A review of records shows that black protestors arrested in New York City in recent weeks have been detained for longer than their white counterparts. Just like for other crimes. In general, black people are more likely to get stopped by the police. And then more likely to be detained. And then more likely to be arrested. And then more likely to go to trial. And then more likely to be found guilty. And then more likely to be sentenced. And then more likely to have longer sentences. Every single step of the justice system weeds out white perpetrators while punishing black perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law. It’s not hard to see why exponentially more black lives are ruined by the justice system than white lives. And that’s why #BlackLivesMatter.

Here’s what happened in politics during the week ending June 21…

Shootings This Week:

1. There were 21 mass shootings in the U.S. this week (defined as killing and/or injuring 4 or more people). Shooters kill 8 people and injure 95 more.

Russia:

1. A new report by research firm Graphika claims that Russia used fake accounts and blog posts on over 300 social medial platforms for their disinformation campaigns to undermine opponents. They’ve been running these campaigns for over six years, and have gone after Ukraine’s government, the World Anti-Doping Agency, Putin’s opposition leader Alexei Navalny, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Hillary Clinton.
2. Trump’s fourth Russia director at the NSC steps down.

Legal Fallout:

1. A federal judge refuses the Justice Department’s request to block the release of John Bolton’s book. The judge says there’s no point since the book has been leaked and is widely circulated already.
2. According to the book:


• • Bolton would’ve testified in the impeachment hearing if the House would’ve subpoenaed him. He thinks the House should’ve waited for approval to go through the courts. Just a reminder, the House’s previous subpoena for former White House lawyer Dan McGahn is still going through the courts more than a year after it was issued.
  • The House should’ve investigated further because not only was Trump guilty of extorting Ukraine, there were several more instances of obstruction of justice and extortion to be found.
  • Trump asked China’s president to buy more agricultural products in 2018 to make him look better so more Republicans would get elected in the midterms.
  • North Korea has been playing Trump by sending him flattering letters and posing for photo ops while doing nothing to denuclearize.

3. On Friday night (the standard news dump night for this administration), The Justice Department announces that the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is stepping down from his post. Trump plans to put the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey in the position in an acting role until someone can be confirmed.

• • But U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman says he has no intention of stepping down. So the next day, Trump fires him because Bill Barr, as Attorney General, doesn’t have the authority.
  • This means that Berman’s deputy, Audrey Strauss, is acting U.S. Attorney until the Senate confirms a replacement, so the investigations go on.
  • Barr had earlier tried to entice Berman away from the U.S. Attorney position by offering him a job leading the civil division of the DOJ in Washington.
  • Trump plans to nominate Jay Clayton, who is currently the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commissions and who has never tried a case.
  • This is the office that led the investigation into Michael Cohen and is currently investigating Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, and Igor Fruman.
  • Trump thinks the investigations are an attempt to damage him, but Berman is a Trump administration appointee and a Trump donor.

Courts/Justice:

1. The Supreme Court rules that Trump can’t carry out his plan to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, so those youngsters avoid potential deportation for now.

• • As has been so common in court cases with this administration, Chief Justice Roberts labels Trump’s actions as arbitrary and capricious.
  • The administration can try again to do this in a legal way.

2. The Supreme Court rules that LGBTQ workers cannot be discriminated against by their employers for their sexual orientation or gender identity. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch join the more liberal members of the court in the majority.
3. The Justice Department announces that the federal government will start up executions of criminals again. Three inmates are scheduled to be executed in July and one in August. There have only been three executions in just over three decades, one of which was Timothy McVeigh who bombed the Oklahoma City federal building.
4. The Supreme Court declines to hear appeals of ten cases involving gun rights. The cases were brought by gun activists hoping to strike down ownership limits.
5. The Supreme Court also declines to hear a case on qualified immunity for law enforcement.

