Muckraker Farm

Participants at a gathering in Williamstown, MA, on Friday, 17 July, calling for a name change for Williamstown’s Colonial Village and for a law to address a racist covenant. Section ‘f’ of the ‘Protective Covenants and Restrictions’ written when the Colonial Village neighborhood off Main Street (Route 2) was developed in 1939 reads: ‘No persons of any race other than the white race shall use or occupy any buildings or any lot, except that this covenant shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of a different race domiciled with an owner or tenant.’ See ‘On the Books, Unenforceable; Restrictive Covenant an Echo of Williamstown’s Racist Legacy’ by Stephen Dravis in iBerkshires. See also, Representative John Barrett Answers Williamstown Residents’ Call for Law to Address Racist Covenant by Stephen Dravis in iBerkshires.

Passages in bold in the body of the texts below are usually my emphasis, though not always. This is an ongoing project, and I update the site frequently during the day. Because I try to stay focused on what has actually happened, I usually let the news ‘settle’ for a day or so before posting. I hope readers will peruse the articles in full for a better understanding of the issues and their context; our democracy and our future depend on citizens who can distinguish between facts and falsehoods and who are engaged in the political process.

For independent global news, visit Democracy Now!

For a newsletter about the history behind today’s politics, subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter, Letters from an American.

Friday, 17 July 2020, Day 1,274:

John Lewis, Towering Figure of Civil Rights Era, Dies at 80. Images of his beating at Selma shocked the nation and led to swift passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He was later called the conscience of the Congress. The New York Times, Katharine Q. Seelye, Friday, 17 July 2020: “Representative John Lewis, a son of sharecroppers and an apostle of nonviolence who was bloodied at Selma and across the Jim Crow South in the historic struggle for racial equality, and who then carried a mantle of moral authority into Congress, died on Friday. He was 80. His death was confirmed in a statement by Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives. Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, announced on Dec. 29 that he had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and vowed to fight it with the same passion with which he had battled racial injustice. ‘I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life,’ he said. On the front lines of the bloody campaign to end Jim Crow laws, with blows to his body and a fractured skull to prove it, Mr. Lewis was a valiant stalwart of the civil rights movement and the last surviving speaker from the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. More than a half-century later, after the killing in May of George Floyd, a Black man in police custody in Minneapolis, Mr. Lewis welcomed the resulting global demonstrations against police killings of Black people and, more broadly, against systemic racism in many corners of society. He saw those protests as a continuation of his life’s work, though his illness had left him to watch from the sidelines.” See also, John Lewis’s Legacy and America’s Redemption. The civil-rights leader, who died Friday, acknowledged the darkest chapters of the country’s history, yet he insisted that change is always possible. The New Yorker, David Remnick, published on Saturday, 18 July 2020: “John Robert Lewis was born in 1940 near the Black Belt town of Troy, Alabama. His parents were sharecroppers, and he grew up spending Sundays with a great-grandfather who was born into slavery, and hearing about the lynchings of Black men and women that were still a commonplace in the region. When Lewis was a few months old, the manager of a chicken farm named Jesse Thornton was lynched about twenty miles down the road, in the town of Luverne. His offense was referring to a police officer by his first name, not as ‘Mister.’ A mob pursued Thornton, stoned and shot him, then dumped his body in a swamp; it was found, a week later, surrounded by vultures. These stories, and the realities of Jim Crow-era segregation, prompted Lewis to become an American dissident. Steeped in the teachings of his church and the radio sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr., he left home for Nashville, to study theology and the tactics of nonviolent resistance. King teased him as ‘the boy from Troy,’ the youngest face at the forefront of the movement. In a long career as an activist, Lewis was arrested forty-five times and beaten repeatedly by the police and by white supremacists, most famously in Selma, on March 7, 1965—Bloody Sunday—when he helped lead six hundred people marching for voting rights. After they had peacefully crossed a bridge, Alabama troopers attacked, using tear gas, clubs, and bullwhips. Within moments of their charge, Lewis lay unconscious, his skull fractured. He later said, ‘I thought I was going to die.’… Too often in this country, seeming progress is derailed, reversed, or overwhelmed. Bloody Sunday led directly to the passage of the Voting Rights Act––and yet suppressing the Black vote is a pillar of today’s Republican Party strategy. The election of the first African-American President was followed by a bigot running for election, and now reëlection, on a platform of racism and resentment.” See also, John Lewis, front-line civil rights leader and eminence of Capitol Hill, dies at 80, The Washington Post, Laurence I. Barrett, Friday, 17 July 2020: “John Lewis, a civil rights leader who preached nonviolence while enduring beatings and jailings during seminal front-line confrontations of the 1960s and later spent more than three decades in Congress defending the crucial gains he had helped achieve for people of color, has died. He was 80….  Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, announced his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer on Dec. 29 and said he planned to continue working amid treatment. ‘I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life,’ he said in a statement. ‘I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now.'”

