At the Republican National Convention this week, Donald Trump kicked off his run for re-election as US president. Michael McFaul, US ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, found it strangely familiar. Here is some of what he said (edited for length, bolding mine):
For those of us who study autocracies, including elections in autocracies, there were a lot of familiar messages, symbols, and methods on display this week […]
- Cult of the Personality. This show was all about Trump. ( 3 years after the death of Stalin, Khrushchev’s gave his secret speech in 1956, titled “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences.” I wonder if a future GOP leader will give a similar speech someday?)
- Administrative resources. Autocrats and semi-autocrats frequently use government resources for personal electoral gain. We have #HatchAct to prevent such behavior in the U.S. It’s obviously not working.
- Blatant disregard for the law. That Trump’s team dared anyone to charge them with violating the #HatchAct is exactly what Putin and others autocrats do all the time. Laws don’t apply to the king & his court, only to the subjects.
- Blatant disregard for facts. As U.S. ambassador to Russia, I found this Putin regime trait most frustrating. We – the U.S. government- were constrained by facts. They were not. Trump obviously was not constrained by facts last night. He usually isn’t […]
- Us versus Them populism. “Elites” versus “the people” nationalism. Autocratic populists use polarizing identity politics to divide societies all the time. Many populist leaders actually have little in common with the “masses.” (Putin is very rich.)
- The opposition is the “enemy of the people.” Putin & other autocratic populists cast their opponents as radicals & revolutionaries. They don’t focus on their own records – often there is little to celebrate – but the horrors that will happen if they lose power. […]
- Law and Order. Autocratic populists all shout about it, even when the opposite is happening on their watch.
- The good tsar versus the bad boyars. Kings and tsars always blamed bad provincial leaders for national ills. Putin blames the governors all the time… just like Trump.
- Individual acts of royal kindness. Putin, like the tsars he emulates, does this all the time. Trump offering a pardon or “granting” citizenship (which of course he didnt & doesn’t have the power to do) are typical, faux gestures of royal kindness toward his subjects.
- Homage and fealty. Vassals must signal their complete loyalty and absolute devotion to kings and autocrats. Those that don’t are banished from the royal court or the party. (Where were the Bushes last night?)
- The royal family. In this dimension, Trump acts more like a monarch than even Putin. […] The many Trump family members who performed this week – even a girlfriend got a slot – went beyond even what Putin does.
- There’s still one big difference. We still don’t know who will win the November election. That uncertainty is a crucial difference between electoral democracies & electoral autocracies. Its also a difference that has no guarantee of lasting, depending on the outcome this year
Source: Twitter (28 Aug 2020).
See also:
- Khruschev: On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences (1956 speech)
- Putin
- Ur-Fascism
- bullying
- law and order
- Autocracy: Rules for Survival
- Learning from Vienna in the 1930s
- Trump is more like Hitler than he was
- The 2020 election for US president
- Biden 2020
544
Abagond 
TLDR: Disgraced former Obama lackey, whose Russian Reset policy failed spectacularly after he pushed the US to interfere in Russia’s 2012 election (by actively opposing Putin), continues discredited Russia Hoax line of reasoning. All populism is bad according to him, as only the wise globalist elites should be allowed to rule.
You forgot to mention how Trump controls the US MSM like the dictator he is, so that no one can ever criticize him.
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@ biff
So, since you disagree with McPhaul, what was your take on the Trump and the Republican convention?
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I only saw bits and pieces. They bent over backwards to be seen as “inclusive”. No mention of Cannon Hinnant, despite him likely being a casualty of all this racial rage cooked up by the Dems and someone most of his base is much more sympathetic to than Floyd or Blake. Most of the Republican base would like to slow if not pause immigration, but they still featured immigrants heavily. They were reaching out, instead of focusing on their base. We’ll see if it works.
Trump looked like he was in bad shape a few weeks ago (though he still won the 2016 election, against what all the pundits thought), in similar circumstances. He’s looking much better now. The Democrats put together something that looked cheap and promised long lockdowns with no return to normal in sight. Trump offered a much more positive vision of a country that can get back on its feet. He talked about law and order when the Dems wouldn’t touch that subject at all, despite it being on everyone’s minds.. Attacking people leaving the Republican convention was a nice touch.
Democrats are just now realizing continued mayhem is bad for them. We’ll see if BLM and Antifa get the message, and Soros stops sending the party busses to bring in rioters and looters for the next couple months…
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Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi and Donald Trump! Sigh!
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A scene from the Trump Reality Show.
The photo above looks like a scene out of Triumph of the Will. All that’s missing is drumming by the Trump Youth and a torchlight parade through the streets of Nuremberg (er, Washington, D. C.).
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Folks better get out and vote en masse. Otherwise, we will be living under a dictatorship. When Trump first came on the scene and announced his ambition to become President, and his Make America Great Again. I knew the country was on a downward spiral of going backwards. I knew many white Americans would be on board for going back to the good old days. So, now Trump is in bed with Putin and sold America to the Russians and doing Putin’s bidding. Our very lives are in danger.
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“Self-identified race: Percent of population
Hispanic and Latino (of any race): 15.3%
Non-Hispanic white: 63.4%
Black or African American: 13.4%” 2016 census.
“I knew many white Americans would be on board for going back to the good old days. So, now Trump is in bed with Putin and sold America to the Russians and doing Putin’s bidding. Our very lives are in danger.”
All minorities add up to 36.6%, assuming they all vote against Trump, 14.4% of Non-Hispanic white would have to vote against Trump to get Biden to 51% of the vote. What happens if Trump refuses to go? Would 49% of the Non-Hispanic white electorate peaceably accept the defeat of their candidate? After all, everybody they know voted for him. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
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@ gro jo
Actually, the problems for non-Whites seem to begin upstream of that.
Many of those folks have serious doubts about voting for Biden/Harris.
They did the same four years ago, always doubting Clinton and let the other candidate win. I suspect that they haven’t learn the lesson and they will repeat the same mistake.
If you doubt what I’m saying, look at this very blog. Let’s say, make a poll out here. And derive your own conclusions…
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When Trump steals the election will Americans take to the streets as the people in Belarus?
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@ Mary
It is either that or fascism.
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“Actually, the problems for non-Whites seem to begin upstream of that.
Many of those folks have serious doubts about voting for Biden/Harris.”
People on this blog aren’t representative of “non-Whites”. They will vote en masse for the Democratic party, as usual. Biden will not get the 36.6% of non-Whites. Mrs Clinton got 3 million votes more than Trump and still lost. Will Americans take to the streets as the people of Belarus? I don’t know if a foreign power or a combination of foreign powers will try a color revolution on the USA as the USA does routinely against Russia, Belarus, China, etc.
