Did George Floyd kill himself?

George Floyd died of a drug overdose

Prosecutors knew that by June 1.

The prosecution of Derek Chauvin for a murder that didn't happen, for the fake murder of George Floyd, has not been dropped even now.

Why not?

I [John Hinderacker] can answer the last question. 

If charges against Derek Chauvin and the other officers were dropped, rioting would break out not just in Minneapolis, but across the country. 

Broad swaths of the City of Minneapolis have already been burned to the ground, and that is probably nothing compared to what Black Lives Matter would do if the criminal justice system followed normal procedures. 

Derek Chauvin, at this point, is a man without a country, a man who probably cannot receive a fair trial anywhere in the United States. 

Certainly not in Hennepin County, where he has been charged.

Derek Chauvin, former officer accused in George Floyd's death, wants murder charges dismissed

Floyd's killing, captured on video, sparked worldwide protests against systemic racism and police brutality.

Defense attorneys sought to put the blame on Floyd for his death, arguing that his alleged drug use was the critical factor.  

"Put simply, Mr. Floyd could not breathe because he had ingested a lethal dose of fentanyl and, possibly, a speedball," Chauvin's attorney said in the court documents. 

"Combined with sickle cell trait, his pre-existing heart conditions, Mr. Floyd’s use of fentanyl and methamphetamine most likely killed him."

They argued that without knowledge of Floyd's alleged drug use or symptoms of overdose, Chauvin "was unaware of the potential dangerous of using MRT (Maximal Restraint Technique)," a reference to the officer's knee on the victim's neck.

"Instead, he (Chauvin) relied on his training and the information available to him to try and assist his fellow officers and to prevent Mr. Floyd from harming himself," the defense attorneys argued. 

"Derek Chauvin did not cause George Floyd’s death." 

Just to clarify

Kneeling on the neck of an habitual criminal for seven or eight minutes until he dies is murder.

Shooting a fleeing habitual criminal to death as he flees when much less force would have worked is murder, even if some cop manual permits or even recommends it.

But I am not on board for the absurd mythology of overwhelming and overwhelmingly powerful racism, systemic or otherwise, exploited and spread every election season by the depraved propaganda of Democrats without concern for its destructive consequences.

And I am even further from on board with condoning or tolerating riots for three f-ing months.

Update 8/30.

George Floyd wasn't killed by Dereck Chauvin. He od'd on recreational drugs. The kneeling had nothing to do with it and was apparently by the book.

Jacob Blake's shooting might have been by the book. Seems he was a fleeing felon resisting arrest and had or was reaching for a weapon.

Why does nobody ever stop the enraged cop?

Not even other cops?

Fear.

But would that make it Trump v. Harris?

If Joe, for whatever reason, dropped out.

Bernie and his supporters would sure as heck question that, I think, if Joe was out before the convention anointed anyone.

Anybody might question that, given the GOP might well run better against a woman of color not so well known they can't paint her as a crazy radical, which they are already doing without too much trouble.

Interesting question which way AOC and the Squad would jump.

Of course, Bernie actually is a crazy radical, but he's an old and well known white guy as well as a crazy radical, and that's probably a better combination for white voters Trump needs in battleground states than a relatively little known woman of color.

Though if Bernie bumped her off the ticket that might cost him nearly all the black support he would absolutely have to have to win.

Fox News host baselessly claims that 'something's going to happen' to Joe Biden

She just went a little over the line, maybe, in course of playing her part in Fox's propaganda onslaught that Old Dodderin' and Sleepy Joe is just a Trojan horse for flaming, insane radical black woman nutjob Kamala Harris.

All of Fox's talking heads are fairly shouting it's really Trump vs Harris and Joe is at best a signature monkey for the craziest, darkest (heh, heh) elements of the "Democrat Party".

More of that by now infamous Republican projection, I'd say.

Claiming Joe will not even make it to election night is just making the prospect all the more terrifying, eh?

The Fox News opinion host Jeanine Pirro baselessly suggested on Wednesday evening that "something's going to happen" to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, and that it would cause the former vice president to be removed from the ballot during the presidential election in November.

"For some reason, I just have this feeling that Joe Biden isn't going to be on the ticket," Pirro said during a Fox News segment.

"I have a sense that something's going to happen before the election and he's not even going to be on the ticket, so don't even ask me if he's going to make the four years," she added.

So far as I can tell, she actually is further to the left than Joe B, and she was that at the beginning of the campaign, at the end of the campaign, and in response to the Floyd killing, protests, and riots.

