Every dictatorship in history has begun with a strongman (not necessarily a “strong man”), assuring the populace that he is interested only in protecting the people, usually from “outsiders.”
Most dictators are psychopaths, who are interested only in themselves, believing as they do that the entire world revolves around them.
He also is a dictator wannabe, who already has indicated he is ready, willing, and able to send in his military to maintain his version of “Law and Order.”
He is begging you for the opportunity.
To protect your America, you must not give it to him.
Dictators seldom sieze power. The people give it to them.
STAFF NEWS & ANALYSIS
Here’s What the Revolution will Look Like
By Joe Jarvis – June 10, 2020
In 2018, the Pentagon held a “War Game” depicting a scenario where the military would be deployed against the American people.
The Pentagon imagined a disenfranchised Generation Z, strapped with college debt and no opportunities.
They have lost faith in the American Dream, and believe the system is rigged against them.
So they rise up.
To be clear, the scenario is fictitious, and shouldn’t be interpreted as being based on real intelligence. However, the Pentagon tries to make the War Game scenarios realistic.
And it certainly identifies real reasons why people are pissed off at the establishment.
“The system”, from the Federal Reserve to the Police State, has kept people under the thumb of the government, and their corporate cronies.
The US military clearly thinks this is along the lines of the threats they will face over the next decade. The exercise material details the scenario:
In early 2025, a cadre of these disaffected Zoomers launch a protest movement. Beginning in “parks, rallies, protests, and coffee shops” — first in Seattle; then New York City; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Las Vegas; and Austin — a group known as Zbellion begins a “global cyber campaign to expose injustice and corruption and to support causes it deem[s] beneficial.”
During face-to-face recruitment, would-be members of Zbellion are given instructions for going to sites on the dark web that allow them to access sophisticated malware to siphon funds from corporations, financial institutions, and nonprofits that support “the establishment.”
The gains are then converted to Bitcoin and distributed to “worthy recipients” including fellow Zbellion members who claim financial need…
Gen Z’s most militant members have essentially taken to privately taxing large corporations and other institutions to combat income inequality or, as the war gamers put it, using the “cyber world to spread a call for anarchy.”
Now here we are in 2020, and sadly the military being used against the American people has become a distinct possibility.
Protesters, who claim they have the support of the businesses within the area, have set up roadblocks, and occupied an abandoned police precinct.
Police and National Guard units pulled out of the area, though helicopters are still monitoring the situation. Police barricades and walls have been used by protesters to create a defensive traffic flow through the area. There are reports of armed citizens guarding the entrances to the area.
The police department sign has been altered to read “People Department.”
Donald Trump is capable of seizing on this as an excuse to order his military to “prevent looting and to keep the peace.”
It is exactly how dictatorships are built. They begin with your anger at the government and a feeling of helplessness.
Then the anger is stoked by a dictator-in-waiting, who blames the media and “outside agitators” for all your troubles.
Then the dictator steps in because he is “the only one” who can bring peace to you and your nation.
The result is indeed peace, but a kind of peace you do not want — it is a heavy-handed, deadly peace that comes with the elimination of your civil rights.
Trump has made no secret of his ambitions. He doesn’t even make a secret of his lies.
So long as his own political party does not have the morals or courage to call him out, Trump will continue to lie with impunity.
His followers will engage in “Whataboutism” attempting to normalize the outrageous.
Today, Trump defends the Gestapo officer policeman, a man who already had multiple complaints against him, and who unnecessarily pushed down an elderly man, nearly killing him.
Trump’s defense consists of the usual lies and false accusations about the elderly man being an “agent provocateur,” “the Fake media,” “outsiders,” and the “antifa,” a so-called “organization” that does not even exist as an organization. (It simply describes diverse people all of whom have only one thing in common: They oppose fascisim. No wonder Trump hates them.)
And here come Trump’s usual, invented conspiracy accusations against the Democrats, Hillary, Obama, George Soros, and the Washington Post, and the New York Times.
This all may seem quite new and exciting to the people who hate the government and blacks, but living in America, they don’t truly understand the horrors of dictatorship.
They yearn for someone to protect them from immigrants and people whose ancestors came from “shithole” countries, as Trump promises.
And then come the wealthy, who see Trump as the man who can provide compliant slave labor for the factories — low-wage workers who dare not protest harsh working conditions or bigotry lest they be violently attacked by a cruel military.
