* George Floyd’s case: “Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who has been appointed to lead the prosecution of any cases arising from the death of George Floyd, said he plans to charge the four officers involved to ‘the highest degree of accountability that the law and the facts will support.'”
* Minneapolis: “Since the beginning of 2015, officers from the Minneapolis Police Department have rendered people unconscious with neck restraints 44 times, according to an NBC News analysis of police records. Several police experts said that number appears to be unusually high.”
* In Kentucky: “Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad has been fired, Mayor Greg Fischer said Monday afternoon, after it was announced that no body camera footage was available from the shooting of David McAtee.”
* Heartening news out of Spain: “Spain on Monday reported no official deaths from the new coronavirus in a 24-hour period for the first time since March. The development is ‘very, very encouraging,’ emergency health response chief Fernando Simon said.”
* U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan: “The federal judge who is handling the extraordinary proceedings in the Michael Flynn case told an appeals court on Monday it should not yet intervene in the matter, as Flynn is seeking.”
* Moscow: “Russian President Vladimir Putin has set July 1 as the new date for a constitutional referendum that could allow him to remain in power through 2036.”
* Unanimous SCOTUS ruling: “The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the oversight board established by Congress to help Puerto Rico out of a devastating financial crisis that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus outbreak, recent earthquakes and damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017. The justices reversed a lower court ruling that threatened to throw the island’s recovery efforts into chaos.” [good]
* In light of recent events, this one’s worth watching: “A senior Trump administration official misused his office for private gain by capitalizing on his government connections to help get his son-in-law hired at the Environmental Protection Agency, investigators said in a report obtained by The Associated Press. The Interior Department’s Inspector General found that Assistant Interior Secretary Douglas Domenech reached out to a senior EPA official in person and later by email in 2017 to advocate for the son-in-law when he was seeking a job at the agency.”
Trump doesn’t have a plan – on the pandemic, the economy, or social unrest – but he has hopes that others will make his problems go away.
With multiple crises unfolding simultaneously, one might expect to see an American president deliver a national address of some kind. But the Washington Post spoke over the weekend to a senior administration official who said Donald Trump and some members of his team have decided “he should not speak to the nation because he had nothing new to say and had no tangible policy or action to announce yet.”
[…] The United States continues to struggle with a deadly pandemic; 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment since mid-March; and there’s unrest in communities across the nation, with protestors taking to the streets to condemn racial injustices and violence against people of color.
But the president doesn’t have anything “new to say” and has “no tangible policy or action to announce yet.”
It got me thinking about something Chris Hayes said on his show on Thursday night:
“[T]here is no plan from the president who warned against ‘American Carnage’ — the carnage and chaos we are living through now. Not the pandemic, not the economic crisis, not societal inequities, not predatory policing, not the protests in Minnesota, nothing except to make it all worse.”
Bloomberg’s Jonathan Bernstein stressed the same point in a related column this morning: “Trump simply seems to have given up on the job. He’s had no policy on the pandemic for about a month now. He basically has no policy on recovering from the economic calamity. And he has no policy to deal with the police violence, demonstrations and the rest of the upheaval that has gripped the nation for the past week.”
There’s nothing hyperbolic about the observation. When Congress required the White House to produce a national testing strategy on the coronavirus, Trump and his team responded with a document that effectively dumped the problem on governors. When reporters asked the president for his economic plan, he acted as if he barely understood the question. […]
Trump is a post-policy president who lacks the wherewithal to use the levers of power effectively to serve the nation’s interests. […]
So what does the president have? A preoccupation with his desire to maintain power. The New York Times asked the White House yesterday about Trump’s intentions to address national unrest. He replied through an aide, “I’m going to win the election easily.”
[…] Obama, an unabashed technocrat, went to great lengths to bolster his vision with a meaningful policy platform.
In 2020, Trump hasn’t endorsed “hope” as a message, but it nevertheless seems to be guiding his thinking. He hopes the coronavirus will go away. He hopes state officials will address the public-health crisis in such a way that helps him avoid blame. He hopes the economy will recover before Election Day. He hopes re-opening initiatives will be enough to reduce unemployment quickly. He hopes governors will get “tough” and end protests. […]
Steve Schmidt: “Watching Trump preen in front of St. John’s, moments after he threatened to deploy the American military against the American people, with a bible held above his head, I remembered this quote, ‘when [fascism] comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross’.”
Saadsays
Turns out there was always an Upgrade to Dictator option once you are elected. The other presidents just didn’t have a bad enough conscience (or lacked the requisite confidence) to take it.
“On @AC360, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, of the Episcopal Dioscese of Washington, says President Trump used St. John’s for a photo op without her [permission].
‘I am outraged’.”
John Moralessays
“We’re going to win so much. You’re going to get tired of winning. you’re going to say, ‘Please Mr. President, I have a headache. Please, don’t win so much. This is getting terrible.’ And I’m going to say, ‘No, we have to make America great again.’ You’re gonna say, ‘Please.’ I said, ‘Nope, nope. We’re gonna keep winning.’”
In a Rose Garden address outside a White House lined with military troops and vehicles, the incompetent and fascist Donald Trump is purportedly about to make a national announcement.
Police fired numerous flashbang grenades and tear gas at protesters around the White House immediately before he appeared. It was clear the action was intentionally planned to coincide with Trump’s announcement.
From Maggie Haberman:
Tear gas has been fired outside the White House at protesters who, on TV, appeared to have their hands raised or were not being aggressive, just chanting. Given that the attorney general was just looking this scene over moments before it began, it’s safe to assume the adminiatration wanted this backdrop.
More from the link above:
[…] Trump announces he will “end” the protests “now.”
He warns that if governors cannot solve the problem, “I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”
“Thousands and thousands” of military forces are being deployed, says Trump.
Despite his rhetoric, it’s completely unclear what the hell Trump thinks he’s talking about. He did not explicitly invoke the Insurrection Act, as many feared and warned, only issued threats.
This may have been entirely aimed at creating a reason to attack protesters outside the White House.
It’s self-evident that right-wing militants and “Boogaloo” adherents will take Trump’s invocation of “2nd Amendment Rights” as presidential signal to attack protesters. That, too, had to have been intentional.
Yes, Trump did imply that he is bringing calling up thousands of “heavily armed” military troops to somehow protect people’s second amendment rights, all while he is ridding the streets of protestors and “dominating” every thing in sight.
More from the link:
[…] Arlington County, Virginia is immediately recalling its police officers from DC. Arlington County County Board member Libby Garvey tweeted “Appalled mutual aid agreement abused to endanger their and others safety for a photo op.”
Trump also claimed that he has a “new court” that will back him up. Presumably, he means the Supreme Court.
Trump also claimed to be putting General Milley “in charge,” but we don’t know what that means. In charge of what? Mark Alexander Milley is a United States Army general and the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As Chairman, he is the highest-ranking and senior-most military officer in the United States Armed Forces.
In a contentious call with the nation’s governors Monday, President Donald Trump said he was putting America’s highest-ranking military officer “in charge” as protests over the death of George Floyd rock the United States for a seventh day.
“General Milley is here who’s head of Joint Chiefs of Staff, a fighter, a warrior, and a lot of victories and no losses. And he hates to see the way it’s being handled in the various states. And I’ve just put him in charge,” Trump told governors, according to audio obtained by NBC.
It was not immediately clear what Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley would be tasked with as it relates to the domestic unrest across the nation. The Pentagon added few details. “The chairman will continue to advise the secretary of Defense,” Pentagon spokesperson U.S. Army Lt. Col. Chris Mitchell said.
“As of this morning, 23 states and the District of Columbia had mobilized personnel in support of state and local authorities. Combined, they provided over 17,000 National Guard troops in support,” Mitchell added.
When asked to elaborate, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said she would not “get ahead of any actions that will be announced” on the matter.
“There will be additional federal assets deployed across the nation and there will be a central command center in conjunction with the state and local governments that will include general Milley, [Defense Secretary Mark] Esper and [Attorney General William] Barr, but I won’t go any further in announcing any actions,” McEnany said during a White House press briefing. […]
“I think the sooner that you mass and dominate the battlespace, the quicker this dissipates and we can get back to the right normal,” Esper said in a White House call with governors, according to audio obtained by the Washington Post. […]
The president’s call to designate “antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization in a tweet Sunday seems to have incited some members of Congress to advocate the use of violence and force against their fellow Americans. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) tweeted his desire to “hunt them down” in the tradition of Americans hunting terrorists “in the Middle East.” […]
So, yeah, Trump claimed to be designating ANTIFA as a terrorist organization. The idea is so bonkers that journalists are having a hard time analyzing or describing what Trump has done … or could do.
[…] Trump tweeted Sunday that his administration will designate antifa — a loosely organized, left-wing movement and occasional conservative bogeyman — as a terrorist organization.
Attorney General Bill Barr followed it up with a statement late Sunday evening, making the slightly more tailored statement that “the violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly.”
TPM undertook this morning to ascertain the legal particulars of the Trump administration’s policy. For sure, there are a lot of questions to be asked.
What’s the precedent for this? How could a designation used for foreign organizations apply to a domestic group? How could it apply to a group like Antifa, less an organization than a collection of people who label themselves anti-fascist? What?
The deafening answer was silence. None of the specialists in this area of national security law contacted by TPM would bite on the underlying topic. The reason? The order is too half-baked to comment on.
[…] For one attorney, the lack of clarity was both a factor of the President’s lack of understanding of what he’s discussing and a reflection of how chaotic the Trump administration has been in following Trump’s own directives.
It’s a loud bark, so to speak, but one that’s too incoherent at this point to have much bite.
Rather, it follows on years of Trump and his cohort attempting to turn antifa into a violent enemy of peace and prosperity in the U.S. […]
Even on the merits, various legal analysts have dismissed the proposal to designate antifa as a terrorist group as unconstitutional.
CNN legal analyst Peter Bergen called the move “crazy” in a column, saying it was “surely unconstitutional because it would effectively criminalize joining an American domestic ideological group.”
Yet the move by Trump has paid dividends as his very online supporters spin rhetoric that’s as inflammatory as it is cringe-inducing.
Benny Johnson, the fired Buzzfeed staffer who now works for the right-wing group Turning Point USA, took it as an opportunity to fantasize: “Imagine how many scared little white skinny jean communists are sitting in their parents basement right now shaking and clutching their Soy Latte while trying frantically to delete their ANTIFA laden FB profiles before federal agents drag them to GITMO.” […]
[…] Trump somehow imagined it was a good idea to unleash law enforcement on peaceful demonstrators before the 7 p.m. curfew Monday night as he stepped into the Rose Garden to give a knockoff version of Richard M. Nixon’s “law and order” message.
The president who called NFL protesters peacefully taking a knee “sons of [B-word],” lied when he declared that he is a friend of peaceful demonstrators. The police firing rubber bullets and launching tear gas at protesters in Lafayette Square in front of the White House said otherwise. Then, as if the scene was not evidence enough of his desire to raise the level of violence, he pledged to deploy the U.S. military on U.S. soil, against U.S. civilians, if governors did not heed his incendiary advice to fill the streets with National Guard troops. It was later revealed that Trump instigated the assault on protesters specifically to make a gesture of walking to St. John’s church.
Nothing could be more representative of the dangerous narcissism of a president in over his head, resorting to threats of violence against a country he ostensibly is supposed to lead. The deliberate instigation of violence for his own photo op tells Americans how deeply twisted and deformed his character is.
[…] The invocation of a religious institution to justify an assault on peaceful protesters was as great an abuse of religious symbols as anything Trump has done. Surely, he never heard of the “Blessed are the peacemakers” passage from the Christian bible. He worships not peacemakers but instruments of brute force.
Moreover, any attempt to use the military against civilians in this fashion would almost certainly be illegal and unconstitutional. Even under the Insurrection Act, federal troops would have to be invited into the states to suppress an actual rebellion. For Trump, the threat of force, however unrealistic, is his go-to move when his manliness is called into question — as it was when he fled to the bunker at the White House over the weekend.
If anyone in America had any doubt as to his intentions — to foment violence, to increase racial animosity, to glorify himself at the expense of the national good — Tuesday’s events should silence them. Democrats and any Republicans with a modicum of decency should denounce the stunt, call for a full review of the incident and conduct congressional oversight.
We hope a strong bipartisan assembly of elected officials joins the protesters at the White House, and that one or more civil rights groups will file suit for use of excessive force and deprivation of the peaceful protesters’ rights of assembly and free speech. You are either for Trump or for democracy at this point.
Here’s a link to the June 2 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Hundreds of far-right supporters led by opposition’s leaders Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni are breaching social distancing restrictions as they protest in Rome against Italy’s government, writes Lorenzo Tondo, the Guardian’s southern Italy correspondent.
The demonstrators, who took to the streets to celebrate Italy’s Republic Day, have been chanting against prime minister Giuseppe Conte and the lockdown measures, which, according to the protesters, have “limited our freedom.” Many supporters are not wearing masks as the police struggle to restore order and social distancing measures.
Even Salvini, who yesterday exhorted his followers to march on the streets of Rome, flaunted the regulations by removing his mask.
‘’Experts are saying the virus is dying’’, said Salvini when asked by journalists why he was not wearing the mask. [Experts are not saying this. – SC]
Thousands of people attacked Salvini on social media for his choice to protest publicly in such a delicate moment for the country. Many even pointed out that until recently Salvini detested Republic Day. As one of the most outspoken supporters of northern secessionism, on Republic Day in 2013 Salvini tweeted, “Good night, friends. There’s not a fucking thing to celebrate today.”
The International Rescue Committee has warned that Afghanistan faces a humanitarian disaster as coronavirus spreads undetected and confirmed cases rose 684% in May, Akhtar Mohammad Makoii reports from Herat.
IRC said in a statement that Afghan the health ministry has the capacity to test 2,000 suspected patients each day, but are receiving between five and 10 times as many samples.
“That means between 80 and 90% of potential cases are not being tested. Afghanistan has one of the highest test positivity rates (40%) of all the countries where the IRC works, suggesting a high level of undetected population infection” IRC said.
The organisation urgently called on the international community to work with Afghanistan to improve their testing capacity, and to increase direct support for frontline responders like the IRC.
“Four decades of war has devastated the health care system in Afghanistan and left more than five million Afghans, especially women and children, living in fear of abuse, neglect, conflict, exploitation and violence,” said Vicki Aken, Afghanistan Country Director at the IRC.
“The Covid-19 outbreak is making the already terrible situation much worse. Many health clinics do not have the proper protective gear to treat or refer Covid-19 patients and are turning away those showing signs and symptoms”. Aken added. “Our teams on the ground are seeing an increase in violence against women and children, and women are likely to face increased economic hardship”.
According to IRC the outbreak has left almost 11 million people facing severe food insecurity, unsure of where their next meal will come from.
The humanitarian organisation said it is “extremely concerned” not only for the severe health impacts the virus will have on Afghans, but also for the way this disease is already exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation in the country.
On Tuesday, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases passed 16,000 in the war-torn country, as the health ministry reported 759 new transmissions and five more deaths from Covid-19. The total number of infections in the country is now 16,509 and the death toll is 270. There have been 1,450 recoveries.
Most of the new infections were recorded in the capital, Kabul, and the western province of Herat, which have been the hotspots of the outbreak in Afghanistan. Kabul recorded 266 new cases and Herat 212. Kabul is the nation’s worst affected area with 6,478 confirmed cases. Three of the latest deaths recorded in the northern province of Balkh.
Problems with testing continue in Kandahar, with no suspected patient tested in the southern province in around three weeks.
Iran has recorded its second highest number of new coronavirus cases since its outbreak began, with 3,117 people in the country testing positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, according to the latest health ministry report.
The number of new daily infections in Iran has now returned to levels previously seen at the peak of its outbreak in late March. Iran’s highest number of new cases in a single day was reached on 31 March, when 3,186 positive tests were reported.
Death tolls remain well below levels seen then, however. In his latest update, Kianoush Jahanpour, the health ministry spokesman, said 64 Iranians had died from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.
So far, 157,562 people in Iran have tested positive for coronavirus, of whom 123,077 have recovered and 7,942 have died.
Prominent Brazilians from across the political spectrum have launched a manifesto urging officials to shield the country from its increasingly authoritarian president Jair Bolsonaro and the fallout from his dismissive approach to the coronavirus crisis.
As Brazil’s official Covid-19 death toll surpassed that of France on Saturday, the Movimento Estamos Juntos (We Are Together Movement) published its manifesto in multiple newspapers, with 1,600 initial signatories pledging to put aside political divisions to resist Mr Bolsonaro.
Over 100,000 people have now put their names to the document, which urges elected officials to “set aside old disputes” and mobilise in defence of “life, freedom and democracy”, demanding leaders “exercise their role with dignity in the face of the devastating health, political and economic crisis”.
The following day, Mr Bolsonaro rode on horseback with his supporters to protest against Congress and the Supreme Court, which is investigating his interference in police affairs.
His fury was compounded last week after several of his key supporters’ homes were raided over alleged libel and intimidation campaigns, prompting Mr Bolsonaro to make an expletive-laden appearance outside his residence wearing a tie decorated with assault rifles.
…
Mr Bolsonaro insists his aims are democratic and that his opponents are trampling the constitution in their efforts to oust him.
However on Saturday, around 600 prominent lawyers bought pages in several newspapers to publish their own anti-Bolsonaro manifesto, called Basta! (Enough!).
“Brazil, its institutions, its people, cannot continue to be attacked by someone who … exercises the noble mandate that was given to him to undermine the foundations of our democratic system,” they wrote.
The jurists added: “We all believe that it is necessary to stop this night of terror with which it is intended to cover this country”, concluding: “Let us be intolerant of the intolerant.”
In Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, the tensions spilled over into the streets this weekend, with the president’s supporters and critics narrowly avoiding clashes.
On Saturday night, a group of masked Bolsonarists in the capital marched to the court carrying torches to call for its closure, and that of Congress, urging the military to intervene.
The following day in Sao Paulo, the country’s coronavirus epicentre, a broad coalition of black-clad football fans [?] united in their opposition to the president clashed with riot police, just a short distance away from the president’s supporters.
Military police chief, Alvaro Batista Camilo, said tear gas was fired to keep the groups apart after some pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators carrying what he called a neo-Nazi flag approached the protesters.
After joining his supporters’ demonstrations for weeks, Mr Bolsonaro on Monday changed tack, telling his backers to “leave things alone” this coming Sunday. He rejected responsibility for the protests, saying: “I don’t coordinate anything … I just attend.”
The attempt to rein in his supporters came as the speaker of Brazil’s lower house of Congress, Rodrigo Maia, said he would decide whether to open impeachment proceedings against Mr Bolsonaro “at the appropriate time”.
While Mr Maia did not rule out doing so, he said Brazil’s most pressing concern was unity in the face of the coronavirus outbreak, adding that he did not want to put “more wood in the fire”.
With more than 520,000 confirmed cases, Brazil is now thought to be the second-largest Covid-19 hotspot in the world, behind the US. Some 33,000 cases were identified on Saturday alone.
Mr Bolsonaro continues to be scornful of the virus,…
Writing in support of the Estamos Juntos manifesto on Saturday, left-wing politician Flavio Dino said: “Bolsonaro sometimes comes across as a caricature, something comical. But he’s dangerous – he and the followers of this fanatical far-right sect are dangerous.”…
These must be the experts to whom Salvini is referring in #14 above. The doctor they primarily quote appears to have a clear political agenda (“We’ve got to get back to being a normal country,” he said. “Someone has to take responsibility for terrorizing the country.”). Also, if they’re finding lighter viral loads, it could be explained by the effects of social distancing in Italy.
Russia confirmed 8,863 new coronavirus infections Tuesday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 423,741.
…
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday announced that a postponed nationwide vote on constitutional reforms that could extend his hold over power will go ahead on July 1.
The authorities have also rescheduled Russia’s massive May 9 Victory Day military parade for June 24.
Moscow, the epicenter of Russia’s pandemic with around half of the country’s total cases, on Monday eased a nine-week lockdown allowing shops to reopen and residents to leave their homes for short walks.
Putin was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Tuesday to discuss proposals to restart an economy badly hit by lockdown measures and a sharp fall in oil prices.
A female police lieutenant colonel has fallen from a window on the fifth floor of a Moscow hospital treating coronavirus patients, Russian media reported.
The reports said the incident occurred at Moscow City Clinical Hospital No. 24 on the evening of May 30.
The woman, identified as 45-year-old Yulia B. by Komsomolskaya pravda, was described as a senior expert at the Forensic Center of the Interior Ministry.
The newspaper reported that the police lieutenant colonel died on the spot, but Russian media organization RBC said she survived the fall and was placed in an intensive-care unit.
Komsomolskaya pravda said the police colonel left her ward to go into the corridor, then “fell” from the fifth floor window, and landed on the grass below.
It was not immediately clear what exactly happened.
She had arrived at the hospital on May 23 after being diagnosed with the coronavirus.
The incident comes after three physicians in Russia fell out of windows amid mysterious circumstances during the coronavirus outbreak….
Early Monday evening (June 1), President Trump stood before the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church in downtown Washington, DC, and held aloft a Bible for cameras.
The photo opportunity had an eerie quality: Trump said relatively little, positioned stoically in front of the boarded-up church, which had been damaged the day before in a fire during protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.
The church appeared to be completely abandoned.
It was, in fact, abandoned, but not by choice: less than an hour before Trump’s arrival, armored police used tear gas to clear hundreds of peaceful demonstrators from Lafayette Square park, which is across the street from the church.
Authorities also expelled at least one Episcopal priest and a seminarian from the church’s patio.
“They turned holy ground into a battleground,” said the Rev. Gini Gerbasi.
Gerbasi, who serves as rector at a different Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Georgetown, arrived at St. John’s Lafayette earlier that day with what she said were at least 20 other priests and a group of laypeople. They were organized by the Episcopal Diocese of Washington to serve as a “peaceful presence in support of protestors.”
The volunteers and clergy offered water, snacks, and hand sanitizer to demonstrators who were gathered in Lafayette Park across the street — which sits directly in front of the White House — to denounce racism and police brutality following the death of George Floyd.
But sometime after six in the evening, when volunteers were packing up supplies, Gerbasi said police suddenly began to expel demonstrators from the park — before the 7:00 pm curfew announced for Washington residents earlier in the day.
“I was suddenly coughing from the tear gas,” she said. “We heard those explosions and people would drop to the ground because you weren’t sure what it was.”
The Rev. Glenna J. Huber, the rector of the Church of the Epiphany who was at St. John’s but left as the National Guard arrived, said she watched as police rushed into the area she had just fled. Concerned, the priest sent a frantic email to clergy at the church urging them to be careful.
Back at St. John’s, Gerbasi said she was dressed in clerical garb and standing on church grounds as police approached.
“I’m there in my little pink sweater in my collar, my gray hair up in a ponytail, my reading glasses on, and my seminarian who was with me — she got tear gas in her eyes,” she said.
Gerbasi said as she and the seminarian watched, police began to expel people from the church patio.
“The police in their riot gear with their black shields and the whole bit start pushing on to the patio of St. John’s Lafayette Square,” she said, adding that people around her began crying out in pain, claiming to be shot with non-lethal projectiles.
Gerbasi and others eventually fled the scene, leaving emergency medical supplies behind. By the time she reached K street several blocks away and checked her phone, Trump was already in front of the church holding a Bible.
“That’s what it was for: to clear that patio so that man could stand in front of that building with a Bible,” said Gerbasi….
More atl. They basically forcibly occupied a church to do a photo op claiming to be defending religion.
A Twitter account claiming to belong to a national “antifa” organization and pushing violent rhetoric related to ongoing protests has been linked to the white nationalist group Identity Evropa, according to a Twitter spokesperson.
The spokesperson said the account violated the company’s platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts. Twitter suspended the account after a tweet that incited violence.
As protests were taking place in multiple states across the U.S. Sunday night, the newly created account, @ANTIFA_US, tweeted, “Tonight’s the night, Comrades,” with a brown raised fist emoji and “Tonight we say ‘F— The City’ and we move into the residential areas… the white hoods…. and we take what’s ours …”
This isn’t the first time Twitter has taken action against fake accounts engaged in hateful conduct linked to Identity Evropa, according to the spokesperson.
The antifa movement — a network of loosely organized radical groups who use direct action to fight the far-right and fascism — has been targeted by President Donald Trump as the force behind some of the violence and property destruction seen at some protests, though little evidence has been provided for such claims.
Other misinformation and misleading claims spread across Twitter on Sunday night and into Monday related to the protests.
Two hashtags that trended worldwide on Twitter falsely claimed that there was a “cover-up” or a “blackout” of protests in Washington, D.C., overnight. Both appeared to insinuate that protesters have been silenced in some way, perhaps by a secret internet blackout.
Twitter says it has removed the trend from its “trending topics” section because of “coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation” around the protests.
Twitter said it suspended several hundred accounts and is investigating the viral spread of the hashtag, which it said was boosted by “hundreds of spammy accounts.”
“We’re taking action proactively on any coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation around this issue,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the company sometimes pulls down hashtags that violate the company’s rules, like platform manipulation.
…
Many accounts tweeting the message had few to no followers. The same messages were also posted on Reddit and 4chan late Sunday. The posts pushing the #DCBlackout hashtag peaked in popularity around 12:30 a.m. ET Monday.
A second narrative boosted by bots and hacked accounts claimed that #DCBlackout is a misinformation campaign. The same message was tweeted verbatim by multiple accounts.
“Yeah…… as someone seeing #dcblackout trending, who lives and works in the DC metro area, and who has friends telecommuting into DC rn….. This hashtag looks like misinformation,” read the tweet, which was posted hundreds of times.
…
The goal of the hashtag seems to be to sow confusion and fear during a chaotic time and to push the #DCBlackout hashtag to the front page of Twitter, where all users would at least glance at the disinformation.
Josh Russell, an independent bot researcher who identifies foreign and domestic hacking and trolling operations, said events like the weekend’s protests are ripe for this kind of platform manipulation.
…
Off Twitter, viral text messages of screenshots of doctored tweets have circulated throughout the country. Some of the false text messages claim that extremist groups are plotting to move into residential areas this week.
Bot researchers call this kind of disinformation distribution “hidden viral” text messages, which go undetected on mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter and can spread like wildfire without moderation.
Similar “hidden viral” text messages went viral at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., with messages claiming that the institution of martial law was imminent, vaguely citing friends or co-workers.
American officials later claimed that the texts were boosted by Chinese disinformation agents to spread panic.
Russell said hostile foreign governments frequently “look at opportunities to make it seem as though there is an infrastructure failure” during times of crisis.
“This is a common thing for foreign disinformation agents,” Russell said. “They would be trying to get people to believe that things are much worse on the ground than they are.”
blfsays
It occurred to me this morning that, in a sense, hair furor is “correct” to call out the military — PROVIDED their mission is sensibly defined (and/or they interpret it sensibly); e.g., “Neutralize the terrorists”. That means the policegoons are the principle target.
Of course the proviso “sensibly defined” is unlikely from teh dalekocrazy, albeit the “interpret it sensibly” (by the military) might not be? Using the military against people on States soil is a rare event, and one which is tightly constrained. Doing so at the whim of a delusional manic has never(?) happened, and it’s not impossible to imagine generals, officers, and/or troops refusing to employ force against protestors (albeit there are very probably some who would, perhaps with unrestrained glee). Without checking, I believe the Geneva Conventions require disobeying clearly unethical orders, and the hair furor’s rantings — against the protestors — would seem to be a example of such. But interpreting such orders as to get the policegoons, the cause of the protests, under control?
blfsays
Here in France, today was the first day of the second cycle of “deconfinement”. Locally, this meant restaurants & bars are now open, albeit with restrictions. Despite having a full fridge, I went out for lunch today, carefully choosing the restaurant where I was confident the owners (a young couple) would be following the guidelines whilst serving their usual excellent meal. Yes, yes, and yes! To a “T”, including confirming I had to wear a facemask to visit the toilet.
I then popped off to a bar, but as it turned out, one not so careful: One server wasn’t wearing a mask at all (they are supposed to), and another was doing the cover-the-mouth-but-not-the-nose silliness. And the (tap) beer seemed a bit stale, as-if it’d been sitting around since the start(-ish) of the lockdown, over two months ago.
The local village council has come up with what seems like a good plan: In the evenings, the main esplanade will be closed to traffic (as it is during the summer tourist season), allowing the bars & restaurants to expand their outdoor seating. (There are also various tax breaks and similar.) Whilst I think the main esplanade should be pedestrianised all the time, I do realise that does present some problems, largely due to the maze of very narrow twisty streets (on which I recently got lost! (again!! (again!!!))).
The president [sic] suggested the US could use troops against Americans — true to the instincts of a man surrounded by sycophants
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross,” goes an oft-quoted line of uncertain origin.
On Monday evening, Donald Trump, with four US flags behind him, threatened to send in the military against the American people, then crossed the road to pose for a photo outside a historic church while clutching an upside-down Bible.
He was only able to get there after heavily armed police and horse-mounted national guardsmen fired teargas and rubber bullets to chase away peaceful protesters and journalists.
[…]
Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator for Oregon, tweeted: “The fascist speech Donald Trump just delivered verged on a declaration of war against American citizens. I fear for our country tonight and will not stop defending America against Trump’s assault.”
Kamala Harris, a Democratic senator for California, told the MSNBC network: “These are not the words of a president. They are the words of a dictator.”
[…]
The alarming development ended days of speculation over how the president [sic], already overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic, might respond to the most widespread civil unrest in America in more than half a century.
Media reports suggested heated debates among White House officials over whether Trump should deliver an Oval Office address. In the end, there was a familiar winner: Trump himself.
The choreography of his remarks in the White House Rose Garden and protesters being roughed up just outside was a made-for-television moment around the time of the evening news. Trump remains a reality-TV impresario.
The darkness of his tone was also true to his instincts. His authoritarian tendencies include a love of military parades, putting his name on buildings, hiring family members, staging populist rallies, berating the media and threatening to lock up political opponents. […]
[…]
Earlier in his presidency [sic], Trump was surrounded by military figures, including chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser HR McMaster, who might have found ways to thwart his strongman posture. Now such guardrails are gone and the president’s [sic] inner circle is compliant.
Chris Whipple, author of The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, said: “This is someone who has never empowered anyone to tell him what he does not want to hear and the result is a complete failure of leadership. It’s clear that he no longer has a functioning White House chief of staff.”
“There is no one who can walk into the Oval Office, close the door and tell him hard truths … He has the presidency [sic] he’s always wanted, which is a presidency [sic] of enablers and sycophants and people who will not dare to tell him what he needs to hear, and so we’re seeing the results,” Whipple said.
[…]
Joe Lockhart, a former White House press secretary, tweeted on Monday night: “I lived through MLK and Bobby being assassinated, our cities burning, Watergate, 9/11 and other national tragedies. I’ve never been so frightened for our country as I am tonight. Trump has to go now.”
The Rev Mariann Budde says the institution aligns itself with those seeking justice for Floyd’s death
The Episcopal bishop of Washington DC has said she is “outraged” after officers used teargas to clear a crowd of peaceful protesters from near the White House to make way for Donald Trump.
Minutes after speaking in the Rose Garden about the importance of law and order to quell the unrest over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Trump walked across the street to St John’s Episcopal church […]
But not before police used teargas and force to clear the streets for Trump’s photo opportunity.
Once he arrived at St John’s, Trump held up a Bible that read “God is love”, while posing in front of the church’s sign.
The Right Rev Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, told the Washington Post: “I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing {the area} with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop.”
[…]
“Let me be clear, the president [sic] just used a Bible, […] and one of the churches of my diocese, without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus,” she told CNN. [the “antithetical” can be disputed — this is the death cult — as well as the “teachings” of someone would never existed… but it’s clear the magic sky faerie botherer is very very annoyed –blf]
“We align ourselves with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd and countless others. And I just can’t believe what my eyes have seen,” she added.
“I don’t want President [sic] Trump speaking for St John’s. We so dissociate ourselves from the messages of this president [sic],” she told the Washington Post. […]
Other religious leaders echoed her comments.
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Primate of the Episcopal church, accused the president of using the church and Bible for “partisan political purposes”. [… hah! that‘s very very common, frequently aided & abetted by the sorts now (legitimately?) outraged, albeit perhaps not as blatant and self-serving –blf]
Father Edward Beck, a Catholic priest, tweeted: ‘“Has the Bible ever been used in a more disingenuous and exploitative way?” [yes. eejit. e.g., ask the children your cult rapes. … –blf]
Whilst I’m obviously not very sympathetic to the multi-faced repeated liars, hair furor’s exceptionally crude exploitation of their mythology — and the events leading up to it (both immediate and historical) — does mean I acknowledge their anger as (probably) mostly-legitimate, if not based on rationality or reality.
blfsays
No real comment on this Grauniad article, but I love them (the Grauniad) living up to their reputation for Tpyos offerings, Austria unveils design to turn Hitler’s house into a police station: “Conversion of building where Nazi leader was born will cost €5m and be completed in 1922”. Snort! (I presume this may be fixed, albeit I won’t be the one telling them neither they nor the Austrian police have a Tardis.)
He incites violence from the safety of a bunker, then orders peaceful people tear-gassed for the sake of a surreal photo op
Writing from a Birmingham jail, Martin Luther King Jr famously told his anxious fellow clergymen that his non-violent protests would force those in power to negotiate for racial justice. “The time is always ripe to do right,” he wrote.
On an early summer evening, two generations later, Donald Trump walked out of the White House, where he’d been hiding in a bunker. Military police had just fired teargas and flash grenades at peaceful protesters to clear his path, so that he could wave a Bible in front of a boarded church.
For Trump, the time is always ripe to throw kerosene on his own dumpster fire.
In the week since George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers, Trump has watched and tweeted helplessly as the nation he pretends to lead has reached its breaking point. After decades of supposedly legal police beatings and murders, the protests have swept America’s cities more quickly than even coronavirus.
This is no coincidence of timing. In other crises, in other eras, there have been presidents who understood their most basic duty: to calm the violence and protect the people. In this crisis, however, we have a president [sic] who built his entire political career as a gold-painted tower to incite violence.
[…]
Trump can no more end today’s violence than he can manage a pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 Americans, or create the jobs that will rescue more than 40 million unemployed.
Faced with a threefold crisis of racial, health and economic disasters, we have a three-year-old in the Oval Office.
Our get-tough president started his day by telling the nation’s governors that the world was laughing at them — a recurring nightmare that he loves to project on to everyone else.
[…] Trump demonstrated to the world that he had learned precisely nothing in his three and a half years in charge of the world’s most diverse nation.
I am your president of law and order, he said in the Rose Garden, as thousands of Americans protested against the nation’s agents of law and order. Trump said he would mobilise all available federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting to protect your second amendment rights.
If you’ve missed all the protesters seizing weapons from NRA members, you’re not alone. That last bit was a call to arms for every vigilante to escalate the violence. We have somehow devolved from dog whistle to foghorn politics.
[…]
Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas tweeted that the protesters — he prefers to call them terrorists — should face combat troops on American streets. Let’s see how tough these Antifa terrorists are when they’re facing off with the 101st Airborne Division, he wrote of the Screaming Eagles, who actually killed real fascists in the D-Day landings.
Never mind the actual law of the land that expressly prohibits the US military from domestic law enforcement, unless a state governor requests it.
[…]
Trump has used his time in the White House far more effectively than anyone could have imagined. He ignored the dead and dying in Puerto Rico and brutalised the children at the border. He ignored the dead and dying in the pandemic and wants to brutalise the protesters in our cities.
In contrast to the description of Trump’s statements and actions in blf’s comment 27, here is some more coverage of what Obama and Biden have been doing:
Former President Barack Obama published a piece to Medium yesterday, sketching out “some thoughts on how to make this moment a real turning point to bring about real change.” The missive, which was only about 1,000 words, was clearly intended by its author to be constructive and help lay the groundwork for sustained and meaningful change. […]
The former president began by acknowledging the legitimacy of the protests, emphasizing the fact that the vast majority of protestors have been peaceful, and condemning those who’ve turned to violence. Obama went on to explain the importance not only of voting, but of the relevance of voting in state and local elections, where police reforms can have the greatest impact.
He added, as part of an effort to move the process forward, “[A]s a starting point, here’s a report and toolkit developed by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and based on the work of the Task Force on 21st Century Policing that I formed when I was in the White House. And if you’re interested in taking concrete action, we’ve also created a dedicated site at the Obama Foundation to aggregate and direct you to useful resources and organizations who’ve been fighting the good fight at the local and national levels for years.”
This wasn’t the point of Obama’s piece, but it stood as a reminder of what a president sounds like — and how leaders should try to use their platforms.
[…] his former vice president is trying to step up, too.
Joe Biden on Tuesday praised the nationwide peaceful protests to the death of George Floyd, calling his killing in police custody a “wake-up call for our nation” and drawing a stark contrast between […] Trump’s tactics and how he would respond.
Biden delivered the remarks in Philadelphia — the same city Obama delivered his famous “A More Perfect Union” speech in March 2016. (It also comes a day after Biden met with community leaders at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Delaware.)
“Look, the presidency is a big job,” the Democratic candidate said this morning. “Nobody will get everything right. And I won’t either. But I promise you this. I won’t traffic in fear and division. I won’t fan the flames of hate. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country — not use them for political gain.”
Biden’s remarks included a policy component, including endorsing police-reform measures, most notably a proposed national ban on chokeholds. He added that would launch a police-oversight commission within 100 days of his inauguration. Just as importantly, Biden emphasized that issues such as health care and pay equity are pieces of the same larger puzzle.
But as the former vice president was poised to speak this morning, the man he hopes to replace was on Twitter, thanking himself for cities with diminished unrest last night, and touting the importance of “domination” over certain Americans. […]
[…] * In light of the crisis conditions, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) yesterday issued an executive order extending the deadline for primary mail ballots in his state. […]
* Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) told Trump yesterday she’s concerned about possible security problems ahead of his scheduled visit to her state later this week. The president said he’s going anyway.
* On a related note, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said yesterday she will not be accompanying her party’s president during his trip to her home state.
* Yesterday was the filing deadline for Kansas’ U.S. Senate race, which means we can now officially stop talking about whether Secretary of State Mike Pompeo might run for the seat.
* In 2016, conservative columnist George Will announced his departure from the Republican Party. In his latest column, Will not only calls for Trump’s defeat, he added, “Voters must dispatch his congressional enablers, especially the senators who still gambol around his ankles with a canine hunger for petting.”
The U.S. Secret Service has closed the streets immediately on all four sides of the White House, with an agent telling Axios they’ll remain closed “probably until the riots become peaceful, or stop.”
Protesters near the White House were aggressively dispersed with tear gas and shields last night, before President Trump walked across Lafayette Park to St. John’s Church. This decision will presumably force any protests to take place farther from the White House.
A fence was also erected overnight near Lafayette Park, apparently to keep protesters out of the area. The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the closures, or how long they will be in place.
Jeh Johnson, former secretary of Homeland Security, talks with Rachel Maddow about the logistics and legalities of invoking the Insurrection Act and whether Donald Trump’s threat to deploy the U.S. military against Americans is realistic.
Great video snippet. The video is 6:33 minutes long.
When the President says he is putting General Milley in charge? I’m sure that was a head-turn for General Milley. General Milley is the Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff. He is, by law, the principle legal advisor to the President and the National Security Council. General Milley, with all due respect, is not in charge of anything except the joint staff bureaucracy on the second floor of the Pentagon, and a few other things like the National Defense University.
Aside from that, as you pointed out, there is the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 which generally forbids the active duty military to engage in direct domestic law enforcement. It’s one of the things that makes our country great. It’s an American value. It’s one of the reasons why we have so much respect for our military today, because we keep them cabined in that way.
The Insurrection Act of 1807, which some lawyer pulled out of the closet, has been amended over time, over the years, and it’s cobbled together in various different places. But the Insurrection Act is something that empowers the President to commit the active duty force domestically, but essentially when all else has failed. It is a measure of last resort when state governments have failed in their law enforcement mission, when state court systems have melted down, like, for example, when there is violence on the streets and states refuse to abide by federal court order. In those types of circumstances which are clearly not applicable here. Violence is widespread. The violence is serious, but we are not at a point … I think we’re far from a point where law enforcement, with the help of the National Guard under state control, can deal with it. I think we’re a very long way off from invocation of the Insurrection Act. […]
When peaceful protesters are dispersed by the order of the President from the doorstep of the people’s house, the White House — using tear gas and flash grenades — in order to stage a photo op at a noble church, we can be forgiven for believing that the President is more interested in power than in principle.
Biden also said that Trump is “sweeping away” the “guardrails of Democracy.”
It’s a fucking campaign video, with triumphant music, showing Trump walking, followed by his lickspittles, to the church. There’s a shot of Trump hoisting the bible. Ugly propaganda. OMFG. So offensive.
[…] “Freedom of the press is a right Australians and Americans hold dear,” Ambassador Arthur Culvahouse Jr. said in a statement. “We take mistreatment of journalists seriously, as do all who take diplomacy seriously.”
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting journalists and guaranteeing equal justice under law for all,” he added after quoting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the importance of a free press.
The two Australian reporters, Seven Network’s cameraman Tim Myers and reporter Amelia Brace, can be seen being smacked by police with a riot shield and baton as they cleared the area near the White House. Audiences in Australia watched live.
“You heard us yelling there that we were media but they don’t care, they’re being indiscriminate at the moment,” Brace narrated on the live feed.
The two were later hit by rubber bullets and tear gas, per the Sydney Morning Herald.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has reportedly ordered the embassy to look into the episode, and to express Australia’s strong concerns to local authorities.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese called the attack “unacceptable.”
The two reporters were swept up in one of the most startling onslaughts of law enforcement aggression Monday, as officers violently cleared the square in front of Lafayette Park before D.C.’s 7 p.m. curfew began.
[…] Trump had ordered the protesters be removed so he could take a picture in front of the historic St. John’s Church. The Church’s basement had been mildly burned on Sunday, though the blaze was extinguished before it spread to other parts of the building.
A “senior” Defense Department official has been eagerly telling multiple reporters that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley were “unaware” that peacefully demonstrating Americans were being attacked by police and military forces to clear a path for a Trump photo-op that both of them took part in only minutes later. It is an obvious, brazen lie from both Esper and Milley.
We know it is a lie. They know it is a lie. The whole nation watched, on television, and can confirm that they are lying. Both were fully complicit in Trump’s act.
Notable: Even as Esper and Milley deny involvement, AG Barr releases a statement explicitly thanking them by name for “their support” in his actions.
According to reporter Nick Schifrin, Esper and Milley’s “understanding was they were walking out of the White House to walk through Lafayette Park to review efforts to quell the protests.”
The further claim: “They were not aware that the park police and law enforcement had made a decision to clear the square. … Once they walked out, they continued with him.”
Reporter Paul Shinkman, speaking with the same or a different “senior” anonymous defense official, reports both were summoned to the White House while en route to the FBI to “work with the director and AG.” (But the attorney general, however, was himself heading to the White House at the same time.) As their White House meeting with Trump concluded, “the president indicated an interest in viewing the troops that were outside. And the secretary and chairman went with him to do so.”
This is so obvious and brazen a lie from the Defense Department that it defies words. Esper and Milley were with Trump, in the White House. At the precise time Trump’s Rose Garden speech was intended to start (presumably, a horrific White House tactic to ensure live television coverage), flash-bang grenades were detonated directly next to the White House, rattling reporters waiting in the Rose Garden. Smoke rose from the area.
We are expected to believer that neither of the two military men noticed or were alarmed by explosions going off, repeatedly, immediately next to the White House. That they had no awareness that an action was taking place directly adjacent to the building. That they thought nothing of it.
After fifteen minutes of explosions, smoke, and advancing riot-gear clad police and soldiers, Trump stepped out for a brief teleprompter-based speech that concluded with the announcement that he would be walking to the church that had just been cleared of worshippers, through the park that had just been cleared with flash-bang grenades.
And both Esper and Milley accompanied him as he walked through that park, smoke still in the air, and did not make the connection that the numerous explosions rattling the area and the military force surrounding the area were unconnected with Trump’s announced walk.
Bullshit. There is lying, and then there is lying, and this is absolute nonsensical bullshit from Esper and Milley. It is lying propaganda.
It is the claims of two sniveling cowards who took part in an illegal act against American citizens.
There is no plausible way that Esper and Milley both did not know, with absolute certainly, that the White House had just used force to clear the path Trump walked. It is impossible. And yet they walked beside him.
[…] For lying about it, they are propagandists and cowards.
From Hunter Walker:
This is like doubly Orwellian because I was gassed. These people are literally asking me not to believe what my eyes saw and felt. It’s actual teargaslighting.
From Wonkette: “Trump Pentagon Goons Shocked To Find Selves Covered In Sh*t After Lying Down With Trump”
Oh bless their hearts! The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of Defense have awakened surprised that what happens when you lay down in the bunker with Donald Trump is you get covered in shit. […]
Gen. Mark Milley, who walked along as the feds tear-gassed peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park so Donald Trump could desecrate the Lord’s house with an upside down Bible, and who allowed Trump to tell governors he was “in charge” of some new program where the military would attack the American people, is just trying to clarify!
Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who also gladly walked with Trump, after earlier that day on that same governors’ call referring to the streets of America, full of America’s peaceful citizens, as a “battlespace” to “dominate,” is just having a Susan Collins moment over here, oh bless this mess! That’s not what he meant to do at all! […]
They didn’t know they were going to tear gas those people! What are they, the secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs on the day Trump declared war on the American people or something? How could they possibly have seen that coming?
They thought maybe they would walk to Lafayette Park with Trump, to talk about how to “quell” the protests there, even though there was nothing to “quell,” since MSNBC reporter Garrett Haake and everybody else on the scene have confirmed they were 100 percent peaceful all goddamned day.
They thought Trump just wanted to “view the troops.” So they went with him! Oh fiddlesticks, they never guessed what was going to happen next!
And when Mark Milley gallivanted around later on like some kind of G.I. Joe-wannabe motherfucker … […] [Video at the link]
Attorney General William P. Barr ordered law enforcement officials on the ground to extend the perimeter around Lafayette Square, which is adjacent to the White House, just before President Trump spoke Monday, a Justice Department official said.
According to two federal law enforcement officials, the decision had been made late Sunday night or early Monday morning to extend the perimeter around Lafayette Square by one block. The plan was to be executed, according to the Justice Department official, the following afternoon. Barr was a part of the decision making process, the official said.
The Justice Department official said that in the afternoon, Barr went to survey the scene, and found the perimeter had not been extended. The attorney general conferred with law enforcement officials on the ground — which the official said is captured in a video of the incident.
“He conferred with them to check on the status, and basically said, ‘This needs to be done. Get it done,’ ” the Justice Department official said.
Police soon moved on the protesters, pushing them back with riot shields and horses. The group had been peaceful.
The official said Barr “assumed that any resistance from the protesters of being moved would be met with typical crowd control measures.” The official said Barr had been told on the scene there were reports of the crowd passing rocks among themselves, and a bottle had been thrown in his direction — though the Washington Post did not observe that.
The official defended Barr’s decision. “This plan was happening, regardless of any plans of the president,” the official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak ahead of Barr addressing the matter himself publicly.
In the fall, facing an impeachment crisis, Donald Trump turned to religion. [He] called into a Fox News program in October to insist there’s a Christian revival underway in the United States, and it was the result of “everybody” knowing that “the Russian witch hunt was a faux, phony fraud. And we got rid of that. And then they came up with this Ukrainian story that was made up by Adam Schiff.”
Why would White House scandals lead to a Christian revival? No one had any idea, but [Trump] insisted this made sense.
More recently, with polls showing Trump losing support among key religious groups, the president held a hastily thrown together White House event in which he declared houses of worship “essential” during the pandemic crisis. The president added that he’d override governors that kept houses of worship closed in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
[…] this was meaningless theater. It’s not up to Trump to decide who and what is deemed “essential” at the state level, and he lacked the authority to mandate open religious services.
[Trump] apparently sees matters of faith as a political life-preserver. There was more evidence of this today.
[…] Trump toured a Catholic shrine on Tuesday in his second straight religious-themed appearance as the nation grappled with widespread unrest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Critics said the president was misusing religious symbols for partisan purposes. The White House said Trump and first lady Melania Trump were observing a “moment of remembrance,” laying a wreath in a quiet visit to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine.
[…] Evidently, [Trump] is of the opinion that he’ll politically persevere so long as he effectively says, “The health, economic, and social crises may look catastrophic, but don’t worry, I’m religious.”
Part of the problem with this is that Trump is almost certainly not religious. As is well known, [Trump] — a thrice-married former casino owner — claimed to go to a New York church that rarely saw him. Asked if he’s ever asked God for forgiveness, he said, “I don’t think so.” Asked whether he’s drawn more to the New or Old Testaments, Trump replied, “Both.”
And, of course, there was the whole “Two Corinthians” incident.
[…] Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory said in a statement this morning, “I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people, even those with whom we might disagree.” […]
[…] To Trump’s supporters, Monday’s show was a victory that followed on days of calls for a militaristic approach to the protests.
“Hard to imagine any other @POTUS having the guts to walk out of the White House like this: @realDonaldTrump,” former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker swooned. [JFC!]
“If they were peaceful protesters, there would be no need to use teargas,” the conservative columnist Marc Thiessen said on Fox News. “It means they resisted.” [Aiyiyiy! Lies.]
[…] “Suddenly #Antifa and #BlackLivesMatter aren’t so tough because, instead of storekeepers and little old ladies, the cavalry showed up,” Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative author, wrote under a picture of a helicopter laden with soldiers. “Paramilitary, meet the US military!” [Dinesh fucking D’Souza!]
[…] In the National Review on Tuesday, after the smoke cleared, editor Rich Lowery called for “overwhelming force” to deal with protesters across the country.
That matched a similar call from the pundit Buck Sexton on Saturday. “This isn’t going to stop until the good guys are willing to use overwhelming force against the bad guys,” he wrote.
[…] politicians and pundits took the opportunity to expound on some of their fantasies about military-style attack on the American left.
Noah Pollack, a contributor at The Washington Free Beacon, envisioned orange-jumpsuited antifa prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. “We did it with Al-Qaeda terrorists,” he reasoned.
And in a post that has since been removed from Twitter, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) salivated at the idea. “Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), meanwhile, suggested there ought to be “no quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters,” once U.S. military forces took to the streets.
The military term “no quarter,” put simply, would mean killing those arrested rather than affording them due process or even capturing them alive; Cotton later backtracked, citing other examples of writers using the phrase metaphorically. […]
“If local law enforcement is overwhelmed and needs backup, let’s see how tough these Antifa terrorists are when they’re facing off with the 101st Airborne Division,” he wrote.
Protestors advocating for justice after a white cop kneeled on the neck of an unarmed Black man for more than eight minutes have been met with unreasonable force. Many of them are taking to the streets in memory of George Floyd, the man who died in police custody last Monday, have been ironically and ruthlessly targeted by law enforcement with tear gas and rubber bullets. In part responding to violence distracting from the protest movement, more than 17,000 National Guard members have been deployed in 23 states, according to CNN. That’s about the same number of active-duty troops deployed in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, the news network reported.
Still, proclaiming himself the “president of law and order,” President Donald Trump has urged local officials to use more force in responding to protests and even bragged about a willingness to meet protestors breaching the White House fence with “the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons.” […]
From D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser:
I imposed a curfew at 7pm. A full 25 minutes before the curfew & w/o provocation, federal police used munitions on peaceful protestors in front of the White House, an act that will make the job of @DCPoliceDept officers more difficult. Shameful! DC residents — Go home. Be safe.
From Rebecca Cardenas:
In a powerful moment, The Tennessee National Guard lays down their shields at a protest that has made its way up the steps of the Tennessee Capitol.
Katy Tur on MSNBC is reporting that as the huge crowds of protesters march through New York streets, people are coming out on their balconies to cheer them on. The healthcare workers at Memorial Sloan Kettering also came out to applaud the demonstrators (video here).
Also, “Thousands defied a police ban and converged on the main Paris courthouse to show solidarity with U.S. demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd.” Photo atl. As several responses point out, the protests are mainly about Adama Traoré.
Thousands of people have joined protests in France over the 2016 death of a black man in police custody, defying police orders not to assemble due to coronavirus restrictions.
The death of Adama Traoré, 24, has been likened to the killing of George Floyd in the US, whose death has sparked protests across the country.
Police clashed with protesters in the Paris suburbs on Tuesday.
The Paris police chief has rejected charges of racism against his force.
About 20,000 people defied the order on mass gatherings to join the protest. Initially peaceful, the march turned violent, with stones thrown at police and tear gas fired back.
There were also demonstrations in other cities, including Marseille, Lyon and Lille. Some of the demonstrators carried Black Lives Matter placards – the movement that began in the US and has spread internationally.
Mr Traoré died in a police station after being apprehended by officers in the Paris suburbs and losing consciousness in their vehicle.
One of the officers told investigators that he and two colleagues pinned down Mr Traoré using their bodyweight.
Official reports indicate he died of heart failure, possibly due to an underlying health condition. Last Thursday, the officers who detained Mr Traoré were exonerated by a police investigation.
Following his death in 2016, violent protests were seen in Paris for several days.
His case has become a rallying cry against police brutality in France, which young ethnic minority communities say targets them.
On Tuesday campaigners defied authorities, after their request for permission to protest was denied by police.
Public gatherings are limited to 10 people to control the spread of coronavirus.
Video showed police firing tear gas at crowds in Paris, as well as several fires and blocked roads.
“Today we are not just talking about the fight of the Traoré family. It is the fight for everyone. When we fight for George Floyd, we fight for Adama Traoré,” his sister, Assa, told the protest, according to AFP.
Paris police chief Didier Lallement defended his force against allegations of brutality and racism.
In a letter to police officers, he said he sympathised with the “pain” they must feel “faced with accusations of violence and racism, repeated endlessly by social networks and certain activist groups”.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked a resolution introduced by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday that would have condemned the use of tear gas and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters outside the White House on Monday in order to allow President Trump to walk to St. John’s Church…
“It’s very simple why the Republican leader objected to our resolution and offered this one instead,” Schumer said, after objecting to a counter-resolution from McConnell that stripped out references to Trump. “It’s because they do not want to condemn what the president did, though every fair minded American of any political party would…”
It’s been drowned out by current events, but for anyone following the Flynn case, Judge Sullivan’s defense to the Appeals Court of his decision not to immediately approve the Justice Department’s request to dismiss its criminal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn is here.
CBS News has pulled out some of the highlights (from the 46 page brief.)
…Flynn’s attorneys asked the federal appeals court to order Sullivan to grant the department’s request and dismiss the case. But Sullivan urged the appeals court to stay out of the case until he has a chance to study the dismissal request.
Wilkinson argued the appeals court should not “short-circuit” Sullivan’s ability to review the case.
“The question before this Court is whether it should short-circuit this process, forbid even a limited inquiry into the government’s motion, and order that motion granted,” she wrote. “The answer is no…”
Wilkinson, in her brief pointed out the unusual circumstances of the Department’s position. “It is unprecedented for an Acting U.S. Attorney to contradict the solemn representations that career prosecutors made time and again, and undermine the district court’s legal and factual findings, in moving on his own to dismiss the charge years after two different federal judges accepted the defendant’s plea,” she wrote.
The brief also noted that the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss was not signed by any of the career prosecutors involved in the case, and that it cited “minimal legal authority” for some of it its positions.
Though Sullivan may end up granting the Justice Department’s motion, he was duty-bound to seriously consider the significant legal issues that the case raised, the brief said.
Fed up with the growing violence in their streets, many Republican voters are wishing the George Floyd rioters could follow the lead of coronavirus lockdown protesters, who peacefully stormed the Michigan statehouse with semi-automatic rifles last month.
[…]
One of the participants from last month’s anti-lockdown rallies said the most respectful thing was to start a dialogue. “That’s what we did. We went right up to our elected officials – within an inch or so of their face – and courteously shouted very loudly and very clearly what we wanted. That’s how to do it.
johnson catmansays
re SC @43 and @48 and tomh @53: Instead of de-escalating the situations, the police in these (and many other) instances are escalating and exacerbating confrontations. It is their authoritarian mindset, and it the root of the problem. Until the police actually begin to do the job of serving and protecting the general public instead of rich white people, the problem will not begin to move towards a solution.
johnson catmansays
re John Morales @55: The contrast between the treatment of those “protesters” and the protesters in the last week is stark, and anyone who fails to see and acknowledge the difference is being willfully ignorant. I think that if the protesters in the last week had tried to mimic the actions of the earlier “protesters” by carrying weapons, there would have been a lot of dead people.
Surgisphere, whose employees appear to include a sci-fi writer and adult content model, provided database behind Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine hydroxychloroquine studies
The World Health Organization and a number of national governments have changed their Covid-19 policies and treatments on the basis of flawed data from a little-known US healthcare analytics company, also calling into question the integrity of key studies published in some of the world’s most prestigious medical journals.
A Guardian investigation can reveal the US-based company Surgisphere, whose handful of employees appear to include a science fiction writer and an adult-content model, has provided data for multiple studies on Covid-19 co-authored by its chief executive, but has so far failed to adequately explain its data or methodology.
Data it claims to have legitimately obtained from more than a thousand hospitals worldwide formed the basis of scientific articles that have led to changes in Covid-19 treatment policies in Latin American countries. It was also behind a decision by the WHO and research institutes around the world to halt trials of the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine.
Two of the world’s leading medical journals — the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine — published studies based on Surgisphere data. The studies were co-authored by the firm’s chief executive, Sapan Desai.
Late on Tuesday, after being approached by the Guardian, the Lancet released an “expression of concern” about its published study. The New England Journal of Medicine has also issued a similar notice.
An independent audit of the provenance and validity of the data has now been commissioned by the authors not affiliated with Surgisphere because of “concerns that have been raised about the reliability of the database”.
The Guardian’s investigation has found:
● A search of publicly available material suggests several of Surgisphere’s employees have little or no data or scientific background. An employee listed as a science editor appears to be a science fiction author and fantasy artist. Another employee listed as a marketing executive is an adult model and events hostess.
● The company’s LinkedIn page has fewer than 100 followers and last week listed just six employees. This was changed to three employees as of Wednesday.
● While Surgisphere claims to run one of the largest and fastest hospital databases in the world, it has almost no online presence. Its Twitter handle has fewer than 170 followers, with no posts between October 2017 and March 2020.
● Until Monday, the “get in touch” link on Surgisphere’s homepage redirected to a WordPress template for a cryptocurrency website, raising questions about how hospitals could easily contact the company to join its database.
● Desai has been named in three medical malpractice suits, unrelated to the Surgisphere database. In an interview with the Scientist, Desai previously described the allegations as unfounded.
● In 2008, Desai launched a crowdfunding campaign on the website indiegogo promoting a wearable next generation human augmentation device that can help you achieve what you never thought was possible. The device never came to fruition.
● Desai’s Wikipedia page has been deleted following questions about Surgisphere and his history.
Questions surrounding Surgisphere have been growing in the medical community for the past few weeks.
[…]
Many more details at the link, including waffling from quack Sapan Desai; e.g., There continues to be a fundamental misunderstanding about what our system is and how it works.
Esper opposes using Insurrection Act to send military to states
Mark Esper, the defense secretary, has said there is no grounds for invoking the Insurrection Act, which Trump has threatened to do.
[According to ABC:]
Defense Sec Esper: “I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.”
“The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now.”
Trump has a history of defying scientific findings but his actions during coronavirus have startled even his most vocal critics
[… S]cientists have been struck by Trump’s embrace of fringe beliefs and extreme, unsupported theories. Suddenly, it is not the profit-driven lobbyists and lawyers that are the worry, it is the quacks, cranks and conspiracy theorists.
“They have exceeded my imagination with their scientific denial,” said Gretchen Goldman, a research director at Union of Concerned Scientists. “Previous administrations at least gave the appearance of wanting scientific evidence and qualified people in positions of power. This administration clearly doesn’t care, which changes the game.”
Trump himself has a long history of defying mainstream scientific findings on the existence of climate change and the efficacy of vaccines, but his actions during the coronavirus pandemic have startled even his most vocal critics.
Congratulations to the Grauniad for explicitly noting hair furor’s anti-vax tendencies, an MSM-oversight Orac has been going on about since before Putin had hair furor “elected”.
[… T]he administration has also increasingly shown willingness to ally itself with groups far more fringe than the standard class of lobbyist that inhabits Washington DC.
The administration defended Trump’s use of hydroxychloroquine by pointing to supportive statements from the Association of Physicians and Surgeons, an outlier group that has questioned whether HIV causes Aids (it does), argued abortion causes breast cancer (it does not) and even alleged former president Barack Obama used hypnosis techniques to trick voters, especially Jewish people, into supporting him (there is no evidence of this).
[… T]he Trump administration has aligned itself with an anti-abortion lobbying group called the Center for Family and Human Rights, helping spread its message to the UN, while Trump’s own spiritual adviser Paula White has said she hopes abortion laws are overturned, declaring on a video that emerged in January: We command any satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now!
[…]
“This administration is antithetical to science, there is an ideological mandate to roll back regulations. Facts and logic doesn’t matter, even the law doesn’t matter,” said Chris Frey, a a professor of environmental engineering at NC State University.
Frey was part of an EPA clean air advisory panel that was dismantled as part of a revamp that has seen agency panels filled with industry-aligned and fringe characters — including an official who has argued air pollution is good for public health — and the process of considering science rerouted to bypass a large body of research that links pollution to harm such as asthma and heart disease.
“It will take years to undo the damage. This administration is honestly a threat to public health,” Frey said. […]
blfsays
Albeit many of these images are from Paris, similar scenes were happening locally (modulo a smaller number of people due the local village not being a major city), Cafe culture returns to France after lockdown (pictures). There are similar stories / reports on France24 and other sites (it’s been 11 weeks since anything except take-away was possible).
Well, I finally broke. I started to contribute to this thread this morning, as usual, but I just kept bursting into tears. I had to take a break for a few hours.
“When the history of the Trump presidency is written, the clash at Lafayette Square may be remembered as one of its defining moments.”
[…] It was, by any fair measure, among the most ridiculous presidential photo-ops anyone has ever seen, at least in this country. A New York Times report noted this morning, “[W]hen the history of the Trump presidency is written, the clash at Lafayette Square may be remembered as one of its defining moments.”
A senior White House official told Axios that when they saw the tear gas clearing the crowd for Trump to walk to the church with his entourage, “I’ve never been more ashamed. I’m really honestly disgusted. I’m sick to my stomach.” But in the next breath, that same official added, in reference to Team Trump’s reaction to the ugly display, “[T]hey’re all celebrating it. They’re very, very proud of themselves.” […]
Yesterday, multiple Senate Republicans publicly expressed their discomfort with Team Trump and its heavy-handed tactics in Lafayette Square. Even Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a prominent presidential ally, told Politico, “If your question is, ‘Should you use tear gas to clear a path so the president can go have a photo op?’ the answer is no.”
[…] the Pentagon chief [Defense Secretary Mark Esper, see blf’s comment 61] was willing to speak on the record about an ongoing controversy that he apparently wants no part of.
Indeed, by Esper’s telling, he basically stumbled into an impromptu parade of Trump administration officials, walking to a church for no reason, through a park where peaceful protestors had just been removed by force.
One of the first signs of trouble when a group of people know they’ve screwed up: those hoping to avoid blame start effectively saying, “Don’t blame me; I just work here.”
House Democrats have begun demanding answers from relevant agencies about what transpired in Lafayette Square. Watch this space.
Postscript: The White House apparently began arguing yesterday that the peaceful protestors in the park weren’t subjected to literal tear gas. Rather, the argument goes, security forces fired smoke canisters and “pepper balls.”
On the flip side, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, according to CDC standards, that was tear gas. Second, when a presidential team wants to engage in a semantics debate over the subtle nuances of tear gas, it’s fighting a losing battle.
Team Trump has effectively been reduced to arguing, “It’s not tear gas; it’s just a gas that generates tears. That’s totally different.” What the White House should be working on is an acknowledgement of wrongdoing.
Bits and pieces of campaign news, (excerpted and summarized from text posted by Steve Benen):
Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump 52% to 41%. In Monmouth polling, Biden led by three points in March, four points in April, nine points in May, and 11 points now.
Biden hasn’t yet officially secured a majority of the available delegates, but he’s close, and he should become the presumptive nominee next week.
Valarie Plame came up short in New Mexico in her Democratic congressional primary against Teresa Leger Fernandez.
Voters in Ferguson, Mo., elected Ella Jones, a City Council member, as the city’s new mayor. She’ll be Ferguson’s first African-American and first woman mayor.
Former officials from the Bush/Cheney administration have created a super PAC to help boost Biden’s 2020 campaign. It’s called 43 Alumni For Biden and it will be led in part by Karen Kirksey, a former Treasury Department official.
Julian Castro is joining Biden’s team to help tackle police reform..
PZ covered the fact that the racist, trumpian lickspittle, Steve King lost his primary. Also noted up-thread here in comment 58, etc.
blf @66, cartoonists often associate Trump with shit, with chamber pots, or with manure. Seems appropriate.
In related news, the pushback against Trump’s use of the military, and his use of law enforcement is growing in intensity. Most of the pushback includes dismay over Trump’s stupid photo op at the church. From the New York Times:
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote on Twitter that “America is not a battleground. Our fellow citizens are not the enemy.” Gen. Tony Thomas, the former head of the Special Operations Command, tweeted: “The ‘battle space’ of America??? Not what America needs to hear … ever, unless we are invaded by an adversary or experience a constitutional failure … ie a Civil War.”
From Admiral Mike Mullen:
Whatever Trump’s goal in conducting his visit, he laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing the men and women of our armed forces.
From James Miller, a former undersecretary of defense, who resigned in protest yesterday from a Pentagon board.
Secretary Esper, you have served honorably for many years, in active and reserve military duty, as Secretary of the Army, and now as Secretary of Defense. You must have thought long and hard about where that line should be drawn. I must now ask: If [Monday] night’s blatant violations do not cross the line for you, what will?
Maybe Trump doesn’t realize that his Opportunity Zones policy has been exposed as a sham. Maybe he does realize it and hopes we won’t know the difference.
On Twitter yesterday, Donald Trump insisted, in all seriousness, that his administration has “done more for the Black Community than any President since Abraham Lincoln.” [gag] The missive, which he pinned to the top of his Twitter timeline, suggested the president genuinely believes he can win over African-American voters, who polls show hold Trump in very low regard.
[…] Trump boasted, for example, that he “Passed Opportunity Zones” with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Congress’ only African-American Republican. The tweet came just two weeks after Trump and Scott hosted a White House event on Opportunity Zones as proof of his administration’s interest in economic development in inner cities.
Apparently, Americans are supposed to believe Trump’s policy on Opportunity Zones has been a great success. It has not. The New York Times reported last summer that the policy, touted as a way to help poor communities, has become “a windfall for the rich.”
[…] Trump has portrayed America’s cities as wastelands, ravaged by crime and homelessness, infested by rats. But the Trump administration’s signature plan to lift them — a multibillion-dollar tax break that is supposed to help low-income areas — has fueled a wave of developments financed by and built for the wealthiest Americans.
New York’s Jon Chait added in March that Opportunity Zones are “a corrupt scam to enrich Trump’s cronies,” and the whole initiative “is, or should be, a massive scandal.”
The provision, added to his 2018 tax cut, sounds appealing on the surface. It gives a capital gains tax cut to developers who build new projects in poor urban areas.
The problem is that, even conceptually, the incentive is not going to drive investment in the poorest areas. Developers will look for the least-poor blocks that qualify for the tax cut and build there. In practice, the designation of which areas get the tax credit has been hopelessly (and predictably) abused, so that well-connected builders can go into already-gentrifying neighborhoods and get lucrative tax breaks for projects they wanted to build anyway, including Jaguar dealerships, pet spas, and other luxury playgrounds for the rich.
[…] Maybe Trump doesn’t realize that his Opportunity Zones policy has been exposed as a sham. Maybe he does realize it and hopes the public won’t know the difference.
Either way, he appears to be proving the opposite of his intended point.
The president’s [sic] appeal to his base amid protests was derided by some Christians. Others saw a victory in a world of evil
[… M]any of Trump’s evangelical supporters, far from Washington’s political stage, saw the move as a victory in a world rife with evil.
My whole family was flabbergasted, said Benjamin Horbowy […].
The Horbowys had gathered in Tallahassee, Florida, to watch live as Trump walked from the White House to St John’s. My mother just shouted out, ‘God give him strength! He’s doing a Jericho walk!’
A Jericho walk, in some evangelical circles, refers to the biblical book of Joshua, where God [sic] commanded the Israelites to walk seven times around the opposing city of Jericho, whose walls then came crashing down.
[… He babbled on,] I thought, look at my president! He’s establishing the Lord’s kingdom in the world.
Did he feel that conflicted with the Gospel of John, where Jesus said “my kingdom is not of this world”?
Well, Horbowy said, that’s a philosophical question.
After watching Trump’s gesture, Horbowy changed his Facebook profile photo to one of Trump outside St John’s, with added rays of light emanating from the Bible. It was the coolest thing he could do. What more could he do, wear blue jeans and ride in on a horse? he said. [facepalms so hard the nearby pub momentarily goes quiet –blf]
[… These death cult nazi nutcases] power and worldview is a culmination of trends that started decades ago, according to John Fea, a history professor at Messiah College and himself an evangelical Christian. “It’s rooted in fear,” he said.
In the 1980s, Fea said, several forces converged to alarm white Christians: a removal of official prayer and Bible readings from schools, an influx of immigrants from Asia and the Middle East, and the final desegregation of schools like Bob Jones University.
“So came the emergence of the Christian right,” Fea said.
Figures like Jerry Falwell and James Dobson started wielding political influence in a new way, followed today by a new generation that includes Franklin Graham and the Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress, one of Trump’s leading evangelical defenders.
[…]
Jeffress sees no conflict between Trump’s behavior and the Bible he held up on Monday evening. You mean, does he pretend to be perfectly pious? he said. No.
Fea calls faith leaders like Jeffress “court evangelicals”.
“Trump has these people around him,” Fea said. “They’re telling him, ‘You need to get your evangelical base on board.
People once concerned with piety, Fea said, now crave “an exercise in pure political power”, and the Bible is no longer a spiritual weapon but an earthly one.
When Trump describes himself as a law and order president [sic] and holds aloft a Bible, he conflates which law he will enforce, and whose order will follow. In a short speech before the walk to St John’s, Trump said he would dominate the streets. That is the kingdom in the world Horbowy referenced.
I believe it’s like Ephesians 6:10 through 19, Horbowy said from Florida. I believe this is a president who wears the full armor of God.
But one of those verses — verse 12 — says explicitly that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood”, but against spiritual enemies.
U.S. intelligence officials are worried about the trends they are seeing in the USA.
From the Washington Post:
[…] The scenes have been disturbingly familiar to CIA analysts accustomed to monitoring scenes of societal unraveling abroad — the massing of protesters, the ensuing crackdowns and the awkwardly staged displays of strength by a leader determined to project authority. In interviews and posts on social media in recent days, current and former U.S. intelligence officials have expressed dismay at the similarity between events at home and the signs of decline or democratic regression they were trained to detect in other nations. […]
From King University professor Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst:
I’ve seen this kind of violence…. This is what autocrats do. This is what happens in countries before a collapse. It really does unnerve me.
From Marc Polymeropoulos, who formerly ran CIA operations in Europe and Asia:
It reminded me of what I reported on for years in the third world.
More from the Washington Post:
Former intelligence officials said the unrest and the administration’s militaristic response are among many measures of decay they would flag if writing assessments about the United States for another country’s intelligence service.
An insight into the history and present of Christian nationalism, the movement behind Donald Trump’s religious support.
[…]
The secret to making sense of them is simply stated in the title of Katherine Stewart’s new book: The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. It draws on more than a decade of first-hand experience and front-line reporting that began when her daughter’s public elementary school was targeted to house a fundamentalist Bible club.
“The purpose of the club was to convince children as young as five that they would burn for an eternity if they failed to conform to a strict interpretation of the Christian faith,” she recalls.
The struggle to stop them, and what she learned in the process about the broader plan to undermine public education and make way for sectarian religious education, led to her 2012 book, The Good News Club.
[…]
She argues [the xian nationalist “movement”] is not premodern, as both adherents and critics commonly assume.
It is, in fact, modern in its methods and doctrines, which “notwithstanding their purported origins in ancient texts have been carefully shaped to serve the emotional needs of its adherents, the organisational needs of its clerical leaders, and the political needs and ambitions of its funders”.
[…]
Al Jazeera: How have the doctrines been shaped to meet the needs of the movement’s clerical leaders?
Stewart: Fundamentally the doctrines of religious nationalism reinforce authority — of scripture, of course, but also the authority of religious and political leaders.
This is what religious nationalism does around the world. Their doctrines make an absolute virtue out of obedience to a literalist or strict interpretation of their religion.
This is very handy both for the clerics and the politicians and elites that they serve, as it reinforces their authority, power and privilege.
Al Jazeera: Who funds the movement, and how have the doctrines been shaped to meet their needs?
Stewart: The movement has multiple sources of funding, including small-dollar donors, various types of public subsidy and funding, and affluent donors.
Many of those affluent donors belong to super-wealthy hyperextended families. So it is not surprising that many of the doctrines the movement favours are about money. They say the Bible and God oppose progressive income taxes, capital gains taxes and minimum wage laws. That the Bible favours low taxes for the rich and minimal rights for the workforce. They argue that environmental regulation, regulation of businesses, and public funding of the social safety net are “unbiblical” or “against the biblical model”.
[… L]eaders of this movement have thrown in their lot with a bunch of selfish economic reactionaries who tell us we don’t owe anybody anything.
These doctrines, of course, preserve plutocratic, often nepotistic fortunes. This is why religious nationalism often goes hand in hand with authoritarianism, which around the world frequently exploits religious nationalism to suppress dissent and keep the disempowered members of their societies in a subordinate position.
[…]
Al Jazeera: What is most important for people to know about these origins of the Christian nationalist movement?
Stewart: Pro-slavery theologians, like Christian nationalist thought leaders today, were intensely hostile to the principle of equality, plurality and critical thinking. They endorsed an austere biblical literalism and rigid hierarchies, which they asserted were ordained by God.
The idea the US is a Christian nation, chosen by God; that it should be an orthodox Christian republic; that women should be subordinate to men; that at some point America deviated horribly from its mission and fell under the control of atheist and/or liberal elites — these ideas are still at the heart of Christian nationalism today.
n 1967, nearly 100,000 people gathered around the White House to protest the Vietnam War. In 1969, an estimated 500,000 people surrounded the White House and spilled out for blocks in every direction in a moratorium to end that war. Neither Lyndon Johnson nor Richard Nixon much enjoyed being at the center of mass of a huge number of protesters—and Nixon responded by giving his “Silent Majority” speech, a phrase that Donald Trump repeated on Monday. But one thing that neither man did was to wall themselves off from America and bring into the city an army of unidentified paramilitary forces.
Donald Trump has built his wall. He built it between the people and the people’s house. And on Wednesday, he expanded the perimeter of his wall again as militia without badges, identifications of service, or name tags of any sort steal more square miles of public space from the public and claim it for the Bunker King.
[…] After stealing Lafayette Square from the people and surrounding the White House with a brand new 8’ high wall, Trump on Wednesday had his nameless, badgeless goons push back the line another half block in all directions.
Trump is not just denying the people their right to petition for grievances at the White House, he has absconded with parks, streets, and private businesses to create his expanded bunker. And he has peopled his bunker with a mercenary force of people who refuse to provide any information on their identity, the source of their authority, or their supervisors.
[…] Americans have been pushed away from a public park. Priests have been driven from their church. The Lincoln Memorial has been occupied by an armed and armored company that appears to have no master but Trump.
These people are not the Park Service, they are not regular military, they are not National Guard. So … who are they? Are they guards from the bureau of prisons sent out to treat the public like criminals? Are they private mercenaries courtesy of Betsy DeVos’ family? Are they Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which Trump has seemed to groom for this moment? Are any of them, in any way, trained for dealing with civilians?
What are their standing orders? Under what authority are they operating? How can any of them be held accountable when they are wearing no identification whatsoever? What level of force are they allowed to use against the unarmed public? […]
This isn’t a question of security, this is a reverse coup.
Good photo of “Boogaloo Boi” at the link. The guy was in Kansas City.
Donald Trump may not want to believe it, but the evidence is beginning to mount around the nation that white supremacists and assorted far-right “Boogaloo Bois” are working overtime to leverage protests around the United States […] not to merely join the protests, but to both inflict violence and property damage, as well as to threaten other communities with it, all in order to heighten political tensions around the protests.
The tactics vary: Some are showing up disguised as anarchists or sympathizers, while some are arriving fully armed, in camo and body armor, with the Hawaiian shirts signifying the far-right “Boogaloo” civil-war movement. Others are simply spreading false information on the Internet by posing as antifa and telling smaller suburban and exurban communities that hordes of ravening anarchists are about to descend on their communities and break all their windows—sending those communities into fits of paranoid overreaction.
Trump has been insistent that the violence in the streets has primarily been the work of antifa, while denying the presence of far-right extremists: “I don’t see any indication that there were any white supremest groups mixing in. This is an ANTIFA Organization,” he tweeted on Monday.
In fact, there is abundant evidence that, as The New York Times’ Neil McFarquar observed, the mix at the protests has involved a broad range of actors. And so far, according to The Nation, the FBI has found no indication of organized antifascist involvement in the protest violence.
[…] “We know for a fact there have been far-right agitators both online and at these rallies, as well as far-left.”
Not only are white supremacists involved in the violence and property damage at the protests, but it’s clear that they are working multiple strategies to leverage the chaos into what they hope will be a democracy-destroying race and civil war. The tactics so far include:
Dressing up in clothing typically worn by antifascist demonstrators, mainly the all-black clothing and masks worn by so-called “black bloc” activists. This has been observed both in Portland and in Seattle, where well-known far-right “Proud Boy” street brawlers have been spotted and reported on social media.
Turning up at protest demonstrations fully armed with body armor, often wearing the Hawaiian shirts that signify participation in the “Boogaloo” civil-war movement, and claiming to be sympathetic to the anti-police protesters […] The most notorious case occurred in Denver, Colorado, where a “Boogaloo Boi” was arrested by police at a protest with a large arsenal in the trunk of his car.
Pretending to be antifascists or anarchists on the Internet, primarily with the purpose of duping the public into believing that antifascists were on the verge of attacking communities. One fake flier, spread around Olympia, Washington, offered people $200 to act as “paid protesters,” all of it ostensibly paid for by George Soros and the Open Society Foundation. The most glaring hoax was a Twitter account calling itself “ANTIFA US” […] The account was taken down after Twitter ascertained it was associated with activists involved in the white-nationalist Identity Evropa organization. Despite being a fairly obvious hoax, it nonetheless duped Donald Trump Jr. into repeating the post on Instagram with a message supporting his father’s attempts to blame antifascists for the violence.
[…] In Idaho, rumors spread by the militia group Real Three Percenters of Idaho on Facebook claimed that antifascists were being bused into Boise and neighboring counties to ransack local businesses. […]
No such plans existed, however. I[…]
The most disturbing scene, however, may have occurred in Snohomish, Washington, a suburb about 30 miles outside Seattle, where similar rumors grew so thick that a large contingent of heavily armed “Patriot” militiamen showed up on the streets of the town, ready and eager to defend local businesses from marauding antifascists. As the scene grew rowdier, Confederate flags began to show up. Proud Boys also made their presence known, flashing white-power “OK” hand signals and wearing body armor. […]
In Cleveland, officials say they have evidence white supremacists were involved in protest violence there Saturday, and will be investigating it closely. […]
In Minneapolis, meanwhile, three young white men wearing masks were filmed savagely beating two nonwhite protesters who had followed them while they committed property crimes, and then asked them where they were from. The men, one of them with a machete, rushed their interlocutors, beat them with fists and a pole, and left them huddled on the sidewalk.
[…] On at least one Telegram channel, neo-Nazis could be found urging their comrades to attend protests and then shoot into the crowds.
[…] is part of the right’s long tradition of justifying violence against “the left” by painting it as inherently violent itself.
That narrative was trotted out for prime time on Fox News Tuesday night on Tucker Carlson’s program, when he claimed that in the riots’ aftermath, law enforcement will wither, and “violent young men with guns will be in charge. They will make the rules, including the rules in your neighborhood. They will do what they want. You will do what they say. No one will stop them.”
Ironically, that happens to be exactly the scenario that far-right “Boogaloo Bois” have in mind for their post-civil-war political landscape. Projection isn’t just for theaters.
[…] “The ‘violent left’ narrative is dangerous not only because it heightens already raised suspicions, but also because it can be used to delegitimize genuine political activism and justify right-wing acts of violence and even terrorism.”
[…] Just before Trump issued that tweet about designating antifa as a terrorist organization, the FBI told him there was “no intelligence” to indicate that antifa was involved, or even present, at incidents of violence.
[…[ the FBI’s Washington office prepared the briefing for Trump earlier on that same day. Using agents on the ground, online resources, informants, and every other tool the FBI could leverage. Their finding was that antifa was not behind incidents of violence and looting. The situation report ran through a list of such incidents, including those such as throwing bricks or destruction of property, which had featured predominantly on the news. None of the results found any evidence of antifa involvement.
[…] with this information on his desk, Trump made his Twitter announcement that the group—which doesn’t even exist as an actual organization—was to be designated as terrorists.
[…] Trump has tweeted about antifa six times in the last five days, including an additional claim that would be named a “terrorist organization.” And while the FBI report was on his desk, and mayors and governors on the ground were telling Trump exactly who was to blame, he instead went with a quote from Fox News to say “I don’t see any indication that there were any white supremest groups mixing in. This is an ANTIFA Organization.” And yes, he said “supremest.” […] It also shows how far Trump will go to defend the very fine white supremacists who have been his vocal supporters.
As Wired has noted, antifa doesn’t just serve as an all-purpose left-wing boogeyman, it’s also convenient cover for Republicans. Why hasn’t the government acted against far-right militias who threaten citizens, invade state houses, and wave semi-automatic rifles in the face of officials? Why not go after genuine torch-waving Nazis? Well … look over there, it’s antifa!
Antifa isn’t a vast, shadowy organization. It’s certainly not a “major terrorist organization.” It’s not even an organization. But it is a scapegoat. A man who takes responsibility for nothing at all needs a whole herd of those.
Paul Ksays
New charges have been brought against all four criminal cops. I haven’t placed a link here for so long that I’ve forgotten how, but it’s all over, and you’re all probably already aware, but, hey, I’m happy to share it! This tragedy happened in the congressional district I lived in for twenty years, once represented by Keith Ellison, and now Ilhan Omar.
Alok Sharma, the business secretary, has been tested for coronavirus after feeling unwell while delivering a statement in the House of Commons.
The cabinet minister has gone home to self-isolate following his appearance at the dispatch box earlier on Wednesday….
From the liveblog:
The parliamentary authorities are understood to have given the area a deep clean and MPs were at the time sitting at least 2 metres apart. “This was done as a precaution,” a House of Commons source said.
However, Sharma’s suspected illness is likely to cause concern about the government’s decision to bring back parliament in its physical form, after weeks of allowing MPs to attend remotely via video link.
Many MPs have protested against the new arrangements, which have seen them queuing around the parliamentary estate while complying with the 2-metre physical distancing rules in order to vote.
Observers noticed that Sharma appeared unwell and to be sweating profusely while he spoke about the corporate insolvency and governance bill in the Commons.
Nancy Pelosi joined the protestors in Washington D.C.
JSpeaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday joined a crowd of demonstrators outside the Capitol protesting police brutality toward black Americans following the death of George Floyd […]
Pelosi wore a mask and was accompanied by her usual entourage of staff and members of her security detail while walking through the crowd, which a spokesman confirmed was on the Capitol’s east front.. […]
A record 1,262 Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in Brazil today – taking the country’s total death toll to 31,199 – but the president continues to downplay the pandemic.
The figures were announced on Tuesday evening by Brazil’s health ministry, which also said the number of coronavirus cases had risen to 555,383, second only to the United States.
The South American country is now on the verge of overtaking Italy, where 33,530 deaths have been recorded, as the country with the third highest number of deaths.
But Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has dismissed Covid-19 as a “little flu”, again brushed off the tragedy on Tuesday.
“I regret each of the deaths – but that’s everyone’s destiny,” Bolsonaro told supporters outside his palace in the capital Brasília.
Brazil’s most populous state, São Paulo, registered a record number of deaths on Tuesday taking the total number of fatalities there to nearly 8,000. Rio de Janeiro has Brazil’s second highest death toll with 5,686 deaths, followed by the northeastern state of Ceará where 3,421 people have died.
For all Bolsonaro’s dismissiveness, scientists and medical experts believe the situation is dire and likely to get worse. “Not even in our most dreadful nightmare could we have imagined the situation we are now in,” Drauzio Varella, a doctor and broadcaster, wrote in one of Brazil’s top newspapers last week.
For the last two months, Keir Starmer has been cautious about criticising the UK government’s coronavirus response.
The opposition leader has preferred to be forensic rather than furious, accepting that ministers have a difficult job.
But it appears that his patience has finally run out.
The calamitous events of the past week, from the Dominic Cummings affair to the mixed messages over the easing of the lockdown, has changed the mood of the new Labour leader. He has a tougher message now.
I am putting the prime minister on notice that he has got to get a grip and restore public confidence in the government’s handling of the epidemic.
If we see a sharp rise in the R rate, the infection rate, or a swath of local lockdowns, responsibility for that falls squarely at the door of No 10. We all know the public have made huge sacrifices. This mismanagement of the last few weeks is the responsibility of the government.
From Wonkette: “Trump Starting To Doubt SecDef Mark Esper’s Commitment To Fascist Bible Gassing”
[…] We noted that he [Esper] said, out loud, that Trump should not invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 in order to attack American citizens with “Army” on American soil.
[…] now we’re getting reports that Trump is BIG MAD.
