Update September 24, 2020: Trump himself is threatening insurrection, refusing to commit to a peaceful transition to power if he loses the election.
https://www.bbc.com/news/
The Senate immediately passed a resolution upholding peaceful transition with a unanimous vote and a rebuke to Trump immediate and clear, though his name was not in the resollution. For that we can be grateful, but what say the rest of the GOP?
If you like the violent protests and racial strife, elect Trump and you will have four more years of it. August 27, 2020 This an update reflecting Biden's excellent response to the fear and loathing mongering of the Republican National Convention and reposting of an earlier blog post that tracks this theme of Trump promoting violence to use it as a political fear tool, and Biden's response to it. Note the consistency and it should come as no surprise that is what they are up to. Biden needs to turn back a use Trump's words and deeds, not just once as he did today, but again, and again, and again. Biden called out Trump for rooting for violence, not less, and pouring gasoline on the flames. It is a powerful retort as Trump plays on the theme of fear. So what is he going to do in the next four years? More of the same to continue to fan those flames of violence to keep power, to scare people, to pit violence against violence, and it will not be peaceful. There is documented evidence that Trump's words did cause violence. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/blame-abc-news-finds-17-cases-invoking-trump/story?id=58912889 It will be four more years of violence, racial conflict, and a fearful nation hating itself and others in it. Is this what we want? Biden has another vision...and he laid what he would do in his interview this morning...to bring peace and not more violence and more conflict...the solution of a real leader, not of a flame thrower who would make the next four years even worse.
From the earlier blog postings
July 22, 2020
June 2, 2020 America has a president who has fanned the violence of the flames over domestic tranquility. He has seized on the opportunity of the riots to proclaim himself as the champion of law and order, as he himself does not respect the law, and his form of order is the oppression of one racial group that only begets more violence and strife for years to come. Is this what our democracy has come to? Is this going to be our country torn apart for years to come in racial strife and race wars with cities occupied by the active military to suppress any opposition he views to be an insurrection?. This instability and turmoil is the future Donald Trump is offering us if he is re-elected. The contrast with Joe Biden's vision could not be starker. He presented it in an address on June 2. Biden offers the antidote to Trump's poisonous vision of violence, oppression, hate, and fear.
July 18, 2020 and an edited version of this is also a blog column(also posted separately July 18 as Portland, Oregon incident defines Trump meaning of "law and order" that should scare believers in democracy.
Per media reports July 17, battle gear bedecked, military-style federal agents, Trump ordered are "reportedly pulling protestors into unmarked vehicles" and firing rubber bullets into crowds of protestors. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/07/17/trump-ordered-federal-agents-are-reportedly-pulling-protesters-into-unmarked-vehicles-drawing-outrage/
In this case in Portland, Oregon, Trump sent in the same kinds of forces that he used to clear Lafayette Park of peaceful demonstrators. There too, in face of generals refusing to allow the active military to clear the streets, he tried an end-run around them using unmarked military types trained and pulled from various federal agencies picked to do his bidding. In this Portland incident, he used his authority under the guise of "protecting federal property". Since these troops were positioned away from federal property, as well, it appeared they were there to intimidate and scare away the protestors. A young man armed with a boom box held high was shot in the head, and cracking his skull, was their rubber bullet victim...who was nowhere near federal property...nor was he a threat. Of course, it was all caught on cell phone video. Nearly every civil rights and a couple of laws you could name, or the same restraints courts had ordered local police to observe, were violated by these military-style and trained Federales (a term applied to federal police used by tin-pot Latin American dictators to quell the masses), but the best term more applicable came from the mouth of Sen. Wyden: "storm troopers". That one has roots in Hitler's rise to power and similar techniques he used to consolidate his power. Kidnapping, holding without charges and manhandling have been used in recent times by Putin in Russia and China., particularly in Hong Kong. Using unmarked thugs and secret police are common techniques used to subdue opposition by historical and modern dictatorships. What was peculiar about this incident in Portland, the intimidating actions by stormtroopers, was that it was apparently staged for the benefit of FOX and covered only by Trump's loyal media.at first,..but several days later, July 17, the outrage of the Oregon governor and the Portland Mayor and the emergence of a video of weapons firing seriously injuring someone and military types throwing demonstrators into unmarked cars brought it to mainstream media. Both had worked hard to keep the demonstrations peaceful and their concern was that such action would only bring more hardcore protestors to the scene, ready themselves to do violent battle with the stormtroopers. The incident is still playing out since the request of local officials to leave the Portland streets have been ignored.
