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Best of the Web: Defying Trump: Defense Secretary Esper doesn't support invoking Insurrection Act - US military will NOT be deployed to stop rioting

Amanda Macias
CNBC
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 11:15 UTC
Military Police
© Reuters/Jonathan ErnstDC National Guard Military Police officers and law enforcement officers near the White House.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday that he does not support invoking the Insurrection Act, a law from 1807 that would allow President Donald Trump to deploy active-duty U.S. troops to respond to civil unrest in cities across the country.
"I say this not only as Secretary of Defense, but also as a former soldier and a former member of the National Guard, the option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire situations. We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act."
Meanwhile, NBC News, citing two White House officials, reported that Trump is backing off the idea of invoking the act, at least for now.


Comment: One step forward, one step back...
Senior defense officials told the Associated Press on Wednesday that active duty military deployed to the nation's capital are heading back to their base after a couple days of more peaceful protests.

According to the report, 200 soldiers with the 82nd Airborne will be leaving first on Wednesday. Other soldiers will be sent home should conditions in DC remain stable.

Bringing in active duty military had many worried about overreach by the federal government, but the soldiers were never actually deployed into the city. They were instead stationed at bases in Virginia and Maryland and kept on alert.

Troops actually stationed in DC will remain on a 30-minute alert status in case protests get violent and law enforcement cannot handle the situation.

And...a change of mind:
No active-duty troops that were recently deployed to the DC area to manage heated protests will be leaving just yet, the Pentagon said - an apparent reversal of an earlier plan to send some 200 home.

US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper's u-turn followed a White House meeting and "internal Pentagon discussions" on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported, citing Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who said the decision is meant to ensure law enforcement in the capital have support in case of renewed unrest.
"It is our intent at this point not to bring in active forces, we don't think we need them at this point. But it's prudent to have the reserve capability in the queue, on a short string."
McCarthy added that around 200 soldiers with the 82nd Airborne would remain in the capital region for another 24 hours. "It's a dynamic situation... we're trying to withdraw them and get them back home."
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Snakes in Suits

Best of the Web: 'Professor Lockdown' Ferguson, UK's Covid-19 czar, admits crippling restrictions MADE NO DIFFERENCE

Jason O'Toole
RT
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 18:21 UTC
Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson
© Reuters TVEpidemiologist Neil Ferguson
The British scientist known as Professor Lockdown has undermined the draconian policy he unleashed on the world by confessing that Britain hasn't fared any better in tackling the disease than the laid-back Scandis.

Professor Neil Ferguson probably woke up this morning breathing a massive sigh of relief because he hadn't been ripped to shreds again in the British newspapers for this second time in just under a month - this time over his startling admission that there has been no significant difference in the levels of Covid-19 suppression when comparing the UK and Sweden.

During his evidence to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee on Tuesday, he said: "They [Swedish scientists] came to a different policy conclusion based really on quite similar science. I don't agree with it but scientifically they're not far from scientists in any part of the world."

He then acknowledged that the Swedish authorities had "got a long way to the same effect" without a full lockdown.
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NPC

Best of the Web: How can the virus tell?! Anti-racism protests SAFE from Covid-19, but anti-lockdown protests are NOT, health 'experts' claim


RT
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 15:01 UTC
protests
© Reuters / Jeenah Moon
An open letter signed by hundreds of self-styled health 'experts' touts "protests against systemic racism" as not only Covid-19 safe but "vital to the national public health" - while protests against lockdowns remain deadly.

Calling "white supremacy" a "lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to Covid-19," the letter - signed by upwards of 1,200 self-declared public health professionals before it was closed to signatures on Tuesday, supposedly because "alt-right messages" had been added - trumpets the necessity of continuing the protests that began after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, pandemic be damned.

Despite months of warnings that getting within six feet of another human being will invariably result in infection and likely death, the letter proclaims that "as public health advocates, we do not condemn these gatherings as risky for Covid-19 transmission." Posted in final form on Wednesday, it outlines a series of "safest protesting practices" - providing masks, hand-washing stations and hand sanitizer to demonstrators, for example - while stressing that its approval of the nationwide anti-racism protests "should not be confused with a permissive stance on all gatherings, particularly protests against stay-at-home orders."

Comment: Doctors. With honorable exceptions, they are a dangerous subgroup of the authoritarian branch. Maintain social distancing to the greatest possible extent.

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Red Pill

Best of the Web: 'Prof Lockdown' Neil Ferguson admits Sweden used same science as UK

Henry Bodkin
The Telegraph
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 17:23 UTC

Comment: Then why on Earth did you lock down the country for 3 months??


Neil Ferguson
© Parliament TV/PA
The scientist behind lockdown in the UK has admitted that Sweden has achieved roughly the same suppression of coronavirus without draconian restrictions.

Neil Ferguson, who became known as "professor lockdown" after convincing Boris Johnson to radically curtail everyday freedoms, acknowledged that, despite relying on "quite similar science", the Swedish authorities had "got a long way to the same effect" without a full lockdown.

Sweden has adopted a far softer approach to Covid-19 than elsewhere in Europe, introducing voluntary social-distancing measures and keeping restaurants and bars and many schools open.
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Dominoes

Best of the Web: On lockdowns and George Floyd riots - The change that you requested is here

James Kunstler
kunstler.com
Mon, 01 Jun 2020 23:32 UTC
revolt
All the previous incidents of white cops killing blacks were just too ambiguous to seal the deal. Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri (a murky business); Tamir Rice in Cleveland (waving the BB gun that looked like a .45 automatic); Trayvon Martin (his killer George Zimmerman was not a cop and was not "white"); Eric Garner, Staten Island (black policewoman sergeant on the scene didn't stop it); Philando Castile, Minneapolis (the cop was Hispanic and the vic had a gun). Even the recent February killing of jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, had some sketchy elements (did Arbery try to seize the shotgun?) — YouTube has scrubbed the video (?) — and then it took months for the two white suspects (not cops) to be arrested.

