On August 5, 2016, Robinson was killed in one of the most gruesome, bloody, violent, overkill by police probably in the history of this country.
https://streetsofatlanta.blog/2020/06/29/jamarion-robinson-shot-76-times-by-police/
30 Tuesday Jun 2020
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On August 5, 2016, Robinson was killed in one of the most gruesome, bloody, violent, overkill by police probably in the history of this country.
https://streetsofatlanta.blog/2020/06/29/jamarion-robinson-shot-76-times-by-police/
29 Monday Jun 2020
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Originally about Nixon but still applicable
Songs: http://thinkspeak.bandcamp.com
painting: http://www.thinkspeak.net
Political cartoons: http://toons.thinkspeak.net
Books (search tom Ferguson) www.lulu.com
28 Sunday Jun 2020
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Tom Ferguson
Songs: http://thinkspeak.bandcamp.com
painting: http://www.thinkspeak.net
Political cartoons: http://toons.thinkspeak.net
Books (search tom Ferguson) www.lulu.com
28 Sunday Jun 2020
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Breitbart 2.0? The Purge of the US Agency for Global Media, Explained
Vox – June 18, 2020 – Alex Ward
https://www.vox.com/2020/6/18/21295549/trump-bannon-pack-global-media-china-wednesday-massacre
Michael Pack’s purge of the US Agency for Global Media, and his effort to produce tough-on-China journalism, explained… Earlier this month, a Steve Bannon ally and conservative filmmaker appointed by President Donald Trump took over running the vast global network of news agencies funded and operated by the US government. Within hours of introducing himself to employees, he’d purged four top officials — and critics are calling it a blatant effort to turn America’s state-run news organizations into Trump-friendly propaganda outlets… Without that independence — or even the appearance of it — that powerful tool ceases being helpful to US foreign policy efforts.
Yes
Reader Supported News – June 21, 2020 – Bernie Sanders
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/63597-focus-bernie-sanders-yes
If you think you are living in unusual and unprecedented times, you’re right. This is a moment in American history that kids will be studying in school for a very long time… Here’s the good news: We are actively and successfully fighting back… In this difficult moment in American history, this is not the time for despair or retreat. Now is the time for courage. Let us go forward together.
Clean water is a human right. In America it’s more a profit machine
The Guardian – June 23, 2020 – Bernie Sanders and Brenda Lawrence
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2020/jun/23/clean-water-should-be-an-american-human-right-not-a-government-profit-machine
When it comes to water infrastructure, America’s challenges resemble those of a developing country. It’s time for that to change… The United States of America should not have toxic or unaffordable water. When people in the world’s richest country turn on their taps, the water they drink should be clean. As we deal with a deadly virus that has killed 120,000 Americans already, handwashing, good sanitation, and safe, hygienic environments are not optional.
COVID-19 is laying waste to many US recycling programs
The Conversation – June 23, 2020 – Brian J. Love and Julie Rieland
https://theconversation.com/covid-19-is-laying-waste-to-many-us-recycling-programs-139733
Today Americans are trying to balance their physical well-being against ever-mounting piles of plastic waste. At a time when reducing and reusing could be dangerous, and recycling economics are unfavorable, we see a need for better options, such as more compostable packaging that is both safer and more sustainable.
‘State-sanctioned violence’: US police fail to meet basic human rights standards
The Guardian – June 22, 2020 – Ed Pilkington
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/22/us-police-human-rights-standards-report
Police in America’s biggest cities are failing to meet even the most basic international human rights standards governing the use of lethal force, a new study from the University of Chicago has found. Researchers in the university’s law school put the lethal use-of-force policies of police in the 20 largest US cities under the microscope. They found not a single police department was operating under guidelines that are compliant with the minimum standards laid out under international human rights laws.
Punishment by Pandemic
The New Yorker – June 15, 2020 – Rachel Aviv
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/22/punishment-by-pandemic
In a penitentiary with one of the U.S.’s largest coronavirus outbreaks, prison terms become death sentences.
Rashida Tlaib pushes to free US inmates from coronavirus ‘death sentence’
The Guardian – June 26, 2020 – Ed Pilkington
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/26/rashida-tlaib-prisons-coronavirus-covid-19
US prisons and jails need to move swiftly to release pre-trial, older and medically-vulnerable inmates or face a humanitarian crisis of vast proportions as coronavirus ravages custodial institutions across the country, the Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib warns today. In an interview with the Guardian, the US representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district that covers some of Detroit’s poorest neighborhoods said that the Covid-19 pandemic was forcing a reckoning with America’s addiction to mass incarceration. “We need to prevent Covid-19 being a death sentence for so many. It’s hurting the most vulnerable who are held right now in inhumane conditions while the pandemic strikes,” Tlaib said.
