This is an archived newsroll page on A Socialist In Canada, consisting of headlines and weblinks, with occasional news summary and brief analysis, for the indicated month(s) and year. See the current, ‘World news’ website page here. To find past stories on this and other news pages on this website, use the ‘find’ (word search) function on your web browser. Headlines in red denote items published on the main news page of A Socialist In Canada, mostly authored by Roger Annis.
World news headlines on A Socialist In Canada, June 2020
The New York Times takes anti-Russian hysteria to new level with report on Russian ‘bounty’ on U.S. troops in Afghanistan, commentary by Scott Ritter, in RT, June 28, 2020 (Scott Ritter is a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who took part in the 1991 Gulf War. He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty and was a UN weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-1998. Prior to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, he declared that the country possessed no significant weapons of mass destruction capabilities. His books include Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein (Nation Books, 2006).) …The Times’ story has been quickly “confirmed” by the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers and has taken social media by storm… There is just one problem — nothing in the New York Times could be corroborated. Indeed, there is no difference between the original reporting conducted by the New York Times, and the “confirming” reports published by the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal…
Related:
* U.S. claim of ‘Russian bounty’ paid to fighters in Afghanistan to kill U.S. soldiers is dubious and dangerous, interview with Max Blumenthal, broadcast on ‘Pushback’, on The Grayzone, with host Aaron Maté, June 30, 2020
* ‘Russian bounty’ story shifts: New York Times now claiming Afghan criminals, not Taliban militants, were paid to kill U.S. soldiers, is still citing anonymous sources for its claims, RT, June 30, 2020
Most people with coronavirus won’t spread it. Why do a few infect so many?, New York Times, June 29, 2020 Growing evidence shows most infected people aren’t spreading the virus. But whether you become a superspreader probably depends more on circumstance than biology.
Related: This coronavirus mutation has taken over the world. Scientists are trying to understand why, Washington Post, June 29, 2020
How inequality fuels Covid-19 deaths, by Jeffrey D. Sachs, published by Project Syndicate, June 29, 2020
Related: The Covid class war, by Yanis Varoufakis, published by Project Syndicate, June 30, 2020 The European Union’s proposed recovery fund to counter the pandemic’s economic fallout seems destined to leave the majority in every member state worse off. Finance will again be protected, if badly, while workers are left to foot the bill through new rounds of austerity.
Abby Martin’s new documentary on the Afghanistan war is a tour de force, Mint Press News, June 29, 2020 Watch the 36-minute documentary film at the weblink.
U.S. Supreme Court rules in 5-4 decision against abortion clininc restrictions in Louisiana, Associated Press, June 29, 2020
Related:
* Chief Justice John Roberts is no pro-choice hero; the latest Supreme Court decision sets the stage for further attacks on abortion rights, editorial, New York Times, Monday, June 29, 2020 …Monday’s decision, with the plurality opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer, isn’t so much good news for reproductive freedom as it is a temporary reprieve from all the bad…
* Abortion rises as a pivotal issue for at-risk Senate Republicans seeking reelection, New York Times, June 29, 2020
Anti-racism be damned: Supreme Court won’t hear challenge to Trump regime’s new federal death penalty procedure seeking to resume executions. Report in Washington Post, June 29, 2020
Ship drawing sheds new light on Holland and Amsterdam’s role in slave trade, The Guardian, June 29, 2020
How Texas swaggered into a coronavirus disaster, commentary in New York Times, June 28, 2020
Related:
* Florida’s Covid-19 cases are up fivefold in two weeks, New York Times, June 28, 2020 A surge in coronavirus cases has prompted officials to prohibit alcohol sales in bars and close Miami beaches for the coming holiday. But will it be enough?
* Tracking the coronavirus in California, by LA Times, June 28, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has spread rapidly across California. Experts say the true number of people infected is unknown and likely much higher than official tallies. The LA Times is conducting an independent, continual survey of dozens of local health agencies across the state. Here is what we know…
* New Covid-19 cases reported on June 28 in selected U.S. states (with June 27 numbers in brackets): Florida 8,530 (record 9,585), Texas 4,330 (near-record 6,089), California 5,240 (4,226), Arizona 3,857 (3,593)
Iran issues arrest warrant for Trump and some 30 criminal associates for Jan 3, 2020 assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, Associated Press, June 28, 2020 Iran has asked Interpol to assist in arresting Trump and other guilty parties but the international police agency has quickly refused.
Record surges in coronavirus infections in U.S. expose failures in governance, Washington Post, June 27, 2020 Five months after the novel coronavirus was first detected in the United States, a record surge in new cases is the clearest sign yet of the country’s historic failure to control the virus — exposing a crisis in governance extending from the Oval Office to state capitals to city councils…
[The criminally negligent responses to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the United States and in other leading imperialist countries such as Britain and France give real meaning to the term ‘failed states’. This is a term which is otherwise typically used by pro-imperialist ideologues to describe states that have been ‘made to fail’ by the incessant economic, political and military interventions by imperialist states.]
Related: Campaign workers at Trump’s June 20 rally in Tulsa were directed to remove stickers from thousands of seats placed by arena owners to remind people of social distancing, Washington Post, June 20, 2020 …The actions by Trump’s campaign were first reported on June 26 by Billboard Magazine… Trump held his Tulsa rally despite opposition by Oklahoma health authorities and residents who feared that convening a large crowd indoors could accelerate the spread of the coronavirus. The number of coronavirus cases in Tulsa County was spiking in the days leading up to the rally and has continued to increase since…
How the world missed Covid-19’s silent spread, New York Times, June 27, 2020 …Interviews with doctors and public health officials in more than a dozen countries show that for two crucial months — and in the face of mounting genetic evidence — Western health officials and political leaders played down or denied the risk of symptomless spreading…
Trump didn’t ‘send in the troops’ to U.S. cities, they were already there, feature essay by C.J. Chivers, in New York Times, June 28, 2020 Police officers today can turn out with more weaponry than I had in 1992, as a Marine deployed to a burning Los Angeles. What does it mean to project this much force at home?
George and Martha Washington: Slaveholders who enslaved 300 people and worked hard to keep it that way, Washington Post, June 27, 2020
Jeremy Corbyn’s opponents burned the house down to stop him. The new Labour Party leader Keir Starmer is king of the ashes, by Daniel Finn, Jacobin Magazine, June 25, 2020
Related:
* Keir Starmer is moving the Labour Party even further to the right, by Dawn Foster, Jacobin Magazine, June 25, 2020
* The sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey by Labour Party leader Keir Starmer shows how anti-Jewish prejudice and racism have been dangerously redefined, by Barnaby Raine, Novara Media (Britain), June 26, 2020
* Rebecca Long-Bailey explains the events leading to her sacking as shadow education secretary, re-commits to the Labour Party as it repudiates Corbyn legacy and shifts further to the right. Commentary by Rebecca Long-Bailey, in The Guardian, June 29, 2020
Affluence is killing the planet, warn scientists in Australia, Britain, Germany, by Thomas Wiedmann, Julia K. Steinberger and Manfred Lenzen, published in The Conversation, June 24, 2020 Affluence trashes our planetary life support systems. What’s more, it also obstructs the necessary transformation towards sustainability by driving power relations and consumption norms. To put it bluntly: the rich do more harm than good. This is what we found in a new study for the journal Nature Communications. Together with co-author Lorenz Keyßer from ETH Zürich, we reviewed recent scientific literature on the links between affluence and environmental impacts, on the systemic mechanisms leading to overconsumption and on possible solutions to the problem. The article is one of a series of Scientists’ Warnings to Humanity…
Related: The affluent are consuming the planet to death, by Matthew Rozsa, Salon.com, June 23, 2020 A new study published this month in the academic journal Nature Communications argues that despite all of the talk about using green technology to address man-made environmental problems, the only way for human consumption to become sustainable is if we rein in the affluent…
Texas and Florida reverse some reopening measures as coronavirus cases spike, Washington Post, June 26, 2020 …About 45,000 coronavirus cases were reported in the U.S. on June 26— the third day in a row the country has had a record high number of cases, according to Washington Post data. Record seven-day case averages have been reported by 13 states: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington…
[In Texas, one in ten people tested for Covid-19 has tested positive. The state’s largest hospital is at capacity in its intensive care unit. New cases on June 26 were 5,614. In Florida on June 26, state health officials reported a record 8,942 infections. Elsewhere on June 26, there were 5,619 new cases in California, 3,428 in Arizona and 933 in New York state.].
Related:
* Jim Naureckas of Fair.org speaks on the Covid-19 social and political crisis in the U.S. Interview broadcast on FAIR.org’s ‘Counterspin’ program, June 26, 2020 (15-minute interview)
* Forget the v-shaped recovery. Millions of U.S. families can’t even pay rent, by Eric Reguly, columnist, Globe and Mail, June 26, 2020 Read the column here in pdf format: Forget the V-shaped recovery …The U.S. economy could be barrelling toward outright depression if the infection and body counts continue to rise and states that opened too quickly lock down their economies again. Yet the stock market would have you think the V-shaped recovery – a quick, sharp upturn after the quick, sharp downturn – is an article of faith…
Britain is still under an official lockdown, but a heatwave has brought people out in droves to crowd beaches and parks, New York Times, June 26, 2020
Also in Europe:
* Coronavirus outbreak at Tönnies company meatpacking plant exposes weakness in Germany’s covid-19 response, Washington Post, June 26, 2020
* Europe prepares to reopen to foreign travelers, but traveling from the U.S. doesn’t even figure into the discussion, Washington Post, June 26, 2020
Will Canada see a second wave of COVID-19? This is what other countries are seeing, Toronto Star, June 25, 2020
How New York Times reported dismissed the gravity of Sweden’s criminally negligent response to Covid-19. Report by Jim Naureckas, in Fairness and Accuracy for Reporrint, June 24, 2020
I’m a health care worker in Arizona. You need to know how close we are to breaking, commentary by Dr. Bradley Dreifuss, New York Times, June 26, 2020 (Dr. Bradley Dreifuss is director of rural and global emergency medicine programs at the College of Medicine, University of Arizona, in Tucson.) … In a medical crisis, my job is to manage a clinical team, problem-solve and be in control. It is hard to admit that I feel vulnerable and scared when I think of the Covid-19 surge we are facing now and the combined Covid-19 and influenza tsunami expected later this year. But I am admitting it because you need to know how close health care workers are to breaking…
Related:
* How Arizona lost control of the epidemic, Washington Post, June 25, 2020 …Arizona has emerged as an epicenter of the early summer coronavirus crisis as the outbreak has expanded, flaring across new parts of the country and, notably, infecting more young people. Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, is recording as many as 2,000 cases a day, “eclipsing the New York City boroughs even on their worst days,” warned a June 24 brief by disease trackers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. It observed, “Arizona has lost control of the epidemic” …Arizona is facing more per capita cases than recorded by any country in Europe, even more than the confirmed number of cases in hard-hit Brazil. Among states with at least 20 people hospitalized for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, no state has seen its rate of hospitalizations increase more rapidly since Memorial Day…
* As virus surges in U.S., younger people account for ‘disturbing’ number of cases, New York Times, June 24, 2020
* Texas putting reopening on ‘pause’ though not reversal as virus cases soar, Associated Press, June 25, 2020
* Florida reports more than 5,000 new coronavirus cases for the second day in a row, Associated Press, June 25, 2020
Yes, defund the cops. And put them under community control, by Glen Ford, executive editor, Black Agenda Report, June 25, 2020
Related:
* Another nightmare video and the police on the defensive in Tucson, New York Times, June 25, 2020 A city with a relatively progressive image and reform-minded police is grappling with a brutal death in police custody — and why it took so long to become public.
