McConnell assured of reelection.

Link.

It takes restraint to have to wait for AOC to run against Schumer and oust him from the Senate.

Link. AOC would be such an upgrade. A breath of fresh air. As if Ro Khanna were to oust Feinstein. Both ousters are overdue. Both would add detritus to the Joe Crowley - Eliot Engel bin of shame.

Clyburn at least gets things right about Karen Bass.

Per a June 24, 2020, CBS item:

The five-term congresswoman represents Los Angeles and endorsed Biden for president in mid-March.

It is not immediately clear where Bass stands in the vetting process but her name has been floated for consideration by powerful Democrats like House Majority Whip James Clyburn. "Karen Bass would be a big plus…she is a great person in my mind, I work with her every day," Clyburn told CNN in June when asked about Biden's vetting process.

Clyburn specifically cited her previous leadership experience as speaker of the California Assembly, the first African-American woman to lead the chamber, as fitting preparation for the White House.

Her current leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus has taken on even greater importance, since she recently unveiled House Democrats' slate of police reforms in the wake of George Floyd's death and the nationwide protests for racial equality.

[...] From her perspective, Bass told [CBS interviewer Major] Garrett she "would certainly like to see" a woman of color chosen as Biden's running mate but added it was not "imperative."

Neither Bass' congressional office nor Biden's campaign immediately responded to a request for comment.

Before politics, Bass' career was in healthcare as a physician assistant, notable experience as the country continues to face the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the seriousness of the pandemic set in during late March, Bass joined Biden for a livestream event about the problems faced by medical workers on the front lines of the pandemic.

"I worked in the trauma center at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, I remember working without protection and I remember the fear I had every day," Bass said on the livestream about her work in Los Angeles. "I know the commitment you have to save lives even if it means putting your own life at risk. The nation thanks you for your service."

BOTTOM LINE: Biden and his people could stumble into a sound VP choice, against the odds, but "could" is the proper word. Bass on the ticket would satisfy progressive hopes, and those hoping to see a woman of color as VP. Bass being a heartbeat away from chief executive would be more satisfying than a limited former top cop such as Florida's Val Demings, who punches the "of color" ticket criterion, but without anything resembling presidential capability, or experience that a VP should show.

UPDATE: Biden selecting Bass should meet approval of those favoring Warren as the VP choice. Bass surely appears to be the fit VP choice, among Californians in the running. Her sincerity and gravitas is not in doubt.

Havoc from the Republican virus, Covid-19, might elect Joe Biden. JOE BIDEN! MY GOD! Even trying to say "President Biden" sticks in the craw. [UPDATED]

Perhaps it should be more properly called "Republican-caused-havoc" from the Covid virus; but "Repubican virus" just has a generally truthful ring to it.

DWT posting:

The latest Ipsos poll for Reuters, shows him [Trump] with just 37% approving (+2% leaning towards approval) and 55% disapproving (and again with 2% leaning towards disapproval). Among registered voters, the poll shows Biden leading Trump 47-37%.

When it comes it his actions [sic] on confronting the pandemic, he's a dead man walking-- Only 17% strongly approve, while 44% strongly disapprove. And with the pandemic sweeping through Trump strongholds in Texas, Florida, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina, Iowa and North Carolina and starting to come on strong in Oklahoma and Missouri, voters who "somewhat approve" and "lean" approve are going to increasingly move towards disapprove. The latest Georgia poll, for example, just came out from Fox News. Keeping in mind that Trump beat Hillary by over 5 points-- 50.44% to 45.35%-- the new poll must be panicking the Trump campaign. Biden is actually leading Trump 47-45%. When asked who will do a better job handling the coronavirus, Biden leads Trump by 4 points. Trump's overall disapproval is 51% with just 47% approving.

Yesterday, a Politico headline went right to the crux of the matter: A Sun Belt time bomb threatens Trump’s reelection. Natasha Korecki and Marc Caputo wrote that the explosion of COVID-19 cases in Sun Belt states is becoming another albatross for Trump's campaign and "Republican governors in Florida, Arizona and Texas followed Trump’s lead by quickly reopening their states while taking a lax approach to social distancing and mask-wearing. Now each of them is seeing skyrocketing coronavirus caseloads and rising hospitalizations, and Republican leaders are in retreat. It’s hard to overstate the gravity of the situation for Trump: Lose any one of the three states, and his reelection is all but doomed. Liberal outside groups and the Biden campaign have launched digital and TV ads in Florida, Arizona and Texas hitting Trump for allowing a second wave of coronavirus. The developments have buttressed Biden’s main argument against Trump: that he’s incapable of bringing stability or healing in a time of crisis... Trump’s campaign accuses Democrats of exploiting tragedy."

These are the Sunday --- Monday new cases and the (number of cases per million people) in these 4 states:

• Florida +8,530 (6,568 cases per million) --- 5,266 (8,814 cases per million)
• Texas +4,330 (5,283 cases per million) --- 6,135 (5,494 cases per million)
• Arizona +3,857 (10,154 cases per million) --- 3,079 (10,577 cases per millions)
• Georgia +2,225 (7,272 cases per million) --- 2,207 (7,480)

Korecki and Caputo summarized the situation in each state and certainly Florida and Arizona look dire for Trump at this point. Phoenix Congressman Rubin Gallego, they wrote, "expects hospitalizations and deaths to rise in the coming weeks in the state. 'Ballots drop in October. The president essentially has two months to try to turn this around in Arizona,' Gallego said. By then, 'What’s going to be on the TV is Covid-19.' In late March, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order barring local governments from requiring masks in public. Two weeks ago, Ducey reversed himself amid pressure from mayors, residents and health care professionals. As infections surged, Trump held a rally last week with thousands at a Phoenix mega-church, where photos showed the crowd sitting in close proximity and few wearing masks. Ducey brushed off calls to cancel the event. Days before, Phoenix required mask-wearing, but the city order was ignored. 'We’re going to protect people’s rights to assemble in an election year,' Ducey told reporters at a press conference last week, defending his decision to wait until after the Trump event to emphasize to all Arizonans to wear masks.[...]"

[links in original] It certainly looks like a Republican virus to me. In Republican-led sun belt states, (with many electoral college votes), governing decision-making puts  risk into the entire nation because people travel into decently governed areas bringing their GOP risk loads, so that we all face risk from sun-belt GOP indecencies.

(If they stay home and ride around streets in their golf carts shouting, "White Power" at news gatherers without traveling north, it would be tolerable in the bulk of the US of A, but they travel to where you and I live.)

If the reported polling mood holds in the nation through November, "Republican virus" will be President Biden's problem, and while his faults are many, at least they do not include firing underlings who have the task of bringing bad news (such as informing of bounties allegedly paid for dead service members to a shoot-the-messenger Trump-child).

UPDATE: Re the above parenthetical, Politico, here.

_________FURTHER UPDATE________
Kissing the Blarney Stone? Republican style? Or just wishing it were so?

Strib carries a June 30, 2020, AP feed, "Fauci: U.S. faces possibility of 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day," stating in part:

The U.S. is “going in the wrong direction” with the coronavirus surging badly enough that Dr. Anthony Fauci told senators Tuesday some regions are putting the entire country at risk — just as schools and colleges are wrestling with how to safely reopen.