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Michael Forest Reinoehl was gunned down by Trump’s minions. Protestors have been snatched off the streets by men in unmarked cars. Shades of Argentina ‘s “dirty war”! The only thing missing is the incident requiring martial law powers voted democratically by Congress, failing that, a reinterpretation of the USA PATRIOT Act.
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If non-Whites vote en masse for the Biden/Harris ticket, I don’t see this pair not winning. From the White population is very likely that at least the remaining needed percentage to vote for them will do so.
I don’t see outside forces to play inside the USA. This scenario would be very bad anyway, not only for the USA but, indeed, for the world at large. This country is a very heavy one, for the world to afford the luxury to have it loose its balance.
She lost by the rules. I see oft this argument but for me it has no much sense. There are rules and they only govern the decisions about who wins and who loses. In football (soccer) you cannot hit the ball with your hand (a a Maradona 1986!) achieving a goal and insist that you won when, by the rules that goal didn’t count for anything. Rules are rules! If they are clearly unfair (for whom?) changed them… before the championship!
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a la Maradona 1986!
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I can’t believe it, gro jo. You are starting to sound like me….
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I recognized the situation in Belarus as a “color revolution” after two days on the television news. The enthusiasm of the US news staff for the protesters was a dead giveaway.
Real struggles by real people self-organized against repressive governments rarely make the US news. If they do, the news staff will blather on about “clashes” and “violence” emanating from those protesting, while ignoring worse from government forces.
Sort of like here in the USA, right now….
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Well, it sounds like most of us agree that the US interfering in Eastern Europe just to increase its perceived political power is wrong and the US interfering in the Middle East is wrong. You guys don’t support the Deep State, but you think it’s critical to support the Deep State candidate..
Trump a dictator? Please, he’s been constantly attacked and harassed by the media since day one and hasn’t been able to push through much of his original agenda through political gridlock. We don’t even have a functional wall to protect our border yet. But somehow you guys have been led to believe that voting for another Deep State puppet, and you know both Biden and Harris are bought and paid for, with no personal convictions whatsoever, is a moral necessity.
“Michael Forest Reinoehl was gunned down by Trump’s minions.” Unbelievable…
Have you even researched how Antifa planned and executed a hit on a randomly selected perceived Trump supporter through this piece of work?
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1302365375640739840.html <–are you trying to say that was self-defense or justified?
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“Biffy”, your video on the ‘martyrdom’ of ‘saint’ Aaron “Jay” Danielson is telling. “Antifa”, that bugbear of the loony right, tried to help ‘saint’ Jay while the cops acted as if he were a dead dog. No doubt you missed that.
Have you even researched how Kyle “Blue Lives Matter” Rittenhouse managed not to get killed by Trump’s minions? Unbelievable…
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Afrofem, glad we agree for a change. Where’s my buddy jefe, the HK ‘liberator’ and reckless liar?
“Real struggles by real people self-organized against repressive governments rarely make the US news. If they do, the news staff will blather on about “clashes” and “violence” emanating from those protesting, while ignoring worse from government forces.”
How come you failed to apply the same logic to the HK riots of 2019?
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“How come you failed to apply the same logic to the HK riots of 2019?”
Okay, you got me, darn it! My only weak defense is that you failed to provide links and documentation that went against the corporate media narrative.
You spent a lot of time ranting and raving about “lies, lies and damned lies” with jefe with no real counter argument.
See what I just did with my “weak defense”? LOL
In all honesty, you are right. HK protests did have all of the elements of a US backed color revolution. The favorable US media coverage was a dead giveaway there, too.
It was only when I came across articles that documented the close ties of the HK leadership to the likes of Marco Rubio and Ukrainian Neo-Nazi’s that the pieces fell into place for me.
My question to you, gro jo, is why didn’t you present a strong counter to the official narrative instead of going on a namecalling jag?
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“See what I just did with my “weak defense”? LOL”
Very cute indeed! Unfortunately for you, there’s a record of our conversations in Open Thread, Occupy Central and other places where you indicated that you were aware of the HK rioters’ connection with Rubio and Steve Bannon.
“6) “One group closely linked to NED is the Hong Kong National Party. One of the HKNP’s founders is Joshua Wong. Jefe wrote upthread about how many protesters in HK are concerned that Wong is acting unilaterally. Wong receives funding and support from neocons at NED. He is also in regular contact with Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, one of the most reactionary members of Congress.”
You and Jefe have much to talk about. What you wrote isn’t news to me but it may be to Jefe who wrote: “I know you have done some scathing review of Steve Bannon (and I happen to agree with your stance on his alt-right rhetoric), but of all the talking media heads, he is probably more up to date with China and Hong Kong than most of the other media talking heads as well as US Congressional leaders. I advise you to check out some of the things he has said in the past week or two about these matters. He refers to the CCP as a “gangster” organization, and based on what I have observed over decades, I happen to agree that that is an apt way to refer to them. Even the US consulate referred to the CCP as a “thuggish regime” after the Global times published the personal details of a consular officer and her family after she had a meeting with Joshua Wong a month ago.” Sounds like your friend is getting ready to get into bed with “sloppy Steve”. Will you and Abagond resist his siren song? I can’t say. time and money will tell. Given your penchant for name calling you are half way there.”
“My question to you, gro jo, is why didn’t you present a strong counter to the official narrative instead of going on a namecalling jag?”
My “counter” was to show that jefe was lying about the bridge, its use, financing and purpose. I made you aware of the CPC’s plans for HK:
“Jefe and his friends babble on about an independent HK while the CCP wants HK for its expertise in financial matters as part of their Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. They aim to rival such areas as Japan’s Tokyo Greater Bay Area, the San Francisco Bay Area and the New York metropolitan area in the US. It’s a technocratic approach that they are having trouble selling to the youth of HK. People who have reason to fear a capitalist China have a vested interest in sabotaging such plan. If and when the Chinese pull off their plans, the people of HK will do very well for themselves.”
Your reply was:
“Afrofem
Saw an article in Der Spiegel online today re: the Greater Bay Area Initiative. Adds some context to gro jo’s argument. “Pearl River Delta: China Experiments with a New Kind of Megalopolis”
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/china-tries-building-a-new-kind-of-megapolopolis-a-1285094.html
About a 20 minute read.”
