Duterte threatens criminals, seeks death penalty for drugs

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In this handout photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, center, delivers his State of the Nation Address (SONA) while Senate President Vicente Sotto III, left, and House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano applauds at the House of Representative in Metro Manila, Philippines, Monday, July 27, 2020. (Simeon Celi Jr./Malacanang Presidential Photographers Division via AP)

Protesters hold a picture of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, center, as they march to protest against the 5th State of the Nation Address of Duterte in Manila, Philippines, Monday, July 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)


MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte warned would-be criminals on Monday that “bodies will pile up” if they turn to robberies and other crimes during the coronavirus pandemic and urged that the death penalty be restored for illegal drugs.

Duterte touched on a wide range of issues in his annual state of the nation address before Congress, at times turning combative. He threatened two leading telecommunication companies with closure for what he said was their spotty cellphone service but expressed helplessness in response to China’s seizure of Philippine-claimed territories in the South China Sea.

Duterte acknowledged that his government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic was “far from perfect” and but gave assurances that “we will not stop until we get things right and better for you.”

He sought congressional passage of a bill that will again grant him emergency powers to realign government budgets for use in the continuing health crisis.


Protesters hit a caricature of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as they hold a rally in time for his State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 27, 2020 in Manila, Philippines. Hundreds of protesters marched, staged motorcades and held a rally against a new anti-terror law and other issues Monday in the Philippine capital despite police threats of arrests ahead of the president’s annual state of the nation speech. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
There have been widespread complaints about the government’s response to the outbreak, including long delays in the delivery of cash and food aid to millions of poor families and the inability to reach a targeted number of daily virus tests.

The Philippines remains a Southeast Asian hot spot for the virus, with more than 80,000 confirmed cases, including nearly 2,000 deaths.

Duterte said people were worried not only about the virus but also about safety and public mobility during the pandemic. He said crimes may increase but pledged that he wouldn’t permit them to spiral out of control in any city.


Protesters shout slogans as they hold a rally at the University of the Philippines against the 5th State of the Nation Address (SONA) by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, July 27, 2020 in Metro Manila, Philippines. Hundreds of protesters in the Philippine capital marched and staged motorcades Monday against a new anti-terror law and other issues despite police threats of arrests ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte's annual state of the nation speech.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Addressing would-be criminals, Duterte warned, “you know what will happen to you.”

“You commit holdups, you commit rape, you commit all sorts of things and you harm the public, then I’ll be your enemy,” said Duterte, who built a political name with his extra-tough approach to crime as a mayor. “If you return to the old ways, there will be piles of bodies again and I will surely hunt you down.”

He urged lawmakers to swiftly pass legislation reimposing the death penalty for illegal drugs, saying the drug menace has destroyed families and the youth.


Duterte’s bloody anti-drug crackdown, which he launched after taking office in mid-2016, has left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead and alarmed human rights groups and Western governments. He and law enforcers have denied committing extrajudicial killings, although he has openly threatened drug dealers with death.

Hundreds of protesters defied police threats of arrests and rallied at the University of the Philippines on Monday to condemn the drug campaign killings and a new anti-terror law they say could muzzle legitimate dissent.

They also protested the closure of the country’s largest TV network after a committee of the House of Representatives, dominated by Duterte’s allies, rejected a new 25-year franchise for ABS-CBN Inc., which Duterte has repeatedly threatened with closure over critical reporting.


Health workers in protective suits clench fists during a protest against the State of the Nation Address (SONA) by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday, July 27, 2020 in Metro Manila, Philippines. Hundreds of protesters marched, staged motorcades and held a rally against a new anti-terror law and other issues Monday in the Philippine capital despite police threats of arrests ahead of the president’s annual state of the nation speech. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)


At least 34 suspected protesters were taken into police custody in three areas, police said. Public gatherings of more than 10 people are prohibited under coronavirus regulations but protesters accused the government of using the health crisis to mute complaints over the government’s handling of the pandemic and other issues.___

Associated Press journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report.

Spain: Court hears testimony on whether Assange was spied on
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Spanish lawyer Baltasar Garzon, who is part of Assange's legal team, addresses the media after leaving the Spain's National Court in Madrid, Spain, Monday, July 27, 2020. Spain's National Court is due to hear testimony Monday in an investigation into whether a Spanish company was hired to spy on Julian Assange during the seven years the Wikileaks founder spent in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s National Court heard testimony Monday in an investigation into whether a Spanish company was hired to spy on Julian Assange during the seven years the WikiLeaks founder spent in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

The court is investigating whether David Morales, a Spaniard, and his Undercover Global S.L. security agency invaded the privacy of Assange and his visitors at the embassy by secretly recording their meetings. The intelligence that Morales’ company collected is suspected of being handed over to third parties, according to court papers.

Among those set to face the court’s questions Monday were prominent Spanish lawyer Baltasar Garzón, who is part of Assange’s legal team; former Ecuadorean consul in London Fidel Narváez; and Stella Morris, a legal adviser and Assange’s partner, who revealed earlier this year that she had two children with him while he lived in the embassy. Staff of the Spanish security company are due to testify on Tuesday.

Assange, whose lawyers filed a complaint at the court to trigger the investigation, is in a British prison after being removed from the embassy last year. He is fighting extradition to the United States, where he faces espionage charges over the activities of WikiLeaks.

The court is conducting an investigation, begun last year, before deciding whether there is evidence of wrongdoing that warrants a trial.

Undercover Global, also known as UC Global, was hired by Ecuador’s government to provide security at the Ecuadorean embassy in London between 2015 and 2018. Its main task was to secure the property’s perimeter, including the deployment of security staff, due to Assange’s presence inside, court papers say.

According to the National Court summons seen by The Associated Press, the preliminary investigation has raised suspicions that, under the cover of his security work, Morales used bugging devices and video equipment to record Assange’s meetings with visitors.

