Corporate America supports Black Lives Matter protests

Nothing makes me question the dominant narrative more than headlines like these.
It makes me wonder, "Are we being played? Or is something else going on?"

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U.S. companies typically are quiet during protests. Not this time.
Technology, banking, apparel and entertainment firms issued messages of support for those demonstrating against police treatment of black people.

“I am shocked by the number of executives who have spoken up for the first time,” said Kellie McElhaney, a professor at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and founder of the Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership at the school.
...
The companies “are run by humans,” she said.

First of all, companies are NOT run by humans.
Companies are run by sociopaths.
But then her title says professor of neoliberal virtue signaling studies.

However, it's still unusual for companies not to be on the side of police crackdowns in a time of social unrest.

Netflix tweeted “to be silent is to be complicit,” adding “we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators and talent to speak up.”

Google added to its main search page: “We stand in support of racial equality, and all those who search for it.”

Twitter changed its Twitter account to say #BlackLivesMatter.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees to “join me and everyone on the senior leadership team, in advocating for change in our company, in our communities, and in society at large.”

“Racism continues to be at the root of so much pain and ugliness in our society,” Citibank Chief Financial Officer Mark Mason, who is African American, wrote on a blog post.

The list of CEOs doesn't stop there.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Mark Mason, CFO of Citigroup, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, Charlie Scharf, CEO of Wells Fargo.

Basically it's a Who's Who of the criminals and their criminal organizations that pillaged working class communities for decades, destroying the lives of millions of poor white, and especially brown and black people.
These thieves are concerned that people are destroying black lives through racism, rather than in the name of greed. Destroying lives in the name of greed is perfectly fine.

For instance, Scott Rechler, chairman and CEO of RXR Realty, who will soon be evicting thousands of poor people once the moratorium expires, quoted rapper Killer Mike.

Rechler said “it is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy … but to plot, plan, strategize and organize.”

Of course, no one cares about stopping racism more than Fox News.

CEO of Fox Corporation Lachlan Murdoch urged his colleagues to 'closely listen to the voices of peaceful protest' in a memo to all staffers Monday amid the unrest over the death of George Floyd.

Murdoch said he was shocked and saddened by Floyd's death while in police custody on Memorial Day and asked staff to 'fundamentally understand that black lives matter', according to Fox News.

I'm almost incline to think that these billionaires, who are currently looting the nation, would rather have you thinking about racism (something that doesn't cost the ruling elite any money or power), than be focused on the fact that your future is being stolen from you and we are entering a period of de facto neofeudalism.

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longtalldrink's picture

It has ALWAYS been the strategy of divide and conquer. Look over there...its racism!, has ALWAYS worked in the US. We are so busy believing the narrative that blacks and whites are "somehow" different, we (constantly) take our eye off the ball of systemic social failures. Making sure to guard each other while behind our backs they steal everything from us...in peace and undisturbed.

Hey, they have enough money to make us look the other way, in a million different ways...billions really.

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Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin

snoopydawg's picture

This is for the people who want Obama to be president again.

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To distract and virtue signal for their brand. Disgusting.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Cassiodorus's picture

https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/joe-biden-speech-transcript-on-minn...

"Shoot them in the legs" is swiftly being forgotten.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

@Cassiodorus if he doesn't.

It was a fairly well-delivered speech w/substance, above average for Joe actually. On the substance, he did come out in favor of Rep Jeffries current bill to outlaw police use of chokeholds and also to end the program giving police depts everywhere all those billion$$ in surplus military equipment, under the program begun under Poppy Bush. Those are two positive developments.

Trump of course would not remotely have delivered such a sympathetic speech that spoke to the underlying issue of police brutality and racism, unless all the sympathy was directed at the police, and never would back restraining the police in any way like banning choke holds or withholding military equipment. They are warriors after all and have to go to war against all the liberals. He's the Law and Order President after all.

And welcome to Nixon 1968 Revisited.

