;)
The Commentariat -- June 5, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
The Washington Post's live updates of protest developments Friday are here.
David Jackson & John Fritze of USA Today: "... Donald Trump, besieged by protesters and the coronavirus pandemic, used an event Friday to tout the nation's latest jobs numbers and to predict the U.S. economy is beginning to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. 'It's affirmation of all the work we've been doing,' Trump said. Trump also touched on the protesters that have gathered outside the White House for days following the death of George Floyd.... Trump castigated governors that he said had not called in the National Guard to address riots and looting in some cities. 'Don't be proud. Get the job done,' Trump said, speaking directly to the nation's governors and echoing remarks he made to them in a phone call last week. 'You have to dominate the streets.' Trump referred to Floyd, saying that 'hopefully' he was 'looking down right now' and thinking 'this is a great thing that's happening for our country.'" ~~~
~~~ From the Guardian's live protest updates for Friday: 11:26 am: "Trump's comment moments ago about this being a 'great day' for George Floyd is already sparking outrage among the president's critics.... The liberal organization CAP Action said the president's comment was 'despicable'[.]" 11:35 am: "Trump has just concluded his nearly hour-long 'press conference' at the White House without taking any questions from the reporters there. This is the second consecutive time that the president has called a 'press conference' only to make a statement, which reporters argued defied the definition of a press conference." ~~~
11:42: "DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has just announced that the section of 16th Street NW in front of the White House has been renamed 'Black Lives Matter Plaza.'... A crowd cheered as a city employee installed a sign reading 'Black Lives Matter Plz' on a street light." Mrs. McC: Not only that, Bowser covered the street from side to side in front of the White House with huge yellow-painted letters spelling out "Black Lives Matter." Take that, Donald Trump. Update: Here's a Washington Post story.
Kelly Lambastes Trump. Sarah Westwood of CNN: "Former White House chief of staff John Kelly said Friday he agrees with former Secretary of Defense Gen. Jim Mattis' stark warning this week that ... Donald Trump is 'the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people' as nationwide protests have intensified over the death of George Floyd.... 'There is a concern, I think an awful big concern, that the partisanship has gotten out of hand, the tribal thing has gotten out of hand,' Kelly said. 'He's quite a man, Jim Mattis, and for him to do that tells you where he is relative to the concern he has for our country.'... 'I think we need to look harder at who we elect,' Kelly said on Friday. 'I think we should look at people that are running for office and put them through the filter: What is their character like? What are their ethics?'" Mrs. McC: Weirdly, Kelly made these remarks in an interview with Anthony Scaramucci, who Kelly fired.
Emily Holden of the Guardian: "The Trump administration continued to weaken core environmental protections in the US by announcing a pair of policies to cut reviews for large infrastructure projects and downplay the health benefits of rules to curb pollution. Both changes could disproportionately hurt communities of color, which are far more likely to live with pollution because of decades of environmental racism. They come after a week of nationwide protests over police killings of black Americans. The proposals could also make it easier for the government to ignore the climate crisis in making decisions."
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The New York Times' live updates of protest developments Friday are here.
The New York Times' live updates of protest developments Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)
My Admin has done more for the Black Community than any President since Abraham Lincoln. Passed Opportunity Zones with @SenatorTimScott, guaranteed funding for HBCU's, School Choice, passed Criminal Justice Reform, lowest Black unemployment, poverty, and crime rates in history. -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, June 2, 2020
... we feel confident enough that the achievements touted by Trump do not come close to LBJ's actions -- let alone several other presidents -- that at this time we can award this claim Four Pinocchios. Trump is never one to be modest, but this kind of bragging is simply ridiculous. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post, after interviewing a number of historians
Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump agreed on Thursday to begin sending home 82nd Airborne Division troops.... None of the active-duty forces ever actually deployed in Washington, instead remaining on alert outside the city while National Guard troops took up position near the White House and elsewhere around town. But they became caught up in a confrontation pitting a commander in chief intent on demonstrating strength in the face of street demonstrations versus a military command resistant to being drawn into domestic law enforcement or election year politics. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper initially tried to send home a small portion of the 1,600 active-duty troops on Wednesday, only to have Mr. Trump order him to reverse course during an angry meeting. The president finally acquiesced on Thursday.... What appeared on Thursday to be an uneasy truce between the White House and Pentagon did not mean that the conflict was over. While Mr. Trump's advisers counseled him not to fire Mr. Esper, the president spent much of the day privately railing about the defense secretary, who along with Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, opposed the president's desire to send regular troops into the nation's cities." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: However, according to the Times report, "More than 2,000 National Guard forces remain in Washington, a number set to climb to 4,500." So this seems more like moving different divisions in & out of the D.C. area in a haphazard (and expensive) way. ~~~
