Monday, October 12, 2020

Fwd: What is behind the protests ?

Subject: What is behind the protests ?

Many Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters have good intentions.  Of course black lives matter – all lives matter. But, they are unknowing pawns in the movement.  The stated goals of BLM include defunding the police, leaving them greatly disabled.   CHOP,  in Seattle with no police protection, has resulted in the loss of considerable property and businesses as well as many injuries and deaths.
Antifa  has  given excuses  for what they call "occasional violence." Since the death of George Floyd,  protests have resulted in millions of dollars in  property loss, thousands of  Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) being assaulted and  injured, and even the death of at  least  35 people including some LEOs. 
Until recently when it was taken down,  there was this from the CPUSA web site:  fully supporting BLM  and   "We need to be in solidarity with Antifa."    CPUSA is the Communist Party USA - the communists whose predecessors  killed about 100 million  people in order to impose their rule.
Our LEOs are disheartened and rightfully reluctant to put themselves at great  risk of injury or death.  Also, if they injure or kill someone in self defense they can face jail time.  Just recently, a Marine Vet  committed suicide after killing someone in self defense. 
You can help by  going to   https://jbs.org/alert/sylp-stop-police-reform-bills/#actions and email, call, and/or send a video message to your federal legislators by filling out the blue space on the right asking them to vote NO to HR 7120, S 3912, and S 3985 .  That makes it easy to do.   Or, you could write your own message. As is stated on that page, "These bills are all currently before Congress. All three of these bills are unconstitutional overreaches of the federal government attempting to govern and/or coerce the operation of local police departments and sheriff officers."
Nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government or Congress granted with the power to establish national standards for local police departments or to govern the conduct of local police officers. Such types of reforms should be left up to We the People to decide via our LOCAL elected city councilmen, aldermen, our county officials or the state governments. It is NOT the role or function of the federal government to oversee, harmonize standards, or control local city and state police departments and county sheriff's offices. Please support our local police and sheriffs and keep them independent from the federal government by opposing all three of these bills: H.R. 7120, S. 3912, and S. 3985."
Thank you for helping.
AND
October 24th is United Nations (UN) Day, which we should celebrate by getting US out of the UN. 
 
Alger Hiss, an American communist spy, was instrumental in the formation of the UN and served as its first secretary-general.  The present secretary-general is Antonio Guterres of Portugal who has previously served as president of the Socialist International, formerly known as the Communist International.
 
True, in the Security Council we have a veto, but we very seldom use it. In the General Assembly we get one vote where there are 192 other member nations. In spite of the fact that most of them get foreign aid from us, almost all vote against our best interests. 
 
After WW ll, the war-weary United States voted to join the UN, having been sold on the belief that the UN would bring peace to the world. (Remember that to a communist peace means their total control with no opposition.)  We have been in wars continuously ever since the UN was founded, none of which have been declared a war by Congress as required by the Constitution.  With the exception of the victories in the Middle East under President Trump, none of the wars we have been in ended in a victory. The Vietnam War was fought under the command of SEATO, a UN agency.   We could have won that war.  We supplied the Viet Cong with military equipment by sending all manner of military needs to communist countries in Europe who forwarded them to the Viet Cong. 
 
In the Korean War we fought in the UN Army commanded by a communist. As a result, the UN controlled both sides of the war. All of our military plans and communications went to the UN, then to North Korea, so that the enemy knew all our military secrets and plans.  We could have won that war.
 
Obama signed the UN's Small Arms Treaty which, when implemented, would destroy our Second Amendment protection of our God-given right to keep and bear arms and give UN control over our law enforcement.
 
One of the main reasons our country has had a high degree of freedom is because our law enforcement has been at the local level.  If that power were given to the federal government, we would have a dictatorship with an all-powerful militia. The next step from there is the transfer of law enforcement power to the UN.  Indeed, the UN has already begun the process.  After the UN called on the United States to comply with "international standards" for law enforcement, it called together more than 100 American national police chiefs to a UN "Chiefs of Police Summit" (UN COPS).
 
That is the real goal of those working behind the scenes to organize and promote the rioting and civil mayhem we have been having.  When the situations become too much for local law enforcement officers (LEOs) to control (perceived or real) or local politicians refuse to allow LEOs to quell the violence, the hue and cry is to let the federal government take over.  From there, when the federal government is unable (or does not desire) to do the job and needs help, or the federal powers-that-be so desire, the UN is standing by ready to take over.   
 
Without America and our money, the UN would not exist. However, Obama gave $500 million of our money to the UN's "Green Climate Fund", contributing to the total of at least $9.2 billion that the US gave the UN in Obama's last year in office. What more does it take?  It is past time to Get US out of the UN.
 
