Where are the 5 words?

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by liberal japonicus

An open thread to allow you to talk about the current political mess(es). CNN posted this article “Kamala Harris has a five-word response to the Comey indictment“, but I’ll be damned if I can find the 5 words, though I suppose it is possible that it is the phrase that begins “are you…” I was kinda wishing she had said “I f**kin’ told you so”.

28 thoughts on “Where are the 5 words?”

  1. We just got the materials for the Special Election November 4. I’m working this one, not just because I usually try to work elections, but because these days it’s an affirmation that elections will happen.

    The only item on the ballot is Proposition 50: AUTHORIZES TEMPORARY CHANGES TO CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT MAPS IN RESPONSE TO TEXAS’ PARTISAN REDISTRICTING. Talk about brutally honest proposition titles! (Something that has not been universal here, in my observation). The ads are already starting to run. On one side, Governor Newsom talking about defending democracy from Trump. On the other, arguments for preserving the nonpartisan redistricting that we established, for excellent reasons, back in 2010. Perhaps I am a bit biased, but I note that this doesn’t abolish the Redistricting Commission, just allows a one-time redistricting outside the usual process. The Con ads (deliberately) make it sound like a permanent change.

    I am personally strongly in favor of our nonpartisan approach. In fact, at one point I applied to be on tthe commission. But, “circumstances alter cases.” I suspect that the economy will be sufficiently trashed by 2026 that the Democrats end up with a majority in the House regardless of Republican efforts elsewhere. Especially as some of the hardest hit places are already being deep red rural areas. But I’m also in belt-and-suspenders mode these days.

  2. Good on you, wj. Every further development (e.g. Comey’s indictment, and the firing of anyone who tries to support the rule of law, see below) supports the conclusion that neither election to the house nor the senate can continue to be gerrymandered so as to give the Rs, and therefore Ubu, an ironclad control of American politics and the unfettered ability to continue to subvert the constitution.

    Last week, Mr. Trump fired a U.S. attorney in Virginia who determined there was insufficient evidence to indict James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, and Letitia James, the New York State attorney general, both political targets of the president. The Virginia prosecutor was replaced by a Trump loyalist who convinced a federal grand jury on Thursday to indict Mr. Comey on two counts.

    Documents reviewed by The New York Times show that the July 15 firing of Ms. Beckwith occurred less than six hours after she told Mr. Bovino, the Border Patrol chief in charge of the Southern California raids, that a court order prevented him from arresting people without probable cause in a vast expanse that stretches from the Oregon border to Bakersfield. She was removed not only from her post as acting U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of California, but from the office altogether.

  3. One thing is for sure, no matter what the results of the next election: His Orangeness will cry fraud and try to overturn those parts he does not like. Iirc he already tries to persuade courts to forbid gerrymandering in blue states while allowing it in red ones. His campaign to have voting by mail declared illegal will also play a part (even if the courts do not agree).

  4. My son asked me at the weekend what this “Birthright Citizenship” case is about.

    It’s been my parenting practice to answer controversial questions as neutrally as possible. But the facts in this case are not neutral. And he’s a grown-up now.

    “Well,” I explained, “the text of the 14th amendment says, with no ambiguity whatever, that anyone born in the US while not enjoying diplomatic protection becomes a citizen. Trump doesn’t like that, because sometimes foreigners have children. The Supreme Court gets to rule on what the Constitution means. In this case the meaning is clear, but on the other hand the far right on the Court. which is two-thirds of them, likes to give Trump whatever he wants, so who knows what they’ll do.”

    “That’s ridiculous,” said he.