Some Global Coronavirus Updates for Friday, 17 July 2020: U.S. Reports More Than 70,000 New Coronavirus Cases for the Second Time, The New York Times, Friday, 17 July 2020:

• With case counts rising, U.S. leaders push stricter measures.
• China reports infections in its far west, where security is already tight.
• N.Y.C. will ease some outdoor restrictions, but many indoor activities, like malls and museums, will stay closed.
• Iran will impose new restrictions in Tehran amid a second surge in cases.
• Swimwear sales are way down. That’s hitting one Chinese town particularly hard.
• Learn about 20 of the most talked-about possible coronavirus treatments with this new tracking tool.

Some Business Coronavirus Updates for Friday, 17 July 2020: Lowe’s and Home Depot to Require Customers to Wear Masks, The New York Times, Friday, 17 July 2020:

• Home Depot and Lowe’s join other retailers with mask mandates.
• Steven Mnuchin says Congress should consider forgiving some small loans.
• More stimulus should go to the hardest hit, the Treasury secretary says.
• Waiting for the world to go back to the beach.
• Two former Federal Reserve chairs push for more economic relief.
• Wall Street notches its third weekly gain in a row.
• Watch: White House officials testify on small-business aid.
• British Airways retires its fleet of Boeing 747s, ending an era.
• Airbnb was like a family. Then the layoffs started.

Continue reading Week 183, Friday, 17 July – Thursday, 23 July 2020 (Days 1,274-1,280)

Elijah McClain: Murdered by police in Aurora, Colorado, in August 2019

Passages in bold in the body of the texts below are usually my emphasis, though not always. This is an ongoing project, and I update the site frequently during the day. Because I try to stay focused on what has actually happened, I usually let the news ‘settle’ for a day or so before posting. I hope readers will peruse the articles in full for a better understanding of the issues and their context; our democracy and our future depend on citizens who can distinguish between facts and falsehoods and who are engaged in the political process.

For independent global news, visit Democracy Now!

Friday, 3 July 2020, Day 1,260:

Some Global Coronavirus Updates for Friday, 3 July 2020: Coronavirus Cases in the U.S. Are Rising, Even as Death Rates Trend Down. At least five U.S. states set single-day records on Friday as the country’s daily infection report passed 50,000 again. President Trump, in a speech at Mount Rushmore, barely mentioned the pandemic.  The New York Times, Friday, 3 July 2020:

• As infections in the U.S. are rising sharply, the death rate has dropped.
• With U.S. infections surging, Trump visits Mt. Rushmore for fireworks.
• For the U.S. capital, July 4 will mean protests as well as celebration.
• Brazil tops 1.5 million total infections, just two weeks after reaching a million.
• England will end its quarantine for visitors from more than 50 countries. The U.S. isn’t one of them.
• Foreigners in a South Korean quarantine hotel are finding the welcome anything but warm.
• Infections among Secret Service agents explain Pence’s changed visit to Arizona.

Many other significant developments are included in this article.