The Psychopath in Chief
Medium – May 28, 2020 – Tony Schwartz
https://gen.medium.com/the-psychopath-in-chief-aa10ab2165d9?gi=sd
I spent hundreds of hours with Donald Trump to ghost-write ‘The Art of the Deal.’ I now see a deeper meaning behind his behavior…. How do we deal with a person whose core impulse in every part of his life is to deny, deceive, deflect, disparage, and double-down every time he is challenged? And what precisely is the danger such a person poses if he also happens to be the leader of the free world, during a crisis in which thousands of people are dying every day, with no letup in sight?… Absence of conscience gives Trump the license to invent his own rules, define his own reality, declare victory in any competition, and insist on his superior expertise on subjects about which he knows almost nothing… Understanding what we’re truly up against — the reign of terror that Trump will almost surely wage the moment he believes he can completely prevail — makes the upcoming presidential election a true Armageddon. Vote as if your life depends on it, because it does.
Noam Chomsky: Trump’s Inaction on Climate Change Makes Him “the Worst Criminal in History, Undeniably”
Jacobin – June 23, 2020 – Michael Brooks interviews Noam Chomsky
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/noam-chomsky-donald-trump-coronavirus-george-floyd-protests
In an interview, Noam Chomsky talks about the “absolutely unprecedented scope and scale” of the protests against the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the importance of Lula’s presidency in Brazil, and why Donald Trump is “the worst criminal in human history.”
America Is Exceptional in All the Wrong Ways
Robert Reich’s Blog – June 25, 2020
https://robertreich.org/post/621744679941226496
As our incompetent president flounders in the face of crises – leading the worst coronavirus response in the industrialized world, and seeking to crush nationwide protests for black lives – the hard truth about this country comes into focus: America is not exceptional, but it is the exception. No other industrialized nation was as woefully unprepared for the pandemic as was the United States. With 4.25% of the world population, America has the tragic distinction of accounting for about 30% of pandemic deaths so far. Why are we so different from other nations facing the same coronavirus threat? Why has everything gone so tragically wrong in America? Part of it is Donald Trump… But the problems at the core of our broken system, laid bare by this pandemic, have been plaguing this country long before Trump came along.
Defund police? Real leaders defund the Pentagon
The Philadelphia Inquirer – June 22, 2020 – Will Bunch
https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/defund-police-pentagon-military-industrial-complex-defense-spending-20200623.html
What if the money to pay for all the social programs that our over-policed cities really need — to hire school nurses and buy new textbooks, and recruit a new kind of army of social workers and drug counselors — isn’t only supporting your local police, but hiding in plain sight on the left bank of the Potomac River?… The current Pentagon annual budget of $736 billion is larger than military spending by the next 10 biggest nations — count ‘em, 10, and we’re talking about places like China, Russia and India — combined… The amount of money that America spends on suppressing, attacking and killing human beings is obscene.
To Shift Funds From ‘Endless Wars’ to ‘Human Needs,’ Sanders Unveils Amendment to Slash Pentagon Budget by $74 Billion
Common Dreams – June 26, 2020 – Jake Johnson
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/26/shift-funds-endless-war-human-needs-sanders-unveils-amendment-slash-pentagon-budget
It is time for us to truly focus on what we value as a society and to fundamentally transform our national priorities.
Racism, Yes, But What About Militarism and Materialism?
Common Dreams – June 23, 2020 – Andrew Bacevich
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/06/23/racism-yes-what-about-militarism-and-materialism
Americans remember King primarily as a great civil rights leader and indeed he was that. In his Riverside Church address, however, he turned to matters that went far beyond race. In an immediate sense, his focus was the ongoing Vietnam War, which he denounced as “madness” that “must cease.” Yet King also used the occasion to summon the nation to “undergo a radical revolution of values” that would transform the United States “from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.” Only through such a revolution, he declared, would we be able to overcome “the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.”… At Riverside Church, King described the U.S. government as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” So it unquestionably remains, perpetrating immeasurably more violence than any other great power and with remarkably little to show in return. Why, then, except on the easily ignored fringes of American politics, are there no demands to “defund” the Pentagon?
Climate crisis: alarm at record-breaking heatwave in Siberia
The Guardian – June 17, 2020 – Damian Carrington
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/17/climate-crisis-alarm-at-record-breaking-heatwave-in-siberia
A prolonged heatwave in Siberia is “undoubtedly alarming”, climate scientists have said. The freak temperatures have been linked to wildfires, a huge oil spill and a plague of tree-eating moths. On a global scale, the Siberian heat is helping push the world towards its hottest year on record in 2020, despite a temporary dip in carbon emissions owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Temperatures in the polar regions are rising fastest because ocean currents carry heat towards the poles and reflective ice and snow is melting away.