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snoopydawg's picture

@wokkamile

Obama also said that he was stopping the transfer of military equipment to the cops. Guess what? He did. Until he started secretly doing it again. I posted the link to it in my Russia essay if you’re interested in reading it. You do remember that Biden was in Obama’s administration right? They had 8 years to address police brutality and their killings of unarmed civilians, but they didn’t do anything about it. Obama let private mercenaries be in charge of the Standing Rock protests and when he was asked about the violence he said, "let’s see how it plays out." Did Biden ever say anything about that?

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snoopydawg's picture

@Cassiodorus

I just watched a video of a huge cop screaming at a guy walking away from a protest. He came up behind him and said to get the f’ck out of here. The guy turned around and said don’t yell at me. So the cop shoved him. Then another one came rushing at him and really shoved him so he fell down. This was so uncalled for, but it’s been happening over and over for days now.

Cops have people blocked on the Brooklyn bridge and won’t let them leave. They are sending in buses to take them to prison.

In NYC they have blocked off the subway stations so people can’t get home before curfew starts.

In another city a cop just drove into a crowd and one woman is in critical condition.

In another a cop shot a 'less lethal' projectile at a women’s head. She is in a coma.

A woman who was at the protest Saturday in La Mesa is in a medically induced coma and may lose one of her eyes after reportedly being hit with a "less lethal" projectile by a police officer, according to her family.

Her family, through their attorney, has called on the La Mesa Police Department to identify the officer and remove them from duty, and for that individual to be charged with attempted murder.

Leslie Furcron, 59, was standing near the police headquarters at around 7:30 p.m. as police began using tactics to disperse the crowd.

Protesters at the building were mostly peaceful, though law enforcement said some people threw water bottles and other objects at officers who responded with tear gas and "less lethal" projectiles, possibly bean bag rounds.

As chaos broke out, Furcron was hit between her eyes. The force knocked her to the ground and people nearby rushed to her aid as she bled on the ground.

Someone is telling cops to be as aggressive as they want to and they are. As people have pointed out many of the states seeing police brutality are controlled by democrats and democrat leaders. But vote blue no matter who still.

But here’s some good news.

Minneapolis police face civil rights probe over Floyd death

The state of Minnesota on Tuesday launched a civil rights investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department in hopes of forcing widespread changes following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for minutes, even after he stopped moving.

Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights announced the filing of the formal complaint at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. The governor and Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said they hope to reach agreement with the city to identify short-term ways to address the police department's history of racial discrimination, and use the investigation to find long-term solutions for systemic change.

Lucero said their goal is to negotiate a consent decree with the city that courts could enforce with injunctions and financial penalties. There are precedents, she said, including a consent decree approved in Chicago last year after the U.S. Justice Department found a long history of racial bias and excessive use of force by police.

Mayor Jacob Frey said the state's intervention will help break what he called a stalemate on reform.

“For years in Minneapolis, police chiefs and elected officials committed to change have been thwarted by police union protections and laws that severely limit accountability among police departments," Frey said in a statement. “I welcome today’s announcement because breaking through those persistent barriers, shifting the culture of policing, and addressing systemic racism will require all of us working hand in hand.”

State budgets all over the country are facing huge budget cuts because of how many people are not working and businesses are not open and paying taxes. How much money are they spending right now to have cops out brutalizing peaceful protests? How many will see lawsuits from people who have been hurt? And will they be on the hook for medical bills?

Stay tuned because it’s going to be a long hot summer.

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snoopydawg's picture

@snoopydawg

Of course we know what the game plan is and has been for some time.

This Is Not A Revolution. It's A Blueprint For Locking Down The Nation

“When it gets down to having to use violence, then 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.

This is why the media is telling us that we should ignore the brutal response from the cops and focus instead on the looting and violence coming from the protesters. We know that 99% of protests have been peaceful until cops show up and start the violence. This is all part of the playbook that has been written long ago just so the PTB can enact the planned lockdowns and arrests. It’d sure be nice if the anti government folks were concerned about this as they are not being able to work.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@snoopydawg

Local authorities are scared to death of their police. Judges and prosecutors are terrified for their families. Politicians are utterly useless.

The only thing city and state officials are doing is making sounds and distractions.

Reforms don't work. Current police forces in the US are brain damaged, tainted, and unqualified.