* U.S. House of Representatives passes police reform legislation in wake of George Floyd’s killing, Washington Post, June 25, 2020
Essay by Vladimir Putin on the history of World War Two provokes the ire of editors of Germany’s state-run media outlet Deutsche Welle. Item published in Deutsche Welle, June 24, 2020 [In this item, the editors of Deutsche Welle seek out several journalists to echo the editors’ viewpoint sharply condemning an essay on the origins of World War Two by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The essay is dated June 18 and was published on the website of the Russian president. Putin wrote: “I would like to once again recall the obvious fact. The root causes of World War II mainly stem from the decisions made after World War I. The Treaty of Versailles became a symbol of grave injustice for Germany. It basically implied that the country was to be robbed, being forced to pay enormous reparations to the Western allies that drained its economy.” Deutsche Welle critiques one historical fact only in Putin’s essay, namely, the essay’s explanation that Poland’s pre-WW2 leaders helped bring disaster upon the country in 1938 by refusing to sign a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and collaborating with Nazi Germany in its invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia in October 1938. (See ‘German occupation of Czechoslovakia’, in Wikipedia.) In addition to that, the DW editors voice sharp criticism that Russian embassies are writing to news outlets and journalists in the West, including in Germany, inviting them to publish the president’s essay. The item in Deutsche Welle hitting out against the Russian president appears at the same time that the Russian Parliament has once again accused Deutsche Welle of fomenting hostility and spreading false information to its readers about Russia. See the following news headline item.].
Related:
* Deutsche Welle rejects new disinformation allegations against it by Russian parliament, News article/commentary in Deutsche Welle, June 24, 2020
* Australia’s ‘New Matilda’ alternative media outlet publishes Vladimir Putin’s lengthy essay on WW2, but not without inserting its own editorial comments and recommending a recent, lengthy propaganda article by the leading anti-Russia journalist in Canada. See ‘A Russian leader’s take on how the Soviets beat the Nazis’, published in New Matilda, June 24, 2020, with an editorial introduction [The editorial insertions by New Matilda editors into the text of Putin’s essay largely consist of tweets by an anti-Soviet historian which challenge Putin’s (and historians’) claim that the then-government of Poland chose to collaborate with Nazi Germany prior to the German invasion in September 1939 rather than enter into a defense pact with the Soviet Union. They also include a positive invitation to read a terribly biased, anti-Russia feature article published in Canada’s Globe and Mail daily on June 20: ‘We also recommend this article in the Globe and Mail, for a more critical analysis of Putin’s world view.’].
Previously reported: 75th anniversary of the great victory: Shared responsibility to history and our future, by Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, published on the website of the President of Russia, June 18, 2020 (9,000-word essay)
Australian police raid the home of Labour Party MP said by media to be ‘friendly’ to China. Report by ABC.net.au, June 26, 2020
Related: Australia PM Scott Morrison uses cyber scare to push Trump’s racist anti-China campaign, by Peter Boyle, Green Left Weekly, June 26, 2020
Martin Luther King’s giant triplets: Racism, yes, but also militarism and materialism, by Andrew Bacevich, published in Tom Dispatch, June 23, 2020 (Andrew Bacevich is a writer, historian and author, a self-declared conservative and the president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.)
Australian police raid the home of Shaoquett Moselmane, Labour Party MP in New South Wales accused by media of being ‘friendly’ to China, Sydney Morning Herald, June 26, 2020
Coniston: The massacre of dozens of Aboriginals by Australian police in 1928, book review by Rebecca Wu, in Glam Adelaide, Apr 21, 2020 The Coniston Massacre of 1928 has never before been fully researched and recorded. Uncomfortably, it is just one story of many that exist within Australia’s genocidal past. Reviewing: Coniston, by Michael Bradley, UWA Publishing, November 2019
Health experts warn parts of U.S. headed for disaster as coronavirus spikes, Associated Press, June 24, 2020 (read the news article here or here) Hospital administrators and health care experts in the U.S. warned desperately on June 26 that parts of the country are on the verge of becoming overwhelmed by a resurgence of the coronavirus, lamenting that politicians and a tired-of-being-cooped-up public are letting a disaster unfold. The U.S. recorded a one-day total of 34,700 new COVID-19 cases, just short of the country’s late-April peak of 36,400, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University. While new cases have been declining steadily in early U.S. hot spots such as New York State and New Jersey, other states set single-day case records this week…
Related:
* Record increases of new Covid-19 cases in the three U.S. states with the most populations, CNN, June 24, 2020 California, Texas and Florida have each set records for the number of new coronavirus cases in one day, which one expert said is not due just to increased testing… The previous two days with more cases were both in April. The three most-populous US states set those records while nationally, 34,720 new cases were reported Tuesday in the US — the third-highest number of new cases reported in one day since the beginning of the pandemic, based on a data archive kept by Johns Hopkins University. The two days with more cases were both in April. Those three states account for 27.4% of the 328 million people living in the U.S. …
* Coronavirus deaths in U.S. lag behind surging infections but may catch up soon, Washington Post, June 24, 2020
* How the virus won in the U.S., interactive feature in New York Times, June 25, 2020 We trace the hidden spread of the epidemic to explain why the United States failed to stop it. At every crucial moment, American officials were weeks or months behind the reality of the outbreak. Those delays likely cost tens of thousands of lives.
* Inside Lousiana’s Angola maximum-security prison, the largest in the U.S.: Covid-19 raged while officials called their efforts a success, by Anat Rubin, Tim Golden and Richard Webster, Pro Publica, June 23, 2020
Democratic Party and its presidential candidate move right and towards defeat, by Margaret Kimberley, senior columnist, Black Agenda Report, June 24, 2020
Dixie Chicks officially change name to ‘The Chicks’, Variety, June 25, 2020
Trump family seeks to block book by president’s niece that calls him ‘the world’s most dangerous man’, Washington Post, June 24, 2020
Reports say forthcoming European Union travel policy will bar travelers from Covid-19 ravaged countries, including U.S., New York Times, June 23, 2020 …A ban against travelers from the U.S. would lump them in with Russians and Brazilians, a potential stinging blow to American prestige in the world and a repudiation of President Trump’s handling of the virus in the United States, which has more than 2.3 million cases and upward of 120,000 deaths–more than any other country…
Top tennis star Novak Djokovic and his coach and wife test positive for Covid-19 after hosting tennis tournament in Serbia that flouted safety precautions and welcomed large crowds, Associated Press, June 23, 2020 [The world #1 in tennis star has ‘apologized’ for the tournament and the flagrant conduct associated which he organized in the name of raising money for pandemic victims. He says he would not take a Covid-19 vaccine if one were to be developed. Meanwhile, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) says it will proceed with holding the annual U.S. Open tournament in Covid-19-ravaged U.S. in late August 2020 and the French Open in Covid-19-ravaged France in late September.].
Related: Novak Djokovic’s health and wellness initiative catches up with him and serves as a timely warning, by Cathal Kelly, sports columnist, Globe and Mail, June 24, 2020
Brain study will explore lasting, neurological impacts of COVID-19, press release by the University of Western Ontario, issued on June 23, 2020
Related: ‘This illness is going to produce cognitive deficits’: Neuroscientist Adrian Owen launches COVID-19 brain study, by Sharon Kirkey, National Post, June 23, 2020
BC Supreme Court issues schedule for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou’s extradition case, next hearing in August; Federal Court of Canada will hear arguments in July and August on related matters, Canadian Press, June 23, 2020 read also: Extradition hearing in BC court for Meng Wanzhou to start in August, Globe and Mail, June 23, 2020 read the article here in pdf format: Extradition hearing Meng Wanzhou
Related:
* Liberal (large and small ‘l’) dissenters pen open letter urging Canadian government to cease detention and deportation proceedings against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. Report in CBC News, June 24, 2020
* Father of Michael Kovrig, detained in China, says Ottawa must do everything in its power to free his son, report in Globe and Mail, June 23, 2020 ‘I urge the government to live up to its obligations,’ says Bennett Kovrig, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto. ‘Failure to act now is tantamount to a historic betrayal.’ …Canada’s Extradition Act gives Justice Minister David Lametti the power to end the extradition proceedings against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou “at any time”. If he does so, “the court shall discharge the person”, according to the act. Several prominent Canadians, including former justice minister Allan Rock and former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour, have argued Ottawa must consider intervening. Michael Kovrig’s family now says it’s time for Ottawa to consider using that power…
* Ex-spouse of one of two Canadian intelligence officers detained in China under charges of spying says Canadian gov’t should act to ‘bring them home. Report by CBC News, June 22, 2020.
