quote:

Originally posted by 83v45magna:
The new gun owners are from all walks, I'm certain of that.

Retired now - and for fun a p/t gun-counter jockey and I agree with this. I've seen all kinds. Complete beginners consider they may need to protect themselves for the first time. Regular sportsmen/customers and Conservatives now buy their first AR, or perhaps a carry gun, or second gun for the family. Here, these are the MOST likely to buy ammo in big quantities. Recently had a regular turn into Karen over Covid. It's as if huge aliens have shaken our planet like a snow globe (like in the Far Side cartoon), proportionately everyone is stirred up with a new need.

Quite a variety of nuanced reasons, I just want the beginners to learn "what not to do" and with great haste.

Turn your motorcycle into a scrap pile of rubble in 30 seconds or less.


Pickup speeds thru Antifa PDX riot blockade - sparks flying from motorbike dragged under the car


https://youtu.be/Guswh9i6_O8

That is great. That little prick will think twice before trying that stunt again. Too bad he wasn't on the bike when he tried to block that truck!

Rocket scientists all.It's a compilation of dumb and dumber movie clips. They have had little to no push back until now. They will find that we are not going to let this happen at OUR house and neighborhoods.

quote:

Originally posted by Excam_Man:
Turn your motorcycle into a scrap pile of rubble in 30 seconds or less.


Pickup speeds thru Antifa PDX riot blockade - sparks flying from motorbike dragged under the car.

The pickup truck took off when someone stabbed his left rear tire.
You can hear the tire flatten in the posted video.

Domestic terrorism: Violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.


I have no idea why these little fucks have not been classified as and charged with "Domestic Terrorism".
They sure do fit the bill.
As I stated before, they have no fear of going to jail. Prison is a different animal... Fed Prison isn't a Country Club when you hit "maximum security", from what I've been told, life pretty much sucks at that level.

From Fox:

"Gun sales for the first seven months of 2020 have surpassed the number of firearms sold in 2019"


https://www.foxbusiness.com/li...total-research-shows

More information on the “Back the Blue” rally in Berthoud, Colorado that ANTIFA-types attempted to disrupt. Larimer County Sheriff, Justin Smith anticipated trouble and was prepared for it.

quote:

Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said his office appreciates the support and they will protect peaceful protesters.

“In America, every citizen has the right to not only have an opinion, but just as importantly, to express that opinion without fear of reprisal,” Sheriff Smith wrote on Facebook on Friday.

“After witnessing the violent attacks on citizens who want to publicly demonstrate their support for their police officers, we have to prepare for the possibility of similar acts of violence here,” Smith stated. “We hope those preparations will prove unneeded, but the nature of our business is to prepare for things we hope don’t occur.”

“As a thirty year resident of Larimer County, I don’t believe the violence that we witnessed in place like Denver, Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis or Portland would be embraced or tolerated by citizens of our communities,” he stated.

Back the Blue Rally

quote:

Originally posted by Excam_Man:


Pickup speeds thru Antifa PDX riot blockade - sparks flying from motorbike dragged under the car

Too bad that wasn't fillings sparking.

quote:

Originally posted by DrDan:
Veeper, point 3)Here is where the real value that all of us can play. We must find common ground with other decent folks. We ned to recognize that, even though we may have political differences of opinion that leads of to be Republicans or Democrats, there is still common ground for us to agree upon and work from. I believe the majority of Democrats are appalled by the violence they are seeing, even if they initially supported protests in the wake of Floyd. I have talked to a number of Democrats, and they are very uncomfortable with what they see happening. It is important not to try to get them to see that they are "wrong." Better to build common ground, and discuss how to move forward to bring law and order back to our society. They want a stable economy with growing opportunities, and they understand that can't happen wit hte protests. The time to argue about our traditional differences is later, after we have defeated the insurgency.

I think overcoming the polarization, mutual demonization and demands to have it 100 percent I noted earlier is key. The great strength of democratic systems is that they can adapt to societal change, integrate dissenting movements, find a new consensus, and continue to exist on the same basis. Most of Western Europe went through a period of mass protests, terrorism and street violence by sympathizers in the 70s/80s, but overcame it. OTOH, when authoritarian systems are faced with farspread popular protest, they can either call in the tanks (East Berlin 1953, Beijing 1989, Syria 2011) or fall (everyone in Eastern Europe 1989, everyone in North Africa 2011).