They need to start over from scratch. Ban hiring of any formerly deployed military. Ban military weapons. Ban Israeli training. Pre req Psychology or Public Health degrees. No exceptions. Screen applicants with brain scans.

Wait!

Nevermind... What was I thinking? The Police situation cannot be fixed.

The US has been a Failed State for quite some time. This nation has already slid half way down into dystopia. It's been robbed blind by the Oligarchs. They are not going to linger for long in this shithole. I'm surprised some of them are still here.

The guns will sort out who controls the Genocide Booty of America.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
snoopydawg's picture

@Pluto's Republic

Local authorities are scared to death of their police. Judges and prosecutors are terrified for their families. Politicians are utterly useless.

Remember after Tamir Rice was shot within seconds of the cop getting out of the car Obama said that he would have the justice department look into the Cleveland police. Then we found out that they had already been under investigation either 10 years prior or for 10 years. The cop who shot him even though he was legally allowed to carry a gun was fired, but then he sued to get his job back and won. But then it was Holder who was in charge of the JD and we know how worthless he was at holding people accountable.

Look at what a little digging finds.

Leaked 2015 Memo Told Dems: ‘Don’t Offer Support’ For Black Lives Matter Policy Positions

“Don’t offer support” for the “concrete policy positions” of Black Lives Matter protesters, the chief organization charged with electing Democrats to the House of Representatives warned its candidates in an internal memo leaked online on Wednesday.

The document was posted online by Guccifer 2.0, a hacker who has claimed to be responsible for the Democratic National Committee email leak. Guccifer claims the document is from the personal computer of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). A number of cybersecurity firms and Democrats have attributed the leaks to Russian hackers (though Guccifer 2.0 has denied working for the Kremlin).

“Presidential candidates have struggled to respond to tactics of the Black Lives Matter movement,” reads the memo, sent by a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee staffer in November. “While there has been little engagement with House candidates, candidates and campaign staff should be prepared. This document should not be emailed or handed to anyone outside of the building. Please only give campaign staff these best practices in meetings or over the phone.”

The memo, which describes BLM as a “radical movement” that aims to “end ‘anti-black racism,’” lists several suggestions for how Democratic congressional candidates should handle an encounter with a Black Lives Matter activist.

“If approached by BLM activists, campaign staff should offer to meet with local activists,” the memo reads. “Invited BLM attendees should be limited. Please aim for personal or small group meetings.”

“Listen to their concerns,” it continues. “Don’t offer support for concrete policy positions.”

House Democrats were also advised to say that police violence requires a national conversation, and to acknowledge that “a history of systemic racism continues to confront the daily lives of African Americans.”

Well we remember how it went for BLM when they met privately with Hillary. She dismissed their concerns and gave them her talking points.

As for Nancy’s definitive statement:

In a statement Thursday, Pelosi’s office tied the hack to Russia and said the document didn’t come from her computer.

As I said in a previous comment Obama and Biden had 8 years to do something about police violence here and they didn’t even have that national conversation except for the time a cop arrested an affluent black college professor for trying to break into his own home and Obama invited them both to the White House for a chat. I don’t even remember him addressing the heinous acts of Chicago and Homan Square. But now the kids are excited that Biden is talking about criminal justice reform and that Obama is gonna address the country tonight.

But speaking of democrats are they still sitting on their buttocks at home like they have been for over 2 months? Nancy’s idea to address the country about what is happening with the protests was to read from the Bible.

Nancy says some words about people's concerns and she highlights what the black caucus has been doing. They have been deeply concerned and that is why I look toward them for their thoughts.
Anyone remember hearing anything from the black caucus during Trump’s tenure or during Obama’s? They have been selling out their black constituents for as long as I can remember. Remember when Trump called Baltimore a rat infested shit hole? Democrats flew to the congressman’s defense before Trump got done speaking, but I wondered why it was so broken down in the first place if he was such a great person? Multiply that by every city that democrats represent. But then republicans are bad don’t forget. Blah, blah, blah ...

The US has been a Failed State for quite some time. This nation has already slid half way down into dystopia. It's been robbed blind by the Oligarchs. They are not going to linger for long in this shithole. I'm surprised some of them are still here.

