Did this really just happen?

[_EAllusion]

I seen several hundred documented incidents of police engaging in significant brutality. It's like cramming a year's worth of videos of incidents into a week. I was watching one not that long ago - the incident in MI where police sprayed a unarmed man, then as he was gathering himself, shot a tear gas canister directly into his face at near point blank range - and remembered that some day in the future, that there will be some function like a concert where police are honored and people will be socially compelled to honor this person for his service.

ETA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acsSE5AZXsQ

[_MeDotOrg]

You've heard the expression make the best of a bad situation? That's what Trump is doing. He makes the best of a situation the only way he knows how: by doubling down on division. As he becomes more frightened, his language becomes more bellicose. Governors have to dominate. 10 year prison sentences for looters. And now, move the military into our cities. As an American officer once said during the Vietnam war, We had to destroy the village in order to save it.

Try talking with the Joint Chiefs of Staff about their plans for deploying the military in the United States. They have none. Before Donald Trump, none was anticipated. As has been pointed out, if we were watching this happening in another country, we would say the country was imploding, and on its way to revolution or dictatorship.

This is the greatest crisis since the Civil War. It feels like we're at a flash point. Somebody's cell phone video, someone's death could be a catalyst for a 'second wave of rage'. Trump not too subtly suggested that the Second Amendment supporters may coalesce around him.

What's frightening is that Trump has traveled so far down the road of division that he doesn't see a way back to the center without alienating his base. In order for our country to survive, Donald Trump has to abdicate. He doesn't need to abdicate the Presidency. He needs to abdicate his way of doing things. But his narcissism makes it a virtual psychological impossibility for him to find a center course. To do so would be to cause irreparable harm to his image as a strong leader with his base.

When a candidate accepts his party's nomination, there are typically words along the lines of I ask for your help along this journey. Together we will make our country better.. The great iconoclast said I alone can fix this during his acceptance speech at the 2016 GOP convention.

Trump didn't need your help. Trump didn't want your help. He is very strong. He knows how to dominate.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump is probably listening to My Way.

[_Jersey Girl]

What exactly was the Bible in front of the church about? What was the purpose of that? What message did he think he was sending and to whom? That was one of the most contrived and despicable things I've ever seen in my entire life. He's using the Bible and God as PROPS.

You viper! You hypocrite!

[_Jersey Girl]

This is the greatest crisis since the Civil War. It feels like we're at a flash point. Somebody's cell phone video, someone's death could be a catalyst for a 'second wave of rage'. Trump not too subtly suggested that the Second Amendment supporters may coalesce around him.

What's frightening is that Trump has traveled so far down the road of division that he doesn't see a way back to the center without alienating his base. In order for our country to survive, Donald Trump has to abdicate. He doesn't need to abdicate the Presidency. He needs to abdicate his way of doing things. But his narcissism makes it a virtual psychological impossibility for him to find a center course. To do so would be to cause irreparable harm to his image as a strong leader with his base.

This really IS a civil war, MeDot. His narcissism is on full display. When he says we will dominate the streets, he hasn't the insight to realize that domination is the very reason these protests are taking place. He can't call for calm or address the death of Mr. Floyd or the plight of people of color in this country with compassion because he lacks empathy. In his eyes, this is all about him because he lacks the ability to relate to other human beings and he only sees the world through a self referential lens.

This is the sixties on steroids, MeDot. We're on a collision course with no leadership and the person who should be supplying the leadership has no brakes.

[_Gunnar]

You've heard the expression make the best of a bad situation? That's what Trump is doing. He makes the best of a situation the only way he knows how: by doubling down on division. As he becomes more frightened, his language becomes more bellicose. Governors have to dominate. 10 year prison sentences for looters. And now, move the military into our cities. As an American officer once said during the Vietnam war, We had to destroy the village in order to save it.

Try talking with the Joint Chiefs of Staff about their plans for deploying the military in the United States. They have none. Before Donald Trump, none was anticipated. As has been pointed out, if we were watching this happening in another country, we would say the country was imploding, and on its way to revolution or dictatorship.

This is the greatest crisis since the Civil War. It feels like we're at a flash point. Somebody's cell phone video, someone's death could be a catalyst for a 'second wave of rage'. Trump not too subtly suggested that the Second Amendment supporters may coalesce around him.

What's frightening is that Trump has traveled so far down the road of division that he doesn't see a way back to the center without alienating his base. In order for our country to survive, Donald Trump has to abdicate. He doesn't need to abdicate the Presidency. He needs to abdicate his way of doing things. But his narcissism makes it a virtual psychological impossibility for him to find a center course. To do so would be to cause irreparable harm to his image as a strong leader with his base.