[…] Did you know he [Esper] said — out loud with his mouth! — that all the officers who helped kill George Floyd should be “held accountable”? And not only that:
“With great sympathy, I want to extend the deepest of condolences to the family and friends of George Floyd, for me and the department,” Esper said during a Pentagon briefing. “Racism is real in America, and we must all do our very best to recognize it, to confront it, and to eradicate it.” […]
“What happened to George Floyd happens way too often in this country. And most times, we don’t speak about these matters as a department, but as events have unfolded over the past few days, it became very clear that this is becoming a very combustible national issue.”
[…] And now, CNN is reporting that the White House was like “WHAT?” to all of this, just like “WHAT?” That does not sound like a solid commitment to Racist Sparkle Motion Fascist Bible Gassing! […]
A senior Republican source told CNN that there has been ongoing tension involving Esper and that Trump has no respect for his defense chief. […]
A US official close to Esper and familiar with White House thinking said the secretary is being “skewered” by those inside the White House for coming out Wednesday to express his views. […]
Funny how this keeps happening with pretty much every Cabinet secretary in the Trump administration except the woman who married Mitch McConnell on purpose and not on a dare. Anyway, we were just remembering the resignation letter from Trump’s last confirmed secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, where Mattis did everything but call Trump an unhinged piece of shit. (All the Defense secretaries between Mattis and Esper were “acting,” obviously.)
[…] Trump and other top officials, including national security adviser Robert O’Brien, are “not happy” with Esper after his Wednesday remarks, three people familiar with the White House’s thinking said. […]
[…] what kind of secretary of Defense is he, anyway? Doesn’t support attacking the American people with tanks, probably doesn’t even subscribe to Tomi Lahren’s Racist Quote Of The Day inspirational email list.***
[…] But again, things had been going poorly even before this. Trump apparently bitched and moaned about Esper for a whole long time at Camp David recently, and reportedly “both Trump and O’Brien [view] Esper as not entirely committed to the President’s vision for the military.” You know, the one where Trump gets to HEREBY ORDER the military to do fascist take-overs while he does photo ops […]
Also CNN says Trump is upset because Esper doesn’t say sweet things about Trump on TV enough.
[…] “Another person” CNN talked to said maybe Trump could just leave Esper there and blame him for shit. Because that’s a thing Trump does!
Or maybe Trump will just fire him Friday.
“I think this is the end for him,” [a source] added.
[…] we can tell you that it seems like the active-duty troops Trump brought into Washington are going home.
[…] Trump is starting to feel like the states should just handle all the fascism themselves, just like coronavirus.
That’s right, Donald Trump is TOO LAZY to even finish one whole fascism, LOLOL, probably got distracted “inspecting” a bunker or something, yep that’s probably it. […]
[…]
Rachel Millar […] from Coagh, near Cookstown, was one of three women chosen to front the latest edition, which celebrates frontline workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s insane,” she told The Irish Times. “It’s not really every day you see your face plastered over the news and social media.” [she’s been aware of the selection for about a month, but had to keep it a secret –blf]
[…]
As well as Millar, Narguis Horsford, a train driver on the London Overground, and Anisa Omar, who works in a supermarket in King’s Cross in London, also have their own covers in the July edition.
The editor-in-chief of British Vogue, Edward Enninful, wrote that he could “think of a no more appropriate trio of women to represent the millions of people in the UK who, at the height of the pandemic, in the face of dangers large and small, put on their uniforms and work clothes and went to help people.”
The Russian city of St. Petersburg, which has been hit hard by the novel coronavirus, recorded 1,552 more deaths in May than in the same month last year, official data shows.
Official data also shows that Russia’s second-largest city only had 171 deaths from the coronavirus last month.
Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, St. Petersburg has recorded 17,069 coronavirus cases and a total of 240 deaths.
Pentagon reverses decision to move troops away from Washington
[… F]rom the Associated Press: defense secretary Mark Esper has reversed the decision to send active duty troops back to their bases after they were moved towards Washington, as the president [sic] threatened to deploy them against protesters.
Earlier, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany pointedly did not say Esper’s job was safe, after he told reporters he disagreed with Trump over the possible need to deploy troops. […]
Records reviewed by the [Washington] Post found the president [sic] had to resubmit his application, despite railing against the vote by mail process
[…]
Trump registered to vote in Florida last September under his White House address — 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, according to the Washington Post. But Florida does not allow people to register to vote without an in-state address, and one month later, Trump resubmitted his application with a Florida address and voted in the Republican primary.
On his registration form, Trump told Florida officials his legal residence was in Washington DC but on another day also said he was a bona fide resident of Palm Beach, Florida, home to his Mar-a-Lago Club, according to the public records reviewed by the Post.
Other voters have faced significant consequences for the same mistake. In fact, as some Democrats pointed out, the same issue is listed on White House website as voter fraud.[†]
A city manager in Florida paid $5,000 in fines for putting the wrong address on her registration, as did a restaurateur in Palm Beach county. […]
† That Wacko House “site” is really something, A Sampling of Election Fraud Cases from Across the Country (PDF). First thing to notice is it’s some Heritage Foundation propaganda (not any government report, nor is there any indication the government commissioned or paid for the gibbering). Second, it (ambiguously) says there have been 1071 “proven” cases of fraud (ambiguous because it’s unclear if it’s talking about what’s in the 300+ page propaganda, or something else). And third, it claims 938 of those cases have resulted in criminal convictions. Presuming its numbers are broadly correct, what is the problem, please? Proven frauds are being dealt with.
“Sweden’s top epidemiologist Tegnell has admitted his strategy to fight coronavirus resulted in too many deaths, after driving his country to avoid lockdown— Sweden’s mortality rate is among the highest globally and far exceeds that of neighboring countries”
New York City police officers surrounded, shoved and yelled expletives at two Associated Press journalists covering protests Tuesday in the latest aggression against members of the media during a week of unrest around the country.
Portions of the incident were captured on video by videojournalist Robert Bumsted, who was working with photographer Maye-E Wong to document the protests in lower Manhattan over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The video shows more than a half-dozen officers confronting the journalists as they filmed and took photographs of police ordering protesters to leave the area near Fulton and Broadway shortly after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect.
An officer, using an expletive, orders them to go home. Bumsted is heard on video explaining the press are considered “essential workers” and are allowed to be on the streets. An officer responds “I don’t give a s—-.” Another tells Bumsted “get the f—- out of here you piece of s—-.”
Bumsted and Wong said officers shoved them, separating them from each other and pushing them toward Bumsted’s car, which was parked nearby. At one point Bumsted said he was pinned against his car. He is heard on video telling the officer that Wong has his keys and he needs them to leave the area. Officers then allowed Wong to approach and the two got in the vehicle and left.
Both journalists were wearing AP identification and identified themselves as media.
“They didn’t care,” Wong said. “They were just shoving me.”
NYPD officials said they would “review this as soon as possible.”
Journalists have faced aggressive police and protesters during demonstrations across the U.S. over the killing of Floyd,…
MSNBC is reporting that the Park Police officers who assaulted the Australian journalists have been placed on administrative leave and it’s under investigation.
YouTube link to the Obama Foundation panel that just happened a few hours ago: A conversation with President Obama: Reimagining Policing in the Wake of Continued Police Violence
I thought it was very good discussion, and I thought some others might also be interested. Those “8 ideas that can’t wait” are a good start for sure.
Evangelical leader Pat Robertson says ‘it isn’t cool’ for Trump to berate governors over unrest after Floyd’s death.
[…]
Robertson opened his nightly “700 Club” television show on Tuesday by saying the political moment in the US now calls for compassion and reassurance, not the threats of dominance and military force that President [sic] Trump offered in recent days.
[…]
“And he [hair furor] issued a heads up. He said: I’m ready to send in military troops if the nation’s governors don’t act to quell the violence that has rocked American cities. Matter of fact, he spoke of them as being jerks,” Robertson said.
“You just don’t do that. Mr president. It isn’t cool,” he said.
The rebuke was surprising because Robertson, who is one the founding leaders of the white, evangelical Christian movement in the US, has been a consistent supporter of Trump. His television show, begun in 1966, is seen by an estimated one million Americans every day.
One in four American adults belong to an evangelical Christian denomination and they voted 81 percent for Trump in 2016, according to the Pew Research Center […]
[… I]n a Fox News radio interview, Trump rejected the criticism from church leaders as partisan.
Most religious leaders loved it. I heard Franklin Graham this morning thought it was great. Most religious leaders thought it was great, Trump said.
It’s only the other side that didn’t like it, the opposition party as the expression goes, Trump said.
[…]
In his 700 Club monologue, Robertson also questioned Trump’s public threats to call in the US military against the protesters […]
“The question is, does the president have the authority to call out the troops,” he said. “You have got to go all the way back to pre-Civil War days to find an ordinance to give him that authority.”
The Pentagon had deployed rapid response, assault troops to military bases in the Washington DC, region as well as two brigades of military police.
[…]
An evangelical magazine founded by the late Reverend Billy Graham published an editorial on December 19 during Trump’s impeachment in Congress calling for his removal from office for “gross immorality and ethical incompetence”.
A survey conducted in late April and early May by Pew found that support among evangelicals for Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, while still strong, had slipped by 6 percentage points.
Former defense secretary fiercely criticizes Trump’s handling of mass protests
Former defense secretary James Mattis has broken his silence on the Trump administration, fiercely criticizing the president’s [sic] handling of the recent mass protests over George Floyd’s death.
In an article for the Atlantic, Mattis accuses the president [sic] of dividing the country and ordering the military to violate the constitutional rights of Americans.
“Donald Trump is the first president [sic] in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” Mattis writes. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”
“Today at DoD:
9:45am: Esper says he does not support using Insurrection Act
10am: Army notified of Esper plans to return some troops deployed for protest
2pm: WH spox declines to endorse Esper
4pm: Esper reverses move to send troops home
6pm: Mattis denounces Trump”
[…] Boris has become his own worst enemy. The charmer turned charmless. Mr Happy turned Mr Angry. It also doesn’t help that even when his friends at the Daily Telegraph try to big him up with a story about how he was going to take direct control over the government’s handling of the coronavirus, they only succeed in teeing up [Labour leader Keir] Starmer with his first free hit. Who had been in charge of the government during the past three months? […]
Boris immediately became defensive and snappy. He had always been in control. All that was changing was that now he would be in total control. Besides, he stood behind what the government had done so far. There hadn’t been many other countries that had managed to kill so many of its citizens through negligence and indifference, so that was something of which we should all be proud. […]
British and German authorities are investigating a new suspect in connection with the disappearance of British child Madeleine McCann, 13 years ago. UK authorities on Wednesday described the development as a “significant new line of enquiry.”
The three-year-old vanished while sleeping in her family’s holiday apartment in Portugal on May 3, 2007, in a case that has since gained widespread media attention in the UK. She has never been found, and no one has ever been charged over her disappearance.
The new suspect is a 43-year-old German man, authorities from both countries said.
The suspect has previously been convicted for sexually abusing children, German State Prosecutor’s office of Braunschweig, State of Lower-Saxony said in a statement on Wednesday, which added that he is currently serving a “long” jail sentence “for an unrelated matter.” He is now being investigated for “possible murder” in connection with McCann, the office said.
The suspect had lived in Portugal’s Algarve region from 1995 to 2007, and also resided in a house in Praia de Luz, the resort from which McCann disappeared, according to the prosecutor’s office.
London’s Metropolitan Police on Wednesday also revealed details of two cars linked to the suspect around the time of the disappearance, and called on the public to step forward with any information about them.
…
The child’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, on Wednesday thanked the “police forces involved for their continued efforts in the search for Madeleine.”
“All we have ever wanted is to find her, uncover the truth and bring those responsible to justice. We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know as we need to find peace.”
UK authorities are offering a £20,000 (about $25,000) reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible.
Mattis equates Trump attempts to divide with Nazi slogan
In perhaps the most extraordinary passage of James Mattis’s extraordinary condemnation of Donald Trump, […] the former Marine Corps general and US defense secretary seems to equate the president’s [sic] behaviour in dividing Americans with the aims of the Nazi regime during the second world war.
Mattis writes: “Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that ‘The Nazi slogan for destroying us … was Divide and Conquer. Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’’ We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis — confident that we are better than our politics.
[…]
In a Medium post from 2017, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum elaborated on the Nazis’ strategy and propaganda efforts.
“The Nazis were virulent racists,” the post says, “… they identified black people as an inferior, alien race that threatened the future existence of western society. But that didn’t stop them from trying to exploit racial tensions among US forces to encourage desertion in the closing days of World War II.
“Creating wedges between people had been a Nazi strategy since the party’s inception.”
[… I]n 2019 the retired marine published a memoir, Call Sign Chaos, which only obliquely referred to his differences with Trump. Publicising the book, Mattis said he believed it would be inappropriate for him to criticise a sitting president.
It seems Trump’s actions on Monday, when he ordered an assault on peaceful protesters outside the White House so he could stage a photo op at St John’s church, helped to change Mattis’s mind. Defense secretary Mark Esper and Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, accompanied Trump on his walk to the church.
Mattis joined criticism of their presence and wrote: “We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square.”
Labor Department Inspector General Scott Dahl announced Tuesday he was retiring from his post just a day after warning lawmakers of massive fraud in the unemployment insurance system, becoming the latest watchdog to exit the Trump administration.
[…] Dahl, who will leave the office effective June 21, said the decision “has been long in the works and is for entirely personal reasons,” adding that he was not “told or asked to resign.” […]
On Monday, Dahl and other officials from his office told a House oversight subcommittee that they’ve seen a “significant amount of fraud” in unemployment programs during the coronavirus pandemic. He told lawmakers that DOL punted on his recommendation that states should collect more earnings information from applicants to combat the fraud.
Dahl also said he was “very surprised” that DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration had only issued one citation during the entire Covid-19 pandemic.
“This is something that we’re planning on turning our attention to to look at [OSHA’s] enforcement activities and seeing if they are following their standards, and what can be done to make them more efficient, effective,” he told lawmakers.
During the briefing Dahl also suggested, in response to a lawmaker, that he could investigate Scalia for pressing a federal retirement board to reverse plans to begin investing in a new index that includes Chinese companies. The board’s decision came after Scalia and White House officials applied pressure.
His exit comes as the Trump administration has seen an exodus of watchdogs across the federal government, including Glenn Fine, who resigned from the Defense Department inspector general’s office last month.
Seems to me like there might be more to this story.
Nevada men associated with right-wing extremist Boogaloo movement arrested
Three men with ties to a right-wing extremist movement have been arrested on terrorism-related charges, the AP reports.
Authorities said there was a conspiracy to spark violence during the protests in Las Vegas. Prosecutors said the thee white men had US military experience and were arrested after making Molotov cocktails in glass bottles and filling cans with gas, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the AP […]: “They were arrested Saturday on the way to a protest in downtown Las Vegas after filling gas cans at a parking lot and making Molotov cocktails in glass bottles […]”
I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words “Equal Justice Under Law” are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court. This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand—one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers. The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values—our values as people and our values as a nation.
When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.
From the July/August 2020 issue: History will judge the complicit
We must reject any thinking of our cities as a “battlespace” that our uniformed military is called upon to “dominate.” At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part. Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.
James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that “America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat.” We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.
Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that “The Nazi slogan for destroying us…was ‘Divide and Conquer.’ Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’” We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis—confident that we are better than our politics.
Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.
We can come through this trying time stronger, and with a renewed sense of purpose and respect for one another. The pandemic has shown us that it is not only our troops who are willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of the community. Americans in hospitals, grocery stores, post offices, and elsewhere have put their lives on the line in order to serve their fellow citizens and their country. We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.
Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.
KGsays
Boris has become his own worst enemy. – blf@94, quoting the Grauniad’s John Crace
As Ernie Bevin said of Herbert Morrison (or possibly of Nye Bevan*, accounts differ, maybe he even used the line twice):
Not while I’m alive he ain’t!
*All three were WWII and early postwar Labour politicians.
KGsays
SC@87,
The appalling performance of Sweden’s leaders is one of the biggest and most revealing disappointments of the pandemic so far. The government is a Social Democrat-Green-Liberal coalition, which one might expect to prioritise people’s lives. Apparently there’s a tradition of the government not overruling public officials such as the chief epidemiologist, and the no-lockdown policy has had majority public support, but neither justifies such reckless gambling with lives. I suspect the root of the problem is a kind of Swedish exceptionalism. Defenders of the approach keep trotting out the “Too early to judge”, and “It’s a marathon not a sprint” excuses, but this is nonsense. Tegnell has said that if they had known then what they know now about the virus, they might have acted differently. But the lack of knowledge then (and indeed, still) is precisely the point: faced with an obviously highly contagious and dangerous virus with many unknowns, the only rational response was (and is) to buy time by minimising infection numbers. Sweden is rich and well-organised enough to have done this as effectively as its neighbours did – and they are now, as it turns out, able to loosen their own lockdowns.
blfsays
Teh NKofE’s PM is following hair furor and Jair Bolsonaro in doing a very wrong thing at a very wrong time for self-serving profiteering “reasons”, and in direct contradiction of people who actually know what they are talking about, Boris Johnson says he wants to relax 2-metre physical distancing rule (my added emboldening):
PM’s comments come despite warnings by scientific advisers that rule should remain
[…]
The prime minister struck an optimistic note about easing the lockdown further after demands from Tory MPs for a review of the 2-metre rule to help pubs, restaurants, cafes and other venues to reopen profitably.
[…] Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, and Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical adviser, took a much more cautious tone, stressing that the UK needed to move very slowly given the current infection rate.
Whitty listed a series of measures including hand washing, “good cough etiquette”, the use of face coverings and the 2-metre rule that are “going to carry on really for as long as this epidemic continues”.
Vallance said there was still a risk of a second wave and highlighted other countries where there had been subsequent outbreaks after physical distancing measures were eased.
Daily Mirror, Daily Express and local newspaper staff furious after bosses get £300,000 in bonuses and £1.18m in shares
[…]
Staff at Reach, the publisher that owns the titles, said their wages were docked by 10% at the start of April “without consultation or consent”, and without any reduction in the amount of work they were expected to do.
[…]
Reach employees are particularly angry because their chief executive, Jim Mullen, and chief financial officer, Simon Fuller, were paid almost £300,000 in bonuses at the end of March relating to the previous financial year. The pair were also given shares worth £1.18m […]
[…]
Reach has paused its dividend, pension contributions, and future bonus scheme. But staff have noted that earlier this month it told shareholders that its £20m cash reserves had increased to £33m during the crisis.
[…]
Other media outlets have taken a different approach to cut costs in the pandemic, with the Daily Mail asking journalists to take a pay cut in return for shares in the parent company. The Guardian has furloughed around 100 non-editorial staff but not changed terms for its journalists.
[…]
Additional details at the link (e.g., the union’s response, some speculation about what Reach is really up to, Reach’s excuses, &tc).
Tens of thousands of Britons have had to be retested for coronavirus following a controversial decision to send swabs to a US laboratory.
Almost 30,000 Britons will have to be retested for coronavirus costing taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds, the Telegraph reports.
Ministers admitted that 67,000 Covid-19 tests were sent to a lab in the US over 10 days at the beginning of last month, [warning! Grauniad gibberish ahead] after capacity at a lab in Northern Ireland suddenly stopped processing samples.
The newspaper reveals that when these tests were returned to the UK, more than four in 10 — nearly 30,000 — were “voided” because of the way they had been processed. The cost to the taxpayer is likely to have run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
blfsays
Here in France, teh lepenazis haven’t been attracting too much attention since the start of the lockdown 11 weeks ago, which coincided with the first round of local elections. The second round was postponed due to the pandemic lockdown, and is now scheduled to happen later this month, so I expect they’ll start being obnoxious again. They apparently have a chance in Perpignan (here on the South coast near Spain), where, last I heard, perhaps a week or so ago, the opposition parties have formed a shaky collation to try and hold the lepenazis off (Mainstream parties make ‘fragile’ pact against far-right National Rally in France’s Perpignan: “Perpignan on France’s Mediterranean coast is seen as the best bet for the National Rally (formerly National Front) as it seeks to win a major city in the second round of the country’s local elections on June 28. All other candidates have dropped out to back the conservative incumbent, but there are doubts as to whether this tactic will hold off the populists”).
National Rally led by Marine Le Pen reaches a legal deal with a Russian aviation parts firm over a controversial loan.
[…]
Documents filed in December last year to Moscow’s Court of Arbitration showed aviation parts company Aviazapchast was suing Le Pen’s party for 639.8 million rubles ($10.1m) loaned to the party.
[…]
The debt-recovery action was filed with the Russian court late last year, and the National Rally party was notified in a December letter of the first hearing in June.
The court said a document outlining the full agreement would be published within five working days.
The French far-right party, which has struggled financially for several years, took out the loan with Russia’s First Czech-Russian Bank in 2014.
News of the lending sparked concerns the Kremlin had thrown its weight behind Le Pen’s party, which is critical of Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis.
In March 2016, the original loan was passed to Russian car hire firm Konti, shortly before the First Czech-Russian Bank went into administration and eventually shut down in July the same year.
State-owned Deposit Insurance Agency then indicated that the loan had been passed on to Aviazapchast in late 2016.
[…]
The Al Jazeera article doesn’t go into who owns the (now-defunct) First Czech-Russian Bank, or Konti, or Aviazapchast, but it’s easy to imagine Putin’s crony’s fingerprints all over the place.
me@110, Obviously, I meant “a shaky coalition”. And I forgot to mention a heartwarming sight locally from earlier in the week: The local lepenazi office, brazenly located on the main pedestrianised shopping street, was vandalized (lock apparently broken and posters torn down). The lock’s been fixed, but the remnants of the torn-down posters are stlll stuck to the walls and windows, making the place look even more pathetic than before. It’s also empty, devoid of anything except a table & a few chairs, but that’s how it normally is; it was staffedinfested back in December (and has been in existence for about a year now), but that’s about the only time I’ve ever seen anyonezombie lurking there. It has been vandalised before.
America’s brutal response to protests has weakened its global standing — and been a propaganda gift to foreign dictators
[…]
Faced with massive protests against this racism, President [sic] Donald Trump has responded like an autocrat. Trump has repeatedly encouraged violence against protesters and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops on US soil. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff […] stood next to Trump as he talked about deploying troops, then walked the streets of DC in his combat fatigues to survey the scene like an occupying general. The US secretary of defense told governors to dominate the battlespace — the battlespace meaning the streets of American cities.
The breadth and depth of the structural problems at play can be seen in police forces’ responses to protests, which often range from heavy-handed to outright dangerous. Police are shooting people with paint pellets and rubber bullets, running into protesters with cars, and shooting teargas and flash-bang canisters into crowds. A helicopter in Washington DC flew low over a crowd to disperse it with noise and wind, a tactic used in war zones against insurgents. And the police violently dispersed a group of peaceful protesters in front of the White House to clear a path for Trump to walk to a church for a photo op.
If these events were taking place in any other country, a normal US government would express its outrage in statements and high-level phone calls and coordinate with allied countries and international organizations to pressure the offending government. From repression in the Soviet Union to the brutal suppression of protests in the Middle East during the Arab spring, the US has helped lead principled international responses to countries that violently oppress their citizens.
Today, in a truly sad state of affairs, dictatorships around the world […] are able to give their propagandists a break from fabricating stories about America because they can just post pictures and videos of current events. […]
America is, justifiably, the focus of intense anger, frustration and disappointment from people across the world. United Nations officials have spoken out about the murder of George Floyd. […] Australia launched an investigation into an incident in which a police officer attacked an Australian journalist covering the US protests. If the situation in America continues to escalate, one could easily imagine some of America’s closest democratic allies beginning to consider steps like offering protesters asylum, criticizing America’s state-sanctioned violence in international organizations, and even perhaps sanctioning US officials responsible.
[…]
Today, America’s protestors are its ambassadors to the world, reminding everyone of the ideals the country strives to embody. And even in these dark times, people around the world still believe in the vision of America that the protesters are struggling to build. Like the protesters at home, those taking to the streets around the world to speak out against racism in America — and to remember George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others — understand what makes America great far better than Donald Trump.
John Moralessays
blf:
… what makes America great …
Heh. The MAGA slogan indicates that its adherents believe America (well, that portion of America that’s under the regime of the USA) is not currently great. So they’ve got that part right.
(Also, what’s with your [sic] regarding President? It’s quite correct)
The state’s governor awarded a Utah-based company a $26m no-bid contract to run the program, but it has been fraught with complaints
Iowa is betting on its new public health program to allow for the reopening of businesses such as bars and movie theaters following weeks of Covid-19 closures. But health experts and lawmakers are raising questions about the program and the little-known company behind it, pointing at missed deadlines, long test delays and complaints over the accessibility of testing sites.
The principle behind TestIowa is one familiar to many states and countries by now. Residents participate in a survey that determines whether they qualify for Covid-19 testing; people determined to be at higher risk of having contracted Covid-19 are directed to free testing sites, and positive cases are identified to allow those residents to isolate and curb the spread of the virus.
[… long story, featuring a very common set: dubious characters / companies, often inexperienced or inappropriately experienced, opaqueness & seeming-coverups, inaccessibilty (both physical & to even make a booking for testing (Internet and English / Spanish required)), etc, etc, etc…]
Some health experts in the state have questioned the government’s decision to award the testing contract to an out-of-state company. “The expertise of Nomi Health and their partners appear to be in the fields of data analytics and engineering, which are not the same as epidemiology,” said [executive director at the Iowa public health association, Lina] Tucker Reinders.
To Rossana Rosa, an infectious disease specialist based in Des Moines, it’s clear when looking at the TestIowa platform that it was not made in partnership with existing public health framework in Iowa. “Of course we welcome any effort to expand testing in Iowa,” she said. “But this is a web based platform without any relationship or integration with any of the healthcare systems. Patients get a lot of the burden of interpreting a test result or knowing what to do once they get it.”
“I was surprised by the fact that instead of utilizing established public health entities, we went to a company that has never been involved in diagnostics before,” said Megan Srinivas, an infectious disease physician at the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Global Health and infectious disease. “It is unusual to do in the setting of a pandemic when we really want to use resources that are reliable.”
[…]
Meanwhile, Iowa is one of the fastest growing states for cases of coronavirus, fueled in part by spikes at meatpacking plants where hundreds of mostly-immigrant workers have fallen ill. Nearly 60% of employees at one Tyson plant in Perry, Iowa — 730 employees — reportedly were infected with the virus. Another Tyson plant, in Waterloo, Iowa had 1,031 reported cases among about 2,800 workers.
An additional outbreak was revealed in a news conference in May in Storm Lake where 555 of the plant’s 2,517 employees have tested positive.
In that announcement, the Iowa Department of Public Health said it would not be publicly announcing continuing outbreaks at meatpacking plants unless directly asked by reporters. The Iowa Department of Public Health and the governor’s office declined to respond to questions about the number of coronavirus hotspots in the state, and whether those would be tracked by TestIowa.
blfsays
Sensible, France cancels July 14 military parade over Covid-19: “France will cancel its traditional July 14 military parade this year due to coronavirus social distancing requirements, replacing it with a ceremony to pay tribute to medical personnel at the forefront of the pandemic battle, the presidency said Thursday.”
Slightly related, I’ve been wondering about the upcoming June 21st Fête de la Musique. Some admittedly quick Generalisimo Google™ searching finds that it will happen (e.g., (French) Un événement « sans prendre de risques » : à quoi pourrait ressembler la Fête de la musique ?), through clearly not in its usual form. However, just what form it will take still seems unclear? (As it so happens, June 21 is almost the start of the third déconfinement cycle.)
The “couldn’t happen here” Ozland story referenced in several panels is NSW police commissioner says officer who slammed Indigenous teen to ground had a bad day: “Mick Fuller says he is concerned by footage but most of the community wouldn’t want to see officer sacked”. The teenager assaulted by the goon had apparently said something the goon didn’t like (no actual action, just words, as far as I know), but that gives the goonpologists an opening. E.g., “[NSW police minister David] Elliott, who has consistently defended accusations of misuse of police power, said he was more concerned about the language the boy had used, saying the officer had been provoked, I was just as disturbed about the threat from a young person to physically assault a police officer as I was with the response from the police officer.”
Ardent supporters saw the photo op as a blow against evil while others saw the gesture as cynical and a ploy
On Monday when Donald Trump raised overhead a Bible […] he unwittingly cleaved his loyal Christian supporters into two camps.
His most ardent evangelical supporters saw it as a blow against evil and described his walk from the White House to St John’s Episcopal church, over ground violently cleared of protesters, as a Jericho walk [ see @70].
[… E]vangelicals are not monolithic: some saw the gesture as cynical, a ploy by a president [sic] whose decisions, both private and public, do not align with biblical principles.
[…]
Trump’s photo opportunity required police to attack and push away protesters against police brutality. He walked surrounded by key civilian and military advisers, some of whom later said they were caught unaware by the stunt and the violence that preceded it. Some evangelical leaders said they felt similarly aghast, watching the event unfold.
“Pelting people with rubber bullets and spraying them with teargas for peacefully protesting is morally wrong,” said Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. […]
[…]
Trump can’t afford to lose evangelicals, even by the handful. A record 81% of white evangelicals voted for him in 2016, and he only narrowly won [sic] the presidency [sic], sometimes by just a few thousand votes in crucial areas. His gesture with the Bible outside St John’s was meant to shore up that support, reminding his base of a tacit agreement. […] In exchange for their ballots […] Trump has packed the courts, including the supreme court, with conservative judges who agree with them on social issues.
[… Professor of American history at Messiah College, John] Fea said it was unclear what happens next: whether evangelicals will stay by Trump, or make a significant split. But whatever happens, he said, is unlikely to be peaceful.
“Here’s a good rule of thumb,” he said. “Looking back through history, whenever you see someone in authority using the Bible to justify law and order, it ends badly.”
Activists say the way to stop police brutality and killings is to cut law enforcement budgets and reinvest in services. Some lawmakers now agree
The movement to defund the police is gaining significant support across America, including from elected leaders, as protests over the killing of George Floyd sweep the nation.
For years, activists have pushed US cities and states to cut law enforcement budgets amid a dramatic rise in spending on police and prisons while funding for vital social services have shrunk or disappeared altogether.
Government officials have long dismissed the idea as a leftist fantasy, but the recent unrest and massive budget shortfalls from the Covid-19 crisis appear to have inspired more mainstream recognition of the central arguments behind defunding.
[…]
Floyd’s death on camera in Minneapolis, advocates say, was a powerful demonstration that police reform efforts of the last half-decade have failed to stop racist policing and killings. Meanwhile, the striking visuals of enormous, militarized and at times violent police forces responding to peaceful protests have led some politicians to question whether police really need this much money and firepower.
[…]
Amid the protests, some local leaders with budgeting powers have started proposing modest cuts to policing. The most substantial change so far, has come in Minneapolis where the school board on Tuesday voted to end its contract with the police department. The University of Minnesota has also pledged to stop working with police.
[…]
Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles mayor, addressed the broader protests in a speech late Wednesday night and said he was now working to make cuts of up to $150m to the police budget and reinvest funds in black communities, though specifics of his plans were unclear.
[…]
Kamau Walton, a Philadelphia-based member of Critical Resistance, a long-running US abolition group, said the absurdity of increased police spending in this moment was visible to many. Walton lives across from a recreation center and library that has been closed due to Covid, and said houseless people now gather outside, because they have nowhere else to go.
The city, however, is further cutting housing and homelessness services and seems to lack a summer plan for these communities who have lost programs, resources and jobs, they said. “At a drop of a dime, they can find money for uber-militarized tanks and fly helicopters all over the city and shoot rubber bullets, but we can’t put people in houses?”
Kelly Lytle Hernández, a UCLA historian and recent MacArthur recipient, said this could be a pivotal moment for the US: “We’ve created over the last 30 to 40 years a sense that our safety and wellbeing always comes from investing more and more in police.”
This week, it seems there is increasing recognition of this failure, she said, adding, “Defunding the police is the first step in a much broader historical transformation that I’m hoping you’re seeing broad-based support for on the streets today.”
Driving vehicles into protesters demanding justice for George Floyd earned the backing of the mayor, but of few others
It doesn’t take long to blow up a reputation. In the case of the New York police department, an institution with an already troubled history, the clip lasted all of 27 seconds.
It showed an NYPD vehicle in Brooklyn lined up against a metal barricade behind which protesters were chanting during Saturday’s demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd. Projectiles were thrown on to the roof of the car, then suddenly a second police SUV drew up alongside and instead of stopping continued to plough straight into the crowd.
Seconds later the first vehicle lurched forward, knocking the barrier over and with it propelling several protesters to the ground amid a harrowing chorus of shrieking.
A 27-second video, now viewed more than 30m times, had quickly shredded years of effort to repair the deeply tarnished image of the NYPD. New York’s “finest” were firmly cast in a role normally reserved for the security corps of petty dictators.
The shocking video was compounded hours later when the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, spoke about the incident. A politician who won election in 2013 largely on a promise to reform the NYPD and scrap its racially discriminatory stop-and-frisk policy, astounded even his closest supporters when he defended the police.
De Blasio said: I do believe the NYPD has acted appropriately.
Social media lit up. Was it appropriate to drive those two SUVs into the crowd? Was it appropriate for an NYPD officer forcibly to remove the coronavirus mask of a black protester whose arms were raised in the air, then pepper-spray his face?
Was it appropriate for another officer to tell a protester to get off the street, then physically shove her several feet towards the curb where she landed on her head? Or that the police officers involved in the pepper spray incident had covered their badge numbers, presumably to avoid having to answer for their actions. Or to beat a nurse walking home from a shift at a hospital?
[… T]he force continues to be systemically resistant to public oversight. Under Section 50-A of New York state law, the disciplinary files of police officers are largely held in secret, making the task of holding them accountable almost impossible.
Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney at the Cop Accountability Project (CAP) within the Legal Aid Society, told the Guardian that there were currently more than 200 police officers still being employed by the NYPD on full pay who should have been considered for termination following reports of misconduct.
[…]
If there has been unrestrained use of batons in the city, it would be with the full approval of Ed Mullins, the provocative president of one of the main police unions, the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA). He wrote to members urging each and every one of you to report for duty with your helmet and baton and do not hesitate to utilize that equipment in securing your personal safety.
The sister Police Benevolent Association of New York City has also spoken to its members in inflammatory terms about them being under attack by violent, organized terrorists while New York City council and other politicians sit at home demanding we ‘de-escalate’.
Virginia governor to announce removal of Confederate monument
The governor of Virginia is expected to announce the removal of a prestigious Confederate monument from the state capitol’s historic Monument Avenue, the AP has reported.
Democrat Ralph Northam […] is expected to announce the state will remove a massive statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee, and place the statute in storage. The state will then seek a new location for the statue.
A vast database from a little-known company called Surgisphere has influenced rapid policy shifts as the world seeks treatments for Covid-19. But as researchers began to examine it more closely, they became increasingly concerned
[…]
[Dr Carlos] Chaccour is known for his work with the research institute ISGlobal in Spain examining parasites and microbes, exploring how these vectors spread disease and what works to treat the infections they transmit. He is particularly interested in mosquito-killing drugs, especially ivermectin. […]
[…]
Chaccour’s first surprise was that the study had found 52 Covid-19 patients who had received ivermectin. At the time, ivermectin was not being widely discussed as a potential Covid-19 treatment. Yet the study said patients around the world had already been receiving it.
The study also included data from three patients in Africa who, as of 1 March, were on mechanical ventilation and receiving ivermectin.
“But there were two patients in the entire continent alone at that time, let alone people on ventilators,” Chaccour says.
Chaccour, who has worked throughout Africa and knows African healthcare systems well, believes many hospitals there are not equipped with the electronic health systems required to be a part of such a database.
“And they’re supposed to be connected to a fancy automatic thing that gives all this data to a corporation in the US? It was so weird.”
[…]
On 2 May, two weeks after the study appeared online, a doctor in Peru wrote a white paper for the government about the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19, heavily citing the preprint Surgisphere study as evidence. […]
Less than a week after the white paper was published, the Peruvian government included ivermectin in its national Covid-19 therapeutic guidelines. Projects involving ivermectin around the world received thousands of dollars in grants.
Chaccour was concerned. He knew ivermectin well and was shocked at how quickly it was being adopted as part of treatment protocols without rigorous research to back up its use. He believes more studies should be done first, as he wrote in an editorial in which he was lead author, published on 16 April. He sent the lead researcher on the preprint paper an email with some questions and concerns about the data, which were forwarded to a co-author of the paper, the Surgisphere founder and chief executive, Dr [recte quack] Sapan Desai.
Instead of answering his questions about the data, Chaccour says, Desai flattered him and spoke enthusiastically about potential collaboration.
“Let’s just say my concerns about the study did not reduce whatsoever,” Chaccour says.
[…]
Meanwhile, ivermectin had continued gaining momentum throughout Latin America. The ivermectin preprint paper had been downloaded more than 15,000 times, its abstract viewed 90,000 times. Bolivia went a step further than Peru, announcing on 19 May that 350,000 doses of the drug would be distributed. “Demand goes up hugely, so much so that a blackmarket of ivermectin emerges,” Chaccour says. “So ivermectin threatens to become the new hydroxychloroquine in Latin America.” Researchers in Latin America who found hydroxychloroquine was not effective for Covid-19 began receiving death threats after their findings were published in a US medical journal.
[&helip;]
Chaccour was baffled that [Harvard University vascular surgeon Dr Mandeep] Mehra and Desai were publishing these large studies in prestigious journals every few weeks. It was research that would take months, at least, to write up, longer than the pandemic has been around.
[…] Guardian Australia revealed errors in the Australian data, which overestimated the number of deaths. It led to the Lancet issuing a correction, but Desai insisted the error did not change the overall findings of the study […]
An investigation by Guardian Australia found the database the studies were based on contained seriously questionable data. Desai did not adequately answer questions from Guardian Australia about how Surgisphere, once listed as a medical education company, came seemingly out of nowhere to become a data analytics company implementing a global database using artificial intelligence and cloud sharing in a matter of months, and with just 11 staff.
[… Desai] did not explain how the artificial intelligence worked to gather the data, or how hospitals went about putting the system in place and feeding data into it. Desai later said hospital staff were responsible for de-identifying patient data before feeding it into the database. Not one major Australian hospital spoken to by Guardian Australia had heard of Surgisphere or the database.
[… Chaccour] found race data was reported in the studies that used the database. “It is not clear how Surgisphere gets race data, since collecting it is uncommon in most countries, and illegal in some,” Chaccour says. Surgisphere did not respond to questions from the Guardian about how race data was collected.
[…]
Surgisphere’s Covid-19 “Mortality Prediction Tool” has also come under fire. Surgisphere claims that its tools are based on machine-learning algorithms and derived from real-time data. But when different ages are entered into the tool, it appears to simply divide them by 20 to get the predicted mortality, rounded up to the nearest 0.1%. For example, a 10-year-old would have a 0.5% risk of death, according to the tool.
A senior London infectious diseases doctor concerned by the tool told the Guardian: “We know that this is not what happens in Covid-19, where there is an exponential relationship between age and mortality.
[…]
Surgisphere data is used for retrospective observational studies, a type of study which can be problematic because of the presence of variables that were not controlled for, and selection bias. Scientists worldwide and the World Health Organization have repeatedly said randomised control trials are needed to show which drugs, if any, are effective for Covid-19 and that these should be made public. Randomised control trials are seen as the gold standard of science due to limited opportunities for bias.
[… I]n a YouTube video talking about the Lancet study, Desai also said of Surgisphere: The real question here is, with data like this, do we even need a randomised control trial? […]
It’s a long article, and I’ve omitted many parts, including some previously excerpted in @60.
Increasingly desperate US president [sic] would sabotage democracy to stay in power
It Can’t Happen Here was the title of a 1930s novel about America. Fascism never came to the US — nor is it likely to. But martial law, or something close to the militarisation of America’s cities, is plausible.
[… summary of hair furor’s recent antics & threats…]
What is the point of all this? The key is to view these images through the lens of reality television.
Trump wants Americans to believe that the White House is threatened by domestic terrorists, arsonists, thugs, looters and killers — words he has used frequently in the past few days. US stability is under threat, he claims. The president’s [sic] life, and those of decent law-abiding Americans, are threatened by the extremists on the streets. That is the gist of Trump’s message. But it requires a visual backdrop. Hence the hyped-up situation in Washington.
A more sober assessment is that Trump’s poll numbers are dropping. He is faced with the triple cocktail of a badly-managed pandemic, the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression and an inability to quell the legitimate anger behind America’s demonstrations.
Most of those protests are peaceful. There has been looting and scuffles with police. So far, there is no instance of a protester having killed or maimed anyone, let alone a police officer. Several protesters have been killed or maimed by the police. Moreover, most of the looting appears to have been carried out by criminals under cover of the chaos.
It is a very different reality to the one Trump depicts. There is little prospect of him legitimately reversing his fortunes in the coming months. I have lived in enough democracies, including America, to know a doom-laden government when I see one.
Trump was fortunate to have avoided a real crisis in his first three years. Now he has three on his hands. His instincts are mostly optical. He is threatening to use powers that he does not have, such as sending the army into the streets. But he is refusing to use powers he does have, such as marshalling a national response to coronavirus.
These are the actions and inactions of someone with little interest in governing. But Trump does have a burning desire to be re-elected. In his mind defeat would lead to the dismantlement of the Trump Organization and his prosecution and possible imprisonment.
Faced with a choice between sabotaging American democracy or a future spent in and out of court rooms, I have no doubt where Trump’s instincts would lie. It would be up to others to stop him.
Apparently, this column, excerpted from the Irish Times, was first published by the Financial Times, which is not exactly a progressive-leaning source. As someone (KG?) recently noted in this series of poopyhead threads, the FT has been described as “read by people who own the country” (from Yes, Prime Minister (1987)):
The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country; The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Times is read by the people who actually do run the country; The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; The Financial Times is read by people who own the country; The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country; and The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.
Republican senator Lindsey Graham said James Mattis had been duped by the liberal media after the defense secretary issued an excoriating statement about Trump’s response to the George Floyd protests.
[…]
During a Fox News interview this morning, the South Carolina senator issued a message directly to Mattis.
I think you’re missing something here, my friend, Graham said. You’re missing the fact that the liberal media has taken every event in the last three and a half years and laid it at the president’s feet. I’m not saying he’s blameless, but I am saying that you’re buying into a narrative that I think is, quite frankly, unfair.
[…] Graham had similarly harsh words [as Mattis] for Trump during the 2016 campaign, before becoming one of his closest allies. Graham said in December 2015 that a Trump nomination “would be an utter, complete and total disaster. If you’re a xenophobic, race-baiting, religious bigot, you’re going to have a hard time being president of the United States, and you’re going to do irreparable damage to the party.”
[…]
The Church of England has sought to distance itself from a decision by one its ecclestiastical judges who ruled that an Irish-language inscription on a gravestone must have a translation with it to ensure the phrase is not mistaken as being a political statement.
The family of Irish-born Margaret Keane want the words “In ár gcroíthe go deo” on the stone above her grave at St Giles burial ground at Exhall, Coventry. Translated the words mean “in our hearts for ever.” She died in July 2018 at the age of 73.
Stephen Eyre QC in his role as a judge of the Church of England’s Consistory Court (an ecclestiastical court) ruled that without a translation the inscription would not be understood by many visiting the church yard.
[…]
Though Mr Eyre is a recognised judge within the church, the Church of England has stated that it does not approve of the ruling.
“This decision does not reflect any national Church of England policy,” said a spokesman.
[…]
The spokesman went on to point out that Christianity in England was originally established in the country by Irish-speaking monks.
In 635 the Northumbrian king, Oswald summoned an Irish monk named Aidan from Iona — the island-monastery off the south-west coast of what is now Scotland — to be bishop of his kingdom.
Oswald granted Aidan and other Irish monks the small tidal island of Lindisfarne on which to found a monastery which became the centrepoint of the spread of Christianity in northern England.
The spokesman explained “The Irish language is an important part of the heritage of the Church of England. It was, after all, Irish speaking monks in Lindisfarne and beyond who played a central role in establishing the Church in what is now England.”
The secretary of the army interestingly sent a tweet about soldiers needing to protect Americans’ right to peaceably assemble, just three days after a group of peaceful protesters near the White House were forcibly removed using tear gas.
“Every Soldier and Department of the Army Civilian swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution. That includes the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances,” secretary of the army Ryan McCarthy said in a tweet.
[…]
As various people (including myself) have pointed out, if there is any constructive role for the military to perform, it would be to round up and detain the policeteh goons. As Mano Singham here at FtB quotes Matthew Dessem, “Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide”, noting “that should have been the headline for the events of the past few days, not headlines ascribing the violence to the demonstrators”.
Republican senator says she’s struggling with whether to vote for Trump
Republican senator Lisa Murkowski said that she is struggling with whether to support Trump in the 2020 election.
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Murkowski applauded James Mattis for his excoriating statement about the president’s [sic] response to the George Floyd protests.
Murkowski said the former defense secretary’s words were “true, honest, necessary and overdue,” going on to say she is sruggling with whether to support Trump this year.
“Perhaps we’re getting to the point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally, and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up,” Murkowski said.
[…]
Struggling? Oh for feck’s sake, what could possibly be causing any doubt?
Using the “Follow the money! Follow the money!” advice, a probable reason becomes obvious, reinforced by her being a thug. Her struggling is a coded message to the moneybags, etc.
Ruling says EPA ignored clear evidence that the new herbicide would cause widespread damage to crops
[…]
The decision by the US court of appeals for the ninth circuit invalidates the registrations for dicamba-based herbicides made by Monsanto, which is owned by Bayer AG, BASF and Corteva Agrisciences that are designed to be sprayed on genetically engineered soybeans and cotton. The court order effectively makes it illegal for farmers to continue to use the dicamba herbicides this summer as they tend to millions of acres of crops.
In a stinging rebuke, the court said it had no choice but to cancel the EPA’s approval of the herbicides because the agency had strayed so far from its duty to properly assess the dangers presented by the “new use” of dicamba.
“The EPA made multiple errors in granting the conditional registrations,” the court said.
The petition seeking to overturn the EPA’s approval was brought by the National Family Farm Coalition, Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network North America.
“Today’s decision is a massive win for farmers and the environment,” said George Kimbrell of the Center for Food Safety, lead counsel in the case. “It is good to be reminded that corporations like Monsanto and the Trump administration cannot escape the rule of law, particularly at a time of crisis like this. Their day of reckoning has arrived.”
An EPA spokesman said the agency was currently reviewing the court decision and will move promptly to address the court’s directive.
The issue at the heart of the court case is a crop and chemical system designed by Monsanto, which was acquired by Bayer in 2018. The company said that soybean and cotton farmers could plant “dicamba-tolerant” versions of the crops and then spray new types of dicamba herbicides directly over the top of their fields to easily kill weeds. Previously, farmers used dicamba sparingly and were largely restricted from using dicamba during the growing season because the chemical can easily drift long distances, killing or injuring a wide array of crops and other plants it settles on.
Monsanto, BASF and Corteva Agriscience told the EPA that their herbicides would have low volatility and if farmers followed instructions on the product labels, they could prevent drift. But since the introduction of the new dicamba crops and herbicides, farmer complaints have been filed with state agricultural officials, reporting dicamba damage across several million acres in at least a dozen states.
The Guardian reported in March that Monsanto predicted its dicamba crop system would lead to thousands of damage claims from US farmers but pushed ahead anyway, and risks were downplayed to the EPA.
The court found that the EPA “refused to estimate the amount of dicamba damage”, failed to acknowledge that restrictions it placed on the use of the dicamba herbicides would not be followed, and did not acknowledge evidence that the new use of dicamba herbicides would “tear the social fabric of farming communities”.
[…]
Bayer and Corteva both issued statements saying their herbicides were important farmer tools that could be used safely and they disagreed with the court’s decision. Both companies said they were assessing options in response.
If the ruling stands, we will work quickly to minimize any impact on our customers this season, Bayer said.
Former White House chief of staff Kelly supports Mattis, hits out at Trump
John Kelly, formerly secretary of homeland security and White House chief of staff, has dismissed Donald Trump’s criticism of James Mattis, the former secretary of defense who on Wednesday night aimed a blistering broadside at the president’s [sic] handling of protests over the death of George Floyd.
[… In response to Mattis,] Trump tweeted back: Probably the only thing Barack Obama & I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world’s most overrated General.
Almost as inevitable as the abuse was the fact that the tweet contained a lie. Mattis resigned in December 2018, over Trump’s attempt to withdraw US troops from Syria. Trump brought his departure forward, but didn’t fire him.
On Thursday Kelly, like Mattis a retired general though from the Army rather than the Marines, told the Washington Post: “The president did not fire him. He did not ask for his resignation. The president has clearly forgotten how it actually happened or is confused. The president tweeted a very positive tweet about Jim until he started to see on Fox News their interpretation of his letter. Then he got nasty. Jim Mattis is a honorable man.”
[…] Probably the only thing Barack Obama & I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world’s most overrated General, Trump said in a pair of tweets Wednesday night. I asked for his letter of resignation, & felt great about it. His nickname was ‘Chaos’, which I didn’t like, & changed to ‘Mad Dog.’
Despite his claim, Trump did not give Mattis that nickname on his own. He has been referred to as “Mad Dog” as far back as 2004.
[…] Mattis is far from the only military figure to contradict Trump in recent days. John Allen, a former four-star Marine general and current president of the Brookings Institution, a DC think tank, wrote an op-ed for Foreign Policy Thursday morning excoriating Trump for his actions on Monday, which included a photo-op at St John’s Episcopal Church near the White House.
[…]
“{I}in a bid to create some appearance that he can empathize with those demonstrating peacefully in the streets, the president proclaimed himself the ally of peaceful protesters,” Allen wrote. “But, at that very moment, just a few hundred feet away across Lafayette Park, fully equipped riot police and troops violently, and without provocation, set upon the peaceful demonstrators there, manhandling and beating many of them, employing flash-bangs, riot-control agents, and pepper spray throughout.”
Allen added that if the US is to come out of the current turbulence a better country, it cannot look to the president for leadership, but must look to the protesters and people like George Floyd’s brother, Terrance.
“So mark your calendars — this could be the beginning of the change of American democracy not to illiberalism, but to enlightenment,” he said. “But it will have to come from the bottom up. For at the White House, there is no one home.”
[…]
I have not verified any of the quotes given by fox, but they look fairly plausible and legitimate.
At a press conference in Washington on Thursday, Attorney General William Barr said federal law enforcement officers had gathered intelligence that extremist groups including Antifa had hijacked peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd, seeking to incite violence and destruction.
We have evidence, Barr said, that Antifa and other similar extremist groups, as well as actors of a variety of different political persuasions, have been involved in instigating and participating in the violent activity.
[…]
Barr added: We are also seeing foreign actors playing all sides to exacerbate the violence.
Pressed by a reporter about why he mentioned Antifa as opposed to “boogaloo” or other far-right extremist elements, Barr said there was a witches brew a lot of different extremist organizations trying to exploit the protests.
Federal forces have taken over Washington’s response to the unrest, under Barr’s direction. All of the justice department components — including the FBI, the US Marshals, the Bureau of Prisons, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Administration — have been tapped to respond to violence and looting.
Questions have been raised about such officers appearing in public — and being used to control the public — without identifying marks or insignia on their uniforms.
[…]
BOP director Michael Carvajal said officers were not told to not identify themselves. He said they normally operate only with their own institutions and therefore don’t need to identify themselves. He added that he probably should have considered marking the officers when they were deployed outside the White House.
…Ten weeks after President Trump invoked wartime production powers to address deep medical supply shortages, only 15 percent of that funding has been placed under contract. The department also received $10.5 billion in Cares Act funding to address the crisis, and had spent about $2.65 billion as of Wednesday afternoon, a department spokesman said…
In a statement, Jonathan Rath Hoffman, the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, said, the department continues to “aggressively” identify opportunities to use the Cares Act funding, while emphasizing the need to spend funds responsibly…
The document obtained by The Post shows that Pentagon plans for the Cares Act money include spending hundreds of millions of dollars on projects seemingly unrelated to the pandemic, including submarine missile tubes, space launch facilities, and golf course staffing…
The plan includes $3.48 billion for various costs needed to prevent the coronavirus from degrading the U.S. military’s readiness to respond to a national security threat. That includes setting up quarantine facilities for people who are designated “mission essential,” such as pilots and missile crews. Hundreds of millions of dollars is designated for extra IT spending needed to help the military services work remotely, including unspecified “commercial solutions” that would allow remote access to classified computer systems.
Another $307 million is being used to protect Defense Department jobs during the pandemic…
But the bulk of that funding is being spent to shore up the military supply chain, primarily to correct problems that are only tenuously related to the pandemic — including $150 million for shipbuilders, including funds for submarine launch equipment and missile tubes; $40 million for hypersonic missile development; $80 million for microelectronics; $150 million for space launch companies, and $62 million for body armor and pelvic protectors…
Dan Grazier, a former Marine captain who now works at the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, attributed the defense industrial base spending to “defense lobbyists leveraging this crisis” on behalf of their clients…
blfsays
Hair furor is retreating into wannabe-dalek codenamed Barr’s “Downfall” fortified Wacko House rant bunker, from the Grauniad’s current live States pandemic / politics blog (quoted in full):
As Nick Confessore of the New York Times put it on Twitter today, “Trump began his term promising to build a wall to protect America from the world. He ends it building a wall to protect himself from Americans.”
Trump insisted yesterday that he did not visit the White House bunker on Friday night because protesters were clashing with law enforcement officers outside, as had been widely reported, but instead had been down there briefly during the day for a quick inspection.
Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post duly disproved that, but who’s even counting how many fibs the president [sic] tells about reported fact anymore?
Anyway — back to Confessore’s point. Tom Fitzgerald, for Fox 5 in Washington, has like many other reporters out and about in the capital noticed concrete barriers being put into place around the White House:
Crews are now adding concrete Jersey barriers now being added, fortifying the new steel wall that is surrounding The White House as #GeorgeFloyd protests continue. @Fox5DC pic.twitter.com/l9xTyFSvci
Earlier, the Vermont senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, noticed Confessore’s tweet and decided to make a point:
And American taxpayers, not Mexico, will again be sent the bill. We NOTICE these things on the Senate and House #Appropriations Committees… https://t.co/Z2YsirXLXX
Does anyone have access to, or a summary of, Carol Leonnig’s report in the Washington Post?
Murkowski hinted at a truth that generally doesn’t rise above a whisper in GOP politics: much of the party realizes there’s something wrong with Trump.
After former Defense Secretary James Mattis wrote a brutal rebuke of Donald Trump’s presidency yesterday, it stood reason that Senate Republicans would be pressed for a response. It was against this backdrop that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) praised the retired general’s blistering assessment as “true and honest and necessary and overdue.”
Murkowski said: “When I saw Gen. Mattis’ comments yesterday I felt like perhaps we are getting to a point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up. And so I’m working as one individual to form the right words, knowing that these words really matter so I appreciate General Mattis’ comments.”
[…] The three-term senator, who won as a write-in candidate in 2010 after losing in a primary, has repeatedly been more willing than most GOP lawmakers to go her own way on key issues.
When her party tried to replace the Affordable Care Act with a far-right alternative, she balked. When her party rallied behind Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, Murkowski was the only GOP senator to vote “no.” When Senate Republicans pushed a resolution last year to denounce the House’s impeachment inquiry, the Alaskan didn’t sign it. When Mitch McConnell vowed to remain in “total coordination” with Team Trump during the president’s impeachment trial, she made her displeasure known.
And while Murkowski didn’t vote to convict Trump in the Senate’s impeachment trial, she was one of a handful of GOP senators to concede that the president’s extortion scheme toward Ukraine was wrong.
Republicans in Congress who still have some level of integrity are so rare that we are seeing praise for Murkowski’s admittedly small steps in the right direction.
[…] the part of Murkowski’s comments that stood out for me as most notable was her hope that Republicans “can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally.” She didn’t say this explicitly, but that line hinted at a truth that generally doesn’t rise above a whisper in GOP politics: many of the party’s members realize something is deeply wrong with Donald Trump — but to borrow Murkowski’s phrasing, they’re afraid to be “more honest” about the concerns they “hold internally.”
I’m skeptical that even recent events will cause a lasting shift in Republican politics — the fear of the president, his media allies, and his followers is powerful — but it was nevertheless a pleasant change of pace to hear a sitting GOP senator acknowledge “the concerns” about Trump out loud.
Trump boasted that the clearing of Lafayette Square was “handled very well.” If that were true, the White House wouldn’t have to lie about what happened.
Yesterday afternoon at the White House Rose Garden, Donald Trump declared himself “an ally of all peaceful protesters.” But as the president spoke, there were noises of unrest audible in the background […]
Moments before […] Trump vowed to use military might to stop rioting, police backed by the National Guard stormed into a peaceful protest outside the White House and scattered a large group of people protesting unprovoked police violence against African Americans. At the time, none of the protesters or nearby journalists knew the reason for clearing the street. But the purpose became clear as soon as Trump finished his speech in the Rose Garden.
[…] there was a group of peaceful protestors in Lafayette Square. There was no violence or unrest, and those assembled in the park had every right to be there. (There was a curfew in Washington, D.C., last night, but it had not yet taken effect.) Nevertheless, shortly after Trump touted himself as “an ally of all peaceful protesters,” law enforcement launched a rather extraordinary offensive against the demonstrators, which included, among other things, firing tear gas and flash-bang shells at those who had peaceably assembled.
Once Lafayette Square had been cleared by force, Trump walked across the park — the length of a city block — stood in front of St. John’s, held up a Bible, posed for the cameras, and then walked back. [He] did not go inside the church; he did not read from the Bible; he did not pray or engage in any form of worship; he didn’t even visit with a pastor.
“Is that your Bible?” a reporter asked. “It’s a Bible,” Trump replied. […]
On the New York Times’ online homepage this morning, there was a 13-word headline that summarized what transpired nicely: “Peaceful Rally Dispersed With Tear Gas So Trump Can Pose at a Church.” It’s apt because it’s precisely what happened.
Brendan Buck, a former top aide to Paul Ryan, told Politico, “We long ago lost sight of normal, but this was a singularly immoral act. The president used force against American citizens, not to protect property, but to soothe his own insecurities. We will all move on to the next outrage, but this was a true abuse of power and should not be forgotten.” […]
“He did not pray,” the bishop, Mariann E. Budde, said in an interview. Referring to the death of the black man in police custody that set off the protests, she added: “He did not mention George Floyd, he did not mention the agony of people who have been subjected to this kind of horrific expression of racism and white supremacy for hundreds of years. We need a president who can unify and heal. He has done the opposite of that, and we are left to pick up the pieces.”
The article added that a visiting priest attending St. John’s was sprayed with tear gas as she tried to help scared demonstrators leave the area. The bishop told the Washington Post that she’s “outraged,” not only by the heavy-handed tactics, but also by Trump’s willingness to use a church “as a prop.”
Just when it seems the president can’t go any lower, he finds a way.
Audit probed energy company Burisma, of which Biden was a board member from 2014–2019
An audit of thousands of old case files by Ukrainian prosecutors found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Hunter Biden, the former prosecutor general [Ruslan Ryaboshapka], who had launched the audit, told Reuters.
[…]
After taking office, Ryaboshapka in October announced an audit of old cases he inherited, including those related to the energy company Burisma, of which Hunter Biden was a board member between 2014–2019.
The audit was intended to probe whether cases Ryaboshapka had inherited from his predecessors had been handled properly, given the reputation of the prosecution service as being riddled with corruption and influence-peddling.
[…]
“I specifically asked prosecutors to check especially carefully those facts about Biden’s alleged involvement. They answered that there was nothing of the kind,” he added.
Ryaboshapka was fired in March after lawmakers accused him of not moving quickly enough in prosecuting cases. Ryaboshapka said he was axed because he had started bringing real reform to the prosecution service for the first time in a way that threatened the interests of corrupt politicians.
[…]
Czech Americansays
@blf
Quick summary (I don’t remember how to do quoting):
At least 4 protesters were arrested on Friday after they hopped the temporary fencing erected at the White House. They did not enter the actual White House grounds, and were surprised that they were arrested. This is what caused Brave Sir Trump do go into his hidey hole along with Melania and Barron.
Reports of his hiding made Trump big mad and he vented to Brian Kilmeade, claiming he was only inspecting the bunker. Former secret service members say this explanation makes no sense.
It was the first night of protests, so the secret service was “taken aback”.
Trump’s frustration at being labelled a coward factored into his decision to do his violent church publicity stunt on Monday.
In 2017, a single protestor made it over the treasury fence and on to the treasury grounds next door to the White House, which was probably a factor in the secret service response to this even though the Friday protesters didn’t get anywhere near that far.
Quote:
“I didn’t even realize what I did was illegal,” said one of the protesters, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the pending charges. “I stepped over a barricade. I never got onto the Treasury grounds or White House grounds.”
Czech Americansays
By the way, I get 30 day codes to give out for the Washjngton Post. Would anybody like to receive those codes?
[…]
The Lancet paper that halted global trials of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 because of fears of increased deaths has been retracted after a Guardian investigation found inconsistencies in the data.
The lead author, Prof Mandeep Mehra, from the Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston, Massachusetts decided to ask the Lancet for the retraction because he could no longer vouch for the data’s accuracy.
The journal’s editor, Richard Horton, said he was appalled by developments. “This is a shocking example of research misconduct in the middle of a global health emergency,” he told the Guardian.
A Guardian investigation had revealed errors in the data that was provided for the research by US company Surgisphere. These were later explained by the company as some patients being wrongly allocated to Australia instead of Asia. But more anomalies were then picked up. A further Guardian investigation found that there were serious questions to be asked about the company itself.
An independent audit company was asked to examine a database provided by Surgisphere to ensure it had the data from more than 96,000 Covid-19 patients in 671 hospitals worldwide, that it was obtained properly and was accurate.
Surgisphere’s CEO, Sapan Desai, had said he would cooperate with the independent audit, but it is understood he refused to give the investigators access to all the data they asked for.
In a statement on Thursday, Mehra said: “Our independent peer reviewers informed us that Surgisphere would not transfer the full dataset, client contracts, and the full ISO audit report to their servers for analysis as such transfer would violate client agreements and confidentiality requirements. As such, our reviewers were not able to conduct an independent and private peer review and therefore notified us of their withdrawal from the peer-review process.”
[… Quack Desai had previously told the Grauniad] There are also a number of inaccuracies and unrelated connections that you are trying to make with a clear bias toward attempting to discredit who we are and what we do, he said. We do not agree with your premise or the nature of what you have put together, and I am sad to see that what should have been a scientific discussion has been denigrated into this sort of discussion.
blf @132: Does anyone have access to, or a summary of, Carol Leonnig’s report in the Washington Post?”
Here are some excerpts from that article:
[…] Trump was rushed to a secure bunker in the White House on Friday evening after a group of protesters hopped over temporary barricades set up near the Treasury Department grounds, according to arrest records and people familiar with the incident.
The security move came after multiple people crossed over fences that had been erected to create a larger barrier around the White House complex around 7 p.m. […]
The breach occurred around the time that the Secret Service alert level on the White House complex was elevated from “yellow” to “red,” according to a law enforcement official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal safety maneuvers. Officials familiar with the incident told colleagues that the president, the first lady and their son Barron were rushed to the bunker because of the episode […]
The events contradict the president’s claim Wednesday that he went to the bunker simply to inspect the secure location. […]
“The White House does not comment on security protocols and decisions,” spokesman Judd Deere said in an emailed statement. […]
Former Secret Service agents said Trump’s explanation did not make sense, noting that all presidents and their families are routinely given a security briefing in their first days in office. They are briefed on steps the Secret Service will take in an emergency and also shown secure locations where they will be taken in case of danger. […]
Trump’s frustration with the impression that he was in hiding amid the tumult contributed to his decision Monday to walk from the White House to nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church. […]
The entire White House fence line was recommended for replacement after a 2014 fence-jumper incident, but the portion around Treasury had been delayed by Secret Service budget constraints.
Questions about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s involvement in various corrupt schemes are not going away.
This is new:
Fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick told Congress in a private interview Wednesday that before he was ousted, he had informed at least three top aides to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that he was reviewing Pompeo’s and his wife’s use of government resources, two lawmakers told NBC News. The revelation potentially undercuts Pompeo’s claim to have been unaware that Linick was looking into that issue when he asked President Donald Trump to fire Linick.
Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, announced on Thursday that he will block the confirmation of Donald Trump’s nominees until the White House provides Congress with “adequate explanations” for the firing of two inspector generals in recent months.
It is rare for a president to remove an inspector general, a role created in the aftermath of Watergate. But in the last few months, Trump has carried out a purge of such government watchdogs who he deemed as insufficiently loyal, among them intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson, state department inspector general Steve Linick, acting Pentagon inspector Glenn Fine, and acting Health and Human Services inspector Christi Grimm.
By law, the administration is supposed to serve notice to Congress at least 30 days before the removal of an inspector general:
Im placing holds on 2 Trump Admin noms until I get reasons 4firing 2 agency watchdogs as required by law Not 1st time ive raised alarm when admins flout IG protection law Obama did same& got same earfull from me All I want is a reason 4 firing these ppl CHECKS&BALANCES
Grassley’s move is a rare break from the president [sic]. But the former judiciary committee chairman, who has long considered himself an advocate for inspectors general, has led the charge calling on the administration to provide an explanation for the removals. […]
Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, is standing up to both Trump and Mitch McConnell … at least a little bit.
[…] Grassley announced Thursday that he is placing a hold on two Trump administration nominees until the White House provides him with an explanation for the firing of two inspectors general.
I’m placing holds on 2 Trump Admin noms until I get reasons 4firing 2 agency watchdogs as required by law Not 1st time ive raised alarm when admins flout IG protection law Obama did same& got same earfull from me All I want is a reason 4 firing these ppl CHECKS&BALANCES
The two nominees are Christopher Miller to be director of the National Counterterrorism Center and Marshall Billingslea to be the undersecretary of State for arms control and international security […]
The nominees are deliberate choices, one from each department that lost an inspector general to President Trump’s firing for which Grassley is demanding an explanation.
He said last week that the White House had “failed” to give him adequate rationale for the President’s firing of intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson and State Department Inspector General Steve Linick.
He added that the White House also did not address the “glaring conflict of interest” created by Trump nominating replacements for the axed IGs from the departments they oversaw, some of whom are maintaining both positions at once. […]
Trump has fired or removed from leadership positions five inspectors general this spring alone.
The most recent of those, Linick, testified Wednesday in private to a slew of House committees who are leading a probe into his firing.
Democrats who listened to the testimony reported that he said he had “not heard any valid reason that would justify my removal.”
Can’t show the tiniest amount of spine against the Orange Menace without the obligatory shot at Obama.
——————
Put a hold on the right wing judges then you might get our attention
——————
Sen. Snooze suddenly woke up from naptime to start screaming “Checks and Balances”?
You can bet your bottom ruble he sees a Democratic freight train barreling down the track.
Come November, that Blue Tsunami in 2018 is gonna look like a ripple in the kiddie pool.
————————-
That it has taken Grassley this long, though, does not suggest actual wisdom, just dawning self-preservation.
On Wednesday, top Democratic leaders marked the one year anniversary of the House of Representatives passing permanent protections for over 2 million immigrants, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) holders, by calling out the one person who’s ultimately responsible for blocking further advancement of the legislation in Congress: Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“One year ago, House Democrats took a momentous step forward for justice by passing H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “Yet, for 365 days, Leader McConnell has refused to take up this legislation, which has the overwhelming support of the American people.” Two immigrants who would be able to apply for legal status under the bill, DACA recipient Luz Chavez Gonzales and TPS holder Elizabeth Valencia, joined leaders for a press call to share how McConnell’s inaction has continued to leave their lives in limbo.
Chavez Gonzales said that she’s dealing with both a looming decision from the Supreme Court on the program’s future, and she’s struggling to support her family amid a pandemic. “Since the outbreak of COVID-19, I’ve become the sole provider of my household,” she said during the press call. “I live with my parents and two siblings, and they’ve all lost their jobs […] if the Supreme Court sides with Trump and I lose my DACA, not only would my family lose their only source of income, but I could be a priority for deportation from Trump’s deportation force.”
”For that reason, the Senate must pass H.R. 6, the Dream and Promise Act,” Chavez Gonzales continued, […] “It’s imperative that Congress work to defund the enforcement agencies of ICE and CBP, whose resources are currently being used to not only terrorize immigrants, but also protestors across the country, taking action against the murders of Black people by police,” she said.
During her often-emotional testimony, Valencia described her work in the COVID-19 wing at a nursing home amid the pandemic. […]
The New York Times is being lambasted, and rightfully so:
The New York Times […] decided to run a wildly fascistic op-ed from Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. The op-ed titled “Tom Cotton: Send In The Troops,” really says it all. Cotton has been pressing for Donald Trump to employ the military to squash racial injustice protests erupting throughout the country, going so far as to name check the 101st Airborne Division as a good unit to enforce this decidedly anti-American and anti-First Amendment attack.
New York Times staffers slammed the decision, leading to publisher A.G. Sulzberger offering a weak-sauce defense using the buzzword “diversity.” In a letter to staffers, Sulzberger reportedly said the opinion section of the Times “provide readers a diversity of perspectives,” but more importantly—and this is key—he claimed that the opinion section does have criteria for the argument being made: “they need to be accurate, good faith explorations of the issues of the day.” This is an interesting thing to say, especially after publishing Sen. Tom Cotton’s fact-free screed of authoritarian fear-mongering.
Yeah, not so much regarding the “accurate, good faith” etc. Cotton lied.
[…] Cotton asserts all kinds of things that even the Times itself has debunked. For example, the bloviated claims by Trump officials and people like Cotton that antifa elements have been the wide cause of looting and property damage connected to the protests going on across the country. […].
It’s also important to understand why running transparent fascistic bullshit is antithetical to news reporting. As The New York Times staff itself reports, sourced by way of New York Times’ staff, fascism is terrifying to people who investigate the news and to the sources they depend on for information.
Three Times journalists, who declined to be identified by name, said they had informed their editors that sources told them they would no longer provide them with information because of the Op-Ed.
It is also a racist performance piece by Cotton, and New York Times staffers across the board saw it for what it was. […]
Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake published the Trump/Pence campaign’s latest “FOR PATRIOTS ONLY” email. In it, the campaign says it is assembling a “Trump Army.” It is unconcerned with subtlety, directly extending Trump’s own calls for, as he put it, “Second Amendment” responses to Americans protesting police violence. The “President,” you see, is raising a brownshirt army:
“The President wants YOU and every other member of our exclusive Trump Army to have something to identify yourselves with, and to let everyone know that YOU are the President’s first line of defense when it comes to fighting off the Liberal MOB.” […]
During any period when a sitting president had not already encouraged his base, from the White House Rose Garden, to arm themselves and perhaps start shooting at other Americans, this emailed exhortation would be seen as merely crass. Today, at this moment, it is self-evident that Trump supporters who receive this email will be further convinced that they are an “Army,” that they are Trump’s “first line of defense,” and that they should prepare for “fighting off” not attackers, not rioters, not even looters, but “Liberals.”
The last line, imploring Trump’s collection of paranoid Americans to “not pass this information on to anyone,” is further meant to fire off conspiracy synapses. […]
This is not happening in a vacuum. In addition to Sen. Tom Cotton’s latest treason against America, other Trump defenders are calling for violence against liberals. […]
Trump’s calls for far-right, “Second Amendment” militia action are already bearing fruit. Three Nevada extremists are now in custody on terrorism charges after being arrested “on the way to a protest in downtown Las Vegas after filling gas cans at a parking lot and making Molotov cocktails in glass bottles,” part of a plan to cause violence in Las Vegas protests that could be blamed on supposed “antifa” groups.
On Tuesday, a uniform-wearing, heavily armed man was arrested in Los Angeles for impersonating a National Guard soldier and attempting to blend in with security teams. […]
We are in a true moment of fascism. Fox News and other Trump allies are calling for the military occupation of America, over objections of individual states. Retired military officers are coming forward to give the boldest warnings they know how. Trump has now ordered at least one attack on peaceful protesters for the sole reason of gaining media coverage for that attack on live television. Far-right militias are mobilizing. The Republican-controlled Senate has already nullified itself, giving explicit permission for overt criminal behavior from “their” president if it is in service to his reelection, and therefore their own power.
And Donald Trump’s campaign, filled with the dregs of criminal-minded scum that the Trump team could not plausibly put in even his ramshackle administration, is fundraising by selling camouflage-styled merchandise meant to identify wearers as members of an official “Trump Army,” one that is the “line of defense when it comes to fighting off” liberalism.
By which they mean Black Americans and anyone allied with them—anyone who is currently defying Trump, on any street, for any reason.
Yet another change: Esper is sending the troops home.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper is sending hundreds of active duty soldiers who had been on standby in the Washington, D.C., area back to their home base after reversing course on such a decision the day before.
A senior defense official confirmed to The Hill that the Pentagon “made the decision to return members of some of the active duty units in the capital region to their home base.” […]
The troops — reported by numerous outlets as from the 82nd Airborne Division based in Fort Bragg, N.C. — are part of the roughly 1,600 U.S. forces brought to the D.C. area but never used to respond to civil unrest […]
This marks the second time in as many days that Esper has ordered the troops home. On Wednesday morning, the Pentagon chief instructed forces to return home but changed his command later that day following a White House meeting, asking them to “to remain on alert” in the region for an additional 24 hours.
The change to diminish troop presence in the capital region comes after Esper made a signifiant break from White House messaging. […]
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Donald Trump, William Barr and other federal officials over the assault on peaceful protesters near the White House on Monday, which was ordered by Barr so Trump could walk to St John’s church […] and hold up a Bible in a photo op meant to reassure evangelical supporters.
According to a release from the ACLU of the District of Columbia, the lawsuit filed on behalf of Black Lives Matter DC and individual protesters accuses Trump and the other officials are accused of “violating their constitutional rights and engaging in an unlawful conspiracy to violate those rights”.
[…]
Trump and supporters have claimed protesters in Lafayette Square, in front of the White House, and near St John’s church were not tear-gassed. But as an Associated Press fact check points out, “the US Park Police denied using tear gas, yet acknowledged deploying a pepper compound, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other scientific organizations list as one form of tear gas”.
The White House has also contested reports that rubber bullets were also used to clear the crowd before Trump, who had just promised law and order in a brief Rose Garden address, walked to the church and posed with a Bible carried by his daughter, Ivanka.
Here’s a telling Washington Post headline: “White House says police didn’t use tear gas and rubber bullets in incident that cleared protesters with chemical irritants and projectile munitions.”
Holy Buckets! The Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, did some good stuff while we weren’t looking.
[…] they are debating the terms of their yearly Intelligence Authorization bill, and […] they managed to include some really strong enhanced whistleblower protections. They voted the bill out of committee […]
The inquiry began after the Trump administration withheld the whistleblower complaint about the president’s interactions with Ukraine from Congress, despite a law requiring that the country’s top intelligence official turn it over to lawmakers. […]
Briefly, the bill would:
More fully protect the identities of whistleblowers.
Get real legally specific on what an “urgent concern” is, where whistleblower complaints are concerned.
Remember, there was a huge fight at the beginning of the Ukraine scandal, where (now fired) intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson said “yes, this is URGENT CONCERN, I should give it to Congress!” and (now fired) Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire said “Lemme ask Donald Trump’s personal bagman Bill Barr over there at the Justice Department” and Trump’s bagman said “Crimes are not crimes when Donald Trump commits them, no urgent concerns here.” (Not exact quotes.) […] sussing out the definition of “urgent concern” more fully empowers the IGs to make those decisions themselves.
Make it easier for both IGs and whistleblowers to bring their concerns, and their information, to the intelligence committees.
[…] make it A CRIME to receive a whistleblower complaint about for example Donald Trump and then show it to Donald Trump, which Maguire did, by calling up the White House when he got the whistleblower complaint about Trump’s PERFECT CALL.They’d now have to get permission from the whistleblower to do that, for it not to be a crime.[…]
Adam Schiff’s House Intelligence Committee will also vote on its own version of this bill […]
So this is all good!
On top of the whistleblower protections, the committee also voted 8-7 to amend the bill to include a version of the FIRE Act, […] The amendment would require presidential campaigns to tell the FBI if foreigns were trying to help them in any way. […]
Don’t get confused. The 14-1 vote was on sending the whole bill out of the committee. The 8-7 vote was to include the FIRE Act amendment in the bill, which was then voted out of committee 14-1. The 8-7 vote on the FIRE Act amendment was along party lines, except for how Susan Collins — probably troubled and dismayed at the time — crossed the aisle and voted with the Democrats. We guess the other Republicans on the committee, including fascist Tom Cotton, don’t think campaigns should have to report it when foreigns try to give them reacharounds. Wonder why!
Anyway, still, the bill passed, at least out of committee […]
Now Tell Us About The Fuckery. There HAS To Be Fuckery.
There very well may be much fuckery, before this thing is actually voted on by the full Senate. It’s possible some of these Republicans just wanted it on the record (SUSAN COLLINS) that they voted for #GoodThings when there’s little risk to them […]
the Senate might look at the bill by itself, or they might roll it in with the humongous National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), as they’ve done before. And there’s ample time for asshole GOP senators to try to get good things in the bill taken out before they have to vote for good government provisions like these, because keeping foreigners out of American elections is bad for GOP electoral prospects.
Guess we’ll just have to see. But as of now, the Senate Intelligence Committee did a good thing. Please nobody tell Donald Trump, he will get mad and they are very a-skeered of him when he gets mad.
There was even more racism than we knew behind the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. More? Yes, more overt evil and racism.
William Bryan, who filmed Armaud Arbery’s gruesome death, presumably for the next KKK-sponsored independent film festival, was charged with felony murder in late May. Since then he’s been singing like Mariah Carey in ’95. According to testimony Thursday from a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent, Bryan claimed Travis McMichael shouted, “fucking n***er” after fatally shooting Arbery.
Assistant Special Agent in Charge Richard Dial testified in court that Bryan and his alleged accomplices, Gregory and Travis McMichael, chased Arbery through the streets of the Satilla Shores neighborhood just outside Brunswick, Georgia, on suspicion of appreciating architecture. Arbery tried desperately to avoid them, which annoyed the sport-hunting vigilantes.
From CNN:
Bryan “made several statements about trying to block [Arbery] in and using his vehicle to try to stop him,” Dial said. “His statement was that Mr. Arbery kept jumping out of the way and moving around the bumper and actually running down into the ditch in an attempt to avoid his truck.”
Arbery had almost made it out of the neighborhood when the McMichaels forced him to turn back and run past Bryan, who struck him with his truck.
Investigators found a swipe from a palm print on the rear door of Bryan’s truck, cotton fibers near the truck bed that “we attribute to contact with Mr. Arbery” and a dent below the fibers, he said.
Yeah, those excellent KKKeystone cops on the scene — and two local DA’s before the third turned it over to the GBI — missed that the dead black guy was recently hit by a moving vehicle.
[…] When someone with a Confederate flag sticker on their truck is chasing you, it’s safe to assume that the “n-word” is one of the […] words in their vocabulary. I still wish Arbery didn’t have to hear it in his dying moments. As Richard Pryor observed, the epithet makes you feel like you’re not a person anymore. […]
The McMichaels and Bryan probably thought they’d committed the perfect murder when they hunted Arbery down and killed him. They had a pleasant chat with the police over Arbery’s dead body and went home without any of the hassles a black man might experience if he tried to buy a candy bar with a fake $20. […]
Unfortunately, Gregory McMichael leaked the video because, as impossible it is to believe, he’s as dumb as he looks. He wasn’t a team player in this cover-up. The McMichaels already had two districts attorneys serving for the defense. The first, Jackie Johnson, recused herself because McMichael used to work for her. The second and worst, George E. Barnhill, declared there was “insufficient cause to arrest” Arbery’s killers and argued that everyone involved “acted legally under Georgia’s citizen arrest and self-defense laws.” Barnhill should lose his job and his license to practice law, and be charged with obstruction of justice.
The only reason the case didn’t end with Barnhill is because Arbery’s family pressured him to recuse himself. They couldn’t just grieve and trust the system to work as it should […] No, Arbery’s loved ones had to start their own side business, hiring their own attorney to see that justice was done. Black people don’t have the luxury of law enforcement serving as their “protection agency,” as it does for people like Amy Cooper.
William Bryan and Gregory and Travis McMichael should all rot in jail, but we can’t stop there. We must dismantle the corrupt system they almost successfully exploited.
[…] Rand Paul is the junior senator from Kentucky, where at least 138 black people were lynched between 1877 and 1934. […] He is the only senator in a Senate with Republicans in it who insists on obstructing a bill that would make lynching a federal hate crime. His half-assed excuse is that he’s afraid the legislation could be “wrongly applied.” What does that even mean? […]
From the Washington Post:
“We think that lynching is an awful thing that should be roundly condemned, that should be universally condemned,” Paul told reporters at the Capitol.
Dear God, he’s gonna add a “but” to this, isn’t he?
But he said the bill might “conflate lesser crimes with lynching,” which Paul said would be a “disservice to those who were lynched in our history” and result in “a new 10-year penalty for people who have minor bruising.”
“Minor bruising”? What the fuck is he … I’m sorry. I just can’t.
I don’t think the spirits of 4,743 American lynching victims are going to complain because the Zimmermans and McMichaels aren’t setting black people on fire anymore during their extrajudicial killings. “What? You mean, they just shoot ’em? Where’s the razzle dazzle?” […]
Paul wants to add a new “serious bodily injury standard” to the legislation and ensure that you can only prosecute crimes as lynchings if they result in a “substantial risk of death and extreme physical pain.” […]
Ron Paul, the senator’s crackpot father, thinks the 1964 Civil Rights Act was unconstitutional and violated the rights of racists. There’s a family history of the Paul family standing on the wrong side of history. […]
Last year, Lindsey Graham described Donald Trump’s impeachment trial as a “lynching in every sense.” That is a “disservice” to lynching victims. This bill isn’t, and Paul needs to get out the way of its passage.
On Monday evening, as police in riot gear attempted to quell protests across the country, Mark Levin reassured his listeners they are not the problem.
“Our system is not ‘systemically racist.’ We have one of the most tolerant, beneficent societies on the face of the earth,” the conservative radio host said. It was one week after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police, and mere hours after federal officers in the District of Columbia charged a crowd of peaceful protesters to facilitate a presidential photo-op. Levin was focused on a different threat: “This idea that we can become a more perfect union if we just embrace democratic socialism, if we just embrace more centralized government, is absurd. Absolutely absurd.”
Levin surely knows that the protests that have erupted across the country have nothing to do with socialism and everything to do with accumulated outrage over inequitable policing and a system of justice that too often treats black lives as disposable. He and other prominent radio personalities on the right have loudly and unequivocally condemned Floyd’s murder.
What Levin’s brain has not been able to countenance, however, is the idea that the killing was anything but an isolated tragedy. Systemic racism? “I will not accept that there’s systemic racism in America. You know, the American people pretty much get along. They really do,” Levin said. Police abuse of power? “I’m quite tired of the notion that bad cops or bad people generally are illustrative of or representative of the group as a whole.”
OK, but what about what happened to the protesters in Lafayette Square? “I think the time has come, ladies and gentlemen, to put down this insurrection. ’Cause that’s what it is,” Levin said, all but asserting that the unrest has been stage-managed by radical leftists. “It’s not just antifa. There’s other groups involved in this too. And their agenda is not an agenda of unity and peace. So it’s absurd when people say, ‘The president just needs to speak to unity and peace and conciliation.’ There’s an insurrection going on here. Of sorts. And I think the American people are getting pretty damn tired of this.”
Mark Levin does not speak for the American people. But he does speak to a lot of them. The Mark Levin Show is consistently one of the most popular radio talk shows in the nation. Night after night, in tones alternately somnolent and hysterical, Levin expounds on the central thesis of the right-wing mediasphere in the late Trump era: that the only systemic oppression in America today is the targeting of conservatives by the liberal elite. The events of the past week have done nothing to throw this calcified worldview into question, either on Levin’s show or on any of the other conservative radio shows that consistently top ratings in markets across America. To the contrary, the death of George Floyd and the subsequent nationwide outrage have only served to reinforce this deathless and unfalsifiable narrative of conservative victimhood.
“We are not going to be defined—I’m not going to mention his name—by this former bad cop. That doesn’t define white America!” Levin said. […]
On Tuesday, May 26—the day after Floyd was killed—I sat down to listen to a week of the country’s top conservative radio programs. (Though ratings for specific shows are hard to pin down, I picked five of the most prominent terrestrial radio hosts and left out more digital-native ones like Ben Shapiro, who has a radio show that began as a podcast.) Though I watch a lot of Fox News for Slate, the truth is that right-wing talk radio has a far bigger footprint than does Rupert Murdoch’s cable network. There are more right-wing radio hosts, for one thing, on stations all over the country—and listeners spend more time with them. At the end of 2019, Nielsen estimated that Americans spend 12 hours per week listening to the radio: double the amount of time they spend watching television. Talk radio is the top radio genre, and conservative talk is the top talk genre.
My goal was to see how these programs were covering the nearly 3-month-old coronavirus crisis. That’s not the crisis America ended up most consumed by during my weeklong tour of the AM dial. It is, however, the crisis we began with, and the ways in which right-wing radio got from there to here while managing to stay on message nearly all the while were instructive, ridiculous, and sadly typical. […]
Last Tuesday, Limbaugh’s lecture concerned how liberals had allegedly extended the coronavirus crisis in order to sabotage President Donald Trump. “For healthy people, COVID-19 is essentially the flu. Experts were spectacularly wrong,” Limbaugh asserted, noting that, by enacting statewide quarantines (which were put in place by Democratic and Republican governors alike), liberals “drove America’s economy into the ground and it was an excuse to destroy Donald Trump. The coronavirus was going to finish what Obama’s deep state started.” Key to their foul plan was forcing Americans to wear “worthless” masks, which, according to Limbaugh, are “simply a symbol of fear, anyway, that is now in the Democrat Party arsenal.”
