In reference to Rodney King, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said “this isn’t 1992,” and would not activate the National Guard.
Hours later he changed his mind. Violence has spread to at least two dozen cities.
“Why Don’t You Cover That?”
Pointing to a Tweet in which a woman attacked a police officer, I was challenged, “Why don’t you cover that?”
OK if you insist. Here are a wide range of Tweets.
Resemblance to Rodney King
Attorney General William Barr oversaw the Justice Department’s response to the videotaped police beating of Rodney King that ultimately led to the Los Angeles riots in 1992 https://t.co/PohaaSCb3T
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 31, 2020
Left Wing Lunacy – Russia to Blame
This is fucking lunacy — conspiratorial madness of the worst kind — but it’s delivered by a Serious Obama Official & a Respected Mainstream Newscaster so it’s all fine.
This is Infowars-level junk. Should Twitter put a “False” label on this? Or maybe a hammer and sickle emoji? https://t.co/sEQGYux0Ix
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 31, 2020
Trump says 80% of Rioters Out of State
Did you interview them to ask where they were from, or are you making up numbers? https://t.co/quNIx2ckDY
— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) June 1, 2020
Really? How the hell does he know?
Excellent Comment by Matt Taibbi on Censorship
This is exhibit A when it comes to why we should never have censorship: evidence-free conspiracy theories pushed by officials and ex-officials like Susan Rice will never be flagged. So “sanctioned” fictions will get free rein, but fringe voices will be restrained https://t.co/WtEB52L60V
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) May 31, 2020
Trump Advisors Scold Trump Over His Tweet
The head of Facebook personally calling the president of the United States whenever he has an issue with one of his posts does not seem like a scalable solution. IDK, I am not a software expert. https://t.co/jMOVZqUzNg
— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) May 31, 2020
What did Trump do? He made a foolish comment “When the Looting Starts the Shooting Starts”
This led to Twitter amending his Tweet with a warning. Trump defended it as a fact.
When 20-year Miami Police Chief Walter Headley used the phrase, he was addressing his department’s “crackdown on Negro slum hoodlums.”
So facts aside, it was a horribly irresponsible thing for Trump to say. And it will backfire on Trump.
Trump’s ignorance aside, Twitter opened up a can of policing worms as Taibbi points out.
Chicago Lockdown
Chicago heads back into lockdown – to suspend bus, rail services until Monday morning https://t.co/oB2QWR9VY1
— ForexLive (@ForexLive) May 31, 2020
Don’t Worry, Futures Will Be Up in the Morning
Yes, so sad.
But don’t worry, futures will be up in the morning.All it takes is more bad news.
And I am confident of that. https://t.co/SULKm0vJ0m— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) May 31, 2020
The Incentive to Let it Burn
https://twitter.com/Anarchris2032/status/1267092007031316481
Thank public unions for that.
Bakery Protected
Corbo’s Italian Bakery, in downtown Cleveland, told rioters to fuck off… And they did. pic.twitter.com/TLdaTq1q4c
— Pete D (@pdq44131) May 31, 2020
Insurance Won’t Protect You
Most people don’t realize the Majority of small biz insurance does not cover rioting or looting. Hence why you saw Koreans in 1992 protecting their stores, and now you are seeing it again in 2020. https://t.co/rRijBemmfM
— Stalingrad & Poorski (@Stalingrad_Poor) May 31, 2020
Count This Mentioned
https://twitter.com/PRussW1/status/1267201251554537472
Riots in Philadelphia
Breaking: Widespread rioting and looting are ongoing in Philadelphia. Rioters are ghost riding police cars into each other and setting police vehicles on fire. https://t.co/34eAS1O9xC
— PM Breaking News (@PMBreakingNews) May 31, 2020
The Epitome of Rioting Irony and Ignorance in One Tweet
The Epitome of Rioting Irony and Ignorance in One Tweet
ESPN NBA reporter Chris Martin Palmer made a fool out of himself with a pair of Tweets.
“Burn that s**t” down. Burn it all down,” said Palmer. Then they went after his gated community.https://t.co/v88GMq3epL
— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) May 31, 2020
Soon to be Ex-Lawyers Throw a Molotov Cocktail
“Two Brooklyn lawyers, including an Ivy League graduate corporate attorney, are facing federal charges for tossing a Molotov cocktail into an NYPD vehicle.” https://t.co/OyyuetAz4J pic.twitter.com/06IrMYUYuV
— David Reaboi, Late Republic Nonsense (@davereaboi) May 31, 2020
“Two Brooklyn lawyers, including an Ivy League graduate corporate attorney, are facing federal charges for tossing a Molotov cocktail into an NYPD vehicle.”
BLM Protester Calls Out White Antifa for Vandalizing Local Starbucks
WATCH: BLM protester calls out white Antifa for vandalizing local Starbucks pic.twitter.com/O7ThXtapvt
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 31, 2020
Trump Declares ANTIFA a “Terrorist Organization”
The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2020
That’s nice but there is no law under which Trump can declare a domestic terrorist group.
