Puppet Masters
© Reuters / Maxar Technologies
People walk along 16th Street NW with many gathering on and near the new "Black Lives Matter" lettering painted on the street in Washington, DC, on June 6, 2020
People walk along 16th Street NW with many gathering on and near the new "Black Lives Matter" lettering painted on the street in Washington, DC, on June 6, 2020
"I have just given an order for our National Guard to start the process of withdrawing from Washington, D.C., now that everything is under perfect control," Trump tweeted. "They will be going home, but can quickly return, if needed. Far fewer protesters showed up last night than anticipated!"
Unveiling the newly minted "Black Lives Matter Plaza" just steps from the White House, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Friday she would evict the National Guard from hotels, citing a "budgetary issue."
In response, Trump tweeted: "The incompetent Mayor of Washington, D.C., @MayorBowser, who's [sic] budget is totally out of control and is constantly coming back to us for 'handouts', is now fighting with the National Guard, who saved her from great embarrassment over the last number of nights.
"If she doesn't treat these men and women well, then we'll bring in a different group of men and women!" he said.
© Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg via Getty Images
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
De Blasio took to Twitter at 11:20 a.m. saying: "This morning we committed to move resources from the NYPD to youth and social services as part of our City's budget. Our young people need to be reached, not policed. We can do this AND keep our city safe."
© Reuters / Tom Brenner and Sergei Karpukhin
Donald Trump and Colin Powell
Donald Trump and Colin Powell
Appearing on CNN on Sunday, Powell accused Trump of drifting "away from" the Constitution, after the president threatened to deploy the US military to quell violent unrest in the US' major cities. Powell's criticism echoes the words of a number of former military personnel, including former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who compared Trump to Hitler in a diatribe published last week by the Atlantic.
Comment:
- Powell tries to wash his hands of the war he helped start
- Neck Deep: The Real Colin Powell
- The U.S. government stands revealed to the world as a collection of war criminals and liars
- Leaked Powell emails reveal UK-US relief as Brexit buried damning Iraq report
- Released emails reveal Colin Powell advised Killary to use private email to avoid "nonsense" State Dept. security rules
John Edmunds
Britain is one of the worst-hit countries in the world, with a death toll of more than 50,000 from COVID-19, according to a Reuters tally this week based on official sources.
Critics from a broad spectrum including medical professionals, scientists and lawmakers, say the government has botched its response to the outbreak by being too slow in imposing crucial measures such as the lockdown and protecting the elderly in care homes.
Comment: Of much more concern than the claimed coronavirus deaths - totaling less than the average flu season - are the deaths caused by hospitals not taking in patients in need of critical care; the elderly that were left to die while those hospitals lay empty; as well as the as yet incalculable destruction to the economy, with a million unemployed and thousands of independent businesses going bankrupt as well as the surge in mental illness, suicide, and substance dependence - to name but a few effects of the tyrannical and unjustified lockdown. These facts are available to anyone wishing to get to the truth of the matter. And with that in mind, this government advisor should be sacked immediately for his complete incompetency and the danger he poses to society holding a position of such influence.
© Unknown/KJN
I have a bedtime story for you.
Once upon a time a brave nation liberated itself from the tyranny of the British Empire and birthed freedom and democracy into the world. With the help of heroes like the abolitionists, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X it overcame systemic racial inequality, and now it is a shining exemplar of human rights, the respected friend of free democracies around the world and the hated foe of all tyrannical regimes. It is not without its faults and its past mistakes, but it is the best leader and protector of the liberal world order that we could possibly hope to have.I also have a waking up story for you.
Once upon a time a nation rose to prominence after emerging unscathed from two world wars which damaged the infrastructure of its competitors. The world's major power players quickly coalesced around this new superpower and began maneuvering other nations into a tight empire-like alliance with it. After a long and gruelling Cold War, this empire succeeded in toppling the world's only other superpower and began working to absorb all other nations into alliance with it. If nations resisted, they were subverted, sabotaged and attacked until they either collapsed or allowed themselves to be absorbed into the imperial blob...
© Alex Brandon/AP
Anthony Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Anthony Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
The task force was for several weeks a staple of Trump's response to the pandemic. From March 4 until late April, the panel held nearly daily, televised briefings at the White House, many headlined by Trump. Its medical experts fanned out across TV networks to share guidance on curbing the spread of the virus.