They included his lawyers, politicians, journalists, medical staff, Ecuadorean diplomats, the former head of Ecuador’s National Intelligence Service, Rommy Vallejo, and longtime Republican congressman for California Dana Rohrabacher.

Garzón said after testifying that the court showed him a video of himself talking to Assange inside the embassy.

“This is quite scandalous, something we think only happens in the movies, in spy movies, but this is not a spy movie because the life of a person is at stake,” Garzón told reporters outside the court.



Morales passed on the recordings to third parties who are not yet identified. However, the court papers note allegations that the intelligence was passed to Zohar Lahav, described by Assange’s lawyers as a security officer at Las Vegas Sands Corp., a U.S. casino and resort company based in Nevada. The court says it has no contact information for Lahav.

The court refused a request by Assange’s legal team to summon as witnesses Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson and the company’s Senior Vice President and Chief Security Officer Brian Nagel. The court papers gave no explanation for the refusal.

Assange’s legal team says the court has asked U.S. authorities to question Lahav and Rohrabacher on its behalf.

Morales also asked his company’s staff to take Assange’s fingerprints from a glass and is suspected of copying the ID documents of visitors, the summons says.

The court is investigating UC Global’s bank accounts, international travel records, cellphone, email and Internet access records, and its online purchases of recording equipment.

Morales was arrested last year and granted conditional release.

Number of fires more than doubles in Brazil’s Pantanal

July 26, 2020
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The number of fires in Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s biggest tropical wetlands, more than doubled in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year, according to data released by a state institute. Officials said it was the largest number of fires in a six-month period in the last two decades.

The sharp increase in fires comes amid domestic and international concern over Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s calls to clear land in order to drive economic development, and follows a surge in fires, many set to make land available for farming and other industry, in the Amazon last year.

There were 2,534 recorded fires in the Pantanal between January and June, the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research said. Between January and June 2019, the institute recorded 981 fires. The 2020 numbers represent a 158% increase than the 2019 numbers.

As of Saturday, the institute had registered another 1,322 fires in July, for a total of 3,856 blazes in the wetlands that extend through the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, in central-western Brazil.

Until the end of last month, technicians from the institute estimated the total area of the Pantanal burned this year at 1,969 square miles (5,100 km²).

On July 16, the Brazilian government issued a decree banning burning in the Pantanal wetlands and the Amazon forest for four months. However, in the Pantanal alone, 1,002 fire spots have been identified since the decree came into force.

Mato Grosso do Sul state has declared a state of environmental emergency. It says the critical period of seasonal forest fires is just beginning and cites extreme conditions such as high temperatures, strong winds and low air humidity.

It also said health clinics around the state registered an increase of patients complaining about diseases related to air quality, aggravating a health system already dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.

The National Institute for Space Research has reported nearly 8,000 fires in the Amazon first half of the year, and another 3,326 in July. The numbers are still lower than in 2019. Last year, there were 10,606 fires reported between January and June.

Bolsonaro defended his government’s environmental policies last week and said Brazil is the target of an international campaign to harm its economy. He said other countries should focus on their own problems.

“When some talk about reforestation, they could start reforesting Europe to set an example for us,” Bolsonaro said.

Coronavirus crisis sparks a young Israeli protest movement
By ARON HELLER


File - In this Saturday, July 18, 2020 file photo, Israeli police uses water canon to disperse people during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu In Jerusalem. Protesters demanded that the embattled Israeli leader to resign as he faces a trial on corruption charges and grapples with a deepening coronavirus crisis. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)

ISRAELI TRAINING IS WHERE US COPS PICKED UP THIS TECHNIQUE

JERUSALEM (AP) — In attending his first-ever public protest, 34-year-old Nimrod Gross arrived with the only prop he felt reflected him — the blue-and-white Israeli flag.

The former combat soldier and current tour guide and after-school science teacher had seen his monthly income plunge to around $500 as a result of the harsh economic fallout from the coronavirus. A centrist who shuns politics, but with siblings who supported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he sought a unifying symbol to express his despair.

Instead, Gross and his flag were pummeled by powerful police water cannons. The moment was captured by an Associated Press photographer, quickly becoming an emblematic image of the public outcry generating the wave of demonstrations sweeping the country against Netanyahu and his perceived failure to handle the country’s deepening economic crisis.

Netanyahu, standing trial for corruption, has tried to dismiss the youthful protesters as radicals and anarchists flouting public health restrictions while he marshals the country through a national emergency. But the thousands now taking to the streets several times a week come from all walks of life, and with unemployment surging to record numbers, they are demanding a reckoning from the longtime leader.

“I feel like I grew up on this dream that is blowing up in our faces,” said Gross. “You do everything that society demands of you, and then suddenly you are illegitimate.”

Israel has a long tradition of political protests that draw huge crowds, mostly along ideological lines over how to handle the conflict with the Palestinians. But the protests with the biggest impact tended to transcend the partisan divide, touching on everyday issues afflicting everyone, such as the massive cost-of-living protests in 2011.

In recent years, small weekly protests against Netanyahu were largely the domain of Israel’s old guardians of liberal values, angry at what they believe are the prime minister’s attempts to chip away at democratic institutions.

But the unprecedented economic downturn and a crisis of confidence in leadership spurred a younger generation of Israelis wary about their future to take a more prominent role.

It’s too early to say if the outpouring will generate the type of “revolution” that some of its activists advocate. But the broad, diverse swath of protesters, and the desperate atmosphere and sudden lack of opportunities for young Israelis, has provided fertile ground.

“Corona is just this magnifying glass that enhances everything that is already wrong with this country. We’ve reached this critical mass where we just have to do something,” said Gross. “We just don’t believe them anymore. They have no shame.”

In 2011, hundreds of thousands of Israelis poured into the streets over the country’s high cost of living, briefly shaking the foundations of Netanyahu’s rule before petering out.