I thought we were making progress and could discuss like adults but next thing I know, you start claiming the same nonsense that jefe wrote:
”
on Mon Sep 9th 2019 at 08:38:57
jefe
@Afrofem
Thank you very much for sharing some sources where you are getting your ideas and impressions. It helps to know what is shaping your viewpoints.
I know that Der Spiegel is a respectable news media organization. However, the article that you posted reads to me just like an advertorial. It has the trappings of balanced, objective reporting, but it is anything but. It is akin to the articles in the China Daily inserts that you find in the Wall Street Journal or the Washington Post. They look like news sanctioned by the publication, but actually, the insert is a paid advertisement.”
Naturally, you picked up his nonsense and ran with it:
” on Tue Sep 10th 2019 at 18:49:53
Afrofem
@ Jefe
Thank you for those details! They are a lot to chew on. I will have a more substantial response later today.”
You are correct, I did call liars, liars, but only after giving evidence that what they claimed were lies.
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@ gro jo
Since I don’t want to hijack this thread any further, my response is on the Open Thread:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/open-thread/comment-page-1/#comment-474583
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Lol munubantu, change the rules before the contest, not only would not one senator or congresscritter propose anything so dramatic in september of a presidential year, it would be like the captain of the titanic yelling (underwater) “full speed reverse!” when the propellers are already high in the air.
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Not exactly sure where to put this link, but kinda fits here with the Triumph of the Will imagery:
https://www.justsecurity.org/72339/qanon-is-a-nazi-cult-rebranded/
The article makes a bunch of connections that seem obvious once pointed out.
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Trump’s admission to Bob Woodward that he knew about the corona virus, and he knew it was deadly, but didn’t want to alarm the country. When all he does is try to panic the country. He starts out saying a caravan of Brown Spanish speaking people are coming with crime and rapists, and diseases. They are bad hombres. Build the wall to keep the Brown Spanish speaking folks out. Low income Black people are coming to build housing projects in white suburbia, therefore making the value of their property go down. 200,000 people and more still dying from Covid19, The economy is in the toilet, millions of Americans are unemployed and being evicted from their homes because they cannot pay rent or make their mortgages. Trump should be called the All Lives Don’t Matter, President. And the police continue to kill and shoot Black people.
Many white Americans and some stupid people of color and some Black people will still vote for this monster, even though they don’t care about losing our democracy. Many whites will die of trying to hold on to whiteness, and many have racial resentment. Many whites fear diversity because that means they have to share and they lose their place in the social hierarchy.
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Trump is the No Lives Matter President. Trump sold America out and is driving us over the precise. Nobody is coming to save us. We need to vote en masse. Even though Trump will cheat with Putin’s help.
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Of all the pandemic deaths in the US, 58% are in excess of the Canadian death rate. That means some 112,000 Americans (and counting) have died because of Trump’s misleadership. That is more Americans than have died in ALL the wars since 1945 – plus 9/11.
And it is also probably well in excess of all the White Americans killed by all those scary non-White people. In 2016 they killed well under 1,000.
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I haven’t heard Trump mention anything about the wildfires in the West. I shouldn’t be surprised. If he doesn’t care about the pandemic, he certainly would not care about people losing their homes and lives in a wildfire. Last year during the wildfires he callously blamed the people of California.
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Trump knew in February that the virus was deadly and airborne. He suggested injecting bleach to get rid of COVID-19. There are ravaging fires in the West and he doesn’t care about all the loss and deaths.
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(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo52ra7PuXE)
This is indeed very troubling!
Every adult and responsible American citizen should pay attention.
In other smaller countries things like the ones foreseen in the article at the video-clip happen once in a while. And they go through serious tribulations in similar cases. For a huge country like the USA such scenarios are deeply unsettling.
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abagond said:
“Of all the pandemic deaths in the US, 58% are in excess of the Canadian death rate. That means some 112,000 Americans (and counting) have died because of Trump’s misleadership. That is more Americans than have died in ALL the wars since 1945 – plus 9/11.”
You are a smart guy, ababond. You know that isn’t a fair comparison. Canada’s demographics are nothing like US demographics. The US was hardest hit in big liberal cities like New York, not places like Wyoming which are more like most of Canada. Are you calling Cuomo a murderer for sending Covid patients to nursing homes?
You’re better than this kind of dishonesty.
Sure, most of the countries in the world are against Trump and his America first policies, including China, and big business and the elite are solidly against him.. 9 of 10 of the Forbes richest people (except Musk, who supported Hillary, but has mostly supported Republicans recently) are major donors for the Dems… but you guys are heroically standing with them all against Trump and evil Russia! Mua ha ha! Help Goliath smash David.
For a different perspective on potential voter fraud: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKCBvEogYD0)
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Re: the fires, there have been a number of arsonists arrested. CA also refuses to practice responsible forest management, despite repeated warnings, but I suppose you can blame that all on Trump.
I’m waiting for abagond’s post on the heroic attack on two police officers (including a young mother) shot in the head and the mostly peaceful protesters blocking the hospital entrance and shouting, “We hope they die!”
Celebration! https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2020/09/13/video-apparent-witness-excited-after-cops-in-compton/amp/
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@ biff
I and others who live outside the Republican Bubble are shocked at how badly the US has handled the pandemic. It is sad and embarrassing. It is like seeing an old man pee on himself.
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““To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling ‘We hope they die’ referring to 2 LA Sheriff’s ambushed today in #Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL,” the sheriff’s department tweeted. “People’s lives are at stake when ambulances can’t get through.” That tweet has since been removed.*
From what I have found there were only said to be 2-3 people chanting.
https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/09/14/sheriffs-deputies-shot-compton-anti-police-protest/
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@ sharinalr
Thank you for posting that link.
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When I saw those 2-3 “protesters”, the first thing I noticed is that they were all male, conspicuously dressed in red, black and green, waving flags with the same colors. (4:17 to 4:30).
The majority of anti-police brutality protests are done by groups of females and males who carry signs and banners, not flags. They protest incidents of Black folx mistreated or murdered by the police. Moreover, the are disciplined enough to stay on message.
These “protesters” could be police department plants or another variety of Rented Negroes. I’m not too surprised that the LAPD would use such people for anti-protest propaganda.
It is important to remember the battle for “hearts and minds” is just as intense as any other aspect of this struggle.
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@ Abagond
“It is like seeing an old man pee on himself.”
So true and so sad. That pretty much describes the USA right now. Some old geezer waving a big stick, yet unable to control his own bodily functions.
SMDH!
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“The US was hardest hit in big liberal cities like New York, not places like Wyoming which are more like most of Canada.”
