreading more lies. When you repeat lies there are real world consequences. What was Kyle doing the moment the fight began?
Ok. I have taken a closer look. I was wrong to assume the woman in sweatpants was a male. Assuming that is a female (and not a male with long hair) Kyle was wrong to attack the girl who was fighting with his friend.
I was dumb to call Wobblie dumb here.
Request was denied FF. Deal with it.
Spend 5 minutes reading your Endless posts demanding what other people review or look at and trying to direct what they see.
Jesus, don’t you get tired of yourself.
We are heading to civil war. Biden should be doing interviews in rust belt states many times every day and traveling there as soon as possible. This violence means he loses. He must know that.
The old fear-based law and order campaign still works. Fear is the on-switch to hate or rather the off-switch to humanity. And tribalism gets Trump elected. Somehow his supporters believe that he will be able to control a situation if re-elected that was created when he was in power. And all most people want is stability and the status quo. Right now the guy they think offers that wins. I’m going with Joe.
I’m also going to drive people to the polls. Everybody that can afford to do so should be figuring out how they can help. Poll workers are needed. Yes it’s risky . So is another 4 years of Trump.
I was responding to Wobblie saying I spent hours looking at the video he shared. I spent 5 minutes. I should have spent longer.
Charlottesville analysis took 5 hours at least.
The Rittenhouse shootings took about 45 minutes of analysis. There was so much video from multiple angles. Easy.
Sandmann took about 2 hours.
I think it is worth putting in the time. The truth is worth it. If you don’t then don’t do it. You don’t seem to think the truth is very valuable anyway so….
JH,
My method is to compare the narrative with the facts.
So if Wobblie says that Kyle shot Joseph from 30 feet away, while Joseph is standing still, I ask him to show us his evidence—when video evidence is available. I am not asking random questions.
https://youtu.be/MGI3JbkLB48
It was definitely a girl he was punching. Wrong way to handle it.
Truth is the strategy.
The strategy of coluMbo.com is to spin false narratives that have very little orientation to the truth. When spreading false narratives is your policy a world of shit will eventually come down on you.
Ruskie stooge is being seen for the traitor he is by US Military. I bet they’d support hanging the whole damn family by the time this plays out.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/08/31/as-trumps-popularity-slips-in-latest-military-times-poll-more-troops-say-theyll-vote-for-biden/
Anti violence is the strategy.
The left has a contradictory narrative problem. They told us for months that there was no violence. They are peaceful protests they said. When that narrative began to smell fishy to many it showed up in polls. See Don Lemon’s comment a few days ago. Now they are saying “yes there is violence” but it is all the fault of Trump and his supporters.
Ok. Let’s examine that truth claim.
FF, I see that you are still basically calling anyone you disagree with a liar.
I am sure that everyone here knows not to pay you any nevermind but just in case there are any new lurkers out there…Just ignore FF. He always starts up with the “watch the video” any time a white conservative man is accused of *anything* as if he doesn’t understand that the rest of us don’t watch those videos of the same lens of racist misogyny that he does!
Anyways, guys like FF are who Trump is especially good at manipulating through fear. I will give it to Trump there. Because he has no ethics, he is totally fine using lies and cheating to manipulate those susceptible to it. Trump isn’t even the real problem with our nation right now. It is that so many have such racist and sexist views that can be manipulated so easily by someone as obviously as self-serving as Donald Trump.
No Cassandra. I reserve the term “liar” for a person who, when there is no other plausible explanation, insists on clinging to a given narrative, despite it not matching up with basic and easy to obtain facts. Dishonesty is not the only route to having a mismatch between a person’s narrative and the facts. Sometimes the discrepancy is the result of stupidity or ignorance.
“The killer, 17 year old Kyle Rittenhouse, is a Trump supporter that [some are saying] has a history of misogynistic and white supremacist views.”
Edit Maynard? Yes or no?
If yes then why the edit?
Murder in cold blood of a Patriot Prayer member by antifa. Walk up and ice him and walk off; no self-defense element involved. Autists from the chans easily identified Michael Forest Reinoehl via neck tattoo. Now he is fucked hahahaha! Love it.
https://nypost.com/2020/08/31/man-suspected-in-deadly-portland-shooting-is-100-antifa/
Hearing a lot about that on your fave nuze outlets or not so much?
A good morning to you sir.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg9vuGkupoU
What does the faceless fascist got to say,Im sure he has watched the video. What was the PPer doing prior to being shot. What does he have in the hand that is pointing at the shooter. Have you heard an enhanced audio version yet? Stand your ground is only good for the goose? Looks like the victim brought mace to a gun fight—isnt that right HW? The murderer will go to prison just as assuredly as the Kenosha murderer.
