Daily Archives: 2020-06-26

2020-06-26: News Headlines

Susan Jaffe (2020-06-27). [World Report] LGBTQ discrimination in US health care under scrutiny. thelancet.com A US Supreme Court ruling could undermine the Trump administration's plan to roll back some protections against sex discrimination. Susan Jaffe reports.

Staff (2020-06-26). The End of Asylum? Supreme Court Sides with Trump Administration on Fast-Tracking Deportations. democracynow.org The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a major victory Thursday when it ruled the government can fast-track deportations of asylum seekers without first allowing them to fight for their cases in front of a judge. The ACLU's Lee Gelernt argued the case in court on behalf of Tamil asylum seeker Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam. "It's a very serious decision and will adversely affect many, many asylum seekers," says Gelernt. "We're likely to see more people fail their hearings, and now they don't have a backstop in the federal courts."

T.J. Coles (2020-06-26). Infiltrating Black Lives Matter: Cops, Feds, and White Supremacists. counterpunch.org Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a major step forward in the ongoing struggle for Civil Rights in the United States and around the world. BLM was founded in 2013, following the acquittal over what organizers describe as 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's murderer, the gated community watchman, George Zimmerman. The organization came to international attention in July

Staff (2020-06-26). Police Are Arresting Protesters Over Facebook Posts—And It's Just The Beginning. therealnews.com The FBI investigated and arrested Michael Avery for posting on Facebook about a Black Lives Matter protest. We talk with a tech industry whistleblower about "snitch apps" and how law enforcement uses technology to "protect" you.

David Rosen (2020-06-26). Class & Otherness: A Peculiar Dialectic. counterpunch.org Nothing captures the contradictions of American social life more than then the recent announcement by Jeff Bezos in support for the Black Lives Matter movement. The founder of Amazon, the owner of the Washington Post and the richest person in the world issued a tweet calling for an end to "the inequitable and brutal treatment of

Rob Urie (2020-06-26). Racism and the Neoliberal Consensus. counterpunch.org In the midst of protests and the reinvigorated Black Lives Matter movement, race is once again being put forward as the social axis most in need of rectification. From the perspective of 'racial capital,' the ills of capitalism can't be meaningfully addressed until white supremacy has been defeated. From a left perspective grounded in Marx and history, race is a product of capitalism, not its cause. The economic relationships of indentured servitude and slavery both preceded the concept of race. And the iterative view begins with economic relationships to claim that at some point race became a causal factor in it…

Tom Coburg (2020-06-26). US street-based projects are talking about more than just police reforms. They want outright liberation. thecanary.co On the west coast of America, authorities have threatened to send in police to retake Seattle's Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). While on the east coast, the Black Lives Matter chair for Greater New York has called for armed "peace officers" to monitor police activity. | Meanwhile, all across the US, legislation is being introduced to

_____ (2020-06-26). The US Military Has A Boogaloo Problem. popularresistance.org The U.S. military appears to have a brewing boogaloo problem. Active-duty military are flocking to online networks frequented by the anti-government movement, known for its meme culture and Hawaiian shirt-clad adherents, who are often called Boogaloo Bois. | "Boogaloo" is code for civil war, which is the ultimate goal of the movement, and some of its followers trade in memes glorifying violence against federal agents and crack jokes about the impending "Boog." Recently they've become regular fixtures at anti-lockdown and Black Lives Matter protests in states that allow open-carry of military-style firearms. | An…

sputniknews (2020-06-26). Moment of Truth? How BLM Leader's Words at Once Exposed True Aims & Utter Hypocrisy of the Movement. sputniknews.com On 24 June, leader of the Greater New York Black Lives Matter Hawk Newsome stated that if the movement sparked by the killing of George Floyd does not bring about tangible results the protesters will change the system forcibly. According to US observers, Newsome's remark is unsurprising and speaks volumes about BLM's true goals.

indybay (2020-06-26). Wednesday 7/1: Black Lives Matter Capitola Village March & Speak Out. indybay.org Monterey Park, Capitola…