ACA Repeal Lawsuit Would Cut Taxes for Top 0.1% by an Average of $198,000 per year
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities – June 24, 2020 – Aviva Aron-Dine, Chye-Ching Huang and Samantha Washington
https://www.cbpp.org/research/health/aca-repeal-lawsuit-would-cut-taxes-for-top-01-percent-by-an-average-of-198000
In the midst of a global pandemic and major recession, the Trump Administration and 18 state attorneys general are expected to file briefs this week asking the Supreme Court to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA). President Trump affirmed his commitment to his Administration’s stance last month, saying “we want to terminate health care under Obamacare.” Striking down the law would cause millions to lose their health coverage, while delivering a large tax cut to the highest-income Americans and certain corporations.
What too many white people still don’t understand about racism
Boston Globe – June 9, 2020 – Linda Chavers
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/09/magazine/what-too-many-white-people-still-dont-understand-about-racism/
Seeing racism as a relic of the past is a problem — a deadly problem. And it is a part of why we protest… Black people know intimately that America’s history on race is complex, but it doesn’t matter much when it is not a widely held belief but rather a point of contention. This national ignorance leads white people to take offense at being called a racist or, worse, to declare the election of Barack Obama as the cause of racial strife or, worse still, to see extrajudicial executions of Black people as outside the norm. It is absolutely the norm. Only now, lynching postcards, widely shared among white communities well into the 20th century, have been replaced by Twitter and YouTube.
Frank M. Johnson Jr., Judge Whose Rulings Helped Desegregate the South
Justice Initiative – June 24, 2020 – Heather Gray
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/-Judge-Who-Helped-Desegregate-the-South.html?soid=1109359583686&aid=TlIHRPbdUgo
In a career that spanned almost four decades — 24 years in Federal District Court in Alabama and 13 years on an appeals court with wide jurisdiction in the South — Judge Johnson ordered the desegregation of public schools and colleges, parks, libraries, museums, depots, airports, restaurants, restrooms and other public places, as well as the Alabama State Police.
There’s Already an Alternative to Calling the Police
Mother Jones – June 13, 2020 – Anna V. Smith
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/06/theres-already-an-alternative-to-calling-the-police/
Mobile, community-based crisis programs employ first responders that are not police to address disturbances where crimes are not being committed. One of the nation’s longest-running examples is CAHOOTS—Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets—in Eugene, Oregon. CAHOOTS has inspired similar programs in other cities in the region, including the Denver Alliance for Street Health Response, Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland and Portland Street Response in Oregon. Such programs take police out of the equation when someone is going through a mental health crisis, struggling with substance abuse, or experiencing homelessness. When police show up, situations can escalate, and the use of force can be disproportionate, especially towards Black people… Less than one percent of the calls that CAHOOTS responds to need police assistance. The CAHOOTS system relies on trauma-informed de-escalation and harm reduction, which reduces calls to police, averts harmful arrest-release-repeat cycles, and prevents violent police encounters.
Riding the Waves of Mutual Aid
Yes! Magazine – May 9, 2020 – Micco Caporale
https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/coronavirus-community-power/2020/05/09/coronavirus-mutual-aid-low-income-2/
Volunteer crisis responses are crucial in an emergency. But can they make lasting change?… Common Ground began in 2005 as an anarchist collective in the backyard of Malik Rahim, a long-time community organizer and former Black Panther. While Hurricane Katrina still raged… From the outset, Common Ground’s motto was “solidarity, not charity.” It’s a common refrain for mutual aid projects—shorthand for the organizing opportunities crises can present…
The crime of dark skin
The Rag Blog – June 18, 2020 – Lamar W. Hankins
http://www.theragblog.com/lamar-w-hankins-analysis-the-crime-of-dark-skin/
I learned early that, to paraphrase a line in a Pete Seeger song about Huddie Ledbetter, all blacks native to this country were born into a world “where having a dark skin is a crime.” That’s a view that too many whites don’t understand or haven’t understood until recently… Try to imagine what it is like every day for a black person to live in a society where having dark skin is a crime, if not literally, metaphorically, in the ordinary activities of living: always having someone watching you in a store to make sure you don’t steal some product; observing that whites avoid getting too close to you or keep more than a common social distance; being fearful of driving at night or driving any time in an area where mostly whites carry out their lives; being terrified when your teenage child is out in a car; merely walking down the street; bird-watching in a public park; not allowing your 8-year old child to play with a toy gun. Breathing while black is an apt description, and it has to be exhausting.