With about 40,000 new cases being reported a day, Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said he “would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around.”

“I am very concerned,” he told a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee.

Infections are rising rapidly mostly in parts of the West and South, and Fauci and other public health experts said Americans everywhere will have to start following key recommendations if they want to get back to more normal activities like going to school.

“We’ve got to get the message out that we are all in this together,” by wearing masks in public and keeping out of crowds, said Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health.

Connect the dots, he told senators: When and how school buildings can reopen will vary depending on how widely the coronavirus is spreading locally.

[...] Lawmakers also pressed for what Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the committee’s top Democrat, called a national vaccine plan — to be sure the race for the COVID-19 vaccine ends with shots that really are safe, truly protect and are available to all Americans who want, one.

“We can’t take for granted this process will be free of political influence,” Murray said. She cited how President Donald Trump promoted a malaria drug as a COVID-19 treatment that ultimately was found to be risky and ineffective.

[...] FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said vaccine makers also must test their shots in diverse populations, including minorities, the elderly, pregnant women and those with chronic health problems.

“We will not cut corners in our decision-making,” Hahn told senators.

[...] For now, the committee’s leading Republican stressed wearing a mask -- and said Trump, who notoriously shuns them, needs to start because politics is getting in the way of protecting the American people.

“The stakes are too high for the political debate about pro-Trump, anti-Trump masks to continue,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who chaired Tuesday’s hearing.

Alexander said he had to self-quarantine after a staff member tested positive for the virus but that he personally was protected because his staffer was wearing a mask.

“The president has plenty of admirers. They would follow his lead,” Alexander said. “The stakes are too high” to continue that fight.

Compare an opinion and argument by a Minnesota Republican blogger:

The COVID emergency is behind us
June 29th, 2020

It’s time for the legislature, especially the DFL House, to strip Gov. Walz of his peacetime emergency powers. It’s time because the COVID crisis doesn’t exist anymore. We know that thanks to this article, which reports “Sunday, the Minnesota Department of Health reported there are 523 new cases that have tested positive for COVID-19, creating a total of 35,549 cases in the state. MDH reports there are 1,425 total deaths, with eight additional deaths reported Sunday.”

Sunday morning, At Issue With Tom Hauser reported that there were 1,411 COVIDS as of Friday’s report. Further, Hauser reported that Friday’s report marked the sixth straight day of single-digit deaths. That streak has now hit 8 straight days. A month ago, Minnesota was averaging 25-30 COVID deaths per day.

It’s clear that there isn’t much to be worried about with COVID if you don’t have underlying health issues or if you’re living in a long-term care facility. If you’re 50 or younger and don’t have diabetes or respiratory problems, this just isn’t a problem.

[...] The bottom line is simple. The COVID emergency doesn’t exist anymore. More than a week straight of single-digit deaths proves that. Gov. Walz shouldn’t have special authority for a situation that might or might not happen. The definition of emergency is “a sudden, urgent, usually unexpected occurrence or occasion requiring immediate action” or “a state, especially of need for help or relief, created by some unexpected event.”

It’s inconceivable that Minnesota’s Constitution would give a governor such sweeping authority to prepare for an event that might not happen.

Wishful thinking is fine enough, but caution is prudent, and the Minnesota blogger ignores what medical experts expects. In a frenzy to throw stones at political caution, one day's data does not prove anything, especially with Republicans in the South and West being irresponsible, with people there at greatest risk of such unsound actions, but with people moving around to where the dunces in one part of the nation imperil us all. And, most importantly, a State with better precautions should not be told to downgrade caution because Trump wants to be reelected and Republicans in Minnesota want to snipe at pandemic management wisdom's having made Minnesota better than Texas or Arizona or Florida. The idea we should sink to the least cautious levels can be argued, and has been, but reality and sound medical advice seem to carry the day.

If a sound projection of 100,000 infections per day might follow established levels of 40,000 per day, the blogger's headline misstates truth. That Trump mishandled the pandemic cannot be erased by saying, "It's all over . . ." when, as a fact, it is not.

Advocacy has reasonable limits. Or should have.

FURTHER: Strib: "Daily coronavirus cases in U.S. at all time high; numbers rise in 40 of 50 states - By JAKE COYLE , TERRY SPENCER and DAVID RISING Associated Press July 2, 2020 — 12:38pm"

That Republican blogger thinks the fat lady sang. Not so. Not at all. And Yogi Berra on Wagner Ring operas noted for US all,
"It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings."

That Republican blogger is blowing smoke. Imitating Trump is a questionable tactic these days.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Hartford Courant. A prejudiced woman named Candace Owens suggests that George Floyd was a bad person and not a martyr. As if he deserve four white cops to murder him. There was a teenager store clerk claiming a phony $20 bill was passed; while so far nobody's shown any such item, and it is largely irrelevant anyway.

Yes, Floyd was not one as exemplary as Ali or Kapernick giving up massive pecuniary career benefits upon acts of conscience. But, so what. He did not deserve to die on a street, under a cop knee. NOBODY DESERVES THAT. THAT IS THE POINT.

Has this Owens person given up anything as an act of conscience? Websearch has not shown it, if it happened at all. All I could find is shallow hustle.

King and Malcolm lost their lives based upon conscience. If George Floyd was cuts below the four, the two athletes and the two activists, gee, he deserved to be murdered by sick cops, right Candace? Malcolm had been incarcerated, as had George Floyd. Perhaps Floyd lacked the abilities Malcolm displayed, but both are now dead.

What a brick. All that crap she blathers is irrelevant. THE MAN WAS MURDERED IN THE STREETS WITHOUT ANY TRIAL OR EVIDENCE HEARD IMPARTIALLY IN A COURTROOM AND NOBODY'S LIFE IS SO CHEAP THAT IT SHOULD HAPPEN AND IT HAPPENS TO BLACK MEN NOT WHITE MEN, DONE IN BY WHITE COPS. What part of that does she fail to understand and take to heart. Kapernick understands. And sacrificed and sacrifices still. Owens goes on YouTube and pontificates. At no cost, with no sacrifice. She talks too much and says too little and it is a shame anyone takes her seriously.

The headline is a King quote. If Owens even knows it she does not understand it and should be better educated.

To diminish Floyd's murder - the way it happened, on camera so that denial was foreclosed, is to say what, cops represent order, and that's not a license to kill but orderly good manners matter most and Floyd lacked such? I cannot understand that silly shallow woman. She lacks the leavening experience of growing up in a housing project. Neither did Kapernick, but somewhere along the line he figured things out better. FURTHER: One more link.

Don't mess with Seattle.

Link.

Messing with Seattle? Link.

Trump does his thing again, then disclaims it. How do you view things?

Two AP carries, edited and presented differently, here and here. One omits the sentence:

The White House did not respond when asked whether Trump condemned the supporter's comment.

