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solarbirdAs always, a little bit of everything. But mostly racism. And possibly a hint on Lady G.
----- 1 -----
Man who drew bow and arrow on Salt Lake City protesters charged with three felonies
By Nate Carlisle
4 June 2020
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/06/04/man-who-drew-bow-arrow/
Brandon E. McCormick has said he showed up at Saturday’s downtown protest, armed with a bow and arrow, to protect police from unruly demonstrators.
Now the 57-year-old Taylorsville man, who has spent nearly two decades of his life behind bars in California and once was convicted of battery against a public safety officer, faces three felony counts for, widely shared video has shown, aiming his weapon at protesters.
All three counts are Utah’s lowest grade of felony. Each is punishable by up to five years in prison. McCormick was also charged with a misdemeanor count of threatening or using a weapon in a fight. That count carries up to a year in jail.
----- 2 -----
The Hill
twitter.com/thehill
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1268604659851239425
Sen. Lindsey Graham: "You think I am in Trump's pocket."
[EMBEDDED VIDEO: Graham claiming that Muller's report is entirely "hatred for Trump."]
----- 3 -----
GOP candidate: COVID-19 restrictions are a ‘knee on the neck’ of workers just like George Floyd
June 4, 2020
By Matthew Chapman
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/gop-candidate-covid-19-restrictions-are-a-knee-on-the-neck-of-workers-just-like-george-floyd/
On Thursday, The Daily Beast reported that Tim Eyman, one of several Republicans hoping to run against Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA), “repeatedly” compared his state’s COVID-19 restrictions to the police killing of George Floyd.
“Speaking in a Facebook live video posted over the weekend, Eyman said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) ‘has his knee on the neck’ of residents in the state who “he deems non-essential.” Eyman also said the remarks in an appearance in the city of Pasco on Tuesday,” reported Hanna Trudo. “On Thursday, he did it again, several times, posting a 20-minute video embedded in a lengthy fundraising email. ‘On Facebook live this weekend and also in Pasco on Tuesday, I said that. I’m saying it again today. I’m going to keep saying it. Because it’s true.'”
----- 4 -----
Shannon Kilpatrick
twitter.com/ShannonKilpatri
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/ShannonKilpatri/status/1268687841975918592
The Wash. Supreme Court just sent the most incredible letter to the Washington legal community about recent events. Please read it for yourself. I won't be able to do it justice.
[EMBEDDED IMAGE: SCAN OF LETTER]
[LINK TO ACTUAL LETTER:
http://www.courts.wa.gov/content/publicUpload/Supreme%20Court%20News/Judiciary%20Legal%20Community%20SIGNED%20060420.pdf
]
----- 5 -----
Minneapolis police union chief blames trans people for city’s budget woes
He's willing to excuse killer cops, but is upset that "they’re giving $15,000 a year to the transgender coordinator of the city.”
By Bil Browning Wednesday, June 3, 2020
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/06/minneapolis-police-union-chief-blames-trans-people-citys-budget-woes
Lt. Bob Kroll, the head of Minneapolis’ police union, blamed transgender people for the city’s budget woes in an interview with STIM radio host Maxwell Thomas Silverhammer.
Kroll has presided over a nationwide implosion over the rampant racism and police brutality evident in the force and his role in covering it up after the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by a white officer. In a letter to members, Kroll described Floyd as “a violent criminal” and protesters as “a terrorist movement.”
“The politicians are to blame and you are the scapegoats,” he wrote.
During his time on the force, Kroll has been involved in three police shootings and racked up at least 20 internal affairs complaints. There have also been numerous lawsuits against him and the city alleging he used excessive forces and racial slurs.
The city has asked police and other unionized workers to forgo raises this year after the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the city’s budget. Kroll told Silverhammer that he couldn’t agree to the savings because the city was wasting money by settling police brutality lawsuits and helping transgender people navigate city services.
----- 6 -----
In Idaho, armed white vigilantes mobilized for antifa protests that never occurred
June 4, 2020
By Tony Romm and Isaac Stanley-Becker
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/in-idaho-armed-white-vigilantes-mobilized-for-antifa-protests-that-never-occurred/
Protesters had only begun preparing to assemble peacefully in Idaho when a Facebook page for retired police officers advised its followers to stay on high alert.
“We will protect our neighborhoods,” it vowed.
