June 3, 2020

The world's largest free-flying American flag has been ripped in half after a thunderstorm

https://www.businessinsider.com/largest-american-flag-ripped-in-half-after-storm-2020-6?r=US&IR=T

The Acuity Insurance flag, located in Wisconsin, was ripped in half after a thunderstorm.
It is measured at 70' by 140' and weighs 340 pounds.

https://twitter.com/tmj4/status/1268026368601870337

June 3, 2020

Michael Rapaport unloads on William 'Turkey Giblet Neck Fuck' Barr and Dirty Dickstain Donald

https://twitter.com/MichaelRapaport/status/1267973850773389317

June 3, 2020

The photographer of the pic with the cop, rubber bullet gun & the child says it was not aimed at her

I knew it was not the first time I saw it just by looking at the angle (the man and the girl are closer to the camera, thus making an optical illusion) and then the cop's eyes. He is not looking at them, and he is aiming at someone behind them and to their left. I wanted to have confirmation from the photog because I knew it would be an unpopular opinion (now fact.)

The photog's clarification comments are at the bottom part of the post.

The coppers are still racist, brutal motherfuckers btw, this changes nothing, other than the explanation about this ONE picture.


Here is the picture that kicked it all off




now

here is the UNCROPPED photo





https://www.instagram.com/p/CA9M5t7AWHw/

richardgrant88

https://www.instagram.com/richardgrant88/?hl=en

4h



brianbilbao
Keep taking pictures
I appreciate you & the responsible clarification❤️✊
1h1 likeReply

June 3, 2020

Theresa Greenfield wins the Democratic primary for US Senate in Iowa

https://www.businessinsider.com/iowa-senate-dem-primary-theresa-greenfield-mike-franken-live-results-2020-6?r=US&IR=T

Theresa Greenfield won the Democratic primary for Iowa's US Senate race to run against Republican Sen. Joni Ernst this fall.
Greenfield, who has been backed by Senate Democrats' campaign arm, beat Admiral Mike Franken and Eddie Mauro.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/02/us/elections/results-iowa-new-mexico-pennsylvania-primaries.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-elections-2020&variant=show®ion=TOP_BANNER&context=storylines_menu

June 3, 2020

History Will Judge the Complicit

Why have Republican leaders abandoned their principles in support of an immoral and dangerous president?

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/trumps-collaborators/612250/



On a cold march afternoon in 1949, Wolfgang Leonhard slipped out of the East German Communist Party Secretariat, hurried home, packed what few warm clothes he could fit into a small briefcase, and then walked to a telephone box to call his mother. “My article will be finished this evening,” he told her. That was the code they had agreed on in advance. It meant that he was escaping the country, at great risk to his life. Though only 28 years old at the time, Leonhard stood at the pinnacle of the new East German elite. The son of German Communists, he had been educated in the Soviet Union, trained in special schools during the war, and brought back to Berlin from Moscow in May 1945, on the same airplane that carried Walter Ulbricht, the leader of what would soon become the East German Communist Party. Leonhard was put on a team charged with re‑creating Berlin’s city government.

He had one central task: to ensure that any local leaders who emerged from the postwar chaos were assigned deputies loyal to the party. “It’s got to look democratic,” Ulbricht told him, “but we must have everything in our control.” Leonhard had lived through a great deal by that time. While he was still a teenager in Moscow, his mother had been arrested as an “enemy of the people” and sent to Vorkuta, a labor camp in the far north. He had witnessed the terrible poverty and inequality of the Soviet Union, he had despaired of the Soviet alliance with Nazi Germany between 1939 and 1941, and he knew about the Red Army’s mass rapes of women following the occupation. Yet he and his ideologically committed friends “instinctively recoiled from the thought” that any of these events were “in diametrical opposition to our Socialist ideals.” Steadfastly, he clung to the belief system he had grown up with.

The turning point, when it came, was trivial. While walking down the hall of the Central Committee building, he was stopped by a “pleasant-looking middle-aged man,” a comrade recently arrived from the West, who asked where to find the dining room. Leonhard told him that the answer depended on what sort of meal ticket he had—different ranks of officials had access to different dining rooms. The comrade was astonished: “But … aren’t they all members of the Party?” Leonhard walked away and entered his own, top-category dining room, where white cloths covered the tables and high-ranking functionaries received three-course meals. He felt ashamed. “Curious, I thought, that this had never struck me before!” That was when he began to have the doubts that inexorably led him to plot his escape.

