Harris draws on her past as US faces reckoning on police (from @AP) https://t.co/3I6PABbJDA
— Kathleen Ronayne (@kronayne) September 15, 2020
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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In the News
Such images have increased, raising once again whether social media companies can keep up with threats on their platforms.
By Craig Timberg & Isaac Stanley-Becker @ WashingtonPost.com, Sept. 14
Months of civil unrest have coincided with a significant rise in social media posts critical of police that sometimes are laced with violent themes, including calls to destroy property and attack officers, according to research released Monday morning.
The report, by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), which previously has studied right-wing violence from groups such as the “boogaloo boys,” warns that some left-wing groups have embraced similar social media tactics, including memes and humorous catchphrases, to spread their messages and possibly help coordinate offline activity. The researchers pointed to possible signs of such coordination associated with riots in Seattle, Portland and other cities on July 25, involving fires, looting and property damage.
The report acknowledges that left-wing political actors, including those who embrace the antifa movement, have been responsible for far less violence than white supremacists and other right-wing ones — a finding consistent with the conclusions of law enforcement and other threat analysts.
But the researchers found the growing use of memes a worrying sign and argue that the spread of dehumanizing rhetoric on the left could set the stage for more serious incidents by what the report called “network-enabled mobs.”
It drew particular attention to the growing use of slogans — many of them profane — such as “ACAB” for “All Cops Are Bastards,” that have spread extensively in online conversations while also increasingly appearing in graffiti on government buildings and statues that have been toppled by protesters.
Some memes that spread on social media depict police officers being shot or their vehicles burned. One post from a left-wing group cited by the report called for [....]
The previous shootings have hit cars and homes, but now a man has been killed.
By Bruce Leshan @ WUSA9.com local ABC news, Sept. 9 WITH VIDEO REPORT
WASHINGTON — Shaw residents are pleading for help after what they say is the ninth night of gunfire in their neighborhood since mid-June, with the most recent shooting turning fatal.
On Tuesday night, police said 31-year-old Edward Johnson was killed outside an apartment complex in the 600 block of N Street. Police are still searching for the shooter.
It's at least the third straight night of drive-by gunfire, according to neighbors and police. "It sounds like you're in a war zone, and it's really loud," a neighbor who only identified herself as Lilly, because she is afraid of retaliation, said.
Police said they were on N Street Northwest standing watch after at least two previous nights of gunfire when the fatal shooting happened. The rounds came extremely close to the officers, Third District Overnight Watch Commander Lt. Curtis Miller said. There have been no arrests yet in the case and police said they don't have a strong enough description to offer a lookout.
"We've had shootings on the 8th, 7th, 6th, 4th [of September] as well as Aug. 19, July 5, and July 1," another neighbor said, after asking that we shield her identity because she too is afraid.
Neighbors said they've been pleading for police to install surveillance cameras and station scout cars nearby after the series of drive-by shootings, including gunfire into a crowd celebrating on Labor Day weekend [....]
Krugman: "...the most striking demonstration of Republican refusal to think ahead is the fact that nothing has been done to alleviate either the suffering of unemployed Americans — who lost much of the benefits that were sustaining them at the end of July — or the looming fiscal crisis of state and local governments...."
I posted as much earlier today: "Senators may believe it is the best for themselves, looking past this election, and guessing Trump will lose. A "scorched earth" governing policy of neglect and incompetence, so our nation is so enfeebled, divided, adrift, indebted and politically and economically broken that Biden will be easily blamed as at fault. He will be hobbled, obstructed, progressive actions stymied, and the easily gamed swing electorate ripe for a voting turnaround and GOP sweep in 2022."
From his ranch, the former California governor is experiencing the same smoky air wafting through much of the state. “We are causing this,” he declared in an interview.
By Adam Nagourney @ NYTimes.com, Sept. 14
LOS ANGELES — Jerry Brown, the former governor of California, could barely make out the mountains in the distance from his ranch in the city of Williams on Sunday. Every few minutes, he picked up his phone to check the latest air quality reading. “Unhealthy,” he said.