So when early reports about potential violence surfaced just a day later — claiming “ANTIFA agitators” were storming the state this week — scores of residents took to the streets. Armed with military-style assault rifles, they stood guard in places like Coeur d’Alene, aiming to protect the resort town of 50,000 nestled along a lake in northwest Idaho.
“Enough of us swung into action, and put the word out on social media and elsewhere, that we were able to deploy and meet any violent elements that might come here from out of state,” said Trevor Treller, a sommelier and one of the armed locals. Treller, 48, said he mobilized after hearing from trusted voices that “antifa types” were on the move.
It would not prove to be true.
----- 7 -----
Family harassed in Forks after being accused of being members of Antifa
High school students help them
by Peninsula Daily News
Thursday, June 4, 2020
https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/crime/family-harassed-in-forks-after-being-accused-of-being-members-of-antifa/
FORKS —A multi-racial family of four from Spokane was accused of being members of Antifa, followed and prevented from leaving their campsite by trees felled to block the road, Clallam County Sheriff’s deputies said.
Four high school students cut the trees with chainsaws to allow the family to leave, said Sgt. Ed Anderson in a press release issued late Thursday.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is actively conducting a criminal investigation into the incident and is seeking information regarding those involved, Anderson said.
Names of the campers or the high school students were not available Thursday.
Deputies were dispatched at about 6:39 p.m. Wednesday to the Sitkum Sol Duc Road, which is known locally as the A Road, in Forks following a request for assistance from four stranded campers, Anderson said.
The campers were stranded after someone had felled alder trees across the roadway, preventing their exit from the area, he said.
The family — a husband and wife, their 16-year-old daughter and the husband’s mother — were driving a full-size school bus and had prepared to camp off a logging road spur on the A Road about 5 miles east of U.S. Highway 101, Anderson said.
The family had shopped for camping supplies at Forks Outfitters and were confronted “by seven or eight carloads of people in the grocery store parking lot,” Anderson said they reported to deputies.
“The people in the parking lot repeatedly asked them if they were Antifa protesters. The family told the people they weren’t associated with any such group and were just camping,” the press release said.
“The family had to drive their bus around vehicles in the parking lot in order to get back onto Highway 101.”
The family told deputies that at least four vehicles followed them as they drove northbound out of Forks. They said that two of the vehicles had people in them carrying what appeared to be semi-automatic rifles.
----- 8 -----
Deputies investigate after family on camping trip harassed
June 5, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/multiracial-family-harassed-accused-of-being-antifa-during-camping-trip-in-clallam-county/
FORKS, Wash. (AP) — Authorities say a multiracial family camping on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state was harassed and confronted by people who accused them of being political activists with antifa and trapped them at a remote campsite in the woods.
Sgt. Shaun Minks of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office told KOMO the family of four arrived Wednesday in the town of Forks, Washington, in an old converted school bus and stopped to buy camping supplies at a local store.
He said as they were leaving the store, the family was confronted by people in several vehicles who asked them if they were from antifa — short for “anti-fascists”— an umbrella term for leftist militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.
The family told the people they weren’t associated with any group and were camping. Minks said the family was able to drive out of the parking lot and head for a campsite off a logging road about five miles outside of Forks.
But authorities say the family became concerned later when they heard gunshots and other commotion and decided to leave. However trees had been felled across a road, trapping them.
----- 9 -----
Nancy Yang
twitter.com/n_yang
5 June 2020
https://twitter.com/n_yang/status/1268921945967300608
[THREAD]
UPDATE: Once again, the Labor Department acknowledged making errors in how it classified people as employed and said the real May rate is worse than the numbers indicate. The gov't made the same mistakes in April.
[NEXT]
The Labor Department admitted that government household survey-takers mistakenly counted about 4.9 million temporarily laid-off people as employed. The government doesn't correct its survey results for fear of the appearance of political manipulation.
[NEXT]
Had the mistake been corrected, the unemployment rate would have risen to 16.1 percent in May. But the corrected April figure would have been more than than 19 percent, rather than 14.7 percent.
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 10 -----
Fred Sargeant, who claims he was at the Stonewall Riots, says fatal shooting of Black trans man Tony McDade by a white cop is ‘a good thing’
by Vic Prasons
June 4, 2020
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/04/fred-sargeant-tony-mcdade-police-brutality-racism-stonewall-riots-lgb-alliance/
Fred Sargeant, a former policeman who claims to have been at the Stonewall Riots, has said the fatal shooting of a Black trans man by a white cop is “a good thing for all”.
