What the hell is going on in this country?
I always felt that there would be a slide from the high position that it found itself in as the world's leading superpower. I know many Americans rejected that, and felt that the country would always be on top. But literally every other leading power of the world had, at some point or other, fallen, for one reason or another (or a number of reasons, plural). So a decline seemed not merely likely, from a historical perspective, but inevitable.
However, that said, the slide from a once respected democracy and a country that could proclaim itself a beacon of hope and freedom without people bursting into laughter, to a nation that is now viewed as dangerously unstable and which has now indeed slid to the brink of authoritarianism, is more than a little troubling.
There are a number of reasons that this has happened, and we can argue about it, going back and forth about the specifics, for many reasons. But to my mind's eye, some of the reasons seem clear. There was a dramatic spike in military expenditures under Reagan, and this has not really lessened in the years since. In fact, it rose fairly dramatically under George W. Bush, and especially under Donald Trump. With the military getting so much money to keep creating advanced new weaponry, they had to sell some of the old, mostly outdated stuff. Some of it surely went to other countries, likely as not destabilizing some of those countries (one thinks of the armed armies in African nations that seem to be on the brink of collapse, or at least civil war, in recent years and decades.
Some of the military machinery and gear, however, clearly went to the police forces right here in the United States. We have a police force that is incredibly militarized, and one wonders what war they seem to think they are fighting? And whom do they believe they are fighting against? One would have to assume that they believe that they are at war with fellow Americans, and the brutality from police all across the country, from Minneapolis to Seattle to Washington to Buffalo, would certainly suggest that many of these police officers indeed have a war mindset, where they view "the enemy" as either barely human, or perhaps not human at all. Why else would you put your knee on the back of the neck of someone, as happened in Minneapolis (with fatal results) or Seattle? Or the officers who shoved an elderly man down in Buffalo, where he cracked his head on the concrete sidewalk? Or the officer in Washington who rammed an Australian cameraman with his shield? It seems clear that these police officers - and they are clearly spread out all across the country, seemingly constantly infiltrating police stations throughout the nation - do not view these people as fully human, or of having rights or lives worth protecting, much less serving.
More recently, video evidence has captured yet another unarmed black man being brutally subdued by police officers in Tacoma, Washington. That man, Manuel Ellis, is now dead. It hardly seems difficult to imagine that this will add still more fuel to the fire of racial tensions that have broken out all across the country. Nor does it seem like all of these examples of excessive use of deadly force by police officers is suddenly about to be resolved, or be relegated to the past. There simply are far too many police officers seemingly willing to treat their fellow citizens as subhuman, and not worth respecting enough to take their lives or loved ones, much less their concerns about police brutality itself, seriously.
And if that is not a huge, glaring paradox, I don't know what is. Most of the instances of police brutality have happened as a result of mass protests specifically against police brutality.You might think that the police would be extra cautious to try and make sure nothing more happens. In some places and some cases, that has indeed happened. I have heard about some police being quite hospitable to protesters, and even some who joined the protests by taking a knee. But clearly, not everyone got this message.
Just days ago, apparently as a show of force, Attorney General Barr had cleared the road near the White House of peaceful protesters through violent means, all so that Donald Trump could have a photo opportunity, holding up the Bible in front of a boarded up church that he does not attend. They had assumed that this would be an impressive show of force and resolve, but instead, the entire word condemned it. It was hypocritical. Unnecessarily brutal and violent. Shallow. And let's face it: it was about as far away from the message of Jesus and serious Christianity as you can get.
Recently, some people have revisited comments by Trump during an interview well before he became president, in which he talked a bit about the Tiananmen Square Protests in Beijing in 1989. He praised the Chinese response, describing it as strength, and seemed to suggest that, by way of comparison, allowing American protesters to get away with their protests was seen as weak. When one understands this approach by Trump, everything that has happened in the past couple of weeks, including clearing the streets near the White House through violent means, including tear gas, makes more sense. This is all by design, even if it goes against our traditional understanding of democracy, of people expressing their right to gather and petition the government with their grievances, as well as the right to free speech.
And his supporters wonder why so many detractors view Trump as a threat to democracy? Really?