Make It Last; Make It Grow!
Portside – ZNet – June 27, 2020 – Michael Albert
https://www.portside.org/2020-06-27/make-it-last-make-it-grow-0
We need to come away from the current upheavals with organization, with vision and goals, with program and campaigns that all persist and mature and strengthen rather than folding back into business as usual… If we can traverse from outrage and upheaval to sustained resistance and construction plus on-going outrage and upheaval, we can win a new world. It will not take a week, a month, or a year, but will instead require a process that persistently unfolds from now into a winning future. But if we can’t make what has magnificently emerged magnificently last – this moment will become lots of people’s glory days, but will not persist unto victory.
Greta Thunberg on Black Lives Matter Protests: People Are Starting to Find Their Voice
The Guardian – June 20, 2020 – Jessica Murray
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/20/tipping-point-greta-thunberg-hails-black-lives-matter-protests
Reflecting on the protests that have swept the globe in recent weeks, the Swedish climate activist told the BBC: “It feels like we have passed some kind of social tipping point where people are starting to realise that we cannot keep looking away from these things. We cannot keep sweeping these things under the carpet, these injustices. “People are starting to find their voice, to sort of understand that they can actually have an impact.”… “The climate and ecological crisis cannot be solved within today’s political and economic systems,” she said. “That isn’t an opinion. That’s a fact.”
22 Monday Jun 2020
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Capitalism, a Ghost Story, Arudhati Roy – a review
https://tfthinkspeak.blogspot.com/2020/06/capitalism-ghost-story-arundhati-roy.html
Songs: http://thinkspeak.bandcamp.com
painting: http://www.thinkspeak.net
Political cartoons: http://toons.thinkspeak.net
Books (search tom Ferguson) www.lulu.com
22 Monday Jun 2020
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Capitalism, a Ghost Story, Arudhati Roy – a review
https://tfthinkspeak.blogspot.com/2020/06/capitalism-ghost-story-arundhati-roy.html
Songs: http://thinkspeak.bandcamp.com
painting: http://www.thinkspeak.net
Political cartoons: http://toons.thinkspeak.net
Books (search tom Ferguson) www.lulu.com
21 Sunday Jun 2020
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Understanding the Roots of American Racial Depravity A Comparative History
Justice Initiative – June 14, 2020 – Heather Gray
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/-American-Racial-Depravity-and-its-Roots.html?soid=1109359583686&aid=ElyiR1Fn0Ss
Given the recent tragic events in the United States of racially targeted killings by those in the U.S. police forces, this article addresses the origin of racism and white supremacy in America from the early British colonization up to the present. It is, as mentioned in the title, a ‘comparative history’ and the comparison is between the colonization of Britain in the North American continent and of Spanish colonization in Cuba. Comparison is also made between both Britain and Spain and their critical early relationship, or not, with those on the African continent. This is a history that should be taught in all American schools.
A Breathless Moment in America
Tom Dispatch – June 14, 2020 – Nick Turse
https://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/176714/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_a_breathless_moment_in_america/
A Man Forced to Die with His Face Pressed to the Ground May Yet Shift the Earth Under Your Feet… It’s a deadly, dangerous world out there, no question about it, which leaves me even more awed by those now protesting in the streets of our country. Still, surprising as these developments may be, the urge to breathe is such a natural one that it couldn’t be more sensible to demonstrate for everyone’s right to do so in a world that seems ever more breathless. The unexpected, as Nick Turse writes today, is sometimes the saving grace of our all-too-often unsavory world.
An American Spring of Reckoning
The New Yorker – June 14, 2020 – Jelani Cobb
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/22/an-american-spring-of-reckoning
Race, to the degree that it represents anything coherent in the United States, is shorthand for a specific set of life probabilities. The inequalities between black and white Americans are documented in rates of morbidity and infant mortality, wealth, and unemployment, which attest that although race may be a biological fiction, its reality is seen in what is likely to happen in our lives. The more than forty million people of African descent who live in the United States recognize this reality, but it’s largely invisible in the lives of white Americans… Fourteen successive days of protest opened the possibility that George Floyd died in America, not simply in its black corollary. The task that remains is to insure that more of us might actually live there.
The Post-COVID Middle East? Toast
The American Conservative – June 13, 2020 – Bill Blunden
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-post-covid-middle-east-toast/
The aftermath of COVID will present its own grievous set of problems, some of which we are already seeing in a newly declared U.S. economic recession, much like the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918 was the prologue to the Great Depression, which in turn led to World War II. Once the wheels of history begin to turn they tend to feed off of each other. The economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic will no doubt aggravate existing long-term trends and set the stage for instances of collapse. To appreciate this one need only study the Middle East and India, parts of which are becoming a literal tinder box.
