TWO WAY STREET

(Special ask: Please call Governor Newsome at 916 445-2841. There are now hundreds of cases of COVID at San Quentin. Identify yourself, and leave a message for the governor. Ask him to declare clemency for those prisoners who have only a short time left to serve to be sent home to relieve the 190% overcrowding.)

TWO WAY STREET

Thursday of this week a navy destroyer, the U.S.S. Carl Nitze sailed into Venezuelan waters on what it called in new-speak a “freedom of navigation” operation, which means freedom for just-us, and blip for you. This action is just another of the dying Empire’s bullying tactics that have been its predictable practice since the signing of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823.       

Knee to neck and neck to knee, who could ever have imagined that specific choke hold would become the spark that would ignite a rebellion already smoldering with massive job and housing loss and the twin plagues of COVID 19, and a bogus president?  It’s that knee to neck suffocation I hope to train my lens on today: the import - export of a commodity called murder.

Here at home, it is the violence of our police shored up by qualified immunity and by repeated re-hiring of fired violent cops that triggers our attention. And what is the origin of that occupying-level of violence?

Location of police violence in the U.S.

For the past twenty years, ever since 9/11, and the Project for the New American Century which advocated for the conquest of seven Middle East countries in seven years, domestic municipal police have grown dependent on the Israeli Defense Forces, the IDF to train its domestic police. Captains from cities like Ferguson have gone to Israel, and Israeli trainers have come here to train whole squads.

The goal of the IDF, its recruits drawn from the Israeli civilian population, has been annihilation of Palestine, and Palestinians, by shooting, torture, imprisonment, home demolition, obliteration of over 400 villages, and murder. It’s culture is that of an occupying force licensed to kill and deprive Palestinians of life, liberty and happiness. This is where our police goes to train. Is it any wonder that the IDF culture of occupation has metastacized to these shores and that municipal police forces and other so-called law-keeping bodies are behaving like occupational forces in their own country?

Export - Import of Murder

While this movement from East to West continues, equal forces have been going from West to East.  Specifically I refer to the beginnings of Middle East distabilization in Gulf I, where General ‘stormin Normin’ Schwartzkopf decimated the retreating Iraqi army as it fled the Kuwaiti border ‘like shooting fishin a barrel.’ Followed by the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq, eventually igniting war in Yemen, Somalia, Libya, as well as repeated violation of Pakistans’s sovereign territory.  

Shock & Awe: invasion of Baghdad

 

This wave of conquest meant to be a dying Empire’s show of force required a constantly self-enriching munitions industry to the great benefit of the elite, many of them members of Congress, and a poverty draft which ensures that, unlike during the Vietnam War era, the American public remains relatively aloof and unconcerned because it goes on in someone else’s backyard, and its army consists of poor farm boys, and boys (disproportionally people of color) recruited from the ghettoes of its megalopolises. Once their tour of duty and forced redeployments are concluded, these poor boys come home to their families and communities either wrecked by PTSD and its crippling anxieties, or they join the municipal police force where their taste for combat can continue to be expressed. (Chauvin, George Floyd’s killer, served for eight years in the army reserve.) Make no mistake, the lust for power, and killing can become an addiction. (See Chris Hedges: War is a Force that Give Us Meaning; Joseba Zulaika’s anthropologist’s perspective in Fire at Paradise Ranch; and Robert Fisk’s Great War for Civilization.) 

Miami officer sits in armed vehicle watching protesters

A third force is at work here with the glut of over-designed weaponry that munitions makers keep churning out, their overflow often devolving via the 1033 program onto municipal police forces who buy bargain-basement tanks, armored vehicles, sound canons, tear gas, and assault rifles, this last movement representing our wars coming home to roost.

In conclusion, it might seem as though both movements, one from East to West, the other the reverse, have become a feedback loop

To disarm one will require disarming the other. And if we are to disarm our police, as a people we just might  have to consider declaring peace.

Police are trained by the IDF to apply knee to neck chokeholds. Refuse police brutality now.

End qualified immunity.

End the 1033 programme providing battle-grade weaponry to police.

End US.-Israeli IDF partnership.

 

Please sign: Elected officials must reject campaign contributions from the Fraternal Order of Police.

Now that Engel has been defeated by Bowman, please sign for a progressive leadership prioritizing peace over militarism.

Progressive activists help stop Pentagon’s attempt to weaken lobbying rules.

To shift funds from “endless wars” to “human needs,” Sanders unveils amendment to slash Pentagon budget by $75 billion.

