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Trump Calls Up Military For ‘Law And Order’ Campaign Stunt
Yesterday's protests over the murder of George Floyd seemed smaller to me. A few hundred people in this or that city. There seem to have been more people on the march in New Zealand than in New York City. From what I can tell the store break ins and looting were likewise reduced. Some people, mostly not protesters, are just using the opportunity. For the real looting is happening elsewhere. Just look at Blackrock.
U.S. President Donald Trump is using the relatively few incidents to divert the attention from his abysmal handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is now all about Trump as "commander in chief" who brings "law and order" for "god and country". If that requires to violently clear a park of peaceful protesters or to teargas a priest in front of his church – all so Trump can stage a photo op where he upholds a bible – so be it. While Trump is in full campaign mode the Democrats seem numbed.
The militarized response the nutters around Trump call for is way out of proportion.
Washington DC has seen a bizarre "show of force" with helicopters hovering much lower than allowed over crowds of peaceful people. The Secretary of Defense has called on governors to "dominate the battlespace". The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Matt Milley was seen patrolling around the White House in camouflage uniform. The cheerboys of the military are not happy with this.
Last night a large number of military transport planes carrying troops of the 82nd Airborne Division, 10th Mountain Division and 1st Infantry Division arrived at Andrews Airbase near Washington DC. These units lost the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. They probably think it is easier to win a war in the midwest than in the Middle East. We'll see …
But who will they actually be fighting against? The violence enticing Antifa account on Twitter that turned out to be run by fascists in Europe? The "Interim Government of the United Socialist States of America" (@USSInterimGOV)? The "Free American Army" (@FAARMYOfficial)? The Jaish al-Chicago and the KFC Brigades? All of them? Well, that's gonna be a hell of a war on parody accounts.
And a war on the press. In the past four days there were more than 125 incidents in which police attacked journalists. But the media still repeat police reports as if they were the one and only truth:
Despite what our colleagues of color have been saying for years, the clear history of police abusing protesters and the press, too many outlets continue to cover the police credulously.
Policing in the U.S. has been going wrong for a long time:
Commissioners demanded captains deliver numbers and captains began browbeating lesser officers, who in turn pushed quotas on patrol cops, for reasons that often had nothing to do with crime. As depicted in the The Wire, in the stats revolution, “shit always rolls downhill.” The point was to get lieutenants promoted to captain, to get mayors re-elected, and help provide the rationale for the prison jobs state legislators were bringing home to suburban districts. All of this was greased by the lobbying money of construction firms, prison vendors, even private prison corporations – a great business for all, and all that was needed to keep it going was an endless stream of jailable people.
On top of that the IQ of the average policeman seems to be quite low. I mean – why would he do this?
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This (vid) must be seen to be believed:
A Fox News reporter tries live on air to stop the police in LA arresting the (not white) owners of a shop who had flagged down the officers to help them stop potential looters. The actual alleged looters ran off. It sums so much up #GeorgeFloydProtests
Replacing the police with the military will only escalate the situation. Violence begets violence. But creating more 'resistance' may well be Trump's plan.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is today meeting with "Tiananmen Square survivors". He will probably ask how China managed to suppress that U.S. sponsored insurgency. Can Trump learn from it? Is a Tiananmen like moment what Trump wants to happen to rally his base? Or is it all just a head fake that will be canceled in time?
Has someone in the White House considered how much damage these bizarre developments do to U.S. soft power and its foreign policy? U.S. adversaries point out the hypocrisy of U.S. behavior at home and its rhetoric against them. U.S. allies just cringe.
An Australian TV crew was punched by police live on air. The Australian Prime Minister called for an investigation. A crew of the German government financed DW News was attacked twice by police plus threatened with arrest. This caused the German Foreign Minister to speak out against targeting journalists.
These U.S. 'allies' have to explain their population why they still succumb to U.S. policies. That part of their job is getting harder and harder.
If Trump sends in the military it will become impossible.