~~~ Flippity-flop, Flippity-flop. Ellen Mitchell of the Hill: "Defense Secretary Mark Esper is sending hundreds of active duty soldiers who had been on standby in the Washington, D.C., area back to their home base after reversing course on such a decision the day before." Mrs. McC: So first, Esper said troops needed to "dominate the battle space" where American citizens were protesting, and he appeared in a photo-op with Trump after troops gassed peaceful protesters out of the "battle space." Second, Esper held a news conference where he said invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow active duty forces to act in a law enforcement capacity, was unnecessary. He ordered the troops home. Third, Esper met with Trump & reversed his order to send the troops home. Fourth, Esper sent the troops back to Fort Bragg. Got that? (Fort Bragg is named, appropriately enough, after Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, a close friend of President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis. The troops from Fort Bragg came to the D.C. area armed with bayonets to skewer Americans, though the troops were later ordered not to affix the lethal swords to their rifles, according to the AP [linked yesterday].) ~~~
~~~ Andrew Bacevich in the Nation: "Trump appears intent on forcing our men and women in uniform to choose one or the other: Do as I say, or honor the Constitution. This is both deeply unfair and profoundly dangerous. More disturbing still, neither the defense secretary nor chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appears to grasp the predicament in which the troops are being placed. Or, if they understand it, they have chosen to become complicit in the problem. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the JCS chairman, show every sign of indulging President Trump's apparent enthusiasm for employing regulars to impose order in American cities, even if that means, in effect, waging war against American citizens.... Esper does at least have this excuse: He is a political appointee. In that sense, his supine attitude toward the president, something of a signature in the age of Trump, is hardly surprising. In contrast, senior military officers are not political appointees. They are expected to be above politics. For this reason, the outrageously unprofessional misconduct of General Milley is far more troubling." The story is subscriber-firewalled, but if you haven't clicked on more than two Nation articles this month, you're good.
Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC that the military is trained "to fight our enemies, not to fight our American people'" Video.
Max Cohen of Politico: "Former Defense Secretary William Perry on Thursday accused ... Donald Trump of politicizing the armed forces and criticized his threats to deploy the military against American citizens. Perry, a national security expert who served in government for decades, including as Defense secretary from 1994 to 1997 under President Bill Clinton, said in a statement provided to Politico that the military 'was never intended to be used for partisan political purposes.'"
Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "In his most extensive comments yet on the civil unrest gripping the country, Attorney General William P. Barr defended law enforcement's aggressive, militaristic response to protests while acknowledging the' long-standing' concerns with police that were exposed by the recent death of a black man in Minnesota while in custody.... Barr also vigorously defended the ... police's move Monday to use horses and gas to push back largely peaceful protesters at Lafayette Square, just outside the White House. The episode has elicited an intense backlash against both Barr and President Trump." See also Bobby Lee's comment below, which seems to perfectly capture Barr's overall 'tude. ~~~
In the federal system, the agencies don't wear badges with their names and stuff like that. I could understand why some of these individuals simply wouldn't want to talk to people about who they are, if that in fact was the case. -- Attorney General William Barr, news conference Thursday ~~~
~~~ Barr Okay with Armed Secret Police Attacking Peaceful U.S. Citizens. Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "Over the past few days, Mother Jones and other media outlets have noted the presence of armed personnel with no visible identification confronting the protests in DC that were sparked by the recent police killing of George Floyd. These officers have consistently said that they are 'with the Department of Justice' or that they are part of the 'federal government.' The Justice Department has since said these are officers are from Special Operations Control units in the Bureau of Prisons -- that is, officers trained primarily to quell prison riots.... In ... [a] press conference Thursday, [Attorney General Bill Barr] defended the use of BOP personnel and said they have 'emergency response' training -- nevermind that the officers are now confronting peaceful protesters. The attorney general did not acknowledge any problem with using officers who can't be identified to police protests." ~~~
~~~ A Walk in the Park
The president is the head of the executive branch and the chief executive of the nation and should be able to walk outside the White House, and walk across the street to visit the church. -- Attorney General William Barr, news conference Thursday ~~~
The citizens of the nation, who hold the only title in our democracy superior to that of president, should be able to march outside the White House without being gassed, pepper-sprayed and hit with flash grenades by unidentified federal prison guards. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie
~~~ ** Josh Marshall of TPM: "Trump and Barr are patrolling DC with federal prison guards from the units trained to deal with prison riots and emergency situations in federal prisons. These appear to be at least some of the federal police who have been refusing to identify themselves on the streets of DC. Whatever you can say about these teams and the tactics they use these are not people you want doing crowd control with civilians." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Molly Schwartz of Mother Jones: "With the human obstacles beaten and smoked out of his path, Trump made it to the church. He stiffly held up a Bible, announcing, 'It's a Bible,' and got his photos.... But there was one small detail that adds a delicious layer of irony to this latest Trumpian stunt. If the whole performance was in order to send a message of solidarity with his evangelical voters, their adored leader used the wrong Bible.... [T]he Bible that Trump held over his head was a Revised Standard Version (RSV).... Not only is the RSV outdated (the New Revised Standard Version, NRSV, was published in 1989 to replace it), but it's not a Bible that evangelical Christians consider authoritative. 'It would be pretty much rejected by the vast majority of evangelicals. It would be seen as a deficient translation of the Bible. A distinctly liberal one,' said Rev. Rob Schenck, an evangelical clergyman, the president of The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute, and the author of Costly Grace: An Evangelical Minister's Rediscovery of Faith, Hope, and Love. 'And for many, especially in the very conservative or fundamentalist wing, they might see it as not a version of the Bible at all.'" --s (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: BTW, at least two regular commentators on MSNBC accused Trump of holding the Bible upside-down. I've looked at a series of photos of Trump's show-and-tell, and I would say Trump was holding the Bible right-side-up. As contributor Ken Winkes noted the other day, Trump probably had help figuring out which end was up.
"Law Enforcement" Finds Another Way to Kill Protesters. Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: “Law enforcement agents have seized hundreds of cloth masks that read 'Stop killing Black people' and 'Defund police' that a Black Lives Matter-affiliated organization sent to cities around the country to protect demonstrators against the spread of COVID-19, a disease that has had a disparate impact on Black communities.... But the items never left [Oakland, Calif]. The U.S. Postal Service tracking numbers for the packages indicate they were 'Seized by Law Enforcement' and urge the mailer to 'contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for further information.'... It's not entirely clear what law enforcement entity seized the masks or why."
Steve Inskeep of NPR: "In rare public comments, the former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Ret. Gen. Martin Dempsey condemned Trump's threat to use military force to suppress nationwide protests as 'dangerous' and 'very troubling,' in an interview with NPR on Thursday."
Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The retired marine general who led the global coalition against Isis and commanded US forces in Afghanistan has warned that Donald Trump's actions this week could start a US 'slide into illiberalism' and the beginning of the end of 'the American experiment'. In denouncing the president for his response to the George Floyd protests, John Allen became the latest in a string of venerable military figures to have gone public over what they describe as the threat posed by Trump to the non-political nature of the armed forces, and more broadly to US democracy.... Allen, now president of the Brookings Institution, also focused his criticism on the president's threat on Monday to deploy the US military against protesters, and his use of force against a peaceful demonstration outside the White House so that he could be photographed holding a Bible in front of a church. 'The slide of the United States into illiberalism may well have begun on 1 June 2020. Remember the date. It may well signal the beginning of the end of the American experiment,' Allen wrote on the Foreign Policy website."
Max Cohen of Politico: "Former White House chief of staff John Kelly said Thursday that ... Donald Trump 'has clearly forgotten' the circumstances of former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's departure from the administration, breaking with his former boss to side with a fellow retired Marine Corps general. In an interview with The Washington Post, Kelly contradicted Trump's claim that he had fired Mattis. Kelly called Mattis 'an honorable man' and described Trump's Twitter attack on the former Defense secretary as 'nasty.'... Trump ... [claimed on Twitter] Wednesday night ... [that] he asked for Mattis' letter of resignation and labeling the retired Marine Corps general 'the world's most overrated General.' 'The president did not fire him. He did not ask for his resignation,' Kelly, who was Trump's chief of staff when Mattis departed the administration, told the Washington Post." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump didn't "forget." He lied. As the NYT report by Eric Schmitt & others, linked above, reports, "Mr. Trump also again falsely insisted that he fired Mr. Mattis, who in fact resigned in protest over a plan to withdraw troops from Syria.... In fact, when Mr. Mattis stepped down in December 2018, Mr. Trump himself wrote that 'General Jim Mattis will be retiring, with distinction.' He changed his story only to maintain that he had fired Mr. Mattis after growing angry about the former defense secretary's resignation letter." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McC, Ctd.: BTW, here's another lie Trump tweeted Wednesday in his attack on Mattis: "His nickname was 'Chaos', which I didn't like, & changed to 'Mad Dog'." According to the Military Times, in a March 2019 story (written in response to one of Trump's previous claims that he had nicknamed Mattis 'Mad Dog'), "... news reports referred to Mattis by the moniker ['Mad Dog'] -- which he has publicly said he does not like -- as far back as 2004, when he was commanding general of the 1st Marine Division." Frankly, this was a Trump lie that surprised me, as I recall his introducing Mattis as "someone they call 'Mad Dog,'" or words to that effect. ~~~
~~~ Marty Johnson of the Hill: "President Trump Thursday evening slammed John Kelly, his former chief of staff, for defending James Mattis, his former Defense secretary, after Mattis criticized the president for his response to the nationwide protests. 'John Kelly didn't know I was going to fire James Mattis, nor did he have any knowledge of my asking for a letter of resignation,' he tweeted, saying that Kelly, who stepped down from his role as the president's chief of staff in 2018, wasn't part of Trump's 'inner-circle,' by that point."
