For leftists, it seems that fear is a perfectly good weapon to use for political purposes. The ongoing riots in Portland — they’ve been going on for 80 straight nights so far — are all about instilling fear in a population that may not share their political views.
If there’s any doubt in your mind whether or not this is true, check out this video that journalist Andy Ngo shared on Twitter on August 9:
“We’re gonna burn your building down”
“We know where you live”
As #antifa have taken to Portland residential areas to riot, they’ve also assaulted & intimidated residents there. Tonight, they threatened those who looked out the window. #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/1qiIOLk99j
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 9, 2020
In the video, a mob of Black Lives Matter activists are shouting up at residents in an apartment building and threatening them. As far as anyone can tell, their only indiscretion was looking out the window at the violent agitators on the street below them.
“We’re gonna burn your building down!” one mob member shouts.
“We know where you live!” shouts another.
In Seattle, where city officials allowed rioters to set up an “autonomous zone” for more than three weeks in the Capitol Hill area of the city, another mob of Black Lives Matter agitators attempted to shame white homeowners into giving up their houses to black people. Their argument for the unreasonable request was that the neighborhood where the homes were was “historically black.”
Writing for PJ Media, Victoria Taft points out a possible connection between the ongoing civil unrest and intimidation tactics being used in cities such as Seattle and Portland and another left-wing scheme being used to further chances of a 2020 Democrat win in the general election — mail-in voting and ballot harvesting.
Being strongly pushed by Democrats due to the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to “keep people safe,” mail-in voting is one of the easiest ways for unscrupulous parties to manufacture election wins in contentious races. Oregon, for instance, went for completely mail-in voting back in 1998 and only one Republican has been elected for statewide office since. But even with its vote-by-mail system in place for more than two decades, problems such as voters receiving the wrong ballots in the mail are still commonplace in Oregon.
Adding Antifa and Black Lives Matter agitators to an already chaotic mail-in voting system seems like the perfect recipe for chaos.
Taft points out: “Think about the potential for Antifa ‘ballot harvesters.’ Even before Saturday, when Congresswoman Ayana Presley called for more riots and ‘unrest’ on America’s streets over mail-in ballots and U.S. Postal Service (USPS) funding, I worried about the mob and your ballot.”
Taft has a point. After all, both Antifa and Black Lives Matter have shown no reticence to go into residential areas to intimidate, harass, and even threaten citizens who might refuse to bow to their will. A little vote fraud via ballot theft and ballot harvesting would mean nothing to them, especially since in cities such as Portland and Seattle, district attorneys seem reluctant to prosecute them on either misdemeanors or felonies. (However, those considering committing that type of voter fraud may want to consider that — in a general election — the state wouldn’t be the ones prosecuting them; it would be the federal government.)
In addition, now suddenly in the news is the narrative that the U.S. Postal Service is running out of money and requires — according to Democrat demands — an additional $25 billion in order to stay solvent and handle the increased load expected with this year’s massive mail-in vote. Democrat conspiracy theorists are already accusing President Trump of disenfranchising voters due to his reluctance to simply give the postal service that extra $25 billion.
The situation has caused the post office to warn 46 states that it cannot guarantee that all ballots cast for the November election will arrive at their destinations in time to be counted. All of this is happening, ironically enough, just as one of the major postal workers unions officially endorsed Joe Biden for president.
Portland has been experiencing nightly riots since June with no end in sight. Also in Portland, it is perfectly fine for one person to return a mail-in ballot on behalf of another voter. In other cities where rioting has occurred such as Seattle; Minneapolis; Chicago; St. Louis; New York; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Atlanta; Denver; Phoenix; Columbus; Madison; Albuquerque; and others, ballot harvesting, at least to some degree, is also legal.
Now, with literal armies of potential Antifa and Black Lives Matter ballot harvesters and thieves on the ground in these cities, one has to wonder, is all of this being carefully staged to promote election chaos?
Image: Darylann Elmi/iStock/Getty Images Plus
James Murphy is a freelance journalist who writes on a variety of subjects. He can be reached at [email protected].
