babylonsister
babylonsister's JournalCongratulations, Donald Trump, you finally got your military parade
Congratulations, Donald Trump, you finally got your military parade
Mark Sumner
Daily Kos Staff
Wednesday June 03, 2020 · 9:50 AM EDT
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 02: Members of the D.C. National Guard stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as demonstrators participate in a peaceful protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, on June 2, 2020 in Washington, DC. Protests continue to be held in cities throughout the country over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Ever since he began his occupation of the White House, Donald Trump has wanted to see tanks and troops on American streets. After being treated to the pomp and circumstance of a military review in France, and seeing the annual parade of tanks, missiles, and goosestepping troops that are commanded by his pals Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, Trump has been jealous. He’s repeatedly drawn up plans for rolling military hardware down Pennsylvania Avenue even when the cost of that event was tagged at $100 million—which may or may not include repairing the damage left behind.
But Trump has finally gotten his military parade in the worst possible way. Using protests over the police murder of George Floyd and decades of racist police brutality as an excuse, Trump has flooded Washington, D.C. with federal police, the National Guard, active duty military, and whatever the hell these guys are. Peaceful protesters have found themselves at the receiving end of tear gas, pepper balls, flash-bangs, rubber bullets, bean bags, and other theoretically nonlethal weapons. And that was just the start. As Trump’s plan to “dominate” the First Amendment has rolled out, protesters have found themselves face to face with armed and armored troops, battered by low-flying helicopters, and driven away from spaces that remained open to the public in the midst of every past protest. All so Trump can feel “safe.”
On Monday evening, Donald Trump literally blasted his way through peaceful protesters so he could march between twin walls of troops, occupy a church where he was not invited, and wave an upside-down Bible in a photo op. For Trump, this was a “show of strength” in which thousands of troops “dominated” the protesters and made Washington, D.C. the “safest place in the nation.”
In truth, Trump’s actions showed a weak man operating out of fear. A man whose impression of safety is a police state in which citizens’ rights are curtailed in favor of his, the dear leader’s, protection; a man who believes that throwing thousands of troops at peaceful protesters makes him “tough.” In other words, Trump got exactly the North Korea Wonderland he always wanted. And found it good.
It’s the kind of attitude that sees Tiananmen Square not as a tragedy for democracy and human rights, but as a triumph of power. The Chinese government sure did dominate. Boy, did they make Beijing “safe.”
more...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/6/3/1950068/-Congratulations-Donald-Trump-you-finally-got-your-military-parade
...Televangelist Pat Robertson condemns Trump's 'law and order' response to protests
'You just don't do that, Mr. President': Televangelist Pat Robertson condemns Trump's 'law and order' response to protests
By Chandelis Duster, CNN
Updated 9:53 AM ET, Wed June 3, 2020
Washington (CNN)Televangelist Pat Robertson on Tuesday condemned President Donald Trump's response to nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd and police brutality, saying "you just don't do that, Mr. President"
His comments come amid criticism of police tactics used to clear out a crowd of peaceful protesters near the White House Monday ahead of Trump's walk across the square they had been protesting in and photo op in front of St. John's Episcopal Church. Trump, who on Monday touted himself as a president of "law and order," vowed to send US military forces into cities if governors did not quell protests that at times have turned violent. Trump has been condemned by church leaders over the move and his inflammatory rhetoric that has stoked racial tensions.
Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and one-time presidential candidate, spoke about the protests at the beginning of The 700 Club on Tuesday and said now is a time for understanding and comfort.
Robertson continued. "He said, 'I'm ready to send in military troops if the nation's governors don't act to quell the violence that has rocked American cities.' A matter of fact, he spoke of them as being jerks. You just don't do that, Mr. President. It isn't cool!"
more...
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/politics/pat-robertson-donald-trump/index.html
Trump Wanted Pentagon To Use Tanks To Stop Protests
https://www.joemygod.com/2020/06/trump-wanted-pentagon-to-use-tanks-to-stop-protests/?Trump Wanted Pentagon To Use Tanks To Stop Protests
June 3, 2020 Civil Rights, Donald Trump
The Daily Beast reports:
A senior DOD official said it was the White House that requested military helicopters fly low over protesters in D.C. and that it was part of a broader request from the Trump team that the national guard ramp up its presence in the city.