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
 
HR204, the American Sovereignty Restoration Act, would get the US out of the UN.  Call and email your representative (202-225-3121) and ask them to cosponsor HR204 and ask your senator to introduce and cosponsor a companion bill for HR204 in the Senate.  Even if you think that it would be a wase of time, the UN supporters need to know how much opposition there is to the UN which would affect their strategies.
 
Thank you for helping.
 
 

Friday, October 9, 2020

Friday Morning: Domestic terrorism

And what else you need to know today.

Good morning. The Nobel Peace Prize goes to the World Food Program. Trump says no to a virtual debate. And the F.B.I. foils a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor.

Demonstrators outside Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office at the Michigan State Capitol in April.Seth Herald/Reuters

Domestic terrorism

Three years ago, the polling firm YouGov asked Americans whether they thought it could ever be justified for their political party to use violence to advance its goals. The overwhelming response was no. Only 8 percent of people said anything other than “never.”

This year, YouGov asked the same question — and the share saying that political violence could be somewhat justified roughly doubled. The increase spanned both Democratic and Republican respondents.

I thought of that alarming finding yesterday, after law enforcement officials charged 13 men with a violent plot that included storming the Michigan State Capitol and kidnapping Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Conservative groups have criticized Whitmer for her attempts to control the coronavirus by restricting normal activities. In April, President Trump tweeted, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”

Yesterday’s arrests are the latest evidence that a small but meaningful number of Americans believe that violence is the only answer to the country’s political divisions. “We’re seeing more and more citizens expressing openness to violence as more and more partisan leaders engage in the kinds of dehumanizing rhetoric that paves the way for taking violent action,” Lee Drutman, one of the political scientists who oversaw the YouGov poll, told me.

Since May, more than 50 people have driven vehicles into peaceful protesters. Armed protesters shut down the Michigan legislature in May. Armed groups on the left and right have done battle in Oregon and Wisconsin. Extremists have attacked journalists, including an instance in Brooklyn on Wednesday night.

“Political violence in democracies often seems spontaneous: an angry mob launching a pogrom, a lone shooter assassinating a president,” Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace recently wrote in The Washington Post. “But in fact, the crisis has usually been building for years.” She added, “This is where America is now.”

It’s important to note that the problem is bipartisan — and also that it is not equally bad on both sides: The American right today has a bigger violence problem than the American left. Of the 42 killings by political extremists last year, right-wing extremists committed 38, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

And top Republican politicians have encouraged violence in ways no prominent Democrat has. Greg Gianforte, a Republican congressman now running to be Montana’s governor, pleaded guilty to assaulting a reporter who asked a question he didn’t like in 2017.

Trump, for his part, has encouraged violence against protesters at his rallies and has often refused to condemn violent white-supremacist groups, including during last week’s debate. Whitmer, speaking after the arrests yesterday, cited that debate: “Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry, a call to action,” she said.

Political scientists emphasize that the drift toward violence is not inevitable. When political leaders denounce violence, it often influences public opinion, research suggests. These denouncements are especially effective when leaders — or individuals — criticize their own side for engaging in violence. Condemning the other side is easy.

“Outbreaks of political violence are a real threat,” Brendan Nyhan, a government professor at Dartmouth, has written. “Every person of good faith in either party must speak up.”

For more on Michigan: The Detroit News reported that some of the plot’s conspirators met during a Second Amendment rally at the Michigan State Capitol in June. And one expert told The Detroit Free Press that Michigan “has always been a hotbed for militia activity.”