Both noted:

The video also shows anti-Trump protesters shouting “Nazi,” “racist,” and profanities at the Trump backers.

It is possible each outlet used separate, different AP feeds. But elements of exact wording parallelism suggest otherwise. In any event, do you feel the omitted sentence is pertinent? Indeed, is it the heart of the story, or properly seen as superfluous?

And there is choice of image and a mid item Twitter link in one outlet, not the other. Your verdict?

UPDATE: Also noteworthy, one post was truncated short of this:

Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that ”This really is not about the president taking it down. This is about the judgment of the president in putting it up."

She added, “It’s about what the president believes and it’s time for this country to really face that.”

It is as if one outlet chose to belittle Trump opposition as extreme and impolite; the other noting NAACP sentiment.

Progress has a hope in Kentucky, so far, but McConnell is the target; Amy McGrath the mere impediment.

Link.

A strange endorsement logic, a Biden endorsement without my vote. [UPDATED]

I have seen enough. An assault on public lands. An assault on public schools. Jarad. Correct on troop reductions, correct on China, wrong on goosing up the military budget which is sucking the nation dry, and worse thing, Bill Barr and Law and Order Bullshit reminiscent of Nixon. Who was a crook. Caught in intrigue. Having his Haig days.

I endorse Biden as the only choice the nasty and vicious two party system owned by money allows US, and without knowing what mistake Biden will make in his VP selection.

Biden is better than W, and Trump is worse than W, worse than the Clintons, where I voted with hope, once, for Bubba. Once. Took the second term election off, and did vote for Obama each time, but only the first time with HOPE.

So Bill Barr is what puts me over the straddle, to endorse Ukraine Joe. Status Quo Joe. Nothing will fundamentally change Joe. That thug Barr making a mockery of justice as he did during W years and is doing so with free rein now. With Trump sequentially trotting out Sessions and Whittaker as warm-up acts, for the total sleaze to follow.

Trump's gas the citizenry to do the bible stunt, as awful as it was to see, set the hook, and the re-erect Albert Pike crap was the cherry on top. Even the MASONS were willing to not make a scene over the Albert Pike downing. As to them, over time all those 33rd degree walking, acting men - gender bias at play - and we've the mess we have - which is proof they've been useless/worthless.

Or worse. Hoover at FBI, etc.

So, vote Joe. I will not because of how Bloomberg and DNC and others fucked the chance for actual CHANGE, their Bernie takedown, of which Klobuchar was part along with the ambitious - overly ambitious South Bend mayor. Beto. Clyburn. The sorry bunch of 'em.

They are truly bad. Trump is worse.

. . . and if he dies in office . . .

Joe Biden, try as hard as he might, could not make a worse VP choice.

BOTTOM LINE: There is no candidate I can vote for, and with Klobuchar down ticket, I am staying home. Not voting by mail. Let the down ticket people complain about Biden being a weight pulling them under water, but in the Sixth Congressional District of Minnesota where I live, voting Democrat does not matter. It is the district that sent the sick joke Michele Bachmann and then the NRCC goon Tom Emmer to DC. It is a district replete with fools that way.

But of the horrid, evil choice we're given - that great insult to a nation by two God-awful DC-centric money-centric parties - inner party jugglers - Joe presents the lesser clear and present danger.

Dangerous, of course. Look at his record. But if ever an election hinged on lesser evil, it is this one (almost as bad as the one last cycle with the Goldman Sachs bribe taker having "her turn," but not that bad - where Trump won that one).

Joe may age well in office. Who knows? Just don't expect it.

We need to muck the stable. If North Korea's third Kim in a row were to nuke DC, innocent civilians would suffer, but otherwise he'd do us all a favor.

So, hold your nose and vote Joe. I will not, but a majority of voters this November should.

US get fucked either way, Trump desultory in doing it being the main difference. Pence in waiting.


LAST: if you want somebody whose statue(s) needs grounding try Woodrow Wilson. Princeton even agrees. Or concedes.

___________UPDATE___________
Regarding Barr, Rep. Steve Cohen wants impeachment hearings. Cohen earned earlier Crabgrass respect by seeking upon his taking his House seat to join the Congressional Black Caucus. Being denied did emphasize a clear racial bias within that group - membership based upon race and so, an exclusive caucus policy denying white entry and participation independent of political thoughts and intentions. (Given how that caucus endorsed Engel, Cohen is better for not being admitted into membership.)

Regarding the stench of the Joe Biden cramdown, Politico, opening paragraphs of

Bernie’s student army learns to live with Biden

the insult of having to bite the God-awful lesser evil again and still bullet:

As the Democratic primary drew to its conclusion, a flurry of Students for Bernie college organizations made clear where they stood: There was no way they could vote for Joe Biden. If Sanders wasn’t the nominee, they planned to either sit out the fall election or vote third party.

But as coronavirus deaths mount and Donald Trump strikes a law-and-order pose against the protests sweeping the nation, many of the leaders of those groups are rethinking their hard-line position. And faced with a choice between a candidate they distrust due to his lack of progressive bona fides, or ushering in the second term of an incumbent they loathe, more than a few leftist college student leaders are learning to live with Biden.

“In recent weeks, it's become pretty clear that Trump is willing to crack down on free speech, and so it's definitely making me lean more toward Biden now,” said Harry Feldman, a Georgia Tech senior and co-chair of the school’s Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter, who was considering voting third party in Georgia.

The last straws, Feldman said, were Trump’s threats to put down unrest with military force and his “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” tweet.

Amira Chowdhury, co-director of a left-wing University of Pennsylvania group that vowed in late March it “will never endorse, nor support Joe Biden,” has also come around on the former vice president. She attributed it to what she called Trump’s failure of leadership, bigotry and racism in recent weeks and her role as a voter in a swing state that Trump captured by just over 44,000 votes in 2016.

“With a heavy heart, and with great anger and frustration, and with great rage towards the Democratic establishment, I will vote for Biden,” said Chowdhury, whose Penn for Bernie group is now known as Penn Justice Democrats.

The 77-year-old Biden still has a ways to go with all younger voters, a demographic cohort he struggled to gain traction with during the primary season. Chowdhury’s organization, for example, has declined to formally support the presumptive Democratic nominee.

[italics added, links in original omitted] It is like this endorsement. Trump is so worse-than-Nixon-and-W bad that Biden is incapable of being worse. Or at least that is the hope.

Joe Biden being Joe Biden, he could be worse, but at least vote Trump/Pence out and give Joe the possible fuck-it-up-as-bad-or-worse opportunity. What would surprise is if Biden, free of Obama foot-dragging, proved better than any sane person might hope. It is nothing to bet money on, and the stinging insult from the two-party stranglehold on US still rankles and stinks to high heaven. With that said - We'll see.

A Minnesota blogger has his say against female Democratic politicians in a way that could offend some people.

Online here, with the opening two paragraphs of the June 27, 2020, post reading as follows:

When Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats’ Speaker of the House of Representatives, said that Republicans were “trying to get away with murder, actually, the murder of George Floyd”, Democrats sat silent. Not a single House Democrat expressed outrage over Pelosi’s statement. Some might’ve said something in official statements but nobody got on the morning shows and lit her up like a Christmas tree. The lack of outrage is disgusting.