Sargeant, 72, made his comments one week after Tony McDade was shot and killed by police while being chased in connection with a fatal stabbing in Tallahassee on May 27.
McDade’s death was Florida’s third fatal police shooting in two months. Two days earlier, George Floyd was also murdered in broad daylight by a white policeman.
The deaths of the two Black men at the hands of the police have led to protests against racism and police brutality in all 50 US states.
Above a video of a crowd of people in the US honouring McDade during a protest, Sargeant wrote on June 3: “Of course, no mention of Milik Jackson who McDade stabbed to death because McDade had a beef with Jackson’s family.”
He added two hashtags: #TransViolence and #PanderingToTransCriminals.
Vic Parsons
...
Fred Sargeant and the Stonewall Riots.
Fred Sargeant is an ardent supporter of the anti-trans pressure group LGB Alliance, which has links to anti-abortion and anti-LGBT+ hate groups in the US and has repeatedly refused to denounce its neo-Nazi supporters.
Sargeant and the LGB Alliance, which is applying for charitable status in the UK, frequently use his involvement in the 1969 Stonewall Riots – an uprising against police harassment of the LGBT+ community that is commonly credited as the birth of the modern gay-rights movement – to erase trans women of colour from LGBT+ history.
----- 11 -----
Cross burning on I-85 in Macon County investigated
5 June 2020
https://www.al.com/news/2020/06/cross-burning-on-i-85-in-macon-county-investigated.html
Deputies in Alabama are investigating a cross burning after a wooden cross lit ablaze was found by drivers passing alongside a bridge.
The burning cross was first seen stationed on top of a bridge over Interstate 85 in Macon County Thursday night, Macon County Sheriff Andre Brunson told WRBL-TV.
John Bolton, one of the people who saw the burning cross, told the news outlet what "looked like a shadow" fled from the scene as he ran toward the blaze with two other men who were with him. He then called 911 while "one of the guys climbed up to the bridge to knock the cross down," Bolton said.
A few minutes later, deputies arrived and helped extinguish the fire, Sheriff Brunson said. Once the fire was gone, Bolton said they saw a tire and a fuel canister had also been set on fire.
----- 12 -----
Our View: To President Trump: You should resign now
He lacks the character, maturity and judgment to lead the country in a perilous time.
5 JUNE 2020
Editorial Board
[The Portland (Maine) Press-Herald]
https://www.pressherald.com/2020/06/05/our-view-to-president-trump-you-should-resign-now/
President Trump: We’re sorry that you decided to come to Maine, but since you are here, could you do us a favor? Resign.
You have never been a good president, but today your shortcomings are unleashing historic levels of suffering on the American people.
Your slow response to the coronavirus pandemic has spun a manageable crisis into the worst public health emergency since 1918.
We are also in the middle of the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. There is no national strategy to recover from the shock that is disproportionately affecting people who were already struggling to make it.
And in the face of the worst civic unrest since 1968, with millions of Americans in the streets protesting systemic racism, you fan the flames.
In just the last week you gleefully tweeted about shooting fellow citizens; you goaded governors into escalating violent situations so they don’t “look like jerks;” and you authorized the use of rubber bullets and tear gas to clear peaceful protesters out of a public space so you could pose for a Bible-waving photo-op.
These are just a few examples of why you lack the character, maturity and judgment to lead our country in this perilous time. You should resign.
----- 13 -----
Jane Wester
twitter.com/janewester
5 June 2020
https://twitter.com/janewester/status/1269004482588876800
Breaking: Manhattan DA Vance announces his office won't prosecute unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct arrests from the protests.
----- 14 -----
_KenyaJR
twitter.com/KenyaJR4
June 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/KenyaJR4/status/1268947578642673665
twitter.com/BushSchool Diveristy & Inclusion sent a statement condemning “white supremacy” and “racist” ideals of our country. Our admins told us to remove those words because they were offensive to our white peers. They then issued an “apolgoy” to our ENTIRE student body “on our behalf”.
[EMBEDDED IMAGES OF TEXT AT TWEET]
----- 15 -----
Eric Holthaus
twitter.com/EricHolthaus
5 June 2020
https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/1268969313651875842
Trump just signed an executive order using emergency powers to gut the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act, waiving the requirement for environmental review for construction projects.