* Ottawa has the authority to free Meng Wanzhou now, former justice minister, Supreme Court justice say, by Sean Fine, justice reporter, Globe and Mail, June 22, 2020 Read the article here in pdf format: Ottawa has the authority to free Meng Wanzhou
* Bowing to Beijing [sic] would put ‘an awful lot more Canadians’ at risk, says Trudeau, Canadian Press, June 25, 2020
Previously reported:
* Meng Wanzhou’s lawyers accuse U.S. of misleading court in extradition case, CBC News, June 15, 2020
* Canada’s spy agency CSIS predicted Meng Wanzhou’s arrest would cause ‘shock waves’ and trouble for Canada, court documents reveal, CBC News, June 12, 2020
[Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were formally charged in China last week with spying, having been arrested and detained in China since December 2018. On Dec 1, 2018, acting on a request from the Trump regime in Washington, the Canadian government placed Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou under house arrest in Vancouver and initiated deportation proceedings against her into the U.S. prison gulag. The U.S. falsely accuses the Huawei executive of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran more than ten years ago; those sanctions are arbitrary and have no international legal standing. Globe and Mail editors and lead writers, as well as those at the state broadcaster CBC, have been pushing hard for the past 18 months for Canada to stay committed to the new cold war against China, spearheaded by the Trump regime in Washington. This includes ongoing agitation for the Canadian government to carry through the deportation of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou into the U.S. prison gulag. CBC, in particular, routinely portrays the Canadian government as ‘caught in the middle’ of a dispute between the Chinese and U.S. governments.]
U.S. virus outbreaks shift from nursing homes, prisons and meatpacking plants to bars, strip clubs and churches, New York Times, June 23, 2020 …The newly emerging clusters vary in size from a handful of cases to hundreds. They have cropped up in large cities as well as small towns and reflect the unpredictable course of the coronavirus. They also underscore risks that experts say are likely to persist as long as states try to reopen economies and Americans venture back into public without a vaccine…
Related:
* How the U.S. became the new Italy on Covid-19, Politico, June 22, 2020
* America is too broken to fight the coronavirus, by Michelle Goldberg, columnist, New York Times, June 22, 2020
* As Covid-19 devastates communities of color, the government’s minority health experts are conspicuously quiet. StatNews, June 22, 2020
Chile celebrated early success against the coronavirus and began to open up. Infections have soared, Washington Post, June 23, 2020 [Chile is eigth in the world for Covid-19 cases, at 251,000. Some 4,500 have died. (Worldometer)] Related news:
* How Mexico said no to COVID-19 testing and is paying a steep price, Globe and Mail, June 22, 2020 [Mexico is #13 in the world for Covid-19 cases, with 185,000. Nearly 23,000 have died. It suffered a near-record 5,343 cases on June 22. It is #10 in population in the world, with 129 million. ].
* How denial and conspiracy theories fuel coronavirus crisis in Pakistan, Deutsche Welle, June 23, 2020 [Pakistan is #14 in the world in Covid-19 cases with 185,000. Since June 2, daily news cases have fluctuated from a baseline of 4,000 up to 6,000 and higher. It is #5 in the world for population, with 221 million.]
‘Superspreading’ events drive most Covid-19 appearances, Scientific American, June 23, 2020 …As scientists have learned more about COVID-19, it has become clear that so-called superspreader incidents—in which one person infects a disproportionate number of other individuals—have played an oversized role in the transmission of the virus that causes the disease…
We’ve never before seen social protests like these, by Douglas McAdam, Jacobin Magazine, June 20, 2020
Related:
* Green Party presidential nominee says Bernie Sanders and others like him have failed to pull the Democratic Party to the left, by John Bowden, The Hill, June 21, 2020 Howie Hawkins clinched the Green Party’s presidential nomination on June 20. He tells The Hill that he rejects the idea that Sanders and other prominent progressives such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have pushed the Democratic Party to the left in recent years. …”I think the biggest issue is foreign and military policy. I’ve been saying that the new nuclear arms race should be a top campaign issue. The last bilateral treaty between the United States and Russia on strategic arms expires next February 5 and there are no negotiations going on. None of the Democrats even talk about it.” …
* Six teens organized an anti-racism protest in Nashville, Tennessee and 10,000 people showed up, by Brock Colyar, The Cut, June 17, 2020
Trade wars and class wars: Is there a global savings glut?, part one of a review of Trade Wars Are Class Wars, review by Michael Roberts (Marxist economist in Britain), June 21, 2020 (Trade Wars Are Class Wars is a new book by authors Matthew Klein and Michael Pettis.) …Klein and Pettis argue that the origins of today’s trade wars emerge from decisions made by politicians and business leaders in China, Europe, and the United States over the past thirty years. Across the world, the rich have prospered while workers can no longer afford to buy what they produce, have lost their jobs, or have been forced into higher levels of debt…
Read part two of this article, June 24, here
With ‘kung flu,’ ‘thugs,’ and ‘our heritage’ phrasings in his June 20 speech in Tulsa, Trump leans on racial grievance as he reaches for a campaign reset, Washington Post, June 21, 2020 …while much attention on his June 20 appearance in Tulsa focused on the sparse turnout for his first rally since the pandemic ended mass gatherings, Trump’s litany of racially offensive stereotypes sent a clear signal about how he plans to try to revive his flagging reelection effort…
Only one third of seats filled at arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma arena where Trump spoke on June 20; the outdoor overflow area was entirely scrapped, Associated Press, June 20, 2020
Related:
* Turnout at Trump’s Tulsa rally was just under 6,200, a fraction of the venue’s 19,200 capacity, Forbes Magazine, June 20, 2020 …While the rally failed to meet expectations, the apparent lack of masks and the tightly packed crowds could potentially result in a surge of coronavirus cases in the region. Cases in Tulsa were already on the rise, with the county reporting its largest case increase ever on the day of the rally…
* Staff sickened by Covid-19 and empty seats: How Trump’s triumphant return to the campaign trail in Tulsa went from bad to worse, CNN, June 20, 2020 …”We’re going to be in Oklahoma. And it’s a crowd like, I guess, nobody’s seen before. We have tremendous, tremendous requests for tickets like, I think, probably has never happened politically before,” Trump said on June 18…
* Racism, lies, and empty seats: The embarrassment that was Trump’s rally in Tulsa on June 20, by Peter Wade, Rolling Stone, June 21, 2020 Oddly, the loudest cheers of the night came when Trump proved he could drink water from a glass
Churchill, Columbus and King Leopold fall down, by Margaret Kimberely, contributing editor, Black Agenda Report, June 17, 2020
Brazil education minister quits job while under criminal investigation, flees to U.S. as Western-backed Bolsonaro regime comes apart, New York Times, June 21, 2020 …Abraham Weintraub hopes to assume a senior role at the World Bank in the United States. He gained entry to the country by circumventing a travel ban imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Precisely how is unclear…
Related:
* Bolsonaro fraudulently circumvented Trump’s COVID-19 immigration ban to smuggle his scandal-plagued ex-education minister into the U.S., by Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept, June 20,2020
Previously reported: Brazil ignored the warnings. As other countries fret over a second coronavirus wave, Brazil can’t get past the first, Washington Post, June 16, 2020 …What is happening here in Brazil appears to be globally unique. Despite soaring numbers, officials have not implemented measures largely successful elsewhere in the world. There has been no national lockdown. No national testing campaign. No agreed-upon plan. There has been insufficient health-care expansion. Instead, the hardest-hit cities are throwing open the doors to malls and churches even as the country is routinely posting more than 30,000 new cases a day — five times more than Italy reported at the peak of its outbreak…
The city of Baltimore tried reforming the police, but the police fought against every change, commentary by Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg, Washington Post, June 19, 2020 The last five years in Baltimore are a warning for efforts today to tinker around edges of law enforcement. Police don’t believe in reform and Baltimore shows that we shouldn’t, either. (Baynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg are journalists living in Baltimore and co-authors of the newly published book I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad.)
Confederate monuments are falling, but hundreds still stand. Here’s where, Washington Post, June 20, 2020
New York City has hired 3,000 workers for contact tracing but the tracing is not going well, New York Times, June 20, 2020
Ventilators may not be the best treatment for severe covid-19, by Clare Wilson, New Scientist, print issue of June 6-12, 2020 Read the article here in pdf format: Ventilators may not be the best treatment
Why Japan’s jobless rate is just 2.6 per cent while the U.S. rate has soared, New York Times, June 20, 2020
‘The pandemic is accelerating,’ says World Health Organization chief, warning of ‘new and dangerous phase’ of coronavirus crisis, Common Dreams, June 19, 2020 …”More than 150,000 new cases of Covid-19 were reported to WHO yesterday [June 18]—the most in a single day so far,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said…
Related:
* ‘Heartbreaking,’ say global experts, alarmed at signs U.S. has ‘given up’ fight to stop Covid-19, Common Dreams, June 19, 2020
* More U.S. states and municipalities mandating face masks as coronavirus cases surge and Trump White House flouts safety measures. Report by Al Jazeera, June 18, 2020 As infections spiral, more US states and cities are requiring people to cover their faces in most indoor settings.
Previously reported: Downplaying virus risk, Trump regime strives to return to business as usual, Associated Press, June 12, 2020
Fatality rate from Covid-19 in Africa is much lower than the rest of the world, Toronto Star, June 20, 2020 …According to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University and the African Centre for Disease Control, the African continent, made up of 54 countries and a population of 1.3 billion people, has more than 250,000 cases of COVID-19, but only 6,800 deaths…. Compare that to the UK, which has a comparable number of cases, nearly 300,000, but a far higher death count–42,000 people according to Johns Hopkins figures…
Inside the Trump administration’s declaration it will pull the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, report by Pro-Publica, June 20, 2020 …In the weeks after Trump’s May 29 declaration of intent to withdraw from the World Health Organization, the White House has given little direction on what to do next. Officials who deal with the WHO knew that withdrawal is a cumbersome process requiring a year’s notice, a multiagency review and payment of unpaid dues. As a result, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar instructed his department to continue cooperating with the organization… “This is sending just unbelievable shock waves through the agencies,” a senior government official said. The official warned that reduced cooperation with the WHO will have “profound and severe repercussions”. Among the most immediate potential impacts: The move could for the first time cut the U.S. government out of the development of the seasonal influenza vaccine for the Southern Hemisphere, a process coordinated by the WHO in partnership with the United States. And the withdrawal from the WHO could impede access to an eventual COVID-19 vaccine if it is created overseas… Leaving the organization could also significantly blind the U.S. to health threats in remote foreign locales that, as the pandemic has shown, have the potential to make their way to the U.S. shores. Experts also fear the impact on major initiatives to combat infectious diseases, such as a WHO-led program that is on the cusp of eradicating polio…
[The three Pro-Publica writers unfortunately appear to accept as fact what they call “the WHO’s stumbles on COVID-19” and “recent missteps, including conflicting advice about the efficacy of masks”. They also appear to accept as fact the predictions by “current and former officials” that “China will gain control over the organization if Washington really does terminate its membership.” These false accusations are echoes of the very Trump regime that the writers critique.]
