Monday, June 01, 2020

And Then There is Our Former President

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Brave, Brave Sir Robin Crawled out of his bunker


Because somebody's got to be "in charge," and it sure can't be the POTUS!  Right?

Surveillance for thee, but not for me!
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This Fish is Rotting Rapidly


And we'd do it, too, if not for that meddling "rule of law!"

What are the rules for the use of force? Does looting justify shooting? 


No. Federal military forces responding to civil unrest comply with Standing Rules for the use of Force (SRUF). These rules are generally less permissive than Standing Rules of Engagement (SROE) that the military uses in operational environments overseas and more traditional military missions. Both sets of rules are promulgated via the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and tailored to the individual mission. To be sure, these rules governing the use of force are policy guidance, but they reflect the complex strategic, legal, and morality issues that are in play whenever the U.S. military uses force on our own soil.

Kill 'em all!  Teach 'em a lesson!  Right, Senator?  Bring in a few helicopter gunships to soften 'em up, then drop paratroopers firing as they land right in the middle of 'em!
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What's that Orwell quote?


Two college friends are former prosecutors and commented after having read the charging documents. The first said the charging document looked like it had been written by the defense with all kinds of holes big enough to drive a truck through. The second was stunned that they only charged 3rd degree and manslaughter given the facts alone from the first video. The first also read the initial autopsy report and said it was also deeply problematic, having statements that Floyd died of something else, there could have been contributions from intoxicants when there was no toxicology results yet. His take was the prosecutor and coroner were helping set up an acquittal. There is much more broken here than Chauvin and the three other (former) officers.

About what's the hardest thing to see is what's right in front of your nose?

I find it easy to accept vicious police officers reacting with excessive violence to a large black man.

I don't mean to excuse that violence.  I only mean I've come to accept it happens, and it is reprehensible.  But DA's and coroners joining in the conspiracy?  That part I still have trouble wrapping my head around.

Maybe I should give a bit more deference to the wisdom of the crowd.  And look more carefully at what's at the end of my nose.

ADDING:

Well, there you go.  How many more nights of rioting in Minneapolis will this provoke?
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I'm not going to get tired of this anytime soon


Meanwhile, context:
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Looks a lot like "premeditation" to me

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To recap:


Yeah, how did that work out?

Trump spent that night in the bunker below the White House.  The next night, he retreated to the bunker again, and turned the lights off.
But before that, and during the day when it was safe, he found someone to blame for all this:
And got his AG to join the chorus:
The answer to that question is:  "No."

75 U.S. cities experience protest marches and violence.  Trump manages to notice three of them.  And even his advisors don't take the "Antifa" line seriously:

Nor do his former allies:
Not that there won't be some serious bullshit swirling around this election:
But does anybody really expect this guy to inspire armed insurrection when he doesn't win in November?  The strongest thing he's done this week is suggest his supporters rally 'round the White House.  And they aren't real inspired by his leadership.
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And then there's that "thin blue line" in the middle




Those "legitimate problems" include where this all started:
And how it's being handled:
This is a reminder of who should be in charge:
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Actions Speak Louder Than Words

“Many are asking the president to give an Oval Office address on these riots because our country is just experiencing so much chaos right now,” Fox News co-host Ainsley Earhardt wondered.

“The president has addressed this repeatedly,”[White House Press Secretary Kayleigh] McEnany replied. “The first day he saw this video he addressed the horrific death of George Floyd. He’s addressed the issue of law and order in our streets.”

“But here’s the thing, Ainsley, a national Oval Office address is not going to stop Antifa,” she added. “What’s going to stop Antifa is action. And this president is committed to acting on this.”
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"Is it safe?"


Well, the sun came up, and look what came out:



Plus hiding in the White House and turning off the lights?


Don't worry; we won't forget.
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"Turn out the lights, the party's over!"



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Sunday, May 31, 2020

Coward in Chief

Interesting problem: does he understand he needs to respond to a problem that involves other people, not just him? Everything just swirls down the drain of dis self-concern, doesn’t it?
Brave, brave Sir Robin:
Of course he did. Living in a fortress is not enough. He’s got to go to the nuclear bunker. Because people outside are yelling things, and he might hear them.
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The Hunting of the Snipe


That would be this guy (from Trump's twitter feed);

And here's what Axios said:

As recently as Saturday night, senior administration officials told me that the designation of a violent cohort of far-left activists, antifa, as a terrorist organization was not being seriously discussed at the White House. But that was Saturday.

Behind the scenes: The situation changed dramatically a few hours later, after prominent conservative allies of the president, such as his friend media commentator Dan Bongino, publicly urged a tough response against people associated with antifa (short for "anti-fascist").

A senior White House official told me that on Sunday morning, President Trump discussed the move with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Attorney General Bill Barr. 
Then, at 12:23pm, Trump tweeted: "The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization  
Yes, but: There currently is no law under which Trump could formally designate antifa, a loosely defined and domestic movement, as a terrorist organization. Only the State Department can designate foreign groups as terrorist organizations.