The hardest hit areas in Canada are the two most populated provinces, Quebec and Ontario, home to the cities of Montreal and Toronto. These would both be considered liberal cities in the USA.
The United States currently has a death rate of 600 per million population.
Canada’s rate is currently at 240 per million.
There are 34 states with death rates worse than Canada’s, including the conservative states of Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Arizona, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee.
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@ Abagond
@ Afrofem
Even sadder when you realize that a number of countries who are doing far better than the USA in controlling the epidemic are using medical research and public health strategies developed by our scientists.
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Afrofem
No problem.
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Also on Sharina’s video: one of the individuals arrested (and roughed up) outside the hospital was a journalist, not a protester.
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abagond:
You are so right that most of the media is a Republican Bubble, including the half of Fox that are not anti-Trumpers. Where could we find the truth? We must re-open the airports so people can go in and listen to CNN (as for some reason they are not watching in their homes anymore).
Even though US coronavirus deaths are comparable to advanced Western countries like the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Sweden and to neighboring Mexico, Trump is much worse and guilty of all. He’s a secret medical expert (though he pretended to be a real estate mogul) and he tricked Dr. Fauci into saying the virus wasn’t a big deal early on (multiple times) and tricked his surgeon general into saying wearing masks wouldn’t help people.. Orange Man So Bad! Cuomo and De Blasio are blameless and that’s why you don’t try to blame them for the tragedy happened to NYC (Trump is responsible for all the nursing home deaths as well). Of course you’re not a partisan hack! Who would say that?
Solitaire:
No, did you read from Afrofem? That wasn’t a journalist, she was a “police department plant”. They rented a lot of negroes (again per Afrofem) to celebrate the shooting as in the links I provided. And the worst thing of all? The shooter was an alt-right White midget in black face! Disgusting that these police would shoot two of their own in the head, including a young mother, just to make righteous BLM look bad! That’s why Lebron James has stepped in to double the reward for the capture of this evil man. https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/09/14/lebron-james-la-county-deputies-shot-sheriff-villanueva/
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@ Solitaire
” …a number of countries who are doing far better than the USA in controlling the epidemic are using medical research and public health strategies developed by our scientists.”
Like Cuba who is moving forward with a vaccine now in its second phase with no major complications for the test subjects.
https://www.telesurenglish.net//news/Cubas-COVID-19-Vaccine-to-Benefit-Latin-America-PAHO-Says-20200909-0008.html
The greatest irony is most medical and pharmaceutical research and development in the USA is taxpayer funded, yet the American people pay the most for healthcare and drugs out of pocket.
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“@ biff
I and others who live outside the Republican Bubble are shocked at how badly the US has handled the pandemic. It is sad and embarrassing. It is like seeing an old man pee on himself.”
Good old Abagond, he persists on believing in the power and ‘goodness’ of the USA despite massive evidence of its decrepitude since at least 1975. US elites have stumbled from one f..up to the next since their humiliating ejection from Vietnam. Trump is the apotheosis of that course.
Why are people getting their panties in a twist that things turned out the way they did? Where are the Black Lives Matters, the Pussy hatters, the Occupy Wall Streeters, remember them? etc. Why aren’t they all in front of the White House, on the National Mall, observing proper social distancing of course, with one cry: TRUMP LIED. PEOPLE DIED.
“Orange Man So Bad! Cuomo and De Blasio are blameless and that’s why you don’t try to blame them for the tragedy happened to NYC (Trump is responsible for all the nursing home deaths as well). Of course you’re not a partisan hack! Who would say that?”
Is he not the “capo di tutti capi”? When did you abandon the Führerprinzip?
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https://topnewsshow.com/tucker-carlson-tonight-9-14-20-fox-news/
See first 10 minutes with more details on the heroic attack on the pigs!
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Heather Cox Richardson:
People like Biff are being whipped up against BLM and Antifa for a reason.
More:
(https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-14-2020)
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@ biff
I am hardly a fan of de Blasio or Cuomo. Back in April I said:
See:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2020/04/10/in-memoriam-the-million-lost-souls-of-hart-island/comment-page-1/#comment-436350
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@ biff
First, Dr Fauci works for Trump. He is NOT an independent voice.
Second, that the US death rate is only a bit worse than that of Sweden, which did little to stop the coronavirus, does not speak well of Trump – or Dr Fauci for that matter.
Third, Trump, unlike France or Cuomo or the rest, is on the record, via the Woodward tapes, as knowing just how bad the coronavirus was in private but downplaying it in public, lying about it in fact. That is tantamount to mass murder. The idea that he was trying to prevent a panic is laughable, coming Mr Bleach.
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Abagond wrote:
“Second, that the US death rate is only a bit worse than that of Sweden, which did little to stop the coronavirus, does not speak well of Trump – or Dr Fauci for that matter.”
Also, Italy, Spain, and France were early hotspots which had very high levels of fatalities in the beginning but have since dropped way down. Their overall death rates are skewed because of that.
Germany, Austria, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Poland, and Greece all have lower death rates than Canada, much less the USA.
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abagond:
You guys do realize that the media is trying to latch onto anything, ANYTHING to get Trump (people like abagond are whipped up against Trump for a reason). Russia collusion hoax failed, Ukraine collusion hoax failed, so now it’s blame Trump for the virus. The fact that Sweden didn’t have a general lockdown (neither did Japan or South Korea) and now has an extremely low case rate and didn’t suffer more than many other countries that locked down indicates that the lockdowns were misguided. Indeed, most of Europe, despite rising cases, is not planning to shut down their economies and schools again. We know this virus is dangerous for the very old, the very weak and the immunocompromised. Efforts should have been made to protect them (especially at the nursing home level). Early on, Trump shut down travel from China when Biden was calling him xenophobic for doing that. If your candidate had the same record as Trump on the virus, there is 0% chance you wouldn’t be defending him. Woodward is a leftist hitman. I agree it was foolishness to think Woodward wouldn’t do a hitjob and sit down for an interview with him, but the Republican establishment also doesn’t like Trump.
There’s strong evidence that China either manufactured the virus in its labs or at the very least intentionally and repeatedly covered up the severity of the situation for a long time, making the situation much much worse (many other viruses from China didn’t do much outside of Asia). Somehow you don’t find any time to blame China or question Biden’s pro-China, pro-global oligarchs/globalist stance at all…
And it’s crickets re: the BLM inspired assault on the pigs in LA (who in this case happened to be Hispanic).
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(199,000/939,000)(100%) = 21.19%. The USA accounts for 21.19% of the worldwide death toll for this disease. Trump and admirers like you have nothing to brag about. Trump was in charge so he deserves all the blame for this f…up.