@ dh-mtl | Jun 2 2020 18:34 utc | 16
First, the pandemic did not sabotage the economy. The economy was sinking for months and months prior to the arrival of Covid19 in the US, and in fact began rising (and still is rising) after the pandemic began. See this —
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/financial.html
Second, Trump has done the worst imaginable job of “handling the pandemic.” Here’s just one of many timelines showing just how well he did:
Timeline of Actions by China, the World Health Organization and the Trump Administration
(NOTE: The China timeline entries from Dec. 26 to Feb. 1 (below) are derived from information compiled by the Journal of the American Medical Association. Actions and statements attributed to WHO are from reports issued by that agency. Quotes attributed to Trump, where no source is mentioned, can be pulled up on Youtube. )
Dec. 26 2019: Four cases of an unusual – seeming pneumonia (three in the same family) noticed by Jixian Zhang, MD, in HICWM Hospital, Wuhan, China
Dec 27: Dr. Zhang reported unusual pneumonia cases to the local Center for Disease Control
Dec 28: Three more unusual cases found in the HICWM Hospital – total seven
Dec 30: Active case finding begins in Wuhan city
Dec 31: Wuhan Health Commission alerts National Health Commission and China Center for Disease Control, and World Health Organization notified
Dec. 31. (WHO report) China reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province.
Jan 1 2020: Huanan seafood market closed.
Jan. 1. WHO had set up the IMST (Incident Management Support Team) across the three levels of the organization: headquarters, regional headquarters and country level, putting the organization on an emergency footing for dealing with the outbreak.
Jan. 4: WHO reported on social media that there was a cluster of pneumonia cases – with no deaths – in Wuhan, Hubei province.
Jan. 5. US government notified by China.
Jan. 5. WHO published our first Disease Outbreak News on the new virus. This is a flagship technical publication to the scientific and public health community as well as global media. It contained a risk assessment and advice, and reported on what China had told the organization about the status of patients and the public health response on the cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan.
Jan. 5. Trump did nothing
Jan. 6. Trump did nothing
Jan. 7. 2019-nCoV identified by Chinese scientists
Jan. 7. Trump did nothing
Jan. 8. Trump did nothing
Jan. 9. Trump did nothing
Jan. 10. WHO issued a comprehensive package of technical guidance online with advice to all countries on how to detect, test and manage potential cases, based on what was known about the virus at the time. This guidance was shared with WHO’s regional emergency directors to share with WHO representatives in countries.
Based on experience with SARS and MERS and known modes of transmission of respiratory viruses, infection and prevention control guidance were published to protect health workers recommending droplet and contact precautions when caring for patients, and airborne precautions for aerosol generating procedures conducted by health workers.
Jan. 10. Trump did nothing
Jan. 11. Trump did nothing
Jan 12: nCoV19 genomic sequences identified and shared with world by China
Jan. 12. (WHO report) China publicly shared the genetic sequence of COVID-19.
Jan. 12. Trump did nothing
Jan 13: nCoV test kits first available from China
Jan. 13 (WHO report) nCoV test kits first available from China
Jan. 13. Trump did nothing
Jan. 14 WHO’s technical lead for the response noted in a press briefing there may have been limited human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus (in the 41 confirmed cases), mainly through family members, and that there was a risk of a possible wider outbreak. The lead also said that human-to-human transmission would not be surprising given our experience with SARS, MERS and other respiratory pathogens.
Jan. 14. Trump did nothing
Jan. 15. Trump did nothing
Jan. 16. Trump did nothing
Jan. 17. Trump did nothing
Jan. 18. Trump did nothing
Jan. 19. Trump did nothing
Jan. 20: COVID19 designated a class B notifiable disease
Ja. 20 – 21 WHO experts from its China and Western Pacific regional offices conducted a brief field visit to Wuhan.
Jan. 20. Trump did nothing
Jan. 21. First case in US identified in Kirkland, WA
Jan. 21. Trump did nothing
Jan. 22. WHO mission to China issued a statement saying that there was evidence of human-to-human transmission in Wuhan but more investigation was needed to understand the full extent of transmission.
