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Dec 28, 2019 | crookedtimber.org
likbez 12.27.19 at 10:21 pm
John,I've been thinking about the various versions of and critiques of identity politics that are around at the moment. In its most general form, identity politics involves (i) a claim that a particular group is not being treated fairly and (ii) a claim that members of that group should place political priority on the demand for fairer treatment. But "fairer" can mean lots of different things. I'm trying to think about this using contrasts between the set of terms in the post title. A lot of this is unoriginal, but I'm hoping I can say something new.
You missed one important line of critique -- identity politics as a dirty political strategy of soft neoliberals.
See discussion of this issue by Professor Ganesh Sitaraman in his recent article (based on his excellent book The Great Democracy ) https://newrepublic.com/article/155970/collapse-neoliberalism
To be sure, race, gender, culture, and other aspects of social life have always been important to politics. But neoliberalism's radical individualism has increasingly raised two interlocking problems. First, when taken to an extreme, social fracturing into identity groups can be used to divide people and prevent the creation of a shared civic identity. Self-government requires uniting through our commonalities and aspiring to achieve a shared future.
When individuals fall back onto clans, tribes, and us-versus-them identities, the political community gets fragmented. It becomes harder for people to see each other as part of that same shared future.
Demagogues [more correctly neoliberals -- likbez] rely on this fracturing to inflame racial, nationalist, and religious antagonism, which only further fuels the divisions within society. Neoliberalism's war on "society," by pushing toward the privatization and marketization of everything, thus indirectly facilitates a retreat into tribalism that further undermines the preconditions for a free and democratic society.
The second problem is that neoliberals on right and left sometimes use identity as a shield to protect neoliberal policies. As one commentator has argued, "Without the bedrock of class politics, identity politics has become an agenda of inclusionary neoliberalism in which individuals can be accommodated but addressing structural inequalities cannot." What this means is that some neoliberals hold high the banner of inclusiveness on gender and race and thus claim to be progressive reformers, but they then turn a blind eye to systemic changes in politics and the economy.
Critics argue that this is "neoliberal identity politics," and it gives its proponents the space to perpetuate the policies of deregulation, privatization, liberalization, and austerity.
Of course, the result is to leave in place political and economic structures that harm the very groups that inclusionary neoliberals claim to support. The foreign policy adventures of the neoconservatives and liberal internationalists haven't fared much better than economic policy or cultural politics. The U.S. and its coalition partners have been bogged down in the war in Afghanistan for 18 years and counting. Neither Afghanistan nor Iraq is a liberal democracy, nor did the attempt to establish democracy in Iraq lead to a domino effect that swept the Middle East and reformed its governments for the better. Instead, power in Iraq has shifted from American occupiers to sectarian militias, to the Iraqi government, to Islamic State terrorists, and back to the Iraqi government -- and more than 100,000 Iraqis are dead.
Or take the liberal internationalist 2011 intervention in Libya. The result was not a peaceful transition to stable democracy but instead civil war and instability, with thousands dead as the country splintered and portions were overrun by terrorist groups. On the grounds of democracy promotion, it is hard to say these interventions were a success. And for those motivated to expand human rights around the world, it is hard to justify these wars as humanitarian victories -- on the civilian death count alone.
Indeed, the central anchoring assumptions of the American foreign policy establishment have been proven wrong. Foreign policymakers largely assumed that all good things would go together -- democracy, markets, and human rights -- and so they thought opening China to trade would inexorably lead to it becoming a liberal democracy. They were wrong. They thought Russia would become liberal through swift democratization and privatization. They were wrong.
They thought globalization was inevitable and that ever-expanding trade liberalization was desirable even if the political system never corrected for trade's winners and losers. They were wrong. These aren't minor mistakes. And to be clear, Donald Trump had nothing to do with them. All of these failures were evident prior to the 2016 election.
If we assume that identity politics is, first and foremost, a dirty and shrewd political strategy developed by the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party ("soft neoliberals") many things became much more clear. Along with Neo-McCarthyism it represents a mechanism to compensate for the loss of their primary voting block: trade union members, who in 2016 "en mass" defected to Trump.
Initially Clinton calculation was that trade union voters has nowhere to go anyways, and it was correct for first decade or so of his betrayal. But gradually trade union members and lower middle class started to leave Dems in droves (Demexit, compare with Brexit) and that where identity politics was invented to compensate for this loss.
So in addition to issues that you mention we also need to view the role of identity politics as the political strategy of the "soft neoliberals " directed at discrediting and the suppression of nationalism.
The resurgence of nationalism is the inevitable byproduct of the dominance of neoliberalism, resurgence which I think is capable to bury neoliberalism as it lost popular support (which now is limited to financial oligarchy and high income professional groups, such as we can find in corporate and military brass, (shrinking) IT sector, upper strata of academy, upper strata of medical professionals, etc)
That means that the structure of the current system isn't just flawed which imply that most problems are relatively minor and can be fixed by making some tweaks. It is unfixable, because the "Identity wars" reflect a deep moral contradictions within neoliberal ideology. And they can't be solved within this framework.
Jun 12, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Recall, it was just days ago that we pointed out Cornell professor and friend of Zero Hedge Dave Collum was publicly shamed by Cornell for daring to express the "wrong" opinion about current events on social media. Now, there's a second Cornell professor coming under fire for his critique of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson has challenged any student or faculty member to a public debate about the Black Lives Matter movement after he says liberals on campus have launched a "coordinated effort" to have him fired from his job. At least 15 emails from alumni have been sent to the dean, demanding that action be taken, according to Fox News .
"There is an effort underway to get me fired at Cornell Law School, where I've worked since November 2007, or if not fired, at least denounced publicly by the school," Jacobson wrote on Thursday . "I condemn in the strongest terms any insinuation that I am racist."
Jacobson founded the website Legal Insurrection and says he's had an "awkward relationship" with the university for years as a result. The recent outrage comes as a result of two posts he recently made on his site:
"Those posts accurately detail the history of how the Black Lives Matters Movement started, and the agenda of the founders which is playing out in the cultural purge and rioting taking place now," Jacobson said.
Jacobson (Source: Jacobson's Blog, Legal Insurrection )He recently wrote on his blog: "Living as a conservative on a liberal campus is like being the mouse waiting for the cat to pounce. For over 12 years, the Cornell cat did not pounce. Though there were frequent and aggressive attempts by outsiders to get me fired, including threats and harassment, it always came from off campus."
"Not until now, to the best of my knowledge, has there been an effort from inside the Cornell community to get me fired," he says.
"The effort appears coordinated, as some of the emails were in a template form. All of the emails as of Monday were from graduates within the past 10 years," he continued. Jacobson's "clinical faculty colleagues, apparently in consultation with the Black Law Students Association" drafted and published a letter denouncing 'commentators, some of them attached to Ivy League Institutions, who are leading a smear campaign against Black Lives Matter.'"
Cornell responded , backhandedly defending the Professor's right to his own opinion:
"...the Law School's commitment to academic freedom does not constitute endorsement or approval of individual faculty speech. But to take disciplinary action against him for the views he has expressed would fatally pit our values against one another in ways that would corrode our ability to operate as an academic institution."
"This is not just about me. It's about the intellectual freedom and vibrancy of Cornell and other higher education institutions, and the society at large. Open inquiry and debate are core features of a vibrant intellectual community," he stated.
"I challenge a representative of those student groups and a faculty member of their choosing to a public debate at the law school regarding the Black Lives Matter Movement, so that I can present my argument and confront the false allegations in real-time rather than having to respond to baseless community email blasts."
"I condemn in the strongest terms any insinuation that I am racist, and I greatly resent any attempt to leverage meritless accusations in hopes of causing me reputational harm. While such efforts might succeed in scaring others in a similar position, I will not be intimidated," Jacobson concluded.
Gerry Sorvino , 2 weeks agoJun 16, 2020 | www.youtube.com
Saagar Enjeti blasts the mainstream media for identifying the riots over George Floyd's death as Russian agenda.
Toan Ho , 2 weeks ago (edited)
Bear Martin , 2 weeks agoThis is why people hate DNC. who the F blames Russia in the middle of this? Russia has enough problems with Covid-19 to mess with local Minnesota politics. Dems are a dead party.
I've seen a lot of black Russians in those riots, lol.
"The Russians are Coming...The Russians are coming".... wait that was 60s' comedy.
Jun 16, 2020 | www.youtube.com
Saagar Enjeti blasts liberals for using identity politics to bolster their narrative on a moral high ground.
Lenny Nero , 1 day agoBlack VOTES matter. The elite care about nothing beyond that unless I missed something over the past 40 years.
James , 1 day agoRead the article yesterday, Taibbi has outdone himself with that one.
Christopher Nichols , 1 day agoThat is very revealing. A so-called journalist [activist] telling another journalist who is attempting to be objective that she is tired of having to deal with him for reporting on FACTS which has been repeatedly "asked" not to do.
Caius Cosades , 1 day agoIts Salem witch trails just switch the word, dont get caught practicing with craft
H. Abramson , 1 day agoLee Fang did not deserve this. People as committed as him to the tenants of investigative journalism are few and far between and I attribute reporters like him to my awakening from political apathy and my new found dedication to activism.
Dave Blackmen , 1 day ago"I recently had a conflict with a colleague whose feelings I harmed." Neo-libs are so fragile. Hurt their poor little feelings and you're immediately branded a racist. It disgusts me when journalists (or anyone else for that matter) are blackmailed into apologizing for hurting someone's feelings. What is freedom of speech all about in the first place? Say whatever you want as long as you never hurt anyone's feelings?
LaChicaRivers51deMilo , 1 day ago1:30 I'm black and it's exactly how I feel. That and I'm not a fan of whom the funding money goes to. It goes to DNC politicians, not to any blk communities like supporting predominately blk schools.
JFK Lincoln , 1 day agoAmen Saagar!! I for the most part enjoy Krystal's analysis, but, in my own biased opinion, you communicate a more mature sobering view of who is really benefiting from all of this disfunction in present society. My take is how these brands clothed in Black Lives Matter and Antifa are furthering the 1% underlying agenda. All we have to do is critically see who is left standing financially unscathed from all the madness. Take the inconvenient deep dive research of the corporations funding Black Lives, Antifa etc. And history has always shown that once the 1% have used the robotic clueless for their cause, they will be conveniently discarded by means of the same devices that they thought they were fighting against. I can see George Carlin if he were alive today using all of this dark human insanity for fodder in the tragic comedy he so perfected.
Steven Dierks , 1 day agoSaagar, thank you for speaking truth to the mob. NEVER apologize to an SJW - or anyone else for that matter - when your only "crime" is to think differently than they do.
louise hoff , 1 day agoGreat piece. Too bad no one is listening. 70% of americans get their news and analyse from MSM and hollywood, and the elites know this, so they don't care. Biden v. Kavanaugh hypocrisy? No problem. Obama the 'deporter in chief'? No problem. Nancy worth $100 MILLION as a public servant? No problem. Hunter gets arrested with drugs and is not charged? No problem.
Karthik Siva , 1 day ago (edited)Lee Fang is a =n excellent journalist and I am sorry he had to endure this dnc lke identity-mccarthyism
RunFor OurLives , 10 hours ago (edited)It's so sad what happened to Lee Fang. He is such a good journalist who does incredible work.
nh inpg , 22 hours ago (edited)Corporations realize that they need to turn from class struggle (working class vs plutocrats) into about race struggles and cultural revolution (social struggle). You touch their money and power structure it's no go. But to make cosmetic change, do whatever you want. They don't really care.
Cynthia Johnson , 1 day agoTwo things wrong with this: 1) Fang's concentrating on Black-on-Black killing is like saying "All Lives Matter." It is a tool used by the right to minimize racist crime. Fang knows this and so does Saagar. 2) Freedom of speech means you can say anything you want. It DOES NOT MEAN you are protected from criticism of what you've said. If people self-censor over that criticism, so be it. No lawful entity is saying you cannot publish your thoughts. If Fang wants to express unpopular thoughts and, in so doing, minimize the problem of racism in this country, he certainly has the Constitutional right to do so. However, he must man up and accept whatever criticism comes his way. In my opinion, that criticism is sorely deserved. Edit: After listening to Taibbi's views today, I agree that no journalist should be at risk of losing his job over reporting unpopular events and views.
michael mcmillian , 1 day agoI have a response to the guy questioning BLM. Why is it that SJW-types feel that every issue has to encompass every ill ever committed in human history? Or in other words, can't an organization focus on one specific problem without being saddled with every conceivable mutation or variation or sub-agenda of an issue? BLM is focused on police abuse aimed at people of color. Isn't that a tough enough issue without any add-ons or getting involved and invested in conflicts between autonomous individuals? And while I'm on that note, what the hell is the deal with people thinking the police are there to solve every God damn interpersonal dispute? The neighbor leaves his trash can on your lawn and you call the police. Someone tells someone else to follow the law in the park and leash their dog and the knee jerk reaction is not to (here's a crazy idea) leash the dog, but to call the police. The racial issue aside, this kind of response is in no way unusual. I swear to God someone threatened to call the police on me for, get this, criticizing Hillary Clinton. No lie. (We need to stop calling it Trump Derangement Syndrome and call it Hillary Clinton Derangement Syndrome cause that is closer to the truth. I defy someone to point to a single case of TDS in someone who wasn't a Clinton supporter. We all suffer under Trump but only a subset of us lost their minds. So what's the unifying factor? Hillary. She's the one who drove people crazy.) Anyway, calling the police at the drop of a hat is now the accepted societal norm. I just watched a movie where the female lead called the police twice (in 90 minutes) over interpersonal issues involving her dog. Deal with your own fvcking problems! Develop some interpersonal problem solving skills or learn to cope! The police are not your mommy and daddy there to deal with the mean people in your life. That's not their job. And maybe they would be a little less out of their freakin minds if people didn't keep expecting them to be.
Just Thinking , 1 day ago" In a democracy it is necessary that people should learn to endure having their sentiments outraged"-- Bertrand Russell. The political Left (DNC/CIA) and MSM control the Narrative at present and will tolerate no dissenting views. SCOTUS has ruled multiple times that "Hate speech is Free speech", so government indirectly censors Freedom of Speech through Social Media.
Great view, the leftist media, entertainment and academia are the biggest enemy of the people, and also the greatest threat to its greatness and future. They manipulate each and every fact, event, used with intent to stir up minority communities to control them and use them. They leftist have destroyed the education system in those communities in many ways, they denounce legitimate ways of educating minorities
Jun 16, 2020 | www.youtube.com
Robert Schupp , 4 days ago"That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it." -George Carlin
You can't just move to American cities to pursue opportunity; even the high wages paid in New York are rendered unhelpful because the cost of housing is so high.
Dingo Jones , 3 days agoDirtysparkles , 4 days ago@JOHN GAGLIANO Cost of living is ridiculous too.
Jean-Pierre S , 4 days agoOur country has become the American Nightmare
John Sanders , 3 days agoMartin Luther King, Jr. was vilified and ultimately murdered when he was helping organize a Poor People's Campaign. Racial justice means economic justice.
Adriano de Jesus , 4 days agoOld saying: A Recession is when your neighbor loses their Job. A Depression is when you lose your Job.
Ammon Weser , 4 days agoA lot of mega wealthy people are cheats. They get insider info, they don't pay people and do all they can to provide the least amount of value possible while tricking suckers into buying their crap. Don't even get me started on trust fund brats who come out of the womb thinking they are Warren buffet level genius in business.
crazyman8472 , 4 days agoThere's a documentary about Wal-Mart that has the best title ever: The High Cost of Low Cost
David Tidwell , 4 days agoNight Owl: "What the hell happened to us? What happened to the American Dream?"
Comedian: "What happened to the American Dream? It came true! You're looking at it."
-- Watchmen
D dicin , 4 days agoNailed it. As a millennial, I'm sick of being told to just "deal with it" when the cards have always been stacked against me. Am I surviving? Yes. Am I thriving? No.
farber2 , 4 days agoWhen the reserve status of the American dollar goes away, then it will become apparent how poor the US really is. You cannot maintain a country without retention of the ability to manufacture the articles you use on a daily basis. The military budget and all the jobs it brings will have to shrink catastrophically.
Michael D , 4 days ago (edited)American trance. The billionaires hypnotized people with this lie.
B Sim , 3 days ago...and sometimes you CAN'T afford to move. You can't find a decent job. You certainly can't build a meaningful savings. You can't find an apartment. And if you have kids? That makes it even harder. I've been trying to move for years, but the conditions have to be perfect to do it responsibly. The American Dream died for me once I realized that no matter the choices I made, my four years of college, my years of saving and working hard....I do NOT have upward mobility. For me, the American Dream is dead. I've been finding a new dream. The human dream.
Sound Author , 3 days agoThis is a very truncated view. You need to expand your thinking. WHY has the system been so overtly corrupted? It's globalism that has pushed all this economic pressure on the millennials and the middle class. It was the elites, working with corrupt politicians, that rigged the game so the law benefited them.
This is all reversible. History shows that capitalism can be properly regulated in a way that benefits all. The answer to the problem is to bring back those rules, not implement socialism.
Trump has:
- - Ended the free trade deals
- - Imposed Protective tarriffs to defend American jobs and workers
- - Lowered corporate taxes to incentivize business to locate within us borders.
- - Limited immigration to reduce the supply of low skilled labor within US borders.
The result? before COVID hit the average American worker saw the first inflation adjusted wage increase in over 30 years!
This is why the fake news and hollywood continue to propagandize the masses into hating Trump.
Trump is implementing economic policies good for the people and bad for the elites
Julia Galaudet , 4 days agoThe dream was never alive in the first place. It was always bullshit.
Scott Clark , 4 days agoMaybe it's time for a maximum wage.
Siri Erieott , 4 days agoPrivate equity strips the country for years! It's the AMERICAN DREAM!!!
andrew kubiak , 4 days agoA dream for 1%, a nightmare for 99%.
Globalism killed the American dream. We can buy cheap goods made somewhere else if we have a job here that pays us enough money.
Jun 12, 2020 | www.youtube.com
Krystal Ball exposes the delusion of the American dream.
About Rising: Rising is a weekday morning show with bipartisan hosts that breaks the mold of morning TV by taking viewers inside the halls of Washington power like never before. The show leans into the day's political cycle with cutting edge analysis from DC insiders who can predict what is going to happen.
It also sets the day's political agenda by breaking exclusive news with a team of scoop-driven reporters and demanding answers during interviews with the country's most important political newsmakers.
poppaDehorn , 4 days agoDebt-free is the new American dream
Got my degree just as the great recession hit. Couldn't find real work for 3 years, not using my degree... But it was work. now after 8 years, im laid off. I did everything "right". do good in school, go to college, get a job...
I've never been fired in my life. its always, "Your contract is up" "Sorry we cant afford to keep you", "You can make more money collecting! but we'll give a recommendation if you find anything."
Now I'm back where i started... only now I have new house and a family to support... no pressure.
Jun 15, 2020 | www.counterpunch.org
Photograph Source: DVIDSHUB – CC BY 2.0
As Vijay Prashad explains in his book, Red Star Over The Third World , domestic fascism in the West has reflected the West's pre-existing colonial practices abroad. Citing Martinique communist Aimé Césaire, Prashad explains: "What had come to define fascism inside Europe through the experience of the Nazis – the jackboots and the gas chambers – were familiar already in the colonies. . . . [F]ascism was a political form of bourgeois rule in times when democracy threatened capitalism; colonialism, on the other hand, was naked power justified by racism to seize resources from people who were not willing to hand them over. Their form was different but their manners were identical."
As Prashad and Césaire teach us, the fascist tactics used by our Western governments in the Global South will inevitably be brought home to be used against us. In the case of the US, these tactics have surely been introduced here, and we are now seeing this clearly as our police, sometimes backed by the military itself, are battling protestors in the streets in the same manner that a military force does as a foreign occupying power. Indeed, as a number of commentators have pointed out, the very tactic which killed George Floyd – the knee on the neck – was imported by the Israeli Defense Forces (themselves bankrolled by the US) who use this tactic against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories and who are now training US police units, including the Minneapolis police force, to use it as well.
Moreover, the police are using not only the cruel military tactics used to oppress people abroad, they are also using the military's very equipment to do so.
Democratic President Bill Clinton opened the door wide for this police militarization in the 1990s with the National Defense Authorization Act which created a program, the 1033 program, through which police departments are given surplus military equipment. As recently explained by Michael Shank in an article in The New York Review of Books , entitled " How Police Became Paramilitaries ," pursuant to this program, "local law enforcement began to adopt the type of military equipment more frequently used in a war zone: everything from armored personnel carriers and tanks , with 360-degree rotating machine gun turrets, to grenade launchers, drones, assault weapons, and more. Today, billions of dollars' worth of military equipment -- most used, some new -- has been transferred to civilian police departments."
And, once the police receive this equipment, they must use it. As Shank explains, the 1033 program "requires that law enforcement agencies make use of such equipment within a year of acquisition, effectively mandating that police put it into practice in the public space." In other words, the police are actually required to turn the military's high-tech guns against their own people.
The militarization of the police, moreover, can be seen as a by-product of the US's over-reliance on the use of military force and war to solve all of its problems, to the near exclusion of all other alternatives. Indeed, the US has given up on trying to lead the world through economic and technological prowess, or through moral suasion. Instead, our leaders have decided that brute military force alone will allow the US to dominate the planet, and our nation's coffers are being looted to the tune of over $1 trillion a year to do so. The result is the starving of our educational system, our social safety net and our nation's vital infrastructure. This, of course, then leads to mass deprivation and despair which then leads to mass unrest. And, just as it deals with the rest of the world, our rulers have decided to deal with the unrest at home, not by solving the social ills plaguing this nation, or by fixing a few bridges or dams, but by beating us down with military-style violence.
Military force, indeed, has become the only instrument in our government's toolbox, as quite starkly illustrated recently by the White House's decision to give our valuable medical workers military flyovers costing $60,000 an hour instead of providing these workers with the protective equipment they have been desperately demanding. As with all things, our government has money and resources for instruments of violence, but none for human needs. This is literally killing us, just as surely as it is killing hundreds of thousands of people – nearly all people of color, not coincidentally – in foreign lands. The fight against police brutality and racism must therefore be linked to the fight to de-fund our military and to the broader fight to de-militarize our very society and culture. Join the debate on Facebook More articles by: Dan Kovalik Dan Kovalik teaches International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. His latest book is No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using 'Humanitarian' Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests.
Jun 16, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Following footage of officers doing precisely that at numerous BLM protests around the country, it has been confirmed that the suggestion came from above.
"Hertfordshire Constabulary said those who chose not to make the solidarity gesture 'may become the focus of the protesters' attention'," reports the Mail on Sunday .
"The advice was issued during a recent operational briefing and points out that, when officers kneel down – joining in the symbolic stance of the Black Lives Matter movement – it 'has a very positive reaction on the protest groups'."
The advice was given despite the fact that many BLM demonstrations have descended into anarchy and violent attacks on police officers.
"It's absurd. Will officers be expected to make similarly appeasing gestures at political events – far-Right protests, for instance?" asked one senior detective.
Former Home Secretary David Blunkett also slammed the idea, saying that police are "there to ensure a safe demonstration, not to make political statements."
"That Hertfordshire police want their officers to take the knee before protestors is a total surrender to anarchy, Marxism and an organisation that wants them abolished. Insanity mixed with cowardice," remarked Nigel Farage.
The advice is stunning because it suggests that officers across the country are being ordered to cave to the mob and be lax in enforcing the law against rioters.
Alice-the-dog , 15 minutes ago
7th sage , 16 minutes agoThey deserve each other. Both BLM and the police demand respect they don't deserve. Both are tools of the Psychopaths In Charge. One to facilitate division, the other to facilitate fear. The two primary tools of tyrants.
Theremustbeanotherway , 26 minutes agoMass brainwashing and mind control on display here. Ladies and gentlemen, Behold the new fascism. This time enforced by the manipulated and weaponized peasants.
I hate cunton , 35 minutes agoI seem to remember diggers etc being put to good use in Ukraine troubles - there's more than enough heavy equipment that could be used in the UK to "excavate No 10 and No11 Downing Street"
pazmakerII , 38 minutes agoJust supply Chaz, Chicago, Atlanta etc. with free fentanyl and the problem solves itself. Of course then you have the problem of excess corpse disposal, but some ovens will take care of that.🐒🍌
Sick Monkey , 35 minutes agoThe Uk is screwed! The USA is screwed This whole world is screwed! It's happening at lightning speed now. I'm not a young guy and I have seen more **** happen down the path of chaos in 2020 then I have seen in the last 30 years, of course a lot of ground work was laid in order for this turning point to happen.
AlfieDolittle , 1 hour agoHave faith in the thinking silent majority. We are all alive and kicking although you couldn't tell from the media hype. They would rather portray us as buck toothed inbred with a hanging tree.
theboxseat , 1 hour agoChief Constable is Charlie Hall.
Common Purpose graduate 1998, Norfolk Course.
https://www.cpexposed.com/search/node/charlie%20hall
"Leading Beyond Authority"
Porkulus Ziffel , 2 hours agoRome fell exactly the same way
The barbarians literally just walked in
The crimes that the state had perpetuated upon its own people were such that no citizen wanted to defend Rome. They wanted anything , but what they had.
The two main point of course was the total lack of virtue and morality and the complete destruction of the purchasing power of the currency
Eastern Whale , 2 hours agoThe government is more concerned with keeping the white nationalists in control while placating BLM/Antifa. Every vid I've seen from over there recently, it's always some white guy with blood all over his face or a white guy being stomped by a bunch of blacks. But despite that and carrying out acts of public vandalism, they won't be banned for terrorism like National Action was.
Heygoodlookin , 2 hours agoproblem with democracy is that sometimes you vote clowns to lead the country such as Trump, Trudeau, Morrison that has limited experience in running a city let alone a country. if Trump is elected and has another 4 years in the helm, he would destroy America and probably unleash a few nukes whilst he is at it.
dunlin , 3 hours agoWhat the Elite wants is for the meek to cave-in to demands so much that they get angry and respond with their own outburst. They will play off against each other, and eventually the Elite can bring in more Totalitarian rules to suit themselves.
MarsInScorpio , 3 hours agoNo, it means the police agree with the sentiments of the protesters. The UK is not the US, yet, thank god.
hooligan2009 , 2 hours agoTo dunlin:
The US is not yet the UK, thank God.
FIFY - Limey ******* 😒
ADB , 3 hours agothose sentiments being - wilful destruction of public property, blocking of public thoroughfares, rioting, violently attacking the police and whites in general and generally being racist ******* assholes.
you are part of the problem. get psychiatric help before it is too late.
Observer 2020 , 3 hours ago"It's absurd. Will officers be expected to make similarly appeasing gestures at political events – far-Right protests, for instance?" asked one senior detective."
Not a chance. The orders for "Far Right" protests (eg people who want to defend their history and public property like Churchill's statue, or protest police inaction at Muslim grooming gangs) are to go in with full riot gear and batons swinging. Of course, if bending the knee placates BLM rioters, it should also do the same for the "Far Right". But the police will never be ordered to do that by their globalist masters, and no officer will defy their "superiors" and actually enforce the law equally.
The only silver lining here is UK police are now being attacked by the Third Worlders now infesting London and other major cities, while more and more indigenous Brits are reaching the point where they wouldn't lift a finger to stop it. They will end up hated by everyone. Too bad. They shouldn't have picked the wrong side.
NoPasaran , 1 hour agoInsanity. Complete, utter and absolute insanity.
Kneeling before revolutionary anarchists and vandals, whose agitation is being subsidized by Mercedes Marxists who are totalitarians in waiting?
The West is in existential peril.
Arizona1234 , 3 hours agoThe West is DONE already.
To Hell In A Handbasket , 3 hours agoStop supporting any business that does this take a knee ****. After the take a knee **** the Communist will next have you on your knees right before they put one in the back of your head and kick you into the ditch. It's high time for WWM a would wide movement WHITE WALLETS MATTER. Without White Wallets there is no NFL, NBA, NHL baseball, soccer or for that matter anything else. Just look at Africa then minus the WWM trillion dollar support. What would you have. That's right. One big giant Aids, Ebola infested dying stew pot.
One of these is not like the others.. , 1 hour agoLOL. I always accuse the dunces of not understanding scale, or scope, and especially history, and you sir are a perfect example. You simply cannot see the end, and a redrawing across the board on multiple issues, and new realities for the world at large. The days of white wallets, with our money printing and financial skulduggery, ruling the roost, are coming to an end. You just don't see it.
The fact you see the transfer of our wealth to Africa, and not the transfer of African wealth to us, is only going to make your adjustment all the more painful, for you won't see it coming.
The USSA is 3.7% of the world population, and if you calculate the white population, we make up a mere 2%. White purchasing power is going to go through a long slow multi-decade decline, and people like you are oblivious. The western world's rise to the top of the economic charts is a 200 year ******* anomaly, of FIAT scams, and imperial plunder.
Watch this and this. While you talk from your arse, do you know who the Indians and Chinese Think Tanks are more worried about for GDP at PPP ? I'll let you work that one out.
To Hell In A Handbasket , 8 minutes agoThe western world's rise to the top of the economic charts is a 200 year ******* anomaly, of technical and social innovation, that enrages those who have no chance of upping their game in a similar way...
FIFY.
Steele Hammorhands , 3 hours agoThe technical marvels, and social innovations are not in question, but does it produce wealth, especially in an age of technology transfer. The USSA, and Europe have been the beneficiaries of imperialism, access to cheap resources, and financial manipulation.
In short we have twisted reality, and carved a position for ourselves far bigger than our GDP at PPP warrants. Plus the fact modern day metrics for calculating economic power is warped, all to favour us.
Within economic circles 4 things are clearly coming, and it effects the traditional West hardest. A revaluation of what is..
- Wealth
- Value
- Worth
- Money
And that's just for starters. Do you think for example we are going to keep our near monopoly on insurance around the world? To name but 1 of 50. We are going to suffer slow financial atrophy, losing market share everywhere. We are ******, and the adjustment will be brutal.
JaxPavan , 4 hours agoThe same drooling morons who were happy to arrest shop owners for opening their businesses, arrest mothers for taking their kids to the park, refuse to arrest looters, arrest teenagers for smoking a plant, etc. are now kneeling before their masters. They are overpaid, under-educated idiots. And if you've ever been the victim of a crime, you know they are nothing more than useless stateists.
Police killings per 10,000,000 people per year:
US: 46.6
UK: 0.5
France: 3.8
Germany: 1.3
India: 1.0
Taiwan: 0.8
Japan: 0.2
Get the drift.
Jun 16, 2020 | www.unz.com
swamped , says: June 15, 2020 at 9:35 am GMT
Ursus Terriblis , says: June 15, 2020 at 1:43 pm GMT" When all of corporate America, the media, and even the NED have publicly declared their support for a movement, it is no longer just about its original cause of getting justice for Mr. Floyd, whose funeral became a virtual campaign rally for Trump's opponent, Joe Biden. It is too early to say determinedly whether what is taking place in the U.S. is indeed a 'Color Revolution', but by the time we realize it may [sic] too late"
whoever "we" is; but by the time anyone gets all the knotted threads untangled it will probably be too late for somebody. It may be too early to say whether what is taking place in the increasingly inhospitable Homeland is a 'Color Revolution' or a 'Revolution of Color'; but for working class – & now even middle-class – White's this is becoming the main concern. Whether Soros is a Communist or a Globalist, he probably won't be around much longer & who knows what will happen to the OSF.
But BLM & it's allies, despite a few apparatchiks, has come to signal a racial movement rather than an ideological movement like Otpor!, or an economic uprising like OWS.
That's the turf that this war will be waged on & if indeed "corporate America, the media, and even the NED" et. al. are lining up behind the racial rioters, then this is going to be a titanic struggle.
Curmudgeon , says: June 15, 2020 at 10:22 pm GMTArmstrong's GENIUS historical research abilities, and the cycles of all history on this are on point, indicating that this is not just a color revolution, but cops, and other things that MUST change.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/defunding-police-is-this-the-right-choice/Carlton Meyer , says: Website June 16, 2020 at 4:39 am GMTThe May 25th killing of George Floyd,
Last time I checked, there was a presumption of innocence. If we accept that George Floyd actually died and this is not another Psy-op, he died in police custody while resisting arrest. The coroner`s report said heart attack. Given the level of drugs in his system, it is entirely possible that the drugs caused the heart attack.
The celebrity pathologist said strangulation therefore murder. If memory serves me correctly, celebrity pathologist Baden floated the magic bullet theory in the JFK assassination.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/why-to-be-skeptical-of-michael-baden-on-epsteins-death.html
Curious how this guy shows up to muddy the waters at all the `big`events.Richard B , says: June 16, 2020 at 5:04 am GMTthe notorious liberal billionaire investor and "philanthropist" George Soros and his Open Society Foundation (OSF). Ironically, if any of the right-wing figures of whom Soros is a favorite target were aware of his instrumental role in the fall of communism staging the various CIA-backed protest movements in Eastern Europe that toppled socialist governments, he would likely not be such a subject of their derision. The Hungarian business magnate's institute, like other NGOs involved in U.S. regime change operations such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), is largely a front for the CIA to shield itself while destabilizing U.S. adversaries, the spy agency's preferred modus operandi
A classic example is the 2003 conquest of the Republic of Georgia, where Soros openly established an "open society" NGO just for this "revolution", and there was open Israeli participation.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/qC-xLCgbThM?feature=oembed
@jbwilson24labmouse , says: June 16, 2020 at 6:06 am GMTOne can find signs and banners saying 'Antifa is for Israel'. The Antifa leadership is heavily Jewish, and it is hence no surprise that you find them fighting for causes that benefit Israel.
Absolutely!
Gleimhart Mantooso , says: June 16, 2020 at 6:06 am GMTThe May 25th killing of George Floyd, (snip ) shocked the world.
No, it didn't. To the majority of the world, this was/is a total non issue. Total MSM BS right from the beginning.
TheTrumanShow , says: June 16, 2020 at 6:32 am GMTI remain unaware that it's been proven that Saint Floyd died because of what the cop did, or that the cop's actions, right or wrong, were racially motivated. Are we really obligated to parrot the mainstream narrative on every damn thing that comes down the pike? Appeasing such narratives and the people who shit them out is how we got here in the first place.
@g8way den's racist comment last week. I knew they were trying to distract us from something.Pft , says: June 16, 2020 at 7:03 am GMTKeep reading
I find it odd that this happened just as COVID loses traction. Social distancing SUDDENLY flew out the window. Let's hope the masks and fear soon follow.
I find it odd that COVID happened the moment the impeachment failed.
I find it odd the impeachment happened the moment that Russian hoax failed.
Can you see the pattern? Will you continue to chase the well orchestrated carrots? Or is there something in you that will stop for a minute and look for the truth?
This is all very interesting. We're being played big time.
Still a tragedy.
RobbieSmith , says: June 16, 2020 at 7:20 am GMTHere is the story. This is a 3-4 step operation. The first step is the left buys in totally that the virus is a threat and we need to make changes to our way of life envisioned by Technocrats and Gates. That was predictable. Of course, many of the rights leaders played along and only 6 states avoided lockdowns.
It was also likely anticipated that their would be resistance of the right , so they introduce domestic terrorism of antifa (anti fascism- color blind) and BLM (race). The rights been conditioned to react tough measured against both. Preparations like with COVID-19 were begun before COVID/protests began. Barrs precrime, Bills prepared for Domestic Terrorism, exercises for urban riots using military in LA last year, etc.
In a sense War on antifa is a proxy for the War on Communism , as Communists were the greatest enemy of fascism , and so are the original antifa. Fascists have always tried to play up hatred of communism (and now antifa) as a weapon , which worked wonderfully for Hitler and in the US during the cold war (the reason for the Cold War in fact)
Since there is no organized antifa , there being no Communists left (China is fascist in all but name) , its a artificial construct. Because there are no communists left- we cant call them that, and so call them antifa.
Those whites were mobilized to protest peacefully in part due to being against racism but also anger from lock down, economic hardships and police brutality thats been normalized for 15 years against all races. But peaceful protests can not generate enough fear and anger among the right to accept the coming changes, so they had to create violence by leaving piles of bricks and using agent provocateurs to ignite the violence. Having 70 years of experience doing this in what are now called color revolutions worldwide they are professionals.
Having a war against antifa is interesting because they admit antifa is against our government, who defeated Fascism with the help of Communists. So what is our government now? Obviously antifascists are against fascists, not Democracies. So our government must be thought to be fascists. If So , then we didn't defeated fascism in WWII , did we? Thats what they are saying. A confession of sorts. First step to coming out of the closet.
You see the War on Communism was a psyops too. Uncle Joe was our ally in WWII against fascism. But the funny thing is, the same guys who funded the Bolshevik Revolution (and helped China go communist -its now fascist in all but name) also funded Hitlers Rise to power and military build up. They use these opposites to create enemies and drive changes they desire.
The Nazi/Fascist ideology never went away. Those who helped create it survived the war intact, even Prescott Bush who spawned 2 generations of Presidents, and most of the leading Nazis were released and went on to have long careers in finance, industry, and science both in Germany and in US, spreading their ideology in secret meetings or even not so secret meetings by using their words carefully (eugenics renamed as Population Control-and Genetics, fascist economics called neoliberalism and public private partnerships) . The fascist ideology remained, hidden under the cloak of anti-communism and now neoliberalism.
So anyways, the right is all in now on measures to tackle domestic terrorism which include many of the same measures the left supports to fight pandemics , which we are told will be a long and probably permanent threat
The other brilliant move is the move to defund or remove entire police departments. With 115 billion spent on police departments each year some defunding probably makes sense. The game here is obvious, get support for privatization, as corporations want a piece of that action like they have with prisons, military and intelligence/security.
So it is all a big psyops to push through the global elites solution to achieve the 4th Industrial Revolution or Fourth Reich if you wish. Both parties playing their parts, . Create a problem, provoke a reaction and push through the desired solution , which has probably already been written up
This is not limited to the US, it will be a global solution although each country may modify it slightly to deal with local peculiarities
People will support the New Technocratic Fascist World Order , most of them, wrapped in a flag (UN or US, TBD) , wearing a mask , carrying their smart phones and showing their immunity tattoos. The biggest supporters get higher social credit scores and more digital currency. Those pegged as antifa or racist get crumbs, or just hauled off to FEMA re-education camps, never to be seen again.
As for the next steps. A 2nd round of Covid blamed on protests. Contact tracers will be out in force. Operation Black Out, mane causing cancelled elections and Martial Law. Not certain about that one. But EX-BARDA Bright predicted the Darkest Winter. I am guessing Christmas gets cancelled too. Blamed on an antifa named Grinch
@Curmudgeon ere 75% blocked and one was 90% blocked. That alone was sufficient to cause death.dimples , says: June 16, 2020 at 7:39 am GMTThe officer's knee was not on Floyd's carotid. He was on the jaw bone and then backed off to the back of the neck when Floyd said he couldn't breathe. The knee was on the head, ear, and jaw but not throat. This is the technique taught at the FBI.
He died from cardio pulmonary arrest as the autopsy states. Murder 2 won't stick. The Blacks will riot again, as usual.
@Curmudgeon ations (HSCA) Forensic Pathology Panel in 1978. Baden was responsible for steering the movement of Kennedy's head wounds into a more officially acceptable position.vot tak , says: June 16, 2020 at 7:57 am GMTFor example see:
A DEMONSTRABLE IMPOSSIBILITY:
The HSCA Forensic Pathology Panel's Misrepresentation of the Kennedy Assassination Medical Evidence
by John HuntThe Magic Bullet Theory was concocted by Arlen Spector, a lawyer for the Warren Commission, in 1964.
vot tak , says: June 16, 2020 at 8:24 am GMTExcellent analysis by Parry. Provides a lot of useful info on connections.
Both the democrat and republican parties are political fronts for the same capitalist oligarchy. There may be a few partisan oligarchs who favor one party over the other, but for the most part, both parties enjoy the same patronage. That patronage is shown by the fact both parties pursue basically the same foreign and domestic policies sans some very minor differences.
Now the question this creates is why would dems and reps be so intent on carving out their respective spheres if they are essentially the same thing, run for the same players?
It's not because of the personal perks the party players get when their members are selected for office and posts. This is as minor to the oligarchical hierarchy as whether abortion or public nudity should be legal.
The dems and reps exist to provide the oligarchy with a democracy facade to use to get people thinking they have a voice. What is in reality a form of totalitarian dictatorship is psywarred/bernaysian-adverted into democracy.
So if the dems and reps represent essentially the same thing, why all the noise about their rivalry?
Theater. Psywar. They population manipulators create division between dems and reps so people will concentrate on these false issues, rather on the real ones that could actually improve their lot.
So how does this psywar strategy apply to the protests the murder of Floyd initiated?
These protests, like the 1960s human rights and antiwar protests, could snowball into society changing movements that threaten oligarch rule. If allowed proceed naturally. They must be contained, neutralised and redirected.
So how does one contain them. Use the rep assets, who are represented by fox, limbaugh & co., & thinly veiled white supremacist promotion? To infiltrate and subvert a movement protesting against police abuse against black people? Yeah, right. That'll work. No, one uses the dems instead, and their wing of the population manipulation machinery, who have staked out a claim to be protectors of minorities and their wellbeing. They have not, but that is what they are currently being sold as.
What the manipulators are working at is neutralising the protest movement by co-opting it into a dems vs reps irrelevant mud wrestling contest. The soros machine involvement is not designed to create a color revolution, why would the oligarchy want to color revolution their most conformist and domesticated colony which also is their "muscle" to dominate the rest of the colonies and ward off the rivals who refuse to submit?
No, the soro machine is working to neutralise the movement and make it innocuous to the oligarchs, as they are best suited for this particular operation. Think of them doing to these protests what the oligarchs's did to the tea party movement using rep associated elements.
trickster , says: June 16, 2020 at 2:49 pm GMT"It is also no secret that jailed PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan's theories of "democratic confederalism" are heavily influenced by the pro-Zionist Jewish-American anarchist theorist, Murray Bookchin."
Interesting, I've seen how quisling bookchin plays a disruptive role in american domestic resistance to oligarchy, much like "militant" (international marxist tendency) was created to cause disruption and dissent among the left in the uk. Didn't know the zio-critter was connected to israel's pkk proxies, though not at all surprised.
Fuck 12 , says: June 16, 2020 at 3:05 pm GMTThe whole world was shocked at the way Five Felon Floyd died ? I was not shocked and neither did I care. Any man with several criminal convictions who holds a loaded gun to the belly of a pregnant woman deserves to be put down. He has proven time and again he is an animal !
fnn , says: June 16, 2020 at 3:57 pm GMTI dunno. You can certainly see the nerf protestors of BLM struggling to herd this rebellion back into the electoral politics roach motel. But you also see the real rebels shouting BLM down and wrecking what they want to wreck. BLM tries to curb international solidarity but the crowds tell them fuck off. BLM spokesmodels in Atlanta tried to inject a quietist tone, and tags immediately sprouted all over, FUCK KKKeisha. BLM entryism is discredited among stakeholders (maybe not among white middle class MSNBC zombies.) The house negroes are figures of fun. The protestors are taking their ideology from grizzled Black Panther Party vets and neo-Malcolm internationalists, e.g. https://blackagendareport.com/
Don't make the mistake of assuming that black civil society has been infantilized and castrated like white civil society.
Gordo , says: June 16, 2020 at 4:51 pm GMTWhile the right seems to have a bizarre misconception that the parasitic hedge fund tycoon is somehow a communist
Communism was always in essence fakery propped up by the capitalist West. For example, the Soviet industrial base was built by Western capitalists in the 1920s and 1930s:
https://archive.ph/EeG6zLess certain, however, are the claims from conservatives that Soros is a supporter of "Antifa" which Trump wants to designate as a domestic terrorist organization, a dangerous premise given the movement consists of a very loose-knit and decentralized network of activists and hardly comprises a real organization. Various autonomous chapters and groups across the U.S. may self-identify as such, but there is no single official party or formal organization with any leadership hierarchy.
Organized crime families in the US operate in a similar way. That is, the Chicago Outfit operates autonomously and does not take orders from any of the New York families. The Klan at its peak (in the 1920s) was also made up of autonomous chapters that did not take orders from the national office in Indianapolis. The national office of the Klan was mainly in the business of selling KKK gear/paraphernalia.
@TheTrumanShowBeavertales , says: June 16, 2020 at 4:57 pm GMTI find it odd that the cop had his hands in his pockets while he put his knee on his friend's throat. Very odd.
Sensible if the perpetrator was sweating Fentanyl.
How about a Yellow (vest) Revolution?
The controlled media continue to shun the yellow vest protests, because the yellow vests unite the grievances of both dissident left and right. This terrifies the elites.
The Yellow Vests don't get adoring media coverage because they are not tools of the establishment like BLM and antifa. This is how we know BLM is a fraud meant to keep us divided.
Jun 16, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
450.org , Jun 14 2020 19:36 utc | 33
Here's an excellent analysis from Benjamin Studebaker on why these protests will fail. I agree with pretty much all of it and he has some highly intelligent, cogent insights.I hate these yuppie bourgeois professionals with every fiber of my being. They are the devil himself.
A Left Critique of the Current Protests
The people who are best organized and most capable of taking advantage of the protests are the yuppie, bourgeois professionals. Many of these people have bachelors degrees in various social science and humanities disciplines, and their primary objective is to create jobs for themselves. They use the deaths of African-Americans as a business opportunity, demanding that companies employ them to run diversity training programs or hire them to diversify an endless series of government and corporate boards, commissions, and panels. These "woke neoliberals" always succeed in co-opting these protests, because they went to the same universities and speak the same language as the people who work for governments and corporations. They claim to offer diversity, but they succeed in getting positions because they are just like the people they aim to replace in every way that matters.Frantz Fanon called them the "black bourgeoisie", but today they come in many colors. They attack capitalism not because they want to do away with it but because they want to run it themselves. They deceive poor and working people into supporting them, and once they acquire power they run the system the same way the "white" bourgeoisie ran it. They don't care about funding social programs that work–they just want to get paid.
As long as the yuppies are in charge, these protests won't address the root causes of police violence–the alienation that drives citizens to commit violent crimes and the armaments which make violent crimes so easy to commit. As long as the root causes go unaddressed, frightened police officers will demand ever more elaborately lethal counter-armaments, and they'll fire those weapons all over the place. We can replace them with private para-military groups, but that will just make a bad situation worse.
Jun 16, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
The protests are merely a fig leaf for a "color revolution" that bears a striking resemblance to the more than 50 CIA-backed coups launched on foreign governments in the last 70 years. Have the chickens have come home to roost? It certainly looks like it. Here's more from the same article:
"Use a grievance that the local population has against the system, identify and support those who oppose the current government, infiltrate and strengthen opposition movements, fund them with millions of dollars, organize protests that seem legitimate and have paid political instigators dress up in regular clothes to blend in."
So, yes, the grievances are real, but that doesn't mean that someone else is not steering the action. And just as the media is shaping the narrative for its own purposes, so too, there are agents within the movement that are inciting the violence. All of this suggests the existence of some form of command-control that provides logistical support and assists in communications. Check out this excerpt from a post at Colonel Pat Lang's website Sic Semper Tyrannis:
"The logistical capabilities of antifa+ are also impressive. They can move people around the country with ease, position pallet loads of new brick, 55 gallon new trash cans of frozen water bottles and other debris suitable for throwing on gridded patterns around cities in a well thought out distribution pattern. Who pays for this? Who plans this? Who coordinates these plans and gives "execute orders?"
Antifa+ can create massive propaganda campaigns that fit their agenda. These campaigns are fully supported by the MSM and by many in the Congressional Democratic Party. The present meme of "Defund the Police" is an example. This appeared miraculously, and simultaneously across the country. I am impressed. Yesterday the frat boy type who is mayor of Minneapolis was booed out of a mass meeting of radicals in that fair city because he refused to endorse abolishing the police force. Gutting the civil police forces has long been a major goal of the far left, but now, they have the ability to create mass hysteria over it when they have an excuse ." ("My take on the present situation", Sic Semper Tyrannis)
Colonel Lang is not the only one to marvel at Antifa's "logistical capabilities". The United States has never experienced two weeks of sustained protests in hundreds of its cities at the same time. It's beyond suspicious, it points to extensive coordination with groups across the country, a comprehensive media strategy (that probably preceded the killing of George Floyd), a sizable presence on social media (to put people on the street), and agents provocateur whose task is to incite violence, loot and create mayhem.
None of this has anything to do with racial justice or police brutality. America is being destabilized and sacked for other purposes altogether. This a destabilization campaign similar to the CIA's color revolutions designed to topple the regime (Trump), install a puppet government (Biden), impose "shock therapy" on the economy pushing tens of millions of Americans into homelessness and destitution, and leave behind a broken, smoldering shell of a country easily controlled by Federal shock troops and wealthy globalist mandarins. Here's a short excerpt from an article by Kurt Nimmo at his excellent blog "Another Day in the Empire":
"The BLM represents the forefront of an effort to divide Americans along racial and political lines, thus keeping race and identity-based barbarians safely away from more critical issues of importance to the elite, most crucially a free hand to plunder and ransack natural resources, minerals, crude oil, and impoverish billions of people whom the ruling elite consider unproductive useless eaters and a hindrance to the drive to dominate, steal, and murder .
It is sad to say BLM serves the elite by ignoring or remaining ignorant of the main problem -- boundless predation by a neoliberal criminal project that considers all -- black, white, yellow, brown -- as expliotable and dispensable serfs. " (" 2 Million Arab Lives Don't Matter ", Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire)
The protest movement is the mask that conceals the maneuvering of elites. The real target of this operation is the Constitutional Republic itself. Having succeeded in using the Lockdown to push the economy into severe recession, the globalists are now inciting a fratricidal war that will weaken the opposition and prepare the country for a new authoritarian order.
PKKA , 4 hours ago
hugin-o-munin , 4 hours agoI don't understand these revolutionary black comrades. And they are not my comrades. And their alleged revolution is not at all like a revolution. Their alleged spontaneous revolution is a well-orchestrated riot. As far as I know, revolutionaries must make political demands. Their main task is to come to power, change the social political system and change for the better. I see only riots, looting and looting, and vandalism against monuments. Instead of political demands, they demand $ 10 from white people. Instead of demanding better lives, they demand the abolition of the police.
Instead of coming to power, they plunder and pillage. In General this is not a revolution but an organized riot of a flock of sheep. They do not achieve anything and all their alleged revolution is an empty sound. As Lenin would say, they are useful idiots, pawns in someone else's hands. The performance of this herd should serve only one purpose, to prevent the re-election of President Donald Trump.
hugin-o-munin , 4 hours agoThe main goal is to start confrontation with authorities and create MSM headline news with violence and destruction as the backdrop. There is no revolution here, it is a media op. Too much time is passing now for this to work so they will most likely ramp up the rhetoric and violence to get a response. Expect to see shootings to start very soon.
JaxPavan , 4 hours agoIt looks like all the stops have been pulled out. Any and all efforts to destroy the US from within are being employed and on a scale never seen before. The NWO, Cabal, Deep State or whatever label you prefer look desperate and frantic. As soon as the fake pandemic was beginning to get exposed they pivoted to this fake race riot movement. They obviously want Trump to send in troops so that he may lose the election. Most of the looting seems organized and planned and outlet specific which begs the question whether insurance fraud is involved here. A close look at retailers Target, Nike, Adidas and Macy's is warranted IMO.
The plan and objective here is clearly to create headline news detrimental to Trump. That's obviously why Seattle's CHAZ have distributed AR-15s to minors to patrol the area. Now it is just a matter of time until shootings start popping off at strategic and well covered areas to be spread through MSM in an attempt to force Trump to act. We should expect to see similar 'zones' pop up in other cities soon as well and they too will miraculously be well armed and funded.
At the bottom of all this is the fact that the US has economically cratered and Deep State factions are in a battle for control. The most easily identified faction is the old NWO guard who have the Democratic party fully under their control and who use these fake color revolution movements while the other faction are backing Trump who appear to be a Zionist military leaning group. People who believe Trump is at odds with the Fed are being fooled. Both are simply attempting to buy time until the election.
Burning cars and stores look exciting and serious but are just a diversion. The real and most troubling issue right now is the systematic destruction of food processing and distribution in the US. It is being surgically decimated at a slow pace to not create any headlines yet this is the biggest threat ever. Who is behind this? Look at corporations like Tyson and Cargill just as an example. Kissinger must be smiling at what is going on, his wet-dream weapon of choice is now in play and most seem unaware.
Xeno , 4 hours agoIn 2016 the Ford Foundation and Borealis philanthropy funneled $100 million to BLM.
Soros's Open Societies Foundation gives away almost as much each year in similar US grants:
"In 2016, the OSF-funded organization Transparify found that Open Society Foundations was the least transparent non-profit among those in the United States which it reviewed. Open Society Foundations earned a global transparency rating of zero stars for non-transparency of the organization's funding. They were the only group in the United States Transparify reviewed in 2016 to receive such a low grade. [33]
Similarly, the website NGO Monitor wrote that Open Society Foundations' "Funding of NGOs is entirely non-transparent" as their "annual reports do not provide names of NGO grantees or amounts transferred to individual groups."
uhland62 , 4 hours agoI wish that someone- anyone in the media would pick up this thread.
'The Open Society and it's Foundations' by Karl Popper is well worth reading, it is what OSF take their name from, and Soros references it often. It was written in 1945 and is an extreme ideology in my view. It is also deeply flawed. A Zero Hedge article on it wouldn't go amiss. Funny how these organisations are able to hide in plain sight.
Demeter55 , 19 minutes agoThey don't hide. Manipulators find each other:
http://www.maltwood.uvic.ca/tmr/contact.html
(German Marshall Fund is on wikispooks.)
Arch_Stanton , 19 minutes agoAnd even so, it's not working.
Why the Deep State thought we'd be impressed or swayed by the foreign countries burning down in sympathy I do not understand. That anyone outside of Minneapolis should care for more than 5 minutes about one bad cop is inexplicable.
mr1963 , 33 minutes agoHaving succeeded in using the Lockdown to push the economy into severe recession, the globalists are now inciting a fratricidal war that will weaken the opposition and prepare the country for a new authoritarian order.
The economy was toast COVID or not. The lockdown was used to protect against any backlash against the usual suspects who mis-managed the economy yet again. Then "regime change artists" saw the lockdown for the opportunity it presented.
Geocen Trist , 1 hour agoThe cities they looted are kept alive with taxes from working people. The politicians in the cities they looted keep pets to keep them in power. Sometimes the pets think they are biting their owners. But they are really biting themselves. Those same politicians will still be in power long after the pets get tired and slink home.
Tiwin , 1 hour agoNo doubt they completely operate the protest movement.
b snook , 1 hour agoYeah , theres absolutely no chance in hell that the lower classes are sick and tired and have reached the breaking point. Its all Soros fault.
VooDoo6Actual , 2 hours agoon the one side you have Orange Jesus, a .1%er, miga, police state loving, globalist goon picking fights to defend the unipolar world.
on the other hand you have the demented biden who is a .1%er agent, miga, police state loving, globalist goon wanting to defend the unipolar world.
see the difference?
raskefing , 2 hours agoDuh ya think ?
CHAZ is a scripted Deep State US Army MISO / Psy Op fomenting Alan Anarchy Ideology designed to create strategy of chaos - tension - angst -anxiety etc. Events are staged & rigged to create a Hyper-Reality for the Sleeple Sheeple who cannot perceive reality outside Plato's Cave.
Woke or still sleepwalking ?
charlie_don't_surf , 1 hour agoAmericans ignored or supported their government destabilization of third world countries for decades
What you support against others will one day be used against you.
BLOWBACK/ KARMA IS A BITCH!!
simpson seers , 47 minutes agolol, the communists enslaved, starved and murdered many tens of millions and destabilized cultures for decades to pursue world domination...you're just pissed off that your collectives are total failures.
Demeter55 , 16 minutes agolol, murica enslaved, starved and murdered many tens of millions and destabilized cultures for decades to pursue world domination... ....fify....maggot....
ATTILA THE WIMP , 2 hours agoYou are presuming that before Trump we the People had any influence over the military/industrial/CIA. Not since Vietnam, and that was only because Nixon screwed himself.
Falcon49 , 40 minutes agoDeep State elements do NOT operate within the protest movement, the Deep State IS the protest movement.
Joost Huffenhope , 3 hours agoYou might also add that the Deep State is also in control of the counter movement. Like the man behind the curtain...pulling the strings of division and distraction...creating fear and chaos to herd and stampede the sheeple to their bins to be sheared and slaughtered.
Mike Hunt 69 , 3 hours agoThe BLM lot are being played like a banjo at a hillbilly hoedown.
American foreign policy comes home, probably with similar results.
Helg Saracen , 2 hours agoJust like those useful idiots in Antifa and all those indoctrinated SWJ's!
skizex , 3 hours agoIt is said cynically, but very accurately. By the way, funny "baboons" among the Americans. Are the "baboons" so stupid that they don't understand that they are currently robbing themselves first (taking away future benefits, privileges, ... - this is what will happen in the end)? They are exactly the same as their fathers and grandfathers were in the 70s and 90s. Nothing changes.
Ogmios , 3 hours agoThe Radical Sunrise Movement a little sister to #Antifa>burning buildings and lootings 12 year olds:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/CXESg8azvlKm/
and to help out hire
vonSpookenhausen , 3 hours agoOverall I support what Trump is doing but...
Still no information on who supplied the pallets of bricks. Trump's not slow on picking up information from the alternative media so I would expect a tweet storm on this but ziltch, nada not a cheep. Surely any POTUS would be demanding a full report from the intelligence agencies and something like that is impossible to hide.
It does make me nervous that those saying he is just part of the predator class / deep state may have a point.
Element , 2 hours agoA bit of research will get you the answer
I read it somewhere but unfortunately cannot recall the site
yewtaipan , 3 hours agoIn WWII the British cracked the German's Enigma code/decode machine for radio traffic signals. Then they spent the rest of the war trying not to use it, and thus alert the Germans to that fact. Which meant telling no one what was known, via choosing not to do operations or respond in advance with the inside knowledge they already had on what the Germans were planning and actually doing. Because as soon as the Germans started losing big they would know the British were reading their signals and would change the standard code book.
But they never did change it, because they never got suspicious, they were permitted to become overconfident. The British command allowed the Germans to succeed (i.e. they took heavy losses due to not informing their own officers about information they already had), just so they could maintain that information edge intact for a later and much more decisive battle. The possibility of losing that information flow was much more dangerous than the Germans winning some smaller and much less consequential battle. But once the Germans and Italian allies were defeated in North Africa they never won another battle during the whole of the rest of the war.
But they had to not do it so quick it would raise suspicion and lose the information flow. Sometimes when you know what's really going on you can't talk about it, you have to wait for the moment to use the information flow to its maximum leverage over time to win.
If the US's extensive intel capacity is worth a damn that's what they'll be doing, and Trump won't say a thing. At least that's what you'd expect to be occurring, you generally don't find out until 30 years later in a Western democracy. Personally I think a lot of this 'deep state' hype is just that, people who like making up conspiracy stories like to milk these concepts to the hilt.
"... and it absolutely will not stop!" - Kyle Reese, Terminator
I believe none of it, I never have, I never will.
What the truth is, is actually unknown, and also unknowable - such things can not be confirmed. I understand that, so why should I get wound up about alleged unverifiable claims, about what 'may' be put about as, "the truth" ?
Forget it! I'm not interested. I can wait, or not, whatever, I'm not going to be driven by any of this ****, either way.
But why do you hang on the words of a politician?
You're the leader, lead yourself, or be led about like a milk cow.
Gwar6.0 , 4 hours ago"What's right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity -- intellect and resources -- to do some thing about them." HENRY FORD
WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICA ?
America Congress have a number of traitor politicians who would sell their own grandmother if the price was right, they can never be trusted, but the morons keep voting for them.
The world is upside down, the 'smart' people at the top are actually the most stupid of all. The 'dumb' people who live at the 'bottom' of the pyramid are where the real intelligence and creative talent lies. the opposites game, the dumb leaders turning everything to ****.
Some leaders are stupid. They think being able to recite "facts" equates to intelligence, and then they laugh at those who don't know. Actually they are the stupid ones, not the ones they laugh at.
The print and TV media, which serve as propagandists for the ruling military/security complex and Wall Street elites, make certain that Americans have nothing but bogus orchestrated information. Every household and person who turns on TV or reads a newspaper is programmed to live in a false orchestrated reality that serves the tiny few who comprise the ruling Establishment.
The globalists' overwhelming propaganda machine indoctrinating the population, and dividing them into liberals, LGBT, leftist, rightist, feminist, black, white, atheist, gay rights, green movement, etc.
The Globalist Oligarch Cabal from city of London want Americans divided by race, class, religion so that they can be be easily controlled.
The British super elite are waging Orwellian information war against Americans. The Anglo main stream media narrative is to divide and conquer.
The globalist super elite controlled main stream media CNN, CNBC, WAPO, WSJ, NYT, ATLANTIC, etc. was spreading fake news and yet 50% Americans still believe the fake news.
The problem is the super wealthy elite who own both parties. You have a few very wealthy families and corporations that set policy, and write laws because they are able to buy the DNC and the RNC. The laws they write and the policy they push benefit them.
Federal Reserve easy money printing ponzi scam.
Pentagon spending US$900 billion a year with nothing to show.
Churchill said the Americans were both village fools, and they remained so. The simpleton is fate.
CONCLUSION: CHINA CCP IS THE MOST COMPETENT GOVERNMENT IN THE WORLD. :)
ZH AMERICAN PATRIOT
PUTIN THE GREAT PEACEMAKERuhland62 , 4 hours agoThere are no coincidences.
Random chance would mean positive outcomes some of the time. 100% favorable to the Deep State is not believable and looks planned.... because it probably is. The IC coup and now Pentagon seemingly backing BLM tells you all you need to know.
They make plans and when a trigger event happens the pawns pounce. I see a Russian playbook unfolding mixed with Latin American marxist street tactics, ala Chavez & Ortega, using street thugs to create chaos.
raskefing , 2 hours agoDeep State operatives hide in many places:
Bernard Collaery is being prosecuted for revealing national secrets -- specifically, that Australia bugged East Timor's government building in 2004 to gain advantage in crucial oil and gas negotiations. (ABC text, Witness K case)
That is only half the truth. If the newly independent East Timor could have a government building that is not bugged, it could not be ensured that they become part of the US led bloc of countries. That is far more important than the Australian government resources aiding an oil and gas company to make more money. Cesar demands loyalty, regardless of who gets crushed.
otschelnik , 4 hours agoLack of Principles will always work against you in the end
The Anglo Zionist Empire is known for no Principles. Lies and deception.
America is on the verge of turning into a disaster
Americans supported their government in the destruction of so many other societies that its now their Turn
Karma is inevitable. Enjoy
Arising , 5 hours ago"The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves."
- Vladimir I Lenin
Maya , 5 hours agoWe need to go after the real people destroying this country.
The people in the shadows that are the ones that make the real decisions on where the west is going.
These psychopaths think that we don't know who they are but a quick search brings their names up very quickly.
Search the list of Donating Lobbyists to each political party.
Search the public records on who your leader met in the month prior to a new law, executive order, etc.
Search the board members of big Croni-companies pushing the govt to pass laws, start wars, force drugs, apply food directives and regulations.
BMCK_11 , 6 hours agoThere is one piece to add to this snow ball of events
THE release of virus to the population. WITHOUT VIRUS, THE PANIC FALL IN WALLSTREET WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE AND AS RESULTS RIOTS OR SO CALLED BLACK COLLOR REVOLUTION WOUL DNOT BE POSSIBLE
USUAL SUSPECTS BENEFITS globalist like soros and gates it'd be plus chima
Obamas Muslim brotherhood and Iran
Soros finances Blm@ and antifa soo it you add lal the other ngos, you have your deep state worrier s. And the evidence you find on twitter videos of civilians
Let's see the driver who like went into demonstrators and injured protestor. Fake ad he went directly to the police
THE masked white policeman who was followed by and black man in colored shirt unmasked like a policeman who was destroying glass windows of business with a hammer, later seen speaking friendly with this black man, soo the incident was fake
AND other incidents. Even Floyd Murder the man who was on his neck did not look like the man who was arrested and incident was filmed from 6 sided His brother, the victims brother is 33 level. Mason as well
THE organized bricks and other weapons.......
Organization and money is involved And eng game is obvious The trone of USA ..................... ALL OF THIS WOULD NOT BE HAPPENING IF Trump WOUL DNOT be winning big time before the virus His strength were the people behind him and strong economy, now the people and economy are under attack
THE only thing they did not try jet, is What they did to Kennedy
AND masm monopoly and censorship should be dismantled, becuase its time people hear the truth
NeverDemRino , 6 hours ago95% of people concerned about the situation right now were either backing or indifferent to the 50 times this has happened in other countries where, funded by US tax payers, cities were destroyed, people were killed, civilizations brought to a stop... The fact they are now shocked shows two things. They knew what they were doing was evil and were fine with it. And, they thought the Entity spreading that misery around the world was somehow on their side. I would say, hopefully now they know this thing has no side. But I'm pretty sure in a couple of months they will be back chanting and shouldering the bill for the next assault on another population somewhere on the globe.
NA X-15 , 7 hours ago" Does anyone believe the nationwide riots and looting are a spontaneous reaction to the killing of George Floyd? "
The staging of bricks, in multiple cities, tells you it wasn't spontaneous.
But the same DOJ/FBI that "investigated" Trump for 3.5 years, is the same DOJ/FBI that will "investigate" the riots. What do you think the outcome of that investigation will be?
With his new subpoena power, does ANYONE really believe Lindsey Graham will indict ANYONE?
vampirekiller , 6 hours agoRevolutions cost money. Who's paying for this one? George Soros?? Tom Steyer???
Hotspice2020 , 7 hours agoYou forget to mention the progressive Republican cadre.
White Nat , 7 hours agoBy now, I feel that I'm on repeat...The media have a single unified voice because they serve a single master, the Prince of the Power of the Air(waves). There is an obviously hidden hand agenda in all of this, I just sincerely hope that as they overplay their cards, the average American sees through their race baiting, covid19 scam, business crushing agenda and keep them out of office (e.g. president/senate/congress) and running for the hills from our pitchforks.
TungstenBars , 7 hours agoThe protest movement is the mask that conceals the maneuvering of elites.
It does no good to just blame a shadowy group of "elites".
The "elites" are people with names and addresses.
They need to be identified by name preferably with lat/longs of their current location.
blaze_jenkins , 6 hours agoThe cops in Minnesota tried to control a suspect that was resisting arrest and overdosing using the techniques that they and other police officers around the world are trained to use.
The cop in Atlanta shot a violent perp resisting arrest and aiming a tazer at their partner, who had a gun which could have been taken within seconds of being tazed.
I am yet to see a situation leading to these riots where the cops are to blame instead of the black ****** acting violent. Why do black people and liberals think that black people can commit crime and resist arrest?
Downvote? Which coward did I trigger?
Straighteight , 6 hours agoJesus, dude, the cops don't get to do summary executions in the USA ... just yet, though bootlickers such as yourself would seem to have no problem with it. The Bill of Rights may be in tatters but people still get due process. It doesn't take a genius to see that someday that just might be a protection you'd want to be afforded. Holy Christ.
PGR88 , 7 hours agoI think due process is off the table when you point a weapon at a cop, most people will agree, the problem is black behaviour.
Straighteight , 6 hours agoAs with everything the Deep-state and their statist minions do - its a diversion. Police and managing elections are two of the few remaining powers which still remain dispersed and in local hands, and which America's Left badly wants to centralize, politicize and control. When Leftists and their corporate-media cronies chant "defund the police" - they certainly do NOT mean the FBI, ATF, DEA, Secret Service, IRS police, Homeland Security, or any one of the 17 intelligence gathering agencies.
IvannaHumpalot , 7 hours agoThe new police will be social workers but who are those guys that have degrees in social sciences that rule the streets dressed in black and masks? Your police force in waiting! of coarse they will have guns.
Jam Akin , 7 hours agoDeep state's job is to infiltrate groups
the real question is: what is the point of them?
they infiltrate but only destroy the decent people like Tommy Robinson's EDL, framing them up and destroying them, when in fact that is legitimate grassroots political change
if you dont allow the system to change then it is no better than a tyranny
meanwhile, zero prosecutions and very few arrests for BLM lootings and violence
anarcho tyranny
tyranny for you and me
anarchism for the black block
what is the point of the deep state? Only to expand their own power they do nothing for the citizens
quanttech , 7 hours agoDon't have to be a conspiracy theorist. Even Stevie Wonder can see that this is a color revolution.
Long ago a wise commentator here advised to keep an eye out for what else might be hidden by such events.
hoffstetter , 7 hours agoWhen they investigated what happened in the 1968 Chicago riots, they found that 1 out of 6 protesters was a cop or a fed.
Speculating is beyond useless. If the locals won't handle it, and the governors won't handle it, and the Feds won't handle it, it doesn't matter who is instigating it. Buy a gun.
Jun 16, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
450.org , Jun 15 2020 17:00 utc | 18I'm thinking about Benjamin Studebaker's analysis when I watch this video. Most Americans are gong to think black thugs/goons burned the Wendy's down. Instead, it was what looks like a white female professional provocateur.Verifying Videos Of Arson Suspect Accused Of Burning Down Atlanta Wendy's
Jun 16, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
karlof1 , Jun 15 2020 17:36 utc | 24...The genuine history of the Outlaw US Empire that relatively few actually know. People rage, but they don't really know the cause of their rage. Social Control of poor whites and minorities and being driven into debt-peonage are the two most easily identifiable, although knowing debt-peonage's definition is more recognizable as living paycheck-to-paycheck, with no real healthcare and zero upward mobility--stuck in the new suburban ghettos.Others have analyzed the situation as a revenge against Boomers, but I see all ages in the streets.
Crooke's right that there're many weeks to go before the election. I do hope the major sport leagues remain idle, for the citizenry needs to focus on its relationship with government, and not be distracted from that very serious responsibility.
Jun 16, 2020 | www.unz.com
Twodees Partain , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 15, 2020 at 6:20 pm GMT
...The way democrat politicians have jumped in unison, holding hands and bending a knee, into the fray on the side of the rioters just finishes off the perfect picture of a planned "color revolution".SunBakedSuburb , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 15, 2020 at 8:36 pm GMTAnyone who buys into the "peaceful protests hijacked by radical thugs" line obviously watches way too much TV.
@gay troll "You assume the point of the charade was to 'get Trump'"onebornfree , says: Website Show Comment Next New Comment June 15, 2020 at 8:42 pm GMTTrump is an accidental president. He's a bit of a buffoon and is in way over his head. He's an irritating obstacle to the power system that wants the Executive Branch back in its control. The Russian collusion narrative was used to build a fraudulent legal basis for the FISA warrants, the surveillance, the Mueller Special Counsel investigation, and the Schiff impeachment trial. The coupsters were extremely arrogant and sloppy in their work and the administrative means to take Trump out crumbled. Then the virus arrived. Followed by the well-funded racial terrorism.
@Twodees Partain "..The evidence of a planned and controlled campaign isn't convincing if we are to assume that all of this was put in place and then the plotters waited for an outrage by cops to trigger it. The evidence is more significant if a fake triggering event is added.The faked killing by one actor of another actor seems tailor made for what happened ."schnellandine , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 15, 2020 at 8:58 pm GMT
https://www.bitchute.com/embed/OItT0WD55x0w/
Regards, onebornfree
@JimDandyRubicon , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 15, 2020 at 9:08 pm GMTdeep state sludge or Antifa, eh?
Far as I'm concerned, state, deep state, and Antifa all same side.
@Mike Whitney See Pepe Escobar's article as Mike Whitney has revealed.botazefa , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 15, 2020 at 9:39 pm GMT
BLM was bought off by Big Corporate Interests including the Ford Foundation, JP Morgan, and the Kellogg Foundation. ALL VERY POWERFUL Elitists Oligarchs.OF COURSE, this whole riot/protests mantra is VERY Political. THEY ALL WANT TRUMP GONE.
Whitney & Escobar are to be commended for their amazing articles!!!
@Justvisiting ...What motivation does the CIA have to commit treason against the American people? What is their objective?Homeschooling Mom in NY , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 15, 2020 at 10:13 pm GMTJustvisiting , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 15, 2020 at 10:15 pm GMTDo Deep State Elements Operate Within the Protest Movement?
Do bears defecate in the woods?
@botazefaMustapha Mond , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 15, 2020 at 10:53 pm GMTWhat motivation does the CIA have to commit treason against the American people? What is their objective?
The international Deep State is not any one organization or in any one country. It is people who have infiltrated these organizations for their own ends.
They are sociopaths. Their goal is to rule others–to make themselves very rich, very powerful, above the law.
Their goal is to destroy the middle class and all of its institutions in any countries with a strong middle class.
They use "issues", they use "people", they own the mass media in virtually every country to send out similar propaganda.
If you read the articles around here you can learn more about them. If you want to meet them attend a Davos or Bilderberg conference.
@DaveE "The problem is power – and the nature of those who lust for it. The police are very powerful, by necessity and the nature of police work is the exercise of power – on the street."Curmudgeon , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 15, 2020 at 11:02 pm GMTAgree completely and have posted numerous times this exact same conclusion. Politics and policing are two occupations that draw power-seeking psychopaths relentlessly, as do military, law (and the surgical side of the practice of medicine.) All of which has been documented by psychologists over and over.
Actually, even Plato noted in "The Republic" some 2400 years ago that those who seek power should never have it, and thus the behind-the-scenes master controllers he posited would draw their leadership from those who did not want to rule, as they were the ones who would likely rule best and consistently in the true interests of the polity.
As a former civil rights attorney (long retired) who has taken countless depositions of police accused of wrongdoing, watching as they arrogantly smirked and prevaricated, knowing their prior conduct of a similar nature would almost certainly be 'off limits' due to the incredible power of the police unions who unswervingly support even the most egregious of offenders, I always knew that the best way forward was to make public their history of abuse so that they would know in advance the world was watching, rather than feeling invulnerable by virtue of the secrecy that their unions could enforce due to their nearly unrivaled power to block such legislation. Only AIPAC, it seems, has more power to block even the most reasonable investigations of relentless wrongdoings.
Thus, a critical step forward in preventing police abuse is opening the files of those 'bad apples' on the force to public scrutiny, which New York law makers have FINALLY voted into law: https://abc7ny.com/politics/new-york-lawmakers-pass-bill-to-make-police-records-more-transparent/6238620/
Once the police union power is properly curtailed and the light of day allowed to shine on the dirty deeds done by police, we may actually move towards a police force that delivers on the promise, "To Serve and Protect" rather than abuse and thereafter dissemble freely with relative impunity .
@anonymousPrecious , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 15, 2020 at 11:38 pm GMTBoo hoo hoo, asshole, go home and beat your wife or eat a gun or whatever it is you dream of doing in retirement, cause the states can't afford your crooked unions' pensions in this induced depression.
Clearly, you have no idea how pension plans work. For that matter, you have no clue about a union`s legal responsibilities to its members. I have yet to hear of a police pension plan being run by a police union. Construction trades, yes, police, no.
Silly ad hominem attacks suggesting this cop beats his wife show your shallowness. There are literally millions of civilian contacts with police every year, and the number that go bad are minuscule. I`m not going to suggest that there are no "bad" cops, there are. However, there are bad plumbers, judges, doctors, and hedge fund managers as well, not to mention the majority of politicians. The cops don`t pass laws, politicians do. The cops don`t write police manuals and train themselves, the politicians oversee that. If a cop commits a crime he`s treated like a criminal is treated, except for the canonized Black felons resisting arrest.@botazefa It makes more sense to me that the elites driving these BLM riots are those who support Trump. Terrify people and threaten the existence of police is a good way to get elderly white voters out of their covid lockdowns on election day.Thomasina , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 15, 2020 at 11:41 pm GMTIt will benefit Trump, but the elites driving these riots oppose Trump and were hoping to goad him into declaring martial law or deploying soldiers and tanks into US cities so they could impeach him again or at least turn public opinion against him with soldiers shooting people. Trump simply avoided their trap and goaded them into positioning themselves as anti-American.
@Realist Specifically what "actions and inactions" are you referring to? Give me some.Herald , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 16, 2020 at 12:05 am GMTSay that Trump was an outsider, and as such he wanted to have different people surrounding him than he's got at present. Would they have gotten through the Senate? No. I'll quote Digital Samizdat on this:
"That's a good point, and it's of the main problems I do have with Trump: his cabinet picks and financial backers (Adelsen, Singer, et al.). But in fairness, what happens when he tries to pick someone who's not approved by the system? Well, if they're cabinet officers, they'll never get approved by the senate. And even if they're not, they will be driven out of the White House somehow–just like Gen. Flynn and Steve Bannon. In short, when it comes to staffing, Trump's choices are limited by the same swamp he's fighting. Sad but true "
If Trump tried flexing his muscles, he'd be impeached in a New York minute, AND the Republicans would be on board with the Democrats on this. I do agree it's all one club.
Besides, he's listening to that son-in-law of his (who, by the way, probably got Trump elected by promising the elite Jews, his backers, he'd play ball when it came to Israel). I remember Trump himself being surprised and almost shocked at the "support" that Jared was able to drum up for him, and he thanked Jared on stage for that. Of course, this was the devil's handshake, but you probably don't get elected without it.
I think everything is run through Jared, out to the elite Jews, and then Trump is given his instructions. Trump probably thought okay, I'll give them what they want, but I'll get what I want too (the wall, immigration reform, etc.) That hasn't turned out too well.
Anyway, that's how I see it – so far. What are those actions and inactions you mentioned? I'd like to hear them.
@Just a random Polish guy Like you, I see the BLM protests/riots as an extension of the mayhem caused by the transparently fake Covid-19 pandemic. Trump is certainly a target, but this very determined attempt at a revolution seems much bigger and far more sinister than simply getting rid of the hapless Trump.schnellandine , says: Show Comment June 16, 2020 at 12:42 am GMT@CurmudgeonThere are literally millions of civilian contacts with police every year, and the number that go bad are minuscule.
Most people are hip to the reality of much cops love it if you roll over, show your throat, and suck them off verbally. They know that this is an essential dance. Listen to how often they're rewarded in court by cops earnestly asserting to judge how 'cooperative' Citizen Peepants was. This is relevant in court only insofar as cops are prosecuted for violating the 5th amendment -- something nearly every cop does in a significant portion of interactions.
Re psyche, the average cop is hair-trigger sensitive to anyone not treating him as royalty. It's almost comedic watching them sprout feathers and strut.
Now, since you love stats, see if you can dredge a realistic number of how often cops assault/kidnap people because they get pissed at demeanor -- usually when being treated as equal or below. They know they're criminal trash, and treating them as such cuts too close.
Then, drum roll charges dropped! Typical cop bully bull.
Jun 16, 2020 | www.unz.com
Miha , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 7:58 am GMT
People who get upset on behalf of others when they see a doll, a toy caricature of the most trivial & obvious features of people from a race, region or culture or perhaps of an individual (puppets of politicians), privately believe those people to be in need of patronizing concern because they see them in the same category as vulnerable children who have to be protected. In other words, their concern stems from a supposed superiority to that group of people who are privately considered their inferiors.Cartoonists can draw the most hideous caricatures of politicians and no one, least of all the politician, objects? Indeed they sometimes write to the artist to try to buy the original.
Concern over a golliwog betokens a profound unexpressed racism hiding deep within their psyche in the sense of a 'negative pre-judgement of a whole group of people who share certain physical characteristics'. In other words, they make a gross category error and reveal non-confected bigotry.
Jun 16, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Christian J Chuba , Jun 15 2020 22:54 utc | 60
Finally ... I get to be a flag waving loon. As much as I agree with the ambassador, this is an inappropriate display for a federal employee in his position, especially one who represents the Administration and U.S. interests in the world. One has to keep a certain decorum based on your job.BTW I believe people are blowing smoke to cover up the origins of the 'neck kneeling' technique and its possible origins to Israel. And I am appalled at the baboonish response to the slaying of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta by senior Law enforcement officers. If I had any authority I would use this opportunity to purge as many of these leaders as possible. They should be ashamed of themselves by bringing up so many false things to cloud the issue.
Yes, he was drunk and should have been arrested but he was fleeing the scene and posed no danger to anyone yet he was shot in the back. He was on foot, not driving a car. He was unarmed. He had already fired the one shot taser. They had his car and all the info they needed to track him down. BTW there is something off w/Dan Bongino other than your typical belligerence but he's not the law enforcement I'm referring to because he's just an ex-security guard.
Jun 16, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Richard Steven Hack , Jun 16 2020 1:24 utc | 77
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 15 2020 19:05 utc | 37 Hell, most don't even know what Jeffersonianism is or what the bases are for the Social Contract between federal government and citizen or where to find themDid you see that post I made yesterday about how a significant portion of the population can't even name the three branches of government, or know that the Constitution is (supposed to be) the supreme law of the land?
It's not hard to advocate policies against the Constitution when you don't know what it's about. I come to that via the Second Amendment (and the First), but most people don't know the meaning of either and are therefore happy to jettison both. This is what the "Woke" will achieve. Except they'll fail with gun control (since that's physically impossible). But they'll succeed with destroying the First. There's an increasing view that censorship is a good thing.
Of course, in my case, I know the Constitution is an irrelevant piece of paper, violated almost before its inception, so it doesn't matter to me. But a lot of armed, ex-military militia guys are gonna be pissed - they already are. I read the gun mags and view the firearms Youtube channels, trust me, these guys are unhappy. They hate the rioters, they hate the government (but they love the police), and sooner or later someone's going to start shooting.
If the "Woke" or the government start shooting back, things will get a lot more tense than they are now. They can't win, but the conflict will raise some hell worse than these riots.
Jun 16, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
King Lear , Jun 16 2020 3:10 utc | 84
I find it ridiculous that so many posters on this ostensibly "Anti-War", "Leftist", website are scared that Trump won't win reelection, LOL. In reality, Trump is practically guaranteed to win reelection, due to the combination of the booming stock market (most of his base are elderly whites with big 401k's), the phony "Covid crisis" and the resultant "miracle" of Trump unveiling the extremely dangerous moderna vaccine right before the election (Scientistic Democrats and sycophantic Trump supporters will gladly take any vaccine Trump delivers to them, no matter how rushed, unnecessary, and dangerous it is, out of blind faith in science or Trump, respectfully)And the fact that the BLM/Antifa protests will scare the shit out of his Old White base (I suspect that the protests are being engineered to help Trump win reelection, thru the well known Tactic of Law enforcement infiltrating protests, and its promotion by "Woke" Corporations that are Pro-Trump due to his Neoliberal economic policies). What I find despicable is that this "Anti-War" website is happy to see Trump win again despite the fact that his victory practically guarantees a War with Iran, but I guess that's worth it to most of this website because of the need to avoid that imaginary "Nuclear War with Russia" that will happen if a Democrat wins, LMAO. I guess most here (with the exception of me, Donkeytale, Pft, and Kay fabe) Haven't realized that the "New Cold War" of the U$ vs. Russia and China is Fake wrestling to confuse and distract the populations of all three countries as they are oppressed by the same Neoliberal policies that all three governments implement, LOL.
Jun 16, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Piero Colombo , Jun 15 2020 18:27 utc | 30On Friday the U.S. embassy in Seoul hung up a large 'Black Lives Matter' banner and posted a tweet about it:When I first saw that tweet on Saturday I wondered how long the banner would stay up. It was clear that the White House would be miffed about it as the banner and the tweet were running against Trump's election tactic of raising tensions.
biggerToday the banner was taken down : To hang up such a banner can be understood as a public protest against Trump. The U.S. ambassador in South Korea is Harry Harris, a former 4-star general and head of the U.S. Pacific Command:
"USA is a free and diverse nation... from that diversity, we gain our strength" the U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Harry Harris said in a re-tweet of the official embassy message in which he also quoted former President John Kennedy.The embassy had displayed the large rainbow flag in support of "LGBTQ Pride Month" last year, despite an order of the State Department not to hoist the banner.
Harris was originally supposed to become U.S. ambassador to Australia. That would have been a plush and easy job. But two years ago Trump and Pompeo ordered him to Seoul in preparation for Trump's talks with North Korea's chairman Kim Jong-un. Harris was known to be a North-Korea hawk :
On the subject of North Korea, Harris expressed caution in falling for the country's so-called "charm offensive," indicating Kim's regime as the most immediate threat to both the U.S. and South Korea during a House Armed Services Committee hearing in February dedicated to security issues in the Indo-Pacific region.According to Harris, Kim's desire is to reunite the peninsula under a single communist system. "He's on a path to achieve what he feels is his natural place," he said. He championed the strengthening of the U.S. missile defense system as well as economic and diplomatic pressure to "bring Kim Jong Un to his senses, not his knees."
On several issues Harris pushed South Korea and its government around. There were public demonstrations against him and a group of young people even climbed over the embassy wall to protest against his arrogant behavior.
It seems Harris has had enough of his thankless job. There were rumors in April that he would not stay on during a second Trump presidency or that he might even resign earlier:
US Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris has said privately that he does not plan to stay beyond the November US presidential election, regardless of whether President Donald Trump wins another term, five sources told Reuters news agency.Harris, a 40-year veteran of the US Navy and Trump appointee who started in Seoul in 2018, has expressed increasing frustration with the tensions and drama of his tenure, the sources said, all speaking on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue.
...
In December protesters destroyed portraits of Harris during a demonstration outside the US Embassy as they chanted, "Harris out! We are not a US colony! We are not an ATM machine!"My best guess is that Harris ordered the LGBT and BLM banners up as intentionally insubordinate acts towards Trump and Pompeo. "Fire me. I dare you." As a former high ranking commander he is likely to support the opinions of other former generals, like Dempsey, Mullen and Mattis, who recently protested against Trump's threat to use active military against protesters.
The man wanted to make a point before he leaves his post.
That is now likely to happen rather sooner than later. No great complexity. No surprise. Welcome to the Glorious Permanent Revolution within the War Machine. If the much-feared asteroid were falling on New York, or the proverbial divine lightning had finally been unleashed by Jealous Jehovah, that would also get co-opted, financed and approved by CIA + Dim Party, to get the usurper out. It all, yet again, boils down to Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Carlton Meyer , Jun 15 2020 15:12 utc | 1
He should be fired. I have never seen any type of political banner on a US embassy. Imagine if he unveiled "Trump 2020". I am shocked at the stupidity, and I'm sure many other embassy staffers told him it was wrong. I don't like firing people for mistakes, but this was so stupid it shows him unfit for this job.Lucci , Jun 15 2020 16:13 utc | 8Do you even read the article ? The character named Harry Harris is a unique character that are appointed by Trump administration in which he's rather an anti racism and tend to pick the left than right. The quality that Trump seek from him is his hawkish attitude towards North Korean (his background as a general and pacific commander could've helped him nominated by Trump. Trump love the military and general despite where he come from).DannyC , Jun 15 2020 18:34 utc | 31
B do not noting anything being great about his action. He noted that open objections from character of this character background can indicate that US military doesn't come full in support of Trump policy regarding the domestic insurrection.it's inappropriate. That's not the place for it. It's childish and makes us look like the banana republic we're quickly heading towards beingsabre , Jun 15 2020 18:42 utc | 32@10 NemesisCallingaugusto , Jun 15 2020 18:47 utc | 34"...Trump's election tactic of raising tensions."
At first I almost spit out my water reading this...but upon reflection, it is an ok statement.
@
Agreed, I had an initial negative reaction to that line but after thinking it is true. The current unrest to me seems stoked by Trump's enemies, but Trump has used a strategy of pushing their buttons throughout his whole campaign and term. I do think he is trying to make them do something ridiculous, like defending riots and publicly supporting eliminating the police, as a way to galvanize his base for the election. I wish these tactics were not necessary but given that both sides are using them, I can only assume they are effective.
Of course the unprecedented banner has no logic. The native koreans will ask: what the hell those protectors of ours are up to?Jackrabbit , Jun 15 2020 18:55 utc | 35
Logical would be North Korean embassy to fly the banner in their
front entry.
karlof1 @ Jun15 18:00 #28bjd , Jun 15 2020 19:05 utc | 36"Trump is well known to be viscerally 'law and order'.
"Well known" ... yeah, that's why I never tire in reminding people that he nominated Gina Hapel for CIA despite her having destroyed evidence in a Congressional investigation and Trump himself is also a "well known" fraudster (recall his Trump University) and pal of Epstein.PS Where's the tax returns that Trump promised to release?
!!
To me, this is a serious indication that BLM (which in principle I support) has been co-opted by the "Foreign Policy Establishment" (Vindman) and the Democratic Party.Don Bacon , Jun 15 2020 19:10 utc | 38
There are other matters going on regarding the US in the Republic of Korea.jason , Jun 16 2020 1:18 utc | 76
> ROK broke off intelligence-sharing with Japan.
> Trump wants an increase in ROK offset payment, or it will reduce commitment.
> DPRK has threatened ROK with attack of some kind, after two years of "give" to the US and no reciprocity on sanctions etc.With the election coming up, Trump reverts back to his earlier campaign pledge to bring US troops home, which (as we know) is a non-starter with the "security establishment." His recent decision to significantly reduce troop numbers in Germany has caused a huge negative reaction. The fact remains that there is no good reason for 30,000 troops, with their dependents, to be in Korea at all. ROK is much richer and stronger that DPRK.
All of this bears on whatever decisions Admiral Harris makes.from wiki:A User , Jun 16 2020 1:17 utc | 75
Commander, Joint Task Force Guantanamo
In March 2006, he assumed command of Joint Task Force Guantanamo in Cuba. His service was notable as he was in charge when three prisoners, Mani Shaman Turki al-Habardi Al-Utaybi, Salah Ali Abdullah Ahmed al-Salami and Yasser Talal Al Zahrani, died in the custody of US forces. Defense reported the deaths as suicides. Harris said at the time,"I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."
what won't this asshole say?
...It was just a bunch of mid sized fish maneuvering on the best way they can jointly become the boss of their sad little MIC pond.This admiral turned state department drongo will be no different, as I said before, he may have his vagaries, but his devotion to the impossible, keeping amerika supreme, will be no different to any other imperial functionary, so why waste any thought much less words on such a flea.
Because he may be a servant of the dem half of the amerikan empire party?Who cares, as we have all seen time & time again, that makes zero difference to the amount of gratuitous rape & murder and only slight difference in the direction booty is sent, though never the amount of the thefts.
They all require a firing squad, gas shower or guillotine.
Jun 16, 2020 | angrybearblog.com
likbez , June 15, 2020 2:46 pm
@Ron (RC) Weakley June 15, 2020 1:03 pm
> Peter Dorman is correct about why Trump is in trouble, but there is still more. Peter Dorman is correct about why Trump is in trouble, but there is still more.
Won't these riots create a wave of revulsion among the silent majority and consolidate Trump's support base?
That's what make me wondering: is the faction of the elite driving these BLM riots are those who support Trump?
Terrify people and threaten the existence of police is a good way to get close to 100% of elderly voters out of their Covid-19 lockdowns on election day.
Doesn't the fact that pallets of bricks and frozen bottles in large cans were delivered to the places of protests suggests that Antifa and other groups operating within the protest movement are actually linked to intelligence agencies?
Is not it easier now for Trump to offload all the destruction of the economy and Coronavirus recession on Neoliberal Dems which are supporting the rioters?
Jun 16, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Piotr Berman , Jun 15 2020 17:47 utc | 26...In general, USG is very happy if an ambassador is in blatant insubordination, e.g. supporting a FAILED coup against his own government. Could it misled some ambassadors that it is OK?In short, there are good and bad types of hypocrisy, and USG should have some (online?) courses, so passing quizzes in Hypocrisy.1, Hypocrisy.2 and Hypocrisy.3 would be a prerequisite before granting a post (the higher the post, the more quizzes may be needed).
Piotr Berman , Jun 15 2020 17:53 utc | 27
A little fantasy: an ambassador strives to frankly convey the sentiment of his leaders.Babyl-on , Jun 15 2020 17:40 utc | 25Protester banners "We are not a colony" "We are not an ATM"
Embassy raises a banner "You ARE an ATM, deluded fools!"
...The sovereign powers of the USA are now surrendered to the private oligarchy.The USA is no longer a sovereign state.
Jun 15, 2020 | www.unz.com
"Revolutions are often seen as spontaneous. It looks like people just went into the street. But it's the result of months or years of preparation. It is very boring until you reach a certain point, where you can organize mass demonstrations or strikes. If it is carefully planned, by the time they start, everything is over in a matter of weeks." Foreign Policy Journal
Does anyone believe the nationwide riots and looting are a spontaneous reaction to the killing of George Floyd?
It's all too coordinated, too widespread, and too much in-sync with the media narrative that applauds the "mainly peaceful protests" while ignoring the vast destruction to cities across the country. What's that all about? Do the instigators of these demonstrations want to see our cities reduced to urban wastelands where street gangs and Antifa thugs impose their own harsh justice? That's where this is headed, isn't it?
Of course there are millions of protesters who honestly believe they're fighting racial injustice and police brutality. And more power to them. But that certainly doesn't mean there aren't hidden agendas driving these outbursts. Quite the contrary. It seems to me that the protest movement is actually the perfect vehicle for affecting dramatic social changes that only serve the interests of elites. For example, who benefits from defunding the police? Not African Americans, that's for sure. Black neighborhoods need more security not less. And yet, the New York Times lead editorial on Saturday proudly announces, " Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police–Because reform won't happen." Check it out:
"We can't reform the police. The only way to diminish police violence is to reduce contact between the public and the police .There is not a single era in United States history in which the police were not a force of violence against black people. Policing in the South emerged from the slave patrols in the 1700 and 1800s that caught and returned runaway slaves. In the North, the first municipal police departments in the mid-1800s helped quash labor strikes and riots against the rich. Everywhere, they have suppressed marginalized populations to protect the status quo.
So when you see a police officer pressing his knee into a black man's neck until he dies, that's the logical result of policing in America. When a police officer brutalizes a black person, he is doing what he sees as his job " (" Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police–Because reform won't happen" , New York Times)
So, according to the Times, the problem isn't single parent families, or underfunded education or limited job opportunities or fractured neighborhoods, it's the cops who have nothing to do with any of these problems. Are we supposed to take this seriously, because the editors of the Times certainly do. They'd like us to believe that there is groundswell support for this loony idea, but there isn't. In a recent poll, more than 60% of those surveyed, oppose the idea of defunding the police. So why would such an unpopular, wacko idea wind up as the headline op-ed in the Saturday edition? Well, because the Times is doing what it always does, advancing the political agenda of the elites who hold the purse-strings and dictate which ideas are promoted and which end up on the cutting room floor. That's how the system works. Check out this excerpt from an article by Paul Craig Roberts:
"The extraordinary destruction of white and Asian businesses in many instances wiping out a family's lifetime work, the looting of national businesses whose dumbshit CEOs support the looters, the merciless gang beatings of whites and Asians who attempted to defend their persons and their property, the egging on of the violence by politicians in both parties and by the entirely of the media including many alternative media websites, shows a country undergoing collapse.
This is why it is not shown in national media . Some local media show an indication of the violent destruction in their community, but it is not accumulated and presented to a national audience. Consequently, Americans think the looting and destruction is only a local occurrence I just checked CNN and the BBC and there is nothing about the extraordinary economic destruction and massive thefts." (" The Real Racists", Paul Craig Roberts, Unz Review)
Roberts makes a good point, and one that's worth mulling over. Why has the media failed to show the vast destruction of businesses and private property? Why have they minimized the effects of vandalism, looting and arson? Why have they fanned the flames of social unrest from the very beginning, shrugging off the ruin and devastation while cheerleading the demonstrations as a heroic struggle for racial justice? Is this is the same media that supported every bloody war, every foreign intervention, and every color-revolution for the last 5 decades? Are we really expected to believe that they've changed their stripes and become an energized proponent of social justice?
Nonsense. The media's role in concealing the damage should only convince skeptics that the protests are just one part of a much larger operation. What we're seeing play out in over 400 cities across the US, has more to do with toppling Trump and sowing racial division than it does with the killing of George Floyd. The scale and coordination alone suggests that elements in the deep state are probably involved. We know from evidence uncovered during the Russiagate probe, that the media works hand-in-glove with the Intel agencies and FBI while–at the same time– serving as a mouthpiece for elites.
That hasn't changed, in fact, it's gotten even worse. The uniformity of the coverage suggests that that same perception management strategy is being employed here as well. Even at this late date, the determination to remove Trump from office is as strong as ever even though, in the present case, it has been combined with the broader political strategy of inciting fratricidal violence, obliterating urban areas, and spreading anarchy across the country.
This isn't about racial justice or police brutality, it's about regime change, internal destabilization, and martial law. Take a look at this article at The Herland Report:
"What the Black Lives Matter movement does not understand is that they are being used by the billionaire white capitalists who are fighting to push the working class even lower and end the national sovereignty principles that president Trump stands for in America .
The rightful grievance over racism against blacks is now used to get Trump since Russia Gate, Impeachment, the corona scandal and nothing else has worked. The aim is to end democracy in the United States, control Congress and politics and assemble the power into the hands of the very few
It is all about who will own the United States and have free access to its revenues: Either the American people under democracy or globalist billionaire individuals." (" Politicized USA Gene Sharp riots is another attempted coup d'etat – New Left Tyranny" The Herland Report
That sounds about right to me. The protests are merely a fig leaf for a "color revolution" that bears a striking resemblance to the more than 50 CIA-backed coups launched on foreign governments in the last 70 years. Have the chickens have come home to roost? It certainly looks like it. Here's more from the same article:
"Use a grievance that the local population has against the system, identify and support those who oppose the current government, infiltrate and strengthen opposition movements, fund them with millions of dollars, organize protests that seem legitimate and have paid political instigators dress up in regular clothes to blend in."
So, yes, the grievances are real, but that doesn't mean that someone else is not steering the action. And just as the media is shaping the narrative for its own purposes, so too, there are agents within the movement that are inciting the violence. All of this suggests the existence of some form of command-control that provides logistical support and assists in communications. Check out this excerpt from a post at Colonel Pat Lang's website Sic Semper Tyrannis:
"The logistical capabilities of antifa+ are also impressive. They can move people around the country with ease, position pallet loads of new brick, 55 gallon new trash cans of frozen water bottles and other debris suitable for throwing on gridded patterns around cities in a well thought out distribution pattern. Who pays for this? Who plans this? Who coordinates these plans and gives "execute orders?"
Antifa+ can create massive propaganda campaigns that fit their agenda. These campaigns are fully supported by the MSM and by many in the Congressional Democratic Party. The present meme of "Defund the Police" is an example. This appeared miraculously, and simultaneously across the country. I am impressed. Yesterday the frat boy type who is mayor of Minneapolis was booed out of a mass meeting of radicals in that fair city because he refused to endorse abolishing the police force.
Gutting the civil police forces has long been a major goal of the far left, but now, they have the ability to create mass hysteria over it when they have an excuse ." ("My take on the present situation", Sic Semper Tyrannis)
Colonel Lang is not the only one to marvel at Antifa's "logistical capabilities". The United States has never experienced two weeks of sustained protests in hundreds of its cities at the same time. It's beyond suspicious, it points to extensive coordination with groups across the country, a comprehensive media strategy (that probably preceded the killing of George Floyd), a sizable presence on social media (to put people on the street), and agents provocateur whose task is to incite violence, loot and create mayhem.
None of this has anything to do with racial justice or police brutality. America is being destabilized and sacked for other purposes altogether. This a destabilization campaign similar to the CIA's color revolutions designed to topple the regime (Trump), install a puppet government (Biden), impose "shock therapy" on the economy pushing tens of millions of Americans into homelessness and destitution, and leave behind a broken, smoldering shell of a country easily controlled by Federal shock troops and wealthy globalist mandarins. Here's a short excerpt from an article by Kurt Nimmo at his excellent blog "Another Day in the Empire":
"The BLM represents the forefront of an effort to divide Americans along racial and political lines, thus keeping race and identity-based barbarians safely away from more critical issues of importance to the elite, most crucially a free hand to plunder and ransack natural resources, minerals, crude oil, and impoverish billions of people whom the ruling elite consider unproductive useless eaters and a hindrance to the drive to dominate, steal, and murder .
It is sad to say BLM serves the elite by ignoring or remaining ignorant of the main problem -- boundless predation by a neoliberal criminal project that considers all -- black, white, yellow, brown -- as expliotable and dispensable serfs. " (" 2 Million Arab Lives Don't Matter ", Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire)
The protest movement is the mask that conceals the maneuvering of elites. The real target of this operation is the Constitutional Republic itself. Having succeeded in using the Lockdown to push the economy into severe recession, the globalists are now inciting a fratricidal war that will weaken the opposition and prepare the country for a new authoritarian order.
Godfree Roberts , says: Website Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 3:39 am GMT
the media narrative that applauds the "mainly peaceful protests" while ignoring the vast destruction to Hong Kong where there was neither police violence nor racial discrimination. Look like the same organizing principles were used in both places.Malla , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 6:33 am GMTOf course that explains why anti-fa attack Yellow Vests in Germany. The Yellow Vests are the true people's movement and as shown in the video below it is not about the left and the right for the yellow vest but common people fed up with the system, a true grass roots movement of the people. And Anti-fa, the Whores of the Satanic elites attack them. Why would anti-fascists attack the common man?PetrOldSack , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 1:14 pm GMThttps://www.bitchute.com/embed/raZCHzKjrjA/
Watch every frame of this. It shows the government-media complex and their little thugs, ANTIFA, in perfect collusion to interfere with the regular Germans trying to stop the Satanic communist-Globo homo project.
Few arguments in contra of the article. Can any-one conceive of there being a competition between BLM rioting organizing and covertly supporting, and Corona-19, where the elites were very cohesive internationally in the face.nickels , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 1:36 pm GMTThe target, Trump, the man with no policies, the implement nothing, is it such a worthy target to a fraction of the power elites? That would speak for shallowness on their behalf. Creating back-ground noise to fade out the re-organizing of society, regardless of actors as Trump could be an acceptable explanation. "Keep the surplus population busy. Keep the attention on the streets".
There is a trade-off. The international elites see the exposure of the US internal policies, the expenditure of energy, do they regard the situation as something to copy-paste, an interesting experiment, or as weakness to be taken advantage of? Probably the first, then BLM covert support chains perfectly with Corona-19, and scales things up.
My bro is one of the few people flying, for work. He says the only people on the airlines are antifa thugs moving all around the country.ICD , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 1:39 pm GMT"Black neighborhoods need more security not less."anonymous [299] Disclaimer , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 2:34 pm GMTPolice are not security, they're repression. Anybody of any color who thinks they're safer with heavily armed bureaucrats blundering around is a moron.
And since when does reductions in guard labor equal austerity? There are several economic rights that should not be derogated, but assholes with guns impounding cars is not one of them. If the residents of a community are asking for more cops, that's one thing. They are not. Law enforcement budgets are stuffed up the ass of residents and often municipalities. Look into e.g. the MA "strong chief" enabling acts. States have massive unfunded pension liabilities in large part because of police featherbedding. That's what's being pushed by the "deep state" (you mean CIA.) The evident CIA use of provocateurs is aimed at justifying further increases in repressive capacity.
Now this is the ideal solution:Escher , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 3:48 pm GMThttps://www.lawofficer.com/america-we-are-leaving/
OK bye! Don't let the door hit your fat ass on the way out! Stupid and delusional though pigs are, it's dimly dawning on them that America considers them crooked loudmouthed violent assholes. Here's a typical one exercising what Gore Vidal called the core competence of police, whining.
Boo hoo hoo, asshole, go home and beat your wife or eat a gun or whatever it is you dream of doing in retirement, cause the states can't afford your crooked unions' pensions in this induced depression. Cut these white man's welfare jobs.
Won't these riots create a wave of revulsion among the silent majority and consolidate Trump's support base?Mike Whitney , says: Website Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 3:51 pm GMTIs Antifa a group of deep state agitators? That's the question. In the Sunday edition of the New York Times– the official propaganda organ of US elites– an article is entirely devoted to creating "plausible deniability" that Antifa is behind the violence in the protests that have swept the country.Brian Reilly , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 4:00 pm GMTWhy is the Times so concerned that its readers might have a different opinion on this matter? Why do they want to convince people that the protests-riots are merely spontaneous outbursts of anti-racist sentiment? Could it be because the Times job is to create a version of events that suits the interests of the elites it serves? Here's a few excerpts from today's piece titled "Federal Arrests Show No Sign That Antifa Plotted Protests":
While anarchists and anti-fascists openly acknowledged being part of the immense crowds, they call the scale, intensity and durability of the protests far beyond anything they might dream of organizing. Some tactics used at the protests, like the wearing of all black and the shattering of store windows, are reminiscent of those used by anarchist groups, say those who study such movements. (plausible deniability)
Anarchists and others accuse officials of trying to assign blame to extremists rather than accept the idea that millions of Americans from a variety of political backgrounds have been on the streets demanding change. Numerous experts also called the participation of extremist organizations overstated. (plausible deniability)
"A significant number of people in positions of authority are pushing a false narrative about antifa being behind a lot of this activity," said J.M. Berger, the author of the book "Extremism" and an authority on militant movements. "These are just unbelievably large protests at a time of great turmoil in this country, and there is surprisingly little violence given the size of this movement.".. (plausible deniability)
In New York, the police briefed reporters on May 31, claiming that radical anarchists from outside the state had plotted ahead of protests by setting up encrypted communications systems, arranging for street medics and collecting bail funds.
Within five days, however, Dermot F. Shea, the city's police commissioner, acknowledged that most of the hundreds of people arrested at the protests in New York were actually New Yorkers who took advantage of the chaos to commit crimes and were not motivated by political ideology . John Miller, the police official who had briefed reporters, told CNN that most looting in New York had been committed by "regular criminal groups." (plausible deniability)
Kit O'Connell, a longtime radical leftist activist and community organizer in Austin, said that shortly after Mr. Trump's election, the group took part in anti-fascist protests in the city against a local white supremacist group and scuffled separately with Act for America, an anti-Muslim organization.
"They've been an influence at the protests but they're not in charge -- no one's really in charge," Mr. O'Connell said. (plausible deniability)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/us/antifa-protests-george-floyd.htmlWhy is the Times acting like Antifa's attorney? Why are the trying to minimize the role of professional agitators? Why is the Times so determined to shape the public's thinking on this matter?
Doesn't this suggest that Antifa and other groups operating within the protest movement are actually linked to agencies in the deep state that are conducting another operation against the American people?
@anonymous anonymous, I have been encouraging cops to quit for a long time. They are protecting the wrong people, being used to protect people in the ruling class that hate and despise cops just a little less than they hate and despise the rest of us civilians.anonymous [263] Disclaimer , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 4:13 pm GMTTo the issue at hand, black people should only be policed, arrested, charged, prosecuted, defended, judged, and (if found guilty) punished by other blacks. No white person should have anything to do with it. Any white person policing negros in America is making a huge mistake, and should immediately quit.
The pensions are not going to be paid, and the crazy, Soros paid for black people are going to make it impossible for a white cop pretty soon anyway. Might as well walk before they make you run.
Don't worry about BLM, which is corporate phoney bullshit protest, easter parades and internet posturing. The blacks in the street don't fall for that shit. Look what happens when coopted oreos try to herd everybody back to tame marching:botazefa , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 4:53 pm GMThttps://www.blackagendareport.com/ooh-la-la-atlantas-mayor-keisha-and-civil-rights-myths-black-mecca
Fuck Killer Mike
Fuck TI
Fuck KKKeishaThe provocateurs are not influencing them. The sellout house negroes are not influencing them. They know what they want. The regime is shitting its pants. If they scapegoat Trump and purge him, Biden will inherit the same problem only worse.
@Escherbotazefa , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 5:03 pm GMTWon't these riots create a wave of revulsion among the silent majority and consolidate Trump's support base?
That's what I am wondering too. It makes more sense to me that the elites driving these BLM riots are those who support Trump. Terrify people and threaten the existence of police is a good way to get elderly white voters out of their covid lockdowns on election day.
@Mike WhitneyMike Whitney , says: Website Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 5:13 pm GMTDoesn't this suggest that Antifa and other groups operating within the protest movement are actually linked to agencies in the deep state that are conducting another operation against the American people?
Do we really want to suggest the CIA is committing treason against the American people? Isn't it more likely that the Times is agitating against the CIA for other reasons? Reasons Carlos Slim could explain?
For those who haven't read Pepe Escobar's latsest on BLM, here's a couple clips:Brás Cubas , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 5:16 pm GMTBlack Lives Matter, founded in 2013 by a trio of middle class, queer black women very vocal against "hetero-patriarchy", is a product of what University of British Columbia's Peter Dauvergne defines as "corporatization of activism".
Over the years, Black Lives Matter evolved as a marketing brand, like Nike (which fully supports it). The widespread George Floyd protests elevated it to the status of a new religion. Yet Black Lives Matter carries arguably zero, true revolutionary appeal. This is not James Brown's "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud". And it does not get even close to Black Power and the Black Panthers' "Power to the People".
Black Lives Matter profited in 2016 from a humongous $100 million grant from the Ford Foundation and other philanthropic capitalism stalwarts such as JPMorgan Chase and the Kellogg Foundation.
The Ford Foundation is very close to the U.S. Deep State. The board of directors is crammed with corporate CEOs and Wall Street honchos. In a nutshell; Black Lives Matter, the organization, today is fully sanitized; largely integrated into the Democratic Party machine; adored by mainstream media; and certainly does not represent a threat to the 0.001%.
https://www.unz.com/pescobar/syria-in-seattle-commune-defies-the-u-s-regime/
I rest my case.
Mike is one of the more interesting writers in Unz. He occasionally writes some irreflected lines, though:anonymous [306] Disclaimer , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 5:20 pm GMTOf course there are millions of protesters who honestly believe they're fighting racial injustice and police brutality. And more power to them.
Those "honest" people are actually useful idiots, and the last thing I want is to give them more power.
IMO the best evidence for state provocation is this traditional strange-fruit lynching,anbonymous , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 5:31 pm GMThttps://www.rt.com/usa/491698-robert-fuller-hanging-tree-california/
an evident ham-handed attempt to make this all about race. The real threat to this police state is racial and international solidarity against state predation – the stuff that got Fred Hampton killed,
"when I talk about the masses, I'm talking about the white masses, I'm talking about the black masses, and the brown masses, and the yellow masses, too We say you don't fight racism with racism. We're gonna fight racism with solidarity. We say you don't fight capitalism with no black capitalism; you fight capitalism with socialism."
or Angela Davis and the Che-Lumumba club. BAP is right back on this and the resonating international demonstrations show that that's the right track. The whole world sees what this is about, except for a few fucked-over US whites.
botazefa, of course the CIA is committing treason against the American people. Where were you when they whacked JFK, then RFK? Where were you when they blew up OKC? Where were you when they released anthrax on the Senate, infiltrated and protected 9/11 terrorists, assigned more terrorists to MITRE to blind NORAD, blew up the WTC for the second time, and exfiltrated the Saudi logisticians?obwandiyag , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 6:05 pm GMTAnybody unaware that CIA has been pure treason from inception is (1) retarded XOR (2) a CIA traitor.
Do you really want to tell us trust the CIA?
Sorry. The assholes on this asshole site will not let you say that what is important is how the super-billionaires control us. They are going to insist that it's niggerniggernigger all the way home and that's all there is to it. You would think they were paid. Or really, really stupid.Realist , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 6:19 pm GMT@botazefaJuliette Kayyem , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 6:29 pm GMTDo we really want to suggest the CIA is committing treason against the American people?
Oh, hell yes the FBI and a significant portion of the federal government.
