solarbird | Today's News (2020/6/14): Politics edition

The Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You This
Starbucks to allow baristas to wear Black Lives Matter attire and accessories after social media backlash
Melania Trump used her delayed arrival to the White House as leverage for renegotiating her prenuptial agreement with President Trump
'Scares me to death': Georgia Republicans fret voting-access issue could sink Trump
Shocked locals make public apology to Spokane family harassed in Forks
In the new Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, protesters come together to give aid and fight for change
What the hell does this even mean? No, really, what.
Study finds the most racially prejudiced people tend to think that they are less racist than the average person
Echoes of the Past: What One of Seattle’s First Laws Can Teach us About the Colonial Legacy of Displacement by Criminalization
HHS finally implements rule allowing carte blanche discrimination against transgendered people in the US, including complete withholding of care
Devin Nunes’ attorney says he’s at ‘dead end’ in quest to reveal identity of Twitter cow
If you don't quite understand what horror the Trump administration inflicted today on transgender and non-binary people seeking medical care and why we're scared, let me tell you a quick story.
Trump administration issues rule to curtail health protections for transgender people
Most of the causes of the collapse in crime over the last 30 years in the developed world likely had nothing to do with police, and won't be coming back if police are gone
Don't be fooled into thinking Republicans are split over Trump

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The Mainstream Media Won’t Tell You This
Peddle misinformation. Cry “conspiracy” when no one else reports it. Repeat.
Story by Helen Lewis
12 June 2020

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/06/conspiracy-mainstream-media-trump-farage-journalism/612628/

It is strange to watch the creation of a new culture-war meme in real time. Talking directly to the camera from a fishing trawler, Nigel Farage takes a concerned and somber tone. The pro-Brexit politician says he has uncovered a huge scandal—migrant boats traveling from France to England, escorted into British waters by the French navy. He is worried for those on board: Once in Britain, they risk becoming “modern-day slave labor.” Gesturing offscreen, Farage adds: “You might as well have a big sign on the White Cliffs of Dover, over there, that says ‘Anyone that comes to Britain illegally can stay’ … We are being taken for a ride by everybody, including the French navy.”

Farage is a well-known figure in Britain, thanks to his leadership of the U.K. Independence Party, and then his own Brexit Party. Since Brexit was secured, he has reinvented himself as the closest thing Britain has to a Rush Limbaugh–style provocateur. His video has more than 250,000 views on YouTube, and has also been distributed to his 1.5 million Twitter followers and 974,000 Facebook followers. To put those figures in context, after years of decline and a precipitous drop caused by the coronavirus lockdown, no British newspaper now has a circulation as large as Farage’s Twitter following. Social media gives him the reach of a traditional media organization, but few of its obligations.

If you want to understand the conspiracist turn in modern politics, then Farage’s video series, shot during the pandemic, is a good place to start. His reports on migrant boats coming to Britain are filed on his YouTube channel under “Investigations” and are designed to look like traditional investigative journalism. They even adopt the tropes of British television-news reporting—the sad, falling intonation; the piece to camera; the languorous establishing shots of the sea.

They are, however, better seen as a dare: Unless media outlets repeat and amplify whatever he says, they are “sneering” and corrupt. Farage’s videos tell a simple story, with a victim—Britain, which is “being taken for a ride”—and a villain: not the migrants themselves, which might trigger accusations of racism, but France, a country typically presented in British folk mythology as arrogant and lazy. (Look at them with their short working weeks and their Gauloise-smoking intellectuals!)

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Starbucks to allow baristas to wear Black Lives Matter attire and accessories after social media backlash
Jun 12 20209:50 AM EDT
Amelia Lucas

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/12/starbucks-to-allow-baristas-to-wear-black-lives-matter-attire-and-accessories-after-backlash.html

* Starbucks will allow workers to wear attire and accessories highlighting the Black Lives Matter movement, reversing its prior policy.

* After Buzzfeed reported the chain’s initial policy, consumers on social media began calling for boycotts of the coffee chain.

* The company will make 250,000 shirts with a design that includes “Black Lives Matter” and “No Justice, No Peace” available to workers.

