June 2, 2020

Minneapolis' top cop sued the department in 2007. Here's why it matters today

(Snip)

In 2007, five black Minneapolis police officers alleged that city leadership tolerated discriminatory conduct against people of color, including African American police officers within the department, according to a complaint.

Medaria Arradondo -- now the city's police chief -- was among the plaintiffs.

The officers filed the civil lawsuit based on "their own experiences on the force from when they were recruits training through their present statuses at the time in '07," attorney John Klassen, who represented the officers, told CNN.

The officers experienced their own individual "employment discrimination" while also "watching the every day, every week, every year actions of white officers against citizens of color. Which they had to stand and watch and read about and hear about and see no action, effective action, taken against those officers for what they firmly believed were constitutional violations and discrimination in the police of Minneapolis to citizens," Klassen said.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/06/01/us/minneapolis-police-chief-sued-department-2007-trnd/index.html?__twitter_impression=true

June 2, 2020

George Floyd protests: LeBron James calls out media; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Colin Kaep

George Floyd protests: LeBron James calls out media; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Colin Kaepernick, Nick Saban demand ‘justice for all’


Current and former sports stars are taking an active part in the discussion about race relations in the U.S. following the death of 46-year-old George Floyd one week ago, when the African American man was pinned to the ground by the knee of white police officer Derek Chauvin, who faces third-degree murder chargers.

For the better part of a week, protests have dominated the news cycle, with generally peaceful demonstrations during the day plunging cities into chaos when night falls.

(Snip)

https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/1267256545974185985

(Snip)

Jordan rarely speaks on social issues, but couldn’t remain silent. Per For The Win:

I am deeply saddened, truly pained, and plain angry. I stand with those who are calling out the ingrained racism and violence toward people of color in our country. We have had enough. I don’t have the answers, but our collective voices show strength and the inability to be divided by others. We must listen to each other, show compassion and empathy and never turn our backs on senseless brutality. We need to continue peaceful expressions against injustice and demand accountability. Our unified voice needs to put pressure on our leaders to change our laws, or else we need to use our vote to create systemic change. Every one of us needs to be part of the solution, and we must work together to ensure justice for all.

https://www.nj.com/giants/2020/06/george-floyd-protests-lebron-james-calls-out-media-kareem-abdul-jabbar-magic-johnson-colin-kaepernick-nick-saban-demand-justice-for-all.html?outputType=amp

February 26, 2020

Audio: Bloomberg slammed Warren as 'scary' and demeaned his endorsement of Obama

WASHINGTON – Leaked audio of billionaire and 2020 Democratic contender Michael Bloomberg shows him calling the progressive left and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mas., "scary" while also suggesting that Sen. Mitt Romney, R-UT, would have been a better president than former President Barack Obama.

CNN released the audio Monday, saying it came from a Goldman Sachs event for at Yankee Stadium in 2016. In it, Bloomberg is heard saying "the left is rising. The progressive movement is just as scary. Elizabeth Warren on one side. And whoever you want to pick on the Republicans on the right side?" when asked about the rise of the far-right in Europe.

Bloomberg also said that he would use a "campaign platform" for the presidency to "defend the banks."

"You know how well that's gonna sell in this country," he said, adding that the people in the banking crowd are his "peeps."

USA Today
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/4864125002

February 24, 2020

Obama praising Cuba's education system

https://twitter.com/WalkerBragman/status/1231808706301562881

John Kerry under Obama wanted to normalize relations with Cuba. Lets continue that.

On edit: It looks like those that have moral outrage over Sanders don't share it when it comes to Obama. I'm used to that.

This is a better Tweet.

https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1231809944921477120

February 24, 2020

A Bernie Sanders presidency could be a nightmare for Saudi Arabia

Mohammed bin Salman has put all his eggs in Trump's basket, but what happens if the US leadership changes?

Picture for a moment Senator Bernie Sanders winning the US presidential election this November and then heading to a scheduled meeting next year with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (known as MBS).

In a clash of persona and style, President Sanders would most likely make a lengthy statement about his "political revolution", while sitting next to MBS, and the White House press corps crowded into the Oval Office would awkwardly ask him how he was going to manage a meeting with rulers he once called "murderous thugs".