When a candidate accepts his party's nomination, there are typically words along the lines of I ask for your help along this journey. Together we will make our country better.. The great iconoclast said I alone can fix this during his acceptance speech at the 2016 GOP convention.

Trump didn't need your help. Trump didn't want your help. He is very strong. He knows how to dominate.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump is probably listening to My Way.

Excellent analysis, MDO! I don't think it could have been better stated! Even Even Yoni Appelbaum (Johnny Appletree?) did not say it better than you did!

[_Gunnar]

The essay that MDO linked to above linked to another excellent essay or article by Anne Applebaum (any relation to Yoni Appelbaum I wonder?). It is rather lengthy but well worth the read, and gives a thought provoking explanation of why some political leaders abandon their principles in support of an immoral regime. It made numerous excellent points and gave lots of clear examples of how democracies can morph and have morphed into tyrannies. One of many points that stood out to me was how clever but amoral politicians get away with telling lies even when they know that their intended audience knows that they know they are lying.

The point was to demonstrate the party’s power to proclaim and promulgate a falsehood. Sometimes the point isn’t to make people believe a lie—it’s to make people fear the liar.

[_Gunnar]

What exactly was the Bible in front of the church about? What was the purpose of that? What message did he think he was sending and to whom? That was one of the most contrived and despicable things I've ever seen in my entire life. He's using the Bible and God as PROPS.

You viper! You hypocrite!

Is this the incident to which you were refering?

In the span of 20 minutes, President Donald Trump manufactured a moment meant to showcase two qualities he’s never really displayed: physical courage and religious feeling.

Americans have seen little of Trump in recent days as protests over the killing of George Floyd erupted in the nation’s cities. A president who’s cultivated a tough-guy image seemed to be intimidated, cowering inside the White House compound

Unhappy with that narrative, Trump tried to swap in another. He wanted to signal to his core voters that he’d protect their values and keep them safe. He wanted to be seen as strong, ruthless, and pious. And he was willing to deploy the federal government’s firepower to make it happen.

So he commandeered the nation’s attention with the choreographed precision of a one-time TV showman. Late in the afternoon, Trump tweeted that he’d be making a public statement. Minutes before he began, police converged on the peaceful protesters massed outside Lafayette Square, just north of the White House, pumping tear gas at them and pushing them back with an imposing line of officers on horseback. Nothing the crowd had done provoked the show of force, but the reason for it was soon evident.

Trump strode to a Rose Garden lectern set against a backdrop of four flags. Between explosions audible on news broadcasts, Trump proclaimed himself the president of “law and order,” calling on mayors and governors to use decisive force to defend residents and announcing he’d deploy the military to assist. He vowed to keep Americans safe while showing respect for “the righteous cries of peaceful protesters.” But the speech was just part of the spectacle. After he finished, he said he wanted to pay homage to a “very special place.” He left the White House’s north entrance and headed on foot toward St. John’s Episcopal Church, which had been damaged by a fire set the previous night. He passed the park and crossed H Street, the noxious gas causing some in his entourage to gasp.

The peaceful protesters whose rights Trump had championed just minutes earlier had stood in the way of his walk. For that, they became a casualty of what Trump may hope will be the enduring photo op of his presidency.

What a transparently despicable coward! The protesters he had tear gassed to give him "safe" path surely realize how deliberately deceptive and cowardly that that little act was, and so must the guards and secret service personnel ordered to facilitate it. If I were member of that security detail, that little episode would have aroused undying contempt for Trump, if I were not already opposed to him.

[_Icarus]

So the orange one decided to crawl out of his bunker after even his own followers saw cowardice in his actions. Trump sent DC police ahead of him to step onto St. John's property and use their tear gas and their riot shields to forcibly remove the church's OWN CLERGY from THEIR OWN PROPERTY so no one would be around when he waved his little Bible for the cameras, throwing red meat to his Evangelical base. It was a cowardly way to stage a photo op for the FOX News sycophants. The account below is from the rector of St. John's. The man is indisputably a tyrant. I don't know what kind of cognitive dissonance has to be raging in the heads of folks who want to pretend this man cares in the least about the Constitution or about religious freedom, but you need to get over it.

[_moksha]

"As we speak, I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property," he said. "We will end it now."

He called on governors to use their National Guard military police units to "dominate the streets" and threatened to deploy the active duty military if governors failed to use the National Guard more forcefully.

He said he may invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, which permits a president to deploy the military inside the U.S. to deal with civil disorder.

[_Icarus]

With no evidence that ANTIFA is responsible for the violence, the Right Wing propaganda mill begins to manufacture evidence:

White nationalist group posing as antifa called for violence on Twitter

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/t ... v2RUQOnH64