Somebody phoned Rush Limbaugh: the listener posited that Democrats were in league with the Chinese, sharing a desire to take Trump down. He gently moved on, noting he’d never seen proof. But the last months have reminded us that just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean someone’s not out to get you. I do feel played about Covid, about Russiagate, about police brutality, about, well, a lot at this point. I suspect it is simple: the media is dominated by those wearing blinders, whose reality is a narrow sliver of the world. Of course, it would be nice if such heavyweights as Dianne Feinstein and Biden didn’t owe so much to the Chinese. But then there’s a lot of Chinese money and a lot of Congressional graft a corrupt swamp isn’t necessarily a treasonous one. (Was Hillary’s sale of the nation’s plutonium a conspiracy or just the usual Clinton graft? Was Brennan someone who plotted or just closed his eyes?)
This summer’s incidents are enlarged versions of Ferguson’s riots and the smearing of Zimmerman. For three months Portland has been ablaze; literally hundreds of police have been attacked and will bear the scars of this summer’s work. Dozens have died amidst the riots and many more indirectly as these affected the morale and morals, the aggression of mobs and hesitancy of police. Minneapolis was torn apart, but so were many cities; his funeral was a multi-day spectacle moving through three towns. I shared with most Americans revulsion at the face of the officer whose knee seemed pushed into Floyd’s neck, calmly staring out as he kept Floyd down.
We were told that Floyd had started life anew, having been redeemed as described by family and minister from Houston. So, after three months, we read that however saved his soul had been, his body took a fatal dose of fentanyl, suffered from covid and . . . He was a big man and lethal to others might not have been to him, but surely this contributed to his death and prompted his gasps he couldn’t breathe before he was prone on the street. Apparently treating such an overdose was what (in part) the officer was doing. And so the easy good/bad of three months ago is blurred. Whether he died of fentanyl or with fentanyl is likely to remain a question.
(Aside: We begin to see how often that simple question – “with” or “of”? – arises and how someone wanting to soothe a family might well chose “with”, much as Covid sufferers were more likely to be diagnosed “of” since that brings in a higher reimbursement, more alignment with the drama of the day. But such choices mean we are flying blind; without the evidence we are vulnerable to others’ interpretations.)
When this information appears months later, those films were engraved in our memories. In between, that death became the major motivation of the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020. It seemed evidence police habitually killed random black men. Heather McDonald’s (and other’s) statistics lost power when we kept seeing the arrogant cop, challenging the camera and the dying Black man. Most watching the news had strong reactions. I can remember what I felt: sympathy for the man and his family, revulsion at the police. On the other hand, the stories from Houston (holding a gun on the belly of a pregnant woman while his crew tore apart her apartment) were also repulsive; redemption had had real work. On my part, as Lott’s work had persuaded me about guns, Heather McDonald’s had about police interactions. I didn’t buy the “police bad” theme. These authors deal with emotional issues but let the stats speak. But our response to pictures is visceral.
Three months later, where are we? Town after town destroyed by mobs with destruction greater than nature’s. Hit by this looting and destruction, any community’s history is questioned and its future darkened. And now, only now, the information about the drugs comes out. Since Brown’s death in St. Louis and Martin’s in Florida are often accompanied by slogans as if counter facts had never emerged, how can we be surprised that this took months? Or that for some, it will never enter the calculation. Violence, drugs, split second decisions are complicated but in all these cases, some were hesitant to come forward (the witness reports in St. Louis portrayed a different man than Brown’s friend had that first day, and different actions by the police.)
Many saw a political opening for riots, justifiable aggrievement and therefore justifiable revenge. So the looting and burning and rioting began. Three months later it is still going on. Meanwhile other incidents have followed of white policemen and black victims. And again first our pity is aroused then more information slowly “contextualizes” that moment.