The current wave has seen the largest turnout since then. Energized by a younger, more defiant crowd that’s feeling the sting firsthand, organizers hope the movement can maintain momentum, despite health-related restrictions on gatherings and the prospect of another far-reaching lockdown if contagion rates keep rising.

Israel earned praise for its early handling of the virus crisis and imposing tight movement restrictions. But since reopening the economy in May, new cases have spiked to record levels, and unemployment remains over 20%, up from 3.9% before the pandemic.

Netanyahu, who managed to remain in power after three inconclusive elections by convincing his chief rival to join him in an “emergency” government designed specifically to tackle the pandemic, has borne most of the brunt.

He’s come under growing criticism for remaining in office while on trial for corruption, pushing for seemingly anti-democratic measures under the guise of combating the virus and generally mismanaging the ensuing crisis. The size of his bloated government, a minister’s comment dismissing the public’s pain and his own efforts to secure himself a sizable tax break have created a sense that the 70-year-old Netanyahu is detached from the troubles of his angry electorate. His family’s perceived hedonism and zest for power have further alienated those who are struggling.



His government has particularly been criticized for providing too little assistance to hundreds of thousands of laid-off Israelis and struggling self-employed workers and business owners. The government has also been accused of issuing confusing and contradictory guidelines that have angered citizens.

Even with the outrage, Netanyahu’s Likud party maintains a sizable lead in opinion polls, and there is little appetite for another election after three grueling campaigns in less than a year. Israel’s ceremonial president has publicly rebuked the idea.

Seizing on the sight of a Palestinian flag at one of the protests, Netanyahu has tried to paint the movement as another branch of the left-wing conspiracy he says has permeated the media, law enforcement and the judiciary and is bent on toppling him. But the argument struggled to gain traction.

“One needn’t agree with every word, with every placard and with every demonstrator to know that most of the demonstrators are Israeli patriots. They want a more properly governed country,” wrote Ben-Dror Yemini, a conservative columnist at the Yediot Ahronot daily. “He (Netanyahu) knows that some of the demonstrators are his own former supporters. They have come out to demonstrate because they are fed up.”

The protests are an odd mix of desperation alongside a carnival-like atmosphere. Celebrity chefs frustrated by the government’s inconsistent reopening policies for businesses gave meals to fellow out-of-work, self-employed Israelis. Spiritual groupies held curb-side meditation sessions and handed out good-fortune trinkets to masked and armed security forces.

With most bars and clubs closed, young revelers have taken to drinking and dancing to techno music as they march. A young woman notably climbed atop a mounted candelabra, the national symbol, outside parliament and stripped off her shirt in protest. Others have resorted to similarly provocative — and innovative — forms of protest.

But the feel-good vibe was also quickly replaced with a more violent one, as police deployed a heavy hand in arresting those deemed to disturb public order. Officers have been filmed striking protesters and, in one case, pressing a knee against a demonstrator’s throat.

PROTESTERS AND COPS STRUGGLE OVER PROTESTER

BEING ARRESTED AGAIN A WOMAN. AN INORDINATE 

AMOUNT OF WOMEN AT PROTESTS AROUND THE WORLD

 HAVE BEEN SINGLED OUT BY MISOGYNIST GOONS.

Gross said the climate had only made him more resolute and, although he has no political agenda, he says he hopes the mobilization will awaken Israelis from their despair and lead to change down the road.


“I hope a leader will rise from this protest movement who will be able to unite us,” he said. “I have no problem with it being someone from the right as long as it’s someone responsible and unifying who is not driven by his own interests.”
___

Follow Aron Heller at www.twitter.com/aronhellerap

JERUSALEM (AP) — The wave of colorful and combative demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks have been dominated by young Israelis.

Israel has a long tradition of political protests that draw huge crowds. In recent years, anti-Netanyahu rallies have mostly been the domain of Israel’s old guardians of liberal values, who accuse the prime minister of using authoritarian tactics to chip away at the country’s democratic ideals.

Full Coverage: Photography

But the unprecedented economic downturn caused by the coronavirus, and a crisis of confidence in leadership, have spurred a younger generation of Israelis wary of their future to take on a more prominent role in the protests. Many of them have little or no history of political involvement.

With flags, face masks, drums, placards and an assortment of props, thousands have been taking to the streets to demand change in a variety of unique ways.

Here is a gallery of images from AP photographer Oded Balilty.

https://apnews.com/94b45a99cb5e532c77e91fcbe3b12c06

Black soldiers monument faces scrutiny amid racial reckoning

THE FIRST BLACK REGIMENT IN THE US UNION ARMY, PROMOTED BY FREDERICK DOUGLAS AT THE TIME , MANY OF THE NON COM OFFICERS WERE ALSO PRINCE HALL FREEMASONS, THE BLACK AMERICAN FREEMASONS. 

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In this March 26, 2011, file photo, people walk past the memorial to Union Col. Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, near the Statehouse in Boston. Amid the national reckoning on racism in July 2020, the memorial to the first Black regiment of the Union Army, the Civil War unit popularized in the movie "Glory," is facing scrutiny. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)



Workers inspect the top cornice stone as it is lifted from the Shaw 54th Regiment memorial opposite the Statehouse, Friday, July 17, 2020, in Boston. Amid the national reckoning on racism, the memorial to the first Black regiment of the Union Army, the Civil War unit popularized in the movie "Glory,” is facing scrutiny. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)


BOSTON (AP) — The white Union Army commander sits rigid atop an imposing horse. His Black men, rifles to their shoulders, march resolutely alongside on their way to battle.

For L’Merchie Frazier, the towering bronze relief in downtown Boston captures the stirring call to arms answered by Black soldiers who served in the state’s famed Civil War fighting unit, which was popularized in the 1989 Oscar-winning movie “Glory.”