    “Alas,” said I, “being ridiculous doesn’t stop it happening. In the last week or so, and off the top of my head, Trump has done the following:

    – used regulatory powers to bully a major television network into suspending a comedian indefinitely, because he made fun of Trump’s obsession with building a White House ballroom.
    – claimed $15bn in damages from the New York Times because they published a true account of Trump’s bawdy birthday wishes to Epstein written twenty something years ago. But the 85-page lawsuit was mostly Trump boasting about how great he thinks he is, and contained no clear account of damage suffered, so the judge rejected it.
    – made an incoherent speech to the UN complaining that its escalator didn’t work properly, denying global warming, and saying that he could run every other country better than its current government. The assembled ambassadors seemed not to agree.
    – held a press conference to proclaim an utterly absurd theory that acetaminophen, which he can’t pronounce, causes autism, throwing in further nonsense about the purported importance of giving infants more vaccine injections rather than fewer.
    – had James Comey, formerly director of the FBI, indicted for perjury. The case is so weak that he couldn’t find anyone in the DoJ willing to bring the charges, and had to appoint a lawyer with no experience as a prosecutor to do it.
    – announced on social media that he’s sending troops into Portland, Oregon, which he described as “war-ravaged”. The city itself, which filmed reports show as boringly peaceful, doesn’t want them.
    – fired, or attempted to fire, Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board, in defiance of the letter and spirit of the Federal Reserve Act, which says he can’t do it (this one is going to the Supreme Court also, so again who knows what will happen).
    – boasted that he’s brought about peace between ‘Aberbaijan’ and Albania, and also between Armenia and Cambodia.

    I thought it worth listing these things (there may be others just as bad I left out) because we’re becoming numb to the extent of Trump’s abuse of power, and the stupidity and ignorance he brings to it. It’s incomprehensible to the rest of the world that the Republican Party is content to go along with it.

  5. – announced on social media that he’s sending troops into Portland, Oregon, which he described as “war-ravaged”. The city itself, which filmed reports show as boringly peaceful, doesn’t want them.

    Boringly peaceful by day, while Antifa and other activists are home sleeping off the night before.

  6. Pro Bono: the war between Armenia and Cambodia was a particular worry. And that was before he told hundreds of generals today that their troops would soon be carrying out an “internal war” in Chicago, San Francisco, LA (and I think also NYC), using those cities as “training grounds”. How can the Nobel Peace Prize be far off?

  7. I propose the Dynamit Nobel Piece Prize consisting of a gilded bottle of nitroglycerine and a bundle of dynamite sticks ornated with Swarovski crystals in a carrying bag woven from gun cotton with a printed inscription in garish lettering about “booming again with bursting energy”. [Of course it will not actually contain chemical explosives]

  8. CharlesWT trolls by day, presumably because he’s busy thinking serious Libertarian(TM) thoughts at night. Thoughts like Antifa(TM) Headquarters being a hotbed of “activists” dedicated to overthrowing the Libertarian(TM) and other pro-fascist parties.

    Or maybe CharlesWT has inside dope (and I use the word advisedly) that Portland is in fact a violent hellscape at night. If I could be sure of that I might turn pro-fascist myself. Not libertarian, though; that would be a bit too much.

    –TP

  10. Tony, I think you missed the heavy dose of sarcasm in Charles’ comment

    Perhaps. But Antifa and others have been congregating in front of the ICE facility every night for more than three months, making the lives of everyone living near the facility difficult.

    Here’s one of several people who post videos of activities at and near the facility.

    C.K. Bouferrache aka Honeybadgermom

  11. On making life difficult. There are a couple of low-rise apartment buildings on the block adjacent to the facility. I know I wouldn’t want to listen to bullhorns and boomboxes all night long while trying to sleep.

    Katie Daviscourt

  14. In some old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon, a colonel rushes into the general’s office and reports “Sir! Sir! Our anti-anti-missile missile just shots itself down, sir!” I am reminded of that whenever some anti-anti-fascist talk pops up.

    Of course “Antifa”(TM) is a brand name like “X” or “Truth Social” — not a descriptor. It’s much less … risible? contemptible? … to be anti-Antifa(TM) than to be anti-anti-fascist, especially if you are Libertarian(TM) or just plain pro-liberty.

    I understand the motivation behind the sentiment that protest must never inconvenience anybody. It’s one way to make sure that protest goes unnoticed, so that those who support the status quo can feel righteous. Any protest that’s loud or annoying is tantamount to war, right?

    –TP

  15. CharlesWT – C.K. Bouferrache aka Honeybadgermom is very concerned with ANTIFA, Satan, Drag Queens, Christian Oppression in the US, and the poor treatment of the J6 Prisoners.

