THE ONLY PROTESTS TRUMP LIKES ARE THOSE OF ARMED WHITE PEOPLE



Birth of a Nation was the first feature film produced in Hollywood. It remains as divisive as it did when it came out in 1915. D. W. Griffith push the art of cinema into the 20th century by pioneering new editing and camera techniques, however the film’s values are those of racial bigotry, where black people are lazy and criminal, and the KKK are heroes


The First Resurgence

American Experience PBS

After the
"Klansville U.S.A." premiered January 13, 2015 at 9/8c on PBS American Experience. 1915 premiere of D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation," there was a resurgence in the Ku Klux Klan in America. By the mid-1920s, nearly 4 million Americans claimed Klan membership, making them a powerful political force. 
For information on how to watch the full documentary film, "Klansville U.S.A." please visit: https://tinyurl.com/yakea38v
 

1915, African American newspaper editor and civil rights activist William Monroe Trotter waged a battle against D.W. Griffith’s notoriously Ku Klux Klan-friendly blockbuster The Birth of a Nation, which unleashed a fight still raging today about race relations and representation, and the power and influence of Hollywood. Birth of a Movement features commentary from Spike Lee, Reginald Hudlin, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and DJ Spooky (who created a new score and remix of the Griffith film), and numerous clips from the technically groundbreaking but racially astounding epic.In 



American Academy in Berlin

The American Ku Klux Klan is familiar to many: after the Civil War, it formed in the southern states as a masked terrorist group devoted to maintaining white supremacy and ensuring cheap sharecropper labor. But few know about the “second KKK,” which attracted three to six million members in the 1920s in the northern states. It became a mass organization by expanding its enemies list to include Catholics and Jews. It claimed that America was “destined” to be a white Protestant nation, and that God had created the Klan in order to stop Catholic and Jewish conspiracies to seize power. This second Klan was mainly nonviolent, was not secret, and pursued a highly successful electoral and legislative strategy. In this talk, historian Linda Gordon argues that the second Klan’s white nationalist ideology and strategy continue to influence US politics and can help to illuminate the recent rise of “populist” and fascistic movements around the globe.

Bird may have caused Canada air force aerobatics plane to crash

Issued on: 02/06/2020

A screengrab taken from a video obtained from the Facebook account of Jason Kyle Arnold shows a fire burning after a plane from Canada's Snowbirds, an elite air force aerobatics team, crashed on May 17, 2020 in Kamloops, British Columbia Jason Kyle Arnold AFP/File


Montreal (AFP)

A bird may have caused a plane from an elite Canadian air force aerobatics team to crash, resulting in the death of one team member and injury to another, the defence department said Monday.

The aircraft -- part of the team known as the Snowbirds -- crashed into the front yard of a house in British Columbia shortly after taking off from Kamloops Airport late morning on May 18.

In a preliminary report, the Department of National Defence's Airworthiness Investigative Authority said it had obtained video footage that revealed "one bird in very close proximity to the aircraft right engine intake during the critical post take-off phase.


"The flight safety investigation will focus on environmental factors (the bird strike) and the performance of the escape system," the report said.

The plane was scheduled to fly over British Columbia as part of a tour dubbed "Operation Inspiration," launched in early May to pay tribute to Canadians' efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

The report showed that the CT-114 plane had gained altitude, before abruptly leaving the Snowbirds' formation and entering a nose-down spin.

Both passengers were able to eject from the plane but were injured upon landing. Captain Jenn Casey, 35, a Public Affairs Officer with the Air Force, died as a result of her injuries.

"The most difficult work of an investigation begins as we peel back the layers to understand why and how this happened," said Colonel John Alexander, the director of flight safety and the Airworthiness Investigative Authority.

"We are laser-focused to understanding everything we can about the accident so we can recommend effective preventative measures," he said.

The Snowbirds' signature nine-jet formation, with trailing white smoke, began its tour in Nova Scotia and was to perform aerial displays over cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, at elevations as low as 500 feet (150 meters).

The Snowbirds' signature nine-jet formation, with trailing white smoke, began its tour in Nova Scotia and was to perform aerial displays over cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, at elevations as low as 500 feet (150 meters).

The team has temporarily suspended flights since the crash.

© 2020 AFP

From New Zealand to Canada, demonstrators spoke out against police brutality and racism

Ex-champ Mayweather to pay for Floyd funeral: report

Issued on: 02/06/2020

Los Angeles (AFP)

Retired ring great Floyd Mayweather will pay for the funeral services for George Floyd, Mayweather Promotions chief executive Leonard Ellerbe told ESPN on Monday.