Tense mood grips Tulsa, Oklahoma as Trump fans and protesters gather ahead of campaign rally, Washington Post, June 19, 2020 …As of June 18, infections were up 140 per cent in Oklahoma, according to estimates by the Federation of American Scientists. As of June 19, Tulsa County had 2,070 cases and 65 deaths. Oklahoma had 9,706 cases and 367 deaths…
Related:
* Six staffers preparing Trump’s June 20 rally in Tulsa have tested positive for coronavirus. Report by Associated Press, June 20, 2020
* Black leaders in Tulsa are outraged by Trump’s planned rally during a pandemic, Washington Post, June 19, 2020 ‘We are dealing with the virus of racism and the virus of Covid-19’
* Tulsa’s ugly racial history: From the Trail of Tears to deadly 1921 race massacre, Washington Post, June 19, 2020
Racial justice and transformative social change demanded in Juneteenth commemorations across U.S., Common Dreams, June 19, 2020
Related:
* Activists marking Juneteenth pull down the only remaining Confederate statue in Washington DC, Associated Press, June 19, 2020
* Protesters remove two Confederate statues in Raleigh, capital of North Carolina, The News and Observer, June 19, 2020
* Colleges across U.S. littered with racist Confederate symbols debate their future, Washington Post, June 19, 2020
* Protests in Minnesota demanded police reform but the state house and senate have ended their weeklong ‘special session’ without passing a bill, New York Times, June 20, 2020
75th anniversary of the great victory in the Great Patriotic War: Shared responsibility to history and our future, by Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, published on the website of the President of Russia, June 18, 2020 (also published in The National Interest, June 18, 2020) …I would like to once again recall the obvious fact. The root causes of World War II mainly stem from the decisions made after World War I. The Treaty of Versailles became a symbol of grave injustice for Germany. It basically implied that the country was to be robbed, being forced to pay enormous reparations to the Western allies that drained its economy. French Marshal Ferdinand Foch who served as the Supreme Allied Commander gave a prophetic description of that Treaty: “This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.”…The League of Nations also failed to prevent conflicts in various parts of the world, such as the attack of Italy on Ethiopia [1935-36], a civil war in Spain [1936-1939], the Japanese aggression against China [1937-1945] and the Anschluss of Austria [1938]… Poland was also engaged in the partition of Czechoslovakia along with Germany… The partition of Czechoslovakia [by Nazi Germany and Poland] was brutal and cynical. [The] Munich [Agreement, Sept 1938] destroyed even the formal, fragile guarantees that remained on the continent. It showed that mutual agreements were worthless. It was the Munich Betrayal that served as the “trigger” and made the great war in Europe inevitable…
The Coronavirus pandemic has widened America’s vast racial wealth gap, study finds, The Guardian, June 19, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has proved a bonanza for billionaires in the U.S. and further widened the enormous racial wealth gap in the country, according to a new report released on June 19 by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in Washington. In the 12 weeks between March 18 and June 11, the combined wealth of all U.S. billionaires increased by more than $637 billion to a total of $3.581 trillion. That’s more than the entire wealth of the U.S.’s 59 million Latinx population combined, and it’s equal to three-quarters of all Black wealth… Read the full 41-page report here at the IPS website.
Related: Charts show the gaps between White and Black America, New York Times, June 19, 2020
Wastewater study finds SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus was present in Italy by Dec 2019, Agence France presse, June 19, 2020 The coronavirus was already present in two large cities in northern Italy in December, over two months before the first case was detected, a study of wastewater by researchers in Italy has found. …Chinese scientists have said the virus likely emerged in a market that sold wildlife in the central city of Wuhan in December, but Beijing officials have recently suggested that it may have originated elsewhere… [emphasis added] Read the study by Italian researchers here.
Hectic negotiations lead to return of ten Indian soldiers from Chinese custody, The Indian Express, June 19, 2020
Related:
* Modi denies any Indian territory was lost in China clash, Associated Press, June 18, 2020 …China claims about 90,000 square kilometers of territory in India’s northeast, while India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometers of its territory in the Aksai Chin Plateau in the Himalayas, a contiguous part of the Ladakh region. India unilaterally declared Ladakh a federal territory while separating it from disputed Kashmir in August 2019. China was among the countries to condemn the move…
* India-China border dispute: Indian nationalists should stop using call to ‘boycott Chinese products’, editorial in Global Times (China), June 19, 2020
U.S. Supreme Court rules Trump cannot end DACA in big win for ‘Dreamer’ legal immigrants, NBC News, June 18, 2020 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the Trump administration cannot carry out its plan to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has allowed nearly 800,000 young people, known as ‘Dreamers’, to avoid deportation and remain in the U.S. The decision is a big legal defeat for President Donald Trump on the issue of immigration, which has been a major focus of his domestic agenda…
The political economy of Covid-19 and ‘economic stimulus’, by Pete Dolack, published on his website Systemic Disorder, June 17, 2020 In the name of Covid-19 relief programs, governments around the world are spending massive amounts to prop up a failing capitalist system
We need solidarity, not white guilt, to fight racism, by Hadas Thier, Jacobin Magazine, June 17, 2020 The well-intentioned drive among white progressives to “check their privilege” or “take responsibility” for their unconscious biases won’t do much to fight racism. But forging real solidarity through concrete campaigns, protests, and movements can.
Previously reported: ‘White privilege’ is a distraction, leaving racism and power untouched, by Kenan Malik, columnist, The Guardian, June 14, 2020
Seattle’s newly police-free neighborhood explained, Vox.com, June 16, 2020
Related:
* This Seattle protest zone is police-free, volunteers are stepping up to provide security, Washington Post, June 16, 2020
* Organizers in Minneapolis weigh role of community defense groups in a police-free future, The Intercept, June 12, 2020
Previously reported: Community defense patrols arise in Minneapolis as confidence in the police force plummets, Washington Post, June 6, 2020 …The string of high-profile killings at the hands of Minneapolis police in recent years has prompted calls to defund or disband the department. A majority of the Minneapolis City Council now supports the idea of replacing it with a new model for public safety. But in the meantime, residents have taken it upon themselves to create alternatives, including forming armed defense forces… In a neighborhood of north Minneapolis, the local chapter of the NAACP has begun to try to do just that: Create a community alternative to police with armed citizen patrols. They call their group the Minnesota Freedom Riders, a reference to the civil rights activists who rode buses through the segregated South in 1961…
Why did Cup Foods call the cops on George Floyd?, New York Times, June 17, 2020 Nuisance abatement laws force stores in low-income neighborhoods to operate almost as an arm of law enforcement
Modern Monetary Theory and the deficit myth, by Michael Roberts, published on his website, June 16, 2020
Coronavirus breakthrough: dexamethasone is first drug shown to save lives, Nature Magazine, June 16, 2020 In a large trial in Britain, a cheap and widely available steroid cut deaths by one-third among patients critically ill with COVID-19 and receiving oxygen therapy
Related:
COVID-19 and public transit: What we think we know may be wrong, by Ben Spurr, transportation reporter, Toronto Star, June 18, 2020 …Recent international data show a lack of confirmed cases connected to transit use that is striking even when taking ridership declines into account. Some experts say this can be explained by gaps in contact tracing methodologies, but others argue the risk of transmission on public transportation may not be as severe as initially feared…
Spate of new research supports wearing masks to control coronavirus spread, Washington Post, June 16, 2020
How and when can a coronavirus vaccine become a reality?, by Caroline Chen, published in Pro-Publica (U.S.), June 17, 2020
Related: Medical experts discuss the ethics of ‘challenge trials’ that would speed the testing of potential coronavirus vaccines, Washington Post, June 15, 2020
Record spike in new coronavirus cases reported in six U.S. states as reopening accelerates, CNBC, June 17 2020 New coronavirus infections hit record highs in six U.S. states on June 16, marking a rising tide of cases for a second consecutive week as most states moved forward with reopening their economies. Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas all reported record increases in new cases on June 16 after recording all-time highs last week. Nevada also reported its highest single-day tally of new cases on June 16, up from a previous high on May 23…
Related:
* Florida, Arizona and Texas report record number of daily Covid-19 cases this week, CNN, June 17, 2020
* Coronavirus safety measures being ignored in U.S. as case numbers rise, Washington Post, June 15, 2020
* Trump election campaign is ‘throwing a match’ into the Covid-19 emergency with plans for a string of election rallies, Washington Post, June 15, 2020 …To observe Trump and his entourage this month as he prepares to resume normal campaign activity coast to coast could lead one to conclude that the coronavirus pandemic is over. In reality, the virus continues to ravage the United States and is fast spreading in some midsize and small cities that avoided bad outbreaks this spring…
Trump signs order on police reform, doesn’t mention racism, Associated Press, June 16, 2020 and read: Trump offers full-throated defense of police in executive action signing, CNN, June 17, 2020
Months into Covid-19 emergency, biggest one-day case spike worries Iran, Associated Press, June 16, 2020
Related: More controls in Beijing as Covid-19 outbreak grows, Associated Press, June 16, 2020
Community control over policing versus ‘defunding’ the police: A critical analysis, by Max Rameau and Netfa Freeman, published on Black Agenda Report, June 10, 2020 Defunding the police might end the armed and uniformed force as we know it, but the ruling class will then hire mercenaries to protect their wealth and enforce their will.
Related:
* Defund the police, defund the military, by Nicolas J S Davies and Medea Benjamin, published in CounterPunch, June 11, 2020
* The capitalist limits of police reform, by Shamus Cooke, published in CounterPunch, June 12, 2020 (Shamus Cooke is a member of the Portland branch of Democratic Socialists of America.)
* How the Pentagon’s (U.S. armed forces) hand-me-down equipment helped militarize U.S. police forces, Wired Magazine, June 2, 2020 Over several decades, the Pentagon’s ‘1033’ program has shipped over $7.4 billion of Defense Department property to more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies.