Now, Pluto there are still some assets that need to be looted from us before they flee, but flee they will.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@snoopydawg

Anyone affiliated with the Democrats in DC is corrupt. And gullible. The Black caucus is a minstrel show. They betrayed the Black community and collect their money and insider trading tips from the Democrats.

All of that aside, we must assume we've entered the endgame. Everything going forward is a divide-and-conquer depopulation strategy. I can tell from the constant use of the term "Antifa" that the first killing field will be the red-neck white supremacists (and military contractors) VS the Left (and any blacks in the vicinity). The real target is the Left. No one will miss them. They were never allowed to exist for long in the US. They were always cut down before they could be widely heard. After the Left is silenced, it could devolve into revenge attacks on blacks, then whites.

None of this has much to do with police brutality.

Controlled revolution is basically a depopulation trap. But that's exactly what the Coronavirus. Trump's incompetence is a fake. I pulled some strings and discovered that I can order 50 million instant Covid-19 tests like those used in Wuhan, China and receive them in a few weeks in Long Beach, California. That's enough tests (along with thermometer guns, and a deluxe quarantine strategy) to stop the virus cold in most states. And if it's not, I can get another 50 million tests in 30 days. Now if I can stop the epidemic, then so can Trump. Following the logic, that means that the US is engaged in a controlled depopulation slaughter, which is underway to push the world's blame and rage onto China. It's as simple as that — and it all comes down to US Empire and the destruction of China's economy. Nothing has changed.

France and Israel were notified in November 2019 by US Intelligence that the pandemic viruses had been planted in China. Trump was notified as well. Repeatedly. I have that physical evidence. China has it, too. So does the US media, for that matter. The Pentagon is very dirty in this, so don't believe their anti-Trump posing, domestically. The current push to open America for business is a planned phase two bloodbath. We're going to start losing people we know.

So what's important? Protecting our best minds. Protecting our health. Getting our hands on drugs that work. Waking people up. Speaking the truth. Using encryption, Protecting our communications. Beefing up our online privacy. Gaining medical expertise. International business connections.

The CDC and WHO are both unreliable and the CDC is corrupt, as well. The larger medical journals are filled with lies and propaganda, particularly The Lancet. The race for a vaccine is one of the biggest financial jackpots the world has seen. Naturally, China will win the vaccine race, if it can be won at all. China has announced that it will immediately put all vaccines into the public domaine. They will be made free to the people of the world. The West will suppress the Chinese vaccine and smear it as dangerous and sinister. The for-profit pharmaceutical industry will concoct something that will cost thousands of dollars per dose. The FDA will approve only that vaccine..

This is the battlefield of the Great War between Communism and Capitalism. The People will not have access to China's vaccine. Some will be smuggled in and that has to planned now, too. This is the intended final de-population. Remember, don't inject any vaccine that is not inn the public domaine.

I think you are doing great work. It's exciting to read. It's the right story to be telling. And, it provides cover. The direct approach is not the way to bring about change. We probably lost that battle in 1963, and have been kidding ourselves about freedom and self-government ever since. But pretending to believe is an important tool. It provides the cover that change must have in order to perfect itself and grow. Freedom to assemble is a huge trap. In fact, many of our freedoms in the Bill of Rights are are actually traps. They encourage us to be transparent and in the open about our dealings and thoughts, while the government spies on us and plots against us in order to oppress and crush us before our voices can be heard.

It's time to wake up and grow up and develop some defenses — if only to save ourselves.

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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
snoopydawg's picture

@Pluto's Republic

Oh yes I have been saying this since it happened. There is no way that the government did not have a plan in place for any emergencies that hit the country. The financial response from congress was another give away as was letting billions of tons of food being let to rot in fields. The government waited a month before they even talked about it.

None of this has much to do with police brutality.

I’m trying to wrap my head around this though. One thing that has always been noticeable is that the police usually come down hard on left wing protests while leaving the right wing ones alone. I saw a picture of this meme. In one the open up guy was screaming into a cop’s face without a mask on and the cop in it was in street clothes. And in the other a protester in a mask was talking to a cop dressed in riot gear. Maybe more to it, but you get the drift.

