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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.
agree with most of 81 and 92 RSH @ 81 and 92. but there is much more the anti federalist wrote many papers.. most of the were not published. money was not on the side of the masses. And Colonel Shay was a major party to the success of aristocrat George rich man Washington at Valley Forge, it was Shay’s men that fought much of that battle.
next.
It is illegal to advocate the overthrow of the United States Government, K @ 15 Yes, it is a violation of human rights to deny the right of self determination. <= what is the purpose of throw the bums out voting, if it is illegal to actually throw the bums out? No where in the constitution can I find replacing one constitution with a new one to be off limits, prohibited or denied? Please point out where the constitution speaks to that?
Of course the sitting government might not be happy to play by a new set of rules, and the Oligarchs and monopoly powered corporations who have used the government to abuse the people might be upset, and do as they always do, raise mercenary armies to force their way, but who cares?
I think the question is can a place in the constitution be found that says the constitution itself cannot be replaced by the same process or inverse of the same process it was created by? Interestingly, the Articles of Confederation said the Articles would be perpetual, but the Constitution replaced the Articles of
Confederation in just 11 years is silent at its termination date.
Is it unconstitutional to toss one constitution out for another new one? <=Read Article VII. The Founders put a neat little clause in their Philadelphia 1787-88 constitutional proposal (replace one set of founding documents with another, they did not replace the government, which was probably illegal also, they even keep the name (the United States of America, they just replaced the founders and the rules; and they did this by substituting new founders' documents for the old founders's document).
The Philadelphia Founders used ratification to change the rules and to make themselves founder of the republican form of government? Why, because they were unhappy with the democratic (John Hancock, first President, 1776-1788) form of government but the masses were very happy with it. The Philadelphia founders invented ratification as the means by which they would extract state rights into Federalism and squeeze democracy into a republic. Replacing the rules those in government must govern by, instead of those who operate the government, seems very civil to me. There may be precedent in the very constitution congress assembles under, . read Article VII and tell me what you think? Also a longer route is already in the constitution. it has do with amending the constitution.
I think ratification should have been named environment variable reconfiguration because constitutions configure the environment variables settings and values; and it is these settings and values that control the way the governors must operate, and because settings and values change the rights of those that are to be governed, but then who am I to make suggestions, IANAL
The US electoral system has never offered voters a choice PK @ 15<==Snake says The two party system is continued because it controls the secret negotiations that determine the outcome of electoral college votes. The joke has been on the voters, they caste a ballot, thinking they are voting for the president, but no ordinary citizen can vote for either of the Article II (president and vP) persons, at least that is how the constitution reads to me. <=voting for President and VP is reserved by constitution to electoral college members. See Article II, section 3 and amendment 12 of the 1788 founders constitution.
Most Americans, both Left and Right want radical change. . by: Petri Krohn @ 15<= but can those who want change peacefully negotiate for constitutional terms in a democratic process? Who will keep the corporate mercenary armies from interfering? Today's Internet can enable everyone to participate.. a constitution and the government it enables should be majority agreed. If only Congress would enforce the Bill of Rights Amendments (BORA) so search engines, tracking technology, and political media labeled social media and artificial intelligence cannot be used to abuse human or constitutional rights, negotiations between the governors and the governed might be easy.
I think it is necessary to really study the constitutions the federal as well as the state constitutions to see if a bright line path is available for a grass root effort to restore democracy to those that live under constitutional government.
Leave the governors alone, it won't even matter if the governors stay in power, instead find a way to change the rules the governors are allowed to operate by and a way to make them enforce the rules.
Constitutions are laws that rulers must comply with, Laws are rules the governed must comply with. .
It many not be replacement, may not be amendment, it may merely be, that the governed in the nation need to come together and force those who operate the government under the existing constitution do so in accord with the existing constitution. The governors can start by enforcing the Bill of Rights Amendments (BORA) because, I believe, enforcement of BORA would deny search engines, social media and technology any right to invade homes, snoop on their private activities and it would stop media providers from preventing people, websites and alternative media from gaining equal and unlimited access to media.. IMO but IANAL
Posted by: snake | Jun 3 2020 2:51 utc | 104
San Francisco press updates…
During the day, all was trouble-free in San Francisco as upwards of 1,000 people marched down the Great Highway and gathered at Ocean Beach on Tuesday under the clear blue afternoon sky. The event, billed as Sunset Solidarity March for Black Lives Matter, began around 11 a.m. and was peaceful, a police officer said.
By 3:45 p.m., the marchers had concluded as police vans were lined up on Sloat Boulevard, where roughly a dozen officers carrying batons and zip ties prepared to depart. One carried stacked boxes of Escape from New York Pizza.