Ill have to look into Oregons laws. Perhaps it is legal to use lethal force to defend yourself from assault. It sure looks like that mace cloud began before the gun shots.
the current conservative line on the people who were shot after rushing an active shooter seems to be “that’s what you get for trying to attack the psychotic murderer whom we love and support”
https://twitter.com/The_Law_Boy/status/1299075224768598023
reactionaries operate from one principle: there’s us, and then there’s them. if you try to find any sort of consistency in the things they say and do beyond that you are wasting time and energy that could be spent researching voodoo curses that will cast them into outer space
https://twitter.com/The_Law_Boy/status/1299070138591916036
Reviewing the law briefly it does not have as many limitations as the Wisconsin law. As much as I am opposed to gun fights on the street, the Oregon shooter may have a better chance of arguing self-defense than the Kenosha murderer.
See, now you change your tune. You don’t have a coherent rationale. To act like John Wayne all of a sudden now that you know the shooter is antifa makes you look like a serious muppet. It’s Yoda-level muppetry by Wobbly.
I would use mace or whatever I had to stop someone trying to shoot me. See, I don’t have to change my values for an opportunity to spread propaganda like you do. Self defense is justified by the extent of the threat. The mob in Kenosha wanted to kill Rittenhouse or hurt him bad. They chased him and fired a gun behind him. That is clear self-defense. This new case is totally different. Who wouldn’t use any item available to try to stop someone from walking up and SHOOTING them?
Hyborian Warlord,
What does your father the judge think about the fact that you’re spending your time online peddling this conspiracy theory bullshit?
Q.
I think the shooting in Portland is just yet another incident that shows me that we need stricter gun control.
Mark –
The protests are about police misconduct, so the aim should be police reform. The Crime Bill from 1994 that Biden helped with had a provision that allowed the Justice Department to investigate local police departments. That brought about numerous consent decrees over the years that worked to reform police departments in many cities. Seattle was one of those cities, of which I have some limited but direct experience. Detroit was as well.
Trump’s Justice Department has not been using this tool effectively, and has worked against the intent of it by encouraging officers to be rough with people.
I believe that the asks of the current movement would be more effective if it were to focus on the consent decree tool rather than “defunding the police”. The legislation, policies, and frameworks are all in place. They just need to be effectively used and tweaked as necessary.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/29/obama-police-reform-341685
I’m curious how some of the other readers here feel about defund versus decree.
Okay this is getting spooky. Q is posting directly to me??? On this site of all places? Whoah and he knows my dad is a judge?! Oh man. Like Waowww…
The really sad thing about the 2A white middle aged men is that they are by far the most likely to die by gun violence… specifically self inflicted gun shots. Of the roughly 30,000 deaths by gun in the US each year, half of them are white men killing themselves.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/gun-deaths/
That is just suicide by guns. The rate of farmers and veterans commiting suicide is much higher than the general population. Some articles suggest that the rate among farmers may even by higher as many accidental deaths may have been intentional to capture life insurance payouts for their family.
Is that all it is Lynne? It doesn’t belie the peaceful protestor narrative and the ‘antifa is righteous’ one? I think it does, though I needed no additional evidence.
HW I know you find it hard to follow complex arguments. Where do you see me say the Portland murderer should get off? I want the great forensic expert and defender of aggressive self-defense to let me know what he thinks about the “victim” firing his mace at the shooter prior to shooter shooting. Who is the aggressor. For the faceless fascist it was enough that he was being chased for him to gun the guy down. It is a comparative test, You failed by the way HW.
Though under the Texas wild west legal standards all these killers would be free to walk the streets
You fail. Someone called out “We got a Trumper” and he walked up and iced him. That’s first degree murder. They were already closing in on him when he used pepper spray (a non-lethal deterrent that doesn’t cause lasting injury) in a futile attempt to defend himself.
This is your movement. You denied it but I was correct. Antifa wants civil war. They want Americans to die and for the USA to die to be transformed into a twisted and dark SJW fantasy.
Michael Reinoehl:
“I am 100 % ANTIFA all the way! I am willing to fight for my brothers and sisters!” he said, insisting he would not “run” from violence.
“It will be a war and like all wars there will be casualties,” he wrote, calling protesters and Antifa “my brothers in arms.”
Wobblie,
Sorry. I am busy. If you cue up the relevant videos so I can look at them late tonight. I don’t know anything about the Portland shooting. I trust HW does. Why don’t you listen to him?
Anyway it sounds like you are finally admitting that Kyle did not shoot Joseph while Joseph was just “standing there” 30 feet away. You spread that falsehood a lot. Why not explicitly apologize now that you aware that you were irresponsibly spreading falsehoods? What sort of person has no impulse to come clean?
Do we even know who the shooter was in Portland? I mean it seems likely based on the available evidence so far that a murder occurred and I have heard that one pro-Trump group is saying that the victim is a member.
