They are protesting on the streets of Beirut

[Soph0571]

The Lebanese Government locked down the country like so many elsewhere, but it seems like it is rather difficult to tell people to saty indoors when you offer no social security and then shut all of the banks so people cannot access any reserves they may have. Based on the reporting I saw tonight, the relationship between the banks and the government stinks to high heaven with each propping the other up using the people's money. As money is not currently coming in to support what essentially sounds like a Ponzi scheme, they just shut all the banks. So the people are being told, stay at home, but with no money and no food... as one protester said tonight, Covid may kill me, but starvation definitely will if things to do not change right now (para phrasing).

Two things come to mind:
1. I think we will begin to see social unrest on a hither too unseen scale in the the emerging economies. People will put up with most things but they will not tolerate watching their children starve.
2. Because Trump does not care for anywhere not America, watch Putin and China fill the gap in the chaos that may ensue/

[roamer65]

1. The Middle East is a powder keg with a very short fuse.

Some event is going to set it off soon.

[Under The Radar]

2. I'll clue you in, he doesn't care for America either unless it benefits him

[abqtommy]

4. +100 Spot on!

[crickets]

3. Food riots are inevitable if nothing is done. It's going to get ugly.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/01/lebanon-protests-back-streets-economic-crisis-debt-default-lockdown/

Angered by the collapse of the Lebanese pound and rising poverty, protesters across the country set fire to banks, shut down highways, and clashed with soldiers on Monday. Dozens were injured after the military used live ammunition, rubber bullets, and tear gas to disperse the crowds. At least one person is reported dead, and 54 soldiers have also been wounded.

Revolution of hunger. In October 2019, people across Lebanon took to the streets to protest rampant corruption and an ailing economy, prompting Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his cabinet to resign. A new technocratic government was formed in January by Prime Minister Hassan Diab, but observers noted it still had ties to the country’s elite that oversaw years of economic mismanagement—now compounded by coronavirus shutdowns. Lebanon is facing its biggest economic crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/opinion/lebanon-protests-coronavirus.html

On April 25, the lira hit an all-time low: about 4,000 to 4,200 lira to the dollar, a devaluation of over 60 percent. The anger that had been building up exploded once more onto the streets, with the biggest mobilizations taking place in Tripoli, Lebanon’s poorest city.

Protesters in several towns, including Tripoli and Beirut, broke the nighttime curfew, blocking roads and setting fire to banks for allowing big depositors to smuggle billions out of the country while the poorest can no longer afford lentils.

The new wave of protests has an edge of desperation that wasn’t there before. The army has responded with shocking violence, using tear gas, rubber bullets and live bullets to crush the protesters.

Poor Lebanon. The people there don't deserve this. Scarily enough, in many ways our own predicament is not so different from theirs.

[Igel]

5. They were protesting months ago.

It's not a new thing. It's just got an additional reason.

There was a mild dust-up on DU where the Trump admin opted not to send Lebanon a pile of aid.

That was already a couple of months into anti-corruption protests in which the claim was that the government leaders, militia leaders, politicians had basically stolen a lot of money from the government.

Why anybody would want to send that particular government hundreds of millions of dollars is a mystery to me. I guess because Trump said "no" they had to say "yes." There are many ways to let Trump run your life--blind compliance and blind contrariness.

What was interesting was that even Hezbollah supporters were in on the protests.

This is not an unimportant situation. The Houthi rebels in Yemen have thrown in with Hezbollah to signal their virtue. Iran backs Hezbollah in its struggle for Shi'ite dominance and victory over "uppity Jews". And Hezbollah's up to its neck in Syria and helping private Shi'ite militias in Iraq.

[Tipperary]

6. Frightening times.

They want to open the economy here ASAP so they are not pressured to provide another stimulus check.