Mr. Brown, who served over 45 years in state government and politics, has been warning about this day for years. But he said by telephone from his ranch that he never expected this moment to come so soon. And he never thought the air around his home, which he built in the wilderness of his family ranch, an hour’s drive north of Sacramento, would be this shrouded.
But still, for all the fire and the smoke, Mr. Brown presented himself as the resolute chief ambassador for the state that has so long been associated with the Brown family name. He declared he was not going anywhere and dismissed the latest round of talk about people fleeing California.
“You might say, ‘We are getting out of here — we are going someplace else,’” Mr. Brown, 82, said. “No. There are going to be problems everywhere in the United States. This is the new normal. It’s been predicted and it’s happening. This is part of the new long-term experience.”
“Tell me: Where are you going to go?” Mr. Brown continued. “What’s your alternative? Maybe Canada. You’re going to go to places like Iowa, where you have intensifying tornadoes? The fact is, we have a global crisis that has been mounting and the scientists have been telling us about. For the most part, it’s been ignored. Now we have a graphic example.” [....]
Trump Health Aide Alleges Broad Conspiracies and Warns of Armed Revolt
Michael Caputo, the assistant secretary of health for public affairs, told a Facebook audience without evidence that left-wing hit squads were being trained for insurrection, and he accused C.D.C. scientists of “sedition.” Michael Caputo, the top communications official at the Department of Health and Human Services, complained that he was under siege by the media and said that his “mental health has definitely failed” ... "buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get.”
By Luz Lazo @ WashingtonPost.com, Sept. 14
It could be next summer before the bulk of the Washington region’s workers return to their offices after months spent teleworking because of the novel coronavirus, according to a new survey.
More than six months after the pandemic hit the region, forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to work from home, many of their employers remain uncertain when and how they will be allowed back in the office, based on a study led by the Greater Washington Partnership.
The survey of more than 400 employers in the District, Maryland and Virginia shows most are struggling with how to safely bring back workers while the nation remains in the midst of the pandemic, even as states move forward with reopening their economies.
Some companies that had planned to begin bringing workers back after Labor Day have changed course in response to new outbreaks of the disease and employee fears [....]
By Mihir Zaveri & Lauren Hard @ NYTimes.com, Sept. 13
Two people were killed and six others wounded in a shooting early on Sunday morning that took place blocks away from the Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick, N.J., the authorities said.
It was not immediately clear what led to the violence, but it did not involve students from the university, according to a statement from the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.
A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office declined to answer further questions about the shooting, which took place around 1:30 a.m. on Delafield Street. People who live on the street said that the shooting appeared to be connected to a party at a home on that block.
A home security video obtained by The New York Times from a resident in the area, which captured part of the shooting, shows a car approaching slowly on Delafield Street before stopping in the middle of the road. Four men quickly exit the car, pull out guns and start shooting into an area that’s not captured on the video [....]
...On Thursday, fact-checking site Logically.ai published a report alleging it discovered Jason Gelinas of Berkeley Heights (NJ) as the "sole developer and mouthpiece" of Qmap.pub....
with several videos-including Gov. Newsom update; lots of photos; maps, Sept. 11
Wildfires Live Updates: Dozens Reported Missing in Oregon
Oregon’s governor said there were concerns for dozens of people reported missing in a state where more than a million acres have burned. California and Washington State are also battling fires.
RIGHT NOW
“We are preparing for a mass fatality incident based on what we know and the numbers of structures that have been lost,” said Andrew Phelps, director of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Oregon and California brace for a rising death toll.
- False rumors are complicating the fight against the fires around Portland.
- ‘This is a fathomless loss’: Some searches for the missing end in tragedy.
- Climate change is a real and urgent threat in California.
- Getting prisoners out of harm’s way raises the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
- States are in a desperate search for help battling the fires.
- Wildfire smoke is dangerous to your health. Here’s how to protect yourself.