How Coronavirus Mutates and Spreads
The New York Times – April 30, 2020 – Jonathan Corum and Carl Zimmer
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/30/science/coronavirus-mutations.html
Over time, viruses can evolve into new strains — in other words, viral lineages that are significantly different from each other. Since January, researchers have sequenced many thousands of SARS-CoV-2 genomes and tracked all the mutations that have arisen. So far, they haven’t found compelling evidence that the mutations have had a significant change in how the virus affects us… Researchers have only sequenced a tiny fraction of the coronaviruses that now infect over three million people worldwide. Sequencing more genomes will uncover more chapters in the virus’s history, and scientists are particularly eager to study mutations from regions where few genomes have been sequenced, such as Africa and South America.
“Fast-Tracking” a Coronavirus Vaccine Sounds Great. It’s Not That Simple
ProPublica – June 17, 2020 – Caroline Chen
https://www.propublica.org/article/fast-tracking-a-coronavirus-vaccine-sounds-great-its-not-that-simple
Among the many ways to shorten the vaccine development timeline, approving a treatment based on antibody data — without completing a phase 3 trial — could be contentious. This is why.
Tiny sponges may soak up coronavirus; old steroid dexamethasone saves lives in COVID-19 study
Reuters – June 17, 2020 – Nancy Lapid
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-science/tiny-sponges-may-soak-up-coronavirus-old-steroid-dexamethasone-saves-lives-in-covid-19-study-idUSKBN23O3B9
The following is a brief roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.
Coronavirus Cases Rise Sharply in Prisons Even as They Plateau Nationwide
The New York Times – June 16, 2020 – Timothy Williams, Libby Seline and Rebecca Griesbach
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/us/coronavirus-inmates-prisons-jails.html
The swift growth in virus cases behind bars comes as demonstrators arrested as part of large police brutality protests across the nation have often been placed in crowded holding cells in local jails. A muddled, uneven response by corrections officials to testing and care for inmates and workers is complicating the spread of the coronavirus. In interviews, prison and jail officials acknowledged that their approach has largely been based on trial and error, and that an effective, consistent response for U.S. correctional facilities remains elusive.
We need to stop seeing patients as dollar signs
KevinMD – June 7, 2020 – Anonymous
https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/06/we-need-to-stop-seeing-patients-as-dollar-signs.html
Like many large scale problems, the solution is not simple. Should board recertification or medical license renewal be contingent upon a peer review of our medical decision making and surgical cases? Should the entire fee for service system be scrapped? Are we morally obligated to be whistleblowers against offending colleagues within our community? Some of us would shudder at the thought of these suggestions, or perhaps even fiercely oppose them. I don’t have the answer. But I, like you, took an oath, and thus I feel compelled to, at the very least, speak up.
How Rich Investors, Not Doctors, Profit From Marking Up ER Bills
MedScape – June 12, 2020 – Isaac Arnsdorf
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/932240?nlid=135961_451&src=WNL_mdplsfeat_200616_mscpedit_peds&uac=214883BN&spon=9&impID=2422425&faf=1
Hundreds of pages of tax returns, depositions and other filings in state court in Houston show how TeamHealth marks up medical bills in order to boost profits for investors.
Investigative journalist Greg Palast: Here’s how Trump will steal the 2020 election
Salon – June 15, 2020 – Chauncey DeVega
https://www.salon.com/2020/06/15/investigative-journalist-greg-palast-heres-how-trump-will-steal-the-2020-election/
Palast’s new book, “How Trump Stole 2020,” outlines a nightmare: Trump loses the electoral vote and wins anyway… In 2020 we are heading into a disaster, and it’s a very well-designed and intentional one. The Republicans thought it all through and tested it in Georgia and Wisconsin and elsewhere. In 2020 when Trump is up for re-election, this chaos will be everywhere.
Trump’s Vacuous West Point Address and the Revolt Against It
The New Yorker – June 15, 2020 – Robin Wright
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trumps-vacuous-west-point-address-and-the-revolt-against-it
President Trump has enraged the U.S. military—from top to bottom. On June 11th, an angry and mournful letter signed by hundreds of graduates of West Point—spanning from the Class of 1948 to the Class of 2019—was posted on Medium. It addressed the Class of 2020. It cited the current “tumultuous time” in America: more than a hundred thousand deaths from a new disease with no known cure, forty million newly unemployed people, and a nation “hurting from racial, social and human injustice” after the murder of George Floyd. “Desperation, fear, anxiety, anger and helplessness are the daily existence for too many Americans,” the signatories wrote. They warned bluntly of leaders who “betray public faith through deceitful rhetoric, quibbling, or the appearance of unethical behavior.” They reminded students of the cadet honor code, which dictates not to “lie, cheat, or steal,” and not to tolerate those who do.
