(48hills.org) – One of Germany’s largest dailies ran the headline “This killer cop set America ablaze,” with a photo of the Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd. Protests in the United States, the article reported, looked like “scenes out of a civil war.” Bettina Gaus, political correspondent for the Berlin daily Die Tagezeitung, tells […]
Archives for June 2020
Trump’s use of religion follows playbook of authoritarian-leaning leaders the world over
By Laura R. Olson | – It was a striking moment: Donald Trump, Bible in hand, posing for photos in an apparent moment of political theater made possible by the dispersal of protesters through the use of tear gas. The president’s visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church, known as “the Church of the Presidents,” came […]
Tear Gas Is Way More Dangerous Than Police Let On — Especially During the Coronavirus Pandemic
by Lisa Song (ProPublica) – When Amira Chowdhury joined a protest in Philadelphia against police violence on Monday, she wore a mask to protect herself and others against the coronavirus. But when officers launched tear gas into the crowd, Chowdhury pulled off her mask as she gasped for air. “I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I […]
Remembering Big Floyd the Artist and Dreams of Transcendence, Dreams of Breathing Free
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – George “Perry” Floyd had the misfortune to become a symbol when he was killed by a Minnesota policeman after having been arrested for allegedly trying to pass a counterfeit twenty dollar bill (not usually a capital crime, and it is not clear that Mr. Floyd was aware). No one can […]
No, Racism isn’t in the Past, and isn’t Rare or Aberrant: Stop Romanticizing
This painting by by Winslow Homer (1836 – 1910) is entitled “The Veteran in a New Field.” He painted it in 1865, not long after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee’s capitulation marked the end of the American Civil War (1861 – 1865) and the death of the […]
Syria from Eden to Ruin: The World may forget, but the Catastrophe hasn’t Gone Away
From Eden to Ruin ( Christian Courier) – While living in Jordan, my wife Sally and I fell in love with Syria and its people through many visits stretched over four decades. Our last adventure in 2006 was to Aleppo, when we stayed in a converted khan in the middle of its souq (market), which […]
Organizing the Rich or the Poor? Which America Will Be Ours After the Pandemic?
By Liz Theoharis | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – In the summer of 1995, when I was 18, I started visiting Tent City, a temporary encampment in an abandoned lot in northeast Philadelphia. About 40 families had taken up residence in tents, shacks, and other makeshift structures. Among them were people of various races, ages, […]
Esper and Mattis try to put the Genie of Trump Militarism back in the Bottle, Years too Late
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Maybe Mark Esper isn’t having fun anymore as Secretary of Defense. On Wednesday he appeared to be trying to commit political suicide by president, as he openly rejected the idea of invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act to send US troops into states over the objection of their governors, broached by […]
Black Americans and Palestinians ‘can’t breathe’ because of injustice
By Ahmed Al-Burai | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Over the past week, two brutal events added more sadness to the morbid climate of the coronavirus pandemic. In Minneapolis, a black American citizen was killed by a police officer, and then an unarmed 32-year-old Palestinian man with special needs was shot and killed […]
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