Daily Archives: June 27, 2020

2020-06-27: News Headlines

_____ (2020-06-27). ACLU Files Federal Lawsuit Over Police Use Of Force During Anti-Racism Protests. popularresistance.org Denver – The ACLU of Colorado has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Black Lives Matter 5280 and other protesters against the City and County of Denver over police use of force during the protests against racism and police violence that erupted in the city last month after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. | The complaint alleges the use of force by Denver police, Denver sheriffs and Colorado State Patrol effectively "restricted, frustrated, and deterred" the First Amendment right of protesters in the city. The ACLU said police responded, "repeatedly with an overwhelming and unconstitutional use of forc…

Henry A. Giroux (2020-06-27). Lawlessness in Trump's Fascist State. zcomm.org Bill Barr and the Ghost of Fascism…

Sarah Churchwell (2020-06-27). American Fascism: It Has Happened Here. zcomm.org Many of Trump's critics see fascist tendencies in his rhetoric glorifying violence and disregarding the rule of law, democratic processes, and civil liberties; Trump and his supporters regularly embrace traditions of American fascism themselves.

Fight Back (2020-06-27). Protest demanding end to police crimes meets Trump visit in Green Bay, WI. fightbacknews.org Green Bay, WI – On June 25, over 50 people gathered on the premises of the Austin Straubel International Airport to protest President Donald Trump, who was recording a town hall inside one of the facilities there. The effort was led by the Coalition to March on the Democratic National Convention, but also included Wisconsin Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement, Justice for Jonathon Tubby, and Black Lives United – Green Bay (BLU). | Protesters listened to comments from Coalition co-chair Ryan Hamann mixed in with a variety of chants attacking Trump. A theme throughout…

Abhijan Choudhury (2020-06-27). Israeli atrocities on the rise. peoplesdispatch.org Two recent reports released by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United Nations in the occupied Palestinian Territories (OCHA oPT), on June 18 and 24, describe the blatant human rights violations and war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian population in the three occupied Palestinian territories of West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. | The two reports cover May 2020 and the first fifteen days of June 2020, respectively, and compile data on acts committed by the Israeli government, armed forces and intelligence services to subjugate and oppress Palestinia…

Codepink, Extiction Rebellion, VFP, more (2020-06-27). Saturday 7/4: 4th of July SF Car Caravan: "Defund Police, Defund Pentagon, Fund Life!" indybay.org Meet up 2pm at SF City Hall, Polk St. between Grove & McAllister; Caravan to Stop 1: Defund Police, Black Lives Matter street painting, Fulton & Webster; Caravan to Stop 2: Defund Pentagon, Nancy Pelosi's House, Broadway @ Divisadero; Caravan to Stop 3: Fund Life!, Bayview Hunters Point.

calvin deutschbein (2020-06-27). Students and workers say: 'Cops off our campus!'. workers.org Abolitionists are renewing their calls to abolish or at least defund campus police departments. This was first raised in Minneapolis, and now the demand is starting in Austin and Dallas, Texas. Campus police departments are rarely less viciously racist than city police and have less predictable behavior, but they are . . . |

The Canary (2020-06-27). Demonstrators demand justice for 12 year old refugee Shukri Abdi in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests. thecanary.co Demonstrators have gathered in London and other UK cities to demand "justice" for a 12-year-old Somali refugee on the one-year anniversary of her death.A huge crowd descended on the capital on Saturday 27 June in memory of Shukri Yahya Abdi, who drowned in the River Irwell in Bury, Greater Manchester, exactly one year ago. Many in the UK have renewed calls to demand a fair investigation into her death in the wake of recent Black Lives Matter protests.People with fists raised in the air carried a "Justice for Shukri" banner, and some wore T-shirts displaying the child's name.Protesters demanded 'justice for Shukri…

Minnie Bruce Pratt (2020-06-27). Supreme Court rulings: Mass fightback and solidarity win concessions. workers.org This is a slightly edited version of a talk given on a June 25 Workers World Party webinar on "LGBTQ2S+ and the Black Lives Matter movement." How fortunate we all are to be in the struggle together this particular June Pride Month — a month of historic uprising and outcry . . . |

Eliza Egret (2020-06-27). Antisemitism smears are being used to silence criticism of Israel. But supporters of Palestine won't shut up. thecanary.co Content warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of violence that some readers may find disturbing. | Take a look at this image of 11-year-old Mahmoud Sawalhi, a Palestinian boy from Gaza. In 2018, an Israeli sniper

en.mehrnews (2020-06-27). UN should support Palestine human rights: Rep. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Jun. 27 (MNA) —Riadh Al-Mansoor, representative of Palestinian National Authority to UN, called on the United Nations and the international societies to support the interests and self-determination rights of all nations such as Palestine.