And as she so painfully and forcefully pointed out during the debates, she was and all but incontestably still is to his left of racial matters.

I am truly not sure where that puts her relative to registered Democrats or Democrat-leaning independents.

But she is definitely to the left of this guy, my very own Democratic Congressman, and apparently also to the left of my Democratic Senator.

Fox: Day 54 of violence in Portland

Fox on the Daily Briefing is giving the Democratic criticism - via Mary Anne Marsh, a former Kerry advisor - that the deployment is a foolish and ineffective effort to help the Duce's campaign equal time with a defense of the move by some other guy, who insists the continued chaos will be laid at the feet of Biden and the Democrats by voters who will reject him in November.

Ms. Marsh also insisted what people want to see is the president working to deal with the pandemic and stop it killing them - which is not happening.

All the same, when you add in Hannity and others to the focus on nearly two months of chaos and continuing destruction of property and violence and cities held hostage to demonstrators by Democrats, it's support for the president.

Nothing like left wing crazies in the streets or in mayors' offices to make the right, even the Trumpist right, seem responsible and reasonable

Ordered Liberty and Federal Might.

Outrage, at least from the usual suspects, has greeted the use of federal personnel in Portland to enforce laws that the mayor of Portland and the governor of Oregon have refused to enforce. 

Despite the pearl-clutching, the precedent and the constitutional principles are clear: 

If the states and cities will not protect their citizens’ lives, property and civil rights, the Constitution does not permit federal military intervention.

It requires it.

. . . .

What claimed the mantle of popular rage could not thwart the steel helmets and heavy armor sent by the Republican Commander in Chief.  

And, over their objections, President Dwight David Eisenhower made sure that nine black students were escorted safely into Little Rock Central High School. 

The visceral certainty of the angry white mob that it was wrong for Washington to use force to protect the rights of people threatened by violence did not matter—nor should it have.

Americans are guaranteed a great number of civil rights, besides the right to equal opportunity in education. 

Citizens are also entitled to speak freely, to assemble freely, to worship freely and, under the Fifth Amendment, to travel. 

In fact, under 18 U.S. Code § 241, it is a federal offense to conspire “to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person … in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same.” 

This statute also makes it illegal for “two or more persons [to] go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured…”

For 49 days now, violent anarchists have acted in defiance of protocols outlined by the Portland Police Bureau—which has hardly shown itself to be a bastion of strict “law and order” policing—for safe and peaceable assembly. 

Instead, they have systematically undertaken to destroy private, state, and federal property and have not hesitated to assault either law enforcement personnel or civilians. 

Unruly crowds used commercial grade lasers to blind police, and made weapons from paving stones and fireworks—even attempted to assault an officer with a hammer. 

A little over a week ago, Portland Police made multiple arrests and found a loaded weapon on one subject, as a hostile crowd of about 250 violent anarchists failed to comply with dispersal order and surrounded Hatfield Courthouse. 

A few days later, someone fired shots into the air from the rear seat of a passing SUV. 

Whether we blame Antifa, Black Lives Matter, or spontaneously enraged “peaceful protesters,” the mayhem being imposed on America’s cities now constitute a host of civil rights violations.

. . . .

In the name of civil rights, justice and peace, seven weeks of anarchy is enough.

"Our city is under siege by rioters."

There is some truth to the conservative claim that Democratic office holders and party leaders are being shoved further to the left on race and other issues than the party as a whole, than registered Democrats, and than independents who lean Democratic.

It is a nice question how far the Democrats have become the captives of their own extremists, and another which party is more its own extremists' captive.

But fifty days of chaos are pretty good evidence of local officials' criminal unwillingness or pitiful inability to restore peace and order to their cities.

The Republicans have been pushed by the stupidity of their extremists, the worst of whom is in the White House, to pour gasoline on the Coronavirus wild fire.

The Democrats have allowed chaos, destruction, and violence in the cities.

The country is a mess largely thanks to the horrific polarization of our politics.

I have generally favored closed primaries and opposed open primaries.

But maybe those who argue closed primaries help put both parties too much at the mercy of their own extremists have a point.

Portland Police Union Head Slams City Officials: They ‘Have Condoned the Destruction and Chaos’

Fifty days of increasing insanity.

Portland Police Association president Daryl Turner slammed elected officials at a press conference on Sunday, a day after the union’s offices were set on fire amid continuing riots in the city.

