I live a few hours away from Portland, Oregon. I have many friends who live in or near Portland. I've spent a lot of time in Portland. When I fly in to Portland from International/Interstate travel I feel like I'm home.
When I read things that say things like, "Portland has been burning for 100 days" and that sort of thing, it concerns me because that is very close to home.
So far, (other than the media and places like this), I've had input from friends who live in the suburbs of Portland and people where I live who travel to Portland regularly. None of them have reported the mayhem and destruction that has been claimed on this site.
But hey, people who live in the 'burbs and people going to Portland to see their specialist doctor might not be going in to the raging depths of Antifaland. Plus, some of them are freaking lefties, so their take on things is suspect.
But, this weekend I hung out with a friend who lives about two blocks from the "trouble".
He's a Marine, a sniper in operation Desert Storm. Also, he has a fairly high level job in the federal government. Someone that Antifa/Blm guys would love to hate. He says, the trouble is limited to a few blocks, near him in Portland, and he has no trouble walking for exercise near his home.He says that most of the time there are only 50-100 people protesting and that it obviously flares up when the police declare (and he hears it all the time) "This is a riot zone", and the antifa/blm guys social media their buddies.
Anyway, when an anonymous Belgian who lives on the East coast of the USA says, "Portland has been ran (sic) by Antifa (they occasionally regulate traffic there, but generally form mobs to destroy local businesses for perceived injustices, shake down people on the streets for money etc) for about 5-6 years now." I call bullshit. I've been crawling the streets of Portland while my wife is at conferences or just for fun for the last five years or longer.
At this point, I don't care. Righty, lefty different pile... same shit.