Friday, July 17, 2020

Is this America?

Are you seeing the news that men in combat fatigues are snatching people off the streets of Portland and bundling them into unmarked black cars? They aren't police, they bear no military insignia, and they don't identify who they are or why they are detaining people. There is film footage of this. Some reports say they are border agents, whom Trump has deployed as his secret police, sent to quell the peaceful protests in Portland. We have secret police now?? And where are they taking the people who’ve been arrested without cause? Is this really what we’ve come to in America? State officials in Oregon have asked the federal government to remove the paramilitary force from their streets, and the government has refused. A new worry is that white supremacist militias and Proud Boys will don fatigues and impersonate Trump's secret police to kidnap and do harm to people. That Trump can deploy a secret paramilitary force to kidnap people exercising their first amendment right to protest should terrify everyone. In November, vote blue no matter who down the line. We have to not only remove the Putin puppet in the White House, we need to flip the Senate too.



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15 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 17, 2020 at 9:01 PM

    I am blown away by all of this. I cannot believe this is happening, and yet it is. I live in fear, not for myself but for what we are becoming. There is nowhere to run and hide. We are broken.

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  2. AllisonJuly 17, 2020 at 9:12 PM

    It's hard to believe it, isn't it? This is not the country we were in 3.5 years ago, before the orange menace. He's also talking about doing this in Chicago and NYC. Everywhere one looks there is evil. Everything he touches combusts into evil. I really need to quit clenching my jaw, or my teeth will break.

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  3. Ramona QuimbyJuly 17, 2020 at 9:47 PM

    We live down the street from a police precinct (unmarked on maps, but obvious) where PPB houses their paramilitary equipment. Last night there were protests outside the building--peaceful, with protesters chanting and occasionally shining flashlights at the police. Near 10 PM the police started threatening violence through their loudspeaker--munitions and tear gas and force--if the protesters didn't disperse. The police had a live stream of this, and you could see (and protesters were attesting) to unmarked cars stopping and pulling people into them and driving away. we also learned today that the head of the police union met with Chad Wolf and didn't tell the police chief, which is also terrifying. If the rest of the country thinks Portland is overrun by violence, they are wrong. The only violence I have seen is from the police.

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  4. My life so farJuly 17, 2020 at 10:16 PM

    Totalitarian and scary as hell.

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  5. FrancesJuly 18, 2020 at 3:52 AM

    2 of our police were suspended yesterday for kneeling on an arrested man's neck. The man had been arrested for carrying a knife ,but was already on the ground in cuffs so no reason to be on his neck as well. Hopefully, at least in this country ,( UK) any police doing that will be quickly out of a job!

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  6. LL Cool JoeJuly 18, 2020 at 7:45 AM

    God we live in scary times. Whilst you are getting rid of Trump and Putin can you remove Boris Johnson too? Why our countries being run by crooks?

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  7. eJuly 18, 2020 at 8:57 AM

    Things get worse every day...

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  8. Ms. MoonJuly 18, 2020 at 9:22 AM

    I keep thinking that things can’t get any worse but then they do. So scary, so horrible, so anti-everything I thought our country stood for.

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  9. Linda SueJuly 18, 2020 at 11:03 AM

    I cannot speak of this yet, Litigation , up in the air. Trump's doing of course and you just know that this is practice!

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  10. Steve ReedJuly 18, 2020 at 12:33 PM

    It's terrifying. Linda Sue has been writing about this Portland turmoil for a while, and I was gratified to see that it finally made the NYT today. Remember when Russian troops invaded Crimea but stripped their uniforms of all insignias, so no one knew for sure who they were? Guess Trump's taking more pages from Putin's playbook.

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  11. Ellen D.July 18, 2020 at 12:40 PM

    Horrible! I am anxious for November but so worried about what he will do next. I hope he loses "hugely" and many of the republicans that have not done anything to stop him go with him.

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  12. amJuly 18, 2020 at 1:19 PM

    Before I went to sleep last night, I read what you wrote and looked deeply into the photo of the two boys. I didn't know what I could say in response. When I woke up this morning, the words came to me.

    Although I don't have children of my own, I have one nephew (and no nieces) who was 10 years old the last time I saw him in 2003 and am guessing that the two boys are 10 years old or younger.

    In the photo, I see two boys who are loved and who are not afraid in that moment. I see two boys who are strong and healthy. Their signs say that they want to stay that way. One is not looking into the camera -- maybe lost in thought or gazing calmly at someone or something. The other boy is looking intently into the camera, making me wonder who is taking the photo. I have a vision of those two boys growing and thriving during these times that Octavia Butler could see returning as strong as ever because they had never truly gone away. Octavia Butler had a vision of a small but growing group of diverse people traveling together, suffering extreme trauma including loss of fellow travelers, surviving and thriving. I am grateful to you for introducing her writing to me through your blog. My vision is that 50 years from now those two boys will find that brick wall and recreate this photo when they are in the 60s, remembering the time that they first were given the tools that made it possible for them to thrive against all odds. I don't have any illusions that the next 50 years will be any easier than the last 50 years. When was life ever easy? We are here to do whatever needs doing, no matter how difficult. And there is joy to be found in being alive, loving and loved.

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  13. claudiaJuly 18, 2020 at 6:04 PM

    This is where we are. Can we wait until January? Can we really wait until January?

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  14. ellen abbottJuly 19, 2020 at 12:26 PM

    it's horrible and the Republicans are silent! I saw a tweet that these people are taken to an undisclosed location, pressured to sign a paper giving up their rights and being interrogated. I don't know how true that is as I've not seen it anywhere else. Trump and Barr are completely lawless and intend to send these Secret Police all over the country. The true purpose I believe is to instigate more brutality and violence to justify what he is doing. this has to be about the upcoming election, an attempt to show how lawless this country has become and he will crack down. but I think it's going to backfire. Americans aren't going to like having their rights taken away.

    but to answer your question...no, this is not America. our America hasn't existed for a while now while we wait for November. I hope out trust isn't misplaced that we can and will have a fair election.

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  15. HaddockJuly 19, 2020 at 9:36 PM

    That is the key word ..... we need to flip the Senate too.
    I am from a different country, but I am watching.

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