Since the death of George Floyd, an African American man killed during his arrest by Minneapolis police officers, Portland has seen 50 days of protests and riots. 

Federal law enforcement officers have deployed to the city over the past several weeks, clashing with protesters.

Turner alleged that Oregon officials have allowed the violence to continue unabated.

“The elected officials have condoned the destruction and chaos,” Turner said on Sunday, standing with 20 faith and business leaders from Portland. 

“They have placed their political agenda ahead [of the] safety and welfare of the community. This must stop.”

Turner continued, “This is no longer about George Floyd, racial equity, social justice reform or the evolution of policing,” Turner said. 

“This is about violence, rioting and destruction. Our city is under siege by rioters.”

Apples and oranges both having their way.

Leftist rioters still raising hell after 47 days and violent criminals seizing an opportunity offered by police irresponsibility actually sometimes excused by right wing opinionators at Fox are nevertheless two very different things, willfully conflated in some right wing news coverage.

As city violence surges, liberal mayors engage in social media feuds with Trump officials

As violence and unrest surge in major cities across the U.S., liberal mayors are taking a combative stance toward the Trump administration and offers of federal help -- engaging in sometimes-feisty social media feuds with officials.

And the vitriol is flowing in both directions.

“Hey Karen. Watch your mouth,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted Thursday in response to White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who described her as the “derelict mayor” of the city because of the surge in violence there.

At a guess, McEnany was thinking "dereliction of duty" while Lightfoot was thinking "dumpster diving wino".

But maybe not.

That tweet came the same evening as three people, including a 5-month-old baby boy, were shot in Chicago. 

CBS Chicago reported that the Windy City has seen a 34 percent increase in murders and a 45 percent increase in shootings through the end of June compared with the same time last year.

But on Friday, Lightfoot was doubling down on her clapback after receiving praise for it online.

"This won't be the last time that his flacks try to take me on. But good luck," Lightfoot said. 

"I'm still here. I'm going to lead this city the best I can.”

Meanwhile, in New York City, violence has skyrocketed. 

The New York Post this week reported that on Monday alone, 17 people were shot in the city, while last month was the most violent June in the city since 1996.

Trump v de Blasio

But Mayor Bill de Blasio had made as one of his priorities the painting of a large yellow “Black Lives Matter” mural down Fifth Avenue -- right outside Trump Tower, in a clear knock at the current occupant of the White House.

Trump, another politician who is fond of a social media battle with his political foes, criticized de Blasio for the move and noted the mayor's efforts to cut police budgets as it tries to get to grips with a new crime wave.

“NYC is cutting Police $’s by ONE BILLION DOLLARS, and yet the @NYCMayor is going to paint a big, expensive, yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue, denigrating this luxury Avenue,” Trump tweeted this month.

“Here’s what you don’t understand: Black people BUILT 5th Ave and so much of this nation,” de Blasio shot back. 

“Your ‘luxury’ came from THEIR labor, for which they have never been justly compensated. We are honoring them. The fact that you see it as denigrating your street is the definition of racism.”

We are all familiar with and tired of the lies of the Great Fat Orange Klansman, but I at any rate am tiring of the ludicrous liberal lie, apparently to be endlessly repeated, that the black people of America "built this country".

While everyone else lazed around sipping Mint Juleps, no doubt.

And I confess I oppose the demand for reparations.

I deny most of the claims offered to defend that demand and accept those offered against it, as well as many other things that could be offered against it but generally aren't.

This poll is nearly a year old. Couldn't find one more recent.

Nearly 75% of African Americans support reparations for slavery. Only 15% of white Americans do, a poll says

I would guess more blacks and more whites favor the idea, today.

And again I am guessing that it's an idea whose time will eventually come.

Unconstitutional federal interference?

Short story.

Trump and his Homeland Security Secretary rightly opine some mayors for political reasons are being too soft on the mobs trashing their cities.

Reportedly, the Duce has ordered the secretary to "dominate the streets" with federal forces.

Result so far:

‘The tactics of a dictator’: Portland leaders demand removal of masked federal agents sent by Trump admin following spate of arbitrary arrests

Elected officials in Portland have called on the Trump administration to remove militarised federal agents from the city following reports of protesters being arbitrarily detained, likening their actions to the “tactics of a government led by a dictator”.

Federal law enforcement officers driving unmarked vehicles and wearing camouflage have been seizing people from the street in recent days in Portland, Oregon, which has seen nightly protests for racial justice since the police killing of George Floyd.

