Politics

[tarbe]

When it comes to keeping distance and wearing masks, Trump is not a role model either.
As an outsider, can someone please explain to me the symbolism of the president, why he went to church under police escort and held the Bible?

I'll take a shot.

Escort? POTUS always has an escort of some sort. And in these crazy times?

Church? He is a professing Christian, so not strange.

Bible? Christians believe the Bible is the Word of God and is the ultimate revelation of God (along with the Incarnation). So quite natural to hold it up as a witness/testimony.

 

[mdwest]

Escort? POTUS always has an escort of some sort. And in these crazy times?

I'll take this one even further...

A POTUS movement.. even across town in DC, involves more than 200 security personnel..

A POTUS movement.. even internal to an already secured location, like moving from the east wing to the west wing of the White House.. involves a minimum of 7 people..

You dont even want to begin to think about how many people are involved in a POTUS movement outside of DC... much less what is involved in a POTUS movement to an international destination.

POTUS doesnt take a morning dump in his own house without the USSS knowing 100% for certain no one else has been in there first..

It shouldnt be any surprise that he had USSS with him when he went to church...

(FWIW I have been involved in security for both a sitting POTUS and a former one on a couple of occasions (support role on an outer security ring).. and spent a few years in DC as the SAC for the protective services detail for another high profile political figure.. but I am NOT a former USSS Agent)..

 

[lwaters]

Canada must feel like someone living above a meth lab.

 

[mdwest]

Meth Lab is probably a pretty accurate description for the US over the past 3 months..

 

[Hogpatrol]

Saw a bunch of signs up and down a major artery running through the suburbs this a.m. Unfortunately, even out here, the jungle culture and no respect for the law is taking hold. More shootings, burglaries, petty-theft and car break-ins every week.

 

[Brent in Az]

Popovich, is a Leftist jackass, who owns a basketball team full of ghetto thugs, and panders to the Chinese. Typical Democrat.

Gregg Popovich: Trump is an idiot.

 

[Wheels]

When it comes to keeping distance and wearing masks, Trump is not a role model either.
As an outsider, can someone please explain to me the symbolism of the president, why he went to church under police escort and held the Bible?

Agree with what Tim and Dave said.

Not sure if you knew but the inside of the church building was set on fire the night before Trump's visit. I believe the building has been there since the war of 1812. 200 year old buildings are common place in Europe but in America they are pretty rare. Trump's visit was right after his announcement to the governors to deal with the problem or he would deal with the problem.

 

[BSO Dave]

The stats are meaningless other than to cloud the issue. There are so many other socio-economic determinants that the stats do not, as stated, speak for themselves.

LOL... Interesting how statistics are embraced by those when they are in support of their particular narrative, and then rejected as meaningless when they do not.

Regardless, let's take the racial element out and look at the pure socioeconomic detriments common to poverty in general that you seem to prefer to acknowledge as more relevant. Impoverished youths in the USA are 10 times more likely to break the poverty barrier into adulthood when the following elements are present:

1) Individual was raised in a 2-parent household until the age of 18.
2) Individual completed high school or equivalent.
3) Individual avoided incarceration.
4) individual avoided maternal/paternal parenthood until the age of 21.
5) Individual held at least part-time employment by the age of 21.

Socioeconomic factors not withstanding, personal accountability and culture also greatly influence these outcomes, and must be acknowledged as the reality. These statistics that you claim "cloud the issue" is the exact "head in the sand" mentality that stifles the ability of these affected groups and communities to address and correct the fundamental dysfunctions that they themselves have control over.

 

[BRICKBURN]

A couple of excerpts from the MPD policy manual.

 

[Pheroze]

It's easy to beat up the USA but I believe
the Canada, England and Europe has a more difficult issue to grapple with. Americans truly understand their constituion and rights. As a result, we are seeing the protestors and press distinguish between the protesters and those cause destruction; we see the Genral from the Joint Chiefs of Staff state that freedom of speech is protected by the constitution and he was there to inspect. He did not say he was there to blindly follow Trump. We have had self described "rednecks " and police officers agreeing with the protesters, and protecting against the fringe elements.

In the rest of the world we have a discussion about how it's terrible that this violence has occured because of this cop. There is no distinction between those that protest and those that cause violence. It is assumed violence would accompany these protesters. That, my friends, is a racist assumption in the motivations and actions of the black community.