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Carlos Lozada
twitter.com/CarlosLozadaWP
12 June 2020

https://twitter.com/CarlosLozadaWP/status/1271391367793643526

“Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan reveals in a new book that the first lady was also using her delayed arrival to the White House as leverage for renegotiating her prenuptial agreement with President Trump.” In twitter.com/marycjordan’s new Melania book

[LINKS TO:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/melania-book-art-of-her-deal-prenup-white-house/2020/06/11/ce63ec02-abec-11ea-94d2-d7bc43b26bf9_story.html

]

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'Scares me to death': Georgia Republicans fret voting-access issue could sink Trump
by David M. Drucker
June 12, 2020

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/scares-me-to-death-georgia-republicans-fret-voting-access-issue-could-sink-trump

Republican insiders in Georgia are warning after a balloting meltdown in Fulton County that Democrats could wield voting rights like a cudgel, galvanizing turnout this fall to defeat President Trump in the traditionally red state.

Georgia Republicans blame problems that plagued Georgia’s primary on Democratic officials running Fulton County, a diverse enclave in metro Atlanta with a population that is nearly 44% black.

But Republicans worry they are arguing in vain. Democratic turnout among white and black voters was high in this week’s elections, even in predominantly GOP precincts. They fear it could reach historic levels in November if Democrats manage to demonize Republicans as actively suppressing minorities from voting.

In a state trending competitive, that could cost Trump Georgia’s critical 16 votes in the Electoral College against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. A sunbelt loss would jeopardize his reelection.

“It scares me to death. I’ve gotten very little sleep,” a veteran Republican strategist in Georgia said following the primary. “They’re going to fire up an already fired-up base, and that concerns me for November.”

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Shocked locals make public apology to Spokane family harassed in Forks
June 12, 2020 at 12:18 am Updated June 12, 2020 at 5:56 am
By Riley Haun

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/northwest/shocked-locals-make-public-apology-to-spokane-family-harassed-in-forks/

Ankur Shah has lived on the Olympic Peninsula all his life. What he saw on June 3 is not the community he knows.

Last week, a Spokane family camping near the town of Forks, Washington, was confronted by “seven or eight carloads of people” demanding to know if they were antifa protesters in a grocery store parking lot as they stopped to buy supplies. When they left for the campsite, several cars followed them. Fearing for their safety, the family tried to go home later that night – only to find trees cut down, blocking their way out.

The Spokane family was described as multiracial, consisting of a husband and wife, their 16-year-old daughter and the husband’s mother, according to the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office. Four Forks High School students cut through the trees, letting the family out.

Shah, who lives in the nearby town of Sequim, heard about what happened through friends and social media before local media broke the story.

“I was absolutely horrified, and completely surprised,” Shah said. “I’m a person of color myself, and I have never in my life heard of something like this happening here.”

A few days later, Shah was on a hike with a group of friends in the nearby forest. The whole group was “equally shocked” about the recent events in Forks, Shah said. They all wanted to reach out, person-to-person, with an apology on behalf of Clallam County. But the sheriff’s office hasn’t released the family’s names, making a personal conversation impossible.

One friend had the idea to place an ad in the newspaper, apologizing in the hopes the family would somehow see it. The group drafted the letter there and then, on a tiny beach tucked away in the forest. They weren’t trying to make a political statement or point fingers at the town of Forks, Shah said. They simply wanted to say “We’re sorry.”

On Thursday, the letter appeared on the front page of The Spokesman-Review.

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In the new Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, protesters come together to give aid and fight for change
By Becca Savransky, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Published 8:38 am PDT, Thursday, June 11, 2020

https://www.seattlepi.com/seattlenews/article/In-the-new-Capitol-Hill-Autonomous-Zone-15330353.php

Standing on a ladder next to the Seattle Police Department's East precinct, a person wearing a yellow construction helmet on Tuesday hung a new sign to the now boarded up building marking the day after Seattle Police left the area. "This space is now property of the Seattle People," the sign read in large red letters on black canvas. A green sign now hangs next to it, welcoming people to the newly coined "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone."

The day after Seattle Police removed officers from in front of the precinct -- following days where a stand-off between protesters and police repeatedly resulted in officers using tear gas, flashbangs and pepper spray -- reflected a new step as protesters continue to fight against police brutality and demand change. The neighborhood no longer looked like a "warzone," as some protesters and elected officials have described it.

