1248: Peak Whiteness

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Archived Version

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 08:29

ROME (Reuters) - The new coronavirus is losing its potency and has become much less lethal, a senior Italian doctor said on Sunday.

A lifeguard wearing a protective face mask takes the temperature of a woman at a newly reopened beach after months of closure due to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at Punta Hidalgo, in Punta Ala, Italy May 31, 2020. REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini

''In reality, the virus clinically no longer exists in Italy,'' said Alberto Zangrillo, the head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of Italy's coronavirus contagion.

''The swabs that were performed over the last 10 days showed a viral load in quantitative terms that was absolutely infinitesimal compared to the ones carried out a month or two months ago,'' he told RAI television.

Italy has the third highest death toll in the world from COVID-19, with 33,415 people dying since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21. It has the sixth highest global tally of cases at 233,019.

However new infections and fatalities have fallen steadily in May and the country is unwinding some of the most rigid lockdown restrictions introduced anywhere on the continent.

Zangrillo said some experts were too alarmist about the prospect of a second wave of infections and politicians needed to take into account the new reality.

''We've got to get back to being a normal country,'' he said. ''Someone has to take responsibility for terrorizing the country.''

The government urged caution, saying it was far too soon to claim victory.

''Pending scientific evidence to support the thesis that the virus has disappeared ... I would invite those who say they are sure of it not to confuse Italians,'' Sandra Zampa, an undersecretary at the health ministry, said in a statement.

''We should instead invite Italians to maintain the maximum caution, maintain physical distancing, avoid large groups, to frequently wash their hands and to wear masks.''

A second doctor from northern Italy told the national ANSA news agency that he was also seeing the coronavirus weaken.

''The strength the virus had two months ago is not the same strength it has today,'' said Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases clinic at the San Martino hospital in the city of Genoa.

''It is clear that today the COVID-19 disease is different.''

Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Additional reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Giles Elgood

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Archived Version

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:50

''Would you look at that idiot! What an asshole'...''

Road rage seems to just be an accepted part of modern life. I don't drive, but as a passenger in other people's cars, it never surprises me to see an otherwise calm, polite, rational person lean out of a window and scream insults over a minor transgression. Sometimes it turns into an all-out fight '-- I once saw a policeman turns off his siren and lights so he could shout at a driver who got in his way.

Someone told me that their dad pulled over to argue with another driver and ended up half strangling the guy through an open window. Even the calmest drivers I know will, at the least, give moral judgement and regard the driving skills of others as the most accurate IQ test.

It's easy to find explanations for road rage. Driving is tiring. Boring. Nauseating for some. Dangerous. People regard both their cars and their driving skills as a concrete manifestation of gender, class, age, nationality, and personality. No one likes having their personal space infringed upon, even if that space is a moving radius of tarmac.

But plenty of situations have those characteristics and don't cause otherwise civilised people to erupt with fury. It doesn't explain why we treat road rage as something understandable, something which isn't a reflection of a person's true temperament '-- like PMS. Most of what we all do on an average day is boring and tiring.

Safe behind a windscreen, you are encased in your own private world and therefore unchained from social constraints. Say what you like, swear as much as you want, make whatever obscene gestures you favour '-- as long as you're following the driving laws, it's okay. A car is a mask that lets you shrug off yourself.

Here's what Joe Moran writes about road rage in the fabulously nerdy On Roads:

''In 1994'... I passed my driving test and haltingly began my own career on the roads. Up until that moment, I had spent very little time on roads even as a passenger and so the behaviour of that alien species, the motorist, was as fascinating to me as the creatures on a South Sea island must have been to an evolutionary biologist.

This species mostly assumed it was invisible'...But when it wanted to communicate with its unhappiness to another member of the species, it seemed suddenly consumed by frustration.. behind a windscreen its gesticulations seemed more animated, its face more expressive, its curses more vociferous, its death stares more terrifying.

'...Precisely because encounters with other motorists were near anonymous and temporary but involved the questioning of one's character and judgement, they assumed an intensity that was quite disproportionate to their actual importance. Nowhere outside silent films did people's body language seem quite so histrionic.''

There's a wonderful German word that encapsulates this- one of the many concepts with no English equivalent, perhaps because it contradicts the essence of how British people think of themselves- maskenfreiheit.

Loosely translated (whenever I refer to German words I get native speakers correcting my interpretations) it refers to the freedom that comes with wearing a mask. The literal translation seems to be 'carnival license.' Which can be positive or negative, a literal mask or a metaphorical one.

It's a cliche at this point to talk about how we all wear masks, we all portray a fake image on social media, we all lie and conceal our true selves.

Of course we do. We always will as long as it's not socially acceptable to do things that everyone does. And although that's seen as a bad thing, it's not. We wear masks because it liberates us. A driver, screaming bloody murder at the minivan that cut them off, is taking advantage of the anonymity to vent their bottled up rage at the world because they can.

For example, a person who has been bullied for enjoying time alone may later mask that aspect of themselves by acting extroverted and constantly socialising. In the long run, this will leave them exhausted and unhappy, without them knowing why.

Joan Crawford holding a mask of herself. Source.We all do this because we have to. Otherwise, we'd end up unemployed (and unemployable) and unloved (and unlovable.)

Maskenfreiheit is different though. It's the freedom we feel when we literally cover our faces or hide our identities.

That freedom works both ways. It always has. Although it takes many forms, the liberating effect of masks is part of our world, manipulated for good or evil.

The question is: do masks make us into someone else, or do they make us more ourselves?

Perhaps it makes sense to ask what masks are and how we use them.

First, the ugly.Criminals wear balaclavas, motorcycle helmets or scarves to make it harder for them to be identified '-- but I suspect it also helps them suspend their conscience and preserve their self-image as a good person.

Protesters wear masks, famously Anonymous, for a similar reason and to create the feel of a global, unified group. I've seen Anonymous protests all over the world and the effect is profound. It might as well be a single army, even if the participants are different each time.

Members of the Klu Klux Klan and similar groups do the same. Horror movie villains are portrayed wearing masks for the creep factor and to dehumanise them (Jigsaw, Michael Myers, almost any villain in a home invasion movie, Hannibal Lecter, Leatherface, Ghostface, etc.)

Masks can be a form of protection, again more psychological than practical: gas masks (more effective for preventing gas attacks than surviving them), surgical masks worn in cities, plague doctor masks (like the one Scipio wears in The Thief Lord) with a nose full of sweet-smelling herbs, armoured masks worn in battle, football helmets.

Then, the mysterious.Masks are deeply embedded in social rituals. The oldest surviving examples date back 9000 years, but it's believed people have made them for as long as 40,000 years. The earliest masks tend to be ceremonial or death masks.

As soon as we knew who we were, we wanted to become someone else.

During rituals, people wore masks to take on another form, often that of a god, animal spirit or another spiritual being. Shamans, healers and witches wore elaborate masks as they cured the sick, manipulated the weather, promised good luck or foretold the future.

Dionysian cults wore masks conveying the god's face as they abandoned themselves to hedonistic revelry and ignored societal norms. Wearers were liberated from their usual selves and could become someone else.

Death masks -often made using a plaster or wax cast of the deceased's face- have been used for millennia to preserve an image of the person, protect them in the afterlife, provide a reference for works of art, help identify John and Jane Does before they decompose, as a piece of art in themselves, or as a reminder for the living.

Actors would wear death masks at Roman funerals to take on the role of a person's ancestors and enact parts of their lives.

Tibet, 1930s. Taken by Elisabeth Meyer.Later, masks became an integral part of theatre where they served the same role. Indeed, the boundaries between rituals, celebrations and theatre are somewhat blurred. In each case, masks let wearers shrug off their identities and become someone else.

When I took drama for GCSE, I worked on a script about a teenage runaway who falls into the clutches of a manipulative pimp and his silent henchman. My friend played the henchman but the vibe felt wrong '-- silence alone didn't make her seem threatening.

So we took a plain, featureless mask and painted it black. She put it on with a long black coat, pulling her dark hair forward to cover the edges. The effect was sudden and horrifying. So did everyone else. Several people in the class would leave the room when she put the mask on, some would scream if they unexpectedly saw her. It was odd '-- after all, it was a plain mask, a gender and race neutral, featureless piece of plastic (like this one.) And yet, it was terrifying. Her whole demeanour changed. She became that character: the heartless, silent henchman. That was when I first understood why masks are so ubiquitous across so many parts of cultures.

Edouard Manet '-- Masked Ball at the OperaBeginning in the 15th century, masked balls became a popular way for people to dance and let themselves go, without harming their reputations.

European villagers from all walks of life came together for masked carnivals and parades. The practice spread to the higher echelons of society, as wealthy Venetians appropriated masked balls.

Anonymity was the main appeal. Like Dionysian cults, Venetians enjoyed the freedom to dissolve into pure hedonism.

Although the practice was short-lived and less extreme than we imagine, masked balls are still associated with lust, seduction and murder.

In Guy de Maupassant's short story The Mask, a sprightly dancer at one such event passes out and a physician removes his mask. Behind the wax face of a young man, he finds a withered elderly gentleman. The old man's wife tells the physician after he carries the wrinkled figure home, why:

''Ah! yes, why? So that the people will think him young under his mask; so that the women will still take him for a young dandy and whisper nasty things into his ears; so that he can rub up against all their dirty skins, with their perfumes and powders and cosmetics'... it's regret that leads him on and that makes him put a pasteboard face over his own.''

A mask might not really conceal your identity but it has a few powerful effects:

Makes it harder for you to be identifiedConceals your emotions and reduces the amount of eye contact you makeLets you feel/think like a different personHelps you avoid guilt, shame and embarrassmentBrings to the surface parts of your personality you might otherwise hideIn groups, masks can be dehumanising, leading to groupthink and extreme behaviour.Today, we use different sorts of masks. Alcohol, for instance, does the trick.Nightclubs have much in common with masked balls. A drunk person surely can't be held responsible for their actions, so alcohol becomes an excuse for doing whatever you'd otherwise be too embarrassed to do.

I remember when my friends at school first started drinking. They'd come into class and tell everyone about the appalling things they had done after 3 cans of beer and how terrible they felt. And then they'd repeat that, week after week.

Except they weren't acting that way because they were drunk. They got drunk so they could act that way and then distance themselves from it. None of them liked drinking, they just liked the sense of freedom it gave them. Wearing a mask, in whatever form, only makes us more ourselves.

It's scary , when you think about how anonymity changes us. I use the term 'anonymity' loosely, to mean the sense of detachment from your identity to the extent that it frees you from a sense of responsibility.

And yet, we search, in our own ways, for that sense of maskenfreiheit.

We use it for good or evil, to harm or to help, to change and to enhance.

But as privacy becomes ever more elusive, we miss out on opportunities to feel that freedom.

Shop in Venice. Taken by me, 2017.

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Mon, 01 Jun 2020 12:53

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They’re not just larping it’s a real life game of Forte

Night all that’s missing is flying school bus for them to jump out of and

personal hang gliders. Also don’t forget all these kids also have seen the

purge and hunger games so I am sure that’s a influence too. But I am 100

sure they’re probably thinking Forte Nignt

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Sun, 31 May 2020 15:39

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Sun, 31 May 2020 18:09

Emerging from a hack joke trope and in far-right memes in racist and homophobic corners of the Internet, armed extremists wearing Hawaiian or "Aloha" print shirts at protests across the US are signalling support for a "second Civil War" over stay-at-home orders and perceived threats to the Second Amendment.

The 1984 breakdancing film Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo launched three decades of overused jokes relying on its title format, with its latest iteration in far-right memes casually invoking "Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo".

Shortened to Boogaloo or The Boogaloo, the phrase caught on with gun rights advocates '-- conjuring casual threats of mass violence, often under the guise of an ironic "joke" or "meme" '-- over the last several years, spiralling out of 4chan and into call-to-action hashtags and Facebook groups, warning Americans to stock up on guns and ammunition and spreading a conspiracy that Democrats and "the left" are "coming for" Americans' right to own firearms.

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"Red flag" laws that allow governments to temporarily seize firearms from people who are dangers to themselves or others would "bring on the boogaloo", according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Spin-offs followed '-- big igloo and big luau among them, with images of igloos and floral prints (or igloos with floral prints) spreading online, including on Facebook.

Armed militia members and far-right demonstrators appeared wearing floral-print shirts at recent protests against statewide quarantine measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Hawaiian natives have accused the groups of appropriating their culture, fearing that the "Aloha" print could be labelled a hate symbol or associated with violent iconography.

"I know this all seems like a joke and easy to dismiss, but that is part of their strategy to lure in young men and downplay what they are talking about," wrote Reece Jones, author of Violent Borders and chair of the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawaii. "It is deadly serious. These men are preparing for a civil war."

Boogaloo memes have also appeared among white supremacists, signalling that a civil war is not just against liberal governance but will accelerate social collapse to make way for white dominance, the Anti-Defamation League reports.

"Some promote boogaloo-related phrases alongside hashtags such as #dotr or #DayOfTheRope, both of which are references to neo-Nazi William Pierce's The Turner Diaries, a novelised blueprint for a white revolution," the organisation reports.

No hype, just the advice and analysis you need

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1/15 Protesters form a motorcade against lockdown orders outside the State House in Annapolis, Maryland on 18 April

AFP/Getty

2/15 People take part in a protest for "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine" outside the Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing on 15 April

AFP/Getty

3/15 Alex Jones, host of conspiracy theory outlet Infowars, joins the 'Reopen America' protest against lockdown measures in Austin Texas on 18 April

AFP/Getty

4/15 A group of protesters rally against lockdown orders outside the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond on 16 April

AFP/Getty

5/15 A protester holds a sign comparing Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer to a Nazi during a demonstration at the State Capitol in Lansing over coronavirus lockdown measures

AP

6/15 A 2020 Trump Unity sign is displayed during a protest against coronavirus lockdown measures at the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan

AP

7/15 Anti-lockdown protesters drive by the Ohio State House in Columbus on 18 April

AFP/Getty

8/15 Protesters form a motorcade in opposition to state lockdown measures outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on 15 April

AFP/Getty

9/15 A protester takes part in a rally outside the Ohio State House in Columbus on 18 April

AFP/Getty

10/15 People take part in a protest for "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine" outside the Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing on 15 April

AFP/Getty

11/15 Protesters form part of a motorcade in opposition to state lockdown measures outside the North Carolina State Legislature in Raleigh on 14 April

AFP/Getty

12/15 Protesters rally against lockdown measures outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on 15 April

AFP/Getty

13/15 Protesters form a motorcade in opposition to state lockdown measures around the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on 15 April

AFP/Getty

14/15 Police urge people to spread out during a protest against lockdown measures outside the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond on 16 April

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15/15 An armed protester taking part in a demonstration against coronavirus lockdown measures outside the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan

EPA

1/15 Protesters form a motorcade against lockdown orders outside the State House in Annapolis, Maryland on 18 April

AFP/Getty

2/15 People take part in a protest for "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine" outside the Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing on 15 April

AFP/Getty

3/15 Alex Jones, host of conspiracy theory outlet Infowars, joins the 'Reopen America' protest against lockdown measures in Austin Texas on 18 April

AFP/Getty

4/15 A group of protesters rally against lockdown orders outside the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond on 16 April

AFP/Getty

5/15 A protester holds a sign comparing Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer to a Nazi during a demonstration at the State Capitol in Lansing over coronavirus lockdown measures

AP

6/15 A 2020 Trump Unity sign is displayed during a protest against coronavirus lockdown measures at the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan

AP

7/15 Anti-lockdown protesters drive by the Ohio State House in Columbus on 18 April

AFP/Getty

8/15 Protesters form a motorcade in opposition to state lockdown measures outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on 15 April

AFP/Getty

9/15 A protester takes part in a rally outside the Ohio State House in Columbus on 18 April

AFP/Getty

10/15 People take part in a protest for "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine" outside the Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing on 15 April

AFP/Getty

11/15 Protesters form part of a motorcade in opposition to state lockdown measures outside the North Carolina State Legislature in Raleigh on 14 April

AFP/Getty

12/15 Protesters rally against lockdown measures outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on 15 April

AFP/Getty

13/15 Protesters form a motorcade in opposition to state lockdown measures around the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on 15 April

AFP/Getty

14/15 Police urge people to spread out during a protest against lockdown measures outside the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond on 16 April

AFP/Getty

15/15 An armed protester taking part in a demonstration against coronavirus lockdown measures outside the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan

EPA

Some groups have distanced themselves from racist offshoots and claimed that an armed revolution won't represent a monolithic ideology.

Facebook page Big Igloo Bois, which has more than 30,000 "likes" on the platform, claims that the coming revolution is "not a race issue", pointing to the recent protests in Minneapolis following the police killing of George Floyd.

"For far too long we have allowed them to murder us in our homes, and in the streets," one administrator writes. "We need to stand with the people of Minneapolis. We need to support them in this protest against a system that allows police brutality to go unchecked."

Following armed protests during the Covid-19 crisis, Boogaloo followers have promoted plans for mass armed marches, Fourth of July rallies and other open-carry events on social media.

"However irony-drenched it may appear to be, this is a movement actively preparing for armed confrontation with law enforcement, and anyone else who would restrict their expansive understanding of the right to bear arms," write Robert Evans and Jason Wilson in their in-depth investigation into the Boogaloo movement. "In a divided, destabilised post-coronavirus landscape, they could well contribute to widespread violence in the streets of American cities."

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Mon, 01 Jun 2020 10:07

A look at Twin Cities businesses hit hard since Wednesday by looting and rioting following the Memorial Day death of George Floyd

As of Sunday, at least 270 businesses across the Twin Cities had been vandalized, looted or had doors and windows smashed. Some have been reduced to rubble, destroyed completely by fire. Others have reported extensive water damage or severe fire damage.

While this is an incomplete list, businesses along a 5-mile stretch of Lake Street in Minneapolis and a 1-mile stretch of University Avenue in St. Paul's Midway area have experienced some of the heaviest damage, especially those nearest Minneapolis' Third and Fifth police precincts. As protests spread across the metro, many larger companies with multiple locations have temporarily or indefinitely closed, including several CVS and 24 Target locations. We will continue to update as we learn more.

' 1Life CBD, 1610 W Lake St: Door smashed

' 365 Nicollet, 365 Nicollet Mall: Substantial graffiti

' 4Marq, 400 Marquette Ave S: Smashed windows and graffiti

' 7 Mile Fashion, 2116 E Lake St: Destroyed by fire

' 7-Sigma Inc., 2843 26th Ave S: Destroyed by fire

' ACE Cash Express, 2701 E Lake St: Significant fire damage

' Ace Hardware, 2737 Hennepin Ave: Property damage

' Addis Ababa, 2713 E Lake St: Significant fire damage

' Aldi, 2929 27th Ave S: Extensively looted

' Anthony's Pipe & Cigar Lounge, 907 W Lake St: Heavily looted

' Apple Uptown, 3018 Hennepin Ave: Glass broken, looting

' Arby's, 3000 Snelling Ave: Destroyed by fire

' AT&T, 1433 W Lake St: Broken windows, property damage

' Atlas Staffing, 102 E Lake St: Destroyed by fire

' Auto Zone, 2610 E Lake St: Building burned to the ground

' Banadir Pharmacy, 1 W Lake St: Looting and property damage

' Birchwood Cafe, 3311 E 25th St: Property damage

' BMO Harris Bank, 320 E Lake St: Property damage

' Bondesque, 707 W Lake St: Windows apparently all smashed, boarded up by Thursday evening

' Boost Mobile, 1109 W Broadway Ave: Property damage

' Briva Health, 2211 E Lake St: Window smashed

' Broadway Liquor Outlet, 2220 W Broadway Ave: Looting, property damage

' Buzz Mart, 6 N 5th St: Property damage

' Cadillac Pawn & Jewelry, 1538 E Lake St: Significant damage, looting

' Cal Surf, 1715 W Lake St: Window smashed

' Car-X Tire & Auto, 3021 E Lake St: Property damage

' CB2, 3045 Hennepin Ave: Property damage, broken windows

' Cedar Child Care Center, 3011 Cedar Ave S: Property damage

' CFSC New Money Express, 108 E Lake St: Destroyed by fire

' Chicago-Lake Liquor, 825 E Lake St: Vandals broke in and looted store

' Citi Trends, 2106 E Lake St: Fire and property damage

' Cost Cutters, 3003 Nicollet Ave: Water damage

' Cub Foods, 2850 26th Ave S: Looting and store damage

' CVS, 1010 W Lake St: Several shattered windows, doors

' Dairy Queen, 4400 E Lake St: Property damage

' Dogwood Coffee, 3001 Hennepin Ave S: Window smashed

' Dollar General, 2136 E Lake St: Extensive fire damage

' Dollar Tree, 2858 26th Ave S: Heavily looted

' Dollar Tree, 3001 Nicollet Ave: Extensive property damage

' Domino's Pizza, 2801 26th Ave S: Property damage

' Dream Haven Books & Comics, 2301 E 38th St: Looting, property damage

' DTLR, 509 W Broadway Ave: Property damage, looting

' Du Nord Craft Spirits, 2610 E 32nd St: Fire and "substantial" water damage

' East Lake Library, 2727 E Lake St: Heavily damaged by smoke and water

' East Lake Liquor, 3916 E Lake St: Property damage, looting

' El Chuchi Market, 3201 Cedar Ave: Looting

' El Nuevo Miramar, 501 E Lake St: Looting

' El Nuevo Rodeo, 2709 E Lake St: Significant fire damage

' El Sabor Chuchi, 717 E Lake St: Looting

' Electra Tune Tire & Auto, 4522 E Lake St: Property damage

' Elevated Beer Wine & Spirits, 4135 Hiawatha Ave: Property damage, looting

' Extreme Noise Records, 407 W Lake St: Smashed windows, looting, other property damage

' Fade Factory, 2415 W Broadway Ave: Fire reported

' Familia Skateshop, 2833 Hennepin Ave: Windows smashed

' Family Beauty Supply, 1014 W Broadway Ave: Extensive property damage, broken windows

' Family Dollar, 1010 E Lake St: Heavy fire damage

' Family Dollar, 906 W Broadway Ave: Property damage

' Family Dollar, 3536 Nicollet Ave: Destroyed by fire

' Firefly Credit Union, 2535 27th Ave S: Property damage, looting

' Five Guys, 2300 Hennepin Ave S: Property damage

' Foot Locker, 806 E Lake St: Destroyed by fire

' Frattalone's Ace Hardware, 3915 E Lake St: Property damage

' Freewheel Bike Midtown Bike Center, 2834 10th Ave S: Property damage, windows smashed

' Gandhi Mahal Restaurant, 3009 27th Ave S: Destroyed by fire

' Giant Wash Coin Laundry, 914 W Broadway Ave: Broken windows, property damage

' Giordano's Pizza, 2700 Hennepin Ave S: Property damage

' GM Tobacco, 2619 E Lake St: Fire damage

' H&M, 3001 Hennepin Ave: Windows busted

' Hamdi Restaurant, 818 E Lake St: Property damage and graffiti

' HD Laundry, 2112 E Lake St: Fire and property damage

' Hennepin County WIC Office, 2215 E Lake St: Windows smashed

' Hennepin Healthcare East Lake Clinic, 2700 E Lake St Suite 1100: Property damage

' Hexagon Bar, 2600 27th Ave S: Destroyed by fire

' Hi Lake Liquors, 2130 E Lake St: Property damage, looting

' Hibachi Buffet, 111 E Lake St: Smashed windows, other property damage

' Holiday, 2448 Hennepin Ave: Property damage

' Holiday, 2322 N Washington Ave: Destroyed by fire

' Holiday, 4601 Hiawatha Ave: Destroyed by fire

' Home Choice, 2208 E Lake St: Fire and property damage

' Honda Town, 4215 E Lake St: Property damage

' Hook Fish & Chicken, 221 W Lake St: Windows smashed

' Hudson Hardware, 2900 E 42nd St: Building damage and looting

' ICC Wireless, 704 E Lake St: Property damage

' Indulge and Bloom, 3001 Hennepin Ave S: Property damage

' Infinite Vapor, 1400 Lagoon Ave S: Door smashed, apparent theft

' Ingebretsen's Scandinavian Gifts, 1601 E Lake St: Broken window, possible interior damage, looted

' Integrated Staffing Solutions, 2703 E Lake St: Significant fire damage

' International Bazaar, 301 E Lake St: Looting

' Iron Door Pub, 3001 Lyndale Ave S: Fire damage, water damage

' J Klips, 2130 E Lake St: Property damage

' John Fluevog, 2900 Hennepin Ave S: Property damage, broken windows

' K-Mart, 10 W Lake St: Property damage

' Ken & Norm's Liquor, 4801 Chicago Ave: Large window smashed out

' Knights Chamber Clothiers, 3001 Hennepin Ave: Looting, property damage

' LA Skin Care and Spa, 115 E Lake St: Extensive damage, water damage

' Laddatude Tattoo, 3004 27th Ave S: Fire damage

' Laundromax, 3225 E Lake St: Window smashed

' Little Caesars, 2218 E Lake St: Fire and property damage

' Little Caesars, 3015 Nicollet Ave: Water damage

' LV's Barbershop, 3006 27th Ave S: Fire damage

' Lyndale Tobacco, 722 W. Lake St.: Extensive looting, property damage

' Marathon Gas, 2801 Lyndale Ave S: Windows smashed

' MartinPatrick3, 212 3rd Ave N: Smashed windows, broken glass doors, looting

' Master Collision, 224 W Lake St: Smashed windows, other property damage

' maX it PAWN, 815 Cedar Ave S: Extensive fire damage

' McDonald's, 3110 E Lake St: Graffiti, some broken glass

' Merwin Liquors, 700 W Broadway Ave: Property damage. Closed "indefinitely"

' Metro by T-Mobile, 2815 E Lake St: Extensive fire damage

' Metro PCS, 2102 W Broadway Ave: Property damage

' Metro PCS, 925 W Broadway Ave: Property damage

' Metro PCS, 305 W Lake St: Broken windows

' Midori's Floating World Cafe, 2629 E Lake St: Fire damage

' Midtown Corner low-income housing, 2100 E Lake St: Major fire

' Midtown Global Market, 920 E Lake St: Property damage, looting

' Midtown Market, 2850 26th Ave S: Windows shattered

' Minneapolis Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall: Windows smashed, graffiti

' Minnehaha Lake Wine & Spirits, 2613 E Lake St: Destroyed by fire

' Minnesota Transitions Charter School, 2872 26th Ave S Door B: Looted, extensive water damage

' MoneyGram, 2701 E Lake St: Significant fire damage

' MPD Third Precinct, 3000 Minnehaha Ave: Burned to the ground

' Next Day Animations, 615 W Lake St: Windows/door smashed, other property damage

' O'Reilly Auto Parts, 1625 W Broadway Ave: Destroyed by fire

' O'Reilly Auto Parts, 710 E Lake St: Destroyed by fire

' O'Reilly Auto Parts, 3536 Nicollet Ave: Destroyed by fire

' Office Depot, 3001 Nicollet Ave: Smashed doors, windows, looting

' Olympic Cafe, 2117 W Broadway Ave: Destroyed by fire

' Origami Restaurant, 1354 Lagoon Ave: Door smashed

' Palm Beach Tan, 1011 W Lake St: Windows apparently smashed, boarded up

' Papa Murphy's, 4644 E Lake St: Property damage

' Paper Source, 3048 Hennepin Ave S: Graffiti, door broken

' Parkway Pizza, 4359 Minnehaha Ave: Door smashed, TV ripped from wall, tools stolen

' Penzeys Spices, 3028 Hennepin Ave S: Property damage, looting

' Phenom, 115 N Washington Ave: Broken window, heavy looting

' Pineda Tacos, 2130 E Lake St: Property damage

' Planet Fitness, 2852 26th Ave S: Property damage

' Plaza Mexico, 417 E Lake St: Looting

' Popeyes, 1301 W Broadway Ave: Window smashed

' Popeyes, 310 W Lake St: Windows smashed, vandalized

' Precision Tune Auto Care, 3232 E Lake St: Property damage

' Quality Tobacco, 112 E Lake St: Destroyed by fire

' Ragstock, 1433 W Lake St: Property damage, looting

' Ribnick Luxury Outerwear, 224 N 1st St: Looting

' Rongo's Auto Service, 3548 Nicollet Ave: Fire damage

' Running Room, 1433 W Lake St: Property damage

' Sabri Commons, 207 E Lake St: Looting

' Sabri Properties, 315 E Lake St: Fire damage, looting

' Sabri Properties, 347 E Lake St: Looting

' Sally Beauty, 2740 Minnehaha Ave #120: Heavily looted

' Salon Levante, 3040 Hennepin Ave: Property damage

' Sanaag Restaurant and Coffee, 3007 Cedar Ave: Looting, property damage

' Schooner Tavern, 2901 27th Ave S: Looting, broken windows, modest fire and water damage

' See Eyewear, 3032 Hennepin Ave S: Property damage

' Sew Simple, 2424 Nicollet Ave: Property damage

' Seward Community Co-op, 2823 E Franklin Ave: Window smashed

' Seward Pharmacy, 2209 E Lake St: Windows smashed

' Shell, 640 E Lake St: Fire reported

' Skol Liquors, 2500 27th Ave S: Property damage, looting

' Smokeless, 514 E Hennepin Ave: Vandalized

' Soderberg's Floral & Gift, 3305 E Lake St: Property damage

' Sol Travel, 224 W Lake St: Looting, fire damage, water damage

' Speedway, 4320 E Lake St: Property damage

' Speedway, 801 W Lake St: Destroyed by fire

' Speedway , 300 Broadway St NE: Door smashed, looting

' Sprint Store, 3009 Nicollet Ave: Looting, property damage

' Stop N Shop, 3050 1st Ave S: Fire reported

' Studiiyo23, 2319 Hennepin Ave S: Property damage, looting

' Target, 2500 E Lake St: Looting, physical damage to store

' Target, 1650 New Brighton Blvd: Broken windows

' Target, 1300 W Lake St: Property damage, looting

' Teppanyaki Grill and Supreme Buffet, 2216 E Lake St: Fire and property damage

' The Hook and Ladder Theater & Lounge, 3010 Minnehaha Ave: Graffiti, damage from fire sprinklers

' The Hub Bike Co-op, 3016 Minnehaha Ave: Property damage

' The Nic on Fifth, 465 Nicollet Mall: Graffiti

' Thurston's Jewelers, 705 W Lake St: Break-in

' Tibet Store, 2835 Hennepin Ave: Windows smashed

' Timberland, 3001 Hennepin Ave: Property damage, looting

' Tires Plus, 3421 E Lake St: Property damage

' Tobacco shop, 2835 Hennepin Ave: Window smashed

' Total Wireless, 2130 E Lake St, Suite A: Fire and property damage

' Town Talk Diner & Gastropub, 2707 E Lake St: Damage to building

' Trattoria Mucci, 901 W Lake St: Break-in

' Tweak The Glam Studio, 611 W Lake St: Fire damage

' U.S. Bank, 2800 E Lake St: Property damage, graffiti

' U.S. Bank, 1030 W Broadway Ave: Looting

' U.S. Post Office, 110 E 31st St: Destroyed by fire

' Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's bookstores, 2864 Chicago Ave: Destroyed by fire

' Uptown Pawn, 301 W Lake St: Windows smashed, property damage, heavy looting

' Uptown Theater, 2906 Hennepin Ave: Broken windows

' Urban Forage Winery and Cider House, 3016 E Lake St: Property damage, looting

' Urban Outfitters, 3006 Hennepin Ave: Window smashed

' Valerie's Carcineria, 3149 Nicollet Ave: Merchandise stolen

' Walgreens, 3121 E Lake St: Destroyed by fire

' Walgreens, 4547 Hiawatha Ave: Windows smashed, some looting

' Walgreens, 4323 Chicago Ave: Windows, door damaged, security in place at 2:30pm Thursday

' Walgreens, 200 W Lake St: Many broken windows, entry smashed, apparent looting, extensive fire damage

' Walgreens, 2650 Hennepin Ave: Property damage

' Walgreens, 627 W Broadway Ave: Fire damage

' Wells Fargo, 2218 E Lake St: Fire and property damage

' Wells Fargo, 3030 Nicollet Ave: Destroyed by fire

' Wendy's, 2931 26th Ave S: Looted, fire damage

' Whiskey Junction, 901 Cedar Ave: Looting, broken windows

' White Castle, 100 W Lake St: All windows broken, property damage

' Xcel Energy, 404 Nicollet Mall: Smashed windows and graffiti

' Yuan Yuan, 1010 W Broadway Ave: Broken windows, property damage

' Zipps Liquors, 2618 E Franklin Ave: Windows/doors broken, looting

' 7-Mile Sportwear, 590 University Ave W: Property damage, looting

' Aldi, 1134 University Ave W: Property damage, looting

' America's Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, 1360 University Ave W: Graffiti, property damage

' Ananya Dance Theatre, 1197 University Ave W: Property damage

' Ax-man Surplus, 1639 University Ave W: Broken door/windows, graffiti, looting

' Big Top Liquors, 1544 University Ave W: Property damage

' Black Hart, 1415 University Ave W: Property damage

' Bole Ethiopian Restaurant, 490 N Syndicate St: Destroyed by fire

' Boost Mobile, 1499 University Ave W: Fire damage

' BP, 1347 University Ave W: Property damage

' Cub Foods, 2197 Old Hudson Rd: Looting

' Culver's, 1491 University Ave N: Property damage, looting

' CVS, 1300 University Ave W: Store damage

' Dey Appliance Parts, 525 Snelling Ave N: Property damage

' Discount Tire, 1350 University Ave W: Property damage

' DTLR, 1515 University Ave W: Looting

' Enterprise Rent-A-Car, 1161 University Ave W: Fire damage

' Family Dollar, 1536 University Ave W: Property damage, looting

' Fire 'N' Ice Chicken, 600 University Ave W: Property damage

' First Grand Avenue Liquor Store, 918 Grand Ave: Property damage, looting

' Foot Locker, 1484 University Ave W: Extensive fire damage

' Furniture Barn, 1389 University Ave W: Heavily looted

' GameStop, 1484 University Ave W: Substantial fire damage, looting

' Golden Treasures jewelry store, 805 Grand Ave: Looting, property damage

' Goodwill, 1239 University Ave W: Windows smashed

' Great Clips, 1474 University Ave W: Extensive fire damage

' Great Health Nutrition, 1360 University Ave W: Looting

' Holiday, 600 Snelling Ave N: Property damage, looting

' Leeann Chin, 1360 University Ave W: Property damage

' Liquor Barrel, 665 7th St W: Looting, property damage

' Lloyd's Pharmacy, 720 Snelling Ave N: Destroyed by fire

' Lululemon, 870 Grand Ave: Looting, property damage

' maX it PAWN, 1519 University Ave W: Looting

' McDonald's, 1570 University Ave W: Property damage, fire

' Metro T-Mobile, 1539 University Ave W: Property damage, looting

' Midway Tobacco and Vapor, 1475 University Ave W: Property damage, looting

' Midway Tobacco Outlet Plus, 1418 University Ave W: Property damage

' NAPA Auto Parts, 1271 University Ave W: Heavy fire damage

' Noodles and Co., 470 Hamline Ave N: Windows smashed

' O'Reilly Auto Parts, 448 Lexington Pkwy N: Fire, property damage

' Peking Garden, 1488 University Ave W: Property damage

' R.F. Moeller Jeweler, 2065 Ford Pkwy: Looting

' Snelling Avenue Fine Wines, 500 Snelling Ave N: Property damage, looting, heavy fire

' Speedway, 970 University Ave W: Fire, property damage

' Speedway, 2051 Grand Ave: Extensive fire damage

' Speedway, 756 Snelling Ave N: Property damage, looting

' Sports Dome, 1505 University Ave W: Destroyed by fire

' Springboard for the Arts, 262 University Ave W: Fire and property damage

' Sprint Store, 1360 University Ave N: Property damage, looting

' T-Mobile, 878 Arcade St: Property damage, looting

' T.J. Maxx, 1410 University Ave W: Heavy fire damage

' Taco Bell, 565 Snelling Ave N: Property damage, looting

' Target, 1300 University Ave W: Some looting

' TCF Bank, 459 Lexington Pkwy N: Property damage

' The Fixery, 760 Cleveland Ave S: Property damage

' The UPS Store, 1360 University Ave W: Property damage, looting

' The Vitamin Shoppe, 472 Hamline Ave N: Property damage

' To New York, 1486 University Ave W: Property damage

' Turf Club, 1601 University Ave W: Looted, flooded by sprinkler damage

' Verizon , 474 Hamline Ave N: Property damage

' Vig Guitars, 595 Snelling Ave N: Property damage, looting

' Walgreens, 1585 Randolph Ave: Fire, property damage

' Pawn America, 1715 Rice St: Police received reports of looting

' Rosedale Center, 1595 MN-36: Police received reports of looting

' Target, 1515 County B Rd W: Police received reports of looting

' Walmart, 1960 Twin Lakes Pkwy: Police received reports of looting

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Archived Version

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 09:05

Uit solidariteit met Amerikaanse demonstranten wordt maandag een antiracisme demonstratie gehouden op de Dam. Beeld AFP Volgens een woordvoerder van de organisatie (het collectief Kick Out Zwarte Piet en Black Queer & Trans Resistance NL) is de manifestatie bedoeld om solidariteit te uiten met de demonstranten in Amerika, maar ook om aandacht te vragen 'voor racisme en politiegeweld in Nederland'. Zo wordt verwezen naar de dood van Mitch Henriquez, vijf jaar geleden tijdens zijn arrestatie in Den Haag, en de arrestatie van anti-zwartepietactivist Jerry Afriyie in Gouda in 2014 tijdens de intocht van Sinterklaas.

De organisatie zegt een vreedzaam protest na te streven. In een verklaring schrijft men: 'Wij zijn niet uit op gewelddadige activiteiten, rellen, delicten of andere vormen die tot onnodige provocatie en agressie kunnen leiden. Hiermee keuren we de vorm van protest in de VS niet af, we zien het als een vorm van verzet. Zoals Martin Luther King Jr. zei: 'A riot is the language of the unheard'.

Demonstranten wordt gevraagd zich aan de 1,5 meterregel te houden, mondkapjes te dragen en eventueel handschoenen en desinfecterende gel mee te nemen. De manifestatie begint om 17.00 uur.

Lees ook:Protesten VS worden steeds grimmiger, Witte Huis omsingeldDeze embed wordt niet getoondU heeft via cookie-instellingen gekozen om deze embed niet te tonen. Onze aanbevolen cookie-instelling is niveau 4. Zo geniet u op elk ogenblik van deze website in optimale omstandigheden.

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Archived Version

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 10:31

A cordoned-off part of the sidewalk at the back of New York City police headquarters, at One Police Plaza, smelled like a long-ago college party: cigarette smoke and cheap cologne. After a while, I realized that the second odor was hand sanitizer. There were several large bottles of it, along with snacks and drinks and cigarette packs, laid out in a pile in the middle of the sidewalk for the people who were getting released from jail and for those who were waiting for them: jail support. At three in the morning, when I got there, there were about thirty supporters, most of them in their late teens or early twenties. Half were wearing vintage nineties-style high-rise jeans, and half were swaddled in timeless, shapeless black. This could have been thirty years ago'--indeed, thirty years ago, I spent some hours in a cell inside. Now my eighteen-year-old daughter, Yolka, and more than fifty other young people who were arrested at a protest on Thursday were inside.

The protest was quickly co¶rdinated on an anarchist thread on the secure messaging app Signal, in response to the murder of George Floyd and protests in Minneapolis. People gathered in Union Square and marched down to Foley Square, one of the activists, Elsa Eli Waithe, told me. They were thinking of crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, but it was blocked off by the police, so the protest disbursed and many people came here, to One Police Plaza.

Arrests had begun right away, Waithe told me. ''They weren't waiting for anything,'' she said, referring to the police. ''They were aggressive from the very beginning.'' Waithe has been protesting in New York since moving here from Virginia, eight years ago, she said. She was arrested in 2014 in an action protesting the murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner; in 2016, for protesting the murder of Philando Castile, and again the day after Donald Trump was elected President; and twice this year, during marches against the increased police presence on the subway to fight fare-beating. In all of these arrests, she said, she had not seen police act as aggressively as they did on Thursday night.

As the night wore on, the crowd kept a formal and informal tally of injuries: a teen-ager who had been clubbed on one arm, which was now limp and swollen (I did not see this person, but he was described to me by several people separately); several young people with lacerations on their heads; a young man, who emerged wearing a tank top and shorts, with bruises and bleeding all over his body; people whose clothes were ripped during the arrest. By the time people came out of One Police Plaza, though, one or two at a time, carrying manila envelopes with their summonses'--most of them for disorderly conduct'--shuffling in their laceless Converse high-tops and attempting to put on a belt as they walked, they talked more about the crowded conditions inside and the excruciating slowness of the process than about the way they were treated when they were arrested.

A few minutes after three in the morning, birds started singing. ''It's the witching hour,'' someone said. Seven wispy young people with curly hair in various shades sat in a circle on the sidewalk, playing a game of exquisite corpse. There were still at least two dozen people inside. Arrests had begun around five in the afternoon and ended before eight.

At four, Waithe screamed while looking at her phone and choked as she tried to get the words out. One of the other people finally read out a tweet by Donald Trump that said, ''when the looting starts, the shooting starts.''

''He has just declared war,'' Waithe said.

At half past four, a young man of color was driven out of the precinct in a police vehicle, probably for arraignment. This was the second time that night. ''Say your name!'' the jail-support crowd shouted. The young man tried to scream from the car, but it was impossible to make out his name.

At four-forty-five, a woman wearing black scrubs came out. Several of the people who were released earlier had mentioned that one of the detained women was a nurse and that she was questioning the police about their failure to maintain social distancing or wear masks. The woman, Tennille Newbold, was actually a nursing assistant studying to be a nurse. She told me that, while the women were housed two to a cell, all the men who were detained at the protest'--between thirty and forty people'--were held in one large room, which became crowded. ''Every time you said something to a cop about not wearing a mask, they laughed,'' she said. ''The officer doing fingerprinting was not wearing gloves, and I had to ask for hand sanitizer for myself. The officer didn't care.'' She excused herself: she had to be at work in two hours.

I asked Waithe how the protesters had handled social distancing. ''We didn't,'' she said. ''I have it in my head that this is the risk you take. We definitely believe in science. Everyone here has a mask on them or nearby.'' This was an accurate description: everyone in the jail-support crowd was wearing a mask, but many of these masks were lowered'--for smoking, drinking, talking, and comfort. ''But these things require being close,'' Waithe said, of the march. ''And we realize there is that risk.'' Waithe, who is thirty-two, works as a standup comedian and an instructor of everything from chess and coding for kids to comedy for teen-agers. She lost all her gigs when the pandemic hit, and now works delivering meal boxes to the elderly. ''I might feel differently if I'd been in my house this whole time,'' she said. Still, the choice she and some of the other protesters made was to be in close proximity to others while wearing masks outside'--not to be in a crowded indoor space with dozens of police officers who were flouting the city's social-distancing orders and laughing about it.

At five, when the subway opened, Waithe left. Most of the others followed. It was light. There were still at least a dozen people inside.

A few minutes before six, a young woman emerged, wheeling a blue bike. ''Are you guys jail support?'' she shouted as she approached what remained of the group. ''This was the first time I got arrested. It sucked balls. It sucked major balls.''

I was getting worried. For the last hour or so, every woman who emerged from the building said that only a couple of people remained on the female side. Yolka still hadn't come out. Still, I wasn't as worried as I'd been earlier in the evening, during the five hours between the time she last read a text message from me and the time she called to tell me where she was. Around one in the morning, I had called 311, and the operator told me that she was not in the system as having been arrested. He told me to try calling two of the precincts near Union Square. I couldn't get through. Finally, an activist friend told me that the detainees were probably at One Police Plaza'--and then my daughter called.

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Archived Version

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 12:57

Halsey has made a series of posts detailing her experience with police at the Los Angeles George Floyd protest, including an injury she received from being hit with a rubber bullet.

The singer attended the Black Lives Matter rally with Yungblud on Saturday (May 30). She live-streamed parts of the protest, including encounters with police. Yesterday, she took to social media to clarify she was not arrested and is safe, but many others aren't.

I WAS NOT ARRESTED.

Im safe. There were ppl I had to get to safety as many of them have VISAs. Myself + many of my peers were shot, gassed + antagonized. The frontline was calm + did not provoke

BUT MANY ARE NOT SAFE + MANY ARE IN CUSTODY

DONATE TO BAIL ORGS!!!I AM CURRENTLY

'-- h (@halsey) May 31, 2020

''[The police] fired rubber bullets at us. We did not breach the line. Hands were up. Unmoving. And they gassed and fired,'' Halsey posted with photos of the altercation.

fired rubber bullets at us. we did not breach the line. hands were up. unmoving. and they gassed and fired. pic.twitter.com/K8YauF0APn

'-- h (@halsey) May 31, 2020

''This hit me through layers of fabric and for that, I am extremely privileged. At close range it would have caused serious injury,'' she wrote on a recent, since-expired Instagram story, cited by Stereogum.

''They were fired at peoples' faces during peaceful moments of the demonstration. If you're a follower of mine who 'stays out of it' but you're mad I have a little bruise for doing nothing unlawful, then consider you ARE on our side. Because the reality of what happens to black folks everyday is worse than my bruise. So get involved. Sign. Donate. Share links. Do something.''

Halsey has compiled a list of organisations that support the Black Lives Matter movement, and is encouraging fans to donate within their means. On the day of posting (May 29) she stated her ''initial contributions'' are USD$100,000.

READ MORE: Rihanna, Dr Dre, Lady Gaga, Harry Styles, Cardi B and more demand justice for George FloydOn Thursday (May 28), Halsey made a passionate Instagram post with a photo of George Floyd and links to both protest his death to state government and a memorial Go Fund Me page. In the caption she said, ''if you have family and friends privileged enough to 'stay away from this kind of news' then take that fucking privilege away.''

A Twitter thread from the same day saw the singer calling out celebrities for ''choosing to be silent'' because ''a brand is more important and they want to keep pocketing the money of racists.''

There are no ''contracts'' keeping celebs on American soil from speaking up about this. They are just choosing not to because a brand is more important and they want to keep pocketing the money of racists. Fuck all of em. Idc.

'-- h (@halsey) May 28, 2020

Halsey is continuing to protest. This morning (June 1), she tweeted: ''Santa Monica I'm here I have medical supplies lots of it. They are masking.''

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Thu, 04 Jun 2020 08:36

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Archived Version

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 12:33

Two Orlando women were arrested after police say they tossed paint on the front door of Derek Chauvin's Windermere-area home during a protest Friday, May 29.

According to the arrest affidavit, deputies saw 18-year-old Katelin Benoit and 20-year-old Kimberly Guzman throw paint at Chauvin's home around 3:50 p.m. Orange County deputies said they watched Benoit and Guzman until they left the protest.

According to the report, deputies stopped the two shortly after 4 p.m. near Keene's Pointe. During the traffic stop, deputies said, they found the used paint cans on the rear driver's-side floorboard. Guzman also had dry paint on her left leg, the report states.

Benoit and Guzman were transported to the Orange County jail. Guzman, 20, was charged with criminal mischief of more than $200 but less than $1,000 in damage. Benoit, 18, was been charged with criminal mischief of less than $200. Both have since posted bond.

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Archived Version

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 21:21

George Floyd M.E. Says He Died from Heart Attack Had Fentanyl, Homicide is 'Manner of Death' 6/1/2020 2:44 PM PT George Floyd had fentanyl in his system when he was killed, and died from a heart attack ... according to the medical examiner.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner released its toxicology findings and say George died from cardiopulmonary arrest ... which complicated law enforcement's subdual, restraint and neck compression of him. That is critical, but the report also says this under "how the injury occurred" -- it says George experienced "a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement."

In other words ... he suffered a heart attack while they were arresting him, and that complicated their efforts to subdue him.

The report says George had fentanyl in his system, and they also found signs of recent methamphetamine use. It also says his manner of death is homicide.

The results were released just hours after the Floyd family's independent autopsy showed he died from "mechanical asphyxia" ... due to Derek Chauvin's knee on his neck, and another officer on his back.

(C) 2020 EHM PRODUCTIONS,INC.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Archived Version

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 23:48

Excited delirium is considered a relatively uncommon health condition characterized by severe agitation, aggression, distress, and is often fatal. In many cases of excited delirium, individuals will have displayed noticeable increases in body temperature (fever), utilized drugs that altered dopaminergic functioning, and exhibit overtly bizarre behavior. Although the condition is rare, those with excited delirium are often misdiagnosed, and end up dying before they receive proper medical treatment.

Some research suggests that individuals with excited delirium generally die as a result of heart attacks; this may be subject to individual variation. The condition is sometimes referred to by other names such as: ''Bell's mania,'' agitated delirium, acute exhausted mania, and lethal catatonia. While many individuals that experience excited delirium are identified by law enforcement and treated by medical professionals, some cases prove to be fatal.

A clinical diagnosis for ''excited delirium'' (EXD) is difficult due to the fact that the psychiatric community, World Health Organization, and International Classification of Diseases doesn't recognize excited delirium as a condition. Many experts believe that excited delirium is a condition related to neuroleptic malignant syndrome. Despite the lack of medical diagnostic criteria, cases of excited delirium should be recognized by professionals.

A Brief History of Excited Delirium (Syndrome)Excited delirium is a condition that was first documented in the mid-1800s in which it was originally referred to as ''Bell's Mania.'' A physician named Luther Bell noted a set of symptoms characterized by fever and manic symptoms that didn't fit other medical diagnoses. While cases of Bell's Mania in the 1800s were rare, approximately 75% (3/4) of individuals with this condition ended up dying.

The diagnostic term ''excited delirium'' wasn't formally coined until 1985 in Maryland. It was associated with symptoms such as: aggression, bizarre behaviors, violence, fever, shouting, and uncanny levels of physical strength. Those who exhibited excited delirium were considered violent, intoxicated, and required police restraint.

A majority of these cases were associated with stimulant drug reactions, not those formally diagnosed with mental illnesses. Though many drugs are capable of provoking ''excited delirium,'' cocaine appears to have the strongest link. Most autopsies of those who died from this condition had ingested cocaine.

Excited delirium shares symptomatic overlap with both stimulant psychosis as well as neuroleptic malignant syndrome. It differs from neuroleptic malignant syndrome in that it isn't caused by an adverse reaction to antipsychotic or neuroletpic drugs, and it differs from stimulant psychosis in that it is considered highly fatal with a few other symptomatic differences.

Stages of Excited DeliriumThose that experience excited delirium typically go through various stages including: severe agitation, potential violence, police restraint, struggle, respiratory failure, and usually death. While death does not always occur, most cases of excited delirium are associated with mortality.

Stage #1: Delirium & Psychomotor Agitation

The first stage of excited delirium is that of delirium with psychomotor agitation. This means that the person will appear delirious, disoriented, yet hyperactive. They may be pacing back and forth, yelling, or engaging in violent behavior. They may also be inappropriately clothed and profusely sweating as a result of their elevated body temperature. The individual may appear to be plagued with delusions and act very combative.

Stage #2: Disturbing the Peace

The second stage of the condition that may be occur relatively simultaneously with the onset is that of disturbing the peace. The individual with excited delirium may shout obscenities, display bizarre behavior, and may appear violent. In this case, someone generally takes notice and contacts police. Once the police are notified, they'll then show up and attempt to restrain the individual as to prevent the person from harming others.

Stage #3: Restraint & Struggle

The police may attempt to restrain the individual with excited delirium, and the person may appear resistant to pain, with high levels of both endurance and strength. The police may have a difficult time getting the person with excited delirium to cooperate. In some cases a taser will be used if the person refuses to cooperate with law enforcement. Eventually the police will restrain the individual, but hopefully not as to constrict the diaphragm as this can lead to death.

Stage #4: Diagnosis & Treatment

Next it will be up to the police officer to properly diagnose the individual with excited delirium and contact medical responders. Due to the fact that this condition is difficult to diagnose and may resemble other conditions such as intoxication, panic attacks, etc. '' it is important that proper diagnosis is given to save the patient. With proper diagnosis, a police should attempt to help the patient stay calm, relax, and should use the minimal amount of restraint.

When medical responders arrive, they will need to have a correct diagnosis as well so that proper treatment can be administered. Using beta blockers is a mistake in this situation, but benzodiazepines can be an effective way to induce relaxation. The patient's fever should be cooled and all therapeutic options should be considered.

Stage #5: Recovery vs. Death

In most cases of excited delirium, the patient ends up dying. This is due to difficulty of diagnosis as well as the fact that death may be inevitable for some individuals with preexisting medical conditions or drug-induced physiological changes. With proper treatment by both police and medical responders, there is a chance the individual may experience a full recovery.

On the other hand, respiratory failure and cardiac arrest are also common outcomes. Nearly 2/3 individuals with excited delirium end up dying in police custody or while being transported by paramedics to the hospital.

Excited Delirium Causes (List)The exact causes of excited delirium for each individual remain unknown. The commonality among most cases is that individuals had ingested a stimulatory drug '' most often cocaine. Various cofactors that have been considered include: cocaine metabolites (e.g. benzoylecgonine), neurotransmission (particularly of dopamine), genetic polymorphisms, and sometimes preexisting psychiatric conditions.