Coronavirus:

1. Only three out of 53 countries say the U.S. is handling the pandemic better than China. The electorate in Greece, Taiwan, Ireland, South Korea, Australia, and Denmark are happiest with how their government is handling it. Brazil, France, Italy, the U.K., and the U.S. get the lowest rating from their electorates. 33% of respondents say the U.S. response is good compared to the 60% who say China’s is.
2. The FDA revokes its emergency authorization for the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 treatment. The agency thinks the few benefits don’t outweigh the risks. Tests are still ongoing for hydroxychloroquine treatment though.
3. Initial reports from tests treating several COVID-19 patients with a cheap, easily available steroid indicate that use of the drug (dexamethasone) reduced deaths by a third. More testing is needed.
4. The staff of the Centers for Disease Control was told not to talk to Voice of America reporters. VOA is a government-funded news agency and apparently their coverage wasn’t positive enough to Trump. Trump says the VOA is run by communists.
5. Here are the states and territories where COVID-19 cases are having a surprise increase: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming.

• • Deaths are increasing in those states and also in Idaho.

6. A judge rules that Trump’s rally in Tulsa can go ahead as planned after two lawyers bring a suit on behalf of residents to stop it because of the increased risk of coronavirus spread.

• • Officials in Tulsa plead with the Trump campaign to either cancel his planned rally or to at least hold it outside due to the spike in coronavirus cases there.
  • The coronavirus task force recommends against holding the rally due to the health risks.

7. Dr. Anthony Fauci says that the government originally held off on recommending the public wear masks because they were worried about shortages of supplies. He now unequivocally advocates wearing a mask and social distancing.
8. Fauci expresses his frustration over our inability to stop the spread of the coronavirus and says it’s because Americans aren’t following the recommended guidelines. He says part of the problem stems from leadership, but not local leadership. So…. that leaves….??
9. Fauci is also frustrated by the American public’s refusal to believe in science during this time.
10. Mike Pence pens an oped about how there is no second wave and any panic about it is overblown. He even says no second wave is coming. According to public health experts, we’re still in the first wave. You can’t have a second wave until the first wave is over, and the second wave is expected in the fall.

• • A plateau is nothing to celebrate. While the states that were hit hardest early, like New York and New Jersey, are seeing declining numbers, the increasing numbers across other parts of the country are why our numbers still aren’t going down.
  • Pence blames the spike in coronavirus cases across the country on more testing, but that doesn’t account for the higher positive return rate nor the increase in hospitalizations and deaths.
  • Our positive test rate is much higher than in Europe as a whole.
  • Pence says our approach has been a success. The country with 4% of the world’s population has 26% of the world’s COVID-19 cases and deaths is a success. OK.
  • Pence doesn’t mention that we’ve lost over 120,000 people now from the pandemic.

11. The U.S. National Stockpile is now stuck with 63 million doses of hydroxychloroquine they can’t use since the FDA revoked approval to use it for COVID-19 patients. Some infectious disease experts say there was never any evidence that the drug was effective for COVID-19 cases, but the U.S. put all their eggs in that one basket.
12. At his Tulsa rally, Trump says that he told the coronavirus task force to slow down on testing because the number of cases was increasing too much.
13. The Trump administration still hasn’t distributed $8 billion of the $25 billion designated to ramp up testing.
14. Defense officials won’t reinstate Navy Captain Brett Crozier, commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after all. A new investigation reversed the findings of an earlier investigation that he was not at fault for trying to stop the spread of coronavirus on his ship.

Shortages:

1. Some hospitals in Florida run out of ICU beds as their cases spike. Same with Arizona, and Texas is on its way.
2. Mike Pence drastically overstates the amount of equipment distributed through Project Airbridge by combining the numbers of several projects. Pence claims the program has distributed:

• • More than 143 million N95 masks (it’s closer to 1.5 million)
  • 598 million surgical and procedural masks (it’s actually 113.4 million)
  • 20 million eye and face shields (it’s actually 2.5 million)
  • 256 million gowns and coveralls (it’s actually around 52 million)
  • 14 billion gloves (it’s actually 937 million).

Exposures:

1. Representative Tom Rice (R-SC) tells us that he, his wife, and his son all had COVID-19. His entire family fell sick, but not to the point of hospitalization.

