IRAQI POLITICS - 2021 Elections

Hay, Iraq has gerrymandering too.

"Iraqi protesters allege election corruption, vow to boycott polls" PBS NewsHour 10/9/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Iraq’s elections will be held on Sunday, but members of the country’s protest movement are already planning on boycotting the event.  They say that the election process is corrupt, with paramilitary wings of incumbent parties attacking opposition supporters.  With low turnout, the Shi’ite Cleric Moqtada Al Sadr’s party is expected to win a large share of seats and possibly control of the government.  Special Correspondent Simona Foltyn reports.

AGAIN! - The Killing of Daunte Wright

"Minnesota enforces curfew, deploys National Guard after new police shooting sparks protest" PBS NewsHour 4/12/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin went into a third week of testimony Monday, a police killing of a motorist in a neighboring community has once again left the region reeling.  Amna Nawaz speaks with Lisa Clemons of A Mother's Love Initiative and Campaign Zero's Sam Sinyangwe about the community's reaction.

 

 

"Minnesota on edge following the police killing of Daunte Wright" PBS NewsHour 4/13/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The death of George Floyd and the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin has kept the state of Minnesota in the national spotlight.  Now the death of Daunte Wright near Minneapolis has led to new protests and opened long-standing wounds over policing and race.  Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports.

RUSSIA - Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny

"Calls for mass protests in Russia after opposition leader is sentenced to prison" PBS NewsHour 2/2/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A court on Tuesday sentenced Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to more than two years in prison.  Since his return from Germany last month after an assassination attempt in Russia, tens of thousands have taking to the street to protest his detention.  Special correspondent Stuart Smith reports from Moscow.

 

 

"U.S. and Russia agree to extend limits on nuclear arms" PBS NewsHour 2/3/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The U.S. and Russia on Wednesday extended the only remaining treaty that limits the deployment of nuclear weapons.  But did the agreement go far enough?  Rose Gottemoeller, a distinguished lecturer at Stanford University who served as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security during the Obama administration, joins Nick Schifrin to discuss the New START treaty.

TRUMP FUEL - The Promotion of Violent Imagery

"Trump employs images of violence as political fuel for reelection fight" by Michael Scherer, The Washington Post 9/8/2020

President Trump has reverted to using graphic depictions of violence as a centerpiece of his reelection campaign strategy, using his Twitter account, his stump speech and even the White House podium as platforms for amplifying domestic conflict.

His 2016 focus on radical Islamist terrorism and undocumented-immigrant crime, which he credited with helping him win the Republican nomination, has been replaced by warnings of new threats as he elevates gruesome images of Black-on-White crime, street fights involving his supporters and police-misconduct unrest nationwide.

The pattern continued over the holiday weekend, when he tweeted video of a melee in Texas between protesters and security officers during an event for a Trump-affiliated group and two celebratory videos of a protester in Portland, Ore., with his feet on fire.  One of the videos was scored to the Kenny Loggins song “Footloose,” and the second featured mocking play-by-play commentary by a mixed-martial-arts announcer.

“These are the Democrats ‘peaceful protests,’?” Trump wrote.  “Sick!”  On Monday, he retweeted a prediction that political unrest “could lead to ‘rise of citizen militias around the country.’?”

The strategy echoes the approach that fueled his climb in politics as he shocked the political world with graphic warnings about “rapists” crossing the border illegally from Mexico, welcomed the families of crime victims to speak at his events and said he favored instructing the military to target the families of Islamist extremists, a probable war crime.  He also repeatedly encouraged assaults on protesters at his events.

In each case, the unprecedented focus on violence by a high-profile American politician allowed Trump to attract attention, turning his rallies into unpredictable and raucous affairs that were widely viewed.  It also set the stage for Trump to establish his political persona as a strongman itching to dominate threats foreign and domestic.

Nearly four years after winning that race, Trump is making the same argument, albeit about different dangers, using the specter of violence amid Black Lives Matter protests to claim superior toughness and promising forceful resolution if given the chance.

“These people only know one thing, and that is strength,” he said Wednesday in Wilmington, N.C., of violent street protests in Oregon and Wisconsin.  “That’s all they know — strength.  And we have strength.”

On Monday, Trump retweeted footage of Black protesters in Pittsburgh screaming at White outdoor diners, drinking from their glasses and knocking over their dishes during a protest over the weekend.

“Disgraceful.  Never seen anything like it.  Thugs!” Trump wrote.  “And because of weak and pathetic Democrat leadership, this thuggery is happening in other Democrat run cities and states.  Must shut them down fast.”

Amid a pandemic that has killed more than 186,000 Americans, the jarring political gambit has shifted the focus of the Presidential campaign, forcing Trump’s Democratic opponent, former vice President Joe Biden, to air an ad, titled “Be Not Afraid,” [video link] focused on his own opposition to the recent violence in Oregon and Wisconsin.

“The President is on offense, and that is always a good thing,” said Roger Stone, a former Trump political adviser who received a presidential commutation after seven felony convictions this summer.  “The law-and-order issue really motivates the President’s base, and it also appeals to independents.”

Although Trump has received no big boosts in polling, he unapologetically promoted a video last week of his supporters attacking protesters in Portland, later arguing at the White House that their firing of paintball guns and pepper spray in city streets from the back of pickup trucks was “defensive.”  On Twitter, he said the conflict was a logical response to provocation by liberals.

“The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected,” Trump wrote in a tweet that included a video of the incident.

He also has returned to using his Twitter account to broadcast falsehoods that perpetuate racial conflict.  For the third time this summer, on Aug. 30 he retweeted a video of a Black man brutally attacking a White person, this time with a caption falsely suggesting that the assailant in a New York subway assault in 2019 was connected to Black Lives Matter or antifa.

The posts echo a 2015 Trump retweet that showed a picture of a Black man with a gun and falsely claimed that Black people commit a majority of homicides against White people, a racist trope for which he never apologized.  The White House argued this month, as Trump did in 2015, that he was not responsible for the accuracy of his retweets.