George Floyd died last week after a Minneapolis policeman knelt on the 46-year-old man's neck for almost nine minutes. Floyd, who was handcuffed, became unresponsive after almost three minutes.

The death of the unarmed black man while in police custody has ignited violent reactions across America.

Ellerbe confirmed to ESPN that Floyd's family had accepted Mayweather's offer to pay for funeral services.

"He'll probably get mad at me for saying that, but yes, (Mayweather) is definitely paying for the funeral," Ellerbe said.

Mayweather "has done these kind of things over the last 20 years," added Ellerbe, who said that the former five-division world champion -- who retired in 2017 with a 50-0 record -- didn't want to talk about his gesture himself.

The lawyer for Floyd's family said Monday that a funeral will be held on June 9 in Houston.

Before that, the family will hold a memorial service in Minneapolis on Thursday and a memorial service on Saturday in North Carolina, where Floyd was born.

An official autopsy released Monday found that Floyd died in a homicide involving "neck compression."

Police officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with third degree murder and one count of negligent manslaughter in Floyd's death.

Once a radical idea, universal basic income is gaining support

BE REALISTIC DEMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE

Issued on: 01/06/2020

People wearing protective masks walk past a placard installed by a homeless person that reads "breaking news, COVID-19 makes you stingy" in Paris on April 14, 2020. © Joel Saget, AFP
Text by:Romain HOUEIX

As the Covid-19 pandemic sinks economies around the world and leads to record rates of unemployment, some politicians and analysts are revisiting the idea of a universal income. Spain on Friday introduced a basic income for the poor – a version of a universal basic income that could see the concept gaining ground.


In the face of a global economic crisis induced by the novel coronavirus, the idea of a basic income paid to all citizens is rapidly gaining new traction.

With one of the highest poverty rates in Europe, Spain took the first tentative steps towards a universal basic income on Friday after the government approved a minimum income of €1,108 ($1,230) per month for about 2.5 million of its poorest citizens. It became the first country in southern Europe to launch such a scheme during the pandemic.

The issue of a basic income was at the heart of the coalition agreement reached between the Socialists and the left-wing party Podemos.

"Today, a new social right is born," said Pablo Iglesias, Spain’s deputy prime minister and leader of Podemos, on Friday, stressing that the crisis had "accelerated the entry into force" of this first step towards a universal income.


Advocates of a basic income argue that it protects the most vulnerable from economic uncertainty, particularly those outside the usual social safety nets, such as the self-employed, part-time workers and casual workers who make up the so-called gig economy.

"It could be really trendsetting for southern Europe if, for the first time, we are to maintain a more consistent approach to income assistance," said Louise Haagh, a politics professor at Britain's York University and a basic income advocate, in an interview with Reuters.

Gaining ground in Europe

An Oxford University study shows that 70 percent of Europeans support the concept of a basic universal income – among them, politicians from across the political divide.

"The time has come for a basic universal income," Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon told a briefing on the coronavirus in Edinburgh, adding that she had engaged in "constructive discussions" with the UK government on the issue.

Before coming to power in 2018, Italy’s Five Star Movement campaigned hard for a substantial basic income for all Italians. It opted for a more modest “citizenship income”, an allowance to help the poorest, after realising the country’s coffers were too depleted to support a universal scheme.

In France, the first rumblings in favour of a universal basic income could be heard during the presidential election of 2017, when Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon made it a key part of his campaign. Though he suffered a devastating blow at the polls that ended his presidential ambitions, his policy has continued to gain traction.

The Jean-Jaurès Foundation, a left-wing think tank, has revised Hamon’s initiative in the wake of the current health and economic crises and proposed an unconditional basic income of between €725 and €1,000 per month for France’s poorest households. Eighty of the country’s political and civic figures signed a petition on May 4 backing the foundation’s proposal.

The Finnish experiment

But it is Finland that has gone the furthest in testing the feasibility of a basic universal income. In 2017, it launched a government-run pilot programme in which 2,000 unemployed people received an unconditional income of €560 per month for two years. The income could be combined with family allowances and wages if they found a job and returned to the workforce.

Even though 55 percent of beneficiaries reported feeling happier overall as a result of receiving the income, compared to 46 percent in the control group, in the end only 43.7 percent of beneficiaries found a job compared to 42.8 percent in the control group. The findings were widely panned as the income did not boost employment as hoped. It then led to the Finnish government pulling the plug on the initiative altogether, claiming it was too costly to keep going.