Some significant developments in the coronavirus pandemic on Friday, 3 July 2020: Trump speaks at Mount Rushmore as U.S. sets record for new cases, The Washington Post, Kim Bellware, Jacqueline Dupree, and Meryl Kornfield, Friday, 3 July 2020: “The United States tallied its largest single-day total of coronavirus infections Friday since the start of the pandemic, 57,497 confirmed cases, as President Trump attended a fireworks display at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, where the crowds were not required to wear masks or practice social distancing. Friday’s record, which comes a day after a peak of 55,220, is the seventh reported high in nine days. With the rate of new coronavirus cases rising in nearly 40 states, Fourth of July celebrations across the United States have been canceled or scaled back as anxious governors and mayors urge people to take a more restrained approach to the holiday. Trump delivered a fiery speech Friday, for the first of two nights of Independence Day celebrations he will attend. Heading into the holiday weekend, at least 20 states set record highs for the average of new cases over seven days, with Florida, Texas, California, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina tallying the highest number of infections. Florida leads the nation with 9,488 new reported cases Friday — the 26th consecutive day it has set a record in its seven-day average. Meanwhile, scientists warn of a new coronavirus mutation, which doesn’t appear to make people sicker, but there’s concern it has made the virus more contagious.

U.S. enters Fourth of July weekend facing surging coronavirus infections, The Washington Post, Derek Hawkins, Friday, 3 July 2020: “The United States entered the Fourth of July weekend against a backdrop of surging coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, with officials and health experts nervously watching to see if the public would heed warnings to limit the size of their gatherings and take other steps to slow the virus. Nationwide, new infections reached another single-day high of 57,497 on Friday, and at least 20 states set record highs for the average of new cases over seven days. Faced with the soaring numbers, governors and mayors around the country have canceled or scaled back Independence Day celebrations and pleaded with people to wear masks, maintain social distancing and only celebrate with household members. ‘We’re going to have to celebrate differently this year. Everyone should cancel plans with others for the 4th of July,’ Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti tweeted. ‘Please stay home and save lives — it’s that simple.’ Beaches were closed in Los Angeles, South Florida and in other states, but Myrtle Beach, S.C., remained open to the public, even as cases in the city and state continued to rise sharply. The tourist hub passed a last-minute mask ordinance as it prepared for thousands of vacationers to flock in for the holiday. ‘We are doing all that we can,’ Mayor Brenda Bethune told CNN. ‘I believe that people spread this virus ⁠ — that’s been proven ⁠ — not places.’

• Tom Frieden, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that the new waves of infection were far from over. ‘It’s worse, will continue to get worse, and will take months to improve substantially. We are going in the wrong direction, fast,’ he tweeted.
• Ahead of baseball and basketball returning this month, several players were reported Friday to have become infected with the coronavirus. Major League Baseball announced 38 players and staff members tested positive on 19 teams, even as the 60-game schedule is set to open on July 23 or 24.

Interim Aurora, Colorado, police chief Vanessa Wilson fires 3 officers as part of Elijah McClain photo investigation. The Denver Post, Sam Tabachnik and Elizabeth Hernandez, Friday, 3 July 2020: “Aurora’s interim police chief on Friday fired two officers who posed for a photo reenacting a chokehold at the site of Elijah McClain’s violent arrest, and terminated a third officer who received the picture mocking the 23-year-old’s death last summer. Jason Rosenblatt, the officer who received that photo and a second image, was one of the three officers involved in McClain’s death, but later was cleared of criminal or departmental wrongdoing. ‘We are ashamed, we are sickened, and we are angry about what I have to share,’  interim Chief Vanessa Wilson said at a news conference. ‘While the allegations of this internal affairs case are not criminal, they are a crime against humanity and decency. To even think about doing such a thing is beyond comprehension and it is reprehensible.’ Officers Erica Marrero and Kyle Dittrich were fired for posing for the photos in October with officer Jaron Jones, who resigned Tuesday after learning he would be terminated. The official cause for firing all of the officers: conduct unbecoming. Wilson said she fired Rosenblatt because he received the photos via text and ‘replied with the inappropriate comment ha ha.’ ‘I am disgusted to my core,’ Wilson said. The photos, released Friday, were taken Oct. 20 near a memorial for McClain.” See also, Interim Aurora police chief fires 3 Colorado officers over photo taken near memorial site for Elijah McClain, The Washington Post, Nick Miroff, Thursday, 3 July 2020: “The interim police chief of Aurora, Colo., on Friday fired two officers who she said were in a photo reenacting the violent arrest of a 23-year-old black man, Elijah McClain, who died last summer after he was placed in a chokehold and injected with a heavy sedative by paramedics. Interim chief Vanessa Wilson also terminated a third officer, Jason Rosenblatt, who received the photo and participated in McClain’s arrest. Wilson said Rosenblatt replied ‘a ha’ to the image, taken last October near a memorial to McClain. McClain’s death has been a focus of the street protests in Colorado that erupted after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The Aurora officers have not been charged.” See also, Photos show Aurora police officers smiling while re-enacting chokehold that killed Elijah McClain, CBC|The Associated Press, Friday, 3 July 2020: “Police released photos Friday showing three officers smiling as they re-enacted a chokehold that their colleagues used on Elijah McClain, a Black man who died after police stopped him as he walked down the street last summer in a Denver suburb. Following an internal investigation by the Aurora Police Department, interim police chief Vanessa Wilson fired three officers, one of whom received the photos by text and responded ‘haha.’ The officer who was seen re-enacting the chokehold resigned. ‘We are ashamed, we are sickened, and we are angry,’ Wilson said. The officers may not have committed a crime, but the photographs are ‘a crime against humanity and decency,’ she said.”

