GOP embraces Trump’s military clampdown after stoking conspiracies about Obama invoking martial law
June 2, 2020 By Igor Derysh, Salon


Senate Republicans who once pushed a conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama would impose martial law had no problem with President Donald Trump threatening to send the military into American streets against the wishes of governors or police backed by the National Guard unleashing tear gas and rubber bullets on peaceful protesters to clear the way for his photo-op in front of a church

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., were among the Republicans who stoked conspiracy theories about “Jade Helm,” a military exercise which some conservatives alleged was a plot to secretly take over the red state of Texas and impose martial law.

“[Jade Helm] is a question I’m getting a lot,” Cruz warned in 2015. “And I think a lot of the reason is we have seen for six years a federal government disrespecting the liberties of citizens and that produces fear when you see a federal government that is attacking our free speech rights, our religious liberty rights, our Second Amendment rights — that produces distrust to government.”

Cruz said he demanded answers from the Pentagon about the operation.

Paul similarly vowed to look into the conspiracy theory after a radio host said people were “nervous” about the plot. He also led a 13-hour filibuster after then-Attorney General Eric Holder did not rule out using a military drone against Americans on U.S. soil.

Other Republicans, like Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, similarly stoked the conspiracy theory, which former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden said was boosted by “Russian bots and the American alt-right media.”

The operation took place in 2015, and of course, ended without any martial law or takeover attempts.

But when asked about Trump’s threat to deploy the U.S. military to cities before authorities tear-gassed peaceful protesters so he could pose with a Bible in front of a nearby church, Cruz and Paul had none of the same reservations about federal power.

“I guess I was mostly horrified by the violence I’ve seen in our cities,” Paul told HuffPost when asked about his reaction.


Cruz went a step further, declaring that Trump was “exactly right” to clear the area to go to the church on Monday as he accused protesters of “terrorism.”

Asked whether it was an “abuse of power,” Cruz told MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt, “by the protesters, yes.”

Other Republicans also expressed support for Trump’s show of force.

“Obviously, it was a necessary security measure,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, told CNN.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, also approved of the move.

“We expect leadership from our president and particularly in times like this,” he said. “And I think that when there was destruction to a church or any other historical thing that America would put great confidence in that should not be destroyed, I think a president ought to bring attention to that terrorist activity, and go there and do . . . what he did last night.”

Not every Republican praised Trump’s decision, though. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refused Tuesday to discuss Trump’s actions.

“I’m not going to critique other people’s performances,” the Republican said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., questioned the president’s actions.

“Well, I don’t know what the point was,” he told CNN. “I guess he’s trying to say we’re reclaiming the church, but the point is that we need to focus on what happened to Mr. Floyd. It’s a systematic problem, but you can’t do that until you get order.”

Democratic leaders, meanwhile, decried the move and said Trump’s “continued fanning of the flames of discord, bigotry and violence is cowardly, weak and dangerous.”

Washington Episcopalian Bishop Mariann Budde, who oversees the church where Trump posed, said she was “outraged” that Trump showed up “without permission” after delivering a speech that was “antithetical to everything we stand for.”

Despite their reservations about Obama’s use of federal power, Republicans have largely called for Trump to do more — not less — in response to the protests. Members of his own party have called for protesters to be peaceful even as they trashed peaceful protesters who called out police brutality.

“Protest, yes. Free speech, yes. Violent looting, arson & rioting, NO,” Cruz tweeted over the weekend.

But Cruz likewise lashed out at NFL players who kneeled during the national anthem to protest police violence when Trump launched a racist attack against players.

“We need to be respectful of our active duty military,” Cruz complained at the time. “We need to be respectful of our veterans. We need to be respectful of law enforcement as well.”

Vice President Mike Pence also called for protesters to remain peaceful.

“We condemn violence against property or persons,” Pence tweeted Friday. “We will always stand for the right of Americans to peacefully protest and let their voices be heard.”

Pence abruptly walked out of a 2017 NFL game in Indianapolis after several players from the San Francisco 49ers kneeled during the anthem.

“I left today’s Colts game because President Trump and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag or our National Anthem,” Pence said at the time. “While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I don’t think it’s too much to ask NFL players to respect the Flag and our National Anthem.”

Rick Wilson: ‘Lil Dictator’ Trump’s church and tear-gas photo-op was a ‘pathetic’ failure
June 2, 2020 By Tom Boggioni


In his typically scathing style, conservative campaign consultant Rick Wilson wrote that a “humiliated” Donald Trump tried to make all the mockery of his hiding in a bunker go away with his photo-op church visit late Monday and it flopped in a big way making him look “pathetic.”

In his Daily Beast column, Wilson dropped the hammer on the president for flailing away because he is overwhelmed by the George Floyd protests and hoped to change the narrative by looking resolute with his nationally televised publicity stunt– and failed badly in the process.