We see new footage or hear from another voice. Rather than a random spotting of a Black man, the police are often there because someone needed protecting. We can say and should say that these acts should not be seen as representative of Blacks. We can say and should say that these acts are not representative of the police. In the end, incidents of the summer confirm the kind of reporting we’ve seen for years from Heather McDonald and not the kind of sermons Jessie Jackson preaches, the sentiments of a Jason Riley and not an Al Sharpton.
Have we been played? By anarchists Soros funds or hungry news networks or Democrats who in the end after raising money to bail out violent rioters/criminals – declare, “This is Trump’s America” and more sinisterly, “This won’t stop if he’s re-elected, it will if Biden is in.”
Trump, to the pleasant surprise of many of us who voted for him four years ago, accepts the restraints of federalism. We my wish he would march troops in. But these responsibilities are governor’s, mayor’s, district attorneys, police chiefs. Their first responsibility is the safety of citizens – and the safety of their property, including their possession of inalienable rights. And they need our assistance – in thoughtful votes, on juries, and to bear witness to what we see. An engaged citizen is less likely to be played.
Not precisely on topic but this is what I saw when I looked first thing this morning:
https://www.citizenfreepress.com/breaking/breaking-portland-killer-michael-reinoehl-has-been-shot-dead-by-police-developing/
Not that surprising but a little. You’d have thought his lawyer would have told him that he might be arrested and to go quietly.
I had a hard time buying that 4 police officers, acting in concert, would murder a detainee in front of witnesses, who were taking video of the event.
My initial take was that George Floyd died of compression suffocation which would point to the officer with the knee in the back as most culpable, likely unintentionally.
As for media coverage, most people know that initial reporting is usually way off, sometimes by 180 degrees. And, lest we forget, these events have been a huge revenue stream for media and an opportunity for attention seekers in the public and media for their own self aggrandizement. A lot of the weirder coverage is media people grasping for a fresh angle and filler for the 24/7 news cycle.
“By anarchists Soros funds or hungry news networks or Democrats”, and rather than or, not a coincidence, they all have the same goal.
Of course we’ve been played.
Not just on this, of course- but this is the topic at hand, so I’ll stay here.
I think the political establishment of the US is pants-peeing terrified of Trump. It isn’t just that he beat the supposed best geee ohh peee field of presidential candidates in my lifetime like an entire stable of rented mules. No, the establishment doesn’t care about that any more than it cares about what rank-and-file conservatives think.
What really scares the establishment is not only that Trump gets the support of the despised GOP base but that he also has a message that could potentially unite that support with a significant fraction of the base of the other party- equally despised, but thought to be well in hand.
Well in hand until Trump, that is. Combined, it would be enough to wash away the present establishment like the Union army washed away the Confederacy. I think that’s always been what’s motivated the intense Trump-hatred.
He’s a mortal threat to their power- and they’ve known it all along, since soon after he came down that escalator to announce his candidacy.
But nothing they’ve done has worked. What to do, what to do…
If Trump wins re-election, they’re done. Game over, man. But since they’re globalists and not Americans, they have extra options that an American elite would not have. They can do things that will do significant damage to the country, but might also prevent the Demon Trump from winning re-election.
In short, they can incite a race-war based on lies.
Unfortunately for them, they also happen to be a shambling mass of idiots. Despite complete control of the riot venues and complete control of the legacy media, they were too stupid to shut the violence down when shutting it down would have helped them and not Trump- and now they’re in trouble. They’ve managed to turn their awesome plan to beat Trump by rioting into yet another opening for him, so much so that it chased their previous awesome plan to beat him by disease right out of the spotlight.
Next up- they’ll turn their awesome plan to win the election by massive mail-in vote fraud into a federal requirement for picture ID to vote, along with a national voter ID card.
Their hallmark is incompetence, or else Trump would still be a reality TV star and hotelier.
The Dems talks endlessly about Russia-Russia-Russia, but rarely mention China.
The primary reason for this, I think, is that the Chinese economy is much larger and more dynamic than that of Russia, so there is more money to be made via relationships with the Chinese regime, of one form or another.