Locally speaking, after WW II the West German system integrated (necessarily, because large parts of the population weren't going to just vanish) first lots of former Nazis, then the leftist protesters of the 60s contending that the state was run by all those old Nazis, and is now in the process of integrating the modern right-wing protesters complaining that the state is run by all those old leftists. The process is the same as in the previous generation: popular discontent about established politics, public protests, new social movements, new parties, some change in politics, confronting the radicals, joining the establishment. Meanwhile the former GDR is still defunct because a critical mass of its citizens protested peacefully over the span of a couple months.

In the global contest between democratic and authoritarian systems, the latter would love the former to descend to their binary level of capability to resolve ideological conflict. Which is why they are pushing internal divisions in the West, much more effectively now in the internet era than back during the Cold War. They rarely support a particular camp rather than playing both sides. During the first BLM protests, Russian bots and trolls were active on either side of the political divide to further polarization. And contrary to the common claim that "the Russians hacked the election for Trump", the conventional wisdom in the circles who monitor information warfare is that they expected Hillary to win, and were going for the presidency of a known quantity, but under a cloud of suspicion over the legitimacy of her election, fanned by their own contributions.

In the event, they happily went with the reverse outcome, too, as long as US society is split down the middle and fighting each other to the hilt. Ironically it took 30 years after the the end of the Cold War and the mostly American invention of the internet for them to succeed in their aim of making Americans distrust their own government and intelligence services even when your own party is in power, and denouncing global US engagement and the American-designed post-WW II order, even the basics of capitalism - now by large parts of both camps, just under new buzzwords, like "globalism" instead of "imperialism". Recognizing how you're getting played by both domestic and foreign actors for copy, clicks, financial and ulterior political motives would be the first step in breaking the cycle of polarization. Though the other extreme can also be detrimental; see below.

quote:

Originally posted by icom706:
For me it's highly personal, having seen it all before in 1980 and 1984 - especially 1984.

The internet is perhaps a partial cause. But, the political divisions have always been there in the US. But with 3 TV networks and the Fairness Rule, the news was steered to the left and the right kept in check or the dark. Remember, the Democrats controlled the US congress from 1956 to 1994 (The Republicans had the US Senate in 1982-1984). Granted the Democrats back then had more 'conservatives' in it too, but...

FOX news and the rise of Conservative Talk Radio on the AM radio band changed it more than the internet, in the very late '80s and very early '90 before the internet. Finally, a lot of conservative people in the US were hearing things they thought but figured were all alone at thinking.

[...]

What I have seen in Portland, mirrors my experiences in West Berlin 1980 and 1984. Especially 1984 - where the Leftist West Berlin government let their Bolshevik rioters, riot for 3 days, before being forced to unleash the riot police, which resulted in the Rot/Gruen coalition partners to riot in government and resign their posts in protest. Again I still believe the riot police was only unleashed after the American Military governor of West-Berlin made a call to the Burgermeister Meisterburger.

[...]

But today, after the occupation ended, they have what 6-8 political parties? It's nuts. When Merkel stated she would work with the SPD (3rd place) instead of the ADF which was in 2nd place, it just made me mad as hell.

[...]

Good point about the change in conventional electronic media. The emergence of Fox News certainly ended the illusion about neutral media as a whole.

I think your recollection about 1984 Berlin is off, though. That year conservative lord mayor Richard von Weizsäcker became West German president, and was suceeded by his co-partisan Eberhardt Diepgen in the same coalition with the classical liberal FDP; no leftists in the city and state government. All through the 80s there were regular major clashes between police and the radical left scene over dilapidated houses occupied by the latter, at the traditional May Day protests, and at any other possible opportunity. However, SPD, Greens and the Left Party have been in government continuously in various combinations since 2001.

