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Would President Trump rather pretend to care about police violence to pander to black voters ahead of the election, or threaten to kill protestors and fight with Twitter? Does he care so long as his failure to protect the country from coronavirus isn’t the biggest story in the news for a few days? These are the questions we ponder as we head into another whatever we call Saturday and Sunday now.
- The police officer who killed George Floyd was finally arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter following a third night of protests that became violent Thursday night, culminating in the destruction of the 3rd Precinct Police Headquarters. Over the course of the protests and riots, police detained multiple reporters, including CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez, whom they arrested in the middle of a live shot, even after Jimenez identified himself and volunteered to relocate. Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) intervened to help secure Jimenez’s release, after which police issued this dishonest statement about why they arrested him in the first place. (For those of you who are into microcosms, CNN’s white correspondent on the ground in Minneapolis reports he had a perfectly pleasant interaction with the police, if you can even believe it.)
- Amid these wrenching circumstances, Trump stepped in to call the protesters and rioters “thugs” and warned that National Guard troops might murder them—”when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” In an unprecedented-for-Twitter move, Twitter actually adhered to its terms of service and placed a public-interest notice over Trump’s tweet for violating its policy against glorifying violence (but only after Trump had retired for the evening).
- That tweet, and the enormous firestorm still raging over it, will complicate Trump’s efforts to pretend to oppose police brutality (at least in this one case) in a contrived and frankly offensive effort to eat into Joe Biden’s huge margins with black voters. Trump’s allies on Fox say Trump’s sympathies with the black community are real because of how mean the FBI was to him. Trump himself, who has repeatedly encouraged police to assault people of color, has (awkwardly) (unsubtly) made an exception this time, describing the killing of Floyd as “a very, very bad thing that I saw. I saw it last night and I didn't like it...what I saw was not good. Very bad." In another change from his usual practice of not giving a shit, he ordered the Justice Department to conduct an expedited civil rights investigation. For their part, members of Floyd’s family wants Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to take over handling of the case.
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Fortunately for Trump, if this plan doesn’t work, he can distract attention from his racist outbursts and the chaos unfolding on his watch by touting his truly excellent response to coronavirus.
- The White House has scrubbed CDC guidance that religious communities avoid risky rituals like choir singing and sharing communal food and drink. The original recommendations, which were already ludicrously mild, advised faith leaders to “consider suspending or at least decreasing use of choir/musical ensembles and congregant singing, chanting, or reciting during services or other programming, if appropriate within the faith tradition,” because, “the act of singing may contribute to transmission of Covid-19, possibly through emission of aerosols.” That language no longer exists, deleted along with the suggestion that houses of worship cease using “shared cups” among other likely sources of transmission. But, hey, there’s an election to win and voters to pander to and if some people die in the process, well, Trump can always have a staffer write another mourning tweet.
- As Trump takes active steps to increase the spread of the virus, he’s nowhere to be found as that spread, and the increased stress it places on state governments, further ravages the economy. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) may have to furlough as many as 31,000 employees—representing 64 percent of Michigan’s state workforce—to help close anticipated budget shortfalls of $7 billion over the next year and a half.
It’s nothing new for Trump to stoke racial division and chaos to distract public attention from his other failures. It’s pretty much his only move. But the civil unrest in Minnesota and his disastrous coronavirus response actually reflect the same failures. Coronavirus has taken a disproportionate health and economic toll on black communities, and Trump has encouraged uprisings of armed white protesters to thwart state efforts to mitigate those harms. On the other hand, the same police who treat those MAGA militias with kid gloves continue to kill black men and repel protests of those killings violently. If Trump thinks the public (and particularly black Americans) can’t see that the very injustices he’s stoked span both crises, he’s sorely mistaken.