Everyone from Wal-Mart to Apple Beltway consultants sees revenue from China, or cost reduction via China, as part of their business model.
If you think Leftist-governing cities in America have been devastated by violence spurred by lies, wait until you see with socialist lies did to Russia and Germany!
Reinoehl must have been surprised after his protection-from-on-high was withdrawn. Especially after he extensively lied to Vox. He’d done what was asked of him: slay a Trumper, claim every defense possible for his murder, then lie low. Surprise! Dead men tell no tales.
Portland would have never touched him. He went too far and the feds got involved. He didn’t have immunity from them. From now on their goon squads will “just” beat the tar out of people, as they’ve done in the past. So now they know where the red line is, at least for now.
I think Xennady is spot on about the planning and general incompetence.
In order to believe that Trump’s at fault for the riots by inciting his supporters, you also have to believe that he knows (or mind-controls) leftist mayors and Soros DAs to refuse Federal LEOs and implement catch-and-release policies so that his supporters don’t face jail time for what they’re (supposedly) doing.
You might get your average Democrat LIV to believe that but anybody with the least bit of skepticism, i.e. a feeling of being played, is going to see right through it.
My conclusion that we have been played came from Minneapolis. In 2017 a (black) Somali cop shot and killed a woman from Australia who had called 911. There were no riots over this egregious example of police misconduct. The cop is in prison.
Given the above example, the connecting thread with the Floyd’s death would not be be police racism against blacks. A black cop killing a white female is not a very good example of police racism against blacks.
MCS – yes “and” is sensible, whether coordinated or not
XKennedy – yes, coordination may be impossible because they are foolish. Still, I’m less cheerful about cleansing Union guns. For one thing, I don’t see any General Lee who would restrain guerrilla attacks afterward.
Were previous elections rigged or were the actual majority of these places willing to elect these leaders? Were New Yorkers really crazy enough to re-elect de Blasio?
Gringo…Minneapolis: “In 2017 a (black) Somali cop shot and killed a woman from Australia who had called 911. There were no riots over this egregious example of police misconduct. The cop is in prison.”
IIRC, it took a while to get the guy charged, though. The connecting thread is that there was something wrong in the Minneapolis police department, and the killing of the Australian woman should have been sufficient cause to get this taken seriously and remedied.
I think that there are a lot of contributing factors going on, in all of this.
Yes, we’ve been “played”, but the people doing the playing are simultaneously incompetent and venal beyond belief. This is the result of the converging factors I’m going to talk about…
One, our “elites” have become inbred, arrogant, and utterly corrupt. The reason that the Senate Republicans are involved and wrapped up with the whole “Russian Collusion” thing is that they’ve been participating in the same sort of foreign aid kickback scheme that Biden is intimately engaged in. Same-same with the intel agencies–If that audit that Michael Flynn was talking about ever came off, their little games are going to get revealed, and that can’t happen, because if it did, there are a lot of people going to jail–Up to and including a lot of Democratic Party royalty like the Clintons and the Obamas.
The kickback schemes are incredible–Look at the advances on the Obama’s books, for example, and the do-nothing jobs at Netflix. All these assholes are connected, all of them are getting money out of the machine like they’re withdrawing it from an ATM. That crap ever makes the light of day, and a whole lot of people are going to be looking for new rice bowls to lick. There may not be very many out there to get at, either.
So, you have this venality in danger of coming to light, which the idiot class let get so big that anything coming out of it will ruin them and break the game. That’s one thing. Then, there’s the way Trump is not “one of them”, and he’s a loose cannon running through their game. Note how Epstein got arrested again on Trump’s watch, and how he wound up dead. Connect the dots–Suddenly, Ghislaine was fair game, and she’s under arrest. Now, we’ve got task forces recovering trafficked children, and wouldn’t you love to know how those rings are being broken, all of a sudden?