“The weekend did not go well for Donald Trump, and he emerged into a sunny first day of June humiliated by his weakness, cowardice, and inability to face up to any crisis more complex than ‘Why is my Filet-O-Fish cold?'” Wilson wrote. “The man sporting the world’s most delicate ego knows the worst thing for any wannabe Maximum Leader is mockery, and America’s derision was pouring down after a weekend taunt blew up into the hashtag #BunkerBitch and trended worldwide. Like many things that set off cascades of Trump’s bad decisions—porn starlets, breakfast buffets, shady real estate deals, and Steve Bannon—he reacted as badly as one might expect to the derision, with the tantrums we saw Monday. “


Noting the reports of the president yelling at governors in a phone call that they are “weak” when it comes to dealing with protests in their states, Wilson wrote, “I’d pay good Bitcoin to have seen the expressions on the governors’ faces as a man as physically weak and personally cowardly as Trump berated them for failing to stop the national unrest. The thought of Trump directing governors like some kind of Rascal Scooter generalissimo was rich; these are men and women who’ve been fighting COVID-19 and civil unrest for months now, and their collective eye-rolling today must have altered the orbit of the planet in some measurable way.”

He then turned to the church visit stunt that seems to have blown up in the president’s face as cable networks simultaneously showed footage of federal law officials tear-gassing peaceful protesters just so the president could get a photo-op to salvage the day.

“It was the hastily organized rant-and-stroll that made a mark on Trump’s Lil Dictator’s copybook today. What was supposed to look powerful, commanding, and terrifying to MAGA world’s latest constellation of imaginary enemies—Commie leftist agitators! Saboteurs! Professional anarchists! Antifaaaaaa!—looked like the angry rantings of a grandpa ready to head to the Old Strongman’s Home for rice pudding and a nice rest,” the conservative wrote. “Driven by a fear of continued mockery more potent than his cowardice in the face of noisy protesters, Trump then gave a feat of masculine virtue by walking two entire blocks from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church.”

Wilkson then described what the world saw.

“Trump, brick-red and sweating like a hog caught in a gate, then stood before the beautiful “Church of the Presidents” for a photo-op moment intended strictly for his evangelical base that provided incontrovertible proof God is dead, or at least napping, as he held aloft the Bible and didn’t turn into a pillar of salt or leave a smoking hole where the lightning bolt struck,” he described. “The awkward lineup of the Average White Administration in front of the boarded-up church was made all the more awkward by the distant sound of flashbangs exploding on unarmed and nonviolent protesters a few blocks away. Just after they departed, the bishop of the diocese said she was “outraged” the president had used the church as a prop.”

According to Wilson, Trump tried to appear calm and cool under pressure like some of his predecessors and came up way short.

“During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, John F. Kennedy stayed at the White House even as nuclear tensions grew closer to explosion than at any point in our history. Richard Nixon, during the most heated moments of the Vietnam War, spent a long evening on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, talking with anti-war protesters. On 9/11, George W. Bush insisted that the Secret Service allow him to return to Washington, D.C., even as the attack continued and American intelligence was running blind,” he wrote. ” Now Trump has left his bunker to take a picture after a small army roughed up and drove off anyone with a voice to speak against him. Not exactly a profile in courage.”

TRUMP WALKS TO ST JOHNS CHURCH LIKE THE TALL MAN

<br />

1960s segregationist George Wallace would ‘smile’ at seeing Trump teargas protesters for a photo op: CNN’s Bakari Sellers

June 2, 2020 By Brad Reed


CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers said on Tuesday that watching President Donald Trump teargas a group of peaceful protesters so that he could have a photo opportunity reminded him of something he’d see segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace do.

“Yesterday, the president of the United States used teargas, he used the military against peaceful protesters,” Sellers said. “The the only thing I could think of is George Wallace is looking over him with a smile.”

Sellers then said he was “thoroughly pissed off” at conservative evangelicals who are remaining silent even as Trump continues to pour gasoline on the fire of racism while wrapping himself in the flag and the cross.

Host Alisyn Camerota, meanwhile, remarked that Trump’s photo op at St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C. wasn’t even very compelling.

“The optics, the visuals, the symbolism yesterday of what happened was just so strange on every level,” she said. “I actually see police also using their baton against some of the protesters so that the president and his attorney general and his family and Ivanka, in her heels and big designer bag, could cross the street and the president could — could try to figure out how to hold a Bible… I mean, has anyone ever looked more uncomfortable holding a Bible?”

Jun 2 

Wolff Responds: Protests and Class War

Please note that we provide these videos free of ads. Please consider supporting our work. Visit our website democracyatwork.info/donate or join our growing Patreon community and support Global Capitalism Live Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff at https://www.patreon.com/gcleu  

Prof. Wolff talks about the protests sweeping across the US incited by yet another brutal killing of a Black American, George Floyd. He argues that the capitalist system, with its endless drive for profits over people, is the true culprit and failing Americans. The levels of inequality, massive unemployments,  and injustices are symptomatic of a system that is in deep trouble. Divide and conquer, or class war is the tactic capitalists are using to distract Americans from uniting against the common enemy: capitalism.  