The George Floyd killing had none of those weaknesses. Plus, the video presented a pretty much universal image of oppression: a man with his knee on another man's neck. Didn't that say it all? You didn't need a Bob Dylan song to explain it. The Minneapolis police dithered for four days before charging policeman Derek Chauvin with Murder 3 (unpremeditated, but with reckless disregard for human life). The three other cops on the scene who stupidly stood by doing nothing have yet to be charged. Cut it, print it, and cue the mobs.
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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Stacks of BRICKS mysteriously appear near riot hotspots all over US, journalists demand answers


RT
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 00:38 UTC
bricks riots
© REUTERS/Sam Wolfe; REUTERS/Neil Hall/File Photo
Stacks of bricks left seemingly unattended in riot hotspots across the US - as if begging to be snatched and thrown by unruly mobs - have protesters and journalists wondering whether the violent street clashes are orchestrated.

It's not every day one sees a stack of bricks just lying around unattended, especially when there's no construction to be seen - but a rash of reports of pallets of bricks turning up as if by magic in over half a dozen cities over the weekend has investigators trying to get to the bottom of who's seemingly giving would-be rioters the tools they need to turn what began as peaceful protests violent.

A group of protesters in Dallas called attention to the unexpected bounty of construction materials near the city's courthouse on Saturday. "Ain't no damn construction around here!" a savvy demonstrator says in the clip, while another urges his fellow protesters to "do better."

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Best of the Web: The Minneapolis putsch

CJ Hopkins
OffGuardian
Mon, 01 Jun 2020 04:59 UTC
minneapolis burns
Well, it looks like the Resistance's long-anticipated "Second Civil War" has finally begun ... more or less exactly on cue. Rioting has broken out across the nation. People are looting and burning stores and attacking each other in the streets. Robocops are beating, tear-gassing, and shooting people with non-lethal projectiles.

State National Guards have been deployed, curfews imposed, "emergencies" declared. Secret Servicemen are fighting back angry hordes attempting to storm the White House. Trump is tweeting from an "underground bunker."

Opportunist social media pundits on both sides of the political spectrum are whipping people up into white-eyed frenzies. Americans are at each other's throats, divided by identity politics, consumed by rage, hatred, and fear.

Things couldn't be going better for the Resistance if they had scripted it themselves.

Actually, they did kind of script it themselves. Not the murder of poor George Floyd, of course. Racist police have been murdering Black people for as long as there have been racist police. No, the Resistance didn't manufacture racism.
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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Injustice & inequality are the real cause of US riots - but the establishment who created the problem now cowardly blame Russia

Scott Ritter
RT
Mon, 01 Jun 2020 21:06 UTC
protests
© Getty Images / Tasos Katopodis
As American political leaders are confronted with the scope and scale of the unrest engendered by decades of failed policy, they're turning to a time-tested scapegoat to deflect responsibility away from their shoulders - Russia.

While American cities burn, its politicians are desperately looking to assign responsibility for the chaos and anarchy that is unfolding. Among those casting an accusatory finger is Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from the State of Florida and the acting Chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee.

"Seeing VERY heavy social media activity of #protest & counter reactions from social media accounts linked to at least three foreign adversaries," Rubio tweeted. "They didn't create these divisions," Rubio noted, "but they are actively stoking & promoting violence & confrontation from multiple angles."
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Yellow Vest

Best of the Web: Michigan barber wins in court against Gov. Whitmer: 'Health Department failed to show threat'

Megan Fox
PJ Media
Fri, 22 May 2020 16:39 UTC
barber
© AP Photo/Paul Sancya
Karl Manke, the 77-year-old folk-hero barber who stood up against the empress governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, has been vindicated in court. A judge ruled on Thursday that the health department failed to show that Manke's business cutting hair was a specific threat to public health.

Manke faced incredible harassment, including police intimidation and losing his license. Not even that stopped him. The Washington Times reported Manke's reaction.
Manke, 77, has received at least two tickets for violating Whitmer's orders, and his barber license was suspended last week. Nonetheless, he said he's still cutting hair - "Oh, heavens yes" - including the hair of a squirming 2-year-old Thursday.

"Listen, I've been in this business for 59 years. She wants to come cut my hands off, that's another story," Manke said in an interview, referring to the governor.

Comment: Now THAT is how you 'fight the power'.

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Sheriff

Best of the Web: Cops kill because we gave them the legal framework to do it

Jim Bovard
The American Conservative
Tue, 30 Jun 2020 00:01 UTC
george floyd murder
© TwitterGeorge Floyd moments before his death in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
The brutal Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd has sparked violent protests, looting, and arson attacks in Minneapolis and St. Paul. A police precinct building was torched and destroyed and the Minnesota National Guard has been called out to restore order. But the killing in Minnesota is the latest reminder that politicians and judges — through federal law and judicial interpretation — have turned police into a privileged class that is most often unaccountable, if not entitled to oppress other Americans.

Almost everyone agrees that Floyd's death was a horrendous injustice. President Trump, who urged police officers in 2017 to not "be too nice" to suspects they arrested, condemned what the police did to Floyd as "a very bad thing." Former Minneapolis police chief Janeé Harteau said that the video of Floyd's killing was "the most horrific thing I've seen in my career and in my lifetime." Washington, D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham declared that the officers' actions were "nothing short of murder." Derick Chauvin, the police officer who killed Floyd was arrested today and charged with murder; he and three other police involved in Floyd's death were fired earlier this week

Comment: See also:

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