Daily Archives: June 16, 2020

2020-06-16: News Headlines

Paul Antonopoulos (2020-06-16). Trump Risks Losing Washington's Closest Allies to Defend Megacorporations that Support Biden. globalresearch.ca The

Max Blumenthal (2020-06-16). From Occupation to 'Occupy': The Israelification of American Domestic Security. globalresearch.ca In October, the Alameda County Sheriff's Department turned parts of the campus of the University of California in Berkeley into an urban battlefield. The occasion was

Patrick Cockburn (2020-06-16). British Leaders Have No Idea How Bad Slavery Was. counterpunch.org Conservative leaders snigger at protesters seeking the removal of statues memorialising those whose fortunes came from the exploitation of slaves. The leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, implied facetiously this week that such demands are on a par with seeking to knock down Stonehenge on the grounds that it once could have been

Jack Rasmus (2020-06-16). 2nd Covid-19 Wave and the US Economy. zcomm.org The Capitalist state in the 21st century in the USA today is engaged in a massive subsidization of Capitalism itself on a grand scale never experienced or even envisioned before…

Alan MacLeod (2020-06-16). Hawkish, Gov't funded think tank behind Twitter decision to delete thousands of Chinese accounts. mronline.org Twitter's decision came after close collaboration with a deeply controversial U.S. and Australian government-funded think tank that has been denounced by Australia's former ambassador in Beijing as "the architect of the China threat theory in Australia."

Ben Norton (2020-06-16). Meet Wikipedia's Ayn Rand-loving founder and Wikimedia Foundation's regime-change operative CEO. mronline.org Wikipedia has become a bulletin board for corporate and imperial interests under the watch of its Randian founder, Jimmy Wales, and the veteran U.S. regime-change operative who heads the Wikimedia Foundation, Katherine Maher.

Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers (2020-06-16). The Uprising Is Only Beginning: Building Power To Win Our Demands. dissidentvoice.org The current uprising against police violence and racism is just beginning. It is rapidly shifting public consciousness on issues of policing, violence against Black people and others, and systemic racism. The movement is deepening and becoming broader as well as putting forward solutions and making demands. The confluence of crises including recent police violence, the COVID-19 …

Lawrence Wittner (2020-06-16). Let Them Eat Weapons: Trump's Bizarre Arms Race. zcomm.org The price tag for this enormous nuclear buildup, which will occur over the next three decades, has been estimated as at least $1.5 trillion…

Medea Benjamin (2020-06-16). Trump Hammers Cuba While Cuba Cures the Sick. mintpressnews.com Not content to sabotage Cuba's domestic health sector, the Trump administration has been attacking Cuba's international medical assistance, from the teams fighting coronavirus to those caring for underserved communities in 164 countries.

Staff (2020-06-16). Civil Rights Activist Annie Chambers Is Marching Again Against Police Brutality. therealnews.com Reverend Annie Chambers marched for civil rights with Dr. Martin Luther King throughout the 60s. This month she took to the streets to demand an end to police brutality when Baltimore City joined the nationwide movement calling for justice for George Floyd, a Black man killed by police in Minnesota. | The lifelong organizer says that while history repeats itself, racism is even worse than in her youth. "In the 50s and 60s we were taught to suffer. We got beat and shot and attacked by dogs. And you heard what Donald Trump say—get the dogs out on them," Chambers said in a phone interview with The Real News on…

Staff (2020-06-16). Climate Crisis: Trump's Regulatory Attack, DNC On Climate, California Fires, And Brazil COVID Chaos. therealnews.com Under the cover of COVID-19 and protests, Trump hacks away at bedrock environmental law. Plus, a Democratic Party committee lays out its climate platform, wildfires erupt in California, and climate chaos engulfs Brazil and the Amazon Rainforest.

