Boogaloo?

Operation Themis: A new ABC News/IPSOS poll finds that 74% of Americans view the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer as a sign of an underlying racial injustice problem, a shift upward by 30% from a similar question asked six years ago after the shooting deaths of Michael Brown, an 18-year black man, by a white cop, and Eric Garner, a black man, who died after being put in a chokehold by a white officer.  Nevertheless, the out of touch White House, led by the increasingly authoritarian Trump, continues to insist that the largely peaceful and ethnically diverse demonstrators are all “arsonists, looters, criminals and anarchists wanting to destroy our country.” That description was in the tweet that Trump used to justify the low flying helicopter that he had flyover the demonstrators this week in a show of force meant to scare the living daylights out of the crowd, part of a Washington DC operation that is now operating under the official mission name of Operation Themis, taken from the Greek Titaness of divine law and order. Furthering that point, yesterday Attorney General Barr proudly defended clearing out the demonstrator filled Lafayette Square area with pepper balls and other nefarious substances, claiming he had to expand that perimeter because how else would Trump have been able to march across to the St John’s church for his all-important photo op.  He also said that it was fine that some of those government forces who we now know come from the Texas Bureau of Prisons weren’t wearing any identifying name tags because they work for him and anyway guys who usually work in prison settings don’t have to be identifiable as they beat the crap out of people.  For the record real military people and police officers do wear identification badges.  While Barr’s forces and the various National Guard units in Washington continue to grow in size, the military units that Defense Secretary Esper had announced were being withdrawn earlier in the week but then said weren’t being withdrawn are now being withdrawn, probably because of all the pushback that Trump has been getting from the increasingly frustrated military leadership but also because who needs them when Trump can get Barr to amass a deadlier, no rules followed force anyway.  

As to Esper, Trump has been warned by an increasingly alarmed group of Republican Senators not to fire him right now. Most of them aren’t all that concerned about Trump’s dictatorial moves, they’re just concerned about optics and how an Esper firing will impact their ability to retain control of the Senate.  That said, one Senator did express herself yesterday, commenting on former Defense Secretary Mattis’ harsh criticism of Trump, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski  said “I felt like perhaps we are getting to a point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up." She then went on to say that she didn’t support Trump in 2016 and is “struggling” with the decision as to what to do this time while mumbling that she always has to act in the best interest of her state. Her statement might have sound wishy washy to most but to Trump it was an intolerable slap in the face so he swiftly responded, tweeting “Few people know where they’ll be in two years from now, but I do, in the Great State of Alaska (which I love) campaigning against Senator Lisa Murkowski," then adding "Get any candidate ready, good or bad, I don’t care, I’m endorsing. If you have a pulse, I’m with you!"  Murkowski, who ran last time as a write-in candidate after the Republican party backed another candidate has a bit more leeway to do her own thing than other Senators, so Trump’s statement was more of a warning shot to all the other Republican Senators who might be thinking about speaking their minds.  One of those other Republicans is Maine’s Senator Susan Collins, who is sinking in the polls, stuck between a rock and a hard place; alignment with Trump offends Maine’s large independent voter base, going against him offends its conservative Republicans.  Yesterday, she announced that she’ll be too busy on other important Senate stuff to accompany Trump on his upcoming trip to a Maine swab factory.  And while she’s still mostly clutching her pearls, this week she voted with the Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, supporting a measure that would require presidential campaigns to report offers of foreign election influence to federal authorities.  And though, it would be a stretch to say that Iowa’s Senator Grassley is ready to move to the anti-Trump side, he’s announced that he plans to hold up two Trump confirmations until he gets a better explanation about the firings of some of those Inspectors General who keep being flushed down the drain.  Things are going to get worse in DC before they get better.  More than one million demonstrators are expected this weekend which probably explains why Trump has finally built a wall, a big one around an expanded White House perimeter. As to Mattis, former Chief of Staff Kelly came down on his side yesterday, saying that Trump’s assertion that Mattis was just sore because he’d been fired was either a bigly lie or reflected a gap in Trump’s memory.  

Remove that Knee: Though I am generally not a big fan of Reverend Al Sharpton, I still haven’t forgotten his bizarre Tawana Brawley shenanigans, he has moved into the mainstream over the years and is one awesome speaker.  Yesterday he delivered a forceful eulogy at the memorial for George Floyd.  He was appropriately on point saying  “George Floyd’s story has been the story of black folks. Because ever since 401 years ago, the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed to be is you kept your knee on our neck. It’s time for us to stand up in George’s name and say, ‘Get your knee off our necks!’ We are at a pivotal time, but despite that and those heartwarming videos of police taking the knee and dancing with local protestors, unjustified bad stuff is still happening.  And while some demonstrators have been violent most are not, which is why it is incomprehensible to understand why some policemen in Buffalo, New York thought it was okay to knock a 70 year old man to the pavement yesterday leaving him to bleed from his cracked skull after he approached them in an unthreatening manner.  He’s now in the hospital in serious condition and the two policemen responsible for shoving him down are now suspended.  Again we only know about this stupid move because it was caught on camera.

Et Cetera:  For some reason Senator Rand Paul thought that this week was a good time to oppose widely supported anti lynching legislation, as if it would ever be a good time to do so. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act overwhelmingly passed the House, 410-4 in February. The Senate unanimously passed virtually identical legislation last year, but the House vote renamed the measure for Till, a 14-year-old black youth who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, forcing the bill back to the Senate. Paul’s opposition is totally in character but otherwise bizarre and tone deaf to put it mildly.  Neither Kamala Harris, who delivered an impassioned speech yesterday about it, one that probably upped her chances in the VP sweepstakes, nor Cory Booker who said that he was particularly “raw” at this time are at all amused.  Paul isn’t the only one doing inexplicable tings, yesterday Trump proudly showed off a letter from his former legal counsel John Dowd, in that letter Dowd called the Washington DC demonstrators “terrorists using idle hate filled students to burn and destroy.”  Of course that’s why Trump shared the letter.  Not to be outdone, with a visibly uncomfortable FBI Director Chris Wray by his side, AG Barr talked about all of those antifa guys and “others” that the FBI has tracked down and arrested but failed to mention that most of those arrested people were actually white supremacists including the three right wing extremists with military backgrounds who were arrested in Las Vegas for plotting riots at the Floyd protests.  The three are part of the “boogaloo” movement, a term used by extremists to signify the coming civil war and/or fall of civilization.” Well, it does feel like we’re falling.

One positive note, there were no COVID deaths in New York City yesterday!  Have a good weekend.  Stay safe!