• • Two weeks ago, he refused to wear a mask on the House floor, so who knows how much he might have spread the virus.
  • Several members of Congress have tested positive so far during the pandemic.
  • In his statement, Rice calls it the Wuhan Flu. There’s your member of Congress, doing what he can to repair race relations 🙄

2. An NPR survey finds that 37 U.S. states don’t have the contact tracers they need to reopen, even though the tracing workforce has tripled.
3. Health officials in Oregon are working to contain an outbreak of 200 new cases related to the Lighthouse United Pentecostal Church.
4. In Great Britain, as in the U.S., the areas seeing increases in coronavirus cases are more rural than the areas where the infections first broke out.
5. As national sports teams get back to practice, some are having to shut down and quarantine for 14 days due to the number of infections. Five members of the Philadelphia Phillies test positive for the coronavirus. The team declines to comment on what that might mean for the season.
6. Six members of Trump’s campaign working on his Tulsa rally test positive for the coronavirus. Two more who attend the rally later test positive.
7. Two weeks after Nevada reopened its gyms, restaurants, churches, bars, and casinos, the state reports its largest one-day increase in coronavirus cases. Same for Las Vegas.
8. Senior-care facilities continue to represent about 40% of the COVID-19 deaths so far.
9. Initial data indicate that the protests aren’t causing spikes in coronavirus cases. There have been no significant differences in trends between counties with protests and counties without. Several of the states that had large protests aren’t seeing an uptick in cases.

• • Public health officials point to an increase in indoor gatherings as states reopen as a more likely cause.
  • They also say it’s possible that it’ll take a while for anyone infected at the protests to infect their communities.
  • As with the people protesting the lockdowns several weeks ago, those protesting George Floyd’s death are a small portion of the overall population.

Closures:

1. Beijing raises emergency levels and tightens its lockdowns as its latest outbreak worsens. The outbreak is linked to a supermarket. Unessential travel is banned, hundreds of flights have been canceled, and screening is reinstated.
2. Texas Governor Greg Abbott still won’t let localities require that people wear masks in public even though the state keeps setting new one-day highs for coronavirus cases. Nine mayors ask him to reverse his decision, including some of the biggest metropolitan areas in the state.
3. Nebraska’s Republican governor warns local officials that if they mandate face coverings, they’ll lose federal coronavirus relief money.
4. Some businesses in Florida close within one week of reopening due to the spike in cases in the state. That includes several bars that closed because patrons or staff tested positive. Officials shut down three restaurants in Miami for violating coronavirus safety regulations.
5. Utah, Oregon, Miami, Baltimore, and Nashville all slow down on reopening over spikes in cases.

Numbers:

1. Coronavirus cases are on the rise in 77 countries. Cases are declining in 43 countries.
2. Here are the numbers by the end of the week:

• • 2,255,119 people in the U.S. are infected so far (up from 2,074,526 last week), with 119,719 deaths (up from 115,436 last week).
  • 8,796,835 people worldwide have been infected (up from 7,760,308 last week), with 464,292 deaths (up from 430,130 last week).

International:

1. India says that a clash with Chinese forces along a disputed border left at least 20 Indian soldiers dead. These are the first deaths in 45 years between these two countries (which both have nuclear weapons).
2. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who has several cases pending against him, denies that Joe Biden ever approached him about the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings. Hunter Biden joined Burisma’s board the same year Poroshenko became president.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. After Michael Brown’s shooting in 2014, Obama put together a task force that recommended 59 changes for better policing. Several departments have implemented these, but not all, and even those that have are finding progress to be slow.
2. The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office rules that Rayshard Brooks’ death was a homicide. Brooks was shot by a police officer during a DUI stop. The Fulton County DA charges the Atlanta police officer who shot Rayshard Brooke with 11 counts, including felony murder. The officer with him is charged with aggravated assault.
3. The UN Human Rights Council agrees to investigate “systemic racism, police brutality, and violence against peaceful protests” in the U.S. and other countries on behalf of African countries that requested it.
4. A senior State Department official resigns over Trump’s mishandling of the current racial tensions. She is the first black woman to have served as assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs.
5. A member of the right-wing Boogaloo movement is charged with murdering a Santa Cruz police officer and injuring four others with pipe bombs. He planned the attacks to coincide with protests to use them as cover.
6. A bipartisan group of national security leaders says military forces shouldn’t have been used against civilians. They also say protestors should not be called “terrorists.”
7. The New York State Legislature bans chokeholds by police and removes a roadblock to holding police accountable for their actions.
8. New York State plans to dismantle its plainclothes police units with high numbers of shootings.
9. Trump signs an executive order creating a database to track officers with misconduct complaints and encourages police departments to work with mental health professionals when dealing with people who have addiction, homelessness, or mental health issues. It also encourages following standards for use of force. It doesn’t address racial discrimination or stereotyping.
10. The North Carolina Supreme Court rules that anyone who sought relief under the Racial Justice Act before it was repealed can still proceed with their claim. This means they have a chance to prove that their death sentences were based on racial discrimination.
11. The display of the Confederate flag is banned from all Army installations in South Korea.
12. People get a little bent out of shape as Uncle Ben, Aunt Jemima, and Mrs. Butterworth remove their racial stereotypical representations of black people.
13. Trump claims credit for making Juneteenth very famous. There have been Juneteenth celebrations in the U.S. since the final slaves were freed in 1865.
14. Even though around 75% of Americans approve of granting permanent legal status to DACA-eligible immigrants, Trump says his administration will try to end the Dreamers program again after the Supreme Court shot down the most recent attempt.
15. Facebook removes ads put out by the Trump campaign that use a red triangle similar to the symbol used by Nazis to classify political prisoners in WWII. The campaign claims it’s a symbol used by Antifa. It isn’t.
16. Facebook and Twitter remove a doctored video shared by Trump trying to show that the media tries to paint Trump supporters as racist.
17. The Trump administration continues to point the finger at Antifa for violence during the protests.

• • A review of footage showed that Antifa mostly stood back at protests and didn’t engage at all, much less in violent ways.
  • Most of the violence that occurred during the protests was opportunistic, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
  • Antifa sympathizers are drawn to events where white supremacists show up.

18. The FBI is actively investigating the hanging deaths of two black men in Southern California. They were both previously thought to be suicides. Another black man was found hanged in a park in New York City. Another black teenager and a Latino man were found hanged in a public area in Houston.
19. The Air Force inspector general launches an investigation into whether using drones to monitor protests violates the civil rights of protestors. Military drones were used in Washington and Minneapolis.
20. A federal judge orders Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to distribute nearly $670 million in emergency COVID-10 funds to Native American tribes that have been waiting months for the aid. The government has been missing deadlines for paying out the funds for months now, while small businesses (and even some large ones) are getting relief loans.
21. The Supreme Court declines to hear a Trump administration challenge to so-called sanctuary laws in California. This leaves in place rules that limit local law enforcement participation in immigration issues.
22. The Supreme Court prohibits employers from discriminating against LGBTQ employees, ruling that “sex” in the Civil Rights Act applies to gender identity and sexual orientation.
23. Republicans in the Senate and Democrats in the House have been busy writing their own police reform bills. Though they both aim roughly at the same areas, there’s enough disagreement to doubt whether we’ll get anything this time around. Here’s what’s in them.

Senate Version	House Version
Encourages agencies to stop using chokeholds or lose federal funds. Requires the use of body cams.	Bans the use of chokeholds and requires the use of body cams.
Requires law enforcement to be better about compiling “use of force” reports.	Creates a national registry for instances of police misconduct.
Provides funds for de-escalation training and establishing “duty to intervene” protocols.	Incentivizes racial bias training and teaching a “duty to intervene.”
Tracks the use of no-knock warrants.	Bans no-knock warrants for federal drug cases.
Makes lynching a federal hate crime.	Includes anti-lynching legislation (which Rand Paul has been holding up in the Senate).
Launches a study into the social status of black men and boys.	Launches studies into police actions and practices.
Suggests a decertification process instead of changing qualified immunity.	Reforms qualified immunity for officers.

Climate/Environment:

1. A small town in Siberia hits 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest temperature on record north of the Arctic Circle.
2. The EPA announces it won’t regulate or limit perchlorate in drinking water. The chemical is linked to brain damage in infants. The EPA says the level has already been reduced enough. What could go wrong?
3. The Senate approves a $3 billion bill for conservation projects, outdoor recreation, and national park and public land maintenance.
4. A federal appeals court keeps in place a ruling that suspended the last two oil and gas leases near Glacier National Park, MT.
5. Greenhouse gas emissions are increasing sharply as the world reopens after the pandemic shutdowns.

