Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
“Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said authorities received a tip about a ‘little army’ loading into a U-Haul truck Saturday afternoon. Police later arrested thirty-nine people who had masks, white supremacist insignia and shields,” The Washington Post reported.
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“A surge of attacks in one of Canada’s most multicultural cities during the pandemic is surfacing long-simmering racial tensions,” reports Bloomberg’s Natalie Obiko Pearson.
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Via The Oregonian, confirmation of what we already knew: “Racially motivated extremists and ad-hoc citizen militias appear to present the most pronounced threat of violence to human life, according to a Joint Intelligence Bulletin circulated to law enforcement in June by the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center.”
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When it was her turn to spar with Trump’s enforcer, Pramila Jayapal made the most of it. Watch her take Bill Barr apart in this three minute video.
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Feeling conflicted about celebrating Independence Day and honoring America’s founders this year? Take a few minutes to read this excerpt from Whose Freedom.
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“We must stop talking about the flag and shift our attention to the real issues of systemic racial injustice, economic oppression, police brutality, and judicial & prison reform. We are at a critical juncture in our nation’s history! If not now, then when?”
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Archconservative Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich told The Guardian that “it almost sounds like going back to the Hitler Youth concept”.
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A racist old white male newspaper editor who called for the Klan to ride again and lynch people in D.C. will be replaced by a black woman. Read an anonymous Alabama Democratic activist’s take on these events.
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A roundup of national and world media coverage of the Washington State Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Gregory.
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The New York Times examines “a phenomenon distinct from the routine racism so familiar in this country: the provocative use of Trump, after the man whose comments about Mexicans, Muslims and undocumented immigrants — coupled with his muted responses to white nationalist activity — have proved so inflammatory.”
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In this dashcam video, presented with context by The Young Turks, Police Lieutenant Greg Abbott can be heard saying to a motorist he has pulled over, “Remember, we only kill black people. Yeah, we only kill black people, right? All of the videos you’ve seen, have you seen the black people get killed? You have.”
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To The Editor: More than four hundred people have joined the hunger strike in the NWDC in Tacoma that started Monday. What are they demanding?
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Courtesy of the New York Times: “Here are some highlights from Wednesday’s ruling by Judge Derrick K. Watson of United States District Court in Honolulu, who issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s revised travel ban from going into effect nationwide.”
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There are so many problems with Trump. I always wanted to come to America, I love America, but not any more, not with Trump. —
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The New York Times profiles Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. The nation’s attention is now on Washington after the state won a sweeping victory against the Trump regime in federal court, incensing the so-called president.
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Democrats either need to feed, nurture and aggressively champion the resistance, or they need to get out of the way in favor of someone who
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Mexico’s political leaders have wisely chosen defiance instead of capitulation. In a nationally televised address, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto declared that his country does not believe in walls and will not finance the border barrier that Trump has vowed to build. If the last few days have taught us anything, it’s that by uniting together against Donald’s bigotry, we can stop neofascism in its tracks.
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Can you say “unconstitutional”? “Un-American”?
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“Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was officially charged Tuesday with criminal contempt of court when a federal judge affixed her signature, a formality that throws the lawman’s political and personal future into a level of crisis never before seen in his twenty-three years in office,” reports the Arizona Republic’s Megan Cassidy.
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“Federal prosecutors on Monday charged Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County with criminal contempt of court, saying he willfully defied a judge’s orders to stop targeting Latinos — including citizens and legal immigrants — in traffic stops and other law enforcement efforts, behavior the judge said showed a pattern of discriminatory policing,” The New York Times reports.
Launch“Federal prosecutors on Monday charged Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County with criminal contempt of court, saying he willfully defied a judge’s orders to stop targeting Latinos — including citizens and legal immigrants — in traffic stops and other law enforcement efforts, behavior the judge said showed a pattern of discriminatory policing,” The New York Times reports.
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