* Media acknowledge drive to defund police but seek to blunt its radical edge, by Julie Hollar, Fairness and Accurcy In Reporting, June 11, 2020
* In open letter, 50 liberal groups slam Joseph Biden’s response to police protest movement, Washington Post, June 15, 2020
Contact tracing is public health’s most powerful weapon for tracking Covid-19 transmission and protecting populations; in many U.S. states it is failing, Washington Post, June 14, 2020
Meat industry in U.S. could lose $20 billion this year due to COVID-19, The Beet, June 15, 2020 …More than 20,000 meat industry workers have fallen ill during the pandemic, with 86 reported deaths at meat processing plants across 23 states (spread out amongst 38 plants) according to the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting…
Coronavirus cases spike across the U.S. ‘Sun Belt’ as economy lurches into motion, New York Times, June 14, 2020 Arizona, Texas and Florida are reporting their highest case numbers yet. As of Saturday, coronavirus cases were climbing in 22 states amid reopenings.
Additional U.S. news: Emails reveal chaos as U.S. meatpacking companies fought health agencies over Covid-19 outbreaks in their plants, by Michael Grabell, Claire Perlman and Bernice Yeung, Pro-Publica, June 12, 2020 …Nearly a week after Tyson Food’s Covid-19 testing ended in May at its chicken processing plant in Wilkesboro, the county health agency in North Carolina had received less than 20% of the results… Only after the state public health director warned Tyson that its testing company could face “injunctive relief or prosecution” did the health department receive the information. As of June 10, 599 workers had tested positive, more than a fifth of the plant’s workforce… The dangerous delay by the nation’s largest food company is one of a series of breakdowns revealed in tens of thousands of pages of emails, text messages, meeting notes and reports that ProPublica obtained from dozens of public health agencies across the country…
* Editorial in Tulsa’s largest daily newspaper says Trump rally not welcome, Common Dreams, June 15, 2020
* Concerns over planned Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma after record COVID-19 cases reported in Tulsa County, KJRH.com, June 15, 2020
* Trump election campaign is requiring legal waiver from anyone attending its abhorrent rally to take place in Tulsa on June 19. Report by CNN, June 12, 2020 Update: [Late on June 12, the Trump election campaign announced that it is changing the date of its abhorrent rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma to one day later, June 20.]
* Trump’s grotesque election campaign event to take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Juneteenth (June 19), by Michelle Goldberg, columnist, New York Times, June 11, 2020 [‘Juneteenth’ (June 19) is a U.S. holiday that marks the date that the Emancipation Proclamation was proclaimed in Texas, the last of the former slave states to issue the proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863; it was publicly proclaimed in Texas (Galveston) by Union General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, two months following the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Virginia on April 9. In 1980, Texas became the first state to designate Juneteenth as a holiday, though the recognition is largely symbolic. Since then, 45 other states and the District of Columbia have moved to officially recognize the day.]
* The Tulsa race massacre of May 31/June 1, 1921, Wikipedia
A frantic search for scarce hospital beds as pandemic rages in India, Washington Post, June 13, 2020
Related:
* State gov’t in Tamil Nadu (southern India) announces ‘full’ lockdown in Chennai and other regions as coronavirus cases rise, Live Mint, June 15, 2020
* 100,000 new Covid-19 cases in Pakistan since it lifted its lockdown one month ago, New York Times, June 14, 2020
The real Winston Churchill, by Richard Seymour, published in Jacobin, Jan 11, 2018 Churchill was no hero — he was a vile racist fanatical about violence and fiercely supportive of imperialism.
U.S. military faces a reckoning on how to handle its Confederate symbols, but Trump’s interventions have them treading cautiously, Washington Post, June 12, 2020
Rage and promises followed the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on Aug 9, 2014, with little result. Will George Floyd’s death be different?, report in New York Times, June 12, 2020
Related:
* Yes, we mean, literally, abolish the police, op-ed commentary by Mariame Kaba, New York Times, June 12, 2020 (Mariame Kaba is an organizer against criminalization.) Congressional Democrats want to make it easier to identify and prosecute police misconduct; Joe Biden wants to give police departments $300 million. But efforts to solve police violence through liberal reforms like these have failed for nearly a century…
* I’m a Black American. The racism was too much, I had to get out, op-ed commentary by Tiffanie Drayton, New York Times, June 12, 2020
* Fueled by protests, school districts across the U.S. cut police presence in schools, Washington Post, June 13, 2020
* George Floyd died after police officers didn’t step in. These officers did step in against brutality, and they have paid a price, Washington Post, June 12, 2020
Australian prime minister backtracks on claim that Australia had no slavery, by Rod McGuirk, Associated Press, June 12, 2020
Related:
* Australian PM Scott Morrison wants Black Lives Matters protesters charged using Covid-19 concerns as cover and claims ‘there was no slavery in Australia’, CBS News, June 11, 2020
* Was there slavery in Australia? Yes. It shouldn’t even be up for debate, by Thalia Anthony (University of Technology Sydney) and Stephen Gray (Monash University), published in The Conversation, June 11, 2020
[According to Associated Press, Aboriginals are two per cent of Australia’s adult population but 27 per cent of its prison population. There have been more than 400 Aboriginal deaths in custody in the last few decades.]
The Fed just pulled off another backdoor bailout of Wall Street, by Pam Martens and Russ Martens, published in Wall St. On Parade, June 11, 2020
Related: Wall Street banks tank one day after Fed Chair says they’re ‘a source of strength’, by Pam Martens and Russ Martens, published in Wall St. On Parade, June 11, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic isn’t ending — it’s surging worldwide, Washington Post, June 11, 2020
Related: Florida reports record high 1,902 new coronavirus cases, one day after previous record, Miami Herald, June 12, 2020 Florida has recorded 70,971 cases of Covid-19 since the pandemic began to strike in March 2020.
Minnesota governor unveils sweeping police reforms as Floyd’s death continues to spark change, Washington Post, June 11, 2020
Related:
* Activists take over a Seattle neighborhood, banishing the police, Washington Post, June 11, 2020
* Seattle protesters struggle to determine what’s next for ‘autonomous zone’ as Trump lobs threats, Washington Post, June 12, 2020
A statue to a 17th century slave trader was finally toppled in Bristol, England. Can we now talk about the British Empire?, commentary by Gurminder K Bhambra (University of Sussex), published in New York Times, June 11, 2020 …The inequalities and injustices created by colonialism, enslavement and empire are manifest in the public display of statues of men such as Edward Colston, Cecil Rhodes, Henry Dundas (and here) and Robert Clive. They are manifest in statues of King Leopold II in Belgium or any number of Confederate statues in the United States. They represent and glorify those histories and call us to agree to be defined by them, to be represented by them…
Previously reported:
* In Britain, an uprising against racism topples statues of slaveowners and symbols of empire, report in Globe and Mail, June 9, 2020
* Statues to Britain’s racist past fall as demonstrators are inspired by moves in the U.S. against statues and other symbols of slavery, New York Times, June 8, 2020 …When demonstrators dumped the monument of Edward Colston into Bristol Harbor with a splash on June 7, they forced Britain to consider how to confront its racist history at a moment when many of the same questions are being asked in the United States. A more precise parallel, perhaps, is not [the removals of statues of] Saddam Hussein or Stalin but the removal of statues of Confederate generals in city squares across the American South… Colston’s ignominious fate may not bode well for a statue of Cecil Rhodes that sits uneasily at the Oxford University college where he studied…
* Britons cheer toppling of statue to slave trader Edward Colston statue but are divided over tagging of Winston Churchill as racist, Washington Post, June 8, 2020
Meet Wikipedia’s Ayn Rand-loving founder and Wikimedia Foundation’s regime-change operative CEO, by Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone, June 11, 2020 [This is part two of a two-part series. Part one is immediately below.] Related: Wikipedia formally censors The Grayzone as pro-Western regime-change advocates monopolize editing, by Ben Norton, The Grayzone, June 10, 2020 On Wikipedia, a small group of regime-change advocates and right-wing Venezuelan opposition supporters have blacklisted independent media outlets like The Grayzone on explicitly political grounds, violating the encyclopedia’s guidelines.
Trump regime announces travel sanctions against officials of the International Criminal Court, Associated Press, June 11, 2020 The Trump regime in Washington has announced economic and travel sanctions against court workers investigating American troops and intelligence officials and those of allied nations, including Israel, for possible war crimes in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Beleaguered and besieged, police forces across U.S. confront a nation’s anger, Washington Post, June 10, 2020 …Police in the United States have shot and killed nearly 500 people already this year, an average of about three per day. The figure does not include those, like George Floyd, who were killed by other means…
Related: Aggressive tactics by National Guard wounded the military, too, New York Times, June 10, 2020 …On one point everyone is agreed: The first days of June have been a debacle for the National Guard… Washington DC Guard members, typically deployed to help after hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters, say they feel demoralized and exhausted. More than 60 per cent are people of color, and one soldier said he and some fellow troops were so ashamed in taking part against the protests [against racism and police violence] that they have kept it from family members…
Blind economic ‘growth’ must end in the post-pandemic world if we are to solve the ecological crisis, by Joe Herbert and Riccardo Mastini, Common Dreams, June 8, 2020
Related:
* Returning to normal in the world capitalist economy?, by Michael Roberts, June 5, 2020
* Federal Reserve predicts slow recovery with unemployment at 9.3 percent by end of 2020, Washington Post, June 10, 2020
* Fewer hours, less pay and more anxiety greet returning workers across the U.S., Washington Post, June 7, 2020
Coronavirus cases rise across U.S. prompting public health experts to urge caution, Washington Post, June 10, 2020 …A few weeks after lifting restrictions on most businesses and large gatherings, more than a dozen states are showing new highs in the number of positive coronavirus cases or hospitalizations…
Is the worst of the pandemic behind us? Here’s what scientists know, by Devi Sridhar, commentary in The Guardian, June 11, 2020 (Professor Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh.)
