It’s been years now and few of us have gotten used to Donald Trump refusing to pretend he’s anything other than a white supremacist inciting a violent cult of Nazis. He’s never hid who he is. There are no dog whistles, no subtext. It’s just TEXT. And it’s still unsettling. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis by four police officers, the cops were fired but they have been left uncharged and unarrested. People are justifiably angry about that. Peaceful protesters were tear-gassed earlier this week, and those protests turned into rioting and looting in the city. It’s because people feel unheard. People see that white men can murder a black man in broad daylight on the street and nothing will happen.
Of course I’m not saying I think the riots are “right,” but I understand how a city gets to this point, and how communities of color feel like the system will never work for them. But to Donald Trump, this is just the election year race war he’s always wanted. And now he’s ordering looters to be shot on sight. Twitter censored his tweets which is just… *chef’s kiss*
Ah, yes. “THUGS.” As opposed to the “very fine people” who were actual neo-Nazis. As opposed to the “very good people” who were armed MAGA dumbasses storming state capitol buildings just a few weeks ago:
A tale of two tweets pic.twitter.com/tSlGSpKofd
— Vasu Kulkarni (@Vasu) May 29, 2020
But yeah. Donald Trump is a racist Nazi. “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” will only make this situation worse. And he knows that. As I said, this is the “race war” he’s dreamt of for so long. And why haven’t the cops been arrested?
Regarding Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, he’s already called for the arrest of George Floyd’s killer, and he’s been doing emotional press conferences where he’s tried to make sure that his racially and culturally diverse city feels heard and seen. Mayor Frey was told about Trump’s tweets in a live press conference last night and this is what he said:
"Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your own actions. Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis. Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis." — Mayor Frey reacts to the president's tweets. pic.twitter.com/PVxfoH7yZw
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 29, 2020
They’d rather do all this than simply charge a killer who was caught on tape killing.
— Ashley Nicole Black (@ashleyn1cole) May 29, 2020
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
I cannot believe this is real. It’s literally watching Nero fiddle while Rome burns. Except Nero also has a gas can and is laughing in glee. And he’s only pouring the gas on black people.
He just retweeted the threat on the official White House account!
How is he allowed to post that on the official account?! And it’s on Facebook too. They better f-ing do something or they’re going to look soooo bad. I don’t understand why they haven’t been arrested if the Mayor is calling for it?
The district attorney decides who does and does not get arrested. This is why local elections are so important.
The legal term is “inciting to riot” and would land you or me in jail immediately.
@lightlurple, yes. He was told to take it down by Twitter and then reposted it on WH account. So he knows exactly what he is doing. And I do not believe a WORD of what he says. He didn’t know his quote was racist in roots??? Where is his team of PR and attorneys and the like? Makes me sick that he is in office.
Side note: Mayor of Minneapolis is a cutie.
Guys – I woke up this morning to browse CB and saw this. My first reaction was full of violence; I am one of those people who turn to rage and confrontation before even considering a more moderate approach. But to offer a very small piece of positive news because we all fucking need it today, here’s a HuffPost article:
Headline – Rank-And-File Republicans Turn On Trump In New Effort To Block His Reelection
“I’d vote for a tuna fish sandwich before I’d vote for Donald Trump again,” says one voter in the video testimonials.
Link: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republican-voters-against-trump_n_5ed09e83c5b6aeca900f0949
I haven’t watched any of the videos because I’m certain the reason why these people are turning against him will induce more anger, but at this point I will take what I can get. Not enemy of enemy is friend – they will never be my friend. But the fact that there are Republicans out there who want this shit out of office too, and are willing to spend the money to get the message out shows SOMETHING. These are Republicans targeting their own party in swing states and according to the article, plan to expand to other states also.
Awesome! This is such good news and a ray of hope that’s much needed.
@Lara, thank you because I needed something positive today. I am so tired and angry about our country that I am embarrassed of being an American. I also have dedicated to write 180 letters for the Vote Forward campaign. I am wanting to see if I can reach ONE voter to wake up on November 3rd., and make a commitment to vote on that day.
https://votefwd.org/
Agree, Seth. It is surreal! I don’t understand how tRump is allowed to do what he does. He is the most disgusting lump of protoplasm to ever exist, and he has to be stopped!