Politically motivated street fights have become more common during his presidency.  Conflicts at protests have led to injuries in recent weeks in places such as Kalamazoo, Mich.; Bloomington, Ind.; and Weatherford, Tex., as protesters of police misconduct have clashed with counterprotesters who are sometimes dressed in Trump-branded apparel and claim to be helping to keep the peace.  In one case, a gun-wielding Trump supporter in Kenosha, Wis., was charged with murder after allegedly killing two protesters and injuring a third.  (A supporter of a far-right group was fatally shot during a counterprotest by Trump backers in Portland last month.  The suspect, a backer of the far-left antifa movement, was killed by law enforcement Thursday.)

In the face of this violence, Trump has condemned the actions of left-wing rioters but declined to condemn violence by his supporters, even as he falsely claims that Biden is refusing to denounce violence on the left.

“I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point,” Trump said last year in an interview with Breitbart News when asked about fights over free speech on college campuses.  “And then it would be very bad, very bad.”

From his start in politics, Trump has brushed aside the idea that he has a responsibility for any violence that results from his campaign style.  When a reporter asked in 2015 whether he was concerned that his rhetoric against protesters and immigrants might lead to additional violence in American streets, he recoiled at the question.

“People are getting hurt.  People are being decimated by illegal immigrants.  The crime is unbelievable,” he said, an argument belied by statistics.  “Now in my way, I don’t want anybody hurt.  But people are being hurt.  So when you ask that question, it’s very unfair.”

His answer was notable for its zero-sum view: Suffering in the country was inevitable — the question was who suffered more.

Trump’s return to focusing on violent threats and conflict follows summer months in which he appeared politically adrift as the coronavirus pandemic overtook the nation, infecting at least 6.2 million people and dampening the economy.

He initially wavered about whether to focus campaign advertising on touting his pandemic response or on attacking his opponent, before eventually launching attacks on Biden’s ties to China, his mental acuity and his policy positions.  Biden’s polling advantage widened.

When nationwide protests against police misconduct led to violence this summer, Trump’s strategy shifted again.  A July 9 set of talking points distributed around the White House by Stephen Miller, an adviser who wrote Trump’s 2016 nomination speech, previewed the message that Trump would settle on for the final push to the Republican National Convention.

The solution Miller described, which Trump soon incorporated into his rhetoric and advertising, was to portray Biden as a fundamental threat to public safety.  “No one will be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” the document read.  The Democratic nominee, Miller’s document continued, “will surrender America and its citizens to the violent left-wing mob” and “abolish the American Way of Life.”

The shift sought to rehabilitate Trump’s political message of dominance and turn the discussion away from the pandemic, which public polling showed had become a drag on the President’s support.

“You can’t really tell people that there is no COVID crisis, because they are surrounded by it.  The only thing you can do is make something else louder,” said Matthew Baum, a political scientist at Harvard University who studies political persuasion and misinformation.  “You don’t have to persuade people.  All you have to do is say: ‘Don’t look over there.  Look over here.’?”

Biden has argued that Trump is trying to distract Americans from his inability to better address the health, economic and race-relations crises facing the nation.

Trump’s message is, “?‘The whole country is up in flames.  Everything is burning.  Law and order,’ ” Biden said Friday at a news conference in Wilmington, Del., “because he doesn’t want to talk about anything, anything at all, about the job he hasn’t done.”

Biden has mocked Trump’s effort to cast him as responsible for any street violence, no matter the alleged perpetrator.

“Ask yourself: Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?” Biden asked during a speech on Aug. 31 in Pittsburgh.  “I want a safe America — safe from COVID, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops.  Let me be crystal clear — safe from four more years of Donald Trump.”

Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said the President is focused on helping communities affected by the violence.  “These riots are destroying the life’s work of Black, Hispanic and Asian business owners, and they have to stop,” he said.

Expressions advocating violence were central to Trump’s early political endeavors.

“I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you,” Trump said about a protester at an event in Las Vegas.  When a nonviolent Black protester was beaten at a rally in Birmingham, Ala., by a White crowd, Trump responded the next day, “Maybe he should have been roughed up.”

He argued repeatedly at rallies for the extrajudicial abuse or even killing of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who had left his post in Afghanistan.  “Thirty years ago, he would have been shot,” Trump said.  At another event, he said of Bergdahl’s capture by the Taliban, “They beat the crap out of him, which is fine.”

Rather than recoil, his crowds embraced the tough talk, and Trump has delivered more as President.  After Greg Gianforte, then a Montana congressional candidate, physically attacked a reporter in 2017, Trump turned the incident into an applause line.  “Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my type!” the President said.

When Trump addressed a law enforcement group in 2017 on Long Island he urged incaution in policing.

“When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon,” he said, “you just see them thrown in, rough.  I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice.’?”

The new threat Trump has focused on is depicted as no less ominous than his previous targets — and it is similarly inflated with rhetoric that mixes descriptions of actual events with conspiracy theories for which he offers no evidence.  In recent days, he has described “rioters, anarchists, agitators and looters” who he claimed in a Fox News interview, without evidence, have been traveling the country in commercial planes to create havoc, funded by “people you have never heard of” who operate in “dark shadows.”

He also has tried to adjust the historical record by claiming federal actions he instigated have proved that his solution of physical toughness and law enforcement domination is responsible for clearing streets of violent protesters.  On a visit to Kenosha, he claimed that his push to deploy the National Guard saved the city from further rioting after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man.

“If I didn’t INSIST on having the National Guard activate and go into Kenosha, Wisconsin, there would be no Kenosha right now,” Trump tweeted last week.  Federal officials did work with local law enforcement in quelling the protests, but Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) had ordered the Guard to the city a day before Trump’s public call for their deployment.

Pollsters have noted a shift in polling around the Black Lives Matter movement, which was initially broad and bipartisan in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May.  Support for the movement in Wisconsin, according to a Marquette University Law School poll, fell from 59 percent to 49 percent between June and August.

But national polls continue to show that Biden leads Trump on questions of which candidate would make the country safer.  A recent national Quinnipiac University poll found that 50 percent of likely voters said Trump made them feel less safe, compared with 35 percent who said he made them feel more safe.

By contrast, 42 percent of voters said Biden would make them feel more safe as President, compared with 40 percent who said they would feel less safe.