Police under pressure to end training programmes with Israel.

ACLU files federal lawsuit over police use of force during anti-racism protests.

Super victory for ending police violence: new Colorado law ends qualified immunity for police.

Seattle police union expelled from large labor group because the guild failed to address racism within its ranks.

911 services that dispatch mental health counselors instead of cops gain traction.

Nationwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations continue long quest for environmental justice.

Black Lives Matter protests shift to racial justice dialogues in pro sports.

Three men accused of hunting down, killing Ahmaud Arbery are indicted on murder charges.

ACLU demands lawmakers act after Michigan man wrongfully arrested ‘because face   recognition can’t tell black people apart.’

Boston City Council bans facial recognition surveillance.

In Minnesota, Ellison announces climate lawsuit against Exxon, Koch, and API.

DC follows Minnesota in launching fossil fuel lawsuit alleging it “mislead consumers and discredited climate science in pursuit of profits.”

California passes historic rule that puts more electric trucks on the road.

States passing vote-by-mail see record breaking turnout.

Huge victory for Alabama voters as appellate court okays curb-side voting for COVID-vulnerable voters.

Calls to defund and abolish police departments fuel movements to dismantle them on college campuses.

Oakland, Seattle and San Francisco School Boards vote to disband its own police,

House passes D.C. statehood bill.

After years of advocacy, Chicago Police Department policy removes to-called school resource officers from involvement in day-to-day disciplinary matters.

Mindful of Brenna Taylor’s murder, City of Louisville bans no-knock warrants.

Uber drivers protest outside CEO’s home to demand labor protections.

Barnes and Noble warehouse workers organize to protect themselves from the pandemic.

As of June 19, 540 worker-staged wild cat strikes support BLM.

Cost-to-coast rallied insist on keeping U.S. Postal service viable

After attacking Medicare for All as “unrealistic” during primary, Biden now says healthcare amid pandemic is a “right for all”.

Protesters blockade central N. Carolina prison.

Administration’s request to bock Bolton’s book is denied.

“No one is above the law,”: Federal Court rules #45 effort to seize Pentagon funds to build border wall is illegal.

Tulsa #45 comeback tanks.

Arizona AG sends cease & desist order to Phoenix church hosted #45

Barr agrees to testify on politicization of DOJ as judiciary chairman slams AG as #45 fixer.

U. Florida announces it will no longer use unpaid labor.

House Dems introduce bill preventing Big Pharma price-gouging during pandemic.

Bayer Settles glyphosate cancer lawsuits for $10.9 billion.

Armed protesters peacefully march on Oklahoma Governor’s mansion.

Protest at Rutgers against austerity response to pandemic.

’60 Minutes’ give Assange fair shake.

‘Workers First’ car caravans drive mass turnouts nationwide.

Palestinian citizens of Israel protest land grab in Negev Desert.

Thousands of Palestinians protest against Israeli annexation plan.

UN chief calls on Israel to abandon illegal annexation plan.

Over one million view Poor People’s Assembly and moral march on
Washington.

Homeless Philadelphians move into vacant city-owned homes.

Be cause COVID leaving detention centers ‘on fire,’ judge orders release of children held by ICE.

#flattenICE campaign announces the release of 12 immigrants at risk from COVID-19 from ICE custody.

Nicaragua achieves millennial development goal of cutting undernutrition in half to 1 million in 2014-16.

Venezuela sure UK over frozen gold.

AOC trounces Wall Street-backed Democratic primary opponent with the fake address.

Progressives Jamaal Bowman and Mondaire Jones and Julia Salazar win primaries.

Booker takes lead over McGrath in Kentucky

Even cats can count to three

Three simultaneous issues may have exceeded human mental capacity to count. While human attention seems to be focused globally on a cocktail of racism and pandemic, no one seems to have noticed that the children’s crusade for the climate seems to have vanished into thin air. Is that because global warming was just another issue du jour?  And, following close behind, will racism and its consequences become yet another issue du jour?

This week, ABC News published a surprising story, “Zombie Fires and Fire Thunderstorms hit arctic,” surprising certainly to someone who’s been following the science of global warming, including its feedback loops, trade wind patterns and ocean gyre changes. It spoke of an entirely unreported and apparently new phenomenon. You  may ask, what are “zombie fires” exactly, and why haven’t Scientists been at work legitimizing yet another feedback loop with a more dry-as-dust terminology?  Maybe because few could anticipate that a Zombie fire might take place, let alone what it might be.

