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The USA Politics Thread

#10581 User is offline   Azath Vitr (D'ivers 

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Posted 29 May 2020 - 06:35 PM

'Minnesota Attorney General Suggests Auto Zone Riot Starter Was "Provocateur"

[...] The perceived faux rioter in the video equipped with a gas mask an umbrella and all-black attire is seen calmly busting windows at the Auto Zone before he walks off.'

https://thesource.co...AK0zcr_q2mVuHFM

US law enforcement has a long (and very recent) history of using undercover police to provoke destruction of property and rioting among protesters as an excuse for police violence:

https://en.wikipedia...r#United_States

'The links between racism and police violence aren't half-cocked conspiracy theory. We find this observation in history books and discussed by sociology professors. It is found in heavily annotated and well researched papers. The one place you don't find it is in public. It tends to get sidelined and overlooked. But the time for this discussion may have finally come.

Victor E. Kappeler, Ph.D. draws a line from the early slave patrols to the present day, saying "Slave patrols and Night Watches, which later became modern police departments, were both designed to control the behaviors of minorities."'

https://modernmythol...de-bfae282f5c37

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 29 May 2020 - 06:36 PM

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#10582 User is offline   QuickTidal 

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Posted 29 May 2020 - 06:36 PM

I heard that Germany offered to house Twitter as a company if Trump ever gets anywhere near to shutting them down...at which point he could do jack shit them them....and they would probably ban him anyways.

It would be funny as hell.
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora

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#10583 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 29 May 2020 - 06:38 PM

countdown until the Trumpers decamp and flock to Gab

The President (2012) said:

Please proceed, Governor.

Chris Christie (2016) said:

There it is.

Elizabeth Warren (2020) said:

And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.
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#10584 User is offline   QuickTidal 

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Posted 29 May 2020 - 06:44 PM

View PostTerez, on 29 May 2020 - 06:38 PM, said:

countdown until the Trumpers decamp and flock to Gab


What is Gab? Never heard of it.

I actually fear the Trump base having an app that they exclusively use, the echo chamber would only grow and get more crazy...
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora

“Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone.” ~Ursula Vernon
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#10585 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 29 May 2020 - 06:52 PM

Gab is basically Twitter for all the white supremacists who were banned from Twitter. The platform creators were specifically going for a “free speech” contrast to Twitter. It got some attention around the time of the Charlottesville protests and violence because some of the Nazis in attendance used it.

The President (2012) said:

Please proceed, Governor.

Chris Christie (2016) said:

There it is.

Elizabeth Warren (2020) said:

And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.
0

#10586 User is offline   QuickTidal 

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Posted 29 May 2020 - 07:04 PM

View PostTerez, on 29 May 2020 - 06:52 PM, said:

Gab is basically Twitter for all the white supremacists who were banned from Twitter. The platform creators were specifically going for a “free speech” contrast to Twitter. It got some attention around the time of the Charlottesville protests and violence because some of the Nazis in attendance used it.


Well that sounds awful. Thanks for the info.
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora

“Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone.” ~Ursula Vernon
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#10587 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 29 May 2020 - 07:14 PM

Trump could hand them a bow-tied business model if he were so inclined. I personally wouldn't mind if the MAGAs left Twitter, so I kinda hope he does.

The President (2012) said:

Please proceed, Governor.

Chris Christie (2016) said:

There it is.

Elizabeth Warren (2020) said:

And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.
0

#10588 User is offline   Azath Vitr (D'ivers 

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Posted 29 May 2020 - 08:12 PM

'As people enraged by the death of George Floyd took to the streets in cities across the country, white men with guns started showing up—and risking disaster.

[...] Some of them, members of a growing white supremacist movement, openly hope to co-opt the protests to start a race war. Others claim to make common cause with anti-police protesters, but may be inclined to turn guns on protesters when they appear to threaten private property.

[...] The Boogaloo movement has moved increasingly offline and into the real world in recent months, with members showing up at right-wing "re-open" protests, heavily armed and wearing Hawaiian shirts (a really tedious riff on a misspelling of "boogaloo" as "big luau").