JUSTICE IN AMERICA - Killing of Breonna Taylor

"No officers have been charged in the killing of Breonna Taylor.  Will they?" PBS NewsHour 7/23/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Weeks before George Floyd's death fueled national protests over racism and police violence, the killing of Breonna Taylor sparked outrage in Louisville, Kentucky.  Her case has now become a national touch point for protesters, who often chant, “say her name.”  As John Yang reports, the city of Louisville’s response to the incident, in which police shot Taylor to death, is a flashpoint all its own.

PORTLAND OREGON - Trump's Police State a Reality

"Portland Protests Grow Despite Violent Crackdown from Militarized Federal Agents & Local Police" by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! 7/21/2020

Heavily armed federal officers without name tags have carried out nightly attacks on antiracist demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, and snatched people off the streets into unmarked vans, sparking widespread outrage.  “What we’ve seen is a continuous escalation in violence against our protesters,” says Lilith Sinclair, an Afro-Indigenous local organizer in Portland.  They note the federal violence follows many years of “severe police brutality” from local police.  “It’s left the people of Portland not only worried about their safety, but, even more so, justified in the fight that we’re engaged in.”

AMY GOODMAN:  We begin today’s show in Portland, Oregon, where militarized federal officers continued their nightly attacks on antiracist protesters Monday, shooting gas and projectiles at demonstrators outside Portland’s courthouse, in a scene that’s become all too familiar in recent weeks:  camouflaged U.S. agents deployed by the Department of Homeland Security waging a campaign of violence against largely peaceful demonstrations in Oregon.

The harrowing scene in Portland has drawn increased outrage in recent days, with Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden demanding federal forces be removed from the streets, and an investigation into reports that unidentified federal officers have snatched protesters off the streets into unmarked vans and detained them.

On Saturday, Navy veteran Christopher David, who went to the site of the protests to question the officers about their use of violence, was hospitalized with his right hand broken in two places after the officers beat and pepper-sprayed him.

On Monday, Trump praised the use of unmarked cars and unidentified officers against the antiracist protesters and vowed to deploy law enforcement agents to more U.S. cities.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:  We’re going to have more federal law enforcement.  That, I can tell you.  In Portland, they’ve done a fantastic job.  They’ve been there three days, and they really have done a fantastic job in a very short period of time.  No problem.  They grab 'em, a lot of people in jail.  They're leaders.  These are anarchists.  These are not protesters.  People say “protesters.” These people are anarchists.  These are people that hate our country.  And we’re not going to let it go forward.

AMY GOODMAN:  Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli echoed Trump’s comments on CNN Monday.

KEN CUCCINELLI:  We backed up the Federal Protective Service, which is responsible for protecting the courthouse there and other federal buildings, with other DHS law enforcement components.  And that — and we’ve been there ever since, wearing, by the way, the very same uniforms every day, and the crowd has seen them every day.  … If we get the same kind of intelligence in other places about threats to other federal facilities or officers, we would respond the same way.

AMY GOODMAN:  But protesters in Portland say they won’t be deterred.  This weekend, a group of mothers joined, formed what they called a “wall of moms” outside the federal courthouse to shield protesters.  This is one of the mothers.

PROTESTING MOTHER:  Their actions are terrifying.  I mean, we, as a democracy, we need to stand up.  I am 60 years old.  I probably shouldn’t be here in public.  But this is beyond acceptable.

AMY GOODMAN:  For more, we go to Portland, Oregon, where we’re joined by Lilith Sinclair, an Afro-Indigenous organizer, along with an ASL interpreter.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Lilith, if you can start off by describing these last 50 days, why you’re out in the streets protesting, and what has been the response by not only the state but these federal officers that have not been — unclear who they are?

LILITH SINCLAIR:  Thank you so much, Amy, I want to say first, for having us here and for helping us to provide accessibility to this interview, which is something that we’ve been really focusing on in Portland for the last 50 days, starting on day one and staring two years ago.

It’s hard to encompass the depth of what we’ve experienced in the streets here in Portland.  This movement originally started with a single Black mom coming out to the streets and leading the call for an occupation here in Portland on the federal court steps to demand change.  And what that has swelled into is a movement, thousands and thousands strong, that has really proven to unite so many of our people here.

What we’ve seen is a continuous escalation in violence against our protesters.  But something that is important for us to understand is that here in Portland we’ve been facing severe police brutality, even from our local police force, for years, years, years and decades.  The movement that we have right now, what is happening in response to, as you mentioned, an international, really, uprising against police brutality, racism and, I would say, even more than that, against oppressive structures, because this isn’t just a movement about police brutality.

And so, what we’ve been experiencing is a solid escalation.  It started out with, as per usual, our local Portland Police Bureau engaging in a lot of not only intimidation tactics, but violent brutality against our protesters.  We’ve had officers that have been deploying flashbangs after flashbangs after flashbangs, while simultaneously deploying CS gas and other munitions, tear gas and all of these different types of pepper spray bullets and new things that we actually haven’t even seen, once the federal government has come in.  But this has been a long-term engagement with a militarized police force.  And it’s important for us to recognize that the federal occupation has escalated it, especially because of the rhetoric that we’re seeing from those who hold office.  But what we’re noticing is that the violence, as per usual, is continuing to rise.

We’re seeing these disappearances.  I think it’s important to note that these unmarked cars that are going around in the street are unmarked rental vehicles.  They are full of men in uniforms, no badges, no IDs.  They refuse to even answer the question of “Are you or are you not law enforcement?”  And it’s left the people of Portland not only worried about their safety, but, even more so, justified in the fight that we’re engaged in — a recognition that especially during an international global health pandemic, as you talked about these numbers rising and the continued push of normalcy in the midst of all of this, especially from not just Republicans but also Democrats, too, who are continuing to hold this pressure to reopen, like here in Oregon, where we created the new reopening and then saw people now, weeks later, experiencing higher rates in cases, being once again laid off from their jobs, being once again failed by the unemployment system.