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On this week's WFLT: Converts Edition: So far this season has focused on why the brain resists change — but that doesn’t mean that people give up on trying. Previous episodes have taught us that arguing doesn’t work and that people’s beliefs can be impervious to facts. But what about the blunt force approach? What about…brainwashing? Host Ana Marie Cox talks to science writer Kathleen Turner, author of the book, “Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control.” Listen & subscribe wherever you get your podcasts→
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Private jet owners have benefited from coronavirus-relief funds, in a huge relief for everyone worried about one of the most vulnerable populations in the country. A California aviation management company won a Payroll Protection Program loan, which is meant to prevent small businesses from laying off their workers. Clay Lacy Aviation used the money to keep its pilots and flight attendants employed, but also decided to throw some cash to the clients who own the jets the company manages, by way of account credits. The company had also secured a separate loan from another CARES Act fund, also meant to prevent layoffs. It’s a glaring example of the ways some of the wealthiest people in America have enriched themselves from relief programs intended to help workers, and why these programs need aggressive oversight.
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- President Trump announced that the U.S. will cut ties with the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic, in a press conference that started late because he had to fire off some more tweets. Anywho, here’s a good thread on the timeline of Trump ignoring WHO’s warnings.
- Seven people were shot in Louisville, KY, at a Thursday night protest over the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman who was shot and killed by police officers in her home in March. Two of the victims required surgery. It’s not yet clear who fired the shots.
- Roger Stone is required to surrender to prison by June 30, but he’ll be exempt from a new Bureau of Prisons policy requiring newly-sentenced inmates to spend time at a federal quarantine facility first.
- The Minnesota protests have brought new scrutiny to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and her prosecutorial record in the state, as she vies to be Joe Biden’s running mate. During her tenure she declined to bring charges in multiple police killings.
- The ACLU sued Clearview AI on Thursday, arguing that the company violated the privacy of Illinois residents when it scraped over three billion photos from the internet to amass its facial recognition database.
- A Georgia district attorney candidate was arrested two weeks before election day, and the district attorney's office he's running to lead may charge him with felonies, for doing donuts in a parking lot for a campaign ad. Nothing suspicious about this whatsoever!
- A political science professor at Stanford did some polling, and, what do you know, the group of respondents most upset by Joe Biden’s “you ain’t black” comment was not black Democrats (who were the same level of upset as white Democrats), but rather, Republicans.
- Forbes has concluded that Kylie Jenner is not in fact a billionaire, alleging that she and her family lied about the size and profitability of her cosmetics business. Jenner pointed out there are more important things to worry about than how much money she has, which is exactly what a fake billionaire would say.
- A gang of monkeys in Delhi, India, attacked a lab assistant and escaped with some coronavirus blood samples. Congrats to everyone who had Planet of the Apes on your 2020 bingo cards. If anyone has Cloverfield or San Andreas on there, please do us a favor and destroy your bingo card.
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North Carolina and the RNC are locked in a feud over President Trump’s demand for an in-person, non-socially distanced convention. Or, if you will, a conventional convention (sorry). Earlier this week Trump attacked Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) for keeping state lockdown orders in place, in defiance of his wishes for a big cheering crowd in August, suggesting Cooper was doing so for political reasons. That prompted the Trump-adoring governors of Florida and Georgia to offer up their states for the convention, which the RNC is contractually obligated to hold in North Carolina. On Thursday the RNC sent Cooper a letter outlining vague safety protocols Republicans would promise to follow, but placed the onus on North Carolina to figure out how to safely hold the massive gathering Trump wants, in a crystallized parable of Trump’s broader pandemic response strategy: demand what best suits him, and let everyone else figure out how to accomplish it. Today North Carolina sent a letter back asking the RNC to figure it out, actually, and questioning where it planned to honor Trump’s wishes for a convention "without social distancing or face coverings for attendees."
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Colin Kaepernick has launched a fund to pay for defense lawyers for Minneapolis, MN, protestors who were arrested.
A number of small businesses in Minneapolis, even some that were badly damaged in the protests, have made statements of solidarity with the protestors.
Republican Voters Against Trump is a new group planning a $10 million advertising campaign consisting of testimonials from conservative voters explaining why they’re voting for Joe Biden.
Taylor Swift has begun denouncing Trump to her enormous Twitter audience, which exceeds Trump's own. Welcome aboard, Taylor.
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