monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Should criminals be given the upper hand?

I kind of admire the contortions involved in arguing that new laws to keep guns from criminals' hands amount to giving criminals the upper hand.

This is the far right in action. They say something then accuse everybody else of hysteria for taking them seriously.

If Donald Trump had been inclined to wind down a bullet-proof window in The Beast as he passed through central London, he may well have wound it straight back up.

The public were kept a long way from his motorcade but the boos were loud, the placards stark and the general message expletive-laden.

And beyond that, in Parliament Square, under the gaze of a statue of a hunched Winston Churchill, British satire was on display.

A Donald Trump baby blimp rocked back and forth in a light wind.

A man was dressed as a caged gorilla with a Donald Trump face mask while his companion pulled off an impression of Boris Johnson - the MP who wants to be the next UK prime minister - dressed in a striped prison uniform.

There were toilet rolls for sale bearing the president's face, sold for two for £5 from a couple of supermarket trolleys.

A police officer went above and beyond to hand out Haribo sweets to his colleagues standing in a neat line along Whitehall.

Above them, builders in hard hats watched events unfold from the scaffolding encasing Big Ben.

It was all very British.

But it wasn't just the British who were there to protest.

US holidaymakers gave up a day's sightseeing in the capital to let their president know what they thought of him.

Nineteen-year-old student Jess Renner, who was too young to vote in the last US presidential election, headed down to the protest from her nearby hotel with her mum.

"It was fun to come and flip him off," she said. "He's a bully and he's trying to bully you guys into buying all our stuff."

Fellow American Robert Kihm, from Denver, Colorado, said having Mr Trump for a president was no longer funny.

"It's embarrassing and ultimately frightening."

What's your message to him? "Where do I start," he replied, in exasperation.

"Stop being authoritarian, respect the rule of law and stick to the norms for a US president," he urged.

A group from Belgium on a three-day trip to London also couldn't resist having their say.

"He said Brussels was a hell-hole so we are also very against him," said Annelie Comeyne, from Ghent.

Not everyone felt the same.

A minority, including Lorraine Chapel, from Chiswick, in west London, was there to welcome the president.

"Love him or hate him, Mr Trump runs America and he is here by invite from the Queen," she said, waving her handmade sign.

The blimp of a baby Donald was offensive, she said. "Suppose they did that for the Queen in America".

In a flash, things turned rather ugly when a woman appeared next to Ms Chapel, accusing her in strongly-worded terms of supporting misogyny.

Meanwhile, a heated exchange played out in the background as Trump supporters took on anti-Trump protesters before the debate veered back to domestic arguments around Brexit.

A little later, the atmosphere lifted as speakers took to a temporary stage outside Downing Street where Mr Trump was holding talks with the outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May.

"Say it loud, say it clear," the speaker shouted over the microphone, as the rain kept falling.

"Donald Trump's not welcome here," the crowd hollered back, from under hoods and umbrellas.

Some had their faces covered with #trumpstinks masks, others wore badges saying "another nasty woman against Trump".

There was whooping and whistling as police officers cautiously managed the growing numbers, opening and closing routes.

Mothers with small children in buggies rubbed shoulders with seasoned protesters and American ex-pats.

Melissa Branzburg, originally from Miami but now living in Greenwich, said President Trump has been talked about in her house for a long time.

Her children - Isaac, five, and Ruth, three - would usually be doing crafts or playing in the park but today they were getting a lesson in political activism.

They were keen to let Mr Trump know they didn't want him here in London, said Ms Branzburg.

They asked a lot about children behind bars in the US, something she tried to explain in age-appropriate language.

"I want them to know they can make their voices heard and can see that other people agree with them," she added.

Florence Iwegbue, a dual US-British citizen, wore bright pink feathers in her hair and red, white and blue glitter on her cheek.

She said she feared Britain might be following too closely in US footsteps.

"The message is not getting through that the way of life in America does not work," she said.