WSWS (2020-06-27). As pandemic rages, Trump administration calls on Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare. wsws.org An overturn of the Affordable Care Act would wipe out health care coverage for as many as 23 million Americans.

Susan Jaffe (2020-06-27). [World Report] LGBTQ discrimination in US health care under scrutiny. thelancet.com A US Supreme Court ruling could undermine the Trump administration's plan to roll back some protections against sex discrimination. Susan Jaffe reports.

Jon Schwarz (2020-06-27). Black Lives Matter Wants to End Police Brutality. zcomm.org History Suggests It Will Go Much Further…

Caroline Randall Williams (2020-06-27). You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument. zcomm.org I am more than half white, and none of it was consensual. White Southern men — my ancestors — took what they wanted from women they did not love, over whom they had extraordinary power, and then failed to claim their children.

Ali Salam (2020-06-27). Palestinian Civilians, Activists Protest Israeli Annexation in Kifl Hares. imemc.org Palestinians protesting the Israeli occupation and its settlement activities, today clashed with Israeli soldiers in the northern West Bank resulting in several injuries, all minor, Palestinian WAFA News Agency reported. In the northern West Bank village of Hares, east of Salfit, Israeli soldiers denied Palestinians access to village lands to …

Ali Salam (2020-06-27). Dozens of Palestinians Suffocate from Israeli Fired Tear-Gas in Hebron. imemc.org In the southern West Bank city of Hebron, on Friday, Palestinians confronted Israeli soldiers at the point between the Israeli-occupied section of the city and that of the Palestinian-controlled section, Palestinian WAFA News Agency reported. Local sources said that dozens of Palestinians suffered the toxic effects of tear-gas inhalation, after …

_____ (2020-06-27). Police Under Pressure To End Training Programmes With Israel. popularresistance.org The video of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, an unarmed African American, for nearly nine minutes as he slowly died, gasping for air, has struck a familiar chord with many Palestinians and anti-occupation activists. | Since his death in late May, footage of Floyd pleading: "I can't breathe" and "they're going to kill me," has emerged alongside videos and stills of Israeli security forces taking similar positions over the necks of unarmed Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip. | The Israeli police force has tried to distance itself from any perceived similariti…

yenisafak (2020-06-27). 'Rohingya issue, not Muslims v/s Buddhist paradigm'. yenisafak.com Maung Zarni, 56, scholar and activist, known for his opposition to the violence in Myanmar and his support to the Rohingya population said the Burmese military was taking advantage of strategic rivalry between China and India and blamed genocide of Rohingya to an institutional hate campaign.Born in a Burmese Buddhist family, Zarni said a campaign of ignorance was manufactured in his country through schools, mass media, and Buddhist organizations against Rohingya, which eventually culminated in the genocide."The Burmese public has been made ignorant of the facts about Islam and Muslims," said Zarni in an exclusive…

sputniknews (2020-06-27). Coca-Cola Says It's Pausing Social Media Advertising Amid Push to Deal With Racist Online Content. sputniknews.com Quite a few corporate giants, like Unilever, Levi's, and Hershey's, have gone down the path of partially or fully freezing ad spending, in a bid to push social media platforms like Facebook to revise its policies over hate content.

United We Dream & others (2020-06-27). Thursday 7/2: Tackling Anti-Blackness in Immigrant Communities Discussion w/ United We Dream. indybay.org Online…

Bay Area Hospitality for Black Lives (2020-06-27). Tuesday 6/30: BAHBL Join Us! Solidarity Rally and March for Black Lives. indybay.org William McKinley statue (277 Baker St.) to Alamo Square Park…

Community Rising (2020-06-27). Rally and March Show LBTQ+ and Menlo Park Community Stand with Black Lives Matter. indybay.org Students from high schools in Menlo Park and Palo Alto pulled together an event that drew community members from the surrounding area and San Francisco. After a rally they occupied several Menlo Park streets with a noisy march.

indybay (2020-06-27). Wednesday 7/1: Black Lives Matter Capitola Village March & Speak Out. indybay.org Monterey Park, Capitola…

Students For Accountability (2020-06-27). Open Letter To CCSF BOT Pres. Shanell Williams & Bd: Do You Know Who Dr. Rajen Vurdien Is? indybay.org San Francisco Community College Board of Trustees President Shanell Williams and her Board have hired a new interim Chancellor Dr. Rajen Vurdien from the same Community College that corrupt former CCSF Chancellor came from Pasadena Community College. He had a record of discrimination against African America staff at the college and was condemned by the NAACP for his actions.