And what’s happening in Portland is what’s happening all across the country.  The people have a moment to understand and truly see the failures of this capitalist, white supremacist system, because they have nothing but time on their hands.  And so, what we understand is that the movement continuing to go forward is only swelling.  It’s why we see moms coming out to line up a wall.  That was followed up last night with the dad bloc, a lot of amazing, amazing folks that came downtown last night after watching people get brutalized on a nightly basis.

We are spending our nights in terror.  We can’t sleep on one side of the city or the other due to the flashbangs, due to the tear gas across the entire city.  It’s affecting our houseless communities.  It’s affecting our neighborhoods.  And it’s gone unaddressed by both our state officials and also our local officials here in Portland, with nothing but well-meaning words, which is only further causing a very rightful sense of frustration, anger and a need for justice from the people here.  It’s why we see these things continuing to grow.

AMY GOODMAN:  So, Lilith Sinclair, can you talk about what you’re referring to, the elected officials?  You have everyone from the state attorney general to the two senators, the governor.  This is Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler criticizing Trump for deploying federal troops on the streets of Portland.

MAYOR TED WHEELER:  President Trump has used our city as a staging ground to further his political agenda, igniting his base to cause further divisiveness, and, in doing so, endangering Portlanders.  President Trump has gone so far, is vowing that federal law enforcement will, quote, “dominate,” unquote, protesters and mobilize federal agencies to operate in cities.  This is an explicit abuse of power and places federal officers and Oregonians in danger.

AMY GOODMAN:  That’s Portland mayor and police chief [sic] Ted Wheeler.  That might surprise some people that he occupies both positions.  But, Lilith, can you talk more about what the elected officials are saying, your agreement with them in this particular case, but disagreements with them in others?  The significance of them leading this charge, which now mayors are picking up all over the country, saying to Trump, “Do not send federal officers here”?

LILITH SINCLAIR:  Yeah.  So, I do want to make a slight correction, just because I heard you say “chief.”  And Mayor Ted Wheeler is our police commissioner and also our mayor.

So, I’d like to break down a couple of things, actually.  Thank you so much for that fantastic question.  I think one of the most important things to understand is that our mayor here in Portland, Ted Wheeler, has one of the best PR teams — and simultaneously the worst PR teams — because as much as we can play the words that were just shared here on the broadcast today, it’s important to understand that, for instance, something that made national headlines this month was when federal officers fired at a protester holding a speaker over his head, clearly unarmed.  That man is — sorry, it’s a little bit hard to handle because it made international news for our federal military officers to shoot an unarmed protester in the head and cause severe damage and hospitalization in that way.  However, it’s important to note that a year ago, during protesting against white supremacy, which is really, really, really, really, really present here in Portland, as a city within a state that was founded on a history of white supremacy and genocide — and what we know to be true is that even a year ago, when we were protesting white supremacy, our local Portland Police Bureau officers were firing flashbang grenades at point-blank range.  They actually hit a protester, wearing a very thick helmet, directly in the back of the head with a grenade.  It concaved both their helmet and also resulted in very severe skull fractures.  If they weren’t wearing a helmet, there’s almost no doubt that they wouldn’t be alive with us today.

And something that is important for us to understand is that Ted Wheeler is not leading the charge to anything except for his reelection campaign.  What we know is that we’ve been fighting for steps forward in regards to change around policing for years, in regards to the union police contract that we’ve been discussing here in Portland, that our mayor has been dragging his feet on for weeks — or for, I should say, years, in tandem with so many of our city officials, who I and others have had the opportunity to meet with.

And, you know, I think that something that’s the most poignant about it all is something that Ted Wheeler told a group of us as we literally cried, cried and yelled and expressed our frustrations in the Rose Room of City Hall, about the tear gas, which is an abortifacient, which affects all of our community members, which is destroying the lives of our houseless members and our neighbors and residents in the middle of a global health pandemic.  And Ted Wheeler’s response was to announce that they were considering doing an investigation.  And when we asked him when or how long that would take, he told us that there were no decisions on this yet, despite the fact that the day before, the Seattle mayor had actually already declared that she was going to be halting tear gas use by her police force.  And Ted, as the police commissioner, with the ability to do so, told us that he would not do so.  And he told us that he hasn’t gotten tear-gassed because he doesn’t want to.  And so, the recognition is that there is a disconnect.  We can’t look a politician in the face who says that he hasn’t gotten tear-gassed because he doesn’t want to, as though the millions of people across the world getting tear-gassed fighting for our rights and our safety and security don’t want to get tear-gassed, either.

And that is — that sort of inaction has been really evident all the way up the chain in regards to what Kate Brown has done about, for instance, perhaps pardoning prisoners in a state where we held for the longest time the, quote-unquote, “right” to process prisoners with nonunanimous juries.  That’s recently been overturned by the Supreme Court, and yet we still have prisoners that are sitting across Oregon jails and prisons that have been convicted with nonunanimous juries, wasting away, at risk of death of COVID.

And so, it’s an intersectional issue that we know is not centered on the police only, but when we talk about the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s important that we understand we’re talking about an intersectional movement that’s focusing on not just stopping the police from killing us, but stopping the entire system from killing us, whether that means a lack of access for the disability community, who also is Black; for members of the trans and queer community, who are also Black and are experiencing these things; houseless people, who are also Black; women, who are significantly underbelieved and at risk of death by our health system.  The issues are myriad and multiplied.  And the root of all of these issues, that we know to be true, is that all of this is based on the same colonialism, genocide, capitalism and white supremacy that is the foundation that this country was built on.

And here in Portland, we’re really making sure that we’re prioritizing education.  We’re prioritizing history.  We’re prioritizing teaching our people how to take care of one another.  And I think that that’s why it’s been so frustrating to consider what it is that our elected officials are or are not doing, because no matter what steps they take forward within — in regards to reform inside a system that is already broken and crumbling, we know that these, no matter what, are not steps that will save us.  And instead, we need abolitionist steps forward, fighting for the abolition of the police department, the militarized police, looking for the demilitarization and defunding of the entire U.S. military budget, understanding that we also mean abolition of the prison system and abolition of ableist, white supremacist, homophobic, transphobic and all these other oppressive systems that are all combined together, including anti-Semitism and all of these other things.