When we had the protests in Canada on the rail line there was no analysis of those distinctions by the media or government, even though the indigenous groups raised the issue. That is troubling because there was an assumption about the indigenous protesters that lumped them into the category of trouble maker.

 

[Brent in Az]

 

[markm]

Like was stated years ago 200 year experiment didn't work

Saw a bunch of signs up and down a major artery running through the suburbs this a.m. Unfortunately, even out here, the jungle culture and no respect for the law is taking hold. More shootings, burglaries, petty-theft and car break-ins every week.

 

[Pheroze]

LOL... Interesting how statistics are embraced by those when they are in support of their particular narrative, and then rejected as meaningless when they do not.

I agree statistics that are relevant are important. Otherwise, they are like that meme above, they try and make a point, but there is so much missing that they just serve to reinforce biases.

Personal accountability is essential. I agree we are losing those stabilizing influences of family, religion etc. It seems they are just political props and talking points.

 

[Foxi]

in Germany we also have occasional riots
Wackersdorf / Nuclear energy
NATO double decision
G 20 Summits etc.
We may turn calmly our door before we Germans criticize others.

But, your uprisings are so often caused by excessive police violence.
That's where you can start.
In Munich we also have crimes, but still a very safe city in international comparison.
And the last killing of a policeman happened about 25 years ago !!!!
tell a policeman of your big cities, he doesn't believe it, but it is so.

A state leadership with an aggressive rhetoric is pouring petrol over a burning house.
A state leadership that threatens its own people (not every protester is a chaotic ) with military could never hold its ground here.
People, take care that something does not slip out of your hands, which you will not be able to control anymore.
Covid 19 is already causing enough problems.

 

[tigris115]

I gotta say, I hate everyone in and everything about this clusterf**k (Hey Mods, what are the rules on bad words?) and it makes me want to vomit

The behavior on part of the Minneapolis police is quite abysmal seeing how they couldn't bring a man into custody without having him die in such horrific suffering. What little I've seen of the video made me want to vomit profusely. It was a disgusting power move on part of the cops and I can only hope that justice is served.

That in no way makes me pro-rioter. I'm fine with the peaceful protestors but the actual riots and looting are vomit-inducing behavior. How does burning everything to the ground, destroying local businesses, and looting everything in sight make you look good? It doesn't, it makes you look like an untamed, opportunistic savage who only thinks of themselves and dishonors the dead in such a vomit-inducing manner. And if the goal is trying to mend race relations than Congratulations, you've made everyone think of black men as wild animals. Once you have the roof Koreans coming back into vogue, you know damn well that shit's critical.

Then you got these little bastards of Twitter, Discord, Facebook, and other tumor lands desperately try to justify these riots and lootings under the BLM moniker. If anything, these riots and lootings have alienated everyone who doesn't roleplay as a communist. I got into a pretty massive argument with one Canadian who thought all this shit was justified since we threw tea in the harbor a long ass time ago. Now the reason that I take riots so seriously is that my mother actually lived through communal riots in New Delhi during the '80s and it was incredibly scary. In fact, that's one of the reasons she decided to start her new life in America.

I also do not agree with Trump using his men to disperse peaceful protests with tear gas and rubber bullets just to stand in front of a church with a book he couldn't care less about. Like if you're gonna preach the Bible, READ THE DAMNED BIBLE.

Now while I hate the Antifa people, labeling them as a terrorist organization is a microcephalic move. They're not an organized group like ISIS. It's like Anonymous or the "alt-right" where they can just change their names, making it useless.

Then you have the TV media constantly covering it and desperately trying to fan the flames of anger by constantly focusing on the riots and their fallout. Why not show things like this to show people trying to mend the wounds of this tragedy?

And as the final cherry on this heap of vile feces, you have so many corporations like Bethesda, Sony, Disney, Nickelodeon putting on this insulting mask of sympathy in order to further their products. It's literally the same thing they do in pride month except the proverbial body ain't even cold yet so it comes across as predatory. None of these companies gave 2 shits about human welfare until it was convenient for them. Everyone with half a brain knows that and to the people who think this is some powerful statement and not a method of monetary advancement, just get a vasectomy/tie your tubes, no one wants your tiny brain genes anyway.

tl;dr this is my mood rn

 

[CJW]

Personal accountability is essential. I agree we are losing those stabilizing influences of family, religion etc. It seems they are just political props and talking points.

