It's been a while since I've had time to write on this blog. So let's do a brief recap of some of the things that happened over the past year.
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Despite the ongoing lockdowns over Covid-19, protests have erupted world-wide after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020. Although Floyd begged for his life and pleaded that he couldn't breathe, police officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly 9 minutes until he died. Three other officers assisted him. On May 29, Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. On June 3, his charges were raised to second-degree murder. It also took until June 3 for the other three officers (J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao) to face charges of aiding and abetting a murder.
Although Floyd's murder was the spark for these protests, a number of other incidents have occurred recently.
On March 13, 2020, emergency medical technician Breonna Taylor was murdered in her bed, having been shot 8 times. Louisville, Kentucky, police officers conducted a no-knock raid on her apartment (despite no-knock raids violating the clear language of the Fourth Amendment) based on shoddy evidence. Taylor's boyfriend Kenneth Walker believed their apartment was being broken into by robbers and shot at the intruders in self-defense. The intruders blindly fired back into the apartment more than 20 times, killing Taylor in the process. Walker was immediately charged with attempted murder of a police officer, while the officers who murdered Taylor faced no charges. It was not until May 22 that charges against Walker were temporarily dismissed while the FBI investigates the incident (although the charges can still be brought back in the future). The police officers (Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove) still face no criminal charges.
Breonna Taylor and Kenneth Walker.
On February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery was murdered while jogging. Travis McMichael and his father Gregory were armed with a pistol and shotgun and pursued Arbery in their pickup truck. William Bryan accompanied in a second vehicle and recorded the incident. They attempted to block Arbery with their vehicles before getting out and confronting him with their weapons. Chillingly, this murder is nothing less than a 21st century lynching.
It was not until May 8 that the McMichaels were arrested and charged with murder. Bryan was arrested on May 22.
On May 5, demonstrating his hubris and lack of empathy, Gregory had the video of the murder publicly released, thinking the public would somehow believe the lie he had acted in self-defense. Instead, it led to his arrest. Gregory McMichael is a former police officer and district attorney's office investigator, and he was probably aware of just how much brutality police are allowed to get away with.
Ahmaud Arbery.
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In what may be a string of literal Jim Crow-style lynchings, three "black" men have been found hanging in trees. Officially ruled as suicide, the families and friends of the victims remain suspicious.
* Malcolm Harsch, 31, Found Hanging From a Tree in Victorville, California, on May 31.
* Dominique Alexander, 27, Found Hanging From a Tree in NYC on June 9.
* Robert Fuller, 24, Found Hanging From a Tree Near City Hall in Palmdale, California, on June 10.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/four-black-men-hanging-deaths/
https://www.bet.com/news/national/2020/06/14/malcolm-harsch-hanging-death-victorville.html
There were also two other hanging cases that may actually have been suicides:
A "black" teenager in Spring, Texas on June 16, and an unidentified Latino man in Houston, Texas on June 15.
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Considering how there was minimal justice after a wave of high profile racist killings from 2009-2014 (culminating in the Ferguson riots), I think these protests won't go away so easily this time. For example, protestors have been bold enough to burn down the Minneapolis 3rd precinct police station in retribution for George Floyd's murder. On-the-ground reports have uncovered many cases of agent provocateurs--from anarchists, alleged police officers, and white supremacist groups--attempting to cause chaos and derail the ideological core of the protests. However, the protests remain largely focused and ongoing over a month later.
Over 2,000 US cities have had protests and over 60 nations worldwide have had demonstrations in solidarity. What a shame it is that the US has gone from a leader in the divestment campaign against apartheid South Africa, to needing international pressure to get us to do something about the system of bigotry that continues to exist in our nation...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_George_Floyd_protests_outside_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_George_Floyd_protests_in_the_United_States
Map of worldwide protests for George Floyd.
Floyd's family even had to appeal to the UN Human Rights Council to demand other nations apply pressure to the US to achieve justice, since our own nation is too incapable of achieving liberty and justice for all. (Trump removed the US from the UN Human Rights Council in 2018, with his lapdog Nikki Haley saying the UN's "unending hostility towards Israel" was a primary reason. In reality, if the UN was actually hostile towards Israel, it would have led an invasion to dismantle its system of apartheid by now).