OWS vs the TEA party were some of the same. Both were against the bank bailouts, but the tea folks had their guns with them. This was before they got coopted..

The slaughter has already happened in nursing homes across the country. Not getting PPE for employees and letting people into them after discharged from hospitals. Not treating people over a certain age? The social security fund still needs to be emptied before they flee.

Yep. Our freedoms have been wiped out, but as you said they have just been illusions for some time. Land of the free is the biggest joke running. You are not free if when you threaten the power base they can do whatever they want to and with you. The right to protest has been nullified for decades and not many people noticed that. The 4th amendment went out the window with the patriot act and the TSA. 100 miles free constitution zones because of border patrol? Think the founders would be okay with that?

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snoopydawg's picture

and who’s idea was it to sic dawgs on black people?

But sure let’s just focus on the looters. There are massive crowds peacefully protesting in Boston, DC and elsewhere. Guess why that is...yep no cops in view.

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Many voices have come out against the looting, destruction of property, and essentially the peaceful acquiesence to power and authority. Put back those Nike shoes you looting mf'ers! I can see why corporations would jump on supporting the protests. It is good for re-affirming the rights of property.

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

"Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock"

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

And an all-around great guy.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

...is that goddamn "wokie" at (of all places) UC Berkeley. Disgraceful. It's like watching George Carlin find Jesus or something (and not in his trunk).

In addition to being counterfeit liberals meant to spam us out of existence, I think they're now filling the role that the Religious Right did starting in the 1970s: Useful-idiot "foot soldiers" for the besieged corporatists. The terrifying difference, though, is that the Religious Right NEVER made it into the university system. These people are obvious crackpots who nobody would listen to if they weren't college faculty - how did this happen? Why are they being enabled? How bad is the infestation, really (i.e., is it as bad as it looks, or is the Internet making it look worse - my alma mater and I have definitely suffered at their hands, but at least they're not in complete control)? How do we kick them out??? They're really just like the Intelligent Design set (religion in a lab coat and Groucho-glasses), except they're getting away with it for some reason.

Also, remember a few years ago when we were hearing on DailyKos about the Koch Brothers buying university faculty? Any chance that has anything to do with this? I certainly wouldn't put it past them.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

riots and looting do not make for a favorable business climate. And this time, the killer cops became so brazen it even sank into corporate heads which ship they need to sail on. (Not that they expect wholesale reform of police attitudes and training. But even if that did happen, it would benefit business.)

It did not sink in to the senile bleach drinker's head, to no one's surprise. After cowering all night Saddam Hussein style in his hidey-hole, playing with Li'l Donnie (perhaps dreaming of Ivanka?), he decided to channel his inner Colonel Kurtz and napalm--err, tear gas--the civilians away from his assisted stroll to the neighborhood church, perhaps imagining the natives laying palm fronds in his path and singing hosannas to his holiness. Everyone except the CEO of Wendy's could figure out, staring at this scowling mannequin face as he dumbly held a loaner Bible upside down, that the crazy train has left this dim bulb's station aeons ago.

So yea. Adapt or die. Black customers (and low-paid employees) matter.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

@SancheLlewellyn

He decided to channel his inner Colonel Kurtz and napalm--err, tear gas--the civilians away from his assisted stroll to the neighborhood church, perhaps imagining the natives laying palm fronds in his path and singing hosannas to his holiness.

Everyone except the CEO of Wendy's could figure out, staring at this scowling mannequin face as he dumbly held a loaner Bible upside down, that the crazy train has left this dim bulb's station aeons ago.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@SancheLlewellyn

You act like this is the first time a police officer suffocated a black man to death for no reason.

I guess Eric Garner wasn't enough to make the CEOs of corporations and Wall St banks and media corporations--including Fox News--decide that racism was bad, but George Floyd was just a bridge too far.

Anybody who lines up behind these people to fight racism or any other injustice is a fucking idiot. Anyone who lines up beside these people to fight racism or any other injustice had better watch their backs.

The only people I trust in this matter--apart from my own personal acquaintance--are the black people standing in the streets dealing with it. Nobody in politics, media, finance or big business need apply.

