San Diego demonstrators show support for Palestinians over Israeli raid of Al-Aqsa Mosque

2023/04/08

Demonstrators in Balboa Park protest Israel's raid of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, on Saturday, April 8, 2023, in San Diego. - Jeffrey McDonald/San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

SAN DIEGO — Scores of San Diegans gathered Saturday to support Palestinians and press for change in U.S. and Israeli policies.

Ringing cowbells and waving the familiar red and green flag of their relatives and ancestors, the crowd of demonstrators lined Sixth Avenue in the northwest corner of Balboa Park to protest actions by Israeli police, who stormed into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem last Wednesday, striking worshippers with batons and deploying stun guns and rubber bullets to subdue the crowd.

“I’m here protesting the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people,” said Aydin Abudawas, a high school senior from Carlsbad who plans to study business when he leaves for college this fall.

“Israel has been the aggressor in every oppressive action they have taken,” said Abudawas, 18, whose father emigrated from the Middle East as a young man. “It takes decades to make change, and this is about raising awareness.”

Israeli officials said police entered the mosque — one of the holiest sites in Islam — after rioters and agitators had barricaded themselves inside. At least a dozen people were injured and more than 300 people were arrested, according to news reports.

The raid, which was condemned by Muslims around the world, unfolded on the first day of Ramadan, Islam’s month-long religious observance that calls for fasting, prayer and reflection.

It also came hours before sundown Wednesday, the start of Passover, the Jewish holiday that celebrates Jews’ freedom from enslavement by ancient Egyptians.

Jeanine Erikat of the San Diego chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement, which co-organized the Saturday afternoon rally, called the demonstration an emergency protest in direct response to the actions taken by Israeli police.

“We really just want to get the message across about the injustice that’s happening in Jerusalem,” she said. “Right now it’s Ramadan. It’s a really important month for all of the Abrahamic faiths.

“It’s disappointing we haven’t seen a wider media response (to the Al-Aqsa mosque raid) in the United States,” said Erikat, who works at a nonprofit that promotes racial, economic and gender justice for women. “They were brutally beaten.”

Summer Ismail is a junior at the University of California, San Diego who also helped organize the protest through the university’s chapter of the national Students for Justice in Palestine club.

The demonstration was aimed at “bringing light to the student body and community about the atrocities and injustice that Palestinians face on a daily basis,” said Ismail, a political science and international relations major who is thinking about going to law school after graduating.

“Until every oppressed person is free, we can’t all be free,” she said.

Motorists driving up and down Sixth Avenue honked in support of the cause throughout much of the flag-waving and speeches.

Two San Diego police cruisers were parked a couple of hundred yards to the north, watching the demonstration from afar but doing nothing to intervene. One officer said there was no specific threat, but they were monitoring the event nonetheless.

Nearby, Cathryn Rathsam of Pacific Beach said she attended the rally because she saw Palestinians suffer firsthand when she lived in the Middle East in the 1970s.

“I just felt I had to come and show my support,” she said.

© The San Diego Union-Tribune

Israeli troops kill Palestinian teen in raid as settlers march through West Bank

A Palestinian protester throws a rock at Israeli soldiers during a protest in the village of Beita, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, on April 10, 2023, against a march by settlers to the nearby Israeli outpost of Eviatar. © Jaafar Ashtiyeh, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Thousands of Israelis led by at least seven Cabinet ministers marched Monday to an evacuated West Bank settlement, in a defiant signal that Israel’s most right-wing government in history is determined to accelerate settlement building on occupied lands despite international opposition.

The mass rally also threatened to further raise tensions that have been heightened by days of unrest across the region over a contested Jerusalem holy site. In new violence, Israel troops killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy during a raid in the occupied West Bank.

Monday's march took place in the northern West Bank — the scene of repeated violence in recent months. Thousands of Israeli police and army forces were reportedly deployed to secure the march, which added to the already combustible atmosphere that has accompanied the overlap of major Jewish and Muslim holy days. Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have reached a fever pitch in recent weeks surrounding the Jerusalem shrine.

The march to Eviatar, an unauthorized settlement outpost in the northern West Bank that was evacuated by the previous Israeli government in 2021, was being led by hard-line ultranationalist Jewish settlers.

Daniella Weiss, another settler leader, told Kan public radio that the ministers' participation in the march could be a “therapy for the government to free yourselves from the dictates of the U.S. and Europe” concerning West Bank settlement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads the most religious and ultranationalist government in Israel’s history. Several members of his Cabinet, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — both West Bank settlers — and at least 20 members of Knesset were taking part in the march.

Speaking at the march, Ben-Gvir said that “we are here to say that the Israeli nation is strong” and that “we are here and will remain here.”

Visits to Eviatar have been officially banned by the military since its evacuation, but that prohibition has been loosely enforced in recent months. Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said the military approved Monday's march, saying it would be “highly monitored and highly protected.” Scores of families, nearly all of them Orthodox Jews, many of them pushing baby strollers, took part in the march.

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have soared following last week's police raid on Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The hilltop compound where the mosque sits is the emotional ground zero of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For Jews, it is known as the Temple Mount, their faith's holiest site and the place where two Temples stood in antiquity. For Muslims, it is known as the Noble Sanctuary, home of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

Dozens of Jewish visitors entered the site on Monday escorted by Israeli police for a second consecutive day. These tours by religious and nationalist Jews have increased in size and frequency in recent years, raising fears by Palestinians that Israel may partition the site. Israel insists it has no intention of changing a longstanding arrangement that permits Jewish visits, but not worship, at the Muslim-administered shrine.

Last week, Palestinians barricaded themselves inside Al-Aqsa with stones and firecrackers, demanding the right to pray there overnight, something Israel has in the past only allowed during the last 10 days of Ramadan. Police removed them by force, detaining hundreds and leaving dozens injured.

The violence was followed by rocket fire by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon, and Syria starting Wednesday, and Israeli airstrikes targeting those areas. Recent days have also seen Palestinian attacks that killed two Israeli sisters and an Italian tourist.

The Israeli army said its troops were operating in the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp next to Jericho in the West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry said 15-year-old Mohammed Balhan was killed by army fire.

The army gave no further details. Troops have been searching for the attackers who killed the two Israeli sisters on Friday, though it was unclear if there was any connection.


