Bet on Dem VP! (Switches to: "Spring 2020 Riots Thread")

[Grizzly]

Note: Charges are not convictions...



https://twitter.com/SleepDeez/status/1268251253366075392

Also...



Oh, and O'BOMBER is addressing the nation... listen up!

[brekin]

Prolonged Austerity/Isolation/Anxiety/Uncertainty/Lack of Control/Pandemic Fears = Cognitive Dissonance = Displacement = Self Justification + Mass Media = Moral Panic = Mass Contagion = Mass Hysteria = Mass Suicide/Sacrifice

3 More Months of this?


No thanks! Let's burn it all down!


Cognitive Dissonance

In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance occurs when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values; or participates in an action that goes against one of these three, and experiences psychological stress because of that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Displacement (psychology)

In psychology, displacement (German: Verschiebung, "shift, move") is an unconscious defence mechanism whereby the mind substitutes either a new aim or a new object for goals felt in their original form to be dangerous or unacceptable.[1]
A term originating with Sigmund Freud,[2] displacement operates in the mind unconsciously, its transference of emotions, ideas, or wishes being most often used to allay anxiety in the face of aggressive or sexual impulses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Displacement_(psychology)

Self-justification describes how, when a person encounters cognitive dissonance, or a situation in which a person's behavior is inconsistent with their beliefs, that person tends to justify the behavior and deny any negative feedback associated with the behavior.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-justification

Protesters See Health Risk As Worth It: We’re Choosing Between ‘Dying From COVID Or Dying From Cops’
Experts anxiously watch thousands of Americans gather together in the midst of a pandemic and worry the very people the protests are trying to help may be hurt the worst by a second spike of the virus. But activists say that in the long run, the risk of exposure is worth it. Although scientists say infection is less likely in outdoor spaces, a number of factors--such as how much yelling and chanting is happening--play into how dangerous the situation is for the protesters.

The New York Times: After Months Of Coronavirus Isolation, George Floyd Protests Draw Shoulder-To-Shoulder Crowds
For days, Kate Dixon, has been watching the videos of demonstrations from her home in a Denver suburb: the images of young people packed shoulder to shoulder, the crowds shouting in unison on downtown streets, the occasional détente between protester and police officer that ends in a hug. “You want that to be a wonderful moment,” said Ms. Dixon, a stay-at-home mother who has been sewing face masks in her spare time. “But your heart just hurts at all the illness this could be causing.” In the last week, the United States has abruptly shifted from one crippling crisis to the next. (Bosman and Harmon, 6/2)

The Associated Press: Protests In Top 25 Virus Hot Spots Ignite Fears Of Contagion
As demonstrators flooded streets across America to decry the killing of George Floyd, public health experts watched in alarm — the close proximity of protesters and their failures in many cases to wear masks, along with the police using tear gas, could fuel new transmissions of the coronavirus. Many of the protests broke out in places where the virus is still circulating widely in the population. In fact, an Associated Press review found that demonstrations have taken place in every one of the 25 U.S. communities with the highest concentrations of new cases. Some have seen major protests over multiple days, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. (Smith and forster, 6/2)

ABC News: Mass Protests Could Lead To A Another Wave Of Coronavirus Infections
As thousands of demonstrators continue to protest the killing of George Floyd, health experts are worried that a second wave of COVID-19 infections could be sparked by the mass gatherings. "What we have here is a very unfortunate experiment going on with COVID virus transmission," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. (Schumaker, 6/2)

The Associated Press: The American Story, Splintered, And Those Vying To Tell It
The hard times that have befallen this nation in 2020 — a deadly pandemic, millions unemployed, political warfare, the upheaval after George Floyd’s death — have revealed an increasingly evident truth: The storylines that have long held the nation together are coming apart. “The United States is essentially a collage culture. And if you were a certain group, you had the comfort of the solidity of the great American story. It had a coherence,” says Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “And it’s now been broken apart into a million little pieces.” (Anthony, 6/3)

CNN: Surgeon General Warns Of Coronavirus Outbreaks From Floyd Protests
US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said to expect new outbreaks of the coronavirus resulting from the nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd that have seen thousands of people gather in close proximity. While a majority of protesters nationwide have worn masks and face coverings as they demand justice for Floyd, an African-American man who died last week while in police custody, the large crowds have made it difficult to social distance. The coronavirus pandemic has also disproportionately affected communities of color, an issue Adams has highlighted. (Stracqualursi, 6/2)

NBC News: Protesting In A Pandemic: COVID-19 Testing Sites Shut Down Amid National Unrest
Just as access to COVID-19 tests was ramping up in many areas across the country, some testing sites have been forced to suspend operations because of violence and protests in recent days. The temporary closures — from California to Florida — are sure to hamper efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus, particularly as social distancing has given way to mass gatherings of potentially contagious people who don't know they're infected. (Edwards, 6/2)

Bangor Daily News: Bangor’s Anti-Racism Rally Was One Of The City’s Biggest In Years
It’s not every day that hundreds of people take to the streets of Bangor, as they did Monday night to protest racial inequality and police brutality following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. It was an unusual, but not unprecedented, moment for the Queen City, which does not generally see as many large political demonstrations as two of its counterparts to the south, Augusta and Portland. (Eichacker, 6/2)

https://khn.org/morning-breakout/protes ... from-cops/

[Spook]

Trump's nothingburger address indicates he doesn't have any plan or see any way forward;

Accept civilian oversight.