I am beyond sick of seeing everybody act like this event is surprising. Shocking, yes. But not in the sense of being unexpected.

Embracing these bastards is tantamount to deliberately forgetting history, both recent and otherwise.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

I am beyond sick of seeing everybody act like this event is surprising. Shocking, yes. But not in the sense of being unexpected.

No real reforms in 6 years.
Riots were inevitable.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@gjohnsit

Anyway, nothing that happened before January 2017 pertains to what's happening now. Everything happening in the Age of Trump is qualitatively different than everything that happened before. Trump fell from Mars and brought these evils with him from an alien culture he encountered in space.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal many different conditions exist in various incidents. First, the images of George Floyd are extremely clear and the cop wasn't acting in a split second with no time to alter his actions but visually very calm for nine minutes strangling a man. That leaves very little room for L&O folks to rationalize.

Second, the more mainstream corporate America, approved of President Obama, and regardless of how many goodies Trump lavishes on them, they hate him. They're furious that Trump's stupidity and incompetence led to the coronavirus lockdowns and they're repulsed by him inciting violence of the Floyd murder.

Third, the "Blue Line" has split over this incident. That's not an insignificant component.

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@SancheLlewellyn - when an image is disturbing enough to that portion of the general public that has a social conscience and to write the narrative by itself, corporate America shifts its position (often slowly) and politicians, more slowly, may also change.

Birmingham, AL, 3 April - 10 May 1963 - vicious dogs and fire hoses turned on civil rights protestors. (Apparently license restrictions prevent posting of these images.) The subsequent follow-up protest was the March on Washington, 28 August 1963. This directly facilitated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

There were many throughout the Vietnam War, but two were more instrumental in consciousness shaking:

1 February 1968 - The Execution of Nguyen Van Lem

The executor was "our guy" and at that time, wartime execution (and torture) were officially not done by the US military. By the end of that month, Walter Cronkite (the most trusted voice in America) turned against the war. 31 March 1968, LBJ declines to run for reelection. Then things got very messy.

8 June 1972
Napalm Girl
This should have done to Nixon's reelection what the '68 execution had done to LBJ's. Why it didn't is a complicated story, but the Paris Peace Accord was signed Jan 1973 (not the Nixon intended to honor it).

12 July 2007 - Collateral Murder Released 5 April 2010. Just as Nixon went to "war" with Ellsberg and Russo over the Pentagon Papers (history of the Vietnam War through the LBJ administration), Obama went to "war' with Assange over Iraq War murders under the Bush administration.

The images of murder of George Floyd is too blatant and graphic for many (most?) to rationalize. However, I doubt that it will have the same social/legal impact of Birmingham 1963 because the impact has been diluted by subsequent protest violence and looting.

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@Marie

I doubt that it will have the same social/legal impact of Birmingham 1963 because the impact has been diluted by subsequent protest violence and looting

are we thinking of the same civil rights movement?

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@gjohnsit In case it wasn't clear, I was speaking of the images that disgusted a high percentage of Americans and tipped the balance in favor of the monumental Civil Rights Act of 1964. The public narrative from the protests wasn't diluted and thereby rationalized up through the passage of the CR Act.

Images with the power to shake public consciousness and lead to positive and constructive changes are rare enough. (Any wonder why the US Nat-Sec works diligently to suppress as many as possible?) However, that consciousness is also fragile. Meaning that it's not difficult to override or overshadow it. Do you really think that had civil rights protests broken out throughout the country in May-June 1963 in response to Birmingham and included violence and looting that the Civil Rights Act would have been passed? MLK, Jr. was no fool and understood his role as a leader.

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@Marie

Do you really think that had civil rights protests broken out throughout the country in May-June 1963 in response to Birmingham and included violence and looting that the Civil Rights Act would have been passed?

Which Civil Rights Act? There were several important ones in the 60's, and many of them happened around riots.

MLK, Jr. was no fool and understood his role as a leader.

MLK was brilliant, but he was only the leader of one faction of the movement.

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@gjohnsit she was referring above to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the famous one, the most important such legislation in a century. The other famous cr act was the next year, in 1965, called the Voting Rights Act.