AMY GOODMAN:  Lilith Sinclair, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Afro-Indigenous local organizer in Portland, Oregon.

When we come back, we’ll look at the legal battle to protect protesters and remove the federal agents from Portland streets.  Stay with us.

OUTRAGE - Police Brutality and Trump Police State

"Death of George Floyd drives protests across the U.S. — and beyond" PBS NewsHour 6/1/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Cities across the U.S. are bracing for unrest as protests continue.  Outrage over police killings of black victims, most recently that of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on Memorial Day, has fueled demonstrations, and in some cases, destruction.  In response, President Trump called for stricter policing, telling governors they must “dominate” protesters.  Yamiche Alcindor reports.

"A sheriff and a former mayor on hearing protesters while maintaining peace" PBS NewsHour 6/1/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Peaceful protests around the U.S. continue Monday night, but there will likely also be charged confrontations and more looting and destruction.  How can law enforcement defuse these fraught situations and minimize violence while acknowledging protesters’ voices?  Judy Woodruff talks to Sheriff Christopher Swanson of Genesee County, Michigan, and Michael Nutter former mayor of Philadelphia.

"Roxane Gay, Anna Deavere Smith, and Tay Anderson on the protests’ hope and despair" PBS NewsHour 6/1/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  For analysis of the deeper systemic issues that are underlying the country’s civic unrest, Judy Woodruff talks to Roxane Gay a noted essayist and author whose work frequently addresses issues of race, identity and privilege; Anna Deavere Smith, award-winning playwright and actor; and Tay Anderson, a Denver school board member and activist who has been leading protests in that city.

"Minneapolis’ long history of policing black and white communities differently" PBS NewsHour 6/1/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The problems with criminal justice in Minnesota’s Twin Cities extend beyond the George Floyd case.  Of the 100 largest metro areas in the country, Minneapolis’ income gap between black and white families is the second largest, at nearly $50,000, and the city has a long history of discriminatory housing practices.  Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on the context behind this crisis.

"A week into protests, political divide over the right response widens" PBS NewsHour 6/2/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The U.S. has now experienced a full week of protests over police treatment of black Americans.  The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has triggered widespread demonstrations, curfews and thousands of arrests.  National Guard troops have been called up in states across the country.  And President Trump’s rhetoric urging increased use of force is prompting more disagreement.  Amna Nawaz reports.

"Protests near White House grow, a day after police cleared people for Trump photo op" PBS NewsHour 6/2/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump has caused new controversy for his handling of a protest near the White House Monday night.  Police began clearing people out from a peaceful demonstration in Lafayette Square before the citywide curfew took effect, firing gas with no apparent provocation.  Trump then walked to St. John’s Episcopal Church for a photograph.  Yamiche Alcindor joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.

"Thune says peaceful protests should be allowed to continue" PBS NewsHour 6/2/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  With protests taking place in cities across the country, how should the federal government respond?  Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota joins Judy Woodruff to discuss President Trump’s rhetoric about the use of force, whether a peaceful protest near the White House Monday should have been interrupted as it was, the role of Congress in addressing racial unrest and federal pandemic aid.

"Bishop Budde on Trump’s ‘inflammatory’ rhetoric and how he can help the nation heal" PBS NewsHour 6/2/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde leads the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C.  That includes St. John's Church, across from the White House, which was partially burned during Sunday's unrest and the site of President Trump's Monday night photo op.  Budde joins Judy Woodruff to discuss Trump's "extremely inflammatory" remarks and federal law enforcement's violent confrontation with protesters.

"What happens when police officers see protesters as ‘the enemy’" PBS NewsHour 6/2/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Former senior military officials are criticizing Secretary of Defense Mark Esper for participating in a controversial photo op with President Trump, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley for walking through D.C. in his battle-dress uniform.  Nick Schifrin talks to John Yang, and then discusses the increasing militarization of police with Radley Balko, author of “Rise of the Warrior Cop.”

"Charges against police added, upgraded in Floyd case as protests continue" PBS NewsHour 6/3/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As protests over the death of George Floyd continue in cities nationwide, there were major developments Wednesday in the legal response to the case.  Derek Chauvin, the officer who pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck, is now charged with second-degree murder, while three other officers are accused of aiding and abetting a murder.  Lisa Desjardins reports.

"Amid protests and pandemic, this South Carolina mayor sees ‘collective pain’ emerge" PBS NewsHour 6/3/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Columbia, South Carolina’s capital, is among the many U.S. cities seeing protests and curfews over the past week.  Mayor Stephen Benjamin is the city’s first African American mayor, and he joins Judy Woodruff to discuss how he sees “collective pain” emerging during this tumultuous period, what his constituents are asking for and his fears about controlling the spread of COVID-19 amid protests.

"What’s behind racial disparities in American policing — and how to solve them" PBS NewsHour 6/3/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Widespread protests over George Floyd’s death and the treatment of black Americans by police more broadly have dominated the U.S. in recent days.  For analysis of the issues at the heart of the unrest, Amna Nawaz talks to Art Acevedo, Houston’s chief of police; Tracey Meares, professor and founder of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School; and Samuel Sinyangwe of the group Campaign Zero.

"The critical role white parents play in shaping racism — and eradicating it" PBS NewsHour 6/3/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Structural racism is now sharing the American cultural spotlight with COVID-19.  While solutions to racial disparities in police treatment, health care and education will likely require policy changes, some experts say decisions at the family and individual levels matter just as much.  Special correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault talks to Margaret Hagerman of Mississippi State University.

Clarification:  This report stated that the majority of Americans who have died of COVID-19 have been identified as African American.  The CDC reports that more white Americans have died of coronavirus, but race/ethnicity was available for only 42.3 percent of those tracked.  A recent study by the nonpartisan APM Research Lab shows that the latest overall COVID-19 mortality rate for black Americans is 2.4 times as high as the rate for whites and 2.2 times as high as the rate for Asians and Latinos.  A second national study by the AIDS research group amfAR found that half of all COVID-19 cases and nearly 60 percent of deaths due to the disease were in counties that are disproportionately black.