Blood : In the blood of those who have died from excited delirium, the presence of stimulant drugs (usually cocaine) and/or alcohol is common. In 1985, deaths of excited delirium as a result of cocaine revealed that average blood concentrations of cocaine differed from standard overdose deaths. Blood concentrations of cocaine among those with excited delirium were significantly lower than average.

Furthermore, blood concentrations of cocaine were on par with those who used cocaine on an infrequent, recreational basis. In other words, most individuals with excited delirium weren't abusing or overdosing, but they were experiencing an abnormal reaction. Upon analysis of these patients, a metabolite of cocaine called ''benzoylecgonine'' appeared to be significantly higher than infrequent users.

This implied that pre-death cocaine usage was chronic. Researchers speculate that cocaine binges may make a person more susceptible to death as a result of excited delirium.

Drugs : Autopsy analyses among those who died from excited delirium syndrome often reveal the ingestion of stimulant drugs and alcohol. As was mentioned, the drug most associated with this condition is cocaine, but methamphetamine is another common culprit. That said, clearly not everyone who abuses stimulants experiences excited delirium. They may experience a similar condition known as ''stimulant psychosis'' which isn't generally fatal and is treated differently.

AlcoholAmphetaminesCocaineLSDPhencyclidine (PCP or ''angel's dust'') Neurotransmitter levels : Research suggests that those who experience excited delirium generally have altered neurotransmission of dopamine. Cocaine functions as a dopamine reuptake inhibitor, thereby increasing extracellular levels of the neurotransmitter. This can lead to many characteristics that resemble positive symptoms of schizophrenia (e.g. hallucinations).

Dopamine : Abnormally high levels of dopamine are known to cause agitation, aggression, paranoid behavior, and may lead a person to act violently. Since dopamine stimulates activity in the CNS, this may lead to speeding of heart rate, rapid breathing, and elevated body temperature. Genetics : There is some evidence that the c-Fos protein may be responsible for dopaminergic dysfunction as a result of stimulant drug abuse and significant physiological stress. Some have speculated that certain genetic polymorphisms may alter functioning of c-Fos, making some individuals more susceptible to excited delirium than others.

Mental illness : While having a mental illness isn't always a prerequisite for experiencing excited delirium, it may increase susceptibility. It has been speculated that individuals on psychiatric medications that simultaneously abuse illicit stimulants may disrupt the transportation of dopamine, leading to high dopamine levels. Psychiatric conditions most associated with this condition include: mania, schizophrenia, and depression.

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19541436 Note : Another important note is that excited delirium occurs most commonly in men compared to women, particularly those with a history of stimulant drug use (e.g. cocaine). In some cases alcohol withdrawal or head trauma may influence the condition.

Excited Delirium SymptomsThere are many behavioral, physical, and psychological symptoms associated with the condition known as excited delirium. While all symptoms need not be present for diagnosis, if the condition isn't quickly identified and treated, it may result in mortality. Hallmark symptoms include: psychomotor agitation, delirium, shouting, fever, and heightened strength.

Aggression: Many individuals with this condition appear hyperaggressive in their behaviors and actions. This aggression may be channeled by shouting obscenities and/or engaging in violent behavior. For this reason, it is important to contact the police if you suspect a person may be dealing with excited delirium.Agitation: A hallmark symptom of excited delirium is that of psychomotor agitation. In other words, the person is unable to sit still, and will likely exhibit movements such as: pacing back and forth (or in circles), shaking of the hands, flapping of the tongue, chewing on something, or moving the lips.Anxiety: In some cases a person with this condition may resemble someone with high levels of anxiety to the point that you think they may be having a panic attack. While this is different from a panic attack, the person may still have a high level of psychological anxiety; this is due to the stimulant that was ingested and the way their body is reacting.Combativeness: Most people find out about cases of excited delirium when the individual is restrained by the police. They are highly combative and are difficult to restrain due to the fact that their pain tolerance is elevated. They are likely to display overt combativeness to other individuals as well as law enforcement.Delirium: This is a condition characterized by fever, bizarre behavior, disorientation and intoxication. The individual will appear highly delirious, but will generally have a lot of energy, hence the term is prefaced with ''excited.''Delusions: In some cases the person may experience delusions, thinking that others are out to get them (persecution) or that they are being watched. In many cases these delusions contribute to potential violence and an unwillingness to cooperate with others. Due to these delusions, it is important to be cautious of someone with excited delirium.Difficult to restrain: In most cases, individuals with excited delirium remain difficult to restrain. Law enforcement will typically attempt to get the individual under control by strapping them down at various points of their body. Prior to the strapping, a taser is often utilized due to their increased tolerance to pain.Disorientation: The person may appear highly disoriented and exhibit confusing behavior. They may not know where they are, what they're doing, or have a conscious motive for any action. This disorientation is a result of the drug they ingested and can be exacerbated by lack of oxygen or increased body temperature.Endurance increase: The stimulation from the drug that they've ingested often leads to an increase in physical endurance. They may be difficult to restrain due to the fact that they are highly aroused and their nervous system is primed for action.Fever: Another common characteristic of those with excited delirium is that of a temperature increase. They may feel physically hot and are often running a high fever (hyperthermia). The person may be actively making attempts to cool themselves by removing layers of clothing or looking for cold water or ice.Hallucinations: In a number of cases, people experience hallucinations such as hearing voices or seeing things that aren't based in reality. These often go hand-in-hand with the delusions that a person is experiencing and may provoke violent behaviors.Pain tolerance: Increased pain tolerance by people with excited delirium may make it difficult to properly restrain them. They may appear completely impervious to any modality of inflicting pain. Therefore if they get into a fight, they may not feel punches or damage inflicted upon their body. This makes it tougher for police to get individuals with this condition under control.Panic: The anxiety that a person experiences as a result of being overstimulated may lead to panic attacks. These panic attacks can make the person hyperventilate or contribute to restlessness.Paranoia: The thinking and behavior of individuals with this condition is often fueled by paranoia. Dopaminergic dysfunction is likely contributing to this symptom, which makes a person feel as if others and law enforcement are out to harm them.Incoherent speech: People with excited delirium may have incoherent or disorganized speech to the point that it becomes difficult or confusing to decipher.Inappropriate clothing: The condition is characterized by fever, increased body temperature, and psychomotor agitation. The combination of a temperature increase and agitation often leads a person to frantically take off their clothes and make attempts to cool themselves down. Even in cold temperatures, they may remain unclothed due to the fact that they are overheating.Odd behavior: The behavior displayed by a person with excited delirium may appear extremely odd. Not everyone fits the exact same mold with the condition and therefore it is impossible to predict the behavior of each case.Shouting: A person with excited delirium may draw significant attention to themselves by yelling in the streets, at their home, or in public. This shouting may be obscene and insensitive to others '' including complete strangers. As a person makes a scene of themselves with yelling, it is important to contact authorities.Strength increase: The person experiencing this condition may believe that they are superhuman or incredibly strong. In part this is due to the fact that they are highly stimulated and their nervous system is primed for action. While they aren't generally significantly stronger than normal, the increased stimulation may contribute to a strength increase. In part, they may appear stronger to others due to their heightened pain tolerance.Sweating: Those with excited delirium often experience profuse sweating to the point that they are literally dripping with sweat. Even in cold temperatures, the individual will appear to sweat an incredible amount. This is due to the fact that their body is so overstimulated and their physiological response is uncontrollable.Violence: Due to the fact that many individuals with excited delirium are violent towards others (and sometimes themselves), it is important to notify police as soon as possible. The individual is so disoriented and physiologically altered, that they may not care about damage they inflict on another person and have no regard for consequences.Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695211/

Death from Excited Delirium SyndromeIt is often difficult to determine the exact mechanisms by which a person may die as a result of excited delirium. When a person dies as a result of this condition, the cause of death is generally listed as ''excited delirium syndrome.'' It is estimated that 2/3 individuals experiencing excited delirium will die at the scene of their legal restraint or in transportation to the hospital by paramedics. The two most common causes include: cardiac arrest and respiratory failure.

Cardiac arrest: The person experiencing excited delirium may experience cardiac arrest as a result of an arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat). Typically the person's nervous system is so overstimulated, that their heart rate is abnormally fast. If paramedics do not quickly identify and treat the problem, the individual may experience heart failure.Cardiovascular toxicity: Those that use cocaine on a frequent basis may experience ''cardio toxicity.'' As was mentioned, nearly half of all deaths from excited delirium are associated with cardiac failure. Many researchers theorize that prolonged cocaine usage may elicit cumulative, detrimental effects on heart function. It is believed that toxic levels of catecholamines may be responsible for many of these changes.Respiratory failure: In other cases, a person with excited delirium may die as a result of respiratory failure. They may be unable to get sufficient levels of oxygen and eliminate sufficient carbon dioxide. Often times there are low levels of oxygen in the blood as a result of respiratory inadequacies.In many cases the individuals experiencing excited delirium don't know what's going on or how to cope with their experience. Many victims are found after having made attempts to cool themselves (i.e. their fever) by using ice, water, removal of clothing, etc.

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3088378/Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20190633At the HospitalThere are a few causes of death that a person may experience once they get transported to the hospital. These include: clotting of the small blood vessels, breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue, and ultimately kidney failure. These stem from heightened catecholamine stress on the heart and other cardiac alterations.

Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation: Of the individuals that actually get transported to the hospital, many experience clotting of the small blood vessels, resulting in death.Rhabdomyolysis: Skeletal muscle tissue may breakdown, enter the bloodstream, and ultimately cause kidney failure.Renal Failure: Some individuals experience renal failure as a result of rhabdomyolysis. The kidneys become unable to filter waste from the bloodstream, which can lead to death. This can also result in metabolic acidosis, which can cause heart arrhythmias.Police RestraintSome speculate that police restraint and handling of the individual with excited delirium may contribute to their death. Since most individuals are violent, display heightened pain tolerance, and are dangerous, restraints are often administered by law enforcement. Too much compression as a result of the restraints may lead to lack of oxygen, arrhythmias, or exacerbation of symptoms as a result of hyperventilation.

Positional asphyxia: It has been suggested that in some cases, the position by which the police restrain the individual with excited delirium may lead to asphyxiation, or respiratory failure. For this reason, it is recommended that police learn how to properly restrain individuals with this condition. Those that believe positional asphyxia may be a contributing cause think that the individual with excited delirium requires more oxygen and isn't able to breathe effectively as a result of restraint or compression on the diaphragm.Struggle: The degree to which the individual struggles or hyperventilates may lead to greater cardiac activation and problems inhaling sufficient oxygen. Therefore even in cases of restraint from police, restraint may not be the only factor, rather the degree to which a person struggles or hyperventilates may contribute to their demise.Taser usage: It has also been hypothesized that since many patients with excited delirium are likely tasered prior to getting restrained, that the taser shock may disrupt heart rhythms, leading to cardiac failure.In some cases, chest and neck compression, blunt trauma, and/or atherosclerosis may increase the likelihood of fatality resulting from this condition. In many cases of excited delirium, there is no specific cause of death, but a coalescing of potential contributing factors. Things to consider include: handling by police, diagnosis and treatment from paramedics, and speed by which the condition was identified.

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19237843Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24526411Excited Delirium TreatmentIt is difficult to properly treat those with excited delirium due to the fact that the condition must first be correctly diagnosed. Excited delirium is often mistaken for other conditions such as: panic attacks, delirium tremens, and stimulant psychosis. The first step involves properly restraining the individual so that they do no harm to themselves or others, and secondly a medical professional will administer treatment as they see fit.

Physical restraint (Police)Due to the fact that individuals experiencing excited delirium are often difficult to control, combative, and have a high degree of both strength and endurance, they first need to be restrained. Without restraint, they may engage in unexpected violent behavior or be a danger to others. Therefore contacting law enforcement is generally the best first step to get a person with excited delirium under control.

Law enforcement should be knowledgeable of individuals experiencing excited delirium. Those that are knowledgeable of this condition will often restrain the individual with sensitivity to this mental condition. This will involve first securing the individual by handcuffing them and strapping them down at various regions of the body (e.g. hips, knees, stomach). This will allow medical professionals to administer treatment via intramuscular injections.

Medical treatment (Paramedics)After the police have gotten an individual with excited delirium under control, a medical team will generally assess their current state and come up with a modality of treatment. Treatment most often is delivered via intramuscular (IM) or intravenous (IV) injection. Due to the fact that each case of excited delirium tends to have a unique cause, treatment modalities will be subject to individual variation.

Benzodiazepines: Most commonly, benzodiazepines are injected due to the fact that they slow activity in the central nervous system and sedate the individual '' decreasing the likelihood that they'll harm anyone. A common medication like Versed (Midazolam) is believed to have a favorable profile for individuals with excited delirium due to the fact that its dose response is well-understood. Upon administration of benzos, medical professionals will carefully monitor the individual in case of a respiratory depression.Sodium bicarbonate: Should the individual be experiencing cardiac arrest or shock, sodium bicarbonate will be administered. This can also help mitigate severe acidosis that an individual may be experiencing.Lowering body temperature: In many cases, hyperthermia (elevated body temperature) may contribute to death. Therefore it is important to make an effort to reduce the person's body temperature by using cold packs (at various bodily regions), water sprays, and fanning them. Another common intervention is that of intravenous (IV) saline '' which can reduce body temperature, which can also help with metabolic acidosis.During this time, the paramedics will be working in conjunction with the police to determine how the individual should be handled. Police should focus on the safety aspect, while the medical responders should be focused on the treatment.

Other possibilities:

Dantrolene: This is a drug that can be used as an adjunct for the treatment of excited delirium. It minimizes muscle cell expansion and contraction via inhibition of calcium release. It has often been used as a treatment for related conditions like neuroleptic malignant syndrome.Neuroleptics: Sometimes neuroleptic drugs are thrown into the equation in combination with benzodiazepines as a means to minimize catecholamine activity. The resulting effect should be extreme sedation, making it easier to manage the individual with excited delirium. Evidence is mixed as to whether a benzodiazepine, neuroleptic, or a combination of both yields optimal outcomes.Ketamine: Another intervention strategy is that of administering intramuscular injections of ketamine. This is a drug that has a quick onset of action and results in significant sedation. There appear to be relatively few side effects associated with ketamine and it can work. However, co-administration with a benzodiazepine will significantly hamper ketamine's effect. That said, heightened catecholamine levels should be ruled out prior to administration due to the fact that ketamine could intensify this problem.Stress reduction: If the person with the condition is receptive to stress reduction techniques, any natural methods that can be utilized to reduce stress may have some benefit. Paramedic responders are instructed to use a calming voice in attempt to avoid provoking an increased stress response in the individual. The goal is to make the surrounding environment as stress free as possible to increase the likelihood of survival. Blindfolds and/or dimming of lights may be effective strategies.Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19785904 Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22908610

Is excited delirium dangerous?[A resounding] YES. Not only is excited delirium dangerous to the individual experiencing the condition, but it may be dangerous to others in their presence. Due to the fact that individuals with excited delirium may engage in violent behavior, it is important to contact the police as well as a medical team as soon as these cases are identified or speculated. Additionally, it is known that excited delirium may be fatal for the individual experiencing the condition.

Have you ever experienced excited delirium?While few people experience drug-induced psychosis, an even fewer number of individuals experience excited delirium. If you experienced excited delirium, feel free to share a comment below describing your experience to provide others with some insight. For us to get a better understanding of your situation, discuss how you know you experienced excited delirium, what caused it, and how you were treated (or dealt with it).

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Archived Version

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 23:29

Minnesota protests are continuing to escalate and inspire similar demonstrations around the country in the wake of police killing an unarmed Minneapolis man this week named George Floyd.Minnesota officials say they're using contact tracing to better understand who the protestors are and where they're coming from.Contact tracing has previously been used as part of a comprehensive coronavirus response.As the Minnesota protests have spilled across the country, fueled by protestors angered over the police killing of an unarmed Minneapolis man named George Floyd, the protests have morphed into marches and demonstrations that have turned violent everywhere from New York City to Los Angeles. Curfews are being imposed in major cities around the US at the time of this writing, and at least eight states, as well as the District of Columbia, have requested the National Guard to assist local law enforcement.

In some cities like Minneapolis, though, officials are starting to turn to a familiar tool to investigate networks of protestors. The tool is contact-tracing, and it's a familiar tool in that people have been hearing about it frequently in recent weeks as an important component of a comprehensive coronavirus pandemic response. According to Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harringon, officials there have been using what they describe, without going into much detail, as contact-tracing in order to build out a picture of protestor affiliations '-- a process that officials in the state say has led them to conclude that much of the protest activity there is being fueled by people from outside coming in.

In fact, Minnesota's Gov. Tim Walz told reporters that as much as 80% of those being destructive are from outside Minnesota.

Setting aside whether or not that's true, the non-protest aspect to this is the fact that it speaks to privacy concerns around contact-tracing in general, since using this tool to fight the coronavirus pandemic is by definition an invasion of privacy. Contact tracers need to know personal details about you, such as who you've been around and where you've gone over a not-insignificant period of time. And now, it's a tool that's apparently being used to build a completely different, non-coronavirus-related informational picture of Americans.

And what makes this even more interesting is the fact that a CNN analysis of Minneapolis data found what appears to be the complete opposite of the assertion about out-of-towners. Per CNN, ''More than 80% of people booked into jail in Minneapolis on riot and other potentially riot-related charges over the past two days are from Minnesota, according to a CNN analysis of data from the Hennepin County Sheriff's office. Officials had earlier claimed that most protesters came from out of state.''

Meanwhile, the situation in cities around the country is continuing to deteriorate, as protests multiply and escalate. Among the most recent developments as of the time of this writing:

The National Guard has been called up to help protect the White House from protestors.More than two dozen cities in 16 states have implemented curfews. One of those, Chicago, has imposed a curfew starting at 9 p.m. and ending at 6 a.m. that officials say will be in place nightly ''until further notice.''Minnesota's governor has said he's expecting the state to see a spike in coronavirus cases as a result of the crowds protesting.Look at this crazy scene of the target looting. Do you think these people would listen to anyone? It was a scary scene. https://t.co/rKqanlooVW

'-- Revolution (@SylviaAdamss) May 30, 2020

Minnesota protester stands on a platform in front of a restaurant fire Image Source: Julio Cortez/AP/Shutterstock

Andy is a reporter in Memphis who also contributes to outlets like Fast Company and The Guardian. When he's not writing about technology, he can be found hunched protectively over his burgeoning collection of vinyl, as well as nursing his Whovianism and bingeing on a variety of TV shows you probably don't like.

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Thu, 04 Jun 2020 06:36

Censorship is a tool of repression as old as civilization. Fighting it has always been dangerous: Socrates was sentenced to death in 399 B.C. largely because he refused to pander to a panel of moralizing censors.

These days, the punishments tend to be less severe (in Western countries, at least). More commonly, the ancient menace of censorship now takes the form of social opprobrium imposed by online hordes supposedly representing the interests of oppressed minority groups'--by which I mean hordes of people claiming, almost always without basis, to speak for these groups while promoting their own narrow political agendas.

This censorship effort receives back-office ideological support from scholars promoting ''intersectionality'' and similar theories, which draw heavily from Marxist and post-Marxist thinking on economics and power relationships. It also encourages adherents to view the world through a lens of ''oppression and the need for revolution.'' As with Marxism, intersectionality presents the historical relations between people on the basis of rigid group identities, crafting narratives inevitably centered on the theme of oppressor versus oppressed.

This worldview requires individuals to regard themselves first as members of particular groups, and only second as individuals. Any dissent from such orthodoxies is dangerous to the intersectionality movement, as it serves to invalidate activists' claims to speak on behalf of group members'--which is one reason why intersectional activists now act as some of the biggest supporters of de facto censorship.

It is increasingly common to see ideological dissent punished swiftly by online mobs, whether the dissenters be in academia, Hollywood, the business world or journalism. Professors at Yale have been driven from their posts, monuments have been torn down, careers have been ruined for throwaway social media posts from many years ago. And dissenters on both the political Right and Left alike have been systematically removed from mainstream technology platforms.

As a platform, Gab takes no stand regarding intersectionality'--or any other trendy movement. Gab does, however, take a stand against censorship. Gab exists to protect dissent in all its forms and dissenters wherever they may be.

We promote this goal by adopting the most effective anti-censorship legal mechanism ever devised: the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The First Amendment provides the guiding principle for all of Gab's moderation and data-disclosure policies. Gab will not censor anyone, nor will we voluntarily hand over data on any user, to any government, in relation to political speech that is protected by the First Amendment.

Gab's First Amendment-based approach to free speech has proven extremely unpopular among the literati, who refer to Gab as ''Nazi Twitter'' or ''Twitter for racists'' because we stand firm in standing up for First Amendment principles and so refuse to ban users for their political opinions. Gab's critics fail to understand that there is a dangerous world beyond the U.S. and other Western nations, a world in which people of all kinds'--including LGBT+, progressive and conservative political dissidents, ethnic and religious minorities'--are brutally oppressed and even murdered by their governments. Recently an Egyptian TV host, Mohamed al-Ghiety, was sentenced to one year of hard labor and fined for the crime of interviewing a gay man.

To defend themselves and promote their causes, the oppressed need access to media'--including social media. Which is why those who value free speech have been flocking to Gab. This past week alone hundreds of thousands of people have joined our community. As censorship undertaken by (and at the behest of) major platforms such as Twitter and Facebook grows, marginalized people have an increased need for safe places to engage in public'--and, where necessary, anonymous'--discussion.

By implementing a First Amendment standard as its guiding principle, Gab is in a unique position to extend U.S.-standard civil-liberties protections to marginalized people all over the planet'--including journalists, members of religious minorities, LGBTQ+ persons, and politically exposed activists.

This sort of freedom leads to a freer and safer world. At Gab, we will never compromise on our commitment to protect freedom of speech for everyone.

God bless you all,

Andrew TorbaCEO, Gab.com

Gab is 100% funded by people like you.Not corporate sponsors or special interests. On Gab, you are NOT the product. ðŸ…''‚¸You are the customer. ðŸIf you want to support our team and help us cover operational costs please consider upgrading to GabPRO.

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Sun, 31 May 2020 16:21

AUSTIN (KXAN) '-- The Austin Symphony Orchestra has launched an investigation after one of its musicians posted ''offensive'' messages on Facebook about the protests following George Floyd's death.

The posts happened on the same day as mass protests in Austin following the deaths of Floyd and Mike Ramos.

The musician that posted the messages, which addressed riots in the US and presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama, appeared to have deleted their Facebook account by Sunday morning.

In a statement, the Austin Symphony Orchestra said it is proud of being an ''inclusive organization.''

''We have been made aware that a musician of the Austin Symphony Orchestra has made an offensive post on their social media account regarding the protests across our country,'' the orchestra said.

''This language is not reflective of who we are as an organization. The ASO is committed to being an inclusive organization as well as provide a safe space for all. We will follow up on the situation and take appropriate action,'' it added.

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Mon, 01 Jun 2020 14:12

The intense and careening 2020 news cycle is reshuffling the prospects of the top contenders to become Joe Biden's running mate so quickly that the shifting headlines have become a blur.

Just before Memorial Day weekend, Sen. Kamala Harris seemed best positioned to get the nod after Biden was forced to apologize for scolding African American voters that ''if you have a problem figuring whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black.''

Three days later, George Floyd, a black security guard, died while pleading for relief from a white Minneapolis police officer whose knee was pressed against his neck. The death occurred just as many areas of the country were beginning to tentatively reopen after months of COVID-19 lockdowns. Now the nation is caught in the throes of one of the fiercest race conflicts in decades as clashes between protesters and police have erupted across the country and looters and arson threaten many small businesses already struggling to survive.

Back in early May, before the Secret Service was rushing President Trump to an underground bunker as protesters threatened the White House perimeter, a column in RealClearPolitics labeled Harris ''the do no harm choice for VP.'' {snip}

After the past week's racial unrest, however, Harris' law enforcement background '-- as a prosecutor who put people behind bars for marijuana crimes and threatened to jail parents of truants '-- is hamstringing her. The same can be said for Rep. Val Demings, a black two-term congresswoman who previously served as the first female police chief of Orlando and represents a key region, the Interstate 4 corridor, in the critical swing state of Florida. Her husband is Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who previously served as sheriff.

Although a relative newcomer to the national political scene, Demings earned plaudits on the left for her performance as one of seven impeachment managers late last fall. But her years running the Orlando police, which has a history of criticism for using excessive force, is now under the microscope and could take her out of contention amid the current racial turmoil.

{snip}

Still, it would be politically tone-deaf not to acknowledge that the last few news cycles have been the toughest on Sen. Amy Klobuchar's veepstakes chances. {snip}

After the former vice president committed to naming a woman as a running mate, Klobuchar was undoubtedly in the top tier of contenders '' until Biden's ''you ain't black'' blunder in a radio interview led many to conclude that a black woman candidate would have an edge.

{snip}

Klobuchar had a tough-on-crime record, and during her presidential campaign faced protests from black leaders in Minnesota after news reports aired criticism about her controversial murder prosecution of a black teenager named Myon Burrell. Klobuchar has said that the case should be reviewed, and recently sent a letter to the local prosecutor's office asking for an independent probe, but civil rights leaders have pressed her to demand a completely new investigation.

Critics also are renewing questions about her failure to bring charges against several police officers during her time as county attorney. Derek Chauvin, the fired policeman who killed Floyd, was investigated in 2006 for a fatal shooting while Klobuchar was working as a local prosecutor, although she left that job before a grand jury was convened in the case.

{snip}

But Rep. Jim Clyburn, the powerful South Carolina Democrat and former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Friday that the timing is terrible for Klobuchar even though he respects her and believes she is qualified to be vice president.

''We are all victims sometimes of timing and some of us benefit tremendously from timing,'' Clyburn told reporters. ''This is very tough timing for Amy Klobuchar.''

{snip}

Amid the unrest, Clyburn, for one, is still backing Demings and Harris and says their law enforcement backgrounds should not be disqualifying but viewed in the historical context of when they served.

Several other black women are also in the VP mix and they lack the law-enforcement baggage of Harris and Demings. Former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams has been actively campaigning for the job for months while Susan Rice, President Obama's controversial national security adviser, is among the names regularly circulating in the media.

{snip}

Black Lives Matter movement co-founder Alicia Garza backed Warren in the presidential primary because she had the most ''robust black agenda.''

{snip}

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Archived Version

Sun, 31 May 2020 17:55

Outsider Donald Trump won the 2016 election running a campaign that was definitely not by the book. The American people rewarded him with the White House. Outgoing President Obama oversaw the transition that also was not by the book. Fired FBI Director James Comey James Brien ComeyFlynn urged Russian diplomat to have 'reciprocal' response to Obama sanctions, new transcripts show Comey, Rice, Clapper among GOP senator's targets for subpoenas amid Obama-era probe GOP chairman to seek subpoena power in investigation of Russia probe, 'unmasking' requests MORE , a man whose job requires doing everything by the book, admitted that when it comes to President Trump Donald John TrumpDonald Trump and Joe Biden create different narratives for the election The hollowing out of the CDC Poll: Biden widens lead over Trump to 10 points MORE , he threw out the book. That is a problem.

The American people have the right to choose outsiders who do not take traditional political paths to Washington. The FBI, where justice must be blind, has no such right. It has an obligation to be fair and impartial. But revelations show that FBI conduct toward Trump and his administration was a frightening violation of fairness, as Obama officials and senior FBI agents had been duped by Russia, giving way to their worst fears over a man they held in disdain and forcing the country through three years of bitter misery over a false collusion accusation in the election.

They owe the country an apology. In politics, as in life, it is often a terrible mistake to believe the worst in an opponent. Trump very regularly, at least on Twitter, does it to his antagonists. He is wrong to do so. But the Obama administration and the FBI did it to Trump and his campaign in a way that is unacceptable with the rule of law. It is one thing to tweet with reckless abandon. It is another thing to use the powers of the government against an opposition candidate for president. If you are going to use government powers to surveil an opposition campaign, you better have the goods. We found out that the Obama administration did not have them.

Look at 2016 from the eyes of Obama officials. Emails of the Democratic National Committee were hacked. The intelligence community said that Russia was behind it and interfered in the election. Trump then called on Russia to release emails of Clinton. Carter Page had contact with Russian officials. George Papadopoulos told an intermediary he had information on the hacked emails. Top Trump aides met with a Russian to get dirt on Clinton. Michael Flynn had dinner with Vladimir Putin and was paid by a Russian organization to give a speech. Then a dossier alleging sinister doings by Trump with Russians fell into the hands of the FBI.

What was the FBI supposed to do? Look the other way? If there is smoke, there is likely fire, they thought. However, the tragic original sin that afflicted Obama officials and certain FBI agents is that they actually believed the worst of these allegations might be true. They bought the idea that Trump himself was doing the bidding of Putin and that he had people on his team who were in the pockets of Russian officials.

They apparently feared the worst in Trump and set into motion a series of calamitous events. Clinton running mate Tim Kaine alleged in 2017 that the eldest Trump son possibly committed treason. Shortly before the special counsel investigation by Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE concluded in 2019 that there was no collusion, former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe was asked by Anderson Cooper if Trump might be a Russian asset. He responded, ''I think it is possible.'' Just think about that. Top FBI leaders were duped into thinking the unthinkable that the American people elected a Russian agent as president. With judgment like that, it is amazing that the FBI could get anything right.

It explains why the Obama administration did not give a defensive briefing to Trump to warn him of their suspicions. If Trump was in on it, how could they warn him? According to the infamous memo Obama national security adviser Susan Rice wrote for herself on her last day in office, Comey also feared Flynn might be passing classified information to the Russians, even though Rice noted that Comey had no proof.

Comey, in coordination with former CIA Director John Brennan and former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, took it upon himself to brief president elect Trump on the dossier, including the part that was uniquely about Trump. If Christopher Steele was wrong, Trump would know it. Assuming Trump was not in a Moscow hotel with Russian prostitutes, as Steele alleged, what else would Trump conclude upon meeting Comey other than the head of the FBI has no idea what he is talking about?

It remains important to learn what Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaThe battle of two Cubas Obama on the death of George Floyd: 'This shouldn't be "normal" in 2020 America' Democrats gear up to hit GOP senators on DACA MORE and Joe Biden knew and what they authorized. Whatever they signed off on was not done by the book. The FBI improperly obtained Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to surveil Page. The FBI should have closed its investigation into Flynn but it did not due to a directive from Comey and McCabe. The FBI got Flynn by, as Comey has admitted, taking advantage of the turmoil in the early days of the Trump administration to set up an interview that would not have been done in either the Bush administration or Obama administration.

Obama officials and FBI leaders overreacted to a man they loathed. They could not believe he won the White House, and their worst fears took hold of them. They put the nation through misery. They ran with collusion, leaked it everywhere, and most of the press happily went along. But they were wrong. I do not know if what they did was a crime, but it certainly was a scandal done out of malice, and it was certainly not conducted by the book.

Ari Fleischer ( @AriFleischer ) served as press secretary to President Bush from 2001 to 2003. He is the president of Ari Fleischer Communications.

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STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT INTERESTThe invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.

BACKGROUNDThere are four known fundamental forces which control matter and, therefore, control energy. The four known forces are strong nuclear forces, weak nuclear forces, electromagnetic force, and gravitational force. In this hierarchy of forces, the electromagnetic force is perfectly positioned to be able to manipulate the other three. A stationary electric charge gives rise to an electric (electrostatic) field, while a moving charge generates both an electric and a magnetic field (hence the electromagnetic field). Additionally, an accelerating charge induces electromagnetic radiation in the form of transverse waves, namely light. Mathematically, as well as physically, electromagnetic field intensity can be represented as the product of electric field strength and magnetic field strength. Electromagnetic fields act as carriers for both energy and momentum, thus interacting with physical entities at the most fundamental level.

Artificially generated high energy electromagnetic fields, such as those generated with a high energy electromagnetic field generator (HEEMFG), interact strongly with the vacuum energy state. The vacuum energy state can be described as an aggregate/collective state, comprised of the superposition of all quantum fields' fluctuations permeating the entire fabric of spacetime. High energy interaction with the vacuum energy state can give rise to emergent physical phenomena, such as force and matter fields' unification. According to quantum field theory, this strong interaction between the fields is based on the mechanism of transfer of vibrational energy between the fields. The transfer of vibrational energy further induces local fluctuations in adjacent quantum fields which permeate spacetime (these fields may or may not be electromagnetic in nature). Matter, energy, and spacetime are all emergent constructs which arise out of the fundamental framework that is the vacuum energy state.

Everything that surrounds us, ourselves included, can be described as macroscopic collections of fluctuations, vibrations, and oscillations in quantum mechanical fields. Matter is confined energy, bound within fields, frozen in a quantum of time. Therefore, under certain conditions (such as the coupling of hyper-frequency axial spin with hyper-frequency vibrations of electrically charged systems) the rules and special effects of quantum field behavior also apply to macroscopic physical entities (macroscopic quantum phenomena).

Moreover, the coupling of hyper-frequency gyrational (axial rotation) and hyper-frequency vibrational electrodynamics is conducive to a possible physical breakthrough in the utilization of the macroscopic quantum fluctuations vacuum plasma field (quantum vacuum plasma) as an energy source (or sink), which is an induced physical phenomenon.

The quantum vacuum plasma (QVP) is the electric glue of our plasma universe. The Casimir Effect, the Lamb Shift, and Spontaneous Emission, are specific confirmations of the existence of QVP.

It is important to note that in region(s) where the electromagnetic fields are strongest, the more potent the interactions with the QVP, therefore, the higher the induced energy density of the QVP particles which spring into existence (the Dirac Sea of electrons and positrons). These QVP particles may augment the obtained energy levels of the HEEMFG system, in that energy flux amplification may be induced.

It is possible to reduce the inertial mass and hence the gravitational mass, of a system/object in motion, by an abrupt perturbation of the non-linear background of local spacetime (the local vacuum energy state), equivalent to an accelerated excursion far from thermodynamic equilibrium (analogous with symmetry-breaking induced by abrupt changes of state/phase transitions). The physical mechanism which drives this diminution in inertial mass is based on the negative pressure (hence repulsive gravity) exhibited by the polarized local vacuum energy state (local vacuum polarization being achieved by a coupling of accelerated high frequency vibration with accelerated high frequency axial rotation of an electrically charged system/object) in the close proximity of the system/object in question. In other words, inertial mass reduction can be achieved via manipulation of quantum field fluctuations in the local vacuum energy state, in the immediate proximity of the object/system. Therefore it is possible to reduce a craft's inertia, that is, its resistance to motion/acceleration by polarizing the vacuum in the close proximity of the moving craft.

Polarization of the local vacuum is analogous to manipulation/modification of the local space tie topological lattice energy density. As a result, extreme speeds can be achieved.

If we can engineer the structure of the local quantum vacuum state, we can engineer the fabric of our reality at the most fundamental level (thus affecting a physical system's inertial and gravitational properties). This realization would greatly advance the fields of aerospace propulsion and power generation.

The physical equation which describes the maximum intensity achieved by the high energy electromagnetic field generator (HEEMFG) system is described by the magnitude of the Poynting vector, which in non-relativistic for (accounting for all three modes of motion) can be written as:S max =f G(σ2/ε0) [R r ω+R v v+v R]'ƒ'ƒ(Equation 1),where fG is the HEEMFG system geometric shape factor (equal to 1 for a disc configuration), σ is the surface charge density (total electric charge divided by surface area of the HEEMFG system), ε0 is the electrical permittivity of free space, Rr is the radius of rotation (disc radius), ω is the angular frequency of rotation in rad/s, Rv is the vibration (harmonic oscillation) amplitude, v is the angular frequency of vibration in Hertz, and the term vR is the curvilinear translation speed (acquired via a propulsive unit of either chemical, nuclear or magneto-plasma-dynamic (VASIMR) type attached to the HEEMFG system'--the integrated unit being the craft).

Therefore, if we consider only rotation, given a disc configuration, with σ=50,000 Coulombs/m2,a disc (spinning/axially rotating) radius of 2 m and an angular speed of 30,000 RPM, an generate an electromagnetic (EM) field intensity (Smax is the rate of energy flow per unit area, or energy flux) value on the order of 1024 Watts/m2 (this value does not account for any QVP interactions).

Furthermore, if we couple the high frequency of rotation with high vibration (harmonic oscillation) frequencies in the range of 109 to 1018 Hertz (and above) we can obtain Smax intensity values in the range 1024 to 1028 Watts/m2 (and beyond). These extremely high EM field intensity values emphasize the novelty of this concept, especially suited for the design of energy generation machinery with power output levels much higher than those currently achievable.

For the case of an accelerating angular frequency of vibration (amax=Rvv2), neglecting rotation and curvilinear translation, Equation 1 becomes (note intrinsic significance of acceleration):S max =f G(σ2/ε0) [(R v v 2) t op]'ƒ'ƒ(Equation 2),where top is the operational time for which the charged electrical system s accelerating in its vibration.

Close inspection of Equation 2 results in an important realization, namely: strong local interaction with the high energetics of the quantum vacuum fields' fluctuations superposition (macroscopic vacuum energy state) is possible in a laboratory environment, by application of high frequency gyration (axial spin) and/or high frequency vibration of minimally charged objects (order of unity surface charge density), in an acceleration mode. In this manner, a high degree of local vacuum energy polarization can be achieved.

To illustrate this fact, considering a high end microwave frequency on the order of 1011 Hertz, a surface charge density on the order of 1 C/m2 and an operational time on the order of the inverse of the vibrational amplitude, we obtain an energy flux value of 1033 W/m2. This exceptionally high power intensity induces a pair production avalanche, thereby ensuring complete polarization of the local vacuum state.

Local polarization of the vacuum in the close proximity of a craft equipped with an HEEMFG system would have the effect of cohering the highly energetic and random quantum vacuum fields' fluctuations, which virtually block the path of an accelerating craft, in such a manner that the resulting negative pressure of the polarized vacuum allows less labored motion through it (as noted by H. David Froning).

Spontaneous electron-positron pair production out of the vacuum is a strong indicator of vacuum polarization being achieved. Julian Schwinger (Nobel prize winning physicist) gives a value of the electric field (E) on the order of 1018 V/m, for this phenomenon to take place. The mass production rate (dm/dt)pp of particle/anti-particle pairs can be expressed in terms of Smax (energy flux), namely:2Î"(dm/dt)pp c 2 =S max A S 'ƒ'ƒ(Equation 3),where AS is the surface area from which the energy flux emanates, c is the speed of light in free space, and Î" is the relativistic stretch factor [1''(v2/c2)]''1/2. Note that the pair production rate increases with increasing energy flux from the craft's generated electromagnetic field. Therefore, the level, to which the vacuum is polarized, thus allowing less labored motion through it, strictly depends on the artificially generated electromagnetic energy flux.

If we consider the boundary condition in the close proximity of the craft where the energy density of the artificially generated electromagnetic (EM) field equals the local energy density of the polarized vacuum (caused in part by the local zero-point vacuum fluctuations on the order of 10''15 Joules/cm3 and in part by the artificial EM field interacting with the local vacuum energy state) we can write the approximate equivalence:(S max /c)=[(h*v v 4)/8Ï2 c 3]'ƒ'ƒ(Equation 4),where c is the speed of light in free space, (h*) is Planck's constant divided by (2Ï) and (vv) is the frequency of quantum fluctuations in the vacuum (modeled as harmonic oscillators). Furthermore, given that the left side of Equation 4 is on the order of (ε0E2) where E is the artificially generated electric field (strength), considering the Schwinger value of (E) for the onset of spontaneous pair production, we obtain a (vv) value on the order of 1022 Hertz, which matches our expectations, since the Dirac virtual pair production, results in total annihilation, yielding gamma rays, which occupy the electromagnetic frequency spectrum of 1019 Hertz and above.

A recent paper, by the inventor, published in the International Journal of Space Science and Engineering (Pais, S. C., Vol. 3, No. 1, 2015) considers the conditional possibility of superluminal craft propulsion in a Special Relativity framework. It is observed that under certain physical conditions, the singularity expressed by the relativistic stretch factor 'gamma' as the craft's speed (v) approaches the speed of light (c), is no longer present in the physical picture. This involves the instantaneous removal of energy-mass from the system (craft) when the craft's speed reaches (v=c/2). The author discusses the possibility of using exotic matter (negative mass/negative energy density) to bring about this effect. This may not have to be the only alternative. The artificial generation of gravity waves in the locality of the craft, can result in energy-mass removal (gravity waves are propagating fluctuations in gravitational fields, whose amplitude and frequency are a function of the motion of the masses involved).

Moreover, it is feasible to remove energy-mass from the system by enabling vacuum polarization, as discussed by Harold Puthoff; in that diminution of inertial (and thus gravitational) mass can be achieved via manipulation of quantum field fluctuations in the vacuum. In other words, it is possible to reduce a craft's inertia, that is, its resistance to motion/acceleration by polarizing the vacuum in the close proximity of the moving craft. As a result, extreme speeds can be achieved.

Vacuum energy state can be thought of as a chaotic system comprised of random, highly energetic fluctuations in the collective quantum fields which define it. Considering Ilya Prigogine's Nobel Prize work on far from equilibrium thermodynamics (the Prigogine effect), a chaotic system can self-organize if subjected to three conditions, namely: the system must be non-linear, it must experience an abrupt excursion far from thermodynamic equilibrium, and it must be subjected to an energy flux (order from chaos).

An artificially generated high energy/high frequency electromagnetic field (such as the fields an HEEMFG can produce) can fulfill all three conditions simultaneously (especially in an accelerated vibration/rotation mode), when strongly interacting with the local vacuum energy state. These interactions are induced by the coupling of hyper-frequency axial rotation (spin) and hyper-frequency vibration (harmonic oscillations/abrupt pulsations) of electrically charged systems (high energy electromagnetic field generators), placed on the outside of the craft in strategic locations.

In this manner, local vacuum polarization, namely the coherence of vacuum fluctuations within the immediate proximity of the craft's surface (outside vacuum boundary) is achieved, allowing for 'smooth sailing' through the negative pressure (repulsive gravity) of the 'void' (the void within the vacuum). It may be stated that the void 'sucks in' the craft.

It is of extreme importance that the craft has the ability to control the accelerated modes of vibration and spin of the electrically charged surfaces, in particular the rapid rates of change of accelerated-decelerated-accelerated vibration and/or accelerated-decelerated-accelerated gyration (axial spin) of the electrified surfaces. In this manner we can delay the onset of relaxation to thermodynamic equilibrium, thus generating a physical mechanism which may induce anomalous effects (such as inertial or gravitational mass reduction). Furthermore, it is possible to enable the Gertsenshtein Effect, namely the production of high frequency gravitational waves by high frequency electromagnetic radiation, in this manner modifying the gravitational fields in close proximity to the craft, resulting in its propulsion.

For the mathematical formalism of inertial (and thus gravitational) mass reduction consider that in a published Physical Review Letter (December 1989), Hayasaka and Takeuchi report the anomalous weight reduction of gyroscopes for right rotations only. At the time, the authors could not elucidate the physics behind these anomalous results. Several null result experiments followed (a recent one as well) which declared the Hayasaka et al. results null and void, or at least questionable'--however all these experiments were flawed in their ability to entirely duplicate the Hayasaka et al. experimental procedure and set-up (especially the high vacuum chamber the test section was mounted inside).

Closer attention to the non-zero intercept of the Hayasaka et al. expression relating the gyro's weight diminution with respect to its mass, its angular rotational frequency and its effective rotor radius, yields the possibility of a local quantum vacuum effect, namely a negative pressure (repulsive gravity) condition being present. This is due to the non-zero intercept being of the same order of magnitude with the Fokker-Planck electron-proton thermal equilibration rate (fep), given an approximate Hydrogen atom number density of 40 atoms/m3, commensurate with the local quantum vacuum state.

Consider the Hayasaka et al. expression for gyro-weight reduction, written in SI units as:Î--W R(ω)=''2—10''10 M r eq ω kg m s''2 'ƒ'ƒ(Equation 5),where Î--WR is the reduction in weight, M is the mass of the rotor (in kg), ω is the angular frequency of rotation (in rad/s), and req is the equivalent gyro-radius (in m).

From this relationship we see that the units of the non-zero intercept (2—10''10) are (1/s). This non-zero intercept is endemic of the physics of gyro-rotational acceleration, in particular, the physical mechanism of abrupt excursion far from thermodynamic equilibrium.

We can further hypothesize that if the gyro-rotor was to vibrate uniformly (instead of rotating), and its vibration (harmonic oscillation) was to accelerate in frequency (thus inducing a state of abrupt departure far from thermodynamic equilibrium), it is possible that the resulting physics would be similar to that describing the rotational acceleration, thus we may write (using a simple dimensional analysis):Î--W R(v)=''f ep M A v v kg m s''2 'ƒ'ƒ(Equation 6),where fep is the Fokker-Planck electron-proton thermal equilibration rate, Av is the vibration amplitude and v is frequency of vibration (in 1/s).

SUMMARYThe present invention is directed to a craft using an inertial mass reduction device. The craft includes an inner resonant cavity wall, an outer resonant cavity, and microwave emitters. The outer resonant cavity wall and the inner resonant cavity wall form a resonant cavity. The microwave emitters create high frequency electromagnetic waves throughout the resonant cavity causing the outer resonant cavity wall to vibrate in an accelerated mode and create a local polarized vacuum outside the outer resonant cavity wall.

It is a feature of the present invention to provide a craft, using an inertial mass reduction device, that can travel at extreme speeds.

DRAWINGSThese and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims, and accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is an embodiment of the craft using an inertial mass reduction device; and

FIG. 2 is another embodiment of the craft using an inertial mass reduction device.

DESCRIPTIONThe preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example below and in FIGS. 1-2. As shown in FIG. 1, the craft 10 using an inertial mass reduction device comprises of an outer resonant cavity wall 100, an inner resonant cavity 200, and microwave emitters 300. The outer resonant cavity wall 100 and the inner resonant cavity wall 200 form a resonant cavity 150. The microwave emitters 300 create high frequency electromagnetic waves 50 throughout the resonant cavity 150 causing the outer resonant cavity wall 100 to vibrate in an accelerated mode and create a local polarized vacuum 60 outside the outer resonant cavity wall 100.

In the description of the present invention, the invention will be discussed in a space, sea, air, or terrestrial environment; however, this invention can be utilized for any type of application that requires use of an inertial mass reduction device or use of a craft.

In the preferred embodiment, the resonant cavity 150 is filled with a noble gas 155. The gas xenon may be used; however, any noble gas 155 or the equivalent can be utilized. The gas is used for the plasma phase transition aspect of symmetry-breaking for amplification of the Prigogine effect. In addition, the resonant cavity 150 may be an annular duct. As shown in FIG. 1, the resonant cavity 150 may also surround a crew compartment 55, a power plant system 56, a cargo bay 57, or any other type of compartment. The crew compartment 55, power plant system 56, cargo bay 57, and the like can be guarded in a Faraday-type cage 58, against all EM radiation effects.

The craft 10, particularly the outer resonant cavity wall 100, may be electrically charged. In addition, the inner resonant cavity wall 200 may be electrically insulated, in order for the inner resonant cavity wall 200 not to vibrate. The craft 10 includes a main body 20 with a leading portion 21 and a trailing portion 22. Additionally, the craft 10 may include a frustum 25 or cone on its leading portion 21 of its main body 20. In one of the embodiments, the frustum 25 is rotatable about its own axis 26 or has the ability to rotate.

The microwave emitter(s) 300 may be an electromagnetic field generator. The preferred electromagnetic generator is the one described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/807,943, entitled ''Electromagnetic Field Generator and Method to Generate an Electromagnetic Field,'' filed on Jul. 24, 2015. The application is herein incorporated by reference, and has the same inventor. However, the microwave emitters 300 may be any type of microwave emitter or radio frequency emitter that is practicable.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the craft 10 has a plurality of microwave emitters 300. The microwave emitters 300 are arranged within the resonant cavity 150, and may be antennas (high radio frequency emitter sources) in the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum range of 300 Megahertz to 300 Gigahertz. The plurality of microwave emitters 300 are arranged within the resonant cavity 150 such that the required electrical charge is present through the resonant cavity 150 in order to cause the outer resonant cavity wall 100 to vibrate in an accelerated mode.

As described, in one of its embodiments, the craft 10 utilizes microwave-induced vibration within a resonant annular cavity (the resonant cavity 150). The manner and effectiveness with which the microwave energy couples with the outer resonant cavity wall 100 is called the cavity Q-factor (the inner resonant cavity wail 200 is electrically insulated and does not vibrate). This parameter can be written as the (energy stored/energy lost) ratio and is in the range of 104 to 109 (and beyond), depending on whether ordinary metal (Aluminum or Copper at room temperature) or cryogenically cooled superconducting material (Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide or Niobium) is used for the outer resonant cavity wall 100 and outside mold line skin of the craft. One must realize that the high energy/high frequency electromagnetic field generator responsible for the inertial mass diminution effect would generate a repulsive EM energy field while in earth's atmosphere, thereby repelling air molecules in its path of ascent/flight. Consequently, once in orbital space, by local vacuum polarization (quantum field fluctuations' modification/coherence), a repulsive gravity effect (recall the negative pressure of the polarized vacuum) would permit swift movement of the craft 10 (which can be, but without limitation, a cone or lenticular triangle/delta wing configuration).

It is possible to envision a hybrid aerospace/undersea craft (HAUC), which due to the physical mechanisms enabled with the inertial mass reduction device, can function as a submersible craft capable of extreme underwater speeds (lack of water-skin friction) and enhanced stealth capabilities (non-linear scattering of RF and sonar signals). This hybrid craft would move with great ease through the air/space/water mediums, by being enclosed in a vacuum plasma bubble/sheath, due to the coupled effects of EM field-induced air/water particles repulsion and vacuum energy polarization.

As shown in FIG. 2, in another embodiment of the invention, the trailing portion 22 of the craft 10 is a mirror age of the leading portion 21. This includes all working components internal to the craft. As shown in FIG. 2, the leading portion 21 includes a top leading edge portion 121 and a bottom leading edge portion 123, while the trailing portion 22 includes top trailing edge portion 222 and a bottom trailing edge portion 223. Both the trailing portions 22 and leading portions 21 include an outer resonant cavity wall 100 and an inner resonant cavity wall 200 forming a resonant cavity 150, such the resonant cavity 150 shrouds, envelopes, or encapsulates the craft 10. The outer resonant cavity wall 100, inner resonant cavity wall 200, and resonant cavity 150 that completely surrounds the craft 10 can be referred to as a resonant cavity shroud 156. The microwave emitters 300 create high frequency electromagnetic waves throughout the entire resonant cavity shroud 156 causing the outer resonant cavity wall 100 (or a portion of the outer resonant cavity wall 100) to vibrate and create a local polarized vacuum 60 outside the outer resonant cavity wall 100.

In operation, in the preferred embodiment, the craft 10 may be powered to move in different directions by causing different sections of the resonant cavity shroud 156 to vibrate. For instance, to move upwards the top portion 156 (top leading edge portion 121 and top trailing edge portion 222) of the resonant cavity shroud 156 is vibrated, thereby, causing the polarized vacuum field 60 to move the craft upward.

When introducing elements of the present invention or the preferred embodiment(s) thereof, the articles ''a,'' ''an,'' ''the,'' and ''said'' are intended to mean there are one or more of the elements. The terms ''comprising,'' ''including,'' and ''having'' are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements.

Although the present invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the preferred embodiment(s) contained herein.

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 23:44

Log in Sign up nikki mccann ram­rez @ NikkiMcR Jesse Watters is on TV floating conspiracies that George Floyd was maybe killed because there was trafficking going on at the club he and Chauvin worked at.

pic.twitter.com/6CWSMLZrd3 2:13 PM - 3 Jun 2020 Twitter by: nikki mccann ram­rez @NikkiMcR Eoin Higgins @ EoinHiggins_

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@NikkiMcR As long as it isn't an indictment of the police as a whole that's all that matters

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@EoinHiggins_ @NikkiMcR Is he trying to defend the cops by saying they are a cartel?

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@NikkiMcR @bubbaprog he is actually trying to show that this could possibly be a 1st degree murder not manslaughter

View conversation · bweb581 Egads what a hyperbolic anecdote @ bweb581

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@bucksrq @NikkiMcR @bubbaprog Shhhhh! he doesn't understand what the words he says mean.

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@NikkiMcR @Florent2013 So he's saying that the murder was premeditated. First degree murder. I'll accept that

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@bradgoodson0 @NikkiMcR @Florent2013 But also he's kind of saying that while this one cop is personally a murderer, it was over an ongoing criminal conspiracy, and there's no reason to believe that a systemic problem exists in policing.

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@NikkiMcR I don't think Watters meant this to provide a motive that Chauvin may have had to kill Floyd to keep him quiet about it, but its not that far fetched if Chauvin is the one trafficking.

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@pcrritesgood @NikkiMcR He said the video looked like a pre meditated hit. isn't that 1st degree homicide?

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@NikkiMcR @owillis christianitytoday.com/news/2020/may/'... View conversation · martinibarbie🍸🍸🍸 @ nancymilholland

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@JCCraves Thank you for sharing this. It's so important to understand. 👏ðŸ>>

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DarqFry @ NigrumFry

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@SemoreV "IT IS TIME FOR

#PATRIOTS TO STAND UP..."