Jan. 22. Trump interviewed by CNBC’s Joe Kernan:
JOE KERNAN: “the CDC– has identified a case of coronavirus– in Washington state. The Wuhan strain of this. If you remember SARS, that affected GDP. Travel-related effects. Do you– have you been briefed by the CDC? And–”
TRUMP: “I have, and–”
JOE KERNEN: “–are there worries about a pandemic at this point?”
TRUMP: “No. Not at all. And– we’re– we have it totally under control.” (see entry for Mar 17) “It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s—going to be just fine.” (See entries for Feb. 26 and Mar. 10)
Jan.22 – 23. The WHO Director- General convened an Emergency Committee (EC) under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) to assess whether the outbreak constituted a public health emergency of international concern. The independent members from around the world could not reach a consensus based on the evidence available at the time. They asked to be reconvened within 10 days after receiving more information.
Jan. 23: Wuhan + Hubei is in lockdown, also many parts of China in the next few days
Jan. 23. Trump did nothing
Jan. 24: another 15 Chinese cities shut down
Jan. 24: Trump tweets, “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency….”
Jan. 25 – 31 Lunar New Year national Holiday in China
Jan. 25: Trump did nothing
Jan. 26. Trump did nothing
Jan. 27. Trump did nothing
Jan. 28. A senior WHO delegation led by the Director-General travelled to Beijing to meet China’s leadership, learn more about China’s response, and to offer any technical assistance. While in Beijing, Dr. Tedros agreed with Chinese government leaders that an international team of leading scientists would travel to China on a mission to better understand the context, the overall response, and exchange information and experience.
Jan. 28. Trump did nothing
Jan. 29. Trump did nothing
Jan 30: The WHO Director-General reconvened the Emergency Committee (EC). This was earlier than the 10-day period and only two days after the first reports of limited human-to-human transmission were reported outside China. This time, the EC reached consensus and advised the Director-General that the outbreak constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The Director-General accepted the recommendation and declared the novel coronavirus outbreak (2019-nCoV) a PHEIC. This is the 6th time WHO has declared a PHEIC since the International Health Regulations (IHR) came into force in 2005.
Jan. 30: Trump holds a campaign rally in Iowa: “We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. … we think it’s going to have a very good ending for it.”
Jan 30: Trump discusses the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement at Dana Incorporated in Warren, Mich. “Now we’re working very strongly with China on the coronavirus — that’s a new thing that a lot of people are talking about. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as some people think it could be.”
Jan. 31. Trump bars flights from China
Feb, 1: – 10: China imposes nationwide mandatory extended holiday
Feb. 1: Trump did nothing
Feb. 2: Trump tells Fox News host Sean Hannity, “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
Feb 3. WHO releases the international community’s Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan to help protect states with weaker health systems.
Feb. 3. Trump did nothing.
Feb. 7: Trump sends 17.8 tons (more than 35,000 pounds) of “masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials” to China. (https://www.cnn.com) (see entry for March 18)
Feb. 11 – 12. WHO convened a Research and Innovation Forum on COVID-19, attended by more than 400 experts and funders from around the world, which included presentations by George Gao, Director General of China CDC, and Zunyou Wu, China CDC’s chief epidemiologist.
Feb. 11. Trump did nothing.
Feb. 12. Trump did nothing.
Feb. 13. Trump did nothing.
Feb 14: Trump discusses the “very small” number of U.S. coronavirus cases with Border Patrol Council members: “We have a very small number of people in the country, right now, with it. It’s like around 12. Many of them are getting better. Some are fully recovered already. So we’re in very good shape.”
Feb. 24: Stock market plummets as Dow Jones Industrials falls more than 1,000 points. Trump tweet: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
Feb. 26: The first case emerges in California with no clear source, suggesting community spread of the virus. In a news conference that day, Trump says “the United States is really prepared.”
Feb. 26: Tweet from Trump: “…we closed up our borders to flights coming in from certain areas, areas that were hit by the coronavirus and hit pretty hard. … The infection seems to have gone down over the last two days.”
Feb. 26: Trump “And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”
Feb. 28: Trump claimed: “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
March 2: World Health Organization announced that it will take 18 months for a vaccine to be developed and ready for use.