Critics describe Premier Jason Kenney’s COVID-19 speech as ‘Trumpian’

As we watch how the global COVID-19 pandemic impacts our communities, we at the AFL are monitoring responses from different levels of government, employers and other jurisdictions around the world. Today, we want to share some of the work we’ve been doing to make sure the interests of workers are protected and that the voice of working people is heard. News Critics describe Premier Jason Kenney’s COVID-19 speech as ‘Trumpian’ Last week, Jason Kenney downplayed the risks of re-opening the economy and sending people back to work by calling the coronavirus “an influenza that does not generally threaten life apart from the elderly and the immunocompromised.” In another part of his speech, he said, “The average age of death from COVID in Alberta is 83. And I remind the house that the average life expectancy is 82.” “This is the worst kind of message to be sending to Albertans as they return to work,” said Gil McGowan, the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.  “The science says that we’re not out of the woods yet and that we need to continue to be cautious and vigilant in terms of following the guidance of public health officials in both public spaces and workplaces. I’m afraid our Premier’s Trumpian narrative - which says that this is no worse than the flu and only a danger to the elderly - is going to lead to infections and deaths that could have been avoided.” "Not only are Premier Jason Kenney’s comments about COVID-19 only killing the elderly ghoulish and cruel, they’re also dead wrong," continued Gil McGowan. “He repeatedly said that COVID-19 was largely a disease of the elderly. And he repeatedly referred to it as a type of influenza. These are not slips of the tongue. He is trying to build a Trumpian narrative that is at odds with the science. And he needs to be called out.” Read the news story. Read our press release. Unions say Bill 1 could make Alberta a 'police state' The controversial bill the UCP government says is targeting rail blockade protesters  - Bill 1: the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act was in the legislature this week.  The Alberta Federation of Labour’s Executive Council, representing the majority of the elected union leadership in the province, released a statement asserting that it’s not an infrastructure bill, it’s an anti-democracy bill that will inevitably be used to target workers, along with environmentalists and indigenous people. If it becomes law, it will bring Alberta closer to a police state than perhaps it’s ever been. The Alberta Federation of Labour asserts that the Bill aims to make strikes and protests illegal for trade unions and our allies.  Read our statement.  Read the news story.  Alberta labour leaders demand that Kenney not stand in the way of paid sick leave for all Earlier this week Prime Minister Trudeau made a commitment to provide 10 paid sick days to all Canadians. However, workplace law is largely under the jurisdiction of the provinces. That’s why the Prime Minister says his next step is to negotiate with provincial premiers. Trudeau has promised to work with provinces to ensure all working Canadians will have access to 10 paid sick leave days. This is why Alberta union leaders issued a statement demanding that Premier Kenney work to make this a permanent reality in Alberta. Read our press release. Listen to Gil McGowan, AFL President, on 630 CHED Ryan Jespersen show. Kenney Escalates His Attacks on Public Education During COVID-19 Weaken school boards, threaten to fire trustees, provide vague and ill-defined policy around a school relaunch, all while pushing forward a “Choice in Education Act.” It is a roadmap to undermining public education in Alberta. Read more with the latest in our blog series. Child care is crucial for Alberta’s economic recovery Alberta workers are facing an urgent need for support when it comes to child care. Some workers are being forced to not return to work because of a lack of child care options. Alberta unions are calling on the provincial government to take a leadership role in child care and to help with this situation by immediately providing funding for more child care centres in Alberta. Read more. Letter to Prime Minister re: urgent need for financial support for municipal governments This week, the AFL sent a letter to the Prime Minister about the urgent need for financial support for municipal governments in response to the economic turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Alberta, the situation is exacerbated by a provincial government seemingly deaf to the concerns of municipal officials. The recent provincial budget has downloaded costs and cut grants to municipalities. To add insult to injury, our two largest cities, Calgary and Edmonton, had a long-term agreement for stable funding shredded by the UCP government, despite an election promise to keep it in place. Read our letter. Cities need help. Tell the federal and provincial governments to provide emergency operating funding for municipalities in order to protect the vital local services we all need. Sign the Canadian Labour Congress petition.  Workers’ Rights Town Hall - Facebook Live Watch AFL President Gil McGowan in a virtual Town Hall live on Facebook, with Heather McPherson, Member of Parliament for Edmonton Strathcona discussing workers’ rights during the COVID-19 pandemic. LAPP protected themselves from AIMCo’s $2.1 billion loss with downside protection plan done over AIMCo’s wishes As the investigation by outsiders into the Alberta Investment Management Corporation or AIMCo’s $2.1 billion loss on an exotic volatility-based strategy continues other details are trickling out. Notably that AIMCo’s biggest client, the Local Authorities Pension Plan or LAPP had a downside protection plan independent of AIMCo that actually made money while its pension fund manager was losing it. Multiple sources have confirmed that AIMCo actively discouraged this strategy and that it was done against the advice of AIMCo. “This is a concrete example of the benefits of independent governance that we fought so hard for,” said Gil McGowan, the president of the Alberta Federation of Labour. “It’s also why we were so adamant about having the option of leaving AIMCo if we lost confidence in them as our pension fund manager.” Read more. Action Join the resistance This week, the University of Alberta announced its plans to cope with the UCP government's cuts to the institution this year by nine per cent, or $110 million. Read news story.  Read the Non-Academic Staff Association's open letter. If you haven't yet, sign up for our #KenneysCuts campaign to join the fight. CUPE launches campaign to make long-term care public Canada’s largest union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), has launched a campaign this week to fix Canada’s broken long-term care system, by making it a part of our public universal health care system. Get involved and add your voice to the campaign at fixlongtermcare.ca.

House Democrats question Trump's deal on Russian ventilators

Senior House Democrats are demanding more information on what they say is a bad deal for U.S. taxpayers struck by President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin involving ventilators.