Protesters in Virginia tear down statue of Jefferson Davis one day after dismantling statue to Christopher Columbus, CNN, June 11, 2020 …The statues are two of many more that are coming down in cities across the US amid widespread protests decrying racism and oppression…
Related:
* House of Representatives leader Nancy Pelosi of Democratic Party calls for removal of Confederate statues in halls of Congress, Washington Post, June 10, 2020 …Each state is allowed to choose two statues to decorate the halls of Congress. There are, according to Pelosi’s letter, 11 Confederate statutes…
* Trump vows no renaming of military bases named after pro-slavery Confederate secessionists, Associated Press, June 10, 2020 and read: report in Washington Post, June 10, 2020
* A photo collection of statues and monuments toppled or damaged during country-wide protests in the U.S., The Journal Times (Wisconsin), June 11, 2020
I’ve seen tear gas up close, now I’m trying to end its use, op-ed commentary by Braxton Winston, in Washington Post, June 10, 2020 (Braxton Winston is a Democratic Party at-large member of the Charlotte, N.C., City Council.)
Related:
* Black Lives Matter movement in Seattle occupies six-block, police-free ‘autonomous zone’ and floods City Hall, Common Dreams, June 10, 2020
* The White House put up a wall to block protests from using Lafayette Square in Wash. DC, but the people ‘made it beautiful’ with protest messaging, Washington Post, June 10, 2020
* DC mayor who earned points for painting ‘Black Lives Matter’ on city street urges caution on police reform. Report in Washington Post, June 10, 2020
* ABC News analysis of police arrests nationwide reveals stark racial disparity, ABC News, June 11, 2020 Black people were arrested at a rate five times more than white people in 2018.
* Aggressive tactics by National Guard in Wash DC were ordered to appease Trump, they wounded the military’s reputation, too, New York Times, June 10, 2020 …The National Guard is now engaged in an investigation of the havoc on June 1 in downtown Washington, similar to after-the-fact examinations more common to battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan… On one point everyone is agreed: The first days of June, a calamitous period for the Trump presidency, have been a debacle for the National Guard… More than 5,000 Guard troops — from the District of Columbia and a dozen states — were rushed to the streets of the capital to help in the crackdown on mostly peaceful protesters and occasional looters after the killing of George Floyd in police custody… Interviews with two dozen military officials as well as texts, internet chats, audio recordings, emails and documents obtained by The New York Times also show that:
- Senior Army leaders — in an effort to prevent what they feared would be a calamitous outcome if President Trump ordered combat troops from the 82nd Airborne Division holding just outside city limits to the streets — leaned heavily on the Guard to carry out aggressive tactics to prove it could do the job without active-duty forces.
- Guard leaders issued a flurry of ad hoc orders that put thousands of Guard troops in face-to-face conflict with fellow Americans.
- Some of the Guard troops were just out of basic training, and others had no experience in controlling disturbances in the streets. Troops were allowed to drive heavy vehicles on the streets without the usual licensing…
- Military helicopters were used to terrorize protesters.
It won’t be protests that bring on the next big wave of Covid-19 infections, by Jim Naureckas, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, June 10, 2020
Missing perspective in corporate media: The commercial ties between Iran and Venezuela none of the U.S.’s business, by Gregory Shupac, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, June 10, 2020
Related:
* The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) is media’s ‘left’ source for pro-coup propaganda on Venezuela, by Lucas Koerner, Venezuela Analysis, June 10, 2020
* Manifesto by Venezuelan grassroots groups demand popular control over distribution of Iranian fuel, condemn threats against Venezuela gov’t and people, statement published in Venezuela Analysis, June 10, 2020
* Federal criminal charges against four Venezuelan embassy protectors in Washongton DC dropped, Venezuela Analysis, June 9, 2020 [Charges against the four members of the Venezuela Embassy Protection Collective ended in a mistrial in February 2020. Federal prosecutors then dropped the federal charge and substituted one of most minor local misdemeanor charges in the Washington DC municipal code.].
* Venezuela inaugurates new fuel sale and distribution system while increasing local production, by Paul Dobson, Venezuela Analysis, June 1, 2020
Britain-U.S. cooperation on policing gets complicated following UK Supreme Court ruling in March 2020 that evidence sharing with U.S. is illegal without guarantees that the death penalty won’t apply in cases involved. Report in Washington Post, June 10, 2020 …The United Kingdom’s Central Authority delivered the message to U.S. authorities on June 4 [more than two months after the unanimous ruling by the UK Supreme Court]… But a spokesperson for the British Home Office said in a more recent email, “The UK continues to process and cooperate with Mutual Legal Assistance Requests,” suggesting that whatever pause there had been, it was now lifted, at least in some measure… [A senior Justice Department official told the Washington Post that the UK’s decision to pause transmitting of evidence in response to Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty requests might be connected to the dispute over Prince Andrew. He is sought for questioning by U.S. authorities in the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein but is not responding to requests to cooperate.].
Related: UK Supreme Court rules that Britain cannot provide evidence to U.S. for use in death penalty cases, by the Death Penalty Information Center (Washington DC), Mar 26, 2020
Big majorities of Americans support protests over Floyd killing and say police need to change, says poll, Washington Post, June 9, 2020 [While large majorities polled by the Washington Post-Schar School poll were sympathetic to protests, large majorities also chose “other people acting irresponsibly” (in the poll’s language) for the violence occuring at anti-racism protests. Only 14 per cent blamed police for the violence.].
Related:
* Washington DC city council rushes approval of ‘band aid’ reforms to the city’s policing. Report in Washington Post, June 9, 2020
* Trump rebuked for Twitter attacks suggesting 75-year-old protester left bleeding on the ground by police in Buffalo was part of a ‘set up’, Washington Post, June 9, 2020
* New study shows more than 18 million Americans who are at high risk of Covid-19 lack adequate health insurance, Common Dreams, June 10, 2020
Are asymptomatic people spreading the coronavirus? A WHO official’s words on June 8 spark confusion, debate, Washington Post, June 9, 2020 …”It’s a mess. I don’t know why they would say asymptomatic transmission is very rare when the truth is we simply don’t know how frequent it is,” said Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research. “It doesn’t change the facts we do know, which is that this virus is very transmissible and is very hard to combat.”…
Black Lives Matter protesters in Belgium want statues of colonialist King Léopold II to come down, Washington Post, June 9, 2020 …More than 63,000 people have signed a petition demanding that all Léopold statues in the country be removed by June 30, the 60th anniversary of the independence of the nation that is now the Democratic Republic of Congo… If removed, the Léopold statues would join others that have been relegated to the scrap heap during this moment of upheaval. In just the past week, Confederate statues have come down — removed by local officials or protesters — in Philadelphia; Birmingham, Mobile and Montgomery, Ala.; Alexandria and Richmond; and Jacksonville, Fla. In the English city of Bristol on Sunday, a crowd tore down a statue of a 17th century slave trader, Edward Colston, and tossed it into the harbor, and there is now a debate about statues of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, a wartime hero whom protesters say was also racist…
The corporate origins of the ‘reopen’ demonstrations and other anti-science interventions reacting to Covid-19, by Pete Dolack, published on his website Systemic Disorder, June 10, 2020
No, the Covid-19 lockdowns were not an overreaction, column in Washington Post, June 9, 2020
Previously reported: Shutdowns prevented 60 million coronavirus infections in the U.S., saved about 3.1 million lives in Europe, two new studies find, Washington Post, June 8, 2020 Shutdown orders prevented about 60 million novel coronavirus infections in the United States and 285 million in China, according to a research study published June 8 that examined how stay-at-home orders and other restrictions limited the spread of the contagion. A separate study from epidemiologists at Imperial College London estimated the shutdowns saved about 3.1 million lives in 11 European countries, including 500,000 in the United Kingdom, and dropped infection rates by an average of 82 per cent, sufficient to drive the contagion well below epidemic levels. The two reports, published simultaneously June 8 in the journal Nature, used completely different methods to reach similar conclusions…
The New York Times admits key falsehoods that drove the October 2019 coup in Bolivia–falsehoods peddled by the U.S. and its media, including the Times itself, by Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept, June 8, 2020 As U.S. media coverage of last year’s coup in Bolivia demonstrates, little has changed since the Cold War when it comes to media fealty to the State Department and the CIA.
FBI launches open attack on ‘foreign’ alternative media outlets challenging U.S. foreign policy, by Gareth Porter, The Grayzone, June 5, 2020 Under FBI orders, Facebook and Google removed American Herald Tribune, an alternative news website that publishes U.S. and European writers critical of U.S. foreign policy. The bureau’s justification for the removal was dubious, and it sets a troubling precedent for other critical outlets.
Hong Kong’s ‘pro-democracy’ movement allies with far-right US politicians that seek to crush Black Lives Matter, by Ajit Singh, The Grayzone, June 9, 2020 A Hong Kong protest leader promotes far-right condemnations of U.S. anti-racism demonstrations while activists shut down a Black Lives Matter rally in the city. Organizers of protests against the Chinese government have forged close ties with hardline Republicans in Washington.
Five questions for new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer about his UK and U.S. national security establishment links, by Matt Kennard, The Grayzone, June 5, 2020 The public deserves answers about the new leader of the Labour Party and his relationship with the British national security establishment, including the MI5 and the Times newspaper, his former role in the Julian Assange case and his membership in the intelligence-linked Trilateral Commission.
Some Minneapolis activists doubt disbanding police will work, Associated Press, June 8, 2020
Related:
* City council in Washington DC to vote on police reforms on June 9, mayor Bowser says she opposes measures, Washington Post, June 8, 2020
* Majority of Minneapolis City Council votes to dismantle the city’s police dep’t, NBC News, June 8, 2020 …Councilman Jeremiah Ellison said the council would work to disband the department in its “current iteration.” He said, “The plan has to start somewhere. We are not going to hit the eject button without a plan, so today was the announcement of the formulation of that plan.” …
* Democratic socialist Janeese Lewis George was attacked for calling to defund the police, she won the June 4 election to Washington DC city council anyway, The Intercept, June 4, 2020
In past years, protests spread over police shootings and police promised reforms. Every year, police in the U.S. still shoot and kill nearly 1,000 people, Washington Post, June 8, 2020
Related:
* Democratic Party presidential nominee Biden opposes moves to defund police, NPR, June 8, 2020
* 26 years ago, then-senator Joseph Biden let police groups write his crime bill. Now, his agenda has changed, Washington Post, June 8, 2020 As then-Senator Joe Biden struggled 26 years ago to put together a massive crime bill, he relied on a man named Tom Scotto, who had become a fixture in his Capitol Hill office. Day after day, Scotto walked into Biden’s sanctum and convinced him to up the ante, asking for billions of dollars for 100,000 police officers, in turn requiring a major expansion of prisons across the country.”There wasn’t one thing when he said ‘no’,” Scotto recalled in an interview. Scotto, however, was not a member of Biden’s staff. He was the president of the National Association of Police Organizations… As Scotto worked alongside Biden in writing the bill, which became law, he personified the bond that the senator from Delaware proudly maintained with the law enforcement community’s power brokers…
* Democrats unveil broad police reform bill as Floyd’s death sparks protests nationwide, Washington Post, June 8, 2020 …The ‘Justice in Policing Act of 2020’ would ban chokeholds, establish a national database to track police misconduct and prohibit certain no-knock warrants, among other initiatives. The bill would make it easier to hold officers accountable for misconduct in civil and criminal court. Many of the proposals were crafted long ago…
Background:
* The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (1994), in Wikipedia.
