Once again you hit the nail on the head Sult, we need to change the system and time is running out. If systemic change doesn't happen by peaceful means I'm afraid it will happen by violent measures. This incident in Minneapolis was exploited by groups wishing to use it as a stage and catalyst for their own end-goals.
My wife and I were walking our beagle about an hour before the 8pm curfew. We live right in the hot zone and saw many vehicles driving around with no license plates. Around mid-day a man pulled over to the curb and threatened a local couple just a block away from where we live. He told them, "We're coming for your neighborhood next."
This was being widely reported all across the city last night. Out-of-towners descended on the Twin Cities from groups like Antifa and the Bugaloo Bois to ramp up the violence. Some had AK-47s, some had trunks full of gas cans. Throughout the past few days pallets of bricks were mysteriously appearing in the middle of areas where protests were happening. This was a highly coordinated attempt to start a class war, in my opinion.
We did have some local looters but for the most part locals protested peacefully during the day and these groups took over the streets after the sun went down. Social media proved its worth these past few days, as horrible as it can be sometimes the truth about what was happening was spread quickly via Facebook and Twitter. This, I believe, is what kept the groups from being able to incite more violence amongst the citizens.
We were all afraid that things would ramp up last night but, thankfully, they didn't. The National Guard was pretty successful in dispersing the crowds. They blocked all of the bridges from Minneapolis to St. Paul so the crowd couldn't spill over into this city.
It's likely going to take years for Minneapolis and St. Paul to recover from this. Unfortunately so much of this classism and racism is "baked into" the system. We've seen "separation of church and state" but now we need "separation of corporations and state". I'm convinced this is the only way the people will win. Strip corporate influence in our government by putting an end to lobbying, put term limits in place, and end politicians being taken care of for life after their term is up. This would be a good start.
I hope the weekend has been a good one so far. Thank you for the mention and for the giveaway, I just noticed it in the wallet.
I've heard other sources discuss these "Agent provocateurs", although I can't say how true these reports are, as I'm in Scotland. I could not agree about the need for a separation of corporatism and the State. It's the same in the UK. The lobbying and "revolving door" syndrome has got so bad that people just shrug it off. It needs to be stopped.
Local law enforcement is reporting around 80% of those being arrested aren't from Minnesota. I believe corporatism is the root of a lot of our problems. It's interesting about what Sult is talking about as well, doing a hard reset on our legal system and law enforcement to the way it used to be. It would be an interesting experiment to see how it worked.
It would indeed. And I've just noticed that I wrote "I could not agree" when what I meant was "I could not agree more"! But I think you got what I meant 😅
Thanks for the first hand report from ground zero Eric, and my apologies for the tardy response. When I should have been tending to answering comments last night I got involved in watching live reports from around the country on the violence.
A "hard reset" is exactly what we need and as to whether or not it would work, it worked for well over 100 years here in this country at a time when the country was most vulnerable; its inception. I am not saying it would be easy since there is a lot of layers of crap that have to be cleared away. Your ideas of stripping away corporate influence and term limits are long overdue but what politician will vote to end his own gravy train?
One of the most overlooked things with these career politicians is the fact that several of them are collecting pensions and retirement from earlier lower level government jobs before they even get to Washington. My last congressman from my district was a former judge at the county level collecting his pension the whole eight years he was in DC, now he gets both his judge pension and one from his congress stint.
Rick Perry is another one who is on that gravy train as well that I know of. Talk about a man who who can't speak the truth; he is one for sure. When running for president he vowed he would eliminate government agencies and when he lost his bid for president he ended up being the secretary of one of the agencies he said needed abolished. How is that for hypocrisy?
You are very welcome on the HIVE. Take care and stay safe.
You're right, most of those who get into politics do so to enrich themselves or for the power. The system is so corrupt now it would be difficult to figure out where to begin. If the candidates are honest when they're elected they quickly seem to lose sight of their moral compass and the plight of everyday people. Lately I've been daydreaming quite a bit about moving someplace tropical and far-far away. Lol. Have a great week!
I think you are old enough to remember this island.... Gilligan's Island... that would be the perfect island for me.
Yes, I could handle that. Marianne was pretty hot. Lol.