Would that be the Saudi leadership's nightmare scenario for a post-Donald Trump presidency?

Sanders, who is currently the frontrunner in the Democratic primaries, made this bold statement about the Saudi leadership during a town hall meeting in Nevada on February 18, just as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was stepping on to a flight for a three-day visit to Riyadh.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/bernie-sanders-presidency-nightmare-saudi-arabia-200223070957319.html

February 14, 2020

Bernie Sanders may be just what U.S. capitalism needs, says top economist: Don Pittis

(snip)

Piketty himself was labelled a Marxist by opponents when he made a splash with his 2013 book Capital in the Twenty-First Century that some say accurately foreshadowed the populist win by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Piketty's case in that book was that unless capitalism was adjusted in favour of the poor, we should expect a nationalist backlash by those who were losing out and blamed global capitalism for all their problems.

(snip)

"I think, first, that [Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth] Warren and Sanders are not radicals," said Piketty in response to one interviewer's question. "They are moderate social democrats by European standards."

Looked at in historical terms, said the French economist, even by the standards of the U.S. — a country that in another era was the world leader in progressive taxation — raising taxes on the rich from their current low levels is hardly radical. History is filled with examples of ideological shifts away from inequality far short of revolutions that made countries' economies stronger.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/democrats-sanders-capitalism-1.5460890?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

February 11, 2020

BERNIE SANDERS LEADS ALL DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES IN SUPPORT FROM NON-WHITE VOTERS, NEW POLLS SHOW

Newsweek all caps their headlines which is why the the thread title is in all caps.

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Senator Bernie Sanders leads all the Democratic presidential candidates in support from non-white voters and has gained 10 points among black voters, according to new polls released Tuesday.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has long touted his support from minority–and particularly black–voters to demonstrate his electability for the Democratic party's nomination. But the candidate's support has appeared to slide dramatically among all demographics since his fourth-place finish in Iowa last Monday. Meanwhile, Sanders appears to be surging.

The independent senator from Vermont is backed by 28 percent of black, non-white Hispanic and Asian voters, according to the latest polling data from Monmouth University. Biden came in second with support from 20 percent, or 8 points less than Sanders.

A separate by Morning Consult, Sanders has gained 10 points in support among black voters, with 27 percent saying they now back the senator, as opposed to the 17 percent who were before the Iowa caucuses. Meanwhile, Biden's support from the vital demographic has dropped to just 35 percent, which still puts him ahead of Sanders by 8 percent.

https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-leads-all-democratic-candidates-support-non-white-voters-new-polls-show-1486807

February 11, 2020

Bernie Sanders isn't a radical -- he's a pragmatist who fights to un-rig the system

As Bernie Sanders continues to increase his standing in the Democratic primary, and his opponents in both parties feel the pain, there is an effort to paint him as an extremist of some sort. Someone who might even lose to Trump because of this alleged “radicalism.” But it’s not that easy to make the case on the basis of facts.

He has a 40-year track record as a politician. The things he is saying now are mostly what he has shouted from the mountain tops for pretty much the whole time. The main difference is that now, other Democratic politicians have joined him: on a $15 minimum wage, student-debt relief, free tuition at public universities, expanding Social Security, reducing income inequality, and some even on Medicare for All.

His actions speak even more consistently than his words: he understands that politics is about compromise. He fights hard for what he has promised to voters, but then takes the best deal he can win if it will advance the ball down the field, and prepares to fight again the next day.

That’s why he supported Obamacare when it was the best deal on the table — expanding insurance coverage to 20 million Americans, without the life-threatening exclusions for “pre-existing conditions.” This despite the fact that Obamacare was still quite a distance from Medicare for All — “health care as a human right” — that had been his passion and signature issue for decades.

