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Virginia governor to announce removal of statue of Gen. Robert E Lee to appease activists

Alan Suderman and Sarah Rankin
Associated Press
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 00:00 UTC
Richmond VA protest Gen Robt E Lee
© AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
This Tuesday, June 2, 2020 file photo shows a large group of protesters gather around the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue near downtown in Richmond, Va. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced plans Thursday, June 4, for the removal of the iconic statue.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to announce plans Thursday to remove one of the country's most iconic monuments to the Confederacy, a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee along Richmond's prominent Monument Avenue, a senior administration official told The Associated Press.

The move would be an extraordinary victory for civil rights activists, whose calls for the removal of that monument and others in this former capital of the Confederacy have been resisted for years.

"That is a symbol for so many people, black and otherwise, of a time gone by of hate and oppression and being made to feel less than," said Del. Jay Jones, a black lawmaker from Norfolk. He said he was "overcome" by emotion when he learned the statue was to come down.

The Democratic governor will direct the statue to be moved off its massive pedestal and put into storage while his administration seeks input on a new location, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak before the governor's announcement.

Comment: In a similar vein, activists in Belgium are demanding the removal of statues depicting King Leopold II because of his brutal colonial rule over the Congo which killed some 10 million people:
While for Belgium itself he was a constitutional monarch, Leopold was also a brutal oppressor of Africans. The king was the founder - and sole owner - of the so-called 'Congo Free State', a colonial entity that existed in Central Africa in the late 1800s.

The 'state' produced rubber and ivory, making a fortune for the king, while his brutal rule took a heavy toll on the locals. According to modern estimates, some 10 million people died at hands of Leopold's colonial troops, due to rampant diseases and various abuses. [..]

The campaign against the Leopold monuments is apparently not just limited to gathering signatures online. In the city of Ghent, a bust of Leopold II was doused in red paint, with a bag reading "I can't breathe" placed on its head. Another statue of the king was set on fire near the city of Antwerp.

See also:

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Red Flag

Movement to defund police gains 'unprecedented' support across US

Sam Levin
The Guardian
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 11:00 UTC
defund the police protester
© Matt York/AP
Protesters rally in Phoenix, demanding the city council defund the Phoenix police department on 3 June 2020.
Activists say the way to stop police brutality and killings is to cut law enforcement budgets and reinvest in services. Some lawmakers now agree

The movement to defund the police is gaining significant support across America, including from elected leaders, as protests over the killing of George Floyd sweep the nation.

For years, activists have pushed US cities and states to cut law enforcement budgets amid a dramatic rise in spending on police and prisons while funding for vital social services has shrunk or disappeared altogether.

Comment: Have these people really thought this through? While it surely can be agreed that the increasingly militarized police force is disturbing and unnecessary, it's rather difficult to imagine how a city could operate without a functioning police force at all. Do they have some sort of alternative idea for maintaining law and order? Or is this simply a reactionary position?

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Question

Are protesters now essential workers?

James Macpherson
Spectator Australia
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 13:06 UTC
protest australia cop police
One minute the media are telling us coronavirus is so lethal that we dare not leave our homes. The next minute the media are enthusiastically reporting on a massive crowd marching through the Sydney CBD.

One minute police are threatening to arrest us for sitting alone on a park bench. The next minute police are standing idle as thousands of protestors stand shoulder-to-shoulder in Martin Place.

One minute the New South Wales Premier insists it is unsafe for more than 50 people to gather for worship. The next minute the Premier is silent when 3000 people gather to show solidarity with African-Americans.

Comment: See also:

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Che Guevara

Journalist Andy Ngo sues Portland antifa group for $900k, following 'campaign of intimidation and terror'

Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
The Oregonian
Fri, 05 Jun 2020 19:19 UTC
andy ngo attacked antifa
© Dave Killen/The Oregonian
Andy Ngo, a conservative writer, was attacked by a group of left-wing protesters at a Portland demonstration in June 2019.
A conservative writer and videographer in Portland is seeking $900,000 from left-wing activists that he says repeatedly beat, robbed and terrorized him for filming them in the streets.

Andy Ngo lists five people by name and another 50 "John Does" in a civil lawsuit filed Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

He also alleges that their marching orders came from another defendant named in the lawsuit — Rose City Antifa, an amorphous and largely anonymous group of anti-fascists.

Comment: See also:

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Fire

The chaos spreads: Anger rising in Mexico over alleged police brutality death


Big Rapids News
Fri, 05 Jun 2020 02:46 UTC
american embassy mexico george floyd
© Rebecca Blackwell, AP
Images of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after being taken into police custody in Minneapolis, hang surrounded by roses on a security barrier outside the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, Saturday, May 30, 2020. A sign in Spanish reads: "Racism kills, here, there, and in the whole world," on the display put up by a group of Americans living in Mexico, along with other ex-pat and Mexican friends.
As protests rock the United States over allegations of police abuses, anger built in Mexico on Thursday over its own police brutality case: a young man allegedly beaten to death after officers detained him for not wearing a face mask during the coronavirus pandemic.

Hundreds of protesters marched Thursday evening in Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco state, to demand justice in the death of Giovanni López. Some broke into the state Capitol and sprayed graffiti on the walls while others later set two police patrol vehicles on fire.

An online campaign already in progress calling for justice in López's death has drawn support from stars like Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro.

Comment: Some tweets about the resulting carnage:





Looks a whole lot like Minneapolis.