Saying that Mrs. Pelosi is heartless isn’t news. That’s something we’ve known since 2006. I’ll say this without any political correctness. Mrs. Pelosi is the biggest bitch in the Democrat Party, including Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren. Clinton, Harris and Warren are back-benchers compared with Pelosi. She is to bitchiness what Adam Schiff is to leaking and outright corruption. But I digress.

Read the entire post, see what you think. Half-assed partisan measures arguably fit the "half a loaf is better than no bread at all" cliche, but declaring things begin and end with a rushed Repubican proposal in the U.S. Senate is premature and arguably suggests a will to sweep things aside which clearly need deep "Defund the Police" examination, in detail, where alternative approaches offer a more comprehensive outlook toward necessary lasting promising and sane government rearrangement.

___________UPDATE___________
In fact: Each chamber of Congress has its majority bill. The House passed its bill which McConnell added to his tall stack of House bills he declines to bring to the Senate floor.

The Hill reports on Senate moves, here. The Hill also reports of the House passage, here; stating in part:

Three GOP lawmakers bucked party lines and voted to support House Democrats’ sweeping police reform bill Thursday night.

The legislation is aimed at reining in the use of excessive force by law enforcement in the wake of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who was killed by Minneapolis police last month.

The majority of Republicans in the lower chamber slammed Democrats for shutting them out while writing the bill, and many voiced concerns on key provisions.

However, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) opted to vote for the measure, which passed in a 236 to 181 vote Thursday.

The bill is not expected to see movement in the Republican-controlled Senate, where Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) introduced the GOP-led police reform bill, which was blocked by Senate Democrats from moving forward with debate.

Hurd — a former CIA officer who is retiring from his congressional seat at the end of his term — said the House missed an opportunity to pass “an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill,” but felt that it addressed the issue of removing bad actors in law enforcement.

“Everyone here believes as I do that whether your skin is Black, or your uniform is blue, you should not feel targeted in this country. We have failed to do one simple thing — empower police chiefs to permanently fire bad cops. This is one of the most important things Congress could have addressed,” Hurd, the only Black member of the House Republican Conference, said on the floor.

“Keeping bad cops off the force could prevent another killing, like George Floyd. It would protect good police officers by ensuring bad officers, like George Floyd’s murderer, don’t soil the reputations of good officers,” he continued.

[italics added, links in original omitted] With it hard to find online coverage actually linking to either bill text, and with each house's bill DOA in the other house, getting into details of one or the other is futile, each being doomed until a new Congress is seated. The Republican blogger writes as if there were only one bill in DC, clearly not the case. Were there any real likelihood of either bill, or a compromise being passed, it would be worth reader time to compare and contrast. However, DC being strangled by its two party situation, don't bother.

Objectivity is always best, and the objective truth is both parties are facing November, and posturing. To write that one party has some kind of edge, however, can mislead. To imply that one party's declining to move to the other party's bill, as if there were not two bills facing the impasse, is false. Scott may be well intentioned but he's a junior Senator, while black, in the Senate by appointment and not elected there, and neither by schooling nor experience an expert on the law or history of police misconduct/removal/accountability, so that his having lead powers on the issue is itself an interesting Republican step, putting its black guy out front. In closing, The Hill's coverage of the gridlock problem is fair and balanced, not biased against either party exercising the despicable two-party stranglehold now held on our nation - a stranglehold even worse than the one police disproportionately have applied to black detainees.

_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
To avoid any misperception, Scott was a House member entering the Senate by appointment via a Governor of his party, then subsequently winning election. It is a situation similar to Minnesota's Tina Smith being appointed, with a subsequent incumbency advantage.

_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Per Wikipedia, Scott's skill set is as an insurance salesman and evangelical Christian; and like virtually all black men, he has police encounters in his background. No law enforcement litigation, not a lawyer, never a cop. Finally, to say as our Republican blogger has, "Republican Sen. Tim Scott has lived with racism all his life," is hyperbole. Yes, he's been a black man all his life. Were that "lived with racism" assertion the case then some other person would have been tapped to fill the empty Senate seat, not Scott, and he'd have had trouble selling insurance. He's been treated better than other black men, in that he's been the only black Senator from South Carolina in over a hundred years, others having been passed over based on race. Is his achievement to be minimized? No. But he's had it better than Michael Brown, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor. Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, Walter Scott, Laquan McDonald and others no longer sucking air. Say their names. Per NYT, "In a 13-year span, Philando Castile was pulled over by the police in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region at least 49 times, an average of about once every three months, often for minor infractions." That is facing racism to a greater degree than Scott has faced. 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks shot in the back while moving away from a use-of-force encounter in the parking lot of an Atlanta Wendy's fast food restaurant lot had his chance of reaching 54 and a seat in both Houses of Congress curtailed; unlike Scott. Scott seems to have basically gone along to get along, and he has been blessed to be a survivor - unlike Malcolm and unlike King, each of whom pushed harder, in harder times. Rosa Parks was more confrontational than Scott. And she got more done.

__________FINAL UPDATE___________
Gary Gross submitted a comment which I overlooked. After he by email called my attention to it I published it. Have a look. Gary is diligent and I believe sincere in what he does.

By unanimous vote of its Council, Minneapolis voters during the November election shall have a Charter Amendment ballot question; re public safety and violence prevention.

The Ordinance presenting the Charter Amendment text and setting the ballot question is online, here. It is self-explanatory. City webpage report. Strib, one of two statewide newspapers, reporting. Related news online. Also, here. Earlier coverage within the past month, per the UK's Intependent, here, MoJo, from about a month ago, referencing 2017 MoJo reporting.

Occupy Lives Matter

Just for perspective, maintream media have been more syncophantic toward BLM than the Occupy effort, even with both bringing a focus upon extreme police brutality, and with each being an outcry of the oppressed. The power system, Joe's status quo, shit on both and used obscene force against each.

Keep a proper persepctive of who needs to ally with whom, to gain common objectives, with each bloc helping the other on separate but just objectives.

Simply put, know your friends, help your friends.

Pres Don and wannabe Joe - neither is your friend. Ask how it came that Joe and not Bernie got Clyburn's annointment, and then look at who Clyburn backed in the Engel ouster.

That, or stay oppressed when ostensibly voting matters. It matters little when the question is which is the bigger pile, the Clinton-Trump juxtaposition, and of all things, the Biden-Trump pile offering.

Don't they look the same?

Can you spot a pattern? Are you dumb as a brick, or pissed and wondering how long one seat in Congress at a time will take to get way, way, way overdue JUSTICE? Billionaire bastards do not want JUSTICE. Bloomberg spent half a billion against JUSTICE. And Obama in choosing slogans (which he then over eight years at the helm failed to deliver on) did the HOPE and CHANGE sloganeering bit, but Obama never added JUSTICE.

A curious fact, yes/no?