Staff (2020-06-16). Defund The Police Movement Gains Momentum As Police Killings Continue. therealnews.com "What have the police been good for?" Samantha Master of Organize Black said. "They have not prevented crime." | Organizing Black, the group she works with, had just shut down a street in downtown Baltimore, blocking it off with cars so that others could paint 'Defund the Police' in giant letters in front of Baltimore's City Hall. It was June 12, and inside of City Hall, the city council was considering cuts to the police budget, interrogating Commissioner Michael Harrison and other members of command about the Baltimore Police Department's budget of more than half a billion dollars a year. | "What we know is tha…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-06-16). Colombians mobilize against hunger and state negligence. peoplesdispatch.org Thousands mobilized against state negligence, repression and the precarious conditions that communities are forced to endure amid the global health crisis. The protests were attacked by the police and ESMAD agents…

Manuel García, Jr. (2020-06-16). Living With Global Warming. counterpunch.org I modeled mathematically the thermal imbalance of our biosphere, which we call global warming, so as to gain my own quantitative understanding of the interplay of the two major effects that give rise to this phenomenon. This is a "toy model," an abstraction of a very complicated planetary phenomenon that teams of scientists using supercomputers

Melvin Goodman (2020-06-16). Donald Trump: Finally Caught Crossing A Red Line. counterpunch.org Donald Trump has crossed many red lines over the past three and a half years, but he has finally crossed one that could cost him politically. The trappings of his fascist march to St. John's Episcopal Church and his blasphemous display of a bible (held backwards and upside down) in front of the church have elicited significant criticism, including from the highest military and civilian leaders of the Pentagon. The military obviously didn't share the view of Trump's press spokeswoman, Kayleigh McEnaney, who compared the president's bible-toting stroll to something "Like Churchill…inspecting bombing damage…." <...

Jonah Raskin (2020-06-16). Cold War Bully: the Life and Crimes of Roy Cohn. counterpunch.org Ever since the spring of 1954, when I was a precocious 12-year-old kid who watched the Army-McCarthy hearings on TV, I have loved to hate Roy Cohen (1927-1986), Joe McCarthy's co-conspirator and dark twin. One year earlier, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg died in the electric chair at Sing Sing—the single most significant event in my

Vijay Prashad (2020-06-16). Who Deserves a Nobel Prize During a Pandemic? counterpunch.org A few weeks ago, I was talking to Noam Chomsky about the state of the world. At one point, Noam smiled and said that he is not aware of any German doctors in Italy, even though both countries are in the European Union; instead, Cuban and Chinese doctors went to Italy to help the Italians

Joe Allen (2020-06-16). The Return of the 'Hamburgs'? White Vigilantes, the Chicago Police, and Anti-Fascism in Chicago. counterpunch.org Chicago has seen some of the largest and most militant demonstrations in the United States during the two weeks that followed the murder of George Floyd. Thirty thousand people marched and rallied on June 6 in Union Park, for example. While demonstrators have suffered repeated acts of violence by the Chicago Police Department and seen

Dan Wakefield (2020-06-16). From Emmett Till to George Floyd. counterpunch.org Several years ago a man called me and apologized for taking my time, but explained he had to speak with me since he was writing about the Emmett Till murder trial and "you are the only one who was there who is still alive." I am still here, and I now see headlines comparing the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis to that of Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955.

Vijay Prashad (2020-06-16). Who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize in a time of pandemic? mronline.org A few weeks ago, I was talking to Noam Chomsky about the state of the world. At one point, Noam smiled and said that he is not aware of any German doctors in Italy, even though both countries are in the European Union; instead, Cuban and Chinese doctors went to Italy to help the Italians …

Jim McMahan (2020-06-16). Seattle's 60,000-strong march propels anti-racist struggle in Washington state. workers.org Seattle June 13 — Some 60,000 people, propelled by the ongoing global struggle against racist police repression, took part in Seattle's June 12 march and statewide general strike. The march, called and led by Black Lives Matter of Seattle and Martin Luther King County (BLMSKC), followed two weeks of protests . . . |

James J. Zogby (2020-06-16). Israel's Illegal Annexation of Palestine. globalresearch.ca With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising to annex portions of the West Bank, liberal critics here in the US and across Europe are in a tizzy. They have been quick to point fingers blaming this crisis on Netanyahu and …

Rima Najjar (2020-06-16). Annexation of Palestine or "Uneventful Occurrence"‚Ää—‚ÄäWhat Do You See? globalresearch.ca Israeli soldier executing the kidnapping of several Nahalin villagers southeast of Bethlehem in the West Bank, including Mohammad Afif Fannoun, on June 12, 2020. | When you visualize it, as I try to, what does Israel's forthcoming annexation of parts of …