I thought General Mattis's words were true and honest and necessary and overdue.... When I saw General Mattis's comments yesterday, I felt like perhaps we're getting to the point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up. -- Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), to reporters ~~~
~~~ Meh. Manu Raju & Ted Barrett of CNN: "Republican senators are dismissing the scathing criticism leveled against ... Donald Trump by his former defense secretary, James Mattis, the latest sign that Republicans by and large are showing unwavering support for the leader of their party during this high-stakes election year.... Leaving the floor on Thursday morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was silent when asked twice about Mattis' criticism, returning to his office and ignoring a reporter's questions.... 'It's Gen. Mattis' opinion, he's free to express it,' Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told CNN.... The lone senator to break ranks: Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who is up for reelection in 2022, told CNN she agrees with the criticism and later told reporters she is 'struggling' about whether to endorse Trump in 2020. Others either defended Trump or contended they didn't want to get involved in the dispute." Thanks to Patrick for the link. ~~~
~~~ Paul Kane & John Wagner of the Washington Post: Sen. Mitt "Romney [R-Utah] initially avoided addressing the matter, but after Murkowski spoke out, he joined in criticizing Trump's recent behavior by calling Mattis's statement 'stunning and powerful.' Late Thursday, Trump lashed out at Murkowski on Twitter, promising to campaign against her in Alaska in 2022 when she faces reelection. 'Get any candidate ready, good or bad, I don't care, I'm endorsing. If you have a pulse, I'm with you!' he wrote." Mrs. McC: You can tell how Trump really has the interests of his adopted political party at heart.
White Senator Foils Three Black Senators' Anti-Lynching Bill. Not a Good Look, Li'l Randy. Burgess Everett of Politico: "The Senate's foremost contrarian, Rand Paul, clashed with Kamala Harris and Cory Booker on the Senate floor Thursday over Paul's opposition to a popular anti-lynching bill. The Senate could easily approve the House's bill to make lynching a federal crime and send it to ... Donald Trump for his signature. But the Kentucky Republican is demanding changes that he says are needed to ensure lynching charges can't be brought for minor injuries.... Paul presented a scenario in which, under the bill being considered, someone could be shoved to the floor in a bar and suffer minor injuries and be accused of lynching. He said that could lead to unfair incarcerations.... 'I object to this [Paul's] amendment. I object, I object,' Booker said. 'I object on substance, I object on the law. And for my heart and spirit and every fiber of my being, I object for my ancestors.'... The unusual confrontation played out as George Floyd's funeral service was conducted in Minneapolis...." Paul's objections will abort consideration of the bill written by Harris, Booker & Tim Scott (R-S.C.) because the bill would have to pass on a voice vote as Mitch McConnell doesn't plan to allow a roll-call vote.
BBC: "The BBC's anti-disinformation team has been tracking misleading videos and conspiracy theories about the protests, which have been circulating online. So, here's what to look out for - and avoid - on your social media feeds." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Minnesota. Dionne Searcey & Richard Pérez-Peña of the New York Times: A "memorial [to George Floyd] in Minneapolis, at turns somber and defiant, followed more than a week of upheaval around the United States prompted by the video of a white police officer kneeling for almost nine minutes on Mr. Floyd's neck as he lay face down and handcuffed on the pavement, saying 'I can't breathe.' In death, Mr. Floyd has become a symbol of police brutality. But family members remembered him as the man they knew as Perry, and people in the neighborhood called 'Big Floyd,' someone with a gift for making friends and making people feel welcome." ~~~
~~~ Erica Green & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "A longtime friend of George Floyd's who was in the passenger seat of Mr. Floyd's car during his fatal encounter with a Minneapolis police officer said on Wednesday night that Mr. Floyd tried to defuse the tensions with the police and in no way resisted arrest. 'He was, from the beginning, trying in his humblest form to show he was not resisting in no form or way,' said the friend, Maurice Lester Hall, 42, who was tracked down on Monday in Houston, arrested on outstanding warrants and interviewed by Minnesota state investigators. 'I could hear him pleading, "Please, officer, what's all this for?"' Mr. Hall said in an interview on Wednesday night with The New York Times.... Mr. Hall is a key witness in the state's investigation into the four officers who apprehended Mr. Floyd...."