Holy shit.
[LINKS TO:
Trump signs order removing environmental review of major projects
By Rebecca Beitsch - 06/04/20
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/501258-trump-signs-order-removing-environmental-review-for-major-projects
]
----- 16 -----
Trump administration plans to cut US troops in Germany
By Ryan Browne, CNN
Updated 4:28 PM ET, Fri June 5, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/05/politics/white-house-germany-troop-reductions/index.html
Washington (CNN)The White House has asked for a substantial reduction of US military personnel stationed in Germany, according to a US defense official.
The official said that the exact size of the reduction has not been decided but a cut of 9,500 is the current tentative planning figure. The formal order to begin moving troops has yet to be given but is expected soon.
There are approximately 34,000 US troops stationed in Germany.
A spokesman for the Pentagon referred CNN to the National Security Council, which has not responded to the request for comment.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the expected drawdown.
President Donald Trump has long criticized Germany over a range of issues, particularly Berlin's failure to meet the target of 2% of GDP spending on defense that is recommended by NATO.
...
Withdrawal would be a blow to NATO
If the troops directed to leave Germany are removed from Europe entirely, the drawdown could be seen as a major blow to solidarity within the NATO alliance as many member countries continue to express concerns about the threat posed by Russia which has used military force against Ukraine in recent years.
Many European allies have openly questioned Trump's commitment to NATO which he labeled obsolete during his campaign for the presidency.
- Man who drew bow and arrow on Salt Lake City protesters charged with three felonies
- Sen. Lindsey Graham: "You think I am in Trump's pocket."
- GOP candidate: COVID-19 restrictions are a ‘knee on the neck’ of workers just like George Floyd [EDITOR'S NOTE: TIM EYMAN]
- Washington State Supreme Court letter to legal system: do better
- Minneapolis police union chief blames trans people for city’s budget woes
- In Idaho, armed white vigilantes mobilized for antifa protests that never occurred
- Family harassed in Forks after being accused of being members of Antifa
- Deputies investigate after family on camping trip harassed
- The Labor Department acknowledged making errors in how it classified people as employed and said the real May rate is worse than the numbers indicate. The gov't made the same mistakes in April.
- Fred Sargeant, who claims he was at the Stonewall Riots, says fatal shooting of Black trans man Tony McDade by a white cop is ‘a good thing’
- Cross burning on I-85 in Macon County investigated
- Our View: To President Trump: You should resign now
- Breaking: Manhattan DA Vance announces his office won't prosecute unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct arrests from the protests.
- [TEXAS A&M] Diveristy & Inclusion sent a statement condemning “white supremacy” and “racist” ideals of our country. Admins demanded those words be removed, issued apology to white students "on ... behalf" of D&I.
- Trump just signed an executive order using emergency powers to gut the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act, waiving the requirement for environmental review for construction projects.
- Trump administration plans to cut US troops in Germany
----- 1 -----
Man who drew bow and arrow on Salt Lake City protesters charged with three felonies
By Nate Carlisle
4 June 2020
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/06/04/man-who-drew-bow-arrow/
Brandon E. McCormick has said he showed up at Saturday’s downtown protest, armed with a bow and arrow, to protect police from unruly demonstrators.
Now the 57-year-old Taylorsville man, who has spent nearly two decades of his life behind bars in California and once was convicted of battery against a public safety officer, faces three felony counts for, widely shared video has shown, aiming his weapon at protesters.
All three counts are Utah’s lowest grade of felony. Each is punishable by up to five years in prison. McCormick was also charged with a misdemeanor count of threatening or using a weapon in a fight. That count carries up to a year in jail.
----- 2 -----
The Hill
twitter.com/thehill
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1268604659851239425
Sen. Lindsey Graham: "You think I am in Trump's pocket."
[EMBEDDED VIDEO: Graham claiming that Muller's report is entirely "hatred for Trump."]
----- 3 -----
GOP candidate: COVID-19 restrictions are a ‘knee on the neck’ of workers just like George Floyd
June 4, 2020
By Matthew Chapman
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/gop-candidate-covid-19-restrictions-are-a-knee-on-the-neck-of-workers-just-like-george-floyd/
On Thursday, The Daily Beast reported that Tim Eyman, one of several Republicans hoping to run against Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA), “repeatedly” compared his state’s COVID-19 restrictions to the police killing of George Floyd.
