SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Former agent describes Portland unit as violent racist
A former senior border patrol agent described an elite federal unit deployed by the Trump administration to quell protests in Portland, Ore., as some of the "the most violent and racist in all law enforcement."
[ . . . . ] The specially trained officers are the "biggest guys, like the jocks in a football team," Budd told The Guardian. "They live in tight groups like the Navy Seals, spending their time in military-style training."
"They don't exist within the realm of civilian law enforcement," Budd said. "They view people they encounter in the military sense as enemy combatants, meaning they have virtually no rights."
[ . . . . ] "They don't do normal vehicle stops. They will rip drivers from their seat, throw him against the side, put him in handcuffs – the same tactics you are now seeing Bortac agents use in Portland," Budd told The Guardian.
[ . . . . ] Many local and state officials, along with DHS employees themselves, have condemned the actions and presence of federal agents in Oregon's largest city as "unconstitutional." Congressional lawmakers in response have introduced legislation to block Trump, who has sought to increase the number of federal forces in Portland, from using them as a "shadowy paramilitary against Americans."
[ . . . . ] Budd also told The Guardian that an instructor during her training as a border patrol agent in 1995 used racial slurs like "tonks" and "wetbacks" to refer to Latino migrants, who she said were often deemed as "criminals" by the agency.
Nice.
This is how tyranny begins. Secret police. Unmarked. Using unmarked rental vehicles. Not actually "arresting" people, just seizing them off the street, beating them up, and releasing them (catch and release) -- with no records kept.
But what about "I wast just following orders" at Nuremberg?
I understand from other sources that the ACLU won an injunction restraining the feds in Portland. District ct of Oregon. I don't have a better link.
Stripping these thugs of their qualified immunity would mean they could be prosecuted as they should be. But . . . "I was just following orders!" (from Nuremberg)
And of course, our Dear Leader will pardon them all. Because the power of the pardon isn't to promote justice, it is to do just the opposite as demonstrated by every single use of this power by Trump.
But it will get worse. Just watch. I'm sure Germany could not have understood at the time what was happening to them. Until it was too late. Some parts of our democracy are still in working order, as this injunction would suggest. But clearly the system is seriously fractured where opposite sides see black as white and white as black.
Brace for the wave of ACs who will spout their shameful anonymous proclamations that it's all fake news. That the moms being tear gassed are terrorists.
Our founders did not want us to have a king. With absolute power, as trump claims to have. (absolute authority) But they assumed that other parts of our checks and balances would have the courage to oust any such tyrant long before it got to this point.
It will get worse.
Update
Here is a copy of the TRO.
ACLU sued to get the federal thugs removed. Nobody wants them there (except Trump). They have no legitimate purpose there, at least unmarked, and not making records of arrests.
Police in the pocket of big corps
List of big corps that "own" police
Oil and gas companies, private utilities, and financial institutions that bankroll fossil fuels are all big backers of police foundations, which privately raise money to buy weapons, equipment, and surveillance technology for police departments, bypassing already outsized public police budgets. These corporate actors – from Chevron and Shell to Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase – can be found serving as directors and funders of police foundations nationwide. Furthermore, these companies sponsor events and galas that celebrate the police and remind the public that police power is backed up by corporate power.
Who will those police depts serve, the citizens or the "corporate persons"?
- ... Chevron is a “Corporate Partner of the Police” sponsor of the New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation, as well as a board member of the Houston Police Foundation and sponsor of the Houston Police Department’s mounted patrol. It is also donor to and, as of the end of 2018, a board member of the Salt Lake City Police Foundation.
- ... Marathon’s Security Coordinator sits on the board of the Detroit Public Safety Foundation, the city’s police foundation. Marathon is also listed as a “Commanding Sponsor” of the foundation’s fundraising event “Above & Beyond” and a “Bronze Sponsor” of their “Women in Blue” event.
- ... Shell is a “Featured Partner” of the New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation and a sponsor of the Houston Police Department’s Mounted Patrol.
- ... Valero has a board seat on the Corpus Christi Police Foundation’s board of directors, and it is a sponsor of the Houston Police Department’s Mounted Patrol.
- ... Hilcorp’s billionaire co-founder and Chairman Jeff Hildebrand has a board seat on the Houston Police Foundation and is a notable attendee of their fundraising events.
The list continues.
China Takes Control of U.S. Consulate in Chengdu
Flag lowered at US consulate in Chengdu as China takes control
Chinese authorities have taken over the US consulate general in Chengdu, marking the diplomatic mission’s official closure and a new low point in ties between the world’s largest economies.