Infrared image shows Arctic wildfire June 8

A zombie fire very simply is a peat fire, one that winters under arctic snow, to re-emerge after it has continued burning underground through the winter. It follows upon an Arctic heat wave lasting for the past six months, and its year-round release of CO2 assures a permanent feedback loop.

Why counting to three matters

During BLM and COVID time, Greta Thunberg has not exactly been idle (according to the Guardian,  she has begun producing a radio program.)  Asked to reflect on the worldwide racial justice issue, she stated that humans have shown they are no longer willing to tolerate injustice and that “the climate and ecological crisis cannot be solved within today’s political and economic systems.” She neglected to add that the latter observation applies to the Movement for Black Lives as well.

But although Greta as the citizen of an intelligent country—more than this one at any rate—is still under lockdown, aside from the Guardian, the media seems to want to forget her. Why?

 

Could it be because her campaign was co-opted almost from the beginning by the elite establishment? 

Shelf life

And what can we learn from such co-option about the durability of the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) as the hot button issue it’s presently showing itself to be?

Here, I want to draw on an impressive article, “Syria in Seattle Commune,” by Pepe Escobar, a Brazilian journalist, which highlights the deep contrast between today’s plantation  mentality M4BL, which highlights the deep contrast between today’s plantation  mentality M4BL, which so far carries on without an articulated program, and the deep analysis which characterized the movement in the 60s as articulated by the Black Panthers, and by theoreticians like Malcolm X. Escobar points out that movements without deeply articulated analysis, like Occupy, tend to lack legs. And that movements backed by elitist elements which have no profit to gain from them, such as the Youth Climate Movement headed by Greta Thunberg, may be one of them. And that the Movement for Black Lives, bankrolled by a  $100 million grant from the Ford Foundation and by Morgan Chase among others, may become yet another.

Without articulating a deeply revolutionary program, how much shelf life will the M4BL show?

Moving ahead

Most noticeable still is the tendency of white do-gooders to decide what’s best for folks other than white folks. (I have always considered that the phrase, “Ve know vots best for you” to be the distinguishing mark of fascism.)

Structurally, what ought a program focused on racial justice look like?

The environment

The planet is where we live (at least for the moment). Living with the understanding that all its man-made ugliness and pollution needs to  be in someone else backyard has to change to share and share alike.

Environmental degradation would suggest to some that as a species, none of us would be willing to share such a legacy of a dying system. If we followed that newly recognized aversion, we would have to abandon the system that created the nightmare to begin with: the oil and gas and fracking and nuclear industries would become things of the past. As would the chemical industry (no more chemistry for better living, no more energy “cheap enough to meter”).

Human recovery

Human recovery does not even begin to address species recovery.

But assuming human recovery could imagine itself beyond its present economic arrangements, to ease people over such a radical transition, they would need a guaranteed minimal income capable of caring for their basic needs: health, housing, nutrition and education. If such a development is hard to imagine, let us point out that Spain, a capitalist country-in-transition has already implemented it. Spain benefits from still being able to bind a relatively homogenous Catholic population together—more or less.

Human recovery implies some kind of economically equalizing recognition that the willed legal structures that allow certain population sectors barely to survive after hundreds of years imposed on them of wage theft and slavery, must be abandoned at once. To replace it, policing structures, incarceration structures, prison-plantation structures, below life sustaining wages, must all be abandoned. Yet the economies that exist now, many  of them, depend on exactly that outworn system. A guaranteed minimum wage would make such a transition possible although inacceptable to many.

One of the biggest all-time mistakes in the history of attempted U. S. worldwide dominance was Bremer’s discharge of the Iraqi army. You can abolish an army, but you cannot abolish the people who once occupied those existential slots.  And those people are trained to respond exactly to those controlling stimuli, and no others. Calls to retrain police, or to defund police lose sight of the fact that all of those so trained to their oppressive roles, once discharged, still occupy the same planet as the rest of humanity. Not only are they trained, they are acculturated, A one year “course” of retraining, can’t begin to change an oppressive culture that has been inculcated over a period that is now almost 20 years old—a whole generation.

The language presently used, words like “defund” for example, overlook the very existence of a number of people, some of whom (like Berkeley’s captain of police for example) expect to continue receiving a half million dollars a year for the rest of their active careers. Rather, the emphasis needs to be on community control of budgets, of priority re-allocation.  The revolution can be lost with the thoughtless use of its very first word.