Florida. Charles Rabin of The Miami Herald: "The Fort Lauderdale patrol officer who inflamed a tense demonstration on Sunday, knocking over a seated protester just before a peaceful protest against police abuse turned violent, has been reviewed by internal affairs for using force 79 times in his roughly three-and-half years on the force, according to department records.... Most notably, Steven Pohorence has drawn his firearm more than once a month on average since he was hired in October 2016, according to personnel records released by the law enforcement agency on Wednesday." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Idaho. Vigilantes Arm with Assault Rifles Against an Internet Myth. Isaac Stanley-Becker & Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "... when early reports about potential violence surfaced ... -- claiming 'ANTIFA agitators' were storming the state this week -- scores of residents took to the streets. Armed with military-style assault rifles, they stood guard in places such as Coeur d'Alene, a resort town of 50,000 on a lake in northwest Idaho.... [But] local officials across the state confirmed that not a single participant was known to have defiled a home or storefront in the name of 'antifa.'... Many of the rumors about violent protests originated from dubious Facebook posts, often shared widely and rarely debunked, residents there said."
Kentucky. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times examines the shooting death of Louisville barbecue restayrateur David McAtee by a Louisville police officer or state National Guardsman. At least initially, it appears McAtee did shoot first, after police pepper-sprayed his barbecue stand & the nearby area.
New York. From the New York Times' live updates of protest events in New York City: "As a citywide curfew fell on New York on Wednesday for a third night, large numbers of protesters flouted the requirement that they clear the streets by 8 p.m. The police responded aggressively.... In Downtown Brooklyn, officers hemmed in demonstrators on Cadman Plaza, then charged at them with seemingly little provocation.... In Manhattan's East Midtown area, officers shoved protesters onto sidewalks and arrested those who would not disperse." An officer approached a black protester Andrew Smith, who was wearing a coronavirus mask & had his hands in the air; "the officer pulled down Mr. Smith's mask and sprayed him in the face with mace.... [Gov. Andrew] Cuomo bristled when asked about the police using batons to disperse peaceful protesters, despite reporting and widely seen videos that captured just that. 'That's not a fact,' he told reporters at a briefing.... [Mayor Bill] de Blasio was met with hostility on Thursday at a memorial for George Floyd in Brooklyn, the first time he had appeared in person before protesters who have been marching in New York City's streets for a week.... The mayor and the police commissioner, Dermot F. Shea, had defended officers' aggressive actions in breaking up the Wednesday night crowds." ~~~
~~~ Neil Vigdor & Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "Two Buffalo police officers were suspended without pay on Thursday night after a video showed them shoving a 75-year-old protester, who was hospitalized with a head injury, the authorities said. The video taken by WBFO, a local radio station, shows the man approaching a group of officers during a protest.... After he stops in front of them to talk, an officer yells, 'push him back' three times; one officer pushes his arm into the man's chest, while another extends his baton toward him with both hands. The man is seen flailing backward, landing just out of range of the camera, with blood immediately leaking from his right ear. The video shows an officer leaning down to examine him, but another officer then pulls the first officer away. Several other officers are seen walking by the man, motionless on the ground, without checking on him. Mayor Byron Brown said on Thursday night that the man was in serious condition. The video, which rapidly spread across social media, added to a growing body of videos from across the nation that showed officers responding to protests against police violence with more police violence." The Buffalo police department claimed the elderly man "tripped and fell." Includes video. A Hill story is here. ~~~
~~~ George Joseph of The Gothamist: "In hours of secretly recorded telephone conversations, police officers in Mount Vernon, New York, reveal widespread corruption, brutality and other misconduct in the troubled Westchester County city just north of the Bronx. Caught on tape by a whistleblower cop [Murashea Bovell], the officers said they witnessed or took part in alarming acts of police misconduct, from framing and beating residents to collaborating with drug dealers, all as part of a culture of impunity within the department's narcotics unit." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Washington State. Mike Baker of the New York Times: "A black man who called out 'I can't breathe' before dying in police custody in Tacoma, Wash., was killed as a result of oxygen deprivation and the physical restraint that was used on him, according to details of a medical examiner's report released on Wednesday. The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office concluded that the death of the man, Manuel Ellis, 33, was a homicide. Investigators with the Pierce County Sheriff's Department were in the process of preparing a report about the March death, which occurred shortly after an arrest by officers from the Tacoma Police Department, said the sheriff's spokesman, Ed Troyer." (Also linked yesterday.)