Bay Area Hospitality for Black Lives (2020-06-26). Tuesday 6/30: BAHBL Join Us! Solidarity Rally and March for Black Lives. indybay.org William McKinley statue (277 Baker St.) to Alamo Square Park…

Peaceful Protest for Black Lives Matter (2020-06-26). Saturday 6/27: Peaceful Protest for Black Lives Matter. indybay.org Santa Cruz Clock Tower | Pacific Ave. and Water St., Santa Cruz…

Codepink, Extiction Rebellion, VFP, more (2020-06-26). Saturday 7/4: 4th of July SF Car Caravan: "Defund Police, Defund Pentagon, Fund Life!" indybay.org Meet up 2pm at SF City Hall, Polk St. between Grove & McAllister; Caravan to Stop 1: Defund Police, Black Lives Matter street painting, Fulton & Webster; Caravan to Stop 2: Defund Pentagon, Nancy Pelosi's House, Broadway @ Divisadero; Caravan to Stop 3: Fund Life!, Bayview Hunters Point.

C.J. Atkins (2020-06-26). Pandemic Pride: LGBTQ struggle continues, learns from Black Lives Matter. peoplesworld.org This weekend marks a half-century since the first Pride march took place on June 28, 1970. That initial event in New York City, called "Christopher Street Liberation Day," recalled the Stonewall Rebellion of a year earlier—the night a band of fed-up queers stood up, fought back, and launched a liberation struggle that transformed the world. …

_____ (2020-06-26). Chicago's Neighborhoods Will Remain "Occupied" Until The City Defunds CPD. popularresistance.org The book Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power, published last year, details the history of the Chicago Police Department's quasi-military occupation of the city's Black communities from the race riots of 1919 through the present day. Author Simon Balto, an assistant professor of African American history at the University of Iowa, demonstrates that "there is not a time in Chicago's history where the city was home to large percentages of black people, and in which they had a smoothly functioning relationship with the CPD." While most histories of mass incarceration start around…

Staff (2020-06-26). COVID-19 Is Amplifying Racial Inequities, Educators Say. therealnews.com Baltimore Teachers Union President Diamonté Brown discusses a recent lawsuit over unpaid instructional days, global protests against racism, the movement to defund the police, and calls to remove officers from schools.

Yoav Litvin (2020-06-26). Truth is Our Weapon and Shield — An Interview with Black Panther Party Veteran Billy X Jennings. counterpunch.org Truth and reconciliation commissions attempt to heal divided nations after the injustice has ceased. They rely on a process of education in which a reckoning with hard truths of systemic oppression lead to national accountability, reparations for victims, healing and potential unity. However, truth and reconciliation commissions, such as the one in South Africa, are

Alan Macleod (2020-06-26). Activists Urge US Dept of Agriculutre to Deny Deadly New Monsanto GMO-Herbicide Combo. mintpressnews.com The US is considering approving the product even as Monsanto juggles multiple multi-million dollar lawsuits from cancer patients over its deadly Roundup herbicide.

W. T. Whitney (2020-06-26). US Must Return Its Political Prisoner Simón Trinidad to Colombia. counterpunch.org Murderous violence and oligarchy were in charge in Colombia during the 20th century. Colombians by the millions were marginalized, impoverished, and/or displaced from small land holdings. Violence and the failings of liberal democracy turned Simón Trinidad into a revolutionary. Few in the United States and Europe know about him. Colombia's allies in both places overlook

_____ (2020-06-26). Inside The US's Largest Maximum-Security Prison, COVID-19 Raged. popularresistance.org While the novel coronavirus burned through Angola, as the country's largest maximum-security prison is known, officials insisted they were testing all inmates who showed symptoms, isolating those who got sick and transferring more serious cases to the hospital in Baton Rouge, about 60 miles to the south. | But from inside Angola's walls, inmates painted a very different picture — one of widespread illness, dysfunctional care and sometimes inexplicable neglect. They said at least four of the 12 prisoners who have died in the pandemic, including Williams, had been denied needed medical help for days because t…

Students For Accountability (2020-06-26). Open Letter To CCSF BOT Pres. Shanell Williams & Bd: Do You Know Who Dr. Rajen Vurdien Is? indybay.org San Francisco Community College Board of Trustees President Shanell Williams and her Board have hired a new interim Chancellor Dr. Rajen Vurdien from the same Community College that corrupt former CCSF Chancellor came from Pasadena Community College. He had a record of discrimination against African America staff at the college and was condemned by the NAACP for his actions.

