“Rarely are the police sent to prosecute scofflaws in high places. I haven’t seen any bankers being choked to death on the street under an officer’s knee. Nor have I seen any corporate “citizens” being choked to death by cops. It’s so much easier to hassle and arrest the little people for whom, if they’re black or otherwise vulnerable, arrest may even end in death.”
— William J. Astore, “Light ‘Em Up”: How America’s Forever Wars Came to Our Streets
*****
“Why is it that American style “democracy” is unquestionably good for Hong Kong but so devastatingly brutal for Black Americans and majorities of working people in the U.S.A.? Without internationalism and solidarity, there can be no operational “left” in the United States.”
— Danny Haiphong, The Rebellion Against Police Repression Must Guard Against ALL Enemies, Whether Red, Blue, or Green
*****
“The Trump campaign also published on Facebook an ad with images of a red triangle that mirrored the patches Nazis used to mark political prisoners in concentration camps. The ads apparently ran 88 times—88 is code for Heil Hitler– and Facebook later removed the ads for promoting “organized hate.””
— Heather Cox Richardson, Letter From An American (6/18/20)
*****
“Racism Is The Real Virus”
— Protest sign, 3 States & Over 20 Cities Have Declared Racism a ‘Public Health Crisis.’ Here’s What That Means
*****
“The night’s highlight: He shakily, single-handedly drank a glass of water from a big boy cup, drawing semi-thunderous cheers. The bar is now officially so low it’s underground.”
— Abby Zimet, President of Country Drinks Glass of Water With One Hand, (Small) Crowd Goes Wild
*****
“Big campaign contributors do not want Medicare for All. They do not want a Green New Deal. They do not want anything that might upset an economic status quo that is tearing America apart and that threatens the lives of millions of people — because that status quo does one thing really well: it enriches the donor class.”
— David Sirota, The Lesson Of The Dem’s Colorado Senate Primary Battle
*****
“Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, profited tremendously off the pandemic, seeing his wealth rise $30 billion. Yet his empire still saw fit to stop paying a $2 an hour hazard pay bonus to its warehouse workers — a high-risk job. Putting them at risk has resulted in a lawsuit from warehouse workers, claiming the company put their families at risk.”
— Nicole Karliss, Silicon Valley rips off the mask as tech CEOs veer right amid political turmoil
*****
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
— John F. Kennedy, way, way, waaay back in 1962.