Bang! Jack just nailed it.
Since 9/11 or even earlier.

[overcoming hope]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/us/boogaloo-extremist-protests-invs/index.html

Gun-toting members of the Boogaloo movement are showing up at protests

(What the hell is this nonsense?)

[Belligerent Savant]

.

I do not approve or disapprove of this message, except for the overall premise that LIES are being told.

[liminalOyster]

They know that austerity is about to go into hyperdrive and is going to need a sea of jackboots and their apologists to enforce cruel and brutal acts (evictions of the sick and elderly on to the street, mass unemployment, etc) at least until we pretty much get used to it as the new normal.

[Grizzly]

What Big Things!???

[Wombaticus Rex]

What Big Things!???

Earthquakes, Wildfires, the UFO wave, and then the big famine.

[Belligerent Savant]

.

Recent developments/narratives in establishment media.


https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pol ... 139907001/

'Abhorrent' and 'dangerous': Sen. Cotton's call for military response to protests receives criticism

Savannah Behrmann
Published June 3, Updated June 4

WASHINGTON - Government and media experts called Senator Tom Cotton's New York Times editorial "dangerous," "abhorrent" and "unacceptable" Wednesday night.

The editorial, titled "Send In the Troops" went viral and drew sharp criticism following high tensions surrounding protests around the country against police brutality.

In the op-ed, Cotton, a veteran Republican from Arkansas, calls on President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and send the military into cities, writing, "One thing above all else will restore order to our streets: an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers."


Though Trump has the legal authority to invoke the Insurrection Act, many, like his own Defense Secretary, have cautioned against the use of troops to quiet domestic unrest.

The Insurrection Act is an 1807 law that allows the president to dispatch the military or federalize the National Guard in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law. The act has been invoked in the past to confront the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction and to enforce desegregation in the South. President George H.W. Bush used it in 1992 to help California's governor respond to riots in Los Angeles.

In response to the editorial, dozens of Times staffers began posting the same message on Twitter with an image of the headline.“Running this puts Black @NYTimes staff in danger,” they wrote.

Past Times staffers slammed the piece as well. Sewell Chan, former international news and op-ed editor, who now works at the LA Times, tweeted that "the decision to publish @SenTomCotton calling for troop deployments to quell unrest falls short of sound journalistic practice."

Lydia Polgreen, Head of Content for Gimlet Media and an NYT alum, wrote that she "spent some of the happiest and most productive years of my life working" for the Times and it "is with love and sadness that I say: running this puts Black @nytimes staff - and many, many others - in danger."

Editorial page editor, James Bennet, explained the decision, tweeting in a thread, “The Times editorial board has forcefully defended the protests as patriotic and criticized the use of force, saying earlier today that police too often have ‘responded with more violence — against protesters, journalists and bystanders.’ We’ve also crusaded for years against the underlying, systemic cruelties that led to these protests.”

“As part of our explorations of these issues, Times Opinion has published powerful arguments supporting protests, advocating fundamental change and criticizing police abuses," he continued. "Times Opinion owes it to our readers to show them counter-arguments, particularly those made by people in a position to set policy. We understand that many readers find Senator Cotton's argument painful, even dangerous. We believe that is one reason it requires public scrutiny and debate.”

The editorial sections of newspapers are separate from the newsgathering operations.

Others outside of the Times current or former staff scrutinized the piece, causing #TomCotton to trend online.

Sam Wang, a scientist at Princeton University, rebuked Bennet's explanation, saying that he was "normalizing the abnormal" with Cotton's column.

Senator Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, tweeted, "I’ve submitted non-fascist opinion pieces to the Times in the past but no luck so maybe this is just sour grapes."

Walter Shaub, the former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, wrote that Cotton's piece "reads like the kind of handwritten manifesto investigators might find glued to a wall in the dingy apartment of a lone gunman they stopped minutes before his planned attack."

Many also pointed out that the op-ed ran online on the eve on the 31st anniversary of the "Tiananmen Square Massacre." Weeks of protests across China, centered in Beijing's historic public square, were crushed that day when Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping declared martial law and security forces fired on the protesters.

Last year, Cotton wrote on the 30th anniversary of the incident: "We'll never forget the bravery and sacrifice of those Chinese students. The Communist Party hasn't changed in the intervening decades. It has only updated its tactics."

[Nordic]

This guy either has some inside sources, or else he’s got a damn good crystal ball.

He published this in 2010.

https://www.salon.com/2010/12/06/america_collapse_2025/

[Elvis]

This guy either has some inside sources, or else he’s got a damn good crystal ball.