This all sounds incredibly stupid until you filter it through the dominant right-wing radio grievance narrative. It sounds stupid after that, too, but it’s at least easier to parse. Limbaugh’s aim is to convince his listeners they are under attack by people who do not share their values […] These attackers include the media, “the professoriate,” liberals in general, public health officials, blue-state governors, and many people of foreign extraction. When pronouncing Dr. Anthony Fauci’s surname, Limbaugh repeatedly assumed a mocky Italian accent. […]
Later that night I tuned in to Levin, who makes up in bile what he lacks in charm. Though Levin’s show is cut from the same cloth as Limbaugh’s—aging white dude soliloquizing for three hours about his interesting opinions—it is dyed in a different pattern. […]
Levin’s show is oddly hypnotic. He begins very slowly, as if he is literally just waking up, only to accelerate quickly and loudly with little prelude. “The Democrat Party is at war internally with the United States,” Levin began, and you could almost hear him yawn at the sentiment he has expressed so many times before. The most recent front, he said, is the COVID-19 noncrisis. Like Limbaugh, Levin argues that the Democrats exaggerated the danger of the coronavirus in order to tank the economy and sabotage Trump. Unlike Limbaugh, Levin seemed personally affronted by the Democrats’ wacky adherence to public health advice. “We knew the death rate that was being put out originally was bogus. Why?” he asked. “Because I followed the science. I FOLLOWED THE SCIENCE!” […]
Much more at the link, including a look at Sean Hannity’s fuckery, at Bill O’Reilly, at Dana Loesch, at Michael Savage, etc. “Are you telling me we don’t have a civil war going on in this country? Are you telling me the left isn’t a foreign nation to most Americans? Well, I would disagree with you. We’ve been in [a civil war] since 1967, when the hippies invaded the media, the hippies invaded the universities.”
A federal appeals panel Thursday rejected a lower-court decision to allow any Texas voter afraid of contracting the coronavirus to cast a mail-in ballot, a case with far-reaching implications for this year’s election that could end up at the Supreme Court.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that it was up to the state, not the courts, to determine how to administer voting during a pandemic…
Judge Jerry E. Smith, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, wrote the 5th Circuit’s opinion. The other two judges on the panel were James C. Ho, an appointee of President Trump, and Gregg J. Costa, an appointee of President Barack Obama…
Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) celebrated the decision, claiming that “allowing universal mail-in ballots, which are particularly vulnerable to fraud, would only lead to greater election fraud and disenfranchise lawful voters…”
The attorney general also said that mail-in balloting is allowed in Texas only “to aid those with an actual disability or illness.” He did not explain why he supports the law’s inclusion of all Texans age 65 and older.
John Moralessays
tomh, from your quoted text:
The attorney general also said that mail-in balloting is allowed in Texas only “to aid those with an actual disability or illness.” He did not explain why he supports the law’s inclusion of all Texans age 65 and older.
Perhaps he did; if age 65 and older is equated to an actual disability or illness, it follows.
(But then, the USA is gerontocracy at the top levels)
Trickster Goddesssays
Warning for the video at link: the sound of the man’s head hitting the pavement is sickening
Two police officers in Buffalo, New York, have been suspended without pay after a video showed them pushing a 75-year-old man to the ground, as protests over the police killing of George Floyd continued into their tenth night.
Footage taken by a reporter from a local public radio station and posted online showed the unidentified man approaching a line of officers in riot gear. One officer pushes him with a baton and a second one with his hand. The advancing police line halts when a loud crack is heard as his head hits the pavement and blood could be seen trickling from the man’s head.
The incident drew widespread condemnation as protesters returned to the streets of several US cities to demonstrate against police brutality.
“I was deeply disturbed by the video,” Buffalo mayor Byron Brown said in a statement. “After days of peaceful protests and several meetings between myself, police leadership and members of the community, tonight’s event is disheartening.”
New York state governor Andrew Cuomo said the incident was “wholly unjustified and utterly disgraceful”, adding: “Police Officers must enforce – not abuse – the law.”
Warning: the footage below contains graphic scenes.
Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT)
This video is equally graphic and has a horrific sound when the 75-year-old man falls. In other footage, blood streams from his ear as one officer after another walks by him and doesn’t help. Men in military fatigues were the first to kneel near him. https://t.co/BeLFATZaeI
June 5, 2020
The video in Buffalo shows the majority of the officers march past after the man falls, though the officer who pushed him with a baton starts to lean over him before he is motioned away by another officer. Someone is heard calling for a medic.
The radio station, WBFO, reported that two medics came forward and helped the man into an ambulance. Police later said that a man was injured after tripping and falling, the radio station said.
But after viewing the video, Buffalo police commissioner Byron Lockwood ordered an investigation and suspended the two officers, Brown said.
The 75-year-old victim was in stable but serious condition at Erie County medical center hospital in Buffalo, Brown said.
The US president’s [sic] racism is so blatant he may be an unwitting catalyst for overdue cultural change all over the world
Dear President Trump,
I realise this is an extremely busy time for you between games of golf and tweeting but I hope you may be boosted by a rare and welcome thank you letter from a black man at such an inconvenient moment in the history of the United States of America.
While all of those “animals” are rioting and looting in the streets over something as petty and unimportant as justice and equal human rights for black people and who, for some ridiculous reason, seem to be upset at police “doing their jobs” by applying a little too much physical pressure in apprehending yet another black citizen who subsequently died in their custody — I realised no one has thanked you for the wonderful work you are doing.
Keep it up!
I’m sure a man of your vast intellect may think my sentiment is tinged with a hint of sarcasm but I can assure you my gratitude is genuine, for you have unwittingly become the most influential US president in the history of that great country for all the wrong reasons.
Thank you for being so open and forthright in your evil attitude and lack of care towards the black population you preside over.
Thank you for not pandering to the “politically correct” and even pretending you have any empathy towards anyone who doesn’t look like you or share your outdated, disgraceful, disturbing views on society.
Thank you for showing us anyone can become president (even you!) and showing us the way forward by (unintentionally) inspiring us to instigate lasting change, not just a peaceful protest backed up by empty clicks of support on social media. This is just the beginning. I promise you.
Thank you for shining a spotlight to people around the world who have been sadly unaware of your country and the state it has been in for hundreds of years, and for outing the racist, hateful, bigoted and violent people who not only voted for you but have held the cultural key to an unjust, corrupt and fundamentally prejudiced society and system from the conception of the USA, built on the genocide of Native Americans and the slavery and incarceration of millions of black people.
Thank you for giving us a tangible, symbolic enemy (yourself and your Make America Great Again minions) against which people now have fuel to organise, strategise and mobilise a long-lasting movement and process to change our planet for good.
These problems have been here throughout my lifetime and generations before me, and as a black man my biggest pain, anguish and dejection has come not only by witnessing these atrocities committed repeatedly against my people, but actually the lack of shock and vivid desensitisation built up over the years while hearing (and sadly believing) that “things won’t change”.
Before you, we had presidents who turned a blind eye to this, who didn’t do nearly enough and were too busy working to fulfil the wishes of corrupt corporations who had lobbied them into power. The difference is they were media savvy and clever enough to say the right thing in public and show just enough fake sympathy in response to these human rights violations to pacify the growing numbers of people who inherently knew there had to be change.
Through your open hatred, indifference and disregard towards a people subjugated by physical, economic, mental and emotional abuse for more than 400 years you have unwittingly created a movement where increasing numbers of people from all creeds and colours around the world are discussing and debating the most constructive way to fight back together. We now understand we have to fight this injustice on a systemic level; protests are not enough.
You are the wolf in wolf’s clothing we’ve needed for years rather than your predecessors who posed as sheep.
You are the reason why my daughters — who are US citizens[†] — ask me: “Why does the president hate black people?”
You are the catalyst for our future generations to impact lasting change not only to your corroding country but countries all over the world, including here in the UK.
You truly mirror the views and ideology of a group of people we must and will overcome.
For that Mr President, I sincerely thank you.
Liam Rosenior
† Mr Rosenior is a (recently retired) professional soccer player in the UK, and since he was born in London, is presumably a UK citizen.
The New York Times has issued a mea culpa over the paper’s decision to publish an op-ed by the Republican senator Tom Cotton entitled: “Send in the troops”.
The decision to run the piece, which advocated for the deployment of the military against protesters rallying against police brutality toward black Americans, drew widespread criticism. Dozens of Times journalists voiced their opposition, noting that inciting a heavy-handed response to the protests put black journalists, and people of color more broadly, in danger.
Times publisher AG Sulzberger initially defended the decision, saying the paper was committed to representing “views from across the spectrum”.
James Bennet, the newspaper’s editorial page editor, also defended the piece, saying in an essay on Thursday: “Readers who might be inclined to oppose Cotton’s positions need to be fully aware of it, and reckon with it, if they were to defeat it. To me, debating influential ideas openly, rather than letting them go unchallenged, is far more likely to help society reach the right answers.”
But in a remarkable reversal on Thursday evening, the paper issued a statement saying the piece fell short of its editorial standards.
“We’ve examined the piece and the process leading up to its publication,” said Eileen Murphy, a Times spokeswoman. “This review made clear that a rushed editorial process led to the publication of an op-ed that did not meet our standards. As a result, we’re planning to examine both short-term and long-term changes, to include expanding our fact-checking operation and reducing the number of op-eds we publish.”
The decision follows a substantial backlash by staff members. Many spoke out on Twitter on Wednesday following the initial publication, posting the same message: “Running this puts Black @nytimes staffers in danger.”
…
The New York NewsGuild called the decision to publish Cotton’s piece “an irresponsible choice”, noting that “invoking state violence disproportionately hurts Black and brown people. It also jeopardizes our journalists’ ability to work in the field safely and effectively.”
On Thursday, more than a dozen employees at the Times also called in sick.
…
The protest at the newspaper came as staff at the Philadelphia Inquirer also called in sick over the newspaper’s decision to use the headline “Buildings Matter, Too” on an architecture article, a choice considered tone deaf and insensitive to the Black Lives Matter movement. The Inquirer has since apologized for a “horribly wrong” decision….
Russia confirmed 8,726 new coronavirus infections Friday, bringing the country’s official number of cases to 449,834.
…
New infections have been steadily dropping since mid-May when officials were reporting daily increases of around 11,000 cases.
Officials say Russia’s high virus count is the result of mass testing and that a steady decline in new infections and its low fatality numbers mean the country can begin to return to normal.
Yet critics have cast doubt on the numbers, accusing the authorities of under-reporting deaths and threatening a new wave of infections by lifting restrictions.
…
Moscow, the epicenter of Russia’s pandemic with around half of the country’s total cases, on Monday eased a nine-week lockdown allowing shops to reopen and residents to leave their homes for short walks.
Putin was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Tuesday to discuss proposals to restart an economy badly hit by lockdown measures and a sharp fall in oil prices.
“Steadily dropping” is a bit of an exaggeration. The number of new cases per day has been hovering around 10,000 for weeks. For several days, it was around 11,000, and for the past week or so it’s been around 9,000, which is still a very high number.
President Trump: We’re sorry that you decided to come to Maine, but since you are here, could you do us a favor? Resign.
You have never been a good president, but today your shortcomings are unleashing historic levels of suffering on the American people.
Your slow response to the coronavirus pandemic has spun a manageable crisis into the worst public health emergency since 1918.
We are also in the middle of the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. There is no national strategy to recover from the shock that is disproportionately affecting people who were already struggling to make it.
And in the face of the worst civic unrest since 1968, with millions of Americans in the streets protesting systemic racism, you fan the flames.
In just the last week you gleefully tweeted about shooting fellow citizens; you goaded governors into escalating violent situations so they don’t “look like jerks;” and you authorized the use of rubber bullets and tear gas to clear peaceful protesters out of a public space so you could pose for a Bible-waving photo-op.
These are just a few examples of why you lack the character, maturity and judgment to lead our country in this perilous time. You should resign.
We have to agree with you on one point: You were right to skip making an address to the nation as other presidents have done in times of national emergency.
You correctly concluded that you have nothing to say that would make the situation better. When what’s called for is compassion, clear vision and a commitment to lead, you are out of ammo.
But bringing the nation together in times of distress is a big part of the job when you are head of state. You can’t do it, so you should resign.
As head of government, you have unmatched power to direct resources to relieve suffering. You can’t or won’t do that, either, so you should resign.
And in your mistreatment of lawful protesters and abuse of religious symbols, you have violated your oath to protect and defend the Constitution, so you should resign.
Your supporters will no doubt say that this is an election year, and it should be left up to the voters to decide whether you deserve to stay in office.
But ask yourself – can this country take five more months like the last five? You are a president supported by a minority of the people, and your only path to victory in November is to further divide the nation. This campaign could do even more lasting damage than you have done already.
…
America needs to heal again. Please resign now, and let us begin.
Rachel Maddow looks at the disturbing development in Washington, D.C. in which federal police are amassing with insignia, badges, nameplates or other identifying markings, risking confusion for civilians but also raising questions about what is behind the creation of this force.
Steve Schmidt, former senior Republican strategist, talks with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump putting Bill Barr in charge of an unmarked collection of federal police.
DC mayor Muriel Bowser tweeted a letter she sent to Trump: “I request that @realDonaldTrump withdraw all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from our city.”
Trump’s ad libs about medical science continue to make no sense
“Minnianapolis”
Trump to governors of states where protests are still happening: “I hope that you also use our National Guard. Call me, we will be ready with them so fast their heads will spin.”
“We went into a ventilator period the likes of which nobody has seen since the second World War” — Trump is out here just incoherently rambling on about any and all topics
TRUMP: “We built a tremendous thing, a tremendous power platform. So when it got ill, when we had a problem, we were able to cut it off, stop it, just like this, stop it. Keep everyone inside. Keep em away. Keep em together, away, uninfected. And we saved millions of lives.” #wut
Trump is more than 15 minutes deep into one of his most incoherent rants. Get a load of how many different topics he touches upon in this one clip. He had no remarks prepared and so we’re just getting a stream of consciousness.
Trump to governors: “Don’t be proud. Get the job done. You’ll end up looking much better in the end. Call in the National Guard. Call me. We’ll have so many people — you have to dominate the streets. You can’t let what’s happening happening. It’s call ‘dominate the streets.'”
Trump on George Floyd, who was killed by Minneapolis cops: “Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying, ‘this is a great thing that’s happening for our country.’ This is a great day for him.”
TRUMP: “Today is probably, if you think of it, the greatest comeback in American history.” (The unemployment rate is 13.3 percent)
Trump has now been ranting and raving for more than a half hour, nonstop
Trump, sweating profusely, can’t remember what an RV is called
Trump on Covid: “If you have diabetes, or you have a bad heart — it’s like a magnet. They say if you’re heavy — so I say, thank goodness I’m in perfect shape — but if you’re heavy it’s not good.”
Trump claims no president has accomplished more than him (lol), then lists among his accomplishments Veterans Choice legislation that was actually signed into law by President Obama in 2014
In response to a question from @Yamiche, Trump suggests his plan to solve systemic racism is to have a good economy. As she tries to follow up, he admonishes her, “you are something.” [She is a black woman. – SC]
I have to take my baby to a doctor checkup now but suffice it to say that Trump’s 40+ minute rant was a bizarre spectacle
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser renamed the street in front of the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza” on Friday and emblazoned the slogan in massive yellow letters on the road, a pointed salvo in her escalating dispute with President Trump over control of D.C. streets.
The actions are meant to honor demonstrators who are urging changes in police practices after the killing in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis, city officials said…
Local artist Rose Jaffe said she and others joined city work crews to paint the giant slogan, starting around 4 a.m.
The art will take up two blocks on 16th Street NW, between K and H streets, an iconic promenade that leads directly north of the White House.
Shortly after 11 a.m., a city worker hung up a “Black Lives Matter Plz NW” sign at the corner of 16th and H streets NW. Bowser (D) watched silently as onlookers cheered and the song “Rise Up” by Audra Day played from speakers.
“In America, you can peacefully assemble,” she said in brief remarks to the crowd…
“There was a dispute this week about whose street it is, and Mayor Bowser wanted to make it abundantly clear whose street it is and honor the peaceful demonstrators who assembled Monday night,” said John Falcicchio, the mayor’s chief of staff.
The UK became the second country to officially record more than 40,000 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday, as health officials said another 357 people who had tested positive for the virus have died.
So far, 40,261 deaths due to the virus have been recorded, giving the UK the world’s second-highest pandemic death toll behind the United States.
The actual Covid-19 death toll is widely considered to be higher as the total only includes those who have tested positive for the virus.
According to the department of health, 1,650 more people were recorded as testing positive for the coronavirus, pushing the country’s total caseload up to 283,311.
On Friday, leading medics and scientists called on the prime minister, Boris Johnson, to order a public inquiry to prepare Britain for a second wave of the coronavirus this winter, warning that many more will die unless the country improves its response.
Police in Paris cited ongoing health risks related to the coronavirus pandemic as they banned a demonstration against police brutality planned to take place outside the city’s US embassy on Saturday, Reuters reports.
Trouble broke out at another anti-police demonstration in the French capital on Wednesday. Thousands had turned up despite a police ban on the event in memory of Adama Traore, a 24-year old black Frenchman who died in a 2016 police operation which some have likened to Floyd’s death.
The politicisation of the coronavirus crisis and the Brazilian government’s deliberate “torpedoing” of social distancing efforts has condemned South America’s largest country to a historic tragedy that will most punish the poor, Brazil’s most respected medical voice has said, writes Tom Phillips, the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, in Rio de Janeiro.
As Brazil’s death toll surpassed that of Italy, Drauzio Varella told the Guardian that historians would be unkind to president Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing international condemnation for his handling of the pandemic.
“I think history will ascribe to him a level of guilt that I really wouldn’t want for myself,” said Varella, an oncologist, author and broadcaster who is a household name thanks to decades of public health activism.
Only two countries, the US and the UK, have lost more lives, and Brazil seems poised to overtake the latter. Brazil has confirmed 615,000 cases, second only to the US.
“Because in Brazil we are already the third country in the world in terms of deaths, we will soon become the second, and we are going to come close to the level of mortality in the US, which has 330 million citizens – that’s 60% larger than Brazil’s population,” predicted Varella.
“The situation couldn’t be worse. It just couldn’t.”
Trickster Goddess @154, you can also hear on the video an onlooker saying, “You’ve got a fucking linebacker pushing an old guy over!” That’s a fairly accurate description.
Even 75-year-olds who are in good shape for their age may not have great balance. The man who fell did not have the balance nor the reflexes to recover from a hard shove.
He’s in the hospital, but there is no guarantee that he will recover at all.
blf @155, I’ve been thinking myself that Trump is so unremittingly awful, (on all levels), that he may finally be the catalyst we need to make progressive changes. Thanks for posting that.
Members of the White House press corps became the latest political prop in President Donald Trump’s quest to reopen the country on Friday.
The White House set up press seats for a Friday event in the Rose Garden, which was billed as a news conference, though Trump ended up taking no questions from reporters.
The folding chairs were originally placed six feet apart, just like they have been since April, in accordance with social distancing guidelines.
News crews took photos of the set-up, then left the Rose Garden, and were brought back in several minutes later.
Sometime in between, White House staffers clustered the chairs together much more tightly, with approximately one foot between each seated reporter.
Visually it was back to business almost as normal, pre-pandemic, without social distancing, despite ongoing recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control to take precautions.
The president seemed to like what he saw.
“You’re getting closer together, even you, I noticed,” Trump remarked to reporters. “I noticed you’re starting to get much closer together. Looks much better.”
But the White House staffers set up the seats — not the White House Correspondents’ Association. Some journalists and news executives were privately outraged by the bait and switch.
White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said he made the decision to move the seats.
“It was my decision. It looks better. I would remind you that those in the pool are tested, everyone is temperature checked, and asked if they have had symptoms,” he told CNN in an email.
The event was open to other reporters who had not been tested because they were not in the pool — the small, rotating group of reporters covering the President each day. There have been many cases of asymptomatic spread nationally, and it’s possible to spread the virus before one begins exhibiting symptoms.
The Trump administration’s own CDC guidelines maintain that social distancing is the best way to slow the spread of coronavirus.
…
It appeared that the White House was using the press corps as human props to send a message that social distancing is no longer necessary — something the President is insisting, as well, as he seeks to fill a packed arena for the Republican National Convention.
“This is a flagrant violation of CDC guidelines on social distancing and a move that puts reporters at risk for the purpose of turning the press corps into a prop for a so-called ‘press conference’ where the president refuses to answer a single question,” WHCA president Jon Karl said in a post on Twitter.
“Via @cnni: US Ambassador to the UK, Robert Wood Johnson, issued a letter of support to those peacefully protesting in solidarity with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement in the UK, expressing his grief over the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis in May.”
“NEWS: the corner of 16th and H Streets NW, right by St. John’s Church and immediately north of Lafayette Square, has been symbolically renamed ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza’ by @MayorBowser. This was the scene of @realDonaldTrump’s photo op on Monday.
Remember: this is not the first time D.C. has symbolically renamed streets. The last one was Boris Nemtsov Plaza right in front of the Russian Embassy. He was a good-government activist and opponent of President Putin.
I am told the street renaming and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ paint on 16th Street was pulled together ‘quickly’, mostly within the last 24 hours. The painting was an initiative from @DCDPW and started at 4 a.m. with assistance from city muralists.”
Those waiting for Trump to add the obligatory “there’s plenty of work still to be done” line were left wanting. He pretended that happy days are here again.
Donald Trump has several bad habits, but among the most macabre is the frequency with which the president speaks for the dead. Apparently convinced that he’s qualified to serve as the Medium in Chief, Trump likes to periodically point at the sky and report on how the deceased are feeling about earthly developments.
[He] has done this with such unnerving frequency that the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank got a whole column out of the phenomenon last summer, noting, “The next time you are about to ridicule something seemingly foolish that President Trump has said or done … be forewarned: He has supernatural powers. He sees dead people. He doesn’t just see them. He talks to them and relays their thoughts back to the living.”
Trump kept this going again this morning, drawing a connection between the new jobs report and the George Floyd, who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes.
Trump spoke nearly an hour and only briefly mentioned Floyd…. The president otherwise touted an economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis that has disproportionately affected black Americans. “Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country,” Trump said. “This is a great day for him. It’s a great day for everybody.”
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes noted soon after, “[Trump] really pointed up to the sky and said today’s jobs report marks a great day for a dead man killed by police.”
Well, sure, when you put it that way — which is to say, accurately — it doesn’t sound great.
But it’s also worth emphasizing the larger context: the United States has the second highest unemployment rate of the last 80 years; the death toll from the pandemic is nearly 109,000 (and climbing); countless protestors have taken to the nation’s streets to condemn racial injustices; and Donald Trump thought it’d be a good idea to host a celebration in the Rose Garden. […]
What’s more, even putting aside the politics, there are real economic risks to consider. It’s obviously good news that the latest jobless rate wasn’t higher, but there’s nothing good about a 13.3% unemployment rate.
There’s now reason to believe the economic rescue package, largely written by congressional Democratic leaders, has had a beneficial effect. But Republicans looking at today’s BLS report and feeling a sense of complacency have it backwards: policymakers opened a spigot and prevented an even more severe economic collapse, but tightening the spigot now, with the unemployment rate still ridiculously high, could prove disastrous.
[…] the jobs report looked great because some of the workers who were temporarily laid off in April went back to work in May. But the economy didn’t actually add jobs, and the number of Americans who were told they were terminated got quite a bit worse.
And yet, there were Republicans this morning, both on Capitol Hill and in the White House, suggesting there’s no longer any need for lawmakers to approve another economic aid package. As Stephen Moore put it, the job numbers take “a lot of the wind out of the sails of any phase 4 — we don’t need it now.”
Republicans are now convinced the nation needs less of what worked. It’s a tough position to defend.
Right. And those Republican dunderheads are determined not to help state, county and other local level governments with financial aid. State, county and city governments are already laying people off … and a LOT more of that is going to happen soon.
Well, this looks like a recipe for confusion and chaos:
The AP reported overnight that the Republican National Committee is moving forward with plans to conduct the official business of the party’s national convention in Charlotte. Donald Trump, however, will apparently accept the Republican nomination somewhere else.
And where, pray tell, will the president accept his party’s nomination? The same AP report added, “Republican officials visited Nashville on Thursday and plan to tour other major cities in the coming days. The RNC’s top considerations to host Trump include Orlando, Florida; Jacksonville, Florida; New Orleans, Dallas and Phoenix.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) dramatically walked back his previous defense of the New York Police Department during a press conference Friday, admitting that video evidence documenting the excessive use of force to contain protests is verifiable and “undeniable.”
Cuomo’s Friday admission was a significant reversal from his remarks just a day earlier. When asked by reporters on Thursday about instances of police abuse — documented en masse in online videos that show police officers shoving and bludgeoning protesters, journalists, and passersby with batons — Cuomo instead accused the media of launching a partisan attack. He then admonished New Yorkers for showing “disrespect” for police.
“Police bludgeon peaceful protesters with batons for no reason? That’s not a fact,” Cuomo said Thursday. “They don’t do that. Anyone who did do that would be obviously reprehensible if not criminal.”
The governor pulled up a different set of facts during his Friday press conference when he flashed a video clip of a 75-year-old man in Buffalo, New York being pushed to the ground by police.
“These are undeniable situations,” adding that he had spoken to the mayor of Buffalo and they agreed the officers involved should be immediately suspended.
Cuomo’s reversal on Friday comes after he swatted away questions earlier this week about graphic video footage collected from multiple sources that showed officers throwing demonstrators to the ground, beating passersby on bicycles and demonstrating an overwhelming show of force to constrain and dominate protesters.
New York Times reporter Ali Watkins captured the aftermath of what she described as undue force used by officers who charged at protesters.
“More later, but this is a moment after cops, unprompted as far as I can tell, charged protestors, including a sheltered group of nurses and medics trying to tend to bleeding, injured people who got struck by batons. They had just called an ambulance.” […]
From Scott M. Stringer, NYC Comptroller:
The penalty for protesting after curfew is not to be beaten senseless by the police.
The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), an affiliate of Black Lives Matter, spent tens of thousands of dollars producing cloth masks imprinted with “Stop killing Black people” and “Defund police” to provide to protesters around the country, masks that were seized by law enforcement before they even left the post office, HuffPost reports. The Oakland-based organization received a notice from the U.S. Postal Service that its first four shipments of 500 masks each—bound for Washington, St. Louis, New York City, and Minneapolis—had been seized. […]
To be clear, we don’t know what law enforcement agency seized M4BL’s masks. But you can be damned sure that the BLM-monitoring by law enforcement hasn’t been curtailed in the Trump administration. The United States Postal Inspection Service has not yet responded to requests for more information from the press. All that M4BL and Movement Ink know is that the tracking numbers associated with their shipments say “Seized by Law Enforcement.”
“Police have rioted coast to coast, beating and gassing protesters who have called for an end to police violence, with the explicit approval of President Trump,” Chelsea Fuller, a spokesperson for the M4BL,” said in a statement to HuffPost. “Now, it appears they want to ensure that people who protest are susceptible to the same deadly pandemic that they have failed miserably at stopping. […] The continued surveillance and disruption of social movements under this administration is as chilling as it is dangerous. It should be roundly condemned.”
Movement Ink has been in business since 2009, and touts its background in “organizing, violence prevention and youth advocacy work [and] investment in impacting and contributing to our community.” Quinonez told HuffPost that he and his family stayed up late producing the masks that were seized. “We’re tired, but we’re going to try to rally some support and figure out how to replace these masks and how to support the movement,” he said. “This isn’t a weapon. It’s more about safety. We’re trying to figure out how to keep our community safe.”
More details regarding police violence in Washington D.C: and other areas
[…] what happened most notably on Thursday evening was that in multiple locations police used curfews as an excuse to come after nonviolent protesters with violence of an extraordinary, and in many cases sickening, degree. The images left behind were of genuine riots—police riots—and an incident that may be the very definition of “depraved indifference.”
Warning: For those triggered by violence, there are no safe images, no safe videos, no acceptable moments to be found below. The violence displayed in each of these moments is at a level that would earn an R-rating for any film, and of a nature that would never be broadcast on the many television programs featuring “hero cops.”
In some locations, the police didn’t even wait for curfew to provide an excuse before launching into civilians with a level of violence and brutality that absolutely underlines the need for massive, systematic change in law enforcement. […]
But it wasn’t all violence. There were moments of cooperation … like this moment when a Salem, Oregon officer takes aside a group of gun-toting white supremacists to warn them before they start gassing everyone else. […]
POLICE OFFICER TELLS PROUD BOYS TO HIDE INSIDE BUILDING BECAUSE THEY’RE ABOUT TO TEAR GAS PROTESTERS. THE OFFICER SAID HE WAS WARNING THEM “DISCRETELY” BECAUSE HE DIDNT WANT PROTESTERS TO SEE POLICE “PLAY FAVORITES.”
Email evidence shows Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson lied when he claimed that HUD hadn’t changed policy regarding DACA recipients.
[…] Carson went in front of legislators to try to debunk reports that the Trump administration had been denying government-insured home loans to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, claiming: “No one was aware of any changes that had been made to the policy whatsoever. I’m sure we have plenty of DACA recipients who have [Federal Housing Administration]-backed loans.”
That—in a long tradition of Trump administration officials appearing under oath before federal lawmakers—was a lie. BuzzFeed News reports that emails obtained by watchdog group Democracy Forward through the Freedom of Information Act show HUD “made a specific internal decision by August 2018” to block DACA recipients from these loans. “That decision was communicated to staff during an internal credit policy conference call on Aug. 30, 2018,” the report said.
[…] in late 2018 that DACA recipients and their advocates said they were being denied loans after having been eligible in previous years. […]
“The newly obtained emails show that HUD officials were telling lenders not to approve FHA-backed loans from at least early 2018,” BuzzFeed now reports, “and that they had made a specific decision by that August to use an employment authorization category that only applies to DACA recipients to justify excluding them, though it’s not clear why that category was considered disqualifying.” This isn’t the first time administration officials have made a deliberate decision to single out DACA recipients just to be hateful assholes.
Earlier this year, Education Sec. Betsy DeVos blocked DACA recipients and other undocumented students from billions in emergency funds that the department received to assist students just like them with expenses ranging from child care to housing during the novel coronavirus pandemic. […]
“NEW: Ohio Gov Mike DeWine says a member of the Ohio National Guard had been removed from the mission in Washington D.C., after the FBI uncovered information that the guardsman expressed white supremacist ideology on the internet, prior to this assignment.”
America’s heartbreak brought considerable joy to Vladimir Putin’s Russia, but the gloating also exposes the deep ugliness of his regime.
Russian reporters covering protests on American soil appear to sympathize with the protesters, but state media reports for domestic audiences tell an entirely different story.
War correspondent Dmitry Steshin authored a despicably racist article for the Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, purporting to give advice to the American protesters. His mockery of the ongoing protests in the United States made references to “muscular criminal Negroes,” described “twerking” as the “national Negro dance,” recommended the use of amphetamines, and called for blood, with as many deaths as possible.
While the article itself is a disgusting display of the casual racism that is very prevalent in Russia, Steshin went even further when he posted the same graphic material on his social media account. Steshin entitled the post “Kindly Advice to the Negroes of Minnesota and the United States” and urged: “Beat the whites until they turn black.”
But most revealing of all about Kremlin attitudes: the offensive material was shared in its entirety by none other than Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-funded propaganda networks, RT and Sputnik.
This approach lies at the heart of the Kremlin’s information operations against the United States. While the English-speaking offshoots of Russian state media outlets appear to side with the plight of the American people, domestic reporting twists it into grotesque propaganda that serves only the interests of the Putin regime.
Russia’s 60 Minutes provided another glimpse into a typical session of U.S.-bashing, when host Evgeny Popov blatantly lied, saying: “Russia doesn’t have such levels of poverty as the United States,” then claimed, “Russia doesn’t have any cities the police cannot enter. Not one. I can name at least ten such cities in America. Ten no-go cities for the police, which they can enter only in APC’s (Armored Personnel Carriers) and fully armed.” Needless to say, he cited no examples.
Instead of siding with the protesters, Russian state media focused on the benefits Trump may be able to reap once he is able to crush the uprising. Political scientist Vladimir Kornilov suggested, “It would be better for Trump to wait it out—just not too long—to terrorize a significant part of the society; 83 percent of the Minnesotans are white, a great majority. That’s why he should wait it out, to create fear and terror. And then he can ride in on a white horse as someone who will restore order. That will be very important for him right now, especially in light of the economic difficulties.”
“This is to Trump’s benefit,” concurred Sergei Markov, a political consultant to the Kremlin.
…
So, while the United States of America is reeling from escalating outrage and violence, on the Russian state TV show 60 Minutes, deputy of the State Duma Aleksey Zhuravlyov rejoiced: “This is an excellent situation. Because they’ve declared my country an enemy.”
Indeed, while Trump has tried repeatedly to cozy up to Putin, what we’re seeing in America now is what the Kremlin has wanted for a long time. Back in 2018, appearing on Russia’s state TV show The Evening with Vladimir Soloviev, deputy dean of world politics at Moscow’s State University, Andrey Sidorov, complained: “Unfortunately, Trump didn’t reach the level of Abraham Lincoln and didn’t drive the U.S. to civil war. That’s sad. Hopefully, he’ll become Herbert Hoover and at least drive them into a Great Depression.”
…
Vladimir Soloviev…played clips depicting U.S. police abusing the protesters. He commented: “Watch the way American cops are acting, for anyone who ever had any complaints about our police.”
Anticipating a goldmine of anti-American propaganda, Russian state TV has dispatched multiple reporters to cover the protests in the United States, up close and personal….
…
Since last year when U.S. President Donald J. Trump suggested inviting Russia to participate in a future G7 Summit—without demanding or extracting any concessions—Russian experts and pundits believe that a reset is within reach. (This year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declined to attend the G7 scheduled for June in the U.S., forcing Trump to postpone the meeting even as he claimed the group is passé.)
The prospect that all or most of the sanctions might be lifted during Trump’s second term overrides the Kremlin’s periodic dissatisfaction with the course that is being charted by the current administration. So in spite of their poorly concealed irritation with the unpredictable showman who has his finger on the nuclear button and is floating the idea of renewed nuclear testing, pro-Kremlin pundits, experts and government officials are still rooting for Trump, not least, the agent of America’s internal chaos.
Whether or not the turmoil stands to benefit Trump’s re-election prospects, it most certainly serves as a handy distraction from Russia’s own problems—from dwindling human rights and growing dissatisfaction with the Putin regime, to the crumbling economy hit by the oil slump and the heavy toll of the coronavirus. Appearing on Russia’s 60 Minutes, MP Aleksey Zhuravlyov summed up the pro-Kremlin point of view about the unrest in the United States: “I couldn’t care less who’s playing whom. What’s important is that it doesn’t happen here.”
BREAKING: The North Carolina Supreme Court just ruled the repeal of the Racial Justice Act — which allowed proof of racial bias to be considered in death penalty cases — unconstitutional.
The death penalty in our country stems from the legacy of lynching. It is impossible to separate it from racism.
The Trump administration is doing by fiat what it has struggled to accomplish through lengthy rulemaking — dismantling federal regulations designed to protect workers, consumers, investors and the environment.
Invoking an economic “emergency” stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, the administration has made it harder for people to challenge inaccuracies on credit reports, eased required breaks for commercial truckers and told factories and power plants that, while they should obey pollution limits, they do not have to monitor or report their emissions routinely — among other things.
President Trump formalized this strategy two weeks ago when he signed an executive order instructing agencies across the government to rescind, modify or simply stop enforcing regulations if they burden the economy. On Thursday, he signed another order to allow agencies to waive 50-year-old environmental laws to speed federal approvals of pipelines, highways and other projects.
The moves come on top of waivers that federal agencies had already granted businesses and industries earlier in the health crisis. The White House will seek to make many of those roughly 600 deregulatory actions permanent…
I appreciate the NYT listening to its employees, especially people of color, & suggesting the work culture will change. In that spirit, let me tell how many live in fear of the “Bret Stephens Policy.” So many have been contacted by editors because Brett has whined or complained.
This is so common there’s now a community of us writers & editors whom Bret has narced on bc he was upset they were critical of one of his many terrible takes. We usually get contacted by a high ranking editor & given a warning or told to be mindful of the social media policy.
He has even emailed the masthead complaining about fellow editors or writers. As a result many walk on eggshells when it comes to him. There’s a simmering resentment and feelings of a very real double standard. People fear for their jobs so remain quiet. This is not just a few.
A writer who recently joined told me during the orientation and social media overview there was a carve out dedicated to Bret Stephens. I’m saying this because so many people want to but were afraid to go on record. I’ve never met the man and have nothing again[st] him personally.
But if we are serious about changing the work culture then this has to be addressed. So many have wanted to speak out on the record but are afraid for their jobs. That tells you everything you need to know. I respect my editors and writers and love writing pieces for the NYT.
There are so many good writers and reporters and editors there who really care and put in the time and effort and listen. It’s important for you all to know that.
Writers and journalists have now messaged me saying this thread was “brave.” No, I should have spoken out earlier. I am not salaried like others. If I lose opportunities, so be it. Still, I hope it leads to change ACROSS the media landscape. People are tired.
Sincerely,
From one of the “wokes” who is about to be a “40+ liberal.”
Update: I want people to know I have received support for this thread from NYT editors and writers. People are listening and want to be part of the change.
In a video that went viral on Thursday, officers in the city of Buffalo, New York, were seen shoving an elderly man to the ground.
The 75-year-old was seriously injured, and taken to hospital.
All 57 officers in the riot squad have now reportedly quit in protest at their two colleagues’ suspension.
According to the Buffalo News, the members have quit the Emergency Response Team, but not the police department.
John Evans, president of the local police union, told the newspaper: “Our position is these officers were simply following orders from Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia to clear the square.
“It doesn’t specify clear the square of men, 50 and under or 15 to 40. They were simply doing their job. I don’t know how much contact was made. He did slip in my estimation. He fell backwards.”
So, yeah: “Simply following orders”, “simply doing their job”. Good job, there.
johnson catmansays
re John Morales @192: I hope all of the officers who quit the riot squad turned in their riot gear.
johnson catmansays
Anyone who is opposed to ANTIFA is, by definition, pro-fascist.
John Moralessays
johnson catman,
Anyone who is opposed to ANTIFA is, by definition, pro-fascist.
Logically speaking, that’s not true. I concede that, in practice, that’s not a bad heuristic.
(Specifically, it’s the fallacy of the excluded middle; for example, one could be anti-fascist yet opposed to their willingness to employ violence)
Here’s a link to the June 6 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
In Russia, 197 more people have died with coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the country’s official death toll to 5,725.
There were 8,855 new cases of the virus, according to officials, pushing the total number of infections to 458,689.
It comes after it emerged earlier this week that new mortality data from Russia’s second-largest city reignited questions about whether the country’s official tally has discounted thousands of deaths tied to the coronavirus outbreak.
St Petersburg issued 1,552 more death certificates this May than in the previous year, a nearly 32% rise indicating that hundreds of deaths tied to the pandemic are not reflected in the city’s official coronavirus death toll for the month of 171.
Update to #165 above:
More from the Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney, which saw thousands take to the city’s streets to protest.
Aerial footage shows demonstrators snaking through the Australian city as at least 2,000 people marched on the ‘Stop All Black Deaths in Custody’ rally.
It was declared an authorised public assembly minutes before its scheduled start time of 3pm, after a court ruling was overturned.
Thousands of protesters are marching in cities and towns across Australia against indigenous deaths in custody and the killing of George Floyd in the United States.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has threatened to pull his country out of the World Health Organization (WHO) after the United Nations agency warned governments about the risk of lifting lockdowns before slowing the spread of the new coronavirus.
“I’m telling you right now, the United States left the WHO, and we’re studying that, in the future,” Bolsonaro told journalists outside the presidential palace on Friday. “Either the WHO works without ideological bias, or we leave, too.”
…
Bolsonaro has followed a similar script to the US president in his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, downplaying its severity, criticising state authorities’ stay-at-home measures and touting the purported effects of the drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19.
His threat to leave the WHO came shortly before Brazil announced that its death toll from the coronavirus had risen above 35,000, the third-highest in the world behind the US and the United Kingdom.
In an editorial running the length of newspaper Folha de S Paulo’s front page, the Brazilian daily highlighted that just 100 days had passed since Bolsonaro described the virus now “killing a Brazilian per minute” as “a little flu”.
“While you were reading this, another Brazilian died from the coronavirus,” the newspaper said.
On Thursday, Brazil’s Health Ministry reported that confirmed cases in the country had climbed past 600,000 and 1,437 deaths had been registered within 24 hours, the third consecutive daily record. Authorities reported another 1,005 deaths on Friday night, but Bolsonaro continues to argue for quickly lifting state isolation orders, arguing that the economic costs outweigh public health risks.
…
Bolsonaro’s dismissal of the coronavirus risks to public health and efforts to lift state quarantines have drawn criticism from across the political spectrum in Brazil, where some accuse him of using the crisis to undermine democratic institutions.
But many of those critics are divided about the safety and effectiveness of anti-government demonstrations in the middle of a pandemic, especially after one small protest was met with an overwhelming show of police force last weekend.
In Latin America, the virus has now infected more than 1.1 million people.
While Brazil and Mexico are seeing the highest rates of new infections, the pandemic is also gathering pace in countries such as Peru, Colombia, Chile and Bolivia.
Most Latin American leaders have taken the pandemic more seriously than Bolsonaro, but some politicians who backed strict lockdowns in March and April are pushing to open economies back up as hunger and poverty grow.
The Tory MP spearheading efforts to promote the Covid-19 contact-tracing app trial on the Isle of Wight appears to have broken lockdown rules at a barbecue also attended by the chairman of the Brexit party and political journalists, the Guardian has learned.
Bob Seely went to the evening gathering hosted by the Spectator magazine’s deputy editor, Freddy Gray, in the village of Seaview on the island last month. Richard Tice, the Brexit party chairman, and his partner, the political journalist Isabel Oakeshott, were also there.
Seely said he was unaware others would be present when he arrived for a meeting, and that at all times social distancing was followed.
At the time, there was strict guidance against groups mixing from different households or people visiting and entering another person’s home, with the health secretary stipulating that that included gardens.
Seely, who has been a strong advocate of the government’s coronavirus app being trialled on the island, attended the barbecue with his partner. He has pushed the government’s stay-at-home message, as well as highlighting warnings against people visiting second homes. In March, Seely urged new visitors to the island to self-isolate for at least a week, adding: “We need to do what we can to make sure our NHS is not overwhelmed.”
…
Tice and Oakeshott did not deny their attendance and made reference to testing their eyesight – an apparent nod to the reason given by the prime minister’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, for driving to a beauty spot during lockdown.
Oakeshott is thought to have been staying last month at her nearby apartment in Seaview, a second home which she purchased in 2018. Government rules have stated that people must remain in their primary residence, specifying that essential travel does not include visits to second homes.
Gray’s wife was also present at the gathering on Friday 22 May, as well as his family.
…
Gray told the Guardian: “You’ve busted me. I did invite Bob over to discuss the app – since we had had a falling out over the article I had written. I did not, however, tell him that it would be a massive rave in the garden involving children flagrantly eating barbecue food, champagne and a baby being flung around.
“Bob didn’t stay long. I apologised for having caused him distress with my app article and he said no hard feelings. We talked about a follow-up piece on how the app was performing, as I moved on to white wine. Bob didn’t drink – though I believe he may have eaten one or possibly two sausages.”
Asked for comment about his attendance at the gathering and to explain the purpose of his visit to the Isle of Wight, Tice said: “I have followed the prime minister’s advice to wash my hands, stay alert, maintain social distancing and test my eyesight when appropriate.”
Oakeshott said: “I work on the Isle of Wight all year round. It is where I go to write. I have stayed alert, washed my hands regularly and, as always, enjoyed my time on this paradise isle. Now and again I’ve also tested my eyesight, which seems to be in good order. Along with the rest of the nation, I am delighted at the recent decriminalisation of barbecues.”…
The British home secretary Priti Patel has urged protesters in the UK not to gather for Black Lives Matter and George Floyd demonstrations during the pandemic.
“We are in a health pandemic across the United Kingdom, and coronavirus is a deadly virus, and of course I’d say to those that want to protest: ‘Please don’t,” Patel said in an interview with broadcaster Sky.
“We must put public health first at this particular time,” she added.
Dutch mink farms have begun a government-ordered mass cull amid concern that animals infected with coronavirus could transmit the illness to humans.
Infected mink have been found on ten Dutch farms where the ferret-like animals are bred for their fur, according to the country’s Food & Wares Authority, Reuters reports.
“All mink breeding farms where there is an infection will be cleared, and farms where there are no infections won’t be,” said spokeswoman Frederique Hermie.
The government ordered the cull of 10,000 mink on Wednesday after determining that affected farms could act as a long-term reservoir of disease.
Dutch mink were first infected with coronavirus by their handlers in April.
In May, the government identified two cases in which humans had been infected by sick animals – the only animal-to-human transmissions known since the global outbreak began in China.
Infected mink don’t necessarily develop signs of disease, making them potential silent sources of the pandemic virus, said Arjan Stegeman, a veterinary epidemiologist at Utrecht University who is investigating the outbreak, according to Bloomberg.
The cull involves farm workers in protective clothing using gas on mink mothers and pups. The bodies will be sent to a disposal plant and the farms will be disinfected.
Groups opposed to the fur trade say the outbreak is another reason to close all farms.
“We are calling for the 24 countries around the world that still allow mink farming to very rapidly evaluate the situation and evidence coming out of the Netherlands,” said Clair Bass, executive director of the Humane Society International.
The group says China, Denmark and Poland are the largest mink producers, with 60 million killed annually for their fur.
According to the Dutch Federation of Pelt Farmers there are 140 mink farms in the Netherlands, exporting 90 million euros ($101.56 million) worth of fur a year.
Federation spokesman Wim Verhagen said the cull was “very hard for farmers to accept” as few infected animals show visible signs of sickness. The government is compensating affected farmers.
Even as they both attack the idea of voting by mail, President Donald Trump and his new press secretary may have voted by mail illegally, using residential addresses on their registrations that were not their residences.
Kayleigh McEnany cast Florida ballots in 2018 using her parents’ address in Tampa, even though she lived in Washington, D.C., and held a New Jersey driver’s license. Trump cast a Florida ballot this year using a business address in Palm Beach, where he had promised the town government he would not live.
“If Florida is not really your primary residence, then it’s inappropriate for you to be registered as a voter in Florida,” said Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a fellow at the Brennan Center and a professor at Stetson University in Florida.
McEnany did not respond to HuffPost queries about either her or her boss’s voter registration discrepancies. Providing false information on a registration in Florida is a felony punishable by up to five years in state prison.
Trump made a show of moving to Florida last year and used the state’s vote-by-mail option to cast his ballot in the March presidential primary. He registered to vote using his Mar-a-Lago resort as the “address where you live” – even though he signed an agreement with the town of Palm Beach nearly three decades ago promising that it would not be used as a private residence.
“It’s illegal,” Reginald Stambaugh, a Palm Beach County lawyer involved in a dispute over a dock Trump recently tried to build at Mar-a-Lago, said of Trump’s voter registration.
Trump tried to claim 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., the location of the White House in Washington, as his legal residence on Sept. 27, 2019, but that registration was rejected by Palm Beach County elections officials. His revised form filed a month later gives the Mar-a-Lago address. Both require a signature affirming that the information provided is true. (Trump confused matters further this week when he declared on a conference call with governors: “I live in Manhattan.”)
Under the Aug. 10, 1993, agreement with Palm Beach, first reported by The Washington Post, Trump received permission to turn the estate he had bought in 1985 into a social club, but only after promising it would not be used as a residence. The agreement specified that the club could not have any more than 10 guest suites, that they could not be advertised or available to the public, and could not permit its members to use them more than 21 days in a given year.
“The use of guest suites shall be limited to a maximum of three (3) non-consecutive seven (7) day periods by any one member during the year,” the agreement states.
Florida law does not allow a place of business, including a social club, to be used as a residence for the purpose of registering to vote.
“I think he just forgot what he promised,” Stambaugh said. “Now it’s incumbent on the town of Palm Beach and the people of the state of Florida to remind him that Mar-a-Lago is not the appropriate residence for him to vote.”
…
McEnany defended her own choice to vote using mail ballots because she was not in Florida at the time, but did not address why she did not vote in places where she happened to be living.
“Absentee voting has the word absent in it for a reason. It means you’re absent from the jurisdiction or unable to vote in person,” McEnany last month told the Tampa Bay Times, which first reported her extensive use of mail ballots through the years. “President Trump is against the Democrat plan to politicize the coronavirus and expand mass mail-in voting without a reason, which has a high propensity for voter fraud. This is a simple distinction that the media fails to grasp.”
Daniel Smith, a voting rights expert at the University of Florida, said McEnany’s statements about voting are filled with hypocrisy.
“Florida doesn’t have absentee voting, we have vote by mail,” Smith said. “We don’t use the term absentee. One does not need to have an excuse or be absent to vote by mail. So it’s not just for people like her who may be temporarily out of Florida.”
Trump and McEnany are not the only White House officials attacking mail voting while using it themselves. Top aide Kellyanne Conway ― who last month said that if people could wait in line an hour to buy designer cupcakes, they should also be able to wait in line to vote ― nevertheless cast her own New Jersey ballot in the 2018 midterm by mail.
A Florida attorney wrote a letter Friday to a state prosecutor alleging that the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd while in police custody had voted illegally in Florida in 2016 and 2018.
Derek Michael Chauvin, 44, is listed as having property in both Oakdale, Minn., and Windermere, Fla. On Friday, Dan Helm, a Florida attorney and candidate for Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections, asked Orange County State Attorney Aramis Ayala to prosecute Chauvin for violating the state’s election laws when he voted in Florida elections. Helm said the violation is a third-degree felony.
Orange County, Fla., voting records list Chauvin as an active voter and affiliated with the Republican Party of Florida.
In an e-mail Friday, Helm told the Star Tribune that he checked the county’s voter file after learning Chauvin had property there. “When I learned he voted here to influence our elections, while living in Minnesota, I was outraged,” said Helm, who described himself as active in voter protection efforts in Florida.
Eric Nelson, an attorney for Chauvin, declined to comment on Friday and the Orange County State Attorney was not immediately available for comment.
Helm alleges that because Chauvin lived, worked and presumably paid taxes in Minnesota during the 2016 and 2018 elections, he could not claim residency in Florida, thus making him ineligible to vote in the state.
SC @183 and 186. Putin and his Russian propaganda media networks have good reasons to gloat. They are getting everything they want. Trump is destroying NATO and the USA from the inside. We’ll see that Russian, racist propaganda reused on social media, on Trump’s new favorite network (OANN, One America News Network), and by rightwing media of all sorts. Disgusting developments.
The nation’s top military officer, Gen. Mark Milley, spoke privately with congressional leaders and many other lawmakers as Pentagon officials came under fire for the military’s role in containing protests following the police killing of George Floyd.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to express her concerns on Tuesday, according to two people who were not authorized to publicly discuss the private conversations and were granted anonymity. That was the day after authorities cleared protesters near the White House so President Donald Trump could hold a photo opportunity at a nearby church. Milley and Defense Secretary Mark Esper were sharply criticized for accompanying Trump and thereby giving the impression of endorsing a politicization of the military.
Milley also reached out Tuesday to Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, said another person granted anonymity to discuss the situation. A third official said Milley had spoke with perhaps 20 or more members of Congress in the days following Monday’s photo op and Trump’s implicit threat to invoke the Insurrection Act to permit him to use federal troops in a law enforcement role in the nation’s capital and in other cities.
The outreach comes as Milley and Defense Secretary Mark Esper have tried to contain damage in the aftermath of Monday’s walk with Trump. Federal authorities used smoke canisters and pepper balls to clear peaceful protesters from a park so the president and his entourage could walk to the church and Trump could pose with a Bible.
Late Friday, Esper and Milley declined a request from Democrats to appear before the House Armed Services Committee next week.
“This is unacceptable,” Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the committee chairman, said in a statement Friday, joined by the panel’s 30 Democrats.
“Our military leaders are sworn to be accountable to the people of this country, and Congress is constitutionally responsible for oversight,” the Democrats wrote. “They must appear and testify on these crucial matters in order to meet that responsibility.”
An informal briefing Friday with the secretary of the Army was also canceled, according to a congressional aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that had not been publicly disclosed.
The White House has prohibited officials from the administration from testifying before the House unless they have cleared any appearances with the White House chief of staff. […]
Remember all the way back to Friday morning when Donald Trump strolled out to bask in the warm glow of an unexpected drop in the May unemployment rate? According to the jobs report issued on Friday morning, unemployment across the nation fell from 14.7% in April, to 13.3% in May. That makes unemployment merely a third higher than it was at the peak of the Great Recession. Trump was so excited by this outcome that he declared he wanted to buy “one of those trailers, what are they called?” and drive around the country with Melania. It was “the greatest comeback in American history.” In fact, it was so good that “George is looking down right now and saying: ‘This is a great thing that’s happening for our country.’ This is a great day for him.” Yes, Trump really said that.
So … funny thing. The actual jobs report appeared later in the day and it did say that the unemployment rate was 13.3%. But it also said that the BLS and the Census Bureau were investigating a “misclassification error” around workers sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic. The truth is that the actual unemployment rate was around 16.3%.
The problem was that the the surveys used for the jobs reports polled employers about jobs and put a large number of people into the category of being absent from work for “other reasons.” In this case, the reason was that companies had shut down or cut back because of the pandemic and related impacts. However, that category of “other reasons” is normally used for workers who are essentially taking some uncategorized form of leave. It’s used for people who are on jury duty or taking personal time off to deal with a family crisis. These people are still counted as being employed.
But in this case, that same category was used for people who had genuinely been let go due to the downturn caused by the COVID-19 crisis. […]
Had the unemployment rate actually declined to 13.3%, it still would have been a horrible number that was indicative of an economy struggling to cope with the sudden impact of the pandemic and a the bungled federal response. But that rate was illusory. The actual rate of 16.3% shows that the economy is still in serious trouble, and that the “rocket ship” of recovery Trump bragged about on Friday was science fiction … minus the science.
None of this means that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is intentionally mangling the numbers to please Trump. It simply means that this is an extraordinary situation in which the conventional categorizations of what it means to be employed or unemployed are being strained. It also means that Trump definitely should not have been in a hurry to rush out and deliver an 82 minute incredibly discursive discourse. But it doesn’t mean he can’t have an RV. He definitely should climb into an RV … and just keep driving.
Oh, and he should just keep George Floyd’s name out of his mouth.
tomh @198: “Citing an economic emergency, Trump directs agencies across government to waive federal regulations.”
On Friday Trump said the coronavirus pandemic was “largely over.” (A thousand people per day are still dying from COVID-19, and tens of thousands are found to be carriers of the disease. The number of cases in many western states are still climbing.) But, now that Trump has declared the pandemic is “largely over,” why is he using it as an excuse to nullify environmental regulations? (Rhetorical question.)
Some commentary from Mark Sumner:
[…] Back in April, Trump began using the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to roll back regulations of all kinds. That included eliminating enforcement of safety standards on job sites. It meant allowing coal mines to operate without effective supervision. It meant suspending regulations on business that were “an absolute invitation to wage theft.”
It also meant simply telling companies to pollute away, as the EPA would be taking something of a holiday on environmental regulations. Because nothing says taking a public health crisis seriously like letting companies know they can dump anything they like into the air and water.
Oddly enough, now that Trump has declared the pandemic largely over, announced that the economy is a “rocketship,” and stated that things will only get better from here, he is … using the pandemic as an excuse for still more regulatory slashing. As The Washington Post reports, this includes telling power plants that no one is going to monitor their pollution, but it also includes some other changes that are sure to make American life more … interesting. […]
This is also apparently the right time to take away regulations that truckers can only go so far in a day and must take regular rest breaks. It’s understandable that there are concerns about the distribution system, and there have been multiple stories about farms dumping produce on the ground. But the first thing that leaps to mind when it comes to finding solutions should probably not be “let’s allow guys driving a 40-ton vehicle at high speed blast down the road no matter how tired they are.” At least, not if those guys are expected to share the highways with anyone else. […]
The overall effect of these changes are not trivial. They’re also not temporary. Trump’s new executive order completely overturns regulations that gave local communities some control of projects that can be built in their areas. The new executive order means that not just environmental groups, but residents around proposed projects, tribes whose land is directly affected, and basically anyone in the way of a destructive extraction industry like mining, logging, or drilling now has little to no options. Trump’s order takes the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act, which was meant to protect communities and give both locals and outside groups a say in permitting of large projects, and shreds all enforcement.
It’s also worth noting that one of the reasons this law was enacted wasn’t so much about the environment as it was race. This same law is the one that allowed communities of color to stand up for the first time against projects that would pollute their areas, or block federal highways that would cut through their neighborhoods.
Somehow, it doesn’t seem like the right moment for Trump to be removing that protection.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) slammed […] Trump’s decision to draw down troops in Germany, warning the decision was “dangerously misguided.”
“This is a dangerously misguided policy. If the United States abandons allies, withdraws our forces, and retreats within our borders, the cause of freedom—on which our nation was founded & our security depends—will be in peril,” Cheney, the No. 3 Republican in the House and a top foreign policy hawk, tweeted Saturday.
The rebuke comes after Trump directed the Pentagon to send 9,500 troops home from Germany, which would bring the total stationed there down to 25,000.
A defense official told The Wall Street Journal the plan, which was ordered by national security adviser Robert O’Brien, has been underway since September and is not related to rising tensions between Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“… not related to rising tensions between Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel” … Yeah, right. I suspect a lie is being promulgated here.
[…] Democrats have come out in force against the withdrawal, saying it could further strain relations with Berlin and pave the way for Russian President Vladimir Putin to have more sway in Europe.
“This order is petty and preposterous. It’s another favor to Putin and another leadership failure by this Administration that further strains relations with our allies,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.
“Vladimir Putin must be delighted that the American president is gutting our own deterrent against Russian aggression in Europe. And the President’s insulting dismissal of one of our most important relationships because of a personal vendetta confirms that he lacks moral leadership, respect for our allies, and understanding of our national security interests,” added Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Yep, it is now all but a done deal. “Joe Biden now has the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.”
He’ll officially become the party’s presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in August.
[…] Biden, who has been the presumptive Democratic nominee since Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out on April 8, earned the last few delegates he needed to reach the 1,991-delegate threshold for nomination following primary races in seven states and the District of Columbia Tuesday. He now has 1,995 delegates with eight states and three US territories still left to vote.
“It was an honor to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded — and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party,” Biden said in a statement Friday evening. […]
Biden will officially be nominated at the Democratic National Convention, which was originally scheduled to be held in mid-July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — however, the pandemic forced the party to reschedule for the week of August 17. He won’t be able to use general election funds until his nomination is made official at the convention.
The Biden campaign, along with the Democratic National Committee, raised $60.5 million in April, the last month for which reported data is available. The fundraising haul brought them close to even with the Republican National Committee and […] Trump’s fundraising efforts for that month, although the Republicans have a massive ($255 million to Biden’s $97.5 million) cash-on-hand advantage. […]
If there is any way in which the Left has a certain amount of privilege, it is that when we wish to cite examples of right-wing terrorism, we do not have to go back 50 years in order to do so. We have all the material we need in very recent history. […]
We’ve also got piles of current right-wing extremist groups to reference: the Proud Boys, the Boogaloo Boys, various militias, III%’s, American Identity Movement/Identity Evropa, Atomwaffen Division, Patriot Front, and, of course, classics like the KKK and the League of the South. There are many more than that. In fact, the Southern Poverty Law Center lists 940 right-wing hate groups operating in the United States right now. […]
Alas, when people on the Right want to talk about left-wing terrorism, they either have to totally make shit up about “antifa” or they have to literally go back 50 years. Or 110 years, to the Los Angeles Times bombing, if they want to come up with the last time anyone was purposely killed in an act of left-wing terrorism.
This could be why on her show last night, Laura Ingraham invited author and former FBI agent (and current nut) Terry Turchie to discuss The Weather Underground and their enduring influence. Yes. The Weather Underground. A group that disbanded in 1976, and which Turchie claims was responsible for over 2,000 bombings. They were not, for what it is worth, responsible for over 2,000 bombings. That is ridiculous.
[…] The gist of this interview was to establish that the Weather Underground also opposed police brutality, which means that basically anyone who thinks police brutality is bad is a member of the Weather Underground and loves bombing things. Also dethroning God. […] everything that is happening right now is a long con set in motion by the Weather Underground back before many of us were born. […]
What was their strategy? Their strategy was resistance. Not too long, maybe 5 minutes after […] Trump won the election in 2016, Democrat Party leaders came out and said we’re going to resist. We’re going to embark upon a strategy of resistance of the President. […]
Turchie then explained, ever so helpfully, that the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers collectively invented police racism and systemic racism in order to tear America apart and dethrone God. […]
basically, what they think is going on is that the Left tells people who are not victims that they are victims, and then those people just go along with them, even though they have never been victimized and everyone, especially in the 1960s, is treated equally and fairly by everyone else, most certainly by police. And the reason they do that is because … communism? Is it communism? Or the dethroning of God? Or just general evil […]
Frankly, this is a terrible strategy. We are not very good supervillains. If we were really smart and were really dedicated to enacting all of our nefarious dethroning plans, we’d go after people with the most power. Yeah! We’d convince rich people, white people, Christian people, men, and most specifically rich, white, Christian men that they are the real victims here. Get them riled up, scared, tell them that immigrants are coming to replace them, that gay people were gonna make their marriages less special, that women were gonna falsely accuse them of rape, that Muslims were gonna force them to follow Sharia Law, that some rich foreign Jewish person was going around paying people to not like them, that scientists made up a whole pandemic just to take away their freedom for a few months and, probably, that black people are making up racism and police brutality just to hurt them and ruin their lives.
That’s what we’d do if we were really trying to fuck shit up. […]
Oh no, lamentations, teardrops and fiddlesticks, Joe Biden made a gaffe with his gaffe machine, which is his mouth. […] What did Joe Biden say? Did he somehow seem to suggest George Floyd is probably having a celebration in Heaven today because of a really tremendous jobs report?”
No, that was Donald Trump.
Joe Biden just said some people suck, but not even as many as Hillary Clinton said, when she said half of Trump’s supporters are a “basket of deplorables,” which was a severe misunderestimationism on her part.
[…] according to our back of the napkin math, about 62.9 million people voted for Trump, as opposed to 65.8 million, almost three million more for Hillary Clinton. So if you divide Trump’s number of voters in half and put that half in the basket of deplorables, you get 31.45 million people who suck.
Meanwhile Joe Biden! Well, we will let the New York Times tell you, because the Times is like “OMG! We are for shocked and appalled! This is almost as bad as the time Hillary Clinton had a Hotmail and Joe Biden had a son named Hunter! Maybe we should get Tom Cotton to write an op-ed about sending the troops to declare wars on Joe Biden!”
“Biden Says about ’10 to 15 Percent’ of Americans Are ‘Not very Good People'”
[…] if we are to fairly assess it like an expert journalist of the caliber of, say, Chris Cillizza. If it’s 10 to 15 percent of Trump voters, then that is way less than the 31.45 million deplorables Hillary Clinton identified and placed into a basket. On the other hand, it does kind of sound like he said “there are probably anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the people out there that are just not very good people,” and it sounds like that because it’s an exact quote.
So, America has about 329 million people. That means according to Joe Biden’s math, somewhere between 32.9 million and 49.35 million Americans fucking suck. We are sorry, but we are still not seeing how this is not a severe misunderestimationism. […]
Let’s go with context.
It was an event about racism, a virtual town hall discussion with black supporters, moderated by very cool actor Don Cheadle. Wanna watch a clip? […]
[See the link for the clip]
BIDEN: The words a president says matter. So when a president stands up and divides people all the time, you’re gonna get the worst of us to come out. The worst in us all to come out.
[If a president] constantly talks about equality, without lecturing, talks about and has an administration that looks like the country […] it changes attitudes. And it’s about the attitude of the country. Do we want our kids — do we really think this is as good as we can be as a nation? I don’t think the vast majority of people think that.
There are probably anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the people out there that are just not very good people. But that’s not who we are. The vast majority of people are decent. We have to appeal to that, and we have to unite people, bring them together.
Wow, that’s all just true. And if you take what he says literally, it sounds like he means the vast majority of people, including people who voted for Trump last time, are decent people. We kept waiting for him to say something terrible, but it didn’t come.
And how do we know that? Because we took the time to listen to the whole thing for ourselves, instead of being intellectually dishonest assholes.
To be clear, the Times article, if you actually read beyond the headline, isn’t complete garbage, and other outlets are also reporting on this. But it’s pretty garbage, because of how that’s literally the headline, and how it’s being framed as a gaffe, when it wasn’t remotely that. Also we see no reason to be nice to the Times right this particular moment. […]
[…] Trump retweeted a video of an interview in which conservative activist Candace Owens blasted George Floyd’s character. In the interview with Glenn Beck, Owens said that it “sickens” her that Floyd “has been held up as a martyr.” In the tweet of the interview that Beck shared, the radio host said that whatever Floyd did doesn’t matter because the “officer should have never treated him like that and killed him!” But in the interview Beck questioned Floyd’s past. “This is a guy with a very long record and a very long criminal record,” Beck said. […]
Beck asked Owens whether Floyd is “the symbol of black America today.” Owens responded affirmatively, saying that he is “a symbol of black America today” and the “broken culture” that no one wants to talk about. “The fact that he has been held up has a martyr sickens me. George Floyd was not a good person. I don’t care who wants to spin that,” Owens said. […]
Trump’s retweet of the video came hours after he had declared that it was a “great day” for Floyd. “Hopefully, George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country,” Trump said as he celebrated a surprisingly strong jobs report. “This is a great day for him, it’s a great day for everybody. This is a great day for everybody. This is a great, great day in terms of equality.” […]
The retweet of Beck’s interview with Owens came on a day in which the president broke his Twitter record as he posted 200 tweets and retweets in one 24-hour period. If the tweets had been evenly spaced out throughout the day, it would have meant the commander in chief sent a tweet or a retweet once every seven minutes and 12 seconds.[…]
[…] Trump is a top-down, zero-sum simpleton presiding over a country in the midst of a people-powered moment of civic unrest and social change. Americans of varying races, backgrounds, and socioeconomic status are demanding reforms to our justice system that have been left unaddressed since our nation’s founding. Rather than engage in that dialogue, Trump’s natural instinct is to meet the passionate pleas rising up from the streets with the brute force of autocratic oppression. But the result is a ham-handed photo op that will almost surely become the defining moment of Trump’s presidency.
After Attorney General Bill Barr ordered federal officers to forcibly clear peaceably assembled protesters from the park outside the White House, Trump shuffled across the street to hoist an upside-down Bible over his head in front of a church that had been given no warning it would soon become a tool of Trump’s propaganda.
[…] pathetically comical. Trump, assisted by the country’s top law enforcement official, physically endangered a throng of civilians exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights so that he could execute a shambolic display of his mental, emotional, and intellectual unfitness to lead.
Trump’s acts of desecration were aided not only by Barr, but also by the nation’s secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, and the military’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley, who instead of donning a dress uniform usually worn to the White House, showed up in combat fatigues—as if he were headed for battle.
[…] Trump is in crisis. […] Trump’s incapacity to lead is now being propped up by the twin forces of both the military and civilian law enforcement.
[…] Barr has giddily embraced the opportunity to portray the streets of the nation’s capital as a war zone, “flooding the zone” with thousands of armed, unidentifiable forces. […] But it’s not order, it’s chaos. In effect, anyone could show up in fatigues with a firearm and claim to be part of Barr’s federal force. […]
For his part, Barr has tried to pin blame for the mayhem on the leftist group antifa. But Barr has also provided zero evidence for his assertion and, in fact, a leaked FBI report found no support for the idea that antifa inspired any of the violence that rocked Washington D.C. last Sunday.
[…] the Department of Justice has given the Drug Enforcement Administration authority to “conduct covert surveillance” of people participating in the protests over the killing of George Floyd.
But so far, the efforts by Trump and Barr don’t appear to be resonating with the broader public.
Support for the Black Lives Matter movement is up. [Graph at the link]
Trump’s approvals are tending down. [Graph at the link]
Trump’s electoral prospects are so dismal, in fact, his campaign is basically manufacturing skewed polls and leaking them to the press to keep Trump from having an aneurysm. The national head to heads between Trump and Joe Biden have been terrible this week, showing Biden up anywhere between 7 and 11 points, […]
Trump is flailing disastrously. Unfortunately, the nation will continue to pay the price for his incompetence. In the coming weeks, Trump and Barr will surely double down on their efforts to wreak havoc in America because Trump can’t possibly win reelection in any normal political environment.
The good news is, the retired generals of America have finally come down on the side of democracy in full force. Trump may never be able to recover from the assertion by Mattis, his own former Secretary of Defense who spent some 50 years in the service, that’s he’s a clear and present danger to the republic.
Fox News host Bret Baier tweeted out a statement of apology from the network after it was dragged for airing a chart that compared stock market reactions to the historic and ongoing killings of black men.
The network said the graphic “should have never aired on television without full context.”
[…] the chart, which compared how the stock market reacted to the killing of black men throughout history and major events surrounding their deaths — like Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and the Rodney King verdict.
The graphic was displayed on Fox News Friday night during Baier’s show, “Special Report With Bret Baier.” Baier at one point turned the broadcast over to Fox Business reporter Susan Li when the graphic appeared with the label: “S&P 500 PERCENTAGE CHANGE ONE WEEK AFTER EVENT.”
“Stock markets hitting new height despite the protests this week. Historically, there has been a disconnect between what investors focus on and what happens across the rest of the country,” Li said during the segment.
Excerpts from comments posted by readers:
Context? CONTEXT? The full context is that this was intended propaganda for Fox News consumers. It’s not just a depraved graphic; it’s the mindset behind creating such things for their viewers.
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When things like this happen I wonder how it went through the whole chain of approvals it had to get to air without someone saying, “Are you fucking crazy?”
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And the equivalent graph with stock market reactions to white-collar perps receiving slaps on their wrists?
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‘Without full context’? And what exactly would that be, Bret? Just putting the best face possible on a murder?
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“We forgot to include the week after Kristallnacht. That market just exploded.”
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“full context” would have meant showing the breakdowns as to what components of the market were most effected…military and arms/munitions stocks perhaps?!?
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Full context – killing black men is good for the economy.
Some rightwing groups that encouraged people to bring guns to protests over police brutality have seen their accounts deleted by Facebook. Good.
Facebook removed nearly 200 social media accounts connected with white supremacy groups that were planning to encourage members to attend protests over police brutality and killings of black people.
Some of the accounts encouraged members to bring guns to the demonstrations, The Associated Press reported.
Accounts were removed from both Facebook and Instagram. They were reportedly tied to the Proud Boys and the American Guard, which are considered hate groups under Facebook’s user guidelines and are already banned from the social media platform.
Officials were monitoring the accounts prior to their removal and removed them after they saw posts attempting to exploit ongoing protests over the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died while in Minneapolis police custody.
“We saw that these groups were planning to rally supporters and members to physically go to the protests and in some cases were preparing to go with weapons,” said Brian Fishman, Facebook’s director of counterterrorism and dangerous organizations policy.
Facebook did not provide details of the account users or precisely where their plans for protests were located but said “approximately” 190 accounts were removed from the platform.
The company also announced the removal of a “handful” of accounts earlier this week created by white supremacists who had been pretending to be members of the far-left antifa movement on Twitter. […]
When Donald Trump was first running for president, a whole lot was made about how he was a germaphobe who constantly washed his hands and would not shake hands or touch anybody ever. Now, it seems, he’s gotten over that. While the COVID-19 pandemic has led the rest of us to be more careful about things like that, it has driven Trump to embrace all of the germs and wantonly spread them around himself. Because machismo, I guess.
He’s even refused to wear masks while touring various facilities producing supplies meant to keep us all safe during the pandemic, […] Yesterday, he toured the Puritan Medical Supply company in Guilford, Maine, and not only did he not wear a mask, he actually took one of the nasal swabs and put it near his nose. Later, he the workers “I shouldn’t tell you this, but I use it every other day.”
Now, Puritan has announced that they are throwing out all of the nasal swabs they made for testing for COVID-19 while Trump visited. They’re not saying why, but we have our guesses, don’t we.
This is especially crappy because we actually have a shortage of nasal swabs happening right now, in Maine and elsewhere. Puritan is one of only two companies that even make the swabs, and so really, every swab counts. Having to throw them away so the President can have a photo op kind of sucks! Though on the bright side, at least he didn’t have the entire company teargassed in order to do one this time.
We have to wonder — who is he even doing this for? And why? The people who voted for him don’t believe that COVID-19 is real, and the rest of us are just annoyed at all those swabs getting thrown out and at him for touring a medical supply company without a mask on. There is literally no audience for this. […]
I mean, maybe his people like seeing him tour these companies with no mask because it makes them feel like he is busting the balls of all of the people who think COVID-19 is a legitimate threat? Or maybe he thinks they’re going “Wow, he’s so manly he doesn’t even need a mask! His penis is all he needs to keep the viruses at bay! So macho” Is that what’s going on here? I don’t know.
What I do know is that, really, we could have used those damn swabs.
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Lashing out at critics who have charged him with building a wall around the White House to protect himself from peaceful protesters, Donald Trump claimed on Friday that the purpose of the wall is to prevent staffers from quitting en masse.
“The wall is not to keep people out. It’s to keep people in,” Trump angrily told reporters. “If anyone thinks he’s going to quit this White House, he’s going to have to climb over a ten-foot wall first.”
Trump added that he was considering invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 to put down further rebellions by the Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper.
“Between the wall and the Insurrection Act, no one is getting out,” he said. “No one.”
Trump also dismissed reports that he had spent much of the week hiding under his desk.
“I have been inspecting the area under my desk,” he said. “There are no problems.”
[…]
One of the major dance productions cut short by the coronavirus crisis was Matthew Bourne’s tour of The Red Shoes, his rapturously received version of the Powell and Pressburger film. The UK tour […] has been cancelled. [… I]n the meantime Bourne’s company New Adventures unveiled a special 12-minute film version online […]
The Red Shoes from Home has been created by the cast of the show during lockdown and they perform among children’s toys in their living rooms, on tables, in gardens and backyards, and in the kitchen. While the original production won acclaim for Lez Brotherston’s sumptuous costume design, the dancers appear in football kit, homemade outfits and, in one case, a couple of towels.
@johnson catman 194
I think what you are seeing is some people trying to turn antifascism into a shadowy villain/group. Instead of acknowledgement of the political disposition that it is they are attempting to create an enemy to fight and focus the government on.
I’ve started interrogating people paranoid about antifa as a group and demanding to see this group that represents that level of threat. No takers so far, just the typical attempts to shift the burden of proof by shaming me into looking up their claims.
From Susan B. Glasser, writing for The New Yorker:
[…] As always with Trump, there’s an intense element of farce mixed with the fury.
On Monday, there was a cringe-inducing moment when Trump, having marched across the emptied park, stood awkwardly in front of the church while his daughter Ivanka, in heels and a spangly face mask, extracted the Bible from her oversize white purse, a fifteen-hundred-dollar number from Max Mara.
The whole affair seemed to have been precipitated at least in part by the President’s fury at being mocked as “#BunkerBoy,” following reports that he had been taken to the White House’s underground bunker on Friday, when protests got heated. On Wednesday, the President admitted in an interview that he had gone into the White House bunker, but claimed that it was “more for an inspection” that had lasted only a “tiny, little, short period of time” which, completely coincidentally, happened to take place during the protests.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, meanwhile, admitted during a press conference that he had not, in fact, thought that he was going to inspect alongside the President a looted toilet when he ended up at Trump’s controversial church photo op, as he had claimed in an interview. This was all before 11 a.m. Wednesday. By early afternoon, Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, announced to reporters with a straight face that Trump’s walk to St. John’s was just like when Winston Churchill toured London during the Blitz.
Washington has never been a more tragic combination of the menacing and the absurd. There are helicopters and drones overhead and big men in combat fatigues in the streets of the capital. There are thousands of protesters clamoring for action over police abuses and racial inequality. And then there is Trump, bashing CNN on Twitter and claiming, without irony, that he has personally done more for African-Americans than “any President in U.S. history, with the possible exception” of Abraham Lincoln.
[…] Admiral Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was “sickened” by the use of security personnel to clear the way for Trump—and that it was a gross misuse of American military might. On Wednesday, Trump’s former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis broke his silence about the President to denounce his “bizarre photo op” and to call the action a violation of protesters’ “constitutional rights.” Trump may be a clown, but he has managed, in the week since Floyd’s killing, to present the world with dystopian images of America as Egypt or Russia or Turkey or any of the other unfree places that we Americans are used to smugly lecturing about freedom.
Under the cover of the chaos that he is so adept at generating, Trump has made several decisions in recent days that amount to a radical reordering of the international scene, as well as an intimidating show of force at home. On Friday, before his “inspection” of the bunker, he held a press conference to announce that he was pulling the United States out of the World Health Organization, in the midst of the covid-19 outbreak, because he claims that it is too pro-China. On Saturday, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would not attend, Trump cancelled the G-7 summit of world leaders that he planned to hold in Washington later this month, called the collection of close U.S. allies “very outdated,” and invited Russia to rejoin the group for a September gathering. Europeans quickly rejected the idea, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a Trump ally whose unlikely premiership had been boosted by the American President. Undeterred, Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday morning to formally propose the plan, hours before he announced that he was ordering the U.S. military to Washington to defend his White House from American protesters.
Inviting Putin to the United States just weeks before the American Presidential election and torching the G-7 alliance at a moment of international economic crisis are no less malevolent acts because they are being carried out by a clown. These past few days have shown, once again, that Trump is in permanent burn-it-down mode. It’s just that he is smashing windows in the way that rich, entitled types do, and the damage will be much harder to fix than broken glass and looted sneaker stores. […]
@Lynna
Putin is getting what he wants. I have this dream that the things we do to fix our society spreads to his though. It would be glorious if our solutions dismantle his manipulation and help Russians. I can’t say it’s organized but I try to make my solutions and arguments things that apply to more than our country.
The White House wanted to have 10,000 active duty troops on the streets of Washington and other cities earlier this week to quell protesters, but Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint of Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley pushed back at the use of any active duty troops, according to a senior defense official.
Esper did move approximately 1,600 active duty troops to be in the Washington, DC, region to respond if needed but the approximately 5,000 National Guard troops already there never needed assistance and the active troops began to leave Thursday night.
A second defense official said Milley strongly felt the threshold — informally described as dire circumstances — for calling in active duty troops could not be met, opening the door to whether such a potential presidential order would be legal.
CBS first reported that the White House wanted 10,000 troops. […]
While the exact discussions with the Democratic congressional leaders have not been disclosed, by Monday night Milley had already had tense words with Trump that active duty military troops against protesters in DC was absolutely not needed despite the President’s threats, several officials confirmed.
The second defense official said despite a Saturday White House statement of support for Esper, both men remain aware they are at risk of Trump’s ire and there is always the possibility their jobs are at risk. […]
Both men have also told colleagues they are distressed with the criticism about the walk to St. John’s Church because it became a photo-op with political overtones. When asked if they regret being on the walk, one administration official close to both men answered, “Of course they do.”
Esper this week told reporters he tries to stay out of political events but knows he doesn’t always succeed. Milley has not yet spoken publicly about the walk in which he was in a battlefield uniform.
Here’s a link to the June 7 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Britain’s failure to impose a nationwide lockdown to tackle the spread of the coronavirus sooner has cost many lives, one of the government’s scientific advisers said on Sunday.
Britain is one of the worst-hit countries in the world, with a death toll that is estimated to top 50,000 already.
Critics from a broad spectrum including medical professionals, scientists, and lawmakers, say the government has botched its response to the outbreak by being too slow in imposing crucial measures such as the lockdown and protecting the elderly in care homes.
Despite reservations from some of its own scientific advisers, the government is now easing nationwide lockdown measures that were introduced on 23 March.
John Edmunds, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), told the BBC: “We should have gone into lockdown earlier.”
While the World Health Organization has signalled that Latin America is the new centre of the pandemic, cases in Cuba have fallen for two months.
Brazil’s government has stopped publishing a running total of coronavirus deaths and infections in an extraordinary move that critics call an attempt to hide the true toll of the disease in Latin America’s largest nation.
The Saturday move came after months of criticism from experts saying Brazil’s statistics are woefully deficient, and in some cases manipulated, so it may never be possible to gain a real understanding of the depth of the pandemic in the country.
Brazil’s last official numbers showed it had recorded over 34,000 deaths related to the coronavirus, the third-highest number in the world, just ahead of Italy. It reported nearly 615,000 infections, putting it at the second-highest, behind the United States. Brazil, with about 210 million people, is the globe’s seventh most populous nation.
On Friday, the federal Health Ministry took down a website that had showed daily, weekly and monthly figures on infections and deaths in Brazilian states. On Saturday, the site returned but the total numbers of infections for states and the nation were no longer there. The site now shows only the numbers for the previous 24 hours.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tweeted Saturday that disease totals are “not representative” of the country’s current situation.
A Bolsonaro ally contended to the newspaper O Globo that at least some states providing figures to the Health Ministry had sent falsified data, implying that they were exaggerating the toll. Carlos Wizard, a businessman expected to assume a high-level post in the Health Ministry, said the federal government would be conducting a review intended to determine a “more accurate”′ toll.
“The number we have today is fanciful or manipulated,” Wizard said.
A council of state health secretaries said it would fight the changes by Bolsonaro, who has dismissed the gravity of the coronavirus pandemic and tried to thwart attempts to impose quarantines, curfews and social distancing, arguing those steps are causing more damage to the economy than the pandemic.
“The authoritarian, insensitive, inhumane and unethical attempt to make the COVID-19 deaths invisible will not prosper,” the health secretaries council said Saturday.
While precise counts of cases and deaths are difficult for governments worldwide, health researchers have been saying for weeks that a series of serious irregularities with Brazilian government statistics was making it impossible to get a handle on an exploding situation.
…
Beyond the shifting and incomplete information, critics say, the Brazilian federal government has further eroded trust in its count-keeping with cosmetic changes to official sites that appear designed to de-emphasize the gravity of the epidemic.
One bulletin published by the president’s press office refers to patients in hospitals and intensive care units as “recovering,” even though a significant number eventually die of COVID-19.
“We are becoming an international joke in terms of public health,” said Domingos Alves, an associate professor of social medicine at the University of Sao Paulo. “Deaths cannot be hidden by decree.”
Downing Street has been accused of reopening the door to imports of chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef, after a leaked memo instructed ministers to have “no specific policy” on animal welfare in US trade talks.
The letter from No 10 states that the ministerial mandate for the US negotiations was “being updated to reflect” the fact that the UK was to have no policy position on animal welfare. The revelation will raise more concerns about the government’s commitment to upholding “high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards”. [LOL]
The note, seen by the Observer and dispatched at the start of last month, gave approval for the US trade talks to go ahead and set out the conditions of engagement. It reveals serious cabinet unrest over the shape of a US deal and appears to suggest UK regulations could be changed to accommodate an agreement. It also makes clear that talks were to be used to “maximise leverage” in trade negotiations with the EU.
“Consultation and agreement from relevant colleagues is sought before agreeing to change domestic policy or regulations as part of the negotiations,” it states. “In the context of preserving the integrity of UK domestic law, any decisions taken in sensitive areas … must take into account the potential legal implications for the UK and be agreed by the relevant ministers.”
The memo reveals how contentious the US trade talks are regarded as being within the cabinet. Issues were raised by 11 cabinet ministers, including health secretary Matt Hancock, environment secretary George Eustice and Mark Spencer, the chief whip.
“Written responses were received from the health secretary, foreign secretary, the chief whip, the business secretary, the environment secretary, the chancellor of the exchequer, the justice secretary, the defence secretary, the culture secretary, the Welsh secretary and the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster,” it states. “All other members of the committee were content.”
The briefing also states that a cabinet committee would return to the animal welfare issue “in June to settle all outstanding agriculture issues”, suggesting an unresolved split. Meanwhile, it demands that “ministers receive regular progress reports of concurrent EU and US negotiations to help maximise leverage and allow policy tensions to be resolved as they emerge”.
A government spokesperson said that it had been “very clear since the outset that we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards”.
Campaigners want legal guarantees on those standards to be enshrined in an agriculture bill currently being debated in parliament. The issue has already prompted a Tory rebellion in the Commons.
It comes after reports last week that the government was proposing a “dual scheme” that would see higher tariffs on US foods with lower animal welfare standards. It is not clear whether higher tariffs would also be linked to environmental standards.
Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem Brexit spokesperson, said: “People can now see that promises made by Johnson and Gove were worthless.”
Luke Pollard, the shadow environment secretary, said: “It is unacceptable for the government to allow our high food standards to be compromised and our farmers undercut in any future trade deals. Attempts by ministers to use tariffs and tax rates to get around their manifesto commitment on food standards won’t wash.”
…
A government spokesman said: “We will always stand up for British farming and are determined to use trade negotiations to secure new opportunities for farmers.
“Having left the EU, we will get to decide how we set and maintain our own laws, standards and regulations, upholding our food, environmental and animal welfare standards. Our food regulators will continue to provide independent advice to ensure that all food imports into the UK comply with those standards.”
Setting aside the absurdity of speaking about “animal welfare” in this context, this was always such a transparently cynical bigoted propaganda campaign. The claims from this gang that Brexit would mean higher standards than the EU’s were obvious lies and this whole act – including the “serious cabinet unrest” – is an offensive charade.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser has drawn a battle line right up to the White House.
Bowser, one of seven black female mayors of America’s 100 largest cities, on Friday declared a small but symbolic patch of the U.S. capital – a section of 16th Street bounded by a church on one side and Lafayette Square opposite the White House on the other – “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
The Democratic mayor then had the District Of Columbia’s departments of transportation and public works paint giant yellow letters spelling “Black Lives Matter” followed by the city’s flag on the street spanning two city blocks leading to plaza. To finish, Bowser posted on Twitter a video taken from a nearby roof showing the White House overlooking the results.