I expect an “October Surprise” out of that, TBH. One of many–I think Trump and his group are going to be dropping so many bombs over the next sixty days that the Uniparty is going to be unable to cope, or get inside his decision-loop. It’s interesting to note that Trump is doing a Boyd, and all the Democrats can do is react to him–Trump goes to Kenosha, then Biden has to. Same thing happened to Hillary, and it’s a mark that Biden is going to lose. Once a candidate gets into the position where they’re reacting to the other guy…? They. Are. Done.
The other line that’s converging is that these people of the elite are incompetent. Pelosi just handed Trump a cudgel to beat her with, and all because she wanted a “salon experience” having her hair blown out. How the f**k does a “professional politician” do something like that? Answer: They’re not so professional. Nancy is a case where she’s truly a “post turtle”, a venal, corrupt and essentially stupid person who is tone-deaf gets put into power because of her ability to make the heavens rain filthy lucre on her backers. The woman’s been a “front” since birth, and the decisions she makes on her own are indicative of what’s going on behind those vacant eyes–Nothing. That salon visit probably cost the Democrats significant female votes, and you’re going to see it trotted out in the future to “explain” the Democrat losses.
End of the day, the whole thing is indicative that the so-called “elites” that have been running this country since the end of WWII are done. They’ve shot their wad, and the current generation express very well the old adage about “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations”. They’ve gotten so over-confident that they think they can hide the Biden clan’s BS, not to mention the rest of their con games. Yeah, like Hillary managed to turn that futures investment into millions honestly, back in the day… Which was probably where they got their effective start, fleecing their offices for that sweet, sweet lucre.
We got played, but the players overreached their hands. Not to mention the fact that they think they’re smarter than everyone at the table, and that nobody can see what they’re doing.
I think the whole thing is going to shake out very badly for these people. At this point, I strongly suspect that by the end of October, Trump is going to have so much dirt on so many people that all he’s going to have to do is issue a few strategic arrest warrants and the entire Antifa/Black Bloc scheme is going to unravel. The Feds have to know where the money is coming from, where it is going, and all the rest. They were already on top of the Portland shooter’s safe house the day he went public with Vice, and that’s not something I’d find all that surprising if the network were already transparent.
Same-same with the rest of it all. The Senate Republicans are probably terrified that Trump is going to reveal all, and they should be. Same with the Democrats–Did those idiots think that having weaponized the NSA and other intel agencies that they’d keep a lock on that for themselves? Note well the way Trump has taken up Obama’s “pen and phone”, and wonder why we haven’t heard of any retaliatory use. Trump is emphatically not Bush; he’s the kind of guy that will play nice only so long as you do, and once you screw him, you’re in for an epic return screwing. Four years is long enough for him to get the agencies working at least a little bit for him, and there’s so much shit out there to throw at his enemies in both parties that it isn’t even funny. After the election, I believe we’re going to see an epic amount of shit slung in the monkey house that is DC, and it’s gonna be coming from the guy I am starting to think of as Captain Orange Crush. I can vaguely make out the outline of what’s coming next, and it is undoubtedly going to be a wild-ass ride.
Gonna be a lot of rice-bowls broken in DC and across the country. They never should have laughed at Trump the way they did, because that motivated his ass for all of this. Barry-boy is not going to like what happens to him and his “legacy”, because it’s going to be an object of ridicule for the ages, once all this plays out.
As an aside, I think we’re all going to look back at Trump as one of the most Machiavellian presidents in our history. Dude plays stupid an awful lot, he’s bombastic as all hell, but I am starting to suspect that there’s a first-class mind behind it all, and I’m really glad he’s more-or-less on “our side”.
Next sixty days are going to be interesting. By the 4th of November, I think a lot of our current “elite” are going to be jailed, discredited, or suicidal at the prospect of their little games coming out into the light.
“the media is dominated by those wearing blinders, whose reality is a narrow sliver of the world”
I think this is basically true, but at this point this metaphor is misleading because they are generally acting not out of ignorance but out of malice.
