Daily Archives: August 5, 2020

2020-08-05: News Headlines

Roy Eidelson (2020-08-05). Black Lives Matter: Resisting the Propaganda of Status Quo Defenders. counterpunch.org First came the new names—Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, and others—all added one by one to the long list of tragic, unjustifiable police killings of Black Americans. Then came the batons, the pepper spray, the tear gas, the flash-grenades, the helicopters, the armored vehicles, and the rubber bullets wielded against nonviolent Black Lives Matter protesters across the United States,

Joshua Hanks (2020-08-05). Struggle makes headway, but fight far from over in Portland, Ore. workers.org When federal officers entered Portland, Ore., over the July 4 weekend and began to confront Black Lives Matter protesters, it quickly became clear that the protesters were not going to be driven out. The presence of federal officers only galvanized protesters, who turned out by the thousands night after night. . . . |

Makasi Motema (2020-08-05). Brazil: From pandemic to genocide. workers.org Since the pandemic began, Brazilians have suffered 93,000 deaths and 2.7 million infections — the second highest number of infections in the world after the United States. Far from marshaling his country's resources to battle the disease, Bolsonaro has intentionally sabotaged Brazil's COVID-19 response. Like his U.S. analog, the right-wing . . . |

RT (2020-08-05). Los Angeles DA's husband charged with ASSAULT for pointing gun at BLM protesters on his porch. rt.com The husband of Los Angeles' first black district attorney has been charged with multiple counts of assault with a firearm for pointing a gun at Black Lives Matter protesters who showed up on the couple's doorstep. | David Lacey, whose wife is LA District Attorney Jackie Lacey, has been charged with three counts of assault with a firearm, according to

pip.hinman (2020-08-05). After a lifetime of discrimination older women slip into poverty. greenleft.org.au

Ramzy Baroud (2020-08-05). Apartheid or One State: Has Jordan Broken a Political Taboo? zcomm.org Since the two-state solution is no longer workable, Palestine and Israel are now left with one of two options: a protracted, racist and violent apartheid or coexistence in a modern, democratic, and secular state, for all of its people…

Philip Farruggio (2020-08-05). Does MY Jesus really support Trump? nationofchange.org If the 'Trump thumping Evangelicals' has their way, like it or not, we will step into a Fascist/Neo Nazi rabbit hole that will assure that the coming Time of Tribulation is before us!

Peoples Dispatch (2020-08-05). Celebrating 100 years of the communist party in Britain. peoplesdispatch.org Communists in Britain organized a massive online event on August 1, Saturday, to mark the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the communist party in country. The centenary celebrations, which were titled the 'Red Wedge,' were held online due to the pandemic. The event organized by the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) saw discussions on a wide range of topics with thousands of participants joining in, including around 70 speakers representing different fronts. | As per reports, five sessions were held on Saturday, with deliberations on the themes of anti-racism and anti-fascism, environment and climate crisis,…

Arabi Souri (2020-08-05). Massive Explosion Destroys Beirut Harbor, Hundreds of Casualties. globalresearch.ca A massive explosion rocked the Lebanese capital Beirut this afternoon Tuesday 04 August 2020, the center of the explosion was in the Beirut harbor. | The Lebanese people who lived through a lengthy civil war and several confrontations with Israel and …

Shane Quinn (2020-08-05). Pentagon Plans to Destroy Dozens of Soviet Cities and the So-called Cold War. globalresearch.ca Though remaining unmentioned in official texts, the origins of the dubiously titled Cold War can be traced to policies pursued by American leaders during World War II itself. Following Nazi Germany's calamitous defeat at Stalingrad in early 1943, Washington's ongoing …

Fight Back (2020-08-05). Statewide online workshop on community control of Florida police. fightbacknews.org Tallahassee, FL -The Tallahassee Community Action Committee (TCAC) hosted an online training and workshop, July 30, over Facebook Live on the topic of community control of police. The event was led by experienced anti-racism leaders who are active in the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR), and also founding members of their local organizations: TCAC and the group that inspired TCAC's own founding, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC). | "NAARPR, JCAC and TCAC all have political repression and police overreach central to their origin stories," noted Tallahassee Communi…