Market Watch
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/793708FC-4C26-11EA-B630-D3AA685BDC0A

January 29, 2020

The Day I Realized I Would Never Find Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq

I rolled west from Baghdad in a convoy of soft-side Humvees. It was a morning in late June 2003, and I had traded a bottle of whiskey for the use of an American military police detachment as protection for a daylong mission to Abu Ghraib prison. As an intelligence officer for the Department of Energy assigned to the Iraq Survey Group — the American-led team searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — I was scheduled to interview an Iraqi prisoner who had been captured weeks before, on suspicion of transporting stolen nuclear material. I couldn’t know it that morning, but the interview would entirely change my perspective on America’s involvement in Iraq, and set me on a decades-long course of struggling with the false narratives used to persuade us to march into that conflict and other ones.

I gripped my pistol tightly as we moved along in the doorless vehicles, occasionally pointing it in the direction of anything that came near the convoy. I had borrowed the weapon — no more than a party favor in that bacchanal of R.P.G.s and gold-plated Kalashnikovs — from a fellow intelligence officer, who asked me to return it with all of its bullets.

As we approached the outskirts of the prison, the road narrowed, and we drove through a frenetic marketplace. During Saddam Hussein’s long rule, families of Abu Ghraib prisoners had made the area their home, and many stayed there after Hussein had released his prisoners in the lead-up to the war. As our oversize vehicles stalled traffic and disrupted local business, men cursed us and spat on the ground. A butcher stared me in the eyes and hacked deeply into a hanging goat carcass. Children came within an arm’s length, demanding handouts and laughing mockingly.

Finding the entryway to the prison was a relief — until an American service member explained that a convoy had been struck just outside the facility by a roadside bomb the day before, severing one soldier’s spine. A young guard manning an M60 machine gun waved us in while keeping his weapon aimed in our direction. I hardly felt safer than I did outside — the place was under a constant threat of attack.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/magazine/iraq-weapons-mass-destruction.html

January 28, 2020

Amnesty International Says Possible Saudi Arabia Purchase Of Newcastle United Is 'Blatant Whitewash'

Amnesty International Says Possible Saudi Arabia Purchase Of Newcastle United Is ‘Blatant Whitewash’ Of Khashoggi Murder

The rumored $444 million (£340 million) purchase of Newcastle United Football Club by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has come under fire today from human rights group Amnesty International. The group claims that the deal is “sportswashing, plain and simple” and a cynical attempt to use Premier League football to mask the country’s “abysmal” human rights record.

Commenting on reports that Newcastle United Football Club may be taken over by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Felix Jakens, Amnesty International UK’s Head of Campaigns, said the takeover of Newcastle United doesn’t come as a major surprise.

A statement from Amnesty International claims: “Saudi Arabia is well-known for its attempts at ‘sportswashing’—trying to use the glamour and prestige of top-tier sport as a public relations tool to distract from the country’s abysmal human rights record.

“Under the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, there’s been a sweeping human rights crackdown . . . There’s been a blatant whitewash over Jamal Khashoggi’s grisly murder, there are continuing concerns over Saudi hacking, and the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen has a bloody record of launching indiscriminate attacks on homes and hospitals,” the statement from Amnesty International continues.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddawkins/2020/01/27/amnesty-international-says-possible-saudi-arabia-purchase-of-newcastle-united-is-blatant-whitewash-of-khashoggi-murder/#496b00dae205




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La Liga Chief Claims Saudi Arabia Is Using Sports to ‘Whitewash’ Reputation

LONDON — In European soccer’s relentless search for growth and new revenues, Spain’s La Liga has been among the most aggressive of the continent’s top leagues.

Under a plan hatched and pressed by its chief executive, Javier Tebas, La Liga has planted its flag across the globe, opening offices in far-flung cities — not just obvious markets like New York and China, but also in Belgium and Singapore and South Africa, among others — in a bid to scoop up new fans and television and sponsorship dollars.

Tebas has even gone to court in the United States in an effort to hold a league game outside Spain. But there is one red line Tebas said that he is unwilling to cross: La Liga and its teams should not, he argued, be playing matches in Saudi Arabia.

To Tebas, the kingdom, despite its high-profile campaign to rebrand itself as a modern and tolerant society led by a youthful crown prince, should not be permitted to use international sporting events to mask its record of human rights abuses.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/sports/soccer/spain-soccer-saudi-arabia.html