March 2. Trump after a meeting with big pharma companies: “We had a great meeting today with a lot of the great companies and they’re going to have vaccines, I think relatively soon.”
March 3. Trump did nothing
March 4: In a Fox News interview, Trump deflected criticism to his response by saying the Obama administration (including the vice president, Joe Biden) “didn’t do anything about” swine flu. (that claim was false). Trump continued to blame the Obama administration in an exchange with reporters at the White House. “The Obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental to what we’re doing.” (why is testing “detrimental?” It is necessary!)
March 5. Trump did nothing.
March 6: at CDC in Atlanta: “Anybody that needs a test, gets a test. They’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful.” (A flagrant lie)
March 6: Trump said in a tweet: “The Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power – it used to be greater! — to inflame the CoronaVirus situation, far beyond what the facts would warrant.”
March 9: Trump tweets: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on.” (He compared Covid-19 with flu!)
March 10: in US capitol Trump claimed: “And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
March 11. Deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction, WHO made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.
March 12: before bilateral meeting with Irish PM Trump said: “It’s going to go away. … The United States, because of what I did and what the administration did with China, we have 32 deaths at this point … when you look at the kind of numbers that you’re seeing coming out of other countries, it’s pretty amazing when you think of it.”
March 13. COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund launched by WHO to receive donations from private individuals, corporations and institutions.
March 17 Trump said in a news conference: “I’ve always known this is a real, this is a pandemic. I’ve felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” (see entries for Jan. 22 and Mar. 19)
March 18. WHO and partners launch the Solidarity Trial, an international clinical trial that aims to generate robust data from around the world to find the most effective treatments for COVID-19.
March 18. Trump defiantly told governors pressing him to help their states obtain similar equipment: “The federal government’s not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping,” adding, “We’re not a shipping clerk.” (CNN) (see entry for February 7 re shipping tons of PPE and respirators to China))
March 19: Washington Post: “As President Trump has come around to the severity of the coronavirus, he has increasingly fought back against criticism of his administration’s response by suggesting the crisis was basically inconceivable.”
“ ‘I would view it as something that just surprised the whole world,’ he said Thursday at his daily briefing, adding later that it was ‘uncharted territory’ and saying, ‘Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion’.” (WaPo March 19) (see entries for Mar 17 and Mar19)
//
March 29: Trump announced that it might take until April 31 for the virus to go away. (?!?!?)
April 23: Trump recommends that individuals treat their Covid19 by injecting household disinfectants into their bodies and by exposing their bare skin to UV-C radiation.
As a result of Trump’s wonderful “handling” of the pandemic, the US has the largest number of Covid19 fatalities of any nation on earth.
//
Then there’s this —
This Stunningly Detailed Timeline of Trump’s Failures
Shows America’s Coronavirus Crisis Was a Man-Made Disaster
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_87566.shtml
Posted by: AntiSpin | Jun 2 2020 19:06 utc | 26
Excellent post by b. Numerous questions that should be answered by the cops and the Administration – but, of course, won’t be.
Posted by: BraveNewWorld | Jun 2 2020 17:35 utc | 2 That is what you get for sending your police to Israel for training.
Absolutely correct.
“Senator Tom Cotton: No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters.”
No quarter for the state. But do it *intelligently*.
By the way, bank robbery is no longer the smart way (not that it ever was, actually, as I proved.) Today, computer hacking is the smart way. Master hacking and you can expose state and corporate (the two are the same) crimes, loot state and corporate resources, and influence events on the national and world stage. Snowden and Assange are the new heroes, instead of Durruti and Bonnot (but the latter are still to be respected.)
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Jun 2 2020 18:31 utc | 15 Elections will mean nothing unless the rules for eligibility are fundamentally changed.
