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.
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?
I suppose because of the Japanese cars that hit the US market at about the time I reached the car buying stage.
My first car was a used 1969 Toyota Corolla. My second car was a 1979 Datsun 300ZX (pre corporate name change to Nissan). The improvement in build quality over that ten years should have absolutely terrified Detroit.
I was in college in the early 1970s when Japanese brands became serious contenders in high-end audio equipment.
Consumer video recording put an end to the belief that while Japanese companies could copy American and European engineering, they couldn't innovate.
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.
This video does a good survey of the Portland situation. It has criticisms for both sides. It shows the ICE facility having, at times, many more than five protestors.
"Outside a train station near Tokyo, hundreds of people cheer as Sohei Kamiya, head of the surging nationalist party Sanseito, criticizes Japan’s rapidly growing foreign population.
As opponents, separated by uniformed police and bodyguards, accuse him of racism, Kamiya shouts back, saying he is only talking common sense."
This reminded me of how way back when I was a kid "Made in Japan" meant cheap and shoddy. Now it is more likely to mean "made well"--I suppose because of the Japanese cars that hit the US market at about the time I reached the car buying stage.
The debt is owned primarily by the BOJ (about half) and then domestic banks and insurance companies.
Japan has an additional problem with Tokyo and other urban areas taking up all the economic growth and depopulation in rural areas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaL-ocOtooM
"If just [Tokyo] was its own country, it would be the eighth largest in the world, ranking ahead of Italy and falling just behind Canada."
about 4), one advantage Japan has is availability of public transport, hard to imagine Grandpa Toshio going to work if he has to drive a car there and back.
I am not an economist (although I've taken a few graduate classes) so take the following with a grain of salt...
1) It strikes me that if Japan is selling large amounts of debt, and it's almost all being bought domestically, they have a problem with their tax structure. Selling interest-bearing bonds seems like a very inefficient way to do income redistribution.
2) As I recall the basic welfare theorems that justify the use of prices to match supply and demand, they say "There exists some initial distribution of wealth and set of prices that maximizes utility." Soon after, the initial distribution of wealth assumption disappeared from the discussion. This seemed a shame, since to paraphrase someone, the US government is primarily an income/wealth redistribution system with a very large military tacked on.
3) The answer to all of the problems the experts claim shrinking populations or shrinking worker-to-retiree ratios will cause is productivity: getting more out of the available resources (labor, electricity, land, water, etc).
4) Can't speak to Japan, but one of my long-standing complaints about the US is that forcing the elderly back into employment doesn't work if "employment" means eight hours plus commuting time five days a week, 50 weeks per year.
5) With respect to #3 and #4, I have been known to complain bitterly that US business management has gotten incredibly lazy and cheap, unwilling to be flexible or invest in education and productivity tools.
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.
They are going to revoke permanent residency visas of foreigners not paying taxes or dodging social insurance contributions. I will point out that it is a much larger number of Japanese who are doing this, and it is exacerbated by business owners either gaming the system so people work just below the reporting requirement or paying under the table which put additional pressure on the system. But note how they [meaning the Japanese government] do this in a way that goes below the radar.
Another article related to citizenship here in Japan.
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/16060490
Michael, thanks for that. Some could take my posting about the 80 year old rugby players as some kind of Japanese exceptionalism, but my point was that Japan was adapting to their demographic and, as wj points out, Japan is just the tip of the iceberg.
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.
I am a US citizen. I passed a test, swore an oath, and have a certificate to prove it. The certificate is too precious to carry around like a driver's license. And it features a warning in red caps: "IT IS PUNISHABLE BY US LAW TO COPY, PRINT, OR PHOTOGRAPH THIS CERTIFICATE WITHOUT LAWFUL AUTHORITY", which sounds like carrying a photocopy around is verboten. That leaves me in the same position as everybody who entered the US via the maternity ward: unable to tell somebody with "ICE" stenciled on his jacket to fuck off. Imagine not being allowed to show your driver's license to a cop who pulls you over on suspicion of not having a driver's license. Real Murkins lack that much imagination, of course, and since most of them don't speak Spanish anyway ...
--TP
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?
On “Where are the 5 words?”
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.
"
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?
On “Japan unleashed”
I suppose because of the Japanese cars that hit the US market at about the time I reached the car buying stage.
My first car was a used 1969 Toyota Corolla. My second car was a 1979 Datsun 300ZX (pre corporate name change to Nissan). The improvement in build quality over that ten years should have absolutely terrified Detroit.
I was in college in the early 1970s when Japanese brands became serious contenders in high-end audio equipment.
Consumer video recording put an end to the belief that while Japanese companies could copy American and European engineering, they couldn't innovate.
On “Where are the 5 words?”
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.
"
a good survey of the Portland situation!=criticisms for both sides
"
This video does a good survey of the Portland situation. It has criticisms for both sides. It shows the ICE facility having, at times, many more than five protestors.
Special Report: 48 Hours in Portland
On “Japan unleashed”
There is a lot of discussion about Sanseito and Kamiya that I'll probably get to in another post.