“There are people who are craving to be heard and to be seen,” Bowser told a news conference, “and to have their humanity recognized, and we had the opportunity to send that message loud and clear on a very important street in our city.”
Glynda Carr, president and chief executive of Higher Heights for America PAC, a political action committee dedicated to helping more liberal black women win elective office, said Bowser “showed the world that she leads, unbought and unbossed.” Carr’s organization has never raised money for Bowser.
For his part, the Republican president denounced Bowser as “incompetent.”
…
Bowser has supported peaceful demonstrators while denouncing violence and looting. Trump has advocated a militarized response to civil unrest and even summoned a contingent of active-duty troops to Washington, though they were never deployed on the streets. Bowser said she did not want any out-of-state military forces in Washington.
When Trump threatened protesters who come near the White House with “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons,” Bowser shot back with a comment that summed up their relationship.
“There are no vicious dogs & ominous weapons. There is just a scared man. Afraid/alone. … I call upon our city and our nation to exercise great restraint even while this President continues to try to divide us,” Bowser wrote on Twitter.
After baton-swinging federal police fired smoke canisters, flashbang grenades and rubber bullets to drive away peaceful protesters near the White House so Trump on Monday could pose holding a Bible in front of a church near what is now “Black Lives Matter Plaza,” Bowser called the scene “shameful.”
A single mother to a toddler, Bowser is only the second woman to serve as Washington’s mayor and the first to win a second term in office.
Like other elected officials in Washington over the years, Bowser has advocated statehood for the District of Columbia, which has no voting members of Congress even as states with smaller populations have two senators and one member of the House of Representatives. Washington’s mayor was a federal appointee until the 1970s when the city was granted “home rule” and began electing its mayors….
Large demonstration in Rome today. The NBC correspondent said there had been fascist/far-Right (he actually used the word “fascist,” somewhat surprisingly) rallies there in recent weeks, but this massively outnumbered those.
“Before kick off, both teams take a knee together in the German Bundesliga’s Dortmund-Hertha Berlin game. A remarkable sight. European clubs showing their empathy with American social change that transcends borders and sports”
Black Lives Matters protesters in Bristol have pulled down a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston.
Demonstrators in the British city attached a rope to the grade II listed statue on Colston Avenue on Sunday before pulling it to the ground as crowds cheered.
They then jumped on it and rolled it down the street to the harbour before pushing it into the river Avon.
The 18ft bronze statue, erected in 1895, has long been a focal point for anger at the city’s role in the slave trade and the continued commemoration of those who were involved in it.
After long nights of tear gas and rubber bullets, some protesters, news crews, and medics in Minneapolis last weekend found themselves stranded: The tires of their cars had been slashed.
In a city upended by protests about police brutality after the death of George Floyd, many assumed protesters were to blame. But videos reveal a different culprit: the police.
In the videos, officers puncture tires in a K-Mart parking lot on May 30 (below) and a highway overpass on May 31 (above). Both areas briefly turned into police staging grounds near protest hot spots.
The officers appear to be state troopers or county police, though it’s not clear from the videos. Neither the Minnesota State Patrol nor the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office responded to requests from Mother Jones. The Minneapolis Police Department and Minnesota National Guard denied involvement.
The gray car in the video above was the rental car of Luke Mogelson, a New Yorker writer who typically covers war zones and is now stationed in Minneapolis to write about the protests. As the protest on Sunday evening turned hairy, with law enforcement tear-gassing peaceful groups soon after curfew, Mogelson went to check on his car, showing his press pass to officers along the way. (Media were exempt from the curfew.) One officer took a picture of his press pass and said he would “radio it up the chain so everyone knew that car belonged to the press,” said Mogelson. When he came back later that evening to retrieve his car, officers informed him that the tires were punctured. “They were laughing,” Mogelson recalled. “They had grins on their faces.” […]
See also, this tweet from Andrew Kimmel:
Minneapolis Police slashed every tire on my rental car, as well as every tire of every car in this parking lot.
“We’re so busy, it’s just unbelievable,” said a tow truck driver in an interview from the K-Mart parking lot with Andrew Kimmel, formerly the head of BuzzFeed’s video team. The towing company had received “call after call after call.” Asked whose cars were being towed, the tow truck driver said, “Everybody. Medics over there. News crews. Random people that were just here to protest and—tires slashed.”
From Ben Taub:
Cops in Minneapolis shot my friend, the photographer @philip_nyc, in the chest, with a rubber bullet, causing bruising over his heart. They also slashed his tires.
Another high-ranking military officer pushes back against Trump’s rhetoric and tactics:
Retired U.S. Navy Adm. James Stavridis said Sunday that the protests over George Floyd’s death aren’t “a battlespace to be dominated,” as […] Trump suggested.
The former NATO supreme allied commander told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he thinks there are “plenty of people” in law enforcement, including officers and the National Guard, who can police the demonstrations without the military getting involved.
“Their real role is to protect these peaceful demonstrators,” he said. “This is not a battlespace to be dominated.
“There are sufficient forces to do that, and I think the military is very concerned about getting pulled into the maelstrom of politics in an election year in order to push protesters, as they were at Lafayette Square,” he said. “That was wrong.”
[…] Trump threatened to activate the U.S. military to respond to demonstrations in Washington, D.C. He also urged governors to deploy National Guard units and threatened to send U.S. troops to their cities if they didn’t.
Stavridis said he decided to join the voices of former military leaders criticizing the president’s rhetoric after seeing the removal of protesters from Lafayette Square. Protesters were cleared just before Trump walked to a nearby church for a photo op.
“This is a moment when I think many of us watched the use of active-duty military to clear peaceful protesters out of Lafayette Square, and it rang echoes of what the founders feared more than anything which was the use of armed active-duty military against citizens,”Stavridis said.
The president on Sunday morning said he had ordered the National Guard to withdraw from D.C. because “everything is under perfect control.”
Retired General Colin Powell, a Republican, says he will not support Trump in November’s election. He will support Biden.
Retired Gen. Colin Powell, who served as secretary of State under former President George W. Bush, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he will be voting for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in November.
“I certainly cannot in any way support President Trump this year,” Powell said.
Other guests on the Sunday political talk shows discussed largely peaceful protests in the past few days over the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.
The question of whether there is systemic racism in policing was also addressed.
Colin Powell, a real stiff who was very responsible for getting us into the disastrous Middle East Wars, just announced he will be voting for another stiff, Sleepy Joe Biden. Didn’t Powell say that Iraq had ‘weapons of mass destruction?’ They didn’t, but off we went to WAR!
More details regarding Powell’s statements:
[…] Powell said he did not vote for Trump in 2016, and said the situation “gotten worse.”
He said he agreed with other high-profile current and former military officers who criticized Trump’s handling of the nationwide protests over police brutality that broke out after the killing of George Floyd.
“We have a Constitution, and we have to follow that Constitution. And the president has drifted away from it,” Powell said.
Powell’s condemnation followed a blistering statement released Wednesday by former Trump Defense secretary James Mattis who called Trump the first president in his lifetime who is trying to divide Americans.
Senators Romney and Murkowski have also said they have doubts about supporting Trump’s re-election.
[…] Watson [Houston Texans star Deshaun Watson] appears 19 seconds into the video, asking viewers to ponder a world in which he and other NFL stars were George Floyd, the 46-year-old black man who was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis on May 25. […]
“We assert our right to peacefully protest,” the players said in unison at the end of the video, titled “Stronger Together,” after asking the NFL to listen to its players, “condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people” and “admit wrong in silencing our players from peacefully protesting.”
It didn’t even take 24 hours for the NFL to publicly concede their argument. The league released its own video of commissioner Roger Goodell soberly responding to the players’ demands from the basement of his house on Friday. “We, the NFL, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black People. We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter.”
It was a stunning turnaround for a league that had catered more to Donald Trump than its players during the 2017 kneeling protests, but let’s not confuse this sudden change of course with a sincere change of heart. The new stance comes from the very same place as the league’s previous prohibition of peaceful protests during the anthem: a morally bankrupt commitment to shifting with the winds of what its white fans find acceptable.
It’s worth remembering the NFL’s response in September 2017 after President Trump said he would “love” to see an owner remove from the field and fire any “son of a [B-word]” who chose to kneel during the national anthem. The first impulse of the NFL owners, many of whom had supported Trump’s campaign in 2016 and seven of whom had donated at least $1 million to him, was not to defend their players but to protect the league’s bottom line and not offend the president and his supporters. […]
In a meeting with owners and team executives, Texans owner Bob McNair—who donated $2 million in 2016 to a pro-Trump super PAC and $1 million for his inauguration—reportedly dismissed the player protests by saying, “we can’t have the inmates running the prison.” McNair later apologized, and when he died a year later, Watson spoke fondly of the late owner. “Every game, really, is for the McNair family and I know he’s watching over us. We’re going to make sure we make him proud,” Watson said then.
In other words, nothing would get in the way of the uneasy public peace between the league and its labor. Not Kaepernick, not Trump, and not even a racist comment by one of his wealthy supporters who also happened to be an NFL team owner.
[…] Celebrities, corporations, and many other brands are now publicly supporting Black Lives Matter and related movements because their previous silence or, even worse, resistance is no longer tenable. […]
Everything I know about the NFL tells me that Goodell and the league were pressed to publicly change their tune not by the players but by the example of a disparate group of corporations, from Amazon and Netflix to Citigroup and Sephora. […]Goodell’s statement came after Taylor Swift tweeted about white supremacy. Only weeks after the start of Kaepernick’s protest in 2016, a Reuters poll found 72 percent of Americans said they thought he was being unpatriotic and 61 percent said they didn’t support his protest. By contrast, new polling now shows a majority of Americans believe racism and discrimination is “a big problem” and believe that the protesters’ anger is justified. […]
More at the link.
From Kaepernick’s girlfriend, Nessa Diab
And you @nflcommish STILL have @Kaepernick7 blackballed for peacefully protesting.”
“The failed strategy I participated in for years as a CIA officer is not how to police people I consider my neighbors. It’s not how to police at all.” The article is written by Patrick Skinner, and published in The Washington Post. Skinner is a police officer in his hometown of Savannah, Ga. He is a former CIA operations officer and served in the United States Coast Guard.
When I left the CIA, I no longer wanted to fight our “war on terror.” For seven years after the 9/11 attacks, I served as an operations officer in the CIA counterterrorism center. My role in our efforts overseas was small but left a large impression on me: We were creating more tensions and threats than we countered or mitigated. By approaching the issue as a “war,” we fought it as one, and this was a categorical mistake. There were significant tactical achievements, but overall it has been a strategic defeat, costing lives, money and opportunities. We focused on who and what we were fighting against instead of who and what we were fighting for, and in the shade of that difference, a rot grew. […]
I’m now a cop in my hometown, Savannah, Ga., and I don’t want to fight another war — our “war on crime.” But I’m not going anywhere. I’m just speaking up, to propose that we end what never was a war to begin with. We need to change our mind-set about what it means to “police” in America. At this moment of maximal national tension and outrage, when national leaders are calling the streets of America a “battlespace,” with police officers as warriors who should “dominate” and give “no quarter,” I am telling whoever will listen: Police are not warriors — because we are not and must not be at war with our neighbors.
For decades, the United States has funded and created police departments that resemble occupying military forces, unable to protect and serve. […] What we now see deployed in many cities and towns is anti-policing. […] The well-documented militarization of American police departments has inevitably produced officers who see themselves and their roles as “warriors” or “punishers” or “sheepdogs.” Much of what our society finds so distressing and unacceptable in police interactions with their neighbors — disrespect, anger, frustration and violence — is not a result of “flawed” training; it’s a result of training for war.
In my limited experience as a police officer in a high-crime, high-tempo city, I and my colleagues who trained me have tried a different mind-set, a neighbor mind-set. It sounds simple, and it’s not complicated — but it is certainly not easy. I approach every person I meet on the streets as my neighbor. Often this is literally true because I live where I work. […] I was just trying to figure out how to be a good cop, and, for me, that meant being a good neighbor. […]
For example, if there was a phone number associated with the 911 call I was dispatched to, I called it from my personal cellphone and spoke to the person needing help while I was en route. This littlest of things has proved immensely valuable to me as I try to slow everything down while racing to an emergency. I got real-time accurate information about what colleagues and I were heading into, which was often not as serious as it was portrayed initially. I remember being dispatched to deal with a “domestic fight, he’s destroying the house,” […] I called the number at the bottom of my computer screen and spoke to a woman, who told me her autistic brother, whom she cares for, had acted out and, having broken stuff in the house, was now standing in the yard motionless. All we needed was to know what name her brother liked to be called and what to avoid doing to make things worse, and the potential drama and risk evaporated before we ever stepped out of our cars. […]
Apart from providing us a clearer view of what crime or emergency was in progress or had just occurred, my phone calls with neighbors gave me the chance to step out of my patrol car, often into dramatic and loud scenes, and say this powerful truth: “Hi, I’m Officer Skinner, we just spoke.” […]
How do you build a better cop? By making them slow down.
[…] Recently a struggling neighbor waved me over and told me that she couldn’t get in touch with her parole officer. Failure to check in could lead to an arrest warrant for parole violation. Plus, she was running out of minutes on her prepaid cellphone. We stood on the side of the road, and I let this sworn enemy in our war on crime use my phone to check in and video-chat with the officer. […]
As I got better at being a rookie cop, I kept asking myself this question: “If I didn’t have a badge and a gun, how would I handle this call?” Whatever I came up with that was legal, transparent and kind, I would try.
[…] I’m not saying police should not have a badge and a gun, I’m just saying that we must not rely on them. It also placed on me the rightful burden of not bringing what I call “drama” to my calls. […]
I’m often wrong, like anyone else, in initial assessments of chaotic loud scenes, but I try to be wrong silently and without acting on my rush to be wrong. […]
Most police training, as befits training for war, is about “force protection” and officer safety above all. The training revolves around the idea not just that anyone could harm me, but that they will. This is where terminology such as calling people “civilians,” however well-intended, creates the impression and the actions of war. […]
A funny thing happened on the way to becoming a better rookie cop by being a better neighbor: I became a better person. This is the opposite of what wars do. Wars make monsters of us all. Overseas, our war on terror was fought and lost by mistreating entire communities while looking for a handful of people, all the while saying we were doing no such thing. […]
I’m not to blame for the historical and ongoing injustices in law enforcement and the judicial system, but I am responsible. Anyone who wears a badge and swore an oath to serve and protect their neighbors is responsible. […]
At the CIA, I worked in failed states where there was a shortage of everything but weapons and strife. We are replicating our failures abroad here at home. The rhetoric and the tactics and the aggression of war have no place in local police work. Making matters worse is the unseemly urging of the White House to federalize an armed response to local protests against local policing; to do so is to pour gasoline on a burning house and give the firefighters guns to fight the fire. Progress in police work in our communities is measured in years and generations. It can be destroyed in hours.
Refusing to fight this war on crime has, improbable as it seems at age 49, become the fight of my life. And I am not alone. Because my neighbors are not just the point of being a local cop; they are how I can be a local cop. It is their consent that enables me. It is their trust that empowers me. And it is our truth that drives me: that we all matter, or none of us do.
blfsays
Where I live in S.France has not, sofar, been badly hit by Covid-19; I don’t know any numbers, but also know of no reason to think the effects have, to-date, been contained — yes, some people have died, but, e.g., some of the nursing homes (and there are a fair number since this is an understandably popular retirement area) had no cases at all. I am now fretting precautions are being lax. I went to the outdoor market this morning, early (deliberately so-as to avoid people), and whilst I didn’t have any problems per se, was distressed by the others about who weren’t “social distancing” at all — despite there not being too many people out, meaning it was easy to keep one’s distance, &tc. I had to take a helluvalot of “detours” around imbeciles.
As it was a nice day, I decided to go out for lunch, again, carefully choosing a restaurant which I expected would be careful. They were, and lunch was great. Burp! However, both on the walk there, and then afterwards, doing a bit of “bar hopping”, there were completely undistanced unmasked “crowds” everywhere (so lots more detouring). I carefully selected and inspected the bars, and had no problems at them, it was the walking between them which was infested with eejits.
This is worrisome. And what is now concerning me is the French “vacation season” happens soon (July & August), when the village & Mediterranean beaches are typically rather crowded. That’s alarming, perhaps more so when one realises it’s reasonable to presume some of those people will becoming from areas where Covid-19 is nowheres-near as well contained as locally (e.g., Paris, teh NKofE, to name two examples), especially as assorted travel restrictions are lifted.
Attorney General Bill Barr on Sunday vehemently defended the aggressive use of force used on peaceful protesters outside of the White House ahead of […] Trump’s surprise photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church.
When asked by CBS’ Margaret Brennan about whether he thinks it was appropriate for police to use smoke bombs, tear gas, pepper balls and projectiles at protesters who seemed to be peaceful, Barr hit back that they were “not peaceful protesters” and that the notion that they were is a “big lie” by the media.
Brennan then cited three of her CBS colleagues who were at the scene who didn’t hear warnings or see protesters throwing anything, before Barr pivoted to violent unrest in the area over the weekend.
Barr insisted that “there were three warnings given” before going on to explain that he approved a plan for law enforcement to “increase the perimeter” around Lafayette Park at 2 p.m. that day as “park police was facing what they considered to be a very rowdy and non-compliant crowd.”
After Brennan once again pointed out that her colleagues did not witness protesters throwing anything at the police, Barr insisted that he personally “saw them thrown” and that the removal of protesters “was not an operation to respond to that particular crowd—it was an operation to move the perimeter one block.”
Asked again if he thought it was appropriate for police to use tear gas to disperse protesters ahead of Trump’s photo-op, Barr argued that “there were not chemical irritants.”
“Pepper spray is not a chemical irritant,” Barr said. “It’s not chemical.”
Barr’s remarks were aired two days after Sgt. Eduardo Delgado, a spokesperson for the Park Police, told CNN that it was a “mistake” to say the force didn’t use tear gas on protesters before the President and his allies walked over to St. John’s Episcopal Church on Monday.
This is what our crews picked up on 17th near H minutes after federal law enforcement cleared streets Monday night: Natural OC and artificial CS tear gas canisters. Released green choking gas that attacked our lungs and eyes. Item on right is flash bang.
In other news, some details concerning what Retired Admiral William H. McRaven said:
This fall, it’s time for new leadership in this country — Republican, Democrat or independent. President Trump has shown he doesn’t have the qualities necessary to be a good commander in chief. As we have struggled with the Covid pandemic and horrible acts of racism and injustice, this president has shown none of those qualities. The country needs to move forward without him at the helm.
McRaven is the Navy admiral who directed the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
A retired U.S. Navy captain let his racist ideology show on Facebook Live when he apparently didn’t know he was going live in a conversation with his wife Friday night in Florida. Capt. Scott Bethmann could be heard in an Atlantic Beach community group spewing the n-word in complaints about his position as a white man in American society […]
“So all the white people have to say something nice to the black b–ch that works in the office. But the black b–ch don’t get fired. It’s bulls–t,” Bethmann said, reportedly giving his thoughts on companies that support the Black Lives Matter movement. “Management’s going to fire the white people.”
In response to his wife’s warning that he “better watch” himself on the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association board, Bethmann can also be heard telling her: “I don’t say anything, that’s my point. The white m—–f—–s can’t say anything, that’s the point we’re making here, Nancy.”
His wife also reportedly broadcasted her ignorance when the couple started talking about admissions to the U.S. Naval Academy. “You can bend over and kiss the U.S. Naval Academy goodbye,” she said. “They’re gonna get the blacks, and the females, and the f—–g Asians from China, and let them steal all of our intellectual properties.” […]
The conversation lasted 33 minutes before Bethmann realized he had went live with his remarks on Facebook, First Coast News reported. “I clicked onto some live event. What are they talking about,” he asked. His apology soon followed.
“There are no words that can appropriately express how mortified and apologetic my wife and I are about the insensitive things we said that were captured on social media,” Bethmann said in a statement First Coast News obtained. “There is never a time when it is appropriate to use derogatory terms when speaking about our fellow man. I know that an apology from us rings hollow on many ears in our community, especially in the current environment.
“We intend on using this experience as an opportunity to grow, listen, learn, and reflect. We are deeply sorry for the impact our actions have had on the Naval Academy, my fellow servicemen and women, our former colleagues, friends, family, and the community as a whole. We are committed to educating ourselves more on the racial inequalities in this country and being better people.”
Samuel Locklear III, chairman of the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association Board of Trustees, said in a statement Saturday that he accepted Bethmann’s resignation. “These attributed statements do not represent the mission and values of the Alumni Association, the Naval Academy or the U.S. Navy,” Locklear said. […]
Bethmann, 63, also had his membership in the Atlantic Beach Country Club rescinded, according to The Florida Times-Union. “Be assured we find these comments extremely offensive, inflammatory and antithetical to what this Club stands for and represents,” the country club said in a statement The Florida Times-Union obtained. “As such, we have voted today to immediately expel this member and his family from the Club.”
States that moved to rapidly expand mail-in balloting amid the coronavirus pandemic are seeing some of their highest levels of voter turnout in years, even as […] Trump looks to clamp down on such efforts.
In at least four of the eight states that held primaries on Tuesday, turnout surpassed 2016 levels, with most of the votes being cast via mail, according to an analysis of election returns by The Hill. Each of those states took steps earlier this year to send absentee ballot applications to all of their registered voters.
In Iowa, for instance, total turnout reached 24 percent, up from about 15 percent in the state’s 2016 primaries and its highest ever turnout for a primary. But more strikingly, of the roughly 524,000 votes cast, some 411,000 of them came from absentee ballots – a nearly 1,000 percent increase over 2016 levels.
The high turnout could encourage more states to take similar steps ahead of the November general elections. Trump has resisted such efforts, even threatening last month to hold up federal funding to Michigan and Nevada over state election officials’ decisions to send mail-in ballot applications to registered voters.
The president’s argument against expanding mail-in voting is two-fold: he has claimed that it not only increases the risk of voter fraud, but it gives a structural advantage to Democrats. Elections experts have knocked down those claims, noting that fraud is exceedingly rare in all instances and that there’s little to no evidence that widespread mail-in voting benefits one party over another. […]
For mail-in voting advocates, the surge in turnout on Tuesday was a major victory in the biggest test for vote-by-mail since the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The June 2 primaries proved what we already knew – access to absentee ballots increases voter turnout,” said Tom Ridge, a Republican former Homeland Security Secretary and governor of Pennsylvania, who co-chairs the bipartisan group VoteSafe. […]
Four states – Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee and Mississippi – have yet to expand mail-in voting practices amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In one of those states, Texas, the refusal by GOP state officials to expand mail-in voting is at the center of an ongoing legal battle. […]
Meanwhile, in Tennessee, a judge ruled that the state must give all of its registered voters the option to cast a mail-in ballot during the coronavirus pandemic. That ruling is likely to be appealed.
[…] the recent expansions in mail-in voting have caused problems in some parts of the country. A handful of states that held primaries on Tuesday struggled to handle the surge in mail-in ballot requests. […]
In the District of Columbia, which also voted on Tuesday, officials urged all registered voters to cast their ballot by mail. On primary day, they opened just 20 in-person polling sites open instead of the 143 that are usually available. But they ultimately struggled to fulfill all the requests for mail-in ballots, forcing many voters to wait in long lines to vote on Tuesday.
In an effort to respond to the lines, D.C. election officials allowed some voters to submit their ballots by email – a practice that security experts have long warned against. […]
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said that the primary was “nothing short of a failed execution.” But she pledged to have the system running smoothly by November.
“I can assure D.C. voters that we will have the appropriate action plan,” she said.
Attorney General William Barr said Sunday that he doesn’t think the law enforcement system in the U.S. is “systemically racist” as protests over George Floyd’s death continue across the country.
CBS’s “Face The Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan asked the attorney general if he believed there is “systemic racism in law enforcement.”
Barr responded, “I think there’s racism in the United States still but I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist.” […]
Barr said the U.S. has to acknowledge that “for most of our history, our institutions were explicitly racist.”
“Since the 1960s, I think we’ve been in a phase of reforming our institutions and making sure that they’re in sync with our laws and aren’t fighting a rearguard action to impose inequities,” he said.
When Brennan asked if the reforming was “working,” Barr said it’s been “difficult,” but “I think it is working and progress has been made.”
Other Trump administration officials said on Sunday shows that systemic racism in law enforcement didn’t exist. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he grew up in a time “when there was real systemic racism,” which is “very uncommon now.”
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf also said there is no “systemic racism problem” in law enforcement but added there are officers who “abuse their jobs.” […]
So that’s the official line from the Trump administration, that systemic racism in law enforcement doesn’t exist. Good luck selling that load of bullshit.
Mitt Romney, marching down Penn Ave towards the White House, with about 1000 mostly evangelical protesters. They’re chanting “black lives matter!” and singing “This little light of mine”
That new fencing that Trump had erected to protect him from protestors? It is a crowd-sourced memorial wall, “almost like an art gallery,” as Hannah Natanson put it.
Trump’s loyalist attorney general, William Barr, was on Face the Nation this morning to do what he does: betray his oath of office and the nation while lying to the American public to protect Donald Trump from consequences. Barr’s own story on his involvement with the attack on Lafayette Park and St. John’s Church protesters continues to shift with the winds; in a Saturday interview, Barr backed away from reports he ordered the attack with the rock-solid defense “My attitude was get it done, but I didn’t say, ‘Go do it.’”
One of today’s new Barr claims was that Trump “never asked or suggested that we needed to deploy regular troops” to put down the protests. This flies in the face of reports by multiple reports of Trump furiously demanding that exact thing, on that exact afternoon, in a meeting William Barr was in.
Barr is demonstrably lying, which is yet another reason he and everyone else in the administration has refused to testify to Congress about any of their acts. Trump insisted “We need 10,000 troops up here. I want it right now,” The Washington Post relays from a senior Pentagon official; Trump was only talked out of it by the combined efforts of the now-lying Barr, Joint Chiefs chair Gen. Mark Milley, and Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Even then, Esper moved 82nd Airborne units into position nearby to keep Trump “at bay,” Trump was so insistent.
Asked to follow up, Barr had to admit that those troops were indeed called up, and tried to bullshit and bluster his way through:
“Well, your question to me just a moment ago was did he demand them on the streets, did he demand them in D.C.. No, we had them on standby in case they were needed.”
Mmm-hmm.
[…] He insisted “There were not chemical irritants. Pepper spray is not a chemical irritant. It’s not chemical.” And “there was no gas.”
Again, each of these statements was contradicted by reporters on the ground, and the Park Police itself had to withdraw its earlier claim that tear gas was not used in the park. He’s lying. He’s simply lying about all of it, via the time-warn practice of redefining questions and words themselves so that they mean whatever he prefers them to mean. He is not just lying, he is brazenly trolling his questioner.
The big lie, however, was that the attack on Lafayette Park and Trump’s walk to the church mere minutes later were “not connected.” The Park Police had been preparing to clear the park since that morning, said Barr, but it was complete coincident that the operation began, and the use of flashbang grenades, at precisely the moment networks began broadcasting an expected Trump speech that ended with Donald Trump announcing that he would now be taking a walk through the very grounds just cleared. Barr, in fact, says he “didn’t know” even that Trump would be speaking, when he “gave the green light” (which was not an order, but which was an order?) to clear the park.
Mmm-hmm.
[…] The one true thing we can take from all of this is that even William Barr, a devoted fascist, is aware that last Monday’s attack crossed a line that not even a president is allowed to cross. Donald Trump is not allowed to beat, gas and drive out clergy on private church property or an adjacent park for the sole purpose of commandeering church property for a photo shoot. Both Trump and Barr believed he was, when the order was given; only days later did Barr realize that the country was not following him into his new definition of our laws.
House Democrat reluctance to insist on Barr’s immediate testimony, as well as the testimony of all others involved in the militarization of Washington, the mobilization of unidentified paramilitary-outfitted groups, and the attacks on protesters, remains baffling. Barr and the others will of course refuse; Congress then must act to compel their cooperation in investigating these brazen violations of the Constitution and civil rights even if it means dragging each official to a hearing room in handcuffs and under guard.
As Barr has once again shown, nothing in the Constitution applies if there is no consequence for violating it […] Barr must be removed for his actions; Esper, Milley and others in the vague, seemingly invented-on-the-fly chain of command that led to these events must be expelled from public service.
Pepper spray (also known as capsaicin spray or capsicum spray) is a lachrymatory agent (a chemical compound that irritates the eyes to cause a burning sensation, pain, and temporary blindness) used in policing, riot control, crowd control.
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C18H27NO3
Sorry, I don’t know how to properly code the chemical formula for capsaicin so that it appears correctly.
From comments posted by readers:
He [Barr] used to be an adept liar. Now he’s just a stupid dumbfuck dangerous liar. Everything out of his mouth should be fact checked. I can’t believe he hasn’t been referred on complaint to the DC and federal bars.
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The Democratic House should impeach that lying, SOB, Barr.
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Since they only care about the message to their base and don’t really give a damn about thinking americans, we are being treated to a litany of in-your-face lies.
he New York Times’ Editorial Page Editor James Bennet has resigned after the publication of an editorial by Sen. Tom Cotton advocating that the military be deployed to end racial injustice protests throughout the United States. Bennet had been the head of the Times’ editorial pages since 2016.
The Times faced immediate and furious backlash for publishing the op-ed, including from within the Times itself. After repeatedly defending the decision to run Cotton’s anti-American screed, it came out that the Times’ editors had themselves solicited for Cotton to make his case—and that Bennet had not even read the piece before publishing it.
The Times has long ignored critics of their editorial policies, but the internal fury over Cotton’s call for “no quarter” against fellow Americans proved too much for Bennet to weather. He is expected to remain with the paper, but in a “new role in the newsroom.”
As the attorney general tries to distance himself from the Lafayette Square scandal, he’s making a variety of claims that appear to be false.
[…] Trump administration officials spent last week trying to distance themselves from the Lafayette Square scandal, and Attorney General Bill Barr seemed to join them with comments to the Associated Press.
“I’m not involved in giving tactical commands like that,” he said. “I was frustrated and I was also worried that as the crowd grew, it was going to be harder and harder to do. So my attitude was get it done, but I didn’t say, ‘Go do it.'”
Sure. And when Henry II said, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” he perhaps didn’t literally tell anyone to kill Thomas Becket, but some knights made the trip to Canterbury anyway.
Barr’s comments seemed to contradict the White House’s own line about Barr’s role in clearing Lafayette Square of peaceful protestors a week ago today — White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany was quite explicit about the attorney general’s efforts — but on Team Trump, sometimes the right hand doesn’t know what the even-further-to-the-right hand is doing.
While we wait for the White House to sort out its story, Barr made a variety of related claims over the last couple of days […]
[Barr] told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan, for example, “The president never asked or suggested that we needed to deploy” active-duty troops onto American streets. There’s been a whole lot of independent reporting pointing in the opposite direction.
Barr also told Brennan the clearing of the park across the street from the White House was not “connected” to Trump’s photo-op, despite the fact that the former occurred immediately before the latter. A Washington Post analysis concluded that the attorney general’s claims on this point “collapse under scrutiny.”
And finally, Barr went on to tell the CBS News anchor, in reference to the offensive against peaceful protestors, “There was no tear gas used.” Pressed further, the attorney general added, “There were not chemical irritants. Pepper spray is not a chemical irritant. It’s not chemical.”
[…] “[T]he Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identifies the sort of devices that the Park Police admitted using as a form of tear gas. It was a specific, organic iteration of irritant, but it was a qualifying irritant nonetheless.”
William Barr had a credibility problem long before last week, but it’s striking how eager he seems to make the problem worse.
Basic takeaway: The attorney general’s claims “collapse under scrutiny.” I hope that, in the future, Attorney General Kamala Harris can prosecute Barr.
[…] A new national poll from CNN, meanwhile, points in a more discouraging direction for the president: it found Biden up by 14 points, 55% to 41%. Though comparing 2020 and 2016 polling is tricky, there were zero national surveys at this point four years ago showing Hillary Clinton with support above 50%.
[…] Alabama’s Jeff Sessions, who derailed Obama-era policing reforms after taking over as attorney general, hasn’t changed: the Republican U.S. Senate candidate said last week he doesn’t want policymakers to “overreact” to instances of police abuses. True to form, Sessions added that he’s concerned about “politically correct policing.”
An illustration of the difference between the Democratic Party’s concept of governing well and the Republican/Trumpian concept of not really governing at all:
[…] House and Senate Dems are poised to unveil the “Justice in Policing Act of 2020.” [they already unveiled it] It representst a sweeping and ambitious overhaul of federal policing laws. […] the proposed legislation […] intends to “broaden police accountability, tracking ‘problematic’ officers through a national misconduct registry, and restricting ‘qualified immunity’ (lawsuit limitations) for officers over actions in the field.
The John Oliver video that PZ posted on the homepage discusses “qualified immunity,” and what a pernicious force it is when it comes to holding law enforcement officers accountable for their actions. Oliver provides specific details that illuminate the problem.
The same bill would reportedly “reform police training, make lynching a federal crime, and ban chokeholds and the use of no-knock warrants in drug cases.” […]
It’s against this backdrop that Donald Trump was asked late last week for his plan to combat systemic racism. His answer was emblematic of a larger problem.
“It’s the greatest thing that can happen for race relations, for the African-American community, for the Asian American, for the Hispanic-American community, for women, for everything, because our country is so strong,” Trump said when asked if he had a plan to address systemic racism. “And that’s what my plan is: We’re going to have the strongest economy in the world.”
Right off the bat, there’s an obvious problem with the president’s pitch: the United States has had the strongest economy in the world for the better part of a century. Obviously, a robust, internationally dominant economy isn’t a cure-all for societal ills, including institutional racism and police abuses, since the scourges haven’t gone away.
But just below the surface, a related problem comes into view: Donald Trump doesn’t want to govern.
The president and his team don’t have a plan to address the lingering coronavirus crisis. When reporters recently asked Trump his economic plan, he acted as if he barely understood the question. Pressed for a social-justice plan, [Trump] said he intended to simply wait for the economy to improve, at which point he expected racial problems to simply go away on their own.
The asymmetry between the parties is painfully obvious […] as Democrats look for governing solutions, Trump and his party could see these unfolding crises and take steps to use the levers of power to address them, but they don’t — because they’ve made the transition from being a governing party to being a post-policy party.
Trump made a prediction exactly one month ago today: the United States would see no more than 110,000 fatalities from the pandemic. That was wrong.
Exactly seven weeks ago today, Donald Trump said he believed the overall American death toll from the coronavirus pandemic would be between 50,000 and 60,000 people. It wasn’t long before the president’s forecast was exposed as tragically wrong, but that didn’t stop him from repeating the same mistake, over and over again, for no apparent reason.
The number of U.S. fatalities would be 65,000, he said. Or maybe 70,000. Make that 90,000. Or it could be 100,000.
May 8, exactly one month ago today, Trump appeared on Fox News, strained to pat himself on the back, and predicted that the death toll could go as high as 110,000. That was wrong, too.
The number of coronavirus deaths in the United States surpassed 110,000 Saturday, according to NBC News’ accounting of virus data. The nation has seen 1,916,237 cases and 110,041 deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the data. […]
The problem, of course, is not just that the president peddled a series of bizarre predictions that turned out to be wrong. The more significant problem is that Trump has effectively declared victory and shifted his focus away from the pandemic. […]
The virus, however, doesn’t much care whether the White House remains engaged or not. According to a New York Times analysis, the number of states where infection numbers are rising currently stands at 21. That’s nearly half the country. [The state in which I live is one of those 21. Graphs of increasing cases show a steep rise.]
And yet, the president nevertheless stood in the Rose Garden on Friday morning, and said that the United States is “largely through” the crisis. Why? Apparently because he says so.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve heard similarly triumphant rhetoric from Trump before. In mid-May, the president declared, “We have met the moment, and we have prevailed.” (He later clarified that he was referring to testing, which was also wrong.)
[…] In early March, Trump went so far as to brag, “This came unexpectedly a number of months ago. I heard about it in China. It came out of China, and I heard about it. And made a good move: We closed it down; we stopped it.” […]
About those Republicans willing to say that they will not support Trump’s re-election:
[…] the number of Republicans who refused to stand with Trump in 2016 was very likely influenced by the widely held assumption that he would inevitably lose. [Correct!]
[…] what’s especially striking […] is the number of Republicans who’ve worked directly with [Trump] — even having served in his cabinet. Former Defense Secretary James Mattis broke with Trump in a very high-profile way last week, for example, and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who also served as Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, wasted little time in letting the public know he stood with Mattis, not the president.
Even former Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, a former Republican senator, has not endorsed Trump’s re-election, saying through an aide that he “remains a loyal Republican,” but he believes “the American people will decide.”
It’s striking enough when national GOP leaders withhold support from their own party’s presidential ticket, but when Republicans like Coats, Mattis, and Kelly, among other former members of Trump’s team, do the same thing, it’s qualitatively different.
These officials worked side by side with [Trump]. Unlike four years ago, when Trump was simply a foolish television personality, folks like Coats, Mattis, and Kelly had a front-row seat, watching Trump try to lead. They saw up close how Trump conducted himself, how he processed information, how he evaluated evidence, and how he made decisions.
And now that they’ve left the administration and had an opportunity to reflect on their time on Team Trump, some of these same officials are not on board with the president’s re-election.
[…] Ahead of its primary Tuesday, elections officials by Sunday had received 943,000 ballots — a 2,500 percent increase from the 2016 presidential primary, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Of the 1.2 million who have already voted (a number that includes in-person early voting, which ended Friday), there was close to an even split between Democrats and Republicans, according to the AJC report. […]
The state sent absentee ballot request forms to its 6.9 million active registered voters.
Ultimately, 1.6 million absentee ballots were sent out, meaning that some 657,000 have not been returned, […]
It’s not clear how many of those voters experienced delays in receiving their ballots that will prevent them from submitting them in time — a problem that plagued Washington, D.C. voters and some voters in Pennsylvania, where absentee voting skyrocketed in last week’s primary.
Jeff Ellington — the president of Runbeck Election Services, which Georgia hired to send out its mail-in ballots — told TPM Monday that his company sent out the last batch of ballots on June 1, having received the final tranche of absentee voter data from the state a few days prior to that.
Georgia’s election so far has not gone without its hiccups. […]
There were major lines at early voting sites on Friday, with some voters waiting for more than six hours to cast a ballot. Georgia, like many states, has had to reduce polling places because of the challenges COVID-19 poses, and social distancing requirements further limited the number of people who could be inside the voting sites that remained open.
Meanwhile, absentee voters in Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, experienced notable delays in receiving their mail-in ballots, causing confusion. The delay was caused in part by the elections office being closed for several days after an employee died of COVID-19. Election officials also blamed technical issues in processing ballot requests submitted by mail, according to an AP report.
[…] Trump had a fit on Monday morning on Twitter in response to a new CNN poll showing that the President is in deep trouble ahead of the presidential election in November.
“CNN Polls are as Fake as their Reporting,” the President tweeted. “Same numbers, and worse, against Crooked Hillary.”
The survey, which was held June 2-5 with 1,259 respondents, shows that Trump’s approval rating has sunk to 38 percent. Meanwhile, his disapproval rate skyrocketed to 57 percent, a whopping 6-point increase from CNN’s survey in May.
To make matters worse, the poll also revealed that 55 percent of registered voters support Democratic president candidate Joe Biden, while only 41 percent back Trump.
The survey has a 3.4 percent margin of error overall.
The grim numbers indicate that Americans largely disapprove of Trump’s war-like response to the nationwide anti-police brutality protests.
Additionally, CNN began its survey a day after Trump had peaceful protesters teargassed so he could take his infamous photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House.
His routine is getting more than stale and everyone’s just had enough. Go back to whatever shithole you call home. Nobody wants to hear any more of your tantrums.
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he will leave office. He won’t have a single friend in D.C. including his family. And he’ll physically leave so as not to be filmed being carried out by the Secret Service, which is what they’d do if Biden is sworn in and Trump won’t go. They wouldn’t let the now non-president physically remain. They’d put him out on the sidewalk.
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I think there’s a better chance he resigns after the election.
He will still claim he really “won” because the result was “rigged,” but he will come up with some reason that he has to leave office by his own choice rather than admit he was defeated.
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This would be the largest lead in a credible Presidential poll since Clinton over Dole in 1996. Definitely bigger news that “Trump having a tantrum”
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These polls are meaningless without electoral college projections and only serve to lull swing state “Lean Democrat” voters into staying home.
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Every single one of his enablers knows how to read a poll, and what they’re reading isn’t good. I’m absolutely sure he’ll be shocked to find that nobody will raise a hand to help him. He won’t be a damn president any more. He’ll be an obnoxious moron in a pile of legal trouble.
The coronavirus pandemic led to the furthest-reaching economic collapse globally since 1870, the World Bank said Monday.
In the organization’s latest Global Economic Prospects Report, it said the scale of the economic contraction will be worse than any recession in 150 years due to the number of countries affected […]
“This is a deeply sobering outlook, with the crisis likely to leave long-lasting scars and pose major global challenges,” Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, World Bank Group vice president for equitable growth, finance and institutions, said.
Pazarbasioglu told reporters that between 70 million and 100 million people will end up in extreme poverty due to the recession, exceeding the previous estimate of 60 million, and that even as a rebound is expected by 2021, a potential second wave could hinder the recovery and trigger a “wave of defaults.”
Pazarbasioglu said the World Bank’s current worst-case scenario projected a contraction of up to 8 percent but said “given this uncertainty, further downgrades to the outlook are very likely.” […]
if the forecast of a 4.2 percent global recovery in 2021 proves accurate, “in many countries, deep recessions triggered by COVID-19 will likely weigh on potential output for years to come,” the report said.
[…]
Over the weekend, Black Lives Matter protests brought thousands onto the streets campaigning for an end to Aboriginal deaths in custody.
Many signs at rallies referred to the 432 deaths that are known to have happened since the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody delivered its final report in 1991.
That figure is based on Guardian Australia’s findings from a two-year long project to monitor Aboriginal deaths in custody, Deaths Inside.
We updated the database and published new results on Saturday. We found the number had risen to 434.
But by Saturday morning even that number was already out of date. Just before marches began in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and towns around the country, the department of corrective services in Western Australia confirmed that a 40-year-old Aboriginal man had died in custody at Acacia prison, near Perth.
As of today, based on reports that have reached us from families and other sources, including coronial reports, we can say that number is now at least 437.
[…] Joseph Maguire, a retired three-star admiral who served as Mr. Trump’s acting intelligence chief, invoked the comments of Mr. Mattis and two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who also criticized the president this week.
“Jim Mattis, Mike Mullen and Marty Dempsey are all good friends, and I respect them tremendously,” Admiral Maguire said in an interview. “I am in alignment with their views.”
Asked who Mr. Boehner and Mr. Ryan will vote for in November, representatives to both former House speakers declined to say.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asked if she would support Mr. Trump for re-election, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that she didn’t want to discuss politics right now, adding that her focus was on addressing divisions in the country. She did not support Mr. Trump in 2016. […]
In what was perhaps a letdown for some members of the armed, unofficial organization known as the “California State Militia,” no Black Lives Matter protest took place in Oakdale on Saturday.
Instead, all the heavily armed group got was an earful from the cops.
The California State Militia’s “Echo Company” — part of a larger group of gun lovers with no actual law enforcement authority, just plenty of free time — did not come out to protest the police killing of George Floyd. Rather, they were invited by a local business owner to guard their property against a rumored protest that never actually took place, police told The Modesto Bee.
It’s not exactly clear where the speculation began, but a couple posts online suggested a flier that had, purposefully or not, incorrectly advertised a rally. The small town of about 24,000 people is a two-hour drive east of San Francisco.
A group of men wearing camouflage fatigues and carrying long rifles guarded H-B Saloon and adjacent business on Saturday; the building owner invited the militiamen to stand guard, Oakdale Police Chief Scott Heller told The Modesto Bee. Some from Echo Company stood guard from the roof, ever vigilant for what turned out to be non-existent threat.
The organization is well-known among the fringe armed groups in the state, and photos from Echo Company’s Facebook page show crowded shooting range sessions and other fun activities like wading through chest-high water — “river crossing and navigation” — and lugging comically large sniper rifles. […]
“The group wearing military attire were not members of the U.S. National Guard and they had no affiliation with the Oakdale Police Department or any of our partner agencies,” the Oakdale Police Department said in a Facebook post Sunday, noting they had heard residents’ concerns about “people dressed in camouflage or ‘militia’ at a downtown business.”
The county sheriff said Sunday that the group’s presence “was counterproductive to keeping the peace in the City of Oakdale” and “did nothing to protect the city.” […]
California is not an open-carry state, so questions remain as to why armed militia men were there openly carrying guns.
A Virginia County is considering hate crime charges after a “KKK Leader” drove a truck into a group of protesters.
Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor announced Monday that she is weighing hate crimes charges for an “admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan” after he allegedly steered his pickup truck into a group of protesters.
“The accused, by his own admission and by a cursory glance at social media, is an admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a propagandist for Confederate ideology,” she said in a statement provided to TPM. “We are investigating whether hate crimes charges are appropriate.”
Henrico County Police identified the man publicly as Harry Rogers, a 36-year-old from nearby Hanover County, and said that he has so far been charged with attempted malicious wounding, felony vandalism and assault and battery. He is being held without bond.
Per police, Rogers allegedly committed his offense on Sunday evening in Lakeside, Virginia. Multiple witnesses reported that a vehicle revved its engine and “drove through the protesters occupying the roadway.” Police said that a victim was checked out at the scene but declined further treatment.
Taylor confirmed that the victim’s injuries did not seem “serious,” though she added that the attack on peaceful protesters was still “heinous and despicable.”
Pictures provided to TPM by Justice RVA, a local activist group supporting anti-racism protests, show Rogers smoking a cigarette and talking with police officers. The group told TPM that the pictures were taken while the officers were collecting witness statements after Rogers had drove into the crowd.
“He was not put into handcuffs until after EVERY statement was taken,” the group said in an email.
This is not the first time Rogers has made headlines in the commonwealth.
In 2016, he created a stir by dressing in white robes emblazoned with a KKK insignia and waving a Confederate flag next to a war memorial in Colonial Heights, Virginia.
He identified himself then as “Skip” — the same nickname he uses for his business, Skip’s Firewood Service — and said that he was a member of the National Association for the Awakening of Confederate Patriots, which uses the same NAACP acronym as the famous civil rights organization.
The group’s Facebook page, which hasn’t been active since 2015, is littered with pictures of guns and grievances about the “outlawing of American history” in the form of removing Confederate iconography.
An ugly, internet-based attack from rightwing trolls is ongoing against BLM groups.
[…] 4chan, a notorious alt-right troll hub online, is trying to meddle in protesters’ online operations.
On Sunday night, users of 4chan made several highly trafficked posts with links to dozens of Black Lives Matter channels on Telegram, a privacy-oriented, encrypted messaging app that has been used for organizing protests across the country. Users on 4chan encouraged others to post disinformation in the groups, find “incriminating” information that they can pass to law enforcement, and trawl the channels for as much personal, identifying, and organizational information as they can about people in the groups.
Some have already posted the phone numbers of volunteers organizing food and water for protesters, and phone numbers for jail support for arrested protesters. […] the implication is to harass the person on the other end of the line. In some cases, users in the threads are also doxxing what they believe to be “Antifa safehouses” by posting addresses of these homes. […]
“A lot of these retards have identifying info on their telegram profiles, instagram, personal website, real name, phone number, etc. get that,” another wrote, urging other 4channers to store what they found on internet archive sites like Archive.is and Pastebin (links on Pastebin aren’t accessible, suggesting that the site may have taken moderation action). Others encouraged people to share their findings with “trustworthy public sources” and “right wing journalists.”
[…] Many of the Black Lives Matter channels don’t let anyone without authorization post. And administrators of some of the channels seem to be aware of the people trying to infiltrate. […]
4channers aren’t the only group monitoring Black Lives Matter Telegram channels. Extremist groups that label themselves as various brands of facist and white supremacists have compiled lists of Black Lives Matter channels on their own Telegram channels, and frequently repost content from BLM organizers on their pages.
White supremacists and far-right extremists on Telegram have been a recurring problem that the platform has been unwilling to handle. The encrypted messaging service took action against public ISIS channels, but has been unwilling to do the same with far-right extremists, leaving up channels that compile lists of Jewish people, and others that encourage white supremacist violence.
New Zealand’s Commissioner Andrew Coster announced that Armed Response Teams (ARTs) would no longer be part of the future New Zealand policing model.
The decision comes a six-month trial of armed patrol units organised in response to last year’s Christchurch shootings, where 51 worshipers were killed at two mosques.
[…]
Police encouraged the public to submit their views on whether or not ARTs made their communities feel safer and whether they should be established across New Zealand.
Thousands of responses indicated the ARTs did not make their communities feel safer.
Thousands of people in Brazil have defied a lockdown to demonstrate against what they see as threats to democracy and health under President Jair Bolsonaro.
He has described the protesters as ‘terrorists” and says he will continue pushing to arm ordinary Brazilians to defend the country.
In Rio de Janeiro, a group of Bolsonaro supporters ridiculed his opponents calling them “the antifas”, or antifascists.
President Jair Bolsonaro has played down the dangers of the disease throughout the outbreak.
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is focused on ensuring his political survival and is mobilising far-right supporters to help him do so as the coronavirus claims tens of thousands of lives in the country.
With less than one-third of Brazilians approving of Mr Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic, and protests against him increasing, analysts say he is shoring up his base to shield himself from possible impeachment and to improve governability.
“He’s losing support and needs something to put in its place,” said Maurício Santoro, a professor of political science at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.
“Bolsonaro needs people on the street defending him.”
Casting doubt on Covid-19 statistics has been a mainstay in far-right circles and Mr Bolsonaro has amplified such claims.
So far the disease has killed more than 36,000 Brazilians, although such information is now unavailable on the Brazilian Health Ministry’s website. It stopped publishing cumulative totals last Friday, the day after Brazil surpassed Italy to register the world’s third highest death toll.
After a backlash, a senior Health Ministry official told reporters on Monday that the body would restore the cumulative death toll to its website, as early as Tuesday, but with changes to the methodology for how daily deaths are tallied.
Critics complained that the extraordinary move to not report the death toll resembled tactics used by authoritarian regimes.
It came after months of Mr Bolsonaro downplaying Covid-19 and maintaining economic meltdown would inflict worse hardship than allowing the virus to run its course.
Pollster Datafolha found roughly 30% of Brazilians surveyed on May 25-26 rated Mr Bolsonaro as good or excellent and approved of his handling of the pandemic.
Bolsonaro foes, seeing weakness, have submitted more than 30 requests for impeachment to Congress, where so far they have been stalled by the lower house speaker.
The president’s allies hope energised supporters could make it costly to support such moves.
The muted support for Mr Bolsonaro was on display over the weekend, with protests against his government held in 20 cities while pro-government demonstrations were significantly smaller than prior weekends.
Mr Bolsonaro still enjoys considerable support on the far right. Backers in April were quick to join his call to defy social isolation recommendations even as the outbreak started exploding. They then echoed the president’s call to treat Covid-19 with chloroquine, which many doctors refuse to prescribe owing to a lack of evidence it can help, and the fear it may hurt some.
Mr Bolsonaro has tried to vitalise his base by joining weekend rallies in the capital that feature banners denouncing the Supreme Court and Congress, sometimes in lurid terms, for undermining his administration.
On May 31, he flew over the crowd in an Army helicopter and, after landing, rode into the plaza on horseback flanked by mounted military police.
On Friday, he pledged to make it easier for police officers and servicemen to import guns for personal use, part of the far-right’s longstanding demand to make guns more accessible.…
Re #235 and others above – Trump just tweeted: “Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?”
Quoting the tweet, MSNBC reported that Gugino is still in the hospital.
I forgot to mention above – one of the photo captions in the ITV report @ #274 above reads: “Fans of two distinct soccer clubs hold a banner that reads in Portuguese ‘We are for Democracy’, as they joined forces for a recent anti-government protest in Sao Paulo.” I would love to hear more about the role of soccer fans in the protests. This is the second time I’ve seen it mentioned in the past several days (see #16 above).
Donald Trump is planning to restart rallies in the next two weeks in a major turning point for the president since the coronavirus shut down traditional campaigning.
Trump’s advisers are still determining where the rallies will take place and what safety measures will be implemented, depending on the type of venue chosen. Campaign manager Brad Parscale is expected to present Trump with possibilities within the next few days.
The president has been itching to resume his boisterous rallies, his favorite way to connect with supporters and let off steam. He’s planning to use the events to drive home what is expected to be a major theme of his campaign: that he is the leader of the country’s reopening and economic rebound. Trump held a hastily-called press conference Friday to celebrate an unexpectedly strong jobs report, and his campaign immediately began running a massive ad campaign seizing on the news.
“Americans are ready to get back to action and so is President Trump. The great American comeback is real and the rallies will be tremendous,” Parscale said in a statement. “You’ll again see the kind of crowds and enthusiasm that sleepy Joe Biden can only dream of.”
The move comes at a precarious moment for Trump. National and swing state polls show him taking a major hit amid his handling of the pandemic and the social unrest that followed the killing of a African American man at the hands of Minnesota police. He is trailing Joe Biden substantially in many polls.
The president’s team views the rallies as a way of rejuvenating his base and displaying the enthusiasm behind his reelection bid….
While Trump is likely to face blowback for resuming in-person events while the coronavirus pandemic is still ravaging the country, his advisers contend that the recent massive protests in metropolitan areas will make it harder for liberals to criticize him.
…
With the election less than five months away, there’s a growing sense of urgency within the Trump campaign….
During a White House briefing on Monday, a reporter asked White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany if President Donald Trump agrees with Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, who marched in a Washington protest on Sunday, that “black lives matter.”
McEnany did not directly address the question, but instead compared Trump’s performance with black voters in the 2016 presidential election to Romney’s performance in 2012, when he was the Republican presidential nominee.
“Mitt Romney can say three words outside on Pennsylvania Avenue, but I would note this: that President Trump won 8% of the black vote. Mitt Romney won 2% of the black vote,” McEnany said.
She then pivoted to attacking Romney’s past controversial comments, including his infamous 2012 campaign comment in which he said “47% of Americans will vote for the president no matter what” and that these people “are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them.” McEnany claimed that Trump took “great offense to those words.”
Facts First: McEnany’s claim about Romney’s share of the black vote is false. And in 2012, Trump defended the Romney “47%” remarks by which McEnany is now claiming Trump is greatly offended.
Trump did win 8% of the black vote in the 2016 presidential election, according to exit polls, but Romney won 6% of black voters, not 2%. Romney was running against the first black president.
Trump also did not take offense to Romney’s 2012 comments, but supported them. In a 2012 appearance on CNN, Trump was asked about Romney’s comments, and said, “I don’t think he should be apologizing for anything,” adding that Romney’s comments needed to be debated in American politics.
“This is something that has to be discussed. And, as you know, there are tremendous numbers of people — whether it’s 47% or close to 50% — that don’t pay taxes and that don’t pay income taxes, and probably lots of other taxes,” Trump said.
Trump, of course, has not released his own tax filings, and it is unclear how much or how little he has paid in income tax. In 2019, The New York Times reported that Trump paid little to no income tax over a 10-year period.
(As Willie Geist pointed out this morning on Morning Joe, it’s a little weird to hear someone bragging about how they lost 92% of the black vote. Also noteworthy that they understood Romney’s saying “black lives matter” to be an attack on Trump for which they needed to prepare a false counterattack.)
Hundreds of protestors have gathered outside Oriel College in Oxford to demand the removal of a statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes, my colleague Aamna Mohdin reports.
Femi Nylander, an organiser for Rhodes Must Fall, welcomed the support the campaign had received from the local council, MP and the thousands who signed the petition to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes.
He said: “It’s good to see public consciousness is changing. We are seeing a paradigm shift. You can see that everywhere.” He added that he hopes today’s protest will see the resurgence of the Rhodes Must Fall movement in Oxford.
More re #276 above: “The OANN reporter behind the false report that led to Trump’s tweet is a Russian national who also writes for Kremlin-owned Sputnik, according to The Daily Beast.”
…THE THEORY — that a 75-year-old man shoved by police amid protests in Buffalo was a violent antifa foot soldier — is so zany that Republican senators not only find no need to comment on it, but are refusing to physically view the tweet in public.
@burgessev — our senior reporter who covers the Senate — has the tweet printed out, and senators are treating it as if it’s a bar of radioactive substance, refusing to read it in the presence of other human beings, and certainly declining comment on it.
SEN. CORY GARDNER (R-Colo.) declined to look at the tweet because he was worried about getting to the Senate floor for an outdoors bill, @burgessev reports.
SEN. JOHN THUNE — the No. 2 Senate Republican from South Dakota — said, “Well, I mean it’s a, it’s a, it’s a serious accusation, which should only be made with facts and evidence. And I haven’t seen any yet.” (h/t to the Hill pool on this quote)
CORNYN — up for reelection in Texas — said he wouldn’t comment on the tweet.
Here’s the summary from the liveblog @ #280 above:
About 1,000 demonstrators gathered in Oxford to peacefully demand the removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a 19th Century imperialist who critics say is steeped in colonialism and racism. Protestors sat in silence for several minutes before chanting “decolonise” at Oxford University, whose building the statue adorns. Organisers have announced a Black Lives Matter protest in the city on Saturday.
Students of the Oxford University college at the centre of the Rhodes protest said the institution’s silence was “equal to complicity in the perpetuation of white privilege and supremacy”. Undergraduates at Oriel college said the university had “failed to address its own issues of racial inequality and history of colonialism”.
The leader of Oxford City Council wrote to Oxford University inviting it to apply for planning permission to remove the statue. The college, which has resisted pressure to remove the statue for years, said it opposes racism and discrimination in all its forms and that it was committed to “debate and discuss” the issues raised by the monument.
Dozens of people descended on Parliament square to pay their respects to George Floyd, who was killed by a US police officer and whose funeral took place in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday night. About 50 people then marched to Downing Street, some carrying “Black Lives Matter” signs, and chanted “we want Boris” and “justice for Windrush”.
All Labour councils in England and Wales – including London and Manchester – vowed to review their statues and public monuments amid rising concern about the celebration of historical industrialists with links to the slave trade. The effect of the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol on Sunday rippled across the country, with hundreds of local authorities now expected to consider renaming public monuments.
The Museum for London said it was working with partners to remove the statue of 18th Century slave owner Robert Milligan. The monument has become a focus of protest since it was targeted at the weekend.
A statue of King Leopold II in Belgium was taken down after being vandalised and set on fire by protestors. The bust of the brutal colonialist is now expected to be retired to a museum in Antwerp.
SC @282, Trump is retweeting Russian propaganda and disinformation. He such a dolt.
As Steve Benen said, “Trump saw the Buffalo video, learned of the public’s revulsion, and decided to go after the hospitalized old guy who was left bleeding on the ground.”
I pointed out before that a 75-year-old man may not have good balance or reflexes. If you push him, he may fall harder than you expected him to fall. That is no excuse for pushing him in the first place. If I were stiff-armed by a policeman who was both younger and stronger than I am, I would fall down.
More commentary:
[…] Where does one even start? With the fact that Trump can’t substantiate any of his new conspiracy theories with evidence? With the idea that we’re supposed to believe the elderly man was responsible for his own head injury? With the president’s apparent clarification as to what he thinks “law and order” means?
[…] this ties into Trump’s repeated promotion of violence against protestors [against protestors with whom he disagrees. He likes the while guys with big guns]
[…]: Trump is struggling with seniors, who were an important part of the 2016 coalition of voters who put him in power in the first place. The president didn’t do himself any favors with older voters in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, and I have a hunch his thoughts on Buffalo won’t help, either.
Indeed, I’m trying to imagine the conversation between Trump and his campaign strategists…
Campaign team: Sir, you’re struggling with seniors, who were a key part of your 2016 coalition.
Trump: What if I go after a 75-year-old man who was hospitalized after the police shoved him to the ground?
Campaign team: We don’t think that’s —
Trump: Someone get me my phone.
* Update: Evidently, the conspiracy theory peddled by the president this morning originated on fringe, right-wing websites. The ridiculous theory has no basis in reality. Washington Post Link
The person responsible for the absurd report Trump touted in his tweet is reportedly a former employee of Sputnik, Russia’s propaganda network.
* Second Update: NBC News did a really nice job this morning tracking this bizarre theory from an anonymous Twitter thread, to an anonymous blog, to a right-wing media outlet, to the president of the United States
[…] The White House communications team has gone to great lengths to present […] Trump’s position on the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests as evenhanded and sympathetic. He has twice offered scripted responses to the protests that approximate the expected tone of a president faced with roiling unrest, including his comments from the White House Rose Garden on June 1 when he declared that he was “an ally of all peaceful protesters.”
[…] Efforts to present Trump as understanding of the protests, though, conflict with the president’s obvious and visceral dislike of what is happening and his determined effort to cast the protests as an extension of violent far-left opposition to American ideals. Trump keeps insisting that the worst effects of the early demonstrations were a function of “antifa,” a loosely knit movement that opposes fascism and racism. Antifa is a useful enemy for Trump in the moment, allowing him to avoid criticizing black protesters and to identify the opposing wing of American politics as dangerous. That the role of antifa has been limited has not prevented Trump from blaming it broadly. […]
Gugino [the old man] approached, holding his phone in his hand, a police officer pushed him, causing Gugino to stumble backward, fall and hit his head on the pavement. […]
That was the story, until the unfailingly pro-Trump network One America News ran a segment elevating ridiculous accusations about Gugino from a right-wing website called Conservative Treehouse. It’s not the first time that One America News has pushed out obviously nonsensical conspiracy theories. Earlier this year, reporter Chanel Rion reported that the coronavirus originated in North Carolina — because some random unidentified guy on Twitter said it had. Rion is OAN’s White House reporter, who attends White House press briefings at the invitation of the administration after the White House press corps barred her for violating social distancing efforts. […]
If you’d like to see the report on Gugino to which Trump’s refers, it’s here. It’s so obviously false and so impressively sloppy that it’s not worth sharing directly. But we should nonetheless parse its contents.
The report is from OAN’s Kristian Rouz, whose prior media employment was with Sputnik News — an outlet funded by the Kremlin. […] Rouz is no stranger to antifa conspiracy theories, having “reported” in 2017 that Hillary Clinton’s political action committee provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to antifa. […]
This theory about Gugino scanning police communications devices is an obvious effort to create a justification for police to push him away. Cellphones can be used to record information from embedded chips that put out short-range signals; this is how tap-to-pay systems work, essentially. But beyond Gugino holding his phone in his hand, there’s no evidence this is what he was doing. There’s no evidence that the places he held his phone had any chips that would emit such a signal. There’s no evidence that if he had collected any information about the chips being used that he would be able to do anything with them. There’s no evidence — besides the claims of this one website — that this is an “old trick” used by antifa. Particularly since the implementation of near-field communications (as this short-range interface is called) has happened within the last 10 years. […]
Gugino is obviously just gesticulating and pointing. The Conservative Treehouse blog — which slows Gugino’s motions down in order to make them appear more nefarious — argues that it’s suspicious when Gugino holds his phone near a police officer’s radio microphone. But that microphone is connected to the radio itself, which broadcasts publicly. What information is Gugino supposed to be picking up here? The frequency at which Buffalo police radios broadcast? If so, he could have saved himself a head wound by Googling it.
Oh, but wait. Is this a false flag — a faked injury to cast the police in a negative light — or is it intelligence gathering? […]
In another context, this would all be laughable, something not even worth parsing. It’s so sloppy and obviously untrue, and any actual media organization should be embarrassed to run it. Normally, we’d ignore it.
But OAN has created a loyal viewer in Trump, thanks to its sycophantic coverage of his administration. And that means that Trump saw the report on Gugino, accepted it as believable enough to warrant consideration — and then shared it with 80 million people on Twitter.
For some reason, Trump then decided to make his own assumptions about how the technology worked. Gugino was trying to “black out the equipment,” which means … what? He wanted to keep two police officers from being able to use their microphones? Well, the good news is that dozens more police were in earshot. Trump says Gugino was “aiming scanner,” which is a very scary-sounding way of saying he was “holding a phone.”
Remember the bigger context: Trump is elevating this nonsense because it casts protesters in a negative light and police in a positive one. […] implying that Gugino somehow deserved to be pushed and injured by police because the police viewed him as being involved in criminal acts. Never mind that there’s a process for adjudicating claims about criminal activity that doesn’t depend on the police meting out physical punishment. And never mind that there’s no evidence that the police pushed Gugino because of that suspicion.
[…] The president of the United States apparently finds it less believable that the Buffalo police pushed an elderly man to the ground, injuring him, than that a 75-year-old activist deployed sophisticated technology to track police on behalf of a shadowy far-left militant movement and then threw himself on the ground in order to make the police look bad. […]
Gugino remains hospitalized in critical condition.
Joy Reid: “The black funeral service — the black church service in general — is such a testament to the ability of a people to craft beauty and meaning out of the theft of all that you are and have. #GeorgeFloydFuneral #achangeisgonnacome #BlaclLivesMatter”
A statue of noted slaveholder Robert Milligan has been removed from outside the Museum of London Docklands.
Sadiq Khan earlier announced a review of all of London’s statues and street names, saying any with links to slavery “should be taken down”.
On Sunday, anti-racism protesters in Bristol tore down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston.
Milligan’s monument was removed to “recognise the wishes of the community” said the Canal and River Trust.
There were cheers and clapping as the monument was lifted from its plinth using a crane.
The Museum of London Docklands said the statue of the prominent British Slave trader, who owned two sugar plantations and 526 slaves in Jamaica, had “stood uncomfortably” outside its premises “for a long time”.
“The Museum of London recognises that the monument is part of the ongoing problematic regime of white-washing history, which disregards the pain of those who are still wrestling with the remnants of the crimes Milligan committed against humanity,” they added.
The Canal and River Trust said it had worked with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, the museum and partners in Canary Wharf to have it removed.
As the Milligan statue was lowered from its plinth, thousands of people gathered outside an Oxford college to demand the removal of a statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes.
Mr Khan said London had to face “an uncomfortable truth” with its historical links to slavery.
The Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm will review the city’s landmarks – including murals, street art, street names, statues and other memorials – and consider which legacies should be celebrated before making recommendations.
Mr Khan said London was “one of the most diverse cities in the world”, but said recent Black Lives Matter protests had highlighted that the city’s statues, plaques and street names largely reflect Victorian Britain.
“It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade,” he said.
“While this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of our communities to life in our capital has been wilfully ignored.”
During a Black Lives Matter protest in central London on Sunday, a statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square was sprayed with graffiti.
But Mr Khan said he did not consider statues of the likes of Churchill to be included in the review.
He said pupils needed to be educated about famous figures “warts and all” and that “nobody was perfect”, including the likes of Churchill, Gandhi and Malcolm X.
Mr Khan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he did not have ownership of the statues and the land they are on.
He also said it would be “inappropriate” to single out which statues and street names he thinks should go.
Instead a number of new memorials in the capital have been pledged by Mr Khan, including ones for Stephen Lawrence, the Windrush generation, a National Slavery Museum or memorial and a National Sikh War Memorial….
I’m so very glad Niall Ferguson has to watch this all go down.
Kinda surreal when the President starts accusing your 75 yr old friend of being an agent of ANTIFA.
My friend Martin Gugino is an old man with cancer who is now in the hospital with brain damage after being pushed to the ground by a police officer he was trying to talk to.
I hope Trump’s despicable behavior in regard to this violent act (see comment 285) takes his poll numbers down … again.
About the polling, and how much it obviously bothers Trump:
[…] On Twitter, the president claimed he “retained” John McLaughlin’s services for this anti-polling endeavor. Trump added that he believes major American news organizers are conspiring against him, releasing “fake” results in order to “suppress” enthusiasm among his followers.
OMFG. My bet is that Trump actually believes that. The man’s mind is gone.
Before even considering the nature of the truly unhinged conspiracy theory, it’s worth pausing to appreciate the broader context. The United States is currently dealing with a deadly pandemic; millions have taken to the streets to demand social justice; and unemployment has reached levels unseen since the Great Depression. It’s against this backdrop that Trump is seeing polls showing his support slip — a fact he finds so ridiculous that he’s hired a pollster to go after other pollsters. […]
Let’s also note that while Trump touted John McLaughlin as “highly respected,” McLaughlin is actually “notorious for producing rosy polling data on behalf of his clients.” Reflecting on the pollster’s record from the most recent national elections, the New York Times’ Nate Cohn described McLaughlin as “perhaps the worst pollster of 2018.” […]
But even if we put aside these relevant details, Trump’s entire pitch is just pitiful. Major American news organizations are publishing made-up polls? While engaging in a mass conspiracy with rival outlets? All in the service of suppressing voter enthusiasm five months before Election Day? […]
Perhaps most importantly, the McLaughlin memo the president is so excited about is based on the idea that pollsters are deliberately under-counting Republican voters. The subject line on the memo reads, “Skewed Media Polls.” […]
For a politician who focuses so heavily on appearances, Trump’s photo-ops keep going horribly awry.
Photo at the link.
Donald Trump cares a great deal about how things look. On Friday, for example, the White House forced reporters to sit closer together, despite the pandemic and the administration’s own safety guidelines, because the president’s team thought it would “look better.”
Similarly, Trump wants to speak at his nominating convention in August in front of a large crowd that ignores safety precautions, because of his preoccupation with “a pre-coronavirus look and feel.” […]
It’s been a staple of Trump’s style from the outset — up to and including his willingness to make personnel decisions based on his perceptions of “central casting.”
But for a politician who focuses so heavily on appearances, many of his photo-ops have gone horribly awry.
Last month, for example, the president visited a mask factory, where he refused to wear a mask. (“Live and Let Die” played over the facility’s loudspeaker to help punctuate the stranger-than-fiction moment.) Last week, Trump walked across a park that had been forcibly cleared of peaceful protestors, posed in front of a church, and briefly waved a Bible, creating a scandalous photo-op that ricocheted around the world.
And then four days later, the president arrived in Maine for another photo-op that the White House’s advance team probably ought to regret. USA Today reported:
[…] Trump traveled to Maine Friday to tour a facility that makes medical swabs used for coronavirus testing, but the swabs manufactured in the background during his visit will ultimately be thrown in the trash, the company said. Puritan Medical Products said it will have to discard the swabs, a company spokeswoman told USA TODAY in response to questions about the visit.
While Trump’s visit was underway, the images suggested something was amiss: the facility appeared to take care to create a sterile environment, which the president was indifferent toward. He did not wear a mask, and at one point, Trump picked up a swab — he wasn’t wearing gloves, either — and held it up to his nose.
Given the circumstances, the fact that the facility is throwing away the swabs isn’t too surprising.
The trouble, of course, is that these swabs are important: extensive coronavirus testing requires extensive access to swabs, and as USA Today’s article added, there’s a “national shortage” of the supplies […]
Someone should ask how many swabs they threw away. The photo is bad.
Yeah, Trump came close to firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
[…] According to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday citing several administration officials, advisers and allies on Capitol Hill talked the President out of firing Esper. Officials told the Journal that Trump was “furious” over the defense secretary’s opposition to invoking the Insurrection Act.
The officials also told WSJ that Trump consulted several advisers — which included White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; longtime Trump friend and outside adviser David Urban; and Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and James Inhofe (R-OK) — about their opinion regarding Esper’s stance, and Trump intended to fire the defense secretary that day.
After speaking with advisers — who warned the President against firing Esper because it would put his administration in a tough spot — Trump held off, the officials told WSJ.
Esper, however, began preparing a letter of resignation at the same time, officials told WSJ. The defense secretary considered resigning in light of his differences with the President regarding the military’s role, but aides and other advisers convinced him not to do it.
Massive voting delays and machine failures have been reported throughout metro Atlanta according to social media users tracking the resulting frustration and outrage in the state. Still, the looping lines and bustling crowds reported at various precincts haven’t inspired the state’s Republican leadership to fess up to the obvious: Maybe rolling out new equipment the same year that the state faced the deadly coronavirus pandemic wasn’t the best idea.
As many as 25 precincts in the state’s Gwinnett County, which is northeast of Atlanta, “didn’t have machines or other equipment up and ready to go” at 7 AM, Channel 2 Action News reporter Tony Thomas tweeted. “In some cases no scanners, or printers, or paper. That’s about 20% of precincts in (the) county [156 in total],” he said.
A voter at the Metropolitan Library, which is about three miles south of downtown Atlanta, told CBS 46 he had been standing in line since 7 AM and the line wasn’t moving. All machines were reported down at the location, reporter Melissa Stern tweeted. […]
Another CBS 46 video showed “outraged” voters who learned they couldn’t vote not only in Gwinnett County but throughout other areas of metro Atlanta. “I ran for office. I worked for President (Barack) Obama in the White House. This is wrong,” one woman yelled. “This is America. Please God help us. I mean it. This is a crisis in our world to make us not exercise our right to vote.” […]
Gabriel Sterling, implementation manager for Georgia’s voting system, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “So far we have no reports of any actual equipment issues. […] We have reports of poll workers not understanding setup or how to operate voting equipment,” Sterling said. “While these are unfortunate, they are not issues of the equipment but a function of counties engaging in poor planning, limited training and failures of leadership.”
Several Georgia residents, from social media users to the presiding officer of the DeKalb County Commission Steve Bradshaw, have called state officials out for prioritizing the blame game at this point. “It’s astounding to me what an abdication of leadership that is, to push the ownership down to the counties,” Bradshaw, a Democrat, told the AJC. “I was raised that if you mess up, fess up.”
The state’s [Republican] leadership apparently doesn’t adhere to that principle. In addition to their moral ineptitude, there’s been little acknowledgment that maybe the same racial and economic disparities observed nationwide in education, incarceration, and health systems impact voting and elections too. […]
Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Raisa Habersham tweeted that although she’s seen several reports of voting issues at precincts in downtown Atlanta and South Atlanta, “I want to point out that I haven’t seen or have been told of any voting issues at the precincts I’ve been to in Buckhead.” The neighborhood is one of Atlanta’s wealthiest communities. […]
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms begged voters not to allow their votes to be suppressed in a tweet Tuesday morning: “PLEASE stay in line. They should offer you a provisional ballot if the machines are not working.” […]
On Monday evening, the commissioner of the New York Police Department, Dermot Shea, put out a call urging New Yorkers to be vigilant against a dire threat. Warning that the NYPD had found “concrete disguised as ice cream at George Floyd protests,” Shea urged the public to report to detectives if they knew anything about this dire plot. This followed an earlier police alert saying that police had found cups “filled with cement and made to look like chocolate chip ice cream” in the area of protests.
The only thing wrong with this story is … everything. First, the cups are not ice cream cups. They’re clearly small espresso cups. Second, there’s no attempt to disguise the contents as anything other than concrete that looks like concrete. Third, the side of each cup is marked with the percentage of different materials used in making the concrete. Because these cups were clearly created by construction workers testing out concrete mixes for use in a building or pavement, quite likely at the building where they were found.
But this attempt to convince the public that protesters are—secretly, secretly—threatening violence is far from the most ridiculous example of police attempts to justify treating peaceful protesters like a deadly threat.
If you’re going to justify all those tanks, body armor, and storm trooper helmets, it certainly helps to have a threat—even a make believe threat. And lots of make-believe crimes. Crimes like the one in this other NY Post story where a broken window was reported as: “Looters broke into a Soho Rolex store during rioting and stole $2.4 million worth of watches, police sources said Monday.” A statement that is backed up by a repeat: “’The Rolex store is empty,’ a police source said. ‘They stole like $2.4 million in Rolexes.’”
What was actually stolen? Nothing. A couple of windows were broken. That was it. But why should the Post report that boring truth when the NYPD was happy to join them in a much more exciting story of million-dollar looters?
Keeping the public on edge and convinced that protesters are violent and threatening is a demanding task, but police on both coasts have shown that they’re up for the challenge. In Seattle, there was the dastardly case of the “improvised explosives” reported by the police department there. Explosives that were clearly … smashed candles. […]
[…] Martin Gugino is a peace activist with the Catholic Worker community, those wonderful lefty people inspired by Dorothy Day to actually take that “love your neighbor” stuff literally by feeding the hungry and working for peace. They’re thoroughly devoted to nonviolent activism in the Martin Luther King/Gandhian tradition. Gugino, like many Catholic Workers, also supported the Plowshares movement, those nifty folks who occasionally break into military bases to bang with hammers on missile silos, too. In other words, a grave threat to national security.
Now, as anyone who watches movies knows, people who assault children, pets, or old folks are clearly the bad guys. So the Conservative Treehouse blog invented a load of horseshit claiming that Gugino was a “professional agitator and Antifa provocateur” who “brags on his blog about the number of times he can get arrested and escape prosecution.” (We looked at the link, and if there was any such bragging, we didn’t see it.) The post also claimed Gugino’s Twitter Account is also filled with anti-cop sentiment, although the account appears to have been deleted now. But the Treehouse post did indeed include a screenshot of a tweet in which Gugino wrote “Fuck the police,” and that clearly proves he’s a terrorist Antifa murderer, doesn’t it? […]
More recently, Rouz [OANN’s Krstian Rouz] has done some perfectly sane journalism explaining that the Clintons, Soros, Anthony Fauci, and the Chinese government are all out to use the coronavirus to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids […].
From Matthew Gertz:
YIKES! OAN ran a segment last night on “mounting evidence of a globalist conspiracy” by the Clintons, Soros, Gates, Fauci, & Chinese gov’t to use coronavirus “to establish sweeping population control” by backing remdesvir over hydroxychlorquine. It cites Plandemic’s Mikovits!
The OAN segment concludes, “There is concern that the deep-state Democratic cabal and the Big Pharma are working to derail President Trump’s reelection, and force the American people into total submission and control.”
[…] Yes, that’s a favorite source of “information” for the guy with the nuclear codes. And now the guy who wants to “dominate” Americans who oppose police brutality is passing along a load of crap claiming that a wily Antifa infiltrator faked his own injury to “set up” the innocent cops, while he was also spying on them. Shouldn’t be long before Trump starts passing along other far-Right lunacy, like the notion that Gugino had a secret fake-blood pumper that ran from his shoulder strap to his face mask […]
Yes, that “fake-blood pumper” part of the conspiracy theory actually exists.
Sen. Schatz: “‘In light of the President saying that the old man who was bleeding out of his ear had it coming are you still supporting President Trump?’ may be the obvious question to ask of Republicans but that’s because it’s the right one.”
We don’t know how to say this, but it seems Fox News is spreading some fake news about Black Lives Matter and the nationwide civil rights movement that has activated in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. It’s weird, because usually Fox News is so thoughtful and careful with its reporting. […]
We’ll start with Tucker Carlson’s White Power Hour, then we’ll switch over to Laura Ingraham’s White Power Hour.
They’re saying Tucker might lose some advertisers over this one, and we can see why. Here is a video of Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson saying that none of this is even about black lives, and you better remember that when “they” come for you. Who is “they”? Black people with lives, sounds like! […]
[video at the link]
TUCKER CARLSON: No matter what they tell you, it has very little to do with Black lives. If only it did. If Democratic leaders cared about saving the lives of Black people, and they should, they wouldn’t ignore the murder of thousands of young Black men in their cities every year. They wouldn’t put abortion clinics in Black neighborhoods. They would, instead, do their very best to improve the public schools and to encourage intact families which we know beyond a shadow of a doubt is central to the life prospects of children. They’d try to make Black neighborhoods as safe as their own neighborhoods. They would close the payday lenders that add so much misery to the lives of poor people of all colors.
[…] If only somebody would listen to white Republicans, then black people would be saved! Plus … payday lenders, a thing we have just learned Tucker Carlson has even said before. Congratulations on being right on one thing, Tuck!
Bonus points for invoking the wingnut fundamentalist Christian lie that abortion is black genocide, because we all know forcing women to carry pregnancies to term so that white Republicans can deny them healthcare and housing works out way better, for black people.
[…] CARLSON: Anyone who has ever been subjected to the rage of the mob knows the feeling. It’s like being swarmed by hornets. You cannot think clearly. And the temptation is to panic. But you can’t panic. You got to keep your head and tell the truth. Tell the truth. If you show weakness of any kind, they will crush you.
Oh nothing, just Tucker giving people advice on how to stand your ground when THEY come for you, because THEY definitely are going to do that. […]
It’s like he’s giving marching orders for the race war, which makes sense, because Tucker Carlson is a white nationalist. Fox News swears he was referring to “Democratic leaders and inner city politicians,” not black people in general. In other words, Tucker didn’t mean to say Klan words that loudly […]
Meanwhile, Laura Ingraham hosted a black guest who also said Black Lives Matter isn’t about black lives, but rather about … *spins wheel of Fox News grievances* … the gays! White Fox News idiots love it when a black person will say the extremely batshit stuff for them, because then they don’t have to say it out loud themselves […]
This is Niger Innis, national spokesperson for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the executive director of some dumbass Tea Party group, and he has thoughts. […]
[Video at the link]
INNIS: The BLM movement […] was founded by Alicia Garza and a number of other co-founders that were promoting a hard Marxist and LGBT agenda. A gay agenda. […]
A GAY AGENDA?
INNIS: And look, I don’t have a problem with people exercising their First Amendment rights […] but I’ll be goddamned if you use the suffer[ing] and misery of black Americans and our legacy to the United States of America as your shield and use us as cannon fodder when your agenda really has not a damn thing to do with saving black lives. If you look at their agenda, defunding the police, that would put black lives in danger! […]
Anyway, Laura Ingraham was like “I hadn’t been aware of the LGBTQ connection at all,” and Innis was like “Yeah!” and everything was great on Fox News, because everybody was full of shit […]
This weekend, the Florida Fraternal Order of Police announced a plan to recruit terrible, racist, violent cops from across the country to serve in the Brevard County Police department.
All of the cops who were tired of being told they can’t beat up old Catholic Worker guys or pull college students out of cars and shock them with tasers for no reason, he said, would be welcome there and the city would have their backs if and when they felt the need to assault a citizen for funsies, […]
Facebook Post: Hey Buffalo 57… and Atlanta 6… we are hiring in Florida. Lower taxes, no spineless leadership or dumb mayors rambling on at press conferences… Plus… we got your back! #lawandorderflorida #movetowhereyouare♥️
While the post was soon removed, Brevard County FOP President Bert Gamin claimed responsibility for it and stood by it in comments to Florida Today:
“Our citizens have a right to protest peacefully and legally. They do not have a right to block roadways, trespass on private property or disobey lawful commands from law enforcement officers,” he wrote in response to emailed questions from FLORIDA TODAY.
He also defended the incidents in Buffalo and Atlanta.
“The police had the legal authority in both cases. At the time the warnings were provided, the citizens were already breaking the law. Those citizens chose to disregard the warnings. It led directly to escalations and confrontations with the police. When we issue lawful commands/warnings, citizens have a responsibility to comply. The reality is failure to comply leads to escalation.”
“Failure to comply” should not mean the cops have free rein to assault people in any way they see fit. I am sorry, but if those cops in Buffalo, in full on riot gear, were so afraid for their lives due to the oncoming threat of a 75-year-old Catholic Worker walking very slowly that they had to push him down on the ground so hard that the guy literally bled from his ears. That is not an appropriate response.
Also, leaving a protest in a car is not a “failure to comply” no matter how much the police might not like the thing they were protesting.
This, friends, is why the AFL-CIO needs to dump the FOP.
On the bright side of things, it turns out that ol’ Bert Gamin does not actually have the ability to recruit all of the bad cops in the land to come beat the shit out of innocent people in Brevard County. That distinction belongs Sheriff Wayne Ivey, and he would like to be very clear that the Brevard County police department will not be an asylum for wayward cops.
Via Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
“To be clear, the ‘Brevard County F.O.P.’ page and organization has no official affiliation with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office and was not authorized in any capacity by me or our agency to recruit or comment on our behalf!!,” Sheriff Wayne Ivey said on his own social media page. “The comments made by their members do not in any way represent the views of our agency and were made as individuals who were not acting in the capacity of a Law Enforcement Officer!!”
[…] It’s certainly strange to be on the side of a Sheriff and opposing a union president, but it’s 2020 and the FOP is trash anyway. Perhaps it is time for Gamin and all of the terrible cops he loves so much to consider employment elsewhere. […]
[…] his [Trump’s] ability to see clearly and make good decisions, always questionable to begin with, may be deteriorating.
[…] his campaign has to spend a good deal of its time accommodating his mood swings and insecurity. The Daily Beast reports that the campaign recently spent $400,000 airing ads on Fox News in Washington, where they knew the president would see them — about as useless a campaign expenditure as one could imagine — to soothe Trump’s nerves and convince Republicans in Congress that he’s doing great.
That’s right: His own campaign has to buy TV ads to communicate with him and keep him from going off the deep end. Even if it’s a relatively small expenditure given the size of his campaign (the reelection effort and affiliated groups have already spent more than $200 million, to little apparent effect), it’s an indication of what his campaign staffers have to spend their time worrying about.
Meanwhile, we’re in a moment where Trump’s impulses put him on the wrong side of public opinion on the protests against police brutality sweeping the country. While polling shows broad, bipartisan support for the protests, Trump can only return again and again to the divisive rhetoric and disastrous stunts that he is convinced got him where he is. As The Post reports: “Some Republicans are expressing concern that the president, over the past two weeks, has further deepened the nation’s racial wounds and harmed the party’s electoral prospects.”
Trump may be surprised to learn that for a change, deepening the nation’s racial wounds is not an effective political strategy. But either he can’t wrap his head around that reality, or he just can’t bring himself to do anything different.
Casting about for something to improve his standing, Trump has resorted to bringing back the band of geniuses who worked for him in 2016. So again: If you were a Republican in a close race, would you look at the White House and say, “Oh good, Corey Lewandowski is back. Everything’s going to be okay”?
