Amici,
Many
of you are in Europe and probably think the U.S. has lost its
collective mind. A couple of things are intersecting here, strains of
thought and cultural-and-political history that create the chaos the
U.S. is experiencing.
First,
and foremost, the U.S. really is a federal republic (like Germany in
many ways, or Canada or Australia) and its states are sovereign in many
of their own capacities. It is kind of like an American secular version
of the Catholic principle of Subsidiarity. Local things need to be
handled by local authorities, and on up the line, as bigger the issues
get, the higher the authority required to manage them.
Therefore, a major question is: how bad can things get before a President can simply override the wishes of local government?
So, regarding the current riots:
Initially,
there was the apparent (from what we can tell as of now) murder of George
Floyd, 46, a black man, by a white cop on May 25, the Monday of Memorial Day weekend, a major U.S. holiday. Floyd and Chauvin, the cop, probably knew each other,
as both worked as Security at the same nightclub, a sleazy place owned
by a Somali immigrant where counterfeit money was passed, and Floyd
himself was arrested to begin with for passing a counterfeit $20). Soon after, protests began in Minneapolis, Minnesota, (Note: there was none of
this when a Black cop murdered a white woman -- an Australian -- a few
years ago, in 2017: https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/black-cop-white-victim-no-riots-2017-minneapolis-killing-foreshadowed-failed
That cop was a Muslim Somali immigrant; the mobs are now baying for his
release. The point is the Minneapolis Mayor and Police chief new they
had some problems with the police department, and needed to fix those.
Obviously, they didn't.)
Now,
today, eight days later, the MainStream Media (MSM) is screaming its
collective throat out that Trump is causing all this with his Tweets and
other comments and actions, while conversely, many on the Right
excoriate him for not sending in the Marines (Fox commentator Tucker
Carlson has gone on a ridiculous rant last night against Trump for not
doing enough to stop the riots), while many on the Left, exactly
counterwise, threaten to resist any such action: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8378631/New-York-AG-says-Trump-not-dominate-New-York-threatens-sue-military-deployment.html (BTW, today, as NY's governor attacks NYC's mayor for failing to defend the city, even though 8,000 police were out: https://nypost.com/2020/06/02/gov-cuomo-de-blasio-nypd-failed-to-protect-nyc-from-looters/ , actually, Gov. Cuomo is calling for all 38,000
of NYC's cops to be deployed. And these guys don't need the military?
How long can the entire police force be on active anti-riot duty? And
who polices when take time to sleep? NYC Mayor de Blasio refuses to call
in the National Guard to restore order; he used them to enforce
quarantine, but not to save the city from destruction -- de Blasio is
despicable.)
Talk about
the Donald being Damned if he does and Damned if he doesn't! This is
why few people want such high leadership positions.
The
MSM hurled abuse on him for going into a White House bunker one night,
and the next day hurled abuse at him -- the abuse throwers including the Episcopal bishop
of D.C. and the reprehensible Catholic archbishop -- for walking across
the park to a damaged church carrying a Bible. The Left is just
becoming utterly incoherent.
So, what's up? What the heck is going on?
Because of the U.S. system, it was the duty of the local authorities to handle local matters. At first. The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, and his Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, didn't.
(Note that Arrandondo became Chief of Police in 2017, replacing the
chief at the time of the 2017 murder linked to above.) A Leftist, Frey
sided or condoned of sympathized -- as Leftists do, see below -- with
the rioters. Frey ordered the police to retreat, and abandoned a police
precinct house to destruction by the mob. Soon things were out of
control and eventually the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, stepped in.
But again, Walz didn't get the National Guard (each state has Army or
Air Force or whatever of Guardsmen, who can be "activated" for whatever
emergencies, natural or political, exist at a given time; the U.S.
President can "activate" them as regular U.S. military, too) out in
force, and armed -- i.e. prepared for a no-nonsense repression of
the chaos. It took Walz about three days or so to "get tough", by which
time a great deal of damage was done, and also the riots spread across
America.
Why do Leftists --
from mild to strong Leftists -- coddle rioters? See below about "Social
Justice". Walz is also interesting in that his own daughter was helping
-- via mobile phone -- to direct riots to targets. NYC's mayor's
daughter was actually arrested for rioting; the mayor says he's proud of
her.