At dawn on Monday, the American flag outside the consulate was lowered while police held back crowds that had gathered over the weekend to watch. At 10am, the mission was closed, according to China’s foreign ministry.
Chinese soldiers goose-stepped in front of the consulate while teams of workers in hazmat suits and officials dressed in white short-sleeved dress shirts and black briefcases entered the mission. Workers draped grey clothes over signs bearing the consulate’s name.
“Competent Chinese authorities entered through the front entrance and took it over,” the foreign ministry said.
U.S.-China engagement is over. Is military conflict next?
There is now a bipartisan consensus in the United States on the need for a tougher China policy. Even longtime China scholars and policymakers who have spent their lives building closer ties with China in the belief that such engagement would induce democratic reform have grown disillusioned.
At the same time, they say the Trump administration’s “sledgehammer” approach, which seems intent on starting another cold war and leaves no room for dialogue, is counterproductive and disingenuous in its purported concern for Chinese people. It is also dangerous and could lead to outright conflict, they say.
“There are ways to handle the relationship without blasting through it,” said Deborah Seligsohn, who served as a U.S. diplomat for more than two decades, mostly in Asia. “There are ways to weigh the pluses and minuses. It doesn’t have to be this antagonistic.”
How the Cold War Between China and U.S. Is Intensifying (archive)
The Trump administration has increasingly challenged China’s assertions of sovereignty and control over much of the South China Sea, including vital maritime shipping lanes. Just last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has described China as a major security threat, decreed that most of China’s claims in the South China Sea are “completely unlawful,” setting up potential military confrontations between Chinese and U.S. naval forces in the Pacific.
[...] The New York Times, concerned about the possibility of further limitations on journalists working in China, announced last week that it was relocating much of its major news hub in Hong Kong to Seoul, South Korea.
Previously: U.S. Scoops Up Chinese Spies; "Friendship" Ended
#RegisterAFriendDay
https://www.instagram.com/p/CDH60eUAoSH/:
amyallen -- Verified
Text FRIENDS to 26797 ? today on #RegisterAFriendDay, we are challenging all our friends to register to vote. Please join me and @iamavoter in our mission to register 100,000 voters together by tagging 10 of your friends! ???
We have 100 days until Election Day, and reminding a friend makes them up to 2X more likely to vote! SO LETS DO THIS SHIT :) link in bio to register
BIG love xx A
NOTE: I've known Amy Allen for many years and she's as down-to-earth and upstanding as they come. She's also an extremely gifted singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist!
The Cube Mac
This thing reminded me of the cube when I first saw it.
https://www.newegg.com/white-in-win-a1-plus-mini-itx-tower/p/2AM-001H-001M2
This story made me think of it:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/07/20-years-ago-steve-jobs-built-the-coolest-computer-ever-and-it-bombed/
This month marks the 20th anniversary of the Power Mac G4 Cube, which debuted July 19, 2000. It also marks the 19th anniversary of Apple’s announcement that it was putting the Cube on ice. That’s not my joke—it’s Apple’s, straight from the headline of its July 3, 2001, press release that officially pulled the plug.
U.S. Scoops Up Chinese Spies; "Friendship" Ended
US arrests three Chinese nationals for visa fraud
The US has charged four Chinese nationals with visa fraud for allegedly lying about their membership of China's armed forces.
Three are under arrest while the FBI is seeking to arrest the fourth, who is said to be in China's San Francisco consulate.
FBI agents have also interviewed people in 25 US cities who have an "undeclared affiliation" with China's military.
Prosecutors say it is part of a Chinese plan to send army scientists to the US.
Singapore man admits being Chinese spy in US
A Singaporean man has pleaded guilty in the US to working as an agent of China, the latest incident in a growing stand-off between Washington and Beijing.
Jun Wei Yeo was charged with using his political consultancy in America as a front to collect information for Chinese intelligence, US officials say.
Separately, the US said a Chinese researcher accused of hiding her ties to China's military was detained.
China earlier ordered the closure of the US consulate in Chengdu.
The move to shut down the diplomatic mission in the south-western city was in response to the US closing China's consulate in Houston.
FBI arrests Chinese researcher for visa fraud after she hid at consulate in San Francisco
A researcher who took refuge in the Chinese consulate in San Francisco after allegedly lying to investigators about her Chinese military service was arrested and will appear in court on Monday, according to a senior Justice Department official.
According to court documents unsealed earlier this week in the Eastern District of California, Juan Tang, a researcher at the University of California, Davis, applied for a nonimmigrant J1 visa in October 2019. The visa was issued in November 2019 and Tang entered the United States a month later.
Tang allegedly made fraudulent statements on her visa application by concealing that she served in the Chinese military. The FBI concluded that Tang was a uniformed officer of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force after photographs of her were uncovered on electronic media seized in accordance with a search warrant.
