All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[aja_christopher]

None of this would be happening if American police weren't constantly abusing and killing LGBT Americans and people of color.



Many will try to talk around this fact but that's only because they want to avoid addressing the root of the problem -- systemic racism and police brutality.

Most of which is enabled by Republicans like Trump, McConnell, and Sessions -- and Republican representatives and voters -- who rolled back Demcratic police reforms that were enacted to address these issues directly.

Any real discussion of "rioting" should address first what provokes said reaction in the general public.

[Tami]

Pelosi asks House committees to require masks, setting up clash with GOP holdouts

Masks have become the norm inside the House of Representatives, where some politicians now embrace the novel coronavirus precaution with colorful odes to their home districts. But there are holdouts: A small group of Republican representatives who have consistently declined to wear face coverings in Congress.

Now, as nine states hit record highs for infections, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is tightening the rules. Late Tuesday, she asked committee chairs to require masks at all hearings — and authorized the sergeant at arms to bar anyone who refuses to cover their face, according to a senior aide familiar with the request.

“This requirement will be enforced by the Sergeant at Arms and non-compliant Members will be denied entry,” the senior aide said in an email to The Washington Post. “Ultimately, Chairs will have the option of not recognizing Members in committee proceedings that fail to comply with the mask requirement.”

[Tami]

Texas Governor Says 'No Reason Today To Be Alarmed' As Coronavirus Cases Set Record

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Tuesday the state's highest-ever number of new COVID-19 cases: 2,622.

He also reported a second record high: 2,518 people hospitalized with the virus in Texas, up from 2,326 a day earlier.

Despite the concerning uptick in people sick with the virus, Abbott said that the reason for his news conference was to let Texans know about the "abundant" hospital capacity for treating people with COVID-19. He and other officials spent much of the briefing touting the state's hospital bed availability.

Disclosing the new record high number of hospitalizations related to COVID-19, Abbott emphasized that figure is "really a very small percentage of all the beds that are available."

Despite Abbott's emphasis on the importance of masks, he has barred Texas cities from implementing any rules that would require face coverings.

Abbott signed an executive order on April 27 that says while individuals are encouraged to wear face masks, "no jurisdiction can impose a civil or criminal penalty for failure to wear a face covering."

On Tuesday, the mayors of nine Texas cities — including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth and El Paso — sent a letter to the governor asking for the authority to set the rules and regulations on the use of face coverings.

[Tami]

Many White Americans Are Ready To Reopen The Economy. Black Americans Aren’t.

With even hard-hit states like New York allowing businesses to bring their stores back to life, Americans are wrestling with one of COVID-19’s most painful tradeoffs: a damaged economy with millions out of work because of public health measures put in place to slow the spread of the virus.

And most Americans do think the public health risks of reopening the economy are still important to weigh. But there is also growing evidence that several months of economic hardship have changed the way some people are evaluating the costs. According to a new poll from the American Enterprise Institute conducted from May 21 to June 5, 41 percent of Americans say the government should allow businesses to open back up even if it means putting some people at risk, up from 22 percent in late March.

[aja_christopher]

Republican leadership.

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"The COVID-19 pandemic has wrought immense tragedy across our country, particularly for black Americans, who have faced a disproportionate rate of infection and mortality. The economic fallout could have generational implications. Yet in the face of this unimaginable crisis — which has left over 100,000 Americans dead and more than 30 million unemployed — Senate Major Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he feels no “urgency” when it comes to additional legislation to address this crisis.

No urgency? Seriously?

McConnell’s cavalier attitude illustrates an important trend in our politics. It’s not just Donald Trump who has failed black Americans during the pandemic — the entire Republican Senate has failed us as well. In fact, black Americans are facing three simultaneous crises: a health crisis, that has killed and sickened more black people in the U.S. than almost any other demographic; an economic crisis, that has left one in two black adults out of work and families scraping by to survive; and the ongoing crisis of anti-black violence that has resulted in the largest civil uprising in nearly four decades.