“Speaking in a Facebook live video posted over the weekend, Eyman said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) ‘has his knee on the neck’ of residents in the state who “he deems non-essential.” Eyman also said the remarks in an appearance in the city of Pasco on Tuesday,” reported Hanna Trudo. “On Thursday, he did it again, several times, posting a 20-minute video embedded in a lengthy fundraising email. ‘On Facebook live this weekend and also in Pasco on Tuesday, I said that. I’m saying it again today. I’m going to keep saying it. Because it’s true.'”
----- 4 -----
Shannon Kilpatrick
twitter.com/ShannonKilpatri
4 June 2020
https://twitter.com/ShannonKilpatri/status/1268687841975918592
The Wash. Supreme Court just sent the most incredible letter to the Washington legal community about recent events. Please read it for yourself. I won't be able to do it justice.
[EMBEDDED IMAGE: SCAN OF LETTER]
[LINK TO ACTUAL LETTER:
http://www.courts.wa.gov/content/publicUpload/Supreme%20Court%20News/Judiciary%20Legal%20Community%20SIGNED%20060420.pdf
]
----- 5 -----
Minneapolis police union chief blames trans people for city’s budget woes
He's willing to excuse killer cops, but is upset that "they’re giving $15,000 a year to the transgender coordinator of the city.”
By Bil Browning Wednesday, June 3, 2020
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/06/minneapolis-police-union-chief-blames-trans-people-citys-budget-woes
Lt. Bob Kroll, the head of Minneapolis’ police union, blamed transgender people for the city’s budget woes in an interview with STIM radio host Maxwell Thomas Silverhammer.
Kroll has presided over a nationwide implosion over the rampant racism and police brutality evident in the force and his role in covering it up after the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by a white officer. In a letter to members, Kroll described Floyd as “a violent criminal” and protesters as “a terrorist movement.”
“The politicians are to blame and you are the scapegoats,” he wrote.
During his time on the force, Kroll has been involved in three police shootings and racked up at least 20 internal affairs complaints. There have also been numerous lawsuits against him and the city alleging he used excessive forces and racial slurs.
The city has asked police and other unionized workers to forgo raises this year after the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the city’s budget. Kroll told Silverhammer that he couldn’t agree to the savings because the city was wasting money by settling police brutality lawsuits and helping transgender people navigate city services.
----- 6 -----
In Idaho, armed white vigilantes mobilized for antifa protests that never occurred
June 4, 2020
By Tony Romm and Isaac Stanley-Becker
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/in-idaho-armed-white-vigilantes-mobilized-for-antifa-protests-that-never-occurred/
Protesters had only begun preparing to assemble peacefully in Idaho when a Facebook page for retired police officers advised its followers to stay on high alert.
“We will protect our neighborhoods,” it vowed.
So when early reports about potential violence surfaced just a day later — claiming “ANTIFA agitators” were storming the state this week — scores of residents took to the streets. Armed with military-style assault rifles, they stood guard in places like Coeur d’Alene, aiming to protect the resort town of 50,000 nestled along a lake in northwest Idaho.
“Enough of us swung into action, and put the word out on social media and elsewhere, that we were able to deploy and meet any violent elements that might come here from out of state,” said Trevor Treller, a sommelier and one of the armed locals. Treller, 48, said he mobilized after hearing from trusted voices that “antifa types” were on the move.
It would not prove to be true.
----- 7 -----
Family harassed in Forks after being accused of being members of Antifa
High school students help them
by Peninsula Daily News
Thursday, June 4, 2020
https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/crime/family-harassed-in-forks-after-being-accused-of-being-members-of-antifa/
FORKS —A multi-racial family of four from Spokane was accused of being members of Antifa, followed and prevented from leaving their campsite by trees felled to block the road, Clallam County Sheriff’s deputies said.
Four high school students cut the trees with chainsaws to allow the family to leave, said Sgt. Ed Anderson in a press release issued late Thursday.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is actively conducting a criminal investigation into the incident and is seeking information regarding those involved, Anderson said.
Names of the campers or the high school students were not available Thursday.
Deputies were dispatched at about 6:39 p.m. Wednesday to the Sitkum Sol Duc Road, which is known locally as the A Road, in Forks following a request for assistance from four stranded campers, Anderson said.
