We start todayDana MilbankThe Washington Post reports the futility of waiting to greet FBI Director Christopher Wray in the House Judiciary hearing room last Wednesday.
When Wray entered the House Judiciary hearing room this week, he entered a similar environment. Waiting for him in the crowd were three women wearing t-shirts that read “Ashli Babbitt, Killed by Capitol Police.” A few seats down, next to the woman with the “Biden’s Laptop Matters” phone case,Ivan Raiklin, a self-proclaimed “Deep State Marauder,” stood up and said to Wray: “Sir, will you stop breaking our first, fourth and fifth laws?” Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) ordered a repeat of the Pledge of Allegiance, which ended in women in Ashley Babbitt T-shirts shouting, “Justice for all!”
Jordan opened with paranoia: “American voices are censored. Parents are called terrorists. Catholics are called radicals. And I never talked about the spying that happened on the presidential campaign or the raid on the former president’s home.”[…]
Patiently, Wray tried to sway Republicans from their position. No, the FBI does not search for parents to attend school board meetings. No, there was no FBI undercover in public on January 6. In fact, the FBI has opened more violent investigations against abortion rights supporters than abortion opponents.
But every time Wray rebutted the false accusations, Republicans came up with another one.
Many of the groups I attended at Netroots Nation this past week were about identifying and combating fake news and fake news. We are swimming in these things.
Considering Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. the latest “general” and confusing about vaccines and “types”,Kali HollowayThe Daily Beast reports that this is the first time Kennedy has made an announcement to black people about vaccinations.
The end of Kennedy’s outreach to black people can be seen, in fact, in 2021 video, Medical Discrimination: The New Apartheid.
The video was released as a vaccine for COVID-19 became available, making it the perfect time for Kennedy to spread vaccine skepticism among the public. until then, was being hit endlessly and hurt by the virus. Billing itself as a “documentary,” the film features many black experts who speak – doctors, historians, academics, public health advocates – and highlights their interviews against the brutal treatment of black people by American medical institutions. […]
…there’s also a lot of vaccine pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, deliberate omissions, and other selections that muddy the waters of information.
In one example, meaning a a small sample of a 2014 Mayo Clinic study that found people of Somali descent, Somali Americans, and other black Americans (in particular, people of direct African and diasporic descent) had stronger responses to the rubella vaccine than the study participants. Referring to this study, doctor Charles Penick, a he realized vaccine skeptic, saying that black children”should be about half the level of children are given,” lest they risk an increase in vaccination rates.
It is not as if black people are inoculated against anti-Black disinformation or rhetoric; we should know it when we see it. A more they slip through the cracks.
Also, this is the first and, hopefully, the last time I will link to the story of Robert Kennedy, Jr.
Holly McCallhe writes to Tennessee Outlook (which I read through Michigan Advance) wonders if he could have said anything to correct the false and seditious claims of a group of MAGA voters at the Holocaust memorial in Washington DC
I probably wouldn’t have been speaking before I heard my friend talk about the destruction of information and disinformation in American politics. A 40-year-old former reporter, he told my fellow editors and I that he felt American democracy was in jeopardy. He said he did not remember a time when people were suspicious and hated each other. Journalists need to go beyond well-known rooms to cover the 2024 elections, he told us.
I wanted to know what made these guys tick.
“What brought you here today?” I asked the man standing next to me, a 56-year-old from Las Vegas. He told me that his group was a group of his high school friends who met once a year. Pointing to his friend who is wearing a red hat, he said, “His grandfather is Polish.” He survived the Holocaust.”
He said three of the five in his group had served in the military, himself a 22-year veteran of the Navy. He loves America, he told me. Two of them have gay sons and, they told me, they will beat the hell out of anyone who abuses them because of their sexuality. Then, while we were talking, he pointed to the pictures of a burning Nazi book on the wall.
“Democrats are trying to do this,” he said. “They want our country to be like this.”
Honestly, I don’t know what McCall could have said to fix these people. Maybe those of us who have the right principles don’t need to correct, instead we should “plant the seeds” by saying something.
Back to Earth-1,Alan RappeportThe New York Times reported that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is urging the G20 to speed up debt relief for poor countries.
Speaking in Gandhinagar, India, before a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of 20 countries, Mrs. Yellen mentioned the recent agreement between debtor countries, including China, to help Zambia pay its debts. He said the agreement, which took more than a year to negotiate, should be a policy to be used to help other countries, such as Ghana and Sri Lanka, Accelerate loans and restoring growth.
“We need to apply the principles we agreed on in the case of Zambia in other places instead of starting from zero all the time,” said Mrs. Yellen. “And we have to go fast.”
The Secretary of the Treasury said that more than half of low-income countries are in debt or close to debt – double from 2015. These countries are facing a bad situation, because high public debt makes it difficult to attract public funds and special.
Theeditorial boardThe Miami Herald is asking for international help to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Haiti.
Uncontrolled military violence. Rape. Being robbed. Political instability. Corruption. Haiti is on the edge of a mountain.
And here again, the United States and other countries around the world are dragging their feet to help restore the country, which is also in the midst of a legal crisis, to law and order. […]
It is time for the people of Haiti to stop talking about the problems and start working hard. The longer countries wait to send aid to Haiti, the less likely it will be to save as women and girls are victimized by sex offenders, and boys are recruited to fight.
All law and order has disappeared as killings and kidnappings, especially by violent gangs and bandits, are on the rise. These groups, which now control 60% of the capital and are expanding their influence outside the Haitian capital, have become the de facto government.
Finally today,Laura GozziBBC News reports on the current European warming.
Italy, Spain and Greece have been experiencing extreme heat for several days already.
Italy’s health ministry issued a red alert for 16 cities including Rome, Bologna and Florence over the weekend.
The hot weather is expected to continue into next week, with 48C (118.4F) possible in Sardinia, according to Italian media.
Such a temperature, however, cannot match the European record high of 48.8C (119.8F) – which was recorded in Sicily in August 2021.
Italy’s weather agency said Sardinia will be “at the center” of next week’s heat wave – which forecasters have named Charon, after the sailor who gave life to the world in Greek mythology.
Have a great day (despite the bad news flow)!