Correct. If people want to organize, they need to go after the *money*. Meaning corporate campaign contributions need to be abolished. Corporate lobbying needs to be abolished. Corporation are *not* “people”, regardless of what the “law” says. They have no “right” to lobby or elect government. There needs to be a cap on campaign contributions by individuals as well, so the rich can’t donate millions to a campaign. If politicians have to pander to someone, force them to pander to the small individual voter, not the corporations and oligarchs. And the habit of senior military and other government officials to immediately be put on corporate boards the minute they leave government service needs to be abolished. I don’t expect any of this to happen, but it should,
Posted by: vk | Jun 2 2020 19:17 utc | 30 a “Mad Max” scenario (Crisis of the Third Century style) is the most likely scenario for the final collapse of the USA.
I prefer the ambiance used in the “cyberpunk” science-fiction genre which was popular in the ’80s. We’ve been heading pretty steadily toward that depiction for some time now. In cyberpunk, corporations have more power than the government (including private armies), street gangs rule the streets except for corporate enclaves, cults flourish, and hackers and “solos” (jacked-up criminal ex-military mercenaries) commit “runs” against corporations, stealing data for sale.
I think it’s pretty obvious that depiction accurately reflects current society (albeit not quite so “techy” as the books are – no “cyborgs” – yet.)
Posted by: Nick | Jun 2 2020 19:31 utc | 35 Require all police officers in all jurisdictions to carry individual liability insurance just like doctors.
Interesting idea. Not sure it works as well as you suggest, at least for lawyers and doctors. Lawyers are still frequently committing crimes, and doctors restrict their “off-label” drug use and are loath to change treatment protocols due to fear of a malpractice suit. Still, it would force some focus on establishing liability for police officers. I’d also agree with Jimmy Dore’s comment that ex-military should not be allowed to become cops on release from the surface – wrong training, wrong mentality for police work.
Posted by: Dr Wellington Yueh | Jun 2 2020 19:32 utc | 37
My Internet was *really* slow this afternoon. Firefox behaved strangely – didn’t want to start up. Couldn’t connect to some sites as easily as usual. Google Gmail took forever to load. Something was definitely up. Of course, it could just be an Xfinity DNS issue or a DNS issue elsewhere. It could be just that the Internet is being stressed by too many people still in lockdown surfing for news of the riots. Then again, it could be the government messing with the system.
Posted by: Randa | Jun 2 2020 20:00 utc | 41 who may very well be manufactured synthetics and not real humans)
OK – you can take over from me as the bar fly subject to insults by being outside the “Overton Window.” LOL
Posted by: vinnieoh | Jun 2 2020 21:52 utc | 55 Money is the answer, as it is the only language our masters understand and respect. And I have long believed that the only way to change ANY of the ills of our society is to start taking the money out of the pockets of the wealthy.
Agreed. I’d like to see a general strike, but I’m not sure how much momentum that would get, considering, as you say, that most people can’t afford to do so. Even with the lockdown, I don’t think enough people are willing to just say “fuck it” and go along with that idea. But who knows, you may be right.
I think I linked to this back in one of the virus threads here, but I recommend everyone read this piece by an American living in China.
The Billionaires ~ The System ~ The Problem ~ The Solution
According to OxFam, the world’s billionaires combined have an estimated
$24 TRILLION IN CASH.
THAT’S JUST IN THEIR
PERSONAL BANK ACCOUNTS.
So in other words, the billionaires could give the world half of it now, that’s $12 TRILLION. And they would STILL possess the other $12 trillion in cash PLUS all of their other assets including their massive businesses, stocks, bonds, private jets, Bentleys, mansions and super yachts.
Imagine this. A $12 TRILLION CASH contribution to stave off the societal meltdown of the century would not make one tiny iota of a difference to any one of them.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 2 2020 22:13 utc | 58
Agree completely.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jun 2 2020 23:27 utc | 76
We are all Palestinians, Now!
Saw this link on MofA recently; this explains the actions of the police occupying forces in the US.
https://palestineishere.org/places/police/ Other areas – government, universities, etc are also listed. Check out the map and compare to where the police/national guard are now acting.
Hopefully, a corallation of this training with the murder by the police occupying forces can be made. There will likely be a very high corollation to murder and brutality, since the aparteid soldiers of Israel have no qualms about shooting peaceful protestors dead. It would be very useful if someone who has gone through the Israeli training could provide a detailed overview or ,better yet, if Anonymous could get the real training materials.