Washington, D.C. Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "The DC chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing federal law enforcement officers of violating the constitutional rights of peaceful demonstrators who were forcibly cleared from a park north of the White House so ... Donald Trump could walk through for a photo op earlier this week. The lawsuit accuses officers of attacking the demonstrators without warning and using excessive force -- including deploying incendiary devices such as flashbangs, tear gas, smoke canisters, pepper balls, and rubber bullets. 'This case is about the President and Attorney General of the United States ordering the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators who were speaking out against discriminatory police brutality targeted at Black people,' the complaint, filed in federal court in Washington, DC, begins." ~~~
~~~ Nick Boykin & Nathan Baca of WUSA Washington, D.C.: "As of Thursday evening, US Park Police, Arlington Police, DC Metro Police and the Secret Service have all denied using any kind of tear gas in Lafayette Square Monday evening. But federal law enforcement did launch tear gas Monday evening outside Lafayette Park, and WUSA9 crews witnessed it.... We witnessed canisters venting out green-colored gas.... We found canisters scattered on the street.... We showed our canisters to military bomb disposal expert Brian Castner, who works with Amnesty International: 'That['s] Spede-Heat one, it's a cartridge that has a little bit of propellant in the back,' Castner said. 'It's got a bunch of tear gas upfront and you fire it from a launcher so it goes a certain distance. I believe that one is rated to about 150 yards, so it goes fairly far and its job is to spread tear gas around a crowd.'... Our crew also witnessed nothing but peaceful protester behavior, even with our unique 15-foot-high camera position." ~~~
~~~ Ali Breland of Mother Jones: "On Wednesday, Trump-authorized federal police closed off a portion of 16th Street [in Washington, D.C.,] just north of [St. John's Episcopal Church]..., which kept clergy from being able to use their house of worship. Bishop Mariann Budde, who had assailed Trump's Monday visit as a 'symbolic misuse of the most sacred texts of our tradition,' planned to hold a vigil in front of the church to show solidarity with protesters. But a new security perimeter, extending almost a quarter of a mile out from the front of the White House, blocked her access and forced her into the street." Budde then engaged protesters, who felt St. John's was getting too much attention. ~~~
~~~ Challenging Times. Mrs. McCrabbie: These protesters seem as confused & silly as the "Occupy" protesters who told civil-rights icon John Lewis to take a hike. But I'm confused, too. I thought Trump & Barr were the great champions of freedom of religion, at least when it came to Christians. Are we now to understand that only pro-Trump evangelical Christians may freely exercise their faith? And if so, isn't that state-sponsored religion, which the First Amendment prohibits?
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Marc Tracy, et al., of the New York Times: "Executives at The New York Times scrambled on Thursday to address the concerns of employees and readers who were angered by the newspaper's publication of an opinion essay by a United States senator [-- Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) --] calling for the federal government to send the military to suppress protests against police violence in American cities. Near the end of the day, James Bennet, the editor in charge of the opinion section, said in a meeting with staff members that he had not read the essay before it was published. Shortly afterward, The Times issued a statement saying the essay fell short of the newspaper's standards.... 'One thing above all else will restore order to our streets: an overwhelming show of force to disperse, detain and ultimately deter lawbreakers,' the senator wrote. Hundreds of staff members signed a letter protesting its publication.... The letter ... argued that Mr. Cotton's essay contained misinformation, such as the claim that the antifa movement had 'infiltrated' the protests." ~~~
~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "In a racist inversion, [Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)] equates his fantasy of soldiers putting down an uprising triggered by police brutality against black people with previous presidents using the military to enforce desegregation. His argument is frequently slippery and dishonest. The claim that police officers 'bore the brunt of the violence' is hard to square with countless videos of police instigation.... Cotton notes that President George H.W. Bush sent federal troops into Los Angeles in 1992 to quell the riots that broke out after the police who beat Rodney King were acquitted. But he doesn't tell readers that Bush did so at the invitation of California's governor.... Cotton..., on Twitter called for 'no quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters.' As David French, a conservative writer who is, like Cotton, a veteran of the war in Iraq, pointed out, 'no quarter' orders -- which mean showing the enemy no mercy, even if they try to surrender -- are a war crime."