If all you knew about Trump came from his public comments and the tweets in which he insists that the polls showing him trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden are all fake, you might believe that he is oblivious to the problem he faces. But that’s clearly not true. He may have built a career on confidence and bluster, but he is not unaware of the many failures he’s had along the way, even if he has faith that with enough persistence he can come out on top. […]
There are certainly some Republicans who believe the same of Trump — that his instincts are so insightful and his decision-making so visionary that despite the way things look right now, he’ll pull out another unexpected triumph. But they have less and less reason to think so.
A federal judge has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to give people detained at three Florida facilities soap, cleaning supplies, and masks to protect them against the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Miami Herald reports. “The judge stopped short of ordering that detainees be released, but the ruling—which was critical of the government’s treatment of people in ICE custody—was still a victory for the detainees who filed the lawsuit back in April,” the report said.
“In sum, in this moment of worldwide peril from a highly contagious pathogen, the court is not satisfied that ICE’s commitment to detention has meaningfully shifted since the start of the pandemic,” District Judge Marcia Cooke wrote, the report continued. Deservedly critical, but that ICE has to be forced to provide detained people with essential items to protect themselves against a virus that has already killed over 110,000 people in the U.S. so far is a disgrace. […]
Detainees asked for soap, masks, and other essential items in April.
…[Tucker Carlson:] They would close the payday lenders that add so much misery to the lives of poor people of all colors.
[…] If only somebody would listen to white Republicans, then black people would be saved! Plus … payday lenders, a thing we have just learned Tucker Carlson has even said before. Congratulations on being right on one thing, Tuck!…
In mid-March, the payday lending industry held its annual convention at the Trump National Doral hotel outside Miami. Payday lenders offer loans on the order of a few hundred dollars, typically to low-income borrowers, who have to pay them back in a matter of weeks. The industry has long been reviled by critics for charging stratospheric interest rates — typically 400% on an annual basis — that leave customers trapped in cycles of debt.
The industry had felt under siege during the Obama administration, as the federal government moved to clamp down. A government study found that a majority of payday loans are made to people who pay more in interest and fees than they initially borrow. Google and Facebook refuse to take the industry’s ads.
On the edge of the Doral’s grounds, as the payday convention began, a group of ministers held a protest “pray-in,” denouncing the lenders for having a “feast” while their borrowers “suffer and starve.”
But inside the hotel, in a wood-paneled bar under golden chandeliers, the mood was celebratory. Payday lenders, many dressed in golf shirts and khakis, enjoyed an open bar and mingled over bites of steak and coconut shrimp.
They had plenty to be elated about. A month earlier, Kathleen Kraninger, who had just finished her second month as director of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, had delivered what the lenders consider an epochal victory: Kraninger announced a proposal to gut a crucial rule that had been passed under her Obama-era predecessor.
Payday lenders viewed that rule as a potential death sentence for many in their industry. It would require payday lenders and others to make sure borrowers could afford to pay back their loans while also covering basic living expenses. Banks and mortgage lenders view such a step as a basic prerequisite. But the notion struck terror in the payday lenders. Their business model relies on customers — 12 million Americans take out payday loans every year, according to Pew Charitable Trusts — getting stuck in a long-term cycle of debt, experts say. A CFPB study found that three out of four payday loans go to borrowers who take out 10 or more loans a year.
Now, the industry was taking credit for the CFPB’s retreat. As salespeople, executives and vendors picked up lanyards and programs at the registration desk by the Doral’s lobby, they saw a message on the first page of the program from Dennis Shaul, CEO of the industry’s trade group, the Community Financial Services Association of America, which was hosting the convention. “We should not forget that we have had some good fortune through recent regulatory and legal developments,” Shaul wrote. “These events did not occur by accident, but rather are due in large part to the unity and participation of CFSA members and a commitment to fight back against regulatory overreach by the CFPB.”
This year was the second in a row that the CFSA held its convention at the Doral. In the eight years before 2018 (the extent for which records could be found), the organization never held an event at a Trump property.
Asked whether the choice of venue had anything to do with the fact that its owner is president of the United States and the man who appointed Kraninger as his organization’s chief regulator, Shaul assured ProPublica and WNYC that the answer was no. “We returned because the venue is popular with our members and meets our needs,” he said in a written statement. The statement noted that the CFSA held its first annual convention at the Doral hotel more than 16 years ago. Trump didn’t own the property at the time.
The CFSA and its members have poured a total of about $1 million into the Trump Organization’s coffers through the two annual conferences, according to detailed estimates prepared by a corporate event planner in Miami and an executive at a competing hotel that books similar events. Those estimates are consistent with the CFSA’s most recent available tax filing, which reveals that it spent $644,656 on its annual conference the year before the first gathering at the Trump property. (The Doral and the CFSA declined to comment.)
“It’s a way of keeping themselves on the list, reminding the president and the people close to him that they are among those who are generous to him with the profits that they earn from a business that’s in severe danger of regulation unless the Trump administration acts,” said Lisa Donner, executive director of consumer group Americans for Financial Reform.
The money the CFSA spent at the Doral is only part of the ante to lobby during the Trump administration. The payday lenders also did a bevy of things that interest groups have always done: They contributed to the president’s inauguration and earned face time with the president after donating to a Trump ally.
But it’s the payment to the president’s business that is a stark reminder that the Trump administration is like none before it. If the industry had written a $1 million check directly to the president’s campaign, both the CFSA and campaign could have faced fines or even criminal charges — and Trump couldn’t have used the money to enrich himself. But paying $1 million directly to the president’s business? That’s perfectly legal.
The inauguration of Donald Trump was a watershed for the payday lending industry. It had been feeling beleaguered since the launch of the CFPB in 2011. For the first time, the industry had come under federal supervision. Payday lending companies were suddenly subject to exams conducted by the bureau’s supervision division, which could, and sometimes did, lead to enforcement cases.
Before the bureau was created, payday lenders had been overseen mostly by state authorities. That left a patchwork: 15 states in which payday loans were banned outright, a handful of states with strong enforcement — and large swaths of the country in which payday lending was mostly unregulated.
Then, almost as suddenly as an aggressive CFPB emerged, the Trump administration arrived with an agenda of undoing regulations….
Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson is both a genuine reactionary douche and a huge populist phony, as is true of so many of them.
Brazil has restored detailed Covid-19 data to the official national website, Reuters reports, following a scandal about the removal of cumulative totals and a ruling by a Supreme Court justice that the full set of information be reinstated.
Akira MacKenziesays
@309
Hey! Bolsonario!
STICK THAT UP YOUR PUCKERED, FASCIST, AMPND MOST SEXUALLY HUMILIATING ORIFICE, YOU RIGHT-WING CREEP.
(And may you and your children end up on the business end of a Guillotine or a firing squad. através da revolução…FUCKER!!!)
New York lawmakers voted on Tuesday to repeal a decades-old law that shields police officers’ disciplinary records from the public. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said he will sign the bill into law […]
[…]
On Monday, the legislature voted to ban the use by police of chokeholds. […]
Advocates for police accountability have long been pushing for the repeal of the contentious section of New York’s Civil Rights Law, 50-a, that prevented disclosure to the public of disciplinary records of police officers.
“The legislation that will be passed over the coming days will help stop bad actors and send a clear message that brutality, racism, and unjustified killings will not be tolerated,” New York Senate majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in a statement.
New York police unions have called the legislation an attack on police.
The message has been sent very clearly to police officers by our elected officials: We don’t like you, Richard Wells, president of the statewide union the Police Conference of New York, told reporters. We don’t respect you. We will not support you. We want you to go away. […]
A better interpretation might be: “The message has been sent very clearly to police officers by our elected officials: We don’t tolerate your tactics nor your immunity from prosecution for using illegal tactics. We don’t respect brutality. We will not support those who engage in such brutality. We want policing by consent.”
[…]
Trump’s former personal lawyer, John Dowd, rushed to Trump’s defense. His letter — a personal note to Mattis, whom he addresses as “Jim” — is an unusual and disturbing document. In it, Dowd accuses Mattis of letting himself be used by a bunch of hack politicians and aligning himself with the ugly, hateful, disgraceful attitudes of Democratic politicians. Mattis, Dowd asserts, has sullied his once-sterling reputation for all time.
But Dowd’s letter does more than simply seek to discredit Mattis. By way of justifying the president’s [sic] use of force in DC, Dowd brands those collected in Lafayette Park as phony protesters who were not peaceful and are not real. They were, Dowd declares, terrorists. […] He is describing citizens who were doing what the constitution recognizes as a fundamental right — engaging in peaceable protest. That is, until, without warning, they were stormed in a show of force that smacked of an authoritarian crackdown.
[…]
In labeling protesters as terrorists, Dowd engages in something far more ominous and shocking than mere rhetorical overkill. He is effectively erasing the difference between Americans peaceably exercising their constitutional rights and Isis insurgents laying down roadside explosives.
That Trump has approvingly retweeted Dowd’s unhinged rhetoric is disturbing enough. More alarming still, Dowd’s words find a powerful echo in Tom Cotton’s recent, alarming call in the New York Times for an overwhelming show of force to restore order to the streets of America — shock and awe as a tool for pacifying the American citizenry. […]
[… I]f he [hair furor] loses re-election he will almost certainly frame his electoral defeat as a fraud orchestrated by the Democratic party and the mainstream press.
Imagine, then, that pro-Biden demonstrators take to the streets, demanding that Trump leave office. Does anyone believe Trump would recoil from invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 […] to use troops to restore order? […]
Come the weeks after 3 November, it is doubtful that an impulsive, cornered Trump would listen to calls for restraint — not with the likes of John Dowd and Tom Cotton whispering in the president’s [sic] inflamed ear.
The Arkansas senator, who seems likely to run in 2024, is a dangerous extremist who appeals to the Republican establishment and Trump’s base
If you were going to write a novel about a bigoted southern Republican senator eager to turn the US into a military dictatorship, it would feel heavy-handed to name the protagonist Tom Cotton. The only thing less subtle, perhaps, would be calling him Tommy Plantation.
But this is real life, I am afraid, not a dystopian novel — and real life in 2020 does not seem interested in subtlety. Nor does Cotton. […] Send in the troops, the headline bluntly declared. The nation must restore order, it continued. Nothing says “land of the free” like turning your troops on your own people.
[…] According to a Washington Post reporter, Cotton has “quintupled his fundraising” since the fracas started. He has also garnered the public approval of Donald Trump.
[…] Despite having the charisma of a soggy bag of lettuce, the senator is hugely powerful: Cotton has influenced many of Trump’s decisions, including cuts to legal immigration and the banning of commercial flights between the US and China during the early days of Covid-19. He is also the guy who told Trump it would be a great idea to buy Greenland. When not urging the acquisition of the world’s largest island, Cotton can often be found fanning the flames of racism and xenophobia. He has repeatedly used the phrases China virus and Wuhan virus and has floated the conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was created by the Chinese government in a weapons lab.
[… Cotton] appeals to the Trump wing of the Republican party, but, crucially, he also has strong ties with the establishment. “How many guys in town can give a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations and also get kudos in the pages of Breitbart?” Steve Bannon asked the New Yorker in 2017. “The answer is, one guy.” That guy? Cotton.
We will eventually see the end of Trump’s presidency [sic], but it will be far harder to get rid of Trumpism. The question is: how will Trump’s legacy evolve? Will it fade into the fringes or take on a more serious, more sinister, facade? Trumpism is largely defined by incompetence and farce, but Cotton could spin it into something a lot more terrifying and even more tragic.
Pompeo ousted the State Department’s inspector general, who was investigating him at the time. The secretary’s defense is looking quite shaky. (Understatement.)
It’s been nearly a month since Donald Trump — late on a Friday night — fired the State Department’s inspector general at the behest of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It quickly became apparent that the independent watchdog, Steve Linick, was ousted in the midst of his office’s investigations into possible Pompeo misconduct.
The cabinet secretary initially said he didn’t know about Linick’s probes. Pompeo changed direction soon after, conceding that he was, in fact, aware of the IG’s investigation into Pompeo’s role in circumventing Congress on a dubious arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
Last week, NBC News reported on a private congressional interview in which Linick said he was reviewing controversies related directly to Pompeo — including an inquiry into possible misuse of department resources — and the watchdog alerted top Pompeo aides to the inquiry. This morning, the House Foreign Affairs Committee released a lengthy transcript of the Linick interview in which he described talking about probes with Undersecretary of State Brian Bulatao, Deputy Secretary Steve Biegun, and Executive Secretary Lisa Kenna.
I didn’t want them to be surprised,” Linick said of the State Department officials, while referencing the materials he was seeking as part of the investigation.
A Washington Post analysis added this morning:
…Bulatao is one of Pompeo’s closest allies, having previously served as chief operating officer of the CIA when Pompeo served as the intelligence agency’s director. Pompeo said in an interview last year that Bulatao was one of his “longest, best friends in the whole world.” So in order for Pompeo’s defense to hold up, Linick would have informed all of these high-ranking officials — including a very close ally in Bulatao — and requested documents from the secretary’s office, yet none of this would have been brought to Pompeo’s attention.
Remember, according to Pompeo, the idea that he fired his own agency’s independent watchdog couldn’t have been to derail the investigator because, according to the secretary, he had no idea he was under investigation.
That was dubious at the time. It seems a bit worse now.
In an interview last week, Sean Spicer asked Donald Trump whether he’s grown in his faith, and whether he prays often. “So I think maybe I have [grown spiritually], from the standpoint that I see so much that I can do,” [Trump] replied. “I’ve done so much for religion. The Johnson Amendment, getting rid of it…. Nobody thought any of this stuff would happen.”
Trump did not, in reality, get rid of the Johnson Amendment, though it’s a lie he enjoys repeating. But just as importantly, his answer offered a peek into a curious perspective: asked about his religiosity, Trump’s instinct was to reflect on how impressed he is with himself.
As a result, polls like these seem inevitable.
As […] Trump leans on religion to reconnect with his political base ahead of the November election, most Americans dismiss the notion that he himself is a man of faith. Only 27 percent of registered voters in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll said they somewhat or strongly agree that Trump himself is religious, while 55 percent somewhat or strongly disagree.
How disappointing for the Trump campaign.
[…] It was a few weeks ago when Trump held a hastily thrown together White House event in which he declared houses of worship “essential” during the pandemic crisis. The president added that he’d override governors that kept houses or worship closed in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
[…] this was meaningless theater. It’s not up to Trump to decide who and what is deemed “essential” at the state level, and he lacked the authority to mandate open religious services.
[…] The same was true when Trump briefly posed with a Bible at St. John’s Episcopal Church — after peaceful protestors were removed by force from Lafayette Square, clearing a path for the president’s photo-op. A day later, he toured a Catholic shrine for no particular reason.
[…] the public’s skepticism is hardly outrageous. As regular readers know, Trump — a thrice-married former casino owner — claimed to go to a New York church that rarely saw him. Asked if he’s ever asked God for forgiveness, he said, “I don’t think so.” Asked whether he’s drawn more to the New or Old Testaments, Trump replied, “Both.”
And, of course, there was the whole “Two Corinthians” incident.
If the president’s campaign strategy is rooted in performative displays of religion, he might need to start looking for a Plan B.
Trump didn’t just surprise our allies by deciding to move troops out of Germany; he also surprised the Trump administration.
[…] Trump is slashing the U.S. troop presence in Germany by nearly 30%. As part of the same directive, [he] is capping the number of American servicemen and women who can be deployed to Germany at 25,000, despite troop levels that are routinely twice as high.
As we discussed, the WSJ had a follow-up report noting that the Republican White House’s decision “surprised” the United States’ allies, whom Trump hadn’t bothered to consult or inform in advance of the move. Evidently, as Reuters reported, the Trump administration was caught off guard, too.
Trump’s decision to cut U.S. troop levels in Germany blindsided a number of senior national security officials, according to five sources familiar with the matter, and the Pentagon had yet to receive a formal order to carry it out,[…]
One U.S. official told Reuters that personnel at the Defense Department were left “scrambling” to figure out the effects of Trump’s announcement on relations with Germany. Another source said senior officials at the State Department, Pentagon, and National Security Council were blindsided and “learned something was up when calls started coming around and the WSJ article hit.”
Part of the problem with the American president’s gambit is substantive: with this one move, Trump is undercutting NATO and handing the Kremlin a victory for no apparent reason. […]
Trump appears to have kept most of the relevant players — in his administration, in Berlin, in other foreign capitals, on Capitol Hill — in the dark. […]
Trump did speak to Vladimir Putin before making the announcement, but it’s not clear if they spoke about troop withdrawals in Germany. […]
Good news for Justice, bad news for Michael Flynn:
The judge presiding for Michael Flynn’s case was told by the former prosecutor he appointed to advise him that he should deny the Justice Department request and move towards sentencing Flynn.
The former prosecutor, John Gleeson, who also is a retired judge, told U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan that the Justice Department’s reasons for wanting the case dismissed were contradictory and were disproven by previous filings in the case.
That’s William Barr’s submission of reasons, submitted to please Donald Trump.
“They contradict and ignore this Court’s prior orders, which constitute law of the case,” Gleeson said of the DOJ’s new reasons for why the case should be dismissed. “They are riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact.”
Gleeson described the DOJ’s explanations for dropping the case as “not credible,” saying that it was involved in “corrupt, politically motivated dismissals.”
“The Government has engaged in highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the President,” Gleeson wrote.
Gleeson recommended to Sullivan that, rather than initiate a separate contempt proceeding against Flynn for perjury, he should take into account Flynn’s perjury during sentencing in the underlying case.
“This approach—rather than a separate prosecution for perjury or contempt—aligns with the Court’s intent to treat this case, and this Defendant, in the same way it would any other,” Gleeson wrote.
Flynn and the Justice Department are trying to get Flynn’s case dismissed. Judge Sullivan has initially balked, given the extraordinary circumstances of the matter. […]
The friend-of-the-court filing submitted by John Gleeson can be read at the link.
From the comments posted by readers:
“For the foregoing reasons, the court-appointed amicus curiae respectfully submits that the Government’s motion to dismiss should be denied and no Order to Show Cause why Flynn should not be held in criminal contempt should issue.”
TL;DR – Stop wasting our fucking time!
———————–
Bill Barr is not going to be happy about this… what’s the next move going to be?
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Sullivan will get on with it expeditiously and sentence him. Then Trump can pardon him.
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The man lied under oath and even Judge Emmet Sullivan called him a traitor. Sentence him and it will FORCE tRump to pardon him in the middle of his polling numbers free fall. That will be a great optic and a new Lincoln Project and Republicans Against Trump next ads.
————————
Can’t wait to hear what the Law and Order President has to say about this.
————————
Under normal circumstances, this would prompt the resignation of the Attorney General.
[…] Gone With the Wind has been dropped from HBO Max […] after protests over its depiction of slavery.
The move followed an article in the LA Times by John Ridley, Oscar-winning scriptwriter of 12 Years a Slave, in which he described it as “a film that, when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color”.
Ridley added: “At a moment when we are all considering what more we can do to fight bigotry and intolerance, I would ask that all content providers look at their libraries and make a good-faith effort to separate programming that might be lacking in its representation from that which is blatant in its demonisation.”
HBO responded with a statement, which said: “These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible.”
The streaming service added that the film would return to the platform accompanied by “a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions”, but would remain unaltered “because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed”.
[…]
lumipunasays
Re 315:
If the president’s campaign strategy is rooted in performative displays of religion, he might need to start looking for a Plan B.
I have to say, at least Trump hasn’t done this religion performance thing very often, considering his general showman tendencies and his political dependence on evangelical godbotherers. (Normally, I wouldn’t notice this kind of thing when it’s missing in a politician’s repertoire, but, with Trump, it’s just so amazingly crass when it does come up.)
It’s like half the time his advisors recognize that he’s really, deeply, incurably incapable of of convincingly portraying religiosity, so it’s better to not bother.
More than 1,200 former DOJ staffers call for investigation into Barr’s role in removing protesters
More than 1,200 former employees of the justice department are calling for an investigation into attorney general William Barr’s role in the forcible removal of peaceful protesters from near the White House last week.
In a letter to the justice department inspector general Michael Horowitz, the former staffers said, “We are deeply concerned about the Department’s actions, and those of Attorney General William Barr himself, in response to the nationwide lawful gatherings to protest the systemic racism that has plagued this country throughout its history, recently exemplified by the brutal killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by sworn law enforcement officers acting under the color of law.”
The letter noted that those who have signed on to the request have worked under both Democratic and Republican administrations. The former staffers said they had severe concerns about Barr’s role in the decision to use tear gas against protesters in order to allow Trump to stage a photo op at a nearby church.
The former staffers said they were also concerned about the decision to deploy federal law enforcement officers to Washington DC, in response to the protests.
“For all of these reasons, we are asking you to immediately open and conduct an investigation of the full scope of the Attorney General’s and the DOJ’s role in these events,” the letter says.
“If the Attorney General or any other DOJ employee has directly participated in actions that have deprived Americans of their constitutional rights or that physically injured Americans lawfully exercising their rights, that would be misconduct of the utmost seriousness, the details of which must be shared with the American people.”
Trump has moved on. He’s bored. So, coronavirus pandemic? That’s in the past as far as he is concerned. Of course, he is wrong, deadly wrong.
The White House would really like to change the subject from that whole coronavirus pandemic thing, mmmkay? Donald Trump is itching to hold some big rallies, and it would be a lot easier if everyone would just pretend that COVID-19 is not still killing around 1,000 people every day, with hospitalizations surging in some states.
Parts of the White House losing interest in the coronavirus are positive—not having Trump in front of the cameras suggesting bleach injections is a very good thing. But to the degree that the loss of focus on the still-deadly pandemic means a diminished government response, it’s bad. To the degree that Team Trump is actively encouraging Americans to believe that everything is fixed and there’s no problem, it’s worse.
[…] Far from planning to stomp out the embers, Trump is planning to fan the flames with big campaign rallies and his ongoing encouragement to states to reopen regardless of whether their COVID-19 statistics make it safe to do so.
The White House task force only meets twice a week rather than daily now, which, again, is not a bad thing to the extent that it gets Donald Trump himself out of the process. But that’s not the only way the administration’s response has shifted […]
The task force is not sending as many updates to state health officials. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention briefing calls are similarly offering less top-down information to the states—and the CDC remains sidelined. Experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci aren’t doing as many media interviews, and they’re not being allowed to testify to Congress, either. The Department of Health and Human Services is taking over responsibilities from the Federal Emergency Management Agency—which, again, might not be a bad thing except that it’s happening as the Trump administration tries to play down the dangers of the pandemic.
Donald Trump has taken his victory lap. He “made every decision correctly.” The pandemic is “largely over.” So the serious response—as flawed as it was all along—is over, too.
I live in a red state. I live among lots of Trump supporters. Nevertheless, many of my neighbors were wearing masks a few weeks ago. Now they are not. Cases of coronavirus are increasing here. Trump’s actions and statements are making a bad situation worse.
Macarena Santelices oversaw a string of controversial decisions, prompting #WeDoNotHaveAMinister to trend
Chile’s women and gender minister, a great-niece of the late dictator Augusto Pinochet, has resigned after just a month following a furious backlash to her appointment and a string of misssteps [thank you Grauniad!] in office.
[…]
Before she was named minister in May, Santelices, had spoken positively of the good side of Pinochet’s regime, under which thousands of women were subjected to torture and almost all female political prisoners endured sexual violence.
Once in office, she oversaw a string of controversial decisions, prompting the hashtag #WeDoNotHaveAMinister to trend in Chile.
On Monday, she named Jorge Ruz — a former tabloid editor best known for working on a reality TV show in which women are judged in a swimsuit competition — to head the ministry’s research division.
The Plurinational Feminist Assembly described the move as “unacceptable”, tweeting: “We demand her departure NOW.”
[…]
Santelices, who describes herself a feminist, had condemned Chile’s forceful feminist groups for seeking chaos and destruction.
The women’s ministry seat is held by rightwing party Independent Democratic Union, a part of the conservative coalition government led by President Sebastian Piñera.
Santelices is replaced by Mónica Zalaquett, a former deputy who staunchly opposed Michelle Bachelet’s push to ease on the total abortion ban, and permit termination in instances of rape or if there is a risk to the life of the woman or foetus.
In 2013, when abortion was still prohibited under all circumstances, Zalaquett applauded the bravery of an 11-year-old girl who gave birth after being denied abortion rights by the state.
Women’s rights groups welcome the news of Santelices’ resignation, but the appointment of Zalaquett once again prompted the hashtag #WeDoNotHaveAMinister to trend.
You don’t tug on superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull the mask off that old lone ranger
You don’t appoint phony Ministers (Ok, ok, I’ve no sense of lyrics…)
Elizabeth Warren is going after corruption and incompetence in yet another area: the operation of military prisons.
[…] Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) raised concerns about the American Correctional Association, a trade group for prisons that simultaneously acts as an official accreditor. The arrangement presents an obvious conflict of interest for the group, rendering “ACA’s standards toothless,” the lawmakers wrote. Documents provided to Warren’s office, they said, suggest that the ACA “has not denied accreditation to a single facility in the last six years.” […]
Aside from Guantánamo Bay, not much is known about military prisons or other detention facilities run by the Defense Department across the globe, but the ACA apparently plays a key role in regulating them. Warren’s office found that several Army, Navy, and Marine Corps prisons rely on ACA accreditation, despite indications that the process is not truly independent. According to the lawmakers’ letter, “the ACA grants facilities three months’ advance notice of its audits; provides facilities with ‘technical assistance,’ including ‘standards checklists’ and an ‘audit readiness evaluation’ that help a facility know when to schedule its audit and what to expect; and, at a facility’s request, the ACA will first conduct a ‘mock audit’ to help the facility prepare for the real thing.”
[…] The problem, as the lawmakers see it, lies in the ACA’s dual role as “accreditor and advocate.” Unlike most de facto regulatory bodies, the ACA makes millions of dollars each year from its annual conferences, which are sponsored by private prison giants such as CoreCivic, the GEO Group, and MTC. The ACA also makes money from accreditation contracts with prisons owned by these firms, potentially creating an incentive for auditors to ignore shoddy conditions, according to Warren and Gallego. […]
You might think the White House would want to make like a common GOP senator right now and duck and cover from Trump’s latest batshit senile conspiracy theory tweets about 75-year-old Catholic peace activist Martin Gugino. After all, Axios did report this morning that they are “at their wits’ end” over that tweet, and starting to wonder if Trump even wants to be re-elected. (Of course he does. He just doesn’t want it to happen fairly, and he doesn’t know how stupid he is, so he thinks he’s helping himself, by creating imagination stories about Gugino being an antifa-trained super-spy.)
But not Kayleigh McEnany! Nobody thought she’d really set herself apart as press secretary — she is a shameless fucking liar, tell us how that makes her special in the Trump administration — but she’s doing it, because she has so little self-respect, so empty a soul, that she’s actually willing to say with a straight face that Trump is just asking normal questions, like for instance when he accuses Joe Scarborough of murder. […]
So when Trump accused the 75-year-old Catholic peace activist, who is still in the hospital after the Buffalo police […] made his head bleed, of being an “ANTIFA provocateur.” McEnany was ON IT. She always is when she’s dealing with subject matter that comes from Trump’s favorite clearinghouse for batshit QAnon-grade conspiracy theories, the One America News Network (OANN).
She appeared on the “Fox & Friends” morning idiot breakout session, and she said Trump was just asking very good questions.
BRIAN KILMEADE: So yesterday, the president, Kayleigh, tweeted out that this Buffalo protester, the 75-year-old who was shoved to the ground by a police officer, might have been part of antifa, and a provocateur, in order to get that type of reaction, just to paraphrase. Could you expand on that? Does the president think this guy is part of antifa?
MCENANY: So, the president was raising questions based on a report that he saw. There are questions that need to be asked and every case we can’t jump on one side without looking at all of the facts at play. This individual has some very questionable tweets, some profanity-laden tweets about police officers. […] We need the appropriate amount of force used in any interaction, but there are a lot of questions in that case.
[…] OK, so to recap, McEnany needs us to know that:
1) Donald Trump saw a “report.” (from the One America News Network, which is not actually a news network, but which does spew a lot of Russian propaganda, especially from the “reporter” who did this “report,” who used to literally work for Russian state-owned media!)
2) And because Trump saw a “report” from that very valid “news network,” there are “questions that need to be asked.” Obviously! Trump is never outright accusing, he is just asking questions! Rush Limbaugh admiringly explained recently how Trump is very “clever” when he shitposts propaganda like this. It was revealing of how dead inside both Limbaugh and Trump really are.)
3) ALSO DID YOU HEAR MARTIN GUGINO’S MOUTH IS A BIG CUSSYPOTTY? Kayleigh McEnany needs the Fox News morning audience to know this.
McEnany also said that an important question that needs to be asked about this is why all those cops resigned from the emergency response team, because we guess “because they’re fucking assholes” isn’t the answer she wants you to arrive at. There must be something to Trump’s antifa conspiracy theory!
We should note that there is a possibility this strategy came from inside the White House, and not just from inside Trump’s brain and itchy Twitter fingers. […] Note that “provocateur” is both used and spelled correctly in the initial tweet […]
See SC’s comment 276 for Trump’s original tweet.
Bill Barr still hasn’t found any antifa provocateurs to prosecute. And he is looking hard.
[…] The New York Police Benevolent Association held a whiny-ass press conference yesterday where they complained that protests against ongoing police violence hurt their feelings — although, the literal police violence at these protests hurt people’s skulls. The New York Post described noted asshole Patrick Lynch as the “fiery head of the city’s largest police union,” because a “fiery head” is what you want in police work.
Lynch admitted that the murder of George Floyd was in fact a murder. He wanted a cookie for that shit, even though he has zero interest in addressing the systemic issues that gave Floyd’s killer a badge in the first place or kept him in the force after more than a dozen complaints. If someone hadn’t recorded the murder with 21st Century technology, the police would’ve covered it up (they did try!) and blamed Floyd for his own death. No, what’s grinding Lynch’s gears the most is the imaginary “abuse” of police officers.
LYNCH: They’re asking us to pull back! They’re asking us to walk away from you! They’re asking us to abandon our communities! They’re asking me to walk away from where I live. They’re asking me to walk away from where I work. They’re asking us to walk away from neighborhoods we brought back. And that’s what’s happening. And you know what? We don’t have a choice! If we put our hand on the criminal, you’re going to jail. I’m not being dramatic. That’s how bad it is.
Lynch was being more than a little dramatic. We’re only asking the police not to kill or brutalize us. It’s a small ask, but I suppose he thinks that’s like asking for a pizza without cheese or dough. What’s the point?
Lynch insists that the NYPD has “brought back” neighborhoods thanks to tactics that turned those communities into police states. I beg to differ. Eric Garner was killed on a city street for suspicion of selling cigarettes of mass destruction. Nothing justifies that, even if it might make tourists who never even venture into those neighborhoods feel safer in Times Square. […]
Notice that when Lynch denounces some imagined anti-police policy, he says, “If we put our hand on the criminal, you’re going to jail.” He can’t even say “suspect,” as if he’s read the Constitution at some point in his life. The grotesque treatment we’re seeing of protesters can be traced to the police dehumanizing so-called “criminals.” They’re no longer citizens or even humans, so the police can do whatever they want in the pursuit of their definition of justice. […]
The toppling of Edward Colston in Bristol (let’s forget the slavery bit, shall we?) has raised an army of ‘heroic defenders’
Ah yes, statues: the only subject powerful enough to wrestle the news focus away from the pandemic, the oscillating UK infection rates, the Dominic Cummings road trip movie, the global Black Lives Matter movement and the looming prospect of a second coronavirus wave.
As the statue of the slaver Edward Colston was toppled into the harbour in Bristol, a sort of statue-shaped bat signal went out to Britain’s patriots, a special pheromone that somehow can only be picked up by those blokes who are always in the audience on Question Time: Our Statues Need Saving. Now the patriots are going in to bat for mediocre town centre statues that would otherwise collect hot, white streaks of bird shit. You’re right, they are the real heroes of the hour.
In case Statue Discourse has passed you by, a refresher: over a weekend of nationwide BLM protests, two whole statues were treated badly. I know, I know. The first was Bristol’s much-petitioned-about Edward Colston statue, which, after years of prevarication, was toppled into the waters where his slave ships used to dock. The second, the Churchill statue in Parliament Square, was amended with a squiggle of spray paint that read “was a racist”, and was quickly licked clean again the next morning by an army of Conservative MPs. [… W]e are talking about statues — both for, and against — more than at any time in history since maybe the peak of Ancient Greece.
[… W]e’ve got a taste for destroying statues now […] As Colston was getting his first swimming lesson, Belgium was busy defacing a statue of King Leopold II, who oversaw an unimaginably brutal regime in Congo that led to the death of millions — his Antwerp statue was taken down for public safety this week. On Tuesday, [London mayor] Sadiq Khan unveiled a new commission to review the diversity of London landmarks, and 11 hours later a statue of Robert Milligan was being removed from West India Quay.
[…]
I’m still trying to get my head around the idea of responding to widespread protests calling for human dignity and fairer policing with “yeah but what about our statues, though”; the idea that in the midst of all of this, the inanimate objects that most weekends get urinated on by town drunks are somehow more important and worthy than social justice and human life. […]
Tommy Robinson [Stephen Yaxley-Lennon] is fuming, obviously: on Sunday, he released a video in which he raged necklessly on his sofa, shouting of the Colston statue: Who gives a shit what it’s about and what the man’s done? It’s part of British history. [so is Karl Marx… –blf]
He’s right: it is part of British history. So we should learn about and confront that, rather than let it stand, memorialised and unbothered, in our various town centres. If you impulsively care about protecting our dark history so much, you’re probably on the wrong side of it. As of this weekend, Britain has two fewer heads to try to throw traffic cones on top of. That’s about the net loss of this entire escapade.
tomhsays
@ #317
Unfortunately, that’s just advisory, and it’s out of Judge Sullivan’s hands. The trump-friendly panel of the DC Circuit, currently considering the case, may well rule for the DOJ. If the full court takes it, I would say it is a toss-up, but it could go Sullivan’s way. If the Supreme Court takes it after a pro-Sullivan ruling, it will clearly show the majority has completely sold out to Trump.
The lack of a unified national strategy has left Americans uncertain about whether and how to be tested, has hampered reopening plans, and could jeopardize efforts to restart the economy, experts warn.
In Maryland, drive-through coronavirus testing sites are now open to all residents, whether or not they show signs of illness.
In Oregon, by contrast, officials have said that generally only people with symptoms of covid-19, the illness associated with the coronavirus, should be tested — even in the case of front-line health-care workers.
In Rhode Island, officials have proactively tested all of the state’s 7,500 nursing home residents, including those with no symptoms, and are developing plans to test more people in high-risk workplaces, such as restaurants and grocery stores.
The wide range of approaches across the country comes as the federal government has offered little guidance on the best way to test a broad swath of the population, leaving state public health officials to wrestle on their own with difficult questions about how to measure the spread of the virus and make decisions about reopening their economies. […]
In my red state almost no one is getting tested for any reason. You have to be really sick already to get tested.
[…] “The states are on their own,” said Kelly Wroblewski, director of infectious diseases at the Association of Public Health Laboratories, noting that the kind of guidance the federal government routinely gives in screening for flu and other outbreaks “has been absent” in the covid-19 pandemic. “There has been no coordination.”
That means that while tests are available to anyone who wants them in states such as Kentucky and Georgia and some large cities such as Detroit and Los Angeles, state officials in Idaho and Louisiana continue to recommend that only sick people get tested. […]
I personally know people who had some symptoms (fever, cough) and they still could not get tested.
So far, about 460,000 Americans are being tested a day — 1.5 percent of the population, and still shy of the 900,000 to 30 million that experts say need to be tested daily to capture the extent of the virus’s spread.
“The case numbers we’re seeing are probably massively undercounted,” said Divya Siddarth, a researcher who helped devise a testing strategy for Harvard University’s Safra Center that emphasizes finding and suppressing the disease in areas with fewer cases. “These [lower prevalence] regions are likely to reopen, and they’ve barely done any tests.” […]
Local and state health officials worry that the lack of coherent strategy could result in tests becoming widely available for the affluent, while remaining limited for those with fewer resources, including minority communities that have already been disproportionately affected by the virus.
At the University of Arizona, officials plan to reserve molecular swab tests, which determine if a person is currently infected, for symptomatic students and their contacts. Each test is about $50 to $75 dollars; there are 60,000 students, staff and faculty and each would have to be tested repeatedly.
“Maybe the NFL can afford that; we can’t, and I don’t know any university that can,” said Robert C. Robbins, the university’s president. […]
As tests have become more available, officials have begun to recommend that anyone who is experiencing signs of illness, even a mild cough or sore throat, get one. [Not in my state.]
The goal is to identify and quarantine people with the disease, and then use contact tracers to track down people who have interacted with that person and quarantine them as well.
“Testing is just part of a comprehensive strategy,” former CDC director Tom Frieden said. “As you emerge from that sheltering situation, you box the virus in.” […]
On the morning of Friday, February 28th, Ævar Pálmi Pálmason, a detective with the Reykjavík police department, was summoned by his boss. Iceland did not yet have a confirmed case of covid-19, but the country’s Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management wanted to be prepared. Suppose somebody tested positive? A team would be needed to track down everyone with whom that person had been in contact. Pálmason’s supervisor told him he was going to lead that team.
“We were just talking: ‘If and when the first case happens—it could be this week, we just don’t know,’ ” Pálmason recalled. “And then, two hours later, we got the call.” A man who’d recently been skiing in the Dolomites had become the country’s first known coronavirus patient.
Two other cops, two nurses, and a criminologist had been assigned to Pálmason’s team. “With our detective techniques to find people, we began to gather some information from the case,” Pálmason told me. The man, the team learned, had been back in Iceland for several days before he’d been diagnosed. During that time, he’d done all the things people normally do—gone to work, met with colleagues, run errands.
Anyone who’d spent more than fifteen minutes near the man in the days before he’d experienced his first symptoms was considered potentially infected. (“Near” was defined as within a radius of two metres, or just over six feet.) The team came up with a list of fifty-six names. By midnight, all fifty-six contacts had been located and ordered to quarantine themselves for fourteen days.
The first case was followed by three more cases, then by six, and then by an onslaught. By mid-March, confirmed covid cases in Iceland were increasing at a rate of sixty, seventy, even a hundred a day. As a proportion of the country’s population, this was far faster than the rate at which cases in the United States were growing. The number of people the tracing team was tracking down, meanwhile, was rising even more quickly. An infected person might have been near five other people, or fifty-six, or more. One young woman was so active before she tested positive—going to classes, rehearsing a play, attending choir practice—that her contacts numbered close to two hundred. All were sent into quarantine.
The tracing team, too, kept growing, until it had fifty-two members. They worked in shifts out of conference rooms in a Reykjavík hotel that had closed for lack of tourists. To find people who had been exposed, team members scanned airplane manifests and security-camera footage. They tried to pinpoint who was sitting next to whom on buses and in lecture halls. One man who fell ill had recently attended a concert. The only person he remembered having had contact with while there was his wife. But the tracing team did some sleuthing and found that after the concert there had been a reception.
“In this gathering, people were hugging, and eating from the same trays,” Pálmason told me. “So the decision was made—all of them go into quarantine.” If you were returning to Iceland from overseas, you also got a call: put yourself in quarantine. At the same time, the country was aggressively testing for the virus—on a per-capita basis, at the highest rate in the world.
Iceland never imposed a lockdown. Only a few types of businesses—night clubs and hair salons, for example—were ever ordered closed. Hardly anyone in Reykjavík wears a mask. And yet, by mid-May, when I went to talk to Pálmason, the tracing team had almost no one left to track. During the previous week, in all of Iceland, only two new coronavirus cases had been confirmed. The country hadn’t just managed to flatten the curve; it had, it seemed, virtually eliminated it. […]
More at the link.
They did a lot of work. They organized a rapid response of the kind that Trump wouldn’t even understand, let alone support with federal dollars.
tomh @327, thanks for that additional information.
In other news, Team Trump is still using coronavirus as an excuse to push for more restrictions on immigration.
Just as the Trump administration is basically saying that the novel coronavirus is no longer a worry by pushing for a packed Republican presidential convention this summer, it’s also reportedly using the pandemic to continue pushing for even more immigration restrictions, […]. Under the reported changes, the administration is considering suspending certain temporary worker visas, claiming it’s supposedly needed as part of pandemic response and to aid in economic recovery.
But as Forbes notes, Trump’s “recent effusive remarks on jobs and the U.S. economy contradict the administration’s legal and policy rationale for imposing new immigration restrictions,” and that’s because the true rationale has always been racism, and racism alone. Just look at who’s behind the reported changes.
“One of the key figures behind the push to limit immigration is Stephen Miller, Trump’s lead immigration adviser and the architect of the President’s hardline immigration agenda,” […] Miller has already exploited the pandemic to institute changes the administration could never get past Congress, including unilaterally obliterating legal protections for migrant children seeking asylum in the U.S.
[…] American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Greg Chen said in the report. “It’s not a rational or reasonable approach to the stated goals of what they’re trying to achieve, which only points to the underlying purpose of effectuating the President’s campaign goals of cutting off immigration.” […]
Modification is at the request of a Black woman, who wanted it to better reflect the oppression of people of colour.
[…]
Kennedy Mitchum, a recent graduate of Drake University in Iowa, contacted Merriam-Webster […], to propose updating the term.
“I basically told them that they need to include that there’s a systematic oppression upon a group of people,” she told the local CBS affiliate KMOV.
“It’s not just, ‘Oh, I don’t like someone.'”
Merriam-Webster’s editorial manager, Peter Sokolowski, confirmed to AFP that the definition would be modified after Mitchum’s request.
The dictionary currently offers three definitions of racism, and Sokolowski said the second definition touches on Mitchum’s point — but that “we will make that even more clear in our next release”.
[…]
One of the dictionary’s editors told Mitchum that the definitions of other words that are “related to racism or have racial connotations” would also be updated, without specifying which ones.
“We apologise for the harm and offense we have caused in failing to address this issue sooner,” the editor wrote, according to a message published by Drake University and retweeted by Mitchum.
Tommy Robinson [Stephen Yaxley-Lennon] among supporters of defend our memorials event
[… H]undreds [of far-right demonstrators] are mobilising to attend a patriotic unity event at Winston Churchill’s statue in Westminster on Saturday morning, in response to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests.
The far-right activist Tommy Robinson and political group Britain First are among those supporting a defend our memorials event, which is being publicised with pictures of “Churchill is a racist” graffiti that was daubed on the statue last Sunday.
[…]
Far-right groups online have rapidly become agitated by the BLM protests, reaching a tipping point on Sunday and Monday after images were shared on social media of the tagging of Churchill’s statue […].
Figureheads such as Robinson and the Britain First leader, Paul Golding, produced videos shared on lightly regulated social media networks such as Telegram or the Russian-owned VK, angrily complaining that police had their lost grip on the BLM protesters on Sunday afternoon and evening.
The growing tensions prompted a standoff in the Hertfordshire town of Hoddesdon on Monday, where a group made Nazi salutes and shouted: Why don’t you go back to Africa? at a BLM protest as they converged in the afternoon. Small groups have gathered elsewhere, such outside the cenotaph in Hull on Wednesday.
In response to a family-oriented CNN town hall on racism Tucker Carlson launched an attack on the much-loved furry red muppet
The rightwing Fox News host Tucker Carlson launched an unprecedented attack on the beloved Sesame Street puppet Elmo on Tuesday night, after Elmo and his father, Louie, discussed racism in a one-off town hall episode […].
Carlson, who has described white supremacy in America as a hoax, was upset by the children’s show, which addressed the anti-racism protests that are taking place across the US. Rather than educating viewers on systemic racism, Sesame Street, Carlson said, was telling its audience: America is a very bad place.
In the hour-long episode of the children’s show […] Elmo’s father, Louie, explained that protesters “want to end racism”. […]
“They are sad and upset, and they have every right to be, Elmo. People are upset because racism is a huge problem in our country,” Louie said. “Racism is when people treat other people unfairly because of the way they look or the color of their skin.”
The show, which also featured the CNN contributor Van Jones and a number of children asking questions about racism, was praised for the effectiveness of its message, but Carlson had a different interpretation, and suggested the two puppets had a different, more sinister, motivation for decrying the treatment of minorities.
Got that, Bobby? America is a very bad place and it’s your fault, so no matter what happens, no matter what they do to you when you grow up, you have no right to complain, Carlson said.
[… On Monday] Carlson said: This may be a lot of things, this moment we’re living through, but it is definitely not about black lives. Remember that when they come for you, and at this rate, they will.
[…]
In the CNN anti-racism episode, Louie […] explained to his son:
“Not all streets are like Sesame Street. On Sesame Street, we all love and respect one another. Across the country, people of color, especially in the black community, are being treated unfairly because of how they look, their culture, race and who they are.”
Louie added: “What we are seeing is people saying, ‘Enough is enough.’ They want to end racism.”
A Fox News spokesman defended Carlson’s Remember that when they come for you claim on Tuesday, telling the Washington Post that Carlson was clearly referring to Democratic leaders and inner-city politicians.
[…]
The mildly deranged penguin is now looking for incoming Muppets. I think she wants to give them a Thank You cheese.
blf @334, thanks for that post, and for ending with some humor.
In other news, here is an update on the Republican plan for their national convention:
As previously suspected, it looks like the Republican Party is homing in on Jacksonville, Florida, as the “new” location for Donald Trump’s National Republican Convention. The Washington Post reports that the party’s more boring, proceduralish meetings will still be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, so that the party can dodge lawsuits for breaking their contract, and that the decision will only be final after they figure out whether there are actually enough hotel rooms in the city to accommodate them.
So it looks like Donald Trump will be able to have the Republican convention he was demanding: one with no social distancing during a pandemic, no mask requirements or other annoying safety considerations, with thousands of people from around the country stacking themselves up like cordwood and when some inevitably contract COVID-19 and die, no remorse from Republican officials because the job is done, and none of those people are needed anymore.
Jacksonville was considered the top contender for Typhoid Hitler’s new gig for the simplest of reasons. The city’s Republican mayor really wanted it, and both he and pandemic number-fudging governor Rick DeSantis have been clear that they won’t interfere with Trump’s desire to pack an arena if Trump demands they pack an arena. The number of states willing to abandon pandemic restrictions for Trump was low, and limited to places with both Republican governors and Republican local officials; add to that, now, the near-certainty of large-scale protests against Trump and his enablers and it seems a disaster in waiting. […]
While everything else is going to hell, the Trump administration has now finalized a rule allowing hunters in Alaska to murder baby animals for fun as part of the Republican plan to undo absolutely anything the nation’s first Black president had anything to do with.
The 2015 ban on killing hibernating bears by luring them outside their dens, and chase out wolf mothers and pups inside their dens by crawling inside with flashlights, will be lifted in 30 days. The Washington Post reports the new rules will also allow “shooting swimming caribou from a boat and targeting animals from airplanes and snowmobiles.” Well, sure. If people can’t fire high-powered rifles from airplanes to kill whatever they see scurrying around down there, what’s the point of living? […]
[…] Trump has repeatedly blamed testing as the reason for documented spikes in the number of COVID-19 cases across the U.S. — but data and public health experts attribute the surge to the easing of lockdown restrictions just weeks ago.
“By the way, when you do more testing, you have more cases. We have more cases than anybody because we do more testing than anybody. It’s pretty simple,” Trump said Friday in the White House Rose Garden.
“Remember this: When you have more tests, you have more cases. I say to my people: Every time we test, you find cases because we do more testing. So if we have more cases — if we wanted to do testing in China or in India or other places, I promise you, there’d be more cases,” he added.
COVID-19 cases are on the rise in 21 states, according to data compiled by The New York Times. There is some indication that expanded testing is catching more cases, but public health experts say that in reality, the surges are due to states’ reopening and people’s relaxing their social distancing protocols.
“The surge numbers are real,” said Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the Columbia University National Center for Disaster Preparedness, who is a public health analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.
He said more testing will inevitably capture more positive tests, “but to deny the fact that we’re having an ongoing pandemic with continued spread is contrary to all evidence that we have and everything that we know about the behavior of the virus.”
Dr. Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist and global health policy expert who is an NBC News and MSNBC contributor, said the surges are tied to people moving around more.
“The data that I’ve seen from Verizon and even Apple and Google suggest that people are moving a lot in states like California and Arizona and North Carolina, and those happen to be three of the six states where you’re seeing the biggest spike of cases,” he told NBC
Those three states all began reopening more than two weeks ago.
In North Carolina, reopening began May 8, and COVID-19 infections have been rising steadily since, according to state data. Deaths also surged in late May after a steady decline since an initial peak of the seven-day average death toll in late April. Hospitalizations hit a record Tuesday, with 774 people in the hospital. Just 17 percent of intensive care beds are available, the state said.
In Arizona, stay-at-home orders ended May 15, and a clear surge in the number of confirmed cases began 10 days later. The hospitalization rate has more than doubled, according to Covidtracking.com.
California began its regional reopening in early May, and it has reported record new case numbers repeatedly in recent days. […]
Gupta and Redlener said the existing data are likely an undercount.
“A consistently high positive rate suggests the virus is endemic in the United States — infecting far more people than we know — or there isn’t enough testing,” Gupta said.
Both experts said protests will likely add to the surges 10 to 14 days from exposure.
Trump is planning to hold a rally in Arizona soon. I’m sure that will help. (/sarcasm). Trump’s rally in Oklahoma will be held even sooner, this Friday.
The U.S. Navy announced Tuesday that it is working on an order to ban the display of the Confederate flag, less than a week after the Marine Corps issued its directive to do so.
tomh @338, you would think that many Alaskans would be disgusted. I’ll watch for coverage from the Anchorage Daily News.
In other news:
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, on Tuesday classified Covid-19 as his ‘nightmare’ outbreak scenario, warning that despite the lack of intense daily focus on the coronavirus pandemic, the devastating outbreak is “not over yet.”
A lack of credibility that rivals Trump’s lack of credibility:
Minneapolis police initially told the public that George Floyd died after a”‘medical incident during a police interaction.” The Buffalo, New York, department said a protester “tripped and fell.” Philadelphia police alleged that a college student who suffered a serious head wound had assaulted an officer.
All three claims were quickly disproved by videos seen widely on the internet and television, fueling mistrust and embarrassing agencies that made misleading or incomplete statements that painted their actions in a far more favorable light. […]
OMG. Republicans demonstrate once again that they are divorced from reality.
Over the course of a long day, a large panel was questioned by the House Judiciary committee on the subject of police brutality and racial profiling.
There were a number of standout statements from the representatives on hand, especially Rep. Karen Bass of California, who made clear the real contents of the proposed legislation, and Eric Swallwell, also representing California, who reminded the room of just how unlikely it was that George Floyd’s death would have been identified as a murder if not for the cameras on hand. By far the most emotional moments of the day came from the opening statement of Philonise Floyd, and for his heartbreaking comments in response to questions.
On the other side of the aisle, the most disgusting moments of the day came from Republicans who went to pro-police-violence podcaster and failed Republican candidate Dan Bongino to present a vision of the hellscape that would result if police were required to be more concerned about public safety. That peaked when Republican Rep. Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania declared that “the murder of George Floyd means we should invest more in police departments.”
As of 4 PM ET, the number of times violent racist cops had been described as “a few bad apples” stood at 15. The number of times that Republicans had pretended that the bill before Congress—a collection of reforms that have widespread support, even from Republicans—would actually fire every police officer in the nation and leave the nation open to “lawless chaos” … was beyond counting.
There is mounting evidence that this “fire every police officer in the nation and leave the nation open to lawless chaos” gaslighting is also going to be Trump’s new campaign message. Watch for it to emerge full force as he begins holding rallies again. The “fire every police officer” take is also being repeated in various ways on all rightwing media. My trumpian neighbors are already up in arms over this false choice. Unfortunately, I think this new tactic will work for Trump.
Starting with Jim Jordan’s opening remarks, and continuing through—all day, really—Republicans kept up the pretense that Democrats were actually proposing that America be completely stripped of any law enforcement They also tossed in a few comments on opening borders, just for the hell of it. As expected, Bongino became the go-to witness whenever Republicans needed an outrageous statement. Yes, dammit, touching a dime of the police budget is going to kill you. Also there was a section in which Bongino defended the police by explaining how, when he was in the NYPD, another officer saved him from being killed “by an ironing board.” […]
Again and again the Republicans demonstrated that they think they have a political winner in going after the words “defund” or “abolish” or “dismantle” when preceding the word “police.” Easily two-thirds of all Republican statements either consisted of simply hitting this point, or of handing off to Bongino so he could flip through his index cards of incredible things police have done to produce more evidence that taking a dollar from the cops would results in “thousands of Black and brown” deaths. Lots of funerals. He said this with George Floyd’s brother sitting two desks over. […]
On the other hand, Democrats attempted to focus on the reforms that are actually in the bill. Many of these reforms, like nationally outlawing chokeholds, are nice statements … but really don’t represent much if any progress. After all, the NYPD had outlawed these holds when Eric Garner was choked to death, and it still didn’t result in so much as a charge against his murderer. Other parts of the legislation, like a national registry of bad cops, also seem like a good idea, but are likely to create perverse incentives—like every other national registry. It also won’t help so long as departments are free to ignore good hiring practices.
The best ideas came in discussion of professionalizing police, requiring more from education and training, requiring ongoing training, requiring elimination of “warrior” training, and getting rid of military hardware and uniforms. […]
Republican representative Ken Buck of Colorado […] was determined to talk about “the real” problem. That problem being … single-parent families. […]
[…]
Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would not even consider[†] renaming US military bases that are named after Confederate military leaders, even though the Pentagon has indicated it is open to the idea.
[…]
Earlier this week a US army spokesperson said the defense secretary, Mark Esper, and army secretary, Ryan McCarthy, “are open to a bipartisan discussion on the topic”, reversing decades of Pentagon opposition to the idea of renaming bases named after Confederate war leaders.
But Trump angrily denounced the idea, on Twitter.
These Monumental and very Powerful Bases have become part of a Great American Heritage, and a … history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom, Trump wrote in a new tweet thread. [bases named after generals of the losing side represent winning? and bases named after those who fought for slavery represent freedom? –blf]
The United States of America trained and deployed our HEROES on these Hallowed Grounds, and won two World Wars. Therefore, my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations … Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with. Respect our Military! [cadet bone-spurs takes a brave stand inside a fortified bunker! –blf]
[…]
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that a Fort Trump idea appeared to have fallen. The nation of Poland proposed in 2018 to name a military base in honor of Trump, in return for him placing a permanent presence there. But the plan has crumbled amid disputes over how to fund the deployment and where to garrison the soldiers, sources told the agency.
† Hair furor said it, so of course it’s in eejit quotes, despite — in this very very rare instance — possibly not being a lie: He quite probably won’t allow any renaming until he can profit off it.
[…]
The head of a police union in Baltimore called Black Lives Matter protesters a lynch mob. One in Philadelphia referred to demonstrators as a pack of rabid animals. Another has labeled St Louis’s democratically elected prosecutor, who is black and supports police reform, a menace to society who must be removed — by force if necessary.
All three union leaders also have this in common: they are white.
In many cities, police officers are more likely to be white than the citizens they are sworn to protect and serve. But this is especially true of the presidents of their unions, the Marshall Project found in an analysis of demographic data from major US police departments. Of the 15 large American cities in which a majority of officers are non-white, only one, Memphis, has a union leader who is black.
Only about a fifth of the Miami-Dade police department’s officers are white, but the head of its union is. In Washington, DC, just a third of police are white, but the union chief is. It’s a similar story in many other largely black cities such as Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston and Los Angeles: most police are not white, but the person who represents their interests — who publicly speaks for them — is.
[…]
“It is to the detriment of policing, period, that our community is not represented at police union tables,” said Sonia Pruitt, chairperson of the National Black Police Association. These unions are so powerful that “if they had leaders who said, ‘Listen, what happened to George Floyd was absolutely terrible,’ officers around the country would follow.”
[…]
As protests against police brutality continue across the US, a new tactic is emerging to combat the huge influence of police unions: kicking them out of the American labor movement.
[…]
This week the Writers Guild of America, East […] called for the removal of the International Union of Police Associations from the AFL-CIO, the labor federation which represents them both.
“As long as police unions continue to wield their collective bargaining power as a cudgel, preventing reforms and accountability, no one is safe,” the Guild said in a press release. “Therefore we believe that police unions do not belong in our labor coalition.”
[…]
“There are real questions about being an anti-racist organization if you also represent police,” says David Unger, a CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies staff member.
Last week, the King county Labor Coalition told the Seattle police to confront its racism problem or be kicked out of the coalition. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA also issued a resolution arguing police unions should be “removed from the Labor movement” if they cannot address racism within their ranks.
But the situation is not simple. Not all police departments are unionized, and of the ones that are, many are not affiliated with a larger labor federation like the AFL-CIO.
More than 350,000 officers are organized under the Fraternal Order of Police, an independent trade union. But the demand to expel the IUPA — which claimed more than 100,000 members last year — from the AFL-CIO is a sign that organized labor may be beginning to reconsider its relationship to police unions.
[…]
Unions like the Police Benevolent Association, which represents police officers in New York City and other cities “and the Fraternal Order of the Police, they’re not like traditional labor unions”, said Christopher Hayes, a labor historian at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. “They look out almost entirely for themselves, they have no visible commitment to social justice.”
In New York City, the PBA (originally called the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association) is famous for accusing the city of taking resources away from uniformed men and women. In 1966, the then mayor, John Lindsay, wanted to add four civilians to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent agency created to investigate police misconduct — which would have made it majority-civilian for the first time.
The PBA responded with a massive campaign to defeat the proposed restructuring. Their argument against, as WNYC wrote in 2016, was coded in racist language. “I am sick and tired of giving in to minority groups, with their whims and their gripes and shouting, said the then head of the PBA, John Cassese.
[…]
Whether they remain within or without the AFL-CIO, police unions are likely to retain their power — unless city and state leaders exercise the political will to challenge them.
“In collective bargaining, you don’t have to agree to what the other side wants,” said Alex Colvin, the dean of the Cornell ILR School. “So the police unions {can} certainly demand good wages and job protections for their members, but there’s nothing saying the city government has to give that to them.”
Akira MacKenziesays
@343
“These Monumental and very Powerful Bases…”
Powerful? Does he think these bases are the freaking Death Star?
johnson catmansays
Akira @345:
Does he think . . .
That right there is your problem. The Brain-Dead Orange Toddler-Tyrant does not think. He only reacts.
The Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday voted to require the Pentagon to rename military bases and other assets named after Confederate generals, a move that puts the Republican-led panel on a collision course with the White House.
The committee adopted an amendment to the annual Pentagon policy bill that gives the Defense Department three years to remove the names of Confederate generals from U.S. military assets, according to a source familiar with the closed-door proceedings.
The language… affects massive bases like Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Benning in Georgia. But it also goes further and includes everything from ships to streets on Defense Department property…
Wednesday’s scheduled White House press briefing was delayed while the administration prepared a statement expressing Trump’s opposition to renaming as many as 10 military bases, citing by name Fort Bragg and Fort Benning, as well as Fort Hood in Texas.
“The president will not be signing legislation that renames America’s forts,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in response to a question from CQ Roll Call…
blfsays
Akira MacKenzie@345, “Powerful? Does he think these bases are the freaking Death Star?”
The nazi terror clunker that keeps getting blown up? I rather suspect he does as it has all the “right” words, probably assembled as something like HUGE SUUPER-DOOOPER BOOM BANG BYE-BYE ANITFA!!1!
Seattle mayor tells Trump to ‘go back to your bunker’ after president [sic] threatens to take action as protests against racism and police brutality persist
Donald Trump has blamed anarchists and domestic terrorists for a protest in Seattle overnight and threatened to intervene as anti-racism demonstrations again erupted across much of the US […].
Following a week of nightly standoffs with police, who regularly used teargas to disperse crowds, protesters in Seattle have set up an “autonomous zone” in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood after police agreed to vacate the area and abandon their police precinct station.
The area, bordered by barricades, is thronged with people protesting against police brutality and systemic racism.
On Wednesday night, Trump […] tweeted that the mayor of Seattle and governor of Washington state need to take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will. This is not a game. These ugly Anarchists must be stooped IMMEDIATELY. Trump followed this by tweeting, with no evidence, that Seattle had been taken over by domestic terrorists, abetted by Democrats.
Jenny Durkan, the mayor of Seattle […], tweeted in response that Trump should “go back to your bunker” […]
Levellers (or Diggers (conflating the two)) in Seattle? Wow. Over to you, Leon Rosselson, World Turned Upside Down (sung here by Karan Casey).
johnson catmansays
blf @348: What about “beautiful”? He seems to like that word a lot.
[…]
● General Mark Milley […] apologized for participating in Trump’s photo op after the forcible removal of peaceful protesters. “I should not have been there” […]
● Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican, said he would support a national ban on police chokeholds. The House minority leader said he was also open to renaming military bases named after Confederate generals […]
● Nancy Pelosi called for the removal of Confederate statues from the Capitol. The House speaker said she also believed the miliary [sic (thanks Grauniad!)] bases should be renamed, telling reporters, “The American people know these names have to go.” Pelosi added that Trump “seems to be the only person left who doesn’t get it.”
[…]
[…]
The Trump administration is launching an economic and legal offensive on the international criminal court [ICC] in response to the court’s decision to open an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan carried out by all sides, including the US.
The US will not just sanction ICC officials involved in the investigation of alleged war crimes by the US and its allies, it will also impose visa restrictions on the families of those officials. Additionally, the administration declared on Thursday that it was launching a counter-investigation into the ICC, for alleged corruption.
The secretary of state Mike Pompeo, national security adviser Robert O’Brien, defence secretary Mark Esper and attorney general William Barr gave a presentation on the decision at the state department, but then left without taking any questions.
Barr made clear that this was the beginning of a sustained campaign against the ICC, and that Thursday’s measures were just an important first step in holding the ICC accountable for exceeding its mandate and violating the sovereignty of the United States.
[…]
Judges at the ICC gave the green light in March to an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan, and began an investigation into crimes by Israeli and Palestinian forces in December. In his remarks, Pompeo made clear the US sanctions were also aimed at defending Israel.
Given Israel’s robust civilian and military legal system and strong track record of investigating prosecuting wrongdoing by military personnel, it’s clear the ICC is only putting Israel in his crosshairs for nakedly political purposes, Pompeo said.
Human rights activists say that the Israel Defence Forces has operated with virtual impunity in the West Bank and Gaza.
[…]
The American Civil Liberties Union condemned the decision, arguing that Trump was “playing directly into the hands of authoritarian regimes by intimidating judges and prosecutors committed to holding countries accountable for war crimes.
“Trump’s sanctions order against ICC personnel and their families — some of whom could be American citizens — is a dangerous display of his contempt for human rights and those working to uphold them. We are exploring all options in response,” the ACLU said.
Are Republican officials prepared to say they want no part of QAnon conspiracy theorists? It’s a question they may not be able to ignore.
Republicans did not have high hopes for this year’s U.S. Senate race in Oregon, where incumbent Sen. Jeff Merkley (D) is an overwhelming favorite. But the GOP’s odds of pulling an upset deteriorated a few weeks ago when insurance agent Jo Rae Perkins easily won a Republican Senate primary — which was notable because Perkins appears to be a rather enthusiastic proponent of the fringe QAnon conspiracy theory.
Feeling sorry for Republican voters who live in Oregon… sort of.
[…] The basic idea is that Donald Trump is secretly at war with nefarious forces of evil, including Democrats, Hollywood celebrities, the “deep state,” pedophiles, and cannibals.
This isn’t just the usual conspiratorial nonsense bubbling up from the right. It’s vastly weirder and more radical. Last year, the FBI went so far as to classify QAnon as a domestic-terror threat in an internal memo.
[…] when an adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theory won a U.S. Senate primary last month, her campaign aides quickly tried to downplay her ties to the extremism. The candidate was not pleased: Jo Rae Perkins said she was “literally physically in tears” after reading her own campaign’s statement distancing herself from the extremist ideas.
[…] Perkins will almost certainly lose and there’s little chance of a QAnon adherent becoming a U.S. senator.
But in the U.S. House, it’s a different story. […] a QAnon conspiracy theorist is now in “a prime position to soon be elected to Congress, after coming in first in a Republican primary in Georgia on Tuesday.”
QAnon conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has frequently posted messages about the bizarre pro-Trump conspiracy theory on social media, handily leads the primary field of Republicans in Georgia’s heavily Republican 14th District. Greene, who beat her closest opponent by more than 20 percentage points, will head to an August runoff after receiving 41 percent of the vote.
Aaaarrrggghhh!
[…] she appears to be the favorite to win the GOP nomination. And given the leanings of this district in northwestern Georgia — it has a partisan voter index rating of R+27, making it among the reddest districts in the United States — if Greene wins the Republican nod, her victory in November is effectively a given.
[…] Will the National Republican Congressional Committee have any reservations about supporting a QAnon adherent after the FBI labeled QAnon as a domestic-terror threat?
There is some historical precedent for Republican leaders deciding one of their own congressional nominees is simply too radical. In fact, just two years ago, a neo-Nazi won a GOP congressional primary in Illinois, and party leaders quickly denounced his candidacy. In the 1960s, party leaders chose to rid themselves of the John Birch Society. […]
Postscript: An NBC News report noted last year, “Although the president has never explicitly acknowledged the conspiracy theory, he has retweeted profiles with a Q logo or QAnon messaging in their bios, and he has met and taken an Oval Office photo with a prominent QAnon booster and radio host named Michael William Lebron.”
Donald Trump continues to promote content from QAnon adherents on Twitter with some regularity.
Links to other articles or information are embedded in the original. Visit the link above to access the embedded links.
Donald Trump is tired—make that sick and tired. He’s sick and tired of people being sick, and he’s sick of people being tired of the subject of police abuse. Trump [wants] to create situations where thousands of people stand around cheering for him. […]
No matter what’s going on with everyone else in the nation, Trump is going back to a solid routine of playing golf and holding a string of mini-Nurembergs. Because that’s what America needs. Or at least, that’s what Trump needs America to need. And that’s all that counts. Despite the pandemic, despite the calls for an end to police violence, despite an economy that’s genuinely in trouble, Trump is determined to [hold] fundraisers to bring in money for him, and rallies to praise him, […]
Far from being over, the COVID-19 pandemic is in an extremely dangerous phase. There are hundreds of thousands of cases already present, the rate of hospitalization is growing, and ICU beds are growing scarce. Instead of taking action to reduce the spread of the disease, much of the nation is taking aggressive action to “reopen.”
At the same time, the nation has been gripped by the issue of police brutality toward Black citizens following the murder of George Floyd. The protests have swelled beyond the Minneapolis area and beyond the major cities to become a movement that has touched even small towns with predominately white populations. Popular support for the Black Lives Matter movement is swelling. Calls to restructure how communities handle public safety are being confronted in city councils and on the floor of Congress.
And as all this is happening, the economy is staggering. The latest releases show that America had slipped into a technical recession even before the first steps to enforce social distancing for COVID-19. That recession, which began in February, was both masked by and accelerated by the closures related to the pandemic. Donald Trump bragged last week that the unemployment rate was only 13.3%—already 4% higher than the peak of the Great Recession—but that number has already been recognized as a mistake. The actual rate of unemployment is somewhere on the high side of 16%.
The United States has an emergency, on top of a crisis, on top of a calamity. But for Trump, all of this is more of an … irritation. He has no answers to these problems, because he’s never had an answer to any problem. He simply wants to go back to what he knows: Yelling about Hillary and Obama, promising a wall, and encouraging hate toward the media. That America’s issues are so visible Trump can’t blame them on fake news is a source of frustration. Not even Fox News has been satisfactory in their reporting of late, forcing Trump into the sweetly delusional Russian propaganda arms of OANN.
As Politico reports, Trump argues that getting back onto the fundraising, rally, golf cycle will “send a positive message that the country’s problems are under control.” So Trump is lining up big-money in-person fundraisers, planning more trips to his own properties, and planning on restarting his campaign rallies by … scheduling a rally on the site of the notorious massacre of an entire Black community on a date that many people regard as Black Independence Day.
[…] Trump may be ignorant of the racial violence that ripped through the Greenwood district of Tulsa 99 years ago. You can absolutely bet that Stephen Miller and the others behind helping Trump plan the event are well aware of that history.
[…]Trump has lost interest in the pandemic. He’s sidelined the pandemic task force, demanded that states reopen no matter what the rate of disease in their area, and praised governors who have gone all in on ignoring social distancing guidelines.
On the issue of racial justice, Trump’s position has always been on the pro-brutality side of the line, and none of that has changed. […]
And on the economy, Trump never did have any answers. Or real concerns. His policies begin and end with what puts more money in his pocket. […]
So Trump will go back to rallies where there will be no masks and no social distancing. He will go back to holding dinners where the plates of rubber chicken are priced in the tens of thousands. He will go back to playing golf, and cheating.
And you can bet the Confederate flag will be welcome at all these events.
JFC. A Republican legislator in Ohio, State Senator Steve Huffman, said this:
We know it’s twice as often, correct? Could it just be that African Americans—the colored population—do not wash their hands as well as other groups? Or wear a mask? Or do not socially distance themselves? Could that just be maybe the explanation of why there’s a higher incidence?
From Democratic Rep. Stephanie Howse:
He [Huffman] highlights what racism is from a systematic perspective. He’s a full legislator but beyond that, professionally, he’s a doctor. When we talk about the health disparities that happen because black folks aren’t believed when they’re actually hurt, they aren’t given the treatment that they need. Do you think that someone who acknowledges the ‘coloreds’ is going to give the love and care that people need when they come through those doors?
Trump was lavished with praise by the black supporters at his White House roundtable — told he has been “nothing short of historical” for the black community, that the big issue is the media is covering him unfairly, that he has a lot of black supporters out there.
Trump says he has “many, many friends” and “many relatives, frankly” who live in North Carolina, but “the governor is a little backward there.”
“The cadets wanted that very much,” Trump claims of his weekend commencement address at West Point. He says there will be “a little social distancing.”
Kareem Lanier, a black Trump supporter, tries to sell Trump on police reform by telling the president that he too, like the black community, has been hurt by a “crooked cop,” James Comey.
One WH attendee, GOP consultant Raynard Jackson, claims “radical” journalists he singles out are, by not fairly covering Trump, “putting more poison into the black community than any drug dealer…killing more black folks than any white person with a sheet over their face.”
Jackson did not go so far as to explain how the journalists he listed are murdering black people through their insufficiently positive Trump coverage.
Trump: “Thank you very much.”
Trump says the economy next year will be maybe the best US economy of all time.
Trump on the black supporters in attendance: “They understand life. They understand, I think, the black community, better than anybody I know. And I will tell you, Ben Carson is an example of exactly what I’m talking about.”
A single meat plant has been linked to hundreds of Covid-19 cases in Utah. Yet it remains open, and the company says it expects workers to keep showing up for shifts even though many protest that the conditions are unsafe.
It’s the latest example of a worrisome trend seen across the US during the pandemic: Meatpacking plants are coronavirus hot spots, where workers keep falling ill — and even dying […]
When the JBS beef plant in the city of Hyrum tested about 1,000 of its 1,400 workers on May 30, 287 tested positive. But instead of shutting down the plant to stop the outbreak, as some plants had done earlier in the pandemic, JBS told these employees to stay home but report back to work less than two weeks later, despite their Covid-19 diagnosis.
On Tuesday, some JBS employees staged a walkout from the Hyrum plant and protested in nearby Logan. “It’s not safe to work right now,” one worker told the Salt Lake Tribune, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. Protesters said the plant should close for a few weeks and that employees who don’t go in due to safety concerns should be paid regardless of whether they are sick.
The employees, many of whom are immigrants, are not currently offered paid leave unless they’ve tested positive.
The Bear River Health Department, which oversees the area in which the plant is located, says it doesn’t have the authority to force a closure.
“We do not have the ability to close them down because of that executive order,” department spokesperson Josh Greer told the Tribune. “It’s under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”
He was referring to […] Trump’s executive order, signed on April 28, which declared meat processing plants “critical infrastructure” that should stay open during the coronavirus crisis. Invoking the Defense Production Act, Trump said that plant closures “threaten the continued functioning of the national meat and poultry supply chain.”
The results of this order are being seen across northern Utah, now the site of a worrisome spike in coronavirus cases. On May 28, just before JBS tested its workers, the Bear River Health District had only 117 confirmed cases. The number has since climbed to 837.
Officials in Utah say some of the increase is likely due to the reopening of the economy, but they attribute much of it to spread from the plant; the vast majority of the new cases are in the county where the plant is located.
Although the US Department of Agriculture has the authority to close the plant in Hyrum, it’s showing no interest in doing that. Instead, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue issued a statement Tuesday, saying, “I want to thank the patriotic and heroic meatpacking facility workers, the companies, and the local authorities for quickly getting their operations back up and running, and for providing a great meat selection once again to the millions of Americans who depend on them for food.”
But the JBS workers who protested that day said that if they are indeed patriotic and heroic, they ought to be treated that way. “We produce meat for everyone across the country. We deserve to be valued,” said Monique Ramos. “They are making it seem like money is more important than our lives.” […]
[…] For the past three days, Texas has reported a record number of new coronavirus cases. According to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, a total of 2,153 people were hospitalized on Wednesday. The total was 2,056 on Tuesday. It was 1,935 on Monday. May 5 was the previous high, at which point there were 1,888. If you care to explain the math to Jared Kushner, this is an upward trajectory. Those are also just people so ill they were hospitalized. […]
Governor Greg Abbott lifted the stay-at-home order on May 1, and hospitalizations have increased by 42 percent since Memorial Day. But the governor is monitoring the situation, and his spokesman, John Wittman, assures us that “every Texan who needs access to a hospital bed will have access to a hospital bed.”
Whitman explained in an email that Texas hospitals have the “ability to surge capacity in regions,” if necessary. He continued to boast about the state’s COVID-19 readiness. […]
Abbott is “concerned but not alarmed.” He’s keeping his eye on the hospitalization rate and believes the surge response teams can manage any “hot zones.” Some officials blame state prisons and meatpacking plants for the increased cases, but […] infections have increased in counties without either. […]
Rebecca Fischer, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, said Texas is experiencing “a surge” in new infections “in part attributed to activities surrounding Memorial Day weekend, such as gatherings where protective behaviors may have been lax.”
Yes, people took to the streets protesting police brutality after George Floyd’s death, but while there’s not a lot of social distancing at those events, most people are wearing masks until the police spray them with tear gas. However, even before the protests, Texas businesses were instituting “no mask” policies, which are medically dumb. Abbott only “strongly recommends” that people wear masks in public, and he won’t stop businesses from banning masks for customers and staff.
In related news, Vice President (for the next seven months) Mike Pence tweeted and later deleted a photo of his dumb ass with a large group of unmasked buffoons working on Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. They were all huddled together with their faces hanging out. We don’t expect these patriots to model themselves after Joe Biden, but Pence leads the White House coronavirus task force that recommends social distancing and wearing face masks while in public. […]
At one event after another, Donald Trump has encouraged police and security guards to be more violent toward protesters.[…]
So it should be no surprise that in addressing peaceful protesters outside the White House following the police murder of George Floyd, National Guard units were ordered to use aggressive tactics that went well beyond how they would normally deal with the situation. The reason for this wasn’t just to please Donald Trump; it was done out of fear that if the Guard didn’t play rough enough, Trump would call in military troops from the 82nd Airborne Division and launch a genuine battle against civilians. Under pressure, the National Guard treated civilians in a way that has rattled the force and led to a suspension of recruitment. But apparently … Trump was pleased.
The result of the Guard behaving as Trump’s bully boys, as The New York Times reports, is a “debacle for the National Guard” that has left troops demoralized and ashamed. By violating standard rules, much of the “chaos” that Trump complained about was actually on the military side of the line, where Guard commanders ended up issuing conflicting and confusing orders that sent troops into unnecessary confrontations with civilians.
[…] To prevent what seemed like an even bigger disaster in the making, military leaders scrambled to bring in Guard units from other areas, but this contributed to confusion over chains of command and rules of operation. […]
Troops drove heavy armored vehicles through crowds and along Washington, D.C. streets on the basis of supposed authorization that never existed. Helicopters hovered over crowds in violation of every rule of both civilian and military operation. Again and again, as in Lafayette Square, tear gas and rubber bullets were deployed against crowds that were not engaged in violent behavior. […]
[…] All of this was made infinitely worse because a battle was exactly what Trump wanted. The attack on protesters and media gathered in Lafayette Square began even as Trump was speaking from the Rose Garden, saying that he was going to “end” the protests, and: “Thousands and thousands of military forces are being deployed.”
For Trump, the goal wasn’t to maintain public safety so that protesters could have their say. Trump wanted to shut them up and clear the streets. To dominate that battle space. To beat them. To win.
Out of fear of what Trump might order next, military commanders misused the National Guard. In their efforts to demonstrate “toughness,” […]
On Thursday morning, Trump bragged about all this. Bragged about how easy it was for armed, military personal to sweep the field of unarmed, sign-waving civilians. Trump called it a victory.
A showdown over who rules America’s college campuses came to a head in Kansas on Wednesday, in a clash that might be called Cancel Culture vs. the Big Donors. It began last week, when a technical college affiliated with Wichita State University scrapped plans for a virtual commencement address by Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, in a bow to student and faculty criticism of the President’s response to the nationwide protests over George Floyd’s killing. On Twitter, Ivanka blamed “cancel culture,” calling it “antithetical to academia.” In a compromise brokered by the university, Ivanka’s remarks, instead of headlining the event, were demoted to being one in a menu of choices during the ceremony, on June 6th. If they wished, students could click on a link and see her dressed for the occasion, in a regal white sheath and turquoise earrings and brooch, as she addressed them as “wartime” graduates.
The approach of Wichita State University’s president, Jay Golden, won praise from students and faculty members who had circulated petitions opposing the address. But the decision roiled the school’s conservative corporate donors, including, reportedly, the billionaire libertarian oil magnate Charles Koch, the owner of Koch Industries, the largest company in Wichita and one of the two largest private companies in the country. […] Koch Industries threatened to withdraw its financial support to the university […]
[…] In an interview, Clark told the Eagle, “We had Koch in the fold. Now we’re going to lose them, and they’ll never be back.” To avoid risking the loss of millions of dollars in financial support to the university, Clark [corporate booster of the school, Steve Clark] called on the Board of Regents to fire Golden.
Instead, the board held a closed-door session on the matter on Wednesday, while students held a rally and circulated a campus petition in support of Golden, which has now garnered eighty-seven hundred signatures. After meeting for four hours, the board issued an equivocal statement supporting “freedom of speech and diversity and inclusion.” Tajahnae Stocker, one of the W.S.U. students who helped organize the rally, told the Eagle, “The Koch brothers have had a huge influence for way too long, and now is about time to start supporting us instead of supporting a check to the university.” […]
The political pressure that wealthy donors exert on universities rarely gets aired so publicly. […] Charles Koch […] has reportedly given or pledged some fifteen million to W.S.U. in the past seven years. […] Although W.S.U. is a public university, the Koch-funded center is a think tank devoted to promoting the billionaire’s personal political philosophy, which promotes private enterprise, and not government, as the panacea to virtually all societal problems. In recent years, exposing college students to his libertarian ideology has been a major focus of Koch’s philanthropy, and there are now similar Koch-funded programs at some three hundred American colleges and universities. […] Koch and his private political operation have enthusiastically backed a number of Trump Administration policies, including the 2018 corporate tax cuts and the Administration’s rollbacks of environmental regulations. […]
A wealthy donor casting the controversy as a matter of free speech sounds noble. But some of the professors and students who led the protests against Ivanka Trump’s commencement address dismissed that argument as specious. Jennifer Ray, an associate professor of photo media at Wichita State, who wrote an open letter to the administration opposing the address that gathered nearly five hundred signatures, pointed out that “any student who wants to opt-in and hear Ivanka Trump’s speech can. It wasn’t cancelled, or censored. It’s on a menu of speakers they can listen to. So, this First Amendment talk doesn’t really apply. The people who are complaining know full well that the speech is available. They just don’t like the politics. It was all about the symbolism.” […]
Amira Coleman, an aspiring opera singer who is a senior at W.S.U. and an African-American supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, noted that “Ivanka’s speech is still available for anyone who wants to watch it. They just didn’t want it to be the headliner. It was a compromise, yet the donors said they wanted to pull their donations. It was not an act of censorship. It was a shift of focus from Ivanka to the needs of the black community here. And now the president is getting punished for listening to the students here. That’s sad.”
If, in fact, there is any threat to free speech on campus, Ray suggested, the episode showed that it is posed by the school’s big donors. “The real peril is these business partnerships,” she told me. “They think they own the school. That’s the First Amendment issue.”
Lara Logan falls for a lot of hoaxes. She airs a lot of faux news.
[…] Lara Logan, an award-winning former CBS News correspondent who joined Fox News as a host on their online-streaming service Fox Nation last year and has been billed an “investigative journalist” by herself and in promos, has become a fixture of the network’s coverage of the loosely organized anti-fascist movement.
[…] Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed antifa is a shadowy group behind nationwide protests and the violence that occurred during some of them—even though the FBI found “no intelligence indicating antifa involvement” in the May 31 protests in Washington, D.C., and antifa is literally never mentioned in the DOJ’s first round of prosecutions. Nevertheless, Logan has been utilized by Fox to lend journalistic cachet to such allegations.
But a review of Logan’s reporting—both online and on Fox News—shows a clear pattern of repeatedly falling for obvious hoaxes and passing along eye-popping but completely unsubstantiated claims.
On May 31, for example, Logan tweeted out an image of a document she alleged to be an antifa battle plan, claiming they had infiltrated law enforcement and provided a “riot” manual for protesters.
“For those of you still in denial about who is directing & controlling the protests – take a close look at this,” Logan tweeted.
That document, however, was merely a recirculated version of a hoax first peddled during the April 2015 Baltimore riots over Freddie Gray’s death in police custody. There’s no proof that the overwrought document, which urges antifa activists to communicate with “agitorg” leaders and rendezvous at a mystery location called “GAMMA PRIME,” is real. […]
The following day, Logan posted a picture of a tweet purporting to come from a national antifa group threatening to terrorize majority-white neighborhoods. The tweet she cited read: “Tonight’s the night, Comrades…Tonight we say ‘Fuck The City’ and we move into the residential areas… the white hoods…. and we take what’s ours,” along with a black raised-fist emoji.
That tweet turned out to have come from a fake account linked to white-nationalist group Identity Europa posing as antifa while calling for violence. The fake antifa account even included the acronym “I.E.” in its logo, a clear reference to its ties to Identity Europa.
After being called out for credulously passing along two hoaxes, Logan did not correct, update, or delete either tweet, instead lashing out at critics as waging a smear campaign to “destroy” her. There can be “no doubt,” she wrote, that liberal media-monitoring group Media Matters for America had “marshaled their army & all their resources” against her. (In 2013, Media Matters exposed Logan’s false 60 Minutes reporting on Benghazi, which resulted in a retraction, an on-air apology from Logan, and a leave of absence.) […]
More details regarding various hoaxes for which Lara Logan has fallen are available at the link. She seems to have a trumpian tendency to disseminate conspiracy theories as well.
Good. Tucker Carlson should suffer the consequences.
Both Disney and T-Mobile have cut ties with the primetime Tucker Carlson Tonight over the host’s polarizing point of view on the Black Lives Matter movement and the desire for justice and equality in America many of its members advocate. Along with Papa Johns and SmileDirectClub, the media giant and the telecommunications brand faced a backlash in recent days for their association with Carlson and his belief that the well attended protests were “Black Lives Matter riots”
Wall Street seems to be having spasms. First they feel okay, and then reality hits them and they curl up into the fetal position, shaking uncontrollably.
“Dow slides more than 1,800 points on fears of coronavirus resurgence, more economic pain.”
The Wall Street sell-off contrasted sharply with just a few days ago, when the Nasdaq set a record high and the S&P 500 went positive for the year.
Wall Street had its worst finish in three months after a spike in coronavirus cases, coupled with gloomy projections from the Federal Reserve, zapped investor hopes that a quick recovery was at hand.
The Dow Jones industrial average skidded 1,861 points, or 6.9 percent, to close at 25,128.17. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index sank 188 points, or 5.9 percent, to settle at 3,002.10. The Nasdaq Composite fell 527 points, or 5.3 percent, to end the day at 9,492.73. […]
One common metric for stocks, the price-to-earnings ratio, showed stock prices were way ahead of historical averages. The S&P 500 had been trading at more than 25 times earnings instead of the typical 15- to 16-times range.
“The market had become more optimistic and more enamored over a V-shaped recovery in recent weeks,” said Jeffrey Kleintop, chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab. “Anything that would disrupt that view was a vulnerability. And that’s exactly what we’ve seen in the last day and a half. The potential for a second virus wave and another lockdown is a worry. And there is concern over a possible slower pace of recovery.”[…]
The retreat began Tuesday but picked up steam on Wednesday after Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell made plain that recovery would be slow-going and that more aid would be needed from Congress and the central bank to lessen the pain, particularly as jobs for millions of Americans may never return. […]
Trump repeated his pledge for a strong, swift recovery and coronavirus vaccine, tweeting Thursday: “The Federal Reserve is wrong so often. I see the numbers also, and do MUCH better than they do. We will have a very good Third Quarter, a great Fourth Quarter, and one of our best ever years in 2021.” The Fed, and Powell in particular, have routinely been the target of Trump’s anger when the economy falters.
[…] Hospitalizations rose sharply in several states after Memorial Day, and nearly 2 million cases have been reported in the United States. […] there is nothing the Fed can do about the risk of a second wave of the virus. […]
The Fed predicts that the unemployment rate will fall to 9.3 percent by the end of this year and to 6.5 percent by the end of 2021. An additional 1.5 million workers filed for unemployment insurance for the first time last week as pandemic-era totals topped 40 million.