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Palestinian attacks have killed at least 19 people, including one soldier, since the start of the year. At least 92 Palestinians and have been killed by Israeli fire so far this year, at least half of them affiliated with militant groups, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. It has built dozens of settlements that are now home to more than 700,000 Jewish settlers.

Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. The Palestinians seek the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem for a future independent state.

Netanyahu's government has made settlement expansion a top priority, and already has advanced plans to build thousands of additional homes.

(AP)

In mass rally, Israeli settlers march to ILLEGAL West Bank outpost

By ILAN BEN ZION

TODAY

1 of 15

Palestinians hurl stones and wave a Palestinian flag toward Israeli soldiers to protest a march by Israeli settlers, in the West Bank village of Beita, Monday, April 10, 2023. Thousands of settlers marched to Eviatar, an unauthorized settlement outpost located next to Beita in the northern West Bank. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Israelis led by at least seven Cabinet ministers marched Monday to an evacuated West Bank settlement, in a defiant signal that Israel’s most right-wing government in history is determined to accelerate settlement building on occupied lands despite international opposition.

The mass rally also threatened to further raise tensions that have been heightened by days of unrest across the region over a contested Jerusalem holy site. In new violence, Israeli troops killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank, while a 48-year-old Israeli woman died of wounds sustained in an attack last week that killed two of her daughters.

Monday’s march took place in the northern West Bank — the scene of repeated violence in recent months. Thousands of Israeli police and army forces were reportedly deployed to secure the march, which added to the already combustible atmosphere that has accompanied the overlap of major Jewish and Muslim holy days. Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have reached a fever pitch in recent weeks surrounding the Jerusalem shrine.

The march to Eviatar, an unauthorized settlement outpost in the northern West Bank that was evacuated by the previous Israeli government in 2021, was being led by hard-line ultranationalist Jewish settlers.

Daniella Weiss, another settler leader, told Kan public radio that the ministers’ participation in the march could be a “therapy for the government to free yourselves from the dictates of the U.S. and Europe” concerning West Bank settlement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads the most religious and ultranationalist government in Israel’s history.

Several members of his Cabinet, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — both West Bank settlers — and at least 20 members of the Knesset were taking part in the march.

Speaking at the march, Ben-Gvir said “we are here to say that the Israeli nation is strong” and that “we are here and will remain here.”

Monday’s march appeared to be aimed in part at shoring up support for Israeli hard-liners like Ben-Gvir.

Recent polls have shown a sharp drop in support for the new hard-line government in the wake of months of violence, including growing dissatisfaction among people who voted for it.

A poll on Channel 13 TV found that 60% of respondents said they do not trust the government to deal with the current wave of violence, compared to 27% who do trust it. The poll questioned 699 people and had a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

Visits to Eviatar have been officially banned by the military since its evacuation, but that prohibition has been loosely enforced in recent months. Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said the military approved Monday’s march, saying it would be “highly monitored and highly protected.”

Scores of families, nearly all of them Orthodox Jews, many of them pushing baby strollers, took part in the march. At the outpost, inflatable slides were set up for children to jump and play on.

The march passed without major violence, though Israeli troops fired tear gas at Palestinians in the nearby village of Beita who hurled stones toward soldiers to protest the march. The Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said two people, including a journalist, were shot by Israeli rubber bullets, while 115 people suffered from tear gas inhalation. A video circulated on social media showed a tear gas canister landing next to a Palestinian journalist as he delivered a TV report.

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have soared following last week’s police raid on Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The hilltop compound where the mosque sits is the emotional ground zero of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For Jews, it is known as the Temple Mount, their faith’s holiest site and the place where two Temples stood in antiquity. For Muslims, it is known as the Noble Sanctuary, home of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

Dozens of Jewish visitors entered the site on Monday escorted by Israeli police for a second consecutive day. These tours by religious and nationalist Jews have increased in size and frequency in recent years, raising fears by Palestinians that Israel may partition the site. Israel insists it has no intention of changing a longstanding arrangement that permits Jewish visits, but not worship, at the Muslim-administered shrine.

Last week, Palestinians barricaded themselves inside Al-Aqsa with stones and firecrackers, demanding the right to pray there overnight, something Israel has in the past only allowed during the last 10 days of Ramadan. Police removed them by force, detaining hundreds and leaving dozens injured.

The violence was followed by rocket fire by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon, and Syria starting Wednesday, and Israeli airstrikes targeting those areas.

Recent days have also seen Palestinian attacks that killed two British-Israeli sisters and an Italian tourist. On Monday, Israel’s Hadassah hospital announced the death of Lucy Dee, the mother of the two sisters. Lucy Dee, who was traveling with her daughters, had been hospitalized in critical condition since Friday’s shooting in the West Bank.

The Israeli army said its troops were operating in the Aqabat Jaber refugee camp next to Jericho in the West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry said 15-year-old Mohammed Balhan was killed by army fire.

The army said it entered the camp to arrest a wanted Palestinain suspect. It said residents opened fire and hurled explosives at the troops, who responded with live fire and “hits were identified.” It said the wanted suspect was arrested, and there were no Israeli casualties.

Palestinian attacks have killed at least 20 people, including one soldier, since the start of the year. At least 92 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire so far this year, at least half of them affiliated with militant groups, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. It has built dozens of settlements that are now home to more than 700,000 Jewish settlers.

Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. The Palestinians seek the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem for a future independent state.

Netanyahu’s government has made settlement expansion a top priority, and already has advanced plans to build thousands of additional homes.

Israeli settlers stand in the outpost of Eviatar in the West Bank, Monday, April 10, 2023. Thousands led by hardline ultranationalist Jewish settlers marched to the unauthorized settlement outpost Eviatar in the northern West Bank that was cleared by the Israeli government in 2021, protected by a large contingent of Israeli soldiers and police. 

(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A small village's history during the Third Reich raises big questions about complicity

History News Network
April 08, 2023

By Stephan Möller - Own work (Original text: eigene Photographie), 

Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9719623


At first sight it would seem unlikely that the Bavarian village of Oberstdorf has much to tell us about the Third Reich. Perched on the border with Austria, it is the most southern village in Germany, located 100 miles southwest of the nearest city, Munich. Yet, such was the grip of National Socialism on German society that even in this remote place there was scarcely any aspect of Nazi rule or of the Second World War that did not touch its 4000-odd inhabitants one way or another. Their accounts, in turn shocking, revealing and moving, lead us to ask that all-important question – “what would I have done?”

