Daily Archives: June 26, 2020

2020-06-26: News Headlines

Staff (2020-06-26). How Is Biden Different From Trump When It Comes To Palestine? therealnews.com Biden pledges to keep the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, boasts of "unstinting support" for Israel, promises to fight the BDS movement and send military aid, and spins it as a way to somehow fight anti-Semitism in the U.S.

_____ (2020-06-26). The 'New' American Mercenary: A Pocket History. popularresistance.org Though the bizarre story has been subsumed by other events, last month's aborted invasion of Venezuela should've hardly shocked anyone. The United States has long used mercenaries to do its bidding. They have provided Washington distance and deniability for unsavory operations. During the Cold War, the U.S. hoped this would limit domestic and international protest. Policymakers also discerned mercenary alternatives to bloody, expensive quagmires like the Vietnam or Iraq Wars. Traditionally, most of these hired guns were foreigners — ex-soldiers of declining European empires. | Much of this parallels the lat…

Staff (2020-06-26). Headlines for June 26, 2020. democracynow.org U.S. Sets Another Daily COVID-19 Record as Infections Surge in 31 States, Supreme Court Ruling Will Deny Asylum Seekers Their Day in Court, Trump Admin Asks SCOTUS to Annul Obamacare Even as Millions Lose Health Coverage, India Nears 500,000 Confirmed Coronavirus Cases as Pandemic Worsens Globally, WHO Declares End to Ebola Outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo, House Democrats Pass Sweeping Police Reform Bill That Trump Promised to Veto, Activists Demanding $1B Cut to NYPD Budget Occupy City Hall for Third Straight Night, NC Police Dept. Fires Officers Caught on Tape Discussing "Slaughtering" Black Reside…

Danny Shaw (2020-06-26). Colombia's Other Pandemic: Unchecked State Violence in the Time of COVID-19. counterpunch.org The human rights group Indepaz reports that 800 activists have been killed in the past three and a half years in Colombia, since November 24, 2016, the date the government signed "the Peace Accord" with the FARC.[1] Taking advantage of society's fear and distraction, and the demobilization caused by the novel coronavirus, state and paramilitary

Codepink, Extiction Rebellion, VFP, more (2020-06-26). Saturday 7/4: 4th of July SF Car Caravan: "Defund Police, Defund Pentagon, Fund Life!" indybay.org Meet up 2pm at SF City Hall, Polk St. between Grove & McAllister; Caravan to Stop 1: Defund Police, Black Lives Matter street painting, Fulton & Webster; Caravan to Stop 2: Defund Pentagon, Nancy Pelosi's House, Broadway @ Divisadero; Caravan to Stop 3: Fund Life!, Bayview Hunters Point.

Alan Macleod (2020-06-26). Activists Urge US Dept of Agriculutre to Deny Deadly New Monsanto GMO-Herbicide Combo. mintpressnews.com The US is considering approving the product even as Monsanto juggles multiple multi-million dollar lawsuits from cancer patients over its deadly Roundup herbicide.

Peoples Dispatch (2020-06-26). US House of Representatives passes police reform bill named after George Floyd. peoplesdispatch.org Republicans and president Trump have opposed the bill as a move to weaken the police and law enforcement, while activists claim the bill does not sufficiently tackle the issues at hand…

Julien Mercille (2020-06-26). Afghanistan, Garden of Empire: America's Multibillion Dollar Opium Harvest. globalresearch.ca By

Caitlin Johnstone (2020-06-26). "Free Speech" In The US Empire Is As Illusory As "Free-Range" Eggs. thealtworld.com Shadowproof's Kevin Gosztola calls "a not-so-subtle effort to criminalize the journalism of an adversarial media organization that the United States has spent the last decade working to destroy," WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Shadowproof,

_____ (2020-06-26). Chicago School Board Votes To Keep Police Contract — For Now. popularresistance.org Chicago's school board has voted against ending a program that puts police officers in public schools, following the wishes of the mayor and top Chicago Public Schools leadership while rejecting the demands of students and activists who for years have called for police-free schools. | While the narrow 4-3 vote, the most suspenseful by the Board of Education in years, keeps intact a scrutinized $33-million contract between the school system and the Chicago Police Department, another vote is likely in the next two months on whether to renew the contract that's set to expire at the end of August. | Ahead of the high…

_____ (2020-06-26). 'Free Speech' in the US Empire Is as Illusory as 'Free-Range' Eggs. strategic-culture.org Caitlin JOHNSTONE | Shadowproof's Kevin Gosztola calls "a not-so-subtle effort to criminalize the journalism of an adversarial media organization that the United States has spent the last decade working to destroy," WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Shadowproof,

Staff (2020-06-25). Boycotting Israel Is Not A Crime, Says European Human Rights Court. therealnews.com The EHRC overturned the French court's convictions of 12 BDS activists for "incitement to discrimination" in a watershed ruling for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-06-25). Colonial Drug Trafficking and the British Empire. globalresearch.ca When China's Qing Emperor Daoguang ordered the destruction of opium stocks in the port of Canton (Guangzhou) in 1838, the British Empire declared war on China on the grounds that it was obstructing the "free flow" of commodity trade.

