Sunday, June 07, 2020

Coronavirus News (134)

Powell stays above the fray — sort of - politics | NBC News

GOP leaders of the past decline to say whether they'll vote for Trump  Some legacy figures in the Republican Party are reportedly weighing how public to be about their opposition to Trump ....... Former President George W. Bush will not support Trump's re-election, while his brother Jeb Bush has not yet made a decision on how to vote ......... Former House Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner declined to say how they will vote, as did former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that he will be voting for Biden. ......... Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.), who is not seeking re-election, says he is considering voting for Biden because Trump is "driving us all crazy” and has mishandled the U.S. response to the coronavirus. ........  Retired Adm. William McRaven, who directed the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, told the Times that Trump has shown "he doesn’t have the qualities necessary to be a good commander in chief," and called for "new leadership" this fall.



Analysis: White House, Pentagon tensions near breaking point The nub of the problem is that Trump sees no constraint on his authority to use what he calls the “unlimited power” of the military even against U.S. citizens if he believes it necessary. Military leaders generally take a far different view. They believe that active-duty troops, trained to hunt and kill an enemy, should be used to enforce the law only in the most extreme emergency, such as an attempted actual rebellion. That limit exists, they argue, to keep the public’s trust. .......... Defense Secretary Mark Esper, a West Point graduate who served 10 years on active duty, argued against bringing federal troops into Washington. In a contentious Oval Office meeting with Trump and others on Monday, the president demanded 10,000 federal troops be sent to the capital city  

Trump demanded 10,000 active-duty troops deploy to streets in heated Oval Office meeting  Attorney General William Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley objected to the demand .......  If these governors didn't "call up the Guard, we'd have (active duty) troops all over the country" ......... On Wednesday morning, after two nights of peaceful protests, Esper ordered 700 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division to return to Fort Bragg, and then delivered a statement in the Pentagon briefing room that he was opposed to using the Insurrection Act to send active-duty troops into the streets.  

Police and protesters kneel together on June 1, 2020, in Minneapolis. Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP

After Floyd killing, we need a truth and reconciliation commission on race and policing These commissions often accomplish what courts can't, such as public accountability and admissions of wrongdoing, and impetus for reforms and progress. .............. The instinct for many Americans with deeply felt grievances is to rage. Decades of protests — many peaceful, some violent — have yielded insufficient progress in the quest for better relations between the police and those who are policed. Criminal trials, civil lawsuits and out-of-court settlements haven’t helped enough. For paradigmatic change, a truth and reconciliation commission may be the only answer. .........  Most commissions lack subpoena authority or the power to punish, except with words.  Some even offer amnesty in exchange for the truth. They produce painstakingly detailed accounts of past eras and events, along with a slew of recommendations. In Canada, nearly three out of every four “calls to action” from its commission have been carried out or are in process. ......... Reconciliation between parties to lengthy and wide-ranging conflicts cannot occur in the absence of an agreed upon truth. A TRC’s effectiveness often hinges on whether it gives opposing sides equal chances to be heard and demonstrates impartiality as competing versions of a story are told. ........  the commissions use their bully pulpit, their independence from government, and their detachment from the traditional judicial process, to call for major societal reforms...........  While often dismissed as an overly lenient approach, truth and reconciliation commissions and other forms of restorative justice have in many cases led responsible parties to take more accountability than they might have in a courtroom. ........... We have no choice but to work together on a new path for policing in America. We must start with a clearer understanding of what truly ails us if we can ever reconcile our differences.