Agents from the US Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service have deployed in the city ostensibly to protect federal property. 

But video and witness testimony show they have far exceeded that mandate and have detained people without cause far from the buildings they are supposed to be protecting.

“The message crafted by the Trump administration to justify this escalation of force and intimidation in Portland borders on propaganda, apparently to serve the president’s perceived political interests. This is unacceptable under our Constitution,” said a letter signed by Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, together with House Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici.

Don't be too sure the Supremes wouldn't find Trump's intervention constitutional.

They might uphold him even if the feds abandoned the fig leaf they are there to defend federal property or federal officers - a bit circular, that last, eh?

Border chief fires back at Portland mayor, defends 'absolutely necessary' policing tactics

"What's happening right now are absolute criminals. They are willfully organizing, planning and coordinating, and preparing themselves and bringing weapons to these areas with the intent to destroy federal property and harm federal agents and officers. That is criminal and that cannot be justified," he added.

. . . .

When Fox News host Neil Cavuto asked about officers not identifying themselves, Morgan called the allegation a "lie." 

He also dismissed the concerns over unmarked vehicles, arguing that it's a "standard tactic" for law enforcement.

"Right now, in situations like this, it's standard procedure -- it's a standard tactic for law enforcement officers to use unmarked cars. ... Neil, it's been on your show, where marked vehicles have actually been attacked by criminals, so it just makes sense for the safety of the officers and agents as well as the protesters," he said.

What's up with Cavuto's voice?

DHS pushes back against claim federal agents detaining Portland protesters aren't identifying themselves

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pushed back Friday against a claim being amplified by liberal politicians and activists that federal agents who deployed to Portland to disperse protesters this week aren’t identifying themselves.

In a statement, DHS insisted that agents are identifying themselves as Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents. 

But they admitted agents are not wearing name tags -- citing recent doxing incidents against law enforcement.

"The CBP agents identified themselves and were wearing CBP insignia during the encounter," the DHS said in a statement. 

"The names of the agents were not displayed due to recent doxing incidents against law enforcement personnel who serve and protect our country."

. . . .

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Thursday accused Portland politicians of enabling the “mob” of protesters who have besieged the city for more than six weeks -- and posted a lengthy timeline of the damage caused by “violent anarchists.”

“The city of Portland has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob while local political leaders refuse to restore order to protect their city,” Wolf said in a statement. 

“Each night, lawless anarchists destroy and desecrate property, including the federal courthouse, and attack the brave law enforcement officers protecting it.”

CBP said they arrested Pettibone because they “had information indicating the person in the video was suspected of assaults against federal agents or destruction of federal property.”

CBP said that a “violent mob” descended upon them as they were arresting Pettibone so they took him to a safer location for questioning. 

Pettibone was then quickly released, and told The Post he does not know if he is being charged with a crime.

“While the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) respects every American’s right to protest peacefully, violence and civil unrest will not be tolerated,” DHS said in the statement. 

“Violent anarchists have organized events in Portland over the last several weeks with willful intent to damage and destroy federal property, as well as injure federal officers and agents. These criminal actions will not be tolerated.”

Yes, it's political theater on all sides.

And nobody has a constitutional right to hold a city hostage for forty seven days.

What happens to the vandals of the racial left when they do tens of thousands in damage to statues or other monuments to people they loathe?

These counter-vandals did maybe a few dollars in damage to a slogan painted on a street.

California couple charged with hate crime for allegedly vandalizing Black Lives Matter mural

"Allegedly"? Not a lot of room for doubt.

A white California couple has been charged with a hate crime after they were seen on video defacing a Black Lives Matter mural, according to a statement from the Contra Costa District Attorney's office.

Two people, identified by the district attorney as Nicole Anderson, 42, and David Nelson, 53, were seen on July 4 painting over the B and L in the word "Black," which had been painted in yellow, with black paint.

In the video, the man identified as Nelson can be heard saying, "There is no racism. It's a leftist lie," and, "No one wants Black Lives Matter here."

When a woman could be heard asking, "What's wrong with you?" the man replied, "We're sick of this narrative, that's what's wrong. The narrative of police brutality, the narrative of oppression, the narrative of racism. It's a lie."

He was wearing Trump 2020 garb and yelled "Make America Great Again."

Anderson was the one seen painting over the letters, while Nelson stood alongside her and at one point fetched another can of paint from a car.

Urban shootings

They [Fox News] say it's due to police blue flu, blamed not on cops but on lack of support for cops and the movement to defund police, blamed on demonstrators and Democrats.