There’s nothing more destructive to our current condition than the fact that the major mass media are indistinguishable from The Nation in practice, but are still afforded respect from when they (self-servingly, of course) were considered as more neutral observers.
Yes, they are that shallow. Free stuff and unicorns = good.
Death6
The primary reason for this, I think, is that the Chinese economy is much larger and more dynamic than that of Russia, so there is more money to be made via relationships with the Chinese regime, of one form or another.
I think this is spot on- but I also think that the political left knows full well just how much Moscow has meddled in US affairs, going back many decades, to their vast benefit. So there is an element of truth to their allegations, just not in the way they claim. Every word from these people is a lie- no, every letter. But now the gravy train has shifted, and they feel comfortable throwing Russia under the bus. They’re on the China train now, woot woot!!
If you think Leftist-governing cities in America have been devastated by violence spurred by lies, wait until you see with socialist lies did to Russia and Germany!
I keep calling these people incompetent, which they are. But they’re incompetent in the sense that they can bring American society- which they effectively control- to ruin, not that they are certain to fail and be replaced by something better. They’re incompetent in the same way the Cuban and Venezuelan elites were incompetent, before they were replaced by communists, who turned those countries into starving wastelands.
From now on their goon squads will “just” beat the tar out of people, as they’ve done in the past.
Yet I note that there have also been arrests for violations of obscure federal statutes that I’ve never heard of, not only for this for murder. I’m not a lawyer so no surprise there- but I think if Trump is re-elected we’ll see more of this. Much more.
Were previous elections rigged or were the actual majority of these places willing to elect these leaders? Were New Yorkers really crazy enough to re-elect de Blasio?
Two things. 1) I suspect vote fraud is on such a scale that we have no real idea who has actually been winning elections in this country, for decades. 2) The opposition party- the geee ohhh peeeeee- doesn’t even bother to compete in vast areas of the country.
Thus, for example, when I read that New York State polls indicate that Trump might actually have a chance at winning that state, I can conclude that it doesn’t really matter, because the state party is utterly unable to profit from such an opportunity. Effectively, the state GOP does not exist.
There are more great comments I could respond to, but I need to go.
Kirk basically said it for me but I wish I was as optimistic about the next three months. As Instapundit has been saying for years, we have the worst ruling class in history, but they are still in position to do a lot of damage. The Senate is fundamentally corrupt. The House is a circus. I wish we could trust the military but they are all Obama generals above O-6.
“The Senate is fundamentally corrupt. The House is a circus. I wish we could trust the military but they are all Obama generals above O-6.”
All of DC is completely corrupt. You don’t funnel trillions of dollars through a system without attracting grifters and con artists.
You can trust the military, which is our final guarantor of a free state, since no one loathes those with stars on their shoulders more than the bottom of the ranks.
But we have to save ourselves. Trust that America will do what Aussies and Brits have done in the past year and vote for sanity no matter how much the media and the left try to rig things.
MCS sez…
Dude, it was blatantly suicide by cop… And the merdia are, of course, using “killed” as though the cops were out for revenge.
in venezuela, the cuban regime had been seeding the schools, with propaganda for 30 years, the safety net had collapsed around 1990, with the drop in petrol, cap, the old dinosaur, had promised to restore it, then ‘surprise otter, he pushed an austerity plan, a generation before he had presided over the creation of pdvsa. the corrupt state oil company, he had also purged diligent operatives at the security services like posada carriles, which subsequently was framed for the cubana airlines bombing, so the red banner guerillas had been kept off radar, they are much like susan rosenberg’s may 19 bunch, the caracazo may have been provoked like the minneapolis outbreak, but chavez arias and that ringer who mounted the phony coup last year, had it as their debut,
ObloodyHell,
You may be right but he didn’t strike me as the sort. I think he believed “they wouldn’t dare”.