Lyn Neeley (2020-06-26). U.N. Human Rights Council condemns racist violence. workers.org In the wake of international uprisings due to the lynching of George Floyd, the U.N. Human Rights Council held an emergency hearing on June 19. The council unanimously passed a resolution condemning systemic racism and racist police brutality against people of African descent in all countries, but particularly in the . . . |

Richard D. Wolff (2020-06-26). How Racism is an Essential Tool for Maintaining the Capitalist Order. counterpunch.org U.S. capitalism survived because it found a solution to the basic problem of its instability, its business cycles. Since capitalism never could end cyclical downturns and their awful effects, its survival required making those effects somehow socially tolerable. Systemic racism survived in…

Staff (2020-06-26). COVID-19 Is Amplifying Racial Inequities, Educators Say. therealnews.com Baltimore Teachers Union President Diamonté Brown discusses a recent lawsuit over unpaid instructional days, global protests against racism, the movement to defund the police, and calls to remove officers from schools.

Staff (2020-06-26). Colonized Loyalty: Asian American Anti-Blackness and Complicity. truthout.org "Capitalism requires inequality and racism enshrines it." — In the United States, racism against Asian Americans, whether in a public rally, in the public space or in the classroom, has become routine. | In March 2020 Donald Trump called the coronavirus "Chinese Virus." On June 20, 2020, at an anemically attended rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump named the deadly coronavirus "Kung Flu…

Staff (2020-06-26). One Bad Algorithm? Advocates Say Facial Recognition Reveals Systemic Racism in AI Technology. democracynow.org The controversy over police use of facial recognition technology has accelerated after a Black man in Michigan revealed he was wrongfully arrested because of the technology. Detroit police handcuffed Robert Williams in front of his wife and daughters after facial recognition software falsely identified him as a suspect in a robbery. Researchers say facial recognition software is up to 100 times more likely to misidentify people of color than white people. This week, Boston voted to end its use in the city, and Democratic lawmakers introduced a similar measure for federal law enforcement. "This is not an example o…

Henry Giroux (2020-06-26). Lawlessness in Trump's Fascist State: Bill Barr and the Ghost of Fascism. counterpunch.org Barr places the President above the law, defining him as a kind of unitary sovereign. In addition, he appears to relish in his role as a craven defender of Trump, all the while justifying a notion of blind executive authority in the face of Trump's endless lies, racist policies, and lawlessness that echo the dark era of the 1920s and 30s.

Kathryn Shihadah (2020-06-26). The Killing of Ahmad Erekat by Israeli Police Puts Western Media Bias on Full Display. mintpressnews.com At a time when the world is crying out for justice, it behooves Israel to reverse its destructive policies toward Palestinians — and responsible journalism to ignore the bullies and tell the truth.

yenisafak (2020-06-26). Belgian parliament urges sanctions against Israel. yenisafak.com The Belgian federal parliament adopted a resolution on Friday urging the government to prepare a list of countermeasures against Israel in case it annexes the occupied Palestinian territories.The resolution was proposed by the Green party, and passed with 101 votes in favor and 39 abstentions.The text calls the government to "play a leading role at European and multilateral level in order to set up a list of effective countermeasures to respond proportionately to any Israeli annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory."The resolution acknowledges the fact that some states might veto EU sanctions. So it sugge…

Ramzy Baroud (2020-06-26). PA Political Circus: Why Abbas Must Hand the Keys over to the PLO. counterpunch.org The painful truth is that the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas has already ceased to exist as a political body that holds much sway or relevance, either to the Palestinian people or to Abbas' former benefactors, namely the Israeli and the American governments. So, when the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, Mohammed Shtayyeh, announced on

Staff (2020-06-26). How Is Biden Different From Trump When It Comes To Palestine? therealnews.com Biden pledges to keep the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, boasts of "unstinting support" for Israel, promises to fight the BDS movement and send military aid, and spins it as a way to somehow fight anti-Semitism in the U.S.

Eds. (2020-06-26). What is Antifa? (Debunking Myths About Antifa). mronline.org Radical Reviewer taking a look at. Debunking the 3 Biggest Myths About Antifa by Spencer Sunshine. Patreon: www.patreon.com/RadicalReviewer Merch: www.etsy.com/shop/RadicalRevi… Twitter: @ReviewerRadical Relevant Links: Spencer Sunshine, Debunking the 3 Biggest Myths About Antifa: spencersunshine.com/2020/06/2… Zine Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/huronvalleySnD/ Now That's What I Call Antifa Playlist: www.youtube.com/playlist?list… Philosophy Tube, The Philosophy of Antifa: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgwS_… Re Education, …

Staff (2020-06-26). Police Are Arresting Protesters Over Facebook Posts—And It's Just The Beginning. therealnews.com The FBI investigated and arrested Michael Avery for posting on Facebook about a Black Lives Matter protest. We talk with a tech industry whistleblower about "snitch apps" and how law enforcement uses technology to "protect" you.

