The media establishment has pooh-poohed the idea that Antifa maniacs could be involved in the hundreds of wildfires breaking out on the Left Coast, despite numerous reasons to investigate the possible connection. Now we read of more arson:

On Sunday afternoon, police were called to assist Portland firefighters with a brush fire burning along the I-205 freeway. Police said 45-year-old Domingo Lopez Jr. started the fire by using a Molotov cocktail.

Lopez was charged with Reckless Burning and Disorderly Conduct in the Second Degree.

If Molotov cocktails, reckless burning, and disorderly conduct sound familiar, you may be thinking of the daily activities of Antifa and other supporters of the Black Lives Matter cause over the past several months. The epicenter of this phenomenon has been Portland.

Fortunately, the fires Lopez was caught setting caused no significant damage. Other fires have resulted in dozens of deaths and many $millions in property damage. Nearly 1 million acres of land have burned.

Liberal catch and release policies strike again:

The man was released, but police said he then started six more small brush fires early Monday morning along the freeway.

Four others have been arrested recently for West Coast arson.

Militant moonbats and the carnival of chaos they have created are unlikely to be as much of a factor in the fires as poor forest management. But they can’t be any less of a factor than failure to sufficiently implement left-wing global warming policy.

On a tip from Dragon’s Lair.

The anniversary of 9/11 was particularly sad on Friday because currently we are not united against the maniacs who employ terrorism against our country. The party aligned with them may even prevail in the November elections. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who escaped Islam at great risk to her life and is now an American citizen, lists a few of the parallels between al Qaeda and Black Lives Matter/Antifa:

The adherents of each constantly pursue ideological purity, certain of their own rectitude. Neither Islamists nor the Woke will engage in debate; both prefer indoctrination of the submissive and damnation of those who resist.

That damnation can take the form of beheading in countries controlled by Islamists, whereas it manifests itself in “cancelation” in our own country, which is thankfully still a soft tyranny for now, but the intent and effect are the same.

Differences between Islamic and leftist radicals are often cosmetic:

Islamists shout “Allahu Akbar” and “Death to America”; the Woke chant “Black lives matter” and “I can’t breathe.” Islamists pray to Mecca; the Woke take the knee.

Imagine if, in September of 2001, instead of standing respectfully for the national anthem, grotesquely overpaid athletes had knelt toward Mecca and touched their foreheads to the grass to signify obeisance to terrorists. That is the equivalent of the pregame theatrics we are currently subjected to as our country is again under siege.

Islam forbids “blasphemy”; leftists, “hate speech.” Only the context is different, not the meaning. The same goes for the terms “Islamophobia” and “racism.”

Islamic and woke radicals are both fond of destroying statues, and of theatrically burning the American flag.

Both ideologies aim to tear down the existing system and replace it with utopias that always turn out to be hellish anarchies: Islamic State in Raqqa, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle. Both are collectivist: Group identity trumps the individual. Both tolerate—and often glorify—violence carried out by zealots.

The most important similarity is that their hatred of America cannot be appeased. Despite what some choose to believe, they are not angry because they are poor or oppressed.

Their motivations are ideological and they will be satisfied only with power.

That means either they win or we do. If they win, America won’t just continue to change. It will be over.

A foreign enemy might be safely ignored for a time. This is not true of domestic enemies like Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and their many allies.

On a tip from Varla.

What a coincidence: the same Left Coast that has been beset by Antifa riots inspired by Black Lives Matter is now also beset by a massive wave of wildfires. Or maybe it is not such a coincidence.

The liberal media denies a connection so stridently and categorically that the curious will be tempted to turn to other sources. Mr Reagan presents five reasons to keep an open mind regarding Antifa involvement:

1. Jeffrey Accord.

2. Antifa and Black Lives Matter activists include arsonists.

3. The number of arson events suggests an organized effort.

4. Setting these fires would be consistent with Antifa’s mission.

5. Police themselves seem to suspect it.

Mr Reagan makes his case:

More from Salty Cracker (language alert):

Two hundred wildfires were not all caused by a gender reveal party gone wrong. Barack Obama and CNN have eagerly exploited the crisis to promote their political agenda. It is possible that other leftists have exploited the dryness, high temperatures, and high winds that made conditions optimal. Wildfires may be politics by other means.

Dismissing a credible theory without evidence for ideological reasons is no better than believing it on the same basis. A less biased media might invest a little curiosity.