Is Trump a Mason? If so, what Degree? [UPDATED]

Albert Pike statue in DC is in the news. Wikipedia. This. Trump's reaction. More, Trump wants Pike reerected. The Hill. Wha's 'appening?

Was Pike big in the Klan? What's got Trump all a-fuss? Just who Trump is, or some membership dimension above and beyond the bluster and fuss of who he regularly is? There is this. What basis would a simple blogger have to affirm or deny that? If it's on the Internet it must be true. That's what they say.

UPDATE: What's Biden have to say about the Pike monument, present and future? Someone should ask him for a statement.

FURTHER: Is Barr a Mason? Wilbur Ross? Ross and Jarad seem the constants in the flow of personnel through the Trump term in office. With Barr a "late blooming" keeper, in Trumpland. So, Barr, Ross, and nepotism defining the aberrational consistency - sticking in the funnel when all else washed out.

FURTHER: Downing of the Pike statue is online, all of the tedium, full length. It is highly informative.

It was a handful of people. Bullhorns were there. Ropes. People in black climbing onto the statue, looking white to me, tying and re-tying. Doing that while the bullhorns were being worked, and the statue was lit up for filming. It was not a belligerent crowd. Fear of police interdiction seemed wholly absent for reasons we can only guess. A mixed race crowd, and once toppled the statue was subject to a kind of ceremonial burning; a token burning effort perhaps only for show, since bronze requires more heat than a liter of combustible fluid atop inch-thick bronze provides. With the levels of other preparation if an actual fully destructive intent were the aim a welding torch could have been easily brought with bullhorns and lighting. It had all the earmarks of a staged event. On Juneteenth. A Friday evening. The YouTube post is from a DC TV station, this being mid-item:

crowd closeup, lighting in background

A link. WaPo, here and here. LaRouche. Statue detail. Temple detail. Official statement, from Grand Commander James D. Cole, 33rd Degree.

One person, one step at a time. As long as the direction is right correct, and persists, we get better.

Link.

Deep State Blues.

US is being run by them. They do not really care about US, because each party has THE SAME CONSTITUENCY.

Guardian reports:

Barack Obama made his first campaign appearance alongside Joe Biden since endorsing him for president in April, helping raise more than $11m while warning Democrats against being “complacent or smug” about the presidential race.

The virtual fundraiser collected $7.6m from 175,000 grassroots contributors, according to the Biden campaign. The pair also hosted a private online portion for high-dollar donors, which was not open to reporters, and brought in more than $3.4m.

[...] The Trump campaign has so far been ahead in overall fundraising, with $265m in cash at the end of May. Trump’s Dallas fundraiser earlier this month raised north of $10m for the campaign, Republican National Committee and the Trump Victory Fund. Biden and the Democrats had a combined $122m, Reuters reported, though the former vice-president’s fundraising efforts appear to have picked up in recent weeks.

Two centrists, the Romneycare Pair, big fucking deal. Neither of them, certainly not the other stranglehold party either, excites HOPE for any actual CHANGE. Same old bullshit where eight years went by under slogans while bailing out Wall Street, and that pair produced no CHANGE and quelled much HOPE in the process. And then there is Trump/Pence. Are YOU happy? Are you enthusiastic? If so, why?

After eight sub-par years from that pair I would give neither fifty cents, of your money. That bad! Still so! Two mediocre career politicians, one black, who stiffed the 99% with no Wall Street criminal - not even as a token step - put into jail, not one, over that time. Bending to insurance money, via Romneycare. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were a better song and dance team.

UPDATE: Think you've had enough? Want at least one piece of good news? There are early returns suggesting a black progressive can defeat a pro-Zionist entrenched mediocre New York centrist DCCC-loved politician; despite this. After Engel dumped his "anti-semite" load of BS on Ilhan Omar for speaking the truth about AIPAC, it appears Engel may be getting what he deserves. If voted out Engel at least will have an AIPAC safety net of Benjamins to cushion any fall. He can lobby. FURTHER: With mail-in ballots yet to be counted, Engel cannot be counted out yet - the strong Bowman showing being better, so far, than trailing in early returns. The Intercept. FOX.

Hi, y'all. Recognize Jason?

What's he look like to you? Hint.

Image from Strib.

UPDATE: Recognize this and this. The world has moved on. This man's tracks have, however, not washed away. Hateful attitudes can last a lifetime. The incumbent, while not anyone's progressive, nonetheless is nobody's idiot.

Lewis, however, will want Trump aura to somehow rub off on him, positively, to where it becomes his. See, e.g., his campaign website banner. All the negatives are with Lewis and will remain so, but none of the roguish cachet Trump is able to generate for himself can attach to a human brick.

Incumbency will not take a hit, that contest; no matter what else happens apart from the Lewis dream ambition.

Hi y'all. Recognize Joe?

DWT. YouTube-1. YouTube-2. MISTAKES WERE MADE: Indeed! Beyond that, recently, months ago, mistakes were made. Clyburn's comes to mind. Bloomberg's. RECOGNIZE: Anita Hill might say, "Never could see him, ever. But recognition, Biden is recognizable . . ." He did put his unique stamp on what was a better Court, before. Stacey Abrams said it correctly, (and is out of contention for VP). Abrams could change how Biden is recognized, if his VP choice, or perhaps not. Abrams' full remarks, in the Woodruff interview. Abrams discussing voter suppression.

ZeroHedge being - - - ZeroHedge.

Kind words and light-hearted viewpoints; here, here, here and here, as latest posts at the time this is posted. Yet some don't like such messaging, perhaps wanting more dread to the thread? DWT has an animated GIF image. Is there overlap? Is there a legacy being built, a story, ready to trend? Who knows?

Bowman vs. ossified Engle. [UPDATED]

Time to reform a district in New York. No matter what Clyburn says. Clyburn already has done enough damage. Links: here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Improve the nation, one congressional district, one senate seat at a time. From Politico [links omitted]:

Warren joins Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in backing Bowman, while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) all endorsed Engel in recent days.

"[Warren] knows it's not enough to keep electing Democrats that will only nibble around the edges, and it's why I am running to make big, structural change in New York's 16th District," Bowman wrote in a tweet.

Engel has served in the House since 1989 and is facing perhaps his toughest primary challenge in over 30 years. New York holds its primary on June 23.

Judge who wants to represent US, vs the darling among a sick Dem Party status quo. Fix things, or wish you had.

UPDATE: To donate:
https://www.bowmanforcongress.com/


FURTHER: DWT embedded this "rising" segment, Hill TV. Booker in Kentucky and Bowman in New York - DNC/DCCC/DSCC and the Congressional Black Caucus stand committed to diversity, in one sense ...

FURTHER: 6/22/2020 - With all huffing and puffing to minimize Trump's OK appearance, he attracted six thousand or so attendees, so how many could Joe Biden attract? Ten bankers and seven CEO types, a gaggle of "power" lawyers from DC and NYC, lobbyists and donors; say a thousand max? Bernie had crowds; Biden had party machinery; where Trump's OK showing was anything but encouraging to Biden people, regardless of who spins facts whichever way. Tomorrow's primary elections will matter. Who has GOTV chops, Dem side, being the question.