Researchers, for their part, argue they were hamstrung by insufficient government funding and a reduced sample size.

Undermining labour protections?

Governments may feel they are already under too much financial pressure to fund a basic income plan.

"In the crisis we’re in, I don't see how a government would embark on a universal income, with the pressure of financial markets, banks and international financial organisations on countries' budgets," said Joan Cortinas-Munoz, a researcher at the Centre for Sociology of Organizations at Sciences Po Paris and a specialist in social policies in Spain, in an interview with FRANCE 24.

Moreover, governments would need to ensure such a scheme could be fiscally sustainable over the long term.

Supporters of neo-liberalism are not the only ones sceptical of the viability of a universal basic income. Some on the left warn it could be something of a Trojan horse, leading to less protections in the labour market as employers seek to take advantage of the income already provided by governments to pay workers lower wages.

"In its neo-liberal conception, the universal income is supposed to replace social welfare protections (health coverage, housing allowance...). But the latter is essential as a safety net to avoid falling into extreme poverty," notes ATD Fourth World, a social justice advocacy group based in France.

Advocates are convinced that a universal basic income can not only offer a lifeline to the most financially vulnerable but also an opportunity to rebuild economies now plunging into recession because of Covid-19.

This article has been translated from the original in French.

CERB proves it's time for basic income, says ... - UM Today

https://news.umanitoba.ca › cerb-proves-its-time-for-basic-income-says-ec...

Apr 23, 2020 - ... COVID-19 pandemic shows that it may be time for universal basic income. ... in 1974-1979 to citizens in the small Canadian city of Dauphin.

The Basic Income Guarantee Experiments of the 1970s: a ...

https://basicincome.org › news › 2017/12 › basic-income-guarantee-experi...

Dec 3, 2017 - These are not the first experiments in UBI or other forms of Basic Income Guarantee (BIG). ... and rural families in Winnipeg and Dauphin, Manitoba with incomes ... Much of his work involves Universal Basic Income (UBI).

The 1970s experiment with a guaranteed annual income ...

https://www.cbc.ca › archives › the-1970s-experiment-with-a-guaranteed-a...

Aug 2, 2018 - Manitoba's "Mincome" experiment in an annual guaranteed income ... at the University of Manitoba examined data from the town of Dauphin, ...

On the Canadian prairie, a basic income experiment ...

https://www.marketplace.org › 2016/12/20 › dauphin

Dec 20, 2016 - Canada tested the basic income in Dauphin, Manitoba, in the 1970s. ... Under a universal basic income, the government cuts everyone a ...

The Manitoba Basic Annual Income Experiment - University of ...

https://www.umanitoba.ca › media › Simpson_Mason_Godwin_2017

by W SIMPSON - ‎2017 - ‎Cited by 22 - ‎Related articles

Oct 3, 2017 - The recent announcements of the Ontario Basic Income Pilot and Finland's cash grants to jobless persons ... vision for a pilot project in Dauphin, where everyone ... seen as a way to test uptake if a GAI were universally im-.

Israeli Forces Shoot Dead Mentally-Retarded Palestinian in Al-Quds

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian with mental disabilities in East Jerusalem (al-Quds), a report said.

• May, 31, 2020 -

Israeli troops opened fire on a man in Jerusalem’s Old City after they suspected he had a gun, Anadolu Agency.

The Israeli police alleged in a statement on Saturday that the 32-year-old man, identified as Iyad Halak, was “holding a suspicious object that appeared to be a gun.”

According to Israeli media, the man, who was found to be unarmed, was shot dead during the chase.

Palestinians said Halak, a resident of Wadi al-Joz neighborhood in East Jerusalem al-Quds, had been on his way to a special needs educational institute in the Old City where he studied.

The shooting came a day after Israeli forces killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank for allegedly attempting to ram them with his vehicle. No Israelis were wounded in either incident.

EU Urges Israel to Stop Demolition of Palestinian Homes in West Bank

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The European Union (EU) missions in Jerusalem (al-Quds) and Ramallah urged the Israeli regime to stop demolishing Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank.

• June, 01, 2020 -

In a recent statement, the EU missions noted that Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes, not only continued during the holy month of Ramadan but in fact increased three-fold compared to 2019.

It added, “In line with the EU’s long-standing position on Israel’s settlement policy – illegal under international law – and actions taken in that context, such as forced transfers, eviction, demolition and confiscation of homes, the EU urges the Israeli authorities to halt demolitions of Palestinian structures,” WAFA news agency reported.

