re: #362 Hecuba’s daughter

So our conversation with our RW Texas brother included his accusation that antifa was causing the violence and my counterargument that it was white supremacists. My brother’s reaction is that I see white supremacists and Putin everywhere, while of course it’s antifa and the Obama administration that’s behind all ills. It is critical that we determine who exactly is responsible for the violence and looting.

Tonight my sister wanted to watch news after we saw the “Hairspray Live” production on TV. And we saw Chicago being looted, including the Macy’s in the Loop, and smoke was billowing out from some stores. There was also an interview with Garry McCarthy, the former head of the Chicago Police Department, hired by Rahm Emmanuel in 2011 and subsequently fired by him. McCarthy seemed to be parroting the lines that the whole problem in this nation is that the police are handcuffed and not being sufficiently respected. Sigh. We have a monster as President and a political party who would see this violence as the opportunity to change the conversation away from Trump’s mishandling of the Covid pandemic and back to his comfort zone of blaming minorities and championing “law and order”.

Whether the instigators are anti-fascists (unlikely, since unlike black bloc, tend to be reactive) or white supremacists, it doesn’t excuse police reactions like covering up their badge numbers or macing indiscriminately (catching older people and 10 year old kids).