On tips from KirklesWorth, Anonymous, Rapinhoe, and Troy H.

At least Antifa is straightforward, unlike its defenders in the media and Democratic Party. Note that the main banner at this recent NYC rally reads “Death to America”:

NYPDK = New York Police Department Killers. Since they hate American civilization, it’s only natural that they hate the people who defend it.

On tips from Rapinhoe and Anonymous. Hat tip: Pacific Pundit.

Something else to help you enjoy your Labor Day weekend — it appears a mostly peaceful rioter has set his feet on fire in the course of his terrorist activities:

On tips from Chuck A and Dragon’s Lair.

The catch and release policy toward rioters that prevails in Democrat-run cities like Portland has predictable consequences. One could be the murder of Aaron Danielson, apparently at the hands of Antifa maniac Michael Reinoehl, against whom various charges had recently been dropped. This could be another:

Portland rioter Phillip Lawrence Nelson is now a suspect in a double-stabbing murder that occurred just one week after he was caught and let go by local law enforcement.

The original charges against Nelson of interfering with a peace officer were dropped the day after his first arrest in early June, and he was released.

Cassy Leaton and Najaf “Nate” Hobbs were found stabbed to death in Portland on June 16 after an apparent dispute over the building Nelson had been squatting in.

At least now he is being held without bail.

De facto presidential candidate Kamala Harris has described the rioters as a “new coalition of conscience” and “the heroes of our time.” She encourages people to donate money to bail them out of jail.

On a tip from R F.

Matthew Banta is what happens when children are told they are special, never spanked, brainwashed by the public schools and liberal establishment media, and fed too much soy.

Via WBAY in Wisconsin:

A Neenah man [i.e., Banta, age 23] had a flamethrower, smoke grenades and fireworks during a demonstration in Green Bay Saturday night, according to police and prosecutors.

Police already knew Banta as a “violent Antifa member” who is known as “Commander Red.”

A responding officer says he saw four individuals walking towards a protest with baseball bats. One man was wearing a metal helmet with goggles and military-style gear with multiple pouches, and was carrying an Antifa flag. When the officer pulled his squad car in front of the group, they ran away. The officer caught Banta, who was carrying the flag, and says Banta “dropped into the fetal position and began crying.”

Imagine explaining to one of the troops who stormed Omaha Beach why we let Matthew Banta et al burn our cities down and destroy statues of our greatest heroes in the name of hoodlums who get hurt resisting arrest.

Here’s how the police knew Banta:

Banta is accused in Waupaca County of pointing a loaded gun at a police officer and biting and kicking an officer during a protest earlier this month. He’s charged there with second-degree recklessly endangering safety and four other charges (see related story). He posted a $10,000 cash bond.

A condition of his bail was no weapons, so hopefully this time they will lock him up long enough to keep him from hurting anyone at the next few mostly peaceful Black Lives Matter protests.

On tips from Dragon’s Lair and Rapinhoe. Hat tip: 'Nox and Friends.

When I mentioned earlier today that Black Lives Matter supporters are likely to engage in executions if they ever take power, I didn’t realize that executions may have already begun:

The man shot and killed in Portland as a pro-Trump caravan that began in nearby Clackamas wound down and altercations broke out was a “friend and supporter” of Vancouver, Washington-based Patriot Prayer, group leader Joey Gibson said. …

Andrew Duncomb, a conservative activist who was stabbed during a downtown demonstration July 29, also confirmed the victim was associated with the organization.

The victim reportedly did not have a gun.

The countermoonbat rally featured almost “1,000 vehicles, many of them displaying Trump, Gadsden and Thin Blue Line flags in addition to the U.S. flag.”

Supporting the President of the USA, American heritage, law enforcement, and America itself is now so provocative in parts of the country that it can get you killed.

Andy Ngo reports:

Whether they said, “We got a Trumper” is unclear. Other details also remain to be resolved. However, it appears that the left-wing political violence that has characterized the past 3 months has taken a great leap forward into straightforward murder.

Tim Pool puts this into the context of the lies being told about Kyle Rittenhouse and support for leftist terrorism by prominent Democrats:

Pool had better be right about Trump winning. Otherwise, the whole country could soon look like Portland and Kenosha. When the smoke clears, it will look like the Soviet Union.

On tips from Sean C, Rapinhoe, and Dragon’s Lair.