That is why careful analysis must be the benchmark of any change which hopes to be successful, successful in the sense it does not lead to utter chaos from which absolutely no one can hope to benefit.

The third leg

Lest we overlook it, there must be a third leg to this discussion. Ideally it has no name. So-called “religion” as it is popularly understood, is mythology, the McDonald’s of the unnamed thing at best. For discussion’s sake, let us give it a place holder. Call it how a people explains itself from the beginning. It is a way of viewing the world.

And for that some ritual is required by Existence’s very nature. Even wolves know that when they circle up and howl before embarking on the hunt. Humans must find their equivalence of that circle. They must find their way to howl. They must howl for the centuries upon centuries of pain they have inflicted on one another. They must learn how to forgive.  And how to forgive with grace, as black folk have learned. They must learn again how to laugh and sing and dance, and celebrate. But before celebration can occur, they must learn to forgive themselves.

None of this can begin to happen until #45 is cashiered: Click to sign up to volunteer with Daily Kos and Vote Forward to write personalized letters to voters in swing states who lean Democratic, but need that extra “noodge” to encourage them to vote. 

Support the P.O. and Vote-by-Mail

End deadly exchange “partnerships” between Israel and U.S Police.

Think. Stay safe and locked down, no matter how many uninformed people holler “open now!” Use the gift of slow time to think.

Election analysts say if we flip enough state legislatures, we could abolish slavery-preserving electoral college by 2024.

Night rally in Seattles’ West Precinct takes over I-5.

U.S. admits it’s to blame for Syrian hunger.

German party calls for sanctions on Israel after Netanyahu declares he will take over West Bank by July 1 with Trumpie’s approval.

UN expert denounce Israeli apartheid and call for sanctions.

Historic breakthrough: House Oversight Committee sends D.C.  statehood bill to House floor.

Activists and  courageous plaintiffs win their case by taking Trumpie to court for trying to end DACA.

Under pressure from activistds, Atlanta cop who lynched Rayshard Brooks charged with felony murder.

Under pressure from activistss, Louisville police chief finally moves to fire one cop involved in Breonna Taylor killing.

Boston declares racism a public health emergency. Diverts police overtime funding to community.

S.F. supervisor plans to ask voters to authorize 10,000 units of social housing.

People are not willing to work for slavery wages any more: Striking McDonald’s workers block entrance and shut down store. McDonalds in Oakland at 45 and Tgraph stage longest fast food strike in U.S. history.

Pittsburgh black woman reporter sues newspaper for prohibiting her coverage of protests.

UAW stops work on Junteenth to end racism.

Community-focused gardening takes root in Alaska.

Pitchfork Union strikes Condé-Nast over racist power structures.

“Why do you keep hiring wackos and liars?” Woman reporter finally asks Trumpie the question many of us have been scratching our heads about.

New York City Bar Association calls on Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York Police Department to “immediately investigate” alleged targeting of nine legal observers earlier this month during a protest against police brutality in the Bronx.

One way to abolish them: NYPD cops threaten strike on July 4.

iPhone announces app allowing users  automatically to record their interactions when stopped or pulled over by cops.

Oakland restraining order restrict teargas, flashbangs, and projectiles.

Chicago Korean storeowner reconsiders closing his business after 6,000 people donate after he lost $350,000 from looting.

Severance Procedures

Severance ounds like a dry subject out of Personnel, but maybe not so much when the candidate is  an obsessive compulsive megalomanic.  Not anyone we readily identify, of course, but just in case it ever comes up. A few strategies suggest themselves. The problem is which approach  best applies to the individual quirks of the particular candidate.

Golden Parachute

Money helps is a time worn cliché, but it carries several grains of truth, 7 billion to be exact, which is roughly what a golden parachute costs these days.  Several caveats are suggested, things like non-disclosure clauses, cease and desist clauses, and prohibition of employment in any competing concern located less than hundreds of miles distant. Most candidates state their price, but for sticklers, this route may not be paved so much in gold, as obstacles. There are alternatives.

Re-Assignment 

This time-worn strategy works for certain candidates who badly need evading prosecution once their tenure comes to a close. Motivation is 9/10^th of the law.  Just because the strategy names Chad does not mean the candidate needs reassignment to Chad every time, or anytime, for that matter.  It simply needs to be a very poor country which needs the play of billions to build more boondoggles, and other expensive but useless infrastructure, and whose president-for-life is short of bricks needed to stretch the presidential palace three more blocks, and install gold toilet seats throughout.  Any number of shit hole countries qualify, provided they’re appropriately needy.