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@RealCandaceO @charliekirk11 JUST LIKE THAT... WE NEED ANOTHER HERO

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@NigrumFry @CarnellAnita @SemoreV Whatever you do drop it. The society need people like you.Well said.

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@BrexitDoncNorth @NigrumFry @CarnellAnita Thinking exactly that daily. We GOTTA SAVE AMERICA ðŸ''🇺🇸

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@NigrumFry @becasilverstein @SemoreV ðŸ'¯This guy gets it. I couldnt have broken it down better myself.

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@TkoProgressives @NigrumFry @SemoreV Better than any Harvard mouth on a CNN panel

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@NigrumFry @tracybeanz @SemoreV #IAmAmericanFirst 🇺🇸

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@DonnaWR8 @momof3not4 and

3 others In my 67 years I have never felt so united with my fellow Patriots!! Thank you Patriots!! Thank you Donald Trump!! Thank you America!! 👮''¸ðŸ‘®ðŸ‘(C)'ðŸš'👷''¸ðŸ‘(C)'ðŸ­ðŸ‘(C)'ðŸŒ¾ðŸ‘(C)'ðŸŒ¾ðŸ§‘'ðŸ"ðŸ‘(C)'ðŸŽ'ðŸ‘(C)'''¸ðŸ‘(C)'ðŸ...½ðŸ¶ðŸ¶ðŸ¶'š½¸ðŸðŸ'š¾¸ðŸš—🛺🚌ðŸš--🚍''¸ðŸšðŸ› ¸'š–¸'š–¸ðŸ›ŒðŸ›ŒðŸ›¸ðŸ›¸'›±¸'›±¸'›±¸ðŸ‘®''¸ðŸ‘®ðŸ‘®''‚¸ðŸ‘(C)'ðŸš'ðŸ‘(C)'ðŸ--§ðŸ§‘'ðŸ--§ðŸ‘(C)'ðŸŒ¾ðŸ‘¨'ðŸŒ¾ðŸ§‘'ðŸ"👨'ðŸ"

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:48

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:46

Can wearing a mask protect you against coronavirus?

Before putting on a mask, clean hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.Cover mouth and nose with mask and make sure there are no gaps between your face and the mask.Avoid touching the mask while using it; if you do, clean your hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.Replace the mask with a new one as soon as it is damp and do not re-use single-use masks.To remove the mask: remove it from behind (do not touch the front of mask); discard immediately in a closed bin; clean hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water. When and how to wear medical masks to protect against coronavirus?

 If you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of a person with COVID-19.Wear a mask if you are coughing or sneezing.Masks are effective only when used in combination with frequent hand-cleaning with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.If you wear a mask, then you must know how to use it and dispose of it properly. Graphics

Advice on the use of masks in the context of COVID-19 This document provides advice on the use of masks in communities, during home care, and in health care settings in areas that have reported cases of COVID-19. It is intended for individuals in the community, public health and infection prevention and control (IPC) professionals, health care managers, health care workers (HCWs), and community health workers. This updated version includes a section on Advice to decision makers on the use of masks for healthy people in community settings.

- Access the guidance

Rational use of personal protective equipment for coronavirus disease (COVID-19)This document summarizes WHO recommendations for the rational use of personal protective equipment (PPE), in health care and community settings, including the handling of cargo. This document is intended for those involved in the distribution and management of PPE, as well as public health authorities and individuals in health care and community settings to understand when PPE use is most appropriate.

- Access the publication

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:04

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (CBS) '' A protest in Providence turned into a riot overnight when demonstrators set a police cruiser on fire and then broke into the Providence Place Mall and looted shops there.

A group of up to 300 people showed up outside the mall around 11:30 p.m. Monday, supposedly to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, when things fell apart quickly.

A Providence Police cruiser was burned outside the mall early Tuesday. (WBZ-TV)

As a police cruiser was torched and windows of businesses were shattered, Providence Police said a group of 75-to-100 people stormed the mall and looted about 12-to-18 businesses inside before officers forced them back outside.

Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza said 65 people were arrested, noting that 35 were from Providence, five from Massachusetts and the rest from towns in Rhode Island.

Providence Police said about five of their officers and five Rhode Island State troopers were hurt in the riot and that five police cruisers in all were damaged.

Elorza said they had picked up ''chatter'' earlier in the evening that something might be happening, so the mall was closed three hours early at 7 p.m.

The mayor said police were called in, but it remained quiet for hours.

''Then, there were some posts on social media and pretty rapidly, people appeared from different directions and different parts of the city and they congregated over by the mall. Given the way it played out, it's hard to believe it was not organized,'' Elorza told reporters at a news conference Tuesday morning.

Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare they were as prepared as they could be to stop the crowd.

''We had several dozen police officers, but we were overwhelmed with the number of people that wanted to get into the mall,'' he told reporters.

Elorza praised police who stopped the rioters, saying the damage could have been much worse. The mayor said he will talk to Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo about whether there's a need for a curfew.

''Last night was a tough night for our city. I know there's a lot of anger, a lot of anger in our community, our state, through the entire country. But one thing is clear is that violence is not the answer. Violence is never the answer,'' the mayor said. ''What we saw last night, these are folks that gathered purposely, late, late, late at night. They weren't coming together to peacefully protest, they were out to cause trouble.''

Mayor's message to business owners: I know folks have already suffered a lot of economic harm from the pandemic and then they get hit with this'... it's pain on top of pain. I want them to know their city is behind them #providence

'-- Anna Meiler (@AnnaMeiler) June 2, 2020

Many of the restaurants and businesses that were hit are already hurting from the coronavirus pandemic. Caf(C) Nuovo just reopened their indoor dining Monday and now this.

''They threw a brick through one of our windows, they came and ransacked a good portion of inventory behind the bar,'' general manager Sean Scannell told WBZ-TV. ''It's heartbreaking, it's disappointing.''

But there is a sign of hope. Volunteers like Sam Oji came together Tuesday to clean up. He has a message for those who caused all the destruction.

''This isn't what the Black Lives Matter movement is about,'' he told WBZ. ''I don't want destruction, I don't want rioting, I don't want looting that has no representation of who I am as an individual as a black man in this country.''

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:03

*HelloFresh has cut ties with ''Glee'' star Lea Michele after a former co-star accused the actress of hypocrisy when Michele posted a tweet in support of Black Lives Matter.

Samantha Ware played Jane Hayward on the sixth season of the show and she responded to the tweet by reminding Lea that she made her experience on the show ''a living hell,'' and it wasn't long before others chimed in with similar allegations, NBC News reports.

''LMAO REMEMBER WHEN YOU MADE MY FIRST TELEVISON GIG A LIVING HELL?!?!'' Ware tweeted Monday, in response to Michele's Friday tweet. ''CAUSE ILL NEVER FORGET.''

Ware added that Michele once told everyone on-set that she would ''s''t'' in her wig ''among other traumatic microaggressions.''

Several other ''Glee'' actors chimed in and also claimed Michele treated them poorly, including Jeant(C) Godlock, who responded to Ware, writing, ''did somebody say cockroaches? because that's what she used to refer to the background as on the set of glee. but we grow up and we don't stay background forever sooooo'...''

OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Warner Bros. Offers 'Just Mercy' for Free Rental During Month of June (Video)

HelloFresh does not condone racism nor discrimination of any kind. We are disheartened and disappointed to learn of the recent claims concerning Lea Michele. We take this very seriously, and have ended our partnership with Lea Michele, effective immediately.

'-- HelloFresh US (@HelloFresh) June 2, 2020

''GIRL YOU WOULDNT LET ME SIT AT THE TABLE WITH THE OTHER CAST MEMBERS CAUSE 'I DIDNT BELONG THERE,''' tweeted actor Dabier Snell, who played a student in a 2014 episode of ''Glee''

''F'-- YOU LEA,'' Snell added, according to the report.

Another ''Glee'' co-star, Alex Newell, co-signed Ware's tweet, as did William Bart Belli, who wrote that Michele treated him ''so subhuman'' that he left the show.

George Floyd did not deserve this. This was not an isolated incident and it must end. #BlackLivesMatter

'-- Lea Michele (@LeaMichele) May 29, 2020

Actress Naya Rivera previously called out Michele's diva behavior in her 2016 memoir, ''Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up,'' writing: ''Lea was a lot more sensitive, though, and sometimes it seemed like she blamed me for anything and everything that went wrong.''

In response to heat she's catching online, HelloFresh, a recipe kit delivery service, announced Tuesday that the company is calling quits on its partnership with Michele.

''HelloFresh does not condone racism nor discrimination of any kind,'' the company tweeted. ''We take this very seriously, and have ended our partnership with Lea Michele, effective immediately.''

At the time of this post, Lea Michele had not responded to the shade from her former co-stars. Her team is probably writing her apology script as I type this.

Meanwhile, Ariana Grande and Keke Palmer have reportedly unfollowed Lea on social, and actress Melissa Benoist has liked several tweets slamming her problematic behavior on the ''Glee'' set.

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 13:56

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 09:54

Something went wrong, but don't fret '-- let's give it another shot.

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 23:58

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 19:21

He just sounds like the most stereotypical action movie "bad guy," doesn't he?

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 18:59

NEW YORK '-- A visibly shaken Mayor Bill de Blasio pleaded with community and religious leaders to help curb the destruction that has begun to spiral out of control in recent days as his longtime adversary Gov. Andrew Cuomo chastised the NYPD's response and openly speculated about removing the mayor from office.

On the fifth night of demonstrations in New York City, images of looters and police being attacked splashed across social media into the early hours Tuesday morning, even as the city imposed its first curfew in decades and large groups of protesters peacefully demonstrated. The more chaotic elements of the evening drew recriminations hours later from the White House to Albany with President Donald Trump tweeting ''CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD'' and Cuomo calling for more police presence amid what he saw as a failed response.

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''I am disappointed and outraged in what happened in New York City last night,'' Cuomo said during a news briefing Tuesday. ''The police in New York City were not effective at doing their job last night. Period. They have to do a better job.''

Cuomo has put state police and 13,000 members of the National Guard on standby and even mused about invoking his statutory power to remove the mayor, but said the police had the capacity to handle the situation on their own.

De Blasio '-- at a tense news conference during which he snapped at reporters and called on local leaders to take a more active role in the protests '-- forcefully denounced the idea of allowing organized troops onto city streets, arguing their presence would only ratchet up tensions and heighten the chaos he is trying to tamp down.

''Someone needs a history lesson: When outside armed forces go into communities, no good comes of it,'' he said.

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea lit into Cuomo later in the day when asked about the governor's comments during an interview on Fox News.

"Any comments placing the blame for where we are with this situation on the backs of the men and women of this police department that are putting their lives on the line ... I think is disgraceful and he should be ashamed of himself," Shea said. "There is politics and there is what is right. And that is a disgraceful comment."

Shea also defended de Blasio's handling of the situation and said more political leaders should show similar support for the NYPD.

"I can tell you definitively that he has the backs of the men and women of this police department," Shea said. "It is an extremely difficult time. You heard him on the news and you may have heard his comments denouncing the actions of those attacking the cops. And again, what we need is probably less press conferences by many people and more support and more coming out and making difficult decisions that may not be the most popular."

The mayor has shifted his tone multiple times since the start of the protests, which have been accompanied by violence from the NYPD, attacks on officers and increasingly destructive break-ins on Sunday and Monday night along commercial strips. The mayor at first defended the police department and then chastised officers for an excess of force. He originally said the violence stemmed from ''out of town'' agitators, then conceded there were homegrown ''anarchists'' at work. He then on Tuesday blamed gangs and ''career criminals'' for exploiting protests that have flooded streets and parks in the wake of George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police.

On Tuesday, de Blasio seemed desperate for community leaders to take control of protests and channel more peaceful forces while exiling anyone looking to incite violence.

''Members of the clergy, come out now. I'm calling you out. Civic leaders, block associations, come out now and stand up for peace, stand up for anyone who would do looting, stand up against anyone who would attack a police officer,'' he said.

It was unclear whether the administration had laid any of the groundwork to coordinate gatherings before de Blasio's plea. The mayor's office has a community affairs unit dedicated to forging and maintaining relationships with residents and organizations across the five boroughs.

Gwen Carr, whose son Eric Garner was killed in a chokehold at the hands of a police officer in 2014, demanded Tuesday that protesters remain peaceful and chided those seeking to exploit the situation.

"This is our movie, and we're not going to be an extra in our movie,'' she said during a press conference. ''I am mad and angry about what happened to George Floyd, I am not mad about the protests. I am mad about the looters.''

De Blasio also slammed news outlets and politicians for focusing on looting over peaceful protesters who advocated against destruction. He snapped at the suggestion that police were looking the other way as looters targeted the Macy's flagship store in Midtown, as well as other commercial strips. He said the NYPD is fully capable of preventing the break-ins and thefts that swept through the city and that a curfew beginning at 8 p.m. Tuesday will be extended through Sunday, the day before the city is set to begin the first phase of reopening.

"There is no such thing as being able to loot with impunity. I am so sick of these efforts to mischaracterize reality," he told one reporter who asked about images of cops standing by while looters ransacked businesses. "I'll go right back at you and everyone else who wants to mischaracterize reality."

With the coronavirus pandemic still raging, de Blasio encouraged protesters to stay home, assured them that their message had been heard and said that reforms are already in motion. The police department would be hastening the disciplinary process and shifting it to identify officers who should not be in a particular location or on the force altogether, though the mayor did not go into detail about what exactly those changes would entail.

When asked about reforms being weighed by the city council to curb police aggression, specifically making it illegal for cops to use the deadly chokehold that killed Garner in 2014, de Blaiso said that he would work with lawmakers and would support legislation as long as it provided officers the ability to use the maneuver in life-threatening situations. The Council is planning to bring the measure, which would also ban other types of neck restraints, for a vote later this month, and earlier in the day Council Speaker Corey Johnson said that he had secured enough votes to override a veto '-- something the mayor threatened the last time the notion was proposed six years ago.

Cuomo said the mayor seemed out of touch with the gravity of the crisis.

''I believe the mayor underestimates the scope of the problem," the governor said. ''I believe he underestimates the duration of the problem and I don't think they used enough police to address the situation.''

But to deploy additional troops, Cuomo said he'd have to dramatically reduce the power of the mayor's office.

''Technically the governor could remove a mayor '-- you'd have to file charges,'' Cuomo said, but added he's not ready to take that step. ''I believe in the inherent capacity of the NYPD if managed and if deployed. That's what I think hasn't worked. '... That has to be fixed and that has to be fixed today.''

Republican Rep. Pete King chastised Cuomo in defense of the city's response.

''Time for @NYGovCuomo to realize the NYPD is doing its job. Governor is failing in his,'' King said in a tweet. ''NYPD is on battlefield risking their lives to protect us. Cuomo sits back in sheltered world second guessing NYPD heroes. Shameful!''

Caitlin Oprysko contributed to this report.

This article tagged under: Ride-HailingNew York

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 18:48

Log in Sign up 🇺🇸'''¸D.Marie'''¸ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡¸ @ dma4him You won't see this on the MSM...Truth bomb 👇ðŸ>>

pic.twitter.com/u2E7AZVFJr 8:15 AM - 1 Jun 2020 Twitter by: 🇺🇸'''¸D.Marie'''¸ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡¸ @dma4him platospupil @ platospupil

Jun 1 Replying to

@dma4him @Dannoacton Can't imagine how frustrating it must be for the good men and women in law enforcement

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23h Replying to

@platospupil @dma4him @Dannoacton They have the hardest jobs in our country. They deal with the worst of humanity everyday. We pay them and empower them to protect us, our businesses and communities. I've been on their bad side and I still support them.

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Jun 1 Replying to

@dma4him @RoodGridance Well said him. Now he's what I'd class as a devoted cop

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Jun 1 Replying to

@dma4him @IntenselyGinger 👆ðŸ>> This one needs to be retweeted so everyone can see it.

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@Leslie_H20 @dma4him @IntenselyGinger Yes!

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@dma4him @HandSabocik Old video from 2-3 years ago. Also, this Sheriff is for an unarmed citizenry and strict gun control. Hard pass.

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@dma4him @LauraWilsonGal GOD BLESS THIS GOOD MAN & HIS POLICE WHO TRY & TAKE CARE OF THE CARNAGE!

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@dma4him @RoodGridance Loved this guys honesty wow! Kept it real for sure.

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@dma4him @Jomamassapequa That's old. But never gets old to hear it.

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@sil3ncio @dma4him @Jomamassapequa It's old, but it needs repeating.

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 18:40

This entire clip should be featured on

NoAgendaShow.com - it's completely different from the race war baiting seen on other networks. Fox News may be M5M (mainstream media) but on rare occasions they speak truth.

twitter.com/realdonaldtrum'...

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 16:54

D(C)sol(C), votre navigateur ne supporte pas les videos

(Ottawa) Justin Trudeau a eu un silence lourd de sens quand on lui a demand(C) de commenter les agissements de Donald Trump, qui a menac(C) de d(C)ployer l'arm(C)e pour mater le mouvement de protestation antiraciste qui secoue les ‰tats-Unis, mardi.

Publi(C) le 2 juin 2020 11h44 Mis jour 14h03

M(C)lanie Marquis La Presse

Le premier ministre a pris une longue pause devant sa r(C)sidence de Rideau Cottage, mardi, lorsqu'un journaliste lui a demand(C) quel message envoyait son refus de commenter directement la fa§on dont le locataire de la Maison-Blanche g¨re les manifestations souvent violentes qui font rage dans plusieurs villes des ‰tats-Unis.

Nous regardons tous avec horreur et consternation ce qui se d(C)roule aux ‰tats-Unis. C'est un moment pour rassembler les gens, mais c'est aussi un moment pour (C)couter. C'est un moment pour apprendre quelles injustices persistent, en d(C)pit des progr¨s qui ont (C)t(C) r(C)alis(C)s au cours des derni¨res ann(C)es et d(C)cennies >>, a-t-il finalement laiss(C) tomber apr¨s un lourd silence d'une vingtaine de secondes.

Comme il l'avait fait la veille, Justin Trudeau a d(C)but(C) son allocution en (C)voquant la crise. Il a plaid(C) que cette situation (C)tait le r(C)sultat de syst¨mes qui beaucoup trop souvent tol¨rent, normalisent et perp(C)tuent l'injustice et l'in(C)galit(C) l'endroit des personnes de couleur >>.

Cela est vrai non seulement l'autre c´t(C) de la fronti¨re, mais ici, chez nous, dans nos communaut(C)s, dans notre pays >>, a argu(C) Justin Trudeau. ‡a doit cesser. Et les gens qui n'ont jamais subi le racisme ou la discrimination ont un r´le tr¨s important jouer dans tout §a >>, a-t-il encha®n(C) dans sa d(C)claration Rideau Cottage, mardi.

Un nouveau chapitre de tensions raciales s'est ouvert aux ‰tats-Unis dans la foul(C)e de la mort de George Floyd, un homme noir qu'un policier blanc a (C)t(C) accus(C) d'avoir asphyxi(C) en (C)crasant son genou sur le cou de M. Floyd lors de son arrestation Minneapolis.

L'indignation s'est r(C)pandue comme une tra®n(C)e de poudre, et les manifestations ont donn(C) lieu des arrestations de journalistes, ces ennemis du peuple >> que fustige r(C)guli¨rement le pr(C)sident Trump, qui semblent pris pour cibles par les forces de l'ordre.

L -dessus, lors d'une conf(C)rence de presse au parlement, la vice-premi¨re ministre Chrystia Freeland, elle-mªme une ancienne journaliste, a clairement affich(C) son d(C)saccord, sans toutefois prononcer elle non plus le nom du 45e pr(C)sident des ‰tats-Unis.

PHOTO JUSTIN TANG, LA PRESSE CANADIENNE

La vice-premi¨re ministre du Canada, Chrystia Freeland.

Les journalistes ne sont pas les ennemis du peuple. Les journalistes sont au service du peuple. De par ma propre exp(C)rience au sein du gouvernement, je ne peux pas dire que j'accueille positivement chacune des questions que les journalistes me posent, ou encore y r(C)pondre facilement >>, a-t-elle d(C)clar(C).

Mais je suis absolument convaincue que la pr(C)sence des journalistes qui demandent des comptes au gouvernement rend le gouvernement meilleur. La libert(C) de presse est un droit humain fondamental, et elle est un (C)l(C)ment essentiel une d(C)mocratie forte >>, a ajout(C) Mme Freeland.

Pendant ce temps, en Chambre, les chefs des diff(C)rents partis condamnaient unanimement le racisme au Canada. Le leader de l'opposition officielle, Andrew Scheer, a dit esp(C)rer que les (C)v(C)nements montrent qu'il s'agissait d'une r(C)alit(C) douloureuse et inacceptable >>.

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 15:39

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Just a few months ago, 17-year-old Taylor Cassidy was spending hours flailing her arms in an attempt to pick up the latest dance move the ''Renegade.''

Police officer Eric Christiansen hugs a protester in Oakley, California, U.S. May 31, 2020 in this still image taken from a video. Marc Anthony Lopez/via REUTERS

That all changed as Cassidy watched videos by Black Lives Matter (BLM) and eventually began creating video skits on TikTok to illustrate the racial injustice she and her friends face on a daily basis.

''Because the BLM movement has been present in society for such a long time, my generation has been able to use TikTok to spread awareness through the lens of a young person's mindset,'' Cassidy, who is black, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

Cassidy, who has amassed 1.6 million followers on TikTok since joining last November, is among the millions of users who are helping to turn the go-to destination for short-form viral music videos and pranks into a first stop for youth activism as protests against police brutality spread across America.

''The movement will be shaped to not only spread awareness about the injustice in society, but it will go further, teaching about the importance of voice and calls to action to stop the brutality,'' Cassidy said.

The hashtag #blacklivesmatter has shot up TikTok's trending list with 3 billion views as of Tuesday morning. TikTok superstars like Charli D'Amelio, whose 60 million followers is nearly twice the number of HBO's U.S. subscribers, hit pause on showing off dance moves to discuss George Floyd, a black man in Minnesota whose death as a white police officer knelt on his neck has sparked a national debate on race and power.

''I will continue to spread these messages and be an ally,'' said D'Amelio, who is white, in a post which garnered more than 47.7 million views and 12 million likes over the weekend.

TikTok's emergence as a platform for political discourse for teens follow a tradition of media platforms evolving beyond their founders' initial designs such as Twitter's role in the Arab Spring protests in 2011 and the MTV cable TV network's role galvanizing young voters in the early 1990s.

''Arab Spring was able to mobilize on Twitter. Now we're seeing something similar on TikTok,'' said Kadisha Phillips, a social media strategist, who pointed to how rapidly content spread on TikTok.

''Even though it became a place for viral dances, TikTok also became a storytelling platform,'' said Phillips. ''TikTok has taken on an interesting space because it's letting people tell stories in a very quick way.''

The expansion of TikTok's role from place for cute dance routines to platform for civil disobedience comes at a complicated moment at the company which has been accused by the black community for marginalizing African American creators.

On Monday evening, TikTok, published a blog entry here written by Vanessa Pappas, TikTok U.S. general manager, and Kudzi Chikumbu, director of creator community, that apologized to the African American community and vowed to make changes. It also said it will donate $3 million to unspecified non-profit organizations that help the black community.

TikTok came under fire last week for a glitch that made hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd appear as if they received zero views.

''We understand that many assumed this bug to be an intentional act to suppress the experiences and invalidate the emotions felt by the Black community,'' the company said in a blog post on Monday. ''We know we have work to do to regain and repair that trust.''

TikTok's big moment also comes as its high-profile new hire, Walt Disney Co's Kevin Mayer took over as CEO of the Chinese-owned company on Monday.

The new leadership comes at tensions flare between the United States and China over trade, technology and the COVID-19 pandemic. Because TikTok is owned by China-based ByteDance Technology Co and widely popular among American teens, U.S. regulators have questioned the safety of the personal data it handles and if its Chinese ownership poses a national security risk.

The company has also faced accusations of suppressing political content, including a Guardian report here last September that the company instructed moderators to censor videos pertaining to topics sensitive to the Chinese government such as the Tiananmen Square protest, based on leaked internal documents.

"TikTok does not remove content based on sensitivities related to China," the company said in a blog post here on October 24, 2019, responding to reports. "We have never been asked by the Chinese government to remove any content and we would not do so if asked. Period."

''DON'T STAY SILENT'' Lex Scott, the founder the Utah chapter of Black Lives Matter, said that she has been using TikTok to organize since March when she joined TikTok and prefers it over Facebook Inc (FB.O ) as content spreads much more quickly on TikTok.

''The younger crowd does not want to be on Facebook and they are not on Facebook. They are on SnapChat and TikTok,'' Scott said.

Scott, who boasts nearly 90,000 followers on TikTok compared to her hundreds of followers on Facebook, said that she is now using TikTok to inform audiences about police brutality and to get at least 150,000 signatures on a petition bit.ly/2XRjISw for a police reform bill.

The petition on Change.org has been signed at least 148,000 times because of Scott's following on TikTok.

Other TikTokkers have posted first aid tips for protests, filmed demonstrations and acted out skits to highlight their experiences with inequality.

Activists have enjoyed getting a boost from the superstars of TikTok who have brought attention to protests and directed followers to calls to action.

On Monday, TikTok star Loren Gray said that she would stop posting her typical content out of respect for the protests and urged her 44 million followers to donate and sign petitions. Gray also pushed for other TikTok influencers to donate to the cause.

''To my peers, please don't stay silent right now,'' Gray said in her post. ''Y'all have so much influence over this generation and it is important for you to use your voice aside from using a hashtag and calling yourself an ally.''

By Monday, TikTok appeared to embrace its new role as a forum for political expression.

''TikTok is an outlet for users to express themselves. This expression is often joyful, but our community is going through a time of particularly deep anguish and even outrage, and much of the content on the app this week clearly reflects those experiences,'' said TikTok's Pappas in a statement. ''Now more than ever, we stand with the Black community.''

Reporting by Arriana McLymore and Echo Wang; editing by Kenneth Li and Lisa Shumaker

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 15:21

(C) Patrick Semansky/Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty/KJN Hillary Clinton ' George Soros

In 2017, Chaziel Sunz explained that

Antifa is a hard-left ideological terrorist group which is backed by Soros and Clinton and company.He insinuates that there is a coming civil war, back in 2017, and that black people had better be strategic. He does not say that black people should join with right-wing militias and join Trump, but he says there will be two sides, black people will be forced to choose, and that the worst choice would be to die for Hillary Clinton and 'these demonic forces'.

He has shone the light on who pays for Antifa, Black Lives Matter, what the plan is of the Democratic Party using those groups.

He said three years ago that these organizations were playing upon the emotions of the black community, pointing to the alleged problem of the Trump supporting 'neo nazis', to: "fight for a war on American turf, very very soon"

He says

BLM is not a real black organization, it never was. He expresses guilt for keeping the information back. Sunz explains that they want everyone to choose a side,

consciously or unconsciously.Now that we see where the George Soros NGO industrial complex has led, as part of a Color Revolution scenario, the words of Mr. Sunz were both telling and prescient.

Mr. Sunz left the Dixiecrat plantation.

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 14:43

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 14:10

Looting at Vallejo Walgreens leads to police shootingVALLEJO, Calif. (KRON) - Officials are investigating after a possible looter was shot at a Walgreens in Vallejo overnight.

According to authorities, it happened around 12:30 a.m. at the store in the 1000 block of Redwood Street.

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Live Tear gas fired at Walnut Creek protestersWALNUT CREEK, Calif. (KRON) - Thousands of people gathered in Walnut Creek Monday night for what started and mostly remained as a peaceful protest.

There is some vandalism in the city, but not as much compared to Sunday night.

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Video Live Blog: Some public transit ending early as Bay Area enforces curfewsSAN FRANCISCO (KRON) - Protests erupted a seventh day in the Bay Area and across the United States over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

One former officer, who was seen with his knee on Floyd's neck, was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter -- but protesters say the charge isn't harsh enough, and are demanding charges for the other officers involved.

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Mon, 01 Jun 2020 22:35

CNN Tonight host Don Lemon continued to foment division and hatred Monday night for people who disagreed with him and CNN, declaring after President Trump's address to the nation that America's ''teetering on a dictatorship'' and ''declaring war on Americans.''

As if to signal that he's set on more violence, Lemon warned that Trump's ''playing a very, very dangerous game'' as Americans ''feel like they are occupied in their own communities by police departments.''

Lemon built up by complaining that the speech he'd spent days demanding Trump give was no more than ''a made for television moment,'' including Attorney General Bill Barr ''survey[ing] the troops'' before the speech ''to create this moment for the cameras.''

After mocking his phone call with governors earlier in the day and Trump as ''sacred,'' Lemon let loose by demanding the country to ''open your eyes'' because ''we are teetering on a dictatorship'' and ''chaos.''

''Has the President '-- I'm listening '-- is the President declaring war on Americans? What is happening here,'' he added.

That's interesting seeing as how CNN has spent the past few days declaring war on Americans who don't think like them.

Lemon continued to rant that Trump was ''playing a very, very dangerous game here'' seeing as how ''[t]here are a lot of Americans who are out on these streets who are upset, who are frustrated, who are angry.''

As he's done for almost a week now, Lemon offered a meaningless, one-sentence claim he's not for rioting and violence before continuing his warpath against all law enforcement, pouring more gasoline on the country's dire state of affairs:

Again, I'm not condoning violence at all, and I hope that they remain peaceful, but I hope that they stand up and fight for their rights to peacefully protest in this country, but he's playing a very dangerous game, because this will backfire. People are upset and they're angry. These people as I've been saying as well, they feel like they are occupied in their own communities by police departments. Many of them militarized police departments. Now the entire country, according to his orders, we are living under a militarized country or we will be soon and it will play out in front of our very eyes on national television.

Lemon returned on Erin Burnett OutFront for a second round, which began by ironically claiming on Jeffrey Zucker's network that President Trump has ''acting'' and ''pretending to be a president.''

He reiterated that Trump has been playing ''a very, very dangerous game'' and purposefully ''igniting tensions'' that ''I hope this doesn't turn out to backfire.''

Giving implicit support for Joe Biden, Lemon ruled that ''sensible Americans will realize'' that ''America is not a dictatorship'' and ''police state.'' He concluded (click ''expand''):

When people are crying out to be heard, when they are protesting on the street, that means they are angry, they are hurt, and they want to be heard. We have the strongest, biggest military force in the world. We have very strong very big police forces all over cities and municipalities in this country. We can stop rioters anytime we want. We can stop looters anytime we want. We can stop people who are breaking laws any time we want, but what we can't figure out is how to deal with people who are hurting, Americans who are just like us who live in the same communities, it's not adjacent communities who share the same land and the same values.

We cannot figure out how to get along with them, bring them into the fold and as the President of the United States represent those people and engage those people without siccing military '-- the military on them and armed forces on them? There is a problem and a lack of understanding and empathy coming from the highest office of the land and the person who holds that office is Donald J. Trump.

To see the relevant CNN transcript from June 1, click ''expand.''

CNN's The Situation RoomJune 1, 20206:51 p.m. Eastern

WOLF BLITZER: Alright, so there's the President of the United States making a six or seven minute statement declaring he is the President of law and order and he will stop what's going on right now. And as he was speaking right across the street from the white house, there was a peaceful demonstration in Lafayette Park by protesters who were simply shouting, making statements, but they were not threatening anyone and all of a sudden, military panel, military police, uniformed Secret Service police, mounted police went in to disperse and they were firing tear gas in the process, rubber bullets we're told as well. The President saying he's going to use an old law to deploy military personnel to deal with all of this. He says these are professional anarchists who were responsible. Once again, as he has for the past several days, he blamed a far left group, Antifa, for this. They will lose or he will win, he said. This is our mission, we will succeed, he said, 100 percent. Mobilizing all resources, he said, citing an old law, civilian and military, the Insurrection Act of 1807, he was mobilizing that to deal with the riots he said and lawlessness. This situation is about to get clearly a whole not worse. Not only here at the White House in Washington, D.C., but bracing for angry reaction in other major cities around the United States as well. And remember in only about eight minutes, there's supposed to be a curfew that's taking place here in the nation's capitol. Everyone's supposed to be off the streets. We'll see what happens at that moment. Don Lemon, the President did not mince from his perspective any words at all.

DON LEMON: He did not, Wolf and just as the President was coming out I was trying to make the point to you this was a major TV moment. This is the reason, as I said earlier, that the attorney general came out with survey the troops because they wanted to create this moment for the cameras. So that when the President came out and gave his law and order speech which I said as well again for the cameras that there would be chaos on the streets of America. This was a made for television moment and what I wanted to say after that, which I believe to be true and I know to be true now is that earlier on that phone call that we heard that Jim Acosta played for us earlier when the President said you are being weak, you have to show strength, that the Minneapolis Police Department was on fire, I've never seen anything like this before. I said he sounded weak and scared. Those were the orders from the commander in chief for this very moment that just happened in front of our eyes. Why were we pretending otherwise? Open your eyes, America. Open your eyes. We are teetering on a dictatorship. This is chaos. Has the president '-- I'm listening '-- is the President declaring war on Americans? What is happening here? He's saying he wants to protes '-- protect peaceful protest at the same time sending law enforcement and military into the streets to push peaceful protesters back, to be aggressive with peaceful protesters. He is doing the exact opposite of what he said in that speech I think the President is playing a very, very dangerous game here. There are a lot of Americans who are out on these streets who are upset, who are frustrated, who are angry. Again, I'm not condoning violence at all, and I hope that they remain peaceful, but I hope that they stand up and fight for their rights to peacefully protest in this country, but he's playing a very dangerous game, because this will backfire. People are upset and they're angry. These people as I've been saying as well, they feel like they are occupied in their own communities by police departments. Many of them militarized police departments. Now the entire country, according to his orders, we are living under a militarized country or we will be soon and it will play out in front of our very eyes on national television.

(....)

CNN's Erin Burnett OutFrontJune 1, 20207:20 p.m. Eastern

ERIN BURNETT: Don Lemon, of course my colleague joins me on the phone along with Ben Jealous, the former president of the NAACP. You know, Don, to the point the governor was making, the president wanted this photo-op and he wanted to disperse that crowd because he wants an image of all of these protests being one thing, which is violent, which, of course, is not accurate.

LEMON: Yes, and '-- and, listen we work television. We know when someone is producing a moment and we know this President '-- this President comes from a reality show background and the fact that he says he is going to protect protesters, peaceful protesters and then sends in military or police officers to push them away when they're being peaceful is just really outrageous. And, Erin, we're New Yorkers. Donald Trump standing in front of a church with a Bible, really? Let's just be honest here. When was the last time Donald Trump saw a church even before he was President of the United States? When was the last time he cracked open a bible? I'm just saying. This is all for show. Donald Trump is pretending, in this moment, to be a president. Let's just all be real about this. He's pretending to be a President. He is mimicking the person that he adores, his hero, George Patton, and wants to return to this sort 1950s dominance for America. This is what he's doing. This is all acting, all a show and he is performing what he thinks a leader should be like and what he thinks a president of the United States should be like. But guess what? This is a very, very dangerous game. He is possibly igniting tensions '-- not possibly. He's igniting tensions I know more. I hope this doesn't turn out to backfire on him because if it does, it's not going to play out well for many people in the United States beyond the President of the United States.

But if it does, we will watch those images play out on our television screens, and America will see this. This is all about getting re-elected in November of 2020. I'm not sure how much this is going to help the President. This may help his base, but sensible Americans will realize, and they know America is not a dictatorship. America is not a police state. When people are crying out to be heard, when they are protesting on the street, that means they are angry, they are hurt, and they want to be heard. We have the strongest, biggest military force in the world. We have very strong very big police forces all over cities and municipalities in this country. We can stop rioters anytime we want. We can stop looters anytime we want. We can stop people who are breaking laws any time we want, but what we can't figure out is how to deal with people who are hurting, Americans who are just like us who live in the same communities, it's not adjacent communities who share the same land and the same values. We cannot figure out how to get along with them, bring them into the fold and as the President of the United States represent those people and engage those people without siccing military '-- the military on them and armed forces on them? There is a problem and a lack of understanding and empathy coming from the highest office of the land and the person who holds that office is Donald J. Trump.

NewsBusters Reader,

The media are hard at work weaving a web of confusion, misinformation, and conspiracy surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The media is using whatever crisis it can to swing the upcoming election'--they have an agenda and the truth is not part of it.

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Mon, 01 Jun 2020 12:29

Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television, told CNBC on Monday the U.S. government should provide $14 trillion of reparations for slavery to help reduce racial inequality.

The wealth divide and police brutality against blacks are at the heart of protests that have erupted across the nation following last week's killing of George Floyd during an arrest in Minneapolis.

"Now is the time to go big" to keep America from dividing into two separate and unequal societies, Johnson said on "Squawk Box."

"Wealth transfer is what's needed," he argued. "Think about this. Since 200-plus-years or so of slavery, labor taken with no compensation, is a wealth transfer. Denial of access to education, which is a primary driver of accumulation of income and wealth, is a wealth transfer."

Johnson, 74 made history as America's first black billionaire when he sold BET to Viacom in 2001. Shortly after the sale, he started the investment firm The RLJ Cos. He's no longer on the Forbes billionaires list.

Calling reparations the "affirmative action program of all time," Johnson said they would send the signal that white Americans acknowledge "damages that are owed" for the unequal playing field created by slavery and the decades since with a "wealth transfer to white Americans away from African Americans."

"Damages is a normal factor in a capitalist society for when you have been deprived for certain rights," he said. "If this money goes into pockets like the [coronavirus] stimulus checks ... that money is going to return back to the economy" in the form of consumption. There will also be more black-owned businesses, he added.

People run off with merchandise from a store during widespread protests and unrest in response to the death of George Floyd on May 31, 2020 in Santa Monica, California.

Warrick Page | Getty Images

Johnson said the need for reparations has been on his website since last year. "I'm not new to this challenge." He said he's not advocating "more bureaucratic programs that don't deliver and don't perform." He stressed, "I'm talking about cash. We are a society based on wealth. That's the foundation of capitalism."

Later on "Squawk Box" Merck Chairman and CEO Ken Frazier, who is black, expressed doubts about whether reparations would be possible. "I don't believe we'll be able to get anything like that through our political system." However, he said, "Leaders in the business community have to be a unifying force. They can be a source of opportunity. They can be a source of understanding."

"We as business leaders can step up and solve many of these economic problems for people," Frazier added, saying that education, particularly financial literacy, is the "great equalizer."

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Mon, 01 Jun 2020 08:14

'‹If there was such a thing as MSNBC's Law it would state that all things are to the benefit of Russia and President Trump is at least somewhat responsible. The 11th Hour host Brian Williams and former FBI Assistant Director and current MSNBC analyst Frank Figliuzzi illustrated this on Friday night when they theorized that Russia is benefiting from both riots across the country, the COVID pandemic, and Trump's response to them.

Williams told Figliuzzi that, "I can't tell you how many people have been in touch with me today and tonight and last night to say some form of the following, which we would have laughed at five years ago. The Russians must be having a good old time looking at television images of the United States. Death toll of 100,000. A pandemic not at all under control. And now city streets aflame in more cities tonight than we can list."

Why would it have been laughed at five years ago? There were riots in 2015 as well. As for the pandemic, Russia has its own problems to worry about on that front.

Figliuzzi, however, agreed with Williams, "Yeah, I've lost count of the number of times you and I, Brian, have talked about this very concept, that the number one goal of the Russian government is not to get a certain person in the White House, but rather to sow discord and chaos."

He went on to add, "Now, it helps if the person in the White House is unable to calm the nerves of the nation, is unable to get peace and calm restored in our cities through his behavior, through trust, through his relationships and his statements. So yes, our adversaries are studying this right now. Some of them are actually pleased that we are more divided than ever and I'm very troubled that we could be in for a very long hot summer if this isn't quashed."

Here is a transcript for the May 29 show:

MSNBC

The 11th Hour with Brian Williams

11:40 PM ET

BRIAN WILLIAMS: I can't tell you how many people have been in touch with me today and tonight and last night to say some form of the following, which we would have laughed at five years ago. The Russians must be having a good old time looking at television images of the United States. Death toll of 100,000. A pandemic not at all under control. And now city streets aflame in more cities tonight than we can list. FRANK FIGLIUZZI: Yeah, I've lost count of the number of times you and I, Brian, have talked about this very concept, that the number one goal of the Russian government is not to get a certain person in the White House, but rather to sow discord and chaos. Now, it helps if the person in the White House is unable to calm the nerves of the nation, is unable to get peace and calm restored in our cities through his behavior, through trust, through his relationships and his statements. So yes, our adversaries are studying this right now. Some of them are actually pleased that we are more divided than ever and I'm very troubled that we could be in for a very long hot summer if this isn't quashed.

NewsBusters Reader,

The media are hard at work weaving a web of confusion, misinformation, and conspiracy surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

At MRC's NewsBusters, we cut through the hypocrisy and expose the media's bias, bringing the truth to the American people'--but without you, our efforts can only go so far.

The media is using whatever crisis it can to swing the upcoming election'--they have an agenda and the truth is not part of it.

This is why NewsBusters, a program of the MRC, exists. To take on the liberal media, expose their toxic bias, and stop them in their tracks. We are part of the only organization purely dedicated to this critical mission and we need your help to fuel this fight.

Donate today to help NewsBusters continue to document and expose liberal media bias. $25 a month goes a long way in the fight for a free and fair media.

And now, thanks to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, you can make up to a $300 gift to the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization of your choice and use it as a tax deduction on your 2020 taxes, even if you take the standard deduction on your returns.

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Mon, 01 Jun 2020 00:02

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Sun, 31 May 2020 23:27

(CNN) A Michigan sheriff joined protesters in Flint Township on Saturday, putting down his weapon and saying, "I want to make this a parade, not a protest."

Johnie Franklin of Flint takes a selfie with Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson as he marches with protesters against police brutality and in memory of George Floyd on Saturday in Flint Township, Michigan.

Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson spoke with demonstrators who were met by police officers in riot gear, local affiliate WEYI reported.

"The only reason we're here is to make sure that you got a voice -- that's it," Swanson said in video clips shown on Twitter.

"These cops love you -- that cop over there hugs people," he said, pointing to an officer.

He was speaking to the crowd protesting police brutality and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

He smiled and high-fived people in the crowd, who responded by chanting, "walk with us!"

So, he did.

"Let's go, let's go," Swanson said as he and the cheering crowd proceeded. "Where do you want to walk? We'll walk all night."

Flint has drawn national attention for its water crisis, which began in 2014, when city and state officials switched the city's water supply to save money. It exposed residents to dangerously high levels of lead and resulted in more than a dozen lawsuits.

FLINT WATER CRISIS FACTS

But Saturday's event offered a welcome contrast to violent confrontations in cities across the country.

People took to social media to champion Swanson's actions.

"This is the correct response from police #WalkWithUs," Gwen Campbell tweeted.

JJ Milliken, another Swanson supporter, said via Twitter: "#WalkWithUs is how we change a system that murdered #GeorgeFloyd. It requires mindfulness of our actions and beliefs. Chris Swanson exemplifies the deputies and officers I know and respect. Community-first mentality and lead by example. This is a mindful action. This is change."

CNN is attempting to reach the Genesee County Sheriff's office for comment.

On Friday Swanson addressed George Floyd's death via a Facebook post.

"I join with the chorus of citizens and law enforcement officials alike, calling for the swift arrest and prosecution of each police officer involved in this appalling crime," he wrote. "The actions we witnessed on that video destroy countless efforts to bolster community policing efforts across our nation, and erode trust that is painstakingly built."

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Sun, 31 May 2020 23:22

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

A man interviewed on camera during last night's chaos in Minneapolis warned that rioters are planning on ''coming to the suburbs'' if they don't get what they want.

The twin cities were once again rocked by a night of absolute bedlam as more stores were looted and rioters set fire to the 3rd police precinct building, prompting cops to flee the scene.

''It's real bogus, they gotta hit it right, otherwise this is what's gonna happen, ain't nothing left here so when we start coming to the suburbs, when we come to the government center, then what y'all gonna do?'' the mask-wearing African American asks.

"We're coming for the suburbs next." pic.twitter.com/282fBmEjnr

'-- Comped Capital (@CapitalComped) May 29, 2020''You see what I'm saying, so eh that's just what's gonna happen, you know '' f**k the police,'' he adds.

President Trump has promised to bring in the National Guard if local authorities are incapable of handling the violence, something that is pretty much self-evident at this point.

As we highlighted earlier, despite the riots spreading across the country and becoming more violent, the media is still describing the carnage as a legitimate ''protest.''

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Sun, 31 May 2020 23:14

National Guard troops deployed onto the streets of Los Angeles early Sunday morning as looting, vandalism and violence intensified and the Police Department struggled to restore order after two days of discord.

The dramatic move came after a day of deteriorating conditions, as protests marking the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police began peacefully but turned violent. Demonstrators burned Los Angeles Police Department cruisers, threw objects at officers and looted retail businesses, including the Apple Store and Nordstrom at the Grove shopping mall. Some protesters even made it to Beverly Hills' famed Rodeo Drive, where they were met by a line of officers.

Police and protesters spent hours in a tense standoff, with police shooting rubber bullets and striking demonstrators with batons while several police cars were set on fire and other vehicles vandalized.

About a dozen destroyed or defaced LAPD cruisers sat abandoned. The odor of charred rubber wafted through the area. The cruisers' windows were smashed, mirrors ripped out and the vehicles' bodies scrawled with anti-police slogans.

Many Shuls and Jewish-owned businesses were vandalized. A Jewish-community activist tells YWN that as many as 75% of the Jewish-owned businesses on ''La Brea'' were vandalized last night.

Rabbi Ganzweig Shul on Beverly Blvd in Los Angeles has been vandalized:

Rabbi Gershon Bess Shul:

Many Jewish-owned businesses were vandalized and looted by packs of marauding thugs:

Family Fashion / Hat Box on La Brea, next door to Yeshiva Toras Emes:

Some Jewish business-owners went out and physically protested their property:

See the aftermath this morning in Los Angeles:

The Frum community is seen in the next video cheering the police as they arrived in the community:

National Guard seen rolling into Los Angeles on Sunday morning:

(YWN World Headquarters '' NYC)

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Sun, 31 May 2020 17:56

In a statement that will surprise absolutely nobody, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice has declared that Russia '' and not outraged Americans '' is responsible for the anarchy on the US' streets. How original.

After five straight nights of nationwide riots, a war of words has broken out between the right and left over who's responsible for the worst of the looting and destruction. Authorities in Minnesota '' the epicenter of the unrest '' have blamed 'White Supremacists' and drug cartels, while President Donald Trump and the Justice Department have blamed left-wing 'Antifa' militants, with Trump announcing on Sunday that he'd designate the loosely-knit group a ''terrorist organization.''

Also on rt.com Trump INFLAMES the Left, delights the Right with TERROR-list threat for Antifa With just about everybody but the rioters themselves getting the blame, Susan Rice '' former National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama '' chimed in with a tried and true villain: Russia.

''I would bet,'' she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Sunday, ''this is right out of the Russian playbook.''

Absolutely Incredible: Obama's Former NSA Susan Rice on CNN talking about the protests and domestic strife"This is right out of the Russian playbook" pic.twitter.com/luXiPV0bOq

'-- Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) May 31, 2020Rice at least admitted that she's ''not reading the intelligence these days,'' essentially confirming that her theory was plucked from thin air.

Blitzer didn't push back on Rice's claim, and Rice went on to accuse Moscow of trying to ''disintegrate'' the US from within. ''I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they're funding it in some way, shape or form,'' she added, another theory pulled from the ether.

That an Obama administration official would blame Russia for America's woes is unsurprising. After all, Obama-era intelligence heads and Democratic lawmakers spent more than two years attempting to frame President Trump for ''colluding'' with the Kremlin.

But she's just one of several liberal talking heads to smell Russian meddling in the burning streets of Minneapolis and beyond. Former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial went on CNN on Saturday to suggest that Russian agents were stoking riots, while a host of #Resistance types took to Twitter earlier in the week to declare the unrest part of ''Russia's master plan.''

Also on rt.com CNN blames 'RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA' for George Floyd riots because they 'Can't blame China' - Trump ''I was wondering how long it would take the mainstream media to find a Russian angle,'' Global Policy Institute researcher George Szamuely told RT. ''Of course, there's not the slightest evidence for this, but that's to be expected.''

Trump, meanwhile, was a little more blunt. ''Here we go again,'' he tweeted on Saturday. ''Fake News @CNN is blaming RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA. They are sick losers with VERY bad ratings!''

Here we go again. Fake News @CNN is blaming RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA. They are sick losers with VERY bad ratings! P.S. Can't blame China because they need the cash?

'-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2020Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

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Sun, 31 May 2020 15:44

Gov. Inslee outlines challenges in Phase Two on Tuesday, May 12. (TVW)

Every day I hear from people whose lives are being destroyed by our crumbling economy. We have 900,000 newly unemployed workers in our state.

Business owners who have put their heart and soul into building wonderful enterprises are devastated as their companies '-- and their financial lives '-- are disappearing into an abyss. More than one listener has told me they are crying themselves to sleep every night.

What does Gov. Inslee think about these shattered lives? He views it as a great opportunity.

In a disgustingly tone-deaf interview on Bernie Sanders' website, Inslee told the Bernie-bros, ''this has always been an economic opportunity '... we should not be intimidated by people who say you should not use this COVID crisis to peddle a solution to climate change '... we can't use COVID as an excuse for inaction on climate change '... they're both so similar '... based on an understanding of science.''

Inslee's failed presidential bid '-- with climate change as his singular focus '-- earned him 0% support among Democrats. Now, with our state's workers and business owners looking at what could be decade-long financial ruin, he has decided to continue down that insane path.

Rebuilding this economy is a monumental task. It will require laser-like focus to bring us back from financial devastation that may be worse than the Great Depression. The fact that Inslee says he looks at this as an opportunity to pursue his green agenda is a slap in the face to the people of this state who don't know how they are going to feed their family in the days ahead.

Late Thursday afternoon, the state announced that it would be shutting down unemployment payments for two days because it's been swamped with millions in fraudulent claims that it paid out to scammers.

Jay Inslee cannot manage essential necessities for his citizens in this crisis. The sleepless nights will continue. But we're still supposed to believe that our private info will be safe when we gave our phone numbers and e-mails to restaurants, an Inslee requirement if we want to go out to eat.

Jay's solution to all of this? Let's build a windmill!

This is not about public health. Never let a good crisis go to waste. Inslee views this as an ''opportunity'' to ram through a failed social agenda.

Our business owners and the unemployed have broken hearts in this crisis. Your governor does not have that problem. Using this as a climate change tool reveals that he is heartless.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon '' 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Thu, 04 Jun 2020 06:34

Craig Gore, a writer whose credits include ''S.W.A.T.'' and ''Chicago P.D.,'' has been fired from Dick Wolf's upcoming ''Law & Order'' spinoff series after controversial Facebook posts about looters and the recent curfew put in place across Los Angeles.

''I will not tolerate this conduct, especially during our hour of national grief. I am terminating Craig Gore immediately,'' Dick Wolf said in a statement to Variety.

Photos on social media show Gore holding a weapon with the caption ''Curfew'...'' In another comment, Gore threatened to ''light motherf'--ers up who are trying to f'-- with my property,'' in reference to protests that took place in Los Angeles on Monday.

Gore's posts, which incited a strong reaction on social media, come amid calls for criminal justice reform after George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minnesota. His posts gained traction on social media after Drew Janda, who worked on the OWN series ''Greenleaf'' and HBO shows ''Big Little Lies'' and ''Barry,'' brought attention to Gore's remarks.

Variety has also learned from sources that Paradigm, which represented Gore, has now cut ties with the writer and producer.

''Craig Gore is no longer a Paradigm client. We condemn his post in the strongest possible terms,'' said a spokesperson for the agency.

Gore previously listed himself as a ''co-executive producer on 'Law & Order: Organized Crime''' '-- the new Chris Meloni series in the works at NBC '-- on his Facebook profile. However, Meloni replied to Janda's tweet saying that he has ''no idea who this person is or what they do.'' Meloni clarified that the showrunner on the ''Law & Order: SVU'' spinoff is Matt Olmstead, not Gore, adding that he has ''gotten no word on any hirings.''

On the same day as Gore's posts, the ''S.W.A.T.'' writers' room Twitter account posted a statement calling for ''law enforcement to de-escalate conflicts, not exacerbate them.'' Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, one of the show's executive producers, said that he is ''frustrated, angry, but determined to do better. Onscreen and off.''

Other than ''S.W.A.T.'' and ''Chicago P.D.,'' Gore recently had a ''DEA'' series in development at Fox. However, according to sources the network passed on the project, which had been given a script plus penalty commitment, earlier this year.

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 23:23

*CONTENT WARNING THIS VIDEO IS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC PROOF OF POLICE BRUTALITY*

By Ed Dalton

Brad Levi Ayala, 16, was shot in the head with a plastic coated bullet by the Austin Police Department (APD) while participating in a demonstration against police brutality on Saturday in honor of Mike Ramos and George Floyd.

Ayala was standing, viewing the protests from a hill when he was struck by the plastic coated bullet, he was not engaged in any confrontation with the police and had been keeping a considerable distance. Eyewitnesses on the scene expressed that while some of the police were firing indiscriminately at protesters, others were deliberate and picked out those standing further away, using them for ''target practice.''