"Mourners remember George Floyd as Trump’s talk of using troops at protests draws pushback" PBS NewsHour 6/4/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Formal mourning began Thursday for George Floyd, the Minneapolis man whose death has touched off a torrent of national outrage.  While overnight protests were largely peaceful, President Trump is now facing a torrent of criticism over his talk of using the military to quell unrest.  John Yang reports.

"New York protesters say they want change from ‘daily fear’" PBS NewsHour 6/4/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In New York City, protesters were largely peaceful on Wednesday, but as nighttime fell, police in riot gear moved in to enforce a curfew -- sometimes by force.  The NewsHour’s Daniel Bush talks with Judy Woodruff about what protesters there are saying about why they are out in the streets and how leaders there are approaching the demonstrations.

"‘Armed forces exist to protect’ U.S., not police communities, retired general says" PBS NewsHour 6/4/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump's talk of using military force on people protesting police brutality against black Americans has generated a backlash among a number of former senior military officers.  Nick Schifrin gets perspective from retired Army Gen. Carter Ham on why these officials, as well as some who are currently serving, are wary of sending active-duty troops into the United States.

"How Newark’s protest preparations have helped maintain calm" PBS NewsHour 6/6/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  It has been more than 50 years since deadly riots in Newark, New Jersey broke out.  But protests taking place there this past week over George Floyd's death have been mostly peaceful.  Newark Mayor Ras Baraka joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss what the city has done to prepare for interactions between police and demonstrators, and how that's helped maintain relative calm.

"New York protests continue despite rain, pandemic and curfew" PBS NewsHour 6/6/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The threat of a pandemic did not keep New Yorkers home as protesters across the city took to the streets chanting “Black Lives Matter” calling for several police reforms.  Largely peaceful, several demonstrators defied the city’s 8 P.M. curfew.  Protests continued Saturday.  NewsHour Weekend’s Christopher Booker reports on what protesters would like to see changed.

"San Francisco may stop hiring cops with records of misconduct" PBS NewsHour 6/7/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The demand to reform police departments is causing some local governments to look at new regulations and laws.  In San Francisco, the board of supervisors is considering a resolution introduced last week that would urge the civil service commission there to prohibit hiring officers with a history of serious misconduct.  San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss.

A FRIGHTENED LITTLE MAN - Trump Tear-Gas Protesters

"Inside the push to tear-gas protesters ahead of a Trump photo op" by Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Rebecca Tan - The Washington Post 6/1/2020

President Trump began mulling a visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church on Monday morning, after spending the night devouring cable news coverage of protests across the country, including in front of the White House.

The historic church had been damaged by fire, and Trump was eager to show that the nation’s capital — and especially his own downtown swath of it — was under control.

There was just one problem: the throngs of protesters, who on Monday had again assembled peacefully in Lafayette Square across from the White House to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.

And so — shortly before the President addressed the nation from the Rose Garden at 6:43 p.m. Monday and roughly a half-hour before the District’s 7 p.m. curfew went into effect — authorities fired flash-bang shells, gas and rubber bullets into the crowd, clearing a path for Trump to visit the church immediately after his remarks.

The split screen as Trump began speaking was dark and foreboding — an angry leader proclaiming himself “an ally of all peaceful protesters” alongside smoke-filled mayhem and pandemonium as protesters raced for safety.

Before Trump vows to end ‘lawlessness,’ federal officers confront protesters outside White House.

The evening’s events were the product of a President who favors brute strength and fears looking weak, yet finds himself reeling from a duo of crises — a deadly pandemic that has left more than 100,000 Americans dead and racial unrest that has led to protests and riots across the nation.

He has also been consumed by his faltering poll numbers against former vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President.

When Trump had returned safely to the White House less than an hour later, the verdict seemed clear: The President had staged an elaborate photo op, using a Bible awkwardly held aloft as a prop and a historic church that has long welcomed Presidents and their families as a backdrop.

In the process, protesters had been tear gassed and attacked, and Trump had taken a raging conflagration and doused it with accelerant.

“We long ago lost sight of normal, but this was a singularly immoral act,” said Brendan Buck, a longtime former Hill aide who is now a Republican operative.  “The President used force against American citizens, not to protect property, but to soothe his own insecurities.  We will all move on to the next outrage, but this was a true abuse of power and should not be forgotten.”

Trump’s decision to speak to the nation from the Rose Garden and to visit the church came together earlier in the day, said one senior White House official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.  The President was upset about news coverage of him briefly retreating to the White House bunker Friday evening amid protests, and he repeatedly wondered why anyone would have disclosed those details to the news media, two officials said.

He was also frustrated by coverage this weekend of his call with the Floyd family, which he believed was positive — Trump called it “a very good call,” an official said — but was portrayed negatively.

Finally, Trump was angry at cable news footage from Sunday evening, showing protests and riots near the White House, a White House official said.  He spent much of Monday discussing with his team how to demonstrate the streets in Washington were under control and that there would not be riotous scenes in the coming days, the official said.

Inside the West Wing, aides were torn on the proposed spectacle.  One official argued it was necessary, allowing Trump to demonstrate that he was not hunkered down and was out of the White House, as well as standing with evangelical voters by visiting the church.  But two others worried it could backfire.

“It was just to win the news cycle,” one Trump adviser said.  “I’m not sure that things are any better for us tomorrow.”

Jason Miller, a former senior adviser on Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign, defended the President’s decision.  He said Trump was elected in part on law-and-order themes, which he needs to continue to hammer, while simultaneously talking to black supporters about some of his initiatives, such as criminal justice reform.

“You’re going to have to go and knock some of the bad guys around a little bit,” Miller said.  “Once they get tear gassed or pepper sprayed, they don't want it to happen again.”

He added that Trump had been reminded by allies that he was elected as a “get-things-done President.”

“He’s not the hand-holder or consoler in chief,” Miller said.  “He was elected to take bold dramatic action and that’s what he did.”

The action began less than an hour before the District’s curfew, and in the moments before Trump was set to speak.  Just after 6 p.m., hundreds of protesters were gathered on H Street NW, facing Lafayette Square.  Though members of the National Guard — wielding shields that said “Military Police” — were lined up behind barricades, along with Secret Service and other law enforcement officers, the protesters remained peaceful.  Several played music, and one painted on an easel.