Left-wing Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has sided with Antifa against law-abiding citizens for years. He supports the Black Lives Matter cause. Even now, after 3 months of nightly riots, he refuses to let Trump restore order in his smoldering city. Here we see his reward for complying with the moonbat mob:

A group of Black Lives Matter protesters chained themselves together inside the lobby of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s condo on Friday night. The sit-in was part of a larger demonstration outside of Wheeler’s apartment, where approximately 150 people gathered to protest police brutality and racial inequality.

If having these lawless bullies attack their neighborhoods is good enough for regular citizens, it is good enough for Ted Wheeler.

The group vowed to stay locked inside the lobby until Wheeler heard their demands. The group left three hours later.

Three hours of sitting still pushes the limit of a BLM protester’s patience.

Their demands include cutting police funding by 50% by next year and abolishing the police bureau completely by the following year, so that total anarchy may reign. The money saved is to be redistributed on a racial basis to favored groups.

Also, they have a demand that may resonate with sane people: they want Wheeler to resign.

Protesters painted bloody red handprints on the windows of the lobby and put up signs that read: “Send Teddy to the Hague.”

When they have sufficient power, they won’t need the International Criminal Court in the Hague. They will just set up guillotines in the middle of the street, as they have already begun to do on a theatrical basis.

Agitators shined lights into the windows of the apartment building, and a metal band played live music outside the condos in an effort to not allow Wheeler to get sleep. The security at the condo reportedly called police, but authorities did not respond.

The police may have had more pressing concerns. Also last night, the mostly peaceful protesters set fire to the Portland Police Association building.

“Individuals wheeled multiple dumpsters into the road and lit at least one on fire. The fire was in the road and not threatening any structures. In the interest of deescalating the situation, Portland Police Bureau (PPB) officers remained out of sight,” the Portland Police Bureau said. “However, arsonists put some debris, including a large mattress, against the front door of the building, appeared to spray accelerant on it, and lit it on fire. The flames appeared to engulf the front door area of the building and nearly reach the roofline.”

Want the whole country to look like Portland? Biden is your man.

Here’s why criminals need to cool their heels behind bars for a while, rather than be immediately released as has become the custom in places run by liberals:

On a tip from DCGere.

The Democrat Party openly identifies with the rioters who have been tearing apart American cities, not just by refusing to criticize their outrageous behavior, but by pushily advocating their ideology and echoing their slogans. More so than ever, it has positioned itself as the anti-America party, because the rioters could not possibly be less subtle about their hatred for this country — or about their violent intentions. From Portland Saturday:

Rioters strode through residential streets with a teddy bear set up in a guillotine, burning American flags, and demanding sleeping residents afford them shelter and protection.

Given the nature of this crowd, “shelter and protection” probably means free marijuana in addition to free food and a place to crash after they tire themselves out hurling balloons full of human waste at the police. Those who fail to comply with demands may soon meet the fate of the teddy bear and wind up in the guillotine.

Guillotines have been a recurrent feature of the “mostly peaceful” protests. The unsubtle reference is to the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution. Rarely have revolutionaries been so forthright about their evil intentions. Yet the media, Corporate America, and the Democrat Party push their cause rather than jump back in horror.

The rioters then began burning American flags in the streets.

The mob made its way to the Penumbra Kelly Building, where it assaulted police officers with “rocks, frozen bottles of water, and laser pointers.” Police are targeted not because a criminal died in police custody last spring, but because they defend our civilization from those who would destroy it from within.

Open hatred for America went mainstream on the Left with Obama’s promise to “fundamentally transform” the USA into a different country. From there, it has escalated into a rabid ecstasy of enmity, expressed by BLM/Antifa with the sophistication of psychotic children.

They may be absurd, but they have the liberal establishment on their side. This country has never faced a more implacable enemy.

On a tip from Mr. Freemarket. Hat tip: Legal Insurrection.

The 1992 Los Angeles riots gave us Reginald Denny. The current nationwide riots have given us this unfortunate fellow:

A mob of Portland Black Lives Matter and Antifa militants forced a white man to crash his truck, then punched and kicked him unconscious, disturbing footage shows.

It happened last night at 10:30. Mostly peaceful protesters, who have made a habit of blocking vehicles and menacing those within, punched him as he sat with a woman in the truck.

The unidentified driver eventually sped off, with the mob chasing him — with some heard loudly laughing when he crashed into a light pole…

He was dragged from the truck and tackled to the ground — getting repeatedly punched as he tried to call his wife…

“I was trying to get out the way,” he insisted of crashing his truck, as several of the group punched him in the face and repeatedly called the white driver the N-word.