“There’s strong evidence that China either manufactured the virus in its labs or at the very least intentionally and repeatedly covered up the severity of the situation for a long time, making the situation much much worse (many other viruses from China didn’t do much outside of Asia).”
BULLSH*T. Your boy, Steve Bannon invented the claim that China manufactured the virus. A number of idiots on this blog have tried to blame China for the virus, notably Origin. According to your boy Trump, Xi told him the virus was dangerous before February 7, 2020, rJanuary the Chinese published the genetic code of the virus and shutdown a city of millions, what more were they supposed to do to let your ‘genius’ leader know that the virus was dangerous?
“Steve Bannon Is Behind Bogus Study That China Created COVID
STUDY BUDDY
The study goes against basically all scientific evidence and expert opinion. But it fits with the former Trump adviser’s anti-China posture.
Adam Rawnsley
Lachlan Markay
Reporter
Updated Sep. 16, 2020 12:40PM ET / Published Sep. 15, 2020 3:16PM ET”
Coronavirus cases worldwide:
Cases
29.8M
+233K
Recovered
20.2M
Deaths
939K
+4,245
Location Cases
Recovered Deaths
United States
United States
6.7M
+34,364
3.64M
199K
+1,027
India
India
5.02M
+90,123
3.94M
82,066
+1,290
Brazil
Brazil
4.42M
+36,653
–
134K
+1,113
Russia
Russia
1.08M
+5,670
890K
18,917
+132
Peru
Peru
744K
+4,160
588K
31,051
+115
Colombia
Colombia
736K
+6,698
610K
23,478
+165
Mexico
Mexico
681K
+4,771
485K
71,978
+629
South Africa
South Africa
653K
+1,923
584K
15,705
+64
Spain
Spain
614K
–
30,243
Argentina
Argentina
589K
+11,674
448K
12,116
+264
Chile
Chile
439K
+1,304
412K
12,058
+18
Iran
Iran
410K
+2,981
352K
23,632
+179
France
France
405K
+9,784
90,355
31,045
+46
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
378K
–
41,684
Bangladesh
Bangladesh
343K
+1,615
248K
4,823
+21
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
328K
306K
4,369
Pakistan
Pakistan
303K
+665
291K
6,393
+4
Iraq
Iraq
299K
233K
8,166
Turkey
Turkey
296K
+1,771
263K
7,249
+63
Italy
Italy
291K
+1,452
215K
35,645
+12
Philippines
Philippines
273K
+3,527
208K
4,732
+69
Germany
Germany
267K
+1,901
236K
9,447
+6
Indonesia
Indonesia
229K
+3,963
164K
9,100
+135
Israel
Israel
170K
+3,670
123K
1,165
+13
Ukraine
Ukraine
163K
72,324
3,340
Canada
Canada
140K
+793
122K
9,193
+9
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
134K
–
1,948
Bolivia
Bolivia
128K
+667
86,216
7,447
+53
Qatar
Qatar
122K
+235
119K
208
+0
Ecuador
Ecuador
122K
+642
97,063
7,206
+41
Romania
Romania
107K
+1,713
43,244
4,285
+49
Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
106K
+718
78,891
2,009
+11
Panama
Panama
103K
+628
76,787
2,198
+14
Egypt
Egypt
101K
85,745
5,679
Belgium
Belgium
97,795
+489
19,393
9,930
+3
Kuwait
Kuwait
96,999
87,187
571
Morocco
Morocco
92,016
72,968
1,686
Oman
Oman
90,660
84,113
797
Sweden
Sweden
87,575
–
5,860
Netherlands
Netherlands
86,320
–
6,260
China (Mainland)
China (Mainland)
85,223
+9
80,448
4,634
Guatemala
Guatemala
82,684
+512
71,983
2,984
+12
United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
81,782
+842
71,456
402
+1
Japan
Japan
76,448
+490
68,532
1,461
+10
Poland
Poland
75,734
+600
62,110
2,237
+10
Belarus
Belarus
74,763
+211
72,810
767
+6
Honduras
Honduras
68,620
18,487
2,087
Ethiopia
Ethiopia
66,224
26,665
1,045
Portugal
Portugal
65,626
+605
44,528
1,878
+3
Venezuela
Venezuela
62,655
+1,086
50,361
502
+8
Bahrain
Bahrain
61,643
54,831
215
Costa Rica
Costa Rica
59,516
+777
21,752
649
+12
Nepal
Nepal
58,327
41,706
379
Singapore
Singapore
57,514
+27
56,955
27
+0
Nigeria
Nigeria
56,604
+126
47,872
1,091
+3
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
49,015
45,422
407
Algeria
Algeria
48,734
34,204
1,632
Switzerland
Switzerland
48,265
39,900
1,755
Armenia
Armenia
46,376
42,069
923
Ghana
Ghana
45,388
44,267
285
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
45,072
+73
41,210
1,063
+0
Moldova
Moldova
44,361
+627
32,732
1,159
+15
Czechia
Czechia
41,032
22,931
482
Palestine
Palestine
40,298
–
255
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
38,855
32,503
1,436
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
38,517
35,998
566
Kenya
Kenya
36,205
–
624
Austria
Austria
35,073
+768
27,655
758
+1
Serbia
Serbia
32,613
+102
–
736
+1
Ireland
Ireland
31,799
+250
24,000
1,788
+1
Paraguay
Paraguay
29,298
+931
15,261
552
+13
El Salvador
El Salvador
27,163
+75
19,960
796
+4
Australia
Australia
26,779
+41
23,721
824
+8
Lebanon
Lebanon
26,083
+634
9,634
259
+7
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
23,939
16,701
725
Libya
Libya
22,781
2,420
362
South Korea
South Korea
22,504
19,310
367
Denmark
Denmark
21,009
13,216
633
Cameroon
Cameroon
20,271
–
415
Côte d’Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire
19,100
18,228
120
Bulgaria
Bulgaria
18,390
+155
13,241
739
+7
North Macedonia
North Macedonia
16,088
13,550
665
Madagascar
Madagascar
15,871
14,482
215
Kosovo
Kosovo
14,839
11,784
601
Senegal
Senegal
14,568
+39
–
299
+1
Hungary
Hungary
14,460
+581
4,153
654
+8
Greece
Greece
14,041
–
316
Croatia
Croatia
14,029
+280
11,690
236
+6
Zambia
Zambia
13,819
12,590
324
Sudan
Sudan
13,535
6,759
836
Norway
Norway
12,393
9,348
265