When Gina, she-wolf of Udon Thani, got busted for trying to overthrow the United States government with Russiagate, she hung onto her job by rigging the succession with all the Brennan traitors who ran the Russiagate coup.Realist , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 6:29 pm GMTSo we should expect that Gina will now stage a couple massacres like Kent State and Jackson State, because that's how CIA ratfucked Nixon when he didn't knuckle under.
Gina's extra motivated to stay on top because she's criminally culpable for systematic and widespread torture:
CIA wanted a DCI who would kill another president (even after JFK and Reagan) to preserve CIA's impunity.
@Mike Whitney Excellent article and I believe excellent analysis of the situation.Mike Whitney , says: Website Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 7:28 pm GMTWhere we may differ is with Trump's complicity in Deep State efforts. I believe Trump is a minion of the Deep State. His actions and inactions can not be explained any other way.
Let's assume for a minute, that Pepe Escobar is correct when he says this:Anon [184] Disclaimer , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 7:29 pm GMT"Black Lives Matter profited in 2016 from a humongous $100 million grant from the Ford Foundation and other philanthropic capitalism stalwarts such as JPMorgan Chase and the Kellogg Foundation .
The Ford Foundation is very close to the U.S. Deep State. The board of directors is crammed with corporate CEOs and Wall Street honchos. In a nutshell; Black Lives Matter, the organization, today is fully sanitized; largely integrated into the Democratic Party machine; adored by mainstream media; and certainly does not represent a threat to the 0.001%.
https://www.unz.com/pescobar/syria-in-seattle-commune-defies-the-u-s-regime/
If this is true–and I believe it is– then Black Lives Matter is no different than USAID or any of the other NGOs that are used to incite revolution around the world. If this is true, then there is likely a CIA link to these protests, the main purpose of which is to remove Trump from office.
So Black Lives Matter= activist NGO linked to US Intel agencies= Regime Change Operation
But there is something else going on here too, (that many readers might have noticed) that is, the way social media has been manipulated to put millions of young people on the street in order to promote the agenda of elites.
How did they manage that?
How did they get millions of young people to come out day after day (14 days so far) in over 400 cities to protest an issue about which they know very little aside from the media's irritating reiteration of "systemic racism", (a claim that is not supported by the data.)
IMO, we are seeing the first successful social media saturation campaign launched probably by the Pentagon's Office Strategic Communications or a similar outfit within the CIA. Having already taken control over the entire mainstream media complex, the intel agencies and their friends at the Pentagon are now wrapping their tentacles around internet communications in order to achieve their goal of complete tyrannical social control.
As always, the target of these massive covert operations is the American people who had better pull their heads out of the sand pronto and come up with a plan for countering this madness.
@anonymous The elephant in the room, that seems to be ignored by all is the simple fact that Hispanics are working class heroes. And they outnumber the blacks, and hate their guts for the most part. Not the scrawny punks withe Che t-shirts, but the actual working types that are less than thrilled to deal with the weak. Notice how no Hispanic barrios have EVER been f ** ked with, no matter when the race riot? There is an open fatwa from La Eme regarding blacks that has never been rescinded. Has a lot to do with the kneegro exodus from the LA area, which correlates with the lack of looting in the formerly black areas. Which the MSM prefers to ignore. The happy idiots are mugging for the cameras on a daily basis in Hollywood, but the Hispanic run Sheriff's office has no problem with popping gas and defending businesses. Also note that the MSM only reports on areas when a local government craters to the mob. LA County was under curfew for 7 days due to a mob of looters that numbered perhaps 2000. If that Jew mayor (with the Italian surname) had not allowed the looting, then we would have seen the kind of 36 hour turnaround like we had with Rodney King. The ethnic group that ignores the MSM and stands up for its own people will win in the end. Right now we are looking more toward the kind of Celtic/Meso-American alliance that is well known in the penal system. These groups can exist side by side, with each ignoring the other. Blacks, on the other paw seem to be unable to keep to themselves, at least on the ghetto level, and will always be an issue for civilization. It's time we stop calling for a generic and all-inclusive White establishment. The race traitors and weaklings forfeit that right. When Celts, Italians, Germans, etc. were proud and independent, there was strength. It's time to return to that ideal. Only the negroid actually lumps all whites together, which the Jews use as a divisive tool. Strength should be idolized, rather than weakness exploited.botazefa , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 7:30 pm GMTHail Victory
@anbonymousbotazefa , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 7:32 pm GMTDo you really want to tell us trust the CIA?
I'm saying that the NYT is not necessarily mouthpiece *only* for the Deep State. As for your JFK assassination – Senate Anthrax – 9/11 etc, those are considered conspiracy theories and I've never been persuaded otherwise. I've read up on the theories and they are not strong.
I don't know what a retarded XOR is except as it relates to logic diagrams and I don't work for the CIA.
@RealistPriss Factor , says: Website Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 8:02 pm GMTOh, hell yes the FBI and a significant portion of the federal government
Fair enough.
Priss Factor , says: Website Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 8:05 pm GMTDo Deep State Elements Operate Within the Protest Movement?
It's called Jewish lawfare for Antifa, Jewish control of media, and Jewish cult of Magic Negro.
Even though Jews led the Gentric Cleansing campaigns against blacks by using mass immigration, globo-homo celebration, and white middle class return to cities, the Jews are now pretending be with the blacks and throwing the immigrants, white middle class, and homos to the black mobs.
@obwandiyag Super billionaires control nations, but an average person is more likely to get mugged, raped, or murdered by a Negro.schnellandine , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 9:47 pm GMT@AnonStepinfetchit has a dream , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 10:07 pm GMTsimple fact that Hispanics are working class heroes
Some are. Most aren't. And the 'not'% grows with selective Americanization (not assimilation). Still, I'll take them over the blacks, even with their generally inferior (to White) culture.
Whites are better with separation from them along with blacks. Whatever the prime driver, both groups have poisoned America, likely beyond repair. Conquistador gonnna conquistador.
M. Whitney in comment 21 clarifies his view of BLM as the impetus for this rebellion. That does not square with the reports of people on the street.R.C. , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 10:47 pm GMTBLM is exactly analogous to BDS: a controlled opposition of feckless halfassed gestures designed to distract from the real movement. You hear BLM apparatchiks whining about getting their movement hijacked because people in the streets show solidarity with oppressed groups worldwide – and youe hear BLM getting booed by the people they're trying to corral. BLM's mission is putting words in the protestors' mouths. You hear Democrat BLM spokesmodels trying to distort calls for police abolition and no more impunity. And real protestors call bullshit.
BLM works on dumb white guys: hating on BLM makes them feel very edgy and defiant. Black Lives Matter! Blue Lives Matter! Black! Blue! Black! Blue! Catnip for dumbshits, courtesy of CIA. Keeps them away from the really subversive stuff, which makes perfect sense for whites too.
https://blackagendareport.com/
Cause CIA's fucking us all. They're hostis humani generis.
Do Deep State Elements Operate Within the Protest Movement?Ann Nonny Mouse , says: Show Comment June 14, 2020 at 11:42 pm GMT
Does a one legged duck swim in circles?@ICD Look into whether the training of cops has been outsourced and privatized. Or simply shortened to save money.ICD , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 12:18 am GMTAnd ask why the police are even armed when in Communist China they are not, and traditionally in the non-American West they were not, now are in imitation of America.
Ann Nonny Mouse, truer words were never spoken. Chinese cops have these cute little nightsticks, and sometimes they will bop a guy and the guy just stands there and says Ow and the cops continue to reason with him, no restraint, incapacitation, any of that shit. British cops used to be that way, they used to reason with you. Now they're all American style Assholes, if not Israeli concentration camp guards. Just nuke FOP HQ in Memphis.ThreeCranes , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 12:46 am GMTKoch sees privatization as a future profit center and a chance to control the cops himself. They're not trainable, they're too fucking stupid. We all did fine without pigs up through most of the 19th century. Hue and cry works fine. Fire all the cops and replace them with unarmed women social workers. That's all they are, prodigiously incompetent social workers.
Too, those many businesses with all that unsold inventory sitting around gathering dust due to Covid isolation will benefit from insurance payments covering their losses due to looting. The cherry on top.niteranger , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 1:18 am GMT@Mike Whitney Whitney:Loup-Bouc , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 1:38 am GMTAre you just clueless or what? Did you notice the names of the Antifa leaders that have been exposed? They are Amish Right? They are Jews and they will always be Jews! Soros and other Jews have been running this game for a long time. Where have you been? SDS in Chicago no Jews there right!
The CIA and the FBI overwhelmed with Jews can you count? All the professors who have been destroying whites with their fake studies blaming everything wrong in the world on Whites and Western Civilization. The entire Media owned by who?
Either you were dropped out of a spaceship a few days ago or you are a total idiot and can't see the forest before trees.
Try this: The Percentage of all Ivy League Presidents, top adminstrators, deans etc take a guess then go count them and see which group they belong to.
Biff , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 1:43 am GMTDoes anyone believe the nationwide riots and looting are a spontaneous reaction to the killing of George Floyd?
It's all too coordinated, too widespread, and too much in-sync with the media narrative .
* * *
This a destabilization campaign similar to the CIA's color revolutions designed to topple the regime (Trump), install a puppet government (Biden), impose "shock therapy" on the economy pushing tens of millions of Americans into homelessness and destitution, and leave behind a broken, smoldering shell of a country easily controlled by Federal shock troops and wealthy globalist mandarins.
One must wonder: How could the CIA and the U.S. Democrat establishment foment and coordinate all of the Black Lives Matter protests occurring in Canada, several nations of South and Central America, the U.K., Ireland, throughout the European Union, and in Switzerland, the Middle East (Turkey, Iran ), and in Asia (Korea, Japan .) and New Zealand, Australia, and Africa?
Mr. Whitney: Neither magic nor bigotry-induced hallucinations can forge a tenable conspiracy theory.
@botazefaMrFoSquare , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:12 am GMTand I don't work for the CIA.
Plausible deniability
I think the primary reason the mainstream media doesn't want the general public, especially those living outside the major cities, to understand the extent of the destruction and violence that spread in a highly-coordinated fashion across America, is that this would be cause for alarm among a majority of Americans who would demand more Law & Order, which would redound to Trump's benefit.Loup-Bouc , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:18 am GMTNotice Trump is countering by tweeting "LAW & ORDER!"
Here is Trump tweeting "Does anyone notice how little the Radical Left takeover of Seattle is being discussed in the Fake News Media[?] That is very much on purpose "
Does anyone notice how little the Radical Left takeover of Seattle is being discussed in the Fake News Media. That is very much on purpose because they know how badly this weakness & ineptitude play politically. The Mayor & Governor should be ashamed of themselves. Easily fixed!
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2020
The outcome of the election in November could hinge on the urgency the public places on the issue of Law & Order. Hence the media's all out effort to minimize the extent of the Anarchy and Violence and the financial sponsorship, planning, and coordination behind it.
@Mike Whitney Mr. Whitney:obwandiyag , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:42 am GMTPlease see my comment of June 15, 2020 at 1:38 am GMT (comment # 34). I must apologize for that comment's insufficiency (owed to my posting that comment before I happened upon your comment to which this comment replies). Had I encountered your comment earlier, my June 15, 2020 at 1:38 am GMT comment (comment # 34) would have observed that you are triumphantly illogical as you are a world class crackpot.
@ICD You said it. Police Departments country-wide are stuffed up the wazoo with more cash than they can spend. But what do they cry? Poor us. Poor us. We ain't got no money.Biff , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 3:08 am GMTThis is what they, and by they, I mean all our owners and their overseers, always do. They cry poverty when they are rolling in loot.
That way you get more loot!
Duh.
JohnPlywood , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 5:01 am GMTDo Deep State Elements Operate Within the Protest Movement?
Yes, and the left(unwittingly) will help them with their cause, and the right will cowardly hide right behind the deep state as protection from the violent left.
Revolutions made easy!
Brought to you by the blob incorporated.
@Priss Factor You are extremely unlikely to receive any of those things from a "Negro". 90% of Americans are unlikely to even see more than ten black people in their entire lives.Robert Dolan , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 5:57 am GMTI wish you psychotic fucking female idiots on this website who are constantly blathering about black people could realize how annoying you are to the 90% of white people who are not living in or next to black ghettos. Please STFU and allow discourse to trend in more pertinent directions, and move away from black people if you're so paranoid about them.
Of course Antifa works for the deep state jews.Al Liguori , says: Website Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 6:01 am GMTIt was obvious after C 'ville.
Antifa has the full support of all of the 3 letter agencies;
ADL
FBI
CIA
DNC
DOJThis is the very same Bolshevik scum the poor Germans had to deal with.
@Mike Whitney The (((media))) have an uphill battle in convincing us to deny the evidence of our eyes -- black-hooded white punks throwing bricks through storefronts then inviting joggers to loot.Thomasina , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 6:37 am GMTThat is why so many platforms, even "free speech" GAB, are wildly censoring counter-narratives.
@Brian Reilly Stephen Molyneux said that police forces were originally geared to operate under white Christian societies where there was a high level of trust and people were law-abiding. I remember when I was a kid, we didn't even lock our doors. Our bikes were left out on the front lawn, sometimes for days, weeks, and nobody took them. Nobody locked their car doors. People just didn't steal other people's stuff. When a cop tried to pull you over, you didn't hit the gas pedal and take off. You didn't run from the cops; you were polite to them and they were polite to you.Sean , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 6:47 am GMTTucker Carlson said that Blacks are now asking for their own hospitals (I forget what city this was) and their own doctors and nurses. Blacks schools, Black police forces.
Tribes don't mix. Their culture is different than our culture. Why should they change for us, and why should we change for them?
It is a marriage that does not work. Either send them back to Africa (best solution) or give them Mississippi and put up a big wall. Then let them pay for their own upkeep – all of it. Good luck with that.
Thomasina , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 7:56 am GMTYesterday the frat boy type who is mayor of Minneapolis was booed out of a mass meeting of radicals in that fair city because he refused to endorse abolishing the police force.
Mayor Jacob Frey got elected at his extremely young age by flanking on the Left with anti police rhetoric, He is the the originator of this crisis; as soon as the video of Floyd's death was public Frey publicly and literally called the four cops murderers and said he was powerless to have them arrested. That was a false accusation of police impunity, because the supposedly powerless Frey was able to order the police to vacate their own station thus letting the demonstrators take over and burn it. Yet to draw back a bit the Deep State if worried about other states.
That event Frey largely created was the key moment of this whole thing. Trump could have nipped it in the bud by had sending in troops immediately the Minneapolis 3rd Precinct was burnt down. Crushing the riots in that city and preventing the example infecting the demonstrations in other cities. and turning them into cover for riots. Trump did not want to be seen as Draconian although it would not have been at all violent, because no one is going to challenge the army's awesome presence once it arrived on the streets,as worked in the Rodney King riots.
The real target of this operation is the Constitutional Republic itself. Having succeeded in using the Lockdown to push the economy into severe recession, the globalists are now inciting a fratricidal war that will weaken the opposition and prepare the country for a new authoritarian order.
George Floyd had foam visible at the corners of his mouth when the police arrived. Autopsy tests revealed Fentanyl and COVID-19: both from Wuhan. I Can't Breath is America gearing up to confront and settle accounts with Xi's totalitarian state.
Current events might seem to be a setback for the US, but provide the opportunity for a re-set with the black community, with a potential outcome of resolving race tensions that have been a cause of dissension and internal weakness, just as during the Cold War racial integration was thought essential by anti communists like Nixon. America is gearing up to settle accounts with China, which is a Deep State new Cold War. While it is a possibility that whites could lose control of their society, and see it fall into the hands of an explicitly anti -acist elite/ minorities alliance, the Deep State is not the same as the hyper capitalist elite whose growing wealth depends on China.
Do Deep State Elements Operate Within the Protest Movement?
Yes, and it is a good thing.
@Mike Whitney The Duran did an excellent video titled "Social Media 'Unchecked Power'" where they talk about Trump and Barr going after the tech companies and their virtual monopolies with an executive order.Gast , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 8:12 am GMTAt 33:45 they state that Microsoft (Bill Gates) invested $1 billion and the CIA invested $16 million into Facebook when it was still operating as a university network. The CIA were one of the first investors in Facebook.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/OwPVQ8N8hhk?feature=oembed
Why the hell was the CIA investing $16 million to get Facebook off the ground? Hmmm. Could it be because Facebook would be instrumental in controlling the narrative?
The young people, who have no experience and no real knowledge of history, are being taken in by these social media companies who are playing on their emotions. Any dissenting opinions are blocked or banned. Very dangerous.
@Loup-Bouc Well, the "deep state" is just an euphemism for the jewish power structure, and all those places you named are run be jews. That jews cooperate in extended conspiracies without regard of borders should be common knowledge for every observer of history and current politics. I see nothing far-fetched. Honestly, my mind would boggle if I should explain, how the Antifa gets away with those things it always gets away with, if it wasn't controlled by the "deep state". And I couldn't explain the international cooperation either.GMC , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 8:15 am GMTAs Pepe' Escobar said – Americans looting is a natural thing – just look at how the US Military has stolen the gaz and oil from Iraq, Syria, Libya, etc. and is trying like hell for the Venezuelan oil fields. Not to mention where all their gold, silver and billions of dollars have gone. The list of the USG looting criminal record is unprecedented . It's a Family Tradition. Enjoyed the article !Thomasina , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 8:37 am GMT@MrFoSquare The Capitol Hill area of Seattle that has been taken over as an "autonomous zone" by the protesters is really rather laughable.Thomasina , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 8:48 am GMTOne of the first things they did was put up what they called "light fencing". Oh, so when THEY put up walls, that's perfectly fine. When Trump tries to do it, that's evil and racist. Borders are A-okay when they're doing it.
They've colonized an area for themselves. I thought the Progressive Left was against colonialism, taking someone else's property. Isn't that what they've done? They've taken over whole neighborhoods.
And they've got armed patrol guards checking people as they enter. If you're not in agreement with their ideology, you're not allowed to enter. So apparently it's okay to have border controls when they're running the world.
They're doing everything they profess to be against. Hilarious.
@niteranger Along with the tech and social media companies, Hollywood, State Department, Department of Justice.Some Guy sdfsdfs , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 8:59 am GMT@Brian Reilly "anonymous, I have been encouraging cops to quit for a long time."peter mcloughlin , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 9:02 am GMTDude, why? I don't want to get jacked by some thug or some immigrant policeman from Honduras. And I can't defend myself because it would be a hate crime.
Thank God for white cops.
There are underlying motives, or "hidden agendas", beneath the authentic struggle for justice. The greatest motive is for power: either to retain it or gain it. The need or desire for power can be identified in every conflict in history.Thomasina , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 9:23 am GMT
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/@Realist So you think that everything they've done to Trump has been one big show and he's been in on it? The pussy tape, Stormy Daniels, spying on his campaign, the leaking, the Steele Dossier, Russiagate, Ukrainegate, his impeachment, lying to the FISA Courts by the FBI, CIA's involvement, Mueller Report, DNC server, Clinton and Loretta Lynch on the tarmac, fake news media, sanctuary cities, courts disobeying his executive orders, Covid-19, protests – all of it has been a ruse to fool us into thinking that Trump is a legitimate opposition?Just a random Polish guy , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 9:35 am GMTWhat, it's better to have the citizens split politically 50/50? That way there's never a majority who start throwing their weight around and making trouble for the elite looters? Keep the people fighting among each other and divided?
Trump has gone through all of this, but he's just faking it? Are we Truman from the Truman Show?
I guess you could be right, but what if you're not? What if Trump is actually an outsider? He's never really ever been part of the elite, not really. If he is truly an outsider, then these people have been a party to an attempted coup against a duly-elected President.
And if so, then that's sedition and they should hang.
@PetrOldSack Trump is just a puppet, well maybe a bit more, of the part of the MIC and Deep State that apparently has a different agenda. This is not to say that they are "good people" but they seem to want to keep the US as a functioning republic and a major power. Maybe they have some plans re the other group(s) in the elites that are extremely dangerous for those groups. Which would explain why those groups ("globalists") want to remove those elements of influence people behind Trump get from the fact that he is the president. This explains why fake Covid-19 was so pumped by the media and when that apparently did not work they moved on to BLM "color revolution". It is interesting how all of this plays out, as it will decide the fate of the world. Ironically, Xi, Putin and other leaders that represent groups wanting to maintain (some) sovereignty of their states have a common enemy, even as their states are in competition, namely "globalist" elements within their own power structures.James N. Kennett , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 9:39 am GMTOne of the goals of the British security service, MI5, is to control the leader or deputy leader of any subversive organisation larger than a football team. The same is likely true in every country.Thomasina , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 9:47 am GMTThe typical criticism of MI5 is that it is too passive, and does not use its knowledge to close down hostile groups. In Algeria, the opposite happened: the Algerian security service infiltrated the most extreme Islamist group in the 1990s and aggravated the country's civil war by committing massacres, with the goal of creating public revulsion for the Islamists.
This range of possibilities makes it hard to figure out what the Deep State and other manipulators are doing.
@Sean Frey is a weak Leftist. The equally weak Governor (another Leftie) needed to handle the situation. He didn't. Trump told him that the feds would help if he asked; he didn't.Commentator Mike , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 9:58 am GMTThis is all on the state and local governments. They did nothing except to tell the cops to stand down while the city got looted and burned.
If Trump had sent in the military, they would have screamed blue murder. They probably would have called for his impeachment. Of course, that's what they wanted Trump to do. Thank goodness Trump didn't fall for their trap.
So the NYT has joined the vanguard af the American People's Revolution?! People change sides and not all organisations are uniform, even the CIA. There has to be some organisation to these protests and whoever is providing it, I doubt the protesters are complaining, but want even more of it, and for it to be more effective, widespread and to grow. And finding protesters is no problem now or in the future considering the state of the economy, business closures, rising unemployment, expensive education. What are all these young people supposed to do? Sit at home playing video games, surfing porn, watching TV? Or go on a holiday? Now in these circumstances? I guess they're bored with all that so they may as well hit the streets and stay on the streets as they'll be on the streets anyway when they get evicted because they can't pay the rent. And as they're being impoverished they may as well steal what they can. And obviously they don't fear arrest and are happy to get a criminal record since even a clean sheet won't get them a job in the failing economy, and they know that. I'm sure many want a solution that will provide for their future. But who is providing it? So it's on them to create it. Of course politicians will want to use them and manipulate them for their own ends. And the elites, and the deep state too. And sure there are Jews in it as in anything. And sure they're fat, ugly, and degenerate – they're Americans reflecting their own society. But where it goes nobody knowsCommentator Mike , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 10:12 am GMT@Sean So the Chinks killed George Floyd, and not the cops. LOL.animalogic , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 10:55 am GMT@Mike Whitney "Is Antifa a group of deep state agitators? That's the question."onebornfree , says: Website Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 11:01 am GMT
99% of them wouldn't have a clue as to any larger strategic direction. Sorry,
but to repeat myself: "useful idiots"."Do Deep State Elements Operate Within the Protest Movement?"animalogic , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 11:05 am GMTWell, duh! It seems likely that the entire George Floyd murder on camera was a staged event, its even possible that he/it was never really killed. See:
PSYOP? George Floyd "death" was faked by crisis actors to engineer revolutionary riots, video authors say
" Numerous videos are now surfacing that directly question the authenticity of the claimed "death" of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Several trending videos appear to reveal striking inconsistencies in the official explanations behind the reported death of Floyd. These videos appear to reinforce the idea that the George Floyd incident was, if not entirely falsified, most definitely planned and rigged in advance. It is already confirmed that the Obama Foundation was tweeting about George Floyd more than a week before he is claimed to have died. "
"Obviously, since Barack Obama doesn't own a time machine, the only way the Obama Foundation could have tweeted about George Floyd a week before his death is it the entire event was planned in advanced.
Note: We do not endorse every claim in each of the videos shown below, but we believe the public has the right to hear dissenting views that challenge the official narratives, and we believe public debate that incorporates views from all sides of a particular issue offers inherent merit for public discourse.
Numerous video authors are now spotting stunning inconsistencies in the viral videos that claim to show white cops murdering George Floyd in broad daylight. Without exception, these video authors, many of whom are black, believe:
at least one of the "police officers" was actually a hired crisis actor who has appeared in other staged events in recent years.
that the black man depicted in the viral videos is not, in fact, an individual named George Floyd.
that the responding medical personnel were not EMTs but were in fact mere crisis actors wearing police costumes.Each of the video authors shown below reveals still images and video clips that they say support their claims. Here's an overview of some of the most intriguing videos and the summary of what those videos are saying: .":
Regards, onebornfree
@Mike Whitney I think you are correct Mike. IF blm got $100 million from anyone it follows that they are beholden -- & the only entities capable of such "generosity" are "establishment" it therefore follows that BLM are beholden (controlled) by the establishment ( .the deep state .)Really No Shit , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 11:09 am GMTNow the New York Times thinks that the black, brown, white and yellow lives are dispensable does it mean their own GRAY lives matter more to the rest of us? No, it does not!Christophe GJ , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 11:09 am GMTDigital Samizdat , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 11:10 am GMTThe scale and coordination alone suggests that elements in the deep state are probably involved.
It seems right and logical.
But what I don't understand, is why the deep state elite don't understand that in the end the collapse of the "traditional society" will touch them too in their private life. In the long run the ruining of the US will ruin everybody in the US including them. Don't they get it ? Maybe they are intoxicated by their own lies are are begining to lose their lucidity. Like Al Pacino intoxicated by his own coke in scarface.@obwandiyag Meanwhile, who's paying for BLM and Antifa?Biff , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 11:22 am GMT@JohnPlywood Triggered trollanimalogic , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 11:33 am GMT@MrFoSquare What we need are some solid numbers:John Thurloe , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 11:48 am GMT
How many arrested? (& who are they?)
How many properties destroyed?
Dollars worth of damage?
Which cities had the worst damage?
A social media "history" of protest/riot posting ?
Where/who are responsible for brick/frozen water bottle stashes?
Travel histories of notable offenders?
Links between "protesters" & the media ?
Money? Who/what/when/how was all this funded on a day-to-day basis.
And so on.Mike Whitney doesn't know the first thing. It takes a lot of organizing time and personnel to properly prepare and lead in the field any large public protest. There are people experienced in this. Getting them together and deploying their capability is required.Gryunt Linglebrunt, 7th Level Bard , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 12:13 pm GMTThese protests are classic unplanned, spontaneous actions. At least the first major wave of them. Only after some time will parties try to lead, organize. Or manipulate.
First thing, it's like trying to herd cats. So, you need marshals. Lots of them. Ably led, and clearly seen. Just to try and steer a protest down one street or to some point. You need first aid available, provision for seniors and children. Water. Knowledgeable people to deal with the media.
People who know what they're doing to deal with senior police. With city transit, buses, taxis. Hospitals, road construction, fire departments. A good protest cleans itself up too so provide the means for that. Loudspeakers, music – all this an more has to be organized. By some people.
And 100% of this or even a hint of organizing is not evident at these protests. And the evidence is easy to see. Organizers advertise too for volunteers. Everything in plain sight for those with eyes to see.
If you are stupid enough to think that some handful of fruitcakes from some official agency could even find their way to a protest, actually have a clue how to conduct themselves and not get laughed at or just ignored – there's no hope for you. You know nothing about protests and are pedalling fantasy.
@obwandiyag As usual, you're completely delusional. Most police departments are in the exact same boat as the municipalities that fund them: one downturn (like, say, a public lockdown followed by public disorder and looting) from going right to the wall.Uomiem , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 12:33 pm GMTThere won't be any need to "defund" police; most of America's cities and towns are soon to be on the bread line, looking for those Ctrl-P federal dollars. Quarterly deficits of twenty trillion, here we come!
@Thomasina The power elite have different factions and they fight each other to a point, but they do not try to expose each other. This is why none of Trump enemies are going to be put in prison.Dr. X , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 12:39 pm GMTThis is why Trump supports don't know what Genie Engery is, not that they would care.
The scum Trump appointed should tell you what side he's on.
I don't know if Antifa is run directly by the three-letter FedGov agencies. But I do know that the university is the breeding ground for these vermin, and all universities, even "private" ones, are largely funded by the governmnent, and are tax exempt.Niebelheim , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 12:42 pm GMTSo yes, the government is behind Antifa.
@schnellandine The Hispanics in America are similar to waves of Italians in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, except the numbers are far larger and never ending, which impacts assimilation. The Hispanics are the ones doing the hard physical labor for low pay, and they are the ones in American society to invest in learning the skill to perform some of those backbreaking, low paying jobs well. They are the Super Marios of today. Many of them ply their trades as small businessmen. They are thankful for their jobs and the people they serve.Realist , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 12:45 pm GMT
Many are loving, salt-of-the-earth type people who genuinely love their blanco friends. Howard Stern thinks their music sucks but at least they sing songs about el corazon, music of the heart and of love. (No one is comparable to the Italians in that department, but what do you suppose happened to the beautiful love music produced by black male vocalists as late as a generation ago?) Except for the fact that Hispanics come from countries with long traditions of corrupt, El Patron governments which unfortunately they want to enact here as a social safety net, they are often traditional in their attitudes about religion and family. Of course, they get in drunken brawls, abuse their women, and the graft and incompetence in their institutions can be outrageous. The reason they flee here is because the world they've created themselves in the shithole places they've leaving isn't as good as the West created by Caucasian cultures. The law abiding, decent family people I'm speaking of prosper alongside of whites and many come to recognize that whites and Hispanics can build a common destiny that's far preferable to the direction black agitators are taking blacks in America.@ThomasinaOld and Grumpy , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 12:49 pm GMTSo you think that everything they've done to Trump has been one big show and he's been in on it? The pussy tape, Stormy Daniels, spying on his campaign, the leaking, the Steele Dossier, Russiagate, Ukrainegate, his impeachment, lying to the FISA Courts by the FBI, CIA's involvement, Mueller Report, DNC server, Clinton and Loretta Lynch on the tarmac, fake news media, sanctuary cities, courts disobeying his executive orders, Covid-19, protests – all of it has been a ruse to fool us into thinking that Trump is a legitimate opposition?
Absolutely.
Keep the people fighting among each other and divided?
Yes, but the elite do not fear the majority they are in complete control through insouciance and stupidity on the majority.
I guess you could be right, but what if you're not? What if Trump is actually an outsider?
He's not his actions and inactions are impossible to logically explain away he is a minion of the Deep State.
@botazefa Does either Trump or the GOP strike you as opposition when all they do is snivel. This operation is about demoralizing the silent majority.Desert Fox , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 12:50 pm GMTThe protest movement is directed and controlled by the same zionists who control the government and their goal is the destruction of America and they are being allowed to do the wrecking and destruction that they are doing, as this helps full fill the zionist communist takeover of America.Realist , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 12:55 pm GMTTo see where this is leading read up on the bolshevik-communist revolution in Russia and the communist revolution in China and Cuba and Cambodia, and there is the future of America.
@John Thurloe You are gullibility personified or a troll.Old and Grumpy , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 1:02 pm GMT@Christophe GJ They enjoy human suffering. Who knows maybe their compensation is linked to dead bodies. The deep state types will dwell in gate communities that will never be breached. The perks of owning both segments of the "opposition." As for the CIA's owners, a sharp depopulation has been their goal for some time. Why it has to be so ghoulish and prolong is anyone's guess.Avalanche , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 1:06 pm GMT@Brian Reilly "To the issue at hand, black people should only be policed, arrested, charged, prosecuted, defended, judged, and (if found guilty) punished by other blacks."jadan , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 1:11 pm GMTYeah, some city tried that. To try to satisfy the "Get White police out of our neighborhoods" they did -- they re-orged and sent only black cops into black neighborhoods, and let the White cops police the White neighborhoods. And the BLACK POLICE SUED to end that! They were, they claimed (and legitimately, too!) being treated unfairly by making THEM police the most violent, the most dangerous, the most deadly neighborhoods, and "protecting" the White cops from that duty by letting only the White cops work the nice neighborhoods. They WON too!
This commenter gets it when he wrote the following. http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com/2015/05/will-last-white-person-to-leave.html
(note: "IKAGO" = "I know a good one." the all-too-often excuse from the unawakened!)
=====================
I don't mourn the loss of Baltimore. Or Detroit, Chicago, Gary, Atlanta, etc etc etc.It is ultimately a huge benefit to have Negroes concentrated in these huge teeming Petri dishes.
As always I advocate the complete White withdrawal from these horrible urban sh_tholes, and as always I advocate that since Negroes do not want to be policed, to immediately stop policing them.
And to anyone who might be naive enough to say "hey, there are good people in those neighborhoods, who try to work and raise their kids, who obey the law and who abhor the lawlessness and rioting as much as anyone" . my response is that these same IKAGO's voted for a Negro president, for Negro mayors, Negro city council members, Negro police chiefs and Negro school superintendents, and now they are getting exactly what they deserve, good and effing hard.
I have ZERO sympathy for blacks.
=====================And the new rule:
Remember when seconds count, the police are not even obligated to respond.Of course "deep state elements" operate in protests! What A STUPID question, Whitney. All kinds of political tricksters, manipulators, provocateurs, idiots, fools, people suffering from ennui, you name it Mike, they're involved. And yes, the murder of the black man in Minneapolis was the trigger.Chet Roman , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 1:15 pm GMTThat's not the only cause of social unrest. There are lots of reasons that drive the displeasure of the mass of people and it's not the silly "deep state". Before you use that term, if you want any sort of salute from intelligent people, you need to define your terms. Or are just just waving a red flag so you can attract a bunch of stupid Trumpsters?
There's a whole lot of deep state out there, good buddy. Just examine the federal budget and whatever money you cannot assign to a particular institution or specific purpose, that is funding your your "deep state". It's billions and billions. But there is no Wizard of Oz behind the curtain to spend it all on nefarious purposes. Sure, the deep state destroyed the WTC and killed a few thousand people. These hidden operators can do things civilians can only imagine, but they cannot create movements, Whitney. You just can't fool all of the people all of the time.
Are you having a touch of brain degeneration, Mike, like dear autocrat in the White House?
A great article. While Trump may have some ties to the Deep State, I doubt very much that he is their puppet. He won the nomination because he was against some of the Deep States key policies. He even tried to implement his policies but mostly failed due to traitors in his administration and all the coordinated coup attempts.the_old_one , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 1:28 pm GMTOne recent development that causes me to think that this article is spot on is the blatant attacks by retired generals and even currently serving generals against a sitting president. Even Defense Sec. Esper (the Raytheon lobbyist) criticized Trump's comments on the Insurrection Act, which was totally unnecessary since Trump only said that he had the authority to use it.
The coordinated criticism of the generals just reminds me of how similar it is to the coordinated effort by the CIA, FBI, State Department and NSA to use the Russiagate hoax and impeachment hoax to remove Trump. The riots, the money funneled from BLM to Biden 2020, support of Antifa by the MSM and the generals treasonous actions are not coincidences.
I'm surprised by the generally low level of the responses.Justvisiting , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 1:39 pm GMTMr. Whitney:
There haven't been 'millions' of protestors, maybe some thousands.
Please list the "valid grievances" that negros hold concerning the cops; are the cops supposed to raise black IQ? These riots need to be suppressed pronto; don't waste your time waiting for the fat orange buffoon to do anything.Negros have no 'communities', and never will.
I'm wondering why Mr. Unz thinks he is required to let leftists like Whitney post here.
(1)-There is a 'deep state'
(2)-(1) does NOT imply that negros are a noble race.You may now resume sympathizing with rioters.
@botazefa The international protests are what is called a _clue_.Digital Samizdat , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:11 pm GMTProtesting white supremacy in Japan–really?
https://globalnews.ca/news/7064204/george-floyd-protesters-japan-new-zealand/
This is obviously international deep state activity–they are up to no good.
@Thomasina CHAZ sounds a bit like a second Israel, doesn't it!anonymous [400] Disclaimer , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:18 pm GMTThe opening statement is quite true. They've apparently been organizing under the radar for some years now. Diversity is our greatest weakness and these fissures that run through the country can be exploited. Blacks have been weaponized and used as the spearpoint along with the more purposeful real Antifa (lots of wannabes walking around clad in black). Everything has really been well coordinated and the Gene Sharp playbook followed. These 'color revolution' employees are actually all over the globe, funded by various front groups and NGOs. The money trail often leads to various billionaires like the ubiquitous Soros but people like that may just be acting as fronts themselves. Supposed leftists working against the interests of the value producing working class?onebornfree , says: Website Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:19 pm GMT@onebornfree ATTENTION!Neoconned , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:19 pm GMTThe George Floyd murder was a obviously a wholly staged Deep State event, complete with the usual crisis actors, as this video summary clearly illustrates :
Bitchute video "CRISIS ACTOR TRIGGERS RACE WAR":
https://www.bitchute.com/embed/OItT0WD55x0w/
Regards., onebornfree
CHP officers & feds were noted at the Occupy protests in 2011:Johnny Smoggins , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:20 pm GMTAnd later during the 2016 BLM protests.
@Brian Reilly "To the issue at hand, black people should only be policed, arrested, charged, prosecuted, defended, judged, and (if found guilty) punished by other blacks. No white person should have anything to do with it. "Digital Samizdat , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:22 pm GMTAnd when these same blacks attack or steal from a White person, which they often do, do you think they'll get a just punishment from their fellow blacks or a high five?
The solution to the black problem is complete separation, there is no other way.
@John Thurloe The protests may well have been spontaneous and sincere, but the riots are not. The latter are definitely getting help from above.gay troll , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:23 pm GMT@Mike Whitney But why do you assume the CIA wants to get rid of Trump? Isn't that tantamount to judging a book by its cover? Americans have been on to the evil shenanigans of the intelligence community for decades. Trump is nothing more than controlled opposition and a false sense of security for "patriots". One needs look no further than the prognostications of Q to see that Trump is the beneficiary of deep state propaganda. The CIA's modus operandi, together with the rest of the IC, is to deceive. So if they appear to be doing one thing (fighting Trump) you can be sure they intend the opposite.Digital Samizdat , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:27 pm GMTAmericans are nose deep in false dichotomies, and Trump is a pole par excellence. Despite his flagrant history as an NYC liberal, putative fat cat, swindler, and network television superstar, he is now depicted as either a populist outsider, or a literal Nazi. The simple fact is that he is an actor and confidence artist. He is playing a role, and he is playing to both sides of the aisle, and his work is to deceive the entirety of the American public, together with the mockingbird media, which is merely the yin to his pathetic yang.
Too many Americans think they have a choice, or a chance, by simply minding their own business, consuming their media of choice, and voting. In fact, Americans are face to face with the end of their history, as the country has been systematically looted for decades, and will soon be demolished as it is no longer profitable to the oligarchs who manage the globe. Obama-Trump is a 1-2 knockout punch.
@Uomiem That's a good point, and it's of the main problems I do have with Trump: his cabinet picks and financial backers (Adelsen, Singer, et al.). But in fairness, what happens when he tries to pick someone who's not approved by the system? Well, if they're cabinet officers, they'll never get approved by the senate. And even if they're not, they will be driven out of the White House somehow–just like Gen. Flynn and Steve Bannon. In short, when it comes to staffing, Trump's choices are limited by the same swamp he's fighting. Sad but trueChet Roman , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:27 pm GMT@Thomasina Interesting comments by the Duran but I cannot find any evidence of a direct investment by the CIA in Facebook. The CIA's investment arm, In-Q-Tel, did invest in early Facebook investor Peter Theil's company Palantir and other companies. Also, Graylock Partners were also early investors in Facebook along with Peter Theil and the head of Graylock is Howard Cox who served on In-Q-Tel's board of directors. But these are indirect inferences.Beavertales , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:40 pm GMTUnlike the clear and direct investment of the CIA in the company that was eventually purchased by Google and is now called Google Earth, I can't find any evidence of a direct investment by the CIA in Facebook. I have no doubt it's true since it's a perfect tool for data gathering. Do you have any direct evidence of such an investment?
Is the Deep State stage-managing the "BLM" protests to further an agenda? Absolutely.Realist , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 2:53 pm GMTThe main influence of the Deep State is felt in its complete dominance of the controlled media.
Like mantras handed down by the commissars, the mainstream media keep repeating key phrases to narrowly define what's happening: "mostly peaceful protests", "anti-black racism".
The media is an organ of the Deep State. The Deep State will decide when the protests will end, and when that day arrives, the media will suddenly pivot on cue like a school of fish or a flock of birds.
Perhaps some non believers in the Deep State would like to explain why the multi trillion dollar corporations in America are supporting BLM, Antifa and other anarchy groups since on the face of it anarchy would be antithetical to these corporations?Realist , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 3:15 pm GMTHint: The wealthy and powerful (aka Deep State) know that anarchy divides a populous thereby removing their ability to resist their true enemy and even more draconian laws. The die is being cast at this moment and the complete subjugation of the American people will, probably, be effectuate by the end of this year. A full court press is under way and life is about to change for 99% of the American people.
If you disagree with my hint correct it.@gay trollDaveE , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 3:27 pm GMTToo many Americans think they have a choice, or a chance, by simply minding their own business, consuming their media of choice, and voting. In fact, Americans are face to face with the end of their history, as the country has been systematically looted for decades, and will soon be demolished as it is no longer profitable to the oligarchs who manage the globe. Obama-Trump is a 1-2 knockout punch.
Your points are excellent. All tragic, devastating events in the last, at least, 20 years have been staged or played to facilitate the total control by the Deep State.
See my comment #90 below.
The problem is power – and the nature of those who lust for it. The police are very powerful, by necessity and the nature of police work is the exercise of power – on the street.James Scott , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 3:34 pm GMTNot to mention the fact that police forces, like every other institution, are managed from the top. Sgt. Bernstein back at the station calls the shots, gets to decide who is hired / fired and generally runs the department like a CEO runs a company. Not all cops are rotten, but if Sgt. Bernstein is a scumbag, the whole department tends to behave as a scumbag.
I'll give you two guesses, the second one doesn't count, as to which tribe of psychopaths – who call themselves "chosen" – have mastered the art of playing both sides against the middle, using the police as a very powerful tool to accomplish an ancient agenda of world-domination, straight out of The Torah.
The police are just another sad story of the destruction of America, by Shlomo.
@Mike Whitney Any explanation that ignores that the catalyst for what is happening is the Federal Reserve Notes free fall is not a good explanation.Alfred , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 3:43 pm GMTThis is a failed Communist Putsch. The people pushing it have enough control of major cities to keep it alive but not enough to push it into the heartland. 400 million guns and a few billion bullets are protecting freedom in the USA just like they were intended to.
All failed communist revolutions end in fascism taking power. The Yahoo news comments sections are way to big to censor properly and they are already taking on a Fascist tone with almost half the posters. This is only just beginning and most people are beginning to understand that these lies non whites tell about the fake systemic racism are too dangerous to go unchallenged. The idea that the protests ,the protests not the riots, have no foundation in truth is starting to work its way to the forefront of white peoples minds.
Non whites are coddled by the establishment in the USA and no real racists have any power in the USA so this whole thing is and has been for 50 years based on lies.
The jew mob is going to lose all their economic power over the next year or so as the Fed Note hyper-inflates. The mob knows this and made a grab for ideological power using low IQ ungrateful non whites they have been inculcating with anti white ideals for decades as their foot soldiers.
They are screwed because the places they control are parasitic just like they are. Cities are full of people making nothing and pretty much just doing service jobs for each other. All the things needed to keep cities going come from outside the cities and the jew mob is not in charge in the places that actually produce things. Not like they are in the cities anyway.
Ignoring the currency rises makes you dishonest Mike.
I think the leadership and tactics of the police are deplorable. I can only surmise that the local political leadership in many cities is on the inside of this latest scam.SunBakedSuburb , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 4:03 pm GMTThe police should be able to launch attacks on the crowd to single out those who are Antifa activists. That is what the riot police in France would do. They should try to ignore the rabble behind which these activists are sheltering.
By remaining on the defensive and without using the element of surprise to capture these activists, the police are sitting ducks.
My dad told me what it was like in Cairo when the centre of the city was destroyed in 1952. I was tiny at that time and remember my mother carrying me. We watched Cairo burning in the distance. We were on the roof of the huge house of my Egyptian grandfather in Heliopolis.
The looters and arsonists were well-equipped. It was not by any means spontaneous. They smashed the locks on the draw-down shutters of the shops with sledge hammers. Next, they looted the shop. Lastly, they tossed in Molotov cocktails. The commercial heart of Cairo was largely destroyed in a few hours. Cinemas and the Casino were burnt. Cairo was a very pleasant metropolis in those days. It became prosperous during WW2 by supplying the Allies.
My family's small factory was in the very centre of Cairo – in Abbassia. My father rounded up his workers to defend the factory. Many lived on the premises. They were all tough Sa'idi from Upper Egypt. Many were Coptic Christians. They all had large staffs that they knew how to use. The arsonists and looters kept well clear.
@Priss Factor "Jewish cult of Magic Negro"Agent76 , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 4:03 pm GMTThe Temple of the Sacred Black Body is really a worship of golems.
JUNE 9, 2020 CityLab University: A Timeline of U.S. Police ProtestsWally , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 4:05 pm GMTThe latest protests against police violence toward African Americans didn't appear out of nowhere. They're rooted in generations of injustice and systemic racism.
Jun 2, 2020 Brick Pallets For Riots From ACME BRICK CO Own By Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett & Bill Gates
https://www.youtube.com/embed/VqhgO9Dz7Rc?feature=oembed
@Sean said:SunBakedSuburb , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 4:16 pm GMT
"While it is a possibility that whites could lose control of their society, and see it fall into the hands of an explicitly anti -[r]acist elite/ minorities alliance,""Anti-racist?
The entire matter is "explicit" racism directed against Euro-whites.
@gay troll "But why do you assume the CIA wants to get rid of Trump?"Wizard of Oz , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 4:20 pm GMTJohn Brennan collaborated with James Comey on the Russian collusion narrative. Brennan is indicative of the upper-echelon CIA and its orientation towards the globalist billionaire class.
@Loup-Bouc Maybe you also noticed that the opening pages of the article suggested that the author was unhinged when he made so much of an alleged editorial in the NYT which wasn't an editorial but an opinion piece by an activist. And what about the spontaneous eruptions of protest all round the world? Masterminded by the US "Deep State"? Absurd.jbwilson24 , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 4:47 pm GMTMr. Whitney may have got to an age when he can no longer understand the young and their latest fashionable fatuities and follies.
@obwandiyag " The assholes on this asshole site will not let you say that what is important is how the super-billionaires control us. "Nancy Pelosi's Latina Maid , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 4:52 pm GMTNonsense, I rant against the largely Jewish super-billionaires all the time.
Truth is that blacks and working class whites are in relatively similar positions compared to the 1%. We should be seeking alliances with people like Rev. Farrakhan, but instead, for some curious reason, big Jewish money is pouring into keeping racial grievances alive and kicking. It looks very much like a divide and conquer strategy.
Where did the antiwar and Occupy Wall Street movements go after Obama's election? My guess is that the financial elite saw the danger of having OWS ask questions about the bailouts, so they devoted a ton of time and energy into pushing racial grievance politics, gender neutral bathrooms and the like. Their co-ethnics in the media collaborated with them in making sure only one perspective made the news.
PS: if you don't like the website, simply avoid visiting it. Trust me, no one will miss your inane posts.
@JohnPlywoodJimDandy , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 5:05 pm GMT"90% of Americans are unlikely to even see more than ten black people in their entire lives."
I sure hope you're talking about IRL, because I see more than ten black people in any commercial break on any TV show on any cable or network TV station every hour of every day. In fact, it's at least 50/50 B/W and it feels more like 60/40 B/W. And it's always the blacks who are in charge, the whites spill chips all over the kitchen floor
After all the nonsensical rumors that this guy was a cop fell away, why didn't anyone look at this guy in the context that this article explores?gay troll , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 5:23 pm GMThttps://heavy.com/news/2020/05/jacob-pederson-auto-zone-cop-not-umbrella-man/
@SunBakedSuburb 15 seasons of The Apprentice on NBC is indicative of Trump's orientation towards the globalist billionaire class. It sure was nice of NBC to thus rehabilitate Trump's image after it became clear he was a cheat who could not even hold down a casino. From fake wrestler to fake boardroom CEO, Trump has ALWAYS been made for TV.Brás Cubas , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 5:31 pm GMTAs for Russiagate, it was a transparent crock of shit from the moment Clapper sent his uncorrobated assertions under the aegis of "17 intelligence agencies". You assume the point of the charade was to "get Trump", but really Russiagate was designed to deceive "liberals" just as Q was designed to deceive "conservatives". It is the appearance of conflict that serves to divide Americans into two camps who both believe the other is at fault for all of society's ills. In fact, it is the Zionists and bankers who are to blame for society's ills, and like the distraction of black vs. white, Democrat vs. Republican keeps everybody's attention away from the real chauvinists and criminals.
@Sean Well, I can't deny that yours is an extremely original interpretation. It sure made me think. I can't say I'm convinced, though it doesn't seem to have any conspicuous a priori inconsistency with facts. I guess time will tell.schnellandine , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 5:35 pm GMT@JimDandyAlden , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 5:40 pm GMTAfter all the nonsensical rumors that this guy was a cop
The alleged nonsensical rumors were that he was a specific cop. The sensible assumption was that he was a cop or similar state sludge.
@Realist Agree. Someone posted he had a friend at Minneapolis airport. Incoming planes were full of antifa types the day after Floyd died.AnonFromTN , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 5:41 pm GMTThey are very well organized. They are notorious around universities. Well, not universities in dangerous black neighborhoods. They live like students in crowded apartments and organize all their movements. Plenty of dumb kids to recruit. Plenty of downwardly mobile White grads who can't get jobs or into grad s hook because they're White. Those Whites go into liberal rabble rousing instead of rabble rousing against affirmative action, so brainwashed are they. Portland is a college town. That's why antifa is so well organized there. Seattle's a college town too as is Chicago.
Iva , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 5:49 pm GMTDo Deep State Elements Operate Within the Protest Movement?
Silly question. Of course, they do. Just look at the MSM coverage, full of blatant lies.
Why ANTIFA doesn't loot banks, doesn't stand in front od Soros home, JPMorgan headquarters, big corporations, Bezos business .etc? Because rich are paying for riots ..the same way they payed to support Hitler during WWII.anon8383892 , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 6:06 pm GMT@Anon Thanks for highlighting the complex racial politics -- in this case between Hispanics and Africans. That was something Ron Unz got right as well -- independently of the numerology -- in the other article; basically saying that there have been a lot of various social-engineering projects going on.Alden , says: Show Comment June 15, 2020 at 6:11 pm GMT
Naturally I'm liable for everything else you said ;/ no comment, no contest,I think it will be alright if we can get back to basics, natural rights, republican representative organization, pluralism, etc The corporate nightmare has everyone crammed into a vat of human resources. Undo that, see how it goes, then take it from there.
@Mike Whitney The reason most of the rioters arrested were native New Yorkers is that they were the useful idiots designated fall guys.The organizers are adept at changing clothes hats and sunglasses. Their job is to get things started by smashing windows of a Nike's store and running away letting a few looters be arrested.
I remember something written by an Indian communist, not Indian nationalist How To Start a Riot in the 1920s.
1 Start rumors about abuse of Indians by British.
2. Decide where to start the riots.
3 Best place is in the open air markets around noon. The merchants will have collected substantial money. The local lay abouts will be up and about.
4 Instigators start fights with the merchants raid cash boxes overturn tables and the riot is on.The ancient Roman politicians started riots that way. It's standard procedure in every country in every era. All this fuss and discussion by the idiot intelligentsia is ridiculous as is everything the idiot intelligentsia thinks, writes and does.
We Americans experience a black riot every few years, just as we experience floods, droughts, blizzards , earthquakes, forest fires, tornadoes floods and hurricanes.
As long as we have blacks and liberal alleged intellectuals we'll have riots.
Jun 15, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Authored by Max Parry via The Unz Review,
The May 25th killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota shocked the world and set off mass protests against racism and police brutality in dozens of cities from the mid-western United States to the European Union, all in the midst of a global pandemic. In the Twin Cities, what began as spontaneous, peaceful demonstrations against the local police quickly transformed into vandalism, arson and looting after the use of rubber bullets and chemical irritants by law enforcement against the protesters, while the initial incitement for the riots was likely the work of apparent agent provocateurs among the marchers.
Within days, the unrest had spread to cities across the country including the nation's capital, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to invoke the slavery-era Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy the military and National Guard on American soil, federal powers not used since the 1992 Los Angeles riots following the Rodney King case.
The debate over the catalyst for the uprising into its period of lawlessness has drawn a range of theories. The suspicious placement of pallets of bricks in the proximity of numerous protest sites have spurred rumors of sabotage by everything from white supremacist groups to "Antifa" to law enforcement itself. Predictably, liberal hawks such as Susan Rice, the former National Security Advisor in the Obama administration, made ludicrous assertions suggesting " Russian agents " were behind the unrest, a continuation of the narrative that the Kremlin has been behind inflaming racial tensions in the U.S. that began during the 2016 election. While Democrats like Rice and Senator Kamala Harris of California have revived an old trope dating back to the Civil Rights movement of Moscow exploiting racial divisions in the U.S., Trump and the GOP have similarly resurrected the 'outside agitators' myth attributed to segregationists of the same era. Hypocritically, many of those claiming to be in support of the protests have denounced the latter theory while endorsing the former, when both equally show contempt for the legitimate grievances of the demonstrators and deny their agency. However, both false notions overlook the more likely hidden factors at play attempting to hijack the movement for its own purposes.
Believe it or not, there could be a kernel of truth in accusations coming mostly from the political right as to the possible role of the notorious liberal billionaire investor and "philanthropist" George Soros and his Open Society Foundation (OSF). Ironically, if any of the right-wing figures of whom Soros is a favorite target were aware of his instrumental role in the fall of communism staging the various CIA-backed protest movements in Eastern Europe that toppled socialist governments, he would likely not be such a subject of their derision. The Hungarian business magnate's institute, like other NGOs involved in U.S. regime change operations such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), is largely a front for the CIA to shield itself while destabilizing U.S. adversaries, the spy agency's preferred modus operandi since the exposure of its illicit activities in previous decades by the Rockefeller Commission and Church Committee in the 1970s.
n the post-Soviet world, nations across Central Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and beyond have become well acquainted with the political disruptions of the international financier and his network. In particular, governments that have leaned toward warm relations with Moscow during the incumbency of President Vladimir Putin have found themselves the victims of his machinations.
Under Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin, Soros made a killing off the mass privatization of the former state-run assets in the Eastern Bloc, as journalist Naomi Klein explained in The Shock Doctrine :
"George Soros's philanthropic work in Eastern Europe -- including his funding of (Harvard economist and economic advisor Jeffrey) Sachs's travels through the region -- has not been immune to controversy. There is no doubt that Soros was committed to the cause of democratization in the Eastern Bloc, but he also had clear economic interests in the kind of economic reform accompanying that democratization. As the world's most powerful currency trader, he stood to benefit greatly when countries implemented convertible currencies and lift capital controls, and when state companies were put on the auction block, he was one of the potential buyers."
In contrast, the Putin administration over a period of two decades has since restored the Russian economy through the re-nationalization of its oil and gas industry. Its two energy giants, Gazprom and Rosneft, are state-controlled companies serving as the basis of the state machinery's reassertion of control over the Russian financial system, a move that has gotten Mr. Putin branded a "dictator" by the West. As a result, most of the notorious Russian oligarchs enriched overnight during the extreme free market policies of the 1990s have since left the country, now that such rapid accumulation of wealth to the rest of the nation's detriment is no longer permitted. While economic inequality in Russia may persist, it is nowhere near that of the Yeltsin era where the average life expectancy was reduced by a full decade.
In the last decade, the United States has gotten its own taste of the incitement and agitations that have previously fallen upon governments across the global south. Instead, domestically the CIA cutouts in the non-profit industrial complex have played a pivotal counterrevolutionary role in co-opting and ultimately derailing such uprisings meant to bring systemic change to the U.S. political system. In late 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement emerged at Zuccotti Park in New York City's financial district against the deepening global economic inequality following the Great Recession and the protests quickly spread to other cities and continents. In just a few months, the sit-in was expelled from Lower Manhattan and the anti-capitalist movement itself largely was diverted towards reformism and away from its original radical intentions. It was also revealed the origins of OWS and its marketing campaign were traced to Adbusters, a media foundation that was the recipient of grants from the Democratic Party-connected Tides Foundation, a progressive policy center which receives significant endowments from none other than George Soros and the OSF.
Emerging just two years later, the roots of Black Lives Matter were not just in community organizing but partially took inspiration from the Occupy movement. Unfortunately, the similarities between them were not limited to a shared lack of clarity in their demands but facing the same dilemma of being absorbed into the system. While OWS was quickly suppressed after hopeful beginnings, the BLM leadership became career-oriented apparatchiks of the Democratic Party and left grass-roots organizing behind. Through the non-profit industrial complex, the Democratic Party has mastered bringing various social movements under its management on behalf of Wall Street in order to funnel public funds into private control through various foundations.
Along with the Ford Foundation which has given BLM enormous $100 million grants, Soros and the OSF have been one of the principal offenders. Still, many who correctly identify right-wing protests such as the Tea Party movement and the recent 'anti-lockdown' demonstrations as the work of astro-turfing by the Koch Brothers and Heritage Foundation seldom apply the same scrutiny to seemingly authentic progressive movements assimilated by corporate America.
One figure who mysteriously appeared on the scene in the early days of OWS connected to Soros was the Serbian political activist Srđa Popović, the founder of Otpor! ("resistance" in Serbian) and the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) political organizations which led the protests in 2000 which ousted the democratically-elected President of Serbia, Slobodan Milošević, known as the "Bulldozer Revolution." Not long after Popović's consulting of activists in Zuccotti Park, Wikileaks documents revealed the Belgrade-born organizer's significant ties to U.S. intelligence through the global intelligence platform Stratfor (known as the "shadow CIA"), exposing the real motives behind his involvement in U.S. politics of outwardly supporting OWS while trying to sabotage the popular movement.
Since their role as instruments of U.S. regime change in Serbia, Otpor! and CANVAS have received financial support from CIA intermediaries such as the NED, OSF, Freedom House and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as the Boston-based Albert Einstein Institute founded by the American political scientist, Gene Sharp.
Srđa Popović
Despite ostensibly professing to use the same civil disobedience methods of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., Gene Sharp's manual for "non-violent resistance" entitled From Dictatorship to Democracy has been the blueprint used by political organizations around the world that have only served the interests of Western imperialism. Beginning with the Bulldozer Revolution in Serbia, the successful formula which ousted Milošević spread to other Central Asian and Eastern European nations overthrowing governments which resisted NATO expansion and the European Union's draconian austerity in favor of economic ties with Moscow. These were widely referred to in the media as 'Color Revolutions' and included the 2003 Rose Revolution in Georgia, the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine and its 2014 Maidan coup d'état follow-up, as well as the 2005 Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, among others.
Subsequently, Srđa Popović and CANVAS also lent their expertise in Egypt during the predecessor to its Arab Spring in the April 6 Youth Movement which appropriated Otpor!'s raised fist logo as its emblem. In preparation for the organization of anti-government demonstrations, the activists poured over Gene Sharp's work in coordination with Otpor! whose fingerprints can be found all over the Arab Spring uprisings which began as protests to remove unpopular leaders in Egypt and Tunisia but were carefully reeled in to preserve the despotic Western-friendly systems that had put them to power initially. Where Sharp's "non-violent" template failed, countries with U.S. adversaries in power such as Libya and Syria saw their protests rapidly morph into a resurgence of Al-Qaeda and a terrorist proxy war with catastrophic consequences. This recipe has also been exported to Latin America in attempts to remove the Bolivarian government in Venezuela, with self-declared 'interim president' and opposition leader Juan Guaido having received training from CANVAS.
While the right seems to have a bizarre misconception that the parasitic hedge fund tycoon is somehow a communist, there is an equal misunderstanding on the pseudo-left where it has become a recurring joke and subject of mockery to naively deny Soros's undeniable influence on world affairs and domestic protest movements. Less certain, however, are the claims from conservatives that Soros is a supporter of "Antifa" which Trump wants to designate as a domestic terrorist organization, a dangerous premise given the movement consists of a very loose-knit and decentralized network of activists and hardly comprises a real organization.
Various autonomous chapters and groups across the U.S. may self-identify as such, but there is no single official party or formal organization with any leadership hierarchy. While the original Antifa movement in the 1930s Weimar Republic was part of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), the current manifestation in the U.S. has a synonymous association with black bloc anarchism (even inverting the colors of the original red and black flag), though it is really made up of a variety of amateurish political tendencies.
Amidst the ongoing nationwide George Floyd protests, the demonstrations in Seattle, Washington culminated in the establishment of a self-declared "autonomous zone" by activists in the Northwestern city's Capitol Hill neighborhood -- known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). In response, Trump doubled down on his threats to quash protests with the use of the military while blaming "anarchists" in "Antifa" for the unrecognized commune occupying six city blocks around an abandoned police precinct. Anyone who has paid close attention to the war in Syria for the last nine years will find this highly ironic, given the U.S. military support for another infamous "autonomous zone" of Kurdish nationalists in Northern Syria's Rojava federation. The Kurdish sub-region and de facto self-governing territory purports to be a "libertarian socialist direct democracy" style of government and has been the subject of romanticized praise by the Western pseudo-left despite the fact that the autonomous administration's paramilitary wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), were until recently a cat's paw for American imperialism as part of the U.S.-founded coalition , the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Not coincidentally, many of those who use the Antifa vexillum are enthusiastic supporters of and even volunteer mercenaries fighting with the YPG/SDF in an 'International Freedom Battalion' which claims to be the inheritors of the legacy of the International Brigades which volunteered to defend the Spanish Republic from fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Unfortunately, these cosplayers forgot that the original International Brigades were set up by the Communist International, not the Pentagon. Meanwhile, despite their purported "anti-fascism", there are no such conscripts to be found defending the Donetsk or Luhansk People's Republics of eastern Ukraine against literal Nazis in the War in Donbass where the real front line against fascism has been. Instead, they fight alongside a Zionist and imperial proxy to help establish an ethno-nation state while the U.S. loots Syria's oil.
Prior to Trump's decision last October to withdraw troops from northeastern Syria which preceded a Turkish invasion, Ankara and the U.S. repeatedly butted heads over Washington's decision to incorporate the Kurds into the SDF, since the YPG is widely acknowledged an off-shoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the militant and cult-like political group regarded as a terrorist organization that has been at war with Turkey for over forty years. It is also no secret that jailed PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan's theories of "democratic confederalism" are heavily influenced by the pro-Zionist Jewish-American anarchist theorist, Murray Bookchin. So when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Trump that there were links between the U.S. protests and the PKK, there was a tiny but core accuracy in his exaggerated claim. As Malcolm X said, "chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad."
The George Floyd protests, like previous uprisings in Ferguson and Baltimore, certainly began spontaneously, nor does any of this discount the legitimate issue of ending the militarization of U.S. law enforcement which disproportionately victimizes black Americans. Nevertheless, time and again we have seen how bona fide social movements become political footballs or quickly go to their graves.
Like BLM, it is practically inevitable the protests will become a partisan tool for the Democratic Party in the coming 2020 election when it has no concrete political articulations of its own, even if it does bring substantive change to domestic policing. In January, Trump was impeached for temporarily withholding security aid to the Ukraine and Democrats advocated his removal because he is regarded as insufficiently hawkish toward Moscow. Since 2016, they have actively diverted all opposition to Trump into their own reactionary anti-Russia campaign and soft-coup attempt in the interests of the military- intelligence community, a shared agenda with Soros. When all of corporate America, the media, and even the NED have publicly declared their support for a movement, it is no longer just about its original cause of getting justice for Mr. Floyd, whose funeral became a virtual campaign rally for Trump's opponent, Joe Biden.
It is too early to say determinedly whether what is taking place in the U.S. is indeed a 'Color Revolution', but by the time we realize it may too late.
freedommusic, 1 hour ago
Cloud9.5 , 1 hour agoThese protesters led and funded by the shadow president better start to withdraw and stand down because the wrath of an average working man will be too overwhelming for them to endure. They have no idea who they are provoking. You poke the bear you are going to get hurt.
robobbob , 1 hour agoWe need to rethink our political structure. The single power the federal government has over the states is the power of the purse. That power is in the process of collapsing. After the lock down, every local and state government is not going to be able to meet its budget requirements. The tax base has been slaughtered. The only option is a dubious loan or gift from a bankrupt federal government. With the dollar collapse, the federal government becomes irrelevant. Without federal hand outs the center will not hold in the mega cities. When they collapse, the strangle hold they have on their respective states will be lost.
We are devolving into a less complex structure. Like it or not.
Cloud9.5 , 2 hours ago"what is taking place in the U.S. is indeed a 'Color Revolution" why wait to get on the band wagon?
The Floyd protests are not spontaneous or organic. They are planned events waiting for the right spark to initiate. For the rank and file protesters this may be unplanned and spontaneous, but the networks supporting them have been in place for some time
BLM and Antifa have been organizing and conducting limited scale real life exercises nonstop for 3 years. Calling BLM and Antifa "hardly a real organization" is to deny the nature of modern insurgencies and terrorism in an age of the internet. Even trying to label them with names is too restricting of their nature as more of umbrella organizations that inspire lessor known groups or individuals to take action under those labels. Loose, decentralized actors working with limited or no central control, united by ideology. Leaders, in so much as they exist, provide more inspiration than actual orders of operation. Its exceedingly mercurial lines of communications and logistics, are designed with care to separate the actors in the street from the apparently vast amount of support coming from corporate interests and even complicit elements in government who are obviously supporting it. To name soros's involvement is to draw attention away from the enormous numbers of unnamed facilitators behind these events.
Make no mistake, What is currently happening is the preliminary stages of an insurrection. It may be feeding off of many legitimate concerns, but it is only exploiting them as a means to achieve its over arching goals.
To wait and see is to court disaster. This is a color revolution that is yet to reveal its flag.
TerryThomas , 2 hours agoWE have a shattered economy. The collapse is on going. A segment of the oligarchs is attempting a coup of our political system. They are jumping on board the BLM movement and attempting to ride this chaos to establish a fascist dictatorship just like they did in the 1930's. Antifa is the black shirts of the movement. Once BLM has served its political purpose it will be shoved aside. We have been here before.
https://timeline.com/business-plot-overthrow-fdr-9a59a012c32a
northwdsnh , 2 hours agoIn 1863, storming Fort Wagner in South Carolina, Colonel Shaw led his regiment, which suffered heavy losses while he died from several wounds defending the nation and racial justice. Saint-Gaudens sculpted a bronze relief of Shaw and his troops, which was dedicated across from the Massachusetts State House 123 years ago on May 31. Just weeks ago, three million dollars were designated to restore it, but ironically on May 31, a mob claiming to be defenders of human dignity, defaced with obscenities this tribute to valiant African-Americans.
During the Civil War he was eventually promoted to Colonel and, following the Emancipation Proclamation, he led New England's first all-black military unit, the 54th Regiment. Shaw insisted on equal pay and opposed any form of discrimination. Two of his soldiers were sons of Frederick Douglas.
Fatherless children of whores will not know history and will use any excuse to lash out at things and people perceived better themselves.
Question_Mark , 3 hours agoJust watched the video of Atlanta shooting over at twitter. Hardly an innocent unarmed black man being gunned down by whitey. They attempted to place the man under arrest. He resisted, fought, and grabbed the one cop's taser, and then ran off. One officer gave chase. The suspect while running, turns and POINTS the taser at the cop. It is then that the officer fires his sidearm.
The video shows the Officer fired AFTER the suspect turned and pointed the taser at him. He was confronted with a weapon being pointed at him, from man that had already resisted & taken a taser. What if he tasered the cop, and then took his gun?
The cop had only a second to react. This was not an unarmed innocent suspect. I have been following (@ "The Free Thought Project") and speaking out against the violence by police against unarmed citizens (black & white) for several years now. Have watched video after video of unarmed people being violently killed by police. That is why I can say, in my opinion, that this latest incident is clearly not an innocent man being unjustly gunned down. He chose to fight with the police, take one of their weapons, then turn and point it as if he was going to use it.
RictaviousPorkchop , 1 hour ago********.
there is no question: the global riots about "George Floyd" are certainly, specifically, and definitely produced by the exact same team of people who produced the color revolotions in numerous countried around the world with the same method of operation (modus operandi) in strategy and tactics. USA is being treated by The Bank just the same as they treat any tinpot dictatorship that doesnt do what The Bank wants.
The Bank (Bank for International Settlements) sits quietly in Bern Switzerland while its victims around the world die painfully.
**** the Bank. This is war: USA versus UN.
Americans be vigilant, because the enemey has not left the field; they will be back with more lockdowns, riots, and financial ruin.zob2020 , 4 hours agoDon't you remember....
The State Department sponsored a symposium to assist the Color Revolution and like Facebook, MTV, Twitter and ad agencies taught the future activists how to use social media to make change.
That's your team.
Question_Mark , 3 hours agoDemented. A color revolution by definition needs us military and diplomatic threats to make them happen. Us army will threaten to invade itself unless even more corript bankers are allowed to take over and make the us a slave to us bankers?????
Chupacabra , 4 hours agoIt isn't the uSA army that supports the color revolutions, it is the Bank's intelligence officers, who are often Jesuit trained military and spies, to illegally and traitorously use USA resources in support of the Color Revolutions that are planned and executed FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE BANK, not for any other reason.
Lee Bertin , 5 hours agoWhat a boring, useless article. He fails to acknowledge that yes, this is a planned and orchestrated event, and he offers no solutions. He also fails to identify the (((usual suspects))) behind it.
This sentence told me that he is either clueless or disinformation:
"As a result, most of the notorious Russian oligarchs enriched overnight during the extreme free market policies of the 1990s have since left the country, now that such rapid accumulation of wealth to the rest of the nation's detriment is no longer permitted."
By "Russian oligarchs," does he mean rich ****? Because that's what they were. And "extreme free market policies"? Is that what he thinks is the best description of a process where sweetheart deals are cut to former jewish insiders in a rigged process that benefits no one but those same *ahem* "Russian oligarchs"?
This article is a waste of time.
bbmm11 , 5 hours agoEverybody can see this is an well organized operation, the finger prints of the deep state, the DNC and MSM is all over it. They try to push Trump to use force so they can claim he is literally Hitler and if he dont use force he is ignoring minorities. Its a way of deprave him of minorities votes. Its all politics. He is damned if he do and damned if he don't.
Lee Bertin , 4 hours agoyeah and it goes deeper than that.... antifa is manufactured opposition.... eventually it will devolve into a mini civil war and Trump \ right will look like the bad guys \ agressors.... and ppl will beg for stability \ replacement..... thereby ushering in a real hitlerean regime.....
standard fascist protocol to use the communists for instability..... whilst installing a real fascist govt.
Someone Else , 5 hours agoExactly, the police standing down is a dead give away.
bbmm11 , 5 hours agoThere is no question that this is a color revolution bought and paid for by George Soros. Why are we even wasting time debating it?
Soros hates Trump as much as anyone and his people are well skilled and practiced bringing down governments USUALLY in conjunction with the US government but now bringing down the actual US government in conjunction with the Deep State.
They have tried everything else to get rid of Trump. This was a last resort (there are a few other last resorts but this is certainly one of them).
If we don't realize this by now we are slipping.
Someone Else, 4 hours agoTrump is the patsy... a put up job.... he is there precisely and deliberately to act as the bag holder for US regime change.....
And its not gonna be the socialism you think his opposition wants..... its gonna be full blown global corporate fascism.
Its a double bait and switch.... Soros may actually be relatively genuine with his open society.... but that is easy used and abused to fund over zealous opposition that leads into the exact end game it puports to object to.
Max21c , 5 hours agoTrump is a fly in the ointment. He wasn't supposed to get elected but he did. Elections are still legitimate as far as the actual counting of the votes - much to the chagrin of those really in charge and much to the surprise of the rest of us who thought we were already corrupt beyond that.
And of course we are getting corporate fascism, the socialist movement is only being used to overthrow the US government. When the oligarchs have achieved their goal they will shut down the socialists they have supported. Does this even need to be explained?
Max21c , 5 hours agoIt's a color revolution sponsored by the CIA, which btw must not carry on operations on the territory itself. So what is Trump waiting for to disband this crime syndicate? Is he afraid of something?
The CIA operates on American soil all the time. They may use other parts of the intelligence community or the military or contractors or foreign intelligence agencies as fronts but the CIA operates on American soil all the time.
They are heavily mixed up in political persecution campaigns against innocent American civilians. They are heavily mixed up in "marginalization & neutralization" campaigns against innocent American civilians. They are behind the buggings, burglaries and breakins.
They are behind the theft of private property and theft of intellectual property. They are the people behind the industrial espionage and economic warfare carried out against their 'domestic" enemies and targeted at the people they rob and persecute. They are a secret police agency not an intelligence agency. They are just an organized criminal enterprise.
The "C" in CIA actually has a double meaning and stands for Crooks & Criminals. The CIA is just a pack of gangsters as our their counterparts in the secret police communities of their allied intelligence agencies.
Someone Else , 5 hours agogo back to small town america... no cia there.
The only place the secret police community cannot openly operate is on the other side of the border in places like China and Russia...since they have free range to operate inside and outside of America where they can control the laws and exempt themselves and their activities from the rule of law.
There are very few countries where people are safe from the CIA & the Washington regime and its secret police community and its reign of terror. People can own property and protect their private property, intellectual property from the evils of the CIA in places like China and Russia.
If your on the wrong side of the border then the CIA and secret police community do as they please and can steal anything they want and persecute and terrorize anyone they want. There are no laws to protect people from the secret police or the CIA. On one side of the border your'e living in Nazi Germany or Bolshevist Russia or under the reign of terror of the Khmer Rouge or Viet Cong since the CIA and secret police are above the law and there is no rule of law and they can steal, rob, and persecute as they see fit.
They do as they please and courts, laws etc cannot rein them in or make them abide by the law or make them behave. No one has any control over the animals in the US intelligence community or secret police community or the gangsters in the military and Pentagon Gestapo or the gangsters in and around the defense community.
Question_Mark , 3 hours agoUm... the US CIA has a budget bigger than the whole of Russian military spending. The CIA by itself spends more than Russia spends on its army, navy and air force.
If you think that the US CIA doesn't operate on US soil because its "against the rules" you obviously do not understand that the entire mission of the clandestine and covert and unaccountable CIA is to BREAK the rules. Get a clue fella.
The FBI does official dirty tricks by means of law enforcement. The CIA works entirely outside of law enforcement. That is the difference.
Does Trump[ have reason to fear the CIA. You bet your *** that he and any reasonable person at ANY level has reason to fear the CIA.
Tiwin , 2 hours agoCIA is no longer an American operation (for a long time now, if it can ever be said to be one). its purpose and goal is to support the international banking families, and it is controlled, like all western intelligence agencies, by the The Bank (BIS). it makes more sense to refer to the CIA as Five Eyes, because it is no longer American, it is truly a trans-national criminal cartel sucking the lifeblood out of the citizens of the USA because that is what The Bank demands be done for their strategic plan (depopulation of humans).
if Five Eyes were truly set up and run for the benefit of all humankind, it might be an awesome operation, but this is like having a wolf guard your chickens.
Sudden Debt , 6 hours agoYes. Mossad Island tapes.
vic and blood , 6 hours agoThere's no revolution. There's just thieves, robbers, looters and rapists. If the police really wanted to, they'd shut that **** down in a day.
What have we seen so far? The police standing down and backing up.... I've seen video's where those kids get arrested and suddenly they go into chock because that wasn't supposed to happen... :)
And if they see 1 guy, and they're with 50 people surrounding them, they find it all okay to kill him because that's when they feel strong.
When you would put a small aggressive force against them... they would all be beaten into a pulp and they'd all start running.
For me, all I see is staged protests and the powers that be that stand down to let it all happen and escalate.
Image these idiots would be in the middle east or even in France and they try their ******** there... they'd piss their pants!
Over here in Belgium, we had 3 large protests.
The police ended them in 1 hour. 1800 arrests and poof... finished.
No more black idiots thinking they could burn rob and loot.
The Black Bishop , 6 hours agoThe Democrat politicians are trapped. They have been saddled with a bill of goods that is more of a pig in a poke. Their majorities are thin enough that they fear alienating their black, anarchist, homosexual, communist, and sob-sister mudshark constituencies.
They went in for a penny, but are now in for a pound.
St. TwinkleToes , 7 hours agoSo it turns out the cops involved in the George Floyd incident were following police procedure for "excited delirium". Stephen Molynaux does some pretty good unbiased objective reporting of actual facts. Nice for a change;
Element , 7 hours agoBLB, Antifa, CAIR, LaRaza, ad infinitum. These are are foot soldiers for the radical left. They use them like toilet paper to wipe their stinking azz. And if required, throw them in the gutter as deposable depends for the greater good.
The true enemies are Chicoms funding drug cartels and globalists, who fund corrupt politicians, who fund the usual basket cases of endless anti American ******** losers unable to wipe their own azz without some LGBTiQWXYZ Global Homo lurking in the shadows.
Desent into hell is what's taking place.
66Mustanggirl , 7 hours agoAnd in a calculated display of supreme 'double-think' and 'new-speak', a group of actual violent fascist good-for-nothing vermin foisted the pretense to be anti-fascists and 'peace activists' -- whilst doing exactly the opposite of what they claimed to be doing in the same breath.
You can't appease and make peace compacts with ANTIFA, they do not respect their own brain's processing output so how are they ever going to live up to any agreement which they duplicitously make, as ruse to further play 'victim' as they attack and create a shower of subsequent actual victims of ANTIFA fascist violence? Yeah, keep doing that, that'll work for sure.
PS: And let all the hard-core out of prisons after you disband the police, and see how long it takes until they're in the Governor's and Mayor's bedrooms at 2 AM with keen blade in hand and a thirst for blood and plunder plus a hostage to cut bits off by the day and courier to their "loved ones". Who knows they might even cough up a few benjamins to spare your digits.
Eastern Whale , 7 hours agoSince the author brought up the Spanish Civil War, one should look up Juan Pujol Garcia, the most prolific double agent of all time and an invaluable asset for the Allies in crushing the Fascist Nazi's in WWII.
How clueless were the Nazi's as to Garcia's true agenda?? They actually awarded him their highest honor, the Iron Cross, AFTER the war.
It would be fascinating to know who have been placed as the "Garbos" in this epic showdown. We will probably never know. Neither will the Elites.
"It's a great huge game of chess that's being played--all over the world--if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is!"
~Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
Especially when the chess game is is 4D!!
66Mustanggirl , 8 hours agoNancy Pelosi once called the violent protests in Hong Kong "a beautiful sight to behold." If this turns out to be the color revolution in America, then this would truly become a beautiful sight to behold for the rest of the world.
Moral of the story, what goes around comes around. What a high profile politicians says will eventually have repercussions not just for her but for the entire country. When you invade others, it is bound to come right back like 9/11.
LOL123 , 8 hours agoGod bless the insane Antifa/BLM Democratic Party who now OWN the lunacy of CHAZ.
Definition of fascism:
a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
As the American people watch in horror as all of this unfolds over the summer, that's all Trump has to do is pose these questions:
- *Who has taken rigid definitions of "acceptable" thought and formed them into a political ideology?
- *Who is using this ideology to shut down free speech?
- *Who is using this ideology to attack religious liberty?
- *Who cannot tolerate criticism of their Party/Presidential candidate and demands those voices be silenced?
- *Who wants the government to run the economy?
- *Who is stoking racism and using it to gain political power?
- *Who controls information and uses it as a powerful propaganda tool to force YOUR obedience to their will?
Answer those questions, America, and you have just identified the TRUE Fascists.
Now do you want THEM running YOUR life and YOUR country??
"A new intolerance is spreading, that is quite obvious a negative religion is being made into a tyrannical standard that everyone must follow. That is then seemingly freedom -- for the sole reason that it is liberation from the previous situation."
~Pope Benedict XVI Light of the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald, p. 52
Sometimes TELLING the people the truth isn't enough. They must LIVE it to wake up.
TRUMP2020LANDSLIDE
css1971 , 7 hours agoare the claims from conservatives that Soros is a supporter of "Antifa" which Trump wants to designate as a domestic terrorist organization, a dangerous premise given the movement consists of a very loose-knit and decentralized network of activists and hardly comprises a real organization.
**** calling bs on this.
The article states that ( in his opinion ...because that's all the article is) the protests started out peacefully and then transformed into violance.
Antifa is violent and it's been recorded from their own mouths that they intend to inflict harm...unless gouging out people's eyes is the norm to the writer. Veritas has proof of such actions and words...not a conspiracy theory.
So when President Trump says they are a terrorist organization they are. The bricks were organized to be delivered in various riots before they came ...that's premeditated assault weapons.
This article is full of hot air trying to be " unbiased" and glossing over facts that would lend to the facts that the riots are organized by outside influences which range from local officials to Soros open society to Democrat party officals with corporate money backing.
It's pretty disgusting to say the least.
Our constitution is at risk by these saboteurs and need to be held accountable.
Decoherence , 8 hours agoAntifa is very clearly an organization with a command structure.
Blondefire , 8 hours agoSo you can buy an African slave for $400 today, not 150 years ago. Today! So if black lives mattered, why aren't they buying all of them and setting them free? BLM my ***. What a load of ****. How can people be so stupid? The best part is, Obama's failed policies in Libya is what started the modern day auction of Africans.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/11/14/africa/libya-migrant-auctions/index.html
Idleproc , 8 hours agoThe police do not "discretionally victimize racial minorities. " Jesse James said he robbed banks 'because that's where all the money is. ' Police are forced to spend a large amount of time in minority neighborhoods because that's where a disproportionately large percentage of crime occurs.
PKKA , 8 hours agoYou are witnessing the failure of the neo-feudal financial global reform live. Coups d'état, state demolition, social disintegration with "open society", bomb-induced mass migration, terrorism, terrorist management of the global pandemic, ideological coverings of criminal social divisive activities with BLM and more, mock liberation of women and any other artificially divisive social group are failing miserably to put standing a real parasitic and slave system.
Michael Norton , 8 hours agoIs Putin again to blame for everything? Poor Putin, how he manages everything everywhere. But it was not Putin who called for the abolition of the police in the United States. This was called for from the pages of the NYT by George Soros's henchman, Mariame Cape.
It will be very interesting for me to look at America without the police. The Wild West and the old law will return again, who has a longer gun barrel will be right. Without the police, as in the good old days, whites will catch blacks and lynch them. And Black will catch White and lynch them. It will be a lot of fun for everyone, without the police.
You do not need to look for distant enemies in foreign countries, when the enemies are close, in your house.
wolf pup , 8 hours agoLiberal democrat party supporters going on a rampage looting, rioting, arson, and murder victimizing the general public for something they didn't do are destroying what little suppor the democrat party had.
wolf pup , 8 hours agoCreating your anger using their scripted anger. Watch them. Their eyes flash. Pelosi. Schumer. The Reverend Al. Mayor Jenny. Governors Cuomo, Newsom, Inslee, and Brown. They begin by spitting out their words, and end on a crescendo of Anger, Incorporated.
And it elicits an emotional response. Your own anger, suddenly upwelling. You agree! DAMMITALL! You agree! It's awful! And something must be done!...
And your addiction to your own physiological anger responses has begun, as anger will soon become your only Go To source for all immediate and tactically triggered reaction. Hopped up on All The Anger being shoved in your face 24/7; how dare you not be outraged/enraged?, the guy here killed by cops, the woman there killed by The Others, whom you've been instructed to Hate In Group Form, as they are your (new) Enemy. A hated enemy: your fellow Americans.Tearing a nation to chaotic cinders is accomplished via addictive and predictive behaviors. The addiction to our "devices", the big one. The addiction, emotionally, to anger, the other big one, heh. Anger is sold out to the cheap seats. Every advertisement. Everywhere you look, you'd better be outraged.
Who here knows anything about Mitt Romney, Bain Capital, and.. Bill Gates/Microsoft?Who ponders the fact that both the China Flu and first "autonomous zone" inside/outside the USA has been inserted into the mix in.. Washington state? You know Mitt owns US Elections vote tallying machines, no doubt. Well, he did, but now it's just his kids and wife, a la Biden & Son, Inc. This video (iirc like 10 minutes?) is interesting re the so-called autonomous zone in Seattle, utterly .Gov owned and operated opposition.
They can't even grow carrots, the street people there. Who's really running it? Who was behind it? Mayor Jen, Inslee, the Popo Chief, and Sawant all have their parts to play.
But key is that the City/State gave it to those nitwits. No one took anything. They were handed it by.. the .gov they say they hate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOWTZK7Ylds
Youth = naivety. It's a thing. Especially if you've been dumbed in college instead of educated. The youth see the corruptions of this era weighing on them, and their righteous anger is brought forth, enhanced, blown up and weaponized, as they are warped into thinking there's an Other Group to hate. Certainly no ruse is being performed as they sit and Get Angry at each day's classes. ... Control.
Totalitarianism = One Way.
Authoritarianism = OUR Way. And youth is always focused upon, when evil is afoot. And there's plenty to go around.And the useful fools are jerked around, then when fully discombobulated, they're ordered to Stampede.. and when short term goals of the Plantation overseers are accomplished, it's back to the holding/feeding pens for the hungry and exhausted and once more confused herds.. with an extra scoop of grain tonight.
I'd sigh about right here, but as history repeats itself this time, it appears that, with the all-powerful technocrats in such powerful seats now, a very dicey fate may just be set this time. At least for awhile. Tech imo is how it's made so brutally real to everyone. The System. Of Things. Which will be kept on life support via a swirling miasma of dirty money and via its usefulness, at creating and running false narratives, at stripping wealth from the lower classes,at system wide "shortages" and "flow problems" for necessities such as proteins, other necessary foods and goods, "Panic!"/Don't Panic", and the System above all else; the beast that will be.. has been and is fed via our humanly addictions. Humans want to connect. It's at our core, sex, love, conviviality, all interactions we are predisposed to crave. Each other's presences. Community. Now locked away from one another, ordered to wear masks for **** sakes, and yet we still crave that connectedness and can get it only via the controlled venue now; the System. The watching, learning, always 10 steps ahead System.
I'd sigh, but I'm rather too.. angry.
added: yes. A most annoying tone of voice.. but maybe informative, filling in a few gaps, so.. forbearance. I've no connection to nor have I even heard of whomever she, speaking, is, but the poster there is someone I've checked up on frequently regarding geo engineering. His older stuff has some excellent footage.
Roger Casement , 8 hours agoThe Dem controls in WA where I live have been up close and personal with the monetary powers of Gates, Bezos, and many other well connected players, for many decades now. They're more $$$$$-enabled than you imagine, and are not exactly stupid, albeit if you call corrupted corruptors with souls long dead stupid, then ok. They're stupid. And the GOP of Washington state sit in silence, save for a couple of hoarse, exhausted voices in the hinterlands. As culpable as the rest of the ruinous yo free people everywhere political class of Washington state are, all of them.
Washington and Oregon are very White states. And tech savvy, as it's everywhere here. Microsoft, Intel, Google, Bezos has as do others some very Blue Horizons Show situated in Washington. Imagine a CERN if your own on small scale. The residents here are a kid of city corporate/tech workers, and those who service them, and rurally, ag rules, of course.
Using White Guilt on people who drive pricey cars and have lots of money to flit about the planet with is the way it's been turned do feces stained here today. "Look at your privilege! Look at mine!", etc. All but few top slots are white and now topping yo mostly female, a bad sign from what I've seen in Europe.. and I'm a damn woman, so it's unpleasant to have to type that. EmoLand, baby. It's what's for breakfast up here. You've never imagined an amount of soccer mom OK Karen's as you'll find here.
The political scene here may appear clueless, and sure, they don't have any real concept of average Americans at all, preferring it that way. But they're in total power, they've got massive, massive money powers and international connections. And a greatky dumbed voting base to suck from. I don't know how stupid that makes them. Vile. Cretinous. Craven. Yup. Clueless? No. EvilGoogle's big daddy Alphabet, Inc., sleeps here. The ObamaLand Mafia rests here. The Clinton Slushfundation is deeply connected here. And Mr. Gates.
Authorizing a strategic weapon plan for my own locale isn't especially unwarranted, lol.
dogismycopilot , 8 hours agoNot youth, 10 years of brainwashing for this Post-Hussein Global Gangster challenge. (((They))) have to use it now because the brainwashing wears off after exposure to reality or 5 years, whichever comes first. This is why Hussein wanted to extend edumacation, to keeps the popsicles from melting. It's wearing off fast right now. Up in smoke soon enough. Expose more of these murderous Traitor governors and mayors, keep arresting the criminals and this will fizzle. Would help to round up the foreign and domestic enemy M$M Mockingbird spy ring and the government infiltrators who are taking orders from Hussein.
Plenty of cause to shut down all the "refugee" invasion programs.
- Is Obama Leading an Insurgency Against the United States ?
- Obama Gave the Order to Start the Spy Campaign (Both Domestic and Foreign)
- Obama Was Running a Shadow Presidency Speaking to Foreign Leader Before/After POTUS' Travels
- Obama's Parents Worked on the Farm (CIA Training Facility)
- Democrats Used Ukraine to Enrich Themselves and Assist Russia, Iran and China
WorkingClassMan , 8 hours agoof course its a CIA run, democrat backed, soros sponsored color revolution. BLM? ******* front for a communist ideology.
botoxpelosi , 9 hours agoAnd Joo Soros, being an internationalist and antiwhite both, is perfectly happy with funding these scum as well as antifa.
Patmos , 9 hours agoStill, many who correctly identify right-wing protests such as the Tea Party movement and the recent 'anti-lockdown' demonstrations as the work of astro-turfing by the Koch Brothers and Heritage Foundation seldom apply the same scrutiny to seemingly authentic progressive movements assimilated by corporate America.
The globalist Koch Brother's supported Hillary. https://off-guardian.org/2016/07/22/koch-brothers-now-supporting-hillary-clinton/
The Heritage Foundation hasn't funded any demonstrations.
Max Parry via The Unz Review is a ding dong.
mc888 , 9 hours agoANTIFA in the US is "fighting fascism" by destroying and looting small black owned businesses.
Yeah, nothing funny about that at all. They're totally legit about their cause. Not a Marxist front group or anything.
USofAzzDownWeGo , 9 hours agoIt is too early to say
Has this guy been living in a cave for the last 6 years?
Soros' OSF contributed $650,000 to BLM in 2014 for the Ferguson riots.
He was also behind the Baltimore riots and the migrant caravans.
But, it may be too early to tell.
Horace Walpole , 9 hours agoIt's a ZIONIST revolution and white people are so brainwashed by them they can't figure it out. Even when they're told from people like us, they still don't believe it lol. I just laugh anymore.
WorkingClassMan , 8 hours agoIt's not a Zionist revolution; it's a Deep State disturbance.
rtb61 , 9 hours agoHave to disagree for once. The Zionists are perfectly happy with Trump and joo Kushner in the Oral Office. They do NOT want greater instability in their cash cow now. This is joo Soros, it's his MO and fits his ideology of world communism to a T.
SabOObas , 9 hours agoThe problems will start to ease, when the shutdown is ended and a lot of them are busy back at work.
I mean seriously, those people overseas who never had African slaves (who were sold by other Africans to Americans) are now protesting black lives matter, just bored angry people jumping on the bandwagon, pissed off and looking to express it publicly.
end the ******* ****down already before your society explodes
Voice-of-Reason , 9 hours ago" The truth. That nothing, no matter how horrible, ever really happens without the approval of the government. Over there, and here. The problem isn't the doing. It's the people in power having to admit that they knew. The prisoners are tortured at Abu Ghraib, and only the underlings go to jail. Their bosses knew. We know their bosses knew. But you don't say it."
Shooter (2007) Michael Sandor
khnum , 9 hours agoCan we actively spread Covid19 to black lives matter? This might solve problems on both fronts.
VWAndy , 8 hours agoDeclaring an independent zone demonstrates these people think they can play with the big boys...I say let them
G. Wally , 9 hours agoYou might be surprised at what can be pulled off with cubic dollars and nothing else. Its as autonomous as a leach.
Voice-of-Reason , 9 hours agoCurious:
" Anyone who has paid close attention to the war in Syria for the last nine years will find this highly ironic, given the U.S. military support for another infamous "autonomous zone" of Kurdish nationalists in Northern Syria's Rojava federation. The Kurdish sub-region and de facto self-governing territory purports to be a "libertarian socialist direct democracy" style of government and has been the subject of romanticized praise by the Western pseudo-left despite the fact that the autonomous administration's paramilitary wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG), were until recently a cat's paw for American imperialism as part of the U.S.-founded coalition , the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)...Ankara and the U.S. repeatedly butted heads over Washington's decision to incorporate the Kurds into the SDF, since the YPG is widely acknowledged an off-shoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the militant and cult-like political group regarded as a terrorist organization that has been at war with Turkey for over forty years. It is also no secret that jailed PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan's theories of "democratic confederalism" are heavily influenced by the pro-Zionist Jewish-American anarchist theorist, Murray Bookchin."
Well, there may be a very good reason Zionists and Kurds align: according to the Hindu tales, there was once an "Emperor" that had two lines of family: The "Puru" and the "Kuru" and his name was Yudishthira...the Blind Emperor. The Kuru are the Kurds. The Puru? I would suspect they are the "Jewish" Persians. The "Puru" kingdom (historical reality) had a king in the 1400s BC named "Yayati" followed by a king named Ayati." In Egypt, in 1400 BC, was a "Vizier" named Yuya, and his son Aye.
Yuya's mummy shows pale skin around his eyes, where he wore a "Zorro-like" mask...and a scar where a spike had been driven through his right eyebrow into his right eye..."Popping" it. Hindu tales of the "Precept of the Asura" (demons) give varying versions of how he lost that eye.
But to wrap this up: Yuya was known to King Amenhotep III as "YWH" (inscription, Soleb Temple, Nubia) and if you've ever wondered what "god" looked like: here he is, a "high priest" (as was Yuya, high priest of Min): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanxingdui#/media/File:Bronze_Standing_Figure.jpg
This is a blacksmith, pouring molten metal (bronze) into a mold.
This is Yuya. His son, or grandson Akhenaton, was a fervent worshiper of "Shu" the "Egyptian god of the wind": the smithy that worked the bellows, fanning the fire of the smelt. Shu is "The Aten" according to E.A. Wallis Budge. Akhenaton is shown offering lotus blossoms to "The Aten": that is Shiva worship. Shiva, said to be "covered in ashes"...yes, blown up on him while fanning the smelting fire.
Yahweh is Yuya, Yuya is aka the Elamite god Qaus : "The God that Blows". (An alleged "mystery" why he is called that...but now ZH readers know). If you don't believe me? Try academia.org ..."Yahweh is Qaus" and see the numerious article on it.
There is a photo of a statue of the young Yuya...wearing a Buddhist monk's robe and calling himself "Ptah" (Butah/Buddha, according to E.A Wallis Budge's translation) ...with a painful looking injury to his right eye: https://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/eml/eml05.htm (scroll down to "Ptah" statue)
Did you know Shiva is depicted with blue skin? This is Yuya's mummy : https://www.pinterest.com/pin/860961653744723089/
Did you know that smelts in Peru during the Spanish invasion were called "Dragons"?
Long-necked dragon: this is Yuya: https://spiritsdancinginthenight.tumblr.com/post/182024507877/the-mummies-of-yuya-thuya-parents-of-queen/amp
The pale skin around his eyes from his "Zorro" mask: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuya#/media/File:Tuyayuya.jpg
In fact, the Hindu tale is that his bride also wore a mask to "see the world as my husband sees it." See the pale skin around her eyes, too???
sickofthepunx , 9 hours agoOccupy Wall Street was a protest. This is a racial war developing. Two completely different things. I dislike the current corrupt system too but I'm not burning down and looting people's businesses they worked hard to build.
Ms No , 9 hours agoApparently occupy wasn't loud enough because its been 10 years of the same old **** on Wall Street. Maybe the should have broke some ****
natashav , 9 hours agoEven Bloomberg calls for dollar collapse, just blamed on trump, but the fact that they even bring it up..
https://www.sott.net/article/436370-A-crash-in-the-dollar-is-coming
How come Paul Roberts is now rarely posted?
Whites enslaved in Africa first. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org
DocD , 9 hours agoWe have the biggest military and intelligence budget in the world.
And the ****ERS in Washington can't seem to stop the riots, looting and violence.
That's because.... just like 9/11... THEY'RE IN ON IT.
They're being paid to destroy Americans.
The government is the biggest terror organization in the world.
Burn the government to the ground. Burn the homes of those who serve this evil.
Until then, be prepared for these monsters to continue to terrorize you and your family.
Be prepared for these mother ****ers to destroy your children's future.
They are evil. They only respond to violence.
They wouldn't know what to do if someone actually fought back against them Guerilla Style.
The FBI is busy SWAT teaming Doctors offices.
They're too busy arresting Doctors prescribing Vitamin C to strengthen people's immune systems
and planning more false flags to terrorize other humans.
They are evil. Pure evil. Every single mother ****** who works for the FBI is evil.
Those who sit by in the FBI and watch these people do evil **** are just as guilty.
Just ask the Nazis who stood by while Mengele experimented on children.
What a bunch of BS! The one thing that criminal like Soros is not interested in is "philanthropy"! What this creep is, however, interested in is consolidating of power for his bosses. Was he a front for the Cocaine Importing Agency! - No doubt! But what are the goals of those fools at the top of the Agency? Does it look like they're interested in protecting freedom of speech, expression, communication, movement or privacy in this country? Are not all media heads repeating the same phrases all day?
The forces which were first used to subvert those who were tough to subvert due to their long standing Christian traditions are the same being used to "transform" or deconstruct (solve) and reconstitute (coagula) this, much easier and well prepped system. If there's anything that the Q messenger is right about, it is that nothing can stop what's coming; NOTHING!
Jun 14, 2020 | www.mintpressnews.com
The former New York senator published her thoughts on her on Medium blog , where she appeared to endorse the Black Lives Matter movement, something she has previously stayed well clear of doing. "George Floyd's life mattered. Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor's lives mattered. Black lives matter," she began by stating.
"I promise to keep fighting alongside all of you to make the United States a place where all men and all women are treated as equals, just as we are and just as we deserve to be," she added, positioning herself on the same side as the protestors, many of whom are demanding the abolition of the police. Clinton commended the amazing "power of solidarity" she had seen and promised to "speak out against white supremacy in all its forms," declaring that America is long overdue for "an honest reckoning" with its racism problem.
However, an honest reckoning with Clinton's past unearths a myriad of troubling incidents and positions that are difficult to square with her newfound radical antiracist stance. She supported her husband and Joe Biden's 1994 Crime Bill that led to an explosion in mass incarceration across the country.
Jun 14, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
He observes too, the anticipatory raising of bail money; the preparing of medical teams, ready to treat injuries; and of caches of flammable materials (suitable for torching official vehicles), pre-positioned in places where protests would later occur. All this – with simultaneous protests in more than 380 U.S. cities – in my experience, signals much bigger, silent backstage organization. And behind 'the organisation', the instigators lie, far back: maybe even thousands of miles back; and somewhere out there will be the financier.
However, in the U.S., commentators say they see no leadership; the protests are amorphous. That is not unusual to see no leadership – a 'leadership' appears only if negotiations are sought and planned; otherwise key actors are to be protected from arrest. The most telling sign of a backstage organisation is that on one day, it is 'full on', and the next all is quiet – as if a switch has been pulled. It often has.
Of course, the overwhelming majority of protestors in the U.S. this last week, were – and are – decent sincere Americans, outraged at George Floyd's killing and continuing social and institutional racism. Was this then, an Antifa and anarchist operation, as the White House contends? I doubt it – any more than those Palestinian youth in Beit El constituted anything other than fodder for the front of stage. We simply don't know the backstage. Keep an open mind.
Tom Luongo presciently suggests that should we wish to understand better the context to these recent events – and not be stuck at stage appearances – we need to look to Hong Kong for indicators .
Writing in October 2019, Luongo noted that: "What started as peaceful protests against an extradition law and worry over reunification with China has morphed into an ugly and vicious assault on the city's economic future. [This is] being perpetrated by the so-called "Block Bloc", roving bands of mask-wearing, police-tactic defying vandals attacking randomly around the city to disrupt people going to work ".
An exasperated local man exclaims : "Not only you [i.e. Block Bloc protestors are] harming the people making their living in businesses, companies, shopping malls. You're destroying subway stations. You're destroying our streets. You're destroying our hard-earned reputation as a safe, international business centre. You're destroying our economy". The man cannot explain why there was not a single police officer in sight, for hours, as the rampage continued.
What is going on? Luongo quotes a September Bloomberg interview with HK tycoon, Jimmy Lai, billionaire publisher of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) scourge, the Apple Daily, and the highly visible interlocutor of official Washington notables, such as Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton. In it, Lai pronounced himself convinced that if protests in HK turned violent, China would have no choice but to send the People's Armed Police units from Shenzen into Hong Kong to put down unrest: "That," Lai said on Bloomberg TV, "will be a repeat of the Tiananmen Square massacre; and that will bring in the whole world against China Hong Kong will be done, and China will be done, too".
In brief, Lai proposes to 'burn' Hong Kong – to 'save' Hong Kong. That is, 'burn it to save it' from the CCP – to keep its residue in the 'Anglo-sphere'.
"Jimmy Lai", Luongo writes, "is telling you what the strategy is here. The goal is to thoroughly undermine China's standing on the world stage and raise that of the U.S. This is economic warfare, it's a hybrid war tactic. And the soldiers are radicalized kids in uniforms bonking old men on the heads with sticks and taunting cops. Sound familiar? Because that's what's going on in places like Portland, Oregon with Antifa And that cause is chaos". (Recall, Luongo wrote this more than six months ago).
Well, here we are today: Steve Bannon, closely allied with what he, himself, terms the U.S.' China super-hawks , and allied with yet another Chinese billionaire financier, Guo Wengui ( a fugitive from the Chinese Authorities, and member at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club), is pursuing an incandescent campaign of denigration and vitriol against the Chinese Communist Party – intended, like Lai's campaign, to destroy utterly China's global standing.
Here it is again – the tightly-knit band of U.S. and exile super-hawks want to 'burn' down the CCP, to 'save' what? To save the 'Empire Waning' (America), through 'burning' the 'Empire Rising' (China). Bannon (at least, and to his credit), is explicit about the risk: A failure to prevail in this this info-war mounted against the CCP, he says, will end in "kinetic war".
Via The New York TimesSo, back to the U.S. protests, and drawing on Luongo's insights from Hong Kong – I wrote last week that Trump sees himself fighting a hidden global 'war' to retain America's present dominance over global money (the dollar) – now America's principal source of external power. For America to lose this struggle to a putative multi-lateral cosmopolitan governance – Trump perceives – would result in the whole, white Anglo-sphere's ejection from control over the global financial system – and its associated political privilege. It would entail control of the global financial and political system slipping away to an amorphous multi-lateral financial governance, operated by an international institution, or some global Central Bank. Since before WW1, control of global financial governance has been in the hands of the Anglo-American nexus running between London and New York. It still does, just about – albeit that today's Wall Street elite is cosmopolitan, rather than Anglo, yet still it is firmly anchored to Washington, via the Fed and the U.S. Treasury. For this to slip would be the 'end of Empire'.
To maintain the status of the dollar, Trump therefore has assiduously devoted himself to disrupting the multi-lateral global order, sensing this danger to the unique privileges conveyed by control of the world's monetary base. His particular concern would be to see a Europe that was umbilically-linked to the financial and technological heavy-weight that is China. This, in itself, effectively would presage a different world financial governance.
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But, is the fear that the threat principally lies with Europe's Soros-style vision justified? There may – just as well – be a fifth-column at home. The billionaires' club of the very rich has long ceased to be culturally 'Anglo'. It has become a borderless, 'self-selecting', governing entity unto itself.
Perhaps an earlier 'end of Époque' metamorphosis shows us how readily an old-established elite can swap horses in order to survive . In the historical Sicilian novel, The Leopard, Prince Salina's nephew tells his uncle that the old order is 'done' , and with it, the family is 'done' too, unless "Unless we ourselves take a hand now, they'll foist a republic on us. If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change".
It is clear that some billionaire oligarchs – whether American or not – can see the 'writing on the wall': A financial crisis is coming. And so, too, is a social one. A recent survey done by one such member, showed that 55% of American millennials supported the end to the capitalist system. Perhaps the brotherhood of billionaires is thinking that 'unless we ourselves take a hand now, they'll foist socialism on us'. If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change. The recent disorder in the U.S. will have unnerved them further.
The push towards radical change – towards that global financial, political and ecological governance that threatens dollar hegemony – paradoxically may emerge from within: from within America's own financial elite. 'Burning' the dollar's privileged global status may become seen as the price for things to stay as they are -- and for the elite to be saved. The future of Empire hangs on this issue: Can US dollar hegemony be preserved, or might the financial 'nobility' see that things must change – if they are to stay as they are? That is, the Revolution may come from within -- and not necessarily from abroad.
In recent days, Trump has pivoted to being the President of 'Law and Order' – a shift which he explicitly connected to 1968, when, in response to protests in Minneapolis after the police suffocation last week of George Floyd, Trump tweeted: "When the looting begins, the shooting starts". These were the words used by Governor George Wallace, the segregationist third-party candidate, in the 1968 Presidential election: Republicans launched their "southern strategy" to win over resentful white Democrats after the civil rights revolution.
Trump is determined to prevail – but today is not 1968. Can a Law and Order platform work now? U.S. demography in the south has shifted, and it is not clear that the liberal, urban electorates of America would sign up to a law-and-order platform, which implicitly appeals to white anxieties?
In a sense, President Trump finds himself between a rock and a hard place. If the protests are not quelled, and "the right normal (not) restored" (as per Esper's words), Trump may lose those remaining 'law and order' conservatives. But, were he to lose control and over-react using the military, then it may be Trump who has his own 'Tiananmen Square' – one, which Jimmy Lai (gleefully) predicted in Hong Kong's case would bring in the whole world against China: "Hong Kong will be done, and China will be done, too."
Or, in this instance, Trump might be done, and the U.S. too.
Oct 22, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com
"Paid protesters are real ," writes the Los Angeles Times , after a lawsuit filed by a Czech investor against a business rival spotlighted the seedy, and very real business of people hired to express fake outrage, support, and everything in between.According to a lawsuit filed by investor Zdenek Bakala, Prague-based investment manager Pavol Krupa hired Beverly hills company Crowds on Demand (COD) to stage a protest near Bakala's home in Hilton Head, SC.
In the Bakala case, Crowds on Demand is accused of spreading misinformation through a website, putting on protests and organizing a phone and email campaign targeting several U.S. institutions with ties to Bakala, who got an MBA from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and had an estimated net worth topping $1 billion earlier this decade, according to Forbes. - L A Times
Crowds on Demand provides pop-up "protests, rallies, flash mobs, paparazzi events and other inventive PR stunts," according to its website.
The dispute between Bakala and Krupa goes back for several years, and has been the subject of inquiries by the European Commission and the Czech government, involving a formerly state-owned coal mining business, OKD, which Bakala assumed control of in 2004. Bakala has been accused of bribing officials to buy the government's equity in the mining company at a below-market price, which broke a promise to sell company-owned apartments to employees before the company ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 2016.
According to Bakala, the COD smear campaign didn't stop there, claiming that the company also called and sent emails to the Aspen Institute and Dartmouth College, where Bakala sits on advisory boards, urging them to cut ties with him. Bakala claims that Krupa threatened to ramp up the COD campaign unless the Czech investor coughs up $23 million.
Bakala, who holds U.S. and Czech citizenship, says in his lawsuit that all of those allegations are false and are part of Krupa's extortion campaign. He alleges that Krupa offered to cease his campaign if Bakala paid $23 million for OKD shares owned by Krupa's investment fund.
...
Crowds on Demand founder Adam Swart and Krupa neither confirmed nor denied that they are working together. They declined to answer specific questions about Bakala's allegations, though Swart, in an emailed statement, called the claims meritless.
" Not only will I vigorously defend myself against the allegations in the complaint but I am also evaluating whether to bring my own claims against Mr. Bakala ," Swart said. - L A Times
"Defendants are pursuing a campaign of harassment, defamation, and interference in the business affairs of Zdenek Bakala, which they have expressly vowed to expand unless he pays them millions of dollars," reads Bakala's lawsuit (see below).
That said, it's not clear that Krupa's alleged campaign had the desired effect.
Elliot Gerson, an executive vice president at the Aspen Institute, said in an emailed statement that the institute has received calls and emails from "individuals associated with Crowds on Demand" and that the nonprofit's general counsel has spoken with Swart "about this campaign of harassment."
" From the beginning, we assumed that these manufactured communications were linked to political issues in the Czech Republic and Mr. Bakala's high profile in that country ," Gerson said. " Nothing we received has altered our views about Mr. Bakala ." - L A Times
So paid protesters are a thing...
Bakala's lawsuit brings to light an ongoing debate in the national dialogue over paid protesters. President Trump, for example, has repeatedly claimed that protesters have been paid by left-wing billionaire activist George Soros and others in order to disrupt and undermine conservative events.
"There are hundreds of lobbying firms and public affairs firms that do this work, though not all in the same way," said USLA sociology professor Edward Walker - who wrote a book on the business of paid protesting, also known as Astroturfing. "Some only do a little bit of this grass-roots-for-hire, but things adjacent to this are not uncommon today."
In 2014, ABC's "Nightline" reported that a group backed by the beverage industry was hiring people to protest a soda tax measure - posting ads on Craigslist for paid protesters at $13 an hour.
During the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, many noted what appeared to be a man, Vinay Krishnan - who works for progressive activist organization Center for Popular Democracy, paying a woman named Vickie Lampron who was later seen in the Kavanaugh hearing.
Krishnan said that the money was given to people to pay fines in case they were arrested.
As the Times notes, paid protesters aren't a recent phenomenon.
Longtime California political consultant Garry South, who was a campaign strategist for California Gov. Gray Davis, said it's long been common for campaigns and political parties to pay people a few bucks or perhaps provide a meal in exchange for attending a rally. He recalled a 2002 rally in San Francisco where he said that tactic was used.
" It turns out, the San Francisco Democratic Party, to bolster the crowd, had basically gone down to skid row and paid people $5 or something to tromp up to Union Square ," South said.
But he sees a big difference between that kind of activity and the paid protests allegedly organized by Crowds on Demand.
"What's different is the commercialization of the process," he said. "It just contributes to the air of unreality that exists in this day and age with essentially not being able to believe your own eyes or ears. I don't think it's particularly healthy. But it probably inevitably was going to come to this." - L A Times
Crowds on Demand, meanwhile, shamelessly boasts on their website that they were hired by a business rival to "cripple the operations" of a manufacturing business owned by a convicted child molester, which resulted in the hiring company buying the molester-owned business for "5 percent of its previous value."
In another "case study," COD brags about staging a rally to support an unidentified foreign leader who was visiting the United Nations.
"The concern was ensuring that the leader was well received by a U.S. audience and confident for his work at the U.N. We created demonstrations of support with diverse crowds.," says COD.
"A lot of times, companies don't want to be known for using this kind of strategy," Walker said. "Crowds on Demand, they're more out about it. ... It is strikingly brazen. "
Won Hung Lo , 7 minutes ago link
Joe Davola , 1 hour ago linkRICO.... this piece of **** needs to go down for racketeering against our government and its people.
Nature_Boy_Wooooo , 2 hours ago linkGonna guess there's no 1099, so no taxes paid. Also figure their twitter account hasn't been suspended.
Is-Be , 2 hours ago linkneoliberal job creation.
thebigunit , 2 hours ago link$13 per hour? These people need a union.
