Rioters Go Crazy In Ferguson Yet Again

By William Teach August 16, 2014 – 8:30 am

You can’t blame this on the police being too aggressive during “peaceful” protests

(WRAL) Anger spurred by the death of a black teenager at the hands of a white police officer boiled over again when protesters stormed into a Missouri convenience store — the same store that Michael Brown was accused of robbing.

But, I guess the media (it’s an AP article) can excuse looting and lawlessness on Something Else.

Police and about 200 protesters clashed in Ferguson, Missouri, late Friday after another tense day in the St. Louis suburb, a day that included authorities identifying the officer who fatally shot Brown on Aug. 9. At the same news conference in which officer Darren Wilson was named, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson released documents alleging that Brown stole a $48.99 box of cigars from the convenience store, then strong-armed a man on his way out.

Just before midnight, some in what had been a large and rowdy but mostly well-behaved crowd broke into that same small store and began looting it, said Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson.

Some in the crowd began throwing rocks and other objects at police, Johnson said. One officer was hurt but details on the injury were not immediately available.

Johnson said police backed off to try and ease the tension. He believes looting may have spread to a couple of nearby stores. No arrests were made.

So, police stood by as these people broke into stores and threw rocks? First off, the store owners should be thrilled that the police will protect their property /sarc. Second, perhaps the notion that, at least in this case, police being too aggressive with their military style toys as being the cause of previous nights of rage might be a load of mule fritters. At least a small pile.

“We had to evaluate the security of the officers there and also the rioters,” Johnson said. “We just felt it was better to move back.”

I certainly hope the police were filming the faces of the rioters for later arrest. Which, of course, would probably incite more riots.

Meanwhile, peaceful protesters yelled at the aggressors to stop what they were doing. About a dozen people eventually blocked off the front of the convenience store to help protect it.

There are plenty of pictures of people standing in front of the convenience store, supposedly stopping other looters from entering. The NY Times features one, and I just have to wonder who wears a bandana to a peaceful protest, and just happens to be at the looted store?

BTW, just in case you missed it, since so few news outlets are reporting this relevant information (via Hot Air)

(WDEF) The friend who was with Michael Brown when he was shot and killed by a police officer near St. Louis over the weekend is reportedly confirming that he and Brown had taken part in the theft of cigars from a convenience store that day.

That word comes from the attorney for Dorian Johnson, speaking to MSNBC. Police in Ferguson had earlier announced that Brown was suspected of taking cigars from the convenience store in what was described as a “strong-arm robbery.”

This doesn’t provide justification for the shooting, but it does provide context. Brown and Johnson were walking in the street. The officer stops and tells them to get out of the street. He then learns that the two are wanted in connection with the robbery. At that point, something happened. And now we have the same store being terrorized and robbed again. Why? What did the store do?

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Climate Change Is Like A WMD Or Something

By William Teach August 15, 2014 – 4:09 pm

Uh huh

(AFP) Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga likened the impact of climate change on Pacific island nations to “a weapon of mass destruction” Friday, saying strong global leadership on the issue was needed.

Sopoaga said a UN-sponsored summit on climate change in New York next month was a chance to set the scene for real progress in the quest to seal a global pact on greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2015.

Otherwise, the people of his low-lying country would be left dying as nations continued to debate what course of action to take, he said.

“We are caught in the middle, effectively, in Tuvalu. We are very, very worried,” Sopoaga told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“We are already suffering. It’s already like a weapon of mass destruction and the indications are all there… we only need to garner strong collective leadership to address this.

The only problem is that the sea rise is, by most measures, at or below normal. Skeptical Science wants to claim 5.1mm per year increase. After massive data manipulation, of course. And the same post shows that in the broader area there is no real sea level rise of significance. But, then we see other data which shows virtually no sea rise from 1985-2001, and we see no rise from 2000-2012, with an actual dip of 2mm a year from 2006 forward. If we look at the Seaframe gauge, well, nothing.

I mean, it couldn’t possibly be that Tuvalu is suffering from overpopulation, diminishing resources, and a shortage of freshwater, plus poo infested waters, could it? It’s getting harder and harder to see these climate change believers as anything other than hysterical clowns.

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If All You See…

By William Teach August 15, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is a wonderful urban area working hard to minimize the dire threat of climate change through taxation, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Victory Girls Blog, with a post on a laser like focus. And dancing

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Good Grief: CNBC Wonders If “Climate Change” Is Key To Ebola Spread

By William Teach August 15, 2014 – 10:28 am

There’s a fine line between idiotic/scaremongering and irresponsible. Warmist propaganda frequently crosses that line. This article by CNBC’s Katy Barnato demolishes that line

Ebola outbreaks may become more frequent because of climate change, scientists have warned, as the deadly disease ravages four countries across West Africa.