Albania
Albania
11,816
+144
6,733
343
+3
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
10,414
9,827
267
Guinea
Guinea
10,111
9,444
63
Malaysia
Malaysia
10,031
+62
9,235
128
Namibia
Namibia
9,964
7,502
108
French Guiana
French Guiana
9,578
9,202
64
Maldives
Maldives
9,427
7,895
33
Tajikistan
Tajikistan
9,171
7,141
73
Finland
Finland
8,750
7,350
337
Gabon
Gabon
8,654
7,785
53
Haiti
Haiti
8,539
+15
6,181
220
+0
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
7,576
5,783
224
Luxembourg
Luxembourg
7,394
–
124
Tunisia
Tunisia
7,382
2,125
117
Montenegro
Montenegro
7,291
4,764
126
Mauritania
Mauritania
7,274
6,186
161
Slovakia
Slovakia
5,860
3,220
38
Mozambique
Mozambique
5,713
3,181
37
Malawi
Malawi
5,701
3,762
178
Djibouti
Djibouti
5,396
5,333
61
Eswatini
Eswatini
5,128
4,401
101
Uganda
Uganda
5,123
2,333
58
Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea
5,000
4,496
83
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
4,985
+9
4,663
102
+0
Republic of the Congo
Republic of the Congo
4,934
–
88
Cape Verde
Cape Verde
4,904
4,294
46
Cuba
Cuba
4,876
4,131
109
Nicaragua
Nicaragua
4,818
+0
2,913
144
+0
Central African Republic
Central African Republic
4,772
1,828
62
Suriname
Suriname
4,625
3,996
95
Rwanda
Rwanda
4,624
2,767
22
Jamaica
Jamaica
4,151
+162
1,180
46
+2
Slovenia
Slovenia
3,954
+123
–
135
+0
Jordan
Jordan
3,852
2,349
26
Myanmar (Burma)
Myanmar (Burma)
3,821
908
40
Syria
Syria
3,614
871
160
Angola
Angola
3,569
1,332
139
Mayotte
Mayotte
3,541
–
40
Thailand
Thailand
3,490
+10
3,316
58
+0
Lithuania
Lithuania
3,442
+45
2,125
87
+0
The Gambia
The Gambia
3,428
1,737
105
Somalia
Somalia
3,389
2,803
98
Aruba
Aruba
3,328
+92
1,676
22
+2
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
3,271
+8
3,021
13
+0
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
3,223
798
56
The Bahamas
The Bahamas
3,032
+24
1,482
69
+2
Réunion
3,002
1,794
15
Mali
Mali
2,935
–
128
Georgia
Georgia
2,758
+196
1,412
19
+0
Estonia
Estonia
2,756
+34
2,318
64
+0
South Sudan
South Sudan
2,592
1,290
49
Malta
Malta
2,560
+106
1,953
16
+0
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau
2,275
1,127
39
Benin
Benin
2,267
1,942
40
Botswana
Botswana
2,252
–
10
Iceland
Iceland
2,189
2,104
10
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
2,133
1,646
72
Yemen
Yemen
2,017
–
584
Guyana
Guyana
1,958
+74
1,302
58
Uruguay
Uruguay
1,856
1,559
45
New Zealand
New Zealand
1,802
+1
1,698
25
+1
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
1,692
–
56
Togo
Togo
1,595
1,219
40
Cyprus
Cyprus
1,534
–
22
Belize
Belize
1,528
663
19
Latvia
Latvia
1,486
1,248
35
Andorra
Andorra
1,438
945
53
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
1,363
–
20
Liberia
Liberia
1,327
1,214
82
Lesotho
Lesotho
1,245
661
33
Niger
Niger
1,180
1,104
69
French Polynesia
French Polynesia
1,099
+44
–
2
+0
Chad
Chad
1,087
944
81
Vietnam
Vietnam
1,063
+0
936
35
+0
Martinique
Martinique
939
+0
–
18
+0
São Tomé and Príncipe
907
871
15
San Marino
San Marino
741
–
42
Turks and Caicos Islands
Turks and Caicos Islands
650
+2
558
5
+0
Northern Cyprus
628
343
4
Sint Maarten
549
468
19
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
516
232
6
Tanzania
Tanzania
509
183
21
Taiwan
Taiwan
500
+1
477
7
+0
Burundi
Burundi
472
–
1
Comoros
Comoros
467
446
7
Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands
428
412
0
Jersey
Jersey
389
+3
358
16
+0
Eritrea
Eritrea
364
305
0
Mauritius
Mauritius
362
–
10
Isle of Man
339
312
24
Gibraltar
Gibraltar
334
304
0
Mongolia
Mongolia
311
301
0
Cambodia
Cambodia
275
274
0
Saint Martin
256
+0
142
6
+0
Guernsey
Guernsey
253
238
13
Bhutan
Bhutan
246
175
0
Cayman Islands
Cayman Islands
208
+0
204
1
+0
Barbados
Barbados
184
+1
169
7
+0
Bermuda
Bermuda
177
164
9
Monaco
Monaco
177
107
1
Curaçao
169
+8
61
1
+0
Brunei
Brunei
145
141
3
Seychelles
Seychelles
136
127
0
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
111
105
1
Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda
95
+0
91
3
+0
British Virgin Islands
66
+0
37
1
+0
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
64
+0
61
0
+0
Macao
Macao
46
46
0
Fiji
Fiji
32
26
2
Caribbean Netherlands
27
+2
–
1
+1
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia
27
+0
26
0
Timor-Leste
Timor-Leste
27
25
0
New Caledonia
New Caledonia
26
23
0
Dominica
Dominica
24
+0
18
0
Grenada
Grenada
24
+0
24
0
Laos
Laos
23
22
0
Saint Barthélemy
21
+0
13
0
Åland Islands
21
0
0
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Kitts and Nevis
17
+0
17
0
Greenland
Greenland
14
14
0
Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
13
13
0
Montserrat
Montserrat
13
+0
12
1
+0
Vatican City
Vatican City
12
12
0
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
11
5
0
Anguilla
Anguilla
3
+0
3
0
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan
0
–
–
Western Sahara
Western Sahara
–
–
–
“+” shows new cases reported yesterday · Updated less than 30 mins ago·Source:Wikipedia
·About this data
LikeLiked by 1 person
@ biff
You know this how?
BECAUSE TRUMP IS THE PRESIDENT!!! The buck stops with him. He whines and blames China and blames Biden and you fall for it. If he is that much of a pussy, then he should resign the US presidency. It is clearly too much for him.