On Thursday, six Palestinian families from the village of al-Tira, southwest of Ramallah, were handed demolition orders by the occupation forces, under the pretext of lacking an Israeli building permit.

On Friday, the Palestinian Bashir family, in the Jabal al-Mukaber neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, started to knock down its 85 square meter home, as ordered by the Israeli municipality.

The demolition displaced the six-member family, which includes elderly disabled Rasmiya Bashir, confined to a wheelchair.

UN Suspends 80% of Reproductive Health Facilities in Yemen

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) announced the suspension of reproductive health services in 80 percent of the facilities it supports in warn-torn Yemen, due to lack of funding.

• June, 01, 2020 

The UN agency said in a statement that due to lack of funding for life-saving reproductive health services, it had been forced to suspend the provision of reproductive health care in 140 of its 180 health facilities in Yemen, the Middle East Monitor reported.

The statement said, “The UNFPA is the sole provider of life-saving reproductive health medicines and supplies in Yemen, which has seen its health system all but collapse under five grinding years of conflict.”

The UNFPA received only 41 percent of the $100.5 million it had appealed for earlier this year for its humanitarian response in Yemen, it added.

On Friday, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, announced that 30 of the UN’s 41 humanitarian programs would close due to lack of funding.

Since the Saudi-led coalition invaded Yemen in 2015, over 100,000 people have been killed, according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).

Yemen’s Aden Leads World with Highest COVID-19 Mortality Rate: UN

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The city of Aden in south Yemen has the world's highest mortality rate from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with 70 percent of its infected residents dying, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Thursday.

• May, 29, 2020 - 

"In Aden, we have the highest mortality rates in the world of COVID-19 - 70 percent of those that have the disease are dying," Guterres said.

Guterres noted that the situation in Yemen is tragic and it is, therefore, crucial for the international community to demonstrate solidarity with the people there and fully support the appeal for funds that will be issued at an upcoming pledging event, Sputnik reported.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Yemen has so far confirmed 278 novel coronavirus cases and 57 COVID-19-related deaths.

The UN has voiced its concern that the actual numbers may be much higher than reported due to low testing capacity.

UNHCR: No Funds to Support 25,000 Families in Yemen

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that 25,000 families in Yemen will no longer receive aid as of next month due to lack of funding.

• May, 28, 2020 -

UNHCR Global Spokesperson, Shabia Mantoo, stressed the need to stop the Saudi-led war on Yemen, noting that the lack of funding would stop the humanitarian programs in the war-torn country, which is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, the Middle East Monitor reported.

She called for international cooperation to help Yemenis protect themselves.

Last April, the UNHCR warned that aid to a million displaced persons and refugees in Yemen might be interrupted due to lack of funding, explaining that it urgently needs $89.4 million to continue its programs in the war-torn country.

The Saudi-led coalition invaded Yemen in 2015. Since then, over 100,000 people have been killed, according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).

Hydroxychloroquine: A Drug Dividing Opinion Worldwide

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Banned in some countries, promoted in others, the drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for the new coronavirus is dividing opinion worldwide.

• June, 01, 2020 - 15:32 

Scientists looking to find licensed medicines that could be repurposed as a treatment for COVID-19 had started tests of hydroxychloroquine, normally used to treat arthritis, and chloroquine, an anti-malarial.

Both drugs can produce potentially serious side effects, particularly heart arrhythmia, leading many experts to warn against their use outside of clinical trials.

But that has not stopped prominent figures like US President Donald Trump endorsing hydroxychloroquine despite a lack of evidence of its efficacy.

Escalating the debate, The Lancet on May 22 published a study of nearly 100,000 coronavirus patients that showed no benefit in treating them with the two drugs - and even increased the likelihood of them dying in hospital.

This led the World Health Organization to suspend clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine, but dozens of scientists have since raised concerns over the study’s methodology.

The Lancet corrected part of the data, but researchers have stood by their conclusions.

Countries worldwide vary on their own policies.

The study prompts several countries to halt the use of hydroxychloroquine.

France does so on May 27, days after controversial French doctor Didier Raoult - whose own methodology has been questioned - rejected the study and stood by his belief the drug can help patients recover from the virus.

Other countries including Italy, Egypt, Tunisia, Colombia, Chile, El Salvador, Cape Verde, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina also ban the use of the drug for COVID-19 patients, though in Italy it remains possible in clinical trials.

Hungary meanwhile does not use the drug “for newly diagnosed patients” but continues to do so “for patients who already started taking it”, according to a government spokesperson.