[...] Some movement members appeared at a Wednesday night protest in Minneapolis, in hopes of participating in a chaotic scene. Members of at least one "Boogaloo" Facebook group shared pictures of men holding a Boogaloo flag (patterned after a "Blue Lives Matter" flag, but with the movement's trademark tropical pattern) outside an AutoZone that was later set on fire.

Some members of the group used the picture to call, superficially, for "solidarity" with protesters, claiming that "this is not a race issue." But members of the group who posted in real time with supposed updates from the protests revealed other intentions. One, who claimed to be in a group of 16 other movement members at the protest, soon threatened to shoot Black Lives Matter activists because they were not helping enact his visions of violence.

"Fuck BLM. They just shout and march," he wrote. "None of them are kitted up or carrying guns so how do I know they have my back? Nah, fuck BLM. I see any of those freaks and I'm dropping [shooting] them on sight."

In private chat groups viewed by Raw Story, Boogaloo sympathizers set up communication channels for peers at the protest, and discussed coordinating travel to Minneapolis.

The ideology of some heavily-armed figures in the city this week was harder to identify.

A viral video from Wednesday night's protest showed two white men with semi-automatic rifles standing outside a tobacco store. They said they sympathized with demonstrators. But the "heavily armed rednecks," as one of the men described them, weren't there to march in the streets—they were there to guard private property like the tobacco store, potentially turning their guns against the protesters they claimed to support.

[...] Hughes said there was a risk that more overt racists of the Boogaloo movement might seek to radicalize more banal militia types who attend Minneapolis-inspired protests, whether in that city or nationwide.

[...] "When you have white supremacists showing up at a demonstration fully locked and loaded," Levy-Armstrong said, "you don't know what the outcome is going to be."'

https://www.thedaily...UWDJWR4-yapEcCI

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 29 May 2020 - 08:12 PM

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#10589 User is offline   Azath Vitr (D'ivers 

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Posted 29 May 2020 - 09:44 PM

'Trump Cannot Legally Use "Looting" to Justify "Shooting"

While the rules of force for a military domestic operation will be tailored to the unique mission in coordination with the state law enforcement agency and governing state law, certain core principles remain constant. For example, force is to be used only as a last resort, and the force used should be the minimum necessary. Further, deadly force is to be used only when all lesser means have failed or cannot be reasonably employed.

Of course, the rules for the use of force do not limit the inherent right of self-defense of people. It also authorizes force—to include deadly force—to protect three specified assets: (1) assets vital to national security (such as nuclear command and control facilities); (2) inherently dangerous property (such as missiles, rockets, and explosives); and (3) national critical infrastructure (such as designated public utilities). None of these appear to apply in Minnesota.

Using deadly force aggressively to stop looting clearly violates the governing rules for the use of force, principles of de-escalation, and the principles of using only minimum force, as a last resort.'

https://slate.com/ne...y-shooting.html

'Trump Just Tried to Explain His "When the Looting Starts the Shooting Starts" Tweet and It Did Not Go Well

"[...] Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.

[...] The phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" was popularized by racist Miami police chief Walter Headley in 1968 and perpetuated by notable racists like pro-segregation Alabama Governor George Wallace.

[...] Trump attempted to walk things back.

"Looting leads to shooting, and that's why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night - or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot. I don't want this to happen, and that's what the expression put out last night means....

....It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement. It's very simple, nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media."