* Bernie Sanders voted for the 1994 tough-on-crime law. But it’s complicated, by German Lopez, Vox.com, Apr 8, 2016
Covid life and the asset economy, by Lisa Adkins and Martijn Konings, published on the blog of Goldsmiths Press, May 27, 2020 (Lisa Adkins is Professor of Sociology and Head of the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney. Martijn Konings is Professor of Political Economy and Social Theory in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney.)
Letter from London: What made British PM Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings dash to Durham on March 27 despite the government’s lockdown measures, and why is Johnson defending his acctions despite the harsh fallout?, analysis by Alexander Mercouris, published in Consortium News, June 8, 2020
How tear gas became the white supremacist’s favorite poison, by Anna Feigenbaum, Mother Jones, June 8, 2020 A racist U.S. general popularized tear gas for domestic use following World War One. A century later, it’s being used exactly as he’d envisioned. (This article was adapted from Tear Gas: From the Battlefields of World War I to the Streets of Today, published by Verso Books, 2017.)
Judge blocks removal of Robert E. Lee statue for 10 days in Richmond, Virgina, NBC News, June 9, 2020 …Four other Confederate monuments dot Monument Avenue, a prestigious residential street in Richmond, the capital of Virginia. The city was also the capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Richmond’s city council has affirmed unanimous support for removing the other four, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch…
Related: Robert E. Lee is my ancestor. Take down his statue in Virginia and let his cause be lost, op-ed published in Washington Post, June 8, 2020
Even a vaccine won’t erase this pandemic, says virologist William Haseltine, by Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee, June 3, 2020
Excess deaths in UK under coronavirus lockdown pass 63,000, The Guardian, June 9, 2020
Brazil is in coronavirus freefall, op-ed commentary in New York Times, June 8, 2020 Hospitals are on the brink of collapse and cemeteries are burying people in mass graves. Still, we [?] refuse to take this virus seriously.
Related: Supreme Court judge in Brazil orders country’s health ministry to disregard Bolsonaro’s orders and resume publishing daily COVID-19 data in full, Reuters, June 9, 2020
Highlights of China’s white paper on COVID-19 fight issued on June 7, CGTN news service, June 7, 2020
‘Defund the police’ gains traction as cities seek to respond to demands for a major law enforcement shift, Washington Post, June 7, 2020
Related:
* Protesters hope this is a moment of reckoning for American policing. Experts say not so fast, Washington Post, June 7, 2020
* Defund the police? Here’s what that really means, op-ed by Christy Lopez, Washington Post, June 7, 2020 (Christy E. Lopez is a professor at Georgetown Law School and a co-director of the school’s Innovative Policing Program.)
* ‘The best way to reform the police is to defund the police, interview with author Alex S. Vitale, published in Jacobin, June 3, 2020
Previously reported:
* Defunding the police isn’t radical. It’s so lucid it’s a wonder it took a movement to catch on, by Calum Marsh, arts columnist, National Post (Canada), June 5, 2020
* The answer to police violence is not ‘reform’. It’s defunding. Here’s why, by Alex Vitale, commentary in The Guardian, May 31, 2020 (Alex Vitale is professor of sociology and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and the author of The End of Policing.)
Millions march around the world on June 6 to condemn racism and police violence.
* Huge crowds around the globe march in solidarity against police brutality. Reports in Common Dreams and New York Times, June 6, 2020
* Huge, peaceful protests mark anti-racism demonstrations around the globe, Washington Post, June 6, 2020 …People marched in Washington, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Paris, Sydney and elsewhere, with turnout reaching the tens of thousands in some cities. Washington alone hosted a dozen different rallies. In Chicago there were at least five, and in New York City, protesters turned out to dozens of events in all five boroughs… [According to a tally by Associated Press, more than 10,000 people have been arrested across the U.S. since the police killing of George Floyd on May 25. But neither the arrests nor the incredible violence unleashed by police forces across the country have deterred the protest movement.].
* Protesters throng D.C., vowing to be heard after George Floyd’s death, Washington Post, June 7, 2020
* Excerpt from news report in New York Times, June 6, 2020: After more than a week of images flooding social media of the police cornering, roughly arresting and sometimes beating protesters while trying to clear the streets, police in New York took a different posture on June 6, allowing peaceful marches long into the night… Many of Saturday’s gatherings appeared larger than previous rallies, especially the one in Washington. At one point it felt as if the entire city had emptied into downtown as lines of protesters snaked their way through side streets while others converged in nearby parks before making their way to Lafayette Square outside the White House…
Close to 200,000 march in Black Lives Matter rallies across Australia, Green Left Weekly, June 7, 2020 …The largest rally was in Melbourne, with some estimating up to 100,000 took to the streets. There were 30,000 in Brisbane and 50,000 in Sydney, despite the NSW Supreme Court ruling that the protest was unlawful. It was later overturned on appeal, minutes before the formal part of the rally began…
Related: There have been 432 Indigenous deaths in custody in Australia since 1991 but no one has ever been convicted, by Alison Whittaker (University of Technology Sydney), published in The Conversation, June 3, 2020
Arrests at widespread protests across U.S. hit 10,000, Associated Press, June 4, 2020
Related: Trump regime’s deployment of unidentified repressive forces in Washington DC sparks alarm. Report in Common Dreams, June 6, 2020
The anti-racism movement gets BIG and its enemies reveal themselves, by Glen Ford, executive editor, Black Agenda Report, June 4, 2020
Also in Black Agenda Report: Black misleaders seek to end protests, by Margaret Kimberley, senior columnist, Black Agenda Report, June 3, 2020
America convulses amid a week of protests, but can it change?, analysis in Washington Post, June 6, 2020
Related: U.S. diplomats struggle to defend ‘democracy’ abroad amid crises at home. Report in New York Times, June 6, 2020 …This year, diplomats have already had to grapple with representing a president and government that have been widely criticized for their failures in handling the coronavirus pandemic, which have led to the deaths of more than 100,000 people in the United States — far more than any other nation — and a crippled economy… More than 1,200 medical professionals have signed an open letter, drafted by doctors and researchers at the University of Washington and posted online, stating that the importance of protests outweighs the risks of massive gatherings…
Interview with John-Arne Røttingen, head of the WHO’s ‘Solidarity’ project developing treatments for Covid-19, published in The Local.de (Germany), June 5, 2020 (John-Arne Røttingen is chief executive officer of the Norwegian Research Council and is directing the World Health Organization’s international study into Covid-19 treatments and an eventual vaccine.)
Tear gas is considered chemical warfare and is therefore banned in war zones. So why can police use it on civilians?, Toronto Star, June 5, 2020
Related: Seattle mayor bans one type of tear gas amid protests, Associated Press, June 6, 2020
Amid reopenings and street protests, coronavirus transmission remains high in much of the U.S., Washington Post, June 5, 2020 …The coronavirus appears to be in retreat in regions in the U.S. that moved decisively to contain it after being hit hard, including New York and New Jersey. But the virus is persisting — and, in some places, spreading aggressively — in parts of the South, Midwest and West, including in states that were among the last to impose shutdowns and the first to lift them. Data compiled by The Washington Post shows that 23 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have seen an increase in the rolling seven-day average of coronavirus cases compared with the previous week. Most have registered an increase of ten per cent or more… Public health officials across the country are warily eyeing caseloads and hospitalizations to see if there is a spike in infections resulting from mass protests against racism and police violence…
Rallies around the world against racism and police brutality on June 5 and 6. New York Times, June 6, 2020 [Mainstream media does not provide information on the exact numbers of people taking part in anti-racism protests around the world. That’s because such information is empowering. But even the scant reporting of mainstream media reveals that tens of thousands of people are taking part in protests in cities in the U.S. and also worldwide. In western Canada, for example, some 5,000 people marched in Saskatoon on June 5 while more than 10,000 marched in Winnipeg. These are very large numbers for political protest in heretofore quiescent Canadian cities. Meanwhile, protest organizers in Washington DC and other U.S. cities are expecting hundreds of thousands of people to join each of their planned protests on June 6.] Related:
* Huge crowds march in Australia and London against police brutality, New York Times, June 6, 2020
* Saturday expected to bring largest protest crowds yet to Washington DC, Washington Post, June 5, 2020 …Unlike many other large-scale demonstrations that the District hosts, no one person or organization is leading Saturday’s events. Nearly a dozen different demonstrations run by as many organizations or individuals have been advertised for Saturday, starting at 6 a.m. and running into the night. Many protesters plan to stay out until the early hours of Sunday morning…
* Washington DC’s mayor fights for control of her city at Trump’s front door, New York Times, June 5, 2020 …Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Washington native long steeped in city politics, again called on Mr. Trump on June 5 to pull back all federal law enforcement officers and National Guard troops patrolling the city, including unidentified agents in riot gear. She said she would stop paying for the hotels for the Utah National Guard that she does not want in the city to begin with…
* Responding to pressure, Pentagon disarms National Guard activated in DC, sends some active-duty military units home, Washington Post, June 5, 2020
* New Yorkers confront Mayor Bill de Blasio over his defense of New York Police Dep’t violence, call for his resignation, Common Dreams, June 5, 2020
Trump regime attempts to downplay the danger of Covid-19 and instead talk jobs and ‘law and order’, report in Washington Post, June 5, 2020
Related:
* In liberal Austin, Texas, protests unleash violence and an identity crisis, Washington Post, June 5, 2020
* A ‘glorious poetic rage’, commentary in New York Times, June 6, 2020 …The worldwide protest movement is the biggest collective demonstration of civil unrest around state violence in our generation’s memory…
* NFL says it was wrong in handling of protests over racial injustice, encourages players to speak out, Washington Post, June 6, 2020
* ‘Kettling’ of peaceful protesters and then violently attacking them shows aggressive shift by police in New York City, report in New York Times, June 5, 2020 …The protesters had not seen that riot police had flooded the plaza behind them, boxing them in. The maneuver was a law enforcement tactic called ‘kettling’. The police encircle protesters so that they have no way to exit from a park, city block or other public space, and then charge in and make arrests. For the next 20 minutes in downtown Brooklyn [on June 3], officers swinging batons turned a demonstration that had been largely peaceful into a scene of chaos…
* In protests against police brutality, videos are capturing more police brutality, Report in Washington Post, June 5, 2020
* Nearly 200 academics, lawmakers and activists demand that AFL-CIO expel police unions, Common Dreams, June 6, 2020
* As protests grow, big labor sides with police unions, by the Center for Public Integrity, June 5, 2020
Thousands march through New York City in eighth straight day of protests against police brutality, CBS News, June 4, 2020
Related:
* Protests in Washington DC over the death of George Floyd have grown bigger and more diverse, Washington Post, June 4, 2020
* Humvees, helicopters and the National Guard: Washington DC municipal officials push back on show of federal force on city streets, Washington Post, June 4, 2020
New York Times says Senator Tom Cotton’s ‘send in the military’ op-ed did not meet the newspaper’s standards, by Marc Tracy, Rachel Abrams and Edmund Lee, New York Times, June 4, 2020
Related: Republican Senator Tom Cotton’s fascist op-ed published in the New York Times, by Michelle Goldberg, columnist, New York Times, June 4, 2020
As U.S. protests show, the challenge is how to rise above the violence inherent in state power, by Jonathan Cook, published on his website blog, June 2, 2020
Two systems were promised, but so was one country when Hong Kong was reintegrated with China in 1997. By Thomas Walkom, columnist, Toronto Star, June 4, 2020 Read the column here in pdf format: Hong Kong’s new national security law [This column is a rare departure from the anti-China propaganda and threats that dominate corporate and state media in Canada and are also present in alternative media. Astute consumers of this media may already have noted, as columnist Thomas Walkom writes, “The details of the proposed [national security] law in Hong Kong have yet to be revealed…” The column provides facts about the political and constitutional history and situation in Hong Kong. Novel approach!]
