US Cases: 1,736,571
US Deaths: 96,891
Worldwide Cases: 5,923,432
Worldwide Deaths: 364,836
Stunningly, the pandemic isn't the most important thing happening in the country right now. So I'm not discussing it tonight. Instead, I'm going to direct your attention to Josh Marshall:
We awake to a bewildering, sobering tableau. A second night of protests engulfed Minneapolis in the wake of the police killing George Floyd and a news conference in which the county district attorney, Mike Freeman, appeared to resist bringing charges against the police officer, Derek Chauvin, who was videotaped kneeling on Floyd’s neck before he died.Protesters-turned-rioters took control the city’s 3rd precinct after police evacuated the building and then set it on fire. In the early morning, Minneapolis Police arrested a compliant CNN news crew and reporter Omar Jimenez live on air. Overnight, President Trump, still egging on his faux battle with Twitter and threats to regulate it out of existence, went on the platform to threaten mass carnage against the city’s “thugs.”
Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!
Twitter flagged the tweet with a content warning that it “violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence.” This comes less than 24 hours after he amplified a call to kill Democrats. This is the President of the United States.That this all occurred as the country remains gripped in an historic epidemic which has just taken the 100,000th American life and the national economy staggers under the weight of that crisis simply adds to the surreality and crisis of America under Donald Trump.
Even in this time, when every day for the past 3.5 years has felt like a watershed, today seems to be a true watershed. An inflection point, where the country will either turn resolutely against Trump and the Republican party, or resolutely embrace them. My suspicion and my hope is that it will be the former.
As a Minnesotan and Twin Cities resident, I am more than typically aware of the George Floyd murder, and the resultant fallout. As I write this, my home county in the southeastern suburbs of the Twin Cities is under curfew.
The original sin of American racism won't go away until middle class white people like me do the work to excise it from our country. I don't know yet how to make that happen.
But I aim to find out.
Update: Yep. Definitely a watershed.
The White House is under lockdown orders from the U.S. Secret Service due to protests outside the gates over George Floyd.
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) May 29, 2020
A dozen reporters, myself included, still inside the West Wing.
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