In Alameda County, black families earn a median of $71,800 — compared to a median income of $138,400 for white families and $148,400 for Asian families, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In Redwood City, which has not been the site of any major protests yet, about 2,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the old San Mateo County courthouse around 4 p.m., with speakers addressing the crowd hours before an 8:30 p.m. San Mateo County curfew. It was organized in part by Tiffany Medrano-Martinez, 14, who said she could have never imagined she’d be standing in front of hundreds of people that less than a week after graduating from Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Redwood City. Medrano-Martinez said in an interview that she was in her cap and gown having a celebratory dinner with her family when she asked her brother to help her design a protest flyer to excoriate the “horrible injustice” of the police killing of Floyd. That flyer was shared by hundreds of people on social media. “I was expecting 50 people,” Medrano-Martinez said. “I feel so proud and I feel so much love.” Medrano-Martinez took to the steps of the old San Mateo County courthouse and in tears gave a rousing speech to protesters followed by chanting. “I don’t have a lot of friends, I’m only friends with about 10 people,” Medrano-Martinez said. “I’m not a huge social butterfly so it’s crazy that this many people came to support.”
The protesters were met with a limited police presence, in stark contrast to police reaction to protesters across the Bay Area in the past several days. That was “by design,” said Redwood City Chief of Police Dan Mulholland. “You’re not seeing people in riot gear,” Mulholland said. “It’s symbolic of the message we are trying to get across which is that you are welcome here and we’re here to support you.”
At around 6:30 p.m., hundreds of people began marching down Broadway Avenue in Redwood City toward Woodside Road. Redwood City police officers, joined by others from surrounding police departments, swarmed on the 76 gas station on Broadway and Chestnut Street where seven men were posted up with shotguns and pistols “ready to defend their property,” police said. Speeding toward the crowd in a motorcycle, one Redwood City Police officer asked the crowd to stay put while police arrested the seven men. No more details are available at this time.
In San Francisco, more than 1,000 people marched down the Great Highway, hugging the Pacific coast, from Sloat Boulevard to Lincoln Way, around 1 p.m., far from the usual epicenter of protests in the city around San Francisco City Hall and the United Nations Plaza.
Officer Knee to Neck Restraint Not Allowed by Most Bay Area Agencies
To quote a line from the Serenity movie:
Capt. Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds: I don’t plan on any shooting taking place during this job.
Jayne: Yeah, well, what you plan and what takes place ain’t ever exactly been similar.
June 2, 10 a.m. Clutching a Bible, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called upon President Donald Trump to tone down divisive rhetoric when discussing the George Floyd protests, saying that he “has a responsibility to heal.”
How lame is that – trying to copy Trump by holding a bible? Like anyone over the age of four can’t see through that…
June 2, 10:05 a.m. A Bay Area woman and horse ranch owner captured the attention of Oakland protesters Monday night when she rode her horse, Dapper Dan, down city streets wielding a Black Lives Matter sign. In an interview with KQED, the rider, Brianna Noble, said she decided to take her horse to the protest to “kind of change the narrative of what’s going on,” and give people “a good, bright, positive image to focus on, as opposed to some of the destruction.” Noble added that this protest is bigger than just the death of George Floyd. “People are angry about what’s happened, and we need to change an entire criminal justice system,” she said.
June 2, noon While most Bay Area cities are enforcing curfews beginning at 8 p.m. or 8:30 p.m., some are setting the start time earlier. Pleasant Hill’s begins at 7 p.m., while San Leandro’s curfew is scheduled for 6 p.m. On Tuesday, Antioch also enacted an earlier curfew, now set to begin at 6 p.m. The new curfew time is in effect until Wednesday, and supercedes Contra Costa County’s curfew, which has been set at 8 p.m. until further notice.
Palo Alto, however, took the surprising step of extending its curfew order 10 days. The curfew will be in effect in the city between the hours of 8:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. until June 11, or earlier if lifted before then. The city cited an onslaught of groups “not in any way engaged in legitimate First Amendment activity [who] have planned and executed criminal acts, including property damage and theft … during nighttime hours.”
June 2, 4:20 p.m. The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office reported Tuesday afternoon that officers booked 122 individuals into the Santa Rita jail Monday. Of those 122, 82 were “not from Alameda County cities,” and several were not from the area at all. The Sheriff’s Office did not disclose where those individuals came from. All together, the 122 people booked into the jail were charged with 382 various felony crimes, “from serious violence, robbery, burglary, looting, pursuits, stolen vehicles, weapons, drugs etc.”
Still the “they’re not local” narrative…
LATEST June 2, 7:05 p.m. At a peaceful protest in Marin City, the sister of the late Tupac Shakur spoke. “We are worthy,” Sekyiwa Shakur said. “We are not disposable. Each one of you is just as precious as George Floyd, as Tupac Shakur.” Bad audio but still a powerful message from Tupac’s sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, in Marin City. “We are worthy. We are not disposable. Each one of you is just as precious as George Floyd, as Tupac Shakur.” pic.twitter.com/8ItUkjPTz9
— Liz Kreutz (@ABCLiz) June 2, 2020
Otherwise, San Francisco seems quiet so far tonight. No police sirens, no helicopters, no spotter planes.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jun 3 2020 3:31 utc | 108
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