© Joshua Roberts/Reuters, Chairwoman of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) leads a hearing about coronavirus preparedness and response on Capitol Hill, March 12, 2020.

In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Democratic chairs said they have "grave concerns" that Trump recently agreed to provide 200 ventilators to Russia for free -- after paying $659,283 to Moscow for a separate Russian aid shipment that included 45 ventilators later deemed unusable.

ABC News first reported the details of the Russian cargo plane, including Russia's invoice and concerns expressed privately by U.S. officials at the time that the 45 ventilators included onboard might have "voltage-related" issues.

The Russian ventilators have not been used in U.S. hospitals and remain in storage.

"These misguided decisions waste millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars, undermine our foreign policy and national security interests, and impair our nation's ability to combat the coronavirus crisis," wrote the Democratic chairs, including Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who oversees the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., who oversees the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Signing the letter were the top Democrats overseeing State Department funding and House-led investigations into the coronavirus crisis. In addition to Maloney and Engel, the letter also was signed by Nita Lowey of New York, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee; Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, chairman of a select subcommittee on coronavirus; and Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, national security subcommittee chair on House Oversight and Reform.

The Trump administration has not said whether the U.S. might get a discount on Russia's aid bill now that the U.S. has agreed to send 200 ventilators its way.

In a statement provided Friday to ABC, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) referred questions on the status of Russia's $659,283 invoice to the State Department, which did not provide comment.

"The flight contained 45 ventilators, over 90,000 gloves of various types, and other medical supplies such as medical clothing and respirators. This was a mix of donated goods and goods purchased by the US State Department," FEMA wrote.

One source familiar with the shipments said the cargo flights were not a swap and that the two shipments were considered unrelated. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.

Earlier this spring, as the spike of coronavirus cases prompted fears of a ventilator shortage in New York and New Jersey, Putin offered to send the U.S. the aid shipment.

The April 1 cargo flight that landed at New York City's John F. Kennedy airport included thousands of pieces of equipment not typically used by hospitals, including chemical warfare-style gas masks and household cleaning gloves, as well as 45 ventilators and thousands of surgical gloves, medical clothing and antiseptic packets.

"It was a very nice gesture on behalf of President Putin and I could have said 'no thank you' or I could have said 'thank you' and it was a large plane of very high-quality medical supplies, and I said 'I'll take it,'" Trump told reporters April 2.© Alex Brandon/AP President Donald Trump speaks with reporters about the coronavirus in the James Brady Briefing Room of the White House, May 22, 2020, in Washington.

New York and New Jersey wound up returning the Russian ventilators to the federal stockpile after reports that several coronavirus patients in St. Petersburg were killed in fires linked to overloaded ventilators.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the states are returning the ventilators to FEMA," a spokesperson said in a statement released earlier this month. "The conclusion(s) of the investigation being conducted by the Russian authorities into the fire in St. Petersburg will help inform our decision regarding any future use of the ventilators."

Since then, the State Department has agreed to send 200 ventilators to Russia, which has the third largest number of cases of COVID-19 in the world. The first batch of 50 ventilators were delivered on May 21, with another 150 ventilators expected to ship next week, according to a senior administration official.

The ventilators are being manufactured by Vyaire Medical in California and will be donated to the Pirogov National Medical and Surgical Center in Moscow.

Russia isn't alone. The U.S. has agreed to provide more than 15,000 ventilators to more than 60 countries, including in Europe.

Democrats are also questioning why the U.S. would buy ventilators manufactured by a subsidiary of a company currently under U.S. sanctions as a result of Moscow's 2014 aggression against Ukraine.


According to Russia's foreign ministry, the money for the supplies came from the Russian Direct Investment Fund -- Russia's sovereign wealth fund that was sanctioned by Treasury in June 2015 as part of sanctions punishing Russia for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.


Also, at least some of the ventilators were made by a Siberian factory that is owned by a Russian state company sanctioned by the U.S. over Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

Sanctions on the Russian Direct Investment Fund don't apply to medical equipment and supplies.

US Labor Department inspector general retires after warning of fraud

Dahl said the decision "has been long in the works and is for entirely personal reasons," adding that he was not "told or asked to resign."


J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

By REBECCA RAINEY

06/02/2020

Labor Department Inspector General Scott Dahl announced Tuesday he was retiring from his post just a day after warning lawmakers of massive fraud in the unemployment insurance system, becoming the latest watchdog to exit the Trump administration.

Dahl, who will leave the office effective June 21, said the decision "has been long in the works and is for entirely personal reasons," adding that he was not "told or asked to resign."

"The Department and the people it serves have benefited greatly from his contributions," Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia said in a statement. "We wish Scott and his family the very best in the future.”

On Monday, Dahl and other officials from his office told a House oversight subcommittee that they've seen a "significant amount of fraud" in unemployment programs during the coronavirus pandemic. He told lawmakers that DOL punted on his recommendation that states should collect more earnings information from applicants to combat the fraud.

Dahl also said he was "very surprised" that DOL's Occupational Safety and Health Administration had only issued one citation during the entire Covid-19 pandemic.

"This is something that we're planning on turning our attention to to look at [OSHA's] enforcement activities and seeing if they are following their standards, and what can be done to make them more efficient, effective," he told lawmakers.