Very interesting. Hiring a mob to cause economic damage and set the stage for extortion certainly sounds "actionable". Talking head Mark Levin has talked from time to time about suing people for "tortious interference". I've never heard about such suits, but Levin is a legal heavyweight and likely knows what is a credible legal threat.
Jun 10, 2020 | www.mintpressnews.com
Everything has changed since the world witnessed George Floyd's murder at the hands of police. Suddenly, workers are publicly criticizing their bosses. Politicians are backpedaling and newspapers face revolts when they are caught spreading propaganda. In Europe and the United States monuments to genocidaires are defaced and pulled down.
But no one should think that the black misleaders have given up allegiance to their overlords among the Democratic Party donor class. The scoundrels are giving lip service to change but are committed to business as usual and they co-opt the language and imagery of the movement to do it.
In addition, the movement itself is sometimes a source of confusion. While well-meaning, proposals such as defunding the police are highly problematic. They do nothing to address the foundational nature of state violence and allow budgetary sleight of hand to create new methods of law enforcement. The demands for community control and abolition must remain at the top of the list.
While people of goodwill sincerely debate, the black political class does everything in its power to make sure that nothing much is accomplished at all. The Congressional Black Caucus pulled out their kente cloth prop and added taking a knee with Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer in one of the worst photo opportunities of all time.
Pelosi and other members of Congress, kneel at the Capitol's Emancipation Hall, June 8, 2020, on Capitol Hill. Manuel Balce Ceneta | AP
They are proposing reforms that will never be approved by the Republican-controlled Senate or Donald Trump. They are also keeping their police-empowering Protect and Serve Act in place. Protect and Serve makes assaulting a police officer a federal offense, and nearly every victim of police violence is again victimized by this spurious charge.
The chicanery must be pointed out, yet it must be acknowledged that changes are far-reaching and events are occurring which no one would have predicted just a few months ago. Kente cloth charlatans are not only the ones being exposed. When New York City mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter was arrested at a protest the police union revealed her name to the press in an effort to embarrass him. In return, de Blasio defended cops who drove vehicles into a crowd, beat protesters and bystanders alike, and even arrested legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild.
In response, New York City employees signed an open letter to the mayor condemning his supine support of a police department that hates him. They broke every rule of politics and conventional wisdom given to employees anywhere. The dictum of never criticizing a boss has gone out the window along with everything else.
https://cdn.iframe.ly/k4Njqx5?iframe=card-small&v=1&app=1
Corporate media propaganda has also taken a hit. James Bennet was the editor of the New York Times opinion page but is now without a job after a similar employee revolt. Staff was rightly angry when the Times printed an editorial from Arkansas senator Tom Cotton , who advised sending the military to quell nationwide protests. When Times employees spoke up it was revealed that the newspaper pitched the idea to Cotton, and not the other way around. Bennet also had to admit that he didn't even read the fascistic screed.
The "paper of record" has long been a purveyor of war propaganda and the utterances of conservatives like Cotton. But the standard operating procedure isn't good enough now and someone a few weeks ago can now be the scapegoat who gets pushed under a bus.
In Europe, thousands of people have turned out to protest for Floyd and against the United States. In Athens, the U.S. embassy was the target of demonstrators. Europe has its own history of racism and condemnation of this country has inspired people to be brave about their own nations' criminality.
Parisians marched but not just for George Floyd. Adam Traore was killed by French police in 2016 and the anger about his death never disappeared. That is why a crowd of thousands gathered to say both of their names.
Long dead criminals are also being taken to task. Belgium's King Leopold presided over one of the world's worst genocides in the Congo where up to 10 million people were killed in quest to maximize rubber production. In recent days monuments to Leopold have been defaced with graffiti and red paint representing the blood he spilled. In Britain, the statue of Edward Colston was pulled down and dumped into a river in the city of Bristol. Colston made a fortune selling 100,000 Africans to colonies in the Caribbean. His name is still present in his hometown in recognition of the philanthropy that came from selling people and working them to death.
A statue of King Leopold II is smeared with red paint and graffiti in Brussels, June 10, 2020. Virginia Mayo | AP
No one is safe. New York Times editors, mayors of major cities, and even long-dead criminals are being called to account. People have lost their fear because they are desperate and angry. It is harder to convince them that all is well when their suffering was deliberately created and their pleas for redress were ignored.
The reaction to these acts of rebellion has been all too predictable. Politicians are running scared and dare to do what they would never have considered before. The Minneapolis city council voted to disband its police department. But the mayor has already expressed opposition and the state of Minnesota would also have to approve. Not only can the council not deliver on their vote, but they have done nothing to bring justice to those already killed by police in that city. The movement would do well not to be taken in by unworkable schemes meant to silence them.
While the well-meaning struggle with direction, the powerful see the handwriting on the wall and respond with their own kente cloth moments. The CEO of Chase, Jamie Dimon, photographed himself taking a knee, but outside of a bank vault, just in case anyone didn't know whose side he was on. Corporations are claiming they will do better in their treatment of black employees and the NFL is making mealy-mouthed apologies to Colin Kaepernick. Nike says it will donate $40 million to as yet unnamed organizations serving black communities.
All of the opportunism is the result of a mass determination to see change that benefits the people. The moment was rife as kleptocracy enriched the already rich and a pandemic decimated already shaky economies. Now white people have themselves faced the wrath of police goon squads and are now accepting proposals they would have opposed or ignored not too long ago.
There is the possibility of advancement but also of reaction. The system knows how to defend itself and how to appeal to the public. This moment requires great vigilance. The people in movement can bring about great changes. But the kente cloth wearing rascals will not disappear anytime soon.
Feature photo | House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., center, and House Majority Whip James Clyburn of S.C., right, and top Congressional Democrats, raise their hands during a news conference to unveil policing reform and equal justice legislation on Capitol Hill, June 8, 2020, in Washington. Manuel Balce Ceneta | AP
Margaret Kimberley writes the Freedom Rider column which appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at patreon.com/margaretkimberley and she regularly posts on Twitter @freedomrideblog. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect MintPress News editorial policy.
Republish our stories! MintPress News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License.
Jun 14, 2020 | www.mintpressnews.com
From Superpredators to Black Lives Matter: Hillary Clinton's Opportunistic Career Arc
An honest reckoning of Clinton's past unearths a myriad of troubling incidents and positions that are difficult to square with her newfound radical antiracist stance.
by Alan MacleodJune 09th, 2020
By Alan Macleod
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A fter the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis two weeks ago, a spontaneous nationwide movement of millions of people protesting racist policing has gripped the country. Politicians of all stripes have staked out their positions, condemning, endorsing, or trying to co-opt the radical movement. The latest of these is failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The former New York senator published her thoughts on her on Medium blog , where she appeared to endorse the Black Lives Matter movement, something she has previously stayed well clear of doing. "George Floyd's life mattered. Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor's lives mattered. Black lives matter," she began by stating.
"I promise to keep fighting alongside all of you to make the United States a place where all men and all women are treated as equals, just as we are and just as we deserve to be," she added, positioning herself on the same side as the protestors, many of whom are demanding the abolition of the police. Clinton commended the amazing "power of solidarity" she had seen and promised to "speak out against white supremacy in all its forms," declaring that America is long overdue for "an honest reckoning" with its racism problem.
Inconvenient Truths Hillary Clinton ✔ @HillaryClinton26.8K people are talking about thisAgainst a backdrop of a pandemic that has disproportionately ravaged communities of color, we are being painfully reminded right now that we are long overdue for honest reckoning and meaningful action to dismantle systemic racism. https:// medium.com/@HillaryClinto n/george-floyds-life-mattered-433d8f085d7f
George Floyd's life matteredGeorge Floyd's life mattered. Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor's lives mattered. Black lives matter.
medium.com 43K 2:32 PM - Jun 6, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacyHowever, an honest reckoning with Clinton's past unearths a myriad of troubling incidents and positions that are difficult to square with her newfound radical antiracist stance. She supported her husband and Joe Biden's 1994 Crime Bill that led to an explosion in mass incarceration across the country. In 1996, she went further, using well-established racial dog whistles to argue that a new class of people had emerged in America: that of the superpredators, stating :
We need to take these people on, they are often connected to big drug cartels, they are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called superpredators. No conscience. No empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way but first we have to bring them to heel."
In practice, this largely meant young men of color, and was part of the "New Democrats'" swing to the right, turning against working-class people and racial minorities.
Image Source | Wikimedia CommonsClinton has hardly been an ally to black people outside the United States either. In 1998, she supported her husband's missile strike on a Sudanese drug factory, a largely forgotten attack that the German Ambassador to Sudan estimated killed "several tens of thousands" of civilians by depriving them of much-need medicines. President Clinton also continued George H. W. Bush's destruction of a fledgling democracy in Haiti, giving his support to the removal of the newly elected head of state Jean-Bertrand Aristide. After the 2010 earthquake that wrecked the country, Clinton, in her role as Secretary of State, presided over what amounted to a U.S. invasion and occupation of the island, one whose consequences reverberate to this day.
In Libya too, Clinton pushed for a supposedly humanitarian intervention in the country, cajoling other nations into complying. Leaked emails show that she was aware that the extremist groups they were funding were carrying out massacres against black Libyans and that NATO was committing war crimes. However, she was triumphant in her achievement; speaking of the deposed and executed head of state, Muammar Gaddafi, she laughed, stating , "We came, we saw, he died!" Today, the extremist groups who control the country regulate open slave markets where black Africans are bought and sold.
https://cdn.iframe.ly/fWGECkX?v=1&app=1 When do black lives matter?
Despite her new proclamations that black lives matter, it is unclear whether activists will accept her apparent change of heart. For one, a leaked 2015 Democratic Party memo on dealing with Black Lives Matter told members to "listen to their concerns" but instructed them clearly: "don't offer support for concrete policy positions." Black Lives Matter responded to the leak, stating they were "disappointed at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's placating response," adding that "black communities deserve to be heard, not handled."
Clinton herself was accosted by Black Lives Matter activists during her 2016 election campaign, who asked her to apologize for the mass incarceration state she helped build. "I am not a superpredator," one told her.
From same-sex marriage to trade to Iraq, Clinton has often changed her positions in tune with what is politically expedient. In reality, any "honest reckoning" would involve taking a look at her own hand in upholding and enforcing structural racism across the country and the world.
Feature photo | Hillary Clinton winks as she speaks to Lesley McSpadden, right, the mother of Michael Brown, while working the rope line during a campaign stop at a union hall on Dec. 11, 2015, in St. Louis. Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer in Aug. 2014 setting off the Black Lives Matter movement. Jeff Roberson | AP
Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent . He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , Salon , The Grayzone , Jacobin Magazine , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary .
Jun 14, 2020 | angrybearblog.com
likbez , June 14, 2020 10:31 pm
Trump is staggering. He's plunging in the polls, and his behavior has become erratic and unhinged. I don't mean he's being crude, infantile and wrapped in a world of fantasy -- he's always like that. Rather, I see him as suddenly incoherent, fumbling with threats and catchphrases as if he were locked out of his house at night, frantically trying one key after another to see if any will work.
I think the personalities of Trump and Biden no longer matter: the level of polarization of the USA electorate is a more important factor now.
In other words, the reaction to the protests of independents will determine the results on 2020 elections.
From this point of view the current situation is a mixed bag for Neoliberal Dems: protest are partially genuine protests against the level of inequality caused by neoliberalism, partially are an attempt to exploit legitimate grievances in order to topple Trump (CHAZ in Seattle looks like a kind of a new Maidan and clearly were at least partially city council and the governor supported.)
The USA version of Hongweibings toppling statues definitely play into Trump hand: radicalization of protests gives Trump an advantage to present himself now as the only "law and order" candidate, the "Silent majority" candidate, a la Nixon.
The key weakness of Neoliberal Democrats is the level of hypocrisy in their support of protests: Pelosi (and Schumer) looks like a wolf in sheep clothing donning African scarves. Along with Bill Clinton they did a lot to deprive Afro Americans of the social security benefits they enjoyed under the New Deal Capitalism, and putting them in jails for minor infractions with the law (Biden was the key player here)
One minor point: exaggerated threats is the way Trump operate. He like poker players use bluffing as a part of the political strategy. It's like he is trying to determine some limits for each situation and sense how far he can go, as well as putting the opponents off balance provoking them to overreact,. Then he retreats to a more reasonable position.
I would assume that the 2020 election will be a choice between two platforms, not between two candidates. And Trump now represents "law and order" platform. While Biden is forced to represent "change we can believe in" platform. And Democrats already burned all the bridges.
Please note that Biden political history is the history of a staunch neoliberal, completely hostile to the interests of the majority of the USA population and, especially, Afro Americans and white working class (aka deplorable). As such he will now look as hypocrite no matter what he say.
Jun 14, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
TG , Jun 13 2020 22:30 utc | 67
"Could someone tell me what BLM is?"BLM is a pack of useful idiots doing the service of the super-rich, setting the proles against each other while our overloads sip champagne from the safety of their walled estates and mansions.
BLM is not spontaneous. It has been created and managed by the corporate press. They take a single bad thing, and play it 24/7 and scream and holler that this proves that the nebulous evil spirit of RACISM is to blame and it has nothing to do with our industrial base being outsourced, or rents being unaffordable, or medical care being unaffordable, or education being unaffordable, or people being forced into a lifetime of debt servitude and no longer able to get out from under via bankruptcy, and trillions spent on pointless foreign wars, and tens of trillions in subsidies and bailouts for the super rich - no, don't talk about that, anyone mentions those things and clearly it's because they are RACIST and infected with white privilege and they could easily lose their jobs... Indeed, the extreme top-down pressure in business and academia
reminds me a lot of the "cultural revolution" in Mao's China. Whip up the peasants into an ideological frenzy fighting imaginary enemies to distract them from how the government was responsible for a massive famine...If there would be video footage of a black man killing a white man, would CNN play it over and over and start harping about how white lives matter? Of course not, that's just a single event, and in a country of 340 million you can always fond one bad thing that breaks whichever way you choose....
Occupy Wall Street was a spontaneous protest - and look how easily the elites cancelled them out. Harass them, arrest them, deprive them of any media coverage, corral them in 'free speech zones' out of view of the public... and today they are gone as if they had never been. BLM has been created and is maintained by deliberate elite policy.
Jun 10, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
It takes a lot to build a civilization, and though it is much easier to destroy a civilization, it takes a lot to do that, too... But now we have four roots of evil that are guaranteed to do so... Authored by Dennis Prager via RealClearPolitics.com,It takes a lot to build a civilization, and though it is much easier to destroy a civilization, it takes a lot to do that, too.
But now we have four roots of evil that are guaranteed to do so.
No. 1: Victimhood.The first is victimhood. The more people who regard themselves as victims -- as individuals or as a group -- the more likely they are to commit evil. People who think of themselves as victims feel that, having been victimized, they are no longer bound by normal moral conventions -- especially the moral conventions of their alleged or real oppressors.
Everyone knows this is true. But few confront this truth. Every parent, for example, knows that the child who thinks of him or herself as a perpetual victim is the child most likely to cause and get into trouble. And criminologists report that nearly every murderer in prison thinks of himself as a victim.
On a societal scale, the same holds true -- and being on such a larger scale, the chances of real evil ensuing are exponentially increased. One of the most obvious examples is Germany after World War I. Most Germans regarded themselves as victims -- of the Treaty of Versailles; of a "stab in the back" German government; of the British, Americans and French; and, of course, of the Jews. This sense of victimhood was one of the most important factors in the popularity of the Nazis, who promised to restore German dignity.
That millions of black Americans regard themselves as victims -- probably more so today than at any time in the past 50 years -- can only lead to disaster for America generally and for blacks specifically. While victims generally feel free to lash out at others, they also go through life angry and unhappy.
No. 2: Demonization.The second of the four ingredients of this civilization-destroying witches' brew is demonization -- demonizing a group as inherently evil.
That is being done now with regard to the white people of America. All -- again, all -- whites are declared racist. The only difference among them is that some admit it and some deny it. The notion that whites are inherently evil has long been associated with Louis Farrakhan. But it has apparently migrated out from his relatively small following to many blacks, even those who might consider Farrakhan a kook. Former President Barack Obama, hardly a Farrakhan follower, described America as having racism in its DNA. That is as close to inherently and irredeemably evil as it gets; you cannot change your DNA.
In that sense, not only are whites demonized, but America is, too. Unlike traditional liberals, the left regards America as a moral cesspool -- not only racist but, according to The New York Times, founded to be so. The New York Times has created a history of America that declares its founding not in 1776 but in 1619, when the first black slaves arrived. The American Revolution was fought, according to this malign narrative, not merely for American independence but in order to preserve slavery, a practice the British would have interfered with. This "history" will now be taught in thousands of American schools.
The combination of victimhood and demonization alone is dangerous enough. But there are still two more horsemen galloping toward the looming apocalypse.
No. 3: A Cause To Believe In.Most Americans throughout American history found great meaning in being American and in being religious -- usually Christian. Since World War II, we have lived in a post-Christian, post-nationalist age. Until very recently, Americans would have found the expression "for God and country" deeply meaningful; that term today, on the left, is risible and execrable.
But people need something to believe in. The need for meaning is the greatest human need after the need for food. Leftism, with all its offshoots -- feminism, environmentalism, Black Lives Matter, antifa -- has filled that vacuum. In Europe, communism, fascism and Nazism filled the hole left by the demise of nationalism and Christianity. Here it is leftism and its offshoots.
No. 4: Lies.The fourth and most important ingredient necessary for evil is lies. Lies are the root of evil. Ironically, slavery itself was made possible only because of the lie that the black was inferior to the white. Nazism was made possible thanks to the lie that Jews were not fully human. And communism was built on lies. Lenin, the father of Soviet Communism, named the Soviet communist newspaper "Truth" ("Pravda") because truth was what the Communist Party said it was.
The New York Times, CNN and the rest of the mainstream "news" media are becoming our version of Pravda. Objective truth doesn't exist on the left. The universities have already declared "objective truth" as essentially an expression of "white privilege." See what happens to a student who says in class, for example, that "men cannot give birth."
The public self-debasement demanded of anyone who differs with the left -- like New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees just did when he said not standing for the national anthem desecrated the flag and those who have died for it -- happens almost daily. The only difference between this and what dissidents underwent during Mao's Cultural Revolution is that the self-debasement here is voluntary -- thus far.
Last week, when this Jew saw a store in Santa Monica with a sign reading "black-owned business" so as to avoid being destroyed, it evoked chilling memories.
That's how bad it is in America today.
Jun 14, 2020 | yro.slashdot.org
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: As protesters demand an end to police brutality and the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the nation, police departments around the country are using software that can track and identify people in crowds from surveillance footage -- often with little to no public oversight or knowledge. Dozens of cities around the country are using BriefCam, which sells software that allows police to comb through surveillance footage to monitor protests and enforce social distancing, and almost all of these cities have hosted protests against police brutality in the weeks since George Floyd was killed in police custody, BuzzFeed News has found. Some of the cities using BriefCam's technology -- such as New Orleans and St. Paul -- have been the site of extreme police violence, with officers using rubber bullets, tear gas, and batons on protesters. Authorities in Chicago; Boston; Detroit; Denver; Doral, Florida; Hartford, Connecticut; and Santa Fe County, New Mexico have also used it.
Founded in 2007 by Hebrew University researchers and now owned by camera company Canon , the Israel-based company sells a system called "Protect & Insights" that lets police and private companies filter hours of closed circuit television and home surveillance and create excerpts of a few relevant moments. Protect & Insights has built-in facial recognition and license plate reader searches, and lets police create "Watch Lists" of faces and license plates. The company also said its tool could filter out "men, women, children, clothing, bags, vehicles, animals, size, color, speed, path, direction, dwell time, and more." [...] There are currently no federal guidelines restricting the use of video analytics, license plate reader, and facial recognition software offered by companies like BriefCam. Neema Singh Guliani a senior legislative counsel with the ACLU said that city governments often acquire these technologies without public oversight or debate.
Ronin Developer ( 67677 ) , Saturday June 13, 2020 @12:22AM ( #60178160 )I wonder ( Score: 3 )If this is the same company whose product we evaluated around 2005 when I worked with a public safety software company. The initial request from our clients was to use it to identify suspects from mug shots.
We elected not to pursue the product - too many false positives and misidentifications. And, that was on clear mug shot photos.
Itâ(TM)s scary...horrifying, actually, knowing that it is capable of using less than HD video feeds.
LostMyBeaver ( 1226054 ) , Saturday June 13, 2020 @02:33AM ( #60178340 )No shit ( Score: 4 , Insightful)Microsoft, Google and Amazon are taking heat over delivering software for this purpose. But in truth, much of this software is already open source and freely available.
Anyone with access to Python can easily hack together facial recognition. OpenCV does most of the work.
The problem is having a huge database and a massive amount of processing power. This is also really quite easy. If law enforcement agencies each invest in a few stacks of nVidia or IBM machine learning nodes and a few stacks of Ceph nodes, it will not even require much effort. I know, I work with this every day.
Make the compute nodes boot from LAN with CentOS. Write a script to manage elasticity using IPMI. Mount machine specific partitions as NFS based on MAC address. Deploy K8S on previously unmanaged nodes. Then when it is all up, just run a brute force algorithm as a container.
The algorithm is simple... covnet images of who you are looking for, establish a series of points of interest (wrinkles, nostrils, etc...) then look for points in a database of previously scanned images. Add points for matching characteristics between images and once passing a given threshold, use ML to attempt positive/negative matching in an is it a hotdog style.
It will have horrible results in the beginning, but as the ML is trained, it will increase accuracy over time.
The ease of doing this is very high. It is no longer a science requiring top companies with top talent to accomplish. It is strictly a matter of money and time.
Jun 14, 2020 | yro.slashdot.org
Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday June 13, 2020 @01:34PM from the wrong-arm-of-the-law dept. " An innocent man faced a torrent of online threats and abuse after being mistakenly identified in a viral video in which an angry cyclist hurt a child," reports the BBC: Mr. Weinberg was falsely identified when the wrong date was attached to the initial appeal made by the police in Bethesda, U.S. Mr. Weinberg used the popular fitness tracking app Strava, which showed him as having been on the Maryland bike trail on that day.
However on the correct date he was working at home...
Once his address had been shared by others -- a practice known as doxxing -- the police had to patrol the area for his safety , reported New York magazine... Mr. Weinberg has since received dozens of apologies from people who abused him online.
Weinberg mistakenly thought his app only shared his bike-ride routes with his network of friends, New York Magazine reports.They add that Weinberg also discovered tweets wrongly accusing another man -- a former police officer in Maryland -- which had been retweeted and liked more than half a million times. And that the woman who'd posted Weinberg's home address later "deleted it and posted an apology, writing that in all of her eagerness to see justice served, she was swept up in the mob that so gleefully shared misinformation, depriving someone of their own right to justice.
"Her correction was shared by fewer than a dozen people."
Jun 14, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
At a park in New York City, I witnessed something odd. A group of women silently formed a circle in the middle of a large lawn. Their all-black outfits contrasted with the surrounding summer pastels, and they ignored the adjacent sun bathers as they began to kneel and slowly chant. They repeated a three word matin. The most striking feature of this scene was its familiarity. Any half-decent anthropologist would label this a religious ritual.
Yet, few are willing to explicitly describe these events as part of a religion. The women may have been kneeling in a circle while chanting, but they repeated the words "black lives matter." Politics obscures the obvious. Wokeness is a religion, and conservatives must act as if large parts of our institutions are run by this cult.
Americans are united in their disgust at what happened to George Floyd. Everyone agrees: A minor run-in with the police should never lead to death. Yet, the past two weeks do not actually seem connected to the events in Minneapolis. Most East Coast yuppies would have trouble placing Minneapolis on a map. Does it really make sense to gather in a mass crowd during a pandemic because of something that happened a half-continent away? It does when you recognize that it's a religious movement.
Wokeness has been identified as a religion by several writers and commentators. Linguist John McWhorter wrote an article on " Antiracism, Our Flawed New Religion " several years ago. Harvard professor Adrian Vermeulle wrote a must-read analysis of the liturgical nature of liberalism in 2019. And all the way back in 2004, historian Paul Gottfried wrote a prescient book on the topic with the subtitle "towards a secular theocracy." The increasing intensity of woke culture suggests that this is no longer just a curiosity, or a point of ridicule. It is the most clear-eyed way of viewing current politics, and this is most obvious when viewing the protests.
The nationwide protests are best understood as religious ceremonies, and this can be seen in the way they keep engaging in off-brand Christianity. In Portland, Maine, protestors lay stomach down on the sidewalk in order to ritualistically reenact Floyd's arrest. They prostrated themselves in the exact way Catholic priests do in their ordination ceremony. Journalist Michael Tracey noted the religious feeling in New Jersey protests. Protestors knelt and held up their hands in a mirror image of how Evangelicals pray over each other at revivals. The Guardian ran an article on how people must keep repeating the names of police victims, and protestors routinely chant a list of names as if it is a litany of the saints. It is a transparent attempt to transform the victims into martyrs. And while Floyd's killing is a tragedy and an outrage, he had no agency over his death.
Perhaps the appropriation of Christian liturgy is just coincidental, and not evidence that the woke have become a cult. It's not like they're trafficking in classic cult behavior, like trying to separate devotees from their family, right? Wrong: Taking a cue from the Scientologists, The New York Times ran an op-ed encouraging readers to stop visiting, or speaking to family members until they pledge to "take significant action in supporting black lives either through protest or financial contributions." Very normal! Shaking down family members for money by threatening not to talk to them is classic cult behavior and is not how well-adjusted adults voice political opinions. The insidious engine of this religious impulse can be seen in the most egregious ripoff from Christianity so far.
In North Carolina, a pastor organized an event where white police officers knelt before her and washed her feet. She claimed God told her directly to do this. Only the most delusional would try to call this a protest. This is a pathetic perversion of Christian liturgy. To state the obvious: washing feet is a Christian tradition with Biblical origins. Washing feet was a chore reserved for the lowest servants. Jesus, God himself incarnate as man, washed the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper. The disciple Peter objects to this and doesn't want Jesus to lower himself. Jesus replies "if I don't wash you, you don't really belong to me."
The white people washing feet are only pretending to lower themselves. In reality, they're symbolically placing themselves in the role of God. For white people, woke anti-racism offers a way to worship themselves. "White privilege" is a purely subjective concept that allows unremarkable white people to recast their own ordinary lives in a flattering light. It's not enough to simply point this out and laugh at it. The religious nature of the woke has real policy implications.
The woke make policy decisions in reference to the values of their religion. Back in January, it was considered racist to be concerned about the coronavirus. CNN ran headlines about how racism was spreading faster than COVID, Al Jazeera ran an op-ed with a headline suggesting racism was the more dangerous epidemic, and New York City politicians encouraged people to join crowds in Chinatown. Now, after months of stringent social distancing, suddenly the "experts" are telling us that massive crowds gathering in every city around the globe won't impact the ongoing pandemic. A certain type of person pretends to be above all culture war topics, and always wants to get back to the "real issues." Yet it should be clear that in any long and protracted economic struggle with China, the woke cult has the ability to distort priorities and jettison all good sense. You may not be interested in the culture war, but the culture war is interested in you.
In 2014, and 2015, many conservative pundits made a name for themselves laughing at the "SJW" phenomenon on college campuses. Older conservatives loved to make jabs about "snowflakes" who they predicted wouldn't be able to tough it in the real world. This was a complete misreading of the situation. Woke Yale graduates do just fine in their careers, and these extremist students are now rising through institutions of power. Ivy League-educated lawyers are throwing molotov cocktails in New York. The scholastics grew out of an institutional arrangement where Christianity was the official religion of the university. Wokeness is the scholastic form of anti-racism. It is enshrined in our institutions because the Civil Rights movement coincided with the formation of our new upper class.
In the 20th Century, corporations and government grew to unforeseen scale. Experts, managers, bureaucrats, and new types of lawyers were required to run these organizations, and this changed the nature of the middle class, and how people achieved power. As Fred Siegel argued in his book "Revolt Against the Masses," this new class became conscious of itself as a distinct class through the Civil Rights movement. The South was a poor and backwards place, and the new class of experts could use their position to correct a grave injustice.
Civil Rights legislation then needed more lawyers, managers, and bureaucrats to enforce. The concrete forms of discrimination in the Jim Crow south slowly disappeared as racism was openly confronted, but we are left with a class structure that still defines itself around these issues. Those with power have a vested interest in finding ever new forms of racism because this allows them to create new instruments to fight racism. Universities and corporations create more and more administrative jobs that produce a brahmin class whose only purpose is to keep vigilant for bigotry. This is why the woke capital phenomenon cannot be dismissed as posturing. One implication of this is that striving political leaders who seek to enter the upper class must prove their anti-racism bonafides again, and again. Another, much darker, implication is that we may live in a theocracy.
Wokeness is a gnostic cult that asks its sectaries to adopt a platform of national self-loathing. These are not protests. They are religious celebrations. The cult needs to be consistently classified as a religion, and conservatives must resist the temptation to view it as merely a silly sideshow distraction. Its bizarro liturgy is increasingly enshrined in all of our institutions, and conservatives must act as if a cult has hijacked the nation.
It's a religion without reconciliation and redemption.PeteZilla Zweifler • a day agoIt's a force and a movement.Null PeteZilla • 18 hours agoFolks who are labeling as mere religion are downplaying religion and worse ignoring history of constant protest in the pathway of human history.
Not all movements are religious based. That's a gross simplification to the complexity of culture and life.
Warts and all.
Yeah, there's nothing 'mere' about religion. It organized two of premodern society's major cultural spheres (Christendom and dar al-Islam) and started countless wars. You could make a pretty good case for Communism as a religion.Connecticut Farmer Null • 16 hours agoAccording to Bertrand Russell Communism WAS a religion! Indeed, ideologies are, at bottom, indistinguishable from religions. The French Revolution was Exhibit One of that phenomenon.YT14 Ron_Goodman • 5 hours agoDefinitely element of supernatural involved in Communism and Nazism. Empirical evidence contradicts these beliefs.Connecticut Farmer PeteZilla • 16 hours ago"That's a gross simplification to the complexity of culture and life."YT14 PeteZilla • 5 hours agoSpeaking of which, is there anything more simplistic or banal than a slogan..."Black Lives Matter" for example?
Spanish Inquisition was a religionDr. Professional Jonathan • 16 hours ago
English Civil War was about religion
Abolitionism was a religion
Communism was a religion and National Socialism was a religion tooEvery religion has its sacred content, though not every religion involves God, reconciliation or redemption
The real question is, "What is wrong with false religion?"Jonathan Dr. Professional • 16 hours agoAh, but in America, we are not supposed to pay too much attention to the supposed truth or falsity of each other's religions.kenofken Dr. Professional • 14 hours agoYou can't fight something with nothing. The traditional religions seem to be spent forces. The wokeness seems to attract devout, or at least fervent believers.
The same thing that's wrong with Christianity and Islam: the need to validate the belief system by forcing it upon others.Gio Con • 12 hours agoI prefer to see it as mass hysteria.FL Transplant • 11 hours agoI'Ve seen much larger and more involved ceremonies worshipping capitalism, if that's how we're determining religions now.Daniel Baker • 8 hours agoAnd the worshipping capitalists had a complete theology, with their religion driving their ethics and behavior much more than almost all professed Christians I've met.
A religion with heresy trials and excommunications as well. And, at least In some states, well on its way to becoming the established state religion. In March and April, practitioners of the old religions from Christianity to Judaism to Islam discovered that their religions were non-essential and subject to lockdown. In May, they learned that the new religion is essential and not subject to lockdown.Time4Truth • 5 hours agoWhat a crock of (^()(**&Tom Riddle Time4Truth • 38 minutes agoWant to talk about cults? Let's talk about the New Apostolic Reformation cult and right wing evangelicals who are part of and/or closely associated with this fake Christian cult. Let's talk about 7 Mountains Mandate heresy and the right wing evangelicals who have bought into and even preach that heresy. I can't find anywhere in the Bible where it says these fake Christian and cult members have to take over the world to make it safe for Jesus to return. Until they do this, Jesus CANNOT return? Yes, Ted Cruz's father preaches the 7 Mountains heresy as do many other evangelicals.
How about the false teacher and fraud that Trump claims is his closest Christian advisor, Paula White. Why would he say such a thing when Paula White is nothing more a prosperity gospel fraud who said Jesus is not the only Begotten Son of God. Who has been investigated several times by the IRS. Who commanded 'All Satanic Pregnancies to Miscarry'
Maybe we should talk about some of those who are part of Trump's evangelical advisory council.
One of the leaders, Kevin Copeland, said "God is the biggest failure in the Bible" and his wife, Gloria, who has said her husband controls the weather and can make tornadoes and storms disappear.Or the man Trump asked to come to DC, lay hands on and pray for him. Sick weirdo Rodney Howard Brown who says he is Jesus' bartender.
I also seem to remember Franklin Graham and Robert Jeffress and a few right wing evangelicals promoting frauds Paula White, Kenneth Copeland and few other fake Christians.
If you are going to express concern about people and their "religion", how about talking about the evangelicals who are a threat to the Christian faith and that Romans 16:17-18, 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, 1 John 1:5-10, 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 1 Timothy 6:4-5 and others warn about.
Play HideThose are real cults. The author is talking about the fake cults that he made up using things he saw on twitter.Ruth Harris • 2 hours agoPeople ritualized lots of things. Humans are ritualistic creatures. Take sports, for instance. Some pretty goofy rituals there.
Jun 12, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Dear profs X, Y, Z
I am one of your colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley. I have met you both personally but do not know you closely, and am contacting you anonymously, with apologies. I am worried that writing this email publicly might lead to me losing my job, and likely all future jobs in my field.
In your recent departmental emails you mentioned our pledge to diversity, but I am increasingly alarmed by the absence of diversity of opinion on the topic of the recent protests and our community response to them.
In the extended links and resources you provided, I could not find a single instance of substantial counter-argument or alternative narrative to explain the under-representation of black individuals in academia or their over-representation in the criminal justice system. The explanation provided in your documentation, to the near exclusion of all others, is univariate: the problems of the black community are caused by whites, or, when whites are not physically present, by the infiltration of white supremacy and white systemic racism into American brains, souls, and institutions.
Many cogent objections to this thesis have been raised by sober voices, including from within the black community itself, such as Thomas Sowell and Wilfred Reilly. These people are not racists or 'Uncle Toms'. They are intelligent scholars who reject a narrative that strips black people of agency and systematically externalizes the problems of the black community onto outsiders . Their view is entirely absent from the departmental and UCB-wide communiques.
The claim that the difficulties that the black community faces are entirely causally explained by exogenous factors in the form of white systemic racism, white supremacy, and other forms of white discrimination remains a problematic hypothesis that should be vigorously challenged by historians . Instead, it is being treated as an axiomatic and actionable truth without serious consideration of its profound flaws, or its worrying implication of total black impotence. This hypothesis is transforming our institution and our culture, without any space for dissent outside of a tightly policed, narrow discourse.
A counternarrative exists. If you have time, please consider examining some of the documents I attach at the end of this email. Overwhelmingly, the reasoning provided by BLM and allies is either primarily anecdotal (as in the case with the bulk of Ta-Nehisi Coates' undeniably moving article) or it is transparently motivated. As an example of the latter problem, consider the proportion of black incarcerated Americans. This proportion is often used to characterize the criminal justice system as anti-black. However, if we use the precise same methodology, we would have to conclude that the criminal justice system is even more anti-male than it is anti-black .
Would we characterize criminal justice as a systemically misandrist conspiracy against innocent American men? I hope you see that this type of reasoning is flawed, and requires a significant suspension of our rational faculties. Black people are not incarcerated at higher rates than their involvement in violent crime would predict . This fact has been demonstrated multiple times across multiple jurisdictions in multiple countries.
And yet, I see my department uncritically reproducing a narrative that diminishes black agency in favor of a white-centric explanation that appeals to the department's apparent desire to shoulder the 'white man's burden' and to promote a narrative of white guilt .
If we claim that the criminal justice system is white-supremacist, why is it that Asian Americans, Indian Americans, and Nigerian Americans are incarcerated at vastly lower rates than white Americans? This is a funny sort of white supremacy. Even Jewish Americans are incarcerated less than gentile whites. I think it's fair to say that your average white supremacist disapproves of Jews. And yet, these alleged white supremacists incarcerate gentiles at vastly higher rates than Jews. None of this is addressed in your literature. None of this is explained, beyond hand-waving and ad hominems. "Those are racist dogwhistles". "The model minority myth is white supremacist". "Only fascists talk about black-on-black crime", ad nauseam.
These types of statements do not amount to counterarguments: they are simply arbitrary offensive classifications, intended to silence and oppress discourse . Any serious historian will recognize these for the silencing orthodoxy tactics they are , common to suppressive regimes, doctrines, and religions throughout time and space. They are intended to crush real diversity and permanently exile the culture of robust criticism from our department.
Increasingly, we are being called upon to comply and subscribe to BLM's problematic view of history , and the department is being presented as unified on the matter. In particular, ethnic minorities are being aggressively marshaled into a single position. Any apparent unity is surely a function of the fact that dissent could almost certainly lead to expulsion or cancellation for those of us in a precarious position , which is no small number.
I personally don't dare speak out against the BLM narrative , and with this barrage of alleged unity being mass-produced by the administration, tenured professoriat, the UC administration, corporate America, and the media, the punishment for dissent is a clear danger at a time of widespread economic vulnerability. I am certain that if my name were attached to this email, I would lose my job and all future jobs, even though I believe in and can justify every word I type.
The vast majority of violence visited on the black community is committed by black people . There are virtually no marches for these invisible victims, no public silences, no heartfelt letters from the UC regents, deans, and departmental heads. The message is clear: Black lives only matter when whites take them. Black violence is expected and insoluble, while white violence requires explanation and demands solution. Please look into your hearts and see how monstrously bigoted this formulation truly is.
No discussion is permitted for nonblack victims of black violence, who proportionally outnumber black victims of nonblack violence. This is especially bitter in the Bay Area, where Asian victimization by black assailants has reached epidemic proportions, to the point that the SF police chief has advised Asians to stop hanging good-luck charms on their doors, as this attracts the attention of (overwhelmingly black) home invaders . Home invaders like George Floyd . For this actual, lived, physically experienced reality of violence in the USA, there are no marches, no tearful emails from departmental heads, no support from McDonald's and Wal-Mart. For the History department, our silence is not a mere abrogation of our duty to shed light on the truth: it is a rejection of it.
The claim that black intraracial violence is the product of redlining, slavery, and other injustices is a largely historical claim. It is for historians, therefore, to explain why Japanese internment or the massacre of European Jewry hasn't led to equivalent rates of dysfunction and low SES performance among Japanese and Jewish Americans respectively.
Arab Americans have been viciously demonized since 9/11, as have Chinese Americans more recently. However, both groups outperform white Americans on nearly all SES indices - as do Nigerian Americans , who incidentally have black skin. It is for historians to point out and discuss these anomalies. However, no real discussion is possible in the current climate at our department . The explanation is provided to us, disagreement with it is racist, and the job of historians is to further explore additional ways in which the explanation is additionally correct. This is a mockery of the historical profession.
Most troublingly, our department appears to have been entirely captured by the interests of the Democratic National Convention, and the Democratic Party more broadly. To explain what I mean, consider what happens if you choose to donate to Black Lives Matter, an organization UCB History has explicitly promoted in its recent mailers. All donations to the official BLM website are immediately redirected to ActBlue Charities , an organization primarily concerned with bankrolling election campaigns for Democrat candidates. Donating to BLM today is to indirectly donate to Joe Biden's 2020 campaign. This is grotesque given the fact that the American cities with the worst rates of black-on-black violence and police-on-black violence are overwhelmingly Democrat-run. Minneapolis itself has been entirely in the hands of Democrats for over five decades ; the 'systemic racism' there was built by successive Democrat administrations.
The patronizing and condescending attitudes of Democrat leaders towards the black community, exemplified by nearly every Biden statement on the black race, all but guarantee a perpetual state of misery, resentment, poverty, and the attendant grievance politics which are simultaneously annihilating American political discourse and black lives. And yet, donating to BLM is bankrolling the election campaigns of men like Mayor Frey, who saw their cities devolve into violence . This is a grotesque capture of a good-faith movement for necessary police reform, and of our department, by a political party. Even worse, there are virtually no avenues for dissent in academic circles . I refuse to serve the Party, and so should you.
The total alliance of major corporations involved in human exploitation with BLM should be a warning flag to us, and yet this damning evidence goes unnoticed, purposefully ignored, or perversely celebrated. We are the useful idiots of the wealthiest classes , carrying water for Jeff Bezos and other actual, real, modern-day slavers. Starbucks, an organisation using literal black slaves in its coffee plantation suppliers, is in favor of BLM. Sony, an organisation using cobalt mined by yet more literal black slaves, many of whom are children, is in favor of BLM. And so, apparently, are we. The absence of counter-narrative enables this obscenity. Fiat lux, indeed.
There also exists a large constituency of what can only be called 'race hustlers': hucksters of all colors who benefit from stoking the fires of racial conflict to secure administrative jobs, charity management positions, academic jobs and advancement, or personal political entrepreneurship.
Given the direction our history department appears to be taking far from any commitment to truth , we can regard ourselves as a formative training institution for this brand of snake-oil salespeople. Their activities are corrosive, demolishing any hope at harmonious racial coexistence in our nation and colonizing our political and institutional life. Many of their voices are unironically segregationist.
MLK would likely be called an Uncle Tom if he spoke on our campus today . We are training leaders who intend, explicitly, to destroy one of the only truly successful ethnically diverse societies in modern history. As the PRC, an ethnonationalist and aggressively racially chauvinist national polity with null immigration and no concept of jus solis increasingly presents itself as the global political alternative to the US, I ask you: Is this wise? Are we really doing the right thing?
As a final point, our university and department has made multiple statements celebrating and eulogizing George Floyd. Floyd was a multiple felon who once held a pregnant black woman at gunpoint. He broke into her home with a gang of men and pointed a gun at her pregnant stomach. He terrorized the women in his community. He sired and abandoned multiple children , playing no part in their support or upbringing, failing one of the most basic tests of decency for a human being. He was a drug-addict and sometime drug-dealer, a swindler who preyed upon his honest and hard-working neighbors .
And yet, the regents of UC and the historians of the UCB History department are celebrating this violent criminal, elevating his name to virtual sainthood . A man who hurt women. A man who hurt black women. With the full collaboration of the UCB history department, corporate America, most mainstream media outlets, and some of the wealthiest and most privileged opinion-shaping elites of the USA, he has become a culture hero, buried in a golden casket, his (recognized) family showered with gifts and praise . Americans are being socially pressured into kneeling for this violent, abusive misogynist . A generation of black men are being coerced into identifying with George Floyd, the absolute worst specimen of our race and species.
I'm ashamed of my department. I would say that I'm ashamed of both of you, but perhaps you agree with me, and are simply afraid, as I am, of the backlash of speaking the truth. It's hard to know what kneeling means, when you have to kneel to keep your job.
It shouldn't affect the strength of my argument above, but for the record, I write as a person of color . My family have been personally victimized by men like Floyd. We are aware of the condescending depredations of the Democrat party against our race. The humiliating assumption that we are too stupid to do STEM , that we need special help and lower requirements to get ahead in life, is richly familiar to us. I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't be easier to deal with open fascists, who at least would be straightforward in calling me a subhuman, and who are unlikely to share my race.
The ever-present soft bigotry of low expectations and the permanent claim that the solutions to the plight of my people rest exclusively on the goodwill of whites rather than on our own hard work is psychologically devastating . No other group in America is systematically demoralized in this way by its alleged allies. A whole generation of black children are being taught that only by begging and weeping and screaming will they get handouts from guilt-ridden whites.
No message will more surely devastate their futures, especially if whites run out of guilt, or indeed if America runs out of whites. If this had been done to Japanese Americans, or Jewish Americans, or Chinese Americans, then Chinatown and Japantown would surely be no different to the roughest parts of Baltimore and East St. Louis today. The History department of UCB is now an integral institutional promulgator of a destructive and denigrating fallacy about the black race.
I hope you appreciate the frustration behind this message. I do not support BLM. I do not support the Democrat grievance agenda and the Party's uncontested capture of our department. I do not support the Party co-opting my race, as Biden recently did in his disturbing interview, claiming that voting Democrat and being black are isomorphic. I condemn the manner of George Floyd's death and join you in calling for greater police accountability and police reform. However, I will not pretend that George Floyd was anything other than a violent misogynist, a brutal man who met a predictably brutal end .
I also want to protect the practice of history. Cleo is no grovelling handmaiden to politicians and corporations. Like us, she is free. play_arrow
LEEPERMAX , 12 seconds ago
seryanhoj , 36 seconds agoDonations to Black Lives Matter are funneled through a Democratic fundraising group ...
simpson seers , 36 minutes agoThis guy is not playing by the rules of US political discourse. His sins are:
1). Using real facts
2). Making logical deductions from the facts
3) Making assertions not in line with the script from his party, social group or race.
There is no future for such a man. We are in a time which prefers hysteria , lies and epic partisanship
Aubiekong , 36 minutes agowhite muricans aren't racist, they kill equally....
https://www.fort-russ.com/2020/01/u-s-regime-has-killed-20-30-million-people-since-world-war-ii/
https://www.fort-russ.com/2020/02/former-american-drone-operator-us-military-worse-than-nazis/
taketheredpill , 37 minutes agoBlacks will always be poor and fucked in life when 75% of black infants are born to single most likely welfare dependent mothers... And the more amount of welfare monies spent to combat poverty the worse this problem will grow...
LEEPERMAX , 44 minutes agoAnonymous....
1) Is he really a Professor at Berkeley?
2) Is he really a Professor anywhere?
3) Is he really Black?
4) Is he really a He?
CRM114 , 44 minutes agoBLM is an international organization. They solicit tax free charitable donations via ActBlue. ActBlue then funnels billions of dollars to DNC campaigns. This is a violation of campaign finance law and allows foreign influence in American elections.
taketheredpill , 46 minutes agoI've pointed this out before:
In 2015, after the Freddie Gray death Officers were hung out to dry by the Mayor of Baltimore (yes, her, the Chair of the DNC in 2016), active policing in Baltimore basically stopped. They just count the bodies now. The clearance rate for homicides has dropped to, well, we don't know because the Police refuse to say, but it appears to be under 15%. The homicide rate jumped 50% almost immediately and has stayed there. 95% of homicides are black on black.
The Baltimore Sun keeps excellent records, so you can check this all for yourself.
Looking at killings by cops; if we take the worst case and exclude all the ones where the victim was armed and independent witnesses state fired first, and assume all the others were cop murders, then there's about 1 cop murder every 3 years, which means that since has now stopped and the homicide rate's gone up...
For every black man now not murdered by a cop, 400 more black men are murdered by other black men.
radical-extremist , 47 minutes ago"As an example of the latter problem, consider the proportion of black incarcerated Americans. This proportion is often used to characterize the criminal justice system as anti-black. However, if we use the precise same methodology, we would have to conclude that the criminal justice system is even more anti-male than it is anti-black ."
It is the RATIO of UNARMED BLACK MALES KILLED to UNARMED WHITE MALES KILLED in RELATION TO % OF POPULATION. RATIO.
RATIO. UNARMED.
BLACK % POPULATION 13% BLACK % UNARMED MEN KILLED 37%
WHITE % POPULATION 74% BLACK % UNARMED MEN KILLED 45%
Is there a trend of MORE Black people being killed by police?
No. But there is an underlying difference in the numbers that is bad.
>>>>> As of 2018, Unarmed Blacks made up 36% of all people UNARMED killed by police. But black people make up 13% of the (unarmed) population.
UNARMED KILLINGS BY POLICE
UNARMED KILLINGS BY POLICE
YEAR Black Hispanic White
2015 36 19 31
2016 18 9 20
2017 19 12 24
2018(Apr) 7 1 10
2019 15 11 25
YEAR Black Hispanic White
2015 42% 22% 36%
2016 38% 19% 43%
2017 35% 22% 44%
2018(Apr) 39% 6% 56%
2019 29% 22% 49%
AVG 37% 18% 45%
% POPN 13% 16% 72%
ARMED > 18 YRS OLD TOY WEAPON
Black Hispanic White
2019 5 3 11
26% 16% 58%
Gaius Konstantine , 57 minutes agoThere's a massive Silent Majority of Americans , including black Americans, that are fed up with this absurd nonsense.
While there's a Vocal Minority of Americans : including Democrats, the media, corporations and race hustlers, that wish to continue to promulgate a FALSE NARRATIVE into perpetuity...because it's a lucrative industry.
lwilland1012 , 1 hour agoA short while ago I had an ex friend get into it with me about how Europeans (whites), were the most destructive race on the planet, responsible for all the world's evil. I pointed out to him that Genghis Khan, an Asian, slaughtered millions at a time when technology made this a remarkable feat. I reminded him the Japanese gleefully killed millions in China and that the American Indian Empires ran 24/7 human sacrifices with some also practicing cannibalism. His poor libtard brain couldn't handle the fact that evil is a human trait, not restricted to a particular race and we parted (good riddance)
But along with evil, there is accomplishment. Europeans created Empires and pursued science, The Asians also participated in these pursuits and even the Aztec and Inca built marvelous cities and massive states spanning vast stretches of territory. The only race that accomplished little save entering the stone age is the Africans. Are we supposed to give them a participation trophy to make them feel better? Is this feeling of inferiority what is truly behind their constant rage?
Police in the US have been militarized for a long time now and kill many more unarmed whites than they do blacks, where is the outrage? I'm getting the feeling that this isn't really about George, just an excuse to do what savages do.
Ignatius , 1 hour ago"Truth is treason in an empire of lies."
George Orwell
You know that the reason he is anonymous is that Berkley would strip him of his teaching credentials and there would be multiple attempts on his life...
Templar X , 1 hour ago" The vast majority of violence visited on the black community is committed by black people . There are virtually no marches for these invisible victims, no public silences, no heartfelt letters from the UC regents, deans, and departmental heads. The message is clear: Black lives only matter when whites take them. Black violence is expected and insoluble, while white violence requires explanation and demands solution. Please look into your hearts and see how monstrously bigoted this formulation truly is."
PhD thesis, right there. ..
NanoRap , 17 minutes agoEx-fed who trained Buffalo cops says shoved activist 'got away lightly'
June 12, 2020 | 12:31pm
A former fed who trained the police in Buffalo believes the elderly protester who was hospitalized after a cop pushed him to the ground "got away lightly" and "took a dive," according to a report.
The retired FBI agent, Gary DiLaura, told The Sun he thinks there's no chance Buffalo officers will be convicted of assault over the now-viral video showing the longtime peace activist Martin Gugino fall and left bleeding on the ground.
" I can't believe that they didn't deck him. If that would have been a 40-year-old guy going up there, I guarantee you they'd have been all over him, " DiLaura said.
" He absolutely got away lightly. He got a light push and in my humble opinion, he took a dive and the dive backfired because he hit his head. Maybe it'll knock a little bit of sense into him, " added the former fed, who trained Buffalo police on firearms and defensive tactics, according to the report...
https://nypost.com/2020/06/12/ex-fed-who-trained-buffalo-cops-elderly-activist-got-away-lightly/
American Psycho , 16 minutes agoIt's a great brainwashing process, which goes very slow[ly] and is divided [into] four basic stages. The first one [is] demoralization ; it takes from 15-20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years which [is required] to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy, exposed to the ideology of the enemy. In other words, Marxist-Leninist ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students, without being challenged, or counter-balanced by the basic values of Americanism (American patriotism).
The result? The result you can see. Most of the people who graduated in the sixties (drop-outs or half-baked intellectuals) are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, [and the] educational system. You are stuck with them. You cannot get rid of them. T hey are contaminated; they are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern. You cannot change their mind[s], even if you expose them to authentic information, even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still cannot change the basic perception and the logic of behavior. In other words, these people... the process of demoralization is complete and irreversible. To [rid] society of these people, you need another twenty or fifteen years to educate a new generation of patriotically-minded and common sense people, who would be acting in favor and in the interests of United States society.
Yuri Bezmenov
This article was one of the most articulate and succinct rebuttals to the BLM political power grab. I too have been calling these "allies" useful idiots and I am happy to hear this professor doing the same. Bravo professor!
Jun 14, 2020 | www.unz.com
AriusArmenian , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 13, 2020 at 6:54 pm GMT
@Ashino Wolf Sushanti As far as I know BLM is also dead silent on the black slave markets care of Obama and the EU in Libya.There are also stories that money contributed to BLM will end up going to the DNC.
This is looking like another 1960's type insurrection that will end up the same way: it will be used by the rich and powerful elites (notice how the corporate controlled media has gone on one knee for BLM and has gone outright anti-white?), there will be a back lash that will crush it (right after the election), and its leaders will be either absorbed into the establishment or offed.
America looks like a hybrid of Stephen King, Brave New World, and 1984, and the rich and powerful US elites and intel agencies stroke it and love it. Notice that the US super rich have been raking it in since January 2020? While at the same time Trump is busy making the US a vassal state of Israel and accelerating the roll-out of Cold War v2 which is just fine with US elites that will not change with the election of moron Biden (if the people elect Biden they are electing his VP as Biden will not last long; he is a lot like Yeltsin that was pumped up on mental stimulants and nutriments to perform for short periods until the next treatment). What a country, what a ship of fools.
Jun 13, 2020 | www.serendipity.li
Today's false flag operations are generally carried out by intelligence agencies and non-government actors including terrorist groups, but [unlike in the past] they are only considered successful if the true attribution of an action remains secret. There is nothing honorable about them as their intention is to blame an innocent party for something that it did not do.
Jun 13, 2020 | www.youtube.com
Nolan Nolan 1 day agoHe's not a Martyr, He is a Catalyst. Know the difference. A Martyr goes out and gives his life for a cause, did that man go out for some cause?Michael Smith 1 day agoGeorge Floyd is no hero. He was a troubled man with many problems. The issue should only be about his death. Regardless if you liked or disliked him, no police has the legal authority to play judge, jury and executioner. According to witnesses, there was little if any resistance on George's part. No self defense on the police's part was necessary. The only issue is that George was denied "due process". THAT, is the problem. You cannot kill bad people that are not resisting arrest without due process. The clause in the Fifth Amendment reads: No person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. While the clause in the Fourteenth Amendment says: ...nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.As a young conservative I have noticed that our generation is being taught to be victims. Instead of combating the issues, we complain and look for people to manipulate, and being driven by emotions rather than to take time and think. Not all but it's just my povJonathan Weiss 1 day agoI love Candace Owens because she does not use her race as a means for lack of responsibility and works for a dream....black Americans or all Americans are played by the media and our obsession with actors, actresses and multimillionaires....wake up...I listened to Sirius XM and the DJ said "I couldn't wait to hear from jay z because he is one of the most intelligent men on earth." Really!!!!
Tomer Wiser 14 hours ago (edited)
The truth is being exposed much more brightly after many lies and brainwashing. If this brave woman would have spoken early at beginning of riots, she would have been disregarded. But now the lies are being blown up when people understand they were fed up with lies and half-truths and only partial picture by general media. We wish you Americans to make peace within you and heal the wounds. Cheers from IsraelYour insight towards this BLM chaos actually has convinced people there are still some "upstanding" black Americans out there. Thank you and stay safe!!This is getting out of hand. An American criminal was killed due to police brutality, has now led to a statue of winston Churchill being vandalised in London. These protesters arre brainlessHe should have been arrested and not killed BUT, he was a crook the the media failed to tell but they have to hide the truth so they can keep it going....They are criminals too.Rajeswari Kannan 3 hours ago (edited)
She nailed it. Theft, drugs, counterfeit currency, woman assault, threaten people at gun point. He would have died of drugs anyway, though he did not deserve the dastardly act. He is NOT.a HERO. The cops involved were also not heros. Both deserve to be condemned. But the movement is to change the police brutality, it was murder captured on video. It was the first time my daughter watched a murder on video repeated again and again as it was normal!. No it should NEVER be a normal.
[Jun 13, 2020] Some neoliberal Dems donors consider funding BLM as the way to defeat Trump
Jun 13, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Major donors consider funding Black Lives Matter
Activists for the protest movement are meeting in secret with liberal funder club.
By KENNETH P. VOGEL and SARAH WHEATON
11/13/2015 05:11 AM EST
Neal Blair wears a hoodie that reads "Black Lives Matter" as he stands on the lawn of the Capitol during a rally to mark the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March on Oct. 10, 2015, in Washington.
Some of the biggest donors on the left plan to meet behind closed doors next week in Washington with leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement and their allies to discuss funding the burgeoning protest movement, POLITICO has learned.
The meetings are taking place at the annual winter gathering of the Democracy Alliance major liberal donor club, which runs from Tuesday evening through Saturday morning and is expected to draw Democratic financial heavyweights, including Tom Steyer and Paul Egerman.
The DA, as the club is known in Democratic circles, is recommending its donors step up check writing to a handful of endorsed groups that have supported the Black Lives Matter movement. And the club and some of its members also are considering ways to funnel support directly to scrappier local groups that have utilized confrontational tactics to inject their grievances into the political debate.
It's a potential partnership that could elevate the Black Lives Matter movement and heighten its impact. But it's also fraught with tension on both sides, sources tell POLITICO.
The various outfits that comprise the diffuse Black Lives Matter movement prize their independence. Some make a point of not asking for donations. They bristle at any suggestion that they're susceptible to being co-opted by a deep-pocketed national group ― let alone one with such close ties to the Democratic Party establishment like the Democracy Alliance.
And some major liberal donors are leery about funding a movement known for aggressive tactics ― particularly one that has shown a willingness to train its fire on Democrats, including presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders .
"Major donors are usually not as radical or confrontational as activists most in touch with the pain of oppression," said Steve Phillips, a Democracy Alliance member and significant contributor to Democratic candidates and causes. He donated to a St. Louis nonprofit group called the Organization for Black Struggle that helped organize 2014 Black Lives Matter-related protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the police killing of a black teenager named Michael Brown. And Phillips and his wife, Democracy Alliance board member Susan Sandler, are in discussions about funding other groups involved in the movement.
The movement needs cash to build a self-sustaining infrastructure, Phillips said, arguing "the progressive donor world should be adding zeroes to their contributions that support this transformative movement." But he also acknowledged there's a risk for recipient groups. "Tactics such as shutting down freeways and disrupting rallies can alienate major donors, and if that's your primary source of support, then you're at risk of being blocked from doing what you need to do."
The Democracy Alliance was created in 2005 by a handful of major donors, including billionaire financier George Soros and Taco Bell heir Rob McKay to build a permanent infrastructure to advance liberal ideas and causes. Donors are required to donate at least $200,000 a year to recommended groups, and their combined donations to those groups now total more than $500 million. Endorsed beneficiaries include the Center for American Progress think tank, the liberal attack dog Media Matters and the Democratic data firm Catalist, though members also give heavily to Democratic politicians and super PACs that are not part of the DA's core portfolio. While the Democracy Alliance last year voted to endorse a handful of groups focused on engaging African-Americans in politics ― some of which have helped facilitate the Black Lives movement ― the invitation to movement leaders is a first for the DA, and seems likely to test some members' comfort zones.
By BRYAN BENDER
"Movements that are challenging the status quo and that do so to some extent by using direct action or disruptive tactics are meant to make people uncomfortable, so I'm sure we have partners who would be made uncomfortable by it or think that that's not a good tactic," said DA President Gara LaMarche. "But we have a wide range of human beings and different temperaments and approaches in the DA, so it's quite possible that there are people who are a little concerned, as well as people who are curious or are supportive. This is a chance for them to meet some of the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement, and understand the movement better, and then we'll take stock of that and see where it might lead."
According to a Democracy Alliance draft agenda obtained by POLITICO, movement leaders will be featured guests at a Tuesday dinner with major donors. The dinner, which technically precedes the official conference kickoff, will focus on "what kind of support and resources are needed from the allied funders during this critical moment of immediate struggle and long-term movement building."
The groups that will be represented include the Black Youth Project 100, The Center for Popular Democracy and the Black Civic Engagement Fund, according to the organizer, a DA member named Leah Hunt-Hendrix. An heir to a Texas oil fortune, Hunt-Hendrix helps lead a coalition of mostly young donors called Solidaire that focuses on movement building. It's donated more than $200,000 to the Black Lives Matter movement since Brown's killing. According to its entry on a philanthropy website , more than $61,000 went directly to organizers and organizations on the ground in Ferguson and Baltimore, where the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in April sparked a more recent wave of Black Lives-related protests. An additional $115,000 went to groups that have sprung up to support the movement.
She said her goal at the Democracy Alliance is to persuade donors to "use some of the money that's going into the presidential races for grass-roots organizing and movement building." And she brushed aside concerns that the movement could hurt Democratic chances in 2016. "Black Lives Matter has been pushing Bernie, and Bernie has been pushing Hillary. Politics is a field where you almost have to push your allies hardest and hold them accountable," she said. "That's exactly the point of democracy," she said.
That view dovetails with the one that LaMarche has tried to instill in the Democracy Alliance, which had faced internal criticism in 2012 for growing too close to the Democratic Party.
In fact, one group set to participate in Hunt-Hendrix's dinner ― Black Civic Engagement Fund ― is a Democracy Alliance offshoot. And, according to the DA agenda, two other groups recommended for club funding ― ColorOfChange.org and the Advancement Project ― are set to participate in a Friday panel "on how to connect the Movement for Black Lives with current and needed infrastructure for Black organizing and political power."
ColorOfChange.org has helped Black Lives Matter protesters organize online, said its Executive Director Rashad Robinson. He dismissed concerns that the movement is compromised in any way by accepting support from major institutional funders. "Throughout our history in this country, there have been allies who have been willing to stand up and support uprisings, and lend their resources to ensure that people have a greater voice in their democracy," Robinson said.
Nick Rathod, the leader of a DA-endorsed group called the State Innovation Exchange that pushes liberal policies in the states , said his group is looking for opportunities to help the movement, as well. "We can play an important role in facilitating dialogue between elected officials and movement leaders in cities and states," he said. But Rathod cautioned that it would be a mistake for major liberal donors to only give through established national groups to support the movement. "I think for many of the donors, it might feel safer to invest in groups like ours and others to support the work, but frankly, many of those groups are not led by African-Americans and are removed from what's happening on the ground. The heart and soul of the movement is at the grass roots, it's where the organizing has occurred, it's where decisions should be made and it's where investments should be placed to grow the movement from the bottom up, rather than the top down."
[Jun 13, 2020] Candace Owens called the movement to lionize Floyd "bulls**t" and added, "We shouldn't be buying T-shirts with his name on it."
Jun 04, 2020 | www.rt.com
Candace Owens is being called a racist by supporters of the protests over George Floyd's death for simply highlighting his criminal past and arguing against him becoming a "martyr" to black Americans. "I do not support George Floyd and a media depiction of him as a martyr for black America," Owens said in a video that has now gone viral.Owens acknowledges Floyd should not have died in police custody -- the four officers involved in the incident are now being charged -- and she hopes his family "gets justice."
She added the response to Floyd's death shows a "broken black culture" in America, one that celebrates criminals.
Also on rt.com 'Who are you?' UNMARKED riot police patrolling Washington DC streets but WON'T IDENTIFY themselves"We are unique in that we are the only people that fight and scream and demand support and justice from the people in our community that are up to no good," she said. "You would be hard-pressed to find a Jewish person that's been five stints in prison that commits a crime and dies while committing a crime and the Jewish people champion and demand justice for."
Owens called the movement to lionize Floyd "bulls**t" and added, "We shouldn't be buying T-shirts with his name on it."
Confession: #GeorgeFloyd is neither a martyr or a hero. But I hope his family gets justice. https://t.co/Lnxz0usrp5
-- Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 3, 2020Floyd's criminal history includes five years behind bars for robbery and assault.
Owens, who is black, has been called everything from "racist" to a "white supremacist" in tweets that have gotten thousands of reactions.
Candace Owens ONLY job for the MAGA crowd is to make them feel good about being racist #CandaceOwens
-- ABlackWomanWhoDontGiveAF*ck (@battletested5) June 4, 2020Good morning. Candace Owens is a Black, white Supremacist who profits off of being the black face of white racism. Black people can always make a quick buck being willing to say all the racist stuff white racists want to but can't. #CandaceOwens pic.twitter.com/vtqNZRgVFO
-- Benjamin Dixon 🏴🚩🇺🇸 (@BenjaminPDixon) June 4, 2020I just told y'all only a couple of days ago about ignoring #CandaceOwens ...stop sending me her tweets! This person with zero cognitive capacity or cultural compass is blocked and out of my life https://t.co/22MDQal8tR
-- 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐨𝐩𝐞 (@exavierpope) June 4, 2020Owens is not the first person to be criticized for blasting parts of the movement protesting Floyd's death. Others have been attacked and even fired for criticizing looters involved in protests across the nation.
The outspoken Trump supporter has responded by blasting her critics as intolerant.
The best way to practice tolerance, is through intolerance.
-- Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 4, 2020Following the viral video of Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis officers, protests kicked off across the country demanding police reform and charges against those involved in the incident. All four officers have been charged while some protests have devolved into looting , violence , and even murder .
[Jun 12, 2020] The Racial Subtext of American Electoral Politics
Jun 12, 2020 | www.unz.com
Originally from: Race and Crime in America, by Ron Unz - The Unz Review
Racial issues have traditionally been among the most highly charged in American public life, and the nexus of crime and race has been exceptionally contentious for many decades. Under these circumstances respectable scholars tend to be cautious in discussing or merely investigating this topic, and the mainstream media is usually even more gun-shy. The striking racial findings presented above require only trivial statistical calculations and may be glimpsed in any casual inspection of the crime rankings of our major cities. But I remain uncertain to what extent they are already recognized by our experts in social policy.
For example, when I presented my correlation results to one very prominent conservative social scientist, he found them shocking and remarkable, and said he had never imagined that the statistical relationship between race and crime was so extremely strong. But when I showed the same data to an equally prominent liberal academic, he took the information in stride and said he assumed that almost all experts were already quietly aware of the general facts. The reactions of other knowledgeable individuals fell all along this spectrum ranging from surprise to familiarity. Knowledge so explosive that it is usually unspoken and unreported may easily remain unknown even to many of our foremost intellectuals.
But whether or not most of our ruling elites explicitly recognize the stark racial character of American crime, the reality still exists, and we should consider exploring whether these unpublicized facts may have had broader influences in our society, possibly in seemingly unrelated areas. After all, urban crime has frequently been a leading issue in American public life, during some periods ranking as one of the most important. Certain matters may not be easily discussed in polite company these days, but if even just a portion of the citizenry is intuitively aware of the situation, their attitudes might have broader ripple effects throughout the entire population. Is there any substantial evidence for this?
ORDER IT NOWConsider the electoral behavior of American whites, and especially their inclination to support either Democratic or Republican candidates. Because of gerrymandering, most individual congressional districts are overwhelmingly aligned with one party or another, and general elections are a mere formality; this is often also true of statewide races for senator or governor. However, in presidential elections both parties almost always field viable national candidates with a reasonable chance of winning, so these provide the best means of gauging white political alignment. And for these campaigns, the racial lines are clearly established, with the modern Republicans being the "white party," drawing over 90% of their support from that demographic group, while over 90% of blacks regularly vote the Democratic ticket, which also usually attracts the overwhelming majority of other non-white voters.
As I pointed out in a 2011 article , there has been a striking statewide pattern to white voting behavior over the last couple of decades. Many conservative activists and media pundits have spent years attacking immigrants, illegal or otherwise, and have regularly denounced the cultural threat posed by the growing population of non-English-speakers or non-white foreigners. Nevertheless, the empirical fact is that presence or absence of large numbers of Hispanics or Asians in a given state seems to have virtually no impact upon white voting patterns. Meanwhile, there exists a strong relationship between the size of a state's black population and the likelihood that local whites will favor the Republicans. The weighted-average correlations between the racial compositions of the fifty states and the degree to which their white voters favor Republican presidential candidates is summarized in the following chart.
GOP leaders are always fearful of being denounced as "racist" by the major media, and often seek to camouflage the underlying source of their electoral support by adopting the most extreme forms of tokenism, promoting black party leaders and spokesmen while heavily recruiting black candidates and focusing almost entirely upon non-racial issues. Conservative activists often rhetorically identify themselves as heirs to the "party of Lincoln" and may even accuse their Democratic opponents of seeking to keep blacks in Welfare State bondage. But the actual data tells a very different story about the likely sources of Republican support.
The strength of this pattern may be seen at its extremes. Mississippi is the state with the highest black percentage and across all six elections its white population was the most likely to vote Republican, with the figures recently running at nearly the 90% level. Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina are generally clustered together as the next blackest in population, and in most elections their white populations were the next most likely to support the Republican ticket, although being sometimes exceeded by the whites of Alabama, the fifth or sixth blackest state during those decades.
By contrast, consider the three states with the largest non-white percentages: Hawaii, California, and New Mexico. The whites of the first two have actually been far less likely to vote Republican than whites nationwide, while those in New Mexico fall close to the national average. This tends to confirm the national statistical results that the widespread presence of non-whites, even in overwhelming numbers, seems to have little impact upon white voting behavior.
While I would not argue that black crime is the sole determining factor behind the racial polarization in white voting behavior, I do suspect it is one of the largest contributors. Empirically, the presence of blacks causes whites to vote the "law-and-order" Republican ticket, while the presence of Hispanics or Asians seems to have negligible political impact.
Nevertheless, we should remain cautious in interpreting these results. For example, although these national correlations are certainly substantial, they are almost entirely due to the weighting of the Southern states, in which blacks are almost 20% of the total population and racial tensions have traditionally been the strongest. In non-Southern states, the correlations are nil, perhaps partly because blacks are found in far smaller numbers, being less than 9% of the total.
The Hidden Motive for Heavy Immigration?Consider also the highly contentious issue of immigration. Obviously, much of the underlying conflict is purely economic in character, with workers aware that restricting the supply of available labor will protect their bargaining power over wages, while businesses seek to maximize their profits by expanding the pool of potential employees, whether low-skilled or high-tech.
But all involved participants quickly discover that despite endless protestations to the contrary there is also a clear racial subtext, usually accounting for the emotionality of the debate. For the last half-century, the overwhelming majority of immigrants, especially illegal ones, have been non-white, and the resulting racial fears have been a central motivating force driving many of the most zealous restrictionists, who fear being swamped by a tidal wave of "the Other." However, I believe that racial considerations, whether fully conscious or not, might also be found on the other side of the issue, helping to explain why our national leadership today so uniformly endorses very heavy foreign immigration.
America's ruling financial, media, and political elites are largely concentrated in three major urban centers -- New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. -- and all three have contained large black populations, including a violent underclass. During the early 1990s, many observers feared New York City was headed for urban collapse due to its enormously high crime rates, Los Angeles experienced the massive and deadly Rodney King Riots, and Washington often vied for the title of American homicide capital. In each city, the violence and crime were overwhelmingly committed by black males, and although white elites were rarely the victims, their fears were quite palpable.
One obvious reaction to these concerns was strong political support for a massive national crackdown on crime, and the prison incarceration of black men increased by almost 500% during the two decades after 1980. But even after such enormous rates of imprisonment, official FBI statistics indicate that blacks today are still over 600% as likely to commit homicide than non-blacks and their robbery rate is over 700% larger; these disparities seem just as high with respect to Hispanic or Asian immigrants as they are for whites. Thus, replacing a city's blacks with immigrants would tend to lower local crime rates by as much as 90%, and during the 1990s American elites may have become increasingly aware of this important fact, together with the obvious implications for their quality of urban life and housing values.
According to Census data, between 1990 and 2010 the number of Hispanics and Asians increased by one-third in Los Angeles, by nearly 50% in New York City, and by over 70% in Washington, D.C. The inevitable result was to squeeze out much of the local black population, which declined, often substantially, in each location. And all three cities experienced enormous drops in local crime, with homicide rates falling by 73%, 79%, and 72% respectively, perhaps partly as a result of these underlying demographic changes. Meanwhile, the white population increasingly shifted toward the affluent, who were best able to afford the sharp rise in housing prices. It is an undeniable fact that American elites, conservative and liberal alike, are today almost universally in favor of very high levels of immigration, and their possible recognition of the direct demographic impact upon their own urban circumstances may be an important but unspoken factor in shaping their views.
As an anecdotal example, consider the case of Matthew Yglesias, a prominent young liberal blogger living in Washington, DC. A couple of years ago he recounted on his blogsite how he was suddenly attacked from behind and seriously beaten by two young men while walking home one evening from a dinner party. At first he was quite cagey about identifying his attackers, but he eventually admitted they were blacks, possibly engaged in the growing racial practice of urban "polar bear hunting" so widely publicized by the Drudge Report and other rightwing websites.
Few matters are more likely to trouble the minds of our Harvard-educated intellectual elite than fear of suffering random violent assaults while they walk the streets of their own city. Yet no respectable progressive would possibly focus on the racial character of such an attack, let alone advocate the removal of local blacks as a precautionary measure. Instead Yglesias suggested that housing-density issues might have been responsible and that better urban planning would reduce crime.
But consider that support for very high levels of foreign immigration is an impeccably liberal cause, and such policies inevitably displace and remove huge numbers of urban blacks; it is easy to imagine that Yglesias quietly redoubled his pro-immigration zeal in the wake of the incident. Multiply this personal example a thousand-fold, and perhaps an important strand of the tremendous pro-immigration ideological framework of American elites becomes apparent. The more conspiratorially-minded racialists, bitterly hostile to immigration, sometimes speculate that there is a diabolical plot by our ruling power structure to "race-replace" America's traditional white population. Perhaps a hidden motive along these lines does indeed help explain some support for heavy immigration, but I suspect that the race being targeted for replacement is not the white one.
Such factors may also play a role outside the major urban centers discussed above and even where least suspected. Among all American businessmen, Silicon Valley executives are probably strongest in their pro-immigration advocacy, as indicated by the major political advertising campaign recently launched by top technology CEOs, organized together as "FWD.us." Obviously, their own cosmopolitan background and desire for an unlimited supply of inexpensive, high-quality engineers is their primary motive. However, widespread sentiments in favor of lesser-educated immigrant groups such as undocumented Latin Americans also seem quite strong, and we find Steve Jobs' wealthy widow Laurene Powell Jobs focusing her efforts almost exclusively on that particular aspect of the legislation, with her sentiments hardly being discordant with those of her wealthy peer group. Could hidden racial factors be part of the explanation? That might seem quite unlikely since Silicon Valley's black population has been very low for decades, running in the 3 or 4 percent range.
However, a closer examination reveals a very different situation. The small city of Palo Alto is one of the most desirable local residential areas, home to the late Steve Jobs, as well as the current CEOs of Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and a host of other companies; by some estimates, it may contain the world's highest per capita concentration of billionaires. On three sides, Palo Alto abuts communities of a similar character: Mountain View, containing Google; the Stanford University campus; and Menlo Park, the center of America's venture capital industry. But on the fourth side, mostly separated by Highway 101, lies East Palo Alto, which for decades was a dangerous ghetto, overwhelmingly black.
I moved back to Palo Alto from New York City in 1992, and that year East Palo Alto recorded America's highest per capita murder rate; although relatively few of the homicides, robberies, and rapes spilled across the border, enough did to leave many people uneasy. Gated communities and even street fences are quite uncommon in the region, and for years anyone who wished could go to the home of Steve Jobs and walk around his yard or even peer into his windows. Meanwhile, the sort of harsh racial profiling widely practiced in some large cities was completely abhorrent to the socially liberal citizenry. One may easily imagine a scenario in which escalating street crime from the ghetto next door might have produced a collapse in high housing prices and sparked a massive flight of the wealthy.
One reason this did not occur was the vast influx of impoverished immigrants from south of the border that swept into the less affluent communities of the region during those same years and rapidly transformed the local demographics. Between 1980 and 2010 the combined Hispanic population of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties nearly tripled. A city offering cheap housing such as East Palo Alto saw far greater relative increases, reversing its demographics during that period from 60% black and 14% Hispanic to 16% black and 65% Hispanic. Over the last twenty years, the homicide rate in that small city dropped by 85%, with similar huge declines in other crime categories as well, thereby transforming a miserable ghetto into a pleasant working-class community, now featuring new office complexes, luxury hotels, and large regional shopping centers. Multi-billionaire Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife recently purchased a large $9 million home just a few hundred feet from the East Palo Alto border, a decision that would have been unthinkable during the early 1990s. Technology executives are highly quantitative individuals, skilled in pattern recognition, and I find it difficult to believe that they have all remained completely oblivious to these local racial factors.
ORDER IT NOWHowever the powerful role of immigration in transforming the crime rates of important urban centers probably had a much smaller impact on the national totals. The combined black populations of New York City, Washington, and Los Angeles may have dropped by half a million over the last two decades, but the individuals pushed out did not disappear from the world; they merely moved to Atlanta or Baltimore or Riverside. But from the personal perspective of America's ruling elite, they did indeed disappear.
For over thirty years, local black activists in Washington, D.C. have accused the ruling white power structure of promoting "The Plan," a deliberate strategy of removing most of the black population from our national capital and replacing them with whites; and this "conspiracy theory" has been endlessly ridiculed as absurdly paranoid nonsense by our elite Washington media. Meanwhile, during this same thirty year period, Washington's black population dropped from over 70% to less than half and will probably fall below the white total within the next few years.
Indeed, the strong support of our political elites for Section 8 housing vouchers may be less connected with any alleged social benefits these provide than with their important role in moving large numbers of impoverished urban residents away from the near vicinity of wealthy neighborhoods out into the remote suburbs of the middle class. Several years ago the Atlantic published a major article by Hanna Rosin on the rapid changes in the geographical pattern of crime induced by these demographic shifts, and the piece provoked much discussion even though the author avoided unduly emphasizing the troubling racial aspects. Elite selfishness is hardly surprising and a policy of exporting those populations with a strong link to crime into other localities seems a natural strategy, especially if this can be accomplished under the altruistic guise of socially-uplifting anti-poverty programs.
Finally, it is important to emphasize that this clear political interplay between heavy levels of immigration and black urban displacement is a relatively recent development and certainly was not anticipated by the original promoters of the 1965 Immigration Act. Indeed, although restrictionists routinely denounce that legislation for having flooded America with Hispanic immigrants, the facts are precisely the opposite. While the 1924 Immigration Act had drastically curtailed immigration from Europe (and Asia), the entire Western Hemisphere was totally exempted, and the U.S. retained its previous "open borders" policy for Mexico and the rest of Latin America until strict quotas were finally introduced as part of the 1965 law. Although these 1965 changes were expected to enable renewed European immigration, no one anticipated the vast inflow of Hispanic and Asian immigrants in the decades that followed, nor the resulting impact upon the racial composition of our major cities. But today these continuing urban demographic changes may have now become a significant motive in the minds of the elites advocating increased immigration under the legislation being considered by Congress.
During the 1960s black author James Baldwin coined the widely-quoted phrase "Urban renewal means Negro removal." I suspect that a somewhat similar semi-intentional national policy is today transforming America's leading urban centers, although it remains almost entirely unreported by our mainstream media.
On rare occasions, the mask slips and the underlying mental workings of our national elites are momentarily revealed. Consider New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of our most vocal pro-immigration voices on the national stage and a man whose vast wealth and influence often allow him to be far more candid on controversial topics than most other public figures. In May 2011 Bloomberg was interviewed on Meet the Press , and explained that if he had full authority, he could easily fix the seemingly insoluble problems of a city like Detroit at no cost to the taxpayer. He proposed opening wide the floodgates to unlimited foreign immigration on the condition that all the additional immigrants moved to Detroit and lived there for a decade or so, thereby transforming the city. I suspect this provides an important insight into how he and his friends discuss certain racial issues in private.
The Remarkable New York City ExceptionPowerful quantitative evidence for social determinism may be dispiriting, and when the main determinant seems to be race, many Americans will choose to throw up their hands and ignore the statistical facts, simply hoping that these might somehow be proven incorrect. That is certainly their privilege, but for those individuals who prefer to grit their teeth and mine the data for contrary indications, there do exist a few interesting nuggets.
Weighted average correlations are a very useful summary statistic, but they neither tell the whole story nor do they preclude the existence of outlying cases, which might provide some insights on ameliorating the grim situation we have described. And it so happens that among our many dozens of major urban centers one of the most extreme race/crime outliers is neither small nor obscure: New York City. Our largest metropolis often has crime rates that deviate sharply from the usual urban pattern observed almost everywhere else.
Recall our earlier mention of the surprising absence of any correlation between urban population density and crime rates. Those summary statistics were correct, but they also hid some important variations and the null overall result was almost entirely due to the extremely high density and low crime rates in America's largest city, combined with its huge population-weighting. If we excluded New York City from our calculations, the remainder of America's major urban centers would demonstrate some moderately strong and fairly stable correlations between density and crime over the last dozen years; for example, density has generally had a positive correlation of around 0.35 with robbery rates.
Similar anomalies appear in the racial crime calculations that have been the central focus of our analysis. Based on its racial composition, we would expect New York City's homicide rate to be some 70% higher than it actually is, with robbery and violent crime also being far more widespread. Cities like San Jose and San Diego may have homicide and violent crime rates only half that of New York City, but given the stark differences in their underlying demographics, it is New York City's Finest who deserves praise for their remarkable effectiveness in crime prevention. Evaluating the apparent success or failure of urban law enforcement policies without candidly considering a city's demographic challenges may lead to incorrect policy judgments.
Little of New York City's success in crime prevention seems due to the relative size of its police force, which is roughly similar to those of Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston on a per capita basis, and far below that of Washington, D.C., all cities whose crime rates reflect their demographics. So it appears that New York City's crime-fighting methods rather than merely the number of its officers has been the crucial factor.
Ideas have consequences, as do attempts to avoid them. For most of the last twenty years, the policing methods implemented under mayors Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg won enormous national praise as they so dramatically cut New York crime rates: murders dropped by over three-quarters. But during the last few years, some of these same policies have begun receiving widespread criticism among those pundits who may have forgotten just how bad things were two decades ago.
Our simple statistical analysis obviously does not allow us to disentangle the relative importance of the different factors behind New York City's success. Since the early 1990s, the city implemented a "community policing" model as well as pioneering the rapid use of local crime data to pinpoint dangerous hotspots and allocate resources more accurately. But other elements of the package have included strict, even harsh policing methods, such as the widespread use of "stop-and-frisk" to reduce gun violence. Denouncing these techniques as unconstitutional or racially discriminatory may be perfectly justified, but those who do so must consider the trade-offs involved, including the very real possibility of a 70% rise in homicides if local policing effectiveness declined to levels found in the rest of the country.
Let us compare the demographic and crime trends of New York City and Washington, twin abodes of our East Coast urban elite. Between 1985 and 2011, Washington's homicide rate dropped by 26%, robbery fell 27%, and violent crime in general was cut by 30%; but the city's black population also dropped by 27% during this same period. Meanwhile, New York City's corresponding declines in crime were far greater, 67%, 78%, and 67% respectively, but were accompanied by only a small 7% decline in black numbers. For all these serious crime rates to decline at nearly ten times the rate of their primary racial determinant is absolutely remarkable, a combination that left the city an exceptional outlier among America's major urban centers.
Put another way, if America's other cities with large black populations had somehow managed to achieve the same surprisingly low crime rates as New York City then most of the high racial crime correlations that have been the central findings of this article would disappear. Conversely, if New York City were excluded from our current national statistics, many of the existing racial crime correlations would exceed 0.90. These are objective facts and well-intentioned analysts who sharply criticize New York City policing methods should recognize that they may face some unpalatable choices.
Perhaps further research would establish that the widely-lauded elements of local police practice are the ones primarily responsible for such results, and the more controversial methods may safely be eliminated without negative consequences. But for whatever combination of reasons, the overall results achieved by New York City have been quite remarkable and caution should be exercised before drastic changes are made in such a successful model.
Obviously New York City is not the sole positive outlier on these crime statistics, though it is by far the most significant, both because of its size and the magnitude of its deviation from the predicted results. If we examine the 2011 homicide rates for our set of sixty-six large cities, seventeen of these were at least 30% below the projected trendline, with four cities -- Charlotte, Raleigh, St. Paul, and Virginia Beach -- achieving even better results than New York City. But many of these successful cities have numerically small black populations, and the total for all seventeen combined is not much larger that of New York City alone. One intriguing fact is that although fewer than one-third of the all our large cities lie in the South, these Southern cities account for over two-thirds of those particularly successful examples, and a roughly similar pattern applies both for other crime rates and for other recent years. The exact mix of cultural, socio-economic, or demographic factors responsible for such notable Southern success in achieving relatively low urban crime rates is unclear, but might warrant further investigation.
Over the last decade or two, liberal intellectuals have regularly denounced their conservative opponents for allowing ideological considerations to trump objective facts, sometimes styling themselves the "Reality-Based Community" as an ironic riposte to the foolish criticism of a top Bush Administration official. Many of these liberal accusations have considerable merit. But individuals who claim to accept reality undercut their credibility if they pick and choose which portions of reality they acknowledge and which portions they carefully ignore. Our academic and media elites should not avoid factual evidence that they dislike.
Consider that over one-quarter of all the urban black males in America have vanished from our society, a loss-ratio approaching that experienced by Europeans during the Black Death of the Middle Ages. Yet these astonishing statistics have largely remained unreported by our major media and hence unrecognized by the general American public. Should the medieval scribes of the Fourteenth Century have ignored the annihilating impact of the bubonic plague all around them and merely confined their writings to more pleasant news?
It is said that very young children sometimes believe they can hide themselves by covering their eyes, and that seems to be the general approach taken by our major media to the unpleasantly grim racial crime statistics analyzed in this article. But the reality continues to exist whether or not we ignore it.
JI , says: Show Comment January 5, 2014 at 11:43 pm GMT
I found the correlation between whites-voting-Republican and race interesting. It seems to me that those whites who have lived around lots of blacks, who would be likely to know and understand the black culture, are most likely to vote Republican, while those whites who have never lived with blacks vote Democrat. I wonder why that would be.Anonymous Disclaimer , says: Show Comment June 17, 2014 at 1:18 pm GMTPerhaps the reason liberals fail to make any progress on gun control policy is that they ignore the best evidence for its arguments: black crime. In ignoring black crime, they exaggerate "white crime" -- and whites must find this infuriating and antagonizing. It's no wonder they refuse to give up their guns.Greenstalk , says: Show Comment June 9, 2014 at 7:34 pm GMTIf liberals started to argue that gun control is needed to curb the high rate of black crime, then i would bet that they would win many more blue collar whites to their cause. But they wont' do this because criticizing blacks is counter productive to their more important goal :racial polarization.
If you asked your average liberal, he would tell you that black crime is a myth. If this is so, then who is committing all the crime in America? "White people!," he will say. Indeed, liberals must believe that American's high crime rate is predominately due to whites -- because blacks certainly aren't contributing to it, to think so it a myth!
It's very odd, at first glance, that Hispanic crimes rates have dropped at exactly the same time that white crime rates have soared. It's doubly odd because the average age of the Hispanic population is so young (and crime is a young persons game) while the average age of the white population is increasing.But you don't have to search very far to find the explanation. Most crime commited by Hispanics is now attributed to "whites". Have a look at this "white" criminal on the Texas Most Wanted list.
http://www.dps.texas.gov/Texas10MostWanted/fugitiveDetails.aspx?id=156
[Jun 12, 2020] Engineering A Race War: Will This Be The American Police State's Reichstag Fire?
Jun 12, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Radical Marijuana , 25 minutes ago
Excellent article.
Too bad, so sad, that "truth" makes no significant difference to sociopolitical systems based on being able to back up lies with violence. The only real roles for truthful facts within those systems is to better enable backing up bigger lies with more violence.
Since it is quite relevant to the exhortations presented in the article above (particularly given that the author is certainly correct that that author would soon be fired and broke if named ) I repeat what I recently posted under:
Engineering A Race War: Will This Be The American Police State's Reichstag Fire?
It became painfully obvious long ago that the continued triumphs based on the bullies' ******** would automatically get worse faster. Since Globalized Neolithic Civilization was always based on being able to back up lies with violence, and those methods worked all too well, in the short to medium term, over and over again, it became painfully obvious that those excessively successful applications of the methods of organized crime through the political processes would inevitably result in Civilization manifesting runaway criminal insanities. It was always painfully obvious that would happen at about exponentially accelerating rates, which would seem slow at first, but then would happen faster and faster.
As usually the case with writing from John Rutherford, as well as almost all other authors republished on Zero Hedge , there is superficially correct analysis of the political problems, followed by collapsing back to the same old-fashioned impossible ideals as the basis for similarly superficial, but thus bogus, "solutions:"
"we need civic engagement and citizen activism, especially at the local level"
There is nothing which is going to stop the series of collapses into chaos and psychotic breakdowns of Civilization NECESSARILY based on the principles and methods of organized crime. There is nothing which is going to stop that Civilization from going through the longer term consequences of runaway criminal insanities.
Articles like the one above, as well as practically all of the rest of the content published on Zero Hedge , are worthwhile to read for the sake of their superficially correct analysis. However, since they do not engage in deeper analysis of how and why Civilization NECESSARILY operates according to the principles and methods of organized crime , which have been applied on larger and larger scales, those kinds of arguments ALWAYS collapse back to bogus "solutions" based on impossible ideals , which always backfire badly in the real world, by causing the opposite to those ideals to actually happen.
"... real reform that holds government officials a t all levels accountable to playing by the rules of the Constitution, then shame on us."
While a democratic republic operating through the rule of law was a good theory, in practice "playing by the rules of the Constitution" could NEVER be anything more than divisions of powers providing checks and balances to the ACTUAL operations of governments as the biggest forms of organized crime , dominated by the best organized gangsters.
Money was ALWAYS measurement backed by murder. The debt controls were ALWAYS backed by the death controls. The vicious feedback spirals of the funding of the political processes resulted in the monetary and taxation systems becoming more and more corrupted, in the craziest possible ways, because that was due to the excessive successfulness of applying the methods of organized crime , in ways which NECESSARILY drove runaway criminal insanities.
In that context, it has become GOOFY to recommend "real reform" achieved by "civic engagement and citizen activism!"
Metaphorically speaking "the fish has already thoroughly rotted from the head to the tail." The entrenched debt slavery systems (legalized counterfeiting as the supreme achievement of organized crime) have ALREADY generated numbers which are debt insanities, which ARE going to provoke death insanities, on astronomically amplified magnitudes, due to about exponentially advancing technologies enabling those sociopolitical systems based on enforcing frauds to become about exponentially more fraudulent.
What I recommend regarding the runaway fascist plutocracy juggernauts' runaway fascist police, are series of intellectual revolutions and profound paradigm shifts in political science. That would require deeper analysis of how and why Civilization NECESSARILY operates as organized crime , and then follows through with genuine solutions consistent with that deeper analysis, as indicating better organized crime.
"We the People" can NEVER go back to the old-fashioned Constitution and Bill of Rights. It is only possible to go forwards through the eruptions of death insanities, to perhaps direct the development of better death controls, which could back up better debt controls.
While it is theoretically possible that enough human beings could better understand themselves as manifestations of general energy systems, integrated into all other energy systems, as nested toroidal vortices engaged in entropic pumping of environmental energy flows, doing so would require greater scientific revolutions, which would then inspire and guide political science to be radically revolutionized.
The old-fashioned DUALITIES of false fundamental dichotomies and related impossible ideals are not going to work. What might work are developing UNITARY MECHANISMS to better understand politics as manifestations of the general energy systems, which always were, are, and will be, the same as the principles and methods of organized crime , despite that when those succeeded on larger and larger scales, then the bullies' ******** with respect to that drove public debates of those issues to become more and more irrational.
The laws of nature are never going to stop working. However, those laws of nature have driven the laws of men to become as dishonest as possible, which includes now becoming about exponentially more dishonest as the methods of organized crime are applied using the powers and capabilities of about exponentially advancing technologies.
There is nothing which can stop Globalized Neolithic Civilization, with the USA leading the way, as the American Dollar/Military, from manifesting runaway criminal insanities . It is only remotely possible that such events will enable the development of real, radical, revolution, which is primarily revolution in political science.
Enough of the "civic engagement and citizen activism" should STOP believing in achieving "real reform" by series of political miracles based on old-fashioned impossible ideals.
While the more mainstream media do not even engage in superficially correct political analysis, but rather continue to promote Huge Lies, most of the people on various alternative media, such as Zero Hedge , still manage to switch from superficially correct analysis to similarly superficial "solutions."
POLITICAL PROBLEMS have become globalized electronic monkey money frauds, backed by threats of force from apes with atomic weapons (into which have recently been released viruses made by primates to become more infectious on primates .)
Despite those being the FACTS, somehow most people can either continue to deliberately ignore those FACTS, or perhaps recommend going back to old-fashioned ideals as the basis for bogus "solutions" to those PROBLEMS, despite that those ideals never imagined those PROBLEMS.
Political science ought to be radically transformed in order to reconcile political science with the progress in other sciences (which physical sciences also have to be radically transformed, because of the history of the corruption of those physical sciences, which accompanied the corruption of every other aspect of Globalized Neolithic Civilization.)
"Reforms" are NEVER going to be enough. Only revolution might be enough, and such a real revolution goes far beyond the old-fashioned, fake revolutionaries' notions regarding politics.
Political science would have to become more consistent with physical sciences such as quantum mechanics, the special theory of relativity, and molecular biology, and so on and so forth, for that revolutionized political science to begin to cope with the PROBLEMS presented by the technologies enabled by prodigious progress in those physical sciences.
Given the awesome degrees of difficulty with respect to achieving anything like that, I believe that the most reasonable predictions for the 21st Century are for the human population to not reach almost 10 billion, but rather, to drop below one billion.
Given that the article above was superficially correct about how bad the situation has become, and given that its bogus "solutions" are practically impossible, the most reasonable expectations are for democidal martial law to mass murder the majority of Americans, either directly or indirectly. Indeed, that is the most reasonable scenario (Civilization gets crazier as Nature goes nuts) in which it might be possible to develop better organized crime , as the only actually possible better government.
[Jun 12, 2020] The militants have chosen the most sympathetic states, governors and mayors for these protests
Notable quotes:
"... For years I have said here that the identity-politics left has no idea what kind of demons it is calling up by endorsing illiberal, positive discrimination on behalf of nonwhites. Well, they’re about to show themselves in a big way in Weimar America ..."
"... And in the age of the reformation, after a hundred and fifty years of war and around twenty million deaths, there were still Catholics and there were still protestants. Neither side just went away. ..."
"... .I've said it my whole life, Identity politics are poison. I don't believe in race, as far as I am concerned it's a pernicious social construct. None of the statistics about mass numbers of "racial" characteristics ..."
"... I can now assume they will prejudge me, however, according to their own subjective madness. Well, I guess, if to no one else, the Christians can still witness to and be a good influence on the white nationalists. ..."
"... Egalitarianism is the rule of the Woke and Diversity and Inclusion and Equity are the holy principles. The problem is that these principles deny the reality of life and make a devil of "whiteness" and create a magic worldview of "systemic racism". Moreover, the principles are anti-Christian. ..."
"... We also need to acknowledge that increased multiculturalism causes increased intergroup conflict and weakens social capital. ..."
"... I ran into identity groups in grad school, as I encountered La Raza and MeCHA, two radical Hispanic identity groups bent on the Reconquista. It was weird. It seemed un-American. ..."
Jun 12, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
The militants have chosen the most sympathetic states, governors and mayors for these protests, riots, arson, assault, etc and most recently urban takeovers but success against pacifist mayors and governors breads hubris and conceit and over confidence.Eventually they are going to try this in a less sympathetic state ...
Trump is going to use the inaction of the democratic mayors and democratic governors to get the citizenry so fed up that those long time democratic states will turn republican. Trump similarly boxed in democratic mayors and democratic governors by letting them keep their states closed while Trump was re-opening the economy.
These are all bricks in the wall of resentment building against democrats, but I don't think anything is going to happen until the states request it....
First: get yourself in order. Get out of debt, this will give you financial margin and make you better able to withstand the shocks to come. Critically evaluate how you spend your time, this will allow you to focus on what's important (starting with your family, then church, then neighbors).joe_chip • 8 hours agoBuying books, standing in line for 3 hours to vote and endless doom-scrolling has never changed the world, and won't this time either. I'm not the only one to notice that the Left has made more concrete gains in 2 weeks of protests and setting things on fire then they have in the last decade pathetically voting for Centrist Dems.kgasmart • 7 hours agoOne thing I believe conservatives have to be willing to do is to withdraw from supporting public and private institutions that endorse and implement wokeness. Take your money and your labor away. Stop supporting institutions and organizations that are working against you. If we don’t know yet how to effectively fight the putsch, at least we can stop supporting the organizations that putschists have conquered.Rosser1 • 7 hours agoThis is about the only thing most people at this point can do. But conservatives could be doing this already, and most aren't. Why? It is literally the **very least** you can do, and conservatives had damned well better do it if they want to retain any sway whatsoever.
The first and most important task in fighting a war is to choose your battles.C. L. H. Daniels • 7 hours agoIn an earlier post, Rod, you talked about the "collapsing Imperium." Exactly. And would a fleeing Roman have wasted their precious time and energy arguing with the Visgoths rampaging around the city?
No — you fight when you can meaningfully influence the outcome by fighting; if you can't, then your "fight" is tilting at windmills.
In my opinion, what we're experiencing are symptoms of the end of the era of the nation-state. For centuries, the nation-state was a valuable way to organize power. Today, much (and increasing) power belongs to rootless globalized corporations. Today's heads of state spend more time meeting with representatives from Amazon, Google, the banks etc. than they do meeting with each other (or with their constituents).
The problem begins and ends with our leadership class. I say this often. It's still true. I think that many people don't like what is happening right now. Many are frustrated. Some are angry. The problem is that no one in the leadership class is really taking up their cause and articulating what they feel, so they end up feeling alone and isolated. The appeal of white nationalism comes in part from a sense that the movement is revealing hidden truths; they offer a story to make sense of things that isolated young people find frustrating but lack a narrative to explain. What this amounts to is a new mythology to replace the one we are in the process of losing.RG • 6 hours agoIndividualism only works if both sides practice it. If one side practices individualism and the other practices identity politics, the identity politics side has a systematic, unfair advantage. Left wing identity politics makes right wing identity politics inevitable. Otherwise the right will just be routed (as it is being currently).KevinS • 6 hours ago • editedRe Hawley's speech. It was decent and I agree with about half of it. What I do not get is the desire to retain the names of Confederate generals on military bases. They, after all, fought for a flag other than the one that flies over those bases today. It strikes me as odd that a president who wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy our armed forces in American cities wants to continue to honor those who led the biggest insurrection in our history. Having a military base named ofter you is an honor, not a mere commemoration of history. I'd rather have a Fort Eisenhower than a Fort Bragg.Clyde Schechter • 6 hours agoGregtown • 6 hours ago"For years I have said here that the identity-politics left has no idea what kind of demons it is calling up by endorsing illiberal, positive discrimination on behalf of nonwhites. Well, they’re about to show themselves in a big way in Weimar America."I'm from the left, but I hope you'll consider this constructive.
I have lived in Orange County, California since 2008. It used to be a strongly conservative area, but it has become "purple" in recent years. Clinton carried it by a hair in 2016, and our representation in the CA legislature has oscillated back and forth between Rs and Ds recently. Being somewhat active in my community, I know many liberals and many conservatives, and we all get a long just fine day to day. Most people here, I sense, really aren't all that interested in politics.
But interestingly, for the first time since I have lived here, I have seen two houses in my neighborhood flying confederate flags. Yes, as an epidemiologist, I'd rather have real statistics from well designed surveys. But I read those two events as indicating something big happening.
The DSA, and really the "internet" left as a whole, is going through a similar situation which you may find interesting. Recently the DSA branch in Philly canceled a talk with Adolph Reed because he's a "class reductionist". Which led to the Class Unity DSA writing this responseMuleke • 6 hours agohttps://classunity.org/spir...
Here are two articles, one by Reed, about Class and Race Reductionism...
https://newrepublic.com/art...
https://theintercept.com/20...So.....you may need to consider that pro-working class leftists are the only people who actually want to protect anyone from being canned by their employer for ridiculous reasons. Perhaps Christians should considering "unionizing"
Also, I am not affiliated with the DSA in anyway nor do I have any desire to.
In a hundred years, we are still going to have the "woke". The specifics of their ideology may change dramatically between now and then. Maybe none of them will care about sexuality or race anymore. Maybe the new front line will be animal liberation or cyborgs or what people are allowed to do to AIs in virtual reality, but the woke will still be with us.Dale Nelson • 6 hours agoAnd those who oppose them will still be with us too. Cultural conservatism is bound to change as well, though more slowly than progressivism does. I hope Christianity is still a factor in a hundred years, even if Christians are in the minority. Regardless, there will still be people who regard the rapid changes in society and technology with suspicion or dismay.
And in the age of the reformation, after a hundred and fifty years of war and around twenty million deaths, there were still Catholics and there were still protestants. Neither side just went away.
It seems to me we can either reach some accommodation now, or after a century of misery. Neither side is going anywhere.
Here are some suggestions for beleaguered folks in these tense times.Charles Cosimano • 6 hours ago1. Document everything . Save the emails. If you attend a meeting and hear something oppressive, take note of it, write it down as accurately as you can, date, and save it.
2.Never broaden the conflict. Don't create what will turn into a muddle if, for your part, you possibly can. Don't give them any pretext, by anything you write or say, or by your facial expression or tone of voice, to claim that you are clinging to white privilege.
3.Don't ever trust the wokesters, the administrators, etc. Don't make it obvious that you don't trust them, but realize that friendly and reasonable-seeming people can turn quickly into something else.
4.Know what the employer can point to to try to make you knuckle under. For example, if you are a college teacher, know what the university says about "affirming" people of all sexual proclivities. Say nothing and write nothing that *unnecessarily* conflicts with the interpretations they may give their mission statement, organizational policy, etc. You want to be able, when the time comes, to look back and know that, if necessary, you said what you had to say, did what you had to do, but to have a mind free of regret because you flew off the handle, or were sarcastic, etc. When you are frightened, don't show it, e.g. by venting anger, if you can help it. Subdue your passions even while those around you are acting like nuts.
5.Know your rights. You may end up needing to take somebody to court.
First. Get money and I mean lots of money. Be in a position where you can't lose your job because you don't need to have one.Fran Macadam • 5 hours agoSecond, be aggressive. Don't hesitate to do everything possible to utterly destroy your enemy. They will do it to you Engage in litigation at the drop of a hat. Use investigators to expose criminal activity. The only good Liberal is one dying in prison.
Third, embrace the ways of Cosimanian Orthodoxy. Never give the enemy a foothold. If they accuse you of racism, laugh and say, "Yeah. So what?" Never, ever, show or feel the slightest sign of guilt.
Be ruthless in all your ways.
And remember the words of Admiral Halsey. "Attack. Repeat. Attack."...I've said it my whole life, Identity politics are poison. I don't believe in race, as far as I am concerned it's a pernicious social construct. None of the statistics about mass numbers of "racial" characteristics ever tell me anything important or accurate about any other individual person I will meet myself. I suppose if they are Woke, I can now assume they will prejudge me, however, according to their own subjective madness. Well, I guess, if to no one else, the Christians can still witness to and be a good influence on the white nationalists.Gaius1Gracchus • 5 hours agoI have been pondering on this for awhile. Egalitarianism is the rule of the Woke and Diversity and Inclusion and Equity are the holy principles. The problem is that these principles deny the reality of life and make a devil of "whiteness" and create a magic worldview of "systemic racism". Moreover, the principles are anti-Christian.Max Rockatansky • 5 hours agoThe gospel invites all to come onto Christ. There is no place for hatred in Christendom. But people are different and God give salvation to those that refuse to obey him. God invites all to him but many won't be in heaven.
This means we can't hate the haters either, which the intolerant Left believes in doing. We need to forgive and not demand people to make amends for things done by their ancestors. We need to face reality and move on instead of firing those that speak against the Great God Diversity.
So, we need to utterly reject the blank slate. We are not all the same and God made us all different. Groups of people do share common traits, which is why the concept of "race" is real. Some groups are faster than others due to genetics. Some are smarter than others.
God loves all of us, no matter where he placed us on this planet and wants all of us to come onto him. But we are not all the same and He made us different.
To acknowledge differences isn't racism, but is "living not by lies". To acknowledge that some groups have a much higher rate of violence than others isn't racist or discriminatory. Instead, honesty allows us to not push square pegs in round wholes.
So, we need to reject the entire "racism" construct as invalid. It is a tool to manipulate people and create intergroup conflict.
We also need to acknowledge that increased multiculturalism causes increased intergroup conflict and weakens social capital.
Why was the USA so successful in the 20th century? One reason was the holy Melting Pot, as we created a single general American identity and focused on that. I really liked my childhood in SoCal. My classmates were from around the world and had grabbed hold of the American identity.
We did have one student in my advanced math classes in high school. He didn't understand what was being taught and spent the class period every day demanding help on the previous day's work that he didn't understand. He should have moved to a lower class, but instead wasted our time and dragged everyone down.
It seems we are doing the same thing today.
I ran into identity groups in grad school, as I encountered La Raza and MeCHA, two radical Hispanic identity groups bent on the Reconquista. It was weird. It seemed un-American.
So, let's not give lip service to the DIE agenda. Let's reject the Great God of Egalitarianism. Instead, let's be full of love but be honest and truthful. We don't exclude based upon race, but we don't believe in equality of outcome or bringing everyone done to the lowest individual. We don't invite everyone in the world in. We stop immigration long enough to integrate those we have imported.
Spiritually get closer to God and pray for a nonviolent resolution. We are going to need a new ethos that focuses on people not politics or policy. That is literally the point of the gospel. Be a city on a hill!YoungAmconReader • 5 hours agoSome of the other actions I've been thinking quite a bit about is moving to a more red or conservative state. I know this is not a panacea but at least, in my opinion, you can more easily cultivate strong relationships that are going to be needed to help guide and fend off this competing "religion".
As you said, make a mental note of the institutions that are spreading "wokeness" to the best of your ability. Here in MA that can be very difficult but I do to a degree have some agency here. Colleges and/or businesses not another dime.
Lastly I've completely written off all sports entirely. Not another dollar to the "toy box" of my world and for most men in my opinion. Looking back I made sports an idol and was it was complete waste of time.
RD have you yourself considered stepping past writing and into the field of action? I could easily see a nationwide tour to include a talk with you and another person, but more importantly allowing others to network with one another and make some real life connections. Because more than anything that’s what we need, relationships with likeminded people.Ike • 5 hours agoAnd let’s be honest, come the revolution, you’re already going to be in the first batch sent to the gulag regardless of what you do now anyway. Might as well kick a ball forward for future generations while you have the ability. I’d gladly contribute to such an event.
Wow... this may be the first time I've actually been really convinced by your pessimism. There really be no way to fight this. I hope that someone find some way. I have always hoped we wouldn't really get to Solzhenitsyn... but nowlohengrin • 5 hours agoOne (not sole) thing that has to be done is vote Trump.Al Bundy • 5 hours agoThis may be unpopular with some readers, but here goes: Would your friend be willing to identify as a Cultural Christian? That is, could you convince him to identify as a non-believing Christian and spend some time engaging in Christian ritual (reading Scripture/church fathers, going to church occasionally)? I've found that those attracted to white nationalism at least have some reverence for the ancient and medieval Christian heritage. There are countless artists and thinkers over the centuries that have take a position of wrestling with Christ for their entire lives, without ever becoming full-fledged Christians. The presumption, of course, is that your friend may be more open to receiving God's Grace within the church than outside it. And it might prove to be that moderating influence he needs.Marie • 5 hours agoI have a few thoughts and, not necessarily advice, but a few words for the woman whose friend has become a white nationalist. Like many here, over the past week I’ve been inundated with reading lists and things I have to do to be an ally (decent human), all written in the unabashedly threatening tone of a ransom note. (I work in a very liberal environment.) While I reflexively balk at these things and am a natural contrarian, I’ve actually been diving into some of these suggested books, articles, and movies and I have to say: I’ve become quite ashamed of American history and myself in a way I’ve never been before. Yes, I knew about slavery and Jim Crow, etc., but redlining, contract lending – the denial of mortgages, social security and the GI Bill to the majority of blacks – these were things I honestly had never known or thought about. White Americans had an incredible opportunity in the middle of the 20th century to lift up black people and give them a real opportunity and instead we created ghettoes and tenements. We blew it. And the biggest tragedy to me is the failure of white Christians to be a model for racial harmony and integrate our churches. Now the chickens have come home to roost. Good Christians are trying to jump on the Black Lives Matter bus when that movement should be jumping on our bus. We should’ve been leading the drive for racial unity, but we hung back and let other people, whose agenda and beliefs are in many ways incompatible with Christianity, take the lead and now anyone who goes against them will be on the chopping block. Rod, I’m very happy that you have stated so strongly that this cannot be a white vs black thing. I’m not sure everyone in the back is hearing this. We have to be unequivocally and strenuously FOR our black brothers and sisters in Christ, but against woke madness. In fact, I see this as our only way forward. People of all races who uphold Christian or traditional religious values have to join together and support each other in a way we never have before. We have to take the criticisms and complaints of people seriously even if we don’t agree on the solutions. For your friend, my only recommendation would be to watch the documentaries by Deeyah Khan. You can find them on YouTube. She has one on white nationalists and one on jihadists. It’s the same deal – young men who need a sense of purpose. What seems to help is becoming friends with the “enemy” and seeing them as a real person. But the enemy has to want to understand and be your friend, too. That’s the part the woke crowd doesn’t get, but Christians should know and do better.
[Jun 12, 2020] Engineering A Race War Will This Be The American Police State's Reichstag Fire by John Whitehead
Notable quotes:
"... As author Jim Keith explains, "Create violence through economic pressures, the media, mind control, agent provocateurs: thesis. Counter it with totalitarian measures, more mind control, police crackdowns, surveillance, drugging of the population: antithesis. What ensues is Orwell's vision of 1984 , a society of total control: synthesis." ..."
"... This isn't about racism in America. ..."
"... This is about profit-driven militarism packaged in the guise of law and order, waged by greedy profiteers who have transformed the American homeland into a battlefield with militarized police, military weapons and tactics better suited to a war zone. This is systemic corruption predicated on the police state's insatiable appetite for money, power and control. ..."
Jun 12, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
- George Santayana
Watch and see: this debate over police brutality and accountability is about to get politicized into an election-year referendum on who should occupy the White House.
Don't fall for it.
The Deep State, the powers-that-be, want us to turn this into a race war, but this is about so much more than systemic racism. This is the oldest con game in the books, the magician's sleight of hand that keeps you focused on the shell game in front of you while your wallet is being picked clean by ruffians in your midst.
It's the Reichstag Fire all over again.
It was February 1933, a month before national elections in Germany, and the Nazis weren't expected to win. So they engineered a way to win: they began by infiltrating the police and granting police powers to their allies; then Hitler brought in stormtroopers to act as auxiliary police; by the time an arsonist (who claimed to be working for the Communists in the hopes of starting an armed revolt) set fire to the Reichstag, the German parliamentary building, the people were eager for a return to law and order.
That was all it took: Hitler used the attempted "coup" as an excuse to declare martial law and seize absolute power in Germany , establishing himself as a dictator with the support of the German people.
Fast forward to the present day, and what do we have? The nation in turmoil after months of pandemic fear-mongering and regional lockdowns, a national election looming, a president with falling poll numbers, and a police state that wants to stay in power at all costs.
Note the similarities?
It's entirely possible that Americans have finally reached a tipping point over police brutality after decades of abuse . After all, until recently, the legislatures and the courts have marched in lockstep with the police state, repeatedly rebuffing efforts to hold police accountable for official misconduct .
Then again, it's also equally possible that the architects of the police state have every intention of manipulating this outrage for their own purposes.
It works the same in every age.