Here are the facts: as the unemployment rate hit 14.7 percent last month, a leading economist estimated that black unemployment has reached 20 percent. While in the initial months of this crisis the overall number of business owners in the United States dropped by 22 percent, black small business ownership dropped more than 40 percent.

The gross negligence of the Republican majority in the Senate is leading to unnecessary hardships for people across the country, particularly black Americans. The House of Representatives passed another $3 trillion of much-needed relief to the American people that explicitly helps black workers and businesses by, for instance, requiring demographic reporting by the Small Business Administration on PPP loans black small businesses were cut out of the last round. Yet McConnell continues to stonewall.

But even predating this crisis, Republican senators have throughout history contributed to the structural forces that cause black communities to suffer so deeply when calamity strikes. Over the past four years alone, the Senate has passed into law a $1.5 trillion tax cut for corporations and the top 1 percent and confirmed nearly 200 federal judges, some of whom refused to commit to full enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and declined to say whether they believe Brown v Board of Education was correctly decided. The implications for our democracy — with federal judges who will not uphold voting rights and who equivocate on whether and how courts should address racial segregation — are perilous.

The only way we get out of the intertwined economic and health crises and make progress on eradicating centuries-old structural racism is for black voters to use their power to flip the Senate along with the White House.

Failing to flip the Senate means even if Americans put a President Biden in the White House, progressive policy dreams will continue to die on the floor of the Senate. It also means Republicans will continue their regular antics: trying again to gut the Affordable Care Act that has insured millions, confirming more far-right federal judges for lifetime appointments and continuing to reject legislation that aims to uplift America’s most vulnerable constituencies..."

https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-b...-new-president

[Tami]

Trump tries to sweep away all that came before him

WASHINGTON — Not only has President Trump tried to pretend that the coronavirus no longer exists, he often pretends like his predecessors — as well as their actions and accomplishments — don’t exist, either.

That’s especially true when it comes to Barack Obama, as NBC’s Ben Kamisar observes.

During yesterday’s unveiling of his police reform executive order, Trump claimed neither Obama nor Joe Biden “even tried to fix this…because they had no idea how to do it.” (In fact, Obama implemented several policies aimed at reforming the police, but Trump’s administration rolled those back.)

Bottom line: A large part of Trumpism and “Make America Great Again” is predicated on the idea that no other president has tried or succeeded before.

But the historical record doesn’t back up that erasure.

For a president who recently warned about the consequences of “denying history,” he’s been happy to ignore the historical record when it comes to his own accomplishments.

[aja_christopher]

Beneath it's veneer of "civility" the Republican party thrives on fear and hatred of the other.

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"Why Are Conservatives So Threatened by Equality?"

It’s the toxic and irrational fear that more freedom for LGBTQ Americans infringes on their own.

"As we saw with the restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus, conservatives love to talk about freedom. Without being clear about their intentions, however, they limit the number of Americans who can experience the freedoms they demand by being contemptuous of our founding ideals about equality. In other words, they want a freedom for me, but not for thee.

In a recent ad put out by the Biden campaign, the candidate says that “the battle for the soul of this nation has been a constant push and pull for more than 240 years; a tug of war between the American ideal that we’re all created equal and the harsh reality that racism has long torn us apart.” That same tug of war has been waged on behalf of equality for other groups—such as women, those who are differently abled, and LGBTQ Americans. Whenever gains are made on behalf of equality, cries have gone out that they infringe on the freedom of others.

That is precisely what is happening among some conservatives following the ruling by the Supreme Court that applies prohibitions against discrimination to LGBTQ Americans. Writing at The Federalist, Joy Pullmann comes right out and says that the word “equality” has become a totalitarian weapon. That is a stunning statement when you consider the fact that this country’s Declaration of Independence states that the concept that “all men are created equal” is a self-evident truth. And yet for Pullman, to apply that truth to those she disapproves of is to wield a totalitarian weapon...