Trump is singing a very familiar siren song. We have heard it so many times before, down through history, it is a wonder anyone still is fooled.
Those who believe him will see their lives and dreams shattered by a terrible reality they never had anticipated.
Protestors should be careful not to go so far as to provide Trump with the excuse he craves. March, protest, speak, write letters, but do not attack police or destroy property.
You need allies, but rioting and property destruction will give you enemies. It’s what Trump hopes you will do.
And in November, you know what to do.
VOTE.
Be prepared for the GOP first to try to deny you the vote.
Then, Trump will deny his defeat, claim the election was rigged, and in the two months from the election date to the inauguration date, attempt to seize the Presidency using his command of the armed forces.
Don’t let it happen. Your America is on the brink. Dictators seldom seize power. The people give it to them.
Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.Implementation of Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
The thrust of both posts was the money bail for criminal accusations is an example of bigotry, primarily against people of color, but more generally, against the poor and middle-income groups.
Today, we see another example:
Bond raised to $1M in Floyd’s death
By Steve Karnowski Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — A judge on Monday set $1 million bail for a Minneapolis police officer charged with second-degree murder in George Floyd’s death.
Derek Chauvin, 44, said almost nothing during an 11-minute hearing in which he appeared before Hennepin County Judge Denise Reilly on closed-circuit television from the state’s maximum security prison in Oak Park Heights.
His attorney, Eric Nelson, did not contest the bail — raised from the $500,000 initially set in the case — and didn’t address the substance of the charges, which also include third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
The ostensible purpose of a money bail bond is to assure the accused will return for trial. The money supposedly provides an incentive for appearance. And presumably, if he does appear, the money the money would be returned.
Using that as a rationale, explain why the $500,000 bond was increased to $1 million, and later to $1.2 million.
The answer is that the judge considered Chauvin to be a flight risk, and so probably:
Will be unable to raise that much money or
Will be loathe to skip out on that much money.
If a bondsman is used, he will act as a bounty hunter, assisting in the capture of a fleeing felon.
If #1, then clearly the judge wanted to keep Chauvin in jail, so he made the bond so high that in his opinion, no police officer could raise that much.
But why? Is Chauvin a flight risk? Is he a danger to the community? If so, the more rational alternative would have been just to deny bail, which judges do all the time.
Why make it dependent on ability to pay? Does raising it from $500 thousand to $1 million make him less of a flight risk? Does it make him less a danger?
If #2, the reality is that the money will not be returned, at least in its entirety. The average person cannot raise that amount from family and friends, so he will use a bondsman. But before bond money is returned, the bondsman will deduct certain fees, beginning with a 10%-15% fee.
Theoretically, bail has a merciful aspect. Trials can take a long time, and if the accused is found innocent, he will not have spent time in jail for a crime he did not commit. But, as we have shown, the full amount of bail never is returned.
A bondsman might keep some. The jurisdiction might keep some. A $1 million bond might result in only a half million returned, if that.
If #3 above, the opportunity for uncontrolled, untrained, ruthless bounty hunters should be considered obsolete, a relic of the lawless West.
All of the above indicate weaknesses in the bail system, but the real weakness is it is so manifestly unfair.
While judges supposedly take “ability-to-pay” into consideration, the reality is that the very wealthy rarely are unable to make whatever bail is authorized, while the poor seldom are.
More importantly, bail is a punishment without trial, not for having committed a crime, but rather for having been accused of committing a crime.
An accused suffers plenty of punishment, even without bail. He is arrested, must go before a judge, often must pay for an attorney, often must spend some time in jail, and there is the public humiliation.
To additionally impose the costs of bail seems to violate all norms of fairness, especially for an innocent accused.
Our justice system has no answer for that. Under any legal system, merely being accused imparts some measure of punishment. But for the innocent, it is a nightmare.
It could happen to you. It could happen to me. So at the very least, we should seek ways to prevent the innocent from being unduly punished.
I disagree with the entire bail concept. A person should be kept in jail for only two reasons: If he is a real flight risk and/or a danger to the community.
In both cases, he merely should be kept in jail, rather than the rich being allowed to post bond while the poor languish.
The American system of “innocent-until-proven-guilty” should preclude bail, for bail too-often constitutes punishment of the innocent.