Whatever Woodward’s motives or political leanings, Trump is still on tape saying he knew how bad it was – while in public saying it was no big deal. Trump’s cherry-picked statistics are beside the point.
Given Trump’s record, it probably did have to do with xenophobia more than with any concern for keeping the country safe. After all, here in the north-eastern US we got it from White people (Italy), not China. His obsession with China did not keep us safe. Instead it took his eye off the ball.
Boo-hoo. Who cares? What matters is that they do not stand up to him like they should, like they did to Nixon and Bush II. It is damn scary, clearing the way towards White fascist rule.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Re: the origins of the Chinese coronavirus, watch the first segment: https://topnewsshow.com/tucker-carlson-tonight-9-15-20-fox-news/
Again pure projection re: the presidency being too much for Trump. Biden can’t even string full sentences together if he’s off a teleprompter, and he’s getting worse–fast. The Alzheimers meds he’s on make him incontinent: https://external-preview.redd.it/41b3cubB4OXFGerD5J94b_krFOILU-ZTkvAvs2O1B3Q.jpg?auto=webp&s=5dff1d23b505174c78e4a3bd3ab5980e506d56c5
Heck, even 50% of Democrate voters admit they don’t believe he’ll finish out a single term if elected.
I suppose knowing that the virus was serious in China, as everyone did, but not knowing how much or if it would spread to the US, Trump still should have told everyone to freak out. It makes no sense. What happened, primarily in big liberal cities, was certainly a tragedy, but even Cuomo and Newsome are on record saying that Trump was super responsive and gave them all that they asked for and more… In the early stages, it was no to masks and yes to ventilators. We quickly got tons of ventilators ready and then were told they weren’t actually helpful. If Trump had overruled the terrible policies, including re: nursing homes of Cuomo or other dems leaders, you would just call him a dictator.
Anyway, we all know you’re not open minded about this, so nothing I can say can change your conviction that ORANGE MAN BAD. I just hope not all of your readers will be fooled.
LikeLike
I wonder why Biff posted an image link instead of the actual Reddit thread about Biden’s incontinence and dementia. Could it be because the redditors are tearing the OP apart as an obvious fake?
LikeLike
“…Cuomo and Newsome are on record saying that Trump was super responsive and gave them all that they asked for and more…”
Links? Proof?
❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍❍
According to a Bloomberg News article dated March 19, 2020 state governors found the greatest impediment to getting PPE for both medical workers and ordinary residents was the federal government under the direction of the Trump Administration. The article notes:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-19/trump-told-governors-to-buy-own-virus-supplies-then-outbid-them
Far from taking command of one of the greatest crises in the USA in modern times, Trump shirked his responsibilities to the American people. He used the federal government as a tool to both play politics and enrich himself and his family.
Even George W. Bush would have done a better job leading the country through this crisis. He set the bar really low. You have to be extremely mediocre to be outshined by Bush 43. Trump can’t even step over that bar.
LikeLike
I came across another article about the “protesters” who showed up at the hospital in Los Angeles, CA decked out in red, black and green. According to an article in HuffPost:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/los-angeles-deputies-protest-hospital_n_5f5fb4d4c5b6fd3d0527afd0?utm_source=spotim&utm_medium=spotim_recirculation
Wonder how much they were paid for that ten minutes of “work”?
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Afrofem,
Thanks for posting that article. I found an interesting article as well from Elie Mystal (The Nation), who called out journalists who didn’t fact check what actually happened at the hospital before running with the story. It’s amazing how fast certain outlets mischaracterized events in order to gain sympathy points for the police while trying to tarnish the BLM movement.
The police misrepresented the truth. I’m also finding out more about Sherriff Villanueva and his efforts to undo police reforms that were minimizing brutal behaviors from his officers to those who live in the community. This guy is a piece of work.
Excerpt from Mystal’s piece ‘The Police Are Lying in LA and the Media Is Falling for It—Again’ :
“In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the official Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Twitter account tweeted out the following: “To the protesters blocking the entrance & exit of the HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM yelling ‘We hope they die’ referring to 2 LA Sheriff’s ambushed today in #Compton: DO NOT BLOCK EMERGENCY ENTRIES & EXITS TO THE HOSPITAL. People’s lives are at stake when ambulances can’t get through.”
That tweet gave the impression that some kind of street uprising had sprung up at the hospital, and that the many people clearly involved had attempted in some way to deny injured police officers medical care. The narrative that protesters “blocked” the hospital entrance was then picked up by the press, so I heard MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson repeating it on her show when I turned on the television Monday morning.
After hearing the charge, I went to the Internet to look for the video of this alleged protest. Here is what the LA County sheriffs were apparently talking about. As you can see in the video, the “protest” appears to be about four guys hovering around the emergency entrance, shouting invectives. It wasn’t a protest, and they weren’t preventing any medical vehicles from entering or exiting the hospital. It was a few people who gave into the justified-yet-wrong anger I myself overcame this morning through the grace of coffee and the backspace key.
To call this group of individuals “protesters who blocked the entrance,” as the police did, is misleading at best. To repeat the disinformation, as journalists did, simply because it was on a police Twitter account, is bad journalism.
As the police were arresting one of the men shouting at the cops, an NPR radio reporter, Josie Huang, stepped forward to get a better look. Police tackled and injured her. Police claimed that Huang didn’t identify herself as a reporter and refused to leave the area when asked. Over the weekend, the media again reflexively reprinted this police narrative.
Then Huang released her own video of the event. It shows that she immediately “backed up” when told to do so and identified herself as a reporter even as police were throwing her to the ground.
Reporters who reprint or rebroadcast the official story for why police tackled a reporter, without first talking to the reporter tackled, deserve to be tackled by other, better reporters.
As nearly every Black person has been trying to tell the media since the invention of “police”: Cops lie. They lie, mislead, or issue untruthful statements all the time. White journalists must stop repeating police lies, uncritically, without demanding evidence to back up police claims or even doing a bare-minimum Google search to see if there is video that directly contradicts police statements.
Skepticism of police statements should be a basic requirement of competent journalism, but it is particularly critical in times like this, when police have a reason to lie. The police are angry at the attempted murder of two officers, and they want other people to be angry, so they are not even trying to provide an accurate account of events. Instead, they are trying to build a case against Black Lives Matter.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva (whose office tweeted out the misleading story about “protesters” at the hospital) could barely contain his contempt for BLM protesters in his statement about the shooting. “This is just a somber reminder that this is a dangerous job, and actions and words have consequences. Our job does not get any easier because people do not like law enforcement,” Villanueva said. “It pisses me off. It dismays me at the same time.”