The media has tried to downplay the impact of these protests. So far, the protests have accomplished causing a few police agencies nation-wide to change their operating procedures and sparked a new wave of removing symbols of Western culture from American culture. Monuments of slaveowners have been toppled and even racist caricatures like Aunt Jemima have been removed from advertisements.
Of course, we will not be pacified by different-looking syrup. We will keep up the pressure until there is finally liberty and justice in this land and lasting police reform is achieved.
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Trump's impeachment failed, but the Republican self-coup has succeeded
Trump's impeachment began on December 18, 2019 in the House of Representatives. Quite frankly, it should have began immediately after the redacted version of the Mueller report was released on April 18, 2019. Ideally impeachment could have begun the day a non-treasonous majority retook the House on January 3, 2019 (as courageous Representative Rashida Tlaib advocated for), since there was already bountiful evidence to proceed. (By the way, over a year later Congress still does not have access to the full unredacted Mueller report and its evidence).
Let us not forget that it was only due to unrelenting public pressure on Nancy Pelosi and other Democrat Party leaders that impeachment proceeded as "rapidly" as it did. Recall that many feared Pelosi wanted to be more "strategic" and begin impeachment closer to election season to provide negative press for Trump. Reflecting on the passage of time, it seems that impeachment would have fallen even flatter than it did if Democrats had decided to make it a game and delay it any longer, and, with Trump's abysmal handling of the corona virus pandemic, he managed to provide plenty of negative press and sink his approval rating completely on his own!
On February 5, 2020, the Senate acquitted Trump. Not a single Republican except Mitt Romney voted to hold Trump accountable, brazenly signalling to the American public and the world that the entire party gladly endorsed the coup that had been in the making for the past 4 years. (And a dishonorable mention to Romney for only voting guilty on one of the articles of impeachment, when Trump was clearly guilty of, and deserved to be removed for, both.)
Self-fulfilling prophecy or not, everyone long suspected impeachment would fail and merely be a symbolic act to get on record the individuals who completely rejected American values.
What we didn't expect was for lawmakers to openly spit on the law and our system of justice, by openly declaring they would not be impartial jurors, would not see any witnesses in the Senate trial, and acquit Trump no matter what the evidence against him was (even if they personally believed he was guilty!!) While it seems justice will not occur during this present administration, we must demand that whoever is president after Trump holds every single person who aided and abetted the Trump administration's coup and other crimes accountable to the absolute fullest extent of the law. Every single Congressman who protected Trump (e.g. Nunes, McConnell). Every single executive branch official who has helped Trump cover up his crimes (e.g. Barr). Every single unqualified judge who never should have been appointed (e.g. Kavanaugh). Evey single Democrat Party politician who helped to delay impeachment and downplay the severity of the Republican Party's crimes.
Nothing less can be acceptable. No justice, no peace.
This will not be over when Trump is out of office. It will only be over once justice has been dealt. If Biden or some other Democrat Party president decides to pardon or turn a blind eye to the Trump administration's numerous crimes, then this effectively means the Democrat Party accepts the coup, and that our system of law and politics has utterly failed and cannot be saved from its corruption.
And, please, if you want to try to tell me this wasn't a self-coup, I'm sure Fox News has some job openings for you.
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The Corona Virus Pandemic
The Trump administration's defining scandal of 2020 has thus far been their criminally negligent handling of the corona virus pandemic.
To date, the US has had over 2.75 million cases and 130,000 reported deaths. That is more American deaths than from WWI... Thousands upon thousands of those deaths could have been prevented if the federal government had taken this seriously, rather than insanely turning the existence of a virus into a political issue.
The European Union has been able to get the virus largely under control and has begun reopening. The Trump administration has constantly pushed for the US to reopen dangerously early in order to keep stock prices high or god knows what other twisted reasons.
New daily cases, US vs the EU... After incessant pushes to "reopen," cases are spreading more rapidly now than they were at the beginning! Over 50,000 new cases per day and rising. We haven't merely been pushed back to square one, we are worse off.