Nearly 2,000 people have caught Ebola since the epidemic started in February. More than 1,000 people have died.

All four countries hit—Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria—have declared public health emergencies, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has termed the outbreak “unprecedented”.

Scientists are uncertain why the current epidemic has proved more serious—both in number of cases and number of deaths—than its predecessors. However, some have pointed to meteorological data to show that previous outbreaks typically occur in clusters after sudden weather changes.

Some scientists believe global warming—and the subsequent increase in extreme weather—could be a factor behind in the virus’s ascendance.

Got that? They are uncertain. Heck, how Ebola outbreaks start is a big uncertain. They mostly have educated guesses as to where the virus spreads from (bats are a big conjecture), but not how the bats get it, nor other animals, nor do they have knowledge as to why outbreaks crop up then disappear. But, hey, they seem really, really sure as to “climate change” being a big factor. Remember, the original known outbreak occurred in 1976, when the media was Very Concerned over a looming ice age.

And, let’s face facts: there are ALWAYS going to be changes in the weather. There’s no reason to go blaming “climate change”, ie, man induced global warming. This was a truly irresponsible, fear mongering, non-scientific article, but, then, what do we expect from Warmists?

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Have You Heard About The ISIS Flag In Front Of The White House?

By William Teach August 15, 2014 – 8:26 am

You’ve heard about the flag flap in NJ, right?

A photo of a New Jersey home flying a flag that resembled the flag of ISIS, the militant group being bombed by U.S. planes in Iraq, sparked alarm and a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security — but the home’s occupant said he meant no offense and was just expressing his religion.

Mark Dunaway told ABC News that he’s flown that black flag for the 10 years he’s lived in Garwood, New Jersey.

“I’m Muslim, and I fly a flag in front of my home that says I’m a Muslim,” he said.

Dunaway has flown the black flag — which bears the Arabic inscription familiar to Muslims, “There is no God but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God” — every year during Ramadan, and every single Friday, he said. Having already had the flag up during Ramadan, he originally planned to keep it up until Friday.

Is he an Islamist, or just flying a flag for peaceful purposes? Only he knows in his heart. I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, particularly since Mr. Dunaway’s flag is not quite the same as the ISIS flag, which includes a reference to the Islamic state. That said, there was a situation that was a bit more dire

(ABC News) The Secret Service said it is “aware” of a photo that appeared to show an image of an ISIS flag in front of the White House.

If authentic, the photo showed a hand holding up an image of a flag for ISIS (also known as ISIL or Islamic State), displayed on a smartphone, on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House fence. That area, closed off to street traffic, is frequented by thousands of tourists every day.

It was tweeted from an apparently pro-ISIS Twitter handle @sunna_rev on Aug. 9.

https://twitter.com/Sunna_rev/status/498239066635124736

That should be a concern, yet, the only place I’ve seen this is by accident going through Yahoo News.

https://twitter.com/Sunna_rev/status/498251670812258304

That might be a concern.

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Washington Post: Ferguson Police Response Demands An Investigation

By William Teach August 15, 2014 – 7:46 am

And an act of Congress? Here’s the Editorial Board

FROM THE chief of the police department to the president of the United States, government officials on Thursday promised a different approach to the racially charged unrest in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. But the situation demands a lot more than a stand-down by assault-rifle-toting police. It might require an act of Congress. (snip)

That was justified in light of what Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. termed “unnecessarily extreme displays of force.” Nothing justifies looting or assaulting police, but law enforcement officers in Ferguson did not need to respond to mostly peaceful protests by deploying armored vehicles, pointing sniper rifles at civilians and tossing tear gas and shooting rubber bullets liberally into crowds. These tactics have been an affront to a community that needs to be heard, not suppressed.

Nor does the cause of public safety excuse the documented abuse of several journalists, including The Post’s Wesley Lowery, whom police detained for “trespassing” in a McDonald’s, and an Al Jazeera film crew, which was tear-gassed.

Our objection to the brandishing of tools of war in a crowd-control operation raises the further question of whether police departments have obtained too much military hardware from the Defense Department. Police officers with the wrong attitude can do a lot of damage with a nightstick or a pistol. It would be a good idea for the Pentagon to reconsider whether a local police force should ever need, say, a mine-resistant armored vehicle. Congress, too, could take more control of the equipment-transfer policy, in place since 1990.

Now, there are couple interesting issues to deal with. First, Congress should definitely rethink the 1033 program, whereby tons of military grade equipment ends up in the hands of local law enforcement without the necessary training. One of the problems in Ferguson was that the police were responding to all the violence during the protests, and surely went overboard with their toys. They might have gone overboard without all the toys. How many police forces are really prepared for riots? If you were one of the police, how might you act in the face of multiple lawless nights? If we really want to point fingers, we need to point them at the higher ranking officers, who should have de-escalated the police response.