According to Ayala's older sister, ''He was standing quietly on a hill when a rubber bullet hit him in the head. He is recovering and stable but the recovery will be a long process.'' APD has shown that they will respond with violence to anyone challenging their history of murder and abuse.

Saturday's demonstration was organized by the Mike Ramos Brigade who has called for another protest on Thursday in honor of those wounded and in critical condition from the police violence over the weekend protests as well as to demand people's justice for Mike Ramos and George Floyd. APD has launched a Public Relations Campaign in an attempt to humanize their inhuman actions, groups like the Mike Ramos Brigade see through this, according to the event page, ''When people pour into the streets to denounce the racist pigs who murder our friends and loved ones, these pigs respond by attempting to murder more of them right in front of us.''

Ayala's brother Edwin Sanchez told ruling class media outlet CBS Austin, ''I saw police officers not seeing the humanity in him'-- not seeing the kindness that he is'-- not seeing him for what I see. They saw a monster and they treated him like that,'' he was clear that this is not a random attack but one of a racist character, ''It's not just my brother. It's countless teenagers who look just like him. They're treating them like animals'... like monsters and that's not okay.''

Ayala's family has launched a fundraiser to help cover his medical bills. Ayala is a working class youth, who has stood bravely and been seriously injured, Tribune asks that our readers make a donation.

Many other protesters were injured this weekend by APD including an unnamed 20 year old Black man, now in critical condition. Multiple people were shot in the head and face with plastic coated bullets, intentionally by APD. The police have proven to thousands of demonstrators this weekend that they are nothing but an army of the rich used to commit crimes against the poor.

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 23:18

See more of the storyWhen the Rev. Jerry McAfee saw the fires were getting closer, he knew So Low Grocery Outlet had to be protected.

And so he organized nightly patrols to keep an eye on one of the few discount food stores in north Minneapolis that hadn't closed out of fear of the COVID-19 pandemic or looting.

The idea came about when he got a worried call from So Low's owner, after several area businesses were torched under mysterious circumstances, says McAfee, the pastor at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church. He started working the phones, and eventually rounded up a group of ministers and gang members '-- ''Bloods, GDs, Vice Lords,'' he says '-- to man the patrols.

''Those they wanted to call menaces to society are now holding the community down,'' he said. Their charge: protecting a market that needy residents depend on daily for food and other necessities, McAfee said.

''That's not even a black-owned business, but that's the only one that black folks can get to,'' he said of the market. ''This one, our sole purpose was to make sure our people can eat.

''If it goes up, then our people will have to go a long ways to get groceries,'' he said of the market, at 3111 N. Emerson Av.

The police killing of George Floyd last week galvanized street protests nationwide and prompted officials in several states to mobilize National Guard troops and impose curfews; in Minnesota alone, hundreds of buildings were looted and torched.

While residents and shopkeepers along Lake Street in the south Minneapolis police precinct where Floyd was killed bore the brunt of the rioting, at least 17 North Side businesses were also damaged, according to a Star Tribune database. Most of the vandalized or burned businesses there were along W. Broadway, the area's main commercial artery, but McAfee still worried.

With widespread reports of roving potential bad actors, similar civilian patrols have popped up all over the city, with residents blocking off streets with makeshift barricades and erecting floodlights to protect their neighborhoods from would-be rioters. In some areas, neighbors have started private WhatsApp groups to share minute-by-minute information and photos of suspected troublemakers in the area and, hopefully, correct misinformation that often spreads in times of crisis.

K.B. Brown has also organized street patrols in the area, bringing together an unlikely ensemble of rival gang members, bikers and ''white people from the community that are literally out with hockey sticks.'' The group of 50 or so has taken to going from block to block, on the lookout for suspicious people and vehicles.

He says he some of the young men agreed to set aside their differences and work together for the community's benefit.

''It's been a beautiful thing because I've like had the Highs and the Lows riding around in the same car,'' said Brown, who grew up in the city and owns a local T-shirt printing business. ''And they haven't been fighting and doing all that. ... They've been riding around protecting the neighborhood.''

Some community groups are arming themselves, which has led to more than a few frantic 911 calls, like the caller late Tuesday who reported seeing several men with ''machine guns'' getting out of a Jeep. They turned out to be private security guards.

Last week, McAfee sent several of his volunteers down to help out another security detail run by the NAACP on W. Broadway, after he says some shady-looking people kept circling the block, arousing suspicion, and his men heard gunfire ring out, he said.

For years, parts of north Minneapolis were seen as so-called ''food deserts.''

Big chains like Kowalski's and Supervalu have come and gone in recent years. Today, residents' options consist of a handful of convenience stores, Aldi and Cub Foods and North Market, a community wellness center and grocery store run by nonprofit Pillsbury United Communities that opened two years ago.

McAfee said that he was as upset by Floyd's death as anyone else, but at the same time he was frustrated with how ''flippant'' some protesters were about looting at the Cub Foods on E. Lake Street.

''I'm never against protest, but I absolutely cannot stand for you to be so enraged that you don't think about your actions,'' he said. ''And so with one strike of one match, without one thought about it, you decimate the oppressed that you claim be trying to defend.''

Libor Jany ' 612-673-4064

Twitter: @StribJany

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 18:52

Brian Jordan Bartels, a 20-year-old man who Pittsburgh police said is suspected of inciting violence during a protest, was escorted by his parents as he turned himself in Monday.

The Antifa kid who police say incited riot in Pittsburgh has been arrested and watching him turn himself in with mommy and daddy is the absolute greatest thing on the internet today.pic.twitter.com/pTZUPV9XZL

'-- Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) June 1, 2020

Local law enforcement were investigating the destruction of a police SUV when they received an anonymous tip from a co-worker at Amazon who recognized Bartels at the scene of the crime, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The vehicle was set on fire after being tagged with spray paint Saturday, although police officers eventually arrived on horseback to disperse the rioters.

According to a criminal complaint and eyewitness accounts, a woman tried to stop Bartels from damaging the SUV, but he gave her the finger and proceeded to break the car's windows.

#BREAKING NEWS: Pittsburgh Police say 20 year old Brian Bartels is the man who incited riots in downtown #Pittsburgh yesterday. This is video taken of him destroying a police cruiser. An arrest warrant has been issued. https://t.co/AFYsrV2vsD

*WARNING* Explicit Language pic.twitter.com/CNmoVHx7Fn

'-- Tim Williams (@realtimwilliams) June 1, 2020

After Bartels was identified, police executed a search warrant at his home Sunday, breaking down the front and back doors when no one responded. They found two guns, six spray paint cans and the sweatshirt worn by Bartels during the demonstration, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The 20-year-old turned himself in Monday and was escorted by his parents and an attorney. Local news reporters attempted to ask him questions but Bartels ignored them as he walked into the station. He was referred to as ''antifa kid'' in a Monday tweet by Jason Howerton, but any affiliation with antifa is unclear.

Bartels faces multiple felony charges including criminal mischief, institutional vandalism and riot. (RELATED: More Than 4,400 People Arrested During Riots Across The Country)

.@PghPolice are seeking a Shaler man suspected of inciting yesterday's violence. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.https://t.co/cbKQAttYps pic.twitter.com/E9FbR0D21v

'-- Pgh Public Safety (@PghPublicSafety) June 1, 2020

The events that took place in Pittsburgh over the weekend mirrors an unfolding situation across the country, where many protests over the death of George Floyd while in police custody have escalated into riots. The destruction of police vehicles, looting of businesses and violence has occurred in several major cities as law enforcement groups scramble to stop the chaos.

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 18:06

Kit KnightlyThe science of the coronavirus is not disputed. It is well documented and openly admitted:

Most people won't get the virus.Most of the people who get it won't display symptoms.Most of the people who display symptoms will only be mildly sick.Most of the people with severe symptoms will never be critically ill.And most of the people who get critically ill will survive.This is borne out by the numerous serological studies which show, again and again, that the infection fatality ratio is on par with flu.

There is no science '' and increasingly little rational discussion '' to justify the lockdown measures and overall sense of global panic.

Nevertheless, it's always good to get official acknowledgement of the truth, even if it has to be leaked.

Here are three leaks showing that those in power know that the coronavirus poses no threat, and in no way justifies the lockdown that is going to destroy the livelihoods of so many.

1. ''It's all bullshit!''On May 26th Dr Alexander Myasnikov, Russia's head of coronavirus information, gave an interview to former-Presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak in which he apparently let slip his true feelings.

Believing the interview over, and the camera turned off, Myasnikov said:

It's all bullshit ['...] It's all exaggerated. It's an acute respiratory disease with minimal mortality ['...] Why has the whole world been destroyed? That I don't know,''

2. ''covid-19 cannot be described as a generally dangerous disease''According to an e-mail leaked to Danish newspaper Politiken, the Danish Health Authority disagree with their government's approach to the coronavirus. They cover it in two articles here and here (For those who don't speak Danish, thelocal.dk have covered the story too).

There's a lot of interesting information there, not least of which is the clear implication that politicians appear to be pressing the scientific advisors to overstate the danger (they did the same thing in the UK), along with the decision of some civil servants to withhold data from the public until after the lockdown had been extended.

But by far the most important quote is from a March 15th e-mail [our emphasis]:

The Danish Health Authority continues to consider that covid-19 cannot be described as a generally dangerous disease, as it does not have either a usually serious course or a high mortality rate,''

On March 12th the Danish parliament passed an emergency law which '' among many other things '' decreased the power of the Danish Health Authority, demoting it from a ''regulatory authority'' to just an ''advisory'' one.

3. ''A Global False Alarm''Earlier this month, on May 9th, a report was leaked to the German alternate media magazine Tichys Einblick titled ''Analysis of the Crisis Management''.

The report was commissioned by the German department of the interior, but then its findings were ignored, prompting one of the authors to release it through non-official channels.

The fall out of that, including attacks on the authors and minimising of the report's findings, is all very fascinating and we highly recommend this detailed report on Strategic Culture (or read the full report here in German).

We're going to focus on just the reports conclusions, including [our emphasis]:

The dangerousness of Covid-19 was overestimated: probably at no point did the danger posed by the new virus go beyond the normal level.The danger is obviously no greater than that of many other viruses. There is no evidence that this was more than a false alarm.During the Corona crisis the State has proved itself as one of the biggest producers of Fake News.After being attacked in the press, and suspended from his job, the leaker and other authors of the report released a joint statement, calling on the government to respond to their findings.

*

If the current crisis was being approached rationally by all parties, these leaks would seal the debate.

Evidence is piling up that the people in charge knew, from the very beginning, that the virus was not dangerous.

The question remaining is: Why are these leaks happening now?

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:47

Protesters gather at a memorial for George Floyd in Minneapolis. Photo: John Minchillo/APDear colleagues,

Black lives matter. Our nation is in turmoil because our governments, our institutions (including Audubon), and private individuals haven't done nearly enough to act on that fundamental truth.

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery should still be alive'--our deeply flawed and unequal criminal justice system must change. Christian Cooper's life never should have been threatened for asking someone to leash a dog in a bird sanctuary. Black Americans should not face lower odds of survival and prosperity across every measure of wellbeing in this country, but they do.

After everything that's happened this weekend, we're starting another work week in shared isolation, unable to offer comfort in person to one another. That, too, adds to our sense of loss. Our experiences are varied, but they're nearly universal: we're shaken, angry, frightened, resolved, despondent. And some of us may be seeing the faintest glimmer of hope that change will finally come.

In How To Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi writes, ''Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity, or equity between racial groups.'' People and institutions, Kendi argues, cannot be neutral (or ''not racist'') in the face of racism '-- they can either actively fight racism as antiracists, or uphold racism through action or inaction.

Audubon is choosing action. Instead of using vaguer words, we're going to talk about how Audubon can become antiracist in everything we do, internally and externally. That's going to be a long conversation.

Today, here's what I'd say to each of you:

First, take care of yourselves and each other. Managers, please check in with your teams this week to see how each person is doing and how you or Audubon can help. Take the time you need to process this moment and to express yourself.

To my colleagues who are Black and brown: Your lives and careers matter profoundly to me and to Audubon's leadership. We'll be releasing a plan by June 15 to get us collectively to a place where you are safer, more seen, and respected in your jobs every day.

To my Audubon colleagues who are white: Racism is something created and sustained by white people to give ourselves an advantage over others. It's our responsibility to understand and interrupt all the ways'--large and small'--that happens. Here are three things I'd like to ask you to this week:

Talk about racism with other white people in your life this week. I saw this painted on my running trail just this morning: ''Silence is violence.'' It was right next to the sign about social distancing, a reminder of that other life-changing event we're experiencing that continues to rage out of control and is ravaging America's most vulnerable. Read or listen to How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. It's available as an e-book, and audio book, and, of course, a hard copy book. Audubon will cover the cost. Watch and share Dr. J. Drew Lanham's keynote address from the 2017 Audubon Convention.Finally, this is #BlackBirdersWeek on social media, organized by a community of Black birders, scientists, and nature lovers, including our own Tykee James. Please follow along and share'--I'm looking forward to seeing everything folks have to say.

Take care,David

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:38

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:35

STOCKHOLM, Sweden '-- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are some of the most widely prescribed antidepressant drugs in the world. Now, an unsettling new study out of Sweden finds that some people given these medications develop a ''tendency'' to commit violent crimes. According to the research, this violent effect can even last for up to 12 weeks after halting SSRI treatment.

To be clear, the study's authors emphasize that their work detected an association between SSRIs and violent behavior, not a clear-cut case of cause and effect. They warn that their findings should not be used to draw any definitive conclusions.

''This work shows that SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) treatment appears to be associated with an increased risk for violent criminality in adults as well as adolescents, though the risk appears restricted to a small group of individuals,'' notes first author Tyra Lagerberg, from the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Karolinska Institutet, in a statement. ''We don't claim that SSRIs cause the increased risk we see in our data. It is possible that the disorders that SSRIs are prescribed to treat, such as depression, are driving the association. In that case our findings may mean that SSRIs are unable to fully remove this tendency towards violent crime, which is also a potentially important insight.''

Lagerberg says earlier studies have made the connection between the drugs and violent behavior in youths, but this latest and larger work is the first to draw a link to adults. Age didn't seem to make a difference in the outcome.

A massive dataset was analyzed for this research. The medical records of 785,337 people between the ages of 15 and 60 who had been prescribed SSRIs in Sweden between 2006 and 2013. All of those patients were tracked for an average of seven years, regardless of whether or not they continued taking SSRIs.

In all, it was noted that studied patients had committed 6,306 violent crimes while taking SSRIs and 25,897 while not taking them. While that doesn't seem like much of a correlation at first, after accounting for follow-up time and other variables related to the probability of SSRI treatment and individual risk for committing violence, researchers concluded that taking SSRIs resulted in an average 26% increase in one's odds of committing a violent crime.

All that being said, only 2.7% of all studied participants went on to commit any violent acts. So, researchers say that SSRIs only appear to foster violent behavior in a very small percentage of patients.

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''Previous studies have shown that depression itself is associated with a 3-fold increase in the risk for violent crime, and of course many SSRIs are prescribed for depression; so it may be the underlying depression that causes the association with violent crime, rather than any effect of the SSRI. More work is needed to uncover the causes of this association,'' Lagerberg explains.

Still, the authors note that 97% of those studied showed no indication of violent behavior.

''Our findings do not affect the vast majority of people taking antidepressants and should not be used as basis for individuals to stop their SSRI treatment, nor for prescribers to withhold treatment from individuals who might benefit from it,'' says Lagerberg. ''Nevertheless, clinicians should be attentive when prescribing SSRIs to individuals with aggressive tendencies.''

Moving forward, more research is needed to identify any specific traits that could suggest those who take SSRIs would be more likely to commit a crime.

''The study also shows that past offenders were more likely to commit a violent crime during SSRI treatment: this in itself is an interesting finding, which could be the main focus of future research on the topic,'' concludes lead author Professor Eduard Vieta.

The study is published in European Neuropsychopharmacology.

Like studies? Follow us on Facebook!

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:33

Riots sparked by the death of George Floyd have destroyed a $30 million affordable housing project in south Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The six-story, 190-unit apartment project known as Midtown Corner, which was set to provide housing for low-income families and individuals in the community, was torched and burned to the ground Wednesday night in a series of 16 structural fires set by protesters, Minneapolis Fire Chief John Fruetel reported in a press conference Thursday.

The housing complex, developed by Wellington Management, was scheduled to open in the spring of 2021. The total development cost was around $37 million, including contingency funds. The land and construction costs were approximately $30 million.

The project was funded almost entirely by private funds, with only $340,000 in public money being contributed.

'ž¸ Go Further: Follow Disrn's full coverage of the protests and riots here.

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:07

OverviewEstablished in 2013, in response to the acquittal of the man who killed black Florida teenager Trayvon MartinSeeks to stoke black rage over the ''virulent anti-Black racism'' that ''permeates our society''Says America was originally ''built on Indigenous genocide and chattel slavery'' and ''continues to thrive on the brutal exploitation of people of color''Founded by Marxist revolutionaries in 2013, Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a movement that depicts the United States as a nation awash in racism, sexism, and homophobia. Demonstrators at BLM events have been known to: smear white police as trigger-happy bigots who are intent upon killing innocent, unarmed black males; taunt, and direct obscenities at, uniformed police officers who are on duty; throw rocks at police and threaten to kill them; and celebrate in the streets when a police officer is killed. Some examples of BLM's racist and incendiary rhetoric:

At a December 2014 BLM rally in New York City, marchers chanted in unison: ''What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want it? Now.''At a BLM march in August 2015, protesters chanted : ''Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon.'' (''Pigs'' was a reference to police officers, and ''blanket'' was a reference to body bags.)On a BLM-affiliated radio program the following month, the hosts laughed at the recent assassination of a white Texas deputy; boasted that blacks were like lions who could prevail in a ''race war'' against whites; happily predicted that ''we will witness more executions and killing of white people and cops than we ever have before''; and declared that ''It's open season on killing white people and crackas.''In November 2015, a group of approximately 150 BLM protesters shouting ''Black Lives Matter,'' stormed Dartmouth University's library, screaming, ''Fu** you, you filthy white fu**s!,'' ''Fu** you and your comfort!,'' and ''Fu** you, you racist sh**!''In July 2016, a BLM activist speaking to a CNN reporter shouted: ''The less white babies on this planet, the less of you [white adults] we got! I hope they kill all the white babies! Kill 'em all right now! Kill 'em! Kill your grandkids! Kill yourself! Coffin, bitch! Go lay in a coffin! Kill yourself!''At all BLM events, demonstrators invoke the words that the Marxist revolutionary, former Black Panther, convicted cop-killer, and longtime fugitive Assata Shakur once wrote in a letter titled ''To My People'': ''It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.'' (The fourth line was drawn from the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.) In Shakur's original letter, she described herself as a ''Black revolutionary'' who had ''declared war on the rich who prosper on our poverty, the politicians who lie to us with smiling faces, and all the mindless, heart-less robots [police] who protect them and their property.''

Another figure greatly admired by BLM is Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who in the 1960s was renowned for threatening that blacks would ''burn America down,'' and for urging blacks to murder ''honkies.'' In the spring of 2000, Al-Amin shot two black law-enforcement officers in downtown Atlanta, killing one of them.

The Roots of BLM

BLM was established as an online platform in 2013 by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. Their objective was to stoke black rage and galvanize a protest movement in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the ''white Hispanic'' who was tried for murder and manslaughter after he had shot and killed a black Florida teenager named Trayvon Martin in a highly publicized February 2012 altercation. Before long, ''Black Lives Matter'' became a rallying cry for writers, public speakers, celebrities, demonstrators, and even rioters who took up the cause of demanding an end to what BLM terms the ''virulent anti-Black racism'' that ''permeates our society.'' In 2014, BLM also adopted the slogan ''Hands Up''Don't Shoot!,'' which was first popularized by Dream Defenders and grew out of that year's death of Michael Brown, a young black man in Ferguson, Missouri who was killed by a white police officer after he had tried to take the officer's handgun during a confrontation. (In the immediate aftermath of that incident, numerous racial agitators circulated the false narrative that Brown had been shot after raising his hands in submission and pleading, ''Don't shoot.'')

Demanding that Americans ''abandon the lie that the deep psychological wounds of slavery, racism and structural oppression are figments of the Black imagination,'' BLM aims to force the country to become ''uncomfortable about institutional racism.'' Emphasizing the permanence and intransigence of American depredations, BLM maintains that the nation's ''corrupt democracy'' was originally ''built on Indigenous genocide and chattel slavery'' and ''continues to thrive on the brutal exploitation of people of color''; that ''the ugly American traditions of patriarchy, classism, racism, and militarism'' endure to this day; that ''structural oppression'' still ''prevents so many from realizing their dreams''; and that blacks in the U.S. are routinely ''de-humaniz[ed],'' rendered ''powerless at the hands of the state,'' ''deprived of [their] basic human rights and dignity,'' and targeted for ''extrajudicial killings '... by police and vigilantes.'' In sum, says BLM, black Americans are ''collectively'' subjected to ''inhumane conditions'' in a ''white supremacist system.''

Though BLM professes to articulate the needs and grievances of black people as a whole, the organization deems it vital to go ''beyond the narrow nationalism'' that ''merely'' urges black people to ''love Black, live Black, and buy Black.'' That is, it focuses an added measure of attention on those blacks who, in the past, ''have been marginalized within Black liberation movements.'' These include, most notably, black ''queer and trans,'' who ''bear a unique burden from a hetero-patriarchal society that disposes of us like garbage and simultaneously fetishizes us and profits off of us''; black ''undocumented immigrants'' who are ''relegated to the shadows'' of American society; black ''disabled'' people who ''bear the burden of state-sponsored Darwinian experiments that attempt to squeeze us into boxes of normality defined by white supremacy''; and blacks who self-identify along non-traditional points of the ''gender spectrum.''

To improve the allegedly abysmal condition of blacks in the United States, BLM has issued a series of non-negotiable demands. These include:

''an end to all forms of discrimination and the full recognition of our [Blacks'] human rights'';''an immediate end to police brutality and [to] the murder of Black people and all oppressed people'';''full, living-wage employment for our people,'' to ensure ''our right to a life with dignity'';''decent housing'' and ''an end to gentrification'';''an end to the school-to-prison pipeline,'' a term for the practice of using black students' behavioral problems as an excuse for pushing them out of the classroom and into the juvenile- and criminal-justice systems;''quality education for all,'' including ''free or affordable public university'' enrollment;''freedom from mass incarceration and an end to the prison industrial complex,'' whose hallmarks include ''the over-policing and surveillance of [black] communities,'' the enactment of many ''racist laws,'' and ''the warehousing of black people'';''access to affordable healthy food for our neighborhoods'';''an aggressive attack against all laws, policies, and entities that disenfranchise any community from expressing themselves at the ballot'' (e.g., Voter ID laws);''a public education system that teaches the rich history of Black people'';''the release of all U.S. political prisoners'';''an end to the military industrial complex that incentivizes private corporations to profit off of the death and destruction of Black and Brown communities across the globe'';the cessation of racially ''discriminatory discipline practices'' in the schools;a comprehensive Justice Department review of ''systematic abuses by police departments'' across the United States;congressional hearings investigating ''the criminalization of communities of color'';an end to ''the use of profiling on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin or religion by law-enforcement agencies'';the implementation of a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice by the Obama Administration, addressing ''persistent and ongoing forms of racial discrimination and disparities that exist in nearly every sphere of life'';the release, by the office of U.S. attorney general, of ''the names of all [police] officers involved in killing black people within the last five years '... so they can be brought to justice'--if they haven't already''; and''a decrease in law-enforcement spending at the local, state and federal levels and a reinvestment [through the federal government] of that budgeted money into the black communities most devastated by poverty in order to create jobs, housing and schools.''Several of the foregoing demands are clearly modeled on those that were put forth by the Black Panther Party in the 1960s. This parallel is consistent with BLM's high regard for the previously cited quote from Assata Shakur: ''It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.''

In December 2014, a group of BLM protesters in the San Francisco Bay area rejected efforts by three regional police unions'--in Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose'--to initiate ''constructive dialogue that calls for a common sense approach to very complex issues.''

Racist Co-Founder of BLM Toronto

A co-founder of BLM's Toronto branch is a young woman named Yusra Khogali, who in late 2015 posted the following message on Facebook: ''Whiteness is not humxness. infact, white skin is sub-humxn'.... White ppl are recessive genetic defects. this is factual. white ppl need white supremacy as a mechanism to protect their survival as a people because all they can do is produce themselves. black ppl simply through their dominant genes can literally wipe out the white race if we had the power to.''

In the spring of 2016, Khogali issued a Facebook threat against a Toronto police officer: ''The police officer who killed Andrew Loku. We. Are coming for you. U better believe it. You are going to spend the rest of your life without your family like how Andrew Loku's 5 children will have to go on without their father. Justice will be served.'' Around that same time, she tweeted: ''Plz Allah give me strength to not cuss/kill these men and white folks out here today. Plz plz plz.''

In February 2017, Khogali participated in a protest in front of the U.S. consulate where she shouted into a microphone that Canadian Prime Minister ''Justin Trudeau is a white supremacist terrorist,'' and she exhorted the crowd to ''rise up and fight back.'' ''Look at us, we have the numbers,'' she added.

Ties to the Freedom Road Socialist Organization

BLM is closely allied with numerous groups that are fronts for the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), a Marxist-Leninist entity that calls for the overthrow of capitalism. In an article for Accuracy In Media, economist and investigative journalist James Simpson has identified some of these FRSO fronts that are tied to BLM:

National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA): seeks to develop ''women-of-color leaders'' to help domestic workers'--who are disproportionately female and nonwhite'--gain political power and promote ''concrete change''; gave money to CASA de Maryland and the Institute for Policy Studies in 2013; and has received funding from the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Oak Foundation, George Soros's Open Society Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation.People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER): promotes ''social change'' by empowering ''those people who are most affected by the problems of society'''--specifically, ''low-income and working class people, people of color, women, queer and transgender people'''--to ''lead a movement of millions to eradicate those problems''; evolved from the now-defunct revolutionary communist group STORM; and has received funding from the Akonadi Foundation, the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation, the Hill-Snowden Foundation, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, and the Tides Foundation.Right to the City Alliance (RTTC): a nationwide network that opposes inner-city ''gentrification'' that displaces ''low-income people, people of color, marginalized LGBTQ communities, and youths of color from their historic urban neighborhoods''; has received funding from the Akonadi Foundation, the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Margerite Casey Foundation, the Soros Funds, the Surdna Foundation, and the Tides Foundation.School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL): strives to ''lay the groundwork for a strong social justice movement by supporting the development of a new generation of organizers rooted in a systemic change analysis'--especially people of color, young women, queer and transgender youth, and low-income people''; claims to have trained 679 organizers in 2013, and has been funded by the Heinz Foundation, the Akonadi Foundation, the Hill-Snowden Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, and the Tides Foundation.Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI): ''educates and engages African American and black immigrant communities to organize and advocate for racial, social and economic justice''; has been funded by the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, and the Soros Funds.Advancement Project (AP): describes itself as a ''civil rights law, policy, and communications 'action tank' that advances universal opportunity and a just democracy for those left behind in America,'' meaning nonwhite minorities; has been funded by the California Endowment, the Ford Foundation, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Soros Funds, the Tides Foundation, and the Vanguard Public Foundation.Movement Strategy Center (MSC): dedicated to ''transformative movement building'' and ''equitable distribution of resources''; has been funded by the Akonadi Foundation, the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, the California Endowment, the Ford Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, the Soros Funds, the Surdna Foundation, and the Tides Foundation.Dignity and Power Now (DPN): claims to seek ''dignity and power of incarcerated people, their families, and communities''Labor/Community Strategy Center (LCSC): works to ''build consciousness, leadership, and organization among those who face discrimination and societal attack'--people of color, women, immigrants, workers, LGBT people, youth''; is headed by Eric Mann, a former Weather Underground leader who exhorts followers to become ''anti-racist, anti-imperialist'' activists.Black Left Unity Network: a Marxist-Leninist organization that supports a variety of communist causesBlack Workers for Justice: ''believes that African American workers need self-organization to help empower ourselves at the workplace, in communities and throughout the whole of U.S. society to organize, educate, mobilize and struggle for power, justice, self-determination and human rights for African Americans, other oppressed nationalities, women and all working class people''Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJ): ''a national alliance of U.S.-based grassroots organizing groups organizing to build an agenda for power for working and poor people and communities of color''Causa Justa/Just Cause: a Black/Latino solidarity organization that aims to build a ''multi-racial, multi-generational movement '... for fundamental change''Hands Up United: works for the ''liberation of oppressed Black, Brown, and poor people through education, art, civil disobedience, advocacy, and agriculture''Intelligent Mischief: an African-American organization that ''design[s] projects that critique the current status quo and re-imagines the possibilities''Organization for Black Struggle (OBS): seeks to ''build a movement that fights for political empowerment, economic justice and the cultural dignity of the African-American community, especially the Black working class''; is affiliated with the Communist Party USA, and is allied with Black Workers for Justice and the Advancement Project.Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee (RSCC): is dedicated to ''uniting revolutionary-minded youth and students throughout the [City University of New York] system in NYC''Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ): a ''national network of groups and individuals organizing White people for racial justice''; quotes BLM co-founder Alicia Garza's assertion that ''we need you defecting from White supremacy and changing the narrative of White supremacy by breaking White silence.''Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE): seeks to ''reduce and eliminate structural barriers to social and economic opportunities for poor and economically disadvantaged communities and communities of color''; is led by Anthony Thigpenn, a former Black Panther and board member of the Apollo Alliance.As evidenced by these numerous ties between FRSO and BLM, Black Lives Matter is in essence a project of FRSO. All three of BLM's co-founders have been employed by, or affiliated with, one or more of FRSO's aforementioned front groups at various times. Specifically:

Alicia Garza has served as a special projects director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA); executive director of People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER); a board member of School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL); and board chair of the Right to the City Alliance (RTTC).Patrisse Cullors, who was trained by former Weather Underground leader Eric Mann, founded Dignity and Power Now (DPN) and has served as its director.Opal Tometi is affiliated with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI).The Consequences of BLM's Rhetoric

In 2013 and beyond, a number of black criminal suspects who had died in the course of confrontations with police officers joined Trayvon Martin as new, martyred icons of the BLM movement. Prominent among these were Eric Garner (New York), Michael Brown (Ferguson, Missouri), Tamir Rice (Cleveland), Timothy Russell (Cleveland), Malissa Williams (Cleveland), and Freddie Gray (Baltimore). High-profile political leaders such as President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, and the mayors of the cities where the aforementioned deaths took place, routinely depicted race as a major underlying factor in those deaths.

In December 2014, for instance, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio'--explicitly exhorting New Yorkers to remember that ''black lives matter'''--lamented the ''centuries of racism'' whose legacy was still influencing the actions of too many police officers. The mayor called not only for the retraining of police forces ''in how to work with [nonwhite] communities differently,'' but also for the use of body cameras to bring ''a different level of transparency and accountability'' to police work.

And in the aftermath of Freddie Gray's death in April 2015, Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, citing her desire ''to reform my [police] department,'' called on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a civil-rights investigation to determine whether Baltimore police had been engaging in unconstitutional patterns of abuse or discrimination against African Americans. Moreover, when violent riots were overrunning parts of her city following Gray's demise, Rawlings-Blake, by her own admission, ''gave those who wished to destroy, space to do that as well.'' In other words, the police were in effect sidelined.

In New York, Baltimore, and elsewhere in urban America, law-enforcement officers responded to the newly rising anti-police climate by becoming less proactive in apprehending criminals, particularly for low-level offenses. This, in turn, led to a dramatic rise in crime rates in a number of U.S. cities. For example:

Through the first five months of 2015 in New York, the incidence of murder was 20% higher than for the same period a year earlier, and shooting incidents were up 9%.During the three months that followed August 2014 (when Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri), homicides in nearby in St. Louis city rose 47%, and robberies in St. Louis County increased by 82%.After the protests and riots over the April 12, 2015 death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, shootings in that city increased by more than 60% compared to the same period a year earlier. In May 2015, Baltimore recorded 43 murders'--the most in any month since August 1972.From January to mid-May of 2015 in Milwaukee, homicides were up 180% compared to the same period in 2014.From January through March of 2015 in Houston, murders were up nearly 100% compared to the same period in 2014.From January 1 through May 24, 2015 in Chicago, shootings were up 25% and homicides were up 18% compared to the same period in 2014.From January through May of 2015 in Los Angeles, shootings were up 23% and other violent crime was up 25% compared to the same period in 2014.For 2015 as a whole, America's 56 largest cities experienced a 17% rise in homicides; in 10 heavily black cities, murders increased by more than 60%.

Moreover, some criminals deliberately made police officers the targets of their violence. Less than three weeks after Mayor de Blasio's December 2014 condemnation of police in New York, for instance, a black gunman named Ismaaiyl Brinsley shot and killed two uniformed NYPD officers, execution-style, as they sat in their marked police car. In a Facebook message he had posted just prior to carrying out his double murder, Brinsley made it explicitly clear that his motive was to avenge the recent deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

And of the nineteen police officers nationwide who were killed in the line of duty (by gunshot, assault, or vehicular assault) during the first five months of 2015, ten were killed in the month of May alone; i.e., the month following the Freddie Gray riots in Baltimore.

The spike in urban violence nationwide continued into 2016. During the first quarter of that year, homicides in the nation's 63 largest cities increased by 9%, while nonfatal shootings were up 21%. For the statistics on rising violence rates in a number of specific cities, click here. Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald characterized this spike in urban violence '-- and in attacks on the police '-- as ''The Ferguson Effect'' '-- a reference to the rage and anti-police hatred sparked by the aforementioned police shooting of Michael Brown, a young black man in Ferguson, Missouri.

These attacks against police officers, and the aforementioned increases in urban crime, are not at all troubling to BLM, because, notwithstanding the movement's constant professions of deep concern about black lives, the reality is quite different. What matters most to BLM is finding a spark'--e.g., allegations of police vigilantism'--that can be used to ignite a race war; to take America back to the ''long hot summers'' of the 1960s, when criminals were seen as radical ''heroes,'' police had a bull's-eye on their backs, and the streets of America's inner cities ran red with fantasies of ''revolutionary violence.''

The ''Ferguson Effect'' Is Confirmed

In January 2017 the Pew Research Center released a 97-page report titled ''Behind the Badge,'' which '' based on the results of a questionnaire that had been sent to nearly 8,000 officers in more than 100 police departments nationwide '' confirmed the reality of the so-called ''Ferguson Effect.'' As Breitbart.com sumarized:

''The survey reveals that officers are dealing with two conflicting concerns that create doubt, hesitation, fear, and uncertainty '' things that can put officers' lives, and those of the public, in danger. Officers have become more concerned about their personal safety. But they are also more concerned about the repercussions of using force, even when the use of that force is fully justified'.... The Pew Research Center learned that 95 percent of officers in large departments, and 88 percent of those in smaller ones, are more concerned about their personal safety than they have been in the past. These concerns were likely intensified during the past year when officers experienced a 61 percent increase in the deaths of their fellow officers from hostile gunfire.''

''The 61 percent increase in law enforcement officers shot and killed in 2016 versus 2015 and a 53 percent overall increase in officers murdered in the performance of duty are deeply troubling statistics,'' said Steven Weiss, director of research for the ''Officer Down Memorial Page'' website. ''Included in that statistic is a disturbing increase in officers killed in 'ambush-style' murders, such as the incidents in Dallas and Des Moines. These types of murders are particularly disconcerting because they are not born out of a criminal's desire to avoid arrest, but out of a hatred for not only law enforcement, but for our society as a whole. It is the type of attack that, for the most part, tactical training or increased vigilance may not help to prevent.''

The Pew survey also revealed that 85 percent of officers in large departments, and 63 percent of those in small departments, had become are more reluctant to use force against criminal suspects when appropriate. Similarly, 86 percent of officers in large departments, and 54 percent of those in smaller departments, said that, in an effort to avoid potentially violent encounters with criminals, they had grown less likely to stop and question people who seemed suspicious.

More BLM Activities

At a December 2014 BLM rally in New York City, marchers chanted in unison: ''What do we want? Dead cops. When do we want it? Now.''

In April 2015, BLM held a ''Populism 2015'' assembly at a Washington, DC hotel. The event was sponsored by National People's Action, the Campaign for America's Future, USAction, and the Alliance for a Just Society.

On May 28, 2015, BLM held an event at the Center for American Progress titled ''Toward a More Perfect Union: Bringing Criminal Justice Reform to Our Communities.'' At this gathering, writes journalist Matthew Vadum: ''[B]lack activists blamed the rising tide of black violence against police and whites on everyone except the perpetrators.'' They cited such root causes as the evils of capitalism, white privilege, excessive numbers of laws and police officers, corporate malfeasance, and insufficient taxes levied on the wealthy.

In a July 2015 Netroots Nation conference in Phoenix, Arizona, BLM-affiliated protesters disrupted talks by two Democratic presidential candidates'--U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley'--shouting at both men: ''Say that black lives matter! Say that I am not a criminal! Say my name!'' O'Malley, for his part, responded by appealing for a sense of unity: ''I think all of us have a responsibility to recognize the pain and grief caused by lives lost to violence. Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter.'' These remarks by O'Malley caused the demonstrators to become enraged, and they proceeded to boo loudly and shout him down.

At that same Netroots Nation conference, BLM activists led much of the crowd in the following chant (click here for video):

''If I die in police custody, don't believe the hype. I was murdered!Protect my family! Indict the system! Shut that sht down!If I die in police custody, avenge my death!By any means necessary!If I die in police custody, burn everything down!No building is worth more than my life!And that's the only way motherfers like you listen!If I die in police custody, make sure I'm the last person to die in police custody.By any means necessary!If I die in police custody, do not hold a moment of silence for me!Rise the f*** up!Because your silence is killing us!''

On August 29, 2015'--just hours after a lone black gunman had murdered a white sheriff's deputy in Texas while the latter was pumping gasoline into his car'--demonstrators affiliated with the St. Paul, Minnesota branch of BLM disrupted traffic as they marched'--with police protection'--to the gates of the Minnesota State Fair. Carrying signs bearing slogans like ''End White Supremacy,'' they repeatedly chanted in unison: ''Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon.'' ''Pigs'' was a reference to police officers, and ''blanket'' was a reference to body bags. The slogan echoed what gunman Ismaaiyl Brinsleyan had posted on the Internet'--''Pigs in a blanket smell like bacon'''--in December 2014, just before he murdered NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.

During the September 1, 2015 airing of a blog-talk-radio program associated with BLM, the hosts laughed at the recent assassination of Texas Deputy Daron Goforth, a husband and father who was shot 15 times at point blank range from behind while he was gassing up his patrol car. One host, a self-described black supremacist known as King Noble, said the execution of that ''cracker cop'' was an indication that ''it's open season on killing whites and police officers and probably killing cops, period.'' ''It's unavoidable, inescapable,'' he added. ''It's funny that now we are moving to a time where the predator will become the prey.'' After claiming that blacks were like lions who could win a ''race war'' against whites, Noble declared: ''Today, we live in a time when the white man will be picked off, and there's nothing he can do about it. His day is up, his time is up. We will witness more executions and killing of white people and cops than we ever have before. It's about to go down. It's open season on killing white people and crackas.''

On September 14, 2015, BLM supporter/demonstrator Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks, a 25-year-old convicted felon, shot and killed a rookie Kentucky state trooper named Joseph Cameron Ponder after a high-speed chase. The perpetrator lived in Florissant, Missouri, near the town of Ferguson, and had participated in local demonstrations protesting the 2014 death of Michael Brown, a young black man killed by a white Ferguson police officer after he had tried to take the officer's handgun. Johnson-Shanks was so preoccupied with the Brown case, that he even attended Brown's funeral and graveside service in August 2014.

On October 24, 2015, members of the BLM-affiliated Black Youth Project (BYP) took down an American flag during their #StopTheCops street protests in Chicago, replacing it with one that read ''Unapologetically Black.'' Like BLM, BYP opposes increased spending on law enforcement, as one of its activists, Maria Hadden, explained: ''To provide better education, to provide access to basic human needs, housing and healthcare, those are the ways that we address crime. Those are the ways we improve the city, not by spending more money on police. So we believe we need to spend less money on policing, more money on community services.'' Some BYP protestors taunted the police by singing, ''Stop cops, stop cops, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when we defund you?'' to the tune of the Bad Boys theme song from the television show COPS.

On November 12, 2015, a group of approximately 150 BLM protesters shouting ''black lives matter'' and racial obscenities stormed Dartmouth University's library, shouting, ''F* you, you filthy white f***s!,'' ''F*** you and your comfort!,'' and ''F you, you racist s**!'' A report in the Dartmouth Review said:

''Throngs of protesters converged around fellow students who had not joined in their long march. They confronted students who bore 'symbols of oppression': 'gangster hats' and Beats-brand headphones. The flood of demonstrators self-consciously overstepped every boundary, opening the doors of study spaces with students reviewing for exams. Those who tried to close their doors were harassed further. One student abandoned the study room and ran out of the library. The protesters followed her out of the library, shouting obscenities the whole way. Students who refused to listen to or join their outbursts were shouted down. 'Stand the f* up!' 'You filthy racist white piece of s!' Men and women alike were pushed and shoved by the group. 'If we can't have it, shut it down!' they cried. Another woman was pinned to a wall by protesters who unleashed their insults, shouting 'filthy white b*!' in her face.''

In mid-November 2015, students gathered at Kean University in New Jersey to stand in solidarity with BLM protests that were taking place at the University of Missouri. One of the participants at the Kean event was 24-year-old Kayla-Simone McKelvey, a Kean alumnus and self-proclaimed black activist who had graduated six months earlier. About midway through the rally, McKelvey slipped away and went to the university library, where she secretly and hastily created an anonymous Twitter account, @keanuagainstblk, and stated in its description that it was an account ''against blacks'' and ''for everyone who hates blacks people.''[sic] McKelvey then sent her first ''anonymous'' tweet: a bomb threat to the campus. She followed that up with tweets that read: (a) ''i will kill every black male and female at kean university''; (b) ''i will kill all blacks tonight, tomorrow, and any other day if they go to Kean university''; and (c) ''tell every black person that you know they will die if they go to #Keanuniversity''. According to police, McKelvey then returned to the rally and began spreading the word that she had ''discovered'' the aforementioned Twitter threats against black students. McKelvey was subsequently charged with third-degree ''creating a false public alarm'' and was ordered to appear in court on December 14.

In a February 2016 interview with Fox News, the co-founder of BLM's Seattle chapter, Marissa Jenae Johnson, described the phrase ''All lives matter'' as a ''new racial slur.'' ''White Americans have created the conditions that require a phrase like 'Black Likes Matter,''' she said. ''Do you know how horrific it is to grow up as a child in a world that so hates you? While you're literally being gunned down in the street, while you're being rounded up and mass incarcerated and forced into prison slavery.'' ''Black Lives Matter is not a strong enough statement for me,'' she added.

On July 7, 2016, BLM activists held anti-police-brutality rallies in numerous cities across the United States, to protest the recent shootings of two African American men by white police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana. At a rally in Dallas, Texas, demonstrators shouted ''Enough is enough!'' while they held signs bearing slogans like: ''If all lives matter, why are black ones taken so easily?'' Then, suddenly, at just before 9 pm, a gunman opened fire on the law-enforcement officers who were on duty at that rally (in Dallas). Four policemen and one transit officer were killed, and six additional police were wounded. The perpetrator, Micah Xavier Johnson, subsequently told a hostage negotiator that he had acted alone, was angry about the recent police shootings of two black men, and was determined to kill white people '-- ''especially white officers.''

In the wake of the carnage in Dallas, a number of BLM activists taunted uniformed police officers who were standing guard in front of a gas station. Some Twitter users posted footage of a local news report that showed approximately 300 to 400 protesters dancing, shouting at police, and raising their middle fingers to them. Moreover, BLM sympathizers posted numerous online tweets to express their approval of the mass shooting. Some examples:

''Y'all pigs got what was coming for y'all.''''GIVE A FUCK ABOUT DALLAS AND THEM PIGS FUCK EM ALL''''wtf! Is when whites think their superior than us! Dallas must burn,black lives matter now, got the message pigs!''''These fucking pigs deserve Dallas, and every incident after Dallas until reform. Fucking disgusting animals.''''Next time a group wants to organize a police shoot, do like Dallas tonight, but have extra men/women to flank the Pigs!''''dude hell yeah someone is shooting pigs in dallas. solidarity''''Shout out to them Dallas shooters !! rapping pigs in blankets''''DALLAS keep smoking dem pigs keep up the work.''On July 9, 2016, activists participating in a BLM protest in Phoenix threw rocks at police officers and threatened to kill them.

In July 2016, a BLM activist speaking to a CNN reporter shouted: ''The less white babies on this planet, the less of you [white adults] we got! I hope they kill all the white babies! Kill 'em all right now! Kill 'em! Kill your grandkids! Kill yourself! Coffin, bitch! Go lay in a coffin! Kill yourself!''

On August 13, 2016, BLM activists in Milwaukee engaged in violence after police in that city shot and killed an armed man with a lengthy criminal record who was carrying an illegal gun that had been used in a burglary. One video clip of the violence showed rioters chanting ''black power!'', vowing to ''beat up every white person,'' and trying to drag white drivers out of their cars and assault them. The rioters also targeted local reporters for violent assaults, including one Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporter who was thrown to the ground and punched. In another video clip, rioters could be seen burning down a gas station while chanting ''black power!'' This was just one of numerous businesses that were set on fire. In a Facebook post the following day, the Black Lives Matter Coalition For Justice wrote: ''What happened last night was not the result of greed or an ignorant display of anger as some have called it, but rather pain and frustration built up from over 400 years of oppression. The rioting and looting that occurred last night in the city of Milwaukee is a demand for justice on every level'.... What happened last night was a revolt and an uproar, not just a disturbance'.... The people are angry. The people are fed up, and the people are demanding their freedom.''

In September 2016, BLM activists rioted in Charlotte, North Carolina after a black police officer there had shot and killed a gun-wielding black criminal named Keith Lamont Scott. Prior to that killing, Scott had been: convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in two different states, convicted of assault in three states, charged with ''assault with intent to kill'' in the 1990s, and spent 7 years in jail for ''aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.'' In multiple requests for domestic violence protective orders, one of which had been filed in 2015, Scott's wife claimed that the man had stabbed her, hit one of his children, and threatened to kill his entire family. The woman also reported that Scott carried a 9mm handgun but had no permit for it. (According to Fox News: ''The gun recovered at the scene of Scott's shooting had been stolen and later sold to Scott.'') At least 20 police officers were injured in the Charlotte riots, and National Guard troops were called in to help restore order. During the mayhem, protesters threw things at police, sometimes shot one another, looted and destroyed local businesses, set vehicles on fire, attacked white people who happened to be in the vicinity, decorated the landscape with BLM graffiti, and chanted slogans like ''Black Lives Matter'' and ''Hands Up, Don't Shoot.''

Support for BLM from President Obama and the Democratic Party

In August 2015, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) officially endorsed BLM by approving a resolution that condemned ''the unacceptable epidemic of extrajudicial killings of unarmed black men, women, and children at the hands of police''; stated that the American Dream ''is a nightmare for too many young people stripped of their dignity under the vestiges of slavery, Jim Crow and White Supremacy''; demanded the ''demilitarization of police, ending racial profiling, criminal justice reform, and investments in young people, families, and communities''; and asserted that ''without systemic reform this state of [black] unrest jeopardizes the well-being of our democracy and our nation.''

On September 16, 2015, BLM activists Brittany Packnett, DeRay McKesson, Johnetta Elzie, Phillip Agnew, and Jamye Wooten met at the White House with President Obama as well as senior advisor Valerie Jarrett and other administration officials. For Packnett, it was her seventh visit to the Obama White House. Afterward, Packnett told reporters that the president personally supported the BLM movement. ''He offered us a lot of encouragement with his background as a community organizer, and told us that even incremental changes were progress,'' she stated. ''He didn't want us to get discouraged. He said, 'Keep speaking truth to power.'''

In October 2015, Obama publicly articulated his support for BLM's agenda by saying: ''I think the reason that the organizers [of BLM] used the phrase 'Black Lives Matter' was not because they were suggesting nobody else's lives matter. Rather, what they were suggesting was there is a specific problem that's happening in the African-American community that's not happening in other communities. And that is a legitimate issue that we've got to address.''

In October 2015 as well, the DNC invited activists from BLM and Campaign Zero, the latter of which is a BLM affiliate whose professed mission is to help America become a nation ''where the police don't kill people,'' to organize and host a town hall forum where the Democratic Party's presidential candidates could discuss and debate matters related to racial justice. In one of several letters to the leaders of these groups, DNC Chief Executive Officer Amy K. Dacey wrote: ''We believe that your organization would be an ideal host for a presidential candidate forum'--where all of the Democratic candidates can showcase their ideas and policy positions that will expand opportunity for all, strengthen the middle class and address racism in America.''

In a December 2015 interview on National Public Radio, Obama described Black Lives Matter as a positive force on policing in America, notwithstanding the violence and incendiary rhetoric exhibited by many of its members. Noting that ''sometimes progress is a little uncomfortable,'' the president claimed that BLM was doing the vital work of shining ''sunlight'' on the fact that ''there's no black family that hasn't had a conversation around the kitchen table about driving while black and being profiled or being stopped'' by police. ''You know,'' he elaborated, ''during that process there's going to be some noise and some discomfort, but I m absolutely confident that over the long term, it leads to a fair, more just, healthier America.''

At a Black History Month event at the White House in February 2016, Obama welcomed BLM leaders DeRay McKesson and Brittany Packnett (the latter of whom was one of the key ''Hands up, don't shoot'' propagandists who in 2014 promoted the lie that a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri had shot black teenager Michael Brown in cold blood as he tried to surrender). Obama also welcomed such notables as activist Al Sharpton, Color of Change executive director Rashad Robinson, and NAACP Legal Defense Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill. In the course of his remarks, Obama said: ''But we've also got some young people here who are making history as we speak. People like Brittany [Packnett], who served on our Police Task Force in the wake of Ferguson, and has led many of the protests that took place there and shined a light on the injustice that was happening. People like DeRay Mckesson, who has done some outstanding work mobilizing in Baltimore around these issues. And to see generations continuing to work on behalf of justice and equality and economic opportunity is greatly encouraging to me'.... They are much better organizers than I was at their age. I am confident they are going to take America to new heights.''

On July 10, 2016, Obama likened BLM to the abolition and suffrage movements of yesteryear, saying: ''The abolition movement was contentious. The effort for women to get the right to vote was contentious and messy. There were times when activists might have engaged in rhetoric that was overheated and occasionally counterproductive. But the point was to raise issues so that we, as a society, could grapple with it. The same was true with the Civil Rights Movement, the union movement, the environmental movement, the antiwar movement during Vietnam. And I think what you're seeing now is part of that longstanding tradition.'' (Obama also said: ''[W]henever those of us who are concerned about fairness in the criminal justice system attack police officers, you are doing a disservice to the cause. First of all, any violence directed at police officers is a reprehensible crime and needs to be prosecuted. But even rhetorically, if we paint police in broad brush, without recognizing that the vast majority of police officers are doing a really good job and are trying to protect people and do so fairly and without racial bias, if our rhetoric does not recognize that, then we're going to lose allies in the reform cause.'' This assertion, however, was entirely inconsistent with the many statements the president had previously made about the allegedly systemic bias and racism of the entire criminal-justice system.)

On July 13, 2016 '-- six days after a BLM supporter in Dallas had shot and killed five police officer and wounded seven others '-- President Obama hosted BLM leaders DeRay Mckesson, Brittany Packnett, and Mica Grimmat at a four-and-a-half-hour meeting at the White House. Also invited were Al Sharpton, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (D), St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman (D), Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D), and some police chiefs.

BLM's Anti-Israel, Anti-Semitic Orientation

In January 2015, BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors joined representatives from the Dream Defenders as well as a number of likeminded anti-police-brutality protesters in taking a 10-day trip to the Palestinian Territories in the West Bank. Their objective was to publicly draw a parallel between what they defined as Israeli oppression of the Palestinians in the Middle East, and police violence against blacks in the United States. A complete list of the delegates who made this trip included five Dream Defenders (Phillip Agnew, Ciara Taylor, Steven Pargett, Sherika Shaw, Ahmad Abuznaid); Tef Poe and Tara Thompson from Ferguson/Hands Up United; journalist Marc Lamont Hill; Cherrell Brown and Carmen Perez of the Justice League NYC; Charlene Carruthers from the Black Youth Project; poet and artist Aja Monet; and USC doctoral student Maytha Alhassen.