"[T]he U.S. Supreme Court called a man a woman, possibly leading to eventually forcing everyone else to do so also. The ruling will lead to a tsunami of polarizing court cases and further degradation of Americans’ natural rights to free speech, to free association, and to worshipping God as their consciences require…

That two-thirds of our nation’s highest court clearly despise the Constitution and the way of life it protects, and which it is their sole job to defend, may be yet another indication that the United States we know and love is heading into a dark night of oblivion, like all empires before it."

Daniel Horowitz joins Pullman in engaging the same kind of fear-mongering we saw back when the Equal Rights Amendment was under discussion. We were told that to merely codify the equality of women would wreck havoc on our society, with lots of talk about what that meant for bathrooms.

Now we are told similar stories about how “barring a male who says he is a female from an all-girls sports team, bathroom, or locker room now constitutes sex-based discrimination...."

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/0...ot-for-others/

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Pelosi asks House committees to require masks, setting up clash with GOP holdouts

The killer (pardon the pun) here is most members of Congress are in their 60's or 70's, the target age group that had been hammered by coronavirus and suffered the lion's share of deaths. To steadfastly refuse to utilize a simple defense like wearing a mask is beyond foolish, but then, Republicans are following their orange skinned Pied Piper who's the king of fools.

Texas Governor Says 'No Reason Today To Be Alarmed' As Coronavirus Cases Set Record

Texas: Land of the COVIDiots.

[aja_christopher]

Texas: Land of the COVIDiots.

[aja_christopher]

"1 Person Shot in New Mexico During a Protest Against a Statue of a Controversial Conquistador"

"One protester was shot in Albuquerque, N.M. on Monday evening and is in serious but stable condition, according to Albuquerque police, after an altercation took place between protesters and counter-protesters. The protesters had gathered to call for the removal of a statue honoring controversial conquistador Juan de Oñate, who established the colony of New Mexico for Spain and brutalized and enslaved Native Americans.

Stephen Ray Baca, 31, is being charged with felony aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to a police report by the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) obtained by TIME. The shooting victim is identified as Scott Williams, according to the report. The investigation is still ongoing.

Video taken at the scene shows protesters attempting to topple a statue of Oñate using a rope tied around the statue’s neck before four gunshots are heard. Additional footage shows a physical altercation between protesters and a man in a blue shirt before gunshots ring out. APD identified the man in the blue shirt as Baca, according to the police report. The report also identifies Williams as the man in the video striking Baca with a longboard.

A militia group known as the New Mexico Civil Guard reportedly arrived at the scene to speak with protesters and were armed, according to local news outlet KOB 4, but APD has not confirmed whether the shooter was a member of the militia. The group denied any affiliation with the shooter in a statement posted to its Facebook page..."

https://time.com/5854184/protester-shot-albuquerque/

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"At Monday night’s prayer and protest against the Juan de Oñate statue, were about eight members of a heavily armed militia. “Why do you feel the need to be here?” asked a protester.

“Second amendment,” replied a member of the Civil Guard. The Civil Guard is a group of people who said they are not affiliated with law enforcement or a political party but they’ve been present at a handful of recent protests in New Mexico which has caused unease among protesters.

“When they do show up to protect property like they say they are as we saw yesterday with the events that occurred, they are placing a protection of property over people’s lives,” said Fight for our Lives co-founder Zoey Craft.

“We certainly don’t feel protected, we feel endangered when they are around and they intend to intimidate us because they don’t agree on the issues that we are fighting for,” said protester Ana Moreno...

“I don’t want the narrative taken away from this,” said Fight for Our Lives President, Jonathon Juarez-Alonzo. “This is a peaceful prayer gathering, what happened because of a white militant group showing up was only inciting violence and that was not the intent whatsoever.”

The Civil Guard said the shooter from Monday night, Steven Baca, is not affiliated with them. Members of the Civil Guard were arrested by Albuquerque Police but were released a few hours later without any charges. The governor and the mayor condemned the group; the governor said in part:

“The heavily armed individuals who flaunted themselves at the protest, calling themselves a ‘Civil Guard’ were there for one reason: to menace protesters, to present an unsanctioned show of unregulated force.”