As author Jim Keith explains, "Create violence through economic pressures, the media, mind control, agent provocateurs: thesis. Counter it with totalitarian measures, more mind control, police crackdowns, surveillance, drugging of the population: antithesis. What ensues is Orwell's vision of 1984 , a society of total control: synthesis."
Here's what is going to happen: the police state is going to stand down and allow these protests, riots and looting to devolve into a situation where enough of the voting populace is so desperate for a return to law and order that they will gladly relinquish some of their freedoms to achieve it. And that's how the police state will win, no matter which candidate gets elected to the White House.
You know who will lose? Every last one of us.
Listen, people should be outraged over what happened to George Floyd, but let's get one thing straight: Floyd didn't die merely because he was black and the cop who killed him is white. Floyd died because America is being overrun with warrior cops -- vigilantes with a badge -- who are part of a government-run standing army that is waging war on the American people in the so-called name of law and order.
Not all cops are warrior cops, trained to act as judge, jury and executioner in their interactions with the populace. Unfortunately, the good cops -- the ones who take seriously their oath of office to serve and protect their fellow citizens, uphold the Constitution, and maintain the peace -- are increasingly being outnumbered by those who believe the lives -- and rights -- of police should be valued more than citizens.
These warrior cops may get paid by the citizenry, but they don't work for us and they certainly aren't operating within the limits of the U.S. Constitution.
This isn't about racism in America.
This is about profit-driven militarism packaged in the guise of law and order, waged by greedy profiteers who have transformed the American homeland into a battlefield with militarized police, military weapons and tactics better suited to a war zone. This is systemic corruption predicated on the police state's insatiable appetite for money, power and control.
This is a military coup waiting to happen.
Why do we have more than a million cops on the taxpayer-funded payroll in this country whose jobs do not entail protecting our safety, maintaining the peace in our communities, and upholding our liberties?
I'll tell you why.
These warrior cops -- fitted out in the trappings of war , drilled in the deadly art of combat, and trained to look upon "every individual they interact with as an armed threat and every situation as a deadly force encounter in the making -- are the police state's standing army.
This is the new face of war, and America has become the new battlefield.
Militarized police officers, the end product of the government -- federal, local and state -- and law enforcement agencies having merged, have become a "standing" or permanent army, composed of full-time professional soldiers who do not disband.
Yet these permanent armies are exactly what those who drafted the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights feared as tools used by despotic governments to wage war against its citizens.
American police forces were never supposed to be a branch of the military, nor were they meant to be private security forces for the reigning political faction. Instead, they were intended to be an aggregation of countless local police units, composed of citizens like you and me that exist for a sole purpose: to serve and protect the citizens of each and every American community.
As a result of the increasing militarization of the police in recent years, however, the police now not only look like the military -- with their foreboding uniforms and phalanx of lethal weapons -- but they function like them, as well.
Thus, no more do we have a civilian force of peace officers entrusted with serving and protecting the American people. Instead, today's militarized law enforcement officials have shifted their allegiance from the citizenry to the state, acting preemptively to ward off any possible challenges to the government's power, unrestrained by the boundaries of the Fourth Amendment .
They don't work for us. As retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis warned, " Corporate America is using police forces as their mercenaries ."
We were sold a bill of goods.
For years now, we've been told that cops need military weapons to wage the government's wars on drugs, crime and terror. We've been told that cops need to be able to crash through doors, search vehicles, carry out roadside strip searches, shoot anyone they perceive to be a threat, and generally disregard the law whenever it suits them because they're doing it to protect their fellow Americans from danger. We've been told that cops need extra legal protections because of the risks they take.
None of that is true.
In fact, a study by a political scientist at Princeton University concludes that militarizing police and SWAT teams " provide no detectable benefits in terms of officer safety or violent crime reduction ." According to researcher Jonathan Mummolo, if police in America are feeling less safe, it's because the process of transforming them into extensions of the military makes them less safe, less popular and less trust-worthy.
The study, the first systematic analysis on the use and consequences of militarized force, reveals that "police militarization neither reduces rates of violent crime nor changes the number of officers assaulted or killed ."
In other words, warrior cops aren't making us or themselves any safer .
Militarized police armed with weapons of war who are allowed to operate above the law and break the laws with impunity are definitely not making America any safer or freer.
The problem, as one reporter rightly concluded, is "not that life has gotten that much more dangerous, it's that authorities have chosen to respond to even innocent situations as if they were in a warzone ." Consequently, Americans are now eight times more likely to die in a police confrontation than they are to be killed by a terrorist.
Militarism within the nation's police forces is proving to be deadlier than any pandemic.
This battlefield mindset has gone hand in hand with the rise of militarized SWAT ("special weapons and tactics") teams.
Frequently justified as vital tools necessary to combat terrorism and deal with rare but extremely dangerous criminal situations, such as those involving hostages, SWAT teams have become intrinsic parts of local law enforcement operations, thanks in large part to substantial federal assistance and the Pentagon's military surplus recycling program, which allows the transfer of military equipment, weapons and training to local police for free or at sharp discounts while increasing the profits of its corporate allies.
Where this becomes a problem of life and death for Americans is when these SWAT teams -- outfitted, armed and trained in military tactics -- are assigned to carry out relatively routine police tasks, such as serving a search warrant. Nationwide, SWAT teams have been employed to address an astonishingly trivial array of criminal activity or mere community nuisances: angry dogs, domestic disputes, improper paperwork filed by an orchid farmer, and misdemeanor marijuana possession, to give a brief sampling.
Remember, SWAT teams originated as specialized units dedicated to defusing extremely sensitive, dangerous situations. They were never meant to be used for routine police work such as serving a warrant. Unfortunately, the mere presence of SWAT units has actually injected a level of danger and violence into police-citizen interactions that was not present as long as these interactions were handled by traditional civilian officers.
There are few communities without a SWAT team today, and there are more than 80,000 SWAT team raids per year .
Yet the tension inherent in most civilian-police encounter these days can't be blamed exclusively on law enforcement's growing reliance on SWAT teams and donated military equipment.
It goes far deeper, to a transformation in the way police view themselves and their line of duty.
Specifically, what we're dealing with today is a skewed shoot-to-kill mindset in which police, trained to view themselves as warriors or soldiers in a war , whether against drugs, or terror, or crime, must "get" the bad guys -- i.e., anyone who is a potential target -- before the bad guys get them. The result is a spike in the number of incidents in which police shoot first, and ask questions later.
Making matters worse, when these officers, who have long since ceased to be peace officers, violate their oaths by bullying, beating, tasering, shooting and killing their employers -- the taxpayers to whom they owe their allegiance -- they are rarely given more than a slap on the hands before resuming their patrols.
This lawlessness on the part of law enforcement, an unmistakable characteristic of a police state, is made possible in large part by police unions which routinely oppose civilian review boards and resist the placement of names and badge numbers on officer uniforms; police agencies that abide by the Blue Code of Silence, the quiet understanding among police that they should not implicate their colleagues for their crimes and misconduct; prosecutors who treat police offenses with greater leniency than civilian offenses; courts that sanction police wrongdoing in the name of security; and legislatures that enhance the power, reach and arsenal of the police, and a citizenry that fails to hold its government accountable to the rule of law.
Indeed, not only are cops protected from most charges of wrongdoing -- whether it's shooting unarmed citizens (including children and old people), raping and abusing young women, falsifying police reports , trafficking drugs, or soliciting sex with minors -- but even on the rare occasions when they are fired for misconduct, it's only a matter of time before they get re-hired again .
Much of the "credit" for shielding these rogue cops goes to influential police unions and laws providing for qualified immunity , police contracts that " provide a shield of protection to officers accused of misdeeds and erect barriers to residents complaining of abuse ," state and federal laws that allow police to walk away without paying a dime for their wrongdoing, and rampant cronyism among government bureaucrats.
It's happening all across the country .
This is how perverse justice in America has become.
Incredibly, while our own Bill of Rights are torn to shreds, leaving us with few protections against government abuses, a growing number of states are adopting Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights (LEOBoR), which provide cops accused of a crime with special due process rights and privileges not afforded to the average citizen.
This, right here, epitomizes everything that is wrong with America today.
Even when the system appears to work on the side of justice , it's the American taxpayer who ends up paying the price.
Literally.
Because police officers are more likely to be struck by lightning than be held financially accountable for their actions. As Human Rights Watch explains, taxpayers actually pay three times for officers who repeatedly commit abuses : "once to cover their salaries while they commit abuses; next to pay settlements or civil jury awards against officers; and a third time through payments into police 'defense' funds provided by the cities."
Deep-seated corruption of this kind doesn't just go away because politicians and corporations suddenly become conscience-stricken in the face of mass protests and start making promises they don't intend to keep.
As I explain in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People , we need civic engagement and citizen activism, especially at the local level. However, if it ends at the ballot box without achieving any real reform that holds government officials at all levels accountable to playing by the rules of the Constitution, then shame on us.
[Jun 12, 2020] HARPER THE REAL TERROR THREAT THAT TOO FEW UNDERSTAND - Sic Semper Tyrannis
Notable quotes:
"... Regretfully, our intelligence agencies are too busy participating in the coup-revolution to act on your great advice. ..."
Jun 12, 2020 | turcopolier.typepad.com
There is a need for competent counterintelligence to, in effect, crack the egg and isolate and take action against the hardcore network of trained provocateurs who have the capacity to hijack genuine protest to further their goal: Chaos and civil conflict as the endgame.
Anyone see the photo of the FBI agents kneeling at the "protest" in DC?Diana Croissant , 11 June 2020 at 01:09 PM
Think this FBI is going to find out ANYTHING about these scumbags?
If they (accidently) did, they'd bury it.
Only thing preventing the FBI's corruption from doing real damage is their massive incompetence.Antifa is not really again Fascism as far as I can tell...Jose , 11 June 2020 at 02:12 PMRegretfully, our intelligence agencies are too busy participating in the coup-revolution to act on your great advice.exiled off mainstreet , 11 June 2020 at 03:46 PMPlus this is an existential war for the deep state. They have the most to gain and the most direct interests in winning. Just don't be blind to the underlying motivations - there are no coincidences, right? Past is prologue - get a copy of the 2012 Breitbart documentary "Occupy Unmasked". The similarities exposed to what is again happening in 2020 will give one pause.Posted by: Deap | 11 June 2020 at 02:38 PM
If the deep state can't pr won't handle it, perhaps vigilantes can come in from the surrounding areas to liquidate the seditious secession move. It is obvious that the official elements of the imperium have left the reservation so an unofficial initiative is necessary.
[Jun 12, 2020] Tucker The world welcomes its newest country
Jun 12, 2020 | www.youtube.com
Widget222 , 16 minutes ago (edited)
Guy A. White , 16 minutes agoSo they walled off the anarchist camp in Seattle. They put up walls . Such hypocrites!
J A , 17 minutes agoCan we legally invade as citizens
Widget222 , 16 minutes ago (edited)The military needs to go into Seattle and put a very firm stop to that mess.
So they walled off the anarchist camp in Seattle. They put up walls . Such hypocrites!
[Jun 12, 2020] What was this about
Jun 12, 2020 | turcopolier.typepad.com
UNCLASSIFIED
CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHEFS OF STAFF
WASHINGTON DC 2011S-SM9
MEMORANDUM FOR CHIEF OF STAFF OF THE ARMY
COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS
CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS
CHIEF OF STAFF OF THE AIR FORCE
CHIEF OF THE NATIONAL GUARD BUREAU
COMMANDANT OF THE COAST GUARD
CHIEF OF SPACE OPERATIONS
COMMANDERS OF THE COMBATANT COMMANDS
SUBJECT: Message to the Joint Force
1. Every member of the U.S. military swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution and
the values embedded within it This document is founded on the essential principle that all men
and women arc bom free and equal, and should be treated with respect and dignity. It also gives
Americans the right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. We in uniform - all branches,
all components, and all ranks - remain committed to our national values and principles
embedded in the Constitution.2. During this current crisis, the National Guard is operating under the authority of state
governors to protect lives and property, preserve peace, and ensure public safety.3. As members of the Joint Force - comprised of all races, colors, and creeds - you embody the
ideals of our Constitution. Please remind all of our troops and leaders that we will uphold the
values of our nation, and operate consistent with national laws and our own high standards ofMARK A MILLEY
turcopolier , 11 June 2020 at 04:56 PM
General, U.S. ArmyAllwalrus , 11 June 2020 at 05:24 PMLooks to me like CJCS was eliciting support from those who control troops. I wonder what else he has been doing.
This was a test - and Trump has failed it. His authority is consequently shot and he doesn't appear to have the will to reassert it (the memo is over a week old now). The soft coup just got a whole lot harder. Are we looking at the leader of a military junta?Fred , 11 June 2020 at 05:30 PMPosted by: Barbara Ann | 11 June 2020 at 05:16 PM
By this memo CJCS has thrown in his hand with the coup. He claims to have a higher loyalty than obeying the CinC. This is what all militaries do when they get involved in revolutions.
What this means in practice is that the military will no longer obey orders from the CinC that are not approved by Antifa and its chief supporter in Congress - Pelosi. That means that Trump is effectively a prisoner in the Whitehouse if Antifa decides to keep him there. To put that another way, you can forget the National Guard assisting the police.
Expect other officials to follow Milleys lead shortly unless Trump successfully fires Milley and reassert his authority. What follows next is renewed civil disobedience and breakdown of law and order including demanding Trump resign, in response to which the police can do nothing and the troops will do nothing.
Trump will then be urged to go "for the good of the country". We have scripted such morality plays in foreign countries ourselves.
Col. Lang, can you archive your blog overseas?
Looks like a 7 Days in May sedition letter.turcopolier , 11 June 2020 at 05:37 PMallVegetius , 11 June 2020 at 05:39 PMIt means that the JCS Chairman is as historically and culturally literate as a social justice warrior."Equality" does not appear in the US Constitution, nor does "equal" except in so far as it refers to procedural and organizational matters.
This idiot appears to have confused the Declaration of Independence with a governing document.
No wonder we don't win wars any more.
[Jun 11, 2020] Soros Steyer exposed as backers of 'paramilitary' left-wing group in undercover Project Veritas
Soros is actually a specialist in supporting color revolutions and played an important role in financing of both Ukrainian Maidans. As such he is closely connected to CIA and the State Department.
Proposals for the CHAZ flag – featuring pink umbrellas and the black stenciled fist so familiar from "color revolutions" around the world – also point in that direction.
Still farce remains a farce, not matter how hard some people try this is not a revolution, this is a controlled opposition to Trump.
Jun 11, 2020 | www.rt.com
As part of its series of undercover videos exposing left-wing organizations like Antifa, Project Veritas released footage claiming to show far-left Democrat activists bragging about George Soros funding and political connections. Tom Steyer – who unsuccessfully campaigned for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination for 2020 – and liberal financier George Soros are both named as financial contributors in the new clip on Refuse Fascism, an organization dedicated to removing President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence from office.
Andy Zee, national organizer for the group, mentions during the seven-minute video that Steyer "may not want to be directly connected" to the group because he has "political ambitions" that may be hurt by such a relationship, but Zee says the group is in communication with Steyer's assistant and "main adviser on impeachment."
Also on rt.com Antifa 'fight instructor' tells prospective rioters how to cause 'CRIPPLING PAIN' to victims in Project Veritas exposé (VIDEO)Zee also mentions that past employees of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign have also been involved in the group.
Tee Stern, head of the group's Atlanta chapter, is seen eating dinner with undercover Veritas reporters at another point, and reveals the group received a "grant" from controversial billionaire Soros.
Silicon Valley is also mentioned as a major source of income for the group.
Stern later makes repeated calls for "thousands of people, then millions" to "come into the streets" and act as a disruptive force until the president is made to leave office.
BREAKING: George Soros and @TomSteyer named as financial supporters of @RefuseFascism national organizers"We did get a grant from [Soros]""We're trying to meet with @TomSteyer has political ambitions...not want to be directly connected" #DefundAntifa pic.twitter.com/7cBIcPjrsp
-- Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) June 11, 2020The video is the third part in a series from Veritas meant to expose left-wing organizations like Refuse Fascism and Antifa, groups that are behind or are part of many of the ongoing protests across the US.
Refuse Fascism is a group gaining more and more attention from conservatives. Author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza described them as part of a left-wing "paramilitary force" this week.
Also on rt.com 'Practice the eye gouge': Project Veritas claims to have INFILTRATED ANTIFA, will 'expose its violent nature'"The left has deployed a paramilitary. They literally have a paramilitary force on the street. It's not just Antifa. It's all the other groups: Refuse Fascism, Black Lives Matter, and on it goes," D'Souza said .
Previous Veritas undercover videos exposed Antifa members promoting violence like eye-gouging and even fight training for upcoming protests.
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[Jun 11, 2020] George Floyd didn't deserve to die, but it's WRONG that he's being hailed as some sort of saint
Jun 11, 2020 | www.rt.com
The Black Lives Matter campaign is correct to demand justice for George Floyd's brutal death. But trying to turn this violent ex-con into a Mandela-like martyr does this crusade a great disservice.
I wonder what ran through George Floyd's terrified mind during those agonising eight minutes and 46 seconds. Did his life flash before his eyes?
Perhaps he was a religious man and – realizing his number was up after he mumbled those famous last words : "Please, I can't breathe!" – he silently prayed to God for help, or maybe even made an act of contrition.
But Floyd sadly hadn't got a prayer with such a sadistic b*****d kneeling on his windpipe and literally sucking the life out of him, while three of his colleagues – who had undertaken an oath to protect and serve – didn't lift a finger to help.
ALSO ON RT.COM CANDACE OWENS slammed as 'WHITE SUPREMACIST' and 'RACIST' for declaring George Floyd 'not a martyr or hero'However, it's not right that he is now being canonized by the liberal left in their Black Lives Matter campaign, because the truth is: this ex-con who has been described as a "career criminal" was certainly no saint, judging by his past sins – which include aggravated robbery, theft, criminal trespassing, and drug-related arrests.
Floyd's "violent criminal past" once saw him break into a pregnant woman's home and point a loaded gun at her unborn child as he demanded money and drugs from her. It's hard to imagine just how terrified his helpless victim must have felt with a firearm pressed against her unborn child.
Perhaps Floyd – seeing as he was apparently a loving father – was racked with guilt about that particularly callous crime, right up until the very end.
It's also very possible that there weren't any profound thoughts running around his head considering he might have been high at the time of his death. The autopsy report discovered he had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system at the time of death (as well as Covid-19).
This type of evidence hardly suggests a "changed man," as is being claimed by liberals and their media outlets, who are being allowed to run with this false narrative without being pulled up on it. Come on! I mean, how can a drugged-up man with a violent past be absurdly portrayed as a "gentle giant" ? As the black conservative activist Candace Owens, who is now being pilloried for speaking her mind, mused , "Was he really going to turn things around? It's just not true."
If there is an all-forgiving God – and only Floyd knows the answer to that question now – he would have certainly been welcomed through those pearly white gates. But the last thing the Almighty would've ever contemplated would be how to turn this particular sinner into a saint.
ALSO ON RT.COM All is forgiven? 'Racist' Romney hailed by media & #Resistance, heckled by everyone else, for marching with BLMIt's nothing short of ridiculous that he is being hailed as a "mentor to a generation of young men." I can't believe the false hagiography, coming from a liberal agenda wishing to use him as a propaganda prop, is being bought hook, line and sinker by a gullible public. As Owens said, "George Floyd was not a good person. I don't care who wants to spin that, I don't care how CNN wants to make you think that he had just turned his life around."
Similarly, you'd have to question if the Alt-Right try to use his death to their own advantage, which no doubt Donald Trump will attempt to do during the upcoming presidential election. There's clearly already been a dirty tricks campaign to smear and demonise Floyd, judging by some of the disgusting memes about his death, and there's also been some unnecessary information stuck up online about him apparently appearing in a sordid pornographic film – with the graphic footage itself being passed around for sickening laughs on WhatsApp in recent days.
Floyd does not deserve to have his name dragged through the mud, but he also shouldn't be falsely portrayed as a prophet either, if society wants to properly mourn and protest against the gruesome manner in which he was cruelly taken from this world. There needs to be a middle ground here.
At the end of the day, it would be a fantastic tribute if his violent death radically shakes things up and actually helps to finally amputate, once and for all, everything that is rotten at the core of America's soul.
But we must not turn him into a saint because, sorry, the truth might hurt here, but – given his track record – it's not unfair to say he himself could conceivably have been involved in the looting and rioting that's ripping apart America.
Owens' comment that "the fact that George Floyd is held up as a martyr sickens me" was most certainly OTT, to say the least. But – apart from the insensitive timing of broadcasting such contentious views just before the poor man was being buried – I really don't understand all the hullabaloo about most of her other views on his death.
Whatever way you spin it, she was right in saying that Floyd is not a martyr – not in the true sense of the definition , which is "a person who is killed because of their religious or other beliefs." He was not like Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, both of whom were willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of their causes. It's an insult to their memories to even mutter Floyd's name in the same breath as theirs – with no disrespectful pun intended there.
I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but even I'm beginning to wonder if his death might not have even been racially motivated and was perhaps something more sinister, given the fact that Floyd and his killer's paths had crossed when they both worked security at the same club.
ALSO ON RT.COM 'If you think I'm racist, go f*ck yourself': Anthony Joshua hits out after backlash over 'abstain from their shops' commentsOwens was also correct when she said that other ethnic minorities, such as Jews or Hispanics, would not have embraced someone who had done "five stints in prison" as a hero. The truth is, Floyd was nothing more and nothing less than an unfortunate victim, if you want to put a label on him.
Owens – who as an African-American herself is allowed to vocalize her thoughts in a way that I would be crucified for doing as a so-called privileged white man – explained: "[Black Americans] are unique in that we are the only people that fight and scream and demand support and justice for the people in our community who are up to no good."
It would be a great disservice to the memory of Floyd if in 50 years' time schools kids were to crack open their history books and read a distorted account of his true story.
I've no doubt there was some good in the man, but it's pushing the boat out if he ends up on tacky t-shirts with an iconic-style image of him with a halo over his head. Floyd was not even an iconoclastic figure out there fighting the good fight, never mind some kind of a religious icon.
Either way, let's hope his six-year-old daughter Gianna will grow up to be able to genuinely repeat these poignant words : "Dad changed the world." It will still be a proud legacy for her to cherish, but let's stop with all this nonsense of putting this victim up on a pedestal. He was not a saint in life, so let's not make him one in death.
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[Jun 11, 2020] Time to Sharpen Our Weapons and Wits by Glen Ford
Junk article that promotes black as it they are new proletariat. Kind of rehashing of Marxism on the foundation of black racism with blacks as new "progressive class" fighting for its liberation. But from whom? IfF they want the liberation from financial capital, this is stupid -- they act as a Trojan force of financial capital avtilve splitting people who are able and willing to fight neoliberalism along racial lines. Actually "white supremacy" is pretty ingenious neoliberal propaganda trick. It helps to divide lower income people along racial lines, while doing nothing to address the redistribution of the wealth under neoliberalism. such a perfect smoke screen.
But two point made at the end are worth repeating
That fact that Black politician betrayed black voters and now are asking them to support Creepy joe is not surpzing on bit. It is a part of neoliberal system when politicians serve the financial oligarchy.
Jun 11, 2020 | www.blackagendareport.com
The term "Black Power," as we learned in the Sixties, can be misused in myriad ways. Black Democratic Party loyalists claim that Blacks were empowered by voting for Joe Biden in huge numbers in the primaries, thus saving his presidential candidacy. "Hands that once picked cotton, now pick presidents," the Black Democrats exult, as if power flows from abject servitude to the corporate dictatorship. In reality, Black voters gave the presidential nomination to a politician who claims he "wrote" the crime bill that resulted in the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of Black people; whose opposition to single payer health care guarantees that Black people will continue to die disproportionately from damn near all causes; and who opposes defunding the police, a minimal demand of the current mass movement.
The oligarchs that rule the country and control both of its corporate parties and all of its major media want the people to believe that politics is limited to the electoral process, and that street activism, labor militancy and community organizing are outside the realm of "real" politics. The events of the past ten days have proven the opposite: that massive street actions and unrelenting people-pressure can yield far better results than decades of pulling levers for corporate duopoly candidates.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at [email protected].
[Jun 11, 2020] 92 shot, 27 Fatally, In Chicago's Most Violent Weekend of 2020: The roots of the inner city violance it go much deeper and are much more complex then the behaviour of police
Neoliberalism and organized crime are twin brothers. Unemployment creates fertile ground for gangs recruitment. The increase in size of gags provokes fight for the territory.
Saw an article from a retired cop comparing themselves with doctors, which I am one, and the accidental or negligent deaths in the latter profession and how the society has come to accept those deaths.
Jun 11, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
450.org , Jun 10 2020 21:46 utc | 36More concern trolling. I find this tragic and horrifying, truly. It's taboo to talk about it or mention it though, because if you do, regardless of who you are, you will be branded a racist and the killing will continue because the issue is too sensitive to discuss intelligently and constructively with those who have an agenda. It's clear militarized police forces and more brutal police enforcement isn't the answer to this. The roots of it go much deeper and are much more complex.
92 shot, 27 Fatally, In Chicago's Most Violent Weekend of 2020
At least 50 other people were hurt by gun violence across Chicago between 5 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday.Last weekend, Chicago saw its deadliest Memorial Day weekend in five years with 10 shot dead and 39 others wounded.
The answer is, obviously, to pretend it's not happening. Of course, to all those who are dying, it's all too real.
450.org , Jun 10 2020 22:17 utc | 38
karlof1 , Jun 10 2020 22:47 utc | 42@31, concern trolling my ass, you sick f*ck. All of this is interrelated. No one said a damn thing about blacks being more violent than anyone else. It's disingenuous of you to claim I am what you have claimed I am. I am not that. Not by any stretch.
This is real. This is happening and it's all-too-often overlooked because it's a difficult problem that persists because it doesn't lend itself to an easy fix. Yes, it is an issue of class and this is a class war of which racism is a tool used by the elite to divide and conquer.
While the gunfire is particularly pervasive in certain distressed and disinvested parts of the city, it can arise anywhere, though some neighborhoods remain comparatively safe. Some residents ponder leaving, while others live in constant fear that their family will fall victim next -- and for good reason.Peter Moskos, a Baltimore cop turned criminology professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he estimates, based on census data and the city's elevated rates of gun violence, that upwards of 10% of black men in the most violent neighborhoods of East and West Baltimore will be shot dead, most before they turn 35.
"It's hard to fathom," he said.Those in its path say the violence comes like a tornado: Sending shrapnel in all directions, it is impossible to ignore and crushing in its impact.
For some, it's a repeated horror.
"This violence will tear your family apart," said Arnetta Brown, 55, whose 28-year-old son, Brian Simms Jr. was fatally shot in the city's Edgecomb neighborhood in 2013, and whose 16-year-old grandson, Markell Hendricks, was fatally shot in Franklin Square in March.
"This violence will suck all the breath out of your body and will wake you up in the middle of the night and make you think you're suffocating," Brown said.
For you foreigners, I highly suggest you watch The Wire in its entirety. It's one of my favorite series of all time. It's an education. You can't help feel for the characters. They are victims of their circumstances for sure, because they have no options.
450.org @36 & 38--
Yes, the widespread censoring of the real amount of gun related violence committed within the Outlaw US Empire is totally counterproductive and was replaced by all the "cop reality shows" populating cable TV, which I liken to the lurid penny press True Crime and Police Gazette types of publications for the masses.
I do think all the violence has produced one positive outcome: The realization by the vast majority that the Outlaw US Empire has a very sick, dysfunctional society & culture that's anything but Civilized.
For me, that's been apparent since the mid-1960s not long after 11/22/1963 and confirmed beyond doubt on 4/4/1968 when I was just 12. The national heritage of the Outlaw US Empire is one of slaughter, oppression and exploitation that's ongoing, although it seems to have slowed some.
One big problem is many people don't want to know about their reality and how they contribute to its perpetuation, although that too seems to be changing somewhat.
Perhaps its the lack of sports distractions at all levels that's forced more people to look in the mirror and their community to see what's been there all along for the first time. But whatever the reason, I welcome the admittedly unfocused social ferment--For an Empire that promotes Chaos, that Chaos is now growing within I see as a welcome turn of the screw.
@karlof1
Just read that "History of Policing" article you recommended. Amazing stuff. Pretty clearly devastates the notion that police are even remotely effective at dealing with crime - and were never intended to be. This equates with the experience in Europe especially as it relates to the history of anarchism in Europe.
So I double down on my anarchist line: The only good cop is a dead cop.
Going further with my "human nature is the problem" philosophy, I think the description of events in the History of Policing article demonstrates that "American democracy" was basically dead by the mid-1800's. As I've noted before, it was actually basically dead in the late 1700's - both before and after the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were created, as a result of the economic elites being opposed by the lower classes leading to riots that resulted in the suspension of habeas corpus - by one of the "Founders", no less.
The "American Dream" is almost like the Zionist dream of a "Fortress Israel" protecting Jews from harm forever: a complete fantasy that never had any possibility of being realized, any more than Hitler's dreams of Germany dominating the world.
People keep thinking "all we have to do is..." - and it immediately founders on human nature. This is why I'm a radical Transhumanist - only the complete supersedence of human nature offers a way forward.
And the fact that less than 1 in a million humans agrees with that is proof of the point.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jun 11 2020 0:13 utc | 47
karlof1 #22
Yes, "organized crime" was developed by the police and their politico allies as further means of social control and to augment their salaries. Still happens today with the nation's supposedly most important intelligence agency--CIA--being the most formidable criminal organization on the planet.
Thanks for that fascinating post karlof1, I suspect that in the early 1900's those USA scientists collaborating and learning alongside Pavlov's experimental lab were also developing theories of social control and practising various stimulus on animals and perhaps people. It is very important to remember that Pavlov spent three decades and more exploring the ways conditional reflexes could be created, refined and nullified.
That is a prodigious effort and must have produced some extraordinary talking points at the various conferences and science symposia of the day.
The escalation in direct home attacks on USA lands by 'rogue' terrorists and 'psychotic' shooters has severely heightened fear and loathing and demand for police effectiveness. But that expectation of effectiveness is confronted and rejected as policing declines every year and public mass shooting increases.
The public drooling for a better world remains incessant and yet entirely frustrated - just like a dog.
There seems to be some mighty sinister experimentation being played out on the USA public. A thorough reassessment of USA published papers and the labs that foster wide social experiments derived from Pavlov and his successors seems well past due.
The policing practice in the USA is grotesquely distorted from its primary social need or purpose and it is way past time to reign it in and refocus. Policing should never be about assaulting civilians for trivia even if they pass a miserable counterfeit $20 bill or sell a cigarette or get noisy at a demonstration. In my land there are large numbers of counterfeit bills in circulation but the big distributers and printers get busted NOT unwitting civilians.
The many reports of police setting out rocks and pavers etc to enable destruction by passing agents provocateur or angry people is a blatant indicator of a malign instruction set within policing. This evidence alone is sufficient to warrant a major judicial inquiry in some rational form. I saw one video from Canada that was simply extraordinare as to police methodically wandered around a public park gatherin rocks and piling them on a cairn on the roadside in advance of a passing demonstration against police violence.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 11 2020 1:54 utc | 61
... ... ...
When the societal order breaks down the predators amongst us have free reign to have their way with the sheep. If it finally comes to that, those of us sheep still alive and well will rue the day we celebrated tearing it all down.Be careful what you wish for. A coercive power will always eventually emerge in society and the new one may not be so benign compared with the one currently being pilloried based on the presentation of selective facts. There was a reason the French people turned to Napoleon after many years of chaos and REAL blood flowing in the streets from the Revolution. But since we can’t ask them, just ask an average citizen of Hong Kong who actually lives there what the recent “democracy” demonstrations in that country were like and how the CCP looks good now as a result.
Posted by: Activist Potato | Jun 11 2020 2:03 utc | 63
As Jimmy Dore pointed out in his recent videos, it is the *system* that prevents police from being professional. Cops who *do* want to "protect and serve" are weeded out. And the history article shows that this is based on the history of the country. It is endemic and can't be corrected by half-measures.
"Good people would not be attracted to the profession if it were otherwise."
But they don't stay. They either become corrupted or they leave. Perhaps a handful of "good cops" remain. Remember the history article mentioned the Knapp Commission in New York in the 1970's. I remember reading once that the Commission found that *every single cop in New York* was on the take. Not a few "bad apples" - *every single cop*. That can't be explained by the "few bad apples" trope.
"When the societal order breaks down the predators amongst us have free reign to have their way with the sheep."
No one is denying that there are predators. The predators were *created* by the system that runs this country. But in the end, it comes down to the people to deal with those predators. It's like the movie, "The Magnificent Seven" (the original, not the remake). This was an explicitly anarchist movie - and a right-wing anarchist movie at that. Bandits (representing the state) coerce a small village to hand over most of their crops to feed the bandits (i.e., taxes.) The people raise a little money and hire seven American gunslingers to take on the bandits. This might be considered the equivalent of the anarchist "private protection agency" concept. The gunslingers initially set the bandits back on their heels, but are eventually put in a bad situation by the bandits, and are on the verge of losing. But the people, emboldened by the example of the gunslingers, take up whatever weapons they have and attack the bandits themselves, defeating them.
This is what *has* to happen. Except, to quote Percival Rose yet *again*: "That ain't gonna happen." And the reason once *again*: human nature. As someone once said, if you made an average American President, he would govern like Idi Amin.
"pilloried based on the presentation of selective facts."
Now you've drifted off into complete bullshit. The history of the US - and the history of the state and society everywhere - is overwhelmingly against your thesis.
"There was a reason the French people turned to Napoleon after many years of chaos and REAL blood flowing in the streets from the Revolution."
And there was a reason the Paris Commune arose. And a reason it was suppressed by corrupt police. History doesn't start where you want it to.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jun 11 2020 2:50 utc | 68
[Jun 10, 2020] It's an insult to George Floyd, to his name and his legacy, that we're not using his death to talk about blacks murdering blacks and what needs to be done to reverse the epidemic.
Jun 10, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
450.org , Jun 10 2020 18:17 utc | 8
This aspect and legacy of George Floyd is being repressed and suppressed by #BlackLivesMatter. Blacks are killing each other in epidemic numbers and it's via gun violence. Floyd preached against this and lamented it. It's part of his legacy. Where are the protests against this? #BlackLivesMatter, right? Of course they do, and they matter just as much when a black person takes another black person's life.George Floyd: An anti-gun activist who preached peace, love and God
In an undated post on social media, George Floyd, who worked as a mentor to young people, condemned gun violence: "I got my shortcomings and my flaws, and I ain't better than nobody else. But, man, the shootings that's going on, I don't care what religion you're from or where you're at. I love you, and God loves you. Put them guns down."Floyd's anti-gun activism attracted the attention of two Houstonians, hip-hop artist and entrepreneur Corey Paul and Pastor Patrick "P.T." Ngwolo, who were looking for contacts in the Third Ward for their social justice religious outreach. "We were extremely fortunate to meet George," Corey Paul said on the Democracy Now! news hour. "George was already preaching peace, love, God, unity, advocating against gun violence before we showed up. So, when we got there, George basically said, 'If it's God business, then it's my business.'"
It's an insult to George Floyd, to his name and his legacy, that we're not using his death to talk about blacks murdering blacks at an epidemic rate and what needs to be done to reverse the epidemic.
Homicide Is A 'Devastating Plague' On Black Communities, And It Is Time We Stop Ignoring It
Piotr Berman , Jun 10 2020 18:54 utc | 16
@450.org | Jun 10 2020 18:00 utc | 2It is also a demand that, in insisting that for all intents and purposes police violence must be seen as mainly, if not exclusively, a black thing, we cut ourselves off from the only basis for forging a political alliance that could effectively challenge it. All that could be possible as political intervention, therefore, is tinkering around with administration of neoliberal stress policing in the interest of pursuing racial parity in victimization and providing consultancies for experts in how much black lives matter.5
There is some truth to it. However, this argument is based on a premise, largely correct, that the racist white majority will be oblivious as long as it is "black problem". It reminds me when many years ago Republicans wanted to semi-privatize Social Security, cutting the guaranteed benefits etc. In their propaganda, they invented the argument that this would benefit Blacks because they contribute the same share of income as everyone else, or more on the average (this tax is somewhat regressive), but benefit less because of lower life expectancy. The support for the reform in Southern states
(most conservative) collapsed.Many comments on the root causes mentioned the misbegotten "qualified immunity" doctrine that lets the official kill, endanger lives etc. with impunity. For example, a recent killing in Louisville was outrageous, because of some faint suspicion that a home can be a place where a drug trafficker keeps his drugs, police invaded that home in the middle of the night without knocking, the boyfriend of the young women shot at them -- people are invading the house, and the police responded with a hail of bullets killing the sleeping woman. This is a very extreme and dangerous version of a "search". Apparently, lower level police has a latitude how to conduct a search, and the proposed reform was to require that "no knock" search has to be approved by the chief of police. However, no hair could fall from his head if he/she would rubber stamp such request (making stupid decisions that put lethal risks on citizens is legal). Almost, as a political appointee, police chief can be fired more easily.
Qualified immunity puts many people at risk, live, limb and property, and it has extensive libertarian criticism. The rot in American justice system is wider and identified in many studies, and it has to be reviewed on political arena. However, "law on order statist bias" is bipartisan, e.g. some outrageous Supreme Court decisions on "qualified immunity" had only two dissents, Sotomayor (leftmost) and Thomas (rightwing and libertarian).
[Jun 10, 2020] Floydgate and "concern trolling"
Jun 10, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Daniel , Jun 10 2020 21:20 utc | 31
@8 450.orgIt's an insult to George Floyd, to his name and his legacy, that we're not using his death to talk about blacks murdering blacks at an epidemic rate and what needs to be done to reverse the epidemic.This is called "concern trolling."
Bringing up black on black violence is a popular tactic amongst racist elements of the right to deflect attention from the gratuitous brutalization and murder of unarmed black folk at the hands of American police officers. It also implies that there is an inherent, genetic disposition towards violence that is unique to people of African descent which, of course, is a cornerstone of anti-black racism.
I do however agree with people like Adolph Reed Jr. that the overemphasis on race when talking about police violence is counterproductive and serves to obscure the class dimension of this epidemic. The fact is that the victims of police violence in the US are overwhelmingly poor. Not many middle- or upper class people, whether black white, Latino or any other ethnicity, are boot stomped or killed by cops.
Identity politics based on race and gender gets a lot of support from the liberal mainstream and is relentlessly promoted by pro-capitalist, pro-Democrat media. Adolph Reed calls the identitarian left the "left wing of neoliberalism" because they completely ignore the overwhelming role class plays in determining who gets shafted by the system. It's not that racism isn't real, it certainly is, and the mechanism by which people under a capitalist system get excluded from society and discriminated against is always economic.
But making it all about race, and only race, keeps focus away from the brutal reality of poverty under capitalism and this very much serves the interests of the establishment, hence its enthusiastic support of identity politics.
Reed recently got "cancelled" by the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) and accused of being a "class reductionist", a charge leveled by identitarians against anyone they accuse of giving insufficient attention to race and gender issues.
The American left is failing, and will keep failing, until it can extricate itself from the clutches of identity obsessive (and the Democratic Party). You can't build a mass movement by selectively fighting for rights based on the racial or gender characteristics of the people being victimized. Recognizing the racist aspect of police violence is fine but if the argument is ultimately framed as "end police violence against African Americans", as it currently is, the unspoken implication is going to cause problems.
Race essentialism, which used to be the domain of the racist far-right, is now embraced by the mainstream American liberal "left" which has lost, or never even learned, how to view capitalist society through the lens of class analysis. It's kind of ridiculous that all these bourgeois activists and academic cultural theorists call themselves leftist and Marxist but recoil in horror when someone mentions class. How can any politics that excludes criticism of capitalist class relations call itself left wing or Marxist? It's a farce.
Making race/gender essentialism the cornerstone of "the left" makes working class solidarity impossible, keeps the left weak and divided and benefits the neoliberal capitalist Democratic Party. The spectacle of white protestors literally bowing down in front of their black counterparts perfectly encapsulates why identity politics and race essentialism are epic strategic failures.
It implies a racial hierarchy that is inherent and fixed regardless of an individual's actions or mindset. It makes being white an "original sin" that even the best intentioned white person cannot escape.
This makes solidarity and building a working class movement with mass appeal impossible, it serves the interests of neoliberalism and capitalist imperialism, it makes "multicultural" friendships and are relationships all but impossible and it is rocket fuel for the racist far-right because race essentialism is their bread and butter. It can't be overstated how incredibly f*****g toxic and counterproductive this is. Yeah, lecturing working class white people who have been under the capitalist boot for decades that they are unfairly privileged and guilty of oppressing "minorities" just by being born is sure to win them over. Yet this nonsense is embraced by the American and, increasingly, by the European left as the core of their politics while capitalism, economics and class analysis are ignored or sneeringly dismissed as things only "white brocialists" care about. It's going to get very ugly and the racist right is going to swell its ranks while the liberal "left" helpfully blows its own feet off with both barrels.
[Jun 10, 2020] The level of aggression in the US has always been high.
Jun 10, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
somebody , Jun 10 2020 22:07 utc | 37
Agree. The level of aggression in the US has always been high.Last time I looked this was solved by neutering social movements and destabilizing black communities via drugs.
Frankly, an economic situation like this has led to secession in Europe. Trump seems to intentionally provoke it.
Related to these shifts have been dramatic demographic changes. In just a decade, Democratic-voting districts have become strikingly better educated and more diverse. For example, Democratic-voting districts have seen their share of adults with at least a bachelor's degree rise from 28.4% in 2008 to 35.5%.For their part, Republican districts have barely increased their bachelor's degree attainment beyond 26.6% and have meanwhile become notably whiter and older.
Today, therefore, neither party represents the same types of places it did just 10 years ago. As such, the Democratic Party is now anchored in the nation's booming, but highly unequal, metro areas, while the GOP relies on aging and economically stagnant manufacturing-reliant rural and exurban communities.
What might these divides look like in the future? It's hard to imagine the current extreme shifts going much farther. The concentration of more than 70% of the nation's professional and digital services economy in the territory of one party would seem to register an almost unsustainable degree of polarization.
[Jun 10, 2020] Defining social control as crime control was accomplished by raising the specter of the 'dangerous classes.'
Notable quotes:
"... You think, should the police go on strike, it will be kumbaya? If the police leave an area who fills the vacuum? This will destroy poor neighbourhoods not make them any better. ..."
Jun 10, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
karlof1 , Jun 10 2020 19:00 utc | 17
14 Cont'd--Another important excerpt from the liked essay @14 that's highly informative:
"Defining social control as crime control was accomplished by raising the specter of the ' dangerous classes .' The suggestion was that public drunkenness, crime, hooliganism, political protests and worker 'riots' were the products of a biologically inferior, morally intemperate, unskilled and uneducated underclass . The consumption of alcohol was widely seen as the major cause of crime and public disorder. The irony, of course, is that public drunkenness didn't exist until mercantile and commercial interests created venues for and encouraged the commercial sale of alcohol in public places. This underclass was easily identifiable because it consisted primarily of the poor, foreign immigrants and free blacks (Lundman 1980: 29). This isolation of the 'dangerous classes' as the embodiment of the crime problem created a focus in crime control that persists to today, the idea that policing should be directed toward 'bad' individuals, rather than social and economic conditions that are criminogenic in their social outcomes .
Of course, none of the above is ever related via media when discussing the overall issue--that it began as a class/immigrant/racial issue is suppressed so the root of the problem doubly emphasized above is never discussed and is thus another component in the longstanding Class War. Another input never considered is the many penny press True Crime and Police Gazette publications that twisted the minds of the gullible during the period from 1880-1930, which today are present in the all too many cop "reality" shows on TV, although some are now finally being pulled from broadcast.
karlof1 , Jun 10 2020 19:10 utc | 19
Piotr Berman @16--vk , Jun 10 2020 21:30 utc | 34 somebody , Jun 10 2020 21:34 utc | 35"Qualified immunity" is clearly unconstitutional as it violates the 4th, 5th, and 7th Amendments, and has no place in settled law. It will enter the dust bin just as non-majority verdicts in jury trials did.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 10 2020 21:01 utc | 29I wonder. People usually need the police to feel safe. If the police can feel safe in a country where everyone may carry a gun or not is another matter.
What is the position of black and brown policemen on this? They seem to be underrepresented in the police force but not non-existant .
38 police officers killed in the line of duty in 2019
The manner of the deaths doesn't follow any pattern, said Robyn Small with the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Some officers died responding to robberies or domestic disturbances. Others were ambushed.Overall, that's less than last year -- 47 officers were gunned down by the end of 2018, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
You think, should the police go on strike, it will be kumbaya? If the police leave an area who fills the vacuum? This will destroy poor neighbourhoods not make them any better.
[Jun 10, 2020] The ruling class only needs one tactic: divide and rule. and blacks against whites is a perfect for them outcome of the Floygate
Notable quotes:
"... the media deserve no pity, they made their allegiances clear (for the millionth time) with Assange. ..."
Jun 10, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Rae , Jun 10 2020 20:48 utc | 28
The ruling class only needs one tactic: divide and rule.But how do I try to explain that to a black 16 year old math student who has recently started looking at me with murder in his eyes? Everything i can think of just sounds like a cliche.
Also... the media deserve no pity, they made their allegiances clear (for the millionth time) with Assange.
[Jun 10, 2020] New York police chief accuses media of treating police like animals
Jun 10, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Mao , Jun 10 2020 18:06 utc | 3
WATCH: New York police chief accuses media of treating police like ANIMALS
[Jun 10, 2020] 'Suffocating' Violence: Despite National Trend, Killings Increase In Baltimore Through First Half of 2019
Jun 10, 2020 | www.baltimoresun.com
While the gunfire is particularly pervasive in certain distressed and disinvested parts of the city, it can arise anywhere, though some neighborhoods remain comparatively safe. Some residents ponder leaving, while others live in constant fear that their family will fall victim next -- and for good reason.
Peter Moskos, a Baltimore cop turned criminology professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said he estimates, based on census data and the city's elevated rates of gun violence, that upwards of 10% of black men in the most violent neighborhoods of East and West Baltimore will be shot dead, most before they turn 35.
"It's hard to fathom," he said.
Those in its path say the violence comes like a tornado: Sending shrapnel in all directions, it is impossible to ignore and crushing in its impact.
For some, it's a repeated horror.
"This violence will tear your family apart," said Arnetta Brown, 55, whose 28-year-old son, Brian Simms Jr. was fatally shot in the city's Edgecomb neighborhood in 2013, and whose 16-year-old grandson, Markell Hendricks, was fatally shot in Franklin Square in March.
"This violence will suck all the breath out of your body and will wake you up in the middle of the night and make you think you're suffocating," Brown said.
[Jun 10, 2020] Deeper roots of police violence is enforcement of the neoliberal regime with its sharply regressive upward wealth redistribution
Notable quotes:
"... There is no need here to go into the evolution of this dangerous regime of policing -- from bogus "broken windows" and "zero tolerance" theories of the sort that academics always seem to have at the ready to rationalize intensified application of bourgeois class power ..."
"... It is also a demand that, in insisting that for all intents and purposes police violence must be seen as mainly, if not exclusively, a black thing, we cut ourselves off from the only basis for forging a political alliance that could effectively challenge it. All that could be possible as political intervention, therefore, is tinkering around with administration of neoliberal stress policing in the interest of pursuing racial parity in victimization and providing consultancies for experts in how much black lives matter.5 ..."
Jun 10, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
450.org , Jun 10 2020 18:00 utc | 2
Here's Adolph Reed keeping it real. He's being viciously attacked for it. Go figure. Stands to reason. No quarter for the truth.To Adolph Reed, amen brother. Amen.
How Racial Disparity Does Not Help Make Sense of Patterns of Police Violence
What is clear in those states, however, is that the great disproportion of those killed by police have been Latinos, Native Americans, and poor whites. So someone should tell Kai Wright et al to find another iconic date to pontificate about; that 1793 yarn has nothing to do with anything except feeding the narrative of endless collective racial suffering and triumphalist individual overcoming -- "resilience" -- popular among the black professional-managerial strata and their white friends (or are they just allies?) these days.What the pattern in those states with high rates of police killings suggests is what might have been the focal point of critical discussion of police violence all along, that it is the product of an approach to policing that emerges from an imperative to contain and suppress the pockets of economically marginal and sub-employed working class populations produced by revanchist capitalism.
There is no need here to go into the evolution of this dangerous regime of policing -- from bogus "broken windows" and "zero tolerance" theories of the sort that academics always seem to have at the ready to rationalize intensified application of bourgeois class power, to anti-terrorism hysteria and finally assertion of a common sense understanding that any cop has unassailable authority to override constitutional protections and to turn an expired inspection sticker or a refusal to respond to an arbitrary order or warrantless search into a capital offense.
And the shrill insistence that we begin and end with the claim that blacks are victimized worst of all and give ritual obeisance to the liturgy of empty slogans is -- for all the militant posturing by McKesson, Garza, Tometi, Cullors et al. -- in substance a demand that we not pay attention to the deeper roots of the pattern of police violence in enforcement of the neoliberal regime of sharply regressive upward redistribution and its social entailments.
It is also a demand that, in insisting that for all intents and purposes police violence must be seen as mainly, if not exclusively, a black thing, we cut ourselves off from the only basis for forging a political alliance that could effectively challenge it. All that could be possible as political intervention, therefore, is tinkering around with administration of neoliberal stress policing in the interest of pursuing racial parity in victimization and providing consultancies for experts in how much black lives matter.5
Mao , Jun 10 2020 18:06 utc | 3
WATCH: New York police chief accuses media of treating police like ANIMALS
[Jun 10, 2020] Why the new phase of the Americana color revolution won't be televised by Pepe Escobar
The race war is used to divert energy from the possibility of a true class war. A class war where the working classes and middle classes unite in revolt against the banker elite blood sucker class
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
...massive cognitive dissonance is the norm across the full "strategy of tension" spectrum. Powerful factions pull no punches to control the narrative. No one is able to fully identify all the shadowplay intricacies and inconsistencies.
Hardcore agendas mingle: an attempt at color revolution/regime change (blowback is a bitch) interacts with the Boogaloo Bois – arguably tactical allies of Black Lives Matter – while white supremacist "accelerationists" attempt to provoke a race war.
To quote the Temptations: it's a ball of confusion .
Antifa is criminalized but the Boogaloo Bois get a pass ( here is how Antifa's main conceptualizer defends his ideas). Yet another tribal war, yet another – now domestic – color revolution under the sign of divide and rule
... ... ...
...Those defending the US Army crushing "insurrectionists" in the streets advocate at the same time a swift ending to the American empire.
Amidst so much sound and fury signifying perplexity and paralysis, we may be reaching a supreme moment of historical irony, where US homeland (in)security is being boomerang-hit not only by one of the key artifacts of its own Deep State making – a color revolution – but by combined elements of a perfect blowback trifecta: Operation Phoenix ; Operation Jakarta ; and Operation Gladio .
But the targets this time won't be millions across the Global South. They will be American citizens.
Empire come home
Quite a few progressives contend this is a spontaneous mass uprising against police repression and system oppression – and that would necessarily lead to a revolution, like the February 1917 revolution in Russia sprouting out of the scarcity of bread in Petrograd.
So the protests against endemic police brutality would be a prelude to a Levitate the Pentagon remix – with the interregnum soon entailing a possible face-off with the US military in the streets.
But we got a problem. The insurrection, so far purely emotional, has yielded no political structure and no credible leader to articulate myriad, complex grievances. As it stands, it amounts to an inchoate insurrection, under the sign of impoverishment and perpetual debt.
Adding to the perplexity, Americans are now confronted with what it feels like to be in Vietnam, El Salvador, the Pakistani tribal areas or Sadr City in Baghdad.
Iraq came to Washington DC in full regalia, with Pentagon Blackhawks doing "show of force" passes over protestors, the tried and tested dispersal technique applied in countless counter-insurgency ops across the Global South.
And then, the Elvis moment: General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, patrolling the streets of DC. The Raytheon lobbyist now heading the Pentagon, Mark Esper, called it "dominating the battlespace."
... ... ...
The late, great political theorist Sheldon Wolin had already nailed it in a book first published in 2008: this is all about Inverted Totalitarianism .
Wolin showed how "the cruder forms of control – from militarized police to wholesale surveillance, as well as police serving as judge, jury and executioner, now a reality for the underclass – will become a reality for all of us should we begin to resist the continued funneling of power and wealth upward.
ORDER IT NOW"We are tolerated as citizens only as long as we participate in the illusion of a participatory democracy. The moment we rebel and refuse to take part in the illusion, the face of inverted totalitarianism will look like the face of past systems of totalitarianism," he wrote.
Sinclair Lewis (who did not say that, "when fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and waving the cross") actually wrote, in It Can't Happen Here (1935), that American fascists would be those "who disowned the word 'fascism' and preached enslavement to capitalism under the style of constitutional and traditional native American liberty."
So American fascism, when it happens, will walk and talk American.
[Jun 10, 2020] There were no initial " .peaceful Minneapolis protests
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
anastasia , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 11:42 am GMT
j" .slightly before the first peaceful Minneapolis protests ."The writer is hallucinating. The first protest in Minneapolis was hundreds of people with backpacks in front of the CUP Food Store on May 26th during daylight. The death occurred between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. the night before. The media said they were from out of town. How they got there so fast should leave people to wonder.
By May 28th, they already burned the Precinct down. Before then, they were looting, destroying stores in the town.
There were not initial " .peaceful Minneapolis protests".
[Jun 10, 2020] There's not a white nationalist in sight. These are young blacks in alliance with disillusioned young whites (more than 50% and few Antifa).
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Miro23 , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 1:13 pm GMT
@Robert DolanThe zio-globalists are scared of the protests?
WTF?
The zionist media CAUSED the protests. They engineered the whole thing. They incited the negroes and loosed them on our cities.
How do you not see this?
The MSM story is White Supremacists attacking innocent black victims. This isn't it. There's not a white nationalist in sight. These are young blacks in alliance with disillusioned young whites (more than 50% and few Antifa).
What the ZioGlob/MSM wants is Charlottesville (Antifa vs. White Supremacists) for their white on black violence meme – not this. This looks like youth (under cover of the George Floyd story) vs. the state – which in 2020 happens to be the ZioGlob.
– If it was planned, the MSM would have the whole story at high volume from day one.. In the event they were silent. They ignored the riots until they couldn't.
– The riots forced their pre-planned Covid-19/China attack off the front pages, and basically wrecked their whole Covid-19 anti-China psyop.
– Now that the ZioGlobs are the government they don't like the unpredictable/ out of control street action – that was for their anti-Anglo campus days. If they had organized it, they wouldn't have smashed up their own CNN offices.
[Jun 10, 2020] Follow the money: International Bankers have financed everyone from Lenin, Mao, and Hitler. They are financing BLM and Antifa.
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Old and Grumpy , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 2:08 pm GMT
Shall I get the manure spreader? International Bankers have financed everyone from Lenin, Mao, and Hitler. They are financing BLM and Antifa. So given what I know about fascism, doesn't it mean the white founding stock is slated for extermination by the corporate socialist (AKA fascists) minions? You see we're already fascist. Started with Lincoln, went big time with the Fed creation, and the project was completed with Reagan. We pesky little holdovers from an ancient time, need to go. Can't have any private ownership or freedom of anything. Also the revolution will absolutely be televised. Not so much with what your beloved China is currently doing with the Uighurs or on the border with India. Kinda odd how what is happening here is just like Mao's cultural revolution. Curious indeed, but hey the Silk Road II.PS I refuse to make anything for Apple in the FEMA reeducation camps. Nor am I assigning blame to China. They just do what their multinational corporate masters tell them.
[Jun 10, 2020] The police will not be disbanded, they will be REPLACED by NKVD-style terror outfits that will abduct, torture, and murder massive amounts of innocent people
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Wood Stove , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 9:07 am GMT
Exactly none of this is about disbanding the police.America is being intentionally destabilized and primed for crisis by the democrats. The republican's lack of opposition is complicity in this horrific conspiracy.
Air travel is still banned, churches closed, and there is insurrection in the streets and sedition in the mass media.
This is a Bolshevik style revolution with Bolshevik style terror and mass murder to follow if we sit by.
The police will not be disbanded, they will be REPLACED by NKVD-style terror outfits that will abduct, torture, and murder massive amounts of innocent people.
[Jun 10, 2020] Candace Owens claims BLM riots 'destroyed MORE black lives' than cops have in a DECADE -- RT USA News
Jun 10, 2020 | www.rt.com
Candace Owens has stoked the fire amid the protests at George Floyd's death, after she spoke against the Black Lives Matter movement, claiming riots have "destroyed more innocent black lives" in a month than cops had in a decade. "Fact: Black Lives Matter riots have destroyed more innocent black lives in the last month, than white police officers have in a decade," Owens tweeted on Wednesday.
Fact: Black Lives Matter riots have destroyed more innocent black lives in the last month, than white police officers have in a decade.
-- Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 10, 2020Owen's declaration has earned plenty of pushback from liberals on social media, something the conservative commentator is no doubt used-to at this point.
"Putting 'Fact' in front of a bs statement doesn't make it fact," one user tweeted .
"Why do you CONTINUALLY post your opinions as facts?" another replied .
Though Owens does not specify how "innocent black lives" had been destroyed amidst the protests across the nation, multiple people have died during demonstrations, including a retired black officer named David Dorn in St. Louis, a death highlighted by President Donald Trump. Black restaurateur David McAtee was also shot and killed this week, with preliminary reports stating the bullet came from the Kentucky National Guard.
In follow up tweets , Owens called BLM a "terrorist group funded by white Democrats" and saying she does not relate to Floyd or others simply because they are black.
"I'm always confused by people who say things like 'Don't you see yourself in George Floyd.' No. Why? Do all White people see themselves in Ted Bundy? Do all Chinese people see themselves in Mao Zedong?" she tweeted . "If you expect me to relate to people based on skin tone, you're an idiot."
You are not by "brother" or my "sister" because we have the same complexion. My relationships are built on character. I have nothing in common with any person that pressed the barrel of a gun into a pregnant woman's stomache. Insinuating that I must, is racist.
-- Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 10, 2020Owens was previously blasted on social media as a "white supremacist" and "racist" for releasing a video declaring Floyd neither a "martyr" or a "hero," because of his criminal history.
I've had time to reflect on my video about #GeorgeFloyd and you guys were right -- I was very wrong. He went to prison 9 times, not 7. I missed two earlier convictions for theft and drugs. But he started a new chapter with meth & fentanyl -- so let's throw our hero 2 more funerals!
-- Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 9, 2020
[Jun 10, 2020] At the end it's a matter of power
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
jadan , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 9:08 pm GMT
@jadan Who's paying you, @Trinity? You want a race war? You've already got a police state. You've already got a boot on your neck one way or another. Feel safer? It's not a race issue @Trinity, it's a matter of power. You don't have any.
[Jun 10, 2020] If you think Minneapolis will never turn into Mogadishu it's coming
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
SeekerofthePresence says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 5:38 pm GMT
A 27-year cop on leaving the force
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/491422-i-my-colleagues-are-quitting-as-us-police-officers/
"If you think Minneapolis will never turn into Mogadishu – it's coming.
And when it does, remember what your complicity did.
This is the America that you made."
[Jun 10, 2020] There's no such thing as 'the police'. There are street cops, detectives, forensic investigators, etc. There are shades of 'the police'.
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
RoatanBill , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 12:03 pm GMT
Both sides have it wrong and are talking past each other.There's no such thing as 'the police'. There are street cops, detectives, forensic investigators, etc. There are shades of 'the police'.
Defund street cops and leave the rest of the infrastructure alone. The street cops are the ones in military garb roughing up the citizenry at every opportunity. They also happen to be absolutely useless in deterring crime or fighting crime as the riots so aptly demonstrate.
The police departments are majority street cops that are incapable of performing their advertised duty simply because they are almost never there when a crime occurs. Showing up after the fact to haul the body away is something anyone can do. Seriously considered, the average street cop does nothing positive for the community and is always the source of some police incident. Communities could save a fortune in salaries and bloated pension plus reduce their law suit exposure by simply eliminating the street cop position because it's a legacy of days gone by.
Allow the citizenry to assume street cop duties by simply being armed to protect themselves and their property. It's the cheapest solution and one that has the best potential to provide street justice to the human trash in the society.
[Jun 10, 2020] Racial tensions are amplified to divert attention from Wall Street's relentless thievery.
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Repeat: "The American Left maintains its relevance by sustaining social and racial tensions that draw attention away from Wall Street and its crimes."
Get it? In other words, racial tensions are amplified to divert attention from Wall Street's relentless thievery. That doesn't mean that the killing of George Floyd should be ignored, only that it should be put in perspective. Wall Street's illicit maneuverings have netted Big Finance somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 trillion during the Coronavirus lockdown. Meanwhile working people received a paltry $500 billion in $1,200 payouts and unemployment compensation, barely enough to scrape by the 10 weeks of quarantine. At the same time, the Fed has backstopped every sector of the capital markets assuring investors that prices will remain permanently inflated while the real economy plunges into a second Great Depression. All told, the Wall Street bailout is the biggest ripoff in American history and it continues as we speak.
At present, we have not yet felt the sting of recession or seen the vast damage the lockdown has inflicted on the economy. But the day of reckoning is fast approaching. Many of the states are drowning in red ink, their only option will be excruciating belt-tightening measures that savage social programs and essential services for the needy, the elderly, and schoolchildren. The exploding national debt will require the same medicine from Capitol Hill. As soon as the ballots are counted in November, both parties' leaders will demand severe budget cuts and austerity measures to trim the deficits and impose fiscal discipline. These draconian steps will further widen the gaping chasm between rich and poor exacerbating social tensions and creating a permanent underclass willing to work for pennies on the dollar. All of these things will happen, and soon.
Are liberals prepared to fight this class war that could be just weeks away or will they choose to become even more irrelevant by promoting policies that only prove they are unfit to lead?
In my opinion, liberalism is a spent-force, a misdirected social dogma that has lost its luster, an idea whose time has passed. Let's admit it, the zeitgeist has changed, it's a different world now, and different ideas will be needed to shape events.
[Jun 10, 2020] Marx would be spinning in his grave
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
[If you listen to BLM] the Straight-White-Gentile-Male (increasingly white women of this classification also) is the designated "oppressor". Everyone else, to one degree or another, are the oppressed class.
[Jun 10, 2020] What are chances of BLM and antifa against FBI? Probably less than zero because they infiltrated both long ago
Note also that so fat the FBI has not arrested any member of Antifa
Realist , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 2:47 pm GMTJun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Bill H , says: Show Comment June 4, 2020 at 5:34 am GMT
Yes, another "Occupy Wall Street" moment. The US Congress screwed the taxpayers, so the revolt took the form of sitting in a park in New York and claiming it as an "occupation" of Wall Street while roasting marshmallows and singing songs.Anonymous [391] Disclaimer , says: Show CommentNow, the police kill a black man so, white people and black people burn churches and loot department stores.
If you're going to have a revolution, you need to figure out who to revolt against. The oligarchs are safe, because the idiots who make up the population of this benighted nation can't figure out who their enemy is.
@Anonymous... ... ...
contempt for the concept of a representative democracy. Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1976 and exacerbated by continuing stupid SCOTUS decisions First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission.
These decisions have codified that money is free speech thereby giving entities of wealth and power almost total influence in elections. By gaining control of the SCOTUS the Deep State is able to further their goals.Another take on the Deep State:
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/14/understanding-the-deep-states-propaganda/
[Jun 10, 2020] The Deep State doesn't care about the unimportant internecine squabbles of the two parties as long as their important issues are advanced
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Realist , says: Show Comment June 4, 2020 at 11:46 pm GMT
@RabbitnexusThere have been ZERO differences seen from the point of view of anyone but an American. The rhetoric changes but that's nothing.
Yes, the DNC and GOP are two sides to the Deep State coin.
The Deep State doesn't care about the unimportant internecine squabbles of the two parties as long as their important issues are advanced (wealth and power). As a matter of fact it strengthens the false perception that there is a choice when voting.
[Jun 10, 2020] The race war is used to divert energy from the possibility of a true class war. A class war where the working classes and middle classes unite in revolt against the banker elite blood sucker class
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Malla , says: Show Comment June 4, 2020 at 9:32 am GMT
The race war is used to divert energy from the possibility of a true class war. A class war where the working classes and middle classes unite in revolt against the banker elite blood sucker class. Not a fake Marxist "revolution' funded by those same banker classes around the world but a true Nationalist Socialist revolution.peter mcloughlin , says: Show Comment June 4, 2020 at 10:52 am GMTAnd that is why you have non-Whites in Western countries. To deflect the anger of the White native/ majority masses against the blood sucker banking elites.
Remember the Jews in those ghettos in medieval Europe always afraid of the European peasants, tired of the exploitation by an alien obnoxious elite, taking up rakes and torches and marching to dislodge the parasites. Those "dumb uncouth Redneck" Euro peasants, how dare they protest their exploitation by us chosen people, wise sophisticated people (smelly sophisticated people with loads of lice in hair)? There was once a famous Euro peasant revolution incident with the Cossacks revolting, the whole Hitler revolution was one such recent incident.Oy Vey, that may happen again!!! Well now you have black and brown immigrant masses, they shall act like bodyguards, as bouncers against the exploited Euro peasants, descendants of those earlier redneck Euro peasants of Europe. That is one reason why most of these financial capitals like London, New York, Paris are so diverse, in other words have a large number of body guards and less Euro peasants. The Euro peasants are away somewhere in the rural area, in some Whitebread land. Their expositors are safe in their ghettos (New York) surrounded by bodyguards (brown blacks). Let the dumb White, brown, black goyim get at each other and expend energy while we remain safe.
It is surprising how the social dynamics of medieval Europe continues in North America with the descendants of tribesmen in Africa as new entrants as shocktroopers for an eventual Jew Raj Orwellian Satanic Communist revolution and body guard/bouncer population. Those blacks were in plantations before, their descendants are today in a more dangerous plantation today, a mental plantation." When you don't have a Martin Luther King or a Malcolm X to fight the power, then power crushes you whatever you do."
Struggle is about power. Those with it desire to keep it: those without it desire a fair share of it. It's less to do with class, religion, politics or race. "A white president and a black president signed off on drone attacks on wedding parties in the Pakistani tribal areas." The fog of war keeps getting thicker, obscuring the apocalyptic conflagration mankind is stumbling towards.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
[Jun 10, 2020] You'll also want to remember how quickly the new aristocracy disenfranchised "the rabble" after they used them as fighters for independence from Britain
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Observator , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 12:00 pm GMT
If you know your history, you'll know the four men killed in the "Boston Massacre" in 1770 were primarily street hoodlums. Boston was not the godly Puritan city of 1630, but a bawdy seaport town whose major businesses were bars and whorehouses. Crowds of thugs had been harassing the men guarding the government house all that fateful day, jeering at them nonstop, throwing snowballs with rocks in them at the redcoats. Rather than hateful monsters, those soldiers were frightened teenagers drafted into military service, stationed in a wild land full of crazed ingrates three thousand miles from home.Yet from this large crock of manure, a new nation was born. Pay close attention. Whether George Floyd was a sinner or a saint, his death, like those of 1770, is birthing a new freedom, in a nation that is still packed to the gills with lawless lunatics.
You'll also want to remember how quickly the new aristocracy disenfranchised "the rabble" after they used them as fighters for independence from Britain. Of the three million souls then living in America, only some 42,000 were allowed to cast ballots in the first presidential election of 1788-89. More than one historical injustice promises to be righted by the new generation of young people, black and white together in our streets today.
[Jun 10, 2020] My cynicism causes me to wonder if the push to get White cops out of black city areas might not be a desire of the black criminal gangs to not have to shell out payoffs to White cops and perhaps, channel those payoffs instead to their black cop brothers?
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Tucker , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 11:29 am GMT
"This could be done in coordination with citizen panels appointed by the City Council. Third, departments could agree to police black neighborhoods exclusively with black cops whose conduct could be reviewed periodically by an independent citizen panel."I tend to lean in a favorable direction with regards to the idea that White cops should be relieved of the hazards of policing black neighborhoods. But, at the same time – I am extremely cynical about law enforcement in general and have read far too many stories over the last several decades where cops are caught up in corruption scandals that often inv0lve taking payoffs from drug pushers in these inner city, majority black cities and agree to look the other way and to not interfere with the illegal drug selling industry.
So, my cynicism causes me to wonder if the push to get White cops out of black city areas might not be a desire of the black criminal gangs to not have to shell out payoffs to White cops and perhaps, channel those payoffs instead to their black cop brothers? I mean, to get a preview of what kind of environment will likely fester and grow if blacks are given a complete dominance over policing in big cities with large black populations – and without any White oversight – just take a look at the big cities in the blue states today which are completely under the control of blacks. Black mayors. Entire city councils that are black. Nearly all city government positions filled by blacks. What do we see? We see corruption on a scale that rivals the most corrupt, black run, third world nations on the continent of Africa.
Lest anyone misunderstand, let me say that I am not trying to defend the right of corrupt and dirty White cops to continue to have access to black districts and be able to haul in payoffs. I'm merely floating a potential hidden reason behind this idea of only allowing black cops to police these areas and suggesting how it could create enormous corruption of law enforcement agencies.
[Jun 10, 2020] E. Michael Jones's Slaughter of Cities chronicles the dispossession of vibrant black neighborhoods so the University of Chicago could expand in that direction and get the land for free under the guise of "urban renewal."
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
DanFromCT , says: Show Comment Next New Comment June 10, 2020 at 8:24 pm GMT
@Alden E. Michael Jones's Slaughter of Cities chronicles the dispossession of vibrant black neighborhoods so the University of Chicago could expand in that direction and get the land for free under the guise of "urban renewal." Blacks never learn. The billionaires paying the bills of BLM like Soros will be able to buy up the property at ten cents on the dollar and get free money from the federal gov to "rebuild" what they paid BLM to burn down. The "education" bullshit will prove to be a once-in-a-lifetime boondoggle for the teachers' unions arranged by that diapered and toothless old hag Pelosi who's got the Republicans hiding under the bed. As with all welfare money allocated by Congress to aid blacks in need, fully 70 cents out of every dollar will go to white bureaucrats while the blacks can rot in hellish projects until election time when they're bused around town to vote as many times as they can during the day. Black Panthers in uniform and armed with rifles will be turning whites away from polling places again this November while the Republicans take a knee and concede the suburbs to mau-mau'ing blacks and the new Bolsheviks on the block, Antifa.
[Jun 10, 2020] The insident with Floyd was use be neoliberal MSM for nefarious purposes
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Delta G , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 2:56 pm GMT
@Ray Caruso Derek Chauvin is no Saint and neither is George Floyd. Both of these lower forms of humanity naturally interact because Police have to interact with Criminals. Officer Chauvin has had multiple complaints filed against him and yet continued to be employed and on the Street where he is most likely to have another problem. Mr. Floyd has a documented history of violent and dangerous criminal activity and frankly should have still been in prison for his assault with a deadly weapon.Epaminondas , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 3:55 pm GMTThese 2 individuals clearly illustrate the failed Criminal Justice System we currently have.
Why did Officer Chauvin not get moved to a desk job?
Why is Mr. Floyd out of Prison?
In my personal and professional opinion, Mr. Floyd likely died from his years of bad health, bad habits and drugs and almost certainly the drugs in his system at the time of arrest were a major factor in his death. (Officer Chauvin did not kill him.)
Officer Chauvin had some bad luck, but like the person who drinks too much and drives home sooner or later they are going to get into an accident because they are drunk. This would not be surprising to anyone who truly knows the individual. I am sure many of the other Officers of the MPD were not surprised Officer Chauvin was front and center when the perp went TITS UP. IF you skate on the thin ice or play close to the edge of the cliff, you are most likely to have it bite you compared to someone who does not live on the Edge.
The Societal Response to this demonstrates the level of insanity in the US and those of us who see it for what it is need to be prepared for the Shitstorm that is coming next.
@thordaddy "Americans are deeply troubled by the sadistic killing of George Floyd."Trinity , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 3:59 pm GMTNo. No we're not. We don't really give a shit. He was a thug killed by a pissant cop. Happens all the time.
@jadan blah, blah, blah.Ray Caruso , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 4:19 pm GMTHow many whites are slaughtered by blacks every year in america? In one year recently, there were 10 blacks that were killed by police officers, ( my guess is they were justifiable homicides in each case, for some reason blacks refuse to comply with a policeman's orders or they feel they can physically attack a cop with and suffer no repercussions.) Anyhow, in a recent year, i think it was 2018 there were 10 blue on black deaths compared to more than seven thousand black on black murders.
Now, lest we forget, while black on black crime is out of control, it often involves criminal blacks killing each other, lets talk about black on white violence in america and abroad. Tens of thousands of black on white rapes each and every year in america for decades.
A black man abducts a little white boy from his mother in the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and throws the defenseless child off a balcony. No protests for that little white kid and the black animal who did this only received a 12-15 year sentence.
A black woman abducts a 12 year old white kid in Texas and burns the boy to death with a blowtorch. The Wichita massacre, the christian-newsom murders, etc. , etc. The list goes on and on and none of these victims were committing a crime and all died much more horrific deaths than Saint George. Where was the outcry then, you hypocrite?
@Delta G Derek Chauvin must not have been fired or moved to a desk job because none of the previous complaints against him was substantiated. By the way, do you know if having 18 complaints during a 19-year-career as a police officer in an ultra-liberal city full of welfare-fed non-Whites with a vastly inflated sense of entitlement is really unusual? I don't, but I would guess it's not too much out of the norm. Don't misunderstand me: Derek Chauvin is not my hero or anything. In fact, I think he's rather a fool. But he probably should not be fired and certainly should not be incarcerated.SeekerofthePresence , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 4:46 pm GMTA Christian rebuttal to looting, rioting, and arsonvot tak , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 4:46 pm GMThttps://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/black-police-officer-lays-down-some-extreme-truth/
"City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, shares Bender's views on defunding the police department and issued the following incendiary statement on Sunday: "We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. And when we're done, we're not simply gonna glue it back together. We are going to dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response. It's really past due."Curmudgeon , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 4:46 pm GMTActually something like that is what needs to be done. The cops don't represent the communities they occupy, they enforce an authoritarian status quo. People wanting to correct this problem have realised reforming these cops is mostly a waste of time. We have been trying to reform the way cops police for decades with very little practical results. The cop problems communities have still persist. The cops refuse to be reformed. So they leave people little alternative, but to use their democracy, what they can of it, to clean house and rebuild a police service that represents their community and its needs. That's how things work in a real democracy, as opposed to the authoritarian oligarchy faking democracy that whitney is shilling for.
The part of whitney's article I quoted is as far as I got before I stopped wasting my time. The bias expressed is that of an establishment shill. The predominant theme of whitney's writing I've noticed over the years.
@Carlton MeyerI recall discussing police reform and he said the biggest problem was the union seniority system. This means the most mature and experienced cops spend their last decade in nice, quiet jobs at the airport, wealthy neighborhoods, desk jobs, and VIP escort duty.
Any "union seniority system" for work assignment is based on job vacancies. Obviously the sheriff deputy either was misleading you intentionally, or didn't have a clue about how the department ran. I have yet to meet a cop who applied for a job vacancy that didn't have an interview for that job vacancy. Obviously, if there is a vacancy, irrespective of the workplace, the senior applicants have a better chance of getting the job, because of their experience in doing police work. In the "old days", it was part of succession planning. Now, the whiz kid (or non-white gender fluid person) is the preferred candidate. To hell with experience.
I find it curious that it's always the police under scrutiny when the fire department operates in substantially the same way. The Captains and Inspectors/Fire Marshals aren't the ones with a couple of years on the job.
[Jun 10, 2020] The liberal idea has become obsolete
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Rahan , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 6:55 am GMT
-- "The liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population."Wakeupnow , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 7:16 am GMT-- "[It] presupposes that nothing needs to be done. The migrants can kill, plunder and rape with impunity because their rights as migrants must be protected. What rights are these? Every crime must have its punishment."
-- "Deep inside, there must be some fundamental human rules and moral values. In this sense, traditional values are more stable and more important for millions of people than this liberal idea, which, in my opinion, is really ceasing to exist."
Vladimir Putin
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/06/28/the-highlights-of-putins-liberalism-is-obsolete-interview-with-ft-a66207People unable to wrap their minds around a world without the monopoly on violence and the elites enforcers running amok make me nauseous https://theantimedia.com/does-community-defense-offer-a-safer-alternative-to-traditional-policing/
[Jun 10, 2020] Ironically, this whole 'defund the police' meme is a stalking horse for the privatization of law enforcement, which has been a libertarian dream for decades.
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Digital Samizdat , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 6:24 am GMT
Ironically, this whole 'defund the police' meme is a stalking horse for the privatization of law enforcement, which has been a libertarian dream for decades. Once again, the Dumb-o-crats are unknowingly pushing a "Koch Brothers' plan," as Uncle Bernie would say. Pitiful!Trump is in the catbird seat where he can lambast the "left" for their kooky "defunding" idea while promising to restore order by deploying the National Guard or the military.
That's where I disagree. Not sending in the Marines is the best thing that Trump has done so far in this case. These big-city Dumb-o-crat mayors and police chiefs would love nothing better than to dump their problems onto Trump's lap. And if The Donald falls for their ruse, they will brand him a 'military dictator' and use that against him in November. Worse still–for the rest of us–once the regular armed forces are occupying our streets, they will be used to force vaccinate all of us next year.
Don't do it, Trump!
[Jun 10, 2020] Resistance Is Futile. You will be assimilated.
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Agent76 , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 2:52 pm GMT
May 20, 2020 Anti-lockdown protests aren't just an American thing. They're a global phenomenonJust this month alone, thousands of people from Latin America to Europe have demonstrated against aggressive government policies intended to curb the coronavirus outbreak. They don't perfectly mirror the protests in the US, but there are some striking similarities.
May 11, 2020 Resistance Is Futile
You will be assimilated.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/XJYwGhS7fEo?feature=oembed
[Jun 10, 2020] 'Radical Chic' Still Cringey After All These Years
Jun 10, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
And "radical chic" was Wolfe's snarky label for rich people pretending to be revolutionaries, when, in fact, they were play-acting radicalism for the sake of raising their social status. That is, leftier-than-thou politics became a new sort of one-upsmanship.
As Wolfe explained, New York's socialites "have always paid their dues to 'the poor,' via charity, as a way of claiming the nobility inherent in noblesse oblige and of legitimizing their wealth." Continuing, he added, "In 1965 two new political movements, the anti-war movement and black power, began to gain great backing among culturati in New York."
As for black power, a mutant sprout from the civil rights movement, Wolfe allowed that "one does have a sincere concern for the poor and the underprivileged and an honest outrage against discrimination." And yet at the same time, "one also has a sincere concern for maintaining a proper East Side lifestyle in New York Society."
And part of that lifestyle-maintenance was espousing the right -- which is to say, trendy left -- positions on key issues. In Wolfe's words, the embrace of these causes served the purpose of "certifying their superiority over the hated 'middle class.'"
By now, the reader will have gathered that Wolfe was not a fan of such posturing. In fact, he was not only a poisoned-pen critic, but also a deep-dyed conservative.
..."Radical Chic invariably favors radicals," he wrote. It lionizes the the "exotic and romantic, such as the grape workers, who are not merely radical but also Latin; the Panthers, with their leather pieces, Afros, shades, and shoot-outs; and the Red Indians, who, of course, had always seemed exotic and romantic."
The most memorable quote was: 'He's a magnificent man, but suppose some simple-minded schmucks take all that business about burning down buildings seriously?'"In other words, radicalism is cool, but let's not let the schmucks get carried away -- at least not in my neighborhood.
Of course, protests do sometime get carried away; they turn into riots, destroy cities -- and generate fierce backlashes. And Wolfe, his rarified mien notwithstanding, was a part of that backlash.
Alas, Wolfe died in 2018, and so we can only imagine what he'd be writing, today, about Radical Chic 2.0.
In the meantime, radicalism is being funded and cultivated in Manhattan and other ritzy precincts -- not only in penthouses, but now, too, in corporate C-suites.
So perhaps there's a Tom Wolfe 2.0 out there, observing all this wealthy woke posing -- and hopefully recording it all on a surreptitious cell phone.
[Jun 10, 2020] A Glimpse Into Lawlessness: all means are good for Trump removal or defeat in 2020 elections by Matt Purple
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said, "A civil war is not a war but a sickness. The enemy is within. and this sickness in the USA stems from Clinton democrats and supprting them intelligence agencies, which try to cling to power by all means possible.
Notable quotes:
"... There's been a lot of loose talk lately about whether America is careening towards another civil war. The takeaway from last week should be: we'd damn well better hope not. ..."
"... Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said, "A civil war is not a war but a sickness. The enemy is within. One fights almost against oneself." Hence why civil wars -- from the Union and the Confederacy to the Republicans and Franco to Salva Kiir and Riek Machar -- have so often been so brutal. The body politic itself becomes dysfunctional, turning its own people against each other, its mediating institutions having broken down. ..."
"... Such wars, as Saint-Exupéry said, stem from deeper pathogens within. ..."
Jun 10, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
overwhelming support from Americans and even Republicans , it's worth asking what lessons we should take away.For some, answering that question will mean instinctively siding with law enforcement. For others, it will mean the opposite, standing in solidarity with Black Lives Matter. I don't think it's mushy bothsidesism to say that both have a point.
The anarchy of last week saw acts of violence against police and protesters.
In Oakland, two federal officers were shot and one died . In Buffalo, a 75-year-old man was shoved roughly by a policeman, leaving him bleeding on the ground with a head injury. In St. Louis, four officers were shot as riots raged across downtown. In New York, two police SUVs were caught on video plowing into a crowd of demonstrators. In Minneapolis, a police station was torched . And of course, in Washington, officers from a plethora of agencies forcefully cleared Lafayette Park of protesters, resulting in, among other things, an attack on an Australian cameraman.Amid such chaos, it's perfectly reasonable to yearn for both order and restraints on those who do the ordering. James Madison's famous dictum comes to mind here. Madison said, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary." And certainly that much was proven by the notably un-angelic actions of rioters, assaulting the innocent and burning shops. A world without law enforcement, where dialogue and community development dollars heal all ills while rainbows arc and dip, is a fantasy, one that would leave the poor and vulnerable at the mercy of the criminal and nihilistic. Yet we also can't forget that Madison added, "If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary." This part is less popular among the dopamine-addled right and the social engineering left. But it's true: government isn't the philosophical "state," an abstract force that can commune seamlessly with the good. It's a collection of men, entrusted with power and badges, prone to abuse the same as anyone else.
It took a government thug only eight minutes and a knee to touch off the worst civil unrest that America has seen in decades. And that's the trouble of it: neglect one side of the Madisonian formula and you're likely to negate the other. The common denominator is lawlessness. If the police act outside the law, that gives cause and license to rioters, which then elicits a more aggressive police response, and so on down the spiral. Violence feeds off of a vacuum. Those who seek peaceful change get lost in the smoke.
And therein lies an important lesson out of Minneapolis. A community might not be a social contract per se, but it does require a certain amount of buy-in from, and integration of, both the government and the governed. Lacking that, the two pieces drift apart and grow alien to each other. They become different entities, more likely to see the other as the enemy whenever there's friction. The federal government, giant and remote, is understandably viewed this way; the local policeman should never be.
There's been a lot of loose talk lately about whether America is careening towards another civil war. The takeaway from last week should be: we'd damn well better hope not. The riots, of course, did not amount to a war, but they did provide a glimpse into the kind of might-makes-right anarchy that characterizes internecine conflicts.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said, "A civil war is not a war but a sickness. The enemy is within. One fights almost against oneself." Hence why civil wars -- from the Union and the Confederacy to the Republicans and Franco to Salva Kiir and Riek Machar -- have so often been so brutal. The body politic itself becomes dysfunctional, turning its own people against each other, its mediating institutions having broken down.
Such wars, as Saint-Exupéry said, stem from deeper pathogens within.
... ... ...
Matt Purple seems pretty confident that the unrest is over with and I hope he's right. But this year so far has well exceeded my worst expectations and I'm a pessimist. We still have two major political conventions and an election to get through while foreign wars are still ongoing and there seems to be a major push on to abolish the police altogether. Even if the latter idea has considerable merit (and it may), under current circumstances it will simply mean the replacement of the police by heavily armed and ruthless gangs and militias. The body count will not remain low.Kirt Higdon
[Jun 10, 2020] Problem here that the George Floyd protestors/rioters are a happy counter-cultural mix of SJW, young blacks and young whites impossible to portray them as the white power KKK
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Miro23 , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 4:43 am GMT
@TGMiro23 , says: Show Comment June 10, 2020 at 5:04 am GMTAnyone saying that this is class war, is simply hiding behind their white privilege and denying the essential RACISM of the United States. That's the corporate meme. And it's probably going to work.
Problem here that the George Floyd protestors/rioters are a happy counter-cultural mix of SJW, young blacks and young whites – impossible to portray them as the white power KKK
In fact the RACISM shield doesn't work. The ZioGlob are left exposed, and in my opinion they're scared by these protests. If they crack down with the national Guard or the military it only makes the situation worse. Things polarize, with them being further identified as a privileged exploitative elite.
@Miro23Problem here that the George Floyd protestors/rioters are a happy counter-cultural mix of SJW, young blacks and young whites – impossible to portray them as the white power KKK.
Same way that the Polish communist government couldn't effectively attack the Solidarity worker's uprising. Government propaganda was designed to attack capitalists, exploiters of the working class etc. which didn't make any sense against shipyard workers.
[Jun 10, 2020] A counterterrorism expert on Laura Ingraham's show last Wednesday night encouraged viewers to do online searches of these 2 movements from the 60's since today's groups have similarities of ideology
Jun 10, 2020 | turcopolier.typepad.com
Valissa , 08 June 2020 at 09:10 PM
A counterterrorism expert on Laura Ingraham's show last Wednesday night encouraged viewers to do online searches of these 2 movements from the 60's since today's groups have similarities of ideology there goes history rhyming againThe Weather underground and their Prairie Fire statement https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3469-a-second-wind-for-weather-underground-the-prairie-fire-statement
The Black Panthers 10 point plan https://theblackdetour.com/black-panther-party-10-point-plan/
[Jun 10, 2020] The lunatics took over the asylum
Jun 10, 2020 | www.unz.com
Thomasina , says: Show Comment
[Jun 09, 2020] 'The purest of hearts and the most innocent of people can be drawn into committing . . . the foulest and most villainous act without being in the least a villain! . . . The possibility of considering oneself -- and sometimes being, in fact -- an honorable person while committing obvious and undeniable villainy -- that is our whole affliction today!'
Jun 09, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
n The New Criterion , Gary Saul Morson writes about 'Russia's most literate revolutionary,' Alexander Herzen:
Perhaps the best way to understand the psychology of radicals is to read accounts of former believers. In that classic collection of essays by disillusioned communists -- The God That Failed -- six major writers evoke what passionate belief feels like and analyze the kinds of thinking that sustain it. In the opening selection, Arthur Koestler describes the heady moment when 'the new light seems to pour from all directions across the skull; the whole universe falls into pattern like the stray pieces of a jigsaw puzzle assembled by magic at one stroke. There is now an answer to every question, doubts and conflicts are a matter of the tortured past' when one still lived among 'those who don't know .' One has at last achieved complete serenity and assurance, except for the 'occasional fear of losing faith again, losing thereby what alone makes life worth living.'
The most important lesson Koestler learned was what might be called 'preemptive refutation,' a series of techniques guaranteed to handle any counter-evidence. When, as a novice reporter for a communist paper, he pointed out that every word of a major story was false, the editor explained that Koestler still had the 'mechanistic' outlook instead of the proper dialectical one revealing what was 'objectively' happening. Once you have assimilated dialectics, Koestler explains, 'you were no longer disturbed by facts,' which fell automatically into place. The only remaining difficulty was adjusting to a rapid shift in the party line. Then you had to search your memory to convince yourself that you had always accepted the new truth. It's just what Orwell describes in Nineteen Eighty-Four : 'Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.' The whole process reminded Koestler of the croquet game in Alice in Wonderland 'in which the hoops moved around the field and the balls were live hedgehogs. With this difference, that when a player missed his turn and the Queen shouted 'Off with his head,' the order was executed in earnest.'
Dostoevsky, the only nineteenth-century thinker to foresee what we have come to call totalitarianism, drew on his own experience as a former revolutionary to represent the radical mindset from within. He asked himself: what would Russian intellectuals do if they ever gained power? And he realized that, although his generation was not as bloodthirsty as the radicals to follow, they, and he himself, could be drawn into committing horrible crimes in the sincere conviction that they were pursuing justice. The relative moderates, who above all want to dissociate themselves from the conservatives, can always be shamed into going along with anything. It is a mistake to think that the decent people we know would never endorse, let alone commit, vile deeds. 'And therein lies the real horror,' Dostoevsky explains. In Russia, and eventually everywhere, 'the purest of hearts and the most innocent of people can be drawn into committing . . . the foulest and most villainous act without being in the least a villain! . . . The possibility of considering oneself -- and sometimes being, in fact -- an honorable person while committing obvious and undeniable villainy -- that is our whole affliction today!'
Dostoevsky learned a great deal from Russia's most literate revolutionary, Alexander Herzen (1812–70), who died just a century and a half ago. Unlike Koestler, Herzen never renounced his faith in revolution, but he came to see its glaring flaws and ever-present dangers. His ironic dissections of revolutionary thinking and behavior cut to the heart of delusions that, in spite of all his insight, he never surrendered. Clinging to radical faith, he acutely probed his own mindset to show what made it so irresistible. 'There are few diseases so intractable as idealism,' he wrote. For him, revolution was the God that flickered.
[Jun 09, 2020] Top De What is the real reason of Floyd death: asphication or cardio pulmonary arrest?
Jun 09, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
xxx RobbieSmith 28 minutes ago
Floyd died of cardio pulmonary arrest caused by his fentanyl overdose.
Floyd's legal team will argue death was caused by "mechanical asphyxiation". They base that solely on the video. There is no physical evidence for it. The knee didn't leave any bruising. He fainted while he was still standing which indicates he had a problem related to blood flow to his brain. He also complained of breathing difficulties prior to application of restraint (which is intended to keep the perp from hurting himself). They will be eviscerated on cross.
Floyd's fentanyl level was 11 ng/mL. The average overdosage is 10 ng/mL (it varies based on the tolerance built up by the individual).
Further, this was complicated by his serious heart disease. Several of his key arteries were 75% blocked and one was 90% blocked. That alone was sufficient to cause death.
The officer's knee was not on Floyd's carotid. He was on the jaw bone and then backed off to the back of the neck when Floyd said he couldn't breathe. The knee was on the head, ear, and jaw but not throat. This is the technique taught at the FBI.
He died from cardio pulmonary arrest as the autopsy states. Murder 2 won't stick. The Blacks will riot again, as usual.
[Jun 09, 2020] Chicken and egg problem of black crime
Jun 09, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
Selvar • 21 hours ago • edited
stephen pickard Selvar • 18 hours ago"Systemic racism" is mostly an empty buzzword people on the left use to rationalize why racial inequality in social and economic outcome persists despite the success of the civil rights movement in establishing formal equality of rights under the law.
For example, black people are statistically more likely to be incarcerated or shot by the police than white people. However, according to left-wing egalitarian, blank-slate ideology, this could not possibly be due to the fact that black people have vastly higher crime rates than whites--so instead a nefarious, vaguely defined concept of "systemic racism" serves as an all-purpose rationalization for why different groups have different outcomes in society. At most, a typical leftist will acknowledge that blacks have higher rates of crime, but then proceed to blame it on poverty (which they naturally consider to be a legacy of racism). Of course, even when you control for poverty, group differences in incarceration (as well as other relevant social outcomes like education) still persist to a significant extent. As a result, many on the left feel an even greater desire to collectively scapegoat white people in order to rationalize this discrepancy between their egalitarian ideology and observable reality.
Basically, if certain minority groups fail to fully succeed in society, it must always be white people's fault. Among the identity politics left, this viewpoint is not considered a statement of fact about objective reality that can be confirmed or falsified. It is, in fact, a statement of dogmatic faith.
To me the way you form the issue is not the relevant one. Rather it is that the comparisons be based on factors that discount skin color. As long as we compare crime statistics to black versus white people, then there is an inherent racial bias.
One day we should be able to compare the drug problem in West Virginia with the drug problem in Chicago. Just the factors that do not require race as one of them. Perhaps when all factors are equal, then we can determine if the controlling one is poverty.
I think that is where black people would like to be. Determining their character, not their skin color. At least it seems some black man said that a while back. We should have listened to him.
[Jun 09, 2020] The "cost" to whites (and really to blacks as well) of social workers instead of cops illusion comes in the form of higher crime rates
Jun 09, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
Selvar engineerscotty • 20 hours ago • edited
massappeal Selvar • 18 hours agoThe "cost" to whites (and really to blacks as well) comes in the form of higher crime rates. After the civil rights movement helped put a dent in "racist" policing practices, crime increased for decades, and some inner city urban areas became practically unlivable as far as any kind of decent existence went. Furthermore, many black communities effectively chose to shelter the criminals as part of a "no-snitching" ethic, rather than cooperate with law enforcement. This got so bad that by the early 90s, there was enough political support (including among many black organizations) for increased policing and incarceration to be implemented.
Even in regards to the drug war, many forget that the crack epidemic saw horrible rates of violent crime among urban gangs fighting over turf. The problem was never a bunch of people peacefully smoking weed in their house. My theory is that the true purpose of the drug war (especially the harsh penalties for crack) was to put violent gangsters in prison on drug charges, since they couldn't be put away for murder due to lack of community cooperation with the authorities.
All the leftist ideas being advocated now in regards to law enforcement (i.e. social workers instead of cops, a naive belief that welfare programs could remove the need for police by addressing the "root causes" of crime, a belief that police should basically just back off, as opposed to proactively policing neighborhoods) were tried in the years 1961-1991. They had absolutely horrible results, especially for black communities.
Many are going to argue in response to this that mass incarceration and increased, proactive policing had little to do with the decades-long decline in crime. I would encourage you to look at the clear increase in urban crime after the Ferguson/Baltimore riots caused police to back off in a number of urban areas with high black populations. At the very least, any reform should be pursued carefully, or we risk reversing decades of progress in regards to lower crime rates and the gentrification/revival of American cities. Far more black lives would be ended as a result of an increase in crime and social dysfunction than are currently ended at the hands of the police.
Selvar massappeal • 13 hours ago • editedAssumes facts not in evidence. Violent crime nationwide has declined significantly for the past 30 years. It's increasingly likely that the most important reason for that decline is the decline in lead poisoning: https://www.motherjones.com...
massappeal Selvar • 13 hours agoThis is a very popular narrative, and it's easy to see why: it implies no trade-offs between the amount of policing/incarceration in society and the crime rate. I am not saying the decrease in lead levels did not contribute to the long term decrease in crime, but I think the increase in urban crime after the Ferguson/Baltimore riots shows that it's not the full story.
Selvar massappeal • 12 hours ago • editedThanks for your response. Any increase in crime after Ferguson and Baltimore has been, compared with violent crime rates in the 1980s, minor. Even with those increases, the violent crime rates nationwide remain significantly lower than they were a generation ago.
And increases in crime in the past few years have tended to be in cities (like Baltimore) where trust between the police department (and the wider law enforcement system) and the residents has broken down to a significant degree. (By contrast, for example, Camden, NJ is a much safer community than it was 10 years ago; a large part of the credit for that goes to the restructuring of the police department.)
I think the increase in violent crime that we saw after Ferguson/Baltimore is basically a small taste of what we are going to get as a society if the police are undermined in a significant way. Of course, we aren't going to return to the crime rates of the early 1990s overnight, but the point is that proactive policing does have a meaningful impact on crime rates. Now, that doesn't make every effort at reform illegitimate (and officers really do need increased accountability), but what I would argue is that there is a need to be careful in order to not break what has been painstakingly built. However, I am not seeing any kind of real caution or nuance among the "defund/abolish police" activist crowd.
Also, Camden actually put more officers on the street than before as part of its restructuring. How many BLM activists are on-board with that?
[Jun 09, 2020] What is 'Systemic Racism,' Really
Do Clinton neoliberals ("soft neoliberal" wing of the US elite) try to present blacks as the new proletariat who need to be liberated from their chains in order to get from Trump back political power they lost?
Jun 09, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
...t was a growing sense among middle-class voters in heartland America that something was seriously wrong with the country, that the nation's leaders were transforming America in bad ways and unraveling their future in the process. But there was no street protest or fiery rhetoric, no coalescence of civic activism or public demands. Certainly the mainstream media, so aligned with the country's elites, didn't detect anything of consequence bubbling up from within the polity. Why would they? Everything seemed fine to them.
Meanwhile, the disaffected merely bided their time, silently waiting for their opportunity to express themselves in the quiet sanctity of the voting booth. After they did, Donald Trump was the next president. Hardly anyone saw it coming.
Something similar is likely to happen in the wake of the widespread street demonstrations–with attendant riots, looting, destruction, and violence–that followed the awful death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a brutal police officer who pressed his knee against Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes.
Not surprisingly, public-opinion surveys showed widespread popular support for the peaceful demonstrations that were organized to honor the life and condemn the senseless death of George Floyd.
But the polls also demonstrated widespread indignation toward the rioting and looting. Thus, the civic drama that followed Floyd's death, including the sprees of destruction and increasingly aggressive rhetoric from the left, intensified some ongoing political tensions that lie at the heart of the country's current distemper. It accentuated the extent to which America is becoming two nations with two narratives about the times we live in and the problems we face.
One narrative, call it the liberal one, has been projected with increasing force in recent years and particularly since George Floyd's death. It is that America is an inherently racist country, infected with something called "systemic racism." You can't always see it; often it is hidden behind a facade of phony white benignity. But it lurks in the hearts of whites nonetheless and is activated in subtle ways to keep down minorities, particularly blacks, and make them feel inferior.
... ... ...
When the political reaction comes, as it inevitably will, it will come on little cat feet. And the nation's elites, secure in the thought that the systemic racism charge has worked brilliantly in intimidating any lingering dissenters into submission, won't see it coming.
It's an open question whether this can help Donald Trump in November. His is a failed presidency, and the collective electorate seldom rewards failed presidencies with retention in office. But down the road, as the issue intensifies and as white Americans feel increasingly beleaguered by the left's identity politics and disdain for Middle America, as more demonstrations and riots ensue with more destructive force, a counter-movement will emerge. It likely will approach the body politic as quietly as Sandberg's fog. But, once it arrives, it won't stay quiet for long.
Robert W. Merry, former W all Street Journal Washington correspondent and Congressional Quarterly CEO, is the author most recently of President McKinley: Architect of the American Century (Simon & Schuster).
massappeal JimBob777 • 13 hours ago
CMS massappeal • 10 hours agoHere's one article that addresses that issue: https://www.theatlantic.com...
P. S. For context, where I live the median white household wealth is roughly $250,000. The median black household wealth is $8.
massappeal CMS • 9 hours agoYour numbers are skewed (the source is crap by the way). Love the $8 by the way. Your callous disregard for the truth takes away from your argument. Look for the real numbers (by the way they are bad but not $8 bad).
Much better source and fairly bi-partisan
https://www.pewresearch.org...And much of that misses the entire point. You dont build wealth unless you have disposable income. Your AA stat is similar for whites with similar incomes. Surprise poor people dont have a lot of wealth (they live paycheck to paycheck). Surprise, on average black incomes are way lower than white incomes. Could it be because of broken families, poor educational achievement, and aspirations to being athletes and singers (rather than doctors) and the accordant high failure rate of that? Possibly. Oh and one of the better paying aspirations of some (gangster) are well paid but a cash business.
This is less about race and more about class. The numbers are not dissimilar for Hispanics and are far better for Asians? Sense a trend? The real issue is that the AA community has suffered from bad policies for 50+ years and that the victim culture does nothing to raise them out of that. Give them reparations (to the tune of $350K/person if you believe the BET dude's plan) and all it would do is result in a bunch of new MBs and BMWs floating around. Once those were gone nothing would change. Dont kid yourself that it would. If you think that is racist you need to look at what happens to pro athletes after they get out (bankruptcy). And a lot of other races would do the same thing with the money. That is why a handout isnt the answer.
michael day massappeal • 12 hours agoThanks for your response, but $8/household is the real number. Shocking? Yes. False? No. Here's the link to the study: https://www.bostonglobe.com...
CMS Weldon Goree • 10 hours agoHere are the facts, and I'm sure both sides can use the data to make whatever point they like.
First, the numbers depend on whether you exclude armed suspects killed by police. If you don't, then quite obviously, police kill many, many more people -- of all races -- than suspects kill officers. It's hard to know how many of these weapons posed serious, imminent danger to the office, but even so, if you brandish a weapon, especially a firearm, at a police officer, all bets are off.
Thus, when people make these comparisons, they generally speak of (i) police killings of unarmed suspects vs. (ii) suspects killing police officers. If you look at police killings of unarmed African-Americans vs. police deaths at the hands of African-Americans, it appears that for 2019, it's exactly even. According to the FBI database, African-American suspects feloniously killed 15 police officers in 2019.
https://ucr.fbi.gov/leoka/2...
This could be slightly higher, as there were 5 police deaths resulting from felonious actions where the race of the suspect was not reported.
Likewise, according the the Washington Post database, police shot and killed 15 unarmed African-Americans in 2019.
https://www.washingtonpost....
(use the "unarmed" search and go through the 2019 killings)
This also could end up being slightly higher, because the WaPo occasionally adds newly-discovered shootings to the database.
So there are the numbers for both of you. Now you can go ahead and talk past each other again :)
IvaBiggin2121 PTar • 14 hours agoThe relevant numbers are unarmed and those are FAR lower than 250. If you are armed and dont drop it on the ground when asked you are asking to get shot. It would be like asking the gangbanger at a drug buy to drop his gun when you were pointing one at him (not gonna happen).
This presumption of innocent intent is all crap. Over half of ALL violent/property crime in the US is commited by AA men. Fix that. Doing that would save thousands of black lives. But nobody wants to talk about black men killing other black men. There is no money or power in that.
JimmyCrakCorn stephen pickard • 16 hours ago • editedthere have been several police EXECUTED due to this democrat sponsored nightmare. These un-associated cops were married, they had kids, they had friends, but no one mourns the cop doing his duty.
DID the white cops go out and tear apart businesses, break into stores, loot the property of minority store owners, beat people who got in their way or act exactly like a pack of hyenas, calling in more hyenas to assist their criminal behavior, ( thank you twitter, facebook ) ???
jayseedub JimmyCrakCorn • 14 hours agoExactly. Something helpful I've seen floating around is the premise that "Black Lives Matter" has an implicit "Too" at the end. It's not that black lives are more important than other lives, because of course, all lives do in fact matter. But there's a disproportionate threat to black lives within the system we currently inhabit, and that demands more rigorous attention. Saying "All Lives Matter" is the equivalent of demanding the fire fighters douse every house on the block with water while your neighbor's house burns. Of course everyone's house is important and should be protected, but they're not the ones on fire right now.
EPFOA stephen pickard • 14 hours agoI liked your metaphor--but it's really not what is going on.
Saying "Black Lives Matter" *WHILE* rejecting (yes, rejecting!) "All Lives Matter" suggests favorite or special treatment. Saying "All Lives Matter" means that when ANYONE's house is burning, it gets the fire department--not that the fire department sprays water equally when there is no fire.
What you describe is the concept of "equity," and why it's a failure. Metaphorically , the left wants equal water attention from the fire department, even when nothing's burning. That's "equity" to them. Everyone gets the same, regardless of need or demand, so everything is equal. Equal outcomes--everyone's house is wet.
CMS EPFOA • 10 hours agoThe opposite of Black Lives Matter is not all lives matter. It is so what he died, it doesn't matter. George Floyd and many other black victims of police violence had lives that mattered to someone. They were fathers, daughters, mothers, etc. Their lives mattered. Black Lives Matter is a means by which to say, nigh yell, Black people are full human beings and when they die there is no less pain and no less a loss then if a white person were to die.
Jonathan Galt Gregtown • 16 hours ago • editedAgreed. AND someone needs to think the same about the THOUSANDS of blacks killed by black men every year. Fix that and a lot of this goes away.
jayseedub Gregtown • 15 hours ago • editedBlacks get killed by cops at a lower rate than whites by every meaningfull measure. Black Lives Matter is a race baiting phrase used by Democrats to incite racism, and is a code phrase for "hate white people." Screw them and screw you.
Tallman • a day ago • editedIt's entirely NOT toxic to me. That it is "toxic" to SOME people is the sad and wrong thing.
All lives matter. ALL. No joke, no irony, no nuance.
And shame on anyone trying to caution me or silence me from asserting it.
Bring the mob on, if they disagree with that. I want to see the idiots for myself--they shouldn't hide in any shadows. If they don't think ALL lives matter, I want to know who that Nazis or Antifa, or whatever look like.
Mr Merry points the liberals' unreasonable portrayal of blacks and other minorities as these unfortunate victims that just can't seem to get a fair shake in America because of the privilege of whites. Then he finds it more reasonable to assert that it is actually whites who just can't seem to get a fair shake in America because of those other people.
The author is just another part of the problem. This fire doesn't need anymore fuel, sir.
[Jun 09, 2020] St. George was apprehended for an alleged criminal act. He was lawfully taken into custody, and given a lawful order to get into the police car. When he became violent and refused to follow the lawful order, he was lawfully restrained using Police Department approved restraining techniques
Jun 09, 2020 | www.unz.com
Curmudgeon , says: June 8, 2020 at 6:28 pm GMT
@fnn and file a complaint at a later time. Failing to comply is always problematic.I'm always surprised at people's reactions when you ask if they let their kids do whatever they want, and get away with not following "the rules". I have yet to hear one say yes. What they do to enforce it, may or may not be legal, but they will enforce. Isn't enforcement of the rules what we ask police to do? If they do it according to the law and their "rules", there should be no consequences for them. If they don't follow the "rules" and/or do it illegally, there should be.
Justice is a process, not a result.
[Jun 09, 2020] The cult of oppressed black and the USA efforts into ameliorating the material conditions of disadvantaged ethno-racial groups
Jun 09, 2020 | www.unz.com
Fluesterwitz , says: June 7, 2020 at 10:43 am GMT
@reiner Tor the material conditions of disadvantaged ethno-racial groups, specifically blacks. By now it should have become clear that, while material conditions did improve, these improvements are not perceived as such. Basically, the corporate media/culture industry propagandize blacks about their continuing oppressed victim status while the dysfunction (whatever the reasons) of black communities foils whatever material improvements have been achieved. Accordingly, given what they are shown and told, it is not irrational for blacks to demand equality. Even if that means that all others must be as miserable as they are.Observator , says: June 7, 2020 at 12:33 pm GMTAaronB , says: June 7, 2020 at 12:33 pm GMTIt does not matter whether Mr. Floyd was a model citizen or pimping your mom: he was extralegally executed by four policemen. Funny how people who endlessly yammer on about law and order actually have so little respect for the due process that is the heart of law.
It is counterproductive to assert that white people are obligated to dismantle a system that allegedly endows them with special privilege. It is also absurd to think that someone who perceives he or she has a competitive edge over another because the accident of skin pigment will willingly give up that survival advantage. Humans are not programmed to be that altruistic – or that foolish.
Even people of good will fumble defining and identifying structural racism, for acknowledging what a huge task it will be to abolish it is daunting and frightens most of us out of taking action. But being treated with respect is not a privilege. Being victimized by discrimination is a human rights violation – but it is also a constant throughout human history. Exploitation and degradation of one's fellows is the rule of human behavior, not the exception.
I think contempt for human rights still flourishes in America because of our unique cultural heritage, based in the ruthlessness of unregulated capitalism, with its denial of the value of community and its vicious take-no-prisoners competitiveness. In most other places the people seek to overthrow what Marx called "the parasite class". In America, we dream of joining it. And shall we not forget that our country was colonized by the religious, political, economic, and criminal rejects of every country in the world. We have been carefully breeding half-mad fanatics here for over four hundred years – as witnessed by this article and most of its comments.
Amerimutt Golems , says: June 7, 2020 at 12:34 pm GMTAlso, I can't believe anyone thinks this is actually about blacks and racial justice, rather than general boredom and discontent, or unhappinness with life.
Countries have revolutions all the time, and there are always "reasons". Plus, I don't think it's smart to take things at face value, expect people to be able to articulate – or even have the self-insight to understand – why they are attracted to certain positions. Sure, they'll say it's about blacks, but all they know is they vaguely unhappy..
Let's not be over-literal.
@S ry and then doubtless because of Western influence, there are no words for fairness in languages apart from English, Danish, Norwegian, and Frisian.Europe Europa , says: June 7, 2020 at 4:26 pm GMT
This is what partly led to the American Civil War when fairness-obsessed descendants of Puritans (originally from East Anglia) opposed slavery which was mainly practised in the south by progeny of aristocratic and elist Cavaliers (who come from Southeast England).
http://www.kevinmacdonald.net/Fischer-Fairness-and-Freedom-Review.pdf
Jmaie , says: June 7, 2020 at 5:30 pm GMTIn a way I find the transplantation of American ethnic strife to England a bit odd, considering native English people do not tend to actively think of themselves as "white" in the way white Americans do.
Native English people just think of themselves as English and/or British, talking about "colour" has traditionally been seen as vulgar in Britain, the media here doesn't talk about race like the American media does. "White" as an identifier doesn't make much sense in England because many foreigners are white, yet they certainly aren't seen as English.
The mainstream media in America often addresses white Americans collectively as "white people", always in a negative, critical sense, but I think most English people would find being addressed as "white people" quite alien and jarring.
Curmudgeon , says: June 7, 2020 at 5:12 pm GMTThe mainstream media in America often addresses white Americans collectively as "white people", always in a negative, critical sense, but I think most English people would find being addressed as "white people" quite alien and jarring.
The media may address whites collectively but most American whites find it equally jarring
Miro23 , says: June 8, 2020 at 4:14 pm GMTNever fear Anatoly, The new Magical Negro religion will never be allowed to displace the State Religion – Hololcaustianity.
@Curmudgeon lack violence line (blacks as a political tool to attack Anglos) but weren't at all expecting young whites to ally with young blacks in a new quasi religious movement. How they handle that, they haven't figured out.Omegabooks , says: June 8, 2020 at 4:40 am GMTJews are in fact sidelined – and their MSM looks flat footed – with the action moving out of their orbit and onto the street and social media.
The trouble for Trump and the ZioGlob is the lack of control. 1) It's much too fluid and 2) It involves unpredictable street mobs and violence + shooting protesters would only create more martyrs to join the beatified St. Floyd.
jorge videla IV , says: June 8, 2020 at 4:46 am GMTNegrolatry–now that's a good way to put it! And when it happens in Israel, let me know!
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!it's much bigger than negrolatry.
WMD, russia-gate, ukraine-gate, floyd, it's all part of the same thing
capital and (((capital))) maintains its power by dividing and distracting and mass media is a far more effective means of propaganda and control than anything stalin could've imagined.
a little looting and burning is very cheap compared to higher taxes.
[Jun 09, 2020] Protests and Nietzsche "Chandala Apostolism".
Jun 09, 2020 | www.unz.com
Dmitry says: June 7, 2020 at 6:09 am GMT 500 Words
I would support generally protests against police brutality in America (as America really is probably the world's leading "checkistan", or police-state, at least in relation to minor crime). However, the ideology you discuss:
It is not new religion, or anything exciting – it is just an uninteresting mix of bourgeois virtue signalling, and the secularized theater of Christian "slave revolt morality"/millennialism, which is a common thing in America (and a lot of Europe since the 19th century).
It's just as Nietzsche called "Chandala Apostolism".