Powell has pledged to do everything within the central’s bank’s power to steer the economy toward recovery, and the Fed’s unprecedented response could expand its balance sheet to $10 trillion by the end of the year. But he acknowledged that the tools at Congress’s disposal may be more designed to directly help individuals, households and companies desperate to stay afloat.
“My assumption is there will be a significant chunk … well into the millions of people, who don’t get to go back to their old job … and there may not be a job in that industry for them for some time,” Powell said Wednesday.
Stocks flashed red around the world. In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 dropped 3.25 percent, and Germany’s DAX fell 3.5 percent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed the day down 2.83 percent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 2.27 percent in the red.
Researchers find that over 1,000 metric tons of microplastic fall on 11 protected areas in the US annually, equivalent to over 120 million plastic water bottles.
HOOF IT THROUGH the national parks of the western United States—Joshua Tree, the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon—and breathe deep the pristine air. These are unspoiled lands, collectively a great American conservation story. Yet an invisible menace is actually blowing through the air and falling via raindrops: Microplastic particles, tiny chunks (by definition, less than 5 millimeters long) of fragmented plastic bottles and microfibers that fray from clothes, all pollutants that get caught up in Earth’s atmospheric systems and deposited in the wilderness.
Writing today in the journal Science, researchers report a startling discovery: After collecting rainwater and air samples for 14 months, they calculated that over 1,000 metric tons of microplastic particles fall into 11 protected areas in the western US each year. That’s the equivalent of over 120 million plastic water bottles. “We just did that for the area of protected areas in the West, which is only 6 percent of the total US area,” says lead author Janice Brahney, an environmental scientist at Utah State University. “The number was just so large, it’s shocking.”
[…] Microplastics are blowing all over the world, landing in supposedly pure habitats, like the Arctic and the remote French Pyrenees. […] they are falling in the form of plastic rain—the new acid rain.
Plastic rain could prove to be a more insidious problem than acid rain, which is a consequence of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions. By deploying scrubbers in power plants to control the former, and catalytic converters in cars to control the latter, the US and other countries have over the last several decades cut down on the acidification problem. But microplastic has already corrupted even the most remote environments, and there’s no way to scrub water or land or air of the particles—the stuff is absolutely everywhere, and it’s not like there’s a plastic magnet we can drag through the oceans. […]. Even worse, plastic waste is expected to skyrocket from 260 million tons a year to 460 million tons by 2030, according to the consultancy McKinsey. More people joining the middle class in economically-developing countries means more consumerism and more plastic packaging.
[…] a stunning 98 percent of samples collected over a year contained microplastic particles. On average, 4 percent of captured atmospheric particulates were actually synthetic polymers. The particles that fell in rain were larger than those deposited by wind—lighter particles are more easily caught up in air currents. Microfibers, from sources like polyester clothing, made up 66 percent of the synthetic material in wet samples and 70 percent in dry samples. […]
Looking at the path of the storms that deposited the wet microplastic samples, Brahney and her colleagues were able to map how weather systems transport the particles. […] Microplastic particles could even be acting as condensation nuclei, bits of debris that attract water vapor to form a cloud.
The dry fallout, on the other hand, appears to be traveling longer distances. These particles’ smaller size indicates they’re more easily carried on winds for hundreds, maybe thousands of miles—consider that dust from the Sahara readily blows across the Atlantic and falls in the Amazon rainforest […]. And microplastics are probably traveling even farther than soil particles because they’re far less dense.
[…] For example, the cities of Europe seem to be seeding the Arctic with microplastic.
More troubling still, microplastics eventually break into nanoplastics, bits so small that researchers may not be able to detect them without the right equipment. “I couldn’t see anything smaller than four microns, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there,” says Brahney. “Just because we can’t see them in front of us, doesn’t mean we’re not breathing them in.”
Scientists don’t yet know what inhaling microbeads might mean for human health, but it’s reasonable to assume it’s not beneficial. […]
In the soils of America’s national parks, the arrival of plastics could have cascading effects. “These can not just block up the digestive tract of small animals, like worms,” says University of Strathclyde microplastic researcher Steve Allen, who wasn’t involved in the new study. “But it’s also the chemicals that are on these plastics and in these plastics that can have an effect on the soil. […]
Brahney and her colleagues note that microplastics may be changing the thermal properties of soil, for instance, altering how it absorbs and stores heat. They may also lead to the growth of more or less of the microbes that normally live there, rearranging communities and altering the way the dirt cycles nutrients. Microplastics may also change how water moves through these soils.
[…] the stuff never truly goes away, it just gets shredded into smaller bits that disperse all over the world, perhaps spending many years cycling through different systems—air, land, and sea. […]
Other research published last month by Steve Allen and his spouse Deonie Allen, also a microplastic researcher University of Strathclyde, found that the oceans are burping up microplastic particles, which then float onshore on sea breezes. Previously, it was believed that when microplastics flowed into the sea via wastewater, they’d stay there. So it may also turn out that microplastics landing on soil are also not staying put. “It may not be static,” says Deonie Allen. “It’s not going to just sit. Some of it ends up going down through our water table, some of it moves because of erosion, or gets rereleased back into the atmosphere.”
There’s still much that science has to learn about this microplastic cycle, but this much is clear: There’ll be no putting the plastic back in the bottle.
President [sic] Trump’s campaign invites for rallies now includes a coronavirus disclaimer, CNN notes:
A warning is now included when you sign up for Trump rally tickets: By attending the Rally, you & any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 & agree not to hold Donald J Trump for President, Inc.; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of affiliates…
Authorities say country has fewer than 1,000 intensive care patients with Covid-19
[…]
After a nationwide shortage of face masks during the peak of the health crisis, France now has a surplus. Manufacturers are urging the public to shun paper “surgical” masks — most of them from China — in favour of reusable, washable masks made in France. Manufacturers, who say they have too many fabric masks and are in debt because they cannot sell them, argue that this makes sense on economical and ecological grounds and have demanded the government issues a clear message.
[…]
“The French prefer the single-use surgical masks, most of which are imported from China,” said a ministry [unclear which ministry –blf] spokesperson. “In their minds it’s more safe than a fabric mask … but what annoys us is that the large companies have chosen to supply staff with throwaway masks, which isn’t very ecological or good for our economy.”
I’ve got a collection of masks now, and have found at least one brand of (French-made?) washable masks to be fairly comfortable and to seemingly provide about as good a seal as one could expect given my hedgehog-swallowed-sideways beard. The (yes, mostly Chinese-made (and very much cheaper)) one-use masks are now for “emergencies” only; e.g., being caught without an acceptable mask…
[…]
You could tell the news wasn’t going to be that great when we got the cast list. If the new track and trace system had been an overwhelming success, there would have been every chance that Boris Johnson would have rolled out of bed to take the credit. Instead, we got [health minister] Matt Hancock, everybody’s favourite punchbag, still wearing his favourite pink tie that has so far brought him nothing but bad luck.
It’s hard not to feel just a little sorry for Matt. His vaulting ambition that led him to ignore all his gut instincts about having nothing to do with a Boris Johnson government has brought him nothing but hubris. He knew Boris was a wrong ‘un from the off. He even said as much during his short-lived campaign to be Tory party leader last summer. But when faced with a choice of acting on principle or grasping whatever cabinet post was going begging, Mattbeth chose the latter.
His eyes are now dead, his shoulders slumped. The enjoyment of being on TV at the Downing Street press conference — The lights! The greasepaint! — has long since worn off. Because he knows he only ever gets the crap gigs. The ones that no one else wants to do. And even Westminster’s very own Mr Tigger, a man who could once achieve orgasm just by polishing his enamel NHS badge, can’t even muster a veneer of enthusiasm. The briefing is just a chore to be rushed through while giving away as little information as possible.
Matt began with the usual white noise. Although the number of cases was actually up from a day earlier, the figures continued to fall. Er, hello? It was clear that neither Matt nor the person who had written this crap had bothered to make sure if it made any sense. He had a plan and it was working. It would just have been nice to know that the government had been hell-bent on killing more than 50,000 people — and counting — right from the start of the pandemic.
Having dispensed with the daily platitudes, Hancock moved on to the results of the first week’s track and trace programme. It had gone brilliantly because it had managed to miss 75% of the contacts, though if you counted the few thousand people it had managed to contact then you could fiddle the statistics to make it look as if 85% of contacts had been traced. “It is your civic duty to participate,” Matt said sternly. Though obviously not if you happened to be Dominic Cummings. Then you could take the system or leave it.
The system will be world class, he added hopefully. This sounded like more of an aspiration for some time in the future and certainly a significant downgrade on “world beating”. Nor was there any attempt to explain why it was taking so long to implement the system. Most other countries had seen test, track and trace as an essential weapon in fighting coronavirus back in February; we had only really got round to thinking about it seriously a month or so ago.
Matt ended with a final plea. He understood people’s anger about Black Lives Matter but could people please stick to the rules and keep to small, socially distanced groups of six. Not for the first time during this public health crisis, satire had to take a back seat. Because the person the health secretary was about to hand over to was Dido Harding, the new chief executive of track and trace, who in a previous job on the board of the jockey club had let the Cheltenham festival go ahead when many other health experts were suggesting it should be cancelled.
So it’s going to take Typhoid Dido quite a while until the number of people she’s prevented from getting the coronavirus outweighs the number she’s helped to infect. Which might help to explain why at least one third of the people who had been tracked down refused to give any details of their contacts. But on the plus side, they had manage to pick up about 32,000 contacts which meant that the 25,000 track and tracers had managed to make just over one successful call each over the past week. Making Britain Great Again.
Come the questions, Door Matt got noticeably tetchier as journalist after journalist expressed their disappointment in the new system. Wouldn’t it have been better to wait until track and trace was working properly before easing lockdown measures? No, said Hancock. Because when it was world class it would be world class. There was no arguing with that.
Nor could he give any further updates on his world beating app which only a month ago he had insisted would give the UK the edge in beating coronavirus. Matt just pretended he had never said the app was going to be any great shakes and that it would be ready when it was ready. As in never.
Typhoid Dido did briefly try to come to the rescue. She was sure things would improve and that the track and tracers would soon be able to get hold of at least two people a week once they had learned to stop sending contacts texts at 3am. Teething problems and all that.
[…]
Some readers’s comments:
● “Mattbeth’s press conference: A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
● “Making Britain Great Again or maybe Making UK Great Supposedly”
In reply: “Making it all up again”;
and: “‘World beating Britain’ — note the lack of hyphen.”
● A quoted twittering:
What on earth justifies Jacinda Ardern’s inappropriate triumphalism after reducing coronavirus rates in New Zealand to zero? They only achieved 24 deaths. Pathetic! Look at our world-beating stats. Under Hancock’s guidance we’ve achieved 60,000 deaths and got the daily rate down from over 1,000 to less than 100, all while creating an NHS treatment backlog of only 10 million or so. Now that’s what I call cause for celebration.
(Ok, that one wins. No need to bother with any other readers’s comments on this column…)
[…]
North Korea sees no future benefit in maintaining a relationship between its leader, Kim Jong-Un, and Donald Trump, the country’s state media has said on the two-year anniversary of the pair’s first summit.
[…]
On Thursday North Korea criticised the US for commenting on inter-Korean affairs, and said Washington should stay quiet if it wants the upcoming presidential election to go smoothly.
[…]
Being dumped by one of the worse dictatorships on the planet will presumably sting. Hair furor will probably blame Kimchi and ban Mahjong, both presumably in confusion with his former besteringest friend, Kim Jong-Un.
John Moralessays
Lynna @363, from your quoted piece:
Yet an invisible menace is actually blowing through the air and falling via raindrops: Microplastic particles, tiny chunks (by definition, less than 5 millimeters long)
5mm is hardly “micro” – it’s half a centimeter!
I seriously doubt that’s invisible…
<clickety-click>
“Human eye can resolve objects that are at least 0.1mm in size”
So, yeah — loaded language there. Not impressed.
John Moralessays
blf quoting @366:
His vaulting ambition that led him to ignore all his gut instincts about having nothing to do with a Boris Johnson government has brought him nothing but hubris.
<snicker>
(John Crace clearly does not lack ambition about his verbiage — merely competence)
Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop
Written by Officer A. Cab
I was a police officer for nearly ten years and I was a bastard. We all were.
This essay has been kicking around in my head for years now and I’ve never felt confident enough to write it. It’s a time in my life I’m ashamed of. It’s a time that I hurt people and, through inaction, allowed others to be hurt.
[…]
YES, ALL COPS ARE BASTARDS
I was a police officer in a major metropolitan area in California with a predominantly poor, non-white population (with a large proportion of first-generation immigrants). One night during briefing, our watch commander told us that the city council had requested a new zero tolerance policy. Against murderers, drug dealers, or child predators?
No, against homeless people collecting cans from recycling bins.
See, the city had some kickback deal with the waste management company where waste management got paid by the government for our expected tonnage of recycling. When homeless people “stole” that recycling from the waste management company, they were putting that cheaper contract in peril. So, we were to arrest as many recyclers as we could find.
Even for me, this was a stupid policy and I promptly blew Sarge off. But a few hours later, Sarge called me over to assist him. He was detaining a 70 year old immigrant who spoke no English, who he’d seen picking a coke can out of a trash bin. He ordered me to arrest her for stealing trash. I said, “Sarge, c’mon, she’s an old lady.” He said, “I don’t give a shit. Hook her up, that’s an order.” And… I did. She cried the entire way to the station and all through the booking process. I couldn’t even comfort her because I didn’t speak Spanish. I felt disgusting but I was ordered to make this arrest and I wasn’t willing to lose my job for her.
If you’re tempted to feel sympathy for me, don’t. I used to happily hassle the homeless under other circumstances. I researched obscure penal codes so I could arrest people in homeless encampments for lesser known crimes like “remaining too close to railroad property” (369i of the California Penal Code). I used to call it “planting warrant seeds” since I knew they wouldn’t make their court dates and we could arrest them again and again for warrant violations.
We used to have informal contests for who could cite or arrest someone for the weirdest law. DUI on a bicycle, non-regulation number of brooms on your tow truck (27700(a)(1) of the California Vehicle Code)… shit like that. For me, police work was a logic puzzle for arresting people, regardless of their actual threat to the community. As ashamed as I am to admit it, it needs to be said: stripping people of their freedom felt like a game to me for many years.
[…]
While every cop’s individual biases come into play, it’s the profession itself that is toxic, and it starts from day 1 of training.
Every police academy is different but all of them share certain features: taught by old cops, run like a paramilitary bootcamp, strong emphasis on protecting yourself more than anyone else. The majority of my time in the academy was spent doing aggressive physical training and watching video after video after video of police officers being murdered on duty.
I want to highlight this: nearly everyone coming into law enforcement is bombarded with dash cam footage of police officers being ambushed and killed. Over and over and over. Colorless VHS mortality plays, cops screaming for help over their radios, their bodies going limp as a pair of tail lights speed away into a grainy black horizon. In my case, with commentary from an old racist cop who used to brag about assaulting Black Panthers.
[…]
Every single second of my training, I was told that criminals were not a legitimate part of their community, that they were individual bad actors, and that their bad actions were solely the result of their inherent criminality. Any concept of systemic trauma, generational poverty, or white supremacist oppression was either never mentioned or simply dismissed. After all, most people don’t steal, so anyone who does isn’t “most people,” right? To us, anyone committing a crime deserved anything that happened to them because they broke the “social contract.” And yet, it was never even a question as to whether the power structure above them was honoring any sort of contract back.
[…]
DO THE BASTARDS EVER HELP?
Reading the above, you may be tempted to ask whether cops ever do anything good. And the answer is, sure, sometimes. In fact, most officers I worked with thought they were usually helping the helpless and protecting the safety of innocent people.
During my tenure in law enforcement, I protected women from domestic abusers, arrested cold-blooded murderers and child molesters, and comforted families who lost children to car accidents and other tragedies. I helped connect struggling people in my community with local resources for food, shelter, and counseling. I deescalated situations that could have turned violent and talked a lot of people down from making the biggest mistake of their lives. I worked with plenty of officers who were individually kind, bought food for homeless residents, or otherwise showed care for their community.
The question is this: did I need a gun and sweeping police powers to help the average person on the average night? The answer is no. When I was doing my best work as a cop, I was doing mediocre work as a therapist or a social worker. My good deeds were listening to people failed by the system and trying to unite them with any crumbs of resources the structure was currently denying them.
It’s also important to note that well over 90% of the calls for service I handled were reactive, showing up well after a crime had taken place. We would arrive, take a statement, collect evidence (if any), file the report, and onto the next caper. Most “active” crimes we stopped were someone harmless possessing or selling a small amount of drugs. Very, very rarely would we stop something dangerous in progress or stop something from happening entirely. The closest we could usually get was seeing someone running away from the scene of a crime, but the damage was still done.
And consider this: my job as a police officer required me to be a marriage counselor, a mental health crisis professional, a conflict negotiator, a social worker, a child advocate, a traffic safety expert, a sexual assault specialist, and, every once in awhile, a public safety officer authorized to use force, all after only a 1000 hours of training at a police academy. Does the person we send to catch a robber also need to be the person we send to interview a rape victim or document a fender bender? Should one profession be expected to do all that important community care (with very little training) all at the same time?
To put this another way: I made double the salary most social workers made to do a fraction of what they could do to mitigate the causes of crimes and desperation. I can count very few times my monopoly on state violence actually made our citizens safer, and even then, it’s hard to say better-funded social safety nets and dozens of other community care specialists wouldn’t have prevented a problem before it started.
Armed, indoctrinated (and dare I say, traumatized) cops do not make you safer; community mutual aid networks who can unite other people with the resources they need to stay fed, clothed, and housed make you safer. I really want to hammer this home: every cop in your neighborhood is damaged by their training, emboldened by their immunity, and they have a gun and the ability to take your life with near-impunity. This does not make you safer, even if you’re white. {emphasis in the original}
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE A BASTARD?
So what do we do about it? Even though I’m an expert on bastardism, I am not a public policy expert nor an expert in organizing a post-police society. So, before I give some suggestions, let me tell you what probably won’t solve the problem of bastard cops:
– Increased “bias” training. A quarterly or even monthly training session is not capable of covering over years of trauma-based camaraderie in police forces. I can tell you from experience, we don’t take it seriously, the proctors let us cheat on whatever “tests” there are, and we all made fun of it later over coffee.
– Tougher laws. I hope you understand by now, cops do not follow the law and will not hold each other accountable to the law. Tougher laws are all the more reason to circle the wagons and protect your brothers and sisters.
– More community policing programs. Yes, there is a marginal effect when a few cops get to know members of the community, but look at the protests of 2020: many of the cops pepper-spraying journalists were probably the nice school cop a month ago.
[…]
Instead of wasting time with minor tweaks, I recommend exploring the following ideas:
– No more qualified immunity. Police officers should be personally liable for all decisions they make in the line of duty.
– No more civil asset forfeiture. Did you know that every year, citizens like you lose more cash and property to unaccountable civil asset forfeiture than to all burglaries combined? The police can steal your stuff without charging you with a crime and it makes some police departments very rich.
– Break the power of police unions. Police unions make it nearly impossible to fire bad cops and incentivize protecting them to protect the power of the union. A police union is not a labor union; police officers are powerful state agents, not exploited workers.
– Require malpractice insurance. Doctors must pay for insurance in case they botch a surgery, police officers should do the same for botching a police raid or other use of force. If human decency won’t motivate police to respect human life, perhaps hitting their wallet might.
– Defund, demilitarize, and disarm cops. Thousands of police departments own assault rifles, armored personnel carriers, and stuff you’d see in a warzone. Police officers have grants and huge budgets to spend on guns, ammo, body armor, and combat training. 99% of calls for service require no armed response, yet when all you have is a gun, every problem feels like target practice. {original} Cities are not safer when unaccountable bullies have a monopoly on state violence and the equipment to execute that monopoly.
One final idea: consider abolishing the police.
I know what you’re thinking, “What? We need the police! They protect us!” As someone who did it for nearly a decade, I need you to understand that by and large, police protection is marginal, incidental. It’s an illusion created by decades of copaganda designed to fool you into thinking these brave men and women are holding back the barbarians at the gates.
I alluded to this above: the vast majority of calls for service I handled were theft reports, burglary reports, domestic arguments that hadn’t escalated into violence, loud parties, (houseless) people loitering, traffic collisions, very minor drug possession, and arguments between neighbors. Mostly the mundane ups and downs of life in the community, with little inherent danger. And, like I mentioned, the vast majority of crimes I responded to (even violent ones) had already happened; my unaccountable license to kill was irrelevant.
What I mainly provided was an “objective” third party with the authority to document property damage, ask people to chill out or disperse, or counsel people not to beat each other up. A trained counselor or conflict resolution specialist would be ten times more effective than someone with a gun strapped to his hip wondering if anyone would try to kill him when he showed up. There are many models for community safety that can be explored if we get away from the idea that the only way to be safe is to have a man with a M4 rifle prowling your neighborhood ready at a moment’s notice to write down your name and birthday after you’ve been robbed and beaten.
You might be asking, “What about the armed robbers, the gangsters, the drug dealers, the serial killers?” And yes, in the city I worked, I regularly broke up gang parties, found gang members carrying guns, and handled homicides. I’ve seen some tragic things, from a reformed gangster shot in the head with his brains oozing out to a fifteen year old boy taking his last breath in his screaming mother’s arms thanks to a gang member’s bullet. I know the wages of violence.
This is where we have to have the courage to ask: why do people rob? Why do they join gangs? Why do they get addicted to drugs or sell them? It’s not because they are inherently evil. I submit to you that these are the results of living in a capitalist system that grinds people down and denies them housing, medical care, human dignity, and a say in their government. These are the results of white supremacy pushing people to the margins, excluding them, disrespecting them, and treating their bodies as disposable.
Equally important to remember: disabled and mentally ill people are frequently killed by police officers not trained to recognize and react to disabilities or mental health crises. Some of the people we picture as “violent offenders” are often people struggling with untreated mental illness, often due to economic hardships. Very frequently, the officers sent to “protect the community” escalate this crisis and ultimately wound or kill the person. Your community was not made safer by police violence; a sick member of your community was killed because it was cheaper than treating them. Are you extremely confident you’ll never get sick one day too?
Wrestle with this for a minute: if all of someone’s material needs were met and all the members of their community were fed, clothed, housed, and dignified, why would they need to join a gang? Why would they need to risk their lives selling drugs or breaking into buildings? If mental healthcare was free and was not stigmatized, how many lives would that save?
Would there still be a few bad actors in the world? Sure, probably. What’s my solution for them, you’re no doubt asking. I’ll tell you what: generational poverty, food insecurity, houselessness, and for-profit medical care are all problems that can be solved in our lifetimes by rejecting the dehumanizing meat grinder of capitalism and white supremacy. Once that’s done, we can work on the edge cases together, with clearer hearts not clouded by a corrupt system.
[…]
And to any cops who made it this far down, is this really the world you want to live in? Aren’t you tired of the trauma? Aren’t you tired of the soul sickness inherent to the badge? Aren’t you tired of looking the other way when your partners break the law? Are you really willing to kill the next George Floyd, the next Breonna Taylor, the next Tamir Rice? How confident are you that your next use of force will be something you’re proud of? I’m writing this for you too: it’s wrong what our training did to us, it’s wrong that they hardened our hearts to our communities, and it’s wrong to pretend this is normal.
[…] With less than five months to go, fears are mounting that several battleground states are not prepared to administer problem-free elections during the pandemic.
The increasingly urgent concerns are both complex and simple: long lines disproportionately affecting voters of color in places like Atlanta with a history of voter suppression; a severe shortage of poll workers scared away by coronavirus concerns; and an emerging consensus that it could take several days after polls close on Election Day to determine a winner as battleground states struggle with an explosion of mail voting. […]
Democrats want to send billions of dollars to overburdened state and local election systems and expand in-person early voting and universal no-excuse mail balloting. Republicans […] have resisted such efforts and instead call on local elections officials, who in urban areas are often Democrats, to fix the problems themselves.
[…] Trump is also fighting states’ plans to expand voting by mail, raising repeated concerns with no evidence about voter fraud.
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton said he has lost confidence in the nation’s voting system, particularly across states where federal protections that ensured minority voters weren’t disenfranchised have been swept away.
“You’re almost back to the Confederates against the Union,” Sharpton said. […]
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, said he’s working to ensure Ohio has adequate poll workers. He’s tweaking a program allowing high school seniors to be poll workers, encouraging companies to give workers a paid day off and advocating state agencies that don’t already offer days off for poll workers to do so. […]
“What worries me is when someone with bad intentions can take a story about elections problems and then use it intentionally to try to cause people to self-disenfranchise, which is about the ugliest thing I can imagine,” he said. […]
This morning, Trump posted on Twitter that he supports congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene, despite her public alignment with QAnon, and with QAnon’s various batshit bonkers conspiracy theories.
Biden promised the federal government would provide and pay for COVID-19 tests “for every worker called back to work.”
Biden’s team is trying to do some of the work that the Trump administration should have been doing for months. It’s good to have a plan, but I think it may be too late. Trump has already ruined the entire COVID-19 response in the USA. Even if the federal government suddenly got behind a comprehensive testing program, we wouldn’t be able to administer or run all of the tests. Some testing supplies are still not available in sufficient quantities. Some labs that run the tests are still facing big backlogs. Some tests are still not being administered properly.
It will take months to even begin to clean up Trump’s mess. In the meantime, that narcissistic dolt, Trump has all but guaranteed that about 200,000 people will have died from coronavirus by the end of August.
From coverage of Biden’s statements:
[…] At an in-person round-table discussion with community leaders in Philadelphia, Biden said the federal government had “abdicated any effective leadership role” in responding to the pandemic and reopening the economy, and slammed Trump for having “basically a one-point plan” that focused solely on “opening business.”
The former vice president, in turn, offered his own multifaceted plan to safely reopen businesses in the United States.
Under Biden’s plan, the federal government would, he said, provide and pay for COVID-19 tests “for every worker called back to work” and would “ensure access” to all workers to personal protective equipment.
Biden also promised that workers and unions would “have a voice” in any reopening plans put forth by the federal government and said his administration would offer federal paid leave for workers that become sick with the virus.
The presumptive Democratic nominee reiterated a previous vow to hire a vaccine czar who would be charged with securing widespread accessibility.
A statement provided by the campaign after the event began said Biden also promised to build a national contract tracing workforce and launch a “safer for shoppers” program, designed to increase consumer confidence, that would essentially identify and certify businesses that have met testing and other criteria.
At Thursday’s event, Biden was seated at the center of several tables, with the other members of the event sitting at appropriate social distances. Temperature checks were done for everyone entering the event, the campaign said. […]
Hopefully, Biden’s team will be in the White House and fully prepared to administer a vaccine should one become available. If Trump is reelected, he will fuck up any vaccine distribution just like he already messed up every other response to an infectious disease killing people in the USA.
blfsays
Assorted snippets:
● Walgreens and CVS to stop locking up beauty products for women of color: “The drugstore chains Walgreens and CVS Health say they will stop locking up beauty and hair care products aimed at black women and other women of color, joining Walmart in ending a practice at some stores […]”. There were doing what!? The article goes on to note that sort of practice is apparently widespread.
● Whole Foods worker fired after posts criticizing free food for police: “A Whole Foods worker in Philadelphia has been fired after sharing posts on social media criticizing their store management for providing free food to police during George Floyd protests in the area.” Whole Foods is owned by Amazon. The article lists other apparently-in-retaliation firings by various companies.
Also, New York governor Andrew Cuomo will be issuing an executive order “which would withhold state funding from localities that do not enact a plan to reinvent and modernize policing strategies.”
A large group of conservative social media users have created a fake online challenge in a bid to discredit the protest movement against racism and police violence […]. These conservative agitators invented a fake movement calling for white women to shave their heads, shedding their privileged hair in solidarity with Black Americans. But it turns out this fake campaign hasn’t duped anyone.
[…]
The main tactic was to take valid images of shaved- or getting-shaved women and falsely claim it was in agreement with #GoBaldforBLM. One of the women whose image was so-hijacked responded, “I did NOT shave my head for some fragile white performative bull sh**, I lost my hair during chemotherapy in 2018 and loved that bald look so much I kept it buzzed”.
[…] OAN is a small network, clearly seeking to make its name in part by promising endlessly obsequious coverage of the president. The network has often explicitly asked Trump to watch it instead of Fox, as chief executive Robert Herring did Wednesday.
Trump does watch. It was an OAN report about the protester in Buffalo who was injured by police that prompted Trump to speculate wildly that the elderly man who suffered a head injury had faked his fall in service to a murky network of left-wing anarchists.
Herring defended that report Thursday, writing on Twitter that his network had “put out our facts” on the incident, while the mainstream media hadn’t done so. There is no evidence for the claims made in the report, though OAN reporter Kristian Rouz did certainly offer up some allegations. […]
Herring had on Wednesday pledged an upcoming poll, as the Trump campaign’s feud with CNN over its national poll was heating up. [See comment 266] He promised that OAN would be “releasing a poll concerning the 2020 presidential race” that “looks as though it will be in favor of” the president.
Early Thursday afternoon, the poll came out. Conducted by Gravis Marketing, a pollster that earns a C in FiveThirtyEight’s ranking of pollsters, it was focused solely on Florida.
It had Trump and Biden tied in the must-win state for Trump, a state Trump won narrowly four years ago.
OAN produced a video segment on the poll, again featuring Rouz, which appeared on its website. Soon after it was published, though, the report was pulled. A tweet from Herring that apparently announced the results was also deleted.
The poll itself and Rouz’s report on the poll immediately raise red flags in a variety of ways. [More details are available at the link.]
[…] Trump is presented as having an edge over Biden on handling the economy. But this point, one central to Trump’s reelection bid, downplays that Trump is under 50 percent among respondents and leads Biden by only four points, basically a tie.
Many of the other data points that Rouz highlights are based on leading questions (“Is activating the national guard an effective way to prevent further rioting?”) or are presented by Rouz in ludicrously loaded language.
At one point, he shows the results of a question about where blame lies for violence that emerged following protests throughout the country.
“The OAN/Gravis poll reveals 43 percent of Floridians blame far-left protesters for the latest violence and looting,” he said, “while only 36 percent blame the police.”
First, Rouz’s presentation of the question doesn’t match what’s shown on the screen, nor did the response options. (The question asked only about “protesters,” not “far-left protesters.”) […]
Rouz claimed that “at least 50 percent of Floridians would vote to reelect their president if the election were held this week” — an impressive use of “at least” and an equally impressive effort to ignore that the same thing could be said about Biden. […]
The OAN report tries to suggest that this result is somehow a repudiation of CNN’s poll. It isn’t, for a variety of reasons. The most obvious, of course, is that the CNN poll was national and the OAN poll conducted only in Florida. Florida polling from other outlets shows Biden with a narrow lead in the state of about three points on average. […]
That Rouz is so sloppy and presents the findings so dishonestly should not be a surprise. He has another report that was published by OAN on Thursday. It is a buffet of allegations that would resonate with Trump: The “deep state” is working with Democrats to produce polls making Republican voters demoralized. It’s lifting up one of the dumber points of contention Trump’s team raised in its criticism of the CNN poll but somehow manages to do so in an even more ridiculous way.
This entire polling effort by OAN is a remarkable, if unintentional, window into how the network works. Its chief executive trumpets a poll that he promises is likely to show Trump doing well. His on-air reporter gins up a thoroughly misleading presentation of results that are far from great for the president. For some reason — but probably exactly that reason — the story and the report get deep-sixed.
After all, Trump’s not going to want to watch that. […]
Kudlow’s pattern of painfully wrong coronavirus predictions should lead him to scale back his pandemic-related rhetoric. And yet, he keeps talking.
Larry Kudlow, the director of the White House National Economic Council, appeared on Fox News this morning and downplayed the possibility of a second coronavirus wave.
“Look, I’m not the health expert, but on the so-called spike, I spoke to our health experts at some length last evening. They’re saying there is no second spike. Let me repeat that: There is no second spike…. There is no emergency. There is no second wave. I don’t know where that got started on Wall Street.”
Aiyiyiiyi, total bullshit and lies. Ask health officials in Arizona, Utah, South Carolina, Alabama, etc. etc.
Of course, while Kudlow downplays the possibility of a public-health “emergency,” there’s ample evidence that coronavirus cases are increasing in roughly half the states — with some states showing significant spikes.
[…] it’s hard not to be skeptical of Kudlow’s reassurances — especially given recent history.
[…] Kudlow — who has a notorious track record for being wrong — appeared on CNBC in early March and said, in reference to the coronavirus, “[R]egarding the containment issue, I will still argue to you that this is contained…. We don’t actually know what the magnitude of the virus is going to be. Although, frankly, so far it looks relatively contained.” […]
A week earlier, Kudlow boasted on CNBC, “We have contained this. I won’t say airtight, but it’s pretty close to airtight.” He added that the public-health emergency was not likely to become an “economic tragedy.”
Donald Trump soon after rewarded Kudlow with a spot on the White House Coronavirus Taskforce — back before the president allowed the taskforce to wither on the vine.
Common sense suggests Kudlow’s pattern of painfully wrong coronavirus predictions should lead him to scale back his pandemic-related rhetoric. And yet, there he was, telling a national television audience this morning that there’s no reason at all to be concerned about a second wave.
The on-air comments were probably intended to be reassuring. But given Kudlow’s track record, I found myself feeling quite a bit worse.
What we’re seeing are Republican constituencies who are voicing their frustrations because they expected their party to act like, well, a political party.
“The Republican Party has not yet voted on a Platform,” Donald Trump declared via Twitter this morning. “No rush. I prefer a new and updated Platform, short form, if possible.”
There’s been ample reporting this week suggesting the president has this backwards. The RNC’s executive committee met on Wednesday, and by all accounts it agreed to recycle the party’s 2016 platform.
I made the case yesterday that this is emblematic of a post-policy party that’s lacking in meaningful governing goals and substantive priorities. But as it turns out, that’s not the only problem. Politico reported overnight:
A vote by the Republican National Committee to leave the party’s 2016 party platform unchanged ahead of the November election has infuriated grassroots activists — including moderates who wanted to streamline its message and social conservatives who sought added language on emerging hot-button topics.
[…] Not to put too fine a point on this, but major parties are supposed to do this often-unpleasant work every four years: like-minded partisans get together to iron out the details of their party’s goals, priorities, principles, and values. […]
The RNC’s executive committee decided it’d be easier to simply punt those debates to 2024 — even as the party’s president pretends that decision wasn’t made at all.
Politico’s report added, “The decision by the party’s executive panel Wednesday means the GOP will maintain positions in the four-year-old policy blueprint — including opposition to same-sex marriage and a nod to gay conversion therapy — and decline to stake out new positions on topics such as police reform, gender identity and third-trimester abortions.
[…] The convention is a few months away. There’s time for a platform production process, clumsy as it may be under the circumstances. (Democrats, for example, are in a similar boat, but there’s been no suggestion that the party will reuse its four-year-old platform.)
Making matters just a little worse, a Washington Post analysis noted yesterday, “[I]t’s also notable because some of the language in the platform decrying what the ‘current administration’ and ‘the president’ have done can just as easily be used against the current occupant of the White House.”
It’s an inconvenient detail Republicans would probably prefer to ignore, but their 2016 platform denounced, among other things, shunning U.S. allies, an over-reliance on presidential executive orders, a rapidly increasing national debt, the White House’s inability to generate economic growth above 3%, any effort to undermine the value of government whistleblowers, and the United States’ declining “standing in world affairs.”
ha ha ha ha ha
Or put another way, the 2016 Republican platform reads like a rather brutal condemnation of Donald Trump. Perhaps the RNC should’ve taken the time to read their platform before re-embracing it for another four years?
A man charged yesterday with the ambush killing of a police officer also appears to have scrawled a reference in blood to a second Civil War. […]
“Boogaloo,” which in recent years has been adopted by extremists on the internet as shorthand for an armed conflict against the government. […]
Carrillo was charged with 19 felonies Thursday including murder, attempted murder, various explosives charges, carjacking and other offenses. The active duty Air Force staff sergeant, who was part of an elite security force at Travis Air Force Base, is set to be arraigned Friday.
According to police, they were first alerted to Carrillo when someone reported a suspicious parked van in which guns and bomb-making materials were visible. Deputies said they caught up with the vehicle and followed it to Ben Lomond, a mountainous area north of Santa Cruz where Carrillo had been living with his father.
Carrillo ambushed deputies, police say, shooting at them and throwing explosives. Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller was allegedly killed by Carrillo in the exchange and another deputy was critically wounded. […]
Though not currently reflected in the charges against Carrillo, he is also believed to be the gunman who shot dead a Federal Protective Services officer, Dave Patrick Underwood, in Oakland in late May […]
[…] The “Boogaloo” reference is associated with a recent trend in which armed extremists carry out violence against authorities or government institutions, such as power stations and courthouses, in an attempt to sow violent insurrection.
The origin of the term is a bit convoluted, and starts with the movie “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.” The film, which followed 1984’s “Breakin’,” became a reference for shoddy sequels. And on 4chan and other online communities, “Boogaloo” eventually evolved into a meme about a second Civil War.
In recent years, violent extremists have used the word to refer to taking up arms against the state. A derivation, “Big Luau,” explains why many followers of the movement, sarcastically or not, wear Hawaiian shirts to protests.
In Nevada in late May, three men with military backgrounds were arrested and accused of planning attacks in hopes of fomenting an armed rebellion. Prosecutors say the men were affiliated with the Boogaloo movement and wanted to capitalize on the ongoing protests against racism and police brutality in light of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
[…] scores of Boogaloo-focused groups add to an ecosystem of extremist content, some of it explicitly affiliated with neo-Nazis and white nationalists. […]
Although Melania Trump originally said the reason she was hanging back in New York after her husband entered the White House was to avoid a disruption in their son’s school year, new reporting from a Washington Post reporter reveals the first lady’s delayed arrival was also part of a leveraging scheme to revisit a prenuptial agreement with Trump.
In Post reporter Mary Jordan’s new book, “Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump,” Jordan reports that Donald Trump’s rise to the top seat in government had been dealt a heavy blow when allegations of affairs and sexual misconduct reached the ears of the American public — and his wife. The Access Hollywood tape, in addition to detailed allegations about Trump’s affair with Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, presented the first lady a chance to secure a more generous prenup agreement.
“She wanted proof in writing that when it came to financial opportunities and inheritance, Barron would be treated as more of an equal to Trump’s oldest three children,” Jordan writes.
The book draws on interviews with Melania’s former schoolmates, acquaintances and those who worked directly with the first lady. Jordan concludes that contrary to the belief held by many advocates of #FreeMelania — who say she and the president are quite different — Melania Trump is in fact “much more like him than it appears.”
“Both are avid creators of their own history,” Jordan writes.
In a statement to CNN, Melania Trump’s chief of staff Stephanie Grisham said: “Yet another book about Mrs. Trump with false information and sources. This book belongs in the fiction genre.”
[…] Trump has already made it clear that he’s not backing any attempts to slow or roll back reopening. Instead, Trump has another solution to fighting the second wave of COVID-19. It’s called “build that wall.”
That’s right: Trump is blaming new cases of COVID-19 on Mexico.
As of Thursday morning, there were well over 2 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States, and 116,000 Americans have died from the disease. Mexico was far down the list of nations affected, with 133,000 cases and 15,000 deaths. The idea that cases imported from Mexico might be contributing significantly to the American total seems not just ridiculous, but determinedly xenophobic—especially considering that most early cases in Mexico could be directly connected to people coming from the United States.
But of course Trump is pretending that new cases in the United States are coming from Mexico. After all, Trump has long included “disease” on the list of terrible things that might come from immigrants crossing the southern border. During his 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly made statements that included things like “tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border,” and said that immigrants were bringing “large scale crime and disease.”
[…] the strategy decision to blame Mexico was “discussed at some length during a meeting of the administration’s coronavirus task force. Of course, those same officials also recognize that the outbreaks are happening in practically every state where social distancing guidelines have been relaxed, and that “circumstances likely differ by location.” The report does not say whether any medical doctors or scientists on the team were present for this discussion.
[…] Trump’s claims about “crime and disease” were never true. But this new theory is getting introduced just in time for Trump to mention it at his Juneteenth travesty in Tulsa. Then he can sit back and listen to the chants.
COVID-19 patients and those fighting the virus in Argentina are increasingly being stigmatised and threatened.
[…]
You’re going to infect us all, said the initial anonymous letter directed at doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers on the front line of coronavirus pandemic. Go away.
The second note told [Fernando] Gaitan, a pharmacist in the Argentine capital, that if anyone in the building gets sick, it will be the last thing you do in your life.
[…]
For weeks, Argentines have taken to their balconies every night to applaud and cheer on healthcare workers who are putting themselves in the line of fire to combat the novel coronavirus. But an uglier behaviour has also taken root, with several stories of harassment and threatening of medical professionals who are being accused of posing a risk to the community they are seeking to help.
It is not just doctors who are targeted, but COVID-19 patients, or those who are suspected of carrying the disease.
Marisol San Roman, who contracted the illness while studying in Madrid, has received a deluge of vitriol through social media channels. She has been called a leper, threatened with death, told her house will be lit on fire. She says she has heard worse stories from others who reach out to her in fear and indignation. Last week, someone torched the car of a doctor in the province of La Rioja who had tested positive for coronavirus. She had previously criticised the governor, who said that medical professionals need to be more careful in terms of taking precautions.
“When I started to see the level of violence I felt, this can’t happen. It’s not just a message of threats, it’s violence,” said San Roman, [… who] has taken on a prominent role talking about the realities of the disease in Argentina. “If they are attacking people, nobody is going to get tested and people are going to live with symptoms and that’s the worst thing that could happen to our society.”
[…] Argentina’s National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI) also launched a campaign aimed at combatting the behaviour. “If the virus doesn’t discriminate, neither should we,” it said in its publicity campaign.
The INADI has seen calls to its office increase by 50 percent since a government-imposed quarantine started, from about 20 to 30 a day. Initially, the calls were from people of Asian descent who had suffered racial discrimination. But complaints also came from other vulnerable groups, such as transgender individuals, who faced eviction during the pandemic.
The threats against doctors started a few weeks ago, and most recently they have turned towards those with the virus. There have also been reports of mothers being barred from entering grocery stores with their children. […]
“I would love to tell you that the behaviour is unexpected, but that’s not the case,” said Victoria Donda, director of the INADI.
“When we think of what is happening to people who have coronavirus, we just have to think back to people who, many years ago, had leprosy and were ostracised by communities even though you couldn’t transmit leprosy through touching. Or more recently, the people who had HIV, or the people who worked with them,” she told Al Jazeera. “When you think about it, that society … is the same one that is responding in this way.”
Arizona’s Emergency Responders Face a Roaring Wildfire Amid a Worsening Pandemic
And fire season has only just begun.
Arizona’s Bighorn fire, which began smoldering June 5 after a lightning strike, has grown to more than 6,200 acres and is tearing through the suburb of Catalina Foothills, about 10 miles from Tucson. Residents in the area face evacuation orders […]
The United States faces an extreme weather season like we’ve never seen before. Scientists predict an extraordinarily hot summer, one that could put 2020 on track for the hottest year ever. These are the perfect conditions for out-of-control wildfires. […] The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah on Friday, meaning the states experiencing the dry and warm weather conditions that could turn a small fire into a devastating one.
[…] Jim Whittington, a crisis communications expert in wildfire management, warned us [journalists] about the unprecedented challenge of a big fire year “influenced by climate change in the middle of a global pandemic.” He was right: Arizona is now facing a significant second wave of coronavirus infections, as COVID-19 hospitalizations rose 49 percent from May 26 to June 9, the second-biggest jump in the country. The state reopened May 15, and the trouble began a few weeks later: Cases rose from 200 a day in late May to more than 1,400 a day this week. […]
The pandemic adds a major new burden to an emergency response system that was already stretched thin. After natural disasters, FEMA is supposed to help evacuate people and coordinate the distribution of supplies like masks, food, and water. But the agency is already strained by the COVID-19 crisis, having headed into it with leadership vacancies and staff shortages. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has hamstrung the agency with insufficient budgeting and staffing: In 2018, the president diverted $10 million from FEMA’s budget to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE]. […]
Highlighting the conflict of interest that, in part, shapes Trump’s coronavirus response:
[…] Interviews with current and former Trump Organization employees and tenants, and emails obtained by The Washington Post, show the pandemic in particular has rattled operations at the company. With thousands of Trump’s hotel rooms empty, the company laid off or furloughed more than 2,800 employees and scoured for even the smallest savings. It eliminated flowers, chocolates and newspapers at its New York hotel and turned off lights in common areas in its Chicago hotel to save on electricity, according to letters that hotel management sent to investors.
“This was not just a step down,” Eric Danziger, the chief executive of Trump Hotels, told board members of Trump’s Chicago hotel on April 22, according to an account of his phone call obtained by The Post. “This was a steep dive.”
Trump’s business struggles present a potential conflict as he tries as president to manage a pandemic that has already claimed more than 110,000 American lives. The outbreak has devastated industries at the core of Trump’s business — travel, luxury tourism and hospitality — and the company’s fortunes largely depend on people’s willingness to travel and ability to gather in large groups. […]
The damage of the past months appears extensive. Out of Trump’s five top-earning hotels and resorts, four of them — in Miami, Las Vegas, Scotland and Ireland — shut down in March and remained closed through May. An analysis by The Post of Trump Organization revenue, based on Trump’s latest public financial disclosure, which covers 2018, indicate Trump probably lost out on tens of millions of dollars in revenue over the past three months.
Even before the pandemic, Trump’s polarizing presidency had sapped revenue from his business. At least two of Trump’s U.S. hotels — in Chicago and Miami — had reported sharp declines in business after Trump entered politics. The company’s hotel in Washington is now up for sale. […]
Even when stay-at-home orders end and more people return to work, hotel operators and office building owners face tremendous uncertainty about how their businesses will recover. Hotels in the United States lost 82 percent of their business for the month of April compared with last year, according to hotel data analysis firm STR. Luxury hotels saw their businesses wiped out almost completely, losing 96.6 percent of their business in April after taking in just $60 million in revenue nationwide. […]
This has meant layoffs on a large scale for Trump’s employees, with the steepest cuts at the hotels. Twelve Trump Organization properties in the United States and Canada laid off or furloughed employees, including cooks, waiters, housekeepers and valets, according to local filings.
Some of the job losses will not be temporary: At Doral, the company initially furloughed 560 employees, then later said in a filing that 250 of those jobs would be permanent layoffs.
Danziger, the chief executive of Trump Hotels, said in his call that the company could begin shifting toward using more part-time employees, who are not entitled to health benefits. […]
Update on the White House response, or lack of response, to the coronavirus pandemic:
[…] dilettante of disaster Jared Kushner, who for a while had commandeered the administration’s pandemic response, seems to have moved on; he’s informally running Trump’s reelection campaign, now that he has achieved peace in the Middle East and fixed the country’s policing problem.
And while public health officials have said a thousand times that we need an aggressive testing and contact tracing program to fully contain the virus, at the national level, we have neither. In fact, while Trump may occasionally brag about the number of tests that have been done, the federal government has essentially told states that when it comes to testing they’re on their own. […]
With everything else going on, including the collapse of the economy and the wave of protests over police brutality and racism, the covid-19 pandemic is getting less attention. So it’s worth stressing just how appalling this is: The United States has no national coronavirus testing strategy.
A month and a half ago, the White House issued a “guidance” to states that amounted to “you guys should maybe do some testing, but it’s not the federal government’s responsibility.” And that’s still where we are.
Meanwhile, nearly half the states are showing rising rates of infection and hospitalizations, with particularly sharp increases in Arizona, Texas and Florida. […]
And what is the president doing? Like a vampire deprived of blood, his hunger for the adulation of the crowd has become too overwhelming to resist, so next week he’ll be holding his first rally since the pandemic began. The assembled faithful will prove their devotion to the president by not wearing masks, just as they do at the White House and at his campaign headquarters. […]
If there’s a strategy in all this, it may be to hope that the public comes to see a thousand or so people dying every day from covid-19 as just background noise, and certainly not something that should be blamed on the president. […]
For the White House, “normal” means not having to worry about the pandemic anymore, so it can concentrate on praising Trump for his inspiring leadership and towering genius. […] It sure beats actually doing the long and hard work needed to get it under control.
[…] Trump still doesn’t know much of anything about governing, and even if he were determined to put down the remote control and act, he wouldn’t have any idea what to do.
But whatever the rationale, in March, the president was fairly labeled a bystander, and three months later, the description still applies.
Ezra Klein noted yesterday, “Donald Trump is now down by more than 8 points in polling averages. Coronavirus is resurgent. Expanded UI is set to expire on July 31st. The nation has exploded in protests over police brutality. And he’s doing … nothing. About any of it. He’s just rage tweeting.”
Specifically on the coronavirus crisis, Harvard’s Ashish K. Jha added earlier today, “It feels to me like the federal government has thrown in the towel on this pandemic.” Noting the administration’s passivity — the testing czar is gone and hasn’t been replaced, the task force has largely disappeared from view, etc. — Jha added that administration officials “don’t even appear to be trying anymore.” […]
Scientists in Netherlands explore possible link between deficiency and Covid-19 deaths
Patients who have died or been admitted to intensive care with Covid-19 have been found to be deficient in a vitamin found in spinach, eggs, and hard and blue cheeses, raising hopes that dietary change might be one part of the answer to combating the disease.
Hum… I rather like spinach, and there’s a cheese-obsessed mildy deranged egg-laying (glances up at the ceiling) overhead (shifts sideways and the egg lands on the floor) with poor aim… who yodels…
Researchers studying patients who were admitted to the Canisius Wilhelmina hospital in the Dutch city of Nijmegen have extolled the benefits of vitamin K after discovering a link between deficiency and the worst coronavirus outcomes.
Covid-19 causes blood clotting and leads to the degradation of elastic fibres in the lungs. Vitamin K, which is ingested through food and absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, is key to the production of proteins that regulate clotting and can protect against lung disease.
[… warning about Vitamin K when on a blood-thinning medicine such as Warfarin; and more details…]
French police protested on Friday against a ban on chokeholds and limits to what they can do during arrests, part of new government efforts to stem police brutality and systemic racism in the wake of global protests over George Floyd’s death in the United States and a reckoning in France over the 2016 death of Adama Traoré, who died in police custody.
Police officers rallied on the French capital’s famed Champs-Élysées avenue on Friday, parking dozens of vehicles at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe in protest against new restrictions on restraint holds they can use.
One van carried a poster reading No police, no peace. Another carried graphic images of injuries sustained by police officers attacked in the line of duty, with the words: Who is massacring who?
I presume the goons are being advised by Putin, possibly through his acolyte, Steve Bannon.
[…] Colleagues can’t take this any more, Fabien Vanhemelryck of the National Police Alliance union told reporters after Friday’s protesters arrived at the front gate of the interior ministry.
We need to be protected, respected, supported. The police are never above the law, but they should never be left below the law, Vanhemelryck said.
Presuming he’s sincere, kudos for the “police are never above the law” — which, off the top of my head, is not something I’ve heard from any of the majority-white-led goon union “leader”-ship in the States.
[…]
Earlier this week, Jacques Toubon, France’s human rights ombudsman, raised the alarm over a “crisis of public confidence in the security forces”, urging a reversal of what he described as a “warring mentality” in law enforcement.
Leaked comments from a private Facebook group for police officers fuelled outrage over racism among French law enforcement, prompting Paris prosecutors to open an investigation last week.
The Élysée presidential palace said Monday that President Emmanuel Macron had urged cabinet ministers to come up with proposals to improve policing practices and address accusations of racial prejudice.
Announcing the chokehold ban, Castaner pledged “zero tolerance” for racism in the police force, adding that the use of body cameras would be beefed up.
Interesting point. Again, off the top of my head, I do not have any recollection of seeing any of the police forces in the area (France has a confusing overlap) wearing body cameras. Nor do I have any idea at all what the regulations and actual practices are on wearing of using the kit, nor on reviewing or retaining or releasing what is filmed.
[…] Castaner […] added: “I refuse to say that the {police} institution is racist, but yes some police officers are racist.”
Though Castaner spoke at length in support of the police, his acknowledgement of racist incidents marked a rare concession from a minister who had so far strenuously denied police malpractice.
Locally, I’ve always had doubts about the local(-ish) goons — and the council — treat the Roma. There are also a fair number of people who appear to be Muslim, or of Arabic or (N.)African ethnicity, in the area, and the le penazis have non-trivial support in the area and (with a (admittedly-usually closed)) “shop” on the main shopping street, making me rather suspicious of them(the goons). Me, being an obvious privileged anglophone foreigner, haven’t had any problems with the local goons per se, beyond language difficulties.
While Melania was supposedly renegotiating her prenup with Trump, U.S. taxpayers paid millions in security costs.
[…] According to one estimate, her flights aboard Air Force jets during the first three months of 2017 cost taxpayers $676,635. Meanwhile, the security costs to New York City and the Secret Service were eye-popping as well. […]
From Business Insider:
Aside from flights, security at Trump Tower cost the New York Police Department between $127,000 and $146,000 a day while Melania and Barron were staying there, and the Secret Service requested an additional $60 million to protect the president’s family.
Until April, medical examiners in Florida published a daily update on deaths and causes by county. In April, Florida forced medical examiners to stop that reporting, saying that this information was now “restricted.” Though the state’s death statistics were placed in doubt, the state did maintain a detailed dashboard of COVID-19 cases … until May 20, when the scientist who built and maintained that dashboard was fired.
Since then, Governor Ron DeSantis has been making a victory lap around the state, bragging about how great the results were there and Donald Trump has repeatedly pointed out the state as an example to prove that other states should go back to business as normal. On Wednesday, Trump personally fingered Jacksonville, Florida, to be the new site of the Republican National Convention after the mayor there promised that Trump could have “a packed arena” without concessions to the pandemic.
The reopening in Florida has come at a cost. Over the last two weeks, Florida has repeatedly been near the top of the charts for new cases and hospitalization numbers are climbing. And now it appears that there’s even more hiding behind DeSantis’ fudged numbers—like thousands of additional cases, and hundreds of thousands fewer tests.
Fired data scientist Dr. Rebekah Jones has started a new website called FloridaCovidAction.com. The numbers are based on the same public sources that are supposed to be feeding the state pages, but when Jones adds everything up, there are some significant disagreements. Rather than 69,000 positive tests for COVID-19, Jones’ dashboard shows 78,000. And where the state claims 1.3 million tests, Jones shows fewer than 900,000 people tested.
In addition, the new dashboard features information on hospital admissions, ER admissions, and available ICU beds not featured on the state website. Jones’ site also includes a wealth of additional information, like a detailed report card for each county showing which areas are ready for the next stage of reopening (Spoiler: Very few). She has also incorporated cell phone data on travel along and contacts, along with local regulations, to help provide each county with a social distancing report card. No county gets higher than a C, and F is the most common score.
But there’s one action where DeSantis surely scores an A from Donald Trump. As Politico reports, the Republican governor has piled up “980,000 unused doses of hydroxychloroquine”—a treatment which has not been proven as effective in treating any stage of COVID-19.
[…] Florida broke its previous record for new cases in a day on Wednesday. DeSantis might want to see if he can exchange his useless tablets for some protective gear, or ICU beds, or better yet … the backbone necessary to roll back his hasty reopening.
Earth’s temperature spiked to tie a record high for May, U.S. meteorologists reported Friday.
Last month the global average temperature was 60.3 degrees, tying 2016 for the hottest May in 141 years of record keeping, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
That’s 1.7 degrees higher than the 20th century average for Earth.
Temperature on land set a heat record, while ocean temperatures ranked second.
Parts of Africa, Asia, western Europe, South and Central America had record warmth.
“We continue to warm on the long term and in any given month we’re likely to be knocking on the door, close to a record in the era that we’re in,” NOAA climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt said. […]
From Daniel Dale’s coverage of some of the bonkers bulllshit Trump said:
Trump said the rally would be in a “beautiful new venue, brand new,” which was just announced by the White House as being the 12-year-old BOK Center in downtown.
Trump says he did more “more for the black community than any other president,” but will exclude Lincoln “’cause he did good, although it’s always questionable, you know…”
Harris Faulkner, who’s Black, interjects, “We are free, Mr. President, so he did pretty well.”
Trump wasn’t clear about what he meant by “it’s always questionable” whether Lincoln did good – he added, “You know, in other words, the end result.” ??? After Faulkner interjected that “we are free,” he repeated, “We are free,” then said, “You understand what I mean.”
Asked again about consoling people, Trump returns again to how the real way to console is “toughness,” defending people from riots and violence. “By being soft and weak, you end up not being compassionate.”
Asked if “the law and order president can also be the consoler in chief,” Trump said yes, since the law and order president can prevent situations like Seattle’s from happening and can also defend people’s safety. “Toughness is sometimes the most compassionate.”
Asked if his June 19 rally date was intentional, Trump says no, but he knows what Harris Faulkner is going to say (about Juneteenth), and we can “Think of it as a celebration. My rally is a celebration.”
Trump: “I think the concept of chokehold sounds so innocent, so perfect” (?), but “generally speaking, it should be ended,” but if it’s a serious fight against a tough person, you might need it.
Asked what kind of police reform he is actually in favor of, Trump says, “I want to see really compassionate but strong law enforcement, police force, but law enforcement, and I don’t want to see mistakes.”
Asked about Milley’s apology for his role in the photo-op, Trump said, “I think it was a beautiful picture. And I’ll tell ya, I think Christians think it was a beautiful picture.”
I think I’ve done more for the black community than any other President and let’s take a pass on Abraham Lincoln because he did good but although it’s always questionable, you know in other words the end result.
From Joy Reid:
Ok I’ll bite. @realDonaldTrump which of Lincoln’s “results”- which can be summarized as ending slavery by decree & defeating the treasonous wretches who made war on the United States to set up a separate country where black people would be enslaved FOREVER…were “questionable?”
blfsays
Based on Lynna@400, “Ok I’ll bite @realDonaldTrump”.
Could help, if one is rabid but not radioactive. Even if not rabid, might help, if hair furor then waddles off to the bunker, forgetting both the mobile and combination to get out.
French police goon: “We need to be protected, respected, supported. The police are never above the law, but they should never be left below the law.”
Now, where have we heard language like this before. Could it have been from Trump lickspittle and DNI nominee John Ratcliffe? Why, yes, yes, I believe it could:
“Donald Trump is not above the law,” he added. “He’s not. But he damn sure shouldn’t be below the law.”
blfsays
This interview with the Mayor of Bristol (UK), Marvin Rees, “the first directly elected black mayor in Europe”, is worth reading in full, Bristol mayor: Colston statue removal was act of ‘historical poetry’. One point he made particularly struck me. The police commanders on-the-ground at the time teh slaver’s statue was toppled and sent for a swim decided to not interfere, a decision which has sent teh rabid nutcases into frothing spittle-flecked spams. The Mayor’s rather more considered take (my added emboldening):
He praises Avon and Somerset police’s handling of the demonstration culminated in the Colston statue being thrown into the harbour. “There were 10,000 people and no violent confrontation, no big smash-up of shop windows, no lines at accident and emergency [hospitals].
“What they have left us with is a platform for us to have a constructive conversation about our city’s future. If we had had war on the streets over the weekend, we’d have been talking about smashed windows, revenge. We’re not. We’re having a mature discussion about who we are and who we choose to commemorate.”
Rees has asked city historians and other academics to produce a detailed study of all the local memorials and places linked to the slave trade to inform a city-wide conversation on their future.
He will not be drawn on what he thinks should happen to the statue or what should be done with the space where it stood. “I think now we have the opportunity for the people of Bristol in a meaningful way to determine what is in that space and I want us to take that.”
Rachel Maddow reports on the poor job the Trump administration has done in tracking coronavirus cases in nursing homes and providing facilities with much needed equipment, even though nursing homes are where COVID-19 has been causing the most death since its beginnings in the U.S.
Government data on nursing homes data just arrived last week. How good/helpful is the data? It’s not. It’s another Trump administration clusterfuck. “The federal account of the Life Care nursing center in Kirkland, Washington listed one suspected infection and zero virus deaths”. Dozens of people who lived there died from the coronavirus.
Oh, no. Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, says 300,000 people bought rally tickets for the upcoming rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The rally is planned to take place in a 19,000-seat-capacity arena.
[…] He did not explain, however, what 280,000 of them will do after the just over 19,000-people BOK arena is filled to capacity. […]
The campaign is thinking of scheduling a second event in Tulsa. That still doesn’t add up.
The date, or dates of the rally will change. Trump was finally convinced that having a rally in Tulsa just weeks after the anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre of black people by white mobs (in 1921) was not a good idea. And that holding that rally on Friday, June 19, known as Juneteenth, the day commemorating the official outlawing of slavery in the USA, was an even worse idea. The first (only?) rally in Tulsa has been rescheduled for June 20. It is still being held in the 19,000-seat arena.
Police in Columbus, Ohio mistook a bunch of 2020 hippies on a rainbow-painted bus for antifa rioters.
[…] the Columbus, Ohio police posted a picture on Facebook of a rainbow school bus painted with animals and trees. [and children]
“This bus was stopped yesterday at Broad St. & 3rd due for obstruction of traffic,” the post reads. “There was a suspicion of supplying riot equipment to rioters.”
It goes on to say that “bats, rocks, meat cleavers, axes, clubs and other projectiles” were found on board, and that charges are pending.
The owners of the bus, however, a group of performers who named the vehicle “Buttercup,” say that they were just there to dispense food and first aid to the protesters.
The trouble started on May 31 when the group of friends, connected by a love of performing circus tricks like juggling rings and spinning plates, had converted the bus into a roving aid station for protesters in Columbus, […]
As they tried to leave the downtown arena at the end of the night, they were surrounded by police. Kaylee Oiler, one of the people aboard the bus, took a video on Facebook live.
Everyone inside the converted bus, complete with a stove and cluttered with hula hoops, has their hands up, as red and blue lights flash from the cars outside.
“Should I back up? What should I do here?” the driver called out the window. “We’re just trying to leave.”
Over a loudspeaker, the police ordered them off of the bus one at a time. […]
“They impounded the bus and all our belongings inside including my money, car keys and ID,” she wrote in a caption alongside the video. “They wouldn’t allow anyone to get their items off. No one was arrested, we are all free, they let us go and told us it was 20 minutes till curfew so we better find somewhere to go.”
She added that they were able to retrieve the bus the next day.
They thought that was the end of the encounter — until the police posted on Facebook and Twitter.
Both posts have thousands of comments and have been shared thousands of times. Many of the respondents expressed vindication that members of antifa, a loosely defined idea of militant anti-fascist protesting that has been aggressively demonized by President Donald Trump, had indeed come to use the protests as an excuse to commit mass destruction. […]
One of the owners of the bus tried to clear up the misinformation in a comment.
“Hey everyone! This is my bus,” Reese Digati posted. “We were at the protest handing out water and washing mace off of people’s faces. If you have any questions, please feel free to talk to me. This bus is my home and I often use it as a supply vehicle. We were peaceful the entire time. The ‘weapons’ that were found are tools. Axes for my wood stove, knives for cooking, etc.”
“They failed to mention that we were all peaceful protesting,” added Oiler. “If we were ‘rioting and looting’ wouldn’t there be a ton of stolen items from store found? Not a single one. Because we weren’t out there causing destruction to anyone, or anything.”
Nevertheless, elected officials got in on the action, seizing the posts as evidence of intent to destroy the city. […]
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) snarkily claimed vindication.
“Police in Ohio found a bus near protests filled with bats, rocks & other weapons,” he tweeted. “But I guess still ‘no evidence’ of an organized effort to inject violence & anarchy into the protests right?”
Donald Trump scheduled his first “congratulations for only killing 120,000 people … so far” rally to support police violence to be held in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 19. Then he scheduled the RNC to take place in Jacksonville, Florida on August 27. Then he rolled back medical protections for LGBTQ Americans on June 12. That means that with just three events: Trump managed to hit the site of the most notorious mass-murder of Black Americans, on a date that many regard as “Black Independence Day;” Trump dropped the RNC on both the city and 60th anniversary of a white riot where Blacks were beaten bloody with baseball bats and ax handles, with many of them assaulted in the aisles of a church; and he removed protections from LGBTQ Americans on the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting. As many people have noted—that level of coincidence takes a lot of planning.
But now it appears that Trump has done something genuinely rare over the last three years. He has backed down. A bit. The volume of righteous anger and drumbeat of denunciations has forced Trump to move the date, if not the location, of his upcoming rally.
On Friday evening, Trump tweeted that “many of my African American friends and supporters” had urged him to move the date. It’s unclear just who these friends might be, as Trump actually made the announcement of the Tulsa site and June 19th date, during a meeting at the White House “with African American supporters, including Dr. Ben Carson, his secretary of Housing and Urban Development.” So … some other African American friends and supporters. That was part of what made the date and place for his rally so extra special.
[…] Of course, Trump isn’t moving the rally away from Tulsa. And he hasn’t shown any sign of moving the RNC away from the 60th anniversary of “Ax Handle Saturday.” And he hasn’t missed his opportunity to celebrate Pride Month just as he has in past years—by stripping away rights. But at least he is not going to sit in an arena and spew racist hate on Juneteenth. He’ll wait until the day after Juneteeth. It will also be a whole two weeks after the 99th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. So that’s … something.
[…] some Republicans are telling Trump that he is ”not fighting back hard enough and is instead allowing protesters to drive his agenda.” So if you’ve been wondering why Trump would be talking about sending active military into Seattle to attack people who are handing out free food and building a community garden … that’s why.
Hmmm. That reminds me of the police mischaracterization of the school bus named “Buttercup.” See comment 409.
And, of course, when it comes to Trump’s Juneteenth+1 rally, the pre-event bragging has already built it into something really, really bigly, just huge. Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale says they’ve already handed out 300,000 tickets! The only problem with that is, the arena that Trump has booked seats … 19,000. No doubt Trump will stand on stage to say there are half a million people outside. Don’t be surprised if Trump claims the rally is actually bigger than the protests in Washington D.C. In fact, be surprised if he doesn’t.
For those who are wondering, Oklahoma reported 222 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. […] it also happens to be the highest single-day count for Oklahoma since the pandemic began. It comes at the end of the highest week since the pandemic began. Like many more rural states that were relatively lightly affected in the first weeks of the coronavirus crisis, Oklahoma is only now seeing a distinct increase in cases, leading to not just the highest number of new cases, but the highest rate of hospitalization.
Just the right conditions to get together with thousands of people in a packed stadium who all refuse to wear masks. Remember: Racial hatred makes germs spread faster.
Education Sec. Betsy DeVos has made her intentional attack on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients official, finalizing a rule that blocks undocumented students from emergency funds the department received to assist students like them with expenses amid the novel coronavirus pandemic […]
there was nothing in the law that forced officials to bar undocumented students from this important relief. “After facing a lawsuit over the reading, the Trump administration told a court it would not enforce Ms. DeVos’s order,” The NY Times continued. “Now it appears the administration is moving to toughen it.”
The California Community Colleges system last month sued the Education Department over the decision, with the chancellor’s office telling the Los Angeles Times that because of the criteria set by the department, in fact hundreds of thousands of students enrolled in the system could be affected.
“Those excluded include veterans, students with disabilities, and students training to be healthcare workers and first responders, the chancellor’s office said,” the LA Times reported. “Many students who may be most in need of relief will be deprived of assistance during this public health crisis,’ the lawsuit states.”
Now that the administration is moving forward with its attack even after it seemed like it was backing down in court, […] it’s only throwing more chaos and hate at young immigrants already facing so much uncertainty as many wait for a Supreme Court decision on the very existence of the DACA program.
“Since the outbreak of COVID-19, I’ve become the sole provider of my household since my parents and younger siblings lost their jobs,” Luz Chavez Gonzales, a junior at Trinity Washington University, said in April. “We’ve had to cut back and budget on essential items. DACA allows me to work, and with a health crisis and the uncertainty of an upcoming DACA Supreme Court ruling, my family could lose their only source of income.”
“Ensuring that all students have secure housing, food, and health care during a time of economic turmoil is a key part of keeping families safe and indoors and to ending the COVID-19 pandemic,” Democratic senators told DeVos that same month. “Furthermore, we have seen disturbing data on how COVID-19 has disproportionately affected communities of color. Blocking support for DACA recipients will only worsen this crisis and harm our families and communities.” […]
“When the road is rough, what matters most is that which is permanent,” he said, sounding like a car ad.
Trump has had a lot of practice by now, but he still can’t read off a teleprompter. Somebody wrote that speech for him, and he seemed completely unfamiliar with the contents.
A West Point graduation ceremony that would not have happened the way it did without the unbidden intervention of Donald Trump finally took place Saturday morning. It was the second time in a month that’s not even halfway over that the president has involved the military in a stunt that risked the health of Americans for his own political benefit.
[…] The same president who only this morning retweeted bromides against the “socialist Left” and “Radical Left Democrats” made a plea for…unity?
“The members of this class have come from every state in our union. You have come from the farms and the cities, from states big and small, and from every race, religion, color, and creed,” he told the assembled 1,107 cadets, who processed into the ceremony wearing masks and sat several feet apart on the academy’s parade field. “You exemplify the power of shared national purpose to transcend all differences and achieve true unity.
Warning: irony meter damage.
“What has historically made America unique is the durability of its institutions against the passions and prejudices of the moment,” Trump said, perhaps forgetting that he more than any other figure has contributed to the “prejudices” of the moment and the undermining of the country’s institutions. […]
For West Point graduates, commencement marks a transition into active-duty military service […] Trump frequently involves the military in political stunts, from a needless deployment of troops on the Southern border before the midterm elections to the obnoxious Bible stunt in which he cleared a peaceful protest outside the White House so senior administration officials, including the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, could join him for a photo op outside a church.
Trump’s bellicose behavior […] led to a flurry of stern condemnations from former military officers in recent weeks and, most recently, an extraordinary open letter signed by more than 500 West Point graduates. “We are concerned that fellow graduates serving in senior-level, public positions are failing to uphold their oath of office and their commitment to Duty, Honor, Country,” the letter stated. […]
Saturday’s commencement was another stunt, this one made particularly egregious by the fact that it required assembling a graduating class from across the country during a global pandemic. […] required hundreds of students to return to West Point, located in a state with more than twice as many coronavirus infections as any other. Thanks to Trump’s decision, that number has only increased. Earlier this month, the Army screened all returning graduates and acknowledged that 1.5 percent of the class, roughly 15 students, had tested positive for COVID-19.
There was no need for an in-person graduation ceremony. To accommodate Trump’s persistent desire for a big speech, returning cadets risked their health to return to campus. […] The whole thing was unnecessary, a reminder that if anything is “permanent, timeless, enduring, and eternal,” it’s Trump’s desire to satisfy his own wants, all else be damned.
Trump mixes a love of violence, (or a sick fascination with violence), with racism:
[…] Trump’s love for the use of force was also revealed this week at a roundtable on policing and race in Dallas. He used the occasion to describe the use of tear gas and other force against protesters in Minneapolis as a “beautiful scene.” As for the National Guard’s moves against the crowd? It was, gushed Trump, “like a knife cutting butter.”
With Trump, it’s all about keeping his law-and-order base happy.
That is the same reason Trump caters to the Old Confederacy. “My administration will not even consider the renaming” of military facilities named for Confederate military figures, Trump declared in a stout defense of Confederate generals who betrayed the United States and fought on behalf of preserving slavery. […]
Tulsa’s dark, racist history and Juneteenth are events that rest in the heart of the black experience in America. And Trump, the most racist president in modern American history, chooses that locale to feed his narcissism.
But if Trump would revel in the gassing of protesters, and encourage the mistreatment of people in custody, why wouldn’t he celebrate in a place where white supremacy had its most abominable hour?
Being hospitalized for coronavirus is going to bankrupt a lot of people.
Seattle man hospitalized with coronavirus for two months gets a $1.1 million tab.
After the coronavirus almost killed him, 70-year-old Seattle resident Michael Flor said getting a hospital invoice listing $1.1 million in charges was a near-death experience.
“I opened it and said ‘holy [bleep]!’ “ Flor told the newspaper.
Flor, who spent 62 days in the Swedish Medical Center after contracting the coronavirus, has Medicare, so he won’t pay out of pocket for most of what is listed on the 181-page explanation of charges.
Medicare will pay for 80% of that bill, but I will point out that 20% of a million dollars is still a huge bill. That would bankrupt me.
However, he still faces a mental toll from battling and surviving covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. “I feel guilty about surviving. […] There’s a sense of ‘why me?’ Why did I deserve all this? Looking at the incredible cost of it all definitely adds to that survivor’s guilt.”
[…] Flor was the longest-hospitalized coronavirus patient at the facility, which is the largest nonprofit health-care provider in Seattle. He was unconscious for most of his stay. […] among the charges racked up were: $82,215 to be on a mechanical ventilator for 29 days, $408,912 for a sealed hospital room and about $275,000 for medication.
As the pandemic has imperiled many Americans’ jobs and income, federal aid was set aside for hospitals treating coronavirus patients, including those that don’t have insurance.
Flor’s story of an expensive bill associated with the virus is not the first. Miami engineer Osmel Martinez Azcue, 29, said he was charged $3,270.75 when he went to Miami’s public hospital, Jackson Memorial, because he felt feverish after a trip to China and Italy. His bill was reduced by his insurer to $1,400 after his story appeared in the Miami Herald.
Fox News spliced together different photos to accompany pieces on the Seattle protests and Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), making the scenes look much more violent and destructive than they are.
When the Seattle Times asked about the pictures, a Fox News spokesperson lied about it, saying that the pictures had been taken this week. In actuality, in one instance, a photo of a gunman from June 10 was superimposed on pictures of shattered storefronts from May 30.
Fox News also ran a picture of a burning scene from May 30 in St. Paul, Minnesota with a story about Seattle’s protests. […]
There was no disclaimer on the now-removed photos indicating that they were edited, or melded together from weeks-old photos.
Protesters occupied about six city blocks on June 8 after police abandoned Capitol Hill’s East Precinct building. President Donald Trump has called on the mayor and governor to “take back” the area.
One hundred years ago, Johnson & Johnson invented Band-Aids. They were called “flesh colored”: Now, 10 decades later, in what the company says is solidarity with Black Lives Matter, a change is coming: “We are committed to launching a range of bandages in light, medium and deep shades of Brown and Black skin tones that embrace the beauty of diverse skin. We are dedicated to inclusivity and providing the best healing solutions, better representing you. In addition, we will be making a donation to @blklivesmatter. We promise that this is just the first among many steps together in the fight against systemic racism. We can, we must and we will do better.” Well, okay. Better astoundingly late than never. […]
Showed this to a doctor. This is a big deal. “Definite neurological damage of some form. Could be he has had a small stroke or it could be Lewy Body Dementia. Other possibilities. He needs an MRI.”
Video of Trump drinking water, using two hands to hold the glass, is available at the link. Trump has done this before. He seems to be unable to tip the glass up far enough to get water into in his mouth, then he uses both hands and succeeds.
Former “Saturday Night Live” star Jay Pharoah shared surveillance footage of him being detained by officers wielding guns at him and kneeling on his neck while he was jogging in Los Angeles in late April.
The comedian shared the story of his encounter in an Instagram video posted Friday along with the footage. He said the incident happened weeks before the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was killed by two bystanders while jogging in Georgia.
“I was exercising,” he said. “As I’m walking across the street … I see an officer to the left of me. I’m not thinking anything of it, because I’m a law-abiding citizen.”
Pharoah said he was detained and told he fit the description of another black man Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) was looking for. They asked him to lay on the ground, handcuffed him and one put their knee on his neck, the footage shows.
“It wasn’t as long as George Floyd, but I know how that feels,” Pharoah said, referring to the black man who died in Minneapolis police custody on May 25 after an officer kneeled on his neck of over 8 minutes.
Pharoah said he told the officers that if they Google his name, “you will see that you made a big mistake.”
The officers eventually let him go, but Pharaoh said he “could have easily been an Ahmaud Arbery or a George Floyd.” […]
Evidence is mounting that widespread mask-wearing can significantly slow the spread of coronavirus and help reduce the need for future lockdowns.
Public health authorities did not initially put an emphasis on masks, but that’s changed and there is now increasing consensus that they play an important role in hindering transmission of the virus at a time when wearing one has become politicized as some states and businesses have made them a requirement for certain activities.
Wearing a mask is also seen by experts as a relatively easy action that could help avoid much costlier responses like stay at home orders and closing businesses.
“It’s a lot less economically disruptive to wear a mask than to shut society, so I can’t understand some of the resistance to mask wearing,” Tom Frieden, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) […]
Experts say mask-wearing is not the only response needed to slow the spread of the virus. Avoiding crowds and staying six feet apart from others is also important, as is an effective system of testing and contact tracing so people can quarantine and prevent further spread.
A study from University of Cambridge researchers this week found that widespread mask-wearing can help prevent a resurgence of the virus […]
The modeling in the study found that if 50 percent or more of the population routinely wore masks, each infected person would on average spread the virus to less than one additional person, causing the outbreak to decline, the university said.
“We have little to lose from the widespread adoption of facemasks, but the gains could be significant,” Renata Retkute, one of the authors of the study, said in a statement. […]
The World Health Organization did not issue a recommendation for the general public to wear masks until last week, previously only saying people who are sick and those caring for them should use masks.
In the early days of the outbreak in the United States, there was also concern about the general public using up masks that were in short supply for health workers. […]
Public health experts are lamenting, though, that mask-wearing has become politicized as opponents call requirements they wear one an infringement on their personal freedoms. […]
Carlos del Rio, a professor of epidemiology at Emory University, compared the situation with mask-wearing to the early days of seatbelts.
“Imagine if today was the ‘60s and we were starting to use seatbelts and you would have some politicians say, ‘Oh, seatbelts don’t make a difference; I like my freedom; I don’t like to be tied down when I’m driving,’” he said.
But, he added: “Over and over the evidence is showing masks work; masks make a difference.” […]
As I’ve mentioned before, I live in a red state. When I go to the closest grocery store, I am the only one wearing a mask now. Several weeks ago, a few more of my neighbors were wearing masks. Not any more. For most of my shopping, I have switched to curbside pickup from a larger grocery store in another county. At least the workers there all wear masks.
blfsays
Lynna@417, Back in the last millennium, in Bristol (UK) as it happens, a black colleague of mine pointed out that problem of “flesh-coloured sticking plasters” (as they are known). I sheepishly admitted that had never occurred to me, but he was quite right (as he usually was), and we then went on to have a discussion about similar examples. From admittedly quite vague memory, many of the examples involved his partner, who had trouble finding nice clothing and, especially, beauty products which didn’t scream “sex worker”.
Back in May, we told you all about how half of all Fox viewers believed that Bill Gates was going to use the COVID-19 vaccine to implant microchips into everyone, for some nefarious purpose that may or may not have something to do with the Mark of the Beast. Today, such people are celebrating #ExposeBillGates Day, wherein they will make up weird stuff about Bill Gates and then tweet about it. Apparently these people will also be “taking to the streets,” though I haven’t seen anything about that yet.
The purpose of this day of action is to “expose” Gates’ “control agenda,” a thing that exists only in the minds of those who, shall we say, “do their own research” by watching YouTube videos and also just making shit up. […]
Sadly, this invite [for a Global Day of Action to #ExposeBillGates] does not say what it is they actually think Bill Gates is doing or what his end game is supposed to be here. They claim to want to shine a light on his true intentions, and yet they never say what those intentions even are. So far, we’ve got extended lockdowns, contact tracing and vaccines, all of which very much seem exactly like things that would enable him to take over the world … for SATAN help us manage the COVID-19 pandemic. […]
As their #CoronapLandemic collapses in broad daylight we 97% empathic people have the chance to free ourselves from the enslavement of 3% psychopaths by exposing one of the masters of the universe’s command personnel.#ExposeBillGates Global Day of Action
JFC.
More from Wonkette:
[…] The extra crazy thing about this video is that Cartoon Bill Gates talks about his plan to get to decide who lives and who dies by namechecking COVID-19 and climate change, which these people do not believe are real things. How is anyone dying from either of them, if they are not real?
These memes also suggest that he is just super jazzed about killing people. […]
[…]
Longtime observers of Donald Trump have often compared him to an old man sitting at the end of a bar, holding forth with crazed opinions, overwhelming self-assurance and taboo-busting shock value guaranteed to draw a crowd.
Now, perhaps for the first time, it seems the US president [sic] may have lost the room.
Trump’s sixth sense for striking populist notes appears to have deserted him in the wake of the death of George Floyd […].
Over the last three weeks the president [sic] has found himself on the wrong side of public opinion — and history — on everything from police reform to symbols of the Confederacy which fought a civil war to preserve slavery 150 years ago. Even a sport synonymous with his base, Nascar […] is on a different wavelength having banned the Confederate flag from its events.
Some presidents capture a moment and give voice to a movement. At this time of national reckoning, however, Trump seems to have hit the wrong notes, out of tune with much (if not all) of the rest of the nation.
“Whether it is suggesting shooting protesters or siccing dogs on them, pre-emptively defending the Confederate names of military installations or arguing that his supporters love the Black people, Mr Trump increasingly sounds like a cultural relic, detached from not just the left-leaning protesters in the streets but also the country’s political middle and even some Republican allies and his own military leaders,” the New York Times wrote on Thursday.
[… T]he public mood is now one of acknowledgement that racism is systemic and not merely a case of some “bad apples”. The crowds protesting across 750 US cities over more than two weeks have been strikingly multiracial. After the death of Floyd, a Monmouth University poll found that 57% of Americans (and 49% of whites) believe police are more likely to use excessive force against African Americans […].
Frank Luntz, a Republican consultant and focus group organiser, tweeted: “In my 35 years of polling, I’ve never seen opinion shift this fast or deeply. We are a different country today than just 30 days ago. The consequences politically, economically, and socially are too great to fit into a tweet.”
[…]
When he [hair furor] held a roundtable on policing in Dallas on Thursday, he failed to invite the county’s top three law enforcement officials, all of whom are Black, and reiterated his demand for police to dominate the streets. If someone’s really bad, you’re going to have to do it with real strength, real power, he said.
That evening, the conservative Fox News channel, normally a safe space, became treacherous ground. Interviewer Harris Faulkner said: “You look at me, and I’m Harris on TV, but I’m a Black woman. I’m a mom. You’ve talked about it, but we haven’t seen you come out and be that consoler in this instance.”
[…]
LaTosha Brown, a civil rights activist and co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, said: “He is fundamentally, if you look at his actions, a fascist. He has been tone deaf and disrespectful. He’s shown how far he’s willing to go to dismantle democracy. He is the quintessential example of why people are protesting. He’s the embodiment of white supremacy, of structural racism, of someone who find no value in human rights.”
[…]
Tara Setmayer, a political commentator and former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill, said: “[…] There is a considerable amount of Donald Trump’s base that harbours these types of antiquated, bigoted attitudes toward minorities in this country. He began his entire campaign with the baseless racist birtherism charge against Obama and going after Mexicans as rapists and criminals and he is ginning up that sentiment. There’s a reason why the racists and white supremacists of this country support Donald Trump. Why is that?”
blfsays
Lynna@408, On hair furor’s mafia supposedly selling 300,000 tickets, “[Hair furor’s] rally is planned to take place in a 19,000-seat-capacity arena. ‘[…] He did not explain, however, what 280,000 of them will do after the just over 19,000-people BOK arena is filled to capacity. […]’ The campaign is thinking of scheduling a second event in Tulsa. That still doesn’t add up.”
This is hair furor(‘s proxies), so I don’t believe the 300,000 tickets sold claim, at least not without independent verifiable evidence. But simple innumeracy might: Selling 30,000 (an order of magnitude less) does fit with the claim of a possible second rally in a 19,000 capacity venue. And Occam’s Razor suggests the 300,000 is a lie, and it might even be the case they haven’t sold-out (albeit claiming you have when you haven’t strikes me as dumb, but then again, considering who is making the claim…).
Another possibility is they really have oversold (some places do oversell so as to still have a full house despite (probable) no-shows (a practice that is illegal in some locales), albeit nothing like 300,000 to fill only 19,000), and — keeping in mind who this bunch of thieves are — don’t plan to refund the people who could not be squeezed into the Covid-19 spreading festival. A stunt like that could explain how the hell, in the age of e-ticketing &tc, it’s even possible to sell 30,000 or 300,000 tickets for a 19,000 capacity venue.
[…]
One lunchtime I attempt to put it [“a pristine disc of fried duck egg, sunrise-yellow yolk dead centre, layered with torn hunks of duck confit, slices of duck ham, fried breadcrumbs and dollops of parsley mayo”] together and fall at the first hurdle. How the hell do you get a perfect disc out of a fried duck egg, let alone secure the yolk in the middle? And yes, I did use a ring. It didn’t work. I whack my deformed egg on to the plate, along with everything else and the Hellmann’s [mayonnaise (“mayo”)] blitzed through with the parsley. It tasted OK and, compared to a photo of the original, looked fine. Ish.
Later, [chef Mark] Greenaway sent me his recipes. Bloody hell. It wasn’t that he confited his own duck and cured his own duck ham. I expected that. It was that he whipped up his own mayo with his own parsley oil. The breadcrumbs had 10 ingredients. The only thing he didn’t do was gene splice himself with a duck and lay the bloody egg. As to how he got the frying of that egg so right, he refused to say.
I decided I needed something more challenging, because I am stupid, and don’t know when to quit. The soufflé suissesse has been on the menu at Le Gavroche since about 1968. According to Michel Roux Jr, who took over from his father Albert in 1993, it’s been lightened over the years. This is shocking, because, to make four servings, the current recipe (in Le Gavroche Cookbook) calls for six eggs, 600ml of double cream, 500ml of milk, 200g of gruyère, a slab of butter, a defibrillator and a priest standing by to administer last rites.
At this point I fell over giggling so loud and long the local EMT showed up — she can read English and had her own giggling fit until a real emergency call came in. (Some of that is fictional.)