Additionally, the president has pressed aides and Pentagon officials for graphic details on the kind of armored vehicles, military units, aircraft, and even “tanks” that they could potentially send to maintain order in U.S. areas rocked by protests and rioting.
Oklahoma State football player says he tested positive for coronavirus after attending protests
Oklahoma State football player says he tested positive for coronavirus after attending protests
By Marty Johnson - 06/03/20 08:40 AM EDT
An Oklahoma State University football player says he has tested positive for COVID-19 after attending demonstrations protesting the police killing of George Floyd.
Amen Ogbongbemiga, a senior linebacker, tweeted Tuesday that he had tested positive for the virus after attending protests in Tulsa.
more...
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/500857-oklahoma-college-football-star-says-he-tested-positive-for-covid-19
FBI Asks for Evidence...People Respond With Videos of Police Violence
FBI Asks for Evidence of Individuals Inciting Violence During Protests, People Respond With Videos of Police Violence
By Jason Lemon On 6/2/20 at 1:01 PM EDT
The FBI on Monday posted to social media a request for photos and videos of individuals provoking violence during the nationwide peaceful demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd last week. But many on Twitter quickly began sharing video clips and photos of police cracking down violently on protesters.
"The FBI is seeking information and digital media depicting individuals inciting violence during First Amendment protected peaceful demonstrations," the FBI wrote on its Twitter account. The post included a link to get more information on the bureau's website.
more...
https://www.newsweek.com/fbi-asks-evidence-individuals-inciting-violence-during-protests-people-respond-videos-police-1508165
Dahlia Lithwick: Why This Time Is Different
Why This Time Is Different
Years of polite protests against Donald Trump could not do what this movement might accomplish.
By Dahlia Lithwick
June 02, 20204:11 PM
snip//
The paradox of the Trump presidency is and has always been that Trump is tiny, far too tiny to matter, and also that he is at the epicenter of everything. The central koan of the Trump era was always How did someone so small come to matter so much? And because “don’t pay attention” doesn’t work when the guy you’re meant to be ignoring has the nuclear codes, it was a loop from which we couldn’t extricate ourselves. So long as we believed that Trump was the cause of the problem, we were doomed to our civil outings around Foley Square, as the police stood mildly by, and guys sold quirky anti-Trump buttons from pushcarts.
But Trump was never the cause of the problem; he is the result of the problem. As Bryan Stevenson explains (for the thousandth time), there is not one single thing about the death of George Floyd that is remarkable or new. Not the killing in plain sight, not the complicity of the officers on site, and not the fact that it was captured on video. “Everything we are seeing is a symptom of a larger disease,” Stevenson says. “We have never honestly addressed all the damage that was done during the two and a half centuries that we enslaved black people. The great evil of American slavery wasn’t the involuntary servitude; it was the fiction that black people aren’t as good as white people, and aren’t the equals of white people, and are less evolved, less human, less capable, less worthy, less deserving than white people.” The killings of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor or Ahmaud Arbery all could have happened in the Obama administration. Killings did happen then. The fact that the current president has praised Nazis and given succor to white supremacists didn’t cause this week’s mass protests; it merely coincides with them.
Because Donald Trump is so laugh-out-loud absurd, so vain and fussy and so lacking in substance, protesting him was never quite serious. It was important, yes, and the policies he has enacted do real harm to real people, harm that should be loudly denounced. But these protests always had a bit of a street festival quality to them: Look at the silly carnival barker and laugh at his bad spelling and his bad hair and his poor captive wife. Even as he was stealing migrant children from their parents and locking them in iceboxes, the fundamental stupidity of the president was still center stage. But even these protests, often featuring tens of thousands of protesters, didn’t break through precisely because the predominantly white people in them could fist-bump the cops as we politely and whimsically strolled by.
Most Americans intuitively understand that Donald Trump, with his failures of cognition or compassion and his incomplete theory of mind, was a symptom and not a cause of America’s original, founding sin. Protesting a symptom occupied us for a while. But protesting the sin itself is what has finally brought people to the streets, in a sustained and combustible way. Why bother protesting a reality show when reality itself is a daily nightmare? Long before the advent of the Donald Trump presidency, Chief Justice John Roberts and his colleagues declared America “over” its racism problem. Long before the advent of the Trump presidency, police departments were hiding evidence of wrongdoing and exonerating and protecting the worst malefactors.