I have said in the past, and will say again (because it's true) that the whole world is watching what is going on here in this country. For the most part, they are watching in astonishment, and probably shock and horror. Also, they are likely completely confused at what they are seeing. A country that, not all that long ago, still was the leading superpower of the world, and a relative model of stability, is not being torn apart. We have a so-called leader who proclaims everything he does as historically great. Yet, everything that he seems to say and do is with the apparent goal of tearing the country apart even more, of polarizing an already divided nation. Of course, he will not admit to it outright. But when you systematically demonize people who disagree with you and refer to them as "scum" and "enemies of the people" and demonize everyone who is not on board with you, then you are clearly not trying to being together a divided nation.
Still, somehow, despite the disastrous job that he has done, his supporters remain loyal, and manage to turn a blind eye to all of the damage that he has explicitly done. They find excuses for when he has obvious screw-ups, and like him, often pretend like what he has done has far more benefits and does far less damage to the country than it actually does.
None of this is new, but it has all been magnified in these incredible past few months. Ever since the coronavirus suddenly became a story just too huge to ignore, Trump has been under the magnifying glass like never before. He promised that the coronavirus would be no big deal, claimed when there were still only fifteen confirmed cases within the United States that the number would soon go down to zero. He tried to shift the blame on the coronavirus to China, even though no one specifically was blaming him for it, yet his actions in pinpointing China as the responsible nation predictably coincided with a spike in hate crimes against Asians within the United States. Then, he showed real concern, even almost panic, when the stock market suddenly crashed, and mobilized everything that he could to address this, his real concern. Meanwhile, his mixed messages with the coronavirus were confusing, and sometimes sounded just idiotic. Finally, since the death of George Floyd, almost everything that Trump has said and done has made things considerably worse, and just added more fuel to the fire. That, of course, seems to be Trump's specialty.
And the image of the United States around the world, which had plummeted dramatically in the Trump years, has grown even lower. We clearly have a problem with racism, even if Trump supporters, predictably, manage not to see it. Now, we are getting lectured on trying to stay true to our democratic principles by Vladimir Putin. There are Black Lives Matter protests in Europe and Australia and Canada. And world leaders are hardly even trying to hide their disgust and contempt for Trump, and for the ideals and values he espouses.
There have been some horrific images of brutal police crackdowns on peaceful protests and even journalists lately. Two of the most degrading and disturbing, and which again, have been viewed by the entire world, came late last week.
Below are two videos of these stories. The first is from when the police literally attacked a cameraman and journalism team when they were simply covering the story of the protest. The second is far more gruesome, as a senior citizen is shoved to the sidewalk by police officers, and cracks his head, and then the other police officers simply walked around him, despite him obviously being in dire need of medical attention.
An Australian journalist who was covering the story of the protest gets attacked by police, even though he had not provoked anything. The Australian Prime Minister is urging an investigation. The whole world is watching images of insane, militarized police brutality, from the police officer who kept his knee on the neck of George Floyd, eventually killing him, to another police officer in Seattle who also put his knee on the neck of someone he was arresting, to the streets by the White House being cleared so that Trump could have his ridiculous photo op with a Bible he obviously never turns to, to the poor elderly man in Buffalo who was shoved to the concrete and left lying their bleeding while police literally walked right past him, to this latest incident with the Australian journalists. The whole world is watching, and if you turn a blind eye or pretend that this is not a problem, shame on you!
MAGA mindset is to take a one-size fits all approach to the protests. Only, most protesters are not rioters - there is a huge difference. Violent crackdowns by a ludicrously militarized police against the Americans they are supposed to serve & protect is not making the country great. This man is 75 years old, and posed no threat. He was violently shoved to the ground by two officers and then left bleeding from a serious head wound and incapacitated on the concrete, while this group of officers just walked around him. If this makes you uncomfortable, then ask yourself if this is, in fact, how we make America great again?
I always felt that there would be a slide from the high position that it found itself in as the world's leading superpower. I know many Americans rejected that, and felt that the country would always be on top. But literally every other leading power of the world had, at some point or other, fallen, for one reason or another (or a number of reasons, plural). So a decline seemed not merely likely, from a historical perspective, but inevitable.
However, that said, the slide from a once respected democracy and a country that could proclaim itself a beacon of hope and freedom without people bursting into laughter, to a nation that is now viewed as dangerously unstable and which has now indeed slid to the brink of authoritarianism, is more than a little troubling.