Budget/Economy:

1. Two years ago, the U.S. topped the list of the world’s most competitive economies according to the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland. For three decades, the U.S. was in the top five on the list. This year, the U.S. falls to 10th, right behind the United Arab Emirates.
2. In violation of the CARES Act, the Department of Education reveals that it seized over $2.2 billion in tax refunds from people who still owe on their student loans.
3. Some members of Congress received small business benefits from the coronavirus relief package they helped create.
4. The Trump administration continues to block oversight and transparency into the payments made to businesses as part of the package.
5. The Trump administration plans to end the $600 unemployment benefit supplement in July saying it’s more than people would make by working (in the jobs that are still non-existent).

Elections:

1. According to John Bolton’s book, Trump asked China for help with his re-election. He asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to buy American agricultural products so he could win farm states in November. Trump stressed the importance of farmers in the election to President Xi.
2. On the day of Trump’s Tulsa rally, Tulsa County reports its highest daily record for new coronavirus cases. Trump campaign officials say they picked Tulsa because Oklahoma is well into reopening and they view it as a celebration that the worst of the pandemic is over. WTF? Have they literally never cracked a book?

• • People start lining up for the rally midweek. The night before the rally, Trump supporters and protestors start to gather in downtown Tulsa, business board up their windows, and the mayor issues a curfew.
  • The rally is held the day after Juneteenth, so celebrations are happening as well. Also on Juneteenth, Trump issues a very thinly veiled threat against protestors saying they won’t be treated as nicely as they are in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis.
  • The attendance for the rally is low, around half what was expected. It only filled around a third of the arena. Attendance is so low, they cancel a planned second speech.
  • The campaign blames the low attendance on protestors and on the media—“radical” protestors that tried to scare off Trump supporters. Weird. His supporters are such tough guys…
  • Officers on site say that no one who wanted in was turned away.

3. Trump misspoke a bit at his rally when he wasn’t busy showing off how he can drink water with one hand and describing in excruciating detail his walk down the ramp at West Point.

• • He says he passed the largest tax cut in history. It’s the fourth largest.
  • He says he accomplished Veterans Choice (in healthcare providers). The program started under Obama in 2015 (though Trump did expand it).
  • He pretends not to understand the policy changes requested by the Defund The Police movement.
  • He calls the coronavirus the Chinese virus and the Kung flu, illustrating exactly how seriously he takes the pandemic.
  • He says he’s spent over $2 trillion to completely rebuild the strength and power of our military. We’ve spent less than a quarter of that (roughly $419 billion).
  • The best line of the night… when you do more testing for COVID-10, you’re gonna find more cases. Everyone knows by now it’s the positive rate, not the testing rate, that indicates whether we’re headed the right direction.

4. His 2020 campaign promises so far are the same old stories as in 2016—he’ll root out MS-13 gang violence, he’ll ban abortion, he’ll bring back economic prosperity, and he’ll create a conservative court. What has he been doing for 3 ½ years?
5. Trump says that mail-in voting is the biggest risk to his re-election.

Miscellaneous:

1. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) blocks two Trump nominations on the condition that the White House explain all the recent firings of inspector generals. Some of these firings are under investigation by House Democrats.
2. Trump’s new head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the agency that produces Voice of America around the world, fired the senior leadership for the agency’s foreign networks, including in Europe, Asia, Cuba, and Middle East outlets. The two top VOA officials had already resigned.

• • Michael Pack dissolved several advisory boards and placed his own aides above them. The advisory boards are there because they understand the unique situation in each location.
  • Even though Pack is under investigation for improperly funneling funds from non-profit to for-profit companies he runs, the Senate still confirmed him two weeks ago.
  • Staffers say that VOA is effectively shut down.
  • The VOA has been a target of the Trump administration since 2018 when Bannon called it a rotten fish from top to bottom.

Polls:

1. Americans are the most unhappy they’ve been in half a century. A mere 14% of Americans say they’re very happy.
2. 80% of Americans worry about a second wave of coronavirus. About as many say they’ll abide by any new social distancing measures that are put into place.