But shortly thereafter, Attorney General William P. Barr visited the scene, and, about 6:30 p.m., the National Guard moved just yards from the protesters, prompting some screams.  Some protesters threw water bottles, but many simply stood with their arms raised.

Then, the chaos began.

Members of the National Guard knelt briefly to put on gas masks, before suddenly charging eastward down H street, pushing protesters down toward 17th Street.  Authorities shoved protesters down with their shields, fired rubber bullets directly at them, released tear gas and set off flash-bang shells in the middle of the crowd.

Protesters began running, many still with their hands up, shouting, “Don’t shoot.” Others were vomiting, coughing and crying.

As Trump began to speak, some protesters took a knee several blocks from the White House, again yelling, “Hands up!  Don’t shoot!”  But they were never able to stay kneeling for more than a couple of minutes, because authorities kept pushing them forward, as a thick, yellow cloud of smoke hung over the crowd.

About midway through his remarks, and roughly 10 minutes before the city’s curfew was set to go into effect, the President offered a stark warning: “Our 7 o’clock curfew will be strictly enforced.  Those who threaten innocent life and property will be arrested, detained, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Trump concluded by promising that the nation’s “greatest days lie ahead,” and then said, cryptically, “And now I’m going to pay my respects to a very, very special place.  Thank you very much.”

Accompanied by a small cadre of top advisers — including his daughter Ivanka Trump, clad in dark coronavirus mask — the President then made his way over to the church.

One White house official noted the lack of any black aides.  Vice President Pence, a leading administration official to Christian voters, was also conspicuously absent from the event at the church.

Trump seemed to take in the scene and paused in front of St. John’s, turning to the cameras and holding up a black Bible in his right hand.

Asked if it was a family Bible, he said, simply, “It’s a Bible.”

Soon after the church event, the President’s top law enforcement and military officials, including the secretary of defense, attorney general and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, walked across parts of downtown Washington in an unusual show of force.

Some local officials were livid.  D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser upbraided Trump on Twitter: “I imposed a curfew at 7pm.  A full 25 minutes before the curfew & w/o provocation, federal police used munitions on peaceful protesters in front of the White House, an act that will make the job of @DCPoliceDept officers more difficult.  Shameful!  DC residents — Go home.  Be safe.”

The Right Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, said she learned of the President’s visit by watching it on the news.

“I am outraged,” she said, with pauses emphasizing her anger as her voice slightly trembled.  “I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call that they would be clearing with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop, holding a Bible, one that declares that God is love and when everything he has said and done is to inflame violence.”

But Trump’s campaign team viewed the visit as a success.  By late Monday, campaign officials were already tweeting a black-and-white photo of him walking to the church with a coterie of aides in his wake.  Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s top spokesman, posted the picture without a caption.

As the curfew descended upon the nation’s capital, the scene had calmed down significantly.  Trump returned to the White House, and the groups of hundreds of protesters began dispersing.

Helicopters could be heard overhead all over the city Monday night, and officials said the streets were far emptier than usual.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 4/24/2020

"Shields and Brooks on Trump’s briefings, coronavirus aid" PBS NewsHour 4/24/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including President Trump’s controversial medical commentary, the respective roles of federal and state governments in the crisis, American public opinion on pandemic restrictions, congressional pandemic relief and how they’re handling social distancing.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  And now we turn to the analysis of Shields and Brooks.  That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

So, all three of us are at our homes.  It's great to see both you, Mark, and you, David, staying safe.

Let's start with President Trump's decision to turn over to the governors the decision about whether and when to open up.

Mark, we have seen the state of Georgia, other states moving quickly to reverse the stay-at-home orders.  There are questions being raised about whether it's too early.  The President himself at point — backing down on his support for this.

How do you read all this?

Mark Shields, syndicated columnist:  It's — you have to watch it closely, Judy.

I mean, last — just last weekend, the President was in bold type tweeting out, liberate Minnesota, liberate Michigan, liberate Virginia, to put pressure on Democratic governors there to lift the bans and lift the quarantine.

So Kemp, the governor of Georgia, who was the last in the country to impose stay-at-home rules, wants to be the first to lift them, and thought he had a green light from the President, I guess.

But the President doesn't forget the fact that, while he is a loyal supporter of Mr. Kemp's, it's an off-and-on thing, because Kemp, if you will recall, just at a petty political point, instead of appointing to Johnny Isakson's vacancy in the United States Senate Doug Collins, the congressman from Georgia who had been so close to the President, he appointed Kelly Loeffler.

And, all of a sudden, Donald Trump, the President, was told, according to reports from CNN, by — both by Anthony Fauci, Dr. Anthony Fauci, that he could not support and wouldn't defend the lifting of the quarantine in Georgia, so he backed off.

And it appears to be a cynical political ploy, with the following formula: For anything that improves the economy, the President gets credit.  For any increase in the pandemic, in incidents of disease and death, that has been the decision of the governor.

Judy Woodruff:  And so, David, I mean, the President, by doing this, is passing on responsibility to the governors, for better or worse.

David Brooks, New York Times:  Yes, and I'm happy about it.  I don't want life-or-death decisions made by a guy who thinks this can be solved by drinking disinfectant.  So, if you can get it out of the White House, we're getting it into safer and better hands.

There's like division of powers here.  The federal government is there to dole out money and to organize some of the testing and things like that.  And so far, it's doing a reasonably good job of doling out a lot of money.

But the states are there to make the decisions about their own states.  If you had people in Wyoming deciding — thinking that Washington was going to determine their life or death, they'd rebel against Washington.  If you had a lot of progressive areas thinking that Donald Trump was going to determine life-or-death decisions, they would rebel against Donald Trump.

So, I think it's just much better to be doing this on the local level.

The one final thing I will say, we tend to gin up conflict.  But, in this, I think we're overstating how much conflict there is in America.  Americans, considered how polarized, we're amazingly united right now; 98 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of Republicans support the social distancing; 90 percent of Americans, complete bipartisan consensus, believe that, if we loosened too much, there'd be a second wave; 76 percent of Americans say, even if their governor did loosen, they wouldn't go out.

