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Monday, June 1, 2020

Good Advice, Bad Advice

Which will Trump follow?


As protests continue to flare across the country, President Donald Trump and his top aides cannot settle on the next steps the White House should take to ease tensions after the latest death of an African American man detained by a white police officer.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has been pushing for the president to deliver a formal address to the nation to emphasize his support for law and order and police officers, a familiar trope for the Republican Party and one that typically plays well with its base.

Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, along with several other top aides, argued against such a move, fearing the tone could alienate key voters ahead of the November election, including African Americans whose support the administration has been trying to court.

Perhaps they need to wait a little longer while the meaning of Liberalism sinks a bit more deeply into America's consciousness.

My wife heard an interview with a 7-11 owner whose store in Downtown Chicago was trashed. He expressed doubt that cities could truly come back from this. It's an open question.

20 comments:

  1. Trump needs to follow his gut instinct. The longer this lawlessness continues, however, the greater the demand will be for a return to law and order.

    One has to wonder how much intelligence the Feds have on Antifa already - names, funding lines, etc. Some quick arrests of their leadership could provide some immediate results.

    DJL

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  2. How would anti-Trump Politico know what was going on in the White House? Most conservatives do not believe they are a reliable source. That said, the President did give a speech on Saturday.

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/05/31/president-trump-national-address-on-the-death-of-george-floyd-and-national-outcry-video-and-transcript/

    The boys and girls at Politico have never been on our side or the President’s side. The President’s opponents are prone to cite Jared Kushner as a sign of the President’s alleged “weakness”. They ignore the fact that he listens to all of his advisers and then makes up his own mind. I’m surprised Steve Sailer bothered to republish this… Is he an anti-Trumper?

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  3. Why Trump should not call in the army:

    http://www.cheriberens.net/trump-must-not-call-in-the-troops-police-are-being-told-to-stand-down-on-purpose.html

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    1. I suspect the very significant difference in America is the wide support for the concept of law and order based on inherent right and wrong derived from the study of human nature. That is utterly lacking in Islam, where law is the utterly arbitrary will of the utterly unknowable deity.

      These are issues I explore in my earlier blogs. Philosophy matters.

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    2. "Philosophy matters." Damn right it does.
      At the top of this hour, Fox had one of its panels on the riots), with David Webb ripping into antiFa, BLM, etc., but then Harris Faulkner trotting out the standard liberal BS, about how "we all have some responsibility" for the carnage.
      Fortunately, while Webb got no chance to respond to this BS, the white woman from Townhall did move to refute, I forget just how.

      Insofar as "we all" have some responsibility, the "we" is the MSM smartypantses (incl. many on Fox).
      Hopefully, DJT wins another term, and moves to break-up the media oligopolies, and the "educational" cartels, who bear *far* more responsibility than do the average citizens (who suffer from looting etc., far more than do Elites like Faulkner).

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  4. The President needs to walk a very fine line here. He has made significant inroads within the black community. Blacks are the group that suffer most from these riots and looting.

    He can continue to express concern over the treatment of George Floyd and support for peaceful protest, and, at the same time support the police, who have a very tough job. Many of the agitators are not residents of the cities that they are burning. They are outside anarchists intent on tearing down, not building up, the country.

    My observation is that every time we have a new racial incident, i.e., Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, etc., the resulting rioting and looting is taken one step further. This seems worse than Ferguson. Going at the White House is a bridge too far (it's all a bridge too far, but the White House is a symbol of our Constitution).

    This time, I am really fearful, as our country has been roiled by the Dems/Media/Deep State antics since 2017. How far can our national fabric be stretched before it tears? Are heading for a second Civil War? Should the cops open fire when they are being pelted with rocks, bricks and bottles of water?

    I think this is orchestrated by Soros-funded groups who want that very outcome: the cops to open fire. I wish I had some ideas to emerge from this peacefully. Prayer is the best option.

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    1. Our best shot at avoiding civil war is, if DJT would build a wall, to block AntiFa, BLM etc. from infiltrating into red parts of the country.
      If this leads blue America to secede from the Heartland, so be it.
      A month or so ago, I posted here on the idea, of a move to quarantine the bulk of the urban Northeast, from the rest of the U.S.
      I proposed a wall, running largely along the Blue Ridge range, eventually getting to the Hudson, then N. along it to Lake Champlain.
      A similar wall could quarantine the Left Coast, running, say somewhere in the Rockies, down to along the Rio Grande, and to the Gulf.

      It'd be sad, to make the good folk in states like ID, UT, and NM have to move east (before they'd be devoured by their new Left Coast rulers), but defensible frontiers (like walls) "make for good neighbors".
      But, such a plan may bring less blood, than the current drift, toward the outright Wargasm that otherwise looks inevitable.