[…]
The comments on my reviews that have infuriated me the most have long been the ones that say: I could stay home and make this myself. My mental response has always been: “Save us all the misery of your company, and do that.” I made restaurant food at home, but it didn’t turn my kitchen into a restaurant. It turned my kitchen into a mess. The next night, after all that home cooking I did the only logical thing. I ordered a takeaway.
blf @423, all good points. I guess we are in wait-and-see mode now that Hair Furor changed the date to the 20th. I expect a massive display of incompetence, greed and ignorance. I am hoping that there will be no violence.
blf @424, thanks for the laughs. I too have created impressive messes in my kitchen while trying to cook higher quality food using more sophisticated recipes. Sometimes the food is tasty, but I am no chef … and I don’t relish the cleaning up job.
I love this story. It’s an amazing story, which is part of the suburban Antifa invasion genre but takes it in an interesting and novel direction. We start in Columbus, Ohio, another city with BLM protests and what is probably best described as an old school hippie bus with all the flowery freeform murals and the like. It’s the home of a group of street circus performers who do something called Flow Art which the paper calls “an umbrella term for a type of street performance that usually involves juggling and spinning flaming objects.” […] The troupe call their bus Buttercup. Fair enough. The bus is co-owned by Marisa “Reese” Digati and her partner, Jonathan “Bearpaw” Crane. They live in the bus.
The crew heads down to the protests and they get stopped by the Columbus police SWAT Team. It’s a bit tense but it ends up being a pretty low key affair. They’re detained for about 45 minutes but just sitting on the curb, no zip ties or handcuffs. […] According to the jugglers, the cops made clear they weren’t in trouble and hadn’t done anything wrong. They just had to leave downtown. The bus was impounded. The circus folk left and picked up the bus the next day from the impound lot. So far it’s like just another day at the intersection of militarized policing and urban hippiedom. No one’s really the worse for wear.
Then it gets weird.
The next day Columbus police went on Facebook to announce they’d finally caught one of those Antifa invasion buses red handed. [snipped details, see comment 409]
According to the Flow Art jugglers all these claims are bogus. On Facebook Digati said: “The ‘weapons’ that were found are tools. Axes for my wood stove, knives for cooking, etc. … The ‘riot gear’ was literally a child’s shoulder pads, elbow, and knee pads for sports.” Another member of the troupe chimed in: “Yeah, there’s a hatchet on the bus — with a bunch of wood sitting next to a wood-burning stove. Well, duh. The rocks were crystals and fossils. They emptied out a knife block [from the kitchen area] and said they found a meat cleaver.” [They are rock collectors! I like them more now.]
But the damage had been done. The Columbus police department post made the rounds as confirmation of the Antifa invasion rumors swirling around the country – first concocted by a faux “antifa” site run by white supremacists and possibly amplified by Russia bots.
Then Marco Rubio got involved.
Police in Ohio found a bus near protests filled with bats, rocks & other weapons. But I guess still “no evidence” of an organized effort to inject violence & anarchy into the protests right?
According to the juggler squad they’ve been repeatedly harassed since the social media posts went viral as terrorized Fox News watchers spot the bus and mobilize their defense.
An Atlanta police officer was fired following the fatal shooting of a black man and another officer was placed on administrative duty […]
The moves follows the Saturday resignation of Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields, who stepped down as the Friday night killing of Rayshard Brooks, 27, sparked a new wave of protests in Atlanta […]
The terminated officer was identified as Garrett Rolfe, and the officer placed on administrative duty is Devin Brosnan […]
The police department also released body camera and dash camera footage from both officers.
More than 40 minutes elapses between the time Brosnan first knocks on Brooks’ car door while he’s in Wendy’s drive-thru and when gunshots ring out; Rolfe arrives on scene about 16 minutes in. The shooting is audible in footage from Rolfe’s dash camera and both officers’ body cameras, but wasn’t captured on any of the four recordings provided by police. Both body cameras fall off during the struggle that ensues when Rolfe moves to handcuff Brooks after speaking to him for about 20 minutes, although Brooks is briefly glimpsed being Tased before he’s shot.
Protesters on Saturday night set fire to the Wendy’s restaurant where Brooks was fatally shot […] Atlanta police said 36 people were arrested at protests as of midnight.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced the police chief’s resignation at a Saturday afternoon news conference, and had called for the immediate firing of the officer who opened fire.
“I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force,” Bottoms said. […]
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the shooting, said the deadly confrontation started with a complaint that a man was sleeping in a car blocking the restaurant’s drive-thru lane. The GBI said Brooks failed a field sobriety test and then resisted officers’ attempts to arrest him.
Rolfe is seen on body camera video administering the field sobriety test, followed by a Breathalyzer test with Brooks’ permission. He moves to arrest Brooks after the Breathalyzer test […]
The GBI released security camera video of the shooting Saturday, which does not show Brooks’ initial struggle with police. The footage shows a man running from two white police officers as he raises a hand, which is holding an object, toward an officer a few steps behind him. The officer draws his gun and fires as the man keeps running, then falls to the ground in the parking lot.
[…] Brooks had grabbed a Taser from one officer and appeared to point it at the officer as he fled. The officer fired an estimated three shots.
L. Chris Stewart, an attorney for Brooks’ family, said the officer who shot him should be charged for “an unjustified use of deadly force, which equals murder.”
“You can’t have it both ways in law enforcement,” Stewart said. “You can’t say a Taser is a nonlethal weapon … but when an African American grabs it and runs with it, now it’s some kind of deadly, lethal weapon that calls for you to unload on somebody.”
He said Brooks was a father of four and had celebrated a daughter’s eighth birthday Friday before he was killed. […]
[…]
Donald Trump says he will no longer watch the US national soccer teams after a 2017 policy requiring players to stand during the anthem was repealed.
[…] The policy was originally put in place after USWNT star Megan Rapinoe knelt during the anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. […]
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is being asked to respond to growing calls for an independent investigation into the death of a young black man found hanging from a tree near Palmdale City Hall.
On Saturday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger formally requested that Becerra conduct an independent investigation into the death of 24-year-old Robert Fuller, who was found hanging outside Palmdale City Hall early Wednesday.
[…] Barger’s request comes on the heels of thousands of protesters in Palmdale gathering on Saturday to mourn Fuller’s death, which has roiled the Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles amid investigators reviewing whether his death was a suicide or if foul play was involved. […]
Although authorities initially suspected that Fuller committed suicide, they walked back that statement and ordered an autopsy.
Lt. Kelly Yagerlener of the Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner’s office said on Friday that a decision on the cause of Fuller’s death has not been determined and that a full autopsy is planned. […]
The LA Times reported that Diamond Alexander, Fuller’s sister, addressed protesters on Saturday as well, saying that “we want to find out the truth on what really happened.”
“Everything they told us is not right,” Alexander said, according to the LA Times. “We just want the truth. My brother was not suicidal. He was a survivor. He was street smart.”
In an important new report, the United Nations (U.N.) calls for nations around the globe to finally end the archaic, discredited practice known as “conversion therapy,” a “therapy” that has been denounced by the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the American Medical Association (AMA), among others, which aims to change one’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Globally, the horrifying practice is banned for minors in only five countries: Germany, Brazil, Malta, Ecuador, and Taiwan.
[…] it’s often minors that are subject to conversion therapy, though some adults undergo it as well. Why minors? Generally, because they are still subject to the whims of parents or guardians; if parents want their LGBTQ (or even assumed LGBTQ, or questioning) adolescent or teenager to conform to heterosexuality or being cisgender, they may force the minor into conversion therapy […] As pointed out in the report, conversion therapy is often quite lucrative for the people providing it; the report claims that some providers in the U.S., for example, charge more than $25,000 per “dose” of the debunked practice.
If all of this sounds horrible, that’s because it is. It’s also still legal in much of the United States, as states decide individually whether or not to ban the practice. Virginia, for example, became only the 20th state (including Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico) to ban the practice for minors in April. This ban also made Virginia the first Southern state to ban the widely debunked practice. In addition to sates and territories, about 50 cities and counties ban the practice for youth […]
The report notes that “attempts to pathologize and erase the identity of individuals, negate their existence” as LGBTQ people, and “provoke self-loathing have profound consequences on their physical and psychological integrity and well-being.” This assertion is backed up in numerous studies, suggesting that, in the long-term, conversion therapy is linked to higher rates of suicidality, addiction, self-destructive behavior, and mental health struggles, like depression and anxiety. […]
[…]
Amid widespread comment about his apparent difficulty walking down a ramp at West Point on Saturday, Donald Trump tweeted a predictably angry and dismissive response.
The ramp that I descended after my West Point commencement speech was very long and steep, the president [sic] wrote, had no handrail and, most importantly, was very slippery. The last thing I was going to do is ‘fall’ for the Fake News to have fun with. Final ten feet I ran down to level ground. Momentum!
In equally familiar fashion, the tweet only stoked the flames, prompting observers to note that West Point superintendent Darryl A Williams did not seem to find the ramp difficult, and that Trump did not in fact run its last section, instead taking just a few quicker steps.
Others noted that, as so often, Trump had previously tweeted a complaint about his predecessor … running down a slope.
The way President Obama runs down the stairs of Air Force 1, Trump wrote on 22 April 2014, hopping & bobbing all the way, is so inelegant and unpresidential. Do not fall!
Footage was also uncovered of Obama walking confidently up a ramp at West Point.
[…] Speculation about Trump’s health […] continued on Saturday with regard to an unscheduled visit to hospital last November, which the White House said at the time was for Trump’s annual physical. No such results have yet been published.
Observers focused on Trump’s familiar use of two hands to drink from a bottle of water during his West Point visit.
Bandy Lee, a Yale psychiatrist and editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, wrote on Twitter: “This is a persistent neurological sign that, combined with others, would be concerning enough to require a brain scan.”
[…]
Of Trump’s walk down the ramp at West Point, Lee added: “The uneven gait is something I have remarked at least since his fall visit to Walter Reed, and a forward-leaning posture is associated with the difficulty holding a cup. Note that there has not been an annual report on his health this year.”
Just like the story in comment 426, this would be funny if the situation didn’t also harbor anti-democratic consequences:
I have to admit, this is a strategy that never occurred to me: burning your own absentee ballot application to protest too much voting by the other side.
This should become a national movement. Show them what you’re made of, Trump fans. You’re no fools!
So, yeah, Grand Rapids, Michigan, MAGAs were apparently sent into a rage over steps to ensure ease of voting in their state, and so they TOOK TO THE STREETS. […]
The Detroit News:
The applications were burned Friday during an event called Operation Incinerator outside the DeltaPlex Arena in Walker. Many people had flags, shirts and signs showing support for […] Trump and Republicans.
“For them just to issue them without merit, without request to absolutely everybody — that is a great waste of taxpayer money,” said Michael Farage, president of the Grand Rapids Taxpayers Association.
The applications are being sent to 7.7 million people at a cost of $4.5 million, which is covered by federal funds and roughly equals the bill for a few Trump golf trips. […]
Can’t wait until they slash their own tires and pour sugar in their own gas tanks so they can’t get to their polling places on November 3. […]
Trump descended a ramp extremely carefully at the end of his West Point speech today
From comments by viewers of the video:
It’s his right side. Stiff tentative steps with the right leg. Limited control of the right hand drinking water. The man has had a stroke and it’s left him w minor paralysis on his right side,. Right? Why was the *president rushed to Walter Reed last year? They won’t tell us.
I think it looks like his right knee hurts.
For what its worth, there’s video of President Obama striding swiftly up and down the same ramp, which is not steep.
More details and commentary regarding the speech Trump gave to West Point cadets:
[…] Trump drably read a long, gray speech, with little that was stirring, much less poetic. He stuck to the TelePrompTer’s text with uncharacteristic fidelity, departing only twice—and then, as is typical, to tout himself. After congratulating West Point’s football team for beating the Navy Academy for the first time in several years, he added, “I happened to be there,” then said it again, then again. A bit later in the speech, he noted that Sunday would mark the 245th birthday of the U.S. Army, then added spontaneously, “Unrelated: it’s going to be my birthday also. I don’t know if that happened by accident. Did that happen by accident?” […]
There was one moment of unintended irony in the speech, and one has to wonder whether it was the work of a subversive speechwriter. “What has historically made America unique,” he said, “is the durability of institutions against the passions and prejudices of the moment”—this, read by a president who has openly sought to destroy the nation’s institutions with unequaled passion and prejudice.
Trump delivered a stream of clichés, capped by occasional falsifications of his own contribution to the national defense. For instance, he boasted, “My administration has embarked on a colossal rebuilding of the American armed forces, a record like no other.” In fact, Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan rebuilt more colossally. He said we’re building a hypersonic missile that can fly “17 times faster” than any other missile and land “14 inches” from a target. Actually, as John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org notes, the hypersonic missile (a) is still in development, (b) might fly at 17 times faster than the speed of sound (many current missiles can already fly almost as fast as that), and (c) will need to be tested before any claims can be made about its accuracy.
Trump also falsely contrasted his performance with that of his predecessors, saying, “After years of devastating budget cuts and a military that was totally depleted from these endless wars, we have invested over $2 trillion”—adding, in another departure from script, “trillion, that’s with a t”—“in the most powerful fighting force by far on the planet earth.” In fact, his two predecessors, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, substantially increased defense spending. The notion that the military was “depleted” is just nonsense; when Obama left office, the U.S. armed forces, for good or ill, were still firing bullets, dropping bombs, and launching missiles in plenty of countries and training to do so in plenty more. […]
Trump himself is still embroiled in some of these distant wars: sending arms to Saudi Arabia, which are then used in Yemen; killing Iranian military leaders in Iraq; and there are still troops fighting in Afghanistan.
perhaps without knowing it, Trump echoed the words of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin in 1938, when, setting the stage for his “appeasement” policy, he opposed the idea of fighting off the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, dismissing it as “a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.” […]
From the Washington Post: “Florida restaurant closes again after six people who came in last week tested positive, business says.”
Florida business owners once eager at the prospect of reopening are deciding to close again after the state registered three days of record-high coronavirus case counts.
The state tallied 2,581 confirmed cases of the virus on Saturday, an increase of several hundred from the previous day’s peak. On Sunday, Florida reported 2,016 cases, totaling 75,568 cases.
In central Florida, Kiwi’s Pub & Grill announced Friday that it would close after six people who were in the restaurant in the past week said they tested positive. It had been open for less than six weeks. Owner Rick Culmer wrote on Facebook that health officials told him the area has been “hammered with new infections.”
[…] Three bars in downtown St. Petersburg shared they would shut back down temporarily out of “an abundance of caution” after staff members tested positive. […]
In a news briefing Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) attributed the spike to more testing. But a Miami Herald analysis of the state’s data found testing declined slightly two weeks before Florida’s June 5 reopening.
DeSantis said his state has fared better than others, never spiking as New York had. Florida is ranked 10th in the country for its rate of transmission, 1.03.
A closeup examination of the artist’s latest cover, in which the murder of George Floyd embodies the history of violence inflicted upon black people in America.
He ain’t heavy: Black Lives Matter supporter carries white ‘far-right’ protester to safety after he was beaten up in violent clashes between rival troublemakers at London Waterloo station.
Photo at the link.
A man identified as a far-right protester has been carried to safety from protestors as animosity was briefly set aside on a day of clashes in London between rival groups and police.
Following violent clashes in Trafalgar Square, Black Lives Matter protestors and some counter protestors headed over the River Thames towards Waterloo Station.
Far right thugs have been accused of being the instigators of the violence by attacking police as well as BLM supporters, who then fought back as the scene descended into violence.
One of the protestors, claimed to be ‘far right’ by the crowd, was seen lying injured on the ground after being chased past the Royal Festival Hall.
But photos then show a black man pick up the white man and carry him over his shoulders to safety – flanked by police in riot gear.
Reports suggest he was badly beaten by some demonstrators, before other protesters stepped in to protect him. […]
[…]
The Black Lives Matter demonstrator who carried a counter-protester to safety during Saturday’s protests in London has spoken out about the moment he decided to intervene to help the man.
Describing his decision to step in, Patrick Hutchinson said: “His life was under threat, so I just went under, scooped him up, put him on my shoulders and started marching towards the police with him.”
[…]
Hutchinson contrasted the intervention with the lack of action taken by the Minneapolis police officers who were involved in George Floyd’s death. “If the other three police officers that were standing around when George Floyd was murdered had thought about intervening, and stopping their colleague from doing what he was doing, like we did, George Floyd would be alive today.
“I just want equality, equality for all of us. At the moment, the scales are unfairly balanced and I just want things to be fair for my children and my grandchildren.”
[…]
Hutchinson and his friends, who are security and martial arts experts, attended an anti-racist protest on Saturday to “try and keep the peace”. When far-right groups began to clash with black youths, Hutchinson said the man he saved had been caught alone and left by his friends.
Pierre Noah, a businessman and friend of Hutchinson’s, said of the incident: “It would have turned out really bad because someone’s life would have been taken and you know what would have happened. Straight away — black boys have killed somebody, and they’ve killed a white man — it’s just going to be worse. So we had to go out there. I couldn’t sleep.”
Describing his motivation to save the protester, Jemaine Facey, a personal trainer, said: “I’m not protecting him, I’m protecting our kids. I was protecting their future, because I know the judge would not have saw what happened before. I was protecting their future.”
Chris Otokito, a businessman, described the group’s effort to de-escalate the situation. “We were there to serve a purpose. We saw it escalating, we tried to get around the guy to try and stop it from happening. Patrick came in and assessed the situation straight away, picked him up and just tried to do what we could to get him back to a safer place.”
[…]
Republican lawmakers are downplaying concerns that a Donald Trump indoor rally planned for Tulsa, Oklahoma, for next weekend could contribute to the spread Covid-19, amid an increase in cases in the city.
Tulsa city-county health department director Bruce Dart said he worried the rally could be dangerous for attendees as well as the president [sic].
“I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn’t as large a concern as it is today,” Dart told Tulsa World.
[…]
James Lankford, a Republican senator from Oklahoma, said on Sunday the rally didn’t need to be postponed because the increase in coronavirus cases is a little bit of a bump.
In fact it is too early to say if the increase is small and temporary.
[…]
There was a new high in daily increases for Oklahoma and Tulsa county on Saturday, while the rolling average of daily increases continues to rise. About the same number of people are being tested.
On Friday the Tulsa health department said the outbreak was linked to indoor gatherings. Hospitalizations and the percentage of tests coming back positive have been steady in the state.
I have evaluated countless refugee cases. The oppression Black Americans face in the US would qualify as persecution.
[…]
The 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee as someone who has left their country due to a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group, and due to that fear is unable or unwilling to seek protection from their country.
By no means do I advocate for Black Americans to leave the United States, but assuming a Black American were to seek asylum abroad, the social and political unrest that has rocked the country just these past few weeks alone would add to a trove of evidence to support any claims of “well-founded fear” for this person’s safety and wellbeing at home.
[…]
The stories I have heard from refugees who were racially or ethnically profiled, subjugated to systems of targeted oppression, who feared imprisonment and were jailed, sometimes repeatedly, facing mistreatment and torture by police and prison guards are quite similar to the stories of so many Black Americans.
Their persecution was on the basis of race. And their persecutor was the state or agents of the state, thus rendering the authorities unwilling or unable to offer protection.
Sound familiar?
[… long list of discriminatory actions, &tc…]
[… T]his article is meant to illustrate that should Black Americans seek international protection, they could very well receive it given their country’s disastrous human rights record and the pervasive institutional discrimination they suffer.
That should give each of us pause, the country pause and hopefully pause, if not halt, any questions about whether the US has a racism problem.
The US may pride itself on being a bastion of human rights, but it is clear Black Americans are not receiving their fair treatment, access or share. The country needs to undertake major policy reforms immediately if it is to wipe this shameful stain from its democratic reputation.
In other news, Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, is speaking out about what he sees as a “poison pill” in Democratic legislation meant to reform policing in the USA.
[…] Scott […] warned that limiting qualified immunity for police officers would be a “poison pill” for Republicans as congressional efforts to pass police reform legislation continue in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Changing qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields police officers from being held personally liable for conduct unless they violate “clearly established” constitutional rights, has become a Democratic priority as Congress begins working on legislation aimed at reforming policing.
Scott, who is taking the lead in the GOP-led Senate’s efforts for police reform, said during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that from the Republican perspective, which includes […] Trump, qualified immunity is “off the table.” […]
“That sends the wrong signal, perhaps the worst signal right now in America,” Scott said. “I think we’re going to have legislation that can be negotiated that gets us to the place where something becomes law that actually makes a difference. That’s got to be our goal.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), however, disputed Scott’s claim during his appearance on “Face the Nation” later Sunday, saying that Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) told him that qualified immunity is “on the table.”
“I know the heart of Tim Scott, and senators like Sen. Braun, who said to me ‘qualified immunity’s on the table,’” Booker said. “We are one body in the United States Senate, and people of good heart and good spirit, regardless of what the President does. He can veto a bill, but we should come forward in this moment in history.”
Last week, House Democrats unveiled a landmark police reform bill that includes banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants in drug cases as a response to nationwide protests calling for widespread changes in police departments across the country.
If you are a Republican running for office, don’t officiate at any same-sex weddings. Sheesh.
The endorsements of Donald Trump and Jerry Falwell Jr. both weren’t enough to save first-term House Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman, ousted by a far-far-right challenger in Virginia’s 5th District yesterday. Riggleman joins the ranks of Republicans still considered not radical enough, by a party base increasingly unwilling to put up with anything but rank fascism from their leaders.
Riggleman’s alleged sin against his party was officiating the same-sex wedding of two of his campaign volunteers, last year, a nod to decency that Republicanism will not be putting up with anytime soon; for that, about 2,300 party delegates ousted him in a “drive-through convention” on Saturday in one of the weirder episodes of our entire increasingly-bizarre election season.
The Republican nominee for the district will instead be ex-county supervisor Bob Good, a hard-hard-right Liberty University graduate who went on to become a staff member at Liberty University and fundraiser for Liberty University, a political figure with an absolute litany of proud crackpot moves, from declaring the county a “Second Amendment Sanctuary” to opposing “sanctuary” cities “for illegal aliens.” He opposes “transgender bathrooms,” obviously opposes LGBT marriage rights (and the Supreme Court, for allowing them), and is a white nationalist of the Trump […] variety, advocating for the end of birthright citizenship and to make English the “official” language of the country.
[…] the Republican rank and file are digging in. From “Q” advocates to the arch-right, there seems no candidate too radical for the base to embrace.
[…] the nomination method proved an absolute disaster for Riggleman. Rather than a primary, the nomination was decided by the votes of about 2,300 delegates. Since a convention couldn’t be held, a “drive through” event was held for delegates to vote by car, rather than using mail-in ballots or remote voting. And the place chosen for the single drive-through location was in Campbell County—where Good served until January as a supervisor. As The Washington Post reports, that meant some Riggleman delegates “had to drive up to six hours round trip to vote for him.”
That definitely doesn’t sound fair.
Whether these decisions by local party leaders were meant to target Riggleman or were mere coincidence of the party’s deep apathy to allowing anyone to vote for anything without making it as much of a fiasco as can be managed is, of course, up for debate.
The possible good news is that this opens up even the conservative 5th District for a potential Democratic flip. Good’s history is one of an unabashed zealot, simultaneously against the government for regulating things like guns while demanding the rest of the law be rewritten to cater to his particular sub-sect of bigotry-premised religious and nationalist beliefs. […]
From Wonkette: “Right-Wing Media Outraged Google Wiped Winston Churchill Off The Internet (They Didn’t)”
This morning, I went on over to the r/conspiracy subreddit to see if anyone had gotten around to explaining why it is that Bill Gates would want to secretly microchip everyone in the whole world. Apparently, the only way to know the answer to this is to watch a four-hour “documentary,” so I am still at a loss. What I did find, however, was a post claiming that Google is trying to “rewrite history” by deleting Winston Churchill’s picture in their little “knowledge graph” that comes before the search results.
Oh no, now no one will ever know what Winston Churchill looked like […]
Guess Google is now canceling all of the Prime Ministers except for Boris Johnson now. Except probably not.
Alas, it is not just some random dude on Reddit up in arms about this. Turns out, this Winston Churchill-Google-Picture-Being-Gone thing was a thing all all this morning on right-wing media and right-wing social media, and that they were claiming that it was done on purpose because Black Lives Matter activists in the UK have been calling for a bit of a reckoning, re: Churchill, because of some pretty crappy things he did. Like, uh, the concentration camps he set up in Kenya […]
The Daily Mail suggested that Google probably banned Churchill from the whole entire Internet because Black Lives Matter protesters have called for a monument to him to be removed. Yes. Black Lives Matter protesters can’t get police to just stop killing unarmed black people, but they have the power to erase Winston Churchill from history. [/sarcasm]
The news was also picked up by Devin Nunes, because of course it was. […]
The eagle-eyed reporter over at Breitbart pointed out that Google still had pictures of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. What’s that about, huh? Is Literal Hitler more acceptable than Winston Churchill now?
Searches for the phrases “Second World War leaders”, “World War 2 generals”, and so on also failed to display a picture of Churchill — although the likes of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Josef Stalin remained.
Woah, if true.
Except not true. Because just as I, and anyone with half a brain, assumed upon seeing this bullshit — it was a glitch.
We’re aware an image for Sir Winston Churchill is missing from his Knowledge Graph entry on Google. We apologise for any concern. This was not purposeful & will be resolved. Images in such panels are automatically created & updated. During an update, they can briefly disappear.
If a Knowledge Graph image is missing due to an update, the subject will be named but lack an image in anything automatically generated from the Knowledge Graph. This is why Churchill’s image (but not his name) is missing from some lists. It is temporary & will be resolved.
Not that this convinced anyone who was already convinced that Google had canceled Winston Churchill because Black Lives Matter said to […]
It is probably fair to assume that those in rightwing media who were pushing this bullshit also understood that it was probably a glitch and did not sincerely think that Google erased Winston Churchill’s picture on purpose, to appease BLM activists. What they did know, however, is that this would get their audiences very riled up and upset. […]
They’re not mad at cancel culture — for heaven’s sake, the Republican Party once canceled the entire nation of France. They’re not worried about “rewriting history” — Dinesh D’Souza is their number one guy. They are scared because they have never lived in a world where everyone else was not constantly being fed propaganda about the greatness of white people, straight white Christian men in particular. That is a scary, unknown world to them. They have relied on that propaganda for a very long time and they do not know how they will go on without it. […]
tomhsays
@ Lynna #441
The whole qualified immunity restriction is a classic catch-22 created by the Supreme Court. In order to sue a police officer, a plaintiff must bring a claim that shows the civil rights violation was “clearly established.” This means that a cop’s conduct was virtually identical to the facts of a previous Court decision–the slightest variation means dismisal of the claim. Since there are so few Court decisions on this, it’s almost impossible.
The result is that lower courts dismiss the claim if the facts are not identical with a previous decision, without ever considering whether the conduct violated the plaintiff’s constitutional rights. “Qualified immunity” means there can rarely be a successful civil rights claim against cops, no matter how egregious a law enforcement officer’s conduct is. It’s a free pass.
[…]
The Tulsa World newspaper has backed the city’s top public health official in asking Donald Trump not to stage a controversial rally there on Saturday.
The paper expressed concern both in terms of public health because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and race relations in light of national protests against police brutality.
“We don’t know why he chose Tulsa,” the newspaper’s editorial board wrote, “but we can’t see any way that his visit will be good for the city.”
Pedantically, the editors are presumably writing what they know, i.e., that they don’t know (i.e., lack any actual evidence). However, as many have noted, both the original date and the location have Stephen Miller written all over them.
[…] Trump allies including White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow and Oklahoma senator James Lankford have insisted it is safe to hold the rally.
[…]
Though Trump has rarely worn a face mask in public, as federal guidelines advise, Kudlow told CNN attendees in Tulsa should cover their faces.
The World countered: “Tulsa is still dealing with the challenges created by a pandemic. The city and state have authorized reopening, but that doesn’t make a mass indoor gathering of people pressed closely together and cheering a good idea. There is no treatment for Covid-19 and no vaccine. It will be our healthcare system that will have to deal with whatever effects follow.”
“The public health concern would apply whether it were Donald Trump, Joe Biden or anyone else who was planning a mass rally at the BOK. This is the wrong time.”
[…]
Citing the killing […] of George Floyd and national unrest over police killings, the World called Trump “a divisive figure” who “will attract protests, the vast majority of which we expect to be peaceful”.
“But there may also be confrontation and inappropriate behavior … his 2016 Tulsa rally provoked a heated response for some, and his ability to provoke opponents has only grown since then.”
In January 2016, Trump appeared with […] Sarah Palin.
[…]
Questioning the electoral value of a rally in a state Trump won handsomely in 2016, it added: “When the president [sic] of the United States visits your city, it should be exciting. We think a Trump visit will be, but for a lot of the wrong reasons, and we can’t welcome it.”
Social media site incorrectly removed historical photo on grounds of nudity, then for three days blocked and even banned users who posted link to article
Facebook has blocked and in some cases banned users who tried to share a Guardian article about the site incorrectly blocking an image of Aboriginal men in chains.
On Saturday, Guardian Australia reported that Facebook had apologised for incorrectly preventing an Australian user from sharing the photo from the 1890s.
The post was made in the context of the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, claiming there was no slavery in Australia, before he backed down on those comments a day later.
The post was removed by Facebook and the man had his account restricted, with Facebook claiming the photo contained nudity and was in breach of the social media site’s community standards.
[… D]ozens of Guardian readers have since reported that when they tried to post a link to the article on their profiles they received message that the post violated the same community standards.
The man who first posted the image to his profile was among those unable to share the news article.
Several readers were even banned from posting on Facebook for up to 30 days for attempting to share the article.
[…]
Several people pointed out the disparity between Facebook quickly (and incorrectly) censoring content it believed to contain nudity and its reluctance to take action against Donald Trump’s inflammatory posts.
[…]
The image in question is at the link. It may be disturbing, but there is no obvious nudity in the sense of being naked or without clothing. However, some of the (minimal) clothing the slaves are wearing is about the same colour as their skin, which is an alternative definition of nudity (and, speculating, is perhaps what confusing farcebork’s automated censor).
[…]
Given how busy most Americans are these days — home-schooling their kids, dealing with unemployment, waiting on line at food banks, protesting systemic racism, worrying about our economy and our educational system — few of us have the time, the energy or inclination to wonder what it’s like to be Donald Trump, to imagine how his mind works, what he really thinks and believes. But over the past few weeks, the increasingly strange, intentionally provocative, inappropriate and frankly delusional tweets and pronouncements issuing from the Oval Office have once again caused us to reflect on the president’s [sic] inner life. We’ve grown accustomed to his shortcomings, the regular failures of decency, common sense, and good taste. Yet the gap between what the president [sic] is saying — and the reality we observe around us — appears to be widening.
Does Trump truly believe that Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old protester shoved to the ground by Buffalo police officers, was an Antifa insurrectionist plotting to block the communications equipment of the officers who shoved him and left him bleeding from the ear? Does the courtly, somewhat hesitant Gugino really look to anyone like a dangerous thug? How could someone have watched that video and floated the idea that the attack on Gugino, still hospitalized with a brain injury, could be a set-up?
Is it possible that a president [sic] who has spent four years lying to the American people now assumes that everyone is lying? Or can he simply no longer distinguish between fact and fiction, between conspiracy theories spread by fringe “news” outlets such as the One America News Network and observable reality? What sane human being could imagine that America wanted to hear that George Floyd was smiling down from heaven at the day’s modestly improved job reports?
Lately, I’ve been thinking of the 8,000 word “long telegram” that George Kennan, then the American chargé d’affaires in Moscow and later an architect of the Cold War, sent to the State Department in 1946 — a document in which Kennan described the methods of an authoritarian dictatorship, “so strange to our form of thought”. Under Stalin, wrote Kennan, “The very disrespect of Russians for objective truth — indeed, their disbelief in its existence — leads them to view all stated facts as instruments for furtherance of one ulterior purpose or another.”
It’s remarkable, how much one can get used to, with a president who has made over 18,000 false or misleading claims since taking office. But all that seems more disturbing now, not only because the tweets and speculations have gotten more aggressive and outlandish, but because the upheavals in our country, the crises we face — the continuing Covid-19 pandemic, the tanking economy, the unrest inspired by the early stages of a necessary reckoning with racism — have made us wish, more than ever, for a leader who shows some honesty, common sense, or who just (we’re setting the bar quite low here) behaves like a responsible adult.
[…]
There’s then an analogy with “Cerberus, the many-headed dog-monster from Greek mythology”:
One of this creature’s heads is obviously Donald Trump’s, but there are others, snarling and yapping and bickering, all offering wrong opinions and bad advice as they try to keep Trump in line and do damage control when he strikes out on his own. Trump’s head may be the monster’s public face, but there are also the heads of Ivanka and Jared; of Attorney General William Barr subverting the rule of law and orchestrating the vile photo op in front of St John’s church; of Mitch McConnell; and of Senior Adviser Stephen Miller, fanning Trump’s racism and implementing his inhuman anti-immigration policies.
Picturesque, but perhaps strained? Cerberus tried to keep the occupants of Hades in Hades; hair furor and his dalekocrazy are trying to keep people from migrating / migrating to an ever-worsening hades (which probably does see as keeping the occupants of Hades not-so-much in Hades as outside of “Paradise”). On the other hand, capturing Cerberus was one of Heracles’ twelve labours; evicting hair furor and his dalekocrazy and repairing all the damage is certainly a “twelve labours”-type feat, albeit Biden-as-Heracles could really really be straining the analogy.
[…]
The 53-country survey of 120,000 people by the German polling firm Dalia Research and the Alliance of Democracies Foundation, an organisation headed by the former Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, reveals deep dissatisfaction with US leadership.
The survey found electorates in Greece (89%), Taiwan (87%), Ireland (87%), South Korea, Australia and Denmark (all 86%) are happiest worldwide with the performance of their government in controlling the coronavirus. At the bottom end of the scale are Brazil, France, Italy, the US and the UK.
Only a third of people around the world said the US responded well to Covid-19, compared with more than 60% who said China’s response was good. In only three countries — Taiwan, the US and South Korea — do more people think the US has responded well to the pandemic than think China has responded well.
Reflecting Donald Trump’s unpopularity globally, only a third of Europeans believe the US is a positive force for global democracy, compared with half who say it has had a negative impact. The positive figure has fallen 4% since the same survey last year. Majorities in all 15 of the European countries surveyed say the US has a negative impact on global democracy, with the net negative score at -40% in Germany.
One of the Philippines’ most prominent journalists is facing up to six years in prison after she was found guilty of “cyberlibel” charges, a verdict condemned as setting “an extraordinarily damaging precedent” for press freedoms.
The ruling against Maria Ressa was issued by a court in Manila, where attendance was limited due to coronavirus prevention measures. The news website Rappler, Ressa, its executive editor, and former researcher and writer Reynaldo Santos Jr were accused of cyberlibel over a story that alleged links between a businessman and a top judge.
Rappler was found to have no liability, but both Ressa and Santos were found guilty. They are entitled to post-conviction bail, and can appeal against the verdict. They have been ordered to pay 200,000 Philippine pesos (£3,170) in moral damages and another 200,000 pesos in exemplary damages.
At a press conference after the hearing, Ressa vowed to continue fighting. “Freedom of the press is the foundation of every single right you have as a Filipino citizen. If we can’t hold power to account, we can’t do anything,” she said.
“Are we going to lose freedom of the press? Will it be death by a thousand cuts, or are we going to hold the line so that we protect the rights that are enshrined in our constitution?”
The mission of Rappler, Ressa added, would remain unchanged. “We’re at the precipice. If we fall over we’re no longer a democracy,” she said.
…
Rappler has scrutinised the administration of the Philippines president, Rodrigo Duterte, exposing bot armies and corruption and documenting his brutal anti-drugs campaign, which has led, by some estimations, to tens of thousands of extrajudicial killings.
In turn, the president has dismissed Rappler as peddling “fake news”, and his administration has instigated several cases against it.
In addition to the cyberlibel charges, Ressa also faces another libel prosecution, two criminal cases alleging illegal foreign ownership in her companies, and investigations into her old tax returns. The various allegations made against Ressa could lead to about 100 years in prison.
Human rights group have condemned the legal cases, and the United Nations high commissioner for human rights warned that there appeared to be “a pattern of intimidation” of media in the Philippines. The US Senate previously described the cyberlibel allegations as “unjustified judicial proceedings”.
Duterte has denied the case is politically motivated.
…
The cyberlibel case relates to a story published on Rappler in 2012 that alleged ties between a Philippine businessman, Wilfredo D Keng, and a high court judge. The case was first brought in 2017, but was dismissed because it was outside the statute of limitations. The justice department later allowed the case to proceed to trial, extending the liability period for such claims from one to 12 years.
Ressa’s lawyers point out that the controversial cyberlibel law did not exist at the time of publication, and was in fact only enacted four months after the story was written. However, the justice department said the case could go ahead because the online article had been updated in February 2014 to correct a spelling error.
In total, Rappler and its officers and staff have faced at least 11 government investigations and court cases. Caoilfhionn Gallagher, a barrister who leads Ressa’s international team alongside [Amal] Clooney, drew parallels between the harassment of Ressa and the intimidation faced by the the Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia prior to her murder in 2017.
“Rappler has even been vilified in presidential press conferences and Maria herself has received horrific misogynistic rape and death threats online simply for doing her job,” she said.
Media freedom in the Philippines has deteriorated severely under Duterte, who stated in 2016: “Just because you’re a journalist, you are not exempted from assassination.”…
A Black Lives Matter banner has been removed from the US embassy in Seoul, after Trump expressed displeasure about it, according to Bloomberg News […]:
{Secretary of state Mike} Pompeo and Trump were both displeased about the banner, the people said. A large, multicolored ‘pride’ banner recognizing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people was also removed on Monday. They were replaced with a banner commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.
[…]
tomhsays
@ SC #449
The decision is here. It’s actually readable, but it is not short!
I thought this was a pretty good argument:
…it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex. Consider, for example, an employer with two employees, both of whom are attracted to men. The two individuals are, to the employer’s mind, materially identical in all respects, except that one is a man and the other a woman. If the employer fires the male employee for no reason other than the fact he is attracted to men, the employer discriminates against him for traits or actions it tolerates in his female colleague.
On May 10, 1906, Charles Scott, a candidate for governor who often campaigned in his Confederate uniform, gave the speech dedicating a new Confederate monument at @OleMissRebels.
We’ve searched for the full text of this speech for years. On Friday night, I finally found it.
It was reprinted in full in the Vicksburg Herald on May 11, 1906.
Much of the speech, as expected, is boilerplate Lost Cause rhetoric. Scott repeatedly defends the right of secession, argues that slavery was a “mere incident” to the Confederate cause, and exalts the gallantry of Confederate soldiers and the nobility of white southern women.
But toward the end of the speech, Scott describes what he perceived to be “the crowning glory of the Confederate soldier”: his defense of “Anglo Saxon civilization” during Reconstruction.
Specifically, Confederate soldiers served white supremacy by breaking the law “boldly, aggressively, and intentionally.” They “overrode the letter of the law” in order to “maintain the spirit of the law.”
Scott asserted that former Confederate resistance to Reconstruction entitled them to the “lasting gratitude of the civilized world,” which, he suggested, was increasingly beginning to see the “race question” in the same way former Confederates did.
…
In other words, what was this a monument to? What did the people unveiling this monument think it stood for?
In their eyes, Confederate soldiers’ greatest achievement did not come during the Civil War, but rather during Reconstruction, when they ensured, through force of arms, that Black people would remain subjugated.
It is long past time to take this monument to white supremacy down, @OleMissRebels
Students, faculty, and staff have spoken clearly on this matter.
Our administration has insisted on obtaining approval from the Institutions of Higher Learning Board before it acts.
Today’s Supreme Court decision is, by a mile, the biggest legal victory transgender Americans have won in the history of the nation.
Today’s SCOTUS decision is also an extraordinary victory for gay and bisexual Americans on the heels of Obergefell, which guaranteed a right to same-sex marriage just five years ago. What an incredible expansion of legal equality in an extremely short amount of time.
I wish Aimee Stephens had lived to see her victory.
The Supreme Court also rejected the Trump administration’s challenge to California’s “sanctuary law” […], which limits cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. […]
And, similar to the LGBTQ+ decision’s text tomh@454 quotes:
[…]
“Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender. The answer is clear. An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids,” justice Neil Gorsuch wrote. […]
People seem to be having problems with this and I don’t know why:
Gorsuch is an asshole.
He’s an asshole in a specific way.
His peculiar assholeness helped him reach the right outcome today.
It probably won’t help tomorrow.
We shouldn’t put assholes on the Court.
MERRICK GARLAND!
Neal Katyal: “Many people and organizations deserve credit for today’s decision, chief among them Pam Karlan of Stanford Law, who gave one of the best arguments I’ve ever heard.”
(You might remember Karlan from the impeachment hearings.)
John Bolton’s entire book tour should be spent answering one question: what did you do when it actually mattered to expose or stop any of the presidents behavior you now describe as craven if not illegal?
He actively hindered the exposure of and attempts to stop the behavior.
Under federal law, American employers can’t discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age, religion, national origin, disability, or genetic information. But there are no such civil-rights protections related to sexual orientation or sexual identity.
Democrats have championed measures like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to remedy the problem, but Republican leaders have repeatedly rejected those efforts. “People are already protected in the workplace,” then-House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in 2013, pointing to legal protections that simply did not exist.
At least, the protections didn’t exist before today. […] the U.S. Supreme Court this morning ruled that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and transgender status is illegal.
In decisions on two separate cases, the court said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal for employers to discriminate because of a person’s sex, among other factors, also covers sexual orientation and transgender status. It upheld rulings from lower courts that said discrimination based on those factors was a form of sex discrimination. […]
Justice Neil Gorsuch, tapped for the high court by Donald Trump, wrote the majority opinion. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, another member of the conservative bloc, along with Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor. […]
In the minority, of course, were Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas. Kavanaugh — Trump’s other justice — wrote a dissent, as did Thomas.
Kavanaugh’s dissent did not come as a surprise, but it did include some notable praise for the movement to advance LGBTQ rights, which further signaled an extraordinary shift on the bench.
Among other rulings today, the SC declined to take up the qualified immunity issue, even though they created it, throwing it to Congress to change the law. That will probably only happen if the Dems get a majority in both houses, with a Dem president. If then.
[…] last week, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told the Wall Street Journal, “We’re probably looking at a number of 25 [pickups] at a minimum.” If true, that would be more than enough to put the chamber in GOP hands. The same article added this memorable sentence: “Asked for comment, a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman responded with a gif of a clown putting on makeup.”
Voice of America Director Amanda Bennett and Deputy Director Sandy Sugawara resigned on Monday, after defending the government-backed media outlet from withering attacks from the White House and President Donald Trump.
Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media, Michael Pack, was confirmed by the Senate earlier this month. In a note to staff on Monday morning, Bennett said that Pack has the right to replace them with his own VOA leadership.
Bennett also said that Pack “swore before Congress to respect and honor the firewall that guarantees VOA’s independence, which in turn plays the single most important role in the stunning trust VOA’s audiences around the world have in the organization,” a spokesperson for VOA said. “She remarked that she and Deputy Director Sugawara know that all VOA staff members will offer him all of their skills, their professionalism, their dedication to mission, their journalistic integrity and their personal hard work to guarantee that promise is fulfilled.”
Bennett had defended the agency after the White House attacked its coverage of the coronavirus crisis, claiming that it “amplified Beijing’s propaganda.”
“We are thoroughly covering China’s disinformation and misinformation in English and Mandarin and at the same time reporting factually –– as we always do in all 47 of our broadcast languages — on other events in China,” Bennett wrote in April.
But Trump’s attacks continued, as he called the outlet a “disgrace.”
Over the weekend, Bennett also weighed in after a report that the Centers for Disease Control had blacklisted VOA from interviews, including those coming from one of its on air personalities, Greta Van Susteren. The Knight First Amendment Institute published emails obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request, showing that CDC public affairs staff told public affairs staff to ignore VOA media requests.
Bennett said in a statement that “efforts such as those outlined in the CDC memo can result in the kind of chilling effect on our journalism that we regularly see in the markets we broadcast to that have no free press – including in China and Russia.”
tomh @464, thanks. Let’s hope the Democrats do get a majority in both the House and the Senate.
Right now, Republicans in the Seante are prioritizing conspiracy theories.
Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, should probably be quite busy right now. After all, the United States is dealing with several overlapping crises, many of which relate directly to his panel’s jurisdiction.
And yet, he appeared on Fox Business yesterday, complaining about the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. […]
What’s more, the Wisconsin lawmaker isn’t the only one playing this ridiculous game. As the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank noted in his latest column that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham last week “convened his panel this week to launch yet another investigation into the Obama administration.”
Who cares about the virus, economic collapse and unrest? […] Trump has said he wants Graham to investigate the investigation into Russian election interference, and Graham complied. With party-line votes, he circumvented decades-old rules to give himself unilateral power to issue subpoenas to Trump’s favorite villains: John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Nellie and Bruce Ohr, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, John Podesta, Susan Rice and more.
[…] Folks like Johnson and Graham are barely even trying to keep up appearances.
They know there’s plenty of actual work their committees could (and should) be tackling right now on important issues. They know their assorted conspiracy theories are recognized as an obvious electoral scheme. Thy even know that there is nothing meaningful for these investigations into investigations to turn up.
But they’re doing it anyway — in part because Donald Trump wants them to; in part because it might generate some excitement within their party’s far-right base; and in part because Republicans hope to create a cloud of controversy around Joe Biden […]
Almost exactly four years after then-candidate Trump publicly vowed to “fight for” the LGBT community, he did the exact opposite.
[…] Readers were told at the time that while Republicans have opposed civil rights for LGBT Americans, Trump is “far more accepting of sexual minorities than his party’s leaders have been.”
It was an impression Trump seemed largely comfortable with, at least to the extent that he could exploit the dynamic for votes. […] there was an odd point in the 2016 campaign, shortly after the Orlando nightclub massacre, in which the future president insisted that LGBT voters, en masse, should move to the right and vote Republican. Trump, in apparent seriousness, said he, not Hillary Clinton, would be the “better friend” of the “LBGT” [sic] community. Just two days after the Orlando shooting, Trump added, “Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you.”
[…] In June 2020, almost exactly four years later, [Trump] made clear how much those earlier commitments were worth.
The Trump administration on Friday finalized its rollback of protections against gender identity discrimination in health care regulated by the Affordable Care Act. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement it would recognize “sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology.”
[…] as a result of the new policy, ACA-regulated plans “can deny services to transgender people.” […]
Team Trump made the move late on a Friday — during Pride Month.
What’s more, the policy was announced on the anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre […]
Vox’s report added:
Trans people especially face overwhelming levels of discrimination from health care providers. According to a 2010 study, almost one in five trans people said they had been denied care by a medical provider because of their gender identity, and 28 percent were subjected to harassment in a medical setting. It was that reality the Obama administration attempted to address by including LGBTQ people under the definition of sex discrimination, conforming to an increasing wave of state and federal court rulings. The Obama-era rule made it illegal for doctors, hospitals, and other health care workers to deny care to someone whose sexual orientation or gender identity they disapproved of.
The Trump administration’s new rule, scheduled to take effect in August, rolls back the clock.
During a brief Q&A with reporters in October 2018, as the White House took steps to roll back protections for transgender Americans, Trump was asked, “What about your promise to protect the LGBTQ community?” He replied, “I’m protecting everybody.”
The reporter added, “Transgender Americans say you’ve given up on them,” to which the president added, “You know what I’m doing? I’m protecting everybody.”
It’s an open question as to whether Trump has any meaningful understanding of his own policies, but there’s simply no way to credibly argue his betrayal of transgender Americans is part of an effort to “protect everybody.” […]
[…] The fact that many attendees at Trump events tend to be older only accentuates the hazards. What’s more, […] the president’s rallies “typically draw supporters from surrounding towns and states. Some die-hard fans travel across the country from rally to rally like groupies for a band.”
If the coronavirus itself hired lobbyists to pressure the Trump campaign, this is what the lobbyists would ask for. (There’s a reason the president’s political operation is asking attendees to sign liability waivers.) […]
I’ve been trying to think of a way to present the flip side to all of this in a fair way, but I’ve come up empty. Trump doesn’t have much of a political incentive to go to Oklahoma — it’s not a 2020 battleground — and if he were determined to visit the Sooner State, he could have an outdoor event that took deliberate steps to protect attendees. […]
Postscript: Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, claimed yesterday that 800,000 people have requested tickets to the president’s event in Tulsa. I’m not sure if that was a typo, but the local venue holds 19,000 people.
[…] “Just passed 800,000 tickets,” Mr. Parscale tweeted on Sunday morning. “Biggest data haul and rally signup of all time by 10x. Saturday is going to be amazing!” […]
How did they go from the already inflated number of 300,000 to 800,000?
Seattle police Mace 7-yr-old and then arrest man who caught it on camera
Standing among a group of peaceful anti-racism protesters in downtown Seattle on a recent Saturday afternoon, Mando Avery held his seven-year-old son’s hand as he and three generations of his African American family finished a prayer with members of their church.
Only feet away, Evan Hreha, 34, a hairstylist, arrived at the protests alone.
That was when, Avery said, out of nowhere, a police officer fired mace at the group. It hit his son square in the face.
As the young boy screamed and clutched on to his father, Hreha caught it all on camera. He confronted the officer he believed had maced the boy and told him the footage was going online. He then posted it on social media.
Since then, Hreha has been arrested and spent two days in jail for what some are calling police retribution for a video which went viral. The young boy is still traumatized, reeling from the chemical burn on his cheek and asking his parents what he did to deserve it. […]
Lynna@470 asks “How did they go from the already inflated number of 300,000 to 800,000?”
I just put on approriate physical & electronic safety equipment, then took a look at the on-line website and noted two things: (1) No mention of what the tickets cost; and (2)All tickets are subject to first come first serve basis. In addition, there is a second concurrent “event”, a Rally Live Stream, for which one also has to register, albeit there is no mention of tickets per se.
That has me wondering if teh wannbe-daleks are conflating ticket requests for in-person Covid-19 infections with registering for the live stream?
For both events, you have to supply a mobile number and (supposedly) get a confirmation by SMS (and the redaleking project gets to keep and use your number; there is a statement in very very small print they will do exactly that). You also have to supply your e-address, albeit there is no(?) immediately-obvious note why or what that is for, as-if it wasn’t rather obvious.
Just a week before the much-awaited book by President Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton is set to go on sale, the Trump administration is expected to file a lawsuit in federal court seeking an injunction to block the book from being released in its current form, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The lawsuit is expected to be filed in the coming days and could come as soon as today, sources said, cautioning that some details are still being worked out.
Bolton, who departed the Trump administration last fall, was originally supposed to publish his book, “The Room Where It Happened,” earlier this year, but it was met with delays from the White House as the book went through a standard prepublication security review for classified information by the National Security Council.
In a description of the coming book, Bolton’s publisher says, “What Bolton saw astonished him: a President for whom getting reelected was the only thing that mattered, even if it meant endangering or weakening the nation.”
According to the description, posted online, Bolton details potentially impeachment-worthy “transgression” across “the full range” of Trump’s foreign policy.
Bolton’s first interview about the memoir, with ABC News Chief of Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz, is set to air in a one-hour special Sunday, June 21 at 9 p.m. ET on the ABC Television Network.
The NSC and Bolton’s team have been at odds about the information in the manuscript, according to letters exchanged between the two and provided to ABC News by Bolton’s attorney, Chuck Cooper, and the White House.
The NSC claimed the book continued to contain “significant amounts” of classified information, but Bolton’s lawyer pushed back, claiming that none of it “could reasonably be considered classified.”
…
“This is a transparent attempt to use national security as a pretext to censor Mr. Bolton, in violation of his constitutional right to speak on matters of the utmost public import,” he wrote. “This attempt will not succeed, and Mr. Bolton’s book will be published June 23.”…
Chris Jsays
I just had a strange thought that I can’t disprove… that the SCOTUS decision does not claim that refusing to hire employees who are attracted to men would be forbidden by Title 7. This is because, in that case, there is no action (such as having a male spouse) for which a male person would be treated differently than a female person.
This means that the decision did not say that sexual orientation is a protected class under Title 7. After all, there is a case where sexual attraction is explicitly the targeted attribute, and by the logic of the decision, it would be permitted. It is only saying that the existing class of “sex” forbids treating homosexuals differently from heterosexuals.
I’m not sure, but unless another case comes up, it seems like it also would not claim that someone refusing to hire people who identify as a woman was acting against Title 7. “Gender identity” is considered distinct from “sex,” and only “sex” appears in Title 7, and there is no behavior (presenting or identifying as a woman) for which people of different biological sexes would be treated differently. Hence, “gender identity” is also not being claimed to be included as a protected class.
On the one hand, this means that even the dissent is wrong in arguing that the decision adds new protected classes to the law. Even more so than it already is. But it also strikes me as a bit of an odd legal hiccup: anyone wanting to keep women out of their company can do so by claiming it’s based on identity rather than biology. Then again, it’s hard to imagine companies doing so, as they’d probably be unlikely to be happy with having to hire trans men.
I wonder if this line of reasoning is correct or not.
The Food and Drug Administration has revoked its emergency use authorization for the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for the treatment of Covid-19.
Hydroxychloroquine was frequently touted by President Donald Trump, and he has claimed to have used it himself.
After reviewing the current research available on the drugs, the FDA determined that the drugs do not meet “the statutory criteria” for emergency use authorization as they are unlikely to be effective in treating Covid-19 based on the latest scientific evidence, the agency noted on its website on Monday.
“FDA has concluded that, based on this new information and other information discussed in the attached memorandum, it is no longer reasonable to believe that oral formulations of HCQ and CQ may be effective in treating COVID-19, nor is it reasonable to believe that the known and potential benefits of these products outweigh their known and potential risks,” FDA chief scientist Denise Hinton wrote in a letter to Gary Disbrow of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) on Monday. Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have been tied to serious cardiac events as well as other side effects among Covid-19 patients.
“Accordingly, FDA revokes the EUA for emergency use of HCQ and CQ to treat COVID-19,” Hinton wrote in the letter, using abbreviations for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. “As of the date of this letter, the oral formulations of HCQ and CQ are no longer authorized by FDA to treat COVID-19.”…
DALLAS—Saying the city remained on track for progressing into the final stage, Mayor Eric Johnson told Dallas residents Friday that they would soon officially be entering Phase 4 of pretending the coronavirus was over. “Thanks to the efforts of municipal employees, I’m happy to say we’ve reached the final phases of completely deluding ourselves into thinking that this pandemic has somehow stopped spreading and that we’re safe,” said Johnson in a press conference, in which he applauded the city for bringing them to this stage by successfully disregarding the virus in previous phases. “In order for this to be effective, however, we’re instituting guidelines requiring all residents to convince themselves that they can no longer contract or spread this disease, and that despite virtually no changes in the situation, we will no longer need to use hand sanitizers or observe social distancing. Phase 4 will also need all of you to start going into restaurants and stores without masks and pretending that this is endangering absolutely no one. Thank you all.” At press time, Johnson added that he hoped successful observance of protocols would allow the city to soon move into the outright panic and citywide devastation that would characterize Phase 5.
[…] John Guandolo, a disgraced former FBI agent, right-wing conspiracy theorist, and anti-Islam activist, appeared on the American Pastors Network’s “Stand in the Gap” radio program yesterday [June 11th] where he declared that military leaders who disagreed with President Donald Trump’s plans to use troops to quash the nationwide George Floyd protests are guilty of treason and that the leaders of Black Lives Matter and anti-fascist groups should be rounded up and executed.
Guandolo, who has repeatedly called for those with whom he disagrees to be charged with treason, was furious about the protests over Floyd’s killing by the police and the subsequent calls to reform the current law enforcement system.
{Floyd} was a thug. He was a violent criminal, and he was on meth when they arrested him, so spare me, Guandolo fumed. Let’s first identify some of the most dangerous players in putting forth narratives that directly support our enemies. How about the Secretary of Defense {Mark} Esper? How about General {James} Mattis, Admiral {Michael} Mullen, George W. Bush, Nikki Haley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — Admiral {Mark} Milley — this morning overtly comes out against the president of the United States. This is sedition and treason at a time when the country is at war with identifiable enemies, and these people need to be held accountable.
It’s time to start crushing these enemies, he continued. The leaders of this defund the police movement are communists and jihadis. They’re Muslim Brotherhood organized organizations like the Islamic Circle of North America, the Islamic Society of North America. They’re designated terrorist groups like Hamas, the Council of American Islamic Relations. They are leaders of communist organizations like Black Lives Matter and antifa, and as this country has done in the past, we should round up the leaders and execute them for trying to revolt and overthrow the government. And if this doesn’t happen soon, we will lose this.
Strangely, underneath all that spittle, he forgot to mention teh Illuminati, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and a conga line of rats.
Re #s 454, 456, 462, etc, and # 468 – my sympathies to all the transgendered people experiencing whiplash today.
Re # 452 & # 474 – I can’t help but imagine Kellyanne Conway or Jared Kushner or another of their colleagues on the phone to Manila at this moment, asking for legal tips and/or Duterte’s price for demanding immediate extradition of Bolton to the Philippines.
A tiny genetic mutation in the SARS coronavirus 2 variant circulating throughout Europe and the United States significantly increases the virus’ ability to infect cells, lab experiments performed at Scripps Research show.
“Viruses with this mutation were much more infectious than those without the mutation in the cell culture system we used,” says Scripps Research virologist Hyeryun Choe, PhD, senior author of the study.
The mutation had the effect of markedly increasing the number of functional spikes on the viral surface, she adds. Those spikes are what allow the virus to bind to and infect cells.
“The number—or density—of functional spikes on the virus is 4 or 5 times greater due to this mutation,” Choe says.
The spikes give the coronavirus its crown-like appearance and enable it to latch onto target cell receptors called ACE2. The mutation, called D614G, provides greater flexibility to the spike’s “backbone,” explains co-author Michael Farzan, PhD, co-chairman of the Scripps Research Department of Immunology and Microbiology.
More flexible spikes allow newly made viral particles to navigate the journey from producer cell to target cell fully intact, with less tendency to fall apart prematurely, he explains.
“Our data are very clear, the virus becomes much more stable with the mutation,” Choe says.
…
Choe and Farzan’s paper is titled “The D614G mutation in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein reduces S1 shedding and increases infectivity.” Now undergoing peer review, it is being posted prior to publication to the pre-print site bioRxiv, and released early, amid news reports of its findings.
Choe and Farzan note that their research was performed using harmless viruses engineered to produce key coronavirus proteins. Whether the changes they observed also translate to increased transmissibility in the real world requires additional epidemiological studies, they note.
Encouragingly, the duo found that immune factors from the serum of infected people work equally well against engineered viruses both with and without the D614G mutation. That’s a hopeful sign that vaccine candidates in development will work against variants with or without that mutation, Choe says.
Choe and Farzan have studied coronaviruses for nearly 20 years, since the first outbreak of SARS, a similar virus. They were the first to discover in 2003 that SARS bound to the ACE2 receptor on cells. Others’ experiments have shown the SARS-CoV-2 virus binds the same ACE2 receptor.
But Farzan and Choe note a key structural difference between spike proteins on the first SARS virus and this new pandemic strain. With both, under an electron microscope, the spike has tripod shape, with its three segments bound together at a backbone-like scaffold. But SARS-CoV-2 is different. Its tripod is divided in two discreet segments, S1 and S2.
Initially, this unusual feature produced unstable spikes, Farzan says. Only about a quarter of the hundreds of spikes on each SARS-CoV-2 virus maintain the structure they need to successfully infect a target cell. With the mutation, the tripod breaks much less frequently, meaning more of its spikes are fully functional, he says.
The addition of the D614G mutation means that the amino acid at that location is switched from aspartic acid to glycine. That renders it more bendable, Farzan says. Evidence of its success can be seen in the sequenced strains that scientists globally are contributing to databases including GenBank, the duo reports. In February, no sequences deposited to the GenBank database showed the D614G mutation. But by March, it appeared in 1 out of 4 samples. In May, it appeared in 70 percent of samples, Farzan says.
“Over time, it has figured out how to hold on better and not fall apart until it needs to,” Farzan says. “The virus has, under selection pressure, made itself more stable.”
It is still unknown whether this small mutation affects the severity of symptoms of infected people, or increases mortality, the scientists say. While ICU data from New York and elsewhere reports a preponderance of the new D614G variant, much more data, ideally under controlled studies, are needed, Choe says.
blf, @473, ah! That explains it. I think you are right. Thanks for venturing into dangerous lands to scout the enemy, and then to return with a report.
On June 1, Virginia pastor Dr. Leon McCray Sr. of Woodstock, Virginia, says he was visiting an apartment property he owned in nearby Edinburg when he came across a couple who were illegally dragging a refrigerator to his dumpster. After confronting McCray, the couple left and came back with three more people. All five people were white, while Pastor McCray is Black. McCray says the group surrounded him and then began slamming Black Lives Matter and telling McCray: “We would kill you.”
According to The Washington Post, it was at this point that things got really racist. The 61-year-old McCray, a 24-year Air Force master sergeant, pulled out a concealed handgun that he is legally permitted to carry. According to McCray, this gave him the opportunity to call 911. However, when law enforcement responded, they handcuffed and arrested McCray for “brandishing a gun.” McCray was on his own property, holding a gun that he was legally permitted to carry, while five white trespassers reportedly continued to throw racial epithets at him. “All this happened on my property. I said, what about the trespassing and the assault?”
Two days later McCray met with Shenandoah County Sheriff Timothy Carter, who listened to McCray’s case and began a review that included suspending two sheriff’s office supervisors, who have reportedly put on unpaid leave.
In a Facebook post on the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office page, Sheriff Timothy Carter gave out more information on the case and the reversal of charges. Sheriff Carter said he had apologized to to the pastor and that the five white assailants had not only been arrested, but that varying degrees of hate crime charges were being leveled against them. “As I told Mr. McCray, if I were faced with similar circumstances, I would have probably done the same thing.”
Sheriff Carter also recorded a video that he posted to the official Facebook page. McCray says he is awaiting the official dropping of his charges, but that he is appreciative that Sheriff Carter is doing what is right. “When someone does wrong, those in leadership positions should right that wrong quickly, just like they would do if it were them. […] I just want things to change. They must change, and I won’t stop until it changes.”
There are a few major issues here. The most obvious of which are the clear racist overtones of the whole event. But, on a secondary level, the idea that the police in any area, would so thoroughly screw up as to leave potential violent criminals free to roam around while arrested a person with no criminal record who is legally within his rights, should be remarkable. This is doing a terrible job at law enforcement. You are protecting no one, in fact you are endangering more people, while serving criminal behavior.
According to the sheriff’s office, all five attackers are being held without bond with a July 17 court appearance on the docket. […]
blfsays
Pierce R Butler@471, Thanks for spotting and correction my borked link.
Our justice system is in tatters, yet what may be the first piece of bipartisan legislation to pass is one protecting the feelings of concrete
The government’s response to the protests of the past week followed a predictable pattern. Step 1: A flurry of headlines promising: Violent protesters face jail within 24 hours, optimism unencumbered by any understanding of the law, procedural fairness or how Covid-19–struck criminal courts are operating in practice. Step 2: Announce longer prison sentences for something.
That something is apparently low-value criminal damage of war memorials, which, according to 125 Conservative MPs, is not being punished severely enough. So it was that backbench demands for a new offence carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years’ custody filled the Sunday press, with MPs vowing not to stand idly by as our democracy is dismantled in this way.
Seemingly sympathetic to the proposition that spray-painting a statue portends the dismantling of democracy, the government has thrown its weight behind the proposals […]. What came as perhaps more of a surprise was the opposition joining the chorus. […]
[…]
What upsets the campaigners is that where the value of criminal damage is under £5,000, it is treated as a summary-only offence (triable only at the magistrates’ courts) and carries a maximum sentence of three months. So where an unlisted memorial is defaced but the remedial cost is low — say removing spray paint — a lengthy spell behind bars is unlikely to follow.
The solution, we are told, is either to amend the Criminal Damage Act or to pass new legislation — the desecration of war memorials bill — allowing the maximum of 10 years to apply, irrespective of the value of the damage (and, in the case of the new bill, there need not even be any damage caused). In their fervour, few of the protagonists seem to have realised that the proposed narrow definition of “war memorial” would exclude most of the statues and monuments that have captured recent headlines — neither Colston’s nor Churchill’s statue, nor the memorial to PC Keith Palmer, would qualify for protection, for instance. […]
[… T]he new cross-party consensus appears to be that displaying disrespect — not even quantifiable damage — to an inanimate object is worthy of a higher maximum sentence than inflicting grievous bodily harm, violent disorder, affray, theft, carrying knives, acid or offensive weapons, voyeurism, upskirting and causing death by careless driving, to name but a few offences that cause tangible harm to real people. It would inject criminal sentencing, which already suffers from wild incoherence and inconsistency between offence types, with another dose of gratuitous disproportionality.
I’ve always been into science. I was a very curious kid. […] I excelled in the sciences in school. I eventually made my way to Space Camp, a week-long NASA program where we explored concepts in space and did astronaut training. […] From that point on, I just decided that I thought science was so cool.
I went into a STEM-focused school for college, I got a biology degree, and I ended up getting a master’s in biology. I worked as a corporate research scientist for some time. I had some experiences there that really pointed me away from that field—just really a bad culture. So I decided to go into academia.
[…] I’m really fortunate to have gotten through my undergrad and my graduate career as a biologist unscathed. It wasn’t until I started working as a corporate scientist that I started to have major issues with not feeling accepted or welcome in science. And it was a huge shock to me. I wasn’t expecting it at all. Because up until I entered corporate, the notion was always, “You’re welcome. As long as you can do the science, you can stay here.” […] Few people talked to me, and those interactions were very brief and rarely personal. People would go out to have their lunch breaks and I was never invited. It was very obvious that I was intentionally excluded from many out-of-office get togethers. […]
At my job, there were two other Black people. This is in a seven-story building. The security guard worked on the first floor; he was a Black male. And then there was me; I worked on the seventh floor. My lab hired a custodian who turned out to be the third Black person in the building. When he was hired, I don’t know why she said this to me, but my co-worker, she turns to me and she says, “Good, did you see the new hire? You won’t be the token Black girl anymore.”
I laugh now. I was literally crying when she said that to me. […] What happened after made it even worse.
I wrote to HR. They had an anonymous report line. I wrote, “This was said to me. It hurt my feelings.” And I think I said, “You guys should probably come in here and do diversity training.” Instead of handling my report as anonymous, the head of HR drove out from Albany and pulled me out of the lab to have a meeting with me in the conference room. They automatically assumed—I’m the only Black woman working in the lab, so it had to be me. It was so uncomfortable. They made me identify who said this to me. […]
[…] I felt like going into academia was a safer place for me. But as soon as I got to the other side of things, as a faculty member and as a staff member—oh my gosh, I faced some of the same challenges that I did in corporate.
I was so excited to start this job. So, I get to work early. I didn’t know where to go, so I went to see if there was something for me in the office that I should pick up. I say hi to the secretary, and she says, “Oh, let’s go check your mailbox. Your mailbox is around the corner, walk down the hall, make a left, and it’s room such-and-such.”
As I’m walking down the hall, I see another person. They’re walking towards me. And I waved because I’m the new kid, you know, the new hire, and I’m excited to meet people. And the person just did not wave […]
We ended up going in the same direction. And it became obvious to me that we were going to the same room, the mailroom. I’m fumbling, trying to figure out the key because I want to test out the door myself. So I’m walking behind this woman. We get to the doorway to the mailroom and she turns and looks over her shoulder and she doesn’t move. She stops, she turns around in the doorway. And now we’re facing each other and I’m like, “Hi?” And she’s like, “What are you doing?” I explain I’m gonna go check my mail. And this isn’t verbatim, but she says, “You don’t belong here. This is the faculty mailroom.” I told her, “I work here. I’m gonna go get my mail.” And so she opened the door, we go into the mailroom […]
She says, “No, I’ve never seen you before. I’m gonna need to see your identification.” And I’m like, fair, you know? I pull out my ID. It says assistant professor of biology, the name of the school, my picture, the year. Also, there was a copier machine in there and I recognized the scanning pad. I scan my card and hey look! It buzzes me into the printer. And she was like, “I don’t think that’s real. I’m gonna have to call the cops.” I’m like, “What? Wait a second. No, I work here.” She asks me where my office is, and I didn’t know because nobody had shown me where my office was. It was so overwhelming.
[…] I was only about 23 years old when this happened, and so I didn’t have enough of a voice. […] what I did was walk with her to the department office so the secretary could vouch for me—another white woman—so that they could communicate to each other that I am an actual person and that I exist and that I actually work there. And so the suspicious woman said, “Oh, well, why didn’t you say anything? You just don’t look like you could work here.” And she walked away. There was no apology. […]
[…] there’s a difference between a misunderstanding and threatening to call the police. You don’t threaten to call the cops on somebody that you think is too young […] I was checking my mail. I had a suit on. There was nothing violent going on, there was no reason to call law enforcement. […]
This is the Black experience. Because being a professor in higher education is a privilege. And when people see that a Black person has that privilege, they automatically are suspicious. […]
A lot of Black women like me are experiencing this trauma, but we stay in these fields because we need to be in these classrooms so that we can break the cycle. Sometimes we just take the beating. Our ancestors did it for us, literally.
He complained about discrepancies in media coverage of his upcoming rally compared to that of mass protests over police killings of unarmed black Americans.
The Far Left Fake News Media, which had no Covid problem with the Rioters & Looters destroying Democrat run cities, is trying to Covid Shame us on our big Rallies.
Won’t work!
tomhsays
Chris J @ 475
It’s true they didn’t carve out sexual orientation as a new protected class. That was an argument made by the employers (and stressed by the Administration in their support for the employers, in fact.) The opinion dealt with it:
The employers also stress that homosexuality and transgender status are distinct concepts from sex, and that if Congress wanted to address these matters in Title VII, it would have referenced them specifically. But when Congress chooses not to include any exceptions to a broad rule, this Court applies the broad rule…
They were simply rolled into the class ‘sex.’
I’m not sure I understand your first example, but the decision does not hinge on whether individuals were treated differently. It rests on whether ‘sex’ was a factor in hiring, firing, etc. For instance, from the decision:
… So an employer who fires a woman, Hannah, because she is insufficiently feminine and also fires a man, Bob, for being insufficiently masculine may treat men and women as groups more or less equally. But in both cases the employer fires an individual in part because of sex.
[…]
“The victimization of unarmed Black Muslims has a long and troubling history,” said a coalition statement signed by more than 90 civil rights, advocacy, community and faith organisations and released on Monday. “As American Muslims, we will draw on our diversity, our strength, and our resilience to demand these reforms because Black lives matter.”
Proposed changes include prohibiting racial profiling and manoeuvers that restrict the flow of blood or oxygen to the brain, such as chokeholds; making it legally easier for prosecutors to hold law enforcement accountable; and redirecting police funding “into community health, education, employment and housing programs”.
The statement also calls for the establishment of “a federal standard that use of force be reserved as a last resort, only when absolutely necessary” and after exhausting all reasonable options.
“These demands are a floor for our groups and not a ceiling. Some would call for much more,” said Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, one of the statement’s co-conveners.
[…]
Muslims in America are ethnically and racially diverse and Floyd’s death has also reinvigorated conversations about the treatment and representation of Black Muslims in their own faith communities.
[…] Kameelah Rashad, president of Muslim Wellness Foundation, [said] “[… T]here’s at least recognition that we as a whole can no longer separate Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, surveillance, and violence. People are reconciling with the notion that means our struggles are intertwined.”
Trump addressed coronavirus testing moments ago, during a White House roundtable on protecting America’s seniors.
If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any, the president [sic] said, according to a White House pool report.
[… Hair furor also is also delusionally twittering:] Our testing is so much bigger and more advanced than any other country (we have done a great job on this!) that it shows more cases. Without testing, or weak testing, we would be showing almost no cases. Testing is a double edged sword — Makes us look bad, but good to have!!!
[…]
However, public health experts have said the recent surges in coronavirus cases in more than a dozen states is not a result of increased testing, but rather a result of those states’ reopening efforts.
Chris Jsays
tomh @ 488
Effectively, my first example is a slight change to the one in the decision. What if a company fired Hannah for being insufficiently feminine, and also fired Bob for being insufficiently feminine?
The reason I think this gets around the “sex must be a part of the decision” is that the decision’s explanation for why sex is involved in the Bob-and-Hannah example. Sex is involved because you’re changing the criteria (insufficiently feminine or insufficiently masculine) based on the person’s sex (female or male). Thus, Bob is fired for being insufficiently masculine, but Hannah is not fired for also being insufficiently Masculine.
As another example, the decision talks about how firing someone for not liking the Yankees, while silly, isn’t technically against Title 7. But if you only fired men for not liking the Yankees, and only the women for not liking some other team, that’d involve sex necessarily and be against Title 7. At least I think that’s what’s implied.
Thus, my strange example where everyone were fired for being insufficiently feminine, or masculine, or whatever. No individual could claim that, but for the sake of their biological sex, they wouldn’t have been fired. Clearly, though, they would be fired for their gender presentation.
Chris Jsays
I think my point is that the decision did not, in fact, argue for rolling up gender presentation and identity or sexual orientation into “sex.” Only argued that, in the cases they looked at where someone was fired for being gay or trans, such a decision necessarily was partly based on sex and therefore unconstitutional.
From coverage of Trump’s remarks, posted by Daniel Dale:
Trump on the LGBT ruling: “They’ve ruled. I’ve read the decision. And some people were surprised. But they’ve ruled and we live with their decision. That’s what it’s all about. We live with the decision of the Supreme Court. Very powerful. A very powerful decision, actually.”
Trump said the killing of Rayshard Brooks by police was “a terrible situation” and “very disturbing.” He said “I studied it closely” and he’s going to get “very strong reports” on it and say more tomorrow.
Trump said he’ll have a “news conference” tomorrow (the usual caveats apply) when he signs his executive order on police reform. He says the goal is “we want law and order, and we want it done fairly, justly, we want it done safely.”
Trump says until Germany pays what it owes @NATO, the United States will reduce its troop presence there.
You can use “owe” informally. But Trump has repeatedly used terms like “owe” and “delinquent” to make literal claims that NATO members not meeting the 2% target have actual debts, either to the US or to NATO, and that’s not true.
Again: Germany doesn’t literally “owe” NATO money. NATO *target* is that every member spends 2% of GDP on defense. That isn’t a payment to NATO. And it’s not binding: if a country is under 2% – Germany was at an est. 1.4% in 2019 – they don’t have debt.
Trump is scheduled for an interview between 4:30 PM and 5 PM with talk radio host Michael Savage.
The president has created a construct in which all increases in confirmed coronavirus cases are additional evidence of how great he has done.
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign announced it raised $81 million last month, fueled by his rise in the polls against President Trump and growth in his online fundraising operation .
The $80.8 million haul by Biden and two committees associated with the Democratic Party came as Biden’s campaign tripled the number of online donors since February and counted 1.5 million new supporters “in the last few weeks,” according to an email sent Tuesday to supporters. […]
Trump’s niece Mary Trump will to publish a tell-all this summer. The book is said to reveal that she was a primary source for The New York Times’ investigation into Trump’s taxes.
Donald Trump’s niece, his deceased brother’s daughter, is set to publish a tell-all book this summer that will detail “harrowing and salacious” stories about [Trump], according to people with knowledge of the project.
Mary Trump, 55, the daughter of Fred Trump Jr. and eldest grandchild of Fred Trump Sr., is scheduled to release Too Much And Never Enough on July 28, Simon & Schuster confirmed Monday, just weeks before the Republican National Convention.
One of the most explosive revelations Mary will detail in the book, according to people familiar with the matter, is how she played a critical role helping The New York Times print startling revelations about Trump’s taxes, including how he was involved in “fraudulent” tax schemes and had received more than $400 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire.
As she is set to outline in her book, Mary was a primary source for the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation, supplying Fred Trump Sr.’s tax returns and other highly confidential family financial documentation to the paper.
Details of the book are being closely guarded by its publisher, Simon & Schuster, but The Daily Beast has learned that Mary plans to include conversations with Trump’s sister, retired federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry, that contain intimate and damning thoughts about her brother, according to people with knowledge of the matter. […]
Meet Ruby Bridges, at 6 years old, she was the first Black child to attend an all-White elementary school in the south.
For her to attend school her first day, men with guns had to make way through a crowd of grown men and women screaming “nigger”, threatening her life and waving confederate flags.
Nearly all the teachers abandoned the school except for one. In her classroom, all her classmates abandoned the class refusing to sit with the 6 yr old.
For the entire school year, Ruby went to school to a classroom that was just her and the one teacher that didn’t refuse her.
She refused to eat any food that wasn’t pre-packaged and sealed because White protestors frequently threatened to poison her like a rat.
Ruby is only 65 years old today, younger than most of your parents. If you think America doesn’t have dramatic and urgent work to do on racial equity, you still have blinders on.
@ 491
I didn’t read it that sex was involved because you change the criteria. It seems to me that if there were only one person involved, whether masc or fem, however they were insufficient, sex would be involved and it would trigger Title VII.
As for whether sexual orientation is included in the ‘sex’ class, it seems like a distinction without a difference. If a gay or trans person is not hired and that’s part of the reason, what more do you need? It’s because of the ‘sex’ class and not allowed.
Chris Jsays
@497:
It seems to me that if there were only one person involved, whether masc or fem, however they were insufficient, sex would be involved and it would trigger Title VII.
I don’t think so. The opinion relies heavily on the “but for X, this wouldn’t have happened” argument, which necessarily requires a counterfactual. “But for me being a woman, not being fem enough wouldn’t have gotten me fired” implies “If I were a man, not being fem enough wouldn’t have gotten me fired.” If everyone were subject to the same gender presentation restriction, though, then that “but for X” wouldn’t exist.
This is almost what the employers tried to argue; that their standard was “is homosexual” and that applied to everyone. But SCOTUS argued that “is homosexual” is not a single standard, it’s a standard that varies based on sex. “Is homosexual” means “attracted to women” for women and “attracted to men” for men, and you cannot define “is homosexual” without referencing the person’s sex.
“Is not fem enough” can be defined without referencing the person’s sex, though. Hence why I think it’s different than the employers’ argument that was rejected.
Chris Jsays
Anyway, at this point I’m just trying to be understood. It was a weird thought that may not actually hold up to legal scrutiny, and may even never be tried by real companies. I was just curious if anyone else saw an easy refutation to it.
Tweet o’ the day.
Another thing Trump said to state governors on that phone call:
Bits and pieces of news:
Hope is not a plan, but without a plan, there’s little hope
Trump doesn’t have a plan – on the pandemic, the economy, or social unrest – but he has hopes that others will make his problems go away.
Lynna @ #500, so of course he’s now speaking (as police – not local DC police, evidently – abuse protesters around the WH).
Live reporting from DC. The MSNBC correspondent said the protests had been peaceful for hours prior to this.
Before I turned it off because Trump was starting to speak, I think I saw an officer on horseback hitting his horse with his baton.
“Police used tear gas and flash bangs to clear out peaceful protesters so Trump could have a photo op at St. John’s Church. Just amazing.”
Holy fucking shit.
LOOK AT THIS. This was the MSNBC report I saw as it was happening.
Steve Schmidt: “Watching Trump preen in front of St. John’s, moments after he threatened to deploy the American military against the American people, with a bible held above his head, I remembered this quote, ‘when [fascism] comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross’.”
Turns out there was always an Upgrade to Dictator option once you are elected. The other presidents just didn’t have a bad enough conscience (or lacked the requisite confidence) to take it.
Sooo…. what’s next?
“‘I’ve seen a lot of things. I was shocked at what they did… and it was all for a photo opportunity…. they called out the American military for a photo opportunity. it was really truly shameful.’ — Gov Cuomo on @cnn just now”
“On @AC360, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, of the Episcopal Dioscese of Washington, says President Trump used St. John’s for a photo op without her [permission].
‘I am outraged’.”
“We’re going to win so much. You’re going to get tired of winning. you’re going to say, ‘Please Mr. President, I have a headache. Please, don’t win so much. This is getting terrible.’ And I’m going to say, ‘No, we have to make America great again.’ You’re gonna say, ‘Please.’ I said, ‘Nope, nope. We’re gonna keep winning.’”
Fascism: Donald Trump makes Rose Garden announcement while military attacks protesters outside.
Link
From Maggie Haberman:
More from the link above:
Yes, Trump did imply that he is bringing calling up thousands of “heavily armed” military troops to somehow protect people’s second amendment rights, all while he is ridding the streets of protestors and “dominating” every thing in sight.
More from the link:
Trump also claimed that he has a “new court” that will back him up. Presumably, he means the Supreme Court.
Trump also claimed to be putting General Milley “in charge,” but we don’t know what that means. In charge of what? Mark Alexander Milley is a United States Army general and the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As Chairman, he is the highest-ranking and senior-most military officer in the United States Armed Forces.
Trump says the top U.S. military officer is ‘in charge’ as George Floyd protests rock the nation
Defense Secretary Calls Turmoil On America’s Streets A ‘Battlespace’ To ‘Dominate’
So, yeah, Trump claimed to be designating ANTIFA as a terrorist organization. The idea is so bonkers that journalists are having a hard time analyzing or describing what Trump has done … or could do.
Link
From Jennifer Rubin:
Washington Post link
Here’s a link to the June 2 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Guardian headline on Trump’s pathetic stunt: “US president threatens to deploy army as teargas fired so he can pose at church.”
More re #474 on the previous thread – Independent – “Brazil’s political rivals unite to oppose Bolsonaro and ‘defend life, freedom and democracy’ amid spiralling coronavirus crisis”:
These must be the experts to whom Salvini is referring in #14 above. The doctor they primarily quote appears to have a clear political agenda (“We’ve got to get back to being a normal country,” he said. “Someone has to take responsibility for terrorizing the country.”). Also, if they’re finding lighter viral loads, it could be explained by the effects of social distancing in Italy.
Moscow Times – “Russia Coronavirus Cases Rise Past 420K as [official – SC] Deaths Surpass 5K”:
RFE/RL – “Russian Police Colonel Being Treated For COVID-19 Falls From Moscow Hospital Window”:
Religion News Service – “Ahead of Trump Bible photo op, police forcibly expel priest from St. John’s church near White House”:
More atl. They basically forcibly occupied a church to do a photo op claiming to be defending religion.
“The PM of Australia, one of the closest US allies, is now calling for an investigation into this ‘troubling incident’. One more cost of the president’s church photo op.”
Video of live coverage in Australia of the assault on Australian journalists @ #3 above.
NBC – “White nationalist group posing as antifa called for violence on Twitter”:
It occurred to me this morning that, in a sense, hair furor is “correct” to call out the military — PROVIDED their mission is sensibly defined (and/or they interpret it sensibly); e.g., “Neutralize the terrorists”. That means the
policegoons are the principle target.Of course the proviso “sensibly defined” is unlikely from teh dalekocrazy, albeit the “interpret it sensibly” (by the military) might not be? Using the military against people on States soil is a rare event, and one which is tightly constrained. Doing so at the whim of a delusional manic has never(?) happened, and it’s not impossible to imagine generals, officers, and/or troops refusing to employ force against protestors (albeit there are very probably some who would, perhaps with unrestrained glee). Without checking, I believe the Geneva Conventions require disobeying clearly unethical orders, and the hair furor’s rantings — against the protestors — would seem to be a example of such. But interpreting such orders as to get the
policegoons, the cause of the protests, under control?Here in France, today was the first day of the second cycle of “deconfinement”. Locally, this meant restaurants & bars are now open, albeit with restrictions. Despite having a full fridge, I went out for lunch today, carefully choosing the restaurant where I was confident the owners (a young couple) would be following the guidelines whilst serving their usual excellent meal. Yes, yes, and yes! To a “T”, including confirming I had to wear a facemask to visit the toilet.
I then popped off to a bar, but as it turned out, one not so careful: One server wasn’t wearing a mask at all (they are supposed to), and another was doing the cover-the-mouth-but-not-the-nose silliness. And the (tap) beer seemed a bit stale, as-if it’d been sitting around since the start(-ish) of the lockdown, over two months ago.
The local village council has come up with what seems like a good plan: In the evenings, the main esplanade will be closed to traffic (as it is during the summer tourist season), allowing the bars & restaurants to expand their outdoor seating. (There are also various tax breaks and similar.) Whilst I think the main esplanade should be pedestrianised all the time, I do realise that does present some problems, largely due to the maze of very narrow twisty streets (on which I recently got lost! (again!! (again!!!))).
‘Words of a dictator’: Trump’s threat to deploy military raises spectre of fascism:
Bishop ‘outraged’ over Trump’s church photo op during George Floyd protests (the Grauniad’s edits in {curly braces}):
Whilst I’m obviously not very sympathetic to the multi-faced repeated liars, hair furor’s exceptionally crude exploitation of their mythology — and the events leading up to it (both immediate and historical) — does mean I acknowledge their anger as (probably) mostly-legitimate, if not based on rationality or reality.
No real comment on this Grauniad article, but I love them (the Grauniad) living up to their reputation for Tpyos offerings, Austria unveils design to turn Hitler’s house into a police station: “Conversion of building where Nazi leader was born will cost €5m and be completed in 1922”. Snort! (I presume this may be fixed, albeit I won’t be the one telling them neither they nor the Austrian police have a Tardis.)
(Accidentally originally posted in poopyhead’s Looking for Linux advice thread.)
Trump has reached the ‘mad emperor’ stage, and it’s terrifying to behold:
In contrast to the description of Trump’s statements and actions in blf’s comment 27, here is some more coverage of what Obama and Biden have been doing:
Link
Some bits and pieces of campaign news:
Link
Axios:
Secret Service blocks off area surrounding White House after protests
Dave Lawler
Jeh Johnson, former secretary of Homeland Security, talks with Rachel Maddow about the logistics and legalities of invoking the Insurrection Act and whether Donald Trump’s threat to deploy the U.S. military against Americans is realistic.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-threat-to-send-military-to-u-s-cities-misses-key-details-84220997625
Great video snippet. The video is 6:33 minutes long.