At exactly that same moment, in exactly the same city, another high-ranking East German was coming to precisely the opposite set of conclusions. Markus Wolf was also the son of a prominent German Communist family. He also spent his childhood in the Soviet Union, attending the same elite schools for children of foreign Communists as Leonhard did, as well as the same wartime training camp; the two had shared a bedroom there, solemnly calling each other by their aliases—these were the rules of deep conspiracy—although they knew each other’s real names perfectly well. Wolf also witnessed the mass arrests, the purges, and the poverty of the Soviet Union—and he also kept faith with the cause. He arrived in Berlin just a few days after Leonhard, on another plane full of trusted comrades, and immediately began hosting a program on the new Soviet-backed radio station. For many months he ran the popular You Ask, We Answer. He gave on-air answers to listeners’ letters, often concluding with some form of “These difficulties are being overcome with the help of the Red Army.”

snip

superb long-form article

June 3, 2020

How To Protest Safely During The Pandemic

https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a32723435/protest-safely-during-pandemic/



Last Monday, a 46-year-old Minneapolis man named George Floyd was killed by a police officer named Derek Chauvin. Chauvin put his knee on Floyd's neck for close to nine minutes, including the three minutes when Floyd was unresponsive. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder.

This happened in the middle of a global pandemic, but cities across the world are holding protests filled with residents who want to speak out against unjust deaths in the black community. People are suiting up in masks, grabbing signs, and taking to the streets to protest violence from police and yet are still coming up against more violence from police. Although many of these protests are peaceful, dangers mount as law enforcement and the National Guard presence increases.

But with all of these protests going on, there is another danger that still exists: COVID-19. Here are some ways you can stay safe and healthy as you speak out for what you believe in in the coming days. There are plenty of pandemic risks to be aware of right while you're standing in solidarity with other protesters. Dr. John Swartzberg, who focuses on infectious diseases at UC Berkeley, told BuzzFeed News that it's important to wear goggles, glasses, and some other eye protection.

"We don't know how important a face shield is or goggles are, but we think it's sufficiently important that we have healthcare workers wear a face shield," he said. He also added that screaming, as one does at a protest, expels a lot more droplets of the coronavirus disease in the air. "Screaming is going to expel lots more particles with a lot more force," he said. Tear gas, he added, can attack the respiratory system, much like the coronavirus: coughing, gasping for breath, and feelings of asphyxiation are all normal.

Here are some tips for how to stay safe from both the virus and the harmful weapons you might come across at a protest.

Wear a mask..........

snip

June 3, 2020

Thousands in Paris protest racial injustice as George Floyd killing resonates beyond US

Tear gas choked Paris streets as riot police faced off with protesters setting fires Tuesday amid growing global outrage over George Floyd's death in the United States, racial injustice and heavy-handed police tactics around the world.

https://www.france24.com/en/20200602-thousands-in-paris-protest-racial-injustice-as-george-floyd-killing-resonates-beyond-us



French protesters took a knee and raised their fists while firefighters struggled to extinguish multiple blazes as a largely peaceful, multiracial demonstration degenerated into scattered tensions. Several thousand people defied a virus-related ban on protests to pay homage to Floyd and Adama Traore, a French black man who died in police custody. Electric scooters and construction barriers went up in flames, and smoke stained a sign reading “Restaurant Open” — on the first day French cafes were allowed to open after nearly three months of virus lockdown.

Chanting “I can’t breathe,” thousands marched peacefully through Australia’s largest city, while thousands more demonstrated in the Dutch capital of The Hague and hundreds rallied in Tel Aviv. Expressions of anger erupted in multiple languages on social networks, with thousands of Swedes joining an online protest and others speaking out under the banner of #BlackOutTuesday.

Diplomatic ire percolated too, with the European Union's top foreign policy official saying the bloc was “shocked and appalled” by Floyd's death. Floyd died last week after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air. The death set off protests that spread across America — and now, beyond. As demonstrations escalated worldwide, solidarity with U.S. protesters increasingly mixed with local worries. “This happened in the United States, but it happens in France, it happens everywhere,” Paris protester Xavier Dintimille said. While he said police violence seems worse in the U.S., he added, “all blacks live this to a degree.”

Fears of the coronavirus remain close to the surface and were the reason cited for banning Tuesday's protest at the main Paris courthouse, because gatherings of more than 10 people remain forbidden. But demonstrators showed up anyway. Some said police violence worsened during virus confinement in working class suburbs with large minority populations, deepening a feeling of injustice. As the Paris demonstration wound down, police fired volley after volley of tear gas and protesters threw debris. Police were less visible than usual at the city's frequent protests. Tensions also erupted at a related protest in the southern city of Marseille.

snip

June 2, 2020

Tinkerblow

June 2, 2020

White supremacist channel on Telegram encouraged followers to incite violence, frame the protestors

A white supremacist channel on Telegram encouraged followers to incite violence during police brutality protests by 'shooting in a crowd,' according to internal DHS memo

A white supremacist channel on Telegram encouraged its followers to spark violence to start a race war in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd, Politico reported, citing an internal Department of Homeland Security memo.

Citing the FBI, the note said that two days after Floyd's death, the channel "incited followers to engage in violence and start the 'boogaloo' — a term used by some violent extremists to refer to the start of a second Civil War — by shooting in a crowd."

One of the messages in the channel called for potential shooters to "frame the crowd around you" for the violence, the note said, according to Politico.