But the longtime Boston artist says she understands how the imagery of the Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial can conjure mixed feelings as the nation takes another hard look at its monuments and memorials in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

“Whose story is being told with this monument?” said Frazier, who is the education director at the nearby Museum of African American History. “The hierarchy is very evident. White commander out front; Black soldiers in the background. It’s the first thing you see.”

mid the national reckoning on racism, the Shaw memorial is the latest and, perhaps, one of the more curious to receive scrutiny.

Unlike other felled monuments, the work by American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens isn’t a paean to the Confederacy. It doesn’t have explicit ties to colonialism, such as the Christopher Columbus monuments that have been toppled in Boston and elsewhere.

Instead, the creation of the memorial in the aftermath of the Civil War was championed by prominent Black Bostonians of the day.

It was originally envisioned as a traditional equestrian monument to Shaw, but the colonel’s family, a wealthy Boston clan strongly opposed to slavery, requested that it also honor the Black men who served and died alongside him during their famed charge on Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863.

The monument is also significant because it’s the nation’s first honoring Black soldiers, said Elizabeth Vizza, executive director of the Friends of the Public Garden, a group helping pay for a $3 million restoration of the monument, which started in earnest in May.

Saint-Gaudens spent 14 years creating a richly detailed bas relief, using Black men of different ages as models for his realistic soldiers. After it was unveiled to fanfare in 1897, American author Henry James declared the work “real perfection,” according to the National Park Service.

“This was a radical piece of art,” Vizza said. “It was not lost on people back then.”

The work, which sits across from the Massachusetts Statehouse, has been vandalized over the years, mostly by people snapping off Shaw’s broadsword. But during the unrest that followed Floyd’s killing in May, the monument was tagged with anti-police slogans, expletives and other graffiti, along with about a dozen others in and around the Common.

Kevin Peterson, founder of the New Democracy Coalition that’s calling on Boston to rename Faneuil Hall after Crispus Attucks, said the Shaw monument should be moved to a museum because it casts Blacks as “subservient” to whites.

Similar complaints have prompted the removal of other ostensibly well-meaning monuments in recent weeks, including a statue of Theodore Roosevelt in front of the American Museum of Natural History in New York and a statue of Abraham Lincoln depicting a freed slave kneeling at his feet in Boston.

The Rev. Vernon Walker, a board member with Massachusetts Peace Action, which has called for changing the state seal’s controversial depiction of a Native American man, suggests the Shaw memorial could better recognize the achievements of the Black soldiers themselves.

Roughly half the regiment’s 600 soldiers were killed, wounded, captured or presumed dead following the failed assault on Fort Wagner, and their heroism inspired tens of thousands of Black men and others to sign up for the Union Army, helping turn the tide of the war.
Sgt. William Carney became the first Black man awarded the Medal of Honor for saving the regiment’s flag from capture. Two sons of prominent Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who had pushed Lincoln to allow Blacks to serve in the war, also fought at Fort Wagner.

But while the names of Shaw and other fallen white commanding officers were etched in the monument from its unveiling, those of the Black soldiers weren’t added until the 1980s, during its last major facelift.
The film “Glory” features shots of the restored monument in its end credits. Director Edward Zwick and leading cast members, including Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman, declined to comment through their representatives.

For now, the Shaw memorial is not among the public works that have come up as Boston continues to review public concerns about city monuments in the wake of the national debate on racism, said Mark Pasnik, who chairs the city’s Art Commission overseeing the process.

But Vizza, of the park group, doesn’t think the memorial, which is expected to be restored by November, should be changed or moved.

She believes people will have a greater appreciation for the work if they simply learn more about it, something her organization, the mayor’s office, and the National Park Service have taken pains to do.

Ahead of the restoration, which included disassembling parts of the memorial last week, officials hosted forums on public monuments that included prominent Black scholars and civil rights activists.

A temporary exhibit also has been installed on the fencing around the construction site detailing the 54th regiment’s exploits. And a new “augmented reality” app leads people on a virtual tour of the monument where they can learn more about its significance and ongoing restoration.

Frazier, of the Museum of African American History, says those are all laudable steps, and agrees the monument should remain where it is.

“It’s not enough to just see the piece. You have to go deeper,” she said. “There’s so much not told, but the monument is so moving that it can lead you to those things, if you’re curious.”

THE REAL ECONOMY NOT WALL ST.
As Congress fights, analysts warn economy needs help now

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., accompanied by Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., left, and Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., right, speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, July 24, 2020, on the extension of federal unemployment benefits. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)


WASHINGTON (AP) — As Congress and the White House resume their efforts to agree on a new economic aid package, evidence is growing that the U.S. economy is faltering. And so is concern that the government may not take the steps needed to support hiring and growth.

“We’re in a pretty fragile state again,” warned Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist at Oxford Economics, a consulting firm. “The economy needs another shot in the arm.”

With unemployment still at a high 11.1% and hiring potentially slowing in July, the economy is likely to weaken further without more government aid, economists say. Few agree with White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow’s assertion on Sunday that the nation is on a V-shaped recovery path, in which the sharp recession that began in February would be followed by a quick rebound.

What’s needed, most economists say, is continued extra aid for tens of millions of unemployed Americans, along with more funding for state and local governments and more grants for struggling small companies, many of which could go out of business.

Yet even with the viral outbreak intensifying and nearly half of Americans whose families have endured a layoff saying they fear those jobs are lost forever, Congress isn’t anywhere close to agreeing on the outlines of a package even as a $600-a-week federal payment to the unemployed has expired.

The debate coincides with worrisome signs about the job market and the economy. The number of laid-off workers who have applied for unemployment benefits has topped 1 million every week for 18 straight weeks. Before the pandemic, that figure never exceeded 700,000. Real-time data shows that Americans’ visits to shops and restaurants have leveled off after having grown in May and June. Air travel fell last week compared with the week before.