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here. "The coronavirus pandemic is ebbing in some of the countries that were hit hard early on, but the number of new cases is growing faster than ever worldwide, with more than 100,000 reported each day. Twice as many countries have reported a rise in new cases over the past two weeks as have reported declines, according to a New York Times database. On May 30, more new cases were reported in a single day worldwide than ever before: 134,064. The increase has been driven by emerging hot spots in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Over all, there have been more than 6.3 million reported cases worldwide and more than 380,000 known deaths." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Employment stunningly rose by 2.5 million in May and the jobless rate declined to 13.3% according to data Friday from the Labor Department that was far better than economists had been expecting and indicated that an economic turnaround could be close at hand. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting payrolls to drop by 8.333 million and the unemployment rate to rise to 19.5% from April's 14.7%. The May gain was by far the biggest one-month jobs gain in U.S. history since at least 1939." According to a CNBC banner, Dow futures jumped 650 points on the better-than-expected jobs report.
Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Filings for unemployment insurance claims totaled 1.877 million last week in a sign that the worst is over for the coronavirus-related jobs crisis but that the level of unemployment remains stubbornly high. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 1.775 million new claims. The Labor Department's total nevertheless represented a decline from the previous week's upwardly revised total of 2.126 million. Filings under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program totaled 623,073. This was the first time the government's weekly jobless claims report came under 2 million since the week ended March 14." (Also linked yesterday.)
A Boost for Doctor Trump. Andrew Joseph of STAT News: "The Lancet, one of the world's top medical journals, on Thursday retracted an influential study that raised alarms about the safety of the experimental Covid-19 treatments chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine amid scrutiny of the data underlying the paper. Just over an hour later, the New England Journal of Medicine retracted a separate study, focused on blood pressure medications in Covid-19, that relied on data from the same company. The retractions came at the request of the authors of the studies, published last month, who were not directly involved with the data collection and sources, the journals said.... Meanwhile, on Wednesday, researchers reported the results of the first gold-standard clinical trial of hydroxycholoroquine in Covid-19, concluding that it did not prevent infections any better than placebo." Mrs. McC: The retraction does not mean that hydroxychloroquine is safe; it means we have no idea.
Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "Iran has freed Michael R. White, a Navy veteran held in that country for nearly two years, and he was on his way home, his mother announced on Thursday in the United States.... The release of Mr. White, 48, a cancer patient who had been infected with the coronavirus while incarcerated in Iran, came a day after an Iranian scientist held in the United States was returned to Iran. American officials had insisted the two cases were not linked. But Iranian officials had suggested last month that once the scientist, Sirous Asgari, was back in Iran, they would look favorably at permitting Mr. White to go home." (Also linked yesterday.)
Ilya Zhegulev of Reuters: "An audit of thousands of old case files by Ukrainian prosecutors found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Hunter Biden, the former prosecutor general, who had launched the audit, told Reuters. Ruslan Ryaboshapka was in the spotlight last year as the man who would decide whether to launch an investigation into former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter, in what became a key issue in the impeachment of ... Donald Trump. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described Ryaboshapka as '100 percent my person' on a call in July 2019 in which Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate Biden, the man who became his main rival in the 2020 presidential race.... Ryaboshapka was fired in March after lawmakers accused him of not moving quickly enough in prosecuting cases. Ryaboshapka said he was axed because he had started bringing real reform to the prosecution service for the first time in a way that threatened the interests of corrupt politicians."
John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump strongly hinted Thursday at a pardon of friend and longtime political adviser Roger Stone, who has been ordered to report to prison later this month. Trump said Stone was the 'victim of a corrupt and illegal Witch Hunt' and should 'sleep well at night.'Trump made the comments on Twitter in response to a tweet by conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who complained that Stone would be serving more time in prison than '99% of these rioters destroying America,' a reference to violent protests in the wake of the death in police custody of Minneapolis man George Floyd." A Politico story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Brett Samuels of The Hill: "The White House announced in a release that Trump would appoint Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie to serve among the commissioners who select the annual Presidential Scholars." --s ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Who knew something as oppresive as fascism could be funny? (Well, okay, Mel Brooks. Charlie Chaplin thought so, too, but he changed his mind.) Appointing Lewandowski & Bossie to choose scholars is appointing Dumb & Dumber or Beavis & Butthead to name the smartest, best-informed people in the nation. It is conventional standards turned completely upside-down.