"In the US, you can't afford to be poor, sick, black or brown. This is becoming an issue in Britain - and it needs to be dialled back."

keep guns from criminals' hands

Anti-Trump protesters were filmed chanting ‘Nazi scum’ to a fan of the president before hurling a milkshake over him.

Metro.co.uk reported earlier that Pro-Trump supporters have been barricaded inside a pub by police as clashes broke out in London during Trump’s state visit.

In the shocking video, a large group of angry demonstrators could be seen surrounding the man – who was wearing a Make America Great Again cap – before throwing the McDonald’s iced drink over him.

They shouted ‘Nazi’ to the man in Parliament Square before they started pushing him around. The man, who said he was from London but did not want to be named, said he was ‘angry’ to have been targeted.

Another clip showed Trump supporters behind a line of police at the entrance to a pub in Whitehall as a much larger crowd chanted: ‘Nazi scum off our streets.’

The milkshake throwing echoed attacks on Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson last month.

Quote:

Anti-Trump protesters were filmed chanting ‘Nazi scum’ to a fan of the president before hurling a milkshake over him.

Metro.co.uk reported earlier that Pro-Trump supporters have been barricaded inside a pub by police as clashes broke out in London during Trump’s state visit.

In the shocking video, a large group of angry demonstrators could be seen surrounding the man – who was wearing a Make America Great Again cap – before throwing the McDonald’s iced drink over him.

They shouted ‘Nazi’ to the man in Parliament Square before they started pushing him around. The man, who said he was from London but did not want to be named, said he was ‘angry’ to have been targeted.

Another clip showed Trump supporters behind a line of police at the entrance to a pub in Whitehall as a much larger crowd chanted: ‘Nazi scum off our streets.’

The milkshake throwing echoed attacks on Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson last month.

https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/04/protesters-shouting-nazi-scum-throw-milkshake-trump-supporter-9811411/<br />

The UK’s dangerous attempt at internet censorship.

From April, the United Kingdom formally reintroduces governmental censorship. It’s supposed to be against pornography online, but there’s no such thing when it comes to censorship; pornography is merely — and always — the first thing on a long list to be censored. It never stops there. You should be deeply concerned about this, regardless of your stance toward pornography on its own merits.

You are entirely right

which is why it is best just to state the facts and show proof of said fact and then move on with oralloy

and a few other ostriches we have here in political A2k threads.

No law can ensure that nobody will ever commit murder again.

But:

1. That's nothing to do with the point about "outlawing" it. Outlawing won't stop it from ever occurring again, but you can definitely outlaw it. I'm guessing you agree that some things should be outlawed (murder, for example) even if that doesn't guarantee it will never happen again.

2. Laws can't banish murder and crime from the earth, but I assume you do believe laws can help keep the number of times people commit murder or other kinds of crime down... or do you think the whole apparatus of police, courts, prisons serves no effective purpose at all?

I kind of admire the contortions involved in arguing that new laws to keep guns from criminals' hands amount to giving criminals the upper hand.

Fascism comes down to bullying and throwing a milkshake at them and yelling at them to "get off our streets" is about as fascist as you can get without banishing the person to a ghetto and/or shipping them off on a train to get rid of them.

livinglava wrote:

What's a more effective way to instill fear and intimidation than to start small and gradually increase the level of violence? It's like the Gestapo starting with a light tapping on the door and gradually increasing the level until they pound the door down.

That's... not what happened though. Beating opponents up - and much, much worse - was part of the repertoire of the Nazis from the start. I mean, they were Nazis. Hitler already launched an armed, violent coup d'etat in 1923. They didn't start off with milkshakes and gently work their way up.

People really need to start standing up to these leftists and start pressing both criminal and civil charges every time a leftist attacks them.

If these leftists start having to spend a couple weeks in jail and pay a dry-cleaning bill every time they assault someone, they will change their behavior pretty quickly.

without discriminating against their political opponents by institutional means.