Like so many of their fellow citizens, Oberstdorfers—deeply Catholic and conservative by nature —were drawn to Hitler by his promise to implement strong government, to expunge the ignominy of the Treaty of Versailles, to defeat Communism, and to put Germany back where it belonged at the top table of nations. Only a couple of months after the Armistice, Quakers from England and America were already in Germany preaching their message of hope and reconciliation. Their reports on the countless conversations they held with ordinary Germans make it clear that even though people were cold and starving, even though they were stricken with grief and fearful of the violence erupting in so many cities, it was the humiliation of having their country treated like a pariah that pained them most. Humiliation as a driver of conflict has arguably been underestimated. Certainly, Putin’s fury at what he saw as the disgrace of the dissolution of the Soviet empire is often cited as a cause of his invasion of Ukraine.

Although a majority of villagers voted for Hitler in the March 1933 election, they were quite unprepared for the draconian measures imposed on them by their first Nazi mayor, an outsider who treated their traditions and institutions with open contempt. Indeed, Oberstdorf was not the only rural community that, while enthusiastically supporting Hitler, clashed with local Nazi officials. Nor, indeed, did the villagers have much time for the storm troopers (SA) whose aggression and noisy parades were so damaging to the tourist economy on which this once poor rural community now largely depended.

In common with many other small towns and villages, Oberstdorf’s residents exhibited a wide range of attitudes toward the regime. Unquestionably there were plenty of Nazis in the village, many of whom were to remain dedicated to Hitler to the bitter end and beyond. But there were others who, having started out as committed party-members, changed their minds as it became ever harder to ignore the true nature of the Third Reich.

Ludwig Fink, Oberstdorf’s second Nazi mayor, is a prime example. Initially seduced by Hitler’s determination to restore Germany’s prestige and prosperity, he, like so many others, assumed that once securely in power the Nazis’ more extreme policies and rhetoric would subside. When, on the contrary, they only worsened, we might ask why Fink did not protest or resign. The truth is that any such act of defiance would have condemned him to a concentration camp or the guillotine. And even had he been courageous enough to accept that fate, what would have become of his family? His wife and two sons (one of whom was epileptic) would have been left destitute. Fink’s response to his loss of faith in National Socialism, therefore, was to mitigate as much as possible the worst effects of Nazi rule in the village. He tried to protect the handful of Jews living there, and helped the local nuns when they were targeted by the regime. He defended villagers threatened with imprisonment for infringing any one of the Nazis’ countless petty rules and regulations, and in the last months of the war refused to carry out orders to execute villagers attempting to surrender.

The burning question is how much did Fink and his villagers know about Nazi atrocities—the concentration camps, the Holocaust, the torture and murder of homosexuals, Roma (known as Gypsies), the disabled and anyone else the Nazis didn’t like? In my view they knew a great deal. A teenager from the village was gassed in Hitler’s so-called “euthanasia” program because he was blind. Soldiers who had witnessed or had themselves perpetrated barbaric deeds were continually returning home on leave. At least some of them must have unburdened themselves to their families and friends. One man, Heinz Schubert, who claimed descent from the composer’s family, was responsible for organizing the murder of 700 Roma in the Crimea. What did he tell his wife and friends when he was back in Oberstdorf? Later at his Nuremberg trial, he stated, “we thought we were saving Western civilization.”

Then there were the assorted camps that existed close to the village—a Waffen-SS training camp, Dachau subcamps and several forced labor camps. Every day the villagers saw foreign slave workers being marched to and fro and can hardly have been unaware of the appalling conditions in which they lived. At Sonthofen, just 10 miles north of Oberstdorf, there stood a Nazi castle often visited by party bigwigs including Himmler, who went there specifically to brief local Nazis on the Final Solution.

Towards the end of the war, when Messerschmitt and BMW moved their operations out of Augsburg and Munich to escape the bombing, several manufactories were established in and around Oberstdorf. Furthermore, as the war progressed, Oberstdorf’s population doubled, first with evacuees from the bombing and then with refugees fleeing the Russians. All had terrible tales to tell.

While villagers loyal to Hitler blamed reports of atrocities on enemy propaganda, those who had detested the regime from the start needed little convincing they were true. Most Oberstdorfers, however, once they realized how catastrophically they had been duped, just wanted to keep their heads down and somehow stay alive until it was all over.

Immediately after the war when Oberstdorfers—like Germans everywhere—came close to starvation, they were too absorbed in trying to rebuild their lives to spend much time contemplating their own or Germany’s culpability. Their one overriding desire was to extinguish all memories of Hitler and National Socialism. Since then, Germany has been impeccable in examining its Nazi past, but there will always be more questions. In recent times the focus has shifted from the leading figures of the Third Reich to ordinary Germans, the dilemmas they faced, and the moral decisions they made in what can only be described as the most far-reaching tragedy and crime in human history.

Julia Boyd is the author of Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism through the Eyes of Everyday People. She is the co-author, with Angelika Patel, of A Village in the Third Reich: How Ordinary Lives were Transformed by the Rise of Fascism, publishing April 4 with Simon and Schuster.

Wall Street 'overjoyed' as Biden lets Medicare Advantage insurers off easy

Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
April 10, 2023

UnitedHealth Group, a dominant force in the lucrative Medicare Advantage market, has seen its stock jump over the past week as Wall Street analysts and investors embrace the Biden administration's decision to delay reforms aimed at tackling abuse in the privately run, government-funded health program.

STAT reported late last week that "Wall Street was overjoyed" by the announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which said it would phase in changes to the model that dictates how much government funding Medicare Advantage insurers receive to cover patient care.

Instead of implementing the changes all at once, the Biden administration will roll out the reforms over a three-year period, allowing Medicare Advantage insurers to continue overbilling the federal government in the meantime.

Recent federal audits and investigative reports have detailed how Medicare Advantage plans overcharge the government to the tune of billions of dollars a year by making patients appear sicker than they are, piling on diagnoses with little to no supporting documentation. Medicare Advantage plans also frequently deny necessary care and use algorithms to prematurely end coverage.

In addition to delaying full implementation of its reforms, CMS—which has faced aggressive lobbying from UnitedHealth and other major Medicare Advantage players in recent weeks—announced it would boost payment rates for Medicare Advantage plans by 3.3% in 2024—a larger-than-expected increase.

CMS said Medicare Advantage payments would rise by nearly $14 billion next year under the new plan.

