Society's Child
The incident unfolded on Tuesday evening in Chicago's Auburn Gresham community on the South Side, where police superintendent Eric Carter said more than a dozen people were shot outside a funeral home, noting that the victims are being treated at 5 different area hospitals.
Two Russian journalists were hurt while reporting from the scene of an intense confrontation in front of the federal court in Portland, according to a Sputnik correspondent covering the same events. Vyacheslav Arkhipov, a cameraman with a Russian Channel One, was hit with a baton and thrown to the ground. His camera was smashed by an officer.
His colleague, Yulia Olkhovskaya, was targeted while filming the protest with her phone. An officer took the device and the helmet she was wearing and pushed her to the ground, the reporter said.
A senior official from Channel One said the two were not seriously hurt in the incident, but the damage to their equipment appeared significant.
Comment: The Kremlin's press secretary, Dmirty Peskov, called the attack "outrageous" while demanding that US authorities take measures to protect the security of Russian journalists working in the US. They are unfortunately finding out that freedom of press in the US isn't what it used to be.
The Oakland city council rejected deeper cuts to the police department, where Mayor Libby Schaaf cast the deciding vote - only hours after her home was vandalized.
"Any further cuts, real cuts will require significant reductions to our widely recognized inadequate 911 response, elimination of current police service as well as further strain of what is a well-documented understaffed police force," Schaaf said.
The Tuesday night meeting included hours of public comment with many supporting cuts to the police department.
Comment: You don't suppose this little incident reported by RT had anything to do with her vote maybe? The 'woke' continue to turn on their 'allies'.
Protesters have vandalized the home of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, splattering it with red paint and graffiti while pelting the house with fireworks. The mayor's office said the attack was meant to "terrorize" and "intimidate."It's not like Schaaf hasn't tried hard to establish her liberal cred:
"An attack at the home of a publicly elected official does not advance democracy," the mayor's office said in a statement, noting that "vandals shot projectiles at the mayor's home, set off fireworks and graffitied her home with paint."Oakland Police are now investigating the incident, the aftermath of which was seen in photos shared on social media.This attack, designed to intimidate the mayor and strike fear into her family, will not stop her from advocating for the policies she believes are in the best long-term interests of her beloved hometown. Like all Oaklanders, she supports passionate protest but does not support tactics meant to harm and terrorize others.
Though the mayor has come out in favor of the BLM movement - approving of a massive street mural created to celebrate the group and forcefully speaking out against police brutality on a number of occasions in recent weeks - her not-radical-enough stance on police funding is at odds with activists' growing calls to slash department budgets or abolish them outright.
The city voted to divert more than $14 million from the Oakland Police Department budget last month, however activists and some city council members have demanded more, with two local lawmakers proposing a whopping $150 million cut in a recent budget amendment.
Schaaf ultimately provided the tie-breaking vote to shoot down the larger cut on Tuesday night, arguing it would "further impair what is already sub-standard police 911 response" and "strain Oakland's under-staffed police force."
It is not the first time anti-police brutality demonstrators descended on Schaaf's private residence. In June, some 1,000 marchers staged a protest in her Fruitvale neighborhood, calling on the mayor to defund the OPD, among other things. Following the action, the mayor's office issued a statement in support of the protesters, arguing that the "outrage across America right now needs to be heard."
- 'Outsider' Anne Kirkpatrick appointed to reform Oakland police is department's first woman chief
- Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf hit with lawsuit for tipping off illegal immigrants to ICE sweep
- Oakland Mayor, Libby Schaaf, says she's willing to be jailed to defend sanctuary city
On his Morning Joe show Thursday, Scarborough railed against the deployment of federal agents to the city of Portland, saying they have launched "deeply disturbing attacks" against "peaceful protests, for the most part."
The MSNBC host has no doubt seen footage of federal agents arresting protesters and proceeding to throw them into unmarked vans - but perhaps he missed the videos of demonstrators growing increasingly violent after more than 50 nights of raging protests.

Ghislaine Maxwell appears via video link during her arraignment hearing where she was denied bail for her role aiding Jeffrey Epstein to recruit and eventually abuse of minor girls, in Manhattan Federal Court, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S. July 14, 2020 in this courtroom sketch.
After Judge Loretta Preska delivered the ruling via video hearing in the case, she granted Maxwell's lawyer Lauren Menninger one week to file an emergency motion with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to challenge the decision.
Maxwell, who has been fighting the release, was not on the call.
Comment:
- Large tranche of files released in Ghislane Maxwell lawsuit contain lurid claims about Jeffrey Epstein
- Judge denies bail for Ghislaine Maxwell after she pleads not guilty in Jeffrey Epstein sex crimes case
Judge orders 'destruction' of Guiffre's evidence against Jeffrey Epstein
Nightly protests in Portland focused around a downtown federal courthouse have been raging for over 50 nights. The confrontations regularly escalate into rioting, and have become more volatile since the Trump administration deployed additional federal law enforcement agents to the city last week. Mayor Wheeler, who has been sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter cause, criticized the federal agents for using controversial tactics in their crackdown.
On Wednesday night, the mayor appeared before an angry crowd of around 2,000 demonstrators, who gathered behind a large fence erected around the courthouse to keep them away from the building. The reception was lukewarm at best from the start. Some people shouted, "Quit your job" as he walked towards the center of the rally, while one protester emptied a bag of trash under his feet.
Comment: Trying to appease the mob only makes things worse.