Instead, stations staffed with volunteers handing out food, water, Gatorade, snacks and other supplies lined the streets. Several volunteer medics with a red cross taped to their clothing or helmets sat at tables behind a restaurant, ready to help any protesters who had been injured. Throughout the week, medics have helped people wash out their eyes after being tear gassed or pepper-sprayed or tended to people who had been hit and injured by flashbangs.

There were signs clearly indicated smoking zones, urging people to consider their neighbor's health. People handed out masks and hand sanitizer, trying to keep their neighbors and fellow protesters safe. Joshua Jacobs sat in a chair next to an aid station with a makeshift roof made from umbrellas giving out name tags.

Jacobs said he's come to the protests several times throughout the past week. The community has been incredibly supportive, he said, noting the only violence he has seen has been from the police.

"People are helping each other, providing food and water and sanitizer and masks and it's really just the entire community coming together," he said.

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Daniel Dale
twitter.com/ddale8
12 June 2020

https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1271500474580185088

Here's the transcript of Trump's remarks on how Abraham Lincoln "did good, although it's always questionable, you know, in other words, the end result..."

[EMBEDDED IMAGE of transcript]

[TRANSCRIPT BY EDITOR:

TRUMP: "So I think I've done more for the black community than any other president. And let's take a pass on Abraham Lincoln, 'cause he did good, although it's always questionable, you know, in other words, the end result --
FAULKNER: "Well, we are free, Mr. President --"
TRUMP: "But we are free --"
FAULKNER: "So he did pretty well."
TRUMP: "You understand what I mean."
FAULKNER: "Yeah, no, I get it."
TRUMP: "So I'm gonna take a pass on Abe, Abe -- Honest Abe as we call him."
FAULKNER: "But you say you've done more than anybody."
TRUMP: "Well, look, criminal justice reform. Nobody else could've done it. I did it. I didn't get a lot of notoriety, and the fact the people I did it for then go on television and thank everybody but me. And they needed me to get it done, and I got it done."

]

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Study finds the most racially prejudiced people tend to think that they are less racist than the average person
By Eric W. Dolan June 8, 2020

https://www.psypost.org/2020/06/study-finds-the-most-racially-prejudiced-people-tend-to-think-that-they-are-less-racist-than-the-average-person-56991

New research indicates that the Dunning-Kruger effect — meaning the tendency for less competent individuals to overestimate their competence — can be applied to prejudicial attitudes. The study, which appears in Personality and Individual Differences, found that the least egalitarian individuals tended to be those who overestimated their levels of egalitarianism the most.

“I’m generally interested in how prejudice works and in why it’s sometimes difficult to get people to become less prejudiced. This study opened a window into understanding why some people don’t know that they’re prejudiced, and why those people might be particularly difficult to reach,” said study author Keon West, an associate professor of social psychology and the director of Equalab at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The researchers examined who was the most likely to overestimate their level of egalitarianism in two studies with 307 participants.

Participants were asked to report how egalitarian they believed they were in regards to race (in the first study) or gender (in the second study) compared to the other people. They then stated their favorability towards Black people or women in the workplace. The participants also completed Implicit Association Tests (IATs), which measured implicit biases related to race or gender.

The researchers found that those who reported feeling the most unfavorable toward Black people and displayed the most implicit bias toward Black people were also the ones who most strongly overestimated their racial egalitarianism. Similarly, those who reported feeling the most unfavorable toward women in the workplace and displayed the most implicit bias toward women were also the ones who most strongly overestimated their gender-based egalitarianism.

“You don’t know how prejudiced you are. The most egalitarian people in any given group (i.e., the least prejudiced) tend to think of themselves as above-average (or less prejudiced than the average person in the group),” West told PsyPost.

“But unfortunately, the least egalitarian people in the group also think they’re above average. In other words, even the most prejudiced people tend to think that they are less prejudiced than the average. Do you think you’re less prejudiced than the average person? Probably. But that tells you nothing about where you actually stand.”

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Echoes of the Past: What One of Seattle’s First Laws Can Teach us About the Colonial Legacy of Displacement by Criminalization
klopfenpop
Apr 23, 2019 · 7 min read

https://medium.com/@klopfenpop/echoes-of-the-past-what-one-of-seattles-first-laws-can-teach-us-about-the-colonial-legacy-of-d727756e4bb8

[EDITOR: I've known Klop for a while. He's a good egg.]