At a guess if the Engle primary challenge and the Amy McGrath challenger yield wins; Dem inner party will put a racial spin onto it "identity politics flexing muscle," and not a progressive-vs-regressive aura being mentioned in mainstream outlet coverage. It is not about hardship and suffering among all, will be said, but "clearly" an assertion consistent with BLM politics. Black awakening, not the poor finally having sense shown at ballot boxes. Who counts the votes, that is a question. Another question? Who successfully spins the results conventionally, or as finally some class awakening among several "identity" segments about the wealthy's long-standing mean and grinding class warfare against 99% of US, undivided.

Hi, y'all. Recognize me?

UPDATE: Video (strange left hand positioning - opening image). Mullen and Mattis; per The Atlantic here, here and the AP, here.

FURTHER:

Floyd’s death on May 25 prompted many days of protest in large areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul that included acts of looting, arson and property damage along with peaceful expressions of grief and outrage. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives National Response Team arrived in Minneapolis this week to investigate who was responsible for starting the fires during the riots.

While the unrest has ebbed since the mobilization of thousands of National Guard troops and the imposition of nightly curfews, nonviolent gatherings and activities have continued largely without incident.

[Strib local content, June 4, 2020 - italics added]

FURTHER: Compare: Here, here with here [hat tip Gary Gross].

FURTHER: Does the Mattis and Mullen situation mean that if the Klan were to arise again it would be a civil police matter, not one of a kind that would be "insurrection?" What would be, then? Black folks protesting, but not the Klan? A bonespur boogaloo as insurrection, or not that? How deep is the state, today? How resilient? To what range of pressures? What agency or arm of government does the sounding of state depth as ordinary practice? The Barr battalion? Or some agency whose letters even are top secret? Where is Flynn these days?

Whatever happened to the interim AG, Matthew Whitaker, from Steve King's state, the Daddy Warbucks look-alike? Was he part of the entourage to the bible waving, and was that stunt a message for some subpopulation of the US of A? Inquiring minds wonder.

Where's Bannon? Doing what? Why were Pence and Jarad absent from the bible clutch-and-wave?

FURTHER: It's Colbert's joke but worth repeating, Trump thinking The Posse Comitatus Act means that even with peaceful protesters he can grab 'em by the posse. Another video, starting with the [somewhere maybe] highly respected Bill Barr telling a fairy tale.

FURTHER: Chris Hedges writes of the choice offered us between Biden and Trump - sort of.

FURTHER: Breitbart post's that surrounded by co-idealogues trying to not look too uncomfortable more intentional divisiveness, meanness and disdain is spun by a thug.

FURTHER: Is self-image Trump's problem re protest management?

FURTHER: image source

Bop, bop - bop bop.

FURTHER: Friday, 6/12/20 -- Two images from two sources, Politico, and American Conservative. (Worth reading the text too.) In each, Trump, different hands, looks to be pinching the bible prop between thumb and forefinger, with the other three fingers showing. It does not look like a natural way to hold a book, as an object. Is there more to it than holding his prop in a funny way? After having used compelling force by a cadre of Darth Vader lookalikes to move peacefully protesting citizens aside to enable the stunt? I ask. I am not answering. I am imagining a possibility, only that. Think what you like, readers, but THINK. Last on this update, they say Trump has asked Stephen Miller to write a speech for him about race. Really. Do your own web search if you find that hard to comprehend. To me, it is in character. Roy Cohn died before Trump could ask him to write it.

FURTHER: On the Biden front: Susan Rice is a deal killer. Kamala Harris, more of a deal killer. Stacey Yvonne Abrams would do fine. Elizabeth Warren would, as a VP choice, be both a bright ray of sunshine and a Biden salvation. The Biden cramdown was, itself, a nasty and arrogant thing for the Republican wing of the Democratic Party to engineer and implement. It stunk. It stinks still. Biden is mediocre. Compromised as Ukraine Joe. The arrogance of Bloomberg and the Dem inner party galls so much that instead of voting for Trump out of spite, it would be a sitdown strike; and let losing Dems down ticket deal with bottom up message delivery to the DNC, DCCC and DSCC cramdown thugs, and others.

If the inner party pack is dead set on refusing to fight against the Republicans' long standing war on the poor, what good would voting Dem do? Aside from the spoils seekers, who benefits from that sack of stuff? It would only bake in identity politics, which would be bad for the future. It is the billionaires ripping off the rest of us - old fashion class politics with the elites of both parties wanting to divide and conquer the underprivileged shrinking middle class along with the poor, for the benefit of their consultancies, lobbyists and bankers.

Getting a fair deal for the underrepresented, independent of identity political tensions within the disadvantaged majority, is the only valid answer.

Or just stay home. A sitdown strike. Work on third party needs as the only option they leave US.

In summary, Stacey Abrams or Elizabeth Warren, or forget it.

FURTHER: Back to the Trump bible stunt: RSV is not a favored translation among the GOP's most rabid evangelicals; per MoJo reporting. If you do a stunt, you can do it two ways; the right way or the Trump way. Also the nearest most convenient church is not one of a favored denomination among that same evangelical GOP base. Such Trump insensitivity to truthful detail important to others is nothing new, and probably brought a forced but forgiving smile to practical evangelicals (who, for example, like his judges and tolerate his bloviating).

FURTHER: Back to Biden and his VP gaming: Susan Rice, like the little mayor from South Bend, was a Rhodes Scholar who took a job with McKinsey. Went to a private prep school, then Stanford. Bright, yes like the little mayor; progressive - as much as the little mayor (and Biden). Yes, a cut better than Harris, but so what? There is a gulf between her and Warren on policy favoring the 99% over elitism, and Warren at least faced an electorate and won a Senate seat (a distinction Harris shares, but not Rice). Abrams has her Yale JD degree, and has a sincerity in her progressive belief set. Abrams is not yet as accomplished as Warren, but is younger with more time to make her mark. Barbara Lee is another posslble VP if being black is to be a litmus test and being a progressive is not a deal killer to Joe Biden, himself. Lee, like Warren was not born into wealth, but reached levels of success without distancing herself from her roots and early life experiences. She would be a sound and helpful VP choice, but her name is not mentioned in mainstream coverage, and whether she'd take the job or stay where she is remains unclear - unless/until she may be asked onto the ticket. Bottom line, Abrams or Lee, good; Warren, better. With Harris, why not just offer the spot to Hillary, directly.

FURTHER: So, who is MediaTouch? Who funds them? Who produces their stuff? Dark money has no place in any sane ramp-up to election day. The MediaTouch funding is as dark as any other phony negative advertising political shop. Not as content deficient as Tweeting, but a one minute mud-sling sound bite is less than intelligent discourse. All of those "Gimme a gotcha" DC shops -- Regardless of whose mud, where slung, they suck. - more to this update - Thinking of a Biden-Trump debate or two; hordes will be crying out, "Give us the soundbites." Those two, each in his style, are unpleasant to contemplate. The English language and TV viewers each suffering. For how many will it be watch ten minutes and then apply the used-car test. And the upshot, buy new, a Tesla, despite Elon, who'd perhaps add to a debate if they made him moderator. Or have a nun with a ruler moderate, ready to rap knuckles and challenge departure from dogma, or from discussion of the lesson of the day. A ruler handy to keep each on point and required to speak in complete sentences, Trump under the added burden to not be able to speak the word "beautiful." Balance that with Biden barred from saying "Obama."

