Monday, June 01, 2020

Are We Great Yet?

Protesters are toppling Confederate statues in the United States.
BE WARNED SOME OF THE VIDEOS ARE GRAPHIC.

America is on fire.

Again, suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. There are incidents of theft, lootin, arson, felonious assault, criminal destruction, homicide, tampering with evidence, violating curfews and numerous misdemeanors. I cannot determine if any of these people were criminally charged.

The three months of uncertainty. June, July and August.

These are the months of Summer. The "Long Hot Summer" is a phrase that was coined in the late 1960s. When racial tensions reached a peak during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, there were unrest in urban centers.

Police are overwhelmed by the protests. The governors are overwhelmed by COVID-19 and unrest in their states. They look to the American president. He's looking towards Fox News and far-right outlets to channel his direction.

Under President Donald J. Trump, the United States has over $28.9 trillion in debt. Trump has spent more than most presidents in modern history. He was handed a healthy economy under his predecessor Barack Obama. In a mere 3 1/2 years, Trump and the Republican Party has place the United States in a state of uncertainty.



Today he is still tweeting instead of healing.






We have over 115,000 Americans who have died from the coronavirus. COVID-19 has been the most prevalent in the United States. African Americans, elderly, first responders and journalists are most at risk for the coronavirus. Trump was warned by the World Health Organization and his own intelligence agencies. He had called it a "Democrat hoax" and said that the virus will disappear.

Now he's calling himself a "bull in a China shop" when it comes to handling a pandemic that has no signs of easing up. He was too focused on trying to pass that "wonderful" trade deal with China.

Trump said that he was "stopped the virus" by closing off travel from China. His "travel bans" did not stop the coronavirus from spreading. The virus doesn't know borders. Folks are asystematic and they probably didn't know they had it traveling from the places where the infection rates were high.

He all but ripped it up by trying to impose sanctions on the China, cut funding to the WHO, punish countries that supported the decisions to take action before the United States and blame Obama for his own handling of the pandemic. Mind you that COVID-19 is a new disease and no one knew about the virus. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, then National Security Advisor John Bolton have eliminated the White House Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents. He dismantled the rapid response team and poorly prepared for the pandemic. The pandemic warnings went as far back to October 2019 when the United States was ranked one of the least prepared countries for a disruption to normality.

We are the leading nation in gun violence, coronavirus cases, global pollution and polarization.

Gun violence continues despite the "thoughts and prayers" and "our hearts going out to."

There's been over 250 mass shootings in the United States. Many of these mass shootings don't get the national attention they deserve. Because all mass shootings start off local right.

We have unrest in the United States.

Since the killing of George Floyd, it became the match that lit a flame.
Trump aimed at Joe Biden for siding with the protesters.
Protests across most urban communities with demands to stop dehumanizing Black people.

Stop insulting our intelligence.
Stop profiting off our pain.
Stop advocating division.
Stop profiling us.
Stop killing us.
Stop intimidating us.
Stop making us the "villains."

Across the nation, we have seen American protesters light fires to historical monuments. They have toppled Confederate statues. They had burned down entities of racism.
Trump called governors weak for not stopping the rioting in the country.
The New York Police Department, Los Angeles Police Department and Atlanta Police Department are doing damage control after incidents of brutality and white nationalism showed up on social media.














There were some white people who wanted to instigate and disrupt the "Justice for George Floyd" protests. A white man was swinging a sword or machete at protesters. He was beaten up and left unconscious.

I won't mention his name. The man was rushed to the hospital after he was attacked by 10 to 15 men during a night of mayhem in the wake of protests that turned into intermittent rioting and looting all across the country.






This video captured the assault and shows a gang of black and white people surrounding the white man as he is beaten and kicked on the ground. Additional video shows part of the confrontation that lead up to the attack and shows people throwing objects towards the man.
The New York Police Department caught on camera by Global News Canada trying to plow protesters.