_____ (2020-06-16). July 1: Call To Action To Confront Israeli Annexation, Free Palestine. popularresistance.org We know that many Palestinians in exile and supporters of Palestine are, like Samidoun's members, engaged in the uprisings and mass mobilizations taking to the streets to confront anti-Black racism and demand the defunding and dismantling of police and other structures of oppression. Confronting Israel's annexation plans — fully backed by U.S. imperialism and inspired by Zionist racism — also comes as part of the global fightback against racism, colonialism and imperialism. Israel's crimes are backed by $3.8 billion in military aid from the U.S. each year as well as unlimited diplomatic, political and…

RT (2020-06-16). Trump's 'AIDS vaccine' gaffe torn apart on social media — but was it really a gaffe? rt.com US President Donald Trump is being savaged for praising the government scientists who'd "come up with the AIDS vaccine," with his haters holding it up as proof of incipient dementia. But it's not as outlandish as it sounds. | Trump made the remark during a press conference on Tuesday before signing an executive order on police reform, making a momentary diversion to update reporters on the progress towards a vaccine against Covid-19. Predicting researchers will have "a very successful vaccine, therapeutic, and cure" before the end of 2020, he hailed the "incredible scientists and doctors" who'd come up with "m…

RT (2020-06-16). Protests good, playgrounds bad? NYC mayor chews out locals reopening kids' parks after cheering on George Floyd marchers. rt.com New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had harsh words for parents and neighborhood groups "taking the law into their own hands" by cutting locks on city playgrounds, but has continued to defend the protesters who crowd city streets. | The mayor scolded New Yorkers for busting open padlocked playgrounds, during a press conference on Tuesday at which he reminded reporters that the sites are set to remain closed until "Phase 2" of post-coronavirus reopening. | "We're not going to allow people to take the law into their own hands."

RT (2020-06-16). WATCH Iran's Zarif remove face mask with relief during Moscow talks with Lavrov, after taking it on & off repeatedly (VIDEO). rt.com Social distancing's no hurdle for talks between trusted allies, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov appeared to show as he arrived to meet Iran's Javad Zarif without a face mask. Zarif was more careful, but soon opted to remove his, too. | Zarif is one of the first high-ranking foreign visitors to land in Moscow and engage in face-to-face talks with Lavrov in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown. In recent months, the Russian foreign minister has held meetings only via video call. | When the two officials appeared before the journalists, Zarif was sporting a mask, which he merely removed for a brief photoshoot. Lavrov…

RT (2020-06-16). India summons Pakistani ambassador after embassy staff detained following road accident. rt.com Pakistan's ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry in New Delhi after two Indian embassy employees were held by Pakistani police, following an alleged hit-and-run incident in Islamabad on Monday. | The ambassador was handed a protest note against what India called "abduction and torture" of the staff of its embassy, officially called the High Commission. The two men were "video-graphed and coerced to accept a litany of fictitious allegations and concocted charges," the statement by the ministry read. | The embassy employees were "kept in illegal custody for more than 10 hours" and were released only af…

Staff (2020-06-16). Headlines for June 16, 2020. democracynow.org In Long-Awaited Victory, SCOTUS Rules LGBTQ Workers Protected by the Civil Rights Act, Atlanta Mayor Orders New Police Rules After Killing of Rayshard Brooks, 911 Dispatcher Raised Concerns About Police Treatment of George Floyd During His Arrest and Killing, Protester Shot in Albuquerque While Toppling Racist Statue; Right-Wing Militia Members Arrested, 19-Year-Old BLM Protester Oluwatoyin "Toyin" Salau Found Dead One Week After Disappearance, Mourners Demand Justice for Killing of Black Teenager Na'Kia Crawford in Ohio, FBI, DOJ to Review Probes into Two Black California Men Found Hanging from Trees, U.N. Human…

Staff (2020-06-16). Goodbye, Columbus: Bree Newsome Bass on the Movement to Topple Racist Statues Across the Globe. democracynow.org As protesters worldwide continue to topple monuments to racists, colonizers and Confederates as part of the wave of demonstrations against racism and state violence, we speak to Bree Newsome Bass, artist and antiracist activist based in North Carolina, who five years ago was arrested at the state Capitol in South Carolina after scaling a 30-foot flagpole to remove the Confederate flag. She says the current backlash against racist symbols reflects "impatience with the pace of incremental progress" both in the United States and elsewhere. "People are tired of centuries of colonialism and white supremacist ideology.