During the briefing Dahl also suggested, in response to a lawmaker, that he could investigate Scalia for pressing a federal retirement board to reverse plans to begin investing in a new index that includes Chinese companies. The board's decision came after Scalia and White House officials applied pressure.

His exit comes as the Trump administration has seen an exodus of watchdogs across the federal government, including Glenn Fine, who resigned from the Defense Department inspector general's office last month.

President Donald Trump has ousted Michael Atkinson as inspector general of the intelligence community, Steve Linick as the top State Department watchdog and acting Transportation Department inspector general Mitch Behm.

I'm An Angry Black Woman. This Is What I Want White People To Know.
Candace Howze 

MAY 30/2020

© Courtesy of Candace Howze The author's great-grandfather, Booker Howze, as a young man.

Editor’s note: The opinions in this article are the author’s, as published by our content partner, and do not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft News or Microsoft. MSN Lifestyle Voices features first-person essays and stories from diverse points of view. Click here to see more Voices content from MSN Lifestyle, Health, Travel and Food.

This a photo of my great-grandfather, Booker Howze.

I never met him. In fact, my dad never met him either. He passed away when my grandad was barely a teenager. Over the past few years, I’ve spent some free time trying to discover as much about my family history as possible, connecting dots of information across yellowed, torn sheets of paper that contain snippets of the people who came together and thus produced me.© Courtesy of Candace Howze A copy of the author's great-grandfather's prison record, via Ancestry.com.

On one of the sheets of paper shown above is my great-grandfather’s name. A Mississippi native who went North during the Great Migration, he was arrested in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (greater Pittsburgh), at the age of 24. His crime? “Suspicious person.”


Let’s pause for a moment and take that in.

My great-grandfather, at an age where most of us have barely graduated a college or snagged a decent job, was taken to prison because somebody felt he looked like a dangerous, dishonest young man.

When it comes to matters of race, I used to focus on how to fix it. My thoughts always consisted of things like, How do we solve it? Is there something new we could try? If everyone did one little thing, it could create a ripple effect. I grew exasperated at older relatives and neighbors and even peers who had grown “jaded” by the system, believing that they simply were choosing not to look on the bright side, insisting that their “complaining” and apathy was not how civil rights were “won.”

Then Trayvon Martin’s killer was left to walk free. And then cop after cop was not arrested, or arrested but not indicted, or indicted but not convicted. And then I understood.
© Courtesy of Candace Howze A photo the author took at the

I discovered how modern policing has its roots in slave patrols and not gun-slinging sheriffs in old Westerns as I’d once believed. Through research like the 1619 Project and the ”Mere Distinction of Color” exhibit at Montpelier, I finally realized that Africans were enslaved long before ― hundreds of years before ― the Constitution was even written, which means, of course, that when it was “signed, sealed and delivered,” it was a lie. White supremacy is just America’s big brother. Although they’re always trying to be better than him, they learned everything they know from his example.

When I realized these things, my feelings changed.

I no longer want the system fixed. I just don’t want the system at all.

Black Americans have consequences for our actions that are almost always potentially equal to our life. Try to pay for groceries with a counterfeit bill in the middle of a pandemic that’s left half the nation economically deprived and you end up dying in the street for the world to see. Play for your music too loud with your friends and a random guy can shoot you in broad daylight.

Yet on the other hand, calling the police on someone who’s done nothing illegal and who hasn’t harmed you could lead a white person to lose their job, take a hit in their reputation, and have people say that’s gone too far. To think that threatening or harassing someone based on race or prejudice should not have consequences is ludicrous. And it’s privilege.

Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old EMT who was shot and killed by police in her apartment this March, did nothing to merit consequence. The police were looking for a man who had already been arrested earlier that day. They allegedly entered Breonna’s apartment without announcing themselves (known as a no-knock warrant) in the middle of the night and shot her eight times. Her boyfriend ― thinking the officers were intruders ― fired back in an attempt to protect them and was charged with attempted murder. It took weeks for those charges to be dropped.

I keep thinking about this young woman, my age, with dreams and aspirations, who probably had a long day at work and was finally in the comfort of her own home, with the person she loved. Who went to sleep thinking about all the things she had to do the next day, probably hoping she didn’t catch COVID-19 at work, but instead ended up shot dead in her own bed. By men who are sworn to protect and serve the community. And for what reason? That could’ve been me, a friend, a relative. Why would that ever be OK?

We, Black people, do the work of fighting for justice because we care about one another. We defend our humanity the way your gun-toting neighbors defend their rights at every moment’s notice. But ultimately, I now see that this is not our battle alone.

We can seek justice after the fact. We can march for integration into communities that would rather move out of their homes than live across the street from us. And yes, we might change a few words in a few laws.

But marching doesn’t end racism. Smiling, speaking the King’s English, getting fancy degrees, pulling our pants up ― none of it ends racism.

Racism exists because white colonists decided hundreds of years ago to dominate a land full of native people who were minding their own business and then to kidnap people from another continent to labor mercilessly without compensation for their economic gain. And every turn of events since, every snippet of progress thereafter, has been twisted to maintain the economic and social hierarchy that existed the day America became America.