Where's the outrage, they ask, where's Al Sharpton?

Cancel culture, BLM ideology, and Krugman's Red Guards

Don't recall seeing much, if any, of this on CNN or MSNBC.

Or BBC News, for that matter.

All of them too busy as cheerleaders and megaphones for the mob and the key mob propaganda points of BLM.

Not being a Fox viewer or regular reader I didn't know Krugman has lost his mind, for example.

(But I have noticed the long articles on their site are often exceptionally information rich.)

Paul Krugman, professors seek top economist's removal from influential job for criticizing Black Lives Matter

Quite a lot of information in this story.

Gregg Re doesn't like what Herr Krugman and these Cultural Revolutionaries are doing.

Neither does Andrew Sullivan, a well-known political moderate.

(Whose job may be in jeopardy.)

Nor does Michael Walzer, a much honored leftist intellectual.

An interesting story about a white radical destroyer of statues, described as "antifa".

One about the leader of the Times' extraordinary weaponization of history, The 1619 Project. 

Think Howard Zinn, but with a lot more vitriol.

NRO on the project. As history, it's worthless propaganda.

I have the impression the position of the right on racism in law enforcement under Trump is much as it has been for decades, that there is little or no racial bias in law enforcement and no institutional racism in America.

That view seems not to be shared even by most whites, these days.

Very likely, when Americans say they agree with the ideas of BLM this is what they mean.

Very likely, they otherwise have no idea what those ideas are.

Demonstrations spread virus

Like a crowded beach.

People now admitting it, or more pointedly not denying it.

Watchword for the weekend: everyone stay home.

Yes, demonstrators. This does mean you.

Is Joe Scarborough to the (racial) left of Joe Biden on the question of public honors?

It seems now to be the standard thing among black talkers on CNN and MSNBC to insist on Jefferson, Washington, Columbus, and even Lincoln getting tossed into the same boat as Confederate leaders.

Including on Morning Joe and, as it seemed to me, uncontradicted by anyone.

Why are mobs of demonstrators still running around and tearing things down this long after the Floyd killing, and this deep into the worsening pandemic?

Because the Democratic media, on the whole to the left of the Democratic Party, keep cheering for them?

Meanwhile, is Fox fully or only partly on board, today, for masking?

On something called Outnumbered the female host and a female guest both firmly endorsed masks, one quoting the Goldman Sacks study as proof we need a federal mask mandate.

Yup. Fox.

Treason: Bozo slams America with another body blow.

Poll finds sharp partisan divide over coronavirus as cases spike

This is Trump's doing. Keep that in mind.

Trump Follows Through on Threat to ‘Slow the Testing Down’

The Department of Health and Human Services has announced it will pull funding from more than a dozen drive-through testing sites across five states, including Texas, at the end of the month.

The move has left top Democrats incensed: 

“The pandemic is clearly getting worse in states nationwide,” Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, the ranking Democrat on the health committee, said in a blast to reporters, “and instead of trying harder to stop it, President Trump is apparently trying harder to hide it.”

Resources are not the issue. 

This move comes after Democratic senators called out the administration for failing to spend nearly $14 billion that Congress appropriated to increase testing.

GOP senators push back on Trump administration plan to end support for testing sites

Texas Sens. John Cornyn (R) and Ted Cruz (R) on Thursday sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) protesting the administration’s plans to cut back federal support of drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites in Texas and other states.

The senators called the testing sites “critical to Texas’ testing capacity” at a time the number of coronavirus cases in the state is spiking, hitting a peak of 5,551 new cases on Wednesday.

“Now is not the time to end a program that is working and successfully increasing testing capacity — especially for underserved communities in the state. Due to the recent rise of COVID-19 cases in Texas, cities need additional time to prepare for the transition to state and local control of the testing sites,” the senators wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar and FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday the state will pause its reopening plan and ordered hospitals to halt elective surgeries to help deal with the crush of new cases.

I think I know why this is happening.

Many people have told me that Alex Jones has told them many people have told him that Trump is sabotaging testing as part of his term-long effort to undermine the national security of America to the advantage of Vladimir Putin's Russia.

It fits in with everything he has done to botch the federal response to this virus and wreck the American economy, everything to sabotage the response to the Floyd demonstrations, everything to undermine America's intelligence services and national security establishment and the confidence of Americans in them, and everything else he has done to weaken American institutions and subvert the US Constitution over the course of his entire term.

All of it for Putin and to wreck America.

Anyway that's what many people are telling me Alex Jones has said many people have told him.

Floyd demonstrations and the virus

Reportedly, the demonstrations have generated no noticeable uptick in the number of new cases.

Might they have prevented a drop in new cases that would otherwise have been seen?

The daily number of new cases in the US seems to have stabilized since late April, making the spread of the virus linear rather than exponential.

That's a national thing.

[In some locales new cases are falling while in others they are still rising.

And while more testing is being done, the percentage of positives among those tested is higher which means the increase in new cases does represent speeding spread of the virus.

Lately, they have been rising in "the sun belt" states.]

If, over the same period, the number of people tested nationally has risen in some regular manner that would mean the percentage of positives among those tested has actually been dropping and the rate of spread has actually dropped over that period.

In much of Europe new cases continued to decline over that period.

Both more contagious and more deadly than the flu, this bug is going to kill a lot of people.

But contagion seems to be limited to person to person close encounters lasting some time.

There's going to be a lot of that in Tulsa, tomorrow.

This morning on Morning Joe, people were asking the question how "real life" looks if there never is a vaccine, or anyway not for years.

Lawsuit coming? One hopes.

Buffalo protester Martin Gugino has a fractured skull and cannot walk

Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old protester who was pushed by two Buffalo, New York, police officers earlier this month, has a fractured skull and is not able to walk, his lawyer said in a statement provided to CNN on Monday.

"I am not at liberty to elaborate at this time other than to confirm that his skull was fractured," Gugino's attorney Kelly Zarcone said. 

"While he is not able to walk yet, we were able to have a short conversation before he became too tired. He is appreciative of all of the concern about him but he is still focused on the issues rather than himself."

The guy is such a lefty he thinks his own victimization by the police is not even part of the issue.

He's white, you know.

Trump falls to racial PC

Trump delays Tulsa rally until June 20 over ‘Juneteenth’ concerns

Like he could ever please the racial PC police.

They must be laughing heartily at him.

Who is even watching cable news that has been completely obsessed with race, riots, demonstrations, police misconduct, and beating up white people since Floyd was so gruesomely murdered on May 25, nineteen days ago?

What was that about the devil and idle hands?

Kayleigh McEnany: "President Trump will ALWAYS stand with our heroic military men and women" of the Confederacy.

Congress Heads Toward Clash With Trump Over Removal Of Confederate Symbols

Members of Congress put themselves on a collision course with the White House on Thursday over the politics of America's Confederate legacy.

The Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee adopted an amendment that would create a commission charged with renaming Army installations that bear Confederate names and removing their Confederate symbols.

. . . .

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on Thursday he isn't opposed to renaming military installations. 

Other Republicans said they too were open to moving ahead with a process at the federal level to remove the old Confederate names.

Even so, those proposals, if enacted by both chambers, would require the signature of President Trump — which may not be forthcoming.

The White House dug in this week on standing by the current names of a number of Army bases named for Confederate commanders, including Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Confederate army, Braxton Bragg and others.

Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that he considered the door closed to renaming military installations — after Defense Secretary Mark Esper had appeared to open it — and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany reiterated Wednesday that the administration believes the names should stay.

The amendment about the Confederate base names adopted by the Senate committee on Thursday was offered by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat. 

It's part of a massive annual bill that sets policy for the military — one that, because of its size and importance, passes nearly every year.

Supporters hope the importance of the overall bill means that if the amendment is still in place when it reaches Trump, he'll overlook his objections and sign it into law.

. . . .

Trump and Republicans have said they want to go along with prospective legislation that could reform police practices around the United States, and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., is working on a bill now.

The president has drawn the line on the Confederate names, however. 

And at least one senator — Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., whose panel adopted the amendment calling for a renaming commission — said he thought individual states should be involved.

This is just a first step in the process, he said, and "we have a long ways to go."

"I think that we should have state input in this thing ... and I think it will be ... by the time we get to conference and everything else," Inhofe told reporters. 

"Let states determine if they want to rename things in their state."

The Army bases are federal installations run by the Defense Department.

On the other hand

Could it be that blacks are twice as likely to be killed by a cop as whites because blacks are twice as likely to be involved with police as whites?

And could that be because of the disparate incidence of crimes among blacks and whites, especially gun crimes and murders?

Only a fool thinks the whole difference is nothing but racism.

And it is the business of the racial left to see and denounce racism everywhere, whether it exists there or not.

Has been for decades.