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Why? Because the whole point of bringing in BLM is distraction and obfuscation. BLM has nothing whatever to do with the white supremacist “militia” groups who conspired to overthrow the government by overturning the election by force. There’s no equivalence here- - and that’s what RepubliCons want to make of it. That’s why.

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On the surface, Jeannie, I agree with you. But I challenge all of us here to go deeper.

A racist looks for racist targets. People to blame. A racist, a sexist, looks for scapegoats to target. People of color. Women.

I wish it were as simple as just distraction, obfuscation. But isn’t it really a lot more insidious and filthy than that? ”We are the white males. We are the superior race, the superior species and gender. The problem is with POC and women, not with us.”

Notice how the nastiest attacks are directed at Kamala Harris, AOC, the Squad, & similar. Not Biden. He is still the protected species.

Criminal neglect of Puerto Rico after the disaster by a known racist New York slumlord. The examples are endless.

It doesn’t matter if they dress up in suits and ties on Fox, or in Congress, or in public office or as party officials. They try to look respectable, but underneath the very thin veneer, they are part of the same gang that includes Epstein, the white males that used to own women, both wives and slaves, etc. This is not a congenial intellectual exercise or ideological debate. It’s a filthy battle between right and wrong.

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The commission, if it happens, won’t have unlimited time or resources. Including red herrings like “antifa” or “BLM involvement” in its remit would dilute the effort, and entrench the false equivalency that Jeannie identified. Work like the commissions has to be scoped carefully to be effective, and you can be certain Republicans know that very, very well.

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Eleven Benghazi hearings... We can leave no rabbit hole uncovered nor unexplored.

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Yeah like the Repugs are so smart.

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They have a lot of experience with using investigations to smear opponents.

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Great summary, Roland. It is definitely more insidious than that. It reeks of one of the RWNJ's favorite debate points, "whataboutism". There are two components to the BLM protest events; those people protesting the killing of black men by police, and those anarchists that want to destroy things for the sake of destruction.

Since the WTO riots in Seattle in 1999, the west coast has had a very strong anarchist presence; we've dealt with them in Lane County, OR as they infiltrated some of the environmental protest groups, and known local anarchists were involved in Eugene's BLM protest that turned violent at the end of May last year. This group has now been lumped in with antifa. In Portland, the Proud Boys have intentionally clashed with loose groups of antifa protesters. It is that element that has been responsible for the violence in the Portland protests last summer; I cannot speak for Seattle, but I suspect that is the case there as well.

Trying to equate the 6 January insurrection incited by the outgoing POTUS with violent opportunists finding a riotous environment is worse than comparing apples and oranges; it goes to comparing bananas to turnips.

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Excellent clarification, thank you Ally.

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Nailed this roland. I might add the hypocritical evangelical bully pulpit preachers also are clearly, on the wrong side of this battle.

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Just another bunch of bigots.

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Good morning Roland, I absolutely agree that the nastiest attacks are towards POC. I agree that we focus laserlike on the women to keep them down. That is how we got the iDJT in the first place. We had a Black president who the racists revolted against and then Hillary who was reviled, raising all of the demons in our white nationalists. Hillary should never have lost, not that she would have been a great President, my point is that we as a nation are deeply racist and misogynistic. We knee jerked and in a Titanic convulsion we sank ourselves into 4 years of tRump. There were myriad reasons for the loss but l believe you have exposed our nation’s biggest problem. The thin veneer of respectability covering our filthy little secrets. We hate women and we hate POC

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Agree completely. The “We” in “We hate women and POC” is the cultural conditioning and nasty habits of the past. That is the enemy. The enemy is tradition, the evil tradition of historic abuse and violence against the people who are not in the favored group (women, POC, native peoples, Asians and other immigrants, 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️, children, have-nots and poor people incl. homeless, et al)

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Underneath the abuse, is the belief that the world is a hierarchy of abusive power, and the only question is where in that hierarchy any particular group and individual will be.

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Yes. Perfectly stated. It's slimy, it's filthy, it's hideous. Whether you are Gaetz-Greene-Boebert, Ailes-O'Reilly-Hannity et al, Weinstein, Epstein, McConnell or McCarthy or any other Repub. politician or official like Cheney the Younger (the spawn of Cheney the Elder), you are part of the problem. Liz Cheney is no hero. Nor is Mitt Romney, nor Kinzinger or Sasse, nor Geo. Will, nor Lincoln Project. Certainly not Raffensperger. They just happen to value the traditions of democracy over the Trump spew. But they still are members of the spew cult of racism and sexism.

Being part of the solution means exiting the paradigm of Power Over (Power Hierarchy). Tradition is the enemy. Slavish adherence to that tradition of abuse, which includes every Republican voter whether they know it or not, puts you in the same gang as the 1800s white men who owned slaves + their wives + their children and, in their mind, were justified in killing the native people they found when they arrived here and stole their property.

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Hi Roland,

You totally get it and now imagine what it’s like.

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Yes such a true comment— we are racists and misogynists and as I’m a woman wtf

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Are you sure Hillary lost because our country is misogynist? She is married to Bill Clinton and historians are going to be very critical of the 90's Clinton administration, what they got done and what they didn't do. Other reasons:

The Dem Nat'l Committee dissed Bernie and his ideas, they thought they didn't need those voters. Blame for Trump's election is far bigger than - we don't want a women president.

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Hey Harry— just go away .