Canonization

This time-worn strategy works well when vanity needs to become statuesque. Regrettably, it requires several steps, beatification being one of them, by-passing the Congregation of Saints is another. But with time, patience, and emoluments for indulgence of the candidate’s photo opportunities, it can be done at stratospheric cost. But there is one last strategy that remains untested.

Deification

Deification is sure balls of fire, but tricky.  Essentially it requires globalization of the godhead.   

Viareggio carnival balloon

But not just any godhead, the godhead of the personnel candidate who requires severance, but who is loathe to call the fleet of moving vans to empty all the desks located on all the golf courses, and in spas, and casinos, not to mention camera-studded hotel rooms. Although all bets are off, here the results can lord it over all others, yielding entirely more celestial bang for the buck. But Pageantry is required, a flare for suggestive costuming, large medals preferred, and above all, parades and military bands. Fences, Walls and Staircases are part of the mis en scene, requiring the candidate to mount them without any display of the sad hesitation he may have shown of late. But this minor detail can be faked by installation of a solid gold escalator to further dazzle the faithful.

Et Voila!

Our candidate has safely ascended to command his rightful place. As he’s fired into Space, he elbows aside the make-do gods of innumerable world cultures: Chinese gods, Japanese gods, African gods, Western gods, Protestant, Catholic, and Aboriginal gods, indigenous gods, the entire Indian pantheon, Arabic, even Tuvalese gods. Sound sacrilegious?

It works! To quote mot-juste Madeleine Albright: It’ll be worth it.

Other news from the week:

Syria in Seattle: Commune Defies the U.S. Regime by Pepe Escobar

This article by a foreign correspondent contrasts black lives matter, and the deep analysis of black panthers and other radical programs of the 60s. Black Lives Matter, founded in 2013 by a trio of middle class, queer black women very vocal against “hetero-patriarchy”, is a product of what University of British Columbia’s Peter Dauvergne defines as “corporatization of activism”….Follow the money. Black Lives Matter profited in 2016 from a humongous $100 million grant from the Ford Foundation and other philanthropic capitalism stalwarts such as JPMorgan Chase and the Kellogg Foundation.

From Occupation to Occupy: the Israelification of U.S. Domestic Security

It Sure looks like Trump and Adelson have cut a deal on annexation

Israel Gov’t Plans to Annex Palestinian West Bank by July 1^st

Footage from 1992 shows Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump at Party

Tell your local officials: end police violence and reimagine public safety.

Support reallocating pentagon funds sponsored by Lee, AOC, and Jayapal.

If you wanna vote in November, support the P.O.

After years of wasted spending, congresswomen Lee, AOC and Jayapal call to cut Pentagon budget and  reprioritize programs that keep us safe.

California sanctuary law stands after Supreme Court refuses to hear #45 appeal.

Buffalo Police Benevolent Association forced mass resignation of ERT squad.

West Coasts Ports to shut down for George Floyd.

Louisville Metro Council votes to ban no-knock warrants as advocates demand arrest of three officers (murderers) who killed Breonna Taylor..

Seattle protestors take over city blocks to create cop-free autonomous zone.

Thousands of activist phone calls and emails prompt Louisville Metro Council to vote unanimously to pass Breonna’s law.

U.S. Senate panel passes amendment baring use of troops against protestors.

Dem primary voters reject yet another sheriff (in Ohio) who helped ICE deport immigrants.

Senate committee votes to strip Confederate names from military bases, defying #45.

U.S. court tosses $1.4 billion judgment against former Venezuelan oil minister claiming he was not properly notified.

Chinese medical team kicks off mission to help Palestine’s anti-coronavirus fight.

Scottish Parliament votes for immediate suspension of “weapons of oppression” exports to U.S.

Spain vetoes security equipment sales to Israel  over human rights violations.

Calls to eliminate school police intensify amid protests

Court of Human Rights deals major blow to Israel’s war on Palestine solidarity.

UN Human Rights Council agrees to hold hearing focused on racial inequality and discrimination that characterizes American society.

San Francisco Bay Bridge blocked by Black Lives Matter activists.

Berkeley Mayor introduces proposal to ban use of chemical weapons by police.

Gangs in abandoned LA communities arrange black/brown truce.

Over one thousand cyclists take over NYC streets on solidarity protest ride over Williamsburgh Bridge.

ACA, restoring affirmative action in California, passes State Assembly bringing it closer to November ballot.