Infamous Ferguson, MO debtors’ prison.
The “innocent-until-proven-guilty” concept also extends to wealth. Are people who can afford bail more innocent than people who cannot?
Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.Implementation of Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
It depends on management. Some companies have been able to deal with the service problems associated with COVID-19. Other companies have overpaid management that is completely flummoxed by anything that requires new thinking.
Smaller businesses have been especially creative, probably because the owners’ livelihoods depend on their problem solving.
For a large company like A.T.&T., the main thought of upper management seems to revolve around how to avoid blame, how to get more perks and stock options, and how to get into and decorate a more prestigious office.
Here is just the first 2+ hours of my chat with the A.T.&T. chat bot. It demonstrates why this these ladies and gentlemen . . .
. . . .have such wonderful jobs.
Some of them might be quite intelligent and energetic, perky, shiny and (88%) white.
But as a group, they long may have avoided the undue stress involved in problem-solving, particularly as it involves listening to customers.
Or, perhaps their website tech is deficient, and none of the above people have even bothered to run through the site, as a customer might, to see how it works. (“Not my job.”)
I have worked with S&P 500 executives. Their problem is this: As leaders of big firms, indeed like most rich people, they’ve lost the ability to actually do anything.
They have people for that. So, they are four levels divorced from reality.
If I were to send a complaint letter to Mr. Stephenson, the odds of him answering it are similar to the odds of me being hit on the head by a meteor carrying a winning lottery ticket.
At best, in the unlikely event the letter actually made it to Stephenson’s desk, he would have his secretary send it down to the 3rd VP in charge of Customer Brush-offs, who in turn would flip it to the Junior executive of Credible Excuses, and from there to land in the Stock Apology office, where a form letter would emerge, addressed to Madam Robdert Milchel, telling me how sorry they are for doing something that has nothing whatever to do with my complaint.
And that’s at best.
By contrast, I hired a small firm to clean out some water that had leaked into our basement. They did a nice job, but failed to do one thing. I called the owner, and he immediately sent out two men to fix the problem. Bing bang bong.
A large firm and its management can do a terrible job for many years, while still surviving (Hello, Sears Roebuck). Small firms give good service or die quickly.
Sadly, when we have financial emergencies, the large companies have leverage to obtain support from the federal government, while small companies are left to die.
An enlightened government would do the opposite. It would support small business first. That conceivably could happen with a liberal administration; it’s impossible with a conservative administration, with only two exceptions: If the small company were owned by a church or a gun manufacturer.
In any event, here are the first two+ hours of the chat session. I finally disconnected at 3:45PM.
My guess: If I hadn’t logged off, it still would be assuring me that “I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.”
And, of course these days, the all purpose excuse for bad service is COVID-19. I’m sure you have been given that excuse more than once. I didn’t wait for that.
P.S. After I finally logged off the A.T.&T. site, I discovered a phone number, and eventually connected to someone in India or Pakistan, who promised to help me — I think — if I understand what he told me.
Today
Thank you for choosing to chat with us. An agent will be with you shortly.
Hey There! I’m your friendly chatbot assistant.
Info – 1:19 PM
What kind of service can I help you find today?
Service for my Home
ChatBot – 1:19 PM
I am looking for residential service.
You – 1:19 PM
Thank you! Now, are you an existing customer?
Yes
ChatBot – 1:19 PM
Yes, I am a current AT&T Customer.
You – 1:19 PM
Great. Are you moving, looking to add a service, or do you want to change your existing service?
Moving
Add Service
Change Existing Service
ChatBot – 1:19 PM
I’d like to change my existing service.
You – 1:20 PM
For help changing your existing service, please Click Here
Is there anything else I can help you with today? Would you like to start over?
Yes
No
ChatBot – 1:20 PM
Yes, I’d like to start over.
You – 1:20 PM
What kind of service can I help you find today?
Service for my Home
Service for my Business
Customer Support
ChatBot – 1:20 PM
Customer Support
You – 1:20 PM
Great! We love assisting our valued customers! Let’s get you to the right place.
I’m Moving
Change Existing Service
Billing or Tech Support
Change or Cancel Installation
ChatBot – 1:20 PM
I have a billing or tech support related question
You – 1:20 PM
For billing or technical support related questions, please Click Here
Is there anything else I can help you with today? Would you like to start over?