As Congress struggles to reach a compromise on a new financial rescue plan, the main sticking point is the supplemental federal unemployment aid, which provides $600 a week on top of whatever benefit each state provides.

The White House wants to replace the enhanced benefit with a payment that would vary by state but would combine with a state unemployment benefit to replace 70% of recipients’ previous income, likely with some cap for high-income earners. On average, state benefits are equivalent to 45% of workers’ former incomes.

Senate Republicans favor reducing the $600 to a flat payment of $200, possibly as a bridge to a 70% replacement system. The flat payment had been adopted in March because most states’ unemployment systems use antiquated software that cannot adjust individual payments using a percentage formula.

The Democratic-led House has already approved legislation that would extend the $600 through January. Research has shown that, counting the $600 a week in federal aid, roughly two-thirds of those out of work are receiving more money from their jobless benefits than they earned at their previous jobs. That conclusion has fueled Republican concerns that the extra aid has discouraged some of the unemployed from returning to work, potentially slowing the recovery.

Many small businesses have said the $600 weekly federal benefit has made it harder for them to fill jobs. But some unemployed people are reluctant to return to work because they fear becoming infected. And others have tried and failed to find any work.

One new finding suggests that the federal jobless benefit hasn’t broadly kept people from going back to work. In a paper released Monday, a group of economists and doctoral students at Yale University found that unemployed people with larger percentage gains in their benefits were no less likely to return to work than those with smaller increases.

When the unemployment rate is as high as it is now, economists generally worry less about disincentives, because so few jobs are available. It’s when unemployment is low and people who are out of work know that jobs are widely available that the disincentive to work would more likely apply.
William Spriggs, chief economist at the AFL-CIO, argued that the 7.5 million jobs that the economy added in May and June suggest that most of the unemployed will take a job offer when unemployment is high, because they know another opportunity may be hard to find.

“This is the last lifeboat leaving, and if you don’t get on it, you’re toast,” Spriggs said. Most workers also prefer the security of a job over a temporary, if generous, benefit, he said.

Jeremiah Spelts is among those who would like to find new work. Spelts, 41, earned more money from his diesel mechanic job, which he lost in June, than on unemployment. He worked in the oil fields in Wyoming until his employer of two years ran through their Paycheck Protection loan from the government and oil prices fell.

Still, the extra $600 has made it possible for him to cover all his bills.

If that goes away, “I would literally start losing things,” he said. “The first to go would be my apartment and utilities.”

On other issues, Senate Republicans have indicated that they oppose further aid to state and local governments, though they support more money for schools. The House Democrats’ bill provides $1 trillion for state and local governments. Both parties support additional funding for small businesses, but Senate Republicans are considering limiting new grants to businesses whose revenue has shrunk at least 50%.
Michael Strain, an economist at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, says he supports reducing the extra benefit to roughly $200 a week. But says that the money saved from that cut should be pumped back into the economy. He favors more aid for state and local governments to prevent them from making any further layoffs, and more funds for small businesses.

“The goal is to support the economy and support consumer spending, without disrupting work incentives,” Strain said. 

YOU JUST CONTRADICTED YOURSELF, IF INCENTIVES INCREASE CONSUMER SPENDING WHICH IS THE REAL ECONOMY CUTTING THEM WOULD REDUCE THAT SPENDING 

But Scott Shane, an economics professor at Case Western Reserve University, said he thinks aid should focus more on the unemployed than on small businesses, because many companies may not survive, particularly those involved in in-person services such as restaurants, bars and hotels.
The benefit of keeping a restaurant open, for example, is limited, even if it pays all its employees, Shane said. It won’t order food or new equipment from its suppliers, which, in turn, have to cut jobs. And there’s no way to know at this point when restaurants and other in-person businesses will reopen.

In fact, the potentially open-ended nature of government aid keeps Shane up at night. Congress approved a $2 trillion package in March. The aid Congress is considering now will likely top $1 trillion.

“Are we going to do this twice more every six months going forward?” he asked. ”You can’t just borrow forever.”

___

AP Writer Thalia Beaty in New York contributed to this report.

PORTLAND PROTEST PHOTOS MONDAY JULY 27 2020

POLICE FIREWORKS
Protesters walk away from crowd control munitions launched by federal officers during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse Sunday, July 26, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)



U.S. agents in Portland, Oregon declared an unlawful assembly early Monday and deployed what appeared to be tear gas, flash bangs and pepper balls from the federal courthouse, to disperse protesters. (July 27)




POLICE DISPROPORTIONATELY ARRESTING WOMEN
PROTESTERS, BOTTOM LEFT IS THE NON LETHAL
PLASTIC WATER BOTTLE

Demonstrators use make shift shields to protect themselves from federal officers, top, right, during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse Sunday, July 26, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo)

Demonstrators use leaf blowers to try to blow back tear gas launched by federal officers during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse Sunday, July 26, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

BLOW THAT HORN GABRIEL

THAT SAYS IT ALL

A demonstrator holds an American flag with names of people killed by police during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse Sunday, July 26, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)


FINALLY THE COPS OFFER FAKE WEAPONS COPS CLAIM THEY FOUND AFTER THE PROTESTS
ORIGINALLY STASHED IN A COP FILING CABINET FOR JUST SUCH AN OCCASION


THE FAKE WEAPONS FIT AG BARR'S CLAIM THAT AMERICAN PROTESTERS
EXERCISING THEIR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS CAN BE ASSAULTED BY
BILLY BARR'S BULLY BOYS BECAUSE THEY ARE ANARCHISTS, ALSO PROTECTED UNDER THE FIRST AMENDMENT. 


WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr is defending the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America, saying “violent rioters and anarchists have hijacked legitimate protests” sparked by George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Barr will tell members of the House Judiciary Committee at a much-anticipated hearing on Tuesday that the violence taking place in Portland, Oregon, and other cities is disconnected from the death of Floyd, which he described as a “horrible” event that prompted a necessary national reckoning on the relationship between the Black community and law enforcement.

“Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyd’s death or any legitimate call for reform,” Barr will say of the Portland protests, according to a copy of his prepared remarks released by the Justice Department on Monday.

https://apnews.com/1484348dd6e646815aa2bdac176622c8

Mayors want US agents blocked from Portland, other cities

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The mayors of Portland, Oregon, and five other major U.S. cities appealed Monday to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized agents to cities that don’t want them.

“This administration’s egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen,” the mayors of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Washington wrote to leaders of the U.S. House and Senate.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty late called for a meeting with Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to discuss a cease-fire and removal of heightened federal forces from Portlan

Earlier in the day, a U.S. official said militarized officers would remain in Portland until attacks on a federal courthouse cease — and more officers may soon be on the way.

“It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel,” U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said. ”We are not leaving the building unprotected to be destroyed by people intent on doing so.”

Local and state officials said the federal officers are unwelcome.

The city has had nightly protests for two months since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. President Donald Trump said he sent federal agents to Portland to halt the unrest, but state and local officials said they are making the situation worse.

Trump’s deployment of the federal officers over the July 4 weekend stoked the Black Lives Matter movement. The number of nightly protesters had dwindled to perhaps less than 100 right before the deployment, and now has swelled to the thousands.

Early Monday, U.S. agents repeatedly fired tear gas, flash bangs and pepper balls at protesters outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland. Some protesters had climbed over the fence surrounding the courthouse, while others shot fireworks, banged on the fence and projected lights on the building.

Trump said on Twitter that federal properties in Portland “wouldn’t last a day” without the presence of the federal agents.

The majority of people participating in the daily demonstrations have been peaceful. But a few have been pelting officers with objects and trying to tear down fencing protecting the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse.

Williams, whose office is inside the courthouse, called on peaceful protesters, community and business leaders and people of faith to not allow violence to occur in their presence and to leave downtown before violence starts. He said federal agents have made 83 arrests.

Demonstrations in support of racial justice and police reform in other cities around the U.S. were marred by violence over the weekend. Protesters set fire to an Oakland, California, courthouse; vehicles were set ablaze in Richmond, Virginia; an armed protester was shot and killed in Austin, Texas; and two people were shot and wounded in Aurora, Colorado, after a car drove through a protest.

The U.S. Marshals Service has lined up about 100 people they could send to hotspots, either to strengthen forces or relieve officers who have been working for weeks, agency spokesperson Drew Wade said.

Kris Cline, principal deputy director of Federal Protective Service, said an incident commander in Portland and teams from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice discuss what force is needed every night.

Cline refused to discuss the number of officers currently present or if more would be arriving.

Some protesters have accused Wheeler of hypocrisy for speaking out against the federal presence because, under his watch, Portland police have used tear gas and other riot-control weapons on protesters, including peaceful ones.

Cline said Portland police should take over the job of dispersing protesters from the courthouse area from the federal officers.

“If the Portland Police Bureau were able to do what they typically do, they would be able to clear this out for this disturbance and we would leave our officers inside the building and not be visible,” Cline said.

He said relations between the federal officers, some of whom live in Portland, and city police were good.

Portland police responded Sunday evening to a shooting at a park close to the site of the protests. Two people were detained and later released, police said. The person who was shot went to the hospital in a private vehicle and was treated for a non-life-threatening wound.

Also late Sunday, police said someone pointed out a bag in the same park, where officers found loaded rifle magazines and Molotov cocktails. The shooting was not related to the items, police said.

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Associated Press writer Mike Balsamo contributed to this report from Washington. Selsky reported from Salem, Oregon.

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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky

Officer challenges account of violent clearing of protesters
 In this Monday, June 1, 2020, file photo police clear the area around Lafayette Park and the White House in Washington, as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers last month. The violent clearing of demonstrators from the nation's premier protest space in front of the White House is spotlighting a tiny federal watch force created by George Washington. Democratic lawmakers want answers about the clubbing, punching and other force deployed by some Park Police in routing protesters from the front of the White House on Monday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)


The U.S. Park Police and Secret Service violently routed protesters from Lafayette Square last month without apparent provocation or adequate warning, immediately after Attorney General William Barr spoke with Park Police leaders, according to an Army National Guard officer who was there.

The account of National Guard Maj. Adam DeMarco challenges the Trump administration’s explanation that vicious attacks by protesters led federal forces to turn on what appeared to be a largely peaceful crowd June 1 in the square in front of the White House. Law enforcement and security officers that night clubbed and punched protesters and unleashed mounted officers and chemical agents against them in one of the most controversial confrontations at the height of this year’s nationwide protests over the killing of Black people at the hands of police.

The forceful clearing of Lafayette Square, long one of the nation’s most prominent venues for demonstrations, came minutes before President Donald Trump appeared in the area without notice, on his way to stage a photo event in front of a historic church nearby.

DeMarco’s account was in prepared testimony for his appearance Tuesday before the House Natural Resources Committee, which is investigating the use of force — and who directed it — against crowds in the square that night. The National Guard officer is expected to invoke the Military Whistleblower Protection Act, which in part says that no one can block a member of the armed forces from lawful communications with Congress.

Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, said Monday that from DeMarco’s written testimony, “it’s pretty obvious that at the highest levels the calls were being made,” although the testimony does not give any explicit details of anyone giving orders. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

Acting Park Police Chief Gregory T. Monahan defended the law enforcement response in his prepared testimony. Repeating earlier statements, he said that in the days before the forceful clearing of Lafayette Square, protesters had hurled bricks, rocks and other items at officers, injuring at least 50 officers.