In August 2015, BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors was one of more than 1,000 black activists, artists, scholars, politicians, students, ''political prisoners,'' and organizational representatives to sign a statement proclaiming their ''solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and commitment to the liberation of Palestine's land and people''; demanding an end to Israel's ''occupation'' of ''Palestine''; condemning ''Israel's brutal war on Gaza and chokehold on the West Bank''; urging the U.S. government to end all aid to Israel; and exhorting black institutions to support the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions movement against the Jewish state. Key passages from the statement included the following:

''Palestinians on Twitter were among the first to provide international support for protesters in Ferguson, where St. Louis-based Palestinians gave support on the ground. Last November, a delegation of Palestinian students visited Black organizers in St. Louis, Atlanta, Detroit and more, just months before the Dream Defenders took representatives of Black Lives Matter, Ferguson, and other racial justice groups to Palestine. Throughout the year, Palestinians sent multiple letters of solidarity to us throughout protests in Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore. We offer this statement to continue the conversation between our movements.''''We remain outraged at the brutality Israel unleashed on Gaza through its siege by land, sea and air, and three military offensives in six years. We remain sickened by Israel's targeting of homes, schools, UN shelters, mosques, ambulances, and hospitals. We remain heartbroken and repulsed by the number of children Israel killed in an operation it called 'defensive.' We reject Israel's framing of itself as a victim. Anyone who takes an honest look at the destruction to life and property in Gaza can see Israel committed a one-sided slaughter.''''Israel's injustice and cruelty toward Palestinians is not limited to Gaza and its problem is not with any particular Palestinian party. The oppression of Palestinians extends throughout the occupied territories, within Israel's 1948 borders, and into neighboring countries. The Israeli Occupation Forces continue to kill protesters'--including children'--conduct night raids on civilians, hold hundreds of people under indefinite detention, and demolish homes while expanding illegal Jewish-only settlements.''''Our support extends to those living under occupation and siege, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the 7 million Palestinian refugees exiled in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. The refugees' right to return to their homeland in present-day Israel is the most important aspect of justice for Palestinians.''''Palestinian liberation represents an inherent threat to Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid, an apparatus built and sustained on ethnic cleansing, land theft, and the denial of Palestinian humanity and sovereignty. While we acknowledge that the apartheid configuration in Israel/Palestine is unique from the United States (and South Africa), we continue to see connections between the situation of Palestinians and Black people.''''Israel's widespread use of detention and imprisonment against Palestinians evokes the mass incarceration of Black people in the US, including thepolitical imprisonment of our own revolutionaries.''''U.S. and Israeli officials and media criminalize our existence, portray violence against us as 'isolated incidents,' and call our resistance 'illegitimate' or 'terrorism.' These narratives ignore decades and centuries of anti-Palestinian and anti-Black violence that have always been at the core of Israel and the US. We recognize the racism that characterizes Israel's treatment of Palestinians is also directed against others in the region, including intolerance, police brutality, and violence against Israel's African population.''''We know Israel's violence toward Palestinians would be impossible without the U.S. defending Israel on the world stage and funding its violence with over $3 billion annually. We call on the U.S. government to end economic and diplomatic aid to Israel. We wholeheartedly endorse Palestinian civil society's 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and call on Black and U.S. institutions and organizations to do the same. We urge people of conscience to recognize the struggle for Palestinian liberation as a key matter of our time.''''[W]e aim to sharpen our practice of joint struggle against capitalism, colonialism, imperialism, and the various racisms embedded in and around our societies.''In late July 2016, a BLM delegation arrived in Israel to promote ''the fight for dignity, justice and freedom'' against the Israeli ''occupation'' and the ''genocide'' of Palestinian Arabs. In a July 28th Facebook post, the delegation's members wrote:

''In the fight for dignity, justice and freedom'... the Movement for Black Lives is committed to the global shared struggle of oppressed people, namely the people of occupied Palestine and other indigenous communities who for decades have resisted the occupation of their land, the ethnic cleansing of their people, and the erasure of their history and experiences.

''In this violent, political climate, it is urgent that we make clear the connection between violence inflicted on Black people globally that is encouraged and permitted by the state and the profiling, harm, and genocide funded by the United States and perpetrated by Zionist vigilantes and the Israeli Defense Forces on Palestinian people. Our collective oppression mandates that we work together across geography, language and culture to decry and organize an end to capitalistic, imperialist regimes.

''We commit to global struggle, solidarity, and support of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement to fight for freedom, justice and equality for Palestinian people and to end international support of the occupation.''

Influencing America's Public Schools

In 2016, BLM started to move beyond street protests and began to establish a growing influence on America's public schools. In October of that year, teachers in Seattle organized a ''Black Lives Matter at School Day.'' When the National Education Association subsequently adopted a resolution endorsing that measure, ''BLM at School Day'' grew into a full ''BLM at School National Week of Action,'' to be held annually during the first week of February as part of Black History Month activities. In 2018, school districts in more than 20 major cities incorporated ''BLM at School Week'' into their curricula.

A key resource for BLM-related lessons is a textbook titled Teaching for Black Lives, whose opening sentence reads: ''Black students' minds and bodies are under attack.'' The book is replete with narratives designed to stoke fear, anger, and resentment in the minds of black students. One reference to ''the continuing police murders of black people,'' for instance, declares: ''In August of 2014, Michael Brown was killed in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, his body left in the streets for hours as a reminder to the black residents in the neighborhood that their lives are meaningless to the American Empire.'' There are additional noteworthy references to ''the school-to-prison pipeline'' and the ''epidemic of police violence and mass incarceration.'' The book also includes essays bearing such titles as: ''Rethinking Islamophobia: Combating Bigotry by Raising the Voices of Black Muslims''; ''Plotting Inequalities, Building Resistance''; and ''Racial Justice Is Not a Choice: White Supremacy, High-Stakes Testing, and the Punishment of Black and Brown Students.''

By 2019, ''Black Lives Matter at School Week'' (BLMSW) was being observed by thousands of educators in public school districts across the United States. BLMSW's online guide abounds with suggested lesson plans and recommended resources for educating students:

One suggested lesson recommends that students examine ''Economic Injustice through the exploration of credit card debt'' using math skills. The lesson asks that students ''Read and analyze an article by The Root (a Black news source) that explains how credit card debt is worse for the Black community.''A proposed science lesson would have students examine ''Environmental Justice in the Context of Fresh Drinking Water.'' The teacher's packet explains, ''The goal of this lesson is to initiate the conversation around the meaning and urgency of Environmental Justice'.... The goal of Environmental Justice is to establish a spectrum of lenses that will provide our students the vision towards which the equitable distribution of resources and human rights issues are addressed'.... It addresses the scientific roots of climate-induced injustices found in society, and it provides social justice based solutions to these problems.''A lesson recommended by the D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice focuses on the ''Introduction of Transgender and Nonbinary Identities with I Am Jazz.'' In an effort to teach students from pre-kindergarten to second grade how to ''define the words 'transgender' and 'nonbinary' and give examples of ways to support people of all gender identities,'' the lesson plan recommends screening a video of a transgender girl reading her autobiography titled ''I Am Jazz.'' The lesson plan adds: ''When Jazz says, 'I have a boy body but a girl brain,' I would recommend stopping the video and reminding kids that there's no such things as 'boy bodies,' but instead that the doctors thought she was a boy by using what they could see.''Prominent BLM Activist Arrested on Sex-Trafficking Charges

In May 2016, 33-year-old BLM activist Charles Wade, who had been profiled in several newspapers and had recently been invited to the Obama White House along with others from his organization, was indicted on seven criminal charges including felonious sex trafficking (for pimping out a 17-year-old girl). The charges carried sentences of up to 25 years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

BLM Blames ''White Supremacy'' and the ''Conservative Right'' for Jihadist's Mass Murder in Florida

On June 21, 2016 '-- a few days after a self-proclaimed Muslim jihadist used an AR-15 rifle to murder 49 people and wound 53 others in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida '-- BLM posted an article on its website that blamed ''white supremacy, patriarchy and homophobia of the conservative right'' for the atrocity. It read, in part, as follows:

''Despite the media's framing of this as a terrorist attack, we are very clear that this terror is completely homegrown, born from the anti-Black white supremacy, patriarchy and homophobia of the conservative right and of those who would use religious extremism as a weapon to gain power for the few and take power from the rest. Those who seek to profit from our deaths hope we will forget who our real enemy is, and blame Muslim communities instead'....

''Homegrown terror is the product of a long history of colonialism, including state and vigilante violence. It is the product of white supremacy and capitalism, which deforms the spirit and fuels interpersonal violence. We especially hold space for our Latinx family now, knowing that the vast majority of those murdered were Latinx, and many were specifically Puerto Rican. From the forced migration of thousands of young people from the island of Puerto Rico to Orlando, to the deadly forced migration throughout Latin America and the Caribbean '-- we know this is not the first time in history our families have been mowed down with malice, and we stand with you.

''Religious extremism is not new to America and is not unique to Islam. For centuries, religion has been used to subjugate queer people of color and lay the groundwork for our deaths. We live in a society that gasps at mass murder but does little to produce the policies or radical ideological shift needed to keep LGBTQ people and our families alive and safe'....

''We will not allow our movement to be dominated by white progressives that still attempt to define our solutions and limit our leadership. We will not allow the vision to be stunted by a gun control agenda with neither racial context nor a clear history of the relationship between white supremacy and guns in the United States'.... You cannot decry guns without also decrying how those guns were used to take Native land, to enslave Black bodies, to remake ''Latin America'', and to redefine the western hemisphere. We need more than legislation, more than vigils and prayers, more than donations '-- we need a deep transformation at the cellular levels of this nation'....

''We need a world that realizes that the word 'terrorist' is not synonymous with Muslim, any more than 'criminal' is synonymous with Black. The enemy is now and has always been the four threats of white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and militarism. These forces and not Islam create terrorism. These forces, and not queerness, create homophobia. These forces unleash destruction primarily on those who are Trans, and queer, and brown and Black, and we are the first to experience its violence'.... Until these systems are defeated, until anti-Blackness no longer fuels anti-Muslim and anti-queer and trans bigotry, exploitation, and exclusion '-- we can never be truly free.''

BLM's Updated Demands & Agendas

On August 1, 2016, BLM, under the name ''Movement for Black Lives,'' issued a major Statement articulating its updated policy agendas and demands. Titled ''A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom and Justice,'' the Statement consisted of 6 core demands and 38 policy priorities. Below are verbatim excerpts from the contents of those demands and priorities:

(1) End The War On Black People

We demand an end to the war against Black people. Since this country's inception there have been named and unnamed wars on our communities. We demand an end to the criminalization, incarceration, and killing of our people. This includes:

An immediate end to the criminalization and dehumanization of Black youth across all areas of society including, but not limited to; our nation's justice and education systems, social service agencies, and media and pop culture. This includes an end to zero-tolerance school policies and arrests of students, the removal of police from schools, and the reallocation of funds from police and punitive school discipline practices to restorative services.An end to capital punishment.An end to money bail, mandatory fines, fees, court surcharges and ''defendant funded'' court proceedings.An end to the use of past criminal history to determine eligibility for housing, education, licenses, voting, loans, employment, and other services and needs.An end to the war on Black immigrants including the repeal of the 1996 crime and immigration bills, an end to all deportations, immigrant detention, and Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) raids, and mandated legal representation in immigration court.An end to the war on Black trans, queer and gender nonconforming people including their addition to anti-discrimination civil rights protections to ensure they have full access to employment, health, housing and education.An end to the mass surveillance of Black communities, and the end to the use of technologies that criminalize and target our communities (including IMSI catchers, drones, body cameras, and predictive policing software).The demilitarization of law enforcement, including law enforcement in schools and on college campuses.An immediate end to the privatization of police, prisons, jails, probation, parole, food, phone and all other criminal justice related services.Until we achieve a world where cages are no longer used against our people we demand an immediate change in conditions and an end to public jails, detention centers, youth facilities and prisons as we know them. This includes the end of solitary confinement, the end of shackling of pregnant people, access to quality healthcare, and effective measures to address the needs of our youth, queer, gender nonconforming and trans families.What is the problem?

Across the country, Black children attend under-resourced schools where they are often pushed off of an academic track onto a track to prison. Zero-tolerance policies '-- a combination of exclusionary disciplinary policies and school-based arrests '-- are often the first stop along the school-to-prison pipeline and play a key role in pushing students out of the school system and funneling them into jails and prisons.Each year more than three million students are suspended from school '-- often for vague and subjective infractions such as ''willful defiance'' and ''disrespect'' '-- amounting to countless hours of lost instructional time. As a result, Black students are denied an opportunity to learn and punished for routine child and adolescent behaviors that their white peers are often not disciplined for at all.For Black youth, the impact of exclusionary school discipline is far reaching '' disengaging them from academic and developmental opportunities and increasing the likelihood that they will be incarcerated later in life. In addition, current research emphasizes the need to examine the unique ways in which Black girls are impacted by punitive zero-tolerance policies. There are higher disciplinary disparities between Black girls and white girls than disciplinary disparities between Black boys and white boys; yet, Black girls have historically been overlooked in the national discourse around youth impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline.Black youth are also more likely to experience higher rates of corporal punishment'....Outside of schools, young Black people are criminalized in ways that limit their life chances at every point. 2010 data shows that while Black youth comprised 17 percent of all youth, they represented 31 percent of all arrests. These disparities persist even as juvenile ''crime'' rates have fallen. Among youth arrests, young Black people are more likely to be referred to a juvenile court than their white peers, and are more likely to be processed (and less likely to be diverted). Among those adjudicated delinquent, they are more likely to be sent to solitary confinement. Among those detained, Black youth are more likely to be transferred to adult facilities. The disparities grow at almost every step, stealing the dignity of young Black people and forcing them onto lifelong pathways of criminalization and diminished opportunity.For Black girls, the U.S.'s failure to address gender-based violence, which they experience at greater levels than any other group, is paramount to the criminalization they experience. In fact, sexual abuse is one of the primary predictors of girls' entry into the juvenile justice system, with girls often being routed to the system specifically because of their victimization. For instance, girls who are victims of sex trafficking are often arrested on prostitution charges'....There is a critical need for a coordinated strategy in local communities that addresses rampant racial disparities in the application of zero-tolerance policies and criminalization practices that impact Black boys and girls'....Tens of thousands of youth under the age of 21 are currently incarcerated for offenses ranging from truancy to more serious charges. Every crime bill passed by Congress throughout the 1980s and 1990s included new federal laws against juvenile crimes and increased penalties against children. Similar trends can be seen throughout state legislation. There is mounting research that children under the age of 23 do not have fully-developed brains and that the cheapest, most humane, and most cost-effective way to respond to juvenile crime is not incarceration, but programs and investments that strengthen families, increase stability and provide access to educational and employment opportunities. Prosecuting youth with crimes is not only cruel; but it also permanently disadvantages them with a criminal record, which makes completing their education, getting a job, finding housing and growing up to be contributing members of society unfairly difficult.(2) Reparations

We demand reparations for past and continuing harms. The government, responsible corporations and other institutions that have profited off of the harm they have inflicted on Black people '-- from colonialism to slavery through food and housing redlining, mass incarceration, and surveillance '-- must repair the harm done. This includes:

Reparations for the systemic denial of access to high quality educational opportunities in the form of full and free access for all Black people (including undocumented and currently and formerly incarcerated people) to lifetime education including: free access and open admissions to public community colleges and universities, technical education (technology, trade and agricultural), educational support programs, retroactive forgiveness of student loans, and support for lifetime learning programs.Reparations for the continued divestment from, discrimination toward and exploitation of our communities in the form of a guaranteed minimum livable income for all Black people, with clearly articulated corporate regulations.Reparations for the wealth extracted from our communities through environmental racism, slavery, food apartheid, housing discrimination and racialized capitalism in the form of corporate and government reparations focused on healing ongoing physical and mental trauma, and ensuring our access and control of food sources, housing and land.Reparations for the cultural and educational exploitation, erasure, and extraction of our communities in the form of mandated public school curriculums that critically examine the political, economic, and social impacts of colonialism and slavery, and funding to support, build, preserve, and restore cultural assets and sacred sites to ensure the recognition and honoring of our collective struggles and triumphs.Legislation at the federal and state level that requires the United States to acknowledge the lasting impacts of slavery, establish and execute a plan to address those impacts. This includes the immediate passage of H.R.40, the ''Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act'' or subsequent versions which call for reparations remedies.What is the problem?

Education in the U.S. has always been a subversive act for Black people. During enslavement we were legally barred from the most basic forms of education including literacy. Post-Civil War, and even after the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision, Black people have been locked into segregated institutions that are underfunded, under resourced and often face severe health risk because of the decrepit conditions of their school buildings.The current racial equity gap in education has roots that date back to enslavement. In fact, recent studies suggest that racial educational inequalities may be the most (measurable) enduring legacy of slavery. The same study also verified ongoing income inequality correlated to counties where slavery was prevalent.The cradle-to-college pipeline has been systematically cut off for Black communities. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 23 states spend more per pupil in affluent districts than in high-poverty districts that contain a high concentrations of Black students; and the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights shows persistent and glaring opportunity gaps and racial inequities for Black students. Black students are less likely to attend schools that offer advanced coursework, less likely to be placed in gifted and talented programs, more likely to attend schools with less qualified educators, and employ law enforcement officers but no counselors.Public universities, colleges, and technical education remain out of reach for most in the United States and policies to help students cover costs continue to shift towards benefiting more affluent families'....Financial aid is not sufficiently covering the basic needs of students attending public universities and colleges, leaving many of them struggling to eat and pay for housing, transportation, daycare and healthcare'....The rising costs of higher education and exploitative and predatory lending practices of private and for-profit institutions make Black students more likely to drop-out, and leave them and their families stuck with debilitating and crippling debt'....[F]ederal and state funding systematically underfunds Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's) compared to Predominantly White Institutions (PWI)'....What does this solution do?

We seek complete open access for all to free public university, college and technical education programs (including technology, trade and agricultural) as well as full-funding for lifelong learning programs that support communities and families. We also seek the forgiveness of all federal student loans. Policies shall apply to all and should focus on outreach to communities historically denied access to education including undocumented, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people.Cover all living costs, including but not limited to housing, transportation, childcare, healthcare, and food for students attending public universities, colleges, and technical educational programs (including technology, trade, and agricultural).Fully fund and provide open access to K-12, higher education, technical educational programs (including technology, trade, and agricultural), educational support programs and lifelong learning programs to every individual incarcerated in local, state, and federal correctional facilities (juvenile and adult).Provide full access to all undocumented people to state and federal programs that provide aid to cover the full costs, including living costs, to attend public universities, and colleges, technical educational programs, and lifelong learning programs.Increased federal and state investments in all Historically Black Colleges (HBCUs).(3) Invest-Divest

We demand investments in the education, health and safety of Black people, instead of investments in the criminalizing, caging, and harming of Black people. We want investments in Black communities, determined by Black communities, and divestment from exploitative forces including prisons, fossil fuels, police, surveillance and exploitative corporations. This includes:

A reallocation of funds at the federal, state and local level from policing and incarceration (JAG, COPS, VOCA) to long-term safety strategies such as education, local restorative justice services, and employment programs.The retroactive decriminalization, immediate release and record expungement of all drug related offenses and prostitution, and reparations for the devastating impact of the ''war on drugs'' and criminalization of prostitution, including a reinvestment of the resulting savings and revenue into restorative services, mental health services, job programs and other programs supporting those impacted by the sex and drug trade.Real, meaningful, and equitable universal health care that guarantees: proximity to nearby comprehensive health centers, culturally competent services for all people, specific services for queer, gender nonconforming, and trans people, full bodily autonomy, full reproductive services, mental health services, paid parental leave, and comprehensive quality child and elder care.A constitutional right at the state and federal level to a fully-funded education which includes a clear articulation of the right to: a free education for all, special protections for queer and trans students, wrap around services, social workers, free health services (including reproductive body autonomy), a curriculum that acknowledges and addresses students' material and cultural needs, physical activity and recreation, high quality food, free daycare, and freedom from unwarranted search, seizure or arrest.A divestment from industrial multinational use of fossil fuels and investment in community- based sustainable energy solutions.A cut in military expenditures and a reallocation of those funds to invest in domestic infrastructure and community well-being.(4) Economic Justice

We demand economic justice for all and a reconstruction of the economy to ensure Black communities have collective ownership, not merely access. This includes:

A progressive restructuring of tax codes at the local, state, and federal levels to ensure a radical and sustainable redistribution of wealth.Federal and state job programs that specifically target the most economically marginalized Black people, and compensation for those involved in the care economy. Job programs must provide a living wage and encourage support for local workers centers, unions, and Black-owned businesses which are accountable to the community.A right to restored land, clean air, clean water and housing and an end to the exploitative privatization of natural resources '-- including land and water. We seek democratic control over how resources are preserved, used and distributed and do so while honoring and respecting the rights of our Indigenous family.The right for workers to organize in public and private sectors especially in ''On Demand Economy'' jobs.Restore the Glass-Steagall Act to break up the large banks, and call for the National Credit Union Administration and the US Department of the Treasury to change policies and practices around regulation, reporting and consolidation to allow for the continuation and creation of black banks, small and community development credit unions, insurance companies and other financial institutions.An end to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and a renegotiation of all trade agreements to prioritize the interests of workers and communities.Through tax incentives, loans and other government directed resources, support the development of cooperative or social economy networks to help facilitate trade across and in Black communities globally. All aid in the form of grants, loans or contracts to help facilitate this must go to Black led or Black supported networks and organizations as defined by the communities.Financial support of Black alternative institutions including policy that subsidizes and offers low-interest, interest-free or federally guaranteed low-interest loans to promote the development of cooperatives (food, residential, etc.), land trusts and culturally responsive health infrastructures that serve the collective needs of our communities.Protections for workers in industries that are not appropriately regulated including domestic workers, farm workers, and tipped workers, and for workers '-- many of whom are Black women and incarcerated people'-- who have been exploited and remain unprotected. This includes the immediate passage at the Federal and state level of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights and extension of worker protections to incarcerated people.What is the problem?

In the ten states with the most regressive tax structures, the poorest fifth pay up to seven times as much in taxes and fees as the wealthiest residents, as a percentage of their income.While states sometimes shift the cost of some services onto poorer residents, at other times they simply cut services all together. Many municipalities have had to increase public school class sizes, shorten school days, close vital city offices, and eliminate a huge number of public sector jobs.As the wealthiest Americans and most powerful corporations continue to evade their fair share of taxes, many programs and initiatives that could contribute to racial and economic justice go underfunded or unfunded.What does this solution do?

Taxing income:Raise marginal tax rates for high earners, specifically the top percentile (for equity and revenue generation reasons '--they pay more than 40 percent of federal income tax revenue, yet their average rate has been reduced to around 20 percent) and begin by gradually raising the top marginal rate first to 50 percent and then up to 80 percent.Remove income caps on payroll taxes that fund social security and unemployment insurance.Raise corporate income taxes, especially on large corporations and end tax deferral for foreign income of multinational corporations.Taxing wealth:Increase taxes on capital to the point where they are higher than taxes on labor, as wealth inequality is greater than income inequality. Specifically:Increase capital gains taxCreate anti-speculation tax on property transfersIncrease estate taxHave states shift to an income-sensitized property tax that focuses on homes above a certain threshold and second homesImpose a wealth tax (on tangible and financial assets)Taxing undesirable activities:Taxing ''bads'' not ''goods'': shift from sales taxes to taxing externalities such as environmental damage where it is difficult to eliminate the damage through regulation, and make this approach income-sensitized to hold low-income people harmless.Create a Tobin tax for international financial transactions, especially for currency speculation.Assess and eliminate tax expenditures such as mortgage reduction, health insurance exemption, etc.Make low-wage employer fees or payroll tax rate proportional to wage disparity.Expand the earned income tax credit.Provide a universal child tax credit.Create mechanisms for sharing tax revenues between localities.(5) Community Control

We demand a world where those most impacted in our communities control the laws, institutions, and policies that are meant to serve us '' from our schools to our local budgets, economies, police departments, and our land '' while recognizing that the rights and histories of our Indigenous family must also be respected. This includes:

Direct democratic community control of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, ensuring that communities most harmed by destructive policing have the power to hire and fire officers, determine disciplinary action, control budgets and policies, and subpoena relevant agency information.An end to the privatization of education and real community control by parents, students and community members of schools including democratic school boards and community control of curriculum, hiring, firing and discipline policies.Participatory budgeting at the local, state and federal level'....What does this solution do?By requiring all civilian oversight agencies to retain the power to hire and fire officers, determine disciplinary action in cases of misconduct related to excessive and lethal force, determine the funding of agencies, set and enforce policies, and retain concrete means of retrieving information '-- such as subpoena power '-- from law enforcement and third parties as it pertains to circumstances involving excessive, sexual and lethal force; communities will be able significantly to reduce the number of Black people impacted by police violence.(6) Political Power

We demand independent Black political power and Black self-determination in all areas of society. We envision a remaking of the current U.S. political system in order to create a real democracy where Black people and all marginalized people can effectively exercise full political power. This includes:

An end to the criminalization of Black political activity including the immediate release of all political prisoners and an end to the repression of political parties.Public financing of elections and the end of money controlling politics through ending super PACs and unchecked corporate donations.Election protection, electoral expansion and the right to vote for all people including: full access, guarantees, and protections of the right to vote for all people through universal voter registration, automatic voter registration, pre-registration for 16-year-olds, same day voter registration, voting day holidays, enfranchisement of formerly and presently incarcerated people, local and state resident voting for undocumented people, and a ban on any disenfranchisement laws.Full access to technology including net neutrality and universal access to the internet without discrimination and full representation for all.Protection and increased funding for Black institutions including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's), Black media and cultural, political and social formations.What is the problem?

'... The criminalization of freedom movements and activists has resulted in the incarceration of hundreds of people, many of whom are recognized as legitimate freedom fighters. Black communities have been disproportionately targeted by the state and have become political prisoners incarcerated in local, state and federal prisons. The FBI's Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) outlined the purpose, objectives, methods and tools used to criminalize freedom movements.Today, direct victims of COINTELPRO (and similar law enforcement initiatives) remain exiled and incarcerated, while indirectly Black communities remain under surveillance by all levels of law enforcement with the intention of preventing the growth of another nationwide movement'....What does this solution do?

We are calling for the release of all political prisoners held in the U.S. and the removal of legitimate freedom fighters [like Assata Shakur] from the International Terrorists list. Additionally, we call on Congress to hold hearings on the impact of COINTELPRO as the Church Committee hearings in 1975 did not offer remedies to individuals and communities negatively impacted by this government initiative'....Cease all current investigations and cold cases into former activists. Some cities like NYC, have ongoing ''unsolved.'' We know of the recent indictments of activists and freedom fighters from the civil and human rights era of the 60s and 70s like;Imam Jamil Al Amin (formerly known as H Rap Brown), captured in 2000Kamau Sadiki, captured in 2002 for a case from 1971San Francisco 8, indicted in 2007 for a case from 1971Funding for BLM

Through his Open Society Foundations (OSF) billionaire financier George Soros in 2014 gave at least $33 million to support already-established groups that, as The Washington Times put it, ''emboldened the grass-roots, on-the-ground activists in Ferguson,'' Missouri, where anti-police protests erupted in the aftermath of an incident where a white police officer killed Michael Brown, a black teenaged criminal who was attempting to steal the officer's gun. ''The financial tether from Mr. Soros to the activist groups gave rise to a combustible protest movement that transformed a one-day criminal event in Missouri into a 24-hour-a-day national cause celebre,'' said the Times. The recipients of this $33 million were mostly supporters of BLM, though the money was used for many different purposes, and not just to advance the BLM agenda. In 2015, Soros's OSF gave $650,000 to ''groups at the core of the burgeoning #BlackLivesMatter movement.''

In 2015, Google pledged to give the Ella Baker Center (EBC) a grant of $500,000 which was to be used to fund the efforts of BLM co-founder (and EBC fellow) Patrisse Cullors, to create '-- in conjunction with the ACLU '-- a police brutality app that would enable people to report instances of police misconduct via their cellular phones. Noting that ''the real cost for a simple app like this should be under $5,000,'' Ed Straker wrote in the American Thinker: ''Why is Cullors getting $495,000 more than the cost needed to design a useless app? Well, here is another statistic: Google is only 2% black. It looks as though Google is giving hush money to black radicals so they won't attack Google's 'racist' employment statistics, much as companies used to give hush money to Jesse Jackson for much the same reason.''

In the summer of 2016, the Ford Foundation and Borealis Philanthropy announced the formation of the Black-Led Movement Fund (BLMF), a six-year pooled donor campaign whose goal was to raise $100 million for the aforementioned Movement for Black Lives coalition. Said the Ford Foundation: ''The Movement for Black Lives has forged a new national conversation about the intractable legacy of racism, state violence, and state neglect of black communities in the United States.'' According to Borealis, ''The BLMF provides grants, movement building resources, and technical assistance to organizations working to advance the leadership and vision of young, Black, queer, feminists and immigrant leaders who are shaping and leading a national conversation about criminalization, policing and race in America.'' In a joint statement, Ford and Borealis said that their Fund would ''complement the important work'' of charities including the Hill-Snowden Foundation, Solidaire, the NoVo Foundation, the Association of Black Foundation Executives, the Neighborhood Funders Group, anonymous donors, and others. In addition to raising $100 million for the Movement for Black Lives, the BLMF planned to collaborate with Benedict Consulting on ''the organizational capacity building needs of a rapidly growing movement.''

BLM has received significant funding from Shining the Light Advisors (SLA), a partnership created jointly by United Way, A&E, and iHeartMedia. SLA is a committee of ''nationally known experts and leaders in racial and social justice'' that oversees grant disbursements. The ''advisors'' who are part of SLA include Van Jones, Advancement Project co-director Judith Browne Dianis, and Applied Research Center president Rinku Sen.

BLM's Partnership With the International Development Exchange

In 2015, BLM quietly established a legal partnership with a small San Francisco-based charity, the International Development Exchange (IDEX), which in November of that year began acting as a manager of BLM's financial affairs. In this role, IDEX gained the ability to receive grants and tax-deductible donations on BLM's behalf. In 2016, the BLM-IDEX relationship evolved into a contractual partnership that was scheduled to run through at least the middle of 2017. In lieu of paying an administrative fee for IDEX's financial-management services, BLM agreed instead to make donations to IDEX's partners in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Prior to the formation of this BLM-IDEX partnership, IDEX executive director Rajasvini Bhansali had known BLM co-founders Alicia Garza and Patrisse Cullors for about a decade through their work in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Support for Fidel Castro

Shortly after former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro died on November 25, 2016, BLM published an article titled ''Lessons from Fidel: Black Lives Matter and the Transition of El Comandante.'' The piece began by stating: ''We are feeling many things as we awaken to a world without Fidel Castro. There is an overwhelming sense of loss, complicated by fear and anxiety. Although no leader is without their flaws, we must push back against the rhetoric of the right and come to the defense of El Comandante. And there are lessons that we must revisit and heed as we pick up the mantle in changing our world, as we aspire to build a world rooted in a vision of freedom and the peace that only comes with justice. It is the lessons that we take from Fidel.''

The article praised Castro for having taught people ''that to be a revolutionary, you must strive to live in integrity.'' ''As a Black network committed to transformation,'' it added, ''we are particularly grateful to Fidel for holding [cop-killer/fugitive] Mama Assata Shakur, who continues to inspire us. We are thankful that he provided a home for [cop killers/airplane hijackers] Brother Michael Finney, Ralph Goodwin, and Charles Hill[;] asylum to Brother Huey P. Newton[;] and sanctuary for so many other Black revolutionaries who were being persecuted by the American government during the Black Power era.'' Expressing gratitude to Castro for ''attempting to support Black people in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina when our government left us to die on rooftops and in floodwaters,'' BLM lauded the late dictator for having ''provided a space where the traditional spiritual work of African people could flourish.'' The piece closed by saying: ''As Fidel ascends to the realm of the ancestors, we summon his guidance, strength, and power as we recommit ourselves to the struggle for universal freedom. Fidel Vive!''

Calls for Murder of White People and President Trump

During an anti-President Trump protest in Seattle in late January 2017, a female activist associated with BLM took a megaphone and, for four minutes, shouted obscenities, anti-capitalist rhetoric, and incitements to violence against white people and President Trump. Among her remarks were the following: ''Fuck white supremacy, fuck the U.S. empire, fuck your imperialist ass lives. That shit gotta go. Fuck that shit. You know what America thrives off of? Capitalism. We use our mother fucking, fucking black and brown bodies to live and survive while white people own fucking properties after that'.... White people, give your fucking money, your fucking house, your fucking property, we need it fucking all. You need to reparate [sic] black and indigenous people right now. Pay the fuck up, pay the fuck up. It ain't just your fucking time, it's your fucking money, and now your fucking life is devoted to social change'.... We're all operating under white supremacy'.... And we need to start killing people. First off, we need to start killing the White House. The White House must die. The White House, your fucking White House, your fucking Presidents, they must go! Fuck the White House'.... Capitalism is '... fucking racism'....''

BLM Planned to Riot if Police Officer Was Not Indicted

In February 2017, former BLM activist Trey Turner reported that his comrades had planned to burn down the Minnesota state capitol in Saint Paul and the governor's mansion if Saint Paul-area police officer Jeronimo Yanez '-- who fatally shot a black man named Philando Castile during a July 6, 2016 traffic stop '-- was not prosecuted. For details about the Castile shooting, click here.

BLM Chapter Bans White People from Event

In April 2017, BLM's Philadelphia chapter banned white people from attending one of its events, explaining that it was being held in a ''black only space,'' and that its meetings were ''black centered.'' ''If you identify as a person of the African Diaspora [a reference to people who were taken out of Africa during the transatlantic slave trades] You can attend our meetings and become a member,'' Philadelphia BLM said in a tweet. ''If not you can support us in other ways.'' In another tweet, the group noted that the late Malcolm X had likewise banned whites from his meetings on race: ''Malcolm took our same stance. White people could not attend the meetings but could support his organization.''

Police Officer Sues BLM

In July 2017, a police officer who had been wounded in a shooting rampage that killed three police officers a year earlier in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, sued DeRay McKesson and four other BLM leaders, seeking at least $75,000 in damages.

BLM Falsely Reports That Police Lynched a Black Man

In the early morning hours of August 1, 2017, a black man in St. Paul, Minnesota named Davion Gatlin came upon a dead man hanged by the neck from a tree branch. Gatlin took pictures of the gruesome scene and immediately posted them to Facebook to complain that police had lynched a black man. Gatlin's post was picked up and shared (with the pictures of the dead man) by the Minneapolis Black Lives Matter chapter, which helped the post go viral among other BLM-related pages: ''A man was found lynched in St. Paul, MN this morning. St. Paul PD was quick to call this a suicide while witnesses on the scene say the man's hands were tied behind his back. We are hurt by the tragic news and know that this despicable & disgusting act of cowardice will not be erased.''

But in fact, the man's death was subsequently shown to have been a suicide due to mental illness. Moreover, the man, whose name was Michael Bringle, was white, and his hands were not tied behind his back. Police rebuked the false narrative promoted by BLM: ''Michael's passing is incredibly hard on those who cared about him, and their pain has been compounded by the inconsiderate and downright disgusting act of posting and sharing a picture of him hanging from a tree on Facebook. If you have posted or shared the photos, please take them down so the family can begin to heal and Michael can rest in peace.''

BLM Leader Tells Whites to ''Give Up Your Home to a Black Family''

In August 2017, Chanelle Helm, a co-founder and lead organizer for BLM's Louisville, Kentucky chapter, published a list of 10 things that white people should do in order to change America for the better:

1. White people, if you don't have any descendants, will your property to a black or brown family. Preferably one that lives in generational poverty.

2. White people, if you're inheriting property you intend to sell upon acceptance, give it to a black or brown family. You're bound to make that money in some other white privileged way.

3. If you are a developer or realty owner of multi-family housing, build a sustainable complex in a black or brown blighted neighborhood and let black and brown people live in it for free.

4. White people, if you can afford to downsize, give up the home you own to a black or brown family. Preferably a family from generational poverty.

5. White people, if any of the people you intend to leave your property to are racists assholes, change the will, and will your property to a black or brown family. Preferably a family from generational poverty.

6. White people, re-budget your monthly so you can donate to black funds for land purchasing.

7. White people, especially white women (because this is yaw specialty '-- Nosey Jenny and Meddling Kathy), get a racist fired. Yaw know what the fuck they be saying. You are complicit when you ignore them. Get your boss fired cause they racist too.

8. Backing up No. 7, this should be easy but all those sheetless Klan, Nazi's and Other lil' dick-white men will all be returning to work. Get they ass fired. Call the police even: they look suspicious.

9. OK, backing up No. 8, if any white person at your work, or as you enter in spaces and you overhear a white person praising the actions from yesterday, first, get a pic. Get their name and more info. Hell, find out where they work '-- Get Them Fired. But certainly address them, and, if you need to, you got hands: use them.

10. Commit to two things: Fighting white supremacy where and how you can (this doesn't mean taking up knitting, unless you're making scarves for black and brown kids in need), and funding black and brown people and their work.

''Black Xmas''

In November and December of 2017, BLM's Los Angeles chapter organized a ''Black Xmas'' initiative that urged African Americans to avoid patronizing white-owned business establishments for the remainder of the calendar year. The motto of that initiative was: ''#DIVEST from White corporations / #INVEST in Black community / If you must buy, #BUYBLACK.''

The Influence of Saul Alinsky

BLM included a course on the late community-organizing guru, Saul Alinsky, at one of its conferences.

Additional ResourcesThe Danger of the ''Black Lives Matter'' MovementBy Heather Mac DonaldApril 2016

Reds Exploiting Blacks: The Roots of Black Lives MatterBy James SimpsonJanuary 12, 2016

The Truth About Black Lives MatterBy Joshua MuravchikNovember 16, 2016

Black Lives Matter: A Movement Built on LiesBy John PerazzoJuly 12, 2016

The Devastating Consequence of Denying that All Lives MatterBy Lloyd MarcusApril 17, 2017

Protest Thugs and the Real Evil in CharlotteBy Daniel GreenfieldSeptember 23, 2016

It's Time to Call out Black RacismBy Daniel GreenfieldAugust 5, 2015

Black Lives Matter Demands an Air Tax for SlaveryBy Daniel GreenfieldAugust 3, 2016

Black Lives Matter Puts Feelings First, Evidence LastBy Ben ShapiroJuly 13, 2016

As Chicago Backs off Policing, Its Murder Rate Skyrockets Ever HigherBy Heather Mac DonaldDecember 27, 2016

The 131 Black Men Murdered by Black Lives MatterBy Daniel GreenfieldOctober 25, 2016

Investigate #BlackLivesMatter for Black Nationalist TerrorBy Daniel GreenfieldJuly 14, 2016

Obama and Black Lives Matter Fight for a Violent SlasherBy Daniel GreenfieldFebruary 4, 2016

Obama's Anti-Cop Rhetoric Gets Written in BloodBy John PerazzoJuly 8, 2016

Black Lives Matter Activists Sabotage Public Order, Intimidate CriticsBy Carl HorowitzJanuary 16, 2016

Black Lives Matter Movement Getting Blacks KilledBy Larry ElderSeptember 11, 2015

Dems Officially Endorse Anti-Cop Black Lives Matter MovementBy Matthew VadumSeptember 2, 2015

Black Lives Matter's Support for Killers of Black CopsBy Daniel GreenfieldAugust 8, 2016

VIDEOS

The Truth About ''Black Lives Matter''By Paul Joseph WatsonJuly 7, 2016

#BlackLivesMatter Propaganda Exposed Case-By-CaseBy Steven CrowderJuly 13, 2016

Black Mom Becomes Viral Star with Rant at Black Lives Matter ProtestersBy Peggy HubbardAugust 23, 2015

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:06

Snapchat - whose employees were busted spying on users sexting each other - has joined the digital resistance, announcing that they will no longer promoting President Trump's account on its "Discover" page of curated content, according to Axios - which couldn't make their disdain for Trump any more transparent if they tried.

"We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover," the company said on Wednesday.

The 'meddling' move comes after Trump tweeted comments which were interpreted by some to glorify violence during protests over racial injustice.

....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!

'-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020Meanwhile:

As 5 million users post videos of riots https://t.co/ZaJP34WCmc

'-- Quoth the Raven (@QTRResearch) June 3, 2020Via Axios:

Why it matters: Snapchat is taking action on the president's account for comments he made elsewhere. That's going farther than other big tech firms and signals a commitment to aligning content served to users with core values, rather than making moderation decisions based narrowly on each post made on its own platform.

What they're saying: ''We are not currently promoting the President's content on Snapchat's Discover platform," a spokesperson for Snapchat parent Snap tells Axios. The company made the decision over the weekend.

"We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover," the spokesperson added."Racial violence and injustice have no place in our society and we stand together with all who seek peace, love, equality, and justice in America.''Yes, but: This doesn't mean Trump's account is being taken down. It will remain fully accessible to the public, so people who subscribe to his Snapchat account or search for his account will still be able to find his content.

Snapchat says it will no longer promote accounts belonging to people who 'incite racial violence and injustice, even if its done off of their platform.'

In a Sunday memo, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel signaled his virtue, writing "Our Discover content platform is a curated platform, where we decide what we promote. We have spoken time and again about working hard to make a positive impact, and we will walk the talk with the content we promote on Snapchat."

He added that Snapchat "may continue to allow divisive people to maintain an account on Snapchat, as long as the content that is published on Snapchat is consistent with our community guidelines, but we will not promote that account or content in any way."

Just in time for election season to heat up...

Meanwhile, virtue signaling can be expensive:

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 13:27

In de Verenigde Staten zijn al dagenlang protesten aan de gang na de dood van George Floyd. Hij stierf tijdens zijn arrestatie nadat een agent diens knie minutenlang op zijn nek gedrukt hield. In andere landen is het Black Lives Matter-protest ook aangewakkerd. Volg hier de laatste ontwikkelingen.

ME voert charges uit op Schouwburgplein, paar incidenten in binnenstadDe ME heeft woensdagavond na het afblazen van het antiracismeprotest in Rotterdam charges uitgevoerd op het Schouwburgplein. Demonstranten volgden herhaaldelijk aanwijzingen van de politie niet op, aldus een woordvoerder.Het is erg onrustig in het centrum na het opbreken van de demonstratie. Er is een ruit ingegooid op de Lijnbaan en op verschillende plekken hebben demonstranten met hekken en terrasstoelen gegooid.Er zijn twee aanhoudingen verricht voor belediging van een agent en het gooien van vuurwerk. De problemen lijken vooral te worden veroorzaakt door een kleine groep jongeren. Veel demonstranten zijn gewoon huiswaarts gekeerd, zoals de politie vroeg

'Agent die George Floyd doodde aangeklaagd voor moord'De agent die ruim een week geleden de zwarte Amerikaan George Floyd doodde, wordt aangeklaagd voor moord. Dat melden lokale media. De drie andere agenten worden naar verwachting aangeklaagd voor hulp bij moord.

Rutte: Racisme komt ook voor in NederlandRacisme is niet alleen een probleem in de VS. Dat beklemtoonde premier Mark Rutte woensdagavond tijdens de persconferentie over de coronamaatregelen. In Nederland vonden de afgelopen dagen talloze BlackLivesMatter-demonstraties plaats.

"Ook mensen in Nederland maken mee dat zij niet worden beoordeeld op hun toekomst, maar op hun verleden", aldus Rutte. "Mensen die niet als individu worden aangesproken, maar op de groep waar ze uit voortkomen. Niet op hun gedrag, maar op hun geloof. Dit raakt heel veel mensen in Nederland."

Verder stelde de premier dat Nederland nog geen contact gehad heeft met de Amerikaanse regering over de BlackLivesMatter-demonstraties, na de dood van de zwarte arrestant George Floyd. De man werd vorige week in Minneapolis gedood door een witte agent die bijna negen minuten op zijn nek ging zitten. Floyd had mogelijk betaald met een vals briefje van 20 dollar. Lees hier een tijdlijn van de eerste week van protesten.

De politie heeft zojuist bij de Leuvehaven een man aangehouden, maar deze werd snel weer vrijgelaten. Een aantal mensen scandeerde 'fuck the police', maar dit duurde niet lang, aldus NU.nl-verslaggever Job van der Plicht. De rest lijkt nu teruggekeerd.

De massa verplaatst zich naar tram- en metrostation Leuvehaven, meldt NU.nl-verslaggever Job van der Plicht. "De sfeer is verre van grimmig, maar veel beweging zit er niet in."

Ondanks duidelijk hoorbaar boegeroep, is het verlaten van de Erasmusbrug in gang gezet. De Mobiele Eenheid (ME) van de politie staat klaar, maar hoeft nog niet in te grijpen.

De Rotterdamse driehoek, bestaande uit burgemeester Aboutaleb, de districtschef van de politie en de officier van justitie, bevestigt dat de demonstratie is stopgezet en vraagt alle aanwezigen naar huis te gaan.

De opkomst blijkt te groot om de anderhalvemetermaatregel te handhaven. Mensen worden verzocht om de Erasmusbrug rustig en ordelijk te verlaten en naar huis te gaan.Organisatie moet protest stoppen van gemeenteMet nog iets minder dan een half uur te gaan, moet de organisatie het protest stopzetten van de gemeente Rotterdam. Reden is dat het onmogelijk blijkt om 1,5 meter afstand te garanderen tussen demonstranten.

Vanaf het podium worden de aanwezigen opnieuw gevraagd om ruimte te maken. "Anders kunnen we niet door en worden we niet gehoord." De ordedienst doet eenzelfde beroep: "We willen het afmaken, ga naar achteren en maak ruimte".

Er wordt nu ook door de gemeente opgeroepen om niet meer naar de demonstratie te komen. Volgens planning duurt het protest nog een half uur, maar de kans is reel dat het vroegtijdig wordt afgeblazen.

Inmiddels heeft de politie via de megafoon de laatste waarschuwing gegeven. Het programma gaat in aangepaste vorm verder, maar tot nu toe is de demonstratie nog niet gestopt. Dat gebeurt wel als mensen nu nog geen 1,5 meter afstand (kunnen) houden.

(1/2) Het protest begon nog georganiseerd, met voldoende afstand tussen demonstranten. (Foto: Pro Shots)(2/2) Al snel na het officile begin werd het echter al op meerdere plekken op de Erasmusbrug te druk om die afstand te bewaren. Op dit moment probeert de organisatie de aanwezigen weer op 1,5 meter van elkaar te krijgen, anders wordt het protest gestopt. (Foto: Pro Shots)De aanwezigen worden aangesproken op het feit dat er geen 1,5 meter zit tussen demonstranten. De organisatie roept om dat het protest gestopt zal worden door de autoriteiten als er niet snel voldoende afstand gehouden wordt.

Ook verslaggever Job van der Plicht ziet dat het in toenemende mate erg lastig wordt om voldoende afstand te houden.

Op veel plekken wordt het nu toch echt te druk om de 1,5 meter nog te handhaven. Velen dragen mondkapjes als extra bescherming, maar dat geldt lang niet voor iedereen.

Vanuit de lucht is goed te zien dat het weliswaar druk is, maar dat op de meeste plekken mensen 1,5 meter afstand weten te houden. (Foto: Pro Shots)(1/2) Hoewel het aantal mensen nog altijd toeneemt, is er voorlopig nog genoeg ruimte op de Erasmusbrug en lukt het de demonstranten om 1,5 meter afstand te houden. (Foto: Pro Shots)(2/2) Ook hebben veel mensen voor de zekerheid mondkapjes op, zoals gisteren ook in Den Haag het geval was. (Foto: Pro Shots)Terwijl de demonstratie bij de Erasmusbrug officieel is begonnen, stromen er nog steeds mensen toe, ziet verslaggever Job van der Plicht.

Antiracismedemonstratie in Rotterdam vroegtijdig afgeblazenDe demonstratie in Rotterdam tegen racisme en politiegeweld bij de Erasmusbrug is voortijdig stopgezet. Een half uur voor de geplande eindtijd van 18.30 uur kreeg de organisatie van de gemeente de opdracht te stoppen, omdat er niet voldoende afstand gehouden kan worden tussen de aanwezige demonstranten. Lees

hier meer.

"Lastig inschatten, maar een kwartier voor de antiracismedemonstratie in Rotterdam begint, is het aantal demonstranten al opgelopen tot enkele honderden", zegt onze verslaggever Job van der Plicht.

De Duitse bond DFB gaat spelers die in de afgelopen speelronde steun aan George Floyd hebben betuigd niet bestraffen. Diverse spelers in de Bundesliga riepen in het pinksterweekend op tot gerechtigheid voor de door politiegeweld omgekomen Amerikaan. Het is voor voetballers normaal gesproken niet toegestaan om zich politiek, religieus of persoonlijke te uiten tijdens wedstrijd. Lees verder.Protesten dinsdag grotendeels vreedzaam, tienduizenden mensen negeren avondklokDe protesten verspreid door de Verenigde Staten verliepen dinsdag grotendeels vreedzaam, schrijven lokale media. Volgens

The New York Times waren er nauwelijks ongeregeldheden, vergeleken met de wijdverspreide vernielingen en plunderingen van de dagen daarvoor. Tienduizenden mensen gingen in verschillende steden de straat op en negeerden de avondklok, maar grote ongeregeldheden bleven veelal uit.

Warner Music Group en de Blavatnik Family Foundation van topman Len Blavatnik, stellen een bedrag van 100 miljoen dollar (89,38 miljoen euro) beschikbaar ter ondersteuning van goede doelen die zich inzetten voor sociale rechtvaardigheid en campagnes tegen geweld en racisme. Lees verder.De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump heeft Antifa als terreurorganisatie gelabeld in verband met de protesten tegen politiegeweld. In hoeverre de wereldwijde beweging daarbij betrokken is, is onduidelijk. Maar wat is Antifa nou eigenlijk?

Een 77-jarige zwarte beveiliger en voormalige politieagent is dinsdagnacht mogelijk gedood door plunderaars in de Amerikaanse stad St. Louis. Volgens persbureau

AP zijn zijn laatste momenten gelivestreamd op Facebook, al is de video inmiddels verwijderd. David Dorn zou gedood zijn door mensen die een pandjeshuis ingebroken waren. Volgens zijn weduwe ging Dorn daar vaak langs als het alarm afging, omdat hij bevriend was met de eigenaar.

Dorn blijkt een geliefd figuur te zijn geweest in de buurt, aldus The Ethical Society of Police, een organisatie voor zwarte agenten in St. Louis. Hij was het soort persoon dat zijn leven zou geven om anderen te redden, als het daartoe kwam, aldus The Guardian.

Britse politie is verafschuwd door dood van Floyd en geweld bij protestenIn een gezamenlijk statement uiten Britse politiechefs hun afschuw over de manier waarop de zwarte Amerikaanse arrestant George Floyd om het leven kwam en het geweld bij de protesten die daarop volgden. Toch roepen ze de demonstranten op samen te werken met de politie en herinneren de demonstranten eraan dat de coronamaatregelen ook nageleefd moeten worden.

"Wij staan zij aan zij met alle mensen die wereldwijd geschokt en verafschuwd zijn door de manier waarop Floyd om het leven kwam", zeggen de chefs. Zij zeggen dat er verantwoording afgelegd moet worden voor zijn dood en roepen op tot gerechtigheid. De chefs uiten ook hun afschuw over het geweld en de schade die is aangericht in veel Amerikaanse steden.

Mark Zuckerberg heeft vrijdag met Donald Trump gebeld. Het gesprek vond plaats nadat de Facebook-directeur besloot dat een controversieel bericht van de Amerikaanse president online mocht blijven staan. Dat heeft Zuckerberg dinsdag aan medewerkers van zijn bedrijf verteld, meldt The New York Times.In het Facebook-bericht reageerde Trump op uit de hand gelopen demonstraties tegen de dood van een ongewapende zwarte man door een witte politieagent in Minneapolis. "Wanneer het plunderen begint, begint het schieten", schreef de Amerikaanse president. Lees hier verder.

Politie noemt ontruimde demonstranten bij fotomoment Trump gewelddadigDe Amerikaanse politieafdeling US Park Police (USPP) zegt dat er rookgranaten en pepperspraykogels zijn gebruikt om de weg vrij te maken voor het controversile fotomoment van president Donald Trump afgelopen maandag, aldus

The Guardian. In een statement ontkent de USPP traangas gebruikt te hebben. Volgens hen gooiden "gewelddadige demonstranten" met stenen, bevroren waterflessen en bijtende vloeistoffen.

Demonstranten werden maandag hardhandig door de politie uit een park in de buurt van het Witte Huis ontruimd, zodat Trump naar een nabijgelegen kerk kon lopen. Daar ging hij op de foto met een bijbel in zijn hand. Op urenlange beelden lijkt te zien dat de demonstranten in het park vreedzaam bijeen zijn. Ooggetuigen zeggen dat de politie daar traangas afvuurde. Vlak daarvoor dreigde Trump tijdens een televisietoespraak het leger in te zetten om de protesten te "domineren".

Paus Franciscus: we kunnen racisme niet tolererenPaus Franciscus heeft zich uitgesproken over de Black Lives Matter-protesten. Hij zegt woensdag dat "we racisme niet kunnen tolereren of negeren". Hij zegt daarnaast dat hij hoopt dat er verzoening komt in de VS en dat hij bidt voor Floyd en voor alle slachtoffers van racisme.

Facebook: Extreemrechtse pagina's verwijderd die opriepen tot wapengebruikFacebook heeft pagina's neergehaald die opriepen om wapens mee te nemen naar Black Lives Matter-protesten, schrijft

CNN. Het zou gaan om de American Guard-groep, die zichzelf omschreef als nationalisten die de Amerikaanse grondwet verdedigen.

Ook van de groep Proud Boys zouden pagina's zijn verwijderd, al zouden hun leden niet over wapengebruik hebben geschreven. Volgens CNN is niet duidelijk waarom de pagina's verwijderd zijn.

