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If I Can Be “Semi-Spontaneous,” Does That Mean I Can Be “Partially Pregnant?”
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Yesterday, as I was engaged in some family business, driving up and down Interstate 70, one of the ugliest, and one of my least favorite, pieces of road in Western Pennsylvania, I heard an odd report on the news. Figuring that perhaps I was hallucinating, I actually made a point of listening at the top of the next hour, just so I could hear it again. The following is a paraphrase, but fairly closely resembles the actual report:
“Pittsburgh police have announced that they are gearing up for possible riots should President Donald Trump fire special counsel Robert Mueller. The police have received a email report that there is a widespread belief that Trump may fire Mueller, and that if that occurs, extensive protests are being planned in the city. The protests are being described as semi-spontaneous and would likely happen on short notice (emphasis added).”
Three cheers (I guess) for the Pittsburgh Police for their sincere desire to keep their fellow citizens safe. (I’ve had a number of dealings with the Pittsburgh Police over the years, and they are fine people.) But I can’t help wondering if it’s typical for law enforcement to respond so directly, so publicly, and so forcefully to an anonymous “tip” detailing simply that there is a “widespread belief” that something may happen, and that if it does, all sorts of semi-spontaneous hell is going to break loose (if you want to know what I mean, just Google “Pittsburgh police Trump fire Mueller” to see the dozens and dozens of hysterical national news stories about this).
It appears that someone is planning these riots on a nationwide basis and that, whether or not Trump actually fires Mueller, the purposes of sowing dissension and confusion will have been served. I have no idea why Pittsburgh has been chosen as the public face of the “resistance,” but it looks as if, this time, that’s the case. And, of course, Mayor Bill Peduto is happy to play along, throwing gasoline on the fire.
But I’m still stuck on one phrase back in the original news report (and repeated again in many of the news stories). Apparently, no-one else finds it worthy of remark, but does the assertion that these protests will be “semi-spontaneous” strike anyone as odd?
I have no idea what that means, or how, in the event that Donald Trump actually should fire Robert Mueller, the subsequent protests could be described as anything other than the results of a well-planned, carefully orchestrated, extremely focused, and very determined political campaign carried out by the willing participants and useful idiots of the Left.
And if Trump doesn’t fire Mueller? Well, the infrastructure’s already in place for the next thing that comes along, isn’t it?
Published in Politics
The revolution will be semi-spontaneous and partially televised.
I think “semi-spontaneous” protests are what we saw after Parkland. The machinery was all there. The movement was ready. They were just waiting for a particular event to glom onto. Or like the ready-made signs to protest Trump’s SCOTUS pick, and all they had to do was scribble in Gorsuch’s name.
How many of these “just add water” protests does the Left have stowed away? Is there some airplane hangar full of half-prepared signs, and black bandanas, that we need to find and expose? How do we bring this duplicity into the light, and expose it to ridicule?
Heh. Remember the protests over the Gorsuch appointment, where the placards were all ready to protest whoever was appointed, and just the name Gorsuch was scribbled in? (EDIT: Oops. You just said that . . .)
Argh…Make the stupid *stop*, please/thanks? (Panda paws folded.)
Pittsburgh is more likely to have “semi-spontaneous” riots if the Pens don’t beat the Flyers tonight.
Or if the Steelers draft a kicker in the first round next week.
These Mueller rioters are paid agitators. Soros is throwing a hissy fit that his plans for Hungary have been thwarted.
I’m old enough to remember the days when they said “astroturf” rather than “semi-spontaneous.”
It would not be unusual for a big city police department to monitor social media sites for activist groups. Sometimes event organizers will work out an agreement for a planned demonstration. What the organizers cannot control is that other groups will show up to take part in the festivities.
Tactics have changed. Anarchists and the perpetually aggrieved would march behind peaceful demonstrators as a buffer so they could engage in vandalism and make it more difficult for police officers to reach out and touch them. The trend now is to move up front to engage police officers.
I think the question is why this particular event (or potential event) is getting so much media coverage.
Agree on all counts. Hard to imagine anything worse than some of the Pens/Flyers fan dustups (dustsup?) of the distant past.
Also agree that there is money in play somewhere. Semi-spontaneous protests don’t just erupt, ummm . . . errrr . . . ., spontaneously, you know?
The Soviet state was “semi-spontaneous”.
Because Trump.
How many times now has the media suggested that the President is about to fire Robert Mueller? Two dozen? Three dozen? Wishcasting. That’s all it is.
Because the main stream media is so obsessed with Donald Trump that they have become mentally ill. Not only that conflict is good for their business. The Khardashians can only generate so many clicks on the internet, there’s nothing like a good riot to attract attention from both the Left, and the Right.
The “because Trump” explanation still leaves the question of “why this alleged event, at this place?” There must be hundreds of police departments talking about different events all the time. Why is Big Media paying so much attention to this one, out of all the anti-Trump agitation out there?
Maybe because it’s in the same state as the most recent black nationalist rally (the Philly Starbucks massacre)?