The biggest challenge for a coronavirus vaccine could be getting countries to share, Washington Post, June 3, 2020
U.S. states, including Minnesota, have spent the past 5 years trying to criminalize protest, by Naveena Sadasivam, Grist.org, June 4, 2020
Related:
* The militarization of police forces in the U.S. has fostered a culture that sees protesters as ‘the enemy’, by Tom Nolan (Emmanuel College, U of Toronto), published in The Conversation, June 2, 2020 …A study of police-involved deaths between 2012 and 2018 found that on average, police kill 2.8 men every day in the U.S. The risk of death at the hands of an officer was found to be between 3.2 and 3.5 times higher for black men compared to white men…
* How police in the U.S. became paramilitaries, by Michael Shank, New York Review of Books, June 3, 2020
* A dangerous new factor in an uneasy moment: Unidentified law enforcement officers, Washington Post, June 4, 2020
Trump’s infamous photo with his loyalists on June 1 in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church was a vulgar mess. And daughter Ivanka brought a handbag, by Robin Givhan, fashion editor, Washington Post, June 2, 2020
Thousands march through New York City on a seventh straight day of protests over George Floyd’s death and police brutality, CBS News (with video reports), June 3, 2020
Related:
* Police keep using force against peaceful protesters across the U.S., prompting sustained criticism about tactics and training, Washington Post, June 3, 2020
* Wash. DC homeowner hailed as a hero for giving refuge to as many as 90 protesters under attack from police on the night of June 1, interview and story with Rahul Dubey, broadcast on CBC Radio One‘s ‘As It Happens’, June 2, 2020 (seven-minute interview) ‘I saw my community getting bashed and decimated and I kept my door open… We need to rise up much more than keeping our doors open, we need to open up our minds.’ [Sixty to 70 people spent the night of June 1/2 sheltered by Rahul Dubey in his home as police prowled the streets outside, threatening to beat or arrest anyone they came across.]
Trump regime harps on the semantics of ‘tear gas’ in defending the violent assault on protesters in Lafayette Square, DC on June 1, Washington Post, June 3, 2020
Related: The dystopian photo of National Guard soldiers at the Lincoln Memorial photo raises a grim question: Will they protect us, or will they shoot us?, Washington Post, June 3, 2020
Trump deploys the full might of federal law enforcement to crush protests, New York Times, June 2, 2020 President Trump’s vow to “dominate” demonstrators protesting police brutality has mobilized the full might of federal law enforcement, from border agencies and the Drug Enforcement Administration to F.B.I. hostage rescue teams, working alongside local law enforcement, the military police and the National Guard. But nowhere is the show of force as strong as in Washington DC…
[Associated Press reports on June 3 that more than 9,000 people have been arrested across the United States during protests against the police killing of Floyd George in Minneapolis on May 25. The Washington Post reports that 60 million people in the U.S. are under some form of curfew order while 17,000 National Guard soldiers have been deployed in cities across the country to intimidate or suppress protests. ] Related:
* June 2: Large protests against police violence again fill streets of U.S. cities, Washington Post, June 2, 2020
* After days of unrest, Minneapolis begins to rebuild, Washington Post, June 2, 2020
* As protesters rail against police violence in Louisville, Kentucky, another black resident is killed by police, Washington Post, June 2, 2020
* Trump’s naked use of religion as a political tool draws rebukes from some faith leaders, Washington Post, June 2, 2020
* Episcopal priest describes being gassed and overrun by police at Lafayette Square church in DC, Washington Post, June 2, 2020
* Trump wanted a photo op. He delivered the most ominous message of his presidency, Washington Post, June 2, 2020
Thousands march in Auckland, New Zealand on June 1 in solidarity with victims of police violence and condeming such violence at home. View two short videos here and here. [The march in Auckland drew somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 participants.]
How Iceland beat the coronavirus, by Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, June 1, 2020 The country didn’t just manage to flatten the curve; it virtually eliminated it.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control waited its entire existence for this moment. What went wrong?, New York Times, June 3, 2020 The technology was old, the data poor, the bureaucracy slow, the guidance confusing, the administration not in agreement. The coronavirus shook the world’s premier health agency, creating a loss of confidence and hampering the U.S. response to the crisis. The CDC has long been considered the world’s premier health agency, but it made early testing mistakes that contributed to a cascade of problems that persist today as the country tries to reopen…
How the Washington Post accommodates disinformation, by Melvin Goodman, CounterPunch, June 3, 2020
Trump regime photo op on June 1, 2020
Trump regime moves to unleash military on U.S. population in bid to crush protest movement against police/government violence and killings. Report by Reuters news agency, June 1, 2020
Related:
* Military helicopters descend on Washington DC in bizarre, very-low altitude shows of force (updated), The Drive, June 2, 2020
* Federal officers violently confront peaceful protesters outside White House as Trump vows to end ‘lawlessness’, Washington Post, June 2, 2020 In a massive show of force, federal law enforcement officers fired rubber bullets and chemical gas at peaceful protesters outside the White House on Monday evening [June 1] as President Trump appeared in the Rose Garden to threaten the mobilization of “thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers” to quell “lawlessness” across the country… The sudden use of force left early protesters bruised, bleeding and in shock. Although the night would ultimately end with a spattering of smashed windows and vandalized businesses, the scene in front of the White House when federal law enforcement descended was far from the “violent mobs” Trump described in his speech.
* Protests reignite despite new curfews, larger police presence in many cities, Washington Post, June 2, 2020 Protesters filled the streets of U.S. cities again Monday to decry excessive force used by police as Washington, New York and other hard-hit cities imposed curfews and President Trump urged governors to use even more force…
* Trump mobilizes military, threatens to use troops to quell protests across U.S., Washington Post, June 1, 2020
* Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington condemns Trump’s photo op at St. John’s Episcopal Church and the police violence used to set it up, by Tegna and Associated Press news services, June 1, 2020
* Peaceful protesters in Washington hit with tear gas so Donald Trump could pose at local church, by Edward Keenan, Washington bureau chief, Toronto Star, June 1, 2020
* U.S. lawmakers begin bipartisan push to cut off police access to military gear, New York Times, June 1, 2020
* As unrest grows, officials try to separate protesters from vandals. Experts say it’s not that simple, Washington Post, June 1, 2020
* America’s protests won’t stop until police brutality does, editorial, New York Times, June 1, 2020
New report lists 26,000 deaths and 60,000 reported cases of Covid-19 in U.S. nursing homes, Associated Press, June 1, 2020 …The data was based on reports received from about 80% of the nation’s 15,400 nursing homes as of May 24. But some states with high rates of nursing home deaths appeared to have low levels of response to the survey, intended as a first step toward developing policy changes. The U.S. has seen over 104,000 deaths and nearly 1.8 million infections in the pandemic, both count’s the highest in the world…
Scorecard of statement by NY Islanders hockey team owners on police killing of George Floyd
Professional sport players and coaches aren’t sticking to sports after the death of George Floyd, and that’s a good thing, by Dave Feschuk, sports columnist, Toronto Star, June 1, 2020
Related:
* Professional athletes eager to be on right side of history join anti-racism protests, by Cathal Kelly, sports columnist, Globe and Mail, May 31, 2020 …Mohammed Ali was 25 years old when he created the protest movement in professional sports [in 1965, condemning the war in Vietnam]. It took a while to catch on, largely because Ali’s life was so comprehensively dismantled as a punishment. He was arrested and sentenced to prison. His belts were stripped and his boxing licences rescinded. Though a vocal minority supported him, the mainstream still felt comfortable condemning Ali in the most personal terms. He didn’t fight at all during the more than three years it took to have his conviction overturned. In the end, the U.S. government did not take his freedom, but it robbed him of the best years of his career… Of all the things Ali managed as a public figure, his most important contribution to sports culture was two-fold. First, he gave his colleagues permission to have unpopular opinions. Second – and this one matters more – he impressed upon them the importance of having smart opinions…
* NFL players roast league and NFL president for their statement on George Floyd, USA Today, May 30, 2020
Trump boosts nuclear weapons spending, fueling a new arms race, by Jon Letman, Truthout, May 30, 2020