As STAT's Bob Herman noted, "health insurance companies that participate in Medicare Advantage will retain billions of extra taxpayer dollars next year" thanks to the Biden administration's changes, which drew criticism from progressive lawmakers and some policy experts.

"The phased-in approach will continue to reward those insurers with the most abusive practices over the next two years," warned Mark Miller, executive vice president of healthcare for the philanthropy Arnold Ventures.

Herman reported that following the CMS announcement, "investors raced to buy stocks of the largest Medicare Advantage insurers, including UnitedHealth, Humana, CVS Health, Elevance Health, and Centene." STAT cited one analyst estimate suggesting that UnitedHealth Group could see $900 million in additional profit next year thanks to the CMS policy revisions.


"It was 'a sigh of relief' for the industry, according to Jailendra Singh, a healthcare stock analyst at Truist Securities," Herman wrote. "Chris Meekins, a health policy analyst at Raymond James, called the White House's move 'a clearing event for the space.'"UnitedHealth, Cigna, Humana, CVS/Aetna, Elevance Health, Centene, and Molina have seen their combined revenues from taxpayer-funded programs like Medicare Advantage soar from $116.3 billion in 2012 to $577 billion in 2022, according to a recent analysis

by Wendell Potter, a former Cigna executive who now heads the Center for Health and Democracy.

Those companies have been at the forefront of what The New York Times recently described as a "lobbying frenzy" on Capitol Hill, a blitz that appears to have influenced the Biden administration's decision to go easy on Medicare Advantage despite promising bold reforms.

The Times noted that the administration's earlier proposals to revise the Medicare Advantage risk-adjustment model "unleashed an extensive and noisy opposition front, with lobbyists and insurance executives flooding Capitol Hill to engage in their fiercest fight in years."

"The largest insurers, including UnitedHealth Group and Humana, are among the most vocal, according to congressional staff, with UnitedHealth's chief executive pressing his company's case in person," the newspaper reported. "Since the proposal was tucked deep in a routine document and published with little fanfare in early February, Medicare officials have been inundated with more than 15,000 comment letters for and against the policies, and roughly two-thirds included identical phrases from form letters."

The Better Medicare Alliance, a lobbying organization backed by top Medicare Advantage insurers, purchased a Super Bowl ad decrying the Biden administration's earlier reform proposals as an effort to "cut" Medicare Advantage.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a statement late last week that she was disappointed by the Biden administration's decision to weaken its reforms in the face of industry pressure.

"It is now clear that Medicare Advantage is simply a profiteering venture that hurts patient care," said Jayapal. "Without a complete overhaul, it will be impossible to stop bad actors. These plans have spent years scamming seniors and overcharging the government to pad their own profits. We were on the cusp of immediate reform when the Biden administration proposed fixes to stop price gouging by insurance companies."

"Sadly," she added, "health insurance companies used taxpayer dollars meant for medical care to instead buy Super Bowl commercials and desperately lobby to stop these changes that would cut down on their profiteering."

Republicans are resorting to 'guerrilla war' against democracy to cling to power: columnist

Democratic state Reps. Justin Jones (Lower, L) of Nashville and Justin Pearson (C) of Memphis gesture to supporters during the vote in which they were expelled from the state Legislature on April 6, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. 

(Photo by Seth Herald/Getty Images)

Matthew Chapman
April 10, 2023

Republicans are "waging an asymmetrical guerilla war against democracy, blowing things up," in a desperate attempt to stop Democrats' "conventional war at the ballot box," warned author and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch in an article published on Monday.

Two key recent events — the GOP's expulsion of Tennessee lawmakers for joining a peaceful protest against gun violence, and a Trump-appointed judge blowing up FDA authority in order to restrict an abortion medication — should set off flashing alarm bells, Bunch wrote.

"Darth Vader’s Death Star had just one opening to exploit, but U.S. democracy has many — gerrymandering, the filibuster, the Electoral College, the undemocratic makeup of the U.S. Senate, statehouse power plays against home rule for Black or brown or progressive-minded communities, a take-no-prisoners hijacking of the judiciary," wrote Bunch. "The only shock of Thursday’s next-level expulsion of two duly-elected Black lawmakers in Nashville was the proof that — as Republican ideas become more unpopular — there is no bottom to how low this movement will go."

These actions, Bunch wrote, are proof that "the conservative movement doesn’t really believe in the liberties laid out in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It believes in the divine right of its preordained hierarchies — white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. — and will stop at nothing to maintain them. The story of America has been the fight for democracy against slavery, Jim Crow, pervasive sexism, mass incarceration, and more. Today, the forces of repression are running out of room, so they would rather win by fascism than lose elections."

This comes as Democrats rack up victories at the ballot box driven by voters' rejection of reactionaries, from Trump's loss in 2020 to the GOP's massive underperformance in the 2022 midterms that saw them barely retake the House and lose ground in the Senate and state governments, and most recently a judicial election in Wisconsin that gave liberals a majority on the state Supreme Court.

It is young voters, concluded Bunch, who are driving this movement, and who are giving America a chance of defeating authoritarianism: "Their moral authority, and their rising power at the ballot box from Eau Claire to Memphis, is why a decrepit GOP is lashing out. History will surely remember what happened in Tennessee as an affront to democracy — and the last throes of a dying movement

DC insider: Tennessee offers a chilling example of GOP's increasing fascism

Robert Reich
April 10, 2023

I hate to say this, but America no longer has two parties devoted to a democratic system of self-government. We have a Democratic Party, which — notwithstanding a few glaring counter-examples such as what the Democratic National Committee did to Bernie in 2016 — is still largely committed to democracy. And we have a Republican Party, which is careening at high-velocity toward authoritarianism. Okay, fascism.

What occurred in Nashville last week is a frightening reminder of the fragility of American democracy when Republicans obtain supermajorities and no longer need to work with Democratic lawmakers.

The two Tennessee Democrats expelled from the Tennessee House were not accused of criminal wrongdoing or even immoral conduct. Their putative offense was to protest Tennessee’s failure to enact stronger gun controls after a shooting at a Christian school in Nashville left three 9-year-old students and three adults dead.

They were technically in violation of House rules, but the state legislature has never before imposed so severe a penalty for rules violations. In fact, over the past few years, a number of Tennessee legislators have kept their posts even after being charged with serious sexual misconduct. And the two who were expelled last week are Black people, while a third legislator who demonstrated in the same manner but was not expelled is white.

