Here we go again Portland, here we go

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Right-wing groups and counterprotesters gathered in downtown Portland, Oregon, on Saturday and authorities set up concrete barriers and closed streets in an effort to contain the groups.

Flag-waving members of the Proud Boys and Three Percenters militia group began gathering late in the morning, some wearing body armor and helmets. Meanwhile black clad, helmet and face-mask wearing anti-fascist protesters were also among the several hundred people on the streets.

Polices said they had seized weapons such as metal and wooden poles, bear spray and shields from multiple groups.

More than two dozen local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, were in the city for the right-wing rally that was expected to draw people from across the country. The gathering was hyped on social media and elsewhere for weeks.

In the days leading up the event Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said people who espoused hate or engaged in violence were "not welcome."

In a Saturday morning tweet, President Donald Trump wrote "Portland is being watched very closely." He also wrote that "major consideration is being given to naming ANTIFA an 'ORGANIZATION of TERROR.'"

But it wasn't immediately clear what he meant by that as there's no mechanism for the United States government to declare a domestic organization a terror group. The State Department maintains a list of designated foreign terrorist organizations, such as al Qaida, but there's no comparable designation or list for American groups.

Not all who gathered late Saturday were with right-wing groups or antifa. Also on hand were people who attended a nearby prayer service, holding signs that said things like "No Trump, No NRA."

Self-described anti-fascists — known as antifa — had vowed to confront the rally while leaders from the far right urged their followers to turn out in large numbers to protest the arrests of six members of right-wing groups in the run-up to the event.

Patriot Prayer's Joey Gibson, who is not involved in this weekend's event but organized similar rallies in 2017 and 2018 that erupted in clashes, surrendered Friday on an arrest warrant for felony rioting. He was at a confrontation that broke out on May 1 outside a bar where antifa members had gathered after a May Day demonstration.

In a video he livestreamed on Facebook, Gibson accused the police of playing politics by arresting him but not the masked demonstrators who beat up conservative blogger Andy Ngo at a June 29 rally that drew national attention to this liberal city.

A video of that attack went viral and led the Proud Boys, who have been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, to organize Saturday's event.

"What I'm saying to everybody who's listening to this (is) they're trying to shut you guys up. They want you to not show up in Portland, they want to put fear in your hearts," Gibson said.

In addition to the Proud Boys and Three Percenters, the white nationalist American Guard also said it would have members in Portland.

The Oath Keepers, another far-right militia group, said in a statement they were pulling out of the rally because organizers have not done enough to keep white supremacist groups away.

"It would be best for the patriot/conservative cause if this August 17 rally were simply canceled," the group's founder, Stewart Rhodes, wrote.

Authorities asked residents not to call 911 unless it's a life-threatening emergency and to stay away from the heart of downtown.

HAPPENING at 2:39 p.m.:

A confluence of protesters on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum merged on Portland’s waterfront Saturday in a tense but relatively uneventful face-off that brought national attention, including a tweet in the hours before the protest by President Trump decrying the city’s signature anti-fascist movement.

But it was the roving skirmishes that lasted for hours afterward and the jockeying to declare victory by the various factions that eventually eclipsed the earlier showdown.

As the afternoon wore on, Portland police made arrests around town -- at least four by 2:30 p.m. -- as people posted video of the confrontations, including black-clad protesters breaking the windows out of a bus that was said to carry Proud Boys supporters. One person arrested on the east side was bleeding from the head.

Elsewhere, a large group of left-wing protesters encircled a man and what appeared to be a young girl in American-flag garb, taunting, threatening and chasing them.

Police said they were scrambling to continue to try to keep the opposing groups apart. They also reported finding an injured person, who was given first aid and taken to a hospital.

America exports fascism

Uh huh.

Long past time for the Antifa terrorists to be rounded up and shipped to Guantanamo where they can trade notes with their ISIS and Al Qaeda brorhers.

You'd know that if you'd read or listened to Chomsky over the years. They have done it in South America mainly.

Silly me! And here I was, thinking anti-fascism was an American value!

during the second world war, American's valued anti-fascism - the world war 2 was a fight for such rights that would be taken away by the totalitarians.

Problem is, once the war was won. The Allied Forces were naive to believe that the nazi's would give up the nazi ethos after the war. As if someone can give up such a strong world view or belief set just because they lost the war.

It's a bit like a neo nazi getting beaten up by an anti-fas, and because the neo nazi loses a fight with the anti-fas
the neo-nazi decides to give up being a neo-nazi. Like that would ever happen.
I think if such a scenario happened, and if the neo-nazi could not work out a way to beat his enemy in a fight,
the neo nazi would not give up but instead would spend his time plotting a different strategy to win without getting into a fight that they could lose.

I believe that is what happened, instead of the ww2 nazis returning to their countries, and saying
"well Allied Forces Chaps, you beat us mean nazi's fair and square, so we all agree to go back to our countries and
give up this whole world domination thing, and we have all decided as you have won in a fair war, we shall all now
put aside our prejudices and ideals about race supremacy and shall live life free of prejudice and be nice to everyone".

And once the mean race supremacist nazis finally put aside all their mean treatment of innocent people based on silly old prejudice world peace was finally realised, and they all gave each other a big hug and the end and sung Hoorah!

Yes. i do not think that it happened like that. I think that some went back to their countries and were even more hell bent into realising Hitler and the Nazi parties vision of the 3rd Reich.

And alas, many years later. we have found ourselves to here. a particularly precarious place in time and space.

What is it about Portland in particular that makes it the big battleground for these groups?