Other media outlets have also reported on white supremacist groups weaponizing protests against police brutality to incite violence.
Meanwhile, several Republican officials, including President Donald Trump, have blamed "antifa" for the violence and some have suggested protesters should be hunted down like terrorists.

https://www.businessinsider.com/white-supremacist-telegram-channel-encourages-violence-george-floyd-protests-2020-6?r=US&IR=T




'Domestic terrorist actors’ could exploit Floyd protests, DHS memo warns

The memo cites “previous incidents of domestic terrorists exploiting First Amendment-protected events” as one reason for DHS’ concern of additional targeted violence.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/01/dhs-domestic-terrorists-protest-294342



related different story


White supremacists pose as 'Antifa' online, call for violence

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/02/tech/antifa-fake-twitter-account/index.html

A Twitter account that tweeted a call to violence and claimed to be representing the position of "Antifa" was in fact created by a known white supremacist group, Twitter said Monday. The company removed the account.

Before it emerged the account was run by white supremacists, Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump's son, pointed his 2.8 million Instagram followers to the account as an example how dangerous Antifa is.

"This account violated our platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. "We took action after the account sent a Tweet inciting violence and broke the Twitter Rules."
Although the account only had a few hundred followers, it is an example of white supremacists seeking to inflame tensions in the United States by posing as left-wing activists online.

snip


...so the account had only a few hundred followers, but Dump Jr. had it sussed out and massively amplified it's false-flag message to millions

nawwww, there isn't shenanigans going on, not at all

June 2, 2020

The American story celebrates violence in the name of democracy That doesn't extend to black protest

The Double Standard of the American Riot

The nationwide protests against police killings have been called un-American by critics, but rebellion has always been used to defend liberty.

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/06/riots-are-american-way-george-floyd-protests/612466/



Since the beginning of this country, riots and violent rhetoric have been markers of patriotism. When our Founding Fathers fought for independence, violence was the clarion call. Phrases such as “Live free or die,” “Give me liberty or give me death,” and “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God” echoed throughout the nation, and continue today. Force and violence have always been used as weapons to defend liberty, because—as John Adams once said in reference to the colonists’ treatment by the British—“We won’t be their Negroes.” Black rebellion and protest, though, have historically never been coupled with allegiance to American democracy. Today, peaceful demonstrations and violent riots alike have erupted across the country in response to police brutality and the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Yet the language used to refer to protesters has included looters, thugs, and even claims that they are un-American. The philosophy of force and violence to obtain freedom has long been employed by white people and explicitly denied to black Americans.

Think back to March 5, 1770, when Crispus Attucks, a man of African and Native American descent, became the first casualty of the American Revolution. Attucks was one of a handful of protesters killed by British forces during the Boston Massacre. The lawyer tasked with defending the British soldiers in their American criminal trial was none other than Adams. When presenting his case, Adams described the men those soldiers killed as “a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes and molattoes [sic], Irish teagues and outlandish jack tarrs.” He built his defense of the British soldiers on the charge that Attucks struck the first blow and led the “dreadful carnage.” Adams concluded that the “mad behavior” of Attucks provoked the soldiers’ response, saying that Attucks’s group was “under the command of a stout molatto fellow, whose very looks, was enough to terrify any person.” Some 250 years later, Adams’s words still underline a central truth in American disobedience: Freedom through violence is a privilege possessed only by whites. Seminal moments in U.S. history that historians have defined as patriotic were also moments that denied patriotism to black people.

If violence is a political language, white Americans are native speakers. But black people are also fluent in the act of resistance. Attucks stood up to British tyranny. The numerous slave rebellions led by Gabriel Prosser, Charles Deslondes, and Nat Turner were all attempts to gain freedom with force. Throughout the 20th century, black Americans armed themselves in the face of white mobs and organized protection for their freedom marches. Accordingly, when George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others were killed by police, black people and their allies chose to rise up. Americans like to harken back to the civil-rights era as a moment of nonviolence and civil disobedience. But that movement was an orchestrated response to violence. Violence at the voting booth. Violence at the lunch counter. Violence that bombed a church with four little black girls inside. Violence that left a bloated black boy in an open casket. Violence that left a black husband and father murdered in his driveway. The movement ended with the violent death of Martin Luther King Jr. And his death ignited riots in more than 100 cities.

It is easy to dismiss the rock thrower; Attucks himself was accused of throwing sticks. But those who rebuke violent responses to injustice should ask themselves: How should the oppressed respond to their oppressors? How should the nation respond to political dissent? How do the oppressed procure power? Throughout history, black people have employed violence, nonviolence, marches, and boycotts. Only one thing is clear—there is no form of black protest that white supremacy will sanction. Still, black people understand the utility of riotous rebellion: Violence compels a response. Violence disrupts the status quo and the possibility of returning to business as usual. So often the watershed moments of historical record are stamped by violence—it is the engine that propels society along from funerals to fury and from moments to movements.

snip