Yes
No
ChatBot – 1:20 PM I have a question about my bills.
You – 1:21 PM
Sorry, I didn’t catch that.
Is there anything else I can help you with today? Would you like to start over?
Yes
No
ChatBot – 1:21 PM I have a question about my bills.
You – 1:21 PM
Sorry, I didn’t catch that.
Is there anything else I can help you with today? Would you like to start over?
Yes
No
ChatBot – 1:21 PM
WTF!
You – 1:21 PM
One moment
Here is a link
ChatBot – 1:22 PM
My home # is ***-***-**** I also have a phone in Florida and an Apple phone.
I have received three bills, but I can’t tell which bill is for which phone.
Can you assist me?
Is there a human available?
You – 1:24 PM
I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 1:26 PM
Do you see the “conversation” so far?
You – 1:27 PM
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
ChatBot – 1:29 PM
This is beyond bad. Not only does this chat stink, but when I go online it tells me to dial 833-904-1657 for billing questions. When I go through that exercise, it gives me a different number to call.
Is there anyone — anyone — at ATT who cares about customers? Anyone?
You – 1:32 PM
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 1:32 PM
OMG
ChatBot – 1:35 PM
I’m going to print this out and publish it. Should make for humorous reading.
You – 1:36 PM
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 1:41 PM
hahahahahaha
You – 1:44 PM
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
ChatBot – 1:44 PM
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you this month.
You – 1:44 PM
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 1:50 PM
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
ChatBot – 1:53 PM
If I don’t respond, keep holding. Thank you.
You – 1:56 PM
I’ll be right with you.
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 1:59 PM
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 2:05 PM
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 2:11 PM
I’ll be right with you.
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
ChatBot – 2:17 PM
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
ChatBot – 2:23 PM
I’ll be right with you.
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
ChatBot – 2:29 PM
I’ll be right with you.
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 2:35 PM
I’ll be right with you.
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 2:41 PM
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 2:47 PM
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 2:53 PM
I’ll be right with you.
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
ChatBot – 2:59 PM
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
ChatBot – 3:05 PM
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 3:11 PM
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
ChatBot – Now
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
3:14 PM
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
ChatBot – 3:17 PM
I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot – 3:20 PM
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.
3:23 PM
I’ll be right with you.
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
“ChatBot – 3:29 PM”
ChatBot
– 3:29 PM
I’ll be right with you.
ChatBot
3:35 PM
I’m sorry for the delay. I’ll be right with you.- 3:41 PM
“ChatBot
– 3:41 PM
Thank you for waiting. I’ll be with you in just a moment.
ChatBot
Apparently, “I’ll be right with you,” and “I’ll be with you in just a moment” are alternated to make me believe there is a human somewhere out there.
Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.Implementation of Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
When you talk to activists who are pushing to defund police departments, there’s a specific word that comes up often: Reimagine.
The idea that police are the only answer to preventing crime and protecting people is one that has been so ingrained into American society that it can be hard to imagine a different reality.
But amid a national uprising against police brutality and systemic racism, activists say it’s time to reimagine what the public actually needs.
In the wake of George Floyd’s death, proponents say it’s time to defund police departments and put that money toward community programs, like after-school programs for students and housing assistance for disadvantaged communities.
Among racial-justice activists, the idea isn’t new: organizers, including in Minneapolis, had already been calling to defund the police for some time.
But now the idea has been taken up by protesters across the country, who say efforts to reform police departments have been unsuccessful and it’s time to curtail the role police play in society.
The U.S. spends more than $100 billion on policing per year.
For many major cities, police department budgets make up a disproportionate amount of overall spending, even as other departments face steep cuts amid the coronavirus. Now, that spending is coming under scrutiny.
One must sympathize with the notion that increased availability of after-school programs for students and housing assistance for disadvantaged communities, would have a positive effect on crime.
Gratuitous violence
But one must ask, how will the “solution” of less money spent on police departments address the current problem: Racial bigotry in police departments?
Devoting less money to police departments certainly will do nothing to make the police more effective against crime.
And it will do nothing to make the police more racially sensitive.
In fact, it could have the reverse effect.
With less money, police departments will be less able to pay competitive salaries, which will mean attracting and having to accept less-qualified applicants.