The campers were stranded after someone had felled alder trees across the roadway, preventing their exit from the area, he said.
The family — a husband and wife, their 16-year-old daughter and the husband’s mother — were driving a full-size school bus and had prepared to camp off a logging road spur on the A Road about 5 miles east of U.S. Highway 101, Anderson said.
The family had shopped for camping supplies at Forks Outfitters and were confronted “by seven or eight carloads of people in the grocery store parking lot,” Anderson said they reported to deputies.
“The people in the parking lot repeatedly asked them if they were Antifa protesters. The family told the people they weren’t associated with any such group and were just camping,” the press release said.
“The family had to drive their bus around vehicles in the parking lot in order to get back onto Highway 101.”
The family told deputies that at least four vehicles followed them as they drove northbound out of Forks. They said that two of the vehicles had people in them carrying what appeared to be semi-automatic rifles.
----- 8 -----
Deputies investigate after family on camping trip harassed
June 5, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/multiracial-family-harassed-accused-of-being-antifa-during-camping-trip-in-clallam-county/
FORKS, Wash. (AP) — Authorities say a multiracial family camping on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state was harassed and confronted by people who accused them of being political activists with antifa and trapped them at a remote campsite in the woods.
Sgt. Shaun Minks of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office told KOMO the family of four arrived Wednesday in the town of Forks, Washington, in an old converted school bus and stopped to buy camping supplies at a local store.
He said as they were leaving the store, the family was confronted by people in several vehicles who asked them if they were from antifa — short for “anti-fascists”— an umbrella term for leftist militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.
The family told the people they weren’t associated with any group and were camping. Minks said the family was able to drive out of the parking lot and head for a campsite off a logging road about five miles outside of Forks.
But authorities say the family became concerned later when they heard gunshots and other commotion and decided to leave. However trees had been felled across a road, trapping them.
----- 9 -----
Nancy Yang
twitter.com/n_yang
5 June 2020
https://twitter.com/n_yang/status/1268921945967300608
[THREAD]
UPDATE: Once again, the Labor Department acknowledged making errors in how it classified people as employed and said the real May rate is worse than the numbers indicate. The gov't made the same mistakes in April.
[NEXT]
The Labor Department admitted that government household survey-takers mistakenly counted about 4.9 million temporarily laid-off people as employed. The government doesn't correct its survey results for fear of the appearance of political manipulation.
[NEXT]
Had the mistake been corrected, the unemployment rate would have risen to 16.1 percent in May. But the corrected April figure would have been more than than 19 percent, rather than 14.7 percent.
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 10 -----
Fred Sargeant, who claims he was at the Stonewall Riots, says fatal shooting of Black trans man Tony McDade by a white cop is ‘a good thing’
by Vic Prasons
June 4, 2020
https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/04/fred-sargeant-tony-mcdade-police-brutality-racism-stonewall-riots-lgb-alliance/
Fred Sargeant, a former policeman who claims to have been at the Stonewall Riots, has said the fatal shooting of a Black trans man by a white cop is “a good thing for all”.
Sargeant, 72, made his comments one week after Tony McDade was shot and killed by police while being chased in connection with a fatal stabbing in Tallahassee on May 27.
McDade’s death was Florida’s third fatal police shooting in two months. Two days earlier, George Floyd was also murdered in broad daylight by a white policeman.
The deaths of the two Black men at the hands of the police have led to protests against racism and police brutality in all 50 US states.
Above a video of a crowd of people in the US honouring McDade during a protest, Sargeant wrote on June 3: “Of course, no mention of Milik Jackson who McDade stabbed to death because McDade had a beef with Jackson’s family.”
He added two hashtags: #TransViolence and #PanderingToTransCriminals.
Vic Parsons
...
Fred Sargeant and the Stonewall Riots.
Fred Sargeant is an ardent supporter of the anti-trans pressure group LGB Alliance, which has links to anti-abortion and anti-LGBT+ hate groups in the US and has repeatedly refused to denounce its neo-Nazi supporters.
Sargeant and the LGB Alliance, which is applying for charitable status in the UK, frequently use his involvement in the 1969 Stonewall Riots – an uprising against police harassment of the LGBT+ community that is commonly credited as the birth of the modern gay-rights movement – to erase trans women of colour from LGBT+ history.
