Conflict erupts at Minneapolis, L.A. protests over George Floyd death

[The Romulan Republic]

The Bern throws his support behind defunding of police:

[loomer]

Bernie also called for increasing police wages, so.

[The Romulan Republic]

Bernie also called for increasing police wages, so.

When did he do that?

Its possible that he's had a change of heart. Bernie was regrettably behind the curve on some forms of social justice compared to his positions on economic justice, but he also moved decidedly to the Left on stuff like immigration in this last campaign, so its possible that he's genuinely shifted leftward in his views on policing.

Also, I personally think cutting the police's access to federal funding and military surplus would be more meaningful than cutting police wages. Having the same number of police, with the same access to military equipment, but paid less and therefore likely more resentful and under greater stress (and more motivated to abuse their powers for personal gain) seems like the worst of all possible worlds.

[mr friendly guy]

NSW Police are attempting to prevent the mass solidarity protest in Sydney on public health grounds.

What's the situation with COVID in NSW? Is it that bad it can justify it? Here in WA its looking pretty good and restrictions while still in place are much lessened.
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On another note, Trump finally built that wall. Around the White House that is. I doubt Mexico paid for it either.

[loomer]

Additional regime violence unfolds in Brooklyn. The governor of New York is denying the unnecessary use of force.

Remember, folks, this isn't just a Republican problem. This is white supremacist liberalism in action, and it exists on both sides of the party divide. Oh, and make no mistake - the curfews serve no purpose other than providing the police with a legitimizing cover for the violent dispersal of protests. They are not about protecting anyone, but about limiting the extent and scope of the protests through fear and violence. Cities that have relaxed or released their curfews are seeing less violence as a result.

Bernie also called for increasing police wages, so.

When did he do that?

Its possible that he's had a change of heart. Bernie was regrettably behind the curve on some forms of social justice compared to his positions on economic justice, but he also moved decidedly to the Left on stuff like immigration in this last campaign, so its possible that he's genuinely shifted leftward in his views on policing.

Also, I personally think cutting the police's access to federal funding and military surplus would be more meaningful than cutting police wages. Having the same number of police, with the same access to military equipment, but paid less and therefore likely more resentful and under greater stress (and more motivated to abuse their powers for personal gain) seems like the worst of all possible worlds.

Wednesday. Increasing funding to hire more, better cops is not the answer. Calls to defund aren't talking about cutting wages, either: they're talking about firing them and defunding street policing as a whole, not just slashing beat cop wages as a punishment.

NSW Police are attempting to prevent the mass solidarity protest in Sydney on public health grounds.

What's the situation with COVID in NSW? Is it that bad it can justify it? Here in WA its looking pretty good and restrictions while still in place are much lessened.
---------------------------------------
On another note, Trump finally built that wall. Around the White House that is. I doubt Mexico paid for it either.

Pretty much contained (that said, I think we're seeing the first trickle of the second wave start to show up in the numbers already), but I'm sympathetic to the argument that mass gatherings right now are a bad idea generally. That being said, NSW Police didn't seek court orders to prevent the shithead protestors arguing against the quarantine, so it's pretty clear their actual objection is not 'we have a plague on our hands' but rather trying to stifle opposition to police abuses and fear of what might happen after they brutalized a 16-year old Aboriginal kid by slamming his head into the pavement for talking shit just a few days ago and the footage emerged of a stripsearch of another 16-year old Aboriginal boy.

[The Romulan Republic]

Additional regime violence unfolds in Brooklyn. The governor of New York is denying the unnecessary use of force.

Remember, folks, this isn't just a Republican problem. This is white supremacist liberalism in action, and it exists on both sides of the party divide. Oh, and make no mistake - the curfews serve no purpose other than providing the police with a legitimizing cover for the violent dispersal of protests. They are not about protecting anyone, but about limiting the extent and scope of the protests through fear and violence. Cities that have relaxed or released their curfews are seeing less violence as a result.

Cuomo definitely has some authoritarian attitudes, yes.

Wednesday. Increasing funding to hire more, better cops is not the answer. Calls to defund aren't talking about cutting wages, either: they're talking about firing them and defunding street policing as a whole, not just slashing beat cop wages as a punishment.

While probably well-meaning, that seems disappointingly naive. Simply paying cops more won't result in better cops- Bernie should know better than anyone that having more money doesn't make you a better person. Only changing the whole structure and attitude toward policing will lead to better cops (and yeah, part of that is having fewer of them).

[loomer]

The bishop of the Church Trump used for his stunt can't get into it because he won't allow it.

Or, if we were talking about another country with America's human rights record...

