By the way, even without pandemic and recession, this unrest was predictable

[EarlG]

... and you can therefore put it down as yet another failure to act by Trump.

Here's an article from January, pre-pandemic, about global social unrest in 2020:

Almost 40% of the world’s countries will witness civil unrest in 2020, research claims

Almost a quarter of the world’s countries witnessed a surge in protest and unrest last year and that figure is set to rise further in 2020, according to a new study.

(snip)

The data model, published Thursday by socio-economic and political analysis firm Verisk Maplecroft, has also predicted that in 2020, the number will balloon to 75 countries.

(snip)

The index predicts that 75 out of the 125 countries examined will see a deterioration in stability. That figure means almost 40% of all the world’s 195 nations will witness disruption and protest to some degree.

While the likes of Ukraine, Guinea Bissau and Tajikistan are forecast to experience the biggest rises in unrest, it is larger countries that could prompt the most concern.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/16/40percent-of-countries-will-witness-civil-unrest-in-2020-report-claims.html.

Again, those calculations were drawn up BEFORE the pandemic struck.

It seems to me that in a functional society, you would expect the powers that be to employ experts to draw up plans and playbooks for dealing with this kind of thing. In fact I'm sure our government already has many, many plans and playbooks tucked away for all kinds of different eventualities.

But of course Trump thinks his gut is better than expert opinions. That's why he threw out the Obama pandemic playbook, and that's why he's now stuck like a deer in the headlights. While the country burns, the only thing his gut is telling him to do is spew extremist rhetoric on Twitter, then go golfing.

The U.S. government is most likely already in possession of multiple sensible plans for dealing with various types of civil unrest, including riots erupting in multiple cities nationwide. I'm sure Trump doesn't know about them, and wouldn't read them even if he did know about them, and wouldn't do what they said even if he did read them.

[durablend]

1. I was a month off, TBH

Figuring it wouldn't happen until July, and certainly not under the circumstances that sparked it.

[Igel]

2. And the "larger countries" are identified.

No need to guess or infer.

Countries identified in this troubling bracket include the highly influential nations of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Thailand and Brazil.

[crickets]

3. K&R for visibility.