Moreover, ANTIFA is a much of an organization as the collective number of people who watch birds in their backyard. There is no such organization called ANTIFA.
But his supporters will cheer such nonsense.
Everybody Happy?
I hope so.
I did not cover everyplace, but I touched on what I believe are the key ideas.
Well, here’s one more.
Please, Stop the Damn Rioting Already
Please, Stop the Damn Rioting Already.
It is counterproductive, it will bring more violence, it does not honor George Floyd.
More dead is more dead.
And it will not and it will not bring Floyd back to life. https://t.co/ktyNx2Zv4g— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) June 1, 2020
Mish
The fact of the matter is that some cultures are not as civilized as others. Make all the excuses you want, but the facts are clear.
Mish, I’ve followed your blog for some years now and I notice you’ve swung from a balanced Trump observer to almost full scale TDS. eg is Trump to blame for this violence? Is Trump responsible for police violence? Clearly no. But your post implies and in some places actually blames Trump. Trump’s tweet re looting and shooting – you ignored the context. It is to deter the ‘professional rioters’ of which we have seen some evidence already. The only thing Trump is guilty of is using street language and not the smooth, PC gobbledygook employed by professional politicians in Wash. DC. So that makes him un-Presidential, but how bad is that?
When he says most rioters from out of town you doubt and ask ‘How the hell does he know?’ Perhaps he had a chat with the mayor / governor of those places who made the same statement elsewhere.
What is happening is a disgrace, but Trump is not to blame for it.
Spot on…MT has gone from balanced to biased…TDS for sure.
Trump did encourage the rioting. His retweet of the racist slogan that was used to justify killing of blacks in the sixties, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” basically dared people to riot and loot. I’m not saying that it justifies the rioting and looting, which it does not. I’m saying that after he dared people to riot and loot, expansion of the rioting and looting was a given. Similarly, his “vicious dogs and ominous weapons” tweet dared rioters and looters to target the White House, so it’s not surprising to see the White House targeted, and now we have a number of Secret Service agents injured.
Trump often starts with the right response, and then for unknown reasons, veers to disaster. He started correctly, by expressing outrage at Floyd’s death, and promising to have it looked into. He should have followed that with a call for unity, and a call for time to allow the system to work, and an expression of his desire to see justice done. That’s the kind of statements that were issued by Barr, and Cruz, among others. Unfortunately, it would seem that calls for unity are not in his DNA, nor is calmness in times of crisis.
There is this study, that implies, if inequality reaches a certain level high probability of unrest will rise. Trump has done many things to increase inequality and none to reduce it. His rhetorics has been straight out insolent. If that is not the reason for people showing their dissatisfaction, I don’t know what is.
Covid19, combined with the CARES act was an equalizer, pumping both stimulus checks and excess unemployment into the hands of the poor. In April, spending by the upper 80% was down 50%, but spending by the bottom 20% was up 5%.
Not sure how you call it TDS when Trump’s own people are cringing over his tweets. Read the linked Axios article above. I have not heard any good speeches come from him on trying to calm things down and bring people together. He is strangely absent on this one.
Trump is too narcissistic, self-centered and frankly psychotic to be able to to have a “balanced” view on him. Take a look at the current situation with the protests. As others have pointed out, he could have continued the line of support for George Floyd and the protesters (sincere or insincere, doesn’t matter for political calculations) and he could have single-handedly erased all his racist idiocy over the last 3.5 years. And that would have been very SAD politically. People are so gullible. Instead of continuing with “heartfelt” support for Floyd and the protesters, Trump lumped them with looters and called for the “thugs” to be “shot”. In other words, Trump shot from one extreme of being “empathetic” – whatever that means for him, to being psychotic – his normal self. How is it possible to cover a POTUS like this with a “balanced” view.
So when does all this translate into shortages of food and other essentials? Because that’s when things get REALLY bullish.
Another take is that the system has failed to generate enough prosperity for most of the people most of the time. For a long time there was a social contract in America about the type of society people wanted. That contract was based on cops and other public officials to do the right thing and help improve communities. The intersection of corporatism and government is a form of fascism that we now have. If you keep sawing off the tree limbs of the tree in which you live, eventually the tree falls.
The people who are looting, are not doing so because of a lack of prosperity, they are doing it because it is in their nature and culture. They do the same thing over basketball games for gods sake. They are simply not as evolved or civilized as other cultures. That is the simple truth.
You are clueless. Unemployment is at 25% and you think there is prosperity for the looters.
The BLM and Antifa Starbucks story is misportrayed above. The lady is a resident of that town and wants peaceful protest. She was not a member of BLM or Antifa. The two women spray-painting were clearly sent in to do it. No one but organized groups dress in all black and spray paint a Starbucks in the name of revenge.
antifa does not want anarchy. They oppose free speech, and want a powerful central government that can dictate what people can think and say.