Mark Bray, author of "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook," wrote of Trump's tweet: "To explain a little: it's like calling bird-watching an organization. Yes, there are bird-watching organizations as there are Antifa organizations but neither bird-watching nor antifa is an organization."

About an hour after Trump's tweet, Barr said in a statement that antifa protesters were engaged in domestic terrorism.

"To identify criminal organizers and instigators, and to coordinate federal resources with our state and local partners, federal law enforcement is using our existing network of 56 regional FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces."

"The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly."

In other words, they're chasing shadows and hunting snipe and generally carrying on as if someone had stolen the tarts, while 75 cities burn and roil and the people scream for justice.  Pretty much justifies this observation:
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Where is Donald?


Nixon slipped out of the White House one night to talk to anti-war protestors and others on the Mall.

Where is Donald?

Oh.  Clearly not where the people are:

I'm only sorry I'm not in Minneapolis.  Seems like a good reason to break social distancing.
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A Really Stupid and Futile Gesture


A) Does he understand the National Guard are under control of state governors?
B) Does he care about the other 75 cities where protests have been staged?
C) Are the National Guard there to protect us from the police?

Do not tell me again about people setting fires and otherwise protesting "improperly."  I don't wanna hear it.
And in lieu of actually doing anything:

And soon after the Black Panthers, the Weather Underground, the SDS, and the Symbionese Liberation Army!

I'm so glad Twitter regards this stuff as a public service:

He doesn't know what the word means; he does know how to do it.

The future isn't over yet.

Finally, a real public service.

"Largely" is hiding a really big elephant in the room, and not very successfully.

I blame Antifa.  And outside agitators!

Let us now praise decent men.

And is Trump looking out the window?


I love ya, Mags, but the war wasn't over in '69, and the violence on the streets in America didn't end in 1970 either. Nixon was visiting anti-war protestors on the Mall in his first term, for pity's sake.  And his re-election platform was a "secret plan to end the war." The National Guard murders (I have my opinions) at Kent State were May 4, 1970.  And later, the terrorism in the '70's, a continuation of the political violence of the late '60's, was dwarfed only by 9/11, and throughout most of the '70's Americans took it as much in stride as the weather.

Things were different, then.
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Ox. Gored.




Sure they are.
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Which came first?


Do we blame the people for being out of control?  Or the police for being out of control?

My money is on the latter.  Sure, blame is a useless exercise and tit for tat for tit for tat is an endless regression with no clear starting point; but the whole point of "law and order" is "order," and you quite honestly don't get that at the end of a billy club, from a can of tear gas, or via the bumper of a car.

"I and the school children know/What everyone must learn/Those to whom violence is done/Do violence in return."  Everybody's (mis)quoting Yeats these days; I prefer Auden for the occasion.

Yes, people running wild in the streets are responsible for their actions, just as the police are responsible for throwing gasoline on those actions, rather than water.  This fire is being put out with kerosene, from the White House down to the street level.  I don't care how many people are on the streets in how many cities:  the police have an obligation, a duty, a mission, to maintain order on those streets.

Not to meet crowds with greater escalations of violence as a way of beating the people into submission.  This isn't nearly so much on the people, as it is on the state, on the police, on the officials who are supposed to protect us, but seem to think that "protection" means bashing us in the head to satisfy their inability to cope; just like the President's.

I'm tired of reading tweets berating the people for the violence.  I blame the police.  They are the ones who need to be held to account first.  In New York City police were taping over their badge numbers:

Gee, I wonder why?







Is America great again yet?

QED.
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Saturday, May 30, 2020

Now do Portland, Seattle, Nashville, Dallas,


Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Brooklyn, Boston, Las Vegas, Denver, Louisville, Chicago...

Just where the FUCK do you think these "outside agitators" are coming from?

The entire Administration is in so far over their heads they won't see daylight until 2021.

Is the plan to lock up 25% of the nation?  At once?

Yeah, these riots are all staged to ruin your re-election!  I hear they brought back the ghost of Stanley Kubrick to film it on a soundstage in the desert!

And the rest of the country?  Nothing to see there?  Or fake news? By the way, did they release the Kraken, too?  I understand he's pretty bad ass! (And you understand you don't control the National Guard right now, right?)

Idiots!
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STOP HELPING!

And about those “few bad cops,” again:



Yeah, this’ll help:
Mostly because:
Well, and:

Meanwhile, more bad cops:
New York’s Finest:
And speaking of not helping:
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When Will We Ever Learn?

So is this a good cop, or a son of a bitch?
Definitely a bad cop this time:

Still don’t think this is the the time for preaching judgement and condemnation:
This is the better lesson:
And right now, this is the lesson.
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