'Despite repeated attempts to exploit sectarian tensions and religious extremists in the divided nation, the embattled President of the United States continues to alienate religious moderates.'

[loomer]

Regime forces in Portland are threatening to deploy LRADs or sound cannons of some kind. While billed as non/less-lethal, these weapons can cause permanent hearing damage after relatively brief exposure and balance problems in those exposed to them for longer periods - like, say, kettled protestors.

Remember, folks: Any appearance of 'balance' between the police and the people is false. The regime possesses a militarized police force with armoured vehicles and weapons specifically designed to injure the unarmoured bodies and minds of protestors. They are trained, armed, and prepared to perform violence on the behalf of the state.

[The Romulan Republic]

Senators Corey Booker and Kamala Harris have introduced legislation which includes stripping police of qualified immunity.

Like most other meaningful attempts at reform or justice, it'll probably never even get a vote as long as Moscow Mitch is majority leader, but that could change in a few months.

[loomer]

Protestors in Portland are repurposing fencing and barricades to surround the justice center.

[loomer]

Regime forces in Portland just opened fire with chemical weapons and capsaicin rounds to disperse a peaceful protest - again.

[The Romulan Republic]

ACLU has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Regime for violating protesters' civil liberties when it assaulted unarmed demonstrators in DC. Trump, Barr, and others are named.

[The Romulan Republic]

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has issued a letter to the leaders of the different branches of the armed forces, reminding them that they take oaths to the Constitution, and that Americans have a right to assembly and freedom of expression (source: CBC news):



Its rather two-faced, considering military forces have been deployed already against peaceful demonstrators, but at least the military leadership is signalling that there are limits to how far they will go in supporting Trump's crackdown, and even this modest, implied rebuke of the President by active military leaders is a break with how the US military normally operates.

[ray245]

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has issued a letter to the leaders of the different branches of the armed forces, reminding them that they take oaths to the Constitution, and that Americans have a right to assembly and freedom of expression (source: CBC news):



Its rather two-faced, considering military forces have been deployed already against peaceful demonstrators, but at least the military leadership is signalling that there are limits to how far they will go in supporting Trump's crackdown, and even this modest, implied rebuke of the President by active military leaders is a break with how the US military normally operates.

While Trump might be popular amongst the rank-and-file, the majority of the officer class seems to dislike him.

[The Romulan Republic]

Actually, his support among the rank-and-file has taken quite a beating too. Although he won the military vote by a wide margin in 2016, a number of his decisions are quite unpopular, and a poll by the Military Times of service members in late 2019 showed that it was possibly within a few points of the national average, with 42% approval and 50% disapproval. On impeachment poll respondents were split almost dead-even, with pro-impeachment service members eking out a 1% win at 47 to 46. Of course, a lot has happened since then, but its hard to imagine that recent events have improved his ratings, especially given Mattis's stance, and his popularity with the military (not to mention the Captain Brett Crozier firing scandal).

He remains, however, more popular among the military than Obama was, and it is true that his approval ratings are much worse with officers than with enlisted personnel, with only one third of officers rating him favorably:

https://businessinsider.com/trumps-appr ... ip-2019-12

President Donald Trump received a loud ovation when he participated in the coin toss ahead of Saturday's Army-Navy football rivalry game in Philadelphia. But troops' actual feelings about the commander in chief appear much more ambivalent in the latest Military Times survey.

Half of active-duty military personnel contacted in the poll held an unfavorable view of President Trump, showing a continued decline in his approval rating since he was elected in 2016.

Trump's 42% approval in the latest poll, conducted from October 23 to December 2, sets his lowest mark in the survey since being elected president. Some 50% of troops said they had an unfavorable view of him. By comparison, just a few weeks after his electoral victory in November 2016, 46% of troops surveyed had a positive view of the businessman-turned-politician, and 37% had a negative opinion.

But the latest numbers still leave Trump with a higher approval rating than former President Barack Obama when he left office in January 2017.

The numbers also show that Trump remains slightly more popular in the military community than among the American public as a whole. The latest Gallup poll had the president's disapproval rating among the public at 54%, and his approval at 43%.

Military Times Trump poll 1
Military Times
The poll surveyed 1,630 active-duty Military Times subscribers in partnership with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University. The numbers likely reflect a more career-minded subset of the military than the force as a whole, according to Peter Feaver, a former White House adviser to former President George W. Bush who is now a political science professor at Duke University.

"These are people for whom the morals and standards of the military mean a lot," he said. "The president has criticized those same career workers in the State Department and other agencies. So, it's possible they are more likely to be offended by the president than other parts of the military."

Still, Feaver said, the drop in Trump's popularity in the poll (conducted with the same parameters over the past four years) indicates growing dissatisfaction with Trump and his handling of several military issues.

