As Proud Boys Celebrate Trump Shout-Out, Warnings Grow That President 'Inciting Violence' to Retain Power

"Trump has repeatedly made it clear that he considers violent white supremacists to be a valued part of his base, even after people are murdered."

September 30, 2020 Jake Johnson COMMON DREAMS

https://portside.org/2020-09-30/proud-boys-celebrate-trump-shout-out-warnings-grow-president-inciting-violence-retain

Members of the Proud Boys are rejoicing after President Donald Trump gave the far-right organization a shout-out and marching orders during Tuesday night's nationally televised debate, heightening fears that the president is deliberately rallying extremist groups and stirring up white supremacist violence as part of his frantic effort to remain in power.

The Daily Beast reported Wednesday morning that one Proud Boys leader readily interpreted Trump's comments as instructions to commit violence against the president's political opponents. "Trump basically said to go fuck them up!" wrote Joey Biggs after the president told the Proud Boys, a group that openly embraces violence, to "stand back and stand by."

"This makes me so happy," Biggs added, a celebratory reaction that was echoed by members of the extremist organization on the social media and messaging apps they commonly use, such as Telegram and Parler. One Proud Boys member claimed Trump's comments prompted a surge in "new recruits."

Refusing to condemn white supremacists when given an opportunity to do so by debate moderator Chris Wallace, the president said, "I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left."

Shortly following Trump's comments, which were widely condemned by civil rights organizations, one of the Proud Boys' social media accounts incorporated the president's words into a graphic with the far-right group's logo:



Progressive advocacy group Bend the Arc: Jewish Action said in a statement late Tuesday that Trump's remarks were the "words of a scared wannabe fascist , not a president—and Jewish Americans see right through him."

"Trump has repeatedly made it clear that he considers violent white supremacists to be a valued part of his base, even after people are murdered," the group added. "He doesn't just enable white supremacy; it's his platform. Trump's open appeals to white supremacists and his dangerous rhetoric show that this president will do or say anything in his increasingly desperate bid to hold onto power."

Pointing to another telling graphic that circulated among Proud Boys accounts on Twitter, youth-led Jewish advocacy group IfNotNow warned that "Trump is inciting violence from the debate stage."



"During a time when Black people nationwide are exercising their rights to protest police violence and contending with rising levels of racial violence, President Donald Trump used his debate platform to embolden white supremacists by refusing to disavow their activity and by issuing a directive to Proud Boys to 'stand by,'" Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement.

"Even the FBI has identified white supremacy as one of the greatest domestic threats that we face today," added Clarke. "The president's silence and acquiescence present a clear and present danger to Black people, who are most frequently targeted by incidents of hate."

As Ali Breland of Mother Jones wrote late Tuesday, "Trump's decision to not clearly condemn white supremacy and the Proud Boys in particular could have dangerous consequences."

Breland continued:


Proud Boys have already exhibited a pattern of violence by routinely assaulting protesters they see as not on their side, often without any physical provocation...

Adjacent extremist groups could also take Trump's refusal to disavow white supremacists as a tacit endorsement. The investigative news site Bellingcat recently reported on a leaked trove of chat messages shared by right-wing activists in Oregon. It includes a message from a user named Paige discussing when would be an appropriate time to use violence: "I'm waiting for the presidential go to start open firing."

Democratic lawmakers joined civil rights groups in condemning Trump's remarks and warning they could spark a wave of racist violence ahead of the November election.

"Donald Trump fans the flames of racism, embraces white supremacy, and employs state violence against Americans exercising their rights," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tweeted late Tuesday. "That's Donald Trump's America."

Rep. Rashia Tlaib (D-Mich.) said the president's nod to the Proud Boys "again shows he is dangerous."

How a Microphone Works

And why the Commission on Presidential Debates doesn’t want to understand it

September 30, 2020 David Dayen THE AMERICAN PROSPECT




https://portside.org/2020-09-30/how-microphone-works

Every so often, you’ll watch a congressional hearing (if you’re me) or you’ll be on a Zoom call (if you’re everybody) and you’ll see someone’s lips moving with no words coming out, and inevitably a member of Congress or Jan from HR will remind them, “You’re muted.” What’s happening there is a complex phenomenon known in the annals of amplification as the mic being off. In the event of a broadcast situation, whether to lobbyists in a congressional hearing room or the gang from the office working from home, if your mic is off nobody can hear you.