Even before the study some countries had stopped using hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients.

Sweden had used the drug in the early phases of the pandemic to treat patients with severe symptoms, but halted its use in April after the European Medicines Agency recommended it only be used in clinical trials.

Germany too had judged that the current studies did not allow for the drug to be used on individual COVID-19 patients and it could only be used in clinical trials.

Several countries continue to promote the use hydroxychloroquine in the fight against the virus.

These include Brazil, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey, Jordan, Romania, Portugal, Kenya, Senegal, Chad and the Republic of Congo, according to AFP.

Russia, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates have not yet suspended the use of the drug either.

Thailand is also still using hydroxychloroquine in its treatment of COVID-19 patients, and India and Venezuela continue to use the drug as a preventative measure.

Cuba too is using the drug but will revise its protocols to introduce further precautions.

In the US hydroxychloroquine can only in principle be given to COVID-19 patients in hospital, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned in April that the drug could have potential harmful impact on the heart.

Trump had promoted the use of the drug and even said he was taking hydroxychloroquine as a precaution, before saying shortly after the publication of the study that he had stopped.

The study has led to the suspension of the use of the drug in several clinical trials including the WHO’s Solidarity Trial and Europe’s Discovery programme coordinated by France’s Inserm research institute.

The international trial Copcov also suspended its use of doses on medical personnel in contact with the virus.

Two trials led by the University of Tuebingen clinic in Germany and five trials in Denmark have also been suspended and Mali says it is ready to suspend its clinical trials too.

But other clinical trials are continuing, such as the Recovery trial in Britain, the one by McGill University in Canada and ones taking place in Nigeria and Mexico.

In China the drug is only used in clinical trials but its potential as a treatment, considered promising by the University of Wuhan in February, has since been called into question by a respected hospital in Shanghai.

Clashes Erupt in Brazil between Pro, Anti-Bolsonaro Groups

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Groups supporting and opposing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro clashed in violent disturbances amid the political and health crisis besetting the South American giant, one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

• June, 01, 2020 - 

The most serious incidents occurred on Sunday along Paulista Avenue in the heart of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, where the pro-Bolsonaro forces demanded the "closure" of both Parliament and the Supreme Court and a "military intervention" but encountered a huge opposition group that had gathered for a protest "in defense of democracy", according to Efe news.

Tensions rose among those aligning themselves with the "conservative values" proclaimed by the ultra-rightist Bolsonaro as they confronted those demonstrating in favor of "democratic institutions" and against the "authoritarianism" they accuse the reserve army captain turned president, who was inaugurated in January 2019, of fomenting and pursuing, Indo-Asian News Service reported.

The pro-democracy forces carried signs to that effect and were joined by the fans of several soccer clubs.

The demonstrations, convened in several cities around the country, come at a point where Brazil, with almost half a million confirmed coronavirus cases, finds itself in the No. 2 spot worldwide in terms of people infected with the virus and No. 4 in terms of deaths, with 28,834, according to the latest official tally.

Also on Sunday in Brasilia, Bolsonaro attended an event organized by his supporters at which there were also harsh words for Parliament and the Supreme Court and calls for a military intervention to impose "order and progress", the slogan on the Brazilian flag.

Bolsonaro made no remarks at the event, limiting himself to greeting and embracing many of those attending, lifting children in his arms and posing for selfies with the crowd, all without wearing a facemask, although doing so is obligatory for the general public in moving about the streets of the capital.

After greeting his some 3,000 followers participating in the event, the President headed over to a group of mounted policemen, got into the saddle on one of the horses and took the horse through the crowd, after which the throng dispersed without any further incident.

The demonstration came after a day after a small group of ultra-rightist activists who have been camping out for days in downtown Brasilia headed toward the Supreme Court building in a torchlit march.

In a scenario evoking neo-Nazi memories, dressed in black and some wearing facemasks, the demonstrators chanted slogans against the high court, which they accused of "yielding to communist interests".

Bolsonaro and three of his sons are currently being investigated in several probes being pursued by the Attorney General's Office and supervised by the Supreme Court.

The President is suspected of trying to illegally intervene in the Federal Police, an autonomous entity that is under the authority of the Ministry of Justice, the former head of which, Sergio Moro, has denounced those alleged irregularities.

On Saturday, Bolsonaro posted a series of messages on the social networks alluding to the problems his administration is having with the judiciary and complained - as he has been doing almost daily - about the treatment that the press, exclusively "leftist" in his opinion, is giving to the investigations that have tainted him, his sons and several allies.