R. Robertson (2020-06-26). Tenderloin Rises Up Against UC Hastings Lawsuit. indybay.org Speakers from organizations supporting the unhoused, law students, and community members protested UC Hastings move to clear black and brown residents from tent encampments in the middle of the pandemic. They started in front of the law school's Kane Hall and marched to the police station in the Tenderloin where they faced off with cops armed for battle.

Lukas Hermsmeier (2020-06-26). Escalation of State Power. indybay.org Uprising in America. The time has come to tear down the system and create a "different America." "The moderate white man for whom order is more important than justice is the greatest obstacle to freedom," said Martin Luther King in his Letter from the Birmingham Jail.

Anish R M (2020-06-25). A month after George Floyd's death, what has changed? peoplesdispatch.org A month has passed by since the brutal killing of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The protests that erupted across the United States and continue to rage on have significantly altered the political landscape of the nation's politics. Much like the protests of 2014-15 sparked by the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, the protests happening today have brought some of the perennial questions and unfinished business of the Civil Rights Movement. | From talks about police reforms to abolition of the police, from the lingering Confederate legacy to colonial-settler and slave-ow…

Dennis Broe (2020-06-25). Spike Lee's 'Da 5 Bloods': Black Lives Matter meets 'Rambo' [spoilers]. peoplesworld.org Spike Lee's new film for Netflix, Da 5 Bloods, about the aftereffects on African-American soldiers of the Vietnam War, opens spectacularly. A documentary sequence begins with Muhammad Ali detailing why he chooses not to fight: "My conscience won't let me go shoot my brother or some darker people…for big powerful America..for what?..They never lynched me, …

Behrooz Ghamari Tabrizi (2020-06-25). The Two-Headed Hydra of Racism and Imperialism. counterpunch.org Black Lives Matter (BLM) has raised mass consciousness against the institution of police violence and the brutality it inflicts on Black communities around the country. The movement has placed the question of police brutality at the top of the political and juridical reform agenda. The naked display of the oppressive state apparatus has now forced everyone, from the fascist residents of the White House to the liberal democrats of the House, politicians speak of the need to reform policing—more training, more screening, more record-keepings, judicial vigilance, and other haphazard sutures for the centuries o…

Zoà´ Carpenter (2020-06-25). Black Lives Matter Protests Are Everywhere, Even in the Unlikeliest Places. thenation.com Black Lives Matter Protests Are Everywhere, Even in the Unlikeliest Places…

Kurt Nimmo (2020-06-25). Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the Neoliberal Color Revolution in America. globalresearch.ca "The protests, riots, violent and non-violent actions sweeping across the United States since May 25, including an assault on the gates of the White House, begin to make sense when we understand the CIA's Color Revolution playbook," writes economic researcher, …

Kathryn Shihadah (2020-06-25). Selective Tolerance: AIPAC and its Pro-Apartheid Ilk Come to Bat for Black Lives Matter. mintpressnews.com Pro-Israel groups in America are sending mixed signals: yes, we want equality for Black Americans; no, we do not want the same for Palestinians.

_____ (2020-06-25). Massive Uprisings Confront White Supremacy. popularresistance.org On May 25, a Minneapolis police officer tortured George Floyd to death in what his brother, Philonise Floyd, called "a modern-day lynching in broad daylight." Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in all 50 states and Washington D.C.; the anti-racist uprisings continue. | Why do a majority of people in this country now support the Movement for Black Lives? Why have calls to defund and abolish the police entered the mainstream discourse? Why are people risking the deadly coronavirus to join the protests? And why are we seeing what may be the broadest popular movement in the history of the United Stat…