Believe it or not, the same thing works in broadcast television. I will impart to you my wise experience of nearly 20 years in the television industry. There’s a sound engineer in any studio environment, and he has everyone’s mic wired into a different spot on the soundboard. He can turn the mic up or down, so the signal broadcast out to the world can either hear or not hear the speaker. This is helpful when you have people on screen speaking over one another, or out of turn, or in the case of The Jerry Springer Show or some such operation, when there’s just someone so unruly that they won’t shut up.

In a situation where you have two speakers, and each of them is supposed to get an uninterrupted amount of time during a portion of the program, you could simply bring up that person’s mic, and “cut” the other one (that’s a technical term). Anyone who has watched Fox News or really any news program with a guest can plainly see that, when it’s the host’s turn to speak, the mic of the guest is turned down. Sometimes, if Bill O’Reilly is the host, this cutting of the guest’s mic is very explicit: Normally it’s just implied.

Sure, if the two individuals are in the same room, and one of them is ranting with their mic cut, it may be hard for the other person speaking to concentrate. But that’s life in the big city, and something that public speakers have to get used to. If they know that they’re in control of the mic, and therefore the situation, they can just ignore the other speaker and plow forward, confident that their message is getting across to the people at home, who matter more than the people in the room. (Heck, even in the room only the person amplified will be heard, as that’s how a microphone works.)

Now, why am I relating this as if I’m speaking to an eight-year-old? Because the eight-year-olds at the Commission on Presidential Debates are apparently unaware of the power of amplification. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has now made explicit an ask of the commission, saying, “In the next debates, you must CUT THE MIC when it’s not a candidate’s turn to speak to control the situation and allow the debate to go forward.”

You would think, if the commission had rules that each candidate would get two uninterrupted minutes at the beginning of each section of the debate, that they would have mastered this concept on their own. Those certainly didn’t have to be the rules. You could have rules with no conditions on cross talk and interruption. But they were the rules, agreed to by both campaigns. And the simplest tool known by every television producer in the history of the medium is available to enforce that rule. If the moderator won’t do it, the sound engineer can.

Now let me tell you why the Commission on Presidential Debates will not resort to this time-honored tactic. The commission, run by corporate lobbyists from both parties, more than anything wants to display their neutrality. Though it’s entirely neutral to enforce a ground rule agreed to by all sides that an uninterrupted segment of the debate remain uninterrupted, this tactic would be met with howls of derision by the most frequent interrupter, maybe lead to a boycotted debate, and would upset the delicate control that the commission, a perfectly fictitious corporation sponsored by other private corporations, wants to project.

More to the point, television news has invited the kind of brawling style on display last night. They act as theater critics watching a play and give points to the more “aggressive” contributor to the debate, judging the candidates on style far more than substance. To allow for uninterrupted points of the debate would mean actually having to listen to what the candidates have to say, which would be awful. They view television through the lens of conflict and have created the reality show in which we now find ourselves.

Though history in the Trump era begins the moment people wake up in the morning, this is not the first debate marred by endless cross talk from politicians with a sense of entitlement, who know that they can just blow past the agreed-to debate rules to get their message out. The way the media has run debates for years, the same way they run panel discussions and interviews, has contributed mightily to this mess. They have a way out, but they don’t want to use it. They want to maintain “neutrality” but refuse to implement any steps to that end. The reason the debate was a “shitshow,” as Dana Bash called it, is because of the people who have been stirring the shit for the last few decades.

The Lee Camp Ledger, Week Of Sep 29, 2020

News The Corporate Media Is Scared You'll See!
Lee Camp Oct 1






Donald Trump disrespected the troops & received heavy push back, but the untold story here is that Congress & the White House have always treated soldiers like they’re expendable — on this episode of Redacted Tonight


Corporate media voicebox Brian Stelter just can’t get enough wrong — on Moment Of Clarity


Donald Trump doesn’t pay his taxes & that should surprise NOBODY — on Moment Of Clarity


Julian Assange still faces a draconian sentence for doing journalism & none of the major media institutions want to talk about it — on Moment Of Clarity


Many states are seizing on the Breonna Taylor & George Floyd protest movements to pursue policies that criminalize poverty — on Moment Of Clarity


After refusing to condemn white supremacists in the debate Trump went to Minnesota and stirred up hate against Somali refugees — on Common Dreams


Homeland Security has warned of the threat of violent unrest after the 2020 election — on MintPress News


Over 2,000 mathematicians have signed a letter agreeing to boycott all collaboration with police, and insisting their colleagues do the same — on Shadowproof




Welcome back to the Ledger!