Had we taken this issue seriously, the virus could have been under control and we could have reopened, just as the EU is doing. Instead, we now have more daily cases than during the previous peak in March. States such as Texas had to reimpose restrictions not long after "reopening" their states. Meanwhile some nations, such as New Zealand, have completely eradicated the virus.
Living in his world of alternative facts, Trump has continued to say, as recently as JULY, that the virus will just "disappear". He has also urged to stop testing so we report less numbers, which, of course, will only lead to the virus spreading more rapidly as we would have no way of tracking it.
Beyond mere incompetence, Trump's elite supporters have used the pandemic as a way to enrich themselves, pushing the administration into new levels of corruption. I will spare a lengthy analysis, but here are some articles on the issue. Preference for stimulus money and contracts goes to Trump supporters (even when they/their business has zero qualifications for the task), $500 billion is being given to businesses as bailout money yet the names of the companies receiving it are not public, and the US is hoarding remdesivir (a drug for treating the virus) and allowing a single company to profit off its production.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/03/trump-coronavirus-wealthy-friends-donors-backers
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-ppp-loan-businesses-secret_n_5ee26407c5b6fdbc0a8e59ac
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/trump-coronavirus-checks-name-slush-fund-ventilators.html
https://www.vox.com/2020/4/10/21215578/trump-ventilators-coronavirus-cory-gardner-colorado-jared-polis-patronage
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/30/us-buys-up-world-stock-of-key-covid-19-drug
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/24/massive-scandal-trump-fda-grants-drug-company-exclusive-claim-promising-coronavirus
In older news, Trump seized 20 ventilators purchased by Barbados and 200,000 masks purchased by Germany. Trump told states they must be the ones to organize their own responses to the virus, yet he seized shipments of equipment and testing supplies ordered by the states. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan had to use the Maryland National Guard to protect testing supplies in an undisclosed location to prevent Trump from seizing them. 3 million masks ordered by the state of Massachusetts were seized, and the governor then had to turn to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft to arrange transportation for over 1 million new masks. Trump's corruption and negligent mishandling goes on and on and on.
Unemployment is nearing Great Depression levels, the one-time $1,200 stimulus check reluctantly approved by Congress barely covers expenses for many Americans, thousands upon thousands of Americans have not even received their money yet, and countless more weren't even eligible (including college students graduating during record unemployment levels!). While other nations have arranged to give their citizens compensation for the duration of the pandemic, US landlords are demanding 3+ months of rent be paid at once now that the nation is reopening and Congress is reluctant to give any more money to average citizens. Corporations meanwhile receive millions more than average citizens and millions more that could have been given to average citizens have evaporated in vain attempts to keep stock market numbers high.
Had we taken this seriously from the beginning this all could have been under control by now.
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I'm sure there are a plenty of other things deserving to be covered, but to keep this post brief, I will wrap up here.
Although not without mentioning the tidbit that Trump personally committed voter fraud by registering his address at his Mar-a-Lago resort and is strongly against mail-in voting despite utilizing it himself. Attorney General William Barr has allowed charges against Michael Flynn to be dropped despite the fact that he plead guilty. Trump's personal friend and key figure in a global ring of child torturers, Jeffrey Epstein, was murdered in prison. (Epstein also had connections to Attorney General Barr and his father). Epstein's co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell was recently arrested. And the year is only halfway over.
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It's amazing to think that each scandal and incident dwarfs the last. Who would have thought in just a year we could have completely forgotten and moved on from children being kept in concentration camps? Or just given up and accepted that there has been a successful coup in our nation, which has very publicly been in the making for over 4 years...
But the George Floyd protests occurring in every single state demonstrate to us that Americans still have the energy to fight for justice. And the global support for these protests show us we are not alone in yearning for justice and not insane for thinking something is terribly wrong in our nation.
When all this insanity is over, we will ensure America rises from the ashes and the bigotry of Western Civilization is erased from this land.
Although one question remains: who will be the next generation of leaders who emerge from this? As long as protests and social justice movements continue to reject strong centralized leadership, they will continue to fizzle out. A new era of Civil Rights and Counterculture will not begin until the political and cultural leaders step up to keep the momentum going and efficiently harness all the discontent that is brewing.