Monahan did not address whether protesters in Lafayette Square launched any attacks against law enforcement immediately before the action on June 1.

Videos and the accounts of journalists and protesters who were present that night depict the crowd as largely peaceful before the rout. Democratic lawmakers have challenged the administration to provide evidence of any crowd violence warranting the sudden use of brute force to drive out protesters.

“On the whole, the United States Park Police acted with tremendous restraint in the face of severe violence from a large group of bad actors who caused 50 of my officers to seek medical attention,” Monahan writes. “Our actions as an agency on June 1 centered around public safety and the safety of my officers.

Monahan and the Trump administration also cite plans to build a fence to block protesters from the square as another factor leading authorities to clear the area.

The administration has previously denied that law enforcement and security forces cleared the square to make way for Trump’s appearance before news cameras. Trump thrust a Bible in the air in front of St. John’s Church in a show of authority against protesters, blamed for starting a small fire in a basement at the church on a previous day.

DeMarco says the rout started shortly after Barr and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared in the square, where Barr appeared to confer with Park Police leaders, he says.

“From what I could observe, the demonstrators were behaving peacefully,” when Park Police, the Secret Service and other, unidentified forces turned on the crowd, DeMarco wrote in his testimony.

The legally required warnings to demonstrators before clearing the square shortly after were “barely audible” from his position 20 yards (18 meters) away, DeMarco said. Protesters were gathered still farther away, and gave no sign of hearing the warnings, he said.

Park Police and other officers then began suddenly routing the crowd without warning to National Guard forces present, DeMarco said.

A Park Police liaison officer told DeMarco that his forces were only using “stage smoke,” not tear gas, against the crowd. DeMarco said the stinging to his nose and eyes appeared to be tear gas, however, and said he found spent tear gas canisters in the street later that evening.

The Park Police, a force of a few hundred officers nationwide, oversees a handful of the nation’s most iconic federal lands and monuments.

Grijalva said lawmakers had also asked for recordings of the law enforcement and security forces’ radio traffic that night. They were told by the administration that a “technological glitch” prevented the recordings, he said.

DeMarco says he was the appointed liaison at the event for the Interior Department’s Park Police and the National Guard and was standing near a statue of Andrew Jackson, as Barr and other senior officials involved congregated.

DeMarco describes a quick conversation with Milley, the Pentagon’s top general, at the time in the square that DeMarco says gave no warning of the imminent push by the Park Police, the Secret Service and others against demonstrators.

“As the senior National Guard officer on the scene at the time, I gave General Milley a quick briefing on our mission and the current situation,” DeMarco writes. “General Milley told me to ensure that National Guard personnel remained calm, adding that we were there to respect the demonstrators’ First Amendment rights.”

Shortly after Park Police and others forced out fleeing protesters, Milley walked in military fatigues alongside Trump as the Republican president strolled to nearby St. John’s Church.

Milley subsequently apologized for taking part, after heavy public criticism. Milley said he “should not have been there” and his involvement “created the perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”

DeMarco previously served in the U.S. Army, including a combat assignment in Iraq. A candidate matching his name and description ran for Congress for Maryland in 2018 and lost in the Democratic primary.

GLORIA LA RIVA/LEONARD PELTIER CAMPAIGN FOR POTUS

https://www.larivapeltier2020.org/

IS THERE REALLY A PETITE BOURGEOISIE

Originally posted July 5, on Marxism-Leninism Today.
Zoltan ZigedyAugust 4, 2016
https://www.liberationnews.org/really-petty-bourgeoisie/

As a tool of social analysis, the concept of class fell into disfavor. Academics scoff at it as a crude, outdated remnant of a discredited Marxist tradition. Politicians scorn it as an affront to the social homogeneity of modern advanced democracies.

But the rising awareness of economic inequality and its growth in the US has recently brought the idea back into focus, though a decidedly cloudy focus.

The Occupy Movement, its counterparts and spin-offs, generated a simplistic picture of social class based upon an arbitrary, yet compelling division of income and wealth. The idea of the “1%” is a welcome radical slogan, but of little use in understanding the dynamics of various social groups and the relative stability of a social system operating against the interests of the 99%.

Others have contrived a structure that places a vast “middle class” at the center of US society with the decadently rich and the poor at the margins. This quasi-class structure is the preferred depiction of social democratic trade union leaders and politicians who rail against the “shrinkage” of the middle class while evading an indictment of corporations or capitalism. This construction is both misleading and politically impotent.

I cite this perspective in a recent post: Modern liberals have… [created] …an artificial class— the “middle class”— that purports to include hospital workers, food service workers, and sweatshop workers in the same class with doctors, lawyers, and financial managers. For those left out of this broad, meaningless class, the Democratic Party offers the fruits of volunteerism and charitable giving as expressed in its 2012 platform.

Unlike the Occupy movement’s hazy recognition of class antagonism, liberals see social harmony disrupted by unchecked greed. For them, the expansive “middle class” is a happy product of capitalism when properly regulated.

The Marxist Alternative

Like the Occupy movement, Marxists see a class divide roughly based on wealth and income. But they probe deeper for the cause of that divide, locating the cause in social relations unique to capitalism. Those social relations turn on a person’s relationship to the instruments essential to the creation of society’s wealth. Those who possess (own) those instruments form a social class (the bourgeoisie, capitalist class) that, not coincidentally, acquires a greater share of society’s wealth.

Those who own little or none of the instruments of production must hire themselves out to the owners of those instruments in order to find a place in the economic system. They exchange their labor for an income. But because they depend upon this exchange for their continued existence, the owners of the means of production maintain an advantage over them. Marx calls those who are dependent “the proletariat” (the working class); he calls the relationship of dependency “exploitation.”

Thus, capitalist society divides itself into two classes based upon a social/legal relation to the material and immaterial means of creating wealth: those who control (own) those means fall into the capitalist class; those who add their labor to the means of production constitute the working class.