Richmond VA de-statues, toppling confederates and Chris Columbus.

Expert say $17.5 billion writedown by BP proves oil giant knows ‘reserves of oil and gas increasingly worthless.’

To support ‘urgently-needed clean and just energy transition’ 450 groups demand federal regulators rebuff attack on community solar.

DNC’s climate council urges party (what party?) to go beyond Biden plan, calling for fracking ban and $16 trillion renewable energy investment.

Enormous victory for LGBTQ equality as U.S. Supreme Court affirms workplace protections.

44 journalists of color at 200-year-old Phily Inquirer stage sick-out after forcing public apology from editorial staff for blatantly racist headline.

Schechter Award for journalism goes to Winona LaDuke.

Citing known and potential risks, FDA yanks emergency approval of hydroxycloroquine touted by #45 as COVID treatment.

  

The National Guard Hits Atlanta!

Atlanta called in the National Guard.  Here’s what happened:

Why the Zionist Lobby is Running Scared

(Note: a nuumber of readers have expressed taking offense at this article's original title which referred to the Jewish Lobby because they pointed out that far from being monolithic, many Jews deeply oppose Zionism. As a resut, the title has been changed to accurately reflect that nuance.)

This week, while increasing numbers of articles appear, some in the mainstream, some in the alternative press, reporting on police brutality, people have slowly begun to become aware of a law enforcement practice that has been ongoing for nearly the past 20 years since 9/11: the training of municipal police forces of many American cities has been and is being conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces, the IDF.

What if they were carrying garden stakes?

This linkage began shortly after 9/11.  Did you wonder at the time, what 9/11 really meant for the future of this country?  Did you wonder why it carried the same call numbers as Emergency? Not many did. Many were entirely too traumatized to think straight. And if you remember a few little details, you may remember the group of Israelis dancing in New jersey as they watched the towers crumble, and you may also remember that two weeks before the event, an Israel firm occupying nearly an entire floor of the WTC, happened to move out.

An Unnatural History of the IDF

To place the IDF in context, a brief historical excursion is in order.  At WWII’s end, the Zionist movement which had taken some years to solidify, became the spark that would obtain a homeland for Jewish survivors of the war. Most of the globe was already occupied, but to the cobblers of the post WWII peace, that sticking point could be overlooked: the Palestinians would just move over to accommodate the new arrivals. A progressive map of Israel from 1947 to the present

tells the story better than 1,000 words: the role of the IDF is to appropriate land that belongs to others, and to defend colonialist settlement, in exactly the same way the U.S. was cobbled together from a hodge podge of Indian tribes needing to be “pacified.” Israel’s citizen army consists in civilian individuals who get repeatedly called up from the general population starting at 18, and extending into their forties. When there is “unrest” in need of quelling, they get transported to the “front” by commandeered taxi cabs, many of them driven by Arabs.

But lessons in army discipline have been learned since the days of von Clausewitz. Soldiers recruited from civilian life are not predisposed to fire guns at other human beings without indoctrination. Beside target practice, training has evolved since WWI. Troops must be programmed with chants to “kill, kill, kill.” The enemy needs not just to be named, but to be Othered. Language is hijacked with words like vermin, etc., which reduce targeted individuals to disposability.

Crowd control to population control

Since 9/11, the chickens have come home to roost. How else explain the nationwide the kind of brutal policing we are observing now?  One article carried by the Israel-Palestine News bears this headline: Minn cops trained by Israeli police, who often use knee-on-neck restraint. The same website hosts another series of articles, all informative, all to the same or similar effect.

Israel's IDF at work

No wonder the Zionist lobby has cause to be concerned.  At stake is the $38 billion stash of U.S. taxpayer money slated to go to Israel for its yearly upkeep, and to snuff out more Palestinians this year.  And if that wasn’t bad enough already, the prison murder of Jeffrey Epstein, Israel’s top spy, specializing in entrapment by under age teenage girls, has highlighted, among other notables,  the names of certain blackmailees, people like Bill Clinton, Rupert Murdoch, Alan Dershowitz, and Donald Trump.

Sign on to tell your governor: Invest in communities, not policing.

Denounce Trump’s threats to use military force against protesters.

Stop Trump and enabler Barr from spying on our internet and search history.

End police brutality now.

End qualified immunity that gives police a free pass.

Defund police.

No more battle grade equipment to police.

End war on black folks.

SO MANY ROSES this week, readers would need two days to read them. A few highlights:

IBM no longer to develop or offer facial recognition software in pursuit of racial justice reform.