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    2. The notion that Antifa is only in the blue states is naive. When they had a website, even I could go there and see where the members of groups in various parts of the country - all across the country - could go and participate in a protest (or whatever euphemism they were pushing). I tried to find their website yesterday. No luck. They are using other means to communicate what they are doing…and what is scheduled to happen. And they do schedule …

      All of that said, they are not the only persons taking advantage of these “civil rights” protests. Many of those out there yesterday and the days before were probably gang members. Locals who knew what was going to happen and became what my younger son called “opportunists”...

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    3. Just as the good folk in states like ID, UT, and NM have to move east, so too, the brattier elements in the Midwest should be “encouraged” to move to one of the two Peoples Republics on the coasts.
      Fortunately, while they have large numbers, they’re mostly in a few rather small areas, e.g. the Peoples Republic of Madison, the ChicagoLand lake shore area, the Minneapolis & Detroit areas, etc.
      If things get worse, quarantines could isolate those areas, pending mass deportation to one of the blue coastal areas.

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    4. Joe asks: Should the cops open fire when they are being pelted with rocks, bricks and bottles of water?

      Police departments in the US employ various "non-lethal" ammunition and devices, with mixed effect. There are two non-lethal techniques/devices used with excellent effect elsewhere in the world on masses of lawbreakers. The first is water cannons. Essentially a firefighting tanker truck with a roof-mounted firefighting nozzle). The second is an Israeli liquid mixture used instead of water in one of these water cannons, commonly called "Arafat Cologne." It contains non-harmful chemicals that make the mix smell atrocious (like a skunk's spray or worse) and is quite difficult to remove from clothing and flesh. It makes subsequent, near term (3 days) identification of people who were hit with it quite easy. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GcybYaJwBo There are other videos of it being employed.

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    5. Thanks much for this information, Anonymous.

      I am frustrated with the riots. I don't wish to kill anyone and if there are non-lethal ways to disperse the rioters and looters, I endorse them.

      Part of why I am frustrated is because I support free speech but have no tolerance for violence, lawlessness and anarchy.

      This behavior threatens all of us who live our lives peacefully and harm no one and wish to be left alone.

      Joe

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    6. Mouse,

      In my mind I have created scenarios such as you envision. I don't know if you are serious or tongue-in-cheek, but I don't think they are practical.

      I compare red and blue to a marriage where they are still together but living separate lives.

      Joe

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  5. Politically, for decisions being made, Blue state Governors and Mayors are getting the blame. Trump is offering support.

    And Trump is speaking of Antifa, that is being shown as Whites.

    No reason for Trump to do anything to lose African American votes.

    Trumps doing a great job of threading the needle on this, and allowing the Blue State Governors and Mayors to fall on their faces.

    As a Blue State resident, I’m disgusted by the incompetence of our state and local governments.

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  6. I wonder what impact the police being used in blue states to enforce the lockdown has on their prestige?

    An image that sticks with me is the surfer being arrested in San Diego with use of a boat, etc. by the police, for a solitary activity that endangered nobody.

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    1. A guy in the State of Washington was cited for fishing by himself on a lake.

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  7. Ray,

    Your comment is insightful. Using the police as Big Mother. (My words, not yours.)

    Thank you.

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  8. Trump already spoke about this at the SpaceX launch Saturday. What he said then was plenty.
    :...
    The police officers involved in this incident have been fired from their jobs. One officer has already been arrested and charged with murder. State and federal authorities are carrying out an investigation to see what further charges may be warranted, including against sadly, the other three. In addition, my administration has opened a civil rights investigation and I have asked the Attorney General and the Justice Department to expedite it. I understand the pain that people are feeling. We support the right of peaceful protestors and we hear their pleas, but what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with justice or with peace. The memory of George Floyd is being dishonored by rioters, looters and anarchists. The violence and vandalism is being led by Antifa and other radical left wing groups who are terrorizing the innocent, destroying jobs, hurting businesses and burning down buildings.
    ..."

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  9. Just a note: Isn't it likely that the Politico reporting is putting the worst possible light on the WH situation, assuming there is anything factual about their speculations?

    I clicked through to read the whole article which cites zero sources--named or anonymous--regarding the alleged infighting or the subject (a speech) of the infighting.

    An article purely about reinforcing The Narrative.

    In other words, fake news.

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    1. That’s how I read it. (I don’t usually bother with Politico.) There is a stock left jab at President Trump which consists of “insider information” that he is being wrongly advised by either Jared or Ivanka. That has been going on for years. Just one piece of the leftist media’s arsenal...

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