FURTHER: Link. This is local coverage of a situation blown out of truthful proportion by hateful DC people at FOX, etc. - including threats and speculative lies from the White House. For which Seattle's mayor said, "Go back in your bunker." And Governor Inslee said the affair is one local to Washington State, which shall handle it as deemed appropriate (outside interference not welcome). Bless thinking people. Peacemakers. A Wikipedia page. MORE: The Stranger has coverage; a CHAZ blog has been put online. A live webcam showing Trump's anarchy. He could walk to church here, but he does not really regularly attend any services. But, truth is more resonant than blarney. Truth is more rational than Tucker Carlson, Hennity, their bozo-tron channel of deceits.

FURTHER: You get Trump bloviating, and this Mpls based misperception of Seattle events. Compare sampling from this lengthy actual man-on-the-street mini-documentary visit to the CHAZ area, where people are peaceful, but determined to see a better tomorrow. It's kind of boring to my view, but it most certainly is not violent nor threatening in any fashion to the boarded up cop shop or the neighborhood. FOX lies aside, sample that item, and get real. The fact is the Seattle police walked back earlier false claims of CHAZ area businesses being "extorted." That assertion was pure falsehood. Gary may have missed that walk-back, and is generally careful, so he may have believed Trump or Tucker/Hennity horseshit representations of "fact" without delving further. The violence during earlier days came from the militarized policing, and when the heavy badges were drawn out of an area that allowed the protests peace, the protests were peaceful from that point onward.

Lesson learned? Don't trust anything Trump says as one good lesson, but what else? That Trump incites violence? Yes, but beyond that, well motivated people wanting CHANGE did not get it from Obama/Biden, but remain well motivated; and that racist killer cops are unwelcome in any sane community as not in any way part of any solution to racism, and on . . .

FURTHER: Trump being the snake he is.

FURTHER: Aside from that snake move, ground enough to oppose the clown's reelection, there are two overlapping items, DWT, and WaPo reporting, on how the Trump mirror of nasty Nixon is a brand causing discontent among those who protest and those with the moral compass to support the protesters - among the young - and what that may mean long term. In the DWT item Trump is likened to Strom Thurmond (where the DWT author could not resist a Thurmond photo with his protege, Biden). The hope - Kent State/Jackson State murders by National Guardsmen which stifled the resolve of my pre-Boomer and Boomer generation will not be done to these young idealists; despite Trump wanting exactly that brutal stand-on-their-throats step, but with sane men and women this time saying "NO!" One reader comment to the DWT item:

It's clear to this Boomer that the torch has been passed. I wish them great success in doing what my generation failed to do: make this planet a better place for all to live on.

Amen! And for more emphasis you can wave a bible around on that score, with a forced scowling frown, were you crass and tone deaf enough to do something that patently stupid and offensive to the nation and the world. As then, the whole world is watching.

He did not pray, he came to pose. Upset citizens were teargassed so he could. Photos never showed him opening the bible prop he held. He does not read anyway. He watches TV and tweets. He's a disaster, but, Joe Biden? How awful a choice? [UPDATED: where within the string of updating the final item is most resonant].

Asshole in Chief. The entire world sees racists elected a total asshole. Guardian, across an ocean, sees truth.

Strib, carrying the AP feed on the rebuke of Trump's disgraceful disrespect for actual religious values.

The son-of-a-bitch acts as if he's the Wizard of Oz, and should stop and be a human being, if he can. Guardian, here, the 8:36 am entry on dissembling by the Dissembler in Chief.

He is a disgrace to the entire nation. A total charlatan and inept huckster. And proud to be an illiterate wreck of a human being.

And then there is Mike Pence.

And then there is Joe Biden. The meanness and wholly bought character of Dem inner party decision makers exposed.

No wonder people are in revolt in the streets. Trump's earned it.

UPDATE: The meanness and wholly bought character of Dem inner party decision makers exposed.

FURTHER: Cornel West.

FURTHER: AP, via a Strib carry.

FURTHER: Tone deafness. In the extreme! Equal idiocy.

FURTHER: Politico, here. Clyburn, here. What do you see in the photo Politico uses? Biden will dither. It is his nature. When he should seize today. I like that Politico photo and the allegiance Warren and Clyburn have formed, finding common ground. Talking with each other. Biden's earlier gaff, about passing things on to another younger generation aside, he wants to win and will meet his betters half way out of that ambition. Fun to watch? Warren is agreeable to a second spot on the ticket which is a step further than Biden may deserve. With Trump having totally discredited himself by trying to bully his way out of George Floyd complications and implications, he only needs a slight push to out the door. Biden alone, being too slight.

FURTHER: More Politico, from two days ago, "Minneapolis unrest shakes up VP shortlist - Law-and-order credentials suddenly lose their luster in wake of outrage and unrest over police brutality." The item looks past Klobuchar, at black female politicians Kamala Harris [prosecutor] and Val Demings [police chief]. Harris, we know, another conservative like Biden, with Demings a "New Democrat" which is NOT a progressive stamp, by any sane measure. Cut from the same cloth as Biden and the Clintons. The Atlantic in 2015 published:

When Demings first ran for Congress in 2012, discussion of her tenure leading the OPD tended to start and stop at one statistic: a 43.6 percent drop in violent crime from 2007 to 2011, according to FBI reports. But over the last year, a string of highly publicized shootings and violent arrests of African Americans by police has changed the criteria that voters and the media use to judge officeholders on law enforcement.

The growing focus on police misconduct highlights less agreeable aspects of Demings’s time helming the Orlando Police Department from 2007 to 2011.

The department has a long record of excessive-force allegations, and a lack of transparency on the subject, dating back at least as far as Demings’s time as chief. From 2010 to 2014, the department paid out more than $3.3 million in damages following at least 47 lawsuits alleging false arrest, excessive force, and other complaints against the department’s officers, according to WFTV. (Records about these cases and other allegations of police misconduct in Orlando are not centrally housed or publicized, and some lawsuits are still outstanding.)

“This has been a problem for a while, through her administration and others. The problem is the leadership of the department,” said Lawanna Gelzer, president of the National Action Network’s Central Florida chapter. “… She’s not going to get my vote.”

Demings declined to comment on her record as police chief. Her campaign referred questions to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which also did not comment.

Demings has not spoken out about criminal justice since she announced her 2016 congressional run, but it will be hard to avoid. Before she became a candidate, she became a recurring guest discussing police news on MSNBC, where she highlighted her efforts to improve relations between her police department and city residents.

The only potential female VP Clyburn has put the kibosh on, so far, is Klobuchar.