Global Research News (2020-06-16). Selected Articles: Towards the Annexation of Palestine. globalresearch.ca Dear Readers, | We regularly receive feedback from you telling us how important the articles we publish are to you, especially in today's tumultuous and uncertain times. We thank you, and pledge that we will continue to deliver our daily dose …

Rep. Ron Paul (2020-06-16). Is the 'Second Wave' Another Coronavirus Hoax? globalresearch.ca Just a week or so ago the mainstream media and thousands representing the "medical community" told us we must throw out the "stay-at-home" orders and go to the streets to protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of …

South Front (2020-06-16). Video: Al-Qaeda Factions Create New Coalition in Idlib. globalresearch.ca Early on June 14, the Russian Aerospace Forces reportedly carried out airstrikes on positions of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham near the villages of al-Bara and Deir Sunbul in southern Idlib. Since the signing of the new de-escalation agreement with Turkey on …

Stephen Lendman (2020-06-16). Convicted US Spy, Sentenced in Moscow on Charges of Espionage. globalresearch.ca On Monday, a Moscow court sentenced US spy Paul Whelan to 16 years imprisonment. | Charged with espionage, he was caught red-handed in December 2018 and arrested after accepting a flash drive with sensitive information from an undercover Russian Federal Security …

Fight Back (2020-06-16). Hundreds march to defend DACA for immigrant youth, support movement against police terror. fightbacknews.org Minneapolis, MN – With the Supreme Court set to rule on their future, almost 1000 immigrant youth and their supporters marched on June 12 to defend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that shields 800,000 young immigrants from deportation. | Organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), the march started outside of Senator Amy Klobuchar's office on Washington Avenue and marched to the Hennepin County Jail in downtown Minneapolis. | The march was very spirited, and speakers and chants made repeated connections between the fight against deportation and the fight of Blac…

Lu Aya (2020-06-16). Buffalo Police Assault 75-Year-Old Longtime Peace Activist. zcomm.org Now Trump is attacking him too…

_____ (2020-06-16). Food Sovereignty Activists See The Pandemic Crisis As Pivotal For Change. popularresistance.org Disaster brings change, however. Many grassroots organizations and movements are trying to seize the moment to propose alternatives, and in some cases, to begin implementing them. Some are breathing new life into proposals made before the COVID-19 crisis began. It has been a chance for this alternative system to prove its value. "Conventional farmers lost their crop because they lost their market when restaurants closed and the distribution chains broke down," Garcia explains. "Puerto Rico still gets most of its food from outside, so the supply problems meant the supermarkets didn't have food on the shelves. Pric…

Dr. Binoy Kampmark (2020-06-16). The Narrative of the Leakers: Collateral Murder and the Assange Indictment. globalresearch.ca When the superseding indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia against Julian Assange on May 23, 2019, there was one glaring omission. It was an achievement, it might even be said the …

WSWS Repost (2020-06-16). Journalists expose CIA spying on Assange and demand his freedom. indybay.org This is a summary of a significant recent online discussion about those spying on Julian Assange and figures close to the Trump administration and the CIA.

Peoples Dispatch (2020-06-16). Why Cuban doctors should receive the Nobel Peace Prize? peoplesdispatch.org Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuba has taken an active role in extending international solidarity to nations hard-hit by the virus. So far, they have sent medical brigades to 27 countries to assist in the fight against coronavirus. Due to Cuba's extraordinary commitment to humanity, to public health and to internationalism, a group of human rights organizations and social movements across the world have launched a campaign to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Cuba's Henry Reeve medical brigade. | On the

R. Robertson (2020-06-16). "Equality Is the Soul of Liberty" Peaceful Protest in Palo Alto Pt. II. indybay.org At a rally in Palo Alto's King Plaza on June 6, protesters called out loudly for defunding the Palo Alto Police Department. After the rally of thousands, they marched a 4.6 mile route through the city.

