Memorial Day is the start of Summer for Americans. It is already a hot summer, as cities burn and violence explodes. On top of the pandemic Lockdown, and the mostly-peaceful Lockdown Rebellion, we now have a seeming effort to recreate the insanity of 1968. Fifty-two years ago, a combination of the Southeast Asian War, racial tensions, urban problems, and seven years of increasingly liberal/progressive control of governments led to a series of assassinations, protests, riots, and fighting which scarred the Fifty States for decades.

It now appears that is being repeated. That goal – and more – is shared by multiple groups working together. Not just a repetition of “the Barbecue” (as 1968 was called in DC for years after), but a greater social upheaval. Already being called a revolt, pushed to become rebellion and revolution.

All this was supposedly triggered by Minnesota jackbooted thugs murdering a black man – all recorded on multiple video: a very real tragedy which can be laid at the feet of a corrupt local and tyrannical government: backed up by an elected governor who has become a dictator. As a correspondent suggested, there seem to be three groups active on the streets right now:

1. Actual protesters in the streets who have a legitimate grievance against an abusive cop and a system that protected him for too long. These protesters, “mostly peaceful,” are still using tactics that are disruptive and intimidating: blocking streets and highways, intentionally baiting police (and others) to respond. And all too often, these protesters are primed (and then triggered) to be (or become part of) the next group: their emotions (mostly anger and bitterness) control their actions. No matter what their grievance, they are NOT innocent. They are facilitating aggression, if not doing it themselves.
2. “Rioters” – Radical activists who are using the protests as an excuse and opportunity to raise the ante – increase the level of violence and destruction.  They are smashing windows and burning things, beating people. They are vandalizing not just government facilities but businesses and more. They are attacking not just cops but other people. They are destructive and acting out – and there is more and more evidence that this group is both organized across multiple urban areas AND has planned to take advantage of a tragedy like the killing of George Floyd. Destruction is their goal as they burn buildings and more: and they don’t care what kind of building or business, who the owners are, or anything else except to demonstrate their rage. These are clearly the aggressors, especially when NOT directly attacking cops and the government the cops work for. (No, not “we, the people” or even voters.) More than Group 1, they are displaying their uncontrolled emotions of anger, bitterness, and frustration against anyone within reach.
3. Looters who are using the chaos caused by Group 2 and to a lesser degree Group 1 as cover to steal everything they want that isn’t nailed down, of any value.  The people taking electronics from Target, looting the Gucci and Louis Vuitton stores, or taking anything and everything from businesses, don’t care about the death of George Floyd or racial or other Leftist ideology.  This is the same mentality that results in looting after a hurricane or earthquake: they can get away with it so they will. Sometimes they cloak their stealing in claims of oppression and poverty. These are the clear aggressors. But they could not effectively “do their thing” if they were not able (in Maoist terms) able to swim through the people – if the protesters and rioters were not in the streets.

Few people seem willing to understand this.

The Left (the regressivist “liberals”), say they are all protesters: the fault of 401 years of evil American society and systems. They lump all three groups together and claim their actions are justified. Indeed, that MORE is needed. They immediately tie it to their unreasoning hatred of Trump and anyone who is opposed to ANY part of their agenda. They immediately condemn ALL of American society and all too often, all who are not defined by them as “people of color.”

At the same time, sadly too many on the right – the talking heads, the GOP politicians, the “law-and-order” crowd (still here 50 years after 1968-74), etc. – ignore facts. There ARE a few people who have a real, serious grievance about a bad cop who choked a man to death on a city street. And so they call them all thugs. And at the same time, they refuse to recognize that it is not just the actual killers (and those who, like Paul at the stoning of Stephen, stood by and watched and encouraged) who are bad cops. That cops who LET these bad cops slide are ALSO a major part of the problem. And that the politicians who order the cops around, fund their gang activities, and man and organize the corrupt court system and corrupt, venal local governments, are ALSO guilty.

These two sides feed on each other in a vicious positive feedback loop of action, reaction, response and recrimination. Because neither side can or will distinguish between the various factions that make up the mob in the streets – or their political and social opponents.

Which brings me to Group 4. Call them the manipulators, or perhaps the producers: the people who are ramping things up. These are mostly behind the scenes, invisible and often far from the scenes of violence and destruction). Group 4 are the man behind the curtain, the facilitators, the pushers of hatred, anger, bitterness, and frustration. They tempt – and lead, directly and indirectly – the first three groups. At the same time they use the media to push and get reaction. The more extreme, more harsh, and more violent the better.

These are the true enemies of liberty, of freedom, and of society and civilization itself. They are whom we must take down. They are MORE than Antifa, MORE than media, and MORE than corrupt power-hungry politicians. But those are all a part of Group 4.