Supporters listen to President Donald Trump deliver a Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore during which he decried cancel culture as a political weapon of the left.
In the last year, as numerous public figures have become the targets of online campaigns by social media swarms, the former and current president have spoken out against the practice. "That's not activism," Obama said last November. "That's not bringing about change. If all you're doing is casting stones, you're probably not going to get that far. That's easy to do."
In a Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore, Trump said, "We want free and open debate, not speech codes and cancel culture. We embrace tolerance, not prejudice." Speaking of the left, he added that "one of their political weapons is 'cancel culture' — driving people from their jobs, shaming dissenters, and demanding total submission from anyone who disagrees. This is the very definition of totalitarianism, and it is completely alien to our culture and our values, and it has absolutely no place in the United States of America." (One commentator quickly pointed out that Trump has long been one of the most enthusiastic practitioners of cancel culture.)
We were curious how much this debate over cancel culture — which has quickly morphed from a Twitter obsession for elite journalists to a campaign rallying cry for Trump — has permeated the public consciousness. We asked our polling partner, Morning Consult, to field some questions in our weekly survey and one surprising finding is the number of Americans who now agree with Obama and Trump and want to cancel cancel culture — or at least its worst aspects.
When the social media giant announced it was "cracking down" on QAnon on Tuesday, barring Q-related topics from trending, blocking URLs associated with the conspiracy theory (really an ecosystem of interlinked conspiracy theories, centered around the cryptic disclosures of a supposedly high-ranking government employee going by the moniker Q), and banning Q-promoting accounts that have violated other Twitter rules, it gave QAnon followers the validation they craved.
Comment:
- Twitter to suspend 150,000 accounts tweeting QAnon 'conspiracy theory' that Trump is 'under attack from Deep State'
- QAnon is a PsyOp designed to mislead Trump supporters and divide alternative news readers
- Telling it like it is: WikiLeaks calls QAnon a likely 'Pied Piper' operation
- Unraveling The QAnon Hoax
- How You Can be 100% Certain That QAnon is Bullshit
Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera defended Donald Trump's well-wishes to alleged child sex trafficker and Jeffery Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell on Twitter Wednesday.
During Mr Trump's coronavirus press briefing on Tuesday, he was asked about Ms Maxwell and offered his sympathies to her.
"I don't know, I haven't really been following it too much," Mr Trump said. "I just wish her well, frankly."
Mr Trump went on to say he'd met her numerous times over the years, especially when he was living in Palm Beach, Florida.
"But I wish her well, whatever it is," Mr Trump said.
Ms Maxwell is facing federal charges for allegedly helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse girls.
Comment: Rivera is right, in that Maxwell is entitled to presumption of innocence and a fair trial. Unfortunately for Ms. Maxwell, the mountain of evidence against her is going to make that a difficult proposition. She has been named by too many of Epstein's victims as the one who lured them into danger.
- Epstein arrest casts spotlight on Clinton-connected socialite Ghislaine Maxwell
- Epstein victim Maria Farmer speaks with Whitney Webb, full phone call - Part 1
- President and Pimp: Bill Clinton poses with Ghislaine Maxwell on 'Lolita Express'
- Woman claims Ghislaine Maxwell raped her '20-30 times'; willing to testify: 'She is just as evil as Jeffrey Epstein'
- Jeffrey Epstein accuser sues Ghislaine Maxwell, 3 others; says Epstein 'forcefully raped' her at 15
- Ex-Reddit CEO knew Ghislaine Maxwell was trafficking underage girls, attended parties with Al Gore, Facebook and Twitter Execs
- Ghislaine Maxwell 'has tapes of two prominent US politicians having sex with minors' and boasted of 'owning' powerful people, former friend and jewel thief claims
- Thousands implicated in secret Jeffrey Epstein files, Ghislaine Maxwell fighting to keep them sealed
Back in February, a "racist" slide at a Red Bull company presentation was leaked to the public. There was a long silence over the matter, until recently when it was revealed that the executive responsible had been fired.
However, in an interesting twist, it looks like Red Bull has fired a pair of senior woke employees. As in two of its CEOs. Aside from being the ones who leaked the image to the press, they've been pushing for more diversity in the company. Austrian leadership showed little interest.
Let's be honest about something: this may be one of the smartest business moves that a company has made in years. It's not exactly a massive revelation that racism is an evil thing that everyone hates. Well, except people who are actually racist, but I wouldn't describe them as rational members of society. But the biggest detriment to business in the modern day isn't "racist" maps. It's woke politics that no one is interested in.
When Gillette released its 'The Best Men Can Be' ad, there was massive backlash and the company lost billions of dollars. It later said it's "worth it." I have a feeling any employees who lost money over that bungle don't share the same sentiment.
Marvel Comics has continuously pandered to the woke, and lost massive sales. Captain America, written by America-hating Ta-Nehisi Coates, can't even ship 30,000 comics. For the uninitiated, those are abysmal numbers for such a popular character. EA Games' Battlefield series suffered substantial losses because of similar pushing of woke politics.
Comment: What a concept! If woke employees and CEOs are destroying a business from within, fire them.
One of the ironies of this situation is that the allegedly racist map was actually poking fun at American exceptionalism and ignorance.













Comment: There was another shooting several hours after the one above. See:
3yo girl shot in Chicago after bloody funeral parlor shootout