This is not a typical election and the debate this week proved it. The Empire is in decline & two racist, senile, misogynists are fighting over who gets to pilot the crash landing. It’s time to see through the charade. Hope you enjoy the Ledger.

Keep fighting!

- Lee



Corporate Media's Brian Stelter Appearance Dissected
Breonna Taylor & The Battle To End Protest
The TRUTH About Donald's Taxes
He Who Must Not Be Mentioned!
 

Trump Disrespects The Troops & So Does Congress
The Catastrophic F-35 Just Got Worse
Online Library Sued for Lending Books

'This Is Fascism': Trump Riles Up Minnesota Supporters With Racist Attack on Somali Refugees

Common Dreams | Jake Johnson

Just 24 hours after refusing to condemn white supremacists during the first 2020 general election debate, President Donald Trump late Wednesday launched a racist attack on refugees from Somalia and other nations and parroted an unfounded right-wing claim about Rep. Ilhan Omar, sparking "lock her up!" chants from his Minnesota supporters.

"Another massive issue for Minnesota is the election of Joe Biden's plan to inundate your state with a historic flood of refugees," Trump said to boos from the crowd gathered at Duluth International Airport. "Coming from the most dangerous places in the world including Yemen, Syria, and your favorite country, Somalia. Right? You love Somalia... Biden will turn Minnesota into a refugee camp."

Click to read.
NJ Homeland Security Assessment Warns Violent Unrest Could Follow 2020 Election

MintPress News | Raul Diego

In the lead up to the 2020 presidential election, potential civil unrest and worse has been predicted by multiple governmental agencies and assorted federal outfits, including the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. Last week the organization published a “supplemental threat assessment” on the upcoming electoral contest subtitled “The Convergence of COVID-19, Nationwide Civil Unrest, and the Upcoming Presidential Election.”

Using COVID-19 as a backdrop, the 13-page report identifies the pandemic as the “driving factor” behind “public health fears, economic instability, political dissent, and cultural turmoil,” that will persist until 2021.

Click to read.
Thousands Of Mathematicians Join Boycott Against Police Collaboration

Shadowproof | Maddie Rose

Over 2,000 mathematicians have signed a letter agreeing to boycott all collaboration with police, and insisting their colleagues do the same.

They are organizing a wide base of mathematicians in the hopes of cutting off police technologies at their source. The letter’s authors cite “deep concerns over the use of machine learning, AI, and facial recognition technologies to justify and perpetuate oppression.”

Predictive policing is one key area where some mathematicians and scientists have enabled the racist algorithms now animating broken-windows policing, which tell cops to treat specific areas as “hotspots” for potential crime. Activists have long criticized the bias inherent in these practices. Algorithms trained on data produced by racist policing will reproduce that prejudice to “predict” where crime will be committed and who is potentially criminal.

Click to read.


Keep fighting!

- Lee

Hundreds of Vehicle Ramming Attacks Mark New Norm in America’s Civil Unrest

Guest Post September 29, 2020



https://citizentruth.org/hundreds-of-vehicle-ramming-attacks-mark-new-norm-in-americas-civil-unrest/

There were 104 separate incidents of drivers crashing into protests between May 27, the date of the George Floyd killing, and September 5, including 96 civilians and 8 police vehicles.

(By: Alan Macleod, Mintpress News) Last week a black pickup truck plowed into a large crowd of anti-racist demonstrators protesting the police killing of Breonna Taylor in Hollywood. Video of the incident shows the driver hit a young man, subsequently accelerating over his body to escape a crowd converging on him. In Seattle, a man in a black sedan car barreled into a large demonstration protesting the killing of George Floyd. After he stopped, he got out and shot a protestor at point blank range. The crowd scattered in terror. The man calmly left the area. Meanwhile, in Buffalo on Wednesday, a woman screaming racial slurs slammed her truck into an anti-racist demonstration.