The effects of the Zionist training have be summarized in an important report (pdf below) by: https://www.researchingthealliance.org/deadly-exchange
https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Deadly-Exchange-Report-Code-939480235.pdf
“these programs facilitate an exchange of methods of state violence and control, including mass surveillance, racial profiling, and suppression of protest and dissent.”
“Over 11,000 additional American law enforcement officials have attended LEEP conferences nationwide, which invite Israeli security officials as experts.”
“this report demonstrates that the delegations’ endorsement of Israel’s use of expansive surveillance, blatant racial profiling, and brutal force as a model for US law enforcement puts us all in danger.”
“In particular, activists participating in efforts to combat Islamophobia, as well as activists in the Black Lives Matter movement, and in the movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline have been tracked, questioned, and sometimes arrested and charged based on their political expression and affiliations on social media. Since the declaration of the War on Terror, police have routinely surveilled and obstructed activities protected under the First Amendment in at least 36 states.”
“But Broken Windows and community policing blamed American urban decay on the behavior and values of poor, primarily Black, residents, and ignored the state’s structural abandonment in the form of massive cuts to housing, health, and environmental protections, and the absence of essential services, jobs, and legal protections. ”
“What American law enforcement see in Israeli policing is the official policy of marking entire populations as suspect, a model that is in direct opposition to efforts to end the racial profiling that has long been constitutive of American policing.”
“This increasing encroachment on human and civil rights in the name of security is enhanced by US law enforcement’s training and technological trade with Israel. Ongoing exchanges with the Israeli military, police, and intelligence agencies have contributed to expanding surveillance, including comprehensive visual and online monitoring and heightened infiltration of entire social movements and communities; They have further advanced marking Black and Brown people as suspect, particularly Arabs and Muslims, and have helped to refine policies, tactics, and technologies of systematic racial profiling targeting these communities and social movements that seek racial justice; And they promote the suppression of protests in American streets by treating protestors as enemy combatants, and by controlling media coverage of this state violence. Upon their return, US law enforcement delegations implement practices learned from Israel’s use of invasive surveillance, blatant racial profiling, and repressive use of force that endanger us all.”
Posted by: heresy101 | Jun 2 2020 23:40 utc | 78
Referencing Michael Hudson and “debt cancellation”, here is an interesting article I just found about the history of the concept.
The Long History of Debt Cancellation
In his sweeping history Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), the anthropologist David Graeber suggests that cohesion in the earliest societies would have grown out of a sense of divine, unpayable indebtedness and an expectation of mutual reciprocity. For most of human history, this was the kind of indebtedness most people would have recognized: an “everyday communism,” Graeber calls it, of collective stewardship and interdependence without end.
Graeber’s central claim is that the rigid state apparatus for the regulation of indebtedness—the development of state-sanctioned money, a regime of quantified exchange, and punishment of nonpayment—had to be created, predicated on the fungibility of debt. And for Graeber, an anarchist, it can just as well be dismantled.
Anyone ever heard of Shay’s Rebellion?
And this is how the United States – the “land of the free and the home of the brave” – responded to that rebellion:
Legendary patriot Samuel Adams, however, called for the execution of the rebellious farmers.
The Massachusetts legislature offered leniency and flexibility to those with tax burdens. Amnesty was also offered to the rebels if they disavowed the efforts to close the courts. The farmers were expected to take oaths of allegiance to the state government.
However, a bill was passed excusing sheriffs from responsibility if they killed any insurgents and declaring harsh punishments for rebels in custody. Soon after, the legislature suspended the writ of habeas corpus for a period of time.
Another bill prescribed the death penalty for militiamen who took part in the protests.
At the time of Shays’ Rebellion, the newly formed United States was governed by the Articles of Confederation, a document that many in the country felt was too weak to effectively manage the fledgling nation.
The specter of Shays’ Rebellion informed the debate over the framing of a new U.S. Constitution, providing fuel to Alexander Hamilton and other Federalists who advocated for a strong federal government and diminished states’ rights.