"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/anti-foreigner-sentiments-and-politicians-are-on-the-rise-as-japan-faces-a-population-crisis/ar-AA1NHryD?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=68ddee28709948baa43ae8adcb5dd35a&ei=14
"Outside a train station near Tokyo, hundreds of people cheer as Sohei Kamiya, head of the surging nationalist party Sanseito, criticizes Japan’s rapidly growing foreign population.
As opponents, separated by uniformed police and bodyguards, accuse him of racism, Kamiya shouts back, saying he is only talking common sense."
On “Where are the 5 words?”
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.
"
At times, there have been several hundred protestors at the ICE facility.
Looked like about five in the video.
On “Japan unleashed”
This reminded me of how way back when I was a kid "Made in Japan" meant cheap and shoddy. Now it is more likely to mean "made well"--I suppose because of the Japanese cars that hit the US market at about the time I reached the car buying stage.
"
About selling off debt,
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/09/19/economy/bank-of-japan-september-rates/
Fun quote from the article
It would take more than 100 years to sell off all the ETFs held by the BOJ at the speed decided on Friday, Ueda added.
"
Michael, interesting points. IANAE either, but some connected points
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/09/19/economy/bank-of-japan-september-rates/
The debt is owned primarily by the BOJ (about half) and then domestic banks and insurance companies.
Japan has an additional problem with Tokyo and other urban areas taking up all the economic growth and depopulation in rural areas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaL-ocOtooM
"If just [Tokyo] was its own country, it would be the eighth largest in the world, ranking ahead of Italy and falling just behind Canada."
about 4), one advantage Japan has is availability of public transport, hard to imagine Grandpa Toshio going to work if he has to drive a car there and back.
On “Where are the 5 words?”
https://teachdemocracy.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-16-3-c-the-rescue-movement-pushing-the-limits-of-free-speech
Wonder why no one called in the military or even the national guard during these protests. Funny that.
On “Japan unleashed”
I am not an economist (although I've taken a few graduate classes) so take the following with a grain of salt...
1) It strikes me that if Japan is selling large amounts of debt, and it's almost all being bought domestically, they have a problem with their tax structure. Selling interest-bearing bonds seems like a very inefficient way to do income redistribution.
2) As I recall the basic welfare theorems that justify the use of prices to match supply and demand, they say "There exists some initial distribution of wealth and set of prices that maximizes utility." Soon after, the initial distribution of wealth assumption disappeared from the discussion. This seemed a shame, since to paraphrase someone, the US government is primarily an income/wealth redistribution system with a very large military tacked on.
3) The answer to all of the problems the experts claim shrinking populations or shrinking worker-to-retiree ratios will cause is productivity: getting more out of the available resources (labor, electricity, land, water, etc).
4) Can't speak to Japan, but one of my long-standing complaints about the US is that forcing the elderly back into employment doesn't work if "employment" means eight hours plus commuting time five days a week, 50 weeks per year.
5) With respect to #3 and #4, I have been known to complain bitterly that US business management has gotten incredibly lazy and cheap, unwilling to be flexible or invest in education and productivity tools.
On “Where are the 5 words?”
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.
"
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.
On “Citizenship”
Leave it to Japan to show you how it is done
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/16057632
They are going to revoke permanent residency visas of foreigners not paying taxes or dodging social insurance contributions. I will point out that it is a much larger number of Japanese who are doing this, and it is exacerbated by business owners either gaming the system so people work just below the reporting requirement or paying under the table which put additional pressure on the system. But note how they [meaning the Japanese government] do this in a way that goes below the radar.
Another article related to citizenship here in Japan.
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/16060490
On “Where are the 5 words?”
wj, I always wonder if Charles misses the sarcasm in his responses...
On “Japan unleashed”
Michael, thanks for that. Some could take my posting about the 80 year old rugby players as some kind of Japanese exceptionalism, but my point was that Japan was adapting to their demographic and, as wj points out, Japan is just the tip of the iceberg.
On “Where are the 5 words?”
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.
On “Citizenship”
I am a US citizen. I passed a test, swore an oath, and have a certificate to prove it. The certificate is too precious to carry around like a driver's license. And it features a warning in red caps: "IT IS PUNISHABLE BY US LAW TO COPY, PRINT, OR PHOTOGRAPH THIS CERTIFICATE WITHOUT LAWFUL AUTHORITY", which sounds like carrying a photocopy around is verboten. That leaves me in the same position as everybody who entered the US via the maternity ward: unable to tell somebody with "ICE" stenciled on his jacket to fuck off. Imagine not being allowed to show your driver's license to a cop who pulls you over on suspicion of not having a driver's license. Real Murkins lack that much imagination, of course, and since most of them don't speak Spanish anyway ...
--TP
On “Japan unleashed”
Also, RIP Jane Goodall.
:(
Conducting a little more 'research'...
On “Where are the 5 words?”
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
On “Japan unleashed”
Also, RIP Jane Goodall.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.