From Joe Biden:
Biden also said that Trump is “sweeping away” the “guardrails of Democracy.”
Here’s how Trump used his walk to the church, and his bible-toting photo-op to boost his campaign.
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1267676026391404544
It’s a fucking campaign video, with triumphant music, showing Trump walking, followed by his lickspittles, to the church. There’s a shot of Trump hoisting the bible. Ugly propaganda. OMFG. So offensive.
US Ambassador To Australia Responds To US Police Violence Against Australian Journalists
Videos available at the link.
Esper, Milley claim they didn’t know Trump was attacking Americans for their ‘walk’
Sound like bullshit to me.
From Hunter Walker:
Followup to comment 35.
From Wonkette: “Trump Pentagon Goons Shocked To Find Selves Covered In Sh*t After Lying Down With Trump”
Link
WaPo:
Barr personally asked for protesters to be pushed back from D.C. park just before Trump spoke
By Matt Zapotosky
Get a load of these fucking cowards.
Yikes.
Re #38: “every senator who is like i didn’t really see the trump thing should just resign like what the fuck are you doing? go fuck yourselves.”
From Representative Val Demings:
More on the way Trump uses religion:
Link
Charleston, SC, 2020.
Right-Wing Commentariat Cheers Trump’s ‘Domination’ Strategy Against Protesters
Just as many National Guard members deployed in America as troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria
From D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser:
From Rebecca Cardenas:
https://twitter.com/RebeccaWSMV/status/1267618739727499264
Photo at the link. Powerful indeed.
Lynna @ #45:
It really is.
Katy Tur on MSNBC is reporting that as the huge crowds of protesters march through New York streets, people are coming out on their balconies to cheer them on. The healthcare workers at Memorial Sloan Kettering also came out to applaud the demonstrators (video here).
Also, “Thousands defied a police ban and converged on the main Paris courthouse to show solidarity with U.S. demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd.” Photo atl. As several responses point out, the protests are mainly about Adama Traoré.
BBC – “Adama Traoré: French anti-racism protests defy police ban”:
Meanwhile, Capitol Police in riot gear greeted with boos.
Richmond, VA, 2020.
Axios:
McConnell blocks resolution condemning Trump’s actions against peaceful protesters
BAYONETS WTF.
“Elizabeth Warren joins the crowd at the WH fence.”
From the pictures, videos, and news coverage I’ve seen, the protests in New York, Boston, and DC today are enormous.
Scene from Kansas City
It’s been drowned out by current events, but for anyone following the Flynn case, Judge Sullivan’s defense to the Appeals Court of his decision not to immediately approve the Justice Department’s request to dismiss its criminal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn is here.
CBS News has pulled out some of the highlights (from the 46 page brief.)
Australian satirical site:
https://www.theshovel.com.au/2020/06/01/republican-americans-nostalgic-for-semi-automatic-weapons/
re SC @43 and @48 and tomh @53: Instead of de-escalating the situations, the police in these (and many other) instances are escalating and exacerbating confrontations. It is their authoritarian mindset, and it the root of the problem. Until the police actually begin to do the job of serving and protecting the general public instead of rich white people, the problem will not begin to move towards a solution.
re John Morales @55: The contrast between the treatment of those “protesters” and the protesters in the last week is stark, and anyone who fails to see and acknowledge the difference is being willfully ignorant. I think that if the protesters in the last week had tried to mimic the actions of the earlier “protesters” by carrying weapons, there would have been a lot of dead people.
Racist Steve King was defeated in his primary bid: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/politics/steve-king-iowa-primary-election/index.html
“In a powerful moment, The Tennessee National Guard lays down their shields at a protest that has made its way up the steps of the Tennessee Capitol.”
Nice to see there were some real heroes in uniform at this moment.
And back to the pandemic, Governments and WHO changed Covid-19 policy based on suspect data from tiny US company:
Many more details at the link, including waffling from quack Sapan Desai; e.g., .
According to the Grauniad’s current States pandemic / politics live blog:
Scientists alarmed as Trump embraces fringe views and extreme theories amid pandemic:
Congratulations to the Grauniad for explicitly noting hair furor’s anti-vax tendencies, an MSM-oversight Orac has been going on about since before Putin had hair furor “elected”.
Albeit many of these images are from Paris, similar scenes were happening locally (modulo a smaller number of people due the local village not being a major city), Cafe culture returns to France after lockdown (pictures). There are similar stories / reports on France24 and other sites (it’s been 11 weeks since anything except take-away was possible).
From Evan McMullin:
From Joe Biden:
Well, I finally broke. I started to contribute to this thread this morning, as usual, but I just kept bursting into tears. I had to take a break for a few hours.
Now somewhat recovered.
Let’s get on with it.
Fallout from Trump’s Lafayette Square scandal continues to unfold
“When the history of the Trump presidency is written, the clash at Lafayette Square may be remembered as one of its defining moments.”
Steve Bell in the Grauniad, Trump’s church photo op amid George Floyd protests (cartoon): “Orange Photo Opportunity Leading the White People”. On the off-chance you don’t recognise the original, Eugène Delacroix, La Liberté guidant le peuple (1830), which is in the Louvre (apparently in the Lens annex).
Bits and pieces of campaign news, (excerpted and summarized from text posted by Steve Benen):
Joe Biden is leading Donald Trump 52% to 41%. In Monmouth polling, Biden led by three points in March, four points in April, nine points in May, and 11 points now.
Biden hasn’t yet officially secured a majority of the available delegates, but he’s close, and he should become the presumptive nominee next week.
Valarie Plame came up short in New Mexico in her Democratic congressional primary against Teresa Leger Fernandez.
Voters in Ferguson, Mo., elected Ella Jones, a City Council member, as the city’s new mayor. She’ll be Ferguson’s first African-American and first woman mayor.
Former officials from the Bush/Cheney administration have created a super PAC to help boost Biden’s 2020 campaign. It’s called 43 Alumni For Biden and it will be led in part by Karen Kirksey, a former Treasury Department official.
Julian Castro is joining Biden’s team to help tackle police reform..
PZ covered the fact that the racist, trumpian lickspittle, Steve King lost his primary. Also noted up-thread here in comment 58, etc.
blf @66, cartoonists often associate Trump with shit, with chamber pots, or with manure. Seems appropriate.
In related news, the pushback against Trump’s use of the military, and his use of law enforcement is growing in intensity. Most of the pushback includes dismay over Trump’s stupid photo op at the church. From the New York Times:
From Admiral Mike Mullen:
From James Miller, a former undersecretary of defense, who resigned in protest yesterday from a Pentagon board.
The problem with Trump’s proof that he’s helped the black community
Maybe Trump doesn’t realize that his Opportunity Zones policy has been exposed as a sham. Maybe he does realize it and hopes we won’t know the difference.
Jaguar dealerships!
Oh good grief, : evangelicals hail Trump’s church photo op:
U.S. intelligence officials are worried about the trends they are seeing in the USA.
From the Washington Post:
From King University professor Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst:
From Marc Polymeropoulos, who formerly ran CIA operations in Europe and Asia:
More from the Washington Post:
Follow-up to @70, The Power Worshippers: A look inside the American religious right:
Oh, FFS.
Trump Insists He Fled To Secret Bunker Just To ‘Inspect’ It For ‘Tiny Little Short Period Of Time’
Donald Trump has built his wall between the people and the people’s house
Evidence mounts of far-right extremists at police protests around the nation
Good photo of “Boogaloo Boi” at the link. The guy was in Kansas City.
FBI found no evidence that antifa was involved in violence, and of course Trump ignored them
New charges have been brought against all four criminal cops. I haven’t placed a link here for so long that I’ve forgotten how, but it’s all over, and you’re all probably already aware, but, hey, I’m happy to share it! This tragedy happened in the congressional district I lived in for twenty years, once represented by Keith Ellison, and now Ilhan Omar.
Here’s a link to the June 3 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
Also in the Guardian, “Business secretary tested for Covid-19 after feeling ill during Commons speech”:
From the liveblog:
Nancy Pelosi joined the protestors in Washington D.C.
Link
Video available at the link.
I guess Nancy Pelosi didn’t need an order from William Barr to have law enforcement clear a path for her.
From yesterday’s G liveblog (linked @ #14 above):
From Wonkette: “Trump Starting To Doubt SecDef Mark Esper’s Commitment To Fascist Bible Gassing”
Link
Trump Starting To Doubt SecDef Mark Esper’s Commitment To Fascist Bible Gassing
Spotted in the Irish Times, Tyrone midwife on the cover of Vogue magazine:
The BBC has more details, including images of all three covers, Coronavirus: London key workers to star on cover of British Vogue. Ms Horsford is black, and Ms Omar (judging by the pictured costume) identifies as Muslim.
Reuters – “Russia’s St. Petersburg records 1,552 more deaths in May than same month last year: official data”:
From the Grauniad’s current States pandemic / politics live blog:
LOL.
Of course he would, Trump tried to vote with wrong address while railing against voter fraud:
† That Wacko House “site” is really something, A Sampling of Election Fraud Cases from Across the Country (PDF). First thing to notice is it’s some Heritage Foundation propaganda (not any government report, nor is there any indication the government commissioned or paid for the gibbering). Second, it (ambiguously) says there have been 1071 “proven” cases of fraud (ambiguous because it’s unclear if it’s talking about what’s in the 300+ page propaganda, or something else). And third, it claims 938 of those cases have resulted in criminal convictions. Presuming its numbers are broadly correct, what is the problem, please? Proven frauds are being dealt with.
“Sweden’s top epidemiologist Tegnell has admitted his strategy to fight coronavirus resulted in too many deaths, after driving his country to avoid lockdown— Sweden’s mortality rate is among the highest globally and far exceeds that of neighboring countries”
Bloomberg link atl.
AP – “Police shove, make AP journalists stop covering protest”:
MSNBC is reporting that the Park Police officers who assaulted the Australian journalists have been placed on administrative leave and it’s under investigation.
Video of #38 above.
YouTube link to the Obama Foundation panel that just happened a few hours ago: A conversation with President Obama: Reimagining Policing in the Wake of Continued Police Violence
I thought it was very good discussion, and I thought some others might also be interested. Those “8 ideas that can’t wait” are a good start for sure.
Related to @70 & @72, Rare rebuke for Trump from US evangelical Christian leader:
From the Grauniad’s current States pandemic / politics live blog (quoted in full):
“Today at DoD:
9:45am: Esper says he does not support using Insurrection Act
10am: Army notified of Esper plans to return some troops deployed for protest
2pm: WH spox declines to endorse Esper
4pm: Esper reverses move to send troops home
6pm: Mattis denounces Trump”
Here’s a link with the Mattis statement. I can’t seem to quote from it, but it’s quite strong.
Apparently, teh NKofE’s “PM”, Boris Johnson, has said he’s taking back control of the Covid-19 pandemic response. Steve Bell in the Grauniad on that, Boris Johnson taking direct control of pandemic response (cartoon).
And a snippet from John Crace on the farce, No hiding place for Boris at PMQs:
CNN – “New suspect identified in 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann”:
More on @92 and SC@93, from the Grauniad’s current States live pandemic / politics blog:
Yikes. Another Inspector General bites the dust.
Politico link
Seems to me like there might be more to this story.
Related to Lynna@75, from the Grauniad’s current States pandemic / politics live blog:
Tweet o’ the day.
Uh…
Well, here’s some good news: Portland City Commisioners are calling for the defunding of police programs and a ban on the use of tear gas now.
https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/06/03/28502368/city-commisioners-call-to-defund-police-programs-ban-tear-gas-after-fifth-night-of-protests
Minneapolis City Councillor Steve Fletcher making lots of good points. Disband the MPD.
https://twitter.com/MplsWard3/status/1267891892722831361
SC @93, here:
As Ernie Bevin said of Herbert Morrison (or possibly of Nye Bevan*, accounts differ, maybe he even used the line twice):
*All three were WWII and early postwar Labour politicians.
SC@87,
The appalling performance of Sweden’s leaders is one of the biggest and most revealing disappointments of the pandemic so far. The government is a Social Democrat-Green-Liberal coalition, which one might expect to prioritise people’s lives. Apparently there’s a tradition of the government not overruling public officials such as the chief epidemiologist, and the no-lockdown policy has had majority public support, but neither justifies such reckless gambling with lives. I suspect the root of the problem is a kind of Swedish exceptionalism. Defenders of the approach keep trotting out the “Too early to judge”, and “It’s a marathon not a sprint” excuses, but this is nonsense. Tegnell has said that if they had known then what they know now about the virus, they might have acted differently. But the lack of knowledge then (and indeed, still) is precisely the point: faced with an obviously highly contagious and dangerous virus with many unknowns, the only rational response was (and is) to buy time by minimising infection numbers. Sweden is rich and well-organised enough to have done this as effectively as its neighbours did – and they are now, as it turns out, able to loosen their own lockdowns.
Teh NKofE’s PM is following hair furor and Jair Bolsonaro in doing a very wrong thing at a very wrong time for self-serving profiteering “reasons”, and in direct contradiction of people who actually know what they are talking about, Boris Johnson says he wants to relax 2-metre physical distancing rule (my added emboldening):
Oops! me@106, I borked the link to Boris Johnson says he wants to relax 2-metre physical distancing rule.
Also in teh NKofE, Journalists at Reach consider legal action after 10% coronavirus pay cuts:
Additional details at the link (e.g., the union’s response, some speculation about what Reach is really up to, Reach’s excuses, &tc).
And more from teh NKofE, with the feckup this time being helped by the States (from the Grauniad’s current NKofE politics / pandemic live blog):
Here in France, teh lepenazis haven’t been attracting too much attention since the start of the lockdown 11 weeks ago, which coincided with the first round of local elections. The second round was postponed due to the pandemic lockdown, and is now scheduled to happen later this month, so I expect they’ll start being obnoxious again. They apparently have a chance in Perpignan (here on the South coast near Spain), where, last I heard, perhaps a week or so ago, the opposition parties have formed a shaky collation to try and hold the lepenazis off (Mainstream parties make ‘fragile’ pact against far-right National Rally in France’s Perpignan: “Perpignan on France’s Mediterranean coast is seen as the best bet for the National Rally (formerly National Front) as it seeks to win a major city in the second round of the country’s local elections on June 28. All other candidates have dropped out to back the conservative incumbent, but there are doubts as to whether this tactic will hold off the populists”).
Today-ish, Russian firm, French far-right party settle $10m debt dispute:
The Al Jazeera article doesn’t go into who owns the (now-defunct) First Czech-Russian Bank, or Konti, or Aviazapchast, but it’s easy to imagine Putin’s crony’s fingerprints all over the place.
Oz ain’t the USA — not yet, anyway.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-04/prime-minister-media-scrum-ordered-off-mans-freshly-seeded-grass/12321164
me@110, Obviously, I meant “a shaky coalition”. And I forgot to mention a heartwarming sight locally from earlier in the week: The local lepenazi office, brazenly located on the main pedestrianised shopping street, was vandalized (lock apparently broken and posters torn down). The lock’s been fixed, but the remnants of the torn-down posters are stlll stuck to the walls and windows, making the place look even more pathetic than before. It’s also empty, devoid of anything except a table & a few chairs, but that’s how it normally is; it was
staffedinfested back in December (and has been in existence for about a year now), but that’s about the only time I’ve ever seen anyonezombie lurking there. It has been vandalised before.Related to Lynna@71, The US would condemn other countries who acted this way. What a sad state of affairs:
blf:
Heh. The MAGA slogan indicates that its adherents believe America (well, that portion of America that’s under the regime of the USA) is not currently great. So they’ve got that part right.
(Also, what’s with your [sic] regarding President? It’s quite correct)
Moar profiteering (probably) and thug incompetence (probably), Iowa touted its Covid-19 testing. Now officials are calling for an investigation:
Sensible, France cancels July 14 military parade over Covid-19: “France will cancel its traditional July 14 military parade this year due to coronavirus social distancing requirements, replacing it with a ceremony to pay tribute to medical personnel at the forefront of the pandemic battle, the presidency said Thursday.”
Slightly related, I’ve been wondering about the upcoming June 21st Fête de la Musique. Some admittedly quick Generalisimo Google™ searching finds that it will happen (e.g., (French) Un événement « sans prendre de risques » : à quoi pourrait ressembler la Fête de la musique ?), through clearly not in its usual form. However, just what form it will take still seems unclear? (As it so happens, June 21 is almost the start of the third déconfinement cycle.)
First Dog on the Moon in the Grauniad, We’re horrified by what’s going on in the USA. Of course nothing like that could happen here (cartoon): “There have been 432 Aboriginal deaths in custody since 1991 yet there has not been a single conviction” (First Dog on the Moon is Ozland-based).
The “couldn’t happen here” Ozland story referenced in several panels is NSW police commissioner says officer who slammed Indigenous teen to ground : “Mick Fuller says he is by footage but wouldn’t want to see officer sacked”. The teenager assaulted by the goon had apparently said something the goon didn’t like (no actual action, just words, as far as I know), but that gives the goonpologists an opening. E.g., “[NSW police minister David] Elliott, who has consistently defended accusations of misuse of police power, said he was more concerned about the language the boy had used, saying the officer had been provoked, .”
Related to @70, @72, @91, and probably other comments, Trump’s Bible photo op splits white evangelical loyalists into two camps:
Movement to defund police gains ‘unprecedented’ support across US:
New York police take seconds to restore reputation for brutality:
More activity, from the Grauniad’s current States pandemic / politics live blog:
Follow-up to @60, Unreliable data: how doubt snowballed over Covid-19 drug research that swept the world:
It’s a long article, and I’ve omitted many parts, including some previously excerpted in @60.
Donald Trump is in trouble, and that could spell very bad news:
Apparently, this column, excerpted from the Irish Times, was first published by the Financial Times, which is not exactly a progressive-leaning source. As someone (KG?) recently noted in this series of poopyhead threads, the FT has been described as “read by people who own the country” (from Yes, Prime Minister (1987)):
A follow-up of sorts to @399(previous page) and Lindsey Graham setting out to whitewash / cover-up Mr Floyd’s extrajudicial killing, from the Grauniad’s current States pandemic / politics live blog:
Apparently, the family of an Irish individual who resided & died in England two years ago wanted the gravestone engraved with a Gaeilge (Irish language) phrase. That set off all sorts of bigots, Church of England distances itself from Irish language ruling on gravestone:
Back in teh banana republic of hairfurorstan, from the Grauniad’s current States politics / pandemic live blog:
As various people (including myself) have pointed out, if there is any constructive role for the military to perform, it would be to round up and detain
the policeteh goons. As Mano Singham here at FtB quotes Matthew Dessem, “Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide”, noting “that should have been the headline for the events of the past few days, not headlines ascribing the violence to the demonstrators”.Another thug panders for more Putin-worshippers’s money, from the Grauniad’s current States live politics / pandemic blog:
? Oh for feck’s sake, what could possibly be causing any doubt?
Using the “Follow the money! Follow the money!” advice, a probable reason becomes obvious, reinforced by her being a thug. Her is a coded message to the moneybags, etc.
Court overturns EPA approval of popular herbicide made by Monsanto:
From the Grauniad’s current States live politics / pandemic blog:
I normally don’t link to fox, but this is an exception, even they are fact-checking hair furor (albeit on a somewhat more trivial point), Tensions flare between Trump, military figures over handling of George Floyd unrest (fox’s marked edits in {curly braces}):
I have not verified any of the quotes given by fox, but they look fairly plausible and legitimate.
Oh good grief, now teh wannabe-dalek codenamed Barr is going all hair furorshite, from the Grauniad’s current live States politics / pandemic blog:
WaPo:
Pentagon’s coronavirus plan includes millions for missile tubes and body armor
By Aaron Gregg and Erica Werner
June 4, 2020
Hair furor is retreating into wannabe-dalek codenamed Barr’s “Downfall” fortified Wacko House rant bunker, from the Grauniad’s current live States pandemic / politics blog (quoted in full):
Does anyone have access to, or a summary of, Carol Leonnig’s report in the Washington Post?
Follow-up to blf’s comment 127.
GOP senator wants party to ‘be more honest’ about Trump concerns
Murkowski hinted at a truth that generally doesn’t rise above a whisper in GOP politics: much of the party realizes there’s something wrong with Trump.
Republicans in Congress who still have some level of integrity are so rare that we are seeing praise for Murkowski’s admittedly small steps in the right direction.
Nope. This is history that Trump cannot rewrite.
It’s too late to rewrite history on the Lafayette Square scandal
Trump boasted that the clearing of Lafayette Square was “handled very well.” If that were true, the White House wouldn’t have to lie about what happened.
Not much of a surprise, Ukrainian prosecutors finds no evidence against Hunter Biden:
@blf
Quick summary (I don’t remember how to do quoting):
At least 4 protesters were arrested on Friday after they hopped the temporary fencing erected at the White House. They did not enter the actual White House grounds, and were surprised that they were arrested. This is what caused Brave Sir Trump do go into his hidey hole along with Melania and Barron.
Reports of his hiding made Trump big mad and he vented to Brian Kilmeade, claiming he was only inspecting the bunker. Former secret service members say this explanation makes no sense.
It was the first night of protests, so the secret service was “taken aback”.
Trump’s frustration at being labelled a coward factored into his decision to do his violent church publicity stunt on Monday.
In 2017, a single protestor made it over the treasury fence and on to the treasury grounds next door to the White House, which was probably a factor in the secret service response to this even though the Friday protesters didn’t get anywhere near that far.
Quote:
“I didn’t even realize what I did was illegal,” said one of the protesters, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the pending charges. “I stepped over a barricade. I never got onto the Treasury grounds or White House grounds.”
By the way, I get 30 day codes to give out for the Washjngton Post. Would anybody like to receive those codes?
Follow-up to @60 & @122, Covid-19: Lancet retracts paper that halted hydroxychloroquine trials:
blf @132: Does anyone have access to, or a summary of, Carol Leonnig’s report in the Washington Post?”
Here are some excerpts from that article:
Washington Post link
Questions about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s involvement in various corrupt schemes are not going away.
This is new:
Quoted text is from NBC News.
The other thug from Iowa, Chuck Grassley, may be trying to annoy hair furor, from the Grauniad’s current live States politics / pandemic blog:
Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, is standing up to both Trump and Mitch McConnell … at least a little bit.
Link
From the comments posted by readers:
Yesterday was an anniversary:
Link
The New York Times is being lambasted, and rightfully so:
Yeah, not so much regarding the “accurate, good faith” etc. Cotton lied.
Link
OMFG.
From Hunter:
Link
See also: https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/1268570177484001287
More from Hunter:
A follow-up, and an update to SC’s comment 93.
Yet another change: Esper is sending the troops home.
Link
The ACLU is now on the case, from the Grauniad’s current States politics / pandemic blog:
Holy Buckets! The Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, did some good stuff while we weren’t looking.
Wonkette link
There was even more racism than we knew behind the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. More? Yes, more overt evil and racism.
Wonkette link
Rand Paul Demands Anti-Lynching Bill Cover Only Highest-Quality Lynchings
A Week in America on Right-Wing Radio
Much more at the link, including a look at Sean Hannity’s fuckery, at Bill O’Reilly, at Dana Loesch, at Michael Savage, etc. “Are you telling me we don’t have a civil war going on in this country? Are you telling me the left isn’t a foreign nation to most Americans? Well, I would disagree with you. We’ve been in [a civil war] since 1967, when the hippies invaded the media, the hippies invaded the universities.”
WaPo:
In win for Texas GOP officials, federal appeals panel blocks lower-court decision to allow any Texan to vote by mail
By Amy Gardner, June 4, 2020
tomh, from your quoted text:
Perhaps he did; if age 65 and older is equated to an actual disability or illness, it follows.
(But then, the USA is gerontocracy at the top levels)
Warning for the video at link: the sound of the man’s head hitting the pavement is sickening
Buffalo police officers suspended for pushing 75-year-old to ground during protests
This is just the beginning, I promise you: an open letter to Donald Trump (quoted in full; this is rather well written, so I have refrained from my usual commentary-by-typesetting, e.g., no or snarky-[sic]s, excepting in the Grauniad-added text):
† Mr Rosenior is a (recently retired) professional soccer player in the UK, and since he was born in London, is presumably a UK citizen.
Update to Lynna’s #144 above – Guardian – “New York Times says senator Tom Cotton’s op-ed did not meet editorial standards”:
Here’s a link to the June 5 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
So much about countries around the world opening up while cases continue to rise. I’m dumbfounded.
Moscow Times – “Russia’s Coronavirus Cases Approach 450K”:
“Steadily dropping” is a bit of an exaggeration. The number of new cases per day has been hovering around 10,000 for weeks. For several days, it was around 11,000, and for the past week or so it’s been around 9,000, which is still a very high number.
Portland Press Herald editorial – “Our View: To President Trump: You should resign now”:
From Maddow last night:
“Unidentified, Armed Federal Troops Raise Accountability Concerns”:
“Schmidt: Trump, Barr Building ‘Thugocracy’ With Secret Police”:
YT videos at both links.
DC mayor Muriel Bowser tweeted a letter she sent to Trump: “I request that @realDonaldTrump withdraw all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from our city.”
Aaron Rupar livetweeting Trump’s speech:
Video clips at the link.
THe US surpassed 100,000 (official) coronavirus deaths a week ago. More than 10,000 people have died from it since.
WaPo:
In giant yellow letters, D.C. mayor sends message to protesters, and to Trump
By Fenit Nirappil, Julie Zauzmer and Rachel Chason
June 5, 2020 at 8:58 a.m. PDT
Yesterday’s tweet o’ the day.
Guardian liveblog:
A protest was similarly blocked in Australia.
Guardian liveblog:
Trickster Goddess @154, you can also hear on the video an onlooker saying, “You’ve got a fucking linebacker pushing an old guy over!” That’s a fairly accurate description.
Even 75-year-olds who are in good shape for their age may not have great balance. The man who fell did not have the balance nor the reflexes to recover from a hard shove.
He’s in the hospital, but there is no guarantee that he will recover at all.
blf @155, I’ve been thinking myself that Trump is so unremittingly awful, (on all levels), that he may finally be the catalyst we need to make progressive changes. Thanks for posting that.
CNN – “White House turns press corps into social distancing props”:
Here’s a thought: don’t fucking go along with it.
“Via @cnni: US Ambassador to the UK, Robert Wood Johnson, issued a letter of support to those peacefully protesting in solidarity with the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement in the UK, expressing his grief over the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis in May.”
Tweet o’ the day.
Two videos and a picture from DC today.
“NEWS: the corner of 16th and H Streets NW, right by St. John’s Church and immediately north of Lafayette Square, has been symbolically renamed ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza’ by @MayorBowser. This was the scene of @realDonaldTrump’s photo op on Monday.
Remember: this is not the first time D.C. has symbolically renamed streets. The last one was Boris Nemtsov Plaza right in front of the Russian Embassy. He was a good-government activist and opponent of President Putin.
I am told the street renaming and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ paint on 16th Street was pulled together ‘quickly’, mostly within the last 24 hours. The painting was an initiative from @DCDPW and started at 4 a.m. with assistance from city muralists.”
Beautiful.
Wow.
Follow-up to comments 161 and 169 (SC and blf).
Indifferent to conditions, Trump picks the wrong time to celebrate
Those waiting for Trump to add the obligatory “there’s plenty of work still to be done” line were left wanting. He pretended that happy days are here again.
Right. And those Republican dunderheads are determined not to help state, county and other local level governments with financial aid. State, county and city governments are already laying people off … and a LOT more of that is going to happen soon.
Well, this looks like a recipe for confusion and chaos:
Two members of the National Guard guarding the White House last night were struck by lightning and seriously injured.
Cuomo Now Admits He Was Wrong To Downplay NYPD’s Excessive Use Of Force
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/ny-gov-denies-excessive-use-force-protests
From Scott M. Stringer, NYC Comptroller:
Law enforcement seizes mask shipments intended to keep protesters safe from COVID-19
More details regarding police violence in Washington D.C: and other areas
Link
See also:
https://twitter.com/Satellit3Heart/status/1268863536299675648
More at the link.
Heh.
Email evidence shows Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson lied when he claimed that HUD hadn’t changed policy regarding DACA recipients.
Link
“NEW: Ohio Gov Mike DeWine says a member of the Ohio National Guard had been removed from the mission in Washington D.C., after the FBI uncovered information that the guardsman expressed white supremacist ideology on the internet, prior to this assignment.”
“President Trump has directed the Pentagon to remove thousands of U.S. troops from Germany by September”
WSJ link atl.
“It is surely a coincidence that Trump spoke on the phone with Putin four days ago.”
WTAF.
Lisa Page is on Deadline White House with Nicolle Wallace. She’s an MSNBC analyst now.
Julia Davis in the Daily Beast – “Russian Gloating About U.S. Unrest Is Racist as Hell”:
“Jaime Harrison is tied with Lindsey Graham in the SC senate race!!!!!!!! 42-42″
ACLU:
Good, if confusingly worded, news.
WaPo:
Citing an economic emergency, Trump directs agencies across government to waive federal regulations
By Steven Mufson, Juliet Eilperin, Jeff Stein and Renae Merle
June 5, 2020
Wajahat Ali:
“Trump did not wear a mask or protective gear just now as he toured Puritan Medical Products here in Maine, per pool”
Bit of a follow-up: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52945190
So, yeah: “Simply following orders”, “simply doing their job”. Good job, there.
re John Morales @192: I hope all of the officers who quit the riot squad turned in their riot gear.
Anyone who is opposed to ANTIFA is, by definition, pro-fascist.
johnson catman,
Logically speaking, that’s not true. I concede that, in practice, that’s not a bad heuristic.
(Specifically, it’s the fallacy of the excluded middle; for example, one could be anti-fascist yet opposed to their willingness to employ violence)
Here’s a link to the June 6 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
Update to #165 above:
AJ – “Bolsonaro threatens WHO exit as Brazil’s coronavirus toll soars”:
Guardian – “Tory MP attended lockdown barbecue with journalists”:
More atl. The arrogance.
“No one from the government has appeared on @Channel4News for three weeks, and for the entire week we have not been given the opportunity to ask a question at the press conference. Extraordinary lack of engagement during a global crisis.”
The message couldn’t be clearer, could it? “We’re the elite, rules are for you little people.”
G liveblog:
It’s June 6. Celebrate Antifa day by remembering the original Antifa
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
HuffPo – “As They Scream Voter Fraud, Trump And His Press Secretary May Have Voted Illegally”:
Seriously this. One dude’s wearing a faded polo.
Huge rallies in Sydney and London in the past several hours.
“…While the spike in the midwest is an artifact of that Michigan reporting change, the south, southwest, and west trends are now well established….
Arizona cases and hospitalizations continue to move upward. The positive test rate is also increasing.
The same is true in South Carolina, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Kentucky….”
Graphs atl.
(Minneapolis) Star Tribune – “Florida attorney seeking probe of Derek Chauvin’s voting record”:
SC @183 and 186. Putin and his Russian propaganda media networks have good reasons to gloat. They are getting everything they want. Trump is destroying NATO and the USA from the inside. We’ll see that Russian, racist propaganda reused on social media, on Trump’s new favorite network (OANN, One America News Network), and by rightwing media of all sorts. Disgusting developments.
In other news: Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman Privately Reached Out To Dem Leadership This Week
Trump spent a morning bragging about an unemployment rate of 13%, but it was actually 16%
tomh @198: “Citing an economic emergency, Trump directs agencies across government to waive federal regulations.”
On Friday Trump said the coronavirus pandemic was “largely over.” (A thousand people per day are still dying from COVID-19, and tens of thousands are found to be carriers of the disease. The number of cases in many western states are still climbing.) But, now that Trump has declared the pandemic is “largely over,” why is he using it as an excuse to nullify environmental regulations? (Rhetorical question.)
Some commentary from Mark Sumner:
Link
Occasionally, even rightwing legislators realize that Trump is wrong.
Liz Cheney blasts Trump move to draw down troops in Germany: ‘Dangerously misguided’
“… not related to rising tensions between Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel” … Yeah, right. I suspect a lie is being promulgated here.
Yep, it is now all but a done deal. “Joe Biden now has the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.”
He’ll officially become the party’s presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in August.
Link
From Wonkette:
Link
From Wonkette:
Link
So, the New York Times published a misleading, anti-Biden headline … again.
[Sigh]
Trump Retweets Interview Trashing George Floyd’s Character as He Breaks Own Twitter Record
From Kerry Eleveld:
Link
An apology from Fox News? That’s rare.
Fox News Apologizes For Chart Comparing Stock Performance After Killings Of Black Men
Excerpts from comments posted by readers:
Chris Riddell in the Grauniad, Donald Trump in his bunker (cartoon): “The beleaguered president [sic] considers his re-election strategy”.
Some rightwing groups that encouraged people to bring guns to protests over police brutality have seen their accounts deleted by Facebook. Good.
Link
From Wonkette: Medical Supply Company Tosses All Swabs Made During Trump’s Visit. Wonder Why!
Humor/satire from The New Yorker:
This was rather fun to watch (and I’m not too much of a fan of dance), Matthew Bourne’s company perform The Red Shoes from home:
Video at the link.
@johnson catman 194
I think what you are seeing is some people trying to turn antifascism into a shadowy villain/group. Instead of acknowledgement of the political disposition that it is they are attempting to create an enemy to fight and focus the government on.
I’ve started interrogating people paranoid about antifa as a group and demanding to see this group that represents that level of threat. No takers so far, just the typical attempts to shift the burden of proof by shaming me into looking up their claims.
From Susan B. Glasser, writing for The New Yorker:
Link
@Lynna
Putin is getting what he wants. I have this dream that the things we do to fix our society spreads to his though. It would be glorious if our solutions dismantle his manipulation and help Russians. I can’t say it’s organized but I try to make my solutions and arguments things that apply to more than our country.
Trump wanted to deploy 10,000 troops in Washington DC.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/politics/white-house-10k-troops-protesters/index.html
Here’s a link to the June 7 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
From there:
AP – “Brazil govt yanks virus death toll as data befuddles experts”:
Guardian – “Cabinet unrest over U-turn on animal welfare in US trade talks”:
Setting aside the absurdity of speaking about “animal welfare” in this context, this was always such a transparently cynical bigoted propaganda campaign. The claims from this gang that Brexit would mean higher standards than the EU’s were obvious lies and this whole act – including the “serious cabinet unrest” – is an offensive charade.
“NEW VIDEO
@IvankaTrump has done a public disservice to our country. #ByeIvanka”
These are the people behind the video.
The responses to this Seattle PD tweet are glorious.
Reuters – “Washington Mayor Bowser, ‘unbought and unbossed,’ challenges Trump”:
“Some 150-200 people at a BLM rally in Vidor, an East Texas town that’s infamously associated with racism and the Klan”
Images and more atl.
Reuters – “Protests worldwide embrace Black Lives Matter movement.”
VOA – “Protests Support Floyd, Black Lives Matter On 3 Continents.”
London, Hamburg, Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Brisbane, Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Naples, Manchester, Cardiff, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne…
Large demonstration in Rome today. The NBC correspondent said there had been fascist/far-Right (he actually used the word “fascist,” somewhat surprisingly) rallies there in recent weeks, but this massively outnumbered those.
“Updated my article on police brutality caught on camera in Buffalo to report that two officers who shoved a 75-year-old protester to the ground were charged with felony assault – and then applauded by fellow officers who gathered outside the courthouse:…”
“Before kick off, both teams take a knee together in the German Bundesliga’s Dortmund-Hertha Berlin game. A remarkable sight. European clubs showing their empathy with American social change that transcends borders and sports”
Video atl.
I used to live in Bristol and an delighted that thing has finally been pulled down (from the Grauniad’s current live States politics / pandemic blog):
Image and more at the link.
Oh, FFS, what won’t they do?
Videos Show Cops Slashing Car Tires at Protests in Minneapolis
See also, this tweet from Andrew Kimmel:
https://twitter.com/andrewkimmel/status/1266987126467461120 Photo at the link.
From Sean Craig:
https://twitter.com/sdbcraig/status/1266941334905999361
“We’re so busy, it’s just unbelievable,” said a tow truck driver in an interview from the K-Mart parking lot with Andrew Kimmel, formerly the head of BuzzFeed’s video team. The towing company had received “call after call after call.” Asked whose cars were being towed, the tow truck driver said, “Everybody. Medics over there. News crews. Random people that were just here to protest and—tires slashed.”
From Ben Taub:
https://twitter.com/bentaub91/status/1267822887076892684
Link to Philip Montgomery’s photos:
https://www.instagram.com/philipmontgomery/
Another high-ranking military officer pushes back against Trump’s rhetoric and tactics:
Link
Retired General Colin Powell, a Republican, says he will not support Trump in November’s election. He will support Biden.
Link
STAT – “How the world can avoid screwing up the response to Covid-19 again.”
Follow-up to comment 240.
Trump’s response:
More details regarding Powell’s statements:
Senators Romney and Murkowski have also said they have doubts about supporting Trump’s re-election.
Argh.
Why the NFL Is Suddenly Standing Up for Black Lives
Roger Goodell knows which way the wind blows.
More at the link.
From Kaepernick’s girlfriend, Nessa Diab
I’m a cop. I won’t fight a ‘war’ on crime the way I fought the war on terror.
“The failed strategy I participated in for years as a CIA officer is not how to police people I consider my neighbors. It’s not how to police at all.” The article is written by Patrick Skinner, and published in The Washington Post. Skinner is a police officer in his hometown of Savannah, Ga. He is a former CIA operations officer and served in the United States Coast Guard.
Where I live in S.France has not, sofar, been badly hit by Covid-19; I don’t know any numbers, but also know of no reason to think the effects have, to-date, been contained — yes, some people have died, but, e.g., some of the nursing homes (and there are a fair number since this is an understandably popular retirement area) had no cases at all. I am now fretting precautions are being lax. I went to the outdoor market this morning, early (deliberately so-as to avoid people), and whilst I didn’t have any problems per se, was distressed by the others about who weren’t “social distancing” at all — despite there not being too many people out, meaning it was easy to keep one’s distance, &tc. I had to take a helluvalot of “detours” around imbeciles.
As it was a nice day, I decided to go out for lunch, again, carefully choosing a restaurant which I expected would be careful. They were, and lunch was great. Burp! However, both on the walk there, and then afterwards, doing a bit of “bar hopping”, there were completely undistanced unmasked “crowds” everywhere (so lots more detouring). I carefully selected and inspected the bars, and had no problems at them, it was the walking between them which was infested with eejits.
This is worrisome. And what is now concerning me is the French “vacation season” happens soon (July & August), when the village & Mediterranean beaches are typically rather crowded. That’s alarming, perhaps more so when one realises it’s reasonable to presume some of those people will becoming from areas where Covid-19 is nowheres-near as well contained as locally (e.g., Paris, teh NKofE, to name two examples), especially as assorted travel restrictions are lifted.
What William Barr said:
TPM link
From Nathan Baca:
See photo at this link:
https://twitter.com/NathanBacaTV/status/1268572204695990276
Barr is digging a deep hole for himself as he tries to defend Trump, and as he uses semantics to try to excuse his own actions.
He is a slippery, lying lickspittle.
blf @222, that was fun to watch!
In other news, some details concerning what Retired Admiral William H. McRaven said:
McRaven is the Navy admiral who directed the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Uh-oh. racism in the military shows up again.
Link
Aww. They got kicked out of their country club.
Yay. High voter turnout. A good sign.
Link
Yep, still some problems, and still some issues to be ironed out..
OMG, William Barr. WTF?
Barr: ‘I don’t think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist’
So that’s the official line from the Trump administration, that systemic racism in law enforcement doesn’t exist. Good luck selling that load of bullshit.
Ben Jennings in the Grauniad, Coronavirus and the BAME community (cartoon). (BAME is a British acronym for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic.)
https://twitter.com/mboorstein/status/1269740951108554753
That new fencing that Trump had erected to protect him from protestors? It is a crowd-sourced memorial wall, “almost like an art gallery,” as Hannah Natanson put it.
White House barricade now a memorial for black victims of police brutality
On Face the Nation, William Barr lies repeatedly and brazenly about St. John’s Church attack
Link
From Ryan McCarthy:
https://twitter.com/mccarthyryanj/status/1269673550698315776
More definitions:
Sorry, I don’t know how to properly code the chemical formula for capsaicin so that it appears correctly.
From comments posted by readers:
New York Times editorial page head resigns after publishing fascist Tom Cotton op-ed
Consequences.
blf @237, nice! Same story, with video, from Oz: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-08/uk-black-lives-matter-protest-bristol-colston-statue-pulled-down/12331554
Here’s a link to the June 8 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
John Oliver’s latest show is worth a watch, at least the last two minutes.
AG Bill Barr’s latest claims won’t help his damaged credibility
As the attorney general tries to distance himself from the Lafayette Square scandal, he’s making a variety of claims that appear to be false.
Basic takeaway: The attorney general’s claims “collapse under scrutiny.” I hope that, in the future, Attorney General Kamala Harris can prosecute Barr.
Bits and pieces of campaign news:
Link
An illustration of the difference between the Democratic Party’s concept of governing well and the Republican/Trumpian concept of not really governing at all:
The John Oliver video that PZ posted on the homepage discusses “qualified immunity,” and what a pernicious force it is when it comes to holding law enforcement officers accountable for their actions. Oliver provides specific details that illuminate the problem.
Link
As death toll rises, Trump’s failed prediction comes into focus
Trump made a prediction exactly one month ago today: the United States would see no more than 110,000 fatalities from the pandemic. That was wrong.
About those Republicans willing to say that they will not support Trump’s re-election:
Link
Wow. Georgia Sees At Least 2,500% Increase In Absentee Voting
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/georgia-absentee-voting-surge
Trump threw a tantrum … again.
Link
Comments from readers:
Pandemic sparked broadest economic collapse since 1870, World Bank says
In Ozland, Black Lives Matter protesters referred to our count of 432 Aboriginal deaths in custody. It’s now 437:
Follow-up to comment 248.
NY Times link
Armed ‘Militia’ Saves California Town From Non-Existent BLM Protest
California is not an open-carry state, so questions remain as to why armed militia men were there openly carrying guns.
A Virginia County is considering hate crime charges after a “KKK Leader” drove a truck into a group of protesters.
Link
The police did not immediately put handcuffs on him, nor did they make him lie face down on the pavement, nor did they kneel on his neck.
An ugly, internet-based attack from rightwing trolls is ongoing against BLM groups.
Link
Another layer to the problem, fetishising whiteness.
https://theglowup.theroot.com/black-lives-matter-but-not-black-skin-indian-celebs-ca-1843926090
Across the sea, in Aotearoa:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-09/new-zealand-armed-response-teams-will-not-continue/12336460
AJ – “Brazil: Rival rallies held for and against Bolsonaro”:
Video report atl.
ITV – “Beleaguered Bolsonaro moves to shore up support”:
Here’s a link to the June 9 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
Re #235 and others above – Trump just tweeted: “Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?”
Quoting the tweet, MSNBC reported that Gugino is still in the hospital.
I forgot to mention above – one of the photo captions in the ITV report @ #274 above reads: “Fans of two distinct soccer clubs hold a banner that reads in Portuguese ‘We are for Democracy’, as they joined forces for a recent anti-government protest in Sao Paulo.” I would love to hear more about the role of soccer fans in the protests. This is the second time I’ve seen it mentioned in the past several days (see #16 above).
Politico – “Trump to restart MAGA rallies this month despite coronavirus”:
CNN – “Fact Check: McEnany makes false claim about Romney’s share of black vote”:
(As Willie Geist pointed out this morning on Morning Joe, it’s a little weird to hear someone bragging about how they lost 92% of the black vote. Also noteworthy that they understood Romney’s saying “black lives matter” to be an attack on Trump for which they needed to prepare a false counterattack.)
Incredible Guaridan (this was a typo but I’ve left it in their honor) liveblog: “UK protests live: all Labour councils in England and Wales to review statues as Rhodes Oxford demo starts.”
A tweet linked there: “Demonstrators chanting ‘decolonise’ at Oxford University and call for the Cecil Rhodes statue to be taken down. #RhodesMustFall”
ITV – “Neo-Nazi terrorist group ‘diehards’ jailed for National Action membership.”
More re #276 above: “The OANN reporter behind the false report that led to Trump’s tweet is a Russian national who also writes for Kremlin-owned Sputnik, according to The Daily Beast.”
Jake Sherman:
Also, Rubio: “I didn’t see it. you’re telling me about it. I don’t read Twitter. I only write on it.”
Here’s the summary from the liveblog @ #280 above:
SC @282, Trump is retweeting Russian propaganda and disinformation. He such a dolt.
As Steve Benen said, “Trump saw the Buffalo video, learned of the public’s revulsion, and decided to go after the hospitalized old guy who was left bleeding on the ground.”
I pointed out before that a 75-year-old man may not have good balance or reflexes. If you push him, he may fall harder than you expected him to fall. That is no excuse for pushing him in the first place. If I were stiff-armed by a policeman who was both younger and stronger than I am, I would fall down.
More commentary:
Link
From the Washington Post:
Joy Reid: “The black funeral service — the black church service in general — is such a testament to the ability of a people to craft beauty and meaning out of the theft of all that you are and have. #GeorgeFloydFuneral #achangeisgonnacome #BlaclLivesMatter”
From earlier in the George Floyd service.
“Gugino declined comment in a text to the USA TODAY Network New York, saying only, ‘No comment other than Black lives matter. Just out of the ICU. Should recover eventually. Thx’.”
Tweet o’ the day.
Update! – BBC – “Robert Milligan: Slave trader statue removed from outside London museum”:
I’m so very glad Niall Ferguson has to watch this all go down.
From SC’s link in comment 289:
I hope Trump’s despicable behavior in regard to this violent act (see comment 285) takes his poll numbers down … again.
About the polling, and how much it obviously bothers Trump:
OMFG. My bet is that Trump actually believes that. The man’s mind is gone.
Link
Wow.
Another Trump photo-op goes horribly awry
For a politician who focuses so heavily on appearances, Trump’s photo-ops keep going horribly awry.
Photo at the link.
Someone should ask how many swabs they threw away. The photo is bad.
Come the fuck on. This video isn’t a parody?!
Yeah, Trump came close to firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
TPM link
It’s only a matter of time.
Follow-up to comment 295:
‘Please God help us’: Georgia voters outraged after mass equipment failures block voting access
“House GOP members warn Trump against troop drawdown in Germany, a rare break from the president. In letter, 22 members warn that the drawdown would ‘significantly damage US national security’ and ‘strengthen the position of Russia to our detriment’.”
Letter atl. Did they just emerge from a coma?
Lie, lies, and more damned lies:
Link
From Wonkette:
From Matthew Gertz:
https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1259185075436093440
More from Wonkette:
Yes, that “fake-blood pumper” part of the conspiracy theory actually exists.
Sen. Schatz: “‘In light of the President saying that the old man who was bleeding out of his ear had it coming are you still supporting President Trump?’ may be the obvious question to ask of Republicans but that’s because it’s the right one.”
At least there will be fewer people who vote for Trump since they’re the ones politically defying behavior that slows virus spread.
From Wonkette:
Link
From Wonkette:
Link
About Trump’s deteriorating condition:
Washington Post link
ICE had to be ordered by a federal judge to provide detainees with soap amid pandemic
Detainees asked for soap, masks, and other essential items in April.
Quoted in Lynna’s #303 above (wow):
He’s right that payday lenders suck, but he knows his claims about Dems are bullshit. Payday lenders have been a major target of Elizabeth Warren’s and other Democrats’ for years.
From the world of reality – ProPublica last year – “How Payday Lenders Spent $1 Million at a Trump Resort — and Cashed In”:
Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson is both a genuine reactionary douche and a huge populist phony, as is true of so many of them.
Jack Dorsey: “Both Twitter and Square are making #Juneteenth (June 19th) a company holiday in the US, forevermore. A day for celebration, education, and connection….”
G liveblog:
@309
Hey! Bolsonario!
STICK THAT UP YOUR PUCKERED, FASCIST, AMPND MOST SEXUALLY HUMILIATING ORIFICE, YOU RIGHT-WING CREEP.
(And may you and your children end up on the business end of a Guillotine or a firing squad. através da revolução…FUCKER!!!)
New York lawmakers vote to scrap police discipline secrecy law:
A better interpretation might be: “The message has been sent very clearly to police officers by our elected officials: We don’t tolerate your tactics nor your immunity from prosecution for using illegal tactics. We don’t respect brutality. We will not support those who engage in such brutality. We want policing by consent.”
In case you missed it, Trump’s former lawyer compared protesters to terrorists:
Another, related, opinion column, Think Trump is bad? President Tom Cotton would be even more terrifying:
Al Jazeera’s attempt at a live blog (they still haven’t figured it out), reports:
On IG firing, Pompeo’s version of events starts to look a little worse
Pompeo ousted the State Department’s inspector general, who was investigating him at the time. The secretary’s defense is looking quite shaky. (Understatement.)
Link
I still can’t figure out why Pompeo thought he could get away with the lie. It was a big lie, and the truth had already been shared among many people.
Regarding Trump’s fake religiosity:
How disappointing for the Trump campaign.
Link
Trump blindsided his own admin … again!
Trump didn’t just surprise our allies by deciding to move troops out of Germany; he also surprised the Trump administration.
Good news for Justice, bad news for Michael Flynn:
That’s William Barr’s submission of reasons, submitted to please Donald Trump.
Link
The friend-of-the-court filing submitted by John Gleeson can be read at the link.
From the comments posted by readers:
One of the most racist and disgusting films of all time will not be available (until some context is added), Gone With the Wind dropped from HBO Max over depiction of slavery:
Re 315:
I have to say, at least Trump hasn’t done this religion performance thing very often, considering his general showman tendencies and his political dependence on evangelical godbotherers. (Normally, I wouldn’t notice this kind of thing when it’s missing in a politician’s repertoire, but, with Trump, it’s just so amazingly crass when it does come up.)
It’s like half the time his advisors recognize that he’s really, deeply, incurably incapable of of convincingly portraying religiosity, so it’s better to not bother.
From the Grauniad’s current States pandemic / politics live blog (quoted in full):
Trump has moved on. He’s bored. So, coronavirus pandemic? That’s in the past as far as he is concerned. Of course, he is wrong, deadly wrong.
Link
See also: The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and the time of greatest danger may be right now
I live in a red state. I live among lots of Trump supporters. Nevertheless, many of my neighbors were wearing masks a few weeks ago. Now they are not. Cases of coronavirus are increasing here. Trump’s actions and statements are making a bad situation worse.
In Chile, Chile’s women’s minister, Pinochet’s great-niece, resigns following backlash:
As a reminder, Chile is where Un Violador en Tu Camino was composed (‘The rapist is you!’: why a Chilean protest chant is being sung around the world).
You don’t tug on superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull the mask off that old lone ranger
You don’t appoint phony Ministers
(Ok, ok, I’ve no sense of lyrics…)
Elizabeth Warren is going after corruption and incompetence in yet another area: the operation of military prisons.
Link
More at the link.
From Wonkette:
See SC’s comment 276 for Trump’s original tweet.
Bill Barr still hasn’t found any antifa provocateurs to prosecute. And he is looking hard.
Police behaving badly:
Wonkette link
More at the link.
The Grauniad’s snark machine (the photo at the link of the Bristol slaver splashing into the water is the icing on the cake), A bat signal has gone out to Britain’s proud patriots: Save Our Statues:
@ #317
Unfortunately, that’s just advisory, and it’s out of Judge Sullivan’s hands. The trump-friendly panel of the DC Circuit, currently considering the case, may well rule for the DOJ. If the full court takes it, I would say it is a toss-up, but it could go Sullivan’s way. If the Supreme Court takes it after a pro-Sullivan ruling, it will clearly show the majority has completely sold out to Trump.
States wrestle with how to expand testing, with little federal guidance.
Washington Post link
The lack of a unified national strategy has left Americans uncertain about whether and how to be tested, has hampered reopening plans, and could jeopardize efforts to restart the economy, experts warn.
In my red state almost no one is getting tested for any reason. You have to be really sick already to get tested.
I personally know people who had some symptoms (fever, cough) and they still could not get tested.
More at the link.
From Elizabeth Kolbert, writing for The New Yorker:
More at the link.
They did a lot of work. They organized a rapid response of the kind that Trump wouldn’t even understand, let alone support with federal dollars.
tomh @327, thanks for that additional information.
In other news, Team Trump is still using coronavirus as an excuse to push for more restrictions on immigration.
Link
More at the link.
Cartoon
Link
Shows old people pursuing supposedly anti-police tactics.
US dictionary Merriam-Webster to change its definition of racism:
Related to @326, in the UK, Campaigners fear far-right of statues such as Churchill’s:
Good grief, Fox News host talks race by calling out the real enemy: Sesame Street’s Elmo:
The mildly deranged penguin is now looking for incoming Muppets. I think she wants to give them a Thank You cheese.
blf @334, thanks for that post, and for ending with some humor.
In other news, here is an update on the Republican plan for their national convention:
Link
Trump administration finalizes rule allowing Alaskan hunters to kill hibernating bears, wolf cubs
Fact check:
Link
Trump is planning to hold a rally in Arizona soon. I’m sure that will help. (/sarcasm). Trump’s rally in Oklahoma will be held even sooner, this Friday.
@ Lynna #336
Probably done to appease Trump Jr., an avid hunter. Witness, Trump Jr.’s Mongolian sheep hunting trip cost taxpayers about $75,000, documents show. It’s even more fun when they’re rare and near-threatened species.
Confederate flag news:
Link
Link
tomh @338, you would think that many Alaskans would be disgusted. I’ll watch for coverage from the Anchorage Daily News.
In other news:
Quoted text is from Politico.
A lack of credibility that rivals Trump’s lack of credibility:
https://apnews.com/a172fb01bdb74b4159b39da390d9e79e
OMG. Republicans demonstrate once again that they are divorced from reality.
There is mounting evidence that this “fire every police officer in the nation and leave the nation open to lawless chaos” gaslighting is also going to be Trump’s new campaign message. Watch for it to emerge full force as he begins holding rallies again. The “fire every police officer” take is also being repeated in various ways on all rightwing media. My trumpian neighbors are already up in arms over this false choice. Unfortunately, I think this new tactic will work for Trump.
Link
Trump would [†] renaming bases with Confederate links:
† Hair furor said it, so of course it’s in , despite — in this very very rare instance — possibly not being a lie: He quite probably won’t allow any renaming until he can profit off it.
Another long known-about problem with teh goons, White US police union bosses protect officers accused of racism:
However, ‘They don’t belong’: calls grow to oust police from US labor movement (the Grauniad’s edits in {curly braces}):
@343
Powerful? Does he think these bases are the freaking Death Star?
Akira @345:
That right there is your problem. The Brain-Dead Orange Toddler-Tyrant does not think. He only reacts.
Roll Call:
Senate Armed Services on collision course with Trump over Confederate names
By Niels Lesniewski
June 10, 2020
Akira MacKenzie@345, “Powerful? Does he think these bases are the freaking Death Star?”
The nazi terror clunker that keeps getting blown up? I rather suspect he does as it has all the “right” words, probably assembled as something like
Trump complains about as police continue aggression on US protesters:
Levellers (or Diggers (conflating the two)) in Seattle? Wow. Over to you, Leon Rosselson, World Turned Upside Down (sung here by Karan Casey).
blf @348: What about “beautiful”? He seems to like that word a lot.
Current summary from today’s Guardian live States politics / pandemic blog:
Hair furor’s latest bee buzzing is the ICC, Trump targets ICC with sanctions after court opens war crimes investigation:
Primary results leave Republican officials with a QAnon problem
Are Republican officials prepared to say they want no part of QAnon conspiracy theorists? It’s a question they may not be able to ignore.
Feeling sorry for Republican voters who live in Oregon… sort of.
Aaaarrrggghhh!
Links to other articles or information are embedded in the original. Visit the link above to access the embedded links.
Mark Sumner analyzes the current situation:
Link
JFC. A Republican legislator in Ohio, State Senator Steve Huffman, said this:
From Democratic Rep. Stephanie Howse:
[sigh]
Reporting from Daniel Dale:
https://twitter.com/ddale8
A Utah meat plant is staying open even after 287 workers got coronavirus
From Wonkette:
Link
National Guard units were ordered to be overly aggressive out of fear of what Trump might do next
From Jane Mayer, writing for The New Yorker:
Lara Logan falls for a lot of hoaxes. She airs a lot of faux news.
Link
More details regarding various hoaxes for which Lara Logan has fallen are available at the link. She seems to have a trumpian tendency to disseminate conspiracy theories as well.
Good. Tucker Carlson should suffer the consequences.
Link
Wall Street seems to be having spasms. First they feel okay, and then reality hits them and they curl up into the fetal position, shaking uncontrollably.
“Dow slides more than 1,800 points on fears of coronavirus resurgence, more economic pain.”
Washington Post link
The Wall Street sell-off contrasted sharply with just a few days ago, when the Nasdaq set a record high and the S&P 500 went positive for the year.
Environmental news from WIRED magazine: Plastic Rain Is the New Acid Rain
Researchers find that over 1,000 metric tons of microplastic fall on 11 protected areas in the US annually, equivalent to over 120 million plastic water bottles.
From the Grauniad’s current States politics / pandemic live blog:
A tidbit from Coronavirus cases fall in France despite easing of lockdown:
I’ve got a collection of masks now, and have found at least one brand of (French-made?) washable masks to be fairly comfortable and to seemingly provide about as good a seal as one could expect given my hedgehog-swallowed-sideways beard. The (yes, mostly Chinese-made (and very much cheaper)) one-use masks are now for “emergencies” only; e.g., being caught without an acceptable mask…
John Crace in the Grauniad, Mattbeth’s vaulting ambition leads him out to damn’d TV spot (on the pandemic disaster teh NKofE):
Some readers’s comments:
● “Mattbeth’s press conference: A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
● “ or maybe Making UK Great Supposedly”
In reply: “Making it all up again”;
and: “‘World beating Britain’ — note the lack of hyphen.”
● A quoted twittering:
(Ok, that one wins. No need to bother with any other readers’s comments on this column…)
Snicker. You know you’re in trouble when N.Korea abandons you, No future benefit in Kim’s relationship with Trump, says North Korea:
Being dumped by one of the worse dictatorships on the planet will presumably sting. Hair furor will probably blame Kimchi and ban Mahjong, both presumably in confusion with his former besteringest friend, Kim Jong-Un.
Lynna @363, from your quoted piece:
5mm is hardly “micro” – it’s half a centimeter!
I seriously doubt that’s invisible…
<clickety-click>
“Human eye can resolve objects that are at least 0.1mm in size”
So, yeah — loaded language there. Not impressed.
blf quoting @366:
<snicker>
(John Crace clearly does not lack ambition about his verbiage — merely competence)
LINK
From the Associated Press:
https://apnews.com/550d11a97af645b1d6e64ad2047cd72a
Follow-up to comment 352.
This morning, Trump posted on Twitter that he supports congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene, despite her public alignment with QAnon, and with QAnon’s various batshit bonkers conspiracy theories.
Biden unveils proposal to reopen the economy, slams Trump’s ‘one-point plan’
Biden promised the federal government would provide and pay for COVID-19 tests “for every worker called back to work.”
Biden’s team is trying to do some of the work that the Trump administration should have been doing for months. It’s good to have a plan, but I think it may be too late. Trump has already ruined the entire COVID-19 response in the USA. Even if the federal government suddenly got behind a comprehensive testing program, we wouldn’t be able to administer or run all of the tests. Some testing supplies are still not available in sufficient quantities. Some labs that run the tests are still facing big backlogs. Some tests are still not being administered properly.
It will take months to even begin to clean up Trump’s mess. In the meantime, that narcissistic dolt, Trump has all but guaranteed that about 200,000 people will have died from coronavirus by the end of August.
From coverage of Biden’s statements:
Hopefully, Biden’s team will be in the White House and fully prepared to administer a vaccine should one become available. If Trump is reelected, he will fuck up any vaccine distribution just like he already messed up every other response to an infectious disease killing people in the USA.
Assorted snippets:
● Walgreens and CVS to stop locking up beauty products for women of color: “The drugstore chains Walgreens and CVS Health say they will stop locking up beauty and hair care products aimed at black women and other women of color, joining Walmart in ending a practice at some stores […]”. There were doing what!? The article goes on to note that sort of practice is apparently widespread.
● Whole Foods worker fired after posts criticizing free food for police: “A Whole Foods worker in Philadelphia has been fired after sharing posts on social media criticizing their store management for providing free food to police during George Floyd protests in the area.” Whole Foods is owned by Amazon. The article lists other apparently-in-retaliation firings by various companies.
● Starbucks reverses stance and allows staff to wear Black Lives Matter clothing.
Also, New York governor Andrew Cuomo will be issuing an executive order “which would withhold state funding from localities that do not enact a plan to reinvent and modernize policing strategies.”
Good grief, : a failed attempt to discredit the Black Lives Matter movement:
The main tactic was to take valid images of shaved- or getting-shaved women and falsely claim it was in agreement with . One of the women whose image was so-hijacked responded, “I did NOT shave my head for some fragile white performative bull sh**, I lost my hair during chemotherapy in 2018 and loved that bald look so much I kept it buzzed”.
Trump’s most loyal media ally promised a pro-Trump poll. It didn’t deliver — and then pulled its story.
Washington Post link
Despite his record, Kudlow offers new coronavirus assessments
Kudlow’s pattern of painfully wrong coronavirus predictions should lead him to scale back his pandemic-related rhetoric. And yet, he keeps talking.
Aiyiyiiyi, total bullshit and lies. Ask health officials in Arizona, Utah, South Carolina, Alabama, etc. etc.
If Kudlow says it, the opposite is probably true.
Platform mess rattles Republican Party ahead of convention
What we’re seeing are Republican constituencies who are voicing their frustrations because they expected their party to act like, well, a political party.
ha ha ha ha ha
Man Accused Of Killing A Cop Scrawled Message In Blood Referring To ‘Boogaloo’
Trump’s contract with Melania:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/why-melania-trump-delayed-wh-move
Coronavirus task force engaged in critical search for a scapegoat for Trump’s failures
Argentina’s coronavirus patients, medical workers harassed:
Arizona’s Emergency Responders Face a Roaring Wildfire Amid a Worsening Pandemic
And fire season has only just begun.
Link
Trump makes everything worse.
Highlighting the conflict of interest that, in part, shapes Trump’s coronavirus response:
Washington Post link
Trump wants everything to go back to “normal,” including packing his hotels with guests, business conferences, etc.
Update on the White House response, or lack of response, to the coronavirus pandemic:
Washington Post link
Trump as a bystander:
Link
The mildly deranged penguin is struting up and down the wall, sing-song-yodelling that she’d said so, Vitamin K found in some cheeses could help fight Covid-19, study suggests:
Hum… I rather like spinach, and there’s a cheese-obsessed mildy deranged egg-laying (glances up at the ceiling) overhead (shifts sideways and the egg lands on the floor) with poor aim… who yodels…
Steve Bell in the Grauniad:
● Donald Trump and calls to take down Confederate statues in the US (cartoon).
● all men should be created orange, says Trump (cartoon), with apologies to Martin Luther King.
Here in France, the
policegoons are also angry they are being reined in, and maybe, eventually, cannot commit extrajudicial executions, French police stage Champs-Élysées protest over ban on chokeholds (France24 edits in {curly braces}):I presume the goons are being advised by Putin, possibly through his acolyte, Steve Bannon.
Presuming he’s sincere, kudos for the “police are never above the law” — which, off the top of my head, is not something I’ve heard from any of the majority-white-led goon union “leader”-ship in the States.
Interesting point. Again, off the top of my head, I do not have any recollection of seeing any of the police forces in the area (France has a confusing overlap) wearing body cameras. Nor do I have any idea at all what the regulations and actual practices are on wearing of using the kit, nor on reviewing or retaining or releasing what is filmed.
Locally, I’ve always had doubts about the local(-ish) goons — and the council — treat the Roma. There are also a fair number of people who appear to be Muslim, or of Arabic or (N.)African ethnicity, in the area, and the le penazis have non-trivial support in the area and (with a (admittedly-usually closed)) “shop” on the main shopping street, making me rather suspicious of them(the goons). Me, being an obvious privileged anglophone foreigner, haven’t had any problems with the local goons per se, beyond language difficulties.
Followup to comment 386.
While Melania was supposedly renegotiating her prenup with Trump, U.S. taxpayers paid millions in security costs.
From Business Insider:
FL Gov. DeSantis bought a million doses of Trump’s favorite drug and literally can’t give it away
Global temperature update:
Link
From Daniel Dale’s coverage of some of the bonkers bulllshit Trump said:
What Trump said:
From Joy Reid:
Based on Lynna@400, “Ok I’ll bite @realDonaldTrump”.
Could help, if one is rabid but not radioactive. Even if not rabid, might help, if hair furor then waddles off to the bunker, forgetting both the mobile and combination to get out.
Re: Lynn’s 389
I can see the fire from my house. It sucks. The Catalina mountains seem to catch fire every 15 years or so.
That should say “Lynna”. I hate autocorrect.
French police goon: “We need to be protected, respected, supported. The police are never above the law, but they should never be left below the law.”
Now, where have we heard language like this before. Could it have been from Trump lickspittle and DNI nominee John Ratcliffe? Why, yes, yes, I believe it could:
“Donald Trump is not above the law,” he added. “He’s not. But he damn sure shouldn’t be below the law.”
This interview with the Mayor of Bristol (UK), Marvin Rees, “the first directly elected black mayor in Europe”, is worth reading in full, Bristol mayor: Colston statue removal was act of ‘historical poetry’. One point he made particularly struck me. The police commanders on-the-ground at the time teh slaver’s statue was toppled and sent for a swim decided to not interfere, a decision which has sent teh rabid nutcases into frothing spittle-flecked spams. The Mayor’s rather more considered take (my added emboldening):
Tom Gauld in the Grauniad, Ways to make online literary festivals feel more realistic (cartoon). Doesn’t just apply to literary festivals.
FromThe Rachel Maddow Show:
Link to video
The video is about 4 minutes long.
Government data on nursing homes data just arrived last week. How good/helpful is the data? It’s not. It’s another Trump administration clusterfuck. “The federal account of the Life Care nursing center in Kirkland, Washington listed one suspected infection and zero virus deaths”. Dozens of people who lived there died from the coronavirus.
Oh, no. Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, says 300,000 people bought rally tickets for the upcoming rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The rally is planned to take place in a 19,000-seat-capacity arena.
The campaign is thinking of scheduling a second event in Tulsa. That still doesn’t add up.
The date, or dates of the rally will change. Trump was finally convinced that having a rally in Tulsa just weeks after the anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre of black people by white mobs (in 1921) was not a good idea. And that holding that rally on Friday, June 19, known as Juneteenth, the day commemorating the official outlawing of slavery in the USA, was an even worse idea. The first (only?) rally in Tulsa has been rescheduled for June 20. It is still being held in the 19,000-seat arena.
Police in Columbus, Ohio mistook a bunch of 2020 hippies on a rainbow-painted bus for antifa rioters.
Link
I actually know people who live in a bus equipped with a wood-burning stove.
From Mark Sumner:
Hmmm. That reminds me of the police mischaracterization of the school bus named “Buttercup.” See comment 409.
Link
Betsy DeVos has made her decision barring DACA students from emergency pandemic funds official.
The cruelty is the point.
Yeah, Trump went ahead with his commencement speech to cadets today.
Trump’s West Point Speech Was Another Risky Stunt Involving the Troops
“When the road is rough, what matters most is that which is permanent,” he said, sounding like a car ad.
Trump has had a lot of practice by now, but he still can’t read off a teleprompter. Somebody wrote that speech for him, and he seemed completely unfamiliar with the contents.
Warning: irony meter damage.
Trump mixes a love of violence, (or a sick fascination with violence), with racism:
Washington Post link
Being hospitalized for coronavirus is going to bankrupt a lot of people.
Seattle man hospitalized with coronavirus for two months gets a $1.1 million tab.
After the coronavirus almost killed him, 70-year-old Seattle resident Michael Flor said getting a hospital invoice listing $1.1 million in charges was a near-death experience.
Medicare will pay for 80% of that bill, but I will point out that 20% of a million dollars is still a huge bill. That would bankrupt me.
Washington Post link
Fox News Manipulates Pictures Of Seattle Protests Then Lies About It
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/fox-news-seattle-protests-chaz
Everybody get on board:
Link
Trump still hasn’t figured out how to drink water.
https://twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/1271856289526792194
From Kurt Eichenwald:
Video of Trump drinking water, using two hands to hold the glass, is available at the link. Trump has done this before. He seems to be unable to tip the glass up far enough to get water into in his mouth, then he uses both hands and succeeds.
Former ‘SNL’ star Jay Pharoah shares footage of being detained by officers brandishing firearms.
Masks now seen as vital tool in coronavirus fight.
As I’ve mentioned before, I live in a red state. When I go to the closest grocery store, I am the only one wearing a mask now. Several weeks ago, a few more of my neighbors were wearing masks. Not any more. For most of my shopping, I have switched to curbside pickup from a larger grocery store in another county. At least the workers there all wear masks.
Lynna@417, Back in the last millennium, in Bristol (UK) as it happens, a black colleague of mine pointed out that problem of “flesh-coloured sticking plasters” (as they are known). I sheepishly admitted that had never occurred to me, but he was quite right (as he usually was), and we then went on to have a discussion about similar examples. From admittedly quite vague memory, many of the examples involved his partner, who had trouble finding nice clothing and, especially, beauty products which didn’t scream “sex worker”.
From Wonkette:
Link. More at the link.
From Tomas Binder, MD:
JFC.
More from Wonkette:
Projection?
‘He just doesn’t get it’: has Trump been left behind by America’s awakening on racism?:
Lynna@408, On hair furor’s mafia supposedly selling 300,000 tickets, “[Hair furor’s] rally is planned to take place in a 19,000-seat-capacity arena. ‘[…] He did not explain, however, what 280,000 of them will do after the just over 19,000-people BOK arena is filled to capacity. […]’ The campaign is thinking of scheduling a second event in Tulsa. That still doesn’t add up.”
This is hair furor(‘s proxies), so I don’t believe the 300,000 tickets sold claim, at least not without independent verifiable evidence. But simple innumeracy might: Selling 30,000 (an order of magnitude less) does fit with the claim of a possible second rally in a 19,000 capacity venue. And Occam’s Razor suggests the 300,000 is a lie, and it might even be the case they haven’t sold-out (albeit claiming you have when you haven’t strikes me as dumb, but then again, considering who is making the claim…).
Another possibility is they really have oversold (some places do oversell so as to still have a full house despite (probable) no-shows (a practice that is illegal in some locales), albeit nothing like 300,000 to fill only 19,000), and — keeping in mind who this bunch of thieves are — don’t plan to refund the people who could not be squeezed into the Covid-19 spreading festival. A stunt like that could explain how the hell, in the age of e-ticketing &tc, it’s even possible to sell 30,000 or 300,000 tickets for a 19,000 capacity venue.
This is not at all political, but it had me rolling on the floor laughing so hard the mildly deranged penguin ran off screaming, With time on his hands, our restaurant critic turns chef. A few nibbles:
At this point I fell over giggling so loud and long the local EMT showed up — she can read English and had her own giggling fit until a real emergency call came in. (Some of that is fictional.)
Lots of wonderful readers’s comments.
blf @423, all good points. I guess we are in wait-and-see mode now that Hair Furor changed the date to the 20th. I expect a massive display of incompetence, greed and ignorance. I am hoping that there will be no violence.
blf @424, thanks for the laughs. I too have created impressive messes in my kitchen while trying to cook higher quality food using more sophisticated recipes. Sometimes the food is tasty, but I am no chef … and I don’t relish the cleaning up job.
Follow-up to comment 409.
More details regarding “Buttercup”:
Link
Atlanta Police Officer Fired, Chief Resigns After Fatal Shooting Of Black Man
Because of course he would, Trump says he will no longer watch US soccer teams after anthem policy change:
CA AG Asked To Conduct Independent Probe Of Black Man Found Hanging From Tree
United Nations calls for an end to debunked anti-LGBTQ conversion ‘therapy’ practices’
Follow-up to Lynna@417, Trump lashes out after critics highlight unsteady walk down West Point ramp:
Just like the story in comment 426, this would be funny if the situation didn’t also harbor anti-democratic consequences:
Link
Absentee ballots were mailed to registered voters, not to “absolutely everybody.”
From Aaron Rupar:
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1271902553417138176
Video at the link. “Mug Arthur.”
There’s also this:
From comments by viewers of the video:
I think it looks like his right knee hurts.
For what its worth, there’s video of President Obama striding swiftly up and down the same ramp, which is not steep.
More details and commentary regarding the speech Trump gave to West Point cadets:
Link
From the Washington Post: “Florida restaurant closes again after six people who came in last week tested positive, business says.”
The cover of The New Yorker: Link
Image and text at the link.
Daily Mail link
Photo at the link.
Lynna@427, Since that is teh daily heil, I had my doubts, but it’s apparently legit, BLM supporter speaks out after carrying counter-protester to safety:
Republicans insist Trump Tulsa rally won’t spread coronavirus — despite local concern:
If Black Americans were to seek asylum, they would easily qualify:
blf @438, thanks for that additional information.
In other news, Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, is speaking out about what he sees as a “poison pill” in Democratic legislation meant to reform policing in the USA.
Link
I think Trump’s threat to veto the bill is the biggest problem that Republicans have, (that Republicans who want to work with the Democrats have).
If you are a Republican running for office, don’t officiate at any same-sex weddings. Sheesh.
That definitely doesn’t sound fair.
Link
From Wonkette: “Right-Wing Media Outraged Google Wiped Winston Churchill Off The Internet (They Didn’t)”
@ Lynna #441
The whole qualified immunity restriction is a classic catch-22 created by the Supreme Court. In order to sue a police officer, a plaintiff must bring a claim that shows the civil rights violation was “clearly established.” This means that a cop’s conduct was virtually identical to the facts of a previous Court decision–the slightest variation means dismisal of the claim. Since there are so few Court decisions on this, it’s almost impossible.
The result is that lower courts dismiss the claim if the facts are not identical with a previous decision, without ever considering whether the conduct violated the plaintiff’s constitutional rights. “Qualified immunity” means there can rarely be a successful civil rights claim against cops, no matter how egregious a law enforcement officer’s conduct is. It’s a free pass.
Update to @439 & others, Tulsa newspaper and top health official call on Trump to cancel rally:
Pedantically, the editors are presumably writing what they know, i.e., that they don’t know (i.e., lack any actual evidence). However, as many have noted, both the original date and the location have Stephen Miller written all over them.
Recently Ozland’s PM made the absurd claim there was . Within about a day, he issued a not-pology. Farcebork, never one to understand anything, then proceeded to feck it up in a major hair furorian manner, Facebook blocks and bans users for sharing Guardian article showing Aboriginal men in chains:
The image in question is at the link. It may be disturbing, but there is no obvious nudity in the sense of being naked or without clothing. However, some of the (minimal) clothing the slaves are wearing is about the same colour as their skin, which is an alternative definition of nudity (and, speculating, is perhaps what confusing farcebork’s automated censor).
Great news! The Supreme Court, 6-3, has ruled that LGBT workers can sue for bias under federal law. Roberts and Gorsuch were in the majority.
The gap between Trump’s world and reality is widening. It’s disturbing to watch:
There’s then an analogy with “Cerberus, the many-headed dog-monster from Greek mythology”:
Picturesque, but perhaps strained? Cerberus tried to keep the occupants of Hades in Hades; hair furor and his dalekocrazy are trying to keep people from migrating / migrating to an ever-worsening hades (which probably does see as keeping the occupants of Hades not-so-much in Hades as outside of “Paradise”). On the other hand, capturing Cerberus was one of Heracles’ twelve labours; evicting hair furor and his dalekocrazy and repairing all the damage is certainly a “twelve labours”-type feat, albeit Biden-as-Heracles could really really be straining the analogy.
MSNBC now reporting that the Supreme Court decision @ #447 was written by Gorsuch.
Here’s a link to the June 15 Guardian coronavirus world liveblog.
Only three out of 53 countries say US has handled coronavirus better than China:
Guardian – “Journalist Maria Ressa found guilty of ‘cyberlibel’ in Philippines”:
From thr Grauniad’s current States politics & pandemic live blog (Grauniad edits in {curly braces}):
@ SC #449
The decision is here. It’s actually readable, but it is not short!
I thought this was a pretty good argument:
Historian Anne Twitty:
Mark Joseph Stern:
The Grauniad’s current States politics & pandemic live blog reports:
And, similar to the LGBTQ+ decision’s text tomh@454 quotes:
Elie Mystal:
Neal Katyal: “Many people and organizations deserve credit for today’s decision, chief among them Pam Karlan of Stanford Law, who gave one of the best arguments I’ve ever heard.”
(You might remember Karlan from the impeachment hearings.)
Guardian – “Bolton book claims Trump committed other ‘Ukraine-like transgressions’.”
Greg Miller, WaPo:
He actively hindered the exposure of and attempts to stop the behavior.
Yesterday’s tweet o’ the day.
tomh @444, thanks for that explanation.
Thanks to SC, tomh and blf for good coverage of the Supreme Court decision.
As one observer noted this morning, “As of just a few minutes ago, it was possible to get married on Sunday and legally fired on Monday — but no more.” [Quoting Pete Williams]
So nice to have some good news today.
Tweet o’ the day.
Lynna @ 462
Among other rulings today, the SC declined to take up the qualified immunity issue, even though they created it, throwing it to Congress to change the law. That will probably only happen if the Dems get a majority in both houses, with a Dem president. If then.
Campaign news:
Funny. And appropriate.
Yahoo – “Voice Of America Director, Deputy Director Resign After Donald Trump-Selected CEO Takes Over At Global Media Agency”:
tomh @464, thanks. Let’s hope the Democrats do get a majority in both the House and the Senate.
Right now, Republicans in the Seante are prioritizing conspiracy theories.
Link
Altering ACA, Trump curtails protections for transgender Americans
Almost exactly four years after then-candidate Trump publicly vowed to “fight for” the LGBT community, he did the exact opposite.
Ari Melber is interviewing Pam Karlan on MSNBC.
Follow-up to blf’s comment 445.
Link
See also: Trump campaign says ticket requests for Oklahoma rally surpass 800,000
How did they go from the already inflated number of 300,000 to 800,000?
blf @ # 451: Your link is foo. Story actually found at Only three out of 53 countries say US has handled coronavirus better than China.
Seattle police Mace 7-yr-old and then arrest man who caught it on camera
Guardian link
video at the link
Lynna@470 asks “How did they go from the already inflated number of 300,000 to 800,000?”
I just put on approriate physical & electronic safety equipment, then took a look at the on-line website and noted two things: (1) No mention of what the tickets cost; and (2) In addition, there is a second concurrent “event”, a , for which one also has to register, albeit there is no mention of tickets per se.
That has me wondering if teh wannbe-daleks are conflating ticket requests for in-person Covid-19 infections with registering for the live stream?
For both events, you have to supply a mobile number and (supposedly) get a confirmation by SMS (and the redaleking project gets to keep and use your number; there is a statement in very very small print they will do exactly that). You also have to supply your e-address, albeit there is no(?) immediately-obvious note why or what that is for, as-if it wasn’t rather obvious.
Transparent hucksterism.
ABC – “Trump administration expected to attempt to block John Bolton’s book: Sources”:
I just had a strange thought that I can’t disprove… that the SCOTUS decision does not claim that refusing to hire employees who are attracted to men would be forbidden by Title 7. This is because, in that case, there is no action (such as having a male spouse) for which a male person would be treated differently than a female person.
This means that the decision did not say that sexual orientation is a protected class under Title 7. After all, there is a case where sexual attraction is explicitly the targeted attribute, and by the logic of the decision, it would be permitted. It is only saying that the existing class of “sex” forbids treating homosexuals differently from heterosexuals.
I’m not sure, but unless another case comes up, it seems like it also would not claim that someone refusing to hire people who identify as a woman was acting against Title 7. “Gender identity” is considered distinct from “sex,” and only “sex” appears in Title 7, and there is no behavior (presenting or identifying as a woman) for which people of different biological sexes would be treated differently. Hence, “gender identity” is also not being claimed to be included as a protected class.
On the one hand, this means that even the dissent is wrong in arguing that the decision adds new protected classes to the law. Even more so than it already is. But it also strikes me as a bit of an odd legal hiccup: anyone wanting to keep women out of their company can do so by claiming it’s based on identity rather than biology. Then again, it’s hard to imagine companies doing so, as they’d probably be unlikely to be happy with having to hire trans men.
I wonder if this line of reasoning is correct or not.
CNN – “FDA revokes authorization of drug Trump touted”:
The Onion – “City Enters Phase 4 Of Pretending Coronavirus Over”:
Ah, yes, time for a bit of comic relief, presenting… John Guandolo Wants Black Lives Matter and Antifa Leaders Rounded Up and Executed (RWW edits in {curly braces}):
Strangely, underneath all that spittle, he forgot to mention teh Illuminati, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and a conga line of rats.
OMG LOLOLOLOLOL.
Re #s 454, 456, 462, etc, and # 468 – my sympathies to all the transgendered people experiencing whiplash today.
Re # 452 & # 474 – I can’t help but imagine Kellyanne Conway or Jared Kushner or another of their colleagues on the phone to Manila at this moment, asking for legal tips and/or Duterte’s price for demanding immediate extradition of Bolton to the Philippines.
Scripps press release – “Mutated coronavirus shows significant boost in infectivity”:
Here again is the link to Farzan’s informative April talk about the virus.
blf, @473, ah! That explains it. I think you are right. Thanks for venturing into dangerous lands to scout the enemy, and then to return with a report.
Cartoon: Everything is fine. Link
The countries with the most confirmed cases of coronavirus right now are the US, Brazil, Russia, India, and the UK.
VA police apologize for arresting Black pastor who called 911 on white family attacking him.
Link
Pierce R Butler@471, Thanks for spotting and correction my borked link.
In teh NKofE, The UK government responded to Black Lives Matter — by protecting statues:
I’m a Black Female Scientist. On My First Day of Work, a Colleague Threatened to Call the Cops on Me.
[Sigh.]
Trump accuses critics of attempting to ‘Covid Shame’ upcoming rally
He complained about discrepancies in media coverage of his upcoming rally compared to that of mass protests over police killings of unarmed black Americans.
Chris J @ 475
It’s true they didn’t carve out sexual orientation as a new protected class. That was an argument made by the employers (and stressed by the Administration in their support for the employers, in fact.) The opinion dealt with it:
They were simply rolled into the class ‘sex.’
I’m not sure I understand your first example, but the decision does not hinge on whether individuals were treated differently. It rests on whether ‘sex’ was a factor in hiring, firing, etc. For instance, from the decision:
US Muslims join calls for police reforms in wake of Floyd killing:
From the Grauniad’s current States pandemic & politics live blog:
tomh @ 488
Effectively, my first example is a slight change to the one in the decision. What if a company fired Hannah for being insufficiently feminine, and also fired Bob for being insufficiently feminine?
The reason I think this gets around the “sex must be a part of the decision” is that the decision’s explanation for why sex is involved in the Bob-and-Hannah example. Sex is involved because you’re changing the criteria (insufficiently feminine or insufficiently masculine) based on the person’s sex (female or male). Thus, Bob is fired for being insufficiently masculine, but Hannah is not fired for also being insufficiently Masculine.
As another example, the decision talks about how firing someone for not liking the Yankees, while silly, isn’t technically against Title 7. But if you only fired men for not liking the Yankees, and only the women for not liking some other team, that’d involve sex necessarily and be against Title 7. At least I think that’s what’s implied.
Thus, my strange example where everyone were fired for being insufficiently feminine, or masculine, or whatever. No individual could claim that, but for the sake of their biological sex, they wouldn’t have been fired. Clearly, though, they would be fired for their gender presentation.
I think my point is that the decision did not, in fact, argue for rolling up gender presentation and identity or sexual orientation into “sex.” Only argued that, in the cases they looked at where someone was fired for being gay or trans, such a decision necessarily was partly based on sex and therefore unconstitutional.
Cartoon, with caption “Can’t you do this in a more polite way that I can completely ignore?”
https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/daily-cartoon/monday-june-15th-protests
From coverage of Trump’s remarks, posted by Daniel Dale:
Good fundraising news for Biden:
Link
Trump’s niece Mary Trump will to publish a tell-all this summer. The book is said to reveal that she was a primary source for The New York Times’ investigation into Trump’s taxes.
Link
From Remy Merriex:
Photo: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/ruby-bridges-1960/
More info is available at the photo link.
@ 491
I didn’t read it that sex was involved because you change the criteria. It seems to me that if there were only one person involved, whether masc or fem, however they were insufficient, sex would be involved and it would trigger Title VII.
As for whether sexual orientation is included in the ‘sex’ class, it seems like a distinction without a difference. If a gay or trans person is not hired and that’s part of the reason, what more do you need? It’s because of the ‘sex’ class and not allowed.
@497:
I don’t think so. The opinion relies heavily on the “but for X, this wouldn’t have happened” argument, which necessarily requires a counterfactual. “But for me being a woman, not being fem enough wouldn’t have gotten me fired” implies “If I were a man, not being fem enough wouldn’t have gotten me fired.” If everyone were subject to the same gender presentation restriction, though, then that “but for X” wouldn’t exist.
This is almost what the employers tried to argue; that their standard was “is homosexual” and that applied to everyone. But SCOTUS argued that “is homosexual” is not a single standard, it’s a standard that varies based on sex. “Is homosexual” means “attracted to women” for women and “attracted to men” for men, and you cannot define “is homosexual” without referencing the person’s sex.
“Is not fem enough” can be defined without referencing the person’s sex, though. Hence why I think it’s different than the employers’ argument that was rejected.
Anyway, at this point I’m just trying to be understood. It was a weird thought that may not actually hold up to legal scrutiny, and may even never be tried by real companies. I was just curious if anyone else saw an easy refutation to it.