Videographers captured clashes between Proud Boys and Black Lives Matter activists in Salem, Oregon on Monday. A caravan of Proud Boys arrived in the capitol for an American Lives Matter rally and march. Police arrested two.
Things are getting weird, at least in the Pacific Northwest.
Daily Beast reports that the recently formed “Democracy Defense Nerve Center” is holding Zoom calls with progressive groups for planning out what might happen in the aftermath of November 3:
Over the course of two hours, participants broached the question of what the progressive political ecosystem can functionally do in a series of election scenarios. They began charting out what it would take to stand up a multi-state communications arm to fight disinformation, a training program for nonviolent civil disobedience, and the underpinnings of what one official described as “mass public unrest.” And they pored over a report from the Transition Integrity Project, a bipartisan group formed in 2019, that analyzed various election season scenarios and made clear the type of ratfuckery, corruption, and chaos that potentially was ahead.
“The potential for violent conflict is high,” the report noted.
Some of the hurdles were straightforward: how you “occupy shit, hold space, and shut things down, not just on Election Day but for weeks,” explained one source familiar with the Democracy Defense Nerve Center operations. Others are more complicated, like what quick transportation options can be in place should poll locations mysteriously close. Others have been simply impossible to plan out.
“I don’t know what the strategy is when armed right-wing militia dudes show up in polling places,” the same source said. “This [Kyle] Rittenhouse guy is being lionized on the right, right now. If it is being unleashed that you can shoot people and be a hero, I don’t know what preparation we can possibly do for that.”
The expression “gird your loins” comes to mind.
I never gave much thought to what it actually means. Dictionary.com explains the “expression comes from the Bible (Proverbs 31:17) and originally alluded to tucking up the traditional long robe into a girdle (that is, a belt) so it will not hamper physical activity,” i.e., fighting. Thus the inspiration for pants, says this handy how-to video.
Update: A portion of the original post has been removed by request.
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