In this statement, Villanueva is trying to draw a direct line between the “actions and words” of protesters to the attempted murder of police officers. He seems less interested in drawing a line from police brutality and the murder of Black people to the attempted murder of police officers.
The reality is that we don’t know why the suspect tried to kill those two officers, but we can see with our own eyes that his actions were wrong and dangerously misguided. Speculation into his motives is irresponsible absent evidence. It’s wrong for journalists to speculate, and it’s wrong for journalists to repeat the unverified, potentially unhinged speculations of the LA County sheriff without any evidence whatsoever.
It’s not like the social justice organization ambushed two police officers in a parked car. It’s not like social justice organizations have a history of targeting police officers for murder. But the person who did target and ambush police officers appears to be Black and thus, apparently, it’s all our faults. That’s how racial profiling works, don’t you know.
So the police already have their villain, and they are enacting their retribution. On Sunday, LA County sheriff’s deputies shut down a “protest encampment” across from LA City Hall. The holdouts had been there for months, living peacefully, but cops cleared it mere hours after the shooting. Cops claim it was taken down because of “deteriorating conditions,” but nobody is required to be addled enough to believe them.
The inability and unwillingness of the media to accurately report on police lies and sensationalism will have the effect of excusing additional acts of police brutality. The police will point to the one guy who shot police officers (for reasons not yet known) and the one dude who shouted “I hope y’all die” as justification for cops to go out on the street tonight and violate the constitutional rights of Black people, or beat Black people, or kill Black people. And by refusing to call out police hysteria, the media will make that hysteria seem reasonable.
Given the stakes, it’s not too much to ask the media to do its job. It’s not too much to ask journalists to act like journalists instead of stenographers. If I can restrain myself from being a snarky, irresponsible axe-grinder when it comes to “blue lives,” it’s not too much to ask mainstream sources to think before retweeting or republishing the latest round of blue lies.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/la-shooting-police-lies/
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@ Holly
Exactly!!! The police, unfortunately, cannot be trusted to tell the truth. But people like biff – and most of the White press – have a naive, childlike faith in them.
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@abagond
“The police, unfortunately, cannot be trusted to tell the truth. But people like biff – and most of the White press – have a naive, childlike faith in them.”
That’s what I find most infuriating and also dangerous. Some folks (especially MSM) are willing to believe anything police say without even remotely questioning things.
There’s documented history of police corruption against minorities and poor communities and some of these officers get nothing more than a slap on the wrist. At this point I believe those who don’t bother to fact check or question things police say are willfully obtuse.
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@ Holly
Thank you for adding more information to this story. There are a lot of things that don’t add up. Sometimes you have to read several media outlets and sift through their slants and biases just to get a credible outline of a story. Then you have to wait days, weeks or even months later for an analysis that fills in critical details. Too many times those details are provided by a lone investigative journalist on a few marginalized sites.
That is the state of journalism and media in early 21st century America. Thing is, most of us still expect better from the media. Perhaps it’s time to take a more skeptical and detatched view of what we read, hear and see.
Most of the media have been in a cozy relationship with the police and other power centers (government, big business and the military) for quite a long time. That is one reason when a Black person is accused of a crime, their photos are shown, past encounters with police are made public and they are tried in the court of public opinion with members of the media acting as judge and jury.
That is a sharp contrast to the way criminal activity by police is depicted in the media. Their beating and killing of citizens is described in passive voice. This practice is so pervasive it has has its own vocabulary-Copspeak. Abagond deciphered some Copspeak terms in 2016. They include:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2016/07/25/copspeak/
➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤➤
The police are angry at the attempted murder of two officers, and they want other people to be angry, so they are not even trying to provide an accurate account of events. Instead, they are trying to build a case against Black Lives Matter.
Holly, I see things somewhat differently. The police are angry that they are under scrutiny, period. With the help of a compliant media and legal system they have literally gotten away with murder, theft, rape and lying under oath (aka “testi-lying”) for decades. They are furious that a broad coalition of Americans no longer see them as “Officer Friendly” or the “Thin Blue Line”. Ditto for the effect of seeing solidarity protests in Europe, Africa and Asia.
https://www.blackagendareport.com/africas-response-george-floyd-murder
That is why they are attempting to paint the Black Lives Matter coalition as a group of “violent criminals”. They want to propagandize and shoot their way out of a situation they created themselves. The sad truth is they may just do it this time. Powerful groups are adept at maintaining their power. Yet, it will not last forever.
We shall see what happens next….
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@Afrofem
You’re welcome!
“Holly, I see things somewhat differently. The police are angry that they are under scrutiny, period. With the help of a compliant media and legal system they have literally gotten away with murder, theft, rape and lying under oath (aka “testi-lying”) for decades. They are furious that a broad coalition of Americans no longer see them as “Officer Friendly” or the “Thin Blue Line”. Ditto for the effect of seeing solidarity protests in Europe, Africa and Asia.
https://www.blackagendareport.com/africas-response-george-floyd-murder
That is why they are attempting to paint the Black Lives Matter coalition as a group of “violent criminals”. They want to propagandize and shoot their way out of a situation they created themselves. The sad truth is they may just do it this time. Powerful groups are adept at maintaining their power. Yet, it will not last forever.
We shall see what happens next….”
Great perspective and thank you. It’s amazing how coordinated the effort is across media, law enforcement and the legal system to demonize Black people. The residual affects of slavery have never left and as the Black and Brown populations grow, I see bigots becoming more desparate to hold on to control.
You’re right though, we’ll have to see how things play out.
As the right wing continually attempts to mischaracterize/politicize BLM, I hope there are enough people who see through the lies and continue to call out the BS. We know the playbook and are tired of it.
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https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/12/politics/women-voters-pennslyvania/index.html
Interesting short testimonies of former Trump supporters.
What caught my attention was essentially one White woman telling when was her moment of truth, of dissatisfaction with Trump, of wanting a change (Watch minutes 2:38 – 3:08). Through her condition as a mother she felt deep inside herself the plea of George Floyd in his last moments. Of George calling then for his mother.
The universality of the human condition, again making bridges between human beings, changing hearts.
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Did early voting, he’s hoping to get rid of the nightmare occupying the White House, flipping the red to blue and getting rid of all these abhorrent GOP Republican Senators.
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Even if we were or could vanquish this monster, if that’s possible. We would still have the culture of a Trumpism. Trumpism, reminds me of the mythical monster the hydra. If one head of the monster is chopped of it will sprout several more.
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chopped off
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