It is interesting that when it is the media being targeted, the Post is suddenly concerned with the militarization of the police, something many on the Right have been noticing for years.

Let’s consider something else, which needs to be debated: what about the initial response from the citizens of Ferguson? As the WP wrote “Nothing justifies looting or assaulting police, but law enforcement officers in Ferguson did not need to respond to mostly peaceful protests by deploying armored vehicles, pointing sniper rifles at civilians and tossing tear gas and shooting rubber bullets liberally into crowds”. Remember, it wasn’t the Ferguson police who started this. It was the riots, looting, robbing, violence, vandalism, etc, which brought the police out. Molotov cocktails being thrown at the police. Think about it: how might you have responded if you were a Ferguson police officer? From the comments

I wonder what the Post’s position would be if a crowd had decided to trash its building and the police could only stand by.

Good question. I’ve read many comments and heard them on the radio from citizens in Ferguson, who are thrilled that the police were attempting to protect citizens and their property from those who took advantage of the situation.

While we are investigating the police response, we also need to be investigating the citizen response. It may not be popular, it may be called racist, but the leaders in the Black community need to dig deep and discuss exactly why so many in their community immediately turned to violence, which caused the police response. So many are forgetting that it wasn’t the police who caused the riots and violence, the citizens brought the police out. And that still doesn’t excuse the police response.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Oh, Good, Now They’re Linking “Climate Change” And The Wizard Of Oz

By William Teach August 14, 2014 – 5:43 pm

I wish I was making this stuff up

(Treehugger) The towns Yulan and Highland in upstate New York put on a show called the Weather Project about climate change – Wizard of Oz style – last weekend. The key message? Live with less.

The show, organized by members of the not-for-profit North American Cultural Laboratory (NACL) theater company, brought together all sorts of skills, from painting to dancing to singing, and more importantly brought the whole community out. They were partially funded by The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council on the Arts and other members and organizations in the region. About 600 people came to see the show, which was organized and produced by 73 community members of all ages.

The Weather Project tells the story of three students who are blown away from their science fair in a tornado. They find themselves in the clouds and are told if they want to get home, they need to find the Great Scientist. As they wander down the solar brick road, they encounter clouds, solar munchkins, a mermaid counting extinctions, learning more and more about climate change and how to live with alternative energy. But they have to be careful because the Fossil Fuel Gang lurks around every bend, driving their Mercedes and laughing their evil cackles.

When they finally reach the Great Scientist, a beekeeper, they finally learn the trick to going home. She teaches the travelers to live with less, and they promise to wash their tinfoil, car pool, and stop buying plastic bottles. We’re big fans of the message.

The sad part is, there are some good environmental responsibility messages, which are destroyed by bringing Hotcoldwetdry into the mix. The Church Of Warmism has done their level best to ruin most real environmental issues.

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If All You See…

By William Teach August 14, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is a wonderful subway in a climate friendly big city, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Villainous Company, with a post on fairness, corporate inversions, and a level playing field.

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So, How Do You Talk About Climate Change So People Listen?

By William Teach August 14, 2014 – 10:30 am

Yet another article about talking, spreading awareness. Sadly, it doesn’t delve into how to convince Warmists that they are hysterical hypocrites, more interested in pushing Progressive politics in a cultish manner

How to Talk About Climate Change So People Will Listen

Environmentalists warn us that apocalypse awaits. Economists tell us that minimal fixes will get us through. Here’s how we can move beyond the impasse.

Quite frankly, I’d start out by writing a 4 page article, which spends most of the 1st page reinforcing the doom and gloom mantra by Warmists. I do enjoy the accompanying photo, though

Activist led by Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, protest the building of the Keystone XL pipeline at the White House, February 2013. (AP)

They look cold. Anyhow, on to page 2. Perhaps there will be some ideas on how to convince me of doom and gloom (even though I used to be a Warmists, till I learned the reality)

Rising temperatures per se are not the primary concern. What matters most is their future influence on other things: agricultural productivity, sea levels, storm frequency, infectious disease.

OK, so rising temps don’t matter anymore. Huh.. And, those things from the warming haven’t happened yet. But, hey, the crystal ball says they will. Anyhow, nothing really on page 2, let’s head to page 3.

Nope. Page 4, hopefully?

Nope.

The article is more about digging into why climate change hysteric talking points have failed, because they are too technical, too looking into the future, to unhinged.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you want to convince me of the proof of your convictions, you will practice what you preach. I don’t expect perfection. Man is imperfect, but I would expect Warmists to at least try. Climahypocrisy was one of the main reasons for my conversion from a Warmist to a Skeptic. Why should I believe what they are selling if they won’t practice what they preach, and especially since the leaders are the worst offenders?