***

We are witnessing the logical culmination of win-at-any-cost Trump Republican politics — scorched-earth tactics used by Republicans to entrench their power, with no justification other than that they can.

Democracy is about means. Under it, citizens don’t have to agree on ends (abortion, health care, guns, or whatever else we disagree about) as long as we agree on democratic means for handling our disagreements.

But for Trump Republicans, the ends justify whatever means they choose —including expelling lawmakers, rigging elections through gerrymandering, refusing to raise the debt ceiling, and denying the outcome of a legitimate presidential election.

My friends, the Republican Party is no longer committed to democracy. It is rapidly becoming the American fascist party.

***

Wisconsin may soon offer an even more chilling example. While liberals celebrated the election on Tuesday of Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court because she’ll tip the court against the state’s extreme gerrymandering (the most extreme in the nation) and its fierce laws against abortion (among the most stringent in America), something else occurred in Wisconsin on election day that may well negate Protasiewicz’s victory. Voters in Wisconsin’s 8th senatorial district decided (by a small margin) to send Republican Dan Knodl to the state Senate.

This gives the Wisconsin Republican Party a supermajority — and with it, the power to remove key state officials, including judges, through impeachment. Several weeks ago, Knodl said he would “certainly consider” impeaching Protasiewicz. Although he was then talking about her role as a county judge, his interest in impeaching her presumably has increased now that she’s able to tip the state’s highest court.

As in Tennessee, this could be done without any necessity for a public justification. Under Republican authoritarianism, power is its own justification. Recall that in 2018, after Wisconsin voters elected a Democratic governor and attorney general, the Republican legislature and the lame duck Republican governor responded by significantly cutting back the power of both offices.

North Carolina is another state where a supermajority of GOP legislators has cut deeply into the power of the executive branch, after Democrats won those posts. The GOP now has veto-proof majorities in both of the state’s legislative chambers, which enable Republicans to enact conservative policies over the opposition of Gov. Roy Cooper, including even more extreme gerrymandered districts. Although North Carolina’s constitution bans mid-decade legislative redistricting absent a court order, Republicans just announced they plan to do it anyway.

Meanwhile, a newly installed Republican supermajority in Florida has given Ron DeSantis unbridled control over the state — granting him total control of the board governing Disney, the theme park giant he has fought over his anti-LGBTQ+ “don’t say gay” law; permission to fly migrants from anywhere in the U.S. to destinations of his own choosing, for political purposes, and then send the bill to Florida’s taxpayers; and unprecedented prosecutorial power in the form of his newly created, hand-picked office of election “integrity,” pursuing supposed cases of voter fraud.

Florida has now effectively silenced even Florida residents from speaking out in opposition to Republican proposals. A new rule prohibits rallies at the state house. Those testifying against Republican bills are often allowed to speak for no more than 30 seconds.

***

Without two parties committed to democratic means to resolve differences in ends, the one remaining (small-d) democratic party is at a disadvantage in seeking ends it deems worthy. The inevitable result: Eventually it, too, sacrifices democratic means to its own ends.

When one party sacrifices democratic means to its own ends, partisanship turns to enmity, and political divisions morph into hatred. In warfare there are no principles, only wins and losses. One hundred sixty years ago, our entire system of self government fell apart because Southern states refused to recognize the inherent equality of Black people. What occurred in Tennessee last week is a throwback to that shameful era.


I don’t believe Trump alone is responsible for the birth of modern Republican fascism, but he has legitimized and encouraged the vicious rancor that has led much of the GOP into election-denying fascism.

PLANTATION CAPITALI$M
Watch: Expelled Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson delivers epic sermon to Memphis church
Sarah K. Burris
April 09, 2023

Photo: Screen capture

Rep. Justin Pearson was one of the "Tennessee Three" that Republicans sought to expel from the state Assembly last week. Ultimately, it was just Reps. Pearson and Justin Jones that were expelled. Rep. Gloria Johnson was saved by a single vote, leading her to say that it was likely due to the color of her skin being different than that of her two colleagues. Jones and Pearson are both Black while Johnson is White.

Pearson was invited to be a guest pastor at Easter Sunday services for Church of the River, where he preached on the downfall of American democracy.

He began by thanking "all of our loved ones who've journeyed — who've wiped these tears from these eyes, lifted up my chin and also my heart."

"The Republican-led supermajority of the Tennessee assembly sought to have a political lynching of three of its members because we spoke out of turn against the status quo of the government after the tragic deaths of six people at the Covenant school in Nashville," Pearson said.

He went on to cite those who lost their lives at the hands of yet another mass shooter. This time the six killed were at Covenant School. Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs were nine years old.

"Because we walked to the well of the house out of turn, resolutions were unjustly and undemocratically filed against us on these trumped up charges," Pearson continued. "Because we spoke out against the empire of the NRA of the gun lobbyists; because we demanded an end to gun violence, an end to the proliferation of weapons on our streets, an end to the funerals we attend day after day and week after week and month after month and year after year — because we did that, the Republican-lead general assembly with the support of folks even in this district like Mark White, from our own community, thought it better to get rid of our democratic representation in district 86 than to actually solve the problem."

Jones, who represents part of Nashville, could be reappointed by the city council as early as next week.

See the full video of the sermon below or at the link here.

Pearson's sermon beings at the 54-minute mark.

Pro-capitalism economist warns it's gone too far due to corporate 'greedflation'

Sarah K. Burris
April 09, 2023

Close-up of businessmen hiding money to his pocket (Shutterstock)

While the world was continuing its shock over the indictment of a former American president, a pro-capitalism conservative economist was warning that corporate greed has gone too far.

Fortune reported this week that Albert Edwards, a global strategist at the 159-year-old bank Société Générale, issued a blistering memo coining the practice Greedflation.

"Corporations, particularly in developed economies like the U.S. and U.K., have used rising raw material costs amid the pandemic and the war in Ukraine as an 'excuse' to raise prices and expand profit margins to new heights, he said. And the French investment bank isn’t just historic: It’s one of the select banks considered to be 'systemically important' by the Financial Stability Board, the G20’s international body dedicated to safeguarding the global financial system."

After a horrific few years due to the pandemic, both parties in the American government swooped in to help bail out citizens, small businesses and corporate America. Many corporations took the money to do stock buybacks instead of helping workers.

At a time when Americans are fighting inflation, it turns out corporations are also making record profits.