Then came the coup de grâce that could have killed him.

As the mob dispersed to watch another fight, the main offender circled back around — kicking the defenseless driver in the face from behind, instantly knocking him out with his head cracking on the road.

“What the f–k is you talkin’ about, n—er!” the attacker screamed after the thud of his victim’s head hitting the ground.

He then lay unconscious, bleeding from a head wound. Rescue workers were blocked by the hostile crowd and had to be helped through by police in riot gear.

Other injuries were inflicted by mostly peaceful protesters in Portland over the weekend.

Two cops were hospitalized overnight Saturday after protesters hurled a 10-pound rock at them during the 79th night of clashes in the City of Roses, according to reports.

As noted previously, multiple officers were also injured in Chicago and Seattle.

A rioting mob is not admirable. Yet it is what overpaid athletes kneel to. It is what Democratic Senator and VP candidate Kamala Harris calls “a new coalition of conscience” and “the heroes of our time.” Others in her party either pretend this terrorism isn’t happening, call for more of it, or participate themselves.

Black Lives Matter and Antifa are so extreme that they would be marginalized into irrelevance if they did not employ rioting as a political tactic. This tactic would not be effective if they were not supported by the liberal establishment.

This is what you are voting for if you vote Democrat:

The media will not be able to keep voters from realizing what Black Lives Matters is actually about until November 3. But Democrats are too heavily invested to distance themselves from the radicals they have unleashed.

On tips from Bluto and Rapinhoe.

In her first appearance after officially becoming the Democrats’ VP candidate, Kamala Harris effusively praised Black Lives Matter/Antifa rioters:

“[W]e are experiencing a moral reckoning with racism and systemic injustice that has brought a new coalition of conscience to the streets of our country demanding change.”

Harris continued: “To everyone keeping up the fight, you are doing something great! You are the heroes of our time.”

Other Democratic officeholders go farther, explicitly inciting still more riots. Shouts Rep Ayanna Pressley (D-MA),

“You know, there needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there’s unrest in our lives.”

In the context of the past 2+ months, “unrest in the streets” means mayhem. It means this:

Chicago police officers and violent rioters collided on Saturday as riots broke out in the Windy City. According to Chicago Police, at least 24 people were arrested during the protests that escalated into violence. …

During the riots, two civilians were injured and 17 police officers were treated for injuries. …

Brown said one of the cops injured was an officer who was “beaten in the head several times with a skateboard.” …

The situation became so uncontrollable that the city was forced to raise the area bridges to limit access. The same defensive tactic was implemented by the city last Sunday during the riots and widespread looting.

Also from this past weekend:

Eighteen people were arrested late Sunday in Seattle when an anti-police protest descended into a riot, with members from the group throwing rocks and explosives at law enforcement officers, authorities said Monday.

Protesters marched on the Seattle Police Officer Guild.

Sometime after 10 p.m., demonstrators detonated a “large explosive” and tried to break the window of a police car, authorities said. …

“Multiple explosives were thrown toward officers,” the press release stated. “Several officers were struck by explosives and injured.” …

Three officers were hurt, and one was taken to an area hospital for their injuries, police said.

The anarchy has been too widespread and has been going on for too long for Democrats to count on the media to ignore it or spin at as a few agitators “hijacking” peaceful protests. Anyone who joins up with one of these mobs knows they will likely be taking part in a riot.

Then we have John Thompson, the Minnesota candidate for State Representative, who has been endorsed by Democratic Governor Tim Walz, and who during an obscenity-laced racist tirade suggested burning down the town of Hugo.

Until we hear otherwise is clear terms, this is what the Democratic Party stands for.

Maybe voters can be intimidated into rewarding this terror. Then again, maybe they will vote for people who will make the terror stop.

On tips from Rapinhoe, Mr. Freemarket, and Scott D. Hat tip: American Thinker.

Last night was Portland’s 75th consecutive night of rioting. Rocks and other objects were thrown at police. The main point of these “mostly peaceful” protests may be to demonstrate that society cannot or rather will not stop them, meaning the rioters are in charge.

With every riot, they grow stronger. That’s why Peter Wilson Curtis doesn’t look too broken up about having been arrested again:

Most people never imagined that when America is conquered, it will be by guys dressed like Peter Wilson Curtis.

On a tip from Rapinhoe.