Facebook liet eerder in een verklaring weten ongeacht politieke voorkeur streng op te gaan treden tegen gebruikers die oproepen tot geweld bij protesten.

De Canadese premier Justin Trudeau werd gevraagd naar zijn mening over de protesten in de Verenigde Staten. Het duurde even voordat hij een antwoord formuleerde.

Bijna tienduizend arrestaties in acht dagen in VSZeker 9.300 personen zijn gearresteerd bij protesten sinds de dood van George Floyd, meldt persbureau

AP vandaag. Bijna een derde van alle demonstranten is opgepakt in Los Angeles, terwijl in New York ten minste vijftienhonderd arrestaties plaatsvonden.

Het is niet duidelijk hoeveel personen zijn gearresteerd in Minneapolis, de stad waarin Floyd om het leven kwam. AP schrijft alleen dat in Dallas, Houston en Philadelphia zeker honderden personen zijn opgepakt.

Ook vanavond Black Lives Matter-protest in NederlandBij de Erasmusbrug wordt vanavond gedemonstreerd tegen politiegeweld en racisme. De gemeente heeft toestemming verleend voor een demonstratie van 17.00 tot 18.30 uur op het Glitterplein, het voetgangersgedeelte van de Erasmusbrug en het Wilhelminaplein.Blijkt echter dat er te veel demonstranten aanwezig zijn en er geen 1,5 meter afstand meer gehouden kan worden, dan wil burgemeester Ahmed Aboutaleb de demonstratie direct beindigen. Vooralsnog verwacht de organisatie dat er 150 personen komen.

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 11:40

George Floyd's death in Minneapolis has revived the Obama-era narrative that law enforcement is endemically racist. On Friday, Barack Obama tweeted that for millions of black Americans, being treated differently by the criminal justice system on account of race is ''tragically, painfully, maddeningly 'normal.' '' Mr. Obama called on the police and the public to create a ''new normal,'' in which bigotry no longer ''infects our institutions and our hearts.''

Joe Biden released a video the same day in which he asserted that all African-Americans fear for their safety from ''bad police'' and black children must be instructed to tolerate police abuse just so they can ''make it home.'' That echoed a claim Mr. Obama made after the ambush murder of five Dallas officers in July 2016. During their memorial service, the president said African-American parents were right to fear that their children may be killed by police officers whenever they go outside.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz denounced the ''stain . . . of fundamental, institutional racism'' on law enforcement during a Friday press conference. He claimed blacks were right to dismiss promises of police reform as empty verbiage.

This charge of systemic police bias was wrong during the Obama years and remains so today. However sickening the video of Floyd's arrest, it isn't representative of the 375 million annual contacts that police officers have with civilians. A solid body of evidence finds no structural bias in the criminal-justice system with regard to arrests, prosecution or sentencing. Crime and suspect behavior, not race, determine most police actions.

In 2019 police officers fatally shot 1,004 people, most of whom were armed or otherwise dangerous. African-Americans were about a quarter of those killed by cops last year (235), a ratio that has remained stable since 2015. That share of black victims is less than what the black crime rate would predict, since police shootings are a function of how often officers encounter armed and violent suspects. In 2018, the latest year for which such data have been published, African-Americans made up 53% of known homicide offenders in the U.S. and commit about 60% of robberies, though they are 13% of the population.

The police fatally shot nine unarmed blacks and 19 unarmed whites in 2019, according to a Washington Post database, down from 38 and 32, respectively, in 2015. The Post defines ''unarmed'' broadly to include such cases as a suspect in Newark, N.J., who had a loaded handgun in his car during a police chase. In 2018 there were 7,407 black homicide victims. Assuming a comparable number of victims last year, those nine unarmed black victims of police shootings represent 0.1% of all African-Americans killed in 2019. By contrast, a police officer is 18½ times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be killed by a police officer.

On Memorial Day weekend in Chicago alone, 10 African-Americans were killed in drive-by shootings. Such routine violence has continued'--a 72-year-old Chicago man shot in the face on May 29 by a gunman who fired about a dozen shots into a residence; two 19-year-old women on the South Side shot to death as they sat in a parked car a few hours earlier; a 16-year-old boy fatally stabbed with his own knife that same day. This past weekend, 80 Chicagoans were shot in drive-by shootings, 21 fatally, the victims overwhelmingly black. Police shootings are not the reason that blacks die of homicide at eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined; criminal violence is.

The latest in a series of studies undercutting the claim of systemic police bias was published in August 2019 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers found that the more frequently officers encounter violent suspects from any given racial group, the greater the chance that a member of that group will be fatally shot by a police officer. There is ''no significant evidence of antiblack disparity in the likelihood of being fatally shot by police,'' they concluded.

A 2015 Justice Department analysis of the Philadelphia Police Department found that white police officers were less likely than black or Hispanic officers to shoot unarmed black suspects. Research by Harvard economist Roland G. Fryer Jr. also found no evidence of racial discrimination in shootings. Any evidence to the contrary fails to take into account crime rates and civilian behavior before and during interactions with police.

The false narrative of systemic police bias resulted in targeted killings of officers during the Obama presidency. The pattern may be repeating itself. Officers are being assaulted and shot at while they try to arrest gun suspects or respond to the growing riots. Police precincts and courthouses have been destroyed with impunity, which will encourage more civilization-destroying violence. If the Ferguson effect of officers backing off law enforcement in minority neighborhoods is reborn as the Minneapolis effect, the thousands of law-abiding African-Americans who depend on the police for basic safety will once again be the victims.

The Minneapolis officers who arrested George Floyd must be held accountable for their excessive use of force and callous indifference to his distress. Police training needs to double down on de-escalation tactics. But Floyd's death should not undermine the legitimacy of American law enforcement, without which we will continue on a path toward chaos.

Ms. Mac Donald is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the author of ''The War on Cops,'' (Encounter Books, 2016).

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 10:55

ROME '-- Dr. Alberto Zangrillo, the head of intensive care at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, told Italian media Sunday that Italy has beaten the coronavirus and it is counterproductive to keep attention focused on it.

Speaking on the RAI 3 television network, Dr. Zangrillo said that ''the swabs performed over the last 10 days showed a viral load that was absolutely infinitesimal in quantitative terms compared to the ones carried out on patients a month or two ago.''

Professor Zangrillo was citing a new study by Massimo Clementi, director of the Microbiology and Virology Laboratory at the San Raffaele hospital, which is due to be published shortly. The Lombardy region, where the hospital is located, has been Italy's hardest hit in terms of absolute numbers of those infected by the coronavirus as well as in fatalities.

The study shows that, ''in reality, from the clinical point of view, the virus no longer exists,'' Zangrillo said.

The doctor declared that his conclusions are corroborated by studies from Milan's Vita-Salute San Raffaele University as well as by Italian virologist Dr. Guido Silvestri, chair of pathology at Emory University in Atlanta, who has stated that the retreat of COVID-19 ''continues undaunted.''

Zangrillo also said that to continue drawing attention to the coronavirus can wind up looking ''ridiculous'' from the perspective of clinical virology.

Italian officials, who have gone to great lengths to encourage caution, reacted swiftly to Dr. Zangrillo's comments.

''I can only express great surprise and absolute puzzlement over the statements made by Professor Zangrillo,'' said Franco Locatelli, the head of Italy's supreme health council. ''Just look at the number of new cases confirmed every day for evidence of the persistent circulation of the virus in Italy.''

In point of fact, however, there were only 318 new cases discovered in all of Italy during the 24-hour period from June 1-2, despite aggressive testing, true to the ongoing trend in reduction.

On June 2, the number of active cases of coronavirus in Italy dropped below 40,000 for the first time since late March, to a total of 39,893, continuing a declining trend of some 10,000 per week. Deaths with coronavirus during the same 24-hour period fell to 55 out of an average 1,800 deaths per day in Italy from other causes.

Globally, 360,412 people have died with the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, putting it roughly in the range of worldwide deaths from the 2008-2009 swine flu, estimated at between 151,700 and 575,400 people.

Coming to Zangrillo's defense, Dr. Matteo Bassetti, director of the infectious diseases clinic at the San Martino hospital in Genoa, said Monday that the virus seems to have lost much of its lethal force.

The coronavirus ''may now be different: the firepower it had two months ago is not the same firepower it has today,'' he said.

Follow @tdwilliamsrome

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 10:03

The World Health Organization and a number of national governments have changed their Covid-19 policies and treatments on the basis of flawed data from a little-known US healthcare analytics company, also calling into question the integrity of key studies published in some of the world's most prestigious medical journals.

A Guardian investigation can reveal the US-based company Surgisphere, whose handful of employees appear to include a science fiction writer and an adult-content model, has provided data for multiple studies on Covid-19 co-authored by its chief executive, but has so far failed to adequately explain its data or methodology.

Data it claims to have legitimately obtained from more than a thousand hospitals worldwide formed the basis of scientific articles that have led to changes in Covid-19 treatment policies in Latin American countries. It was also behind a decision by the WHO and research institutes around the world to halt trials of the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine.

Two of the world's leading medical journals '' the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine '' published studies based on Surgisphere data. The studies were co-authored by the firm's chief executive, Sapan Desai.

Late on Tuesday, after being approached by the Guardian, the Lancet released an ''expression of concern'' about its published study. The New England Journal of Medicine has also issued a similar notice.

An independent audit of the provenance and validity of the data has now been commissioned by the authors not affiliated with Surgisphere because of ''concerns that have been raised about the reliability of the database''.

The Guardian's investigation has found:

A search of publicly available material suggests several of Surgisphere's employees have little or no data or scientific background. An employee listed as a science editor appears to be a science fiction author and fantasy artist. Another employee listed as a marketing executive is an adult model and events hostess.

The company's LinkedIn page has fewer than 100 followers and last week listed just six employees. This was changed to three employees as of Wednesday.

While Surgisphere claims to run one of the largest and fastest hospital databases in the world, it has almost no online presence. Its Twitter handle has fewer than 170 followers, with no posts between October 2017 and March 2020.

Until Monday, the ''get in touch'' link on Surgisphere's homepage redirected to a WordPress template for a cryptocurrency website, raising questions about how hospitals could easily contact the company to join its database.

Desai has been named in three medical malpractice suits, unrelated to the Surgisphere database. In an interview with the Scientist, Desai previously described the allegations as ''unfounded''.

In 2008, Desai launched a crowdfunding campaign on the website indiegogo promoting a wearable ''next generation human augmentation device that can help you achieve what you never thought was possible''. The device never came to fruition.

Desai's Wikipedia page has been deleted following questions about Surgisphere and his history.

Doubts over Lancet studyQuestions surrounding Surgisphere have been growing in the medical community for the past few weeks.

On 22 May the Lancet published a blockbuster peer-reviewed study which found the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which has been promoted by Donald Trump, was associated with a higher mortality rate in Covid-19 patients and increased heart problems.

Trump, much to the dismay of the scientific community, had publicly touted hydroxychloroquine as a ''wonder drug'' despite no evidence of its efficacy for treating Covid-19.

The Lancet study, which listed Desai as one of the co-authors, claimed to have analysed Surgisphere data collected from nearly 15,000 patients with Covid-19, admitted to 1,200 hospitals around the world, who received hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with antibiotics.

The negative findings made global news and prompted the WHO to halt the hydroxychloroquine arm of its global trials.

We trust that this review ... will tell us more about the status of the findings

But only days later Guardian Australia revealed glaring errors in the Australian data included in the study. The study said researchers gained access to data through Surgisphere from five hospitals, recording 600 Australian Covid-19 patients and 73 Australian deaths as of 21 April.

But data from Johns Hopkins University shows only 67 deaths from Covid-19 had been recorded in Australia by 21 April. The number did not rise to 73 until 23 April. Desai said one Asian hospital had accidentally been included in the Australian data, leading to an overestimate of cases there. The Lancet published a small retraction related to the Australian findings after the Guardian's story, its only amendment to the study so far.

The Guardian has since contacted five hospitals in Melbourne and two in Sydney, whose cooperation would have been essential for the Australian patient numbers in the database to be reached. All denied any role in such a database, and said they had never heard of Surgisphere. Desai did not respond to requests to comment on their statements.

Another study using the Surgisphere database, again co-authored by Desai, found the anti-parasite drug ivermectin reduced death rates in severely ill Covid-19 patients. It was published online in the Social Science Research Network e-library, before peer-review or publication in a medical journal, and prompted the Peruvian government to add ivermectin to its national Covid-19 therapeutic guidelines.

The New England Journal of Medicine also published a peer-reviewed Desai study based on Surgisphere data, which included data from Covid-19 patients from 169 hospitals in 11 countries in Asia, Europe and North America. It found common heart medications known as angiotensin-converting''enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin-receptor blockers were not associated with a higher risk of harm in Covid-19 patients.

On Wednesday, the NEJM and the Lancet published an expression of concern about the hydroxychloroquine study, which listed respected vascular surgeon Mandeep Mehra as the lead author and Desai as co-author.

Lancet editor Richard Horton told the Guardian: ''Given the questions raised about the reliability of the data gathered by Surgisphere, we have today issued an Expression of Concern, pending further investigation.

''An independent data audit is currently underway and we trust that this review, which should be completed within the next week, will tell us more about the status of the findings reported in the paper by Mandeep Mehra and colleagues.''

Surgisphere 'came out of nowhere'One of the questions that has most baffled the scientific community is how Surgisphere, established by Desai in 2008 as a medical education company that published textbooks, became the owner of a powerful international database. That database, despite only being announced by Surgisphere recently, boasts access to data from 96,000 patients in 1,200 hospitals around the world.

It doesn't make sense. It would require many more researchers than it claims to have

When contacted by the Guardian, Desai said his company employed just 11 people. The employees listed on LinkedIn were recorded on the site as having joined Surgisphere only two months ago. Several did not appear to have a scientific or statistical background, but mention expertise in strategy, copywriting, leadership and acquisition.

Dr James Todaro, who runs MedicineUncensored, a website that publishes the results of hydroxychloroquine studies, said: ''Surgisphere came out of nowhere to conduct perhaps the most influential global study in this pandemic in the matter of a few weeks.

''It doesn't make sense,'' he said. ''It would require many more researchers than it claims to have for this expedient and [size] of multinational study to be possible.''

Desai told the Guardian: ''Surgisphere has been in business since 2008. Our healthcare data analytics services started about the same time and have continued to grow since that time. We use a great deal of artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate this process as much as possible, which is the only way a task like this is even possible.''

It is not clear from the methodology in the studies that used Surgisphere data, or from the Surgisphere website itself, how the company was able to put in place data-sharing agreements from so many hospitals worldwide, including those with limited technology, and to reconcile different languages and coding systems, all while staying within the regulatory, data-protection and ethical rules of each country.

Desai said Surgisphere and its QuartzClinical content management system was part of a research collaboration initiated ''several years ago'', though he did not specify when.

''Surgisphere serves as a data aggregator and performs data analysis on this data,'' he said. ''We are not responsible for the source data, thus the labor intensive task required for exporting the data from an Electronic Health Records, converting it into the format required by our data dictionary, and fully deidentifying the data is done by the healthcare partner.''

This appears to contradict the claim on the QuartzClinical website that it does all the work, and ''successfully integrates your electronic health record, financial system, supply chain, and quality programs into one platform''. Desai did not explain this apparent contradiction when the Guardian put it to him.

Desai said the way Surgisphere obtained data was ''always done in compliance with local laws and regulations. We never receive any protected health information or individually identifiable information.''

Peter Ellis, the chief data scientist of Nous Group, an international management consultancy that does data integration projects for government departments, expressed concern that Surgisphere database was ''almost certainly a scam''.

''It is not something that any hospital could realistically do,'' he said. ''De-identifying is not just a matter of knocking off the patients' names, it is a big and difficult process. I doubt hospitals even have capability to do it appropriately. It is the sort of thing national statistics agencies have whole teams working on, for years.''

''There's no evidence online of [Surgisphere] having any analytical software earlier than a year ago. It takes months to get people to even look into joining these databases, it involves network review boards, security people, and management. It just doesn't happen with a sign-up form and a conversation.''

There continues to be a fundamental misunderstanding about what our system is and how it works

None of the information from Desai's database has yet been made public, including the names of any of the hospitals, despite the Lancet being among the many signatories to a statement on data-sharing for Covid-19 studies. The Lancet study is now disputed by 120 doctors.

When the Guardian put a detailed list of concerns to Desai about the database, the study findings and his background, he responded: ''There continues to be a fundamental misunderstanding about what our system is and how it works''.

''There are also a number of inaccuracies and unrelated connections that you are trying to make with a clear bias toward attempting to discredit who we are and what we do,'' he said. ''We do not agree with your premise or the nature of what you have put together, and I am sad to see that what should have been a scientific discussion has been denigrated into this sort of discussion.''

'The peak of human evolution'An examination of Desai's background found that the vascular surgeon has been named in three medical malpractice suits in the US, two of them filed in November 2019. In one case, a lawsuit filed by a patient, Joseph Vitagliano, accused Desai and Northwest Community Hospital in Illinois, where he worked until recently, of being ''careless and negligent'', leading to permanent damage following surgery.

Northwest Community Hospital confirmed that Desai had been employed there since June 2016 but had voluntarily resigned on 10 February 2020 ''for personal reasons''.

''Dr Desai's clinical privileges with NCH were not suspended, revoked or otherwise limited by NCH,'' a spokeswoman said. The hospital declined to comment on the malpractice suits. Desai said in the interview with the Scientist that he deemed any lawsuit against him to be ''unfounded''.

Brigham and Women's Hospital, the institution affiliated with the hydroxychloroquine study and its lead author, Mandeep Mehra, said in a statement: ''Independent of Surgisphere, the remaining co-authors of the recent studies published in The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine have initiated independent reviews of the data used in both papers after learning of the concerns that have been raised about the reliability of the database''.

Mehra said he had routinely underscored the importance and value of randomised, clinical trials and that such trials were necessary before any conclusions could be reached. ''I eagerly await word from the independent audits, the results of which will inform any further action,'' he said.

Desai's now-deleted Wikipedia page said he held a doctorate in law and a PhD in anatomy and cell biology, as well as his medical qualifications. A biography of Desai on a brochure for an international medical conference says he has held multiple physician leadership roles in clinical practice, and that he is ''a certified lean six sigma master black belt''.

It is not the first time Desai has launched projects with ambitious claims. In 2008, he launched a crowdfunding campaign on the website indiegogo promoting a ''next generation human augmentation device'' called Neurodynamics Flow, which he said ''can help you achieve what you never thought was possible''.

''With its sophisticated programming, optimal neural induction points, and tried and true results, Neurodynamics Flow allows you to rise to the peak of human evolution,'' the description said. The device raised a few hundred dollars, and never eventuated.

Ellis, the chief data scientist of Nous Group, said it was unclear why Desai made such bold claims about his products given how likely it was that the global research community would scrutinise them.

''My first reaction is it was to draw attention to his firm, Ellis said. ''But it seems really obvious that this would backfire.''

Today Prof Peter Horby, Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Global Health in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, said: ''I welcome the statement from the Lancet, which follows a similar statement by the NEJM regarding a study by the same group on cardiovascular drugs and COVID-19.

''The very serious concerns being raised about the validity of the papers by Mehra et al need to be recognised and actioned urgently, and ought to bring about serious reflection on whether the quality of editorial and peer review during the pandemic has been adequate. Scientific publication must above all be rigorous and honest. In an emergency, these values are needed more than ever.''

Do you have information about this story? Email melissa.davey@theguardian.com.

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 09:50

President Trump has often mentioned hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for Covid-19. Last month he announced that he was taking the antimalaria drug, also known as HCL, as a prophylaxis after two White House staffers tested positive for the virus. Mr. Trump's critics in the press seem to be on a mission to discredit the therapy. Now a prestigious medical journal may be joining in.

The Lancet published a study on May 22 that purported to find a 30% increased risk of death for hospitalized Covid-19 patients treated with HCL or chloroquine, a related treatment. ''Study says drug hailed by Trump is harmful,'' the Washington Post reported. The World Health Organization suspended its HCL trial. France, Belgium and Italy announced they would prohibit the drug for the treatment of Covid patients.

In an open letter to the Lancet's editors and the study's authors, some 120 doctors, statisticians and epidemiologists write that the headlines about the study ''have caused considerable concern to participants and patients enrolled in randomized controlled trials'' evaluating the drugs. Thus many researchers have scrutinized the data, and the ''scrutiny has raised both methodological and data integrity concerns.''

Antimalarials have been long been known to increase risk for cardiac arrhythmias, particularly in patients with underlying heart conditions. Infection by the novel coronavirus can also cause inflammation of the heart muscle in severely ill patients, which can result in arrhythmias. Yet the drugs have been used safely for 60 years to treat and prevent malaria as well as for rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.

The Lancet study aggregated raw data collected by Surgisphere, a public-health analytics company, from 96,032 hospitalized Covid-19 patients treated at 671 hospitals on six continents. Yet its raw data and code haven't been shared with other researchers for review, despite Lancet's pledge in March to do so for all Covid-19 studies it publishes.

''There was no mention of the countries or hospitals that contributed to the data source and no acknowledgments of their contributions. A request to the authors for information on the contributing centres was denied,'' the study's critics noted. Additionally, ''there was no ethics review.''

The study's authors say Surgisphere's contracts with hospitals don't allow them to share individual patient data. But the authors won't even share data that are aggregated by hospital. This information is important to determining the influence of confounding variables such as disease severity, drug dosage and underlying conditions.

Other problems include that more deaths were reported from five Australian hospitals collectively than had occurred in the entire country during the study period. The study showed little variation in patient outcomes or underlying risk factors by continent, which would be odd given health disparities among different populations.

Also curious: The average reported dose of HCL was 100 milligrams higher than FDA guidelines'--which is 800 milligrams of hydroxychloroquine sulfate on the first day of treatment and then 400 milligrams daily for four to seven days'--even though two-thirds of the data ostensibly came from hospitals in North America. That leaves two possibilities: The data are inaccurate, or doctors were treating patients with dangerously high doses.

The authors on Friday corrected some glaring errors. They noted, for instance, that a hospital in Asia was lumped in with the Australian death totals. But the authors also stand by the results. Researchers worry that the study's publicity will make it harder to recruit patients for randomized clinical trials that are necessary to determine whether the drug may benefit some patients.

HCL has been found to interfere with the virus's replication in vitro, though observational studies have produced mixed results. Two studies from France found most patients recovered rapidly and suffered few serious side effects. Another, also from France, found no benefit, though its subjects were older and received higher dosages.

It is possible that HCL may prevent infections or help younger patients with mild cases who aren't experiencing immune overreactions known as cytokine storms. HCL is among the few drugs being studied as a prophylactic. ''There's so much swirling around it, people won't want to enter those trials,'' David Smith, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California in San Diego, told Nature magazine. ''In which case, it will be an open question that won't get answered.''

Lancet's decision to publish the study with little apparent scrutiny also suggests politics may be influencing its scientific judgment. An unsigned editorial in May criticized President Trump's ''inconsistent and incoherent national response'' to the pandemic and asserted that ''Americans must put a president in the White House come January, 2021, who will understand that public health should not be guided by partisan politics.'' The Lancet editors should focus on healing themselves.

Ms. Finley is a member of the Journal's editorial board.

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 09:46

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 09:41

June 2, 2020 | 3:51pm

Safe sex during the coronavirus pandemic might soon require protection beyond just the nether regions.

A new study from researchers at Harvard University says that hooking up carries some risk for transmitting COVID-19 from one partner to the other and recommends '-- among other practices '-- wearing a face mask while doin' it.

The research, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, ranked frisky situations based on how likely it is to catch coronavirus while in the act. Researchers recommend w earing a mask for the riskiest sexual scenario: Sex with people other than those with whom one is quarantined.

If you have an out-of-house coronavirus crush, the study says '-- besides keeping your mask on '-- you should avoid kissing, any oral-to-anal act and anything else that involves semen or urine. Shower before and after, and clean the space with alcohol wipes or soap.

The study also mentions that having sex with people who are together in quarantine is safer, but there is still a risk. For instance, if one partner goes outside to run an errand and is exposed to the virus, they can transmit it to the other. Even if that person is ultimately an asymptomatic carrier, they can still infect the other.

The safest approach to sexual activity, according to the researchers, is not having any. Abstinence, they say, is ''low risk for infection, though not feasible for many.'' Another option, they add, is masturbation.

Other recommendations have come out since the coronavirus outbreak in the US, with some of them providing graphics to enhance the lessons. In April, the Oregon Health Authority released a sex guide that went viral, just weeks after the same happened to one released by the NYC Department of Health. The Oregon example stood out for its illustrations of condoms, a fleshlight and a peach, and NYC's with its vivid warning for anal rimming.

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 09:26

The famous phrase, ''Show me the money'' applies in the violent acts of the #blacklivesmatter effort, the racism and bigotry sweeping the nation. It is about rich, white Democrats financing the effort to divide American among racial lines, to create chaos and anarchy. Last week a group from #blacklivesmatter closed down a portion of the 405 Freeway in the West Los Angeles area, and not a single person was arrested. Of course LA cops are not allowed to detain or arrest illegal aliens, either, for violation of immigration laws. It is as if LA does not have a police force'--or the police force is protecting the lawbreakers and making honest Angelenos victims.

''The Democracy Alliance was created in 2005 by a handful of major donors, including billionaire financier George Soros and Taco Bell heir Rob McKay to build a permanent infrastructure to advance liberal ideas and causes. Donors are required to donate at least $200,000 a year to recommended groups, and their combined donations to those groups now total more than $500 million. Endorsed beneficiaries include the Center for American Progress think tank, the liberal attack dog Media Matters and the Democratic data firm Catalist, though members also give heavily to Democratic politicians and super PACs that are not part of the DA's core portfolio. While the Democracy Alliance last year voted to endorse a handful of groups focused on engaging African-Americans in politics '• some of which have helped facilitate the Black Lives movement '• the invitation to movement leaders is a first for the DA, and seems likely to test some members' comfort zones.

#blacklivesmatter it one of the chosen totalitarian organizations supported by these rich/white Democrats. My guess is they prefer chaos to stability, violence to peace and bigotry to love.

Major donors consider funding Black Lives Matter

Activists for the protest movement are meeting in secret with liberal funder club.

By Kenneth P. Vogel and Sarah Wheaton, Politico, 11/13/15

Some of the biggest donors on the left plan to meet behind closed doors next week in Washington with leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement and their allies to discuss funding the burgeoning protest movement, POLITICO has learned.

The meetings are taking place at the annual winter gathering of the Democracy Alliance major liberal donor club, which runs from Tuesday evening through Saturday morning and is expected to draw Democratic financial heavyweights, including Tom Steyer and Paul Egerman.

The DA, as the club is known in Democratic circles, is recommending its donors step up check writing to a handful of endorsed groups that have supported the Black Lives Matter movement. And the club and some of its members also are considering ways to funnel support directly to scrappier local groups that have utilized confrontational tactics to inject their grievances into the political debate.

It's a potential partnership that could elevate the Black Lives Matter movement and heighten its impact. But it's also fraught with tension on both sides, sources tell POLITICO.

The various outfits that comprise the diffuse Black Lives Matter movement prize their independence. Some make a point of not asking for donations. They bristle at any suggestion that they're susceptible to being co-opted by a deep-pocketed national group '• let alone one with such close ties to the Democratic Party establishment like the Democracy Alliance.

And some major liberal donors are leery about funding a movement known for aggressive tactics '• particularly one that has shown a willingness to train its fire on Democrats, including presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

''Major donors are usually not as radical or confrontational as activists most in touch with the pain of oppression,'' said Steve Phillips, a Democracy Alliance member and significant contributor to Democratic candidates and causes. He donated to a St. Louis nonprofit group called the Organization for Black Struggle that helped organize 2014 Black Lives Matter-related protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the police killing of a black teenager named Michael Brown. And Phillips and his wife, Democracy Alliance board member Susan Sandler, are in discussions about funding other groups involved in the movement.

The movement needs cash to build a self-sustaining infrastructure, Phillips said, arguing ''the progressive donor world should be adding zeroes to their contributions that support this transformative movement.'' But he also acknowledged there's a risk for recipient groups. ''Tactics such as shutting down freeways and disrupting rallies can alienate major donors, and if that's your primary source of support, then you're at risk of being blocked from doing what you need to do.''

The Democracy Alliance was created in 2005 by a handful of major donors, including billionaire financier George Soros and Taco Bell heir Rob McKay to build a permanent infrastructure to advance liberal ideas and causes. Donors are required to donate at least $200,000 a year to recommended groups, and their combined donations to those groups now total more than $500 million. Endorsed beneficiaries include the Center for American Progress think tank, the liberal attack dog Media Matters and the Democratic data firm Catalist, though members also give heavily to Democratic politicians and super PACs that are not part of the DA's core portfolio. While the Democracy Alliance last year voted to endorse a handful of groups focused on engaging African-Americans in politics '• some of which have helped facilitate the Black Lives movement '• the invitation to movement leaders is a first for the DA, and seems likely to test some members' comfort zones.

''Movements that are challenging the status quo and that do so to some extent by using direct action or disruptive tactics are meant to make people uncomfortable, so I'm sure we have partners who would be made uncomfortable by it or think that that's not a good tactic,'' said DA President Gara LaMarche. ''But we have a wide range of human beings and different temperaments and approaches in the DA, so it's quite possible that there are people who are a little concerned, as well as people who are curious or are supportive. This is a chance for them to meet some of the leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement, and understand the movement better, and then we'll take stock of that and see where it might lead.''

According to a Democracy Alliance draft agenda obtained by POLITICO, movement leaders will be featured guests at a Tuesday dinner with major donors. The dinner, which technically precedes the official conference kickoff, will focus on ''what kind of support and resources are needed from the allied funders during this critical moment of immediate struggle and long-term movement building.''

The groups that will be represented include the Black Youth Project 100, The Center for Popular Democracy and the Black Civic Engagement Fund, according to the organizer, a DA member named Leah Hunt-Hendrix. An heir to a Texas oil fortune, Hunt-Hendrix helps lead a coalition of mostly young donors called Solidaire that focuses on movement building. It's donated more than $200,000 to the Black Lives Matter movement since Brown's killing. According to its entry on a philanthropy website, more than $61,000 went directly to organizers and organizations on the ground in Ferguson and Baltimore, where the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in April sparked a more recent wave of Black Lives-related protests. An additional $115,000 went to groups that have sprung up to support the movement.

She said her goal at the Democracy Alliance is to persuade donors to ''use some of the money that's going into the presidential races for grass-roots organizing and movement building.'' And she brushed aside concerns that the movement could hurt Democratic chances in 2016. ''Black Lives Matter has been pushing Bernie, and Bernie has been pushing Hillary. Politics is a field where you almost have to push your allies hardest and hold them accountable,'' she said. ''That's exactly the point of democracy,'' she said.

That view dovetails with the one that LaMarche has tried to instill in the Democracy Alliance, which had faced internal criticism in 2012 for growing too close to the Democratic Party.

In fact, one group set to participate in Hunt-Hendrix's dinner '• Black Civic Engagement Fund '• is a Democracy Alliance offshoot. And, according to the DA agenda, two other groups recommended for club funding '• ColorOfChange.org and the Advancement Project '• are set to participate in a Friday panel ''on how to connect the Movement for Black Lives with current and needed infrastructure for Black organizing and political power.''

ColorOfChange.org has helped Black Lives Matter protesters organize online, said its Executive Director Rashad Robinson. He dismissed concerns that the movement is compromised in any way by accepting support from major institutional funders. ''Throughout our history in this country, there have been allies who have been willing to stand up and support uprisings, and lend their resources to ensure that people have a greater voice in their democracy,'' Robinson said.

Nick Rathod, the leader of a DA-endorsed group called the State Innovation Exchange that pushes liberal policies in the states, said his group is looking for opportunities to help the movement, as well. ''We can play an important role in facilitating dialogue between elected officials and movement leaders in cities and states,'' he said. But Rathod cautioned that it would be a mistake for major liberal donors to only give through established national groups to support the movement. ''I think for many of the donors, it might feel safer to invest in groups like ours and others to support the work, but frankly, many of those groups are not led by African-Americans and are removed from what's happening on the ground. The heart and soul of the movement is at the grass roots, it's where the organizing has occurred, it's where decisions should be made and it's where investments should be placed to grow the movement from the bottom up, rather than the top down.''

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 07:17

A hydroxychloroquine study is being audited.

AP Photo/John Locher By Kelly Servick, Martin EnserinkJun. 2, 2020 , 7:55 PM

Science's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.

On its face, it was a major finding: Antimalarial drugs touted by the White House as possible COVID-19 treatments looked to be not just ineffective, but downright deadly. A study published on 22 May in The Lancet used hospital records procured by a little-known data analytics company called Surgisphere to conclude that coronavirus patients taking chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine were more likely to show an irregular heart rhythm'--a known side effect thought to be rare'--and were more likely to die in the hospital.

Within days, some large randomized trials of the drugs'--the type that might prove or disprove the retrospective study's analysis'--screeched to a halt. Solidarity, the World Health Organization's (WHO's) megatrial of potential COVID-19 treatments, paused recruitment into its hydroxychloroquine arm, for example.

Related But just as quickly, the Lancet results have begun to unravel'--and Surgisphere, which provided patient data for two other high-profile COVID-19 papers, has come under withering online scrutiny from researchers and amateur sleuths. They have pointed out many red flags in the Lancet paper, including the astonishing number of patients involved and details about their demographics and prescribed dosing that seem implausible. ''It began to stretch and stretch and stretch credulity,'' says Nicholas White, a malaria researcher at Mahidol University in Bangkok.

Today, The Lancet issued an Expression of Concern (EOC) saying ''important scientific questions have been raised about data'' in the paper and noting that ''an independent audit of the provenance and validity of the data has been commissioned by the authors not affiliated with Surgisphere and is ongoing, with results expected very shortly.''

Hours earlier, The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) issued its own EOC about a second study using Surgisphere data, published on 1 May. The paper reported that taking certain blood pressure drugs including angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors didn't appear to increase the risk of death among COVID-19 patients, as some researchers had suggested. (Several studies analyzing other groups of COVID-19 patients support the NEJM results.) ''Recently, substantive concerns have been raised about the quality of the information in that database,'' an NEJM statement noted. ''We have asked the authors to provide evidence that the data are reliable.''

A third COVID-19 study using Surgisphere data has also drawn fire. In a preprint first posted in early April, Surgisphere founder and CEO Sapan Desai and co-authors conclude that ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, dramatically reduced mortality in COVID-19 patients. In Latin America, where ivermectin is widely available, that study has led government officials to authorize the drug'--although with precautions'--creating a surge in demand in several countries.

Chicago-based Surgisphere has not publicly released the data underlying the studies, but today Desai told Science through a spokesperson that he was "arranging a nondisclosure agreement that will provide the authors of the NEJM paper with the data access requested by NEJM.''

Meanwhile, the questions swirling around the Lancet paper have left leaders of the halted chloroquine trials weighing whether to restart. ''The problem is, we are left with all the damage that has been done,'' says White, a co-investigator on a trial of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 prevention that was halted at the request of U.K. regulators last week. Headlines proclaiming deadly effects will make it hard to recruit patients to key studies, he says. ''The whole world thinks now that these drugs are poisonous.''

A striking observationDesai's co-authors on the Lancet paper were cardiologist Mandeep Mehra of Harvard University's Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), cardiologist Frank Ruschitzka of the University Hospital Z¼rich, and cardiac surgeon Amit Patel, who listed affiliations with the University of Utah and HCA Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee. Their study described an analysis of Surgisphere-provided electronic health record data from patients already treated for COVID-19 at 671 hospitals on six continents.

According to the paper, the analysis included nearly 15,000 patients prescribed chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, alone or in combination with a class of antibiotics that has been suggested to boost its effects. A control group consisted of more than 81,000 patients who hadn't gotten the experimental drugs. After controlling for potentially confounding factors such as age, race, pre-existing disease, and COVID-19 severity, the researchers found that the risk of dying in the hospital was 9.3% for the control group versus 23.8% for those getting hydroxychloroquine alongside an antibiotic'--apparently the riskiest of the treatment combinations. The results echoed a preprint published last month, based on a much smaller group of patients in U.S. Veterans Health Administration medical centers, which suggested an increased risk of death for patients who were prescribed hydroxychloroquine alone (though not in combination with an antibiotic).

In 25 May media briefing, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cited the Lancet results in announcing a ''temporary pause'' in Solidarity's hydroxychloroquine arm. Regulators in France and the United Kingdom also instructed investigators, including White's team, to halt enrollment in trials of the malaria drug. And Sanofi, which manufactures the branded hydroxychloroquine drug Plaquenil, said it would temporarily stop recruiting patients to its two clinical trials of the drug.

The Lancet authors acknowledged that their results needed confirmation from more rigorous randomized trials, but in an interview with TRT World, a Turkish channel for international news, Desai expressed confidence. ''The real question is: With data like this, do we even need a randomized controlled trial?" he said.

Other researchers immediately took issue with the analysis. The study doesn't properly control for the likelihood that patients getting the experimental drugs were sicker than the controls, says Matthew Semler, a critical care physician at Vanderbilt University. '' If you have a physician sitting with two patients who have coronavirus, and the physician chooses to give one of them hydroxychloroquine, they' re doing it for a reason,'' he says. The patient may be relying on high levels of supplemental oxygen, for example, or getting worse over time. But those kinds of details aren't available about the patients in the Lancet study, he notes.

Other researchers were befuddled by the data themselves. Though 66% of the patients were reportedly treated in North America, the reported doses tended to be higher than the guidelines set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, White notes. The authors claim to have included 4402 patients in Africa, 561 of whom died, but it seems unlikely that African hospitals would have detailed electronic health records for so many patients, White says.

The study also reported more deaths in Australian hospitals than the country's official COVID-19 death statistics, The Guardian reported. On 29 May, The Lancet issued a correction updating a supplemental table and saying that a hospital assigned to the study's ''Australasia'' group should have been assigned to Asia. '' There have been no changes to the findings of the paper,'' the correction notice said.

Deepening skepticismThe brief response left some researchers frustrated. ''This was very, very annoying, that The Lancet were just going to let them write this absurd reply '... without addressing any of the other concerns,'' says James Watson, a statistician at Mahidol who on 28 May published an open letter to the journal and the study's co-authors, signed by more than 200 clinicians and researchers, that calls for the release of Surgisphere's hospital-level data, an independent validation of the results, and publication of the peer review comments that led to the Lancet publication.

Today, many of the same researchers published an open letter to NEJM and the authors of the ACE inhibitor study, citing similar problems in that journal's paper. The letter notes a discrepancy between the small number of hospitals in each country that are reported to have shared patient data with Surgisphere and the high proportion of those countries' confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in the study. It also notes inconsistencies in the reported increases in the risk of COVID-19 death with increasing age of participants.

Mehra and Patel declined to speak to reporters about the various papers, referring inquiries to BWH, which released a statement on Mehra's behalf this evening saying ''independent of Surgisphere, the remaining co-authors of the recent studies published in The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine have initiated independent reviews of the data used in both papers after learning of the concerns that have been raised about the reliability of the database.'' (Ruschitzka, who is on the Lancet paper, has not yet responded to Science's requests for comment.)

Oddities also appear in the ivermectin study, says Carlos Chaccour of the Institute for Global Health in Barcelona, who knows the drug well because he's studying its potential role in mosquito control. There's evidence that ivermectin has antiviral properties, and a study from an Australian team published in Antiviral Research on 3 April showed that it inhibits SARS-CoV-2 in a test tube. A 6 April preprint co-authored by Patel, Desai, and Mehra, along with David Grainger of the University of Utah, used Surgisphere data reportedly collected at 169 hospitals around the world between 1 January and 1 March. It included three patients in Africa who received ivermectin'--despite the fact that only two COVID-19 cases had been reported in all of Africa by 1 March, Chaccour and two colleagues note in a recent blog post.

Chaccour says after he inquired about the discrepancy, the authors posted a second, longer version of the manuscript on 19 April, containing data collected between 1 January and 31 March. (The first version was removed but Chaccour has archived it on his institute's website.) The new manuscript contained data on 704 COVID-19 patients treated with ivermectin and 704 controls in 169 hospitals on three continents. It reported that ivermectin reduced the need for mechanical ventilation by 65% and slashed the death rate by 83%.

But the revision had other problems, Chaccour and his colleagues wrote in their blog post. For example, the mortality rate for patients who received mechanical ventilation but no ivermectin was just 21%, which is strikingly low; a recent case series from New York City area found that 88% of COVID-19 patients who needed ventilation died. Also, the data shown in a figure were wildly different from those reported in the text. (Science also attempted to reach Grainger, but received no reply to an email and call.)

The ivermectin study has had a significant impact in Latin America, where the drug is well known and often sold over the counter to treat scabies, Chaccour says. The Peruvian Health Ministry modified its COVID-19 treatment protocol to include ivermectin (as well as hydroxychloroquine) for mild and severe cases of COVID-19. Demand for the drug in Peru has surged, and in the San Mart­n de Porres district, police confiscated 20,000 bottles of veterinary ivermectin intended to be sold for human treatments. In Trinidad, Bolivia, the city government aimed to hand out more than 350,000 free doses of ivermectin after the country's Ministry of Health authorized its use against COVID-19. Physicians in the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Chile, citing the test-tube study and the Surgisphere preprint, say they performed informal trials of ivermectin with COVID-19 patients and saw good outcomes.

(In a guest editorial in The American Journal of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Chaccour and three colleagues cautioned against the risks of using ivermectin without solid evidence and urged rigorous clinical trials. Eighteen such studies are ongoing, according to the website ClinicalTrials.gov, including one led by Chaccour in Pamplona, Spain.)

Surgisphere's sparse online presence'--the website doesn't list any of its partner hospitals by name or identify its scientific advisory board, for example'--have prompted intense skepticism. Physician and entrepreneur James Todaro of the investment fund Blocktown Capital wondered in a blog post why Surgisphere's enormous database doesn't appear to have been used in peer-reviewed research studies until May. Another post, from data scientist Peter Ellis of the management consulting firm Nous Group, questioned how LinkedIn could list only five Surgisphere employees'--all but Desai apparently lacking a scientific or medical background'--if the company really provides software to hundreds of hospitals to coordinate the collection of sensitive data from electronic health records. (This morning, the number of employees on LinkedIn had dropped to three.) And Chaccour wonders how such a tiny company was able to reach data-sharing agreements with hundreds of hospitals around the world that use many different languages and data recording systems, while adhering to the rules of 46 different countries on research ethics and data protection.

Desai's spokesperson responded to inquiries about the company by saying it has 11 employees and has been developing its database since 2008. Desai, through the spokesperson, also said of the company's work with patient data: ''We use a great deal of artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate this process as much as possible, which is the only way a task like this is even possible.''

What next?The potential of hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19 has become a political flashpoint, and the questions around the Lancet paper have provided new fodder to the drug's supporters. French microbiologist Didier Raoult, whose own widely criticized studies suggested a benefit from the drug, derided the new study in a video posted today, calling the authors ''incompetent.'' On social media, some speculated that the paper was part of a conspiracy against hydroxychloroquine.

For scientists running randomized trials of hydroxychloroquine, an urgent question has been how to respond to the paper and the many questions raised about it. Some studies were not halted at all. A hydroxychloroquine trial known as ORCHID, funded by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, opted to keep running after its data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) reviewed safety data from already enrolled participants, says Semler, a co-investigator on the study.

WHO's paused Solidarity trial is awaiting a similar review from its DSMB, says Soumya Swaminathan, the organization's chief scientist. The pause will allow time for a review of published studies and interim data from Solidarity itself, she says. WHO paused the trial to show investigators and potential study participants that the agency takes safety issues seriously, she says. '' We want to reassure people that the WHO didn' t make any kind of value judgment on the use of hydroxychloroquine.''

But some say WHO had a knee-jerk reaction to a questionable study. ''This is a drug that has been used for decades. It' s not like we know nothing about its safety,'' says Miguel Hernn, a Harvard epidemiologist and co-investigator on an ongoing trial of hydroxychloroquine in Spain and Latin America for COVID-19 prevention in health care workers.

The controversy has been an unfortunate distraction, Hernn adds. '' If you do something as inflammatory as this without a solid foundation, you are going to make a lot of people waste time trying to understand what is going on.''

Chaccour says both NEJM and The Lancet should have scrutinized the provenance of Surgisphere's data more closely before publishing the studies. ''Here we are in the middle of a pandemic with hundreds of thousands of deaths, and the two most prestigious medical journals have failed us,'' he says.

With reporting by Rodrigo P(C)rez Ortega, Charlie Piller, and John Travis.

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Archived Version

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 02:33

Medical journal The Lancet publicly acknowledged Tuesday that a massive study on hydroxychloroquine that raised serious health concerns about the anti-malaria drug was potentially flawed.

The Lancet issued an "expression of concern" on a study it published last month of nearly 100,000 patients that tied hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to a higher risk of death in hospitalized patients with the coronavirus.

The journal said that "serious scientific questions have been brought to our attention" about the study and that the authors have commissioned an independent review of the data.

When it was published in late May, the study of 96,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients across six continents was touted as the largest and most definitive analysis to date on the effects of treating COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine.

The study found that the drugs were not only largely ineffective at treating or preventing the virus but also linked to a higher risk of death.

The study relied on an analysis of a database with medical records from patients across 671 hospitals rather than a comprehensive randomized trial.

Still, the journal is highly influential, and following the study's publication, two major clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine were paused, one from the World Health Organization and the other in the United Kingdom. France also stopped allowing the use of the drug in hospitals.

Clinical trials are still underway in the U.S.

Following the publication of the study, numerous scientists around the world raised concerns with what they said was inconsistent data in the report.

The study's authors, led by Mandeep Mehra of Harvard Medical School, have repeatedly declined to release their underlying data, despite signing a pledge to share information on the coronavirus.

Last week, the study's research team corrected some of its data but said its conclusions remained the same.

The company Surgisphere, which assembled the database used in the study, defended its work and said observational studies should not be substituted for randomized trials.

Controversy has swirled around hydroxychloroquine as a potential COVID-19 treatment, as President Trump has promoted it for months. He claimed he even took it himself, even though there has been no clear evidence that it's safe or effective for preventing or treating the coronavirus. The use of the drug has turned into a partisan issue, and the update from The Lancet is likely to muddy the waters even further.

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 00:01

Learn more More Like This Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2 / 10 X The true story of a prosecutor's fight to prove the innocence of a man accused of a notorious murder.

Director:Elia Kazan

Stars:Dana Andrews,Jane Wyatt,Lee J. Cobb

Drama | Thriller

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1 / 10 X Czech circus owner-Clown and his entire troupe employ a daring stratagem in order to escape en masse from behind the iron curtain.

Director:Elia Kazan

Stars:Fredric March,Terry Moore,Gloria Grahame

Certificate: Passed Drama | Western

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.3 / 10 X On America's frontier, a St. Louis woman marries a New Mexico cattleman who is seen as a tyrant by the locals.

Director:Elia Kazan

Stars:Katharine Hepburn,Spencer Tracy,Robert Walker

Drama | Romance

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8 / 10 X Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.

Director:Elia Kazan

Stars:Dorothy McGuire,Joan Blondell,James Dunn

Crime | Drama

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.4 / 10 X Bill, Martha and their little child Hal are spending a quiet winter Sunday in their house when they get an unexpected visit from Mike Nickerson and Tony Rodriguez.

Director:Elia Kazan

Stars:Patrick McVey,Patricia Joyce,James Woods

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3 / 10 X A doctor and a policeman in New Orleans have only 48 hours to locate a killer infected with pneumonic plague.

Director:Elia Kazan

Stars:Richard Widmark,Paul Douglas,Barbara Bel Geddes

Comedy | Drama

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4 / 10 X A steamy tale of two Southern rivals and a sensuous nineteen-year-old virgin.

Director:Elia Kazan

Stars:Karl Malden,Carroll Baker,Eli Wallach

Drama | History | Romance

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6 / 10 X A TVA bureaucrat comes to the river to do what none of his predecessors have been able to do - evict a stubborn octogenarian from her island before the rising waters engulf her.

Director:Elia Kazan

Stars:Montgomery Clift,Lee Remick,Jo Van Fleet

Drama | Romance

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.6 / 10 X A suicidal advertising executive is forced to re-evaluate his life while dealing with his unhappy marriage, his mistress, and his aging father.

Director:Elia Kazan

Stars:Kirk Douglas,Faye Dunaway,Deborah Kerr

Drama | Romance

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2 / 10 X A reporter pretends to be Jewish in order to cover a story on anti-Semitism, and personally discovers the true depths of bigotry and hatred.

Director:Elia Kazan

Stars:Gregory Peck,Dorothy McGuire,John Garfield

Drama | Romance

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8 / 10 X A letter is addressed to three wives from their "best friend" Addie Ross, announcing that she is running away with one of their husbands - but she does not say which one.

Director:Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Stars:Jeanne Crain,Linda Darnell,Ann Sothern

Certificate: Passed Drama | Thriller | War

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4 / 10 X In 1936, seven prisoners escape from a concentration camp. Nazis put up seven crosses for demonstrative executions. The story focuses on one of the fugitives, who relies on own courage and compassion of people to avoid the seventh cross.

Director:Fred Zinnemann

Stars:Spencer Tracy,Signe Hasso,Hume Cronyn

Edit Storyline Pinky, a light skinned black woman, returns to her grandmother's house in the South after graduating from a Northern nursing school. Pinky tells her grandmother that she has been "passing" for white while at school in the North. In addition, Pinky has fallen in love with a young white doctor, Dr. Thomas Adams, who knows nothing about her black heritage. Pinky says that she will return to the North, but Granny Johnson convinces her to stay and treat an ailing white woman, Miss Em. Meanwhile, Dr. Canady, a black physician from another part of the state, visits Pinky and asks her to train some African American students, but she declines. Pinky nurses Miss Em but is resentful because she seems to feel that she is doing the same thing her grandmother did. Pinky and Miss Em slowly develop a mutual respect for one another. Mrs. Em leaves Pinky her property when she dies, but relatives of the deceased woman contest the new will in court. To raise money for the court fees, Pinky washes clothes... Written byBroncine G. Carter

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis Taglines:The love story of a girl who passed for white!

See more >> Edit Did You Know? Trivia John Ford was the original director of the film, but after seeing dailies

Darryl F. Zanuck felt Ford wasn't connecting with the material. Zanuck called

Elia Kazan in New York and asked him to take over the film. Kazan felt he owed Zanuck for his film career, and agreed to do the movie without even looking at the script. He flew to Los Angeles and started filming the next Monday.

See more >>

GoofsWhen actress Nina May Mckinney's character gets slapped on the left side of her face by the white officer, Nina mistakenly rubs the right side of her face.

See more >>

Quotes Melba Wooley :Cousin Em, what do you mean, gettin' sick like this?

Miss Em :When you're eighty years old, you expect to be sick. Sit down.

Melba Wooley :Now, now. Naughty, naughty. Eighty years *young* is what we say.

Miss Em :I don't. It's old, and I won't have it minimized. Takes a lot of livin' to get there, and pure, cursed endurance. Eighty years young indeed!

See more >>

Connections Featured in

Classified X (1998)

See more >>

Edit Details Release Date: November 1949 (USA)

See more >> Edit Box OfficeGross USA: $4,200,000

See more on IMDbPro >> Company Credits Technical Specs Runtime: 102 min

Sound Mix: Mono(Western Electric Recording)

Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1

See

full technical specs >>

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 23:29

My Life is a 1993 American drama film starring Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman and directed by Bruce Joel Rubin.[3] With a PG-13 rating, this film's North American box office gross was $27 million.

Plot [ edit ] Detroit, Michigan, 1963: Bob Ivanovich, a young son of Ukrainian-American[4][5] parents, prays one night for a circus in his backyard the next day after school. After school the next day, he runs home eagerly, followed by his friends. To his disappointment, no circus awaits. Angrily, Bob retreats to the closet in his room, his personal retreat space.

Bob has shunned his Ukrainian-born parents for their immigrant ways and decided to move away from his family in Detroit.[5] Thirty years later, Bob Jones (Michael Keaton) now runs a Los Angeles public relations firm. He is happily married to Gail (Nicole Kidman), who is pregnant with their first child. Bob is horrified to learn that he has been diagnosed with a terminal form of kidney cancer and might not live to see their baby born.

Bob begins to make home movies, to immortalize himself, to be shown after his death to his son, so he'll know who his father was, showing him how to cook spaghetti, how to drive, etc. He also begins to visit a Chinese healer named Mr. Ho (Haing S. Ngor), who urges him to listen to his heart, which is calling him to forgive, and that life is always giving him invitations if he would just listen. At his wife's urging, they fly to his hometown of Detroit to attend a traditional Ukrainian wedding of his brother Paul (Bradley Whitford). While in the area, Bob visits his childhood home. Also while there, they attempt to mend fences with his estranged family, which does not go well. Bob criticizes his brother for not moving to California like he did, and his father (Michael Constantine) resents Bob's moving thousands of miles away and changing his name.