American version – some simple New Testament teachings, mixed with the theory that America has a "sin of slavery", and that might be redeemed from their past crimes by freeing slaves, and progressing to ideals of "all men are created equal under god" – some "Kingdom of Heaven" (where perhaps even lion will lie down with the lamb).
This concept of progressive redemption, is beginning self-consciously with Lincoln's speeches, and today e.g. Obama's speeches in 2008 (and probably earlier politicians) are mainly something to do this.
–
In relation to the general "slave revolt" morality. Nietzsche writes about this topic endlessly in books like "Genealogy", but in his worst books, when he was going crazy at the end of his life, there are the more simple kind of relevant quotes – which you can find if you search for "Chandala" in the text:
http://users.clas.ufl.edu/burt/LoserLit/The%20Anti-Christ%20Ecce%20Homo%20Twilight%20of%20the%20Idols%20&%20Other%20Writings%20Friedrich%20Nietzsche.pdf(page 58-60)
Indignation is the privilege of the Chandala; pessimism too. 'The world is perfect' – this is how the instinct of the most spiritual people speaks, the yes-saying instinct.Who do I hate most among the rabble today? The socialist rabble, the Chandala-apostles who undermine workers' instincts and pleasures, their feelings of modesty about their existences, – who make them jealous, who teach them revenge Injustice is never a matter of unequal rights, it is a matter of claiming 'equal' rights What is bad? But I have already said it: everything that comes from weakness, from jealousy, from revenge. – The anarchist and the Christian are descended from the same lineage.. (Page 208) Christian and anarchist. -Anarchists are mouth pieces of a declining stratum of society; when they work themselves into a state of righteous indignation demanding 'rights', 'justice', 'equal rights', they are just acting under the pressure of their own lack of culture, which has no way of grasping why they really suffer, – what they lack in life A powerful causal impulse is at work in them: it has to be someone's fault that they are not doing very well .. Complaining and grumbling can even give life a charm that makes it bearable: there is a subtle dose of revenge in every complaint; people blame the fact that they are doing badly (and sometimes even their badness) on those who are different, as if that constituted a wrong, an unauthorized privilege. 'If I am just canaille then you should be too': out of this logic come revolutions. –
AaronB says: June 7, 2020 at 12:26 pm GMT
And yet, Nietzsche certainly didn't act as if he thought the world was perfect, and wanted to change politics and culture in massive ways. And his books are long extremely shrill complaints, so if a desire for revenge is concealed in every complaint (and all of this applies to people here who are opponents of the current Leftist regime).
If Nietzsche truly thought that the world was perfect, as the most spiritual men do according to him, he would have not wanted to change the fact that large numbers of men are chandalas motivated by weakness and revenge he would not have cares or taken it seriously..
If the world is perfect, what's wrong with weakness? Why is everything weak bad?
Nietzsche had great insights – my comments on the other thread about how SJWs are a form of self-overcoming in the line of ascetic monks is straight out of Nietzsche – but he seems never to have had the true courage of his insights.
He is one of the first European philosophers to recognize the importance of laughter and not being serious, he writes much on this yet he failed to grasp that if the world is perfect, and the most profound philosophical position is humor, then all his ferocious denunciations of weakness are a joke he repeatedly recognizes the superficiality of seriousness, yet grows increasingly humorless and serious..
In any event, Nietzsche certainly captures something true here. People who expect utopia from politics fundamentally misunderstood why they are unhappy.
Nevertheless, as Nietzsche himself well understood, environments can be more or less conducive to human happiness and flourishing, and can be more or less unbalanced in different ways, so working for limited political or cultural change is not pointless.
There is no need to go to extremes
Still, I think his point that in order to be happy you have to have the correct attitude toward the world – that that is as important if not more important than your environment – is something that we moderns , who overemphasize political and cultural change, need to hear.
[Jun 09, 2020] I remember the 70's when people would just say, 'police brutality' without making it a racial issue.
Notable quotes:
"... This is ridiculous. White people aren't perfect, but neither are black people. The woke path isn't going to make American society better because it excludes ordinary Americans as agents of change ..."
Jun 09, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
GeorgeMarshall65 chris chuba • 3 hours agoA waste of a good issue but the issue is owned by those willing to invest the time to protest.
I remember the 70's when people would just say, 'police brutality' without making it a racial issue. There is something there. Police killed 1,093 people in 2016 of that number 176 were unarmed. https://www.theguardian.com... Being armed doesn't mean they had guns and also doesn't necessarily mean they were resisting. Ah but once you throw in race it dilutes the number, call for police defunding, have looting at some demonstrations and the issue vanishes.
The cop who killed Floyd George was trained to kneel on his neck, Minn has now banned that tmove, this is a good result. But not much else is being done that is productive in nature.
AdmBenson • 17 hours agoJust a thought, I've heard different stories about whether the police manual allowed kneeling on the neck, but even if true, it didn't say you should do it until the suspect was dead. I presume it required more judgement than that, especially when the suspect was handcuffed, on the ground, and there were 3 other officers there. Not saying you'd disagree with what I said. In terms of whether there will be anything productive, it's early days. I think the defunding movement sounds ridiculous, but I would want to see what's proposed before I made a judgement.
Roger 5201 • 15 hours agoIn the '60s, it was assumed that ordinary people could easily identify racism and choose to do something about it. In addition to the landmark civil rights legislation of that era, the ensuing years brought a lot of individual soul searching and efforts to fix long standing problems in American society. People took it upon themselves to integrate their churches, sports teams, workplaces, etc. because they wanted to do the right thing and make their country a better place. Now, ordinary people are being told that they are blind to their own racism and lack the agency to actually do anything about it. Racism has been moved into the realm of esoteric knowledge that requires a priesthood to interpret and provide direction to everyone else. Even the word "woke" implies a surrendering of self, pledging allegiance to a cause, and admitting to personal guilt in the form of "white privilege".
This is ridiculous. White people aren't perfect, but neither are black people. The woke path isn't going to make American society better because it excludes ordinary Americans as agents of change . It also fails to recognize that many Americans can't be classified as black or white. Trump may well end up winning this fall, not because the people that vote for him are bad, but because they're human and don't like being unfairly accused and unappreciated.
There is a bit of racism in all of us from the day we are born. More often than not, we belong or identify with a certain race or community. Being civil is the ability to rise above our racial filters to do what we would have others (whose are different from us) do for us. This can be especially challenging for any society when the politics of race and religion kicks in.
[Jun 08, 2020] Washington DC Police Brace For One Of The Largest Demonstrations We've Ever Seen
Jun 08, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Washington DC Police Brace For "One Of The Largest Demonstrations We've Ever Seen"
by Tyler Durden Sat, 06/06/2020 - 11:53 Update (1135ET): ~20,000 people attended racial justice protests in Sydney on Saturday "in solidarity" with Black Lives Matter and protesters in the US, according to police in New South Wales.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has ordered National Guard troops in the federal district not to fire on protesters (an order that presumably includes rubber bullets and bean bags) while ordering all active-duty troops that the administration had tried to amass on the outskirts of the city to return to their posts.
According to the Washington Post , police expect between 100k and 200k protesters on Saturday, far short of the million people organizers had brought together.
There are now more than 43,300 National Guard members actively responding to demonstrations across the US. The National Guard is typically deployed by the governor in a given state.
Today, more than 43,300 National Guard members in 34 states and D.C. are assisting law enforcement authorities with ongoing civil unrest, while more than 37,000 Guard Soldiers and Airmen continue to support the COVID-19 response. pic.twitter.com/Gtq4oxeUuw
-- National Guard (@USNationalGuard) June 6, 2020Except in Washington DC where, because it's a federal city, the president has power to command the National Guard, which Trump has chosen to delegate to the Pentagon.
* * *
Following more than a week of widespread peaceful protests pockmarked by occasional homicidal violence, arson, assault and looting, activists are hoping to assemble a massive demonstration in Washington DC, with some hoping to draw a million people to the capital just one day after Mayor Muriel Bowser renamed the street leading up to Lafayette Square after 'Black Lives Matter'.
The bright yellow letters spelling out the words 'Black Lives Matter' were put in place for a reason: for what we imagine will be an extremely powerful photo op as police and national guardsmen move to disperse the crowds, revealing the message below as tyrannical Trump gazes out the window, twirls his mustache while cackling loudly.
Demonstrations against police brutality following George Floyd's death are expected to continue for the 12th night on Saturday.
Uniformed military personnel walk in front of the White House ahead of a protest against racial inequality in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Washington. Photo by @Lucas_Jackson_ pic.twitter.com/Mc27JonTQH
-- corinne_perkins (@corinne_perkins) June 6, 2020Though he didn't give a crowd size estimate, the chief of the Washington DC police says he expects Saturday's gathering to be one of the biggest so far.
"We have a lot of public, open source information to suggest that the event on this upcoming Saturday may be one of the largest we've ever had in the city," Washington DC Police Chief Peter Newsham told local media, adding that much of the city center would be closed to traffic from early in the day.
Newsham did not give a crowd estimate. Local media has predicted tens of thousands of attendees.
Demonstrators in the Washington DC area are still sore over the national guard's decision to use tear gas and rubber bullets to clear Lafayette Square for a presidential photo-op at St. John's Church, angering the Episcopal Church in the process.
Further south, in North Carolina, Governor Roy Cooper is ordering all flags at state facilities to be lowered to half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Saturday to honor Floyd, who was born in Fayetteville. A televised memorial service will also be held in the city on Saturday, per USAToday.
On Friday, marches and gatherings took place in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Miami, New York and Denver, among other places, while protesters massed again, in the rain, in front of the White House. The night-time protests were largely peaceful but tension remains high even as authorities in several places take steps to reform police procedures. Politicians and judges around the country also announced new restrictions on law enforcement powers and tactics, including a federal judge in Denver, who ordered city police to stop using tear gas, plastic bullets and other "less-than-lethal" devices such as flash grenades, claiming that too many peaceful protesters and journalists have been injured by police.
"These are peaceful demonstrators, journalists, and medics who have been targeted with extreme tactics meant to suppress riots, not to suppress demonstrations," U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson wrote in the ruling.
In Minneapolis, Democratic city leaders voted to end the use of knee restraints and choke-holds, where pressure is applied to the neck.
In California, Gov Gavin Newsom ended state police training of carotid restraints, and ordered officers not to use the tactic.
In New York, Gov Andrew Cuomo said his state should lead the way in passing "Say Their Name" reforms, including making police disciplinary records publicly available, while also banning the chokehold (which we thought had already been banned following the killing of Eric Garner).
"Mr Floyd's murder was the breaking point," Cuomo said. "People are saying 'enough is enough'."
The cause of the peaceful protesters received a major boost last night from the NFL, which admitted for the first time that it was "wrong" to oppose players who kneeled.
Once again, the demonstrators in the US expect sympathizers from around the world to join in, with more demonstrations at American embassies and consulates in Europe expected.
Already, thousands have gathered in London's Parliament Square "in solidarity" with their American peers.
The protest, which has so far proven to be entirely peaceful, according to CNN . At one point, everybody too a knee in unison.
Once again Portland, Ore., roughly 20 adults were arrested and one juvenile was detained last night as peaceful demonstrations morphed into violent street battles into the night, as agitators threw bricks and bottles at cops.
play_arrow Kan , 1 minute agoSon of Captain Nemo , 1 minute agoTrump had more at his acceptance of the presidency. The difference is, this new ones is a horde of "gimme freeshit" crowd that thinks violent drug dealers are worthy of rioting over. The Sodium Fluoride, Vaccines, and Public school indoctrination has really played well to the programming of the TV on the masses.
To dumb to think past what someone told them to think.
Kan , 2 minutes agoAdding tear gas to the "fire" and lying about it certainly not helping...
When they aren't choking people to death or giving them concussions -that is...
When do the police in solidarity with their victims join the other side (losing the paycheck in order to do so) to tell the Country after 9/11... Katrina... and the Boston Marathon... that the police department(s) across the Nation need to return to the rule of law and wear proudly "To Serve and Protect" again?...
pedoland , 5 minutes agoTrump had more at his acceptance of the presidency. The difference is, this new ones is a horde of "gimme freeshit" crowd that thinks violent drug dealers are worthy of rioting over. The Sodium Fluoride, Vaccines, and Public school indoctrination has really played well to the programming of the TV on the masses.
To dumb to think past what someone told them to think.
Angry Panda , 10 minutes agoi see controlled opposition turning a class battle into a race battle
is it about race, or is it about opportunity?
these protests are not organic
but they will be soon
kill the zionists
TheBigCluB , 7 minutes agoI won't be surprised if the WH got burned to the ground. If that happens and no one did anything to stop the rioters then it's time for every to have a plan to leave the country because you know it'll be the street thugs not the one in suits in charge.
HenryJonesJr , 6 minutes agoNo.. it will be time to arm everyone you know, eveyone they know and everyone they know etc and become the ruthless overlord of the golden horde
Sherlock Homeless , 5 minutes agoYou won't be surprised. Don't confuse a gaggle of pimple-faced ANTIFA asswipes and low IQ black separatists and white Millennials taking selfies as a threat to this nation's security. If things really get out of hand, the President will initiate Martial Law, all communication will be suspended, nation-wide curfew enforced, looters shot on sight / bodies disposed, roads blocked, harbors, airports, secured etc. etc.
Geocen Trist , 12 minutes agoLeave the country? How about stay and fight instead?
These " demonstrations ' certainly seem to have been organized rather quickly, almost as if it is all scripted. :-D
[Jun 08, 2020] DoJ must might succeed in getting control of its own bureaucracy and destroying the organization that organized the attack.
Jun 08, 2020 | www.unz.com
Anonymous [402] Disclaimer , says: Show Comment June 5, 2020 at 2:09 pm GMT
@Jim Bob Lassiter We're going to find out pretty soon if the Federal Government's anti-domestic terrorism works any better than the rest of it.After the recent attack in which over 50 Secret Service agents were injured (apparently minor injuries) and Trump was shown a refuge bunker (super safe room, sort of), the security forces reacted by removing SS personnel from riot police tasks back to point defense of the President's body. Barr extended the White House defense perimeter and introduced new personnel for the task. The new personnel were apparently from DoJ, as they had neither insignia nor name tag.
Think about that. At some point, Secret Service either requested or were told that they were unable to execute their _prime and only job_, Presidential protection. They were relieved of perimeter guard duties that might involve contact with rioters (think of rioters as very light infantry). While this obviously is no reflection on the Secret Service, which is not manned, equipped, or trained at riot control, I'd imagine that the person running Secret Service would rather have lost half the teeth in his mouth than to admit that Secret Service could not protect the President and call in people from DoJ to do what Secret Service could not.
Or (as I've no wish to slander the man) he was an exception to the usual security commander and requested relief.
Either way, the DoJ now realizes that _they almost lost POTUS_, and that the culprits (not enemy, we're talking DoJ here) achieved this with a surprise attack using capabilities and assets not previously thought dangerous to POTUS.
Should Trump acquiesce to it, and maybe even if he doesn't, the same DoJ that extended the White House security perimeter the day after the attack is going to find out how this surprise attack happened, comb its ranks for people who let it happen, suppressed intelligence reports, etc. They will also try to destroy the organization responsible. With Trump as current POTUS and a Supreme Court that has not only been generally supportive of Trump but has also been personally attacked by the side supporting the attack on POTUS, DoJ must might succeed in getting control of its own bureaucracy and destroying the organization that organized the attack.
Bar might even figure out that his decision to "avoid introducing politics into DoJ" by not persecuting higher ups in the Russiagate affair is about 60 years too late.
[Jun 08, 2020] 24yo suspected looter charged with first-degree murder of retired black cop David Dorn -- RT USA News
Jun 08, 2020 | www.rt.com
Police have charged Stephan Cannon, a 24-year-old local man, with the killing of retired police captain David Dorn during riots in St. Louis. The veteran cop was shot dead while confronting looters.
...Dorn, a 77-year-old black man who served 38 years on the force, was shot and killed outside the pawn shop on Tuesday morning, as he apparently tried to stop looters from ransacking the establishment. Disturbing footage of the aftermath of the shooting has made the rounds online, showing a bloodied Dorn dying on the pavement outside the shop.
...
Police say they believe that Cannon was the one who gunned down Dorn, leaving him to die on the sidewalk outside the establishment, as he appeared to be "the only person standing at the corner" at the time of the shooting and "multiple plumes of smoke" could be seen billowing from where he stood. In addition to that, used shell casings were found at the site of what police believe was the murder scene.A chilling video has been circulating on social media showing a bloodied Dorn dying on the pavement outside the shop.
Cannon was known to police, having been charged with misdemeanor theft back in February, St. Louis Post Dispatch reported.
In a bid to cover his tracks, Cannon attempted to change his appearance after the image of him looting the shop as part of a group of young men was distributed to the public. Cannon was taken into custody and is being held without bond.
[Jun 08, 2020] Secret Service agents wounded outside White House, car bombs feared; official says Trump was taken to bunker Fox News
Jun 08, 2020 | www.foxnews.com
Numerous Secret Service agents were injured, fires set by rioters blazed near the White House and authorities were searching for car bombs late Sunday as protests over the death of George Floyd continued to roil the capital just two days after President Trump had to be taken to a bunker for his safety.
A senior official in the direct chain of command for defending Washington D.C. told Fox News of the injuries to Secret Service agents, some of whom were hurt by rioters throwing bottles and Molotov cocktails in Lafayette Park, just across from the presidential residence. The official initially put the number of agents injured at over 50, but that may have referred to the weekend toll; the Secret Service has since said the number injured on Sunday was 14.
As observed in New York City and elsewhere, groups in D.C. are planting cars filled with incendiary materials for future use, Fox News is told. U.S. Marshals and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents were deployed to the streets of D.C. in an extraordinary move to beef up security alongside local police and Homeland Security agents, including the Secret Service, the Justice Department confirmed late Sunday. Fox News has learned U.S. Attorney for D.C. Mike Sherwin is heavily involved in the operation.
Lights that normally illuminate the exterior of the White House were disabled early Monday morning, leading to some reports that the Secret Service wanted to use night-vision equipment to monitor protesters. White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere told Fox News on Monday, however, that the lights were turned off due to "standard protocol," not for security reasons. The complex's external lights are normally disabled at 11 p.m. ET unless specific requests are made to keep them online, including by media networks.
Additionally, the entire Washington, D.C. National Guard was being called in to help with the response to protests outside the White House and elsewhere in the nation's capital, according to two Defense Department officials. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said Sunday that she had requested 500 DC Guardsman to assist local law enforcement. Later on Sunday, as the protests escalated, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy ordered the rest of the Guardsman -- roughly 1,200 soldiers -- to report.
As authorities clashed with demonstrators for the third straight night, the parish house connected to the historic St. John's Episcopal Church across the street from the White House was set on fire late Sunday . The parish house contains offices and parlors for gatherings. The basement, which was also torched, is used for childcare during church services, and had recently undergone renovations.
[Jun 08, 2020] The MSM is clearly engineering these hoaxes and disasters in order to demolish US social culture
Notable quotes:
"... "The media is the most powerful entity on earth. Because they control the minds of the masses, they have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." – Malcolm X ..."
Jun 08, 2020 | www.unz.com
Wood Stove , says: Show Comment June 5, 2020 at 9:28 am GMT
@Ad70titusrevenge Russia almost totally collapsed. Through the 90s Russia's governmental institutions BARELY just scrapped through. It was by the skin of their teeth.slorter , says: Show Comment June 5, 2020 at 9:52 am GMTRussia could have gone the way of post-2011 Libya. Putin isn't exactly a Tsar, but he was good enough to stitch things back together.
There is absolutely no guarantee America will fare the same. Things could get hellishly ugly. This definitely has the feel of 1917 Russia.
The MSM is clearly engineering these hoaxes and disasters in order to demolish US social culture. I believe the jews who own America wish to Bolshevize the continent in order to raise up a new military juggernaut in order to conquer the world for them and fullfil their insane religious prophecies concerning world government, gentiles exterminated, jerusalem ruling the world, and their messiah on the throne.
It won't actually happen. And if it does, it will be short lived. But what will happen is that many people will die in the process.
Time will tell.redhorse4380 , says: Show Comment June 5, 2020 at 10:13 am GMTThey are not about:
Racism or "White privilege"
Police violence
Social alienation and despair
Poverty
Trump
The liberals pouring fuel on social fires
The infighting of the US elites/deep stateThey are not about one of these because they encompass all of these issues, and more.
That is probably the best part of the article I added the word one!
"The media is the most powerful entity on earth. Because they control the minds of the masses, they have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." – Malcolm X
That has not changed!
The glorification the ghetto culture, the refusal of offers of education,leading to gainful employment, are real problems for all living in the United States. The cultural thinking that we should have a promise at birth, that life is fair and I WANT WHAT I WANT,AND I WANT IT NOW!, forgets the old saying -- If you don't work, you don't eat. If society would quit babysitting and supporting every single knucklehead that is able to get on the internet or television, and whine about how bad they have it,we'd all be better off!Wake up people -- There is no money left to buy or satisfy all your dreams of equality, it's all been stolen! Perhaps the golden age you dream of could have been reached if the past governments would have focused on education for all, Mandatory education for all. They did not and gave you mammon to continue your childish ways.
Thorogood -had it right–"Get a Haircut and Get a Real Job!
Eagles– I might feel better if they gave me some cash
[Jun 08, 2020] I agree with you: those protests (from 2020) are clearly not for racial motives. They are clearly class-related.
The protests were hijacked. Business as usual for the neoliberal elite, of mafia, if you wish.
Jun 08, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Rob , Jun 6 2020 17:05 utc | 158I am old enough to remember the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Some important laws were passed at the time (e.g. the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act), but implementation has been uneven, and systemic racism is alive and well. Above all, it is impossible to legislate away the underlying racism that lurks in the hearts of most humans. For this reason, I am encouraged to see so many white people participating in the largely peaceful demonstrations in the United States. It raises hope that anti-black and anti-brown racism can diminish in the human heart.vk , Jun 6 2020 17:31 utc | 159
@ Posted by: Rob | Jun 6 2020 17:05 utc | 158I agree with you: those protests (from 2020) are clearly not for racial motives. They are clearly class-related. Only Americans are fooling themselves with this racial war narrative: the rest of the world is not being fooled (never was).
I recommend reading the book White Trash , where historian Nancy Isenberg demonstrates that racial discourse in the USA has always (since the colonial times) been all about class. This happened because the British used as propaganda to attract poor people from the UK at the time that the North American colonies (future USA) was a land of absolute liberty and opportunity, where one could start anew.
However, I disagree 2020 has anything to do with 1968.
In 1968, the USA was at the apex of its strength and beauty. It was booming and flourishing. The protests of the time were tumultuous, but the atmosphere was always optimistic: there was no doubt, by any of the sides, that the USA wouldn't emerge stronger and better from those conflicts. Using the terminology of the liberals, we could say the USA was "vibrant".
2020 is more like a decadent Empire, a "Late Empire", as the economic indicators are not good and there's no perspective they will get better. The mood is much more somber, the atmosphere much denser and darker.
[Jun 08, 2020] Mayor Bowser demands national guard leave. Antifa organizes million person march on the White House. Odd set of coincidences, no?
Jun 08, 2020 | turcopolier.typepad.com
Jack , 05 June 2020 at 10:31 PM
The Pentagon orders National Guard to disarm.Someone forced Trump to change weekend plans and stay in DC this weekend.
Mayor Bowser demands national guard leave.
Antifa organizes million person march on the White House.
Odd set of coincidences, no?
https://twitter.com/thelastrefuge2/status/1269088526957764610?s=21
Is the plan to generate martyrs for an intense propaganda campaign?
Trump showed weakness against the putschists. Are the NeverTrumpers gonna ratchet up the pressure with images of violence and bloodshed and anger towards Trump?
[Jun 08, 2020] This might not end well. The Deep State actors in the Pentagram are in support of removing President Trump. The crowds are being massed for this purpose. Disarming the Guard will be a huge mistake.
Jun 08, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Abaco , 21 minutes ago
Cloud9.5 , 22 minutes agoThis will not end well. The Deep State actors in the Pentagram are in support of removing President Trump. The crowds are being massed for this purpose. Disarming the Guard will be a huge mistake.
All of this is in service of the big lie that blacks "are being killed every day" by police while nothing is said by the black leadership of the orders of magnitude more black people that are killed every day by black people.
It is offensive that when the roll is called of those who were killed by bad police officers the names of whites and hispanics are excluded because, apparently only black lives matter. It is offensive to listen to the ignorant and the race baiters call white American's racists. This is the country that led to the near abolition of slavery which exists today almost exclusively in black africa and the arab middle east. This is the country whose white people spent trillions to educate black people and which has for more than two generations discriminated against white people giving preference to blacks in business and education. This is the country that bussed black children to better schools in predominately white neighborhoods and bussed white children to shitty schools in predominately black neighborhoods. All of this with no rioting or looting from white people.
The real insidious evil in this is that all the progress of the past 2 generations has been wiped out in service to this lie that there is systematic racism in this country and that it is to be blamed on white people even when it is black people who control the cities and states where most of these killings of black people occur.
We sell out the country when we kneel in fealty to this lie. Black businesses were destroyed and black people were killed in this insurrection. Fortunately many black people see through this ********. I hope they will gain the courage of the black woman calling out the BLM hypocrisy in DC. We all need to summon the fortitude not to legitimize the lie and give cover to the coup that will consume us all.
surfcityUSA , 23 minutes agoUnderstand people, the goal is to let the house of representatives pick the next president.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/presidential-election-decided-in-the-house
bobroonie , 36 minutes agoBlack Lives Matter is an Oxymoron: Does anybody read reality? Blacks Murder Blacks in the HUNDREDS every week, not to mention the 3 million black kids they abort every year. Blacks commit the most crime in the USA by FAR.... Black on White Violence is 6 to 1! I can go on and on about this tribe of people. Social Injustice?!?!?!? If you are White or Asian and have a 4.0 GPA and Spear Chucker Kawaan has a 2.5 GPA guess whos getting into that college? How many laws have to be written a passed for this tribe of lazy *** murder ingrates? MSM and its talking heads all the way up and down the line should be hunted down and dropped into a human woodchipper. Its the biggest injustice the world has ever seen.
CosmoJoe , 41 minutes agoDims: Only black lives matter because cops kill blacks..
Fact: Cops kill more whites than blacks
Dims: Their lives don't matter because blacks are killed disproportionately...
Fact: Blacks kill on avg. twice as many whites as whites kill blacks.
Dims: **** you, you racist....
Quatermain , 39 minutes agoStill waiting for an explanation of why George Floyd's death was racism or oppression of black people. Did the cop shout racist slurs at him as he knelt on him? Were there racist comments on the cop's Twit feed? Or are we a nation of ******* idiots that don't even understand what the term racism even means anymore?
SMSpiff , 47 minutes agoit actually means nothing now. Rather like the boy calling "wolf".
D.Kelama , 1 hour agoRoland Fryer is a black economist, and the youngest person ever to get tenure at Harvard. He was angry after the deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray, so he did his own research on the use of deadly force by police in 10 big-city police departments police killing. His detailed study of 1,332 police shootings -- in which he carefully compared the circumstances of each killing -- found no evidence of police bias. If anything, police were more likely to shoot at non-threatening whites than at non-threatening blacks. He said, this was "the most surprising research result of my career."
Why was Professor Fryer surprised? Because he believed what the media say about race and crime, and the media are often biased. Here is a particularly relevant example. On June 3, in the midst of the rioting over the death of George Floyd, the New York Times published a long, detailed article with this headline: "Minneapolis Police Use Force Against Black People at 7 Times the Rate of Whites." This sounds like a clear case of horrific police bias, and this is the impression the Times clearly wanted to convey. However, the article included nothing about race differences in crime rates or arrest rates. This is like reporting that the police were seven times more likely to use force against men living in Minneapolis than against women, and getting outraged over ani-male bias. Needless to say, men in Minneapolis are much more likely to be subjected to police use of force because they commit far more crime and are arrested far more frequently. No one would conclude that disproportionate use of force against men was a result of anti-male bias.
SRV , 50 minutes agoAntifa snipers or IED's seem more than likely.
But really it could be anything to set it off.
...
Maidan Square was funded by CIA/Soros... and they always return to a successful operation...
A few National Guard and some innocent looking protesters would be my guess.
[Jun 08, 2020] Don't get race-baited about the US riots It's about the economy, stupid! -- RT Op-ed
Jun 08, 2020 | www.rt.com
Don't get race-baited about the US riots: It's about the economy, stupid! Mitchell Feierstein Mitchell Feierstein is the CEO of Glacier Environmental Fund and author of 'Planet Ponzi: How the World Got into This Mess, What Happens Next, and How to Protect Yourself.' He spends his time between London and Manhattan. Join Mitch on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook – @Planetponzi Mitchell Feierstein is the CEO of Glacier Environmental Fund and author of 'Planet Ponzi: How the World Got into This Mess, What Happens Next, and How to Protect Yourself.' He spends his time between London and Manhattan. Join Mitch on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook – @Planetponzi 3 Jun, 2020 18:50 Get short URL
[Jun 06, 2020] Under the multicultural and neoliberal reality all of us Americans find ourselves in, it becomes necessary to trace back the origins or where it went wrong
Jun 06, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
NemesisCalling , Jun 5 2020 20:07 utc | 25
b,I'm sorry but you again miss the mark when you discuss American politics.
Any kind of popular revolt against economic terrorism and plundering instituted by the elite and protected by a dimwitted police force was snatched right before our eyes even before we could react to the George Floyd, highly-publicized snuff film.
The second the well-funded and local controlled-opposition groups BLM and Antifa seized on the opportunity to declare this a racial matter, it purposefully alienated over 50% of the U.S. population, what we call the middlebrow, the middle class, or the independent citizen. The independent generally votes dem or repub but is not a partisan and detests domestic violence and is completely ignorant to the depth of neoliberal indoctrination which is taking place in our college system and increasingly, in our primary schools. It is generally conservative in nature.
You can see what I am getting at, here. For those broadcasting their anger from the streets and decrying this situation as racist in nature, they are either ignorant to the need to appeal to this citizen listed above or are purposefully sabotaging any effort to bring them on board.
This is why I have made the comment in prior discussions that blacks need to get their house in order.
1) They need to distance themselves from BLM and Antifa and decry unequivocally the violence on the street
2) They need to distance themselves from neoliberal infiltrators and other guilt-ridden white liberals
3) They need to realize that police brutality is a problem which affects all colors in America and is the result of a culture of death being exported in our FP and being brought home from years of policing hostile forces and incurring grave psychological damage and alienation to our troops; there are several videos online available of whites being murdered by police in similar fashion as George Floyd; Why these videos were unable to crack the national spotlight is very telling
4) By doing the above, they need to also appeal to each other to end inner-city violence being perpetrated against themselves; this will require a depth of focus and intensity that can not be achieved by constantly pointing to external forces as sole contributors to their current plight; do not trust the white but do not lay at their feet every ill that beguiles you
5) They need to realize that any appeal to our institutions for reparations or handouts will result in further entrenchment of resentment from us whites to blacks and will continually result in further alienation
6) Black elites in this country need to abandon popular cultural outlets such as music, acting, and sports; These pillars of entertainment and culture are chief proponents of neoliberalism and will never lift a finger to truly help America rid itself of our anational elite which is the only thing that can bring back local controlUnder the multicultural and neoliberal reality all of us Americans find ourselves in, it becomes necessary to trace back the origins or where it went wrong and, by doing so, attempt to limit to the best of our ability institutionalized evils that can not help but exist under our shared history.
Many in here are arguing for greater central control to somehow correct these evils, but I will continue to argue that no such solution can be brought which is reasonable to Americans who will fight and spill blood for their liberty. You may scoff at such a notion, but I am warning you, you do so at your own peril and will be judged harshly for inciting blacks and minorities further down self-defeating and destructive avenues.
Where are the black leaders, the poets, and the thinkers to help them during these destitute times?
[Jun 06, 2020] What's happening in the US is, without irony, a color revolution.
Jun 06, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Ludwig , Jun 5 2020 19:01 utc | 5
What's happening in the US is, without irony, a color revolution.While Trump is a narcissistic, megalomaniac, the Democrats and the rest of the DC establishment (including the military) are using the weakest sections of society to mobilize opinion against Trump for the election. Obama, in a medium article and in a video, reiterated that the federal government cannot hope to solve the crisis at the ground level and that the crucial changes have to come at the local level. In the video he says: (from https://youtu.be/PmpeRG8Gkow
8:40 The report Obama commissioned while in office to recommend reforms to prevent police violence] demonstrated something that is critical for us today. Most of the reforms we need to see to prevent the type of violence and injustice system we've seen need to take place at the local level. The reform has to take place in more than 19,000 American municipalities, more than 18,000 local enforcement jurisdictions....we need to be clear where change is going to happen. It is mayors, country executives that appoint most police chiefs and negotiate collective bargaining agreements with police unions and that determines police practices in local communities. It's DAs and State's Attorney's that typically decide whether or not to investigate police misconduct. And those are all elected officials.Many of these jurisdictions are Democrat controlled, including Minneapolis where the Floyd incident happened. But of course Obama's measured advice falls on the wayside by all parties who are not on a battle for federal power.
Meanwhile news that's getting buried is the investigation into the Russiagate hoax by the Senate Judiciary where essentially the man who appointed Mueller, the DOJ's Rosenstein has all but admitted there was nothing to investigate even back in January 2017.
The tactics being used then by the neoliberal Dems are very similar to the ones successfully used in Europe to overthrow governments through mob action. One can argue that perhaps Trump deserves it, but on the other hand it's not clear whether the Democrats and Biden deserve power either.
Except more dirty fighting as the election draws nearer.
psychohistorian , Jun 5 2020 19:02 utc | 6
I would love to see an end to global private finance centered empire but I am only going to hold my breath for the good stuff.Blue Dotterel , Jun 5 2020 19:28 utc | 8I continue to posit that much of the financial crisis/class war was pre-existent and is being enhanced/sold as pandemic response rather than another tithe to the elite and increased social control.
It is not good enough for Trump to have his ass handed to him because it is the, behind the scenes, elite owners/leaders that need to be geo-politically neutered.
Will global private finance rise through the ashes of what is considered to be a purely American empire? Too soon to tell but interesting to watch.
Sorry bsnow_watcher , Jun 5 2020 19:29 utc | 9"No U.S. ambassador can now express concerns about police violence in a foreign country without being laughed at."
This has been going on for decades. The police violence is nothing new. The US will still interfere in others affairs, and nobody will be laughing
Some arguments were lost in the fog the war.Red Ryder , Jun 5 2020 19:31 utc | 10One thing has changed, the US has stepped closer toward an authoritarian oligarchy wet dream. It is an incremental process and the goalposts have again been moved forward. The richest and most powerful have made huge gains while the masses bleat and bleed and meaningless headlines throw empty words into the air; "Defund the Police!" indeed. Our leaders have gotten away with even more illegalities without consequence, as you noted.
Civil asset forfeitures, beatings/brutality, surveillance, militarization, injustice, etc. will only be enhanced going forward.
Biden? A decrepit, mendacious, weak, incoherent and corrupt campaign. An utterly vacuous and irrelevant effort displayed for show only as the Democrats move in lockstep with the Republicans on major issues such as military spending, bailing out the rich, covering up corruption, etc.
The US economy, LOL. The stock market is again exploding with vigorous bloat belying reality (DOW 35K EOY2020). The illusions of prosperity and peace are well painted domestically if not internationally. The idiot-in-chief is certainly gloating about today's economic news. And the old bugaboo inflation is still being held at bay with newly relieved pressure on payrolls/benefits, energy, etc. Where else is the newly available government-printed money to go but into the stock market?
After all we're gold rush rich and ready to spend, enjoy the "tinkle down" economy while you can:
https://www.denverpost.com/2020/06/04/federal-financial-support-economic-loss-pandemic/
COVID, old news. Step over the dead and move on.
Is a new uneasy calm setting in before a new and bigger storm? We'll see.
The case for 'This Was A Civil War', or could have been, or will be is half the story, a partial analysis.bevin , Jun 5 2020 22:31 utc | 46Like the Syrian War was a civil war, except it was paid for and equipped by the regions major powers and the US and Israel.
If Syria had been a civil war, it would have lasted 3 months, not 9 years.
The US won't have a civil war. The issue in the streets is Liberalism's effort to use anarchy (like the West uses Islamic Sunni Terrorism). It's a technique of destabilization.
There won't be a race war or a civil war. There may be a war to retake the Republic from the Deep State, from the Liberal Cult, from the Shadow Government and corrupt Congress.
The war to come would be a revolution to re-establish the Rule of Law, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, a war to stop separatist states from breaking from the Federal Union, maybe a war to reestablish the borders of the nation.
Understand what was going on in the streets. Who was doing what, not what you think was happening and why.
... Foreign Policy: this would not be a good time for the United States to go to war. No doubt there are plenty of fools in Washington who think otherwise and are urging Trump to get up a war to rally the country around. But that is unlikely to work..
The possibilities are endless and they all spell Trouble for Uncle Sam.
[Jun 06, 2020] Civil Unrest Was Inevitable - Here's How It Will Be Exploited To Bring In Tyranny by Brandon Smith
Notable quotes:
"... But now, the situation has turned into something far beyond the killing of George Floyd. It has become a vehicle for agendas and not surprisingly the establishment benefits most; the very establishment the protesters think they are fighting against. ..."
"... The riots have been co-opted. Where whites and blacks, conservatives and liberals alike were mostly in agreement, now there are attempts at racial division. Why is the death of Floyd being presented as a race issue in the first place? Why is it not being presented as a psychopath issue? There are psychopaths in every race in equal numbers, and this should be people's focus. In other words, psychopaths must be removed from society, whether they be police, politicians, business leaders, "caretakers", etc. How about some examples... ..."
"... The point is, psychopathic cops kill people regardless of their skin color. White people are at risk as much as black people. But at least when a black person is wrongly killed, the public and the media might take serious notice. There were no nationwide protests or riots for Daniel Shaver. The establishment works in favor of psychopaths, not white people. In fact, Phillip Brailsford was fired and then REHIRED for a short time by the Mesa Police so that he could still apply for his pension. ..."
"... There are evil people of every race and ethnicity in this world that do terrible things, however, the worst people are those that exploit the tensions that these evil people create in order to turn crisis into opportunity. The reason there are riots happening globally now in the wake of the death of George Floyd is because people are angry, but also, people are malleable and easy to manipulate when they are angry. ..."
"... The country has just partially "reopened" from the pandemic lockdowns, and more lockdowns are likely before the year is out. Over 40 million people lost their jobs during the economic shutdown and the government checks are not going to sustain the public much longer. Only 13% to 18% of small businesses that requested aid actually received money from the small business bailout, and most of those that did not get money are facing closure. Government restrictions have been accelerating, and people are already on edge. Riots are now an inevitable part of daily life in America. ..."
"... Provocateurs have infiltrated the protests and are attempting to trigger indiscriminate violence. Pre-staged weapons such as piles of bricks , bottles and other items have been appearing magically in protest zones. Property is being destroyed by people not connected to the main protest groups. Odd occurrences are popping up everywhere. ..."
"... As I predicted in 2016 just after the election of Donald Trump, it appears the goal of the establishment is to produce extreme division among the American public and then exploit the hard-left as a weapon to frighten conservatives into supporting martial law. In my article 'Order Out Of Chaos: Defeat Of The Left Comes With A Cost' ..."
"... If the infiltrators are extremist communist organizations like Antifa or Black Lives Matter that receive funding from elites like George Soros and his Open Society Foundation , then we should consider the possibility that the intention is not just to influence the protests, but to also influence conservatives to react by supporting violent government power. If they can trick conservatives into suddenly supporting the lockdowns, curfews, and a national guard/military presence to stop the protests, then they will have defeated us without firing a shot. We will have defeated ourselves and our own constitutional principles. ..."
Jun 03, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,Mass civil unrest is a cumbersome weapon for societal change; like an oversized caveman club made of oak. You can barely swing it, and when you do you might destroy an enemy with it but you could also unwittingly destroy innocent people at the same time. Once the weapon is in motion adjusting its direction or momentum becomes difficult.
I prefer the scalpel approach - Find the cancer and cut it out directly, rather than bashing at the whole body just to get at one tumor.
Another problem with protests and riots is that they often have no discernible goals, or they lose track of their goals almost immediately. When the initial protests started, they targeted the police precinct in Minneapolis which was home to the officers that killed George Floyd. In my view this was perfectly acceptable. At this stage a majority of Americans were on their side. Many conservatives and law enforcement officers even came out in support of these measures and admonished the actions that violated common police procedure and led to unnecessary death.
But now, the situation has turned into something far beyond the killing of George Floyd. It has become a vehicle for agendas and not surprisingly the establishment benefits most; the very establishment the protesters think they are fighting against.
The riots have been co-opted. Where whites and blacks, conservatives and liberals alike were mostly in agreement, now there are attempts at racial division. Why is the death of Floyd being presented as a race issue in the first place? Why is it not being presented as a psychopath issue? There are psychopaths in every race in equal numbers, and this should be people's focus. In other words, psychopaths must be removed from society, whether they be police, politicians, business leaders, "caretakers", etc. How about some examples...
In Mesa, Arizona in 2017, a white man named Daniel Shaver was murdered by officer Phillip Brailsford after an anonymous tip told police he had a rifle in his hotel room. Though it is not illegal to own a rifle in Arizona and certainly not illegal to bring one into a hotel, a team of officers was sent armed with AR-15s to approach and arrest Shaver. Brailsford ordered the frightened Shaver to crawl across the floor instead of asking him to lay on the ground with his hands and feet spread as is normal police procedure. The man, sobbing in terror, reached to pull up his shorts which were falling off, and was riddled with bullets by Brailsford.
Watching the video , it is clear that Brailsford created a situation in which Shaver could easily "make a mistake" and thereby create an excuse for the officer to kill him in cold blood. As it turned out, the rifle Shaver had in his room was a BB gun. A jury later acquitted Brailsford of any wrongdoing on the grounds that they could not determine "his thoughts and feelings" at the time of the shooting. This sounds strange to me and I don't think most people on trial for murder get anywhere near the same latitude with so much evidence on hand.
On the same day in North Carolina an officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of an unarmed motorist. The difference? The motorist in South Carolina was black.
The point is, psychopathic cops kill people regardless of their skin color. White people are at risk as much as black people. But at least when a black person is wrongly killed, the public and the media might take serious notice. There were no nationwide protests or riots for Daniel Shaver. The establishment works in favor of psychopaths, not white people. In fact, Phillip Brailsford was fired and then REHIRED for a short time by the Mesa Police so that he could still apply for his pension.
What about psychopaths that aren't white cops? Oh, there are plenty of them, too. How about Mohamed Noor, a BLACK Minneapolis police officer that killed an unarmed white woman, Justine Ruszczyk, in 2017 while responding to her 911 call? Leftist activists including those at the NAACP at the time claimed that Noor was being "unfairly targeted" because he was black. There were no protests or riots for Justine Ruszczyk. Though, luckily, Mohamed Noor did go to jail for his crime.
And if we are going to continue following the thread of violence and psychopathy vs. race, I can't leave out the black nurse in Detroit that filmed himself torturing elderly patients by beating them repeatedly in their beds, completely unable to defend themselves. The man has been arrested, but again, no riots yet over this horror show.
There are evil people of every race and ethnicity in this world that do terrible things, however, the worst people are those that exploit the tensions that these evil people create in order to turn crisis into opportunity. The reason there are riots happening globally now in the wake of the death of George Floyd is because people are angry, but also, people are malleable and easy to manipulate when they are angry.
The country has just partially "reopened" from the pandemic lockdowns, and more lockdowns are likely before the year is out. Over 40 million people lost their jobs during the economic shutdown and the government checks are not going to sustain the public much longer. Only 13% to 18% of small businesses that requested aid actually received money from the small business bailout, and most of those that did not get money are facing closure. Government restrictions have been accelerating, and people are already on edge. Riots are now an inevitable part of daily life in America.
But with events like the death of George Floyd, the riots can be manipulated.
The rage of the masses can be directed on false issues of race and shallow left/right politics instead of being directed at corrupt government and the elites that created the economic mess we now see before us. The protests over George Floyd started out by raising questions on abuse of power by police, a legitimate cause. Now they have been poisoned by race politics and outsiders seeking to create useful chaos.
Provocateurs have infiltrated the protests and are attempting to trigger indiscriminate violence. Pre-staged weapons such as piles of bricks , bottles and other items have been appearing magically in protest zones. Property is being destroyed by people not connected to the main protest groups. Odd occurrences are popping up everywhere.
Here is where this is all headed...
As I predicted in 2016 just after the election of Donald Trump, it appears the goal of the establishment is to produce extreme division among the American public and then exploit the hard-left as a weapon to frighten conservatives into supporting martial law. In my article 'Order Out Of Chaos: Defeat Of The Left Comes With A Cost' , I stated:
" With Trump and conservatives taking near-total power after the Left had assumed they would never lose again, their reaction has been to transform. They are stepping away from the normal activities and mindset of cultural Marxism and evolving into full blown communists. Instead of admitting that their ideology is a failure in every respect, they are doubling down.
When this evolution is complete, the Left WILL resort to direct violent action on a larger scale, and they will do so with a clear conscience because, in their minds, they are fighting fascism. Ironically, it will be this behavior by leftists that may actually push conservatives towards a fascist model. Conservatives might decide to fight crazy with more crazy."
Donald Trump has consistently discussed the use of the National Guard in response to the pandemic and the protests. And now, he is apparently considering using the Insurrection Act to deploy heavily armed military forces to US soil.
Is it just a coincidence that conservatives were the most opposed to medical martial law only a week ago in the face of the pandemic, and now they are considering the merits of martial law in the face of the leftist influenced riots? And who actually benefits from this? Perhaps the elitist establishment that's been calling for martial law measures from the very beginning?
I have been hearing the narrative everywhere in liberty movement circles that "civil war is here" and "we have to support Trump and martial law to stop it". Firstly, I have been warning for years that Trump is controlled opposition . His cabinet is overflowing with the same banking elites and globalists that the liberty movement stands against. Giving Trump martial law powers is no different than giving the elites around him martial law powers. If you support martial law and overarching government, then you are NOT a conservative you are a statist, and statists must be opposed by all who value freedom.
These people also don't understand what "civil war" actually is. Groups of people protesting is not a war. What I see primarily is a bunch of ignorant children posing for Instagram photos and pretending they are activists. And if as the evidence suggests there is a provocateur element infiltrating these protests to stir up violence, then isn't it possible that their goal is to get us to back martial law policies?
If the infiltrators are extremist communist organizations like Antifa or Black Lives Matter that receive funding from elites like George Soros and his Open Society Foundation , then we should consider the possibility that the intention is not just to influence the protests, but to also influence conservatives to react by supporting violent government power. If they can trick conservatives into suddenly supporting the lockdowns, curfews, and a national guard/military presence to stop the protests, then they will have defeated us without firing a shot. We will have defeated ourselves and our own constitutional principles.
The bottom line? More government power is NEVER the solution to any problem. Totalitarianism is never the answer. There will now be endless excuses to declare martial law. When the George Floyd riots fizzle out, there will be some other trigger event. In fact, these riots are probably just a precursor to the riots that will rage when the public realizes the US economy is not coming back from the pandemic, and that more lockdowns are coming. I would not be surprised if the Floyd riots are even blamed for a resurgence of Covid infections, which would give the government a rationale for more lockdowns. Beware anyone that uses martial law as the go to answer to these crisis events.
The solution in this case is to prosecute the police involved in the murder of George Floyd to the fullest extent of the law, point out that this is a problem of abuse of power and psychopathy, not a problem of race, and to stop outside interests from busing in provocateurs to trigger riots.
This is being done in some cases by the protestors themselves, who are exposing provocateurs within their ranks and filming them in the act.
The next best step is for businesses to secure and defend their own properties. We have seen it time and time again; the buildings that have armed personnel on hand to guard them do not get torched. Of course, right now a number of companies that have property damage due to rioters and looters are actually SUPPORTING the rioters and looters! Corporations are falling all over themselves to praise the protests and even the riots based on race politics. They are also pouring millions in cash into "social justice" groups. We're supposed to declare martial law and bring in the military to defend the property of companies that are vocal in their solidarity with the looters? What kind of idiocy is that? Just let them be looted if they are going to double-down on this hard-left madness.
If this current trend continues it would not surprise me at all if George Floyd becomes a forgotten footnote in the riots that were started in his name. If certain elites get their way, Americans will continue to riot without even knowing why, and those riots will never be aimed at the people that actually deserve it. In the meantime, the establishment wants at least one side of the political spectrum, at least one half of the population, to support totalitarian measures, and they are clearly targeting conservatives with fear tactics in order to get us on board.
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[Jun 06, 2020] Tucker Carlson Our leaders have dithered and lied about the riots as the nation goes up in flames Fox News
Jun 06, 2020 | www.foxnews.com
Some Democrats have openly embraced what is happening. Really they don't have much of a choice. These are their voters cleaning out the Rolex store. These riots effectively are the largest Joe Biden for President rally on record.In gratitude for that, more than a dozen Joe Biden for President campaign staffers donated money to the rioters in Minneapolis, and then they bragged about it on Twitter.
No Democratic leader can directly criticize what is happening right now. And in fact, some have joined in. Over the weekend, the Democratic Party of Fairfax, Virginia, which is an important Democratic organization, released the following statement on Twitter: "Riots are an integral part of this country's march towards progress."
Progress. Burning buildings, teargas, dead bodies, the screaming injured, criminal anarchy -- to the Democratic Party of Fairfax, that is called progress.
Celebrity after celebrity has weighed in to agree on social media. From his fortified compound, basketball star LeBron James has used his accounts to encourage more rioting. Bernie Sanders surrogate Shaun King has done the same. So has Black Lives Matter leader, DeRay Mckesson.
Colin Kaepernick openly calls for violence. Here's a quote: "The cries for peace will rain down and when they do, they will land on deaf ears," he says approvingly .
Imagine shouting fire in a crowded theater, a theater with 325 million people in it called our country. That's what they've been doing and have been doing for days.
When the violence began, what we needed more than anything was clarity in the middle of this. It's hard to see when the tear gas starts. Someone in America needed to tell the truth to the country. Instead, almost all of our so-called conservative leaders joined the left's chorus, as if on cue.
On Friday, as American cities were being destroyed by mobs, the vice president United States refused to say anything specific about the riots we were watching on television. Instead, Mike Pence scolded America for its racism.
Carly Fiorina, once a leading Republican presidential candidate tweeted that -- and we're quoting, "It's white America that now must see the truth, speak the truth and act on the truth."
Meanwhile, Kay Coles James , who is the president of the Heritage Foundation -- that's the largest conservative think tank in the country. You may have sent them money, hopefully for the last time. Kay Coles James wrote a long scream denouncing America as an irredeemably racist nation: "How many times will protests have to occur?"
Got that? "Have to occur." Like the rest of us caused this by our sinfulness.
The message from our leaders on the right, as on the left, was unambiguous: Don't complain. You deserve what's happening to you.
No one jumped in more forcefully or seemed angrier in America than former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley . "Tonight I turned on the news and I am heartbroken," Haley wrote. "It's important to understand that the death of George Ford was personal and painful for many. In order to heal, it needs to be personal and painful for everyone."
Imagine shouting fire in a crowded theater, a theater with 325 million people in it called our country. That's what they've been doing and have been doing for days.
But wait a second, you may be wondering, how am I "personally responsible" for the behavior of a Minneapolis police officer? I've never even been to Minneapolis, you may think to yourself. And why is some politician telling me I'm required to be upset about it?
Those are all good questions. Nikki Haley did not answer those questions explaining. It is not her strong suit -- that would require thinking.
What Nikki Haley does best is moral blackmail. During the 2016 campaign, she compared Donald Trump to the racist mass murderer, Dylann Roof . How is Donald Trump similar to a serial killer? Nikki Haley never explained that. She wasn't trying to educate anyone.
Her only goal was political advantage. Nikki Haley is exceptionally good at getting what she wants. She is happy to denounce you as a racist in order to get it. She just did.
In this case, Nikki Haley's wish came true. The riots were indeed "personal and painful" for everyone. And then the pain kept increasing. Two days after she wrote that, dozens of American cities had been thoroughly trashed, some destroyed.
A country already on the brink of recession suddenly faced economic collapse. An already fearful population locked down for months because of the coronavirus had been thoroughly and completely terrorized.
Mission accomplished. Let's hope Nikki Haley is pleased. We've now atoned.
How did the Trump administration respond to the horrors going on around us? Well, Sunday morning, the country's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, did a live interview from the White House lawn. Here's how it began:
Robert O'Brien, U.S. National Security Adviser: First thing I want to say, on behalf of the president --he said this to the family -- but our hearts and prayers are going out to the Floyd family. We mourn with them and we grieve with them and what happened there was horrific and I can't even imagine what that poor family is going through as his videos are played over and over again. That should have never happened in America and it's a tragic thing.The president said that from the start, and we're with the family and as the President said, we're with the peaceful protesters.
"We're with the peaceful protesters," O'Brien announced.
Really? Can you be more specific about that? Who are you talking about exactly? Is it the people spitting foam as they scream, "F the police"? Is it the one standing next to the arsonist doing nothing as they set fire to buildings? Is it the kids laughing as they film the looting and the beatings on their iPhones?
The first requirement of leadership is that you watch over the people in your care. That's what soldiers want from their officers. It's what families need from their fathers. It's what voters demand from their presidents.
[Jun 06, 2020] Tucker Carlson: The riots are not about George Floyd or racial justice. They're about Trump and seizing power by Tucker Carlson
Notable quotes:
"... Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator: People worry about the protesters and the looters. And it is just people who are frustrated. ..."
"... Don Lemon, CNN anchor: They are frustrated, and they are angry, and they are out there. And they're upset. You shouldn't be taking televisions, but I can't tell people how to react to this. ..."
"... Sen. Chuck Schumer , D-N.Y.: I'm proud of the protests, and I think it is part of the tradition of New York. The violence is bad, reprehensible, and it should be condemned, but it is not the overwhelming picture in New York. ..."
"... Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times: Destroying property which can be replaced is not violence. ..."
"... Chris Cuomo, CNN anchor Too many see the protests as the problem. Please, show me where it says that protests are supposed to be polite and peaceful. ..."
"... Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti: I want you to know we will not be increasing our police budget. How can we at this moment? ..."
"... Our city through our city administrative officer identified $250 million in cuts, so we could invest in jobs, in health, in education, and in healing And that those dollars need to be focused on our black community here in Los Angeles, as well as communities of color and women and people who have been left behind for too long. ..."
"... And will this involve cuts? Yes. Of course. To every department, including the police department. ..."
"... Adapted from Tucker Carlson's monologue from " Tucker Carlson Tonight " on June 4, 2020. ..."
Jun 06, 2020 | www.foxnews.com
For the past week, all of us have seen chaos engulf our beloved country. The violence and the destruction have been so overwhelming, so shocking, and awful and vivid on the screen, that it's been hard to think clearly about what's going on.
Most of us haven't been able to step back far enough to ask even the obvious questions. The most obvious, of course, is what is this really about? What do the mobs want?
Well, thugs looting the Apple Store can't answer that question. They have no idea. They just want free iPads. But what about Apple itself and the rest of corporate America, which is enthusiastically supporting the rioters? What about members of Congress , the media figures, the celebrities, the tech titans, all of whom are cheering this on. What do they want out of it?
Well, they haven't said. That's the central mystery.
Now suddenly, it is obvious. It should have been obvious on the first day. This is about Donald Trump . Of course, it is. We just couldn't see it.
For normal people, Donald Trump is the president. You may like him, you may not like him, but either way, there will be another president at some point, and we will move on as we always have.
But for Donald Trump's enemies, there is nothing else. Everything is about Trump. Everything.
Donald Trump defines their friendships, their careers, their marriages. Donald Trump affects how they raise their children. Trump occupies the very center of their lives. As long as Donald Trump remains in the White House. They feel powerless and diminished and panicked. So they cannot be happy.
In everything they do, their overriding goal is to remove Donald Trump from office. And that's exactly what they're trying to do now. That's what these riots are about. The most privileged in our society are using the most desperate in our society to seize power from everyone else.
Got that? That's the nub of it. The most privileged are using the most desperate to seize power from the rest of us. They are not seeking racial justice. If they were seeking racial justice, they wouldn't be denouncing their fellow Americans for their race, which they are. It has nothing to do with it.
What they are seeking is total control of the country. And it goes without saying that none of this has anything to do with George Floyd . Shame on those who pretended that it did -- those who fell for the lie and those who knew better but played along because they are cowards. There are many of those. You know who they are, and someday we will look back on all of them with contempt.
Meanwhile, the many people promoting this chaos remain clear-eyed. They are not lying to themselves. They never do. They know exactly what's going on, and they know what they hope to achieve by it. With every night of rioting, they grow bolder. Now, they are openly defending violence on television.
Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator: People worry about the protesters and the looters. And it is just people who are frustrated.
Don Lemon, CNN anchor: They are frustrated, and they are angry, and they are out there. And they're upset. You shouldn't be taking televisions, but I can't tell people how to react to this.
Sen. Chuck Schumer , D-N.Y.: I'm proud of the protests, and I think it is part of the tradition of New York. The violence is bad, reprehensible, and it should be condemned, but it is not the overwhelming picture in New York.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times: Destroying property which can be replaced is not violence.
Chris Cuomo, CNN anchor Too many see the protests as the problem. Please, show me where it says that protests are supposed to be polite and peaceful.
You're crushed by this. You can't believe what's happening to your country. But for the people you just saw, the real problem is that the rioting in some rare places is being stopped by police, and their aim is to fix that. They would like to eliminate all law enforcement for good.
In everything they do, their overriding goal is to remove Donald Trump from office. And that's exactly what they're trying to do now. That's what these riots are about. The most privileged in our society are using the most desperate in our society to seize power from everyone else.
On Thursday, Democrats in Dallas took down the statue of a Texas Ranger from the terminal at Love Field that has stood in the airport for more than 50 years. The Texas Rangers are cops, and cops must be removed, even when they're made of bronze.
Meanwhile, the Lego toy company has ceased marketing sets that contain plastic police officers. Apparently, they're too dangerous for our children. And so on -- so much of this is going on right now.
If it all seems like yet another episode of the silly and fleeting hysteria that sometimes grips our culture out of nowhere, usually in lulls in the news cycle, you should know that it's not that. This is entirely real. It is being pushed by serious people, and they are deadly serious about it.
On Wednesday night, for example, Brian Fallon, who was the press secretary of the Hillary Clinton for President campaign in the last election cycle tweeted, "Defund the police." Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib agrees. Expect more members of Congress to agree soon.
In some places, they're not talking, they're acting. Steve Fletcher represents the Third Ward in Minneapolis . He's on the City Council there. By this week, his city had been completely scorched by riots. At least 66 businesses were utterly destroyed by fire, 300 more had been vandalized or looted.
Fletcher didn't even mention that. Instead, he attacked the city's police department for trying to contain the violence: "Several of us on the Council are working on finding out what it would take to disband the Minneapolis Police Department.".
How would Americans feel if they actually defunded the police? Well, terrified mostly. That's how we would feel. Things would fall apart instantly.
You'd think people in the city would be shocked by that. But at least on the City Council, everyone else nodded their approval. In the Ninth Ward, Councilwoman Alondra Cano tweeted this on Wednesday: "The Minneapolis Police Department is not reformable. Change is coming." According to City Councilman Fletcher, all nine members of the City Council are now considered getting rid of the Minneapolis Police Department.
Hard to believe, but it's not just there. In the city of Los Angeles , Mayor Eric Garcetti looks out across the worst rioting in the nation's second-largest city in a generation, in almost 30 years. His conclusion? We need far fewer police. It could have been better if they hadn't been there.
Garcetti has announced he is going to cut funding for law enforcement .
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti: I want you to know we will not be increasing our police budget. How can we at this moment?
Our city through our city administrative officer identified $250 million in cuts, so we could invest in jobs, in health, in education, and in healing And that those dollars need to be focused on our black community here in Los Angeles, as well as communities of color and women and people who have been left behind for too long.
And will this involve cuts? Yes. Of course. To every department, including the police department.
When Democrats across the country start saying the same thing at the same time, you can be certain there's a reason for it. And in this case, they clearly mean it.
According to the president of the L.A. Police Commission, city officials may cut $150 million from the LAPD. That would be more than 10 percent of the entire police budget, in the wake of rioting.
In New York, 48 separate Democratic candidates -- and they were including in that the Manhattan district attorney -- signed a letter demanding a $1 billion cut to the budget of the NYPD. Why are they doing this? There are reasons, not the ones they tell you. They tell you it's about racism. They tell you that cops are racist and must be reined in.
Most Americans don't agree with that. That's not the experience they have. In fact, police departments are one of the most trusted institutions in the country.
According to Gallup polling last year, 53 percent of Americans said they had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the police. That was far more confidence than they had in almost any other institution -- banks, religious leaders, the health care system, television, news, public schools, corporate America, newspapers -- name one. All of those were stuck below 40 percent. How many Americans trusted Congress? Eleven percent.
And in fact, most African Americans still support the police. A 2016 Pew poll found that 55 percent of African-Americans had confidence in the police within their own communities. In other words, cops they actually knew and dealt with. They have confidence.
A study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2011 found that among those who called the police for help, more than 90 percent of African-Americans felt the police behaved properly.
So, what would happen if we got rid of the police? Of all law enforcement? How would Americans feel if they actually defunded the police?
Well, terrified mostly. That's how we would feel. Things would fall apart instantly. It would take hours. Don't believe it? Spend an afternoon in a place with no law enforcement and see what you think. Talk to anyone who was in Baghdad at the height of the Iraq War. Ask anyone who stayed in New Orleans for Katrina. Their memories will be fresh. They'll never forget what they saw.
Here's the key. Eliminating the police does not mean eliminating authority. There is always authority. There are no vacuums in nature. The only question is whether or not the authority is legitimate -- whether or not the authority is accountable. Whether or not you can do anything if the authority abuses its power.
In the absence of law enforcement, the answer is no. It means thugs are in charge. The most violent people have the most power. They can do whatever they want to you. That's the reality. Everyone obeys the violent people, or they get hurt. The mob literally rules.
That probably sounds like a nightmare to you, because it is. But the people pushing this idea don't see it as scary because they don't fear the mob, because they control the mob. That's the key. And they see violence as an instrument of their political power.
With mobs in the streets that they control, they will finally get what they want -- Donald Trump out of office and a hammerlock on the country. That's what's happening.
Adapted from Tucker Carlson's monologue from " Tucker Carlson Tonight " on June 4, 2020.
[Jun 06, 2020] Is our nation being ripped apart by a total and complete lie, a provable lie? A lie used by cynical media manipulators and unscrupulous politicians who understand that racial strife -- race hatred -- is their path to power, even if it destroys the country by Tucker Calson
The incident was clearly manipulated for political purposes. And manipulators do not care how many stores will be looted and how many people will be killed. They want their political power back.
"Is our nation being ripped apart by a total and complete lie, a provable lie? A lie used by cynical media manipulators and unscrupulous politicians who understand that racial strife -- race hatred -- is their path to power, even if it destroys the country."
Notable quotes:
"... So many of our leaders, by contrast, are not grieving. They seem exhilarated. They feel nothing as our nation descends into anarchy. They see chaos, instead, as an opportunity, a chance to solidify their control, to increase their market share to win elections. ..."
"... The people cheering them on from their TV studios have no patience for real protests or real protesters. Just in April, Democrats in New Jersey arrested a woman for trying to plan a rally, a protest at the state capitol. The New York Times said nothing when they did that because they approve. That's how they really feel about any political expression they can't control -- they crush it. ..."
"... Unidentified male: I am now calling on all and our city council members and all of our elected officials to defund the police. ..."
"... Crowd: Defund the police. ..."
"... Unidentified male: Defund the police. ..."
"... Crowd: Defund the police. ..."
"... Jake Tapper, CNN anchor: LA Mayor Eric Garcetti joined protesters moments ago, what did he have to say? ..."
"... Stephanie Elam, CNN correspondent: Yes, he came out this morning, Jake, and he took the time to come out and come out among the protesters. He knelt while he was out there, saying -- and showing -- his solidarity for the movement, for the protesters here today. ..."
"... And I can tell you that today, this daytime protest has been very peaceful, very calm. Lots of chanting, singing. ..."
"... Unidentified male: I work for Black Lives Matter. I'm sorry that I scared you. But since I work for that company, my CEO has told me to come out today and to bring you on your knees because you have white privilege. ..."
"... So if they see that a white person is getting on their knees that show solidarity for the situation. The situation and could you just please apologize for -- you know for your white privilege. Just apologize. ..."
"... Unidentified female: I have -- I am trying to think of the right words to say. What's a good thing to say? ..."
"... Unidentified male: It's big.Unidentified female: That comes from -- ..."
"... Unidentified male: It's so -- it's large in this country. ..."
"... Unidentified female: I am terribly sorry. ..."
"... Of the 802 shootings in which the race of the police officer and the suspect was noted, 371 of those killed were white, 236 were black. The vast majority of those killed were not, in fact, unarmed; the vast majority were armed. And African-American suspects were significantly more likely to have a deadly weapon than white suspects, yet more white suspects were killed. ..."
"... In fact, the number of police killings is dropping. In 2015, during Barack Obama's presidency , 38 unarmed black Americans and 32 whites were slain by police. Overall totals have fallen since then, and they have fallen far more dramatically for African-American men. ..."
"... Last year was the safest year for unarmed suspects since The Washington Post begin tracking police shootings. It was the safest year for both white and black suspects. ..."
"... One final number for you, because it matters: In 2018, 7,407 African-Americans were murdered in the United States. If 2019 continues on a similar trajectory, -- and we hope it doesn't, but if it does -- that would mean that for every unarmed African-American shot to death in the United States by police, more than 700 were murdered by someone else, usually by someone they know. ..."
"... Again, those are the facts. They are not in dispute. Are African-Americans being "hunted" as Joy Reid recklessly claimed on MSNBC recently? Or something else happening? ..."
Jun 06, 2020 | www.foxnews.com
For many of us, this has been one of the saddest, most painful weeks in memory. Depressing doesn't even begin to describe it.
We have watched as mobs of violent cretins have burned our cities, defaced our monuments, beaten old women in the street, shot police officers and stolen everything in sight -- stealing everything .
BAIL REFORM LAWS LET ALLEGED CRIMINALS BACK ON THE STREETS WITHIN HOURS, THREATENING PUBLIC SECURITY
How many innocent Americans have these people hurt? How many have they murdered? We don't know that number. But it's the country itself that so many of us worry about at this point.
After we've watched what's happened over the last week, how do we put the society back together? Can we? We don't know that, either.
If you're grieving for America right now, you are not alone. Millions feel the same way you do.
So many of our leaders, by contrast, are not grieving. They seem exhilarated. They feel nothing as our nation descends into anarchy. They see chaos, instead, as an opportunity, a chance to solidify their control, to increase their market share to win elections.
They have no interest in talking about the details of what is actually happening out there on our streets. In fact, they're hiding those details. They're demanding that you forget what you saw. Don't forget it. Remember all of it -- every bit -- because it's proof of who they are.
What they're defending and encouraging has nothing to do with civil rights. It is violence, and the criminals you see on the screen are not protesters.
The people cheering them on from their TV studios have no patience for real protests or real protesters. Just in April, Democrats in New Jersey arrested a woman for trying to plan a rally, a protest at the state capitol. The New York Times said nothing when they did that because they approve. That's how they really feel about any political expression they can't control -- they crush it.
What they support is more power for themselves and they're willing to use gangs of thugs to get it. Here is one of their protesters chanting "no justice, no peace" as a man tortures a dog. NBC News wouldn't show you that video ever. Neither would CNN under any circumstances. These are the worst people in America, and our leaders have let them do whatever they want. So, of course, they want more.
Their latest demand is that we eliminate the police entirely. No more law enforcement in this country. That would mean more power for the mob. They could do anything. It would mean never-ending terror for you and for your family. That's why they want it.
Unidentified male: I am now calling on all and our city council members and all of our elected officials to defund the police.
Crowd: Defund the police.
Unidentified male: Defund the police.
Crowd: Defund the police.
"Defund the police." No sane person would dare to have said something like that in public just a week and a half ago. Now, a member of Congress has endorsed the idea -- Rashida Tlaib .
So, what would happen to our country if we eliminated law enforcement? Eric Garcetti is the mayor of Los Angeles , the second biggest city in America. His city would devolve into a murderous hellscape within hours if the police left.
But Garcetti, who is in charge of the city, won't push back against this idea. Instead, h e kneeled in subservience before the people demanding it.
Jake Tapper, CNN anchor: LA Mayor Eric Garcetti joined protesters moments ago, what did he have to say?
Stephanie Elam, CNN correspondent: Yes, he came out this morning, Jake, and he took the time to come out and come out among the protesters. He knelt while he was out there, saying -- and showing -- his solidarity for the movement, for the protesters here today.
And I can tell you that today, this daytime protest has been very peaceful, very calm. Lots of chanting, singing.
He kneeled. Our leaders are kneeling before the mob, the atavistic ritual of self-abasement of defeat. Suddenly, many are performing this ritual, including police around the country.
The mob wants victory. But more than that, it wants the total humiliation of its enemies.
Unidentified male: I work for Black Lives Matter. I'm sorry that I scared you. But since I work for that company, my CEO has told me to come out today and to bring you on your knees because you have white privilege.
So if they see that a white person is getting on their knees that show solidarity for the situation. The situation and could you just please apologize for -- you know for your white privilege. Just apologize.
Unidentified female: I have -- I am trying to think of the right words to say. What's a good thing to say?
Unidentified male: It's big.Unidentified female: That comes from --
Unidentified male: It's so -- it's large in this country.
Unidentified female: I am terribly sorry.
Why do we kneel? We kneel because we've lost. We kneel before our victors because they have won. We put down our resistance. We beg for their mercy.
But mobs rarely forgive. "We're on your side!" we shout. We're in solidarity, spare us. But they never do.
"We're on your side" as the rock comes through the window. You think the mob cares? No.
What's happening to this country? Why are Americans surrendering to violent mobs? Well, because they've been told they have to.
Everything we're now watching -- the looting, the arson, the killing -- has a purpose. The purpose we're told again and again is to end racist police violence against African-Americans. We are told that that is the single greatest scourge in this country.
Demonstrators say repeatedly, "Stop killing us." Stop killing us -- it's chilling. And if you believe it, and you're a decent person, you will be moved by it -- because it's awful.
No American should ever be mistreated by those in authority, much less killed. The abuse of power is always and everywhere a sin, and it's increasingly common here. We should always work to end it.
So many of our leaders, by contrast, are not grieving. They seem exhilarated. They feel nothing as our nation descends into anarchy. They see chaos, instead, as an opportunity
In this case, the death of a man at the hands of police in Minneapolis turned out to be a metaphor for abuse of power. That death has led to demands that we fire the nearly 700,000 police officers who work in the United States and that we free the million and a half criminals who are now behind bars.
In America, Joe Biden told us recently: "Just the color of your skin puts your life at risk." Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey strongly agreed with that.
"We have so many people in our country," Booker said Tuesday, "African-American men mostly unarmed, being murdered by police officers and no way of holding them accountable."
So many people murdered by police officers, unarmed, says Cory Booker.
You're hearing a lot of people in authority tell you that, every day, every hour. One group of pro athletes just announced that, "It seems like every week, a new tragedy unfolds before our very eyes where people are being killed by police violence. Each time we tweet, we pray, we mourn, only to repeat the cycle a few days later."
In the words of Ben Crump, who is the lawyer representing George Floyd's family in Minneapolis, what we're witnessing here in America is "genocide." Genocide?
If you believe we were seeing genocide, then you might understand the riots now in progress. There's nothing worse than genocide. But is it happening? Is any of this true? We should find out. Facts matter. What exactly are the numbers?
We found the numbers and we're going to go through them with you in some detail because it's worth it.
Since 2015, The Washington Post has maintained a comprehensive database of fatal police shootings in this country. Last year, The Post logged a total of 1,004 killings.
Of the 802 shootings in which the race of the police officer and the suspect was noted, 371 of those killed were white, 236 were black. The vast majority of those killed were not, in fact, unarmed; the vast majority were armed. And African-American suspects were significantly more likely to have a deadly weapon than white suspects, yet more white suspects were killed.
This is not genocide. It's not even close to genocide. It is laughable to suggest it is.
Overall, there were a total of precisely 10 cases in the United States last year, according to The Washington Post, in which unarmed African- Americans were fatally shot by the police. There were nine men and one woman.
Now, as we said, a lot is at stake. The country is at stake. So we want to take the time now to go through these case by case, into the specifics.
The first was a man called Channara Pheap. He was killed by a Knoxville police officer called Dylan Williams. According to Williams, Pheap attacked him, choked him and then used a taser on him -- the suspect on the police officer before the officer shot him. Five eyewitnesses corroborated the officer's claim, and the officer was not charged.
The second case concerns a man called Marcus McVeigh. He was by any description a career criminal from San Angelo, Texas. He had been convicted of aggravated assault, assault on a public servant and organized criminal activity.
At the time he was killed, he was wanted on drug dealing charges. The Texas State trooper pulled him over. McVeigh fled in his car, then he fled on foot into the woods. There he fought with the trooper and was shot and killed. The officer was not charged in that case.
Marzua Scott assaulted a shop employee. When a female police officer arrived and ordered the suspect toward her car, he instead charged her and knocked her to the ground. At that point, she shot and killed him. The entire incident was caught on body camera. The officer was not charged.
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Ryan Twyman was being approached by two LA County deputies when he backed into one of them with his vehicle. The deputy was caught in the car door. He and his partner opened fire. The deputies were not charged in that case.
Melvin Watkins of East Baton Rouge, La. shot by a deputy after he allegedly drove his car toward the deputy at high speed. The deputy was not charged.
Isaiah Lewis, meanwhile, wasn't just unarmed, he was completely naked. Williams broke into a house and then attacked a police officer. The police tased Williams, but he kept coming at them and attacking. The officer shot him. They were not charged.
Atatiana Jefferson was shot by a Fort Worth deputy called Aaron Dean. A neighbor had called a non-emergency number after seeing Jefferson's door open, thinking something might be wrong. Police arrived. Jefferson saw them approach from a window and was holding a gun at the time.
According to body camera footage, the officer shot Jefferson within seconds. That officer has been charged with homicide.
Is our nation being ripped apart by a total and complete lie, a provable lie? A lie used by cynical media manipulators and unscrupulous politicians who understand that racial strife -- race hatred -- is their path to power, even if it destroys the country.
Christopher Whitfield was shot and killed in a place called Ethel, La. He had robbed a gas station. Deputy Glenn Sims said his gun discharged accidentally while grappling with Whitfield. Sims, who is black himself, was not charged in that killing.
Kevin Mason was shot by police during a multi-hour standoff. Well, Mason turned out not to have a gun. Mason claimed to have a gun, claimed to be armed and vowed to kill police with it. They believed him. Mason had been in a shootout with police years before.
And finally, the tenth case concerns Gregory Griffin. He was shot during a car chase. An officer called Giovanni Crespo claimed he saw someone pointing a gun at him. Later, a gun was in fact found inside the vehicle, and yet Officer Crespo was charged anyway with aggravated manslaughter.
Those are the facts. That is the entire list from 2019, last year -- 10 deaths. In five deaths, an officer was attacked just before the shooting occurred. That is not disputed.
One allegedly was an accident. That leaves a total of four deaths during a pursuit or in a standoff. So out of four, in two of those cases -- and fully half -- the officer was criminally charged. Is it possible that more of these officers should have been charged? Of course, it's possible. Justice is not always served, that's for sure.
VideoBut either way, this is a very small number in a country of 325 million people. This is not genocide. It's not even close to genocide. It is laughable to suggest it is.
In fact, the number of police killings is dropping. In 2015, during Barack Obama's presidency , 38 unarmed black Americans and 32 whites were slain by police. Overall totals have fallen since then, and they have fallen far more dramatically for African-American men.
Last year was the safest year for unarmed suspects since The Washington Post begin tracking police shootings. It was the safest year for both white and black suspects.
At the same time, this country remains a dangerous place for police officers. Forty-eight of them were murdered in 2019 according to FBI data. That's more than the number of unarmed suspects killed of all races.
One final number for you, because it matters: In 2018, 7,407 African-Americans were murdered in the United States. If 2019 continues on a similar trajectory, -- and we hope it doesn't, but if it does -- that would mean that for every unarmed African-American shot to death in the United States by police, more than 700 were murdered by someone else, usually by someone they know.
Again, those are the facts. They are not in dispute. Are African-Americans being "hunted" as Joy Reid recklessly claimed on MSNBC recently? Or something else happening?
[Jun 06, 2020] Tucker Carlson Says Corporations Donating to BLM Are Paying for Riots That Annihilate Small Businesses
That's neoliberalism, or, more correctly, "disaster capitalism" in action.
Jun 06, 2020 | www.newsweek.com
Carlson has said corporations support for the protests is "paying for" riots.
"But corporations aren't simply tweeting their support for the riots, they're paying for them to," he said.
Carlson listed companies including Cisco, Intel, Ubisoft, Airbnb and Dropbox, who have all made funds available to groups such as Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He also criticized Pepsi, stating it had supported similar causes.
Newsweek has contacted the corporations mentioned and Fox News for comment.
Carlson referred to a quote that "a riot is the voice of the unheard," a phrase which has origins from civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King Jr, who said "a riot is the language of the unheard."
Criticizing this, Carlson said: "The rioters burning down your city with the support of virtually everyone richer than you, are 'unheard', you, by contrast, are the oppressor and if you disagree in any way, we are going to fire you and wreck your life."
Continuing to critique the corporations, Carlson suggested they should support small businesses. "All this money, flowing out of the country's most profitable corporations, it might be a nice gesture for those corporations to donate some money to, I dunno, rebuild some of the small businesses that have been destroyed over the past week," he said.
"Oh but they're not going to do that, because for a lot of big corporations the total annihilation of small businesses is one of the best parts of this new revolution, there's always an angle, someone's always getting more powerful."
In regards to the groups being supported, Carlson took issue with BLM for calling for police to be defunded, while criticizing support for bail funds from the NAACP.
[Jun 06, 2020] George Floyd protest is 'for the benefit' of 'democratic struggles' abroad, says US group known for promoting regime change
Jun 06, 2020 | www.rt.com
The National Endowment for Democracy, a soft-power group mostly known for splashing government dollars on pro-US influence campaigns overseas to enforce regime change, has endorsed protests against police brutality at home.
...
The NED, founded in 1983, has courted controversy for using its US government allocated resources for encouraging regime change in countries that refuse to toe Washington's line, like Russia and China. The group, along with other US-based "NGOs" supported the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine and later funneled millions of freedom dollars to the country ahead of the 2014 anti-Russian coup that brought down Ukraine's former President Viktor Yanukovych.Also on rt.com US foreign aid agencies paid for Kiev street violence - ex-US agent Scott Rickard
In 2015, Moscow designated the NED's activities as "undesirable" after it was found to have sponsored political campaigns aimed at influencing the Russian government's decisions, including discrediting the nation's military forces and the results of elections.
The outlet has also been caught red-handed stirring anti-Beijing sentiment in Hong Kong, drawing fire from the Chinese government. In December 2019, Beijing sanctioned the NED along with several other US-affiliated organizations, accusing them of "horrible activities in the months-long turmoil in the city."
"[There is] a great amount of evidence proving that these NGOs have supported anti-China forces to create chaos in Hong Kong, and made utmost efforts to encourage these forces to engage in extreme violent criminal acts," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said at the time.
[Jun 06, 2020] The various federal three letter agencies covering up for the organizers, are the very groups he would need to breakup and prosecute these Antifa organizers?
This is identity wedge game played again and very successfully...
Notable quotes:
"... Are you telling me that the FBI/NSA/etc. don’t know about Antifa? I just don’t believe it. They might pretend they don’t know. I read about pallets of bricks. BRICKS. Deposited all over the country ..."
"... And the feds don’t know who put them there? Bullshit. The DNC is the political arm of the Deep State and Antifa etc. are the paramilitary. ..."
Jun 05, 2020 | www.unz.com
VinnyVette , says: Show Comment June 5, 2020 at 3:40 pm GMT
... Trumps blustering is at least acknowledgement publicly that Antifa is an organized and funded terrorist organization.But what power does he have to do anything about it, since as pointed out in your own article, the various federal three letter groups covering up for the organizers, are the very groups he would need to breakup and prosecute these Antifa organizers?
They are going to execute his orders really?
Where were you the past three years Striker when the CIA, FBI, DOJ etc were trying to bring down the very president you expect to go after Antifa? C'mon man!
WorkingClass , says: Show Comment June 5, 2020 at 7:18 pm GMT
Are you telling me that the FBI/NSA/etc. don’t know about Antifa? I just don’t believe it. They might pretend they don’t know. I read about pallets of bricks. BRICKS. Deposited all over the country .And the feds don’t know who put them there? Bullshit. The DNC is the political arm of the Deep State and Antifa etc. are the paramilitary.
The media do it’s propaganda and academia it’s indoctrination. Or did you think the Deep State was working on behalf of the American People? That they really believe white supremacists are a threat? The enemy employs legions of useful idiots. But the enemy is not stupid.
anonymous [589] • Disclaimer , says: Show Comment June 5, 2020 at 8:14 pm GMT
@WorkingClass I saw all white antifa piling the bricks…coordinating other cadres to use violence…and all white ANTIFA looting and blaming BLMatter.Bogus Pogus , says: Show Comment June 5, 2020 at 9:42 pm GMTHow do jobless anarchists rent out space in Brooklyn for meetings, paramilitary training and concerts? Who owns practically all the real estate in Brooklyn? Are we even allowed to ask?
[Jun 06, 2020] Former CIA officer explodes on Secy Esper- 'Get the hell out of the Pentagon'
This is fight of two factions of the neoliberal elite, in which commoners suffer and some are already dead.
Jun 06, 2020 | www.youtube.com
zen strata , 23 hours agoThe media who are encouraging violence should be put on trial right alongside the criminals they defended.
François Carlier , 23 hours ago Plaz 1398 , 20 hours agoEsper must be replaced at once !!!!! He's a disgrace !
I have never seen tucker that quiet for that long🤣. Everything this man said was absolutely true.
MARGARET CHAYKA , 1 day agoWell now I've seen everything. A Democrat who went on Tucker Carlson and made sense.
Aaron Macheske , 19 hours agoHe doesn't need the label "democrat" ...his words are a true voice of someone I'd stand by regardless. And I'm a conservative through and through.
J P , 1 day agoSleepers activated revealing themselves including generals. Deep state throwing the kitchen sink at Trump ...
Paul B , 23 hours agoI was surprised Esper gave a press conference without first coordinating his message with the White House. We need a unified message coming from our federal government. He should have voiced his concerns privately with Trump, but Trump makes the decision and announces the message...Trump was elected, not Esper. I would fire Esper for not following the chain of command. The career politicians cant stand Trump because he is a Washington outsider who is doing things different and making much needed changes that benefit businesses and individuals.
olderthangranite , 22 hours agoEsper is clearly a narcissist sociopath. Generals can be fired. Most of them are rather useless, anyway.
Keith C , 2 hours agoTucker: "He cannot subvert the order of the President he works for, no matter who the President is." What if that President is unstable?
Matt Barnhouse , 10 hours agoAll you have to do is look at who is involved with all this craziness and when it all started. All this cause they want their power back so they can continue to do what they want and answer to no one. All of this cause they hate Trump for opening the eyes of Americans to see the light through the darkness they created. Because all I've seen that Trump has done to hurt this country so far was to get elected and show all Americans how we where getting taken advantage of by government, the elites and other countries. They will stop at nothing to regain power. Game players in this craziness: 1. Corrupt politicians 2. Some rich Hollywood stars 3. Some rich sports players 4. Some rich business owners 5. Leftist media being paid 6. Some true racist people being paid 7. Some bad law enforcement individuals being paid 8. Some black individuals being paid and making money from it by pushing the narrative 9. And last but not least, someone or group that's financially flipping the bill so all of it can happen. Notice any pattern here? $$$$$$$$$$$$ money the root of all evil.
Broadsword , 1 day ago Antonio Capule , 3 hours agoAll Bureaucrats and the Military take an oath to defend the constitution. When a lowlife like Donald Trump comes along and tries to subvert the constitution it is right of the military and the bureaucrats to disobey his orders. Trump can fire them if he likes but cannot force them to fall in line with his unconstitutional order. A stupid man like you would have known that already and are selectively feeding information to a bunch of guys who do not even know what the constitution is. The military is clearly lined up against the idea of trump using them against American citizens. After Trump loses the election as it clearly seems now, he will have to demit office without a whimper, that is very clear from the statements of various active generals. Unfortunately, Donald Trump has to this time win the Presidency by playing fair and not screaming like a dog whose backside has been bitten off "The Democrats are practicing election corruption" It is Ok to feed that to his dumb followers but the rest of the country will not take it lying down. This dog knew 2 tricks, you have now seen them all. He is done.
The military is in the early stages of coup d'etat ...
[Jun 06, 2020] Washington DC Police Brace For One Of The Largest Demonstrations We've Ever Seen
Jun 06, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Washington DC Police Brace For "One Of The Largest Demonstrations We've Ever Seen" by Tyler Durden Sat, 06/06/2020 - 11:53 Update (1135ET): ~20,000 people attended racial justice protests in Sydney on Saturday "in solidarity" with Black Lives Matter and protesters in the US, according to police in New South Wales.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has ordered National Guard troops in the federal district not to fire on protesters (an order that presumably includes rubber bullets and bean bags) while ordering all active-duty troops that the administration had tried to amass on the outskirts of the city to return to their posts.
According to the Washington Post , police expect between 100k and 200k protesters on Saturday, far short of the million people organizers had brought together.
There are now more than 43,300 National Guard members actively responding to demonstrations across the US. The National Guard is typically deployed by the governor in a given state.
Today, more than 43,300 National Guard members in 34 states and D.C. are assisting law enforcement authorities with ongoing civil unrest, while more than 37,000 Guard Soldiers and Airmen continue to support the COVID-19 response. pic.twitter.com/Gtq4oxeUuw
-- National Guard (@USNationalGuard) June 6, 2020Except in Washington DC where, because it's a federal city, the president has power to command the National Guard, which Trump has chosen to delegate to the Pentagon.
* * *
Following more than a week of widespread peaceful protests pockmarked by occasional homicidal violence, arson, assault and looting, activists are hoping to assemble a massive demonstration in Washington DC, with some hoping to draw a million people to the capital just one day after Mayor Muriel Bowser renamed the street leading up to Lafayette Square after 'Black Lives Matter'.
The bright yellow letters spelling out the words 'Black Lives Matter' were put in place for a reason: for what we imagine will be an extremely powerful photo op as police and national guardsmen move to disperse the crowds, revealing the message below as tyrannical Trump gazes out the window, twirls his mustache while cackling loudly.
Demonstrations against police brutality following George Floyd's death are expected to continue for the 12th night on Saturday.
Uniformed military personnel walk in front of the White House ahead of a protest against racial inequality in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Washington. Photo by @Lucas_Jackson_ pic.twitter.com/Mc27JonTQH
-- corinne_perkins (@corinne_perkins) June 6, 2020Though he didn't give a crowd size estimate, the chief of the Washington DC police says he expects Saturday's gathering to be one of the biggest so far.
"We have a lot of public, open source information to suggest that the event on this upcoming Saturday may be one of the largest we've ever had in the city," Washington DC Police Chief Peter Newsham told local media, adding that much of the city center would be closed to traffic from early in the day.
Newsham did not give a crowd estimate. Local media has predicted tens of thousands of attendees.
Demonstrators in the Washington DC area are still sore over the national guard's decision to use tear gas and rubber bullets to clear Lafayette Square for a presidential photo-op at St. John's Church, angering the Episcopal Church in the process.
Further south, in North Carolina, Governor Roy Cooper is ordering all flags at state facilities to be lowered to half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Saturday to honor Floyd, who was born in Fayetteville. A televised memorial service will also be held in the city on Saturday, per USAToday.
On Friday, marches and gatherings took place in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Miami, New York and Denver, among other places, while protesters massed again, in the rain, in front of the White House. The night-time protests were largely peaceful but tension remains high even as authorities in several places take steps to reform police procedures. Politicians and judges around the country also announced new restrictions on law enforcement powers and tactics, including a federal judge in Denver, who ordered city police to stop using tear gas, plastic bullets and other "less-than-lethal" devices such as flash grenades, claiming that too many peaceful protesters and journalists have been injured by police.
"These are peaceful demonstrators, journalists, and medics who have been targeted with extreme tactics meant to suppress riots, not to suppress demonstrations," U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson wrote in the ruling.
In Minneapolis, Democratic city leaders voted to end the use of knee restraints and choke-holds, where pressure is applied to the neck.
In California, Gov Gavin Newsom ended state police training of carotid restraints, and ordered officers not to use the tactic.
In New York, Gov Andrew Cuomo said his state should lead the way in passing "Say Their Name" reforms, including making police disciplinary records publicly available, while also banning the chokehold (which we thought had already been banned following the killing of Eric Garner).
"Mr Floyd's murder was the breaking point," Cuomo said. "People are saying 'enough is enough'."
The cause of the peaceful protesters received a major boost last night from the NFL, which admitted for the first time that it was "wrong" to oppose players who kneeled.
Once again, the demonstrators in the US expect sympathizers from around the world to join in, with more demonstrations at American embassies and consulates in Europe expected.
Already, thousands have gathered in London's Parliament Square "in solidarity" with their American peers.
The protest, which has so far proven to be entirely peaceful, according to CNN . At one point, everybody too a knee in unison.
Once again Portland, Ore., roughly 20 adults were arrested and one juvenile was detained last night as peaceful demonstrations morphed into violent street battles into the night, as agitators threw bricks and bottles at cops.
[Jun 06, 2020] Esper should be fired for insubordination. There must be someone in the Pentagon who will obey orders. If McCarthy ordered NG troops to be disarmed he too should be fired.
Jun 06, 2020 | turcopolier.typepad.com
turcopolier , 06 June 2020 at 09:16 AM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/pentagon-disarms-guardsmen-in-washington-dc-in-signal-of-de-escalation/2020/06/05/324da91a-a733-11ea-8681-7d471bf20207_story.htmlBarbara Ann , 06 June 2020 at 09:52 AMEsper should be fired for insubordination. There must be someone in the Pentagon who will obey orders. If McCarthy ordered NG troops to be disarmed he too should be fired. To place unarmed soldiers whether Regular (active duty) or reserve (ARNG) in a situation in which armed, violent people are present is equivalent to complicity in their fate.
The surrender cultist wimp TonyL wrote to whine that any use of force against the rioter element in these demonstrations would make the situation worse. Well, there is worse and then there is MUCH worse. The latter for me would be for the mob to overrun the WH. TonyL also misquoted me. I said that a regular infantry company of the 3rd Infantry Regiment should be positioned on THE WHITE HOUSE LAWN. For those of you who are unable to visualize terrain, that would be INSIDE THE FENCE. Get it? A last ditch defense of the building.
The Atlantic ( The Trump Regime Is Beginning to Topple ) is fully onboard with the PSYOP aspect of the coup:Jim , 06 June 2020 at 09:53 AMThe examples of Serbia, Ukraine, and Tunisia show how even the subservient unexpectedly break from a leader once that leader is doomed to illegitimacy. And to an extent, the cycle of abandonment has already begun. Jim Mattis's excoriation of his old boss prodded Trump's former chief of staff Jim Kelly and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to echo his condemnation of the president. As each defector wins praise for moral courage, it incentivizes the next batch of defectors.As others have observed, the aim of the DC Maidan appears to be either victory or a creation of martyrs for the cause. And it will all be reported on and correctly contextualized byMSNBC'sResistance TV News' brand new National Security & Legal Analyst; Ms Lisa Page.Anne Norton's book on antebellum political culture has chosen an interesting time to arrive in the mail.
Move the executive office function [of the WH] to Camp David.Flavius , 06 June 2020 at 10:11 AMThe traitors/Generals "in charge" of US Military can then decide "for themselves" -- if they want to be known as those that allowed WH to be stormed and burned to a crisp.
And then Trump can totally begin to clean house in military.
And bring the boys home from Syria, Iraq, Libya, from NATO etc, as he claimed he wanted to do in 2016.
This action of bring the boys home would be very popular among all segments of society.
And demonstrating to us and the world that the traitors/Generals "in charge" of US military that could be court martial and perhaps hung by their necks in the former [and by then possibly destroyed] Rose Garden would be an example to indicate NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.
This would be a great cleansing.
-30-
It is absurd to think that the insurrection we are witnessing is any more than incidentally connected with George Floyd. What we are witnessing has been four years in the making. The entrenched class interests of Big Government, including alas the components of the National Security State, Big Government Dependencies, including the educational establishments and the spawn of the Great Society, and Big Media could not abide the election of a person who is not one of their own. It set out to resist him from the beginning "by any means necessary", and accumulating frustration has brought their revolt to the streets. There was a time when I thought that the Democracy that undergirds our Republic was a more durable foundation that it evidently is.Bill H , 06 June 2020 at 10:13 AMI get your point, Colonel, placing them in defense of the White House. I still have to ask... Will the Pentagon defend the President? After the extraordinary and irrational act of disarming the National Guard, there is increasing evidence, to me, that they will not.TV , 06 June 2020 at 10:16 AMTrump should step back and let Mayor Blowser have her way.jonst , 06 June 2020 at 10:18 AM
It' a win-win for him.
If nothing happens, well then nothing happens.
If all hell breaks loose (as I suspect it would), then it's all on Blowser.
As for Esper (an empty suit), Kelly, Mattis and Allen (Generals who never won anything), they're all diehard swamp creatures (how do you think they got their stars?).
Trump shows up - an alien presence in the swamp - and doesn't automatically follow the instructions of the bureaucracy (the deep state) as his predecessors did - which got us into neverending half-assed "wars", money for the bureaucrats and promotions for the generals.
Defending the WH.
Position the 3rd Infantry just inside the WH fence - fully armed.
Broadcast to the world, any breach will be met with "shoot to kill."I have NO doubts about Esper, I would not trust him to lead a boy scout troop. Never mind commanding troops.BillWade , 06 June 2020 at 11:18 AMSupposedly a million protesters are converging on DC today. What could go wrong? If they rush the WH I say don't shoot, let them have it, declare martial law and after things settle down disperse the whole federal government to different parts of the country. As an example, put the Dept. of Labor in Iowa, CIA to New Orleans, etc.. Now, that would be "draining the swamp". Let the lobbyists and defense contractors sell their mansions to the DC mayor's subjects.
[Jun 06, 2020] It seemed obvious to some of us here in the city that they abandoned the station intentionally to punish the ungrateful locals
Jun 06, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
PavewayIV , Jun 5 2020 22:40 utc | 48
Nobody seems to be talking about this aspect of the events (certainly not the MSM), so I'm curious if anyone there in the outside world is aware of this... conspiracy theory, I guess.Damn near the entire law enforcement 'community' in Minneapolis was angered at the perceived outrage directed at one of their own - and cops in general - by the public at large. How angry did this make Minneapolis law enforcement? Angry enough to toss the 'guilty' neighborhoods to the dogs. If you don't valorize cops 24x7, then we'll just disappear for a while. See how much you like that, ungrateful citizen/potential terrorist!
During the initial protests, the Minneapolis Police Department 'abandoned' the 3rd Precinct Police Station to what was apparently a handful of skateboard punk protesters throwing rocks. Protesters across the street were changing, but not being violent in any way and couldn't have 'overrun' the station house. There were many police coming or going from the fenced-in garage and parking lot out back. Nothing much to burn in the brick building, and it had a sprinkler system even if something inside did catch fire. The cops had plenty in their usual bag of non-lethal tricks: tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets. Yet they seemed to have no desire to engage and push the crowd back. At least nothing like the enthusiasm they showed for sweeping residential neighborhoods for curfew violators outside of their front doors.
It seemed obvious to some of us here in the city that they abandoned the station intentionally to punish the ungrateful locals. Don't like our use of force? Question our judgement in public? OK, then we'll just throw a little temper tantrum and leave. Good luck! Embargo on. Who runs Bartertown? We'll be at the main station downtown or somewhere else, but we sure won't be anywhere in the 3rd Precinct. Don't bother calling Emergency 911 because even if someone eventually answers, they'll tell you nobody can respond. Sorry! And since we're going on an unofficial, secret police strike, the fire department isn't going to respond either. Too dangerous with all the rioting and looting (that we're letting happen on purpose).
You may have seen video of the actual peaceful protests, themselve. There were walls of cops with riot batons, tear gas and rubber bullets standing around - it's not like there was a shortage of cops or vehicles. But almost as if on cue, they all disappeared at the tail end of the marches when it was getting dark and the various criminals and agitators were sure to come out. Target was looted and later burnt in the middle of the day. Minneapolis will never release all the 911 calls they 1) didn't answer at all, or 2) told the callers that response times would be longer than usual because of the riots. In truth, they just never showed up AT ALL. Same for all the other places that were torched. Funny how they were all businesses in areas the police would want to 'punish' for failure to worship cops. Not sure if that was just by chance or planned, but it couldn't have been more obvious.
It's Yemen and Syria all over again, but instead of destroying basic infrastructure, you destroy all basic commercial services the residents use. They have water and electricity, but they're not getting groceries, prescriptions or a haircut without taking a bus half-way across town. Are these nutjobs trying to regime-change Minneapolis? Lock the peons down with curfew, starve them a few weeks and deny them emergency services. That way they'll get mad and demnad the overthrow of the Democrats that run the place! Maybe political party regime change is a bit over the top, but the message is still clear: Worship and obey, tax slaves, or mass punishment. We're the only ones that can protect you!
Civil war? That sounds awful! American leaders prefer to think of this as domestic full-spectrum dominance and controlling the jackboot narrative. Don't like a jackboot on your neck? Then we'll soften you up by disappearing, letting 'someone' destroy your neighborhood, then arresting you when you violate the curfew. Stop resisting citizen - we're trying to save you. You'll beg to have cops and soldiers show back up so save your ass!
karlof1 , Jun 5 2020 23:26 utc | 57
PavewayIV @48--The 3rd Precinct Station was built using funds that were initially appropriated to fund the building of several schools in that district; the community protested but to no affect. That it was burnt down isn't at all surprising.
Would you agree that Trump and many in his administration committed Treason in their conscious decision to follow a Do Nothing Policy in the face of COVID-19 as several damning timelines prove beyond reasonable doubt? That such a policy was being carried out and was entirely overt to the public might just enrage said public to react in the manner we've seen as any spark would do. And what of the ten million thrown out of their homes when Obama refused to arrest and indict the fraudulent banksters and the further millions battered by the never ending recession that fraud caused; how many of those millions were awaiting an opportunity to vent? My contention is the elite through the government they control have broken the social contract such that it's now beyond repair and only a reordering bringing about a new social contract will solve the issue.
[Jun 06, 2020] The consistent patterns of states is to deliberately stimulate and then co-opt resistance to its policies and stage-manage that resistance by infiltration and other means.
Jun 06, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Richard Steven Hack , Jun 6 2020 1:22 utc | 78
...I am quite aware that one of the consistent patterns of states is to deliberately stimulate and then co-opt resistance to its policies and stage-manage that resistance by infiltration and other means.That was done to an incredible degree in the anarchist uprisings in Europe in the late nineteenth century. I have some months back read a considerable amount about that. In particular there were several police officials in France, England and elsewhere who managed incredible counter-espionage operations against the anarchist movement, which in concert with police and military oppression in those countries, pretty much neutered the anarchist movement to the point where it ultimately fell apart.
But that doesn't mean that *every* expression of resistance and *every* incident of police violence or protest event is necessarily *staged* for the benefit of the public.
The state *does* want to continually, either overtly or covertly, impress upon the public that it has a monopoly on violence and that the public had better bow down before its authority. This is akin to that statement by a Bush official that occasionally the US has to pick up some small country and throw it against a wall just to show the world who's boss.
So I can understand how events such as the pandemic response or the protests are used by the state to re-emphasize its authority and advance its control and limitation of the so-called "rights" of the population.
But again, that doesn't mean that such oppression prevents *legitimate* resistance outbreaks from time to time, or that *everything* that happens in such outbreaks is somehow a "conspiracy."
As I've said before, there are "legitimate conspiracies" and "bogus conspiracies." There are "levels" of conspiracy. I like a good conspiracy theory as much or more than the next guy (probably way more). But while I'm prepared to entertain the notion that 9/11 was a conspiracy to either initiate or allow those attacks to occur to justify foreign military interventions, I am not prepared to entertain the notion that Trump is a lizard alien, as David Icke might suggest. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", as they say.
uncle tungsten , Jun 6 2020 2:40 utc | 86
PavewayIV #48That is my take too. Police contrived violence, then after dark - police controlled absence to allow opportunists and revenge takers, Then police controlled violence on the new days peace demonstration, further withdrawal from target business districts that evening.
Social sabotage by uniformed militia.
[Jun 06, 2020] 'Surreal' PHOTOS of FBI employees kneeling amid protests in DC spark confusion calls for 'disciplinary action' -- RT USA News
Jun 06, 2020 | www.rt.com
Rich Higgins – who formerly worked in the strategic planning office of the US National Security Council – noted that some of those pictured were administrators at the bureau's DC field office, rather than agents, citing a friend in the know after some netizens questioned the photos' veracity.
I asked a buddy of mine and they're admin staff (some of em).
-- Rich Higgins (@RichHiggins_DC) June 5, 2020It's real. These are fbi employees from the WFO.
-- Rich Higgins (@RichHiggins_DC) June 6, 2020Dubbing the images "surreal," detractors have piled onto the FBI employees for what they saw as a politicized gesture, one even suggesting the move violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from some forms of political activity. "Shouldn't these Deep Staters be plotting a coup against the [government]?" another critic joked .
The condemnations were also joined by calls to discipline the employees for their nod to the protesters, who took to the streets last week after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in the custody of the Minneapolis police.
Despite Higgins' confirmation that the images do indeed depict FBI personnel, some netizens held out skepticism, asking whether the employees were kneeling for some other reason, unrelated to the ongoing protests.
[Jun 06, 2020] All in all, the great Wall Street Heist of 2020 came off with only a few scratches. Yea, so some consumables were stolen. Let the peasants burn their own communities. Private finance rules the waves, while people can't avert their gaze from skin colour and violence
Jun 06, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Jezabeel , Jun 6 2020 4:30 utc | 94
All in all, the great Wall Street Heist of 2020 came off with only a few scratches. Yea, so some consumables were stolen. Let the peasants burn their own communities. Private finance rules the waves, while people can't avert their gaze from skin colour and violence. The worst part of it is all those people who profess to care about actual lives, when in their own private lives they are supremely selfish and violent, and live a life based on the continued exploitation of innumerable lives across the planet. Every tweet employing the use of Coltan butchered from the heart of the Congo. Hypocrisy from top to bottom, from the Looter in Chief to the Looter on the street. Pirate nation. The Wild West. Clothed in underpants stitched by little brown fingers in Bangladesh.
[Jun 06, 2020] Where did corona virus go? Impeachment, what? Epstien? huh... Las Vegas mass shooting? what do you mean? Syria? uh... Hunter Biden? who? All covered in the fog now
Jun 06, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
lex talionis , Jun 5 2020 23:44 utc | 63
@16 anne - I live in Venice CA, about three blocks from the border with Santa Monica. On Sunday a police officer was shot in the parking lot of the Whole Food and 99 cent store. I don't shop at Whole Foods. I go to the 99 cent store. (99 cent store is a discount market - with quite good produce, too!) out of both economics and principle. okay. Helicopters, sirens, et all. Later on that day the CVS pharmacy down the street at Rose and Main was looted. Then the usual weekend mayhem out here in Venice. worse than usual, but whatever.The shops are all boarded up with plywood and "BLM" slogans on them along gentrified Abbot Kinney. I saw some thuggish guys with a baseball bat strolling along the street Sunday afternoon as I ventured out on a bike ride. A car had its rear window smashed in half a block before. everything is still boarded up. all along Rose too.
to add to the absurdity, the medical marijuana place on Lincoln Blvd was looted. Yippee.
This is all so stupid. Where did corona virus go? Impeachment, what? Epstien? huh... Las Vegas mass shooting? what do you mean? Syria? uh... Hunter Biden? who?
Total joke. It is all a bunch of lies. Fortunately, it has all sickened me so much that I no longer obsessively visit this site. I don't like this stuff anymore. I am trying to avoid ZeroHedge as well. And the other blogroll places. It doesn't matter. I don't care. I don't vote. I don't protest. I honestly could care less.
It is a color revolution. I forget who... the new poster, blue dotterel, who got all up in my grill for saying that a while back. whatever. I like snowy plovers and I hope you are safe in your New Zealand home. FO. pretty sick of it all.
... ... ...
[Jun 06, 2020] You should be aware that the NSA has all these antifa etc. networks mapped out and could round up these people in about 3 days, if and when they want to - apparently they don't want to, which is interesting.
Jun 06, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Xeno , Jun 5 2020 23:37 utc | 60
>The empire is sinking in front of our eyes.<Yawn.
The real sinking has been going on for decades with sending industrial production and tech know-how overseas.Most of the "violence" is due to police covert operations encouraging violence which will alienate mainstream Americans from joining protests.
BTW, you should be aware that the NSA has all these antifa etc. networks mapped out and could round up these people in about 3 days, if and when they want to - apparently they don't want to, which is interesting.
[Jun 06, 2020] Tucker Carlson: Cultural Revolution has come to America brainwashing underway
Jun 06, 2020 | www.foxnews.com
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/cults-allies-george-floyd-tucker-carlson
Every cult has the same goal: the utter submission of its members. Cult members surrender everything. They give up their physical freedom – where they can go, who they can see, how they can dress. But more than that, they give up control of their minds.
Cult leaders determine what their followers are allowed to believe, even in their most private thoughts. In order to do this, cults separate people from all they have known before. They force members to renounce their former lives, their countries and their customs.
They allow no loyalty except to the cult. The first thing they attack – always – is the family. Families are always the main impediment to brainwashing and extremism. If you're going to control individuals – if you're going to transform free people into compliant robots – the first thing you must do is separate them from the ones who love them most.
'CULT MOM' LORI VALLOW'S EX-HUSBAND SUED HER YEARS AGO FOR ALLEGEDLY HIDING THEIR DAUGHTER: REPORT
In 1932, Soviet authorities began promoting the story of a 13-year-old peasant boy called Pavlik Morozov. Morozov, they claimed, had taken the supremely virtuous step of denouncing his own father to the secret police for committing counter-revolutionary acts.
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Once exposed as a traitor, the boy's father was executed by firing squad, supposedly for the safety of the state. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin elevated the boy to the status of a national hero for what he did. People wept in the streets when they heard his name. They worshipped him like a saint.
Why are we telling you this? Because it's happening here. In the last 10 days, some of our most prominent citizens have sworn allegiance to a cult. Converts go by the term "allies."
Like all cult members, they demand total conformity. They ritually condemn their own nation – its history, its institutions and symbols. It's flag. They denounce their own parents.
If you've been on social media recently, you've likely seen videos that illustrate this – such as one showing a girl attacking her mother and father for the crime of insufficient loyalty to Black Lives Matter. Reporter Hanna Lustig of Insider.com wrote about that video, and strongly approved of it.
What you just saw, Lustig wrote, is a young person "modeling the most important tenet of ally-ship." Modeling. Meaning, something done to encourage others to do the same. It's working.
In a video of a 15-year-old from Louisville called Isabella – and there are many like her – the girl is shown crying and saying: "I literally hate my family so much." She goes on to say her parents defended the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. And then she calls her parents racists, followed by an obscenity.
"I hate my family so much." Just a week ago, it would have been hard to imagine that. Now, Isabella is a social media star. Celebrities tweet their approval. She may have her own cult before long. But the revolution is young. Children attacking their parents is just the beginning.
On CNN Friday, a man called Tim Wise told viewers that, going forward, parents must hurt their own children:
VideoWise said: "I think that the important thing for white parents to keep in the front of their mind is that if black children in this country are not allowed innocence and childhood without fear of being killed by police or marginalized in some other way, then our children don't deserve innocence. If Tamir Rice can be shot dead in a public park playing with a toy gun, something white children do all over this country every day without the same fear of being shot, if Tamir Rice can be killed then white children need to be told at least at the same age. If they can't be innocent, we don't get to be innocent."
Your children are no longer allowed to be innocent, says Tim Wise. Happy childhoods are a sign of racism. The man saying this – and being affirmed by CNN anchors as he does – is a self-described "anti-racism activist." He has been saying things like this for a long time. More than once, Wise has suggested that he approves of violence against those who disagree.
How does Tim Wise make a living? In part, by lecturing students. Your kids may have seen him speak. They've almost certainly heard a lot from people like him. In America's schools, the revolution has been in progress for quite some time.
Last February, to name one among countless examples, officials at schools in Rochester, N.Y., created a Black Lives Matter-themed lesson plan. The teaching materials dismiss America's bedrock institutions – indeed, America itself – as inherently racist. Suggested questions for students include: "How does mass incarceration function as a mechanism of racialized social control?"
One specific racial group was singled out for exclusive blame. The curriculum promoted a book titled, "White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of our Racial Divide." In other words, children, there's a reason hatred and inequality exist: these people did it! That's what your kids are learning right now.
Thursday, at Darien High School in Connecticut, Principal Ellen Dunn sent an email to parents promising to increase "the race-conscious education of our students." To do that, Dunn distributed materials from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Ironically, the SPLC is itself a hate group. That has been documented extensively. Now their agenda is the school's agenda. It's what your kids are learning.
In Washington, D.C., an elementary school principal in the affluent northwest section of the city recently wrote a letter announcing: "We need more White parents to talk to their kids about race. Especially now."
The letter singled out "White Staff and White community members," whom the principal alleged had committed "both macro- and micro-aggressions" against "Staff of Color." The principal did not specify what those crimes were. She didn't need to. Their skin color was their crime.
This is a national theme. It's incredibly destructive and dangerous. Countless public schools are now using the 1619 Project from The New York Times as a curriculum. That project is the work of an out-of-the-closet racial extremist called Nikole Hannah Jones. Jones recently argued it's not violence to loot and burn stores – its justified. Her propaganda is now mandatory in public schools in Buffalo, Chicago, Newark and Washington.
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Many parents understandably deeply resent this. It's deranged, its racist. Others don't. They're "allies." They've joined in. One mother in London, where the cult is also spreading, posted a photo on Twitter of her daughter on blended knee, holding a sign declaring her "privilege."
The Cultural Revolution has come to the West.
What will the effects of this be? Years from now, how will that little girl with the sign remember her childhood? Her mother took Tim Wise's advice. She no longer has innocence. Will she be grateful for that?
It's hard to imagine she will be. She'll more likely feel bitter and used. Because she has been used. Many will feel that way. Is there a single person who believes this moment we're living through will end in racial harmony? Is that even a goal anymore? It doesn't seem like it.
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It seems clear that many in power are pushing hard for racial division. For hatred. For violence. Let's pray they don't get what they want. Tribal conflict destroys countries faster than any plague.
But keep in mind as this insanity continues that it's not happening in a vacuum. Every action provokes a reaction – that's physics. We don't know where this is going. We don't want to know. The cult members should stop now – immediately, before more innocents get hurt – and they will, if they don't.
Adapted from Tucker Carlson's monologue from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," on June 5, 2020.
[Jun 05, 2020] We re South Africa now
Notable quotes:
"... Elections are coming up, race-baiting is part of the agenda once more ..."
"... The appalling thing is violence is completely normalized this time around. With the white wokies unapologetically supporting the destruction and looting of especially the black neighborhoods ..."