S.F. police chief Scott says he’s open to defunding S.F. police.

As the East Bay’s tent encampments multiply four-fold, S.F. passes sweeping pandemic-related eviction ban.

Israelis protest against Netanyahoo’s annexation plan.

Thousands march to U.S. missions in S. Africa over police brutality.

As U.S. surpasses some 110,000 deaths, New Zealand woman PM Jacinda Ardern declares New Zealand virus-free.

After being tear gassed for Trump’s photo opportunity, protesters sue Trump and Barr.

N.Y. Times editorial page head resigns after publishing fascist Tom Cotton op-ed.

U.S. Envoy claims Russia and U.S. agree on June nuclear arms control talks.

China and India, nuclear armed states, de-escalate the latest flare up in decades-long border conflict.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says state will make sure all black residents have health coverage.

Camden, N.J. benefits from community policing after disbanding its police department 7 years ago.

Plunging energy prices means U.S. can hit 90% clean power by 2035.

CEO Mary Barra pledges G.M. to become the most inclusive company in the world.

Chicago Freedom School offers food, water, and rest to weary protesters trapped downtown.

Kim Gardner, chief St. Louis prosecutor, blacklists cops who are too untrustworthy to testify in court.

More than 600 groups and families of people killed by police call for UN investigation.

One way to de-escalate police: 57 Buffalo police resign after two charged with knocking down and seriously injuring  senior activist Andrew Gugnio.

Breaking with AFL-CIO, affiliated labor council may vote to expel police union.

Sanders (remember him?) calls on Democrats (who?) to embrace 8-point plan to end police brutality.

on Wednesday:

REBELLION OR PRESS/POLICE RIOT

This week, chaos has reigned over our cities. Black people are at the center of this most recent offense against all humanity. America, land of the free, has been the cradle of lynching of both black and brown people for decades. Those lynchings have sparked grief, terror, and rage, and, whereas in earlier decades lynching was exploited by specialized photographers who sold lynching postcards 3 for a quarter, times have changed in America as its demography has changed. Which is to say, the proportion of necks to knees has increased.

The best framing in all the noise comes from my 89-year-old colleague friend and lifetime activist:  In the long range, Lynchings a century ago affect black voting behavior today. Like you, like all my readers, we have been assailed by TV images, radio broadcasts, print media, the internet, all manipulative “news” sources focused on chaos and rage, most of them trying to frame these protests as riots. But let’s keep our eyes on the prize. If all the energy released by all the venting that now concentrates itself in our streets, suppose for a moment that all that energy were focused on guaranteeing the vote in the next election cycle.

 What would that have to look like?  What would be the strategy? How might that work be divided into the kind of bite-sized pieces that became manageable in a country where the vote has been repeatedly and thoroughly compromised by the prison slavery complex that deprives felons who’ve serve their time of their right to vote, of Republican owned voting machines with proprietary code that can easily be flipped, of gerrymandering, of caging, of vote purging, of the electoral college, of the Supremely (Corrupt) Court that gave us Citizens “United,” and George Bush?

As Harvey Wasserman, along with Greg Palast, and Bob Fitrakis, the nation’s voting mavens, point out, the answer is VOTING BY MAIL. Wasserman published an article to that issue: “20 Ways Vote by Mail Could Revolutionize Our Democracy and Save our Nation – If Election Protection Activists (like you) Make it Happen.”

Voting by mail depends on an existing, solvent Post Office (not a privatized, Trump-owned pony express); and it depends on the hard work of popular insistence on a scale of energy we are presently seeing pouring out in our streets.

Although much of what we see there is an authentic outpouring of grief and rage, please let’s be absolutely clear that reactionary forces have wasted no time coopting it to serve their own agenda. (At least one window smasher has been outed as an undercover cop.) Unfortunately, what I say here is no hyperbole. As one activist writes: “Is this part of a premeditated ‘CoIntelPro3’ fascist coup strategy, indicated by nationwide coordination of violent insurgency, using urban warfare tactics, crossing state lines, bringing guns and knives to demonstrations, and using them against police and security guards…to give pretext for mobilization of not only national guard, but insertion of federal armed forces? ICE using its drone for surveillance is indicative of their testing what they can get away with.“

 

America has made sure to asphyxiate any Left it might have enjoyed. It has made sure to garrot a robust trade union movement.  Last time I looked, only one newspaper still listed a labor correspondent in its ranks. There are no accepted channels into which we can siphon our Will Toward Democracy. It means every time we experience a popular movement, we are thrown back on re-inventing the wheel.  But there are guidelines based on tough historical analysis how to go about re-invigorating American Democracy.  “How to Take on Fascism without Getting Played” is one of them.