"When costs go up, so do profits? That’s not how capitalism is supposed to work, but that is the recent trend," Fortune explained. But thanks to the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, corporations saw an opening to score extra cash.

"The companies in last year’s Fortune 500 alone generated an all-time high $1.8 trillion in profit on $16.1 trillion in revenue," the report explained.

Last summer, the U.S. watched as the price of eggs soared. The largest egg company in the U.S. Cal-Maine Foods Inc. enjoyed record quarterly net sales for the second quarter at the end of 2022, Business Wire reported. That means at a time when the price of eggs exploded, the two quarters that followed scored record profits for the company. They made $801.7 million in the last quarter, a 110 percent increase compared to 2021. The company scored a quarterly income record for them.

Edwards wrote, in the Tuesday edition of his Global Strategy Weekly, that after working in finance for four decades, he's never seen anything like the “unprecedented” and “astonishing” levels of corporate greed as he has in this economic cycle.

Fortune cited a January study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City that revealed “markup growth,” which is the increase "in the ratio between the price a firm charges and its cost of production," was a larger factor driving inflation in 2021. In fact, it was a larger driver than it ever has been in economic history.

Edwards also cited the data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) this month, showing "profit margins still near a record high relative to costs in the fourth quarter." Edwards confessed that he assumed the margins would have “declined sharply” at the close of 2022, but, “How wrong I was!”

“The end of Greedflation must surely come. Otherwise, we may be looking at the end of capitalism,” he warned. “This is a big issue for policymakers that simply cannot be ignored any longer.”

Soros targeted by antisemitic conspiracy theories, hatred amid Trump indictment

Holocaust survivor philanthropist, accused by ex-US president of wielding control over district attorney who led historic grand jury indictment, faces renewed stream of hate

By ANUJ CHOPRA

AFP

Today

Hungarian-born US investor and philanthropist George Soros answers questions after delivering a speech on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on May 24, 2022. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has long been a bogeyman for the far-right, but Donald Trump’s indictment has unleashed a fresh torrent of hate that has also entangled US fact-checkers debunking conspiracies about him.

The Jewish financier is accused by Trump and his backers of influencing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who led the historic grand jury indictment of the former president over a hush money payment to a porn star.

The backlash against Soros, a lightning rod for conservative groups opposed to his funding of liberal causes, stems from donations he made to the criminal justice group Color of Change, which endorsed Bragg for DA in 2021.

Despite no evidence of a direct connection, Trump has gone so far as to claim that Bragg was “hand-picked and funded by George Soros.”

“Soros-backed,” “Soros-financed” and “Soros DA” have become much-peddled phrases in Republican circles, perpetuating the conspiracy theory that Bragg operated at the direction of the billionaire.

Standing outside the Manhattan court where Trump was arraigned, a protester held up a sign that read: “Google it! George Soros funds US DAs.”

This combination of pictures shows Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg outside the Manhattan Federal Court in New York, April 4, 2023; and Hungarian-born US investor and philanthropist George Soros in Davos on May 24, 2022. 

(Angela Weiss/AFP; Fabrice Coffrini/AFP)

Michael Vachon, a spokesman for Soros, said the billionaire “has never met, spoken with, or otherwise communicated with Alvin Bragg.”

“Many on the right are attempting to shift the focus from the accused to the accuser, Bragg,” Vachon told AFP.

“Because of George’s well-publicized support for reform prosecutors, Republicans are alleging that George is behind it all. Several stories in the mainstream media have debunked this, but they persist.”

‘Evil global elite’

The conspiracy theorists vilifying Soros, a man who survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary, have sought to push the idea of a wealthy Jew working as a puppet master behind the scenes to promote a liberal agenda.

“Conspiracy theories are often built around the idea that there are powerful forces outside of our control acting on behalf of the global elite to keep the truth from ordinary people,” Joshua Tucker, co-director of the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics, told AFP.

“In this case, Soros personifies the evil global elite.”

The attacks, observers say, also smack of antisemitism.

The “Republican Party… is once again falling back on their anti-Semitic George Soros conspiracy theories,” J Street, a Washington-based Jewish advocacy group, wrote on Twitter.


“It’s as tired as it is dangerous.”

An image depicting Jewish philanthropist George Soros as a puppet master, from a campaign video for Kim Crockett, Minnesota GOP candidate for Secretary of State. (Screenshot)

This was hardly the first time that Soros — who made his wealth in the high-stakes world of finance and is famous as “the man who broke the Bank of England” in 1992, when he made a fortune by betting against the British pound — has been a target of outsized conspiracy theories.

Far-right influencers claim he has funded the “great replacement” of white Americans with immigrants and people of color.

Around the world, from Central Europe to East Asia, Soros has been accused of stoking immigration, backing coups, sponsoring protests and seeking to push a multicultural agenda.

This poster featuring US billionaire George Soros in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, reads, ‘We can’t let Soros get the last laugh.’ It was part of a government campaign, July 6, 2017. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images)

In recent years, Hungary’s fiercely anti-immigration prime minister Viktor Orban has accused Soros of orchestrating Europe’s migration crisis. Russia has accused Soros, who has poured billions into ex-Soviet satellite states to promote human rights, of fomenting violent uprisings in the region.

‘Harassment’

In the latest backlash, Tucker said, it appeared that presenting logical facts made no difference to the “conspiratorial thinking.”

A slew of American fact-checkers, who say the focus on Soros in the lead-up and following Trump’s indictment is misplaced, have themselves faced online harassment and trolling.

“Conspiracy theorists not only push a particular narrative, but they also attack the credibility of fact-checkers that cast doubt on their claims,” Tucker said.

Fact-checkers employed by mainstream American media debunked Trump’s claim that Bragg received “in excess of $1 million” from Soros.

Former US president Donald Trump sits at the defense table with his legal team in a Manhattan court, April 4, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

While federal records show that Soros sent $1 million to Color of Change, official records show that the group –- which insists its decisions are independent of its donors — spent less than half that amount on supporting Bragg.

“It is a common tactic by hate groups to discredit, harass and silence fact-checkers,” said Jay Van Bavel, a professor of psychology at New York University, who has faced similar trolling in the past for his debunking work.

Such “harassment is designed to discredit them and to help reinforce misinformation and conspiracy theories,” he told AFP.