Nationalists used the rebellion to heighten paranoia, and George Washington was convinced enough by their arguments to come out of retirement and take part in the Constitutional Convention, where he was elected the first president of the United States.
Another history is here: Remembering the “Regulation” – called Shays’s Rebellion.
As Szatmary notes, not one of the petitions called for redistribution of property or an overthrow of the government–they all wanted to work “through the system.”
All of the petitions were either denied or ignored—the deflationary condition suited the merchants and creditors just fine, or most of them. And not only were the petitions dismissed, they were ridiculed.
The farmers were characterized as being both ignorant and lazy, as men who would rather spend their time complaining than providing for their families. Sean Condon, in his excellent Shays’s Rebellion, quotes from a parody petition published at the time, signed by “Amos Spendthrift, Tom Seldomsober, and Simon Dreadwork.” (A nasty bit of hypocritical Calvinism still very much with us—as when the problems of the economy are blamed on “welfare queens,” at the same time the Federal Government was bailing out another round of speculators with more money than had been spent on public assistance since the beginning of the New Deal.)
Even the right of citizens to hold county conventions was attacked—that while such conventions were necessary and appropriate while under the yoke of a foreign power, under an elected government they were characterized by the elite as being somehow seditious.”
Within four days three columns of farmers, many of them armed with muskets, converged on the town of Northampton on the Connecticut River. Men from Pelham and Greenwich marched under Captain Joseph Hines, a Revolutionary War veteran, while another veteran, Captain Joel Billings, led a column from Amherst. These two columns were greeted before dawn on the outskirts of the town by a stream of men from points west. In all, 1500 men, a third of them armed, marched to fife and drum at first light to the Northampton courthouse to close it down. Around midmorning, the county sheriff and the three judges, unable to enter the court through a wall of muskets and bayonets, retired to a nearby tavern. There, after meeting with a delegation of six men representing the protesters who asked them not to hear any cases until their petition had been redressed, adjourned “all matters pending” and went home. The farmers did the same.
The protestors called themselves “regulators.” A “regulation” was a popular direct action to curb excesses of a local official—a tradition with roots in seventeenth century England that had already been adopted in America: once in North Carolina and another time in South Carolina. The Regulators in Massachusetts wore a sprig of spruce or hemlock in their hats as their badge.
As a balance to the above measures, and to satisfy those such as Samuel Adams who were calling for blood and quick executions, the state passed a series of highly coercive acts. One of the first was the Militia Act, making it a capital offense for a militia officer or soldier to aid or abet the uprising, through action, inaction, or speech, or by refusing to serve. Since almost every able-bodied male citizen was in the militia, by law, this act not only threatened most of the Regulators with hanging, but also any militiaman who refused to march against his neighbors. The act was also meant to silence the few state congressmen who were defending the Regulators, and men such as William Whiting, the Berkshire County judge who wrote several tracts in support of the Regulation, such as:
Whenever any encroachments are made either upon the liberties or properties of the people, if redress cannot be had without, it is virtue in them to disturb government.
The new Constitution needed to be ratified by the states. The Antifederalists correctly saw the new document as favoring elite power. By intention, the Constitution favored property over people, and a variety of checks were included to limit democratic power. In Massachusetts the Antifederalists were (pejoratively) called “Shaysites” by the Federalists, and, indeed, those sympathetic to the Regulation were heavily against the proposed new government. The ratification assembly on the Constitution was held in Boston. Fifty Antifederalist towns in western Massachusetts were unable to afford to send their delegates. Even so, the vote was close: 187 to 168—the Federalist victory undoubtedly helped by the last-minute endorsement of John Hancock. To many veteran yeomen, the Constitution was the counter-revolution, and only the promise of a bill of rights convinced some to support the new centralization of power. Thus we might thank Daniel Shays for the Bill of Rights.
Read the rest of it. This is your history, folks. The “United States” violated its own founding principles within a few years of creating them – at the behest of the rich.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jun 3 2020 0:06 utc | 83
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