I know that, Hurling, but if it's okay with you I'll comment anyway.
Just chiming in with my own thoughts as a contribution...
I agree and disagree with what Mattis said (taking the story at face value.) I think he was a great military leader with great military acumen (based on conversations with those who served under him) yet maybe that does not qualify him as a great bureaucrat.
I can disagree with someone I otherwise admire, just as I can agree with someone I otherwise don’t admire. Amazing!
I appreciate that I've been allowed to post again. I imagine that most of the posters here consider themselves strong supporters of the 2nd Amendment, though there is no movement to repeal that Amendment. That said, I am genuinely interested in what the 2A supporters here think of Trump ordering military and police to use violence and tear gas to clear peaceful First Amendment protestors from a park so that he could pose with a Bible in front of a church. Would that kind of action be sufficient "tyranny" to justify the citizens firing on the military and police, if they had been armed?
Long Island, New York. Out in Suffolk County. There's a flyer on the internet for a protest in my town on Sunday that includes a picture of Minneapolis on fire and says "Bring your spirit in all its inferno". Understandably, people around here are a bit on edge about it. There was a rumor yesterday of antifa types scoping out homes in a more upscale community of my town and noting homes with American flags and other things they don't like, to come back and set fires later, potentially later that night. So I stayed up late just in case. My parents heard people walking around the woods behind my house and talking (not proper large "woods", but thick enough with trees for a few yards before you hit a fenced off sump). Me and my dad went out there to investigate, they were gone by then. But they came back our way up the street a bit later, saw them clearly under the streetlight and my dad shined his light on them. They freaked out and ran. Whoever they were, they did not understand how to sneak around very well. Trudging through fallen dead leaves and talking in a normal voice is not exactly silent running. Two younger guys, white, both were wearing backpacks. Not sure if they were thieves or bumbling wannabe arsonists. But whichever it was, they were foiled by a 65 year old man with a flashlight. These clowns are not gonna find the suburbs easy prey.
Report that George Floyd was covid19 positive.....not terribly relevant. Just like a cherry on top for YTD 2020
Autopsy report: George Floyd died from cardiopulmonary arrest, was positive for COVID-19
Mattis’s statement is a test of whether you can think for yourself in the face of authority and bona fides.
DPG is good read:
How Civil Unrest Hurts the Economy