Officials Push U.S.-China Relations Toward Point of No Return
Top aides to President Trump want to leave a lasting legacy of ruptured ties between the two powers. China’s aggression has been helping their cause.
[...] China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has inflamed the fight, brushing aside international concern about the country’s rising authoritarianism to consolidate his own political power and to crack down on basic freedoms, from Xinjiang to Hong Kong. By doing so, he has hardened attitudes in Washington, fueling a clash that at least some in China believe could be dangerous to the country’s interests.
The combined effect could prove to be Mr. Trump’s most consequential foreign policy legacy, even if it’s not one he has consistently pursued: the entrenchment of a fundamental strategic and ideological confrontation between the world’s two largest economies.
How not to . . .
This is just a fun entry. Post personal examples of something you've experienced, if you like. I'll get things started. These weren't the exact words, but it's close enough.
Library Patron:
I forgot what book I returned, it was that red one. Could you find it for me?
Librarian:
Do you know the title or author?
Library Patron:
No, I just can't remember.
Librarian:
Do you remember the subject, maybe we could narrow it down?
Library Patron:
Well, I'm not sure.
Librarian:
I'm not able to query by color of book. Please let me know, if you remember anything else. Anything else I can help you with?
Operation Legend
In one of the discussions, it was mentioned that Federal troops were seen in Albuquerque. Email from the White House has the following:
On June 29, 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro was shot and killed in his bed after a gunman opened fire on an apartment complex in Kansas City, Missouri.
This afternoon, President Trump announced the expansion of Operation Legend, an interagency law enforcement effort led by the Department of Justice and named after LeGend. Its purpose is to quell the unacceptable levels of recent violence in U.S. cities.
“My first duty as President is to protect the American people, and today I am taking action to fulfill that sacred obligation,” President Trump said.
? President Trump: Anti-police policy and rhetoric has consequences
Attorney General Bill Barr announced the creation of Operation Legend fewer than 10 days after LeGend’s heartbreaking death. The Justice Department is now surging over 200 federal law enforcement officers into Kansas City to help curb the kind of senseless violence that took the young boy’s life.
The President announced today that the operation will expand into Chicago and Albuquerque. Over the next 3 weeks, the Justice Department plans to further expand the initiative into Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee.
In Chicago, for example, more than 300 federal law enforcement personnel will work with state and local police to help apprehend violent criminals. Just yesterday, another mass shooting in Chicago injured 15 people outside of a funeral service.
More than $61 million will be provided by the Justice Department to hire hundreds of new police officers, and about 200 federal agents and deputy marshals will be permanently reassigned to Operation Legend cities.
“We will never defund the police—we will hire more great police,” President Trump said. “We want to make law enforcement stronger, not weaker. What cities are doing is absolute insanity.”
So, naturally, I went looking around the net.
Wikipedia overview
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Legend
Kansas City news conference
https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article244416727.html
Buzzfeed article on Chicago and Albuquerque
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/trump-sending-federal-officers-to-chicago-albuquerque
Mayor of Albuquerque interview on NPR
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/22/894449060/albuquerque-mayor-on-trumps-plan-to-send-federal-agents-into-the-city
It seems like, ohhhh, I don't know, maybe Sanctuary Cities are on a list?
https://newspunch.com/full-list-sanctuary-cities-states-usa/
It's "fashionable" to defy the federal government these days. And, camo fatigues are also "fashionable". Enjoy, America!
The smart people in those sanctuary cities will follow my stepson's example, and evacuate.
Vote Early, Vote Often
On the current SN Poll (computer time during COVID lockdowns), I've been able to vote several times. (3 times)
It says (you've already voted).
But then another time, it won't say that, and I can vote again. Usually the next day.
Maybe SN is limiting votes to one per day. I've been able to vote (the same vote) "Not Changed" for three times now. And the vote count does increase.
I can only conclude:
* This multiple voting thing cannot be allowed
* It could bring down our entire society
* Anyone who would vote more than once is reprehensible
* All US election systems need to adopt this amazing technology
Ukraine Prez: Everyone should watch the 2005 film Earthlings
Ukraine Hostage Standoff Ends After President Agrees To Promote Joaquin Phoenix Film
A hostage standoff on a bus in western Ukraine ended Tuesday after a bizarre demand from the captor was met when the country's president publicly recommended a 15-year-old animal rights documentary narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.
Just before the end of the 12-hour standoff in Lutsk, a city located some 250 miles west of Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted a video clip to his Facebook page stating: "Everyone should watch the 2005 film Earthlings."
The post has since been deleted.
