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MORNING MESSAGE

Adrienne Evans

Reparations Are A Step In The Right Direction

Today is Juneteenth, the day we celebrate – and as a nation, we must celebrate – the emancipation of African-Americans enslaved by the white colonists of North America and their descendants. It’s also the day Congress will open hearings “to address the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States.”
As a white woman in Idaho, which has become a hotbed for modern white supremacy, I think it’s high time we talk about reparations. As a nation, it’s the least we can do. And as a member of People’s Action, I believe we can repair our history – and am committed to ending the racial inequality that has shaped this country and divided us from one another. Investments to undo institutions that perpetuate racism and unequal access to opportunity in the 21st century would go a long way toward acknowledging the systemic nature of oppression, and begin the overdue process of atonement. We want everybody in, nobody out. And while reparations are just a step towards a future for our nation that will finally free, for all, from the shackles of the past, they’re a step in the right direction.

Trump Refuses To Apologize To Central Park Five

Trump refuses to apologise for demanding Central Park Five be executed: 'They admitted their guilt'. The Independent: "Donald Trump has refused to apologise for saying the Central Park Five should be executed, 17 years after they were exonerated with DNA evidence. The president was asked about the case on Tuesday, in light of Ava DuVernay’s four-part Netflix series about the 1989 case. 'You have people on both sides of that. They admitted their guilt,' Mr Trump said after a reporter asked him whether he would apologise to the five men. Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise, five black and Latino teenagers, were convicted of attacking 28-year-old white female jogger Trisha Meili, who was raped and beaten almost to death during a run in Central Park on 19 April, 1989. Authorities vacated their convictions in 2002, after convicted murderer and serial rapist Matias Reyes confessed to the attack and said he had committed it alone. DNA evidence backed up his confession."

Trump's Threat Of Mass Deportations

What you need to know about Trump's mass deportations threat. The Intercept: "President Donald Trump took a moment on Monday to send shockwaves through immigrant communities with a threat meant to rally his base — but one that is not actually logistically possible. 'Next week ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States,' he tweeted. “They will be removed as fast as they come in.” An administration official later told the Associated Press that the effort would target people who have received final orders of deportation. There are more than 1 million people living in the United States with final deportation orders, among an undocumented population of about 11 million. Adonia Simpson, the director of the Family Defense Program at the Miami-based Americans for Immigrant Justice, describes people with final deportation orders as the “lowest hanging fruit' of the immigration system. 'The easiest population to go after would be individuals that have final orders of removal and are perhaps going to check in at their local ICE offices,' she said."

Poor People's Campaign Calls For 'Moral Budget'

How to raise $9 trillion for working-class people without really trying. ThinkProgress: "The 'Moral Budget' underlying a Wednesday hearing on Capitol Hill is both a plan for the future and a map of how democratic societies came to be in such bad shape in 2019. Elected officials are calling faith leaders and social workers to Capitol Hill to talk about how the U.S. might begin helping the poor. It’s true: House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-KY) is bringing leaders from the Poor People’s Campaign to testify about what’s gone wrong in America, and how it might be righted. Revs. William Barber II and Liz Theoharis will sit alongside a half-dozen other likeminded invitees to lay out their ideas about how the devastating effect of years of compounding income inequality can be reversed — if only lawmakers want to do it."

Tax Cut For Poor Boosts Billionaires

One Trump tax cut was meant to help the poor. A billionaire ended up winning big. ProPublica: "Under a six-lane span of freeway leading into downtown Baltimore sit what may be the most valuable parking spaces in America. Lying near a development project controlled by Under Armour’s billionaire CEO Kevin Plank, one of Maryland’s richest men, and Goldman Sachs, the little sliver of land will allow Plank and the other investors to claim what could amount to millions in tax breaks for the project, known as Port Covington. They have President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul law to thank. The new law has a provision meant to spur investment into underdeveloped areas, called 'opportunity zones.' The idea is to grant lucrative tax breaks to encourage new investment in poor areas around the country, carefully selected by each state’s governor. But Port Covington, an ambitious development geared to millennials to feature offices, a hotel, apartments, and shopping, is not in a census tract that is poor. It’s not a new investment. And the census tract only became eligible to be an opportunity zone thanks to a mapping error."

Trump, Falwell And The Pool Boy

The Evangelical, the ‘Pool Boy,’ the Comedian and Michael Cohen. NYT: "Mr. Falwell — who is not a minister and spent years as a lawyer and real estate developer — said his endorsement was based on Mr. Trump’s business experience and leadership qualities. But a far more complicated narrative is emerging about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering in the months before that important endorsement. That backstory, in true Trump-tabloid fashion, features the friendship between Mr. Falwell, his wife and a former pool attendant at the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach; the family’s investment in a gay-friendly youth hostel; purported sexually revealing photographs involving the Falwells; and an attempted hush-money arrangement engineered by the president’s former fixer, Michael Cohen."

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