Now, President
Trump had encouraged Walz to activate the Guard, and offered Walz
federal help, as in regular Army, but Walz demurred. Trump has offered
help to other governors and mayors, as well, but all of them being
Democrats, for the most part, they hesitate. They don't want to make
Trump look good, A, and B, they could care less about the damage being
done, as they'll come hat-in-hand to the federalis to get money to
clean up.
However, as
president, Trump is empowered by the U.S. Constitution to see that "laws
are faithfully executed" and the 1807 Insurrection Act gives the
president great power to "step in." Also, it is manifestly absurd
for "Blue State" (Leftist) rulers to allow a majority of city centers burned to the ground and some their people to
be slaughtered in the name of their Leftist policies?
In
fact, about 12 times the U.S. National Guard was called in to quell
riots (and/or the regular military). Some of the listed examples below
had the military called in, (copied from various sources). To wit:
- 1861
When the Southern states began their revolution against Lincoln's
election in 1860 (amazing how Democrats don't want to allow a peaceful
transfer of power, isn't it?), Lincoln didn't hesitate to deal with it
(quite cleverly too, getting "the Rebs" i.e. Democrats, to fire first,
on Fort Sumter). Lincoln would also later use regular U.S. Army soldiers
to quell anti-draft riots in New York City.
- More recently, race riots raged in Los Angeles in 1965 (34 dead) wherein 4,000 National Guardsmen were called out to suppress the madness.
- Newark NJ in 1967
(26 dead) with about 8,000 state police and National Guardsmen used to
quell the chaos; many bloggers -- some originally from New Jersey --
have pointed out that this riot ruined Newark and started an exodus from
the city; it's never recovered. Today it is a typical Democrat slum.
- 1967 (Known for its "long hot summer" of riots) in Detroit, 43 dead and 2,000 injured. Michigan's
then governor, George W. Romney (Mitt Romney's father) ordered in the
Michigan Army National Guard, then President Lyndon B. Johnson sent in
the United States Army's 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions! Crack troops. (Once,
while waiting for a bus in the Detroit bus station, I saw a middle-aged
Black man with a T-shirt bearing the logo: "I'm so bad I vacation in
Detroit." :)
- 1968: After the
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, violence
erupted in 125 cities from April 4 to 11, leaving at least 46 dead and
2,600 injured. In Washington, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered in
the 82nd Airborne Division to quell riots. The riots stopped.
(Bloggers have written in the past few days that those 1968 riots were
something to behold -- entire city blocks were burned down, and these
modern riots are nothing in comparison. Our friend Griff can tell us a
lot about this.)
- 1968 in Chicago: vicious riots occurred
all across the country, but in Chicago it was bad. 11 Chicagoans (mostly
Black) were killed. Later that year, the Democrat National Convention
in the same city was surrounded by rioters, but this was Leftist
Underground types -- a real mess.
- In 1980, a riot in Miami against the police for a motorcyclist's death resulted in 18 dead.
- 1992:
the Rodney King riots (someone filmed police officers beating King)
resulted in 59 dead. George H.W. Bush sent in the Marines on that one.
(This was the last time a U.S. President sent in regular military over
the wishes of the locals, if I read the history correctly.) Needless to
say, riot quelled. Riots in other large cities also occurred at the same
time, to protest King's treatment.
- Minor, but Ohio-based: A series of riots over several (four) days in 2001
in Cincinnati Ohio's Over the Rhine neighborhood resulted in many
injuries but no deaths. There was a boycott of downtown businesses
afterward.
- In 2014, ten days of
riots kicked off in Ferguson, Missouri, after a police officer shot a
black teen who was apparently going to attack the officer. After the
first six days or so, the governor, a Democrat, one Jay Nixon, finally
called in the state's National Guard.
- 2015
Riot in Baltimore, Maryland, was set off by more police brutality. This
city, like Detroit, is a classic case of Democrat machine politics
ruling the city for decades. Baltimore is 2/3s Black. The Maryland
National Guard was deployed.
- 2016 riots
over a few days (with the governor eventually calling a state of
emergency but I can only find police were used), occurred in Charlotte,
North Carolina -- the situation was sparked by the police shooting of
Keith Lamont Scott, a Black. Charlotte is a college town and students
got involved. This is not to be confused with the 2017 mess when
in Charlotte, VIRGINIA, a white driver drove a car through "peaceful"
protestors, killing one. The thing started when white supremacists held a
rally in the town to stop the removal of a Confederate monument.