When asked specifically about Trump's handling of military issues, nearly 48% of the troops surveyed said they had an unfavorable view of that part of his job, compared to 44% who believe he has handled that task well. That marks a significant drop from the 2018 Military Times poll, when 59% said they were happy with his handling of military issues, against 20% who had an unfavorable view.

In the time since the 2018 poll, Trump fired his popular former defense secretary, retired Marine Corps Gen. Jim Mattis. Trump also ordered a controversial and sudden withdrawal of US forces from Syria, and became the subject of impeachment hearings in the House over the delay of military assistance funding to Ukraine.

Also, in the days before the poll closed in December, Trump made the controversial decision to grant clemency to three warfighters accused of war crimes, a move that was opposed by many military leaders at the Pentagon.

"Over time, as the president has been involved with more controversial things connected to the military — whether it's the border wall or the pardons or the way that Secretary Mattis left — that has changed the view of him," said retired Marine Corps Col. Dave Lapan, who worked as a department spokesman during both the administrations of Trump and Obama.

"And they've seen more indications that he hasn't been a great commander in chief. So, they're moving closer to where the rest of the public is."

Military Times Trump poll 2
Military Times
Similar to past surveys, this poll showed significant gaps in views of the president among various subsets of the military.

Trump is far more popular with enlisted service members than with officers. Among the enlisted force, the recent survey showed a 43% favorable rating. For officers, however, only one-third responded with a positive view.

Military men appear to be more supportive of Trump compared to military women. Among men, the survey shows a 43% favorable view, while among women service members, 53% of women expressed a "very unfavorable" rating of Trump and 56% responded negatively.

The survey also shows a gap among white and non-white service members. Among whites, 46% of troops had a favorable view of the president, versus 45% with an unfavorable view. Yet among non-white service members nearly two-thirds responded with a negative view of him.

Some of the shift in military sentiments could be linked to the firing of Mattis, who a year after his dismissal still enjoys an exceptionally high — 86% — favorability rating among all service members in the poll.

Trump's replacement for Mattis, current Defense Secretary Mark Esper, does not inspire strong feelings one way or the other. Esper drew a 24% approval rating from troops and a 20% disapproval rating, with 56% saying they have no strong opinion of the Pentagon leader.

Military Times Trump poll 3
Military Times
Military decisions
Troops surveyed by Military Times offered generally upbeat assessments of Trump's steps in Afghanistan (59% said they approve of plans to negotiate with the Taliban and reduce troop levels there) and his promises to intervene less overseas (47% believe he will keep US forces out of another major military conflict).

Yet 58% of those polled said they disapprove of Trump's decision to withdraw US forces from northern Syria in the face of Turkish military advances.

When asked about Trump's decision to use military construction funds to build his controversial southern border wall, 59% said they disapprove of his decision. More than half rated current US relations with "traditional allies" like NATO as poor.

Lapan said he thinks those topics have had more resonance with troops than some of the controversies early in Trump's presidency, like his public spats with former prisoner of war Sen. John McCain.

"His comments with McCain were upsetting to a lot of folks, but it was probably more in the senior ranks," he said. "For junior troops, Mattis is much more popular. And these other decisions affect them. So they are changing their minds more."

Military Times Trump poll 4
Military Times
Troops were split evenly on the ongoing impeachment proceedings in Congress. In the poll, 47% said they back the impeachment, 46% said they were opposed. That's roughly the same breakdown as the rest of the American public.

Feaver called that an interesting and potentially problematic finding, given that Trump will still be commander in chief if he is impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.

"I'm sure senior leaders won't be happy seeing that half of them wanted him impeached, given the efforts to keep troops out of politics," Feaver said.

More than three-fourths of troops surveyed said they believe the military community has become more polarized in recent years, with about 40% saying they have seen significantly more division in the ranks.

Military Times Trump poll 5
Military Times
Still more popular than Obama
Military and veteran voters overwhelmingly backed Trump in the 2016 election, according to exit polls. And even with the dip in his popularity shown in the recent Military Times poll, Trump's support among troops remains higher than his predecessor when he left office.

When Obama left office in January 2017, a Military Times poll showed that 52% of troops had a negative opinion of him, against 36% with a positive opinion.

As negative as some of the views are in the poll toward Trump, they have not yet reached the levels of disapproval voiced by troops in the final military survey before Obama left office.

Then, service members blasted the Obama's decision to decrease military personnel (71% said end strength needed to grow after years of decreases) and questioned his moves to withdraw combat troops from Iraq (59% say it made America less safe).

In the latest poll, respondents identifying themselves as conservative (about one-third of the total) still outnumbered the liberals (almost one-quarter) by a significant margin.

