Patrick's Notebook

by Vladimir Odintsov

When people’s lives take a sudden turn for the worse, when they have a strong conviction that they deserve to live a better life, with the collapse of the national economy, a catastrophic spike in unemployment, racial hostility, and a growing partisan divide, the course of events in the United States will lead to an obvious outcome…

Amid the recent surge in Russophobic politics in the US, mainly premised on fake news (the failure of “Russiagate” makes a particularly good example), the media controlled by US intelligence agencies just recently tried to unleash an aggressive anti-Russian propaganda campaign, alleging Russia played a role in inciting racial hatred among Americans in the run-up to the 2020 United States presidential election.

However, there is clearly no way the racial tension that has just boiled over, engulfing every state in America, could have been masterminded by Russia. Its roots lie in the policy enforced by American authorities, as inciting racial hatred remains Washington’s main tool to influence American society.

This has not only been confirmed by the recent tragic events provoked by police brutality and the killing of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis, which has compelled people to take to the streets demanding change across a growing number of American states, and it is estimated that hundreds of these protesters from the Black Lives Matter movement are being arrested by law enforcement agencies every day!

Even the British Guardian which tends to take a friendly stance towards the current administration in Washington highlights that racism remains rampant in the United States, with more black people inflected with Covid-19 dying in America than white people. They are almost 2.5 times more likely to die a Covid-19-related death than whites, and twice as likely as Latinos and Asians, despite the fact that African Americans only account for 13% of the country’s population. An article published in the Guardian notes that roots of modern American racism can be traced back to America’s first years and the days of its early European colonizers, when white supremacy was a founding principle. African Americans were considered to be property, not citizens, and were deprived of wealth and resources. This overt and deliberate racism has been practiced for longer than unconscious or hidden racism. Even though it has been almost 70 years since the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the US state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, the racial lines drawn 400 years ago still divide the nation, proving that the country’s current political elite’s rhetoric about freedom and equality is just empty words. » Read the rest of this entry «

“If a black person tells you to do something, you do it immediately without question.”

Black Lives Matter Melbourne has issued a list of required behavior from white people attending their protest, which includes no selfies and the demand that, “If a black person tells you to do something, you do it immediately without question.”

Up to 40,000 people are expected to attend the demonstration in Australia, with the potential for riots high given the city’s militant left-wing nature.

In anticipation of that, BLM Melbourne issued a lengthy list of requirements for how white people are allowed to behave during the rally.

by Paul R. Pillar

The damage Donald Trump has done to national security can take the form of officials self-deterring and not using the tools available to them to counter foreign covert action and intelligence collection. It can take the form of officials self-censoring and not sounding alarms about foreign influence attempts, for fear of being dragged into partisan battles.

As Donald Trump’s electoral prospects diminish amid a pandemic-induced recession, his blame-deflecting attacks have become ever more desperate. The most immediate and obvious damage from a presidential performance characterized by desperation and demagoguery is to be measured in terms of public health and the toll of the coronavirus. At last count, the United States, with 4.2 percent of the world’s population, had 31 percent of the coronavirus infections and 29 percent of the deaths. This type of damage is likely to get even worse as Trump rolls the dice on an economic recovery between now and November 3 that he hopes will overshadow the resurgence of disease and death that epidemiologists say will result from premature relaxation of pandemic-required restrictions.

The ruthless partisanship and attack tactics of Trump and his followers also have other ill consequences, however, that will persist long after the pandemic has eased and any thoughts of drinking disinfectant or popping hydroxychloroquine pills have faded. Moreover, many of the ill effects will persist well after Trump’s presidency, despite efforts of his successors to repair the damage.

In international relations and foreign policy, relations with China are perhaps the prime example, with a plunge into a new Cold War being partly a byproduct of the attempt by Trump (and those executing his tactics, especially Secretary of State Mike Pompeo) to use China as a foil to divert blame from Trump’s own mishandling of the pandemic. » Read the rest of this entry «

In an extraordinary rebuke, former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday denounced President Donald Trump’s heavy-handed use of military force to quell protests and said his former boss was setting up a “false conflict” between the military and civilian society.

