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Doug Brown

Our Doug Brown is at the Lake Oswego "March 4 Trump" rally, which has been a source of contention from both within and without for the last week. The rally was originally co-organized by Lake Oswego businessman Kevin "The Geek" Kerwin who was later ostracized by organizer Carol Pressnall Leek because of several racist, misogynist posts on Facebook. Leek since then has been trying to wrangle control of local Trump supporters, who are frankly not the most calm, rational people you're going to meet, and at least some of them promised to bring concealed weapons to the march. Meanwhile there are at least three counter-protests happening nearby. That's the background, so let's check in at the march with Doug to see what's going down. Five bucks says it won't be pretty.







UPDATE 12:50 PM: Doug reports that the initial encounter between Trump supporters and counter-protesters has calmed down apparently. It also appears that Trump supporters have hired private security. We'll try to confirm that.


For those who don't know, "Three Percenters" are explained by Wikipedia as "an American patriot movement which pledges resistance against the United States government regarding any restriction of the United States Constitution. Their primary purpose is to protect constitutional rights." Not sure if they're intent on protecting rights that Trump continues to try to break. Also from Wikipedia: "The movement was started on December 17, 2008 after the election of Barack Obama, in response to what the group views as an alarming trend towards an increasingly overreaching federal government, particularly towards stricter gun control." They also tried to act as security for the Malheur Refuge takeover, and members have been associated with various illegal activities and violent, sometimes racist, rhetoric.

UPDATE 1:07 PM:


UPDATE 1:17 PM:



As far as Doug can tell, Trump supporters and counter-protesters are there in equal number... about a couple hundred each.

UPDATE 1:30 PM: Okay, this is gross.


Meanwhile, this is hilarious.




Meanwhile back in Portland...


UPDATE 1:51 PM: More "Ugh."



Fun fact: Alex Jones is a far-right radio show host, conspiracy theorist, and head honcho of Infowars.com which is legitimately FAKE NEWS. It gets worse from there, and he is a piece of fucking garbage. Actually I guess that fact wasn't very fun after all.


UPDATE 2:10 PM:



Fun Fact: The "3 Percenters" mentioned earlier tried to provide security for the Malheur Refuge occupiers, but were sent away because they weren't needed. Allegedly, their feelings were hurt. :(

UPDATE 2:18 PM: Flag-snatching shenanigans... to make up for the earlier hat-snatching shenanigans? (You gotta admit the look on the masked protesters' faces is pretty hilarious.)


More flag-burning drama...



UPDATE 2:35 PM: Crowds are starting to dwindle at the Lake Oswego #March4Trump rally, but if you don't have time to read the above, here's a metaphorical description of what happened:

UPDATE 3:15 PM:


Stay tuned for more pics and commentary about today's #March4Trump rally and counter-protest.