Andre Henry (2020-08-05). The Burden of Racism Is Written in Stone. thenation.com The Burden of Racism Is Written in Stone…

Andrea Flores (2020-08-04). Undocumented Youth Won on DACA, but Trump's a Sore Loser. So What's Next? aclu.org After a rebuke from the Supreme Court, President Trump is again trying to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — a program that protects over 700,000 people from deportation and allows them to work and attend school in the United States, their home. The White House is replacing the full DACA program with a skeleton program that will accept no new applicants and renew protection for only one year, instead of two. , , I served in the Obama administration at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the government agency responsible for creating and launching DACA. It was the resul…

Tim Libretti (2020-08-04). Is Black Lives Matter a tipping point on class inequality? peoplesworld.org The Black Lives Matter movement, in demanding that we consider how Black lives have devalued, essentially asks us to interrogate our entire system of economic and cultural values. On what basis do we assign different values to people's lives? Such a question brings us to the heart of our class society that we really tend …

MintPress News Desk (2020-08-04). Shadow Wars: Leaks by Mossad Point to Israeli Involvement in Deadly Attacks on Iran. mintpressnews.com The drumbeat for war with Iran seems to be intensifying as 2020 reaches its halfway point and the narrative that cyberattacks are to play an inciting role in the coming conflict is being drilled into the collective mind.

RT (2020-08-04). 'Erotic mind control community has a racism problem': BLM activists go after hypnotists in latest bizarre witch hunt. rt.com As street battles between murky federal agents, Antifa and various mom'n'pop protest groups over systemic racism continue in Portland, it appears a similar, but more insidious war is underway… in the erotic mind control community. | A seemingly never-ending thread, posted to Twitter by a self-professed 30-something white woman, who is part of the ultra-niche sexual "So, I want to address something that will probably surprise no one: The…

RT (2020-08-04). Both Israel AND Hezbollah deny devastating Lebanon blasts were a rocket attack. rt.com The Israeli Defense Force has denied responsibility for two massive explosions in Beirut that killed at least 10 people on Tuesday and injured hundreds more. Hezbollah has also denied the blasts were the result of a rocket attack. | The huge explosions took place shortly after 6pm local time in a port area of Beirut where highly explosive materials are stored, according to Lebanon's internal security chief. Local media have reported the explosion took place at a fireworks depot near the port, while Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan initially said a ship carrying fireworks exploded in the port. | In a st…

RT (2020-08-04). Netanyahu calls anti-govt rallies 'BIZARRE' as he defends his son Yair's 'alien protesters' comment. rt.com Yair Netanyahu didn't mean to be offensive when he called anti-government protestors "aliens," Benjamin Netanyahu said, jumping to his son's defense. The Israeli PM added that some rallies against him have taken a "bizarre" form. | "There are also strange phenomena there, apart from on the political side, and, really, the relentless incitement against me, against my wife, against my family…" Netanyahu said of the ongoing demonstrations, which have been attended by thousands of people demanding his resignation. | I think [the protests are] a political thing which also has bizarre phenomena, and I think that's…

RT (2020-08-04). Illinois lawmaker calls for ABOLITION of 'racist' history classes until state comes up with more 'inclusive' alternative. rt.com LaShawn Ford, a Democrat in the Illinois General Assembly, has called for an immediate halt to history classes that he claims "lead to white privilege and a racist society," sparking concerns over an Orwellian revision of history. | "I'm calling on the state board of education to end the teaching of history and the local school districts to take immediate action by removing the current history books and curriculum practices that unfairly communicate our history," Ford said on Sunday at an event in Evanston, Illinois. His vague plan calls for temporarily replacing history classes by devoting greater attention t…

Ramzy Baroud (2020-08-04). 'Optimism of the Will': Palestinian Freedom is Possible Now. counterpunch.org In a recent TV discussion, a respected pro-Palestine journalist declared that if any positive change or transformation ever occurs in the tragic Palestinian saga, it would not happen now, but that it would take a whole new generation to bring about such a paradigm shift. As innocuous as the declaration may have seemed, it troubled

teleSUR (2020-08-04). Supreme Court Does Not Decide the Future of Ex President Uribe. telesurenglish.net Colombia's Supreme Justice Court Monday concluded a meeting with no agreement to discuss the judicial future of former President Alvaro Uribe. | RELATED: | Uribe is being investigated for procedural fraud and bribery. The Supreme Court judges must decide whether to issue an arrest warrant against him, whether he should remain under house arrest, or whether he can continue to defend himself with no restrictive measure. | The Uribe case…

teleSUR (2020-08-04). Colombia: Supreme Court Orders House Arrest for Alvaro Uribe. telesurenglish.net Colombia's Supreme Court ordered the arrest of former President Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010) as part of the judicial process in which his participation in the manipulation of witnesses is being investigated. | RELATED: | The five magistrates investigating the far-right Senator decided to guarantee his presence in the country through preventive detention at home. The news was confirmed by Uribe himself. | "The deprivation of my freedom cau…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-08-04). Colombian court orders detention of ex-president àÅlvaro Uribe Velez. peoplesdispatch.org Social movements and human rights organizations across Colombia hailed the decision of the Supreme Court. àÅlvaro Uribe Vélez is being investigated in a case related to witness manipulation and fraud…

teleSUR (2020-08-04). Colombia: Nobody Is Above The Law, Says Senator Ivan Cepeda. telesurenglish.net Colombian Senator Iván Cepeda for the Alternative Democratic Pole (ADP-Polo Democrático Alternativo) and his lawyer Reinaldo Villalba welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice to issue an assurance measure against former Colombian President àÅlvaro Uribe Vélez, who is being investigated for witness tampering and procedural fraud. | RELATED: | At a short press conference, Villalba said this is importan…

Raul Diego (2020-08-04). New Reports Suggest Libyan Warlord Khalifa Haftar Is Working with Mossad. globalresearch.ca Reports of Israeli support for the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar are nothing new, but as the apartheid state gains ground among Arab nations, the need to hide Mossad's role in the destabilizing of oil-rich Libya may be disappearing. | *** | The …

Amanda Solliday (2020-08-04). Black Lives Matter in Small Towns, Too. progressive.org In Taylorville, a mostly white town in Illinois, a BLM protest highlights how the movement is making an impact in unlikely locations.

Yancy CW. (2020-08-04). Academic Medicine and Black Lives Matter—Time for Deep Listening. jamanetwork.com In the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, this Viewpoint considers the demand that academic medicine address its own structural racism, and concludes on the basis of its history, culture, role, and influence that the institution can, should, and must make racial justice a part of its work and mission.

Ali Salam (2020-08-04). Army Halts Construction Of Nine Palestinian Homes Near Salfit. imemc.org The Israeli occupation army issued, Sunday, orders halting the construction of nine Palestinian homes in Kafr ad-Deek town, west of Salfit, in central West Bank. Several army jeeps invaded the village and handed local residents the stop-work orders against the nine homes as a prelude to demolishing them, local sources …

IMEMC News (2020-08-04). Israel Confiscates 200 Dunams Of Palestinian Lands Near Bethlehem. imemc.org The Israeli occupation authorities confiscated, Monday, 200 Dunams of Palestinian agricultural lands in Kisan village, east of Bethlehem, south of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank, in addition to issuing an order for demolishing a barn. Ahmad Ghazal, the deputy-mayor of Kisan village, stated that a large military force invaded …

IMEMC News (2020-08-04). Israel Confiscates 327 Dunams Near Bethlehem To Build Colonialist Units. imemc.org The Israeli occupation authorities have issued orders from the confiscation of 327 Dunams (80.8 Acres) of Palestinian lands to build hundreds of units in an illegal colony east of Bethlehem, south of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank. Hasan Breijiyya, the head of the Bethlehem office of the Colonization & …

Peoples Dispatch (2020-08-04). Israeli warplanes bomb targets in Syria. peoplesdispatch.org Israeli air force fighter jets, attack helicopters and other attack aircraft conducted airstrikes in southern Syria late on August 3, Monday. Israel claimed that the airstrikes were in retaliation to an attempted attack on Sunday along the northern Israel-Syria border in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. | The Syrian government is yet to confirm the specific locations targeted by the Israeli bombings. The official Syrian SANA news agency stated that the airstrikes caused significant material damage to Syrian government property, adding that no Syrians, civilian or military, were injured. | Syrian state media la…

IMEMC News (2020-08-04). Updated: PPS: "Israeli Soldiers Abduct Fifteen Palestinians In West Bank" imemc.org Updated: The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) has reported that Israeli soldiers abducted, overnight until dawn hours Tuesday, fifteen Palestinians, including a young woman, during extensive and violent searches of homes across the occupied West Bank. The soldiers also shot two Palestinians in Jericho.

IMEMC News (2020-08-04). Israeli Colonists Burn Two Palestinian Cars Near Nablus. imemc.org Several fanatic illegal Israeli colonists infiltrated, on Tuesday at dawn, into Far'ata Palestinian village, west of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and burnt two cars in addition to writing racist graffiti. Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors Israel's illegal colonialist activities in northern West Bank, said …

Ali Salam (2020-08-04). Israeli Settlers Attack Palestinians, Soldiers Set Fire to Palestinian-owned Crops. imemc.org A large group of illegal Israeli settlers, on Saturday evening, assaulted Palestinian families, north of Ramallah, in central occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Information Center reported. According to local sources, a large number of armed illegal colonists with dogs, attacked Palestinian families, including Sheikh Mohamed al-Hajj and his family in …

IMEMC News (2020-08-04). Soldiers Demolish Barns Near Bethlehem. imemc.org Israeli soldiers invaded, Tuesday, Kisan Palestinian village, east of Bethlehem south of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank, and demolished several barns. The army also delivered orders for the demolition of residential sheds near Hebron. Ahmad Ghazal, the deputy mayor of Kisan, said several army vehicles and bulldozers invaded the …

BIICFHRIOT (2020-08-04). B'Tselem: "If You Build It, They Will Come" imemc.org B'Tselem — The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories: While the news is full of the plans to annex the West Bank and legalize construction in settlements — Israel is busy creating facts on the ground, as usual. Annexation or not, Israel has been demolishing homes in …

teleSUR (2020-08-04). Chile: United Nations "Alarmed" at Racism Against Mapuches. telesurenglish.net The regional office for South America of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights urged on Tuesday for a dialogue over the ongoing violence and acts of racism towards the Mapuche people following the fierce confrontations in the Araucanía region during last weekend. | RELATED: | "Participatory dialogue and in good faith is the only way to face the ongoing…

David Giesen (2020-08-04). Saturday 8/8: How much do Black Lives Matter? Enough to share land values? indybay.org Join Zoom Meeting | zoom.us/j/94061550597?pwd=d1hRVUxITVYwUT… | Meeting ID: 940 6155 0597 | Passcode: uuc6Gd…

Jonathan Cook (2020-08-04). Can Israelis Broaden Their Protests Beyond Netanyahu? globalresearch.ca Israel is roiling with angry street protests that local observers have warned could erupt into open civil strife — a development Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be encouraging. | For weeks, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have been the scene of …

Alan Macleod (2020-08-03). Report: "Woke" Corporations Supporting Black Lives Matter Quietly Funding Police. mintpressnews.com Corporations like JPMorgan Chase, Chevron and Marathon claim to support the movement for black lives, but their donations to police help "tyrannize the very communities" they claim to stand with.

Staff (2020-08-03). Voting Rights Activist LaTosha Brown: Trump Is Hellbent on Undermining Democracy to Win Reelection. democracynow.org With President Trump trailing in most polls, he tweeted recently that he was floating the idea of delaying the November election — something he cannot legally do — and continued his attacks on mail-in voting. "We have a president who is probably the most fascist president that we've ever had in this country," responds LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund and the BVM Capacity Building Institute. "He is hellbent on pushing the boundaries, whatever he needs to do, to undermine and undercut democracy."

Ali Salam (2020-08-03). Israeli Army Fires Missiles Into Khan Younis. imemc.org The Israeli Air Force fired, on Monday at dawn, several missiles into areas in Khan Younis and Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, causing damage. The Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) has reported that an Israeli drone fired at least two missiles into an area, west …

Miko Peled (2020-08-03). New Report Reveals Israel Demolishes Over 2,000 Palestinian Bedouin Homes per Year. mintpressnews.com Today Israel only allows indigenous Palestinian Bedouins to live on 12% of their ancestral homeland in the Naqab, transferring them to camps and crowded villages reminiscent of Native American reservations.

Judy Greenspan (2020-08-03). 50 years of struggle from Black August to Black Lives Matter Movement — a WW commentary. workers.org This Aug. 7 marks the 50th anniversary of the heroic attempt by Jonathan Jackson, younger brother of George Jackson, to free three Black revolutionaries from the clutches of the California state prison system. The fact that this bold attempt failed has no bearing on its historical and revolutionary significance to . . . |

John Bellamy Foster (2020-08-03). A fractured empire, within and without. mronline.org Two things seem certain at this point: (1) The Trump administration will continue to extend its heavy handed neofascist tactics in the next three months, seeking to expand its political base by these means, and (2) the White House and the Republican Party will try to engineer another set of stimulus payments/tax cuts in early …

Julian Cola (2020-08-03). How Joeseph Goebbel's Nazi Propaganda Gave Birth to Today's Western Media. mintpressnews.com Western mass media continues to be atomized in its coverage. It thrives on soundbites. Sensationalism. Cacophony. A malnutrition of context with roots in the Nazi propaganda construct of Joseph Goebbels.

A Guest Author (2020-08-03). Disability movement is 'part of the global working class'. workers.org by Kristen Turgeon The following slightly edited remarks were made by Kristen Turgeon from the Boston branch of Workers World Party on a July 30 webinar sponsored by WWP's Disability Rights Caucus and titled "Smash Ableism, Racism, All Bigotry & Oppression!" Kristen Turgeon. WW PHOTO: Stevan Kirschbaum It has been . . . |

David Barber (2020-08-03). Renouncing White Privilege: A Left Critique of Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility" counterpunch.org White supremacy is not only white over black, it is also the small number of rich whites over the much larger number of poor and working class whites. In return for a guarantee that the latter group of whites will suffer the many calamities of life afflicting working people in a capitalist society less intensely and less frequently than do black people and people of color, the poor and working class whites will not challenge the rule of the rich.

RT (2020-08-03). 'Stop politicizing economy': Beijing blasts US for threatening to ban TikTok & other Chinese apps. rt.com Threatening to restrict Chinese apps on groundless claims that they're feeding data on Americans to the government in Beijing only exposes Washington's hypocrisy, China's Foreign Ministry said. | Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin has called on the US to "provide an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory environment for market entities of other countries to invest and operate in the US." | Stop politicizing trade and economic issues, and stop promoting discrimination and policies of exclusion through abusing the concept of national security. | Washington has been threatening TikTok and other Chinese software co…

RT (2020-08-03). Israel strikes Syrian military targets near Damascus, IDF calls it 'response' to failed border attack. rt.com Israeli jets bombed several Syrian military sites south of Damascus late on Monday, the IDF has confirmed, saying that the attack had been launched in response to the attempted planting of a bomb in the Golan Heights. | The airstrike took place in the countryside southwest of Damascus, SANA news agency reported, describing explosions being heard in the city. | The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) then said in a statement the attack was a response to an attempted provocation on the Syrian-Israeli border, targeting a fence in the occupied Golan Heights. | The IDF said the strike targeted Syrian army's observation pos…