He published this in 2010.

https://www.salon.com/2010/12/06/america_collapse_2025/

Interesting forecast except I don't buy the "unable to pay" part. It hasn't happened:

Economic Decline: Scenario 2020

After years of swelling deficits fed by incessant warfare in distant lands, in 2020, as long expected, the U.S. dollar finally loses its special status as the world's reserve currency. Suddenly, the cost of imports soars. Unable to pay for swelling deficits by selling now-devalued Treasury notes abroad, Washington is finally forced to slash its bloated military budget.

The US government might run out of material resources but it can't "go broke" financially. We're spending wrong.

the world's central banks holding an astronomical $4 trillion in U.S. Treasury notes

What's "astromomical" about that? The US will go down, but not broke. See here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=41320&p=688110#p688110


But this happened!—overlooking the "far right" bit:

Riding a political tide of disillusionment and despair, a far-right patriot captures the presidency with thundering rhetoric, demanding respect for American authority and threatening military retaliation or economic reprisal.

[JackRiddler]

How is "far right" not correct? Because the motherfucker with a corporate media assist has managed to mainstream it?

Anyway, Alfred McCoy is a great historian, author of The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (1972) which turned into The Politics of Heroin (CIA and the Global Drug Trade), period, and since then of histories of US and torture and US empire, including a good one about the use of empire in the Philippines in building the US state. As a forecaster, maybe somewhat. Now that he's older, he's also sounding shockingly like our own WRex: American empire was really bad, but whatever combo of Chinese hegemony and all-out chaos follows will be so much worse, etc. He had some good pieces on Counterpunch.

[JackRiddler]

As Belligerent Savant wisely advised already a few days ago, I've started a new thread for updates, comment and debate on the still-unfolding US events. Feel free to keep replying here, or to copy-paste whatever you consider important from here and continue the conversation over there.

June 2020, United States: The Unfolding

[Elvis]

How is "far right" not correct?

Trump seems not so much ideological as just doing what "works" to satisfy himself. But yah, I wouldn't call him "left"—or even all that "liberal," whatever that means nowadays.

[dada]

The mysterious dancing mania and mass psychogenic illness
https://www.neuroscientificallychalleng ... ic-illness

Try to imagine yourself walking along the streets of a city (maybe the one you live in, or one you’ve visited, or one you simply make up in your head—as long as you can picture it clearly it doesn’t matter much). Think of the shops and businesses you might pass as you stroll down the sidewalk, the smells of food emanating from nearby restaurants, and the noises you’d hear—intermittent car horns, snippets of conversation, the discordant sounds of construction equipment. Now, imagine you approach a street corner, and as you do you begin to hear some rhythmic music playing from just out of view—on what sounds like bagpipes (to really set the mood, click play on the video below for some appropriate background music). As you turn the corner, curious to find the source of the music, you see a large city park. It charmingly interrupts the asphalt and concrete of the city with expansive green grasses, dense leafy trees, and a bubbling decorative fountain. But despite its beauty, the park is also the backdrop to one of the strangest spectacles you’ve ever witnessed.

The park is filled with people—perhaps a hundred, maybe more. Many of them are naked. Others are wearing clothes that are dirty, ripped, and often hanging loosely from their undernourished bodies. A large group of them have formed a circle by holding hands, and many others are contained within the circle. Someone you can’t see is playing the aforementioned upbeat (almost eerily so, now that you can see the whole picture) tune on the bagpipes, and nearly everyone is dancing—but not in a choreographed manner you might see from a flash mob today. Instead, this dancing is convulsive and jerky, and almost out of control—like there is a maniacal puppet master manipulating their movements from above.

As you cautiously take a few steps closer to this bizarre scene, you see that many of the dancers are staring blankly up at the sky, as if in a trance. Occasionally, they yell—shriek might be the more appropriate word—unintelligibly into the air. Some of these shrieks become agonized screams, and you can clearly make out the word “help!” shouted at least once or twice. You notice that, in the middle of the circle, several couples are on the ground having sex with one another. The whole thing looks like a drug-fueled ritual/orgy, but it’s taking place right out in the open, for everyone to see.

One of the dancers suddenly falls to the ground and starts convulsing. He’s clearly having some sort of seizure, his body thrashing about wildly and uncontrollably—but everyone just ignores him. After what must be about 30 seconds, he recovers, slowly gets up, and begins dancing again.
Think of the shock and horror you would feel when you encountered this scene.

Just sounds like a bunch of hippies.

Encountering this scene wouldn't offend me, I don't find it distasteful. But then, I like bagpipes, too.

Maybe hippy is a mass psychogenic illness, I don't know. I'm no scientist. And it's true, dancing can be highly infectious. Though I don't know if I'd call it an illness. A mass psychogenic phenomenon.

And not all ecstatic dancing is 'dirty.' Devotees of the lord krishna dance, too. I guess some scientists might say hare krishna is a mass psychogenic illness. I doubt the dancers mind what the scientists think, though. Probably just feel sorry for them.

Maybe mass psychogenic illness is in the eye of the beholder. Back when I was a space alien in the intergalactic navy, and I first saw planet earth, it was clear to me that most human behaviors fit the diagnosis.

edited to correct spelling errors