That powerful central government doesn’t include a local government. Most of what Antifa wants is fascist by nature. The extremes of groups like Antifa and Boogaloo have more in common when it comes their thoughts on local police and government. Both want their group to be the militia that acts as local government and police. These two groups align more with how the Nazis use to operate on a state and local level.
Those dont get why the rioting is happening dont understand BLM, Antifa and the boogaloo. These radical groups want anarchy and no government. These outsiders are the ones creating chaos in neighborhoods they don’t live in. Most people dont want this but the extremist groups are looking to overthrow local governments.
Wrong. These people do want government, and lots of it, they only want a government to give them free sh!t, and let them behave like animals.
True anarchists who do not want government are people who are self sufficient, and do not expect anything from government. They are people who believe in personal responsibility and taking responsibility for your own life.
To call these people anarchists is ignorant and contrary to everything true anarchists believe. These people are socialist criminals.
By the way, would it be surprising to learn that Covid-19 was allowed to get out of China to throw the world into the chaos that it is in ? China never liked Trump and probably had tacit approval from Russia, North Korea and Iran to throw the world into chaos. Trump may have been duped by Xi, Putin, Kim Jong Un and an host of other authoritarian regimes. We know Trump admires them. It is all an accident that this happen in 2020, an election year in the US ? I wonder.
It’s the solution to a major demographic problem a lot of countries have.
This whole situation reminds me a lot of the 2008 financial crisis. We’re confronted with a large problem but we already know we’re not going to try to address it. Rioting and looting accomplishes nothing, but as soon as everybody goes home, the cops will still be aggressive revenue generators for the state. If anything, the problem will get worse over time.
The incentives in our society are all wrong. Bankers will print and skim, corporations will hollow themselves out for the benefit of their current executives, government will only represent major lobbying groups, and the media will fan the flames of discord to prevent people from looking upward at the Fed.
By now it’s safe to say that only a major catastrophe will wake people up, and some riots over Floyd’s death falls well short of that.
Maybe this is the trigger point and not the catastrophe. It is going to be a long summer. In the words of Gerald Celente when people have nothing left to lose they lose it. What a start to the 3rd decade of the century.
This is straight out of Russia’s playbook. It doesnt mean they had anything to do with what started it but you can well be sure that the GRU is paying attention to how to leverage this for Putin and leave the US in ruins. This was always the plan. Putin is loving this moment.
All they had to do was get that fool elected and stand back.
Was wondering today if Trump is our Gorbachev … you know, minus the port wine stain and brains.
Idiotic comment…YOU are the tool.
Agreed. It is a fact that Russia had agents embedded in the NRA.
Why would we think that they would stop there? Why not install agent provocateurs in Antifa, or BLM, or white supremacy groups?
Farfetched? Well here’s the playbook:
The book emphasizes that Russia must spread anti-Americanism everywhere: “the main ‘scapegoat’ will be precisely the U.S.”
In the United States:
Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke “Afro-American racists”.
Russia should “introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S.
It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics”.[9]
The Urooj picture: “I’m not a bad ass, but I play one on TV.”
You can almost see special effects making her dainty punches have the force of a cannon.
Lies from every direction… we’ve graduated from the Information Age into the Bullshit age.
… and deepfakes are still in their infancy…
These riots are the natural result from shutting down the economy for C19. 40mm unemployed, people broke, in debt, nothing to lose = riots.
Because of stimulus checks and fat unemployment checks, spending by the bottom 20% was up in April, while spending by the upper 80% was down over 50%. The people who are broke are the people in the middle, with reduced hours, or small business owners. Do you think they are the ones rioting and looting?
BS, most people of lower income to this point have profited from the free government money as they partied and had a good time.
People get used to free stuff real quick, and looting is just another way to get free stuff, only instead of the government doing the stealing, they just do it themselves.
Here is where Trump got his info
link to cbsnews.com
The Matt Taibbi tweet is spot on.
LOL. CNN’s Russia conspiracies have finally caught up to them. BLM doesn’t take kindly to having their protest side-lined as Russian sponsored, and took CNN to task. Priceless.
Flashbangs and structure fires in Lafayette Park. That’s the front yard of 1600 Penn.
I’m not sure how much more winning America can take.
Not that it is a good thought, but once before when things got completely out of hand the death toll hit 600,000. If both sides decide to dig in and slug it out it could get very ugly.
I think Howe and Strauss may have underestimated this Fourth Turning.
This one might have sticking power. Remains to be seen. But I don’t see pitched battles in the future but maybe a long low-intensity guerrilla war.
I already said if this is what winning is like, might as well lose.
Awesome post Mish!!
“Why would the Russians get in bed with China?”, I was often challenged.
Just read that tweet from Susan Rice.
The Dems have the hots for Russia.
The Reps have the hots for China.
The US will be no match for them in a non nuclear confrontation. The Russians have already shown their capability in the Middle East (Syria) and Lybia, whereas our “forces” there are pretty much demoralized.
This country is spent. Only the Fed is left.
And even then what is left for the Fed to do? Throw more money into the fire?