_____ (2020-06-25). CHOP And The Juneteenth Longshore Strike. popularresistance.org On June 19, the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Union (ILWU), a militant union of 42,000 members, shut down 29 ports along the West Coast of the United States and Canada, as workers withheld their labor for 8 hours. The strike was organized to demonstrate the labor movement's solidarity with black lives after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and held on the Juneteenth anniversary of the emancipation of the last chattel slaves in the US in 1865. | As part of the action, a mass demonstration marched through Oakland's port and downtown, with several thousand in attendance.

sputniknews (2020-06-25). Calls to List Antifa as Terrorist Organisation in Sweden in the Wake of Black Lives Matter Riots. sputniknews.com US President Donald Trump has argued the violent Black Lives Matter rallies that blossomed across the country following the death of African American George Floyd in police custody and which include looting and pillaging, are being led by Antifa, and pledged to designate it as a terrorist organisation, making it illegal on American soil.

RT (2020-06-25). Fighting words: Trump tweets that police are 'furious' over plan to paint BLACK LIVES MATTER in front of Trump Tower in NYC. rt.com Bringing up a report that New York City wants to paint the words "Black Lives Matter" on Fifth Avenue, right outside his flagship property, US President Donald Trump said the city's police were mad about it. | Tweeting from a trip to Wisconsin on Thursday, Trump said he heard Mayor Bill de Blasio wanted to paint the city yellow with the name of the movement — and noted that some of its slogans are calling for the murder of police. | Told that

Sit.Walk.Listen. (2020-06-25). Sunday 6/28: Sit. Walk. Listen. Because Black Lives Matter. indybay.org Henry J. Kaiser Memorial Park (19th st. and Telegraph ave), Oakland, CA | Dear siblings, these times are a great call for change. | As mindfulness practitioners, we can breathe for others who cannot. Let's bring the practice of peaceful compassionate nonviolence to the streets; to listen, to follow, and support black people. | As Thich Nhat Hanh once said: "Nonviolent action, born of the awareness of suffering and nurtured by love, is the most effective way to confront adversity." | Together we can walk in peace, love, compassion and awareness.

Defund the Police State (2020-06-25). Ferry Building to City Hall and Beyond: March for Freedom and Justice in San Francisco. indybay.org Black Lives Matter supporters marched from the Ferry Building to City Hall to 555 Franklin, headquarters of the San Francisco Unified School District, with rallies at each stop on June 19.

Jessica Lynne (2020-06-25). How Visual Culture Is Implicated in Mass Incarceration. thenation.com How Visual Culture Is Implicated in Mass Incarceration…

Staff (2020-06-25). Boycotting Israel Is Not A Crime, Says European Human Rights Court. therealnews.com The EHRC overturned the French court's convictions of 12 BDS activists for "incitement to discrimination" in a watershed ruling for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.

W. T. Whitney, Jr. (2020-06-25). U.S. must return its political prisoner Simón Trinidad to Colombia. mronline.org Simón Trinidad matters; his time has come. This leader of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) faced bizarre and unfounded criminal charges in a U.S. court. He's being held under the cruelest of conditions in a federal prison in Florence, Colorado. He will die there unless he is released. Simón Trinidad will be …

WSWS (2020-06-25). Detroit nurses' lawsuit exposes horrific conditions at Sinai-Grace Hospital as COVID-19 deaths spiked. wsws.org Four nurses who worked at Sinai-Grace Hospital have filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Tenet corporation that operates the facility where dozens of people died from COVID-19 due to management's cost-cutting.

Kim Petersen (2020-06-25). The Oppressed Have the Moral Right to Decide How Best to Resist Their Oppression. dissidentvoice.org Question: Should people from the oppressor group tell the oppressed people how to conduct their resistance? Should Jews tell Palestinians what form their resistance to Israeli oppression should take? During World War II should Germans have directed Jewish, Roma, Slavic resistance in the concentration camps? Nowadays, should whites be telling Blacks how to resist systemic …

IMEMC News (2020-06-25). Israeli Court Sentences A Detainee To Four Life Terms In Prison. imemc.org An Israeli court on Wednesday sentenced a Palestinian detainee to four life terms, in addition to imposing a fine of 16 Million Shekels after convicting him of killing two Israeli soldiers and of wounding 7 settlers (causing a young woman to miscarry) in two separate incidents in the year 2018, …