I admit it, the idea of America is super cool. It really sounds amazing and yes, it’s a geographically and culturally influential and beautiful place. But America isn’t really America. Anyone who’s paid two seconds of attention to history knows America does not live up to its own standards, and its ideals of things like unalienable rights certainly don’t apply if you’re not white. Where were the rights of all the men, women and children throughout history whose lives were taken for nothing?

If America was indeed America for everyone, we wouldn’t have to beg for our life in the street only to have it taken anyway. We wouldn’t have to argue on Twitter about whether or not someone deserved to live based on what they did during a 2-minute or 10-minute video.

Today I am not tired, disappointed or hurt. I am angry. And I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do with that anger. I’ve been thinking a lot about what to say to white friends who are reaching out and to people on social media who want to be an ally. In the past I would’ve thought it’s time to educate, but I am not in a period of my life where I feel compelled to do so. I’m sharing as much love as I can, appreciating the support, but I know everyone has to do this work for themselves.

So if you are a white person looking at a Black person like, How do I join the fight? I want you to know that joining the fight is just the beginning. There will be conflict, but it’s worth it. This is a long haul. You will need to take the mantle in spaces in which we have little influence. You need to make this your priority. It’s your turn to be angry. It’s your turn to be dissatisfied. You need to hate racism and inequality. You have to take the time to understand exactly what those things are and how you play a part. You need to pull up, read the books and check your people when opportunity arises.

If you’re thinking, “I’m not racist, I’m not prejudiced, I’m not biased.” You are. On some spectrum. And here is how I know.

I grew up surrounded by Black history. I was homeschooled and stayed largely untouched by the more direct effects of racism and prejudice in the educational system. I was raised by two educated, involved Black parents who taught me to be proud of my race. And I still left home with stereotypes and prejudices about Black people. With ideas passed down to me by mainstream media and relatives and images that taught me to think a certain way about “kinds” of Black people, based on their hair or their name or what they listened to on their iPod, as if that somehow told me their story or correlated with their intelligence. Thankfully, my interactions with people shattered all those assumptions.

But if I thought that way about my own people, how much more does a white person in a white American family feel about my people?
© Courtesy of Candace Howze The author standing next to a log that slaves cut down at a South Carolina rice plantation.

It’s time to dig down and open up so you can heal and help others to heal. I’m proud of everyone who’s already doing that.

If you’re Black and you’re reading this and needed to hear that too, it’s OK. You may not find yourself receiving a gold star for doing this at first, because it’s a bare minimum to advocate for human respect. But it’s appreciated.

Otherwise, we’ll just be over here telling our kids and grandkids what to do around police, how to be prepared for their white friends to say something insensitive, urging them not give up on life or God or their future because of what they see on the news. Black people will keep doing that 100 years from now and white people will keep saying, “Oh, wow, this is still happening.”

Or you can change that.

We do not live in separate worlds, although it often feels like we do. We live in the same country with the same news, it’s all a matter of whether you choose to take action.

If you want this to stop happening and you’re white, this is your fight too.

This requires your courage and conviction.

This is your demon to kill.

What you do in times of crisis reflects your truth.

Candace Howze is a North Carolina-based writer, podcaster and multimedia artist. In her spare time, you can find her listening to music, baking or online shopping. Find her on Instagram and Twitter.

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh marches in anti-police brutality protest in Ann Arbor


Sam Cooper

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh was present for a Tuesday morning anti-police brutality protest in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

© Provided by Yahoo! Sports Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh waits to lead the team on the field before an NCAA college football game against Army in Ann Arbor, Mich., Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Jim Harbaugh, sporting a maize and blue mask, took part in an anti-police brutality march in Ann Arbor this morning.

(Story by @samgododge/ photo by @jenna_kieser) https://t.co/EA8GylePqv pic.twitter.com/PED0zerfn9— Aaron McMann (@AaronMcMann) June 2, 2020

“So early in my life, I had learned that if you want something, You had better make some noice” -Malcom “Detroit Red” X@coachjim4um Thank you for supporting as always. Thank you for listening to our black players, standing behind them, and supporting them during this time. pic.twitter.com/zX39RhZxYN— Chris Bryant (@cbryant58) June 2, 2020

According to the Detroit Free Press, Harbaugh marched in the protest with several members of the Wolverines football program, including staff members and former players. The protest came in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25.

The protest, which was organized by former UM football player Mahmoud Issa, took place both on Michigan’s campus and in downtown Ann Arbor.

Stand for nothing, fall for everything. #Equality #unity #love pic.twitter.com/QfF1PJUkwI— Grant Perry (@TheGrantPerry) June 2, 2020

In a statement, the University of Michigan expressing its support for coaches, staff and players “as they respectfully and peacefully express their views on the social issues affecting our country."

[Thamel: How colleges can create change in wake of George Floyd’s death]
Harbaugh ‘really, really upset’ about George Floyd’s killing

Harbaugh, in an interview with the Rich Eisen Show last week, characterized Floyd’s death as “completely outrageous.”

“I’m really, really upset about the George Floyd death and that’s kind of got me preoccupied today,” Harbaugh said May 28. “Just very horrendous. … I’m looking forward to there being an investigation and waiting for charges. That’s completely outrageous.”

On May 31, Harbaugh tweeted support of his children for speaking out about the issue.

"I believe in equal justice for all,” Harbaugh wrote. “All injustice should be confronted and punished. It has to be equal and fair for all, and no one can be above the law. I pray we can get there!"