Bob returns to California with a heavy heart, sadly saying to his wife, "This is my last trip home." During a visit with Mr. Ho, he advises Bob to go into his heart "soon." Bob teaches his son by camera how to shave, play basketball, and start a car by jumper cable. He also confronts a childhood fear by finally riding a formidable roller coaster. During the ride, a young companion urges him to let go of the railing as the descent begins, but Bob firmly holds on. (A metaphor of his fear of letting go of life.) He is living on borrowed time'--beyond the date the doctors gave him, as he says to his wife after getting off the coaster, "Today is D-Day. Death Day. I was supposed to be dead by today."

Gail's contractions increase, and soon she is in the hospital, to give birth to their baby. Bob and Gail have a happy time with their newborn, but soon Bob's condition worsens, now that the cancer has reached his brain. Hospice care is arranged for Bob. Bob makes a final visit to Mr. Ho, and asks him what the light is he keeps seeing. Mr. Ho replies it is "the life of the self" and urges him to get his "house in order (life and personal affairs)."

A hospice nurse, Theresa (Queen Latifah), moves in to help, but Bob's health continues to fail. Bob and Gail finally call his family to inform them of what's going on. Bob's family comes west for the first time to visit. Bob makes peace with his family at last. Bob's childhood wish is finally granted by a circus in the backyard.

As his father shaves him, Bob shows that he has at last made peace by telling his father he loves him. Bob finally comes to terms with his life as he dies peacefully, surrounded by the loving, supportive bosom of his family. Next is shown Bob on a metaphysical roller coaster, this time letting go of the railing, raising his arms freely in the air this time, metaphorically letting go of life, and finally enjoying the ride of life. Bob rides toward a beautiful, shining, ethereal light (presumably heaven). A year later, his son and wife watch him on video, as he reads Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham to him.

Cast [ edit ] Michael Keaton as Bob JonesNicole Kidman as Gail JonesBradley Whitford as Paul IvanovichRebecca Schull as Rose IvanovichMichael Constantine as Bill IvanovichQueen Latifah as TheresaMark Holton as SamHaing S. Ngor as Mr. HoLissa Walters as DeborahReception [ edit ] Box office [ edit ] My Life opened at #3 behind The Three Musketeers and Carlito's Way.[6]

Critical response [ edit ] The film received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 42% based on reviews from 24 critics.[7] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A on scale of A to F.[8]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2.5/4 and wrote: "My Life should be a more rigorous and single-minded film; maybe it started that way, before getting spoonfuls of honey to make the medicine go down."[9]

References [ edit ] External links [ edit ] My Life on IMDbMy Life at AllMovieMy Life at Box Office MojoMy Life at Rotten Tomatoes

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 23:23

Was the late J. Edgar Hoover, the infamous former director of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, part black?

Millie McGhee is convinced he was. She's an African-American teacher who says her late grandfather told her that Hoover was his second cousin. That was 40 years ago. Now, she's written and self-published a book on the subject: Secrets Uncovered -- J. Edgar Hoover, Passing for White (available from amazon.com).

Larry Carroll thinks he was, too. He's a former CBS anchorman and NBC network news correspondent who's producing a documentary on Hoover's black connection. Initially skeptical, Carroll now says the evidence is compelling.

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Some of that evidence was assembled by George Ott, a Salt Lake City, Utah, genealogist who's traced various Hoover family birth and death records that seem to confirm at least part of McGhee's familial oral history and, at a minimum, raise questions about his provenance.

Journalist Edward Spannaus also believes that Hoover, who died in 1972, "had something to hide." He says it may help explain the former director's persecution of black Americans during the 1950s and 1960s.

In fact, as various memoirs have established, Hoover was obsessed with Martin Luther King Jr. and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Earlier, he targeted black newspaper publishers and leftist black celebrities such as singer Paul Robeson.

Rumours of Hoover's black roots are not entirely new, of course. Some years ago, novelist Gore Vidal told biographer Anthony Summers ( Official and Confidential: the Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover) that it was "always said in my family and around the city [Washington, D.C.]that he was mulatto. People said he came from a family that had 'passed.' "

It was Summers's book that also aired suggestions that Hoover was a closet homosexual who occasionally dressed in drag.

Still, as Spannaus concedes, there is not yet a smoking gun, nothing to indicate definitively that Hoover was one-quarter, one-eighth, one-16th or even one-32nd black. Instead, there is a thickening dossier of circumstantial evidence that some believe corroborates McGhee's allegation.

McGhee herself was raised on a former slave plantation owned by a Hoover family in Pike County, Miss. These Hoovers, she claims, were related to another Hoover clan living in Washington, although genealogist Ott is skeptical on this point.

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In 1960, McGhee came home from a history class to ask whether J. Edgar Hoover might be related to the Hoovers in her own family.

"He's my second cousin," her grandfather told her. "But you must never tell anyone because it's a family secret. This man has a lot of power and we could be burned up. I said, 'He can't do that.' But he said he could, and had already destroyed the evidence of his birth."

According to the extended family history, the McGhees descend from the union of a black slave woman and her white slave master. In 1814, that relationship yielded one Elizabeth Allan, who went to Maryland with a William Hoover. In those days, it was not uncommon for white plantation owners to take black women as "bedwarmers." The McGhee tale goes on to say that Elizabeth had seven children by William Hoover; one light-skinned daughter, Emily Allan, was allegedly taken from her to Mississippi, where she became mistress to yet another William Hoover. An older child -- John T. Hoover -- later had a son of his own, Dickerson N. Hoover, who was the father of J. Edgar.

McGhee's grandfather, known as Big Daddy, was the grandson of Emily.

Genealogist Ott says the only way Big Daddy Allan and J. Edgar could have been second cousins was if they had shared a great-grandparent.

In support of that claim, he found one record of the transfer of a slave named E. Allan from the D.C. area to Mississippi. Just how she arrived there is among the many unsolved mysteries surrounding the case.

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"But Big Daddy was right about a lot of things," says Ott, who's been researching family histories for 25 years. "And so perhaps he was right about J. Edgar being his second cousin. There's still a lot of unanswered questions. And more research needs to be done. But I'd put it at 50-50 that J. Edgar was one-16th black."

Others are less convinced. Another Hoover biographer, Curt Gentry, says he came across nothing about Hoover's black ancestry in preparing his 1991 book, J. Edgar Hoover, The Man and His Secrets.

"There was never a hint of it in my research or I would have pursued it," Gentry says. "She [McGhee]has called me three or four times on this thing. I don't know anything except what they've told me. I'm interested in finding out. I'm not discounting it, but I'm not pushing it. I do know Hoover had his agents censor the papers of Roosevelt-era Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau. I presume it happened with other things, certainly the FBI's own files."

Documentarian Carroll, recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Pike County, Miss., says that in explorations of dozens of graveyards, he found only one where black slaves and white slave owners were buried side by side -- and their names were Allan and Hoover respectively.

The problem with this evidence, says Ott, is that there's no indication that these Mississippi Hoovers had any connection at all to the Washington Hoovers. However, Ott says it is curious that J. Edgar did not file an official birth certificate until 1938, when he was 43 years old. "His much older brother and sister had their arrivals registered at the time of their birth. So why didn't he?"

He also says there is ample evidence that light-skinned blacks often "passed" in white society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For example, Ott has done work for comedian Bill Cosby's wife, whose father was "so white he passed as an officer in World War II."

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Carroll, who has shot more than 20 hours of videotape, says he will package the edited documentary for television or theatrical release. He does not expect it to be screened before next February.

"This will be a shocker," he insists, "because it has the potential for rearranging how we look at the history of the 20th century as it applies to one of its most notorious characters."

In the film, Carroll interviews psychologists who speculate on the effect Hoover's "secret" might have had on his psyche.

"Having something to hide made him obsessive about the secrets of others," Carroll says. "It was a self-hate syndrome, played out against the people he hated."

And there are implications, Carroll maintains, for all Americans. "Here was a nation built on the idea of equality. But the same divisions have divided us longer than we've been a nation. Even if we never find the smoking gun, it's a wakeup call. The point is made, because everybody knows that there's nobody who is pure anything in this country or the rest of the world. White, black, it's almost irrelevant, but it demonstrates the idiocy of our behaviour."

Millie McGhee meanwhile, who has just released a second edition of her book, continues to cling to her grandfather's story. "Who am I to say that my grandfather wasn't telling the truth?" she asks. "Why would he have lied to me?"

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 23:14

20th-century racial discrimination practice among African Americans

An individual darker than a brown paper bag was denied privileges

The Brown Paper Bag Test in African-American oral history was a form of racial discrimination practiced by white America in the 20th century. Whites compared an African-American's skin tone to the color of a brown paper bag. The test was allegedly used as a way to determine whether or not an individual could have certain privileges; only those with a skin color that matched or was lighter than a brown paper bag were allowed admission or membership privileges. The test was believed by many to be used in the 20th century by many African-American social institutions such as sororities, fraternities, and churches.[1] The term is also used in reference to larger issues of class and social stratification within the African American population. The bag typically used was brown.

Color discrimination [ edit ] Athletes with various skin tones

Privilege has long been associated with skin tone in the African-American community, dating back to slave times.Mixed-race children of white fathers were sometimes given privileges ranging from more desirable work, apprenticeships or formal education, allocation of property, or even freedom from enslavement. African Americans "contributed to colorism because they have benefited from the privilege of having a skin color closer to that of Whites and have embraced the notion that privilege comes with having light skin in America".[2] Lighter-skinned people of color were accorded certain social and economic advantages over darker-skinned people of color, even while suffering discrimination. According to Gordon, "light-skinned blacks formed exclusive clubs" after slavery was abolished in the United States.[3] Some clubs were called "Blue Vein Societies", suggesting that if an individual's skin was light enough to show the blue cast of veins, they had more European ancestry (and, therefore, higher social standing.)[3] Such discrimination was resented by African Americans with darker complexions. According to Henry Louis Gates Jr., in his book The Future of the Race (1996), the practice of the brown paper bag test may have originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, where there was a substantial third class of free people of color dating from the French colonial era.[4] The test was related to ideas of beauty, in which some people believed that lighter skin and more European features, in general, were more attractive.

From 1900 until about 1950, "paper bag parties" are said to have taken place in neighborhoods of major American cities with a high concentration of African Americans. Many churches, fraternities, and nightclubs used the "brown paper bag" principle as a test for entrance. People at these organizations would take a brown paper bag and hold it against a person's skin. If a person was lighter than the bag, they were admitted. People whose skin was not lighter than a brown paper bag were denied entry.[5]

There is, too, a curious color dynamic that persists in our culture. In fact, New Orleans invented the brown paper bag party '-- usually at a gathering in a home '-- where anyone darker than the bag attached to the door was denied entrance. The brown bag criterion survives as a metaphor for how the black cultural elite quite literally establishes caste along color lines within black life. On my many trips to New Orleans, whether to lecture at one of its universities or colleges, to preach from one of its pulpits, or to speak at an empowerment seminar during the annual Essence Music Festival, I have observed color politics at work among black folk. The cruel color code has to be defeated by our love for one another. '--Michael Eric Dyson, excerpt from Come Hell or High Water.[6]

Some historically black colleges and universities used the brown paper bag test as a way to critique candidates for admission.[7] A person's skin tone could affect whether they were admitted to a top school. For instance, Audrey Elisa Kerr refers to colleges requiring applicants to send personal photos.[8] Kerr mentioned how this practice took place at a popular HBCU, Howard University.[8] Dr. Arnold relayed to Kerr a story concerning young women at Howard. Dr. Arnold had heard colorism was a factor when it came to admission to Howard.[8] Discrimination was also practiced by fraternities and sororities, whose members self-selected others like themselves, generally those reflecting partial European ancestry.[9] Multi-racial people who had been free before the American Civil War attempted to distinguish themselves from the mass of freedmen after the war, who appeared to be mostly of African descent and had been confined to slavery.

Colorism through the centuries [ edit ] The offspring of African men and white women were often born into freedom because of their mothers' legal status of slave vs. free, regardless of color.[10][11] A law established in Virginia and other colonies in the 17th century dictated that the legal status of these children would be determined by that of their mothers, rather than by their fathers, in opposition to the tradition of English common law.[10][11] These free descendants became well-established, with descendants moving to frontier regions of Virginia, North Carolina and west as areas opened up. Some prominent Americans were descendants of these early free families, for instance, Ralph Bunche, who served as ambassador to the United Nations.[12]

As early as the 18th century, travelers remarked on the variety of color and features seen in slaves in Virginia, as European ancestry was obvious. Light-skinned slaves, some of whom were descendants of masters and their sons, were sometimes given better treatment on plantations, with domestic jobs inside the master's house, including as companions or maids to his legal children.[13] Some of them were educated, or at least allowed to learn to read. Occasionally the master may have arranged for an apprenticeship for a mixed-race son and freed him upon its completion, especially in the first two decades after the American Revolution, when numerous slaves were freed in the Upper South. In this region, from the Revolution to 1810, the percentage of people of color who were free increased from 1 to more than 10 percent. By 1810, 75% of blacks in Delaware were free.[14]

Newly imported Africans and African Americans with less visible European ancestry were used in hard field labor, and abuse was more frequent in the fields. As tensions concerning slave uprisings rose in the 19th century, slave states imposed more restrictions, including prohibitions on educating slaves and on slaves' movements. These slaves could be punished for trying to learn to read and write.

In Louisiana especially, Creoles of color had long comprised a third class during the years of slavery. They had achieved a high level of literacy and sophistication under the French and Spanish rule, becoming educated, taking the names of white fathers or lovers, and often receiving property from the white men involved with their families. Many became artisans, property owners, and sometimes slaveholders themselves. Unlike in the Upper South, where free African Americans varied widely in appearance, free people of color in New Orleans and the Deep South tended to be light-skinned due to generations of intermarriage with people of European ancestry. After the United States negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, more Americans settled in New Orleans, bringing with them their binary approach to society, in which each person was classified only as black or white. They began to curtail the privileges of Creoles of color.[15]

See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] ^ Pilgram, David (February 2014). "Brown Paper Bag Test". Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. Ferris State University . Retrieved 3 January 2019 . ^ "African Americans Still Victims of Colorism". Racism Review. Wordpress. 2011-03-26 . Retrieved 20 November 2015 . ^ a b "Skin-Deep Discrimination". ABC News. ABC News . Retrieved 23 October 2015 . ^ Maxwell, Bill. "The paper bag test". St. Petersburg Times. Tampa Bay Times . Retrieved 23 October 2015 . ^ "Did Hurricane Katrina reveal a historic reality?" Excerpt from Michael Eric Dyson's (2006) Come Hell or High Water ^ Dyson, Michael Eric (2007). Come hell or high water : Hurricane Katrina and the color of disaster (Pbk. ed.). New York: Basic Civitas. ISBN 978-0465017720. ^ Carter, Jarrett (2013-04-11). "Bringing Back the Brown Paper Bag Test to HBCUs". Hoff Post Black Voices. Huffington Post . Retrieved 29 October 2015 . ^ a b c Kerri, Audrey Elisa (2006). The Paper Bag Principle: Class, Colorism, and Rumor and the Case of Black Washington, Part 3. University of Tennessee Press. p. 93. ^ "Paper Bag Test: Letter From 1928 Addresses Black Fraternity And Sorority Colorism At Howard University". watchtheyard. WatchTheYard . Retrieved 31 October 2015 . ^ a b Williams, Heather. "How Slavery Affected African American Families". National Humanities Center. National Humanities Center . Retrieved 21 November 2015 . ^ a b "Slavery and Indentured Servants". Law Library of Congress. Library of Congress . Retrieved 17 February 2016 . ^ Heinegg, Paul. "Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware" . Retrieved 15 Feb 2008 . ^ "Household Slavery". boundless . Retrieved 21 November 2015 . ^ Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877, New York: Hill and Wang, 1994 Pbk, pp.78 and 81 ^ Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877, New York: Hill and Wang, 1994 Pbk, p. 83 Further reading [ edit ] Russell, Kathy; Wilson, Midge; Hall, Ronald (1993-10-01). The Color Complex. New York: Anchor. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-385-47161-9. Williams, Lena (1992-11-22). "The Many Shades of Bigotry". New York Times. External links [ edit ] THE PAPER BAG TEST, an editorial by Bill Maxwell about blacks discriminating against blacks, St. Petersburg Times, August 31, 2003, discusses the history of the test.Skin-Deep Discrimination, ABC News, March 4, 2005Classypac

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 23:14

Historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, US

Fisk University is a private historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee. The university was founded in 1866 and its 40-acre (160,000 m2) campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1930, Fisk was the first African-American institution to gain accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Accreditations for specialized programs soon followed. Although the university remains accredited by SACS, the university was placed on probation in June 2018.[3]

History [ edit ] In the Antebellum era, the land on which the campus was built was owned by David McGavock.[4] He was the brother of Randal McGavock, who owned the Carnton plantation and was mayor of Nashville from 1824 to 1825.

In 1866, after the end of the American Civil War, leaders of the northern American Missionary Association (AMA): John Ogden, Reverend Erastus Milo Cravath, field secretary; and Reverend Edward Parmelee Smith, founded the Fisk Free Colored School, for the education of freedmen in Nashville. It was one of several schools and colleges that the AMA helped found. Enrollment jumped from 200 to 900 in the first several months of the school, indicating freedmen's strong desire for education, with ages of students ranging from seven to seventy.

The school was named in honor of General Clinton B. Fisk of the Tennessee Freedmen's Bureau, who made unused barracks available to the school, as well as establishing the first free schools for white and black children in Tennessee. In addition, he endowed Fisk with a total of $30,000.[5] The American Missionary Association's work was supported by the United Church of Christ, which retains an affiliation with the university.[6] Fisk opened to classes on January 9, 1866.[7]

With Tennessee's passage of legislation during the Reconstruction era to support public education, leaders saw a need for training teachers. Fisk was incorporated as a normal school for college training in August 1867.[citation needed ] James Dallas Burrus, John Houston Burrus, Virginia E. Walker, and America W. Robinson were the first four students to enroll at Fisk in 1867; Broughton and the two Burruses were the first African Americans to graduate from a liberal arts college south of the Mason''Dixon line. Robinson graduated as well and became a member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Walker became a noted missionary, while the Burrus brothers were both prominent educators. They later became professors at Fisk.[8]

Cravath organized the College Department and the Mozart Society, the first musical organization in Tennessee. Rising enrollment added to the needs of the university. In 1870 Adam Knight Spence became principal of the Fisk Normal School. To raise money for the school's initiatives, his wife Catherine Mackie Spence traveled throughout the United States to set up mission Sunday schools in support of Fisk students, organizing endowments through the AMA.[9] With a strong interest in religion and the arts, Adam Spence supported the start of a student choir. In 1871 the student choir went on a fund-raising tour in Europe; they were the start of the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

They toured to raise funds to build the first building for the education of freedmen. They raised nearly $50,000 and funded construction of the renowned Jubilee Hall, now a designated National Historic Landmark.[10] When the American Missionary Association declined to assume the financial responsibility of the Jubilee Singers, Professor George L. White, Treasurer of the University, took over responsibility and started North in 1871 with his troupe. On April 12, 1873, the Jubilee Singers sailed for England. They sang for a society in the presence of the Queen, who expressed her pleasure in the performance.[7] The Jubilee Singers were responsible for popularizing the spirituals written by Wallace Willis, including "Swing Low Sweet Chariot".[11]

During the 1880s Fisk had an active construction program on campus, which accompanied its expansion of curriculum offerings. By the turn of the 20th century, it added black teachers and staff to the university, and a second generation of free blacks entered classes.[10]

From 1915 to 1925, Fayette Avery McKenzie was President of Fisk. McKenzie's tenure, before and after World War I, was during a turbulent period in American history. In spite of many challenges, McKenzie developed Fisk as the premier all Black university in the United States, secured Fisk's academic recognition as a standard college by the Carnegie Foundation, Columbia University and the University of Chicago, raised a $1 million endowment fund to ensure quality faculty and laid a foundation for Fisk's accreditation and future success.[12] McKenzie was eventually forced to resign when his strict policies on dress code, extracurricular activities, and other aspects of student life led to student protests.

In 1947 Fisk selected its first African-American president, Charles Spurgeon Johnson. Johnson was a premier sociologist, a scholar who had also been the editor of Opportunity magazine, a noted periodical of the Harlem Renaissance.

In 1952, Fisk was the first predominantly black college to earn a Phi Beta Kappa charter. Organized as the Delta of Tennessee Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society that December, the chapter inducted its first student members on April 4, 1953.

On April 8, 1967, a riot occurred on the college campuses of Fisk University and Tennessee State University after Stokely Carmichael spoke at Vanderbilt University.[13] Although it was viewed as a "race riot", it had classist characteristics.[13]

From 2004 to 2013, Fisk was directed by its 14th president, Hazel O'Leary, former Secretary of Energy under President Bill Clinton. She was the second woman to serve as president of the university. On June 25, 2008, Fisk announced that it had successfully raised $4 million during the fiscal year ending June 30. It ended nine years of budget deficits and qualified for a Mellon Foundation challenge grant.[14][15] However, Fisk still faced significant financial hardship, and said that it may need to close its doors unless its finances improve.[16]

H. James Williams, served as president from February 2013 to September 2015. Williams had previously been dean of the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University in Michigan and, before that, an accounting professor at Georgetown University, Florida A&M and Texas Southern University.[17][18] Williams stepped down in September 2015.[19]

Williams was replaced by interim president, board member, Frank Sims.[20] In March 2017 the Fisk board of trustees announced that Kevin Rome would be Fisk university's next president.[21]

In June 2017, a service in memory of 1892 lynching victim Ephraim Grizzard was held in the Fisk University Memorial Chapel. In addition, a plaque memorializing Grizzard, his brother Henry, and Samuel Smith, a third lynching victim, was installed at St. Anselm's Episcopal church in Nashville.[22]

One year later, the university's regional accreditor placed the university on probation. The accreditor cited failings related to financial responsibility, control of research funds, and federal and state responsibility.[3]

Campus [ edit ] United States historic place

Jubilee Hall, which was recently restored, is the oldest and most distinctive structure of Victorian architecture on the 40 acre (160,000 m2) Fisk campus.

Students and teachers in training school (between 1890 and 1906)

Theological Hall, c. 1900

Jubilee Hall

Fisk Memorial Chapel

Cravath Hall

Interior lobby of Cravath Hall, Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee

Music, art, and literature collections [ edit ] Fisk University is the home of a music literature collection founded by the noted Harlem Renaissance figure Carl Van Vechten, for whom the campus museum is named, and a substantial collection of materials associated with Charles W. Chestnutt.[23]

Alfred Stieglitz Collection [ edit ] In 1949, Georgia O'Keeffe wife, and Executrix of her late husband's estate, donated to Fisk a number of paintings that had belonged to her husband (in accordance with the terms of his will), the photographer and art patron Alfred Stieglitz. The collection consists of 101 works by important artists, including European modernists Paul C(C)zanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Pablo Picasso and Diego Rivera, as well as American artists Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove and Charles Demuth and works by O'Keeffe.[24]

In 2005, mounting financial difficulties and deteriorating conditions in the gallery led the University trustees to vote to sell two of the paintings, O'Keeffe's "Radiator Building" and Hartley's "Painting No. 3," together estimated to be worth up to 45 million U.S. dollars. The sale was challenged by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, the legal guardians of her estate. This challenge failed. A joint agreement was established between Fisk University and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.[25][26][27][28] The two museums now share the works' presentation and display rights of the Stieglitz collection, (ownership remains with Fisk University, in accord with the terms of Stieglitz's estate). Presentation and display rights, rotate between Fisk University and Crystal Bridges Museum, every two years. In 2016, as part of the university's sesquicentennial celebration, the collection was displayed at the newly renovated Carl Van Vechten Gallery.[24]

Science programs [ edit ] Fisk University has a strong record of academic excellence: it has graduated more African Americans who go on to earn PhDs in the natural sciences than any other institution.[29]

Fisk-Vanderbilt Bridge Program [ edit ] Started in 2004,[30] the Fisk-Vanderbilt bridge program helps underrepresented groups gain access to Ph.D. programs in STEM fields. The partnership between a small, historically black college and a major research university aims to diversify doctoral study.[31] The program, which has received money from NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship,[32] provides a scholarship for a master's degree at Fisk University and close mentorship for students who go on to a Ph.D.[30] Since 2004, 21 students in the program have completed a Ph.D., with another 56 currently pursuing graduate study.[30] The program has a success rate far higher than the national average for completion of Ph.D. programs, which is about 50%.[33]

Rankings [ edit ] For 2020, U.S. News & World Report ranked Fisk University tied for 35th for best undergraduate teaching and 164''215 overall among national liberal arts colleges, and 9th among historically black colleges and universities in the U.S.[37]For 2019, Washington Monthly ranked Fisk 162nd among liberal arts colleges in the U.S. based on their contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service.[38]Forbes ranks Fisk 642nd on its 2019 "America's Top Colleges" list of 650 colleges, universities and service academies.[39]Athletics [ edit ] Fisk University teams, nicknamed athletically as the Bulldogs, are part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA)[40] Division I level, primarily competing in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC).[41] Men's sports include basketball, cross country, tennis and track & field; women's sports include basketball, cross country, softball, tennis, track & field and volleyball.

Notable alumni [ edit ] NameClass yearNotabilityReference(s)Lil Hardin Armstrong1915jazz pianist/composer, second wife of Louis ArmstrongConstance Baker Motley1941''1942first African-American woman elected to the New York State SenateMarion Barry1960former mayor of Washington, D.C.Mary Frances Berryformer Chair, United States Commission on Civil Rights; former Chancellor University of Colorado at BoulderJohn Betsch1967jazz percussionistJoyce Boldenfirst African-American woman to serve on the Commission for Accreditation of the National Association of Schools of MusicOtis Boykin1942inventor, control device for the heart pacemakerSt. Elmo Bradyfirst African American to earn a doctorate in ChemistryVirginia E. Walker Broughton1875, 1878author and Baptist missionary[42][43][44]Cora Brownfirst African-American woman elected to a state senateJames Dallas Burrus1875educatorJohn Houston Burrus1875educatorHenry Alvin Cameron1896educator, decorated World War I veteranElizabeth Hortense (Golden) Canadypast national president of Delta Sigma Theta sororityAlfred O. Coffinfirst African American to earn a doctorate in zoologyMalia Cohen2001San Francisco District 10 Supervisor 2010 '' PresentJohnnetta B. Coleanthropologist, former President of Spelman College and Bennett CollegeNeal Craig1971NFL Cornerback for Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills, and Cleveland BrownsArthur Cunningham1951musical composer, studied at Juilliard and Columbia UniversityWilliam L. Dawson (politician)1909U.S. Congressman (1943''1970)Charles DiggsUnited States House of Representatives Michigan (1955''1980)Mahala Ashley Dickerson1935first black female attorney in the state of Alabama and first black president of the National Association of Women LawyersRel Dowdell1993acclaimed filmmakerW. E. B. Du Bois1888sociologist, scholar, first African-American to earn a Ph.D. from HarvardJames J. Durham1880, 1885Founder of Morris CollegeAlthea Brown Edmiston1901Presbyterian missionary in Belgian CongoVenida Evans1969actress, best known for IKEA commercialsEtta Zuber Falconer1953first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics; former Chair, mathematics department at Spelman CollegeJohn Hope Franklin1935historian, professor, scholar, author of landmark text From Slavery to FreedomVictor O. FrazerUnited States House of Representatives (1995''1997)Alonzo Fulghamformer acting chief and operating officer of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)Nikki Giovanni1967poet, author, professor, scholarLouis George Gregoryposthumously, a Hand of the Cause in Bah'­ FaithEliza Ann Grier1891first African-American female physician in GeorgiaKevin Halesprofessor, Africologist, Fulbright Scholar, NEH Scholar, Teaching Excellence Professor (Scholar of global African culture)Alcee HastingsU.S. Congressman and former U.S. district court judgeRoland Hayesconcert singerPerry Wilbon HowardAssistant U.S. Attorney General under President Herbert HooverElmer Imes1903renowned physicist and second African-American to earn a Ph.D in PhysicsEsther Cooper Jackson1940Founding editor of Freedomways JournalLena Terrell Jackson1885educator in Nashville for over 50 yearsLeonard Jackson (actor)1952Actor, Five on the Black Hand Side; The Color PurpleRobert Jamesformer NFL cornerbackJudith Jamisonpioneering dancer and choreographer; former artistic Director, Alvin Ailey American Dance TheaterTed JarrettR&B recording artist and producerDr. Charles Jeter1971father of Derek JeterBen Jobe1956legendary basketball coach, Southern UniversityLewis Wade Jones1931sociologist; Julius Rosenwald Foundation Fellow at Columbia UniversityElla Mae Johnson1921at age 105 years old, Ella Mae Johnson traveled to Washington, DC to attend the inauguration of Barack ObamaMame Stewart Josenberger1888businesswoman and clubwoman in ArkansasAnne Gamble Kennedy1941Pianist, professor, and piano accompanist for the Fisk Jubilee SingersMatthew Kennedy1947Pianist, professor, and former director of the Fisk Jubilee SingersMathew Knowles1973father and former manager of Beyonc(C), founder and owner of Music World Entertainment, and adjunct professor at Texas Southern UniversityDr. John Angelo Lester1895Professor Emeritus of Physiology, Meharry Medical CollegeNella Larsen1908novelist, Harlem Renaissance eraJulius Lester1960author of children's books and former professor at the University of Massachusetts AmherstDavid Levering Lewis1956two-time Pulitzer Prize WinnerJohn LewisCongressman, civil rights activist, former President of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)Jimmie Lunceford1925famous bandleader in the swing eraAubrey Lyles1903vaudeville performerMandisa2001Grammy Award-winning and Dove Award-nominated Christian contemporary singer/songwriter, ninth-place finalist in the fifth season (2006) of American IdolAriana Austin Makonnenphilanthropist and member of the Ethiopian Imperial FamilyPatti J. Malone1880Fisk Jubilee SingerLouis E. Martin1933Godfather of Black PoliticsFatima Massaquoi1936pioneering Liberian educator[45]Jedidah Isler2007Isler became the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in Astrophysics from Yale University in 2014[46]Wade H. McCree1941second African-American United States Solicitor General; Justice, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth CircuitSamuel A. McElwee1883State Senator during the Reconstruction Era and the first African American elected three times to the Tennessee General AssemblyRobert McFerrinfirst African American male to sing at the Metropolitan Opera and father of Bobby McFerrinLeslie Meek1987Administrative Law Judge, wife of Congressman Kendrick MeekTheo Mitchell1960Senator, South Carolina General AssemblyUndine Smith Moorefirst Fisk graduate to receive a scholarship to Juilliard, Pulitzer Prize NomineeDiane Nashfounding member of SNCCRachel B. Noelpolitician; first African-American to serve on the Denver Public Schools Board of EducationLonnie H. Norris, D.M.D., M.P.H.1964first African American Dean in the history of Tufts University School of Dental Medicine.[47]Donna M. Norris M.D.1964psychiatrist and the first black and first woman speaker at the assembly of the American Psychiatric Association.[48]Hon. Hazel O'Learyformer U.S. Secretary of EnergyLucius T. Outlaw, Jr.Philosophy professor at Vanderbilt University[49]J.O. Patterson, Jr.1958first African American to occupy the office of Mayor of Memphis. Tennessee State Representative, State Senator, Memphis Councilman, Jurisdictional Bishop in the Church of God in ChristHelen Phillips1928first African-American to perform with the Metropolitan Opera ChorusAnnette Lewis Phinazee1939first black woman to earn a doctorate in library sciences from Columbia UniversityAlma Powellwife of Gen. Colin PowellCecelia Cabaniss Saunders1903director of Harlem YWCA, 1914-1947Lorenzo Dow Turner1910linguist and Chair, African Studies at Roosevelt UniversityA. Maceo Walker1930businessman, Universal Life Insurance, Tri-State BankRon Walters1963scholar of African-American politics, Chair, Afro-American Studies Brandeis UniversityMargaret Murray Washington1890Lady Principal of Tuskegee Institute and third wife of Booker T. WashingtonIda B. WellsAmerican civil rights activist and women's suffrage advocateCharles H. Wesley1911President of Wilberforce University from 1942 to 1947, and President of Central State College from 1947''1965; third African-American to receive a Ph.D. from HarvardKym Whitleyactress, comedianFrederica Wilson1963U.S. Representative for Florida's 17th congressional districtTom Wilson (producer)1953music producer, best known for his work with Bob Dylan and Frank ZappaFrank Yerby1938first African-American to publish a best-selling novelNotable faculty [ edit ] NameDepartmentNotabilityReferenceCamille AkejuArtArt historian and museum administrator[50]Ebenezer Ako-AdjeiGhanaian politician and founding father of GhanaArna BontempsLibrarianHead Librarian; Harlem Renaissance poetRobert HaydenUnited States Poet Laureate 1976''1978Charles Spurgeon JohnsonPresidentFirst African American President of Fisk UniversityFayette Avery McKenziePresidentFourth President of Fisk UniversityThomas Elsa JonesPresidentFifth President of Fisk UniversityPercy Lavon JulianChemistryFirst African-American chemist and second African-American from any field to become a member of the National Academy of SciencesLee LorchMathematicsMathematician and civil rights activist. Fired in 1955 for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.Hon. Hazel O'LearyPresidentformer U.S. Secretary of EnergyJohn Oliver KillensWriter in ResidenceTwo-time Pulitzer Prize nomineeNikki GiovanniEnglishauthor, poet, activistJames Weldon JohnsonLiteratureauthor, poet and civil rights activist, author of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing", known as the "Negro National Anthem"Anne Gamble KennedyMusicConcert Pianist, Piano Professor, and accompanist for the Fisk Jubilee Singers under John W. Work III and Matthew KennedyMatthew KennedyMusicConcert pianist, piano professor, and director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers (1957''1986 intermittently)John W. Work IIIMusicChoir director, ethnomusicologist and scholar of Afro-American folk musicAaron DouglasArtpainter, illustrator, muralistRobert E. ParkSociologySociologist of the Chicago SchoolHelen Clarissa MorganLatinFirst woman to be appointed professor of Latin (1869''1907) at a coeducational collegeReferences [ edit ] ^ "Welcome". Fisk Memorial Chapel . Retrieved June 28, 2010 . ^ https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Fisk+University&s=all&id=220181 ^ a b Lederman, Doug (June 25, 2018). "Southern Accreditor Places 4 Institutions on Probation". Inside Higher Ed . Retrieved June 28, 2018 . ^ Thomas, Jane H. (1897). Old Days in Nashville, Tenn. Reminiscences. Nashville, Tennessee: Publishing House Methodist Episcopal Church, South. pp. 10''11. OCLC 1011667441 '' via Internet Archive. ^ Mitchell, Reavis L., Jr., Clinton Bowen Fisk, The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002, accessed 8 July 2012 ^ "History of Fisk". Fisk University. Archived from the original on July 6, 2012 . Retrieved July 8, 2012 . ^ a b Mitchell, Reavis L., Jr., Fisk University, The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002, accessed 3 Mar 2009 ^ Richardson, Joe M. "A negro success story: James Dallas Burrus". The Journal of Negro History 50, no. 4 (1965): 274''282. ^ Biographical note: Adam Knight Spence, Spence Family Collection, Fisk University Library, accessed 3 Mar 2009. Link via the Internet Archive, accessed 15 August 2013. ^ a b "Fisk University", The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2002, accessed 3 Mar 2009. Quote: "When the American Missionary Association declined to assume the financial responsibility of the Jubilee Singers, Professor George L. White, Treasurer of the University, took the responsibility upon himself and started North in 1871 with his troupe. On April 12, 1873, the Jubilee Singers sailed for England where they sang before a fashionable audience in the presence of the Queen, who expressed her gratification at the performance." ^ "Michael Overall, How an Oklahoma slave came to write one of the world's most famous songs". Tulsa World. January 28, 2019 . Retrieved January 28, 2019 . ^ Christopher L. Nicholson, To Advance a Race: A Historical Analysis of the Personal Belief, Industrial Philanthropy and Black Liberal Arts Higher Education in Fayette McKenzie's Presidency at Fisk University, 1915''1925, Loyola University, Chicago, May 2011, p.299-301, 315''318. ^ a b Frizzell, Scott (Spring 2011). "Not Just a Matter of Black and White: The Nashville Riot of 1967". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 70 (1): 26''51. JSTOR 42628733. ^ "Institutional Support : Fisk University | The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation". mellon.org . Retrieved February 5, 2019 . ^ "Institutional Support : Fisk University | The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation". mellon.org . Retrieved February 5, 2019 . ^ "Fisk University Struggles Through Financial Crisis", NPR, September 16, 2010 ^ "President" Archived 2013-08-29 at the Wayback Machine, Fisk University webpage. Retrieved 2013-07-29 ^ Phillips, Betsy, "H. James Williams Named New President of Fisk University", Nashville Scene, December 7, 2012. Retrieved 2013-07-29. ^ Tamburin, Adam (September 21, 2015). "Fisk University president resigns". The Tennessean . Retrieved October 5, 2015 . ^ [1], Fisk University, May 14, 2017 ^ "President", Fisk University webpage. Retrieved 2017-05-14 ^ Scheu, Katherine (June 7, 2017). "Nashville's Episcopal Church remembers 1892 lynchings in city". The Tennessean . Retrieved April 26, 2018 . ^ "Contemporary Reviews". www.chesnuttarchive.org . Retrieved April 18, 2016 . ^ a b "Alfred Stieglitz Collection returns to Fisk University". The Tennessean . Retrieved April 18, 2016 . ^ "Search for cash turns into battle over art for Fisk University". CNN.com. CNN. December 27, 2007. Archived from the original on December 29, 2007. ^ Pogrebin, Robin (August 3, 2012). "Legal Battle Over Fisk University Art Collection Ends". The New York Times . Retrieved August 5, 2012 . ^ Rosenbaum, Lee (CultureGrrl), "News Flash: Court Order to Send Fisk's Stieglitz Collection to Crystal Bridges in Fall 2013", Arts Journal blog, August 2, 2012. ^ Allyn, Bobby (August 4, 2012). "Fisk finalizes deal to sell half-stake of Alfred Stieglitz collection in end to long fight, half-stake sold to Arkansas museum". The Tennessean . Retrieved August 5, 2012 . ^ RESOLUTION NO. RS2008-188: A resolution to recognize and declare Fisk University Day in Nashville, Tennessee on March 19, 2008, Nashville Metropolitan Council, accessed 3 Mar 2009 ^ a b c Patel, Vimal (May 19, 2016). "Building a Better 'Bridge' to the Ph.D." The Chronicle of Higher Education. ISSN 0009-5982 . Retrieved May 22, 2016 . ^ Stassun, Keivan G.; et al. (December 2010). "The Fisk-Vanderbilt Master's-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program: Recognizing, enlisting, and cultivating unrealized or unrecognized potential in underrepresented minority students". American Journal of Physics. 79 (4): 374''379. doi:10.1119/1.3546069. ^ "About the Bridge Program". Fisk-Vanderbilt Bridge Program. September 12, 2014 . Retrieved May 22, 2016 . ^ Cassuto, Leonard (July 1, 2013). "Ph.D. Attrition: How Much Is Too Much?". The Chronicle of Higher Education. ISSN 0009-5982 . Retrieved May 22, 2016 . ^ "America's Top Colleges 2019". Forbes . Retrieved August 15, 2019 . ^ "Best Colleges 2020: National Liberal Arts Colleges Rankings". U.S. News & World Report . Retrieved September 8, 2019 . ^ "2019 Liberal Arts Rankings". Washington Monthly . Retrieved September 8, 2019 . ^ "Fisk University". U.S. News & World Report . Retrieved September 9, 2019 . ^ "2019 Liberal Arts Rankings". Washington Monthly . Retrieved September 9, 2019 . ^ "Fisk University". Forbes . Retrieved September 9, 2019 . ^ NAIA Member Schools, NAIA webpage. Retrieved 2013-08-28. ^ GCAC Members, GCAC webpage. Retrieved 2013-08-28. ^ Carter, Tomeiko Ashford, editor (2010). Virginia Broughton: The Life and Writings of a Missionary, The University of Tennessee Press, page xxxix. ISBN 978-1572336964 ^ "Biographies". Digital.nypl.org . Retrieved December 9, 2012 . ^ "Project MUSE - Virginia Broughton". Muse.jhu.edu . Retrieved December 9, 2012 . ^ Massaquoi, Fatima (2013). Introduction to The Autobiography of an African Princess. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-10250-8. ^ "Jedidah Isler First African-American Woman To Receive A Yale PhD In Astrophysics". scienceworldreport.com . Retrieved December 26, 2016 . ^ "Dr. Lonnie H. Norris Receives ADEA Distinguished Service Award". Nasdaq. March 17, 2012. ^ "ProMutual Group Adds Donna M. Norris, M.D., to its Board". ^ Vanderbilt University bio. Retrieved 2013-07-22. ^ Bass, Holly (March''April 2006). "Camille Akeju: New Director Seeks to Rejuvenate Anacostia Museum". Crisis: 37''39 . Retrieved April 22, 2012 . External links [ edit ] Official website Fisk Athletics website

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 23:03

Lawrence Otis Graham (born 1962) is an African-American attorney and New York Times best-selling author.[1]

Early life and education [ edit ] Graham was raised in Manhattan and later in White Plains, New York.[2] He has a brother, Richard, an orthodontist.[3]

He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy,[4] then Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts and from Harvard Law School with a juris doctor in 1988.[5]

Career [ edit ] Lawrence Otis Graham is a corporate and real estate attorney as well as a New York Times bestselling author of 14 non-fiction books on the subject of politics, education, race and class in America. His work has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Reader's Digest, Glamour, U.S. News & World Report and Reader's Digest, where he has served as a contributing editor. His book Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class (HarperCollins) was a New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Essence Magazine bestseller, as well as a selection of the Book of the Month Club. Netflix is currently developing a series based on the book.

Graham's book The Senator and The Socialite: the Story of America's First Black Political Dynasty (HarperCollins) is a biography of U.S. Senator Blanche Bruce, the first black person to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate. Graham is also the author of such books as The Best Companies for Minorities (Penguin Books) and Proversity: Getting Past Face Value (John Wiley & Sons)'--two guides on diversity in the workplace'--as well as Member of the Club (HarperCollins) which was originally a cover story on New York Magazine, and was later optioned for a feature film by Warner Brothers.

Graham has appeared on numerous TV programs including Charlie Rose, Today Show, The View, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and Good Morning America, and has been profiled in USA Today and TIME.

A former adjunct professor at Fordham University, Graham has taught African American Studies as well as American Government.

Graham appears weekly as a political commentator on News 12.

He is chairman of the Westchester County Police Board and has served on the boards of Red Cross of Westchester, the Boy Scouts of America, Princeton Center for Leadership Training, Jack & Jill Foundation, and Council on Economic Priorities.

Graham is also a trustee of SUNY Purchase College Foundation, the American Theatre Wing and the Horace Mann School in New York City.

2000 Congressional Campaign [ edit ] During the 2000 United States House of Representatives elections, Graham challenged incumbent Republican Sue W. Kelly for her seat in New York's 19th congressional district. He was unsuccessful.[1][6]

Personal life [ edit ] Graham is married to corporate executive Pamela Thomas-Graham.[7] They live in Manhattan and in Chappaqua, New York and have three children.[8]

Books [ edit ] Graham's books centralize on African-American social class.

The Senator and the Socialite: The True Story of America's First Black Dynasty (2006)[9] - This is the true story of America's first black dynasty and follows three generations of a family that rose from slavery to the U.S. Senate. Born a Mississippi slave in 1841, Blanche Kelso Bruce amassed a real estate fortune and became the first black person to serve a full Senate term. He married Josephine Willson, the daughter of a wealthy black doctor, and they broke racial barriers as a socialite couple in 1880s Washington, D.C. By hosting white Republicans and blacks like President Ulysses S. Grant and Frederick Douglass, Bruce gained appointments under four Presidents, culminating with a US Treasury post which placed his name on all U.S. currency.[10]Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class (1999)[11] - Debutante cotillions. Million-dollar homes. Summers in Martha's Vineyard and Sag Harbor. Membership in The Links, Jack and Jill, Deltas, Boul(C)s, and AKAs. An obsession with the right schools, families, churches, social clubs, and skin complexion. This is the world of the black upper class and the focus of the first book written about the black elite by a member of this hard-to-penetrate group.[10]Proversity: Getting Past Face Value (1997)[12]Member of The Club: Reflections on Life in a Polarized World (1995)[13] - Member of the Club was Graham's 11th book, but it was the one that brought national recognition to his essays on race, class and politics. st known for revealing Graham's experience of leaving his successful corporate law practice at one of New York's largest law firms in order to go undercover as a busboy at a famous Connecticut country club that discriminates against African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Jews, and women. An excerpt of this book appeared on the cover of New York Magazine.References [ edit ] External links [ edit ] Official website Official Site of Lawrence Otis Graham

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 18:59

Democratic presidential candidate, and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the unrest across the country from Philadelphia City Hall on June 2, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, contrasting his leadership style with that of US President Donald Trump, and calling George Floyds death a wake-up call for our nation.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

Joe Biden's campaign for president is seeing a surge in fundraising in the wake of George Floyd's death, particularly as President Donald Trump comes under scrutiny for his response to protests across the country.

Biden supporters and bundlers have seen a massive uptick in new contributions and donor commitments since the protests began last week, according to people with knowledge of the matter who declined to be named due to the private nature of their conversations.

Fundraisers said that they have each helped to raise between $200,000 and more than $1 million over the past week. In some cases, bundlers say they are raising money at a much faster clip than they had in similar lengths of time. Some are seeing individual fundraising highs compared with the same points in time in previous election cycles.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told CNBC that he recently organized a virtual fundraiser, scheduled for next week, which was expected to raise close to $500,000. Instead, he said, it is likely to bring in over $1 million.

"A lot of the data is coming back, because Biden has performed well and we'll probably end up doing $1.1 million or $1.2 million," Rendell said Tuesday.

Part of these fundraising efforts could show up in Biden's next Federal Election Commission filing, which will show how much the campaign brought in last month. The filing deadline for all campaigns' May fundraising totals is June 20. Biden and the Democratic National Committee combined to raise just over $60 million in April. Trump and the Republican National Committee brought in a touch more than $61 million over that same period of time.

Biden is ahead of Trump in most national polls; a RealClearPolitics polling average shows him with a nearly 6-point lead.

Although the GOP groups had more than $225 million on hand going into May, Biden has an ace in the hole. His ties to former President Barack Obama, who created a fundraising juggernaut of his own during the 2008 and 2012 campaigns for president, is likely going to be another difference maker for him in the final stretch of the election.

Biden's and Obama's teams, according to a source, are working on a potential big money fundraiser that may feature Obama himself. It could help bring in millions of dollars to the former vice president's run for president. This person declined to be named as the discussions are fluid and nothing has been officially scheduled.

The recent boost to Biden's campaign war chest over the past week came ahead of a speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday, when the apparent Democratic nominee blasted Trump's handling of the protests that have ensued since Floyd's death. Floyd, a black man who was unarmed, died as a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Biden's speech laid out his strategy for reforming the police system if he became president.

Trump's response to the protests includes threatening to deploy the U.S. military if states can't handle quelling the vast demonstrations on their own. As Trump made that threat, riot and military police advanced outside the White House to clear Lafayette Square of what appeared to be peaceful protesters. After they were moved, Trump and members of his administration walked to St. John's Church, where the president posed with a Bible.

Charles Myers, a former vice chairman at Evercore and one of Biden's fundraisers in the finance industry, told CNBC that he has seen a massive increase in fundraising, more than he has at a similar point in time in other election years.

"I'm seeing a 30% to 35% increase in what I would normally see at this point five months out from the election in money," Myers said, while noting that jump includes what he is raising for Senate races.

Joe Donnelly, a former Democratic senator from Indiana who is now a partner at the law firm Akin Gump, said he's noticed donors have been going beyond just raising a ton of money. According to Donnelly, they have also been trying to spread the word about how Biden, in their opinion, is the solution to a now-sluggish economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and has been more of an empathetic voice when it comes the civil unrest across the country. Since states were forced to lock down due to the pandemic, more than 40 million Americans have lost their jobs.

"What I can tell you is there is an increased commitment to say 'I will do anything I have to. I will crawl on my knees to Wisconsin to talk to a group of veterans about how there needs to be real change,'" Donnelly told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday. Donnelly hosted a virtual fundraiser for Biden on Monday that brought in $500,000.

Robert Wolf, a longtime ally in the business community of both Biden and Obama, explained to CNBC that he has been hearing that fundraising over the course of at least the past week has been strong.

"I am hearing fundraising is going very well," Wolf said. Biden's "thoughtful approach to Covid-19 and empathetic response to racism and civil unrest is clear to all especially to the current administration," he said.

Meanwhile, outside groups that are both backing Biden and vehemently opposed to Trump are seeing big fundraising hauls as well. That big money could be a boost to these groups' future TV ad buys that mainly have been attacking the president.

American Bridge 21st Century, a super PAC that's backing Biden, has seen $6.9 million come into its coffers since May 14, a PAC official told CNBC. It's been their best two-week fundraising haul of the 2020 election cycle, this person added.

The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump super PAC that's run by a group of never-Trump Republicans said May, which included the start of the Floyd protests, was its best month of fundraising since it was created in the early stages of the 2020 election, according to Reed Galen, one of the group's founders.

The group's monthlong success also included their best single day of fundraising after launching an attack on Trump titled "Mourning in America," which triggered a scathing response from the president. The super PAC was co-founded by the likes of conservative strategists and lawyers Steve Schmidt, John Weaver, Rick Wilson and George Conway, the husband of Trump's senior advisor Kellyanne Conway.

Benjamin Wittes, an associate of former FBI Director James Comey and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, gave his first-ever political donation to Biden's campaign after the incident involving apparent peaceful protesters being forced out Lafayette Square with tear gas during Trump's walk to the church. The $2,800 donation is the legal maximum one can give directly to a campaign.

Wittes' research often focuses on national security. In an interview with CNBC he said that historically he has tried to be apolitical but, he contends, the president's politicization of the military and intelligence services led him to contributing to Biden's campaign. Wittes co-authored a book about Trump's presidency titled "Unmaking the Presidency: Donald Trump's War on the World's Most Powerful Office."

"We have a president who is energetically attacking and trying to destroy the professional national security apparatus of the country and under those circumstances I don't feel a stance of political neutrality is appropriate," Wittes told CNBC.

Wittes said he has seen support from some of colleagues in the national security sector after giving to Biden. The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, meanwhile, showed that employees of the U.S. Department of Defense have combined to give just more than $160,000 to Biden's campaign.

Representatives for the Biden campaign did not return a request for comment.

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 18:29

S o what do we do now?

Is it 1992? Did we just hear a jury tell us that the white cops that we watched on tape hundreds of times beating Rodney King weren't guilty of their obvious crimes? Is it 2014, when Eric Garner was executed for selling cigarettes by a white cop who strangled him as we watched? His words ''I can't breathe'' forever etched into our minds? How many times have we seen people of color killed by police? Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Laquan McDonald. There is little doubt that George Floyd was murdered. We watched as he took his last breath at the hands of four police officers. Now we see another defiant reaction to the systemic cruel treatment of a portion of our citizens like we saw in 1968, 1992, and 2014. We don't know when these protests will subside. We hope and pray that no one else will be killed. But we also know that very little will change.

As most of us wonder what we can do, I remember listening to Sarah Koenig, who spent a year just covering trials in a Cleveland courthouse, sum up her experience. She gives those of us who feel helpless a roadmap:

Let's all accept that something's gone wrong. Let's make that our premise ['...]

We've all heard the stats'--that we here in the United States imprison a vastly higher percentage of our population than any other country in the world. We are number one. The numbers are well-documented, wildly out of whack, and unprecedented in our history.

'' The anger and the frustration we see playing out once again in our streets is just a reminder of how little we've grown as a country from our original sin of slavery. ''

Also well-documented'--inequity. Every joint in the skeleton of our criminal justice system is greased by racial discrimination. Compared to white people who've committed the same crime and who have similar criminal histories, black people and other people of color are arrested more often. They're charged more harshly, given higher bails, offered worse plea deals. They're handed longer prison sentences, and their probation is more often revoked ['...]

These numbers aren't floating above us in the sky. They're alive all over the country.

We all know it's true.

The anger and the frustration we see playing out once again in our streets is just a reminder of how little we've grown as a country from our original sin of slavery. The fact that we aren't actually buying and selling other human beings anymore is not a badge of honor. We need systemic change in our law enforcement and in our criminal justice system. We need policymakers and politicians that reflect basic fairness to all of their citizens equally. Not leaders that stoke hatred and violence as if the idea of shooting looters could ever be anything less than a racial dog whistle. Bull Connor was more subtle.

This is our pandemic. It infects all of us, and in 400 years we've yet to find a vaccine. It seems we've stopped even looking for one and we just try to treat the wound on an individual basis. And we sure haven't done a very good job of that. So this week, as we're wondering what it's going to take to fix these seemingly insurmountable problems, just remember we created these issues so we can fix them. And there is only one way in this country to bring lasting change: Vote.

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 16:51

Sunday Talks: Crump on Floyd '' ''We Don't Understand'''...The Last Refuge

Our old friend Ben 'objectib ebidense' Crump, the defense lawyer for the Floyd family, appears on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan to discuss the deaf of George Floyd. It's been a while'.... Ben does what Ben does, and factually he's a goofy cat doing the best he can on behalf of his client.

