Liberal groups slam Biden’s response to police protest movement, warning he risks losing support from black voters

Liberal groups slam Biden’s response to police protest movement, warning he risks losing support from black voters

The Washington Post reports: More than 50 liberal groups signed a letter Monday to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden criticizing his response to the emerging protest movement against police brutality, warning that failing to embrace a more aggressive agenda risks alienating the African American voters he needs to win the election. The letter pointed to Biden’s recent promise to add $300 million for community policing programs, a plan that activists say would undermine their efforts to push for systemic…

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Uncertain recovery: The emerging long-term complications of Covid-19

Uncertain recovery: The emerging long-term complications of Covid-19

Vox reports: At first, Lauren Nichols tried to explain away her symptoms. In early March, the healthy 32-year-old felt an intense burning sensation, like acid reflux, when she breathed. Embarrassed, she didn’t initially seek medical care. When her shortness of breath kept getting worse, her doctor tested her for Covid-19. Her results came back positive. But for Nichols, that was just the beginning. Over the next eight weeks, she developed wide and varied symptoms, including extreme and chronic fatigue, diarrhea,…

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A few superspreaders transmit the majority of coronavirus cases

A few superspreaders transmit the majority of coronavirus cases

A few people in the crowd will be responsible for the bulk of a disease’s spread. Pacific Press /LightRocket via Getty Images Elizabeth McGraw, Pennsylvania State University The coronavirus has traveled the globe, infecting one person at a time. Some sick people might not spread the virus much further, but some people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 are what epidemiologists call “superspreaders.” Elizabeth McGraw, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University, explains the evidence and…

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Trump rally attendees will have fewer safety measures than high-dollar donors

Trump rally attendees will have fewer safety measures than high-dollar donors

NBC News reports: Top Republicans donors at President Donald Trump’s two recent fundraisers had to have tested negative for the coronavirus, fill out a wellness questionnaire and pass a temperature check to be near him, but thousands of supporters who attend his upcoming rally will not be screened as thoroughly. After declining to explain for days which safety measures, if any, will be enforced by the Trump campaign at the Tulsa, Oklahoma, event this weekend, senior officials Monday said hand…

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Trump’s niece’s new book contains explosive revelations

Trump’s niece’s new book contains explosive revelations

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump’s niece, his deceased brother’s daughter, is set to publish a tell-all book this summer that will detail “harrowing and salacious” stories about the president, according to people with knowledge of the project. Mary Trump, 55, the daughter of Fred Trump Jr. and eldest grandchild of Fred Trump Sr., is scheduled to release Too Much And Never Enough on July 28, Simon & Schuster confirmed Monday, just weeks before the Republican National Convention. One of…

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Trump supporters already know he will definitely win by a landslide

Trump supporters already know he will definitely win by a landslide

Paul Waldman writes: President Trump and his allies are putting nearly as much effort into convincing people that they’re going to win in November as they are into actually trying to win. Or at least it might seem that way if you watch what they say in public. Lately, it seems to have gone beyond just projecting confidence into a realm where collective delusions are crafted. Take, for example, the question of money. Here’s an announcement Trump’s campaign manager made…

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GOP officials drunk on kool aid: ‘The more bad things happen in the country’ the more this helps Trump

GOP officials drunk on kool aid: ‘The more bad things happen in the country’ the more this helps Trump

Politico reports: By most conventional indicators, Donald Trump is in danger of becoming a one-term president. The economy is a wreck, the coronavirus persists, and his poll numbers have deteriorated. But throughout the Republican Party’s vast organization in the states, the operational approach to Trump’s re-election campaign is hardening around a fundamentally different view. Interviews with more than 50 state, district and county Republican Party chairs depict a version of the electoral landscape that is no worse for Trump than…

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‘Black Lives Matter Foundation’ has raised millions, but it’s not affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement

‘Black Lives Matter Foundation’ has raised millions, but it’s not affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement

BuzzFeed reports: When Elena Iliadis searched for “Black Lives Matter” on GoFundMe, the popular online fundraising platform, she didn’t do much research on the first verified foundation that popped up. Inspired to help the cause, the 19-year-old Georgetown University sophomore and her a capella group, the Phantoms, raised nearly $1,100 for what they thought was the global movement to bring racial justice and defund the police. It wasn’t until she was contacted by BuzzFeed News that the student learned her…

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Scant evidence of antifa shows how sweeping the protests for racial justice have become

Scant evidence of antifa shows how sweeping the protests for racial justice have become

The Washington Post reports: In the two weeks that saw an uprising against racial injustice and police brutality spread from the streets of Minneapolis to cities across America, the specter of violent, left-wing militants invoked by President Trump and a chorus of conservative voices has yet to materialize. Instead, multiracial crowds have appeared in every corner of the United States, as the president sent more than a dozen tweets blaming clashes with police on antifa, the label associated with anti-fascist…

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John Lewis to Black Lives Matter protesters: ‘Give until you cannot give any more’

John Lewis to Black Lives Matter protesters: ‘Give until you cannot give any more’

Jonathan Capehart writes: John Lewis stood with his backpack over his shoulders and his hands in the pockets of his trench coat. The 25-year-old’s eyes were fixed on the line of Alabama state troopers with billy clubs in their hands and gas masks covering their faces. The date was Sunday, March 7, 1965. Lewis and the 600 other African Americans with him set out to march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery, the state capital, to demand the right to vote….

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Racial justice groups flooded with millions in donations in wake of Floyd death

Racial justice groups flooded with millions in donations in wake of Floyd death

The New York Times reports: The killing of George Floyd and the ensuing nationwide wave of protests are generating a record-setting flood of donations to racial justice groups, bail funds and black-led advocacy organizations across America, remaking the financial landscape of black political activism in a matter of weeks. Money has come in so fast and so unexpectedly that some groups even began to turn away and redirect donors elsewhere. Others said they still could not yet account for how…

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Black leaders regularly fail to rise to the challenges that confront young people

Black leaders regularly fail to rise to the challenges that confront young people

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor writes: Young black people have exploded in rebellion over the grotesque killing of George Floyd. We are now witnessing the broadest protest movement in American history. And yet the response of black elected officials has been cautious and uninspired. The Congressional Black Caucus offered a familiar list of the kind of police reforms that have failed for decades to end police violence. After protesters vandalized CNN’s headquarters and set a police car on fire in Atlanta, the mayor,…

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In Seattle, armed activists say they’re needed to ward off dangerous extremists

In Seattle, armed activists say they’re needed to ward off dangerous extremists

The Daily Beast reports: Seattle’s bustling Capitol Hill neighborhood has long been a hotbed of gentrification, but right now, the streets surrounding Cal Anderson Park are undergoing a different kind of transformation. Over the past several days of its remarkable existence, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) has captured radical imaginations across the country, and struck fear into the hearts of conservative politicians and right-wing media pundits (including the president). Also known as the Seattle Autonomous Zone, the six blocks…

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Why Minneapolis was the breaking point

Why Minneapolis was the breaking point

Wesley Lowery writes: For years, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets to demand a wholesale reimagining of the criminal-justice system. They have stated clearly that they believe American policing is inherently flawed. Black people in America, they argue, are chronically overpoliced and underserved. They are stopped and frisked while walking to the bodega and harassed while cooking out on their porches and patios. But when they are murdered? American police almost never deliver them justice. “We shouldn’t fear…

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