The first time camping was made illegal in Seattle was on February 7, 1865, just 24 days after its incorporation as a town. On that brisk winter Tuesday, the Seattle Board of Trustees enacted Seattle Ordinance No. 5. This ordinance made it a criminal offense for any indigenous people to "reside, or locate their residences on any street, highway, lane, or alley or any vacant lot in the town of Seattle" where the Coast Salish people had been camping and actively cultivating the land continually for millennia.

Clearly, this law was not about camping; it was a precisely targeted criminalization of a specific disenfranchised population. It was one thinly veiled assault among a sustained campaign of colonial dispossession and displacement. These colonial practices of taking resources and land from others, while directly violent on occasion, are much more often carried out via indirect, bureaucratic channels largely inaccessible to the impacted population. This was already a well-established displacement tactic then, and it is certainly nothing new, now.

While the optics may change, this practice has continued to evolve and thrive into the current day. Entirely regardless of intent, any time a coalition of a privileged class status successfully seeks to criminalize a people group distinguished by their underprivileged class status, the result is precisely dispossession and displacement. Those campaigning to garner support tend to use a patriarchal framing of "protection for one’s own good"—typically both of "us from them" and of "them from themselves."

Whether by weaponizing the government’s effective monopoly on the use of force or by enacting domestic terrorism from behind the shield of privilege, when privileged people move into the neighborhood and start trying to push out communities who do not have the power to fight back, the century doesn’t much change the power dynamics or culpabilities in play.

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Katelyn Burns
twitter.com/transscribe

https://twitter.com/transscribe/status/1271540717958152193

[THREAD]

And just like that, the Trump administration defines sex as defined by biology and wipes out health care discrimination protections for all trans people in the US.

[LINKS TO:

https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/06/12/hhs-finalizes-rule-section-1557-protecting-civil-rights-healthcare.html

"HHS Finalizes Rule on Section 1557 Protecting Civil Rights in Healthcare, Restoring the Rule of Law, and Relieving Americans of Billions in Excessive Costs"

]

[NEXT]

It means we have no legal recourse if a doctor chooses to misgender us or withhold care until we detransition, or outright refuse to give us care because we are trans.

[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]

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Devin Nunes’ attorney says he’s at ‘dead end’ in quest to reveal identity of Twitter cow | The Fresno Bee
By Kate Irby
June 12, 2020

https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/article243488476.html

RICHMOND, Va. - The attorney for Rep. Devin Nunes said on Friday that he is at a “dead end” in attempting to identify anonymous people who criticize the California Republican on Twitter as he asked a Virginia judge to hold the company responsible for social media criticism.

Nunes, R-Tulare, filed a lawsuit against Twitter last year alleging he was defamed on Twitter by Republican political strategist Liz Mair and the writers behind anonymous social media accounts that call themselves “Devin Nunes’ Cow” and “Devin Nunes’ Mom.”

Nunes’ attorney and lawyers for Twitter were in court on the social media company’s motion to dismiss the case. The San Francisco-based company argues it is protected from lawsuits like Nunes’ under a federal law that says social media companies like Twitter are not liable for what people post on their platforms if they don’t have a hand in creating the content.

Nunes’ attorney Steven Biss said that Twitter should not qualify for immunity under the law, known as Section 230, contending it treats Nunes unfairly.

“They’re doing more than allowing Liz Mair, the cow and the mom to post a tweet,” Biss said. “They’re censoring, they’re promoting an anti-Nunes agenda, they’re banning conservative accounts and they’re knowingly encouraging it.”

Judge John Marshall did not issue a ruling on Twitter’s motion. He raised pointed questions about Nunes’ arguments, citing the federal law that broadly protects social media companies from defamation lawsuits.

Even if Twitter had done what Nunes alleged, the immunity provided by Section 230 does not depend on whether Twitter is a neutral site, Marshall said.

“I don’t know of any requirement in the law that says these sites have to be neutral,” Marshall said. “Just because you don’t like it and asked to have them take it down, doesn’t mean they’re liable if they don’t take it down.”