Germane to the topic, street violence has subsided over the last years with the changes since reunification. Many occupations of buildings have been regularized with conventional renting agreements, most of the rest cleared. Even the May Day riots have ebbed, in part by the city organizing public festivities for families in former hotspots like Kreuzberg, denying the radical left their traditional venues for protest. Most of all the inner city is rapidly gentrifying, with economically risen old leftists and hipsters moving to the "colorful" boroughs for the alternate flair - then promptly destroying said flair by pricing out the original population, demanding quiet nights and complaining about street crime. In a way, the old revolutionaries are eating their children.

SPD and AfD were actually in second and third place respectively after the last national election. Merkel's CDU/CSU going with the AfD wouldn't have yielded a majority in parliament and was never the question. Original coalition talks were about a three-way-alliance with FDP and Greens. Eventually the FDP pulled the plug, somewhat to the relief of the other two, who weren't quite ready to overcome the long divide between them yet - but to the dismay of people like me who had voted FDP to get a classical liberal power back into government.

I sorta understood the reasoning of their head Christian Lindner that they didn't want to look power-hungry and accepting anything after being punished for their lack of profile in the previous conservative-liberal coalition and dropping out of the Bundestag in 2013; but the result was a continuation of the grand coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD, which tends to create uniparty tendencies between the two traditional main antagonists and empower the political fringes. So yeah, multi-party systems and too much consensus have their disadvantages, too. There needs to be healthy ideological competition, because you can smother democracy through too much agreement and fracture it through balkanization just as well as you can tear it apart through too much polarization.

https://www.breitbart.com/poli...ood-for-our-country/

Corporate interests have donated over a billion dollars [to] Black Lives Matter in response to the George Floyd protests that occurred in the summer, despite their radical agenda. Major League sports have also rallied to their cause, as the majority of coaches and athletes are now kneeling during the national anthem in protest.

President Trump:

“All of a sudden this has taken on this air of great respectability,” "It’s a Marxist group that is not looking at good things for this country.”

"I think it’s disgraceful,” Trump said. “It’s not acceptable to me. When I see them kneeling, I just turn off the game.”

“We have to stand up for our flag we have to stand up for our country, we have to stand up for our anthem,” Trump said. “And a lot of people agree with me — hey if I ‘m wrong, I ‘m going to lose an election OK and that’s OK with me — but I will always stand for our country and our flag.”

xxxxxxxx

a billion dollars to BLM. Corporate cowards buying "protection" from punks and radicals. Makes me sick

The corporations at least some if not most know who and what they are donating to. How many of these corps we view as American corporations are owned by the Chinese? Sure some are just falling all over themselves to virtue signal and this is the category pro sports falls into. They are afraid if they don't somehow recognize social justice they will lose viewership and vice versa. They know this. They have fallen into the media trap that it looks like a vast majority of people are protesting and lining up behind BLM when in fact it's a small minority.

i think it's a very sad thing what has happened to pro sports in America. It was at one time a large part of the American fabric. Uniquely American. It brought family and friends together on Sundays. Families going to the ball park and enjoying a game. The national Anthem was played and thousands of people in attendance would stand in unison and sing.
Limbaugh spoke about this years back how American sports is going to become a leftist target because it was so uniquely American. How right he was.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
Corporate cowards buying "protection" from punks and radicals.

This is what their protection money gets them.

quote:

This is what their protection money gets them.

Yeah... they start out "woke" because they don't want to be targeted by the mob. But then the mob wants "protection money". In the end, you can't satisfy the mob so you shouldn't give in to them.
All giving in accomplishes is the erosion of law and order.

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Just figured I’d share something I found while trying to get updates on my Spartan Armor lead time. I stumbled across a socialist reddit group with over 60k members. Hours of enjoyable reading that shows how far these commies have their heads up their asses. This particular commie is upset about Spartan Armor’s support for the police. Interesting to see that the commies are buying armor though. They also call each other “comrade” while discussing their grand ideas. Know thy enemy I guess...

The other is screen shots from the NAAGA Facebook group.

SSR= Socialist Rifle Association

https://www.reddit.com/r/SocialistRA/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Socia...mediate_refund_from/

I use Reddit a lot. I've had numerous run ins with the "people" in /r/SocialistRA. They're just a bunch of wannabe terrorists.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: parabellum,

The big tech corporations want socialism.

