I am here around Delta Park. The Proud Boy numbers are hard to ascertain, because they are hanging out in groups. Guess would be 300. Definitely not thousands, at least not yet.
Here is the largest group I can see here. They seem to be guarding a mound of sand. I hear chants of "fuck antifa". Not very loud.
Very nice antihate signs are posted at the entrance
This is most or all of them, I think. Numbers estimate still circa 300.
Better idea of the numbers here. Definitely not a huge crowd.
Militia dudes with armor and ARs run checkpoints on the outskirts of the field.
The Proud Boys have acquired a large flag.
At least one Proud Boy has acquired a Qanon Taser Shield.
The very kind people at LoveTalks.baby are set up between the park and the houseless encampment. They are the ones who set up the antihate signs.
The American Wolf stretch limo has arrived. They are followed by a Kia filled with armed men.
American Wolf are a fascist street gang from Olympia. They raised tens of thousands of dollars for Kyle Rittenhouse.
David Willis and friends stalk, threaten press.
A livestreamer and two folks labeled as medics approach the gathering. They are confronted and declared antifa.
"I am violent" one man tells @johntheLefty and then threatens to crack his skull with a bat.
Several Proud Boys assault press. Others attempt to deescalate.
John and Proud Boys argue about the assault. One tells him he can't judge a whole group by the actions of one person. Interesting logic for a Proud Boy.
The crowd chants "Black Lives Matter".
I have moved to Peninsula Park, as the Proud Boys seem to be leaving.
The crowd here is very large, 3-5 times the size of the Proud Boy rally
Part of a speech, thanking protesters for showing up for more than 100 nights.
The Antifa Llama has arrived. A five year old girl immediately hugs it.
I am at Irving Park now. The BLM gathering is very scattered but probably 100-200. Not wildly different size than the PB gathering.
A very neat art installation here at Irving Park.
The art is affiliated with the basic income march.
The BLM car caravan. I would guess a couple hundred vehicles.
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this is the only way to beat Republicans. you don't try to understand them. You don't try to compromise. You stick your fucking thumbs in their eyes and fuck the bloody hole. that's what they'll do to you. That's what you do to them.
I was raised by these people and let me tell you they will burn this world to the ground for a tax cut and the feeling that they're "winning". you do them a favor by fighting them. they need to lose. the ones who aren't totally gone know this, somewhere, deep inside. beat them .
conservative politics exploits a deep brokenness in our brains. something that went wrong when we started living in cities and civilization got bigger than some of us were ready for. the only way to save these people is to beat them so badly they stop fucking trying
This is out side the MLK Community Center. Like twenty or thirty minutes away from the Convention itself. Unclear why Columbus PD guys in town for the convention were this far away from venue
We are here. No media when we first arrived. Some now. Capitol Police and Homeland Security were here when we arrived but seem to be leaving now. Likely bc not directly related to the RNC.
so I hear three shots fairly close together here that I am guessing is the shooter than a bunch of shots that are probably the cops taking him down. my guess would be shooter had a semi auto handgun but it could've been some garage built shit, hard to say rn
it doesn't sound like a rifle, and my guess would be shooter was not terribly far. so how did they get a firearm into the venue? there are a shitload of cops at these events, not impossible one of them might've done this. or the worst secret service fuck up in decades
I can already see people yelling "staged" motherfuckers, there is not a marksman on earth Trump would trust to SHOOT HIM IN THE EAR
the guy who self immolated outside Trump's courtroom expressed a lot of normal conspiracy stuff: predictive programming, the secret masters of the world hide sinister plots in plain site using TV and music
he is also obsessed with scams, and not irrationally so
he considers cryptocurrency as a global ponzi scheme by the elite to destroy civilization. my guess is he lost money in a big way. he is correct that a number of major industrial leaders- Musk and Thiel- are advocates of massive crypto cons, ponzi schemes
where he errs is in tying this to, well, just about every other ill in society, and nonsense like that the band Devo is a secret message from the rulers of the world about Devolution.
The core of his obsession though is in a very real problem: this country is run by scammers
at the moment we are looking at a run on the chief bank for rich gamblers. but banks in the EU and other parts of the US are already down tens of billions in cumulative trades due to the panic
Depending on how it shakes out this could cause rather severe knock on effects
experts I'm reading say for various reasons this is likely to be much less shattering than 2008, but if SBV goes under we can expect the resulting chaos will certainly dominate the news cycle for a while.