Not a lot, I made a mistake in watching poor quality video. Im still wondering how the first victim was fatally shot in his back. Like I said I dont rely upon my judgement but the prosecutor. You are the one who wants children running around the streets with semi-automatic weapons, though admittedly it is not your “preferred” enforcement method.
You cheered Perry’s right to murder Garrett. You look for any pretext to defend Rittenhouse killing two and injuring a third. Please explain how these are differentiated from the Portland shooting?
Michael Reinoehl is the shooter. I knew yesterday. The victim is Aaron Danielson of the Patriot Prayer group. I watched Reinoehl’s interview and watched the murder and read up on all I could find. It didn’t take long.
I guess he thought he would take his chances and try to get lost in the sauce and just hope no one caught it on video. Autists on the chans identified him by his neck tattoo and now he is under police investigation.
Sister turned him in
https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/08/man-under-investigation-in-fatal-shooting-after-pro-trump-rally-allegedly-took-loaded-gun-to-earlier-portland-protest.html
“I am not an advocate of 17 year olds carrying a gun to a protest/riot. That is crazy.”—FF (2 days ago)
“You are the one who wants children running around the streets with semi-automatic weapons”—Wobblie (today)
How is your memory Wobblie? Kinda shitty right?
Denying that violence is occurring until it reflects poorly in the poll numbers is your strategy.
Looked at more video of the shooting of Joseph Rosenbaum. I have medium confidence that Gaige Grosskreutz was the person who shot first in shooting #1. Not certain but I am becoming more confident.
Q is everywhere, John. Q is love.
Wobblie,
Kyle was stalked. He defended himself against 3 different stalkers/ attackers.
The portland victim was stalked. He sprayed his stalker with pepper spray and got shot.
The one thing in common is that Antifa, in all of the 4 separate shootings, was the side doing the stalking.
FF has a dream team.
Rittenhouse and Sandman.
Smells like Republican teen spirits.
Shooting the person you were stalking is a rough starting point for your legal defense, I think.
I’ll ask one more time.
Frosted Flakes
Posted August 31, 2020 at 11:54 am | Permalink
“The killer, 17 year old Kyle Rittenhouse, is a Trump supporter that [some are saying] has a history of misogynistic and white supremacist views.”
Edit Maynard? Yes or no?
If yes then why the edit?
Groups are heavily funded by various groups/individuals and trained to react violently to any perceived police brutality, real or imagined. Immediate calls are made to defund police and replace them with social workers. As a result, crime skyrockets, necessitating a national police force to enforce order. A national force is far removed from any local control and exacerbates brutality. Any remaining protests are met with overwhelming force. The protestors have played their assigned role and are no longer needed. The whole point was to federalize police across our nation and remove all local accountability. But the useful idiots won’t realize they have been played until it is too late.
I am John, son of Judge *******; The Hyborian Warlord. I used to be Daniel. Now I have metamorphosized into…John!
FF. Who was stalking whom?
Did you ever find out what Rittenhouse told the police?
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/wisconsin/2020/08/30/witnesses-detail-kenosha-shooting-seeing-kyle-rittenhouse-protest-jacob-blake-wisconsin-17-year-old/5656907002/?fbclid=IwAR1UyVD5IlXrezEEM2jR5GPLGagDYoxewnOFbTYjGzDBZpfsDrOezR-LUq8
We know for sure that Joseph was chasing a fleeing Kyle. That qualifies as aggressive stalking I would say. They think they are fighting against Hitler and his army. If that is a persons mindset they will bend the truth for what they perceive as the greater good. If Kyle was pointing his weapon a lot people then it is likely people would have filmed it. Maybe there are some videos of it. I saw videos of him putting out fires with and trying to help injured protestors. I will also point out that a common reoccurring tactic is for Antifa to single out the weak, old and young. They target those people with aggression and go out of their way to antagonize those people with shocker—-made up stories—anything to get a reaction. If there is evidence that Kyle actually was pointing his weapon at people without cause then he should be disciplined legally.
“He pointed his weapon at me.”
“He called me a bad name.”
“Prove it didn’t happen.”
Have you never been in a situation where people are trying to create conflict? You seem very naive. Not saying I know for sure what did and did not happen but I have been in enough situations where I know what kind of tactics are commonly employed so it is wise to stick to facts and evidence.
“Jojo” Rosenbaum, the convicted child sex abuser: “Let’s get ’em and jack they guns.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNGsixl34MI
Rittenhouse is on video walking around offering medical assistance two different times. Wobblie is a liar.
HW,
No. It APPEARS Wobblie is a lying sack of shit. And PEOPLE ARE SAYING that the MMrbean.com Community lacks intelligence and integrity.
I am still tempted to contact Sandmann/ Rittenhouses lawyers. Maybe they could teach these shameless morons a lesson. 2 for 1.
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