And so, to me, the big story here is that we're sort of hanging together through this.

Judy Woodruff:  Evidently so, if you believe those polls.

But, Mark, going back to what David mentioned a moment ago, and that is the President's statement yesterday about injecting ultraviolet light or disinfectant into ourselves, I mean, today, the White House was saying that was just a joke, they didn't mean it.

But there have been other statements that he's made about endorsing this anti-malaria drug that the experts are saying cannot be relied on.

What are the American people to make of all this?

Mark Shields:  Well, Judy, I think maybe the most unreported story of the week was Piers Morgan, the British television journalist, who is a friend of the President, one of the 47 people on Twitter the President has access to — he has given three interviews to British television all his presidency, all three to Piers Morgan.

And Piers Morgan went public and said what an awful lot of Trump supporters and critics have been saying.  And that is, Mr. President, you're really hurting yourself in these television talk — daily conferences, that you're coming across as self-aggrandizing, as self-interested, as really not a leader, concerned more, basically, about your own reelection than you are about the health and well-being of the people who elected you.

And I really think that crystallized the criticism.  A number of Republicans have followed.  And I think you will see the President backing off.

Yesterday's performance was the worst.  I mean, to say Lysol is a possibility for inhalation sarcastically, he's not Will Rogers.  He's not Jerry Seinfeld.  He's not a man known for his sense of humor.

It wasn't sarcasm.  It was just Donald Trump being absolutely reckless and irresponsible.  And I think the quick — they have seen his numbers drop, and I think the daily press conference has been the principal contributing factor to it.

Judy Woodruff:  And, David, just in the last hour, the White House has let it be known that they are now going to be cutting short these daily briefings, some of which have gone on for two hours and longer.

So I mean, how much, in the end, does it matter what the President is saying at a time like this?  Are the American people — how much do they need to hear from their political leader, and how much do they need to hear from medical experts?

David Brooks:  They need medical experts.

It's a morale destroyer.  It's tough on morale.  It's a drain on all of us.  And even the Trump supporters feel drained by his foolery.

But I don't think it's really damaged the way people act.  A funny thing has happened, I noticed, in my local grocery store.  Like a month ago, maybe 5 percent of the people were wearing masks.  Then it was 30 percent.  And then it suddenly flipped, and it was 70 percent.

And starting two weeks ago, if you weren't wearing a mask, even before the law came down, people spoke to you and said, you need to get a mask.

And so what that shows to me is a community setting new norms, setting new moral standards, having new expectations of how we should protect one another.

And when I see a community acting as one, like in the grocery store, and we all see it, then you see a community that's basically healthy, that — where people are — understand the obligations they have to each other.  And that was not automatic going into this.

Most plagues, that's not how people behave.  So, I think it hurts our morale, what Trump does.  But I wouldn't say it's destroyed it.

Judy Woodruff:  Interesting, what you say about, you see people at the grocery store.  We're seeing much this the same thing.

David — I mean, Mark, I want to quickly come to what Congress was able to do this week.  And that is in passing legislation to provide more support for small businesses, some of it for hospitals and others.

How much difference is this aid going to make?  How much more is going to be needed?  We're already seeing worry about the size of the deficit, of the debt the country is going to owe when all this is over.

Where does the argument land there?

Mark Shields:  I don't know how much difference it's going to make.

I will say this, Judy.  The immortal Dante, as FDR referred to him, weighs the sins of the cold-hearted and the sins of the warm-hearted on a different scale.  In other words, this is reaching out to people who had not — who had been left out of the first aid to minorities, to women, to small — really small businesses, not publicly traded companies, which hundreds of millions of dollars of small business aid went to, to hospitals, the people who are on the front line and dealing with this terrible tragedy every day.

And, you know, to me, it showed an awareness and an understanding.  I don't think anybody understands the gravity economically.  It's going to be — it is enormous.  It will be enormous.

But, right now, what we have seen is sort of a bait and switch on the part of Republicans, who said, oh, you can do the aid to local cities and states in the next one, said Kevin McCarthy, the Republican House leader.

Judy Woodruff:  Right.

Mark Shields:  And now Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, says there will be no next one.

Judy Woodruff:  Right.

So, David, just in a few words, how much is the worry about the debt, the deficit, going to be part of this going forward, as people are hurting?

David Brooks:  Yes, I don't think it should be.

In wartime, even fiscal conservatives believe in spending.  They have done a good thing.  This paycheck protection act for small businesses, it's impressive how much money they have gotten out the door.

There's somebody in the Small Business Administration who is probably working 18-hour days.  A lot of people are probably working days to get that much money.

I have sort of been impressed by how much they have gotten out the door, the money for testing.  They're bickering, but they did something good this week.  They spent hundreds of billions of dollars.  And they passed a very complicated piece of legislation on a bipartisan basis.

It's funny to me that the members of Congress, even when they do something good, they can't take a victory lap.  They're so used to just bickering and bickering and bickering.

Judy Woodruff:  In just about 45 seconds we have left, I want to ask each of you how you're doing, staying at home all the time, or almost all the time.

Mark, how is it going?

Mark Shields:  Well, Judy, I'm rereading Tolstoy for the third time.

And — no, I'm not.

(LAUGHTER)

Mark Shields:  I have rearranged my sock drawer.

And I'm doing fine.  I have got a wonderful roommate.  And I have had the same one for half-a-century.  And I'm just finding new and wonderful things about her every day.

Judy Woodruff:  Pretty great roommate.  We know Anne Shields.

David, what about you?  How are you holding up?  How are you doing?

David Brooks:  Yes, I'm blessed.

I have got a good, fine group of people here in my little forged family.  And I'm playing my son in ping-pong ferociously, and I'm hoping to develop a backhand by the end of this.

So there are little blessings amid the great worry that we're all going through.  But there are little blessings, even in these days, with family.

Judy Woodruff:  I feel the same way.  So much more to be grateful for than the other way around.

Well, we're grateful to the two of you.

David Brooks, Mark Shields, thank you, and please stay safe.

Mark Shields:  Thank you, Judy.