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Charlotte Clymer
twitter.com/cmclymer
12 June 2020

https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1271582504684847108

[THREAD]

If you don't quite understand what horror the Trump administration inflicted today on transgender and non-binary people seeking medical care and why we're scared, let me tell you a quick story.

[TW: transphobia, trans death]

[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]

----- 13 -----
Trump administration issues rule to curtail health protections for transgender people
The change to the Affordable Care Act will eliminate protections from discrimination based on gender identity.
By Dennis Romero
12 June 2020

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trump-administration-issues-rule-curtail-health-protections-transgender-people-n1230921

[EDITOR: Twitter, btw, notes correctly that "The move was announced on the 4-year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting and during Pride Month." Because of course. It's not just enough to be both cruel and evil; they also have to be petty.]

The Trump administration on Friday finalized its rollback of protections against gender identity discrimination in health care regulated by the Affordable Care Act.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement it would recognize "sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word 'sex' as male or female and as determined by biology."

The move means insurance policies and health care regulated under the Obama-era Affordable Care Act can deny services to transgender people. HHS said it is reverting to a time when the government "declined to recognize sexual orientation as a protected category under the ACA."

A number of organizations strongly criticized the move, with the Human Rights Campaign vowing to sue in an attempt to block the new rule.

...

Critics say the move will impact LGBTQ people and others with HIV while allowing health care providers opposed to abortion to deny services.

Health and Human Services argues the rule will save taxpayers "$2.9 billion in undue and ineffective regulatory burdens over five years," according to its statement.

The department said the rule change is consistent with a 2016 federal court ruling saying the protections weren't consistent with civil rights and religious freedom precedent and law. Health and Human Services effectively vacated the protections last year.

The National LGBTQ Task Force said more than 134,000 Americans have opposed the changes on the record during the mandated public comment period.

----- 14 -----
Peter T Charles
twitter.com/p_t_charles
12 June 2020

https://twitter.com/p_t_charles/status/1271476401796001792

[THREAD]

1/ Something that should probably be part of the policing discussion now unfolding in front of us is that so many of the causes of the collapse in crime over the last 30 years in the developed world likely had nothing to do with police, and won't be coming back if police are gone

[NEXT]

2/ The rise of the credit card and payday loan industries (exploitative though they both are in their own ways) just absolutely crushed organized crime loan sharking, and deprived the mob of a huge amount of revenue, which is not returning

[NEXT]

3/ The internet (and more lax casino laws) also effectively wiped out gambling revenues from large-scale criminal operations, which previously formed a huge proportion of their incomes

[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]

[EDITOR: Something he doesn't mention is consolidation of service companies. There was a story some years ago about the old mob trying to lean on trash collection in some city in New Jersey and strolled in to offer their usual kind of bribe/extortion combination, and it was like that scene in the first Austin Powers movie where Dr. Evil got the ransom amount sadly, hilariously wrong. "We gross more than that in a day" kind of wrong and they just walked out, humiliated.]

----- 15 -----
Don't be fooled into thinking Republicans are split over Trump
Opinion by Julian Zelizer
Updated 9:55 PM ET, Sun June 14, 2020

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/14/opinions/republican-gop-trump-election-zelizer/index.html

(CNN) - Breaking news: Republicans might finally be willing to break with President Donald Trump. Following the president's performance with Covid-19 as well as his response to the Black Lives Matters protests there have been a number of stories speculating about whether the GOP will finally come undone.

The drama is greatly exaggerated. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski told reporters that she is "struggling" to figure out how to vote in November ... When Colin Powell announced that he would support Joe Biden and former president George W. Bush revealed he would not support Trump, the New York Times reporters a "growing number" of Republicans were debating how far to go.

The speculation about internal handwringing and possible "turning points" within the GOP never ends. It's the drama that never happens, but one the press loves to keep following.

It needs to stop. The notion that there is a major fissure between the Republicans and President Trump simply masks the character of the modern party. Republicans nominated and elected Donald Trump to be President four years ago. They have stood by him, and done so even in the toughest of times. Nothing, even his "fine people" remarks after a 2017 white supremacist march in Charlottesville or his recent hardline response to mass marches over George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police, shakes this.

When we look at President Trump we see the modern party before our very eyes. Stories about internal division mask this basic reality and suggest that there are greater options outside the Democratic Party than actually exist.