If George Soros had a houseful of Nazi memorabilia would Fox give him a pass?: 

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan asks

Sarah K. Burris
April 09, 2023

FILE PHOTO: Business magnate George Soros arrives to speak at the Open Russia Club in London, Britain June 20, 2016. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo

The "friend" of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has been paying for the Thomas couple to go on lavish trips around the world on his pal's private jet and personal yacht, is also known for collecting Nazi memorabilia. While Republicans have excused it away as ensuring the horrors of history are remembered, the reality is a little more disturbing.

GOP donor Harlan Crow has a yard full of statues of dictators on display. He has a signed portrait of Adolf Hitler and an autographed copy of Hitler's book Mein Kampf. One houseguest found some of Hitler's linens and place settings hidden away in an upstairs cabinet, hidden away from the public.

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan noted that for the past few weeks, Fox hosts and conservative pundits have collected around the false conspiracy theory that Jewish funder George Soros was behind the prosecution.

"The longstanding smear against him, one of the big attack lines from the right, is to suggest Soros was a Nazi sympathizer and collaborated during the war," Hasan said. "It's nonsense. It's been repeatedly debunked. Soros, who is Jewish, was two years old when Hitler came to power and was a teenager during World War II. But here is where things get interesting, ironic, bizarre in fact. The Republican Party has its own billionaire donor, who was accused of meddling in the judicial system. Conservative real estate mogul Harlan Crow, who, this week, we learned, thanks to ProPublica, has been taking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on undeclared, luxury trips for years, for free, on his yacht, to an all-male retreat."

The total cost of the trips could be as much as $500,000. Crow also gave $500,000 to a lobbying group run by Thomas' wife, Ginni.

It made Hasan wonder if it's time to start calling Thomas a Crow-backed Justice the way the right calls Bragg a Soros-backed DA.

"No museum curator I know would glorify such artifacts that way. Hitler's painting was signed and just hanging on the wall as art," said Danah Boyd, who is known as a tech and social media scholar, who revealed what she saw at Crows' home.

"His defenders on the right say that this is all unfair, absurd! That Crow is just commemorating the horrors of the 20th century," said Hasan. "I mean, Crow himself says that he's just preserving history. Now, to be clear, I'm not saying Harlan Crow is or is not a Nazi sympathizer. What I am saying is that, when you have Nazi linens in your house and a copy of Mein Kampf autographed by the Führer himself, I don't think you can chalk that down to preserving history. And, for those saying this isn't a story, this isn't fair to Harlan Crow, again, remember (that) the double standard is in play. If George Soros had a home full of Hitler memorabilia and a garden full of dictator statues, would Fox and the GOP give him a pass? Or would they be losing their minds and screaming 'Nazi!' at him?."

He closed by repeating something he's echoed for many years: every accusation from a Republican or a conservative is actually a confession.

See the full commentary below or at the link here.

 

Former Republican congressman slams 'slimy and unethical' Clarence and Ginni Thomas business enterprise

Sarah K. Burris
April 09, 2023

Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife and conservative activist Virginia Thomas while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation on October 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Former Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman (VA) cautioned critics of Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg's case against former President Donald Trump, noting that it's still not really known what all Bragg has because the specifics weren't included in the indictment or the statement of facts.

CNN's Jim Acosta began the segment with the recent ABC News poll saying that 64 percent of Americans agree that Trump acted illegally. Just 36 percent think he didn't act illegally.

"When you're doing something as we did on the J6 case, that evidence builds and builds and builds and builds," said Riggleman. "And even today, I think if we looked at all the data from J6, which we haven't been able to do yet, really, I think we would even see more of the key players. So when I hear an attorney talking about a client that you know all, it's a rancid ham sandwich. You know, for me, I'm, like, you don't know the data he has to message for his client. He's getting paid. So for me, you know, it's just somebody else sort of screaming into a popcorn box."

Acosta noted that the poll numbers are growing worse, noting that they're far worse than they were in 2020.

Trump has spent the last week telling his supporters that this isn't an attack on him but an attack on his MAGA followers. His advisers even equated Trump with Jesus Christ, taking the legal hit for his supporters. But Riggleman doesn't think that's how it works in this case because normal people don't have to pay off porn stars.

"You know, even if you don't get charged, I don't know if paying off porn stars is that sort of resume builder that you want as a POTUS," explained Riggleman. "So, I think that's what you get to is, you have a lot of individuals out there saying, hey, you know, was the indictment politically motivated, right? Some of you say it is, but it still should have happened. But again, when you're paying off porn stars, and you're using your sort of almost like a legal type of way of funneling that money, I think normal people, you know, they go to work every day around businesses like me, and you look at that and say, okay, you know what? I haven't even paid off any porn stars lately myself."

He said that it was pathetic.

When the two began talking about the recent report that Clarence Thomas' was getting free trips from a wealthy GOP donor that has cases before the court. Riggleman recalled working on the Jan. 6 committee, the text messages that they found from Mark Meadows' computer came from Ginni Thomas, the wife of the Supreme Court Justice that worked for far-right fringe groups and was pressing a number of efforts to take over the 2020 election.

"But when you see something like Harlan Crow, you wonder how much money he's given to GOP causes," said Riggleman. "I think there's a Dallas report — Dallas news — $13 million to the GOP. The fact that she funnels a lot of money through her lobbying efforts. You know, she's probably a member of seven, eight, or nine significant lobbying groups for the GOP since 2009. For me it looks like it's Clarence and Ginni have their own business models, like the Thomas Business Enterprise, right? That they're able to leverage her access based on the fact that she's married to the most probably the most powerful Republican in the country, right? A guy that's forever."

He went on to say that he's read her deposition many times from the Jan. 6 committee and that she's being incredibly vague in her statements around her participation of Jan. 6.

"We know that she was involved. And now we have an individual, you know, like Harlan Crow, who's a billionaire, right?" Riggleman continued. "Who's probably funneled millions of dollars right through vacations for the Thomases but also in constant contact with other people who are very high up in the GOP. Even if it's not illegal, it feels pretty slimy and unethical. But again, when you're talking about making money, what better way than to influence peddle, right? With the last name of Thomas, right?"

See the full segment below or at the link here.

THE LATEST TEXAS OUTRAGE
Ex-prosecutor blames 'politics' and hating Black Lives Matter as an excuse for Greg Abbott pardoning killer

Sarah K. Burris
April 09, 2023

Greg Abbott (Photo by DSergio Flores for AFP)

When a member of the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally rammed his car into a crowd of people, killing one young woman, the man was charged with murder and a slate of other crimes and marched off to prison. When an active-duty Army sergeant working as a ride-share driver, opened fire into a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020 and a jury sent him to jail, the Texas governor came rushing to his side.