The mayor mentioned the group, saying that these militia or vigilante groups attempt to prop up white supremacy and intimidate protesters."

[aja_christopher]

"We want to show that we're not like the other side, the people that are trying to stop equality from taking place, the people who are racists. We're not like them. We're different, we're cut from a different cloth," Hutchinson said."



"The black man seen carrying an injured white man to safety during a chaotic scene at protests in London told CNN he did it to avoid catastrophe.

The image of Patrick Hutchinson's selfless act has now spread across the globe. Hutchinson told CNN on Sunday it was the first Black Lives Matter protest he attended, and he helped the white man on Saturday because he didn't want the main reason for the protests to be lost in one moment of violence...

""I have no idea who this man was. All I know is that he was there, up to no good, let's just say," Hutchinson told CNN on Monday. "He wasn't here to support Black Lives Matter."

More than 100 people were arrested in London protests Saturday after violence broke out as far-right groups targeted BLM protests. CNN has not been able to independently verify what the injured man was doing at the protest before the incident or why he was there. CNN has not yet been able to identify the injured protester.

When Hutchinson saw the man, he said he and his friends formed a cordon around him and Hutchinson scooped him up to take him directly to the police. While they were marching, the man could still feel people trying to hit him, Hutchinson said.

"I am carrying him, my friends are protecting myself and the man on my shoulder. He was still receiving blows, you can feel people trying to hit him," he said. "There were people trying to protect him at the same time carried him over to the police and I said here you are. One of them said 'thank you - you did a good thing there.'"

Hutchinson attended the protests Saturday because "history was in the making," he said, and it was a "no brainer" to support the cause. He added that he would like to break down the race barriers and for people to realize, "we are all one race."

"I want to see equality for everybody. I am a father, a grandfather and I would love to see my young children, my young grandchildren, my nieces, my nephews have a better world than I have lived in," Hutchinson said. "The world I live in has been better than my grandparents and my parents and hopefully we can continue until we have total equality for everyone."

Hutchinson said he's glad people look at the image as one of humanity and that people all over the world can learn from it, especially police officers in the US.

"Just because somebody's up to no good, doesn't mean you have to kill them," he said."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/14/uk/lo...rnd/index.html

[aja_christopher]

"A man allegedly linked to the Boogaloo movement accused of going to a BLM protest with a homemade machine gun to kill cops"



"Alleged Oakland, Ben Lomond Gunman Steve Carrillo Linked To Far Right 'Boogaloo' Movement"

[AnakinFlair]

Here is something to come out of the protests that I wasn't expecting:

Aunt Jemima brand to change name, remove image that Quaker says is 'based on a racial stereotype'

[shooshoomanjoe]

Here is something to come out of the protests that I wasn't expecting:

Aunt Jemima brand to change name, remove image that Quaker says is 'based on a racial stereotype'

Same with Uncle Ben rice. I didn't know the meaning of uncle/aunt and why it's consider racist.

[aja_christopher]

Same with Uncle Ben rice. I didn't know the meaning of uncle/aunt and why it's consider racist.

"The inspiration for Aunt Jemima was Billy Kersands' American-style minstrelsy/vaudeville song "Old Aunt Jemima", written in 1875. The Aunt Jemima character was prominent in minstrel shows in the late 19th century and was later adopted by commercial interests to represent the Aunt Jemima brand.

Aunt Jemima's character is based on the common stereotype of the mammy archetype, a character in minstrel shows in the late 1800s. Her skin is dark and dewy, with a pearly white smile. She wears a scarf over her head and a polka dot dress with a white collar, similar to the common attire and physical features of "mammy" characters throughout history...."



"And black women in this profession
As for playin' a lawyer -- out of the question
For what they played Aunt Jemima is the perfect term
Even if now she got a perm"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima