30 May 20
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29 May 20
RSN: Harvey Wasserman | Trump Is No Accident
Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
Wasserman writes: "Donald Trump is no accident. He is our Imperial Vulture come home to roost. Our Exceptional karma. The ultimate incineration of a City on a Hill defined by arrogance, brutality, and greed."
Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
Wasserman writes: "Donald Trump is no accident. He is our Imperial Vulture come home to roost. Our Exceptional karma. The ultimate incineration of a City on a Hill defined by arrogance, brutality, and greed."
God wills that [the Civil War] continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.
– Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural, March 4, 1865
(He was dead 41 days later.)
Trump’s willful negligence has killed more Americans in three months than did the Vietnam War in ten years.
He’s saturated our lives with dictatorship, disease, dementia, depression.
But we have no claim to self-pity.
Pinochet (Chile), Mobutu (Congo/Zaire), the Greek Junta, the Shah (Iran), Somoza (Nicaragua), Diem/Thieu/Ky (Vietnam), Yeltsin/Putin (Russia), Pol Pot (Cambodia), Lord Jeffrey Amherst (Indigenous America), Salazar (Portugal), Marcos (the Philippines), Alvarado (Honduras), the Duvaliers (Haiti) … murderers, thieves, despots, liars, bigots, buffoons, puppets, thugs, butchers, hypocrites, clowns, torturers, mobsters, devils incarnate … all installed to serve American corporate interests.
They are Trump and he is them.
The butchery we’ve imposed on humankind and the planet has at last come home to roost. Trump is Earth’s retaliatory demon, here to ravage the remnants of a cruel, hypocritical, dying empire.
China will soon eclipse America’s once insurmountable economic dominance. Our military is an ornate, obsolete, obscene husk. We’re a downbound #2, a failing state. Trump has left us gutted, poisoned, betrayed, mocked, abused, leveled, trashed, choking in the dust (we can’t breathe!!!).
He is history’s inevitable payback.
We can’t get him gone until we fully face our nation’s stake in his epic evil.
So let’s pick a moment before November 3rd. A Trump Exorcism Day, to excoriate the pain our empire has imposed. The arrogance of our “exceptionalism.” The burden of our slave-based misogyny. The injustices of our racism, sexism, ecological destruction, multi-layered bigotries. The wages of our greed. The uselessness of our wars. The absurdity of our military. The blood-sucking death grip of our global corporations.
Wrap them all in one big irreverence. Look deep into the ghastly mirror of our merciless inflictions … then face who we really have been, and what we must become.
The Donald is no random event. He demands we confront where he really came from and all he embodies.
Only then do we get truly woke.
The completion of Harvey “Sluggo” Wasserman’s People’s Spiral of US History awaits Trump’s departure.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
Former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin. (photo: Facebook)
Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin Arrested in George Floyd's Case
Doha Madani, NBC News
Madani writes: "The former Minneapolis police officer shown on video putting his knee on the neck of George Floyd has been arrested, according to Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington."
Doha Madani, NBC News
Madani writes: "The former Minneapolis police officer shown on video putting his knee on the neck of George Floyd has been arrested, according to Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington."
EXCERPT:
Chauvin had been the subject of prior complaints
Chauvin, a 19-year department veteran, was the subject of over a dozen prior police conduct complaints unrelated to Floyd that resulted in no disciplinary action and one that led to a "letter of reprimand" during his career. A longtime police training expert for the state of Minnesota told NBC News that a dozen complaints over a two-decade career would appear "a little bit higher than normal.”
The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis said in a statement the day of the officers’ termination that it was not the time to rush to judgment and that the officers were fully cooperating with the investigation.
"We must review all video. We must wait for the medical examiner's report," the statement said. "Officers' actions and training protocol will be carefully examined after the officers have provided their statements."
Attempts to reach the officers and their attorneys have been unsuccessful.
Floyd’s death reinvigorated a widespread conversation on police brutality and protests around the country in addition to the Twin Cities.
Police officers gathered Thursday in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, as protesters demonstrated against the killing of Breonna Taylor, a black woman fatally shot by police in her home in March. (photo: McKinley Moore/AP)
7 Shot at Louisville Protest Calling for Justice for Breonna Taylor
Brakkton Booker, NPR
Booker writes: "Seven people were shot in downtown Louisville, Ky., at a protest Thursday evening calling for justice for a 26-year-old black woman who was shot and killed in her apartment by police in March."
READ MORE
Brakkton Booker, NPR
Booker writes: "Seven people were shot in downtown Louisville, Ky., at a protest Thursday evening calling for justice for a 26-year-old black woman who was shot and killed in her apartment by police in March."
READ MORE
Defense contractor Raytheon. (photo: AP)
Hidden in the New House Coronavirus Relief Bill: Billions for Defense Contractors
Jake Pearson, ProPublica
Pearson writes: "A section of the HEROES Act championed by Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly would cover executive compensation and other perks for defense and intel contractors. The legislation's wording mirrors what an industry group proposed."
Jake Pearson, ProPublica
Pearson writes: "A section of the HEROES Act championed by Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly would cover executive compensation and other perks for defense and intel contractors. The legislation's wording mirrors what an industry group proposed."
EXCERPT:
That language made it into the HEROES Act, which defined “minimum applicable contract billing rates” to include costs “such as the base hourly wage rate of an employee, plus indirect costs, fees, and general and administrative expenses.”
Peggy O’Connor, an INSA spokeswoman, said nobody from her organization discussed the HEROES Act with Connolly’s office and she didn’t know how the group’s suggested definition of “minimum applicable contract billing rates” wound up in the bill.
“There were a lot of letters drafted by various organizations,” she said. “We posted ours, as well as various government guidance memorandum on our website, which is open to the public.”
The industry’s largest trade organization, the Professional Services Council, issued a statement thanking Connolly for his efforts after the HEROES Act passed the House on May 12. A spokeswoman for PSC declined to answer questions about the bill’s language or the group’s interactions with Connolly ahead of the vote.
The six-term congressman has long been an advocate for contracting firms and before joining Congress worked for the Science Applications International Corp., a government contractor that became Leidos. Among his top contributors since taking office in 2008 are government contractors Northrop Grumman, Leidos and Deloitte LLP.
A guard escorts an immigrant detainee at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in 2013. (photo: John Moore/Getty)
'Bloody Noses, Burning Eyes': Advocates File Complaint Over Chemical Disinfectant Use at ICE Detention Center
Elly Yu, LAist
Yu writes: "Advocacy groups for immigrant detainees have filed a civil rights complaint with the federal Department of Homeland Security, alleging detainees have been subject to chemical exposure at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County."
READ MORE
Elly Yu, LAist
Yu writes: "Advocacy groups for immigrant detainees have filed a civil rights complaint with the federal Department of Homeland Security, alleging detainees have been subject to chemical exposure at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County."
READ MORE
Marines unload boxes from USAID. (photo: Carolyn Kaster)
Muslim American Groups Decry New USAID Adviser for History of Making Hateful Comments About Islam
Mariam Fam and Elana Schor, Associated Press
Excerpt: "Some Muslim American groups are calling for the dismissal of a newly appointed religious freedom adviser for the U.S. Agency for International Development, citing past online posts that disparage Islam on his social media."
Mariam Fam and Elana Schor, Associated Press
Excerpt: "Some Muslim American groups are calling for the dismissal of a newly appointed religious freedom adviser for the U.S. Agency for International Development, citing past online posts that disparage Islam on his social media."
EXCERPTS:
The Anti-Defamation League also has decried the appointment of Mark Kevin Lloyd. He started with the agency this week, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the hiring of the Virginia field director for President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Lloyd shared a post calling Islam “a barbaric cult” that year, The Associated Press reported at the time, and shared a meme — days after a mass shooting in Orlando by a Muslim pledging allegiance to the Islamic State — saying people should be forced to eat bacon before they can purchase firearms.
“How could one properly serve as USAID’s Religious Freedom Advisor while espousing a horrifyingly Islamophobic track record?” said Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage Action, a Muslim American advocacy organization, in a statement. “We are calling for Lloyd’s resignation -- because Islam cannot be the exception when assessing one’s ability to advise on religious freedoms for a government agency.”
For the initial AP report in 2016, Lloyd declined to talk without the Trump campaign’s permission, citing his nondisclosure agreement with the campaign.
A female bald eagle takes flight from a tree. (photo: Allen J. Schaben/LA Times)
Bald Eagle Nest With Eggs Spotted in Cape Cod for First Time Since 1905
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "A bald eagle nest with eggs has been discovered in Cape Cod for the first time in 115 years, according to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife."
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "A bald eagle nest with eggs has been discovered in Cape Cod for the first time in 115 years, according to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife."
That nest is part of a dramatic uptick in the number of active nests, with more than 70 spotted this spring, according to a post on the Mass Wildlife website, as CNN reported. While spotting active nests is not rare, one with eggs is. Also, for the first time, there is a documented case of eagles nesting on nearby Martha's Vineyard.
The 1905 nest with eggs was in the town of Sandwich.
On its website, Mass Wildlife said the population of bald eagles is soaring this season. The birds are currently in the middle of their nesting season, according to CBS News.
The return of bald eagles is a testament to the strength of the Endangered Species Act, since the birds have recovered from the brink of extinction. Bald eagles recently improved from threatened to special concern on the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act list thanks to successful conservation measures. Mass Wildlife embarked on an eagle reintroduction program in the 1980s that has led to an uptick in the population of bald eagles in the New England area, as CNN reported.
A bald eagle that hatched in Massachusetts holds the record for the oldest bald eagle in New Hampshire. The eagle, which was photographed in New Hampshire this spring, was identified by banding records as a 23-year-old male that hatched in Ware, Massachusetts, in 1997, according to WCVB, Boston's ABC News affiliate.
While bald eagles are no longer on the endangered species list, they are still protected under multiple federal laws, including the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
However, their new found strength could spell trouble for other birds.
In one example, Mass Wildlife said, "[a]n eagle pair took over an osprey nest and were incubating eggs when the ospreys returned from their wintering grounds. The osprey pair that most likely built the nest harassed the incubating eagle who would flip upside down with its talons in the air in defense. Eventually the eagle cracked the eggs doing this, and this historic nesting attempt failed."
In another example, "[t]wo other eagle nests on the mainland have also failed as a result of an intruding eagle invading the territory and killing the chicks in the nest."
"Although difficult for observers to witness, these events are all signs of a thriving eagle population in Massachusetts," MassWildlife said, as CBS News reported. "On the upside, more and more people across the Commonwealth are experiencing the thrill of seeing eagles in their own neighborhoods as these birds continue to expand their range to urban and suburban landscapes."
Bald eagles build the largest nests of any bird in North America. Mating pairs build their nests in winter months and then return to them every year to add to the nest.
The species holds the record for the largest nest ever recorded, with a nest spotted near St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1963 that measured nine feet, six inches wide and 20 feet deep, and was estimated to weigh more than 4,400 pounds, according to Newsweek.
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