Last Call For Our Little Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

The coming COVID-19 economic depression is absolutely going to be marked by massive public unrest and violence here in the US, and we already know exactly where to start looking for the bad guys.

A Colorado man who planned to attend a “Reopen” rally in Denver on May 1 before he was arrested by the FBI for possessing pipe bombs was involved in the boogaloo movement, a far-right militia offshoot that uses cryptic pop-culture references to prepare for a future civil war. 

FBI agents and other law enforcement executing search warrants on Bradley Bunn’s residence in Loveland, Colo. on May 1 discovered four pipe bombs at the 53-year-old man’s home, according to a press release issued by the US Attorney’s office in Denver. Agents also discovered two one-pound containers of .308 caliber cartridge reloading gunpowder, a potential pipe bomb component, in Bunn’s vehicle. If convicted for possession of destructive devices, Bunn faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The arrest set off a flurry panicked texts from Bunn’s extremist associates in Colorado to allies networked across the country through boogaloo-inspired Facebook pages. On the morning of Bunn’s arrest, Chevy Lee McGee wrote on his Facebook page in all caps: “I might need backup ASAP. Possible police raid at my house.” Then he posted the address of his mother’s house in Fort Collins. He ended with a request: “Need QRF teams,” using a military term for “quick reaction force.”
The day after Bunn’s arrest, McGee identified “Bradley” as “the guy who was arrested and is still being held in corrections by the FBI” in a long Facebook message to Red Flag Alert, a gun-rights page. McGee described an encounter with a SWAT team outside Bunn’s house, a frantic effort to shake off pursuing law enforcement vehicles and an hours-long hideout in wilderness park. Then, after seeing a social-media post from another friend saying the police were at his house, McGee wrote, “I knew I was going to be next, so I made that post for everyone to standby just in case something happened. Then my mom’s freaking out because she works with the sheriff’s office [in Larimer County] and they were talking about me and how I talked to Bradley’s etc. [sic], so she told me to get my ass home. It could’ve been a setup so I have a couple bois roll with me there etc.” 

On the evening of May 1, the administrator of Allegheny Rescue Co., a boogaloo-inspired Facebook page, posted Bunn’s intake record at the Larimer County Detention Center, writing that it was proof of the arrest and the FBI’s involvement. 

Commenters erupted in anger on the page. 

“Should’ve shot their way out,” one commenter wrote. “This is why we need dedicated regiments and strike teams. Get your county and state boog bois together and be ready to go.” 

Another wrote: “This is fucking horse shit. The feds are nervous now, they see people arming and organizing.” He went on to reassure another commenter, using in-group boogaloo code for “brother”: “There will come a time when the police are the ones outnumbered, borther.”
Still another wrote: “They’re on to the boog bus. Tactics may have to change y’all. Just speaking objectively.” He went on to reference the Jan. 20 Second Amendment rally in Richmond, Va., and April 30 rally in Lansing, when Reopen protesters stormed the Michigan state capital: “Richmond was a success and recently Michigan scared some people… and they didn’t like that.”

When it becomes clear that the US economy is going to take a massive hit -- and there's evidence that we've already lost more than twice the jobs lost in 2008 to the Great Recession -- then the outrage and unrest will make this summer hot in more ways than one.

These jobs aren't coming back, folks.  The guy in charge is too busy looting the palace to care. And the rage in his wake is going to plunge us into something very, very bad.

Who Was That Masked Man, Con't

The biggest psychological barrier to Americans wearing a mask to go out is Donald Trump, period.

Most Americans have never had to wear a mask for their health before, let alone while they shop for groceries or go for a run. 

So, even as businesses or states increasingly require them, rebellion is natural -- to a degree, says Dr. David Aronoff, director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Division of Infectious Diseases and professor of medicine. 

But he urges Americans to think of the mask guidance not as forced conformity, but as a necessary act of solidarity: Wearing a cloth mask could stop seemingly healthy people from infecting others with coronavirus if they're asymptomatic. 

"We're all hopeful that this pandemic disappears," he said. "Then we can stop doing as much risk mitigation. But for now, we really depend on the trust and kindness of others to protect our wellbeing. And that's part of being an American." 

Even though wearing masks isn't compulsory in much of the US, adhering to these rules may feel like, to some, a forfeiture of their freedoms. 

People naturally rebel when they're told what to do, even if the measures could protect them, said Steven Taylor, a clinical psychologist and author of "The Psychology of Pandemics." 

"People value their freedoms," he said. "They may become distressed or indignant or morally outraged when people are trying to encroach on their freedoms." 