Incidents like these have become commonplace all over America. Wherever there are protests over racial injustice, there often are acts of violence against them. Indeed, according to Ari Weil, a terrorism researcher at the University of Chicago’s Project on Security and Threats, there were 104 separate incidents of drivers crashing into protests between May 27 (the date of the George Floyd killing) and September 5, including 96 civilians and 8 police vehicles. The motivations behind some of the incidents are unknown or contested.




Vehicular based terror attacks have been common for many decades in some parts of the world, but are only recently gaining a grizzly popularity in the United States. Perhaps the most infamous incident was the 2017 Charlottesville attack, where James Alex Fields Jr. plowed through a crowd of anti-racist demonstrators, protesting the far-right gathering happening in the Virginia town. Fields killed activist Heather Heyer and injured 28 more. He was sentenced to two life sentences plus an additional 419 years for his crimes.

Videos of these incidents have spread like wildfire among alt-right and neo-Nazi circles, with many users on far-right forums encouraging others to do the same. The hashtag “All Lives Splatter” continues to be a popular one on social media like Instagram or Twitter.







Many of the actions against Black Lives Matter protesters seem to have the tacit approval of local law enforcement. The driver of the Hollywood truck was immediately detained but quickly released by the police, a remarkable decision, given she was a suspect in what could have been considered a major terror attack. And after shooting protesters at point blank range in front of them, the Seattle attacker calmly walked towards police lines, where officers protected him, turning their backs on the armed killer, to shield him from unarmed demonstrators. After the incident, Seattle Detective Mike Brown was suspended from the department after sharing an “All Lives Splatter” meme on his Facebook profile. The post features a truck driving over a line fleeing protesters, with the text “get your ass off the road.” Meanwhile, Wisconsin police openly fraternized with Kenosha killer Kyle Rittenhouse, telling the armed 17-year-old “we appreciate you guys, we really do,” before he went on his spree last month.


Police have also directly encouraged terror attacks on black protesters. In 2016, St. Paul cop Sgt. Jeffrey Rothecker urged residents to run over anyone demonstrating on Martin Luther King Day. “Keep traffic flowing and don’t slow down for any of these idiots who try and block the street…run them over,” he said. Rothecker was also a serial troll, harassing social justice communities on Facebook. “F BLM” and “any others that support what they are doing,” he wrote.

A study of police officers’ public Facebook accounts by Injustice Watch found that 20 percent of officers had shared hate speech or content glorifying extreme violence or murdering of protesters, such as “All Lives Splatter.” This figure rose to 40 percent for recently retired officers.

Police have also rammed protesters themselves. In the immediate wake of the George Floyd killings, there were multiple incidents of NYPD cars plowing into protestors. Demonstrators in Brooklyn had placed a yellow road barrier between themselves and a stationary police car. A second police cruiser accelerates into the crowd, knocking multiple people to the ground before fleeing. The first car follows suit, driving into yet more people. Other videos show that this was not an isolated incident.

While police appear unwilling or unable to prevent, and, in some cases, even arrest perpetrators of crime against protestors, they often overreact hysterically in the opposite direction. Earlier this month, Texas police deployed SWAT forces, bomb robots, and a cavalcade of police to arrest a woman and her dog. She had committed no crime, nor was firmly suspected of any. However, decals on her vehicle read “Black Lives Matter” and “fuck these racist police.” State troopers decided this “anti-law enforcement rhetoric” necessitated such a response.

Meanwhile, when right-wing demonstrators are attacked, the justice system responds quickly. Last week, a person of color drove through a pro-Trump counter-protest, breaking the legs of one man. Unlike with other cases, she was immediately apprehended and charged with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.




Attacks like these against conservative movements are less common, however. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the far-right has been responsible for over 90 percent of the terror attacks of 2020, with religious extremists accountable for the bulk of the rest. With a resurgent far-right and a police force that has shown worrying signs of alignment with them, we are unlikely to have seen the last vehicle attack this year.

“Just Vote” Just Isn’t Good Enough

Joseph Mangano September 29, 2020




https://citizentruth.org/just-vote-just-isnt-good-enough/




I would like members of the “just vote” crowd to ponder if they, given the chance, would say the same to the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor if they met them face to face.