In 1968 there was the Fair Housing Act. But the first two bills are the ones most talked about, the most important in overall positive impact.

Not sure why any of this is complicated or being questioned. She wrote an interesting thoughtful post.

I would add to her list the 1965 photo images of the voting rights protesters on the Edmund-Pettis bridge being brutally pushed back by police on horses wielding nightsticks, which energized passage of the VR Act.

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@gjohnsit @gjohnsit I would quibble slightly here:

I doubt that it will have the same social/legal impact of Birmingham 1963 because the impact has been diluted by subsequent protest violence and looting

After the famous May 1963 police riot against peaceful protesters in Birmingham, which made big news all over the country and the world, there was a bombing of the hotel where MLK was staying, and also his brother's house, which led to rioting by locals when police showed up to investigate.

Yet the lasting images of the Birmingham police using dogs and high-pressure fire hoses on the protesters, and the massive number of arrests, were ultimately much stronger than the images of what happened after. Maybe today similarly the overall picture of peaceful protesters, esp in recent days, will eclipse the few images of probably police-connected agents provocateurs and others taking advantage of the situation.

Sidenote: JFK was drawing up a CR bill at the time of the above events (it would later pass in June '64 after the longest senate filibuster in history), but was greatly distressed and encouraged when he saw the news of Birmingham, as he knew the public outrage would help boost his bill's chances in the Congress. He submitted his bill about a month after B-ham. He came to refer to it as "Bull Connor's Bill". Prior to B-ham, there just wasn't much public interest in CR outside of the black community, so the movement needed something to stimulate progress.

On the 1972 napalm images of the girl: I think by then, 7 yrs after major US military involvement, the public was just exhausted about the war. Also the Vietnamization program resulted in US combat units being completely withdrawn by that summer and protests were de minimus.

(edit: this post intended to respond to Marie's above)

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Or is this just another case of "gotta protect the loot I've already stolen?"

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snoopydawg's picture

But again let’s talk about looting.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Jen's picture

I noticed something on the discovery channel while my husband was watching some show on that channel. A short message that said something about standing against inequality and racism. The first thing I noticed was that it said absolutely nothing about police brutality. I tried to find the exact words they used. I didn't find it, but I did find this
. "Help Reduce Inequality & Support Empowerment"
It sounds to me like police brutality is okay as long as they start abusing whites as much as they do blacks. Gotta be equal ya know.

Another thing that's been bothering me is the cops "taking a knee" in solidarity. Isn't "taking a knee" (on Floyd's neck) what started all this to begin with. It feels more like mocking than showing solidarity to me.

Maybe I'm just being pessimistic.

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Is it great yet?

@Jen cops to take a knee in solidarity as referencing the well-known case of NFL player Colin Kaepernick and his taking a knee on the sidelines during the National Anthem to protest police abuse of black people.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

But I'm pretty damned sure they don't give a shit about black people.

To quote a phrase.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Of course.

All the demos/violence/media frenzy serves nicely to distract from:

- The disastrous response to COVID-19 (in no small part due to Democrat governors sending COVID positive patients into nursing homes) and the fact that the lockdowns overall are quite likely more deadly than the disease.
"Mass casualty incident" or "Global False Alarm"? You decide.

No, guess we're not talking about that anymore, nor about

- Continuing Russiagate revelations and the weaponization of intelligence agencies and fedcops against political enemies by the Obama administration. Trump doing more than anyone in the last twenty years to rein in IC/DOJ abuse is clearly not newsworthy.

neither, naturally, is

- Trump taking on social media and Internet censorship. Twitter/Facebook/Google peg the hypocrisy meter yet again - registering shock and concern when they have been actively censoring sites devoted to exposing police and other government violence/corruption/abuse.
No one spending even a modest amount of time on, say, The Free Thought Project (banned on Facebook and Twitter since 2018) could credibly express surprise about the killing of Floyd.

Bet Jeff Bezos has a spreadsheet to estimate how much his net worth gets bumped every time a bricks and mortar business gets torched or looted...

Want to really solve problems? Form militias and make sure that what were supposed to be constitutionally protected rights are extended to ALL AMERICANS.

At least that's what Brother Malcom says:

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