And the poll shows a subtle shift toward more service members identifying as political independents, who now make up 45% of respondents, an uptick of 3% compared to the 2018 survey.

This year's survey saw an increase in the number of Democrats (about 3% more) and a decrease in the number of those who considered themselves members of the Republican or Libertarian parties (about 7% less, combined) from the 2018 survey.

Trump Afghanistan thanksgiving visit
President Donald Trump with a tray of Thanksgiving dinner during a surprise visit to troops at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, November 28, 2019. AP
Feaver said that breakdown may be more indicative of the Military Times readership than changes in the whole of the military. But he also said that the findings give an important insight into the armed forces that few other polls can reach.

"It's a useful thermometer of that segment of the military that is more career-minded," he said.

"We know the military tends to follow the general public but lag conservative. We know that Trump is not as popular with the general public as he has been, and that he hasn't really built upon his base. Now we're seeing that reflected in the military, too."

The annual Military Times readers survey is one of the only public metrics that evaluate the personal views of service members.

Defense Department does not conduct any public opinion polls on political issues and has significant restrictions on media access to service members for their personal opinions.

Our methodology
Between October 23 and December 2, Military Times in collaboration with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University conducted a voluntary, confidential online survey of US service members. Poll participants are readers of Military Times publications whose military status is verified through official Defense Department email addresses.

The survey included 28 questions on service members' opinions related to the current political climate, policy and national security in the United States.

The survey received 1,630 responses from active-duty troops. The IVMF used standard methodology to weight the results according to the rank, gender and service branch of the actual US military. The margin of error for most questions was roughly 2%.

Like most studies where participation is voluntary, the poll's sample is subject to self-selection bias. Researchers sought to account for that and adhered to generally accepted scientific practices analyzing the data.

The survey audience was 92% male and 8% female. The respondents identified themselves as 75% white, 14% Hispanic, 13% African American, 5% Asian and 5% other ethnicities. Respondents were able to select more than one race.

[loomer]

Anarchist street activists are reporting that the Portland police did in fact deploy their LRAD.

[loomer]

The Supreme Court has refused to allow tomorrow's protest in Sydney to proceed. If it goes on anyway I'll give it it's own thread.

[ray245]

The Supreme Court has refused to allow tomorrow's protest in Sydney to proceed. If it goes on anyway I'll give it it's own thread.

It is understandable considering how close Australia is to eradicating the virus.

[The Romulan Republic]

Speaking of COVID-19, George Floyd had tested positive for COVID-19 back in early April, so although he appears to have been asymptomatic, there's a small possibility that the officers who murdered him could have been exposed:

https://globalnews.ca/news/7024541/geor ... -covid-19/

There's a little bit of karmic justice in that, I suppose.

[ray245]

Speaking of COVID-19, George Floyd had tested positive for COVID-19 back in early April, so although he appears to have been asymptomatic, there's a small possibility that the officers who murdered him could have been exposed:

https://globalnews.ca/news/7024541/geor ... -covid-19/

There's a little bit of karmic justice in that, I suppose.

It's not good news for the people in prisons though. This is just going to increase exposure to the virus for them. And Flyod's family as well.

[loomer]

The mayor of DC will work to eject the National Guard from all hotels and is painting the roads with BLACK LIVES MATTER to fuck with Trump. I approve.

[loomer]

The bow wielding fuckhead from Salt Lake has been arrested and charged.

[madd0ct0r]

The mayor of DC will work to eject the National Guard from all hotels and is painting the roads with BLACK LIVES MATTER to fuck with Trump. I approve.

Teeth Sweat
@dabnisbrickey_
Replying to
@JamalJimoh
Exactly.

It’s a great metaphor for racism. You only can see it’s full scope on a grand scale.

Meanwhile most people will walk all over it and miss the bigger message.

[loomer]

They're also renaming part of the street to Black Lives Matter Plaza. It'll make Trump foam at the mouth but it is purely performative, and the Black leftists I follow are displeased by it.

[Gaid]

They're also renaming part of the street to Black Lives Matter Plaza. It'll make Trump foam at the mouth but it is purely performative, and the Black leftists I follow are displeased by it.

Trump is a fairly performative president. These are the kinds of pokes in the face that he's going to get and be bothered by.

Bowser has control of the budget with the Council. They're pushing for changes that, at the moment, Congress still has to approve passively. But that would only happen by the fall for the 2021 budget. So for all the clashing we've seen in the past week and a half its hard to predict that protests of this size and momentum going on until September. Whoever wants to bunker down and pressure Bowser and the Council from the inside, it's time to learn about lobbying.