On today’s BradCast, we start with comments from the Administration’s Defense Secretary on Friday: “While no one condones looting, on the other hand, one can understand the pent-up feelings that may result from decades of repression.” Well, that was compassionate. Unfortunately, the Friday in question was on April 11, 2003 and the DefSec at the time was Donald Rumsfeld. He was speaking about the looting that took place in Baghdad after the U.S. invaded Iraq. [Audio link to full show is posted below.]
Back then, apparently, Republicans were able to find common ground with “looters” who, as Rummy lectured the media at the time, were in a transitional phase on their way to freedom. “Stuff happens,” in such situations, he said, dismissing the “looting” of priceless artifacts as anything worth being concerned about. Today, the Trump Administration was discussing “dominating” American cities with overwhelming military force to quash largely peaceful demonstrations in support of George Floyd, the 46-year old African-American who was killed by Minneapolis police officers last week after having his neck crushed by an officer for almost nine minutes after allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill.
Since last week’s horrific video-taped killing of Floyd, police have been attempting to “dominate” demonstrators with tear gas, rubber bullets, arrests and other forms of violence, including against more than 100 journalists attempting to do their First Amendment-protected jobs of reporting to the American people about what is going on. (Are they “enemies of the people” or something?)
Had America not been America, the dystopian police state of armed warriors “dominating” citizens amid ethnic unrest would have been reported very differently by the Western Media outlets, as Karen Attaiah, Global Opinions editor for the Washington Post, brilliantly illustrated in her must-read column on Friday. We cover all of that and just some of the police-instigated violence and death across the country — in state after state — as well as the damage instigated by provocateurs (white ones, who were anything but civil rights activists), as looting and some fires were played in endless loops during the cable and local TV news “Protest Porn” all weekend long.
After a fairly righteous rant on all of the above — and some late-breaking news on new curfews tonight here in Los Angeles, national guard troops in its streets, and citizens being targeted by cops on their own front porches — we open up the phone lines to hear from listeners about what they saw and how they see it.
As Rumsfeld proved in 2003, people see the same things very differently from each other, depending on how they are invested and how the information is presented to them by media. In other words, tune in. Today’s show is not an easy one to summarize as the American Carnage amid the Trump Era continues to worsen, with no end in sight…
… closer … closer … (Will The Military Become The Police? – 13) … ???
Hi Brad – I’ve been trying to email you the below email but your junk filter keeps rejecting my emails to you. Anyway, here it is:
Subject: The National Guard
Hi Brad — I was glad to hear your positive comments about the National Guard in Cali on the show last night. Good to know. There has been a lot of stories on social media about the Guard in different states behaving badly and adding to the violence. I saw the video of the Minnesota National Guard in Minneapolis actually shooting crowd dispersing bullets at people who were standing on their own doorsteps, and they had big armored tanks too in residential areas, and body armor. I guess the Guard is different in every state. It sure is different in my state!
The National Guard was called up here in Washington state by Governor Inslee a month ago to help out. They are all local and very different from the guard in the horror stories on line. They do NOT carry weapons or drive tanks. For weeks they have been assisting at food banks and in phone work for contact tracing. They have been helping responders with the Covid-19 crisis as well. Since the demonstrations, they have been deployed, unarmed, to stand in front of buildings and try and deescalate confrontations, prevent violence and in general, help people on the street supporting peaceful demonstrators. Our National Guard is not doing any policing at all. They actually help. They are Washingtonians and most years they do search and rescue in the wilderness and firefighting. This year they are vital in helping with the covid response and now with the demonstrations. They are what a state’s national guard SHOULD be.
Cheers — Susan in Western Washington (4earth)