Seeing Demings as an MSNBC favorite talking head means the bullshit meter unpegs from zero and starts moving. Biden's backing by Comcast money [MSNBC's owner] has been covered. Demings' ducking the police brutality and disproportionate incarceration issue [the mushrooming of black men being incarcerated after passage of the 1994 crime bill] by Demings back in 2015 is before the Floyd situation.

Harris has attempted a record redefinition. Will Demings? Also, reporting that Demings was referring questions to the DCCC suggests a closeness to that Cheri Bustos cesspool.

FURTHER: CNN coverage of the process of gassing of orderly protesting Americans to allow Trump to do a church/bible super-dumb photo-op; because he could.

It's the Tyler Durden in him. What is interesting: Neither Pence nor Jarad went near that crass stunt.

FURTHER: There is irony in the use of instant overwhelming force including chemical munitions to herd and remove regular orderly citizens exercising calmly their First Amendment rights to peacefully demonstrate together, so that the Idiot in Chief could stand in front of cameras next to a sign saying, "ALL ARE WELCOME." He overstepped reasonable bounds, and has to go.

[FURTHER: a gramatical glich or two and misspelling of the Demings name were corrected from the previous version of this post]

FURTHER: This complaint of a civil rights violation investigation was announced today, June 2, 2020, by the Governor. Tim Walz is a veteran who served in Congress, and while likely disturbed by the Trump threat to unleash the nation's armed services against the nation's people on the nation's homeland soil, this step was within the Governor's powers and duty; as an internal matter to the State of Minnesota (and involving events wholly within State boundaries). There is concurrent state and federal jurisdiction and no lawful basis of federal preemption to it. An in-state situation, investigated under normal procedures, under Minnesota administrative and substantive law.

-- close the thread --

The one poor bastard. They left him standing, no place to kneel. Too bad George Floyd was not a foot taller.

And they never let him have a turn. Which police academy trained them to not let the fourth guy have his turn. Training in selfishness? Or like musical chairs?

Do the chest cams have audio? These are four really, really sick people. What discussion occured? Put another way, Kroll has got to go.

HYPOTHETICAL: If you were on your stomach, hands behind your back, and they put six hundred pounds of composted steer manure on your chest, legs, neck, and butt, could you breathe?

Having cam footage from that side it looks worse although you cannot see the facial expressions. The cam footage where the neck kneeler's face appeared contorted with rage, hate, something told that part of the story.

There is no place in any civilized society for these sicko assholes. They've got the Kroll disease. Would you want your brother handled that way by purported civil servants? Your father? Your spouse? Your child? Your worse enemy?

___________UPDATE___________
Bob Kroll, publicly termed by his former Chief "a disgrace to the badge" has no shame. City Pages: "Bob Kroll plans to 'fight for jobs' of cops who killed George Floyd; June 1, 2020". The four in that above photo. He believes they should have their jobs back. To continue policing as they have. That is so gross you want be believe the story was made up, that nobody could be so Kroll-sick. Who'd ever even want to be associated with the likes of Kroll? Only a real sicko.

“There have been recent developments in the facts of the case where the help and expertise of the Attorney General would be valuable,” Freeman said in a statement.

The headline to this post is paragraph 6 of this Strib item stating that the Minnesota Attorney General will be leading inquiry into police conduct re George Floyd's death, and will be prosecuting as necessary.  Facts are always fun to see unfolded and explained. Facts are what a jury deliberates. Facts can reach far and wide, or be narrowed with precision, a matter of professional  judgment.

Facts might or might not reach to Bob Kroll conduct in the course of an expected thorough investigation, the Strib report stating:

He continued that he had reached out to Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka to discuss deploying more Minnesota National Guard troops on city streets, and has spoken with other law enforcement leaders across the country to “push our messaging on a national level.”

The FBI is doing a parallel denial-of-civil-rights investigation, and agents should quiz Gazelka about any/all such conversations he's had over time with Kroll; and wtf did Kroll mean by "push our messaging on a national level?" Who = "our" and what "messaging?"

Lift every rock. This Strib report stated in part:

Earlier Sunday, state officials said several caches of flammable materials were found both in neighborhoods where there have already been fires and “in cars we’ve stopped as recently as this morning,” said John Harrington, state public safety commissioner. Some of the caches look like they may have been planted days ago and some only in the last 24 hours or so, he said.

Police are also finding stolen vehicles with plates removed that are being used to transport the flammable materials. Looted goods and weapons also have been found in the stolen cars, he said.

“The fact that we’ve seen so many of them in so many places now makes us believe that this is part of that pattern that shows that this in fact an organized activity and not some random act of rage,” he said.

One person pulled over in Bloomington while driving a plate-less car attempted to “douse the car itself and set it on fire,” which is “not something you see on most traffic stops,” Harrington said.

These individuals stopped were "messaging" in a sense, so who are they and who do they talk with? Facts are thinly reported.

Strib again, third separate item:

“As a part of a thorough investigation, BCA Agents are requesting authorization to obtain personnel files to include pre-employment psychological records, all training records, and internal affairs files for the above listed officers,” Lund wrote in another warrant. Investigators also sought access to the officers’ lockers at the Third Precinct station.

__________UPDATE__________
June 4 updating - Two questions come to mind. First, if there was an alleged phony twenty dollar bill, someone still has that in possession. If no such item can now be found, what's up? From video, first officers on the scene before Floyd was confronted went into the Cup Foods store upon arrival. Presumably checking validity of claim of a bad bill, and presumably taking possession of it as evidence, if it really existed. Where is it now? Is it "lost?" Presumably required procedure would have body cams activated at the point of officers exiting their auto, onward.

Second, why was Chauvin keeping his left hand in his left pants pocket as the video showed while kneeling on Floyd's neck with his left knee, and on Floyd's chest with the right knee? It is strange he did not keep both hands free.

These are details, but details might matter. If no actual fake bill existed, there was no probable cause even to confront Floyd, etc., etc. Store personnel testimony will doubtlessly be part of investigation results.

Yes, truth can filter through, or rephrased, I agree with what you say but not with how you say it.

Guardian did a photo collage slide-show in its reporting, here. One image in the sequence caught my attention:

click image to enlarge

From the trees and buildings, it could be the Stanford campus.

In honor of the young lady's sensibility and ability, I did this websearch.

Trump's bone of contention with ANTIFA rests on his being strongly of the "FA" inclination.

Trained in McCarthyism by McCarthy's henchperson, Roy Cohn. Roy scapegoated communists, Roy tutored Trump, and dad Fred had a role in things a time ago with Roy and Donald as a troika.

History does teach.

I wonder if the woman in the photo of socially distanced white protesters safely located is or was in a sorority. Her major? Her prep school? Her ambitions?

Her message? After acknowledging its truth, I wonder how far Mike Bloomberg would go in agreement. The suspicion is Bloomberg would agree with the situational chance to dis ANTIFA. Beyond that, what? Critical of stern police practices? Mikey? Don't hold your breath waiting for Mike B. to ever speak out against heavy badges. WILL NOT HAPPEN.