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Health

Medical martial law: Liberalism's final capitulation

David William Pear
OffGuardian
Fri, 05 Jun 2020 07:11 UTC
army medic truck
They passed the USA PATRIOT Act - and I did nothing because I am a patriot.
They passed the USA Freedom Act - and I believe in freedom.
They nominated Hillary Clinton - and I voted for the lesser evil.
They declared medical martial law - and I didn't want to kill grandma.
They said to wear a facemask - and I passively obeyed.
I believe Joe Biden - because I am a liberal.
Ode to a Liberal - DWP

In 2010 Chris Hedges declared the liberal class as dead as a doornail. He was late. Liberalism had died decades earlier. All that remains now is the separate components of the body of liberalism. The stinking compounds have decomposed into identity politics.

The cause of death for the liberal class, as Chris Hedges tells us, was gullibility. Liberals were foolish enough to believe that they could moderate capitalism. They thought that they could change corporatism by elections, mass movements, whining and begging for incrementally.

The liberal class started their negotiations by compromising all of their ethics, beliefs, and powers. All they got in return were table-scraps to identity politics. The power elite did not give up anything it really cares about. The corporatists raped, pillaged and burned with abandon, while liberals wallowed in political correctness.

Comment: Well said. The contradictions within the liberal class are so numerous and obvious that it can be said that anything that it may have stood for, is completely gone, and now even symbolize the exact opposite of what they claim to be.

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Yellow Vest

Remember the Yellow Vests? Now, Italy is seeing an 'Orange Vests' movement that calls into question the coronavirus pandemic

Holly Ellyatt
CNBC
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 14:58 UTC
Orange Vests
© Stefano Montesi - Corbis
Activists of the new political movement “Orange Vests” (Gilet Arancioni) protest during a demonstration against the Italian Government for the economic problems the country is having due to the coronavirus pandemic as phase two of the lifting lockdown exit plan continues on June 2, 2020 in Rome, Italy.
Remember the "yellow vests" movement that brought France to a standstill in late 2018? Now, Italy is seeing its own grassroots, anti-government, populist movement: the "Orange Vests" or "Gilet Arancioni."

Hundreds of protesters wearing orange vests or jackets gathered in Rome on Tuesday, chanting "Liberta'!" ("Liberty!") to protest the government's handling of the coronavirus crisis and calling for it to resign.

Described as a "rightist-libertarian" and "turbo populist" movement by the Italian media and modeling themselves on the yellow-vested anti-government movement seen in France, the leader of the Orange Vests, former Carabinieri Gen. Antonio Pappalardo, has said that the coronavirus pandemic did not exist.

"The pandemic does not exist, it's total bulls---," Pappalardo told a rally in Bari on Sunday, Italian news agency ANSA reported. "The coronavirus is not lethal, it only kills the already sick over 80s. Enough with the lies and falsehoods, you have terrified the Italian people."
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Propaganda

Lancet, New England Journal retract Covid-19 studies, including one that raised safety concerns about malaria drugs

Andrew Joseph
Stat News
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 00:00 UTC
malaria drugs
© GEORGE FREY/AFP via Getty Images
The Lancet, one of the world's top medical journals, on Thursday retracted an influential study that raised alarms about the safety of the experimental Covid-19 treatments chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine amid scrutiny of the data underlying the paper.

Just over an hour later, the New England Journal of Medicine retracted a separate study, focused on blood pressure medications in Covid-19, that relied on data from the same company.

The retractions came at the request of the authors of the studies, published last month, who were not directly involved with the data collection and sources, the journals said.

"We can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources," Mandeep Mehra of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Frank Ruschitzka of University Hospital Zurich, and Amit Patel of University of Utah said in a statement issued by the Lancet. "Due to this unfortunate development, the authors request that the paper be retracted."

Comment: See also: Governments And WHO Changed Covid-19 Policy Based on Suspect Data From Tiny US Company

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Sheriff

NYPD officers at George Floyd protests are covering their badge numbers in violation of own policy

Nick Pinto
The Intercept
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 00:22 UTC
New York police officers
© Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Police stand by as demonstrations continue against the murder of George Floyd on June 1, 2020 in the Brooklyn, N.Y.
New York Police Department officers policing the protests in New York City are increasingly covering their badge numbers with black bands, making it difficult for people to identify them and hold them accountable for their actions. On Wednesday, the National Lawyers Guild sent a letter to the department and to the city's corporation counsel, warning that if the NYPD doesn't put an end to the practice, it could expect a lawsuit.
"The trend of individual officers to sidestep what minimal accountability exists, in order to more effectively and with greater impunity brutalize protesters for pretextual reasons, is unacceptable."
The practice of police obscuring their badge numbers — a form of identification that many jurisdictions require officers to make available to the public when interacting — has taken on a heightened significance amid the nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. The protests have been met with a show of force from officers, sometimes veering into brutality, leaving the risk that those without visible identification are acting with the very impunity to commit violence that spurred the protests in the first place.

The NYPD has strict regulations around displaying badge numbers — and a history of suppressing protests with violence and without accountability.

Comment:





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Hammer

Paul Joseph Watson: Wokevirus

Paul Joseph Watson
Summit News
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 00:00 UTC
Paul Joseph Watson
Anti-lockdown protesters were publicly shamed & called "granny killers".

BLM protesters are celebrated & applauded by health workers & the media.

Apparently, coronavirus is 'woke' and takes a break if the cause you're championing is left-wing.

"It's OK when we do it!"


Comment: Warning: crude language


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