Opinion

Already we’ve seen, as a result of people taking to the streets in the United States:

Photos by Tom Over

Now that Trump is sending actual troops into our streets, the shape of his planned coup d’état is becoming ever clearer.

A critical piece will be an outright armed assault on the polling places during this fall’s election.

Trump’s GOP has already raised $20 million for anti-democracy lawsuits. While claiming the fall election will be “rigged,” Trump’s minions say they’ll raise a 50,000-strong vigilante army to terrorize “suspicious” (i.e., young, non-white, non-millionaire) voters at the polls.

Here’s the premise: 

On November 3, thousands of KKK/Gestapo-style “Trump volunteers” will swarm over the usual long lines in critical swing state/minority-heavy precincts. We’ve seen their neo-Nazi ilk in Charlottesville, among the Proud Boys, etc.

Many will be armed and dressed in military garb. Lacking legal credentials, but likely at gunpoint, they’ll demand ID and other “proof” of voter qualifications. 

Their purpose will be to drive away potential anti-Trump voters and turn the election into chaos.

There is apparently no limit to what the United States and Israel can get away with without any consequences. The United States has been waging devastating economic warfare against Iran and Venezuela while also blaming China for a global health crisis that it is unwilling to help address due to its withdrawal from the World Health Organization. Israel meanwhile is planning on illegally annexing significant parts of the Palestinian West Bank in July, with a green light from the Trump Administration, and no one in Europe or elsewhere is even interested in initiating serious sanctions that might lead to the postponing of that decision. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has even stated flatly that the remaining Palestinians who would be annexed will not become Israeli citizens – they will instead be “subjects” of the Jewish state with no guaranteed rights or privileges.

The nationwide outpouring of protests during the last 10 days has provided a historic moral response to the murder of George Floyd. In one city after another, people braved tear gas, pepper spray, clubs and other weaponry -- as well as mass arrests -- to nonviolently challenge racist police violence. Those same people were also risking infection with the coronavirus.

Is George Floyd today’s Emmett Till?

Is the nation moving beyond, oh God, its third manifestation of “legal” racism? The first manifestation was, of course, slavery, which was eliminated via the Civil War. The second manifestation was the Jim Crow/KKK era, with its lynchings, black vote suppression, unending segregation and unquestioned white supremacy; the civil rights movement undid at least the legal aspect of this horror, but hardly the racism itself. The third phase, which started percolating in the ’70s and came to a full boil in the ’80s and ’90s, began with expanding the prison-industrial complex, militarizing the police and, of course, engaging in endless wars abroad. This, along with quasi-legal vote suppression, kept American racism institutionally intact and — son of a gun! — turned out to be enormously profitable. And people of color continued to suffer.

Late Tuesday afternoon when Mayor Ginther joined protesters near the Statehouse, several young African American self-appointed protest leaders – some barely out of their teens – approached him wanting to talk. The Mayor turned to them and one of the young African American protest leaders didn’t hesitate. He’s known for his icy confidence and at that moment it was coursing through his veins.

His name is “Jay Kay,” a 21-year-old who works in the kitchen of a local sports bar. He graduated from a Grove City high school in 2017 but could not find any reasonable way to raise tens-of-thousands for college and potentially start a career in media. His doesn’t come from privilege and far from it.

If you want to know the character and mindset of the young people who are peacefully protesting, get to know Jay Kay, who refused to offer his real name for safety reasons.

What sets him apart from many of the young protesters is what radically changed his soul at the onset of his teens. The shooting death at the hands of Columbus police of an older close friend who was popular in his former Hilltop neighborhood.

https://worldbeyondwar.org/the-problem-with-the-space-force-is-not-a-dimwitted-general/

One cannot help but appreciate the speed with which it became acceptable to produce comedy about the U.S. Space Force. I don’t think any military branch or war or weapon or coup or base or boondoggle has been taken off its holy pedestal more rapidly. Recent clownish yet endearingly murderous efforts to overthrow the government of Venezuela are unlikely to be mocked in a movie for decades to come. But — as with most Hollywood productions — the new Netflix comedy about the Space Force has a set of predictable shortcomings.

In answering the question "What percentage of US police officers are ex-military?" Here is one estimate given by Dr. Kevin O'Neil, PHd, Professor of Public Administration and Psycology, University of Southern California (2016) .

“Post Viet Nam era probably 75% or so. Law enforcement certainly had an abundance of military-trained helicopter pilots that were quickly recruited for the fairly new police ‘eye in the sky’ ops.

“Today, that percentage is probably about 50% plus and in both cases the majority are former Marines. Why? No doubt a ‘combat personality’ that leaves them searching for that quasi-military atmosphere they miss upon discharge.”

In that regard, I found that the following New York Times editorial was very helpful in providing some background to America’s legendary problem of white supremacy and police brutality (not to mention America’s out-of-control national debt, which is in excess of 25 trillion dollars - largely because of excessive military spending over the years since the Viet Nam War.

Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan, in a news report today, May 31, 2020, was quoted as proclaiming: “Saturday night sent a strong and clear message and [that he] hopes it prevents more destruction.”

Quinlan referred to the draconian and unnecessary curfew imposed on Columbus Saturday, May 30 by Mayor Ginther, and the Ohio National Guard and Ohio state trooper deployment to try to stop the city’s anti-police brutality demonstrations.

Such a tone deaf statement, sadly typical of our Columbus Police Department (CPD) for so many decades.

No Tom, your message tells us this:

· No one in city or state government or the CPD has heard a word the demonstrators are saying

· City and state priorities are that broken windows are more important than lives lost to police brutality

· City and state priorities are that demonstrations must be tamped down, and the safety and health of protestors is irrelevant (hence macing in the face)

· The status quo of racism and police brutality in the city and CPD is in place and nothing will change

· You think you’re being a tough macho guy but really it seems cowardly.