There are a number of reasons that this has happened, and we can argue about it, going back and forth about the specifics, for many reasons. But to my mind's eye, some of the reasons seem clear. There was a dramatic spike in military expenditures under Reagan, and this has not really lessened in the years since. In fact, it rose fairly dramatically under George W. Bush, and especially under Donald Trump. With the military getting so much money to keep creating advanced new weaponry, they had to sell some of the old, mostly outdated stuff. Some of it surely went to other countries, likely as not destabilizing some of those countries (one thinks of the armed armies in African nations that seem to be on the brink of collapse, or at least civil war, in recent years and decades.
Some of the military machinery and gear, however, clearly went to the police forces right here in the United States. We have a police force that is incredibly militarized, and one wonders what war they seem to think they are fighting? And whom do they believe they are fighting against? One would have to assume that they believe that they are at war with fellow Americans, and the brutality from police all across the country, from Minneapolis to Seattle to Washington to Buffalo, would certainly suggest that many of these police officers indeed have a war mindset, where they view "the enemy" as either barely human, or perhaps not human at all. Why else would you put your knee on the back of the neck of someone, as happened in Minneapolis (with fatal results) or Seattle? Or the officers who shoved an elderly man down in Buffalo, where he cracked his head on the concrete sidewalk? Or the officer in Washington who rammed an Australian cameraman with his shield? It seems clear that these police officers - and they are clearly spread out all across the country, seemingly constantly infiltrating police stations throughout the nation - do not view these people as fully human, or of having rights or lives worth protecting, much less serving.
More recently, video evidence has captured yet another unarmed black man being brutally subdued by police officers in Tacoma, Washington. That man, Manuel Ellis, is now dead. It hardly seems difficult to imagine that this will add still more fuel to the fire of racial tensions that have broken out all across the country. Nor does it seem like all of these examples of excessive use of deadly force by police officers is suddenly about to be resolved, or be relegated to the past. There simply are far too many police officers seemingly willing to treat their fellow citizens as subhuman, and not worth respecting enough to take their lives or loved ones, much less their concerns about police brutality itself, seriously.
And if that is not a huge, glaring paradox, I don't know what is. Most of the instances of police brutality have happened as a result of mass protests specifically against police brutality.You might think that the police would be extra cautious to try and make sure nothing more happens. In some places and some cases, that has indeed happened. I have heard about some police being quite hospitable to protesters, and even some who joined the protests by taking a knee. But clearly, not everyone got this message.
Just days ago, apparently as a show of force, Attorney General Barr had cleared the road near the White House of peaceful protesters through violent means, all so that Donald Trump could have a photo opportunity, holding up the Bible in front of a boarded up church that he does not attend. They had assumed that this would be an impressive show of force and resolve, but instead, the entire word condemned it. It was hypocritical. Unnecessarily brutal and violent. Shallow. And let's face it: it was about as far away from the message of Jesus and serious Christianity as you can get.
Recently, some people have revisited comments by Trump during an interview well before he became president, in which he talked a bit about the Tiananmen Square Protests in Beijing in 1989. He praised the Chinese response, describing it as strength, and seemed to suggest that, by way of comparison, allowing American protesters to get away with their protests was seen as weak. When one understands this approach by Trump, everything that has happened in the past couple of weeks, including clearing the streets near the White House through violent means, including tear gas, makes more sense. This is all by design, even if it goes against our traditional understanding of democracy, of people expressing their right to gather and petition the government with their grievances, as well as the right to free speech.
And his supporters wonder why so many detractors view Trump as a threat to democracy? Really?
I have said in the past, and will say again (because it's true) that the whole world is watching what is going on here in this country. For the most part, they are watching in astonishment, and probably shock and horror. Also, they are likely completely confused at what they are seeing. A country that, not all that long ago, still was the leading superpower of the world, and a relative model of stability, is not being torn apart. We have a so-called leader who proclaims everything he does as historically great. Yet, everything that he seems to say and do is with the apparent goal of tearing the country apart even more, of polarizing an already divided nation. Of course, he will not admit to it outright. But when you systematically demonize people who disagree with you and refer to them as "scum" and "enemies of the people" and demonize everyone who is not on board with you, then you are clearly not trying to being together a divided nation.
Still, somehow, despite the disastrous job that he has done, his supporters remain loyal, and manage to turn a blind eye to all of the damage that he has explicitly done. They find excuses for when he has obvious screw-ups, and like him, often pretend like what he has done has far more benefits and does far less damage to the country than it actually does.
