More Tales from the War Zone
The horror! The horror...
To follow on from my previous post, let me add the following video from right-wing influencer Benny Johnson, who appears to have been DHS’s guest in Portland.
Truly harrowing. Why, it reminds me of a time when I was a shift manager at McDonald’s and we had an unexpected rush. There were dozens of restless customers crowding the lobby, and we were understaffed. We were all hurrying about trying to spin up food production and get the orders out. When, over the din of the crowd, a customer yelled, “Lady! Those are my fries!” at one of the workers who had just placed a small fry into a to-go bag. He continued, “You’re all assholes! Especially him!” He was pointing at a guy who was, in fact, an asshole.
I still awaken, all these years later, in a cold sweat at the harrowing experience of facing down a largely peaceful crowd and a guy yelling obscenities at me! And I wasn’t even standing stories in the air with armed law enforcement at my side. No! I was mere feet from the shouter, with only a stainless steel counter separating us.
How could we not all see the need for troop deployments, given the evidence before our eyes?
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As I said elsewhere, imagine the sort of person who looks at this and thinks, “Damn, squaring off against a guy in a chicken suit; That’s some badass Call Of Duty shit right there!”
Yeah, but at that moment you controlled the means of production and distribution so: “Free fries for everyone! Just get in a line and quiet down.”
On a side note: if Homeland security has to cuff and haul in the guy in the chicken suit, that is not a good look for Noem’s department. Which leads to the idea of dozens of protesters dressing up as Trump to protest his policies and getting arrested. The resulting images would be exquisite.
On my way back from Berlin to Atlanta then an event at Fort Benning, I’ve stopped over in Chicago, staying in Lakeview not far from Cubs Stadium. This part of Illinois is having an Indian Summer. It’s altogether quite charming here, tho I hear tale of ICE terrorizing selected black and brown neighborhoods nearby, per Reddit.
I’ve been to Musical Mondays at a gay bar in Boystown, walked over to Belmont Harbor to work from my laptop on a park bench, idled at a nearby bird sanctuary, walked downtown at night in search of a Chase ATM and Dunkin Donuts, shopped a local mom-and-pop grocer, walked to a spa/gym and back, walked around to gawk at magnificent brownstones, had a pistachio chocolate scone + ham-and-cheese croissant at a French Cafe…
…it’s a lovely city. Never felt unsafe, no sign of blight or disorder or urban decay. Trains and busses have been quite clean, pleasant. Have yet to even notice a homeless person (maybe because the deadly Chicago winter is coming?)
Where’s the crimes and war zones etc? Seems like online/Nextdoor/MAGA/Twitter hype. Again with the disclaimer that different neighborhoods within large cities can embody wildly different experiences.
I’ve seen a bunch of videos of people in inflatable animal costumes dancing in front of ICE, and I don’t know that it is any more of less effective than the people with signs, but I liked the imagery.
Ideally it would be furries, but fur suits are expensive and have a lot of materials tear gas would stay in forever. But, discount furries are good too.
ETA: this is what I get for starting at the top post and working down — the inflatable animals are in the post below this.
First Kamala Harris, now Steven Taylor. It must be the in-thing for radical Marxist extremists to pretend they once worked at McDonald’s. Show us a pay-slip!
OK, I haven’t been in Portland OR in a year but a friend just was and he said it looked better than Seattle (no issues other than bums on the streets downtown a year ago – but I would have said the same thing 15 years ago). What “war zone?” Whitest major city in the USA. Usual recovery from the 9th Circuit Boise and Grants Pass Decisions regarding making the homeless almost untouchable on public property (some of them became very entitled, you can’t touch me (to cops)).
Anyway I saw an inflatable dinosaur costume (also seen near the Portland ICE Building) on Amazon Prime Day and the brown version was really cheap (like $25) but so glad I resisted so I didn’t get on some watch list, folks that wear inflatable costumes are enemies of the state (er, Feds only).
I and some friends had to look up the Portland ICE facility and it is in the South Waterfront area (so SW? regardless, remote industrial) squeezed between the Willamette River and the hills to the west, where I-5 is on stilts, maybe 3-4 miles south of Downtown. Not an area one would normally go to (you go above it on I-5).
The downtown is where Antifa did reign 4 years ago, not today – yes, Rose City Antifa does exist and as I’ve said before, more folks in Portland are involved in dog rescue than there are members of Antifa (but Rose City Antifa is always yelling and screaming making them look larger and more important than they are and Fox News promotes a few crazies)).
Meanwhile I know too much about the NW Detention Center on the Tacoma Tide Flats 150 miles to the north (run by Geo Group, with health oversight by USPHS – this bit is ignored by the folks protesting it).
I’m not sure this Emperor would understand if someone told him he has no clothes.
I just watched the video – the “SOG” (patch on shoulder – Subservient Old Guy?) guy in Cammies, some sort of law enforcement, 100% NOT military with that greying beard, Hegseth would detest his shaving standards. WHY is law enforcement wearing military cammies? This is an issue since the Clinton days of the 90s, militarization of civil law enforcement. Sorry dude, you are a civilian and should not be wearing military gear.
{In my dreams, face-off between Hegseth and Noem over law enforcement Cosplaying as military – unlawful combatant).
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@Ken_L: Ha! No pay slips exist but if pressed, photographic evidence does exist.
@Steven L. Taylor:
Sounds like a Friday Photo….
@Steven L. Taylor: You think I came down in the last shower? They can do anything with this new-fangled AI thing.
Recently I’ve been wondering if Kristi Noem should be the Secretary of Defense, and Pete Hegseth the DHS Secretary. Or maybe they’re essentially interchangeable parts?
Without any REAL LAWFUL justification Hegseth is blowing up Venezuelan boats some 1,200 miles from Florida, while Noem is directing troops deployed to so-called crime-ridden hellhole war zones in Blue State cities, and who are in need of fast food meals and clean restrooms. In both situations these are political performance activities that are NOT resisted by ANY congressional Republicans.