Gov. Greg Abbott now claims that the state's "Stand Your Ground" law protected Perry because people surrounded his car. Perry, who was a whopping 70 miles from his base, actually turned his car into the crowd of people, forcing them to surround his car because he was pushing through them with the car.

Perry was convicted by a jury of his peers and hasn't even appealed his case yet, but Abbott is attacking a "progressive prosecutor" for the case and announced he'd step in.

"He encounters these protesters, and rather than turn around and leave, he drives his car into the middle of them, and you can't forget Charlottesville, where people were killed by a car doing the exact same thing," said former federal prosecutor Michael Zeldin. "So as he's approached by the victim, instead of again leaving the scene as he could have, he opens fire on him. The jury deliberates 17 hours, Jim over an eight-day trial, and they convict him of murder."

Perry used the "right to defend himself" as the defense, and the jury rejected it. Instead of supporting the judicial system, Abbott wants to go a different route, which Zeldin called nothing more than politics.

"The judge and Gov. Abbott should let the jury's verdict stand," Zeldin explained. "There's no basis in law or fact for this. So, it, therefore, smacks of politics because this was a Black Lives Matter protester and you can't ignore that context."

See his full comments with Jim Acosta below or at the link here.
Ex-prosecutor blames 'politics' and hating Black Lives Matter as excuse for Abbott killer cop pardon

 

Austin DA says it's 'deeply troubling' that Texas Gov Abbott wants to pardon Army sergeant convicted of murder


Paul Best
Sun, April 9, 2023 

Travis County District Attorney José Garza hit back at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over the weekend, saying it is "deeply troubling" that the governor wants to pardon Sgt. Daniel Perry after he was convicted of murder for shooting and killing a Black Lives Matter protester during the violent 2020 riots.

Perry was found guilty on Friday of murdering Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran who was carrying an AK-47 during a protest in downtown Austin in July 2020. Attorneys for Perry argued that he acted in self-defense after Foster raised the rifle at him, while prosecutors alleged that Perry instigated the shooting.

"In this case, a jury of twelve listened to testimony for nearly two weeks, upending their lives to painstakingly evaluate the evidence and arguments presented by both the State and the Defense. After hearing from civilian eyewitnesses and expert witnesses, and deliberating for over fifteen hours, they reached the unanimous decision that Daniel Perry did not kill Garrett Foster in self-defense and was guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt," Garza said in a statement on Sunday.

"In our legal system… a jury that gets to decide whether a defendant is guilty or innocent - not the Governor."

Sgt. Daniel Perry was found guilty of murder on Friday for shooting and killing a Black Lives Matter protester in downtown Austin on July 25, 2020.

Garza's statement came after Gov. Abbott criticized the conviction, saying that he has already asked the Board of Pardons and Paroles to review Perry's case and determine whether he should be granted a pardon.

"Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney," Abbott said in a statement on Saturday. "I look forward to approving the Board's pardon recommendation as soon as it hits my desk."

Whitney Mitchell, Foster's fiancée, told the Austin American-Statesman that she "felt some sense of justice and relief when the jury rendered its verdict."

"But the governor has immediately taken that away since he announced there are two legal systems in Texas: one for those with power, like Mr. Perry, and one for everyone else," Mitchell told the local newspaper. "I hope the governor never again claims that he stands for victims' rights."

FAMILY OF TEXAS BLM PROTESTER KILLED BY ARMY SERGEANT SUES SHOOTER, UBER

Perry was working as an Uber driver on July 25, 2020, when he encountered a large Black Lives Matter demonstration in downtown Austin. He told police that a group of protesters encircled his vehicle and that Foster raised the AK-47, prompting him to open fire with a handgun in self-defense.

Perry drove away from the scene and called police before being released that night. One year later in July 2021, a jury indicted Perry for murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Detective David Fugitt, who has since retired after a three-decade career with Austin police, interviewed Perry on the night of the shooting and was the lead investigator on the case. After the grand jury indicted Perry for murder, Fuggit said in a sworn affidavit that Garza's office forced him to remove exculpatory evidence from his presentation to the grand jury.

"It became clear to me that the District Attorney’s Office did not want to present evidence to the grand jury that would be exculpatory to Daniel Perry and/or to show that witness statements obtained by the family of Garrett Foster and/or their attorneys were inconsistent with prior interviews such ‘witnesses’ gave the police and/or the video of the incident in question," Fugitt wrote in the affidavit, which was later dismissed by a judge.

Fugitt was called as a witness this week by Perry's defense team and testified that he did not arrest Perry on the night of the shooting because he thought there was a legitimate argument for self-defense.

Garrett Foster, left, was shot and killed while attending a Black Lives Matter protest with an AK-47 in downtown Austin.

He also said in court that there was no evidence Perry accelerated into the crowd, and that Foster's gunshot wounds indicate he was in a bladed tactical stance when he approached Perry's door, according to Fox 7 Austin.

GOFUNDME REMOVES PAGE SUPPORTING ARMY SERGEANT WHO SHOT AND KILLED ARMED BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTER

Prosecutors keyed in on past messages and social media posts by Perry before the shooting to demonstrate his state of mind. On May 31, 2020, two months before the shooting, Perry sent a message that said, "I might have to kill a few people on my way to work they are rioting outside my apartment complex." Other messages included, "I might go to Dallas to shoot looters," and, "I only shoot the ones in front and push the pedal to the metal," according to Fox 7 Austin.

Perry faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced. Garza said Sunday that the judge "will be able to consider and evaluate additional evidence" during the sentencing hearing.

District Attorney Jose Garza in Austin on Nov. 18, 2021.

Abbott, meanwhile, said he has "prioritized reining in rogue District Attorneys, and the Texas Legislature is working on laws to achieve that goal." Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also lashed out at Garza after the conviction.

"This week has shown us how rogue prosecutors have weaponized the judicial system," Paxton said. "They must be stopped!"

Garza, who is supported by funding from leftwing billionaire George Soros, was first elected in 2020 and faces reelection next year, has been condemned for what critics say are soft-on-crime policies.

An investigation by local news outlet KVUE in 2021 found that Garza's office had dismissed dozens of felony cases for serious crimes, including aggravated robbery and assault of a pregnant woman.

Fox News Digital's Kyle Morris and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.