[...] People weren't buying Trump's explanation.'

https://secondnexus....NoVYYzuRLMjFI-A

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 29 May 2020 - 09:44 PM

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#10590 User is offline   Azath Vitr (D'ivers 

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Posted 30 May 2020 - 04:43 AM

Posted Image





Posted Image

Posted Image
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#10591 User is offline   Knowing 

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Posted 30 May 2020 - 11:50 AM

The two most blatant things in my mind need to change are:

First being a deep look and restructuring of how police are held accountable for violent actions made during an encounter. If someone is killed or injured during an arrest there needs to be far quicker and severe reaction towards it. That doesn't mean go on home Badge #4564 while we take a look-see. Rather it needs to be conducted far more closely to any other citizens arrest.
Second, police and citizen rights really need to be taught in the education system. There are no classes taught to young adults describing where the lines are. Instead its left to anecdotes and general rules. I would imagine that knowing your rights and having a clear understanding of what the police are lawfully capable of doing in a situation would force the police to adhere to what powers they possess when donning the badge rather than just telling people to shut the fuck up and do as they say with a big "or else".

Personally I've never had many dealings with the law, having lived a fairly reclusive lifestyle, however I sure a shit don't have an answer to many of those rights that I may or may not have. I would imagine quite a few people feel this way which in turn leads to an unsettling power dynamic. How I might stick up for myself is severely compromised when someone in an authoritative position is telling me what to do with a gun on their hip. This leads to fear, panic, anger and all around bad decisions.

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#10592 User is offline   Whisperzzzzzzz 

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Posted 30 May 2020 - 12:52 PM

View PostAzath Vitr (D, on 29 May 2020 - 06:35 PM, said:

'Minnesota Attorney General Suggests Auto Zone Riot Starter Was "Provocateur"

[...] The perceived faux rioter in the video equipped with a gas mask an umbrella and all-black attire is seen calmly busting windows at the Auto Zone before he walks off.'

https://thesource.co...AK0zcr_q2mVuHFM

US law enforcement has a long (and very recent) history of using undercover police to provoke destruction of property and rioting among protesters as an excuse for police violence:

https://en.wikipedia...r#United_States

'The links between racism and police violence aren't half-cocked conspiracy theory. We find this observation in history books and discussed by sociology professors. It is found in heavily annotated and well researched papers. The one place you don't find it is in public. It tends to get sidelined and overlooked. But the time for this discussion may have finally come.

Victor E. Kappeler, Ph.D. draws a line from the early slave patrols to the present day, saying "Slave patrols and Night Watches, which later became modern police departments, were both designed to control the behaviors of minorities."'

https://modernmythol...de-bfae282f5c37



https://www.twitter....619812211560449
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#10593 User is offline   Cause 

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Posted 30 May 2020 - 01:39 PM

I find it scary that even though the case was 5-4 by the Supreme Court in favor of California’s decree that churches not exceed 25% capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees four justices still thought this order was discriminatory against religion.

As chief Roberts pointed out yes grocery stores are open, but plays and sports are closed. Going to the grocery store you go in, you buy, you leave. Sitting down for church services is more akin to a theatre. There are reasons to test them differentlty. Also it’s not like government is trying to stop worship or shut down churches. Online services, worship at home etc is all fine.

Edit- seems a bit of a stretch to suggest that police in the us are an extension of slave patrols. Police are everywhere, even in countries without that history.

This post has been edited by Cause: 30 May 2020 - 01:41 PM

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#10594 User is offline   Gorefest 

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Posted 30 May 2020 - 03:09 PM

Don't worry, God protects the faithful.
Yesterday, upon the stair, I saw a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today. Oh, how I wish he'd go away.
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#10595 User is offline   Azath Vitr (D'ivers 

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Posted 30 May 2020 - 05:03 PM

View PostCause, on 30 May 2020 - 01:39 PM, said:

I find it scary that even though the case was 5-4 by the Supreme Court in favor of California's decree that churches not exceed 25% capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees four justices still thought this order was discriminatory against religion.

As chief Roberts pointed out yes grocery stores are open, but plays and sports are closed. Going to the grocery store you go in, you buy, you leave. Sitting down for church services is more akin to a theatre. There are reasons to test them differentlty. Also it's not like government is trying to stop worship or shut down churches. Online services, worship at home etc is all fine.

Edit- seems a bit of a stretch to suggest that police in the us are an extension of slave patrols. Police are everywhere, even in countries without that history.