Ending Police Impunity in New York Required Repealing a Secrecy Law Called ‘50-A’
Brennan Center for Justice – June 9, 2020 – Taryn Merkl
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/ending-police-impunity-new-york-required-repealing-secrecy-law-called-50
Responding to the mass protests following George Floyd’s killing and other police violence, the New York State Legislature on Tuesday voted to repeal a 44-year-old law that has long been blamed for a lack of police accountability in the state, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed it Friday. Civil Rights Law 50-A was originally enacted to protect the personnel files of police officers, firefighters, and correctional officers from disclosure, but courts later interpreted it to prohibit disclosure of virtually everything related to a police officer’s employment — including disciplinary records. Without 50-A in the way, law enforcement agencies and police departments across the state should release as much information as possible regarding uses of force and sensitive incidents to ensure effective oversight by the public and elected officials. This transparency is also critical to winning and maintaining the public’s trust, without which law enforcement cannot effectively serve their communities.
Militarization of U.S. Police Departments: Some History
Justice Initiative – June 16, 2020 – Heather Gray
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/US-Police-militarization-some-history-.html?soid=1109359583686&aid=FO7sdFoIfYM
This is an article that addresses some of the history of U.S. police violence and its militarization. While I have sent out this article in the past I am doing so yet again in a somewhat edited fashion as there are countless questions by many as to the why there is this militarization of the U.S. Police Departments and this article will address some of that history.
The knee-on-neck, long a staple of Israel’s occupation of Palestine
TRT World – May 30, 2020
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/the-knee-on-neck-long-a-staple-of-israel-s-occupation-of-palestine-36787
Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation have long dealt with the kind of brutality being enacted by some US police officers against African-Americans.
The American Oligarchy Purrs
The Guardian – June 14, 2020 – Robert Reich
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/14/donald-trump-racism-american-oligarchy
Meanwhile, behind the scenes – in the halls of Congress and the corridors of statehouses, in fundraisers and in private candidate briefings, in strategy sessions with political operatives and public-relations specialists – the CEOs who condemn racism lobby for and get giant tax cuts and fight off a wealth tax. As a result, the nation can’t afford anything as ambitious as a massive Marshall Plan to provide poor communities world-class schools, first-class healthcare and affordable housing… The rich know that as long as racial animosity exists, white and black Americans are less likely to look upward and see where the wealth and power really has gone. They’re less likely to notice that the market is rigged against them all. They’ll cling to the meritocratic myth that they’re paid what they’re “worth” in the market and that the obstacles they face are of their own making rather than an unjust system. Racism reduces the odds they will join together to threaten that system. This is not a new strategy. Throughout history, the rich have used racism to divide people and thereby entrench themselves.
The Decline of Democracy in Hungary Is a Troubling Vision of the Future
Jacobin – June 14, 2020 – Imre Szijarto
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/viktor-orban-hungary-democracy-covid-19
Hungarian premier Viktor Orbán has used the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to silence his critics, even as he endorses street mobilizations by the organized far right. But these aren’t just the pathologies of a country with weak democratic traditions — they’re an extreme version of a reactionary turn happening across the West… There is clear evidence suggesting that something dark and dangerous is brewing.
Dear White People: Here Are 5 Uncomfortable Truths Black Colleagues Need You To Know
Forbes – June 16, 2020 – Dana Brownlee
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danabrownlee/2020/06/16/dear-white-people-here-are-5-uncomfortable-truths-black-colleagues-need-you-to-know/
The baseline uncomfortable truth is that blacks and whites in corporate America often maintain their own subcultures – including very different informal conversations in the workplace – with surprisingly little overlap at times. To be perfectly honest, as a black woman who has worked in and around corporate America for nearly 30 years, I’ve typically only been privy to the black side of the conversation, but I think in this moment where everyone is looking for opportunities to either teach, learn or grow, it’s instructive if not necessary to break down the traditional siloes and speak the unspeakable. So in this vein I’m sharing five critical “truths” that I feel many black people in corporate settings would vehemently discuss in “private” but not necessarily assert in “public.”