----- 11 -----
Cross burning on I-85 in Macon County investigated
5 June 2020
https://www.al.com/news/2020/06/cross-burning-on-i-85-in-macon-county-investigated.html
Deputies in Alabama are investigating a cross burning after a wooden cross lit ablaze was found by drivers passing alongside a bridge.
The burning cross was first seen stationed on top of a bridge over Interstate 85 in Macon County Thursday night, Macon County Sheriff Andre Brunson told WRBL-TV.
John Bolton, one of the people who saw the burning cross, told the news outlet what "looked like a shadow" fled from the scene as he ran toward the blaze with two other men who were with him. He then called 911 while "one of the guys climbed up to the bridge to knock the cross down," Bolton said.
A few minutes later, deputies arrived and helped extinguish the fire, Sheriff Brunson said. Once the fire was gone, Bolton said they saw a tire and a fuel canister had also been set on fire.
----- 12 -----
Our View: To President Trump: You should resign now
He lacks the character, maturity and judgment to lead the country in a perilous time.
5 JUNE 2020
Editorial Board
[The Portland (Maine) Press-Herald]
https://www.pressherald.com/2020/06/05/our-view-to-president-trump-you-should-resign-now/
President Trump: We’re sorry that you decided to come to Maine, but since you are here, could you do us a favor? Resign.
You have never been a good president, but today your shortcomings are unleashing historic levels of suffering on the American people.
Your slow response to the coronavirus pandemic has spun a manageable crisis into the worst public health emergency since 1918.
We are also in the middle of the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. There is no national strategy to recover from the shock that is disproportionately affecting people who were already struggling to make it.
And in the face of the worst civic unrest since 1968, with millions of Americans in the streets protesting systemic racism, you fan the flames.
In just the last week you gleefully tweeted about shooting fellow citizens; you goaded governors into escalating violent situations so they don’t “look like jerks;” and you authorized the use of rubber bullets and tear gas to clear peaceful protesters out of a public space so you could pose for a Bible-waving photo-op.
These are just a few examples of why you lack the character, maturity and judgment to lead our country in this perilous time. You should resign.
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Jane Wester
twitter.com/janewester
5 June 2020
https://twitter.com/janewester/status/1269004482588876800
Breaking: Manhattan DA Vance announces his office won't prosecute unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct arrests from the protests.
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_KenyaJR
twitter.com/KenyaJR4
June 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/KenyaJR4/status/1268947578642673665
twitter.com/BushSchool Diveristy & Inclusion sent a statement condemning “white supremacy” and “racist” ideals of our country. Our admins told us to remove those words because they were offensive to our white peers. They then issued an “apolgoy” to our ENTIRE student body “on our behalf”.
[EMBEDDED IMAGES OF TEXT AT TWEET]
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Eric Holthaus
twitter.com/EricHolthaus
5 June 2020
https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/1268969313651875842
Trump just signed an executive order using emergency powers to gut the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act, waiving the requirement for environmental review for construction projects.
Holy shit.
[LINKS TO:
Trump signs order removing environmental review of major projects
By Rebecca Beitsch - 06/04/20
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/501258-trump-signs-order-removing-environmental-review-for-major-projects
]
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Trump administration plans to cut US troops in Germany
By Ryan Browne, CNN
Updated 4:28 PM ET, Fri June 5, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/05/politics/white-house-germany-troop-reductions/index.html
Washington (CNN)The White House has asked for a substantial reduction of US military personnel stationed in Germany, according to a US defense official.
The official said that the exact size of the reduction has not been decided but a cut of 9,500 is the current tentative planning figure. The formal order to begin moving troops has yet to be given but is expected soon.
There are approximately 34,000 US troops stationed in Germany.
A spokesman for the Pentagon referred CNN to the National Security Council, which has not responded to the request for comment.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the expected drawdown.
President Donald Trump has long criticized Germany over a range of issues, particularly Berlin's failure to meet the target of 2% of GDP spending on defense that is recommended by NATO.
...
Withdrawal would be a blow to NATO
If the troops directed to leave Germany are removed from Europe entirely, the drawdown could be seen as a major blow to solidarity within the NATO alliance as many member countries continue to express concerns about the threat posed by Russia which has used military force against Ukraine in recent years.
Many European allies have openly questioned Trump's commitment to NATO which he labeled obsolete during his campaign for the presidency.
no subject
Date: 2020-06-06 03:53 am (UTC)