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Obama Briefed On Ferguson Riots, Dances The Night Away

By William Teach August 14, 2014 – 8:43 am

Briefly briefed

(The Hill) President Obama was briefed by top administration officials Wednesday night as protests over the shooting of an unarmed black teenager turned violent in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson.

Then, party time!

President Barack Obama attended a birthday celebration for Ann Jordan at the Farm Neck Golf Club in Martha’s Vinyard on Wednesday night where, as the official press briefing puts it, the Obamas “danced nearly every song” and “a good time was had by all.”

The president was slammed by his critics for attending the lavish party as unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, seemingly neared a boiling point as police and protesters clashed for the fourth night in a row following the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

There’s actually a press release from Team O regarding the party. People were not impressed

https://twitter.com/BenEagles/statuses/499766673713688576

Lest you think this is just some Glenn Beck The Blaze Outrage, neither the Huffington Post nor Vox were impressed by Obama partying.

Meanwhile, several reporters were arrested in Ferguson, in what looks to be an abuse of power by the Ferguson police. Salon’s usually unhinged Joan Walsh makes an interesting point

The news and images from the conflict between a stunningly militarized police force and peaceful community protesters in Ferguson, Mo. were horrifying Wednesday night, even before reporters from the Washington Post and Huffington Post were arrested, and MSNBC’s Trymaine Lee was tear gassed and terrorized.

Let’s be clear: Michael Brown’s killing remains the horror here, but the cops’ continued brutality, against peaceful protesters and reporters, has been appalling. Every news anchor should broadcast from Ferguson on Thursday. (snip)

But (Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund) also made the important point that the militarization of the Ferguson police is something entirely new and enormously disturbing. The images Wednesday night should wake all of us up to the alarming militarization of local cops all over the country. How did a local police department get tanks and trucks and body armor that look like it all was designed for the streets of Baghdad and not a little city outside St. Louis?

Good questions. Here’s where Joan runs off the rails a bit

Michael Brown’s killing was awful enough, but the Ferguson police department’s crude and brutal crackdown on protest reminds us that the so-called war on terror is now terrorizing innocent people — in this country too.

I do have to ask, what are the police supposed to do when citizens are in the streets rioting, stealing, vandalizing, breaking into stores, throwing Molotov cocktails, etc? One of my favorite liberal blogs, The Maha Blog, asks a good question

As Walsh says, political leadership seems entirely absent, and the out-of-control cops are arresting reporters guilty of charging up their laptops at a McDonald’s. Yep, this should wake all of us up. Probably won’t, though.

While the police certainly have a duty to respond, and wear protective garments, it is very concerning that so many police forces have so much military grade materials, weapons, and vehicles. To paraphrase what I wrote in her comments, this is not a Left or Right issue, it is something we should all be concerned with. But, will anything come of that concern? What was the end result of the Snowden releases regarding domestic spying? Has anything actually been fixed?

https://twitter.com/muppet151/statuses/499743566256553985

More at Twitchy.

More: this post is obviously a mishmash of several topics, one, of course, being the ever expanding militarization of law enforcement. Noah Rothman notes

No one should suggest the police’s response to civil unrest in Ferguson is an excuse for more turbulence, though some will. Those who want this situation to escalate and become an issue around the country now have their rallying cry. The officers who engaged in this heavy handed and apparently unprovoked attack on the press are responsible for that condition.

This piggy-backed on Mary Katherine Hamm’s post, which wraps up with

We ask more of police in a free society than creating militarized zones out of tough situations. This requires more bravery, more risk, more patience than being a cop in a society where cops can do what they like when they like with impunity. As a result, many Americans have great respect, sometimes reverence, for law enforcement. But when an official response, even to a tough situation, looks like martial law with federally issued no-fly zones, the state isn’t honoring its part of agreement in a free society. We should be willing to demand that they do, even in the face of immense danger. The deep respect many Americans hold for law enforcement should be a function of a free society asking more from those men and women and getting it, not a reason to excuse them when they give us far less.

Make sure to read the full post.

There was also a post at the Democratic Underground, with an accompanying picture, entitled “This is what a police state looks like, folks“. I’m pretty sure we are not at the point of it being a police state, and many DUers agree that we aren’t there. But, we are heading there. Let me point something out: this is exactly what Conservatives have railed against, the ever-growing power of Government, where the people are scared of the government. Where the government does this type of thing. When they are no longer there to serve The People. Perhaps liberals should look deep in themselves, and hearken back to the 60’s and 70’s, when they were against Governmental Power.

Then there’s this one, with this photo

There’s no dilemma, because we aren’t supporting them either way. They aren’t our brave boys in the streets. We certainly believe that government has a role, and stopping riots is certainly one of them. The abuses and over-militarization is not what we support.

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