Jun 05, 2020 | www.unz.com
RoatanBill , says: Show Comment June 4, 2020 at 2:11 pm GMT
@ThreeCranesT.T , says: Show Comment June 3, 2020 at 7:54 pm GMTI want the US to fracture into smaller units – specifically the states to become new countries.
The reason should be obvious – the Fed Gov is a cancer on the society and the entire world. What I'd like to know is why someone would want a continuation of the Fed Gov given it's track record of wars around the world, and support for the oligarchy / corporatocracy that is looting the country.
So who is financing the useful idiots? who is meming it?dvorak , says: Show Comment June 5, 2020 at 5:29 am GMTWhen the "poor innocent jogger" story got pushed 2 weeks ago it was clear the BLM story narrative was being moved out of the freezer back into the mainstream again. Elections are coming up, race-baiting is part of the agenda once more. But this time around the internet has been taken over by the borg. Bots are everywhere and 4chan is botted heavily. I don't get the feeling it's the shareblue office that message the boards this time around, it feels quite botted and very planned.
The appalling thing is violence is completely normalized this time around. With the white wokies unapologetically supporting the destruction and looting of especially the black neighborhoods. up until the moment, it comes too close. Has the situation escalated more then they expected or is more to come? It seems Trump's threat to involve the military was what they were after afterwards strongly pushing the "trump is a violent authoritarian" narrative, rather ineffectively since trump waited until a large majority wanted this to happen. He does manoeuvre it decently, threatening the mostly local democratic government to intervene so that his hands aren't dirty but theirs. But will they let is escalate further so that they can push the trump is violent narrative again I wonder.
My bet is they will escalate further. There are too many liberals buying guns, or perhaps not enough..
It's amazing how effective American propaganda is. With protests happening in Europe of all places..
@BeavertalesIf given an informed choice, the Silent Majority of Americans would side with young conservatives over young anarchists. The problem is that the other side is ahead in a culture war, and the right is only just getting on its feet to fight it.
You're fifty years late for the Silent Majority. We're South Africa now, plus depopulated rural areas and a smattering of high-tech city-states (Seattle, Austin, etc.).
The 'right' is flat on its back, and will stay there indefinitely. Every conservative or Republican you see on TV, save one or two, is a neoliberal. They aren't even on the right.
[Jun 04, 2020] Bricks, Fires, Frozen Bottle Projectiles The Organized Tactics Of America's Violent Rioters
Notable quotes:
"... Police intelligence units have uncovered encrypted and walkie-talkie communications as well as social media postings that coordinate the delivery and hiding of weapons and projectiles and the direction of anarchists to specific locations at specific times. ..."
"... In essence, these professional rioters have created command-and-control apparatus as well as supply chains unseen in prior riots that followed the deaths of Michael Brown (Ferguson, Mo.) and Freddie Grey (Baltimore) and the verdict in the case of those officers who beat Rodney King (Los Angeles). ..."
"... U.S. Park Police Acting Chief Gregory T. Monahan said Tuesday one of the most troubling tactics seen near the White House is anarchists trying to grab police weapons during clashes. Other weaponry, he said, was being hidden in areas for perpetrators to pick up to use against officers. ..."
Jun 04, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Police intelligence units have uncovered encrypted and walkie-talkie communications as well as social media postings that coordinate the delivery and hiding of weapons and projectiles and the direction of anarchists to specific locations at specific times.
In essence, these professional rioters have created command-and-control apparatus as well as supply chains unseen in prior riots that followed the deaths of Michael Brown (Ferguson, Mo.) and Freddie Grey (Baltimore) and the verdict in the case of those officers who beat Rodney King (Los Angeles).
One federal law enforcement official told Just the News, "The anarchists have upped their game."
U.S. Park Police Acting Chief Gregory T. Monahan said Tuesday one of the most troubling tactics seen near the White House is anarchists trying to grab police weapons during clashes. Other weaponry, he said, was being hidden in areas for perpetrators to pick up to use against officers.
"Intelligence had revealed calls for violence against the police, and officers found caches of glass bottles, baseball bats and metal poles hidden along the street," he said.
In other cities, stacks of bricks have been discovered in staging areas that end up being slammed against store windows by looters.
In New York City, rioters appear to have developed a scouting system to pick targets for fires and looting or to exploit holes in police protection. In the Big Apple, two lawyers were arrested after tossing a molotov cocktail into a police van .
The anarchists have "developed a complex network of bicycle scouts to move ahead of demonstrators in different directions of where police were and where police were not for purposes of being able to direct groups from the larger group to places where they could commit acts of vandalism including the torching of police vehicles and Molotov cocktails where they thought officers would not be," John Miller, the NYPD's deputy commissioner for terrorism, disclosed this week.
Miller added that pre-planning by the anarchists included the preparation of supply lines for such items as gasoline, bottles and rocks as well as medics who could care for injured rioters.
"Before the protests began, organizers of certain anarchist groups set out to raise bail money and people who would be responsible to be raising bail money, they set out to recruit medics and medical teams with gear to deploy in anticipation of violent interactions with police," he said.
The most intense instigators share similar language, blaming capitalism, globalism, chauvinism, oppression, and America overall, police officials said.
Spray painted graffiti messages, signs and chants commonly seen by the cops range from "F**k Capitalism" to "Death to America."
"This time they are more organized, more strategic, even angrier," said one Midwest law enforcement official, "and this is beyond criminal justice."
"Now, we have older local citizens who have protested peacefully for decades calling us and telling us, 'I am not going out there because there is going to be violence.' That is where this has gone."
In local meetings where demonstrators strategize their objectives, which is a normal demonstration plan, the outsiders are hijacking the peaceful demonstrators' objectives with little to no regard for the local communities, emphasizing a call for a violent revolution, officials said.
The goal of the anarchists appears to be to instigate large numbers of locals to create chaos and additional violence and looting. About one out of every seven people arrested by the NYPD were outsiders aligned to such anarchist groups, officials have said.
Law enforcement officials told Just the News that anarchists are dispersing among the crowds in two or threes, draped with backpacks, hoodies, walkie-talkies with telltale signs of instigating violence or panic.
Former Ferguson, Mo., police chief Tom Jackson, who lost his job after the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown and subsequent rioting, said the anarchists' tactics in 2020 appear more organized and more widespread than what he experienced in Ferguson. Brown's death was ultimately ruled justified.
"What it seems like is organized anarchy," Jackson told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Tuesday.
"These folks seem to be well-coordinated and well-funded. I think there is some sort of logistics support. This has really evolved into a sort of an insurgency that is hiding behind protesters and people exercising their rights."
Jackson said police will need to adapt their tactics to mirror those used by the military during wartime insurgencies overseas, particularly psychological and communications operations on social media.
"We had no idea the power of social media. We do now. It is how these folks are communicating in these riots," he said
The challenge is most police departments, especially smaller ones, don't have the resources to staff a full-time social media operations team, he said.
So instead, Jackson is recommending a special reserve unit be created -- from paid to volunteer -- to parachute in or be activated when rioting crises occur.
"What I was kind of recommending is having a major case squad of social media people, who could be called up as volunteers or otherwise who can attack the social media attacks on the police so for everything the streamers are putting out the police department is putting out the truth and its own story line so you can at least fight back," he said.
[Jun 04, 2020] The elites via wholly owned media spread enough identity propaganda, and are now using this pretext to direct anger against Trump. Standard divide and conquer tactics. Fools never fail to fall for it.
Notable quotes:
"... Looks like a mob-hit cutout had Chauvin killing Floyd. ..."
"... If America is so racist, why do so may people (mostly of color) keep trying to move here? ..."
"... Can you name another country that is less racist than the US? ..."
Jun 04, 2020 | www.unz.com
AnonFromTN : Show Comment June 2, 2020 at 9:56 pm GMT
Yes, America is racist in many ways. But there is more than one racism. There is white anti-Black racism, white anti-Latino racism, and white anti-Asian racism. There is also black anti-white racism, black anti-Latino racism, and black anti-Asian racism. And so on. The elites via wholly owned media spread enough identity propaganda, and are now using this pretext to direct anger against Trump. Standard divide and conquer tactics. Fools never fail to fall for it.I am no fan of Trump, but if elites want him down, I am on his side: our elites are a lot worse than all the strawmen they create put together. Not to mention that whatever the police did, police in the US is strictly local, so the people responsible are all Dems: the police commissioner of Minneapolis, Minneapolis mayor, the governor of Minnesota, etc. Feds have no power over local police, that's the law of the land.
As far as coming elections are concerned, there is a good chance that the Dems are going to lose more than they win. Lots of people who disapprove of police brutality disapprove even more of the brutality of frenzied mobs of looters, of the general lawlessness (and, frankly, senselessness) of these riots. The Dems firmly sided with looters and bandits. It might very well cost them in November. Would serve them right.
anon8383892 , says: Show Comment June 2, 2020 at 11:08 pm GMT
@Delta G This isn’t wrong, you know.... ... ...
Likewise, as people have become aware of the false left/right dichotomy, I think people are becoming aware of the false ‘antifa-commie’ vs ‘fascist’ dichotomy which artificially divides anti-system groups that objectively carry a lot of common goals. This is something which will take time. People don’t understand the range of phenomena carried under these tokens. Intellectual failings of a brainwashed populace are forgivable; it will take time in the best case.
I’m not a blanket Afro-phile, any more than I’m always super-excited to be around my own folks, reality is like-dislike and love-hate. Typically we appreciate people’s virtues, and resent their flaws; sometimes it’s not even clear which is which. Sometimes I’m really excited to be around, I don’t know, Italians, and sometimes, they are annoying. Nothing to freak out about In my experience living in the USA, pretty much everyone is racist/not-racist, like they have their innate responses, and they have conscious kind of morally responsible responses, they have some genuine love for the Africans, and they have some genuine hate for them too sometimes, and many in between.
The police in this country are brutal, to everyone, proportional to distance politically from the inner-circle. It’s a brutal country, atomized, devastated people under massive attack over many domains, including psych by media/education, through the food and water…
Anyways, kind of a rambling comment, my only on the whole brouha, hence the squeeze it all in kind of format.
Conjecture: Looks like a mob-hit cutout had Chauvin killing Floyd. Chauvin thought he would have institutional immunity, and I don’t think people understand how many pro hitmen mob killers are moonlighting cops of all stripes. So Chauvin is definitely a 1st-degree murderer, but he’s a cutout patsy, had no idea of the Gladio op underway. He’ll be sacrificed like a little lamb, no doubt.
sleepless in Tijuana , says: Show Comment June 3, 2020 at 2:04 am GMT
Two questions…1. If America is so racist, why do so may people (mostly of color) keep trying to move here?
2. Can you name another country that is less racist than the US?
I keep hearing the MSM telling me that we are such a horrible racist country. If that were true and the rest of the world truly believed that, then we would expect the immigrants to try to move to some other better country. But that isn’t happening so either we aren’t really that bad, or the rest of the world really sucks.
[Jun 04, 2020] Donald Trump Jr urges Barr to release Antifa communications with elites politicians over riots
Jun 03, 2020 | www.rt.com
US President Donald Trump's son Donald Jr is pushing Attorney General William Barr to release communications between Antifa rioters that allegedly reveal the group's connections with politicians and other elite figures. The younger Donald urged Barr to " just do it!!! " in a tweet on Wednesday, referring to rumors that the attorney general is poised to expose links between the " violent radical elements " that Barr denounced in an earlier statement and the politicians and elites believed to be backing them.Just do it!!! https://t.co/gb0bmfDkFR
-- Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 3, 2020Barr blamed the violence that has overshadowed " peaceful and legitimate protests " over the police killing of George Floyd last week on " groups of outside radicals and agitators " exploiting the unrest to " pursue their own separate, violent, and extremist agenda " in a statement released on Sunday.
The AG echoed the words of President Trump, who has repeatedly declared the rioters domestic terrorists, and urged state governors to make use of the National Guard in cracking down on the unruly mobs.
" 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 ," the attorney general warned in the statement.
Also on rt.com 'RADICAL LEFT' trying to seize power by controlling 'CLUELESS' Biden, Trump allegesMany of Trump's political nemeses have expressed support for the demonstrations, glossing over the violent elements. Trump supporters, meanwhile, have blamed much of the violence on paid provocateurs backed by currency speculator George Soros and other left-wing bogeymen.
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[Jun 04, 2020] The Minneapolis Putsch by CJ Hopkins
Looks like the third stage of the Purple revolution against Trump, with Russiagate and Ukrainegate and two initial stages.
Notable quotes:
"... Things couldn't be going better for the Resistance if they had scripted it themselves. Actually, they did kind of script it themselves. Not the murder of poor George Floyd, of course. Racist police have been murdering Black people for as long as there have been racist police. No, the Resistance didn't manufacture racism. They just spent the majority of the last four years creating and promoting an official narrative which casts most Americans as "white supremacists" who literally elected Hitler president, and who want to turn the country into a racist dictatorship. ..."
"... According to this official narrative, which has been relentlessly disseminated by the corporate media, the neoliberal intelligentsia, the culture industry, and countless hysterical, Trump-hating loonies, the Russians put Donald Trump in office with those DNC emails they never hacked and some division-sowing Facebook ads that supposedly hypnotized Black Americans into refusing to come out and vote for Clinton. Putin purportedly ordered this personally, as part of his plot to "destroy democracy." ..."
"... The protesting and rioting that typically follows the murder of an unarmed Black person by the cops has mushroomed into " an international uprising " cheered on by the corporate media, corporations, and the liberal establishment, who don't normally tend to support such uprisings, but they've all had a sudden change of heart, or spiritual or political awakening, and are down for some serious property damage, and looting, and preventative self-defense, if that's what it takes to bring about justice, and to restore America to the peaceful, prosperous, non-white-supremacist paradise it was until the Russians put Donald Trump in office. ..."
"... America is still a racist country, but America is no more racist today than it was when Barack Obama was president. A lot of American police are brutal, but no more brutal than when Obama was president. America didn't radically change the day Donald Trump was sworn into office. All that has changed is the official narrative. And it will change back as soon as Trump is gone and the ruling classes have no further use for it. ..."
Jun 04, 2020 | consentfactory.org
underground bunker ." Opportunist social media pundits on both sides of the political spectrum are whipping people up into white-eyed frenzies. Americans are at each other's throats, divided by identity politics, consumed by rage, hatred, and fear.Things couldn't be going better for the Resistance if they had scripted it themselves. Actually, they did kind of script it themselves. Not the murder of poor George Floyd, of course. Racist police have been murdering Black people for as long as there have been racist police. No, the Resistance didn't manufacture racism. They just spent the majority of the last four years creating and promoting an official narrative which casts most Americans as "white supremacists" who literally elected Hitler president, and who want to turn the country into a racist dictatorship.
According to this official narrative, which has been relentlessly disseminated by the corporate media, the neoliberal intelligentsia, the culture industry, and countless hysterical, Trump-hating loonies, the Russians put Donald Trump in office with those DNC emails they never hacked and some division-sowing Facebook ads that supposedly hypnotized Black Americans into refusing to come out and vote for Clinton. Putin purportedly ordered this personally, as part of his plot to "destroy democracy." The plan was always for President Hitler to embolden his white-supremacist followers into launching the "RaHoWa," or the "Boogaloo," after which Trump would declare martial law, dissolve the legislature, and pronounce himself Führer. Then they would start rounding up and murdering the Jews, and the Blacks, and Mexicans, and other minorities, according to this twisted liberal fantasy.
I've been covering the roll-out and dissemination of this official narrative since 2016, and have documented much of it in my essays , so I won't reiterate all that here. Let's just say, I'm not exaggerating, much. After four years of more or less constant conditioning, millions of Americans believe this fairy tale, despite the fact that there is absolutely zero evidence whatsoever to support it. Which is not exactly a mystery or anything. It would be rather surprising if they didn't believe it. We're talking about the most formidable official propaganda machine in the history of official propaganda machines.
And now the propaganda is paying off. The protesting and rioting that typically follows the murder of an unarmed Black person by the cops has mushroomed into " an international uprising " cheered on by the corporate media, corporations, and the liberal establishment, who don't normally tend to support such uprisings, but they've all had a sudden change of heart, or spiritual or political awakening, and are down for some serious property damage, and looting, and preventative self-defense, if that's what it takes to bring about justice, and to restore America to the peaceful, prosperous, non-white-supremacist paradise it was until the Russians put Donald Trump in office.
In any event, the Resistance media have now dropped their breathless coverage of the non-existent Corona-Holocaust to breathlessly cover the "revolution." The American police, who just last week were national heroes for risking their lives to beat up, arrest, and generally intimidate mask-less "lockdown violators" are now the fascist foot soldiers of the Trumpian Reich. The Nike corporation produced a commercial urging people to smash the windows of their Nike stores and steal their sneakers. Liberal journalists took to Twitter, calling on rioters to " burn that shit down! " until the rioters reached their gated community and started burning down their local Starbucks. Hollywood celebrities are masking up and going full-black bloc, and doing legal support . Chelsea Clinton is teaching children about David and the Racist Goliath . John Cusack's bicycle was attacked by the pigs . I haven't checked on Rob Reiner yet, but I assume he is assembling Molotov cocktails in the basement of a Resistance safe house somewhere in Hollywood Hills.
Look, I'm not saying the neoliberal Resistance orchestrated or staged these riots, or "denying the agency" of the folks in the streets. Whatever else is happening out there, a lot of very angry Black people are taking their frustration out on the cops, and on anyone and anything else that represents racism and injustice to them.
This happens in America from time to time. America is still a racist society. Most African-Americans are descended from slaves. Legal racial discrimination was not abolished until the 1960s, which isn't that long ago in historical terms. I was born in the segregated American South, with the segregated schools, and all the rest of it. I don't remember it -- I was born in 1961 -- but I do remember the years right after it. The South didn't magically change overnight in July of 1964. Nor did the North's variety of racism, which, yes, is subtler, but no less racist.
So I have no illusions about racism in America. But I'm not really talking about racism in America. I'm talking about how racism in America has been cynically instrumentalized, not by the Russians, but by the so-called Resistance, in order to delegitimize Trump and, more importantly, everyone who voted for him, as a bunch of white supremacists and racists.
Fomenting racial division has been the Resistance's strategy from the beginning. A quote attributed to Joseph Goebbels, "accuse the other side of that which you are guilty," is particularly apropos in this case. From the moment Trump won the Republican nomination, the corporate media and the rest of the Resistance have been telling us the man is literally Hitler, and that his plan is to foment racial hatred among his "white supremacist base," and eventually stage some "Reichstag" event, declare martial law and pronounce himself dictator. They've been telling us this story over and over, on television, in the liberal press, on social media, in books, movies, and everywhere else they could possibly tell it.
So, before you go out and join the "uprising," take a look at the headlines today, turn on CNN or MSNBC, and think about that for just a minute. I don't mean to spoil the party, but they've preparing you for this for the last four years.
Not you Black folks. I'm not talking to you. I wouldn't presume to tell you what to do. I'm talking to white folks like myself, who are cheering on the rioting and looting, and are coming out to "help" you with it, but who will be back home in their gated communities when the ashes have cooled, and the corporate media are gone, and the cops return to "police" your neighborhoods.
OK, and this is where I have to restate (for the benefit of my partisan readers) that I'm not a fan of Donald Trump, and that I think he's a narcissistic ass clown, and a glorified con man, and blah blah blah, because so many people have been so polarized by insane propaganda and mass hysteria that they can't even read or think anymore, and so just scan whatever articles they encounter to see whose "side" the author is on and then mindlessly celebrate or excoriate it.
If you're doing that, let me help you out whichever side you're on, I'm not on it.
I realize that's extremely difficult for a lot of folks to comprehend these days, which is part of the point I've been trying to make. I'll try again, as plainly as I can.
America is still a racist country, but America is no more racist today than it was when Barack Obama was president. A lot of American police are brutal, but no more brutal than when Obama was president. America didn't radically change the day Donald Trump was sworn into office. All that has changed is the official narrative. And it will change back as soon as Trump is gone and the ruling classes have no further use for it.
And that will be the end of the War on Populism , and we will switch back to the War on Terror, or maybe the Brave New Pathologized Normal or whatever Orwellian official narrative the folks at GloboCap have in store for us.
#
CJ Hopkins
June 1, 2020
Photo: Nike (George Floyd commercial)
[Jun 04, 2020] Criminal Gangs Who Ransacked NYC Arrived In Chauffeured Cars, Used Power Tools, Witnesses Say
Jun 04, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Mayor de Blasio and several high-ranking NYPD officials have already spoken out about the organized gangs of criminals who appear to be responsible for most of the looting in NYC. Now, a group of cops investigating the highly-coordinated crimes are telling local TV stations that they have evidence many of the looters were chauffeured to the "jobs" and brought large arsenals of power tools to help them break in. Witnesses who spoke to these officers claimed they saw looters who showed up in separate vehicles work together in large groups to facilitate the looting that broke out in retail areas in Soho, Fifth Ave. and elsewhere.
According to ABC 6, one of the numerous eyewitness reports received by police came from Carla Murphy, who lives in Chelsea.
Murphy, in an interview Tuesday, said she started hearing commotion from mobs of people along her street and neighboring streets about 10:30 p.m. Monday night. She first watched from her building and then went down to the street and saw organized groups of people working together to break in to store after store in the West Side neighborhood.
"Cars would drive up, let off the looters, unload power tools and suitcases and then the cars would drive away," she said . "Then the cars would come back pick them up and then drive off to the next spot. They seemed to know exactly where they were going. Some of the people were local, but there were a lot of out-of-towners."
Murphy said she saw license plates from New Jersey and Pennsylvania and drivers had not even tried to hide their tags.
After calling 911 and not getting through, Murphy visited the 10th Precinct in Manhattan, where she says dispatchers mostly brushed her off. Police didn't arrive on scene until hours later.
But then again, as Murphy said, many of the looters didn't even bother to hide their tags. Unless they used exclusively stolen tags and managed to make it all the way into the city without being stopped, detectives will likely be rounding up many of those responsible for the looting and the mass property theft, using evidence captured by the hundreds of thousands of cameras recording movements in the city. NYPD detectives are trying to collect evidence from as many looted stores "as possible".
Police suspect many of the lootings involved a combination of anarchist agitators as well as gang members and other career criminals.
Officers who spoke with ABC 6 said the crews who "worked" the lootings clearly had a sophisticated communications system relying on text messages, messaging apps and lookouts.
[Jun 03, 2020] America masterminded 'color revolutions' around the world. Now the very same techniques are being used at home by Nebojsa Malic
Notable quotes:
"... That ought to be baffling. The four officers involved in George Floyd's death were fired almost immediately, rather than suspended with pay pending investigation. One of them was charged with murder just days later. Conservatives and liberals alike agreed that Floyd was murdered and that the men responsible should face justice. Yet the riots started, and spread, anyway. ..."
"... The brief moment of unity in outrage could have resulted in healing the racial fault lines in the US. Instead, the already polarized political climate became divided more sharply than ever, with Republicans criticizing President Donald Trump for not cracking down on the riots fast and hard enough, while Democrats denounced him for responding at all, claiming that there were no riots really and Trump was just "declaring war on the American people." ..."
"... Could the clues to why this is happening lie beyond America's borders? In December 2010, a Tunisian street vendor set himself on fire and died after tax police confiscated his unlicensed stall. Within days, there were demonstrations. Within a month, the country's president of 23 years was overthrown and exiled. Similar rebellions broke out in Libya, Egypt, Syria It was dubbed the "Arab Spring." ..."
"... Interestingly, the Hong Kong protests were embraced by the progressive firebrands such as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her 'Squad,' calling for something similar at home, against Trump. ..."
"... It's hardly surprising that Trump is now getting blamed for Floyd, even though Minneapolis and Minnesota are both run by Democrats. He was also blamed for the coronavirus, by the very Democrat governors that insisted on harsh lockdowns, and congressional Democrats who held aid hostage. The people doing the blaming insisted for years that 'Russiagate' was real, too. Now they blame Trump for responding to the riots – sorry, "peaceful protests" – by sending in the military. Hence the shock when rioters in Atlanta went after the CNN headquarters. ..."
"... The thing about color revolutions is that they follow a script. Find a legitimate grievance and piggyback onto it. Ask the police and the military to join the protests. If they don't, escalate into riots to provoke a forceful response to create martyrs. Optics are key; everything useful to the cause has to be captured on camera, and anything inconvenient memory-holed. Media are the most important ally. The endgame is not reform, or fairness, or justice, but regime change – physical removal of the "tyrannical dictator violating human rights" from office. ..."
Jun 03, 2020 | www.rt.com
2 Jun, 2020 "Pro-European protesters" (note white supremacist symbols on shield) clash with Ukranian riot police in Kiev, January 19, 2014. © Reuters / Gleb Garanich Peaceful protests degenerating into riots and arson, followed by violence, clashes with police and political demands for regime change: today's America, or what happened in Ukraine, North Africa and Serbia – or both? How Americans view the events of the past week greatly depends on their political persuasion, media preferences and to large extent even ethnic identity. This is hardly the first death of an African-American man at the hands of police, nor the first time a peaceful protest turned violent and resulted in a city on fire. It is, however, the first Black Lives Matter protest that spread all over – and quickly gained an openly political, partisan dimension.
That ought to be baffling. The four officers involved in George Floyd's death were fired almost immediately, rather than suspended with pay pending investigation. One of them was charged with murder just days later. Conservatives and liberals alike agreed that Floyd was murdered and that the men responsible should face justice. Yet the riots started, and spread, anyway.
The brief moment of unity in outrage could have resulted in healing the racial fault lines in the US. Instead, the already polarized political climate became divided more sharply than ever, with Republicans criticizing President Donald Trump for not cracking down on the riots fast and hard enough, while Democrats denounced him for responding at all, claiming that there were no riots really and Trump was just "declaring war on the American people."
"This was a made for television moment," CNN's Don Lemon said after tear gas was fired at protesters as President Trump addressed the nation from the Rose Garden. "Open your eyes, America. Open your eyes. We are teetering on a dictatorship. This is chaos." https://t.co/fhrg49HZFJ
-- The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) June 1, 2020Could the clues to why this is happening lie beyond America's borders? In December 2010, a Tunisian street vendor set himself on fire and died after tax police confiscated his unlicensed stall. Within days, there were demonstrations. Within a month, the country's president of 23 years was overthrown and exiled. Similar rebellions broke out in Libya, Egypt, Syria It was dubbed the "Arab Spring."
In November 2013, thousands of demonstrators gathered on Independence Square ( Maidan Nezalezhnosti ) in Kiev, Ukraine, protesting the government's decision to reject a trade deal with the European Union. Attempts by police to clear them out resulted in clashes with armed protesters, and eventually a firefight – where snipers allegedly loyal to the government opened fire on the crowd. Finally, in January 2014, violent protesters stormed the government offices and declared themselves in charge.
The 2014 "Euromaidan" – fully endorsed by the US – was a far more violent iteration of the "Orange Revolution" from ten years earlier, when sympathizers of an opposition coalition refused to accept the results of an election and forced the government to hold another one.
"US campaign behind the turmoil in Kiev," proclaimed a Guardian headline from November 26, 2004. "The operation – engineering democracy through the ballot box and civil disobedience – is now so slick that the methods have matured into a template for winning other people's elections," the article beneath it said, adding it was "first used in Europe in Belgrade in 2000."
Also on rt.com October 5, 2000: Flashback to Yugoslavia, West's first color revolution victimWhile the Western media painted the events in Serbia as a spontaneous revolt against a hated dictator, they also revealed that the protesters were funded by "suitcases of cash" smuggled across the border by US diplomats and NGOs, and that the entire thing was led by a handful of activists, trained by the National Endowment for Democracy in neighboring Hungary, using a manual written by Gene Sharp, a US scholar.
Claiming the government had stolen an election, the "revolutionaries" first seized the national TV station, then set the parliament on fire – conveniently destroying any evidence that could disprove their claim they had won – and appealed to police and the military to join them. With security forces unwilling to engage in bloodshed, President Slobodan Milosevic stepped down.
The whole operation was accompanied by a slick marketing campaign, featuring graffiti, t-shirts, posters and banners, all emblazoned with a stenciled fist. The fist would become an all-too familiar sight over the next two decades, and the formula packaged as "color revolution" and taken on the road by US-trained activists.
Most recently, the scenario played itself out in Bolivia (successfully), Venezuela (not) and Hong Kong , where "pro-democracy" protests against an extradition bill lasted long after it was withdrawn.
Also on rt.com 'Color revolution' comes home? Democrats target Trump with regime-change tacticsInterestingly, the Hong Kong protests were embraced by the progressive firebrands such as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her 'Squad,' calling for something similar at home, against Trump.
"Marginalized" communities have "no choice but to riot," Ocasio-Cortez said on a radio program in July 2019, adding that she meant "communities of poverty" in the US, as well as around the world. That was long before Covid-19 killed more than 100,000 Americans and lockdowns imposed to stop it cost 40 million Americans their jobs. Long before George Floyd.
It's hardly surprising that Trump is now getting blamed for Floyd, even though Minneapolis and Minnesota are both run by Democrats. He was also blamed for the coronavirus, by the very Democrat governors that insisted on harsh lockdowns, and congressional Democrats who held aid hostage. The people doing the blaming insisted for years that 'Russiagate' was real, too. Now they blame Trump for responding to the riots – sorry, "peaceful protests" – by sending in the military. Hence the shock when rioters in Atlanta went after the CNN headquarters.
Meanwhile, as cities across America burn, it's a fundraising windfall for Democrats – says the New York Times, of all outlets.
NEW: As Protesters Flood Streets, A Surge of Money Flows to Democrats, Bail Funds and Progressive CharitiesSunday was the *single biggest day* on ActBlue in all of 2020 -- topping Super Tuesday, debate nights, Biden's revival in S.C. https://t.co/NJiLyvCSlP
-- Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) June 1, 2020The thing about color revolutions is that they follow a script. Find a legitimate grievance and piggyback onto it. Ask the police and the military to join the protests. If they don't, escalate into riots to provoke a forceful response to create martyrs. Optics are key; everything useful to the cause has to be captured on camera, and anything inconvenient memory-holed. Media are the most important ally. The endgame is not reform, or fairness, or justice, but regime change – physical removal of the "tyrannical dictator violating human rights" from office.
"A color revolution can't happen in America, because there's no US embassy there," went the grim joke in Serbia after disappointment with the astroturf revolt of October 5, 2000 set in. Well, guess that settles it, then. Any similarities between the current situation in the US and dozens of other countries over the past 20 years must be purely coincidental and not at all relevant or significant in any way.
Nothing to see here, move along – and make sure you don't step on the broken glass on your way home for the curfew. Remember to wear your mask to protect from the coronavirus as well as smoke and tear gas. Everything's fine. It really can't happen here...
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT. Nebojsa Malic is a Serbian-American journalist, blogger and translator, who wrote a regular column for Antiwar.com from 2000 to 2015, and is now senior writer at RT. Follow him on Twitter @NebojsaMalic
[Jun 02, 2020] Brick bandits. Who is trying to supply rioters with pallets of bricks?
Jun 02, 2020 | www.rt.com
...Another "researcher " has even claimed to have uncovered a connection between the bricks sprouting from sidewalks in Frisco, Texas and Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates. The bricks were said to be delivered by a corporation called AcmeBrick, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, a massive holding company on whose board Gates sat until recently.
Brick Pallets in Frisco, TX for rioters/AntifaDelivered by AcmeBrick, Ft Worth, TX. Company owned by Berkshire Hathaway, (Gates recently left the board) and Marmon Group, Chicago. Owned by? Jay and Robert Pritzger and Berkshire HathawayVery deep, YUGE rabbit hole...
-- B Designs ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@BDesigns6) June 1, 2020But the Frisco Police Department declared the offending bricks were part of a "planned HOA construction project," explaining they'd been removed "with permission" to be "returned at a later time."
Update: City is picking up bricks and are property of the city.
-- Kambree (@KamVTV) June 1, 2020And the Kansas City Police Department alerted citizens on Sunday to be on the lookout for rogue brick stashes, warning they were lurking all over the city to be "used during a riot."
We have learned of & discovered stashes of bricks and rocks in & around the Plaza and Westport to be used during a riot. If you see anything like this, you can text 911 and let us know so we can remove them. This keeps everyone safe and allows your voice to continue to be heard.
-- kcpolice (@kcpolice) May 31, 2020New York City had its own mysterious brick eruptions in the East Village neighborhood on Saturday night, a vanishingly rare event in a city under constant construction in which unattended building materials tend to vanish in seconds.
"Yo, we got bricks. We got bricks!" -- #Rioters in Manhattan chanced upon a cache in the street equipped with bricks and a shovel at 10:01 p.m. on Second Ave between St. Marks Pl. and Seventh St. pic.twitter.com/dYB7vHdYqL
-- Kevin R Hogan (@KRHogan_NTD) May 31, 2020Other images appeared to show police vehicles maneuvering the bricks into place.
Uh-oh...Those random ass bricks showing up, guess who's bringing them in to a place where there's no construction? pic.twitter.com/QAITwOLQOF
-- A Black Socialist 🌹🏴☠️ (@SonOfAssata) June 1, 2020The building this guy is standing next to is the Earl Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas. There are surveillance cameras all over the place and there is zero chance they can't see who dropped of the bricks and when. pic.twitter.com/38jjbgDLym
-- Robert ✌️ (@no_more_nazis) May 30, 2020Certainly, the sudden appearance of heavy piles of masonry takes logistics most protesters are incapable of organizing on the fly. It would seem to be a simple matter for cities – especially in places like New York where every inch of space is watched over by surveillance cameras – to catch the brick bandits in the act. Of course, leaving piles of bricks around in case a riot happens to occur is hardly a crime yet.
[Jun 02, 2020] Diversity and multiculturalism is our strength/ I mean in which other country in the entire world can you go into a coffee shop at 10 am on a workday and hear 40 different languages being bawled into $1500 cell phones.
Notable quotes:
"... Just look at all the productive work now being done by the rioters. They have a vision for America. It is easier to rebuild when whole areas are turned to rubble than it is to clear them with heavy equipment. ..."
Jun 02, 2020 | www.unz.com
Maddaugh , says: Show Comment June 1, 2020 at 2:54 pm GMT
@Katrinka Katrinka, you dont understand. Diversity and multiculturalism is our strength ! I mean in which other country in the entire world can you go into a coffee shop at 10 am on a workday and hear 40 different languages being bawled into $1500 cell phones.Also, Just look at all the productive work now being done by the rioters. They have a vision for America. It is easier to rebuild when whole areas are turned to rubble than it is to clear them with heavy equipment.
Look on the bright side. A new slum area, oops I meant a new high end area will arise from the ashes, a shining example of a brand new Utopia for all the world to see !
[Jun 02, 2020] Neoliberal MSM sensationalize any act of violence involving white on black and brown. They ignored all the violence of black and brown on white.
Notable quotes:
"... The media would sensationalize any act of violence involving white on black and brown. They ignored all the violence of black and brown on white. This uneven media reporting was based on their desire to reinforce the mantra of "white people are evil racists, black and brown people are victims and good." ..."
"... Because it would paint themselves as supporters of "social justice" they created a false version of reality where everything bad in society was because of white people being racist. Never mind the actual causes of societal discontent being the exploitation by the elite. Because the media is the elite they don't want you to hate them. So they created a false victimizer they could blame for all the problems of society. ..."
Jun 02, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
Kali , Jun 1 2020 18:52 utc | 35
A Story: How The Chickens Came Home To RoostThe media and politicians have repeated a mantra for years n order to gain power by exploiting social and racial faultlines. They didn't want to deal with the actual cause of societal discontent which is their own support of an exploitative economic system which disempowers and pushed down everyone but the 1%. So they invented a false cause of discontent in order to appear as saviors who are bringing a message of Hope and Change
White people are racist. White people are inherently evil and greedy. THAT IS THE PROBLEM. Black and Brown people are good, Black and Brown people are victims of the racist greedy evil white people.White people are racist. White people are inherently evil and greedy. THAT IS THE PROBLEM. Black and Brown people are good, Black and Brown people are victims of the racist greedy evil white people.
After enough time has gone by, we have a generation of young people of all colors who believe the above mantra with all their heart because of hearing that mantra every day in the media, in schools, in movies, from leaders. The media knowing that, would then look for ways to exploit their hatred of "white racism against black and brown people."
The media would sensationalize any act of violence involving white on black and brown. They ignored all the violence of black and brown on white. This uneven media reporting was based on their desire to reinforce the mantra of "white people are evil racists, black and brown people are victims and good."
Because it would paint themselves as supporters of "social justice" they created a false version of reality where everything bad in society was because of white people being racist. Never mind the actual causes of societal discontent being the exploitation by the elite. Because the media is the elite they don't want you to hate them. So they created a false victimizer they could blame for all the problems of society.
Because violence from black and brown on white was never reported by the media except in local news, people only heard from the national narrative of white violence of black and brown because people don't pay attention to local news. They grew up believing the police only abused black and brown people, they grew up believing that random street violence was only from white people against black and brown. None of which is true.
This was bound to end up with a generation of people who believed the false narrative where America is a nation where black and brown people are always the victims, and white people are always the victimizers. And as you can see in the riots, the rioters are almost all under 30. A generation has grown up being brainwashed by the mantra:
White people are racist. White people are inherently evil and greedy. THAT IS THE PROBLEM. Black and Brown people are good, Black and Brown people are victims of the racist greedy evil white people.That is why so many people are perfectly fine with the violence and looting based on a few recent incidents of white on black violence. During the same time period there was plenty of black on black violence, plenty of brown on brown violence, and plenty of black and brown on white violence. But the national media never highlights any violence but white on black and brown. That is what has led to the new normal where any violence involving white on black or brown will be blown up WAY out of proportion to the reality of violence in America. Which is an equal opportunity game. A generation of people has grown up to believe that white racism is the cause of all the problems.
Meanwhile the elites sit in their yachts and laugh. The rabble are busy fighting over race when the real issue is ignored. The media has done their job admirably. Their job is to deflect rage from the elite to racism. From wealthy exploitation of the commons, to racism. As long as the underclasses are busy blaming racism then the politicians, business leaders, and media are satisfied because they are the actual ones to blame. They are the enemy. They blame racism for all the problems as a way to hide that truth of their own culpability for the problems in society. THEIR OWN GREED AND CONTEMPT FOR THE UNDERCLASS.
[Jun 02, 2020] American blacks are doing poorly because their jobs have been outsourced to China, the remaining jobs are increasingly going to foreign nationals imported as a source of indentured cheap labor, rents are unaffordable, medical care is unaffordable, education is unaffordable
Jun 02, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
TG , Jun 1 2020 19:53 utc | 49
OK, try this angle on the problem.American blacks are doing poorly because their jobs have been outsourced to communist China, the remaining jobs are increasingly going to foreign nationals imported as a source of indentured cheap labor, rents are unaffordable, medical care is unaffordable, education is unaffordable, people are drowning in debt and thanks to utter scumbags like Joe Biden they can no longer get out from under by declaring bankruptcy (as the 'socialist' founding fathers of this nation intended!), the government spends trillions on pointless foreign wars that serve only to enrich a few politically connected defense contractors, and over all, the government is giving literally tens of trillions of dollars in bailouts and subsidies to Wall Street and the super rich.
Thing is, this has nothing to do with 'racism.' It's class war, and my class is losing. But the rich don't like that narrative, so they stir up the proles and have them fight each other.
If blacks are doing badly only because they are stupid and dysfunctional, then why are working class whites starting to lose ground as well? Oh they aren't rioting much, they're just killing themselves with opiates and alcohol. Still, they are being ground down all the same. When the working class of all colors is losing ground, that is inconsistent with either 'racism' or blacks being inherently dysfunctional. It is consistent with the working class in general being stepped on, yes?
In a country of 340 million plus, there will always be the occasional bad thing happening. If indeed one white cop shot one black man without justification that's a bad thing - but it's just one incident, it has nothing to do with what's really keeping American blacks down - which is exactly the same as what's keeping American whites down! By taking one incident, and publicizing the hell out of it and screaming that it's all about 'racism,' the rich have deliberately created this situation.
Of course the media ignore all those incidents of blacks shooting whites. It's not part of the narrative.
Now with the coronavirus having gutted the economy, we have like 30+ million more people out of work than just recently, and most of the rest are going to be taking pay cuts, and after the stimulus crumbs run out, it's going to be very painful. The response of the elites, added onto the 'stimulus' bill, was to engage in an orgy of looting and profiteering not seen since Russia under Yeltsin. People are going to be evicted, lose their cars etc., and there is no safety net... This isn't going to be pretty. As a cynical person, I think the elites see this coming, and the intensity of the current manufactured conflagration is being put in place to focus the anger of the masses away from the elites, because they can feel what's headed our way.
I am not some stupid guilty liberal social justice warrior. As a skinny white guy, if I see that I am the only white face on the street I will be somewhere else real fast. If blacks are looting and pillaging, I want the police to stomp on that and maintain order and I won't take any excuses. But we shouldn't lose track of the big picture. It's the monolithic corporate media enterprises that have stoked this chaos, and it's for a reason.
[May 07, 2020] Womens' Rights Attorney Lisa Bloom: Yes, Biden Is A Rapist But I Endorse Him
May 07, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
" I believe you, Tara Reade ...[but] I still have to fight Trump, so I will still support Joe. But I believe you. And I'm sorry.
[May 02, 2020] Johnstone The Way Liberals Smear Tara Reade Is Everything Rape Survivors Fear
May 02, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,
Former Georgia state congresswoman and gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who is on the Joe Biden running mate short list and making no secret of her desire for the job, said on CNN Tuesday night that she did not believe rape allegations against Biden to be credible.
"The New York Times did a deep investigation and they found that the accusation was not credible. I believe Joe Biden," Abrams said when pressed on further corroborating evidence that Biden's accuser Tara Reade had been talking about a sexual assault by the then-senator way back in the nineties.
CNN's Don Lemon pressed Abrams on the contradiction between her earlier "believe women" rhetoric about conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's accuser, to which Abrams responded that Kavanaugh's accuser was not given a fair hearing but Tara Reade was. Past tense. Over and done with now.
Lemon did not ask why Abrams considers The New York Times the official arbiter of who was and was not raped. He did not challenge her false assertion that The New York Times concluded Reade's accusation was "not credible". He did not point out that the investigation by the The New York Times took place prior to the emergence of the corroborating evidence in question. Abrams was allowed to coolly insert a false, baseless narrative into public consciousness and move on.
It's gonna be a long six months.
-- Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) April 29, 2020In reality, The New York Times is not the authority on who has and has not been sexually assaulted. That's not a thing.
In reality, The New York Times did not conclude that Reade's accusation is not credible, only that they "found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable" (which they later quietly edited down to "found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden" at the instruction of the Biden campaign , a very blatant act of journalistic malpractice).
In reality, The New York Times has smeared Reade with a scandalous hit piece dismissing her allegations because she has written approvingly of Russian president Vladimir Putin, implying that either:
(A) Reade is a Russian agent fabricating the allegations to help Trump, or
(B) that it's okay to rape women if they disagree with beltway consensus foreign policy.
In reality, two new corroborating pieces of evidence have been added to the growing pile since The New York Times published its "investigation" into Reade's allegations: footage of Reade's mother anonymously calling in to Larry King Live in 1993 during Reade's last month of employment with Biden saying that her daughter was considering going to the press with a very serious allegation against a very prominent senator, and a former neighbor saying that Reade had told her about the sexual assault in the mid-nineties.
I have never been in the "always believe all women" camp; it's a narrative that's too easy to manipulate once you get enough people believing it. But at this point there are basically only two possibilities: either:
(A) Tara Reade was going around lying to her closest confidants in the 1990s with the very long-term goal of one day thwarting Biden's third presidential bid decades later, or
(B) a powerful man sexually assaulted a woman. One of these, in my opinion, is a lot more probable than the other.
Reach out to me directly and ask ?
-- taratweets ( Alexandra Tara Reade) (@ReadeAlexandra) April 28, 2020
I am not an " imperfect victim". I was lifelong Democratic supporter single mom that put myself through law school and I was raped by Joe Biden, my former boss, a Democrat.
There are no excuses for institutionalized rape culture. Thank you. https://t.co/hOQTxAzfa5I've been avoiding writing much about Tara Reade, for a lot of reasons. Firstly I'm a survivor of multiple rapes and it brings up a lot of ouch for me, especially since whenever I write about rape as a problem I always get a deluge of highly triggered men (and sometimes one or two highly traumatized women) calling me a man-hater and saying all kinds of nasty things to me. Secondly I've been trying not to spend too much time on the details of an election we all know is fake anyway between two establishment candidates we already know are deeply depraved.
But mostly I avoid the subject because it's just so goddamn gross. It's gross to watch liberals going around pretending they believe that Handsy Uncle Hair Sniffer would never dream of shoving his fingers into a woman without her consent. It's gross watching the language of leftism being borrowed to defend pure, relentless victim smearing. It's gross watching people who've built their political identities around pretending to care about women try to spin these allegations as Reade being dishonest for partisan reasons, when in reality that's exactly what they themselves are doing.
Due to my experiences with and sensitivity to the subject matter, going through this stuff feels kind of like getting punched in the privates over and over again. There are smears everywhere, from the establishment narrative managers to their brainwashed rank-and-file herd.
Yesterday some "KHive" asshole told me that Reade is mentally ill and talking about her experience will probably drive her to suicide, citing a baseless smear by McResistance pundit Sally Albright as his evidence. There's a Twitter thread with thousands of shares going around right now where some liberal combed through all Reade's old tweets highlighting typos she made and claiming they show Reade tweeting "in a Russian accent".
It's really, really gross.
And it hurts.
And there are definitely a whole lot of rape survivors experiencing the same thing about this story right now.
going through all of Tara Reade's tweets finding spelling and grammar errors in order to prove she's a Russian agent
the democrats are not ok the democrats are UNWELL pic.twitter.com/dq4r32Dqkd
-- june (@shoe0nhead) April 29, 2020This is exactly the nightmare scenario that sexual assault survivors imagine when they contemplate coming forward. It's why so many of them don't. Especially when their attacker is powerful.
Nobody wants to have their name dragged through the mud by widely esteemed mainstream news media outlets. Nobody wants to have their entire past and entire social media history dug through to find anything that can be spun in the most negative light possible. Nobody wants to be told over and over again that they're a liar, that they're crazy, that they're confused, all because they know they were sexually assaulted and said so. Nobody wants what can easily be the most traumatic experience of their life turned into a weapon to bludgeon them with before jeering crowds of millions all around the country.
And that sucks.
It sucks because if we're to build a healthy world we're going to have to get rid of all the people who shouldn't be in power, and the very first lot we should eliminate are the ones who abuse their power to assault the sexuality of other human beings. If you use your power to rape people, you will with absolute certainty use it to do other unconscionable things as well, so eliminating those who do so is the first step toward health. That's step one , and we can't even get there, because blind partisan hackery turns pussyhat-wearing liberals into a bunch of snarling male supremacists.
I was 19 the first time I was raped. The last time I was 39. I never reported my attackers, for reasons the specifics of which I'm not interested in explaining or defending, but let's just say that there are many messages you get sent by society telling you that if you report your rapist you are ruining a man's life, destroying his family, career and future over one "mistake". That it's better just to suck it up because you're strong and you can handle it.
You are taught that if you report your rape, you will be treated like the criminal, and the "investigation" that will take place will not put its spotlight on the accused, but on you, the accuser. You will have to defend your life choices and your character when you're in the process of attempting to recover from a deeply harmful assault. You are taught that if you report these things that it's you that will be shunned and shamed by members of your own tribe. And if the person is powerful, then you also know that this will likely end your career.
All these things are happening to Tara Reade right now. None of that has changed. Millions of young girls are being sent that message, once again, all across America, on screens large and small. They are being shown that if you accuse someone who has power over you of rape, you will be demonized and attacked, even by people who say they care about you, about a profoundly sensitive matter involving the most traumatic thing you've ever experienced.
And the thing is, that message is not a false message. You absolutely can be made the subject of vicious attacks if you accuse the wrong person of raping you. Attacks which press all your most painful buttons. Attacks which will try to convince you that you are insane. Attacks which will try to drive you insane.
And that sucks.
And I don't know what can be done about it.
[Apr 29, 2020] "Four legs good, two legs bad." is now fully applicable to neoliberal MSM and especially to identity politics. But that does not mean that everything they say is wrong
Apr 29, 2020 | www.moonofalabama.org
c1ue , Apr 29 2020 20:22 utc | 38
@Allen #19> The mainstream media being a lying machine doesn't automatically make everything they say wrong.
2 legs bad is no more idiotic applying to liberals as it does to conservatives, or mainstream media vs. alt media.
[Apr 22, 2020] Especially as the insane neoliberal economy we live in, we are ruled by a group of kleptocrats and vicious stooges. Which make allegations against Biden deserving a closer look but that does not make them automatically credible
Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... The Progressive ..."
Apr 22, 2020 | www.nakedcapitalism.com
"Evidence" means testimony, writings, material objects, or other things presented to the senses that are offered to prove the existence or nonexistence of a fact. -- California Evidence Code sec 140
JTMcPhee , April 21, 2020 at 6:19 pm
... ... ...
Even the NYT acknowledged (before it erased the text in its story on Reade that noted there were no other sexual misconduct charges pending against him other than that long history of assaults and sniffing and hands-on, text removed by the Times at the instance of the Biden campaign staff?
Here's the original text: " The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable." Waiting for the apologists to tell us why the edit to remove the last clause starting "beyond " is just "Good journalism."
He and Trump are bad examples of the male part of the species. Nothing to choose that I can see, other than who among the people that revise those bribes to them will be the first in line at the MMT watering hole
just_kate , April 21, 2020 at 8:54 pm
i had a lengthy discussion about this with my brother and sil, it came down to her saying I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT re bidens history of being a ttl letch plus possible rapist and my brother questioning what is obvious discomfort in multiple video evidence.
They said defeating trump was paramount to anything against biden. i simply give up at this point.
cm , April 21, 2020 at 3:28 pm
No mention of Brett Kavanaugh or Christine Blasey Ford in the article
michael99 , April 21, 2020 at 6:30 pm
lyman alpha blob , April 21, 2020 at 5:46 pm
Lots of partisan hackery and TDS going around in the last few years in once respectable lefty publications. Mother Jones has gone completely to hell rather than raising any, as was once their mission statement. I haven't read the Nation as much in recent years – I let my subscription lapse a while ago as I found I just couldn't keep up with reading it. Coincidentally I think that was about the time I started reading NC. The Nation has a history of sheepdogging lefties to rally behind bad Dem candidates, which was another reason I didn't feel bad letting my subscription go.
I do still have my subscription to Harper's but they were getting on my nerves quite a bit to the point I considered cancelling them too. Rebecca Solnit wrote some truly cringe-worthy editorials for them after Trump's election. They seem to have removed her from writing the main editorial so maybe I wasn't the only one who felt she left a little to be desired. I'm quite fond of the newer woman they have doing editorials, Lionel Shriver. She seems like she'd fit in quite well here!
sierra7 , April 21, 2020 at 3:39 pm
I left (pun intended) the Nation pub in the dust way back in the 1990's and buried it post 9/11. Used to be a real good alternative press pub 30-40 years ago. Somewhere along the line it lost it's way and joined the wishy-washy "gatekeeper' society of "approved news."
RIPurblintz , April 21, 2020 at 3:33 pm
Joan Walsh is a partisan fraud and The Nation's worst hire since . forever.
Olga , April 21, 2020 at 8:09 pm
The Nation was a sanity saviour back in late 70s and through 1980s; then something happened. Not clear when or what, but I know I let my subscription lapse. Tried again later, but it was never the same. It's mostly unbearable now, except for Stephen Cohen. Walsh has been in the unbearable category for many years now.
Voltaire Jr. , April 21, 2020 at 10:08 pm
Subscribed to The Nation and The Progressive in 1971. Read and learned for a decade or so, moved on. Also read every Henry George book I could.
marku52 , April 21, 2020 at 3:59 pm
Leonard Pitts just had an editorial in my local paper where he opined that even if Biden had sexually assaulted Reade, it didn't really matter because we had to vote against Trump.
I wrote this in reply:
So Leonard Pitts thinks that Biden's alleged sexual attack on Tara Reade isn't disqualifying, even if true. Strange, he didn't think that way about Brett Kavanagh. I didn't want to attack the columnist as a hypocrite without being sure, so I looked it up. Here is what he wrote:"It's a confluence of facts that speak painfully and pointedly to just how unseriously America takes men's predations against women. You might disagree, noting that the Senate Judiciary Committee has asked Ford to testify. But if history is any guide, that will prove to be a mere formality – a sop to appearances – before the committee recommends confirmation."
Looks very much like "Well, It's excusable when our guys do it."
Not to me.
( Here is the link to his first opinion piece)
https://www.pressherald.com/2018/09/19/leonard-pitts-fairness-statute-has-not-run-out-on-allegations-against-kavanaugh/#jo6pac , April 21, 2020 at 4:32 pm
The late Alexzander Cockburn would be most proud of this take down of joan walsh.
I don't read the nation and I'm sorry that LP feels that way.
Thanks Lambert and NC
I'll be voting Green again without Bernie in the race.
Reply ↓Watt4Bob , April 21, 2020 at 4:34 pm
So disappointing.
It was the Nation that helped wake me politically back in the early 1970s with their reporting on the Chilean coup, and later, the murder of Orlando Letelier, and Ronnie Moffet .
Arguably, the first state-sponsored international terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
It has has since morphed into cat box liner.
Am I wrong to blame Katrina vanden Heuvel?
kirk seidenbecker , April 21, 2020 at 5:43 pm
Excuse me if this is a repeat –
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/04/evaluating-tara-reades-claims
Reply ↓OpenThePodBayDoorsHAL , April 21, 2020 at 5:46 pm
Always had a crush on K v d Heuvel. (How's that for an opening to a post about misogyny and sexual misconduct)?
But can't we disqualify Joe! as the craven proponent of the worst neo-lib policies that got us exactly where we are today? Or, in polite company, ask politely whether he is even in a mental state to hand over the keys to the to the family car, let alone the nuclear football?
Let's take the Id out of IdPol, I don't care if the candidate has green skin and three eyes if the policies they would enact come within smelling distance of benefiting the 99% (or more precisely in Joe's case within hair smelling distance).
We can use his personal conduct as a component in our judgement but pleeease can we focus on the stuff that would actually affect our lives. In his case, for the absolute worse.
(Note: I sincerely doubt whether Joe is currently allowed to drive a car, please oh please Mr.God-Yahweh-Mohammed-Buddha-Obama can we not let him drive a nation).
[Apr 13, 2020] Believe all women: New York Times only remembers its journalistic skepticism when it's Biden in the crosshairs
Metoo witch hunt has limited shelf-life and eventually will run its course. But the damage to credibility of accusations is done.
Apr 13, 2020 | www.rt.com
For anyone running for office in modern America, accusations of sexual assault are par for the course. But when it comes to weighing up these accusations, the US’ mainstream paper of record applies some very uneven standards.Take Joe Biden, the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee. If doubts weren’t already raised by his fondness for sniffing women, the emergence last month of a sexual assault allegation against the former vice president could have caused a major headache for his campaign.
Yet amid the coronavirus pandemic, and given the political leanings of most media outlets, the scandal barely registered.
The Intercept ran a story in March on how Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer, claimed that in 1993 Biden pushed her against a wall, groped her, and penetrated her with his fingers. Reade had spoken up about the alleged incident a year earlier, but was met with accusations that she was doing Russia’s bidding. The US media was still doing ‘Russiagate’ back then, remember?
.
[Apr 12, 2020] In a fiery speech announcing her decision, Collins ripped unsupported claims by Avenatti's client, Julie Swetnick, that Kavanaugh facilitated a Cosby-esque "gang rape" operation while in high school
Female sociopath are excel in false accusations, including rape accusations. They are born actresses and have no empathy, so framing their victim is just an easy game for them
See the text of full speech at New York Times
Oct 07, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com
In a fiery speech announcing her decision, Collins ripped unsupported claims by Avenatti's client, Julie Swetnick, that Kavanaugh facilitated a Cosby-esque "gang rape" operation while in high school.
Some of the allegations levied against Judge Kavanaugh illustrate why the presumption of innocence is so important . I am thinking in particular not of the allegations raised by Professor Ford, but of the allegation that, when he was a teenager, Judge Kavanaugh drugged multiple girls and used their weakened state to facilitate gang rape .
This outlandish allegation was put forth without any credible supporting evidence and simply parroted public statements of others . That such an allegation can find its way into the Supreme Court confirmation process is a stark reminder about why the presumption of innocence is so ingrained in our American consciousness. -Sen. Susan Collins
Paracelsus , 38 minutes ago link
FBaggins , 1 hour ago linkI didn't really care much about the stuff alleged to have been done by Kavanaugh thirty-five years ago. Arguing with a close family friend I stated that there was nothing I found more tiresome than the old lawyers tactic of springing something on you at the last possible minute, leaving a steaming pile of turds in the middle of your desk, and then expecting to be taken seriously. Decorum? Rules of debate? How about the laws of discovery, sharing info amongst colleagues?
Just because this was not a criminal trial is no reason to throw out the rules for policy making, the nomination process, which both sides have adhered to in the past. People were comparing this to the Anita Hill fiasco during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. Delay, interrupt, stall, maximum media exposure. Never any evidence or criminal charges to point to.
In criminal trials there is the process of discovery by which the admission of evidence at the last minute is strongly ill advised, and can result in it being tossed out. Sen. Feinstein would be aware of all the rules and procedures, but she feels above it all.
bh2 , 3 hours ago linkHey Avenatti! If you and your client had any idea of what the truth is no one would every have heard of her or of you. Don't give us this ******** that you were just representing your client. If you had a brain you would have known she was FOS from the get go, and if you were honest you never would have represented her. So what is it? Are you just stupid or are you dishonest, or both?
The Terrible Sweal , 3 hours ago linkPeople who make salacious claims unconfirmed or outright denied by their own named "witnesses" tend to get sued for defamation. And the lawyers they rode in on.
... ... ...
platyops , 4 hours ago linkThree women advance fabricated allegations and the #resistance, Demonrats, Third Wavers and cucks blame one male lawyer.
They just can't learn.
Debt Slave , 4 hours ago linkMichael Avenatti is not a nice man at all. He was a factor in making the accusations seem like a circus. No one takes him seriously as he slinks around the gutters.
trutherator , 5 hours ago linkI sure am glad that Avenatti was stupid enough to represent a lunatic like Swetnick.
RictaviousPorkchop , 6 hours ago linkAvenatti is the scapegoat. The Ford story was already fast breaking down, and the secret polygraph and the secret therapist notes and her ex-boyfriend should have made more noise in the Senate.
... ... ...
KingTut , 6 hours ago linkThis filth needs to be disbarred.
inosent , 7 hours ago linkThey embraced this puke and revelled in his garbage accusations. Now they need a scapegoat, and he's it. God forbid Feinstein get raked over the coals for screwing this thing up. The was a political hit, and everyone knew it. But the GOP are so spineless that a high-school-drunken-grope-fest brought them to their knees. Fortunately, the Dems stayed true to form and blew themselves up.
What I do not understand is how could they be so stupid as to endorse the Avenatti slime factory in the first place? TONE DEAF.
Kidbuck , 5 hours ago linkAvenatti needs to be disbarred. To file a complaint for his breach of professional responsibility, suborning perjury, and engaging in acts of moral turpitude:
http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/0/documents/forms/2017_ComplaintFormENG_201701.pdf
If enough complaints are filed with the CA state bar, he may get disbarred.
Attorneys ALREADY have a really bad rep. Part of professional responsibility is to uphold the integrity of the legal profession. The ONLY thing Avenatti did was to make every attorney look like a complete shyster sleazeball, which given I just took the bar exam and will probably become an attorney soon, I find immensely offensive.
Here is his license information:
John_Coltrane , 6 hours ago linkThe MSM gave these clowns face time and the morons of America watched and believed...
TemporarySecurity , 5 hours ago linkThe Demonrats used false sexual allegations against Roy Moore coupled with ballot box cheating (their typical mode) to win a senate seat in conservative Alabama. So, since their main national platform of open borders is so repugnant to any normal taxpaying voter, this is their only strategy. They simply got caught. All the allegations against both Kavanaugh and Moore were fabricated and the proof is the Soros' paid lawyers who represented them all. And Feinstein and Schumer conspired in this farce. And independent voters know it!
They're just pissed they got caught in their fraud and this energized the R. base which will lead to a red wave in a few weeks. And just think of the political commercial possibilities for any Demonrat senator hoping to prevail if they vote against Kavanaugh. I expect the final confirmation vote won't as close as the vote for cloture for this reason.
MoreFreedom , 6 hours ago linkBe careful, Roy Moore was a different story. There was evidence including him saying he liked to date high school age girls as a 30 year old along with multiple other people who remembered what was alleged. Not just Democrat operatives. Morals were not that different then than now. Was he guilty of a crime no, could reasonable people still dislike his morals sure. I grew up close to that era and thought the college age kids hanging around HS girls was nasty. Moore verified as a 30 year old he liked them young.
Ford 0 corroborating evidence. By lumping in Moore with Kavanaugh you are giving credence to believe the victim because all you are following the "patriarchy" of believing the accused regardless of evidence.
Totally_Disillusioned , 7 hours ago linkThe Democrats have a long history of making last minute sexual misconduct allegations against their political opponents, always without any evidence or corroboration. And sexual misconduct allegations that pale in comparison to what a lot of Democrats have been alleged to do (rape allegations against Clinton, Kennedy having an affair that left a woman dead, John Conyers for settling sexual harassment allegations with taxpayer money, Hillary for trashing victims, or consider Weinstein and other famous/rich Democrat donors or newsmen). I'd bet most of these allegations against Republicans were simply made up for political purposes because they were plausible, couldn't be disproven, and couldn't be proven. Ford's allegations fit the pattern.
The charges are always last minute, to deny the accused an opportunity to defend themselves. Kavanaugh provided an excellent defense that would be good court room drama in a movie, when no one in the GOP was willing to defend him, and too afraid of being accused of not believing a victim and attacking them.
What's really going on are the Democrats in charge, are looking to deflect the attention from what they did, to Avanetti because Avanetti did the same, except the charges of his client, weren't believable, even though they couln't be proven or disproven. They don't want to take the blame, for what voters might do in the midterms.
One thing's for sure, you don't see Democrats calling for indicting and prosecuting false accusers. They're teaching people to bear false witness for their personal purposes.
putupjob , 7 hours ago link" Gang rape mastermind " might have been a bridge too far"
was this great or what?
avenatti gave the diversion, the clutter, the political sideshow so that all charges could be swept away and completely fake and uncorroborated. there was no provable basis for the ford charges, but the crazy swetnick stories simplified brooming the whole thing.
we can only hope that avenatti will be back in 2020, to run for president, and to come marching with his parade of **** stars and "wronged" women who spend all their time performing in strip clubs.
[Apr 12, 2020] How to Defend Against Charges of Harassment in the Workplace
Oct 05, 2018 | smallbusiness.chron.com
If you are accused of harassment in the workplace, it is important to carefully consider your next moves. Your initial reaction might be to vehemently defend yourself against the claims; however, try to keep a cool and calm head and approach the situation professionally. The more hotly you protest the charges and the angrier you get, the less inclined people may be to listen to your side of the story. Talk to a Lawyer
Book a consultation with a lawyer. If the matter can't be resolved via simple mediation within the workplace, you have to be sure to protect yourself and your job. A lawyer can advise you of your legal rights and give you an idea of how to best proceed with such allegations presented against you.
Write it DownProvide a written account of what happened from your point of view. While this may differ from the account of the person claiming the harassment, it is important that you at least get your side of the story out. A written statement doing so gives human resources and/or management something to refer to during the investigation.
Tell the TruthBe honest. If you know you did what the accusers say you did, be honest and the ensuing punishment may be less harsh. Talk to your manager about what happened, admit to what you did wrong and provide solutions for how to avoid further incidents. Most important: stop the "harassing" behavior immediately. The situation may worsen if it continues, whether you feel it is actual harassment or not.
Provide WitnessesProvide an alibi and/or witnesses, if the claims are not true. If someone says you harassed them at a time when you know you were in a meeting or talking to someone in his office, then say so. Supply the name of any witnesses who can provide you an alibi. If there were other people around at the time that the alleged harassment took place, ask them to speak up on your behalf.
Stay CalmAvoid retaliating in any way. Particularly if you have been falsely accused, you may feel angry, frustrated and more emotional than usual because of what you are going through. Don't take any adverse reaction against the person that made the allegations or do anything that might be perceived as retaliatory.
Draw Attention to Your HistoryGive an accounting of your track record with the company. If you've been accused of something you know you didn't do and you have a clean personnel file, explain to your manager that you've been with the company "X" amount of years, have never had a problem with another employee and have always treated others with the utmost respect. Your record could work in your favor.
Consult with HRConsult with your human resources representative to determine how to best proceed according to company policy. Explain your side of the story and focus on what you can do to resolve the matter quickly and focus on your job. A human resources rep might be able to mediate in the matter and get it settled without having to take things further; she may also advise you of the steps you need to take or explain that there is nothing more you can do while the company investigates.
Tip
- Whatever you do, don't confront the accuser. This may provide additional fodder for the allegations against you and anything you say might be misconstrued and used against you later.
- Also, don't discuss the case with other people in the workplace, as the gossip may in turn spur the allegations against you.
[Apr 12, 2020] We Are Living Nineteen Eighty-Four... by Victor Davis Johnson
Sep 25, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com
Authored by Victor Davis Johnson via NationalReview.com,
Truth, due process, evidence, rights of the accused: All are swept aside in pursuit of the progressive agenda.
George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is no longer fiction. We are living it right now.
Google techies planned to massage Internet searches to emphasize correct thinking. A member of the so-called deep state, in an anonymous op-ed, brags that its "resistance" is undermining an elected president. The FBI, CIA, DOJ, and NSC were all weaponized in 2016 to ensure that the proper president would be elected -- the choice adjudicated by properly progressive ideology. Wearing a wire is now redefined as simply flipping on an iPhone and recording your boss, boy- or girlfriend, or co-workers.
But never has the reality that we are living in a surreal age been clearer than during the strange cycles of Christine Blasey Ford's accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
In Orwell's world of 1984 Oceania, there is no longer a sense of due process, free inquiry, rules of evidence and cross examination, much less a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Instead, regimented ideology -- the supremacy of state power to control all aspects of one's life to enforce a fossilized idea of mandated quality -- warps everything from the use of language to private life.
Oceania's RulesSenator Diane Feinstein and the other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee had long sought to destroy the Brett Kavanaugh nomination. Much of their paradoxical furor over his nomination arises from the boomeranging of their own past political blunders, such as when Democrats ended the filibuster on judicial nominations, in 2013. They also canonized the so-called 1992 Biden Rule, which holds that the Senate should not consider confirming the Supreme Court nomination of a lame-duck president (e.g., George H. W. Bush) in an election year.
Rejecting Kavanaugh proved a hard task given that he had a long record of judicial opinions and writings -- and there was nothing much in them that would indicate anything but a sharp mind, much less any ideological, racial, or sexual intolerance. His personal life was impeccable, his family admirable.
Kavanaugh was no combative Robert Bork, but congenial, and he patiently answered all the questions asked of him, despite constant demonstrations and pre-planned street-theater interruptions from the Senate gallery and often obnoxious grandstanding by "I am Spartacus" Democratic senators.
So Kavanaugh was going to be confirmed unless a bombshell revelation derailed the vote. And so we got a bombshell.
Weeks earlier, Senator Diane Feinstein had received a written allegation against Kavanaugh of sexual battery by an accuser who wished to remain anonymous. Feinstein sat on it for nearly two months, probably because she thought the charges were either spurious or unprovable. Until a few days ago, she mysteriously refused to release the full text of the redacted complaint , and she has said she does not know whether the very accusations that she purveyed are believable. Was she reluctant to memorialize the accusations by formally submitting them to the Senate Judiciary Committee, because doing so makes Ford subject to possible criminal liability if the charges prove demonstrably untrue?
The gambit was clearly to use the charges as a last-chance effort to stop the nomination -- but only if Kavanaugh survived the cross examinations during the confirmation hearing. Then, in extremis , Feinstein finally referenced the charge, hoping to keep it anonymous, but, at the same time, to hint of its serious nature and thereby to force a delay in the confirmation. Think something McCarthesque, like "I have here in my hand the name . . ."
Delay would mean that the confirmation vote could be put off until after the midterm election, and a few jeopardized Democratic senators in Trump states would not have to go on record voting no on Kavanaugh. Or the insidious innuendos, rumor, and gossip about Kavanaugh would help to bleed him to death by a thousand leaks and, by association, tank Republican chances at retaining the House. (Republicans may or may not lose the House over the confirmation circus, but they most surely will lose their base and, with it, the Congress if they do not confirm Kavanaugh.)
Feinstein's anonymous trick did not work. So pressure mounted to reveal or leak Ford's identity and thereby force an Anita-Hill–like inquest that might at least show old white men Republican senators as insensitive to a vulnerable and victimized woman.
The problem, of course, was that, under traditional notions of jurisprudence, Ford's allegations simply were not provable. But America soon discovered that civic and government norms no longer follow the Western legal tradition. In Orwellian terms, Kavanaugh was now at the mercy of the state. He was tagged with sexual battery at first by an anonymous accuser, and then upon revelation of her identity, by a left-wing, political activist psychology professor and her more left-wing, more politically active lawyer.
Newspeak and DoublethinkStatue of limitations? It does not exist. An incident 36 years ago apparently is as fresh today as it was when Kavanaugh was 17 and Ford 15.
Presumption of Innocence? Not at all. Kavanaugh is accused and thereby guilty. The accuser faces no doubt. In Orwellian America, the accused must first present his defense, even though he does not quite know what he is being charged with. Then the accuser and her legal team pour over his testimony to prepare her accusation.
Evidence? That too is a fossilized concept. Ford could name neither the location of the alleged assault nor the date or time. She had no idea how she arrived or left the scene of the alleged crime. There is no physical evidence of an attack. And such lacunae in her memory mattered no longer at all.
Details? Again, such notions are counterrevolutionary. Ford said to her therapist 6 years ago (30 years after the alleged incident) that there were four would-be attackers, at least as recorded in the therapist's notes.
But now she has claimed that there were only two assaulters: Kavanaugh and a friend. In truth, all four people -- now including a female -- named in her accusations as either assaulters or witnesses have insisted that they have no knowledge of the event, much less of wrongdoing wherever and whenever Ford claims the act took place. That they deny knowledge is at times used as proof by Ford's lawyers that the event 36 years was traumatic.
An incident at 15 is so seared into her lifelong memory that at 52 Ford has no memory of any of the events or details surrounding that unnamed day, except that she is positive that 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh, along with four? three? two? others, was harassing her. She has no idea where or when she was assaulted but still assures that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge were drunk, but that she and the others (?) merely had only the proverbial teenage "one beer." Most people are more likely to know where they were at a party than the exact number of alcoholic beverages they consumed -- but not so much about either after 36 years.
Testimony? No longer relevant. It doesn't matter that Kavanaugh and the other alleged suspect both deny the allegations and have no memory of being in the same locale with Ford 36 years ago. In sum, all the supposed partiers, both male and female, now swear, under penalty of felony, that they have no memory of any of the incidents that Ford claims occurred so long ago. That Ford cannot produce a single witness to confirm her narrative or refute theirs is likewise of no concern. So far, she has singularly not submitted a formal affidavit or given a deposition that would be subject to legal exposure if untrue.
Again, the ideological trumps the empirical. "All women must be believed" is the testament, and individuals bow to the collective. Except, as in Orwell's Animal Farm, there are ideological exceptions -- such as Bill Clinton, Keith Ellison, Sherrod Brown, and Joe Biden. The slogan of Ford's psychodrama is "All women must be believed, but some women are more believable than others." That an assertion becomes fact due to the prevailing ideology and gender of the accuser marks the destruction of our entire system of justice.
Rights of the accused? They too do not exist. In the American version of 1984 , the accuser, a.k.a. the more ideologically correct party, dictates to authorities the circumstances under which she will be investigated and cross-examined: She will demand all sorts of special considerations of privacy and exemptions; Kavanaugh will be forced to return and face cameras and the public to prove that he was not then, and has never been since, a sexual assaulter.
In our 1984 world, the accused is considered guilty if merely charged, and the accuser is a victim who can ruin a life but must not under any circumstance be made uncomfortable in proving her charges.
Doublespeak abounds. "Victim" solely refers to the accuser, not the accused, who one day was Brett Kavanaugh, a brilliant jurist and model citizen, and the next morning woke up transformed into some sort of Kafkaesque cockroach. The media and political operatives went in a nanosecond from charging that she was groped and "assaulted" to the claim that she was "raped."
In our 1984, the phrase "must be believed" is doublespeak for "must never face cross-examination."
Ford should be believed or not believed on the basis of evidence , not her position, gender, or politics. I certainly did not believe Joe Biden, simply because he was a U.S. senator, when, as Neal Kinnock's doppelganger, he claimed that he came from a long line of coal miners -- any more than I believed that Senator Corey Booker really had a gang-banger Socratic confidant named "T-Bone," or that would-be senator Richard Blumenthal was an anguished Vietnam combat vet or that Senator Elizabeth Warren was a Native American. (Do we need a 25th Amendment for unhinged senators?) Wanting to believe something from someone who is ideologically correct does not translate into confirmation of truth.
Ford supposedly in her originally anonymous accusation had insisted that she had sought "medical treatment" for her assault. The natural assumption is that such a term would mean that, soon after the attack, the victim sought a doctor's or emergency room's help to address either her physical or mental injuries -- records might therefore be a powerful refutation of Kavanaugh's denials.
But "medical treatment" now means that 30 years after the alleged assault, Ford sought counseling for some sort of "relationship" or "companion" therapy, or what might legitimately be termed "marriage counseling." And in the course of her discussions with her therapist about her marriage, she first spoke of her alleged assault three decades earlier. She did not then name Kavanaugh to her therapist, whose notes are at odds with Ford's current version.
Memory HolesThen we come to Orwell's idea of "memory holes," or mechanisms to wipe clean inconvenient facts that disrupt official ideological narratives.
Shortly after Ford was named, suddenly her prior well-publicized and self-referential social-media revelations vanished, as if she'd never held her minor-league but confident pro-Sanders, anti-Trump opinions . And much of her media and social-media accounts were erased as well.
Similarly, one moment the New York Times -- just coming off an embarrassing lie in reporting that U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley had ordered new $50,000 office drapes on the government dime -- reported that Kavanaugh's alleged accomplice, Mark Judge, had confirmed Ford's allegation. Indeed, in a sensational scoop, according to the Times , Judge told the Judiciary Committee that he does remember the episode and has nothing more to say. In fact, Judge told the committee the very opposite: that he does not remember the episode . Forty minutes later, the Times embarrassing narrative vanished down the memory hole.
The online versions of some of the yearbooks of Ford's high school from the early 1980s vanished as well. At times, they had seemed to take a perverse pride in the reputation of the all-girls school for underage drinking, carousing, and, on rarer occasions, "passing out" at parties. Such activities were supposed to be the monopoly and condemnatory landscape of the "frat boy" and spoiled-white-kid Kavanaugh -- and certainly not the environment in which the noble Ford navigated. Seventeen-year-old Kavanaugh was to play the role of a falling-down drunk; Ford, with impressive powers of memory of an event 36 years past, assures us that as a circumspect 15-year-old, she had only "one beer."
A former teenage friend of Ford's sent out a flurry of social-media postings, allegedly confirming that Ford's ordeal was well known to her friends in 1982 and so her assault narrative must therefore be confirmed. Then, when challenged on some of her incoherent details (schools are not in session during summertime, and Ford is on record as not telling anyone of the incident for 30 years), she mysteriously claimed that she no longer could stand by her earlier assertions, which likewise soon vanished from her social-media account. Apparently, she had assumed that in 2018 Oceania ideologically correct citizens merely needed to lodge an accusation and it would be believed, without any obligation on her part to substantiate her charges.
When a second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, followed Ford seven days later to allege another sexual incident with the teenage Kavanaugh, at Yale 35 years ago, it was no surprise that she followed the now normal Orwellian boilerplate : None of those whom she named as witnesses could either confirm her charges or even remember the alleged event. She had altered her narrative after consultations with lawyers and handlers. She too confesses to underage drinking during the alleged event. She too is currently a social and progressive political activist. The only difference from Ford's narrative is that Ramirez's accusation was deemed not credible enough to be reported even by the New York Times , which recently retracted false stories about witness Mark Judge in the Ford case, and which falsely reported that U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley had charged the government for $50,000 office drapes.
As in 1984 , "truths" in these sorts of allegations do not exist unless they align with the larger "Truth" of the progressive project. In our case, the overarching Truth mandates that, in a supposedly misogynist society, women must always be believed in all their accusations and should be exempt from all counter-examinations.
Little "truths" -- such as the right of the accused, the need to produce evidence, insistence on cross-examination, and due process -- are counterrevolutionary constructs and the refuge of reactionary hold-outs who are enemies of the people. Or in the words of Hawaii senator Mazie Hirono:
Guess who's perpetuating all of these kinds of actions? It's the men in this country. And I just want to say to the men in this country, "Just shut up and step up. Do the right thing, for a change."
The View 's Joy Behar was more honest about the larger Truth: "These white men, old by the way, are not protecting women," Behar exclaimed. "They're protecting a man who is probably guilty." We thank Behar for the concession "probably."
According to some polls, about half the country believes that Brett Kavanaugh is now guilty of a crime committed 36 years ago at the age of 17. And that reality reminds us that we are no longer in America . We are already living well into the socialist totalitarian Hell that Orwell warned us about long ago.
- All Comments 30
NiggaPleeze , 10 seconds ago
Debt Slave , 16 seconds agoNational Review? Really? Does it get more evil than them?
Jkweb007 , 37 seconds agoAccording to some polls, about half the country believes that Brett Kavanaugh is now guilty of a crime committed 36 years ago at the age of 17.
Well half the country are idiots but the important thing to remember in our democracy is that the idiots have the right to vote. And here we are today.
No wonder the founders believed that democracy was a stupid idea. But we know better than they did, right?
herbivore , 1 minute agoIt is hard for me to believe 50% when in America you are presumed innocent till proven guilty. Is this the spanish inquizition or salem witch trials. If he floats he was innocent. I am shocked that people in congress would make statements, she must be believed, I believe he is guilty. These are people who represent and stand for the constitution that many died in the defense of life liberty and the persuit of happiness. It may be time for that mlilitia that our founding fathers endorsed. If Kavanaugh is rebuked for these accusation our freedom, free speech may be next.
GOSPLAN HERO , 4 minutes agoPeter Griffin knows what's what:
THORAX , 6 minutes agoJust another day in USSA.
opport.knocks , 20 minutes agoOne more confirmation that the so called "social justice warriors" -like last night's goons' who shamefully interrupted Senator Cruz's night out with his wife at a private restaurant- are Orwell's projected fascists!
Aubiekong , 23 minutes agoBush 2 was in the big chair when he and his cabinet started the USA down the full Orwellian path (Patriot Act, post 911). Kavanaugh and his wife were both members of that government team.
If there is any reason to dismiss him, that would be it, not this post-pubescent sex crap.
If I was a cynical person, I would say this whole exercise is to deflect attention away from that part of his "swampy" past.
CheapBastard , 15 minutes agoWe lost the republic when we allowed the liberals to staff the ministry of education...
my new username , 23 minutes agoMy neighbor is a high school teacher. I asked her if she was giving students time off to protest this and she looked at me and said, "Just the opposite. I have given them a 10 page seminar paper to write on the meaning of Due Process."
So there IS hope.
BlackChicken , 23 minutes agoThis is criminal contempt for the due lawful process of the Congress.
These are unlawful attempts and conspiracies to subvert justice.
So we need to start arresting, trying, convicting and punishing the criminals.
Jus7tme , 22 minutes agoTruth, due process, evidence, rights of the accused: All are swept aside in pursuit of the progressive agenda.
This needs to end, not later, NOW.
Be careful what you wish for leftists, I'll dedicate my remaining years to torture you with it.
Duc888 , 29 minutes ago>>the socialist totalitarian Hell that Orwell warned us about long ago.
I think Orwell was in 1949 was warning about a fascist totalitarian hell, not a socialist one, but nice try rewriting history.
CheapBastard , 19 minutes agoWTF ever happened to "innocent until PROVEN guilty"?
Schumer said before the confirmation hearings even began he would not let Kavanaugh become SC justice no matter what.
Dems are so tolerant, open minded and respectful of due process, aren't they.
[Apr 12, 2020] False accusations are a very serious thing, and we are accepting them all too glibly
Notable quotes:
"... Wow. I'm saddened that so many people carelessly toss aside the best parts of our civilisation such as the presumption of innocence. Accusers have to prove their charges. ..."
"... Imagine Joe Lauria is accused by someone of something heinous. Anyone who doesn't like Joe can now comment on social media about how he looks like the type of guy who would do that. ..."
"... Joe is an honest and good man, but anyone can smear him at any time and ruin his livelihood. Its easy. And Joe just made it easier with this article. ..."
"... For many years, my mother in law sincerely believed that her grandson was not her son's child. This was patently untrue, but I was clueless because no one (we lived surrounded by her immediate family) told me, although the women all gossiped behind my back. ..."
Oct 05, 2018 | consortiumnews.com
Deltaeus , October 2, 2018 at 4:38 pm
Wow. I'm saddened that so many people carelessly toss aside the best parts of our civilisation such as the presumption of innocence. Accusers have to prove their charges.
Imagine Joe Lauria is accused by someone of something heinous. Anyone who doesn't like Joe can now comment on social media about how he looks like the type of guy who would do that. Anyone who disagrees with him might be motivated to do that. They can suggest psychological reasons for his atrocious behaviour. The accuser does not need to prove anything – just some lurid details and a tearful interview are enough, and the rest of us can no longer see his by-line without remembering all of the innocent children he molested.
See? What I just insinuated is completely untrue. Joe is an honest and good man, but anyone can smear him at any time and ruin his livelihood. Its easy. And Joe just made it easier with this article.
Please, think about what it is like to be unfairly accused. Perhaps in the abstract you can shrug, but talk to anyone who has actually been the victim of false allegations, and you will realise how powerless you are in that situation. Your only protection is the civilised idea that you are innocent until proven guilty, and if you destroy that, well, that would be a shame.
irina , October 2, 2018 at 10:53 pm
Have you ever experienced a false accusation ? I have, and I didn't even know it.
For many years, my mother in law sincerely believed that her grandson was not her son's child. This was patently untrue, but I was clueless because no one (we lived surrounded by her immediate family) told me, although the women all gossiped behind my back. You can only imagine how this affected all my familial relationships. She never did come clean about this situation (her thinking was affected by long term steroid use) but did eventually apologize to me (without precisely stating why) the year our son turned thirteen, at which point he started strongly resembling his dad (her son).
False accusations are a very serious thing, and we are accepting them all too glibly.
[Apr 12, 2020] Unintended consequences of #MeToo movement causing 'gender segregation' on Wall Street
Female psychopath are especially dangerous as "reverse sexual predators". Assumption that all women are honest in their accusations is extremely naive. Revenge and other inferior motives are pretty common, especially in academic setting.
"A sense of walking on eggshells" is a sure sign of unhealthy psychopath dominated environment.
Notable quotes:
"... Two female reporters for Bloomberg interviewed 30 Wall Street executives and found that while it's true that women might be afraid to speak up for fear of losing their careers, men are also so afraid of being falsely accused that they won't even have dinner, or even one-to-one business meetings with a female colleague. They worry that a simple comment or gesture could be misinterpreted. "It's creating a sense of walking on eggshells," one Morgan Stanley executive said. ..."
"... All these extreme strategies being adopted by men to avoid falling victim to an unjust #MeToo scandal are creating a kind of "gender segregation" on Wall Street, the reporters say. ..."
"... "If men avoid working or traveling with women alone, or stop mentoring women for fear of being accused of sexual harassment, those men are going to back out of a sexual harassment complaint and right into a sex discrimination complaint," ..."
Dec 09, 2018 | www.rt.com
The #MeToo movement was supposed to make life easier for women in the workplace. It was all about respect and making real abusers pay a price for their behavior. But is it possible to have too much of a good thing?
One of the aims of the movement was to force a change in the conduct of men who said and did sexually inappropriate things in the workplace -- a concept which few people could quibble with. A year on from its beginnings, however, it seems the movement has morphed into something else entirely -- and ironically, it's hurting both men and women.
The 'Pence Effect' and 'gender segregation'
The #MeToo movement has taken down men across a wide spectrum of industries -- but so far, Wall Street has avoided a huge public scandal -- despite its reputation for being, well, a fairly sexist and male-oriented environment. So why has it escaped the #MeToo spotlight?
Two female reporters for Bloomberg interviewed 30 Wall Street executives and found that while it's true that women might be afraid to speak up for fear of losing their careers, men are also so afraid of being falsely accused that they won't even have dinner, or even one-to-one business meetings with a female colleague. They worry that a simple comment or gesture could be misinterpreted. "It's creating a sense of walking on eggshells," one Morgan Stanley executive said.Bloomberg dubbed the phenomenon the 'Pence Effect' after the US vice president who previously admitted that he would never dine alone with any woman other than his wife. British actor Taron Egerton recently also said he now avoided being alone with women for fear of finding himself in #MeToo's crosshairs.
I remember when a woman I was friendly/kind with perceived me as someone who wanted "more." She wrote me a message about how she was uncomfortable. I'm gay. https://t.co/7z0X7Dwzkp
-- Andy C. Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) December 4, 2018All these extreme strategies being adopted by men to avoid falling victim to an unjust #MeToo scandal are creating a kind of "gender segregation" on Wall Street, the reporters say.
Hurting women's progress?
The most ironic outcome of a movement that was supposed to be about women's empowerment is that now, even hiring a woman on Wall Street has become an "unknown risk," according to one wealth advisor, who said there is always a concern that a woman might take something said to her in the wrong way.
With men occupying the most senior positions on Wall Street, women need male mentors who can teach them the ropes and help them advance their careers, but what happens when men are afraid to play that role with their younger female colleagues? The unintended consequence of the #MeToo movement on Wall Street could be the stifling of women's progress and a sanitization of the workplace to the point of not even being able to have a private meeting with the door closed.
Another irony is that while men may think they are avoiding one type of scandal, could find themselves facing another: Discrimination complaints.
"A Wall Street rule for the #MeToo era: Avoid women at all cost." https://t.co/TCGk9UzT4R "Secular sharia" has arrived, as I predicted here: https://t.co/TTrWY6ML34 pic.twitter.com/YpEz78iamJ
-- Niall Ferguson (@nfergus) December 3, 2018"If men avoid working or traveling with women alone, or stop mentoring women for fear of being accused of sexual harassment, those men are going to back out of a sexual harassment complaint and right into a sex discrimination complaint," Stephen Zweig, an employment attorney with FordHarrison told Bloomberg.
Not all men are responding to the #MeToo movement by fearfully cutting themselves off from women, however. "Just try not to be an asshole," one said, while another added: "It's really not that hard."
It might not be that simple, however. It seems there is no escape from the grip of the #MeToo movement. One of the movements most recent victims of the viral hashtag movement is not a man, but a song -- the time-honored classic 'Baby It's Cold Outside' -- which is being banished from American radio stations because it has a "rapey" vibe.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
[Apr 01, 2020] This is the problem with the Democrats: people are more interested in class issues, and economic equality then identity politics by Rod Dreher
Notable quotes:
"... This is the problem with the Democrats. You might be interested in class issues, and economic equality, and not at all interested in wokeness. But what you're going to get is wokeness, because that is what the power-holding class in the Democratic Party really cares about. As James Lindsay, the left-liberal professor who does heroic work fighting wokeness, told me in our recent interview: ..."
"... Of course [Social Justice Warriors] going to find ways to use this crisis to their advantage. They go around inventing problems or dramatically exaggerating or misinterpreting small problems to push their agenda; why wouldn't they do the same in a situation where there's so much chaos and thus so much going wrong. My experience so far is that people are really underestimating how much of this there will be and how much of it will be institutionalized while we're busy doing other things like tending to the sick and dying and trying not to lose our livelihoods and/or join them ourselves. ..."
"... It's very important to understand that "Critical Social Justice" isn't just activism and some academic theories about things. It's a way of thinking about the world, and that way is rooted in critical theory as it has been applied mostly to identity groups and identity politics ..."
Mar 31, 2020 | The American Conservative
George Scialabba has a wonderful essay about Orwell in Commonweal . Though Scialabba writes in it about Orwell's criticism of the right, this passage jumped out:Might Orwell's sensitive nose have detected a whiff of cant anywhere on the contemporary left? I suspect he would have cast a baleful eye on identity politics. He would, I think, be dubious about "diversity." Why do every college and corporation in America have a fleet of "diversity" officers? What is gained by ensuring -- at enormous expense -- that every student or employee is proud of his/her culture and that every other student or employee respects it? According to Walter Benn Michaels in The Trouble with Diversity, what is gained is the avoidance of class conflict. "The commitment to diversity is at best a distraction and at worst an essentially reactionary position . We would much rather celebrate cultural diversity than seek to establish economic equality."
Orwell was moderately obsessed with class. He would probably have noted that the explosive growth of inequality in the United States over the past four decades has closely paralleled the explosive growth of the diversity industry, and would have drawn some conclusions. He might have asked: If there were two societies with the same Gini coefficient, but in one of them, the proportion of billionaires by race and gender matched that of the general population, would that society be morally better than the other? Or: If the ratio of CEO to median employee earnings was the same in two societies, but in one of them the proportion of CEOs by race and gender matched that of the general population, would that society be morally better than the other? I'm pretty sure that most diversity bureaucrats would answer "yes" to both questions, and that Orwell would have answered "no."
Orwell was fearless, so a tribute to him shouldn't pull any punches. I think he would suggest that there was something irrational about the way we enforce our most sensitive taboo: the N-word. From the wholesale banning of Huckleberry Finn to the many times teachers and civil servants have been censured, and in one case fired, for using the word "niggardly" (which has no etymological relation to the N-word) to the resignation under pressure recently of a Cambridge, Massachusetts, school committeewoman for using the N-word in a discussion of a proposed high-school course about the N-word, we have often made fools of ourselves and done disadvantaged African Americans no good. As the school superintendent summarized the Cambridge case: the committeewoman "made a point about racist language and used the full N-word instead of the common substitute, 'N-word.' Although said in the context of a classroom discussion, and not directed to any student or adult present, the full pronunciation of the word was upsetting to a number of students and adults who were present or who have since heard about the incident." No one, however, as far as I am aware, has publicly expressed hurt feelings over the fact that the average net worth of African Americans in the Boston area is $8. (Eight, no zeros.) As Benn Michaels observes: "As long as the left continues to worry about [respect], the right won't have to worry about inequality."
I wrote earlier today about actually existing conservatism being more of a "folk libertarianism" than anything resembling philosophical conservatism. But what about actually existing liberalism?
The surprising triumph of Joe Biden, the most normie Democrat in America, tells us something about actually existing liberalism. Illiberal progressivism dominates in academia, the media, and in corporate America's human resources departments. A reader sends in this abstract from a paper published by a Penn professor at the Ivy League university's Wharton School of Business (Trump's alma mater!) in which she argues that the state should
forbid identity-based discrimination but permit refusals of service for projects that foster hate toward protected groups, even where the hate-based project is intimately linked to a protected characteristic (as with religious groups that mandate white supremacy). Far from perpetuating discrimination, these refusals instead promote anti-discrimination norms, and they help realize the vision of the morally inflected marketplace that the Article defends.
You could say that Biden's (not yet assured) victory in the Democratic primaries shows that actually existing liberalism is much less interested in wokeness than in bread-and-butter issues. After all, the more self-consciously woke candidates in the Democratic race didn't get anywhere. I would like to read it that way. But would Biden actually stand up to any wokeness? After all, this is the man who tweeted:
Let's be clear: Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time. There is no room for compromise when it comes to basic human rights.
-- Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 25, 2020
This is the problem with the Democrats. You might be interested in class issues, and economic equality, and not at all interested in wokeness. But what you're going to get is wokeness, because that is what the power-holding class in the Democratic Party really cares about. As James Lindsay, the left-liberal professor who does heroic work fighting wokeness, told me in our recent interview:
Of course [Social Justice Warriors] going to find ways to use this crisis to their advantage. They go around inventing problems or dramatically exaggerating or misinterpreting small problems to push their agenda; why wouldn't they do the same in a situation where there's so much chaos and thus so much going wrong. My experience so far is that people are really underestimating how much of this there will be and how much of it will be institutionalized while we're busy doing other things like tending to the sick and dying and trying not to lose our livelihoods and/or join them ourselves.
It's very important to understand that "Critical Social Justice" isn't just activism and some academic theories about things. It's a way of thinking about the world, and that way is rooted in critical theory as it has been applied mostly to identity groups and identity politics. Thus, not only do they think about almost nothing except ways that "systemic power" and "dominant groups" are creating all the problems around us, they've more or less forgotten how to think about problems in any other way. The underlying assumption of their Theory–and that's intentionally capitalized because it means a very specific thing–is that the very fabric of society is built out of unjust systemic power dynamics, and it is their job (as "critical theorists") to find those, "make them visible," and then to move on to doing it with the next thing, ideally while teaching other people to do it too. This crisis will be full of opportunities to do that, and they will do it relentlessly. So, it's not so much a matter of them "finding a way" to use this crisis to their advantage as it is that they don't really do anything else.
To be honest, I don't have a lot of confidence in predictions about what valence wokeness (or right-wing culture war themes) will have in this fall's election, given the economic destruction upon us now. I do have confidence, though, that if the left gets into power, this professional class of woke activists will march triumphantly through the institutions of government, and implement their identity-politics utopianism. Do I think that most Democratic voters do, or would, favor that? No, probably not. I imagine they would be voting Democratic primarily to oust Trump, and secondarily because they are more interested in income inequality...
If Orwell were alive today and writing with his superlative critical pen about them, he would struggle to find publication in one of our major liberal journals.
UPDATE: Just now:
I'm sure Critical Social Justice isn't quietly reorganizing things that might matter because of the pandemic Or so I keep being told. https://t.co/LEzvjqbu2B
-- James Lindsay, staying home (@ConceptualJames) March 31, 2020
Rod Dreher is a senior editor at The American Conservative . He has written and edited for the New York Post , The Dallas Morning News , National Review , the South Florida Sun-Sentinel , the Washington Times , and the Baton Rouge Advocate . Rod's commentary has been published in The Wall Street Journal , Commentary , the Weekly Standard , Beliefnet, and Real Simple, among other publications, and he has appeared on NPR, ABC News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and the BBC. He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with his wife Julie and their three children. He has also written four books, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming , Crunchy Cons , How Dante Can Save Your Life , and The Benedict Option
[Mar 12, 2020] Is it because you believe a fake indigenous woman of color is "real" and the real indigenous woman of color in this race is fake?
Mar 12, 2020 | twitter.com
. @DanaPerino I'm not quite sure why you're telling FOX viewers that Elizabeth Warren is the last female candidate in the Dem primary. Is it because you believe a fake indigenous woman of color is "real" and the real indigenous woman of color in this race is fake? pic.twitter.com/VKCxy2JzFe
-- Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) March 3, 2020
[Mar 12, 2020] How 'Bernie Bros' Were Invented, Then Smeared as Sexist, Racist and unAmerican as Borscht by Jonathan Cook
Looks like DNC run a pretty sophisticated smear campaign against Sanders ...
Notable quotes:
"... It really isn't about who the candidates are – hurtful as that may sound to some in our identity-saturated times. It is about what the candidate might try to do once in office. In truth, the very fact that nowadays we are allowed to focus on identity to our heart's content should be warning enough that the establishment is only too keen for us to exhaust our energies in promoting divisions based on those identities ..."
"... The Republican and Democratic leaderships are there to ensure that, before a candidate gets selected to compete in the parties' name, he or she has proven they are power-friendly. Two candidates, each vetted for obedience to power. ..."
Mar 12, 2020 | www.counterpunch.org
The Democratic presidential nomination race is a fascinating case study in how power works – not least, because the Democratic party leaders are visibly contriving to impose one candidate, Joe Biden, as the party's nominee, even as it becomes clear that he is no longer mentally equipped to run a local table tennis club let alone the world's most powerful nation.
Biden's campaign is a reminder that power is indivisible. Donald Trump or Joe Biden for president – it doesn't matter to the power-establishment. An egomaniacal man-child (Trump), representing the billionaires, or an elder suffering rapid neurological degeneration (Biden), representing the billionaires, are equally useful to power. A woman will do too, or a person of colour. The establishment is no longer worried about who stands on stage – so long as that person is not a Bernie Sanders in the US, or a Jeremy Corbyn in the UK.
It really isn't about who the candidates are – hurtful as that may sound to some in our identity-saturated times. It is about what the candidate might try to do once in office. In truth, the very fact that nowadays we are allowed to focus on identity to our heart's content should be warning enough that the establishment is only too keen for us to exhaust our energies in promoting divisions based on those identities. What concerns it far more is that we might overcome those divisions and unify against it, withdrawing our consent from an establishment committed to endless asset-stripping of our societies and the planet.
Neither Biden nor Trump will obstruct the establishment, because they are at its very heart. The Republican and Democratic leaderships are there to ensure that, before a candidate gets selected to compete in the parties' name, he or she has proven they are power-friendly. Two candidates, each vetted for obedience to power.
Although a pretty face or a way with words are desirable, incapacity and incompetence are no barrier to qualifying, as the two white men groomed by their respective parties demonstrate. Both have proved they will favour the establishment, both will pursue near-enough the same policies , both are committed to the status quo, both have demonstrated their indifference to the future of life on Earth. What separates the candidates is not real substance, but presentation styles – the creation of the appearance of difference, of choice.
Policing the debate
The subtle dynamics of how the Democratic nomination race is being rigged are interesting. Especially revealing are the ways the Democratic leadership protects establishment power by policing the terms of debate: what can be said, and what can be thought; who gets to speak and whose voices are misrepresented or demonised. Manipulation of language is key.
As I pointed out in my previous post , the establishment's power derives from its invisibility. Scrutiny is kryptonite to power.
The only way we can interrogate power is through language, and the only way we can communicate our conclusions to others is through words – as I am doing right now. And therefore our strength – our ability to awaken ourselves from the trance of power – must be subverted by the establishment, transformed into our Achilles' heel, a weakness.
The treatment of Bernie Sanders and his supporters by the Democratic establishment – and those who eagerly repeat its talking points – neatly illustrates how this can be done in manifold ways.
Remember this all started back in 2016, when Sanders committed the unforgivable sin of challenging the Democratic leadership's right simply to anoint Hillary Clinton as the party's presidential candidate. In those days, the fault line was obvious and neat: Bernie was a man, Clinton a woman. She would be the first woman president. The only party members who might wish to deny her that historic moment, and back Sanders instead, had to be misogynist men. They were supposedly venting their anti-women grudge against Clinton, who in turn was presented to women as a symbol of their oppression by men.
And so was born a meme: the "Bernie Bros". It rapidly became shorthand for suggesting – contrary to all evidence – that Sanders' candidacy appealed chiefly to angry, entitled white men. In fact, as Sanders' 2020 run has amply demonstrated, support for him has been more diverse than for the many other Democratic candidates who sought the nomination.
So important what @ewarren is saying to @maddow about the dangerous, threatening, ugly faction among the Bernie supporters. Sanders either cannot or will not control them. pic.twitter.com/LYDXlLJ7bi
-- Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow) March 6, 2020
How contrived the 2016 identity-fuelled contest was should have been clear, had anyone been allowed to point that fact out. This wasn't really about the Democratic leadership respecting Clinton's identity as a woman. It was about them paying lip service to her identity as a woman, while actually promoting her because she was a reliable warmonger and Wall Street functionary . She was useful to power.
If the debate had really been driven by identity politics, Sanders had a winning card too: he is Jewish. That meant he could be the United States' first Jewish president. In a fair identity fight, it would have been a draw between the two. The decision about who should represent the Democratic party would then have had to be decided based on policies, not identity. But party leaders did not want Clinton's actual policies, or her political history, being put under the microscope for very obvious reasons.
Weaponisation of identity
The weaponisation of identity politics is even more transparent in 2020. Sanders is still Jewish, but his main opponent, Joe Biden, really is simply a privileged white man. Were the Clinton format to be followed again by Democratic officials, Sanders would enjoy an identity politics trump card. And yet Sanders is still being presented as just another white male candidate , no different from Biden.
(We could take this argument even further and note that the other candidate who no one, least of all the Democratic leadership, ever mentions as still in the race is Tulsi Gabbard, a woman of colour. The Democratic party has worked hard to make her as invisible as possible in the primaries because, of all the candidates, she is the most vocal and articulate opponent of foreign wars. That has deprived her of the chance to raise funds and win delegates.)
. @DanaPerino I'm not quite sure why you're telling FOX viewers that Elizabeth Warren is the last female candidate in the Dem primary. Is it because you believe a fake indigenous woman of color is "real" and the real indigenous woman of color in this race is fake? pic.twitter.com/VKCxy2JzFe
-- Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) March 3, 2020
Sanders' Jewish identity isn't celebrated because he isn't useful to the power-establishment. What's far more important to them – and should be to us too – are his policies, which might limit their power to wage war, exploit workers and trash the planet.
But it is not just that Democratic Party leaders are ignoring Sanders' Jewish identity. They are also again actively using identity politics against him, and in many different ways.
The 'black' establishment?
Bernie Sanders' supporters have been complaining for some time – based on mounting evidence – that the Democratic leadership is far from neutral between Sanders and Biden. Because it has a vested interest in the outcome, and because it is the part of the power-establishment, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is exercising its influence in favour of Biden. And because power prefers darkness, the DNC is doing its best to exercise that power behind the scenes, out of sight – at least, unseen by those who still rely on the "mainstream" corporate media, which is also part of the power-establishment. As should be clear to anyone watching, the nomination proceedings are being controlled to give Biden every advantage and to obstruct Sanders.
But the Democratic leadership is not only dismissing out of hand these very justified complaints from Bernie Sanders' supporters but also turning these complaints against them, as further evidence of their – and his – illegitimacy. A new way of doing this emerged in the immediate wake of Biden winning South Carolina on the back of strong support from older black voters – Biden's first state win and a launchpad for his Super Tuesday bid a few days later.
It was given perfect expression from Symone Sanders, who despite her surname is actually a senior adviser to Biden's campaign. She is also black. This is what she wrote: "People who keep referring to Black voters as 'the establishment' are tone deaf and have obviously learned nothing."
People who keep referring to Black voters as "the establishment" are tone deaf and have obviously learned nothing.
-- Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) March 3, 2020
Her reference to generic "people" was understood precisely by both sides of the debate as code for those "Bernie Bros". Now, it seems, Bernie Sanders' supporters are not simply misogynists, they are potential recruits to the Ku Klux Klan.
The tweet went viral, even though in the fiercely contested back-and-forth below her tweet no one could produce a single example of anyone actually saying anything like the sentiment ascribed by Symone Sanders to "Bernie Bros". But then, tackling bigotry was not her real goal. This wasn't meant to be a reflection on a real-world talking-point by Bernie supporters. It was high-level gaslighting by a senior Democratic party official of the party's own voters.
Survival of the fittest smear
What Symone Sanders was really trying to do was conceal power – the fact that the DNC is seeking to impose its chosen candidate on party members. As occurred during the confected women-men, Clinton vs "Bernie Bros" confrontation, Symone Sanders was field-testing a similar narrative management tool as part of the establishment's efforts to hone it for improved effect. The establishment has learnt – through a kind of survival of the fittest smear – that divide-and-rule identity politics is the perfect way to shield its influence as it favours a status-quo candidate (Biden or Clinton) over a candidate seen as a threat to its power (Sanders).
In her tweet, Symone Sanders showed exactly how the power elite seeks to obscure its toxic role in our societies. She neatly conflated "the establishment" – of which she is a very small, but well-paid component – with ordinary "black voters". Her message is this: should you try to criticise the establishment (which has inordinate power to damage lives and destroy the planet) we will demonise you, making it seem that you are really attacking black people (who in the vast majority of cases – though Symone Sanders is a notable exception – wield no power at all).
Symone Sanders has recruited her own blackness and South Carolina's "black voters" as a ring of steel to protect the establishment. Cynically, she has turned poor black people, as well as the tens of thousands of people (presumably black and white) who liked her tweet, into human shields for the establishment.
It sounds a lot uglier put like that. But it has rapidly become a Biden talking-point, as we can see here:
NEW: @JoeBiden responds to @berniesanders saying the "establishment" is trying to defeat him.
"The establishment are all those hardworking, middle class people, those African Americans they are the establishment!" @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/43Q2Nci5sS
-- Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) March 4, 2020
The DNC's wider strategy is to confer on Biden exclusive rights to speak for black voters (despite his inglorious record on civil rights issues) and, further, to strip Sanders and his senior black advisers of any right to do so. When Sanders protests about this, or about racist behaviour from the Biden camp, Biden's supporters come out in force and often abusively, though of course no one is upbraiding them for their ugly, violent language. Here is the famous former tennis player Martina Navratilova showing that maybe we should be talking about "Biden Bros":
Sanders is starting to really piss me off. Just shut this kind of crap down and debate the issues. This is not it.
-- Martina Navratilova (@Martina) March 6, 2020
Being unkind to billionaires
This kind of special pleading by the establishment for the establishment – using those sections of it, such as Symone Sanders, that can tap into the identity politics zeitgeist – is far more common than you might imagine. The approach is being constantly refined, often using social media as the ultimate focus group. Symone Sanders' successful conflation of the establishment with "black voters" follows earlier, clumsier efforts by the establishment to protect its interests against Sanders that proved far less effective.
Billionaires should not exist. https://t.co/hgR6CeFvLa
-- Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 24, 2019
Remember how last autumn the billionaire-owned corporate media tried to tell us that it was unkind to criticise billionaires – that they had feelings too and that speaking harshly about them was "dehumanising". Again it was aimed at Sanders, who had just commented that in a properly ordered world billionaires simply wouldn't exist. It was an obvious point: allowing a handful of people to control almost all the planet's wealth was not only depriving the rest of us of that wealth (and harming the planet) but it gave those few billionaires way too much power. They could buy all the media, our channels of communication, and most of the politicians to ringfence their financial interests, gradually eroding even the most minimal democratic protections.
That campaign died a quick death because few of us are actually brainwashed enough to accept the idea that a handful of billionaires share an identity that needs protecting – from us! Most of us are still connected enough to the real world to understand that billionaires are more than capable of looking out for their own interests, without our helping them by imposing on ourselves a vow of silence.
But one cannot fault the power-establishment for being constantly inventive in the search for new ways to stifle our criticisms of the way it unilaterally exercises its power. The Democratic nomination race is testing such ingenuity to the limits. Here's a new rule against "hateful conduct" on Twitter, where Biden's neurological deficit is being subjected to much critical scrutiny through the sharing of dozens of videos of embarrassing Biden "senior moments".
Twitter expanding its hateful conduct rules "to include language that dehumanizes on the basis of age, disability or disease." https://t.co/KmWGaNAG9Z
-- Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) March 5, 2020
Yes, disability and age are identities too. And so, on the pretext of protecting and respecting those identities, social media can now be scrubbed of anything and anyone trying to highlight the mental deficiencies of an old man who might soon be given the nuclear codes and would be responsible for waging wars in the name of Americans. Twitter is full of comments denouncing as "ableist" anyone who tries to highlight how the Democratic leadership is foisting a cognitively challenged Biden on to the party.
Maybe the Dem insiders are all wrong, but it's true that they are saying it. Some are saying it out loud, including Castro at the debate and Booker here: https://t.co/0lbi7RFRqG
-- Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) March 6, 2020
Russian 'agents' and 'assets'
None of this is to overlook the fact that another variation of identity politics has been weaponised against Sanders: that of failing to be an "American" patriot. Again illustrating how closely the Democratic and Republican leaderships' interests align, the question of who is a patriot – and who is really working for the "Russians" – has been at the heart of both parties' campaigns, though for different reasons.
Trump has been subjected to endless, evidence-free claims that he is a secret "Russian agent" in a concerted effort to control his original isolationist foreign policy impulses that might have stripped the establishment – and its military-industrial wing – of the right to wage wars of aggression, and revive the Cold War, wherever it believes a profit can be made under cover of "humanitarian intervention". Trump partly inoculated himself against these criticisms, at least among supporters, with his "Make America Great Again" slogan, and partly by learning – painfully for such an egotist – that his presidential role was to rubber-stamp decisions made elsewhere about waging wars and projecting US power.
I'm just amazed by this tweet, which has been tweeted plenty. Did @_nalexander and all the people liking this not know that Mueller laid out in the indictments of a number of Russians and in his report their help on social media to Sanders and Trump. Help Sanders has acknowledged https://t.co/vuc0lmvvKP
-- Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) December 8, 2019
Bernie Sanders has faced similar smear efforts by the establishment, including by the DNC's last failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton – in his case, painting him as a "Russian asset". ("Asset" is a way to suggest collusion with the Kremlin based on even more flimsy evidence than is needed to accuse someone of being an agent.) In fact, in a world where identity politics wasn't simply a tool to be weaponised by the establishment, there would be real trepidation about engaging in this kind of invective against a Jewish socialist.
One of the far-right's favourite antisemitic tropes – promoted ever since the publication of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion more than 100 years ago – is that Jewish "Bolsheviks" are involved in an international conspiracy to subvert the countries they live in. We have reached the point now that the corporate media are happy to recycle evidence-free claims, cited by the Washington Post, from anonymous "US officials" and US intelligence agencies reinventing a US version of the Protocols against Sanders. And these smears have elicited not a word of criticism from the Democratic leadership nor from the usual antisemitism watchdogs that are so ready to let rip over the slightest signs of what they claim to be antisemitism on the left.
But the urgency of dealing with Sanders may be the reason normal conventions have been discarded. Sanders isn't a loud-mouth egotist like Trump. A vote for Trump is a vote for the establishment, if for one of its number who pretends to be against the establishment. Trump has been largely tamed in time for a second term. By contrast, Sanders, like Corbyn in the UK, is more dangerous because he may resist the efforts to domesticate him, and because if he is allowed any significant measure of political success – such as becoming a candidate for president – it may inspire others to follow in his footsteps. The system might start to throw up more anomalies, more AOCs and more Ilhan Omars.
So Sanders is now being cast, like Trump, as a puppet of the Kremlin, not a true American. And because he made the serious mistake of indulging the "Russiagate" smears when they were used against Trump, Sanders now has little defence against their redeployment against him. And given that, by the impoverished standards of US political culture, he is considered an extreme leftist, it has been easy to conflate his democratic socialism with Communism, and then conflate his supposed Communism with acting on behalf of the Kremlin (which, of course, ignores the fact that Russia long ago abandoned Communism).
Sen. Bernie Sanders: "Let me tell this to Putin -- the American people, whether Republicans, Democrats, independents are sick and tired of seeing Russia and other countries interfering in our elections." pic.twitter.com/ejcP7YVFlt
-- The Hill (@thehill) February 21, 2020
Antisemitism smear at the ready
There is a final use of weaponised identity politics that the Democratic establishment would dearly love to use against Sanders, if they need to and can get away with it. It is the most toxic brand – and therefore the most effective – of the identity-based smears, and it has been extensively field-tested in the UK against Jeremy Corbyn to great success. The DNC would like to denounce Sanders as an antisemite.
In fact, only one thing has held them back till now: the fact that Sanders is Jewish. That may not prove an insuperable obstacle, but it does make it much harder to make the accusation look credible. The other identity-based smears had been a second-best, a make-do until a way could be found to unleash the antisemitism smear.