Universal national health care will alleviate them from providing health insurance for their employees. A takeover of 401K and IRA plans by the government to "manage" our investments for us and "guaranty" a "reasonable" return will alleviate corporations of having to provide any retirement benefits. Free college will reduce student debt and allow them to pay lower salaries while providing the same disposable income. Illegal, and excess legal immigration of unskilled workers drives down the cost of labor. Excess H1B's allow them to pay lower professional salaries as well.

And financially supporting a race war draws attention away from the real issue. The richest people in history are at the top of these huge tech companies. They have supported and taken advantage of the government policies and regulations that sent all of their manufacturing to low cost countries, resulting in a two-class system of low paid service workers and highly paid professionals, with an ever-shrinking middle class.

Now that Elon Musk's Tesla has become a REAL auto manufacturer he is pushing back on the leftist agenda that cripples industry and moving to freer states.

The Democrats who have always claimed to be the party of the worker and the "little guy" are now the party of the extremely wealthy, and conspiring in the race war to keep themselves in power, while impoverishing enough Americans to get their votes for giving them "free stuff" instead of fostering real job growth. The Republicans have been complicit with a lot of this too.

Trump is the only person in decades to stand up and call things out for what they are and actually do something about the real issue. That is why he has to be removed at all costs. And that's why the media has been relentless with the racist and white supremacist narrative - because it plays up emotion better better than economics does.

quote:

Universal national health care will alleviate them from providing health insurance for their employees. A takeover of 401K and IRA plans by the government to "manage" our investments for us and "guaranty" a "reasonable" return will alleviate corporations of having to provide any retirement benefits. Free college will reduce student debt and allow them to pay lower salaries while providing the same disposable income. Illegal, and excess legal immigration of unskilled workers drives down the cost of labor. Excess H1B's allow them to pay lower professional salaries as well.

Are you a business owner? If you are, you're literally the first one I've "met" who thinks this will save your company money.

While I don't pretend to understand why these liberals vote for what they do, I don't think it is at all because they think it will save their businesses money.

Also, my recent college grads are my cheapest employees. College debt being present or not makes zero difference on what they get paid.

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:
The Democrats who have always claimed to be the party of the worker and the "little guy" are now the party of the extremely wealthy, and conspiring in the race war to keep themselves in power, while impoverishing enough Americans to get their votes for giving them "free stuff" instead of fostering real job growth. The Republicans have been complicit with a lot of this too.

You're not wrong, however the change with the Dems was during '92 POTUS campaign, when Clinton and his cabal openly tried to frame themselves as Kennedy-types: openly courting wealthy urban power-brokers, celebrities and academics into their inner-circle. Once in office, blue-collar workers, union members, farmers and various entry-level industries who were already hurting through the 70's, were officially left-out, as NAFTA was signed into law, and the party that claimed to represent the 'working man' for most of the 20th century, seized to exist as people knew of it.

As you rightly point-out, GOP is just as complicit however the Dems failed to be the counter-weight that we expect in our political system. Instead, they've decided to advocate for a completely different political system altogether.

My personal feeling is that we need to crush this abuse of power or failure to follow the law and find who is responsible for inception.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
https://www.breitbart.com/poli...ood-for-our-country/

Corporate interests have donated over a billion dollars [to] Black Lives Matter in response to the George Floyd protests that occurred in the summer, despite their radical agenda. Major League sports have also rallied to their cause, as the majority of coaches and athletes are now kneeling during the national anthem in protest.

...

a billion dollars to BLM. Corporate cowards buying "protection" from punks and radicals. Makes me sick

GOOD!
Play the game too!
Your business got destroyed during the blm riots?
You prove that people connected to blm destroyed your business?

Sue!

I’ll happily take money from their cause to rebuild what THEY destroyed.


IIRC, officers in Dallas PD sued the blm after they were injured in a shooting connected to the riots a few years back.

Here’s one link- Father of a murdered DPD Officer filed.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ne...-lawsuit-blm/506939/