THE LATEST NEWS

THE 2020 CAMPAIGN
A bar in Brooklyn played the first debate between Trump and Joe Biden last week.Jordan Gale for The New York Times
  • Trump threw the schedule for the two remaining presidential debates into doubt. He refused to take part in Thursday’s debate after its organizers announced the event would be held virtually, to prevent spreading the virus. In response, Joe Biden’s campaign said it would hold a televised town hall instead.
  • Asked about the vice-presidential debate, Trump referred to Senator Kamala Harris as a “monster.” Biden called the comment “despicable,” and said Trump “has great difficulty dealing with strong women.”
  • Biden, Harris and Vice President Mike Pence all traveled to Arizona yesterday, a sign that both campaigns believe the historically Republican state is up for grabs in November. Polls show Biden leading narrowly there.
  • Daily polling diary: Biden’s share of the vote is up to 52 percent in The Times’s average of polls, an unusually high level for a candidate at this stage in the race. And Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight wrote, “More polls are coming in showing Biden up double digits than not at this point.”
THE VIRUS
Trump left Walter Reed medical center on Monday.Doug Mills/The New York Times
  • The World Food Program, a United Nations agency, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today, during a pandemic that has “contributed to a strong upsurge in the number of victims of hunger in the world,” the committee said in a statement.
  • The White House physician said Trump had completed his treatment for Covid-19 and could resume public events as soon as Saturday, after the president revealed early last Friday that he had tested positive.
  • Trump suggested that Gold Star families — those whose relatives have died in military conflicts — could have spread the virus at a White House event last month. There is no evidence for the claim.
  • Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate, said he had not been to the White House since early August because of its resistance to masks and social distancing. “Their approach to how to handle this is different from mine,” McConnell said.
  • Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, hosted a 70-person indoor wedding for his daughter in May, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. At the time, local public health rules limited gatherings to 10 people or fewer. Photographs showed none of the guests wearing masks.
OTHER BIG STORIES
Sandbags on top of a previously damaged levee in Grand Isle, La.Sophia Germer/The Advocate, via Associated Press
  • A Morning read: Online orders have surged for retailers in the pandemic, as curbside pickup helps Americans satisfy their desire to hop in a car and drive to the store. What started as a coronavirus stopgap is likely to have a permanent impact on the way people shop.
  • Lives Lived: He was the son of a public school custodian and an emergency room nurse who grew up to become one of the great chroniclers of New York life. He crusaded against injustice and covered 9/11, the police, the subway, the coronavirus and more for six daily newspapers. Our colleague Jim Dwyer has died at 63.

Every day, a team of Times journalists works with reporters and editors around the world to create this newsletter — and help you make sense of the world. Please consider supporting our work by subscribing to The Times.

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IDEA OF THE DAY: WHAT TRUMP OBSCURES

Carlos Lozada, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic for The Washington Post, set himself a daunting (and arguably masochistic) task a few years ago: He decided to read every book that said something meaningful about the Trump era.

Ultimately, he has read more than 150 — books by the president’s most ardent defenders and harshest critics, as well as those about the larger forces that helped create Trumpism. Lozada has just published his own book about the experience, “What Were We Thinking.” One of its central points is that the best Trump books aren’t the obvious Trump books.

“The books I found most useful and enlightening in the Trump area have not necessarily been about Trump himself, but about the fights the country has always had in defining and redefining itself,” Lozada told me. Those books include Jennifer Silva’s “We’re Still Here,” about the rural working class; Erika Lee’s “America for Americans,” about immigration; and others you can find mentioned toward the end of this excerpt. (He lists 12 in his epilogue.)

Some parts of Trumpism may quickly fade when his presidency ends. But many of the toughest arguments will not, Lozada suggests: What’s the right level of immigration? What should the future of policing look like? And what about voting rights, the Supreme Court and the state of America’s democracy?

For more: The Times review calls Lozada’s book “crisp, engaging and very smart,” and The New Yorker Radio Hour has interviewed him.

PLAY, WATCH, EAT, TART

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

Dessert first

Monday is Thanksgiving for Canadians. These delicious butter tarts, a Canadian specialty, are an ideal treat regardless of where you live. Small and sweet, with hints of butterscotch and caramel, each bite delivers three textures: flaky crust, chewy top, gooey center. Adding pecans or raisins helps cut some of the sugar.

The French Open plays on

The French Open is approaching its final weekend, without fans. In the men’s draw, both Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have reached the semifinals. (Here’s an analysis of Djokovic, the youngest and least predictable of the Big Three of men’s tennis, which includes Nadal and Roger Federer.) The women’s final features Sofia Kenin, an American, and Iga Swiatek, an unseeded 19-year-old from Poland.

Noah Beck, Blake Gray and Josh Richards at their rental home provided by the video app Triller.Jake Michaels for The New York Times

A TikTok competitor pays

When talk of a possible TikTok ban began in July, a small social video app called Triller saw an opportunity. To attract users, the company set its sights on TikTok’s biggest names and shelled out. It rented Los Angeles mansions for top creators and paid for housekeeping, food and production equipment. When 16-year-old Charli D’Amelio, TikTok’s most-followed star, joined Triller, it provided her with a leased Rolls-Royce.

Diversions

Games

Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Fast food chain with buckets (three letters).

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Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you on Monday. — David

P.S. The word “whitesplainers” appeared for the first time in The Times yesterday — in an article about Black communities on LinkedIn — as noted by the Twitter bot @NYT_first_said.

Today’s episode of “The Daily” is about the campaign for Pennsylvania’s working-class voters. The Modern Love podcast is going to sound a little different this season. Listen to the trailer and tune in every Wednesday starting next week.

Ian Prasad Philbrick and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com.

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