Leftist "activists" showed up, ready for a confrontation. The MSM blamed
Trump, of course, and have been blaming him for everything on Earth and
beyond ever since his election. But this fiasco was clearly a "set-up"
by both the white supremacists and Antifa or proto-Antifa activists.
Note:
The later '60s riots involved Leftists and Left-Terror activists, such
as the infamous "Weather Underground," who, like Antifa today, try to
organize and direct the riots.
Why are Blacks so involved in riots?
First,
many of them live on the margins of society, and any society under
stress, such are the first to be pinched by circumstances.
- Black
communities are ruled by Black political machines that see to it only
Democrats are elected. I think Minneapolis has not had a Republican
mayor for 50 years! (Something like that.) One-party cities and states
are -- without question -- going to be badly governed.
- Black
communities (and many Latino) are awash with drugs, too, and the vast
majority of gun-related deaths in the U.S. are "Black on Black" murders,
most of them related to drugs. (Whites also have a serious drug problem
in the U.S., of course. It's a major national health crisis, far, far,
far more important and mortal that Covid-19.)
- Democrats say
the U.S. is inherently racist (hard-core Leftists say it is
irredeemable) but it is mainly Democrats who have historically oppressed
the Blacks, and use them to cause political chaos.
- First it was
the Democrats who insisted on slavery and tried to destroy the country
in 1861 because they refused to accept the election of Lincoln, a
Republican.
- The Republican Party was in part an
anti-slavery party. Lincoln insisted he would not bother slavery in the
states where it existed, but Southern Democrats didn't believe him (and
they insisted on extending slavery into the U.S. territories.)
Today,
Democrats refuse the accept the election of Trump. Like a crazed rioter
in an insane mob, they simply let their emotions run away with them.
"Blind leading the blind." In 2000, they refused to accept the election
of the second Bush, or many of them did. It was until the 2004 election
that they had to admit Bush was legit.
They
loathed Nixon from the 1950s -- look up the name Alger Hiss -- and hated
him for getting elected in 1968 and went white-hot-in-all-Hell fury
that he stopped the Vietnam War (which they used to great affect in
political agitation). In any event, after the Civil War, the Democrats
created Jim Crow (an institutionalized oppression of Blacks), and it was
Democrats under Lyndon Johnson who showered them with government
handouts and welfare projects, which resulted in the destruction of the
Black family.
One can reference Daniel
Patrick "Pat" Moynihan and review his ideas about all that. Moynihan was
a Democrat, but of the old style, as my mother was, not the modern
ideologue type of Leftist we are bedeviled with today.
Democrats
apparently have gone full Left. They've have steadily moved to the Left
for decades, so that Ronald Reagan could say in the 1980s that he was
as "conservative" as Jack Kennedy was in the early '60s. That's true.
The Dems have moved so far Left that today's Joe Biden -- on many
positions -- makes Hillary Clinton herself look "centrist"! That's
amazing.
Secondly, Blacks are involved in riots because one of the foundational tenants of Leftism, since Jean-Jacques Rousseau started it, is the idea that individuals are not responsible for their behavior, but rather society is.
This Rousseau-based notion is the core of all "Social Justice" cant, "SW"
is the vague slogan to describe this theory today. Obviously, this is
counter to Christianity, of course. Western Philosophy and Christianity
have always posited that human beings are moral agents, and responsible
for their own behavior. Yes, people often treat their fellow humans very
badly, as individuals and groups, but "Two wrongs don't make a right"
in that maybe you are suffering because of others, but that doesn't give you a right to cause them to suffer, or to spread suffering broadcast.
This is actually a revolution in thought. Ancient Greek heroes, for example, are often described in the Iliad
as being particularly brave or cowardly because some god other other
prompted them so. In the Irish language, there's a special passive that
is active, a leftover from when the gods motivated human actions. So
this idea seems to be the "root programming" of the human race, or at
least, a strong contender for such.
Back to the Blacks:
However,
huge numbers of Blacks, educated (if that verb can be used for it) in
public schools, have been Social Justice brainwashed that all the
problems are because on inherent white racism. I used to substitute
teach in Columbus, Ohio's inner-city schools, and was amazed at the
indoctrination. It begins early, I can tell you.