Now, law enforcement is armed with military weapons, military leaders are parading around D.C. in uniform, the free press is being punched, and protesters are being tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed by state actors who insist there was no tear gas or pepper spray. Just as the coronavirus again instructed us all on how America’s racism savages black lives and black livelihoods disproportionally, these protests are a master class in the same. The brokenness is centuries in the making.
more...
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/why-george-floyd-protests-are-different.html
D.C. Police Charged Demonstrators With Wearing Masks ...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dc-police-charged-demonstrators-with-wearing-masks-even-though-coronavirus-guidelines-require-them?ref=homeD.C. Police Charged Demonstrators With Wearing Masks Even Though Coronavirus Guidelines Require Them
MAKE UP YOUR MIND
Blake Montgomery, Reporter
Published Jun. 02, 2020 5:25PM ET
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
'I Cannot Remain Silent'
https://politicalwire.com/2020/06/02/i-cannot-remain-silent/‘I Cannot Remain Silent’
June 2, 2020 at 5:41 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard
Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, writing in The Atlantic:
“Whatever Trump’s goal in conducting his visit, he laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing the men and women of our armed forces.”
“There was little good in the stunt.”
Mitch McConnell Blocks Resolution Condemning Trump For Gassing Protesters
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/06/02/mcconnell-resolution-condemning-trump-gassing.htmlPosted on Tue, Jun 2nd, 2020 by Jason Easley
Mitch McConnell Blocks Resolution Condemning Trump For Gassing Protesters
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer tried to pass a resolution condemning Trump for using tear gas on protesters, but it was blocked by Mitch McConnell.
The resolution stated:
Schumer asked for unanimous consent to pass the resolution. McConnell objected and blocked its passage.
The Republican Senate Majority Leader refused to protect the right of the American people to protest their own government.
Trump had the protesters gassed because he wanted a photo op that would make him look strong to the American people.
It is obvious that every member of Congress should condemn Trump for his actions, but Republicans lack the basic courage to uphold the Constitutional rights of those who they are supposed to be representing.
If Mitch McConnell and his majority are so weak that they won’t stand up to Trump when he gasses American citizens, they must be voted out in November with Donald Trump.
ACLU Demands Congressional Probe Into 'Politically-Motivated' Attack...
ACLU Demands Congressional Probe Into 'Politically-Motivated' Attack on Peaceful Protest Outside Trump White House
"This appears to be grossly unjustified use of a dangerous chemical weapon on protesters and raises serious human rights concerns under international law," the civil liberties group said.
by Jon Queally, staff writer
The American Civil Liberties Union is demanding a congressional probe into the deployment of tear gas, rubber bullets, and other "indiscriminate weapons" against nonviolent demonstrators in Lafayette Square outside the White House on Monday evening—a use of force apparently greenlit by President Donald Trump so that he could enjoy a photo opportunity of himself marching through the cleared area on his way to nearby St. John's Episcopal Church.
"Elected officials, including Congress, must investigate this politically-motivated and life-threatening use of indiscriminate weapons." —Jamil Dakwar, ACLUAs the Washington Post reports:
The sudden use of force left early protesters bruised, bleeding and in shock. Although the night would ultimately end with a spattering of smashed windows and vandalized businesses, the scene in front of the White House when federal law enforcement descended was far from the "violent mobs" Trump described in his speech. The gathering was smaller and calmer than previous evenings, with people dancing and singing to a woman playing a guitar instead of knocking over barricades.
Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU's Human Rights Project, denounced both the nature and the timing of the assault on the unsuspecting demonstrators, given that it happened just as Trump delivered a speech from the Rose Garden in which he threatened tougher police tactics—including use of U.S. military forces—to quell protests in cities nationwide.
more...
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/02/aclu-demands-congressional-probe-politically-motivated-attack-peaceful-protest
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHometown: NY
Home country: US
Current location: Florida
Member since: Mon Sep 6, 2004, 09:54 PM
Number of posts: 171,109