Continue reading Week 181, Friday, 3 July – Thursday, 9 July 2020 (Days 1,260-1,266)

Passages in bold in the body of the texts below are usually my emphasis, though not always. This is an ongoing project, and I update the site frequently during the day. Because I try to stay focused on what has actually happened, I usually let the news ‘settle’ for a day or so before posting. I hope readers will peruse the articles in full for a better understanding of the issues and their context; our democracy and our future depend on citizens who can distinguish between facts and falsehoods and who are engaged in the political process.

For independent global news, visit Democracy Now!

Friday, 5 June 2020, Day 1,232:

George Floyd Protests: Minneapolis to Ban Use of Chokeholds by Police.  Major demonstrations are planned across the country on Saturday, including in Washington, where thousands of protesters are expected to converge. The New York Times, Friday, 5 June 2020:

• Minneapolis to ban the use of chokeholds in response to George Floyd’s death.
• Protests continue in cities nationwide ahead of demonstrations planned for Saturday.
• More police violence occurs during protests over police violence.
• An officer in New Mexico faces manslaughter charges after the death of a man he put in a chokehold.
• The N.F.L. commissioner said the league should have listened to black players’ concerns earlier.
• Trudeau knelt in solidarity with protesters, but some Canadians want stronger words from him.
• The attorney general says Trump’s walk for a church photo-op expedited an order to clear a park.

Other significant developments are included in this article.

George Floyd Protests: Some New York City Protests Ended Quietly. Others Ended in Arrests. Demonstrations filled the city’s streets for another day, and mostly dispersed in a more muted way than they had the two previous nights. The New York Times, Friday, 5 June 2020:

• Some protest organizers urge crowds to go home. Others marched on, and were arrested.
• Two N.Y.P.D. officers were suspended without pay for conduct during protests.
• Demonstrators in New York City remember Breonna Taylor on her birthday.
• Three city district attorneys will not prosecute protesters accused of low-level offenses.
• Protesters rallied at a Brooklyn jail where a prisoner was pepper-sprayed and died this week.

Other significant developments are included in this article.

George Floyd Protests: Nation braces for another day of protests; North Carolina flags at half-staff for George Floyd, The Washington Post, Hannah Knowles, Ben Guarino, Alex Horton, and Brent D. Griffiths, Friday, 5 June 2020: “Cities and towns across the United States are bracing for another outpouring of protest Saturday amid national outrage over law enforcement excess sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody. Officials in Washington, D.C., are preparing for the city’s largest demonstration yet, with tens of thousands of people expected to start gathering in the early morning hours. Rallies are also planned near the Trump golf club in Doral, Fla.; in front of Philadelphia’s famed art museum; outside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s official residence; and in many lesser-known places, from Collegeville, Pa., to Poquoson, Va. Researchers say these protests, now in their 12th day, are the broadest in U.S. history, having spread to well over 650 cities and towns, across all 50 states.