    I get that you aren’t endorsing her, just looking at a few of her videos as evidence for ANTIFA presence in Portland, but I have a real hard time trusting her representation of anything given her Q-Anon obsessions and raving.

    And in pretty much all of those, what I see is a small group of people being disruptive and annoying. I wouldn’t want them as neighbors, but it’s not the sort of thing we need the military to come in and deal with. It’s not a war zone. It’s just assholes with a cause being provoked by assholes with unconstitutional police powers.

  17. At times, there have been several hundred protestors at the ICE facility.

    People have a right to protest. But they don’t have the right to make other people’s lives unlivable, assault people, or destroy property.

  18. At times, there have been several hundred protestors at the ICE facility.

    And out of those, it’s probably this same group of assholes and a dozen of their friends in visiting from somewhere else that are responsible for the water bottles and milkshakes. It’s not a war zone. It’s not an occupying force. It’s not much more of a nuisance that people face when they live next to a live music venue or a biker bar. And it would be less of a nuisance if it weren’t for the illegal actions of the current administration wanting to prove they are hard men.

    People have a right to protest. But they don’t have the right to make other people’s lives unlivable, assault people, or destroy property.

    All reasons why cities have laws, ordinances, and police forces. None of them have asked for ICE to step in. None of them need rescuing. All of them wish ICE and the Guard would GTFO so that the assholes would go home again.

    I’ve known assholes like these. They get bored easily. They will go away if the feds dial back the authoritarian showboating. it will make Warrior Pete sad, but he’ll still have tequila to comfort himself.

  20. At times, there have been several hundred protestors at the ICE facility.

    Looked like about five in the video.

  21. Also, too: honey badger mom hates antifa, but loves her some Ethan Nordean.

    So her concern does not appear to be violence and public disruption per se.

  24. Here’s some local media reporting of the situation:

    https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2025/09/tracking-the-rise-and-fall-of-portland-ice-protests-key-developments-as-trump-troops-arrive-soon.html

    It does note the breaking of one door at the ICE facility back in June, but also:

    July 25: Assistant Chief Craig Dobson says that federal officers are “actually instigating and causing some of the ruckus that’s occurring down there” during testimony for a lawsuit seeking to compel officers to enforce noise rules at the ICE protests.

    …and:

    Sept. 4: Fox News airs a long report about the Labor Day protest at ICE. Mixed in misleadingly are clips from 2020 protests, showing chaotic scenes outside the downtown federal courthouse and near an elk statue.

    Whatever the case, it doesn’t look to me like there is any reason to send in the Guard when the situation is neither dangerous nor volatile. It’s noisy sometimes, and people occasionally cause a bit of property damage. It seems like the people causing the damage are being stopped and arrested.

    News of widespread violent unrest and lawlessness looks to me to be a right wing media PSYOP.

  25. What a fascinating exercise this has been. Congrats to nous and lj in particular, although I had no idea who Ethan Nordean was, so thanks to russell for that. So, Charles, is it the Libertarian (or your) position that sending in federal troops, contrary to the wishes of the state authorities, to deal with what respectable news sources show to be an annoying, smallish protest, is the right (or even acceptable) thing to do?

  26. What I look for in comments or concerns about antifa is some sense of balance.

    First, “antifa” and the related term “radical left” have become so vague as to be almost meaningless. There are people who self-identify as antifa, and who will fight – physically fight – people who they consider fascist. Less commonly, they will engage in acts of vandalism, most often toward state property – cop cars, ICE facilities. Most of what they do is not directly violent, although it can be harmful to people they consider fascist – doxing, outing them to employers so they get fired. A lot of their work is tracking the actions of people they consider fascist, many of whom are themselves violent.

    There are also folks who are basically anti-capitalist anarchists. They are less commonly involved in fighting and more commonly involved in acts of vandalism and sabotage, often directed at financial institutions. See also the WTO protests of 1999 in Seattle.

    And there is also a general rabble of randos who are attracted to public disruption of whatever type. It’s often not clear what their goals are, or if they have any, other than being publicly loud and disruptive. Some people just like riots.

    All of these folks get labelled “antifa” but they’re a sort of overlapping Venn diagram of communities with perhaps related, but distinct, goals.