Infinity three dozen. That’s my granddaughter’s locution. She used to think of the biggest number she could possibly think of, and then prepend the word “infinity” to it, to indicate an unimaginably larger number.
This also worked in reverse. So, the possibility that any of this sort of lunacy will stop any time soon?
Infinity zero.
To make the point that PA is still a blue state? Although Pittsburgh went for Hillary, much of SW PA was solidly for Trump. But Conor Lamb (D) recently beat out the Republican cypher running against him in this district, so they see an opening to rally support? Maybe that’s it?
Truth…
Judging from the map, Soros will have to spread the Rent-a-Protesters quite thin, probably only four or five at any given location. The bulk of the demonstrations will have to come from local unpaid freak-shows. Most local protests will be under-attended which means TV crews will have to get clever with their camera angles to make it seem like a bigger deal than it really is.
We recently had a “weapons expert” on TV demonstrating a “fully semi-automatic” rifle.
If these jokers can’t think, why should we expect them to be able to talk?
Maybe, . . . but I am told there are hundreds of “spontaneous” demonstrations “planned” for when Trump fires Mueller.
She,
Yes, you’ve caught them at it. They, Soros funded => Move On.org co-ordinated => MSM enhanced coverage, will try to come out in force. That they are tipping their hand with the phrase “semi-spontaneous” is quite comic.
Here’s another oddity that bothers me. For months before the Parkland shooting, the guardians of Cruz were begging Broward Police to intervene. They made it clear that the boy was crazy, he was threatening them and others, he was amassing an arsenal, and he had actually talked about being a “school shooter”. Of course, neither the High School nor Broward Police did anything. They hid behind the phony Obama policy about not giving youths a permanent police record. However, they certainly were aware because the guardians had reported the problems many many times and begged for intervention.
The so-called “national movement” involving Hogg and other so-called “survivors” started up incredibly fast. Tapper and CNN immediately staged their phony town hall to smear Senator Rubio, Governor Scott, and Dana Loesch as representative of NRA. Two days later as the facts of the incredible incompetence of the Broward Police came out, Tapper was forced to walk back a little and criticise the obviously political Broward Sheriff.
Here’s what I’m wondering about this semi-spontaneous protest movement. With all of the advance warning that Cruz was going to go nuts and start shooting people, did Soros funded => Move On.org co-ordinated => MSM enhanced coverage, actually wait for the shooting to take place so they could stage their phony protest? Did the Broward cops (4 on the scene) actually hold off from entering the building because they wanted Cruz to kill more people to make the protest more intense?
I am not claiming this to be true. However, the thought has crossed my mind.
Regards,
Jim
Looks like there aren’t nearly enough.
We might need a series of posts on “the problem of insufficient semi-spontaneous protests” and the like.
Hence the question about why the focus on Pittsburgh. We’re probably overthinking it. Probably, Pittsburgh was the one big-city department that leaked it to the press, or something like that.
Gotta love the whole planned spontaneity thing, though. Brought to you by the people that framed the Benghazi mess as a spontaneous response to a YouTube video.
Thanks. I was just out looking for this graphic of “spontaneous planned protests.” I’d seen it yesterday and wanted to share.
Same here, @drewinwisconsin. I person retweeted it with the comment “Planned protests aren’t spontaneous.” The TAP Alerts account has since deleted the tweet, but screenshots live on.
ATTENTION CITIZENS: MUELLER HAS BEEN FIRED. PLEASE REPORT TO YOUR NEAREST SEMI-SPONTANEOUS PROTEST SITE.
Speaking of which…
Oh, never mind.
“Bring head into felt contact with brick wall. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.”…Not! “Help hungry Panda find supply of bamboo/Thai food.”…Si, claro, y por favor, Sñr. Caballero? (Just a Friday chuckle…) :-)
Apropos of the original post title, one of the funniest things I ever saw on SNL (back in the day, when that meant something) was a graphic accompanying a pan-in or -out going to/coming from commercial.
The video showed a youngish couple, enjoying the show, with the accompanying text (I believe called a “chyron” in the jargon) under the young woman:
Well, I found it funny.
Taken from Ian Fleming’s novel Goldfinger: “Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is an enemy action.”
The only thing that could do more is if they could somehow involve a woman who takes her clothes off and performs sexual acts.
Oh wait…
If we had a free press this spontaneousness would make for a good investigative report, including attempts to interview the money behind the spontaneousness. We’ve been led to believe that social media is responsible for so much spontaneity, but these things are always organized a priori, in the way military are trained for battle and quick deployment.
The pro Ferdinand Marcos protestors could be seen lining up for their payments not far from our Embassy. The anti Marcos forces got a huge boost from the million strong funeral procession following assassinated opposition leader Aquino’s casket, and the millions who attended John Paul’s public appearance in which he spoke of freedom and human dignity with perfect timing. Business, political and church affiliated leaders saw the depth, strength and hence safety of potential anti Marcos crowd that could be mobilized in Manila and built a revolution around it And this was the most spontaneous political movement I had ever seen. There is no such thing as spontaneous political movements, even in the age of social media.