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Call on Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to hold all police officers who murdered Floyd accountable.

Read Short Diary: White Supremacist infiltration of Minneapolis Protests.

Read: Capitalism is the Real Robbery.

Listen to blackouted Sanders statement.

Watch How Lynchings a Century Ago Affect Black Voting Today.

Read: U.S. military brought in “to monitor police brutality” protests in 7 states.

NYC bus drivers union refuses to transport protesters for NYPD.

Minneapolis Metro Transit union driers refuse to transport George Floyd protesters to jail.

Detroit car caravan support workers and fights U.S. Postal Service privatization.

NOLA garbage workers form union to fight back.

UN human rights chief demands U.S. take serious action to stop killing unarmed African-Americans.

ACLU calls out U.S. Border Patrol as ‘rogue agency’ for using predator drone to spy on Minneapolis protesters.

In voting rights victory, court rules Florida pay-to-vote system unconstitrutional.

Louisville releases 911 call in Breonna Taylor shooting; backs up her boyfriend’s claim against cops.

Here we go again: Federal Court Restore voting rights to hundreds of thoussands of Florida prisoners.

Standing Rock Sioux announce that the  mayoral candidacy of Native American Hoksila White Mountain in town of McLaughlin, has been reinstate after City Hall blocked it.

Twitter blocks White House tweet for ‘glorifying violence.’

In latest legal blow to Trump and dirty energy, federal appeals court upholds block on Keystone XL Pipeline.

COVID-19 sparks rebirth of local farm movement.

Agrarian Trust announces new model for community-owned farmland.

Supremes reject California Pentacostal church challenge to shutdown order.

Judge orders Social Security to pay survivors benefits to previous disqualified gay couples.

Huge rose: Spain to offer families minimum monthly income.

Scientist say burning trees for biofuel is a false climate solution.

Baton Rouge inmates sue for release due to COVID-19 potential death sentence.

ACLU sues tech firm, Clearview AI, to halt “unlawful privacy-destroying; facial recognition activities.

ACLU sues FDA over abortion care restrictions in midst of COVID-19.

Ethic complain files to force Trump COVID-19 vaccine czar, Moncef Slaoui, a former Pharma exec, to submit to ethics rules.

Bridging democratic divide, Biden bids Ocasio-Cortez and Kerry to lead his climate task force.

Purged watchdog, Christi Grimm, who found ‘severe’ medical supply shortages persists with 14 ongoing investigations.

Co-operative Corporation of.org  Registrants announces plan to democratize large parts of internet.

AOC launches Apartheid Off Campus.

Smithfield sued for misleading consumers with false claims of superior safety.

Working class Party of Maryland gathers 14,00 signature to put a Working Class Party on Md. ballot.

Sanders (media want you to forget that name) condemns lack of price control on tax-payer funded Remdesivir.

Black people are prepared for this moment with a long history of mutual aid.

Huichol Center for Cultural Survival feeds the hungry through a program of permaculture and offers the Wixárita people training and employment.

 

Kremlin-owned unnamed company provides firewall for Venezuela against U.S. sanctions.

As COVID-19 takes its toll, frontline workers turn to socialism.

Colombian social leaders protest for access to healthcare and food.

Minnesota tenant buy properties from negligent landlord who tried evicting them.

Hundreds of medical professionals and group urge COVID-19 stimulus must be prescriptions for #healthyrecovery.

Congress urged to bock U.S. arms sales to Philippines citing dual threats of Duterte and COVID-19.

Two hundred teachers and activists urge Biden to go bold on public education, demanding end to failed billionaire-backed policies.

Anti-fascist group won’t back down despite being targeted for murder by far right.

Lake of Ozarks partygoers told to isolate for 2 week after breaking social distancing guidelines.

OMG: Tennessee’s secret to plentiful coronavirus testing: pick up the tab.

We are the ones: Hawaii considers an explicitly feminist plan for COVID-19 era economic recovery.

Philadelphia car caravan targets Juvenile Justice Services Canter to “free our youth.’

Scientists find way of restoring dying coral reefs.

Gig workers collective organizes nationwide strikes.

Fords shuts down two assembly lines after workers refuse return to work after COD-19 cases break out.

Mutual aid in public housing continues after Baltimore housing authority  pushback.