Despite what they may mean as catalysts in the push for change, the murders of Floyd and Taylor are tragedies. The victims are gone (at least in corporeal form) and no amount of “justice,” retributive or otherwise, could hope to bring them back. Accountability for all those involved and meaningful reform are only some measures of consolation.

In Floyd’s case, the four officers at the scene were charged and face an eventual trial, though at this writing, cameras have not been approved for use in the courtroom. Lest we forget, it wasn’t until the Attorney General’s office stepped in that prosecutors levied charges with teeth against these police in the first place. In Taylor’s case, the city of Louisville reached a $12 million settlement with her family and planned reforms, but no one has been arrested. As many critics have agreed, Breonna’s family deserves that much money and more, but that is not true accountability or justice.

What else do the deaths of Floyd and Taylor have in common? They occurred in jurisdictions led by Democrats. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota governor Tim Walz are members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, not to mention both state senators. Louisville mayor Greg Fischer and Kentucky governor Andy Beshear are Democrats.

Beshear, Frey, and Walz may get some of benefit of the doubt having only started their tenures last year or in 2018, but Democrats have held the gubernatorial seat since 2011 in Minnesota and have controlled the Minneapolis mayoral seat since 1978. It’s not as if there hasn’t been ample time for action, even if we’re accounting for assumed Republican resistance to reform (and let’s not let them off the hook either).


Eric Garner. Rayshard Brooks. The list goes on. These people were killed at the hands of police despite living in places run by Democrats either at the municipal or state level. This is not to say that elected officials should be held accountable for every act of violence that happens on their watch. That said, their responses in these situations merit scrutiny, and regardless, that police brutality is so pervasive independent of party control flies in the face of the “just vote” mentality.

This is where I reassure the reader that, despite my misgivings, I believe fundamentally that everyone who can should vote. A free and fair vote is the cornerstone of any representative democracy (how free and fair it is merits further discussion, but I am speaking purely in the abstract) and elections matter, often increasingly so the more local they get.

Lord knows I have been told as much repeatedly by Democrats and other staunch defenders of Joe Biden. This presidential election is of utmost importance. I would tell you that “it’s the most important election of our lifetime,” except people always say that and, even if it’s true, I feel like I’m beating the proverbial dead horse by repeating this line. You probably don’t need convincing on this dimension.

Indeed, I don’t take issue with voting or, for that matter, who one votes for. I might tell you your vote is ill-advised, especially if you’re voting Republican, but that’s your choice. It is specifically the “just vote” mentality as a means of dismissing legitimate concerns that I seek to admonish here because it fails to appreciate the magnitude of struggles for marginalized people and because it gets weaponized against progressives as a means of quelling dissent within Democratic Party ranks.

The examples of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor are extreme, though salient, topical, and illustrative of how ingrained injustice is from a racial and socioeconomic perspective. Expanding the conversation beyond police violence, the theme yet applies. San Francisco, despite a reputation for liberalism, has been the site of high rates of homelessness mediated by a pronounced housing shortage. Seattle, likewise regarded for being more liberal, has suffered its own homelessness crisis.

Independent of the affiliation of elected leadership, widening income and wealth inequality underscore the hardships faced by so many Americans. The pandemic has only intensified these woes, exposing the fragility of our way of life after suffering a shock to the system like a global health emergency. New York governor Andrew Cuomo, for some reason asked to speak at the Democratic National Convention, referred to COVID-19 as a metaphor in a nod to this theme. Strictly speaking, if this all is a metaphor, someone forgot to tell the virus because it seems pretty real to me. That said, it does put existing societal ills under a microscope such that their existence and pervasiveness are easily visible.


Over 200,000 people have died in the United States as a result of COVID-19 infection, and more states than not are headed in the wrong direction in terms of the rate of increase of positive tests. Meanwhile, congressional leadership is fretting about the price tag of a second round of stimulus checks and politicians are extoling the virtues of “affordable” health care, including a vaccine which is still in its testing or theoretical phase. All the while, the richest among us are making bank off this health crisis. Our suffering is their opportunity. It’s downright deflating, but not surprising under a system in which capital is prized above all else—plant and animal life, people, the planet itself.