I would have thought the plan was something along the lines of “living martyr”. He may have come to the late realization that whoever was paying the lawyers, he was going to be the one spending the foreseeable future behind bars. They have traded their living martyr for a dead whako.
“I had a hard time buying that 4 police officers, acting in concert, would murder a detainee in front of witnesses, who were taking video of the event.
My initial take was that George Floyd died of compression suffocation which would point to the officer with the knee in the back as most culpable, likely unintentionally.
As for media coverage, most people know that initial reporting is usually way off, sometimes by 180 degrees”.
I believe conclusion that his death was the result of compression suffocation was political, and not medical or scientific. There was apparently nothing indicating this on his neck, just on his face. Nothing except the video, that could not show the force being applied. And, of course, the opinion of the hired gun pathologist hired by the ambulance chasing attorney for his family.
From my lay reading of the real autopsy report, along with video from the officers, a couple things of note. Floyd had recently had COVID-19, and possibly some exterior lung damage as a result. He had a number of drugs in both his blood and his urine. The most notable was fentanyl, though the meth in his system may have interacted with the fentanyl. His fentanyl level was apparently in the occasionally, if not more likely, fatal OD range. He was apparently foaming at the mouth when the officers first approached him, which is consistent with an OD. His progression, while in police custody is apparently also consistent with the normal progression of an OD.
Initially, the police treated his custody as pursuant to an arrest, which they were legally entitled to effect. There was probable cause to believe that he had committed a crime. They cuffed him and put him in a police car for transportation. But his complaints about claustrophobia, not being able to breathe, and wanting to lie down, etc, caused them to remove him from the car and place him on the ground. Notably, that was when paramedics and an ambulance were called. That was when the police switched from holding him for transportation to jail, to keeping him alive until the paramedics could arrive. They recognized that he was probably ODing, but guessed wrong as to the drug involved. The other mistake they seem to have made was in underestimating the severity of the OD, only initially calling for the paramedics Code 2 (the call was upped to Code 3 later – but too late, as they were still a block or two away when his heart stopped, and CPR started by one of the officers). In any case he was put into a position that would prevent his aspiration of his own vomit (apparently a common consequence of many ODs), and then held there in the knee hold so that he couldn’t roll onto his back (where he could aspirate his own vomit), while they waited for the paramedics and ambulance to arrive.
I think that he very well may have been a dead man walking when first approached by the officers. The foaming at his mouth suggests pulmonary edema (PE), which is probably confirmed by his lungs weighing roughly three times what they should have, at his autopsy. His lungs full of fluid is much more likely how he suffocated than the neck hold (coincidentally, I have had PE several times, though mine was altitude related (HAPE), and missed by 3 or 4 physicians present because they were from MN, and not CO, where it occurred). Esp since there was no direct bruising from the neck hold.
I think possibly contributing to his death was that he may have had lung damage from COVID-19, and a significant number of his red blood cells had sickled (presumably from hereditary Sickle Cell Disease, probably as a result of his ethnicity), thus further reducing O2 transport to his heart. The sickling could very well have been the result of the stress of the OD, along with PE, combined with a change of PH resulting from CO2 buildup in his blood.
Hence why I suggested that the opinion that his death was due to suffocation from the the neck compression, despite no neck bruising, but in the presence of a significant quantity of fluid in his lungs, an often fatal level of fentanyl in his system, and sickled red blood cells, was more likely politically than medically or scientifically based. That shouldn’t be any surprise though, because the four officers had already been criminally charged before the autopsy report was complete, esp in terms of the toxicology report showing the often fatal levels of fentanyl.
Ginny:
Were New Yorkers really crazy enough to re-elect de Blasio?
Yes. At least there were enough of them to vote for him.
8.5% of New Yorkers voted for de Blasio. Is that a mandate?
I have often said that I wish that we could have somebody like Don Vito Corleone as our President. Trump is about as close to that as we have ever come. Lest I be misunderstood, let me state that I mean this as a compliment.