None of this is new, but it has all been magnified in these incredible past few months. Ever since the coronavirus suddenly became a story just too huge to ignore, Trump has been under the magnifying glass like never before. He promised that the coronavirus would be no big deal, claimed when there were still only fifteen confirmed cases within the United States that the number would soon go down to zero. He tried to shift the blame on the coronavirus to China, even though no one specifically was blaming him for it, yet his actions in pinpointing China as the responsible nation predictably coincided with a spike in hate crimes against Asians within the United States. Then, he showed real concern, even almost panic, when the stock market suddenly crashed, and mobilized everything that he could to address this, his real concern. Meanwhile, his mixed messages with the coronavirus were confusing, and sometimes sounded just idiotic. Finally, since the death of George Floyd, almost everything that Trump has said and done has made things considerably worse, and just added more fuel to the fire. That, of course, seems to be Trump's specialty.
And the image of the United States around the world, which had plummeted dramatically in the Trump years, has grown even lower. We clearly have a problem with racism, even if Trump supporters, predictably, manage not to see it. Now, we are getting lectured on trying to stay true to our democratic principles by Vladimir Putin. There are Black Lives Matter protests in Europe and Australia and Canada. And world leaders are hardly even trying to hide their disgust and contempt for Trump, and for the ideals and values he espouses.
There have been some horrific images of brutal police crackdowns on peaceful protests and even journalists lately. Two of the most degrading and disturbing, and which again, have been viewed by the entire world, came late last week.
Below are two videos of these stories. The first is from when the police literally attacked a cameraman and journalism team when they were simply covering the story of the protest. The second is far more gruesome, as a senior citizen is shoved to the sidewalk by police officers, and cracks his head, and then the other police officers simply walked around him, despite him obviously being in dire need of medical attention.
An Australian journalist who was covering the story of the protest gets attacked by police, even though he had not provoked anything. The Australian Prime Minister is urging an investigation. The whole world is watching images of insane, militarized police brutality, from the police officer who kept his knee on the neck of George Floyd, eventually killing him, to another police officer in Seattle who also put his knee on the neck of someone he was arresting, to the streets by the White House being cleared so that Trump could have his ridiculous photo op with a Bible he obviously never turns to, to the poor elderly man in Buffalo who was shoved to the concrete and left lying their bleeding while police literally walked right past him, to this latest incident with the Australian journalists. The whole world is watching, and if you turn a blind eye or pretend that this is not a problem, shame on you!
MAGA mindset is to take a one-size fits all approach to the protests. Only, most protesters are not rioters - there is a huge difference. Violent crackdowns by a ludicrously militarized police against the Americans they are supposed to serve & protect is not making the country great. This man is 75 years old, and posed no threat. He was violently shoved to the ground by two officers and then left bleeding from a serious head wound and incapacitated on the concrete, while this group of officers just walked around him. If this makes you uncomfortable, then ask yourself if this is, in fact, how we make America great again?
WATCH: Protester bled from his ear after being shoved by police — cops say he ‘tripped’ Published 1 hour ago on June 4, 2020By Bob Brigham:
With the caveat that I obviously don't condone police brutality by any means, I honestly don't think that there's been an increase in cases, so much as an increase in cases caught on film. In the last quarter-century, Smartphones have been a game changer. Gone are the days when witnesses to police brutality had only their word to substantiate their claims, which could easily be dismissed out of hand by police chiefs and judges, and often was. Now when cops overstep their boundaries and abuse their power – particularly in crowded settings during broad daylight – odds are that viral footage of it will come back to haunt them. In other words, I don't think that the percentage of sadistic, morally bankrupt goons in the police is higher than it used to be, so much as they've had their impunity taken away. The paradox of course is that as you accurately point out, this has coincided with them having unprecedented access to weapons that were conceived for combat, or controlling unruly mobs, as opposed to peaceful protesters. (As an aside, imbeciles seeking to "stick it to the man" by rioting and looting fail to grasp that on the contrary they're playing right into his hands, because they forfeit the moral high ground, and provide fodder to those who refuse to distinguish between their actions versus those of nonviolent demonstrators.)
ReplyDeleteI strongly recommend going on YouTube and watching "New Rule: The Blue Wall of Silence | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)". He makes an excellent point: the cops who don't abuse their power but refuse to condemn those that do are no better, and very much at the heart of the problem.