This is the world “just vote” has given us: a world in which engagement dies after the votes are counted and people wear their modest civic participation around like it’s a major achievement. Privilege that it is, voting should be an afterthought and not the sum total of one’s efforts. It is not a panacea. The party loyalists who insist otherwise seeking a return to normalcy and the ability to go back to brunch or back to sleep are standing in the way of progress, plain and simple.

Adding a new wrinkle to the sense of urgency surrounding the 2020 presidential election is the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Though anytime someone is regarded with iconic status, our recollection of that person tends to be rosier than their full record perhaps warrants, the “Notorious RBG’s” advocacy for women’s rights and personal crusade against gender-based discrimination can’t be ignored when discussing her legacy. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a veritable trailblazer when it came to her service on the Supreme Court and she earned her place in history.

For the “vote blue no matter who” crowd, Bader Ginsburg’s seat was already a key component of their cajoling of uncommitted left-leaners into electoral acquiescence. Think of RBG! Think of the Supreme Court! In fairness, this is one of the more compelling arguments they could make. A strong imbalance on the court in favor of conservatives could endanger any number of human rights, notably reproductive rights. Coincidentally, Democratic causes and candidates have raised more than $100 million since RBG’s passing, and one might imagine a number of these donations were made with the fate of Roe v. Wade in mind.

That congressional Democrats and Joe Biden appear to be taking a stand against Republican efforts to try to ram a replacement through the confirmation process is encouraging. Though no one in their right mind would have wished for Bader Ginsburg’s death, that her passing could be the spark for a unified front by the broadly-stated “Left” communicates the sense that there is something worth fighting for within the Democratic Party structure. In a year that has been all but a bust for progressives on the national stage, this infuses the march to November with a new energy.

Of course, these gains won’t last forever and even if Democrats regain control of both the White House and the Senate, their feet will need to be held to the fire. We know “just vote.” We’ve seen it, heard it, and lived through it. There’s a better way forward. Our very future depends on it.

Rich Mostly Fine But Poorest 'Completely Crushed' After Covid-19 Triggered 'Most Unequal' Recession in Modern US History

A new analysis by the Washington Post found that the coronavirus recession has eliminated low-wage jobs at around eight times the rate of high-wage jobs.


Jake Johnson, staff writer

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/01/rich-mostly-fine-poorest-completely-crushed-after-covid-19-triggered-most-unequal

While the ongoing pandemic-induced economic collapse has left the highest earners in the U.S. largely unscathed—or, in the case of some billionaires, even wealthier than before—the recession has devastated lower-income workers whose jobs have been disrupted or completely wiped out, making the current downturn the "most unequal" in modern American history.

That's according to a detailed analysis released Wednesday by the Washington Post, which found that the coronavirus recession has eliminated low-wage jobs at around eight times the rate of high-wage jobs. Though no industry has been immune to the pandemic and resulting economic meltdown, the Post emphasizes that low-wage jobs tend to be concentrated in sectors that have been hit hardest by the recession, which triggered the sharpest economic contraction ever recorded in the U.S.

"What ties all of the hardest-hit groups together—low-wage workers, Black workers, Hispanic men, those without college degrees, and mothers with school-age children—is that they are concentrated in hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality jobs," the Post noted. "Most recessions, including the Great Recession, have affected manufacturing and construction jobs the most, but not this time. Nine of the 10 hardest-hit industries in the coronavirus recession are services."

In contrast, as the Post found, "By the end of the summer, the downturn was largely over for the wealthy—white-collar jobs had mostly rebounded, along with home values and stock prices. The shift to remote work strongly favored more-educated workers, with as many as six in 10 college-educated employees working from home at the outset of the crisis, compared with about one in seven who have only high school diplomas."

A series of charts published by the Post starkly display how the coronavirus recession has hit low-income Americans far harder than other major downturns in recent decades:


"There are very clear winners and losers here," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told the Post. "The losers are just being completely crushed. If the winners fail to help bring the losers along, everyone will lose. Things feel like they are at a breaking point from a societal perspective."

The analysis comes as the nation's economic metrics continue to show that there is no end in sight to the coronavirus recession, which has permanently wiped out millions of jobs and pushed countless Americans to or over the brink of financial ruin. As Common Dreams reported Wednesday, new research by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that 60% of U.S. households with children are struggling to afford basic expenses.