The purpose was political, it appears since the incident coverage was engineered on Trump media. This is an indication that the purpose was political..to keep the favor of the cult-like followers of Trump, to whom the concept of democracy and civil rights seems to be considered a barrier to Trump's power rather than as some ideal worthy to protect. Trump was faced with polling showing his approval ratings had dropped to the high 30% due to his inept handling of the pandemic and the George Floyd protests. Raising the issue of "law and order" was certainly a diversion of attention from his tanking poll numbers. This kind of military action certainly appeals to the core of the only group of followers who still had the majority of their demographics favoring him: white men with no college education, per recent polling, and followers of the ideology of some of Trump's ardent advisors: dominate the streets with military and suppress demonstrators, peaceful or not. It was meant to send a message that Trump's law and Trump's techniques to force order would rule, but the message it sent to the majority of voters who are now not supportive of him was democracy has no place in Trumpland nor was any respect for civil rights or the rule of law. It was what we could expect in a Trump second term.
An ad run by a Trump PAC has also accused Biden of wanting to defund police. It was as close to a lie as any ad could be. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-federal-aid-police-epartments-defunding/
"No, I don't support defunding the police," Biden told O'Donnell. "I support conditioning federal aid to police, based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness. And, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community and everybody in the community."
October 1I, 2020 was asked by a good friend in England if I approved of having weapons to defend myself in my home. She was fascinated by the US obsession with guns. Here is my answer; The reason we must protect ourselves with firearms is because of the area in which we live...with active militia..and my high media profile. ..as well as the proliferation of legal and illegal drugs with addicts stealing stuff to finance their habits.. Donald Trump's promotion of militia as patriots is disquieting. We may be in an unusual situation, and we may be overcautious, but these are also unusual times. The right to have arms, ironically, was put in the Constitution at the time of its founding after our war of independence from the Brits in the very late 18th century...Looking back at the history of this, the writers of the Constitution were opposed to a federal standing army and instead wanted to rely on a "well-regulated militia" of volunteers on standby with weapons. Thus the second amendment to the constitution. That is in the narrow sense the basis for the national guard...state-based military. Each state has one under the control of the state Governor and they are often used in emergencies and riots when local law enforcement cannot handle it. Federal troops can only help if they are invited by the governor. Trump has attempted to ignore these provisions...but has been thwarted, mostly by public outcry and the refusal of the federal military chiefs to get involved in domestic politics. However, the interpretation of these words has been used to rationalize and test through the courts to mean much more. Absolutists (National Rifle Association)insist that means no regulations of individual weaponry, though courts have declared otherwise that there can be limits. . The right is not absolute. Not all militia groups are like those in Michigan, but some are. These are treated under the terrorist laws if they attempt to commit a crime or commit one as terrorist groups, and have included anarchists and white nationalists. The 13 "militia" men in Michigan last week were arrested as they had plans to kidnap the state governor and likely would have killed her. Ten or fifteen years ago one of their members was charged with the attempted murder of local police by using an IED. The perp was sentenced to prison. The techniques they use are now the internet and work much like ISIS would like to have worked in the US. There is nothing "well regulated" about them, and until now, they mostly have just been ignored. In "open carry" states, they use flaunting their weapons as an implied threat or to compensate for their low sense of manhood. (my interpretation). Until the Trump era no one in our house had a gun..except for one who used it for sport at a gun club. Some of the worst incidents in the US, Columbine, Aurora theatre shooting, have occurred in Colorado, though these were not due to militia but to mentally disturbed people/ I have written much about these
Violence does beget violence and sometimes the violent become victims themselves.A militia rally in Denver turned violent when a security guard shot and killed a militia demonstator became violent . 10/10/20https://www.wbtv.com/2020/10/11/security-guard-custody-after-man-dies-shooting-denver-protests/
June 27, 2021
Defunding the police: Biden says he's opposed - CNNPolitics
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