Al-Mezan Center For Human Rights (2020-06-25). Israeli Soldier Given Derisory Sentence for the Unlawful Killing of a Palestinian Fisherman. imemc.org Press Release By Al-Mezan Center For Human Rights: On 15 June 2020, an Israeli military court sentenced an Israeli soldier, who shot and killed 23-year-old Palestinian fisherman, Nawwaf al-Attar, off the coast of Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip, to a derisory 45-day prison sentence to be served through military-related …

Peoples Dispatch (2020-06-25). Indian rights groups demand bail for political prisoners. peoplesdispatch.org The letter by prominent human rights organizations comes days after reports emerged of the appalling conditions in the quarantine facility in the State of Maharashtra in which activist Gautam Navlakha is currently lodged in…

_____ (2020-06-25). The Disproportionate Blues. popularresistance.org Here in the year of 2020 of the 21st century, we descendants of the people who created and first started singing the blues set to music, way back in the 19th century, are still singing the blues today. Those people who historically gave us the reasons to write and sing the blues because of our ill treatment and overwhelming oppression could not truly understand, appreciate or relate to our historical or present-day pain and suffering. | We African Americans have often been told that times have changed. We have been told by the powers that be throughout this country's history and our existence to stop crying, to g…

yenisafak (2020-06-25). Bayer to pay up to $10.9 bln to settle bulk of Roundup weedkiller cancer lawsuits. yenisafak.com The German drugs and pesticides maker has come to terms with about 75% of the 125,000 filed and unfiled claims overall, it said in a statement on Wednesday of the deal to end legal disputes it inherited with its $63 billion takeover of Monsanto in 2018.The settled cases over Roundup and other glyphosate-based weedkillers account for about 95% of those currently set for trial, it added."The Roundup settlement is the right action at the right time for Bayer to bring a long period of uncertainty to an end," Bayer Chief Executive Werner Baumann said. "Unfortunately, we have to pay an awful lot of money for a product…

Clare Garvie (2020-06-24). The Untold Number of People Implicated in Crimes They Didn't Commit Because of Face Recognition. aclu.org In January, Michigan resident Robert Williams was arrested for shoplifting from a watch store in downtown Detroit a year ago—a

RT (2020-06-24). Detroit cops made first known wrongful arrest based on faulty facial recognition software, ACLU complaint claims. rt.com A case involving a black man who was wrongfully detained due to an incorrect facial recognition match could be the first of its kind, the ACLU has said. The civil liberties group has filed a complaint with Detroit police. | The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed a formal letter of protest on Wednesday over the arrest and treatment of Robert Williams, who was cuffed on his front lawn by Detroit officers after being suspected of stealing watches from a boutique. The arrest, which was made in January, came about after Williams was flagged by a facial recognition system used by the Detroit Police Dep…

Jessica Corbett, staff writer (2020-06-24). ACLU Demands Lawmakers Act After Michigan Man Wrongfully Arrested 'Because Face Recognition Can't Tell Black People Apart'. commondreams.org The ACLU on Wednesday urged policymakers to end law enforcement use of facial recognition technology and filed an administrative complaint with Detroit police on behalf of Robert Williams, a Black man who was wrongfully arrested in January after software owned by Michigan State Police misidentified him as a shoplifting suspect. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/williams_family.jpg

Susie Day (2020-06-24). America liberated! Trump found in bunker! mronline.org An ad-hoc alliance of radical armies demanding justice for Black lives broke through federal barricades today to storm Capitol Hill.

Victoria Burton-Harris (2020-06-24). Wrongfully Arrested Because Face Recognition Can't Tell Black People Apart. aclu.org Early this year, Detroit police arrested Robert Williams — a Black man living in a Detroit suburb — on his front lawn in front of his wife and two little daughters (ages 2 and 5). Robert was hauled off and locked up for nearly 30 hours. His crime? Face recognition software owned by Michigan State Police told the cops that Robert Williams was the watch thief they were on the hunt for., , There was just one problem: Face recognition technology can't tell Black people apart. That includes Robert Williams, whose only thing in common with the suspect caught by the watch shop's surveillance feed is that…