Commerce Department figures released Thursday show that personal income in the U.S. fell by 2.7% in August—the largest decline in three months—after the $600-per-week federal unemployment supplement expired due to Republican opposition.

Additionally, the Labor Department reported Thursday that 1.5 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week, bringing the estimated number of people in the U.S. who have applied for or are currently receiving unemployment benefits to around 28 million.

"That's 28 weeks in a row with more new jobless claims than the worst week of the Great Recession," tweeted Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.).

With the nation's economic conditions continuing to deteriorate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin jumpstarted stalled coronavirus relief negotiations this week in an effort to reach a deal before lawmakers leave town for their pre-election October recess.

The Democrat-controlled House is expected to vote as early as Thursday on a $2.2 trillion relief package that includes a $600-per-week federal unemployment supplement, another round of $1,200 stimulus checks to most Americans, and around $440 billion in aid to cash-strapped state and local governments.

During talks with Pelosi on Wednesday, Mnuchin reportedly put forth a less ambitious $1.6 trillion counteroffer that proposes a $400-per-week federal unemployment boost, $250 billion in state and local aid, and another round of stimulus payments.

"Today, Secretary Mnuchin and I had an extensive conversation and we found areas where we are seeking further clarification," Pelosi said in a statement following her meeting with Mnuchin on Wednesday. "Our conversations will continue."

'This Is Fascism': Trump Riles Up Minnesota Supporters With Racist Attack on Somali Refugees

"This is the overlap between white supremacy, the climate emergency, misogyny, and human rights abuses."


by
Jake Johnson, staff writer



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/01/fascism-trump-riles-minnesota-supporters-racist-attack-somali-refugees




Just 24 hours after refusing to condemn white supremacists during the first 2020 general election debate, President Donald Trump late Wednesday launched a racist attack on refugees from Somalia and other nations and parroted an unfounded right-wing claim about Rep. Ilhan Omar, sparking "lock her up!" chants from his Minnesota supporters.

"Another massive issue for Minnesota is the election of Joe Biden's plan to inundate your state with a historic flood of refugees," Trump said to boos from the crowd gathered at Duluth International Airport. "Coming from the most dangerous places in the world including Yemen, Syria, and your favorite country, Somalia. Right? You love Somalia... Biden will turn Minnesota into a refugee camp."

In the middle of his xenophobic rant against refugees—which the president has made central to his Minnesota stump speech in recent weeks, given the state's large Somali population—Trump veered into an attack on Omar, who is herself a Somali refugee.

"And what about Omar, where she gets caught harvesting?" Trump said, referring to a video released Sunday by Project Veritas, a right-wing group that is notorious for spreading deceptive footage purporting to expose Democratic lawmakers and organizations. The video Project Veritas unveiled Sunday—shortly after the New York Times published its bombshell report on the president's tax returns—was described by researchers as "a great example of what a coordinated disinformation campaign looks like."

Watch Trump's comments:


"This is the overlap between white supremacy, the climate emergency, misogyny, and human rights abuses," tweeted meteorologist Eric Holthaus in response to Trump's latest attack on refugees. "This is fascism."




Journalist Matt O'Brien echoed Holthaus' characterization of the president's rally Wednesday night as fascistic. "Demonizing refugees, attacking political opponents based on race, the crowd cheering for those opponents to be locked up," O'Brien wrote, listing just some of the alarming components of the president's event.

Trump's Duluth campaign rally came after the president officially and unlawfully missed the deadline to establish the number of refugees who will be allowed into the United States in fiscal year 2021, effectively bringing the nation's refugee admissions to a standstill.

"For the third year in a row, this administration is in violation of the immigration laws, specifically the refugee program requirements added by the Refugee Act of 1980," Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said in a statement Wednesday. "This president has shown on countless occasions that he believes he is above the law. This time, refugees—including many who served alongside our troops—will be the victims of the Trump administration's lawless approach."

"The administration's violations," the lawmakers warned, "will bring our refugee admissions program to a halt, leaving thousands stranded abroad with their lives at risk."

In a tweet late Wednesday, Omar said the U.S. refugee program "is a life or death matter to millions of children around the world."

"I know because I was one of them," Omar added.