''Officer'' (in quotes deliberately) Derek Chauvin did kill George Floyd; that's not the issue. The issue driving the media narrative surrounds why ''Officer'' Derek killed George. Toward the end of the interview Brennan asked Crump about Derek and George knowing each-other. Ben's response, specifically how he phrases the admission, is what's worth watching.

Hi Ben. Good to see you again. Oh, and you're right, nothing makes sense.

By now Ben is discovering that everything around El Nuevo Rodeo, the Mexican Cantina and Dance Club where George and Derek worked, is sketchy. Likely Ben and Daryl have realized it's better to focus their financial strategy toward reparations from the city of Minneapolis because this incident hits on something even Crump doesn't want to touch.

El Nuevo Rodeo (hereafter ENR) is a front business. Nothing is as it seems.

The background ownership of ENR takes you to a shady network of LLC's and the name Omar Investments Inc. (est. 1996). Dig a little deeper and something else becomes evident'... The ownership might connect to one or more U.S. three letter agencies.

The ownership network has previous interactions with FBI operations in/around Minneapolis. This is not surprising because Minneapolis Minnesota, has more national security operations ongoing than any other community in the country. Various Somali groups are being watched, and anyone can do a google search to see when those security operations peek out of the surface.

Omar Investments Inc. owns El Nuevo Rodeo Cantina and night club since 1996. T he principle of Omar Investments Inc. is Muna Sabri. In 2001 a close relative, Basim Sabri, was captured by the FBI in a sting operation.

'...''In 2001, FBI agents recorded Sabri giving Herron $5,000, cash intended to curry the lawmaker's support for his development. Sabri was later convicted on three bribery counts and fined $75,000.'' (link)'....

FBI intercept in 2001, there's the capture. That's the asset creation point for U.S. security to find a way to embed within Minneapolis, and assist the Sabri's along the way.

The presented ''former club owner'', Maya Santamaria, seen on television, appears to be a purposeful 'front' (a face useful in deflecting attention from the primary owner and operations). With that in mind, the scale of false information in/around the visible event, horrible as it was/is, creates layers and layers of purposeful misinformation and a need to control what the public sees in the media.

As I said before, I prefer to sit this one out; however, it is interesting. If you consider that El Nuevo Rodeo might likely be a front for a three letter national security agency; or at the very least a valuable inside source for domestic intelligence and surveillance, things start reconciling rather quickly.

ENR also looks like a money laundering operation. Part of that laundry operation appears to involve counterfeit currency. This enterprise, writ large, looks like the answer to 'how' a U.S. agency infiltrated the background criminal network in Minnesota to watch and monitor for domestic threats. So there are layers to what is visible and a myriad of interests involved.

Officer Derek Chauvin is a 19-year veteran of the Mineapolis police dept. Derek Chauvin also worked at ENR for 17 years. That timeline puts Derek Chauvin showing up to work security at El Neuvo Rodeo cantina and club right after the FBI busts Basim Sabri (everyone remembers what intel agencies were doing right after 9-11-01).

Recently '' When the Wuhan Virus hits the night club needs to shut down. By extension this shuts down any illicit activity maintained by the legit operation. Any activity within a laundering operation would have to be paused. It would look silly, very suspicious, if the ENR club bookkeeper was making bank deposits while the business is closed.

However, this also means George Floyd was out of work. According to the indictment:

(read more)

The police were called because George Floyd was passing counterfeit $20 bills.

Could the way Chauvin, and the responders writ large, interacted with George Floyd have been an outcropping of concern that Lloyd was putting the ENR operation at risk? ['...]

via Sunday Talks: Crump on Floyd '' ''We Don't Understand'''... '-- The Last Refuge

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 16:39

Image copyright Jamie Hawkesworth Three front-line workers from London will star on the cover of British Vogue next month.

A London Overground train driver, an east London midwife and a King's Cross supermarket worker will all feature on July's front page.

Photographer Jamie Hawkesworth captured the trio of women for a 20-page portfolio for the fashion magazine.

"They represent the millions of people in the UK who, at the height of the pandemic, put on their uniforms and went to help," Vogue's editor-in-chief Edward Enninful said.

"This moment in history required something extra special, a moment of thanks to the new front line."

Image copyright Jamie Hawkesworth Rachel Millar, 24, has worked as a community midwife at Homerton Hospital, in east London, for almost three years.

She was on shift on one of the delivery suites at the hospital when a team from Vogue came in to take portraits of numerous staff for what she believed was to be a feature on NHS staff.

Talking to the BBC, Rachel, who lives in Leyton, described being on the cover of British Vogue as "surreal".

"I'm a bit overwhelmed - but in a good way. I had no idea it would be what I now know it is," she said.

"I've had so many lovely comments about it and I think people have enjoyed seeing someone from the NHS on the cover.

"I feel it has given the NHS a lot of recognition and a lot of love to jobs that were perhaps previously overlooked."

Image copyright Jamie Hawkesworth Narguis Horsford, who has worked for Transport for London for 10 years and driven London Overground trains for the past five, said her manager called her to ask if she would like to do an interview for the magazine.

"At first I thought he was winding me up," she said. "But it later turned out to be very real."

Narguis, who lives Bounds Green, north London, said: "I feel amazing to be representing the female front-line key workers.

"It's very important to highlight the hard work and contributions that we do to keep London moving and to provide services that everyone needs.

"NHS workers are obviously very important, but it's also good to highlight other workers in other sectors."

Nargius said she initially felt anxious going to work during the coronavirus outbreak but has since gone on to feel an immense sense of pride.

"I am proud to be a key worker and proud to be a train driver, taking those important workers to work."

Image copyright Jamie Hawkesworth Also featuring on the cover is Anisa Omar, who works as supermarket assistant at the London King's Cross branch of Waitrose.

The 21-year-old, who lives in Islington with her parents, said the pandemic has given her a new sense of pride in her work.

"My job was not something that was that big of a deal before," she said.

"But now it's like we're important. We have to be here, regardless of what's happening in the world. It's more than just a job now."

The full feature will be available in the July issue of British Vogue.

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 15:45

Who is mobilizing these individuals?Hundreds of people were arrested in Santa Monica, California over the weekend as rioters destroyed local businesses and clashed with the police.

Last night there were approximately 438 arrests. Charges include looting, assault with a deadly weapon, assault on an officer & curfew violations. The safety of #SantaMonica is our top priority. We thank you for staying home and abiding by today's 130pm curfew orders. pic.twitter.com/wmBVCKdby2

'-- Santa Monica Police (@SantaMonicaPD) June 1, 2020

Describing what was at first a peaceful protest, Santa Monica Police Chief Cynthia Renaud explained that a ''second group'' came into the city to loot and destroy property.

In total, over 400 individuals were arrested for crimes ranging from burglary and assault with a deadly weapon to looting and curfew violations and assault on an officer.

Renaud also said 95% of those arrested do not have Santa Monica addresses.

ABC 7 reports, ''At least nine fires were set in the city on Sunday '' four to buildings, four to cars and one in a dumpster, fire officials said.''

A local business owner was interviewed while he stood in front of his property holding a pistol alongside his neighbor who backed him up with a rifle.

''A single gun doesn't intimidate,'' the man explained when asked if the firearms helped him deter looters. ''When you see two or three people having a weapon and standing guard, it deterred a lot of looters today. And it got pretty scary here on Broadway.''

Additionally, the image of a white man and a black man standing together to protect their community blows the lid off the racial division being pushed by the establishment media and Democrat party.

EPIC 2A Small Business owner and his neighbors arm themselves to defend local store from looters! Guns are the only way we can protect ourselves in these crazy times!

But then NBC clarifies they, "Do not condone shop owners arming themselves to protect their property."

WHAT?!?! pic.twitter.com/2iFa7r3BgE

'-- Cali-Conservative (@CaliConserv1) June 1, 2020

Who is organizing these riots?

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's approach to political speech is drawing criticism from his own employees.

James Martin/CNET Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly standing by the company's decision to not take action against a post by President Donald Trump that employees say could incite violence.

The New York Times, which listened to audio of an internal meeting, reported Tuesday that Zuckerberg told employees he had made a "tough decision" but that it "was pretty thorough." His remarks came a day after hundreds of Facebook employees staged a virtual walkout to protest the company's decision, which contrasted with how Twitter handled the same content.

In social media posts shared on both Twitter and Facebook, Trump said "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." The president made the remarks in response to news about protests that erupted following the death of George Floyd, a black man in Minnesota who died after a white police officer pinned him down by placing a knee on Floyd's neck. The incident was captured in a video that shows Floyd repeatedly saying he can't breathe.

Twitter screened out the president's tweet with a notice that says the post violates its rules against glorifying violence . But because the president's words are of public interest, Twitter said, users can click a View button in the notice to go ahead and read the tweet. Facebook left up Trump's post untouched after the company determined the president's remarks didn't violate its rules against creating "imminent risk of specific harms or dangers." Facebook allows for discussion around state use of force, and Zuckerberg said the company left up Trump's post because it referenced the National Guard, so the social network "read it as a warning about state action." He also noted that Trump later clarified that his post was a warning about how looting could lead to violence.

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1:40

Conservatives have accused Facebook and other sites of censoring their speech, but the companies have repeatedly denied these allegations. Trump signed an executive order Thursday in an attempt to curtail federal legal protections that social networks get in regard to posts created by their users.

In his call with employees, Zuckerberg said that Facebook's principles around free speech show that "the right action" for the company was to leave the post up, The New York Times reported.

Facebook employees are reportedly divided over whether the company did the right thing with Trump's posts. The social network typically has a hands-off approach to posts and ads posted by politicians but draws a line when the content could cause "imminent risk of specific harms or dangers." The company sets a higher bar for removing political speech, arguing that people should be able to see what politicians say and that their speech is already heavily scrutinized by the public and media.

One Facebook employee, who wasn't named, told Business Insider that he thought the company technically applied its policies correctly but questioned whether the rules were "ultimately sustainable."

Others expressed their disappointment with the meeting publicly on Twitter. Facebook engineer Brandon Dail said in a tweet that "It's crystal clear today that leadership refuses to stand with us."

Some Facebook employees have threatened to resign, and a number have followed through with the decision. On Tuesday, Facebook software engineer Timothy Aveni said in a post on the social network and on LinkedIn that he's leaving his job on June 12.

"Mark always told us that he would draw the line at speech that calls for violence. He showed us on Friday that this was a lie. Facebook will keep moving the goalposts every time Trump escalates, finding excuse after excuse not to act on increasingly dangerous rhetoric," Aveni said in a Facebook post.

It's unclear how many Facebook employees have resigned in protest. The company has more than 48,200 workers worldwide. Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 15:41

Last week President Donald Trump accused Twitter of stifling his speech after it accused him of spreading misinformation.

In an escalating series of actions, Twitter took the unprecedented step of fact-checking the U.S. President and then shielded another presidential tweet for ''glorifying violence.'' In response, Trump pushed out an executive order taking aim at a longstanding law that minimizes liability for most content published to online platforms.

This tit-for-tat between the U.S. government and a big tech firm seems likely to bubble on for months and could have long-term ramifications for the nation's democratic processes. At stake is how people communicate online, and the role of public and private institutions in enforcing moderation.

As political conversations become more web-mediated, and the presence of misinformation grows, trust '' the basis for effective communication '' becomes eroded. And questions arise over the legitimacy of centralized authorities '' be it the government or Facebook '' to unilaterally influence civic life.

For online platforms, there are two sides of the coin: either they ''censor too much content, or they let lies and misinformation run wild,'' Bloomberg editor Joe Weisenthal writes. Heads or tails, Twitter and Facebook lose.

Ironically, if Trump somehow gets social media platforms categorized as publishers, he will limit his (and everybody else's) ability to speak what comes to mind: no matter how dubious.

The problems of centralization

It didn't start with a coin toss. Partisan infighting, conspiratorial posts and fake news are all accepted parts of this presidential election cycle, as in the last. But a video of the age-old Iowan political tradition '' taking the human arena of politics into the realm of chance '' didn't help.

At stake in the 17 second clip, published last February, were three delegates and a razor thin margin of victory. The video shows a young adult wearing a pressed blue blazer flipping a coin to settle a split district during the contentious Iowa caucus. Posted to Twitter at 10:23 p.m., Iowa time, from a BBC journalist, the footage received weeks worth of watch-time by the next morning.

''As for how it was received, Trump retweeting it gave it a lot of attention on the right, who saw it as an example of Democratic incompetence,'' Andrew Zurcher, the seasoned reporter who filmed and tweeted the moment, said in a direct message. ''After the Iowa results ended up so close and controversial, I've found a lot of Bernie people pointing to it and saying it was part of a conspiracy against their guy.''

READ MORE: Letter From New Hampshire: The Dangers of Disinformation

Neither of the candidates '' Senator Bernard Sanders and Mayor Pete Buttigieg '' involved in the controversy are in the running. But the fallout represents the unending problems of divisive, attention-grabbing online political discourse.

Like a Rorschach test, a viewer takes along his or her prejudices and biases into the frame. For some, it's a video of a Florida student flipping and fumbling with a coin. Seen another way, it's a caught-on-tape moment of party officials colluding against an outsider Democratic candidate. In the words of podcaster Joe Rogen, at the time, a tepid Bernie Sanders supporter, it was ''hilariously rigged.''

''He looked at it, and he turned it. Manipulated it with his hands,'' the YouTube personality said, referring to the out-of-state student, chosen to carry this weight for his perceived impartiality. Rogan's candid appraisal directly contradicts Zurcher's, who believes it was a ''somewhat awkward teen who hadn't done a lot of coin-flipping, and certainly not under that kind of pressure,'' he said.

But first-hand accounts, even from ''blue checks'' representing legacy outlets with decades or centuries of clout, don't carry the same currency anymore. Truth is no longer or a matter of top-down consensus, but produced through the crowd.

High levels of polarization and low levels of media literacy, have heightened the general level of paranoia and conspiracy surrounding this election, said Ray Serrato, a Berlin-based freelance disinformation researcher.

Serrato looks at the Iowa debacle as a case study in a new form of ''sense making.'' The easy spread of fake news is baked into the fabric of the internet. Distortive algorithms equate engagement with profit, prioritize clicks over facts, and lead to the promotion and production of emotionally charged content. In turn, this sharpens divisions, confirms biases, and ultimately leads to a never-ending battle over perceptions.

Take away the secrecy under which algorithms are given free rein to run, and you're halfway thereFor many in the blockchain community, the problems of a highly concentrated, ad-driven web model have their solutions in decentralization and open source tech. Take away the secrecy under which algorithms are given free rein to run, and you're halfway there. Add in internet-wide reputation-layers and new economic models to produce and disseminate content, which blockchain can achieve, and ''the forever war'' is won.

It's a solution Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and Twitter, has given some thought. He said last week, if Twitter is to fact check, then its fact checking procedures should be ''open source and thus verifiable by everyone.''

This move towards accountability follows plans to move Twitter to a decentralized standard, announced late last year under the code-name Blue Sky. ''[W]e're facing entirely new challenges centralized solutions are struggling to meet. For instance, centralized enforcement of global policy to address abuse and misleading information is unlikely to scale over the long-term without placing far too much burden on people,'' he said at the time.

Jack Dorsey speaks at Consensus 2018, image via CoinDesk archivesNeither Dorsey nor Blue Sky representatives have responded to a request for comment.

Opening Twitter's architecture could lead to a more durable form of social media, where posts aren't subject to censorship and companies aren't in control of who uses the platform or how it's used. While Dorsey notes the process could take years to accomplish, a number of firms have kicked off the process.

In the years since many consensus-driven efforts hit the servers, these aspirational solutions to defanging fake news through decentralization have been far from successful. Projects launched with the express aim of revitalizing online discourse have sputtered out, and outlets creating new economies to pay for quality journalism are faltering.

READ MORE: Jack Dorsey Announces New Twitter Team: Square Crypto, but for Social Media

The limits of these platforms point to a nascent industry attempting to find its footing. Although many projects are doomed to fail, each is a step in the right direction: towards a more secure, censorship resistant internet, where all users are stakeholders in a platform's success.

Civil

It's no longer news to say Civil has flopped. After a high-profile launch, disastrous initial- initial coin offering, and reports of journalists going under-compensated, many interested observers lost faith in the project that's attempting to restore trust in the business of news-making.

Matthew Iles, CEO of Civil Media, doesn't disagree with the sentiment. Responding to Modern Consensus editor-in-chief Leo Jacobson's ''objective take'' (Iles' phrase) last February that ''Civil never got off the ground,'' Iles said, ''I'm not disputing that.''

Now, months later, Iles said the project is shutting down.

Founded by industry professionals from Politico and NPR, the project quickly drew the attention of mainstream and crypto trade publications alike, for its lofty ambition to steer journalism from the perils of ''advertising, fake news, and outside influence,'' Iles wrote in an early blog post.

The idea was simple. Disintermediate journalism from the machine. What this looks like in theory is a consortium of media self-organized around a constitution '' that outlines their journalistic ethics '' and protocol. A token ecosystem allows readers and sister publications to hold outlets accountable. Further, blockchain and wallet tech can create novel ways of funding hard-hitting journalism.

In practice, however, Civil executives failed to court major media partners including New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. It's most notable partner, The Associated Press, seemed to be a deal any media company can strike: an arrangement to reshare content.

READ MORE: ConsenSys-Backed Civil Tries Again on Newsroom Token Launch

Additionally, the token economic system that was to spur independent journalism by reducing the reliance on advertising and subscriptions failed. CVL, the native token of the Civil ecosystem, was worth essentially nothing at launch. And the platform it powers hadn't ''made product market fit,'' Iles said. (The interview was conducted last February. Iles has not responded to recent requests for comment.)

''We're not going to be dogmatic,'' Iles said about keeping the token, ''The only thing that drives what we do next is whether or not we think it will advance our mission.'' This was the same mission that captured the media's attention in the first place, when Civil made resolute to ''kill the term fake news,'' by decentralizing the news business.

Under radio silence, following a barrage of bad press, Civil's project hadn't changed. In fact, it's ambitions grew larger. To decentralize media, Civil, and it's lead investor ConsenSys, planned to decentralize the web.

Matthew Iles, CivilSpeaking to a number of former and current executives, CoinDesk learned that Civil was throwing its weight behind a highly-ambitious initiative to reinvent identities online and track media distribution. Categorized under the bandied-about Web 3.0 moniker, these tools may have had the power to crack the monopolistic hold that Big Tech has on internet users.

That is, if the project hadn't run out of money.

Speaking anonymously, a high-ranking ConsenSys executive called the initiative a drive towards a ''multipronged reality.'' Civil planned on releasing software that would have made decentralized online identities and content verification tools commonplace. This wasn't a departure from Civil's initial business model, the executive said, but a new emphasis on its software-as-a-service effort.

However, Civil's track record with in-house design had been spotty. A former editor with the Civil consortium said, who requested anonymity, ''the development team originally planned to have their own CMS, but ultimately went with a WordPress-based interface.''

''They squandered money on that. They could have saved time, trouble and money. There were all kinds of delays and problems,'' they said. Additionally, in the past year, several key executives have disembarked from the project beset by a sense of misdirection and shifting goalposts.

Matthew Iles confirmed the company was unable to solve its problems with funding and management '' though had hopes the company's new direction would have been profitable. Now, he and his seven person tech team will join ConsenSys directly, to develop new product strategies, Iles told Poytner.

To be sure, Civil had notable successes, over its more than three year run including growing to 100-odd members, attracting millions of readers (myself included), and instituting technical breakthroughs. In 2018, Popula, an early member, became the first publication to append a full-text copy of an article on the Ethereum blockchain. An occasion Popula journalist and editor Maria Bustillos says was marked with tears in her eyes.

She said today: ''Civil was a great first step in realizing the promise of fully distributed blockchain technology as a safeguard of press freedom and speech rights. I'm very grateful to Matthew Iles, Joe Lubin and everyone at Civil and Consensys for starting so many great ideas rolling, and for founding so many great publications, Popula included.''

Sludge editor David Moore, a founding Civil partner, continues to build Web. 3.0 tools that will enable micro-tripping and identity solutions.

''There's a lot of opacity that exists in various distribution channels,'' he said. By creating a decentralized ID system, ''you're solving for the fake news problem and you're solving for the revenue model, ensuring creators are paid for the value they produce.'' As a grantee, Sludge has always been independent of Civil and will be unaffected by Civil's closure.

''Civil will always hold a special place in my heart. It was a grand experiment '' a moonshot '' and we knew the odds were long,'' Iles told Poytner.

READ MORE: Leader to Watch: Elena Giralt Talks Zcash and Feminism

''Civil is one of a handful of companies pioneering radically new models for an industry that's over 200 years old,'' Elena Giralt, a former project lead at Civil, who is no longer aware of the day-to-day goings-on, said. ''There was a lot of pressure to get it right the first time. A token curated registry and governance tool and means of exchange, it's a lot of moving parts and some things aren't going to work right out of the box.

''These initiatives should get credit for exploring new spaces, with the caveat that not all of these approaches will prove successful.''

TruStory's trial with token economics

Partisan infighting over a suspect coinflip, or so-called censorship of the President, is precisely the sort of discord that TruStory was designed to quiet. Founded in 2018, the debate platform leverages a token-economy to crowdsource consensus making, and hopefully arrive at the truth by staking it to an economic outcome.

Instead of fractious and fraught debate led by anonymous or self-serving identities without ''skin in the game,'' TruStory users bring contentious ideas to the table to be met with fact-based, reasoned arguments. Interlocutors are motivated by their own financial interest, as their claims are staked with TRU coin. A reputation layer further ward against users making bad faith or purposely misleading arguments.

Preethi Kasireddy (Credit: Preethi Kasireddy, via Twitter)''Twitter creates unnecessary factions among people. It's an environment where you're not trying or incentivized to understand the other person, but only to respond with a hot take. That's what drives engagement,'' Preethi Kasireddy, TruStory's founder, said in a phone call in February.

The USC alumni and rising Silicon Valley star, dreamt up the project after watching countless videos of Balaji Srivassan on YouTube, she said. She realized the best parts of blockchain '' its ability to form consensus, record events, and motivate participants of an ecosystem '' were also applicable to the variegations of discourse online.

It was a model that others believed in. Even before having a clear business plan, Kasireddy was able to raise $3 million dollars from the likes of True Ventures, Pantera and TechCrunch editor Alexia Tsotsis' Dream Machine fund, among others. Alex Van de Sande, the ethereum guru known for his hesitancy to sign on to projects, joined as a technical advisor.

READ MORE: David Morris '' The Year in Crypto Journalism: Truth Will Always Be Human

Together with a team of experienced designers, Kasireddy built a beta platform where free speech reigned. ''Dangerous ideas'' were brought forward, and the conversations '' ranging from the legitamacy of polygamy to proof-of-work '' sometimes spilled into the surrounding crypto community. It was the beginning of a seachange Kasireddy believed the world was waiting for.

But now, the project is mothballed.

Stalled by a lack of growth, and a weakening crypto economy, Kasireddy decided to shut down the project and return investor funds. In a farewell blog post, she said the market wasn't ready for an application like Trustory.

''We're the Myspace to Facebook,'' she said. ''Something like TruStory will exist, but the number of people that know about crypto or that want to use it for anything isn't there.'' Despite Kasireddy's significant social following, and much positive press, Kasireddy said the application ''struggled to get even 1,000 active users.''

Ideas to continue the project, like abandoning the token layer or raising an additional blanket of funding to cover them during the crypto winter were rejected. ''We didn't want to do another Quora or Reddit,'' she said.

The Coinbase alum is now taking an indefinite leave from crypto, and is convinced 90 percent of token projects will shut down.

''A lot of crypto projects are too intellectual and academic and not something a real person could use on a daily basis,'' Kasreddy said. ''They make sense on a theoretical standpoint but not a social standpoint.''

Problems with decentralization

As Civil and Trustory show, operating a decentralized platform aiming to combat fake news is operationally difficult. But problems may exist at the theoretical level too, beginning with the ill-defined notion of decentralization.

Decentralization is dependent on context, Nathan Schneider, an assistant professor in media studies at the University of Colorado, said. ''The rhetoric around decentralization implies technical systems, though is often more about social configurations,'' he said. And it's this rhetoric that often conceals the centralized social structures that technology was supposed to eradicate.

When Facebook and Twitter were first gaining traction, they were lauded as forces for democracy. Social media, critics bellowed, disintermediated information from power, while connecting the world. In some sense, they were the public internet's first experiments with mass-decentralization '' if not at the protocol level, then in their missions.

At heart, decentralization is about power, and where power should lay. Trump bemoans that internet platforms have the power to stifle conservative speech, while social media companies are gradually moving towards the conclusion that the powerful shouldn't be able to spread misinformation to millions. The solution of disempowering both, by letting people control their internet experience has proven wooly.

A lack of user interest is part of the problem, but as Ray Serrato, the disinformation researcher said, ''There is no technological solution, it's why social media firms struggle to tackle the problem. You have to understand the political and social context of speech.''

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Something went wrong, but don't fret '-- let's give it another shot.

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AMSTERDAM/MADRID (Reuters) - Images of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of African-American George Floyd who then died have sparked protests from Amsterdam to Nairobi, but they also expose deeper grievances among demonstrators over strained race relations in their own countries.

With violent clashes between protesters and authorities raging in the United States, anti-police-brutality activists gathered by the thousands in support of the ''Black Lives Matter'' movement in various European and African cities.

Peaceful protesters highlighted allegations of abuse of black prisoners by their jailers, social and economic inequality, and institutional racism lingering from the colonial pasts of the Netherlands, Britain and France.

''If you want to believe that we in the Netherlands do not have a problem with race, you should go ahead and go home,'' Jennifer Tosch, founder of Black Heritage Amsterdam Tours, told a crowd in Amsterdam, from where the Dutch West India Company operated ships estimated to have traded 500,000 slaves in the 1600s and 1700s.

Tosch and others drew a comparison between Floyd's death and the treatment of slaves centuries ago. ''We have seen this image before as white persecutors and enslavers held down the enslaved and branded them with an iron.''

In London, a protester held a placard reading ''The UK isn't innocent,'' while in Berlin around 2,000 people protested outside the U.S. embassy and two Bundesliga soccer players wore ''Justice for George Floyd'' shirts on Monday.

A similar message came from Dominique Sopo, president of French NGO SOS Racisme, which organised a small protest outside the U.S. embassy in Paris on Monday.

''This issue of police racism is also, albeit with a lower level of violence, an issue that concerns France.''

Activists have said that amid a coronavirus lockdown, there have been a number of police brutality cases in low-income neighbourhoods where many originate from Africa.

Paris police on Tuesday banned a protest planned in memory of Adama Traore, a black Frenchman whose death in police custody in 2016 unleashed violent demonstrations.

A portrait of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis, U.S., lies on the ground next to a protective face mask after a scuffle took place during a protest in Istanbul, Turkey, June 2, 2020. REUTERS/Umit Bektas CLASHES IN TURKEY In Istanbul, more than 50 people clashed with police officers minutes after beginning a protest over Floyd and what they called police brutality in Turkey.

At least five people were detained after scuffles with officers holding shields, after which other protesters gave speeches denouncing lethal police force and bans on demonstrations in Turkey during the pandemic.

In Nairobi, protesters at the American embassy held signs reading ''Black Lives Matter'' and ''Stop Extrajudicial Killings''.

Organiser Nafula Wafula said violence against blacks is international and cited the killing of prisoners in Kenya.

''The system that allows police brutality to happen in Kenya is based on class. In America, it's race and class.''

Protests are planned in coming days in Gambia, Britain, Spain and Portugal.

In Spain, protesters will mark the death of Floyd and ''all sisters and brothers who have died at the hands of institutional racism on our streets,'' the African and Afro-descendant Community CNAAE said.

Portugal's gathering will address ''the myth that Portugal is not a racist country''.

But not all in Europe side with the protesters.

Spain's far-right Vox party and the Netherlands' anti-Islam Freedom Party called those protesting Floyd's death ''terrorists'' and backed U.S. President Donald Trump.

''Our support for Trump and the Americans who are seeing their Nation attacked by street terrorists backed by progressive millionaires,'' Vox said in a Tweet.

Slideshow (12 Images) In the Netherlands, the Freedom Party's Geert Wilders tweeted: ''White House under attack. This is no protest but anarchy by #AntifaTerrorists.''

Even amid such racial division, Linda Nooitmeer, who heads the National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy, drew hope from Monday's protest in Amsterdam.

''We don't have the history of the civil rights movement in Holland, so what occurred yesterday was really something new. It is the start of real dialogue.''

Reporting by Anthony Deutsch, Catarina Demony, Ingrid Melander, Richard Lough, Maria Sheahan, Umit Bektas and Katharine Houreld; Editing by Giles Elgood

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 14:45

1840, "exaggerated, blind nationalism; patriotism degenerated into a vice," from French chauvinisme (1839), from the character Nicholas Chauvin , soldier of Napoleon's Grand Armee, who idolized Napoleon and the Empire long after it was history, in the Cogniards' popular 1831 vaudeville "La Cocarde Tricolore." The meaning was extended to "excessive belief in the superiority of one's race" in late 19c. in communist jargon, and to (male) "sexism" in late 1960s via male chauvinist (q.v.).

The surname is a French form of Latin Calvinus and thus Calvinism and chauvinism are, etymologically, twins. The name was a common one in Napoleon's army, and if there was a real person at the base of the character in the play, he has not been certainly identified by etymologists, though memoirs of Waterloo (one published in Paris in 1822) mention "one of our principal piqueurs , named Chauvin, who had returned with Napoleon from Elba," which action implies the sort of loyalty displayed by the theatrical character.

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 14:23

The UK government has once again found itself facing widespread derision over its coronavirus lockdown rules after new measures introduced forbid couples who live separately from gathering in what has been dubbed a ''bonking ban.''

Fresh amendments introduced on Monday banned two or more people from separate homes gathering indoors. The rules, which were introduced 10 weeks after the lockdown was implemented, have immediately been interpreted as a restriction on the romantic activity of couples who live apart, and the UK's tabloid media has cast it as a ''bonking ban.''

The amendments apply to both public and private places, so even daring exhibitionists may find their love life curtailed. The new rules unleashed a fresh barrage of criticism of Boris Johnson's government and '#SexBan' quickly shot to the top of the UK Twitter trending charts on Tuesday as frustrated citizens vented their spleen.

''The government deciding to NOW issue a sex ban 10 weeks into lockdown is the equivalent of handing out condoms at a baby shower,'' one commenter quipped.

Amidst the derision and confusion, many noted that the rule would be almost impossible to police, while others added that the update was pointless because social distancing guidelines essentially already ruled out people getting intimate.

The Dominic Cummings fiasco was also referenced repeatedly, with one wag sharing a photoshopped image appearing to show a video on Pornhub titled 'Submissive blonde can't stop Cumming' that featured the prime minister and his rule-breaking special adviser.

Junior housing minister Simon Clarke bravely attempted to relieve the confusion on LBC radio, explaining that the amendment was an effort to stop people ''staying away from home at night.''

When pressed as to whether the new rules allowed couples to get it on outdoors, the politician laughed and said: ''It is fair to say the transmission risk of coronavirus is much lower in the open air than in internal space, but obviously we do not encourage people to do anything like that outside at this time or any other.''

Also on rt.com 'It's on you when MPs start dying': Jacob Rees-Mogg roasted for forcing UK lawmakers back to Parliament amid Covid-19 crisis Like this story? Share it with a friend!

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 09:44

Marcus Thuram took a knee after scoring for Borussia MonchengladbachFootballers should "feel free" to protest over the death of George Floyd and "should take a knee", says Kick It Out chair Sanjay Bhandari.

The Football Association said it would take a "common sense approach" to any such protests.

Protests have been held in the USA after African-American Floyd, an unarmed black man, died after being restrained by Minneapolis police.

Bhandari said players taking a knee would be a "very powerful image".

"If they feel they want to protest, then they should. They should feel free to do that," he told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme.

Four players in the Bundesliga, including England forward Jadon Sancho, are under investigation for breaching rules over making political statements in games at the weekend. The same rules are in place in England.

"It's a fundamental human right to express your beliefs," Bhandari said. "My suggestion is that they should take a knee.

"I would say that taking a knee when you score a goal and have the whole team do it, the referee is not going to book an entire team. It's a very powerful image and a gesture of solidarity."

In a statement, the FA said it "strongly condemns discrimination of any kind" and that it has "endeavoured to ensure that football in England is both diverse and inclusive in recent years".

"Where any behaviours or gestures on the pitch that may constitute a breach of the Laws of the Game have to be assessed, they would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis with a common sense approach and understanding of their context," the statement added.

"The power of football can break down barriers across communities and we remain deeply committed to removing all forms of discrimination from across the game we all love."

On Monday, Liverpool players took a knee around the centre circle at Anfield during training, while Manchester United players Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford added their voices to worldwide protests against racism. Newcastle and Chelsea players took a knee before their training sessions on Tuesday.

Newcastle United's players took a knee at training in a picture posted by the club on Tuesday Chelsea players followed suit and kneeled in a H formation at Tuesday's training sessionFloyd died on 25 May after being restrained by white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes to pin him down.

Chauvin has since been charged with Floyd's murder and sacked.

Floyd death homicide, official post-mortem saysWhy the US protests resonate in the UKThe FA's statement echoed one from world governing body Fifa.

In a statement on Tuesday, Fifa said it "fully understands the depth of sentiment and concerns expressed by many footballers in light of the tragic circumstances of the George Floyd case".

It added that applying the laws of the game was the responsibility of competition organisers, such as domestic leagues, who Fifa said "should use common sense and have in consideration the context surrounding the events".

The Commonwealth Games Federation wrote an open letter to sport, saying that what was happening in the US needed to be "a wake-up call" to athletes and administrators.

"Surely it is time for the world of sport to grant itself a social and moral licence," the letter signed by CGF president Louise Martin and chief executive David Grevemberg said.

"A licence to use all its platforms to encourage athletes, coaches, officials, sponsors, administrators and fans to inspire, to educate, to stand for what they believe in.

"A licence to provide the scope and freedom for all our participants to be agents of change, advocates of integrity and ambassadors for respect, impartiality and non-discrimination."

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said: "We would applaud UK athletes who want to make a personal gesture of solidarity with Black Lives Matter campaigners in the US, or in the UK for that matter.

"While we don't expect all sporting stars to take a stand, we're encouraged that more and more are doing so. Given how influential sporting stars are, a well-timed solidarity gesture or public statement can be genuinely impactful."

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 08:26

History Jun 1, 2020

Introduced

Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber.

If this bill has further action, the following steps may occur next:'--

Passed Committee

'--

Passed House

'--

Passed Senate

'--

Signed by the President

H.R. 7075 is a bill in the United States Congress.A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.

Bills numbers restart every two years. That means there are other bills with the number H.R. 7075. This is the one from the 116th Congress.

How to cite this information.We recommend the following MLA -formatted citation when using the information you see here in academic work:

GovTrack.us. (2020). H.R. 7075 '-- 116th Congress: To prohibit the President from deploying any strategic weapon, such as a nuclear bomb, for ... Retrieved from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr7075

''H.R. 7075 '-- 116th Congress: To prohibit the President from deploying any strategic weapon, such as a nuclear bomb, for ...'' www.GovTrack.us. 2020. June 2, 2020 <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr7075>

To prohibit the President from deploying any strategic weapon, such as a nuclear bomb, for purposes of altering weather patterns or addressing climate change, and for other purposes, H.R. 7075, 116th Cong. (2020).

{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr7075|title=H.R. 7075 (116th)|accessdate=June 2, 2020|author=116th Congress (2020)|date=June 1, 2020|work=Legislation|publisher=GovTrack.us|quote=To prohibit the President from deploying any strategic weapon, such as a nuclear bomb, for ...}}

show another citation format:MLAAPABlue BookWikipedia TemplateWhere is this information from?GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily fromCongress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress.Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project.

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 08:25

History Jun 1, 2020

Introduced

Bills and resolutions are referred to committees which debate the bill before possibly sending it on to the whole chamber.

If this bill has further action, the following steps may occur next:'--

Passed Committee

'--

Passed House

'--

Passed Senate

'--

Signed by the President

H.R. 7064 is a bill in the United States Congress.A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.

Bills numbers restart every two years. That means there are other bills with the number H.R. 7064. This is the one from the 116th Congress.

How to cite this information.We recommend the following MLA -formatted citation when using the information you see here in academic work:

GovTrack.us. (2020). H.R. 7064 '-- 116th Congress: To prohibit financial investment by a United States person in foreign industrial defense corporations with ... Retrieved from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr7064

''H.R. 7064 '-- 116th Congress: To prohibit financial investment by a United States person in foreign industrial defense corporations with ...'' www.GovTrack.us. 2020. June 2, 2020 <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr7064>

To prohibit financial investment by a United States person in foreign industrial defense corporations with substantial contracts with, ties to, or support from, the Chinese military and affiliated entities, and for other purposes, H.R. 7064, 116th Cong. (2020).

{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/hr7064|title=H.R. 7064 (116th)|accessdate=June 2, 2020|author=116th Congress (2020)|date=June 1, 2020|work=Legislation|publisher=GovTrack.us|quote=To prohibit financial investment by a United States person in foreign industrial defense corporations with ...}}

show another citation format:MLAAPABlue BookWikipedia TemplateWhere is this information from?GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily fromCongress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress.Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project.

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 07:55

EA Sports was scheduled to formally announce Madden NFL 21 on June 1, but the developer has changed plans in response to recent events in the world. Not only that, but Xbox, Bethesda, Riot Games, Activision Blizzard, and a number of other studios have responded as well, and Sony has now delayed its June 4 PS5 event.

Explaining the decision, Sony said, "While we understand gamers worldwide are excited to see PS5 games, we do not feel that right now is a time for celebration and for now, we want to stand back and allow more important voices to be heard."

EA Sports said in a statement on Twitter, "We stand with our African American / Black community of friends, players, colleagues, and partners. Our immediate attention is on actions we can take to drive change against the unjust treatment and systemic bias that is plaguing the nation and our world."

The statement goes on: "We'll find another time to talk football with you. Because this is bigger than a game, bigger than sports, and needs all of us to stand together and commit to change."

It's not immediately clear when EA will now unveil Madden NFL 21. The company's E3-style show, EA Play 2020, is scheduled for June 11, so we expect to see and learn more at that time.

Microsoft announced that it will be amplifying the voices of Black and African American employees at the company, as seen in the tweet below.

A number of other game companies and individuals have responded to the ongoing issues in America related to the death of George Floyd. Riot Games, the developers of League of Legends and Valorant, also issued a statement, as did the studio behind David Gaider's new game, Chorus. The Last of Us studio Naughty Dog and The Elder Scrolls publisher Bethesda also added their own message of support for Black Lives Matter, while Star Wars and Marvel did as well.

"Now is not the time for any of us to be silent," Naughty Dog's statement says. "For too long too many have suffered under a systemic problem in America. Too many have lost sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers. We stand in solidarity against racism and injustice."

"Now is the time for all to do our part and end anti-Black racism and violence," it goes on. "Many of us at Naughty Dog are donating to national and local organizations. Please consider donating yourself. We hope to see the beginning of lasting change for POC in America. Black Lives Matter."

Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann and co-founder Evan Wells donated money to various charities, and studio owner PlayStation matched their donations.

Activision Blizzard's statement reads, "Today, and always, we support all those who stand against racism and inequality. There is no place for it in our society--or any society. Black lives matter."

Additionally, Xbox marketing executive Aaron Greenberg shared his thoughts. He asked people to speak up and support the petition to help find justice for George Floyd.

Finally, GameSpot's Play For All is now live, and we've announced that we are expanding it to support not just COVID-19 relief efforts, but Black Lives Matter as well.

we try to bring different experiences & viewpoints with the games we publish, and they can also be an escape from reality. but now is not the time to ignore what's happened for hundreds of years and still continues: racism, injustice, inequality against the black community.

'-- Annapurna Interactive (@A_i) May 31, 2020These past few days have been heartbreaking but we shall make it clear - #BlackLivesMatter . If you want to know how to make a difference through donating, educating yourself or actions you could be taking right now at home, see the thread below.👇🏠pic.twitter.com/fGnT5rYfvs

'-- POC in Play (@pocinplay) June 1, 2020 Top New Games Releasing On Switch, PS4, Xbox One, And PC This Month -- June 2020The Last of Us Part 2's Violence Is Ruthlessly ColdPS5 Event Delayed For A Good Reason | Save StateEpic Games Talks Unreal Engine 5 On PS5 & Xbox Series X, Future Of Gaming, Impact Of FortniteBest Shows And Movies To Stream For June 2020 - Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, ShudderPlay For All Day 1: Tim Sweeney, Giant Bomb, And MoreFull Interview With Tim Sweeney And Kim Libreri - GameSpot's Play For AllGameSpot Play For All Opening And Tim Sweeney And Epic Games InterviewFive Nights At Freddy's: Help Wanted - Nintendo Switch Gameplay TrailerRemember When Xbox One ALMOST Lost the Console War?We Find The True Meaning Of Friendship In MK 11's Aftermath DLC | Potato ModeMortal Kombat 11 Aftermath Video Review Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

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Mon, 01 Jun 2020 22:25

A Twitter account claiming to belong to a national ''antifa'' organization and pushing violent rhetoric related to ongoing protests has been linked to the white nationalist group Identity Evropa, according to a Twitter spokesperson.

The spokesperson said the account violated the company's platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts. Twitter suspended the account after a tweet that incited violence.

As protests were taking place in multiple states across the U.S. Sunday night, the newly created account, @ANTIFA_US, tweeted, ''Tonight's the night, Comrades,'' with a brown raised fist emoji and ''Tonight we say 'F--- The City' and we move into the residential areas... the white hoods.... and we take what's ours '...''

This isn't the first time Twitter has taken action against fake accounts engaged in hateful conduct linked to Identity Evropa, according to the spokesperson.

The antifa movement '-- a network of loosely organized radical groups who use direct action to fight the far-right and fascism '-- has been targeted by President Donald Trump as the force behind some of the violence and property destruction seen at some protests, though little evidence has been provided for such claims.

Other misinformation and misleading claims spread across Twitter on Sunday night and into Monday related to the protests.

Two hashtags that trended worldwide on Twitter falsely claimed that there was a "cover-up" or a "blackout" of protests in Washington, D.C., overnight. Both appeared to insinuate that protesters have been silenced in some way, perhaps by a secret internet blackout.

Twitter says it has removed the trend from its "trending topics" section because of "coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation" around the protests.

Twitter said it suspended several hundred accounts and is investigating the viral spread of the hashtag, which it said was boosted by "hundreds of spammy accounts."

"We're taking action proactively on any coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation around this issue," a Twitter spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the company sometimes pulls down hashtags that violate the company's rules, like platform manipulation.

"We want trends to promote healthy discussions on Twitter. This means that at times, we may prevent certain content from trending. These include trends that violate the Twitter Rules," the Twitter spokesperson said.

NetBlocks, a nonprofit group monitoring worldwide internet access, found no indication of a mass-scale internet disruption in the Washington area overnight or in the last 48 hours.

Journalists covering the protests also took to Twitter to disprove the hoax.

"A lot of people are asking me about a possible #dcblackout. I've been out near the White House since 4 am and haven't experienced any outage," tweeted Victoria Sanchez, a reporter for WJLA, the local ABC affiliate, adding that her colleagues had posted multiple updates throughout the night.

Many accounts tweeting the message had few to no followers. The same messages were also posted on Reddit and 4chan late Sunday. The posts pushing the #DCBlackout hashtag peaked in popularity around 12:30 a.m. ET Monday.

A second narrative boosted by bots and hacked accounts claimed that #DCBlackout is a misinformation campaign. The same message was tweeted verbatim by multiple accounts.

"Yeah...... as someone seeing #dcblackout trending, who lives and works in the DC metro area, and who has friends telecommuting into DC rn..... This hashtag looks like misinformation," read the tweet, which was posted hundreds of times.

Some accounts had few to no followers, while other tweets were posted by users who claim to have been hacked.

One verified Twitter user, Jason Elia, said his account was hacked to tweet the message. Elia lives in Oklahoma City and said he wouldn't go to Washington "unless they build an In-N-Out there." He said he has since changed his password.

A demonstrator raises arms next to U.S. Secret Service uniformed division officers during a rally near the White House on June 1, 2020. Jonathan Ernst / ReutersThe goal of the hashtag seems to be to sow confusion and fear during a chaotic time and to push the #DCBlackout hashtag to the front page of Twitter, where all users would at least glance at the disinformation.

Josh Russell, an independent bot researcher who identifies foreign and domestic hacking and trolling operations, said events like the weekend's protests are ripe for this kind of platform manipulation.

"Any large 'online' event is going to have these types of things happen. Every bad actor that sees the opportunity to create some panic is going to leverage the situation to do so. It's nothing new," Russell said.

Off Twitter, viral text messages of screenshots of doctored tweets have circulated throughout the country. Some of the false text messages claim that extremist groups are plotting to move into residential areas this week.

Bot researchers call this kind of disinformation distribution "hidden viral" text messages, which go undetected on mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter and can spread like wildfire without moderation.

Similar "hidden viral" text messages went viral at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., with messages claiming that the institution of martial law was imminent, vaguely citing friends or co-workers.

American officials later claimed that the texts were boosted by Chinese disinformation agents to spread panic.

Russell said hostile foreign governments frequently "look at opportunities to make it seem as though there is an infrastructure failure" during times of crisis.

"This is a common thing for foreign disinformation agents," Russell said. "They would be trying to get people to believe that things are much worse on the ground than they are."

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Mon, 01 Jun 2020 22:10

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption George Floyd's death in Minneapolis sparked civil unrest across the country The death of George Floyd, which triggered widespread protests across the US, has been declared a homicide in an official post-mortem examination.

The 46-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest while being restrained by Minneapolis police, the report found.

It listed Mr Floyd's cause of death as "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression".

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump vowed to use the military to end the unrest.

A video showing a white police officer continuing to kneel on Mr Floyd's neck even after he pleaded he could not breathe has reignited deep-seated anger over police killings of black Americans.

It has led to six consecutive days of protests around the United States and a level of civil unrest not seen in decades.

The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter and will appear in court next week. Three other police officers have been fired.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media caption Floyd's brother: 'That's not bringing him back'What did the reports say?The official post-mortem examination of Mr Floyd by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office also recorded evidence of heart disease and recent drug use. It said he suffered the cardiac arrest "while being restrained by a law enforcement officer" on 25 May.

The findings were released shortly after those of a private examination that was carried out by medical examiners hired by the Floyd family.

This report said Mr Floyd died from asphyxia (lack of oxygen) due to a compression on his neck and also on his back. It also found the death was a homicide, a statement from the family's legal team said.

"The cause of death in my opinion is asphyxia, due to compression to the neck - which can interfere with oxygen going to the brain - and compression to the back, which interferes with breathing," Dr Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner, said at a news conference on Monday.

Benjamin Crump, a lawyer for the Floyd family, said: "Beyond doubt he would be alive today if not for the pressure applied to his neck by officer Derek Chauvin and the strain on his body by two other officers."

He added: "The ambulance was his hearse."

What did Trump say?Also on Monday, during a brief televised address from the White House's Rose Garden, President Trump threatened to send in the military to end the protests if cities and states failed to control them.

Speaking as the sounds of a nearby protest could be heard in the background, Mr Trump said "we are ending the riots and lawlessness" which he blamed on "professional anarchists" and anti-fascist group "Antifa".

Image copyright Reuters Image caption President Trump has told state governors they must "dominate" protests "I have strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets," Mr Trump said.

The National Guard is the reserve military force that can be called on to intervene in domestic emergencies. About 16,000 of its troops have been deployed to deal with the unrest so far.

Mr Trump added: "If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary... then I'll deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them."

"I want the organisers of this terror to be on notice that you'll face severe criminal penalties," he said.

Earlier, President Trump told state governors they had been "weak" and had to get "much tougher" and utilise troops from the National Guard.

"You've got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you'll never see this stuff again," Mr Trump said in a video conference call, according to US media.

What's the latest on the protests?More than 75 cities have seen protests over what happened to George Floyd. Streets that only days ago were deserted because of the coronavirus pandemic have filled with demonstrators marching shoulder to shoulder.

The case follows the high-profile cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York and others that have driven the Black Lives Matter movement.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media caption The peaceful protests honouring George FloydOn Sunday, mostly peaceful demonstrations once again gave way to violence in many cities, with clashes erupting between police and protesters.

Police cars were burned, buildings were torched and shops looted in several places. Dozens of cities imposed curfews but they were defied.

Many videos shared on social media from across the US appeared to show riot police responding disproportionately to demonstrators. Dozens of attacks targeting journalists have been reported.

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Mon, 01 Jun 2020 15:28

Image copyright PA Media Police in England can order people to leave a property if they are breaking new coronavirus laws - but do not have powers to forcibly remove them.

It is now a crime to stay at someone else's home overnight, or to hold gatherings of two or more people indoors or more than six people outdoors, under new legislation.

Officers can fine rule-breakers and arrest them if they do not co-operate.

The laws came into force to coincide with lockdown restrictions being eased.

Gatherings of as many as six people from different households can now take place outdoors - such as in parks or gardens - in England, so long as people remain 2m apart.

In Wales, people from two different households can meet each other outdoors. Groups of four to six people who are not in the same household can meet outdoors in Northern Ireland. And in Scotland members of two different households are already allowed to meet outdoors.

The changes to the English law were made through a statutory instrument - a type of legislation used to amend rules quickly without them needing to be scrutinised and debated in Parliament.

The chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), Martin Hewitt, said personal responsibility was "key" as members of the public "enjoy these new freedoms".

He added that officers would use continue to use common sense and discretion and would only issue fines or arrest people as a last resort.

There is a a short list of exceptions to the gathering-size limits, including that everyone in the group lives in the same household.

Last week Downing Street said police did not have the power to enter gardens to check how many people were in them.

And the UK government's chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, said people were allowed to go inside other people's homes to use the bathroom but it was "absolutely critical" that they wiped everything down and washed their hands.

Permitted reasons for staying away from home overnight include:

to attend a close family member's funeralin order to facilitate moving house for work, care or voluntary purposes for a child to stay with a parent/parents they do not live with, if it is "necessary to continue existing arrangements"Guidance issued to English police forces by the NPCC and the College of Policing says officers "may only direct a person to return home" if they are found to have illegally stayed overnight somewhere, with "no powers in the regulations to remove someone or use force".

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government had been able to "flip the basis of the law back to specifically outlining things that you cannot do, as opposed to saying you can't do anything unless it's specifically provided for".

Speaking at the daily coronavirus briefing at Downing Street, he added: "I'm very glad we've been able to change the basis of the law - and get away from what was essentially the most authoritarian part of the system."

Scotland's first minister said virus guidelines north of the border could be enforced by new laws if "even a minority" continued to flout them.

Nicola Sturgeon said it was clear that not everyone had complied with her recently relaxed restrictions, with police dispersing hundreds of gatherings over the weekend and car traffic trebling at some beauty spots.

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Mon, 01 Jun 2020 14:19

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Monday U.S. attempts to harm Chinese interests will be met with firm countermeasures, criticising a U.S. decision to begin ending special treatment for Hong Kong as well as actions against Chinese students and companies.

China's parliament last week voted to move forward with imposing national security legislation on Hong Kong, which U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday was a tragedy for the people of the city, and which violated China's promise to protect its autonomy.

Trump ordered his administration to begin the process of eliminating special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong to punish China, ranging from extradition treatment to export controls.

But he stopped short of calling an immediate end to privileges that have helped the former British colony remain a global financial centre.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China firmly opposed the U.S. steps.

''The announced measures severely interfere with China's internal affairs, damage U.S.-China relations, and will harm both sides. China is firmly opposed to this,'' Zhao told reporters during a regular briefing.

''Any words or actions by the U.S. that harm China's interests will meet with China's firm counterattack,'' he said.

But Hong Kong shares .HSI surged more than 3% on Monday as investors took comfort that Trump did not immediately end the special U.S. privileges.

At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index .HSI was up 3.36%, its biggest one-day percentage gain since March 25.

''Chinese policymakers would likely want to see precisely what the US implements before responding with further policy adjustments or retaliation of their own,'' Goldman Sachs wrote in a note on Sunday.

In making his Friday announcement, Trump used some of his toughest rhetoric yet against China, saying it had broken its word over Hong Kong's autonomy by moving to impose the new national security legislation and the territory no longer warranted U.S. economic privileges.

Trump said China's ''malfeasance'' was responsible for massive suffering and economic damage worldwide.

FILE PHOTO: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian attends a news conference in Beijing, China April 8, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File PhotoHe said the United States would also impose sanctions on individuals seen as responsible for ''smothering - absolutely smothering - Hong Kong's freedom'' but he did not name any of the potential sanctions targets.

Trump gave no time frame for the action, suggesting he may be trying to buy time before deciding whether to implement the most drastic measures, which have drawn strong resistance from U.S. companies operating in Hong Kong.

Earlier, Hong Kong's Beijing-backed government told the United States to keep out of the national security debate, and warned that withdrawal of the financial hub's special status could backfire on the U.S. economy.

Reporting by Gabriel Crossley; writing by Se Young Lee and Tony Munroe; Editing by Robert Birsel