In
any event, the ancient "I'm not responsible for my actions" notion has
flowered into the demented "social justice" flowers. Tokien so aptly
described them: "Wide flats lay on either bank, shadowy meads
filled with pale white flowers. Luminous these were too, beautiful and
yet horrible of shape, like the demented forms in an uneasy dream; and
they gave forth a faint sickening charnel-smell; an odour of rottenness
filled the air." Yes, indeed. Sounds like U.S. Academia and the
Entertainment Industry, doesn't it?
Anyway,
the sickening charnel-smell of chaos drifts now American cities because
of these underlying ideological ideas; they're a mainspring of all
Leftism. Look what Senator Bernie Sanders has said here: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/while-riots-target-corporations-banks-bernie-says-ultra-rich-have-been-looting
Anyone on the Left would agree, those in the Lefty middle-center might
agree but disagree on what to do about it, exactly (calling for more
social programs, probably) while those on the right most likely would
not agree, but if in some specific example a case could be made, no one
on the Right would approve of action either "kinetic" or "lawfare" or
whatever, to redress it -- in general.
Meanwhile, Antifa.
Antifa ("anti-fascist") is a Communist organization the intent of which
is to bring about Revolution, and they closely ally to "Black Lives
Matter" (in part, a Muslim front organization). Antifa are clearly
behind the protests turning violent. White people dressed in black
clothing have been filmed paying young Blacks to riot and loot, and
these Antifa have been filmed using tools to break into buildings or cut
fences, then directing mobs to the break-ins, facilitating destruction.
They also deliver pallets of brings to important street locations so
these can be thrown. And we know they've been moving about the country,
across state lines, fomenting insurrection, full force. https://noqreport.com/2020/05/30/gullible-rioters-are-doing-the-bidding-of-radical-progressive-ringleaders-bent-on-destroying-america/
Thus
Attorney General Bill Barr and President Trump have spoken on this, and
Trump has officially declared them domestic terrorists (to the degree
he can, because Congress has never written clear laws on how to do that,
while the have done so for foreign terrorists -- however, as Antifa is
international, this shouldn't prove much of a problem). As officially
declared terrorists, the U.S. law known as "RICO" (Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organizations Act) allows anyone associated with Antifa
(financial benefactors of whatever sort) to be arrested, tried, and if
proven guilty, stripped of their property and money.
Therefore,
this move by Trump and Barr should scare the Hell out of the Hollywood
celebrities and whoever else have been praising the
violence/insurrection or Antifa directly. The government can go after
them. And of course it is a federal crime to go across state lines in
order to commit crime in another state. Antifa is doing that all the
time.
Finally, President
Trump has declared he will be stopping the riots. As noted above in the
case of the New York attorney general, the Leftist (universally called
"Blue States") states and cities will complain vociferously, and maybe
actually resist in some physical manner. Some, like NY's Cuomo and the
wretched would-be dictators of Illinois and Michigan talk big, but are
all probably too cowardly to try it. Were any of these rather impish
orcs actually try some sort of real resistance, Trump could declare
Marshal Law for that state, arrest them, and ship them to Gitmo. Please
remember that across the U.S., many cities and even some governors have
been trying to established "sanctuary cities" for illegal immigrants.
They actually work against ICE agents going about their business. These
actions are illegal in the extreme. States are sovereign in many things,
but not in deciding who is a legal or illegal immigrant. Trump would be
within his rights to arrest of lot of mayors and a few governors,
that's for sure. We'll see what happens in the next 24 hours. https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-06-02/military-begins-staging-around-washington-to-quell-george-floyd-protests
But
whatever happens tonight, these past eight days or so have made it
manifestly clear that our Western Civilization is on very thin ice. In
the U.S., the "essential country" of the West, not only are large
segments of certain elements of the populace apparently ready to turn
into animals at a moment's notice, but the ruling elite of many states,
large and small, are willing -- for the sake of their Leftist ideology -- to let the mob destroy everything in sight. That cannot
continue. One-party states and cities cannot continue. Democrats cannot
keep "moving Left". The election systems must no longer be manipulated;
machine political mafias must be broken up. Past and current wrongs do
not make a right nor entitle special groups license to destroy
civilization. The contrast between Left and Right is obvious this past
week when the U.S. launched a spacecraft up to the space station for the
first time since 2011, whereas the Left just tried to burn the country to the ground.
So,
that's the background and what is at stake. We'll see. Trump has
excoriated the Blue State governors and mayors in various ways, as in a
conference call the other day, and has brought the regular military to
Washington D.C., and says he's doing the same to other locations.
We'll see.
An Préachán