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I also want to add, it is good to see you today! Thinking of you as you walk the path you're on.

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Same here Ally. And a double thumbs up for "bananas to turnips". Gonna use that one.

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You too Ally!

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Roland, you spelled that out quite accurately and clearly.

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What you said. Never mind the man behind the curtain. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. (I don't mean to insult our porcine friends, just a metaphor)

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Lipstick on a pig. Hmm. How about "spray painting a pile of dung"?

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How about respecting pigs.

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Ah yes, the proverbial painted pile of poop.

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Yes pigs are adorable— let not insult them.

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How about, “You can out a tie on a tRumpster”

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Totes Roland--and I hope you are doing as well as you can. It is good to hear from you.

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Thank you so much Linda. I was taking in your love when I went to sleep this morning. You are a sweetie.

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Thank you! Spot On!!!

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You nailed it Roland....

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Hi Cynthia, good to see you 😘

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Hey! I’ve been here, but just listening!

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Ok‼️👌

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Yes insidious and filthier.

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You could write a book on this topic. There is so much evidence and such.

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. . . and fill a library on the history of abuse by people who think their class has power over another class, thank you Joan.

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How do you attack one side(justifiably) and leave the gaggle of war criminals and corporate slave owners on the other completely alone?

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genuinely interested in your answer: why are you here? to convert? to fight? to annoy? you sound like a kid who had 4 older sisters that excelled in everything and you were at home crying about how nobody loved you as much as 'the girls'! Am I right??

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I enjoy Heather's writing, I don't agree with it all the time, but it is good perspective, I posted one comment and got gang raped by a bunch of smurfs. Yes I am a small child, with serious mommy issues, clearly that's discernable from my comment's. Don't forget the Maga hat, diapers and hairy palms. I expressed an opinion that the Jan 6th event was an absolute staged event, and had been blown way out of proportion and the crew had an apoplectic child like temper tantrum, which then elicited a response and escalated from there.

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Yawn.... maybe you should go to somewhere else where you might make some friends.....

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Again I get the faint aroma, faint but unmistakable, the faint aroma of Moscow and GRU. Same exact garbage as our earlier versions of Anatoly the GRU apparatchik. They keep trying a new person. Or at least a new presentation package.

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I think Putin’s aroma is festering all around us. Trump sucked up to him for all those years of his one term. I always figured that Trump wanted his shyscraper in Moscow but mostly he wanted to be a dictator.

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What is up with the Mccarthy like palpable fear and hatred of Russia.

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Is that why you come here? I don't like self congratulatory circle jerks designed to reinforce my point of view, causes ideological atrophy.

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"and got gang raped"

If you equate intolerance and opposition to your comments as something as traumatizing and horrendous as gang rape, then you are a very entitled man. Don't make that mistake again, please.

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Obviously being gang raped by a pack of smurfs was in jest, I apologize to Gargamel as I know this probably triggered him. If it has caused any distress to anyone that has had to deal with any sexual assault, it was a joke, poor taste? Sure I'll admit that, but I'm the opposite of intolerant.

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He’s jus a slimy Russian troll. Ignore him.

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I'm ok with your algae like perception of me, but for God's sake drop the red terror Mccarthyism

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Hey Jack— Heather puts it all together. She frames the events of the day in an amazingly balanced way. Sorry you barely appreciate it.

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I absolutely appreciate it, she's a great writer, because I don't always see the issues from the same viewpoint doesn't make it any less valuable, in fact the opposite is true.

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No Jack she’s an historian and she has created this format.

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No she's not a great writer?

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I’m not sure but I don’t know too many criminals.

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I agree!

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Yes BLM is 100% obfuscation, Blake DOS, will never get their piece of the pie that was stolen from them through identity politics. They deserve their 40 acres and a mule, plus interest, and when and if they get it, they will want security.

Economic reform, is the only way we can reduce crime through reducing the demand for crime, instead of cracking heads, providing stability, and opportunity to families. This entire paradigm of White Fragility, White privilege and irreverent sociology babble, is a shell game. Identity politics and diction restrictions will not end racism. How many necks has Robin D’Angelo removed from the very real knee of systemic racism? Zero

Will breaking up the banks end racism? The same banks that prey on low income communities with high margin products and predatory lending, the same banks that created red lining, has refused black people their share of the American dream for centuries? It will do a whole hell of a lot more than firing tenured professors for using the term reverse racism, or thinking that any merit is inherently racist. This movement is theater, well rehearsed and orchestrated, enjoy the show.

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Are you using reverse sociology babble but with sounds?

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Did you mean "reverse psychology"? Lol!

Your internet behavior is an example of "reverse sociology".

If you want to up your game I can help with my mentoring program but this old dog only takes Bitcoin ;)

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Aaaand the winner is . . . William by a mile!

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Do you know what reverse psychology is? Clearly not as that would make no sense, I was making fun of a string of nonsensical characters, comparing them with the incoherent psycho babble that sociologists use.

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Obviously you don't because you can't even string that together correctly. I am happy to have taught you something today. Maybe tomorrow will be better and folks will take you seriously :)

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Thank you oh wise one, for the brief moment of basking in your devine intellect.

I most like the "obviously you don't", profoundly touching.

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Good, lot's of folks feel that way and while folks do indeed find my intellect quite sexy it is probably you touching yourself with a small bit of humility.

I hope tomorrow goes better and we can all move on a bit more productively. :)

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I'm sorry I'm cracking up over here. This was funny.

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