I am really proud of @JayHarbaugh @JamesHarbaughJr @grace_harbaugh for expressing themselves.

I believe in equal justice for all.

All injustice should be confronted and punished. It has to be equal and fair for all, and no one can be above the law. I pray we can get there! https://t.co/d7JQkZqdzW— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) May 31, 2020

It was Harbaugh’s first tweet since December 2019.
Harbaugh, who coached Kaepernick, praised by his OC

Harbaugh’s offensive coordinator, Josh Gattis, expressed his admiration for the Harbaugh family.

“Beyond the Rooney family, I consider the impact that the Harbaugh family has had on many of us African American coaches and players to create opportunities to make an impact in the game we love,” Gattis wrote.

In challenging times of racial inequality and injustice I am even more thankful for the Harbaugh Family! TY ✊🏽✊🏻✊🏾✊🏿 pic.twitter.com/RV4bBOEmPl— Josh Gattis (@Coach_Gattis) June 2, 2020

Gattis cited Harbaugh’s time coaching Colin Kaepernick with the San Francisco 49ers. Harbaugh said last week during his interview with Eisen that he sometimes exchanges test messages with Kaepernick, who kneeled during the national anthem in protest of police brutality.

In reference to Kaepernick’s peaceful protest, Harbaugh had this to say:

“If you didn’t know then, you know now.”

More from Yahoo Sports:

AFTER A WEEK LARGEST AMOUNT OF FATALITIES LOUISVILLE
A Louisville restaurant owner known for feeding police for free was killed by authorities — and his body was reportedly left on the street for 12 hours
Bryan Pietsch Jun 1, 2020

People reenact the pinning down of George Floyd during a protest in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 29. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston


David McAtee, the owner of a barbecue restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, was killed during a protest on Monday.

McAtee was known in the community for giving food away, including to police officers, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

McAtee was killed after police and Kentucky National Guard members were fired upon and they returned fire, according to Gov. Andy Beshear.

Locals expressed anger over reports that his body was left on the street for 12 hours after the shooting. 

Beshear called for an investigation and said body-camera footage should be released by Monday evening. 

Later on Monday, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the police involved in the shooting did not have their body cameras on and that the police chief had been fired.

David McAtee, the owner of a barbecue restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky, was killed after police and National Guard members opened fire at a protest over the death of George Floyd.

McAtee was the owner of YaYa's BBQ, according to the Louisville Courier Journal. He was known as a "community pillar," his mother, Odessa Riley, told the paper.

McAtee, who was 53, often gave food to the community for free, including police officers. "He fed them free," Riley told the paper. "He fed the police and didn't charge them nothing."

McAtee died early Monday morning after police and the Kentucky National Guard were sent to disperse a crowd in the city, where protests have continued over the death of Floyd in Minneapolis. Police said they were shot at and that they and National Guard members returned fire, which resulted in McAtee's death, according to a statement from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.


Members of the community were especially angered by reports that his body was left on the street for 12 hours after the killing. The shooting occurred shortly after midnight, and his body appeared to be removed from the scene after noon later that day, according to WFPL, a local radio news station.

Beshear on Monday called for an investigation into the shooting and said body-camera footage should be released by Monday evening, acknowledging that people may not trust claims made by police over what happened. "I'm not asking people to trust our account," Beshear said.

But later on Monday, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said that the police did not have their body cameras turned on.

The police chief, Steve Conrad, has been fired, Fischer said, according to the Courier Journal. Disciplinary action for the officers involved is forthcoming, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.


McAtee's death comes as police have escalated protests across the country, sometimes turning violent toward unarmed and peaceful protesters. Police in New York rammed cars into a group of protesters and law-enforcement officers around the country have shot nonlethal bullets, pepper spray, and tear gas at protesters, bystanders, and journalists. A police officer was seen in Salt Lake City shoving an elderly person with a cane to the ground.

Protests have erupted across the country and in some nations around the world over the killing of Floyd, who died after a police officer in Minneapolis pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes.

Remote work could accelerate the tech industry's migration to Canada, where affordable costs of living and more open immigration policies are helping create tech hubs to rival Silicon Valley
Bani Sapra
May 31, 2020

Tobias Lütke founded Shopify, the $85 billion e-commerce company based in Ottawa, Canada Photo By David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile via Getty Images


Facebook and Twitter's new remote-work policies have prompted SF Bay Area workers to begin considering leaving their homes. 

Some may choose to cross the border to Canada, home to some fast-growing tech-hubs thanks to easy immigration policies, and affordable costs of living. 

A survey by Envoy Global, a firm that helps companies sponsor and manage work visas, showed that 66% of the employers it surveyed had either established an office in Canada or were in the process of doing so. 

And Toronto's tech scene is so hot that a report issued by commercial real estate company CBRE, ranked Toronto's tech talent as the third in North America, just after the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle. 

Silicon Valley techies, newly liberated to work remotely and searching for greener pastures, may end up heading towards the great white north.

Canada has spent the past few years striving to produce tech hubs that can challenge Silicon Valley and Seattle. Now, as companies like Facebook, Twitter, Coinbase and Square have announced plans to let employees permanently work anywhere they want, employers and officials in Canada are hoping the country's moment has come.