The most recent briefing was April 27, when Trump predicted the U.S. would suffer between 60,000 and 70,000 deaths from the outbreak. At least 107,000 Americans have died.
"I think we've done a great job," he said at the time.
The task force is now reduced to weekly closed-door meetings with Vice President Mike Pence. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the government, hasn't spoken publicly at the White House since April 29. In his last task force news conference, a week earlier, he cautioned that the country must "proceed in a very careful, measured way" to reopen.
Comment: The president is 'touting progress restoring the U.S. economy'. Is this is a bad thing in the midst of civil unrest all over the country, symptomatic of a societal backlash for the latest downgrade to normal human structure and balance? Societies are complicated and aspects are interwoven. Many threads were suddenly pulled without effective preventatives to consequences. Are we not allowed to consider 'the needs of the many'?
© Reuters/Erin Scot
A nurse wears a protective face mask as protests continue on the streets near the White House, June 4, 2020.
A nurse wears a protective face mask as protests continue on the streets near the White House, June 4, 2020.
The coronavirus pandemic left in its wake an unprecedented crackdown on civil liberties and freedom of movement in the US. Medical experts backed the lockdown measures, arguing that public health trumped normality, and they said putting the brakes on the US economy was necessary to stave off literally millions of deaths.
"They were lying. We always thought they were lying and now we know for sure," Fox News host Tucker Carlson declared on Friday. "Because today we have an open letter signed by more that 1,200 doctors, professionals and public health officials. And it explains that the riots you're watching must be allowed, but any other demonstration... must be suppressed."
Comment: More and more it is becoming apparent that agenda is the control mechanism dictating public thinking, reasoning, opinion. And, sadly, it mostly works.
© Picture-Alliance/DPA
Israel’s version of apartheid can be more subtle than South Africa’s, but the goal is fundamentally the same: ethno-racial gerrymandering, segregation and domination.
Israel’s version of apartheid can be more subtle than South Africa’s, but the goal is fundamentally the same: ethno-racial gerrymandering, segregation and domination.
The "Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law" prohibits Israeli citizens who marry Palestinians from the occupied West Bank or Gaza Strip, or nationals from several other regional states, from living with their spouse in Israel.
"The law affects tens of thousands of Palestinian families on both sides of the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank, preventing Palestinians from legally moving into Israel to join their spouses," according to Adalah, an advocacy group that has mounted unsuccessful court challenges to the law. Originally passed as an emergency measure in 2003, the provision has been renewed annually ever since.
The law is part of Israel's efforts to prevent the growth of the Palestinian population, a fundamentally racist measure justified by Israeli leaders as necessary to maintain a Jewish majority.
Zvi Hauser, the head of the foreign affairs and defense committee of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, said the renewal was justified by Israel's recently passed Nation-State of the Jewish People law, which legal advocates say violates international prohibitions on apartheid.
© Reuters/Brian Snyder
It might be a while before we see these again...
It might be a while before we see these again...
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected the unemployment rate to spike from 14.7 percent to 19.5 percent; instead, it declined to 13.3 percent. A predicted loss of 8.33 million jobs miraculously turned into a gain of 2.5 million. The expected "worst recession since the Great Depression" seemed to be receding into the rear-view mirror, sending the Dow up 800 points and Treasury yields surging. Trump himself tweeted in celebration.
But not everyone was buying this fabulous recovery. New York Times economist Paul Krugman countered that Trump might have somehow "gotten to" the Bureau of Labor Statistics, apparently pressuring them into tweaking their numbers to reflect a growth in jobs numbers that doesn't exist in real life.
Comment: It is inconceivable that job numbers today give an accurate picture while the target is still moving and the scope of the fallout can only be a future determination. To lay blame at this point is nothing more than a political maneuver. Presenting a false positive is one as well.
See also:
Comment: Is Mayor de Blasio grandstanding for votes and headlines or is he intent on this pursuit as stated? Clearly the NYPD will have something to say about any funding reallocation; the minimum effect downsizes its forces. If police are not on the job, it paves the way for Martial Law to be imposed by the military to exercise control over the public - an intended end result?