T.J. Coles (2020-06-26). Infiltrating Black Lives Matter: Cops, Feds, and White Supremacists. counterpunch.org Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a major step forward in the ongoing struggle for Civil Rights in the United States and around the world. BLM was founded in 2013, following the acquittal over what organizers describe as 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's murderer, the gated community watchman, George Zimmerman. The organization came to international attention in July

Kameron Hurt (2020-06-26). Terror lynchings will not stop the freedom march. liberationnews.org Lynchings are a method of terror used by white supremacists from the slave ships, to plantations, to the big cities, to the voting booths…

Staff (2020-06-26). The End of Asylum? Supreme Court Sides with Trump Administration on Fast-Tracking Deportations. democracynow.org The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a major victory Thursday when it ruled the government can fast-track deportations of asylum seekers without first allowing them to fight for their cases in front of a judge. The ACLU's Lee Gelernt argued the case in court on behalf of Tamil asylum seeker Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam. "It's a very serious decision and will adversely affect many, many asylum seekers," says Gelernt. "We're likely to see more people fail their hearings, and now they don't have a backstop in the federal courts."

C.J. Atkins (2020-06-26). Pandemic Pride: LGBTQ struggle continues, learns from Black Lives Matter. peoplesworld.org This weekend marks a half-century since the first Pride march took place on June 28, 1970. That initial event in New York City, called "Christopher Street Liberation Day," recalled the Stonewall Rebellion of a year earlier—the night a band of fed-up queers stood up, fought back, and launched a liberation struggle that transformed the world. …

Staff (2020-06-26). Headlines for June 26, 2020. democracynow.org U.S. Sets Another Daily COVID-19 Record as Infections Surge in 31 States, Supreme Court Ruling Will Deny Asylum Seekers Their Day in Court, Trump Admin Asks SCOTUS to Annul Obamacare Even as Millions Lose Health Coverage, India Nears 500,000 Confirmed Coronavirus Cases as Pandemic Worsens Globally, WHO Declares End to Ebola Outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo, House Democrats Pass Sweeping Police Reform Bill That Trump Promised to Veto, Activists Demanding $1B Cut to NYPD Budget Occupy City Hall for Third Straight Night, NC Police Dept. Fires Officers Caught on Tape Discussing "Slaughtering" Black Reside…

Mark Fiore (2020-06-26). Preserve the Racist Statues. progressive.org Rather than erase our racist past, let's put it in a museum where it can be remembered as a lesson of the blood-soaked roots of the United States.

Al-Awda Palestine Right to Return (2020-06-26). Wednesday 7/1: Day Of Rage. indybay.org We will meet at San Francisco Civic Center and drive to 456 Montgomery St. San Francisco, CA, 94104.

Elie Mystal (2020-06-26). The Supreme Court Just Took a Hammer to the Asylum Process. thenation.com The Supreme Court Just Took a Hammer to the Asylum Process…

WSWS (2020-06-26). US Supreme Court rules recent asylum seekers have no right to habeas corpus or due process. wsws.org As in Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Supreme Court made the most sweeping anti-democratic ruling possible.

Staff (2020-06-26). 20 Million Could Lose Health Coverage As Trump Aims to End Obamacare. truthout.org The Trump administration filed a late-evening briefing to the United States Supreme Court on Thursday, joining a number of states urging justices to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the signature health care law passed by the Obama administration. | Repeal of the ACA, which is sometimes called "Obamacare," could cause significant harm to the American people, particularly those who depend on the program to access health insurance through state exchanges. If the law were to end suddenly, it's es…

Staff (2020-06-26). Supreme Court Sides With Trump Administration on Fast-Tracking Deportations. truthout.org The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a major victory Thursday when it ruled the government can fast-track deportations of asylum seekers without first allowing them to fight for their cases in front of a judge. The ACLU's Lee Gelernt argued the case in court on behalf of Tamil asylum seeker Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam. "It's a very serious decision and will adversely affect many, many asylum seekers," says Gelernt. "We're likely to see more people fail their hearings, and now they don'

Derek Royden (2020-06-26). 2020: The year anti-fascists became terrorists. nationofchange.org When police in Buffalo pushed an elderly man to the ground during a Black Lives Matter protest, cracking his skull in the process, the president went on Twitter to rhetorically ask whether the injured man was, in fact, part of "Antifa".

David Rosen (2020-06-26). Class & Otherness: A Peculiar Dialectic. counterpunch.org Nothing captures the contradictions of American social life more than then the recent announcement by Jeff Bezos in support for the Black Lives Matter movement. The founder of Amazon, the owner of the Washington Post and the richest person in the world issued a tweet calling for an end to "the inequitable and brutal treatment of