Let Us Name the System: “Racial Capitalism”
Reader Supported News – June 17, 2020 – Jeff Cohen
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/63528-rsn-let-us-name-the-system-qracial-capitalismq
Mainstream TV news has always preferred to focus on individual racists rather than address the systemic racism embedded in housing, policing, schooling, employment and healthcare policies – institutionalized racism going back to the foundations of our country. So it’s oddly disconcerting nowadays to hear regular mentions of the phrase “systemic racism” from mainstream journalists who adamantly refuse to criticize (or even name) the system that U.S. racism is entrenched in. That system is “CAPITALISM.” Or as historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad calls it: “racial capitalism.”
Days before Juneteenth, Aunt Jemima, Mrs. Butterworth’s, Uncle Ben’s and Cream of Wheat announced plans to rebrand: A look back at their racist origins
Market Watch – June 20, 2020 – Elisabeth Buchwald
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/with-aunt-jemima-and-uncle-ben-poised-to-disappear-from-american-kitchens-a-look-back-at-their-racist-origins-2020-06-17
For 131 years, Aunt Jemima syrup and pancake mix have been breakfast staples in Americans’ homes. But behind the smiling face featured prominently on these products is a history of slavery and African-American oppression. In the wake of the international protests over the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks, and just days before Juneteenth on June 19 is the observance of the ending of slavery in the U.S., PepsiCo PEP, -1.13% announced Wednesday that it will remove the image of Aunt Jemima from its packaging and change the name of the brand, acknowledging its racist origins.
We’ve Always Had the Money for Medicare for All – We’ve Just Given It to Corporations Instead
Jacobin – June 16, 2020 – David Sirota
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/medicare-for-all-coronavirus-health-care-taxes-government-spending
The same government that says we cannot afford $20–$35 trillion over a decade to finance a Medicare for All program just gave Corporate America between $20 trillion and $35 trillion since the financial crisis roughly a decade ago. And that money was funneled to Corporate America not just in absence of tax increases — it was delivered while the government was actually cutting taxes. The picture gets even more absurd when you slightly broaden the frame and add in another $10 trillion that we nonchalantly spent on other items. For instance, we spent $2 trillion on the Iraq War. We also spent a combined $2.6 trillion on increases in the Pentagon’s already-giant base budget since its first post–9/11 budget. And we devoted about $5 trillion to the Bush and Trump tax cuts.
Supreme Court’s Landmark LGBTQ Employment Decision Is Even Bigger Than Marriage Equality
Rolling Stone – June 15, 2020 – David S. Cohen
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/supreme-court-decision-lgbtq-employment-scotus-1015243/
To get colloquial for a second here — this is huge. When the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that states could not ban same-sex marriage, it was a momentous step for equality. However, that ruling only applied to those gay and lesbian people who wanted to marry. For countless reasons, many LGBTQ folks will not want to marry over the course of their lives, so the 2015 decision, while symbolically important to all LGBTQ people, was only practically relevant to a subset. Not today’s decision. Why? Because virtually every LGBTQ person will work over the course of their lifetime. And after today, every one of those people will work knowing that they are protected under federal law against being treated differently because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Today’s decision is an unequivocal GOOD THING because it is a sea change for equality.
Rhodes statue: tech boss pledges to cover funds pulled by ‘racist donors’
The Guardian – June 18, 2020 – Ben Quinn and Richard Adams
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/18/rhodes-statue-tech-boss-pledges-to-cover-funds-pulled-by-racist-donors
A tech entrepreneur has pledged to “make up for every penny any racist donors pull” after those angry at an Oxford college’s decision to remove a Cecil Rhodes statue said they would stop giving money to the institution and called for it to return donations. Husayn Kassai, who founded the verification company Onfido with three others as a student at Oxford, pledged to step into any breach left by the withdrawal of donors after Oriel college voted to take down the statue of the imperialist politician.
White people learn about Juneteenth, celebrated by millions of black Americans every year
The Washington Post – June 18, 2020 – Petula Dvorak
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/white-people-learn-about-juneteenth-celebrated-by-millions-of-black-americans-every-year/2020/06/18/d66c3fe8-b160-11ea-8758-bfd1d045525a_story.html
It’s one of the foundations for the division and ignorance tearing at America today — the white history curriculum masquerading as American history — no matter how well-meaning, woke or supportive we think we are. All those green cookies on St. Patrick’s Day and construction paper Santa Marias on Columbus Day, but did any schools cover the deep scars of slavery on our nation and how black Americans today reckon with it? Strawberry soda and red velvet cake are part of the holiday, symbolizing the blood spilled in slavery. Historians also connect red to the power and spirituality the color holds in some West African cultures… Our nation’s history is too often glossed over or ignored. All of our stories have not been heard. And the only way — 155 years after the first try — to finally become one America is to listen. And keep learning.