Canada boosters point to a mix of attractive incentives and other benefits, including the fact that the cost of living — depending on where you choose to live — is largely more affordable than pricey San Francisco.

And as US immigration policies have grown increasingly stringent, Canada is touting its comparatively welcoming foreign work policies. A program called the Global Talent Stream, lets Canadian employers speed up the visa process for skilled tech workers relatively easily.

"What is frequently lost is if US employers cannot hire a person to work in San Francisco, they do have other alternatives," said Richard Burke, the CEO Envoy Global, a firm that helps companies sponsor and manage work visas.
A recent survey by Envoy showed that 66% of the employers it surveyed had either established an office in Canada or were considering of doing so. 

Big tech firms like Facebook and Google, as well as smaller startups like Lever, have established satellite offices in Toronto to take advantage of more affordable tech talent. (Other startups like Postmates and Tile have offices in Vancouver). 

Job growth

Canada is no stranger to tech giants — BlackBerry's global headquarters are in Waterloo. But a new generation of tech brands are now in the spotlight, helmed by popular e-commerce giant Shopify, which is headquartered in Ottawa.

A growing collection of tech hubs across Canada have gained prominence in recent years. In 2017, Toronto created more tech jobs than the SF Bay Area, Seattle, and Washington DC — combined, according to a survey held by the CBRE Group. The same company ranked Toronto as #3 in a tech talent survey of North American cities, just behind San Francisco and Seattle.

Companies like Terminal, a startup that helps tech firms establish remote offices are predicting that the coronavirus outbreak and shift to remote work will only accelerate job growth and startup creation.

"The US is not making it very easy or attractive for high quality talent to come to the United States. I think that increasingly, companies are realizing that they have to be leaning into remote work," Terminal CEO Clay Kellogg told Business Insider. "The COVID-19 outbreak actually is ... kind of an unfortunate catalyst for this whole shift."

That's good news for Canada, as it aims to leap ahead of San Francisco and Seattle in terms of tech talent — and hopefully be the home of the next wave of billion-dollar startups.

Toronto suffered a setback recently when, owing to the coronavirus outbreak, Alphabet subsidiary Sidewalk Labs cancelled plans to build a futuristic "smart city "along the water font, depriving the city of what would have amounted to a tech crown jewel. (BUT THEY GOT ALL THE FREE BIG DATA THEY NEEDED THROUGH THE BIDDING PROCESS)

But Toronto already has a strong foundation in the area of tech-focused urban planning, with North America's largest urban innovation center, MaRS, lodged between the University of Toronto and the University Health Center. The center says its home to 1,500 entrepreneurs and ventures, helping "an innovation economy," that will help drive the country's economic growth.

MaRS hosted an event in March, where hundreds of people dressed as Albert Einstein lookalikes to set a Guinness World Record Carlos Osorio/Toronto Star via Getty Images

Already, MaRS CEO Yung Wu says the campus has helped foster startups that help Canada "punch way above its weight," in terms of creating innovative startups. (Wu cited the Global Cleantech forum's 'top 100 cleantech innovators' as an example, noting proudly that the list counted 12 Canadian companies as cleantech leaders.)

And immigration is one big reason for that, as Wu readily admits. He's experienced immigration policies in both the US and Canada, as he got his start as an entrepreneur in the US before migrating north.

Canada, unlike the US, knows it needs to import tech talent in order to grow, Wu said, adding, "the innovation economy is entirely fueled by talent."

"We understand that talent is a supply thing, and we have to generate demand from outside," Wu said. "So we punch way above in terms of innovation. And from my perspective, if we can connect a powerhouse of innovation to global market commercialization, that's where we hit our sweet spot."

TRUMP ORDERED 101st AIRBORNE TO BE ARMED WITH LOADED RIFLES WITH BAYONETS! BAYONETS! SOUNDS FAMILIAR


700 paratroopers ‘issued bayonets’ as 82nd Airborne prepares to carry out ‘Operation Themis’ at #DCprotests: report

 June 2, 2020 By Bob Brigham


President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to use the United States military against civil rights protesters in Washington, DC could escalate after airborne troops from Fort Bragg were staged outside the capital.

“Aircraft flying over DCA last night in a show of force against #GeorgeFloyd protesters were ordered by President [Trump] – US forces in DC are operating under an official mission: Operation Themis—Greek mythology, Themis = divine law & order,” 

(NOT BLIND JUSTICE THINK ATHENA)

 Associated Press correspondent James LaPorta reported Tuesday.

“Also: 700 members of the 82nd are at Joint Base Andrews and Fort Belvoir. 1,400 more soldiers are ready to be mobilized within an hour. Soldiers are armed and have riot gear. They also were issued bayonets—standard issue but some feel could be inflammatory,” he explained. “Some context: they were issued to the members of the 82nd deploying to Washington, D.C. – they were told to pack them in their backpacks. Members I spoke said bayonets are always on their packing list but given the context of the protests, it could be perceived in a bad light.”

Some context: they were issued to the members of the 82nd deploying to Washington, D.C. – they were told to pack them in their backpacks. Members I spoke said bayonets are always on their packing list but given the context of the protests, it could be perceived in a bad light. https://t.co/h343ojJAjh
— James LaPorta (@JimLaPorta) June 2, 2020