There is no scenario by which reducing police budgets will reduce crime.
Crime is directly related to poverty, so spending money to reduce poverty will reduce crime (See the Ten Steps to Prosperity, below). Reducing police budgets will have the opposite effect.
Defunding the police to solve the crime problem would be like solving the hunger problem by taking money from farmers and giving it to the poor.
“People across the country are ready for a defunding framework,” says Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and founder of Reform LA Jails. “We’re ready to chip away at the line items inside of a police budget that really are nonsensical.
Police should not be in charge of mental health crises. They should not be in charge of dealing with homelessness.
They should not be in charge of ‘supporting’ people with drug dependency and addiction. Those are three line items which we can cut out of the police budget and then put that back into health care.”
The author is correct. Where police are responsible for mental health, homelessness and drug addiction, these functions would be better addressed by health care and other specific experts.
But removing these obligations from a police department does nothing to address the fundamental issue: Police bigotry and police brutality.
Police act the way they are trained to act, with no fear of punishment.
Think of the police as being like German Shepherd dogs. Anyone who has owned a German Shepherd knows these can be the most loving and loyal dogs anyone could ask for.
Properly trained, these dogs will allow all sorts of innocent abuse from little children, and will be perfectly safe around adults. Similarly, they can be wonderful protectors of the family.
But poorly trained they can be vicious, unpredictable killers.
Those police who exhibit racial brutality are poorly trained and are surrounded by poorly trained role models. Defunding will not solve that.
Further, police are protected from punishment by laws and unions. Defunding will not solve that.
In fact, defunding itself solves nothing.
If “defunding” merely transfers some police obligations to other socially helpful agencies, that could prove helpful.
But if defunding merely results in less crime-fighting equipment and less manpower, that would prove self-defeating.
Among the national groups calling to defund the police are Black Lives Matter, which is currently collecting signatures for a petition calling for a national defunding of police.
The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of black organizations that includes Black Lives Matter, is also calling to defund the police, and during one day of action earlier this week encouraged people to press elected officials on the issue.
If my home town of Chicago were to take money from the police department, that would reduce the number of police patrolling the crime hotbeds in the south and west sides of the city.
That would not reduce the number of murders. Nor would it cut down on street-corner drug sales, prostitution, home invasions, car-jackings, rapes, robberies, burglaries, counterfeiting, kidnapping or any other crime you can mention.
In fact, the crime rate almost surely would go up, even with more money devoted to social projects, as the likelihood of being caught would drop.
In New York City, there are growing cries from both activists and officials to cut the New York Police Department’s $6 billion budget.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced up to $150 million could be cut from the police budget and redirected to investments in communities of color.
One might as well cut funding for judges in an attempt to make trials fairer. The solution does not match the problem: Police bigotry and police brutality.
The only police-related solutions are better training and surer punishment. More money (not less) should be spent on teaching police officers what is considered “right” and what is considered “wrong.”
More (not less) should be spent on supervision and, where necessary, punishment.
One of the biggest problems is police unions. They, and all other governmental unions, should be abolished. They don’t benefit the public. They don’t benefit the police department.
And they don’t even benefit the individual police officers. They are a costly waste — worse than a waste — an expensive hinderance.
Finally, we come to the question of cost. How does a state, county, or city pay for adequate police protection without raising taxes unduly.
The answer, of course, has to do with Monetary Sovereignty. While local governments are monetarily non-sovereign, and run short of money, the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign and never can run short of dollars.
The federal government neither needs nor uses tax dollars. So if the people of this nation truly want to have well-trained, adequately funded police departments, without adding more burden to local taxpayers, it should demand that the federal government provide the added funding.
One method would be a population ration, where my local governments are compensated on a per capita basis, by the federal government.
Gap Psychology describes the common desire to distance oneself from those “below” in any socio-economic ranking, and to come nearer those “above.” The socio-economic distance is referred to as “The Gap.”
Wide Gaps negatively affect poverty, health and longevity, education, housing, law and crime, war, leadership, ownership, bigotry, supply and demand, taxation, GDP, international relations, scientific advancement, the environment, human motivation and well-being, and virtually every other issue in economics.Implementation of Monetary Sovereignty and The Ten Steps To Prosperity can grow the economy and narrow the Gaps:
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 