The truly terrifying part is that nobody is willing to sit down for an hour with a black person of influence and talk of nothing but stats like 73% of black kids growing up fatherless or the unprecedented dependency on welfare, lack of accountability culture wide when you and I are expected to take accountability, etc.

Instead, I'm being told on a daily basis how racist and uneducated on black culture I am, how much guilt I should feel, etc. Pure deflection perpetuated with impunity by the media because it's PC. All the while they avoid black on black crime and black on white crime like it's a bag of trash from a Wuhan viral lab and blame rioting and looting on white supremacists, 99% of whom are black.

I also understand that law enforcement has screwed themselves, I have told this to my BIL's face as he is a LEO, and white cops are the main focus, but last I checked urban communities have large numbers of black cops. If the understanding between blacks is so strong and they know what needs to change, how come it hasn't been done before now? Laziness on EVERYONE'S part is the answer. But who suffers the consequences? We know who. Last I checked MN is a multigenerational liberal state who has sympathized with and pandered to black people and they still aren't happy and have done jack shit to help themselves. All of this has only set them back with jobs, public opinion, public relations, etc.

I'm going to pay the price for a couple of fucking dumbasses on a shit run police force, in a shit run state and a cracked out felon that couldn't do what Chris Rock says and "shut the fuck up" and "don't break the law".

Diversity is proving to suck!

 

[Brent in Az]

 

[Hogpatrol]

I thought the police were to maintain order. If they aren't doing their jobs, it's time for them to be terminated or at the very least laid off. I mean what the heck do we need them for? Writing tickets for going five minutes over the meter? They're getting paid do what? Nothing.

 

[Brent in Az]

"Now while I hate the Antifa people, labeling them as a terrorist organization is a microcephalic move. They're not an organized group like ISIS. It's like Anonymous or the "alt-right" where they can just change their names, making it useless."

Wrong. ANTIFA, is an organized group, with networks across the country, as well as globally. They are connected to dark money groups that fund professional agitators...aka. George Soros, and his ilk.

The government knows this, and it's about time they lableled them as the terrorist thugs they are. BLM, Is not far behind.

 

[Wheels]

It's easy to beat up the USA but I believe
the Canada, England and Europe has a more difficult issue to grapple with. Americans truly understand their constituion and rights. As a result, we are seeing the protestors and press distinguish between the protesters and those cause destruction; we see the Genral from the Joint Chiefs of Staff state that freedom of speech is protected by the constitution and he was there to inspect. He did not say he was there to blindly follow Trump. We have had self described "rednecks " and police officers agreeing with the protesters, and protecting against the fringe elements.

In the rest of the world we have a discussion about how it's terrible that this violence has occured because of this cop. There is no distinction between those that protest and those that cause violence. It is assumed violence would accompany these protesters. That, my friends, is a racist assumption in the motivations and actions of the black community.

When we had the protests in Canada on the rail line there was no analysis of those distinctions by the media or government, even though the indigenous groups raised the issue. That is troubling because there was an assumption about the indigenous protesters that lumped them into the category of trouble maker.

Very good analysis from a distance Pheroze.

IMO, there are three types of people on the streets right now:

1. Individuals who are protesting the death of George Floyd. - Those people have the right to protest and I don't know any American who would begrudge them that right.

2. Street thugs, petty criminals. - Those people are in every society and they are out trying to steal a new Gucci bag, pair of Nike's or TV. They should be arrested and the justice system should deal with them.

3. ANTIFA. - The name itself is an oxymoron. These people are organized/semi organized and are taking advantage of the death of George Floyd. These are the people that Trump and Barr will be dealing with. Not just the individuals on the street, but the organizers, the ones who ordered bricks to be placed at strategic locations, those that are funding the work, etc.

A country will fall apart if laws are not followed. At this moment, America is fortunate to have in it's top two law enforcement officers, people who believe strongly in the rule of law. Most American's believe in those laws. Those that were unsure are wanting those laws enforced more and more every day as arson and looting continues.

You are stuck with America being that loud and noisy neighbor that you like most of the time but who can get out of hand occasionally. Don't worry, things will start settling down fairly soon and all will be well.