The establishment has been testing the waters with implied accusations of antisemitism against Sanders for a while, but their chances were given a fillip recently when Sanders refused to participate in the annual jamboree of AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent lobby group whose primary mission is to ringfence Israel from criticism in the US. Both the Republican and Democratic establishments turn out in force to the AIPAC conference, and in the past the event has attracted keynote speeches from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
But Sanders has refused to attend for decades and maintained that stance this month, even though he is a candidate for the Democratic nomination. In the last primaries debate, Sanders justified his decision by rightly calling Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "racist" and by describing AIPAC as providing a platform "for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights".
Trump's Vice-President, Mike Pence, responded that Sanders supported "Israel's enemies" and, if elected, would be the "most anti-Israel president in the history of this nation" – all coded suggestions that Sanders is antisemitic.
But that's Mike Pence. More useful criticism came from billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who is himself Jewish and was until last week posing as a Democrat to try to win the party's nomination. Bloomberg accused Sanders of using dehumanising language against a bunch of inclusive identities that, he improbably suggested, AIPAC represents. He claimed :
"This is a gathering of 20,000 Israel supporters of every religious denomination, ethnicity, faith, color, sexual identity and political party. Calling it a racist platform is an attempt to discredit those voices, intimidate people from coming here, and weaken the US-Israel relationship."
Where might this head? At the AIPAC conference last week we were given a foretaste. Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi of the UK and a friend to Conservative government leader Boris Johnson, was warmly greeted by delegates, including leading members of the Democratic establishment. He boasted that he and other Jewish leaders in the UK had managed to damage Jeremy Corbyn's electoral chances by suggesting that he was an antisemite over his support, like Sanders, for Palestinian rights.
His own treatment of Corbyn, he argued, offered a model for US Jewish organisations to replicate against any leadership contender who might pose similar trouble for Israel, leaving it for his audience to pick up the not-so-subtle hint about who needed to be subjected to character assassination.
WATCH: "Today I issue a call to the Jews of America, please take a leaf out of our book and please speak with one voice."
The Chief Rabbi speaking to the 18,000 delegates gathered at the @AIPAC General Session at their Policy Conference in Washington DC pic.twitter.com/BOkan9RA2O
-- Chief Rabbi Mirvis (@chiefrabbi) March 3, 2020
Establishment playbook
For anyone who isn't wilfully blind, the last few months have exposed the establishment playbook: it will use identity politics to divide those who might otherwise find a united voice and a common cause.
There is nothing wrong with celebrating one's identity, especially if it is under threat, maligned or marginalised. But having an attachment to an identity is no excuse for allowing it to be coopted by billionaires, by the powerful, by nuclear-armed states oppressing other people, by political parties or by the corporate media, so that they can weaponise it to prevent the weak, the poor, the marginalised from being represented.
It is time for us to wake up to the tricks, the deceptions, the manipulations of the strong that exploit our weaknesses – and make us yet weaker still. It's time to stop being a patsy for the establishment. Join the debate on Facebook More articles by: Jonathan Cook
Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are " Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East" (Pluto Press) and " Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair " (Zed Books). His website is http://www.jonathan-cook.net/
[Mar 04, 2020] Trump Slams 'SPOILER' Elizabeth Warren For Sinking Sanders
A pretty sharp political thinking from the President
Mar 04, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
The Democrat establishment came together and crushed Bernie Sanders, AGAIN! Even the fact that Elizabeth Warren stayed in the race was devastating to Bernie and allowed Sleepy Joe to unthinkably win Massachusetts. It was a perfect storm, with many good states remaining for Joe!
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 202020 minutes later, Trump tweeted that it was " So selfish for Elizabeth Warren to stay in the race ," as she has "Zero chance of even coming close to winning, but hurts Bernie badly."
"So much for their wonderful liberal friendship. Will he ever speak to her again? She cost him Massachusetts (and came in third), he shouldn't!"
So selfish for Elizabeth Warren to stay in the race. She has Zero chance of even coming close to winning, but hurts Bernie badly. So much for their wonderful liberal friendship. Will he ever speak to her again? She cost him Massachusetts (and came in third), he shouldn't!
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2020Three hours later, Trump tweeted: " Wow! If Elizabeth Warren wasn't in the race, Bernie Sanders would have EASILY won Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas , not to mention various other states. Our modern day Pocahontas won't go down in history as a winner, but she may very well go down as the all time great SPOILER! "
Wow! If Elizabeth Warren wasn't in the race, Bernie Sanders would have EASILY won Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas, not to mention various other states. Our modern day Pocahontas won't go down in history as a winner, but she may very well go down as the all time great SPOILER!
-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2020
[Feb 29, 2020] Maternity Leave Where s the #MomsToo Movement by James Jeffrey
Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... Democrats want to pass (and have introduced) programs like subsidized day care, parental leave, and universal health care. If you're not hearing them address this, you're not listening. And anything they try to pass through Congress would be immediately shot down by the GOP. ..."
Dec 23, 2019 | theamericanconservative.com
Feminists need to rout some of their commendable passion into making sure that American mothers are cared for.Whatever one thinks about the roar of noise that is the #MeToo movement, it’s proved damned effective at galvanizing action and debate.
It’s also demonstrated how the world has grown more willing to do something about sexist and misogynistic injustices—ranging from minor everyday ones to graver ones entrenched over a lifetime—that women have endured for centuries.
In which case: why the barely audible squeaks about maternity leave for America’s moms?
In my native UK, contractually employed mums (our brave versions of your brave moms) are entitled to up to 52 weeks of maternity leave, 39 weeks of which is paid. That’s left me continually stunned at how this issue is so rarely touched on in America during these supposedly progressive and enlightened times.
The United States remains the only country in the developed world that does not mandate paid maternity leave. All that’s on the books is the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, which requires 12 weeks of unpaid leave annually for mothers of newborn or newly adopted children. And that’s only if they’ve been working in their jobs for a year and their employers have more than 50 employees within 75 miles of where they work.
The downright pernickety-ness and stinginess of it all is only further exacerbated by the fact that if your spouse works at the same company that you do, your employer can divide the 12-week total between the two of you.
Such splitting of hairs seems almost designed to pummel the morale of first-time or once-again mothers (as well as bleary-eyed fathers). Yet very little has been said—and even less done—to improve matters since 1993. Not by politicians, not by public figures, and, most tellingly for this article, not by feminists, even though the issue is a source of anxiety and woe for so many women. All these sleep-deprived new moms, their bodies and hormones in chaos, their emotions rollercoastering, dragging themselves back to the office.
Seven in 10 moms with kids younger than 18 were in the labor force in 2015, up from 47 percent in 1975, according to the Pew Research Center, which also found that mothers are the primary breadwinners in four in 10 American families.
Given such stats and the miserable implications for families at such a challenging period in women’s lives, it’s odd to observe what battles are not being fought by those feminists who claim to speak for all women, especially right now, when their voices seem to be so effective. Admittedly several states have their own laws that offer partially paid maternity leave. And some employers do offer paid leave of their own volition. But the fact is that, because FMLA is all there is, many women must return to work after those 12 weeks are up.
So why not make more noise about #MomsToo, especially considering that #MeToo surely has some volume to spare?
I put that question to a single mom who works in women’s counseling, child assault protection, and the prevention of intimate partner violence—suffice to say, she is well steeped in matters of men not stepping up or doing far worse. She countered that the #MeToo movement is not just about sexual harassment; it’s about the general way that men and society view women. This in turn, she explained, affects lots of other issues, including maternity leave, though she said that more pressing for her are the terrible maternal mortality rates across the United States. In short, she says, the #MeToo tide is looking to raise all manner of boats skippered by and sheltering long-suffering women.
I’d struggle to argue with any of that. At the same time, though, any worthy movement can become a bandwagon. And I suspect the lack of #MomsToo attention has to do with some #MeToo supporters wanting to look edgy and on trend on social media, which can’t usually be achieved by discussing the dull and antiquated institution of motherhood. Selfless devotion and sacrifice to a little screaming brat who might not even live out the all but guaranteed extinction of the world? Please, girl.
I recently came across a book aimed at new moms that purported to explore the “brilliant, terrible, wonderful, confusing realities of first-time motherhood.” Going off what I have seen of motherhood and speaking to new moms—my sister included, who has had four kids, and does not hold back from offering candid assessments—that description seems apt. It captures the wild spectrum of maternal experiences, which range from utter joy to utter nightmare, with an enormous amount in between.
Yet despite all that, American society keeps its arms folded when it comes to cutting moms some slack regarding their so-called duties to their employers, with barely anything suggested about a duty of care due the other way.
Even more concerning is how the poor state of maternity leave is part of a much larger and more troubling dynamic, one that, once again, the feminists could do more to consider and confront.
The New York Times comes in for a fair amount of criticism these days for its on-trend topics and attempts to appear woke. But full credit to it for running in last weekend’s Sunday paper a devastatingly humane and thought-provoking article—the kind that seems an endangered species—addressing declining birth rates in the developed world.
While acknowledging that the downward trend typically accompanies the spread of economic development that brings benefits to women, it still delved into the nuances of how that trend also reflects a “profound failure: of employers and governments to make parenting and work compatible” due to “the glaring absence of family-friendly policies in the U.S.”
This, the article’s author, Anna Louie Sussman, argues, is the result of the bigger picture that society is missing—and that much talk of feminist empowerment misses too—whereby the current version of global capitalism is generating “social conditions inimical to starting families.”
I think both sexes are being sold a lot of hokum in the name of self-realization, taking back control, and so on. And that peddling is being done in the name of the overarching lord of us all: The Economy.
Sussman aptly addresses this, describing “a secular world in which a capitalist ethos–extract, optimize, earn, achieve, grow—prevails,” while “a lifetime of messaging directs us” towards an “engaging career, esoteric hobbies, exotic holidays.” The result, she says, is the “promise and pressure of seemingly limitless freedom, which can combine to make children an after-thought, or an unwelcome intrusion on a life that offers rewards and satisfactions of another kind.”
This crisis in reproduction, Sussman argues, is compounded by the fact that so many people who are thinking of having a child are wrestling with—and often giving up in the face of—well-grounded anxieties ranging from the increasing financial burdens of child rearing to bringing children into a world wrought by environmental degradation.
Hence Sussman’s conclusion that improvements such as paid parental leave are “only a partial fix for our current crisis, a handful of crumbs when our bodies and souls require a nourishing meal.”
As I’ve previously noted, men undoubtedly still play a role in women-centric issues, and hence have a right to participate in important discussions that ultimately affect all of us.
Some feminists might disagree with that. But rather than calling out men for interfering, how about instead directing some of that commendable passion into achieving important change? How about highlighting those more neglected issues such as maternity leave that remain stubbornly entrenched amid the broader hypocrisies of a supposedly caring society that leaves so many mothers in the lurch?
James Jeffrey is a freelance journalist who splits his time between the U.S., the UK, and further afield, and writes for various international media. Follow him on Twitter @jrfjeffrey .
Zgler • 8 hours ago
Stingy maternity leave policies are driven by libertarian principles. The principal, driven by corporate donors, is that government shall interfere with corporatism as little as possible. The other side of the lobby against maternity leave are conservatives who don't believe women should be working at all while their children are in younger than high-school age. By the way, aren't men parents too? Surely men should be on board with better maternity leave if they believe in family.tz1 • 7 hours agoWhy is AmConMag going beyond National Review in its series of articles "The Conservative Case for rabid Socialism"Rousseau • 7 hours agoThis is both socialism and gender feminism. Or maybe because it isn't the government but "employers" enslaved by the government, it is economic fascism?
Moms belong at home with their children over their entire childhood, and do they get another year of Maternity leave if they get pregnant again within a few months of birth? Who pays for this? Maybe it is why we are sending jobs to Mexico and China because they not merely do it cheaper, they don't have things like this that make employers into playing an inverse lottery. Hire a mother to be, get stuck with a huge bill? But we've already wanted to lower wages so you need a two-income household, and how WILL those women ever pay off their student loan debt?
You are extremely charitable with OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY. How about YOU supporting YOUR wife (and children)? If Women decide they want to spend their 20's with college degrees, six figure debt, and careers, they shouldn't be mothers.
Instead, if you insist, why not do a "Child Support" on steroids and make the FATHER - even and especially if he is married to the woman - pay for the leave and kid?
If paid maternity leave is so important, why don't conservatives lead? Oh, I forget conservatives don't care about maternity leave because it would be a burden on businesses. Republicans (economic liberals) don't want any burdens on businesses. This isn't complicated. Come on, why even write about this?cka2nd • 7 hours agoUm, see https://www.theguardian.com...Jen • 7 hours agoDemocrats want to pass (and have introduced) programs like subsidized day care, parental leave, and universal health care. If you're not hearing them address this, you're not listening. And anything they try to pass through Congress would be immediately shot down by the GOP.Ken T • 6 hours agoIn addition, there are numerous political advocacy groups, one example being Moms Rising ( https://www.momsrising.org/... .
And states are coming up with their own paid family leave plans due to the failure of the federal government to come up with a plan (WA state, for example).
What bubble are you in that you don't hear about these things?
Barry_D • 4 hours agowhy the barely audible squeaks about maternity leave for America's moms?One wonders what you have been listening to, since the fight for paid family leave has been one of the most consistent, ongoing issues of the US left for decades. And yes, that includes pretty much every "MeToo" activist. Of course, maybe you've just missed it since we describe it as "family leave" that can be used by either or both parents; rather than your patronizing "maternity leave for America's moms" framing.
One might well ask where the family values people are.
[Feb 07, 2020] The corporate mass media excels at manufacturing "real fear or anguish".
Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... "...real fear or anguish..." in fact only exist in people's heads. Identity politics poisoned neolibs like to externalize these sensations as being tangible features of the physical (non-metaphysical and non-imaginary) world. They are not. ..."
"... The corporate mass media exists solely to manufacture megatrends in society. Whether that is to manufacture mass cravings for a particular color and artificial flavor of carbonated corn syrup water or to manufacture the "real fear or anguish" that we are threatened by scary "others" to get the herd to crowd around symbols of security, the overall purpose is the same: Serve the interests of the big business elites. ..."
Jul 22, 2019 | www.moonofalabama.org
William Gruff , Jul 22 2019 14:14 utc | 148
"...real fear or anguish..." in fact only exist in people's heads. Identity politics poisoned neolibs like to externalize these sensations as being tangible features of the physical (non-metaphysical and non-imaginary) world. They are not.More topically, the corporate mass media excels at manufacturing "real fear or anguish" . The farce taking place in HK is a perfect example of this, but we can see similar examples elsewhere like Venezuela where well-fed upper middle class Venezuelans are convinced beyond reason that Venezuelans (others that they don't know) are starving, or like in Ukraine where western Ukrainians were certain in their anguish that eastern Ukrainians were being killed by Russians. Many Americans are still experiencing very "real fear or anguish" that Russians are wrecking their sham "Democracy™" . As real as this may seem to the delusional and hysterical, it is still delusion and hysteria.
The corporate mass media exists solely to manufacture megatrends in society. Whether that is to manufacture mass cravings for a particular color and artificial flavor of carbonated corn syrup water or to manufacture the "real fear or anguish" that we are threatened by scary "others" to get the herd to crowd around symbols of security, the overall purpose is the same: Serve the interests of the big business elites.
[Jan 20, 2020] Identity Politics Nihilism, Ego Distraction by Andre Vltchek
Notable quotes:
"... Such focus is totally fragmenting Western societies. It leads to extreme individualism and dark nihilism. What should stay behind closed doors is being brought out to the center of attention. ..."
"... And the Empire knows it, and precisely for that reason, it does everything possible to elevate sex and sexuality into something tremendously important, glorified, as well as untouchable. Terms and definitions then get confused: centering people's identity around their genitals, gets defined as "their identity". Their struggle for sexual rights is now being defined as "progressive", even, bizarrely as left-wing. ..."
"... Gender changing surgery is now obviously a much more important topic in the UK and the US, than whether Western imperialism should be stopped, once and forever. ..."
"... This is not a push for tolerance, this is an Orwellian attempt to control perception of reality and also to control language. If a man declares himself to be a woman, then you MUST perceive him as a woman, and you must change your language to conform with his self-identity. ..."
"... This is a bold attempt at societal management. It has led to great splits in leftist movements, as people who prefer to remain reality-based, and who base their politics on material reality, instead of ephemeral idealism, consisting of "feelings inside", are being attacked, threatened, de-platformed and harassed by those who have adopted their master's agenda. ..."
"... Having mobs of young people, schooled in queer politics instead of class politics, who attack older activists who still understand that it is the material world which determines reality, not thoughts, prayers and internal feelings, is a very effective way of shutting down any principled resistance to the Empire's imperialism and to the destruction of the planet by unfettered capitalism. ..."
"... The CIA, from its very beginning, has been deeply influenced by the group psychology/mass manipulation theories of Sigmund Freud's nephew Edward Bernays, who worked for the agency after the war. ..."
"... Personally I think it is a last resort for a dying empire that has lost any credibility ..."
"... Globo Homo (aggressive, politicised, strident homosexuality; aggressive premature sexualisation and indoctrination of children enforced by law, and outright paedophilia; aggressive promotion of transgender dysphoria; bestiality and incest, together with the virulent denigration of normal healthy family life) is a symptom of an irredeemably degenerate and very sick society on the verge of total collapse. ..."
"... The same is true of the Great Global Warming Hoax, with Soros- and Wall Street-funded Little Greta astroturfing her way across the planet, so that Green Eco Warriors like Mark Carney can raid the pensions and transfer trillions upwards into the pockets of the 0.1%. ..."
"... The world system of capital is breaking up. Among its signs are multi polar violence, ecological collapse, returning fascism, etc. The system of capital is based on class relations, and class relations underlie all other human relations. Sexual relations are basic to the human condition, regardless of the political economic system. Therefore, as capitalism crumbles all social relations go into flux, including sexual relations. Public hysteria about sex is mainly a sign of a global system breaking down and a new in forming. ..."
"... The aim is to atomise society into a mushrooming number of arcane identity groups, based on race, gender, religion and sexuality. The 57 varieties of gender that are being peddled, with punishment for people who forget to use the right invented pronoun. People can then be classified according to their identity group and sub-group and sub-sub-group above all other considerations, rather like an extreme version of the Indian caste system. ..."
"... It is another form of destabilisation that West is desperately keep on creating. It could be a sign of a state of panic they are in. ..."
"... Identity and sexual politics and sport and porn and politics and war .. all tied up into one – an article to keep and share especially to all these still lapping up the Grauniad cool aid – which stuffs the nonsense down their throats daily. ..."
"... Thank you Andre for your takedown of the vapid banality and extreme me-ism of identity politics. I've said it a few times before on the site, and I'll repeat it: Identity Politics has been a very effective Trojan Horse used to fragment and splinter and create disunity. Especially amongst the Left; who by and large have jettisoned class politics and class struggle in favour of this postmodernist cul de sac crud. ..."
"... It's an artificial construct to deflect from the real agenda . Humanity against the transnational financiers. ..."
"... It's the old ruse: bread and circuses. The new opium for the people is 'identity politics'. The 99% of us should ignore it. And the 99% of us should boycott the media outlets that push it. This would be the democratic way to defeat this nonsense. ..."
Jan 20, 2020 | off-guardian.org
In the West, there is a new wave of political correctness at work: it is all about one's sexual orientation; who has sex with whom, and how. Suddenly, the mass media in London, Paris and New York is greatly concerned about who has the right to change his or her sex, and who does not want to belong to any 'traditional' gender bracket.
Thinking about 'it', writing about it, doing it, is considered "progressive"; cutting edge. Entire novels are being commissioned and then subsidized, as far away as in the Asia Pacific. Western organizations and NGOs (so-called "non-government organizations", but financed by Western régimes), are thriving on the matter.
These days it is not just LGBT that are in the spotlight, glorified and propagandized; there are all sorts of new types of combinations that many people never even heard about, or imagined could exist.
Even some Western airlines do not call their passengers "ladies, gentlemen and children", anymore, in order "not to offend" those who do not want to be any of the above.
Accept any sexual habit, repeat loudly, many times, that you have done it; then preferably write about it, and you will be lauded as progressive, tolerant, and even "left-wing'.
This is a discussion which is clearly encouraged, even invented by the Western regime: a safe discussion which is aimed at diverting dialogue from topics such as the fact that even in the West, a great number of people are living in fear and misery, and that the majority of neo-colonies of North America and Europe are once again being totally, shamelessly exploited.
Talking about poverty and exploitation, about military coups triggered by Washington are rarely spoken about. Such discussions are even being portrayed as old-fashioned, if not regressive.
Hype is, these days, all about the interaction of penises, of vaginas, or about the lack of such interactions. It is about one's "identity" and about the right to change one's gender. What you do with your private parts is much more important than billions of people who are forced to live in filthy slums. Surgery that is aimed at changing one's gender is more newsworthy than the "regime changes" and consequent destruction of millions of human lives.
Such focus is totally fragmenting Western societies. It leads to extreme individualism and dark nihilism. What should stay behind closed doors is being brought out to the center of attention.
Don't think that it is all a coincidence. It is clearly designed this way. Like the enormous flood of free pornography did not come from out of the blue. The hidden message is clear: watch as much free porn as you can in your free time, watch football, enjoy booze, and put your sexual identity at the very center of your existence.
Then, define all those who disagree with these sorts of lifestyles as 'intolerant', 'backward', and even 'oppressive'.
Why is all this happening? Why are Western countries so obsessed with "sexual identities"?
The answer is simple: because those who are obsessed with their own bodies, desires, identities and endless "rights", have hardly any time left to think about the rest of the world.
And vice versa: those who are passionately fighting for a better world, building people-oriented societies, sacrificing their own comfort and personal benefits; those individuals often have no time, or very little time, to think about the nuances of their sexuality. For them, sexuality is simply part of their life; often powerful and important, but it is definitely not their center of gravity, not their very essence.
And precisely this kind of optimistic, unselfish mindset is extremely dangerous for the survival of Western regimes, and the Empire itself.
*
I am all for people to have their right to choose how they want to express themselves sexually. As long as it is done discreetly, and without forcing anyone into anything.
But I am strongly against the so-called sexual identity monopolizing political narrative of entire nations.
There are much more important issues that Western societies should be concerned with, and obviously are not.
And the Empire knows it, and precisely for that reason, it does everything possible to elevate sex and sexuality into something tremendously important, glorified, as well as untouchable. Terms and definitions then get confused: centering people's identity around their genitals, gets defined as "their identity". Their struggle for sexual rights is now being defined as "progressive", even, bizarrely as left-wing.
It is, of course, an absolute nonsense. The fight for sexual rights is the fight for sexual rights: it is not right, or left.
There is absolutely no guarantee that a man who undergoes gender-changing surgery, would gain a deep interest in the US-triggered coup in Bolivia, or in the tremendous torment, inflicted by the West, on the people of Syria or Afghanistan.
I have discussed this issue, in-depth, with my friends and relatives who happen to be professional psychiatrists and psychologists: Jung, who attacked Western imperialism as a clinical disease (pathology), has been criticized and discredited by almost all Western schools. While the self-centred Freud, has been glorified to this very day. He became untouchable in Europe and North America. We are all encourage to see ourselves through his eyes.
We are supposed to think and analyze the world in a Freudian way. To say "penis" or "vagina", or to show them, and especially change them, is supposed to send a shiver up our backs, to make us feel heroic, progressive.
While the Empire murders millions of people worldwide. While British and North American children are suffering from hunger, while NATO is bringing our planet closer and closer to the next huge war which our humanity may not survive, people inhabiting the Empire are encouraged to think, to write and to fight for totally different issues than those that could save our humanity.
*
I have to report that, after working in some 160 countries of the world, on all continents, the issues that I am addressing above, are prevalent only in the West. Well, also in countries and territories that have been deeply indoctrinated by the West, like Argentina and Hong Kong, to give just two examples. Which makes one wonder what is really going on?
I am not talking about people being born gay or lesbian and then getting discriminated against (such discrimination should be, of course, confronted), or forced by brutal family practices (like I witnessed in Samoa) to unwillingly change their sexual identity. I am fully, and determinedly supporting people to have their rights, to practice what they feel like, and to be fully protected by the law.
I am addressing here this totally wild obsession with the topic. I am talking about forcing people in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and some European countries, to accept as essential a dialogue, which is absolutely irrelevant to more than 99% of the population on our planet. It is not about LGBT anymore. This is now about something absolutely else; about color shades, about nuances, about details: while the entire world is burning; in flames.
Can we please talk, finally about Hong Kong, Iraq, Bolivia, North Korea?
And as a writer, as a novelist, I reserve my right to create, to write as I want to! If I want to say, "ladies, gentlemen and children", you can all stop reading me, but I will write it precisely as I want. You can go and read the latest generation of politically correct scribes. Although you know as well as I do, that you will never find any great literature created by them.
The Empire makes sure that many essential topics, including those like whether the world should continue to live under the boot of savage capitalism or whether it should be selecting socialism, hardly ever get discussed on the television screens, and on the front pages of the internet.
Gender changing surgery is now obviously a much more important topic in the UK and the US, than whether Western imperialism should be stopped, once and forever.
But remember: We will all burn if we burn. Heterosexuals, homosexuals, trans-gender individuals, even those whose sexual orientation I still do not understand. If there is a Third World War, we will all be fried.
Therefore, I suggest that we first try to disarm the Empire, stop savage capitalism, give freedom and the right to choose their destiny to all nations of the world, and then Only then, shall we make sure that we support all the people of countless sexual orientation, that our humanity has.
But first things first, please!
Unfortunately, the majority of people do not have the capacity to fight on various fronts, for numerous causes. And they often choose to struggle for the issues that are extremely close to their waist.
First published by NEO – New Eastern Outlook
Sexual politics are very divisive and distractive, although the western indifference to who people choose to have sex with, as long as they are consenting adults, is a healthy step, imo.Sexual orientation, however, is separate from the sexual identity propaganda now being pushed so heavily, and not just online. The entire Establishment is behind this agenda, including mainstream media, the government, the military, the drug companies, the medical industry, the schools and universities, libraries, the police, prisons, social workers, etc.
This is not a push for tolerance, this is an Orwellian attempt to control perception of reality and also to control language. If a man declares himself to be a woman, then you MUST perceive him as a woman, and you must change your language to conform with his self-identity.
"Preferred pronouns" are enforced by the police in some cases, and "deadnaming" is a newly invented thought crime which has led to bans and harassment in enforcement.
This is a bold attempt at societal management. It has led to great splits in leftist movements, as people who prefer to remain reality-based, and who base their politics on material reality, instead of ephemeral idealism, consisting of "feelings inside", are being attacked, threatened, de-platformed and harassed by those who have adopted their master's agenda.
Longtime leftists, with decades of organizing experience, are being shut out of meetings, lectures, Parties and organizations, with claims that their very presence "contaminates and makes unsafe" entire buildings! And in the case of Helen Steel, a longtime activist in UK, an entire moor was deemed off limits to her, to cater to trans activists and their claims of feeling unsafe.
Having mobs of young people, schooled in queer politics instead of class politics, who attack older activists who still understand that it is the material world which determines reality, not thoughts, prayers and internal feelings, is a very effective way of shutting down any principled resistance to the Empire's imperialism and to the destruction of the planet by unfettered capitalism.
Ramdan ,
Today,a new Oxfam report came out where is claimed that 1% of the human species owns the equivalent of 6400 millions of other humans. Comments on social media are appalling, to say the least. Those who dare criticized this situation are called haters and envious by .others also from the 99%. Mankind resambles a well-trained dog, one that learned helplessness .Some representatives of the Homo "sapiens" fantisizes to have a colony in Mars by 2050 to scape .they are part of that 1% .
As of today, humanity is happily waking to its own demise, and it seems that only through a catastrophic event of biblical proportions, can humanity be saved from itself. Maybe then ,real wisdom will come out and guide those who survive.
As usual, Vltchek is spot on.The CIA, from its very beginning, has been deeply influenced by the group psychology/mass manipulation theories of Sigmund Freud's nephew Edward Bernays, who worked for the agency after the war.
Since today all the USA mass and social media are controlled by the cia, it is fairly easy to see that the gender identity hysteria is another manipulation whose purpose is to divert left-leaning people in the west away from the true aims of leftism -- anti capitalism and anti imperialism -- towards an ideology which is harmless.
The citizens of the empire need to wake up: the free world will not tolerate for much longer their nation's crimes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn0I26EJi1o
Gall ,
I remember back in the '90's reading Triton by Sam Delany when I was into Sci Fi that was written in the mid '70's where the protagonist was fixated on gender issues and contemplating changing his sex which he eventually does. I think I eventually lost interest in the book and what passes for Sci Fi or what they now call "speculative fiction" these days.Anyway like Margaret Mead and Toffler's Future Shock crowd at SRI that Sci Fi like Delany instead of speculating about the future were creating it through gradual social engineering. This gender issue is a case in point. Since who would have thought it would actually have been an issue back then?
Even after Gore Vidal wrote Mrya Breckenridge which became a best seller and the movie was a blockbuster that started a fad for a while but then people went back to more substantive issues other than getting a sex change in Sweden yet now it seems that the media has gone into a full court press on this issue. So one has to ask "what's behind it?"
Personally I think it is a last resort for a dying empire that has lost any credibility as you seem to be pointing out Andre.
George Mc ,
Consumer capitalism thrives on discontent. Convincing everyone that their hair is wrong, their skin is bad, their face doesn't look right, their clothes are awful etc. to get them to buy buy buy. And sex is the most intense engine of this constant drive to induce self-loathing.Everything conspires to tell you that you are repulsive, that you will not find a mate unless you splash out on this and that – and once you've found a mate, perhaps he/she isn't really the one for you. The sex you're getting is never as good as it could be. Look at all those glamourous stars. Imagine what they're getting up to. Hell – you don't even have to imagine! Look at those glossy images! Read about this kind of sex and that kind of sex. Bet you've never had anything like that etc.
Thus this glorified sex is the most perfect embodiment of the laboratory rat wheel. No matter how fast you go and how much you buy, you stay in the same place. And yet images of ecstasy pull you on. And all the time you're buying buying buying.
But perhaps it's all too easy now? Everyone is used to the common variations. Time for some new stuff. Time for the sequel, the new series, the new fashion, the new lovely little honeypot scam. Let's invent loadsa new sexualities. New areas for creating anxieties, hang-ups, phoney controversies, with all the concomitant books and programmes and magazines and scandals and whipped up confrontations between prejudices etc. KaChing! Looooovely!
paul ,
Globo Homo (aggressive, politicised, strident homosexuality; aggressive premature sexualisation and indoctrination of children enforced by law, and outright paedophilia; aggressive promotion of transgender dysphoria; bestiality and incest, together with the virulent denigration of normal healthy family life) is a symptom of an irredeemably degenerate and very sick society on the verge of total collapse.There is nothing new in any of this. The same things were very much in evidence in ancient Rome as it declined and fell, with a cross dressing emperor plying his trade as a prostitute.
The only difference is that these things are now aggressively promoted by a degenerate globalist paedophile elite, both to legitimise their own habits and perversions and as a harmless distraction from their other activities, their criminality, tyranny, parasitism and abuse of power.
The same is true of the Great Global Warming Hoax, with Soros- and Wall Street-funded Little Greta astroturfing her way across the planet, so that Green Eco Warriors like Mark Carney can raid the pensions and transfer trillions upwards into the pockets of the 0.1%.
Geoffrey Skoll ,
Andre is correct of course, but there is another angle. It's not just identity politics as distracting and divisive. It's that identity politics, especially sexual identity politics has emerged when it has–i.e., in the last few years. So, here is my thesis.The world system of capital is breaking up. Among its signs are multi polar violence, ecological collapse, returning fascism, etc. The system of capital is based on class relations, and class relations underlie all other human relations. Sexual relations are basic to the human condition, regardless of the political economic system. Therefore, as capitalism crumbles all social relations go into flux, including sexual relations. Public hysteria about sex is mainly a sign of a global system breaking down and a new in forming.
lundiel ,
Let's not forget, identity politics is not just about gender. It's all sorts of cultural, ethnic, religious, environmental groups and factions along with sexual and gender based groups. I think this has evolved partly because of social media, and partly because our political representatives are so shit. They've all been telling us that class is dead, when it clearly isn't and the rot starts with local politicians who are, mostly the worst people qualified to represent us.lundiel ,
The only way to fix this, imo, is to take the marketing, lobbying and public relations out of politics. The we can get on with addressing the issues that are important to people, and everything else will be a whole lot easier.paul ,
The aim is to atomise society into a mushrooming number of arcane identity groups, based on race, gender, religion and sexuality. The 57 varieties of gender that are being peddled, with punishment for people who forget to use the right invented pronoun. People can then be classified according to their identity group and sub-group and sub-sub-group above all other considerations, rather like an extreme version of the Indian caste system.So people should vote for Clinton because she has a vagina. If she is a corrupt, mendacious warmonger with blood on her hands, that doesn't matter, because she's one of the wimmin. You see the same mentality with people like Jess Phillips.
Ignore the fact that we are being ruled over by a psychopathic, self serving, kleptocratic kakistocracy that is lying through its teeth, robbing us blind, and subjecting us to blanket surveillance, among other things. Just go charging down the rabbit hole of your choice. And get the gender pronouns right.
Berlin beerman ,
Mr.Putin got it right on this issue. Live free as you wish but I am not changing the bathroom signs and I am not altering the Russian language. Homosexuality is like the black man when it comes to societies. If you see the colour of the skin and feel the need to discuss it, to address it, then you are the racist amoung us. Do you need a court to tell you what a racist is? Do you need a government ? Same thing with sexual orientation.Morgan Freeman explains it well enough for those with an IQ high enough to understand it and reason with it.
Frank ,
On the subject of Morgan Freeman's IQ: https://youtu.be/GbtuhrSrslIProtect ,
It is another form of destabilisation that West is desperately keep on creating. It could be a sign of a state of panic they are in.... ... ...
Dungroanin ,
A great article to start the week – especially after yestetdays don't know what to call it.Identity and sexual politics and sport and porn and politics and war .. all tied up into one – an article to keep and share especially to all these still lapping up the Grauniad cool aid – which stuffs the nonsense down their throats daily.
Thank you Andre for your takedown of the vapid banality and extreme me-ism of identity politics. I've said it a few times before on the site, and I'll repeat it: Identity Politics has been a very effective Trojan Horse used to fragment and splinter and create disunity. Especially amongst the Left; who by and large have jettisoned class politics and class struggle in favour of this postmodernist cul de sac crud.My sexual orientation is just one part of who I am. A segment of the whole. It's not something I shout from the rooftops, it's not something to ram down other people's throats. My ideal is Live and Let Live – treat others as you'd like them to treat you – regardless of who they are. And yes, I've been bashed twice because of my sexuality, including by 'workmates' while at work. I've had many instances of homophobic abuse directed at me over the years.
And I'll say this very clearly: I fully oppose and reject identity politics, despite my own history. Our real enemies are the parasitic 0.01% billionaires, the ruling elites who pull the strings, the Warren Buffets, Jeff Bezos and Rupert Murdoch's who rake in vast fortunes from pillaging this planet and screwing so many into the mud; the Wall St Banks, the Hedge funds, the IMF and World Bank, the Multinational Corporations, the very Economic System which creates such despair and inequality and the deaths of so many human beings.
To benefit so few. Identity Politics is a cynical distraction from all of this bloody carnage. It separates us when we need to unite more than ever.
.Willem ,
Michael Parenti on gender inequality issues and how to tackle those issues (really funny)"in this very exploitative society which we must continue to resist and rectify" .
Thanks for the clip Willem, and yeah, Michael Parenti nails it, as usual.0use4msm ,
The push towards the dominance of sexuality and gender based identity in the West has been in various successive waves. The most recent one was in response to the Occupy movement successfully putting plutocracy and extreme inequality on the agenda with its 99% vs 1% memes back in 2011. I agree with the article that this push was very deliberate.nottheonly1 ,
Worst answer ever:The answer is simple: because those who are obsessed with their own bodies, desires, identities and endless "rights", have hardly any time left to think about the rest of the world.
Amazing how great the hate against 'Transgender' people is in a majority of Christian/Orthodox countries.
I have a solution for all you flaming hypocrites and story peddlers:
Why don't you push all the Transgender folks into the ovens? You surely remember how its done, right?
What a pathetic piece of drivel – blaming of course those whose lives are exploited and who are murdered every day in the most cruel ways. Like ISIS style cutting off of the head. Like Jewish/Christian/Muslim stoning of people that don't deserve to live – because of: sexual acts.
But for the last time for people like Vitchek et al:
SEX IS NOT GENDER.
GENDER IS NOT SEX.If it would not be for religious freaks that are stuck in a morally flat world view the world over, people that do not conform to their narrowminded and fanatic delusions would not be murdered.
It is saddening that OffGuradian has published this hate piece.
Especially, since the whole Gender and Sex thing is subject to greater evolutionary processes Mr. Vitchek et al are incapable to detect. Well, haters.
To sum it up quickly:
Transgender Folks are responsible for everything that is fucked up on earth – making them fucked up as well. They went to illegally assault and invade Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and voment overthrows of democratically elected governments. They have corrupted the Western world with citizen united and poison the world with glyphosate and GMO. They steal trillions of dollars from the war ministry and thus from the taxpayer.
No wonder religious people hate Transgender Folks so much. They are the reason for all evil in this world. As a matter of fact, they could also be called 'satanic' – as they only aim at disrupting the bigoted, sex addicted minds of religious freaks.
This world would be a much better place if people just focused on WHAT REALLY HURTS AND HARMS.
Oh, and yes, of course. Mr. Vitchek, you were obviously not able to give a voice to those at the receiving end of the stick. Only the voice of the emotionally hurt religious fanatics.
0use4msm ,
Congratulations for succinctly managing to exemplify what the article is describing. Since you have failed to grasp that the article, and the issue it brings up at large, is not attacking the morality of individuals associated with the LGBTQ+ alphabet , I suggest you read it again. And again, if necessary.lundiel ,
I don't think he's attacking trans people, just the self absorbtion of those engaging in identity politics, while denying/forgetting the class struggle. I don't see any hate here towards trans people, just the fact that it's a personal issue that's been politicised. If we had a culture more like that of the Maoris and less reliant on the Bible's teachings, this would never have been an issue.Berlin beerman ,
Well you just stepped right into it didn't you. Exemplified almost perfectly what Mr. Vitchek was trying to bring out in his writing.juggle ,
all part of the fiendish cocktail of divide & rule they're putting in the water these days..Dave Hansell ,
Precisely!Confusing personal identity with social identity (which is about what you do) is bad enough but insisting that everyone accept that they are (a) both the same and/or (b) the social should be subservient to the individual – both on penalty of being ostracised from having the right to survive and exist on the basis of having and expressing a different world view being equated to hatred – is not grown up politics. It's the sort of approach one meets in a school playground.
Fortunately, like everything else in life, most sensible people – whatever their individual identify – realise and comprehend that in any organised realm of life there are always sub-groups of any particular group who kick the backside out whatever it is.
It's just a fact of life that those who make the most noise muddy an issue and are not necessarily representative of the whole of a particular group.
Whatever it happens to be, the notion that one specific individual or sub-group subjective opinion should trump either any differing subjective opinion or objective discernable reality on the basis that simply articulating or holding either equates to the hatred of those belonging to that whole group is dangerously divisive.
Society and social identity does not operate on the basis of someone, anyone, dictating that just because they say something is so than it must be so and anyone challenging that is guilty of hatred requiring not only their being ostracised from social media but that they should lose their job for having such temerity (and it has happened); having the crime of rape against them trivialised (again, it has happened); their hard fought rights to specific representation reduced (it's currently happening in various organisations); that they be incarcerated and lose their liberty (once again, this is being demanded).
The social space is a shared one. My right to throw out my arm with a clenched fist ends at the point of someone else's, everyone elses, nose tip. My rights only start where someone else's ends. And vice versa.
That's how society works and remains coherent.
On the same basis as detailed above the post- modernist left who push this line are not representative of the left per se. They are a noisy and naive sub- group kicking the arse out of it for everyone else and the sooner they grow up the better.
Meanwhile in the real world of divide and rule:
https://www.rt.com/business/478674-billionaire-report-gap-oxfam/
We see nothing but excuses, excuses, excuses:
- Ah! But Corbyn.
- Ah! But Brexit.
- Ah! But scroungers.
- Ah! But immigration.
- Ah! But Russia.
- Ah! But "lefties."
- Ah! But Assad.
- Ah! But China.
- Ah! But The "Undeserving" Poor.
- Ah! But Iran.
- Ah! But beggars.
- Ah! But The Unions.
- Ah! But Identity Politics.
- Ah! But them over there.
Don't forget to doff your cap and tug your forelock as you move forward in the queue towards the oblivion of being surplus to requirements as there is no emergency exit – even for those with the gumption to know there is need for one.
It's called social identity. It comes with wider responsibilities.
andyoldlabour ,
nottheonly1Your response simply confirms what Andre has written in this superb article. Your post was a narcissistic rant, very similar to others which I have read in the past year.
If someone wants to identify as something else and it doesn't impact on other people, then go for it, fill your boots. However, should you overstep the mark and make unreasonable demands on society as a whole, to present yourself constantly as a victim, then society will look less favourably at you.
Let me give you an example – male bodied people, irrespective of how they identify, do not belong in women's sports, women's changing rooms or women's refuges.George Mc ,
Amazing how great the hate against 'Transgender' people is in a majority of Christian/Orthodox countries.
Nice try at erecting yet another phony battle. But the fact is that most people don't give a flying fuck about "transgender" people – and indeed don't even know, and have no wish to know, what it means. That's because most people are smart enough to know that by this time next year we will have any number of new wondrously inventive demographics (Trans-glandular? Trans-testicular? Bio-quadrangular?) to give the infinitely concerned an opportunity to scream about intolerance etc. And how revealing that you drag religion into it for maximum divisiveness.
Jen ,
Dear NotTheOnly1,You managed to create another category of people to demonise and attack: the so-called religious fanatics and freaks.
Thanks very much for making things so much harder for the rest of us to resist the slice'n'dice categorisation and the lifestyle-marketing brainwashing that goes with it
John Deehan ,
In many of his books Professor Antony C Sutton argued that the narrative of left and right was false. Furthermore, he said the notion of division in politics was created by and encouraged by transnational finance. To put it simply, it set up divisions which were used to manipulate the masses. Hidden History, the secret causes of WW1, also illustrates how an enemy was created in order to justify the mass murder of millions of people which is being repeated by the new designated enemy. It's called propaganda. Vitchek is correct in his analysis of this latest wave of distraction from the most important issues affecting humanity. How do the transnational financial overlords achieve these conjuring deceitful false flag narratives. Well, ignorance through control of the media, academia and promotion of right thinking apparatchiks is one method besides of course the deep stratification of society through the cast system. Aldous Huxley looked at this in his book Brave New World. What is the end goal of it? A feudalistic system of serfs, servers and sovereigns!Ash ,
Left/right is an ECONOMIC continuum with a specific meaning, but of course the waters have been so thoroughly muddied and so many unrelated issues being peddled as left/right that most people don't even know what they're arguing about these days.John Deehan ,
It's an artificial construct to deflect from the real agenda . Humanity against the transnational financiers.Einstein ,
It's the old ruse: bread and circuses. The new opium for the people is 'identity politics'. The 99% of us should ignore it. And the 99% of us should boycott the media outlets that push it. This would be the democratic way to defeat this nonsense.
[Jan 19, 2020] Media Skewers 'Sexist' Sanders for Refusing to Bend the Knee
Notable quotes:
"... Furthermore, if you don't agree with Sen. Warren's version of events, or if you mention her history of "embellishing," you are a sexist and a misogynist just like Sanders. So fall in line with the establishment narrative, quick. ..."
"... In a statement to CNN, Sanders said before the debate that's not what happened at all. ..."
"... "It is ludicrous to believe that at the same meeting where Elizabeth Warren told me she was going to run for president, I would tell her that a woman couldn't win," said Sanders, chalking up the story to "staff who weren't in the room lying about what happened." ..."
"... Warren's staff knows she is prone to "embellish" things ..."
"... No wonder Sanders was complaining about liberals' obsession with identity politics . As an elderly, Jewish socialist, he might be an endangered species, but he's one minority group that intersectional politics has no use for. ..."
Jan 19, 2020 | www.theamericanconservative.com
The media cannot forgive Bernie Sanders for refusing to "bend the knee" to Elizabeth Warren regarding her recounting of a now infamous December 2018 meeting between the two, in which the Vermont senator allegedly said a woman could not be elected president.
Furthermore, if you don't agree with Sen. Warren's version of events, or if you mention her history of "embellishing," you are a sexist and a misogynist just like Sanders. So fall in line with the establishment narrative, quick.
That is the clear takeaway after the media took off its fig leaf of journalistic impartiality at the seventh Democrat presidential debate in Iowa Tuesday.
Never mind that women make up about 70 percent of Sanders' campaign leadership team, or that young women actually make up a bigger share of Sanders's base than young men do .
During the debate, CNN moderator Abby Phillips had this exchange:
Phillips: You're saying that you never told Senator Warren that a woman couldn't win the election?
Bernie: Correct.
Phillips: Senator Warren, what did you think when Sanders said a woman couldn't win the election?
Warren: I disagreed. Bernie is my friend, and I am not here to try to fight with Bernie.
This is "when did you stop beating your wife" level debate questioning from CNN. The question is premised around an anonymously-sourced story CNN reported Monday describing a meeting between Sanders and Warren in December 2018, where the two agreed to a non-aggression pact of sorts. For the sake of the progressive movement, they reportedly agreed they would not attack each other during the campaign:
They also discussed how to best take on President Donald Trump, and Warren laid out two main reasons she believed she would be a strong candidate: She could make a robust argument about the economy and earn broad support from female voters. Sanders responded that he did not believe a woman could win.
In a statement to CNN, Sanders said before the debate that's not what happened at all.
"It is ludicrous to believe that at the same meeting where Elizabeth Warren told me she was going to run for president, I would tell her that a woman couldn't win," said Sanders, chalking up the story to "staff who weren't in the room lying about what happened."
"I thought a woman could win; he disagreed," said Warren in a statement.
Cue CNN's gladiatorial presidential debates.
Eager to strike all the right girl-power notes for the night, Phillips followed up by asking Sen. Amy Klobuchar the substantive policy question, "what do you say to people who say that a woman can't win this election?" and Warren earned cheers for a line about women successfully winning elections.
"Look at the men on this stage," Warren said. "Collectively, they have lost 10 elections. The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they've been in are the women: Amy (Klobuchar) and me."
After the debate, media commentators roundly declared Warren the winner, and pundits attacked the very idea of questioning the veracity of Warren's account.
Here's CNN, just after the debate:
Chris Cillizza, CNN politics reporter: Sanders, look, a lot of it is personal preference. I didn't think his answer vis-a-vis Elizabeth Warren and what was said in that conversation was particularly good. He was largely dismissive. "Well, I didn't say it. Everyone knows I didn't say it, we don't need to talk about it."
Jess McIntosh, CNN political commentator: And I think what Bernie forgot was that this isn't a he-said-she-said story. This is a reported-out story that CNN was part of breaking. So to have him just flat out say "no," I think, wasn't nearly enough to address that for the women watching.
Joe Lockhart, CNN political commentator: And I can't imagine any woman watching last night and saying, I believe Bernie. I think people believe Elizabeth.
Van Jones, CNN political commentator: This was Elizabeth Warren's night. She needed to do something and there was a banana peel sitting out there for Bernie to step on when it came to his comments about women. I think Bernie stepped on it and slid around. She knocked that moment out of the park.
But isn't this story the literal definition of a he-said, she-said story?
The accusation may have appeared in a "reported-out story," but these are its sources:
"The description of that meeting [between Sanders and Warren in December 2018] is based on the accounts of four people: two people Warren spoke with directly soon after the encounter, and two people familiar with the meeting."
Is it sexist to question why this story would come out on the eve of the debate -- after months of the two candidates getting along as they had promised to do, when Sanders pulls ahead of Warren in polling ?
If CNN were impartial, they would have mentioned the sourcing and timing of the story, and Warren's fraught history with the truth. Warren has shown she is willing to tell lies in order to get a job she wants, like when she claimed to have Native American blood. She has also claimed she go fired from her teaching job for being pregnant, even when records contradict that. She's said her children went to public schools, not private ones, even though that's not true either.
In addition to Warren's tenuous relationship with the truth, there also happens to be video from the 1980s where Sanders says a woman could be president:
1988, @BernieSanders , backing Jackson:"The real issue is not whether you're black or white, whether you're a woman or a man *in my view, a woman could be elected POTUS* The real issue is are you on the side of workers & poor ppl, or are you on the side of big money &corporations?" pic.twitter.com/VHmfzvyJdy
-- Every nimble plane is a policy failure. (@KindAndUnblind) January 13, 2020
Yet, you wouldn't know any of that, listening to the coverage of the debate, where commentators waxed poetic about Warren's "win" and how any attacks on her predilection for lying were misogyny itself.
Over on Sirius XM POTUS channel Tuesday, an executive producer on Chris Cuomo's show (Chris Cillizza filling in) said that the suggestion from Sanders surrogates that Warren's staff knows she is prone to "embellish" things is "a misogynistic thing to put out there like, 'oh well, look at the quaint housewife, she is prone to embellishment.'"
The New York Times also embraced the questionable sexism premise, writing that in"a conflict heavily focused on which candidate is telling the truth, Ms. Warren faces a real risk: Several studies have shown that voters punish women more harshly than men for real or perceived dishonesty If voters conclude that Ms. Warren is lying, it is most likely to hurt her more than it will hurt Mr. Sanders if voters conclude that he is lying."
Over at Vox:
The over-the-top language -- likening criticism of an opponent to a knife in the back -- was familiar. When powerful men have been accused of sexual misconduct in recent years, they and others have often complained that they've been "killed" or that their "lives are over" The situation between Warren and Sanders is very different from those that have arisen as part of the Me Too movement. But the exaggerated language around a woman's decision to speak out is strikingly similar.
This sort of language is an insult to all women who have had to deal with sexism and misogyny, both in the workplace and in society, and this need to glom on to any aggrieved group, no matter how ill-fitting, is getting really stale.
Meanwhile, former Hillary Clinton and Obama Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri tweeted, "I just rewatched the footage from last night and found it odd that Sanders never says 'a woman could beat Trump.' His formulation is he believes a 'woman could be president.' It's only when he speaks about his own abilities that he talks about what it takes to 'beat Trump.'"
This is the old sexist standby: "I'd vote for a woman, just not that woman."
What is it that these people want, for Sanders to endorse his opponent, simply because she is female? Isn't that the very definition of sexism? By virtue of the fact that Sanders is still in this race, he obviously thinks he can do a better job as president than Warren. There isn't going to be another presidential race against Trump, but Palmieri still essentially wants Sanders to say, in a five-way race three weeks before the Iowa caucus, "Warren can beat Trump in November."
The question here should be whether this is a person that we can trust, not whether the candidate is male or female. Does this person have a history of being honest, or do they have a history of lying?
No wonder Sanders was complaining about liberals' obsession with identity politics . As an elderly, Jewish socialist, he might be an endangered species, but he's one minority group that intersectional politics has no use for.
Osse a vote for liz • a day ago
What are you talking about? If you want to know what Sanders says on this issue, rad his interview with the NYT which was conducted before this cynical hit job occurred. He says many voters are misogynistic, but not that a woman can't win.AGPhillbin Osse • a day agoI think both were telling the truth in that Warren probably took it to mean a woman can't win, but her campaign cynically released thi story over a year later because she was slipping in tge pollls behind Bernie.
That's ridiculously generous of you, at least towards Warren. She knows perfectly well his position on the possibility of a woman president, and women running for office generally. she knows he campaigned vigorously for HRC after the nomination, and she knows that Sanders knows that HRC took the popular vote by over 3 million votes, so he obviously knows that it is highly possible for a woman to win the presidency. This is simply a bald-faced lie on Warren's part, but she has gained nothing electorally for this desperate smear. Sanders not only had a record fundraising day after this surfaced, but at least one poll has him up 2 points in Iowa, where he was already in the lead, with Warren stuck at 12%.trailhiker • 2 days agoSix corporations own something like 90% of the media now.Great CoB • 2 days ago
And CNN is part of the corporate-media-complex.
So not too much of a surprise that they are going after Sanders.
The billionaires are worried he might win, so in a way, this is a good
sign.The 24 hour news channels depend on Trump to bring in the outrage required to keep up their viewing figures. So it makes sense that they should help give him a democrat opponent he can't lose against, like Elizabeth Warren.𝙆𝙧𝙖𝙯𝙮 𝙐𝙣𝙘𝙡𝙚 • 2 days agoWhile it should be fairly obvious to most that Bernie Sanders political rivals are trying everything they can to get ahead of him, it's also true that the DNC and the Main Stream Media, are also trying to trash Bernie in an attempt to take him out as a candidate. The DNC and the MSM did the same thing the last time he attempted to win the nomination, and it appears they are doing so now.BigShot • 2 days agoThe corporate MSM machine should be careful. Another candidate they trashed during the last election cycle, and ever since, became the President. It seems some voters have tied the corporate MSM together with the D.C. establishment, and voters that want an outsider to lead them may just see the MSM's attempts to denigrate a candidate as a ringing endorsement for the outsider.
As a side note, I find it humorous that the MSM attempts to diminish Bernie's supporters as zealots and too extreme to be taken seriously... I thought that political candidates actually worked to gain the support of enthusiastic and motivated supporters? Or, is that just for the candidates that are acceptable to the Main Stream Media and the political Parties?
Voted for Trump in great part because Hillary Clinton was such a liar. Now he turned out to be an even bigger liar than she was. It sure would be nice to have a candidate who didn't lie so much, but now I don't know whether that would be Sanders or Warren.Connecticut Farmer FND • a day agoStrictly speaking, socialism was an abject failure which ended with the fall of the Iron Curtain, There is an unfortunate tendency to conflate "socialism" with what is called the "welfare state." The United States is a welfare state but can hardly be mistaken for a socialist state.Gutbomb Connecticut Farmer • a day agoI think I see it mostly the same way you do, but with semantic differences. I would argue that communism - the totalitarian version of socialism - was the abject failure. Any first world modern state is a blend of market-based economies and socialism. The question is always which exchanges are best left to market forces and which are best managed from above. And then, how much management to provide. I caution against seeing socialism vs capitalism as some binary switch to flip.former-vet Gutbomb • a day agoSmartest statement I've seen in years.cka2nd Gutbomb • a day agoAnd the fact is that many of these welfare states were implemented by self-declared socialists, including many parties that were members of the Socialist, or Second, International.Connecticut Farmer Gutbomb • 7 hours agoUnfortunately, many of these socialist and labor parties hopped on the neo-liberal train in the 1980's, and are today deathly afraid of their own Bernie Sanders (see Corbyn, Jeremy), and even more afraid of scaring off international finance and the German Central Bank.
Point taken. Perhaps "radical socialism" would have been more accurate. Your description of the modern state as a "blend" is spot-on. An economics professor I once had called ours a "mixed economy", which was a phrase that has always stuck in my mind.Osse FND • a day agoSubstantively Bernie's policies are social democratic and consistent with those of the Scandinavian countries.cka2nd EdMan • 7 hours agoSocial democratic and labor parties around the world turned neo-liberal in the 1980's, including the Scandinavian ones. They've been helping to rip up the "social contract" between Capital and Labor, and the social welfare state, ever since, as well as reversing previous nationalizations and launching privatization. This phenomenon has included Scandinavia, which is why the parties there are so sensitive to all this talk in the U.S. about them being models of "socialism."AGPhillbin FND • a day agoFact is, all non-Marxist "socialist" countries are market based, and are in fact capitalist at the economic base. When did any Scandinavian "socialist" country ever expropriate any major corporations?cka2nd AGPhillbin • a day agoYou might actually want to do a bit of research on that point. Going back 60, 70 or 80 years, there might be some nationalizations of railroads, utilities, energy companies and other major industries not involved in the actual manufacturing of goods in Scandinavia. Great Britain certainly saw such nationalizations, although revolutionary leftists sometimes dismissed them as "lemon socialism" because the capitalist class was fobbing off money-losing or capital-intensive sectors of the economy on the government, in order to concentrate on more profitable enterprises.
[Jan 14, 2020] Illinois Becomes 20th State To Force Taxpayers To Foot Bill For Transgender Surgery Zero Hedge
Jan 14, 2020 | www.zerohedge.com
by Tyler Durden Tue, 01/14/2020 - 17:45 0 SHARES
Authored by Tyler O'Neil via PJMedia.com,
Far-left activists don't just want Americans to approve of transgender ideology and to call people by preferred pronouns unmoored from biological sex - they also want to force taxpayers to foot the bill for dangerous experimental surgeries that leave people infertile and scarred for life.
On December 23 , Illinois joined 19 other states and the District of Columbia to explicitly require Medicaid to pay for transgender surgeries. The Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the state's primary Medicaid agency, published new administrative rules mandating the coverage of certain "gender-affirming" services. Illinois formerly excluded "transsexual surgery" from the taxpayer-funded program.
"Health care is a right, not a privilege, and I'm committed to ensuring our LGBTQ community and all Illinoisans have access to that right," Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.) said in a statement in April.
" Expanding Medicaid to cover gender affirming surgeries is cost effective, helps avoid long-term health consequences, and most importantly is the right thing to do. With continued attacks coming from Washington, this administration will always stand with our transgender community and their right to lead safe and healthy lives."
Almost everything in this statement was dead wrong. Health care should not be considered a "right," because it involves the hard work of doctors and nurses, who deserved to be compensated for their work. Perhaps most importantly, however, the idea that "gender-affirming" surgeries help "avoid long-term health consquences" is false, as is the idea that covering these surgeries is necessarily "the right thing to do."
Transgender activists have pushed this narrative based on the idea that the only way to curb the high rate of suicide among people who identify themselves as transgender is to force society to accept transgender identity. Te thinking goes like this: When transgender people have surgery to "affirm" their identity as the opposite sex, they will be less likely to commit suicide. Therefore, transgender surgery is essential to their health, and the government paying for it actually saves money in the long run.
The evidence actually suggests the opposite. While there are few long-term studies on transgender health available, the most thorough follow-up study involving transgender people -- extending over 30 years and conducted in Sweden, where there is a strong pro-transgender culture -- found that transgender surgery does not paper over mental unrest. Ten to fifteen years after surgical reassignment, the suicide rate of those who had undergone the surgery rose to 20 times that of their peers!
Many of those who undergo the surgery experience deep and painful regret.
"Now that I'm all healed from the surgeries, I regret them," a 19-year-old man who had himself surgically mutilated to affirm a female identity, wrote in a letter . "The result of the bottom surgery looks like a Frankenstein hack job at best, and that got me thinking critically about myself. I had turned myself into a plastic-surgery facsimile of a woman, but I knew I still wasn't one. I became (and to an extent, still feel) deeply depressed."
Transgender activist Jazz Jennings experienced complications during the surgery to remove his male genitals, leaving him with scars across the top of his legs.
Even those who stopped shy of the genital mutilation have found themselves permanently scarred .
"I am a real, live 22-year-old woman, with a scarred chest and a broken voice, and five o'clock shadow because I couldn't face the idea of growing up to be a woman, that's my reality," admitted Cari Stella.
The medical establishment has rushed to affirm transgender "health care" that often involves giving healthy people a disease or urging genital mutilation on perfectly healthy men and women.
After the case of the 6-year-old boy James Younger seized national attention, states across the nation are expected to pass laws protecting children from the damaging effects of transgender drugs.
Yet Illinois joined 19 other states and the District of Columbia in going the opposite direction -- forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for transgender surgery. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin also use Medicaid funds for transgender surgery.
Sixty-two percent of Americans said employers should be able to opt-out of covering transgender surgeries, and 80 percent of them said doctors and medical professionals should be able to opt-out of performing surgeries they think dangerous to their patients.
If businesses should be able to opt-out of footing the bill for dangerous and controversial surgeries, why shouldn't taxpayers?
[Jan 06, 2020] Sure, of course the rich classes don't care about the oppression of minorities, women, LGBT, etc. They use the oppression of these groups to divide and weaken the lower classes.
Notable quotes:
"... Maybe so, but ipso facto and for the same reasons, the ‘capitalist class’ don’t actually care about the oppression of women, nor of racial minorities, except insofar as it serves their goals of winning the class struggle. ..."
"... The phrase ‘class struggle’ is invariably misinterpreted by bourgeois liberals (such as yourself), incidentally. The class struggle is not something that working people choose to take part in. The class struggle is something that is going on and will continue whether you choose to fight in it or not (or whether or not you choose to recognise that it is going on, or not). ..."
"... Elites essentially created themselves and then began to create the various stratification strategies that, with increasing elaborations, we have had to live with since then, in order to hold on to the power that they had seized. So Buffet is right. ‘It’s my class that’s….making (the) war.’ ..."
"... The class war is not on any sense fought by the poor who choose to take part in it. The class war is willfully and deliberately fought by the rich, against the poor, who are forced to take part in it simply to defend themselves against this attack (and again, the war continues whether the poor choose to take part in it or not, or even whether or not they recognise that they are taking part in it or not. It’s just that if they choose one of these two options or both of them, then they lose). ..."
"... One of the core misrepresentations of Marxism (and it’s a claim that has been made over and over again, not least on CT comments threads) is that Marxism is a ‘determinist’ philosophy. But as Hobsbawm pointed out many years ago, even a quick skim through the Communist Manifesto, page one, shows this is not true: viz. ..."
"... Sure, of course the rich classes don't care about the oppression of minorities, women, LGBT, etc. They use the oppression of these groups to divide and weaken the lower classes. Of course. But that's not the POINT. ..."
"... The POINT is that some in these class-based movements argue that its WRONG for (e.g.) women's rights activists to focus so much on women's rights -- that instead, they should be focusing on building a broad class-based movement for economic redistribution, fighting inequality... ..."
Jan 06, 2020 | crookedtimber.org
Hidari 01.04.20 at 11:44 am 64
@ 56 ‘Marxists, it seems to me, don’t actually care about the oppression of women, nor of racial minorities, except insofar as it serves their goals of winning the class struggle. They. Just. Don’t. Care.’Maybe so, but ipso facto and for the same reasons, the ‘capitalist class’ don’t actually care about the oppression of women, nor of racial minorities, except insofar as it serves their goals of winning the class struggle.
The phrase ‘class struggle’ is invariably misinterpreted by bourgeois liberals (such as yourself), incidentally. The class struggle is not something that working people choose to take part in. The class struggle is something that is going on and will continue whether you choose to fight in it or not (or whether or not you choose to recognise that it is going on, or not).
You don’t need to read this in Karl Marx, incidentally. Listen to Warren Buffet: ‘There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.’
This is unquestionably and unarguably true. Back in the day, if you go back 20 or 30 thousand years, you had relatively egalitarian hunter-gatherer tribes. It was the changes in human civilisation that date from about 15000 BCE (some would say earlier than that) that moved things towards a class-stratified society, but please note this was not a ‘bottom-up’ thing but a. ‘top-down’ thing. Elites essentially created themselves and then began to create the various stratification strategies that, with increasing elaborations, we have had to live with since then, in order to hold on to the power that they had seized. So Buffet is right. ‘It’s my class that’s….making (the) war.’
The class war is not on any sense fought by the poor who choose to take part in it. The class war is willfully and deliberately fought by the rich, against the poor, who are forced to take part in it simply to defend themselves against this attack (and again, the war continues whether the poor choose to take part in it or not, or even whether or not they recognise that they are taking part in it or not. It’s just that if they choose one of these two options or both of them, then they lose).
One of the core misrepresentations of Marxism (and it’s a claim that has been made over and over again, not least on CT comments threads) is that Marxism is a ‘determinist’ philosophy. But as Hobsbawm pointed out many years ago, even a quick skim through the Communist Manifesto, page one, shows this is not true: viz.
‘Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.’
You have a fight between the rich and the poor. Either the poor can win, or there is mutual annihilation. What can’t happen is long term victory by the rich, because you can have a society without the rich, but you can’t have a society without the poor (the ‘working classes’) or else nothing will get done. You can have a factory without managers but not one without workers.
What we’ve seen over the last 100 years (at least since about 1950) is a series of seemingly endless victories by the rich and powerful over the poor, by the global North over the global South, and yet, mysteriously, these victories have not led to peace or stability or anything similar but have instead turned to dust and ashes in their mouths , and it seems that the current phase of the class struggle will not lead to some fantasy of American power and dominance for eternity but, instead, the ‘common ruin of the contending classes’ in the form of climate change and the oncoming eco-geddon.
And all this happens whether you recognize that this is happening or not.
soru 01.04.20 at 4:02 pm 65
Marxists, it seems to me, don’t actually care about the oppression of women, nor of racial minorities, except insofar as it serves their goals of winning the class struggle. They. Just. Don’t. Care.
This is perhaps true, on average. Most such favor measure they see as fixing the problem, rather than demonstrating their empathy for those suffering. For example, in the anti-slavery movement, proto-Marxists were often too busy arguing for economic change (i.e. abolition) to spend as much time as they could have on thoughts and prayers for those enslaved.
Now it may be the case, and certainly a lot of people think, that no such equivalently-effectively economic change is possible, or perhaps desirable, in the modern day. But it is not the case that Marxists agree with that assessment; if you disagree with them, that is the core of your disagreement.
Chetan Murthy 01.05.20 at 1:29 am ( 69 )
Hidari @ 64:Maybe so, but ipso facto and for the same reasons, the 'capitalist class' don't actually care about the oppression of women, nor of racial minorities, except insofar as it serves their goals of winning the class struggle.
Sure, of course the rich classes don't care about the oppression of minorities, women, LGBT, etc. They use the oppression of these groups to divide and weaken the lower classes. Of course. But that's not the POINT.
The POINT is that some in these class-based movements argue that its WRONG for (e.g.) women's rights activists to focus so much on women's rights -- that instead, they should be focusing on building a broad class-based movement for economic redistribution, fighting inequality...
[Jan 04, 2020] I think one of the disadvantages of Marxian analysis and this particular critique is much older than I am is that it does tend to flatten out the contours of human experience so that it can be rendered more intelligible and commensurable so that there can be a more easily verbalized dialectic about class.
This looks like identity bigot, Cultural marxist position.
Jan 04, 2020 | crookedtimber.org
Heshel 01.02.20 at 6:35 pm 46
MisterMr @ 29:"In my view, the correct way to see oppressions is not as a set of different one to one relationships where one is oppressor and the other oppressed, but one should sum all these relationships and compare the sum to a sort of societal average, so that those above that average and those below are the oppressed. As the society we live in is pyramidal, I expect most people to be below that average."
I don't wish to pile onto Chetan Murthy's thoughtful reply @39, but rather restate the issue a little more abstractly. I engage with this comment out of respect for MisterMr's overwhelmingly well-considered comments here and elsewhere on this blog.
I think one of the disadvantages of Marxian analysis–and this particular critique is much older than I am–is that it does tend to flatten out the contours of human experience so that it can be rendered more intelligible and commensurable so that there can be a more easily verbalized dialectic about class. In other words, Marxians are lumpers. And lumping has its uses, but sometimes contours are needed to understand the underlying processes that result in the social problems upon which we wish to improve with policy.
One of the advantages of intersectional analysis is that it acknowledges that experiences of privilege/oppression are contextual because they are socially constructed and because social construction is messy and non-uniform. We each experience privileges and/or oppressions that are the results of historical processes (more and more) loosely bounded by geographical inhibitions to travel.
In this way, an African American man can expect to experience such oppressions as being treated as untrustworthy; assumed to be prone to violence; assumed to be a habitual drug user; assumed to lack certain non-cognitive skills (which are really just the current preferred collective habits of the upper middle class–I teach some of their kids kung fu) etc . A woman can expect to experience such oppressions as being treated as unintelligent; evaluated based on a narrow range of acceptability on her appearance, tone of voice, apparel, accoutrements, hobbies, reproductive choices, sexual choices, really just about any choices.
Even though each of these specific ways of being harmed by the collective (mostly) non-conscious will to discriminate based on things that don't matter most of the time in most places is at root a failure of most people most of the time to exercise their meta-cognitive skills around the meaning of respect and to whom it is due and what kind of behavior that requires of oneself, they do not easily offer a consensus on the sorts of policies that ought to be implemented across a society because each of these oppressions are historically contingent and enacted in specific kinds of social spaces for specific reasons–reasons that most people most of the time are not required to articulate because hey, everybody's doing it.
The difference between kinds of oppressions and the kinds of policy solutions they invite sharpens when considering white women's and black men's disparate experiences with the police across the history of the (sort of) former confederate states of America–yes, I know it was bad everywhere else, too, but my understanding of the history is that the difference is sharper in the South (no I will not provide J-D with a cite)–or their disparate experiences interfacing with organizations such as firms and universities as the suite of policies known as affirmative action became passed and enforced. In some ways, many individuals classified in each (and both) group(s) aggregately benefited but the benefits were asymmetric and the accompanying backlash manifested as different kinds of oppressions depending on the most salient group assignment.
Incidentally, I think one of the better ways that coalitions form are when activist groups find themselves being deliberately wedged against each other, for instance with aggressive policing proposals, and try to find another way to meet each group's needs. The recent renewed advocacy for Civilian Police Review Boards seems like one possible way forward to accommodate the need from multiple constituencies that have historically been ignored.
I think intersectionality also happens to give us some useful theoretical tools to help make these kinds of coalitional policy solutions more abundant and more easy to institutionalize throughout a large and diverse state–which is why there is absolutely a political interest among some (probably not so much the Marxians) in detracting from it.
Anyway, two cheers (for now) for intersectionality. But don't get cocky splitters.
Tm 01.03.20 at 5:33 pm ( 61 )
The term privilege is often misused. The original meaning of the term is simply a right or an advantage specifically conveyed on a certain group of people. It is not wrong for example to call the right to attend a university a privilege. Not long ago, that right was a privilege restricted to men (mostly upper class but also some lower class). The right to vote, if it is not universal, could also be called a privilege. It is not correct to say that only the upper class can be privileged – privileges can be to some extent independent of class structure. OTOH Real privilege is enshrined in law. Habitual discrimination is a different thing and it's probably better to call it by a different name.
[Jan 03, 2020] Will 2020 See the Emergence of a Nationalist Left by Andrew Joyce, Ph.D.
Woke left is a tool of financial oligarchy
Notable quotes:
"... In communist parties, there is this risk of elitism, self-indulgence, and a belief that a certain avant-garde should lead a working class that does not know its own best interests, instead of asking people what they want. 20th-century Communism died with the Soviet Union, it has never been successfully updated for the 21st century but has been stuck in 100-year-old books. ..."
"... Curiously, events in Malmö have been mirrored somewhat in broader Swedish Left politics ..."
"... British Left "have no vision for an alternative to rampant neoliberalism and a deindustrialised, finance-led, low wage economy, they calculate the best way to make this work is within the EU." He argues that the cosmopolitan leadership of the Labour Party in particular "think we are some kind of uncivilised tribe, painting our faces blue, and only able to vote in a right-wing government," a view he finds "not only deeply insulting, but also self-defeating and overly optimistic about the EU." On immigration, Galloway argues that there is "nothing left-wing about unlimited mass immigration. It decapitates the countries from which the immigrants leave, and drives down wages in those where they arrive. The wealthy benefit from it, as they can afford cheap labor for their companies, or cheap au-pairs, cheap baristas, cheap plumbers. But the working class suffers." ..."
"... In this text, and other articles on the party's website, including this very interesting speech denouncing transgender ideology as anti-materialist and anti-scientific, the argument is made that ..."
"... Biological differentiation between male and female is a real thing . It doesn't just exist in humanity, it exists in many species throughout the natural world. Sexual reproduction is a natural biological process that has persisted in nature due to the diversity it engenders; it is a phenomenon encountered in the natural world. And let's not forget how this debate impinged upon us. ..."
"... The endorsement and promotion of multiculturalism and its sex-politics corollaries never did make much sense within the framework of rational critiques of capitalism, and the tension between the nominal desire for working class solidarity and divisive pseudo-Marxian doctrines (e.g. Whiteness Studies) designed to mobilise imported ethnic factions against the largest section of the working class (blue-collar Whites) was always destined to bring about significant stress fractures when Leftist fortunes began to decline. ..."
Dec 29, 2019 | www.theoccidentalobserver.net
"The life of the individual is a constant struggle, and not merely a metaphorical one, against want or boredom, but also an actual struggle against other people. He discovers adversaries everywhere, lives in continual conflict and dies with sword in hand."
Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Suffering of the WorldAlthough Nietzsche seems to be the philosopher of choice for many on the Dissident Right, I've always had a soft spot for Arthur Schopenhauer. His cantankerous philosophical pessimism has always struck a chord with my own temperament, and for many years I've found his quasi-Buddhist and highly compassionate conceptualisation of suffering to be strangely comforting. That life is a struggle involving endless adversaries and competitors also forms an aspect of Schopenhauer's philosophy, and this continues to be significant in shaping my political and philosophical outlook. Certainly, it goes without saying that adversaries have never been in short supply for members of the Dissident Right. They are arrayed before us now, emerging from all points of the political spectrum, and often even from within our own ranks. Dissident right political philosophies, more than any other, appear destined to be mired in continual conflict, and I often find it difficult to shake the dark impression that one day I will die, metaphorical sword in hand, with every battle raging but far from won. For this reason, I sometimes permit myself the relief of optimism (a form of cowardice to both Schopenhauer and Spengler), and part of this is the attempt to find allies where formerly one may have seen only foes. This brings me to the subject matter of this essay -- recent developments on the Left which appear to suggest the emergence of an anti-globalist, anti-immigration, and anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic politics.
Swedish Communists Wake Up
Just days ago, Sputnik reported on the fact that almost half of the members of the Communist Party in Malmö, Sweden, are resigning. They plan to establish a new workers' party that no longer features multiculturalism, LGBT interests, and climate change as key policy goals. Nils Littorin, one of the defectors, told a local newspaper that today's Left has become part of the elite and has come to "dismiss the views of the working class as alien and problematic." Littorin suggested that the Left "is going through a prolonged identity crisis" and that his group, instead, intends to stick to the original values, such as class politics. Littorin adds "[The Left] don't understand why so many workers don't think that multiculturalism, the LGBT movement and Greta Thunberg are something fantastic, but instead believe we are in the 1930s' Germany and that workers who vote [right-wing] Sweden Democrats have been infected by some Nazi sickness." In a piece of simple insight previously rare on the Left, he argues that the rise in right-wing votes for people like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are in fact due to "widespread dissatisfaction with liberal economic migration that leads to low-wage competition and the ghettoisation of communities, a development that only benefits major companies." Rather than being beneficial to working class Whites, Littorin condemns a "chaotic" immigration policy that has led to "cultural clashes, segregation and exclusion due to an uncontrolled influx from parts of the world characterised by honour culture and clan mentalities."
Littorin continues to talk sense when it comes to the LGBT agenda. He explains that LGBT issues and the climate movement are merely "state ideologies" that are "rammed down people's throats". Littorin adds that phenomena like these happen at the expense of real issues, such as poverty, homelessness, and income equality: "Pride, for instance, has been reduced to dealing with sexual orientation. We believe that human dignity is primarily about having a job and having pension insurance that means that you are not forced to live on crumbs when you are old."
As well as prioritising jobs and pensions over the flamboyant celebration of buggery, Littorin and his colleagues have pledged to abandon the name and ethos of Communism, describing it as a
word drawn to the dirt, a nasty word today, and not entirely undeservedly. In communist parties, there is this risk of elitism, self-indulgence, and a belief that a certain avant-garde should lead a working class that does not know its own best interests, instead of asking people what they want. 20th-century Communism died with the Soviet Union, it has never been successfully updated for the 21st century but has been stuck in 100-year-old books.
Curiously, events in Malmö have been mirrored somewhat in broader Swedish Left politics, with Markus Allard, the leader of the left-wing Örebro Party, expressing similar thoughts in an op-ed titled "Socialists don't belong to the left," accusing the mainstream left of completely abandoning its base , switching from the working class to "parasitic grant-grabbing layers within the middle class."
British Socialists Reinvent Themselves
Almost simultaneously, an identical process is occurring in Britain with George Galloway 's announcement of a new Workers Party of Britain . At the time of its launch Galloway described the party as "hard Brexit and hard labour," and added: "If you're a liberal who thinks it's Left if you're still pining for the EU, if you think shouting "racist," "homophobic," "transphobic" at everybody who doesn't agree with you is the way forward, we're probably not for you." Galloway's pro-Brexit stance is rooted in his belief that the modern British Left "have no vision for an alternative to rampant neoliberalism and a deindustrialised, finance-led, low wage economy, they calculate the best way to make this work is within the EU." He argues that the cosmopolitan leadership of the Labour Party in particular "think we are some kind of uncivilised tribe, painting our faces blue, and only able to vote in a right-wing government," a view he finds "not only deeply insulting, but also self-defeating and overly optimistic about the EU." On immigration, Galloway argues that there is "nothing left-wing about unlimited mass immigration. It decapitates the countries from which the immigrants leave, and drives down wages in those where they arrive. The wealthy benefit from it, as they can afford cheap labor for their companies, or cheap au-pairs, cheap baristas, cheap plumbers. But the working class suffers."
Galloway has also stressed that his new party will strongly pursue anti-Israel politics, and is fully committed to opposing the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
Galloway and the Workers Party of Britain have also taken a stand against the more extreme forms of LGBT indoctrination, particularly the mass promotion of transgenderism. Galloway, who has previously been attacked by a self-styled "trans anarchist" while giving a speech, is here following the lead of the pro-Brexit Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) which recently published Identity Politics and the Transgender Trend: Where is LGBT ideology taking us and Why does it matter?
In this text, and other articles on the party's website, including this very interesting speech denouncing transgender ideology as anti-materialist and anti-scientific, the argument is made that
Biological differentiation between male and female is a real thing . It doesn't just exist in humanity, it exists in many species throughout the natural world. Sexual reproduction is a natural biological process that has persisted in nature due to the diversity it engenders; it is a phenomenon encountered in the natural world. And let's not forget how this debate impinged upon us. We've been following this ideological trend, and encountering identity politics (idpol) among supporters and candidates for membership of our party, and amongst people we've been working with for at least four or five years. Because idpol has become a fashion in that period. And it is a fashion; it is a trend. And it suddenly -- from being very marginal to certain academic institutions in the 1970s -- became mainstream globally worldwide; it was actively promoted. Not promoted by communists, not by socialists, but picked up on and accepted by many of them, because they are led by, and they blindly followed, bourgeoise society down this dead-end. There is a group of self-proclaimed 'socialists' who are not actually any longer fighting against our oppression, they're fighting against reality!
The Left in Crisis?
None of these developments are entirely surprising and, in fact, the argument could be made that they are the inevitable side effect of what Nils Littorin termed the Left's prolonged "identity crisis." The endorsement and promotion of multiculturalism and its sex-politics corollaries never did make much sense within the framework of rational critiques of capitalism, and the tension between the nominal desire for working class solidarity and divisive pseudo-Marxian doctrines (e.g. Whiteness Studies) designed to mobilise imported ethnic factions against the largest section of the working class (blue-collar Whites) was always destined to bring about significant stress fractures when Leftist fortunes began to decline.
And decline they have. Of course, we have to set aside rampant ideological and cultural success. Figures and cliques operating under the banner of social equality and eternal progress continue to hold the reins of power in government, academia, and the mass media. But the Left is without question currently subject to a period of political decline. It's losing votes, and more important, it's fast losing hearts and minds. I should also add that they aren't losing them to right-wing ideas, but to the hollow shells of right-wing ideas (Free Enterprise! Build the Wall!) and to the charismatic globalist play-actors who promote-these ideas like salesmen selling used cars or aftershave. White working-class people are voting for free enterprise without hesitation while Jewish vulture capitalism operates with impunity under that very banner, destroying their towns, exporting their jobs, and repossessing their homes. The same people vote for a wall they'll never get -- and would never really solve the problems resulting from capitalism or ensure a majority White future. And they do it not because of concern about identity or racial destiny, but in the same way one might decide to install CCTV in a grocery store -- the ever-elusive Wall will never be built so long as it represents nothing more than the aspiration to protect mere inventory. The hollow men of the pseudo-Right-wing offer flimsy placebos, and yet the political Left, supposedly the historical repository of hard materialism, can't seem to compete.
There's been a scramble to blame the situation on a lack of charismatic leaders , disunity, a lack of attractive policies, and even the idea that the European Left made the fatal mistake of trying to meet the Right on its own turf by "flirting with closed-border nationalism or neoliberalism." But the real reason is surely the fact the Left has consistently alienated and browbeat working class Whites, while slowly revealing itself to be an elite-run clique of cosmopolitans, who are living the high life while waxing lyrical about oppressions that are rarely real and often imaginary, and in any case never affect them personally. Added to this is the fact Leftist ideology has become so convoluted and contorted, with the square-peg doctrine of Marx endlessly forced into new and increasingly abstract circular and triangular holes, resulting in Marxist interpretations of such ephemera as graffiti, pop music, and drag queens, all of which strike the average blue-collar worker as a steaming pile of effeminate middle-class navel-gazing. All this plays out as young yet dithering social justice warriors, jobless and senseless, search for oppression like an old lady with dementia searches for a purse she hasn't owned in 20 years. As the pundits split hairs, I look on, and it occurs to me rather simply that right now the pseudo-Left-wing liars aren't quite as good as the pseudo-Right-wing liars.
Are These Rebels Potential Allies?
When I was around 11 years old, my mother made a new friend, a Scottish woman in her 30s, who always struck me as very strange. It was her eyes. I didn't know at first what schizophrenia was, though I would soon find out. One day she arrived at our house and, recognising her, I opened the door and welcomed her in. I called to my mother, who was upstairs, and made small talk with the Scottish woman, who, standing still and staring right at me, seemed perfectly cheerful and articulate. She asked about how I was doing at school, and we talked a little bit about science, which she seemed to know a lot about. It was only after a few minutes that I noticed the smell and deduced that the woman had fouled herself. By the time my mother arrived, the Scottish woman had descended into a stream-of-consciousness gibberish that culminated in her attempting unsuccessfully to retrieve a knife from the kitchen before running from the property. She'd simply stopped taking her medication. We later discovered she was found by police that night, dancing and weeping with bare, bloody feet in a nearby graveyard, wearing nothing but a nightgown and proclaiming to the dead that she was God, distraught at the death of the crucified son.
The episode has remained with me now for over two decades, shaping my perceptions of reality, relationships, and trust. Here it suffices only to remark that the insane talk sense at times, even as their psyche shatters. And if we dig deeply enough into the statements of these moderately "awakened" Leftists, do we yet see signs of madness? A look again at the statement from the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), along with some reading between the lines, suggests something decidedly off . Yes, "biological differentiation between male and female is a real thing." Of course it is. But so is biological differentiation between races, and yet here our erstwhile British hardcore materialists, currently led by a full-blooded ethnic Indian named Harpal Brar , decide to fight against reality. On that note, we should add that Brar's daughter, Joti Brar, has been announced as George Galloway's deputy leader at the "hard Brexit and hard labour" Worker's Party of Britain. Galloway, it's worth adding, has been married four times, with three marriages to non-Whites (Palestinian Amineh Abu-Zayyad in 1994, Lebanese Rima Husseini in 2007, and ethnic Indonesian Putri Gayatri Pertiwi in 2012). So for all his protestations of being against mass migration, one gets the distinct impression that Galloway is a committed multiculturalist and that his party will be internationalist in every meaningful sense of the term.
If there is any hope for some sanity in this camp of frustrated Leftists it is for the simple reason that these small new pockets of reason are for the most part free of Jewish influence and all the intellectual distortions such influence entails. In a 2018 essay titled " On "Leftist Anti-Semitism": Past and Present ," I considered the gradual shift of Jews away from the hard Left due to growing anti-Zionism, and their growing confinement in centrist neoliberalism:
Jewish blindness to their privileges, genuine or feigned, is of course one major cause for the undeniable friction between Jews and the modern Left. It was perhaps inevitable that foolish but earnest egalitarians on the Left would come to the slow realization that their 'comrades of the Jewish faith' were in fact not only elitists, but an elite of a very special sort. The simultaneous preaching of open borders/common property and 'the land of the Jewish people' was always going to strike a discordant note among the wearers of sweaty Che Guevara t-shirts, especially when accompanied so very often by the cacophony of Israeli gunfire and the screams of bloodied Palestinian children. Mass migration, that well-crafted toxin coursing through the highways and rail lines of Europe, has proven just as difficult to manage. Great waves of human detritus wash upon Western shores, bringing raw and passionate grievances even from the frontiers of Israel. These are people whose eyes have seen behind the veil, and who sit only with great discomfort alongside the kin of the IDF in league with the Western political Left -- the only common ground being a shared desire to dispossess the hated White man. For these reasons, the Left could well become a cold house for Jews without becoming authentically, systematically, or traditionally anti-Semitic. One might therefore expect Jews to regroup away from the radical left, occupying a political space best described as staunchly centrist -- a centrism that leans left only to pursue multiculturalism and other destructive 'egalitarian' social policies, and leans right only in order to obtain elite protections and privileges [domestically for the Jewish community, internationally for Israel]. A centrism based, in that old familiar formula, on 'what is best for Jews.'
As seen in the recent clash between Jews and the UK's Labour Party, the political relocation of Jews to a kind of amorphous and opportunistic centrism will bring them into direct conflict with those on the hard Left who not only pursue anti-Zionist politics but also object to manifestations of raw Jewish power like the mass adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism and the economic abuses of politically ambiguous (neither Left nor Right, but Jewish) oligarchs like Paul Singer. As such, and together with their natural aversion to being part of the Right, Jews will increasingly find it difficult to define themselves politically as anything other than Jews, leading to the increased visibility of their activities and interests -- something witnessed in the unprecedented step of Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis openly calling for British Jews to move against Jeremy Corbyn. This increased visibility can only be a good thing for those concerned with Jewish influence, and who have been frustrated in previous periods by Jewish influence masquerading in various political guises.
A potential opportunity, imperfect but perhaps feasible, may therefore be arising whereby White interests could be subliminally or even publicly defended through savvy, nominally hard-Left activism against mass migration (on economic rather than racial grounds), against Israel and international Zionist influence, against some aspects of PC culture, and against the capitalist excesses of the Jewish vulture funds. It goes without saying that Leftist activists don't receive anywhere near the same level of social, professional, or legal punishment for their activism as those on the Right, especially the dissident Right. I don't think I'm too wide of the mark in suggesting that an anti-immigration agitator with "Workers Party of Britain" plastered over his social media is less likely to lose his job than someone with public National Front affiliations. It may therefore be worth serious consideration by young activists as to whether they might want to cultivate a kind of "Leftist" mask to defend White interests in much the same way as Jews in the past have adopted various convenient political masks while concealing deeper ethnic interests. I am suggesting a combination of infiltration and masquerade. What matters most is the private motivation and the potential benefits of the ultimate goal -- White interests and objectives serving them.
There are, of course, also dangers in supporting such movements. I am not suggesting the investment of serious time and money in these groups, since the risk is great that the majority of their members are committed to a politics that is ultimately antagonistic and destructive to our own ultimate goals. There is also huge potential for betrayal on many of the issues where we might have common ground -- immigration, LGBT madness, PC culture -- and I find it difficult to shake off the impression that these developments bear the mark of a temporary despair and are designed to dupe blue-collar Whites into voting Left once more.
Still, 2020 may open up a new front in the war, and as the New Year approaches, I'll silence my inner Schopenhauer and toast to that.
[Jan 03, 2020] Will 2020 See the Emergence of a Nationalist Left by Andrew Joyce, Ph.D.
Woke left is a tool of financial oligarchy
Notable quotes:
"... In communist parties, there is this risk of elitism, self-indulgence, and a belief that a certain avant-garde should lead a working class that does not know its own best interests, instead of asking people what they want. 20th-century Communism died with the Soviet Union, it has never been successfully updated for the 21st century but has been stuck in 100-year-old books. ..."
"... Curiously, events in Malmö have been mirrored somewhat in broader Swedish Left politics ..."
"... British Left "have no vision for an alternative to rampant neoliberalism and a deindustrialised, finance-led, low wage economy, they calculate the best way to make this work is within the EU." He argues that the cosmopolitan leadership of the Labour Party in particular "think we are some kind of uncivilised tribe, painting our faces blue, and only able to vote in a right-wing government," a view he finds "not only deeply insulting, but also self-defeating and overly optimistic about the EU." On immigration, Galloway argues that there is "nothing left-wing about unlimited mass immigration. It decapitates the countries from which the immigrants leave, and drives down wages in those where they arrive. The wealthy benefit from it, as they can afford cheap labor for their companies, or cheap au-pairs, cheap baristas, cheap plumbers. But the working class suffers." ..."
"... In this text, and other articles on the party's website, including this very interesting speech denouncing transgender ideology as anti-materialist and anti-scientific, the argument is made that ..."
"... Biological differentiation between male and female is a real thing . It doesn't just exist in humanity, it exists in many species throughout the natural world. Sexual reproduction is a natural biological process that has persisted in nature due to the diversity it engenders; it is a phenomenon encountered in the natural world. And let's not forget how this debate impinged upon us. ..."
"... The endorsement and promotion of multiculturalism and its sex-politics corollaries never did make much sense within the framework of rational critiques of capitalism, and the tension between the nominal desire for working class solidarity and divisive pseudo-Marxian doctrines (e.g. Whiteness Studies) designed to mobilise imported ethnic factions against the largest section of the working class (blue-collar Whites) was always destined to bring about significant stress fractures when Leftist fortunes began to decline. ..."
Dec 29, 2019 | www.theoccidentalobserver.net
"The life of the individual is a constant struggle, and not merely a metaphorical one, against want or boredom, but also an actual struggle against other people. He discovers adversaries everywhere, lives in continual conflict and dies with sword in hand."
Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Suffering of the WorldAlthough Nietzsche seems to be the philosopher of choice for many on the Dissident Right, I've always had a soft spot for Arthur Schopenhauer. His cantankerous philosophical pessimism has always struck a chord with my own temperament, and for many years I've found his quasi-Buddhist and highly compassionate conceptualisation of suffering to be strangely comforting. That life is a struggle involving endless adversaries and competitors also forms an aspect of Schopenhauer's philosophy, and this continues to be significant in shaping my political and philosophical outlook. Certainly, it goes without saying that adversaries have never been in short supply for members of the Dissident Right. They are arrayed before us now, emerging from all points of the political spectrum, and often even from within our own ranks. Dissident right political philosophies, more than any other, appear destined to be mired in continual conflict, and I often find it difficult to shake the dark impression that one day I will die, metaphorical sword in hand, with every battle raging but far from won. For this reason, I sometimes permit myself the relief of optimism (a form of cowardice to both Schopenhauer and Spengler), and part of this is the attempt to find allies where formerly one may have seen only foes. This brings me to the subject matter of this essay -- recent developments on the Left which appear to suggest the emergence of an anti-globalist, anti-immigration, and anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic politics.
Swedish Communists Wake Up
Just days ago, Sputnik reported on the fact that almost half of the members of the Communist Party in Malmö, Sweden, are resigning. They plan to establish a new workers' party that no longer features multiculturalism, LGBT interests, and climate change as key policy goals. Nils Littorin, one of the defectors, told a local newspaper that today's Left has become part of the elite and has come to "dismiss the views of the working class as alien and problematic." Littorin suggested that the Left "is going through a prolonged identity crisis" and that his group, instead, intends to stick to the original values, such as class politics. Littorin adds "[The Left] don't understand why so many workers don't think that multiculturalism, the LGBT movement and Greta Thunberg are something fantastic, but instead believe we are in the 1930s' Germany and that workers who vote [right-wing] Sweden Democrats have been infected by some Nazi sickness." In a piece of simple insight previously rare on the Left, he argues that the rise in right-wing votes for people like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are in fact due to "widespread dissatisfaction with liberal economic migration that leads to low-wage competition and the ghettoisation of communities, a development that only benefits major companies." Rather than being beneficial to working class Whites, Littorin condemns a "chaotic" immigration policy that has led to "cultural clashes, segregation and exclusion due to an uncontrolled influx from parts of the world characterised by honour culture and clan mentalities."
Littorin continues to talk sense when it comes to the LGBT agenda. He explains that LGBT issues and the climate movement are merely "state ideologies" that are "rammed down people's throats". Littorin adds that phenomena like these happen at the expense of real issues, such as poverty, homelessness, and income equality: "Pride, for instance, has been reduced to dealing with sexual orientation. We believe that human dignity is primarily about having a job and having pension insurance that means that you are not forced to live on crumbs when you are old."
As well as prioritising jobs and pensions over the flamboyant celebration of buggery, Littorin and his colleagues have pledged to abandon the name and ethos of Communism, describing it as a
word drawn to the dirt, a nasty word today, and not entirely undeservedly. In communist parties, there is this risk of elitism, self-indulgence, and a belief that a certain avant-garde should lead a working class that does not know its own best interests, instead of asking people what they want. 20th-century Communism died with the Soviet Union, it has never been successfully updated for the 21st century but has been stuck in 100-year-old books.
Curiously, events in Malmö have been mirrored somewhat in broader Swedish Left politics, with Markus Allard, the leader of the left-wing Örebro Party, expressing similar thoughts in an op-ed titled "Socialists don't belong to the left," accusing the mainstream left of completely abandoning its base , switching from the working class to "parasitic grant-grabbing layers within the middle class."
British Socialists Reinvent Themselves
Almost simultaneously, an identical process is occurring in Britain with George Galloway 's announcement of a new Workers Party of Britain . At the time of its launch Galloway described the party as "hard Brexit and hard labour," and added: "If you're a liberal who thinks it's Left if you're still pining for the EU, if you think shouting "racist," "homophobic," "transphobic" at everybody who doesn't agree with you is the way forward, we're probably not for you." Galloway's pro-Brexit stance is rooted in his belief that the modern British Left "have no vision for an alternative to rampant neoliberalism and a deindustrialised, finance-led, low wage economy, they calculate the best way to make this work is within the EU." He argues that the cosmopolitan leadership of the Labour Party in particular "think we are some kind of uncivilised tribe, painting our faces blue, and only able to vote in a right-wing government," a view he finds "not only deeply insulting, but also self-defeating and overly optimistic about the EU." On immigration, Galloway argues that there is "nothing left-wing about unlimited mass immigration. It decapitates the countries from which the immigrants leave, and drives down wages in those where they arrive. The wealthy benefit from it, as they can afford cheap labor for their companies, or cheap au-pairs, cheap baristas, cheap plumbers. But the working class suffers."
Galloway has also stressed that his new party will strongly pursue anti-Israel politics, and is fully committed to opposing the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
Galloway and the Workers Party of Britain have also taken a stand against the more extreme forms of LGBT indoctrination, particularly the mass promotion of transgenderism. Galloway, who has previously been attacked by a self-styled "trans anarchist" while giving a speech, is here following the lead of the pro-Brexit Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) which recently published Identity Politics and the Transgender Trend: Where is LGBT ideology taking us and Why does it matter?
In this text, and other articles on the party's website, including this very interesting speech denouncing transgender ideology as anti-materialist and anti-scientific, the argument is made that
Biological differentiation between male and female is a real thing . It doesn't just exist in humanity, it exists in many species throughout the natural world. Sexual reproduction is a natural biological process that has persisted in nature due to the diversity it engenders; it is a phenomenon encountered in the natural world. And let's not forget how this debate impinged upon us. We've been following this ideological trend, and encountering identity politics (idpol) among supporters and candidates for membership of our party, and amongst people we've been working with for at least four or five years. Because idpol has become a fashion in that period. And it is a fashion; it is a trend. And it suddenly -- from being very marginal to certain academic institutions in the 1970s -- became mainstream globally worldwide; it was actively promoted. Not promoted by communists, not by socialists, but picked up on and accepted by many of them, because they are led by, and they blindly followed, bourgeoise society down this dead-end. There is a group of self-proclaimed 'socialists' who are not actually any longer fighting against our oppression, they're fighting against reality!
The Left in Crisis?
None of these developments are entirely surprising and, in fact, the argument could be made that they are the inevitable side effect of what Nils Littorin termed the Left's prolonged "identity crisis." The endorsement and promotion of multiculturalism and its sex-politics corollaries never did make much sense within the framework of rational critiques of capitalism, and the tension between the nominal desire for working class solidarity and divisive pseudo-Marxian doctrines (e.g. Whiteness Studies) designed to mobilise imported ethnic factions against the largest section of the working class (blue-collar Whites) was always destined to bring about significant stress fractures when Leftist fortunes began to decline.
And decline they have. Of course, we have to set aside rampant ideological and cultural success. Figures and cliques operating under the banner of social equality and eternal progress continue to hold the reins of power in government, academia, and the mass media. But the Left is without question currently subject to a period of political decline. It's losing votes, and more important, it's fast losing hearts and minds. I should also add that they aren't losing them to right-wing ideas, but to the hollow shells of right-wing ideas (Free Enterprise! Build the Wall!) and to the charismatic globalist play-actors who promote-these ideas like salesmen selling used cars or aftershave. White working-class people are voting for free enterprise without hesitation while Jewish vulture capitalism operates with impunity under that very banner, destroying their towns, exporting their jobs, and repossessing their homes. The same people vote for a wall they'll never get -- and would never really solve the problems resulting from capitalism or ensure a majority White future. And they do it not because of concern about identity or racial destiny, but in the same way one might decide to install CCTV in a grocery store -- the ever-elusive Wall will never be built so long as it represents nothing more than the aspiration to protect mere inventory. The hollow men of the pseudo-Right-wing offer flimsy placebos, and yet the political Left, supposedly the historical repository of hard materialism, can't seem to compete.
There's been a scramble to blame the situation on a lack of charismatic leaders , disunity, a lack of attractive policies, and even the idea that the European Left made the fatal mistake of trying to meet the Right on its own turf by "flirting with closed-border nationalism or neoliberalism." But the real reason is surely the fact the Left has consistently alienated and browbeat working class Whites, while slowly revealing itself to be an elite-run clique of cosmopolitans, who are living the high life while waxing lyrical about oppressions that are rarely real and often imaginary, and in any case never affect them personally. Added to this is the fact Leftist ideology has become so convoluted and contorted, with the square-peg doctrine of Marx endlessly forced into new and increasingly abstract circular and triangular holes, resulting in Marxist interpretations of such ephemera as graffiti, pop music, and drag queens, all of which strike the average blue-collar worker as a steaming pile of effeminate middle-class navel-gazing. All this plays out as young yet dithering social justice warriors, jobless and senseless, search for oppression like an old lady with dementia searches for a purse she hasn't owned in 20 years. As the pundits split hairs, I look on, and it occurs to me rather simply that right now the pseudo-Left-wing liars aren't quite as good as the pseudo-Right-wing liars.
Are These Rebels Potential Allies?
When I was around 11 years old, my mother made a new friend, a Scottish woman in her 30s, who always struck me as very strange. It was her eyes. I didn't know at first what schizophrenia was, though I would soon find out. One day she arrived at our house and, recognising her, I opened the door and welcomed her in. I called to my mother, who was upstairs, and made small talk with the Scottish woman, who, standing still and staring right at me, seemed perfectly cheerful and articulate. She asked about how I was doing at school, and we talked a little bit about science, which she seemed to know a lot about. It was only after a few minutes that I noticed the smell and deduced that the woman had fouled herself. By the time my mother arrived, the Scottish woman had descended into a stream-of-consciousness gibberish that culminated in her attempting unsuccessfully to retrieve a knife from the kitchen before running from the property. She'd simply stopped taking her medication. We later discovered she was found by police that night, dancing and weeping with bare, bloody feet in a nearby graveyard, wearing nothing but a nightgown and proclaiming to the dead that she was God, distraught at the death of the crucified son.
The episode has remained with me now for over two decades, shaping my perceptions of reality, relationships, and trust. Here it suffices only to remark that the insane talk sense at times, even as their psyche shatters. And if we dig deeply enough into the statements of these moderately "awakened" Leftists, do we yet see signs of madness? A look again at the statement from the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), along with some reading between the lines, suggests something decidedly off . Yes, "biological differentiation between male and female is a real thing." Of course it is. But so is biological differentiation between races, and yet here our erstwhile British hardcore materialists, currently led by a full-blooded ethnic Indian named Harpal Brar , decide to fight against reality. On that note, we should add that Brar's daughter, Joti Brar, has been announced as George Galloway's deputy leader at the "hard Brexit and hard labour" Worker's Party of Britain. Galloway, it's worth adding, has been married four times, with three marriages to non-Whites (Palestinian Amineh Abu-Zayyad in 1994, Lebanese Rima Husseini in 2007, and ethnic Indonesian Putri Gayatri Pertiwi in 2012). So for all his protestations of being against mass migration, one gets the distinct impression that Galloway is a committed multiculturalist and that his party will be internationalist in every meaningful sense of the term.
If there is any hope for some sanity in this camp of frustrated Leftists it is for the simple reason that these small new pockets of reason are for the most part free of Jewish influence and all the intellectual distortions such influence entails. In a 2018 essay titled " On "Leftist Anti-Semitism": Past and Present ," I considered the gradual shift of Jews away from the hard Left due to growing anti-Zionism, and their growing confinement in centrist neoliberalism:
Jewish blindness to their privileges, genuine or feigned, is of course one major cause for the undeniable friction between Jews and the modern Left. It was perhaps inevitable that foolish but earnest egalitarians on the Left would come to the slow realization that their 'comrades of the Jewish faith' were in fact not only elitists, but an elite of a very special sort. The simultaneous preaching of open borders/common property and 'the land of the Jewish people' was always going to strike a discordant note among the wearers of sweaty Che Guevara t-shirts, especially when accompanied so very often by the cacophony of Israeli gunfire and the screams of bloodied Palestinian children. Mass migration, that well-crafted toxin coursing through the highways and rail lines of Europe, has proven just as difficult to manage. Great waves of human detritus wash upon Western shores, bringing raw and passionate grievances even from the frontiers of Israel. These are people whose eyes have seen behind the veil, and who sit only with great discomfort alongside the kin of the IDF in league with the Western political Left -- the only common ground being a shared desire to dispossess the hated White man. For these reasons, the Left could well become a cold house for Jews without becoming authentically, systematically, or traditionally anti-Semitic. One might therefore expect Jews to regroup away from the radical left, occupying a political space best described as staunchly centrist -- a centrism that leans left only to pursue multiculturalism and other destructive 'egalitarian' social policies, and leans right only in order to obtain elite protections and privileges [domestically for the Jewish community, internationally for Israel]. A centrism based, in that old familiar formula, on 'what is best for Jews.'
As seen in the recent clash between Jews and the UK's Labour Party, the political relocation of Jews to a kind of amorphous and opportunistic centrism will bring them into direct conflict with those on the hard Left who not only pursue anti-Zionist politics but also object to manifestations of raw Jewish power like the mass adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism and the economic abuses of politically ambiguous (neither Left nor Right, but Jewish) oligarchs like Paul Singer. As such, and together with their natural aversion to being part of the Right, Jews will increasingly find it difficult to define themselves politically as anything other than Jews, leading to the increased visibility of their activities and interests -- something witnessed in the unprecedented step of Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis openly calling for British Jews to move against Jeremy Corbyn. This increased visibility can only be a good thing for those concerned with Jewish influence, and who have been frustrated in previous periods by Jewish influence masquerading in various political guises.
A potential opportunity, imperfect but perhaps feasible, may therefore be arising whereby White interests could be subliminally or even publicly defended through savvy, nominally hard-Left activism against mass migration (on economic rather than racial grounds), against Israel and international Zionist influence, against some aspects of PC culture, and against the capitalist excesses of the Jewish vulture funds. It goes without saying that Leftist activists don't receive anywhere near the same level of social, professional, or legal punishment for their activism as those on the Right, especially the dissident Right. I don't think I'm too wide of the mark in suggesting that an anti-immigration agitator with "Workers Party of Britain" plastered over his social media is less likely to lose his job than someone with public National Front affiliations. It may therefore be worth serious consideration by young activists as to whether they might want to cultivate a kind of "Leftist" mask to defend White interests in much the same way as Jews in the past have adopted various convenient political masks while concealing deeper ethnic interests. I am suggesting a combination of infiltration and masquerade. What matters most is the private motivation and the potential benefits of the ultimate goal -- White interests and objectives serving them.
There are, of course, also dangers in supporting such movements. I am not suggesting the investment of serious time and money in these groups, since the risk is great that the majority of their members are committed to a politics that is ultimately antagonistic and destructive to our own ultimate goals. There is also huge potential for betrayal on many of the issues where we might have common ground -- immigration, LGBT madness, PC culture -- and I find it difficult to shake off the impression that these developments bear the mark of a temporary despair and are designed to dupe blue-collar Whites into voting Left once more.
Still, 2020 may open up a new front in the war, and as the New Year approaches, I'll silence my inner Schopenhauer and toast to that.
[Jan 03, 2020] Transgender and other "identity extremists" as a tool of pushing blue collar voters to Republican Party
Jan 03, 2020 | crookedtimber.org
EB 12.31.19 at 3:58 pm ( 19 )
@ Tim #3: Totally. Already, 20% of immigrants voted for Trump. Even somewhere between 12 and 15% of African-American men voted for him. Not because they like him, but because they don't identify with the rhetoric of the left. And I say this as a longstanding member of the left.The highly exclusionary mottoes of the various identity-based groups that the Democrats provide a home for are working against us -- "the future is female," "gender is not binary and not fixed," "the problem of whiteness," the extreme insistence on equality of outcomes over equality of opportunity -- these are all pushing parts of the natural Democratic constituency away and into the arms of the Republicans (or into a stance of not voting at all).
And the rhetoric around economic issues is not helping either. Voters are not stupid; they realize that free college, college loan forgiveness, Medicare for all, and massive spending on housing are not going to happen all at once given the makeup of congress. They are not hearing enough from the Democratic primary candidates about policy changes that can realistically happen in the next 4 years.
[Jan 02, 2020] Intersectionality vs dominant identity politics
Highly recommended!
This stupid idea of "intersectionality" is just a fig leaf on dangerous government policy
Notable quotes:
"... Being labeled a conspiracist is actually not that bad, as probably 80% of major conspiracies (the term invented by CIA to discredit the opposition to Warren commission findings) proved to be the most adequate, albeit "politically incorrect" explanations of the events in question. They are just the explanations that undermine the establishment narrative. Right now most people (around 61% of voters and 71% of independents) believe that CIA operatives at senior levels played active role in JFK assassination. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-one-thing-in-politics-most-americans-believe-in-jfk-conspiracies/ ..."
"... the left, as a movement, is going through a prolonged identity crisis and that his group, instead, intends to stick to the original values, such as class warfare. ..."
"... The right-wingers' major gains from the working class are, according to Littorin, a token of widespread dissatisfaction with liberal economic migration that leads to "low-wage competition" and the "ghettoisation of communities", a development that "only benefits major companies". ..."
"... Littorin described multiculturalism, LGBT issues and the climate movement as state ideologies that are "rammed down people's throats". According to him, phenomena like LGBT-certification and the cult around 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg and "other -isms" happen at the expense of the real issues, such as income equality. ..."
"... "Pride, for instance, has been reduced to dealing with sexual orientation. We believe that human dignity is primarily about having a job and having pension insurance that means that you are not forced to live on crumbs when you are old," Littorin explained. ..."
"... 20th-century Communism died with the Soviet Union, it has never been successfully updated for the 21st century ..."
"... similar thoughts in an opinion piece called "Socialists don't belong to the left", accusing the mainstream left of completely abandoning its base , switching from the working class to "parasitic grant-grabbing layers within the middle class". ..."
Jan 02, 2020 | crookedtimber.org
As I see it, intersectionality combines a recognition that people are oppressed both through the economic structures of capitalism and as members of various subordinate groups with a rejection of both:
- "essentialist" identity politics, based on the claim that some particular aspect of identity (gender, race, sexuality, disability etc) should trump all others; and
- "working class" politics, presented as a politics of universal liberation, but reduced by the failure of revolutionary Marxism to another kind of identity politics (I took this formulation from Don Arthur on Twitter. I had something to say about class and Marxism a while back)
likbez 01.02.20 at 1:11 am (no link)
Jake Gibson 01.01.20 at 3:49 pm @35Here, I thought likbez was just a social reactionary, now I find he/she is also an infowars style conspiracist.
This is an ad hominem attack and as such is without merits.
Being labeled a conspiracist is actually not that bad, as probably 80% of major conspiracies (the term invented by CIA to discredit the opposition to Warren commission findings) proved to be the most adequate, albeit "politically incorrect" explanations of the events in question. They are just the explanations that undermine the establishment narrative. Right now most people (around 61% of voters and 71% of independents) believe that CIA operatives at senior levels played active role in JFK assassination. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-one-thing-in-politics-most-americans-believe-in-jfk-conspiracies/
So IMHO if a person views Russiagate as a color revolution against Trump run by intelligence agencies and Ukrainegate as attempt to replicate 2018 success with Mueller witch hunt on a new level by neoliberal Democrats led by Pelosi and Schumer, this suggests some attempt of independent thinking, and some level of resistance to neoliberal groupthink. Which may be a bridge too far, but in general is not that bad, even if wrong.
The opposite camp that does not question the establishment narrative, especially as for Russiagate (and related false flag operations such as DNC leak converted by Crowdstrike into Russian hack using CIA malware, probably from Vault 7 exposed by Wikileaks and the creation of Gussifer 2.0 fake personality ) can be called a camp of neoliberal lemmings, or victims of neoliberal brainwashing, your choice ;-)
Also for an Infowars adept I have friends in strange places -- a faction of Swedish communists -- which somehow managed to replicate my views almost to a tee ;-)
Almost half of the members of the Communist Party in Malmö are resigning. Instead, they plan establish a new workers' party that doesn't put as much emphasis on things like multiculturalism, LGBT issues and climate alarmism, which have become the staples and rallying calls of today's left.
Nils Littorin, one of the defectors, explained to Lokaltidningen that today's left has become part of the elite and has come to "dismiss the views of the working class as alien and problematic". Littorin suggested that the left, as a movement, is going through a prolonged identity crisis and that his group, instead, intends to stick to the original values, such as class warfare.
"They don't understand why so many workers don't think that multiculturalism, the LGBT movement and Greta Thunberg are something fantastic, but instead believe we are in the 1930s' Germany and that workers who vote [right-wing] Sweden Democrats have been infected by some Nazi sickness," he explained to Lokaltidningen.
The right-wingers' major gains from the working class are, according to Littorin, a token of widespread dissatisfaction with liberal economic migration that leads to "low-wage competition" and the "ghettoisation of communities", a development that "only benefits major companies".
According to Littorin, one of the underlying problems is a "chaotic" immigration policy that has led to cultural clashes, segregation and exclusion due to an uncontrolled influx from parts of the world characterised by honour culture and clan mentalities.
Littorin described multiculturalism, LGBT issues and the climate movement as state ideologies that are "rammed down people's throats". According to him, phenomena like LGBT-certification and the cult around 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg and "other -isms" happen at the expense of the real issues, such as income equality.
"Pride, for instance, has been reduced to dealing with sexual orientation. We believe that human dignity is primarily about having a job and having pension insurance that means that you are not forced to live on crumbs when you are old," Littorin explained.
The goal, according to Littorin is to enter Malmö City Council by 2022. The name of the party remains undetermined, but Littorin stressed that the word "Communist" will no longer be present.
It's a word drawn to the dirt, a nasty word today, and not entirely undeservedly. In communist parties, there is this risk of elitism, self-indulgence, and a belief that a certain avant-garde should lead a working class that does not know its own best interests, instead of asking people what they want.
20th-century Communism died with the Soviet Union, it has never been successfully updated for the 21st century but has been stuck in 100-year-old books. But the principles that Marx formulated, they still apply to me," Littorin concluded.
Earlier this week, Markus Allard, the leader of the left-wing Örebro Party expressed similar thoughts in an opinion piece called "Socialists don't belong to the left", accusing the mainstream left of completely abandoning its base , switching from the working class to "parasitic grant-grabbing layers within the middle class".