Staff (2020-06-25). Repair & Revive: Rev. William Barber on Fighting Racism, Poverty, Climate Change, War & Nationalism. democracynow.org The Poor People's Campaign offered a counterpoint to President Trump's sparsely attended Tulsa campaign rally with a mass digital gathering that unveiled a policy platform to spur "transformative action" on five key issues of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and the threat of religious nationalism. "We have to repair and revive," says Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign. "That has to be a part of if we're truly going to ever be the democracy we claim to be on paper."

_____ (2020-06-25). Democratizing Energy To Counter The Climate Catastrophe. popularresistance.org Youth climate activists have been striking to demand immediate climate action from political powers. They conjoined the issues of climate and labor by calling for a global climate strike in September, 2019, in which a historic 7.6 million schoolkids, (grand)parents and workers from 185 countries participated. Over 70 trade unions around the world supported the strike and the number of climate groups that are demanding a just transition for fossil fuel workers are also steadily increasing. | The European landscape of climate activism is becoming densely populated. Numerous communities are defending nature together…

Herb Mintz (2020-06-25). LaborFest 2020 – Labor: Resist, Revolt, Building a New Future. indybay.org LaborFest opens its 27th annual festival on July 1, 2020 with a month of timely events inspired by local and international labor activists and labor history. The program schedule includes both international and local films and videos, a labor history walk and bike tour, lectures, forums, readings, theatrical and musical performances. Most events are free of charge but donations by the public will be accepted.

Medea Benjamin and Ariel Gold (2020-06-24). Will Biden Remain Tone Deaf to Palestinian Rights? dissidentvoice.org Joe Biden wants you to believe that he is opposed to Israel's likely annexation of parts of the West Bank that Netanyahu plans to carry out in July. "I do not support annexation," he said during a call with American Jewish donors on June 16. But only a month ago, Biden senior foreign policy advisor …

Media Lens (2020-06-24). "Six Months To Avert Climate Crisis": Climate Breakdown And The Corporate Media. dissidentvoice.org In his classic science fiction novel, Foundation, Isaac Asimov posited a future in which 'psychohistorians' could predict outcomes based on past history and the large-scale behaviour of human populations by combining psychology and the mathematics of probability. Using 'psychohistory', the protagonist Hari Seldon discovers that the 12,000-year-old Galactic Empire will collapse in 500 years. He …

splcenter (2020-06-24). Fight to Vote: COVID-19 threatens activist's opportunity to vote. splcenter.org

Sarah Anderson (2020-06-23). Virtual Poor People's Campaign Rally Draws Crowd of More Than a Million. zcomm.org The virtual rally lifted up people who are living the interconnected injustices that have been the campaign's focus for the past two years: systemic racism, poverty and inequality, ecological devastation, and militarism and the war economy…

Eds. (2020-06-23). 'An Extraordinary Moment': Angela Davis says protests recognize long overdue anti-racist work. mronline.org As politicians and activists across the country try to reenvision law enforcement, Black revolutionary Angela Davis says reform can only go so far in addressing the inherent racism in policing.

RT (2020-06-23). WATCH: White BLM activists incur wrath of black protesters for dramatic history-flipping 'whipped slaves' demonstration. rt.com There were furious scenes at a Black Lives Matter protest in Charleston, South Carolina, when a group of liberal white activists enraged their black counterparts with a demonstration that featured white slaves and a black owner. | The ill-judged display took place in Charleston's Marion Square where a group of monument defenders gathered to show their support for a statue of John C. Calhoun, a pro-slavery American vice president. | Unsurprisingly, that gathering attracted a counter-protest in which dozens of Black Lives Matter activists chanted slogans including "George Floyd" and "take it down." | But things…

RT (2020-06-23). Democrat Rep. calls for police after being attacked in short-lived 'autonomous zone' near White House. rt.com A Democrat lawmaker and an MSNBC reporter have been left wondering where the police were, after they were apparently attacked in a fledgling 'autonomous zone' near the White House. | Perhaps spurred on by activists in Seattle's 'Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone', a group of protesters in Washington, DC occupied a street near the White House this weekend, declaring it the 'Black House Autonomous Zone'. Though police cleared the street of tents and trash on Tuesday, a large crowd remained, and Democrat Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton was on the street to talk to MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. | The interview was cut short when…

_____ (2020-06-23). Black Activists Expose The FBI Targeting Their Movements. popularresistance.org In 2017, a leak from the FBI revealed they were targeting black activists organizing to end racist policies and practices calling them "Black Identity Extremists." This is consistent with the FBI's long history of investigating and harassing black and brown activists. Organizations like Media Justice and the ACLU have been working to get information from the FBI about what they are doing and who they are targeting but the FBI has been putting barriers in their way. We speak with Myaisha Hayes of Media Justice about what they have learned so far and its impact on activists. Hayes also discusses their efforts to ur…

Jessica Corbett, staff writer (2020-06-23). DNC 'Snubs' Climate Movement Just as Greenpeace Endorses Democratic Panel's Visionary Plan. commondreams.org Despite mounting pressure on Democrats to craft a 2020 platform that includes ambitious climate policies, Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez on Monday announced a drafting committee that "snubs progressive climate activists again," in the words of journalist Emily Atkin. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…