“I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” Mattis wrote.

The criticism was all the more remarkable because Mattis has generally kept a low profile since retiring as defence secretary in December 2018 to protest Trump’s Syria policy. He had declined to speak out against Trump, saying he owed the nation public silence while his former boss remained in office.

But he is speaking out after this past week’s protests in response to the death of George Floyd in police custody.

Mattis had a scathing description of Trump’s walk to a nearby historic church Monday to pose with a Bible after law enforcement forcibly cleared Lafayette Park of mostly peaceful protesters.

He said he never dreamed troops “would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens – much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us,” Mattis wrote in a statement published by The Atlantic. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.” » Read the rest of this entry «

by Ryan McMaken

Looting and arson have followed what began as peaceful protests in response to the apparent killing of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, a now-former member of the Minneapolis Police Department.

But whatever was the spark that set off the current round of rioting in the Twin Cities area, it is clear that most property owners and residents will have to fend for themselves where riots have taken place. In other words, any unfortunate shopkeeper or resident who finds himself in the path of the rioters ought to just assume that police won’t be around to provide any protection from the mob.

For example, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports:

The police station on E. Lake Street has been the epicenter of protests this week… Nearby, Minnehaha Lake Wine & Spirits, the target of looters the night before, also was set ablaze. …On Wednesday night, a man was fatally shot and crowds looted and burned buildings on E. Lake Street late into the night.

Earlier in the day, in St. Paul, looters broke windows, stormed through battered-down doors and snatched clothes, phones, shoes and other merchandise from shops along University Avenue near the intersection of Pascal Street. Officers formed a barricade in front of Target. But police were absent a block away at T.J. Maxx, where looters smashed down the door and fled with heaps of clothing piled on shopping carts.

Many business owners who now face destruction at the hands of rioters can scarcely afford it:

Many of the shops destroyed along this stretch of E. Lake Street are immigrant-owned businesses — many of which were already struggling during the coronavirus pandemic. “Now it’s worse,” said Roberto Hernandez, who stood guard outside his nutrition store for five hours to fend off looters.

» Read the rest of this entry «

• US defence chief says he does not support invoking Insurrection Act to deploy active duty forces to quell unrest.
• At least 9,300 people have been arrested across the United States amid the continuing protests after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died last week in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and police brutality nationwide.
• US President Donald Trump has outraged faith leaders and protesters for walking to an historic church near the White House and creating a photo opportunity, just minutes after police used chemical smoke canisters and flashbangs on peaceful protesters to clear the area.
• Protesters are demanding all four officers involved be charged in Floyd’s death. So far, only one – white officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as he pleaded, “I can’t breathe” – has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Medical examiners have ruled the death a homicide.
• Those protesting against police brutality have been met with, at times, excessive force by authorities. Journalists have also been targeted by police. Officers have also been injured in the protests.
• Protesters have remained undeterred by curfews and the presence of the US National Guard in some cities. Largely peaceful protests have at times turned violent, with looting and vandalism. Monday’s protests, however, remained largely peaceful after curfews took effect.

By John W. Whitehead

“When it gets down to having to use violence, you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you—pull your beard, flick your face—to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you.”—John Lennon

Brace yourselves.

There is something being concocted in the dens of power, far beyond the public eye, and it doesn’t bode well for the future of this country.

Anytime you have an entire nation so mesmerized by political theater and public spectacle that they are oblivious to all else, you’d better beware.

Anytime you have a government that operates in the shadows, speaks in a language of force, and rules by fiat, you’d better beware.

And anytime you have a government so far removed from its people as to ensure that they are never seen, heard or heeded by those elected to represent them, you’d better beware.

What is unfolding before us is not a revolution.

The looting, the burning, the rioting, the violence: this is an anti-revolution.

The protesters are playing right into the government’s hands, because the powers-that-be want this. They want an excuse to lockdown the nation and throw the switch to all-out martial law. They want a reason to make the police state stronger. » Read the rest of this entry «