Aronoff compared the mask guidance to the ban on smoking cigarettes in restaurants or schools. 

"There are rules about not smoking in enclosed restaurants and bars because that smoke can be deleterious to someone else's health," he said. "Now we're in a situation where, if I'm infected with the Covid-19 virus, my breath can be lethal to someone else." 

But while that legislation is permanent, wearing masks won't be, Aronoff said.
But to vocal opponents, even temporary guidance is too much of a concession. 

In Michigan, where up to 700 protesters recently descended on the state Capitol to protest stay-at-home orders, masks are required in stores and businesses. This month, police say a Michigan Family Dollar security guard was shot and killed by customers who he'd asked to wear masks before entering the store.

Also in Michigan, a customer wiped his face on a Dollar Tree employee's shirt after police say the employee told him to wear a mask. 

And within a day of issuing an emergency proclamation requiring masks, the city of Stillwater, Oklahoma, amended the proclamation after citizens threatened violence. 

"Many of those with objections cite the mistaken belief the requirement is unconstitutional, and under their theory, one cannot be forced to wear a mask," city manager Norman McNickle said in a statement. "No law or court supports this view."

Any other president would say "wear a mask, it's the right thing to do."  Trump refuses to do even that.  There's no feeling of shared duty, rather, Trump tells us the shared duty is to go to work while sick to save the economy and his reelection chances.

I'm under no illusion that if Obama or Hillary were president right now that the protests wouldn't be happening, or that two-thirds of Republicans would think large sporting events were perfectly safe.

But good lord, we would have saved tens of thousands of lives.

Trump Goes Viral, Con't

The Trump regime has now dropped all pretense of a "federal response" to COVID-19 and is declaring that Americans will have to die to save the US economy.

President Donald Trump launched headlong into his push to reopen the country on Tuesday, saying Americans should begin returning to their everyday lives even if it leads to more sickness and death from the pandemic.

Trump, speaking in Phoenix during his first trip outside Washington in more than a month, said he’s preparing for “phase two” of the U.S. response to the coronavirus. That will include disbanding the White House task force of public health experts, including Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, that have steered the government response to the outbreak so far.

Trump acknowledged that reopening the economy would likely lead to more suffering.

“Will some people be affected? Yes. Will some people be affected badly? Yes,” Trump said. “But we have to get our country open and we have to get it open soon.”

On his visit to a Phoenix-based Honeywell International Inc. factory producing medical masks, Trump made his most forceful case yet that the economic damage to the country has become too great to sustain an extended shutdown. He encouraged Americans to think of themselves as “warriors” as they consider leaving their homes, a tacit acknowledgment of deep public reservations about re-opening the country too soon.
The president has expressed increasing frustration with the coronavirus-sparked recession that has put more than 30 million Americans out of work and hurt his case for a second term. The U.S. continues to sport the largest coronavirus outbreak in the world, with about 1.2 million people infected and more than 70,000 killed so far.

Speaking separately in an ABC News interview that aired Tuesday evening, Trump said closing down the nation was “the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.”

And he was resolute about the decision to reopen the nation, despite the certainty of suffering it will cause until a vaccine is developed.

“There’ll be more death,” he said. “The virus will pass, with or without a vaccine. And I think we’re doing very well on the vaccines but, with or without a vaccine, it’s going to pass, and we’re going to be back to normal.”
“But it’s been a rough process. There is no question about it,” Trump said. “I think our economy is going to be raging” next year, he added.

The White House medical taskforce is being disbanded.  No more federal help is coming. States and cities are now on their own. Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, will die to a preventable disease, but only the economy matters, and lives will have to be sacrificed for the greater good of quarterly profits.

The man in charge of the country is going to sacrifice as many of us as it takes. And as far as Republicans around the country are concerned, the pandemic is over and the governors who took no social distancing measures are taking victory laps.

Why are we allowing this to happen?

StupidiNews!

• A federal judge has ruled that New York cannot cancel its June 23rd primary and must hold the vote regardless of health and safety concern.
• None of the GOP political leaders who toured an Arizona factory making PPE Tuesday with Donald Trump were wearing a mask, including Trump himself, who has refused multiple times.
• Disney says despite increased subscriptions to its Disney+ streaming service, the company estimates a $1.4 billion second-quarter loss that the company will recoup by not paying stock dividends.
• Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been hospitalized for a non-surgical gallbladder ailment, she is expected to be treated and to recover fully.
• California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is suing rideshare giants Lyft and Uber for violating the state's labor laws, which say the companies must treat drivers as employees with benefits.