    Real, honest-to-god antifa folks are not that common, and are really focused specifically on f***ing with fascists. Everybody who shows up at a protest wearing black with “big A” armbands and a balaclava are not antifa. A lot of them are just young kids cosplaying some kind of stick-it-to-the-man drama.

    We all go through our phases in life.

    The randos are probably the most generally dangerous of the above, because their actions are often not focused. They are the looters, folks who set fire to stuff just to watch it burn, folks who smash windows just because they can.

    The black bloc folks generally don’t want to physically fight anyone, they mostly want to do expensive damage to big corporations. I don’t see them around so much anymore.

    The real antifa folks will definiely engage in physical fights. Mostly with obvious hard-core right wingers, who themselves like fighting. Sometimes with folks more on the periphery of the hard-core right wing – supporters, etc. They also often bring trauma medical skills, which have been helpful to folks, and not just to antifa folks. During the Charlottesville “Unite the right” mess they provided a buffer between extremely violent right-wing actors and non-violent counter-protestors, likely sparing them a lot of harm and even saving some lives. A service the police on the scene were unable or unwilling to provide.

    FWIW, I do not support or endorse any of the above. I think the occasions when violent action are justified are very, very rare. Occasions when they are constructive, even rarer. I suppose things here could get to the point where some kind of organized forceful resistance would be appropriate, but I do not believe we are there yet, and hope we do not get there. And the violent actions of the broad spectrum of folks referred to as “antifa” only play into the violent fantasies and actions of their counterparties on the right.

    On the other side of the fence, we have groups like the Proud Boys and the Three Percenters and the Oathkeepers, who among other things have organized the January 6 violent insurrection attempting to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power. They are part of a broader movement that includes the patchwork of militias, self-appointed homegrown private armies who regularly threaten the rest of us with deadly force. And often go beyond threats.

    And now we have Trump’s ICE agents, who come into peaceful communities wearing full military kit and violently kidnap anyone they care to with no regard for the law or due process.

    So there’s all of that.

    I’m sorry that some folks in Portland are kept awake at night by black-clad youngsters with bullhorns. I’m also sorry for the folks who have been shot in the face by “less than lethal” ordinance. And I’m sorry for the people who have been kidnapped while going about their daily lives – mowing somebody’s lawn, taking their kids to school, going to appointments to fulfill the requirements of trying to immigrate “the right way”.

    I’m sorry for the people who have been assaulted while engaging in legal peaceful protest. I’m sorry for the people who have been murdered while attending services at synagogues and liberal christian churches. I’m sorry for the people who have been, and continue to be, assaulted or murdered for being brown, Muslim, gay, trans, or whatever other thing is today’s conservative bete noire.

    I’m sorry for the kid who was killed by cops for being black while holding a toy pistol in a playground. And for the guy who was killed by cops for holding an air gun in a Walmart.

    There is a lot to grieve. A lot to be sorry about. This is a violent country, there is no getting around it, and it gets worse when things get tense.

    I hope you will forgive me if I just can’t get that outraged by somebody yelling at ICE all night in Portland, even if it keeps the neighbors awake. It would piss me off, too, if it was in my neighborhood, but there are things that piss me off a hell of a lot more.

    Let’s look at the bigger picture, please.

  27. Let me add +1 to russell’s list of black bloc types – RW accelerationists wanting to turn up the temperature and provoke things like the Guard call-up.

    No, I don’t think that any of them are in the antifa camp in Portland. The people in the camp are either real antifa types, or are undercover feds (again, I think not, but that has been the case with the RW militias, so I leave open that possibility). The antifa folks would not take kindly to finding a Boogaloo Boy in their midst.

    But, for example, in Minneapolis after George Floyd there were RW militia kids who were caught driving in from WI to loot and burn and try to provoke a violent response from the authorities.

    If I see a single person in black with a mask wearing visible antifa markers, I automatically assume that they are false flag assholes. The usually get chased off by the activist leaders, but they hang around just far enough away to provoke.

  28. While “antifa” is annoying the neighbors in Portland, the feds are doing this.

    I look forward to the expressions of libertarian outrage about the abuse and overreach of government power.

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