Marx’s neat class divide calls for some refinement: he recognized that there were penumbra on the two major classes, lesser groups with ambiguous features. At the margin of the working class are déclassé workers who often survive by extra-legal means or as parasites on other workers. Marx dubbed this group the lumpen-proletariat.

But below the principal owners of the most powerful economic entities— the national and multinational corporations, in our era— is a group of small business owners, merchants, managers, consultants, intellectuals, and professionals who identify and share many interests with the bourgeoisie. Marx labeled this group the petty bourgeoisie or petite-bourgeoisie. Though the group’s relations to the means of production (and wealth) may be tenuous, those populating this group nonetheless tend to share values with the bourgeois class. The petty bourgeois world view is essentially that of the very wealthy and powerful.

The Petty Bourgeoisie and Today’s Politics

A recent (June, 2016) study by Stephen Rose of the Urban Institute gives credence to the Marxist class analysis and provides a key to both the resilience of capitalist domination and the current political crisis. Ross endeavoured to track the growth of the US “upper middle class” (UMC), an economic category assigned a benign name, but not reflective of a similarly benign role. While Rose chooses to define the UMC in terms of income— a slippery approach to class— his category roughly captures the class dimensions of the Marxist concept of the petty bourgeoisie. Rose’s income-filters select those who persistently identify with the bourgeoisie (Rose’s top .1-1.8% of incomes) because of their economic status.

His findings show a remarkable increase in the size of the UMC from 12.9% of the population in 1979 to 29.4% in 2014! In other words, the mass base potentially supporting the ideology and values of the so-called 1% more than doubled in size in 35 years.

Even more striking, the rich and the upper middle class accounted for 30% of all income in 1979. By 2014, their share grew to 63.1% of all income, demonstrating the enormous growth in resources available to those with a vested interest in capitalism and the status quo.

Thus, as 70% of the population— the working class and the poor— experienced greater and greater inequality, rising poverty and insecurity, intensifying racism, unemployment, and growing debt, the capitalist class and its junior partners grew in size, wealth, and influence. At the same time, the class divide grew wider.

What Does the Class Analysis Reveal?

The relative growth and strength of the petty bourgeoisie offers a powerful ally with the capitalist class before an increasingly demoralized, poorly led, and fragmented majority. As the capitalist/petty bourgeois coalition became more powerful over the last 35 years, union militancy declined, electoral cynicism grew, and radical opposition faded, further denying the majority its place in the democratic process and the defense of its interests.

Clearly, the simplistic class analysis of the 1% versus the 99% fails to grasp the implications of this development. It offers no explanation of the inability of the 99% to simply overpower the will of the 1%. And it fails to reveal the pitfalls of petty bourgeois leadership.

Likewise, the social democratic theory of a thriving, homogenous “middle class” favors class collaboration with a powerful, rapacious coalition of the rich and their bedfellows. This road, too, is a dead end.

When one brings the Marxist analysis to bear on the Democratic Party, it is possible to understand the shift to the New Democrats that found full expression in the Clinton and Obama administrations. I wrote in May: …the social base of the Democratic Party shifted, in the post-Watergate era, away from poor and working class voters, its traditional base through most of the twentieth century, toward professionals and middle strata in urban centers and suburban bedroom communities.

This observation finds an empirical foundation in the data available with the June release of the Rose study; the correlation of the shift and the emergent power of the petty bourgeoisie is no accident. The unparalleled growth of the petty bourgeoisie in size, resources, and voting power becomes a target for the two US parties. In the case of the Democrats, with their traditional link to labor and minorities guaranteed by ossified leaders, upper-income, “liberal” professionals have come to play a decisive role.

The traditional New Deal agenda offered again and again as a tease for workers, Blacks, Latinos, and the poor has been discarded for the social issues near and dear to the petty bourgeoisie. Redistribution, as a sop to the old coalition, gave way to “A rising tide lifts all boats,” the New Democrat metaphor for Reagan’s “trickle down” economics. Gun control, sexual politics, lifestyle issues replace bread and butter.

The contest between the two parties became a contest for the votes, resources, and agenda of the upper income 30%. The remaining 70% were fed an unappetizing gruel of empty promises and neglect.

Of course the US two parties have always been bourgeois parties in the sense that they are, in the end, owned by the rich and powerful and are committed to preserving the existing economic and social relations. However, the Democratic Party, for most of the twentieth century, competed for the loyalty of workers and minorities, conceding small reforms to maintain that coalition. With the wedding of labor unions and civil rights organizations to the Democrats, that deference is no longer necessary. With the ascendency of the petty bourgeoisie, a new agenda has emerged— one decidedly negligent of the interests of the working class and its allies.

It is likely that a similar expansion of the size and influence of the petty bourgeoisie accounts for the devolution of New Labour in the UK, the Socialists-in-name-only in France, and of other popular parties in Europe.

Sanders, Trump, and Brexit

This season of political shock and awe leaves many elites and servile pundits with soiled underwear; they are scrambling to respond to the rejection of the script carefully prepared for the electorate. Sanders was not supposed to seriously challenge the trusted Democratic Party corporate candidate; Trump was supposed to be a sideshow to the anointing of another trusted corporate candidate for the Republican Party; and in the UK, citizens were supposed to follow their “betters” and vote for the continuation of a state of affairs that served only the interests of the privileged.

In all three cases, voters showed an unexpected and unprecedented refusal to be herded like sheep toward preordained outcomes. Voters demonstrated anger and independence. And their anger was directed at political institutions, parties, and politicians that have failed them. The outrage marks the first stages of a rejection of political options that take the majority of the people for granted and ignore or deflect their interests. In a real sense, the class dynamics outlined above have led to a crisis of legitimacy in both the US and the EU. In the short run, it may be contained. But. going forward, the political crisis will only deepen.