Jordain Carney of The Hill: "Steven Linick, the ousted State Department inspector general, told lawmakers that he was investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for allegations of misusing government resources and that he had discussed the probe with other State Department officials.... In addition to a potential misuse of funds by Pompeo and his wife, Linick was also investigating a Saudi arms sale. Linick, according to Democrats, told lawmakers that [Under Secretary of State for Management Brian] Bulatao and Marik String, the acting State Department legal advisor, said that the watchdog's office should not pursue the investigation.... 'Mr. Linick also testified that Under Secretary Bulatao -- a longtime friend of Secretary Pompeo -- attempted to "bully" the Inspector General on several occasions.'" --s
Elections 2020
Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "... Joe Biden said Thursday that about '10 to 15 percent' of people are 'just not very good people,' but they account for a small minority in a country that is overwhelmingly virtuous.... His comments came in a virtual town hall with young Americans that was hosted by his campaign and joined by the actor Don Cheadle. The former vice president fielded questions from several young African Americans. The discussion addressed issues of race and police violence." A Hill story is here.
Tennessee. AP: "Tennessee must give all of its 4.1 million registered voters the option to cast ballots by mail during the coronavirus pandemic, a judge ruled Thursday. Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle ruled that the state's limits on absentee voting during the pandemic constitute 'an unreasonable burden on the fundamental right to vote guaranteed by the Tennessee Constitution.' The decision upends a determination by Republican Secretary of State Tre Hargett's office that fear of catching or unwittingly spreading the virus at the polls wouldn't qualify someone to vote by mail." Mrs. McC: Chancellor Lyle's ruling seems like the most sensible & fundamental reasoning for requiring mail-in ballots: the right to vote.
BUT Texas. Marina Pitofsky of the Hill: "A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Texans cannot request mail-in ballots out of fear of contracting the coronavirus in the upcoming 2020 elections. The ruling by the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals blocks an injunction from a federal judge last month that would have allowed Texas voters to request mail-in ballots based over fears of becoming infected with COVID-19 if they cast their ballot in person. Judge Jerry Smith on Thursday wrote for a unanimous panel of three judges 'The spread of the virus has not given 'unelected federal judges' a roving commission to rewrite state election codes.'"
Beyond the Beltway
Georgia. Minyvonne Burke of NBC News: "The white Georgia man accused of killing an unarmed black man, Ahmaud Arbery, used a racial slur after the fatal shooting, according to another suspect's account to an investigator. The allegation was revealed as the prosecution presented its case at a preliminary hearing on Thursday morning for defendants Gregory McMichael, 64, his son Travis McMichael, 34, and their neighbor >William 'Roddie' Bryan, 50.... Special agent Richard Dial with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said during the hearing that Bryan said during a May 13 interview that he heard Travis McMichael say, 'f---ing n-word' after Arbery had been shot. The defense noted that Bryan had been interviewed before May 13 and had not mentioned that Travis McMichael used a racial slur." ~~~
~~~ Update. Cleve Wootson, et al., of the Washington Post: "A judge in Glynn County, Ga., ruled Thursday that three white men accused of killing a black jogger in Georgia in February will stand trial for murder, after a day-long hearing that revealed the shooter allegedly uttered the words 'f---ing n-----' as the victim lay dying in the road."
Way Beyond
Update. Australia. Calla Wahlquist of the Guardian: "The head of Rio Tinto's iron ore division [Chris Salisbury] said he has 'taken accountability' for the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site but refused to give a direct answer when asked if the company knew traditional owners did not want the rock shelter destroyed, saying: 'clearly, there was a misunderstanding'.... Traditional owners ... said the loss was 'soul destroying'.... 'We can't keep looking backwards,' Salisbury told interviewer Hamish Macdonald. 'We want to repair our relationship with traditional owners.'... Th[e] review, which is being conducted with oversight from the Rio Tinto board, will not be released publicly." -s
Hong Kong/China. Javier Hernández, et al., of the New York Times: "Chanting slogans like 'Liberate Hong Kong,' thousands of people in Hong Kong flouted a police ban on Thursday as they gathered to memorialize the Tiananmen Square massacre, a striking display of defiance against Beijing's tightening grip on the territory.... On Thursday, in a move opposition politicians said would inhibit free speech, Hong Kong's legislature, which is dominated by pro-Beijing lawmakers, passed a law that would criminalize disrespect for China's national anthem and make it punishable by up to three years in prison."
U.K. Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Emma Howard, et al. of the Guardian: "British-based banks and finance houses have provided more than $2bn (£1.5bn) in financial backing in recent years to Brazilian beef companies which have been linked to Amazon deforestation. according to new research. Thousands of hectares of Amazon are being felled every year to graze cattle and provide meat for world markets. As well as providing financial backing for Minerva, Brazil's second largest beef exporter, and Marfrig, its second largest meat processing company, UK-based financial institutions held tens of millions of dollars worth of shares in JBS, the world's largest meat company." --s
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