Trump is a racist nazi. Not news but so sad. Worst common denominator
Take-A-💩 wants soooo badly a CIVIL WAR, especially since he is a down-wrong (not right) reactionary a-hole. Also, he wants to have this country go through a PURGE-like condition. I bet that he wants both evil events to destroy and annihilate as many people–whom he personally HATES–in this country, if not only the planet.
I am very curious about the mental gymnastics people like Kanye West do to justify openly supporting this Piece of Shit in Office. Biden made a stupid joke that did not land- Trump os threatening to kill POC…and all In hear Kanye bitching about now is his billionaire status.
Just to be clear: i am using Kanye here as an example. I think black people can be conservative and Republican like Condoleeza Rice while not advocating for a naziesque president.
Kanye supports Trump because it gets him attention..and probably because Obama called him an idiot once. Kanye seems to suffer from the same narcissistic grand delusions that Trump does too.
Absolutely–they both have the same narcissim defects
You guys, I’m so sorry to know you have to endure this man. If can even be called that. He scares me, he’s doing his best to cause a civil war and that is the scaries thought I’ve had through this corona crisis. How can he not be stopped?
Frankly, lemonylips, every day since he was elected has been a waking nightmare. This does not feel like my country…I feel untethered and scared. 😢
I live in Minneapolis
I had to take a 50 dollar uber to work because they shut down the light rail and later on all of public transport
Trump can try it if he wants
Mwanwhile, the precinct of those fired 4 officers burned over night
And where was all this love for Minneapolis when Gov Walz shut down the state and Trump was egging on neckbeards on Twitter to proceed with lockdown protests
Protests by the way where whyyyte racists showed up in droves armed to the teeth unmasked and stormed the capital building and no one was arrested
This city has long needed to burn
That’s one of the things that really boggles my mind…armed white men showed up and stormed the capital building, and nothing happened! This whole situation is a mess, and here’s the actual PRESIDENT Tweeting threats like he’s studying a handbook from North Korea. My brain can’t comprehend this.
Stay safe, Oatmeal!
Law enforcement is a tool of white supremacy and oppression by design. Firing four racist cops doesn’t fix the system. It needs to be dismantled and rebuilt.
This isn’t about Trump. It’s about the people Trump can easily play to subjugate vulnerable people in the name of money and White supremacy, and it is the stain of the United States that was never cleaned after the Civil war ended. Police forces came into existence at that time to police freed Black people Whites feared would seek retribution against former slave owners. This needs to be repeated over and over in the media, and it is not, so U.S. citizens remain ignorant.
@Mac 💯 It’s so true! Riot Cops are not Peacekeepers or Law enforcers. Riot cops are a racist militarised force. This is not a drill. Black lives matter.
F**k the police.
Eek! Stay safe Oatmeal. I wish protesters would stick to attacking precincts and police cars and stop burning and looting businesses. I hope your work place isn’t a target (like literally, not the store Target, because that obviously was a target)
Property insurance is real, all of the building owners will be made whole. Life insurance is fake, George Floyd will remain dead.
@Oatmeal, see, that’s what I don’t understand! I was writing a comment on a news article weeks ago about those homegrown terrorists, that’s what I think they are, that stormed the Michigan capital with assault rifles and no masks and no one was arrested! Why??? But Drumpf declares that these fine people just want the Michigan governor to reopen the state and they are frustrated. That’s a show of his idiotic minions doing his bullying for him, yet he didn’t actively pursue Iowa/Ohio since they are considered strong election determination states. Then a week or so later, a phone carrier showed the travels of these idiotic minions and most were not Michigan residents. This resulted in the minions taking potential new COVID cases back to their home towns/cities.
Great post and please stay safe. Thank you also for neckbeards…I am so stealing that one.
Second of all, the bulk of the protests have been in St Paul and St Paul suburbs
Dumbass cant even get that right
I live in Minneapolis in Uptown, and the majority of the protests / riots have been in South Minneapolis. The looting has gone all the way down Lake Street to Uptown, where I live. Though there is rioting and looting in St. Paul, South Minneapolis has been the hardest hit. Right now as I sit in my apt I can hear helicopters and sirens.
I live in Minneapolis in Uptown, and the majority of the protests / riots have been in South Minneapolis. The looting has gone all the way down Lake Street to Uptown, where I live. Though there is rioting and looting in St. Paul, South Minneapolis has been the hardest hit. Right now as I sit in my apt I can hear helicopters and sirens.
I’m not surprised. This is who he IS, WAS and ALWAYS will be. Fuck everyone that voted for him. He’s always been up front about who he was and White Americans still chose to vote for him. Fuck the GOP. This man is dismantling democracy and they’re letting it happen because “their man” is in office. This whole country needs to go up in flames. I’m tired. Everyone is damn lucky black people and POC haven’t inflicted 1/10th of the violence they’ve been met with for their entire existence.
“Everyone is damn lucky black people and POC haven’t inflicted 1/10th of the violence they’ve been met with for their entire existence”
^^This. A million times this.
Yes. Absolutely.
Thank you very much for including the two tales
– THUGS for one group
– GOOD People for another group
Welcome to the double standards of orange man…………he has been looking for something like this for a while because he is only thinking about getting re-elected.
I don’t think I have despised a US president as much as I despise Trump; when I think compared to him, Bush Jr looks sane, isn’t that incredible?
I hope Biden shows leadership here; if not am I might wrong to want Obama to say something to soothe the nation?
This is not the double standard of the orange man, this is the double standard of our society.
Agreed, Mac. The issue is not Trump. The issue is that the people who voted for him wanted what they wanted.
The Trump voters who say that they can’t stand him but voted for him anyway (Mitch McConnell Republicans) did it for money in the stock market that doesn’t help most Americans; most Americans don’t have the money to invest, and the ones who work for those companies are exploited to make money for investors. The true believers (Rush Limbaugh/Tami Laughrens) want to maintain power for White supremacy and to remove or continue to subjugate minorities, Black people and Mexican/South Americans in particular. They were feeling threatened by the statistics that said that minorities were close to being the majority, and Trump speaks to them.
This isn’t about Trump. It’s about the people Trump can easily play to subjugate vulnerable people in the name of money and White supremacy.
Obama should say something. Biden should say something. Freaking AMY KLOBUCHAR should walk down the streets of Minneapolis/St. Paul with a megaphone. And Keith Ellison, attorney general of Minnesota, should have the cops arrested. Mr. Ellison was on Rachel’s show last night and equivocated, I nearly threw my martini at the TV.
Obama is not the clean up man for racial injustice. They should arrest the four cops.
President Obama just made this statement.
https://twitter.com/barackobama/status/1266400635429310466?s=21
Tears for what he has written. Obama will always be my president. I followed the Trayvon Martin case to it’s end, following the family attorney, Benjamin Crump on Twitter. I understand, the majority of us in this country want this to stop.
He’s already whining about being forced to comply with the Twitter rules he voluntarily agreed to accept again this morning and tossing in his racism against China on top of it. How dare Twitter uphold its TOS rules on violence against a President actually threatening to shoot Americans? This will be a very long Friday until he finally heads down to Florida this afternoon. Anyone else hoping it rains like crazy tomorrow and that rocket launch gets canceled again?
I’m in for the cancellation and I refuse to watch if it does launch. Drumpf has always been a PT Barnum, snake oil salesman, loser. He attempts to compensate by bullying. He’s up against the big guys again, watch for the fail.
Fker needs to be banned from Twitter forever. At the very least.
He just now retweeted the threat on the official White House account.
I cannot recall who tweeted about this earlier this week, but someone suggested that turning up the oversight of the personal account might solve the crazier tweeting. Reason being, this person thought he would not post the more vile things on the office’s official site.
Obviously their theory was incorrect.
I took a sleeping pill late last night, and I woke up very foggy. I still can’t really get my mind around what happened overnight. Our President is encouraging open season on black Americans. I am surprised Dorsey hasn’t folded. I guess that a man finally not kneeling to trump is the only surprise here. But god I’m sick to my stomach.
1. the murderer has to go to prison for a long, long, long time. he’s a psycho. there was a crowd around him and he didn’t even hesitate. that’s murder in cold blood. 2. I’m afraid someone else will get hurt in this protest. I really hope the violence doesn’t keep escalating. make the murderer pay. protect people and the city of minneapolis. if anybody else gets hurt by military or in the protest, the tragedy will be even greater. all of this is scary.
And to think he had 18 complaints against him prior to this and he was still on active duty! And then even after a video clearly shows him murdering a man, he’s still not been arrested! And then this insult of a president is still out here doing the vilest most…I’m just glad Dorsey has decided to check his bullshit…if only Zuckerberg could grow some balls too!
I didn’t know about the complaints. this shows all that’s wrong with the people in power. they protect the bad ones among themselves and put the whole society at risk. police exists for protection. not so people would have to protect themselves from them. that problem exists wherever you go. it’s just unbelievable.
“The former Minneapolis police officer seen in a video with his knee on George Floyd’s neck had 18 prior complaints filed against him with the Minneapolis Police Department’s Internal Affairs, according to the police department.” – via CNN.
Yet, he hasn’t still been arrested!
Mofo shows his true colors yet again. Yellow all the way through. With the KKK headpiece.
Trump just now had the official White House @TheWhiteHouse account copy & tweet the same threat to shoot Americans that Twitter flagged last night. If you are on Twitter, please report that Tweet for threatening violence
The damage that this man has done to America will take light-years to undo! The first may just become the last…unless he’s booted off in November!
I’ve reported it. I report a lot of his tweets, for all the good it does. I plan to forward it to most of his enablers in the Senate:
Thank you Jerusha…deleted my Twitter account a while back cos I just couldn’t deal with a lot of the stupidity…but I’d have done same if I still had my account. Please, all those on Twitter, report, report, report!!!
And Twitter has put up a flag on The White House tweet too! He’s now complaining about it on both accounts. Twitter is not playing!
He is now retweeting crap from his personal account to the POTUS account, which means these will be archived for history.
He’s pretty much daring Twitter to kick him out.
interesting. he keeps upping the ante, and they keep calling his bluff.
I HOPE HOPE HOPE that they boot him, or at least suspend the accounts. he wouldn’t know what to do with himself and would likely call a presser and have an EPIC meltdown for the camera.
please, twitter/Dorsey…DO IT!!!
That might actually be good for the future as far as future democratic arguments in congress, actually. Use POTUS arguments against republicans and the fact that none of them stood up against the obvious threats of violence. This might come in handy when it comes to things like gun protection, presidential interference, things like that. It’s now a part of the official record. If he’s gonna do it anyway the make it official and then use the f-ers words against him and other wingnuts in the future when they make horrible decisions and nobody on the right has the balls to step up and say anything.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but his presidential order may actually turn out to the country’s benefit in the long run. If Facebook and Twitter can be held to the fire over what’s put on their platform, they’ll get far more serious about cracking down on abuses – which may decentralize their power structure. It would literally undo the very system that helped get him into office.
Trump seems to be going out of his way to show that the purpose of police/military is not to protect citizens but to impose order for the elite. It’s heartbreaking. What will it take for Black lives to matter?
According to the Washington Post, even the people with dozens of automatic weapons in their basements think he’s dangerous:
Even the Oath Keepers, a right-wing militia group, urged Trump to retract his statement, citing concerns that the tweet could be seen as encouraging the National Guard to “shoot people for stealing.”
“This is a disaster,” the group tweeted from their official account. “President Trump needs to retract that statement ASAP, stating that he misspoke & did not mean to say that National Guard should shoot people for stealing.”
Link to Google’s non-paywall version of article:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/29/trump-minneapolis-twitter-protest/%3FoutputType%3Damp?fbclid=IwAR1-_AGt1o4mHnEgnV_ZXo-3Rk7wCdJlUDJ68L6Fs0gGNzcyuXgkYbzb4OA
When crazy right-wingers think you’re crazy, then guess what? You’re crazy. Trump needs to go. Please November, get here quickly.
I want him removed from office before we vote. A menace to all of us, continually violating humanity.
Mr. Floyd and Chauvin both worked as security guards at the bar. Their shifts overlapped according to the owner who had sold the bar a few months ago.
Chauvin also appeared on stage at a Trump rally and was photographed wearing a hat that read “Make America White Again.”
If it can be proven there was a personal motivation, would that make it Murder One?
Not to defend Chauvin, he is a reprehensible excuse for a human being, but those photos were determined to be someone else – someone who is retired law enforcement from Minnesota and probably knows Chauvin, but they weren’t Chauvin.
I’m wondering if there are witnesses, other workers at the bar, who may come forward and confirm some animosity that we haven’t heard about. Or maybe they didn’t know each other at all and Chauvin is just a vile piece of garbage.
I feel so sick over all this, I can’t believe what this country has turned into, mostly because Trump breeds this type of racism and hatred.
This always existed. People have camera phones and social media to document it now.
Neo-Nazis hitting people with cars and inciting violence are “fine people”.
Armed, mostly white demonstrators who yelled at police because they’re angry they can’t get haircuts are “good people”.
Unarmed protesters reacting to injustice are “THUGS” and deserve military action.
Three weeks ago, a group of white men strolled around downtown Raleigh with a grenade launcher, pistols and rifles to “protest” the shutdown orders during a PANDEMIC. One fellow even stopped a black family to give them a Sieg Heil.
I am so ashamed to be an American right now.
I’m crushed. Devastated. So angry. After what he’s done to this country, Washington continues to see no evil, speak no evil or hear no evil. Those pack of shitless wonders are letting our country burn and a mad man lead the way. Those despicable cops need to be behind bars. The President needs to be eradicated. Why is nobody doing anything? Why are we writing about this? Why are we watching downward spirals unfold while people who could actually do something watch with us. From the sidelines. Doing absolutely nothing. There are three branches of government. One is BREAKING the nation. Why aren’t the other two SAVING the nation?
Right. BUT. These atrocities are happening under their watch. This is what makes me angriest, they’re doing nothing. Occasionally one or two give lip service. We’re supposed to swallow that 535 people charged with running the country are complicit with its demise? Where are the adults in the room? Is EVERYONE wearing diapers and shaking rattles?
One of the other two (the judiciary) has been overrun by the orange one with his goons put in place even to the Supreme Court. They are more concerned with ‘Obamagate’ at the moment! The other (the legislature) is made up of two parts that are at loggerheads, thanks to the orange one. So while Camp Pelosi tried its best to do things right, Camp McConnell pulls in the other direction and rubbishes whatever gains could have been made…hence, impeachment and no-impeachment!!!
As if he cares about George’s memory. To him all black and brown people are thugs. What Twitter needs to do is get rid of him. I’m sure he can find a place on the dark web to spout his nonsense.
Twitter would be a nicer place without agent orange.
Nothing has changed since the days of Rodney King. Nothing.
I was thinking that exact same thing last night as I tossed and turned. Our country is so very broken and has been for a very long time, long before Rodney King even. Since its founding, I’d say.
US Constitutional question: would it ever be possible to sentence a current or past President to death for either inciting violence that ends up in mass murder, or for being responsible for the deaths of 100,000+ Americans?
I’m not a Constitutional Law expert- anyone else with more experience, please correct any inaccuracies.
I wrote a long reply to this which I didn’t save, but the gist of it is: we don’t know. In US history, a sitting or former president has never been sentenced for crimes committed while in office. Richard Nixon resigned and immediately afterward, Gerald Ford pardoned him for any and all crimes he may have committed. Otherwise, the country would have had to grapple with the issue.
Then there is the death penalty aspect, which is an extremely complicated topic in and of itself. First, it’s not clear that what you describe is a one of the crimes which allows for a death sentence. The closest thing I can think of might be domestic terrorism. I don’t know anything about prosecution with respect to terrorism, nor am I familiar with its case law. I can see how it seems obvious to someone looking at the chain of events, but it’s not immediately clear to me that there is enough ironclad, incontrovertible proof- which is what you would need to convict him. Trump has inspired others to commit hate crimes in his name with his inflammatory speech, but is that enough to say he is responsible for orchestrating (not merely encouraging) acts of terror?
Capital punishment is also a sentence that can only be decided by a jury, and it must be unanimous. If prosecution recommended the death penalty after Trump was impeached and convicted, the jury here would be the Senate. They would never sentence him to death (for the things you mentioned, and even possibly for more egregious crimes- eg if he were feeding state secrets to Russia and thus committing treason).
Second is the fact that there is tension between federal and state policies on the death sentence; some states have capital punishment, others don’t. If Trump were sentenced to death, it would without doubt be appealed, and the question would very likely go up to the Supreme Court, who would basically have to issue a judgment regarding whether capital punishment violates the 8th amendment. Conservatives favor capital punishment- but would the current conservative court decide the sentence stands when the guilty party is the former president? I have no idea.
So the answer to your question is that it is hypothetically possible, but in reality, in the current situation and political climate? No.
What’s truly enraging is that an undercover police officer was caught on camera smashing windows at the auto zone in an effort to incite a riot. Look it up, his name is Jacob Pederson, of the Saint Paul police. Disgusting that the police tried to discredit the protesters like this
There is video evidence that the fires and property damage are being started by undercover cops. They are slowly being identified.
Protesters are protesting violence, police are creating destruction to thwart them.
It wouldn’t surprise me if it were Chauvin’s KKK-Cop Compadres trying to muddy the waters and create sympathy for their friend and cause, before he gets arrested.
My dad went into an actual depression after Hillary Clinton lost the election. At the time I thought it was an overreaction and some wonky brain chemistry. Turns out he knew what was coming…
I voted for Hillary. Avoided the media the next day, hoping that there was a mistake and she actually won. Found out that this was not happening. Proceeded to stop reading newspapers and watching news for the next 6 months. I did not want to hear anything about the orange pinhead.
Twitter hasn’t taken it down, but put a disclaimer on the White House twitter that it violates its terms of service!
It amazes me how people can be surprised or even shocked that Trump would want to deploy the military on the protesters. And YES, he’s all for using violence on HIS OWN PEOPLE. This idiot idolizes Putin and Kim Jong Un — two dictators who have the military at their disposal. He wants what they have — the ability to “rule” the U.S. in fear with everyone kowtowing to his orange thin skinned persona.
I seriously don’t know how much longer this can go on – when will Trump be declared unfit for office and removed?
I think we need a new amendment to the Constitution, the Twitter clause: Wherein any President whose tweets violate the Twitter rules about glorifying violence shall forthwith be removed from office, permanently and with utmost haste.
This has become a nightmarish world! Everywhere you look there’s destruction and death. And the “president” does nothing but inflame the hatred by shooting the thugs? Trump failed at everything he’s done…yet will never take responsibility and will continue to blame others. I can’t wait until November when the one true power I have is to vote him out of office.
I live in a St. Paul suburb and I read in today’s St. Paul newspaper that a Target and strip mall about 3-1/2 miles from me was damaged last night. This is too close for comfort. I’m devastated by the death but hope the violence ends now.
I just saw a list of all of the businesses that were damaged, and my compounding pharmacy in the Midway-area of St. Paul, where many places were destroyed, was totally burned down.
I lived in St Paul for many, many years right near Lexington and Selby. It’s heartbreaking seeing the places that formed my everyday life and community for years being destroyed.
Remember this feeling. This is what black people and people of color feel every day as people from their communities are murdered or arrested and sent into the prison pipeline. Human beings vs buildings.
Buildings can be rebuilt. Lives can never be brought back.
Please stop trying to take focus away from the horrific murder of a human being.
I do not care about Target, Karen.
Trump threatens to shoot people.
Biden called and offered sympathy to the Floyd family.
Trump’s 2 o’clock press conference was just delayed because Mike Freeman, the prosecutor in Minneapolis, just interrupted with his own conference to charge Chauvin with murder.
Taylor Swift denounced decisiveness and racism and white supremacy and trump in one tweet. She said a mouthful!
Fortunately by the time this murdering cop gets convicted Trump won’t be in office to pardon him.
I fully support the protestors but I’m worried that all these mass gatherings are going to cause a huge spike in covid19 infections.
Just had to get that little lefty jab in there, didn’t you? Fuck him.
America is collapsing under the weight of its disease.
Has he thought of maybe being presidential? Does he think that that could help?