There was a Black man who was shot and killed in an Omaha restaurant by a white extremist. That white extremist was upset over a discussion he overheard about Black Lives Matter. James Scurlock, a 22-year-old protester was shot and killed by some white extremist. An Omaha bar owner allegedly shot him and is in police custody being questioned about the shooting. The bar where he was shot was destroyed by protesters.




A white man in Salt Lake City tried to attack protesters with a crossbow. He was there instigating by shouting "ALL LIVES MATTER" and shouting epithets at protesters. He was aiming his crossbow at protesters. As soon as he shot off an arrow, he was confronted and beaten badly. His vehicle was turned over and set on fire.







A witness said the man drove up near a crowd of protesters at 200 East and 400 South. The witness said the man got out of the vehicle with a large knife attached to his side and pulled out a bow and arrow and attempted to shoot someone.

The junk food media saw protesters tackled the man to the ground. Police officers in the area pulled the man from the crowd and took him into custody.

Shortly thereafter, a black vehicle which some witnesses said belonged to the man with the bow and arrow was flipped over by protesters and lit on fire.

Two women in Madison were caught on camera throwing rocks and kicking windows at a store.






The woman comes from a suburb of Madison and was caught on camera starting trouble. She was called out by protesters to not act like that. It was revealed that she took pictures with Donald Trump, Jr. in one of her school photos.

Confederate statues in the south are being toppled over. In the South, many of the protesters have toppled statues of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Nathan Bedford Forrest monuments.

The Floyd family have called for justice. They want all the four officers to be charged with first-degree murder. The independent autopsy said that George died from asphyxiation. Derek Chauvin is facing second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and three-degree murder.

Today, Trump had made a phone call to the governors. He called them "weak" and told them that they should take action now to stop the unrest.

"You have to dominate. If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time,” Trump said, according to a person listening to a White House call with the nation's governors.

According to a source on the call, Trump was "annoyed" with the governors for their response to the protests and urged law enforcement to crack down and make more arrests. "You've got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you'll never see this stuff again," Trump said, according to the source.
The Robert E Lee memorial is defaced by protesters.
Trump was described by one person on the call as "losing it," with another saying the president called the governors "fools" and expressed anger with Democratic mayors in particular over the protests and unrest ravaging cities nationwide.

Trump said that other countries watching the situation unfold think Americans are pushovers.

"You have to dominate. If you don't dominate, you’re wasting your time," the president said, according to a person listening in.

The president also called the initial response in Minneapolis "weak and pathetic" and said that protestors have likely spread out to other cities. The person said Trump seemed obsessed with "antifa," or anti-fascists, and Occupy Wall Street, which he said was handled well by comparison and "just went away one day."

During the call, Trump claimed to have intelligence showing who the "bad actors" and professional instigators are, though he did not elaborate.

Trump also asked states to enact laws against flag burning in what the source described it as "a rant."

The White House billed the event as a "video teleconference with governors, law enforcement, and national security officials on keeping American communities safe."
George's family calls for the ex-cops to be tried for first-degree murder.
Several governors pushed back on Trump's narrative, including J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, the source said. Maine Gov. Janet Mills, also a Democrat, said she was concerned about the president visiting her state this week "because of security." Maine is home to Puritan Medical Products, the company the administration compelled through the Defense Production Act to produce coronavirus testing swabs.

Trump's response to the unrest has been to call for stronger law enforcement rather than calling for calm or addressing the concerns about police brutality and racism that many protestors say drove them to come out. Critics say an escalation in force would exacerbate already high tensions between protestors and the police.

After another night of protests led to fires and vandalism blocks from the White House, Trump spent Monday morning on Twitter blaming the unrest on antifa and accusing staffers of former Vice President Joe Biden of  "working to get the anarchists out of jail."

Trump had no public events scheduled for Monday, after not appearing in public on Sunday.
George Floyd's name will be etched in 2020.
Trump's advisers have been divided over what role the president should take in responding to the widest unrest the country has seen in decades. Some say the president should focus his message on Floyd, the black man who died last week at the hands of Minneapolis police, and urge calm.

Others say the top priority is stopping the violence and looting that have taken place in some areas, arguing that the best path to that end is strong police tactics, not presidential speeches.







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