F. Elizabeth Dahab (2020-06-16). Systemic Racism and the Killing of Rayshard Brooks. counterpunch.org The killing of 27 year old Rayshard Brooks on Friday, June 12th, in Atlanta, Georgia, occurred less than three weeks after the murder of George Floyd. Both were killed by a white police officer. It seems that 18 days of protests over the May 25 murder of Floyd did not deter from this new heinous

Binoy Kampmark (2020-06-16). Trump at West Point: Un-Policing the World. counterpunch.org Donald Trump claims to be the law-and-order president of the United States. There does not seem much sign of this as the stitching of the Republic gets undone. Protestors have been given a considerable roughing up across several states; police forces are in retreat before proposals of defunding while protocols for arrests are being changed.

Fight Back (2020-06-16). LA demands community control of police, Justice for George Floyd and Richard Castillo. fightbacknews.org Los Angeles, CA – On June 13, Centro CSO held a protest at the corner of Houston and Soto Streets in Boyle Heights, less than a block from where killer LAPD cop Frank Hernandez was caught on video brutally attacking Richard Castillo on April 27. Protesters demanded community control of the police and justice for George Floyd, Castillo and all victims of police terror. | Organized as part of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression's Day of Action to Stop Police Crimes, the event also celebrated the recent prosecution of Officer Hernandez after a campaign led by Centro CSO. | On June 9, after…

Fight Back (2020-06-16). Tampa protesters claim partial victory, vow to continue struggle. fightbacknews.org Tampa, FL – On Monday, June 15, State Attorney Andrew Warren announced he would be dropping criminal cases against 67 protesters arrested in downtown Tampa on June 2. | On the previous day, June 14, over 200 protesters gathered at Joe Chillura Courthouse Square in downtown Tampa and demanded State Attorney Warren drop the charges against protesters arrested at Justice for George Floyd rallies in recent weeks. The protest also joined with the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repressions call for a day of action against police crimes. The protest raised demands for community control of the police, def…

_____ (2020-06-16). Parallels Between Minneapolis And Jerusalem Are More Than Skin Deep. popularresistance.org It is hard to ignore the striking parallels between the recent scenes of police brutality in cities across the United States and decades of violence from Israel's security forces against Palestinians. | A video that went viral late last month of a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, killing a black man, George Floyd, by pressing a knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes has triggered a fortnight of mass protests across the US — and beyond. | The footage was the latest disturbing visual evidence of a US police culture that appears to treat Black Americans as an enemy — and a reminder that rog…

_____ (2020-06-16). Nightly Rally To Seattle's West Precinct Takes Detour, Shuts Down I-5. popularresistance.org Every night around 7 pm, demonstrators now march from the Capitol Hill Organized Protest to the Seattle Police Department's West Precinct. The downhill rally culminates with a handful of speakers who speak out against police brutality. Tonight, the rally ended with an unexpected detour—onto I-5. Speakers spoke on the steps of the West Precinct on Virginia Street for around 30 minutes. There were no police in sight, only a barricade set up in anticipation of the rally. | Demonstrators spoke on a bullhorn about SPD's use of tear gas, calling it a war crime and demanding justice. Organizer David Lewis talked a…

_____ (2020-06-16). The Police May Pull The Trigger, But It's The System That Kills. popularresistance.org Fifty years ago this year, I published my first book, entitled Rebels in Eden — an exploration of mass political violence in America focusing on the uprisings that had by then incinerated substantial portions of the inner city communities of Los Angeles, New York, Newark, Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, as well as scores of smaller towns and cities.[i] Those riots were far more destructive than anything experienced in the protests following the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery by police and ex-police officers. The sixties uprisings killed several hundred people…

Lynda Carson (2020-06-16). Fatal encounters with the cops in Oakland. indybay.org Protest Against Police Brutality and Killer Cops:…

WSWS Repost (2020-06-16). US tech giants aid police militarization and surveillance. indybay.org Despite issuing statements of sympathy for protesters demanding an end to police violence and racism, tech corporations are integral to the increasing militarization of the police.