Racism in pollution and policing: A conversation with Robert Bullard, father of environmental justice
National Catholic Reporter – June 19, 2020 – Brian Roewe
https://www.ncronline.org/news/earthbeat/racism-pollution-and-policing-conversation-robert-bullard-father-environmental
Bullard’s decades of study make it clear that racism goes deeper than policing — it plays out in housing, food access, development and the environments where we live… “All communities are not created equal,” Bullard told NCR’s EarthBeat. “There are some that are more equal than others. And if a community happens to be poor, working class or a community of color, it generally receives more than its fair share of things that other people don’t want. That’s the injustice involved.” “And it’s more than just environmentally. It also involves health and wealth. When these many facilities [like landfills, power plants, refineries] are placed near homeowners, they lower the property value, which means lowering wealth. They also create pollution, which is also impacting health. So it’s a double whammy that we’re fighting.”
How Public Opinion Changes for the Better
The New Yorker – June 17, 2020 – Bill McKibben
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/how-public-opinion-changes-for-the-better
Culture usually shifts gradually—painfully gradually for those of us who want change. But, occasionally, attitudes swing quite suddenly, as if pressure had been silently building up behind a dam until it burst. That silently building pressure usually takes the form of good organizing (in this case, superb work by the current generation of civil-rights activists), and the breach itself usually comes from events. The video of George Floyd’s death was so stark that it summed up, in an iconic way no witness could avoid understanding, so much of the country’s racial history.
Juneteenth and the struggle for workers’ rights
Portside – NELP – June 19, 2020 – Rebecca Dixon
https://www.portside.org/2020-06-19/juneteenth-and-struggle-workers-rights
As we contribute to the fight for workers’ rights and to build worker power, we are clear that the origins of the U.S. labor movement start with enslaved African people and their descendants struggling for emancipation.
Racism and the Working Class
Portside – Working-Class Perspectives – June 20, 2020 – Jack Metzgar
https://www.portside.org/2020-06-20/racism-and-working-class
The inspiring explosion of nationwide protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder has uncovered a surprising well of interracial solidarity, especially among young people. As soon as protestors moved from police misconduct to wider issues of racial inequality, they inevitably enter terrain where class inequality merges with racial injustice. A big part of our endemic racial disparities simply reflects the reality that people of color are disproportionately working class. We cannot address the magnitude of racial injustice without simultaneously addressing economic injustice, and to achieve economic justice we’re going to need the kind of interracial solidarity that’s been marching in our streets these past few weeks.
What the Courage to Change History Looks Like
The New York Times – June 19, 2020 – William Barber II, Liz Theoharis, Timothy B. Tyson and Cornel West
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/opinion/floyd-protests-race-america.html
We can’t tinker around the edges. We need to dismantle systems… Since the casual killing of George Floyd on camera, unprecedented protests — not policy papers — have radically shifted public opinion in support of the battle against systemic racism. The new nation being born in our streets may yet blossom into Langston Hughes’s “land that never has been yet / and yet must be” — but only if this movement refuses to let its truths be marched into the narrow cul-de-sac of “police reform.” Yes, years of police killings of unarmed African-Americans had stacked up like dry tinder. True, George Floyd’s public murder furnished the spark. But freedom’s forge must finish its work while the coals are hot. This is the hour to reimagine what America could become if “We the People” meant all of us. America needs what this movement intends to do: change history, after which police training manuals will follow… The marching feet say what the Congress cannot yet hear: Our national history and character carved these scars into our body politic. Policy tinkering will not heal them. If we are to understand the pressing need for radical reconstruction of our nation in this moment, we must look back to see how 400 years of compromises with white supremacy brought us to this place. The American Revolution’s dreams deferred now call us to a brighter common future.
18 Thursday Jun 2020
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in≈ Comments Off on NAACP Takes on the Georgia general Assembly
The NAACP marched from the Richard Russell Federal Building to the Georgia State Capitol to demand that lawmakers repeal several laws, pass other bills, reform the police, and fix voting in Georgia.
https://streetsofatlanta.blog/2020/06/17/naacp-takes-on-the-georgia-general-assembly/
15 Monday Jun 2020
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in≈ Comments Off on Trump’s Military Attack on Civilians Made the Movement Larger & Stronger
Millions of U.S citizens continue to peacefully protest the murder of thousands of African Americans who every year are killed by violent, racist police officers, vigilantes, and white supremacists who are rarely ever held accountable.
"I don’t care if I lose my life if it means my nieces and nephews don’t have to deal with this racism and violence, " a young protester said to national news.
14 Sunday Jun 2020
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in≈ Comments Off on The pesty Constitution
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