How Kamala Harris seized the moment on race and police reform Criminal justice reformers say she's neutralized a major liability — her past as a prosecutor — and it comes as Biden prepares to name his VP..........  Since the uprising over the killing of George Floyd, she’s taken to cable news programs and the Senate floor to argue for police reform and reconciliation. ........ She's widely considered to be a top contender for the vice-presidential appointment, if not the frontrunner. ........  Harris, along with her aides and family, kept in regular contact with leading activists and policymakers during her campaign and after she exited the race. .........  She was among the first senators to attend the protests, showing up with her husband and without mentioning it ahead of time to the news media, or her own aides. And in the crush of cable news appearances, she’s laid out an agenda that includes pushing for independent investigations into police misconduct, a national standard for when officers can use force, and Justice Department “pattern or practice“ probes into police departments. ...........  Harris, whose parents were active in the civil rights movement, was constantly asked to justify how she could choose to be part of a system she knew was discriminatory. Harris likened it to "going up the rough side of the mountain." And, in the waning days of her campaign, she confided to a group of black women leaders that the pointed memes — "Kamala is a Cop" — "breaks my heart." .........  Portraying herself as a longtime reformer, Harris cited her early re-entry program that provided job training and counseling to former offenders — before “re-entry” became common in the field. Later, as attorney general, she collected and published data on police shootings and in-custody deaths, and was early to mandate officer-worn body cameras. ......... she credited activism around the Black Lives Matter movement with expanding what reforms came to be viewed as possible ........ “All of us have evolved, right? We didn’t wake up woke” ....... “It’s clear she cares about black people and cares about their lives.” ..........   Harris’ criminal justice blueprint called for terminating federal mandatory minimum sentences and encouraging states to do the same; ending the death penalty and solitary confinement; and phasing out cash bail and for-profit prisons. It sought to end sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine offenses and legalize marijuana at the federal level.  

Stocks Rally After Unexpected Drop in U.S. Unemployment  Tens of millions remain out of work, and the unemployment rate, which fell to 13.3 percent from 14.7 percent in April, remains higher than in any previous postwar recession. ........ offering hope that the rebound from the pandemic-induced economic crisis could be faster than forecast. ....... “employment rose sharply in leisure and hospitality, construction, education and health services, and retail trade” .........  at least part of the pain in April was due to people being laid off or furloughed who still had very strong connections to their employers ........ “As good and surprising as this report was, this may just be the low-hanging fruit. These may have been the easiest workers to bring back.” .......... “As good and surprising as this report was, this may just be the low-hanging fruit. These may have been the easiest workers to bring back.” .........  the U.S. economy may be more resilient than many investors and analysts feared ....... Financial markets have been on an upward trajectory for weeks as investors have responded to signs around the world that businesses were slowly but steadily returning to normal and policymakers pumped money into the economy and financial markets...........  The data tells the story of an employment rebound as the state and local economies began to reopen and Paycheck Protection Program checks went out, spurring rehiring and bringing workers back onto payrolls. .......... “The economy is still being very much buffered by stimulus,” said Michelle Meyer, head of U.S. economics at Bank of America. “When that starts to wane, we will learn a lot more about the underlying health of the recovery.” ........... it was far too soon, he warned, to declare the economic crisis over, noting that black unemployment had risen even as the numbers declined over all. .........  a 27 percent expanded unemployment rate, which could more closely reflect the share of the labor force whose employment has been negatively affected by the pandemic. ......  Joblessness for white adults fell to 12.4 percent from 14.2 percent the prior month, and Hispanic worker unemployment declined to 17.6 percent from 18.9 percent. For black workers, however, joblessness was up slightly to 16.8 percent, and unemployment for Asians also increased, to 15 percent from 14.5 percent.  .........  The employment-to-population ratio for black workers ticked up to 49.6 percent, up from 48.8 percent the prior month. Still, that means that less than half of black adults are working — worse than any other large racial or ethnic group. ...........  Gap, one of the biggest U.S. retailers with its namesake, Old Navy and Banana Republic chains, said on Thursday that net sales in the first quarter plummeted 43 percent to $2.1 billion and that it posted a net loss of $932 million. The company, which has nearly 2,800 stores in North America, said that it had reopened more than 1,500 locations and expected the “vast majority” of stores to be open by the end of June. ............ Slack, the business communication platform, said in a regulatory filing that its first-quarter revenue rose 50 percent to $201.7 million and a small loss compared with the same period last year. But the results disappointed investors, who expected greater growth during the pandemic, and its shares plunged.



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