With 4 more years of Trump he will almost certainly appoint another Supreme Court justice.

"seems a bit of a stretch to suggest that police in the us are an extension of slave patrols. Police are everywhere, even in countries without that history."

Key phrase: in the US. Police forces developed differently in the UK, for example:

'In 1797, Patrick Colquhoun was able to persuade the West Indies merchants who operated at the Pool of London on the River Thames, to establish a police force at the docks to prevent rampant theft that was causing annual estimated losses of £500,000 worth of cargo.[25] The idea of a police, as it then existed in France, was considered as a potentially undesirable foreign import.

[...] the government passed the Marine Police Bill on 28 July 1800, transforming it from a private to public police agency; now the oldest police force in the world.

[...] Colquhoun's utilitarian approach to the problem – using a cost-benefit argument to obtain support from businesses standing to benefit – allowed him to achieve what Henry and John Fielding failed for their Bow Street detectives.

[...] London was fast reaching a size unprecedented in world history, due to the onset of the Industrial Revolution.[30] It became clear that the locally maintained system of volunteer constables and "watchmen" was ineffective, both in detecting and preventing crime.

[...] To distance the new police force from the initial public view of it as a new tool of government repression, Peel publicised the so-called Peelian principles, which set down basic guidelines for ethical policing'

https://en.wikipedia...e#Modern_police

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 30 May 2020 - 05:06 PM

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#10596 User is offline   Azath Vitr (D'ivers 

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Posted 30 May 2020 - 05:51 PM

'Trump threatens White House protesters with "vicious dogs and most ominous weapons"

[...] He also appeared to encourage counter protests, promoting "MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE".

[...] "nobody came close to breaching the fence. If they had they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen. That's when people would have been really badly hurt, at least. Many Secret Service agents just waiting for action. 'We put the young ones on the front line, sir, they love it, and ... good practice."'

https://www.independ...G3INWCIHHz1GofA

Practice for what? Refusing to leave the White House if he loses?... (Granted, he could reign from anywhere... and would probably prefer to move his palace to Mar-a-Lago.)

'Customs and Border Protection flew a Predator B drone over Minneapolis as protests rocked the city

[...] The drone with call sign CBP-104 was spotted circling the city by Jason Paladino, an investigative reporter at The Project on Government Oversight who tracked the drone using open-source flight data.

CBP confirmed the flight, revealing that an unmanned aerial vehicle flew over Minneapolis Friday "to provide live video to aid in situational awareness at the request of our federal law enforcement partners."

[...] The drones in CBP's inventory are all unarmed surveillance assets that can monitor an area for hours on end.'

https://www.business...protests-2020-5
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#10597 User is offline   Azath Vitr (D'ivers 

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Posted 30 May 2020 - 10:59 PM

Near me:

Posted Image

Posted Image

(not the infamous Rittenhouse Square Starbucks that started a wave of protests two years ago)

Posted Image

Posted Image

(statue of infamous racist police commissioner and anti-desegregation mayor Frank Rizzo)

Posted Image

Posted Image

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 31 May 2020 - 03:29 AM

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#10598 User is offline   Malankazooie 

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Posted 01 June 2020 - 05:21 PM

Oh boy, it's getting spicy. #BunkerBoy and #BunkerBitch is starting to trend.
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#10599 User is offline   Terez 

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Posted 05 June 2020 - 05:29 PM

Just saw this thread on Twitter. Looks serious. We have been wondering for years what Trump has on Lindsey Graham because it is obvious he is being blackmailed. And I never thought that just him being gay was all there was to it. Downthread, this guy mentions rape, in a very legally safe way. And I believe him.


This post has been edited by Terez: 05 June 2020 - 05:53 PM

The President (2012) said:

Please proceed, Governor.

Chris Christie (2016) said:

There it is.

Elizabeth Warren (2020) said:

And no, I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.
0

#10600 User is offline   Aptorian 

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Posted 05 June 2020 - 05:36 PM

Lindsey Graham is the toe fungus of US politics.
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