[Jan 02, 2020] SJWs As Bourgeois Bolshies by Rod Dreher •
Notable quotes:
"... In my book, I identify two main factors that make the "soft totalitarianism" we're drifting into different from the hard totalitarianism of the communist years. One is the vastly greater capabilities of surveillance technology, and its penetration into daily life in this current stage of capitalism. The other is the pseudo-religion of Social Justice, the holy trinity of which is Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. The mathematician James Lindsay last year wrote an insightful essay analyzing Social Justice ideology as a kind of postmodern religion ("faith system," he writes). Reading Slezkine on Bolshevism illuminates this with new depth. ..."
"... To be clear, Social Justice religion is not the same thing as Bolshevism, which conquered a nation and turned it into a charnel house. But the psychological dynamics are so similar that I can understand now why Soviet-bloc emigres feel in their bones that something wicked is coming, and coming fast. ..."
"... The Marxist faith system prophesied a worldwide conflagration -- Revolution -- that would see the saints (the Proletariat) cleanse the world of the wicked (the Bourgeoisie) and their false religion (Capitalism). The Revolution would establish Communism: a paradise in which the state would wither away, because the cause of man's alienation would have been dealt with. Marx despised religion, but he did not believe that his system was religious at all. It was, he taught, entirely scientific -- thus making Marxism entirely compatible with what Enlightenment-era elites believed was the prime source of authority. ..."
"... Here's an interesting difference: from what I can tell, most SJWs don't have a clearly envisioned utopia ..."
"... They don't know; all they know is that these things must come to pass, and will come to pass. We have to first destroy the old world and its corrupt structures. From the point of view of someone who stands to be smashed by these revolutionaries, it doesn't really matter whether or not they have a plan for what to do after you're overthrown. ..."
"... Here's another interesting difference, and an important one: SJWs may want to destroy the oppressive practices, but unlike the Bolsheviks, they don't want to destroy the institutions of society. Rather, they want to conquer them and administer them . The religion of Social Justice has already conquered the university, as James Lindsay points out, and is moving quickly into other institutions: media (the NYT is its Pravda ), law, tech, entertainment, and corporate America. The Social Justice faith system can be easily adapted by the institutions of bourgeois capitalism -- a fact that conceals its radicalism. ..."
"... The people who have lived in societies suffused with this kind of ideology -- emigres from Soviet-bloc countries -- can see through the veil. With this new book I'm working on, I'm going to do my best to help readers see through their eyes. Meanwhile, if you are really interested in the Russian Revolution, I strongly urge you to read The House Of Government -- all 1,128 pages of it. Yuri Slezkine is a masterful storyteller. It reads like a novel. ..."
"... even evil men respect great writers sometimes. ..."
"... The main difference between the Bolsheviks and SJWs is gender and class. ..."
Oct 22, 2019 | www.theamericanconservative.com
LGBT Pride poster in Soviet Style ( Design Boom ) I'm reading one of the best books I've ever seen, historian Yuri Slezkine's The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution . It's a massive -- over 1,000 pages -- history of the Bolshevik movement, focusing on the people who lived in a vast apartment building constructed across the Moskva River from the Kremlin, for party elites. In the 1930s, during the purges, it was the most dangerous address in the country. The secret police came for people there all the time.
The book has given me a breakthrough in understanding why so many people who grew up under communism are unnerved by what's going on in the West today, even if they can't all articulate it beyond expressing intense but inchoate anxiety about political correctness. Reading Slezkine , a UC-Berkeley historian, clarifies things immensely. Let me explain as concisely as I can. All of this is going into the book I'm working on, by the way.
In my book, I identify two main factors that make the "soft totalitarianism" we're drifting into different from the hard totalitarianism of the communist years. One is the vastly greater capabilities of surveillance technology, and its penetration into daily life in this current stage of capitalism. The other is the pseudo-religion of Social Justice, the holy trinity of which is Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. The mathematician James Lindsay last year wrote an insightful essay analyzing Social Justice ideology as a kind of postmodern religion ("faith system," he writes). Reading Slezkine on Bolshevism illuminates this with new depth.
To be clear, Social Justice religion is not the same thing as Bolshevism, which conquered a nation and turned it into a charnel house. But the psychological dynamics are so similar that I can understand now why Soviet-bloc emigres feel in their bones that something wicked is coming, and coming fast.
I'm going to give a brief overview of the ideas in this part of Slezkine's book. Slezkine describes the Bolsheviks as "millenarian sectarians preparing for the apocalypse." He gives a short history of apocalyptic sects, which he said began in the Axial Age , the period between the 8th and the 3rd centuries BC that saw parallel developments in civilizations -- Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern, Greco-Roman -- that caused a fundamental shift in human consciousness. The Axial Age introduced some concepts that are still with us today, including the idea that history is linear. Religion and philosophical systems of the Axial Age developed a sense of separation from the Real (that is, what is material), and the Ideal (what is transcendent). They also introduced the idea that time would culminate in a final battle between Good and Evil that would result in the End of History and the everlasting reign of Justice. The rich will be conquered, and the poor will triumph.
Slezkine writes at some length about these themes in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), but points out that they also existed in parallel in other religions of the era. The two Abrahamic religions that emerged from Axial Age Judaism -- Christianity and Islam -- modified these same concepts for themselves. The Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible is the standard Western account of the Apocalypse, but not the only one.
In the 16th century, the radical Protestant theologian Thomas Müntzer , leader of an apocalyptic Reformation sect, led an armed revolt against the Catholic Church, Martin Luther, and feudal authority. He and his followers believed the Last Days were upon the world, and that revolutionary violence was necessary to prepare for them.
These movements, says Slezkine, often depend on the virtuous mutually surveilling each other to keep everyone in line. Calvin's Geneva was like this, and had laws prescribing the death penalty for relatively minor violations of its purity code. In the 17th century, the English Puritan movement under
ThomasOliver [the mistake was mine -- RD] Cromwell (the "Puritan Moses") was in this same vein.The Enlightenment birthed apocalyptic millenarianism without God. Slezkine doesn't mention him, but I want to put in a plug for the book Black Mass by the English political philosopher John Gray, which I wrote about here. Gray is an atheist, but he cannot stand the militant atheism of people like Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens. In the book, Gray writes about how the instinct for utopia, born out of religion, keeps surfacing in the West, even without God. Nothing is more human, he writes, than to be prepared to kill and die to secure meaning in life. More Gray:
Those who demand that religion be exorcised from politics think this can be achieved by excluding traditional faiths from public institutions; but secular creeds are formed from religious concepts, and suppressing religion does not mean it ceases to control thinking and behaviour. Like repressed sexual desire, faith returns, often in grotesque forms, to govern the lives of those who deny it.
Slezkine writes that this same apocalyptic millenarianism erupted in anti-Christian form in the French Revolution. The Jacobins were Enlightenment apocalyptics, believing in the triumph of Reason, Science, and Virtue. And they were proto-Bolsheviks. Robespierre, in a 1794 speech to the National Assembly, praised "virtue, without which terror is destructive; terror, without which virtue is impotent. The Terror is nothing but justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is thus an emanation of virtue."
In 19th century America, millenarianism took more gentle forms, but was still popular. Baptist preacher William Miller prophesied the end of the world in 1843, and reached a national audience with his forecast of doom. It didn't happen, but his work gave rise to the Adventist movements, which are still with us today. Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter-Day Saints faith, was another millenarian -- a more successful one.
Slezkine says that apocalyptic millenarianism in 19th century Europe often took the form of nationalism. Karl Marx advocated German nationalism as the first step in the worldwide communist revolution. Following Hegel, History was Marx's god. Slezkine:
[F]aith in progress is just as basic to modernity as the Second Coming was to Christianity ('progressive' means 'virtuous' and 'change' means 'hope'). 'Totalitarianism' is not a mysterious mutation: it is a memory and a promise; an attempt to keep hope alive.
By "totalitarianism," he means the system by which apocalyptic millenarians enforce the conditions they believe will constitute the New Jerusalem -- the utopia in which their sect believes.
The Marxist faith system prophesied a worldwide conflagration -- Revolution -- that would see the saints (the Proletariat) cleanse the world of the wicked (the Bourgeoisie) and their false religion (Capitalism). The Revolution would establish Communism: a paradise in which the state would wither away, because the cause of man's alienation would have been dealt with. Marx despised religion, but he did not believe that his system was religious at all. It was, he taught, entirely scientific -- thus making Marxism entirely compatible with what Enlightenment-era elites believed was the prime source of authority.
In Russia of the late 19th century, there was a great deal of apocalyptic fervor, and, of course, a number of Marxist and other left-wing revolutionary groups. The Bolsheviks were the most ruthless and disciplined of them all. Slezkine says it doesn't matter whether the faith of the Bolsheviks was really a religion or not. The fact is, it functioned like one. If religion is a set of agreements about sacred realities, though sacred realities believed to be objectively true, and the community organized around those beliefs, then every state on earth is religious. The Bolshevik "faith" united people, focused them around what Slezkine calls "the ultimate conditions of their existence," and told them what they had to do.
For the pre-revolutionary Bolsheviks, the priests and the prophets were their intellectuals, who were "religious about being secular." Writes Slezkine: "A conversion to socialism was a conversion to the intelligentsia, to a fusion of millenarian faith and lifelong learning."
The Bolshevik faith was initially spread among the intellectuals primarily through reading groups. Once you adopted the Marxist faith, everything else in life became illuminated. The intellectuals went into the world to preach religion to the workers. These missionaries, says Slezkine, appealed to and tried to intensify hatred in the hearts of their listeners. They spoke to the moral sense within the common people, and gave them what, if taken in a strictly religious sense, would be called prophetic revelations.
The pre-revolutionary Bolsheviks denounced "Philistines" -- people who are sunk in their everydayness, and lack revolutionary consciousness. It is chilling to read the lines of description they had for people like this. Slezkine calls the Philistines the "stock antipode of the intelligent" -- that is, the kind of person that a member of the intelligentsia saw as his exact opposite. In pre-revolutionary Russia, the intelligentsia saw themselves as a kind of secular priesthood. The way they wrote about their enemies, and the way they rhapsodized about revolution, was utterly fanatical and inhuman. Slezkine:
The revolutionaries were going to prevail because of the sheer power of their hatred. It cleansed the soul and swelled like the flood of the real day.
The "real day" is the day of Apocalypse, when the truth is fully made manifest, and all evil, injustice, and lies are cleansed from the earth. It would come about through "sacred fury." Slezkine quotes Bolshevik memoirs recalling the revolutionary days of 1917-18. Pure ecstasy, like the day of Pentecost in the New Testament.
Slezkine draws this interesting distinction:
Marx and Engels were not utopians – they were prophets. They did not talk about what a perfect system of social order should be and how and why it should be adopted or tested; they knew with absolute certainty that it was coming – right now, all by itself, and thanks to their words and deeds.
The Bolsheviks, however, did have a complex plan for creating utopia. Reading Slezkine, you can't help but be impressed by the power and discipline that Lenin and his lieutenants exercised. He was one of the most evil men who ever lived, Lenin -- Slezkine's accounts of Bolshevik mass murder of class enemies on Lenin's orders make Robespierre's bloodthirstiness seem like amateur hour. But he was a true revolutionary genius.
For young people in pre-revolutionary Russia, being part of these leftist groups "gave one a great sense of purpose, power, and belonging." Note this: one reason for the advance of revolutionary consciousness is that parents, despite depending on the stability of Tsarist autocracy, would not turn away from their radicalized children. Slezkine: "The 'students' were almost always abetted at home while still in school and almost never damned when they became revolutionaries."
Bolshevism in power tried to destroy the traditional family, seeing it as an incubator of capitalism. Slezkine writes about how this form of Bolshevik radicalism had to give way to a more conservative ideology of the family, because it caused problems that Soviet society could not deal with.
In power, Bolsheviks carried out apocalyptic destruction of the old order, including the mass murder of class enemies. I have just now arrived at the point in Slezkine's narrative in which he describes the "Great Disappointment" -- a term (borrowed from the Millerites) for the experience of the New Jerusalem not having arrived as promised. As I understand it, Slezkine will describe the homicidal spasms of the 1930s, under Stalin, as the vengeful Bolshevik reaction to utopia's failure. Utopia can only have failed because its proselytes were weak in faith -- and therefore deserve to be punished for their infidelity.
So, what does this have to do with our own Social Justice Warriors? There are clear parallels. Again, I encourage you to read James Lindsay's analysis of the postmodern faith system of Social Justice for more. I believe that this is what those who lived under communism intuit from the Social Justice Warriors -- I mean, why it frightens them:
Like the early Bolsheviks, the SJWs are radically alienated from society. They regard ordinary people as the intelligents regarded the so-called Philistines: with visceral contempt.
Justice depends on group identity. For Marxists, the line between Good and Evil ran between classes: the Proletariat and the Peasants on one side, the Bourgeoisie on the other. Marxism sees justice as entirely a matter of taking power away from the Bourgeoisie, and giving it to the revolutionary classes. Some in the bourgeoisie acquired revolutionary consciousness, and aided the Revolution.
Similarly, for the SJWs, the line also passes between groups, based on group identity. The Oppressors are whites, males, capitalists, heterosexuals, and Christians. The Oppressed are ethnic minorities, women, anti-capitalists, LGBTs, atheists, and other "marginalized" people. Justice is about taking power from the Oppressors and giving it to the Oppressed. Some among the Oppressors acquire revolutionary consciousness and aid the revolution; they are called "allies," and practice "allyship."
Social Justice Warriors, like the early Bolsheviks, are intellectuals whose gospel is spread by intellectual agitation. It is a gospel that depends on awakening and inspiring hatred in the hearts of those it wishes to induce into revolutionary consciousness. This is why it matters immensely that they have established their base within universities, where they can train those who will be going out to work in society's institutions in ideologized hatred.
SJWs believe that science is on their side, even when their claims are unscientific. They are doing the old post-Enlightenment utopian trick of making essentially religious claims, but claiming that they are objectively true. Quote from a Times story: "We're all born nonbinary. We learn gender."
SJWs are utopians who believe that Progress requires smashing all the old forms for the sake of liberation. After we are freed from the chains that bind us, we will experience a new form of life. From a June 4 New York Times Magazine story on destroying gender binaries :
Our talk shifted again from the past to the future. Jacobs spoke about foreseeing a time when people passing each other on the street wouldn't immediately, unconsciously sort one another into male or female, which even Jacobs reflexively does. "I don't know what genders are going to look like four generations from now," they added, allowing that they might sound utopian, naïve. "I think we're going to perceive each other as people. The classifications we live under will fall by the wayside."
Among the voices of the young, there are echoes and amplifications of Jacobs's optimism, along with the stories of private struggle. "There are as many genders as there are people," Emmy Johnson, a nonbinary employee at Jan Tate's clinic, told me with earnest authority. Johnson was about to sign up for a new dating app that caters to the genderqueer. "Sex is different as a nonbinary person," they said. "You're free of gender roles, and the farther you can get from those scripts, the better sex is going to be." Their tone was more triumphal: the better life is going to be. "The gender boxes are exploding," they declared.
In the case of transgender SJWs, parents can become the greatest advocates for their children, as in pre-revolutionary Russia with the radical youth. A distressed parent of a female-to-male transgender told me that in her child's high school, the pressure on parents from other parents to suppress all doubts about transgenderism was intense. Here, from that same NYT Magazine piece I quote above, is another anecdote:
Kai grew up in the Maryland suburbs outside Washington; both his parents are economists. He came out to them as genderqueer a year and a half ago, and they, as he put it, were willing "to step through the door" he held wide for them, the door into his way of seeing himself. They read a piece of creative writing he gave them, a meditation using Dadaism to explicate the nonsense of either-or. His mother asked if she could buy him new clothes. "Shopping for clothes was something we'd always done," he said. "It was her way of saying, 'I want to keep being part of your life.' That was really stepping through the door. And then, all the nerve-rackingness of shopping in the men's section of a department store and trying on pants and worrying about how people are looking at you and reading your gender, it would have been really hard to do on my own. But my mother was there. Just like when we'd shopped together before. And that made it normal."
Here's an interesting difference: from what I can tell, most SJWs don't have a clearly envisioned utopia. What will the world look like when whiteness is once and for all defeated? When toxic masculinity has been fully vanquished? And so forth. They don't know; all they know is that these things must come to pass, and will come to pass. We have to first destroy the old world and its corrupt structures. From the point of view of someone who stands to be smashed by these revolutionaries, it doesn't really matter whether or not they have a plan for what to do after you're overthrown.
Here's another interesting difference, and an important one: SJWs may want to destroy the oppressive practices, but unlike the Bolsheviks, they don't want to destroy the institutions of society. Rather, they want to conquer them and administer them . The religion of Social Justice has already conquered the university, as James Lindsay points out, and is moving quickly into other institutions: media (the NYT is its Pravda ), law, tech, entertainment, and corporate America. The Social Justice faith system can be easily adapted by the institutions of bourgeois capitalism -- a fact that conceals its radicalism.
The people who have lived in societies suffused with this kind of ideology -- emigres from Soviet-bloc countries -- can see through the veil. With this new book I'm working on, I'm going to do my best to help readers see through their eyes. Meanwhile, if you are really interested in the Russian Revolution, I strongly urge you to read The House Of Government -- all 1,128 pages of it. Yuri Slezkine is a masterful storyteller. It reads like a novel.
johnhenry • 14 hours ago • edited
I cannot believe you, Rod. You cannot keep this up. You post twice as much as anyone else at AC, even more than the manic Trump-hating machine (I mention NO names). Go to bed, please. The only reason I'm still up (just an hour ahead of LA) is...well...never mind.Selvar • 13 hours ago
___
...but reading this (just getting started) reminds me that Bulgakov, author of The Master and Margarita was, allegedly, protected by Stalin, even though Stalin knew he was writing it. Maybe your friend, Prufrock, mentioned that recently. Either he or someone else I follow observed that even evil men respect great writers sometimes.The main difference between the Bolsheviks and SJWs is gender and class.C. L. H. Daniels Selvar • 5 hours agoThe Bolsheviks may have been led by intellectuals, but they did have genuine support among much of the industrial working class, especially the workers of Petrograd, the Latvian riflemen, as well as ethnic minorities in the Russian empire. The fact that they were utterly hated by much of the peasantry for their grain collection and collectivization efforts should not obscure that they did have a base of support within the proletariat.
The Bolsheviks were also an (almost) entirely male group. SJWs on the other hand are disproportionately female, sometimes radically so. Both of these factors mean that the potential of SJWs for mass revolutionary violence is probably relatively low. Of course, they can still harm society in other ways, but I doubt we will ever see an SJW version of Stalin or Che.
In some ways, the SJWs represent the hollowness of the modern left. There had always been vegans, sexual utopians, and organic fruit drinkers on the left, but at least in the past this bohemian influence had been tempered by trade unions and fraternal organizations of working class men. Now, it's bohemian hipster silliness all the way down.
While you may be correct about the potential for specifically revolutionary violence, that does not mean we cannot end up living under a repressive regime. Writing the neo-Bolsheviks off as "silly" is to gravely underestimate the potential consequences of their seizure of our civic institutions.JonF311 Selvar • 4 hours agoYes, we may find them intellectually unserious. They probably are, after all. That doesn't mean that they themselves are not deadly serious in their beliefs, however. Just because you don't share their irrational faith doesn't mean that you can't be forced to live according to its dictates should they gain enough power.
I wouldn't refer to vegans as "bohemians". If anything the program strikes me as decidedly ascetic, and one of the few such instances in modern culture.Meg Selvar • 3 hours agoTransgenderism may be an end run around this problem, a way for men - some of them quite aggressive - to get high status in the SJW hierarchy.William L. Anderson Selvar • an hour agoI believe that any group, once its members become convinced that they are saving the world and that anyone in their way is The Enemy to be Destroyed, can move into engaging in mass murder. Don't forget that the progressives of yesteryear not only supported the Bolsheviks, but every other communist movement and not only being morally superior, but superior in every other way, too.Joseph Jsoe Selvar • 29 minutes agoRead back issues of Sojourners after the Vietnam War ended. Jim Wallis either denies that mass executions were taking place or he hints that maybe those being executed deserved their fate. He also refused to condemn the murderous destruction of Cambodia while it was going on. I believe that it is only one step that a lot of these people have to take before they descend into the hell of mass killing.
The Bolsheviks were led by intellectuals? Maybe you mean unlearned half-intellectuals like Lenin.Greg • 11 hours agoIts Dostoevskys Demons that is the most insightful work from/about Russia on the psychology of political fanatics: Bolshevism, SJW, etc are all illumined by his masterpiece more so than analogies between social-political systems with very different etiologies.Landless Shepherd Greg • 4 hours agoDostoevsky clearly saw the coming chaos. The tsars should have paid more attention to him.minsredmash • 10 hours agoCould't agree more. The similarities of both branches of totalitarianism are staggering. Couple of points:Osse • 10 hours ago • editedIn Russia of the late 19th century, there was a great deal of apocalyptic fervor, and, of course, a number of Marxist and other left-wing revolutionary groups. The Bolsheviks were the most ruthless and disciplined of them all. Slezkine says it doesn't matter whether the faith of the Bolsheviks was really a religion or not. The fact is, it functioned like one.1) Bolsheviks didn't exist in 19th century. Bolsheviks faction of RSDRP - Russian social-democratic party was formed in 1903. They were not the most ruthless either - there were many other vicious parties and groups, more violent and outright crazy.
2) Revolutionaries in Russia acted like religious fanatics and did't hesitate to use Religious terminology either. Take the infamous 1869 "The Catechism of a Revolutionary" by Sergey Nechayev:
The revolutionary knows that in the very depths of his being, not only in words but also in deeds, he has broken all the bonds which tie him to the social order and the civilized world with all its laws, moralities, and customs, and with all its generally accepted conventions. He is their implacable enemy, and if he continues to live with them it is only in order to destroy them more speedilyLenin adored the man.
Dostoevsky's "Demons" were inspired by Nechayev and his followers.People on the liberal end of the spectrum regularly tell each other horror stories about how conservatives are just like fascists and draw parallels and so forth. There's a theory about authoritarian mindsets. And if you hang around comment sections on the political right you will see dehumanizing rhetoric about the left.Another Dave Osse • 4 hours agoProbably everybody is right about the terribleness of the Other political tribes.
The problem with that is that conservatives want to actually conserve the institutions and sensibilities that have served as the foundation of our civilization for centuries.kirthigdon • 9 hours ago
The Left wants to tear everything down because it feels good in the moment, damn the ultimate consequences, which more often than not, are negative.
They did it in Russia a century ago, and their spiritual heirs are doing it again here.There is a lot in Slezkine's book which is quite interesting, but a lot more which is merely tedious. Rod does us a big favor with this Reader's Digest version.Rob G • 9 hours agoKirt Higdon
The Year of Big Russian Books! Currently reading the newly translated Stalingrad by Grossman, to be followed by its better-known sequel Life and Fate . Now this. Oy vey!Rod Dreher Moderator Rob G • 5 hours agoSeriously though, this looks amazing.
This is what I was getting at the other day when I said on another thread that SJW-ism is fundamentalist. It's not actually Bolshie, because it stems too much from a godless version of Yankee Puritanism. But the parallels are definitely there.
I stumbled into the book because I had to make the 8-hour drive to Dallas, and was looking for a book on tape. Our local library had it available through the streaming app Libby. I had meant to read it earlier in my research, but was intimidated by its size. However, sitting in one spot for 16 hours over the course of a weekend, it's more approachable. On audiobook, it's 45 hours long! I ended up buying a paperback copy so I can continue. I'll be going to Russia next week, and might bring it with me.zosimas • 9 hours agoFr Seraphim Rose was writing and warning 40-50 years ago about precisely this phenom coming to America -- obviously not with prophetic specificity concerning the LGBT agenda, etc., -- the essentially religious aspect of secular millennialist movements, tracing them to the Anabaptist uprisings, the French Revolution, etc. Have you read his slim book 'Nihilism'?Rod Dreher Moderator zosimas • 5 hours agoI have not. I'll find it.John10 • 9 hours ago"they don't want to destroy the institutions of society. Rather, they want to conquer them and administer them"JonF311 John10 • 4 hours ago
Yes, that is the brilliant insight of the SJW and the modern left: No need to abolish capitalism, just get all the jobs in the HR department so you can indoctrinate all the employees.
Good insight about the apocalyptic style of the SJW. They indeed look for the progressive Son of Man from Heaven so to speak, who will lay the ax to the old tree of white/Christian/hetero culture and cast the bad fruit into the fire. Escape this via the Benedict Option? "Who said you could flee from the coming wrath?", their prophets will ask.However, HR work is increasingly outsourced these days. Not offshored- but staffed by temps and contractors, not firm employees.izzy • 8 hours ago" NYT is its Pravda"Rod Dreher Moderator izzy • 5 hours agoWhat an absurd claim. Fox News is much more akin to Pravda than the NYT ever would be. Fox literally runs non-stop propaganda for the president and attempts to cover for his corruption. NYT has never had that kind of relationship with any president that we know of. Hosts on Fox have massive conflicts of interest which they don't report (Hannity and his use of Cohen as his private lawyer). That is what a Pravda looks like.
Look, I'm a paid subscriber to the Times. I have to read it for the same reason Kremlinologists had to read Pravda. It really is Pravda for the Social Justice faith system.rymlianin Rod Dreher • 2 hours agoYears ago, the Washington Post was named "Pravda on the Potomac'. It still serves that purpose.Another Dave izzy • 4 hours agoThat you are this myopic regarding the Times makes Rod's point about Pravda better than he did.Conrad O'Connor • 8 hours ago
If you think the Times, or their writers and editors, has no conflict of interests, then there is no hope for you.
Seriously.I believe the Puritan Moses was Oliver, not Thomas, Cromwell.Rod Dreher Moderator Conrad O'Connor • 5 hours agoYou're right. I changed it. What's so funny is that as I was up late last night writing that post, I was thinking about a book Prof. Tighe sent me this year about Thomas Cromwell. I told myself to be sure not to make the mistake of putting Thomas's name where Oliver's should be. And I made that very mistake!JonF311 Conrad O'Connor • 4 hours agoI was going to point that out but figured someone else had beaten me to it.Nestorian • 8 hours ago • edited
The two Cromwells were akin (Thomas was a collateral ancestor to Oliver) but they were as different as could be. Thomas was a political nihilist who did whatever Henry VIII wanted, until he failed to anticipate the mercurial monarch and lost his head. Oliver was a bit of a fanatic, though with a few decent instincts (he stopped the looting of the royal tombs, and saved Westminster Abbey from demolition).Criticism of ideologies that embody millenarianism without God is all well and good. The problem is that the various politically conservative ideologies that also nominally orient themselves around a Judeo-Christian worldview consistently turn a blind eye to grave evils committed by members of the societal elites, in the name of whatever political and economic ideology they support instead.C. L. H. Daniels Nestorian • 4 hours agoThere is an absence of a courageously prophetic stand for truth and justice on the part of Christian elites and intellectuals. It so happens that many of the parties making such critiques adhere to an ideology embodying secular messianism, and this is then employed as a rationalization by Christian intellectuals to turn a blind eye to the evils in question in the service of their own pet political ideology.
Here are ongoing examples right now, picked almost at random, where such a prophetic witness is lacking:
- The ongoing slaughter and mass starvation in Yemen being caused by Saudi Arabia, and supported by the United States
- The betrayal of the Kurds (if being true to the promises made to them must come at the expense of American geopolitical interests, then this is what the Christian moral witness necessitates)
- The ongoing criminal violation of anti-trust laws by the medical industry involved in their refusal to make public the costs of their services
- The homicidal criminality of the Boeing executives who knowingly put a death-trap airliner into global circulation
- The homicidal drug-dealing criminality of pharmaceutical company executives who knowingly caused the opoiod crisis by employing a business model built on deliberately addicting peopleSecular messianism would lose a lot of its appeal and raison d'etre if the Christian intelligentsia would take from the secular messianists, and take upon themselves, the task of prophetically denouncing the criminality routinely engaged in by their society's power elite.
No one is bearing prophetic witness to those things, to use your term. Only a few Cassandras here and there. It's not just our Christian elites that fail here, it's all of them, left, right and center.Brasidas Nestorian • 4 hours agoPreach it brother..rob • 8 hours agoA picture is worth a thousand words. While it used to be that Communists were demeaned by associating with homosexuality, now homosexuals are demeaned by association with communism.Haigha • 8 hours agoOliver Cromwell was a very different guy from Thomas Cromwell. And the Lord Protector himself was actually rather tolerant and liberal for his times.JonF311 Haigha • 4 hours agoHe wasn't as crazy as, say, the Fifth Monarchy Men, but he did impose draconian moral regulations and he left his tolerance at home when he went to Ireland.turmarion Haigha • 2 hours agoOliver Cromwell wasn't so tolerant if you were Catholic or Irish or worked in the theater; and he was less tolerant and liberal than Charles I (who was executed) or Charles II, who thankfully ended the Puritan reign after Cromwell's death.Haigha turmarion • 44 minutes agoWell, he was more tolerant of Catholics than a lot of Catholics were of Protestants at the time (cf. massacres of Protestants in Ulster--let along continental Europe--and Cromwell's actions with respect to Maryland), more tolerant than his predecessors toward Jews, and more respectful of free conscience than most of his contemporaries. Anyway, my point is not that he was a saint or some kind of liberal before his time; just that he doesn't deserve to be categorized with Bolsheviks and Jacobins.Michael from Israel • 8 hours agoA Soviet emigre myself, I would like to point out that there is a silver lining here. Totalitarian ideologists may very well succeed at capturing power and inflict immeasurable harm on the societies they control. But the structures they erect will ultimately fall apart due to the major flaw of totalitarian / mythological thought: its denial of reality. The Nazis attacked the Soviet Union (whose totalitarianism was more beningn for its victim groups than the future envisaged by the Nazis for their racial enemies, though) believing they would be invincible because of their racial superiority. The Soviet Union entered an arms race with the United States believing its economy would be able to sustain it. If Post-Marxism succeeds at consolidating its power, its eventual downfall is virtually assured, too. Let's hope, it won't take 70 years.Matt in VA • 8 hours agoHere's another interesting difference, and an important one: SJWs may want to destroy the oppressive practices, but unlike the Bolsheviks, they don't want to destroy the institutions of society. Rather, they want to conquer them and administer them. The religion of Social Justice has already conquered the university, as James Lindsay points out, and is moving quickly into other institutions: media (the NYT is its Pravda), law, tech, entertainment, and corporate America. The Social Justice faith system can be easily adapted by the institutions of bourgeois capitalism -- a fact that conceals its radicalism.JonF311 Matt in VA • 4 hours agoDoes id-pol's total congruence with massive multinational consumer capitalism "conceal its radicalism," or does it rather point up the insane radicalism of global consumer capitalism? Western conservatives who embraced the free market out of fear of communism embraced something that is, or at least has the potential to be, as radical as communism is.
Identity politics are *the* way to manage and administer global consumer capitalist organizations and societies, since they function as a way of rendering populations legible to technocrats and unseen, unaccountable, untouchable administrators who work on computers, with spreadsheets. People can now be databased, can be put into "relational databases" and characterized with algorithm-friendly descriptors. People are rendered text-searchable; people are catalogued the same way a multinational corporation catalogues its products and the different pieces/ingredients components of each product.
Identity politics are ideal for global consumer capitalism for a number of other reasons, too. For one thing, they disintegrate ties of solidarity between members of families and between citizens of nations, and disintegrate historical communities as well, and even social or economic classes, by prioritizing market segmentation into discrete categories based on *self-creation* or self-satisfaction. For example, sexual identity -- sexual identity categories are aggressively emphasized because these are categories based on individual desire and appetites, and a sort of self-idealization.* And the emphasis on migrants/immigrants being superior or ideal members of a community because they *chose* to be where they are, they chose to move, rather than just staying where they were born.** But even market segmentation based on tastes like "I enjoy comedies" or "I enjoy tearjerkers" or "I like fantasy video games" vs. "I like first-person shooter games" is a form is categorization and disintegration based on personal preference and tastes. The point is that unchosen bonds or ties, and relational bonds or ties or classes, are to be disintegrated in favor of self-chosen self-actualizing categories.
(*Identity politics so loves and adores sexual identity "diversity" that it tolerates a particularly wide range of sexual self-categorization, 88 genders and 256 orientations or whatever, because what it loses in algorithmic legibility it gains in the sheer power of liberationist sexual self-identification to explode unchosen and strong affiliative bonds in favor of a radically atomized and self-focused individual, a perfect foot soldier with absolutely no counter-loyalties to anything other than the idpol regime/ideology.)
(**Note that both establishment Democrats AND establishment Republicans enthusiastically push and promote this idea that the person born on the other side of the world who moves to America tomorrow is BETTER and MORE AMERICAN than somebody who was born here, because of the active *choice* to come to the USA rather than just be some loser non-"dynamic" non-"innovative" schmuck who happened to be born within the country's borders and thus deserves no credit or regard whatsoever.)
As identity politics disintegrates unchosen and God-given bonds and ties and relational categories, in favor of "self-directed" "self-chosen" legible identity markers, it renders traditional left-wing goals and causes related to class solidarity and economic equality toothless and impotent, riven to pieces by the progressive stack; the solidarity that can sustain a picket line is shredded to pieces by the narcissistic self-created individual, who tells himself that he is BETTER than the picketers because whereas they call the strike-breakers "scabs," he sees them as morally superior and he would never be so mean and cruel as to dehumanize them in that way. Of course, the scabs are in actual truth meaningless to him except as symbols of his own superior moral worth, and the picketers are equally meaningless to him because he has no class solidarity and never subordinates himself willingly to the group on a class basis. He would far rather enjoy the narcissistic satisfaction of publishing a thinkpiece, for pennies, about how dehumanizing the language of "scabs" is, with his name on it, with his sheer goodness visible to all, than engage in the kind of class solidaristic activity that would mean subordination to a larger group of people some of whom are probably hopelessly behind the times in their thinking.
Identity politics were deployed during Occupy Wall Street to neuter it and they have been utilized by both the Democratic and Republican establishments to dissolve populations of problematic subjects into naked individuals atomized and self-actualized into totally dependent subjects of the system. Kevin Williamson and National Review telling problematically non-libertarian poor whites to sever ties with their communities and their homes, to "get a U-Haul" and go where the market wants them. Hillary Clinton saying "if we break up the big banks, will that end sexism? Will that end racism? Will that end homophobia?" Both National Review and Hillary Clinton want the atomized individual completely subject to money power, to the capitalists, to the financial class; National Review tells *its* audience that true conservatism, morality, and Christianity all demand it; Hillary Clinton tells her audience that true morality, progressivism, and liberality demand back-burnering systematic economic and political change of the kind that is national in character and requires class solidarity-- in favor of instead focusing on deliberately vague and endless efforts to stop "sexism" and "homophobia" and "racism" that of course will always have to be priorities forever since these things can never end as the idpol advocates themselves admit and which will be attempted via the policing and targeting and harrassment of ALL, including the poor, by ideological commissars and apparatchiks. The government/the demos/the state is not to be trained on the billionaires, to tackle them or correct them, but on all of us--WE are the problem. A politics of petty bureaucrats, snitches, informants, ideological policemen -- again, a politics that SEVERS ties and bonds between people in favor of the atomized and legible individual, the row of Excel spreadsheet column signifiers on some technocrats' massive file of humans rendered legible to the algorithm.
Identity politics is global consumer capitalism and the fact that neither establishment liberals nor conservatives can accept this since it shows that each is actually a lie and the opposite of what it pretends to be is why the whole system is felt to be both untouchably strong/unassailable and liable to full and total and sudden collapse. What does "The End of History" mean if not that there aren't really contesting/opposing powers anymore, that there isn't actually any more real conflict? On Day One in creative writing class you learn that there is no story, no narrative, at all, if there is no conflict.
Occupy did a pretty good job of neutering itself, rejecting any form of coherent leadership and spending its days in a drum-banging pot smoking daze. Wayne and Garth do political protest.Sergeant Prepper Matt in VA • 3 hours ago • editedIdentity politics are *the* way to manage and administer global consumer capitalist organizations and societies, since they function as a way of rendering populations legible to technocratsMatt in VA Sergeant Prepper • an hour agoYou could expand this into a pretty good follow-up to James C. Scott's "Seeing like a state" (if you will, "Seeing like a Social Justice Technocrat"), which presents the art of making unruly populations "legible" as the central concern of modern statecraft. There's an interesting difference between your argument and his, though: where you argue that the current version prefers people who are mobile and unattached to any particular location, Scott argues that "nomads and pastoralists (such as Berbers and Bedouins), hunter-gatherers, Gypsies, vagrants, homeless people, itinerants, runaway slaves, and serfs have always been a thorn in the side of states. Efforts to permanently settle these mobile peoples (sedentarization) seemed to be a perennial state project". Basically, the only way to make populations legible was to make them stay put. I guess that changed.
This is an interesting point. I would say that consumer capitalism cares little about nomads, vagrants, homeless people, etc., because there's no money in them. Why should consumer capitalism care about them? It feels no loyalty to a specific community and its people; it feels no loyalty to those who happen to exist somewhere in its proximity; it has no use for them. I mean, Seeing Like A State is written from a Cold War perspective, when American cities had real, serious problems with criminal activity from poor and marginal people, and it was affecting even the upper middle class and the rich. But the Cold War ended, and at basically exactly the same time things started to improve in American cities (the ones that matter, anyway, like NYC and Washington DC).Aleks • 8 hours agoMaybe Seeing Like A State is more concerned with the way a more robustly national -- that is, not completely globalist -- elite or ruling class conducts itself, but here at The End of History, I'm not sure things are the same. If vagrants, homeless people, itinerants, etc. are not terribly legible, nobody cares, because they aren't worth anything anyway. They don't buy things, they can't be farmed for debt payments, and they probably can't even be used effectively as vote banks.
Conversely, the middle-class single man or woman whose job is everything to him or her and who conspicuously consumes -- *this* is where the money is. The single person whose entire lifestyle is about consumption -- the right foods, the right products, travel, clothes, etc. -- and whose entire focus is on their career -- this is the ideal for the multinational corporation. Any roots, or ties to specific places or communities, will interfere with this ideal specimen's total devotion to and capture by consumerism.
I guess what I'm saying is there's "Seeing Like A State," and then there's Seeing Like a Multinational Corporation, or a globalist organization. The former might want itinerants to plunk down somewhere. The latter knows that there's no real escape *physically*, nowhere "out of reach" short of going into outer space, and that the more people get moved around the more shorn they are of particularist, illegible-to-the-market bonds, ties, and obligations.
One can understand the appeal of Marxism, and to a greater degree socialism. The pseudo-spiritual parallel of "the last will be first" akin to Christianity is perhaps the greatest attractor to the social justice minded individual. While I don't think we will experience anything like revolutionary Russia in this country, I truly feel there are similarities to our present day. Namely, the envy and vindictiveness which has become so commonplace in our daily lives. There is a general anxiety and anger out there which is manifesting itself through economic realities such as the growing wealth gap. You combine this with the growing aversion to institutions such as the family and religion which are purveyors of traditional hierarchy, and this is laying the foundation for the far-left in this country to essentially weaponize their ideology on to a younger generation. And just like the Bolsheviks, it is all centered in envy, vindictiveness, anger and bloodthirsty want of power in order to bring about a utopia where the last will now be first. That was marxist communism, and as Rod continues to point out, these components are slowly revealing themselves in a soft totalitarianism through which the invocation of "science" is being used to chip away at civic virtue, decency and the greater public good. There are indeed parallels to revolutionary Russia.Brasidas Aleks • 4 hours agoThanks for pointing this out. The "last shall be first" end-point is exactly the inverted hierarchy of the SJW.Rod Dreher Moderator Brasidas • 2 hours agoSo what are we saying? We're not supposed to take it literally? We don't really mean it? That the whole "Blessed are the poor.".. ends with an Emily Littela "Never mind"? Or is it just that we want to get there on our own bus... With our own idea of who is marginalized?
Everyone wants their own personal Jesus I guess.
BTW - by the way, I think one of the weakest components of Rod's thesis is the refusal to weigh the power of industrial, finance and late-stage capitalism and it's corollary effects on culture. Unless one is willing to conflate Liberalism with Capitalism there is no excuse for ignoring its overwhelming impact on culture and civic morality.
Show's what you know. I'm devoting an entire chapter to Woke Capitalism, and how so many conservatives are blind to the threat from it because we are programmed by our past to think of the State as the only threat.Brasidas Rod Dreher • 30 minutes agoI'm chuckling here for a number of reasons. I am pleased and apprehensive at the same time.JonF311 Aleks • 4 hours agoI may be wrong but I was thinking this just before you responded. The reason you guys - conservatives and traditionalists - lost was because while your side was investing in retrograde politicians, megachurches and tv evangelists; gold as a great investment; guns and prepper equipment the secularists were investing in publishing, movies, film, literature, art, technology and education, i.e, mass media.
It had nothing to do with ideology. It was that nihilistic value-engine, corporate America, commoditizing and monetizing everything from Air Jordans to pornography to in vitro fertilization - all of it. Daniel Bell was talking about this back in the 70's but you know this. It wasn't "woke" Capitalism that did this. It was just that good ole American capitalism chipping away at the culture dollar by dollar - along with all those concomitant trends in marketing, industrialization, communications, rural to urban and suburban migrations, etc.
You guys not only put your eggs in the wrong baskets but you gave them to the Republican Party, who cheered it on; "What's good for GM is good for America". By the time FOX rolled around it was too late. That's why the party had to spend so much time over the last couple decades on gerrymandering, voter suppression and r*tf&*$king election tactics.
"Woke" Capitalism is what happens when you pay attention to the wrong stuff and end up losing every battle before this one.
I'll be interested in what you have to say in the new book. Good luck with it.
The Bolsheviks only came to power because Russia had been ruled by incompetents for time out of mind, and things fell apart badly during the debacle of WWI. Radicals of both Left and Right we shall always have with us. They will not be a threat as long as our leaders are reasonably capable, government is somewhere within hailing distance of popular consensus, and no external catastrophe sinks us.Rod Dreher Moderator JonF311 • 2 hours agoYou're wrong. The radicals are taking over through institutional capture.TomD • 7 hours agoHere's an interesting difference: from what I can tell, most SJWs don't have a clearly envisioned utopia. What will the world look like when whiteness is once and for all defeated?Herenow • 7 hours agoMany of us can thank God, then, that SJW's understand and accept the carcinogenic risks of tanning booths.
I understand the parallels, and you do a good job of explaining them. But it seems a little forced. Cutting to the basic difference - the Bolsheviks were more than prepared to use violence, terror and intimidation to crush the old order, techniques used on a scale rarely if ever seen before in human history, over decades. I just can't see SJWs (of which I have a couple of sympathizers in my immediate family) getting to grips with the business end of an assault rifle or concentration camp. To me, they seem just another group of middle class nags, wokier-than-though types who are more likely to irritate me to death than actually kill me for believing the wrong things. Although the image of drag queen story hour with added Kalashnikovs and gallows does have a certain dark, Pythonesque appeal.Rod Dreher Moderator Herenow • 5 hours agoRight, there's a difference between hard totalitarianism and soft totalitarianism. But the parallels are real, and significant.stephen pickard Rod Dreher • 3 hours agoPoint of interest, do you have a vision of what it be like if whiteness is once and for defeated. You should have a vision so that you can point out the ultimate horror of what they want to achieve. I never really bought into the SJW conspiracy but reading more of your posts I am rethinking this issue. Still not convinced it is a movement with any staying power.conradg Rod Dreher • 2 hours agoThe difference is that there's no such thing as soft totalitarianism.Gaius1Gracchus Herenow • 4 hours agoAll totalitarianism is hard. What you call "soft totalitarianism" is simply a set of social ethics you don't like, that make life uncomfortable for people with a very different set of social ethics. In other words, it's the price of living in a non-totalitarian society where people get to accept the values they like and reject those they don't. Not a perfect society, but definitely not a totalitarian one.
In the 60s, the various radicals, including the Weathermen and Black Power groups, were supported by white collar leftists, no matter the violence of the era. Today, antifa is supported and aided by Democratic politicians and bureaucrats in its violence.Another Dave Herenow • 3 hours agoMuch of the antifa are radicalized wealthy college kids LARPing as revolutionaries, but they are violent nonetheless.
Likewise, BLM engaged in considerable violence in various protests.
They are all proto Bolsheviks, sure of their own righteousness as they support violence against opponents ("punching Nazis", throwing cement milkshakes, and the like).
People, more than a few, are losing their jobs and/or social standing because of this insanity, and their numbers increase daily, as does the number of people who keep their mouths shut because of fear of job loss.TStephen Herenow • 3 hours ago
This issue is not to be met by shoulder shrugging and indifference.
now is the time for average people to begin speaking up and out whenever this nonsense rise to the surface.Have you been paying attention to the "black shirts" that are terrorizing anyone who dares wear a MAGA hat, or attend a conservative rally of any sort?Madeleine Birchfield • 7 hours ago
There's a growing trend among the SJW crowd to arm themselves, and organize for violence.
Don't underestimate the willingness of the left to commit violence on a grand scale.In Europe, the alienated turn towards Islamic Radicalism or various forms of ethno-nationalism. In the North of Ireland, those alienated turn towards either the IRA (if Irish and Catholic) or the UVF (if British or Protestant). How are the social justice warriors in the United States any different than the various types of bourgeoise European ethno-nationalism, such as Catalan, Scots, or Irish nationalism?Aabbea • 7 hours agoThere is no significant difference between the status of a serf growing food for his feudal lord and someone living under a Socialist system where the government runs everything. In both systems a person can't work for himself, nor does he own any land. Socialism is a trap invented by the old feudal elite to fool people into surrendering all the advantages they got from the advances of the last few centuries and going back to new form of Feudalism.Brasidas Aabbea • 5 hours agoGosh, you don't work for an hourly wage do you?JonF311 Aabbea • 4 hours agoThe feudal lords were much more the equivalent of capitalist CEOs than of comissars.tach1 Aabbea • 3 hours agoYes, the ability to own property -- and especially to own income-producing property -- along with the rule of law to protect that property are the keys to society-wide prosperity.Ivan the Organized • 6 hours agoFrom the point of view of someone who stands to be smashed by thesekingdomofgodflag.info • 6 hours ago
revolutionaries, it doesn't really matter whether or not they have a
plan for what to do after you're overthrown.That lack of a plan, that lack of realization that utopia is unattainable on this earth, means that sooner or later everyone stands to be "smashed by the revolutionaries". While we've long congratulated ourselves on the uniqueness of the American Revolution, an alternate view appears increasingly tenable, viz. that it is merely an imitation, per augmentationem , of the same basic theme in the grand prolation canon of revolutions.
Nothing is more human, he writes, than to be prepared to kill and die to secure meaning in life.Brasidas • 6 hours agoNothing is more human than to be prepared to kill and die to secure dominance and glory. Jesus expects his followers to resist their natural inclinations resulting from The Fall.
So this is a problem with "secular millenarians" but not religious millenarians? Of course, reframing secular left politics into an apocalyptic religious frame work requires it. But it doesn't necessarily make it so. It may accelerate it.LeeInWV Brasidas • 4 hours agoAnd "The revolutionaries were going to prevail because of the sheer power of their hatred. It cleansed the soul and swelled like the flood of the real day." could just as easily apply to Trump's base. The contempt and schadenfreude at Trump rallies is so thick you can cut it with a knife.
In fact, many of those in the center and the Left frame the current moment in terms of Weimar and the rise of National Socialism. The parallels have been noted by more than a few historians. You've noted them.
So why is this apocalypse more likely than the other? After all Trump and his minions have been co-opting American institutions from the Court and Congress to law enforcement; intelligence; foreign policy, etc, etc, etc. The Left has the universities? What happens when they fall next? If not to this Trump then the next one.
This really reminds me of the old Chinese Finger Trap puzzle. The harder each opposing side pulls the more entrapped they become.
This really reminds me of the old Chinese Finger Trap puzzle. The harder each opposing side pulls the more entrapped they become.prodigalson Brasidas • 3 hours agoExcellent!
Bingo! And i fear this as well. We have the neo-Weimar neoliberal mostly fecklless hedonists of the left and the nascent growing *something* that will oppose them, or react to them. It's different and strange, it's right-wing but not really, and fascist but not really, and nationalist but not really. It's VERY dangerous though and growing.LeeInWV Brasidas • 4 hours agoSo i'm
This really reminds me of the old Chinese Finger Trap puzzle. The harder each opposing side pulls the more entrapped they become.prodigalson Brasidas • 3 hours agoExcellent!
Bingo! And i fear this as well. We have the neo-Weimar neoliberal mostly fecklless hedonists of the left and the nascent growing *something* that will oppose them, or react to them. It's different and strange, it's right-wing but not really, and fascist but not really, and nationalist but not really. It's VERY dangerous though and growing.FUBAR_007 • 6 hours agoSo i'm much more worried about the young men in the big black pick up trucks, back from multiple deployments, with the punisher stickers, and think blue line flags.
The mopey woke gender studies grad in HR may not be the long term threat the guy with the simmering and growing anger, and with the practical experience with long rifles, and with the peers who feel the same way, turn out to be.
What happens when instead of Trump, we get a Lenin or a Stalin, distinctly American, who can appeal to and organize these angry young men?
Either way, I'll work to peacefully oppose both these extremes, trust in Christ, work on turning the other cheek, spread the gospel, and focus on enduring to the end.
Here's an interesting difference: from what I can tell, most SJWs don't have a clearly envisioned utopia. What will the world look like when whiteness is once and for all defeated? When toxic masculinity has been fully vanquished? And so forth. They don't know;...Al Bundy • 5 hours agoWhich is why they are doomed to fail.
SJWs are trying to solve socio-economic problems with metaphysical, therapeutic solutions. Stigmatizing white skin and Western culture isn't going to provide economic investment to impoverished minority communities. Delegitimizing law enforcement won't reduce violent crime. Obliterating gender distinctions doesn't lead to equal pay for women or get more women and LGBT into STEM professions.
Their worldview is built on the fallacy that a better world can simply be willed into existence. It's analogous to the Underpants Gnome theory of profit.*
Emotion is not reality, and self-expression is no substitute for competence.
*For the uninitiated:
Play HideExcellent post, Rod. Very illuminating.florian albert • 5 hours agoTo round out the SJW religion, their Church Fathers are: Foucault, Butler, Derrida, Lacan, Said, etc. And like the worst aspects of Abrahamic religions, SJW theologians (ie, Sociologists, Studies professors, etc.) are prone to an idiotic, if often hilarious, textual fundamentalism.
Regarding the role of parents, Sailer recently posted about a Soviet "child saint" who snitched on his parents. A reminder that Faith comes before family.
I do not know if you have seen John Gray's excellent recent article - 'The deluded cult of social justice' - on the Unherd website.dono • 5 hours agoIf you have missed it - and bearing in mind how much material you are covering - you might have, it is well worth reading.
Best wishes for your fine work.
More and more has my mind been turning to my memories of the late fifties, when Russia was called the existential threat by my influencers. I was ten years old. Only much later did I learn of the HUAC and backlash against the "Red Scare". Only even later did I learn of men and ideas like Lincoln Steffens... in the 30's .."I have seen the future, and it works."Mark B. • 5 hours ago
And now, the existential warnings are emanating from both sides of Political World. It's a Bizarro version of deja vu.This is most interesting and insightfull once again. I will definitely buy your new book, once it arrives. One thing I would like to add: The SJWs know how to appeal to ordinary people and install hatred in their hearts by adressing REAL injustices and problems in society, just like the Bolsheviks did. Problems and injustices that those who reject and oppose SJW-religion often ignore (to their own future peril). For instance, SJWs are hammering on extreme and ever growing inequality. A thing ordinary people who need three McDonals-jobs to survive can relate to. Then there is Climate Disaster. A thing that will hit those ordinary people, who are already struggling, hardest.Khalid mir • 5 hours agoSimply put in general: When an intellectual stromtrooper-elite pushes a new faith in the mainstream, they need one or more levers. If the old faith is willfully blind to the existance of these levers, it propably deserves to die.
Haven't read all of this but I don't really think there's much utopian thinking left in the West - and especially amongst segments of the younger generation. If that's where you're going with this I think you're mistaken. Instead, we're living under the tyranny of the now, or 'quarterly capitalism'.Matt in VA Khalid mir • 5 hours agoByung Han's got some great work on this..the burnout society: a society that can't imagine a future and that must be pumped up on fictions, intoxicants, just to keep desire, and the system, going. Or, as G. Steiner acutely remarked: there are no new beginnings. So, there isn't really an acceleration of time but a fragmentation of it ( since there is no direction to it..no fulfilment of time).
I'm sure there's some 'revolutionary' zeal in some parts but I think fatigue, ennui, and a blasé attitude are equally if not more common. Yeah, like, whatever ( I hear you say).
Also, with so many people in debt I doubt they buy the idea of progress. For all the whirl of change, the factory remains ( Chesterton said). In fact, the mania for superficial change is almost an admission that real change ( utopian thinking) cannot come about.
My tuppence worth.
If you weren't making that point..profound apologies.
I agree with this. The point of identity politics is in fact *not* a revolutionary new regime or the establishment of a new dispensation--identity politics is so atomizing and disintegrating that it is unappealing to people to even think/fantasize of some shared new common destiny... identity politics is thoroughly bourgeois and capitalist, it is a rat race, it is climbing the corporate ladder, it is the "self" -- note well, the *self* -- as brand. At most identity politics looks forward to a world that resembles an international airport or the hotel and corporate convention center attached to such an airport-- not something people really actually want to spend much time fantasizing about.mjg235 • 5 hours agoYou should watch HBOs documentary of Theranos, because Silicon Valley is really the dominant force in the wokification of corporate America, which is far more significant than most SJW trends. There's a specific part that's fascinating, an experiment done by Dan Ariely where they design a payoff based on the outcome of a dice roll that is very easy to cheat. The twist: they had a lie detector strapped on. When the payoff simply was given to themselves, lying was infrequent and detectable. When they were told the money would be given to a charity of their choice, lying shot up and it was not detectable by the machine. Conclusion: believing in a cause will make people physically believe their own lies. It's a huge reason why startup founders have learned to bilk billions from credulous investors, and it's a huge reason why SJWs are now able to bilk liberals into legitimizing their increasing mania. It's all basically strategic bullshit, just like Theranos' completely nonfunctional technology, but for whatever reason it's worked for an entire decade.Sergeant Prepper mjg235 • 3 hours agoThis strategy has been enormously successful in the last decade, and corporate America is just bandwagoning. But they're bandwagoning mania and dishonesty, and often running organizations that serve much more vital businesses than chat apps and sales automation.
The twist: they had a lie detector strapped on.Hmmm • 5 hours agoI did not realize anyone still believe that a lie detector can actually detect lies, but as long as it was done for the good cause of scientific research, I guess it does no harm;-).
Anyway, if you enjoyed that movie, I highly recommend John Carreyrou's book about Theranos, which investigates the case in much more detail than the movie ( https://www.amazon.com/Bad-... ).
A couple of other authors to consider, from an older generation (born before WWII), writing along similar lines. I'm sure Slezkine refers to them:TISO_AX2 • 5 hours agoAndrzej Walicki (Marxism and the Leap to the Kingdom of Freedom)
Martin Malia (The Soviet Tragedy and other works)
Walicki is a bit less well known than Malia, but very worth reading in the context of your book, for his assessment of how certain ideas of what constitutes true freedom (as opposed to bourgeois liberalism) lead in practice to totalitarianism.
The people who have lived in societies suffused with this kind ofJohnInCA • 5 hours ago
ideology -- emigres from Soviet-bloc countries -- can see through the
veil.Right, as can many Americans who came of age before about 1990 (I believe a paradigm shift took place culturally after the WWII generation a la George Bush and the Me generation a la Bill Clinton).
Play HideAnother Dave JohnInCA • 2 hours agomost SJWs don't have a clearly envisioned utopia.
Do you?Let's keep it simply and short... how does your "utopia" do away with "Drag Queen Story Hour" without "soft totalitarianism"?
The West, and the East for that matter, has done fine without DQST for many, many centuries.SecularMisanthropist JohnInCA • an hour ago
In a healthy society, people would feel no reason to conceive of or initiate such a thing in the first place, let alone try to suppress it.
And I think you already knew that.I do, but thermodynamics, general relativity, and the problem of evil prevent it from being realized in this universe.Carlo Lancellotti • 4 hours agoNot having a clearly delineated utopia was also an essential characteristic of Marxism. Del Noce explains it very well: to the extent that Marx was expecting the revolution to engender a new, divinized man that would take back all the characteristic he had alienated into God, the new society could not really be described in term of any what we know about the pre-revolutionary world, just like, say, a Christian cannot describe paradise.Khalid mir • 4 hours ago" The Social Justice faith system can be easily adapted by the institutions of bourgeois capitalism -- a fact that conceals its radicalism."Rod Dreher Moderator Khalid mir • 2 hours agoBingo!
Rod, I don't know about you but I feel I'm living from one week to the next. Do you really know anyone who's got this utopian way of thinking or is it mainly an elite ("they've already taken the universities") kind of thing?
I think it's like the Bolsheviks in pre-revolutionary Russia: the intellectuals will guide and instruct the masses, who don't have to fully comprehend what they're doing to be effective.Another Dave Rod Dreher • 2 hours agoAnd the voices of the intellectuals are radically magnified by social media and the entertainment industry, to a degree undreamt of by the revolutionaries in Russia.Joseph Jsoe Rod Dreher • 44 minutes agoBut unlike the Socialists-Revolutionaries (Esers) the Bolsheviks had very few intellectuals with them. At the beginning I can think of anyone.SecularMisanthropist • 4 hours agoThis was a dense post, and a single comment can't do justice to it.Gerald Arcuri • 4 hours agoSocial justice advocates picked a bad target for their wicked. Whiteness in a country that is 72% white, maleness in a world that is 50% male, and heteronormativity in a world that is at least 90% heterosexual.
It ensures that when they infiltrate an institution, they'll generate strife and enemies, and be outnumbered, even with allies.
Social Justice moved through universities more easily because they started off liberal, and are more insulated from profit constraints than other businesses. The rate of tuition increases indicates the market is inelastic. So there's so much demand any costs social justice incurs its host institution is unimportant.
This is not the case with many other businesses. Which when colonized by social justice ideology find themselves stepping on the toes of more than half of their consumers. Many of these consumers will go to competitors and starve the business of profit. Even a small decline in the consumer base can be traumatic to the balance sheet, hence the aphorism "Get Woke, Go Broke".
It's not even true for all universities as University of Missouri and Evergreen college found out.
This means there are likely limits to the spread of social justice ideology. But I suspect this won't phase its adherents because they likely derive meaning from the struggle, and lack of success is secondary.
Well, of course. Totalitarians are not that difficult to spot. For anyone with any sense.Sergeant Prepper • 3 hours agoOne interesting parallel between the contemporary social justice crowd and their communist counterparts, as Slezkine presents them, is that many intellectuals who converted to the revolutionary religion were driven by intense feelings of shame and guilt "on account of [what they perceived as] their unearned privilege" (p24, 26); many were themselves children of intellectuals, and felt "both chosen and damned" because of the leisure this afforded them (ibid). But such feelings were a rather intellectual affair: their guilt did not stem from any interaction with the less privileged, but was largely "derived from books" (ibid). This seems rather similar to the current crop, most of whom seem to feel immense guilt about things they have only read about.TOS • 3 hours agoLike the early Bolsheviks, the BenOps are radically alienated from society. They regard ordinary people as dangerous and morally corrupt.Will Thomas • 3 hours agoJustice depends on group identity. For the BenOp Trad, the line between Good and Evil runs between the Faithful on one side, the Left on the other. BenOp sees justice as entirely a matter of taking power away from the Left, and giving it to the reactionary classes.
BenOp Trads, like the early Bolsheviks, are intellectuals whose gospel is spread by intellectual agitation. It is a gospel that depends on awakening and inspiring fear of SJWs in the hearts of those it wishes to induce into reactionary consciousness. This is why it matters immensely that they have established their base within churches, where they can train those who will be going out to work in society's institutions in ideologized hatred.
BenOp Trads believe that science is on their side, even when their claims are unscientific. They are doing the old pre-Enlightenment utopian trick of making essentially religious claims, but claiming that they are objectively true. "It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."
BenOp Trads are utopians who believe that their personal Safety requires smashing all the old forms for the sake of liberation. Jurists seemed "unqualified" by the nonpartisan ABA are elevated to lifetime positions in the judiciary. Government corruption at the highest level is acceptable, so long as the government protects the BenOp Trad.
Parents can become the greatest advocates for their children, as in pre-revolutionary Russia with the radical youth. Parents are encouraged to home-school their children, to insulate them from mainstream ideas. Public libraries are to be avoided.
Here's an interesting difference: from what I can tell, most BenOp Trads don't have a clearly envisioned utopia. The movement is not towards physical segregation in an isolated community, like millenarians past. They've given up hope of conquering the culture or the government, and there's no clear way forward besides individual BenOp outposts.
Holy cow, Rod! This is going to take me 2 or 3 days (at least) to immerse myself in this posting of yours. But, I'm excited to take the dive.Zsuzsi Kruska • 3 hours agoThe media is the driving force on this subject because it really is outrageous and sensational which gets people watching the ads that pay the media's salaries and office spaces. Hollywood jumped on the bandwagon for economic reasons also. I think people who are against this trend are clueless about how to fight against it. Write the sponsors and tell them why you won't buy their products. In advertising world mentality, every letter or email represents at least 500 or more people who agree, but don't communicate their opinions. Complaining accomplishes nothing, and never has.Avi Marranazo • 3 hours agoThanks Rod -- a great piece. Just a couple of quibbles: SJW is of course, really just neo-Marxism or "Cultural Marxism". With that in mind, another parallel with Bolshevism comes to mind, one highlighted by the characterization of dissenters as "Philistines".Joanis B • 2 hours ago • editedA fascist cynic and satirist, Giovanni Papini, had this to say about Lenin in his book 'Gog' (a novel published in 1931 largely consisting of fictional interviews with famous personalities of the time):Dale McNamee • 2 hours ago'I [the narrator's name is Gog] murmured a random compliment on the great work he [Lenin] had done in Russia. And then that half-dead face became filled with spectral wrinkles that sought to be a sarcastic smile.
'"But everything was done," exclaimed Lenin with an unexpected and almost cruel brio, "everything was done before we arrived. Foreigners and imbeciles assume that something new has been created here. Blind bourgeois error. The Bolsheviks have done nothing but adopt, by developing it, the regime established by the tsars and which is the only one adapted to the Russian people. One cannot govern a hundred million brutes without the baton, spies, secret police, terror, gallows, military tribunals, galleries and torture. We have only changed the class that founded its hegemony over this system. There were sixty thousand nobles and perhaps forty thousand grand bureaucrats; in total, one hundred thousand people. Today there are about two million proletarians and communists. It is progress, great progress, because privileges are twenty times more numerous, but ninety-eight percent of the population has not gained much on the other hand. Indeed, to be sure, it has gained nothing, and this is at the same time what it wanted, what it sought, although on the other hand it was absolutely inevitable."
'..."Then," I muttered, "what about Marx, and progress, and the rest?"
'"To you, who are a powerful and foreign man," he added, "we can say it all. No one will believe it. But remember that Marx himself has taught us the purely instrumental and fictitious value of theories. Given the state of Russia and Europe, I have had to use communist ideology to achieve my true end. In other countries and at other times I would have chosen another manner. Marx was nothing more than a Hebrew bourgeois clinging to English statistics and a secret admirer of industrialism. He lacked a sense of barbarism, and for this reason he was only a third of a man. A brain saturated with beer and Hegelianism, in which his friend Engels sketched out some brilliant idea. The Russian Revolution is a complete negation of Marx's prophecies. Where there was almost no bourgeoisie, Communism has won there."
'""Men, Mr. Gog, are frightful savages who must be dominated by an unscrupulous savage like me. The rest is charlatanism, literature, philosophy and music for the use of fools. And since savages are similar to criminals, the main ideal of any government should be that the nation should resemble as closely as possible a penal establishment. The old tsarist dungeon is the last word in political wisdom. Well thought out, the life of the prisoner is the most adapted to the vulgar average of men. Not being free, they are, at last, exempt from the dangers and nuisances of responsibility and are in conditions of not being able to do evil. As soon as a man enters prison, he must, by force, lead the life of an innocent man. Moreover, he has no thoughts or worries, for those who think and command for him are already there; he works with the body, but his spirit rests. And he knows that every day he will have something to eat and he will be able to sleep, even if he does not work, even if he is sick, and all this without the worries that are incumbent upon the free man to obtain his bread every morning and a bed every night. My dream is to transform Russia into an immense penal establishment, and do not imagine that I say this out of selfishness, because with such a system, the most enslaved and sacrificed are the bosses and those who second them."
'..I.dared to ask one of my questions: "And the peasants?"
'"I hate the peasants," replied Vladimir Ilyich with a disgusting gesture, "I hate the mujik [peasant] idealized by that softened Westerner called Turgenev and by that converted satyr hypocrite called Tolstoy. The peasants represent everything I detest: the past, faith, heresy and religious mania, manual labor. I tolerate them and pet them, but I hate them. I would like to see them all disappear, down to the last. For me, an electrician is worth a hundred peasants...
'"We will come to be able, I hope, to live with the food produced in a few minutes by the machines in our chemical factories, and we will finally be able to finish off all the useless laborers. Life in Nature is a prehistoric shame...
'"Keep in mind that Bolshevism represents a threefold war: that of scientific barbarians against rotten intellectuals, of the East against the West, and of the city against the countryside. And in this war we will not hesitate in the choice of weapons. The individual is something that must be suppressed. It is an invention of those Greek idlers or those fantastical Germans. Whoever resists will be extirpated like a malignant pustule. Blood is the best fertilizer offered to Nature...
'"Do not believe that I am cruel. All these executions and all these gallows that are raised by my order displease me. I hate the victims, especially because they force me to kill them. But I cannot do otherwise. I boast of being the director of a model penitentiary, of a peaceful and well-organized prison. But here are to be found, as in all prisons, the rebels, the restless, those who have the stupid nostalgia of old ideologies and homicidal mythologies. All those are suppressed. I cannot allow a few thousand sick people to compromise the future happiness of millions of men. Besides, after all, the ancient medical bleedings were not a bad cure for bodies. There is some voluptuousness in feeling the master of life and death. Since the old God was killed - I don't know if in France or Germany - certain satisfactions have been monopolized by man. I am, if you will, a local demigod, camped between Asia and Europe, and so I can afford a little whim. These are the tastes whose secrets, after the decline of the pagans, had been lost. Human sacrifices had something good: they were a deep symbol, a high teaching; a healthy feast. And I, instead of the hymns of the faithful, feel the screams of the prisoners and of the dying come to me, and I assure you that I would not change that symphony for Beethoven's 9th, announcing the beatitude to come."
I quote from this text because I genuinely think efficiency of empire eventually came to weigh, before Communism, as the existential concern of both Leninism and Stalinism, that is to say the long-term survivability of Russia as it was mattered most, i.e. its definitional indissolubility as empire--an empire of peasants (unlike the US, which was one immigrants), but an empire all the same.
Leninism/Stalinism superceded tsarism because it, like Maoism, avoided the colonial disintegration of the vast empire-as-nation, the nation which can only ever be conceived as empire or "cataclysmically"--for the foundational ethnos--lose all sense of self and purpose otherwise; in that strict sense of imperial essentiality, which Tocqueville noted long before the appearance of the Bolsheviks, Russia is the closest compeer of the United States.
If these spoiled and lazy SJWs had been made by their parents to leave home and get a real job, go rent an apartment, and start paying the bills and taxes, and work their way through college... They wouldn't be SJWs, they would "grow up" pretty fast !esquimaux • an hour agoAs I recall from my limited reading and discussions, the Bolshies were composed of "workers and soldiers soviets." The peasants (many of them kulaks) weren't considered part of the revolutionary class and later fared quite badly. I'm not sure what the Russian Revolution's parallel would be to our woke capitalists who adjust quite easily to SJW ideology since the SJW's don't challenge them in any meaningful sense. Also, the Bolshies did more than virtue signal. Economic hard times here may dissipate SJW energies rather quickly as their commitment to revolutionary change may turn out to be skin deep. A lost generation may be violent at the fringes but its members have no traction unless the police and the military were to take up their cause. But their version of social justice may be quite different than that of the university-educated SJW's.Joseph Jsoe • an hour agoYou should add the important point that the Socialist-Revolutionaires (SRs, Esers) were much more popular than the Bolsheviks among the intellectuals and also the common people. They were focused on the peasants, and after the war wanted to split Gentry estates between the peasants.SatirevFlesti • 34 minutes agoThe House of Government is indeed a great book. One of the best I've ever read about Bolshevism, and modern leftism and utopian movements in general. It should be required reading for all incoming college freshmen.
[Jan 01, 2020] Identity politics as attempt to weaken the threat of nationalism coming to power
Jan 01, 2020 | www.unz.com
geokat62 , says: December 31, 2019 at 4:44 am GMT
@Ginger bread manThis was the Frankfurt School's great insight.
The best way to undermine a sense of nationalism is to divide the people through the promotion of identity politics, including LGBTQ.
[Jan 01, 2020] The internal contrudictions of identity politics is clearly demonstrated by the current approach to transgender activism
Jan 01, 2020 | crookedtimber.org
ph 12.30.19 at 12:54 am ( 90 )
"Identity politics involves a demand not merely for tolerance but for acceptance."Aubergine 12.30.19 at 2:24 am ( 91 )For me this is the critical issue. When we 'demand' something from another, or another group, we are making an explicit statement of our own intolerance, we refuse to accept the values, attitudes, and/or behaviours of another. And the framing of this demand as a right, rather than a request, or a suggestion, is a problem for many here.
The levels of bigotry, hatred, and intolerance expressed towards MAGA people in general, and a few individuals in specific, over the last three years has been breathtaking. The notion that respect, tolerance, and acceptance cut both ways is routinely explicitly rejected. Indeed, so much so that both the NYT and the WAPO this weekend felt the need to remind readers of the need to respect MAGA people. The same might be said of people of faith, another much-maligned group, especially if these folks happen to be white and Christian.
I'm glad that JH posted the 'amateur' warning, because that's precisely what too much of what CT has become. People may or may not be engaging in good faith arguments. Calling people racists and fascists, as a matter of course, in no way contributes anything to any discussion, and would seem to be a direct violation of the comments policy. Yet, in thread after thread, that's what we continue read – racist, Christian, fascist, racist,white fascist, racist, fascist until the terms have lost all meaning, lo these many years.
The ground is moving beneath our feet. If the last few months (years?) are any indication, the CT community has very few ideas about what is happening in America, Europe, and other nations, or what to do about it. Or, people are expressing their ideas elsewhere.
Buying into myths does the community no good: remember all the time wasted on Koch Conspiracy Theories? Then, from 2016 up to the present, leading Democrats and 'progressive' bubbleheads literally channelled Joe McCarthy 'I have secret evidence, which I cannot divulge now, that leading members of this administration are in fact agents of a foreign power!' I mean, you couldn't make that stuff up.
Night after night, day after day for the last three years – TRAITORS, RUSSIAN AGENTS, and no matter how many times a few (Greenwald, Taibbi, Tracy) tried to point out that the accusations had been crafted literally by the same intelligence agents that brought us Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, these factual cautions fell on deaf ears.
Lost in all of this is reality: which is that the world is not twitter. All firsthand reports I receive from family and friends in Canada, America, and Europe is that people of different faiths and opinions work hard, if not harder now, to demonstrate respect and compassion to one another and sincerely enjoy doing so. Huh?
Happy Holidays and the best to everyone in 2020!
JQ: To get back to the criticism of identity politics from the left, consider what would happen if your original post was made in a less sedate, more idpol-friendly forum. Nobody would be engaging with the arguments you've made, which at least some commenters on this thread have been doing. Instead, they'd be focussing on you , working out which classes of privilege you enjoy – particularly racial, gender-based and (dis)ability-based privileges – so that they can attack you from those directions in the knowledge that any response from you would be considered an expression of privilege, and thus subject to further criticism.dbk 12.30.19 at 4:25 am ( 92 )Since this post is pretty unobjectionable you might get away with it, but I can see at least a couple of angles of attack in the first line ("Warning: Amateur sociological/political analysis ahead"): if you're an "amateur", why are you speaking instead of listening to the people who have direct personal experience of [whatever marginalised identity]? , and why does this analysis need to come from you when you could be making space for someone less privileged to give their own, more valuable analysis?
I read the sequence in the OP differently, I think, from most commenters (and, I think, from JQ):MisterMr 12.30.19 at 12:59 pm ( 95 )Tolerance: Women allowed the vote (19th Amendment, 1920);
Acceptance: Women admitted to all-male Ivy League universities (Yale, 1969)
Deference: Affirmative Action (EEOC, 1965)
Dominance: ? The election of Barack Obama (2008) ?[Note: This is the interpretation given by those on the right – those currently in power.]
Identity Politics has served to mask the real problem in the U.S. over the past 30-40 years: growing inequality. Yes yes, I know: intersectionality – but how successful has that been, really? Examples, please. [Note: Idpol imho belongs to the so-called "private sphere," not the "public sphere" – I have no interest in the private life of others; their public life, however, is of considerable interest to me and other citizens.]
I don't think this was accidental. It is to the ruling class's benefit that citizens/voters coalesce emotionally around issues which detract attention from growing inequality.
The U.S. is governed by the rich, the 1%. But if this were broadly understood and accepted, the 1% would be voted out of office at all levels (local, state, national).
Identity politics ensures that voters will be more or less equally distributed between Ds and Rs, with Ds = pro-LGBTQ rights, pro-abortion; Rs = anti-LGBTQ rights, anti-abortion (+ other issues).
I invite CT commenters to engage in a small thought-experiment: What would it be like in the U.S. if its Gini score were half what it was in 2016 (so, 20 instead of 40+)?
On a related – though not, for some, alas, obviously so – note, I recommend an about-to-be-published book by labor historian Toni Gilpin: "The Long Deep Grudge: A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland," which will come out early in 2020. Gilpin analyzes the Farm Equipment Workers (FE) union and their strike in Louisville, KY against IH (International Harvester), during which blacks and whites united against IH for economic reasons, and won.
Full economic equality goes a fair way towards advancing tolerance and acceptance, obviates the need for deference, and does away with the existence of dominance.
@orange watch 79EB 12.30.19 at 1:10 pm ( 96 )It seems to me that in this thread there is a lot of confusion about the idea of identity and groups, and your comment doubles down with the idea that economic class is an identity.
First from a old fart Marxist point of view, you are mixing up base (the economic structure, the relationship with the means of production) with superstructure (blue collar identity). These two are not the same thing, the same way sex (a biological fact) is not the same as gender (a cultural thing). Only gender is a matter of identity, biological sex cannot be, precisely because it is not a cultural thing. For similar reasons class proper is not the same as identities based more or less on class.
Second, however you want to put it high education at best makes you upper middle class, not ruling class (although many people of the ruling class also have high education, but they aren't ruling class because of this). This again is the old (19th century) distinction by Max Weber between classe and ceto, I use the Italian words because they both translate as "class" in English damn you anglophones. I recently chatted with a friend who has a degree in statistics who confirmed that this is still a taught as a bread and butter distinction in statistics, at least in Italy.
Finally there is a big distinction between identities and the often (but not always) different moral assumptions that go with that on the one hand, and on the other the way these identities are used in terms of political marketing, that is something different and mostly make sense in democracies, but not for example in an argument about colonialism where identities still exist but the political situation is totally different.
Finally, the problem is that with each identity or set of identities comes a set of moral values. Now if we see morals as coming from identities but identities as a natural thing, we enter in a world of moral relativism where only the identity group who cries louder can manage to force its values on others.
This is in fact the implicit idea in right wing populism, and the reason they sometimes seem to think that political might makes right.
But in reality:
1) identities are not a natural thing at all, for example gender identities depend on forms of the family that are obviously historical and linked to economic structures, so is the low education blue collar identity;
2) many disequalities are objective and we can measure them, for example we know that economic inequality increased in recent decades.So on the whole I think it is possible to make a case about objectively more egalitarian (and therefore better) sets of values and identity.
Three questions:Chetan Murthy 12.30.19 at 6:27 pm ( 98 )1. There is a missing category in the 4-stage paradigm, and it is "affirmation." People can feel tolerated and then accepted, but not affirmed as much as the majority group feels affirmed, and this is a significant. Although what, specifically, it feels like to be affirmed, or to extend affirmation, can be murky. Is affirmation even a legitimate or realistic thing to expect or demand from one's social environment? Why or why not? What proportion of the social environment should extend affirmation in order for an individual from a marginalized group feel that they are being treated equally?
2. In every society in which there are dominant identities (I can think of few where the dominant group is singular and monolithic), there is history to contend with. The four (or five) states of intergroup relations are not like a light switch that can be turned on or off. What rate of changed attitudes and relationships of power are realistic to expect?
3. How do we feel about groups who are in some senses marginalized, but that within their own community, express dominance in harmful ways against some members of their group or against some members of other groups? What about feminists who look down on specific (or all) religions, and within their group do not tolerate religious individuals? what about religious minorities that persecute LGBTQ individuals? and so forth.
dbk @ 92:SusanC 12.30.19 at 6:49 pm ( 99 )I invite CT commenters to engage in a small thought-experiment: What would it be like in the U.S. if its Gini score were half what it was in 2016 (so, 20 instead of 40+)?
There's been considerable academic work on this subject. Just off the top of my head, there's the seminal paper by Bland, Castile, Crawford, Garner, Martin, Rice et al. And another important study of labor force effects by Argent, Arquette, Beckinsale, Garth, et al. And no literature review would be complete without discussing the groundbreaking work by Boyne, Carroll, Crooks, Harth, Holvey, Zervos et al.
An alternative take on what "identity politics" might mean:soru 12.30.19 at 7:12 pm ( 100 )A style of politics in which people are people are divided – for the purposes of political organization – on the basis of a small number of characteristics, which initially appear to be relative hard to change and easy to determine. Further, such groups are treated as if they were homogeneous, with a shared political interest.
But:
a) Such characteristics are typically not mutually exclusive. A political group that is "homongenous" wrt to one characteristic may well contain members that differ in some other politically relevant characteristic, with consequent divergence of political objectives. eg. "woman" contains both "white women" and "black women". cf. bell hooks
b) Who is a member of the group and who isn't often turns out to be more vexed than it might initially appear. There exist people of mixed race, people with intersex conditions, transgendered people, white momen who have grown up in a household with African-American step-siblings (cf. Rachel Dolezau), etc. etc. A noted feature of "identity politics" is people getting very, very upset about the existence of a small number of borderline cases whose political group membership is being argued.
Black Lives Matter isn't just fighting for economic rights: they're fighting for the right to not be executed in the street.
I think this gets to the heart of the matter: the very thin definition of the word 'economics' held by certain liberals, mostly referring to the precise timing of the next stock market boom/bust cycle.
To those with a less restrictive definition, people being executed in the street is, absolutely and centrally, a matter of economics. Those who support or enable those executions do so because they do not trust the government to effectively defend their private property rights without such measures.
The radical economic solution to that is the abolition of private property; it is of course perfectly understandable that those most affected are not keen on waiting for that.
Nevertheless, the less radical solution is still economic in nature, mainly involving raising taxes in order to spend the money on a police force adequate to the task of maintaining public order without such executions. Most of Europe provides the existence proof that such a thing is possible.
Measurable social issues require the commitment of non-symbolic amounts of societal resources to solve them. In an ideal world, this would leave the phrase 'identity politics' for those issues which could potentially be resolved by the right person tweeting the right thing
[Jan 01, 2020] Gender critical feminist and other crazies
Jan 01, 2020 | crookedtimber.org
Seren Rose 12.29.19 at 7:20 am (no link)
There is a horror at finding myself – as a gender critical feminist – adjacent to arguments like Likbez's @1 that I think puts the fear of God in me. So I feel compelled to write a comment, though I usually just observe the conversation here.notGoodenough 12.29.19 at 9:38 am ( 68 )Likbez @1 is, I think, similar to those people who would pop up in conversations about gay rights in the 90's and say, "What about this man, who had sex with 300 strangers in one week," as an example of "gay rights extremism." The difference I notice here is that there is no longer any concern, on the conservative or progressive side of the argument, with prurient interest. We glibly discuss the most private details of a child's life and body, and it's incumbent on everyone involved to either hash out the details while condemning, or hash out the details while celebrating.
I * do * think a child accessing sterilising medical and surgical treatments for the purposes of gender affirmation is extreme (and to me it's no less extreme when that child has a supportive family around them). Another useful parallel might be the conversations we had about whether it was respectability politics to not include "bareback" subcultures in gay pride. But again, even there, we had a stable liberal position which could acknowledge the subculture / without / having to condemn or celebrate it.
I wonder if it isn't the gay marriage debate that has evacuated that liberal posture. Well might a social conservative answer a question about the decriminalisation of sex between men by saying, "You can engage in x, y, or z sexual practice, but don't expect me to like it," and it's not really remarkable – why would I expect or require a stranger to / like / the sex I have?! But when it's said about marriage there is something mean about it – marriages, or at least weddings, are by definition the communal celebration of a sexual relationship.
Can we as a liberal society tolerate the miserliness of refusal to celebrate gay marriages? And if we can't, what do we do with this blurring of public and private, this need to endorse and celebrate what is done by strangers (even the compulsion to have a clear formed opinion on all the private activities of strangers).
– I wonder if there isn't a further connection with the anxieties of young people, a need for the approval of strangers.
***
"Instead of being accepted as one element of a diverse community, the formerly dominant group becomes the object of hostility and derision. The signs of that are certainly evident, particularly in relation to the culture wars around religion."
I immediately thought John was talking about Catholics. For centuries, where Catholics have lived as a minority in predominantly Protestant and Anglican societies, they have been exposed to all the bigotry and mistreatment we associate with minority status. But this has had no effect on the institution of the Catholic church, or its hegemony in Catholic societies (and even Catholic communities in protestant / Anglican societies).
(On reflection, I'm not sure that's what JQ is referring to at all).Stephen @ 56notGoodenough 12.29.19 at 9:41 am ( 69 )"Good questions. I'm not sure there is a necessity for a default identity and dominant groups; I merely observe that in most if not all stable, long-lived societies there has been such. If you can think of exceptions, they would be very interesting."
As I'm not an expert in the area, I'm probably not a good person to ask. If we assume the observation is true, however, while it may be interesting I don't see that it is particularly helpful.If the number of attempts were zero then that doesn't really tell you anything about if it would work or not.
For example, from my understanding monarchies were the "default" organisational structure in Europe for a long period of history. One can imagine someone who lived during those eras saying – correctly – that most if not all stable, long-lived societies were monarchies. I hope you'd agree that that wouldn't really tell us much about if Monarchies are the only, or indeed even best way of organising a society?
In short, I think that while your observation may be true (I'm afraid I lack the evidence to make any claims one way or another), I don't think it really gets us any closer to understanding whether or not a default identity and/or dominant group are a) necessary, b) useful, and c) beneficial.
As for the default identity including sexuality: I'm not sure it's necessary, just that it mostly goes that way.
Again, I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that the male/female binary is a) not necessarily biologically supported (from asking biologists) and b) may in fact not be the default identity (I believe there are examples outside of western culture, in the Philippines, Mexico, etc.). Of course, I am not an expert (I believe you've already said your not either?) so perhaps it would be better to ask someone who is rather than us speculating in ignorance?
I have trouble in imagining a society in which the default identity does not exclude bestiality or trandgenderism (not that I'm equating the two).
Out of interest, why did you include bestiality alongside being transgender? I don't see that it is helpful or clarifying in any way – bestiality is about what you have sexual intercourse with (and implies a problematic lack of consent), while being transgender is (as the name helpfully implies!) about your personal gender identity (which is not about preferences regarding sexual intercourse, and does not have the problematic inherent consent issue), so these would seem to be very different categories.
[Moreover, and I mean this as a helpful future tip, perhaps if you want to avoid fully any doubts people might have about whether or not you are equating these two things, but you feel it is useful to include a form of sexual attraction, why not pick homosexuality, bisexuality, etc. instead?]
Perhaps I am a bit odd in this respect, but if you ask me to imagine a "default" English person, I don't think I could. It may be a failure of my imagination, but I would think of the people I know who are English, and I don't think there is enough commonality for me to make an assessment. I suspect (though I don't have evidence) that if there is such a thing as a default identity, it is probably most similar to a stereotype. And, as far as I can tell, stereotypes are a) generally not excessively helpful to accuracy and b) vary from area to area and region to region.
Moreover, I would think that "dominant culture" is something that can change (as the OP implies). For example, homosexuality was illegal until fairly recently (if I recall correctly England and Wales: 1960s, Scotland and Ireland 1980s), but I think that now the number of people who would support recriminalizing it is pretty small. The dominant culture which was hostile to homosexuality is now – at the very least – indifferent, if not actively absorbing it. While I certainly wouldn't suggest homophobia is a thing of the past, perhaps in future eras (assuming we don't wipe ourselves out due to our incompetence at handling looming crises) people objecting to homosexuality will be thought of as odd and irrelevant – changing the dominant culture still further. Is it not possible, then, that such a thing could happen with transgender identities?
In short, with respect, I'm not sure what you (or I) can imagine is particularly relevant. Given that neither of us appear to have much expertise in this area, perhaps we should wait for others with better evidence and understanding to way in?
[Blast, apologies to the OP, but could you accept this instead of my previous post, I made a HTML tag error which makes it seem as though one of Stephen's statements is actually mine.]faustusnotes 12.29.19 at 11:18 am ( 70 )Stephen @ 56
"Good questions. I'm not sure there is a necessity for a default identity and dominant groups; I merely observe that in most if not all stable, long-lived societies there has been such. If you can think of exceptions, they would be very interesting."
As I'm not an expert in the area, I'm probably not a good person to ask. If we assume the observation is true, however, while it may be interesting I don't see that it is particularly helpful.If the number of attempts were zero then that doesn't really tell you anything about if it would work or not.
For example, from my understanding monarchies were the "default" organisational structure for a long time – and one can imagine someone who lived during those eras saying – correctly – that most if not all stable, long-lived societies were monarchies. I hope you'd agree that that wouldn't really tell us much about if it is the only, or indeed even best way of organising a society?
In short, I think that while your observation may or may not be true (I'm afraid I lack the evidence to make any claims one way or another), I don't think it really gets us any closer to understanding whether or not a default identity and/or dominant group are a) necessary, b) useful, and c) beneficial.
As for the default identity including sexuality: I'm not sure it's necessary, just that it mostly goes that way.
Again, I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that the male/female binary is a) not necessarily biologically supported (from asking biologists) and b) may in fact not be the default identity (I believe there are examples outside of western culture, in the Philippines, Mexico, etc.). Of course, I am not an expert (I believe you've already said your not either?) so perhaps it would be better to ask someone who is?
I have trouble in imagining a society in which the default identity does not exclude bestiality or trandgenderism (not that I'm equating the two).
Out of interest, why did you include bestiality alongside being transgender? I don't see that it is helpful or clarifying in any way – bestiality is about what you have sexual intercourse with (and implies a problematic lack of consent), while being transgender is (as the name helpfully implies!) about your personal gender identity (which is not about preferences regarding sexual intercourse, and does not have the problematic consent issue), so these would seem to be very different categories.
[Moreover, as a helpful future tip, perhaps if you want to avoid fully any doubts people might have about whether or not you are equating these two things, but you feel it is useful to include a form of sexual attraction, why not pick homosexuality, bisexuality, etc. instead?]
Perhaps I am a bit odd in this respect, but if you ask me to imagine a "default" English person, I don't think I could. It may be a failure of my imagination, but I would think of the people I know who are English, and I don't think there is enough commonality for me to make an assessment. I suspect (though I don't have evidence) that if there is such a thing as a default identity, it is probably most similar to a stereotype. And, as far as I can tell, stereotypes are a) generally not excessively helpful to accuracy and b) vary from area to area and region to region.
Moreover, I would think that "dominant culture" is something that can change (as the OP implies). For example, homosexuality was illegal until fairly recently (if I recall correctly England and Wales: 1960s, Scotland and Ireland 1980s), but I think that now the number of people who would support recriminalizing it is pretty small. The dominant culture which was hostile to homosexuality is now – at the very least – indifferent, if not actively absorbing it. While I certainly wouldn't suggest homophobia is a thing of the past, perhaps in future eras (assuming we don't wipe ourselves out due to our incompetence at handling looming crises) people objecting to homosexuality will be thought of as odd and irrelevant – changing the dominant culture still further. Is it not possible, then, that such a thing could happen with transgender identities?
In short, with respect, I'm not sure what you (or I) can imagine is particularly relevant.
Seren Rose, likbez is a straight-up christian fascist. If you find your politics overlapping with his in any way shape or form, it might be a good idea to assess whether the overlapping part is something you want to keep. Here's a tip: if the overlapping part is based on excluding a minority from public spaces, there's probably a reason it appeals to likbez.Aubergine 12.29.19 at 2:32 pm ( 71 )Also as a gender critical feminist I'm guessing you are in favour of preventing trans women from using female-only spaces. I recommend you read this so that when natal women start being harassed and beaten up as a consequence of your policies, you can't make the excuse that you weren't warned.
Well, I wasn't going to bring it up, but now we're herenotGoodenough 12.29.19 at 2:53 pm ( 72 )Rightwing trolls or troll-like posters like likbez don't focus on transgender activism by accident. It's the ne plus ultra of identity politics gone wrong: it seems superficially reasonable, by association with LGB liberation movements, but its claims are irreconcilable with long-standing goals of other movements usually found on the left (particularly many kinds of feminism); it demands the use of language that makes it difficult or impossible to express disagreement and harrasses, threatens and deplatforms people who refuse to submit; it is relentlessly, viciously misogynistic. And when otherwise sympathetic people get a glimpse into the nastier side of trans activism and who exactly it is protecting (the Dana Rivers, the Karen Whites, the Jessica Yanivs, etc. etc.), and especially what its goals mean for women and girls – the stuff that the activists try with all their might to stop feminists drawing attention to – they tend to begin to regard it as completely bonkers. Which is of course one reason why all dissent must be silenced before it can spread.
It's the perfect wedge, and the trolls know.
Likbez @ 60notGoodenough 12.29.19 at 2:53 pm ( 73 )I am trying very hard right now to give you the benefit of the doubt in your arguments. You haven't addressed any of my criticisms or comments in my post at 36 (fair enough, you don't owe me any answers). I would assume normally you have missed it, didn't think it was worth replying to, or are formulating a response. However, your most recent comments at 60 are, to put it mildly, very problematic.
First, have you got around to making a working definition for transgender extremism yet? I only ask, because if I think religious extremism I imagine beheadings, massacres, suicide bombings; if I imagine political extremism, I imagine violence, bombings, terrorism; but as far as I can tell your definition of transgender extremism is apparently daring to exist and ask maybe if they could be treated as human beings rather than evil incarnate. One of those does not seem like the others.
Likbez @ 60notGoodenough 12.29.19 at 2:58 pm ( 74 )Here are my problems with your post at 60. I hope you will at least consider this, and perhaps re-evaluate what you are saying and how you are saying it.
" With this quote I think we reached the point in this discussion when it might be appropriate to discuss the appropriate scope of repression for deviant minority groups when their demands conflict with the larger society or more powerful groups ethics and cultural norms.
"deviant minority groups". OK, so Mormons? Or were they not the deviant minority group you were thinking of? You see, that's one of the fundamental problems with your assertions – you are unable or unwilling to offer any clear ideas as to how you come to decide the term and who it applies to. You seem to operate on what you personally feel comfortable with – which is not a particularly useful starting point.
The usual "woke" argumentation is very weak in issues outlined below and opposite arguments have a real weight: I would repression of the minority groups start with pedophiles and financial oligarchy especially vulture funds leadership such as Romney, Paul Singer, etc. But this is just me.
Funnily enough, people pushing for transgender awareness are not pro-paedophile. I know that you seem to struggle with understanding this (or, indeed, anything judging by your inability to reason), but paedophilia = having sex with children; being transgender = taking on a gender identity in-keeping with your internal model and different to that assigned at birth. The key difference there, and bear with me as apparently you find this very complex, is that one group are raping children, the other isn't. Try repeating this a few times in the mirror – I am optimistic you will eventually get it.
"IMHO insatiable "demanding" and proselyting of transgender identity already brought us very close to a strong corporate and community backlash against transgender rights and by extension LGBT rights as a whole."
You know, people said the same thing about gay rights. And you know what was interesting? It turns out the whole "line to far" was that they existed. Given you haven't really made any attempt to explain why you think "personal medical decision" is functionally extremism, I am not overly confident in your ability to determine what constitutes "too much" demanding.
"Of course transgender folk is just minor, expendable pawn in a bigger game of Dem Party identity politics, but still."
Yes, because the Democratic party of America basically rules Europe. That was sarcasm, by the way. I did point out before that making US based judgements and assessments without considering how it fits into the global phenomena makes you look ignorant. Apparently you don't think that that was a point worth considering.
"Many Christian parents now prohibit their children to join Scouts of America and their fears and not unfounded ( https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/04/24/boy-scouts-face-hundreds-new-sexual-abuse-claims/3547991002/ )"
Again, when discussing transgender people, you start bringing in sexual abuse with children. Yet no-where in the article is any reference to transgender people. I am now a lot less optimistic in your ability to understand the difference. It is also worth considering that the Catholic Church – which arguably has a little more power and privilege than the LGBT – has been complicit in covering up a horrific amount of child-rape. Interestingly, you don't seem to be railing against them.
To summarise
You don't seem interested in researching anything or gaining any facts. You don't appear to consider other arguments. You repeatedly conflate transgender people with paedophiles. You don't support your arguments, don't define your terms, and don't seem to care whether or not anything you say is rooted in evidence.
This is why I am having a very hard job considering you someone who is arguing in good faith right now.
Likbez @ 60William Timberman 12.29.19 at 3:03 pm ( 75 )Finally, as a few comments I hope you will consider.
1) Paedophilia and transgender people
The reason I object to paedophiles is not because they are a small number of people who are different to me. I object to paedophiles because they are causing harm. They are causing harm, because they are committing an action (sex) with someone who cannot give consent (a child).
Transgender people are committing an act (adopting a different gender identity) which affects only themselves (who give consent because they are undertaking it).
If you do not make a case to link transgender people and child rape, I would appreciate if you stopped conflating the two. Even if I assume the absolute best case – that you don't think the two are the same but are trying to incoherently make a point – it makes for a completely incoherent argument to include here.
2) Transgender people in society
If you want to argue that transgender people should be denied privileges available to other people, that is your prerogative. But you should probably actually make a case, and try to support it with evidence. For example, if you could prove that people being allowed to determine their own gender is objectively bad in some way, that would be a good starting point. You don't though – and, though I try to avoid ascribing motivations to other people, I suspect it is because you don't actually have an argument that it is harmful – merely that you don't like it. And apparently, for you, "I don't like this" is a good reason to deny rights to one group of people you extend to others. It might be worth reflecting on what that says about you as a person.
3) likbez
When someone repeatedly refuses to make their case after adopting the burden of proof, it is very difficult to take them seriously on that topic. It also impacts how you precieve them on other topics.
You don't owe me anything, and if you wish to continue making unsupported statements, falacious arguments, and equivication falacies, by all means do continue. I won't however, consider you as someone who should be considered worth listening to – which I hope you'd agree is my prerogative.
Undiscovering America. It's too late for that, I think. The muddying of the waters, i.e. post-historical tribalism, can't obscure the fact that the underlying conflict is between our individual and our collective identity(ies). It doesn't really matter whether the collective is family, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sports team. If we aren't, as individuals, the ultimate arbiters of our own allegiances, and if the collective(s) we belong to, either by accident, affinity, or choice, are unwilling to give up on the project of defining us without asking us what we prefer, then our present conflicts will continue, and in all likelihood get nastier as the stakes in our-post hierarchical, post-literate universe rise ever higher.William Timberman 12.29.19 at 3:13 pm ( 76 )I should probably add that China's much-touted ignoble experiment in Gleichschaltung is going to introduce modes of historical failure which the world hasn't seen since Roman times. Xi Jinping has absolutely no effing idea of the doom he's trifling with. Compared to Donald Rumsfeld, I suppose you could call him a visionary, but only if you love the smell of apocalypse in the morning.notGoodenough 12.29.19 at 3:35 pm ( 77 )Seren Rose @ 67likbez 12.29.19 at 3:54 pm ( 78 )I've no wish to tell you "this is how you should think", and am open to having a dialogue with anyone who is interested in doing so (it helps me refine my position or, when I am wrong, to re-evaluate my premises). I hope, therefore, you'll be will to indulge me a little when I make the following comments – I would, if you are interested, value your thoughts (though I don't wish to make demands on your time).
I don't particularly enjoy discussing anyone's private details – I generally prefer it if private lives can remain private – and certainly would hope I don't do so glibly. Unfortunately, when there is a discussion about whether or not a person should be permitted to make a private decision, sometimes it is necessary to discuss the facts surrounding the case. I would state, however, that to me it is important that as much anonymity as possible is afforded the individual, and as little of the details are discussed as necessary. Do you think that that is unreasonable?
My first comments were regarding Likbez's first link. To me, it is not only the first mentioned, but also the most clear cut. Someone who is 17 wishes to transition, their mother (who they have alleged was abusive, whom they left 2 years ago) objects. Given that the individual seems to have made well-reasoned comments, their mother does not seem to be well-placed to make any evaluations (or indeed make any decisions regarding their child), and I have no reason to think they are unable to make an assessment regarding their own gender, I don't see any reason to object. Do you think there is?
Hopefully you'll agree that I have managed to avoid discussing them or their body too much. If not, I'd certainly appreciate it if you pointed out where I've erred – this is not sarcasm, I genuinely want to do better.
You appear to have considerable concerns regarding Likbez's second link. You know what – so do I. It isn't quite as portrayed – further reading indicates that what was proposed was a reversible treatment with no surgery, which allays some of the concerns – but I agree that "what age can someone make a reasonable decision regarding their gender" is a good discussion to have. As is, "what is the best way to handle this", and "how do we ensure that people are afforded freedom proporitionate with their maturity and responsibility". However, I would want such a discussion to involve evidence (not specific details of people, but anonymised scientific evidence), logical arguments, and conclusions which come as close as possible to achieving the best decision. I hope you would agree that that is a good approach?
Now, I am not an expert. However, as far as I can tell, the people who study this for a living seem to say that biology and gender are far more complex that traditional models allow for. That being the case, it does not seem unreasonable to change these models. After all, if you are worried about the effects of peer-pressure on children, I would think that being forced into an identity which causes you incredible discomfort (or even feelings of dissonance) is probably not good for their long term health. For example, trying to force people who are homosexual to be heterosexual does not seem to have been good for them, or for society. I imagine, as a gender critical feminist, you can think of similar examples of the harm resulting from women being forced into roles far better than I.
In short, my position is that people should be afforded the maximum reasonable ability to make their personal decisions. In cases where there are concerns regarding their ability to do so, I am fine with society coming to an evidence based conclusion about where to draw the line. This will, as always, lead to some inherent unfairness (our systems are "one-size-fits-all" and this will inherently lead to some people being let down), but hopefully we can make our society as fair as possible. And, continue to refine.
If you think I am being unreasonable, unnecessarily prurient, or am on a path which is detrimental, I would certainly appreciate your pointing it out to me – I am always keen to do better.
faustusnotes 12.29.19 at 11:18 am @.70Orange Watch 12.29.19 at 5:23 pm ( 79 )Here's a tip: if the overlapping part is based on excluding a minority from public spaces, there's probably a reason it appeals to likbez.
Imbecilization of discussion of controversial issues like in case of your comment is a normal development typical for the periods of intellectual declines which naturally follows the economic decline of a given empire.
There's growing evidence the West is going through the same process as the USSR.
CM@64 :Chetan Murthy 12.29.19 at 5:43 pm ( 80 )the history is pretty clear: the class-based movements cane first, and they failed to make any progress toward (or even care about) the rights of these oppressed groups. [ ] Also, many of these movements explicitly recognize the importance of intersectionality -- why else would you see feminists and gay rights groups so heavily involved in immigrant rights?
Well, since you're all about fairness and avoiding double standards let's compare contemporaneous movements. How much did abolitionists help alleviate the oppression of women? How much did suffragettes fight segregation? Did the LGBTQ rights movement include BTQ for most of its history? Did any of these historical movements fight against ablism? How much did they achieve WRT immigrant rights, indigenous rights, and the rights of minority religions? Or are you comparing very, VERY recent developments in these movements with historical class identity movements? I'd point out, BTW, that it's very disputable whether gender/racial right movements came after class identity movements – both are far older than their recent (to say nothing of modern) forms. And throughout the history of all of these, there have been not just unhelpful but actively repressive elements in all of them. Yet you're only comparing contemporary intersectional essentialist identity politics to historical class identity politics why is that? Especially when modern class identity politics are also influenced by intersectional thinking and ally themselves with more than than just class-based movements even if they prioritize class. Yet here we have you telling us that socioeconomic status is not an identity – that the idea of identity becomes meaningless if we consider it as such. That has a very particular and somewhat suspicious look.
To pull this back more closely to the subject of OP, your pile of unexamined privilege looks an awful lot like you're uncritically accepting the highly-educated/rich/socially & professionally networked/managerial-professional-executive workers' (i.e., upper class) "default" cultural perspective, and are insisting that failure to see it is deviant and immoral (no more and no less than a cis het white Xian man insisting that a mythical 1950s represents the objective reality of Americanism). The rich minority is dominate in that epistomology, and the managerial-professional minority is deferred to. Among lower-class conservative adherents, this translates to education being suspect, but wealth & social status is taken as proof that these classes are reliably jus'folks who haven't been corrupted by too much learning; among lower-class liberal adherents, wealth is suspect but the education & social status proves our elites are woke egalitarians who haven't been corrupted by greed and power but in both cases, the rich are dominant and the managerial-professionals are deferred to. 100 years ago this would have been a harder sell, as our culture was more disparate in terms of class identity, but mass media driven by consumption (and advertising) homogenized our worldview and humanized the rich to a great degree, with the result of aggressively encouraging the "temporarily embarrassed millionaire" mindset and belief in the myth of meritocracy.
The point of everything you TL;DR'd in order to lecture me about How Things REALLY Are again was not that you're a hypocrite – it's instead how very telling it is that you don't simply want to de-prioritize the idea of economically-oriented reform, but de-legitimize the very idea of it. It's appalling to see you invoke intersectionality in this context; are you so come-lately to it that you don't know its history before it was housebroken? A common early criticism of intersectionality was that it placed too much focus on just three intersecting identities: gender, race, and, yes, class. The subsequent trend to view intersectionality as a thing distinct from class identity is a development that looks an awful lot like institutional co-opting as former outsiders addressing an insurgent critique of distorted elite analysis made peace with the academic hierarchy, got tenure, and mysteriously lost their impetus to challenge privilege based on wealth, education, profession, or social status. What you've done here has unintentionally been extremely instructive in terms of what OP discusses; you're providing a case study of a privileged minority arguing against perspectives that do not conform to the dominant default culture in order to protect the deference you feel due, and the dominance of the hierarchy which entitles you to that deference.
Seren Rose @ 67:Orange Watch 12.29.19 at 5:51 pm ( 81 )
You write about a lot of things, and some of them I don't feel qualified to comment upon. But at least this, seems pretty obvious:Can we as a liberal society tolerate the miserliness of refusal to celebrate gay marriages? And if we can't, what do we do with this blurring of public and private
The record here is pretty clear: gay marriage advocates fought for gay marriage not for the private celebration, but because in ways big and small, myriad public and publicly regulated institutions and organizations confer advantages upon the married. From family health insurance policies to "who gets to visit you as you lie dying," to "who gets to pick up your kids at school."
I think this is a good example of the way that demands by identity groups can get misinterpreted, either inadvertently or intentionally. Nobody asked for Evangelical pastors to be compelled to perform gay marriages. What they -did- ask, was that in any public accommodation or regulated business of any sort, that prefers advantages to married couples, this advantage be extended to gay couples who are married. And this is no different from the "full faith and credit" clause that makes marriages in one state valid in another.
(One thing I'd add to tie the idea of class identity politics to the discussion here is that contemporary upper class resistance to it vs. comparative upper class acceptance of essentialist identity politics fits well into the zero-sum vs. positive-sum distinction made by Peter Dorman . Class identity movements seek to flatten the socio-economic hierarchy via wealth redistribution, progessive taxation, increased democratization of political processes, etc. Essentialist identity movements do not directly threaten the hierarchy that entrenches the rich as dominant and professionals as deferred to – it changes the pool of available candidates within the heirarchy, which may lead to individuals or sub-groups resisting if they feel unable or unwilling to compete with individuals previously below them on other hierarchies, but more diversity in the C-suites is not an existential threat to the upper class.)Chetan Murthy 12.29.19 at 5:54 pm ( 82 )notGoodEnough @ 68:Jake Gibson 12.29.19 at 9:01 pm ( 83 )
Stephen: "I have trouble in imagining a society in which the default identity does not exclude bestiality or trandgenderism (not that I'm equating the two)."notGoodEnough: "Out of interest, why did you include bestiality alongside being transgender?"
I have to laugh. We both know why he included that reference, don't we? It's the same reason "Box Turtle Ben (Domenech)" included it in that speech that Texas Senator John Cornyn was to deliver ("It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife"). It's the same reason likbez pretends that pedophiles are an identity group like gay people.
Decent people must feel that bestiality and pedophilia are beyond the pale. By juxtaposing them with LGBT, the goal is to subtly induce decent people to associate their feelings of disgust toward (e.g.) sex with box turtles, and gay people and oh-so-icky ways.
It's a tell that Stephen hasn't got a tolerant bone in his body.
TBH, likbez seems to be regurgitating typical transphobic arguments. Linking to homophobic hate groups does not enhance his position.John Quiggin 12.29.19 at 10:10 pm ( 84 )
He/she clearly does not think that trans people have any rights that he is obligated to honor.
On the other hand, seems to expect that we are obligated to respect his bigotry.likbez, you've derailed the thread, and your comments are trolling at best. Nothing further from you on this thread, please. Also, if I write further on identity politics, please refrain from commenting.
[Jan 01, 2020] Transgender activism is the ne plus ultra of identity politics gone wrong
Jan 01, 2020 | crookedtimber.org
Aubergine 12.29.19 at 2:32 pm ( 71 )
Well, I wasn't going to bring it up, but now we're herenotGoodenough 12.29.19 at 2:53 pm ( 73 )Rightwing trolls or troll-like posters like likbez don't focus on transgender activism by accident. It's the ne plus ultra of identity politics gone wrong: it seems superficially reasonable, by association with LGB liberation movements, but its claims are irreconcilable with long-standing goals of other movements usually found on the left (particularly many kinds of feminism); it demands the use of language that makes it difficult or impossible to express disagreement and harrasses, threatens and deplatforms people who refuse to submit; it is relentlessly, viciously misogynistic.
And when otherwise sympathetic people get a glimpse into the nastier side of trans activism and who exactly it is protecting (the Dana Rivers, the Karen Whites, the Jessica Yanivs, etc. etc.), and especially what its goals mean for women and girls – the stuff that the activists try with all their might to stop feminists drawing attention to – they tend to begin to regard it as completely bonkers.
Which is of course one reason why all dissent must be silenced before it can spread.
It's the perfect wedge, and the trolls know
Likbez @ 60Orange Watch 12.29.19 at 5:51 pm ( 81 )Here are my problems with your post at 60. I hope you will at least consider this, and perhaps re-evaluate what you are saying and how you are saying it.
" With this quote I think we reached the point in this discussion when it might be appropriate to discuss the appropriate scope of repression for deviant minority groups when their demands conflict with the larger society or more powerful groups ethics and cultural norms.
"deviant minority groups". OK, so Mormons? Or were they not the deviant minority group you were thinking of? You see, that's one of the fundamental problems with your assertions – you are unable or unwilling to offer any clear ideas as to how you come to decide the term and who it applies to. You seem to operate on what you personally feel comfortable with – which is not a particularly useful starting point.
The usual "woke" argumentation is very weak in issues outlined below and opposite arguments have a real weight: I would ]suggest that the ]repression of the minority groups starts with pedophiles and financial oligarchy especially vulture funds leadership such as Romney, Paul Singer, etc. But this is just me.
(One thing I'd add to tie the idea of class identity politics to the discussion here is that contemporary upper class resistance to it vs. comparative upper class acceptance of essentialist identity politics fits well into the zero-sum vs. positive-sum distinction made by Peter Dorman .Chetan Murthy 12.29.19 at 5:54 pm ( 82 )
- Class identity movements seek to flatten the socio-economic hierarchy via wealth redistribution, progessive taxation, increased democratization of political processes, etc.
- Essentialist identity movements do not directly threaten the hierarchy that entrenches the rich as dominant and professionals as deferred to – it changes the pool of available candidates within the heirarchy, which may lead to individuals or sub-groups resisting if they feel unable or unwilling to compete with individuals previously below them on other hierarchies, but more diversity in the C-suites is not an existential threat to the upper class.)
notGoodEnough @ 68:Chetan Murthy 12.30.19 at 12:37 am ( 87 )
Stephen: "I have trouble in imagining a society in which the default identity does not exclude bestiality or trandgenderism (not that I'm equating the two)."notGoodEnough: "Out of interest, why did you include bestiality alongside being transgender?"
I have to laugh. We both know why he included that reference, don't we? It's the same reason "Box Turtle Ben (Domenech)" included it in that speech that Texas Senator John Cornyn was to deliver ("It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife"). It's the same reason likbez pretends that pedophiles are an identity group like gay people.
Decent people must feel that bestiality and pedophilia are beyond the pale. By juxtaposing them with LGBT, the goal is to subtly induce decent people to associate their feelings of disgust toward (e.g.) sex with box turtles, and gay people and oh-so-icky ways.
It's a tell that Stephen hasn't got a tolerant bone in his body.
Orange Watch @ 79:Oy, it looks like you've made my point for me. Let me recap:
(1) Aubergine pointed out that some of these identity groups tend to absolutely privilege pursuit of their group's goals over the pursuit of a broader class-based agenda
(2) I agreed that this was the case, and that it was only natural, because (a) historically broad class-based movements have done zilch for oppressed minorities and interest groups, and (b) indeed, to a great extent, for many of the kinds of physical oppression faced by minorities, women, and LGBT folks, the oppressors are well-represented in the proletariat also.
In short, the only way any of these groups got their very real concerns about the conditions of their labor and life addressed, was by speaking up for themselves.
(3) To this your argument was first that these groups don't work toward a class-based agenda, and now that there's no evidence in history that they have worked to support each other, either. [As if the latter matters; I never argued that class-based movements -should- support (e.g.) gay rights: I noted that they DID NOT, and hence it made sense that gay rights groups FOCUSED on gay rights. Notwithstanding, in recent years these interest groups DO support each other.]
(4) Throughout, you've focused on the economic issues, and denigrated the issues that drove these groups into being:
To pull this back more closely to the subject of OP, your pile of unexamined privilege looks an awful lot like you're uncritically accepting the highly-educated/rich/socially & professionally networked/managerial-professional-executive workers' (i.e., upper class) "default" cultural perspective, and are insisting that failure to see it is deviant and immoral
What can I say? You're making my point for me. If you can't see that the goals #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, ACT-UP and others are important, even though they're not economic, well, is it any surprise they refuse to subordinate them to your goals?
... ... ...
And one last thing: again, it seems like you think that the right of a well-educated woman or black man to have a good job on the same terms as a white man, is less important than lifting up all the poor people. It is as if you're saying
Do you remember what LBJ said?
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
Do you see the similarity with your rhetoric? You're arguing that the effect of these interest groups is to aid entry of members of these minorities into the rich class, and per se this is bad.
Continued
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